Abstract
Community gardens are critical ecological infrastructure in cities providing an important link between people and urban nature. The documented benefits of community gardens include food production, recreational opportunities, and a wide number of social benefits such as improving community stability, reducing crime, and physical and mental health benefits. While much of the literature cites community gardens as providing environmental benefits for cities, there is little empirical evidence of these benefits. Here we examine the stormwater runoff benefits of community gardens by comparing two methods to estimate absorption rates of stormwater runoff in urban community gardens of New York City. The first method uses general land cover classes as determined by a land cover dataset; the second methods adds a land cover specific to community gardens — raised beds, typically used for food production. We find that in addition to the stormwater mitigation performed by pervious surfaces within a garden site, community gardens in New York City may be retaining an additional 12 million gallons (~45 million liters) of stormwater annually due to the widespread use of raised beds with compost as a soil amendment.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersson E, Barthel S, Ahrne K (2007) Measuring the social-ecological dynamics behind the generation of ecosystem services. Ecol Appl 17(5):1267–1278
Andersson E, Barthel S, Borgström S, Colding J, Elmqvist T, Folke C, Gren Å (2014) Reconnecting cities to the biosphere: stewardship of green infrastructure and urban ecosystem services. Ambio 43:445–453
Berardi U, GhaffarianHoseini AH, GhaffarianHoseini A (2014) State-of-the-art analysis of the environmental benefits of green roofs. Appl Energy 115:411–428
Center for Neighborhood Technology (2007) Green values stormwater calculator methodology. http://www.greenvaluescntorg/calculator/methodologyphp Accessed 31 January 2015
Center for Neighborhood Technology (2009) National Green Values Calculator Methodology. http://www.greenvaluescntorg/national/calculatorphp Accessed 31 January 2015
New York City (2015) OneNYC: the plan for a strong and just City. The City of New York Office of the Mayor, New York, NY
Claro A, Formato T, Huyhua S, Lock R, Martineau K, Moore A, Michaelides P, O’Neal E, Ruge S, Santner A, Trotman L (2013) Leveraging the multiple benefits of green infrastructure. Unpublished master’s project, Columbia University, New York
Cogger C (2005) Potential compost benefits for restoration of soils disturbed by urban development. Compost Science & Utilization 13(4):243–251
Farming Concrete (2015) Crop Count data for New York City Community Gardens http://www.farmingconcrete.org/mill. Accessed 1 March 2015
Design Trust for Public Space (2012) Five borough farm: seeding the future of urban agriculture in New York City. Self-published
Dunn A (2010) Citing green infrastructure: legal and policy solutions to alleviate urban poverty and promote healthy communities. Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 3(1):41–66
Edmonson JL, Davies ZG, Gaston KJ, Leake RJ (2014) Urban cultivation in allotments maintains soil qualities adversely affected by conventional agriculture. J Appl Ecol 51:880–889
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (1999) Infiltration Through Disturbed Urban Soils and Compost Amended Soil Effects on Runoff Quality and Quantity. EPA Publication No. 600R-00016
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2011) Evaluation of Urban Soils: Suitability for Green Infrastructure or Urban Agriculture. EPA Publication No. 905R1103
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2014) Enhancing Sustainable Communities with Green Infrastructure. EPA 100-R-14-006
Freshwater Society (2013) Urban Agriculture as a Green Stormwater Management Strategy. Accessed 25 April 2015
Gittleman M, Librizzi L, Stone E (2010) Community garden survey. New York City Results 2009/2010 http://www.greenthumbnycorg/pdf/GrowNYC_community_garden_reportpdf Accessed 25 April 2015
Gittleman M, Jordan K, Brelsford E (2012) Using Citizen Science to Quantify Community Garden Crop Yields. Cities and the Environment 5(1):Article 4
GreenThumb NYC (2014) About GreenThumb. Brochure, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation http://www.greenthumbnycorg/pdf/greenthumb-brochure_3-10-14pdf Accessed 7 April 2015
GrowNYC (2014) GrowNYC 2014 Annual Report http://www.grownyc.org/about/annualreport_financials Accessed 7 April 2015
GrowNYC. 2015a. Community Gardens Database.
GrowNYC 2015b. Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Community Gardens Database.
Harrison RB, Grey MA, Henry CL, Xue D (1997) Field test of compost amendment to reduce nutrient runoff. University of Washington, City of Redmond, College of Forestry Resources
Krasny M, Russ A, Tidball K, Elmqvist T (2014) Civic ecology practices: participatory approaches to generating and measuring ecosystem services in cities. Ecosystem Services 7:177–186
Kremer P, Hamstead Z, McPhearson T (2016) The value of urban ecosystem services in New York City: a spatially explicit multicriteria analysis of landscape scale valuation scenarios. Environmental Science & Policy Available online 17 May 2016. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2016.04.012 .
Lawson L (2005) City bountiful: a century of community gardening in America. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
Lin B, Philpot S, Jha S (2015) The future of urban agriculture and biodiversity-ecosystem services: challenges and next steps. Basic and Applied Ecology 16:189–201
MacFaden S, O’Neil-Dunne JM, Royar AR, Lu JT, Rundle A (2012) High-resolution tree canopy mapping for new york city using lidar and object-based image analysis. J Appl Remote Sens 6(1):063567
McPhearson T, Kremer P, Hamstead Z (2013) Mapping urban ecosystem services in New York City: applying a social-ecological approach in urban vacant land. Ecosystem Services 5:11–23
Mees C, Stone E (2012) Zoned Out: The Potential of Urban Agriculture Planning to Turn Against its Roots. Cities and the Environment (CATE) 5(1): Article 7
Meyers S, Beyer Clow L, Daniel G, LoVerde K, Rodriguez-Ochoa E, Seaman T, Zaplatosch J (2014) Community Based Green Infrastructure Solutions: Changing how we manage stormwater. Openlands. http://www.openlands.org/filebin/pdf/Community-Based_Green_Infrastructure_Solutions_-_Openlands.pdf Accessed 15 March 2015
Mitchell R, Spliethoff H, Ribaudo L, Lopp D, Shayler H, Marquez-Bravo L, Lambert V, Ferenz G, Russell-Anelli J, Stone E, McBride M (2014) Lead (Pb) and other metals in New York City community garden soils: factors influencing contaminant distributions. Environ Pollut 187:162–169
Mogilevich M (2014) What was, and is, Urban Renewal in New York City? Urban Reviewer http://wwwsmartsigncom/urbanreviewer/#map=12/407400/-739462&page=essayshtml Accessed 4 May 2015
Nemore C (1998) Rooted in Community: Community Gardens in New York City, A Report to the New York State Senate. New York Senate Minority Office. http://www.cityfarmer.org/NYcomgardens.html Accessed 18 March 2015
New York City (2007) PlaNYC: a greener, greater New York. The City of New York Office of the Mayor, New York, NY
New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) (2015) Building the Knowledge Base for climate resiliency: New York City panel on climate change 2015 report. The City of New York. Office of the Mayor, New York, NY
NOAA. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Monthly & Annual Precipitation at Central Park. (2016) http://www.weather.gov/media/okx/Climate/CentralPark/monthlyannualprecip.pdf. Accessed 24 Jun 2016
NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) (2010) NYC green infrastructure plan: a sustainable strategy for clean waterways. NYC Department of Environmental Protection. http://www.nycgov/html/dep/html/stormwater/nyc_green_infrastructure_plan.shtml Accessed 20 October 2014
NYC DEP (2012) Guidelines for the design and construction of stormwater management systems. NYC Department of Environmental Protection. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/stormwater/nyc_green_infrastructure_plan.shtml Accessed 20 October 2014
NYC DEP (2013a) New York City Green Infrastructure Combined Sewer Area Reference Map. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/green_infrastructure/green_infrastructure_combined_sewer_reference_map.pdf Accessed 15 February 2015.
NYC DEP (2013b) Department of Environmental Protection Awards $4.7 Million in Grants to Community-Based Projects that will Improve the Health of Local Waterways http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/13-053pr.shtml#.Vm9bEnuZ7KA Accessed 14 December 2015
NYC DEP (2014) DEP green infrastructure Shapefile. NYC OpenData Available at https://www.datacityofnewyorkus/Environment/DEP-Green-Infrastructure/496p-fwvq Accessed 15 February 2015
Pauleit S, Duhme F (2000) Assessing the environmental performance of land cover types for urban planning. Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning 52(1):1–20
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (2015) Philadelphia LandCare program. http://phsonlineorg/greening/landcare-program Accessed 3 May 2015
Pitt R, Chen SE, Clark S (2002) Compacted Urban Soils Effects on Infiltraion and Bioretention Stormwater Control Designs. Presented at the 9th International Conference on Urban Drainage. IAHR, IWA, EWRI, and ASCE. Portland, Oregon, September 8–13, 2002.
Portland Stormwater Management Manual. (2014) https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/article/474156 Accessed 9 February 2015
Postel S, Thompson B (2005) Watershed protection: Capturing the benefits of nature's water supply services. Nat Res Forum 29(2):98–108
Saldivar-Tanaka L, Krasny M (2004) Culturing community development, neighborhood open space, and civic agriculture: the case of Latino community gardens in NYC. Agric Hum Values 21:399–412
Salzman J, Thompson B, Daily G (2001) Protecting ecosystem services: science, economics, and law. Stanford Environmental Law Journal 20:309–332
Schmelzkopf K (1995) Urban Community gardens as contested space. Geogr Rev 85(3):364–381
Schukoske JE (2000) Community development through gardening: state and local policies transforming urban open space. Legislation and Public Policy 3:351–392
Shayler H, McBride M, Harrison E (2009) Soil contaminants and best practices for healthy gardens. Cornell Waste Management Institute, Ithaca, NY
Smith C, Kurtz H (2003) Community gardens and politics of scale in New York City. Geogr Rev 93(2):193–212
Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) (2003) Dataset for hydrologic soil groups for New York City. Natural Resources Conservation Service. Accessed 31 January 2015
Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) (2014) Green infrastructure vision for Southeast Michigan. http://semcogorg/Plans-for-the-Region/Environment/Green-Infrastructure Accessed 21 April 2015
Spliethoff HM, Mitchell RG, Ribaudo LN, Taylor O, Shayler HA, Greene V, Oglesby D (2014) Lead in New York City community garden chicken eggs: influential factors and health implications. Environ Geochem Health 36(4):633–649
Strickland CH (2012) How New York City leads green infrastructure movement: blueprint to achieve greener stormwater systems. Clearwaters http://www.nyweaorg/clearwaters/12-2-summer/6pdf Accessed 24 April 2015
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (1986) Urban Hydrology for Small Watersheds. TR-55. Natural Resources Conservation Service: Conservation Engineering Division.
University of Vermont (UVM) Spatial Analysis Laboratory and New York City (NYC) Urban Field Station (2012) New York City Landcover 2010 (3 ft version) Dataset https://www.nycopendata.socrata.com/Environment/Landcover-Raster-Data-2010-/9auy-76zt Accessed 20 October 2014
Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) (2012) The Wasatch Front Green Infrastructure Plan. http://wfrc.org/new_wfrc/Green_Infrastructure/%28Re%29Connect%20The%20Wasatch%20Front%20Green%20Infrastructure%20Plan.pdf Accessed 21 April 2015
Washington State Department of Ecology (2001) Stormwater manual for western Washington volume 5, Publication 99–15 https://www.fortresswagov/ecy/publications/publications/0510033pdf Accessed 4 April 2015
Yadav P, Duckworth K, Grewal P (2012) Habitat structure influences below ground biocontrol services: a comparison between urban gardens and vacant lots. Landsc Urban Plan 104(2):238–244
Yang JL, Zhang GL (2011) Water infiltration in urban soils and its effects on the quantity and quality of runoff. J Soils Sediments 11:751–761
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gittleman, M., Farmer, C.J.Q., Kremer, P. et al. Estimating stormwater runoff for community gardens in New York City. Urban Ecosyst 20, 129–139 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-016-0575-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-016-0575-8