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Yes, lawns are wasteful.
But there's also water quality and flooding issues associated with using all available land for building.
Grass and dirt absorb water. Rooftops and concrete don't. 1-inch of rain on an acre of grass will be absorbed. Replace that grass with impervious cover and you've got an extra 27,000 gallons of water, or about 2 swimming pool's worth of runoff.
Grass has an extremely low runoff coefficient. The water absorption is almost on par with impervious surfaces. This is because the root system of most turf/gras systems is only a few inches deep. On the other hand native grasses, fescues, and trees are excellent for water infiltration! Rain gardens are also good choices as they promote pollinators. I'm a landscape architect --happy to answer any questions.
Errata: meant to say high runoff coefficient --not low.
It really depends on the specific grass and underlying soils, as you say.
I'm the guy at the City making landscape architects and civil engineers comply with drainage and water quality regulations.
We live off the tears of developers.
Planner I'm guessing? Are you the one I'm fighting the minimum parking requirements for each project? 🥲
Planning yes. But we fight over impervious cover over the aquifer recharge zone and building retaining walls in in conservation and drainage easements.
And setbacks. Good god we fight over setbacks.
Im going to look up rain gardens right now, sounds awesome
Low runoff coefficient means more absorption and less runoff, even sod typically has a C of around 0.3, as opposed to the 0.95 of concrete.
I agree more natural landscaping is better!
Good catch. Still, very low infiltration compared to native grasses. I have the papers on it parked somewhere.
My backyard slopes towards the house and during heavy rains the cellar floods which, okay, it's a cellar with limestone block walls, it's not supposed to be waterproof, but... is there anything I can do to make this happen less often?
Yes. There's several possible approaches to redirecting storm water: You could build a french drain or you could regrade the slopes to redirect the flow around the house. I don't want to give too specific recommendations because I don't have a survey or am familiar with the exact conditions of your lot. I don't think infiltration is an option in your case though. The goal is to get the water away.
Thanks. I figured regrading was best but I haven't gotten around to it. It's been less of a problem since we started putting up raised garden beds but I thought, hey, might as well ask.
No problem any other Qs feel free to pm!
That's what public parks and other green spaces are for.
the only good lawn is a flood management lawn, there's two notable ones in my town and they literally turn into marshes when it's been raining a lot or the water level is high, and without them entire areas would flood.
Sububs have way more impervious surface per-capita than dense urban areas do.
It's worse when you tear down farmland and forests for suburbs.
Build our cities with sufficient storm sewers and public parks that can double as bioswales and fuck the lawn loving burbs.
i, too, advocate a more hobbit-like lifestyle.
Open, green space is also important for human mental health. I wouldn't keep the lawns, but I'd still want something to take its place, so we may not be reclaiming ALL of that lawn acreage.