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ECOLOGY
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FACTS
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HISTORY
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NEIGHBORHOODS
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RECREATION
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SCENIC
VIEWS
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Soils
around the roadway capture rainwater, preventing runoff from
entering sewers and polluting the Hudson and Harlem Rivers.
Urban stormwater runoff from streets, lawns, parking lots, and
rooftops contains a specrum of contaminants including nitrogen,
phosphorous, suspended soilds, hydrocarbons, pathogens, and
heavy metals. The use of naturally vegetated areas for infiltration,
as opposed to engineered trenches, basins, or other structural
systems, is advantageous since high infiltration rates are maintained
in these areas by the on-going earth-moving and burrowing activities
of roots and invertebrates. By diverting runoff from impervious
surfaces into the vegetated soil of parkway landscapes, water
is kept out of storm sewers and is fed into the landscape, increasing
ecological productivity and replenishing local groundwater.
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and more landscaped buffers and medians like these in
Riverdale are being paved to save on maintenance costs.
But when soil is replaced by impermeable surfaces, rainwater
is diverted to sewers and contributes to combined sewer
overflows into the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, creating
new costs for the city. |
Greenstreets
and restored landscape buffers along the parkway and adjoining
roads could absorb much of the stormwater runoff now ending
up in the city's sewers, polluting the Hudson and Harlem
Rivers. |
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