Green spaces are not just aesthetically pleasing. They also help with flood mitigation and carbon storage. A study published in the journal Ecosystem Applications showed that urban green spaces like golf courses, city parks, and backyards contribute substantially to the broader landscape and the ecological fabric of the cities.

1. Study Finds That Urban Green
Spaces Play a Major Role in
Controlling Floods and Storing
Carbon
U.S. Lawns

2. Green spaces are not just aesthetically pleasing. They also help with flood mitigation and carbon
storage. A study published in the journal Ecosystem Applications showed that urban green spaces like
golf courses, city parks, and backyards contribute substantially to the broader landscape and the
ecological fabric of the cities.
Developed Areas Store More Carbon
Carly Ziter, the study author and a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gathered
soil samples from a hundred sites around Madison, Wisconsin to get a sense of how urban areas fit into
the larger landscape. She surveyed public parks, cemeteries, and numerous backyards. She then had
each sample analyzed for the following ecosystem services: Flood Mitigation, Water Quality Regulation,
and Carbon Storage.
The results suggested that urban green spaces play a big part in providing some ecosystem services.
Ziter, for instance, discovered that more developed areas like backyards and public parks store signi-

3. ficantly more carbon in their soils than urban grasslands or forests. Additionally, urban soils even kept
more carbon on average than agricultural soils.
Carbon sequestration, which is the intake and storage of carbon, is beneficial to the environment. An
article by ThoughtCo revealed that plants soak up carbon that would otherwise trap heat in the
atmosphere. They keep global warming at bay in a process called climate change mitigation.
Urban Grasslands and Forests Were Instrumental in Flood Control
Ziter also discovered that grasslands and forests in the urban area had a significant impact on flood
control. They allowed water to seep into the soil rather than running off into the storm sewers or
streets. The magnitude and kind of ecosystem service provided varied from site to site.

4. Other Environmental Benefits of Green Spaces
Apart from mitigating floods and staving off global warming, greeneries improve air quality. According
to Project Evergreen, turf, shrubs, and trees remove dust, smoke, and other air pollutants.
Green spaces also contribute to cooler summer days. Lawns in the summer are 14 degrees cooler than
bare soil and 30 degrees cooler than asphalt.
Ziter hopes that her research could help emphasize the significance of urban green spaces and
encourage more ecologists to begin studying these environments.

5. Sources:
https://uslawns.com/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180306101706.htm
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.1689
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-carbon-sequestration-1203864
https://projectevergreen.org/resources/environmental-benefits-of-green-space/