Importance of Urban Trees in Reduction of Pollution in Appomattox Watershed: Use of GPS and ArcGis

Undergraduate #206
Discipline: Ecology Environmental and Earth Sciences
Subcategory: Ecology

Destiny Jackson - Virginia State University
Co-Author(s): Latia Jackson, Joel Kosi, and Shobha Sriharan

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The James is the largest of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay watersheds, stretching from the West Virginia border east to the mouth in Hampton Roads. A successful nutrient and sediment reduction strategy will have significant impacts on water quality in the creeks, streams and rivers that feed the James River and these coastal basins. The Appomattox River which flows from Lake Chesdin to Hopewell Point meets James River. Since the creek of Appomattox River flows through Virginia State University’s Randolph Farm and meets the River in Petersburg, I selected my research project on geo-tagging of urban trees which play a role in acting as buffers for reeducation of pollution due to runoff of stormwater and pollutants from farming and industrial practices in Appomattox Watershed. At the same time, I am mapping the study sites from Lake Chesdin through the cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell, and Randolph Farm of Virginia State University located between Petersburg and Colonial Heights. The water quality monitoring is also being conducted of water samples collected at these study sites to compare the nutrient contents (nitrates and phosphates), pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen between locations with large trees and no trees. The hypothesis of this study is that demonstration of geographic location of the trees on the ArcMap will provide visible information of the trees for their conservation in the Appomattox Watershed, to the property owners, parks, farmers, and private home owners, and community residents. Therefore, studies were undertaken by joining VSU group of students engaged in Urban Forestry and Water Quality Program for preparing Urban Tree Inventory and benefits from large trees that may help in retaining water and serving as buffers for reducing stormwater runoff. Data was collected on the location, species, and measurements were made of the size, height, diameter, canopy breadth of the large trees along the River Appomattox from Lake Chesdin to Hopewell Point. This data was uploaded into i-Tree eco software for preparing the Tree Inventory. The GPS data of the tree locations was uploaded in ArcMap for mapping the trees for promoting the conservation of large trees along Appomattox River, planning and designing planting of trees for reducing runoff of water.The presentation will show the water quality monitoring data at the locations of large trees and no trees for differences in nutrients.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF HBCU UP

Faculty Advisor: Shobha Sriharan,