Precipitation and soil moisture data in two engineered urban green infrastructure facilities in New York City.

This paper archives spatiotemporal volumetric moisture content (VMC) and associated precipitation datasets collected between 2012 and 2014 at different depths in two different New York City green infrastructure (GI) (e.g. bioretention) facilities, termed Site 1 and Site 2, respectively. The two sites are similar in both design and monitoring set up, and are located within two kilometers of one another, but differ in terms of hydraulic loading ratio (HLR). Both sites were designed and instrumented specifically to facilitate a comparison of the hydrologic fluxes within the two GI facilities. Site 1 receives only direct rainfall and is hydrologically isolated from the surrounding impervious surfaces (HLR = 1); Site 2 receives both direct precipitation and street runoff through a curb cut inlet (HLR = 3.8). Monitoring was conducted both inside (L plots) and outside (G plots) weighing lysimeters that were installed at both sites and planted with similar vegetation. Each L and G plot was equipped with five soil moisture sensors installed at 5, 10, 20, 30, and 50 cm depths in a circular pattern. This dataset is associated with the original research presented in "Observed Variability in Soil Moisture in Engineered Urban Green Infrastructure Systems and Linkages to Ecosystem Services [1]."

Life cycle implications of urban green infrastructure.

Low Impact Development (LID) is part of a new paradigm in urban water management that aims to decentralize water storage and movement functions within urban watersheds. LID strategies can restore ecosystem functions and reduce runoff loadings to municipal water pollution control facilities (WPCF). This research examines the avoided energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of select LID strategies using life cycle assessment (LCA) and a stochastic urban watershed model. We estimate annual energy savings and avoided GHG emissions of 7.3 GJ and 0.4 metric tons, respectively, for a LID strategy implemented in a neighborhood in New York City. Annual savings are small compared to the energy and GHG intensity of the LID materials, resulting in slow environmental payback times. This preliminary analysis suggests that if implemented throughout an urban watershed, LID strategies may have important energy cost savings to WPCF, and can make progress towards reducing their carbon footprint.