HENV-202: Planting Along Your Stream, Pond, or Lake

Carmen Agouridis, Ashley Osborne | Aug. 15, 2024 (Minor Revision)

Kentucky has more than 90,000 miles of rivers and streams and thousands of ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands. You can improve your surroundings and the quality of your stream, pond, or lake by planting an area called a riparian buffer or buffer zone.

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HENV-203: Stormwater

Carmen Agouridis, Ashley Osborne | Aug. 15, 2024 (Minor Revision)

As stormwater moves across lawns and paved areas, it picks up bacteria, nutrients, sediments, heavy metals, and chemicals before traveling through the storm sewers to our water bodies. Because the stormwater is not cleaned or treated, it creates harmful conditions for the environment and for us.

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ID-242: Central Kentucky Backyard Stream Guide

Carmen Agouridis, Amanda A. Gumbert, Chris Sass | Jul. 2, 2024 (Minor Revision)

Many urban homeowners are not sure what to do about the stream in their backyard. Who owns it? How can I take care of it? What plants are good for my streambanks? These common questions lead to some confusing answers. This publication is designed to help the homeowner of a backyard stream appreciate this resource, protect personal property, and improve water quality and habitat.

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AEN-168: Taking the Indoors Out: Creating Outdoor Learning Environments

Carmen Agouridis | Jul. 25, 2022 (New)

Outdoor learning environments or classrooms are spaces where students can learn about the natural and human-created world while in an outdoor or natural setting. In these spaces, instructors can use engaging, interdisciplinary, hands-on curriculum to lead students through lessons and to encourage exploration. While often used for science and agricultural studies, outdoor classrooms are also useful for teaching mathematics, social studies, language arts, music, art, and practical living.

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HENV-708: Alternative Pavement Options for Residential Stormwater Management

Carmen Agouridis, Amanda A. Gumbert, Joe Luck, Lee Moser, Jonathan Villines | Apr. 22, 2022 (New)

Urban areas are characterized by impervious surfaces such as roads, driveways, sidewalks, and building roofs. Stormwater occurs when precipitation runs off these impervious surfaces. Stormwater can present both water quality and water quantity issues in urban watersheds. Water quality of local waterways is threatened when stormwater carries pollutants to streams and rivers; increased water quantity in these local waterways can damage streambanks, cause flooding, and create more water quality problems.

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AEN-133: Tire Tanks for Watering Livestock

Carmen Agouridis, Steve Higgins, Joshua Jackson, Lee Moser | Aug. 8, 2017 (New)

Kentucky's abundant forage and extensive stream system have helped the Commonwealth become the largest beef producing state east of the Mississippi River. While streams and ponds serve as a water source for many operations, livestock can quickly degrade soil and water quality by trampling streambanks and defecating and urinating in and around waterbodies. These actions increase sediment, pathogen, and nutrient loads to streams, rivers, and lakes which in turn can causes eutrophication. To help protect the health of Kentucky's soil and water, producers can implement best management practices (BMPs). These practices help reduce the sources of pollutants and/or the transport of pollutants to waterways. One such practice or BMP is limiting cattle access to streams and ponds. When producers exclude livestock access to stream and ponds and their associated riparian buffers, an alternative source of water is required. Automatic water fountains are one commonly used means of providing cattle with water from an alternate source. A water tank constructed using a heavy equipment tire may serve as a viable option for supplying livestock with an alternate source of water.

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AEN-132: Modeling Best Management Practices

Carmen Agouridis, Somsubhra Chattopadhyay, Richard Warner | Oct. 20, 2016 (New)

Understanding the effectiveness of BMPs based on their location in the watershed and in relation to different types of pollutants is an important part of protecting waterbodies. One way to do this is with the use of models.

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AEN-128: Sediment Fingerprinting

Carmen Agouridis, Somsubhra Chattopadhyay | Feb. 9, 2016 (New)

Sediments in waterbodies cause a number of problems such as harming aquatic habitats, filling reservoirs, and worsening flooding. High amounts of sediment in the water inhibit the ability of fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates to move, breathe, hunt and reproduce. Accumulated sediments in reservoirs reduces their useful life and increases costs associated with maintenance. Streams experiencing such sediment buildup carry less water during storm events.

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AEN-129: Measuring Discharge in Wadeable Streams

Carmen Agouridis, Whitney Blackburn-Lynch, Tyler Sanderson | Feb. 9, 2016 (New)

Knowing the amount of water flowing in a stream can improve management practices such as those related to streambank erosion, pollutant loading and transport, and flood control. Streamflow or discharge is defined as the volume of water moving past a specific point in a stream for a fixed period of time.

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AEN-127: Hydrologic Modeling

Carmen Agouridis, Richard Warner | Feb. 9, 2016 (New)

Increased levels of urbanization result in reductions in the amount of rainfall that infiltrates and evapotranspires and increases the amount of rainfall that becomes runoff. These changes can result in flooding, streambank erosion, and water quality degradation. Hydrologic models are useful in understanding watersheds and how changes in a watershed can affect hydrology. Hydrologic models can predict the amount of rainfall that becomes runoff under different scenarios.