Auburn University: Creating a Greener Future

Auburn University has put into action a movement towards green infrastructure around campus. The implementation of green infrastructure projects around the campus is in part a response to the Parkerson Mill Creek Watershed Management Plan. This plan was produced to alleviate the damage to the stream banks and decline in water quality in Parkerson Mill Creek, which runs through Auburn’s campus. It states the necessary actions that Auburn University must meet to reduce the excessive pollution in Parkerson Mill Creek, which has an impaired status due to pathogens from urban runoff and storm sewer cross connections. The comprehensive plan was set to restore, improve, and protect the watershed. This map will highlight the green infrastructure improvements that Auburn University has made in lieu of additional signage being implemented on Auburn's campus.

This map features different stormwater management sites on Auburn University's campus. Its location filter and information position allows users to be able to go on a self-guided tour featuring different sustainability sites suited around campus.The legend contains all the features that will be portrayed on this page including: additional information, interviews, photos, visuals, and more.

Auburn University is located on top of the Parkerson Mill Creek Watershed, and these systems are meant to help clean the water before they enter the creek. The Foy Rain Garden and Mell Bioswale are some of a few systems that are located on Auburn's campus. Utilizing extensive research and construction they were able to begin reassessing the impacts of erosion caused by years of stormwater errors. In 2003 a feasibility report was done to determine the likely-hood and possibilities of restoring the Parkerson Mill Creek. The Parkerson Mill Creek watershed has been altered by historic changes in watershed land uses, channel straightening, and relocation due to issues with piping, floodplain filling, streambank armoring, stormwater discharges, and loss of riparian vegetation. Impacts of the historic changes include poor aquatic habitat, sediment deposition, eroding stream banks, invasive plant species along streambanks, and degraded water quality. As a result, the Parkerson Mill Creek Restoration program came about to reduce the impacts of these impervious surfaces and other changes made over the years found on Auburn’s campus as well as other places located in the local watershed. Practices on Auburn’s campus including the Foy Rain Garden and Mell Bioswale reduce the impact of the many impervious surfaces on and reduce the amount of waste and contaminated water that enters the Parkerson Mill Creek. Many different approaches near and on Auburn’s campus were examined to determine the impact and cost of each scenario if implemented, some of those including wet swales and bioretention areas. 

Rain gardens are a very useful sustainable green infrastructure technique used in urban areas to reduce the total rainwater runoff and its peak, as well as reducing the amount of waste and pollution entering an area at a given time. This increase in pollutants and waste can be due to many circumstances, including impervious surfaces. Rain gardens include many of the same aspects as other stormwater management practices. They include many plants to help in sequestering mass nutrients that could be harmful to waterways and eventually ecosystems, as well as holding together soil and substrate with long roots. They also include a pooling zone, in which water may pool before it penetrates the soil deeper, a filtration zone in which water is filtered through a varying amount of substartes and sediments to insure water quality is improved the deeper the water seeps through, and eventually a retention zone. This retention or recharge zone as it is sometimes called helps to ensure that the water that enters the rain garden, is then returned back to the existing ground water.

The Foy rain garden is a sustainable stormwater management practice that was implemented right here at Auburn University, located next to Foy Hall. At first glance the area looks nothing more than a nice ornamental setting to have lunch near, yet if we dive deeper into what it actually is, we can see that it is much more than meets the eye. The usage of stormwater management here at Auburn University has been kicked into gear in recent years and is an important part of the Parkerson mill creek restoration plan. The Foy rain garden is a wonderful piece of green infrastructure that helps much more than the Auburn University campus. The implementation of this rain garden helps the surrounding watershed to rid it of pollutants and harmful waste that could enter the system and be harmful to our ecosystems. 

A bioswale is a designated area that is used to retain and hold groundwater when it rains to decrease the amount of pollutants in rainwater runoffs. These bioswales can be an important tool to diminish the amount of waste and pollution that can be found in streams, rivers, and creeks that filter into expansive waterways. By using certain types of fauna, these structures can help by filtering out fertilizers, herbicides, and debris that have begun to permeate along the Parkerson Mill Creek watershed and many more. This filtration system is helping to reduce pollution and waste in an effort to restore the watershed back to its former glory.

Located on the Mell concourse is an extensive storm water management system known as the Mell bioswale. It extends through the entirety of Mell Street and acts as a divide between the bike path and walking path in front of the library. The Mell Bioswale was completed in 2017; this project was put forth by Auburn University contractors and engineers to reduce the amount of pollution and rain run-off from impermeable surfaces to the Parkerson Mill Creek. This practice is a common green infrastructure technique to improve the quality of local watersheds and to preserve natural creek systems within the watershed. The inability for rainwater to drain and filter pollutants is detrimental to our local environmental ecosystems that greatly rely on clean water to be able to function at a high rate. With this system the rainwater is trapped, filtered, and transformed into clean water that leaves the Mell Bioswale and continues to its eventual resting spot at the Parkerson Mill Creek.

This is a complex system that utilizes several different types of green infrastructure and is one of many stormwater management sites situated across Auburn University. Its usage of local fauna and design has allowed it to blend into the Auburn aesthetic and is part of the beginning stages of the Parkerson Mill Creek Restoration Project.

When it rains each component of the bioswale has a different job to perform. The permeable pavers allow water to flow into the ground to be further filtered and return to ground water. The plants, supported by the topsoil, are a great way to sequester unwanted masses of nutrients, such as nitrogen, from entering our waterways. The topsoil is able to support the plants and absorb rainwater. The Tennessee River stones are able to collect debris and waste that are caught in the rainwater and filter them out before reaching our waterways. The sediment allows for even further filtration of the rainwater to eventually be filtered into the perforated pipe to be transported into the bioretention cell, and other waterways.