Oral Presentation Society for Freshwater Science 2025 Annual Meeting

Using nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change in an urban landscape (117698)

Anna E.S. Vincent 1 , William Miller 1 , Shane Querubin 1 , Edwin Saavedra Cifuentes 1 , Joaquina Noriega Giménez 1 , Alexander C. Barb 1 , Ella M. Williams 1 , Max B. Berkelhammer 2 , Bilal Kaludi 2 , Gavin McNicol 2 , Ellie Wasilewski 2 , Miquel Gonzalez-Meler 2 , Ahram Cho 2 , Sarah Dietzen 2 , Tekleab Gala 3 , Gregory Anderson 4 , Stephen W. Nesbitt 5 , Roser Matamala 6 , Beth Drewniak 6 , M. Cristina Negri 6 , Scott M. Collis 6 , Paytsar Muradyan 6 , Rao Kotamarthi 6 , Matthew Tuftedal 6 , Elizabeth Wawrzyniak 6 , Rajesh Sankaran 6 , David Yocca 7 , Aaron I. Packman 1
  1. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States
  2. University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
  3. Chicago State University, Chicago, IL, United States
  4. Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL, United States
  5. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
  6. Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, United States
  7. Blacks in Green, Chicago, IL, United States

The Midwest is experiencing altered weather patterns associated with climate change, including hotter, drier summers punctuated by intense rainfall events and wetter winters and springs with increased winter precipitation as rainfall. In urban environments, flooding, heat waves, and droughts adversely affect communities and infrastructure. However, the impacts of altered environmental conditions are not uniformly distributed across the landscape, and furthermore, urban systems remain underrepresented in current climate models. Nature-based solutions (NBSs), which include the installation of community green spaces and green infrastructure technologies such as rain gardens and green roofs, are a potential mitigation strategy that can enhance the resiliency of impacted neighborhoods following extreme weather events throughout the year. As part of the Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS) Urban Integrated Field Laboratory, a project funded by the Department of Energy, we are monitoring a suite of hydrological and biogeochemical variables across Chicago, IL (USA) to better characterize the effects of climate change across an urban landscape while also quantifying the potential benefits of NBSs. From summer 2024 to present, we monitored groundwater level, temperature, and conductivity; weather patterns; tree sap flow; and soil characteristics including texture, temperature and moisture at four depths to 60 cm, and heat flux from five field sites across the Chicago metropolitan region ranging from vacant city lots, university campuses, and natural areas. Here, we present an ongoing analysis that synthesizes the hydrological and biogeochemical conditions across sites, addresses the impacts of storms on changes in groundwater level and electrical conductivity, and draws comparisons between locations with and without NBSs. Documenting these patterns will ultimately contribute to city- and neighborhood-scale climate models, and thus will provide more detailed insight into the effects of climate change across the Great Lakes region.