The majority of outdoor sports are played on natural turf pitches. Throughout the playing season, a pitch has continual player interaction, which, during periods of sustained unfavourable conditions, can cause the turf to tear up (shear) under player contact. This is most evident in Rugby Union scrummages, which create deep divots in the turf and rootzone that reduce player safety and are criticised by the media. However, little is known of the turf/rootzone strength to depth, termed 'shear stability' in this thesis, and there is currently no appropriate means to test this property. In order to explore the shear stability of turf, a device was designed and developed. The prototype device, termed the 'Shear Tester', underwent trial, validation and several redesigns until it was deemed suitable to investigate turf shear stability. A range of natural and hybrid constructions and laboratory-controlled samples were investigated, and the key variables found to influence the shear stability were grass rooting, water content and rootzone density.

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / William P. Winslow III / Synthetic turf has been used extensively for football, soccer, and baseball playing surfaces as a substitute for natural turf because of its increased durability, low maintenance costs, and similar characteristics. The popularity, however, has not extended to golf courses, a seemingly appropriate application. Golf courses are prized for their aesthetic beauty, and their maintenance requires regular, detailed upkeep with particular attention to fairways, tees, greens, hazards, and the surrounding landscape. The combination of regular mowing, watering, grooming, and application of chemicals aim to strengthen the overall appearance of the golf course, but have negative effects on the ecologic and economic values of the golf course. Is it possible to use synthetic turf to reduce the ecologic and economic effects of golf course maintenance, while still providing an aesthetically pleasing playing surface and environment? This study develops three methodologies from the primary areas of concern: ecologic, economic, and aesthetic. The ecologic method uses criteria derived from the Sustainable Sites Initiative. Criteria in the economic method assist in understanding the cost efficiency of synthetic turf over time. Finally, the aesthetic method contains criteria that define characteristics that affect the look of the golf course. These methods are then organized into a metric structure with the respective evaluation criteria. Using the two re-designed options of Lakeside Hills Municipal Golf Course in Olathe, Kansas as the site for application, the methodologies are evaluated for three different scenarios, the traditional turf course, a partial replacement with synthetic turf, and a full replacement, and given a score. This score provides a quantitative value to weigh the ecologic, economic, and aesthetic benefits and constraints of synthetic turf in a golf course application, and important initial step in discovering its viability in the golf course design industry.

This study investigated the factors that maintain the patchiness of various rocky shore communities, particularly the roles of physical disturbance and biological interactions. Three communities were studied: a rnidshore red algal turf dominated by Laurencia pinnatifida, a Cladophora rupestris turf that dominated an area of the lowshore'and a fucoidbarnacle mosaic in the rnidshore that was interspersed by limpets. The study of the Laurencia turf showed it to be extremely stable once established and that its primary mode of recolonisation was by vegetative encroachment. Because of its slow growth L. pinnatifida did not recolonise and dominate any gaps that occurred in the turf within the timescale of this study. The Cladophora rupestris community was not only extremely stable, but was also persistent. Cladophora rupestris returned as the dominant alga to disturbed areas irrespective of the size, shape or season of the disturbance and this may have been because of processes involving the inhibition of other species such as Fucus serratus by early successional species which Cladophora rupestris could tolerate. Repeated disturbance events may have broken such inhibitions, enabling other species to colonise the substratum to higher levels of abundance than would normally have occurred. In the Laurencia and Cladophora turfs few limpets were required to maintain gaps in the turf, but these areas were rapidly recolonised by algae if all limpets were removed. The gaps in the Cladophora turf became dominated by Cladophora rupestris, however, in the Laurencia turf Laurencia pinnatifida did not recolonise the gaps that had been kept clear by limpet grazing. In the midshore fucoid, barnacle and limpet community the limpet densities had to be reduced to half of the natural levels to permit the colonisation of barnacle matrix by algae. The cover by FUCllS vesiculosus was .inversely related to the density of limpets, with the largest values being obtained in areas that were devoid of limpets. The effect of modifying the environmental conditions, by shading and watering the barnacle matrix, on the establishment of Fucus vesiculosus germlings was also studied. This showed that more shade tended to result in a greater number of fucoid escapes, possibly because of insolation stress and photoinhibition of the germlings on the unshaded substratum. The persistence offucoid patches was found to be affected by both the size of the area and the duration for which it was protected from limpet grazing. From the studies I carried out it is apparent that there were several forms of patchiness on the moderately exposed rocky shores on the south coast of the Isle of Man. These result from the vertical environmental stress gradient and interactions between plants and animals and in each case the exact sequence of events that followed a disturbance, depended on the species involved.

Mitigation of health and heat-build-up issues related to black, granulated crumb rubber infill (GCRI) in synthetic turf fields (STF) while maintaining acceptable impact absorption properties was the central goal of this study. The first step was establishing a STF baseline performance of GCRI samples that originated from several sources while elucidating the synergistic parameters between infill and turf that promulgate acceptable impact performance. Based on the knowledge base built on the GCRI-STF standard, three polymeric waste streams selected for their benign chemical contents, non-black colors and competitive low costs were evaluated as alternate turf infill materials: post-consumer carpet broadloom (PCCB), post-consumer carpet tile (PCCT) and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) drink bottles. For ground PCCB carcass (the base on the carpet construction remaining after the face fibers were removed), the heterogeneous composition of unconfined fine particles and remaining short fibers prevented sufficient material integration to allow sufficient impact energy absorption. The ground PET homogeneous particles alone lacked sufficient impact absorption capabilities, and their synergistic interactions with the turf blade yarns were not sufficient to meet specified levels of impact performance. Only the PCCT infill crumb possessed a heterogeneous structure that effectively filled the STF to yield sufficient impact cushioning comparable to standard GCRI. In conclusion, PCCT was shown to be a technically-viable candidate for GCRI infill replacement, warranting further development to bring it into closer cost competitiveness to GCRI and ensure long-term wear and weathering performance in synthetic turf.

3 pp. / This publication is meant to be a short fact sheet that provides estimates of turfgrass consumptive use (of water) in the Payson area. The publication provides a brief description of the procedures used to generate the CU estimates, then presents the data both as a CU table and CU curve. The publication should prove useful for irrigation management and water resource planning.

3 pp.

14 pp. / This publication summarizes the results of a three year research study that evaluated whether the turf water duties mandated by the Arizona Department of Water Resources provide adequate water to grow acceptable quality turf in the Tucson and Phoenix areas.

Revised; Originally Published: 2005 / 4 pp.

No description available.