Water Reduction in Sports Stadiums
To keep a field healthy and control the water use, “Irrigation rates should not exceed the maximum ability of the soil to absorb and hold the water applied at any one time.” The field irrigation should therefore occur based on “actual site conditions,” which includes considering the “evapotranspiration rates, recent rainfall, recent temperature extremes, soil moisture, and pending field use schedules.” A potential solution to this problem are soil-moisture sensors, rain gauges, rain shut-off devices, and flow meters which help determine the irrigation needs of the field. These sensors can connect to computerized irrigation that can be shut off from a phone if the field had received “adequate rainfall.” This would help turf managers control how much water the field actually needs and would reduce over watering the field. It would especially be useful if the field had been watered from rainfall from a stadium designed to have an open ceiling, another solution to overusing water with field irrigation by using rainwater to water the field rather than water from reserves.
The SportsTurf publication wrote that “Excessive irrigation can transport pollutants and cause erosion, which can negatively affect waterways.” Alternate forms of irrigation can help mitigate the effects of transport pollutants. For example, a stadium might use any combination of sprinklers to water a field, but might use drip irrigation for efficiency in growing their landscape. With different uses of different types of irrigation, a stadium’s water use from irrigation can be managed in a way to reduce water consumption and promote efficiency.
Other solutions for controlling the water use include “[selecting] drought-tolerant varieties of turfgrass . . .”; using three-inch sprinkler heads to ensure the water is evenly distributed among the field and reduces the chance for water to be wasted from hitting tall grass or leaves; and using landscaping techniques like “mowing, verticutting, aeration, wetting agents, nutrition, and other cultural practices” to help promote water conservation and efficiency from making healthy field conditions. The playing field is one of the more important parts of a stadium that should conserve water when it can, considering the amount of water traditionally used to keep the field playable. However, other processes in a stadium can reduce their water use and improve their efficiency.
Restrooms are a big source of water use. By reducing the amount of water used in restrooms, stadiums can significantly reduce the total amount of water they use to operate. Water reduction in restrooms can look like installing waterless urinals, using hand soap that does not require water[34], installing low-flow plumbing, and installing water-flow restrictors, automatic sensors, or metering faucets on sinks. Using low-flow plumbing can reduce water use by 40 percent when compared to regular plumbing. Installing contactless actuators on toilets gives dual-flush options for liquid or solid waste, ensuring that “only the necessary amount of water is used for each flush.” There are many options for reducing water use in restrooms, and the combination of these options can reduce the total amount of water use in a stadium.
Reduction can also come from reducing water use in landscaping outside of the playing field. Landscape can include anything from grassy areas, to trees, to shrubs. Multitudes of stadiums have cut down on their water use just by introducing native and drought resistant plants that do not need much water in addition to rainfall into their landscape designs. In addition to smart landscaping, using alternatives to irrigation like sprinklers or drip irrigation can reduce the water use for landscape even more.
