{"id":59533,"date":"2015-03-11T15:47:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T19:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenblue.com\/soil-compaction-what-it-means-for-urban-trees\/"},"modified":"2024-03-17T09:39:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T09:39:31","slug":"soil-compaction-what-it-means-for-urban-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenblue.com\/ce\/soil-compaction-what-it-means-for-urban-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Soil Compaction & What It Means for Urban Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many aspects\u00a0that need to be taken account of when planting trees in urban areas – one essential\u00a0factor being soil compaction. It is important to determine site environment\u00a0and soil conditions in order to mitigate the constraints of compacted soil and create\u00a0healthy tree planting conditions.<\/p>\n

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In previous blog posts, we have detailed\u00a0the soil requirements of healthy trees<\/a> and the\u00a0amount of soil urban trees should have<\/a>. Now, we discuss soil compaction\u00a0and why uncompacted rooting volume is so critical to the health of street\u00a0trees.<\/p>\n

Once site assessment has been\u00a0completed, it is critical to correlate the conceptual design intent with physical\u00a0site conditions, to determine the\u00a0limitations and opportunities of any given\u00a0site. Many\u00a0potential urban soil limitations can be addressed with specie selection \u2013 such as spatial constraints, soil PH, cold hardiness, wet & dry soil conditions, sun & shade patterns, and even salt contamination. One soil condition that cannot be mitigated by plant selection however, is soil compaction.\u00a0Compacted soil that can’t\u00a0be penetrated by tree roots is as useful as no soil at all.\u00a0If these conditions are\u00a0found to be the case during site assessment, suitable steps to modify the soil must be taken.<\/p>\n

Soil compaction is a reduction in large pore space which reduces soil oxygen levels and decreasing soil drainage. As a result, rooting depth is reduced. According to\u00a0Colorado State University, soil compaction is the most common\u00a0factor leading to\u00a0the decline process of trees. At very least, compacted soil results in stressed plants that are more likely to suffer from secondary problems such as diseases and insect pests.<\/p>\n

Soil compaction is the most prevalent of all soil constraints on urban\u00a0tree growth. Every place where humans and machines exist, and the infrastructures that support them are built, soil compaction will be present. There are few soil areas without some form or extent of soil compaction. Compacted soil has become a fact of life for urban trees.<\/p>\n

Avoiding Soil Compaction<\/h3>\n

Soil support cells, and before that ‘structural soil’ have been devised to address this dilemma of allowing\u00a0uncompacted soil for the trees, while providing durable stability for roads and paved surfaces\u00a0to be built.<\/p>\n

Early methods focused on a rock and soil mixture,\u00a0known as structural soil, to provide pavement support, while attempting to permit some root growth beneath the pavement. Since then, structural soil cells<\/a> have moved this principle forward by replacing the rock, which had accounted for 80% of total volume, with engineered modules that only account for 6% of volume.
\nStructural soil cells are modular units that assemble to form a skeletal matrix, situated below pavement level, to support the pavement load while providing large volumes of uncompacted soil for root growth within the matrix structure.<\/p>\n

Various soil cell designs are available on the market providing over 94% void space for soil and root growth. Different designs address the need for strength while maximizing available space for roots as well as for common conduits and utilities.<\/p>\n

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Industry professionals are increasingly insisting on the use of soil cells for tree plantings\u00a0on\u00a0streetscapes and other paved areas. They recognize that while soil cell technology builds upon earlier structural soil concept, it is clearly superior in performance. Not only is vastly more soil made available to the tree, installation is straight forward<\/a> and avoids the need of\u00a0extensive calculations and testing required for the use of structural soil.<\/p>\n

GreenBlue soil structure systems, such as ArborSystem Tree Planting Packages<\/a>, safeguard that all important root zone, keeping the load off the soil, and keeping the soil open and free draining \u2013 giving trees a real long term future \u2013 for the benefit of generations to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many aspects\u00a0that need to be taken account of when planting trees in urban areas – one essential\u00a0factor being soil compaction. It is important to determine site environment\u00a0and soil conditions in order to mitigate the constraints of compacted soil and create\u00a0healthy tree planting conditions. In previous blog posts, we have detailed\u00a0the soil requirements of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3409,"featured_media":59534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[834,838],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-construction-ce","category-soil-structure-ce"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSoil Compaction & What It Means for Urban Trees - GreenBlue Urban<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trees require uncompacted, well aerated, and moist soil in order to thrive. 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