EVALUATING POTENTIAL ECOHYDROLOGICAL SERVICES OF A CLOSED MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE, SPRINGFIELD, OH

Golf course closures have exceeded openings since 2008, creating an opportunity to reevaluate the use of green space from the perspective of the ecohydrological services they provide. This is particularly true for municipal courses, many of which were located on marginal land to take advantage of existing topography and water flow. Recent closure of a municipal course in Springfield, OH, at the confluence of Mad River and Buck Creek provides a case in point. The streams, which flow across a highly-productive buried valley aquifer, were channelized and leveed following historic 1913 floods, and the course was opened for play in 1921. With its closure in 2014, we are collecting baseline data so that the community can evaluate its potential as a wetland mitigation bank. The mapped soil, Westland silty clay loam, is hydric but the course was drained by tile, the outlet of which is Mad River. Baseline data includes reconstruction of historic stream channels and deposits based on topography, maps and photos, and electrical resistivity ground imaging, verification of soil mapping, and installation and logging of several shallow monitoring wells. Preliminary analysis of depth to ground water in the monitoring wells, ponds, and tiles and constructed potentiometric maps indicates that depth of saturation will be an issue relative to meeting wetland criteria but that Mad River may be a viable source for ground water recharge. Tile drainage through the levee, which previously acted as an outlet to alleviate flooding on the course, hydrologically connects Mad River to its former floodplain at a threshold stage of the streamflow. Historic stage data from USGS gaging stations upstream and downstream of the course over the past 100 years indicates that the Mad River is capable of flooding the golf course an average of 17 times a year and as many as 86 times during wet years. Reversing tile flow from the golf course to the Mad River will increase the effectiveness of these flow events, enhancing ground water recharge, but also slowing drainage from the former course following the flow event. Re-establishing the connection between stream and floodplain restores several ecohydrologic services that the former golf course could provide to the community including flood control, ground water recharge, and water purification.