Dry California is seeing a trend among homeowners who are installing artificial lawns to achieve the quintessential green lawn without using the limited water supply. While this might sound like a sustainable option, U city and metropolitan planning professor Sarah Hinners says it’s a bad idea. Natural grass has a cooling effect and filters water as it makes its way into the subsurface, while artificial turf gets hot and may even put pollutants into the groundwater. With more than three-quarters of Salt Lake City’s water use attributed to residential areas, single-family homes, collectively, are the largest water users. Therefore, it is important to find ways for homeowners to have beautiful landscapes that use less water. Hinners has been studying landscape designs that fulfill this need.
Phone: 801-585-1026 | Email: sarah.hinners@utah.edu