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Appropriate surface provision is fundamental to inspiring individuals to participate in outdoor sports and recreation activities. Although outdoor sports traditionally have been played on natural grass fields, the synthetic turf option has gained popularity over the past few decades around the world and in different states of Australia, including S...
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... these factors, environmental conditions have larger effects on the amount of water usage. In dry climates, for instance, heavy irrigation is needed in maintaining the quality of natural grass as rainfall cannot meet the water demand of plants (see Table 5). Studies suggest that water use is significantly higher than that needed to maintain synthetic grass turfs22. ...Context 2
... these factors, environmental conditions have larger effects on the amount of water usage. In dry climates, for instance, heavy irrigation is needed in maintaining the quality of natural grass as rainfall cannot meet the water demand of plants (see Table 5). Studies suggest that water use is significantly higher than that needed to maintain synthetic grass turfs 21 . ...Citations
... This is particularly important since natural grass surfaces used in open stadiums and sports and recreation complexes are strongly influenced by seasonal and daily weather changes, intensive prato-and agrotechnical maintenance (renovation, prevention of damage), dewatering, and wear response [41][42][43][44][45] . Compared to artificial grass turf, which allows for relatively greater intensity of use (up to 50 hours a week) and durability in all weather conditions 46 , a natural grass surface is more susceptible to damage (assuming the same time of use of the turf). Our team's previous research has shown that after ten years of using intensively exploited natural sports surfaces, turfs are partially degraded. ...
This article aimed to evaluate the visual and functional characteristics of intensively used football turf over 10 years, depending on the different areas of the game. The research was conducted on the football turf of the AZS Environmental Club in Wrocław (N: 51° 7′ 31′′ E:17° 4′ 14′′). High variability of the evaluated parameters was observed regarding seasonality, year of observation, and the area of play. It has been shown that the goal area and penalty box areas have the lowest functional value, which are vital areas of the game from the point of view of gaining an advantage in the game. Also, these places are more susceptible to creating sites without plants (requiring additional overseeding) due to the potential of hollowing and goalkeeper interventions ending with the body landing on the ground. The middle area was characterized by the highest overall aspect, color, and turf density values. In the vast majority of cases, there was a downward trend in the turfs’ functional value with the turf’s age, which is an essential finding in the context of the use of intensively used, athletic natural grass surfaces.
Artificial Grow Lighting has come to stay in the world of sports. It is becoming popular in the world of sport as a means of providing healthy and aesthetically looking turfs. The need to use this technology arises from several factors that contributes to the deterioration of the grasses on the playing surfaces. These factors include, shadowing caused by shading because of the design of the stadium, thereby not allowing the grass get enough sunlight for the growth of the grass, bad weather conditions: in the winter months when there is little to no sunlight the grasses suffer and ultimately wither away because of lack of sunlight to help them grow healthily. Despite the many benefits of this technology, like prolonging the playability of sports all year round, the technology has its drawbacks and disadvantages. The technology has very significant impacts on the environment. Many of the sports stadium uses high-intensity-discharge (HID) lamps to grow the turfs, these lamps are very bright and energy intensive. This in-turn causes environmental issues like light pollution, energy wastage and carbon emission. The light pollution from the use of artificial grow lighting can cause various degrees of health challenges for humans, and it can disrupt the natural balance in the ecosystem of the locality where the technology is in operation. Furthermore, not only does the technology causes light pollution, it also causes energy wastage as the lamps involved in this technology are energy intensive. It requires a large amount of energy to operate, energy needed in other essential sectors of the economy like agriculture and health sector. Additionally, the technology has other environmental challenges like carbon emission, because the energy used in operating the artificial grow lighting is from non-renewable sources. This study seeks to find out the relationship between artificial grow light and its environmental impacts, putting a focus on light pollution and energy wastage. The research also looks at light pollution laws and energy saving laws to prevent energy wastage, proffering recommendations to reduce and ultimately put an end to the environmental impacts of artificial grow lighting in sports stadiums.
Despite health and environmental concerns associated with the use of artificial grass, there is a noticeable shift towards its usage. Using natural sod remains a more sustainable approach to maintain pitch quality in the country, though it is not commercially available. This study evaluated the growth, visual, and physical quality of Bermuda grass for commercial sod production using both seed and sprigs in Ghana. The experiment employed a 3x3 factorial randomized complete block design with three replications, considering fertilizer and base netting as factors. Fertilizer levels included chicken manure (10 tons/ha), Harvestmore® foliar fertilizer (460 kg/ha), and no fertilizer. Base netting consisted of window net, jute fibre mat, and no base netting. Parameters such as tiller length, clipping biomass, chlorophyll content index (CCI), color, smoothness, coverage, tensile strength, and handling quality were measured. For seeded sod, chicken manure without base netting resulted in the highest tiller length (27.62 cm), while the foliar fertilizer and no net interaction recorded 33.13 cm for sprigged sod. The combination of chicken manure with netting and without base netting exhibited the highest CCI, with values of 37.51 and 40.53 for seeded and sprigged sod, respectively. Treatments with fertilizer displayed the best genetic color performance, and treatments with window netting also showed the best results for handling and tensile strength. Overall, the application of chicken manure and foliar fertilizer with window netting significantly improved the growth, visual appearance, and physical strength of both seeded and sprigged sod, meeting commercial standards.
Literature review of peer reviewed science, grey literature and policy documents on the impacts and benefits of converting a natural grass sporting oval to a synthetic soccer pitch at Hosken Reserve in Coburg North, Melbourne. Australia. The social benefits to soccer have been well articulated. This review concentrates on the environmental, climate, health and biodiversity impacts, including the issues of carbon footprint, urban heat island effect on the local microclimate, and potential for contributing to microplastics pollution.
