An analysis of surface water pH & community perceptions of greenspaces at Dalhousie University’s Studley Campus

Abstract

Acidification and increased turbidity of surface water is a prominent issue in urban environments, as exposure to toxic materials, improper drainage, and other factors can lower the pH of the surface water leading to several adverse environmental effects (Hall & Anderson, 1988). Halifax uses a limited selection of drainage system types, most of which are industrial and perpetuate negative effects on the environment (Sheppard, 2012). Previous research reveals that increased exposure to healthy greenspaces relates to many mental and physical human health benefits (Wang et al., 2022). To see if there was any potential correlation between these facts, we decided to analyze whether or not specific drainage systems perpetuated negative effects of acidification on the environment, and whether or not these findings would correspond with Dalhousie Studley Campus’ current perceptions of their greenspaces. We tested the pH and turbidity of surface water for 12 days, taking into account several different measurement factors such as weather, depth, and drainage systems present across five different greenspaces on Dalhousie University's Studley campus. Alongside this, for 15 days we ran a voluntary survey for the Studley Campus University community to determine their current perspectives on their greenspaces. With these data, we ran a regression analysis to determine if there was any correlation between our measurement variables and surface water pH. We found that at one of our locations there was a significant correlation between drainage systems and pH, additionally at two we found climatic factors to be more significant, our last two locations had insignificant data to determine correlation with significance. Based on location, this indicated that there was a potential benefit to be found in using natural drainage systems compared to non-natural options (Gutters, Manholes, etc.). Our survey indicated that there were relatively negative perceptions of current Studley campus greenspaces, and that this could be improved by increasing maintenance, as well as biodiversity across these spaces. We concluded that implementation of natural drainage systems with improved maintenance would improve community perceptions of Dalhousie’s greenspaces, and with further research it could be determined that this would also reduce the impacts of acidification on surface water across these greenspaces.