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- Author or Editor: Malik G. Al-Ajlouni x
Linking an urban residential landscapes type to a specific landscape water budget is important to water resource management in a desert environment. Yet, no research that we are aware of has effectively associated a specific water budget with a quantitatively determined urban landscape type. The objective of this research was to determine whether a landscape water budget and residential urban landscape type could be related. We previously quantitatively classified urban residential landscapes in the desert environment of Las Cruces, NM, into hard-surface shade-structure, mulch, hard-surface, hard-surface-mulch, mulch tree, turf mulch, turf, tree mulch turf, and turf tree landscape types. In this study, we determined water budget, landscape coefficient, and the portion of the coverage of irrigated and nonirrigated elements for each landscape type. Landscape types in Las Cruces grouped into four distinct water budget groups: no-water, low-, moderate-, and high-water budget. Because of the heterogeneity of the coefficients for grass, plants, and water surfaces that constituted it, the landscape coefficient correlated weakly (r 2 = 0.3) with the water budget. Coverage of the irrigated elements correlated highly (r 2 = 0.95) with the water budget. Our results suggest that the coverage of irrigated elements in a desert urban landscape is a major driver of landscape water budgets.
Soilless substrates enhance growing environment, nutrient content, and water quality in the growing medium. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of substrate particle size on growth and flower quality (flower number and length per plant) of two asiatic hybrid lily (Lilium ×elegans) cultivars Fangio and Ercolano. Plants were grown in 12-L pot under greenhouse conditions. Five grades of particle-size substrate, consisting of granulated volcanic material (tuff) were used as treatments. These sizes were 0 to 2, 0 to 4, 0 to 8, 2 to 4, and 4 to 8 mm. Fertigation was applied daily. Plant morphology, physiology, and flower quality were determined during flowering stage. Treatments of 2 to 4- and 4 to 8-mm tuff had lower water holding capacity (WHC), bulk density, electrical conductivity (EC), and pH compared with 0 to 2- and 0 to 4-mm tuff. In addition, plant height, leaf area, and flower quality of ‘Fangio’ were higher compared with ‘Ercolano’. Chlorophyll content and fluorescence were similar among all treatments. Leaf fresh weight, leaf area, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, and flower quality were higher in sizes of 0 to 4-, 2 to 4-, and 4 to 8-mm than 0 to 2-mm tuff, especially those from ‘Fangio’. The 0 to 4-mm substrate had an optimal and consistent flower quality results in both cultivars when compared with other tuff sizes. Overall, the results presented here suggest that using 0 to 4-mm tuff substrate holds promise for improving growth and flower quality of asiatic hybrid lily grown under soilless culture.
The apparent heterogeneity of human-generated materials in residential urban landscapes sustains concerns that the quantitative classification of urban residential landscapes is impossible. The objective of this research was to develop a method to quantitatively classify urban residential landscapes in a desert environment. Using a purposive sampling procedure, we studied the landscapable area around each of 54 residential homes in Las Cruces, NM. All materials in the landscape were identified, measured, and categorized. Using 30% as the cutoff to indicate that a material was dominant in the landscape, we classified 93% of all landscapes into nine common landscape types. Mulch-dominant landscapes were the most common, and landscape types differed between front- and backyards. Shrubs did not feature prominently in any of the common landscape types. Our classification method clearly identifies multiple landscape types, and for the first time, provides quantitative evidence that landscape types are distributed differently in front- and backyard landscapes in the desert environment of Las Cruces. Information on common landscape types will be valuable to landscape horticulturists wanting to craft water conservation plans that are landscape specific if the common landscape type can be linked to a landscape water budget.