It all starts with combined sewage overflow, or CSO, as it's often referred to.
CSO occurs when raw sewage enters a waterway during heavy rainfall events. When sewer systems in an area can't handle the extra influx of water, they release their untreated contents into local waterways.
Here's a video that our colleague Briana took when she was in Gowanus one rainy evening:
But how does monitoring trees help with CSO?
One method of combating CSO is with green infrastructure, like those trees you see on the sidewalks in NYC. Apart from looking nice, these trees are great at collecting water during rain events.
"Street trees are more widely accepted by the community and much easier to permit and install than other forms of green infrastructure, such as right of way rain gardens and bioswales. Our intention for the monitoring solution was to identify criteria that would allow us to compare stormwater performance of tree pits to green infrastructure," Motzny told us.