Magic in Marrakech

Stakeholder Coalition Develops Best Practice for Water Management in Marrakech

Marrakech, the Moroccan Imperial city, is strategically located close to the Atlas mountains. In the early days, the city was the gateway to the Sahara desert and over the years, Marrakech developed into a unique touristic destination. An interesting destination also for golf tourism, showing the many golf courses around Marrakech. With 24.000ha, high summer temperatures, a total population of 950.000 people and nineteen courses, water is a valuable asset. To protect the city’s environment, a public-private collaboration was initiated to collect all the wastewater from the city, treat the water and reuse it for instance for irrigation of the Palm groves of Marrakech and golf courses.

Image from Complete Morocco

The Importance of Buffer Strips along Golf Course Waterways

Golf course superintendents have got to be some of the most knowledgeable, well-rounded individuals I know. When you think about all the subjects they’re expected to be proficient in, it’s really mind-blowing. I have a lot of respect for this profession. Not only do they need to know the ins and outs of the game, but they pretty much need to be landscape architects, mechanics, entomologists, gardeners, chemists, agronomists, botanists, soil scientists, arborists, wildlife managers, biologists, turfgrass specialists, plant pathologists, economists, weather forecasters, hydrologists, reclamationists, and even the occasional public relations professional. What’s more, they’re expected to be all of these things on top of keeping their players happy and coming back for more. If this list seems overwhelming, well, I’m sorry but I’m about to suggest one more. A wetland scientist. Golf course superintendents will need a good understanding of riparian sciences and knowledge of how to properly manage and maintain the health and quality of their ponds, streams, rivers and lakes if they are to succeed in the future of sustainable golf course management.

Weston GC, Toronto, Ontario - Project of Out on a Limb

Buffalograss Gaining Popularity on the Golf Course

There’s been much discussion lately on the subject of water conservation within the golf course industry, and for good reason. As water demands outweigh water supplies in many areas of the country, several courses are starting to feel the pinch and are looking for ways to cut back on irrigation needs.

Methods such as rainwater harvesting have shown huge potential for water conservation in golf course  management. Although rainwater harvesting is a great way to provide a free, steady, and sustainable supply of water, it’s only one side of the irrigation coin. Not only do we need to be able to supply a sustainable supply of water, but we need to consider using turfgrass species that don’t require much water to begin with.

How To: Golf Course Rainwater Harvesting Part 2

See Part 1 of this series here.
...Now that’s all nice to see annual totals, but if we want to invest in the infrastructure to use this resource of ours wisely then we are going to have to get specific. The best way to do this is to find out exactly how much of this water you are going to use.

Part 2: How can I tie it in to my current system or maintenance routines?

To answer this question let's break it down into three parts: collection, storage and delivery.

Collection Method

Here we evaluate the effectiveness of 4 things - Material, Delivery, Climate and Other:

Material of roof

• Is the roof constructed of standing seam metal, ethylene propylene diene monomer (EDPM), slate or tile? (different materials have different runoff coefficients i.e. metal is .95, concrete and asphalt is .9, tar and gravel is .8-.85)
• Is the roof or exterior building walls capable of withstanding load or attachment of a "delivery system" (see below)?

How To: Golf Course Rainwater Harvesting Part 1

For golf courses using municipal water sources (roughly 14% in USA) or a limited renewable source for irrigation, collecting roof rainwater may have considerable benefits. Harvested rainwater can later be used to supplement landscape applications in isolated areas, for young planted material, the growing of nursery stock, bunker surrounds and heavily stressed turfgrass. Whatever your intended use, when evaluating the possibility of collecting rainwater from a roof for the purpose of holding and applying there are 3 major things to consider:

1. How much can I collect? (Supply)
2. What is the impact on my maintenance routines? (Collection, Storage & Demand)
3. How do I deliver? What is my ROI?

I’ve provided some insight to this process using a few helpful resources, case studies and formulas. Enjoy!

El Paso's Purple Pipe Program

El Paso Water Utilities believes water is too valuable to use just once. EPWU's network of Purple Pipes delivers reclaimed water to parks and businesses for landscaping and industrial use. Check out this video which makes a number of references to golf facilities and their important role in using the treated water vs potable supply.

Removing Phosphorus from the Watershed

OSU soil chemist Chad Penn discusses why phosphorus build-up can be a problem in the water system and shows a unique device using slag from the steel industry to remove unwanted phosphorus (25% in this case) and how there are opportunities to use the collected phosphorus elsewhere.

To learn more of Penn's study Predicting Phosphorus Sorption onto Steel Slag Using a Flow-through Approach with Application to a Pilot Scale System see it here in PDF.