The Montgomery County Department of Parks has asked our team of Environmental Science and Policy majors at the University of Maryland, to assist in developing creative ways to effectively message sustainability as a way to protect the health of County citizens. This paper highlights suggestions for ways to effectively do so. It focuses on the […]
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The Montgomery County Parks Department needs to adopt an alternative water source to secure the future of their water supply at their Damascus and Cabin John facilities. A greywater system is a viable option. Greywater is a sustainable, innovative water source collected from sinks and ice shavings for reuse options, conserving water, and reducing energy. […]
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The Montgomery County Department of Parks, and other environmentally-oriented organizations, have historically had a difficult time communicating the importance of environmental issues to the general public. A major reason is that much of this communication has promoted environmental protection for the intrinsic sake of the environment, and not for human well-being. As a result, people […]
The Upper Marlboro Community Center offers a wide range of services for the surrounding community, but is currently totally isolated from the multimodal network. No dedicated bike or pedestrian routes connects it to surrounding communities. Despite the lack of pedestrian infrastructure, community members still walk to and from the Community Center, along the edge of […]
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Our PALS project team worked with Prince George’s County Animal Control to identify potential sites for a second animal shelter. After reading a 2016 feasibility study and meeting with Chief Rodney Taylor and other stakeholders, our team developed a hierarchy of site selection criteria. These included zoning, parcel size, transit access, and more. We then […]
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Today Locust Grove Nature Center is housed in a small, aging retrofit facility adapted from a toboggan run that opened its doors in 1972, operating for a few short years before shuttering in 1977. The current demand for year-round programming and multi-functional event space far exceeds Locust Grove’s capacity. The location of the nature center […]
Montgomery County Planning’s Energized Public Spaces Functional Master Plan (EPS FMP), which focused primarily on the Silver Spring Central Business District, inventoried the supply of existing parks and open spaces, estimated the demand for parks and open space based on the presence of population and jobs, and identified areas where service gaps exist. The Fall […]
This report compiles ways to use technology, specifically a scavenger hunt game, to bring new audiences to Montgomery County parks, in an effort to promote increased engagement and longer park visits. This project capitalizes on the popularity of the interactive game apps and uses a similar game to entice people into the parks and to […]
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This project’s goal is to analyze how the presence and quality of local parks and open spaces affects adjacent property values and the local economy, and to gauge the public perception of parks in Montgomery County to better understand public opinion and concerns surrounding parks. This project will also recommend how those concerns can be […]
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Stormwater management is a vital practice that allows urban areas to mitigate negative water quality impacts associated with urban development. The Montgomery County Department of Parks seeks to increase their reuse of stormwater as part of its commitment to furthering sustainability practices within the parks system and to minimize their impact on the environment. The […]
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