Course: GFM 103 Exterior Environmental Management

Reading and Audio-Visual Assignments

(1/2)
Taming Perimeter Winds: Role of Shelterbelts and Windbreaks

A windbreak or shelterbelt is a plantation usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted around the edges of fields on farms. If designed properly, windbreaks around a home can reduce the cost of heating and cooling and save energy. Windbreaks are also planted to help keep snow from drifting onto roadways and even yards. Other benefits include providing habitat for wildlife and in some regions the trees are harvested for wood products.

A further use for a shelterbelt is to screen a farm from a main road or motorway. This improves the farm landscape by reducing the visual incursion of the motorway, mitigating noise from the traffic and providing a safe barrier between farm animals and the road.

The term "windbreak" is also used to describe an article of clothing worn to prevent wind chill. Americans tend to use the term "windbreaker" whereas Europeans favor the term "windbreak".

Fences called "windbreaks" are also used. Normally made from cotton, nylon, canvas, and recycled sails, windbreaks tend to have three or more panels held in place with poles that slide into pockets sewn into the panel. The poles are then hammered into the ground and a windbreak is formed. Windbreaks or "wind fences" are used to reduce wind speeds over erodible areas such as open fields, industrial stockpiles, and dusty industrial operations. As erosion is proportional to wind speed cubed a reduction of wind speed of 1/2 (for example) will reduce erosion by over 80%. The largest one of these windbreaks is located in Oman (28m high by 3.5km long) and was created by Mike Robinson from WeatherSolve Structures.

A road verge, (also verge, boulevard, city grass, devil's strip, nature strip, parking strip, planting strip, sidewalk buffer, tree belt, tree lawn, utility strip, parkway, etc.) is a narrow strip of grass or plants and sometimes also trees located between the carriageway (roadway) curb (or road surface edge or shoulder) and the boundary (right-of-way line) of a road.^[1]

The land is often public property with maintenance usually being a municipal responsibility; however some municipal authorities require that abutting property owners maintain these areas and also sidewalks.^[2]

Benefits include visual aesthetics, increased safety and comfort of sidewalk users, protection from spray from passing vehicles, a space for, benches, bus shelters, street lights and other public amenities. It is also often part of sustainability for water conservation or the management of urban runoff and water pollution^[3]^[4]^[5] and may provide useful wildlife habitat. Snow that has been plowed off the street in colder climates may be stored in the area.

The main disadvantage is the right-of-way must be wider, increasing the cost of the road.