SportsTurf

FIELD SCIENCE 18 SportsTurf | March 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com fertilizers on sports fields and recreational areas has intensified over the past decade. As societal pressure increases for the conservation of energy and natural resources, attempts to implement site-specific management and reduce inputs may become key to increasing the credibility of sports facilities attempting to become "sustain- able." Improving field playability and athlete safety through the implementation of site-specific management would further exhibit social sustainability of sports fields by improving player satisfac- tion. Maps can play a critical role when trying to communicate athletic field efforts of sustainability to the public. Explaining field closures. Athletic field management often involves more than just taking care of the field. Interacting with coaches, players, and administration may be common and at times difficult. Questions often arise when fields need to be closed for inclement weather or maintenance practices. Sometimes telling them that the field is "too wet" is just not enough. Numbers and data can be confusing for some, but maps are somewhat easy to understand. For example, the bright red color depicting stressed turf on a turfgrass health map is an easy way to highlight areas that need special attention or justify closing/rotating field use. Proposing new equipment or renovations. Maps can easily highlight deficient areas within a field or across multiple fields within a sports complex. Athletic field managers may be cogni- zant of these areas, while their administrators are often unaware. Maps can be employed to justify the purchase of new equipment or utilized to rationalize the need for future renovations. Figure 3 is an example of an irrigation system efficiency audit of a high school football field. Soil moisture data used to create this map was collected during a dry period and based solely on the irrigation system. The field manager could use this map to identify malfunc- tioning irrigation heads and justify the purchase of replacement parts or system renovation. Conducting research. Although maps by themselves are aes- thetically informative, it is important to note that there are data attached to them. Geostatistics are used to analyze and interpret spatial (through space) and temporal (through time) data, which is essentially the point data from which maps are created. Researchers often conduct small plot (≤ 100 ft2) studies to simulate real world scenarios such as the effect of wear and compaction on athletic field turf. However, data generated from small plot research may have limited application. Geostatistical analysis is conducted at the whole-field level allowing investigators to evaluate "in posi- tion" research. At the University of Georgia we use mapping and geostatistics in our research to evaluate sampling procedures, to test the effectiveness of site-specific management techniques, and to determine correlations between player injuries and field surface properties at the exact locations that injuries occur. FUTURE OF MAPS IN SPORTS TURF MANAGEMENT Mapping technology is making small, but significant strides in turfgrass management. This is evident with the recent increase in GPS-equipped testing devices and independent companies that

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