Urban soil and water conservation and ecological environment features of Lexington, USA

Lexington, the second largest city in Kentucky, USA, has beautiful urban ecological environment: clean air, blue sky and buildings among woods and bluegrass. My survey indicates that the urban soil and water conservation and ecological environment features of Lexington are: 1) Green is the theme of Lexinton city development. There are large areas of grassland in the city landscape. The coverage rate of green plants is very high; 2) Citizens have strong sense of protecting grassland. Grass breeding and protection technology is very popular; 3) Direct soil exposure on the earth is not allowed. As supplementary of greening, small wood cuttings play a significant role; 4) Urban planning of construction and drainage system takes the natural landscape into full consideration, which is environment-friendly; 5) Refuse management is standard and systematic. Rubbish and wastes are removed timely, which is important to blown sand control and air cleaning. 6) In civil construction sites, temporary protections are significant to prevent water and soil loss caused by construction activities. 7) Water and soil conservation tillage methods on the farmland around urban area, such as no plough and straw coverage during fallow land period are applied to avoid wind erosion, which maintains green urban ecological environment. The experiences of environment protection and some methods of water and soil conservation of Lexington are worth to learn as a reference.