Vegetated buffers are areas of natural, existing or established vegetation that protect the water quality of neighboring areas and waterbodies during construction. Buffer zones provide an area where stormwater can permeate the soil and replenish the groundwater (WES, 2008).

Vegetative buffers, also known as riparian buffers or green belts, are zones where perennial plants, shrubs, and trees are planted to serve as a natural barrier between human activity and sensitive ecological areas such as lakes, rivers, or agricultural fields.

Vegetated buffers, or areas of vegetation situated between the built environment and the water, trap sediments, excess nutrients, and other pollutants, prevent erosion, and help to stabilize sloped areas and the shoreline.

Vegetated buffers provide a transition zone between water - streams, lakes, wetlands -and other human land use activities, including roads, residential subdivisions, and commercial areas. Buffers are also complex ecosystems that serve as “living filters” by physically filtering pollutants from surface runoff.

What Is a Vegetated Buffer and How Does It Work? Simply put, a vegetated buffer is a protective area between a waterbody and human activity, such as development or agriculture. They are "living filters," because they capture many of the pollutants that travel through them. Buffers filter out sediment and debris from surface runoff.

VEGETATED BUFFER. A vegetated area along a waterbody that stabilizes the . shoreline and provides wildlife habitat and shade. Buffers help slow down and clean stormwater runoff. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS. STEP 1 – Location. Buffers are beneficial along all types of waterbodies from small streams to large rivers and bays.

Practice definition Buffers and filter strips are areas of permanent vegetation located within and between agricultural fields and the water courses to which they drain. These buffers are intended to intercept and slow runoff thereby providing water quality benefits.

Vegetated buffers protect and maintain the water quality of adjacent wetlands by removing sediment, nutrients, toxic substances, and pathogens from incoming runoff (Adamus 2007). Removal efficiency is affected by a variety of physical characteristics of the buffer.

Vegetated buffers can be used in any area able to support vegetation. They are most effective and beneficial on floodplains, near wetlands, along streambanks, and on unstable slopes.

In developed areas, vegetated buffers can fulfill the same important ecological functions as undisturbed waterside vegetation. As the name suggests, these are thickly vegetated strips of land that protect waterways and wetlands from polluted runoff and erosion.