Pattern and Variation in Development of Small Urban Watersheds
Abstract
Increased urbanization has been correlated with hydrologic, chemical, geomorphologic,
and biologic changes to receiving streams. Therefore, the status quo in watershed
management has been to control the amount of impervious surface area. However, because
various measures of development and impervious surface area are correlated, it is
hard to discern what aspects of development cause adverse ecological impacts: impervious
surface area is correlated with stormwater infrastructure, natural vegetation cover,
road density, and so on. In practice, the level of variability in any of these parameters
can be high at any intensity of development. We can take advantage of that variability
to choose landscape configurations that minimize watershed impacts for any given level
of urbanization. To do so, we must understand how watershed land cover parameters
co-vary with development intensity (percent impervious surface) and which aspects
of configuration most directly impact urban streams. To this end, I examined 14 specific
aspects of development configuration and stormwater infrastructure for 235 small watersheds
in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. For both landscape metrics and infrastructure
features, there was a high degree of variability at almost any level of development
intensity. In the case of road density for central ranges of development, there was
so much variation that the expected positive correlation of roads with development
was no longer significant. Our results set the stage for future exploration of the
hydrologic and chemical processes that are altered in urban streams. Relation of development
pattern to ecological process in this way will support more nuanced methods for management
of watershed development so that hydrologic impacts might be minimized for any given
level of development intensity.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8586Citation
Allen, Diane Mary (2014). Pattern and Variation in Development of Small Urban Watersheds. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8586.Collections
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