
Jon Luevano Effects of urbanization on the hydrologic cycle
Urbanization • Growth and development of cities • Large population density • Highly industrialized • Comparing city to city • Size (area) • Population density • Percentage of urban coverage • Hydrological impacts
Key Hydrological Impacts • Urban runoff hydrology • River channelization • Climatic changes • Water quality • Snow melt
Urban Runoff Hydrology • Impermeable surfaces change surface runoff patterns • Lower percolation rates • Higher overland flow rates • Reduction in peak discharge time/size • Cherkauer (1975) • Rose and Peters (2001) • Problems • Potential for flooding • Pollution
River Channelization • Human intervention on flow body of water • Resource management • Navigation and resource/power production • Flood control • Controlling runoff paths • Increase discharge rates • Problems • Biological • Vast increase in stream flow • Simon and Senturk (1977)
Water Quality • Sources for pollution • Higher surface runoff • Higher concentrations of contaminants • Davis (2001) • Gromaire-Mertz (1999) • Focus • Pinpoint and reduce use of specific sources of contamination • Water treatment methods
Snow Melt • Surface water created from melting snow • Factors • Air temperature • Solar radiation at surface • Ferguson (1999) • Urban snow melt • Timing/intensity of melt • Semandi-Davis (1998) • Jones (1997)
Climatic Changes • Climatic factors control hydrologic cycle • Rural vs. Urban • Warmer temperatures • Heat island effect • Evaporation rates • Lowry (1967) • Precipitation rates • Atkinson (1979)
Concluding Remarks • Importance of urban water management • Keys • Control of urban runoff pathways and exposure • Limit contamination • Improve treatment processes • Increase knowledge and awareness
References • Atkinson, B.W. (1979) Urban influences on precipitation in London. In: G.E. Hollis (ed.) Man’s influence on the hydrological cycle in the United Kingdom. Geobooks, Norwich, pp. 123-133. • Bengtsson, L., Westerstrom, G. (2009) Urban snowmelt and runoff in northern Sweden. Hydrological Science Journal 37:263-275. • Cech, T. (2005). Principles of water resources: history, development, management and policy. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. • Cherkauer, D.S. (1975) Urbanization’s impact on water quality during a flood in small watersheds. Water Resources Bulletin 11:987-998. • Chin, A., and Gregory, K.J. (2004) Managing urban river channel adjustments. Geomorphology 69:28-45. • D’Arcy, B.J., Usman, F., Griffiths, D. and Chatfield, P. (1998) Initiatives to tackle diffuse pollution in the UK. Water Science and Technology 38:131-138. • Davie, T., & Gerrard, J. (Eds.). (2008). Fundamentals of Hydrology (2nd ed.) New York, NY: Routledge. • Davis, A.P., Ni, S.B. (2001) Loading estimates of lead, copper, cadmium, and zinc in urban runoff from specific sources, Chemospheren44:997-1009. • Egodawatta, P., Miguntanna, N.S., Goonetilleke, A. (2012) Impact of roof surface runoff on urban water quality. Water Science & Techology 66(7):1527-1533. • Ferguson, R.I. (1999) Snowmelt runoff models. Progress in Physical Geography 23:205-228. • Gromaire-Mertz, M.C., Garnaud, S., Gonzalez, A. and Chebbo, G. (1999) Characterization of urban runoff pollution is Paris. Water Science and Technology 39:1-8. • Jones, J.A.A. (1997) Global hydrology: processes, resources andenvironmental management. Longman, Harlow. • Krein, A. and Schorer, M. (2000) Road runoff pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and its contribution to river sediments. Water Research 34:4110-4115. • Lee, J.H., and Bang, K.W. (2000) Characterization of urban stormwater runoff. Water Research 34:1773-1780. • Lowry, W.P. (1967) The climate of cities. Scientific American 217(2):20. • Rose, S. and Peters, N.E. (2001) Effects of urbanization on streamflow in the Atlantic area (Georgis, USA): a comparative hydrological approach. Hydrological Processes 15:1441-1457. • Semandi-Davies, A. (1998) Modeling snowmelt induced waste water inflows. Nordic Hydrology 29:285-302. • Simons, D.B. and Santurk, F. (1977) Sediment transport technology. Water resources punlications, Fort Collins, Colo. • Weng, Q. (2012) Modiling urban growth effects on surface runoff with the integration of remote sensing and GIS. Environmental Management 28:737-748.