Impacts of impervious surface on watershed hydrology: A review

doi:10.1080/15730620500386529

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Impacts of impervious surface on watershed hydrology: A review

Journal Article•DOI•

Impacts of impervious surface on watershed hydrology: A review

William D. Shuster¹, J. Bonta², Hale W. Thurston¹, E. Warnemuende², Douglas R. Smith² - Show less +1 more•Institutions (2)

United States Environmental Protection Agency¹, United States Department of Agriculture²

01 Dec 2005-Urban Water Journal (Taylor & Francis)-Vol. 2, Iss: 4, pp 263-275

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a literature review on different types of impermeable surface and their relative impacts on landscape hydrology, and describe the manner in which these surfaces are assessed for their putative impacts.

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Abstract: Increased impervious surface area is a consequence of urbanization, with correspondent and significant effects on the hydrologic cycle. It is intuitive that an increased proportion of impervious surface brings with it shorter lag times between onset of precipitation and subsequently higher runoff peaks and total volume of runoff in receiving waters. Yet, documentation on quantitative relationships between the extent and type of impervious area and these hydrologic factors remains dispersed across several disciplines. We present a literature review on this subject to better understand and synthesize distinctions among different types of impermeable surface and their relative impacts, and describe the manner in which these surfaces are assessed for their putative impacts on landscape hydrology.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Mapping the world’s free-flowing rivers

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Günther Grill¹, Bernhard Lehner¹, Michele Thieme, B. Geenen, David Tickner, F. Antonelli, S. Babu², Pasquale Borrelli³, L. Cheng, H. Crochetiere⁴, H. Ehalt Macedo¹, R. Filgueiras, M. Goichot, Jonathan V. Higgins⁵, Zeb S. Hogan⁶, B. Lip, Michael E. McClain⁷, J. Meng⁸, Mark Mulligan⁹, Christer Nilsson¹⁰, Christer Nilsson¹¹, Julian D. Olden¹², Jeffrey J. Opperman, Paulo Petry¹³, Paulo Petry⁵, C. Reidy Liermann¹⁴, Leonardo Sáenz¹⁵, Leonardo Sáenz¹⁶, S. Salinas-Rodriguez, P. Schelle, Rafael Schmitt¹⁷, J. Snider⁴, Florence Tan¹, Klement Tockner¹⁸, Klement Tockner¹⁹, Paula Hanna Valdujo, A. van Soesbergen⁹, Christiane Zarfl²⁰ - Show less +34 more•Institutions (20)

McGill University¹, WWF-India², University of Basel³, WWF-Canada⁴, The Nature Conservancy⁵, University of Nevada, Reno⁶, Delft University of Technology⁷, Konstanz University of Applied Sciences⁸, King's College London⁹, Umeå University¹⁰, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences¹¹, University of Washington¹², Harvard University¹³, University of Wisconsin-Madison¹⁴, Conservation International¹⁵, Michigan Technological University¹⁶, Stanford University¹⁷, Free University of Berlin¹⁸, Leibniz Association¹⁹, University of Tübingen²⁰

01 May 2019-Nature

TL;DR: A comprehensive assessment of the world’s rivers and their connectivity shows that only 37 per cent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres remain free-flowing over their entire length.

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Abstract: Free-flowing rivers (FFRs) support diverse, complex and dynamic ecosystems globally, providing important societal and economic services. Infrastructure development threatens the ecosystem processes, biodiversity and services that these rivers support. Here we assess the connectivity status of 12 million kilometres of rivers globally and identify those that remain free-flowing in their entire length. Only 37 per cent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres remain free-flowing over their entire length and 23 per cent flow uninterrupted to the ocean. Very long FFRs are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic and of the Amazon and Congo basins. In densely populated areas only few very long rivers remain free-flowing, such as the Irrawaddy and Salween. Dams and reservoirs and their up- and downstream propagation of fragmentation and flow regulation are the leading contributors to the loss of river connectivity. By applying a new method to quantify riverine connectivity and map FFRs, we provide a foundation for concerted global and national strategies to maintain or restore them. A comprehensive assessment of the world’s rivers and their connectivity shows that only 37 per cent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres remain free-flowing over their entire length.

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1,071 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Identification and quantification of the hydrological impacts of imperviousness in urban catchments: A review

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Carol Jacobson¹•Institutions (1)

Macquarie University¹

01 Jun 2011-Journal of Environmental Management

TL;DR: This review examines the nature of reported impacts of urbanisation on hydrological systems over four decades, including the effects of changes in imperviousness within catchments, and some inconsistencies in studies of the impacts ofurbanisation.

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469 citations

Cites background from "Impacts of impervious surface on wa..."

...Shuster et al. (2005) cite studies by Wibben (1976) which calculated the average ratio of DCIA to TIA to be 0.22, Miller (1979) which reported a ratio of 0.14, and Dinicola (1989) which reported a ratio of approximately 0.60 for high density residential housing....
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...Shuster et al. (2005) defined EIA as impervious areas that are hydraulically connected to a drainage system (e.g. streets with gutters that are sewered to an outfall)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Urban Stormwater Runoff: A New Class of Environmental Flow Problem

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Christopher J. Walsh¹, Tim D. Fletcher², Tim D. Fletcher¹, Matthew J. Burns²•Institutions (2)

University of Melbourne¹, Monash University²

19 Sep 2012-PLOS ONE

TL;DR: This work identified the nature of hydrologic change resulting from conventional urban stormwater runoff, and the mechanisms by which such hydrology change is prevented in streams where ecological condition has been protected, and quantified the increase in total volume resulting from urbanStormwater runoff.

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Abstract: Environmental flow assessment frameworks have begun to consider changes to flow regimes resulting from land-use change. Urban stormwater runoff, which degrades streams through altered volume, pattern and quality of flow, presents a problem that challenges dominant approaches to stormwater and water resource management, and to environmental flow assessment. We used evidence of ecological response to different stormwater drainage systems to develop methods for input to environmental flow assessment. We identified the nature of hydrologic change resulting from conventional urban stormwater runoff, and the mechanisms by which such hydrologic change is prevented in streams where ecological condition has been protected. We also quantified the increase in total volume resulting from urban stormwater runoff, by comparing annual streamflow volumes from undeveloped catchments with the volumes that would run off impervious surfaces under the same rainfall regimes. In catchments with as little as 5–10% total imperviousness, conventional stormwater drainage, associated with poor in-stream ecological condition, reduces contributions to baseflows and increases the frequency and magnitude of storm flows, but in similarly impervious catchments in which streams retain good ecological condition, informal drainage to forested hillslopes, without a direct piped discharge to the stream, results in little such hydrologic change. In urbanized catchments, dispersed urban stormwater retention measures can potentially protect urban stream ecosystems by mimicking the hydrologic effects of informal drainage, if sufficient water is harvested and kept out of the stream, and if discharged water is treated to a suitable quality. Urban stormwater is a new class of environmental flow problem: one that requires reduction of a large excess volume of water to maintain riverine ecological integrity. It is the best type of problem, because solving it provides an opportunity to solve other problems such as the provision of water for human use.

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314 citations

Cites background from "Impacts of impervious surface on wa..."

...Hydrologists have long recognised that conventional stormwater drainage is the dominant driver of urban-induced hydrologic changes [7,8,14], leading ecologists to posit the importance of such systems in driving the ecological degradation of urban stream ecosystems [9]....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Is Impervious Cover Still Important? Review of Recent Research

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Thomas R. Schueler¹, Lisa Fraley-McNeal¹, Karen Cappiella¹•Institutions (1)

Chesapeake Energy¹

01 Apr 2009-Journal of Hydrologic Engineering

TL;DR: The impervious cover model (ICM) has attracted considerable attention in recent years, with nearly 250 research studies testing its basic hypothesis that the behavior of urban stream indicators can be predicted on the basis of the percent impervious covers in their contributing subwatershed.

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Abstract: The impervious cover model (ICM) has attracted considerable attention in recent years, with nearly 250 research studies testing its basic hypothesis that the behavior of urban stream indicators can be predicted on the basis of the percent impervious cover in their contributing subwatershed. The writers conducted a meta-analysis of 65 new research studies that bear on the ICM to determine the degree to which they met the assumptions of the ICM and supported or did not support its primary predictions. Results show that the majority of research published since 2003 has confirmed or reinforced the basic premise of the ICM, but has also revealed important caveats and limitations to its application. A reformulated conceptual impervious cover model is presented in this paper that is strengthened to reflect the most recent science and simplify it for watershed managers and policy makers. A future challenge is to test the hypothesis that widespread application of multiple management practices at the catchment level can improve the urban stream degradation gradient that has been repeatedly observed by researchers across the country.

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313 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Hydrological modelling of urbanized catchments: A review and future directions

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Elga Salvadore¹, Elga Salvadore², Jan Bronders¹, Okke Batelaan², Okke Batelaan³ - Show less +1 more•Institutions (3)

Flemish Institute for Technological Research¹, Vrije Universiteit Brussel², Flinders University³

01 Oct 2015-Journal of Hydrology

TL;DR: This paper reviews the state of the art on the scientific knowledge and practice of modelling the urban hydrological system at the catchment scale, with the purpose of identifying current limitations and defining a blueprint for future modelling advances.

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305 citations

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References

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Journal Article•DOI•

Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems.

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Marten Scheffer¹, S. R. Carpenter², Jonathan A. Foley², Carl Folke³, Brian Walker⁴ - Show less +1 more•Institutions (4)

Wageningen University and Research Centre¹, University of Wisconsin-Madison², Stockholm University³, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation⁴

11 Oct 2001-Nature

TL;DR: Recent studies show that a loss of resilience usually paves the way for a switch to an alternative state, which suggests that strategies for sustainable management of such ecosystems should focus on maintaining resilience.

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Abstract: All ecosystems are exposed to gradual changes in climate, nutrient loading, habitat fragmentation or biotic exploitation. Nature is usually assumed to respond to gradual change in a smooth way. However, studies on lakes, coral reefs, oceans, forests and arid lands have shown that smooth change can be interrupted by sudden drastic switches to a contrasting state. Although diverse events can trigger such shifts, recent studies show that a loss of resilience usually paves the way for a switch to an alternative state. This suggests that strategies for sustainable management of such ecosystems should focus on maintaining resilience.

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6,213 citations

"Impacts of impervious surface on wa..." refers background in this paper

...1995, Norgaard 1995), which combine to affect ecosystems and their organizational hierarchies (Scheffer et al. 2001)....
[...]
...A threshold is formed from a complex of abiotic and biotic stressors (Klein 1979, Arrow et al. 1995, Norgaard 1995), which combine to affect ecosystems and their organizational hierarchies (Scheffer et al. 2001)....
[...]

Journal Article•DOI•

Roads and their major ecological effects

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Richard T. T. Forman, Lauren E. Alexander

01 Nov 1998-Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics

TL;DR: Road density and network structure are informative landscape ecology assays and Australia has huge road-reserve networks of native vegetation, whereas the Dutch have tunnels and overpasses perforating road barriers to enhance ecological flows.

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Abstract: A huge road network with vehicles ramifies across the land, representing a surprising frontier of ecology. Species-rich roadsides are conduits for few species. Roadkills are a premier mortality source, yet except for local spots, rates rarely limit population size. Road avoidance, especially due to traffic noise, has a greater ecological impact. The still-more-important barrier effect subdivides populations, with demographic and probably genetic consequences. Road networks crossing landscapes cause local hydrologic and erosion effects, whereas stream networks and distant valleys receive major peak-flow and sediment impacts. Chemical effects mainly occur near roads. Road networks interrupt horizontal ecological flows, alter landscape spatial pattern, and therefore inhibit important interior species. Thus, road density and network structure are informative landscape ecology assays. Australia has huge road-reserve networks of native vegetation, whereas the Dutch have tunnels and overpasses perforating road barriers to enhance ecological flows. Based on road-effect zones, an estimated 15‐20% of the United States is ecologically impacted by roads.

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2,949 citations

"Impacts of impervious surface on wa..." refers background in this paper

...Roads not only concentrate flows, but can also increase the velocity of these flows, which can furthermore elongate low-order sub-basins, increasing the effective length of a stream channel network (Montgomery 1994, Forman and Alexander 1998, Nakamura et al. 2000)....
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...Some examples of urbanization processes include: increasing surface area of road networks (Forman and Alexander 1998, Forman 2000, Jones et al. 2000); fragmentation and drainage of wetlands (Hopkinson and Day 1980, Mitsch and Gosselink 1986); decreasing drainage capacity (Hicks and Larson 1997)…...
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Journal Article•DOI•

Digital terrain modelling: A review of hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications

[...]

I. D. Moore¹, Rodger B. Grayson², Anthony Richard Ladson³•Institutions (3)

Australian National University¹, University of Melbourne², Montana State University³

01 Jan 1991-Hydrological Processes

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe elevation data sources, digital elevation model structures, and the analysis of digital elevation data for hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications.

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Abstract: The topography of a catchment has a major impact on the hydrological, geomorphological. and biological processes active in the landscape. The spatial distribution of topographic attributes can often be used as an indirect measure of the spatial variability of these processes and allows them to be mapped using relatively simple techniques. Many geographic information systems are being developed that store topographic information as the primary data for analysing water resource and biological problems. Furthermore, topography can be used to develop more physically realistic structures for hydrologic and water quality models that directly account for the impact of topography on the hydrology. Digital elevation models are the primary data used in the analysis of catchment topography. We describe elevation data sources, digital elevation model structures, and the analysis of digital elevation data for hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications. Some hydrologic models that make use of digital representations of topography are also considered.

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2,855 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Impervious surface coverage: the emergence of a key environmental indicator

[...]

Chester L. Arnold, C. James Gibbons

30 Jun 1996-Journal of The American Planning Association

TL;DR: A wide range of strategies to reduce impervious surfaces and their impacts on water resources can be applied to community planning, site-level planning and design, and land use regulation as mentioned in this paper.

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Abstract: Planners concerned with water resource protection in urbanizing areas must deal with the adverse impacts of polluted runoff. Impervious surface coverage is a quantifiable land-use indicator that correlates closely with these impacts. Once the role and distribution of impervious coverage are understood, a wide range of strategies to reduce impervious surfaces and their impacts on water resources can be applied to community planning, site-level planning and design, and land use regulation. These strategies complement many current trends in planning, zoning, and landscape design that go beyond water pollution concerns to address the quality of life in a community.

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2,087 citations

"Impacts of impervious surface on wa..." refers background in this paper

...2001), with particular emphasis on base flows (Simmons and Reynolds 1982, Arnold and Gibbons 1996, Smakhtin 2001), and change in channel morphology (Hammer 1973, Hollis and Luckett 1976, Robinson 1976, Nanson and Young 1981). The majority of research in establishing a threshold impervious surface area has been directed towards the assessment of ecosystem response to a change in watershed hydrology. For example, more frequent and increased peak discharge of runoff events may be used as a proxy for ecosystem-level disturbance regimes. Therefore, the effects of urbanization involve not only impacts on site hydrology and geomorphology, but also aquatic ecosystems. This focus is exemplified by Schueler (1994), who proposed that percent catchment impervious surface classifies stream drainages into one of three aquatic ecosystem management categories: ‘stressed’ at 1 – 10% impervious cover; ‘impacted’ at 11 – 25% impervious cover; and ‘degraded’ at 26 – 100 percent impervious cover....
[...]
...A threshold is formed from a complex of abiotic and biotic stressors (Klein 1979, Arrow et al. 1995, Norgaard 1995), which combine to affect ecosystems and their organizational hierarchies (Scheffer et al. 2001). In much the same way, urbanization reapportions water resources among the different pools of the hydrologic cycle, where runoff events are significantly more frequent, potential evapotranspiration is altered and at the expense of a decreased role of natural soil-water detention and storage components in regulating runoff production. There is some evidence of threshold behavior in studies of urban hydrologic phenomena. Thresholds were identified as breaks in slope along watershed runoff double-mass curves constructed by Simmons and Reynolds (1982), which indicated successive transient equilibrium periods whereby stream morphology adjusted to the hydrologic effects of correspondent urban growth phases....
[...]
...A threshold is formed from a complex of abiotic and biotic stressors (Klein 1979, Arrow et al. 1995, Norgaard 1995), which combine to affect ecosystems and their organizational hierarchies (Scheffer et al. 2001). In much the same way, urbanization reapportions water resources among the different pools of the hydrologic cycle, where runoff events are significantly more frequent, potential evapotranspiration is altered and at the expense of a decreased role of natural soil-water detention and storage components in regulating runoff production. There is some evidence of threshold behavior in studies of urban hydrologic phenomena. Thresholds were identified as breaks in slope along watershed runoff double-mass curves constructed by Simmons and Reynolds (1982), which indicated successive transient equilibrium periods whereby stream morphology adjusted to the hydrologic effects of correspondent urban growth phases. Neller (1988) showed that channel adjustments in response to urban development took five years to come to equilibrium, which is close to the four-year interval predicted by Hammer (1972)....
[...]
...2001), with particular emphasis on base flows (Simmons and Reynolds 1982, Arnold and Gibbons 1996, Smakhtin 2001), and change in channel morphology (Hammer 1973, Hollis and Luckett 1976, Robinson 1976, Nanson and Young 1981). The majority of research in establishing a threshold impervious surface area has been directed towards the assessment of ecosystem response to a change in watershed hydrology. For example, more frequent and increased peak discharge of runoff events may be used as a proxy for ecosystem-level disturbance regimes. Therefore, the effects of urbanization involve not only impacts on site hydrology and geomorphology, but also aquatic ecosystems. This focus is exemplified by Schueler (1994), who proposed that percent catchment impervious surface classifies stream drainages into one of three aquatic ecosystem management categories: ‘stressed’ at 1 – 10% impervious cover; ‘impacted’ at 11 – 25% impervious cover; and ‘degraded’ at 26 – 100 percent impervious cover. These ranges are derived from several studies, each of which may have varied in their individual approach to determination of percent imperviousness and other analyses. Klein (1979) offered a preliminary estimate of 10% total imperviousness as a threshold for impacts on aquatic ecosystems, with ‘severe’ impacts developing at 30% watershed imperviousness. Booth and Jackson (1997) as well as Wang et al. (2001) note threshold effects at similar levels of effective impervious surface area (i....
[...]
...2001), with particular emphasis on base flows (Simmons and Reynolds 1982, Arnold and Gibbons 1996, Smakhtin 2001), and change in channel morphology (Hammer 1973, Hollis and Luckett 1976, Robinson 1976, Nanson and Young 1981). The majority of research in establishing a threshold impervious surface area has been directed towards the assessment of ecosystem response to a change in watershed hydrology. For example, more frequent and increased peak discharge of runoff events may be used as a proxy for ecosystem-level disturbance regimes. Therefore, the effects of urbanization involve not only impacts on site hydrology and geomorphology, but also aquatic ecosystems. This focus is exemplified by Schueler (1994), who proposed that percent catchment impervious surface classifies stream drainages into one of three aquatic ecosystem management categories: ‘stressed’ at 1 – 10% impervious cover; ‘impacted’ at 11 – 25% impervious cover; and ‘degraded’ at 26 – 100 percent impervious cover. These ranges are derived from several studies, each of which may have varied in their individual approach to determination of percent imperviousness and other analyses. Klein (1979) offered a preliminary estimate of 10% total imperviousness as a threshold for impacts on aquatic ecosystems, with ‘severe’ impacts developing at 30% watershed imperviousness. Booth and Jackson (1997) as well as Wang et al. (2001) note threshold effects at similar levels of effective impervious surface area (i.e. 10 – 12% impervious surface area), for which base flows and aquatic systems were impacted, and highlighting the important role of effective impervious surface in the prediction of environmental and hydrologic impacts. In other studies, a minimum (as opposed to threshold) level of urbanization was shown to impact hydrology. Sauer et al. (1983) used a minimum value of 15% land use in commercial, industrial or residential development as a criterion for watershed selection in his study of urban flood characteristics. A similar criterion was employed by Walesh (1989) with reference to the British Road Research Laboratory approach to determining runoff volume in urban catchments; and this method considers directly connected impervious surface only. Through largely statistical analyses on field data, several researchers have found that certain types of urbanization had no discernable effects on peak-flows or floods (Wibben 1976, Dudley et al. 2001). Despite a 161% increase in watershed imperviousness from 1.3 to 3.5% in a 34 km(2) catchment located in southern Maine, Dudley et al. (2001) found that there was no significant change in peak flows, duration of recessions and hydrograph shape....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment.

[...]

Kenneth J. Arrow¹, Bert Bolin², Robert Costanza³, Partha Dasgupta⁴, Carl Folke⁵, C. S. Holling⁶, Bengt Owe Jansson², Simon A. Levin⁷, Karl-Göran Mäler⁵, Charles Perrings⁸, David Pimentel⁹ - Show less +7 more•Institutions (9)

Stanford University¹, Stockholm University², University of Maryland, College Park³, University of Cambridge⁴, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences⁵, University of Florida⁶, Princeton University⁷, University of York⁸, Cornell University⁹

28 Apr 1995-Science

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the relation between economic growth and environmental quality, and the link between economic activity and the carrying capacity and resilience of the environment, and they discuss the role of economic activity in environmental degradation.

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Abstract: National and international economic policy has usually ignored the environment. In areas where the environment is beginning to impinge on policy, as in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it remains a tangential concern, and the presumption is often made that economic growth and economic liberalization (including the liberalization of international trade) are, in some sense, good for the environment. This notion has meant that economy-wide policy reforms designed to promote growth and liberalization have been encouraged with little regard to their environmental consequences, presumably on the assumption that these consequences would either take care of themselves or could be dealt with separately. In this article, we discuss the relation between economic growth and environmental quality, and the link between economic activity and the carrying capacity and resilience of the environment.

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1,555 citations