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Impervious surface

About: Impervious surface is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3698 publications have been published within this topic receiving 96144 citations.


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Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: The most consistent and pervasive effect is an increase in impervious surface cover within urban catchments, which alters the hydrology and geomorphology of streams as discussed by the authors, which results in predictable changes in stream habitat.
Abstract: The world’s population is concentrated in urban areas. This change in demography has brought landscape transformations that have a number of documented effects on stream ecosystems. The most consistent and pervasive effect is an increase in impervious surface cover within urban catchments, which alters the hydrology and geomorphology of streams. This results in predictable changes in stream habitat. In addition to imperviousness, runoff from urbanized surfaces as well as municipal and industrial discharges result in increased loading of nutrients, metals, pesticides, and other contaminants to streams. These changes result in consistent declines in the richness of algal, invertebrate, and fish communities in urban streams. Although understudied in urban streams, ecosystem processes are also affected by urbanization. Urban streams represent opportunities for ecologists interested in studying disturbance and contributing to more effective landscape management.

3,007 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
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.
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.

2,087 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and percent impervious surface as indicators of surface urban heat island effects in Landsat imagery by investigating the relationships between the land surface temperature (LST), Percent Impervious Surface area (%ISA), and the NDVI.

1,289 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a variety of physical data from lowland streams in western Washington displays the onset of readily observable aquatic-system degradation at a remarkably consistent level of development, typically about ten percent effective impervious area in a watershed.
Abstract: Urbanization of a watershed degrades both the form and the function of the downstream aquatic system, causing changes that can occur rapidly and are very difficult to avoid or correct. A variety of physical data from lowland streams in western Washington displays the onset of readily observable aquatic-system degradation at a remarkably consistent level of development, typically about ten percent effective impervious area in a watershed. Even lower levels of urban development cause significant degradation in sensitive water bodies and a reduced, but less well quantified, level of function throughout the system as a whole. Unfortunately, established methods of mitigating the downstream impacts of urban development may have only limited effectiveness. Using continuous hydrologic modeling we have evaluated detention ponds designed by conventional event methodologies, and our findings demonstrate serious deficiencies in actual pond performance when compared to their design goals. Even with best efforts at mitigation, the sheer magnitude of development activities falling below a level of regulatory concern suggests that increased resource loss will invariably accompany development of a watershed. Without a better understanding of the critical processes that lead to degradation, some downstream aquatic-system damage is probably inevitable without limiting the extent of watershed development itself.

1,105 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
M. K. Ridd1
TL;DR: In this paper, a vegetation-impervious surface-soil (V-I-S) model is presented as a possible basis for standardization of urban environment parameters, which may serve as a foundation for characterizing urban/near-urban environments universally, and for comparison of urban morphology within and between cities.
Abstract: Growing interest in urban systems as ecological entities calls for some standards in parameterizing biophysical composition of urban environments. A vegetation-impervious surface-soil ( V-I-S) model is presented as a possible basis for standardization. The V-I-S model may serve as a foundation for characterizing urban/near-urban environments universally, and for comparison of urban morphology within and between cities. Inasmuch as the model may be driven by satellite digital data, it may serve as a global model of urban ecosystem analysis and comparison world-wide. The V-I-S model may prove useful for urban change detection and growth modelling, for environmental impact analysis from urbanization, for energy- and water-related investigations, and for certain dimensions of human ecosystem analysis of the city as well.

989 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023307
2022651
2021211
2020212
2019210
2018247