Urbanization and the Natural Drainage System -- Impacts, Solutions, and Prognoses

Abstract

This paper describes the causes and effects of urban-induced changes to the hydrology of a drainage basin. To understand the cause of change, the hydrologic behavior of the undisturbed basin first will be explained. The effects of development are then recognizable as the near-inevitable consequences of hydrologic changes. Therefore, effective solutions must not focus simply on the observed results (e.g. armoring an eroded stream bank), but rather on the underlying causes (e.g., replacing the amount of water storage capacity in the soil layer that was lost by paving over the ground surface).