Contamination of Urban Surface and Ground Water Resources and Impact on Aquatic Species

Abstract

Since people have been settling on flood plains, they influenced the freshwater resources more or less intensely. Historically, the process of population expansion and industrial development in urban areas has proved disastrous to the quantity and quality of both surface and ground waters (Ellis 1999). Thus, for an appropriate assessment and development of urban areas, the integrated surface and subsurface water systems, including their ecological functioning, are playing an important role (Zaadnoordijk et al. 2004). Stability criteria for both quantity and quality of urban water resources are on the one hand the “natural” discharges and recharges of rivers and groundwater, which are mainly controlled by anthropogenic and climate change effects. On the other hand, diffuse and direct pollutions with innumerable complex chemical compounds determine serious challenges for a sustainable urban water resources management (Lerner 2004). Whereas climate change is primarily influencing the water volumes of the hydrological cycle in all components and its effect has been quantified continuously, the surface and subsurface water pollution and the circulation of these substances represent qualitative parameters, which could have a large impact on the urban water resources again (Zhang et al. 2004).