Abstract
The southern United States is characterized by a humid, subtropical climate and consists of 16 states (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland) and Washington DC. Currently this region is experiencing the largest net population growth in the U.S. Over the last century, the expansion of large urban centers and impervious area in the region has altered the hydrologic cycle. This review synthesizes regional research that shows how watershed hydrology, groundwater recharge, stream geomorphology, climate, biogeochemistry, and stream ecology have been affected by urbanization and the expansion of watershed impervious area.
Highlights
Across the globe human populations are becoming increasingly urban, with approximately fifty percent of the world’s population currently residing in urban areas [1]
It is frequently presumed that urbanization reduces groundwater recharge because increasing impervious surface area reduces infiltration and increases stormwater runoff [54]
Research is often limited to inflow-outflow monitoring at individual best management practices (BMPs) sites, and more work needs to be done to understand the landscape, climatic, and engineering factors controlling groundwater recharge from stormwater BMPs at scales from the individual BMP to the metropolitan area
Summary
Across the globe human populations are becoming increasingly urban, with approximately fifty percent of the world’s population currently residing in urban areas [1]. Over the last two centuries, urbanization has caused changes in watershed hydrology that include declines in the natural filtering capacity of river systems (e.g., channelization of headwater streams, loss of floodplains and wetlands) and regulation of flows due to the construction of dams and impoundments. In the southern U.S these efforts can guide future research and watershed management efforts in this rapidly urbanizing region The purpose of this manuscript is to summarize and synthesize the current published literature on effects of urbanization on watershed hydrology and in-stream processes in the southern U.S Our review aims to answer the following questions: What are the predominant physical, chemical, and ecological effects that urbanization has on southern streams and their watersheds?. What are the challenges and opportunities that exist for improving the understanding of the effects of urbanization on southern streams and their watersheds?
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