Surface and Subsurface Hydrology in Urban Residential Areas

摘要

Urbanization, notably land use change linked with the built environment, is notorious for interrupting natural hydrologic processes and posing management challenges for cities. Many urban surfaces (e.g., paved surfaces, roofs, and compacted soil) are less pervious than their natural counterparts (e.g., grassland, woodland, wetlands, and agricultural), resulting in more runoff. Historically, cities have addressed this issue by designing storm water sewer systems that drain runoff to downstream water bodies. Unfortunately, this results in a slew of problems at the other end of the pipeline known as "urban stream syndrome";symptoms include "flashy" flows that raise flood risk and pollution, which harms ecosystem and reduces the public amenity value of streams. Cities desire to solve these issues and are sometimes legally required to do so (US EPA, 2005), but traditional end-of-pipe remedies are expensive and ineffective.