The Physical Impacts of Stormwater Outfall Runoff on Receiving Ecosystems

摘要

IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT URBANIZATION TRANSFORMS landscape surfaces from pervious to impervious, with significant impacts on the hydrologic cycle, including a large increase in stormwater runoff. Less well known, however, are the impacts of stormwater runoff when it leaves the stormwater system and reenters the landscape. The discharge of concentrated stormwater can erode soils, destabilize stream banks, and carve and deepen channels. Solutions are available, but the problems, which can be seen in virtually every type of landscape where significant impervious surfaces or stormwater diversion occur, require much greater attention.