Impacts of urbanisation on hydrological and water quality dynamics, and urban water management: a review

Abstract

As urban space continues to expand to accommodate a growing global population, there remains a real need to quantify and qualify the impacts of urban space on natural processes. The expansion of global urban areas has resulted in marked alterations to natural processes, environmental quality and natural resource consumption. The urban landscape influences infiltration and evapotranspiration, complicating our capacity to quantify their dynamics across a heterogeneous landscape at contrasting scales. Impervious surfaces exacerbate runoff processes, whereas runoff from pervious areas remains uncertain owing to variable infiltration dynamics. Increasingly, the link between the natural hydrological cycle and engineered water cycle has been made, realising the contributions from leaky infrastructure to recharge and runoff rates. Urban landscapes are host to a suite of contaminants that impact on water quality, where novel contaminants continue to pose new challenges to monitoring and treatment regimes. This review seeks to assess the major advances and remaining challenges that remain within the growing field of urban hydrology. ARTICLE HISTORY

Current and historical land use influence soil‐based ecosystem services in an urban landscape

“…). Impervious surfaces may also contribute indirectly to greater P loss by increasing runoff, although quantifying the impact of impervious surfaces on urban hydrology is complex, and the role and importance of permeable areas remains unclear (Booth and Jackson , McGrane ). Potential interactions between built infrastructure and multiple ES is beyond the scope of this work, but remains an area ripe for future research (Svendsen and Northridge ).…”

Dynamics of wet‐season turbidity in relation to precipitation, discharge, and land cover in three urbanizing watersheds, Oregon

“…Natural and anthropogenic alteration of channel flow can influence infiltration, run‐off ratio, and even groundwater recharge, impacting the water cycle at multiple spatial scales (Mainali, Chang, & Chun, ). Furthermore, as natural pervious land covers are converted to impervious surfaces, compaction of soils could happen, which will all lead to a reduction of infiltration (McGrane, ). During intense precipitation events, rainfall run‐off from paved roads, building rooftops, and drainage pipes can affect infiltration rates and the speed at which run‐off enters the flowing channel of the river, and these effects can differ seasonally (Redfern, Macdonald, Kjeldsen, Miller, & Reynard, ).…”

Integrated modeling in urban hydrology: reviewing the role of monitoring technology in overcoming the issue of ‘big data’ requirements

“…1,2 As the urban population continues to grow and spread laterally into previously undeveloped areas, a significant stress is placed on natural resources and environmental quality, having a demonstrable impact on atmospheric and hydrological processes as well as the quality of the surrounding environments. [3][4][5][6] The presence of the urban heat island, alterations to air currents, and increased particulate matter above urban space result in the emergence of microclimates, which impact on input precipitation and evapotranspiration rates. The creation of impervious surfaces alters dominant runoffgenerating processes, flowpaths, and infiltration, which can have a profound effect on the overall catchment water balance.…”

“…4 Sources of urban pollution fall into two main groups: (1) those transported via the sewerage system and (2) those such as roads, building sites, and atmospheric deposition, which arrive in receiving water bodies via stormwater drains and diffuse pathways. 6 The second group poses greater concern to urban hydrologists and land managers as their pathways remain relatively unknown, hence monitoring and predicting these fluxes remain a considerable challenge. 9 With the emergence of new contaminants such as those found in personal care products (PPCPs), pharmaceuticals, and industrial wastes, increasingly advanced monitoring regimes are required to map the spatiotemporal dynamics of their sources and pathways to formulate effective remediation strategies.…”