Urban Stream Deserts as a Consequence of Excess Stream Burial in Urban Watersheds

Napieralski, Jacob; Keeling, Ryan; Dziekan, Mitchell R.; Rhodes, Chad; Kelly, Andrew; Kobberstad, Kelly

doi:10.1080/00045608.2015.1050753

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…While other studies have documented channel losses from land use changes by modeling stream drainages using environmental factors Kaushal, 2008, Roy et al, 2009) or by using existing data sets (Stammler et al, 2013), most do not attribute channel losses to a specific time (but see Napieralski et al, 2015). Here, we document not only the time period and rates at which losses occur (Table 4; Fig.…”

Section: Channel Loss Over Timementioning

confidence: 89%

“…Compared to agriculture, widespread urban land development is a relatively recent change (Foley et al, 2005). The impacts of urbanization on channel loss also tend to be more immediate, with stream channels piped and buried to make way for development and route floodwater (Walsh et al, 2005;Napieralski et al, 2015). However, urbanization will continue to intensify in some areas, which may explain why channel losses can continue to occur after the initial urban land cover designation.…”

Section: Land Use Stagementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Whereas Napieralski et al (2015) suggest stream density is highest during pre-settlement, we found that stream channel density (at least for headwater channels) is actually highest immediately following settlement due to the substantial impacts that initial land use changes such as deforestation and farming have on the landscape (Wolman, 1967). When a landscape is deforested for the first time such as the Cross Timbers from 1889-1910, it exposes the ground to intense erosional processes that can create new 1st-order channels and extend the channel network (Morgan and Morgan, 1977).…”

Section: Channel Loss Over Timementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Studies lacking early settlement history and imagery may not be able to detect such postdeforestation patterns (e.g. Napieralski et al, 2015), emphasizing the importance of locating historical accounts and critical spatial data (e.g. ground surveys) for estimating channel losses.…”

Section: Channel Loss Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, Roy et al (2009) found that 93% of ephemeral and 43% of intermittent streams, respectively, were lost during the development of the Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) metro region. And Napieralski et al (2015) recently found that some watersheds around Detroit (Michigan, USA) have lost all their streams from urbanization. Stammler et al (2013) found a 13% loss of streams in row-crop dominated Ontario, CA.…”

Section: G R a P H I C A L Abstractmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Long-term impacts of land cover changes on stream channel loss

Julian

Wilgruber

Beurs

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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Section: Channel Loss Over Timementioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Land Use Stagementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Channel Loss Over Timementioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Channel Loss Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: G R a P H I C A L Abstractmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Long-term impacts of land cover changes on stream channel loss

Julian

Wilgruber

Beurs

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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Event scale hydrograph responses highlight impacts of widespread stream burial and urban infrastructure failures

Forgrave

Elliott

Bain

2022

Hydrological Processes

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Fast hydrologic responses to storms in urban areas are often attributed to high percentages of impervious surfaces; however, another factor affecting urban storm response is channel burial. No previous studies have documented storm event responses in buried streams despite how common stream burial is in urban areas, with some US cities having over 75% of all headwater channels buried. Understanding event dynamics is particularly important as climate change predictions suggest an increase in frequency of high intensity storms and urban flooding. This study used 15-min precipitation and discharge data over a period of 6.5 years to categorize storm event responses in Nine Mile Run, an urban watershed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where 98% of all channels are buried. Extensive stream burial led to lower watershed retention capacity and resulted in faster storm event responses relative to other urban streams with comparable imperviousness. Additionally, urban water subsidies in the form of sewer overflows, hydrant flushing, or water line breaks can have measurable contributions to flow event responses and result in seemingly unfeasible runoff ratios. This study demonstrates novel watershed runoff responses in systems dominated by subsurface infrastructure, which play a key role in urban water balance.Additionally, this study highlights the fact that stream restoration is not a universal solution to urban stream flashiness because downstream restoration cannot resolve the impacts of upstream burial.

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Impacts of human activities on the structural and functional connectivity of a river network in the Taihu Plain

Deng

Han

2018

Land Degrad Dev

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Human activities are expected to change the hydrological connectivity of river networks. Understanding the impacts of human activities on hydrological connectivity is crucial for river‐basin management. The present study investigated the impacts of river network change and water gate construction on the structural and functional connectivity in the Taihu Plain. We found that the network circuitry, edge‐node ratio, and network connectivity of the arterial river network increased by 8.82%, 3.59%, and 3.57%, respectively, during the 1960s–2010s. In Jiangyin, the indexes decreased by 46.40%, 15.43%, and 15.42%, respectively, throughout the river network during the 1960s–1980s. The indexes of the capillary river network decreased by 61.90%, 24.89%, and 24.88%, respectively, while those of the arterial river network increased by 6.58%, 4.73%, and 2.72%, respectively. We also found that the current longitudinal continuity of the river network was 8.15. In the Sangan River of Zhangjiagang, the migratory continuity of the river network was 0.27, but it was between 0.33 and 1.00 when the current water gates were considered separately, and the decreases of their maximum values under different combinations were greater than those of their minimum values. Moreover, we found that the various water levels of the river network all exhibited increasing trends, and their correlations with functional connectivity were significant and positive. Our study suggests that the negative effects of river network changes on structural connectivity were far greater than the positive effects, and the impacts of water gate construction on functional connectivity had gradient and cumulative effects.

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Urban Stream Deserts as a Consequence of Excess Stream Burial in Urban Watersheds

Cited by 40 publications

References 34 publications

Long-term impacts of land cover changes on stream channel loss

Long-term impacts of land cover changes on stream channel loss

Event scale hydrograph responses highlight impacts of widespread stream burial and urban infrastructure failures

Impacts of human activities on the structural and functional connectivity of a river network in the Taihu Plain

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