Effects of urbanization and stormwater control measures on streamflows in the vicinity of Clarksburg, Maryland, USA

Abstract

Abstract:Understanding the efficacy of revised watershed management methods is important to mitigating the impacts of urbanization on streamflow. We evaluated the influence of land use change, primarily as urbanization, and stormwater control measures on the relationship between precipitation and stream discharge over an 8-year period for five catchments near Clarksburg, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. A unit-hydrograph model based on a temporal transfer function was employed to account for and standardize temporal variation in rainfall pattern, and properly apportion rainfall to streamflow at different time lags. From these lagged relationships, we quantified a correction to the precipitation time series to achieve a hydrograph that showed good agreement between precipitation and discharge records. Positive corrections appeared to include precipitation events that were of limited areal extent and therefore not captured by our rain gages. Negative corrections were analysed for potential causal relationships. We used mixed-model statistical techniques to isolate different sources of variance as drivers that mediate the rainfall-runoff dynamic before and after management. Seasonal periodicity mediated rainfall-runoff relationships, and land uses (i.e. agriculture, natural lands, wetlands and stormwater control measures) were statistically significant predictors of precipitation apportionment to stream discharge. Our approach is one way to evaluate actual effectiveness of management efforts in the face of complicating circumstances and could be paired with cost data to understand economic efficiency or life cycle aspects of watershed management. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Urban base flow with low impact development

“…usgs.gov/nwis/uv?01644375). Crystal Rock watershed was 42% impervious in 2013 and was largely urbanized by the 1990s when conventional stormwater management was in use (Rhea et al, 2015). All three watersheds fall within the Piedmont physiographic province and are generally underlain by metamorphic rock (metasiltstone) with granular quartzite of the Marburg Formation (Southworth et al, 2007).…”

“…We used two nearby control watersheds that had little land cover change over the study period for comparison with changes in Tributary 104 (Figure ): Soper Branch (at Hyattstown, Maryland; http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?01643395), a 3.03‐km 2 watershed that was 85% forested with 3% impervious surface cover in 2012, and Crystal Rock, a 3.50‐km 2 suburban watershed draining to the stream gage at Little Seneca Creek Tributary near Germantown, Maryland (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?01644375). Crystal Rock watershed was 42% impervious in 2013 and was largely urbanized by the 1990s when conventional stormwater management was in use (Rhea et al , ). All three watersheds fall within the Piedmont physiographic province and are generally underlain by metamorphic rock (metasiltstone) with granular quartzite of the Marburg Formation (Southworth et al , ).…”

The complexities of urban flood response: Flood frequency analyses for the Charlotte metropolitan region

“…Stormwater detention structures are typically designed to directly and locally impact flashiness of flood response. The impact of a system of storm water infrastructure on flood response over an urban drainage basin is more difficult to assess [ Burns et al ., ; Shuster and Rhea , ; Palla and Gnecco , ; Rhea et al ., ; Smith et al ., ; Jato‐Espino et al ., ]. The Charlotte metropolitan region reflects a complex pattern of storm water development ranging from older urban development with high‐density storm drain networks and little detention storage to newer development in which modern storm water regulations lead to a relatively high density of storm water detention structures.…”

Integrated planning framework for urban stormwater management: one water approach

“…For some property owners, RH system maintenance may either deter them from adopting the system or result in the system's poor performance. To study residents' experiences with RH, Shuster et al (2015) distributed a set of owner-user surveys to residents with rain barrels in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although overall experience with RH was either "good" or "fair," maintenance issues were cited by many of the respondents (Shuster et al 2013).…”

“…As a result, the processes dominating the water cycle in natural drainage basins, such as interception, evapotranspiration, infiltration, and natural surface retention, are reduced, ultimately producing greater volumes of stormwater runoff (Olechnowicz and Weinerowska-Bords 2014). The increase of direct conversion from rainfall to runoff attributed to urbanization can also result in increased runoff speeds, runoff intensities, and decreased lag times, resulting in urban flooding, stream channel scouring and erosion, and increased pollutant transportation to receiving water bodies (Rhea et al 2015;Zhang et al 2017).…”