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Reducing the Effects of North America's Hardened Landscapes
Author(s) -
Schuyler Ridge
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2008.tb09642.x
Subject(s) - rainwater harvesting , streams , surface runoff , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , dirt , watershed , storm , sedimentation , water resource management , sediment , geography , ecology , geology , computer network , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , cartography , machine learning , meteorology , computer science , biology
This article addresses the challenge of excessive sedimentation in the rivers, streams and reservoirs across the United States. Over the next 50 years, it is expected that roughly half of our reservoirs’ storage capacity will be lost to dirt. To confront this ecological and economic challenge, four jurisdictions that make up the majority of the Rivanna watershed in Virginia (which encircles Charlottesville) came together and formed the Rivanna River Basin Commission (RRBC). The commission brought together a group of local water experts to study the problem; they found that the most significant sedimentation appeared to come from instream erosion, due to major changes we have made to our landscape such as the conversion of forestland and farmland to homesites. These homesites have replaced the forest canopy, understory and leaf litter on the forest floor, which easily absorbed rainwater runoff, with rooftops and roads that harden the landscape and accelerate the flow of water runoff toward rivers and streams, thus eroding stream banks and stream beds. The article discusses work underway on minimizing the effects of hardening such as rainwater harvesting, and readjusting storm water management goals.