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URBANIZATION IMPACT ON WATER QUALITY DURING A FLOOD IN SMALL WATERSHEDS 1
Author(s) -
Cherkauer Douglas S.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1975.tb01819.x
Subject(s) - watershed , hydrology (agriculture) , surface runoff , environmental science , urban runoff , water quality , streams , drainage basin , urban stream , tributary , dilution , sodium adsorption ratio , stormwater , irrigation , geology , geography , ecology , computer science , computer network , geotechnical engineering , cartography , machine learning , biology , physics , drip irrigation , thermodynamics
The impact of various urban land uses on water flow and quality in streams is being studied by monitoring small streams in the Milwaukee urban area. This paper compares the responses of an urban watershed and an agricultural watershed to an autumn rainfall of 2.2 cm. Flow from the urban basin showed a substantially greater response to the rain than that from the rural. Dilution, resulting from the greater quantities of surface runoff in the urban watershed, caused lower concentrations of sodium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate and total dissolved solids in the urban stream. The total quantity of these materials removed per unit drainage area of the urban basin was much greater, however. Road salt was still among the dominant dissolved materials in the urban water chemistry seven months after the last road salting. Sodium was apparently being released from adsorption by clays in the urban basin. Suspended sediment concentrations and total loads were higher in the urban stream.