As land is developed and the amount of hard surfaces, like roofs,
parking lots, and streets increases, the way water moves through the landscape
changes.
Undeveloped Landscape Hydrology
Suburban Landscape Hydrology
Urban Landscape Hydrology
In urban areas like the Marcy-Holmes
Neighborhood, hard surfaces like roofs and parking lots, prevent rainfall
from soaking into the ground where it falls.
As a result, infiltration and evaporation decrease, while runoff
increases.
Rainfall that falls on hard surfaces like roofs and parking lots,
is often piped directly into streams and lakes.
Rainfall that travels to streams and lakes through pipes reaches
the streams and lakes much more quickly than it would naturally traveling
underground.
Because of these changes, surface water bodies receive larger quantities
of runoff than before development and receive runoff more quickly spread
over a shorter period of time than before development. These changes result
in:
increased flooding
lowered groundwater table
dramatic bounce in lake and stream levels following rain events
