Changes in surface water distribution in America's boomburbs

• Main Author: Jacob Napieralski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-11-01
• Series: City and Environment Interactions
• Subjects: Urbanization; Stream channel; Surface water; Residential pools; Boomburb
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590252020300052

Boomburbs, or booming suburbs, represent rapid economic growth and urban sprawl, but this process typically requires a substantial redistribution of blue space (surface waters). In this study, the addition, modification, and removal of stream channels and inland surface waters were analyzed for 17 boomburbs, most located within the Sunbelt region of the U.S. Pre-development and present-day stream flowlines and inland lake/pond boundaries were digitized and edited off the earliest available, historical USGS 1: 24,000 scale topographic maps and from the National Hydrography Dataset Plus, High Resolution (NHDPlus, HR), respectively. Additionally, the count and distribution of residential pools provided data on the reallocation of surface water for four boomburbs. A total of 1145 km of stream channels were buried from all boomburbs, including more than 50% loss in several boomburbs, primarily due to centralizing surface runoff through a few major channels and canals. In contrast, lakes and ponds generally increased in areal extent over time (nearly 14 km2 of surface water added to the boomburbs during urbanization), as well as a substantial amount of surface water added for residential pools, including the equivalent of 1 km2 of additional surface water area in just one boomburb. This study illustrates a common practice of simplifying the urban stream network in desert-like conditions, while adding new waterbodies into the urban landscape to support housing development and recreational purposes. These boomburbs are only a fraction of sprawling metropolitan areas in the United States, but the overall demand for water in arid cities is high and requires unsustainable water management practices. Booming suburbs should reduce water reliance, rather than rely on water recycling, to prepare for a changing climate and relentless urbanization.