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Convergent Surface Water Distributions in U.S. Cities |
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| Authors: | M. K. Steele J. B. Heffernan N. Bettez J. Cavender-Bares P. M. Groffman J. M. Grove S. Hall S. E. Hobbie K. Larson J. L. Morse C. Neill K. C. Nelson J. O’Neil-Dunne L. Ogden D. E. Pataki C. Polsky R. Roy Chowdhury |
| Affiliation: | 1. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA 2. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York, USA 3. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 4. USDA Forest Service, Baltimore Field Station, Baltimore, Massachusetts, USA 5. Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA 6. Schools of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and Sustainability, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA 7. Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA 8. The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Minnesota, USA 10. Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 9. Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 11. Spatial Analysis Lab, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA 12. Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University, St. Miami, Florida, USA 13. Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA 14. Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA 15. Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
| Abstract: | Earth’s surface is rapidly urbanizing, resulting in dramatic changes in the abundance, distribution and character of surface water features in urban landscapes. However, the scope and consequences of surface water redistribution at broad spatial scales are not well understood. We hypothesized that urbanization would lead to convergent surface water abundance and distribution: in other words, cities will gain or lose water such that they become more similar to each other than are their surrounding natural landscapes. Using a database of more than 1 million water bodies and 1 million km of streams, we compared the surface water of 100 US cities with their surrounding undeveloped land. We evaluated differences in areal (A WB) and numeric densities (N WB) of water bodies (lakes, wetlands, and so on), the morphological characteristics of water bodies (size), and the density (D C) of surface flow channels (that is, streams and rivers). The variance of urban A WB, N WB, and D C across the 100 MSAs decreased, by 89, 25, and 71%, respectively, compared to undeveloped land. These data show that many cities are surface water poor relative to undeveloped land; however, in drier landscapes urbanization increases the occurrence of surface water. This convergence pattern strengthened with development intensity, such that high intensity urban development had an areal water body density 98% less than undeveloped lands. Urbanization appears to drive the convergence of hydrological features across the US, such that surface water distributions of cities are more similar to each other than to their surrounding landscapes. |
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