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Evidence Base Home » Water Quality » Development with vast amounts of impervious surfaces can lead to runoff water that does not nourish trees evaporate into the air or replenish groundwater supply

Articles in Development with vast amounts of impervious surfaces can lead to runoff water that does not nourish trees, evaporate into the air (thus serving to cool), or replenish groundwater supply..

  • Roads and parking lots can account for more than 60% of impervious surfaces in sprawling areas.

    City of Olympia, Washington. 1995. Impervious surface reduction study: Technical and policy analysis final report. City of Olympia Public Works Dept.

  • 15% of rain on suburban land is lost as runoff, as compared to only 4% in undeveloped grassland.

    Stephenson D. 1994. Comparison of the water balance for an undeveloped and a suburban catchment. Hydrological Sciences Journal 39:295-307.

  • An 18% increase in impervious areas resulted in an estimated 80% increase in annual average rainwater runoff.

    Bhadur B, Harbor J, Engel B, Grove M. 2000. Assessing watershed-scale long-term hydrologic impacts of land-use change using a GIS-NPS model. Environmental Management 26:643-658.

  • Runoff from forested areas is 17 percent less than from developed areas according to the U.S. Forest Service.

    Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources. Division of Forestry. Trees and Forests Improve the Urban Environment. Available at HYPERLINK "http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/forestry/pdfs/Trees_improve_environ.pdf" http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/forestry/pdfs/Trees_improve_environ.pdf.

  • The amount of groundwater recharge lost to runoff in Atlanta is estimated to be 57-133 billion gallons of water annually; in Orlando, 9-22 billion gallons; and in Houston 13-30 billion gallons.

    Otto B, Ransel K, Todd J, Lovaas D, Stutzman H, Bailey J. 2002. Paving our way to water shortages: How sprawl aggravates drought. Washington, DC: American Rivers, NRDC, Smart Growth America.