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Over the past century, the United States has become an increasingly urban society. The changes in land use associated with urban development affect flooding in many ways. Removing vegetation and soil, grading the land surface, and constructing drainage networks increase runoff to streams from rainfall and snowmelt. As a result, the peak discharge, volume, and frequency of floods increase in nearby streams. Changes to stream channels during urban development can limit their capacity to convey floodwaters. Roads and buildings constructed in flood-prone areas are exposed to increased flood hazards, including inundation and erosion, as new development continues. Information about streamflow and how it is affected by land use can help communities reduce their current and future vulnerability to floods. HYDROLOGIC EFFECTS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT Streams are fed by runoff from rainfall and snowmelt moving as overland or subsurface flow. Floods occur when large volumes of runoff flow quickly into streams and rivers. The peak discharge of a flood is influenced by many factors, including the intensity and duration of storms and snowmelt, the topography and geology of stream basins, vegetation, and the hydrologic conditions preceding storm and snowmelt events. Land use and other human activities also influence the peak discharge of floods by modifying how rainfall and snowmelt are stored on and run off the land surface into streams. In undeveloped areas such as forests and grasslands, rainfall and snowmelt collect and are stored on vegetation, in the soil column, or in surface depressions. When this storage capacity is filled, runoff flows slowly through soil as subsurface flow. In contrast, urban areas, where much of the land surface is covered by roads and buildings, have less capacity to store rainfall and snowmelt. Construction of roads and buildings often involves removing vegetation, soil, and depressions from the land surface. The permeable soil is replaced by impermeable surfaces such as roads, roofs, parking lots, and sidewalks that store little water, reduce infiltration of water into the ground, and accelerate runoff to ditches and streams. Even in suburban areas, where lawns and other permeable landscaping may be common, rainfall and snowmelt can saturate thin soils and produce overland flow, which runs off quickly. Dense networks of ditches and culverts in cities reduce the distance that runoff must travel overland or through subsurface flow paths to reach streams and rivers. Once water enters a drainage network, it flows faster than either overland or subsurface flow. With less storage capacity for water in urban basins and more rapid runoff, urban streams rise more quickly during storms and have higher peak discharge rates than do rural streams. In addition, the total volume of water discharged during a flood tends to be larger for urban streams than for rural streams. For example, streamflow in Mercer Creek, an urban stream in western Washington, increases earlier and more rapidly, has a higher peak discharge and volume during the storm on February 1, 2000, and decreases more rapidly than in Newaukum Creek, a nearby rural stream. As with any comparison between streams, the differences in streamflow cannot be attributed solely to land use, but may also reflect differences in geology, topography, basin size and shape, and storm patterns. The hydrologic effects of urban development often are greatest in small stream basins where, prior to development, much of the precipitation falling on the basin would have become subsurface flow, recharging aquifers or discharging to the stream network further downstream. Moreover, urban development can completely transform the landscape in a small stream basin, unlike in larger river basins where areas with natural vegetation and soil are likely to be retained. For more info of this topic, check the links below: flood east auckland
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