Attenuations in the Hydrologic Cycle Induced by Urbanization in Northern New Castle County, Delaware: Magnitudes and Projections
Date
1974-04-01
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Abstract
The project sought to identify, for three watersheds in northern New Castle County, the magnitude and hydrologic consequences of alterations in surface runoff and streamflow characteristics brought about by urbanization. Inferably, the impervious and less pervious land surface created by urban development increases the overland or surface runoff to streams and rivers.
The increase in surface runoff is necessarily accompanied by a decrease in the amount of water that enters the soil. This decrease in infiltration means that less water is available for the sum of evaporation and percolation to the groundwater table. Depending on the seasonal occurrence of precipitation, either or both of groundwater flows and evaporation may be decreased, though, of course, a good deal of the runoff from impervious surfaces may run onto lawns and gardens so that some of it does in fact infiltrate. The objective of the project was to model the effects of urbanization on the components of the hydrologic cycle mentioned.