Regional Blue and Green Water Balances and Use by Selected Crops in the U.S.

The availability of freshwater is a prerequisite for municipal development and agricultural production, especially in the arid and semiarid portions of the western United States (U.S.). Agriculture is the leading user of water in the U.S. Agricultural water use can be partitioned into green (derived from rainfall) and blue water (irrigation). Blue water can be further subdivided by source. In this research, we develop a hydrologic balance by 8‐Digit Hydrologic Unit Code using a combination of Soil and Water Assessment Tool simulations and available human water use estimates. These data are used to partition agricultural groundwater usage by sustainability and surface water usage by local source or importation. These predictions coupled with reported agricultural yield data are used to predict the virtual water contained in each ton of corn, wheat, sorghum, and soybeans produced and its source. We estimate that these four crops consume 480 km³ of green water annually and 23 km³ of blue water, 12 km³ of which is from groundwater withdrawal. Regional trends in blue water use from groundwater depletion highlight heavy usage in the High Plains, and small pockets throughout the western U.S. This information is presented to inform water resources debate by estimating the cost of agricultural production in terms of water regionally. This research illustrates the variable water content of the crops we consume and export, and the source of that water.     

Identification of Swamp Deer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cervus duvauceli duvauceli</Emphasis> Cuvier) Potential Habitat in Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve,Uttarakhand, India Using Multi-Criteria Analysis

The present study aims to identify the potential habitat for swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli duvauceli Cuvier) in Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve in the Uttarakhand province of India using multi-criteria analysis. The study area represents one of the last remnant habitats of the flagship species, the swamp deer in Uttarakhand, which is considered as vulnerable. The study showed that only 6.08% of the study area (225 km²) was highly suitable to suitable for the swamp deer. An area of 135.52 km² (60.23%) turned out to be moderately suitable. Within the officially designated Conservation Reserve (area 37.84 km²), 10.91% (4.13 km²) area was found highly suitable to suitable, while 74.19% (28.07 km²) happens to be moderately suitable. Only 14 km² area, which was found as suitable habitat for swamp deer falls short of the space required by a population of 134 animals. The problem could be mitigated if the agricultural land (2.47 km²) adjacent to the Jhilmil Jheel is brought under the Reserve management. This would provide additional area to meet the fodder requirement. The study brings out a particularly grim situation with limited options for conservation and management of the swamp deer in the Indo-Gangetic plains. It also emphasizes the role of geospatial techniques in quick appraisal of habitat attributes and identification of potential sites for protected areas.     

Spatial Convergence in Major Dissolved Ion Concentrations and Implications of Headwater Mining for Downstream Water Quality

Spatial patterns in major dissolved solute concentrations were examined to better understand impact of surface coal mining in headwaters on downstream water chemistry. Sixty sites were sampled seasonally from 2012 to 2014 in an eastern Kentucky watershed. Watershed areas (WA) ranged from 1.6 to 400.5 km² and were mostly forested (58%–95%), but some drained as much as 31% surface mining. Measures of total dissolved solutes and most component ions were positively correlated with mining. Analytes showed strong convergent spatial patterns with high variability in headwaters (<15 km² WA) that stabilized downstream (WA > 75 km²), indicating hydrologic mixing primarily controls downstream values. Mean headwater solute concentrations were a good predictor of downstream values, with % differences ranging from 0.55% (Na⁺) to 28.78% (Mg²⁺). In a mined scenario where all headwaters had impacts, downstream solute concentrations roughly doubled. Alternatively, if mining impacts to headwaters were minimized, downstream solute concentrations better approximated the 300 μS/cm conductivity criterion deemed protective of aquatic life. Temporal variability also had convergent spatial patterns and mined streams were less variable due to unnaturally stable hydrology. The highly conserved nature of dissolved solutes from mining activities and lack of viable treatment options suggest forested, unmined watersheds would provide dilution that would be protective of downstream aquatic life.     

Landscape Planning for Agricultural Non–Point Source Pollution Reduction. II. Balancing Watershed Size,Number of Watersheds,and Implementation Effort

Agricultural non–point source (NPS) pollution poses a severe threat to water quality and aquatic ecosystems. In response, tremendous efforts have been directed toward reducing these pollution inputs by implementing agricultural conservation practices. Although conservation practices reduce pollution inputs from individual fields, scaling pollution control benefits up to the watershed level (i.e., improvements in stream water quality) has been a difficult challenge. This difficulty highlights the need for NPS reduction programs that focus efforts within target watersheds and at specific locations within target watersheds, with the ultimate goal of improving stream water quality. Fundamental program design features for NPS control programs—i.e., number of watersheds in the program, total watershed area, and level of effort expended within watersheds—have not been considered in any sort of formal analysis. Here, we present an optimization model that explores the programmatic and environmental trade-offs between these design choices. Across a series of annual program budgets ranging from $2 to $200 million, the optimal number of watersheds ranged from 3 to 27; optimal watershed area ranged from 29 to 214 km²; and optimal expenditure ranged from $21,000 to $35,000/km². The optimal program configuration was highly dependent on total program budget. Based on our general findings, we delineated hydrologically complete and spatially independent watersheds ranging in area from 20 to 100 km². These watersheds are designed to serve as implementation units for a targeted NPS pollution control program currently being developed in Wisconsin.     

Long‐Term High‐Resolution Radar Rainfall Fields for Urban Hydrology

Accurate records of high‐resolution rainfall fields are essential in urban hydrology, and are lacking in many areas. We develop a high‐resolution (15 min, 1 km²) radar rainfall data set for Charlotte, North Carolina during the 2001‐2010 period using the Hydro‐NEXRAD system with radar reflectivity from the National Weather Service Weather Surveillance Radar 1988 Doppler weather radar located in Greer, South Carolina. A dense network of 71 rain gages is used for estimating and correcting radar rainfall biases. Radar rainfall estimates with daily mean field bias (MFB) correction accurately capture the spatial and temporal structure of extreme rainfall, but bias correction at finer timescales can improve cold‐season and tropical cyclone rainfall estimates. Approximately 25 rain gages are sufficient to estimate daily MFB over an area of at least 2,500 km², suggesting that robust bias correction is feasible in many urban areas. Conditional (rain‐rate dependent) bias can be removed, but at the expense of other performance criteria such as mean square error. Hydro‐NEXRAD radar rainfall estimates are also compared with the coarser resolution (hourly, 16 km²) Stage IV operational rainfall product. Stage IV is adequate for flood water balance studies but is insufficient for applications such as urban flood modeling, in which the temporal and spatial scales of relevant hydrologic processes are short. We recommend the increased use of high‐resolution radar rainfall fields in urban hydrology.     

Estimation of Daily Streamflow of Southeastern Coastal Plain Watersheds by Combining Estimated Magnitude and Sequence

Commonly used methods to predict streamflow at ungauged watersheds implicitly predict streamflow magnitude and temporal sequence concurrently. An alternative approach that has not been fully explored is the conceptualization of streamflow as a composite of two separable components of magnitude and sequence, where each component is estimated separately and then combined. Magnitude is modeled using the flow duration curve (FDC), whereas sequence is modeled by transferring streamflow sequence of gauged watershed(s). This study tests the applicability of the approach on watersheds ranging in size from about 25‐7,226 km² in Southeastern Coastal Plain (U.S.) with substantial surface storage of wetlands. A 19‐point regionalized FDC is developed to estimate streamflow magnitude using the three most selected variables (drainage area, hydrologic soil index, and maximum 24‐h precipitation with a recurrence interval of 100 years) by a greedy‐heuristic search process. The results of validation on four watersheds (Trent River, North Carolina: 02092500; Satilla River, Georgia: 02226500; Black River, South Carolina: 02136000; and Coosawhatchie River, South Carolina: 02176500) yielded Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency values of 0.86‐0.98 for the predicted magnitude and 0.09‐0.84 for the predicted daily streamflow over a simulation period of 1960‐2010. The prediction accuracy of the method on two headwater watersheds at Santee Experimental Forest in coastal South Carolina was weak, but comparable to simulations by MIKE‐SHE.     

Performance of the National Water Model in Iowa Using Independent Observations

This paper explores the performance of the analysis‐and‐assimilation configuration of the National Water Model (NWM) v1.0 in Iowa. The NWM assimilates streamflow observations from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which increases the performance but also limits the available data for model evaluation. In this study, Iowa Flood Center Bridge Sensors (IFCBS) data provided an independent nonassimilated dataset for evaluation analyses. The authors compared NWM outputs for the period between May 2016 and April 2017, with two datasets: USGS streamflow and velocity observations; Stage and streamflow data from IFCBS. The distribution of Spearman rank correlation (r_s), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (E), and Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) provided quantification of model performance. We found the performance was linked with the spatial scale of the basins. Analysis at USGS gauges showed the strongest performance in large (>10,000 km²) basins (r_s = 0.9, E = 0.9, KGE = 0.8), with some decrease at small (<1,000 km²) basins (r_s = 0.6, E = ?0.25, KGE = ?0.2). Analysis with independent IFCBS observations was used to report performance at large basins (r_s = 0.6, KGE = 0.1) and small basins (r_s = 0.2, KGE = ?0.4). Data assimilation improves simulations at downstream basins. We found differences in the characterization of the model and observed data flow velocity distributions. The authors recommend checking the connection of USGS gauges and NHDPlus reaches for selected locations where performance is weak.     

Rainwater harvesting planning using geospatial techniques and multicriteria decision analysis

Growing water scarcity and global climate change call for more efficient alternatives of water conservation; rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the most promising alternative among others. However, the assessment of RWH potential and the selection of suitable sites for RWH structures are very challenging for the water managers, especially on larger scales. This study addresses this challenge by presenting a fairly robust methodology for evaluating RWH potential and identifying sites/zones for different RWH structures using geospatial and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a case study. The remote sensing data and conventional field data were used to prepare desired thematic layers using ArcGIS© software. Distributed Curve Number method was used to calculate event-based runoffs, based on which annual runoff potential and runoff coefficient maps were generated in the GIS (geographic information system) environment. Thematic layers such as slope, drainage density, and runoff coefficient and their features were assigned suitable weights and then they were integrated in a GIS to generate a RWH potential map of the study area. Zones suitable for different RWH structures were also identified, together with suitable sites for constructing recharge structures (check dams and percolation tanks along the streams). It was found that the study area can be classified into three RWH potential zones: (a) ‘good’ (241 km²), (b) ‘moderate’ (476 km²), and (c) ‘poor’ (287 km²). About 3% of the study area (30 km²) is suitable for constructing farm ponds, while percolation tanks (on the ground) can be constructed in about 2.7% of the area (27 km²). Of the 83 sites identified for the recharge structures, 32 recharge sites are specially suited to the inhabitants because of their proximity. It is concluded that the integrated geospatial and MCDA techniques offer a useful and powerful tool for the planning of rainwater harvesting at a basin or sub-basin scale.     

Habitat evaluation of wild Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) and conservation priority setting in north-eastern China

The Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is one of the world’s most endangered species. Recently, habitat fragmentation, food scarcity and human hunting have drastically reduced the population size and distribution areas of Amur tigers in the wild, leaving them on the verge of extinction. Presently, they are only found in the north-eastern part of China. In this study, we developed a reference framework using methods and technologies of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), GAP analysis and Natural Break (Jenks) classification to evaluate the habitat and to set the conservation priorities for Amur tigers in eastern areas of Heilongjiang and Jilin Provinces of northeast China. We proposed a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) incorporating 7 factors covering natural conditions and human disturbance. Based on the HSI values, the suitability was classified into five levels from the most to not suitable. Finally, according to results of GAP analysis, we identified six conservation priorities and designed a conservation landscape incorporating four new nature reserves, enlarging two existing ones, and creating four linkages for Amur tigers in northeast China. The case study showed that the core habitats (the most suitable and highly suitable habitats) identified for Amur tigers covered 35,547 km², accounting for approximately 26.71% of the total study area (1,33,093 km²). However, existing nature reserves protected only (7124 km² or) 20.04% of the identified core habitats. Thus, enlargement of current reserves is necessary and urgent for the tiger’s conservation and restoration. Moreover, the establishment of wildlife corridors linking core habitats will provide an efficient reserve network for tiger conservation to maintain the evolutionary potential of Amur tigers facing environmental changes.     

Small farm ponds: overlooked features with important impacts on watershed sediment transport

Despite their size, small farm ponds are important features in many landscapes. Yet hydrographical databases often fail to capture these ponds, and their impacts on watershed processes remain unclear. For a 230‐km² portion of central Texas, United States (U.S.), we created a historical inventory of ponds and quantified the accuracy of automated detection methods under varying drought conditions. In addition, we documented pond dredging/enlargement events and identified sites that had been abandoned. We also analyzed sediment cores from downstream reservoirs to track changes in watershed sediment transport. Over 75 years, pond densities increased more than 350% — to among the highest documented in the U.S. — and the ability of automated methods to detect these ponds was highly dependent on drought severity (R² = 0.96). Approximately 5% of ponds present in the 1950s were no longer present in 2012, while 33% were dredged between 1937 and 2012. Downstream reservoir sedimentation has decreased by an average of 55% as ponds have increased in number. These findings suggest that small ponds and the maintenance of trapping efficiency have large‐scale impacts on sediment dynamics. Accurately accounting for these storage effects is vital to water resource planning efforts.     

GIS‐Based Stream Classification in a Mountain Watershed for Jurisdictional Evaluation

This study analyzed stream characteristics in a mountain watershed in southwestern Colorado and developed a three‐level hierarchical classification scheme using national datasets to demonstrate jurisdictional evaluation as “waters of the United States (U.S.)” under U.S. Clean Water Act Section 404 at the watershed scale. The National Hydrography Dataset and USGS StreamStats were used with field observations to classify streams in the 53 km² Cement Creek Watershed based on flow duration (Level 1), stream order (Level 2), and other biophysical metrics (Level 3). Kruskal‐Wallis tests and discriminant analysis showed significant differences among Level 2 classes. Level 3 classification used cluster analysis for stream length, distance to the downstream traditional navigable water (TNW), and the ratio of mean annual flow from the source stream to the TNW. Results showed all perennial and intermittent streams are jurisdictional relatively permanent waters (RPWs), which include over a third of all streams, 64% are intermittent or ephemeral, and almost half are ephemeral first order. All ephemeral reaches are non‐RPWs requiring significant nexus evaluation to determine jurisdiction. These ephemeral first‐order streams can contribute 5% of the annual flow to the TNW at the confluence, while the Cement Creek main stem contributes 21% of the TNW flow. The study demonstrated that the classification provides key biophysical and regulatory information to aid jurisdictional evaluations in mountain watersheds.     

Use of SWAT to Estimate Spatial Scaling of Phosphorus Export Coefficients and Load Reductions Due to Agricultural BMPS

Phosphorus export coefficients (kg/ha/yr) from selected land covers, also called phosphorus yields, tend to get smaller as contributing areas get larger because some of the phosphorus mobilized on local fields gets trapped during transport to regional watershed outlets. Phosphorus traps include floodplains, wetlands, and lakes, which can then become impaired by eutrophication. The Sunrise River watershed in east central Minnesota, United States, has numerous lakes impaired by excess phosphorus. The Sunrise is tributary to the St. Croix River, whose much larger watershed is terminated by Lake St. Croix, also impaired by excess phosphorus. To support management of these impairments at both local and regional scales, a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model of the Sunrise watershed was constructed to estimate load reductions due to selected best management practices (BMPs) and to determine how phosphorus export coefficients scaled with contributing area. In this study, agricultural BMPs, including vegetated filter strips, grassed waterways, and reduction of soil‐phosphorus concentrations reduced phosphorus loads by 4‐20%, with similar percentage reductions at field and watershed spatial scales. Phosphorus export coefficients from cropland in rotation with corn, soybeans, and alfalfa decreased as a negative power function of contributing area, from an average of 2.12 kg/ha/yr at the upland field scale (~0.6 km²) to 0.63 kg/ha/yr at the major river basin scale (20,000 km²). Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Effects of Land Use and Sample Location on Nitrate‐Stream Flow Hysteresis Descriptors during Storm Events

The U.S. Geological Survey's New Jersey and Iowa Water Science Centers deployed ultraviolet‐visible spectrophotometric sensors at water‐quality monitoring sites on the Passaic and Pompton Rivers at Two Bridges, New Jersey, on Toms River at Toms River, New Jersey, and on the North Raccoon River near Jefferson, Iowa to continuously measure in‐stream nitrate plus nitrite as nitrogen (NO₃ + NO₂) concentrations in conjunction with continuous stream flow measurements. Statistical analysis of NO₃ + NO₂ vs. stream discharge during storm events found statistically significant links between land use types and sampling site with the normalized area and rotational direction of NO₃ + NO₂‐stream discharge (N‐Q) hysteresis patterns. Statistically significant relations were also found between the normalized area of a hysteresis pattern and several flow parameters as well as the normalized area adjusted for rotational direction and minimum NO₃ + NO₂ concentrations. The mean normalized hysteresis area for forested land use was smaller than that of urban and agricultural land uses. The hysteresis rotational direction of the agricultural land use was opposite of that of the urban and undeveloped land uses. An r² of 0.81 for the relation between the minimum normalized NO₃ + NO₂ concentration during a storm vs. the normalized NO₃ + NO₂ concentration at peak flow suggested that dilution was the dominant process controlling NO₃ + NO₂ concentrations over the course of most storm events.     

A Comparison of Three Federal Datasets for Thermoelectric Water Withdrawals in the United States for 2010

Historically, thermoelectric water withdrawal has been estimated by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) water‐use compilations. Recently, the USGS developed models for estimating withdrawal at thermoelectric plants to provide estimates independent from plant operator‐reported withdrawal data. This article compares three federal datasets of thermoelectric withdrawals for the United States in 2010: one based on the USGS water‐use compilation, another based on EIA data, and the third based on USGS model‐estimated data. The withdrawal data varied widely. Many plants had three different withdrawal values, and for approximately 54% of the plants the largest withdrawal value was twice the smallest, or larger. The causes of discrepancies among withdrawal estimates included definitional differences, definitional noise, and various nondefinitional causes. The uncertainty in national totals can be characterized by the range among the three datasets, from 5,640 m³/s (129 billion gallons per day [bgd]) to 6,954 m³/s (158 bgd), or by the aggregate difference between the smallest and largest values at each plant, from 4,014 m³/s (92 bgd) to 8,590 m³/s (196 bgd). When used to assess the accuracy of reported values, the USGS model estimates identify plants that need to be reviewed.     

NUTRIENT LOADS TO WISCONSIN LAKES: PART I. NITROGEN AND PHOSPHORUS EXPORT COEFFICIENTS1

ABSTRACT: Export coefficients (kg/km²/yr) for dissolved ortho-phosphate (OP), total phosphorus (TP), total inorganic nitrogen (TIN), and total nitrogen (TN) were derived for watersheds in Wisconsin using data bases available for 17 basins from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — National Eutrophication Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Three general land use categories, representative of most regions in Wisconsin, were established: forest, mixed, and agricultural. Data for the 17 basins indicated greater exports of OP. TP, TIN, and TN as the percentage of forest decreased and agriculture increased. These region-specific coefficients are compared to the values reported in the literature representing much broader areas of the U.S.     

Efficiency of a protected-area network in a Mediterranean region: a multispecies assessment with raptors

Three different systems of designating protected areas in a Mediterranean region in southeastern Spain were studied, referring to their effectiveness and efficiency for protecting both the breeding territories and the suitable habitat of a set of ten raptor species. Taking into consideration the varying degrees of endangerment of these species, a map of multispecies conservation values was also drawn up and superimposed on the three protected-area systems studied. In order to compare the levels of protection afforded by the three systems, we considered two indices that measured their relative effectiveness and efficiency. The effectiveness estimated the proportion of territories or optimal habitat protected by the networks while efficiency implicitly considered the area of each system (percentage of breeding territories or optimal habitat protected per 1% of land protected). Overall, our results showed that the most efficient system was that formed by the set of regional parks and reserves (17 protected breeding territories per 100 km²), although, given its small total area, it was by far the least effective (only protecting the 21% of the breeding territories of all species and 17% of the area of high conservation value). The systems formed by the Special Protection Areas (designated under the EU “Birds Directive”) and by the Special Conservation Areas (designated under the EU “Habitats Directive”) notably increased the percentages of protected territories of all species (61%) and area of high conservation value (57%), but their efficiency was not as high as expected in most cases. The overall level of protection was high for all species except for the Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), an endangered falcon that inhabits pseudo-steppe and traditional agricultural habitats, which are clearly underrepresented in the protected-area network of the study region.     

AutoRAPID: A Model for Prompt Streamflow Estimation and Flood Inundation Mapping over Regional to Continental Extents

This article couples two existing models to quickly generate flow and flood‐inundation estimates at high resolutions over large spatial extents for use in emergency response situations. Input data are gridded runoff values from a climate model, which are used by the Routing Application for Parallel computatIon of Discharge (RAPID) model to simulate flow rates within a vector river network. Peak flows in each river reach are then supplied to the AutoRoute model, which produces raster flood inundation maps. The coupled tool (AutoRAPID) is tested for the June 2008 floods in the Midwest and the April‐June 2011 floods in the Mississippi Delta. RAPID was implemented from 2005 to 2014 for the entire Mississippi River Basin (1.2 million river reaches) in approximately 45 min. Discretizing a 230,000‐km² area in the Midwest and a 109,500‐km² area in the Mississippi Delta into thirty‐nine 1° by 1° tiles, AutoRoute simulated a high‐resolution (~10 m) flood inundation map in 20 min for each tile. The hydrographs simulated by RAPID are found to perform better in reaches without influences from unrepresented dams and without backwater effects. Flood inundation maps using the RAPID peak flows vary in accuracy with F‐statistic values between 38.1 and 90.9%. Better performance is observed in regions with more accurate peak flows from RAPID and moderate to high topographic relief.     

Increasing development in the surroundings of U.S. National Park Service holdings jeopardizes park effectiveness

Protected areas are cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, but they are in danger of becoming islands in a sea of human dominated landscapes. Our question was if protected areas may even foster development in their surroundings because they provide amenities that attract development, thus causing the isolation of the ecosystems they were designed to protect. Our study analyzed historic aerial photographs and topographical maps to reconstruct road development and building growth within and around Indiana Dunes and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores in the U.S. Great Lakes region from 1938 to 2005, and to estimate the effects of park creation in 1966 on changes in landscape patterns. Historic U.S. census housing density data were used as a baseline to compare observed changes to. Our results showed that park establishment was effective in reducing and stopping the fragmenting impact of development within park boundaries. However, increased amenity levels following park establishment led to enhanced development in the surroundings of both parks. In the extreme case of Indiana Dunes, building density outside the park increased from 45 to 200 buildings/km² and road density almost doubled from 3.6 to 6.6 km/km² from 1938 to 2005. Development rates of change were much higher than in the broader landscape, particularly after park establishment. The potential amenity effect was up to 9500 new buildings in the 3.2-km zone around Indiana Dunes between 1966 and 2005. For Pictured Rocks the absolute effect was smaller but up to 70% of the observed building growth was potentially due to amenity effects. Our findings highlight the need for conservation planning at broader scales, incorporating areas beyond the boundaries of protected areas.     

Identifying Urban Features from LiDAR for a High‐Resolution Urban Hydrologic Model

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), is relatively inexpensive, provides high spatial resolution sampling at great accuracy, and can be used to generate surface terrain and land cover datasets for urban areas. These datasets are used to develop high‐resolution hydrologic models necessary to resolve complex drainage networks in urban areas. This work develops a five‐step algorithm to generate indicator fields for tree canopies, buildings, and artificial structures using Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS‐GIS), and a common computing language, Matrix Laboratory. The 54 km² study area in Parker, Colorado consists of twenty‐four 1,500 × 1,500 m LiDAR subsets at 1 m resolution with varying degrees of urbanization. The algorithm correctly identifies 96% of the artificial structures within the study area; however, application success is dependent upon urban extent. Urban land use fractions below 0.2 experienced an increase in falsely identified building locations. ParFlow, a three‐dimensional, grid‐based hydrological model, uses these building and artificial structure indicator fields and digital elevation model for a hydrologic simulation. The simulation successfully develops the complex drainage network and simulates overland flow on the impervious surfaces (i.e., along the gutters and off rooftops) made possible through this spatial analysis process.