Adaptation Bridges and Barriers in Water Planning and Management: Insight from Recent Extreme Droughts in Arizona and Georgia1

Abstract: It is critical to understand the ability of water management to prepare for and respond to the likely increasing duration, frequency, and intensity of droughts brought about by climate variability and change. This article evaluates this ability, or adaptive capacity, within large urban community water systems (CWSs) in Arizona and Georgia. It analyzes interview data on the bridges and barriers to adapting water management approaches in relation to extreme droughts over the past decade. This study not only finds levers for building adaptive capacity that are unique to each state but also identifies several unifying themes that cut across both cases. The interviews also show that a particular bridge or barrier, such as state regulation, is not universally beneficial or detrimental for building adaptive capacity within each state. Such knowledge is useful for improving water and drought management and for understanding how CWSs might prepare for future climate variability and change by removing the barriers and bolstering the bridges in efforts to build adaptive capacity.     

Using the land transformation model to forecast vacant land

Growing or shrinking cities can experience increases in vacant land. As urban populations and boundaries fluctuate, holes can open in once tight urban areas. Many cities chase growth-oriented approaches to dealing with vacancies. It is critical to understand land-use alteration to accurately predict transformations of physical change in order to make better informed decisions about this phenomenon. This research utilizes the land transformation model (LTM), an artificial neural networking mechanism in Geographic Information Systems, to forecast vacant land. Variable influence on vacant land prediction and accuracy of the LTM is assessed by comparing input factors and patterns, using time-series data from 1990 to 2010 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Results indicate that the LTM can be useful in simulating vacant land-use changes but more precise mechanisms are necessary to increase accuracy. This will allow for more proactive decisions to better regulate the process of urban decline and regeneration.     

Virtual Garden Computer Program for use in Exploring the Elements of Biodiversity People Want in Cities

Urban ecology is emerging as an integrative science that explores the interactions of people and biodiversity in cities. Interdisciplinary research requires the creation of new tools that allow the investigation of relations between people and biodiversity. It has been established that access to green spaces or nature benefits city dwellers, but the role of species diversity in providing psychological benefits remains poorly studied. We developed a user‐friendly 3‐dimensional computer program (Virtual Garden [ www.tinyurl.com/3DVirtualGarden ]) that allows people to design their own public or private green spaces with 95 biotic and abiotic features. Virtual Garden allows researchers to explore what elements of biodiversity people would like to have in their nearby green spaces while accounting for other functions that people value in urban green spaces. In 2011, 732 participants used our Virtual Garden program to design their ideal small public garden. On average gardens contained 5 different animals, 8 flowers, and 5 woody plant species. Although the mathematical distribution of flower and woody plant richness (i.e., number of species per garden) appeared to be similar to what would be expected by random selection of features, 30% of participants did not place any animal species in their gardens. Among those who placed animals in their gardens, 94% selected colorful species (e.g., ladybug [Coccinella septempunctata], Great Tit [Parus major], and goldfish), 53% selected herptiles or large mammals, and 67% selected non‐native species. Older participants with a higher level of education and participants with a greater concern for nature designed gardens with relatively higher species richness and more native species. If cities are to be planned for the mutual benefit of people and biodiversity and to provide people meaningful experiences with urban nature, it is important to investigate people's relations with biodiversity further. Virtual Garden offers a standardized tool with which to explore these relations in different environments, cultures, and countries. It can also be used by stakeholders (e.g., city planners) to consider people's opinions of local design. Programa de Computadora de Jardín Virtual para Uso en la Exploración de los Elementos de Biodiversidad que la Gente Desea en las Ciudades     

成都市城市效应对大气环境的影响

本文利用1979—1981年气象资料用统计方法分析了城市热岛效应对主要气象要素时空分布特征的影响(例如:温度、无霜期、风速、日照、云量、降水量、雷暴、雨日、雾日和土壤温度),结果表明:城市效应对市区大气环境的影响是明显的。     

CHANGING RAINFALL-RUNOFF RELATIONSHIPS IN THE URBANIZING PEACHTREE CREEK WATERSHED,ATLANTA, GEORGIA1

ABSTRACT: Peachtree Creek is a gaged watershed that has experienced a substantial increase in urbanization. The relationships of runoff to rainfall were studied for total annual flows, low flows, and peak flows. For each type of flow the relationship in the later, more urbanized period was compared to that in the earlier, less urbanized period. An increase in total runoff in wet years was observed as urbanization increased, but a decrease occurred during dry years. For low flows a similar decrease of runoff in dry years was found. An increase in peak runoff was observed over most of the range of precipitation. Increasing peak flows and declining low flows can be adequately explained by urban hydrologic theoryshed. which focuses on the effects of urban impervious surfaces upon direct runoff and infiltration. However, a decline of total runoff in dry years can be explained only by taking into account evapotranspiration as well. The concept of advectively assisted urban evapotranspiration, previously discovered by climatologists, is needed to explain such a loss of total runoff. Urban hydrologic theory must take into account vegetation and evapotranspiration, as well as impervious surfaces and their direct runoff, to explain the magnitude of total annual flows and low flows. Urban stormwater management should address the restoration of low flows, as well as the control of floods.     

POLLUTANT LOADS IN URBAN STORMWATER: REVIEW OF METHODS FOR PLANNING-LEVEL ESTIMATES1

ABSTRACT: A review of methods for planning-level estimates of pollutant loads in urban stormwater focuses on transfer of charac. teristic runoff quality data to unmonitored sites, runoff monitoring, and simulation models. Load estimation by transfer of runoff quality data is the least expensive, but the accuracy of estimates is unknown. Runoff monitoring methods provide best estimates of existing loads, but cannot be used to predict load changes resulting from runoff controls, or other changes of the urban system. Simulation models require extensive calibration for reliable application. Models with optional formulations of pollutant build up, washoff, and transport can be better calibrated and the selection of options should be based on a statistical analysis of calibration data. Calibrated simulation models can be used for evaluation of control alternatives.     

SUSPENDED SEDIMENT AND METALS REMOVAL FROM URBAN RUNOFF BY A SMALL LAKE1

ABSTRACT: A small lake in the Chicago Metropolitan Area was from 91 to 95 percent efficient in removing suspended sediment and from 76 to 94 percent efficient in removing copper, iron, lead, and zinc from urban runoff. Sediments accumulated in the lake in the form of an organic-rich mud at an average rate of 20 millimeters per year; this reduced lake storage and covered potential habitat for aquatic organisms. Copper, lead, and zinc concentrations were closely associated with suspended-sediment concentrations and with silt- and clay-sized fractions of lake sediment. Although concentrations of mercury and cadmium were near detection limits in runoff, measurable concentrations of these metals accumulated in the lake sediments.     

RUNOFF PREDICTION USING REMOTE SENSING IMAGERY1

ABSTRACT: Percent imperviousness is an important parameter in modeling the urban rainfall-runoff process and is usually determined using manual methods such as random sampling or conventional accounting methods. In this study two computerized methods are used for estimating the percent imperviousness of urban watersheds using high altitude remote sensing imagery. These methods include the Laser Image Processing Scanner and the Video-Tape Camera system. Imperviousness is directly estimated in the former method while in the latter it is estimated as a function of the statistics of the responses on emulsions of the imagery. The percent imperviousness computed by utilizing remote sensing imagery was used with the conceptual models of rainfall-runoff models. The models were applied to four urban watersheds and the runoff prediction results indicate that imperviousness determined by using remote sensing imagery was as accurate as that obtained by the manual methods, and that the use of remote sensing imagery requires significantly less time and money.     

BSENEFICIAL USE POTENTIAL OF DRY WEATHER FLOW IN THE LAS VEGAS VALLEY,NEVADA1

ABSTRACT: Historically ephemeral washes in the Las Vegas Valley have become perennial streams in the urbanized area, and the primary source of these perennial flows appears to be the overirrigation of ornamental landscaping and turf. Overirrigation produces direct runoff to the washes via the streets and results in high ground water levels in some areas. Elevated ground water levels result in discharge to the washes because of changes in the natural balance of the hydrologic system and construction site and foundation dewatering. In recognition of the resource potential of these flows within the Las Vegas Valley, of the potential for dry weather flows to convey pollutants from the Valley to Lake Mead, and of the need to characterize dry weather flows under the stormwater discharge permit program, the quantity and quality of dry weather flow in Flamingo Wash was investigated during the period September 1990 through May 1993. This paper focuses on the resource potential of the flow (quantity and quality) as it relates to the interception and use of this water within the Valley. Economic and legal issues associated with the interception and use of this resource are not considered here.     

ASSESSMENT OF POSSIBLE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN AN URBAN CATCHMENT1

ABSTRACT: Stationarity of rainfall statistical parameters is a fundamental assumption in hydraulic infrastructure design that may not be valid in an era of changing climate. This study develops a framework for examining the potential impacts of future increases in short duration rainfall intensity on urban infrastructure and natural ecosystems of small watersheds and demonstrates this approach for the Mission/Wagg Creek watershed in British Columbia, Canada. Nonstationarities in rainfall records are first analyzed with linear regression analysis, and the detected trends are extrapolated to build potential future rainfall scenarios. The Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is used to analyze the effects of increased rainfall intensity on design peak flows and to assess future drainage infrastructure capacity according to the derived scenarios. While the framework provided herein may be modified for cases in which more complex distributions for rainfall intensity are needed and more sophisticated stormwater management models are available, linear regressions and SWMM are commonly used in practice and are applicable for the Mission/Wagg Creek watershed. Potential future impacts on stream health are assessed using methods based on equivalent total impervious area. In terms of impacts on the drainage infrastructure, the results of this study indicate that increases in short duration rainfall intensity may be expected in the future but that they would not create severe impacts in the Mission/Wagg Creek system. The equivalent levels of imperviousness, however, suggest that the impacts on stream health could be far more damaging.