Historic stream burial, bluespsce ecosystem services, and climate change resilience: Case studies of two urban watersheds in the northeast United States
Abstract
Over the past three centuries, urban densification has been associated with stream burial - the landfilling of natural stream channels and their adjacent riparian corridors, with streamflow redirected to subterranean drainage sewers. In contemporary cities, the legacy of stream burial may significantly impact both flooding hazard and the provision of ecosystem services, but these effects remain poorly studied. We investigated historic stream burial in two case study areas: eastern Baltimore, Maryland, USA (East Baltimore) and the Jamaica Bay Watershed of New York City, NY USA (Jamaica Bay). Our research involved developing an inventory of historic survey maps, identification and vectorization of historic streams and wetlands, and contemporary terrain and land cover analyses. Stream burial in East Baltimore primarily took place during the early to mid-19th century. Stream burial in the Jamaica Bay study area took place during late 19th and early 20th centuries. In both of our case study areas, terrain analyses indicate that areas located in buried stream corridors may be subject to both velocity and depth-associated flood hazards during short-duration extreme precipitation events and groundwater flooding hazards during seasonal extreme precipitation events. These potential hazard areas are not currently represented in operational flood hazard maps and should be prioritized for more rigorous hazard mapping through hydrodynamic modeling. Stream burial provided multiple benefits for people residing in adjacent communities, including water regulation, improved transportation connectivity, and the creation of dryland for human settlement. But, based on our geospatial analyses, this practice also resulted in the substantial loss of bluespace and wetland-associated ecosystem services in both case study areas. Stream burial represented a major transformation in urban water management. As cities prepare for future water management transformations to adapt to climate change, there are potential lessons to be learned from the legacy of this practice.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMH126...03R
- Keywords:
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- 1803 Anthropogenic effects;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1834 Human impacts;
- HYDROLOGY