The Need for Integrated Critical Zone Process Understanding of Water Flow in Cities
Abstract
The dominant paradigm of understanding hydrologic processes in cities has not moved beyond the links between impervious surface cover, infiltration-excess overland flow, and stormflow since Leopold (1968). As a result, the urban hydrology community faces challenges to understand what spatial and temporal scales of heterogeneous processes in urban systems are most important for answering pressing questions. In urban areas, natural flowpaths that are overlain or interrupted by many unique infrastructure-based pathways for water, the implications of which we are just starting to understand. Urban watersheds can exhibit complex hydrologic responses that are difficult to tease apart, understand, and connect back to the surrounding landscape. In this talk, we highlight recent advances in understanding the processes driving water flow throughout the urban critical zone, corresponding to the layer of the earth from the tops of rooftops and trees to the bottom of the groundwater table. Drawing from the literature, we summarize the pathways that water follows through urban landscapes (e.g., through vegetation, soils, groundwater) and highlight some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities to understand critical zone processes in urban settings. These include characterizing the physiography of, and water-related infrastructure in, urban watersheds, characterizing dominant hydrological processes, facilitating data collection and logistics including modeling, and the need for more cross-city studies.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022AGUFM.H22U1111L