Effects of Increasing Rainfall Depths and Impervious Areas on the Hydrologic Responses

Hydrologic modeling is a popular tool for estimating the hydrological response of a watershed. However, modeling processes are becoming more complex due to land-use changes such as urbanization, industrialization, and the expansion of agricultural activities. The primary goal of the research was to use the HEC-HMS model to evaluate the impact of impervious soil layers and the increase in rainfall-runoff processes on hydrologic processes. For these purposes, the Watershed Modelling System (WMS) and Hydrologic Engineering Center’s-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) models were used in this study to simulate the rainfall-runoff process. To compute runoff rate, runoff volume, base flow, and flow routing methods SCS curve number, SCS unit hydrograph, recession, and loss routing methods were selected for the research, respectively. To reduce the processing time and computational complexity, a small section of the Pipestem Creek Watershed was selected to understand the methods and concepts associated with the hydrologic simulation model building. A DEM along with other required data such as land use land cover data, soil type data, and meteorological data was utilized to delineate the watershed in WMS. The output of WMS was utilized to run the HEC-HMS model for five different scenario analyses. All the relevant data were plugged in to the model to get the desired map. Subsequently, outlets at appropriate locations were selected for the sub-basin delineation for further analysis. Finally, the model was parametrized to get successful simulation results. Overall, peak discharges and runoff volumes were increased with increasing storm depths and impervious areas. Peak discharges were increased to 36% and 51% when rainfall depths were increased by 10% and 20% from the initial rainfall depth, respectively. Runoff volumes were also increased to 35% and 49% for the same scenarios, respectively. Peak discharges were increased to 12% and 78% with a 10% and 20%, respectively, increase in impervious areas. The runoff volumes were increased by 12% and 76% when impervious areas were increased by 10% and 20%, respectively. The simulation models responded well, and the peak discharges and runoff volumes increased with increasing storm depths and impervious areas.

Examining the Relationship Between Spatial Configurations of Urban Impervious Surfaces and Land Surface Temperature

The urban heat island(UHI) effect has significant effects on the quality of life and public health. Numerous studies have addressed the relationship between UHI and the increase in urban impervious surface area(ISA), but few of them have considered the impact of the spatial configuration of ISA on UHI. Land surface temperature(LST) may be affected not only by urban land cover, but also by neighboring land cover. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of the abundance and spatial association of ISAs on LST. Taking Harbin City, China as an example, the impact of ISA spatial association on LST measurements was examined. The abundance of ISAs and the LST measurements were derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) imagery of 2000 and 2010, and the spatial association patterns of ISAs were calculated using the local Moran’s I index. The impacts of ISA abundance and spatial association on LST were examined using correlation analysis. The results suggested that LST has significant positive associations with both ISA abundance and the Moran’s I index of ISAs, indicating that both the abundance and spatial clustering of ISAs contribute to elevated values of LST. It was also found that LST is positively associated with clustering of high-ISA-percentage areas(i.e.,>50%) and negatively associated with clustering of low-ISA-percentage areas(i.e.,<25%). The results suggest that, in addition to the abundance of ISAs,their spatial association has a significant effect on UHIs.

Consolidation of partially saturated ground improved by impervious column inclusion:Governing equations and semi-analytical solutions

This study focuses on the consolidation behavior and mathematical interpretation of partially-saturated ground improved by impervious column inclusion.The constitutive relations for soil skeleton,pore air and pore water for partially saturated soils are proposed in the context of partially-saturated ground improved by impervious column inclusion.Settlement equation and dissipation equations of excess pore air/water pressures for a partially saturated improved ground are then derived.The semi-analytical solutions for ground settlement and pore pressure dissipation are then obtained through the Laplace transform and validated by the existing solutions for two special cases in the literature and the numerical results obtained from the finite difference method.A series of parametric studies is finally conducted to investigate the influence of some key factors on consolidation of partially saturated ground improved by impervious column inclusion.Based on the parametric study,it can be found that a higher value of the area replacement ratio or modulus of the pile results in a longer dissipation time of excess pore air pressure(PAP),a shorter dissipation time of excess pore water pressure(PWP),and a lower normalized settlement.

Analysis of Impervious Surface Area, and the Impacts on Soil-Based Agriculture and the Hydrologic Cycle: A Case Study in the Agricultural Land Reserve in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The province of British Columbia, Canada, has established an Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) to protect the most suitable soil landscapes for agriculture. Increases in population and urbanization have resulted in development challenges on ALR lands. The Metro Vancouver area is the most productive agricultural area in British Columbia as well as the most rapidly growing urban region. The increase in impervious areas has decreased the amount of arable land for soil-based agriculture and altered the hydrological cycle. Analysis using a combination of aerial imagery and GIS found that impervious areas comprise about 10 percent of the ALR within Metro Vancouver. Farm residences and greenhouses have the largest effect on reducing the soil surface for water infiltration. This decrease in area has negatively influenced the ecosystem heath of the region, as well as, decreasing the amount of agricultural land for soil based agriculture and both surface and groundwater dynamics.

A Study on Impervious and Heat-Insulating Performance of Geomembrane Composites Within Breakwater

This paper investigates the performance of geomembrane composites used as impervious andheat-insulating lining within a breakwater for a power station.The seepage field,distribution ofstress-strain contour and seepage discharge of hot water which has been treated as the inner thermalsource in the calculation of heat-insulation,have been given by three-dimensional calculation method coup-ling seepage with stress.The results indicate that the impervious and heat-insulation effect ofgeomembrane composites is significant.

Evaluation of Maintenance Strategies Based on Leakage Risk Assessment on Side Impervious Walls at Coastal Landfill Sites

Asset management is a strategic decision-making aspect of social infra-structure that ensures safety by predicting long-term conditions and maximizing effectiveness under budgetary constraints. Predicting the deterioration of impervious walls is essential in the asset management of coastal landfill sites, particularly in the design of their maintenance and repair strategy. In this paper, a quantitative evaluation of the leakage of toxic substances in coastal landfill sites where deterioration of side impervious walls has decreased the water interception performance is reported. In addition, risk evaluation based on the asset management of the leakage is applied to determine an appropriate repair method. The strategy of repairing the walls when the concentration of the toxic substances leaking into the sea area exceeds the closure and abandonment of coastal landfill sites is demonstrated to be superior. Moreover, the strategy of repairing only the seaside side impervious wall is shown to be cost-effective.

Effects of Increasing Impervious Surface on Water Quality in Ile-Ife Urban Watershed, Southwestern Nigeria

The urban environment has continued to experience changes from increasing impervious surfaces, which alters the proper functioning of the ecological zones and impairs water quality in the watershed. Impervious cover is predominantly used as an indicator to assist in understanding and forecasting the impact of human actions and other related activities on aquatic resources. In this study, the rate of change in land uses using the impervious surface as an indicator, and the percentage of imperviousness on the effect on water quality in the urban watershed were assessed. Ile-Ife was delineated as an urban watershed, and the percentage of imperviousness from 2008 to 2016 and the effect of imperviousness on water bodies were assessed. The study utilized ASTERDEM, Worldview (0.46 m), IKONOS (1.4 m), Landsat (30 m) for 2008 and 2016, GPS and Drone (10 cm). Water sampling was carried out in selected locations as generated by the impervious surface analyst tool, (ISAT). The percentage (%) of impervious surfaces accounted for 59.4% (4567.1/7691.5ha) in 2008 and 70.3% (5408.2/7691.5ha) in 2016, from the total number of lands investigated. The turbidity values from low to high regions were 32.3, 55.9 and 82.4 NUT. Changes in LULC of the watershed led to increased surface temperature, impermeable surfaces, and decreased vegetation, which exposes the area to flooding and reduced water quality. This study emphasized the importance of GIS and its integration into urban changes and water quality assessment.

Geospatial Analysis of Urban Heat Island Effects and Tree Equity

In recent decades, Urban Heat Island Effects have become more pronounced and more widely examined. Despite great technological advances, our current societies still experience great spatial disparity in urban forest access. Urban Heat Island Effects are measurable phenomenon that are being experienced by the world’s most urbanized areas, including increased summer high temperatures and lower evapotranspiration from having impervious surfaces instead of vegetation and trees. Tree canopy cover is our natural mitigation tool that absorbs sunlight for photosynthesis, protects humans from incoming radiation, and releases cooling moisture into the air. Unfortunately, urban areas typically have low levels of vegetation. Vulnerable urban communities are lower-income areas of inner cities with less access to heat protection like air conditioners. This study uses mean evapotranspiration levels to assess the variability of urban heat island effects across the state of Tennessee. Results show that increased developed land surface cover in Tennessee creates measurable changes in atmospheric evapotranspiration. As a result, the mean evapotranspiration levels in areas with less tree vegetation are significantly lower than the surrounding forested areas. Central areas of urban cities in Tennessee had lower mean evapotranspiration recordings than surrounding areas with less development. This work demonstrates the need for increased tree canopy coverage.

Mapping global impervious surface area and green space within urban environments

The mapping of impervious surface area(ISA) and urban green space(UGS) is essential for improving the urban environmental quality toward ecological, livable, and sustainable goals. Currently, accurate ISA and UGS products are lacking in urban areas at the global scale. This study established regression models that estimated the fraction of ISA/UGS in global 30 cities for validation using MODIS NDVI and DMSP/OLS nighttime light imageries. A global dataset of ISA and UGS fraction with a spatial resolution of 250 m×250 m was developed using the regression model, with a mean relative error of 0.19 for its ISA. The results showed the global urban area of 76.29×10~4 km^2, which was primarily distributed in central Europe, eastern Asia,and central and eastern North America. The urban land area in North America, Europe, and Asia was 66.3×10~4 km^2, accounting for 86.91% of the world’s urban area;the urban land area of the top 50 countries accounted for 59.32% of the total urban land area in the world. The global ISA of 45.26×10~4 km^2 was mainly distributed in central and southern North America, eastern Asia, and Europe, as well as coastal regions around the world. The proportion of ISA situated in built-up areas on the continental scale followed the order of Africa(>70%)>South America>Oceania>Asia(>60%)>North America>Europe(>50%), and these areas were mostly in southeastern North America, southwestern Europe, and eastern and western Asia. North America, Europe, and Asia accounted for 89.44% of the world’s total UGS. The cities of developed countries in Europe and North America exposed a dramatic mosaic of ISA and UGS composites in urban construction. Therefore, the proportion of UGS is relatively high in those cities. However, in developing and underdeveloped countries, the proportion of UGS in built-up areas is relatively low, and urban environments need to be improved for livability.

Characteristics and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in impervious surface run-off in an urban area in Shanghai, China

Rainwater and run-off from three kinds of impervious surface in the Shanghai urban area,China were sampled.Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) were measured in the samples,and their sources were assessed.The mean sum of the 16 PAH concentrations measured in rainwater and run-offs from ceramic tiles,asphalt roofs,and asphalt roads were 873,1404,1743,and 4023 ng/L,respectively.The PAH concentrations found in this study were moderate compared to PAH concentrations found in run-offs in other studies.The main PAH components in the rainwater,roof run-off,and asphalt road run-off samples were 3-ring PAHs,3–4-ring PAHs,and 4–6-ring PAHs,respectively.Source apportionment results indicated that combustion(47.4%–55.5%) and vehicular emissions(30.5%–33.0%) were the major contributors to PAHs in roof run-off.Vehicular emissions were the most significant contributors to asphalt road run-off(47.2%),followed by combustion(23.5%),and petroleum(16.3%).Vehicular emissions and coal and natural gas combustion are therefore the most significant sources of PAHs in run-off from impervious surfaces in the Shanghai urban area.

Extracting impervious surfaces from multi-source satellite imagery based on unified conceptual model by decision tree algorithm

Extraction of impervious surfaces is one of the necessary processes in urban change detection.This paper derived a unified conceptual model (UCM) from the vegetation-impervious surface-soil (VIS) model to make the extraction more effective and accurate.UCM uses the decision tree algorithm with indices of spectrum and texture,etc.In this model,we found both dependent and independent indices for multi-source satellite imagery according to their similarity and dissimilarity.The purpose of the indices is to remove the other land-use and land-cover types (e.g.,vegetation and soil) from the imagery,and delineate the impervious surfaces as the result.UCM has the same steps conducted by decision tree algorithm.The Landsat-5 TM image (30 m) and the Satellite Probatoire d’Observation de la Terre (SPOT-4) image (20 m) from Chaoyang District (Beijing) in 2007 were used in this paper.The results show that the overall accuracy in Landsat-5 TM image is 88%,while 86.75% in SPOT-4 image.It is an appropriate method to meet the demand of urban change detection.

Methods to extract impervious surface areas from satellite images

Impervious surface area(ISA)is an important parameter for many environmental or socioeconomic relevant studies.The unique characteristics of remote sensing data made it the primary data source for ISA mapping at various scales.This paper summarizes general ISA mapping procedure and major techniques and discusses impacts of scale issues on selection of remote sensing data and corresponding algorithms.Previous studies have indicated that ISA mapping remains a challenge,especially in urban–rural frontiers and in covering a large area.Effectively employing rich spatial information in high spatial resolution imagery through texture and objectbased methods is valuable.Data fusion of multi-resolution images and spectral mixture analysis are common approaches to reduce the mixed pixel problem in medium spatial resolution images such as Landsat.Coarse spatial resolution images such as MODIS and DMSP-OLS are valuable for national and global ISA mapping but more research is needed to effectively integrate multisource/scale data for improving mapping performance.Development of an optimal procedure corresponding to specific study areas and purposes is required to generate accurate ISA mapping results.

Impervious surface extraction based on different methods from multiple spatial resolution images:a comprehensive comparison

Many efforts have been devoted to extracting impervious surfaces based on different methods from multiple spatial resolution images.Differences in extraction methods and spatial resolutions are significant and have led to discrepant performances in terms of the impervious surface extraction accuracy.However,which extraction method is more suitable for which kind of spatial resolution image in practice is poorly understood.This study systematically compared the performances of 12 methods of impervious surface extraction for four spatial resolution images(i.e.Landsat 8[30 m],Sentinel-2A[20 m],Sentinel-2A[10 m],and Gaofen-2[4 m])in three testing areas.The results indicated that for the mediumspatial resolutions of 30 and 20 m,the support vector machine(SVM)method was considered as the optimal classification method with the highest accuracy of impervious surface extraction.For the high-spatial resolutions of 10 and 4 m,the object based image analysis(OBIA)method obtained the highest accuracy of the impervious surface distribution.Furthermore,the perpendicular impervious surface index(PISI)outperformed the other indices in obtaining the impervious surface distribution,with the highest accuracy for four spatial resolution images.These comprehensive assessments can provide a valuable guidance for future impervious surface extraction from different spatial resolutions.

Experimental and discrete element numerical analysis of side slope instability induced by fissure water underlying impervious bed

When the sliding mass contains impervious bed, rainfall can infiltrate into mountain via crevices and form higher artesian aquifer at impervious bed inferior. This will decrease slip resistance and increase sliding forces of the sliding mass, thus lowering the safety factor, and inducing landslide disasters. In this paper, a landslide experimental apparatus is designed for experimental studies on the mechanism of this type of landslides. Meanwhile, the non-dimensional parameters in the model experiment are taken into account using dimensional analysis. The experimental results show that (1) the ratio of the cleft water pressure to the overlying pressure is a crucial parameter affecting the stability of the slope; (2) when the shut-in pressure reaches 80% of the normal component of the pressure on the slip surface made up of rock and soil, landslide will occur; (3) the whole slope will start to slide when the shut-in pressure is equal to the normal component of the pressure formed by the overlying rock and soil on the upper 30% area. In this article, a discrete element method simulation is used to investigate the influence of cleft water pressure and shearing strength on the landslide stability. It can be concluded that the critical value of Ccr, ?cr, which determines the slide mass stability, increases with the increase of the water pressure; if the water pressure reaches a high level, the stability of the slide mass depends mainly on C, while the influence of ? becomes smaller than C.

Multi-resolution integration of land cover for sub-pixel estimation of urban impervious surface and forest cover

A methodology is presented for estimating percent coverage of impervious surface(IS)and forest cover(FC)within Landsat thematic mapper(TM)pixels of urban areas.High-resolution multi-spectral images from Quickbird(QB)play a key role in the sub-pixel mapping process by providing information on the spatial distributions of ISs and FCs at 2.4 m ground sampling intervals.Thematic classifications,also derived from the Landsat imagery,have then been employed to define relationships between 30 m Landsat-derived greenness values and percent IS and FC.By also utilizing land cover/land use classification derived from Landsat and defining unique relationships for urban sub-classes(i.e.residential,commercial/industrial,open land),confusion between impervious and fallow agricultural lands has been overcome.Test results are presented for Ottawa-Gatineau,an urban area that encompasses many aspects typical of the North American urban landscape.Multiple QB scenes have been acquired for this urban centre,thereby allowing us to undertake an in-depth study of the error budgets associated with the fractional inference process.

30m global impervious surface area dynamics and urban expansion pattern observed by Landsat satellites: From 1972 to 2019

Using more than three million Landsat satellite images,this research developed the first global impervious surface area(GISA)dataset from 1972 to 2019.Based on 120,777 independent and random reference sites from 270 cities all over the world,the omission error,commission error,and F-score of GISA are 5.16%,0.82%,and 0.954,respectively.Compared to the existing global datasets,the merits of GISA include:(1)It provided the global ISA maps before the year of 1985,and showed the longest time span(1972–2019)and the highest accuracy(in terms of a large number of randomly selected and third-party validation sample sets);(2)it presented a new global ISA mapping method including a semi-automatic global sample collection,a locally adaptive classification strategy,and a spatio-temporal post-processing procedure;and(3)it extracted ISA from the whole global land area(not from an urban mask)and hence reduced the underestimation.Moreover,on the basis of GISA,the long time series global urban expansion pattern(GUEP)has been calculated for the first time,and the pattern of continents and representative countries were analyzed.The two new datasets(GISA and GUEP)produced in this study can contribute to further understanding on the human’s utilization and reformation to nature during the past half century,and can be freely download from http://irsip.whu.edu.cn/resources/dataweb.php.

Mapping impervious surfaces with a hierarchical spectral mixture analysis incorporating endmember spatial distribution

Impervious surface mapping is essential for urban environmental studies.Spectral Mixture Analysis(SMA)and its extensions are widely employed in impervious surface estimation from medium-resolution images.For SMA,inappropriate endmember combinations and inadequate endmember classes have been recognized as the primary reasons for estimation errors.Meanwhile,the spectral-only SMA,without considering urban spatial distribution,fails to consider spectral variability in an adequate manner.The lack of endmember class diversity and their spatial variations lead to over/underestimation.To mitigate these issues,this study integrates a hierarchical strategy and spatially varied endmember spectra to map impervious surface abundance,taking Wuhan and Wuzhou as two study areas.Specifically,the piecewise convex multiple-model endmember detection algorithm is applied to automatically hierarch-ize images into three regions,and distinct endmember combinations are independently developed in each region.Then,spatially varied endmember spectra are synthesized through neighboring spectra using the distance-based weight.Comparative analysis indicates that the proposed method achieves better performance than Hierarchical SMA and Fixed Four-endmembers SMA in terms of MAE,SE,and RMSE.Further analysis suggests that the hierarch-ical strategy can expand endmember class types and considerably improve the performance for the study areas in general,specifically in less developed areas.Moreover,we find that spatially varied endmember spectra facilitate the reduction of heterogeneous surface material variations and achieve the improved performance in developed areas.

Seasonal effects of impervious surface estimation in subtropical monsoon regions

Accurate impervious surface estimation(ISE)is challenging due to the diversity of land covers and the vegetation phenology and climate.This study investigates the variation of impervious surfaces estimated from different seasons of satellite images and the seasonal sensitivity of different methods.Four Landsat ETM?images of four different seasons and two popular methods(i.e.artificial neural network(ANN)and support vector machine(SVM))are employed to estimate the impervious surface on the pixel level.Results indicate that winter(dry season)is the best season to estimate impervious surface even though plants are not in their growing season.Less cloud and less variable source areas(VSA)(seasonal water body)become the major advantages of winter for the ISE,as cloud is easily confusedwith bright impervious surfaces,andwater in VSA is confusedwith dark impervious surfaces due to their similar spectral reflectance.For the seasonal sensitivity of methods,ANN appears more stable as its accuracy varied less than that obtained with SVM.However,both the methods showed a general consistency of the seasonal changes of the accuracy,indicating that winter time is the best season for impervious surfaces estimation with optical satellite images in subtropical monsoon regions.

Fine-resolution mapping of the circumpolar Arctic Man-made impervious areas(CAMI)using sentinels,OpenStreetMap and ArcticDEM

Man-made impervious areas map is of great demand in environmen-tal and urbanization studies since impervious areas are considered as a key indication of urbanization,especially for circumpolar Arctic.However,to date,finer resolution and spatially continuous imper-vious areas information remains scarce in the Arctic.In this study,we developed an accurate and complete circumpolar Arctic Man-made impervious areas(CAMI)map at a resolution of 10 m by combining Sentinel-1 C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar,Sentinel-2 multispectral images,OpenStreetMap,and ArcticDEM via Google Earth Engine platform.A random forest classifier model was trained and used to generate corresponding impervious areas map for the year 2020.The evaluation results suggested that CAMI was the most accurate with an overall accuracy of 86.36%and kappa coefficient of 70.73%as against the three existing impervious areas products.Based on the generated map and OpenStreetMap,we estimated that total imper-vious areas area in the Arctic has achieved 807.80 km2,of which roads,industrial and resident land were three major land use types,accounting for 54.08%,17.85%and 10.34%,respectively.The CAMI map will support for new application and provide advanced insight into the infrastructure vulnerability evaluation and environmental sustainability in the Arctic.

Change of impervious surface area and its impacts on urban landscape:an example of Shenyang between 2010 and 2017

Introduction:One of the most striking features of urbanization is the replacement of the original natural land cover type by artificial impervious surface area(ISA).However,the extent of the contribution of various environmental factors,especially the growth of 3D space to ISA expansion,and the scope and mechanism of their influences in dramatically expanding cities,are yet to be determined.The boosted regression tree(BRT)model was adopted to analyze the main influencing factors and driving mechanisms of ISA change in Shenyang,China between 2010 and 2017.Outcomes:The nearly complete-coverage ISA(≥0.7)increased from 42%in 2010 to 47%in 2017.The percentage of landscape with a high ISA fraction increased,while the landscape evenness and diversity of ISA decreased.The BRT analysis revealed that elevation,regional population density,and landscape class had the largest influences on the change of urban ISA,contributing 22.55%,18.16%,and 11.18%to the model,respectively.Conclusion:Overall,topographic and socioeconomic factors had the greatest influence on urban ISA change in Shenyang,followed by land use type and building pattern indices.The trend of high aggregation was strong in large commercial and residential areas.The 3D expansion of the city had an influence on its areal expansion.