The Urban and Industrial Environment:
Hydrological Effects and Waste Management
- What is urban runoff?
- How does urbanization affect water quality?
- What are the main pollutant in urban runoff and in sewage water?
- What are the main problems associated with urban waste management?
- How can urban waste be used in agriculture?
1. Introduction
One of the striking features of the distribution of the world's population is the tendency for large human concentrations to occur near vast expanses of water. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, urban development have influenced the flow and storage of water, as well as the quality of available fresh water.
Urbanization has had significant impacts on the hydrology of the environment by controlling:
Nature of runoff (water from precipitation or irrigation that does not evaporate or seep into the soil but flows into rivers, streams, or lakes, and may carry sediment);
Rates of soil erosion; and
Delivery of pollutants to rivers, streams, lakes and ocean.
A summary of these impacts using a historical model of urbanization has been presented by Savini and Kammerer (1961) and is reproduced here in Table 1. It is important to emphasize that hydrological perturbations often produce detrimental effects on water quality rather than quantity.
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