Influences of urbanization on long-term streamflow patterns in different physiographic regions of North Carolina
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Cassidy Hey (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Zhi-Jun Liu
Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the influences of urbanization on long-term streamflow patterns in different physiographic regions of North Carolina. Specifically, I selected, mostly, low-order streams in the three physiographic regions of Mountain, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. ArcGIS was used to generate watersheds for each of the study sites using Digital Elevation Models downloaded from the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program. Streams were chosen for each study area based on the available streamflow data from the US Geological Survey. Impervious surfaces were then extracted from the 2006 National Land Cover Database. Nine metrics were selected to run on each of the stream station chosen using Statistical Analysis System. The metrics used in this study were chosen with the intention of seeing a pattern develop within the counties and across the different physiographic regions. It was expected that changes in long-term streamflow patterns are related to the urbanization process that has occurred in a watershed, and that some metrics of streamflow show urban influences better than others. In other words, not all the streamflow metrics reveal equally the relationships between land use change and streamflow patterns. The metrics used in this study, for the most part, appeared to be effective, especially for the Piedmont sites and to a lesser extent the Coastal Plain and Mountain sites.
Influences of urbanization on long-term streamflow patterns in different physiographic regions of North Carolina
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Created on 12/1/2011
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2011
- Keywords
- Urbanization, Streamflow patterns, North Carolina
- Subjects
- Urbanization $x Environmental aspects $z North Carolina
- Streamflow $z North Carolina
- Stream measurements $z North Carolina