Abstract
Urbanization is one of the most aggressive forms of land transformation, leading to negative impacts on surrounding aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In terms of hydrology, urbanization compromises the ability of the natural landscape to absorb, store, and slowly release water. Watershed management strategies that strategically utilize spatial patterns of natural land cover (e.g., wetlands or forests) have shown initial promise to mitigate flash flood events through the enhancement of natural hydrologic mechanisms. The main objective of this work is to (1) identify spatial configurations of land cover that provide flood regulation ecosystem services; and (2) understand the areal extent of flood regulation services throughout the Blue River Watershed, in the central US states of Kansas and Missouri. We aim to understand the mechanisms that influence the biophysical supply of flood regulation services using a measure of stream flashiness to quantify changes in flood regulation services and landscape metrics to characterize changes in spatial patterns of land cover. Our results show that a landscape configuration of disaggregated wetland patches and a large percentage of low-density grassland patches will increase the provision of flood regulation ecosystem services. These findings are beneficial for watershed managers and/or regional planners who aim to minimize flood impacts through urban development strategies.
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Data Availability Statement
All data (land cover, streamflow, and precipitation) and models (FRAGSTATS) that support the findings of this study were provided by a third party. A direct request for these materials may be made to the provider as indicated in the text. All code (statistics) that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the editor, associate editor, and six anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful suggestions for the improvement of this manuscript. This work was partially supported by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station (Contribution No. 20-248-J).
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 11 • November 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 5, 2019
Accepted: Jun 11, 2020
Published online: Sep 2, 2020
Published in print: Nov 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Feb 2, 2021
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