Morphologic Approach in Studying Urbanized and Suburbanizing Watersheds

Current characterization of urban watersheds and the modifications caused to natural areas once developed are mostly based on the descriptions of changes in the land-use and how these changes affect the processes of storage, infiltration and runoff generation. The objective of this article is to show how this characterization can be improved by also considering morphological and topological features of urban catchments and how they differ from the ones observed in natural basins. After introducing the study of morphologic and topologic features in watersheds, the paper exemplifies some of the changes caused to these features in natural catchments by urban development. Results shows major alterations to the morphology of basins and their drainage systems that need to be considered to better understand the hydrologic response of anthropogenic basins, and to improve the modeling and design of sub-urban and urban areas. Finally, a series of advantages of this approach are discussed.