Changes in the plain river system and its hydrological characteristics under urbanization - case study of Suzhou City, China

Rapid urbanization in China has severely disturbed the underlying surface and river systems. The stream structure parameters of Suzhou City were analysed to study the evolution and spatial differentiation of a water system undergoing urbanization. The influencing pattern of different urbanization pr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrological sciences journal 2019-12, Vol.64 (16), p.2068-2079
Main Authors: Lin, Zhixin, Xu, Youpeng, Dai, Xiaoying, Wang, Qiang, Gao, Bin, Xiang, Jie, Yuan, Jia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
China
Density
Environmental risk
Evolution
Flood levels
Flooding
Floods
Hydrologic processes
hydrological changes
Hydrology
Natural environment
Rain
Rainfall
Rainfall intensity
River networks
River systems
Rivers
Rose diagram
Simulation analysis
Statistical analysis
Statistical methods
Surface water
Suzhou City
underlying surface and river system
Urban sprawl
Urbanization
Water yield
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Rapid urbanization in China has severely disturbed the underlying surface and river systems. The stream structure parameters of Suzhou City were analysed to study the evolution and spatial differentiation of a water system undergoing urbanization. The influencing pattern of different urbanization processes on river system structure and hydrological processes was detected by statistical methods and simulation analysis. The results show that urban sprawl is influenced by both the natural environment and the social economy. At different stages of urbanization, the spatial urban expansion and the natural river characteristics influence the evolution of the river network: during rapid urbanization, the decline in surface water ratio and river density is more intense. The decrease of surface water ratio and river density in rapidly urbanized areas was greatest, followed by that in area urbanized in the 1980s, with few changes in the old town. Under high urbanization, river system indicators tend to stabilize. The rivers' hydrological features were affected by urbanization, with water yield in the study area increasing from 0.81 to 0.95 m 3 /m 2 (1991-2015). The same rainfall intensity results in higher flood levels and greater risk of flooding under rapid urbanization.
ISSN:0262-6667
2150-3435
DOI:10.1080/02626667.2019.1645957