Satellite Maps Detail Urban Sprawl

"These space-based maps of buildings and paved surfaces, such as roads and parking lots, which are impervious to water, can indicate where large storm water runoffs occur. Concentrated amounts of runoffs lead to erosion and elevated amounts of soil and chemical discharge into rivers, streams and ground water... Urban sprawl results in more paved surfaces and less area for water to drain into soils. Reduced drainage areas bring more water into fewer drainage systems at a faster rate, eroding the banks of streams and rivers, and adding more sediment into the water. "If you increase an impervious surface near a stream by creating a paved parking lot, for example, you directly affect the quality of life in the stream because of the runoff that surface will generate," Goetz said."

Thanks to Tom Collins