HETEROGENEITY IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE: IMPACTS ON HYDROLOGIC PROCESSES AND NITROGEN POLLUTION

This research evaluated the usefulness of the commonly used National Land Cover Database for deriving urban hydrologic parameters, defined metrics linking suburban landscape structure and nitrogen fluxes, and determined variance of hydrologic properties of residential lawns according to social and physical factors. Results suggested that the NLCD is insufficient for urban hydrologic studies due to biases and variability of these datasets. Nitrate concentrations of suburban streams were best characterized by watershed infrastructure. Septic-managed watersheds’ stream nitrate correlated with population density, septic location, and presence of wetlands. Reduced saturated infiltration rates in residential lawns caused only marginal differences in overland flow when compared to regional rain records. Of the factors assessed in this dissertation, waste management infrastructure was defined as the most critical feature explaining nitrate dynamics in the urban landscape.