What is the difference between urban and rural or natural streams?
Urban stream watersheds have a significant proportion of impervious land area. At storm events, the stream will be faced with large amounts of water in a quick time frame, causing high peaks and frequent bankfull conditions. The extensive use of concrete lining channels results in further bank instability in downstream reaches. Another approach is to understanding the stream morphology to provide the knowledge necessary to combine natural processes with human development and safety. This study compared “urban” streams to “natural” streams in terms of stream classification and bank stability. The urban data does correlate well when comparing bankfull area versus drainage area; however, bankfull depth and width was poorly correlated. The reason for this poor correlation is that these streams are not as stable natural streams and the width or depth measurements are changing and adjusting to the varied impacts of urban development. The natural streams seemed to be more stable and did not h
