Application of the experimental watershed approach to advance urban watershed precipitation/discharge understanding

Reliable methods are required to provide the detailed hydrologic information necessary to improve management of water resources and aquatic ecosystems in developing/urbanizing watersheds. A case study was implemented in a representative 230 km 2 mixed-use, urbanizing watershed to advance precipitation/discharge understanding. Precipitation and streamflow were monitored in five sub-watersheds (nested-scale experimental watershed study design), partitioned by dominant land use type. Data were collected at 30-min intervals through the 2009 to 2015 water years. Individual sub-watershed area-normalized flow and runoff coefficients differed by as much as 400%. Two high density, urban sub-watersheds displayed large runoff coefficients indicating disproportionately high flow response to precipitation inputs. Regression analyses of sub-watershed land use characteristics and flow metrics showed strong (i.e. R 2 > 0.9) statistically significant ( p