Bed coarsening, riffle shortening, and channel enlargement in urbanizing watersheds, northern Kentucky, USA

Stream systems naturally respond to watershed land use dynamics, particularly in urban developments with unmanaged impervious areas. Such urban-provoked alterations to channel morphology cause water quality impairments, have adverse effects on aquatic biota, and pose risks to adjacent public infrastructure. Over the past four years we have collected detailed hydrogeomorphic data at 40 unique stream locations throughout northern Kentucky, with at least two rounds of annually repeated surveys at 70% of the sites and three rounds of surveys at 50% of the sites. Analysis of this time-series data encompassed measured rates of instability across three distinct dimensions including (1) channel cross sections, (2) longitudinal profiles, and (3) bed material particle composition. Regression analyses between geomorphic change and 2011 watershed imperviousness indicated stream cross sections in urban/suburban watersheds tend to be getting larger—their overall shape is both deepening and widening. Additionally, stream riffle lengths are shrinking and their pools are becoming both longer and deeper; and finally, their bed material composition is coarsening, particularly in streams in the early stages of watershed development. By documenting fluvial geomorphologic dynamics in such detail, this study highlights the process by which unmitigated urbanization homogenizes stream habitat and degrades aquatic ecosystems. This improved, process-based understanding of the urban-induced channel response sequence has clear implications to both stormwater management and stream/ecosystem restoration, particularly in stream systems where headcut migration is a primary driver of channel instability. •Time series surveys capture a 3D channel degradation sequence in urban streams.•Urban/suburban channels are enlarging (downcutting and widening).•Riffles are becoming shorter.•Pools are both deepening and lengthening.•Bed material is becoming coarser and more homogenous.