Evaluating the collective performance of best management practices in catchments undergoing active land development

Excerpt

Development of land, particularly from forested and agricultural uses to urban and suburban uses, has been accelerating in recent years in South Carolina and throughout many other regions of the United States. Although it is relatively well known that such long-term changes in land use/cover can lead to subsequent adverse environmental and ecosystem effects, less recognized are the potential impacts on aquatic environments caused by the actual process of land development itself (e.g., removal of vegetation, disturbance of large areas of soil). For example, episodic and sediment-laden storm water runoff from construction sites can overwhelm the capacity of receiving streams and lead to streambed scour, stream bank erosion, destruction of near-stream vegetative cover, and loss of in-stream habitat for fish and other aquatic species. Furthermore, deposition of sediment in receiving streams over short periods of time from development activities can exceed natural sediment deposition occurring over several decades. The US Environmental Protection Agency has identified sedimentation/siltation as the second most frequently cited stressor of rivers and streams, and has also identified undeveloped areas undergoing active development as a major source of the sediment.

The objective of our study was to determine whether best management practices (BMPs) implemented in study catchments …