ABSTRACT
Urban areas are spatially and ecologically complex, and planning for their growth is data intensive. This is particularly true in suburban areas dominated by continuous urban sprawl. Galster (2001) noted that this term is not easily dežned but generally refers to the patterns, processes, causes, and consequences of lowdensity and segregated land use development in populated places. The potential of sprawling suburban development to impact water quality is well documented (Bowen and Valiela 2001; Interlandi and Crockett 2003; Tu et al. 2007). Some analysts had estimated that substantial declines in watershed health begin to occur with as little as 10% impervious cover (Arnold and Gibbons 1996). Sprawl poses a unique threat to urban surface water quality in part because it incorporates an extensive array of impervious features, such as roads, rooftops, and parking lots. This threat can add to the žscal strain placed on growing municipalities already žnancing stormwater management with special fees and utilities (Kasperson 2001). On the other hand, low-density suburban areas can accommodate an arrangement of open space that actually mitigates stormwater volume and pollution (Moglen and Kim 2007). Such a result is indicative of a proper spatial understanding of the relationship between suburban land use and surface water quality (Brabec et al. 2002).
