Date of Award

2011

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Program

Geography

Supervisor

Dr. Marco Van De Wiel

Abstract

The effects of urbanization (or impervious surface cover) on the hydrology and the morphology of streams have been studied for decades, but little attention has been put towards investigating the influence that different riparian vegetation conditions may have under situations of increasing urbanization (Hession et al., 2003). Four urban and four natural nearly contiguous sub-watersheds were selected from the Rideau River Watershed of North-Eastern Ontario to control for all significant channel-forming variables, except riparian vegetation and urbanization. It was found that only channel depths (and width/depth ratio) respond to increases in TIA and at a threshold of 5%. However, bank vegetation was also shown to influence downstream response patterns o f both channel depths and widths. The results presented demonstrate the complexity of downstream

channel response to localized boundary conditions. However, additional statistical analyses (i.e. ANOVA) are needed to confirm the reliability of the derived regressions relationships.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.