Spatial evaluation of impacts of increase in impervious surface area on SCS-CN and runoff in Nagpur urban watersheds,India

The changing land use due to rapid urbanization has profound impact on the runoff in urban watersheds. The spatial analysis in urban watersheds is felt necessary for management of surface and subsurface water regimes. Significant increase in impervious zones was observed in Nagpur urban watersheds between 2000 and 2012 having impacts on runoff, and even flash floods were observed. This study presents spatial and temporal impacts of change in urban built-up area on curve number (CN) and runoff during the years 2000 and 2012. The study also analyzes effect of slope on CN values and shows that CN increases with slope. High-resolution satellite images were used to map impervious surface areas (ISAs) which show an increase of 0.9 to 34 % during 2000–2012. Spearman’s and Pearson’s coefficients have been generated to establish relationship between runoff, impervious surface areas, vegetation index, slope, and runoff coefficient. It has been hypothetically assumed that if 100, 50, and 25 % rooftop rainwater harvesting is considered, the estimated runoff reduces in 2012 as compared to the year 2000. The study suggests that increase in impervious areas within urban watersheds can be utilized for groundwater augmentation adopting rooftop rainwater-harvesting techniques and to prevent flash floods.