Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Design and Construction of an Urban Runoff Research Facility
Published on: August 8, 2014
Effects of development on runoff and pollutant export
1Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, North Carolina State University, Box 7637, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. dan_line@ncsu.edu
Abstract:
Runoff from two similar drainage areas in the Piedmont physiographic region of North Carolina was monitored simultaneously for 5.6 years. One of the drainage areas was developed as part of a large residential subdivision, while the other remained in woods and agricultural fields. Runoff volume was 68% greater for the developed compared with the undeveloped area, and baseflow as a percentage of overall discharge was approximately 0% compared with 25% for the undeveloped area. Overall annual export of sediment was 95% greater for the developed area, while export of nitrogen and phosphorus forms was 66 to 88% greater for the developed area. These results document the significant increases in runoff, sediment, and nutrient export associated with residential development.
Related Concept Videos
Microbial Wastewater Treatment
Conservation of Mass in Moving, Nondeforming Control Volume
In the context of a detention basin, the conservation of mass states that the total mass of water entering the basin must equal the mass leaving the basin plus any accumulation of...
Freshwater Microbial Ecology
Bioremediation
Primary Production
Responses to Drought and Flooding

