Cappiella, K., Brown, K. 2001. Impervious Cover and Land Use in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Center for Watershed Protection, Ellicott City, MD. Pages 1-61

hydrology, impervious, urban, water quality, watershed

An understanding of impervious cover is important for watershed managers for several reasons. First, impervious cover is an important indicator of watershed health, and a knowledge of current of future impervious cover in a subwatershed can be used to predict stream quality. Second, impervious cover is a critically important variable in most hydrological and water quality models used to analyze urban watersheds, regardless of whether they are simple or complex.