Coastal
Resource Inventory Tutorial
5.
Impervious Surfaces
Impervious
surfaces are hardened materials like asphalt, concrete and rooftops
commonly associated with development. Impervious surfaces prevent percolation
of rainfall into the soil, creating urban runoff that can cause flooding
and erosion, and pollute waterways. It is now a well-accepted scientific
principle that the amount of impervious surface in a watershed is closely
related to the degradation of water and other aquatic resources. So,
this is an important piece of information with which to assess the current
threats to your coastal resources from urbanized land uses. This data
is created by a cutting-edge UConn CLEAR technique that estimates impervious
coverage directly from satellite data.
