This data package was submitted to a staging environment for testing purposes only. Use of these data for anything other than testing is strongly discouraged.

Data Package Summary    View Full Metadata

  • Flashiness of urban and desert streams in arid Arizona watersheds (2003-2016)
  • McPhillips, Lauren; The Pennsylvania State University
    Earl, Stevan; Arizona State University
    Grimm, Nancy; Arizona State University
    Hale, Rebecca; Idaho State University
    Herndon, Matthew
  • 2019-11-06
  • McPhillips, L., S. Earl, N. Grimm, R. Hale, and M. Herndon. 2019. Flashiness of urban and desert streams in arid Arizona watersheds (2003-2016) ver 3. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/DOI_PLACE_HOLDER (Accessed 2024-12-27).
  • There is general consensus that urbanization results in dramatic changes in stream hydrology, such as higher peak flows and increased flashiness (the rate at which water levels rise and fall). However, this has not been thoroughly assessed for aridlands, which are characterized by these very same hydrograph properties. This study analyzed streamflow records from 19 watersheds of central Arizona, USA to determine how hydrograph characteristics varied with urban development. This study evaluated influences on streamflow regime metrics calculated from daily and sub-daily flow data using linear mixed effects models, which factored in imperviousness along with other watershed characteristics. Results indicate that flashiness, coefficient of variation, zero flow days, and hydrograph rise and fall rates decreased with extent of imperviousness, which is the opposite pattern to that observed in previous studies predominately in humid regions. Engineered retention basins are one explanation for this observation, though novel urban sources of dry weather flows are likely also playing a role. This study also identified strong relationships between these hydrologic metrics and mean area-weighted discharge, watershed area, and annual precipitation. As in more humid systems, more high flow events in the urban desert streams compared to non-urban desert streams were observed. However, this was only at the lower flood threshold, and there was not an increase in larger floods with urban development. Overall, the urban stream syndrome manifests differently in this arid system: urbanization increases water retention and leads to less variable flows in stream ecosystems. Data and analysis code are included with this data set.

  • N: 34.2291      S: 32.5167      E: -111.3716      W: -113.1535
  • View Full Metadata (49 views)
  • View Quality Report
  • Data Entities:
    1. 663_daily_flashiness_fabf6651666214d207c46699c506601c.csv  (24.5 KiB; 11 downloads) 
    2. 663_instantaneous_flashiness_0da6593d039251d5a7c6791d97e3ebf5.csv  (20.8 KiB; 7 downloads) 
    3. 663_site_information_annual_e2803704d9aa09bce8b0bce35a734581.csv  (13.8 KiB; 8 downloads) 
    4. 663_site_information_78dce4df39e856ddd3cc6e500ec9d68e.csv  (2.1 KiB; 8 downloads) 
    5. 663_PHXstreams_POTanalysis_inst_3aba0efcc172d6d74fa924ee57a436cf.R  (11.8 KiB; 9 downloads) 
    6. 663_RBFlashinessIndex_instflow_15minavgANDDaily_9ba8cf9ca92e77577aa17c712238557c.R  (6.0 KiB; 8 downloads) 
    7. 663_RiseFallRate_instflow_15minavgANDDaily_74754f33fea7cd6343e38a53796bc28e.R  (5.8 KiB; 8 downloads) 
  • Copyright Board of Regents, Arizona State University. This information is released to the public and may be used for academic, educational, or commercial purposes subject to the following restrictions. While the CAP LTER will make every effort possible to control and document the quality of the data it publishes, the data are made available 'as is'. The CAP LTER cannot assume responsibility for damages resulting from mis-use or mis-interpretation of datasets, or from errors or omissions that may exist in the data. It is considered a matter of professional ethics to acknowledge the work of other scientists that has resulted in data used in subsequent research. The CAP LTER expects that any use of data from this server will be accompanied with the appropriate citations and acknowledgments. The CAP LTER encourages users to contact the original investigator responsible for the data that they are accessing. Where appropriate, researchers whose projects are integrally dependent on CAP LTER data are encouraged to consider collaboration and/or co-authorship with original investigators. The CAP LTER requests that users submit to the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University reference to any publication(s) resulting from the use of data obtained from this site.
  • DOI PLACE HOLDER
  • Analyze this data package using:           

EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:

UNM logo UW-M logo