Urban Land-Cover, Urbanization Type and Implications for Storm Water Quality: Vila Real as a Case Study

Urban Land-Cover, Urbanization Type and Implications for Storm Water Quality: Vila Real as a Case Study

Land use changes associated with urban expansion, such as vegetation removal, replacement of earlier pervious areas with impervious surfaces and drainage channel alterations, consistently result in changes to the characteristics of the surface runoff quality. These consequences are due to the introduction of pollutants of physical, chemical and biological origin resulting from various anthropogenic activities common to urban areas.In the present study the main aim was to characterize the stormwater in two urban areas with similar characteristics and try to find a stormwater quality standard for the type of urbanization. On the other hand, the authors evaluated if this type of urban areas, common in cities from the interior of Portugal, originate problematic stormwater in terms of quality.