Currently in Australia there has been more rainfall than for a decade or so and consequently waterways near urban areas are experiencing unacceptable levels of water contamination as a consequence of storm water runoff and its mismanagement.
The inescapable factor being that urban spaces by their very nature are covered by hard surfaces – roofs, roads, footpaths etc. – which inhibits water being able to soak into the landscape in the way it would pre-urbanization. To compound the problem the hard surfaces are contaminated by all manner of pollutants – chemical deposits, animal fascias etc.
All this finds its way into water ways and typically very quickly unlike in pre-urban landscapes where water finds its way to rivers steams etc. much more slowly and typically filtered into and/or by the landscape.
As a matter of principle stormwater's progress to water ways needs to be a slow as possible. However in urban spaces planning tends to put strategies in place that speeds the water up towards it being deposited into natural waterways – typically loaded with contaminants of all kinds.
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