Urban stormwater infrastructure affects aquatic and riparian wildlife welfare through flood pulses, temperature, water quality, and physical stream channel management.
Urban stormwater management has direct welfare implications for stream and riparian wildlife. Flash floods from impervious surface runoff create hydraulic conditions that displace and injure fish communities. Warm stormwater raises stream temperatures into the stressful range for cold-water species including trout. Trash and pollutant loads from stormwater affect water quality and accumulate in aquatic food chains. Green infrastructure solutions — bioswales, rain gardens, permeable pavement — slow and filter stormwater, reducing the hydraulic and thermal impacts on stream wildlife while creating habitat. Urban stream daylighting that removes streams from buried culverts dramatically improves welfare for aquatic and riparian communities.