| Although it has been repeatedly demonstrated that urbanization has negative environmental consequences, the conversion of land to urban use is increasing worldwide and is not likely to abate. We tested the hypothesis that different urban typologies, i.e., distributions of human population and infrastructure, differentially influence the water quality and ecological functionality of emergent marsh wetlands in New York State's Hudson River Valley. Wetlands were studied in two watersheds, defined as landscapes bounded by ridge lines, containing traditional small-town development and two watersheds containing suburban typologies. Land cover attributes were evaluated by analyzing ground-truthed, orthophotoquad data with a GIS. Water quality, the cover and... |
