Background

Species diversity and stream quality have decreased as humans have prioritized urban lifestyles. Worldwide, many rivers and streams have been profoundly modified by urban and agricultural development, impoundment, channelization, resource-extraction projects, and pollution (Harding et al. 1998). As urban sprawl continues to grow around the United States, we aimed to examine at how urban sprawl in Columbus is affecting rivers and the relationship between rivers and our current biodiversity crisis. Large corporate companies are moving to Columbus because of Ohio’s vast amount of flat land and the hub for supply chain management (Lendel et al. 2015). Our research provides data and statistics that can be used to compare the regions and as an example for future development solutions.