Run-off and landuse change

Figure 3: Plot diagram

Over the past 19 years there have been significant changes to the land area of Loomis street. The most significant changes to the property being in Plot A, Plot C Plot D and Plot E (figure 3). There were no observational changes to the distribution of driveway, building and greenery for Plot B over the past 19 years. Plot A has the most change of the property area of buildings on the property increasing from 36% to 56.6% coverage, the greenery decreasing from 47.6% to 12.2% of the property. The difference can be seen in figures 4 and 5. Since plot A was the most changed in the past 19 years I calculated the percentage of runoff for the plot in both 1999 and 2018 and found that in 1999 the run off percentage was 74.49% and increased to 91.84% meaning that less water was being absorbed into the property.

Overall the run off rates for the entire set of 5 properties as a whole has changed from 81.658% in 1999 to 90.87% in 2018. This data showing an overall increase in runoff due to driveway area increase and building area increase within each plot has increased the run off rate of water on all five properties. Comparing these run off rates to the calculated rate for the year 1600, it can be seen that the area has an ever increasing rate of run off. The year 1600's rate was calculated to be 30%, 1999 was 81.658%, and 2018 was 90.78%.

Land-use change in neighborhoods near UVM might affect water quality in Lake Champlain by adding contaminants to the lake. Runoff has become an increasing problem over the years because it adds organisms and containment that are not found there naturally. One of the major concerns of most scientists and environmental workers is the amount of sodium chloride, phosphorus and the turbidity of the water in Champlain. Sodium Chloride is the salt we use to Salt our roads for ice in the winter due to increased land-use change such as increasing areas of driveway and increasing areas of buildings, run off has increased over the years allowing the contaminants to freely flow into the lake. Lake Champlain is our source of water,drinking, heating, and otherwise to contaminate this source of life would be detrimental to not only Vermonters, but all of the vegetation and life in Vermont and beyond.