Water Quality and Exurbanization in Southern Appalachian Streams - River Conservation and Management - page 84

CHAPTER 8
Water Quality and Exurbanization in
Southern Appalachian Streams

Jackson R. Webster 1 , Ernest F. Benfield 1 , Kristen K. Cecala 2 , John F. Chamblee 2 ,
Carolyn A. Dehring 4 , Ted Gragson 3 , Jeffrey H. Cymerman 2 , C. Rhett Jackson 2 , Jennifer
D. Knoepp 5 , David S. Leigh 6 , John C. Maerz 2 , Catherine Pringle 7
and H. Maurice Valett 1
1 Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, USA
2 Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
3 Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
4 Department of Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
5 U.S. Forest Service, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, Otto, USA
6 Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
7 Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

Introduction

These shifts are not only taking place in ecological
research in the United States, but in many other
areas of the world (du Cros et al ., 2004; Maass et al .,
2010; Metzger et al ., 2010).
The Upper Little Tennessee River Basin is in a
rural area with relatively low population density,
but it is increasingly subject to exurbanization
pressures from surrounding metropolitan areas
including Atlanta, Charlotte, Greenville, Asheville,
and Knoxville. Exurbia first gained popular
attention when A.C. Spectorsky (1955) described
its residents in his topic, The Exurbanites .Berube
et al . (2006) described exurbia this way, 'Exurbs ...
lie somewhere beyond the suburbs. At the urban-
rural periphery, outer suburbs bleed into small-
town communities with an agricultural heritage.'
Homebuyers are drawn to the natural amenities
of these rural areas. This, coupled with increasing
willingness to commute long distances, mobility at
retirement age, and telecommuting, has allowed
people to move to the countryside (Radeloff et al .,
2010). The 2000 US Census indicates that 79.2%
of the United States population resides in urban

Research at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in
western North Carolina, USA, began over 75
years ago and for most of that time was
focused on intensive and long-term study of small
catchments. The Coweeta research presented 20
years ago at the Conservation and Management of
Rivers Conference in 1990 followed that tradition
by synthesizing the results of intensive study
of one small stream responding to catchment
deforestation (Webster et al ., 1992). Research by
scientists now working at Coweeta has gone
beyond single catchments and even beyond the
boundaries of the laboratory itself. They are
now studying streams and catchments throughout
the Upper Little Tennessee River Basin of the
southern Appalachian Mountains (Plate 13). This
shift reflects the expansion of ecological research
from site-based science to regional and global scales
(Peters et al ., 2008) as well as the expansion of
its conceptual scope to embrace other scientific
disciplines (Liu et al ., 2007; Collins et al ., 2010).