Atmospheric Environment Vol. 24B, No. 1, pp. 29-33, 1990. 0957-1272/90 $3.1)0+0.

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Printed in Great Britain. © 1989 Pergamon Press plc

G R O U N D W A T E R RECHARGE IN URBAN AREAS

DAVID N. LERNER
Hydrogeology Research Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, P.O. Box 363,
Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K.

(First received 1 August 1988 and in final form 1 April 1989)

Abstract--The two interlinked networks of hydrological pathways in urban areas are described with
particular reference to the links with groundwater. As well as reducing direct recharge, urbanization creates
new pathways and sources of water for recharge, including leaking water mains, sewers, septic tanks and
soakaways. The net effect is often to increase recharge to pre-urbanization rates, or higher in dry climates
and cities with high densities and large imported water supplies.

Key word index: Groundwater, recharge, urban, leaking pipes, sewers, irrigation, septic tanks, soakaways,
water resources.

l. I N T R O D U C T I O N 2. U R B A N H Y D R O L O G I C A L PATHWAYS

Much of the surface of urban areas is rendered imper- Water does not often follow a cycle in the urban
meable by buildings, roads and surface coverings. environment because it enters and leaves across the
Because of this covering, the classical view of the effect urban boundary. Rather it follows a network of
of urbanization on groundwater is that recharge is pathways. There are two such networks of pathways
reduced. For example, in urban areas which are interlinked at many points.
These are the (heavily modified) natural pathways and
" . . . groundwater o u t f l o w . . , decreases with ur-
the water supply-sewage pathways.
banization, with direct r u n o f f . . , increasing."
The principal pathways of the natural network are
(Douglas, 1983),
precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, infiltration,
and similarly from Lindh (1983) recharge and groundwater flow. The principal paths of
the water supply network are shown in Fig. 1, which
"Infiltration to the groundwater is markedly re-
particularly emphasizes the interconnections with
duced . . . . with less water reaching the aquifer, wells
groundwater. Boreholes bring groundwater into the
may have to be deepened."
network; a variety of paths including leakage from
In fact urbanization alters all parts of the hydro- pipes, over-irrigation and septic tanks carry water
logical cycle so much that no simple analysis of the down to the groundwater system.
effects on groundwater is possil~le. Many of the alter- The water supply network carries large flows.
ations will increase recharge where there is permeable Table 1 compares, for a number of major cities, pre-
ground below the city. This has been recognized in cipitation-usually the main input to the natural
principle by some writers, for example Gray and network--with imports of water and local groundwa-
Foster (1972) and Monition (1977), but the increases ter abstraction, which are the inputs to the water
have rarely been quantified. It has not been realized supply network. In highly urbanized areas, e.g. Hong
that urban recharge is often as high, or higher, than Kong, and in arid or semi-arid climates, e.g. Doha and
pre-urbanization rates (Lerner, 1986). This is due in Lima, flows in the water supply network exceed those
part to the lack of appropriate data. Those concerned in the natural system. Even in temperate, moderate
with water in urban areas (i.e. urban hydrologists, density cities (Vancouver, Birmingham) flows in the
water supply engineers, sewage engineers, etc.) usually two systems are comparable in size.
have little interest in urban groundwater except as a
nuisance, and do not quantify the interactions of their
systems with it. 3. R E C H A R G E ~ N URBAN AREAS
This paper has two purposes. Firstly it is a review of
the few data available on urban recharge, in order to 3.1. Recharge from the natural network
show that it is not a single, simple process. Secondly it Large urban areas often have a meso-climate which
is a plea for urban recharge to be recognized as an area may alter rainfall and evapotranspiration rates (e.g.
for research, and especially for the collection of suit- Shaw, 1988). These are probably second order effects
able data. on recharge when compared to the changes caused by
29
30 DAVID N. LERNE~

Connections with groundwater ~ .~.':

~"~ "2"~' sumptive use
'~ upward flows ,~s I evopo¢otion, in product etc )
downward
flows

/? ~
.f/hndustriol I I if=o'~'-"~-'~•~.-~.,,
f ent----.~--pr,vote 1 ~'Lrwers ~_
,~..~o,. ~ ..,.~o0.,.0. o,.oo.o, , )i~==,
o • '0o o-°4 i
I local ~ dustrlal j !

!, r~:~,:,:.,,oo ? ' ....... ,::c~ L,L .w.. ,

-,~o.s=lll I Joko~e I \ ..... d,s~osol--y !s.o~. ---
E.....:':°" t i t ' ..... o, t
l ." e t~
,-------;;::-':---; .... ---./
' °°°s:s.~t"e i ''-..t
i"°'" fI
\\ / ." ~ ,.oo~o,,oo
e,o,/t -. .q.~
"-l:q-"--

q~:::Zo','ts ',', -'- , ef"°"°'---'--::'2,~U:::

s°' "~
external t J
leaks ~,gorden ET o I

"~.~.~. ~.~ ~ '

,.~.over-,rrigotion ~.jS . f/
""~':" ~ .-- ~ . . ~ _ ~ .

Fig. 1. Flows of water and sewage in a city.

Table 1. Relative sizes of inputs to the urban hydrological networks

Area 1 Local
City (km 2) Date Precipitation Imports g'water Units

Urban Sweden 2 4024 c 1970 701 235 nd 3 mm

Mexico City 2 nd 3 1980 86 14 nd 3 %
Hang Kong 24 1046 1971 1912 1310 64 mm
Hang Kong 56 0.61-0.35 1980 2000 650-75007 0 mm
Sydney 2 1035 1962-1971 1150 333 16 mm
Vancouver 2 0.21 1982 1215 576 0 mm
Lima s 400 1978 10 16509 9509 mm
Doha, Qatar ~° 294 1981-1982 167 175 27 mm
Birmingham 11 500 1985 730 675 3012 mm

i Many of the areas are for a supply zone and include rural and semi-rural land.
2 Grimmond and Oke, 1986.
3nd--No data given in source document.
4 Whole city.
5 Lerner, 1986; Geotechnical Control Office, 1982.
6 Thirteen districts on Hang Kong Island.
v Assuming minimum night flows are 40% of supply.
s Lerner et al., 1982; Wild and Ruiz, 1987.
9 Includes agricultural use.
lo Pencol, John Taylor and Sons, 1985.
~Written communications, Severn Trent Water Authority.
2 Local groundwater only used by industry.

surface coverings which generally reduce infiltration, strated by van D a m a n d van der Ven (1984). There is
a n d increase a n d accelerate runoff. This runoff is often potential for recharge from s t o r m sewers a n d drains,
carried in s t o r m sewers, drains, or o t h e r artificial even w h e n these are designed to carry water out of the
waterways. T h u s it is p r o b a b l e t h a t direct recharge is city. Sewers are well k n o w n to leak a n d Lerner (1986)
reduced in u r b a n areas. It should be n o t e d in passing presents evidence t h a t such leakage recharges g r o u n d -
t h a t permeable p a v e m e n t s are sometimes used to water in H a n g Kong. In a water resources study of
reduce runoff, a n d these will increase recharge by Liverpool, the University of B i r m i n g h a m (1984) con-
allowing infiltration while reducing vegetation cover cluded t h a t significant a m o u n t s of s t o r m water leaked
a n d so reducing e v a p o t r a n s p i r a t i o n . This was d e m o n - from sewers into the g r o u n d w a t e r system, more t h a n
 Groundwater recharge in urban areas 31

replacing the reduction in direct recharge due to attributed it to leaking mains. Lerner (1986) concludes
impermeable cover. Storm water is often deliberately that recharge rates of 100-300 mm a - ~ are common.
recharged. In the U.K. for example, soakaways are Sewers leak, as shown by the many examples of
commonly used to dispose of runoff from domestic groundwater pollution below cities by sewage. Many
roofs, and for road runoff from some motorways and in urban areas do not have sewers, relying on septic
some cities. As no evapotranspiration takes place from tanks and soakaways to dispose of effluents--this
such water, the amount of recharge is probably higher water must recharge groundwater. For example in
than the direct recharge that would have occurred Bermuda, with an average rainfall of 1460 mm a - t ,
without urbanization. Recharge basins for storm wa- water supply is from roof catchments and sewage is
ter are used, for example on Long Island where they disposed of to septic tanks. These, and soakaways for
are thought to bring recharge up to pre-urbanization storm drainage, increase recharge from 365 mm a - ~ in
rates (Seaburn and Aronson, 1974). In arid climates rural areas to 575 mm a - t in the urban area (Thom-
there is often no provision for storm runoff, and the son and Foster, 1986).
(rare) increased runoff from impermeable surfaces will The third main source of recharge from the water
infiltrate into the permeable surroundings. supply network is over-irrigation of parks and gar-
dens. These are irrigated for aesthetic rather than
3.2. Recharge from the water supply network commercial reasons. Application is often by unskilled
All water supply networks leak. Few authorities labour. The amount of water applied rarely depends
claim to be able to reduce leakage below 10% of on plant water needs, but on the affluence of con-
supply, and rates of 50% have been reported. This sumers, pricing policies for water supplies and, in the
source alone can generate a potential recharge of up to case of municipal parks, on bureaucratic procedures.
3000 mm a ~, and Lerner (1986) showed that some of For these reasons over-irrigation is normal with many
this leakage did in fact recharge groundwater. He gave multiples of the potential evapotranspiration being
examples from Hong Kong and Lima, Peru, with applied. Excess water percolates deep to recharge
several lines of evidence. Groundwater balances and groundwater. An example is Doha in Qatar where
flow modelling showed that additional sources of over-irrigation has raised groundwater levels to the
recharge were needed to sustain groundwater levels. surface in many low lying areas (La Dell, 1986).
There was hydrochemical evidence of mains water in
groundwater, and in the Hong Kong study there was 3.3. Net effect of urbanization
piezometric evidence under completely paved areas. Figure 2 summarizes the changes in recharge that
More recently Lerner (1989a) presents informal evi- urbanization can cause. With so many changes, and
dence of the downward percolation of leaking mains with different conditions in every city, it is difficult to
water from a large underground Byzantine cistern. generalize about the net effect. However it is clear that
Rivett et al. (1989) report localized contamination of there will always be man-made sources of recharge. In
groundwater in Birmingham by trihalomethanes, and drier climates, or with large imported supplies, or with

I Increased reduction in area for

preclpltot ion evapotranspffatlon Imports of
Imports of wa er o
wc3ter to clt~, city
over - irrigation of I I
F'~ gard . . . . . d parkland I----1
~ A I I ~ ~ ~ I I I I dlschargeof effluent I ]

•. I , , , ~ l / l l l f l l l \ t f "~_____.~,,i I / , i l I I I I / / I T # 1 1 7 ~ if/If/I~ I ~II(,;7"IIfT ~

• • i • i t'' II' ~' ..... I ! (concrete tarmac- in ~irect

~ ~ ~ 0~1/ / etc) . . . . . . ge
leakTng water malns,always deschorge water . , ~ /
sewers d scharg n
as undeF pressure a i s c n a r g i n ~ a t e e ~ s ~

~r~ Increases ,n recharge -~I1~ Decreases ,n recharge _'~

Fig. 2. Urban effects on groundwater recharge.

AE(B) 24:1-C
32 DAVIDN. LERNER

poor maintainance of piped systems, recharge in ur- infiltration, soil moisture or pressure, or tracer con-
ban areas is likely to exceed that in rural areas. Table 2 centrations require knowledge of the leak location;
gives some examples of water balances for urbanized more importantly they need a method to move from
aquifers. point measurement to a more regional scale.

3.4. Urban groundwater quality 4.2. Water resource and other engineering studies
There are many potential threats to groundwater The multiplicity of recharge sources and complexity
quality in urban areas, including: of landuse and surface cover, make it extremely diffi-
cult to estimate recharge in urban areas for engineer-
- - w a s t e disposal activities,
ing studies. For example, consider the possible sources
- - industrial premises,
of recharge from the water supply network:
- - c h e m i c a l stockpiles and storage tanks,
- - s p i l l a g e s during transport, recharge = leakage from water mains
- - sewers, and +external losses from consumers'
--surface drainage, including roads. properties
+leakage from sewers
Many of these threats have been realized, and there
+ flow to septic tanks
are numerous cases of contaminated groundwater
+ deep percolation from domestic
beneath cities, of which just a few need be cited here.
irrigation
The Triassic sandstone aquifer beneath Birmingham is
+deep percolation from municipal
widely polluted by chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents irrigation. (1)
(Rivett et al., 1989) as is the alluvial aquifer beneath
Milan, Italy (Cavallaro et al., 1986). Examples of Considering all these components individually, with
microbiologicaUy polluted groundwater are given by their associated errors, can lead to a large accumu-
Galbraith et al. (1987), while Eisen and Anderson lated error in the recharge estimate. To reduce errors,
(1980) showed that Milwaukee's groundwater is con- it is preferable to consider the overall balance of the
taminated by C1- and SO ] - . Bermuda's limestone network and estimate net recharge as follows:
aquifer is contaminated with NO3 and some micro- net recharge = imports of water
biological organisms (Thomson and Foster, 1986). + local abstractions of groundwater
-consumptive use
- e f f l u e n t leaving area. (2)
4. ESTIMATING R E C H A R G E IN URBAN AREAS
Methods of using both equations are discussed by
4.1. Scientific studies Lerner (1989b).
This review has shown that there are few accurate Estimating recharge from the natural network pre-
data on the effects of urbanization on recharge, either sents even greater problems, the most difficult of
for individual components or overall, but that such which is losses from storm sewers. All studies of
data are needed because there are significant effects to leaking sewers have been of those which collect water,
quantify. Those familiar with urban environments will not lose it, because this is an important factor in their
realize that collecting accurate data on such episodic design. Except in research studies, water balance over
(in time and space) phenomena will be difficult. As just individual storms are unlikely to be accurate enough
one example, consider the problem of leaking storm because of the uncertainties in both measurement of
sewers. Water balances will be of especially low accu- precipitation and runoff, and in estimates of detention
racy during storms. Methods based on measuring and evaporation. Field tests in combined sewers at
times of low flow, or injecting and tracking known
flows or tracers, or analysis of groundwater responses
Table 2. Example water balances of urbanized aquifers may provide more accurate estimates for small parts
(10 3 m3 day- 1)
of a city, but are impractical for the whole system.
City Lima* Dohat Bermudas The best approach will be to set upper and lower
bounds on recharge by water balance methods. These
Area (km2) 400 294 6.3 estimates can then be refined by calibration of a
Recharge from: groundwater flow model against groundwater re-
precipitation 0 11.5 4.83 sponses and outflows.
rivers 280 0 0
agricultural irrigation ~ 390 0 0
park irrigation ~ 37.6 0 5. C O N C L U S I O N S
leaking mains 340 25.3 0
sewers and septic tanks 0? 17.6 3.13 This review argues that there are more sources and
soakaways 0 - - pathways of groundwater recharge in urban than rural
areas. The large imports of water to cities give rise to
* Lerner et al., 1982; Wild and Ruiz, 1987.
t La Dell, 1986. large recharges from leaking pipes, and storm water is
$ Thomson and Foster, 1986. often partly diverted to groundwater, whether in-
 Groundwater recharge in urban areas 33

tentionally or otherwise. Despite the increased imper- its of central London. Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London A272,
meable area, the net result is t h a t total u r b a n recharge 135-168.
Hogland W. and Niemczynowicz J. (1986) The unit super-
is often at least as large as would occur w i t h o u t the
structure--a new construction to prevent groundwater
city. G r o u n d w a t e r quality is often p o o r b e n e a t h cities depletion. IAHS Publ. 156, 513-522.
where there is n o geological (low permeability) pro- La Dell T. (1986) Rising groundwater in Doha, Qatar.
tection. Few reliable d a t a are available on u r b a n Geolog. Soc. Lond. News. 15, (Abstract).
recharge, either for the individual c o m p o n e n t s or the Lerner D. N. (1986) Leaking pipes recharge groundwater.
Ground Water 24(5), 654-662.
total, a n d further scientific a n d engineering studies are Lerner D. N. (1989a) Large Byzantine water storage cisterns.
needed. Q. J. Eng. Geol. 22.
Lerner D. N. (1989b) Recharge due to urbanization, chapter
Acknowledgements--An earlier version of this paper was 15. In Groundwater Recharge Estimation, a Guidebook to
presented to UNESCO's International Symposium on Practice. Heise, Hannover, F.R.G.
Hydrological Processes and Water Management in Urban Lerner D. N., Mansell-Moullin M., Dellow D. J. and Lloyd
Areas held in Duisburg, F.R.G., during April 1988. J. W. (1982) Groundwater studies for Lima, Peru. IAHS
Publ. 135, 17-30.
Lindh G. (1983) Water and the City. UNESCO Press, Paris.
Monition L. (1977) Effects de l'urbanization sur leas eaux
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