The impact of impervious surface on water quality and its threshold in Korea

The change in the impervious-pervious balance has significantly altered the stream water quality, and thus the threshold of the impervious surface area in the watershed has been an active research topic for many years. The objective of this study is to verify the correlation between impervious surfaces and water quality and to determine the threshold of the percentage of the impervious surface area (PISA) for diagnosing the severity of future stream water quality problems in the watershed as well as regulating the PISA in Korea. Statistical results indicated that the PISA is a suitable indicator of water quality at the watershed scale and can illustrate the water quality problems caused by the impervious surface. In addition, the results from this study suggest that controlling the PISA within about 10% in watersheds is a fundamental strategy to mitigate the degradation of water quality.