Based on Beckwith and et al., 2007, impervious surfaces (i.e.

, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, driveways

and roofs) prevent rain from soaking into the ground. Rain runs off impervious surfaces, rapidly flowing
into storm drains and local waterways, which leads to greater discharge volumes and higher peak flows.
This change in runoff conditions can have significant impacts on storm hydrographs for watersheds with
high percentages of impervious cover.

Impervious surfaces collect pollutants from aerial deposition, transportation, and other landscape
management practices throughout the year. During major rains, storm water runoff can mobilize collected
pollutants and carry them into storm drains, streams, and the ocean. Storm water pollution from
impervious surfaces potentially threatens freshwater and marine ecosystems. It may also trigger public
health warnings, like beach advisories, at popular recreational areas. Beach advisories can have negative
economic consequences for communities like Santa Barbara that depend on coastal tourism.

In estimating runoff from rainfall, it is interesting to compare the different responses from the impervious
portions of a drainage area with those with pervious land covers such as turf grass, woods, or even bare
soil. At the start of rainfall, the initial abstractions of both the impervious and pervious surfaces must be
overcome before runoff begins. While the initial abstractions for typical impervious covers like roofs,
roadways, parking lots, and sidewalks are considerably less than for areas with pervious covers, they
nevertheless exist (Pitt and Voorhees, 1993).

However, according to Allibone, R., Horrox, J., and Parkyn, S.M. (2001), having a lower value, the initial
abstraction for the impervious surfaces is overcome first, and the impervious surfaces will begin to
produce runoff. This will continue until the larger initial abstraction of the pervious covers is also
overcome. At this point, both the impervious and pervious portions of a drainage area will produce runoff.
Once runoff has started, it is generally accepted that its amount will increase exponentially as rainfall
continues. This nonlinear relationship between rainfall and the runoff it produces is more pronounced for
pervious land covers than impervious ones, which typically have a near constant or linear rainfall-runoff
response once runoff begins. These different initial abstractions and rainfall-runoff responses result in the
relative percentage of runoff produced from each type of cover varying considerably, depending upon the
total rainfall amount.