Improving landscape indicators for monitoring heavy metal concentrations in urban streams

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Heavy metal contamination is often pronounced in urban watersheds as urban stormwater runoff generally**contains higher concentrations of heavy metals than that from watersheds dominated by other land cover types,**with serious consequences for aquatic ecosystems. Pollution involving heavy metals is of particular concern**due to their toxicity and persistence. Contamination can impact stream biota as well as shellfish and**invertebrates living or feeding in bottom substrates. Here, we improve upon current stormwater management**approaches by developing landscape indicators suited to monitoring heavy metal concentrations in urban**streams. Furthermore, roads are a key feature of urban landscapes that impacts heavy metal concentrations. As**such, we use high spatial resolution urban land cover to provide greater discrimination among different road**features (e.g. local, collector, arterial roads) within the study region and then link these landscape indicators to**concentrations of Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Nickel (Ni), Cadmium (Cd) and Chromium (Cr) in**streams across Metro Vancouver. Additionally, urban drainage systems (e.g. catch basins, detention ponds, and**outfalls to streams) will also be mapped as they have been identified as important to contaminant transport. As**such, investigation of heavy metal concentrations in urban streams using improved landscape indicators will**provide further improvements to our ability to assessment urban aquatic ecosystem health. This collaboration**creates a monitoring approach applicable and transferable across all Canadian cities interested in maintaining**the ecological health of their urban streams while supporting growth and urban expansion.