A century of streamwater quality degradation by input from urban water infrastructure as revealed by tree-ring records
- 1The University of Texas at Austin
- 2University of Arizona
Abstract
The transfer of water from urban water networks to natural streams is a driver of streamwater quality degradation that likely occurs worldwide. We develop a new proxy using tree-ring strontium isotope ratios ( ⁸⁷ Sr/ ⁸⁶ Sr) to reconstruct multidecadal histories of municipal-water contributions to natural streams. We apply this approach to three watersheds spanning highly urbanized, rapidly urbanizing, and rural conditions in central Texas, USA. Municipal water has persistently dominated streamflow (>90%) in the urban watershed since at least 1945, only 25 years after the initial expansion of Austin’s municipal water infrastructure network. In the rapidly urbanizing watershed, the modeled municipal-water component of stream baseflow increased from approximately 12% to 33% over only 35 years- a 175% increase that coincided with an 85% increase in population density. In contrast, municipal-water contributions have remained low in the rural watershed since the 1840s. The timing of Sr isotope increases in the urban and rapidly urbanizing watersheds indicates that municipal-water contributions can substantially alter stream chemistry within just two decades of water infrastructure installation. This proxy allows the reconstruction of water-quality degradation over periods of urban growth in the 20th and 21st centuries, including periods that predate the initiation of modern water-quality monitoring. Our approach provides a tool for diagnosing the resilience of water infrastructure under accelerating urban growth and climate stress, informing proactive strategies to protect freshwater resources worldwide.
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BibTeX
@article{sananda2026century,
title = {{A century of streamwater quality degradation by input from urban water infrastructure as revealed by tree-ring records}},
author = {Josiah M Sananda and Jay L Banner and Sneha Nachimuthu and Bryan A Black and Jose Abella-Gutiérrez and Kasey M Faust and Staci L Loewy},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aeb560},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb560},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A century of streamwater quality degradation by input from urban water infrastructure as revealed by tree-ring records
AU - Josiah M Sananda
AU - Jay L Banner
AU - Sneha Nachimuthu
AU - Bryan A Black
AU - Jose Abella-Gutiérrez
AU - Kasey M Faust
AU - Staci L Loewy
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - Environmental Research Letters
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/aeb560
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb560
AB - The transfer of water from urban water networks to natural streams is a driver of streamwater quality degradation that likely occurs worldwide. We develop a new proxy using tree-ring strontium isotope ratios ( ⁸⁷ Sr/ ⁸⁶ Sr) to reconstruct multidecadal histories of municipal-water contributions to natural streams. We apply this approach to three watersheds spanning highly urbanized, rapidly urbanizing, and rural conditions in central Texas, USA. Municipal water has persistently dominated streamflow (>90%) in the urban watershed since at least 1945, only 25 years after the initial expansion of Austin’s municipal water infrastructure network. In the rapidly urbanizing watershed, the modeled municipal-water component of stream baseflow increased from approximately 12% to 33% over only 35 years- a 175% increase that coincided with an 85% increase in population density. In contrast, municipal-water contributions have remained low in the rural watershed since the 1840s. The timing of Sr isotope increases in the urban and rapidly urbanizing watersheds indicates that municipal-water contributions can substantially alter stream chemistry within just two decades of water infrastructure installation. This proxy allows the reconstruction of water-quality degradation over periods of urban growth in the 20th and 21st centuries, including periods that predate the initiation of modern water-quality monitoring. Our approach provides a tool for diagnosing the resilience of water infrastructure under accelerating urban growth and climate stress, informing proactive strategies to protect freshwater resources worldwide.
SN - 1748-9326
ER -