Estimating the effects of urban residential development on water quality using microdata

In this study, we examine the impact on water quality of urbanization using disaggregate data from Wake County, North Carolina. We use a unique panel data set tracing the conversion of individual residentially zoned land parcels to relate the density of residential development and the change in residential land use to three measures of water quality. Using a spatial econometrics model, we relate spatially and temporally referenced monitoring station readings to our measures of residential land use while controlling for other factors affecting water quality. We find that both the density of residential land use and the rate of land conversion have a negative impact on water quality. The impacts of these non-point sources are found to be larger in magnitude than those from urban point sources.