Urban lakes are the "SoUL" of a city

Why Urban Lakes?

 Increasingly, our population is centered in cities, where parkland and open space are often rare and highly valued. Urban lakes commonly provide both attributes. Also, urban lakes are typically combined with a city’s drainage system and provide valuable functions of water storage, detention and water quality improvement. Importantly, urban lakes are commonly upstream of more sensitive ecosystems, such as estuaries. For example, Crescent Lake discharges by storm sewer to Coffee Pot Bayou, which flows to and connects with Tampa Bay. Improving water quality in Crescent Lake will ultimately improve receiving water quality in Tampa Bay. Finally, urban lakes often provide critical habitat for waterfowl and other birds over changing seasons. By cleaning up debris, and creating habitat, we are minimizing pollutant load to the estuary and reducing the risk of harm to wildlife through entanglement and ingestion of debris.

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As a focus of these benefits, urban lakes warrant special consideration as important and unique ecosystems under society’s direct influence.