The drought and its attendant water shortages have been making headlines nationwide since 2007, and the experts say there is no end in sight. Over half the nation is gripped by drought and many states are suffering an “exceptional” drought, the worst level measured. Restrictions on water use are growing. In Union County, N.C. restrictions carry severe consequences for scofflaws: a fine of up to $500 or 20 days in jail and disconnection of water services.

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VIDEO: What Is Sprawl And Why Is It Making The Drought Worse?

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But is it just the weather that is causing water shortages, or does the way we develop our land have an effect on water supplies? In this report, we explain how sprawl affects the natural supply of freshwater available to us, and we estimate how much water we may be losing from sprawling development. We speak primarily to the rain rich regions of the United States – the East, Southeast, Midwest, and Northwest – because those areas are particularly reliant on rain as a source of groundwater recharge and flow to rivers and lakes from which we draw our water.

Sprawl is development marked by automobile-dependent, spread-out suburbs, where the activities of daily life – home, school, shopping and work – are separated by long distances linked only by pavement. It results in the excessive transformation of natural areas to hard surfaces, such as ever-widening roads, parking lots, and roofs. These “impervious surfaces” significantly change natural patterns of water movement, affecting river flows and the recharge of underground water supplies. Quite simply, rainfall cannot soak into the ground through hard surfaces and consequently does not replenish water supplies.