The influence of local land use on the water quality of urban rivers

Abstract

Urban river flows are often highly variable and extremely polluted, which limits their potential for recreational use and as habitat for terrestrial and aquatic organisms. This study investigates how different urban landuses are reflected in the water quality of a specific river. To accomplish this, the study adopts a longitudinal approach and assesses water quality at multiple points along a single system that has three distinct land uses: 1) rural and agricultural; 2) residential; and 3) industrial. The study shows that water quality is relatively good in the rural and agricultural region, shows signs of impairment in the residential region, and becomes heavily impaired in the industrial region-despite having very similar stream side environments (good riparian vegetation cover and a floodway reserve) for its entire length. This study identifies which portions of the catchment are most responsible for non-point source pollution in urban rivers and therefore can be used to target remediation strategies to help improve the overall quality of these systems.