Impact of Land Use/land Cover and Soil on Water Quality in the Upper Little Miami River Sub-basin

Download or read book Impact of Land Use/land Cover and Soil on Water Quality in the Upper Little Miami River Sub-basin written by Akshaya Kumar Devendra and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Little Miami River Basin (LMRB) is increasingly becoming susceptible to the degradation of water quality due to various factors such as increase in urban landscape and agricultural runoff. This study is about understanding the impact of land use/land cover (LULC) and soil on water quality in LMRB. It was assumed that the major sources of solutes in the river mainly originated from the leaching of the land by precipitation and the composition of the leachate is influenced by the type LULC and soil. Least square method was modified to estimate the production coefficient for each of the types of LULC and soil properties. Streams in urban areas clearly carried higher levels of Total Phosphate (TP) at mean concentrations of about 0.56 mg/L. The nitrate levels in the streams near agriculture area was observed in elevated levels with mean concentrations at 3.2 mg/L. Production coefficients for TP and nitrate are (0.036, 0.009) and (0.004 and 0.033) for urban and agriculture land use, respectively. Production coefficients for excessively drained areas on the soil maps were 0.105 mg/L/acreage percent for TP and 0.059 mg/L/acreage percent for N. The streams carrying more amounts TP coincided with excessive drainage, OM and urban areas. But, further analysis showed that TP levels were directly influenced by drainage rather than urban areas or OM.