LANDUSE- WATER QUALITY MODELLING: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

There can be no doubt that landuse profoundly affects the quality of water in streams, rivers, lakes and shallow aquifers. However. the task of finding specific cause- effect relationships between different landuses and Water Quality (WQ) is one of the most important ecological challenges of out times. At the present time, few tesll:d procedures are available to study the landuse and Non-Point Source (NPS) pollution impacts on WQ. One methodology which offers considerable promise is the use of statistical analysis of landuse and WQ data from selected regions. Facilitating the systematic application ofstatistical procedures, in the present investigation, regression equations have been developed between landuse and WQ parameters. The results ofthe study indicated that landuse can account for up to 45% ofthe observed variation in mean nitrates, 39% of the observed variation in mean phosphates, S8% of the observed variation in mean fluoride concentration, 46% of the observed variation 10 mean COD concentrations and 72%ofthe observed variation in mean potasSiUID concentrations.