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Spatial scale and seasonal dependence of land use impacts on riverine water quality in the Huai River basin, China

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Abstract

Land use pattern is an effective reflection of anthropic activities, which are primarily responsible for water quality deterioration. A detailed understanding of relationship between water quality and land use is critical for effective land use management to improve water quality. Linear mixed effects and multiple regression models were applied to water quality data collected from 2003 to 2010 from 36 stations in the Huai River basin together with topography and climate data, to characterize the land use impacts on water quality and their spatial scale and seasonal dependence. The results indicated that the influence of land use categories on specific water quality parameter was multiple and varied with spatial scales and seasons. Land use exhibited strongest association with dissolved oxygen (DO) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) concentrations at entire watershed scale and with total phosphorus (TP) and fluoride concentrations at finer scales. However, the spatial scale, at which land use exerted strongest influence on instream chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) levels, varied with seasons. In addition, land use composition was responsible for the seasonal pattern observed in contaminant concentrations. COD, NH3-N, and fluoride generally peaked during dry seasons in highly urbanized regions and during rainy seasons in less urbanized regions. High proportion of agricultural and rural areas was associated with high nutrient contamination risk during spring. The results highlight the spatial scale and seasonal dependence of land use impacts on water quality and can provide scientific basis for scale-specific land management and seasonal contamination control.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51409191, No. 51279143), the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (No. 2014ZX07204-006), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC0401301). We would like to thank the Huai River Basin Water Resources Protection Bureau, Chinese Meteorological Administration, and Chinese Academy of Sciences for access to data.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jianfeng Liu, Xiang Zhang, Bi Wu, Guoyan Pan, Jing Xu & Shaofei Wu

  2. Hubei Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for Water Resources Security, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jianfeng Liu, Xiang Zhang, Bi Wu, Guoyan Pan, Jing Xu & Shaofei Wu

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  1. Jianfeng Liu
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Correspondence to Xiang Zhang.

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Liu, J., Zhang, X., Wu, B. et al. Spatial scale and seasonal dependence of land use impacts on riverine water quality in the Huai River basin, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 20995–21010 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9733-7

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