Abstract
The Greater Vancouver area has undergone significant land use and land cover (LULC) change over the past several decades, often adversely affecting stream health and water quality, particularly in those areas that have undergone the most urbanization. In this study 30 years of historical LULC and water quality data were examined using GIS and statistical analysis to better understand these impacts and to help build a broader understanding of cause and effect relationships of changing LULC, especially since urbanization is increasingly occurring within sensitive watersheds at greater distances from the City of Vancouver. Urban, agriculture, and disturbed LULC data from 1976, 1986, and 2000 were examined within a number of watersheds and related to historical water quality data sampled from streams during similar time frames. Additional higher resolution 2006 LULC data from a smaller number of watersheds were then examined and compared to stream health data to investigate the sensitivity of LULC data resolution on monitoring watershed impact. While LULC impact can be clearly seen at both high and lower resolutions, issues of ambiguous land cover and land use designations can potentially affect the magnitude of the relationship.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.References
Allan JD (2004) Landscapes and riverscapes: the influence of land use on stream ecosystems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 35:257–284
Barton K (1978) The other water pollution. Environment 20(5):12–20
Bull J (2003) Status of water quality conditions in the Little Campbell, Serpentine, and Nicomekl Rivers from 1971 to 2002. Ministry of Environment, Victoria
Carpenter SR, Caraco NF, Correll DL, Howarth RW, Sharpley AN, Smith VH (1998) Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen. Ecol Appl 8:559–568
Erdas (2010) Erdas Imagine, Version 10.1. Erdas Inc., Norcross, GA
GeoBC (2010) Data distribution service. https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/dwds/home.so. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Goetz S, Fiske G (2008) Linking the diversity and abundance of stream biota to landscapes in the mid-Atlantic USA. Remote Sens Environ 112:4075–4085
Google Maps (2010) http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Metro+Vancouver,+BC,+Canada&hl=en&sll=49.064419,-122.33345&sspn=0.338771,0.948257&oq=mertro+vancouver,+BC,+Canada&t=h&hnear=Greater+Vancouver+Regional+District,+British+Columbia,+Canada&z=10. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Gove NE, Edwards RT, Conquest LL (2001) Effects of scale on land use and water quality relationships: a longitudinal basin-wide perspective. J Am Water Resour Assoc 37:1721–1734
Government of Canada (2000) Canadian Digital Elevation Data, Government of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector, Centre for Topographic Information. http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/find.do?produit=cded. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Government of Canada (2002) Canada land use monitoring program (CLUMP) urban land use-1966 to 1986. Government of Canada, National Archives of Canada, Ottawa. http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/geogratis/en/collection/detail.do?id=B27C3DC5-78C3-B980-0D13-F3A19F0181D4. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Government of Canada (2007) National Hydro Network, Canada, Government of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector, Mapping Information Branch, Centre for Topographic Information. http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/data/nhn/index.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Government of Canada (2009) Land Cover, circa 2000-Vector (LCC2000-V), Government of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector, Centre for Topographic Information. http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/data/landcover/index.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Haygarth P, Jarvis S (eds) (2002) Agriculture, hydrology and water quality. Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Okehampton
Herlihy AT, Stoddard JL, Burch Johnson C (1998) The relationship between stream chemistry and watershed land cover data in the mid-Atlantic region. US Water Air Soil Pollut 105:377–386
IBM SPSS (2010) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp
Jones KB, Neale AC, Nash MS, Van Remortal RDV, Wickham JD, Riitters KH, O’Neill RV (2001) Predicting nutrient and sediment loadings to streams from landscape metrics: a multiple watershed study from the United States Mid-Atlantic Region. Landsc Ecol 16:301–312
King RS, Baker ME, Whigham DF, Weller DE, Jordan TE, Kazyak PF et al (2005) Spatial considerations for linking watersheds land cover to ecological indicators in streams. Ecol Appl 15:137–153
Lawson EM, Mitchell GB, Walton DG (1985) Stormwater monitoring in an industrial catchment basin located in Burnaby, British Columbia. Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Environment, Technical Report. http://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eirs/finishDownloadDocument.do;jsessionid=762f75af0b9aca35fac87d1013ef2e3c492ee96323d0be489c11b0ef5852a8e5.e3uMah8KbhmLe34MbxaTchqMah90n6jAmljGr5XDqQLvpAe?subdocumentId=4033
Maloney KO, Weler DE (2011) Anthropogenic disturbance and streams: land use and land-use change affect stream ecosystems via multiple pathways. Freshw Biol 56:611–626
Metro Vancouver (2010) FAQs. http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/Pages/faqs.aspx. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
MOE (2010) Lower Mainland Region EPD water quality data: listed by Watershed. http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/regions/lower_mainland/water_quality/wq_data/index.htm. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
NRC (National Research Council) (2001) Grand challenges in environmental sciences. National Academies Press, Washington, DC
Paul MJ, Meyer JL (2001) Streams in the urban landscape. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 32:333–365
Phippen B (2008) Water quality in British Columbia: objectives attainment in 2006. Ministry of Environment, Victoria
Swain L (1983) Stormwater monitoring of a residential catchment area. Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Environment, Technical Report, Vancouver
USGS (2010) USGS Global Visualization Viewer. http://glovis.usgs.gov/. Accessed 15 Dec 2010
Walsh CJ, Roy AH, Feminella JW, Cottingham PD, Groffman PM, Morgan RP (2005) The urban stream syndrome: current knowledge and the search for a cure. J N Am Benthol Soc 24:706–723
Acknowledgments
The author thanks the University of the Fraser Valley Work Study Program for providing funding for student assistants Chris McMaster, Reid Tucker, and Erica Hartling who assisted with water quality spreadsheet transcribing and compilation and Jason Thiessen who performed slope analyses and also the BC Ministry of the Environment for collecting and providing FREP, B-IBI data, and land cover datasets. The author also thanks the reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shupe, S. Statistical and Spatial Analysis of Land Cover Impact on Selected Metro Vancouver, British Columbia Watersheds. Environmental Management 51, 18–31 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9955-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9955-x