Abstract
The most significant feature of the landscape of mountainous urbanized watersheds is complexity. The geomorphology, composition, and configuration have strong ties with river water quality. In this study, through redundancy analysis, we examined how landscape complexity measured at both landscape and class levels related to water quality within watersheds. The results indicate that water quality is closely associated with both the relief degree of the land surface and patch density at the landscape level. The river water quality of mountainous watersheds is better if the relief degree of the land surface is larger, though river water quality degradation is associated with higher fragmentation of the landscape. At the class level, a greater proportion of non-urban land use may contribute to better river water quality, as do better connectivity and moderate degrees of aggregation. Water quality is more likely to be degraded when the shape of residential land, public service, and commercial land is more complex. We conclude that, in mountainous urbanized watersheds, river water quality can be protected through land use planning and management by regulating a set of landscape metrics for complexity measures.
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Acknowledgements
We very much appreciate the Shihu Deng, Chongqing Zhixing Hongtu Technology Co., Ltd. for providing the research data. We also express our appreciation to the anonymous reviewers and the editors.
Funding
The research and activities pertaining to this paper were supported by China National R&D Program “Building strong ecological security patterns through elevating green infrastructure’s level of ecosystem services”, Grant number 2017YFC0505705, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities “Territorial spatial ecological planning and its environmental effects”, Grant number 22120200082.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by YWT and CH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YWT and CH. Yan WT, WYC and CCD helped revise the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Appendix
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See Figs.
A scatter plot of RDLS and water quality parameters at the landscape level
10,
A scatter plot of PD, LSI and water quality parameters at the landscape level: a PD and water quality parameters, b LSI and water quality parameters
11,
A scatter plot of PD and water quality parameters at the class level: a PD of urban land use and water quality parameters, b PD of non-urban land use and water quality parameters
12,
A scatter plot of SPLIT and water quality parameters at the class level: a SPLIT of urban land use and water quality parameters, b SPLIT of non-urban land use and water quality parameters
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A scatter plot of LSI and water quality parameters at the class level: a LSI of urban land use and water quality parameters, b LSI of non-urban land use and water quality parameters
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A scatter plot of PLAND and water quality parameters at the class level: a PLAND of urban land use and water quality parameters, b PLAND of non-urban land use and water quality parameters
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A scatter plot of PD and water quality parameters at the class level: a PD of agricultural land and water quality parameters, b PD of forest land and water quality parameters, c PD of grassland and water quality parameters
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A scatter plot of SPLIT and water quality parameters at the class level: a SPLIT of agricultural land and water quality parameters, b SPLIT of forest land and water quality parameters, c SPLIT of grassland and water quality parameters
17,
A scatter plot of PLAND and water quality parameters at the class level: a PLAND of agricultural land and water quality parameters, b PLAND of forest land and water quality parameters, c PLAND of grassland and water quality parameters
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A scatter plot of LSI and water quality parameters at the class level: a LSI of residential land and water quality parameters, b LSI of public services and commercial land and water quality parameters, c LSI of industrial land and water quality parameters
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Yan, W., Chen, H., Wang, Y. et al. The effect of landscape complexity on water quality in mountainous urbanized watersheds: a case study in Chongqing, China. Landscape Ecol Eng 17, 165–193 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-021-00448-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-021-00448-9