Response of Water Quality to Landscape Patterns in an Urbanized Watershed in Hangzhou, China

Sustainability

Xiaodong Song¹  Guofan Shao²  Yu Song³ 

[1] College of Geomatics & Municipal Engineering, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China;Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA;Institute of Remote Sensing and Earth Sciences (IRSE), College of Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China;

关键词: land use;    water quality;    landscape metrics;    redundancy analysis;    watershed;    urbanization;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su12145500

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Intense human activities and drastic land use changes in rapidly urbanized areas may cause serious water quality degradation. In this study, we explored the effects of land use on water quality from a landscape perspective. We took a rapidly urbanized area in Hangzhou City, China, as a case study, and collected stream water quality data and algae biomass in a field campaign. The results showed that built-up lands had negative effects on water quality and were the primary cause of stream water pollution. The concentration of total phosphorus significantly correlated with the areas of residential, industrial, road, and urban greenspace, and the concentration of chlorophyll a also significantly correlated with the areas of these land uses, except residential land. At a landscape level, the correlation analysis showed that the landscape indices, e.g., dominance, shape complexity, fragmentation, aggregation, and diversity, all had significant correlations with water quality parameters. From the perspective of land use, the redundancy analysis results showed that the percentages of variation in water quality explained by the built-up, forest and wetland, cropland, and bareland decreased in turn. The spatial composition of the built-up lands was the main factor causing stream water pollution, while the shape complexities of the forest and wetland patches were negatively correlated with stream water pollution.

【 授权许可】

Unknown