Effects of source-sink landscape proximity on the spatial–temporal water quality from the perspective of cost distance in an agricultural watershed

Abstract

Spatial patterns of source-sink landscapes play a critical role in assessing surface water quality. However, this relation may be different due to various proximity of source-sink landscapes. The effect of the source-sink landscape proximity on surface water quality remains poorly understood. The impact of source-sink landscape proximity on the spatial–temporal water quality were quantified based on field monitoring data (2013–2019) in an agricultural watershed. A new approach considering the cost distance of landscape types, slope, and vegetation on the transformation of nutrients from one point to water bodies was used to construct different buffer zones which reflected very high, high, moderate, low, very low proximities, while the subwatershed represented the very low proximity. Then the effects of the source-sink landscape proximity were assessed based on sub-watershed and other four buffers. The resutls showed that the TN and NO3−-N were the main non-point source pollution indices with significant spatial variation (p < 0.05). The water quality index (WQI) was higher during the dry season than during the wet season, indicating that the sampling sites also experienced seasonal variations. The multi-scale analysis demonstrated the significance of the source-sink landscape proximity in improving the quality of surface water. A stronger correlation between the ratios of sink landscape and the main water quality parameters (the TN and NO3−-N) was observed in the low proximity zone, suggestiong that the low proximity zone with moderate non-point source pollution risk was a critical region in water quality management. The results provide important insights into understanding the effects of the source-sink landscape proximity on water quality and how scientific and effective measures can be made to improve water quality.