Abstract
Water quality is highly dependent on the landscape characteristics. In this study, we investigated the relationships between water quality and landscape pattern (composition and configuration) in Huzhou City, China. The water quality variables, including pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (CODMn), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), NH3-N, petroleum, dissolved total phosphorus (DTP), and total nitrogen (TN) in low water, normal water and flood periods were identified by investigating 34 sampling sites in Huzhou City during the period from 2001 to 2007. Landscape composition and landscape configuration metrics were calculated for different scales. It was found that scales and seasons both play important role when analyzing the relationships between landscape characteristics of different land use types. The results implied that some water quality parameters such as CODMn, petroleum are more polluted in flood period than the other two seasons at different scales, while DTP and TN are more polluted in low water period. Influences of different landscape metrics on water quality should operate at different spatial scales. The results shown in this paper will effectively provide scientific basis for the policy making in sustainable development of water environment.
Highlights
Water quality is highly dependent on the landscape characteristics
Guo et al reported that the impact of land use and land cover changes (LULC) on TP changed with buffer width[5], and Zhang indicated that LULC significantly governed riverine nitrogen loads in a dynamic riparian width[6]
Water quality including Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (CODMn), NH3-N, petroleum and dissolved total phosphorus (DTP) concentrations was slightly better in flood than in low water period, especially after the year of 2004 (Fig. 3)
Summary
Water quality is highly dependent on the landscape characteristics. In this study, we investigated the relationships between water quality and landscape pattern (composition and configuration) in Huzhou City, China. A multiple spatiotemporal scale approach uses the spatiotemporal information to provide insight into prospective relationship between landscape pattern and river water quality. Another discrepancy among previous research is which aspect of landscape pattern characteristics should be analyzed. Most previous studies just analyzed correlations between landscape patterns of one certain land use type and water quality. Through their studies at the watershed www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Rare investigations have simultaneously analyzed metrics of different land use types and compared their relative importance of their impacts, which could provide the implementations and applications for guiding landscape planning and water resource management[10]
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