Abstract
With water resource planning assuming greater importance in environmental protection efforts, analyzing the health of agricultural watersheds using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) becomes essential for decision-makers in Southern Texas. Within the area, there exist numerous threats from conflicting land uses. These include the conversion of land formerly designated for agricultural purposes to other uses. Despite current efforts, anthropogenic factors are greatly contributing to the degradation of watersheds. Additionally, the activities of waste water facilities located in some of the counties, rising populations, and other socioeconomic variables are negatively impacting the quality of water in the agricultural watersheds. To map the location of these stressors spatially and the extent of their impacts across time, the paper adopts a mix scale method of temporal spatial analysis consisting of simple descriptive statistics. In terms of objectives, this research provides geo-spatial analysis of the effects of human activities on agricultural watersheds in Southern Texas and the factors fuelling the concerns under the purview of watershed management. The results point to growing ecosystem decline across time and a geographic cluster of counties experiencing environmental stress. Accordingly, the emergence of stressors such as rising population, increased use of fertilizer treatments on farm land, discharges of atmospheric pollutants and the large presence of municipal and industrial waste treatment facilities emitting pathogens and pesticides directly into the agricultural watersheds pose a growing threat to the quality of the watershed ecosystem.
Highlights
Introduction and Background InformationOver the last several years, the agricultural watersheds in the South Texas region along the coastal plains and the Gulf of Mexico continue to experience repeated problems of impairment and other forms of environmental degradation prompted by human activities and a host of other factors
To map the location of stressors ravaging the watersheds and the extent of their impacts across time and the factors, the paper adopts a mix scale method of temporal spatial analysis consisting of simple descriptive statistics and correlation analysis connected to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
The continuous role of human activities and conflicting land uses evident in the region and the ensuing environmental change prompted by various stressors threaten the surrounding ecology of the South Texas region and its watersheds
Summary
Over the last several years, the agricultural watersheds in the South Texas region along the coastal plains and the Gulf of Mexico continue to experience repeated problems of impairment and other forms of environmental degradation prompted by human activities and a host of other factors. This is happening in the face of extreme climatic variability coupled with little emphasis on regional assessment and spatial analysis of environmental stressors in the area and its surrounding counties. This capability remains indispensable in the design of data infrastructure best suited for watershed analysis [3] and the conservation of natural resources for sustainable development [1,4]
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