The Impact Of Urbanization on Water Quality and Riparian Land Cover Change in the Grand River Watershed

Abstract

The research topic of my paper is the impact of urbanization on water quality and riparian land cover change in the Grand River watershed. Urban expansion could have unpredictable impacts on natural environment and resources. This watershed is comprised of lots of major rivers and tributaries in Canada which are significant hydrological resources to humans and nature, so it plays important roles in providing nearby residences water use and land irrigation. The watershed contains two First Nation territories and a total of 39 municipalities, including larger cities like Waterloo, Kitchener, Guelph, and Cambridge (GRCA 2008), so rapid urbanization could be one of the factors to degrade water quality and the underwater ecosystem. Moreover, due to the water quality change of the water, the riparian area land cover can correspondingly change over the years. Therefore, this study will mainly focus on studying water quality trends from 2000 to 2020, and data is collected from 12 water monitoring stations near the large cities in the watershed. The water quality will be defined by parameters like pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity, and other chemical elements. The land cover layer of 2000 and 2020 will be used to compare the riparian land cover change, illustrating the spatial relationship of urban expansion and riparian area with significant land cover change. Furthermore, more discussions will focus on if the riparian land cover change is closely related to water quality degradation caused by urbanization. The final deliverable would be presented by ArcGIS pro layouts and statistic charts.