How Land Use Effects Our Water
The next time you are in the car, take a careful look around. How many buildings, houses, shopping malls do you see? How many trees, parks, creeks or waterways? How many roads, highways, train tracks, bridges and tunnels? If you were to count each of these and create a chart of the results, you would be producing a study that shows how the land has been used in your community. And, that study could give you important information about the needs of your community and the balance that exists between meeting those human needs and protecting and preserving the natural environment.
Land-use is another word for how people use land; it can be agricultural, residential or commercial development, or preservation, preserving the natural as it is, into the future. How do we make the choices about how we will use our land; how much we develop, how much we preserve? Some factors those making the decisions consider include:
- Human needs; given the population, how much housing is needed, how many schools, stores, hospitals, government buildings etc. And also, how much land is required for landfills and garbage disposal.
- Economics; what use of the land will produce the greatest revenue for the community and for the people who develop and build on the land.
- Recreation; how many parks, soccer fields, streams and lakes for swimming and fishing, bike paths, football stadiums and theaters.
- Environment and Ecology; how much open space, woods, lakes and forests will be preserved for the future and how much of the watersheds, wetlands and other natural resources critical to sustaining environmental balance are we willing to protect.
Water Quality
Streams, rivers, and lakes are an important part of the landscape, as they provide water supply, recreation, and transportation for humans, and a place to live for a variety of plants and animals. Groundwater also is an important water resource that serves as a source of drinking water for more than 140 million people in the United States.
In some areas, contamination from natural and human sources has affected the use of these waters. For example, naturally occurring minerals within bedrock can impair the taste of groundwater and in some cases limit its use. The spilling, leaking, improper disposal, or intentional application of chemicals at the land surface can result in runoff that contaminates nearby streams and lakes, or infiltration that contaminates underlying aquifers.
The type and severity of water contamination often is directly related to human activity, which can be quantified in terms of the intensity and type of land use in the source areas of water to streams and aquifers. The analysis of patterns of land use and population provides a tool in the investigation of sites with known contamination, and in the prediction and prevention of future contamination of downstream waters. Studies of contamination sources and transport pathways that affect surface water and groundwater draw upon several disciplines, including hydrology , geology, biology, soil science, agriculture, physics, chemistry, and engineering.
Read more in the Water Encyclopedia..
