Decadal and seasonal water quality trends downstream of urban and rural areas in southern Alberta rivers

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 406-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Turnbull ◽  
M. C. Ryan

Seasonal and long-term water quality changes downstream of urban and agricultural land uses were compared using chloride, fecal coliform (FC), Escherichia coli and discharge from five long-term river monitoring sites in the Bow and Oldman watersheds in southern Alberta. Water quality data from up- and downstream locations of two major urban centers (Calgary and Lethbridge) and single sampling locations downstream of three agricultural sites were evaluated. Significant monotonic, decadal increases in chloride mass fluxes observed downstream of both urban areas were consistent with increasing chloride fluxes in wastewater effluent from increasing populations. Significant step function decreases in FC concentrations downstream of the two urban centers (89% at Calgary, 70% at Lethbridge) observed after UV disinfection were introduced at upstream wastewater treatment plants, suggesting wastewater disinfection improved river water quality. Significant monotonic decreases in pathogen indicators were found at only one of the three agricultural sampling locations. Seasonal variations in indicator bacteria were consistent with a constant source at the urban downstream sites, while variable seasonal loading patterns at the agricultural sites were attributed to seasonally changing land use. This suggests that the urban centers are more significantly mitigating pathogens in rivers than rural areas despite their significant growth.

Author(s):  
Nandu Giri ◽  
O. P. Singh

Detailed study was undertaken in 2008 and 2009 on assessment of water quality of River Wang Chhu which flows through Thimphu urban area, the capital city of Bhutan. The water samples were examined at upstream of urban area, within the urban area and its downstream. The water samples were analyzed by studying the physico-chemical, biological and benthic macro-invertebrates. The water quality data obtained during present study are discussed in relation to land use/land cover changes(LULC) and various ongoing human activities at upstream, within the each activity areas and it’s downstream. Analyses of satellite imagery of 1990 and 2008 using GIS revealed that over a period of eighteen years the forest, scrub and agricultural areas have decreased whereas urban area and road network have increased considerably. The forest cover, agriculture area and scrub decreased from 43.3% to 42.57%, 6.88% to 5.33% and 42.55% to 29.42%, respectively. The LULC changes effect water quality in many ways. The water temperature, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, turbidity, nitrate, phosphate, chloride, total coliform, and biological oxygen demand were lower at upstream and higher in urban area. On the other hand dissolved oxygen was found higher at upstream and lower in urban area. The pollution sensitive benthic macro-invertebrates population were dominant at upstream sampling sites whereas pollution tolerant benthic macro-invertebrates were found abundant in urban area and its immediate downstream. The rapid development of urban infrastructure in Thimphu city may be posing serious threats to water regime in terms of its quality. Though the deterioration of water quality is restricted to a few localized areas, the trend is serious and needs proper attention of policy planners and decision makers. Proper treatment of effluents from urban areas is urgently needed to reduce water pollution in such affected areas to check further deterioration of water quality. This present study which is based on upstream, within urban area and downstream of Thimphu city can be considered as an eye opener.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 2875
Author(s):  
Fajar Setiawan ◽  
Bunkei Matsushita ◽  
Rossi Hamzah ◽  
Dalin Jiang ◽  
Takehiko Fukushima

Most of the lakes in Indonesia are facing environmental problems such as eutrophication, sedimentation, and depletion of dissolved oxygen. The water quality data for supporting lake management in Indonesia are very limited due to financial constraints. To address this issue, satellite data are often used to retrieve water quality data. Here, we developed an empirical model for estimating the Secchi disk depth (SD) from Landsat TM/ETM+ data by using data collected from nine Indonesian lakes/reservoirs (SD values 0.5–18.6 m). We made two efforts to improve the robustness of the developed model. First, we carried out an image preprocessing series of steps (i.e., removing contaminated water pixels, filtering images, and mitigating atmospheric effects) before the Landsat data were used. Second, we selected two band ratios (blue/green and red/green) as SD predictors; these differ from previous studies’ recommendation. The validation results demonstrated that the developed model can retrieve SD values with an R2 of 0.60 and the root mean square error of 1.01 m in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia (SD values ranged from 0.5 to 5.8 m, n = 74). We then applied the developed model to 230 scenes of preprocessed Landsat TM/ETM+ images to generate a long-term SD database for Lake Maninjau during 1987–2018. The visual comparison of the in situ-measured and satellite estimated SD values, as well as several events (e.g., algal bloom, water gate open, and fish culture), showed that the Landsat-based SD estimations well captured the change tendency of water transparency in Lake Maninjau, and these estimations will thus provide useful data for lake managers and policy-makers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Mochamad A. Pratama ◽  
Yan D. Immanuel ◽  
Dwinanti R. Marthanty

The efficacy of a water quality management strategy highly depends on the analysis of water quality data, which must be intensively analyzed from both spatial and temporal perspectives. This study aims to analyze spatial and temporal trends in water quality in Code River in Indonesia and correlate these with land use and land cover changes over a particular period. Water quality data consisting of 15 parameters and Landsat image data taken from 2011 to 2017 were collected and analyzed. We found that the concentrations of total dissolved solid, nitrite, nitrate, and zinc had increasing trends from upstream to downstream over time, whereas concentrations of parameter biological oxygen demand, cuprum, and fecal coliform consistently undermined water quality standards. This study also found that the proportion of natural vegetation land cover had a positive correlation with the quality of Code River’s water, whereas agricultural land and built-up areas were the most sensitive to water pollution in the river. Moreover, the principal component analysis of water quality data suggested that organic matter, metals, and domestic wastewater were the most important factors for explaining the total variability of water quality in Code River. This study demonstrates the application of a GIS-based multivariate analysis to the interpretation of water quality monitoring data, which could aid watershed stakeholders in developing data-driven intervention strategies for improving the water quality in rivers and streams.


2010 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Freni ◽  
Giorgio Mannina ◽  
Gaspare Viviani

In the past three decades, scientific research has focused on the preservation of water resources, and in particular, on the polluting impact of urban areas on natural water bodies. One approach to this research has involved the development of tools to describe the phenomena that take place on the urban catchment during both wet and dry periods. Research has demonstrated the importance of the integrated analysis of all the transformation phases that characterise the delivery and treatment of urban water pollutants from source to outfall. With this aim, numerous integrated urban drainage models have been developed to analyse the fate of pollution from urban catchments to the final receiving waters, simulating several physical and chemical processes. Such modelling approaches require calibration, and for this reason, researchers have tried to address two opposing needs: the need for reliable representation of complex systems, and the need to employ parsimonious approaches to cope with the usually insufficient, especially for urban sources, water quality data. The present paper discusses the application of a bespoke model to a complex integrated catchment: the Nocella basin (Italy). This system is characterised by two main urban areas served by two wastewater treatment plants, and has a small river as the receiving water body. The paper describes the monitoring approach that was used for model calibration, presents some interesting considerations about the monitoring needs for integrated modelling applications, and provides initial results useful for identifying the most relevant polluting sources.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Botter ◽  
Paolo Burlando ◽  
Simone Fatichi

Abstract. The hydrological and biogeochemical response of rivers carries information about solute sources, pathways, and transformations in the catchment. We investigate long-term water quality data of eleven Swiss catchments with the objective to discern the influence of catchment characteristics and anthropogenic activities on delivery of solutes in stream water. Magnitude, trends and seasonality of water quality samplings of different solutes are evaluated and compared across catchments. Subsequently, the empirical dependence between concentration and discharge is used to classify different solute behaviors. Although the influence of catchment geology, morphology and size is sometime visible on in-stream solute concentrations, anthropogenic impacts are much more evident. Solute variability is generally smaller than discharge variability. The majority of solutes shows dilution with increasing discharge, especially geogenic species, while sediment-related solutes (e.g. Total Phosphorous and Organic Carbon species) show higher concentrations with increasing discharge. Both natural and anthropogenic factors impact the biogeochemical response of streams and, while the majority of solutes show identifiable behaviors in individual catchments, only a minority of behaviors can be generalized across catchments that exhibit different natural, climatic and anthropogenic features.


2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 04013
Author(s):  
Deddy Caesar Agusto ◽  
Eko Kusratmoko

The river is the main source of water in Indonesia, which at the moment, this quality tends to get worse and is no longer worth consuming for various needs. The cause of the pollution is the entry of pollutants both point source (industrial waste) and non-point source (residential and agricultural land). Rainfall can be a non-point source pollutant agent from a watershed to a water body. The impact of rainfall on increasing concentrations of pollutants is very significant, especially the high intensity rainfall that falls after the long dry season. In this study, water quality data is obtained from river outlets located in Damkamun taken every 30 minutes during the rainfall event so that fluctuation in water quality can be seen. Water quality indicators studied in this research are TDS, DHLNitrate, Phosphate and Ph. The author, in analyzing, using rainfall Himawari 8 which is obtained every 10 minutes. The result shows that rainfall is directly related to the water flow and the fluctuation of the discharge affects the water quality. From the calculations, the chemical quality of water is also influenced by the use of land in the watershed. Nitrate value increases when the occurrence of rain occurs in land use while phosphate experiences a high value during the event.


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