Abstract
The effects of landscape characteristics on surface water quality were evaluated in terms of land-use condition, soil type and slope. The case area, the Chichiawan stream in the Wulin catchment in Taiwan, is Formosan landlocked salmon’s natural habitat. Due to the agriculture behavior and mankind’s activities, the water and environmental quality has gradually worsened. This study applied WinVAST model to predict hydrological responses and non-point source pollution (NPSP) exports in the Wulin catchment. The land-use condition and the slope of land surface in a catchment are major effect factors for watershed responses, including flows and pollutant exports. This work discussed the possible variation of watershed responses induced by the change of land-use condition, soil type and slope, etc. The results show that hydrological responses are highly relative to the value of Curve Number (CN); Pollutant exports have large relation to the average slope of the land surface in the Wulin catchment.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Bedient, P. B., & Huber, W. C. (2002). Hydrology and floodplain analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall.
Bradford, M. J., & Irvine, J. R. (2000). Land use, fishing, climate change, and the decline of Thompson River, British Columbia, coho salmon. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 57, 13–16.
Chang, C. L., Lo, S. L., & Chen, M. Y. (2007). Uncertainty in watershed response prediction induced by spatial variability of precipitation. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 127(1–3), 147–153.
Chaubey, I., Haan, C. T., Salisbury, J. M., & Grunwald, S. (1999). Quantifying model output uncertainty due to spatial variability of rainfall. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 35(5), 1113–1123.
Dai, Y. T. (1992). Population ecology of Formosan landlocked salmon Oncorhynchus masou formosanus. The Graduated Thesis of Graduate Institute of Zoology, National Taiwan University. (In Chinese).
Dijk, A. I. J. M. V., Bruijnzeel, L. A., & Rosewell, C. J. (2002). Rainfall intensity–kinetic energy relationships: A critical literature appraisal. Journal of Hydrology, 261, 1–23.
Faures, J. M., Goodrich, D. C., Woolhiser, D. A., & Soroosh, S. (1995). Impact of small-scale spatial variability on runoff modeling. Journal of Hydrology, 173, 309–326.
Kaighn, R. J. (1993). Improvement to Virginia Storm (VAST) hydrologic watershed model including detention pond pollution routing. Charlottesville, VA, USA: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Virginia.
Prakash, B., Lawrence, D. T., Kathryn, M. F., & Lockbay, B. G. (1991). Relationships between landscape characteristics and nonpoint source pollution inputs to coastal estuaries. Environmental Management, 23(4), 539–549.
Robert, A. Z., Nicholas, A. P., Richard, G. L., & Charles, L. D. (2007). Relationship of land-use/land-cover patterns and surface-water quality in the Mullica River basin. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 43(3), 594–604.
Tisdale, T. S., Kaighn, R. J., & Yu, S. L. (1996). The Virginia storm (VAST) model for stormwater management – User’s Guide version 6.0. Charlottesville, VA, USA: University of Virginia.
Tung, C. P., & Li, T. Y. (2001). Climate change impact assessment of the ChiChiaWan Creek streamflow. Chinese Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 47(1), 65–74 (In Chinese).
Vicente, L. L. (1996). On the effect of uncertainty in spatial distribution of rainfall on catchment modeling. Catena, 28, 107–119.
Wang, J. M. (1994). The survival treasure – A special issue of formosan landlocked salmon. Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of Interior, SHEI-PA National Park Management Office. (In Chinese).
Wanielista, M., Kersten, R., & Eaglin, R. (1997). Hydrology-water quantity and quality control (pp. 91–96). New York: Wiley.
Yu, S. L., Stanford, R. L., & Zhai, Y. Y. (2003). Virginia stormwater model for windows – User’s manual version 1.0. Charlottesville, VA, USA: University of Virginia.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chang, C.L., Kuan, W.H., Lui, P.S. et al. Relationship between landscape characteristics and surface water quality. Environ Monit Assess 147, 57–64 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-0097-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-0097-1