TY - JOUR
T1 - Relating land use and land cover to surface water quality in the Densu River basin, Ghana
AU - Attua, Emmanuel M.
AU - Ayamga, Jennifer
AU - Pabi, Opoku
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - The Densu River basin is one of Ghana's most reliable freshwater sources, though greatly stressed through pervasive land-use activities. This warrants that water quality variability be understood in relation to land use and land cover (LULC) processes in the basin. In this paper, water quality variables and LULC attributes were evaluated using multivariate techniques such as Pearson's correlation and linear regression to decipher the relationship between them. The study found water quality variability to be influenced by both seasonality and geographical location. While water quality variables such as pH, turbidity, DO, total suspended solids, Ca2+, K+ and -N relatively were increasing during the rains, T, electrical conductivity, TDS, Cl- and -P were conversely higher in the dry season. Consistent with other studies, spatial differences observed for water quality variables probably reflect local variability in land use, geology, lithology and soil properties across the basin. Adequately vegetated sub-basins experienced minimal load of nutrients compared with other land cover types. Temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate-phosphorus and nitrate-nitrogen in surface water could be estimated from multiple regression analyses, using land cover information. We recommend that riparian vegetation of the basin is conserved while urban effluent discharges into running water are minimized, under an integrated water management programme.
AB - The Densu River basin is one of Ghana's most reliable freshwater sources, though greatly stressed through pervasive land-use activities. This warrants that water quality variability be understood in relation to land use and land cover (LULC) processes in the basin. In this paper, water quality variables and LULC attributes were evaluated using multivariate techniques such as Pearson's correlation and linear regression to decipher the relationship between them. The study found water quality variability to be influenced by both seasonality and geographical location. While water quality variables such as pH, turbidity, DO, total suspended solids, Ca2+, K+ and -N relatively were increasing during the rains, T, electrical conductivity, TDS, Cl- and -P were conversely higher in the dry season. Consistent with other studies, spatial differences observed for water quality variables probably reflect local variability in land use, geology, lithology and soil properties across the basin. Adequately vegetated sub-basins experienced minimal load of nutrients compared with other land cover types. Temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate-phosphorus and nitrate-nitrogen in surface water could be estimated from multiple regression analyses, using land cover information. We recommend that riparian vegetation of the basin is conserved while urban effluent discharges into running water are minimized, under an integrated water management programme.
KW - Densu River basin
KW - Ghana
KW - land use and land cover
KW - physico-chemicals
KW - regression analysis
KW - water quality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84898054449&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15715124.2014.880711
DO - 10.1080/15715124.2014.880711
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84898054449
SN - 1571-5124
VL - 12
SP - 57
EP - 68
JO - International Journal of River Basin Management
JF - International Journal of River Basin Management
IS - 1
ER -