Modelling Impacts of a Municipal Spatial Plan of Land-Use Changes on Surface Water Quality—Example from Goriška Brda in Slovenia

Abstract

Intensive agriculture causes nutrient leaching and accelerates erosion processes, which threatens the good quality status of surface waters, as proposed by the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive. The purpose of this study was to define the impact of two alternative agricultural land-use change scenarios defined in a Municipal Spatial Plan on surface water quality by using the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. As experimental area, we chose a small Kožbanjšček stream catchment (1464 ha) situated in the Goriška Brda region in Slovenia. The area, due to favorable conditions for vineyards, is facing increasing deforestation. The change of 66.3 ha of forests to vineyards would increase the sediment, nitrate, and phosphorus loads in the stream by 24.8%, 17.1%, and 10.7%, respectively. With the implementation of vegetative buffer strips as a mitigation measure of the current situation, we could reduce the sediment, nitrate, and phosphorus loads by 17.9%, 11.1%, and 3.1%, respectively, while a combination of the two land-use change scenarios would result in a slight increase of the above-mentioned loads, corresponding to 0.61%, 2.1%, and 6.6%, respectively, compared to the baseline situation. The results confirm that, as we can increase pollution levels with deforestation, we can also reduce water pollution by choosing proper types of land management measures.

The Impact of Reforestation Induced Land Cover Change (1990–2017) on Flood Peak Discharge Using HEC-HMS Hydrological Model and Satellite Observations: A Study in Two Mountain Basins, China

“…Our findings agree with other previous studies [73,74] conducted in various watersheds in China, where the increase in woodland resulted in a lower runoff and water discharge. Elsewhere, authors reported the reduction in forest cover driven by human activities as the main cause of increases in surface runoff and flood peak discharge [75][76][77]. Overall, our results demonstrated that the changes in land cover driven by afforestation activities (e.g., GTGP and NFCP) across the two mountainous catchments were probably the main cause of decreasing flood peak discharge during the 1990-2016/2017.…”

“…Our findings agree with other previous studies [73,74] conducted in various watersheds in China, where the increase in woodland resulted in a lower runoff and water discharge. Elsewhere, authors reported the reduction in forest cover driven by human activities as the main cause of increases in surface runoff and flood peak discharge [75][76][77].…”

Assessment of the Impacts of Terrestrial Determinants on Surface Water Quality at Multiple Spatial Scales

“…Turbidity is directly related to the mean slope which may be due to soil erosion. Village biome is positively linearly related with hardness, COD, BOD, N, Cu, Mn and Pb while it is negatively correlated with DO which may due to intense human activities [27]. EC, Cr, Cd and B have positive relationship with the top gravel and top sand.…”

Source Apportionment of Nutrient Loads to a Mediterranean River and Potential Mitigation Measures

“…The SWAT model was developed to predict the impact of land management practices on water, sediments and agricultural chemical yields in ungauged river basins [14]. The model is widely used in hydrological [8,26] and water-quality analyses at the basin scale [27,28] to assess the impact of land-use changes or climate changes on surface waters [19,29].…”

“…Conceptual models, such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) [14], Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source (AnnAGNPS) [15] or GREEN-Rgrid [16], are generally complex, their use requiring a large amount of data and a specific knowledge of the processes acting in the study area [17]. These models provide more detailed results, at different time and spatial scales, and offer the possibility of simulating the impacts of climate change [18], land-use change and of best management practices (BMPs) [19]. In addition, conceptual models are able to quantify the impact of point sources on surface waters.…”