Recent Land Use Changes on an Urban Watershed in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract

Changes in land use, which threaten ecosystems and habitats, have an impact on run-off and water quality on urban areas. Using a GIS program we have classified the land use of the Humphreys Brook watershed and quantified the changes that have occurred using landscape metrics. A rapid growth of the city emerges from our results. All land use types of urban nature have seen an increase in surface areas to the detriment of natural land uses. Moreover the landscape indices are showing signs of rectangularity, where humans have introduced straight edges, and other common processes of transformation to the landscape.L’urbanisation a divers impacts sur l’environnement. Une classification de l’utilisation du sol a été réalisée à l’aide d’un SIG pour le bassin versant du ruisseau Humphrey. Nos résultats indiquent une croissance rapide de la ville, qui figure d’ailleurs parmi les plus villes ayant le taux de croissance le plus rapide au Canada. Tous les types d’utilisation du sol qui caractérisent le paysage urbain ont connu une hausse au détriment des types plutôt naturels. Finalement des indices du paysage ont permis de détecter des signes de rectangularité résultant d’activités humaines

Hydrodynamic Modeling of Water Renewal Time and Potential Dissolved Matter Using TELEMAC: Applications to Shediac Bay (New Brunswick, Canada)

“…Shediac Island and the Grande-Digue sand spit shelter the inner bay from the more energetic waves of the Northumberland Strait (Figure 1). In this area, American oysters, blue mussels, soft-shelled clams, and quahogs are part of the benthic community, and shellfish harvesting is widespread while oyster farming is under development in the inner bay [14]. However, the development of a breach in the Grande-Digue spit in the mid-1980s [15] has raised concerns from fishers, bivalve farmers or aquaculturists, and coastal property owners.…”

“…In our study area, this has led to the modification of the longshore drift, the destabilization of the Grande-Digue sand spit, and, ultimately, to the initiation of the present breach in 1985 (Jolicoeur and O'Carroll, in prep.). Urban and economic development in the Shediac Bay watershed since the 1980s may also have changed the amount and nature of nutrients and other chemicals that enter the bay [14]. One of the issues that we must deal with is to make sure that the closure of the breach would not cause unwanted impacts on fishing activities in the inner bay because of the restoration of the sand spit.…”