Influence of the land use and land cover on the water quality: a method to evaluate the importance of riparian zones

  • Raul Candido da Trindade Paixão Coelho Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade - ICMBio
  • Iuri Buffon Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul – UERGS
  • Teresinha Guerra Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS
Keywords: conservation unit, legally protected areas, watershed, National Forest of Canela

Abstract

The riparian ecosystem constitutes an interface among the terrestrial and aquatic environments in a watershed. The human impact on drainage basins influences the organisms and the quality of the running water. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of this impact, taking into account the different land use classes of the drainage basins and of the riparian areas in the quality of the water. Land use and land cover of the watershed were classified based on the interpretation of satellite imagery and field work in the riparian areas and the results were evaluated with an index adapted for such purpose. A sample of the of the water courses was collected monthly in the period of July of 2006 to June of 2007, and the quality was evaluated with an index composed using the parameters: dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. A correlation coefficient of r² 0.64 was observed between land use of the riparian areas with the quality of the water. This value was higher than the correlation coefficient between the land use indices and the respective indices of water quality of the whole watershed (r2 = 0.23), pointing out the preponderant importance of the land use and land cover in the riparian areas in the quality of the water and showing a perspective of a new method for the analysis of the environmental condition.

Author Biographies

Raul Candido da Trindade Paixão Coelho, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade - ICMBio
mestrado em ecologia UFRGS 2008 analista ambiental ICMBio 2007 analista ambiental Ibama 2002 engenheiro agrônomo UFRGS 1992 paixaocoelho@yahoo.com.br
Iuri Buffon, Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul – UERGS
Tecnólogo em Meio Ambiente UERGS 2008
Teresinha Guerra, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS
Doutora Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Centro de Ecologia UFRGS
Published
28/04/2011
Section
Papers