TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of land use configuration, seasonality and point source on water quality in a tropical watershed
T2 - A case study of the Johor River Basin
AU - Pak, Hui Ying
AU - Chuah, C. Joon
AU - Yong, Ee Ling
AU - Snyder, Shane A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Singapore Economic Development Board and also for the Research Fund for the Masters Programme by the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University and for the support of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/8/1
Y1 - 2021/8/1
N2 - Land use plays a significant role in determining the spatial patterns of water quality in the Johor River Basin (JRB), Malaysia. In the recent years, there have been several occurrences of pollution in these rivers, which has generated concerns over the long-term sustainability of the water resources in the JRB. Specifically, this water resource is a shared commodity between two states, namely, Johor state of Malaysia and Singapore, a neighbouring country adjacent to Malaysia. Prior to this study, few research on the influence of land use configuration on water quality have been conducted in Johor. In addition, it is also unclear how water quality varies under different seasonality in the presence of point sources. In this study, we investigated the influence of land use and point sources from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on the water quality in the JRB. Two statistical techniques - Multivariate Linear Regression (MLR) and Redundancy Analysis (RA) were undertaken to analyse the relationships between river water quality and land use configuration, as well as point sources from WWTPs under different seasonality. Water samples were collected from 49 sites within the JRB from March to December in 2019. Results showed that influence from WWTPs on water quality was greater during the dry season and less significant during the wet season. In particular, point source was highly positively correlated with ammoniacal‑nitrogen (NH3−N). On the other hand, land use influence was greater than point source influence during the wet season. Residential and urban land use were important predictors for nutrients and organic matter (chemical oxygen demand); and forest land use were important sinks for heavy metals but a significant source of manganese.
AB - Land use plays a significant role in determining the spatial patterns of water quality in the Johor River Basin (JRB), Malaysia. In the recent years, there have been several occurrences of pollution in these rivers, which has generated concerns over the long-term sustainability of the water resources in the JRB. Specifically, this water resource is a shared commodity between two states, namely, Johor state of Malaysia and Singapore, a neighbouring country adjacent to Malaysia. Prior to this study, few research on the influence of land use configuration on water quality have been conducted in Johor. In addition, it is also unclear how water quality varies under different seasonality in the presence of point sources. In this study, we investigated the influence of land use and point sources from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on the water quality in the JRB. Two statistical techniques - Multivariate Linear Regression (MLR) and Redundancy Analysis (RA) were undertaken to analyse the relationships between river water quality and land use configuration, as well as point sources from WWTPs under different seasonality. Water samples were collected from 49 sites within the JRB from March to December in 2019. Results showed that influence from WWTPs on water quality was greater during the dry season and less significant during the wet season. In particular, point source was highly positively correlated with ammoniacal‑nitrogen (NH3−N). On the other hand, land use influence was greater than point source influence during the wet season. Residential and urban land use were important predictors for nutrients and organic matter (chemical oxygen demand); and forest land use were important sinks for heavy metals but a significant source of manganese.
KW - Land use configuration
KW - Point source
KW - Seasonality
KW - Water quality
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U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146661
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146661
M3 - Article
C2 - 34030308
AN - SCOPUS:85103384603
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 780
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 146661
ER -