| Humans greatly affect their environment at the landscape scale. One effect of land use alterations is impacted water quality. Changes include alterations of both stream physical characteristics, such as temperature, light intensity and sediment load, and chemical load, both nutrients and toxins.; The Piedmont region of Georgia was chosen for a water quality study because the region is currently experiencing population growth and a corresponding shift from a rural area to suburbs. An intensive event-based and baseflow study of water quality within a small rural Piedmont watershed in Madison County, Georgia, was conducted. The watershed was divided into subwatersheds with different dominant land uses and the water quality of these was tested. Residential land use was found to have the greatest impact on water quality, with low flow turbidity levels up to 25 NTU and low flow total suspended solids levels (TSS) ranging from 25-72 mg/L and the highest nitrate concentration within Vineyard Creek during storm events, up to 3.3 mg/L NO{dollar}sb3{dollar} as nitrate.; A land use change model was developed for the watershed in order to predict the pattern of future land use. The incorporation of a socioeconomic factor in the model, namely distance class of property parcels, resulted in accurate predictions of both overall land use proportions within the study watershed and the spatial pattern of these land uses. Using land use proportions given by the model, future water quality changes can be predicted. The information was further supplemented by data from a water quality comparison of several Madison County watersheds and a watershed in Athens/Clarke County. It was found that a trend in water quality exists in relation to the density of residential development. As residential development increased, the sediment content of the streams increased. In fully developed watersheds, though the sediment content of the stream declined, the nutrient content rose. The nitrate content in the completely developed watershed, Tanyard Branch, was greater than 10 mg/L NO{dollar}sb3{dollar} as nitrate, on average.; With programs such as NAWQA and the EPA/NSF Water and Watersheds partnership currently in place, it is evident that water quality has become a focus of research as its importance has been realized. Thus, watershed studies within the Piedmont, such as the one discussed here, can aid in the development of management strategies to preserve water quality. |
