Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 1
A STATISTICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE
IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL LAND
USE INTENSITY ON REGIONAL
SURFACE WATER QUALITY AT
MULTIPLE SCALES
WEIWEI ZHANG, HONG LI, DANFENG SUN,
AND
LIANDI ZHOU
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Land use intensity is one of the most significant forms of land cover modi-
fication, and can have a major detrimental impact on terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems [1,2], and also directly influence human and ecosystem health.
Many developed countries are experiencing environmental pollution due
to intensive agricultural activities, including intensive crop and livestock
production [3]. This is also the true for the fast developing countries, such
as China. From a land use perspective, intensive agricultural activities have
been identified as the major sources of non-point source pollutants and are
known to alter and impact the quality of the receiving water bodies. As an
environmental factors that relate directly to human health, water quality is
always subject to degradation when agricultural land use intensity is too
