Surface Water Quality in Relation to Land Cover in Agricultural Catchments (Liswarta River Basin Case Study)
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Pol. J. Environ. Stud. Vol. 24, No. 1 (2015), 175-184 DOI: 10.15244/pjoes/26203 Original Research Surface Water Quality in Relation to Land Cover in Agricultural Catchments (Liswarta River Basin Case Study) Magdalena Matysik*, Damian Absalon, Marek Ruman Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland Received: 6 May 2014 Accepted: 30 June 2014 Abstract Agricultural activity results in water pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. Increased con- centrations of nitrogen compounds pose a threat to animal and human health. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of agriculture in a catchment basin on the level of surface water pollution from biogenic compounds. Spatial analysis of the land cover was conducted using GIS and was based on data from the Corine Land Cover databases. The study results indicated that high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds existed in the surface waters. In the surface water, high concentrations of biogenic compounds occurred in both primar- ily agricultural catchments and in urbanized drainage areas. Water may be regarded as eutrophicated or at high risk of eutrophication because the majority of the nitrate concentrations at the monitoring sites exceeded a limit -3 2- of 10 mg·dm NO3 . Inadequate farming practices and poor sanitary conditions on farmsteads result in the leaching of bio- genic substances into the water. To protect water from biogenic pollutants, it is necessary to adopt a new approach to fertilizer use and to improve the sanitary conditions of agricultural properties, which can be achieved by, among other things, the installation of drainage systems in rural areas. Our recommendations include the protection of river valleys as follows: by stopping deforestation, by preserving natural riparian veg- etation, and by reducing the volume of intensified agricultural activity or introducing so-called “precision farming.” Keywords: water quality, water pollution, land cover, agriculture catchment, eutrophication Introduction case of surface waters (lakes, seas, and rivers), these pollu- tants can lead to eutrophication, which disturbs the ecolog- Agricultural activity results in ground and surface water ical balance of the aquatic environment [3-6]. pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, which Clean water is vital to human life and the proper func- results from the excessive use of fertilizers containing these tioning of natural ecosystems; as a result, the protection of ingredients [1, 2]. High concentrations of nitrogen com- water quality is one of the priorities identified by the pounds pose a threat to animal and human health and, in the European strategy for environmental protection. To protect water from nitrogen pollution, the EU member states are *e-mail: [email protected] obliged to comply with the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC). 176 Matysik M., et al. The main aim of the said directive is to reduce agricultural- Farming systems involve the management of agricul- ly related nitrogen water pollution as well as to counteract tural space and the related plant and animal production and possible future occurrences of this type of pollution. The processing, which can be described in ecological and eco- maximum allowable concentration of nitrates in surface nomic terms. System differentiation is based on the degree -3 and ground water is 50 mg NO3·dm . to which farming activity is reliant on industrial means of Studies of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, as well as production, mainly in terms of mineral fertilizer and pesti- eutrophication problems, were carried out, among others, cide use and their impact on the environment [22, 23]. for surface water [3, 6-8] and for lakes [9-11]. The impact Diffuse and point sources of nitrate pollution can be identi- of agricultural catchments on water quality has also been fied from most mixed farming systems in Poland. In gener- described [12-15]. Haphazard waste water management is al, only diffuse sources of nitrate pollution result from another factor contributing, along with agriculture, to households that specialize in plant production. decreasing water quality resources [16, 17]. Decreasing The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of water and air quality contributes to a lower quality of life, agricultural management in the Liswarta River catchment which, in turn, has negative implications for public health, on biogenic pollution of surface water. including children’s health [18, 19]. The province of Silesia is known as a predominantly Study Area industrial region, yet agricultural land accounts for half of the area, and most of this agricultural land is located in the The Liswarta catchment is located almost entirely in the northern part of the province, including the catchment area province of Silesia, except for a small southwestern part of of the Liswarta River. The region is characterized by rela- the basin, which is located in Opole Province (Fig. 1). The tively good environmental conditions, including soil condi- main part of the catchment basin is located in Kłobuck tions, that support agricultural production [20], which is County, with only the northernmost part in Lubliniec conducted mainly in Lubliniec and Kluczbork counties. County. The western part of the catchment is located in This location is favourable for the majority of cultivated Oleski County, while its eastern section is located in plants: it has a long growing season of over 200 days per Częstochowa County. The Liswarta catchment is home to year and annual precipitation of 700 mm. The main crops 38 small villages with populations ranging from 300 to 500, grown in Lubliniec County include rye, wheat, oats, cereal, and 78 large villages inhabited by 500-3,200 people. There barley, and potatoes, with an increasing contribution from is also one small town (Krzepice) with 4,500 inhabitants maize. Animal husbandry is dominated primarily by pig and one major town (over 9,000 inhabitants) named farming. Kłobuck County was, until recently, a distinctly Kłobuck, with a population of 13,900. The total population agricultural area that is currently focused on organic farm- of the Liswarta basin is 112,197, which corresponds to a ing and the production of organic food. This entails partic- population density of 72 people per km2 (based on an ularly dynamic growth of the food-processing industry due IMAGIS 2012 digital administrative map). to local agricultural production. According to the physical-geographic division of Agriculture is the main source of nitrates entering Poland [24], the Liswarta catchment is located within the ground and surface water in Poland. Communities and macro-region of the Woźnicko-Wieluńska Upland, with households are also local and regional sources that con- five identified mezzo-regions: the Woźnicki Threshold, the tribute to the increased amount of nutrients in ground and Liswarta Depression, the Herbski Threshold, the Krzepice surface water [21]. Depression, and the Wieluńska Upland (Fig. 2). Fig. 1. Location of the study area. Surface Water Quality in Relation... 177 Fig. 2. Physical-geographic division of the study area. The Liswarta is a left-bank tributary of the Warta River of Babienica. The river network of the Liswarta catchment (the Odra River catchment) that is 93 kilometres long, with is relatively dense, except around the Woźnicki and Herbski a catchment area of 1,577.7 km2. Thresholds at the divide of the Warta, Liswarta and Mała The Liswarta catchment is a geologically and geomor- Panew rivers, which are characterized by lower density. phologically diverse area. The Woźnicko-Wieluńska Upland The largest right-bank tributaries of the Liswarta are the is built from Triassic and Jurassic rocks of varied strength, Pańkówka, Bieszcza, Górnianka, Biała Oksza, and formed into limestone, sandstone, clay, and marl. Within the Kocinka. The left-bank tributaries include the Potok upland boundaries, one can distinguish hill ranges (thresh- Jeżowski, Łomnica, and Piskara. The Kocinka is the olds) and a series of depressions. The area is elevated longest tributary, with a length of 40.05 km and a drainage approximately 200 m above sea level in its northern part and basin area of 259.9 km2. approximately 380 m above sea level in the south. The soil cover in the Liswarta catchment is similarly diversified. The parent rock of the local soils are mainly Materials and Methods pre-Quaternary formations (sandstone, shale, limestone, and dolomite) and Quaternary material (sand, dust, loam, The Polish CLC 90 database was updated in 2004. The and loess soils), which cover the depressions and slopes of resulting CLC2000 database contains information about plateaus and ridges. The soils occurring in the area include land use as of 2000, as well as changes in land cover dur- podzols, alluvial soils, brown soils, rendzic soils, and black ing the period from 1990-2000. Thirty-one forms of land soils. Podzols are predominant here and occur mainly in the use have been identified in Poland, compared with 44 iden- eastern part of the Liswarta Depression. Brown soils are tified for all of Europe. The database contains only surface found in the Woźnicki Threshold clays. In the river valleys, objects. The smallest mapping area unit is 25 ha; the mini- silt-peat and alluvial soils occur [20]. mum width of delineations is 100 m, which is the same as The Liswarta catchment is part of the Kluczbork- the accuracy required for boundary determination [27]. The Lubliniec hydrogeological region. There are three usable reported data reliability for Poland is 85% [28, 29]. hydrogeological horizons: Quaternary, Jurassic, and Spatial analysis of land cover in the Liswarta catchment Triassic. The Quaternary water-bearing horizon is predom- was based on data from the CLC2000 and CLC2006 data- inant in the area. The groundwater table lies at a depth of bases. Land cover analysis was conducted using GIS. several centimetres, only occasionally falling to several Spatial analysis was performed for the entire Liswarta dozen meters below ground level in the area of Sieraków, basin, including the catchments of its major tributaries as Panoszów and Ciasna [25].