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Article
Examining spatio-temporal relationships of landuse change, population growth and water quality in the SWFWMD.
USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
  • Barnali M. Dixon
  • Julie Earls
SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Barnali Dixon

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2007
Abstract

There are many pressures on Florida's water resources. Industrial, agricultural and urban development over the years has impacted water quality adversely. Deterioration of groundwater quality, a major source of fresh water, is a major concern for long-term sustainable growth. The study area, Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) of Florida contains one of the nation's fastest growing metropolitan areas. Although landuse changes as a result of population growth is inevitable, it is not too late to try to understand the relationship among landuse change, population growth and environmental dynamics. A thorough understanding of the population growth, landuse change and environmental dynamics is necessary for managing the urban sprawl with minimal environmental impact viz. their impact on water quality and quantity. The objectives of this study were: to explore if there is a spatial relationship exists among NO3 and Bromacil contamination and critical physical/environmental variables and 2) to create a dataset that will be the basis for future study. This was accomplished by studying landuse (1988 and 1999), population (1990s and 2000s), soils, groundwater quality data (1990 and 2000), Floridan Aquifer Vulnerability Assessment (FAVA) and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). Preliminary results show that contaminated wells were associated with urban and agricultural landuse and sandy soils with high permeability. No significant relationship between population and groundwater quality exists for NO3 and Bromacil contaminated wells.

Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 9 (1), 71 - 93. DOI: 10.1504/IER.2007.053982
Language
en_US
Publisher
Inderscience Publish
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Citation Information
Dixon, B. & Earls, J. (2007). Examining spatio-temporal relationships of landuse change, population growth and water quality in the SWFWMD. Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 9 (1), 71 - 93. DOI: 10.1504/IER.2007.053982