Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jackson State University, 3825, Ridgewood Road, P.O. Box 23, Jackson, MS 39211, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2011 Jun;8(6):2418-46. doi: 10.3390/ijerph8062418. Epub 2011 Jun 23.
With water resource planning assuming greater importance in environmental protection efforts, analyzing the health of agricultural watersheds using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) becomes essential for decision-makers in Southern Texas. Within the area, there exist numerous threats from conflicting land uses. These include the conversion of land formerly designated for agricultural purposes to other uses. Despite current efforts, anthropogenic factors are greatly contributing to the degradation of watersheds. Additionally, the activities of waste water facilities located in some of the counties, rising populations, and other socioeconomic variables are negatively impacting the quality of water in the agricultural watersheds. To map the location of these stressors spatially and the extent of their impacts across time, the paper adopts a mix scale method of temporal spatial analysis consisting of simple descriptive statistics. In terms of objectives, this research provides geo-spatial analysis of the effects of human activities on agricultural watersheds in Southern Texas and the factors fuelling the concerns under the purview of watershed management. The results point to growing ecosystem decline across time and a geographic cluster of counties experiencing environmental stress. Accordingly, the emergence of stressors such as rising population, increased use of fertilizer treatments on farm land, discharges of atmospheric pollutants and the large presence of municipal and industrial waste treatment facilities emitting pathogens and pesticides directly into the agricultural watersheds pose a growing threat to the quality of the watershed ecosystem.
随着水资源规划在环境保护工作中变得越来越重要，使用地理信息系统 (GIS) 分析得克萨斯州南部农业流域的健康状况对于决策者来说变得至关重要。在该地区，存在着许多来自土地使用冲突的威胁。这些威胁包括将以前指定用于农业用途的土地转换为其他用途。尽管目前已经做出了努力，但人为因素极大地促成了流域的退化。此外，一些县的废水处理设施的活动、不断增长的人口以及其他社会经济变量正在对农业流域的水质产生负面影响。为了在空间上绘制这些压力源的位置以及它们随时间的影响程度，本文采用了一种混合尺度的时空分析方法，包括简单的描述性统计。就目标而言，这项研究提供了得克萨斯州南部人类活动对农业流域的影响的地理空间分析，以及在流域管理范围内引发这些关注的因素。研究结果表明，随着时间的推移，生态系统不断衰退，有一个县的地理集群正在经历环境压力。因此，人口增长、农田化肥处理使用增加、大气污染物排放以及大量存在的将病原体和农药直接排放到农业流域的城市和工业废水处理设施等压力源的出现，对流域生态系统的水质构成了越来越大的威胁。
