Assessing land use change impact on stream discharge and stream water quality in an agricultural watershed

Land use and land cover (LULC) change impacts on hydrology and water quality are of critical importance in regions where water quality is degraded. One such location is the Mississippi Delta in the United States, where widespread agriculture across the landscape is a major contributing source to sediment- and nutrient-heavy runoff. To address how the landscape has changed in the recent past and consider how it may continue to change in the future, we analyzed the temporal and spatial variability of the LULC changes (e.g. forest, cropland, corn and soybean) in the Big Sunflower River Watershed. We applied these LULC changes in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to demonstrate the impacts on stream discharge, total suspended sediments (TSS) concentrations, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) yields. Model performance was considered satisfactory to good (R-2 = 0.46-0.88, NSE = 0.34-0.64) for all simulated water quantity and water quality parameters. TSS concentrations increased 1.9%, while TN and TP yields increased by 12.7%, and 10.2%, respectively as the area of the cropland increased. Stream discharge was unchanged. Moreover, TN yield increased as the percentage of land occupied by cornfields increased while TP yield increased as the percentage of land occupied by soybean increased, due to differences in crop management practices such as fertilization and tillage.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the impacts of land use and land cover changes on hydrology and water quality in the Big Sunflower River Watershed of the Mississippi Delta. The SWAT model effectively demonstrates the increase in sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus yields with an increase in cropland area. Model performance is considered satisfactory and results indicate varying impacts based on different crop cultivation practices.