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Landscape considerations in a large-scale water-quality assessment program

Conference Proceedings
By Tom F. Cuffney, Martin E. Gurtz, and Mike R. Meador

Abstract

Large-scale ecological assessments must incorporate many landscape characteristics, including spatial patterns of geomorphic form and process, geology, soils, vegetation, and land use, to develop an understanding of causal relations affecting water quality at different spatial scales. In particular, water-quality assessment programs require knowledge of how natural and anthropogenic factors contribute to the occurrence and distribution of physical, chemical, and biological attributes that collectively describe water quality. The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program is designed to describe the status and trends in the quality of the Nation's surface- and ground-water resources by integrating physical, chemical, and biological measurements. Site-selection strategies in the NAWQA Program incorporate stratification according to major landscape features to facilitate aggregation of information from local-scale studies into national compilations. Investigations will be conducted in 60 study units representing river basins and aquifers throughout the United States, one-third of which will be undergoing intensive assessment activities at any given time. Ecological surveys will describe broad spatial distributions of aquatic organisms and selected community attributes in relation to physical, chemical, land-use, and riparian zone characteristics. Geomorphic properties, such as channel and bank form, bank stability, bed material, and sediment-transport characteristics are important elements in understanding both the distribution of organisms and the susceptibility and responses of stream reaches to anthropogenic disturbances of either a physical or chemical nature. Thus, basin and reach-level descriptions will incorporate geomorphic characteristics at sites stratified according to major classifications of physiographic and ecological region, stream size, and land use.