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LAND USE AS A MITIGATION STRATEGY FOR THE WATER QUALITY IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS ON TWO WATERSHEDS IN THE OHIO RIVER BASIN
Citation:
Liu, A. J., J A. Goodrich*, AND S. Y. Tong. LAND USE AS A MITIGATION STRATEGY FOR THE WATER QUALITY IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS ON TWO WATERSHEDS IN THE OHIO RIVER BASIN. Jain, R. (ed.), ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AND POLICY. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, 2(2):65-76, (2000).
Description:
This study uses an integrative approach to study the water quality impacts of future global climate and land use changes. In this study, changing land use types were used as a mitigation strategy to reduce the adverse impacts of global climate change on water resources. The Thornthwaite water balance model was coupled with a land use model (L-THIA) to investigate the hydrologic effects of future climate and land use changes in the Ohio Riber basin. The land use model is based on the Soil Conservation Service's curve number method. The ArcView programming Language, Avenue, was used to integrate the two models into a geographic information system (GIS). Two watersheds were used in the present study: one containing the city of Cincinnati on the mainstem of the Ohio River, and one containing the city of Columbus on a tributary of the Ohio River.
Results of the analyses indicate that conversion from agricultural land use to low-density residential land use may decrease the amount of surface runoff. A runoff depth matrix and total nitrogen matrix were created for Cincinnati and Columbus to describe possible land use mitigation measures in response to global climate change. The differences in Cincinnati and Columbus were due to differences in geographic location, air temperature, and total runoff.