1. Hydrosphere Notes
Part 9-Land Use

2. What is land use?
The way people use land

3. Describe the main types of land uses.
Forested: Land covered with trees
Open Land: Undeveloped land such as farms, field and meadows
Water: Land covered by water including rivers, ponds, and lakes.
Developed: Land that has changed for urban usage including houses, buildings, roads and parking lots

4. What are Types of Pollutants?
Nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus)
Sediment (dirt)
Bacteria
Pesticides
Road salt
Toxic chemicals
Metals (mercury, copper, etc.)

5. Effect on Water System:
Explain how water quality in both groundwater and surface systems is impacted by land use decisions.
Change in Land Use:
Remove trees and vegetation.
Bulldozing of land for houses and subdivisions.
Effect on Water System:
More storm runoff and erosion because there is less vegetation to slow water as it runs down hills.
More sediment is washed into streams.
Flooding can occur because water-drainage patterns are changed.

6. Effect on Water System:
Explain how water quality in both groundwater and surface systems is impacted by land use decisions.
Change in Land Use:
Building of roads
Commercial and industrial buildings and parking lots.
Effect on Water System:
The water table will lower
(More pavement means less water will soak
into the ground)
Wells might run dry.
Increased flooding
(The runoff from the increased pavement
goes into storm sewers, which then goes
into streams. This runoff, which used to
soak into the ground, now goes into
streams, causing flooding.)

7. Effect on Water System:
Explain how water quality in both groundwater and surface systems is impacted by land use decisions.
Change in Land Use:
Diverting streams to supply water for people.
Discharging of sewage into streams.
Effect on Water System:
Flooding can occur because water drainage patterns are changed
Increased sewage in streams causes pollution -- it can kill fish and make water unusable for other purposes downstream.

8. Effect on Water System:
Explain how water quality in both groundwater and surface systems is impacted by land use decisions.
Effect on Water System:
The use of too many large wells can lower the underground water table. This can cause other wells to run dry, can cause saltwater to be drawn into drinking-water wells, and can cause land that was formerly "held up" by underground water to subside, resulting in sinkholes and land subsidence.
Change in Land Use:
Industries might drill some deep, large-capacity wells.

9. Explain how water quality in both groundwater and surface systems is impacted by land use decisions.
By removing trees and vegetation and bulldozing of land for houses and subdivisions there is more storm runoff and erosion because there is less vegetation to slow water as it runs down hills so more sediment is washed into streams and flooding can occur because water-drainage patterns are changed.
Roads and parking lots increase runoff, lower the water table and can increase flooding.
Increased sewage in streams causes pollution -it can kill fish and make water unusable for other purposes downstream.

10. What is a BMP (best management practice)?
structural, vegetative, or management practices designed to prevent or reduce water pollution from reaching a stream, river, or lake.

11. Hydrosphere Notes
Parts 10_BMP

12. Forestry
Leave a foot buffer along the stream channel to filter out contaminants in runoff and prevent streambank erosion.

13. Homes Use fertilizers and pesticides on lawns sparingly or not at all.
Leave shrubs and trees with expansive rooting systems and abundant plant cover on the ground along a stream or river, rather than replacing with 100% grass, which is far less effective at holding soil in place during periods of flooding.

14. Construction Sites –
Place erosion control fabric on streambanks to prevent sediment from reaching the stream (also called silt fences).

15. Urban Areas –
Provide a settling basin to prevent runoff from parking lots from washing directly into a stream and allowing time for the runoff to infiltrate into the ground where soil can naturally filter the contaminants.

16. Farming/crops –
Seed a cover crop or leave crop stubble to hold the soil in place over the winter and during snow melt
Leave shrubs and trees with expansive root systems and plant cover on the ground along a stream or
river to hold soil
during periods of
flooding or heavy
rain.

17. Livestock grazing –
Build a concrete-lined pit to safely store manure and later spread on fields
leave shrubs and trees along the stream or river to slow runoff, filter pollutants, and hold soil in place.

18. Motorized recreation –
Do not drive All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) through wetlands, along lakeshores, or through streams and rivers. ATVs can damage plants, compact soils, cause erosion, and result in sediment reaching lakes and rivers.

19. Leading Sources of Water Quality Impairment to Rivers (MICHIGAN*)
Physical stream alterations (e.g. channelization or straightening)
Agriculture (crop runoff and animal feedlots)
Sediment
Industrial Point Source
Habitat modification (loss of streamside riparian vegetation)
Combined sewer overflows
Municipal Point Source
Construction
Leading pollutants:
organic compounds, pathogens, sediment, mercury, low dissolved oxygen, nutrients, metals (copper, chromium)
* 2004 Water Quality and Pollution Control in Michigan: Sections 303(d) and 305(b) Integrated Report, MI DEQ Water Division, page34.

20. How can we reduce or prevent pollution ?
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs)
…are designed to control, prevent, remove, or reduce pollution. Three BMP categories:
1. Structural Practices
Grass or rock-lined drainage ditches.
Fence livestock away from stream
Sedimentation basin for parking lot runoff
2. Vegetative Practices
Cover crops
Leave tree and shrub “buffer strips” along streams
3. Management Practices
No till farming (don’t plow)
Rotate pastures used for livestock grazing
No grazing, logging, or building houses right next to a stream

21. *Fill in your student sheet as you view the slides
Look at the following slides
*Fill in your student sheet as you view the slides
Identify the land use shown in the photo?
Identify what type of pollutants might result from the land use (shown in the photo) and possibly affect the water quality of a nearby stream?

22. #1

23. #2
Bill Taft

24. #3

25. #4 Dickinson Conservation District
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

26. #5

27. #6

28. #7

29. #8
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality