Determining Nitrogen Loading Rates Based on Land Use in an Urban

Chapter 2

Determining Nitrogen Loading Rates Based on Land Use in an Urban Watershed 1

2

Downloaded by UNIV QUEENSLAND on September 17, 2013 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: September 12, 2008 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2008-0997.ch002

Zachary M. Easton and A. Martin Petrovic 1

Departments of Biological and Environmental Engineering and Horticulture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 2

Due to the role of nutrients as limiting agents for eutrophication in fresh water and marine estuaries and as a human health risk in drinking water, greater scrutiny of land use in urban areas is needed. Few studies have attempted to determine the contribution of individual land uses to water quality degradation in urban areas. A 40% urban, 332 ha watershed in Ithaca, N Y was selected as the research site. Runoff collected from 98 precipitation events over a two-year period and three land uses was analyzed for ammonium NH N), and nitrate (NO -N) and mass losses were calculated. Monitored land uses included fertilized lawns (FL), urban barren (UB) areas and wooded (FR) areas. Stream gauges were installed at the stream entrance to the urban area and the watershed outlet to monitor the impact of the urban land uses on stream water quality. A multivariate analysis of the data revealed that the F L land use had significantly higher (p