Title: Land use around headwater streams in a semi-rural environment in the humid tropics

Authors: A.O. Eludoyin

Addresses: Department of Geography, CLES, University of Exeter, Rennes Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom

Abstract: Poor access to adequate supply of quality water is one important problem confronting many people in developing countries. Limited natural water resources are, nonetheless, still unprotected in many sections of these countries. The study here presents the results of an investigation into the effect of agricultural and institutional land uses on the headwater in a semi-rural environment in southwest Nigeria. About 15 direct rainfall, 50 depth-integrated stream water and 12 soil (0-45 cm) samples were obtained in four headwater catchments in the study area. Topographical and land use estimates of the catchments were made from land surveys and 1:10,000 land use maps. The study showed that the headwater streams were characterised by high nutrients, especially PO43−, NO3 and Cl and that the headwater streams exhibited significant (p ≤ 0.05) spatial heterogeneity under different land use systems.

Keywords: developing countries; headwater systems; land use; southwest Nigeria; water quality assessment; headwater streams; semi-rural environment; humid tropics; water pollution; nutrients.

DOI: 10.1504/IJW.2014.057789

International Journal of Water, 2014 Vol.8 No.1, pp.82 - 100

Received: 26 Dec 2011
Accepted: 13 Jul 2012

Published online: 16 Oct 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article