Urban Expansion and Surface Water Pollution: The Case of Beressa River at Debre Birhan City, in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.
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Date
2024-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Urbanization is one of the main drivers of surface water quality loss, which implies a transition from water to land. However, it is still unclear how urban areas affect the spatial pattern of surface water quality loss. Here, surface water quality loss as a function of distance from urban areas was studied across the Beressa River in Debre Birhan city, the capital of North Shoa Zone of Amhara Region. An exponential distance-decay model was employed. The research results provided a new and deeper understanding of the spatial influence of urban areas on surface water quality loss, which could be effectively integrated in the definition of sustainable strategies for urbanization, water management, and surface water restoration, focused on both human and environmental water needs. In addition, reduction in imperviousness was found to be a suitable strategy to adapt to these scenarios by limiting the construction of new impervious areas and decreasing the existing areas. This information can be further utilized to develop future designs, which in turn should make these systems more resilient to future changes in urbanization. In the case of the Beressa River and its surroundings, the study's primary objective were to assess the impact of urban growth on surface water quality using water quality parameters (such as PH (highest recorded at WSP-3=7.74 and 7.66 in wet and dry season respectively), BOD5 (records 88.50 at WSP-4 and 98.00 at WSP-3 in wet and dry seasons respectively), COD (results were recorded 107.00 at WSP-4 in wet season and 84.07 at WSP-3 in dry season), TP(water sample result were recorded highly at WSP-3=2.44.00 and 0.74 at WSP-4 in wet and dry season respectively), Cr ( high records were 1.67 at WSP-4 and 1.34 at WSP-3 in wet and dry seasons respectively), and FC ( records 1,800 and 1,500 at the same WSP in wet and dry season respectively)) analysis and urban development trend analysis. Water sample analysis were done based on sampling and laboratory procedures and the result indicated that the river was worsen polluted and dangerous for living organisms in the surrounding. Based on the research results Beresa River was polluted by pollutants discharging from city municipality wastes, industries waste discharging to the environment, and from agrochemicals along the river watershed areas in wet and dry seasons.
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Keywords
Urbanization, surface water, water quality, and water quality parameters.