Conservation and Restoration Priorities for Water Purification
Dates
Publication Date
2020
Start Date
2011-01-01
End Date
2011-12-31
Citation
Warnell, K., 2020, Conservation and Restoration Priorities for Water Purification: U.S. Geological Survey ScienceBase, https://doi.org/10.21429/2xzm-7h15
Summary
Clean water is important for a variety of uses, including drinking, recreation, and as habitat for aquatic species. Nonpoint-source pollution, such as nutrients, sediment, and pesticides from agricultural runoff, is a major cause of impaired water quality in the United States . Vegetation and soil in natural land cover help to remove pollutants from runoff water before it reaches streams and other waterways by slowing water flow and physically trapping sediment. To assess the spatial distribution of water purification potential in the southeastern United States, we mapped the demand for purification as the total area of agricultural land and the supply of natural land cover in the flowpath over which water moves from agricultural land [...]
Summary
Clean water is important for a variety of uses, including drinking, recreation, and as habitat for aquatic species. Nonpoint-source pollution, such as nutrients, sediment, and pesticides from agricultural runoff, is a major cause of impaired water quality in the United States . Vegetation and soil in natural land cover help to remove pollutants from runoff water before it reaches streams and other waterways by slowing water flow and physically trapping sediment. To assess the spatial distribution of water purification potential in the southeastern United States, we mapped the demand for purification as the total area of agricultural land and the supply of natural land cover in the flowpath over which water moves from agricultural land to waterways. We used this information to identify priority areas for restoration of natural land cover in the flowpath (areas with high demand for water purification and low supply of purifying land cover) and priority areas for conservation of purifying land cover (areas with high demand for water purification with moderate supply of purifying land cover).
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Purpose
This dataset was created as part of a project to identify priority areas for conservation and restoration of water purification in the southeast United States. The priority counties can be used to identify where, at the regional level, natural land cover to purify runoff water is most needed. The priority subwatersheds can be used to identify where, at the regional level, natural land cover to purify runoff water is most needed.These can also be overlaid with other data sources at the appropriate scale, including other ecosystem service maps , to find areas where conservation would provide multiple benefits. When using these data, please keep in mind that they are designed for landscape-level assessments; due to inaccuracies in the national-scale input datasets, they should not be used to identify specific sites for conservation or restoration projects without additional local data.
