Long-term water quality assessments under changing land use in a large semi-arid catchment in South Africa

Increasing nutrient loads from land use and land cover (LULC) change degrade water quality through eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems globally. The Vaal River Catchment in South Africa is an agriculturally and economically important area where eutrophication has been a problem for decades. Effective mitigation strategies of eutrophication in this region require an understanding of the relationship between LULC change and water quality. This study assessed the long-term impacts of LULC changes on nitrate (NO3-N) and orthophosphate (PO4-P) pollution in the lower Vaal River Catchment between 1980 and 2018. Multi-year LULC was mapped from Landsat imagery and changes were determined. Long-term trends in NO3-N and PO4-P loads and concentrations in river water samples were analysed, while multi-year LULC data were ingested into the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to simulate the impacts of LULC changes in NO3-N and PO4-P loads. Main LULC changes included an increase in the irrigated area by 262% and in built-up area by 33%. This occurred at the expense of cultivated dryland fields and rangelands. In situ data analysis showed that at the catchment inlet, PO4-P concentration and loads significantly increased, while NO3-N concentration and loads decreased between 1980 and 2018. At the catchment outlet, only PO4-P loads increased, while NO3-N loads and concentrations remained the same. SWAT simulations at the Hydrologic Response Unit scale showed that irrigated land was the largest contributor to NO3-N leaching per ha. Aggregation of nutrient loads by LULC type showed increased nutrient loads from irrigated and built-up areas over time, while loads from dryland areas decreased. At catchment scale, dryland remained an important contributor of the annual nutrient loads total because of its large area. In future, research efforts should focus on crop management practices to reduce nutrient loads. [Display omitted] •Multi-year LULC data were integrated in SWAT to study the impact on water quality.•The main changes on LULC were the expansion of irrigated and built-up areas.•SWAT simulated irrigated fields as the largest contributor of NO3-N leaching.•Expansion of the irrigated areas resulted in increased NO3-N and PO4-P loads.•Dryland was an important source of nutrient loads because of its large size.