Water Quality Management in an Agricultural Landscape

Water quality is important for a wide range of reasons including human health, food production, recreation, and biodiversity. Globally, agriculture exerts big demands and impacts on water supplies. In arid areas where groundwater may be the significant or sole source of water, agriculture can have profound effects on the rate and composition of groundwater recharge (1), while in tropical areas, high annual rainfall levels and the demands of tropical crops mean that water quality concerns are dominated by agrochemicals, untreated wastewater, and eroded sediment (2). In temperate zones, moderate rainfall throughout the year means there are few periods when agricultural activities can take place without some risk to water quality and, consequently, temperate water resources are also at constant risk of contamination from agriculture. Keywords: water quality; agrochemicals; untreated wastewater; eroded sediment; nitrogen pollution; phosphorus (P); organic matter; pesticides; heavy metals