Examination of Differences in Water Quality and Quantity by Reservoir Catchment with a Different Land-Use Type in the Republic of Mauritius

Fatema Nabybaccus, Don Koo Lee, Yohan Lee and Jung Il Seo
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Fatema Nabybaccus: Department of Sustainable Development, Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 38541, Korea
Don Koo Lee: Department of Sustainable Development, Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 38541, Korea
Yohan Lee: Department of Forest Resources and Landscape Architecture, College of Life and Applied Sciences, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 38541, Korea
Jung Il Seo: Department of Forest Resources, College of Industrial Sciences, Kongju National University, 54 Daehak-ro, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do 32439, Korea

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Forest buffers contribute to enhancing the quality and availability of water in catchments. This study aims to examine the effects of forest buffers on water quality and quantity in three reservoir catchments in Mauritius, including Mare aux Vacoas (MAV), Mare Longue (ML), and La Ferme (LF). While MAV and ML are surrounded by forests, the forested area of LF was cleared for photovoltaic panels for electricity generation and agriculture. We used catchment simulation modeling and empirical data analysis. The results showed that the concentrations of water quality parameters, such as conductivity, silica, total suspended solid (TSS), total organic carbon (TOC), NO 3 − , NO 2 − , and total reactive P in LF were higher than those in MAV and ML. Sparsely vegetated lands can lead to water quality degradation due to surface runoff. In addition, the water quantity per unit area for MAV and ML were greater than that for LF, which indicated that a high percentage of forest buffer cover also positively influences the quantity of water in catchments. Our findings suggest that forest buffers have a critical importance in hydrological cycles and also enhance water production, and thus should help develop an effective and innovative water resource management strategy in Mauritius.

Keywords: forest buffer; catchment; runoff; water quality; water quantity; Mauritius (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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