^Positive land use ^

Agriculture – Intense use can cause loss of soil, erosion, and dust storms. Use of pesticides can affect both surface water and groundwater quality.

Intense irrigation causes water loss from the natural system

Over-farming takes important nutrients out of the soil making it useless for any further production of crops

Pesticides poison the water that plants, animals, and humans use daily

Grazing – Overgrazing can cause loss of vegetation, invasion of exotic species, soil erosion, and nutrient loss.

Grazing lands are the most degraded land use types in the world

Overgrazing along with over-trampling lead to the reduction of vegetative cover, exposure of soil to erosion, and ultimately to desertification

The most common overgrazing is done by domestic animals

Forestry– Intense logging or clear cutting creates conditions for increased erosion; eroded and transported sediment can cause increased sediment loading in streams, which could affect fluvial habitat.

Logging takes nutrients and minerals out the soil

Logging makes erosion easier because the the tree is no longer there to hold the soil and water

Water impoundment – This has the potential to affect one segment of a stream or river or an entire watershed. Controlled volume of flow does not duplicate natural events, such as floods and drought. It can affect the sediment load, change the stream morphology, and alter the habitat that is dependent on a fluvial system.

Water impoundment can deplete different species of fish by altering their natural habitat

It yields a flow of ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling

Water impoundment puts a halt on an important ecosystem service provided by rivers: fisheries production

Urbanization – This can cause a host of impacts, but a few stand outs are: change in drainage patterns because of impervious surfaces (streets, parking lots, pavement, buildings), increased erosion, affects on surface and groundwater quality and quantity, release of toxins into the air, increased humidity in arid regions

Impervious surfaces affects infiltration capacity which also creates erosion

New construction affects sediment input into the streams

Alterations to shorelines – Dredging, beach mining, river modification, installation of protective structures, and removal of back-shore vegetation can potentially alter shoreline processes, position, and morphology by changing the sediment supply, transport, and erosion.

Installation of dams reduces the amount of sediments flowing which can cause erosion on the shores

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