Land use change in highland area and its impact on river water quality: a review of case studies in Malaysia

Abstract

The policy of encouraging agriculture and development for mass tourism has led to environmental problems in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Rampant development and land clearing have significantly altered the land cover of Cameron Highlands for the past 30 years. Sensitive highlands areas are prone to landslides and soil erosion which then contributed to the main water pollution issues in the network of river system, sedimentation and siltation. The continuous trend of river water quality deterioration in Cameron Highlands has raised the issues for discussion in this review article. The purpose of this review is to briefly summarize the land use change, agriculture practices, agro-tourism, and agriculture policy and management toward water quality of the river system network in Cameron Highlands specifically in the downtown where most of the development and agriculture activities are concentrated. A rigorous review has been done on the existing literature to determine the relationship between land use change and agriculture practices toward river water quality in Cameron Highlands from 2001 to 2017. The total number of reviewed papers was 68. The outcomes established from previous researchers have highlighted factors such as soil erosion, landslides, agriculture activities, urbanization, and unplanned development associated with land use change have significantly influenced the river water quality in the highland areas. Continuous land use changes without proper development plan and law enforcement may critically threaten the sustainability of river network in the highlands area.

Impact of land uses on water quality in Malaysia: a review

“…As such, many studies have been conducted to address these problems; therefore, this research was necessary to accommodate the main findings of those previous studies, in order to facilitate researchers to identify specific areas requiring improvements and priorities. Razali et al (2018) reviewed case studies of land use change in highland areas and its impact on river water quality, and their study was limited to the river system network in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. However, the purpose of the present research was to review and analyze the main relationships between land use and water quality, as well as to visualize the major sources and processes of water quality pollution in Malaysia.…”

Pollutant Loading Analysis of Suspended Solid, Nitrogen and Phosphorus at Bertam Catchment, Cameron Highlands using MUSIC

“…Meanwhile, TSS is noted to have the highest loading followed by TN and TP for all sub-catchments. According to the previous study stated that the downstream part after Brinchang was reported to have an excessive loading of TSS especially during wet weather flow that causes more soil erosion and brings all the sediments and nutrients due to agricultural activities and residential areas [23]. Annual pollutant loads are a good indicator of the potential for impairments but consideration should be made as they do not necessarily give a complete picture of the vulnerability of a watershed to impairments caused by a particular pollutant [24].…”

Effects of Urbanization on Watershed Evapotranspiration and Its Components in Southern China

“…Urbanization influences ecosystems through altering water cycles [1,23,82]. The response of ET and its partitions in the QRB is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for this.…”

“…Urbanization-associated land use and land cover (LULC) change is a global phenomenon that has negative impacts on local environment, society, and culture [1,2]. During the urbanization processes, entire watershed water energy and balances are altered [3][4][5].…”

“…The main aims of our research were: (1) to identify the variations in ET and its partitions (T, E i , E s and E p ) with different land use types in the Qinhuai River Basin from 2000 to 2013; (2) to explore the dominant ET partitions contributing to ET changes at catchment scale; and (3) to evaluate the potential effects of land conversion on local water recycling. This research helps enhance understanding the ecohydrological responses to environmental changes in an urbanizing region, and thus assists formulating policies to protect local natural resources and environment against potential harm from rapid urbanization.…”