ABSTRACT
WEIWEI ZHANG, HONG LI, DANFENG SUN, AND LIANDI ZHOU
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Land use intensity is one of the most significant forms of land cover modification, and can have a major detrimental impact on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems [1,2], and also directly influence human and ecosystem health. Many developed countries are experiencing environmental pollution due to intensive agricultural activities, including intensive crop and livestock production [3]. This is also the true for the fast developing countries, such as China. From a land use perspective, intensive agricultural activities have been identified as the major sources of non-point source pollutants and are known to alter and impact the quality of the receiving water bodies. As an environmental factors that relate directly to human health, water quality is always subject to degradation when agricultural land use intensity is too
high [4]. Thus, understanding the effects of intensive agricultural land use activities on water resources is essential for natural resource management and environmental improvement. However, these effects on water quality conditions are difficult to determine because of the complex relationships between agricultural land use activities and water quality.
