Surface water monitoring for assessing drivers of land use and land cover change

Supervisor/s: Alexandre Oliveira Tavares, Ana Castilho Ramos Lopes and Pedro Alexandre Dinis

Doctoral Programme: PhD in Geology

The non-point source pollution potential of anthropogenic land use makes sustainable land management essential for maintaining water quality. Studies on land use and water quality often fail to delve into the irreversibility of ecological damage caused by changes in land use and occupation, partially due to the complex interaction between systems.

Using an approach that encompasses drivers of land use and occupation change, pressures, state (surface water), and impacts on it, monitoring will be employed as a response. The goal is to develop a predictive model for impacts on surface water quality related to changes in land use and occupation.

To achieve this, abiotic indicators of water quality associated with changes in land use and occupation will be identified, followed by determining their impacts and influence on the abiotic indicators of surface water. Additionally, the moderating/mediating role of changes in land use and occupation between drivers and impacts on abiotic indicators of surface water will also be evaluated.