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. 2022 Oct 15;19(20):13313.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192013313.

Anthropogenic Land Use and Land Cover Change as Potential Drivers of Sediment Sources in the Upper Crocodile River, North West Province, South Africa

Samuel Che Nde  1 , Sammy Kipyego Bett  2 , Manny Mathuthu  3 , Lobina Palamuleni  1
Affiliations

Anthropogenic Land Use and Land Cover Change as Potential Drivers of Sediment Sources in the Upper Crocodile River, North West Province, South Africa

Samuel Che Nde et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the accelerating pace of anthropogenic land use and land cover change (LULCC) disturbance, which has generated enormous impacts on the Crocodile River. Spot images from 1996, 2009 and 2022 were used to generate the land use maps and quantify the changes. A supervised classification with the maximum likelihood classifier was used to classify the images. Sediment sources were classified into two sources, revealed by erosional characteristics in the catchment. A gamma spectrometry detector, high-purity germanium (HPGe) "Well" detector by Canberra and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were used for the analysis of the samples. The results revealed that from 1996-2022, built-up areas, bare land and water bodies increased by 3.48%, 2.47% and 1.90%, respectively. All the LULCC classes increased annually from 1996-2022, except for grassland, which shrunk. The results of the radionuclides analysis showed that 210Pbex was found to be a more effective tracer than 137Cs. The mass balance model revealed that subsurface sources contributed 60%, while surface sources contributed 40%, of the sediment load in the river. This research provides valuable information necessary for integrated catchment management policies for future LULCC and soil erosion to be adopted.

Keywords: land use/land cover dynamic; river pollution; sediment contamination; sediment source tracing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors unanimously declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could appear to have influenced the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An illustration of an eroding field draining into the Crocodile River: (A) shows a developing gully erosion and (B) shows evidence of sheet/rill erosion draining into the Crocodile River.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Map of the study area: (A) shows the map of South Africa, (B) shows the different provinces in South Africa, (C) shows the study catchment area and (D) shows a zoomed-out area of the different land uses.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Rainfall and temperature averages for Rustenburg (1993–2016).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Land use distribution and percentage of areas of different land use types to the total basin areas in 1996 (a), 2009 (b) and 2022 (c).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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