• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2007

Monitoring data of 48 agricultural irrigation reservoirs from 1999 to 2004 was analyzed for water quality characteristics including biochemical oxygen demand $(BOD_5)$, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chl-${\alpha}$. Land uses of the watersheds associated with these reservoirs were determined for residential, forest, upland, paddy and miscellaneous, and regressed against water quality characteristics. Correlation analysis showed that forest land use was negatively correlated with all the water quality characteristics implying it's beneficial effects in water quality perspectives. Other land uses including residential, upland, and paddy generally illustrated positive correlation with water quality characteristics, which indicates most human activities of the watershed could degrade water quality of the receiving water bodies. Paddy land use partially contributed to the water quality degradation in contrast to the previous studies. It might be attributed to the relatively clean water quality of the study area, where even slight pollutant loading could degrade sensitively water quality. Further investigation is recommended for the effect of proximity as well as land use portions on the water quality of receiving water body.