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Land use and land cover change as a driver of river water quality degradation: a comparative review of global, Indian and Uttarakhand river systems
Summary
This review of 88 studies found that urban growth, industry, and tourism are major drivers of river pollution worldwide, including in India, where they cause about half of all river water quality problems — sometimes with fecal contamination levels millions of times higher than safe limits. This matters because these polluted rivers often supply drinking water and irrigation, and the review highlights growing concerns about emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals and microplastics that current wastewater systems aren't designed to remove. The findings point to an urgent need for better sewage treatment and land management to protect both rivers and the people who depend on them.
Rivers are very important to our environment and economy; however, the world has seen an increase in LULC due to urbanization, industrialization, increased tourism and increased agricultural activity. Land use and land cover changes have impacted river water quality throughout the world. This paper provides a comparative review of the relationship between land use changes and river water quality degradations at the global, national (India) and regional (Uttarakhand) level. A total of 88 peer reviewed papers from 2001 - 2022 were systematically reviewed to examine LULC impacts on 34 countries, 36 major Indian rivers and 18 rivers in Uttarakhand. The authors of these studies identified the most common land use and associated impacts to various river water quality parameters such as BOD, COD, nutrients, heavy metal contamination, microbial contaminants and emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and microplastics. To evaluate the relationships between anthropogenic factors and environmental consequences, this work used the DPSIR model, which is a conceptual model designed to help structure the assessment of how human driving forces influence the state of river ecosystems and associated risk. The results of the synthesis show that approximately 60% of all impacts related to pollution are attributed to urban and industrial land use activities and are also responsible for approximately 50% of all river degradations in India. Urban expansion, tourist increases, and lack of adequate waste disposal have contributed to declining river health in Uttarakhand. BOD levels have been shown to reach up to 390 mg/L and fecal coliform levels to be greater than 2.4 million MPN/100 mL in some rivers. This emphasizes the need for integrated land-water management practices and improved wastewater treatment infrastructure, and stronger regulatory frameworks to protect vulnerable river systems. Future research should focus on integrating spatial land use modelling with long-term monitoring of emerging contaminants to better understand evolving environmental risks in rapidly developing river basins.