Urbanisation And Wetlands

Introduction

Research question

How does urbanisation effect the water quality and eco systems of wetlands in south Africa?

Hypothesis

Urbanisation will stun growth in plant and eco system growth as well as decrease the quality of the water in the wetland

Reason for topic choice

The reason I have chosen this topic because I personally have noticed how places have expanded and what was once open area where the horses ran is now where we buy our groceries from.by seeing how the growth takes away the home of a horse imagine what it would be doing to the rest of the world so I looked into it and followed up with research and by seeing how urbanisation effects the climate of the world I started thinking are us humans going to be our own

Examples of these are the melting of the ice bergs at the poles and huge droughts such as el Niño.

How would this effect wetlands?

Due to the increase in water volumes there is a sudden increase in water in wetlands this covers many species of plants and drowns them.

The drought causes wetlands to dry out and draw out most of the nutrients of the land.

Due to rapid urban growth the demand to remove the wetlands by human means is very high. This is a very negative effect as wetlands hold back floods and hold back heavy water flow and due to there being city area around wetlands the run off is high and fast. what helps prevent floods is wetlands and by removing them there will be no natural way to prevent the floods as it won’t have anywhere to get absorbed due to the now wetland being streets in the future

In rural areas the problem of soil erosion is always around. Wetlands provide a natural way of preventing soil erosion

Methodology

1) There will be samples of water taken from two types of wetlands: a wetland that has not got much urbanisation around it and a wetland that has got urbanisation around

data

A table showing the colour of the plants and the pH level of the water at a wetland with urbanisation around it and a wetland where there is not much urbanisation. Wetland with urbanisation Non-urbanised wetland (Control) non-urbanised wetland

Plant colour Green, brown, yellow Mainly green All green pH 7.8 7.2 7.1

Conclusion

An urbanised area has a huge impact on wetlands. The plants in a wetland that is close to an urbanised area are less green that that of the plants that are not close to an urban area because the soil has not been contaminated by human activity causing the plant to be able to absorb more nutrients and be greener.

Urbanisation by wetlands also has an effect on the water quality is the wetlands. The water in a wetland that is by an urbanised area has more acidity in the water that a wetland that is not near an urbanised area which has closer to a neutral pH level.

Urbanisation has a huge impact on wetland and plays a role in the destruction of the wetland which also has an impact on the biodiversity in the areas where urbanisation has impacted