Author : Laura Kusari

The process of urbanization is more intense and is causing more changes in environment. As a result of urbanization, surface waters are deteriorated, in terms of their hydrological changes as well as its water quality impacts. This paper is focused in the research of water quality changes as a result of catchment’s urbanization. The river reaches selected for this project were Prishtevka and Gracanka Rivers. For those rivers, grab sampling was performed in three cross sections of each one, starting from the upper river reach, in the middle and the last cross section in the lower river reach. The outcome of this research was achieved after the laboratory analyses of those water samples for main water quality constituents such as: Dissolved Oxygen, Electrical Conductivity, Turbidity, Total Suspended Solids and Biological Oxygen Demand. The laboratory results showed that urban reaches of Prishtevka and Gracanka experience an increase in almost all constituents, but mostly in oxygen demand, conductivity, turbidity and total suspended solids. The results revealed that the quality of surface waters of Prishtevka and Gracanka Rivers is deteriorated step by step as those rivers are approaching and flowing through out urbanized areas.

Keywords: Water Quality, Urbanization, Urban, Peri-urban, River

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.6, No.6 (Dec-2016)