Date of Award:
5-1973
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Science (MS)
Department:
Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
Committee Chair(s)
Craig W. Johnson
Committee
Craig W. Johnson
Committee
Robert A. Gearheart
Committee
Donald B. Porcella
Committee
Richard Toth
Abstract
The goal of this research has been to prove that changes in water quality resulting from changes in land use could result in a threatened decrease in economic utility of land uses in the Bear Lake Valley. The purpose of this research was to illustrate a process for determining land use and water quality relationships in the Bear Lake Valley that utilized quantified data and projective models. The first phase of the research estimated the changes in land uses and demographics for the valley. The second phase of research utilized the results from the first phase together with models predicting changes in water quality, developed from the literature, to predict water quality changes. Other necessary data required for the models was obtained from an extensive inventory of existing data and literature from state, federal and local sources. The results from the second phase were then compared to state and federal water quality standards to estimate if the changes in water quality threatened the economic utility of land uses in the valley. Changes in land use between 1972 and 1980 are expected to change the water quality of Bear Lake by increasing nutrient concentrations, pathogenic organism concentrations and the presence of algal blooms. These water quality changes threaten to decrease the economic utility of some of the land uses in the valley by reducing the recreational and aesthetic value of Bear Lake, by increasing the cost of some water uses and by slowing the rate of economic development of the valley.
Checksum
11a15dfe9b472708c20306e55f65d4ba
Recommended Citation
Street, Hayden L., "Water Quality as a Land Use Determinant for the Bear Lake Valley, Utah-Idaho" (1973). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 315.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/315
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