ABSTRACT National assessments have highlighted that urban streams have some of the poorest water quality in New Zealand, yet there has been no analysis focussing on these streams. In this study we defined urban streams as >15% catchment urban land cover and used monitoring data to assess several indicators of water quality including dissolved metals, nutrients, bacteria and the macroinvertebrate community index. We investigated associations between the indicators and urban land cover, imperviousness and geographic location. Water quality was highly variable, within and between monitored sites; and invariably poor when compared to water quality criteria. Dissolved zinc was positively related to the proportion of urban land cover and imperviousness in the upstream catchment. There were significant differences in ammoniacal-N, nitrate-N, turbidity, MCI, dissolved zinc and E. coli between geographic locations. The analysis indicates that if urban development continues in its current form, increases in urban land cover around New Zealand can be expected to result in further declines in water quality and a reduced likelihood that water quality objectives will be achieved at impacted locations.

中文翻译：

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新西兰城市河流水质指标现状

摘要 国家评估强调城市溪流的水质在新西兰是最差的，但还没有针对这些溪流的分析。在这项研究中，我们将城市河流定义为 > 15% 的集水区城市土地覆盖率，并使用监测数据来评估水质的多项指标，包括溶解金属、营养物质、细菌和大型无脊椎动物群落指数。我们调查了指标与城市土地覆盖、不透水和地理位置之间的关联。监测点内部和监测点之间的水质变化很大；与水质标准相比，总是很差。溶解锌与上游流域的城市土地覆盖率和不透水率呈正相关。氨氮、硝酸盐氮、浊度、MCI、溶解锌和地理位置之间的大肠杆菌。分析表明，如果城市发展以目前的形式继续下去，预计新西兰周围城市土地覆盖的增加将导致水质进一步下降，并降低在受影响地区实现水质目标的可能性。