Understanding the relationship between land use and water quality at different scales is essential in the restoration and protection of water quality. On March 2014, we collected 97 samples in highly urbanized Taihu Basin and analyzed their water quality characteristics. Spatial differences in water quality were evident in sub-basins. The Hu Xi zone with the largest forest area had the best water quality among all the sub-basins. The correlation analysis indicated that the proportions of forest and construction land were significantly associated with multiple water quality variables from buffer to sub-basin scale. Farmland was significantly related to NO₃–N at the sub-basin scale. The impact of landscape metrics at the sub-basin was insignificant. Forest and construction land in the 1–2 km buffer zone appeared to have a greater influence on the water quality than the buffers with smaller distance. These results are beneficial toward the understanding of water quality status in highly urbanized watersheds and provide a reference for water quality conservation and land use management in the future.

了解不同规模土地利用与水质之间的关系对于恢复和保护水质至关重要。2014年3月，我们在高度城市化的太湖流域采集了97个样本，并分析了它们的水质特征。子流域水质的空间差异明显。在所有子流域中，森林面积最大的湖西地区水质最好。相关分析表明，从缓冲区到子流域尺度，森林和建设用地的比例与多种水质变量显着相关。农田与NO ₃显着相关-N在子流域范围内。在次流域，景观指标的影响微不足道。1-2 km缓冲区的森林和建设用地似乎比距离较小的缓冲区对水质的影响更大。这些结果有助于了解高度城市化流域的水质状况，并为将来的水质保护和土地利用管理提供参考。