Urbanization in Pearl River Delta area in past 20 years: remote sensing of impact on water quality

Pearl River Delta of Guangdong province, China is one area with the fastest speed of urbanization in the world in the past 20 years. The objective of this research is to explore the relationship between urbanization and water quality in this area. Present and past remote sensing data including MSS, TM/ETM and ASTER are used to research the urbanization and its impact on water quality. Land use and water quality information are extracted from remote sensing data. Data of population, industrial and agricultural productivity indices are integrated with the thematic maps derived from remote sensing data by GIS method. Spatial analysis methods are applied on these data and the results indicate that population, waste water both from household and industrial and chemical fertilizer consumptions are main controls of the regional water quality and environment