LAND-USE PLANNING TO PROTECT WATER RESOURCES- AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GEOSCIENTISTS TO CONTRIBUTE TO PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health depends on an adequate supply of clean water for drinking, food production and recreation. Most of the United States can generally depend on high quality water resources, however this quality may be threatened by future stressors including climate change and increased land-use impacts. Storm runoff from rapidly expanding metropolitan areas can lead to increases in non-point source pollution, erosion and sedimentation, and declining ground-water levels. These changes in geologic and hydrologic processes have been demonstrated to degrade aquatic ecosystems and are likely to increase the risk of waterborne disease. Potential health impacts include acute illnesses from exposure to microbial pollutants and chronic diseases, such as cancer, from exposure to arsenic, disinfection byproducts and synthetic chemicals. Climate change could compound these problems by altering precipitation distribution and intensity. Minimizing these impacts through sound land-use planning requires understanding the relevant geologic and hydrologic processes, which vary with time and physical setting. Geoscientists have an important opportunity to help protect public health and ecosystem integrity by contributing to the design of communities that provide the amenities desired by the public while maintaining the quality of our water resources.