A MULTIVARIABLE APPROACH FOR EVALUATING MAJOR IMPACTS ON WATER QUALITY IN MURRELLS AND NORTH INLETS, SOUTH CAROLINA

Abstract Urbanization poses a particular threat to the coastal areas of the southeastern United States where uplands surrounding wetlands are still relatively undeveloped compared with other regions. Predictive models, which would correlate information on land use change and development, would be useful so that downgrades in water quality can be predicted before they occur to allow effective land management decisions to be made. The approach used for this study involved a historical comparison of land use change and fecal coliform bacterial densities on Murrells Inlet (MI) (urbanized site) (n = 2026 samples) and North Inlet (NI) (pristine site) (n =1656 samples), both bar-built estuaries located on the northern coast of South Carolina south of Myrtle Beach. The microbiological and water quality data used in this research covered the period of 1967–1995 and the following parameters were used: date of sampling, most probable number (MPN) of fecal coliform bacteria, salinity, rainfall and water temperature. ...