Exert from the article
“Water quality is a pressing issue for communities around New Zealand. One of the contributing factors to diminished water quality is fine sediment. Sedimentation is a natural process in which sand, silt and clay, transported in the water, come to rest on the riverbed, forming a solid layer. While sediment in our waterways is a natural occurrence, levels that are too high can cause harm within natural ecosystems.
Human land use activities around waterways, such as road construction, farming, urban development and forest harvesting activities, can suddenly increase the amount of fine sediment that enters the system and have detrimental effects on water quality and the plants and animals that live there.”
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