project objectives

The initial Watershed Reef Interconnectivity Scientific Study (WRIScS) was a four-year research project designed to investigate sedimentary aspects of the effects that changing land-use may be having on environmental quality in the coastal zone, in particular the Belize Barrier Reef. 

The project was based on field data collection, and was concerned with the transport of fine sediments through river systems and into the coastal zone in the Stann Creek District of Southern Belize.

Changing land-use practices, in particular the clearing of land for agriculture, has led to increased concern about the potential impact of soil erosion on contaminant transfer and sediment loads in rivers and consequent impacts on the coastal zone and the Barrier Reef. 

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"Belize has the second largest Barrier Reef in the world and the largest in the Western Hemisphere"

^ reef photos

citrus groves bordering a river >