The rapid pace of land use changes associated with human population growth requires that we understand impacts of various land uses on water quality. In the southern Appalachians, the most notable change is an increase in urban/suburban land use, and a decrease in forest land uses.  Resource managers, planners, and policy makers need to understand the trade-offs of land use decisions water quality.  We present results from two studies; 1) cumulative effects of land use practices, 2) impacts of urbanization and mitigating effects of forests.  We monitored stream chemistry, pH, conductivity, temperature, and bacteria. For cumulative effects, variation in water quality was related to changes in several landscape variables. In the urban study, we examined a forested landscape’s influence on water quality of a stream originating in an urban setting.  In the cumulative effects study, baseflow water quality was high and consistently decreased downstream.  Large, steep gradients in parameters were observed during stormflow.  Most parameters exhibited significant relationships with landscape variables.  In the urban study, water quality was consistently higher moving downstream from the urban into the forest site.  These results suggest that even small reaches of undisturbed forest streams can improve water quality through in-stream processing and dilution.