Impact of environmental factors on water quality at multiple spatial scales and its spatial variation in Huai River Basin, China

Abstract

Quantitative assessment of water quality and its spatial variation identification, as well as the discernment of primary factors affecting water quality are in its urgent in water environment management. In this study, four key water quality indicators, namely, ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N), permanganate index (CODMn), total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) at 71 sampling sites were selected to evaluate water quality and its spatial variation identification. More concerns were emphasized on the anthropogenic factors (land use pattern) and natural factors (river density, elevation and precipitation) to quantify the overall water quality variations at different spatial scales. Results showed that the Yi-Shu-Si River sub-basin had a better water quality status than the Huai River sub-basin. The moderate polluted area nearly distributed in the upper and middle reaches of the Shaying River and Guo River. The high cluster centers which were surrounded with CODMn, NH4+-N, TN and TP mainly also distributed in the upper and middle reaches of the Shaying River and Guo River. Redundancy analysis showed that the 200 m buffer area acted as the most sensitive area, which was easily subjected to pollution. The precipitation was identified as the most important variables among all the studied hydrological units, followed by farmland, urban land or elevation. The point source pollution was still existed although the non-point source pollution was also identified. The urban surface runoff pollution was severer than farmland fertilizer loss at the sub-basin scale in flood season, while the farmland showed “small-scale” effects for explaining overall water quality variations. This research is helpful for identifying the overall water quality variations from the scale-process interactions and providing a scientific basis for pollution control and decision making for the Huai River Basin.