Impact of urbanization and industrialization upon surface water quality: A pilot study of Panzhihua mining town

Abstract

In order to investigate the impact of urbanization and industrialization on surface water quality, a pilot study of Panzhihua (攀枝花) mining town was carried out. The urbanization of Panzhi- hua region was dominated by industry development and population growth. The level of urbanization showed that it was 18.44% in 1965, and reached 45.99% in 1983. Then, it reached 53.71% in 2005, so the urbanization process was very rapid in Panzhihua region. In the process of industrialization, the level of industrialization was fluctuated at around 70% from 1965 to 2005, which was influenced by mining, extracting, and smelting production. In the processes of urbanization, population growth caused an increase in life pollution sources, and an amount of effluents bearing coliform, COD (chemi- cal oxygen demand), NH4 + -N, and BOD5 (five-day biological oxygen demand) were released into Jinsha (金沙) River, which could cause decline in the surface water quality. While in the processes of industri- alization (especially industrial scale expansion), more effluent bearing heavy metals could cause degra- dation of surface water quality. Thus, the measures, such as adjusting industry structure, optimizing the cleaning technology, and controlling pollution sources, should be enhanced to alleviate the current state of water quality exacerbation.