Abstract
The Ministry of Environment in Korea aims to reduce non-point source (NPS) pollution and improve soil water management by expanding NPS priority management areas. Six NPS priority management areas to reduce suspended solids (SS) according to soil loss were chosen as they either constitute serious hazards to the natural ecosystem due to NPS pollutants or they are areas with unusual geologic structure or strata. Although more comprehensive standards are required for effective NPS management, however, no detailed consideration factors and standards are available in the legal provisions. Therefore, in this study, based on the existing six priority NPS management areas and using results from previous studies, we present detailed legal designation standards. We found that the higher the altitude, slope, and field area ratio, the higher the effect of SS on water quality during rainfall. Additionally, there is a high correlation as R2 0.9813 between SS and the habitat and riparian index. These results are useful for establishing detailed standards for areas requiring an NPS management system, future expansion of the NPS priority management area designation, and policymaking and research for reducing NPS pollution in Korea.
Highlights
The deterioration of water quality in rivers and streams caused by non-point sources has become a major social problem [1]
According to sub-para2 of the Water Environment Conservation Act, the Non-point source (NPS) priority management area refers to areas that cause serious hazards to the natural ecosystem or are expected to create NPS pollutants
It has been reported that the habitation status was poor in the NPS priority management areas due to a decrease in pores in the stream bed [4,23,24,25]
Summary
The deterioration of water quality in rivers and streams caused by non-point sources has become a major social problem [1]. Non-point source (NPS) pollutants are the pollutants flowing into the river from unspecified places within the watershed during rainfall, and there are several types of sources [2]. They can have significant adverse effects including eutrophication of rivers and aquatic ecosystems [3]. A total of 16 watersheds were designated as NPS priority management areas as of 2020 [4]. The designation system for non-point pollution priority management areas consists of four stages.
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