Abstract
Deteriorating surface water quality has become an important environmental problem in China. In this study, river water quality was monitored in July (wet season) and October (dry season) 2019 at 26 sites, and a water quality index (WQI) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) model were used to assess surface water quality and identify pollution sources in the Beichuan River basin, Qinghai Province, China. The results showed that 53.85% and 76.92% of TN, 11.54% and 34.62% of TP, 65.38% and 76.92% of Fe, and 11.54% and 15.38% of Mn samples in the dry and wet seasons, respectively, exceeded the Chinese Government’s Grade III standards for surface water quality. The spatial variation in water quality showed that it gradually deteriorated from upstream to downstream as a result of human activity. The temporal variation showed that water quality was poorer in the wet season than in the dry season because of the rainfall runoff effect. The PMF model outputs showed that the primary sources of pollution in the wet season were mineral weathering and organic pollution sources, domestic and industrial sewage, and agricultural and urban non-point pollution sources. However, in the dry season, the primary sources were mineral weathering and organic pollution sources, industrial sewage, and domestic sewage. Our results suggest that the point pollution sources (domestic and industrial sewage) should be more strictly controlled, as a priority, in order to prevent the continued deterioration in water quality.
Highlights
Surface water has always played a vital role in supplying fresh water for human consumption, agricultural and industrial needs, and recreational purposes [1]
In the dry and wet season, 65.38% and 76.92% of Fe samples and 11.54% and 15.38% of Mn samples, respectively, exceeded the Grade III standards for surface water in China [22]. These results show that the Beichuan River is seriously polluted by nutrient-related contaminants (TN and total phosphorus (TP)) and metal ions (Fe and Mn), which indicates that its water quality is affected by anthropogenic activities [24,25], including domestic sewage and industrial wastewater discharge, use of agricultural fertilizers, and urban rainfall runoff
The water quality index (WQI) was used to assess river water quality, and the results showed that the quality gradually deteriorated from upstream to downstream as a result of human activity
Summary
Surface water has always played a vital role in supplying fresh water for human consumption, agricultural and industrial needs, and recreational purposes [1]. Rapid urbanization, industrialization and the growth in human populations around the world have all led to deterioration in the quality of surface water [2,3,4,5], which is of serious concern to regulators and scientists. One critical step toward the effective control of surface water pollution is to identify the factors that affect water quality and pollution sources. Surface water quality in any region is controlled mainly by natural factors (rainfall, weather, basin physiography, soil erosion, etc.) and anthropogenic factors (domestic and industrial wastewater, agricultural activities, urban development, etc.) [6,7]. Public Health 2020, 17, 5015; doi:10.3390/ijerph17145015 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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