Abstract
Surface water quality deterioration is a serious problem in many rapidly urbanizing catchments in developing countries. There is currently a lack of studies that quantify water quality variation (deterioration or otherwise) due to both socio-economic and infrastructure development in a catchment. This paper investigates the causes of water quality changes over the rapid urbanization period of 1985–2009 in the Shenzhen River catchment, China and examines the changes in relation to infrastructure development and socio-economic policies. The results indicate that the water quality deteriorated rapidly during the earlier urbanization stages before gradually improving over recent years, and that rapid increases in domestic discharge were the major causes of water quality deterioration. Although construction of additional wastewater infrastructure can significantly improve water quality, it was unable to dispose all of the wastewater in the catchment. However, it was found that socio-economic measures can significantly improve water quality by decreasing pollutant load per gross regional production (GRP) or increasing labor productivity. Our findings suggest that sustainable development during urbanization is possible, provided that: (1) the wastewater infrastructure should be constructed timely and revitalized regularly in line with urbanization, and wastewater treatment facilities should be upgraded to improve their nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies; (2) administrative regulation policies, economic incentives and financial policies should be implemented to encourage industries to prevent or reduce the pollution at the source; (3) the environmental awareness and education level of local population should be increased; (4) planners from various sectors should consult each other and adapt an integrated planning approach for socio-economic and wastewater infrastructure development.
Highlights
Many catchments in developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization [1,2]
Water quality measured at the sampling station S3 (Figure 1) was used to calculate the WPI as it represents the effect of pollution discharges in the whole catchment on the water quality of the river
The results indicated that the main pollutants in the river were NH3-N, TP and BOD5 and that different pollutants had different variation trends (Figure 3): the contribution of BOD5 to the WPI initially increased from 13% in 1988 to 22% in 1994 but declined after 1995; the contribution of NH3-N
Summary
Many catchments in developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization [1,2]. These catchments are faced with the challenge of maintaining (or improving) water quality while allowing for economic growth and population expansion [3]. Many studies have investigated and characterized the changes in water quality during urbanization. Ren et al [4] found that urbanization from 1947 to 1996 in Shanghai corresponded to a rapid degradation of water quality in the Huangpu River. A separate study in Shanghai found that water quality in the city center had deteriorated from the early 1980s to the early 1990s but has been improving since the
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