Healthy Water Environment Research Articles

From Thousand Canals to Roads: The Transformation of Transportation Mode in Pontianak

Pontianak City was established in 1771 on the the Kapuas River and Landak River riverbanks, the latter being the longest river in Indonesia. The city was once known as the City of a Thousand Canals. However, in its development, people shifted to land transportation modes, leaving the canals in an extinction process. This study aimed to uncover the factors and impacts of the inland water transportation network fading from the Pontianak urban structure. The research used a sequential explanatory design, combining qualitative methods in the form of literature review and quantitative methods using space syntax analysis. By comparing the spatial configuration of the canals and roads in a diachronic approach, the study found proof of the importance of the canals’ existence in the Pontianak urban structure. Water transportation can be the answer to fixing environmental issues, flood hazards, and traffic congestion. Revitalizing the canals can help bring a healthy water environment because the people will change their perception of the canals from sewage routes to transportation routes. Revitalizing the canals can also bring back waterside activity, generate a sense of belonging, and bring back part of the former identity of Pontianak City.

Comprehensive Treatment of Urban Landscape Water Environment Based on Aquatic Plants Purification and Restoration

Water is the source of life and the foundation for the growth of all things. Water is also an important part of the urban ecological structure. A healthy water environment is the basis for human survival and development, and it is also one of the important conditions for the harmonious development of cities. With the rapid development of the economy and the improvement of the level of urbanization, the water environment pollution in the urban landscape has become more and more serious, such as serious water eutrophication and rapid algae reproduction in the water environment. As plants that can survive in water, aquatic plants have always been an important main body of the water ecological environment. It plays an unparalleled role in water environment purification and comprehensive treatment of water pollution. This paper aims to study the comprehensive management of urban landscape water environment based on the purification and restoration of aquatic plants. It combines the purification and restoration ability of aquatic plants and genetic algorithm to carry out the comprehensive management experiment of urban landscape water environment. The conclusion shows that after the purification and restoration of aquatic plants and comprehensive pollution control, the comprehensive eutrophic substance content of the urban landscape pond water body decreased by 21.7 mg, and the water body transparency increased by 20 cm.

Comprehensive health evaluation of an urban wetland using quality indices and decision trees

In a world where pristine water is becoming scarcer, the need to reuse water becomes imperative. In this context explaining the water quality, purpose fitness and the parameters or conditions of the water body to adjust so as to improve its quality, are of great relevance. The goal of the present study was the use of water, riverine, and biodiversity quality indices to assess the condition of the studied urban wetland, since no single index can provide a complete health assessment of a water body. Decision trees were also used to elucidate the best water parameters to mend in order to recover the overall health of the urban wetland. The decision trees identified relevant physicochemical parameters as well as their approximate concentration at which a healthy water environment can be sustained for zooplankton and proved to be a powerful and simple alternative to customary approaches. Suspended particles and phosphates proved to be important parameters with concentrations approximately lower than 88mgL-1 and 11mgL-1, respectively, for a good biodiversity index of zooplankton. Ammonia, total coliforms, BOD, nitrates, and sodium were the main parameters that affected the water quality index. The vegetation coverage and its structure were the driving factors in the riverine quality index of the wetland.

Research and Prospect of Numerical Simulation of River Water Environment

Healthy water environment is the prerequisite for river resource utilization, social and economic development, new urbanization and healthy and happy river construction. Through the literature database retrieval statistics, summarizes the river water environment research to numerical simulation analysis, environmental quality improvement direction. The indicator system, evaluation method and significance of river ecosystem health assessment, and water ecological security assessment are introduced in detail. Finally, the types of river water environment numerical models are summarized, and the advantages and disadvantages of mainstream models and their application conditions and characteristics are compared and analyzed. In order to provide basic reference for river water environment numerical simulation machine watershed ecological environment protection and maintenance.

Impacts of climate change on hydrology, water quality and crop productivity in the Ohio-Tennessee River Basin

Nonpoint source pollution from agriculture is the main source of nitrogen and phosphorus in the stream systems of the Corn Belt region in the Midwestern US. The eastern part of this region is comprised of the Ohio-Tennessee River Basin (OTRB), which is considered a key contributing area for water pollution and the Northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. A point of crucial importance in this basin is therefore how intensive corn-based cropping systems for food and fuel production can be sustainable and coexist with a healthy water environment, not only under existing climate but also under climate change conditions in the future. To address this issue, a OTRB integrated modeling system has been built with a greatly refined 12-digit subbasin structure based on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) water quality model, which is capable of estimating landscape and in-stream water and pollutant yields in response to a wide array of alternative cropping and/or management strategies and climatic conditions. The effects of three agricultural management scenarios on crop production and pollutant loads exported from the crop land of the OTRB to streams and rivers were evaluated: (1) expansion of continuous corn across the entire basin, (2) adoption of no-till on all corn and soybean fields in the region, (3) implementation of a winter cover crop within the baseline rotations. The effects of each management scenario were evaluated both for current climate and projected mid-century (2046-2065) climates from seven global circulation models (GCMs). In both present and future climates each management scenario resulted in reduced erosion and nutrient loadings to surface water bodies compared to the baseline agricultural management, with cover crops causing the highest water pollution reduction. Corn and soybean yields in the region were negligibly influenced from the agricultural management scenarios. On the other hand, both water quality and crop yield numbers under climate change deviated considerably for all seven GCMs compared to the baseline climate. Future climates from all GCMs led to decreased corn and soybean yields by up to 20% on a mean annual basis, while water quality alterations were either positive or negative depending on the GCM. The study highlights the loss of productivity in the eastern Corn Belt under climate change, the need to consider a range of GCMs when assessing impacts of climate change, and the value of SWAT as a tool to analyze the effects of climate change on parameters of interest at the basin scale. Keywords: agricultural management scenarios, corn-based systems, global circulation models, hydrology, water quality, crop yields, SWAT, Ohio-Tennessee River Basin DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe.20150803.1497 Online first on [2015-03-19] Citation: Panagopoulos Y, Gassman P W, Arritt R W, Herzmann D E, Campbell T D, Valcu A, et al. Impacts of climate change on hydrology, water quality and crop productivity in the Ohio-Tennessee River Basin. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2015; 8(3): 36－53.

Genetic Algorithm-Based Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation of Water Quality in Dongzhaigang

The concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; NO2−–N, NH3–N, and NO3−–N), PO43−–P, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), five-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5), oil, Si, and seven heavy metals (Hg, Cr, Cu, As, Zn, Pb, and Cd) in seawater from the Dongzhaigang National Mangrove Nature Reserve of China in 2013 were determined. Except for the concentrations of the COD, BOD5, Cr, Hg, Cu, As, and Cd, each index in seawater were found to be over the limits of I-Class seawater standards. The index of organic pollution showed that the pollution level in this study area reached level 6; eutrophication levels indicated that the nutritional level reached level 4. According to the water quality index model, the sea area was slightly polluted by heavy metals. In a genetic algorithm-based fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, the results for organic pollutants, nutrients, and heavy metal pollution can be combined to evaluate the water quality as a whole. Results showed that the sea area in Dongzhaigang did not have a healthy water environment, but was seriously polluted by organic pollutants and nutrients.

A refined regional modeling approach for the Corn Belt – Experiences and recommendations for large-scale integrated modeling

Nonpoint source pollution from agriculture is the main source of nitrogen and phosphorus in the stream systems of the Corn Belt region in the Midwestern US. This region is comprised of two large river basins, the intensely row-cropped Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) and Ohio-Tennessee River Basin (OTRB), which are considered the key contributing areas for the Northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Thus, in this area it is of utmost importance to ensure that intensive agriculture for food, feed and biofuel production can coexist with a healthy water environment. To address these objectives within a river basin management context, an integrated modeling system has been constructed with the hydrologic Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, capable of estimating river basin responses to alternative cropping and/or management strategies. To improve modeling performance compared to previous studies and provide a spatially detailed basis for scenario development, this SWAT Corn Belt application incorporates a greatly refined subwatershed structure based on 12-digit hydrologic units or ‘subwatersheds’ as defined by the US Geological Service. The model setup, calibration and validation are time-demanding and challenging tasks for these large systems, given the scale intensive data requirements, and the need to ensure the reliability of flow and pollutant load predictions at multiple locations. Thus, the objectives of this study are both to comprehensively describe this large-scale modeling approach, providing estimates of pollution and crop production in the region as well as to present strengths and weaknesses of integrated modeling at such a large scale along with how it can be improved on the basis of the current modeling structure and results. The predictions were based on a semi-automatic hydrologic calibration approach for large-scale and spatially detailed modeling studies, with the use of the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting algorithm (SUFI-2) and the SWAT-CUP interface, followed by a manual water quality calibration on a monthly basis. The refined modeling approach developed in this study led to successful predictions across most parts of the Corn Belt region and can be used for testing pollution mitigation measures and agricultural economic scenarios, providing useful information to policy makers and recommendations on similar efforts at the regional scale.

Surface water quality and cropping systems sustainability under a changing climate in the Upper Mississippi River Basin

Agricultural nonpoint source pollution is the main source of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the intensely row-cropped Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) stream system and is considered the primary cause of the northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. A point of crucial importance in this region is therefore how intensive corn (<i>Zea mays</i> L.)-based cropping systems for food and fuel production can be sustainable and coexist with a healthy water environment, not only under existing climate conditions but also under a changed climate in the future. To address this issue, a UMRB integrated modeling system has been built with a greatly refined 12-digit subbasin structure based on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) water quality model, which is capable of estimating landscape and in-stream water and pollutant yields in response to a wide array of alternative cropping and/or management strategies and climatic conditions. The effects of the following four agricultural management scenarios on crop production and pollutant loads exported from the cropland of the UMRB to streams and rivers were evaluated: (1) expansion of continuous corn across the entire basin, (2) adoption of no-till on all corn and soybean (<i>Glycine max</i> L.) fields in the region, (3) substitution of the traditional continuous corn and corn–soybean rotations with an extended five-year rotation consisting of corn, soybean, and three years of alfalfa (<i>Medicago sativa</i> L.), and (4) implementation of a winter cover crop within the baseline rotations. The effects of each management scenario were evaluated both for current climate and a projected midcentury (2046 to 2065) climate from a General Circulation Model (GCM). All four scenarios behaved similarly under the historical and future climate, generally resulting in reduced erosion and nutrient loadings to surface water bodies compared to the baseline agricultural management. Continuous corn was the only scenario which resulted in increased N pollution while no-till was the most environmentally effective and able to sustain production at almost the same levels. Rye (<i>Secale cereale</i> L.) cover crop within the fallow period was also effective in reducing erosion and both sediment-bound and soluble forms of nutrients. The results indicated that alternative management practices could reduce sediment, N, and P exports from UMRB cropland by up to 50% without significantly affecting yields. Results for the climate change scenario showed that the effectiveness of the management scenarios was strongly linked to the reduced water availability predicted under the future climate, which assisted in mitigating pollutant transport, although with a small loss of production.

Aquatic Microbiology in a Rapidly Changing World

Aquatic Microbiology in a Rapidly Changing World We are in the era of speed and precision. Like many other disciplines in environmental biology, applied aquatic microbiology tends to move forward with new rapid and cutting edge tools to study water-related microorganisms from river banks to the abyss of the oceans. These innovations help to resolve the issues with determining the risks associated with climate change, human activities as well as the interactions between species to redefine what a healthy water environment is for all living organisms sharing these environments.

Application of System Dynamics on Shallow Multipurpose Artificial Lakes: A Case Study of Detention Pond at Tainan, Taiwan

This study designs a multipurpose urban shallow artificial lake, including water supply, flood detention, and water environment preservation. It is expected to not only preserve a healthy water environment but to also retain water conservation and flood detention. This study adopts system dynamics (SD) to analyze the relationship between different purposes of water resources utilization. Furthermore, different operation strategies effects can be simulated by SD through a proposed urban multipurpose shallow artificial lake system. The results demonstrate the dynamic effects of strategies managers propose such as demand analysis, inflow control, and water quality improvement in this case study for Taiwan. SD aids lake system prediction and understanding temporally in sequential planning for water supply, environmental preservation, and flood detention. The SD model will hopefully serve as a reference to study different features before artificial lakes constructing.

Socio economic influences on the restoration and maintenance of the water environment

Protection of the water environment has become a modern socio economic issue in which the sociological pressures for a healthy water environment must be balanced with affordability. Reconciliation of these aspects requires clear political thinking and rigorous methodologies. It also requires a shift in mind-set which considers members of the public as customers. Water utilities are the major users of the water environment and potentially its greatest threat – so good delivery of water services is very important. The presentation addresses the topic through the experience of Anglian Water, a privatised water utility serving Eastern England.