Water Environmental Degradation Research Articles

A novel framework for water accounting and auditing for efficient management of industrial water use

The importance of industrial water resource management has increased owing to the increasingly significant issues of global water scarcity and water environmental degradation, which results in the need for more precise data as well as more advanced management strategies. The majority of industrial water resource management frameworks currently in use fall short in their attempts to perform microscopic section accounting and analysis and are unable to fully obtain and effectively implement product information regarding water. This unquestionably made it more challenging to pinpoint the effects of production pollution, accomplish efficient water conservation in industry, and raise the bar for meticulous management of water resources. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel framework for water accounting and auditing that combines traditional water accounting and water mass balance for measuring, evaluating, and diagnosing water flowing in various production links as well as water finance, to facilitate the effective management of industrial water resources and their integration with enterprise benefits management. Specifically, the framework suggests a new accounting structure that successfully connects the conventional water accounting system with the exact quantitative and economic accounting of industrial production links by revamping the title and substance of water accounting. As opposed to traditional water accounting and industrial water mass balance analysis, this will further improve the system's ability to track internal, intricate production links and the economics of industrial water management, respectively. The case study shows that this framework has considerable benefits for industrial companies in terms of water efficiency, product structure, and cleaner production, which better fits the goal of creating a water-saving society and the global industrial water resources management strategy.

Spatiotemporal analysis and prediction of water quality in the Han River by an integrated nonparametric diagnosis approach

The causes of water environmental degradation in river influenced by intensified human activities are very complex. As an important water source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China, the water security of Han River and its related water quality have become a national concern. Here, we conducted spatiotemporal analysis and prediction of the water quality in the middle-lower reaches of the Han River by utilizing an integrated nonparametric diagnosis approach. System models including a Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess (STL), Mann–Kendall (MK), Redundancy Analysis (RDA), Coefficient of Divergence (CDiv) and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model. Results from February to April of 2004–2018 indicated that, the average concentration of total phosphorus (TP) at the Zongguan Station was 0.107 ± 0.012 mg/L, while the total nitrogen (TN) was 1.945 ± 0.116 mg/L. The STL and MK analysis showed no significant trend for TP but an upward tendency for TN at the Zongguan station. The variation of TP and TN concentration in 2008 was mainly related to the most serious algal bloom event, while the tipping points in 2014 and 2016 were attributed to the abundant precipitation. Significant spatial distribution were obtained based on the CDiv and RDA methods; four categories were clustered and water quality was deteriorated gradually from upstream to downstream. The future prediction of monthly averaged TN concentrations during the period of 2019–2025 exceeded the limit of the environmental water quality standard (GB 3838–2002) (Class III, TN = 1.0 mg/L), leading to potential water quality risk in the Han River during 2019–2025 under strong effect of human activity. Under the worsening trends for the concentrations of TN and TP, the local departments should strictly control the amount of sewage and wastewater discharged from various industries, especially for phosphate fertilizer and rock enterprises, agriculture and aquaculture. This study expected to provide technical means for the follow-up pollution control and is useful for the sustainable improvement of river ecological environment.

Exploring the relationship between urbanization and water environment based on coupling analysis in Nanjing, East China.

The degradation of water environment (WE) has constrained the sustainable development of cities, while the rapid urbanization also exacerbates water environment change. However, the complicated relationship between urbanization and WE is far from clearly understood. In this study, a comprehensive index system for urbanization and WE was applied along with the System Index Evaluation Model (SIEM) and a Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM) to analyze the coupling between urbanization and WE in Nanjing, East China, from 1990 to 2018. The comprehensive index of urbanization increased from 0.0392 in 1990 to 0.9890 in 2018, showing a clear increasing trend. Demographic and spatial urbanization made the largest contribution to urbanization development from 1990 to 2010, while economic urbanization became the largest contributor to urbanization development between 2011 and 2018. Under the combined effects of pressure, state, and response subsystems, the comprehensive WE index showed an upward trend with some fluctuations from 1990 to 2018. The degree of coupling coordination between urbanization and WE displayed an overall upward tendency, growing from 0.18 in 1990 to 0.95 in 2018. The coupling coordination state transitioned from a serious imbalance during the low coupling period (1990–1992) into the superior coordination of the highly coupled period (2011–2018). With the continuous urbanization in the future, in addition to ensuring the optimal management of surface water, protection of groundwater should be reinforced. The results advance our understanding of the dynamic relationship between urbanization and WE and provide important implications for urban planning and water resource protection.

CONTROL-UNIT-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION MEASURE SYSTEM AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE XIAONANHAI LAKE WATERSHED IN HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA

To deal with the water environmental degradation and ecological damage of the Xiaonanhai Lake watershed in Songzi City of Hubei Province, China, this study first divided the watershed into 32 control units according to the administrative division and catchment zones, then analyzed the pollution source and load and calculated the water environmental capacity of the watershed with the water environment system model coupled by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model and the MIKE 21 model. To better deal with different pollutants and divide the responsibility more efficiently, the study proposed a control-unit-based system of five ecological restoration measures including the three-stage constructed wetland, the natural wetland, the clean water corridor, the lakeshore buffer zone, and the emerged and floating plant belt. Finally, the performance evaluation of these measures was conducted under the “Dual Control” system of concentration control and total load control of pollutants. The result proved that the five measures could effectively reduce the total amount of COD, TN, TP, and NH₃-N to improve the water quality, meeting the Surface Water Class Ⅲ Standard.

Abundant and Rare Bacterioplankton in Freshwater Lakes Subjected to Different Levels of Tourism Disturbances

Anthropogenic disturbances have a negative impact on lake ecosystems, such as water environmental degradation. Bacterioplankton communities are essential components in lakes and consist of a few abundant species and several rare taxa. However, little is known about the community diversity and composition of abundant and rare bacterioplankton subjected to different levels of anthropogenic disturbances. In this study, water samples were collected from twelve freshwater lakes located around the city of Nanjing, China. Both Illumina MiSeq sequencing and multivariate statistical analysis were employed to determine the bacterioplankton community composition and its relation to environmental variables. The results indicated that tourism disturbances (mostly sewage discharge and tourist activities) altered the community structure of both abundant and rare bacterioplankton by changing water physicochemical characteristics. Alpha diversity of both abundant and rare taxa did not differ among different anthropogenic disturbance lakes (p > 0.05). Rare bacterial taxa possessed higher alpha diversity than abundant taxa, though rare taxa occupied a tiny portion of abundance (4.5%). Redundancy analysis demonstrated that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was the most significant correlation variable for constraining the variation of abundant taxa, whereas total phosphorus (TP), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) were the most dominant environmental factors constraining the rare taxa, indicating abundant and rare taxa may have different ecological niches.

Preliminary research on quantitative methods of water resources carrying capacity based on water resources balance sheet

Abstract. Water resources are not only basic natural resources, but also strategic economic resources and ecological control factors. Water resources carrying capacity constrains the sustainable development of regional economy and society. Studies of water resources carrying capacity can provide helpful information about how the socioeconomic system is both supported and restrained by the water resources system. Based on the research of different scholars, major problems in the study of water resources carrying capacity were summarized as follows: the definition of water resources carrying capacity is not yet unified; the methods of carrying capacity quantification based on the definition of inconsistency are poor in operability; the current quantitative research methods of water resources carrying capacity did not fully reflect the principles of sustainable development; it is difficult to quantify the relationship among the water resources, economic society and ecological environment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a better quantitative evaluation method to determine the regional water resources carrying capacity. This paper proposes a new approach to quantifying water resources carrying capacity (that is, through the compilation of the water resources balance sheet) to get a grasp of the regional water resources depletion and water environmental degradation (as well as regional water resources stock assets and liabilities), figure out the squeeze of socioeconomic activities on the environment, and discuss the quantitative calculation methods and technical route of water resources carrying capacity which are able to embody the substance of sustainable development.

Environmental hazards from population pressure in the Jinta Oasis, arid northwestern China

Oasis is not only the most concentrated area of human activities in arid region but also the largest area where artificial disturbances occur at the regional scale. The Jinta Oasis is a very typical artificial oasis in arid region of China and is set as one of the national land resource developing and representative areas in China. With the continuous increase in population and livestock number in Jinta Oasis, such severe problems of environmental degradation as serious land pollution and desertification, water environmental degradation, and vegetation degeneracy occur within the whole oasis.

Characteristics of phosphorus transfer in farmland under artificial rainfall conditions

River network plain in Taihu Basin was selected as an experiment place,and triple duplication experiments had been carried out under artificial rainfall conditions to study the characteristics of phosphorus transfer from runoffof farmland.The results indicated that surface runoff was the main way of phosphorus losing from the agricultural field during artificial rainfall.The amount of losing phosphorus caused by surface flow and soil erosion of total phosphorus output accounted for 58.50% and 34.69% respectively,while that by interflow of total phosphorus output was only 6.81%.Particulate phosphorus was the primary pattern of phosphorus transfer which accounted for 60.73% of the total phosphorus losing.Inorganic phosphate was the primary pattern of dissolved phosphorus transfer.Compared with the particulate phosphorus,dissolved phosphorus can move more easily in the soil. Analysis of the characteristics of phosphorus transfer in surface runoff and interflow showed that soil could reduce the concentration of phosphorus when flows passed through i4 in particular have obvious effect on reducing the concentration of TPP,up more than 80%.In addition,despite surface runoff was the primary way of phosphorus transfer in rainstorm-runoff process,in such a basin as Taihu,which has abundant rainfall,interflow is the main pattern at normal rainfall conditions,dissolved phosphorus transfer from interflow account for a large percentage of phosphorus loss,which has an important contribution to water environmental degradation of the region.Therefore it is of great significance to strengthen the research of dissolved phosphorus transfer for environment conservation.

Water Environmental Degradation of the Heihe River Basin in Arid Northwestern China

Water environmental degradation is a major issue in the Heihe River Basin belonging to the inland river basin of temperate arid zone in northwestern China. Mankind's activities, such as dense population and heavy dependence on irrigated agriculture, place immense pressure on available and limited water resources during the last century, especially the recent five decades. An investigation on the water environmental degradation in the Heihe River Basin and analysis of its causation were conducted. The results indicated that water environmental changes in the whole basin were tremendous mostly in the middle reaches, which reflected in surface water runoff change, decline of groundwater table and degeneration of surface water and groundwater quality. Some new forms of management based on traditional and scientific knowledge must be introduced to solve problems of water environmental degradation in the Heihe River Basin.

Water Environmental Degradation of the Source Area of the Yellow River on Northeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract The issue on water environmental degradation in the source area of the Yellow River has been one of very serious ecological and socially economic problems. The temporal-spatial changes of water environment led to the decreasing of land capacity and river disconnecting. The status of water environmental degradation in this paper was analyzed based on the data and field investigation. The results indicated that the surface water area in the region has obviously decreased owing to the climate changes and human irrational use of water resources and the continuous lowering of the regional groundwater table and the steadily decreasing tendency of the flow rate in the source areas of the Yellow River.

水環境劣化を受けるガラス繊維強化複合材料の非破壊検査技術(発電プラントにおける非破壊検査と保守,発電プラントにおける非破壊検査と保守)

The glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) with the corrosion resistance properties has been used in water environment as a structure material. Now, a non-destructive method is required in order to verify the decrease of mechanical properties during using GFRP. An ultrasonic detecting method was chosen from some non-destructive methods in the study. Eight kinds of UD-GFRP, which the immersing time was changed in 80±3℃ distilled water, were prepared. The tensile test was carried out to estimate the change of mechanical properties under water environmental degradation. As a result, it become clear that interfacial debonding causing the fall of tensile strength increased and the interfacial debonding became a factor of the source of reflection of an ultrasonic wave.

Ranking Regional Air and Water Environmental Degradations

Utilizing a distance index, state-level pollution data extracted from List and McHone (2000b ), states, and regions of the United States are ranked for their air, river, lake, composite water (lake and river), and overall composite (water and air) environmental degradation outputs. For the composite water index, the New England region is ranked first and the Far West region is ranked last. For the overall composite index, the Rocky Mountain region is ranked first and the Mideast region is ranked last.