Preface

During the last 100 years, the rise of the global mean surface temperature is real. This warming trend may be closely related to the significant increase of greenhouse gasses which are produced by human activities. It is expected, according to scien-tists' prediction, that the temperature of atmosphere will continuously go up and bring serious impacts on the society and economy of the world as well as China. The impacts of climate change on agriculture, ecosystem, water resources and sea level     

Water pricing towards sustainability of water resources: a case study in Beijing

The role of water pricing for managing water resources is widely recognized in many areas of the world because of the increasing scarcity of water resources, a high competition between water uses and environmental degradation. Based on the analysis of cost of water, this paper explores which types of cost should be reflected in the water pricing enhancing the sustainability of water resources. The principle of full cost pricing in which the cost should include supply cost, opportunity cost and externalities is proposed as a means to achieve the sustainability of water resources. In a case study of Beijing, low water price is analyzed as one reason for unsustainable water consumption. Thus water pricing justified is necessary and pressing. It is proposed to justify water price in phased manner and eventually towards full cost pricing. The assessment of impacts on water resources by raising water price shows water pricing could alleviate the conflict between water supply and demand. This paper concludes that water pricing can play an effective role in enhancing the sustainability of water resources in Beijing.     

A policy and technical measures for controlling soil and water loss in the Loess Plateau of China

Loess Plateau is the most serious region of soil and water loss in China and the world. The sediment carried into the Yellow River amounts to 1.6 billion tons every year. This paper reviews the factors and reasons for erosion in this area, and puts forward a comprehensive controlling policy on the basis of the principles of ecology and practise of Chinese scientists for 40 years. In conformity with the policy, a number of technical measures for controlling soil and water loss are suggested.     

Scenario simulation of water security in China

Umited water resources, increasing demand, low use efficiency, and serious pollution result in severe water resource difficult in China. The evaluation of addressing water problems and the search for effective countermeasures that ensure sustainable water use are key to China‘ s sustainable development. The “compound water security“ consists of food security, life security, environmental security, and economic security. By establishing a conceptual model, the water security of China has been simulated in terms of four scenarios called BAU(the business-as-usual scenario), TEC(the technology and economics scenario), IVL(the institution, values, and lifestyles scenario) and TSD(toward sustainable development) in this paper. The results indicated that water crises, especially water shortages, are being experienced now and will continue to do so for a relatively long time in China and that it is possible to reach a basic balance between supply and demand of water and grain under the TSD developing pattern by a series of approaches including technological innovation, policy adjustments, and behaviour inducement.     

Watershed protection and landscape enhancement by utilization of river water

A scheme for watershed protection and landscape enhaneement(WPLE) by utilization of fiver water was proposed to renovate water resources and protect ecological environment in Qiongshan City, Hainan Province, China. Utilization of fiver water may diminish the drought and flood risks. The scheme is benefieial to solve the problems of water resources shortage, groundwater declines and saltwater intrusion in the watershed. The object of the WPLE scheme is to aehieve a sustainable integrated development of environment, ecology, economy and society.A kind of physieally beautiful and funetionally vivid landscape may exert its synthetieal funetion on the diversity of landscape and the enjoyment of inhabitants. Feasibility of the scheme will be demonstrated by more exoeriments and tests, as well as observations in a long term.     

Water shortage and wastewater reuse

China is not abandantly supplied with freshwater. Water shortage is a crucial problem in northern China, and affects the development of economy and causes a host of environmental and ecological problems. Water saving, water resource protection, strengthening of management and exploitation of new water resources are some of the major measures for solving the water shortage problem. Wastewater reuse is also a feasible and practical means of alleviating the problem.     

Seasonal variation of nitrogen-concentration in the surface water and its relationship with land use in a catchment of northern China

Surface waters can be contaminated by human activities in two ways: (1) by point sources, such as sewage treatment discharge and storm-water runoff; and (2) by non-point sources, such as runoff from urban and agricultural areas. With point-source pollution effectively controlled, non-point source pollution has become the most important environmental concem in the world. The formation of non-point source pollution is related to both the sources such as soil nutrient, the amount of fertilizer and pesticide applied, the amount of refuse, and the spatial complex combination of land uses within a heterogeneous landscape. Land-use change, dominated by human activities, has a significant impact on water resources and quality. In this study, fifteen surface water monitoring points in the Yuqiao Reservoir Basin, Zunhua, Hebei Province, northem China, were chosen to study the seasonal variation of nitrogen concentration in the surface water. Water samples were collected in low-flow period(June), high-flow period(July) and mean-flow period(October) from 1999 to 2000. The results indicated that the seasonal variation of nitrogen concentration in the surface water among the fifteen monitoring points in the rainfall-rich year is more complex than that in the rainfall-deficit year. It was found that the land use, the characteristics of the surface river system, rainfall, and human activities play an important role in the seasonal variation of N-concentration in surface water.Keywords: non-point source pollution; nitrogen concentration; seasonal variation; land use; Yuqiao Reservoir Basin, China     

Qualitative analysis and quantitative simulation on Yin-Huang water salinization mechanism in Bei-Da-Gang reservoir

Yellow River water transfer for Tianjin is important in solving the water shortage in Tianjin, which facilitate economic development and social progress for many years. Fresh water drawn from Yellow River（ i. e., Yin-Huang water） becomes saltier and saltier when being stored in the Bei-Da-Gang reservoir. We qualitatively analyze the water salinization mechanism based on mass transfer theory. The main factors are salinity transfer of saline soil, evaporation concentrating, and the agitation of wind. A simulative experimental pond and an evaporation pond were built beside the Bei-Da-Gang reservoir to quantitatively investigate the water salinization based on water and solute balance in the simulative pond. 80% of increased [Cl^-] is due to the salinity transfer of the saline soil and the other 20% is due to evaporation concentrating, so the former is the most important factor. We found that the salinization of Yin-Huang water can be described with a zero-dimension linear model.     

A grey multi-objective programming approach for sustainable land-use in the Miyun Reservoir basin, China

Miyun Reservoir is the most important water source to Beijing City. Land-use of the basin plays a great role in the protection of water resources. Hence a sustainable land-use planning is required to optimize land-use structure and protect water resources in the basin. Based on the complete land-use system analysis in Miyun, a grey multi-objective programming to basin land-use(GMOPBLU)model was developed and applied to land-use planning. Two alternatives were produced and analyzed by means of interactive adjustment and scenano analysis. The results showed the GMOPBLU model is a valuable approach for basin land-use planning.     

2008——The Green China Year

The year 2008 is the first year of the implementation of the strategic plan of the 17th National Congress of the CPC, and a crucial year for fulfilling the target of the Eleventh Fixe-Year Plan： 2008 is the year for China to display to the whole world the achievements of Reform and Opening up over the past three decades, the year of our peaceful rise in which “the Olympic Flame is to light the East. and the century-long Olympic dream of the Chinese nation is to come truc”.     

Approaches to municipal wastewater irrigation and environmental protection

To reuse the water and nutrient resources from ecological point of view the goals, criteria and constraint conditions of the scientifically municipal wastewater irrigation are discussed as well as the practice in major municipal wastewater irrigation areas in China is introduced, of which particularly the effects of municipal water irrigation mixing with oil refinery wastewater on the agricultural ecosystem are studied and described. It has been revealed that benzo(a)pyrene in various parts of paddy crop is attributed to air pollution, water-soil pollution and biosynthesis of plant. Of exogenous contributions of benzo(a)pyrene in paddy shoot system under natural condition, the dominant factor is the air pollution, whereas the water-soil factor is considered to be secondary. Therefore, it is mostly urgent to control the air pollution source of benzo(a)pyrene, to which the edible parts of various green plants are exposed directly.     

Environmental impacts of a large-scale incinerator with mixed MSW of high water content from a LCA perspective

Large-scale incinerators are applied widely as a result of the heavy burden of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated, while strong opposition is arising from the public living nearby. A large-scale working incineration plant of 1500 ton/day was chosen for evaluation using life cycle assessment. It was found that the corresponding human toxicity impacts via soil(HTs), human toxicity impacts via water(HTw) and human toxicity impacts via air(HTa)categories are 0.213, 2.171, and 0.012 personal equivalents(PE), and global warming(GW100)and nutrient enrichment(NE) impacts are 0.002 and 0.001 PE per ton of waste burned for this plant. Heavy metals in flue gas, such as Hg and Pb, are the two dominant contributors to the toxicity impact categories, and energy recovery could reduce the GW100 and NE greatly. The corresponding HTs, HTw and HTa decrease to 0.087, 0.911 and 0.008 PE, and GW100 turns into savings of- 0.007 PE due to the increase of the heating value from 3935 to5811 k J/kg, if a trommel screener of 40 mm mesh size is used to pre-separate MSW. MSW sorting and the reduction of water content by physical pressure might be two promising pre-treatment methods to improve the combustion performance, and the application of stricter standards for leachate discharge and the flue gas purification process are two critical factors for improvement of the environmental profile identified in this work.     

Evaluating Beijing’s human carrying capacity from the perspective of water resource constraints

As the demands on limited water resources intensify, concerns are being raised about the human carrying capacity of these resources. However, few researchers have studied the carrying capacity of regional water resources. Beijing, the second-largest city in China, faces a critical water shortage that will limit the city’s future development. We developed a method to quantify the carrying capacity of Beijing’s water resources by considering water-use structures based on the proportions of water used for agricultural, industrial, and domestic purposes. We defined a reference structure as 45:22:33 (% of total, respectively), an optimized structure as 40:20:40, and an ideal structure as 50:15:35. We also considered four domestic water quotas: 55, 75, 95, and 115 m 3 /(person·yr). The urban carrying capacity of 10–12 million was closest to Beijing’s actual 2003 population for all three water-use structures with urban domestic water use of 75 m 3 /(person·yr). However, after accounting for our underlying assumptions, the adjusted carrying capacity is closer to 5–6 million. Thus, Beijing’s population in 2003 was almost twice the adjusted carrying capacity. Based on this result, we discussed the ecological and environmental problems created by Beijing’s excessive population and propose measures to mitigate these problems.     

Review on water leakage control in distribution networks and the associated environmental benefits

Water supply is the primary element of an urban system. Due to rapid urbanization and water scarcity, maintaining a stable and safe water supply has become a challenge to many cities, whereas a large amount of water is lost from the pipes of distribution systems. Water leakage is not only a waste of water resources, but also incurs great socio-economic costs. This article presents a comprehensive review on the potential water leakage control approaches and specifically discusses the benefits of each to environmental conservation. It is concluded that water leakage could be further reduced by improving leakage detection capability through a combination of predictive modeling and monitoring instruments, optimizing pipe maintenance strategy, and developing an instant pressure regulation system. The environment could benefit from these actions because of water savings and the reduction of energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions.     

Chemical endemic diseases and their impact on population in china

This paper deals with some endemic diseases related to selenium, iodine and fluoride in eco-environment. Keshan disease and Kaschin-Beck disease are associated with low selenium, they mainly occur in a belt zone across China ranging from North-East to South-West. Selenium contents in food grains and human hair from the disease affected areas are usually below 0.020ppm and 0.20ppm respectively. The endemic goitre caused by iodine deficiency distributes extensively in China, mainly in mountainous and hilly districts, swamp and peat areas, some sand soil and limestone areas. Also there is another kind of endemic goitre which caused by iodine excess in interior and coast areas. Endemic cretinism usually occurs in the endemic goitre seriously affected areas. Endemic fluorosis is also widely distributed in China, but mainly occurs in dry or semi-dry areas of north China. The fluoride sources for causing endemic fluorisis are drinking water and food grains polluted by coal smoke in the backing process of maize     

Prediction of the environmental fate and aquatic ecological impact of nitrobenzene in the Songhua River using the modified AQUATOX model

An accidental discharge of nitrobenzene happened in November 2005 in the Songhua River,China.The AQUATOX model was modified and adapted to simulate the time-dependent nitrobenzene distribution in this multimedia aquatic system and its potential ecological impacts.Nitrobenzene concentrations in flowing water,sediment,and biota were predicted.Based on the initial concentrations of nitrobenzene observed in the field during the accidental discharge,that is,0.167-1.47 mg/L at different river segments, the pre...     

Agricultural sustainability in a sensitive environment--a case analysis of Loess Plateau in China

Loess Plateau,an arid and semi-arid region in Northwest China,is well-known for its most serious soil erosion in terms of sediment yield each year.Soil erosion,which is intensified by agricultural activities,is the major factor influencing sustainable agriculture development in this region.It reduces productivity by removing nutrients and especially reducing water availability that is essential for crop production in the area.It also brings about off-site costs by demanding more efforts for maintenance of banks and dame along Yellow River through raising the riverbed with sediment.Climate is capricious and extreme weather conditions occur frequently,which impairs normal agricultural production with erosion and also decrease of water availability.Extensive way of farming still dominates on the Loess Plateau,which canot produce satisfying economic results and needs to be improved or altered.Conventional agricultural production pattern needs to be reconsidered for husbandry has not been granted its due position.Agriculture is the backbone of economy.Poor agricultural production impedes economic development and vice versa,backward economy also influences the advancement of agriculture.Besides a large population,education status of farmers is another threshold that requires being resolved for a sustainable agriculture.Although conventional agriculture has been practiced there for more than 5000years,now it cannot meet the demand for food and fiber by the increasing population and some of its farming practices are contributing to environmental degradation directly or indirectly and can sustain no longer.Agriculture on Loess Plateau needs to find its own way of sustainability.To work toward a sustainable agriculture,chances and challenges both indwell on Loess Plateau.     

Impacts of climate change on development rate and production of corn in the northeastern China

In this paper, the impacts of climate change on development rate and production of corn in the northeastern China are discussed. The results show that the higher the temperature is, the faster the development rate will be. And the more the precipitation is, the slower the development rate will be. Of which, air temperature is the controlling factor of corn development rate. The influences of development rate on corn yield are remarkable. The impacts of development rate on production in first and last periods are great, and small in the middle two periods. The development rate is positive by relate with corn production from sowing to emergence stage and negative during other periods. So, it is very important to arrange a suitable sowing time for com cultivating in the northeastern China.     

Dry deposition of PM10 over the Yellow Sea during Asian dust events from 2001 to 2007

Dry deposition velocities and fluxes of PM10during Asian dust events over the Yellow Sea from 2001 to 2007 were investigated using observation data in Qingdao, China and Jeju, Korea. The dry deposition velocities of PM10 during dust events over the Yellow Sea ranged from 0.19 to 8.17 cm/sec, with an average of 3.38 cm/sec. Dry deposition fluxes of PM10during dust events over the Yellow Sea were in the range of 68.5–2647.1 mg/(m2·day), with an average of 545.4 mg/(m2·day), which is 2–10 times higher than those reported by other studies for both dust and non-dust periods. It was estimated that 2.6 × 1011–48.7 × 1011g dust particles deposit to the Yellow Sea during dust events through dry deposition every year. Compared with the results in previous studies, it was found that the dry deposition of PM10over the Yellow Sea during dust events in the years with high frequency of dust could account for a large or overwhelming fraction of the annual total dry deposition. Backward air mass trajectory analysis showed that dust events influenced Jeju mainly originated from the desert regions located in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China. There were 119 backward trajectories influenced both Qingdao and Jeju during 15 dust events from 2001 to 2007, accounting for 61.3% of the total trajectories of 194, indicating that Qingdao and Jeju were usually on the same pathway of dust transport downwind from source areas.     

Upstream-downstream cooperation approach in Guanting Reservoir watershed

A case study is introduced and discussed concerning water dispute of misuse and pollution between up- and down-stream parts. The relations between water usage and local industrial structures are analyzed. Results show it is important to change industrial structures of the target region along with controlling water pollution by technical and engineering methods. Three manners of upstream-downstream cooperation are presented and discussed based on the actual conditions of Guangting Reservoir watershed. Two typical scenarios are supposed and studied along with the local plan on water resources development. The best solution for this cooperation presents a good way to help the upstream developing in a new pattern of eco-economy.