Economic development and its impact on the environment in east coastal zone of China

This paper discusses briefly the elementary characteristics of the east China economic developing zone, and analyses the condition of urban atmospheric pollution, water pollution and ecological damage in this zone at present. It was brought forward that we must pay great attention to the environmental factors, and make the environmental impact assessment and environmental planning in the process of economic development in this zone.     

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.     

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     

Study on pollution and eutrophication in the Chaohu Lake

Effect of the pollution on the Chaohu Lake ecosystem has been described based on the results obtained by analysis of water samples and field survey. The environmental behavior of pollutants and their toxicity is discussed in relation to biological effects. Most of the chemicals identified by GC/MS are biodegradable in the water environment except for some organochlorinated hydrocarbons and PAHs. The pollution of the water body particularly cutrophication has led not only to disruption of natural scenic beauty, but also to changes of biotic communities and extinction of certain species. Deterioration of water quality, eutrophication in particular have certainly had an impact on aquatic organisms and on the human health in this region.     

An novel identification method of the environmental risk sources for surface water pollution accidents in chemical industrial parks

The chemical industry is a major source of various pollution accidents. Improving the management level of risk sources for pollution accidents has become an urgent demand for most industrialized countries. In pollution accidents, the released chemicals harm the receptors to some extent depending on their sensitivity or susceptibility. Therefore, identifying the potential risk sources from such a large number of chemical enterprises has become pressingly urgent. Based on the simulation of the whole accident process, a novel and expandable identification method for risk sources causing water pollution accidents is presented. The newly developed approach, by analyzing and stimulating the whole process of a pollution accident between sources and receptors, can be applied to identify risk sources, especially on the nationwide scale. Three major types of losses, such as social, economic and ecological losses, were normalized, analyzed and used for overall consequence modeling. A specific case study area, located in a chemical industry park (CIP) along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, China, was selected to test the potential of the identification method. The results showed that there were four risk sources for pollution accidents in this CIP. Aniline leakage in the HS Chemical Plant would lead to the most serious impact on the surrounding water environment. This potential accident would severely damage the ecosystem up to 3.8 km downstream of Yangtze River, and lead to pollution over a distance stretching to 73.7 km downstream. The proposed method is easily extended to the nationwide identification of potential risk sources.     

Regional eco-environmental analysis of Yuxi River-Chaohu Lake

Yuxi River-Chaohu Lake water suffers greatly from the ecological problems of eutrophication, high turbidity, organic pollution, disappearance of littoral macrophyte, bank erosion and reduction of economic fishery products. With Micro-cystis dominant, it is a degenerated and weak ecosystem. Its vicious cycling is caused by too much nutrient load, high spring water level and improper management of the water. The point sources of pollution from cities and industries contribute more than 50% of nutrient load. Soil erosion and fertilizer loss from late rice fields are important factors in non-point nutrient load. The disappearing littoral zone can neither give enough protection for the bank nor provide proper habitats for the biota. The feasibility of " ecological water level proposal" and means to reduce nutrient load are discussed to improve the habitat environment for both the nature and human being.     

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.     

A study on the environmental background values in the Mt. Namjagbarwa region, Tibet

A study on the elemental composition of aerosol, water and soil in the Mt. Namjagbarwa region, Tibet, was carried out in the period of 1982 to 1984. Samples of aerosol particles were collected by cascade impactor and analyzed for 10 elements by PIXE. Samples of ice, snow and water were collected and analyzed for trace metals, major cations and anions. The pH values of water were at quasi-neutrality or neutrality, and the hardness of water was low. Contents and physico-chemical composition of 20 elements in the major types of soil were determined by physico-chemical methods. Levels of elements in soil varied with soil type and their parent materials. Contents of some elements were higher in the substratum soil derived from in situ than in the surface soil. The region was in a remote area with negligible pollution and could be considered as a good location for measuring the baskground value of environmental sample.     

Modelling of water quality of Minjiang estuary

In order to establish economic development region at Mawei districtwhich is nearby downstream of Minjiang river and to answer the question of impact of economic development on water quality of Minjiang estuary, the analyses of hydrologic and hydraulic characteristics of Mawei reach of Minjiang tidal river, a two-dimensional mathematical model has been established and simulation of water quality was studied. The results show that the flushing time of a conservative pollutant during dry and raining period are 12 and 7 days respectively from Mawei to Minjiang mouth, the decay rate constants of BOD and NH3-N are 0.1 to 0.4 and 0.18 to 0.45 d-1 respectively. The capacity of dilution and assimilation for pollutants is larger.     

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.     

Recent advances based on the synergetic effect of adsorption for removal of dyes from waste water using photocatalytic process

The problem of textile dye pollution has been addressed by various methods,mainly physical,chemical,biological,and acoustical.These methods mainly separate and/or remove the dye present in water.Recently,advanced oxidation processes(AOP)have been focused for removal of dye from waste water due to their advantages such as ecofriendly,economic and capable to degrade many dyes or organic pollutant present in water.Photocatalysis is one of the advance oxidation processes,mainly carried out under irradiation of light and suitable photocatalytic materials.The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalytic materials mainly depends on the band gap,surface area,and generation of electron–hole pair for degradation dyes present in water.It has been observed that the surface area plays a major role in photocatalytic degradation of dyes,by providing higher surface area,which leads to the higher adsorption of dye molecule on the surface of photocatalyst and enhances the photocatalytic activity.This present review discusses the synergic effect of adsorption of dyes on the photocatalytic efficiency of various nanostructured high surface area photocatalysts.In addition,it also provides the properties of the water polluting dyes,their mechanism and various photocatalytic materials;and their morphology used for the dye degradation under irradiation of light along with the future prospects of highly adsorptive photocatalytic material and their application in photocatalytic removal of dye from waste water.     

Palaeorunoff estimations achieved from palaeoclimatic information for the southwest part of the North China Plain: an attempt to apply a climatological approach to palaeohydrology

Palaeoclimatic scenario projecting annual temperature and annual precipitation is firstly formalized with data available and speculations for the southwest part of the North China Plain (35- 37°N, 115-119°E) during the last 25000 years. Then, with three regression equations relating annual runoff to annual precipitation and derived with data of modern hydrological and meteorological records, values of annual runoff are calculated in terms of the corresponding values of annual precipitation from this palaeoclimatic scenario for this region during this temporal interval. These results indicate that runoff is the most during 8000-3000a B.P. and the least during 25000-12000 a B. P.; runoff occurring during 12000-8000 a B.P. and during 3000-0 a B.P. is less than the one occurring during 8000-3000 a B.P. and more than the one occurring during 25000-12000 a B. P.; and the runoff occurring during 25000-12000 a B. P., 12000-8000 a B. P., and 3000-0 a B.P. is respectively 43, 46 and 66 percent of the one occurring during 8000-3000 a B.P. Values of bankfull discharge for palaeochannels of the Yellow River flowing in this region during the same interval are calculated from available estimates of slope of stream-bed of these palaeochannels with a regression equation relating bankfull discharge to slope of stream-bed and ratios of bankfull-discharge are further calculated from these values for different groups of palaeochannel formed during different time spans embraced in this interval. To conduct a cross-check, these values and ratios of bankfull-discharge are compared to the corresponding values and ratios of runoff occurring during roughly the same time spans. The same direction and similar relative magnitude of changes of the surface water occurring in this region during the last 25000 years are indicated by these comparisons.     

Characterizing the antibiotic resistance genes in a river catchment: Influence of anthropogenic activities

Previous studies on environmental antibiotics resistance genes(ARGs) have focused on the pollution sources such as wastewater treatment plants, aquaculture and livestock farms,etc. Few of them had addressed this issue in a regional scale such as river catchment. Hence,the occurrence and abundances of 23 ARGs were investigated in surface water samples collected from 38 sites which located from the river source to estuary of the Beijiang River.Among them, 11 ARGs were frequently detected in this region and 5 ARGs(sul I, sul II, tet B,tet C, and tet W) were selected for their distribution pattern analysis. The abundances of the selected ARGs were higher in the upstream(8.70 × 10~6 copies/ng DNA) and downstream areas(3.17 × 10~6 copies/ng DNA) than those in the midstream areas(1.23 × 10~6 copies/ng DNA), which was positively correlated to the population density and number of pollution sources. Pollution sources of ARGs along the Beijiang River not only had a great impact on the abundances and diversity, but also on the distribution of specific ARGs in the water samples. Both sul I and sul II were likely originated from aquaculture farms and animal farms,tet W gene was possibly associated with the mining/metal melting industry and the electric waste disposal and tet C gene was commonly found in the area with multiple pollution sources.However, the abundance of tet B was not particularly related to anthropogenic impacts. These findings highlight the influence of pollution sources and density of population on the distribution and dissemination of ARGs at a regional scale.     

A review of environmental characteristics and effects of low-molecular weight organic acids in the surface ecosystem

Low molecular weight organic acids （LMWOAs） are prevalent on the earth＇s surface. They are vital intermediate products during metabolic pathways of organic matter and participate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle during life activities. Photochemical reactions are pivotal for LMWOAs＇ origination and play a large role in determining their diversity and their ultimate fate. Within the long time that organic matter is preserved in sediments, it can be decomposed and converted to release organic and inorganic pollutants as well as C, N, and P nutrients, which are of potential ecological risk in causing secondary pollution to lake water. The sediment pool is a comprehensive and complex compartment closely associated with overlying water by various biochemical processes, during which LMWOAs play critical roles to transport and transform elements. This article elucidates geochemical behaviors of LMWOAs in the surface environment in details, taking natural water, soil, and aerosol as examples, focusing on reviewing research developments on sources and characteristics, migration and mineralization of LMWOAs and relevant environmental effects. Simultaneously, this review article depicts the categories and contents of LMWOAs or their contribution to DOC in environmental media, and evaluates their importance during organic matter early diagenesis. Through concluding and discussing the conversion mechanisms and influencing factors, the next research orientations on LMWOAs in lake ecosystems are determined, mainly concerning relationships with hydrochemical parameters and microorganisms, and interactions with pollutants. This will enrich the knowledge on organic matter degradation and related environmental effects, and help reconstruct a theoretical framework for organic compound succession and influencing factors, providing basic data for lake eutrophication and ecological risk assessment, conducive to better control over water pollution and proper management of water quality.     

Numerical study of the effects of local atmospheric circulations on a pollution event over Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, China

Currently, the Chinese central government is considering plans to build a trilateral economic sphere in the Bohai Bay area, including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei(BTH), where haze pollution frequently occurs. To achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to understand the physical mechanism of the haze pollution there. Therefore, the pollutant transport mechanisms of a haze event over the BTH region from 23 to 24 September 2011 were studied using the Weather Research and Forecasting model and the FLEXible-PARTicle dispersion model to understand the effects of the local atmospheric circulations and atmospheric boundary layer structure. Results suggested that the penetration by sea-breeze could strengthen the vertical dispersion by lifting up the planetary boundary layer height(PBLH) and carry the local pollutants to the downstream areas; in the early night, two elevated pollution layers(EPLs) may be generated over the mountain areas: the pollutants in the upper EPL at the altitude of 2–2.5 km were favored to disperse by long-range transport, while the lower EPL at the altitude of 1 km may serve as a reservoir, and the pollutants there could be transported downward and contribute to the surface air pollution.The intensity of the sea–land and mountain–valley breeze circulations played an important role in the vertical transport and distribution of pollutants. It was also found that the diurnal evolution of the PBLH is important for the vertical dispersion of the pollutants,which is strongly affected by the local atmospheric circulations and the distribution of urban areas.     

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.     

Comparison of mixing layer height inversion algorithms using lidar and a pollution case study in Baoding, China

Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area is suffering from atmospheric pollution from a long time. The understanding of the air pollution mechanism is of great importance for officials to design strategies for the environmental governance. Mixing layer height(MLH) is a key factor influencing the diffusion of air pollutants. It plays an important role on the evolution of heavy pollution events. Light detection and ranging(lidar), is an effective remote-sensing tool, which can retrieve high spatial and temporal evolution process within mixing layer(ML), especially the variation of MLH. There are many methods to retrieve MLH, but each method has its own applicable limitations. The Mie-lidar data in Beijing was firstly used to compare three different algorithms which are widely used under different pollution levels.We find that the multi-layer structure near surface may cause errors in the detection of mixing layer. The MLH retrieved based on image edge detection was better than another two methods especially under heavy polluted episode. Then we applied this method to investigate the evolution of the mixing layer height during a pollution episode in December2016. MLH at Gucheng county showed the positive correlation with the concentration of particulate matters during the start of this pollution episode. The elevated pollution level in Gucheng was not associated with MLH's decrease, and the significantly increased particulate matters raised the boundary layer, which trapped the pollutants near the surface.     

Nonpoint source nutrient Ioad from a subcatchm ent with a rice cultivation and m ultipond system

A small subwatershed of Chaohu Lake was chosen for research on the relationships of landuse，nonpoint source pollution and its prevention．The distributions of nitrogen and phosphorus in the different land use types were shown by monitoring N and P in water samples from rainfall，surface runoff,ponds，a stream and the lake，and in soil samples from rice fields，nonirrigated land and mountain forests．A multi-pond agroecosystem was found to prevent the nonpoint source pollutants and sediment loading to eutrophic Chaohu Lake from its catchment area，because this multi-pond system can effectively keep water and nutrients inside the catchment area and be reused to irrigate the rice field．It requires only a Small investment and energy consumption．and that is suitable for this large under-development agricultural watershed．     

Identification of anthropogenic influences on water quality of rivers in Taihu watershed

Surface water bodies are progressively subjected to stress as a result of anthropogenic activities. This study assessed and examined the impact of human activities on spatial variation in the water quality of 19 rivers in the Taihu watershed. Concentrations of physicochemical parameters of surface water quality were determined at the mouth of each river during the period of 2000-2004. Multivariate statistical techniques were applied to identify characteristics of the water quality in the studied rivers. The results showed that rivers strongly influenced by household wastewater have the highest concentrations of nutrients （TN and TP）. Moreover, rivers in the vicinity of a metropolis presented low dissolved oxygen （DO） levels. However, organic-chemical pollution （petroleum and volatile phenolics） was identified with high localization. Two rivers influenced by sewage from industry and ships were distinguished from other rivers with high values of petroleum. The Taige channel, a river located in Changzhou City that is strongly influenced by wastewater from industry, was characterized with an extraordinarily high value of volatile phenolics. Rivers passing through countries, especially through hilly countries were characterized with high DO contents and low nutrient and organic-chemical pollution, suggesting that agriculture puts less pressure on water quality in adjacent rivers. Therefore, more effort should be made in controlling point pollution to restore water quality in rivers adjacent to cities.     

Field survey of a sustainable sanitation system in a residential house

Sustainable sanitation is an approach for more ecological and sustainable water resources management. In this paper, we proposed one of the new integrated waste treatment systems： an ＂sustainable sanitation system＂ that includes separation of the black water from water system by a non-flushing toilet （bio-toilet）, and a gray water treatment based on a biological and ecological concept. Sustainable sanitation system also converts the domestic waste to soil conditioners and fertilizers, for farmland use. As one of the case studies, Environmentally Symbiotic Housing in which people actually live using the bio-toilet for the black water treatment and the household wastewater treatment facility for the gray water was introduced. The availability of this system was investigated by analyzing the sawdust used in the bio-toilet and the quality of the effluent in the household wastewater treatment facility. As the result, the water content of the sawdust did not exceed 60% in any of the sampling points and the BOD and COD of the effluent of the household wastewater treatment facility were below 10 and 20 mg/L respectively, due to the low loading. Compared to the pollution load on the water environment created by the conventional system, it was found that the effluent of the house has a lower load than the tertiary treatment and the volume of the water consumption is 75% of the conventional system.