Impact of Industrial Production, Dam Construction, and Agriculture on the Z-IBI in River Ecosystems: A Case Study of the Wanan River Basin in China

Industrial activity, dam construction, and agriculture—while important for socioeconomic progress—can severely damage the natural environment. To evaluate the effects of these human activities on the bio-integrity of riverine ecosystems, we examined the Wanan reach of the Ganjiang River (Wanan River basin), which contains the river’s largest reservoir. On the basis of 20 attributes of zooplankton, we constructed a zooplankton index of bio-integrity (Z-IBI) evaluation system using range analysis, discriminant analysis, and correlation analysis. Our research found that these anthropogenic activities can greatly change the composition and number of zooplankton community. The overall health status of this catchment was classified as “good”, and the eco-health situation of the reference, industrial, dam-controlled and agricultural sites were deemed “healthy”, “fair”, “good”, and “fair”, respectively. Our results suggested that the three activities adversely affected the integrity of local aquatic ecosystems. Agriculture was the activity most detrimental to the zooplankton community, followed by industrial production and dam construction. Therefore, we demonstrated that the Z-IBI evaluation system can be applied to reservoir–riverine ecosystems. We also provide guidance on the ecological protection, assessment, monitoring and of reservoir–riverine ecosystems and suggest that additional Z-IBI evaluation approaches be further developed in the future.

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Environmental Impact Assessment of Anthropogenic Activities and Conceptual Restoration Strategy for Kham River in Aurangabad, India.

Current World Environment ◽

10.12944/cwe.15.3.31 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 663-682

Author(s):

Vedant Ramchandra Karhade ◽

Amol Laxman Kamble ◽

Shraddha Balwant Vangujare ◽

Prasanna Santosh Wadgaonkar ◽

Ganesh Sonaji Gadekar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Impact Assessment ◽

River Basin ◽

Environmental Impact Assessment ◽

Evaluation System ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Environmental Evaluation

In present study, the environmental impact assessment of the anthropogenic activities on the Kham River is carried out. 8Km stretch of the Kham River from downstream of Harsul Lake to the upstream of Chavani Bridge in the Aurangabad city has been selected as the study area for the assessment with regards to water quality, flooding risk, ecological and aesthetical aspects using Battelle environmental evaluation system. For the water quality monitoring eight sampling stations along the length of the river were selected and samples were taken in each season for laboratory analysis of Dissolved oxygen, Biochemical oxygen demand, pH, Total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. The results of the water quality analysis shows that the water quality in the upstream stretch of 3kms upto Himayat Baug is considerably good in comparison to the remaining 5kms stretch from Himayat Baug to Chavani Bridge. The cross sectional survey of the river basin is carried out to measure the extent of the enchorachment along the basin. The results of the cross sectional survey shows that the river basin has mean width of 36.16 meters. The ecological assessment was carried out along the vicinity of the river basin and the species of flora, birds and fishes were listed. The result of the ecological survey shows that the river has variety of species of flora and birds and fishes are found in the upstream reach of the river. The survey of recreational and historically important monuments along the basin was carried out and those places were listed for study of aesthetical aspects. The results of aesthetical survey shows that there are many places of that importance along the vicinity of the basin namely Harsul Lake, Himayat Baug, Bibi-ka-Maqbara, Panchakki, Makai Gate, Barapulla Gate, Mehmood Gate and Siddarth garden. The Battelle environmental evaluation system result shows a negative impact of – 375 units and the conceptual strategies for the restoration of Kham River are also recommended.

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Assessment of Groundwater Geochemistry of Vel River basin, Western Maharashtra, India

Hydrospatial Analysis ◽

10.21523/gcj3.2020040102 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 14-28

Author(s):

S. K. Gaikwad ◽

N. D. Pathan ◽

N. S. Bansode ◽

S. P. Gaikwad ◽

Y. P. Badhe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Geochemical Data ◽

Total Hardness ◽

Groundwater Geochemistry ◽

Average Value ◽

Rock Water Interaction ◽

Good For ◽

Almost All ◽

Geological Control

To study the chemistry of major ion in groundwater from Vel (Velu) River basin, sixty (60) samples of dug wells and bore wells were collected and analyzed using standard techniques given by APHA. It shows order of dominance for cations, Na+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ and in anionic concentration as HCO3- > Cl- > SO42- in groundwater. The pH of groundwater is slightly alkaline (range: pH 7.0 - 8.1), while average values of Electrical Conductivity (EC) is about 2641 µS/cm indicating high mineralization of groundwater. In general, the cationic concentration (Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+) of the groundwater increase in the downstream side (from Northwest to South east), suggesting geological control on the composition of groundwater while highest concentration is in lower part of the basin are generally associated with the high salinity. In the major anions, bicarbonate (HCO3-) is higher due to rock-water interaction. Average value of chloride is about of 235 mg/L due to discharge zones along with anthropogenic activities. The geochemical data plotted on Piper Trilinear Diagram is showing dominant hydro-chemical facies: Ca2++Mg2+, Na++ K+, Cl-+ SO42- -HCO3- found in 83.3 % samples indicating the alkaline earth exceeding the alkalis and the strong acids exceeds the weak acids. The pH, Total Hardness (TH) and Magnesium (Mg2+) of the samples show more proportion of samples falling above desirable limit. Otherwise the quality of groundwater is good for drinking. The irrigation indices like SAR, KR and SSP were considered to evaluate groundwater suitability for irrigation. Comparing with SAR parameter all samples are excellent to good for irrigation. In SSP, 33.3 % samples are within permissible, while 66.6% samples are doubtful for irrigation purpose. In KR almost all samples (excluding 04 samples in lower side of basin) are suitable for irrigation. So, variations in climate, geology with anthropogenic activities are modifying the groundwater geochemistry of Vel River Basin.

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Chemical Composition and Metal Speciation in Porewaters from the Upper Qu’Appelle River Basin, Saskatchewan

Water Quality Research Journal ◽

10.2166/wqrj.1993.005 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 83-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard E. Farrell ◽

Jae E. Yang ◽

P. Ming Huang ◽

Wen K. Liaw

Keyword(s):

Amino Acids ◽

Trace Metal ◽

River Basin ◽

Drainage Basin ◽

Metal Speciation ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

High Concentration ◽

Metal Concentrations ◽

Carbonate Equilibria ◽

The Impact

Abstract Porewater samples from the upper Qu’Appelle River basin in Saskatchewan, Canada, were analyzed to obtain metal, inorganic ligand and amino add profiles. These data were used to compute the aqueous speciation of the metals in each porewater using the computer program GEOCHEM-PC. The porewaters were classified as slightly to moderately saline. Metal concentrations reflected both the geology of the drainage basin and the impact of anthropogenic activities. Whereas K and Na were present almost entirely as the free aquo ions, carbonate equilibria dominated the speciation of Ca. Mg and Mn (the predominant metal ligand species were of the type MCO3 (s). MCO30. and MHCO3+). Trace metal concentrations were generally within the ranges reported for non-polluted freshwater systems. Whereas the speciation of the trace metals Cr(III) and Co(II) was dominated by carbonate equilibria, Hg(II)-, Zn(II)- and Fe(II)-speciation was dominated by hydroxy-metal complexes of the type M(OH)+ and M(OH)2°. The speciation of Fe(III) was dominated by Fe(OH)3 (s). In porewaters with high chloride concentrations (> 2 mM), however, significant amounts of Hg(II) were bound as HgCl20 and HgClOH0. The aqueous speciation of Al was dominated by Al(OH)4− and Al2Si2O4(OH)6 (s). Total concentrations of dissolved free amino acids varied from 15.21 to 25.17 umole L−1. The most important metal scavenging amino acids were histidine (due to high stability constants for the metal-histidine complexes) and tryptophan (due to its relatively high concentration in the porewaters. i.e., 5.96 to 7.73 umole L−1). Secondary concentrations of various trace metal-amino add complexes were computed for all the porewaters, but metal-amino acid complexes dominated the speciation of Cu(II) in all the porewaters and Ni(II) in two of the porewaters.

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Effects of dam construction and fish invasion on the species, functional and phylogenetic diversity of fish assemblages in the Yellow River Basin

Journal of Environmental Management ◽

10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112863 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 293 ◽

pp. 112863

Author(s):

Jun Wang ◽

Liang Chen ◽

Wenjia Tang ◽

Jani Heino ◽

Xiaoming Jiang

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Phylogenetic Diversity ◽

Fish Assemblages ◽

Yellow River ◽

Yellow River Basin ◽

The Yellow River ◽

Dam Construction ◽

The Yellow River Basin ◽

Functional And Phylogenetic Diversity

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Insights on the Impacts of Hydroclimatic Extremes and Anthropogenic Activities on Sediment Yield of a River Basin

Earth ◽

10.3390/earth2010003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 32-50

Author(s):

Rocky Talchabhadel ◽

Jeeban Panthi ◽

Sanjib Sharma ◽

Ganesh R. Ghimire ◽

Rupesh Baniya ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Suspended Sediment ◽

River Basin ◽

Extreme Precipitation ◽

Suspended Sediment Concentration ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Sediment Concentration ◽

Sediment Flux ◽

Mountain River ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Precipitation Indices

Streamflow and sediment flux variations in a mountain river basin directly affect the downstream biodiversity and ecological processes. Precipitation is expected to be one of the main drivers of these variations in the Himalayas. However, such relations have not been explored for the mountain river basin, Nepal. This paper explores the variation in streamflow and sediment flux from 2006 to 2019 in central Nepal’s Kali Gandaki River basin and correlates them to precipitation indices computed from 77 stations across the basin. Nine precipitation indices and four other ratio-based indices are used for comparison. Percentage contributions of maximum 1-day, consecutive 3-day, 5-day and 7-day precipitation to the annual precipitation provide information on the severity of precipitation extremeness. We found that maximum suspended sediment concentration had a significant positive correlation with the maximum consecutive 3-day precipitation. In contrast, average suspended sediment concentration had significant positive correlations with all ratio-based precipitation indices. The existing sediment erosion trend, driven by the amount, intensity, and frequency of extreme precipitation, demands urgency in sediment source management on the Nepal Himalaya’s mountain slopes. The increment in extreme sediment transports partially resulted from anthropogenic interventions, especially landslides triggered by poorly-constructed roads, and the changing nature of extreme precipitation driven by climate variability.

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Emergy Analysis and Ecological Spillover as Tools to Quantify Ecological Compensation in Xuchang City, Qingyi River Basin, China

Water ◽

10.3390/w13040414 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 414

Author(s):

Huiqin Li ◽

Cuimei Lv ◽

Minhua Ling ◽

Changkuan Gu ◽

Yang Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Effective Means ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Emergy Analysis ◽

Ecological Compensation ◽

Freshwater Resources ◽

Ecological Protection ◽

Complex Relationships

As an effective means to coordinate cost–benefit allocation of ecological protection between upstream and downstream cities, ecological compensation is often used to improve collaborative basin-wide freshwater resources management. Yet, due to the complex relationships between upstream and downstream ecosystem services, calculating eco-compensation is not an easy task. We used ecological spillover (the amount of local ecosystem services not used in the region and thus flows to downstream areas) and emergy analysis to determine the amount of eco-compensation that the city of Xuchang should pay to the upstream city of Xinzheng (Qingyi River Basin, China) from 2010 to 2014. Eco-compensation was determined by deducting the emergy of the local, self-supplied ecosystem services of Xuchang City, calculated using an ecological-water-footprint-based analysis, from the emergy of the total ecosystem services used in Xuchang, and monetized accordingly. The results showed that the self-supplied ecosystem services decreased from 2010 to 2014 and, thus, Xuchang relied more on the ecological spillover services flowing from Xinzheng. As a result, eco-compensation increased from 990 million Chinese Yuan (¥) in 2010 to ¥509 billion in 2014, mostly due to increased demands for water purification and reduced precipitation around Xuchang. This method can be further enhanced by introducing larger datasets and can be replicated elsewhere to accurately determine ecological compensation, ensuring basin-wide collaboration towards the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

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