Changes in China’s river water quality since 1980: management implications from sustainable development

Human activities and climate change threaten water quality in China’s rivers. We simulated the monthly concentrations of riverine total nitrogen (TN), ammonia-nitrogen (NH 3 -N), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD Mn ) in 613 sub-watersheds of the nation’s 10 major river basins d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:npj clean water 2023-06, Vol.6 (1), p.45-10, Article 45
Main Authors: Zhang, Hanxiao, Cao, Xianghui, Huo, Shouliang, Ma, Chunzi, Li, Wenpan, Liu, Yong, Tong, Yingdong, Wu, Fengchang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/172
704/844/685
Ammonia
Anthropogenic factors
Aquatic ecology
Aquatic environment
Aquatic Pollution
Chemical oxygen demand
Climate change
Earth and Environmental Science
Economic development
Environment
Environmental monitoring
Environmental quality
Environmental science
Human influences
Laboratories
Machine learning
Nanotechnology
Nitrogen
Nutrients
Quality management
River basins
River ecology
Rivers
Surface water
Sustainable development
Trends
Waste Water Technology
Water Industry/Water Technologies
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water quality
Water Quality/Water Pollution
Water resources
Water security
Watersheds
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Summary:Human activities and climate change threaten water quality in China’s rivers. We simulated the monthly concentrations of riverine total nitrogen (TN), ammonia-nitrogen (NH 3 -N), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD Mn ) in 613 sub-watersheds of the nation’s 10 major river basins during the 1980–2050 period based on a 16-year (2003–2018) monitoring dataset using the stacking machine-learning models. The results showed that water quality improved markedly, except for the TN concentration, which was probably due to the lack of a TN control target and assessment system. Quantitative analysis indicated that anthropogenic factors were the primary controls compared with climatic drivers and geographical drivers for TN, TP, and NH 3 -N concentrations. On the basis of all 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) relevant to water quality in China, the water resources, water environment, aquatic ecology and water security should be considered collectively to achieve improvements in the ecological status of China’s rivers.
ISSN:2059-7037
2059-7037
DOI:10.1038/s41545-023-00260-y