Impacts of land uses on spatio-temporal variations of seasonal water quality in a regulated river basin, Huai River, China

Lingqing Wang; Xiaoxiao Han; Yongyong Zhang; Qian Zhang; Xiaoming Wan; Tao Liang; Hocheol Song; Nanthi Bolan; Sabry M Shaheen; John R White; Jörg Rinklebe

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159584

Impacts of land uses on spatio-temporal variations of seasonal water quality in a regulated river basin, Huai River, China

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 20;857(Pt 2):159584. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159584. Epub 2022 Oct 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste-Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater- Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany.
² Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: zhangyy003@igsnrr.ac.cn.
⁴ Department of Environment, Energy and Geoinformatics, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea; Department of Earth Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimniro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, Korea.
⁵ UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6001, Australia.
⁶ University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste-Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater- Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany; King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment, and Arid Land Agriculture, Department of Arid Land Agriculture, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; University of Kafrelsheikh, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, 33516, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt.
⁷ Wetland and Aquatic Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States.
⁸ University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste-Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater- Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany; Department of Environment, Energy and Geoinformatics, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea; International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University, Solan 173212, Himachal Pradesh, India.

PMID: 36270372
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159584

Abstract

Land use impacts from agriculture, industrialization, and human population should be considered in surface water quality management. In this study, we utilized an integrated statistical analysis approach mainly including a seasonal Mann-Kendall test, clustering analysis, self-organizing map, Boruta algorithm, and positive matrix factorization to the assessment of the interactions between land use types and water quality in a typical catchment in the Huai River Basin, China, over seven years (2012-2019). Spatially, water quality was clustered into three groups: upstream, midstream, and downstream/mainstream areas. The water quality of upstream sites was better than of mid-, down-, and mainstream. Temporally, water quality did not change significantly during the study period. However, the temporal variation in water quality of up-, down-, and mainstream areas was more stable than in the midstream. The interactions between land use types and water quality parameters at the sub-basin scale varied with seasons. Increasing forest/grassland areas could substantially improve the water quality during the wet season, while nutrients such as phosphorus from cropland and developed land was a driver for water quality deterioration in the dry season. Water area was not a significant factor influencing the variations of ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N) and total phosphorus (TP) in the wet or dry season, due to the intensive dams and sluices in study area. The parameters TP, and total nitrogen (TN) were principally linked with agricultural sources in the wet and dry seasons. The parameters NH₃-N in the dry season, and chemical oxygen demand (COD_Cr) in the wet season were mainly associated with point source discharges. Agricultural source, and urban point source discharges were the main causes of water quality deterioration in the study area. Collectively, these results highlighted the impacts of land use types on variations of water quality parameters in the regulated basin.

Keywords: Huai River Basin; Land use types; Seasonal water quality; Source identification; Spatio-temporal analysis.

MeSH terms

China
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Humans
Nitrogen / analysis
Phosphorus / analysis
Seasons
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis
Water Quality*

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Phosphorus
Nitrogen