The Waiqinhuai River is an important urban landscape flood channel in Nanjing, which has been seriously polluted by industrial and domestic sewage for many years. To fully understand the characteristics of Waiqinhuai river sediment pollution and provide a decision-making basis for dredging, the sediment interface microenvironment and nutrient content of river sediment collected from method-typical sections in the upper, middle, and lower reaches were determined, and the organic index and pollution index methods were used to evaluate the sediment pollution condition. We also simulated the effect of desilting on the reduction of endogenous release in sediment according to pollutant characteristics of vertical distribution. The results showed that the average dissolved oxygen concentrations at the upper, middle, and lower sediment interfaces were 4.62, 3.25, and 3.41 mg·L-1, respectively; the concentrations were exhausted at 4.4, 3.5, and 5.5 mm, respectively, which were typical characteristics of urban river pollution. The average contents of TN, TP, and OM in the surface sediment of the investigated reach were 1734 mg·kg-1, 1337 mg·kg-1, and 4.82%, respectively. The organic pollution index of TN and OM in the sediment was 0.48 on average, which was at the clean level, whereas the individual pollution index of TP was 3.18 on average, which was at the severe pollution level. The results of simulating the dredging depth of 30 cm showed that the release rates of SRP and iron divalent were reduced by 42%-82% and 88%-96%, respectively, whereas the release rate of ammonia nitrogen was increased. The results of DGT determination and phosphorus speciation analysis showed that the phosphorus activity of surface sediment decreased significantly after desilting, and DGT-P and Mobile-P decreased by 9%-11% and 1%-35%, respectively, compared with those in the control treatment. These results indicated that the sediment of Waiqinhuai River was seriously polluted by endogenous phosphorus, and desilting could reduce the release of endogenous phosphorus to a certain extent, which may be an important method for improving the water quality of the Waiqinhuai River.
Keywords: Waiqinhuai River; dredging; nitrogen and phosphorus forms; nitrogen and phosphorus release; nutrients; sediment pollution assessment.