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Multi-scale evaluation of river health in Liao River Basin, China

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Abstract

Previous studies on river health evaluation mainly focused on characterizations at a river-corridor scale and ignored the complex interactions between the river ecosystem and other components of the river basin. Based on the consideration of the interactions among rivers, associated river basin and habitats, an assessment framework with multi-scale indicators was developed. An index system divided among these three scales to characterize the health of river ecosystems in China’s Liao River Basin was established. Set pair analysis was applied to integrate the multi-scale indicators and determine the health classes. The evaluation results indicated that the rivers in the western and eastern zones of the Liao River were classified as sick, and rivers in the main stream of the Liao and Huntai rivers were classified as unhealthy. An excessive level of disturbances, such as large pollution loads and dense construction of water conservation projects within the river basin, were the main causes of the river health deterioration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Fei Xu, Yanwei Zhao & Zhifeng Yang

  2. River and Coastal Environmental Research Center, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yuan Zhang

Authors
  1. Fei Xu
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  2. Yanwei Zhao
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  3. Zhifeng Yang
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  4. Yuan Zhang
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Correspondence to Yanwei Zhao.

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Xu, F., Zhao, Y., Yang, Z. et al. Multi-scale evaluation of river health in Liao River Basin, China. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. China 5, 227–235 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-010-0219-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-010-0219-9

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