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Integrated watershed management through multi-level and stepwise optimization for allocation of total load of water pollutants at large scales

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Abstract

The contradictory problem between water quality-induced water shortage and shortage of water quantity has been increasingly emerging. This research aims to control the total pollutant discharge in a transboundary river basin, to improve the water environment, and enhance the capabilities of water resources management and decision-making. The organic connection between the control of total discharge quantity, the reduction of pollutant discharge, and the improvement of water environmental quality is established at large-scale from the perspective of comprehensive decision-making and management. In addition, this paper innovatively proposes a comprehensive watershed management model of multi-level and stepwise optimization for allocation of total load of water pollutants, which is integrated through the Gini coefficients method, the comprehensive weights method, and the minimal optimization model of environmental Gini coefficient. It is capable of optimizing distributions of total amount control of water pollutants in the whole basin and controlling units both spatially and temporally. The model is applied to the Songhua River basin to address the conflicts among regions’ environmental fairness and environmental sustainability. According to the optimization results based on the proposed model, the scheme for the total load allocation of water pollutants developed through optimization is consistent with the actual present situation of Heilongjiang section. Major dischargers like Harbin, Suihua, Qiqihar, and Daqing are mainly controlled, and the control units with a low discharge load were rationally controlled. The study has shown that the model was useful in providing decision-making support for water pollution total amount control of the Songhua River basin.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA20040300) China Postdoctoral Science Foundation-China (2016M591139), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities-China (JB2016072), and Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment-(2012ZX07601002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Process, Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100101, China

    Hongwei Lu

  2. School of Renewable Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Sen Yu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100012, China

    Sen Yu

Authors
  1. Sen Yu
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  2. Hongwei Lu
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Correspondence to Sen Yu or Hongwei Lu.

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Yu, S., Lu, H. Integrated watershed management through multi-level and stepwise optimization for allocation of total load of water pollutants at large scales. Environ Earth Sci 77, 373 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7545-9

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