Using Isotope Technology for Surface Water Environment Research in Southern Hanoi

The surface water in the southern of Hanoi capital is researched by identifying δ2H and δ18O stable isotopes together with EC, DO, BOD5, COD, TSS. Surface water samples for studying include the Red river, Nhue river and Kim Nguu river, Thanh Nhan lake, Yen So lake and Van Quan lake were collected in the dry season (April) and the rainy season (August) in 2015. The stable isotope analysis results showed that the δ18O values is a range from -42.53‰ to -64.05‰ and, the δ2H values is the range from -5.09‰ to -8.79‰ under global meteoric waterline (in the water vapor region). The δ2H results of the rivers and lakes in the dry season are more negative than the rainy season with a small difference. The δ18O results of lakes in the dry season are more negative than the rainy season, but the δ18O results of river in the dry season are more positive than the rainy season. The results of the EC, BOD, COD, DO, TSS analysis showed that surface water environment has changed clearly in the two seasons and the contamination level in the dry season is usually higher than the rainy season. The lakes and rivers strongly influenced by human activities led to seriously pollution are Van Quan lake and Yen So lake, Nhue river and Kim Nguu river.

Development of a New Index for Integrating Landscape Patterns with Ecological Processes at Watershed Scale

Understanding the relationship between landscape pattems and ecological processes has been a central yet challenging research theme in landscape ecology. Over the past decades, many landscape metrics have been proposed but few directly incorporated ecological processes. In this paper, we developed a landscape index, namely, location-weighted landscape index （LWLI） to highlight the role of landscape type in ecological processes, such as nutrient losses and soil erosion. Within the framework of the Lorenz curve theory, we develop this index by integrating land- scape pattern and point-based measurements at a watershed scale. The index can be used to characterize the contribution of landscape pattern to ecological processes （e.g. nutrient losses） with respect to a specific monitoring point in a watershed. Through a case study on nutrient losses in an agricultural area in northeastern China, we found that nutrient losses tended to be higher for a watershed with a higher LWLI value, and vice versa. It implied that LWLI can be used to evaluate the potential risk of nutrient losses or soil erosion by comparing their values across watersheds. In addition, this index can be extended to characterize ecological processes, such as the effect of landscape pattern on wildlife inhabitation and urban heat island effect. Finally, we discuss several problems that should be paid attention to when applying this index to a heterogeneous landscape site.

Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation of Water Quality of Naoli River Using Parameter Correlation Analysis

In order to improve the effectiveness of Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation (FSE) models, a Parameter Correlation Analysis (PCA) was introduced into the FSE and a case study was carried out in the Naoli River in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. The basic principle of the PCA is that the pairs of parameters which are highly correlated and linear with each other would contribute the same information to an assessment and one of them should be eliminated. The method of the PCA is that a correlation relationship among candidate parameters is examined before the FSE. If there is an apparent nonlinear or curvilinear relationship between two parameters, then both will be retained; if the correlation is significant (p<0.01), and the scatter plot suggests a linear relationship, then one of them will be deleted. However, which one will be deleted? For solving this problem, a sensitivity test was conducted and the higher sensitivity parameters remained. The results indicate that the original data should be preprocessed through the PCA for redundancy and variability. The study shows that introducing the PCA into the FSE can simplify the FSE calculation process greatly, while the results have not been changed much.

The river chief system and agricultural non-point source water pollution control in China

As part of their efforts to control water pollution,local governments in China introduced the river chief system,whereby a named individual undertakes responsibility for protecting a specified waterway.As one of the most prominent sources of water pollution,agricultural non-point-source(NPS)pollution is becoming increasingly serious.Determining whether the river chief system,an institutional reform in China's decentralized environmental regulation regime,is effective in alleviating NPS pollution is important for the realization of green development.The effect of the river chief system on reducing agricultural NPS pollution is explored in this study using panel data from 308 Chinese counties during the period from 2004 to 2015.The results reveal that the negative impact of manure output from animal breeding operations on surface water quality is reduced with the implementation of the river chief system.However,the river chief system is ineffective in dealing with the water pollution caused by fertilizer use.Furthermore,in the current system,cooperation among river chiefs only occurs within a province.Local governments should increase their efforts in reducing fertilizer source loads and preventing fertilizer loads from entering surface waters.In addition,the central government should improve cooperation among the river chiefs in upstream and downstream provinces.

Phosphorus losses via surface runoff in rice-wheat cropping systems as impacted by rainfall regimes and fertilizer applications

Phosphorus（P） losses from agricultural soils contribute to eutrophication of surface waters. This field plot study investigated effects of rainfall regimes and P applications on P loss by surface runoff from rice（Oryza sativa L.） and wheat（Triticum aestivum L.） cropping systems in Lake Taihu region, China. The study was conducted on two types of paddy soils（Hydromorphic at Anzhen site, Wuxi City, and Degleyed at Xinzhuang site, Changshu City, Jiangsu Province） with different P status, and it covered 3 years with low, high and normal rainfall regimes. Four rates of mineral P fertilizer, i.e., no P（control）, 30 kg P ha^（–1） for rice and 20 kg P ha^（–1） for wheat（P_（30＋20））, 75 plus 40（P_（75＋40））, and 150 plus 80（P_（150＋80））, were applied as treatments. Runoff water from individual plots and runoff events was recorded and analyzed for total P and dissolved reactive P concentrations. Losses of total P and dissolved reactive P significantly increased with rainfall depth and P rates（P〈0.0001）. Annual total P losses ranged from 0.36–0.92 kg ha^–1 in control to 1.13–4.67 kg ha^–1 in P150＋80 at Anzhen, and correspondingly from 0.36–0.48 kg h^–1 to 1.26–1.88 kg ha^–1 at Xinzhuang, with 16–49% of total P as dissolved reactive P. In particular, large amounts of P were lost during heavy rainfall events that occurred shortly after P applications at Anzhen. On average of all P treatments, rice growing season constituted 37–86% of annual total P loss at Anzhen and 28–44% of that at Xinzhuang. In both crop seasons, P concentrations peaked in the first runoff events and decreased with time. During rice growing season, runoff P concentrations positively correlated（P〈0.0001） with P concentrations in field ponding water that was intentionally enclosed by construction of field bund. The relative high P loss during wheat growing season at Xinzhuang was due to high soil P status. In conclusion, P should be applied at rates balancing crop removal（20–30 kg P ha^–1 in this study） and at time excluding heavy rains. Moreover, irrigation and drainage water should be appropriately managed to reduce runoff P losses from rice-wheat cropping systems.

Spatial and Temporal Analyses of Water Quality in the Dhrabi Watershed of Pakistan： Issues and Options

Monitoring water quality is important for maintaining a healthy watershed, but it is mostly ignored in watershed planning and management. In the Dhrabi watershed of Pakistan, the quality of surface water was monitored at 16 locations to assess suitability for irrigation over regular intervals during the period 2007-2010. Similarly, groundwater quality was monitored at 10 locations for drinking and irrigation purposes. There was high spatial and temporal variability in surface water quality. Electrical conductivity （EC） and residual sodium carbonate （RSC） either exceeded or fluctuated around permissible limits at most of the locations throughout the monitoring period. Therefore, the use of such water for irrigation needs special care, otherwise its prolonged use may pose soil salinity and sodicity problems. The trend of EC and RSC for groundwater was similar to that for surface water. Exchangeable Mg2＋ exceeded permissible limits for most of the surface water and groundwater samples. In addition, microbial analysis of groundwater revealed that only two out of eight monitoring points during August 2009, none out of eight points during February 2010, and one out of nine points during June 2010 provided water fit for drinking. Soil samples were collected from the catchment areas of the major contributing streams and from the beds of the Kallar Kahar Lake and the Dhrabi Reservoir. The soil samples from the catchments showed high salinity and sodicity that may be the cause of high salinity and sodicity in the streams. The highest EC, sodium adsorption ratio （SAP,） and exchangeable sodium percentage （ESP） in the bed samples from the Kallar Kahar Lake were about 43 dS/m, 56, and 45, respectively. These high values were due to the saline water brought into the lake with the runoff.

A benchmark-based method for evaluating hyperparameter optimization techniques of neural networks for surface water quality prediction

Neural networks(NNs)have been used extensively in surface water prediction tasks due to computing algorithm improvements and data accumulation.An essential step in developing an NN is the hyperparameter selection.In practice,it is common to manually determine hyperparameters in the studies of NNs in water resources tasks.This may result in considerable randomness and require significant computation time;therefore,hyperparameter optimization(HPO)is essential.This study adopted five representatives of the HPO techniques in the surface water quality prediction tasks,including the grid sampling(GS),random search(RS),genetic algorithm(GA),Bayesian optimization(BO)based on the Gaussian process(GP),and the tree Parzen estimator(TPE).For the evaluation of these techniques,this study proposed a method:first,the optimal hyperparameter value sets achieved by GS were regarded as the benchmark;then,the other HPO techniques were evaluated and compared with the benchmark in convergence,optimization orientation,and consistency of the optimized values.The results indicated that the TPE-based BO algorithm was recommended because it yielded stable convergence,reasonable optimization orientation,and the highest consistency rates with the benchmark values.The optimization consistency rates via TPE for the hyperparameters hidden layers,hidden dimension,learning rate,and batch size were 86.7%,73.3%,73.3%,and 80.0%,respectively.Unlike the evaluation of HPO techniques directly based on the prediction performance of the optimized NN in a single HPO test,the proposed benchmark-based HPO evaluation approach is feasible and robust.

Irrigation system and land use effect on surface water quality in river, at lake Dianchi, Yunnan, China

The surface water samples were collected in river Dahe and its tributaries, which flow into severely eutrophic lake Dianchi, Yunnan Province, China, in order to elucidate factors controlling water quality fluctuations. The temporal and spatial distribution of water quality tendency was observed. The water quality of each river is dependent on the hydrology effect such water gate and circulating irrigation system. We must consider the hydrology effect to accurately understand water quality variations of river in this study field. In river without highly circulating irrigation system or water gate effect, the downstream nitrate nitrogen （NO3-N） concentration increase occurred in area dominated by open field cultivation, whereas the NO3-N concentration was constant or decreased in area dominated by greenhouse land use. This result suggests that greenhouse covers the soil from precipitation, and nitrate load of greenhouse could be less than that of open field cultivation while the rainfall event. In the upper reaches of river, where is dominated by open field cultivation, there were no sharp increase dissolved molybdate reactive phosphorus and total phosphorus concentration, but P load was accumulated in the lower reaches of river, whose predominant land use is greenhouse. Although the P sources is unclear in this study, greenhouse area may have potential of P loads due to its high P content in greenhouse soil. Considering hydrology effect is necessary to determine what the major factor is influencing the water quality variation, especially in area with highly complicated irrigation system in this studying site.

A Method for the Environmental Quality Assessment of Surface Water Based on Artificial Neural Networks

An assessment method for the environmental quality of surface water was established based on artificial neural networks (ANN), in which different classification values were trained as learning samples. The assessment results from the major river section in Datong city indicated that the ANN model have characteristics of simple operation and distinct and quantitative expression of assessment results in comparison with the standard index method for the environmental quality assessment of surface water.

Multivariate statistical analysis for the surface water quality of the Luan River,China

In order to analyze the characteristics of surface water resource quality for the reconstruction of old water treatment plant,multivariate statistical techniques such as cluster analysis and factor analysis were applied to the data of Yuqiao Reservoir-surface water resource of the Luan River,China.The results of cluster analysis demonstrate that the months of one year were divided into 3 groups and the characteristic of clusters was agreed with the seasonal characteristics in North China.Three factors were derived from the complicated set using factor analysis.Factor 1 included turbidity and chlorophyll,which seemed to be related to the anthropogenic activities;factor 2 included alkaline and hardness,which were related to the natural characteristic of surface water;and factor 3 included Cl and NO2-N affected by mineral and agricultural activities.The sinusoidal shape of the score plots of the three factors shows that the temporal variations caused by natural and human factors are linked to seasonality.

Determination of Nutrient Concentrations in Simulated Rainfall-Runoff from Poultry House Dust Deposited Adjacent to Exhaust Fans

Until recently, little attention has been given to the loss of nutrients that may occur in stormwater runoff from poultry houses. Dust emitted from poultry house fans and deposited near the fans has been shown to contain similar amounts of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) as in poultry litter, thus, there is need for information on the potential of runoff to transport deposited dust off-site. The objectives of this study are to quantify P and N in simulated rainfall-runoff from sites immediately adjacent to fans (sidewall and tunnel) from a commercial poultry house in northwest Arkansas. Runoff from fan plots range in total P (TP) and total N (TN) concentration from 1.0 to 26.0 mg·L-1 and from 5.1 to 189 mg·L-1. The concentration of P and N in runoff from plots adjacent to sidewall fans is significantly lower (P < 0.05) during warmer (June to August;1 and 2 mg·L-1 for TP and TN, respectively) than cooler months (November through March;3 and 7 mg·L-1 for TP and TN, respectively). In contrast, TP and TN concentrations of runoff from tunnel fan plots are significantly greater (P < 0.05) during warm (14 and 170 mg·L-1, respectively) than cool months (5 and 60 mg·L-1, respectively). The results of this research indicate that conservation practices are needed around poultry production houses to minimize the potential for runoff of nutrients in emitted dust entering nearby surface waters.