Environmental Impact of Kakhovka Dam Breach and Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Explosion on Dnieper River Landscape

The Dnieper River headwaters are in Russia’s Valdai Hills and the river flows south to the Black Sea. The Dnieper River provides a waterway in which to transport goods to and from various European nations. In addition, the dams on the river provide hydro power. There are approximately 2260 km of Dnieper waterways in Russia, in Belarus, and within Ukraine. The Dnieper River has numerous urban centers including Smolensk in Russia, Mogilev in Belarus and Kiev and Zaporizhzhya in Ukraine. The worst nuclear accident in history unfolded, in the Dnieper River watershed, in northern Ukraine as a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and burned. After an accident, such as Chernobyl, radionuclide contaminated bodies of water via direct deposition from the air, discharge as effluent or indirectly from catchment basin washout. When radionuclides contaminate large bodies of water, they are quickly dispersing and accumulate in water bottom sediments, benthos, aquatic plants, and bottom feeding fish. The main pathways to humans are through contamination of drinking-water, from use of water for irrigation of food crops, and consumption of contaminated fish. Kakhovka Dam on the Dnieper River was destroyed during the Russian-Ukraine conflict and the dam needs to rebuild as soon as possible. Perhaps lessons learned by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), after using TNT to blow up the Birds Point front line levee on the Mississippi River in May of 2011, can be applied to the man-induced 2023 Kakhovka Dam breach. The Birds Point man-induced levee breaches and subsequent flooding of farmland resulted in the loss of the 2011 crops and damaged the future soil productivity. The strong current and sweep of the water through the three man-induced levee breaches on the New Madrid floodway levee created deep gullies, displaced tons of soil, and damaged irrigation equipment, farms, and homes. The New Madrid floodway agricultural lands were restored, and the environmental damages were mitigated. The Kakhovka Dam destruction caused widespread flooding which affected settlements and farmland across the Dnieper watershed. The presence and breach-induced redistribution of Chernobyl-derived nuclides is an additional condition not present at the New Madrid man-induced levee breach. Four canal networks have become disconnected from the feeder reservoir. The canals were the source of drinking water for 700,000 people living in southern Ukraine. The Kakhovka canals also provided irrigation for vast areas of farmland. The water loss from the canals adversely affected food production in the region. The primary objectives of this paper are to assess lessons learned by the USACE and apply them in Ukraine to help restore and manage the Dnieper lifeline and watershed.

Responding of zooplankton to environmental factor changes in the Changjiang River estuarine regions in spring-summer from 2016 to 2020

The estuarine areas are under frequent influence from freshwater intrusion and ocean currents,in which zooplankton species are diversified and variable as they are sensitive to physio-chemical variations in water.Therefore,understanding the relationships between zooplankton and environmental factors help us know the water quality.To achieve co-existence with species in similar ecological group or habit,they could inevitably alter themselves to fit the ecology and adjust the function according to the competitive exclusion in ecological theory.However,information of the co-existence of dominant species in the Changjiang(Yangtze)River estuary(CRE)and adjacent waters remains scarce.We explored the relationships between dominant zooplankton and environmental factors in the study region in spring-summer from 2016 to 2020,involving particularly the composition of dominant species,ecological groups,their relationships with environmental factors,and co-existence of important species,using the non-multidimensional scale analysis(nMDS)method and redundancy analysis.Results show that Labidocera euchaeta and Tortanus vermiculus were dominant species in the study scope.The turnover rate of dominant zooplankton was greater(>50%)in spring while the species number was higher in summer.The dominant species were estuarine,offshore,and eurytopic based on the adaptation to salinity.In spring,the ecological groups were dominated by estuarine species,while in summer by estuarine and offshore species.In addition,the nMDS showed that the dominant species in the same ecological group were more dispersed and not prominently clustered;the dominant species were staggered among different ecological groups.The temperature,salinity,pH,dissolved oxygen,and chlorophyll a were the main environmental factors on the distribution of the dominant species in spring,while in summer were dissolved oxygen,temperature,salinity,and pH.The domination of medusae of Nemopsis bachei and Pleurobrachia globosa in zooplankton community in spring,and the continuous decrease in abundance of L.euchaeta reflected the effects of local climate change.The temperature and salinity changes in different years and the subsequent response of zooplankton reflected the influence of freshwater intrusion and/or ocean currents.Zooplankton in similar ecological habits exhibited the competitive exclusion in terms of co-existence.

Ecological environmental quality evaluation and driving factor analysis of the Lijiang River Basin,based on Google Earth Engine

For regional ecological management,it is important to evaluate the quality of ecosystems and analyze the underlying causes of ecological changes.Using the Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform,the remote sensing ecological index(RSEI)was calculated for the Lijiang River Basin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for 1991,2001,2011,and 2021.Spatial autocorrelation analysis was employed to investigate spatiotemporal variations in the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin.Furthermore,geographic detectors were used to quantitatively analyze influencing factors and their interaction effects on ecological environmental quality.The results verified that:1)From 1991 to 2021,the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin demonstrated significant improvement.The area with good and excellent ecological environmental quality in proportion increased by 19.69%(3406.57 km^(2)),while the area with fair and poor ecological environmental quality in proportion decreased by 10.76%(1860.36 km^(2)).2)Spatially,the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin exhibited a pattern of low quality in the central region and high quality in the periphery.Specifically,poor ecological environmental quality characterized the Guilin urban area,Pingle County,and Lingchuan County.3)From 1991 to 2021,a significant positive spatial correlation was observed in ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin.Areas with high-high agglomeration were predominantly forests and grasslands,indicating good ecological environmental quality,whereas areas with low-low agglomeration were dominated by cultivated land and construction land,indicating poor ecological environmental quality.4)Annual average precipitation and temperature exerted the most significant influence on the ecological environmental quality of the basin,and their interactions with other factors had the great influence.This study aimed to enhance understanding of the evolution of the ecological environment in the Lijiang River Basin of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and provide scientific guidance for decision-making and management related to ecology in the region.

Assessment on eco-environmental quality of the Yellow River Basin by considering desertification index

Desertification has had a significant impact on the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin(YRB)in China.However,previous studies on the evaluation of the ecological environment quality(EEQ)in the YRB have paid limited attention to the indicator of desertification.It is of great significance to incorporate the desertification index into the spatiotemporal assessment of the EEQ in the YRB in order to protect the ecological environment in the region.In this study,based on multi-source remote sensing data from 91 cities in the YRB,this article proposes a desertification remote sensing ecological index(DRSEI)model,which builds upon the traditional Remote Sensing Ecological Index(RSEI)model,to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in the EEQ in the YRB from 2001 to 2021.Furthermore,using the geographic detector(GD),and geographically and temporally weighted regression(GTWR)model,the study assesses the impact of human and natural factors on the EEQ in the YRB.The research findings indicate that:(1)Compared to the traditional RSEI,the improved DRSEI shows a decreasing trend in the evaluation results of the EEQ.Among the 24 cities,the change in DRSEI exceeds 0.05 compared to RSEI,accounting for 26.37%of the YRB.The remaining 67 cities have changes within a range of less than 0.05,accounting for 73.63%of the YRB.(2)The results of the GD for individual and interactive effects reveal that rainfall and elevation have significant individual and interactive effects on the EEQ.Furthermore,after the interaction with natural factors,the explanatory power of human factors gradually increases over time.The spatial heterogeneity results of GTWR demonstrate that rainfall has a strong direct positive impact on the EEQ,accounting for 98.90%of the influence,while temperature exhibits a more pronounced direct inhibitory effect,accounting for 76.92%of the influence.Human activities have a strong negative impact on the EEQ and a weak positive impact.

Relationships Between River Water Quality and Landscape Factors in Haihe River Basin, China: Implications for Environmental Management

River water plays a key role in human health, and in social and economic development, and is often affected by both natural factors and human activities. An in-depth understanding of the role of these factors can help in developing an effective catchment management strategy to protect precious water resources. This study analyzed river water quality, patterns of terrestrial and riparian ecosystems, intensity of agricultural activities, industrial structure, and spatial distribution of pollutant emissions in the Haihe River Basin in China for the year of 2010, identifying the variables that have the greatest impact on river water quality. The area percentage of farmland in study area, the percentage of natural vegetation cover in the 1000-m riparian zone, rural population density, industrial Gross Domestic Product(GDP)/km^2, and industrial amino nitrogen emissions were all significantly correlated with river water quality(P < 0.05). Farming had the largest impact on river water quality, explaining 43.0% of the water quality variance, followed by the coverage of natural vegetation in the 1000-m riparian zone, which explained 36.2% of the water quality variance. Industrial amino nitrogen emissions intensity and rural population density explained 31.6% and 31.4% of the water quality variance, respectively, while industrial GDP/km^2 explained 26.6%. Together, these five indicators explained 67.3% of the total variance in water quality. Consequently, water environmental management of the Haihe River Basin should focus on adjusting agricultural activities, conserving riparian vegetation, and reducing industrial pollutant emissions by optimizing industrial structure. The results demonstrate how human activities drive the spatial pattern changes of river water quality, and they can provide reference for developing land use guidelines and for prioritizing management practices to maintain stream water quality in a large river basin.

Function Evolution and Landscape Planning Strategy of Inland Rivers in Beilun Port City of Ningbo

In the history, the main roles of inland rivers in Beilun Port City of Ningbo were desalination,blocking tides, shipping, and flood control. Nowadays, with the continuous spread and deepening ofurbanization, the ecological environment of river courses has been destroyed. In the past, remediationmeasures based on engineering and technology played a certain role, but can not “cure the root cause”. Itshould respect the historical evolution process of river courses, and highlight the ecological service functionand leisure tourism value of river courses from the coordination perspective of urban and rural ecologicalenvironment, economic industries, society and culture in the planning ideas of ecology, production, andlife integration. Four aspects of the measures are as below: protecting and repairing the ecological matrixof river courses;building green space system and maintaining flood control functions through the waternetwork;protecting cultural heritage along the rivers;developing waterfront leisure tourism scenic area.

Spatio-temporal evolution of the coordinated development of high-tech industry agglomeration and resource-environmental carrying capacity in the Yellow River Basin

Under the background of new infrastructure,the Yellow River Basin’s superior growth cannot be separated originating with the synergistic effect of scientific and technological inventiveness and ecological civilization construction.In light of the coupling coordination analysis of the coordination effect of provincial high-tech industry agglomeration and resource carrying capacity in the Yellow River Basin from 2009 to 2021,The evolution of the geographical and temporal pattern of development was investigated using the Moran index and kernel density estimation.The results show that the agglomeration of high-tech industries in the Yellow River Basin presents a development trend of seek improvement in stability,and there is a good coupling and coordination throughout the progression of scientific and technological innovation and the loading capacity of the resource,from the viewpoint of a time series.From the perspective of spatial pattern distribution,the whole basin aims at the lower reaches,accelerates the optimization of digital industry and promotes Yellow River Basin development of superior quality through innovation support and increase of input,and based on policy guidance.

The Need for International Cooperation between Israel and Other Middle East Nations to Protect the Jordan River Landscape

The Jordan River, also referred to as Nahr Al Sharieat in Arabic, is a long river in the Middle East that flows from north to south through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. The Jordan River is bordered by the Golan Heights and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the east and by Israel and the Palestinian West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in the west. Soil tunnels, including those in the Jordan River watershed and on the Israel, Syria, and Lebanon borders, have a long history of use for warfare, as invasion pathways, smuggling, and storage of rockets, missiles and ordnance and are causes of serious political tension between the countries. Soil tunnel construction and destruction often has adverse environmental and human health impacts in the Jordan River landscape. Due to agricultural wastes, the discharge of untreated sewage, and diversion of saline springs into the river water there has been serious deterioration in the water quality in the lower courses of the Jordan River. The primary objective of this research is to encourage the development of a multi-country clean-up, mitigation, and protection plan for the Jordan River.

Strategies for Improving the Overall Environmental Quality of Rivers Based on “Renovation and Restoration” Concept: A Case Study of Landscape Planning of Linjiang River, Yongchuan District, Chongqing City

The concept of "renovation and restoration" marks the transformation from urban and rural planning and construction to intensive development mode and to quality improvement stage.The environmental imbalance problem of emphasizing development and neglecting ecology in the past has become the focus of the current urban quality improvement stage.Rivers are related to the origin,development and evolution of cities,affect the layout,transportation and environment of cities,and bear the culture,economy and characteristics of cities.Taking the Linjing River of Yongchuan in Chongqing as an example and taking the concept of "renovation and restoration" as the guidance of the design of the overall environmental quality improvement of the river,this study analyzed and summarized the problems to be solved in the improvement of the environmental quality of the river based on the four river environmental impact factors of water pollution,water resource supply and demand,ecological environment and shore water waterfront type and the strategies of optimizing the aquatic environment management,constructing the ecological landscape pattern,shaping the regional cultural landscape and combining the economic development along the river were put forward in order to improve the overall environmental quality of Linjiang River and provide reference for relevant planning and design.

Relationship between ethnic landscape and environment in the Nujiang River basin of Yunnan Province, China

Each nationality has formed unique ethnic culture in the long history. Ethnic culture is spatially reflected byethnic distribution. The distribution of nationalities is influenced by ethnic history, culture, society and religion, alsoaffected by regional physical setting. This paper analyzes the relationship between ethnic distribution pattern and naturalsetting with contrast analytical method. The digital elevation model (DEM) is established on basis of contour map on ascale of 1:250,000 in the Nujiang River basin, Yunnan Province by ArcGIS, a Geographic Information System (GIS)software. Based on DEM, the spatial analysis and statistical function of GIS, the landscape patterns of populationdistribution of the selected minorities is described, and 4 sub-regions are divided in the Nujiang River basin of YunnanProvince while the features and disparity of landscape pattern and its forming mechanism are discussed, along withhistorical and archaeological data. The conclusions are as follow: (1) The ethnic distribution is mosaic in the matrix ofother racial distribution, and have a distinct spatial correlation. (2) For the difference in cultivation between differentnationalities, certain nationality lived in the area suitable for production mode of its own and coincident with appropriategeographical setting. (3) The spatial distribution of settlement spots of the minorities is controlled by the convenience ofwater supply. The landscape pattern of ethnic distribution is closely relative to natural environment.

Eco-environmental Quality Evaluation of Manasi River Basin in Recent 30 Years

Taking the Technical Specifications of Eco-environmental Quality Assessment enacted by the State Environmental Protection Administration in 2006 as the conceptual framework model and improving some indices and weights in the regulation,the eco-environmental assessment index system for Manas River Basin was established,and the eco-environmental quality index (EQI) of this basin from 1976 to 2005 was assessed based on the related data.The results indicated that the ecological quality index increased to 48.26 from 34.44 during 1976-2005.The biologic abundance index,vegetation coverage index and land deterioration index decreased,while there was an increase in water reticulation density index,environmental quality index and pollution load index,so the improvement and deterioration of the ecological environment coexisted in the basin.On the whole,the poor state of the basin ecological environment had turned into a general state,and the eco-environmental quality was developed towards favorable circle.The results also showed that the improved calculating method of EQI accorded with the actual situation of the research area.

Effects of Southward Flow of Yellow River on Eco-environment of Xu-Huai River Basin

Based on the historical records,the flood disasters in Xu-Huai River Basin caused by southward flow of Yellow River were studied,while its effects on Xu-Huai regional economic,transportation and eco-environment were also highlighted,and finally historical natural disasters were presented in this study.

Waterfront Landscape Planning along the Yihe River in the New District of Luoyang City in China

General situation of the Yihe River in the new district of Luoyang City and its evolution history were introduced and evaluated from 4 perspectives of water,embankment,vegetation and traffic accessibility.On this basis,orientation of waterfront landscape planning of the Yihe River in the overall urban planning of Luoyang City was proposed,and it was proposed that waterfront landscape planning in the study area should follow the principles of "ecological,cultural and regional,public,accessible and human-centered".It was to provide references for the landscape planning and design of the Yihe River in the new district of Luoyang City,and to promote its waterfront landscape construction.

Study on Dynamic Changes of Land Utilization and Landscape Layout in Pearl River Estuary

Taking advantage of remote sensing(RS) technology and geographic information system(GIS) technology to interpret the four periods' data of remote sensing images of Pearl River Estuary in the years of 1990,1995,2000,and 2005,the changes in land utilization and landscape layout of Pearl River Estuary have been analyzed with reference to land utilization dynamic model and quantitative method in landscape ecology.Results indicate several points as followings.①Located in the region typical of high-speed economic development,Pearl River Estuary shows noticeable changes in land types and evident spatial temporal difference.During these 15 years,the areas of cultivated land and forests have experienced dramatic decline while the land for construction purposes shows the trend of powerful increase.②On the prospect of variation,landscape metrics have indicated great differences among other landscape pattern indices except for Area-Weighted Mean Patch Fractal Dimension(AWMPFD) especially during the period from 1990 to 1995 which experiences the most obvious changes.③On the prospect of landscape,landscape pattern indices also indicate great changes in the landscape layout of Pearl River Estuary from 1990 to 2005 as well as noticeable increase in the number of patches,and various landscape pattern indices show the increase in the degree of regional landscape fragmentation and increase in diversity.

Ecological Restoration and Landscape Construction of Wetland——A Case Study of Planning and Design of Mi River Wetland Park in Linqu of Shandong

Based on geological characteristic of Mi River Wetland Park in Linqu of Shandong,the paper had illustrated historical and cultural spirits of Linqu,and then proposed planning strategies and contents of Mi River Wetland Park.It discussed new approaches for wetland restoration and landscape construction from the perspectives of ecological restoration of wetland system,overall construction of leisure system,and full display of regional characteristic.The construction of wetland system laid stress on water system design,terrain treatment,vegetation construction,and biological diversity creation.Wetland system would be overlaid with leisure system,divided into wetland leisure zone,wetland entertainment zone,humanity landscape zone,wetland science popular zone and wetland experience zone,all of which would be constructed with characteristic respectively.On the basis of site character,the paper had searched an energy balance and substance transformation method between rivers,plants,earth and humans,of certain practicality.

Spatial and environmental effects on plant communities in the Yellow River Delta, Eastern China

Types and structure of plant communities in the Yellow River Delta were investigated by using detrended canonical correspondence analyses （DCCAs） and a two-way indicator species analysis （TWINSPAN）. The distribution pattern and influential factors of the plant communities were also analyzed by testing elevation, slope, soil characteristics, longitude and latitude of 134 vegetation samples collected by representative plot sampling methods. Results showed that all the 134 vegetation samples could be divided into seven vegetation groups, separately dominated by Robinia pseucdoacacia, Imperata cylindrical, Miscanthus saccharifleus, Suaeda salsa, Aeluropus sinensis, Phragmites australis and Tamarix chinensis. The vegetation distribution pattern was mainly related to elevation, ground water depth and soil characteristics such as salinity and soluble potassium. Among the factors affecting distribution pattern of the plant communities, the species matrix explained by non-spatial environmental variation accounts for 45.2% of total variation. Spatial variation and spatial-structured environmental variation explain 11.8%, and 2.2%, respectively. Remained 40.8% of undetermined variation is attributed to biological and stochastic factors.

Research on Geographical Environment and Culture Symbiosis of Chishui River Basin

This paper took Chishui River Basin as the research object,and pointed out that its culture,which reflected local life and production and was featured with regional characteristics as well as abundant cultural connotation,was constituted by native natural and cultural geography,folk customs and historical feature.The relation between Chishui salt path and salt business culture under the typical closed and half-closed geographical environment was analyzed to indicate that the realignment of Chishui River had brought prosperity of Chishui River,booming of commercial towns,and development of ancient architectures and guild hall culture.The relation between rich natural resources and production and life culture of Chishui River was explained to show that Danxia landform nurtured stone culture,Chishui River resources cultivated fishing culture,special hydrogeological environment fostered liquor culture represented by Maotai,and Bamboo culture accumulated for hundreds of years.Finally,it introduced military culture and the spirit of the Long March forming based on the special location of Chishui River.It emphasized that geological environment was the important basis for human's survival and played an immeasurable role in the cultural development of a region.

Analysis on the Influencing Factors of Residents' WTP for Environmental Protection in Tourist Destination——A Case Study of Yellow River Stone Forest in Jingtai of Gusu Province

On the basis of questionnaire survey,by adopting Contingent Valuation Method,residents' WTP for the protection of Yellow River Hoodoo National Geopark in Longwan Village,Jingtai County of Gansu Province was investigated.The result showed that tourism development had greatly influenced local society,economy and culture.Residents in this area had a strong awareness of all the factors above mentioned and showed a positive attitude.Local residents would definitely like to provide a certain degree of labor or money to promote the development of tourism,which was different from the residents' attitude of developed countries.To some extent,it reflected the characteristics of tourism development in developing countries.However,the result of this paper that demographic among residents had little effect on WTP also differed from previous researches.The improvement of living standard and residents' consciousness of environmental protection were the main reasons affecting residents' WTP.Besides,the amount of payment was also in remarkable correlation with the improvement of living standard and the destruction degree of local ecological environment.

Application of Grey Relational Analysis in Regional Water Environment Assessment——Taking Jin River Basin as An Example

According to the data from four water monitoring stations at Meihewan, Shimawan, Tanwan and Jinbin, the water environment at the downstream basin of Jin River was evaluated through grey reIational analysis in this study. The resuIts showed that the water environment was severeIy contaminated by phosphorus, am-monia nitrogen and permanganate.

Study on Determination Methods of Important Landscapes along the Mainstream of Yellow River

According to the response relationship between landscape and water resource,the selection principle of important landscapes was determined from the perspectives of nature and history in this study,and determination methods or steps of important landscapes along the mainstream of Yellow River were also established to select important landscapes that should be protected.