Composite measures of watershed health from a water quality perspective

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

卷:214

Article

Mallya, Ganeshchandra¹  Hantush, Mohamed²  Govindaraju, Rao S.¹ 

[1] Purdue Univ, Lyles Sch Civil Engn, W Lafayette, IN 47907 USA

[2] US EPA, Natl Risk Management Res Lab, Cincinnati, OH 45268 USA

关键词: Reliability;    Resilience;    Vulnerability;    Watershed health;    Scaling;    Trend analysis;    Water quality;    Stream networks;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.049

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Water quality data at gaging stations are typically compared with established federal, state, or local water quality standards to determine if violations (concentrations of specific constituents falling outside acceptable limits) have occurred. Based on the frequency and severity of water quality violations, risk metrics such as reliability, resilience, and vulnerability (R-R-V) are computed for assessing water quality based watershed health. In this study, a modified methodology for computing R-R-V measures is presented, and a new composite watershed health index is proposed. Risk-based assessments for different water quality parameters are carried out using identified national sampling stations within the Upper Mississippi River Basin, the Maumee River Basin, and the Ohio River Basin. The distributional properties of risk measures with respect to water quality parameters are reported. Scaling behaviors of risk measures using stream order, specifically for the watershed health (WH) index, suggest that WH values increased with stream order for suspended sediment concentration, nitrogen, and orthophosphate in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Spatial distribution of risk measures enable identification of locations exhibiting poor watershed health with respect to the chosen numerical standard, and the role of land use characteristics within the watershed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free