Abstract
Rivers in developing and emerging countries often lack good water quality. Tools to assess the water quality in rivers, including identification of possible sources of pollution, are therefore of increasing importance. The aim of this study is to apply mathematical material flow and spatial land use analyses to identify and geographically locate the main nitrogen and phosphorus sources and processes in Bang Pakong Basin (BPB). Potential measures to mitigate the nitrogen and phosphorus loads to the water system can then be efficiently evaluated. The combination of these two methods reveals the overall nutrient load as well as local “hot spots.” This allows possible mitigation measures to be discussed with regard to their spatial location. This approach goes beyond previous work in which mathematical material flow analysis was shown to be a useful tool to investigate sources of nutrients regardless of their location. The results show that the main sources contributing nutrients to waterways are aquaculture, such as shrimp, tilapia, catfish, and sea bass farming, as well as rice paddies along the main river. Additional sources contributing nutrients to this basin are field crops, livestock, aquaculture, households, and industry. High levels of nutrient inflows come from feeds and fertilizers through aquaculture and rice cultivation. The excess nutrients run into the waterways by direct discharge from aquaculture and runoff processes from rice paddies. Scenario analysis shows that management practices for aquaculture, rice, pig, and poultry farming are key drivers for reducing nutrients in the BPB.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Monika Schaffner for the use of her model of the Tha Chin River Basin. Many thanks also go to M. Bader for carefully checking the maps. This research work is supported in part by a Grant from the Center of Excellence on Environmental Health and Toxicology, the Science & Technology Postgraduate Education and Research Development Office (PERDO), Ministry of Education. This study was partially supported for publication by the China Medical Board (CMB), Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
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Appendix
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Figure SI1
Specific nitrogen inputs (kg/ha year) into various land use types in the form of fertilizer and feed. For easier comparability scale for the input flows was selected factor 10 larger that for the other figures (EPS 2287 kb)
Figure SI2
Phosphorous load to Bang Pakong Basin (BPB). Spatial net loads (kg P/ha year) per land use in each province (EPS 2163 kb)
Figure SI3
(a) Difference between status quo and scenario calculations of phosphorous net flows (b) NET phosphorous load (kg per day) to Bang Pakong Basin (BPB) for the combined scenarios (EPS 1859 kb)
Figure SI4
Specific phosphorous inputs (kg/ha year) into various land use types in the form of fertilizer and feed. For easier comparability scale for the input flows was selected factor 10 larger that for the other figures (EPS 2178 kb)
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Kupkanchanakul, W., Kwonpongsagoon, S., Bader, HP. et al. Integrating Spatial Land Use Analysis and Mathematical Material Flow Analysis for Nutrient Management: A Case Study of the Bang Pakong River Basin in Thailand. Environmental Management 55, 1022–1035 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0441-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0441-5