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Temporal Variations of Water Quality and Pollution Source Structures Over 15 Years Reflect Effects of Water Pollution Control in the Upper Tuojiang River Basin, China

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Abstract

The temporal variations of water quality in rivers reflect the changes in the pollutant load of a basin to a certain extent. The temporal variations of pollution source structures reflect the changes in the contribution rates of different pollution sources. The temporal variations of water quality and pollution source structures were combined in this study to investigate and analyze the water pollution control effects on different pollution sources over 15 years in the upper Tuojiang River Basin (UTRB). The seasonal trend decomposition using loess (STL), principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA), absolute principal component score (APCS), and multiple linear regression (MLR) were employed in the analysis. According to the results, except for TN, the concentrations of BOD, AN, and TP showed a downward trend. The precipitation had a strong influence on the pollution seasonal patterns. BOD and AN were primarily influenced by urban and rural living sources, while the primary sources for TN and TP were agricultural NPS and phosphate chemical industry sources, respectively. The systematic and comprehensive pollution control strategies in the third stage (2016–2020) have become more effective. In particular, the reduction of TP was successfully achieved by strengthening the pollution abatement on phosphate chemical industry sources. In contrast, the reduction in agricultural NPS emissions was not significant during the study period.

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Data Availability

The water quality data are available from the Department of Ecology and Environment of Sichuan Province, but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Department of Ecology and Environment of Sichuan Province for providing water quality data used in this study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2018SZDZX0025) and the Joint Research Project for the Yangtze River Conservation (Phase II) (No. 2022-LHYJ-02–0509-02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sichuan Academy of Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Xiaocong Liu, Hongjin Tong, Qiang Chen, Yao Wei, Zhuang Liu, Liling Zhang & Jingyi Zhang

  2. College of Environment and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China

    Yao Wei

Authors
  1. Xiaocong Liu
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  2. Hongjin Tong
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  3. Qiang Chen
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  4. Yao Wei
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  5. Zhuang Liu
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  6. Liling Zhang
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  7. Jingyi Zhang
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Contributions

Xiaocong Liu: Formal analysis, writing—original draft. Hongjin Tong: Investigation, resources. Qiang Chen: Data Curation, formal analysis, writing—review & editing. Yao Wei: Conceptualization, methodology, writing—review & editing, supervision.Zhuang Liu: Investigation, writing—original draft. Liling Zhang: Investigation, writing—original draft. Jingyi Zhang: Visualization, writing—original draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yao Wei.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Liu, X., Tong, H., Chen, Q. et al. Temporal Variations of Water Quality and Pollution Source Structures Over 15 Years Reflect Effects of Water Pollution Control in the Upper Tuojiang River Basin, China. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 465 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06503-5

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