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Contribution of urban runoff in Taipei metropolitan area to dissolved inorganic nitrogen export in the Danshui River, Taiwan

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 24, pages 578–590 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

A previous study has demonstrated that Danshui River has almost the highest dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) yield in the world and exports most of the DIN in the form of ammonium unlike the world’s large rivers. However, the DIN sources are poorly constrained. In this study, the contributions of major sources in the Taipei metropolitan area to the DIN export in the Danshui River were investigated. It is observed that ammonium is the major DIN species in the downstream reaches, resulting from the ammonium-dominated inputs of the effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and rain water pumping stations (RWPS). DIN concentrations in the downstream (urban) reaches are substantially elevated. The upstream tributaries annually discharge ∼2709 t DIN to the downstream reaches. However, the DIN discharge off the downstream reaches rises to ∼17,918 t, resulting from the contribution of RWPS-collected water, i.e., ∼14,632 t, and the effluents of two WWTP, i.e., ∼577 t. RWPS-collected water inherently contains the contribution of atmospheric deposition, ∼2937 t DIN. This finding implies that ∼11,695 t (∼66 % of the downstream output) DIN flux off the Danshui River is from urban runoff and can be attributed to human activities in the Taipei metropolitan area. To improve the water quality in the Danshui River, water quality controls in urban runoff are important.

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Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (MOST 104-2621-M-003-004, MOST 104-2166-M-003-005, and MOST 105-2116-M-003-006). We also thank the Water Resources Agency and Environmental Protection Administration for providing hydrological records and water quality data, respectively.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Nae-Wen Kuo, Yao-Te Chen & Tsung-Yu Lee

  2. Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

    Shih-Hao Jien

  3. Graduate Institute of Earth Science, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Nien-Ming Hong

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  1. Nae-Wen Kuo
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  2. Shih-Hao Jien
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  3. Nien-Ming Hong
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  4. Yao-Te Chen
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  5. Tsung-Yu Lee
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Correspondence to Tsung-Yu Lee.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Kuo, NW., Jien, SH., Hong, NM. et al. Contribution of urban runoff in Taipei metropolitan area to dissolved inorganic nitrogen export in the Danshui River, Taiwan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 578–590 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7825-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7825-4

Keywords

  • Rain water pumping station
  • Wastewater treatment plant
  • Water pollution control
  • Urban runoff
  • Nonpoint source pollution
  • Urbanization