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Factors influencing water quality indices in a typical urban river originated with reclaimed water

Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering volume 11, Article number: 8 (2017) Cite this article

Abstract

The water quality in a typical urban river segment originated with reclaimed water in Beijing was monitored for two years to investigate the evolution of water quality along the river, and statistical analysis was applied to determine factors influencing water quality of such river recharged by reclaimed water. It was found that no significant change in pollutant concentrations (including COD, NH4 +-N, TN and TP) was observed during this time, and their average values were close to those of the original reclaimed water. However, turbidity and algal contents fluctuated temporally in the direction of river flow. Statistical analysis showed that turbidity was strongly positively correlated with algal contents for flow rate <0.1 m•s–1, whereas it was strongly positively correlated with both algal contents and TOC for flow rate > 0.1 m•s–1. It was observed that diatom was the absolute predominant phyla with Melosira as the major species. In terms of algal bloom control, the specific growth rate of algae was strongly correlated to temperature, and was influenced by flow rate as well. Compared with two other rivers originated with reclaimed water and one originated with natural water, the Shannon–Wiener index in the objective river was the lowest, with values between 0.7 and 1.6, indicating a high risk for algal bloom. Statistics showed that Shannon–Wiener index was strongly negatively correlated to nutrient salts and cations.

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Acknowledgements

This work was a sub-topic of the project “Research on the allocation of urban water resource for ecological and environmental usage in Beijing”, which was supported by the Research Special Foundation of Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning & Design (20162001285). This work was partially supported by the Program for Outstanding Ph.D thesis of Beijing (No. 20131000305).

Special appreciation should be given to the research members in our group, including Yue Zhou, Shuo Zhang, Gang Cheng, Gen Li and Mansheng Chen, for their assistant in sampling and determination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jiao Zhang, Zhen Wei, Haifeng Jia & Xia Huang

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  1. Jiao Zhang
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  2. Zhen Wei
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  3. Haifeng Jia
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  4. Xia Huang
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Correspondence to Haifeng Jia or Xia Huang.

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Zhang, J., Wei, Z., Jia, H. et al. Factors influencing water quality indices in a typical urban river originated with reclaimed water. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 11, 8 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0943-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0943-5

Keywords

  • Reclaimed water
  • Urban river
  • Turbidity
  • Algae
  • Flow rate