General Introduction to Water Quality Criteria

Abstract

Water quality standards (WQS) play an important role in management of water quality and aquatic ecosystems around the world, especially in China where the situation of water pollution is getting grimmer. The primitive WQS in China dated back to the early 1980s, and since then, it has become an integrative environment standard system after many corrections and revision in the last several decades. The current in-effect WQS in China compose of “Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water”, “Quality Standards for Seawater Environment”, “Water Quality Standards for Fishery”, “Water Quality Standards for Agricultural Irrigation”, and “Quality Standards for Ground Water”.As integrated standards, the national document of the “Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water” has been revised three times after its first enactment in 1983, and this key document consists of reference values at five classes to protect different designated functions of the waterbody.