Nonpoint Source Pollution in Plot-Scale and Small Watershed Studies under Natural Rainfall: An Analysis of the China Experience
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 8
Abstract
Agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is still the main factor that affects the quality of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Starting from the study of the mechanism of NPS, taking the Yangliu small watershed in the Shaanxi section of the Hanjiang River Basin in China as an example, and based on the combination of measured data and models, this paper focused on the analysis of the characteristics of NPS between the runoff plot and small watershed. The results showed that with the rainfall and surface runoff, the nutrient concentration increased first and then decreased, and the highest occurred in the first half of the whole rainfall process. Rainfall, maximum rainfall intensity at 60 min (), runoff, and suspended sediment (SS) were all related to nutrient diversion loss. However, the correlation among rainfall, , and runoff and the content of various forms of nitrogen and phosphorus were significantly higher than that of SS. Crop interplanting and terrace planting could play a significant role in reducing sediment and nutrient loss. For the analysis of NPS pollution in small watersheds, the time-variant gain model (TVGM) was used to simulate the missing flow in some months of the basin during the flood season. The average concentration method was used to calculate the NPS pollution load in flood season. It was found that total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) accounted for more than 92% and 69%, respectively. This study is expected to provide scientific basis for NPS pollution control in areas both regionally and worldwide.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Shaanxi Province (2019ZDLSF06-01), and the university level projects of North Minzu University (2022XYZTM007 and 2021KYQD44). We gratefully thank all the members of the research group on Non-point Source Pollution Control of the State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region of China for their efforts in data collation.
Author contributions: Jia-ke Li contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, data collection, and analysis, and original draft preparation. Kai Peng contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, data collection, analysis, and original draft preparation. Wei-feng Xie contributed to the study conception and design. Gai-rui Hao contributed to the material preparation, data collection, and analysis. Yi-wen Liu contributed to the material preparation, data collection, and analysis. Shu Li contributed to the material preparation, data collection, and analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 8 • August 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 28, 2022
Accepted: Mar 10, 2023
Published online: May 18, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 18, 2023
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