Suchergebnisse

Water pollution of the Yangtze River basin is very serious. Studies have shown that from the upper to the lower river, the water volume decreases and development and pollution increase, especially in trans-boundary areas. The Yangtze Estuary is located at the intersection of Jiangsu Province and Shanghai where the waters flow directly into the East China Sea. The estuary provides drinking water to many people and serves multiple other functions, including agricultural irrigation, tourism, and aquaculture. It plays a pivotal role in the local social and economic development and in people's general wellbeing. Directly or indirectly, the pollution of the aquatic environment in the estuary negatively affects the socio-economic function of the estuary and neighboring areas. To help policymakers and stakeholders better appreciate the costs of rapid economic development, we examine Chongming County of Shanghai by using James' concentration-loss model and assessing the economic loss in Chongming County from 2005 to 2013 caused by water pollution in the Yangtze Estuary. The most affected function is tourism, while the most harmful pollutant is COD. According to the estimated loss rate, the county has lost almost all of its tourism and potable water function. The inhabitation function also shows severe deterioration. We conclude that the economic development of the upper river has caused serious economic loss for Chongming County and make five suggestions to remedy this situation. First, the government should streamline management of the estuary environment. Second, to reduce pollution of the river aquatic environment, the government should establish trans-boundary compensation mechanisms. Third, researchers should focus on relevant theories and methodologies of assessing economic loss from water pollution. Fourth, universities should modify their curricula to include more subjects on the environmental research and management so as to train and cultivate high-level professionals. Lastly, administrative departments should work closely with research departments, thus enabling scientific research to affect planning and implementation. Lea el abstracto en español 请点击此处阅读中文摘要

Abstract
Background
Screen the priority of emerging contaminants (ECs) from sediments is essential for risk assessment to aquatic environment and human health. Currently, priority approaches mainly focus on contaminant identification, exposure analysis, risk assessment, and hazard properties. However, there is still far from the reality due to, for instance, limitations on lack of occurrence data and uncertainty analysis. In this study, the multi-criteria screening method on the basis of hazard potential (HP) and exposure potential (EP) integrating with uncertainty analysis was developed for prioritization of 185 ECs, which have been reported to be widely found in the Yangtze River sediment. The HP based on the ecological risk and human health, and the EP according to the occurrence were both quantitatively analyzed. The priority index of these 185 chemicals was the product of the normalized HP and the normalized EP.

Results
According to the priority ranking scheme, 20 chemicals were identified as the top-priority, and 58 compounds as high-priority, respectively. After uncertainty scoring for each chemical based on data availability, there were 7 compounds (5 pesticides and 2 PFASs) recommended as the major priority ECs. In addition, the current study also emphasized that necessary for further studying some ECs, such as PFAS alternatives, as the data limitation may lead to reduce accurate prioritization.

Conclusions
Overall, this study provides an efficient approach for screening priority ECs, which is useful for river ecosystem health management.

AbstractMost scientific attention on port studies centers on deep sea ports, especially container ports. In this paper, in contrast, attention is focused on the spatial–temporal development of inland waterway ports on the Midstream Yangtze River from 2001 to 2013. The aim of this study is to assess two relevant and complementary questions of the hinterland evolution: its geographical extent and the coordination relationship with the inland port. To conduct the study, it was necessary to first identify the boundaries of the ports' hinterlands within the given timeframe. Then, the coupling coordination degree model was introduced to explore the underlying relationship between the port service and hinterland economy. Furthermore, to better depict the intricate economic characteristics of the hinterland, the development stage theory was applied in the models. The results highlight the emergence of a discontinuous hinterland at Wuhan Port and its reinforcement of primacy with respect to fierce hinterland rivalry. It also demonstrates that an interplay between major ports and their corresponding hinterlands evolves from the transitional stage, characterized by lagging port service, to the multi‐stage, wherein the supply of ports partly outstrips hinterland demand.