Author(s): You Tao; Wu Baosheng; Cheng Hongping; Wang Zuzhi
Linked Author(s): Baosheng Wu
Keywords: Delayed response; River health indexes; Sediment and watercondition; Bank-full discharge; Equilibrium state
Abstract: The water resources development has changed the water and sediment situation in the waterway and ruined the balance between the river system and the eco-environment. It is important to realize the new environment after the change of the water and sediment situation and explore the effective environmental improvement measures for the sustainable development and the river health. Healthy river is a river whose social functions and natural functions can be balanced or compromised in corresponding periods. The indexes reflecting a healthy river should be favorable riverbed, acceptable water quality and favorable river ecosystem, and the social functions and natural functions of a river perform in a balanced way. The river health indexes should reflect the river's natural function status which includes the riverbed, water quality, river ecosystem and runoff. The variety and quantity would be different for different rivers because of different natural features and social background. The indexes should be decided according to the requirement of maintaining river's normal natural functions and the extent whether the social functions and the natural functions could perform in the balanced way, and also the indexes should be adjusted according to the change of the natural features and social background. The key to describe the river health situation is to find out the relatively balanced river situation based on several critical quantified indexes such as bank-full discharge, water quality etc., which are influenced by the delayed response of the river to the changing upstream water and sediment conditions. This paper proposed a method to identify the relatively balanced river condition and river health indexes.
Year: 2009