Riverine Water Quality Response to Precipitation and Its Change

Abstract

Surface waters are prone to the influences from both natural condition and anthropogenic activities. The aim of this paper was to study the impacts of one natural variable, precipitation, and its change posed by a changing climate on water quality of three rivers in Alberta, Canada. Eleven water quality parameters monitored during the time period of 1988-2014 were used to investigate the impact of precipitation. The results showed the significant dependence of most water quality parameters as well as river flow on the cumulative antecedent precipitation. Water quality parameters however had different associations with precipitation; and thus they would respond to climate change qualitatively and quantitatively differently in the rivers and at the stations of each river. In general, some water quality parameters such as turbidity and total phosphorus would increase; whereas other parameters would decrease or show no appreciable change under the projected increase of precipitation under the median climate change scenario for the river basins. On all three rivers, the maximum increase (17.20%) and decrease (−1.53%) were projected for turbidity and chloride, respectively, in the 2050s; while the maximum increase (29.68%) and decrease (−2.45%) were calculated for turbidity and chloride, respectively, in the 2080s. The results imply the need to manage riverine water quality considering precipitation and its change under a changing climate.

Distribution of Nutrients in Kelantan River Basin, Malaysia

“…In previous studies, in rivers of east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Hee et al [7] and Suratman et al [8] found that higher P-and N-based nutrient concentrations in Setiu river occurred in the wet season, probably due to P and N loss from the surrounding areas through soil leaching and land runoff from agricultural land with over-fertilization during the heavy rainfall season. In the current study, by contrast, dilution of nutrient concentrations by higher rainfall in the wet season was probably the main driver for P and N compounds declining from the dry to wet seasons [26]. This result is somewhat similar with Ling et al [27] in Batang Baram, Sarawak province, who reported some of the nutrient concentrations in their study were higher when there was no rain.…”

Spatio-temporal variability and pollution sources identification of the surface sediments of Shatt Al-Arab River, Southern Iraq

“…While the assumption that relatively high discharge in the wet season results in an additional dilution and consequently less pollution, such discharge increment will most likely promote the washout from heavily industrialized basins and thus introduces considerable amounts of pollutants to rivers 10 . In other words, the wet season is supposed to reduce the element concentrations in the river's water and then sediment through dilution by increased discharge 129 . However, the additional dilution resulting from increased discharge may be offset by the flushing of uninterrupted deposition of waste in a basin with no proper sanitation infrastructure as the case of the Shatt Al-Arab basin 83 .…”

Growth of the Decision Tree: Advances in Bottom‐Up Climate Change Risk Management

“…; Fan and Shibata ; Rostami et al. ), with particular attention given to temperature effects (e.g., Benitez‐Gilabert et al. ).…”

“…The impact of anthropogenic activities on water quality has been studied extensively (e.g., Jarvie et al 2006;Bowes et al 2014). Several studies have investigated the effect of climate change on riverine water quality (e.g., Tu 2009;Whitehead et al 2009;Fan and Shibata 2015;Rostami et al 2018), with particular attention given to temperature effects (e.g., Benitez-Gilabert et al 2010). However, contaminant transport models have not typically been included in the coupled human-hydrologic modeling systems described above, and water quality concerns have therefore not been directly incorporated into bottomup assessments of broader water system resilience.…”