The Baihe Reservoir is selected as a case study model for the current project entitled as “The Plan of Water Quality Sustainable Management for Reservoirs (South District)”. By the application of scientific approaches such as the estimation of nutrients loads from different sources and the development of water quality modeling tools, we successfully identify critical water quality problems and its pollution sources in the catchment of reservoir. Based on the results of pollution source identification and loading assessment, the areas of pollution hotspot were defined, and the site-specific strategies were provided for the control of nutrients loads from household wastewaters, hotspring wastewater, and chicken feeding wastewater. As a result of scientific research and development, novel tools and techniques for sustainable water quality management have been applied and developed in this project, including the application of emerging contaminants as tracers of wastewater/polluted-runoff from human/agriculture activities; the use of fluorescence spectroscopy for identifying sources of natural organic matters; and the development of advanced water quality monitoring techniques by using water sampling drones. The survey results show that the hot spring wastewater produced in Guanziling scenic area contributes the most to the pollution load of Baihe reservoir, and can be controlled and reduced for hot spring wastewater treatment in the future.

Sustainable water resources management、Watershed nutrient removal and control、Strategies for improvement of water quality in reservoirs