Xiaoyun Fan

Removal mechanisms of heavy metal pollution from urban runoff in wetlands

Solid particles, particularly urban surface dust in urban environments contain large quantities of pollutants. It is considered that urban surface dust is a major pollution source of urban stormwater runoff. The stormwater runoff washes away urban surface dust and dissolves pollutants adsorbed onto the dust and finally discharges into receiving water bodies. The quality of receiving water bodies can be deteriorated by the dust and pollutants in it. Polluted waters can be purified by wetlands with various physical, chemical, and biologic processes. These processes have been employed to treat pollutants in urban stormwater runoff for many years because purification of treatment wetlands is a natural process and a low-cost method. In this paper, we reviewed the processes involved during pollutants transport in urban environments. Particularly, when the urban stormwater runoff enters into wetlands, their removal mechanisms involving various physical, chemical and biologic processes should been understood. Wetlands can remove heavy metals by absorbing and binding them and make them form a part of sediment. However, heavy metals can be released into water when the conditions changed. This information is important for the use of wetlands for removing of pollutants and reusing stormwater.

Spatial variations of river water quality in Pearl River Delta, China

In Pearl River Delta (PRD), river water quality has deteriorated gradually due to population increase and ongoing industrialization and urbanization. In this study, multivariate statistic methods were used to assess water quality spatial pattern and to identify characteristics of water quality variation in the PRD. Water quality monitoring of the PRD during the year 2005 and 2008 was conducted at 25 different stations. Seventeen water quality parameters were analyzed for further studying. Results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that all the parameters except air temperature, water temperature and zinc showed significant difference among monitoring stations in both dry and wet season. Monitoring stations in the PRD were separately classified into three statistically significant clusters at (Dlink/Dmax) < 2 in dry and wet season, respectively. The three clusters indicated the similarity and dissimilarity of river water quality among 25 monitoring stations, corresponding to heavy pollution, moderate pollution and slight pollution. Thus, the results of this study are useful to evaluate water quality and manage water resources in the PRD.