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Natural Water Quality and Its Suitability in the Northern Tianshan Catchments (Central Asia)

Received: Nov. 02, 2017    Accepted: Jan. 25, 2018    Published: Feb. 23, 2018
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Abstract

The use of water resources in arid lands is strongly limited by their quantity. To add to such knowledge, this study evaluates the natural water quality and its suitability for drinking, agricultural and industrial purposes in the northern Tianshan catchments (Central Asia), using chemical-physical indicators. The waters are neutral to alkaline and most of them are soft-fresh waters. The total dissolved solid (TDS) varies over two orders of magnitude. Much of the solutes and physicochemical parameters in water are under the highest desirable limits of the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking purpose and most waters are of good water quality for irrigation. The effects of local pollution are minimal in the montane and piedmont areas of these watersheds but are significant in the oases and central areas of the drainage basins. Although the headwaters of the northern Tianshan catchments represent natural background conditions (soft-fresh water in salinity and hardness) and population densities within the catchment are relatively low, the river basin is facing relatively high anthropogenic pressure on water quality in the low reaches. The main contributors to the nutrient emissions are agricultural land use and, to a lesser extent, unban settlements with a high proportion of households without connection to wastewater treatment plants. Proposals for regional water resources management are advised, i.g. the geographic data and information should be detailedly included in the assessment and monitoring procedure, a water quality model should be built, and information technology such as visualization technology and the internet should be used.

DOI 10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14
Published in Hydrology ( Volume 6, Issue 1, March 2018 )
Page(s) 32-42
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Natural Water, Water Quality, Drinking Water, Irrigation Water, Industrial Quality, Northern Tianshan Catchments

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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Bing-Qi Zhu, Yan Gao, Xiao-Jun Meng. (2018). Natural Water Quality and Its Suitability in the Northern Tianshan Catchments (Central Asia). Hydrology, 6(1), 32-42. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14

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    ACS Style

    Bing-Qi Zhu; Yan Gao; Xiao-Jun Meng. Natural Water Quality and Its Suitability in the Northern Tianshan Catchments (Central Asia). Hydrology. 2018, 6(1), 32-42. doi: 10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14

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    AMA Style

    Bing-Qi Zhu, Yan Gao, Xiao-Jun Meng. Natural Water Quality and Its Suitability in the Northern Tianshan Catchments (Central Asia). Hydrology. 2018;6(1):32-42. doi: 10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14,
      author = {Bing-Qi Zhu and Yan Gao and Xiao-Jun Meng},
      title = {Natural Water Quality and Its Suitability in the Northern Tianshan Catchments (Central Asia)},
      journal = {Hydrology},
      volume = {6},
      number = {1},
      pages = {32-42},
      doi = {10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hyd.20180601.14},
      abstract = {The use of water resources in arid lands is strongly limited by their quantity. To add to such knowledge, this study evaluates the natural water quality and its suitability for drinking, agricultural and industrial purposes in the northern Tianshan catchments (Central Asia), using chemical-physical indicators. The waters are neutral to alkaline and most of them are soft-fresh waters. The total dissolved solid (TDS) varies over two orders of magnitude. Much of the solutes and physicochemical parameters in water are under the highest desirable limits of the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking purpose and most waters are of good water quality for irrigation. The effects of local pollution are minimal in the montane and piedmont areas of these watersheds but are significant in the oases and central areas of the drainage basins. Although the headwaters of the northern Tianshan catchments represent natural background conditions (soft-fresh water in salinity and hardness) and population densities within the catchment are relatively low, the river basin is facing relatively high anthropogenic pressure on water quality in the low reaches. The main contributors to the nutrient emissions are agricultural land use and, to a lesser extent, unban settlements with a high proportion of households without connection to wastewater treatment plants. Proposals for regional water resources management are advised, i.g. the geographic data and information should be detailedly included in the assessment and monitoring procedure, a water quality model should be built, and information technology such as visualization technology and the internet should be used.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Natural Water Quality and Its Suitability in the Northern Tianshan Catchments (Central Asia)
    AU  - Bing-Qi Zhu
    AU  - Yan Gao
    AU  - Xiao-Jun Meng
    Y1  - 2018/02/23
    PY  - 2018
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14
    T2  - Hydrology
    JF  - Hydrology
    JO  - Hydrology
    SP  - 32
    EP  - 42
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-7617
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20180601.14
    AB  - The use of water resources in arid lands is strongly limited by their quantity. To add to such knowledge, this study evaluates the natural water quality and its suitability for drinking, agricultural and industrial purposes in the northern Tianshan catchments (Central Asia), using chemical-physical indicators. The waters are neutral to alkaline and most of them are soft-fresh waters. The total dissolved solid (TDS) varies over two orders of magnitude. Much of the solutes and physicochemical parameters in water are under the highest desirable limits of the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking purpose and most waters are of good water quality for irrigation. The effects of local pollution are minimal in the montane and piedmont areas of these watersheds but are significant in the oases and central areas of the drainage basins. Although the headwaters of the northern Tianshan catchments represent natural background conditions (soft-fresh water in salinity and hardness) and population densities within the catchment are relatively low, the river basin is facing relatively high anthropogenic pressure on water quality in the low reaches. The main contributors to the nutrient emissions are agricultural land use and, to a lesser extent, unban settlements with a high proportion of households without connection to wastewater treatment plants. Proposals for regional water resources management are advised, i.g. the geographic data and information should be detailedly included in the assessment and monitoring procedure, a water quality model should be built, and information technology such as visualization technology and the internet should be used.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

  • Centro de Investigaciones en Geografia Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Campus Morelia, Mexico City, Mexico

  • The Development and Reform Committee of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, China

  • Section