Improving City Water Quality through Pollution Reduction with Urban Floodgate Infrastructure and Design Solutions: A Case Study in Wuxi, China

Abstract

Floodgate operation is one of the main forms of river regulation in the development and utilization of river basins. It changes the natural structure, flow process, and correlative environment of rivers. However, there is little analysis of the multiple impacts of small floodgate operation on the water environment in river networks and of the regulation patterns of urban floodgate infrastructure on pollution. In this paper, a one-dimensional hydrodynamic–water quality model, MIKE 11, was used, taking Wuxi’s two main pollutant indicators—the permanganate index (CODMn) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N)—to simulate the water quality response of Wuxi’s river network based on different design solutions of urban floodgate infrastructure. The results show that among the three design scenarios, the order of the decreasing amplitude of the CODMn and NH3-N concentrations was as follows: 1.4 m design solution scenario > 2.1 m design solution scenario > 0.7 m design solution scenario. Meanwhile, under the 1.4 m scenario, the maximum decrease in the CODMn concentration reached 37.57%, and the maximum decrease in the NH3-N concentration reached 206%. In the entire river network system, the improvement in the water quality in the downstream area was significantly better than that in the upstream area. In addition, under the three scenarios of floodgate operation, the changes in pollutant concentrations during the flood season (June–September) were significantly lower than those during the dry season (October–February) and the flat water season (March–May). The research results can provide theoretical support and new ideas for future research on the ecological operation of small floodgates and related research on the water environment effect.