Dynamic Water Environment Capacity Assessment Based on Control Unit Coupled with SWAT Model and Differential Evolution Algorithm

Abstract

Water pollution is a serious problem in China and abroad. Revealing the source types and their spatio-temporal characteristics is the premise of effective watershed management and pollution prevention. Since the national control unit can better match the administrative division, it was useful for the manager to control water pollution. Taking the Fenhe River Basin as the research area, a SWAT model based on the national control unit was established in this study to reveal the current situation of water quantity and quality. Then, in combination with the differential evolution algorithm, the dynamic water environment capacities of each control unit were further discussed. The results showed that the flow upstream was lower, only 7.62–8.40 m3/s, but flow in the midstream and downstream increased to 17.58 m3/s and 18.32 m3/s. Additionally, the flow in tributaries was generally lower than that in the main stream, the flow in unit 6 and unit 11 were only 0.23 m3/s and 0.62 m3/s. The water quality upstream could meet the water quality requirements of drinking water sources, but the pollution in the midstream was the most serious after passing through Taiyuan City, the concentration of NH3-N and TP reached to 6.75 mg/L and 0.41 mg/L. The results of water environmental capacity showed that the residual capacity of ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and total phosphorus (TP) in the main stream were positive, indicating that the Fenhe River Basin can accommodate the current pollution load in general, but there was an obvious difference in different months of the year. Especially in the wet season, the non-point source (NPS) pollution problem in the midstream and downstream was more prominent, resulting in a high-capacity consumption rate. It showed that in Taiyuan, Jinzhong, and Linfen Yuncheng in Shanxi Province, should be wary of non-point source pollution. In addition, the water environmental capacity of different units also varied greatly. The capacity consumption of the Taiyuan Section in the midstream was the highest, which mainly occurred in the wet season. The negative values of the residual capacity of NH3-N and TP reached the highest, −131.3 tons/month and −12.1 tons/month. Moreover, the capacity consumption downstream also reached 21–40% of the whole year in the wet season. In addition to the impact of NPS pollution in the wet season, due to the impact of point source pollution, units 8, 9, and 10 downstream had high negative residual capacity in the dry season, especially in January and February. The construction of a SWAT model based on control units and the further analysis of dynamic water environment capacity could provide technical support for Fenhe River Basin management to realize accurate pollution control.