title: Ecological status classification of the Taizi River Basin, China: a comparison of integrated risk assessment approaches.
abstract: Integrated risk assessment approaches allow to achieve a sound evaluation of ecological status of river basins and to gain knowledge about the likely causes of impairment, useful for informing and supporting the decision-making process. In this paper, the integrated risk assessment (IRA) methodology developed in the EU MODELKEY project (and implemented in the MODELKEY Decision Support System) is applied to the Taizi River (China), in order to assess its Ecological and Chemical Status according to EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements. The available dataset is derived by an extensive survey carried out in 2009 and 2010 across the Taizi River catchment, including the monitoring of physico-chemical (i.e. DO, EC, NH3-_N, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand in 5 days (BOD5) and TP), chemical (i.e. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metals), biological (i.e. macroinvertebrates, fish, and algae), and hydromorphological parameters (i.e. water quantity, channel change and morphology diversity). The results show a negative trend in the ecological status from the highland to the lowland of the Taizi River Basin. Organic pollution from agriculture and domestic sources (i.e. COD and BOD5), unstable hydrological regime (i.e. water quantity shortage) and chemical pollutants from industry (i.e. PAHs and metals) are found to be the main stressors impacting the ecological status of the Taizi River Basin. The comparison between the results of the IRA methodology and those of a previous study (Leigh et al. 2012) indicates that the selection of indicators and integrating methodologies can have a relevant impact on the classification of the ecological status. The IRA methodology, which integrates information from five lines of evidence (i.e., biology, physico-chemistry, chemistry, ecotoxicology and hydromorphology) required by WFD, allows to better identify the biological communities that are potentially at risk and the stressors that are most likely responsible for the observed alterations. This knowledge can be beneficial for a more effective restoration and management of the river basin ecosystem.
authors.affiliation: College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.|State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.|Laboratory of Riverine Ecological Conservation and Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
authors.forename: Juntao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University Venice, Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Semenzin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.|Laboratory of Riverine Ecological Conservation and Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University Venice, Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giubilato
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China. zhangyuan@craes.org.cn.|Laboratory of Riverine Ecological Conservation and Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China. zhangyuan@craes.org.cn.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University Venice, Venice, Italy. critto@unive.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Critto
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University Venice, Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zabeo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.|Laboratory of Riverine Ecological Conservation and Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.|Laboratory of Riverine Ecological Conservation and Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.|Laboratory of Riverine Ecological Conservation and Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Mengchang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Chunye
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D058448:Biota; D002681:China; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D045483:Rivers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Ecological status; Environmental indicators; Integrated risk assessment; Taizi River Basin; Water Framework Directive; Water quality assessment