title: Development of an integrated indicator system to assess the impacts of reclamation engineering on a river estuary.
abstract: An integrated indicator system was developed for determining synthetic environmental responses under multiple types of coastal reclamation engineering in the Yellow River estuary, China. Four types of coastal engineering works were analyzed, namely port construction, petroleum exploitation, fishery and aquaculture, and seawall defense. In addition, two areas with limited human disturbances were considered for comparison. From the weights of the response value for each indicator, port construction was determined to be the primary impact contributor among the four engineering works studies. Specifically, hydrodynamic conditions, ecological status, economic costs, and engineering intensity were on average 72.78%, 65.03%, 75.03%, and 66.35% higher than those of other engineering types. Furthermore, fishery and aquaculture impact on water quality was 42.51% higher than that of other engineering types, whereas seawall defense impact on landscape variation was 51.75% higher than that of other engineering types. The proposed indicator system may provide effective coastal management in future.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities, University of Regina, 120, 2 Research Drive, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 7H9, Canada; Beijing Engineering Research Center for Watershed Environmental Restoration & Integrated Ecological Regulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: yanpeng.cai@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yanpeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Xin'An
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, 100085, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D017756:Aquaculture; D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063366:Estuaries; D006801:Humans; D045483:Rivers
keywords: Assessment model; Coastal reclamation; Estuarine management; Indicator system; Yellow River estuary