Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist, Supervising Scientist Division, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, GPO Box 461, Darwin, Australia, 0801,
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2014 Jan;21(1):118-30. doi: 10.1007/s11356-013-1780-0. Epub 2013 Jul 12.
Generic water quality guidelines (WQGs) are developed by countries/regions as broad scale tools to assist with the protection of aquatic ecosystems from the impacts of toxicants. However, since generic WQGs cannot adequately account for the many environmental factors that may affect toxicity at a particular site, site-specific WQGs are often needed, especially for high environmental value ecosystems. The Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality provide comprehensive guidance on methods for refining or deriving WQGs for site-specific purposes. This paper describes three such methods for deriving site-specific WQGs, namely: (1) using local reference water quality data, (2) using biological effects data from laboratory-based toxicity testing, and (3) using biological effects data from field surveys. Two case studies related to the assessment of impacts arising from mining operations in northern Australia are used to illustrate the application of these methods. Finally, the potential of several emerging methods designed to assess thresholds of ecological change from field data for deriving site-specific WQGs is discussed. Ideally, multiple lines of evidence approaches, integrating both laboratory and field data, are recommended for deriving site-specific WQGs.
通用水质准则 (WQGs) 是由国家/地区制定的广泛工具，旨在帮助保护水生生态系统免受有毒物质的影响。然而，由于通用 WQGs 不能充分考虑到许多可能影响特定地点毒性的环境因素，因此通常需要特定地点的 WQGs，特别是对于高环境价值的生态系统。澳大利亚和新西兰淡水和海水水质指南提供了有关为特定地点目的细化或推导 WQGs 的方法的综合指导。本文描述了三种推导特定地点 WQGs 的方法，即：(1) 使用当地参考水质数据，(2) 使用基于实验室的毒性测试的生物效应数据，以及 (3) 使用实地调查的生物效应数据。两个与评估澳大利亚北部采矿作业产生的影响有关的案例研究用于说明这些方法的应用。最后，讨论了几种新兴方法的潜力，这些方法旨在从实地数据评估生态变化的阈值，以推导特定地点的 WQGs。理想情况下，建议采用多种证据方法，整合实验室和实地数据，为推导特定地点的 WQGs 提供依据。
