Key Laboratory of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne 3001, Australia.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 1;806(Pt 4):150913. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150913. Epub 2021 Oct 12.
With rapid socio-economic development, China's coastal areas are among the fastest growing and most economically dynamic regions in the world. Under the influence of climate change and human activities, protecting the quality of coastal groundwater has emerged as one of the key environmental and resource management issues for these areas. This paper reviews (for the first time) groundwater quality data for the coastal basins of China, where over 600 million people live, focussing on key inorganic indicators/pollutants; groundwater salinity, nitrate, fluoride, and arsenic. These pollutants present major water quality issues and are also valuable as indicators of wider processes and influences impacting coastal groundwater quality - e.g. saltwater intrusion, agricultural pollution and release of geo-genic contaminants. We discuss the major drivers causing water quality problems in different regions and assess future trajectories and challenges for controlling changes in coastal groundwater quality in China. Multiple processes, including modern and palaeo seawater/brine migration, groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation, pollution from agrochemical application, rapid development of aquaculture, urban growth, and water transfer projects, may all be responsible (to different degrees) for changes observed in coastal groundwater quality, and associated long-term health and ecological effects. We discuss implications for sustainable coastal aquifer management in China, arguing that groundwater monitoring and contamination control measures require urgent improvement. The evolution and treatment of coastal groundwater quality problems in China will serve as an important warning and example for other countries facing similar pressures, due to climate change, coastal development, and intensification of anthropogenic activity in coming decades.
随着社会经济的快速发展，中国沿海地区是世界上增长最快、经济最具活力的地区之一。受气候变化和人类活动的影响，保护沿海地下水的质量已成为这些地区环境和资源管理的关键问题之一。本文首次回顾了中国沿海流域（超过 6 亿人生活在这里）的地下水质量数据，重点关注主要无机指标/污染物，如地下水的盐度、硝酸盐、氟化物和砷。这些污染物是主要的水质问题，也是反映影响沿海地下水质量的更广泛过程和影响的有价值指标，如海水入侵、农业污染和地质成因污染物的释放。我们讨论了不同地区导致水质问题的主要驱动因素，并评估了中国沿海地下水质量变化的未来趋势和控制挑战。多种过程，包括现代和古海水/盐水迁移、农业灌溉用地下水抽取、农业化学应用污染、水产养殖业的快速发展、城市增长和调水工程，都可能（在不同程度上）导致沿海地下水质量发生变化，以及与之相关的长期健康和生态影响。我们讨论了对中国可持续沿海含水层管理的影响，认为地下水监测和污染控制措施需要迫切改进。中国沿海地下水质量问题的演变和处理将为其他面临类似压力的国家提供重要的警示和范例，因为气候变化、沿海开发以及未来几十年人类活动的加剧，都将对这些国家的沿海地下水质量产生影响。
