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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Comprehensive River Health Evaluation
Indicator System and Its Application
1
School of Water Conservancy & Environment Engineering, Zhejiang University of Water Resources
and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
2
School of Engineering, University of Birstol, Bristol, BS8 1TB, UK
3
Zhejiang Design Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power Co., Ltd, Hangzhou 310002, China
4
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Zhejiang University of Water Resources
and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
5
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing,102206, China
Submission date: 2023-12-09
Final revision date: 2024-02-29
Acceptance date: 2024-04-13
Online publication date: 2024-05-31
Publication date: 2025-01-09
Corresponding author
Dongjing Huang
School of Water Conservancy & Environment Engineering, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
School of Water Conservancy & Environment Engineering, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(2):1165-1177
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Maintaining a healthy state of rivers is the basis for their functions, and the scientific evaluation
of river health has significant implications for the environment, ecology, and socio-economics.
In this study, the practical needs of river management and the need to establish a new type
of human-water relationship were considered, resulting in the construction of a river health evaluation
indicator system with 13 indicators based on the criteria of hydrology and water quality, habitat
structure, aquatic organisms, social services, and river management. Additionally, a comprehensive
index of river health assessments was proposed to judge the health level of the river. The comprehensive
river health evaluation indicator system was applied to the Taihu Lake Basin, and the results indicated
that the evaluation indicator system could objectively and scientifically reflect the health level
of the river. The comprehensive index of river health assessment was calculated to be 73.38, indicating
that the overall health of the river was in a “healthy” state. However, further improvements were needed
in areas such as river connectivity. The study presents a new evaluation system and methodology
that facilitate the development of effective strategies for river conservation and management.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| eISSN: | 2083-5906 |
| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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