Long‐term final void salinity prediction for a post‐mining landscape in the Hunter Valley,New South Wales,Australia

Opencast mining alters surface and subsurface hydrology of a landscape both during and post‐mining. At mine closure, following opencast mining in mines with low overburden to coal ratios, a void is left in the final landform. This final void is the location of the active mine pit at closure. Voids are generally not infilled within the mines' lifetime, because of the prohibitive cost of earthwork operations, and they become post‐mining water bodies or pit lakes. Water quality is a significant issue for pit lakes. Groundwater within coal seams and associated rocks can be saline, depending on the nature of the strata and groundwater circulation patterns. This groundwater may be preferentially drawn to and collected in the final void. Surface runoff to the void will not only collect salts from rainfall and atmospheric fallout, but also from the ground surface and the weathering of fresh rock. As the void water level rises, its evaporative surface area increases, concentrating salts that are held in solution. This paper presents a study of the long term, water quality trends in a post‐mining final void in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. This process is complex and occurs long term, and modelling offers the only method of evaluating water quality. Using available geochemical, climate and hydrogeological data as inputs into a mass‐balance model, water quality in the final void was found to increase rapidly in salinity through time (2452 to 8909 mg l⁻¹ over 500 years) as evaporation concentrates the salt in the void and regional groundwater containing high loads of salt continues to flow into the void. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anthropogenic relief changes in a long-lasting lignite mining area (‘Ville’, Germany) derived from historic maps and digital elevation models

Humans constitute one of the main geomorphological agents in modern times. As an example, post-mining regions represent a typical landscape of the Anthropocene. Strong relief modifications are particularly obvious with open pit mining. However, many existing mining areas are lacking detailed pre-mining information for the quantification of anthropogenic relief changes, which is a considerable challenge in regions with historic mining activities. Here, the Ville (Rhenish lignite district, Germany) is used to quantify surface mining induced relief changes in one of the oldest and currently largest lignite districts in Europe. Historical maps from first geodetic mapping in 1893 enabled construction of a historic digital elevation model to quantify the relief changes in comparison to elevation data from 2000 and 2015. The vertical accuracy of the historic data is remarkably high, with relief differences < 2 m in areas not affected by mining. In total, 49.2% of the investigated area (184 km²) shows a relief deficit and 14.5% has positive relief differences. Absolute changes account for more than 80 m heightening (dumpsites of overburden) and lowering of the natural relief (pits). Besides these altitudinal changes, overall steeper slopes are significant for the new topography, but levelling exists likewise. The spatial variabilities are discussed in the context of the regional geology and the mining techniques. Undoubtedly, such large-scale anthropogenic relief changes persist for a very long time and will last as a human legacy far into the future. Only the detailed reconstruction of the pre-mining relief offers the ability to clarify the dimension of humans as geomorphological agents and to understand landscape perception. Due to the fact that the impact of open pit mining has such a large vertical and horizontal extension, their consideration as part of anthropogeomorphology can significantly contribute to support future Critical Zone research in the Anthropocene.     

Potential for remediation of acidic mining lakes evaluated by hydrogeochemical modelling: Case study Grünewalder Lauch (Plessa 117, Lusatia/Germany)

About one third of several hundred mining lakes in Eastern Germany are highly acidified, and there is a need to restore them to neutral conditions because they constitute an environmental hazard for water resources and downstream environments. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of three different acid pit lake water remediation treatments: dilution with alkaline (river) water, limestone treatment and biological neutralization by organic carbon-driven alkalinity generation. The efficiency is evaluated for the acidic mining lake Grünewalder Lauch by adjusting input values into a geochemical model and making future projections. Current approaches, such as flooding with neutral surface water or extensive liming, are not suitable for many lakes because of a limited supply of alkaline water or high lime immobilizing potential of Fe- and Al-rich water in acidic lakes, respectively. Further treatment methods are, therefore, designed to combine water supply and biological measures with the management of water quality by the application of in-lake microbial processes. These processes are focused on the metabolic response of aquatic ecosystems to nutrient enrichment (enhancement of primary production and thereby organic carbon supply) and the microbial decomposition of organic matter and their effects on the gain or loss of alkalinity.The results and comparisons of different neutralization measures will be generalized by the application of hydrogeochemical models for alkalinity production showing

a)

the long term efficiency of the measures, depending on carbon turnover at the sediment/water interface,

b)

the development of bicarbonate buffering capacity as a consequence of biological measures,

c)

the importance of pyrite formation instead of FeS.

     

Ecotoxicological monitoring in lakes of Northwestern and Central European Russia situated in specially protected natural areas

An ecotoxicological assessment is given to the state of small lakes in specially protected natural areas in Northwestern and Central European Russia, which suffer from aerotechnogenic acidification. The toxicity of water and bottom sediments is shown to increase with decreasing water pH. The most sensitive characteristics of aquatic organisms in different trophic groups are chosen, allowing the state of lakes to be monitored.     

Water renewal along the aquatic continuum offsets cumulative retention by lakes: implications for the character of organic carbon in boreal lakes

The character of organic carbon (OC) in lake waters is strongly dependent on the time water has spent in the landscape as well as in the lake itself due to continuous biogeochemical OC transformation processes. A common view is that upstream lakes might prolong the water retention in the landscape, resulting in an altered OC character downstream. We calculated the number of lakes upstream for 24,742 Swedish lakes in seven river basins spanning from 56º to 68º N. For each of these lakes, we used a lake volume to discharge comparison on a landscape scale to account for upstream water retention by lakes (T_{n tot}). We found a surprisingly weak relationship between the number of lakes upstream and T_{n tot}. Accordingly, we found that the coloured fraction of organic carbon was not related to lake landscape position but significantly related to T_{n tot} when we analysed lake water chemical data from 1,559 lakes in the studied river basins. Thus, we conclude that water renewal along the aquatic continuum by lateral water inputs offsets cumulative retention by lakes. Based on our findings, we suggest integrating T_{n tot} in studies that address lake landscape position in the boreal zone to better understand variations in the character of organic carbon across lake districts.     

鄱阳湖洪泛区碟形湖湿地系统地表—地下水交互作用

洪泛系统具有复杂动态的水文环境,在季节性洪水脉冲影响下,地表—地下水交互转化对洪泛区水循环和生态环境保护等方面具有重要意义.本文采用野外试验、统计分析和达西定律等研究方法,开展了鄱阳湖洪泛区碟形湖湿地系统(河流—洲滩湿地—碟形湖)地表—地下水文学特征、相互作用和交换通量研究.数据资料显示,在地形地貌影响下,研究区洲滩地...     

EXPERIMENTAL AND FIELD STUDY ON MINING-PIT MIGRATION

1 INTRODUCTION Because of the large quantity of sand and gravel in their beds, rivers have always been considered as a major source of sand and gravel for civil works. Acceptable quality, ease of extraction and economy are some of the reasons could be mentioned. Unfortunately, specific laws and regulations regarding the safe in-stream mining have not been provided for users and officials. What should be taken into account are the effects of over-mining of sand and gravel, which can cause …     

“引江济星”工程及风场环境影响广东肇庆星湖水龄分布特征

目前大量景观类湖泊在人工布局下呈现形状不规整的特点,容易造成湖湾水体滞留形成死水区,水质恶化问题日益突出,本文以星湖为研究区域,建立基于环境流体生态动力学(EFDC)模型的星湖水动力—风场耦合模型,以水龄作为衡量水体交换速率的指标,设计12种工况模拟计算不同出入湖通道布局及流量配比、"引江济星"工程和风场对星湖水龄时空分布的影响.结果表明:星湖水龄存在季节性和空间性分布差异,春季主导风向与湖体流动主方向互斥,抑制了波海湖水体交换,导致水龄在春季较长,而秋季南西南季风促进中心湖等水体交换,致使水龄偏短,也反映出风向的影响存在湖区空间异质性,风向为南东南时星湖整体水龄最小;入湖口通道布局及流量配比对湖区水体交换速率存在影响,以外坑为波海湖入湖口且波海湖、中心湖、仙女湖入流比为4∶3∶3时,星湖整体水龄最小,拟建的青莲湖出水口和仙女湖出水口能有效加快青莲湖东北部和仙女湖东南部的水体交换速率;综合考虑调水引流效益、经济投资、生态开发和占地的成本,方案二为最优调水引流方案.本研究强调入湖口布局、流量大小和比例、及风场等因素对城市内湖水体置换的影响,为人为干扰下的景观湖泊的治理和管控提供科学支撑.     

The possible hydrologic effects of the proposed lignite open‐cast mining in Drama lignite field,Greece

The present study investigates the possible hydrologic effects of the proposed lignite open‐cast mining in Drama lignite field (north Greece). Recent years have seen a rapid increase in surface mining. This activity has generated a growing concern for the potential environmental impacts associated with large scale surface mining. In order to achieve a safe mine operation and allow extraction of lignite to considerable depths, extensive dewatering by pumping will be necessary, while at the same time it is desirable to avoid presence of overpumping conditions in the broader area. Based on stratigrafic, hydrologic and hydrogeologic data, a three‐dimensional finite difference model was developed in order to simulate the dewatering process of the western part of the lignite open‐cast mine in Drama and to predict both spatially and temporally the decline of ground water level down to the lignite surface. The dewatering of the part of the aquifer which underlies the mine area will influence the hydrological conditions of the broader region. The most important anticipated effects will be the abandonment of shallow wells as well as the decrease of ground water pumping rates of deep wells. Aquifer discharge towards the ditches of the study area will cease and there will be an inversion of ground water flow from the ditches towards the underlying aquifer. Dewatering activities will probably result in minor subsidence of the nearby peat deposits of Drama Philippi marshes. Moreover, sand pumping as well as the presence of gasses is likely to cause local subsidence phenomena, mainly in the pit slopes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Landscape and climate change threats to wetlands of North and Central America

North and Central America has a combined total of 2.5 million km² of wetlands, with 51 % in Canada, 46 % in the USA, and the remainder in subtropical and tropical Mexico and Central America. Loss rates are well known for the conterminous USA and for parts of Canada but poorly understood for Mexico and Central America. Wetlands of North America continue to be threatened due to drainage for agriculture and urban development, extreme coastal and river management, water pollution from upstream watersheds, peat mining, waterfowl management, and more recently climate change. Human use of wetlands in this region are many, including receiving ecosystem services such as water purification, flood regulation, climate regulation, and direct provisioning benefits for many cultures living in and among wetlands, especially in the Louisiana Delta and in Mexico and Central America. Climate change affects will cause wetland impacts on coastal wetlands due to sea level rise and on inland wetlands due to changes in precipitation, air temperature, and river discharges. Wetlands, in turn, have a major role in the storage of carbon in boreal regions of Canada and with carbon sequestration in temperate and tropical wetlands of the Americas.     

The most acidified Austrian lake in comparison to a neutralized mining lake

This study investigated two mining lakes located in the north of Lower Austria. These lakes arose 45 years ago when open cast lignite mining ceased. The lakes are separated by a 7-m wide dam. Due to the oxidation of pyrite, both lakes have been acidified and exhibit iron, sulphate, and heavy metal concentrations several orders of magnitude higher than in circumneutral lakes. The water column of both lakes is divided into two layers by a pronounced chemocline. The smaller mining lake (AML), with pH close to of 2.6, is the most acidic lake in Austria, whereas flooding with stream water and by drainage from the surrounding fields neutralized the adjacent larger pit lake. The goal of our study was to investigate the effect of flooding on its physical, chemical and biological properties, in comparison to the pristine AML. Even relative to other extremely acidic lakes, the flora and fauna in the AML was reduced and composed of only two flagellate, one ciliate, and one rotifer species. The simplified pelagic food web in the mixolimnion consisted of heterotrophic bacteria, the mixotrophic flagellates Chlamydomonas acidophila and Ochromonas sp., the ciliate Oxytricha sp., and the rotifer Cephalodella sp. The latter two are as yet undescribed new species. The heliozoan Actinophrys sp. that may act as top predator occurred only in low abundance. The euglenid Lepocinclis buetschlii formed a stable deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) at 7 m depth. Highest cell numbers of L. buetschlii in the DCM exceeded 10⁸ L^?1. The neutralized mining lake harboured higher plankton diversity similar to that of natural circumneutral lakes. A peak of at least 16 different phytoplankton taxa was observed during summer. The zooplankton consisted of several copepod species, daphnids and other cladocerans, and at least six different rotifer species. Several fish species occurred in the neutralized lake. Although the effect of non-permanent flooding was largely sustainable, interannual fluctuations of the pH affected the plankton community and reduced its species diversity.     

Assessment of the Present State and Future Fate of River Saraswati,India: Water Quality Indices and Forecast Models as Diagnostic and Management Tools

Water quality assessment is key to the conservation and management of rivers. River Saraswati, a distributary of the river Ganga, serves as a lifeline to many villages in the district Hooghly in West Bengal, India. As the river is gradually dying due to diverse man-made pollution, ten water quality parameters in two sampling spots (PR-1 and PR-2) in the river are monitored month-wise from March 2017 to February 2020,  and these are compared with those from a reference pond. The water quality index (WQI) is determined for the two riverine spots and the reference pond based on the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment WQI (CCMEWQI) and weighted arithmetic WQI, respectively. In addition to actual observations, three different forecasting methods, exponential smoothing, autoregressive integrated moving average, and artificial neural network, are used to predict WQI for the next two years. This study indicates that free CO₂, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity are the key parameters to evaluate this river's anthropogenic stress and health. The actual and forecasted results reflect the precipitous degradation of CCMEWQI in PR-2. Therefore, the immediate intervention of all stakeholders is required to adopt an integrated and comprehensive river management plan to save the river from utter obliteration.     

A review of ecological restoration techniques in fluvial rivers

Rivers play an important role in people's living and agricultural production, however, intense human activities have broken the original ecological balance, and affected structures and functions of the river ecosystem. To restore the damaged river ecosystem back to a healthy status, effective ecological restoration measures need to be implemented. The main problems that the damaged rivers face are either the locally altered hydrological processes affected by construction of hydraulic facilities, or the deterioration of water quality resulted from pollution emissions, or both. In this study, ecological restoration techniques of the rivers affected by engineering control or pollution are reviewed respec-tively. In addition, three kinds of methods, i.e. physical, chemical and biological–ecological methods are introduced in details for the rivers affected by water pollution. At present, the development of river restoration techniques shows the following trends: 1) the scale of ecological restoration is becoming larger; 2) ecological restoration measures are required to meet multiple objectives; and 3) the man-agement of water environment is changing from water quality management to aquatic ecosystem management.     

云南九大高原湖泊流域人类活动强度对水质的多尺度影响

人类活动强度的空间异质性是理解区域人地关系和生态环境效应的基础。基于云南九大高原湖泊流域2020年土地利用数据,构建不同景观类型的人类影响强度系数,运用GIS空间分析量化流域人类活动强度与空间分异,探讨人类活动强度对水质的影响。结果表明:人类活动强度总体特征由高到低依次是杞麓湖(4.83)、星云湖(4.71)、滇池(4.19)、阳宗海(4.11)、抚仙湖(4.03)、异龙湖(4.01)、程海(3.93)、洱海(3.88)和泸沽湖(2.96)。人类活动强度指数(HAI)在流域尺度、坝区尺度、湖岸尺度的空间分异特征明显,每个流域都受到高强度人类活动影响,最大值出现在坝区,滇池、杞麓湖岸线存在完全开发的区域。人类活动强度随海拔和坡度增高而下降,高强度区集中在地势低平的湖泊周围。湖泊营养状态指数与流域尺度和坝区尺度高强度区呈显著正相关,这些区域应作为景观优化和管理的重点;与岸线尺度低强度区呈显著负相关,有必要减少湖滨带人类活动。综合考虑流域地形地貌-人类活动强度-水质的级联效应,应从不同空间尺度对各景观要素与过程管控。鉴于人类活动强度对水质的影响,可把湖泊管理分为预防型、保护型、治理型。     

OSL dating of past lake levels for a large dammed lake in southern Tibet and determination of possible controls on lake evolution

Fluvio‐lacustrine terraces along Phung Chu (river) on the central southern Tibetan Plateau indicate that a large palaeo‐dammed‐lake formerly existed in this area. Based on landscape survey, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating and sedimentary analyses, this research shows that the Phung Chu was blocked and a dammed‐lake over 2500 km² in size formed before 30 ka ago. OSL dating analysis suggests the fluvio‐lacustrine sediments were well bleached and yield accurate age estimates for two lake drainage events. The first drainage event took place after 30 ka, resulted in river incision and formed a high terrace at 50 m height from the present river level. The second drainage happened after 3.7 ka, resulted in further river incision and formed the second terrace at 25 m height from the present river level. According to the distribution of the fluvio‐lacustrine sediments, active normal faults (particularly the Kharta Fault) in this region and the high gradient slopes after Phung Chu enters the Yö Ri gorge, seismically‐induced landsliding is regarded as highly likely to have been the cause of river blockage and associated formation of a dammed‐lake, although glacial damming is also a possible cause. The volume of drainages from this dammed‐lake may have led to catastrophic flooding and analogous modern lakes represent significant geo‐hazard risks to down‐river human settlements. As dammed‐lakes are special phases in fluvial evolution, often involving river blockage, breakthrough and drastic catchment change, these processes can reveal how tectonic or climatic events modify landforms. However, such tectonic‐derived landform changes can also impact palaeo‐climate of the region. Thus this study has added new evidence regarding the evolutionary history of a dammed lake including its formation, duration, extent and final drainage, which is crucial for understanding its general landscape process mechanisms and for better assessing geo‐hazard risks. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The isotope hydrology of the Muskoka River Watershed,Ontario, Canada

Stable isotope tracers of δ¹⁸O and δ²H are increasingly being applied in the study of water cycling in regional-scale watersheds in which human activities, like river regulation, are important influences. In 2015, δ¹⁸O and δ²H were integrated into a water quality survey in the Muskoka River Watershed with the aim to provide new regional-scale characterization of isotope hydrology in the 5,100-km² watershed located on the Canadian Shield in central Ontario, Canada. The forest dominated region includes ~78,000 ha of lakes, 42 water control structures, and 11 generating stations, categorized as “run of river.” Within the watershed, stable isotope tracers have long been integrated into hydrologic process studies of both headwater catchments and lakes. Here, monthly surveys of δ¹⁸O and δ²H in river flow were conducted in the watershed between April 2015 and November 2016 (173 surface water samples from 10 river stations). Temporal patterns of stable isotopes in river water reflect seasonal influences of snowmelt and summer-time evaporative fractionation. Spatial patterns, including differences observed during extreme flood levels experienced in the spring of 2016, reflect variation in source contributions to river flow (e.g., snowmelt or groundwater versus evaporatively enriched lake storage), suggesting more local influences (e.g., glacial outwash deposits). Evidence of combined influences of source mixing and evaporative fractionation could, in future, support application of tracer-enabled hydrological modelling, estimation of mean transit times and, as such, contribute to studies of water quality and water resources in the region.     

Changes of the plankton community composition during chemical neutralisation of the Bockwitz pit lake

Lake Bockwitz, a pit lake in a former lignite open-cast mine south of Leipzig (Germany), was neutralised (from pH 2.65 to pH 7.1) by addition of soda ash (14,620 t) from 2004 to 2007. The additions had to be continued due to ongoing inflows of acid ground and surface water. This paper reports on the changes in the plankton community accompanying the neutralisation.At the beginning, the community composition and biomass was comparable to other acidic pit lakes, i.e. the pigmented flagellates Chlamydomonas and Ochromonas dominated the autotrophs, and ciliates and rotifers were the top predators. The biomass was small (maximum 2 mg fresh weight per litre) and decreased until the end of 2008. With increasing pH, the autotrophic community became more diverse, whereby diatoms, chrysophyceans and blue greens contributed significantly to biomass. Although neutral pH conditions were achieved in autumn 2007, picocyanobacteria were not present until the end of 2008. In addition, crustaceans were under-represented in terms of biomass and diversity. Daphnids were not found. We attributed this to short-term changes of the ionic composition of the water and to the limited time available for non-acido-tolerant organisms to colonise the system.     

北京城市湖泊富营养化评价与分析

根据2006年对北京市区不同功能重点湖泊水体进行的逐月监测,采用综合营养状态指数法,对湖泊富营养化现状进行了评价。结果表明,水源湖泊目前处于中营养状态,但在夏秋季由于温度和光照等气象条件的影响,可接近轻富营养;重要景观湖泊处于轻一中度富营养;一般景观湖泊处于中度一重度富营养状态。湖泊富营养程度随季节变化明显：盛夏和初秋形成高峰,冬、春季最低,总磷、总氮含量与叶绿素a呈显著正相关关系,尤其总磷与叶绿素a的相关性更加显著。由于城市排水管网不健全,雨污分流不彻底,暴雨期大量溢流生活污水直接向湖泊补水河道中排放;湖泊补水沿线降雨径流产生的非点源污染较严重;加上污水处理厂再生水水质较差,加重了补给湖泊富营养程度。