Determination of water environment standards based on water quality criteria in China: Limitations and feasibilities
Tieyu Wang , Yunqiao Zhou , Cencen Bi , Yonglong Lu , Guizhen He , John P. Giesy
DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2016.11.010
Received August 17, 2016,Revised November 02, 2016, Accepted November 10, 2016, Available online December 01, 2016
Volume 29,2017,Pages 127-136
There is a need to formulate water environment standards (WESs) from the current water quality criteria (WQC) in China. To this end, we briefly summarize typical mechanisms applied in several countries with longer histories of developing WESs, and three limitations to formulating WESs in China were identified. After analyzing the feasibility factors including economic development, scientific support capability and environmental policies,we realized that China is still not ready for a complete change from its current nation-wide unified WES system to a local-standard-based system. Thus, we proposed a framework for transformation from WQC to WESs in China. The framework consists of three parts,including responsibilities, processes and policies. The responsibilities include research authorization, development of guidelines, and collection of information, at both national and local levels; the processes include four steps and an impact factor system to establish water quality standards; and the policies include seven specific proposals.
