Microbial community driving factors and water environment prediction of

industrial polluted seagoing river

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Yuang Ji1, Yi Li*1, Weiwei Song2,3
1 Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of
Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China;
17712906550@163.com (Y.J.), envly@hhu.edu.cn (Y.L.)

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2 National Engineering Research Center of Water Resources Efficient Utilization and Engineering
Safety, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098 China; weiweisong@hhu.edu.cn (W.S.)
3 Institute of Water Science and Technology, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.

*Correspondence: envly@hhu.edu.cn (Y.L.)

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Abstract:

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In this study, a typical coastal economic development zone in eastern China is taken as the research area.
The water quality in the park exceeds the standard seriously in the case of insufficient sewage treatment
capacity, and the pollution degree tends to be heavier the closer to the estuary. According to the distance
from the estuary, that is, the difference in water quality, the study area can be divided into zones with
significant differences in microbial community characteristics. Fluoride, main pollutants of the research
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area, is the most important environment factor to microbial community changes. The stability of the
ecosystem decreased with the increase of the photovoltaic pollution. According to the model simulation
results, the amount of pollutants entering the river can be greatly reduced by the setting of new sewage
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plant, and the water quality of the seagoing rivers can meet the requirements of the water function zone.
Key words: coastal economic development zone; pollutants characteristics; microbial ecology;
simulation and prediction
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 1 Introduction
Rivers are at the core of the surface water ecosystem and play a vital role in biogeochemical

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circulation (Su, 2020), representing the largest biogeochemical nexus between the continents, ocean and
atmosphere (Battin, 2023). Rivers transport freshwater runoff, sediment, and various biogenic elements,
trace elements and pollutants produced in the land area to the estuary and offshore, making an impact on
coastal water (Sun, 2019). Human activities have been affecting rivers and coastal systems, with the

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increasing intensity of human production and living activities, a large number of pollutants are produced
and discharged into the ocean through rivers, polluting the coastal water (Zhou, 2023), increased the
overall economic and social development of unsustainability and instability (Xia, 2011; Jiang, 2022;
Tang, 2014).
More than 40% of the world's oceans are highly affected by human activities (Halpern, 2008).

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Rivers that enter the sea are one of the direct sources of marine pollution, and river pollution comes from
land-based effluent sources. Coastal economic development zones are one of the important sources of

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land-based effluent sources. Due to industrial, domestic and agricultural sewage scattered, disorderly and
excessive discharge, the water quality of rivers that drain into the sea is exceeding the standard, leading
to the increasing pollution in coastal zones (Liu, 2022). According to the results of the China Oceanic
Administration's survey of land-based sources of pollution entering the sea in 2017, the total amount of
pollutants entering the sea from 55 major rivers into the sea is 13.3 million tons of chemical oxygen
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demand (COD), 150,000 tons of ammonia nitrogen (NH3), 230,000 tons of total phosphorus (TP), 50,000
tons of petroleum, 10,000 tons of heavy metals, and 2,761 tons of arsenic. The main pollution factors are
COD, TP, NH3 and petroleum. The environmental quality of the sea area near the sewage discharge outlet
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is generally poor, and more than 90% rivers cannot meet the environmental protection requirements of
the marine functional area in the sea area. It is very important to study the water environment of rivers
entering the sea and coastal ecological health.
Water pollution has a negative effect on marine and freshwater life (His, 2000). Changes in the
physical and chemical properties of the aquatic environment affect the activity and diversity of aquatic
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plants, zooplankton and bacteria (Barbosa, 2016; Gogoi, 2018; Sousa, 2017). Organic pollutants, heavy
metals, emerging contaminants and other pollutants are toxic and can affect the physiological and
biochemical processes and gene expression of aquatic organisms (Karaouzas, 2021). An excess of
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nutrients such as TP and TN can lead to an overgrowth of algae and aquatic life, which can lead to the
death of fish and other organisms due to lack of oxygen (Camargo, 2006). At the same time, with the
climate warms, warming waters with reduced oxygen content and enriched with nutrients make surface
water eutrophic and anoxic, extending into the ocean, where it can stimulate harmful algal blooms,
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further aided by increasing temperatures (Richardson, 2021). Antibiotics can lead to species loss and
ecosystem dysfunction (Grenni, 2018; Pan, 2017), due to the different tolerance thresholds of different
species, low concentrations of antibiotics may cause species-specific fitness changes (Selck, 2002). If
interspecific responses vary greatly, interspecies interactions may be affected and community
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composition may change accordingly (Selck, 2002; Hautier, 2015). Environmental change will directly
affect the stability of the ecosystem, and the evolution of the ecosystem will also affect its stability (Chi,
2020). In the study of river ecosystem, the ecosystem stability of low sediment content rivers are higher
than those of high sediment content rivers (Zhao, 2019; Jian, 2020), studies have also shown that the
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ecosystem stability of rivers with high pollutant concentration is lower than that of rivers with low
pollutant concentration (Liu, 2023). The pollution of the water environment has caused the destruction
of the ecosystem, and the pollutants of the rivers into the sea are the main pollution sources in the coastal

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 areas.
Effective management of all kinds of production and domestic wastewater is a measure to improve

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the quality of water environment and protect water ecological security at the root (Li, 2013). As the direct
source of river pollution, sewage outfall in and out of rivers is highly valued by various countries (Zhang,
2017). For example, the water framework directive, which combines water environment quality
standards and discharge standards promulgated by the European Union. The Pollutant Emission

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Reduction Program (NPDES) and the Total Maximum Daily Load Program (TMDL) proposed by the
United States for point source pollution and non-point source pollution respectively (Hawkins, 2015).
The setting and optimization of the inlet and outlet of the river is an important part of wastewater
management. Most of studies choose to use mathematical models to conduct dynamic simulation of the
water environment before and after the setting of the outlet, which can not only calculate the influence

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scope and intensity of the normal discharge of the sewage treatment plant, but also predict the impact on
the water area under the accident discharge, and minimize the impact of the inlet and outlet of the river

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on the water environment through comparison and selection. the common numerical simulation software
in sewage outlet setting includes Delft3D (Lee, 2019), EFDC (Dai, 2018; Wang, 2012) and MIKE
(Karaouzas, 2020; Keller, 2006; Wang, 2019). Simulation and prediction of water environment is an
important method of environmental management.
The impact of production and living activities in coastal economic development zones on the water
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environment and aquatic ecology of rivers and oceans cannot be underestimated. This paper adopts the
research method of combining microbiology, numerical simulation and mathematical statistics to solve
three problems :(1) the distribution characteristics of pollutants in the watershed of coastal economic
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development zones; (2) the effect of pollution degree on the microbial community in the economic
development area and the response of microbial community to environmental factors; (3) put forward
measures to improve the water quality of the basin and verify the effectiveness.

2 Study area and methods

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2.1 Study area

Yancheng City is a coastal city located in the central coastal area of Jiangsu Province, China.
Yancheng tidal flat is the largest tidal flat in China, with a length of 444 kilometers and an area of 4553
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square kilometers. Tidal flats are not only important land reserves with rich species diversity, but also
have an important impact on marine environment and climate change. Yancheng Economic Development
Zone is a coastal area located in the southeast of Yancheng City, covering an area of 82.5km2. The
economic development zone has a dense network of water and abundant runoff, which flows into the
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Xichao River and through the Xichao River into the Yellow Sea. The pollution carrying capacity of COD
and NH3 in the region is 1288 t/a and 81 t/a. The total limits of COD and NH3 in the region are 1760 t/a
and 199t/a. The leading industry of the development zone is the photovoltaic industry, and more than 30
photovoltaic enterprises have settled down. There are two existing sewage treatment plants with a total
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treatment scale of 80,000 m3/d, which can no longer meet the sewage treatment needs of the park. High
population density and large amount of industrial industries lead to a huge amount of pollutants entering
the river. Yancheng Economic Development Zone is selected as the research area, the distribution of
pollutants and microorganisms in the basin is studied, and the measures to improve water quality and
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water ecology are put forward. 48 water body sampling points and 9 sediment sampling points were
selected in the economic development zone, as shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1 Study area and sampling points

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2.2 Study methods

2.2.1 Sampling and testing methods

In this study, water samples were collected from 48 points in Yancheng Economic Development
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Zone from January 2022 to August 2022, the sampling interval was twice a month. Sediment samples
were collected from 9 points in Yancheng Economic Development Zone in July 2022, the sampling
interval was twice a month. When collecting water samples, a plexiglass water sampler was used to
collect the overlying river water of the water body, and the water samples at each sampling point were
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stored in a 1 L polyethylene plastic bottle for water quality monitoring. Sediment samples were collected
using sterile 50 ml polypropylene tubes (Niu, 2022). All samples were stored in dry ice boxes and
subsequently transferred to a -80° C refrigerator for DNA extraction. The DNA of sediment samples was
extracted by using Fast DNA Spin Kit according to the instructions. The DNA samples extracted from 3
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μ L were detected by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis, and the remaining DNA samples were sent to

Shanghai Lingen Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd. for 16S high-throughput sequencing (Pan, 2022).

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 In this study, a portable multi-parameter water quality analyzer (HACH HQ40d) was used at the
sampling site to detect water temperature (T), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), REDOX potential (ORP), and

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electrical conductivity (Cond). Test items include NH3 (ammonia nitrogen), CODMn (permanganate
index), TP (total phosphorus), BOD (biochemical oxygen demand), CODCr (chemical oxygen demand),
TN (total nitrogen), petroleum pollutant, As(arsenic) and F-(fluoride).

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2.2.2 DNA extraction, PCR amplification, sequencing, and statistics analysis
The sediment mixture samples with -80C were pretreated, DNA was extracted using EZNA kit
(Omega Bio-Tek Inc., Winooski, VT, USA) according to the instructions, and imaging analysis was
performed by AGAR gel electrophoresis (Xiong, 2023). The PCR amplification and sequencing process
was carried out on the Illumina platform of Shanghai Lingen Biotechnology Co., LTD. Primers were

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used to amplify the V3+V4 region of bacterial 16S rDNA and the V4+V5 region of archaea 16S rDNA
by 341F/806R and Arch519F/Arch915R, respectively. Sequences were processed by QIIME (v.1.7.0)

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and USEARCH to reduce bias. Any sequence less than 200 bp in length, either with a single base
deviation, or with a mass score<25 will be filtered out. High-quality sequences were clustered with 97%
similarity threshold to form operational taxa (OTUs) and compared using SILVA database. At the same
time, the samples were diluted to the same sequence depth to remove heterogeneity based on the
minimum number of sequences for parallel contrastive analysis (Zhang, 2020).
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In this study, the analysis of β diversity is carried out using non-metric multidimensional scaling
(NMDS) analysis method, which takes OTU as each dimension, and analyzes the abundance of samples
in different dimensions by NMDS, which can intuitively reflect the differences between different groups.
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Stamp software is used to analyze the differences between different groups and find significant
differences (p<0.05) species. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) method is used to analyze the
correlation between bacterial communities and environmental factors and predict the interpretation
degree of different environmental variables to the species data, and the correlation is mapped using
Canoco5. The R package is used for network analysis to compare the topological differences in the
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bacteria system network between different treatment groups, and the differences are mapped using Gephi.

2.2.3 One-dimensional model method

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The governing equations of hydrodynamic calculation are the Saint-Venant equations, including
continuity equations and momentum equations, which describe one-dimensional unsteady flow in open
channel (Song, 2022). The governing equation of water quality calculation is one-dimensional
convection diffusion equation. Formulas can be expressed as follows.
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Continuity equation:
∂𝑄 ∂ℎ
∂𝑥
+𝑏 ∂𝑡 = 𝑞 (1）

Momentum equation:
∂𝑄
+ (
∂ 𝛼𝑄
2
) +𝑔𝐴∂ℎ + 𝑔𝑄|𝑄| = 0 (2）
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𝐴
∂𝑡 ∂𝑥 𝐶𝑧2𝐴𝑅
∂𝑥

One-dimensional convection diffusion equation:

― ∂𝑥(𝐴𝐷 ) = ― 𝐴𝐾𝐶 + 𝐶2𝑞

∂𝐴𝐶 ∂𝑄𝐶 ∂ ∂𝐶
∂𝑡
+ ∂𝑥 ∂𝑥
(3）
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Where: t represents time; x represents cartesian coordinates; Q represents the flow; b represents the
width of the river; h represents the water level; q represents the side inflow flow, inflow is positive;
outflow is negative; 𝛼 represents momentum correction coefficient; A represents main tank water

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 crossing area; g represents the gravitational acceleration; CZ represents the Chezy coefficient; R
represents the hydraulic radius; C represents substance concentration; D represents longitudinal diffusion

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coefficient; K represents linear attenuation coefficient; C2 represents concentration of source and sink.

3 Results and Discussion

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3.1 Analysis on the environmental condition of the seagoing rivers in coastal economic
development zone
In this study, 48 sampling sites were set up in the Xichao River Basin from January 2022 to August
2022. The monitoring frequency was twice per month, and the monitoring indicators included NH3
(ammonia nitrogen), CODMn (permanganate index), TP (total phosphorus), BOD (biochemical oxygen
demand), CODCr (chemical oxygen demand), TN (total nitrogen), petroleum pollutant, As(arsenic) and

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F—(fluoride). In addition to water temperature, DO (dissolved oxygen) and F-, the excess rates of other

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indexes were more than 15%, among which the excess rates of CODCr, BOD, petroleum pollutant, TN
and As were more than 70%, and the water quality was significantly inferior to the water quality
requirements.
the variation characteristics of main indexes in winter (dry season), spring (normal season) and
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summer (wet season) of water at each sampling site are analyzed to obtain the seasonal evolution law of
water quality. The overshoot multiples of the average values of the main indicators at all samples in three
seasons are calculated, and the heat maps are drawn based on their logarithms. As shown in Figure 2 a-
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d, the pollution degree of TP and As is the most serious, followed by petroleum pollutant, TN and BOD,
and the pollution degree of other indicators is smaller. The pollution levels of TP and petroleum pollutant
in spring are significantly higher than those in winter and summer, and the pollution levels of other
indicators are relatively evenly distributed in winter, spring and summer. The concentration of pollutants
in rivers entering the sea during the monitoring period far exceeds the limit, and the pollution is most
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serious in spring.
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Figure 2. Temporal and spatial distribution of water pollutants

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(The value of the heat map is less than 0, indicating no overshoot, and greater than 1, indicating that the
exceeding multiple is greater than 10.)
The comprehensive pollution index method is a universal method for quantitative evaluation of water
quality. The comprehensive pollution index is a parameter to evaluate the comprehensive pollution status
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of water quality under the influence of various pollutants. This study selects pollution indicators with
sufficient data and high exceedance rate including NH3, TP, CODMn and CODCr, BOD, TN and petroleum
pollutant to calculate the comprehensive pollution index of each monitoring site, The calculation formula

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 1 𝑛 𝐶
is 𝑃 = 𝑛∑i=1 𝑖, where 𝑃 is the value of comprehensive pollution index, 𝐶𝑖 is the measured average
𝑆𝑖

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concentration of an index, 𝑆𝑖 is the required water quality limit of this index, and 𝑛 is the number of
indicators. Kriging method is a regression algorithm for spatial modeling and interpolation of random
field based on covariance function, which can provide the optimal linear unbiased estimation within the
limited area. According to the geographical location of each monitoring point and the corresponding

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comprehensive water pollution index, the Kriging interpolation method is used to predict the pollution
degree in the study area, The formula of Kriging interpolation is
𝑛

{
𝑃(𝑠0) = ∑𝑖=1 𝑎𝑖𝑃(𝑠𝑖)
𝑛
∑𝑗=1 𝑎𝑗 = 1 （1）
∑𝑛𝑗=1 𝑎𝑗(𝑠𝑖,𝑠𝑗) ― 𝐶(𝑠𝑖,𝑠0) + 𝜆 = 0;𝑖 = 1,…,𝑛

where 𝑃(𝑠0) is the predicted value of unknown site, 𝑃(𝑠𝑖) is the value of known site, 𝑛 is the number

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of known points, 𝐶(𝑠𝑖,𝑠0) is the covariance function between 𝑠0 and 𝑠𝑖, 𝑎𝑖 is the weight coefficient

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for known points. The predicted results are shown in Figure 2 e, The study area is heavily polluted, and
the pollution degree decreases from east to west, while the pollution degree in the Xichao River increases
gradually along the flow direction., The pollutant flux is estimated based on water quality of estuary
monitoring site and rainfall data, The estimating formula is 𝑊𝑖𝑗 = 𝐵𝑖𝑗𝐴𝑅𝑗,where 𝑊𝑖𝑗 is the flux of
certain pollutants in a given month, 𝐵𝑖𝑗 is the average concentration of certain pollutant in a given month,
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𝐴 is the total rainfall in a given month. The calculated result is shown in Figure 3. The amount of NH3,
CODMn and BOD into the sea in summer exceeds that in winter and spring, and there is a significant
positive correlation between the flux of pollutants and rainfall. Therefore, this study chooses to conduct
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microbial sampling in summer to analyze the relationship between microbial community and pollutant
concentration and flux. Yalu River is the main river that flows into the Yellow Sea, with a total length
of 795km and an annual runoff of 32.8 billion m3. The estimated annual pollutant flux into Xichao River
in 2022 is compared with the pollutant flux into Yalu River in 2017 provided by the Ministry of Natural
Resources. The flux of CODCr, NH3, TP and petroleum pollutants into the Yellow River is about 11507,
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406, 590 and 25 tons by Xicao river, accounting for about 1.3%, 1.4%, 8.1% and 18.6% of the Yalu
River. According to the investigation results of land source pollution sources into the sea by the State
Oceanic Administration in 2017, there are about 740 rivers into the sea. Due to the development of
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offshore industry, the amount of pollutants in small coastal watersheds has not been ignored, so it is
urgent to improve the water quality of the watercourses entering the sea.
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Figure 3 The flux of certain pollutants from January to August
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3.2 Microbial diversity and its correlation with water environment of seagoing rivers in coastal
economic development zone
The raw data obtained by high-throughput sequencing were subjected to preprocessing processes
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such as quality control and screening to obtain effective sequence data. A total of 4412 OTU taxa were
detected in 9 samples which were sampling in July 2022. the samples are divided into two groups based
on the distance to the estuary. The community species composition of sediment-attached microorganisms
is analyzed, and the distribution and abundance at phyla level and class level are shown in Figure S1 a
and b, respectively, at the phylum level, the nine samples in this study belong to 64 different phyla,
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among which the dominant phyla with an average relative abundance higher than 10% are only
Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota, accounting for 30.08% and 17.66% respectively. Desulfobacterota and
Chloroflexl account for 8.95% and 7.49% respectively. Desulflexl and Chloroflexl account for less than
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5%. In spatial scale, the relative abundance of Bacteroides and Desulflexl in samples near the estuary is
higher than that in samples far into the estuary. at the class level, the nine samples in this study belong
to 138 different classes, among which the dominant classes with an average relative abundance greater
than 5% are Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidia and Anaerolineae. They accounted for 24.95%, 15.35%
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and 5.59%, respectively. There is no significant difference in the relative abundance of the three types of
bacteria in the near and far-estuary groups. For further analysis at the genus level, the analysis results are
shown in Figure S1 c. The results show that samples from different locations have different dominant
bacteria genera. From the clustering situation, the sample clusters in the three near-estuary groups are
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one branch, and the sample clusters in the three far-estuary groups are the other branch. From the analysis
results at phylum, class and genus level, it can be seen that there are significant differences in the
composition of bacterial communities on the spatial scale. Therefore, it is necessary to further analyze
and explore the characteristics of bacterial communities with different spatial distribution.
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 In the analysis of Beta diversity of microbial community, nine samples are divided into near-estuary
group and far-estuary group according to the distance from the estuary. The analysis is carried out using

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non-metric multidimensional scale (NMDS) and calculated based on the gower distance calculation
method. The analysis results are shown in Figure 4 a, where the distance between samples represents the
degree of similarity between samples. The confidence interval of normal distribution with an ellipse of
0.95 is calculated, and the stress coefficient is 0.0674 (less than 0.2), which proves the validity of the

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NMDS cluster separation results. As can be seen from the Figure 4 b, the two groups of samples show
an obvious phenomenon of community cluster separation, and the samples far from the estuary shows a
downward trend.
Since the microbial community composition of the near-estuary group and the far-estuary group is
significantly different, the difference analysis is carried out at the genus level with the help of Stamp

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software to find the different species, and the results are shown in Figure 4 b, which show the relative
abundance of different species and the differences between different groups, and only the species with

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significant differences are shown in the figure (p<0.05). It can be seen from the figure that there are four
significantly different genera between the near-estuary group and the far-estuary group, respectively,
Actibacter, Desulfobulbaceae, Halioglobus, and Piscinibacter, and the relative abundance of differential
bacteria is relatively large in the near-estuary group.
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 Figure 4 difference analysis in different regions. (a) NMDS analysis of bacterial communities in different
regions;(b) Stamp difference analysis indifferent regions.

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First, the microbial sample data are analyzed by DCA, and the axis length of the first axis in the
analysis results is 4.4 (greater than 4). In order to avoid the bow effect, this study uses the canonical
correlation analysis (CCA) method to analyze the correlation between bacterial communities and
environmental factors, and predicts the interpretation degree of different environmental variables to the

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species data. As shown in Figure 5, the triangles in the figure represent the top five abundant bacteria
genera, the total variation is 1.67919, the eigenvalues of the first two axes of CCA, CCA1 and CCA2,

are 0.1832 and 0.1517，CCA1 and CCA2 can explain 33.07% and 26.69% of the differences in the

original data, respectively. DO and F- are the most important factors to explain microbial community

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changes, and they are positively correlated with the CCA1 axis and most samples. It is positively
correlated with bradyrhizobium, vibrionimonas and Chicurvum, and negatively correlated with

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geothermobacter and decjloromonas. BOD and NH3 had little effect on community structure.
Geothermobacter ehrlichii, a known species of geothermobacter, can survive at higher temperatures
and use different sources as electron donors. Geothermobacter Ehrlichii is an important bacterium that
decomposes water pollutants, which is inversely related to F- pollution, the most important factor
affecting microbial community changes. It is suggested that the discharge of pollutants from coastal
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economic development zones may reduce the self-purification capacity of water bodies.
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Figure 5 CCA analysis of all water sample, pollutants and microorganisms

The microbial communities in the far-estuary group and the near-estuary group are analyzed
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respectively, p<0.01 and the absolute value of spearman correlation between microbial nodes greater
than 0.8 are used to draw bacterial networks as screening conditions in both groups. As shown in the
Figure 6, points in the network represent species, different colors represent different modules of the
network, and lines represent the correlation between species. The number of nodes in the network of the
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far-estuary group is slightly lower than that of the near-estuary group, but the number of edges is much
higher than that of the near-estuary group. The mean degree, map density and average clustering
coefficient of the far-estuary group are higher than those of the near-estuary group, indicating that the

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 species in the far-estuary group are more closely related, which may mean that the relative abundance of
dominant groups increases significantly. The modularity coefficient of the two networks is greater than

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0.5, indicating that the network has a modular structure and both of them have higher functional diversity.
The higher module number and modularity coefficient of the near-estuary group indicate that it has higher
functional diversity and stronger resistance to environmental changes, reflecting the greater
environmental pressure in the corresponding region of the near-estuary group, which is consistent with

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the conclusion in the previous section. It can be seen that there is a correlation between the concentration
distribution of pollutants and the stability of the ecosystem. The closer the distance from the estuary, the
higher the pollutant content. The smaller the interaction between microorganisms, and the weakening of
the stability of the ecosystem.

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Figure 6 Network analysis of microorganisms in different regions

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3.3 Analysis and prediction of the influence of sewage outlet Settings on water environment

The treatment scale of the existing sewage treatment plant (80,000 m3/d) in the economic
development zone has been unable to meet the demand, and the insufficient sewage treatment capacity
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has become a key factor that restricts the expansion of production scale of existing enterprises and the
settlement of new enterprises. The plan is to build a new sewage treatment plant to deal with excess
domestic sewage and industrial sewage of new enterprises, to reduce the amount of environmental
pollution and improve the water environment. According to the plan, the newly built and put into
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operation scale is 60,000 m3/d in the near future, and it will be expanded to 120,000 m3/d in the later
stage according to the new projects introduced in the development zone. The reclaimed water reuse rate
of the new treatment plant is 25%. The tail water is discharged through the Zhongxin River, and then
enters the Xichao river reach after about 41km, and then enters the Yellow Sea through the Xichao river
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brake. The location of the new sewage plant and the discharge path of the tail water of the sewage plant
are shown in Figure S2.

According to the sewage treatment capacity in different stages of operation, two schemes are

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 predicted to analyze the water quality of the Xichao River. It is assumed that the concentration of the
tail water from sewage plant is the limit discharge concentration. The planned water reuse rate of the

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sewage plant is 25%. The treatment scale of the new sewage plant is 60,000t/d in scheme 1 and the
treatment scale of the new sewage plant is 120,000t/d in scheme 2. A one-dimensional water
environment mathematical model is used to predict the water quality under the two schemes. Through
the calibration and verification of the current parameters of the model, the comparative analysis of the

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current and calculated values of COD, NH3, TP, F-, S2- and petroleum is obtained. The detailed result
of contrast is shown in Table S1 and Table S2. The results showed that the maximum error is within
7%, and the average error of each item is 1.06%, 2.10%, 1.78%, 3.36%, 0.00% and 3.50%, respectively.
It shows that the difference between the present value and the simulated value is small and the
simulation results are more accurate and reliable. The model can be used for simulation and prediction.

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The prediction of water quality under the two schemes is shown in Figure S3 and Figure S4. The
comparison of predicted water quality and limited water quality in the estuary of Xichao River under

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the two schemes is shown in Table 1. According to the analysis results, the water quality of all reaches
of Xichao River can reach the standard under the two schemes.
Table 1 Comparison of predicted water quality and limited water quality in the estuary of Xichao River
under the two schemes

Scheme 1

Predicted
COD(mg/L)
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NH3(mg/L) TP(mg/L) Cu(mg/L) Zn(mg/L)

18 0.9 0.05 0.0225 0.04

concentration
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Limited
20 1.0 0.2 1.0 1.0
concentration

Scheme 1 F-(mg/L) S2-(mg/L) petroleum(mg/L) LAS(mg/L) C6H7N(mg/L)

Predicted
0.4 0.12 0.04 0.004 0.002
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concentration
Limited
1.0 0.2 0.05 0.2 0.1
concentration
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Scheme 2 COD(mg/L) NH3(mg/L) TP(mg/L) Cu(mg/L) Zn(mg/L)

Predicted
18.5 0.9 0.06 0.038 0.09
concentration
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Limited
20 1.0 0.2 1.0 1.0
concentration

Scheme 2 F-(mg/L) S2-(mg/L) petroleum(mg/L) LAS(mg/L) C6H7N(mg/L)

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Predicted
0.4 0.03 0.04 0.019 0.009
concentration
Limited
1.0 0.2 0.05 0.2 0.1
concentration
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When the new sewage plant is built with a scale of 60,000 m3/d in the near future, an additional
60,000 m3 of sewage will be treated and the surrounding scattered sewage will be piped-treated. The
concentration of 400 mg/L COD, 50 mg/L NH3 and 6 mg/L TP in the sewage will be treated to 30

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 mg/L, 1.5 mg/L and 0.3mg/L respectively. The amount of 438 t/a COD, 76.65 t/a NH3 and 4.38 t/a TP
from surrounding pollution source are reduced. When implementing the long-term scale of 120,000

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m3/d, an additional 12,000 m3 of sewage will be treated and the surrounding loose effluent will be
piped-treated. 876 t/a COD, 153.3 t/a NH3, and 8.76 t/a TP from surrounding pollution source are
reduced. Therefore, after the completion of the project, the regional pollution load will be reduced and
the water quality of the water functional area will be improved. Detailed calculation is shown in Table

iew
2.
Table 2 Calculation results of positive effect of emission pollution reduction under the two schemes
Pollutant increment Amount of water and pollutant reduction
Scheme Category Industrial Domestic Reduction
Industrial Domestic Total
(Reused) Reused Piped

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Water amount
5400 600 5400 600 600 600 /
（m3/d）

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Scheme 1 COD（t/a） 591.3 65.7 59.13 6.57 1029.3 1095 438
NH3（t/a） 29.565 3.285 2.9565 0.3285 106.215 109.5 76.65
TP（t/a） 5.913 0.657 0.5913 0.0657 10.293 10.95 4.38
Water amount
10800 1200
er 10800 1200 1200 1200 /
（m3/d）
Scheme 2 COD（t/a） 1182.6 131.4 118.26 13.14 2058.6 2190 876
NH3（t/a） 59.13 6.57 5.913 0.657 212.43 219 153.3
TP（t/a） 11.826 1.314 1.1826 0.1314 20.586 21.9 8.76
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4 Conclusion
The rivers in the typical coastal economic development zones selected are seriously polluted. The
water quality is worst in spring and the pollutant flux into the river in summer far exceeds that in spring
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and winter. The closer the distance to the estuary, the heavier the pollution degree in the river. According
to the pollution degree and the distance from the estuary, the study area is divided into the near-estuary
area and the far-estuary area, and the microbial community characteristics were significantly different.
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F-, main pollutants of the photovoltaic industry which is the main industry of the typical economic
development, is the most important environment factors to explain microbial community changes. the
stability of the ecosystem decreased with the increase of the photovoltaic pollution. Facing the current
situation of insufficient water treatment capacity, a new sewage treatment plant will be built in the
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development area. Through the simulation of two schemes, the water quality of the tributaries entering
the sea can be greatly improved and can meet the requirements of water quality management. This study
puts forward a solution and verifies its effectiveness, which has guiding significance for watershed
management and water environment improvement.
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