PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2010, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (1): 73-78.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2010.01.010

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress of Studies on Coastal Land-based Non-point Source Pollution

HOU Xiyong1, ZHANG Anding2, WANG Chuanyuan1, WANG Qiuxian2, YING Lanlan1   

  1. 1. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, CAS, Yantai 264003, China;
    2. |School of Geography and Planning, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China
  • Online:2010-01-25 Published:2010-01-25

Abstract:

Coastal zone is a very special area in the world, which has very high density of population and human activities, and it is highly sensitive to environmental variations including climate change and human impacts. In China, mainly during the past decades, the pollution of land-based sources became more and more serious in the coastal waters mainly due to the rapid progress of industrialization and urbanization in China's East Coastal Regions, which has greatly endangered the local environment and ecosystem security and has greatly blocked the social-economic sustainable development. Non-point source (NPS) pollution plays a very important role in the pollution of land-based sources in coastal zone, and moreover, in many coastal estuaries and gulfs, it has become a dominant factor that resulting in water pollution. Therefore, it is significant to strengthen the studies with emphasis on pollution of land-based sources in coastal zone. In this paper, status and breakthroughs of NPS pollution studies at home and abroad have been reviewed at the first, and the academic gaps between China and the world in this study area has been analyzed. And then, status of the land-based NPS studies in coastal zone has been reviewed in detail, and the insufficiencies of this study area have been summarized. Finally, major questions and key subjects that need furthermore studies in the future have been put forward which are as follows, 1) studies on component and amount of land-based NPS pollutants based on monitoring, 2) key interface and main process of NPS pollutants migration in coastal zone, 3) models suitable for land-based NPS simulation in coastal zone, 4) impacts of land-based NPS on coastal ecosystems and human health, 5) dynamic evaluation of the environmental capacity in coastal zone, 6) environmental impacts of land use and land cover change on coastal waters, 7) methods of TMDL calculation and BMPs that suitable for coastal zone in China.

Key words: coastal zone, non-point source pollution (NPS), progress