Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 6919: Spatio-Temporal Variation of Heavy Metal Pollution during Accidents: A Case Study of the Heshangshan Protected Water Area, China (Sustainability)

Recently, water environmental accidents have occasionally occurred which have had wide-ranging influences, long durations and are difficult to deal with. The development of the social economy, the acceleration of industrialization, the huge discharge of industrial wastewater and the occasional occurrence of ship transportation accidents pose serious threats to the water quality of water inlets and protected water areas. This article applied the two-dimensional water quality model, used a GIS platform and FORTRAN language, and predicted spatio-temporal variations of the iron concentration during a water pollution accident. This research selected the water inlet of Heshangshan Water Plant and the Heshangshan protected water area as the research objective, and assumed a water pollution event had occurred. It was suggested that we should take corresponding emergency measures and relevant solutions to deal with the bad effects of water pollution accidents. The processes mainly included the selection of the study area, the determination of the equation to be used, parameters determination, as well as the identification of the accident scenario and source. The durations of the iron concentration exceeding the standard at the water inlet were 12–18 min and in the protected water area were 16–36 min in four water periods after the accident. In addition, the durations taken for the iron concentration to decrease to the background value in the protected water area were 18–38 min after the accident in four water periods in the accident scenario. Relevant departments should take some contingency measures to avoid fetching water from the intake after the accident within 40 min after the accident and the relevant staff can cancel the warning 40 min after the accident.