Efficiency of Environmental Measures in Small Rivers' Catchment

Areas Is the Basis for Their Sustainable Development

N. P. Karpenko

, I. V. Glazunova

and M. A. Shiryaeva

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education “Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow

Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev, Moscow, Russian Federation

Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "All-Russian Research Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Reclamation

named after A.N. Kostyakov", Moscow, Russian Federation

Keywords: Anthropogenic Activity, Water and Land Resources, Pollution, Environmental Measures, Drainage Flow,

Detoxification.

Abstract: To solve this problem, a review of the sources and causes of pollution of land and water resources, as well as

modern methods of reducing pollution of the small catchment area of the Sheshma River in the Republic of

Tatarstan, was conducted. Based on the results of the research, the analysis of the causes of pollution of land

and water resources, as well as methods for preventing the pollution of water bodies with heavy metals and

pesticides, was carried out. The main directions of reducing the anthropogenic load of catchment areas of

small rivers and their sustainable development, namely: land and water resources, polluted with heavy metals

and pesticides, was developed. A review and analysis of the causes and methods of pollution of water

resources, as well as methods of prevention of pollution of water bodies with heavy metals and pesticides,

was carried out. Based on the research results, classifications were drawn up: according to the assessment of

the danger of the formation of diffused pollution for agricultural lands, according to measures of reducing the

pollution of water resources by diffused flows from agricultural territories and according to methods for

preventing water pollution by flows from reclaimed lands and rural areas. An expert assessment and statistical

processing of the results of expert assessments on the efficiency of environmental and water protection

measures were performed. An assessment of the efficiency of measures of preventing pollution of water

resources was performed on the basis of water balances for the Sheshma River in the Republic of Tatarstan.

1 INTRODUCTION

Territorial inequality, large intra-annual and long-

term variability of river flow become an obstacle to

providing the population with water resources and

developing the economy. This problem is solved by

regulating the river flow. In the basins of rivers of any

order, the bulk of the surface flow and its qualitative

composition are formed. Anthropogenic activity,

associated with any load within the catchment area

basin (agriculture, reclamation, plowing and slash of

the territory, etc.) leads to a significant change in the

conditions for the formation of river flow. The

problems of pollution are especially urgent in the

catchment areas of small rivers, which, due to their

natural vulnerability, primarily react to anthropogenic

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activity. Small rivers have the lowest self-cleaning

ability and are the quickest are subject to pollution.

With significant volumes of industrial and domestic

wastewater discharge in rivers, the normal vital

processes of organisms are stopped, most of the

oxygen, dissolved in the water, is consumed and the

streams turn into a sewage collector. The calculation

of the water balance is carried out to assess the

satisfaction of water users with their needs for water

resources, assess the state of water bodies and

determine the limits of their use. Water balance (WB)

is a calculation of water use requirements in water

resources in comparison with water resources,

available for use, within the boundaries of river

basins, sub-basins, water-economic areas under

different water conditions (taking into account the

Karpenko, N., Glazunova, I. and Shiryaeva, M.

Efﬁciency of Environmental Measures in Small Rivers’ Catchment Areas Is the Basis for Their Sustainable Development.

DOI: 10.5220/0010585700330038

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 33-38

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

uneven distribution of the surface) and regional

reconstruction of water flow (groundwater flow in

different periods of its distribution, restoration of

water resources of groundwater bodies). Water

balances are drawn up for the current level of use and

protection of water bodies of the river basin and the

levels of development of the water-economic

complex, corresponding to the stages of

implementation of the scheme of the complex use of

water resources. The ratios between the volumes of

surface and underground flows from the catchment

area change, the volumes of flows, and their

qualitative composition change, both in the intra-

annual context and throughout the year as a whole.

Therefore, research on the sustainable development

of individual catchment area basins, the preservation

of the ecological state of their water resources, and

the development of modern and effective methods for

the restoration of water resources in river catchment

areas is a relevant research (Karpenko, 2020;

Karpenko, 2015).

Material and research methods. The research was

carried out within the Sheshma River basin, which

flows through the territory of Tatarstan and the

Samara region and is the left feeder of the Kama. The

river heads in the Bugulma-Belebey Upland and

flows into the Kama Bay of the Kuibyshev water

reservoir. The river flows through an undulating

plain, dissected by a dense network of river valleys,

ravines, and gullies. The width ranges from 100-300

m in the upper reaches, up to 2 km at the mouth. 69

feeders flow into the river, the main of which are:

Lesnaya Sheshma, Kuvak, Talkish, Sekines, Kichuy,

Tolkishka. The river is of average water content,

alimentation is mainly snow (63%), as well as

underground and rain, the average turbidity is 230

g/cm3, the flow velocity is 0.1-0.8 m/s (Karpenko and

Glazunova, 2019).

Hydrological characteristics of the Sheshma

River: the length of the river is 259 km, the coefficient

of variation is Cv = 0.35; asymmetry coefficient Cs =

2; Cv = 0.7; the flow rate at the final cross-section is

724 million m3; the average slope of the river is 0.8

‰.

Attributive characteristics of the Sheshma River

catchment area basin: catchment area is 6040 km2;

mark on the catchment area at the mouth is 53.1 m;

the forested area is 20.3%; the area of lakes on the

territory is 6.4%; the drainage density coefficient is

0.14 km/km2; the river tortuosity coefficient is 1.56;

the branching coefficient is 0.2; the coefficient of

development variation of the river network is 0.7

(Galyamina et al., 2016; Kireicheva et al., 2014).

The main characteristics of water use (volumes of

water consumption and return water) were calculated

for rural and urban households, industrial enterprises,

livestock complexes, irrigated farming (Markin et al.,

2016; Ratkovich et al., 2013).

The generalized characteristics of water use in the

territory of the Sheshma River basin are shown in

Figure 1.

Figure 1: Volumes of water consumption in the Sheshma River basin.

The structure of the anthropogenic load, leading

to the pollution of the water resources of the Sheshma

River is shown in Figure 2.

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

Figure 2: Structure of the polluting load on the Sheshma

River.

According to the structure of the polluting load on

the Sheshma River, the greatest influence is exerted

by diffused flows from irrigated lands, and the

smallest - by livestock business. Water withdrawal

for irrigation from rivers contributes to the occurrence

of irreplaceable losses and the formation of return

water in improved areas. The research of diffused

pollution of any water body inevitably covers a set of

processes of interaction between surface and ground

waters in the catchment area with the regime of

anthropogenic influence. When drawing up the

diagram, it was taken into account, that the treatment

facilities of settlements have sufficient efficiency,

they treat wastewater until the LOC of pollutants in

the control cross-section is reached, and industrial

enterprises have a technological cycle with a

complete recycling water supply system. To restore

the ecological situation and stabilize it, a complex of

environmental measures was developed and

proposed, taking into account their weight

coefficients for land resources (

Table 1) and water

resources (

Table 2).

Table 1: A set of measures to reduce pollution of land resources in the catchment area of the Sheshma River.

Table 2: Results of statistical processing of expert assessments of measures of reducing pollution of water resources.

Name of the environmental measure Dispersion

assessments

Variation

Weight

coefficients

Instalation of local draina

e flow treatment facilities 3.64 0.74 0.222

Application of bioengineering facilities (BIF) for treatment and additional

treatment of drainage and wastewater of irrigation systems, livestock and

household wastewate

3.64 0.74 0.19

Methods and technologies for desalting and demineralization of drainage

water and wastewater based on ion-exchange resins and sorption

2.86 0.58 0.23

Additional treatment of surface flow 2.17 0.44 0.09

ecial tanks for the accumulation of draina

e flow and rainwate

3.59 0.73 0.15

Methods to im

rove the self-cleanin

abilit

of the rive

2.84 0.579 0.118

–

In terms of the ecological state of water resources,

it can be noted, that the following types of

environmental measures have the highest weight

coefficients in the expert assessment of measures of

reducing pollution of river water resources:

 methods and technologies for desalting and

demineralization of drainage water and

wastewater based on ion-exchange resins and

sorption;

 instalation of local drainage flow treatment

facilities;

Name of the environmental measure Dispersion

of assessments

Variation



Weight

coefficients λ

The use of sorption materials for the immobilization of heavy

metals

3.74

3.35

0.205

Vegetative reclamation. Use of tolerant plants 3.75

3.98

0.173

Establishment of the general phytotoxicity of the soil due to the

action of various heavy metals

5.56

5.19

0.18

Agrochemical methods of immobilization of heavy metals in soil 5.5

5.13

0.22

Use of high-barrier plants to make environmentally friendly

roducts

3.59

3.81

0196

–

Efﬁciency of Environmental Measures in Small Rivers’ Catchment Areas Is the Basis for Their Sustainable Development

 application of bioengineering facilities for

treatment and additional treatment of drainage

and wastewater of irrigation systems, livestock

and household wastewater.

According to the results of expert assessments, all

the considered methods were divided into five

groups, according to their efficiency and range of

application. The first group included methods of

increasing the efficiency of treatment and additional

treatment of drainage flow and wastewater from rural

settlements and livestock farms with an efficiency of

up to 90%. The second group, according to the above

criteria, included engineering methods for increasing

the treatment of diffused flows from agricultural

lands, using local facilities with an efficiency of 80%.

The third group includes methods of agrotechnical

and agrochemical orientation with an efficiency of

70%. The fourth group includes methods,

contributing to improving the self-cleaning ability of

the river with an efficiency of 60%. The fifth group

included vegetative reclamation methods with an

efficiency of 50%.

2 RESEARCH RESULTS AND

THEIR DISCUSSION

Using the cognitive approach of expert assessment of

the efficiency of environmental measures for land and

water resource management to reduce pollution of

small rivers, the efficiency of detoxification methods

of water and land resources was assessed using the

example of the Sheshma River in the Republic of

Tatarstan. For this purpose, forecasts of the

development of the economy were made, the

parameters of water use were calculated and water

balances were drawn up.

Calculations of water balances were performed

according to standard formulas for years 75% -

medium-low-water year and 95% - hyperarid year

according to the river flow (Ratkovich, 2016; Musaev

et al., 2018). When linking up the water balance (WB)

in the items of the polluting load on the river, for the

convenience of calculations and analysis, all methods

were divided into groups of environmental measures

to prevent pollution of land resources in the

catchment area of the Sheshma River in accordance

with the above expert assessments:

 methods of agrotechnical and agrochemical

orientation;

 methods of vegetative reclamation orientation.

Methods to prevent pollution of water resources

within the river basin of the Sheshma River are

divided into groups:

 methods of increasing the efficiency of

treatment and additional treatment of drainage

flow and wastewater from rural settlements and

livestock farms;

 methods for increasing the treatment of

diffused flows from agricultural (reclaimed)

lands;

 methods to improve the self-cleaning ability of

the river.

According to experts, the most effective methods,

that have a wider range of application, are methods of

increasing the efficiency of treatment and additional

treatment of drainage flow and wastewater from rural

settlements and livestock farms, therefore, when

linking up WB, the efficiency of these methods was

taken into account in the first instance and amounted

to 90% according to expert assessments. The next

group of methods in terms of the selected criteria are

methods of increasing the treatment of diffused flows

from agricultural (reclaimed) lands using engineering

structures, the efficiency of these methods is 80% and

is taken into account in the second item of linking up

the water balance. The third group of methods in

terms of efficiency and range of applicability are

methods of agrotechnical and agrochemical

orientation with an efficiency of 70%. The fourth

group in terms of the selected criteria are methods of

improving the self-cleaning ability of the river with

an efficiency of 60%. The fifth group included

vegetative reclamation methods with an efficiency of

50%.

Calculations of water and water-economic

balances allow to assess both the volume of water

resources in the catchment areas and the possibility of

their quantitative withdrawal for water-economic

purposes and needs.

The water balance equation was composed for

years of estimated frequency from known formulas.

The efficiency of methods of detoxification of water

and land resources was assessed by calculating the

coefficients of limit pollution, which is an analog of

the water pollution index for rivers according to the 5

selected groups of methods for deoxidization of land

and water resources, by the formula:

𝐾

пз р



∑

𝑊

пз



∑

𝑊

вв



ВХБ  𝑊

поп.

1

where: Wwd - the volume of water disposal; Wlp - the

amount of limit pollution of wastewater; WB - water

imbalance, Waug. - augmentations.

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

In order to improve the water quality in the

Sheshma River, water-economic calculations take

into account the efficiency of methods of reducing

pollution of water and land resources of the river

catchment area. When drawing up water balances, it

is revealed, that there is no water shortage at the

object under consideration, but the water quality in

the river without the application of land and water

resources detoxification methods is classified as

“dirty”. Taking into account the efficiency of the

recommended groups of methods of detoxification of

land and water resources, the water quality in the river

goes into the class "clean", which confirms the

sufficient efficiency of the recommended measures

(Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Diagram of the efficiency of detoxification methods of water and land resources according to the water pollution

index, based on the drawing up water balances (blue - hyperarid year; red - low-water year).

As the diagram shows, drawn up based on the

results of calculations of the coefficients of the limit

pollution for the Sheshma River, and according to the

data of water balances, the water quality in the river

without the use of detoxification methods of water

and land resources is classified as “dirty” and “very

dirty”. With the consistent application of all 5 groups

of methods in accordance with the obtained expert

assessments on the weight values of the methods and

their efficiency, it turned out, that the compilation of

the methods into 5 groups and their sequence of

application has sufficient efficiency in detoxification

of land and water resources since the water in the river

began to be classified as “clean” in low-water years

and “moderately polluted” in a hyperarid year, which

is acceptable since it corresponds to the mesotrophic

stage of river development.

3 CONCLUSIONS

To solve the problem posed in order to reduce

pollution of the river basin under consideration, a

cognitive method of expert assessment was proposed,

using the gradation of the efficiency of environmental

measures for managing land and water resources to

reduce pollution of small rivers.

To estimate the efficiency of methods of the

restoration and detoxification of water resources and

the range of their applicability, an expert survey was

conducted, based on the results of which, generalized

tables of expert assessments of the efficiency of the

methods and the recommended conditions for their

use were drawn up. According to the results of expert

assessments, statistical processing of the results of

expert assessments was carried out in accordance

with the available methods. A large group of land

Efﬁciency of Environmental Measures in Small Rivers’ Catchment Areas Is the Basis for Their Sustainable Development

detoxification methods and methods of detoxification

of water resources, polluted with heavy metals and

pesticides, were considered. A ranked series of the

efficiency of taking environmental measures was

drawn up, which showed the following.

The most effective methods, which have a wide

range of applications, are methods of increasing the

efficiency of treatment and additional treatment of

drainage flow and wastewater from rural settlements

and livestock farms. The efficiency of these methods

was 90%.

The next group of methods in terms of the selected

criteria are methods of increasing the treatment of

diffused flows from agricultural (reclaimed) lands

using engineering structures, the efficiency of these

methods is 80%.

The third group of methods in terms of efficiency

and range of applicability included methods of

agrotechnical and agrochemical orientation with an

efficiency of 70%.

The fourth group in terms of the selected criteria

are methods of improving the self-cleaning ability of

the river with an efficiency of 60%.

Methods of vegetative reclamation orientation

had an efficiency of about 50%.

Particular attention was paid to assessing the

efficiency of measures to prevent water pollution,

based on the drawing up water balances for the

Sheshma River in the Republic of Tatarstan. Based on

the results of drawing up water balances, water

shortage in the Sheshma River was not established.

The quality of water without detoxification methods

of land and water resources corresponds to the level

of "dirty".

Calculations of water balances were made from

the standard formulas for years 75% - medium-low-

water year and 95% - hyperarid year by river flow.

When linking up the water balance in the items of the

polluting load on the river, for the convenience of

calculations and analysis, all methods were divided

into groups of environmental measures to prevent

pollution of land resources in the catchment area of

the Sheshma River in accordance with the above

expert assessments.

A complex of the most effective environmental

measures was proposed, such as treatment and

additional treatment of drainage flow and wastewater

from rural settlements and animal farms, treatment of

diffused flows from agricultural (reclaimed) lands

using engineering structures, agrotechnical and

agrochemical methods, as well as vegetative

reclamation methods, the use of which will allow to

improve the quality of water in the Sheshma River to

the level of "clean".

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ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure