Research on the Lake Health Evaluation based on Multi-Dimensional

Index System Taking Dongshan Lake as an Example

Zhaoxu Li

1,2

, Jianguo Wang

1,2,*

, Weijie Huang

1,2

, Wei Guo

1,2

, Xiaoping Zhu

1,2

, Qian Wu

1,2

Liehui Lei

1,2

and Yisi Liu

1,2

Pearl River Water Resources Institute, Pearl River Water Resources Commission, Guangzhou, China

Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Life and Health of River & Lake, Guangzhou, China

Keywords: Research, Lake Health Evaluation, Multi-Dimensional Index System, Dongshan Lake.

Abstract: With the development of economy and society, the production and life of human beings gradually have a

negative impact on the water body of rivers and lakes. Restoring the health of rivers and lakes has gradually

become an important task. River and lake health evaluation is an important basic work to strengthen the

management and protection of rivers and lakes, and with the in-depth implementation of the River Chief

System (RCS) and the Lake Chief System (LCS), it has attracted more and more attention. In this paper,

focusing on the comprehensive management and protection of lakes, with the help of the multi-dimensional

index system of lake health evaluation in the Evaluation Guidelines and Technical Guidelines, the Dongshan

Lake in Guangzhou was taken as an example to study and determine the multi-dimensional health evaluation

index system. Utilizing the index system, the health evaluation and overall health characteristics analyzation

of Dongshan Lake were carried out, and the specific protection countermeasures and suggestions were given.

This research has a certain reference value for the systematic health evaluation and protection of lakes.

1 INTRODUCTION

There are many lakes in China. According to

statistics, there are 2,759 natural lakes larger than

1.0km

in the country, with a total area of

91019.63km

(Wang and Dou, 1998). Lake is one of

the natural units in the natural ecosystem on which

human beings depend for survival. As a unique

resource, lakes play a huge social and economic role

in water supply, flood control, aquaculture, tourism,

shipping, maintaining ecological balance and

environmental protection. With the increase of

population and the development of industrial and

agricultural production, the discharge of industrial

wastewater and domestic sewage is increasing, and

the lake ecosystem on which human beings depend is

degraded, especially the problem of eutrophication,

which has seriously threatened the sustainable

development of social economy and human health

(Pu et al., 2014). Therefore, studying the lake

ecosystem, establishing a lake ecosystem health

evaluation system and index thresholds, and ensuring

the water demand of the lake ecological environment,

not only can provide a comprehensive, authoritative

and operational decision-making basis for the rational

allocation of water resources and lake management,

but also be conducive to the sustainable management

and rational utilization of the lake ecosystem, as well

as the realization of ecological coordination of social

and economic benefits (Steedman, 1994; Hu et al.,

1998; Jones and Taylor, 1999; Ladhar, 2002) .

On January 12, 2012, the State Council issued the

Opinions of the State Council on Implementing the

Most Strict Water Resources Management System

(Guofa [2012] No. 3), which proposed to promote the

protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, to

study the index system establishment of ecological

water use and ecological evaluation of rivers and

lakes, to regularly organize the health assessment of

important rivers and lakes nationwide, and to

establish and improve the water ecological

compensation mechanism. On March 21, 2014, the

Ministry of Water Resources issued the Guiding

Opinions on Strengthening the Management of

Rivers and Lakes (Shuijianguan [2014] No. 76),

which proposed that by 2020, the river and lake health

security system should be basically established, the

river and lake management system and mechanism

should be established and improved, and the efforts

should be made to achieve no shrinkage of rivers and

Li, Z., Wang, J., Huang, W., Guo, W., Zhu, X., Wu, Q., Lei, L. and Liu, Y.

Research on the Lake Health Evaluation Based on Multi-Dimensional Index System Taking Dongshan Lake as an Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0011960600003536

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Water, Ecology and Environment (ISWEE 2022), pages 207-216

ISBN: 978-989-758-639-2; ISSN: 2975-9439

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

207

lakes, no degradation of functions, and no ecological

degradation.

In order to thoroughly implement the Opinions on

the Full Implementation of the River Chief System

(RCS) and the Guiding Opinions on the

Implementation of the Lake Chief System (LCS) in

Lakes by the General Office of the CPC Central

Committee and the General Office of the State

Council, guide all localities in carrying out river and

lake health assessment work and promote RCS and

LCS to be Famous, Realistic and Capable, the

Department of River and Lake Management of the

Ministry of Water Resources organized the Nanjing

Institute of Hydraulic Research and other units to

formulate the Guidelines for Health Evaluation of

Rivers and Lakes (Trial) (hereinafter referred to as the

Evaluation Guidelines ) , so as to provide a scientific

standard for testing the effectiveness of RCS and LCS

in various regions in China (Liu et al., 1999).

River and lake health evaluation is an important

content of river and lake management. It will provide

an important basis for determining the health status of

rivers and lakes, finding river and lake problems,

analyzing pathogeny, and proposing governance

countermeasures. It is an important basis for realizing

river and lake system governance and long-term

governance. This paper took the Dongshan Lake as an

example, and conducted health evaluation on the lake

according to relevant guidelines. On this basis, it

analyzed and evaluated the problems of the Dongshan

Lake from four aspects of health evaluation indices,

studied and put forward a systematic restoration

strategy for the lake to provide decision-making basis

for realizing long-term governance and effective

management of the lake.

2 MULTI-DIMENSIONAL

HEALTH EVALUATION INDEX

SYSTEM FOR LAKES

In August 2020, the River Directors Office of the

Ministry of Water Resources issued the Evaluation

Guidelines, pointing out that the health evaluation of

rivers and lakes is an important content of river and

lake management, and an important means to test the

Famous and Real of RCS and LCS. The results of

river and lake health assessment are an important

reference for the river and lake directors to carry out

the protection and management of rivers and lakes.

In May 2021, based on the Evaluation Guidelines,

the Office of the Leading Group for the

Comprehensive Implementation of the River Chief

System in Guangdong Province compiled the

Guangdong Province 2021 River and Lake Health

Evaluation Technical Guidelines (hereinafter referred

to as the Technical Guidelines), which combined the

characteristics of rivers and lakes in Guangdong

Province and the actual situation of river and lake

management, and condensed foreign and domestic

research results and practical experience, was used to

guide all localities to carry out river and lake health

evaluation .

For lake health evaluation, the technical

guidelines adopt a multi-dimensional health

evaluation index system, in which 22 indices are

involved in the evaluation of lakes from four criteria

layers including “Basin” (i.e. lake physical structure),

“Water” (i.e. lake water environment), Biology (i.e.

lake water ecology), and social service functions

(Table 1). All evaluation indices are divided into

Required Indices and Optional Indices based on lake

functions, index importance, difficulty in obtaining

index data, etc. These indices can scientifically and

comprehensively evaluate the performance of river

and lake governance from the perspective of river and

lake health.

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Table 1: Lake health evaluation index system and survey sampling scope.

Criterion layer Index layer Index type

Survey or sampling

monitoring scope

Specific location

“Basin”

Lake connectivity index Optional indice Evaluation Lake

River around the

lake

Lake area shrinkage ratio Required indice Evaluation Lake Water area

Natural conditions of shoreline Required indice Monitoring section Lakeshore zone

Degree of illegal development and

utilization of water shoreline

Required indice Evaluation Lake

Water area and

lakeshore zone

“Water”

Volume

Satisfaction degree of minimum

ecological water level

Required indice Monitoring point Water area

Variation degree of inflow Optional indice Evaluation Lake

River around the

lake

Quality

Quality of water Required indice Monitoring point Water area

Lake nutritional status Required indice Monitoring point Water area

Sediment pollution status Optional indice Monitoring point Water area

Water self-purification capacity Required indice Monitoring point Water area

Biology

Macrobenthic Invertebrate

Biological Integrity Index

Optional indice Monitoring point

Aquatic organism

sampling area

Fish retention index Required indice Evaluation Lake Water area

Water and bird conditions Optional indice Evaluation Lake

Water area and

lakeshore zone

Phytoplankton density Required indice Monitoring point Water area

Macrophyte coverage Optional indice Monitoring point Nearshore zone

Social Service

Functions

Flood control compliance rate Optional indice Evaluation Lake Lakeshore zone

Water supply guaranteed degree Optional indice Evaluation Lake Water area

Water quality compliance rate of

lake centralized drinking water

source

Optional indice Evaluation Lake Water area

Shoreline utilization management

index

Optional indice Evaluation Lake Lakeshore zone

Comprehensive benefits of Green

Road construction

Optional indice Evaluation Lake Lakeshore zone

Water and soil conservation rate of

watershed

Optional indice Evaluation Lake Catchment area

Public satisfaction Required indice Evaluation Lake Surrounding public

Research on the Lake Health Evaluation Based on Multi-Dimensional Index System Taking Dongshan Lake as an Example

209

3 GENERAL SITUATION OF

DONGSHAN LAKE AND

DETERMINATION OF ITS

HEALTH EVALUATION INDEX

SYSTEM

3.1 General Situation of Dongshan

Lake

The Dongshan Lake, built in 1958, is located to the

east of the North approach bridge of Haiyin bridge,

adjacent to the Pearl River in the south, connected

to Zhudao hotel in the East and Guigang business

district in the north. It is composed of the West

Lake, the Nanpian Lake and the Dongpian Lake,

and is one of the four largest artificial lakes in

Guangzhou. Its main functions are rain and flood

regulation and entertainment. The Dongshan Lake

receives the water from the upstream of the

Donghaochong River and the Xinhepu River in the

north, and is connected with the Ersha River

through two sluices (Sluice No. 6 and Sluice No. 8)

in the south, with a total rainwater collection area

of 4.48km

. The normal water storage level of the

lake area is 5.50m, the water surface area is

0.355km

, the water storage capacity is 410,700

m3, the current regulated storage control water

level is 6.80m, and the water storage capacity is

802,700 m3. The geographical location of

Dongshan Lake is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the location of the

Dongshan Lake.

At present, the pollution interception of the

Dongshan Lake has been basically completed, and

the direct discharge pollution sources of industry,

agriculture and catering industry have been

basically eliminated. However, due to the impact of

various factors such as flood discharge and

drainage, sewage overflow, incoming water quality

and surface runoff, the water quality of the

Dongshan Lake fluctuates, which makes it difficult

for the Dongshan Lake to maintain a stable

monthly standard without the discharge of

surrounding pollution sources. Due to insufficient

exchange frequency with surrounding rivers, the

low flow rate and the poor water dynamics, the

water ecological environment of the Dongshan

Lake needs to be improved.

3.2 Determination of the Multi-

Dimensional Health Evaluation

Index System of the Dongshan Lake

This paper refers to the Technical Guidelines to

construct an index system for evaluating the health of

the Dongshan Lake, as shown in Table 2. From the

table it can be seen that there is a total of 18 evaluation

indices among the four criterion layers of the

Dongshan Lake health evaluation index system,

including 10 required indices and 8 optional indices.

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Table 2: Health evaluation index system of the Dongshan Lake.

4 DONGSHAN LAKE HEALTH

EVALUATION, OVERALL

CHARACTERISTICS

ANALYSIS AND PROTECTION

COUNTERMEASURES

4.1 Dongshan Lake Health Evaluation

based on Multi-Dimensional Index

System

With reference to the evaluation methods and standards

of the Technical Guidelines, from the perspectives of

the four criterion levels of “Basin”, “Water”, biology,

and social service functions, the health evaluation

indices of the Dongshan Lake are assigned scores on the

basis of literature review, survey visits and field

investigations. According to the weight of each health

evaluation index of the Dongshan Lake, the index

layer and the criterion layer are weighted layer by

layer, and the specific calculation adopts Formula (1).

()















××=

nrnwmw

ZBZBYMBRHI

(1)

In Formula (1), RHI

is the comprehensive score

of the lake health in the i-th evaluation Lake area;

is the weight of the n-th index of the index layer;

is the score of the n-th index of the index layer;

YMB

is the weight of the m-th criterion layer.

According to the Technical Guidelines, the Dongshan

Lake set up three evaluation areas (Figure 2), i=3.

Criterion layer Index layer Index type

“Basin”

Lake connectivity index Optional index

Lake area shrinkage ratio Required index

Natural conditions of shoreline Required index

Degree of illegal development and utilization of water shoreline Required index

“Water”

Volume Satisfaction degree of minimum ecological water level Required index

Quality

Quality of water Required index

Lake nutritional status Required index

Sediment pollution status Optional index

Water self-purification capacity Required index

Biology

Macrobenthic Invertebrate Biological Integrity Index Optional index

Fish retention index Required index

Water and bird conditions Optional index

Phytoplankton density Required index

Macrophyte coverage Optional index

Social Service Functions

Flood control compliance rate Optional index

Shoreline utilization management index Optional index

Comprehensive benefits of Green Road construction Optional index

Public satisfaction Required index

Research on the Lake Health Evaluation Based on Multi-Dimensional Index System Taking Dongshan Lake as an Example

211

The comprehensive health score of Dongshan

Lake is calculated by formula (2).

()()

11i

−













×=



WWRHIRHI

(2)

In Formula (2), RHI is the comprehensive score

for the lake health; RHI

is the comprehensive score

for the lake health of the i-th evaluated lake area; W

is the water surface area of the i-th evaluated lake,

; Rs is the number of evaluated lake areas.

The final health evaluation result of the Dongshan

Lake was calculated, as shown in Table 3, Table 4,

Figure 2 and Figure 3. It can be seen from Table 3 that

the overall scores of the four standard layers——Basin”,

Water, Biology, and Social Service Functions of the

Dongshan Lake are 86.85, 67.80, 39.37 and 97.07,

respectively. The Water standard tier scored 67.80,

which is lower, and the overall score of the criteria

layer is the lowest, only 40.46. The comprehensive

health evaluation score of the Dongshan Lake is

74.70.

Table 3: Multi-dimensional Index Assignment of the Dongshan Lake Health evaluation.

Criterion

layer

Criterion layer

weight (YMB

)

Index layer

weight (ZB

nw)

assigned

score (ZB

nr)

“Basin”

0.2

Lake connectivity index

0.19

45.00

Lake area shrinkage ratio

0.27 100.00

Natural conditions of shoreline

0.27 90.00

Degree of illegal development and utilization of

water shoreline

0.27 100.00

Overall score 86.85

“Water”

0.3

Water

volume

Satisfaction degree of minimum

ecological water level

0.30 75.00

Water

Quality

Quality of water 0.20 40.00

Lake nutritional status 0.20 49.00

Sediment pollution status 0.10 75.00

Water self-purification capacity 0.20 100.00

Overall score 67.80

Biology

0.2

Macrobenthic Invertebrate Biological Integrity

Index

0.18 15.00

Fish retention index 0.23 7.00

Water and bird conditions 0.18 75.00

Phytoplankton density 0.23 31.12

Macrophyte coverage 0.18 80.00

Overall score 39.37

0.3

Flood control compliance rate 0.24 100.00

Shoreline utilization management index 0.24 100.00

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Criterion

layer

Criterion layer

weight (YMB

)

Index layer

weight (ZB

nw)

assigned

score (ZB

nr)

Social

Service

Functions

Comprehensive benefits of Green Road

construction

0.24 97.00

Public satisfaction 0.28 92.10

Overall score 97.07

Comprehensive health evaluation score of the Dongshan Lake ( RHI) 74.70

Table 4: Comprehensive health evaluation score of the Dongshan Lake.

Lake Zoning

Water surface area

（W

, km

)

Proportion of zoning area

to the total area

Zoning score

(RHI

)

Comprehensive

score

(

RHI

)

D1 0.09 25.71% 73.10

74.70

D2 0.10 28.57% 72.74

D3 0.16 45.71% 72.95

Figure 2: Health criteria layer of the Dongshan Lake scoring diagram.

Research on the Lake Health Evaluation Based on Multi-Dimensional Index System Taking Dongshan Lake as an Example

213

Figure 3: Health evaluation indices of the Dongshan Lake scoring diagram.

4.2 Analysis of the Overall Health

Characteristics of the Dongshan

Lake

From the perspective of each criterion layer of the

Dongshan Lake, the “Basin” criterion layer has a

score of 86.85, which is in a healthy state, the “Water”

criterion layer has a score of 67.80, which is in a sub-

health state, the biological criterion layer has a low

score of 39.37, which is in an unhealthy state; the

social service function criterion layer has a relatively

high score of 97.07, which is relatively healthy. The

Dongshan Lake has a total score of 74.70 in the health

evaluation which is between 60 and 75. It can be seen

that the Dongshan Lake has defects in water

ecological integrity and biodiversity, and its health

status is generally in a sub-healthy state. According to

the health evaluation indices, criterion layers and

comprehensive scores of the Dongshan Lake, and

referring to the lake health evaluation grading table in

the Technical Guidelines (shown in Table 5), the

Dongshan Lake was comprehensively assessed as a

Class-III lake.

Table 5: Classification table of the lake health evaluation.

Lake

classification

Health status

Scoring range

（RHI)

Class I Very healthy 90≤RHI≤100

Class II Healthy 75≤RHI＜90

Class III Sub-healthy 60≤RHI＜75

Class Ⅳ Unhealthy 40≤RHI＜60

Class Ⅴ Inferior state RHI＜40

4.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions

for the Dongshan Lake Protection

According to the results of the health evaluation of

the Dongshan Lake, it has defects in water ecological

integrity, anti-disturbance resilience and biodiversity,

and is in a sub-healthy state. It should strengthen daily

maintenance and supervision, take comprehensive

treatment and restoration measures, appropriately

increase ecological restoration projects, timely repair

local defects and eliminate hidden dangers affecting

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health. Combining with the health evaluation of the

Dongshan Lake, several countermeasures and

suggestions for protecting the Dongshan Lake are put

forward.

Firstly, water environment treatment should be

consolidated. The pollution problem of the Dongshan

Lake can be fundamentally solved by adhering to the

water control policy of source control, pollution

interception, desilting, water replenishment and

management, implementing and promoting grid

water control, tackling difficulties in meeting the

standards of drainage units, and a series of practices

such as Three Sources, Four Washing and Five

Cleaning, which have been proven effective.

Secondly, the comprehensive treatment and

restoration measures of water ecology should be

strengthened. While doing a good job in the Three

Sources, Four Washing and Five Cleaning of the

Dongshan Lake, the ecological revetment project of

the Dongshan lake shoreline shall be implemented. At

the same time, focusing on the actual needs of

improving the water ecological integrity, anti-

disturbance elasticity and biodiversity of the lake, the

ecological restoration projects, such as the

implementation of biological manipulation,

multiplication and release measures, should be

appropriately increased.

Thirdly, the connectivity of the Dongshan Lake

should be restored. The Dongshan Lake should

implement the river and lake connectivity project to

ensure the overall connectivity of the lake. At the

same time, on the premise of ensuring flood control

safety, it should be optimized the linkage mechanism

of Dongshan Lake sluice and pump to realize the

small cycle of the Dongshan Lake, the Xinhepu River

and the Dongshan Lake, the large cycle of the Pearl

River, the Dongshan Lake, the Xinhepu River, the

Donghao River and the Pearl River, so as to make the

lake water truly live water (

Figure 1).

Fourthly, precise management should be

strengthened. Taking the implementation of the LCS

and the most stringent water resources management

system as the starting point, it should be strengthen

the protection of lake water resources, the

management and protection of lake water shoreline,

the prevention and control of water pollution, the

treatment of water environment and the restoration of

water ecology, etc., prepared and improved the “One

Lake, One Policy” plan on a rolling basis, promoted

the systematic governance of the whole basin and

effectively improved the management level of the

Dongshan Lake health.

At last, it is necessary to implement the

responsibility management system, strengthen the

assessment mechanism, and effectively improve

the management effectiveness, so as to protect the

health of the Dongshan Lake.

5 CONCLUSION

Rivers and lakes are important carriers of water

resources and have important ecological,

environmental and social service functions [11]. With

the rapid development of economy and society, many

river and lake ecosystems are gradually damaged or

even destroyed. Maintaining and restoring river and

lake health has gradually become an important task

and central work of lake management. River and lake

health evaluation is an important basic work to

strengthen the management and protection of rivers

and lakes, and it is an important means to test the

Famous and Real of RCS and LCS. With the in-depth

implementation of RCS and LCS, the health

evaluation of rivers and lakes has attracted much

attention. In this paper, focusing on the

comprehensive management and protection of lakes,

with the help of the multi-dimensional index system

of lake health evaluation in the Evaluation Guidelines

and Technical Guidelines, the Dongshan Lake in

Guangzhou was taken as an example to study and

determine the multi-dimensional health evaluation

index system. Utilizing the index system, the health

evaluation and overall health characteristics

analyzation of the Dongshan Lake were carried out.

According to the health evaluation indices, criterion

layers and comprehensive scores, the Dongshan Lake

was comprehensively assessed as a Class-III lake.

Finally, combined with the health evaluation of the

Dongshan Lake, this paper put forward relevant

countermeasures and suggestions for its management

and protection.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by the Open Research

Fund of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Water

Engineering Materials and Structures (GXHRI-

WEMS-2020-11), the

Special Foundation for

National Science and Technology Basic Research

Program of China (2019FY101900) and the National

Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.

5170929).

Research on the Lake Health Evaluation Based on Multi-Dimensional Index System Taking Dongshan Lake as an Example

215

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