Water environmental risk assessment and regionalization in southeast coastal basins of China.

Recent years, water pollution accidents have happened frequently in China. The safety of drinking water is attracting more and more attention. Most of the Beijiang River Basin is in Guangdong province of China. It flows through Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Foshan cities, which take it as their source water. The three cities not only have a large population density but also have well-developed industry and agriculture as well as many factories and mines, and the pollution accidents of water source occur easily. Risk assessment of watershed water quality is very important not only for drinking water safety but also for basin environmental management policy. Based on the analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy logic, the environmental risk assessment index system of the Beijiang River Basin is constructed, and the environmental risk status of the Beijiang River Basin is evaluated. The results show that the comprehensive risk level of Beijiang River Basin is at a medium level, and the pressure of pollutant emission is relatively high. Among the Beijiang River Basin, the environmental risk assessment values of Xinan street in Sanshui District and Jiujiang town in Nanhai District are at comparatively high level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]