A practice study of land and water comprehensive remediation in urban-rural fringe-with Sichuan River Shaanxi Province, Northwest China, as an example

Urban-rural fringe area (URFa) is an active and expansive region, and its environment is complex and frangible. Previous studies have focused on the landscape spatial pattern changes, the spatial-temporal variability of soil pollutants and the land management and policy issues, etc., but it is lack of the practice study of land and water comprehensive remediation in URFa. This article is taking the Sichuan River, a typical URFa, as an example. Based on field investigation and lab tests, the main characteristic form of the URFa and land and water comprehensive remediation measures are summarized in this paper. The results show that it is feasible to turn wasteland, low-efficiency land, and old deserted beach into farm land, residential land, and ecological land by comprehensive land improvement. For the farm land reconstruction, the texture is an important indicator. The content of soil organic matter (SOM), carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus has increased after remediation. For the SOM, 58.3% are more than 10.0 g center dot kg(-1), and 79.2% are more than 8.0 g center dot kg(-1). For the frequent dry-off and polluted low flow river channels in URFa, the river bottom consolidation and water purification is the important measures. The water quality meets IV standard of the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (GB3838-2002) (State EPA of China, 2002) by pollution treatment after remediation, and water volume keeps balance. The findings of this study are expected to provide support for better construction practices in arid and semiarid area in China and for the improvement of the ecological environment in URFa.

Automated summary

This article summarizes the main characteristic form of urban-rural fringe area (URFa) and the measures of land and water comprehensive remediation, using the Sichuan River as an example. The results show that wasteland, low-efficiency land, and old deserted beach can be transformed into farm land, residential land, and ecological land through comprehensive land improvement. For river channels in URFa that frequently dry-off and are polluted, river bottom consolidation and water purification are important measures. The water quality meets environmental standards and water volume remains balanced after pollution treatment and remediation.