Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Urban river pollution control in developing countries

The development of sewer systems hasn’t caught up with the urbanization speed in developing countries, with serious consequences for urban river water quality. The experience of urban river restoration in China can offer useful lessons to other countries in the Global South.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Basic information on sewage treatment infrastructures in China.
Fig. 2: River pollution in southeastern China.

References

  1. Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015); https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

  2. Chapra, S. Surface Water-Quality Modeling (Waveland Press, Illinios, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bernhardt, E. et al. Science 308, 636–637 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hughes, R. et al. Fisheries 39, 18–29 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Palmer, M. A. et al. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 45, 247–269 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Huang, D. et al. Front. Env. Sci. Eng. 12, 3–18 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Report on the State of the Ecology and Envinronment in China (Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 2018); https://go.nature.com/2I9o571

  8. Wu, Z. Statistical Analysis of Sewer Systems Overflows in Shanghai. Thesis, Shanghai Tongji University (2015).

  9. Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Construction. National Information Releasing Platform for Black and Stinky Water (2018); http://www.hcstzz.com

  10. Du, H. et al. Urban Rural Constr. 15, 11–14 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Urban Drainage Yearbook (China Urban Water Association, Beijing, 2017).

  12. Xu, Z. et al. J. Tongji Univ. Natural Sci. 45, 384–390 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Xu, Z. et al. Sci. Total Environ. 487, 381–388 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Yin, H. et al. Environ. Sci. Pollut. R. 24, 4902–4915 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Xue, C. Study on the Mass Balance of Urban Drainage Discharge and the Pollutant Abatement for Urban River Water Quality Attainment. Thesis, Shanghai Tongji University (2015).

  16. Yin, H. et al. Sci. Total Environ. 648, 125–134 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Xiong, L. Optimization of Low Impact Development (LID) and its Impact on the Wet Weather Discharge in High Density Urban Area. Thesis, Shanghai Tongji University (2018).

  18. Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Construction. Estimation Index of Municipal Engineering Investment (China Planning Press, 2008).

  19. Chinese Ministry of Finance. Opinions on Promoting Cooperation between Government and Social Capital in Water Pollution Prevention and Control (2015); http://jrs.mof.gov.cn/ppp/zcfbppp/201504/t20150428_1224072.html

  20. China PPP Service Platform. http://www.chinappp.cn/projectcenter (2018).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zuxin Xu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Xu, Z., Xu, J., Yin, H. et al. Urban river pollution control in developing countries. Nat Sustain 2, 158–160 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0249-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0249-7

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene