Incorporating In-Stream Nutrient Uptake into River Management: Gipuzkoa Rivers (Basque Country, North Spain) as a Case Study

Maddi Altuna, Eugènia Martí, Francesc Sabater, José Ramón Díez, Joan Lluís Riera, Félix Izco and Arturo Elosegi
Additional contact information
Maddi Altuna: Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain
Eugènia Martí: Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), 17300 Blanes, Spain
Francesc Sabater: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
José Ramón Díez: Department of Mathematics and Experimental Sciences Education, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain
Joan Lluís Riera: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Félix Izco: Province Government of Gipuzkoa, 2004 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Arturo Elosegi: Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: Gipuzkoa (Basque Country, North Spain) is an industrial region where investments in sanitation and wastewater treatment have improved water quality and partially recovered river biological communities. However, further technological improvements are unlikely. Our objective was to assess whether in-stream self-purification may contribute to improvement of the trophic state of rivers. We propose an integrative approach to assessing river water quality, which diagnoses problems, identifies likely causes and prescribes solutions. We first analysed the loads of nutrients transported by Gipuzkoa rivers and compared them with the potential nutrient uptake rates (estimated from published empirical regressions). In reaches where both of them were within one order of magnitude, we considered that the self-purification capacity of river channels may influence nutrient concentrations. Then, we selected some river reaches where no other water quality problems beyond nutrient concentrations occurred and ran the expert system STREAMES 1.0 to diagnose the problems and detect their causes. The studied reaches differed in their problems and in their potential solutions. We empirically determined nutrient retention in two streams by means of mass balances and slug nutrient additions. We detected large differences in retention capacity between reaches and siltation as one of the main problems affecting the self-purification capacity of the study streams. Finally, we used STREAMES 1.0 to identify potential solutions to specific river sections. The results obtained so far point towards an important potential of in-stream bioreactive capacity to reduce nutrient loads and to specific restoration activities that may improve the functionality and trophic status of the streams in Gipuzkoa.

Keywords: nutrient retention; ammonium; nitrate; phosphate; STREAMES; stream; uptake rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2692/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2692/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2692-:d:230301

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().