Construction of a historical Water Pollution Index for the Mersey Basin

Abstract

The Mersey Basin has been significantly polluted for over 200 years. However, there is a lack of quantitative historical water quality data as effective water quality monitoring and data recording only began 30-40 years ago. This paper assesses water pollution in the Mersey Basin using a Water Pollution Index constructed from social and economic data. Methodology, output and the difficulties involved with validation are discussed. With the limited data input available the index approximately reproduces historical water quality. The paper illustrates how historical studies of environmental water quality may provide valuable identification of factors responsible for pollution and a marker set for contemporary and future water quality issues in the context of the past. This is an issue of growing research interest.

Rivers help us to quantify the socio-ecological functioning of their basin at the Anthropocene: the Seine example (1850–2020)

“…The Seine, a medium-size basin, is one of those, together with emblematic rivers, first studied for river water resources management as the Tennessee River [Knop, 1976], then for river ecology and restoration, e.g. the Rhône River [Amoros and Petts, 1993], the Rhine River [Wantzen et al, 2022], the Mersey River [Burton et al, 2003] or the Chesapeake basin [Cooper and Brush, 1991]. The PIREN-Seine has allowed a lot of data to be unearthed and analyzed, providing an exceptional set of quantitative data and qualitative descriptions, started 150 years ago by Belgrand [1872] and the Montsouris observatory (1876-1937) , completed by the Seine River authority engineers [MDBSN and AFBSN, 1976], then by the PIREN-Seine: historical population census, accurate and high-resolution archival maps, pioneer chemical analysis, historical records of fish assemblage, river engineers reports, agricultural census, hydrological monitoring, followed then by biogeochemical surveys in the 1970's, etc.…”

The Assessment of the Surface Water Quality Using the Water Pollution Index: A Case Study of the Timok River (The Danube River Basin), Serbia

“…It was used as the indicator of the surface water quality in the rivers of Latvia [9], the water quality and pollution of the White Sea [5] and the potable water quality in the Evros Region in Greece [11], as well as for the assessment of the water quality and pollution in the Danube-Tisa-Danube canal system in Serbia [10]. Also, a modified version of the WPI was used to combine historical and geographical approaches to quantify environmental change in the Mersey River Basin in England [3].…”

Nitrogen isotopes in herbaria document historical nitrogen sewage pollution in the Mersey Estuary, England

“…36 The Mersey Basin has grown in population size from ∼500 000 (1821) to >5 million (2021); this estimate includes other nearby population centres such as Manchester, Liverpool, and Salford. [37][38][39] This region is serviced by the private water company, United Utilities Group PLC. The River Mersey and Mersey Estuary have had a long history of pollution and poor water quality since the early 1800s.…”