Evaluating the Health of an Urban River Combining DPSIR Framework and an Improved Fuzzy Matter-Element Extension Model: a Case Study from the Jinshui River

Abstract

As the key source for freshwater resources, urban rivers are essential for human survival and urban socio-economic development. Recently, the functions of urban rivers have been damaged by increasing human activities. A better understanding of the health state of urban rivers is the basis of sustainable urban planning. To this purpose, this research took the Jinshui River as a research area. An indicator system for urban river health evaluation was first established using the driving force-pressure-stateimpact-response (DPSIR) framework. The health state of the Jinshui from 2008 to 2017 was then assessed based on the urban river health index, which was calculated by the improved fuzzy matterelement extension model. The results show that the overall health status of the Jinshui has improved, from its unhealthy state in 2008-2016 to a sub-healthy state in 2017. Corresponding response measures have achieved certain results, which have led to an improvement in the health state of the river. However, its health still faced many problems, including pressure from a rapid urbanization rate and population density, a large amount of sewage discharge, and serious water pollution. In general, the health of the Jinshui was still on the low side. Therefore, to ensure sustainable water environment in the region, it is necessary to further govern the water environment and improve the health status of urban rivers. This research can help government easily understand an urban river's health state and formulate effective measures in the future.

[Retracted] Construction and Analysis of Green Investment Risk Evaluation Index System Based on Information Entropy Fuzzy Hierarchical Analysis Model

“…The more indicators are not the better, but the selected influencing factors should be representative, play an important role in the evaluation process, and reflect the characteristics of the evaluation object [29]. The establishment of the indicator system is also simplified as much as possible, either by qualitative analysis of the interrelationships among the indicators or by using quantitative methods to select representative indicators to achieve the optimization of the indicator system.…”

DPIRS as an integrated approach to asses natural resources status and development

“…In the literature, many topics of research showed the application of the DPSIR model to understand and plan responses for complex problems (Gari et al, 2018). The DPSIR framework was first proposed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA), which is widely used for analyzing environmental problems (Han et al, 2020).…”

“…It includes natural, social, and economic information and reflects the causal relationship between environmental health and a series of human activities at different scales. The DPSIR framework includes five subsystems: driving force, pressures, state, impacts, and responses, which explore the interaction between humans and the environment (Han et al, 2020).…”

“…A better understanding of the health state of urban rivers is the basis of sustainable urban planning. For this purpose, this study took the Jinshui River as a research area (Han et al, 2020). An indicator system for urban river health evaluation was first established using the DPSIR framework.…”

“…It can identify the sources of driving forces and pressures on the water environment, the factors of impact, and the effectiveness of the response measures, which can provide policymakers with a useful reference for river protection. These assessment methods provide more comprehensive technical support for urban rivers' protection and restoration (Han et al, 2020).…”