Zoned strategy for water pollutant emissions of China based on spatial heterogeneity analysis

A zoned strategy based on the spatial heterogeneity of water pollutant emissions is helpful for water environment management. With principal component analysis and clustering analysis, 31 provincial administrative regions (not including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions) of China with emissions of 12 kinds of water quality indicators had been categorized into 4 zone type regions. Zone type-1 is the largest emissions of heavy metals, including mining-developed provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi. Zone type-2 is constituted of economically and agriculturally developed with large COD, NH₄⁺-N, TP, and TN emissions, including Hebei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, and Sichuan. Zone type-3 only contains Shanxi with massive oil and volatile phenol emissions. Zone type-4 is the other 19 provinces with small discharges of water pollutants. Zone type-4 could be divided into three subclasses which are related to the location of these areas. With these cluster zones, the targeted water pollutant emissions strategy has been put forward in the paper. These methods and ideas of this paper can be further applied to the analysis of spatial and temporal differentiation of pollutant discharges in basins. With the zoning regions, more concrete water pollution prevention and control strategies can be set at a national level.