Survey and Evaluation of Surface Water Environmental Quality

3.3.2 Survey and Evaluation of Surface Water Environmental Quality

(1) Monitoring Program of Underground Water Surrounding the Airport

(i) Monitoring Sites

1#Section: No.1 Tributary of Xinjiang River, 500m upstream of the airport

2#Section: No.1 Tributary of Xinjiang River, 1000m downstream of the airport

3#Section: No.2 Tributary of Xinjiang River, No.1 Tributary of Huiru River, 500m upstream of the river month

4#Section: No.2 Tributary of Xinjiang River, No.1 Tributary of Huiru River, 1000m downstream of the river month

5#Section: Fengxi River, 500m upstream of the airport

6#Section: Fengxi River, 1000m downstream of the airport

See Figure3-2-1 for the monitoring sections.

(ii) Monitoring Factors

pH, Dissolved oxygen, Permanganate Index, Chemical Oxygen Demand, BOD₅, Ammonia Nitrogen, TP, Volatile Phenol, Petroleum , Anionic Surface Active Agent, Fecal Coliform.

(iii) Monitoring Time and Frequency

Monitoring Time and Frequency: 2 days from December 6, 2011 to December 7, 2011, sampling twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon respectively.

(v)Sampling and Analysis Methods

Take samples and analyze according to the requirements of Environment Quality Standard of Surface Water (GB3838-2002).

3.3.2.2 Assessment of Surface Water Environmental Quality

(1) Environmental Quality Assessment of Surface Water Surrounding the Airport

(i) Monitoring Results

See table 3-2-9 for the monitoring results of surface water.

Table 3-2-9 A List of Monitoring Statistics and Evaluation Results Unit: mg/L, except pH value

It can be concluded from Table 3-2-9 that the monitoring factors of the 6 monitoring sites show no sign of not up to the standard. The environmental quality of surface water is good.

3.3.3 Groundwater Environmental Quality Survey and Assessment

3.3.3.1 Groundwater Environmental Quality Monitoring

(1) Monitoring Sites:

3 monitoring sites are established for environmental quality monitoring of ground water. See Figure3-2-1 for the monitoring sites.

1#Monitoring Point: Fang Village;

2#Monitoring Point: Tashui Xiajia Village;

3#Monitoring Point: Shidi Village;

(2) Monitoring Factor:

pH, Permanganate Index, Total Coliforms, Ammonia Nitrogen, Total Hardness, Anion Synthetic Detergent, Volatile Phenols, and measure the depth of ground water simultaneously.

(3) Monitoring Time and Frequency:

Monitoring Time and Frequency: Monitor for 3 successive days, from December 6 to December 8, 2011, sampling once a day.

(4) Sampling and Analysis Methods:

Take samples and analyze according to the requirements of “Quality Standards of Ground Water” GB/T14848-93.

3.3.3.2 Groundwater Environmental Quality Assessment

See Table 3-2-7 for evaluation results of ground water.

Table 3-2-7 Monitoring Statistics and Evaluation Results of Ground Water

3.3.4 Survey and Assessment of Acoustic Environment Quality

3.3.4.1 Monitoring of Environmental Noise Status

(1) Monitoring Program of Acoustic Environment of the Airport Areas

6 monitoring sites are established this time, mainly established at the sensitive points in the assessed Areas.

(i) Monitoring Sites:

1#Zhouwu Village: on the extended centerline of the runway at the southwest of the airport;

2#Xia Wutang Village: on the extended centerline of the runway at the southwest of the airport;

3#Tashui Xujia Village: at the north side of the airport;

4#Fang Village: at the south side of the airport;

5#Beigong Village: on the extended centerline of the runway at the northeast of the airport

6#Wang Sidun Village: on the extended centerline of the runway at the northeast of the airport.

See Figure 3-2-1 for the monitoring sites.

(ii) Monitoring Factor:

Monitor the equivalent sound level A Leq in the daytime and at night according to Acoustic Environment Quality Standards (GB3096-2008)

(iii) Monitoring Time and Frequency:

From December 6 to 7, 2011, for two successive days, twice in the day time and once at night

(iv)Monitoring Methods:

Monitoring of environmental noise shall be in accordance with the provisions of Acoustic Environment Quality Standards (GB3096-2008) and Technical Specifications of Environmental Monitoring.

3.3.4.2 Assessment of Environmental Noise

(1) Monitoring Results of the Airport Areas

See Table 3-2-8 for the noise monitoring results.

Table3-2-8 Monitoring and Assessment Results of Acoustic Environment

Date	Monitoring Point	Day		Night		Remarks
		Monitoring Value[dB(A)]	Standard Limits[dB(A)]	Monitoring Value[dB(A)]	Standard Limits[dB(A)]
12.6	1#	45.7	55	39.6	45	Up to the Standard
	2#	45.7		40.7
	3#	46		40.5
	4#	45.1		40.7
	5#	44.8		40.8
	6#	44.3		40.3
12.7	1#	43.7		39.4
	2#	45.0		40.5
	3#	45.2		41.1
	4#	43.6		39.6
	5#	43.9		40.6
	6#	42.6		40.2

It can be seen from above table that the noise value of each monitoring site meets Class I standard of “Acoustic Environment Quality Standards” (GB3096-2008). The quality of acoustic environment is good.

3.3.5 Ecological Survey and Assessment

3.3.5.1 Landforms

The project is located in hilly areas; the ground elevation is between 90m and 116m. The airport site is relatively flat with small altitude difference. The slope is generally lower than 25°. The airport site is located close to the watershed of the river valleys. The ground elevation is high at the centerline of the runway, low at the two sides of the runway. The length and width of the site can meet the requirements of current utilization and long-term development of the airport. There is no large surface water system in the area. There are only some small ponds distributed in the mountain areas. There is a gully flowing from north to south in the Midwest area of the airport site. There is a gully flowing from northeast to southwest in the northwest edge. The gully is about 2-3m wide, ephemeral and with small flow. The airport site is about 4km in straight line away from Fengxi River in the east, about 5km in straight line away from Fengxi River in the north, and about 7km in straight line away from Xinjiang River in the west. Fengxi River flows from south to north while Xinjiang River flows from north to south.

The landform unit of the proposed airport area is erosional low hills, low-lying and subdued. The maximum elevation is 114.609m, the minimum elevation is 85.134m, and the maximum altitude difference is 29.475m; the valley incision is shallow with a gradual slope.

3.3.5.2 Current Land Use

Establish land use classification system based on survey data and related standards, interpret the satellite images of the assessed areas, extract all land use types and generate a map of current land use status by taking advantage of RS, GIS, GPS technology and topographic maps. See table 3-2-9 for the current land use classification statistics of the assessed area and the occupied area of the airport and see Figure 3-3-2 for the current land use.

Table3-2-9 Land Use Types of the Assessed Areas and Occupied Areas of the Airport

According to current site planning of the airport, the airport needs to acquire a permanent land of 148.8573hm². The major land use types include forestlands and paddy field, accounting for 70.41% and 12.01% of the total occupied area respectively. No basic farmlands are involved; other land use types accounted for a small portion of the total occupied area.

Paddy Field Grassland

Forest Tea Plantation

Pond Rural Homestead

Shangrao City is in the subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, blessed with plentiful rainfall, a mild climate, adequate sunlight, four distinct seasons, and a long frost-free period, suitable for subtropical crops growth. Human activities are frequent at the site of the proposed airport area. The surrounding areas barely have any native vegetation. Artificial forestlands are common here. Currently plains and most gently sloping hills have been utilized for agricultural development in the investigation zone, mostly in the form of artificial vegetation like farmlands, dry arable lands and orchards, etc. Other low hills are mostly cultivated forest lands.

According to the interpretation of the results of remote sensing images and the vegetation distribution characteristics of the project area, interpret the distribution of vegetation types of the assessed areas and occupied areas. See Figure 3-3-3. The statistics of all vegetation types are shown in table 3-2-10.

Table3-2-10 Major Vegetation Types Statistics of the Assessed Areas and Occupied Areas

It can be concluded from table 3-2-10 that the total area of the assessed Area is 15188.86hm², and vegetation area is 12269.15hm², accounting for 80.78% of the total area of the assessed Area. The vegetation types in the assessed Area are mainly cultivated crops and broad-leaved evergreen forests, of which agricultural land accounts for 41.38% with crops like rice, cotton, sesame and peanuts, etc. taking the lead, broad-leaved evergreen forests accounted for 23.28%. See next paragraph-Forestland Status of the Occupied Area for the varieties of trees.

The total area of the occupied area is 148.8573hm², and the vegetation area is 135.0683hm², accounting for 90.74% of the total area of the occupied area. Evergreen Coniferous Forest is the major vegetation of the occupied area, accounting for 70.41% of the total area of the occupied area, crops, mainly rice, account for 16.08% of the total area of the occupied area, other types of vegetation cover a relatively small area. Moreover, 9.26% of the occupied area is not covered by vegetations.

(1) Current status of artificial cultivated crops and agricultural production

Shangrao City belongs to central subtropical wet monsoon region with gentle climate, abundant rainfall, enough sunshine, clear four seasons and long frost-free periods suitable for growth of subtropical crops. The original zonal vegetation of the airport is evergreen broad-leaved forest; due to the long-term disturbance of human activities, the flat and hillock in evaluation area at present have been development for agriculture with different types of crops planted all over the year, which is the main income source for farmers. There is reservoir, river and pond water surface of certain area in the evaluation area with good irrigation conditions. The rural economics is developing rapidly. The artificial cultivated vegetation includes various crops, which is the main source of income for farmers. The agricultural land composition in the project area includes paddy field and dry land, among which the proportion of paddy field is slightly larger. The composition of grain crops mainly includes rice. Sowed in late March, early rice emerges in early April; its seeds are transplanted in late April and its tillers are in Middle May; its flowering period is in late June and its is mature in Middle July. Sowed in early June, early rice is sowed; it emerges in Middle June; it is transplanted in late July (no later than Beginning of Autumn) and its tiller is in late September; it flowering period is in late September and it is mature in late October and early November. Dryland crops mainly include sweet potato, peanut, sesame, taro, arrowroot, watermelon and mung bean, etc. The outputs of various crops of Tashui Village (for example) are shown in Table 3-2-5.

Table 3-2-5 Statisics Table for Economic Crop Yield of Tashui Village

The forest land for the project is growing in the hills with gentle slope of an area of 104.8156ha; its administrative division belongs to Zunqiao Township of Shangrao County, Zaotou Town and Maojialing Township of Xinzhou. The land has eight types of vegetation in total including subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, evergreen broad-leaved mixed forest, coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, mixed forest of bamboo and bamboo & broad-leaved, evergreen shrub forest, river floodplain meadows, mountain summer green thickets and artificial coniferous forest.

Main arbor trees include common tree species such as camphor tree, elaeocarpus, masson pine, pinus elliottii, spruce, cedar, oak, schima superba and maple, etc.; shrub species include michelia, crape myrtle, yellow surname, bracteatum, litsea cubeba and shrub economic tree species. The Age group mainly includes middle and young forest. Within each small plot are distributed by sporadic camphor tree. By calculation of sample plot, total volume of vivid stumpage in forest land is 2059.2m³.

(3) Wild plants under key protection

The project area does not relate to Nature Reserve, National Forest Park, National Key Public-welfare Forest, National and Provincial Wild Animal Habitat under Key Protection.

According to investigation and field inspection as well as the reference to Feasibility Report of Forest Land used for Construction Project compiled by Shangrao City Forestry Survey Design Institute and the consultation from agriculture and forestry department of the project, 8459 camphor trees of national second-class protection varieties are distributed in the airport range to be constructed with total accumulation of 185.6671m³.

Camphor tree is the representative variety of subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, which is important material and special economic variety in subtropical zone. The variety has extended crown and thick branches, which is imposing. It is good avenue tree and shade tree, which is resistant to harmful gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, ozone and fluorine, etc. It is main raw material for production of camphor, which can dispel mosquitoes and resist the short-term water flooding. See Table 3-2-12 below for the DBH and accumulation condition of camphor tree in the area. See Figure 3-3-4 for space distribution location.

Table 3-2-12 List of resource statistics of camphor tree in project area

3.3.5.4 Current status of animal resources

Due to gentle terrain, convenient transportation and frequent human activities, the project area is not suitable for wild animal habitat, the wild animal resources in the territory are less, and no mammals and large mammal wild animal activity are in the area. Small mammals and rodents distributed in the area mainly focus on chiroptera; and amphibians reptiles including anura, lizards and snakes, etc.; another part of local birds, mainly falconiformes, cuculiformes, apodiformes and passerine. The evaluation area has no large and rare and endangered wild animals under protection; livestock and poultry are mainly chicken, duck, beef, sheep, dogs, horses, pigs and so on.

3.3.5.5 Current status of water and soil loss

(1) Current status of regional water and soil loss

According to division of national soil erosion type, Shangrao County is located in the southern hilly red soil region, the soil erosion type mainly focuses on erosion, and the allowable loss amount of soil is 500t/km²·a. According to Announcement of Division of Key Prevention Area of National Water and Soil Loss and Announcement of People’s Government of Jiangxi Province of Division of Key Prevention Area of Water and Soil Loss, the project area Shangrao County belongs to the key prevention area of Jiangxi Province of water and soil loss.

According to latest remote sensing investigation materials of soil erosion, the existing area of water and soil loss in project area is 880.89km² and total area of the land is 34.08%. Among them, slight loss area is 245.58km², occupying 27.88% of loss area; moderate loss area is 304.24km², occupying 34.54% of loss area; severe loss area is 239.36km², occupying 27.17% of loss area; extreme loss area is 60.40km², occupying 6.86% of loss area; intensive loss area is 31.31km², occupying 3.55% of total loss area. See Table 3-2-13 for details.

Table 3-2-13 Water and soil loss conditions of project area

Upon field investigation on topography and geomorphology, soil and vegetation and land use of the area, combine the remote sensing materials for judgment, and refer to Soil Erosion Classification and Grading Standard (SL190-96) to comprehensively analyze the type and intensity of water and soil loss in evaluation area. See Table 3-2-14 for the results. See Figure 3-3-5 for current status water and soil loss in evaluation area.

Table 3-2-14 Area and proportion of different water and soil loss intensity in project area

Erosion degree	Evaluation area		Area
	Area (hm2)	Proportion in the area of evaluation area (%)	Area (hm2)	Proportion in area of the occupied area (%)
Slight erosion	11773.29	77.51	102.34	68.75
Moderate erosion	2044.77	13.46	39.15	26.30
Severe erosion	174.34	1.15	0	-
Extreme erosion	18.82	0.12	0	-
Intensive erosion	7.63	0.05	0	-
Water body	879.21	5.79	6.0337	4.05
Land for road	290.80	1.91	1.3421	0.90
Subtotal	15188.86	100	148.8573	100.00

See from the above table, water and soil loss in evaluation area and the occupied area are slight.

3.3.5.6 Profiles of key protection objects

The proposed airport and an ancillary road and pipeline occupied area, does not involve the nature reserve, National Forest Park, national emphasis commonweal forest. But in the airport covers range found in the national key protected wild plants in Camphortree distribution.

According to the investigation and field survey, the proposed airport covers range distribution of the state protection of two species and 3722 strains of Camphortree, volume 152.184m³.

Table 3-3-21 List of statistics of Camphortree distributed in airport occupied area

The project area is located in low mountain hilly area, which is of low terrain and slow topography. The area belongs to central subtropical wet monsoon region with gentle climate, abundant rainfall, enough sunshine, which is suitable for growth of subtropical crops. Since the area is affected by the human activities for a long time with original vegetation nearly damaged, the vegetation mainly focuses on forest land and paddy field, which does not relate to occupation of basic farmland, and the proportion of other land utilization type is small.

The evaluation area has on other valuable and rare animals and plants under protection, which does not relate to ecological sensitivity area such as nature reserve and scenic spot, etc. Current status of water and soil loss mainly focuses on slight erosion, and the soil erosion affected by hydraulic impact is not serious.