QUANTIFICATIONAL RESEARCH ON ECO-ENVIRONMENTAL WATER
REQUIREMENT FOR COASTAL WETLAND
IN SHANTOU DEMONSTRATION SITE

XIAO Yanzi*, CHEN Guizhu and PENG Yisheng
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135,
Western Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510275, China
E-mail: chenguizhu@yeah.net


Coastal wetland is the ecological sensitive region, and water is the most important
factor either in the forming or in the growth of coastal wetland. Therefore, the study on
eco-environmental water requirement of coastal wetlands is very important and
imperative for wetland restoration. In this paper, the estimate methods and the amount
of eco-environmental water requirement are studied in Shantou demonstration site.
Based on the assessment indexes of the coastal wetland ecosystem health, the
composition and the hierarchical division of eco-environmental water requirement are
presented. In Shantou coastal wetland, the composition of eco-environmental water
requirement can be divided into seven parts, which are the vegetation water
requirement, soil water requirement, habitat water requirement, inland river water
requirement, sediment transporting water requirement, salinity balance water
requirement and contamination purification water requirement. And each part can be
divided into low, medium, fine, excellent, and the optimum hierarchy, corresponding with
different condition of coastal wetland ecosystem health. Then the calculative methods of
each composition are proposed and different hierarchical water requirements are
educed. According to the calculation, in Shantou coastal wetland the total amount of the
current eco-environmental water requirement is 61.04×108m3. Furthermore, the yearly
variation of water requirement is discussed. Being incorporated with the future planning,
the eco-environmental water requirement is forecasted by the year 2010 and 2030.
Through the quantificational research of eco-environmental water requirement in
Shantou coastal wetland, the state of the ecosystem health can be measured in a
quantificational view and it can be used as the references to offer some relevant
management control measures.

KEY WORDS: coastal wetland; ecosystem health; eco-environmental water

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