Assessment and prediction of overall environmental quality of Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, China

Fuzzy comprehensive assessment was applied to assess the quality of air, water and soil in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, China based on the monitoring data of 1997 and National Environmental Quality Standards of China. Results show that Zhuzhou air quality belonged to Class II with industry and traffic as the main control areas and SO2 as the major pollutant. Water quality within the Zhuzhou section of the Xiang River belonged to Class IV, with the Xiawan section as the main control area and NH3-N as the major pollutant. Soil environmental quality with respect to heavy metal pollution belonged to Class III, with Cd as the major pollutant. For those pollutants showing significant differences between the years of 1990–1997, predictions were made for the environmental quality for the period 1998–2003. According to the assessment results, cleaner production in the key pollution sources and the establishment of a municipal sewage treatment plant are proposed to improve the environmental quality of Zhuzhou City.