Huangshui River (HSR) is the mother river of Qinghai province. Croplands and grasslands cover more than 76% of the total area, and highland agriculture and animal husbandry are the dominant industries. The use of pesticides, fertilizers, and feed additives increases the risk of heavy metal (HM) contamination. In this study, the concentration of HMs in the main stream and tributaries of HSR were investigated. The Positive Matrix Factorization model was used for source apportionment, and Health Risk Assessment method was used to assess the human health risks. To further analyze the effect of agriculture and animal husbandry on aquatic environment and human health, we considered agriculture and animal husbandry as two factors in the source apportionment process, defined the effect of the factors, established the calculation formula, and quantified the effects. The results show that the overall situation of aquatic environment in HSR is good; natural processes, traffic tail gas and atmospheric deposition, agricultural planting, industrial wastewater discharge, and animal husbandry are the main sources of HMs in the water. These HMs present noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks for infants. A total effect of agricultural and animal husbandry on HMs or HI in HSRB is approximately 20%, while on TCR is 40%. However, the effects of agriculture on the hazard quotient of arsenic, carcinogenic risk of nickel and lead, and that of animal husbandry on carcinogenic risk of cadmium were significant. This study can provide a theoretical basis for local managers of agriculture and animal husbandry to perform their work effectively.

Water quality in the Dawu water source area is primarily studied through the traditional water quality assessment method that measures the chemical parameters of water against the existing standards, which is simple but cannot accurately describe the water quality. Although the water quality index (WQI) proposed by Horton is widely used for comprehensive water quality evaluation, parameter selection and weight determination are primarily based on the Delphi method, which is subjective and random. Moreover, in groundwater evaluation, the focus is primarily laid on general chemical parameters, such as Total Dissolved Solids, hydrogen ion concentration, Electrical Conductivity, and heavy metals, such as Hydrargyrum, Arsenic, and Chromium, with limited consideration for organic pollutants. In this study, WQI technology in combination with the entropy weight method was used to evaluate the groundwater environmental quality of the Dawu water source area, and the scientific results were analyzed by comparing the full index, Delphi, and multivariate statistical analysis methods. The results showed that the groundwater in the Dawu water source area generally had good quality and was potable and that the application of multivariate statistical analysis method was more suitable than the Delphi method in the index selection process.

Copper is an important strategic resource for the national economy and social security of China. Water use is a significant component of copper production. However, water shortages and water pollution are two global crises in water resource management. In this study, a copper production industry in China was studied from the perspective of water footprint (WF) and ecological industry (eco-industry). A WF inventory was built by accounting for the entire production and supply chain process, including mining, ore dressing, transportation, smelting, and electrolysis. An index system comprising target, criterion, and variable layers was established to evaluate the sustainable utilization of water resources. It was observed that the studied industry showed a good sustainability for water resource utilization. Only 65.67 tons of freshwater per ton of product was inputted in the entire process due to virtual water (VW) and the use of reclaimed water. However, the WF of each ton of cathode copper product was 162.58 t, and the imported VW of the eco-industry accounted for 92.45%. Increasing the VW import and reducing the VW export can alleviate water shortages. A detailed WF analysis showed that the effects of evaporation and different types of losses on the blue WF (BWF) were significant and should be considered. Upstream water consumption of electricity and other energy sources were also observed to be an important part of the BWF. Regardless of whether freshwater or recycled water was used, the WF can be reduced only by effectively reducing water consumption.