An integrated method for waterway health assessment: a case in the Jingjiang reach of the Yangtze River, China

More and more importance has been placed on inland navigation due to the low costs, environmental friendliness, low use of energy per ton kilometer, and high degree of safety of this mode of transportation. A river typically serves multiple functions or provides multiple services in addition to inland navigation. River health assessment for waterways requires that the navigation function be developed in harmony with the other river functions. In the case of the Jingjiang waterway in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, river functions or services were analyzed, and an integrated method for waterway health assessment was proposed. Using this method, a hierarchical assessment indicator system was constructed, the weights for those indicators contributing to their parent indicators were obtained via the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and the Waterway Health Index (WHIc), a multimetric index reflecting the effect of the cask short board, was proposed alongside the commonly used linearly weighted summation index (WHI). Waterway health changes in the Jingjiang Reach were assessed in the context of a waterway regulation project. The results highlight potential mutual improvement between the ecosystem health and navigation functions using certain waterway regulation approaches.