Methodologies for Deriving Water Quality Criteria to Protect Aquatic Life(ALC)and Proposal for Development of ALC in China:A Review

Water quality criteria have been used over years as an important component of water resources management to protect diversity of hydrobios and integrity of aquatic ecosystems. Many existing methodologies for deriving water quality criteria to protect aquatic life (ALC)are discussed in this review, but the focus is on a few that are widely accepted and used, or constitute newer methodologies that incorporate and improve upon the best features of prior methodologies. Existing methodologies are evaluated against recent research and reports on protection goal, ecotoxicity data issues, and criterion calculation techniques. A proposed approach for developing ALC in China and possible problems are also discussed, considering modification of existing methodologies and specified taxonomic diversity in China.