Abstract
A method of potential river healthiness evaluation has been developed in the Natori River supported by GIS and a distributed hydrological model. We have proposed two indices, water quality index and river discharge index, which involve land use effects and distributed runoff model outputs, respectively. These indices can express well regional river environment. Using two indices, we could obtain more detailed information on river health and compare with other rivers having different precipitation. These indices are highly correlated with population density and forest covered ratio, which are convenient for general use. As the results evaluating other rivers from these indices, we could realize the difference among rivers in views of quality and quantity, and the effect of the river healthiness evaluation proposed.
