Suchergebnisse

A collaborative effort of the Agricultural/Urban/Environmental Water Sharing Work Group. ; Includes bibliographical references.

Water allocations for the environment and demand management of environmental water in the context of growing water scarcity are examined in this article. The consumptive use of water is increasing with growing populations and wealth, and water scarcity is being further exacerbated by climate change. In the context of conflicting global and national government policy decisions, water availability to sustain environmental values and benefits is threatened. Freshwater conservation proponents are calling for allocation of environmental flows, requiring societies to make value judgements between socio-economic benefits from consumptive water use versus benefits from instream ecosystem services. Because there will always be trade-offs made in situations of water scarcity, and because many water management systems are adopting finer scale and more flexible management approaches, we argue that environmental flows alone will not adequately conserve many key freshwater ecosystem attributes. Building on Lankford (Lankford BA. 2003. Environmental water requirements: a demand management perspective. J Chart Inst Water Environ Manage. 17:19-22), this article argues that an increased emphasis on demand management for water allocations within the environment is required to manage the growing water scarcity and conserve key freshwater ecosystem attributes. This article outlines options for environmental water demand management, arguing that these freshwater conservation methods are required alongside the provision of environmental flows.

Water allocations for the environment and demand management of environmental water in the context of growing water scarcity are examined in this article. The consumptive use of water is increasing with growing populations and wealth, and water scarcity is being further exacerbated by climate change. In the context of conflicting global and national government policy decisions, water availability to sustain environmental values and benefits is threatened. Freshwater conservation proponents are calling for allocation of environmental flows, requiring societies to make value judgements between socio-economic benefits from consumptive water use versus benefits from instream ecosystem services. Because there will always be trade-offs made in situations of water scarcity, and because many water management systems are adopting finer scale and more flexible management approaches, we argue that environmental flows alone will not adequately conserve many key freshwater ecosystem attributes. Building on Lankford (Lankford BA. 2003. Environmental water requirements: a demand management perspective. J Chart Inst Water Environ Manage. 17:19-22), this article argues that an increased emphasis on demand management for water allocations within the environment is required to manage the growing water scarcity and conserve key freshwater ecosystem attributes. This article outlines options for environmental water demand management, arguing that these freshwater conservation methods are required alongside the provision of environmental flows.

Environmental water pollution affects human health and reduces the quality of our natural water ecosystems and resources. As a result, there is great interest in monitoring water quality and ensuring that all areas are compliant with legislation. Ubiquitous water quality monitoring places considerable demands upon existing sensing technology. The combined challenges of system longevity, autonomous operation, robustness, large-scale sensor networks, operationally difficult deployments and unpredictable and lossy environments collectively represents a technological barrier that has yet to be overcome[1]. Ubiquitous sensing envisages many aspects of our environment being routinely sensed. This will result in data streams from a large variety of heterogeneous sources, which will often vary in their volume and accuracy. The challenge is to develop a networked sensing infrastructure that can support the effective capture, filtering, aggregation and analysis of such data. This will ultimately enable us to dynamically monitor and track the quality of our environment at multiple locations. Microfluidic technology provides a route to the development of miniaturised analytical instruments that could be deployed remotely, and operate autonomously over relatively long periods of time (months–years). An example of such a system is the autonomous phosphate sensor[2] which has been developed at the CLARITY Centre, in Dublin City University. This technology, in combination with the availability of low power, reliable wireless communications platforms that can link sensors and analytical devices to online databases and servers, form the basis for extensive networks of autonomous analytical 'stations' or 'nodes' that will provide high quality information about key chemical parameters that determine the quality of our aquatic environment. The system must also have sufficient intelligence to enable adaptive sampling regimes as well as accurate and efficient decision-making responses. A particularly exciting area of development is ...

Significant progress in environmental flow management has occurred in recent years due to several factors. These include governments committing to environmental flow programs, significant progress in scientific understanding, and environmental flow assessment methods that are cognizant of stakeholder participation and co-design. However, there remain key challenges facing environmental water management. In this paper, we report on a horizon scanning exercise that identified the questions, which, if answered, would deliver much needed progress in the field of environmental water management. We distributed an online survey to ask researchers and practitioners in the field of environmental water management to identify the key questions. The authors then consolidated 268 submitted questions and organized them into key themes. The consolidated list was presented to a workshop of environmental water researchers and practitioners, where attendees were asked to review the questions, vote on the most important, and provide feedback on gaps, issues, or overlaps. The breadth of issues facing environmental water management is captured by the six key themes into which questions were classified: (1) Ecological knowledge and environmental flow assessment methods, (2) Adaptive management, (3) Integrated management and river objectives, (4) Knowledge transfer: applying best practice in a global context, (5) Community knowledge and engagement, and (6) Active management. These questions provide a roadmap for research and management innovations that will improve the effectiveness of environmental flows programs. ; Full Text

Significant progress in environmental flow management has occurred in recent years due to several factors. These include governments committing to environmental flow programs, significant progress in scientific understanding, and environmental flow assessment methods that are cognizant of stakeholder participation and co-design. However, there remain key challenges facing environmental water management. In this paper, we report on a horizon scanning exercise that identified the questions, which, if answered, would deliver much needed progress in the field of environmental water management. We distributed an online survey to ask researchers and practitioners in the field of environmental water management to identify the key questions. The authors then consolidated 268 submitted questions and organized them into key themes. The consolidated list was presented to a workshop of environmental water researchers and practitioners, where attendees were asked to review the questions, vote on the most important, and provide feedback on gaps, issues, or overlaps. The breadth of issues facing environmental water management is captured by the six key themes into which questions were classified: (1) Ecological knowledge and environmental flow assessment methods, (2) Adaptive management, (3) Integrated management and river objectives, (4) Knowledge transfer: applying best practice in a global context, (5) Community knowledge and engagement, and (6) Active management. These questions provide a roadmap for research and management innovations that will improve the effectiveness of environmental flows programs.

This report was prepared in cooperation with, and was funded by, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), with the goal of providing an assessment of the legal regimes for reviewing and approving environmental water transfers in twelve western states. The ability to transfer, change, or dedicate an existing water right under the prior appropriation system to instream uses is a relatively new legal tool. Legislatures in western states first passed statutes authorizing and governing these transfers in the late 1980s. As part of its overall western water program, NFWF engaged with Water in the West to assess the scope, status, and functioning of these laws in different western states.

Legitimacy deficits have been identified as central to the ongoing challenges encountered in implementing the policy reforms introduced to reduce the environmental impacts of over-allocating water in the Murray-Darling Basin. In closing the special issue on Building and Maintaining Trust and Legitimacy in Environmental Water Management, this article draws on the preceding articles in responding to a call for the focus of evaluations of environmental water reforms to be broadened to assess their performance against metrics of legitimacy. The first aim is to consider some analytical issues to be encountered in developing legitimacy metrics for MDB environmental water reform contexts. The other aim is to explore the role of legitimacy metrics in empirical research designed to strengthen the evidence available for deciding whether and how to invest in establishing and sustaining the legitimacy of the MDB reforms. Particular reference is made to empirical studies of the consequences and antecedents of legitimacy in U.S. contexts of the law and its policing. Furnishing policy makers with reliable evidence to guide their decisions on whether and how to invest in the legitimacy of the MDB environmental water reforms will require studies of this kind that are adapted to the unique contexts of these reforms.

The increasing pressure on water resources in Europe&rsquo ; s broader area led member states to take measures and adopt a common legislative &ldquo ; umbrella&rdquo ; of directives to protect them. The aim of this research is to investigate practicing deficiencies, information lacks and distances from optimal status as set by the Water Framework Directive and supporting water uses. This contributes to the improvement of the efficiency and harmonization of all environmental goals especially when management of Protected Areas is addressed. Gap analysis, an approach that reveals the distance between current and desired level, was carried out, targeting five Mediterranean hydro-ecosystems, covering three major water policy pillars &ldquo ; Monitoring Practices&rdquo ; &ldquo ; Management Practices&rdquo ; and &ldquo ; Water Quality and Pressures&rdquo ; . Data for such analyses was collected by literature research supported by a query matrix. The findings revealed a lack in compliance with the Water Framework Directive regarding the &ldquo ; Monitoring Practices&rdquo ; and several deficiencies in sites burdened by eutrophication and human pressures on &ldquo ; Water Quality and Pressures&rdquo ; field. As for &ldquo ; Management Practices&rdquo ; extra effort should be applied in all hydro-ecosystems to reach the desirable state. We suggest that gap analysis, as a harmonization tool, can unify apparently different areas under the same goals to reveal the extra necessary &ldquo ; investment&rdquo ; .

The Murray–Darling Basin Plan is a $AU 13 billion program to return water from irrigation use to the environment. Central to the success of the Plan, commenced in 2012, is the implementation of an Environmentally Sustainable Level of Take (ESLT) and a Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) on the volume of water that can be taken for consumptive use. Under the enabling legislation, the Water Act (2007), the ESLT and SDL must be set by the "best available science." In 2009, the volume of water to maintain wetlands and rivers of the Basin was estimated at 3000–7600 GL per year. Since then, there has been a steady step-down in this volume to 2075 GL year due to repeated policy adjustments, including "supply measures projects," building of infrastructure to obtain the same environmental outcomes with less water. Since implementation of the Plan, return of water to the environment is falling far short of targets. The gap between the volume required to maintain wetlands and rivers and what is available is increasing with climate change and other risks, but the Plan makes no direct allowance for climate change. We present policy options that address the need to adapt to less water and re-frame the decision context from contestation between water for irrigation versus the environment. Options include best use of water for adaptation and structural adjustment packages for irrigation communities integrated with environmental triage of those wetlands likely to transition to dryland ecosystems under climate change.

This report attempts to introduce a prototype scoring system for the ecological status of rivers in India and illustrate it through the applications in several major river basins. This system forms part of the desktop environmental flow assessment and is based on a number of indicators reflecting ecological condition and sensitivity of a river. The unique aspect of this study is that it interprets, for the first time, the existing ecological information for Indian rivers in the context of environmental flow assessment. The report targets government departments, research institutions and NGOs which are engaged in environmental flow management and associated policy development, and suggests some subsequent steps in environmental flow work in India.

Current regulations and legislation require critical revision to determine safety for alternative water sources and water reuse as part of the solution to global water crisis. In order to fulfill those demands, Lisbon municipality decided to start water reuse as part of a sustainable hydric resources management, and there was a need to confirm safety and safeguard for public health for its use in this context. For this purpose, a study was designed that included a total of 88 samples collected from drinking, superficial, underground water, and wastewater at three different treatment stages. Quantitative Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) detection (qPCR) of enteric viruses Norovirus (NoV) genogroups I (GI) and II (GII) and Hepatitis A (HepA) was performed, and also FIB (E. coli, enterococci and fecal coliforms) concentrations were assessed. HepA virus was only detected in one untreated influent sample, whereas NoV GI/ NoV GI were detected in untreated wastewater (100/100%), secondary treated effluent (47/73%), and tertiary treated effluent (33/20%). Our study proposes that NoV GI and GII should be further studied to provide the support that they may be suitable indicators for water quality monitoring targeting wastewater treatment efficiency, regardless of the level of treatment.

Current regulations and legislation require critical revision to determine safety for alternative water sources and water reuse as part of the solution to global water crisis. In order to fulfill those demands, Lisbon municipality decided to start water reuse as part of a sustainable hydric resources management, and there was a need to confirm safety and safeguard for public health for its use in this context. For this purpose, a study was designed that included a total of 88 samples collected from drinking, superficial, underground water, and wastewater at three different treatment stages. Quantitative Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) detection (qPCR) of enteric viruses Norovirus (NoV) genogroups I (GI) and II (GII) and Hepatitis A (HepA) was performed, and also FIB (E. coli, enterococci and fecal coliforms) concentrations were assessed. HepA virus was only detected in one untreated influent sample, whereas NoV GI/ NoV GI were detected in untreated wastewater (100/100%), secondary treated effluent (47/73%), and tertiary treated effluent (33/20%). Our study proposes that NoV GI and GII should be further studied to provide the support that they may be suitable indicators for water quality monitoring targeting wastewater treatment efficiency, regardless of the level of treatment. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Mit der UNO Resolution vom Juli 2010 wurde das Menschenrecht auf Wasser und Sanitätsversorgung anerkannt. Trotzdem leben weltweit 884 Millionen Menschen ohne Zugang zu sauberem Wasser oder sanitärer Grundversorgung. Dabei spielt Wasser eine herausragende Rolle bei der Übertragung von Krankheitserregen. Wasserbedingte Krankheitserreger sind seit jeher von großer humanmedizinischer Bedeutung. Mit der Schaffung geeigneter Instrumentarien wie Abwasserreinigung, Trinkwasseraufbereitung und Überwachung öffentlicher Wasserversorgungsanlagen sind die hygienischen Bedingungen in den Industrieländern bakteriologisch im Allgemeinen unter Kontrolle gebracht. Die parasitäre Belastung bleibt hierbei jedoch unberücksichtigt und die technische Umsetzung von Multibarrierensystemen zur Rückhaltung von Parasiten ist durchaus noch verbesserungswürdig. Cryptosporidium spp. und Giardia duodenalis gehören zu den parasitären Protozoen der Vertebraten. Weltweit kommt es jährlich zu 2,8 x 108 Neuinfektionen durch G. duodenalis und 3.0 x 105 Neuinfektionen durch Cryptosporidium. Die Übertragung erfolgt in i.d.R. fäkal-oral durch die mit den Fäzes ausgeschiedenen Dauerstadien der Erreger. Die nahrungsmittel- und wasserassoziierte Übertragung ist weit verbreitet. Wasserbedingte Parasitosen gewinnen zunehmend an Interesse und es existieren zahlreiche wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen zu diesem Thema. Über das Vorkommen und die Verbreitung in Deutschland liegt jedoch nur wenig Datenmaterial vor. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden zwischen Juli 2009 und Januar 2011 insgesamt 396 Wasserproben unterschiedlicher Herkunft gesammelt, mit zwei verschiedenen Verfahren aufgearbeitet und mit drei Nachweismethoden vergleichend auf das Vorhandensein von parasitären Protozoen untersucht. Aus Zu- und Abläufen von acht kommunalen Kläranlagen wurden 206 Proben, aus Oberflächengewässern (ein Badegewässer, ein kleines Fließgewässer und der Rhein) sowie aus einem rheinnahen Trinkwassergewinnungsgebiet mit drei Grundwassermessstellen, einer Rohwassermessstelle und einer Trinkwassermessstelle insgesamt 190 Proben untersucht. Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über das aus den Kläranlagen emittierte Belastungspotenzial an parasitären Krankheitserregern. Sie stellt dar, welche Belastungen in den Oberflächengewässern, im Grundwasser und im Trinkwasser vorhanden sind. Zusätzlich zur Verbreitung der Parasiten in einem Gebiet von 650 km2 wurde die Rückhaltung der Parasiten in den Kläranlagen, durch Uferfiltration, durch die Bodenpassage in das Grundwasser und die Trinkwasseraufbereitung anhand des gewonnenen Datenmaterials bewertet. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wurden alle Proben mittels Immunofluoreszenz-Test (IFT), 4′,6-Diamidino-2-phenylindol-Färbung und anschließender mikroskopischer Detektion (Epifluoreszenz und Differenz-Interferenz-Konstrast) quantitativ auf das Vorhandensein von Giardia Zysten und Cryptosporidium Oozysten untersucht. Parasitenstadien konnten in allen Wasserqualitäten nachgewiesen werden. Die höchsten Raten traten erwartungsgemäß in den Zuläufen von Kläranlagen auf. Nach der Abwasserreinigung und im weiteren Verlauf des Wasserkreislaufs, im Oberflächenwasser und Grundwasser, bis hin zum aufbereiteten Wasser für die Trinkwasserversorgung konnte eine zunehmende Dezimierung der (Oo)zysten beobachtet werden. Die Betrachtung der Ergebnisse über die Zeit ergaben für die beiden Parasiten jahreszeitliche Schwankungen und typische Jahresgänge v.a. im Zulauf der Kläranlagen. Während Giardia Zysten alternierende Kurvenverläufe zeigten, konnten bei Cryptosporidium Oozysten saisonale Spitzen beobachtet werden. Abhängig von der Ausbaugröße, der Verfahrenstechnik und dem Einzugsgebiet traten Unterschiede in den Kläranlagen auf. Eine Korrelation zum Auftreten anderer mikrobiologischer Hygieneparameter konnte jedoch nicht festgestellt werden. Die Untersuchungen des Badegewässers und des Fließgewässers im Einzugsgebiet wurden während der Badesaison in den Jahren 2009 und 2010 an 54 Proben durchgeführt. Einschließlich der Proben aus dem Rhein waren 11% mit Cryptosporidien bzw. 12% mit Giardien belastet. Aufgrund von Änderungen im hydraulischen Regime des Gewässersystems ergab sich in der Saison 2010 trotz erhöhten Probenvolumens keine Steigerung der Positivergebnisse. Aus dem Trinkwassergewinnungsgebiet konnten in 8,8% der 113 Proben Cryptosporidium Oozysten und in 0,88% Giardia Zysten nachgewiesen werden. Zysten traten jedoch in keiner der Rohwasser- und Trinkwasserproben auf. Die Arbeit konnte belegen, dass Cryptosporidien in allen Wassermatrizes auftreten und Giardia bei der Trinkwasseraufbereitung besser als Cryptosporidien zurückgehalten wird. Ausgehend von den Kläranlageneinleitungen in das Oberflächenwasser infiltriert ein Teil der Organismen ins Grundwasser. Bis zum Endverbraucher findet eine Reduzierung der Oozysten um ein bis zwei Größenordnungen statt. Aufgrund der niedrigen Infektionsdosis von 1 -10 (Oo)zysten stellt das Baden in Oberflächengewässern und der Trinkwasserkonsum ein Infektionsrisiko besonders für immungeschwächte Personen dar. Giardien und Cryptosporidien sollten demnach künftig in die routinemäßige Trinkwasserüberwachung implementiert werden. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wurden 227 Proben mit zwei weiteren molekularbiologischen Methoden (PCR - Polymerase Chain Reaction und LAMP – Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) untersucht. Die Vor- und Nachteile der Methoden wurden im Hinblick auf praktische Anwendbarkeit und Effizienz herausgearbeitet und mit den Standardverfahren (USEPA 1623 und ISO 15553) verglichen. Hieraus ergab sich eine unterschiedliche Rangfolge in der Nachweishäufigkeit der beiden Organismen mit den drei Verfahren. Mit der konventionellen mikroskopischen Untersuchung wurden von Giardia mehr Positivergebnisse eruiert als mit der LAMP und der PCR (56.8 % > 42.7% > 33.5%); hingegen war die Rangfolge bei Cryptosporidium LAMP, PCR und IFT (43.6% > 41.9% > 30.4%). Die Ursachen sind im Wesentlichen in der Spezifität und Störanfälligkeit der einzelnen Untersuchungsverfahren zu suchen. Die relative Leistungsfähigkeit der Verfahren wurde mittels statistischer Auswertung mit dem Ergebnis bewertet, dass beide molekularbiologischen Anwendungen keine Gleichwertigkeit zur konventionellen Mikroskopie aufweisen. Das LAMP-Verfahren kann, verglichen mit der PCR, als gleichwertig eingestuft werden. Der Nachweis von Toxoplasma gondii in unterschiedlich stark kontaminierten Wasserproben wird im dritten Teil dieser Arbeit vorgestellt. T. gongii gilt ebenfalls als einer der Parasiten, die unter dem Verdacht stehen, über den Wasserweg übertragen zu werden. Für den Nachweis von T. gondii existieren keine Standardverfahren, so dass hier das molekularbiologische LAMP-Verfahren, welches auf der Amplifizierung des Toxoplasma B1 Gens beruht, für unterschiedlich stark kontaminierte Wasserproben Anwendung fand. Toxoplasma DNA konnte in 95 und damit in 9,6% der Proben aus den Zu- und Abläufen von Kläranlagen, nicht aber in Oberflächen-, Grund- und Trinkwasser nachgewiesen werden. Dies ist die erste Studie über den Nachweis von Toxoplasma Oozysten in Wasserproben aus Deutschland. Die Untersuchung von Belastungen des Wassers mit T. gondii bietet Hinweise auf das Infektionspotenzial wasserassoziierter Parasiten für Mensch und Tier. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird das LAMP-Verfahren für den Nachweis von T. gondii vorgestellt. Ziel war, die Aufmerksamkeit auf das Risiko von Toxoplasmose Ausbrüchen zu erhöhen. Die Arbeit belegt, dass Parasitenstadien von G. duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp. und T. gondii im Wasserkreislauf auftreten und über den Wasserweg weiterverbreitet werden. Die Vor- und Nachteile verschiedener Probenahmetechniken und Nachweismethoden konnten dargestellt werden. Außerdem konnte belegt werden, dass IFT, LAMP und PCR für die Hygieneüberwachung des Wassers, zur Vermeidung von Epidemien und zum schnellen Auffinden von Kontaminationsquellen herangezogen werden können. Eine routinemäßige Überwachung insbesondere des Trinkwassers wird gerade im Hinblick auf das Infektionsrisiko immungeschwächter Personen als sinnvoll erachtet.

Hydrological drainage/river basins constitute highly heterogeneous systems of coupled natural and anthropogenic water and pollutant flows across political, national and international boundaries. These flows need to be appropriately understood, quantified and communicated to stakeholders, in order to appropriately guide environmental water system management. In this thesis, various uncertainties about water and pollutant flows in drainage/river basins and their implications for effective and efficient water pollution abatement are investigated, in particular for mine-related heavy metal loadings in the Swedish Dalälven River basin and for nitrogen loadings in the Swedish Norrström drainage basin. Economic cost-minimization modeling is used to investigate the implications of pollutant load uncertainties for the cost-efficiency of catchment-scale abatement of water pollution. Results indicate that effective and efficient pollution abatement requires explicit consideration of uncertainties about pollution sources, diffuse contributions of the subsurface water system to downstream pollutant observations in surface waters, and downstream effects of different possible measures to reduce water pollution. In many cases, downstream load abatement measures must be used, in addition to source abatement, in order to reduce not only expected, but also uncertainties around expected pollutant loads. Effective and efficient environmental management of water systems must generally also consider the entire catchments of these systems, rather than focusing only on discrete pollutant sources. The thesis presents some relatively simple, catchment-scale pollutant flow analysis tools that may be used to decrease uncertainties about unmonitored water and pollutant flows and subsurface pollutant accumulation-depletion and diffuse loading to downstream waters.