Search

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various articles within the issue on topics including the Tapping the Turn international conference on water resource management, blending of safety policy and farm dam equity, and effects of water reforms in on-farm wetlands.

Highlights: [•] Ground cover rice production system increase grain yield by 18% at regional scales. [•] Success of GCRPS is depending on suitable water management avoiding excess water. [•] GCRPS is an invaluable technique in regions where temperature and water limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As further promotion of the rural drinking water safety project in whole country, small villages in vast countryside have been or will be equipped with safety drinking water project. We analyzed necessity of the rural drinking water disinfection, discussed disinfection method suitable for rural drinking water characteristics, and put forward disinfection schemes for different water supply sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The safety of catchment basins is threatened because of the potential and severe consequences of private on-farm dam failure. Such failure follows inadequate development and implementation of accountability and assurance policy in relation to water storage, a consideration which resources and land use policy planning must take into account if lives, private property, public infrastructure and the environment downstream are to be saved. Thus, this paper aims to explore the interrelated policy issues associated with improving safety of farm dam water storage structures to mitigate individual and cumulative dam failure threats. The paper provides insights into the design of best-practice resources and land use policy for the Australian setting based on contemporary international best practice in private dam safety accountability and assurance policy. A strategic literature review identifies international dam safety policy benchmarks from minimum to best practice. Practical application of the benchmarked policy is then undertaken through case studies in two contrasting Australian states, Tasmania and South Australia, which literature suggests represent a leader and laggard in terms of best international policy practice. Whilst Tasmania provides leadership and best practice in comparison with international policy benchmarks, the paper reports data from a 15-year longitudinal case study which confirms that South Australia lags and demonstrably would benefit from application of the policy guidelines developed. The case study on appropriate dam safety management accountability and assurance policy development for catchments in two strongly contrasting state jurisdictions in Australia is novel, as are the recommendations developed for how resources and land use policy can best address cumulative threats from smaller dams in catchments. The case study and recommendations can assist similar jurisdictions world-wide to address the threats associated with farm dams in catchments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: There is plenty of water available in hills, the main problem of the locality is the drinking water. These water resources are not exploited for drinking and irrigation purposes. Also, certain health problems are associated with people living in hills that are because of the presence of excess of heavy metals and other impurities. Aims and Objectives: The present study was conducted to analyze the various parameters of ground water in uttarakhand, India and to check its fitness for drinking. It will also clarify the health hazards imposed on the population of this state. Design & Setting: The present study was conducted in five regions of Uttarakhand, India (Haridwar, Vikasnagar, Mussoorie, Dehradun & Dakpathar) during 2006-2007. Ten samples of ground water were collected from each of the five regions during the pre-monsoon (Jan-Feb 2007) and post-monsoon (Sept-Oct 2006) seasons. Materials & Method: The pH was estimated by pH meter and the alkalinity was determined by titration methods. The total suspended solid was calculated by the following formula: Total suspended solid (mg) / ltr = (A-B) x 1000 / sample vol. in litres. Where, A= weight of filter + dried residue, B=weight of filter paper. Total hardness was calculated by adding calcium and magnesium hardness derived by EDTA titration method. The chloride was estimated by silver nitrate titration method and sulphates were estimated by titration method. The different heavy metals (Mn, Al, Ba, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe and Pb) were determined in the ground water samples by ICP mass spectroscopy. Results: The concentrations of heavy metals, pH, alkalinity, sulphate, chloride, TDS & Total Hardness (TH) were compared with the standards set by BIS for Drinking water (IS 10500:1991). The results show that water quality of all the five regions studied showed no remarkable variation from the BIS recommended value of pH (6.5-8.5). The alkalinity was above the BIS desirable level of 200mg/l in all the samples, but was less than the maximum permissible limit. The Drinking water of all the regions contains higher amounts of TDS than the desirable limits. The maximum TDS was detected in Haridwar (682.5 mg/L) and dehradun (610 mg/L) state. The ground water of mussoorie region shows total hardness to be above the BIS desirable level of 300mg/l. The chloride content was above the BIS desirable level of 250mg/l in dehradun only. The sulphate content was highest in haridwar (197.5mg/l) and dehradun (170mg/l) but it was below the desirable limit of 200mg/l. The cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) content of all the five regions of Uttarakhand showed higher the BIS permissible limits of 0.01, 0.05 and 0.05 mg/l respectively. The content of manganese (Mn), barium (Ba), Copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe) are within the permissible limit of BIS standards for drinking water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problem-solving capacity of river basin cooperatives in German water policy in historical and current cases. The article builds on institutional theory and refers to the most important Water Framework Directive (WDF) of the European Union in 2000 and works back to the emergence of the first agencies in Germany around 1900. The article shows that these agencies organized a sophisticated institutional compromise between different groups of water users such as mining companies and public authorities. The Prussian state set up a complex legal framework of representation and negotiation of conflicting interests, as the article shows with the cases of the Schwarze Elster and the Erft cooperative. The second part of the paper discusses the problem-solving capacity of these old institutional structures for today's problems such as environmental degradation and urban shrinkage. It states, by analyzing the cases of the Erft and the Rur cooperatives, that the complex mechanisms of financing and decision-making provide protection of water resources and broad agreement amongst the actors involved. The cooperatives are expanding their activities in the context of the WFD and can be regarded to be an appropriate instrument of water policy in the early 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted in Naranjo County located in the municipality of Mixco, Guatemala. The water supply source comes from two wells with a maximum flow of 25.24 and 33.44 L.s-1. The main problem with this source is the high arsenic concentration-between 0.1341 and 0.1671 mg.L-1. The aim of this study was to conduct laboratory tests, basic engineering and supervision of the construction and evaluation of an operations plant using two configurations, A (low-rate sedimentation and ceramic filter) and B (high-rate sedimentation and clinoptilolite filter), to remove arsenic present in water for human use and consumption. This plant supplies water to Naranjo County in Mixco, Guatemala (5000 inhabitants). First, a laboratory Jar Test was performed to evaluate arsenic removal efficiency. And second, a conventional clarification plant was then built (design flow: 25.24 L.s-1). The best results were achieved with configuration B, with the following reagents and dosage as defined by the laboratory tests: 10 mg L-1 ferric chloride as coagulant; 1.8 mg.L-1 CH-polyfocal as flocculant and 0.4 mg L-1 MIT03 as color removal; 1 mg L-1 sodium hypochlorite as oxidant and adjusting pH to ≈7.0 with sodium hydroxide. Once the plant began operating, the efficiency of the treatment process was evaluated. The maximum elimination efficiencies were obtained 100% for turbidity (0 UTN), 89.54% (3.66 UPt-Co) for color and 96.80% (0.005 mg L-1) for arsenic, values that comply with Guatemalan standards. For this case, the relation between Fe(III) dosage/mg and As(V) removal was 1:46. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society is facing growing environmental problems that require new research efforts to understand the way ecosystems operate and survive, and their mutual relationships with the hydrologic cycle. In this respect, ecohydrology suggests a renewed interdisciplinary approach that aims to provide a better comprehension of the effects of climatic changes on terrestrial ecosystems. With this aim, a coupled hydrological/ecological model is adopted to describe simultaneously vegetation pattern evolution and hydrological water budget at the basin scale using as test site the Upper Rio Salado basin (Sevilleta, NM, USA). The hydrological analyses have been carried out using a recently formulated framework for the water balance at the daily level linked with a spatial model for the description of the spatial organization of vegetation. This enables quantitatively assessing the effects on soil water availability on future climatic scenarios. Results highlighted that the relationship between climatic forcing (water availability) and vegetation patterns is strongly non-linear. This implies, under some specific conditions which depend on the ecosystem characteristics, small changes in climatic conditions may produce significant transformation of the vegetation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision support system (DSS) tools are rather popular in the literature on water resources management. The European Project "Splash" conducted a survey of the literature and of DSS implementation in developing countries with specific reference on Africa. Experts in the field were consulted through an ad hoc questionnaire and interviews. The results of the survey indicate that the exchange of experiences amongst projects with similar objectives or even the same case study is very limited, with a tendency towards restarting every time from scratch. As a consequence, it seems that DSS developments have produced only limited positive impacts. Most experts contacted shared either the frustration deriving from the limited impacts on intended end-users, who rarely used the tool after the project end, or in the case of ongoing projects, the preoccupation for future maintenance. Responses from the questionnaires indicate that priority efforts should not focus on developing the tools, but rather on improving the effectiveness and applicability of integrated water resource management legislative and planning frameworks, training and capacity building, networking and cooperation, harmonization of transnational data infrastructures and, very importantly, learning from past experiences and adopting enhanced protocols for DSS development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines some of the forms of water management in Shanxi [...] and Shaanxi [...] provinces during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Facing serious water shortages and shrinking state power for water management, the local society in Shanxi and Shaanxi took over water management and gradually formed a local self-government system for the water resources. Depending on water management organizations in which the local gentry were the core power, the water rules were based on natural topographic conditions, historical water practices in the locality, traditional moral-ethical ideas, and even water policies and water laws. This water management system played a positive role in mobilizing the participation of members, preventing opportunistic behavior such as free riding and rent seeking, while decreasing the probability of water conflicts and the costs of litigation. However, this water management system was also subject to endemic corruption because of the lack of effective monitoring from the local government. As similar problems appear to exist in China today, this article analyzes the features of this water management system, and examines the problems that faced those systems so as to provide a warning from history for modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrient enrichment of lakes and reservoirs used for a potable water supply can lead to a broad array of adverse effects ranging from operational problems to potential increases in certain human health- related risks. Human health risks that may be exacerbated by nutrient enrichment stem from increases in disinfection by-products, cyanotoxins, and arsenic. New York state is developing numeric nutrient criteria for the protection of water supply lakes and reservoirs by establishing relationships between nutrients, algal abundance, dissolved organic carbon, and trihalomethanes, and then targeting established regulatory endpoints to set appropriate numeric nutrient criteria thresholds. This approach represents a much-needed bridge between the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act by defining source water protection goals. Findings to date from the investigation of 21 systems indicate that a mean chlorophyll a threshold of 4-6 μg/L would likely be protective of potable water supply lakes and reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scarcity will affect nearly two-thirds of the world in the near future. The impacts of climate change are likely to exacerbate these problems and unless appropriate adaptation strategies are adopted, resilience is difficult to achieve. The paper surveys the water resources available in South Asian countries and takes into account the projected climate change impacts on these resources. The paper also analyses the water policies and formulates a conceptual water policy framework in which adaptation is central. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Each single phase of a water supply network, from water adduction to distribution to end-users, is exposed to many diverse potential sources of intentional contamination (or malicious attacks). One of the most dangerous threats is a backflow attack that occurs when a pump system, easily available on the market, is utilized to overcome the pressure gradient of network pipes. In this work, a simple backflow attack with cyanide being introduced into a real-water system is modeled and the most dangerous introduction points for a contaminant incident are defined. Moreover, the network vulnerability has been analyzed by computing the lethal dose of cyanide ingested by users and the total length of the contaminated water system. Eventually the effects of network partitioning and district isolation to protect water supply systems have been investigated. The results show how district closing - by network sectorization techniques used to improve leakage search and reduction - can significantly decrease contaminant diffusion and protect part of the users from cyanide uptake. Network sectorization can also reduce the risk of simple malicious attacks because several introduction points are necessary to have a massive negative impact on the network. Simulation results also show that in some cases water network partitioning may worsen water network protection and further studies are necessary to design water districts for network security and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two-steps fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model was constructed by developing evaluating indicators system on guarding quality safety of reclaimed water and weighting evaluating indicators with analytic hierarchy process(AHP). By employing the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to reclaimed water demonstrate base in Liantang of Shenzhen, the following results were acquired: when calculating weights of evaluating indicators, AHP displays these virtues, such as independence of evaluation personnel's diathesis, authority and ability, possessing scientific test methods and having tiny error; further, safety guarantee system is comprehensively appraised with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model combining qualitative appraisal with quantitative appraisal, so it avoids subjective arbitrariness and is coincident to actual circs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In light of the current and future threats to global water security the current research focuses on trialing interventions to promote urban water conservation. We report an experimental study designed to test the long-term impact of three different interventions on household water consumption in South East Queensland. Participants from 221 households were recruited and completed an initial survey, and their houses were fitted with smart water meters which measured total water usage at 5 s intervals. Households were allocated into one of four conditions: a control group and three interventions groups (water saving information alone, information plus a descriptive norm manipulation, and information plus tailored end-user feedback). The study is the first to use smart water metering technology as a tool for behaviour change as well as a way to test the effectiveness of demand management interventions. Growth curve modelling revealed that compared to the control, the three intervention groups all showed reduced levels of household consumption (an average reduction of 11.3 L per person per day) over the course of the interventions, and for some months afterwards. All interventions led to significant water savings, but long-term household usage data showed that in all cases, the reduction in water use resulting from the interventions eventually dissipated, with water consumption returning to pre-intervention levels after approximately 12 months. Implications for water demand management programs are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In pursuing their mandate of providing good and safe drinking water, water system operators and asset owners work continuously towards developing and maintaining the trust and confidence of their customers. The goal of developing and maintaining customer trust has led to an increased emphasis in the water sector to explicitly assess and manage risks. In this paper, we introduce Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) as an approach to assessing technical and organizational risk in the water industry. LOPA offers a robust, rational and defensible approach for assessing the adequacy of independent protection layers (IPLs), such as treatment units, standard operating procedures and incident response procedures, used to mitigate environmental and process risks in water supply systems. The strength of LOPA is not only its ability to facilitate a review of technical systems' reliability, but also its versatility to be used for the review of organizational resilience under trying conditions and the opportunity to learn from failure. This is demonstrated in this paper with a review of more than 400 incidents affecting a large water utility serving some six million customers between 1997 and 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Water security is a challenge faced within many transboundary river basins. Identifying the resilient factors within a system may reduce water security concerns and enhance cooperation. In this paper, we are examining the dimensions of resilience as influenced by the rate of change and institutional capacity within river basins. Three case studies are analyzed for their water security capacity, including resilience and vulnerability, as well as institutional capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water stress and scarcity has affected, and will continue to affect, the stability of communities. An overview of global water security challenges indicates profound difficulties and potential flashpoints. There are many examples of struggles in supplying clean water throughout the world, and how water has been both a strategic tool and object of conflict in the past. Water has been an instrument of ethnic and religious conflict, and has recently been used in regional and local clashes. Transboundary water disputes are also potentially dangerous in several regions of the world and stresses from climate change and variability increase the uncertainty of clean water supplies. Potential ways to move positively forward and increase international security include: anticipating future regions of conflict over water, cooperation among water users, proper policy and regulatory structures, and infrastructure solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Santiago de Cali was founded in 1536 and began its development and expansion around the Cali river; in 1778 was founded the first aqueduct that supplied water to people of the time by public piles and at the end of the decade of 50's, the Cauca river became the main solution to constant shortage crisis in the city. This reflection paper aims to analysis the evolution of that has taken the Water Supply System (WSS) of the city, the improvements and additions in line with the requirements of growth and development, the current status and control measures implemented to permanently ensure safe water supply to consumers. Currently, the water service company has implemented a Management System and Quality and is developing a Water Safety Plan (WSP) as tools for health risk management and quality assurance of drinking water, responding to the emerging global trends and considering an integral approach of all WSS-steps (water source, treatment processes, distribution system and consumer). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply and sanitation systems using the supply-driven approach have not met the demands of consumers. Systems are also facing problems of underuse, poor maintenance and inadequate cost recovery. This study reports about approaches used by water and sanitation program implementers in Shebedino District, a rural area in Ethiopia. A community-based study was conducted using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and a structured questionnaire. A total of 635 households were studied. The supplier-induced approach was found to be the main approach used by program implementers. The involvement of beneficiary communities at different stages of the projects was limited. Water and sanitation services were subsidized by implementing agencies but households were dissatisfied with the outcomes. More than 88 % of respondents stated that they did not have any relevant skills or expertise to enable them to maintain the facilities. Logistic regression analysis results showed that approaches used by sanitation program implementers were statistically associated with sex of household heads (2.144, AOR 95 % Cl: 1.520-3.025), family size (1.554, AOR 95 % CI: 1.100-2.196), subsidy (1.699, AOR 95 % CI: 0.390-0.921) and occupation (15.196, AOR 95 % CI: 1.946-118.660). However, no statistical significant association was found among age, sex, marital status, income, family size, education and occupation and approaches used by water program implementers. Generally, the unsatisfactory results of the supplier-induced approach (80.8 % for water and 33.1 % for sanitation facilities) point out the need for program implementers to give more attention to the demands and preferences of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monash University (Gippsland campus) is situated in Churchill, Latrobe Valley, located in central Gippsland, eastern Victoria. A large percentage of the Gippsland region comprises of a socio-economically disadvantaged population (Figure 1). In Semester One, 2011 as part of the Bachelor of Primary Education course at Monash, it was decided that a pathway be created to achieve these national ideals and goals through the implementation of swimming and water safety education in Primary schools. Swimming and water safety education represents the specific curriculum to be implemented in rural schools, it is representative of any aspect of the curriculum to be delivered. This paper comprises a narrative memoir by the author of his involvement in the pathway and subsequently the paper sheds light on the barriers, benefits and strategies for implementing such policies in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Integrated Coastal Zone Management / Revista de Gestão Costeira Integrada is the property of Associacao Portuguesa dos Recursos Hidricos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Military Engineer / Hadmérnök is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) methodology, which aims to enhance safety of drinking water supplies, has been recommended by the World Health Organization since 2004. WSPs are now used worldwide and are legally required in several countries. However, there is limited systematic evidence available demonstrating the effectiveness of WSPs on water quality and health. Iceland was one of the first countries to legislate the use of WSPs, enabling the analysis of more than a decade of data on impact of WSP. The objective was to determine the impact of WSP implementation on regulatory compliance, microbiological water quality, and incidence of clinical cases of diarrhea. Surveillance data on water quality and diarrhea were collected and analyzed. The results show that HPC (heterotrophic plate counts), representing microbiological growth in the water supply system, decreased statistically significant with fewer incidents of HPC exceeding 10 cfu per mL in samples following WSP implementation and noncompliance was also significantly reduced (p < 0.001 in both cases). A significant decrease in incidence of diarrhea was detected where a WSP was implemented, and, furthermore, the results indicate that population where WSP has been implemented is 14% less likely to develop clinical cases of diarrhea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate water security, the Water Resources Sustainability Evaluation Model has been developed. The model employs four criteria (economic development, flood control security, water supply security, and water environment security) and has 22 indicators, integrating them using their relative weights. The model is applied to evaluate the water security of Wuhan urban agglomeration, China. The values of the indicators are normalized using the exponential efficacy functions based on the law of diminishing marginal utility. The evaluation results show that, overall, the state of water security in Wuhan urban agglomeration is good, which is in good agreement with the true situation. The comparison between the results of the model and other three evaluation methods by the Spearman coefficient of rank correlation verifies the science and reliability of the developed model. Consequently, it is concluded that the model can be an effective tool for evaluating the states of water security and provide a basis on which to create policies for improving inadequacies in water security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the evaluation of potential risk from ingestion of groundwater near an impacted site, numerical simulation of fate and transport processes of chemicals of concern is often required. If there is potential concern about multiple chemicals, numerical simulation of each chemical separately is often needed. In this paper, a semi-analytical solution is presented based on a numerical solution of the transport of a conservative and nonreactive tracer. When multiple chemicals undergoing sorption and first-order degradation need to be modeled, we can avoid performing individual numerical simulations for each chemical by applying the semi-analytical solution. Numerical test runs were conducted to verify the semi-analytical solution; simulation results reveal that the concentrations derived from the semi-analytical solution are identical to those derived from the individual numerical fate and transport model simulations. The semi-analytical solution requires steady-state flow conditions, no continuing contaminant source, and similar initial source concentration distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a comparative assessment of drinking-water standards from almost all South American countries, using the USA and the Canadian standards and the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines as references. Similarities and discrepancies between standards/ guidelines were identified through descriptive analyses and, in the case of chemical standards, clustering techniques. In general, one or another of the four consecutive editions of the WHO Guidelines were shown to be quite influential in setting drinking-water standards in the region, but not so much the USA and the Canadian standards. Considerable discrepancies between South American drinking-water standards were found, mainly with respect to chemical substances. Questions are raised about their scientific basis and/or the practicalities for their enforcement. In conclusion, the paper highlights that many drinking-water regulations in South America need updating, taking on the approach of health-based targets in setting these standards, as well as that of a broader risk-based preventive management in the entire supply system to assure water safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article shows the desire to obtain risk-control options, and bringing it to a tolerable level. Subjects were ways of managing and dealing with risk. Methods of dealing with aspects of the protection of industrial buildings and high-risk critical infrastructure vulnerability analysis methodology to the loss of integrity. Also a set method to deal with aspects of the protection of industrial buildings and high-risk critical infrastructure that is the analysis of susceptibility to loss of integrity. The article also presents the basic principles of water safety plan based on national and foreign research publications. In the next part of article WSP methodology was concluded, outlining the actions which use significantly reduces the risk of threats that could lead to supply of contaminated tap water or total interruption of its supply. In further considerations the most important steps in creating WSP were presented. In the final section the principle of modular computer system operation that is used for network management for urban water supply in Rzeszow was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature outlines significant impacts from climate change on many areas of the world, with much focus on causes and impacts. However the long-term trends demand adaptation strategies. While a variety of solutions have been suggested, some politically viable, others not, perhaps the most significant barrier to a cohesive approach to climate adaptation is the failure from the public and policy-makers to realize that different areas will be affected differently and that "one-size-fits-all" policy solutions will not be successful. In addition, as one area may identify and respond to challenges in their location, others should be supportive of those efforts, realizing that while such actions may be neither desirable nor appropriate for them, they may need support for solutions in the future in their areas. This project was designed as a framework to identify solutions and demonstrate differences between small regions and locales based on field conditions. The State of Florida was used as a case example to outline these differences because Florida is faced with significant challenges in the coming years related to water resources, the use of funds and political capital, and the potential for economic disruption. The intent is that the results of this project will lead to a series of recommendations and action steps for policy makers to conserve the state's assets. A similar approach can be used in other states and countries to assess the likely policy and infrastructure needs for different locales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pea crabs are a common parasite of bivalves around the world and frequently cause problems for bivalve aquaculture through end-consumer complaints and rejections of consignments at international borders due to biosecurity concerns. However, the financial impact of pea crabs on aquaculture production has never been quantified for any bivalve species. A large scale systematic sampling of a typical green-lipped mussel farm in New Zealand revealed that pea crabs were present in 5.3% (±0.062 SE) of the mussels. The abundance of crabs increased gradually with decreasing water depth beneath the farm and greater distance from the shoreline. Mussels infected with pea crabs were 30% smaller in total wet weight [F1, 2573 =669, p =0.00], had a 29% lower meat yield [F1, 2573 =355, p =0.00], and shell dimensions were also significantly affected. A total production loss on the 1.71ha farm was estimated at 803kg at harvest. When this measured loss is extrapolated to current total mussel aquaculture production in New Zealand, pea crab infection represents an estimated loss to the industry of US$2.16 million annually. Our results indicate that parasitic pea crabs are producing a significant loss of production in shellfish farming aquaculture operations, even at low levels of infection, and therefore warrant a great deal more attention in terms of developing effective control measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reviews diagnostic tools that can be used at waterworks to investigate the physical and operational state of rapid granular filters. Diagnostic tools can be of interest for the Water Safety Plans of WHO to monitor filters in a proactive manner. The review considers conventional and state of the art tools and tools currently in development or conception stage. The development status, usability and availability of each tool and procedure are discussed. Some conventional, simple and low-tech tools are available which can rapidly provide both qualitative and quantitative information. However, it is difficult to relate this information to guideline values or design criteria because the tools are often not documented and are most often used with past experience or rules of thumb. New tools such as the total dissolved gas probe, salt tracers and ammonium profiles are presented. Potential tools from the soil and groundwater field such as the hand penetrometer, time domain reflectometry and ground penetrating radar are suggested. The paper discusses how the filtration process can be optimized once a malfunction is recognized by the diagnostic tools, and finally, research and development needs are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand the impact of particle size distribution on water turbidity, a series of flocculation tests were carried out at different slow stirring speeds to produce the experimental data needed. Results were obtained using an online turbidimeter, coupled with an online particle counter, and all the measurements were performed at regular intervals. It was found that within the turbidity range of 0-40 NTU, particle amount increased linearly with increasing turbidity, whereas for the range of 40-100 NTU, particle amount remained almost unchanged and the correlation between particle amount and turbidity became poor, possibly due to the fact that particles in different size ranges contributed differently to the change of turbidity. The results also demonstrated that particles larger than 5 µm were greatly related to water turbidity, but for particles smaller than 5 µm, a poor correlation between the number of particles and turbidity was found. Therefore, the number of particles smaller than 5 µm should be particularly measured and controlled during water treatment processes to produce maximum removal of particles from water. As expected, the particle counter can be used as a useful supplement to the turbidimeter, in order to effectively evaluate water treatment efficiency and ensure water safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the evaluation of water security in the Asia Pacific region and East Asia. It mentions the development of vulnerability index in understanding water security and the use of the said indices on social sciences. Meanwhile, it features the Composite Water Vulnerability Index (CWVI) which was used in analyzing shared resources and is based on principal component analysis (PCA).

Abstract: Time-related advection-based well-head protection zones are commonly used to manage the contamination risk of drinking water wells. According to current water safety plans advanced risk management schemes are needed to better control and monitor all possible hazards within catchments. The goal of this work is to cast the four advective–dispersive intrinsic well vulnerability criteria by Frind et al. into a framework of probabilistic risk assessment framework. These criteria are: (i) arrival time, (ii) level of peak concentration, (iii) time until first arrival of critical concentrations and (iv) exposure time. Our probabilistic framework yields catchment-wide maps of probabilities to not comply with these criteria. This provides indispensable information for catchment managers to perform probabilistic exposure risk assessment and thus improves the basis for risk-informed well-head management. We resolve heterogeneity with high-resolution Monte Carlo simulations and use a new reverse formulation of temporal moment transport equations to keep computational costs low. Our method is independent of dimensionality and boundary conditions, and can account for arbitrary sources of uncertainty. It can be coupled with any method for conditioning on available data. For simplicity, we demonstrate the concept on a 2D example that includes conditioning on synthetic data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this study was to investigate accumulated experience with water safety plans in one of the first countries to adopt systematic preventive management for drinking-water safety. Water utilities in Iceland have had a legal obligation since 1995 to implement a systematic preventive approach to secure safety of drinking water and protect public health. The water utilities responded by implementing either an adapted HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) model for larger water utilities or a simpler five step model for smaller water utilities. The research was carried out at 16 water utilities that serve about two-thirds of the population of Iceland. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used with the aim of analysing if and what benefits water safety plans bring for water utilities and what is needed for successful implementation and operation of such systems. The results of the study show that numerous benefits and even the process of going through the implementing process were considered to be of advantage and change the attitude of the staff and the utility culture. Some obstacles and shortcomings came to light, such as lack of documentation and lack of regular internal and external audit. There was little communication with the public, although some mentioned that good public relations are important to succeed with water safety plans. Many important elements of success were revealed of which intensive training of staff and participation of staff in the whole process are deemed the most important. It is also important to have simple and well-structured guidelines, and good cooperation with the health authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the spatial and temporal factors related to bacterial pathogen contamination with the use of regression and classification tree analysis in the Oldman River, Alberta. The study shows that Escherichia (E.) coli, Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. presence was related to total rainfall, animal manure units and season. Some of the environmental variables examined seem to influence pathogen prevalence and might be useful to portend water safety and quality to improve watershed management practices.

More than 1 billion people, the vast majority of which live in the developing world, lack basic access to clean water for domestic use. For this reason, finding and promoting effective and sustainable solutions for the provision of reliable clean water in developing nations has become a focus of several public health and international development efforts. Even though several means of providing centrally located sources of clean water in developing communities exist, the severity and widespread nature of the water problem has led most development agencies and sanitation experts to strongly advocate the use of point-of-use treatment systems alongside whatever source of water people regularly use. In doing so, however, development practitioners have been careful to point out that any interventions or infrastructure regarding water safety and human health must also adhere to one of the central principles of international development: to facilitate more democratic and participatory models of decision making and governance. To this end, the research reported here focused on the development of a deliberative risk management framework for involving affected stakeholders in decisions about POU water treatment systems. This research, which was grounded in previous studies of structured decision making, took place in two rural villages in the East African nation of Tanzania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the discursive strategies surrounding the implementation of the Dutch water safety program ‘Room for the River’. When this program was announced, it was heralded as a paradigm shift fitting in with the ongoing transition to ‘living with water’. Yet announcing a paradigm shift is not the real thing. When a policy is made, it is still a dead letter. For it to become implemented, people have to act on it as if it is a reality. It needs to be socially produced – and reproduced. The present article looks at how the new river policy initiative is ‘translated’ to the local level, how discourse coalitions ‘pro’ and ‘contra’ develop and how they discursively defend their claims. In this ‘translation process’ elements of the original policy narrative are selected and reinterpreted to fit into the specific purposes of local stakeholders. While its protagonists have been active in promoting the program as a successful ‘paradigm shift’, others have questioned this claim. This contribution inventories the different narratives of success and failure on Room for the River, by homing in on an indicative case study. We show how elements of the official policy narrative are used, broadened, questioned or reinterpreted by local actors to defend their specific point of view. Their narratives try to weld discursive alliances between catchy rhetorical devices, normative values and sources of expertise. They make selective use of the dominant narrative of current river management speak, and ‘shop’ between scientific and policy venues to support these claims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two studies of domestic water quality were undertaken in rural Cambodia. The first was a programme of quantitative groundwater quality testing and modelling. The second was a qualitative study of perceptions of groundwater quality. This research aimed to compare and contrast findings of these studies in two communes in rural Cambodia. The quantitative study found that in both communes, there is a high risk of encountering bore water with levels of chemical contamination that are detrimental to human health. The qualitative study found that messages from water users is mixed - 60% of bore water users thought their groundwater was of good quality, but 97% treated their water at the point of use before drinking. Results suggest that villages in rural Cambodia would benefit from a better community understanding of groundwater quality and safe water, and the development of more informed domestic water options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the methodological and organizational feasibility of conducting a water soft path study for Saskatchewan. Arguably, the methodology for soft path analysis is well developed and data availability for such a study in Saskatchewan is comparatively good. Given the many pressures on water resources in Saskatchewan, the timing is opportune for setting a different path for a water future in this prairie province that will enhance water security. A soft path for water may provide the means for such a future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Large, sub-alpine, stratified lakes are directly within the scope of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and need adapted monitoring systems. Moreover, anthropogenic eutrophication was frequently the main cause of their water quality degradation in the 20th century. This paper is primarily aimed at demonstrating how in situ sensor-equipped buoys could be the base of monitoring designs to support the WFD objectives. The core of this paper, mainly methodological, focuses on single-depth, high frequency (4 per hour) fluorescence measurements. It shows that the internal wave pattern provides additional information to the single-depth time series to assess phytoplankton dynamics in a stratified water column displaying strong, vertical biomass heterogeneity. The paper deals with the following three aspects: (1) definition of an indicator to determine whether or not the sensor actually detects the metalimnetic fluorescence peak, (2) vertical representation of chlorophyll distribution from single-depth series; (3) time evolution of the fluorescence peak (maximum value, depth and associated temperature, peak width). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a flow-through biosensor for online continuous water toxicity monitoring. At the heart of the device are disposable modular biochips incorporating agar-immobilized bioluminescent recombinant reporter bacteria, the responses of which are probed by single-photon avalanche diode detectors. To demonstrate the biosensor capabilities, we equipped it with biochips harboring both inducible and constitutive reporter strains and exposed it to a continuous water flow for up to 10 days. During these periods we challenged the biosensor with 2-h pulses of water spiked with model compounds representing different classes of potential water pollutants, as well as with a sample of industrial wastewater. The biosensor reporter panel detected all simulated contamination events within 0.5-2.5 h, and its response was indicative of the nature of the contaminating chemicals. We believe that a biosensor of the proposed design can be integrated into future water safety and security networks, as part of an early warning system against accidental or intentional water pollution by toxic chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective governance that contributes to the integration of water management and land use planning is essential for successful protection of drinking water sources and, ultimately, provision of safe drinking water. In many jurisdictions, land use planning and watershed management occur on separate tracks. This article examines the prospects for integration of these two critical processes. A multicase study approach is used, focusing on the specific objective of protection of drinking water sources. Experiences in three case study watershed regions in Ontario, Canada (Grand River, Upper Thames, and Lake Simcoe), were analyzed. The goal was to identify the extent to which source water protection components and indicators are expressed in land use and watershed-based planning documents. Similarities and differences among the watershed regions are distinguished through a cross-case analysis. The results suggest that a shifting governance regime for drinking water safety in Ontario is contributing to integration between land use and water management. However, proactive and ongoing efforts are required to ensure that integration occurs and that barriers to integration are addressed. Timely guidelines, incentive-based tools, up-to-date and accurate information, and adequate financial resources are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiobjective optimization model has been presented for allocating irrigation waters in a rice paddy area. Water-saving practices conducted on the field-plot basis are considered and expressed in the optimal water allocation problem in the regional scale. Irrigation water allocated to the blocks of paddy fields is divided into two components of a basic amount and a safety margin in order to mitigate the effect of hydrological and hydraulic uncertainties on the study area. Four competing management objectives with regard to total rice yield, total water-saving cost, equity of water allocation, and safety of water supply are defined in the linear programming formulation so that noninferior solutions can be procured which are informative and persuasive in decision-making. Applicability of the optimization model is examined using water allocation problems for a hypothetical irrigation system. It is demonstrated that the optimization model can provide satisficing solutions where the four objectives are harmonized under substantial variations of total water supply to the irrigation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This water safety study was both descriptive and exploratory in nature. The purpose was for middle school students to assess their own water safety experiences and to help school decision-makers determine the extent of drowning/water accidents. In July 2009, a water safety survey was administered to 122 students participating in the local Summer Connection Program for seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students, which included children of migrant families as well as economically and educationally disadvantaged students. Chi-square analyses found that Hispanics were less likely than either Whites or Others to have worn personal fl otation device (p ≤ .001), low ability swimmers were less likely to wear a personal fl otation device, Hispanics were less likely to swim in ponds, health problems were a barrier to swimming for all ethnicities except Whites, more ninth graders had friends who enjoyed swimming, and more females felt their nearest pool was in good condition (p ≤ .05). Schools and other community resources need to work together and educate more children ages 1-14 to improve water safety awareness. Drowning rates are higher among minorities, which may be related to a lack of water safety education and awareness. Future research should continue to examine causes of drowning for K-12 students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation was designed to provide reference figures for access in individual countries to safe water. The JMP is based on non-administrative or nongovernment data from national-level surveys such as the Multiple Indicator Clusters Survey (MICS) or Demographic Health Survey. In the 2007 JMP report, India is noted to have water supply coverage of 89% (95% in urban areas and 85% in rural areas) compared to the Government of India estimates of 95%. The central state of Madhya Pradesh is noted by the Government of India to have coverage of 60%. However, the definition of access to safe water currently does not consider the quality or safety of the water being consumed. This paper, therefore, presents results from the application of a statistical tool (random multiple cluster technique-termed Rapid Assessment of Drinking Water Quality [RADWQ]) to Indore Zone in Madhya Pradesh. When results provided by the RADWQ technique are compared to the JMP MICS data, coverage levels reported in the JMP are reduced by up to 40% due to the high risk of microbiological ( thermotolerant coliforms) contamination. In Indore Zone, the coverage of safe water reduced from 42% to 25% through the inclusion of the water safety parameters. The study recommends the inclusion of water quality/safety data in reported data under the UNICEF/WHO JMP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]