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Recommended Citation: WWQA Ecosystems, 2023. White Paper – Embedding Lakes into the Global Sustainability Agenda. Published by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme coordinated World Water Quality Alliance Ecosystems Workstream. 22nd March 2023. ISBN: 978-1-906698-82-9. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7752982. This White Paperhas been prepared by the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) Ecosystems Workstream as a contribution to the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in their implementation of United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Resolution 3/10 on "Addressing water pollution to protect and restore water-related ecosystems" (UNEP/EA.3/Res.10). The White Paper has been prepared following a peer review process and represents the views of the authors. The White Paperdoes not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of contributing organisations.&nbsp

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe a course of action to address poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). More specifically, SDG 6 clarifies how water quality, quantity and access are crucial to human well-being, and yet human activities are compromising water resources through over-exploitation, pollution, as well as contributing to the spread of disease. Globally aquatic ecosystems are highly threatened and concerted efforts by governments and civil society to ‘turn the situation around’ are simply not working. Human-created problems require human-centred solutions and these require different ways of thinking and acting to those behaviour patterns that are contributing to the challenges. In this paper, we first consider causal approaches to attitude change and behaviour modification that are simply not working as intended. We then explore enabling responses such as citizen science and co-engaged action learning as more tenable alternatives. SDG 6 has a focus on clean water and sanitation for all. The SDGs further clarify how the extent to which this goal can be realized depends, to a large extent, on stakeholder engagements and education. Through stakeholder engagements and educational processes, people can contribute towards SDG 6 and the specific indicator and target in SDG 6.b – Stakeholder participation. Following a three-year research process, that investigated a wide range of participatory tools, this paper explores how the Stream Assessment Scoring System (miniSASS; www.minisass.org) can enable members of the public to engage in water quality monitoring at a local level. The paper continues to demonstrate how miniSASS can contribute to the monitoring of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal Target 6.3, by providing a mechanism for data collection indicator 6.3.2. miniSASS is proving popular in southern Africa as a methodology for engaging stakeholder participation in water quality monitoring and management. The technique costs very little to implement and can be applied by children and scientists alike. As a biomonitoring approach, it is based on families of macroinvertebrates that are present in most perennial rivers of the world. The paper concludes by describing how useful the miniSASS technique can be for addressing data gaps for SDG 6.3.2 reporting, and that it can be applied in most regions of the world.

Citizen science has the potential to support the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its integration into national monitoring schemes. In this study, we explored the opportunities and biases of citizen science (CS) data when used either as a primary or secondary source for SDG 6.3.2 reporting. We used data from waterbodies with both CS and regulatory monitoring in England and Zambia to explore their biases and complementarity. A comparative analysis of regulatory and CS data provided key information on appropriate sampling frequency, site selection, and measurement parameters necessary for robust SDG reporting. The results showed elevated agreement for pass/fail ratios and indicator scores for English waterbodies (80%) and demonstrated that CS data improved for granularity and spatial coverage for SDG indicator scoring, even when extensive statutory monitoring programs were present. In Zambia, management authorities are actively using citizen science projects to increase spatial and temporal coverage for SDG reporting. Our results indicate that design considerations for SDG focused citizen science can address local needs and provide a more representative indicator of the state of a nation&rsquo, s freshwater ecosystems for international reporting requirements.

Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international community, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) indicator 6.3.2 on good ambient water quality. Monitoring data are, however, lacking in many countries, allegedly because of capacity challenges of less-developed countries. So far, however, the relationship between human development and capacity challenges for water quality monitoring have not been analysed systematically. This hinders the implementation of fine-tuned capacity development programmes for water quality monitoring. Against this background, this study takes a global perspective in analysing the link between human development and the capacity challenges countries face in their national water quality monitoring programmes. The analysis is based on the latest data on the human development index and an international online survey amongst experts from science and practice. Results provide evidence of a negative relationship between human development and the capacity challenges to meet SDG 6.3.2 monitoring requirements. This negative relationship increases along the course of the monitoring process, from defining the enabling environment, choosing parameters for the collection of field data, to the analytics and analysis of five commonly used parameters (DO, EC, pH, TP and TN). Our assessment can be used to help practitioners improve technical capacity development activities and to identify and target investment in capacity development for monitoring. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10661-020-8224-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background and Aims In plants, extensive intra-specific variation exists in the allocation of resources between vegetative growth and reproduction, reflecting different functional strategies. A simple method for the classification of intra-specific variation in these strategies would enable characterization of evolutionary and ecological processes. Methods C–S–R theory can be applied to classify functional strategies (competitive C; stress tolerant, S; ruderal, R) in different plant species. Using a diverse set of arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) accessions grown under common conditions, it was tested whether a simple approach designed for allocating C–S–R strategies at the species level can also be used to analyse intra-specific variation. Key Results Substantial intra-specific variation between arabidopsis accessions was found along the S–R axis. There was a positive correlation of temperature at the geographical origin with the dimension of S and a negative correlation with the dimension of R. Flowering time in a natural annual cycle and leaf dry matter content were identified as the main determinants of this adaptation, with plants originating from warmer climates having a higher leaf dry matter content and flowering earlier in a common garden. Conclusions It was shown that functional strategies reflect adaptation to climate, with consequences for important traits such as fecundity and total plant dry weight. The approach could be used in genome-wide association studies to determine the genetic basis of functional strategies in wild species or crops.

Correct spinal immobilization is key to reducing the potential for further injury to the spinal cord. Effective management of actual injuries, or the potential for injury, has led to a protracted debate on which piece of equipment is fully fit for purpose. For the past 20 years, the UK ambulance service has been regularly using the rescue board (colloquially known as the ‘spinal board’) to immobilize patients. This paper seeks to review the current equipment and debate their appropriate applications.

Analytical knowledge, qualitative and quantitative, of the various nickel species present in the airborne dusts of nickel-producing and nickel-using workplaces is required for the assessment of nickel-related health hazards. A wet-chemical procedure is described which apportions the airborne nickel species into four categories: water soluble, «sulfidic», metallic, and «oridic». The sample is leached in a sequence with ammonium citrate, hydrogen peroxid-ammonium citrate, and bromine-methanol, each of which selectively dissolves a number of related nickel species

Aerosols are sampled if it is felt that exposure to the particles may pose a risk to health. There is wide international agreement that such sampling should be carried out based on health-related particle size-selective criteria. Three fractions have been identified: inhalable (particles inhaled during breathing), thoracic (inhaled particles that penetrate beyond the larynx), and respirable (inhaled particles that penetrate to the alveolar region). These are intended as bases for defining the performances of sampling instruments used for exposure assessment. Most occupational aerosol exposures are characterized by particles not only covering a wide size range but also containing different chemical species. The health risk depends on both. With the emergence of the new particle size-selective criteria, we now, for the first time, have a rational basis for assessing health-related dose for multi-species aerosols. One of the first effects of the new particle size-selective criteria has been to stimulate the development of new sampling instrumentation. Meanwhile, new workplace studies have been conducted in selected nickel producing and using industries in which, recognizing the need for speciation, the inhalable fraction has been analysed with respect to the nickel contents of four groups of species (broadly defined as water soluble, metallic, sulfidic and oxidic) that may be associated with health effects. Such research poses new questions about how the information obtained can be used in realistic health risk evaluation.

The authors look for some specific effects in the Hubbard Brook data due to the local source. First among these is a higher concentration of sulfate and nitrate during the winter. Since primary sulfate emissions from coal burning are low and the wintertime conversion of atmospheric SO2 to sulfate drops sharply due to lack of oxidants it is not obvious that concentrations should increase. In fact one might expect a decrease. Sulfate concentration correlations with N to NE winds might exist but the authors really have no information on the valley winds. The variable sulfate concentrations because of plume alignment over the deposition collector would tend to be erased due to the weekly nature of the data. A meaningful analysis needs good local wind data. Here the authors must show variability, not assume it. The authors' expected inverse dependence of sulfate concentration on precipitation amount might be a weaker factor than the timing of the precipitation and the collection techniques. This area certainly merits a more intensive investigation. One final comment: In my September 1984 discussion paper I raised the question about the effects of the local source on the Hubbard Brook deposition data. Here we see a statistical analysis and absolutely no data from which it was constructed. I feel that this investigation as such is not adequate and that the scientific community would be better served if the Hubbard Brook deposition data were to be released to such community for independent investigation.

The equilibrium oxygen pressure for the reaction was accurately measured over the temperature range 910°–1145°K. The following working equation for the oxygen pressure is valid over the experimental range. The following expressions, valid from 298°–1200°K, apply to the formation of one mole of The heat of formation and entropy of at 298.15°K were found to be −28,345 ± 400 cal/mole and 8.60 ± 0.3 eu, respectively.