Sustainability of Water Quality and Ecology最新文献

With an increasing societal complexity, dominated by global geopolitical structures and processes, also large-scale environmental issues such as global warming emerge. Dealing with complexity requires a systemic approach, going beyond classical tools of decision-making and modelling. The Pentatope Model aims at providing in a holistic approach, combining five frameworks suitable for environmental analysis in a societal context. It considers also non-physical values and interdisciplinarity to develop a general tool for analysis of environmental problems at a broad and aggregated level. This paper introduces the idea of environmental systemic thinking in the water domain and briefly describes the frameworks considered.

This paper reviews briefly the current studies on modelling ecosystem services and identifies their current strengths and weaknesses, such as methodological varieties, missing quantification of processes and trade-offs, and insufficient use in resources management. By discussing promising examples, the paper provides five key recommendations to improve these shortcomings.

At the close of 2011, sustainability and environmental advisor Tony Juniper asked “Will 2012 be the year of the R word?” (www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business). He meant R for Resilience. It may have been so. I for one had a conversation in 2012 in which I was told that R was (somehow) easier to define than the S word (for Sustainability), hence its purported advantage. It is perhaps a brave new journal, then, that would launch itself in 2013/2014 with the S word first and foremost in its title.

In this paper we focus on combining different methods for environmental impact assessment in a novel way to improve the understanding of the impact of animal and plant based food consumption on agricultural production and the environment under specific regional conditions with Austria as an example. About 1900 m² arable land and 1700 m² grassland per capita are needed to supply Austrians population with the currently required amounts of food. In total, these are 420 m² of arable land per capita more than available in Austria. By contrast, Austria has 440 m² of grassland per capita more than required for food supply of the own population. Our calculations show that 19.5 kg N capita⁻¹ year⁻¹ and 3.2 kg P capita⁻¹ year⁻¹ are needed from external sources for agricultural production. Out of this, 71% of the nitrogen (N) input and 58% of the phosphorus (P) input into the agricultural system is used for fodder production, the rest for production of plant based food and products for industrial use. Furthermore animal husbandry is responsible for 46% of the total N and 28.5% of the total P emissions into surface water in Austria, production of plant based food and of industrial products for 3.2% and 2.3%, respectively. The rest of emission is related to waste water disposal and air pollution. With regards to water consumption, calculated as water footprint, animal husbandry is responsible for 87% of the total food production induced water footprint.

In this paper, we assessed the spatial distribution of heavy metal concentrations (Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Ni, Sn and Zn) in the sediments of the Tajan River Watershed, an inflow to the Caspian Sea in the Northern Iran. Comparison of four interpolation techniques (ordinary kriging, simple kriging, inverse distance weighted and local polynomial interpolation) via cross validation suggested that kriging was the most accurate spatial analysis technique for the majority of the elements. Variogram models obtained by geostatistical procedures indicate existence of spatial correlation between samples, with the exceptions for Al, Cd and Zn. The mapped spatial distributions are showing a clear coincidence of variation pattern for different groups of the heavy metals. This indicates similar origin and affecting factors for these analyzed metals. Possible anthropogenic and natural sources of heavy metals were discussed based on the distribution maps and correlation analysis with other elements and geologic units. The results have shown that the accurate spatial pattern of heavy metals could improve our understanding of possible sources, controlling factors and involving processes. This is essential for monitoring and remediation of the contaminant sites in the watershed.

A range of pathogens, including total and faecal coliforms, was monitored in the Kampala city water supply. The results show that water samples drawn from just-treated water prior to its distribution to the supply occasionally contained above allowed levels of pathogen counts. Water samples at consumer points along the supply line contained fluctuations of total and faecal coliform counts with significant high counts during rainy season. Owing to sprawling human settlements and various urban construction and industrialization, interference with the natural drainage system is increasingly creating effluents significant pathogen and other pollutants into the water system, with concomitant implications on the efficacy of their removal from the city drinking water supply. Pathogen levels and the by-products of chlorinating water and associated health implications are discussed in light of public health, cost effectiveness and sustainability. Optimal levels of chlorine in water supply line and low faecal coliform bacteria concentration are important criteria for protecting water quality.