This book pursues a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach in order to analyze the relationship between water and food security. It demonstrates that most of the world’s economies lack sufficient water resources to secure their populations’ food requirements and are thus virtual importers of water. One of the most inspiring cases, which this book is rooted in, is Italy: the third largest net virtual water importer on earth. The book also shows that the sustainability of water depends on the extent to which societies recognize and take into account its value and contribution to agricultural production. Due to the large volumes of water required for food production, water and food security are in fact inextricably linked. Contributions from leading international experts and scholars in the field use the concepts of virtual water and water footprints to explain this relationship, with an eye to the empirical examples of wine, tomato and pasta production in Italy. This book provides a valuable resource for all researchers, professionals, policymakers and everyone else interested in water and food security.

Contamination of the different components of environment through industrial and anthropogenic activities have guided new eras of research. This has lead to development of strategies/methodologies to curtail/minimize environmental contamination. Research studies conducted all over the globe established that bioremediation play a promising role in minimizing environmental contamination. In the last decade, phytoremediation studies have been conducted on a vast scale. Initial research in this scenario focused on screening terrestrial plant species that remove contaminants from soil and air. Later, scientific community realized that water is a basic necessity for sustaining life on earth and quality of which is getting deteriorated day by day. This initiated studies on phytoremediation using aquatic plants. Role of aquatic plant species in cleaning water bodies was also explored. Many of the aquatic plant species showed potential to treat domestic, municipal and industrial wastewaters and hence their use in constructed wetlands for treating wastewaters was emphasized. The present book contains five chapters. First two chapters provide information about types of contaminants commonly reported in wastewaters and enlists some important and well studied aquatic plant species known for their potential to remove various contaminants from wastewater. Subsequent chapters deal with mechanisms involved in contaminant removal by aquatic plant species, and also provide detailed information about role of aquatic plant species in wetlands. Potential of constructed wetlands in cleaning domestic and industrial wastewaters has also been discussed in detail. The strategy for enhancing phytoremediation capacity of plants by different means and effectiveness of phytoremediation technology in terms of monitory benefits has been discussed in last chapter. Last chapter also emphasizes the future aspects of this technology.  

Scholarship on the right to water has proliferated in interesting and unexpected ways in recent years. This book broadens existing discussions on the right to water in order to shed critical light on the pathways, pitfalls, prospects, and constraints that exist in achieving global goals, as well as advancing debates around water governance and water justice. The book shows how both discourses and struggles around the right to water have opened new perspectives, and possibilities in water governance, fostering new collective and moral claims for water justice, while effecting changes in laws and policies around the world. In light of the 2010 UN ratification on the human right to water and sanitation, shifts have taken place in policy, legal frameworks, local implementation, as well as in national dialogues. Chapters in the book illustrate the novel ways in which the right to water has been taken up in locations drawn globally, highlighting the material politics that are enabled and negotiated through this framework in order to address ongoing water insecurities. This book reflects the urgent need to take stock of debates in light of new concerns around post-neoliberal political developments, the challenges of the Anthropocene and climate change, the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the mobilizations around the right to water in the global North. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of water governance, environmental policy, politics, geography, and law. It will be of great interest to policymakers and practitioners working in water governance, as well as the human right to water and sanitation.

"Wetland Restoration: Shanghai Dalian Lake Project" introduces the whole Shanghai DaLian wetland restoration project, including the background investigation of the wetland, the overall planning of wetland restoration, its detailed design, engineering construction and engineering effects. This book appeals to readers especially due to its detailed data on wetland restoration. Readers can carry out a similar project step by step from the initial investigation to the last assessment by following the structure presented in this work. Through this book, we can get first-hand information on a wetland restoration, but it can also be valuable for other projects. Professor Shuqing An works at Nanjing University, China.

In this essential new volume, Volume 13: Membrane and Desalination Technologies, a panel of expert researchers provide a wealth of information on membrane and desalination technologies. An advanced chemical and environmental engineering textbook as well as a comprehensive reference book, this volume is of high value to advanced graduate and undergraduate students, researchers, scientists, and designers of water and wastewater treatment systems. This is an essential part of the Handbook of Environmental Engineering series, an incredible collection of methodologies that study the effects of pollution and waste in their three basic forms: gas, solid, and liquid. Chapters adopt the series format, employing methods of practical design and calculation illustrated by numerical examples, including pertinent cost data whenever possible, and exploring in great detail the fundamental principles of the field. Volume 13: Membrane and Desalination Technologies is an essential guide for researchers, highlighting the latest developments in principles of membrane technology, membrane systems planning and design, industrial and municipal waste treatments, desalination requirements, wastewater reclamation, biofiltration, and more.

Using renewable fuels and materials, drinking clean water and food, and breathing safe air are major issues for a sustainable world. This book reviews biodiesel production from microalgae, a promising energy source that does not compete with food production. Several advanced techniques to clean polluted waters, such as electrochemistry, ferrites photocatalysis and low-cost filtration are presented. Chapters also show various living organisms used as bioindicators of toxic metals. Decreasing ecotoxicity of pesticides using suitable surfactants is reviewed. The last chapter evidences new pollutants in urban soils, halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

The recent European Council Directive 114/08 requested the EU Member States to perform an assessment aimed at the identification and designation of the so-called European Critical Infrastructures (ECI). Every analysis of the results of the "first round" of identifications and designations has only taken into account the numbers of ECIs effectively designated, consequently leaving aside all of the other elements related to this important path towards a harmonized vision of the "European Security". This work, with its unprecedented approach, focuses on the elements that have maximized or frustrated the ambitious European objectives and on the issues that might have prevented the directive reaching its full potential. Furthermore, the study offers an in-depth perspective on the lessons learned - including those that can be learned from the US pre-post 9/11 CIP policies - as well as an assessment of the state of play of the Member States after the implementation of the directive, together with predictions for future challenges.

This book, Advances in Water Resources Engineering, Volume 14, covers the topics on watershed sediment dynamics and modeling, integrated simulation of interactive surface water and groundwater systems, river channel stabilization with submerged vanes, non-equilibrium sediment transport, reservoir sedimentation, and fluvial processes, minimum energy dissipation rate theory and applications, hydraulic modeling development and application, geophysical methods for assessment of earthen dams, soil erosion on upland areas by rainfall and overland flow, geofluvial modeling methodologies and applications, and environmental water engineering glossary.

This volume presents the outcome of an Agriculture Workshop organized by the Gulf Research Centre Cambridge (GRCC) and held at Cambridge University, UK during the Gulf Research Meeting 11-14 July 2012. Co-directed by the editors, the workshop, entitled "Environmental Cost and Changing Face of Agriculture in the Gulf States" was attended by participants from Australia, Bahrain, India, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, UK and Morocco. These scientists, educators, researchers, policy makers and managers share their experience in agriculture in the Gulf States, with the aim of helping to improve agriculture production and thus bridge the gap between local production and the food import. The papers gathered here were presented at the workshop and have all passed through rigorous peer review by renowned scientists. The diverse papers present various aspects of agriculture production in the evolving face of climate change and dwindling water resources in the region. The book covers topics such as the prospects of agriculture in a changing climate; the potential of climate-smart agriculture; the impact of food prices, income and income distribution on food security; improved efficiency in water use; challenges in using treated wastewater in agriculture; investment in foreign agriculture and agricultural research and development. The papers span the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, with specific case studies set in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Nowadays, textile units utilize a number of dyes, chemicals, reagents, and solvents to impart the desired quality to fabrics, and generate a substantial quantity of effluents/contaminants, which cause severe environmental problems if disposed of without proper treatment. In view of several surveys carried out through research papers, books, technical articles, and general reports published in high-repute academic societies, Handbook of Textile Effluent Remediation provides a detailed narration of the acceptable methods of treating textile wastewater, such as active ozonation, membrane filtration, and adsorption. The book discusses emerging and suitable treatment systems that are viable, efficient, and economical. In this context, it provides an array of several traditional as well as advanced treatment practices for textile effluents. It covers research-oriented descriptions of textile wastewater treatment that can be adopted by scientific communities, academicians, and undergraduate and postgraduate students of industrial engineering, materials science and engineering, physics, and chemistry. It offers several interesting methodologies and aspects of current dimensional research through user-friendly content, tables, and figures and provides up-to-date literature on important and useful information for textile effluents, their impact on the environment, and advanced remediation processes. Needless to say, this book is of immense use to global researchers, academicians, and consultants engaged in various streams of wastewater treatment science.

This comprehensive volume describes how ecosystem services-based approaches can assist in addressing major global and regional water challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and water security in the developing world, by integrating scientific knowledge from different disciplines, such as hydrological modelling, environmental economics, psychology and international law. Empirical assessments at the national, catchment and regional levels are used to critically appraise this systemic approach, and the merits and potential limitations are presented. The practicalities of this approach with regard to water resources management, nature conservation, and sustainable business practices are discussed, and the role of society in underpinning the concept of ecosystem services is explored. Presenting new insights and perspectives on how to shape future strategies, this contributory volume is a valuable reference for researchers, academics, students and policy makers, in environmental studies, hydrology, water resource management, ecology, environmental law, policy and economics, and conservation biology.

This book deals with the water policy and management in Canada. It discusses various problems and risks in the fresh and drinking water supply in the second largest country in the world. Mohammed Dore argues that water is underpriced and used wastefully in Canada. In selected case studies, he illustrates the major threats from human activity to Canadian freshwaters and drinking water resources, including manufacturing, mining, oil sands production, animal farming and agricultural use. Selected case studies include reviews of even dramatic incidences, e.g. the Walkerton tragedy of 2000, when 7 people were killed and 200 went onto permanent dialysis treatment because of water contamination with harmful pathogens. The book warns that wastewater treatment standards are often not sufficient, so that many drinking water resources are in peril of wastewater contamination. As most of the water resources are provincial responsibility, the book discusses the water management policies in the different provinces separately. Through a detailed discussion and statistical analyses, it can define water policy and management lessons that emerge from the investigated case studies. It ends by contrasting water policy and practice in Canada with the practice in some European countries.

Urban water and wastewater systems have an inherent vulnerability to both manmade and natural threats and disasters including droughts, earthquakes and terrorist attacks. It is well established that natural disasters including major storms, such as hurricanes and flooding, can effect water supply security and integrity. Earthquakes and terrorist attacks have many characteristics in common because they are almost impossible to predict and can cause major devastation and confusion. Terrorism is also a major threat to water security and recent attention has turned to the potential that these attacks have for disrupting urban water supplies. There is a need to introduce the related concept of Integrated Water Resources Management which emphasizes linkages between land-use change and hydrological systems, between ecosystems and human health, and between political and scientific aspects of water management. An expanded water security agenda should include a conceptual focus on vulnerability, risk, and resilience; an emphasis on threats, shocks, and tipping points; and a related emphasis on adaptive management given limited predictability. Internationally, concerns about water have often taken a different focus and there is also a growing awareness, including in the US, that water security should include issues related to quantity, climate change, and biodiversity impacts, in addition to terrorism. This presents contributions from a group of internationally recognized experts that attempt to address the four areas listed above and includes suggestions as to how to deal with related problems. It also addresses the new and potentially growing issue of cyber attacks against water and waste water infrastructure including descriptions of actual attacks, making it of interest to scholars and policy-makers concerned with protecting the water supply.

This book explores the industrial use of secure, permanent storage technologies for carbon dioxide (CO2), especially geological CO2 storage. Readers are invited to discover how this greenhouse gas could be spared from permanent release into the atmosphere through storage in deep rock formations. Themes explored here include CO2 reservoir management, caprock formation, bio-chemical processes and fluid migration. Particular attention is given to groundwater protection, the improvement of sensor technology, borehole seals and cement quality. A collaborative work by scientists and industrial partners, this volume presents original research, it investigates several aspects of innovative technologies for medium-term use and it includes a detailed risk analysis. Coal-based power generation, energy consuming industrial processes (such as steel and cement) and the burning of biomass all result in carbon dioxide. Those involved in such industries who are considering geological storage of CO2, as well as earth scientists and engineers will value this book and the innovative monitoring methods described. Researchers in the field of computer imaging and pattern recognition will also find something of interest in these chapters.

To keep drinking water safe involves more than following the letter of the law. This book introduces a comprehensive perspective and a proactive step-by-step approach to maintaining drinking water quality in distribution systems, and aids in delivering verifiably safe and economical water to end users. This second edition is updated throughout, and reflects the latest processes for improving drinking water quality in water systems and bringing those systems into compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule, the Disinfection By-Products Rule, and the Total Coliform Rule. It also presents the latest techniques for calming discolored water issues, keeping microbiological growth and biofilm formation in check, and preventing the formation of pinhole leaks in copper pipes. The book also aids in determining side effects of treatment chemicals, achieving simultaneous compliance with multiple regulations, and optimizing treatment chemical dosages. A typical water distribution system is complex and chaotic with varying piping configurations, water flows, chemical reactions, and microbiological activity. It is, therefore, no surprise that monitoring and assessing water quality can be a daunting task. Water Distribution System Monitoring: A Practical Approach for Evaluating Drinking Water Quality simplifies this task by providing the tools for well-defined and measurable control of water quality.

This book provides comprehensive research findings related to the environmental monitoring of radiation, levels of radioactive nuclides in various environments and dose estimation in residents after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident caused severe environmental contamination with radioactive nuclides. At the beginning of the book, a technical review written by a leading researcher of nuclear reactor technology explains what happened at the power plant. The review is followed by a commentary from a former member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, providing the reader with easily understandable information about the concept of radiation dosage. In the main part of the book, a series of scientific reports presents valuable data on the radiation surveys of the environment, environmental radioactivity, transfer models and parameters of radioactive nuclides and dose assessment among residents. These reports present a wide range of findings from the research carried out in a variety of activities by large governmental organizations as well as by small private groups and individuals. The reader thus will find a large collection of valuable and interesting data related to the environmental contamination by radioactive nuclides after the Fukushima accident. Although earlier reports on this issue have been made public, this book is the only publication to fully depict the actual situation by providing comprehensive data obtained by diverse organizations and individuals.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of new and emerging nanotechnologies. It includes aspects of nanoparticle monitoring, toxicity, and public perception, and covers applications that address both crop growing and treatment of agricultural wastewater. Topics include nanoagrochemicals (nanofertilizers, -pesticides, -herbicides), nanobiosensors, and nanotechnologies for food processing, packaging, and storage, crop improvement and plant disease control. The group of expert authors is led by an experienced team of editors.

This book evaluates the history, the present and the future of water markets on 5 continents, beginning with the institutional underpinnings of water markets and factors influencing transaction costs. The book examines markets in seven countries and three different U.S. states, ranging from village-level water markets in Oman to basin wide formal water markets in Australia's Murray-Darling River basin. Introductory chapters on the background of water markets and on transaction costs and policy design are followed by chapter length discussion of water markets as an adaptive response to climate change and of supply reliability in a changing climate. Case studies describe a variety of facets of the design and function of markets around the world: California, Chile, Spain, Oman, Australia, Canada, India and China. In analyzing these real-world examples of markets, the contributors explore water rights and trading of rights between agricultural and urban sectors and the principles and function of option markets. They discuss different sized approaches, from large scale, ministry-level administration of markets to informal arrangements among farmers in the same village, or groups of villages which allocate water without large investment in management and infrastructure. Discussion includes questions of why water market practices have not expanded more rapidly in arid places. The book discusses mechanisms for resolving conflicts between water rights holders as well as between water right holders and third parties impacted by water trades and whether or not public ownership of water rights or use rights should trump private ownership and under what condition. Also covered are new and expanding categories of water use, beyond human consumption, agriculture and industry to new technologies ranging from extracting natural gas from shale to producing biofuels. The book concludes with suggestions for future water markets and offers a realistic picture of how they might change water use and distribution practices going forward.

This volume presents a unique and comprehensive glimpse of current and emerging issues of concern related to potable water. The themes discussed include: (1) historical perspective of the evolution of drinking water science and technology and drinking water standards and regulations; (2) emerging contaminants, water distribution problems and energy demand for water treatment and transportation; and (3) using alternative water sources and methods of water treatment and distribution that could resolve current and emerging global potable problems. This volume will serve as a valuable resource for researchers and environmental engineering students interested in global potable water sustainability and a guide to experts affiliated with international agencies working toward providing safe water to global communities.

This book explores the application of the open-source software OpenGeoSys (OGS) for hydrological numerical simulations concerning conservative and reactive transport modeling. It provides general information on the hydrological and groundwater flow modeling of a real case study and step-by-step model set-up with OGS, while also highlighting related components such as the OGS Data Explorer. The material is based on unpublished manuals and the results of a collaborative project between China and Germany (SUSTAIN H2O). Though the book is primarily intended for graduate students and applied scientists who deal with hydrological modeling, it also offers a valuable source of information for professional geoscientists wishing to expand their knowledge of the numerical modeling of hydrological processes including nitrate reactive transport modeling. This book is the second in a series that showcases further applications of computational modeling in hydrological science.

Water Crises and Governance critically examines the relationship between water crises and governance in the face of challenges to provide water for growing human demand and environmental needs. Water crises threaten the assumptions and accepted management practices of water users, managers and policymakers. In developed and developing world contexts from North America and Australasia, to Latin America, Africa and China, existing institutions and governance arrangements have unintentionally provoked water crises while shaping diverse, often innovative responses to management dilemmas. This volume brings together original field-based studies by social scientists investigating water crises and their implications for governance. Contributors to this collection find that water crises degrade environments, place untenable burdens on stakeholders, and produce or exacerbate social conflict, undermining ecological and social conditions that sustain effective collaboration. At the same time, water crises can promote institutional change that "resets" governance, promoting unusual and creative responses appropriate for local contexts. The studies in this volume provide evidence that, while water crises pose serious threats to environments and societies, they also provide opportunities to learn from experience and recraft water governance with coherent visions of more ecologically and socially sustainable futures. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Society & Natural Resources.

This book describes essential methods for evaluating groundwater vulnerability to contamination. It analyzes the chemical and dynamic properties of groundwater in detail and proposes the use of cartography to elucidate underground hydrodynamic behavior and scale classification. Supplemented by color illustrations, figures and tables, as well as a comprehensive bibliography for further research on specific issues, the book studies groundwater behavior in different types of plains, such as alluvial, deltaic, piedmont, intermountain and marine, and suggests a methodology for hydrogeological studies.

Cisterns: Sustainable Development, Architecture and Energy was written on beliefs that based on historical evidence and actual findings, Iran is most probably the country where cisterns, or "Aub-anbars" in Farsi, were first developed and built. Therefore, it is quite natural for the author to name cisterns in the text Aub-anbars, as it has been called for centuries in this country, the translation of the same name having been used in other countries too. Although in some books, journals and papers published out of Iran by foreign and Iranian scholars, the names Cistern or Water Reservoir have been used. The word Aub-anbar is a compound noun in Farsi; Aub means water and Anbar means tank/reservoir. Putting them together gives the noun Aub-anbarand it should be used as one word.People of the region wanting reserved cool water whether in cities or in different locations across the harsh desert during their travel. Queen Zubeida, the wife of Khalifa Haroon Al-Rasheed in 750 AD built one of these cistern closer to the town of Hiyal in Saudi Arabia so that the Pilgrims? Caravans going to Mecca will have cool, fresh water. This book consists of 11-chapters with full analysis, illustrations and photographs. It makes interesting readings to those interested into vernacular architecture, traditional buildings and creative thinking.

This book identifies the key hydrologic and hydraulic factors which influence the performance of stormwater quality treatment systems such as constructed wetlands and bioretention basins. Mathematical relationships derived using conceptual models underpinned by fundamental hydraulic theory are presented to predict treatment performance. The key highlights of the book will include the identification of the linkages between influential hydrologic and hydraulic factors for constructed wetlands and bioretention basins to support more accurate prediction of treatment performance and effective design of these types of stormwater treatment systems. Furthermore, this book will showcase an innovative approach for using conceptual models to analyze stormwater treatment system performance.

Climate change on earth is having significant impacts on water resources management in Southeast Asia. Knowledge of climate variations and climate change can be valuable for water resources management in agriculture, urban and industrial water supplies, hydroelectric power generation, and ecosystem maintenance. This book presents the findings of case studies on forecasting climate change and its impacts on water availability, irrigation water requirements, floods and droughts, reservoir inflows and hydropower generation, and crop yield in specific basins of Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. All case studies start by forecasting the climate change and investigating its impacts by employing several hydrological reservoir simulations and crop water requirement models. The findings provide sound and scientific advice for water managers on the real impacts of climate change and how to adapt to its many challenges.