This book focuses in the current situation of water resources, water supply and sanitation, and population movement in Latin America. It identifies new phenomena and challenges that will put more pressure on water resources in the near future and that will create important socioeconomic constraints in population and their governments. This volume offers an evaluation of water resources availability and consumption, water supply and sanitation shortages, management models and population growth and territory occupation trends in eighteen Latin American countries. Also a set of recommendations, policy proposals and projects is outlined.

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.

Membranes are an energy efficient separation technology that are now the basis for many water treatment and food processing applications. However, there is the potential to improve the operating performance of these separations and to extend the application of membranes to energy production, gas separations, organic solvent-based separations, and biomedical applications through novel membrane materials. This book contains 20 chapters written by leading academic researchers on membrane fabrication and modification techniques and provides a comprehensive overview on the recent developments of membrane technology. Membranes can be manufactured from a range of materials including polymeric compounds, and ceramic materials, and both these materials are considered in the book. There are 5 chapters on water and wastewater membranes that cover the fabrication of thin film (TFC) composite membranes for nanofiltration(NF)/reverse osmosis (RO)/forward osmosis (FO) applications, stimuli responsive membranes, electrospun membranes, porous ceramic membranes, and polymeric ultrafiltration (UF) manufacture and modification. There are another 6 chapters on gas separation that consider carbon membranes, zeolite membranes, silica template and metal oxide silica membranes, TFC membranes, silica membranes, and metal organic framework (MOF) membranes. Zeolite membranes are also considered for organic solvent applications, as are solvent-resistant membranes manufactured by phase inversion, ceramic-supported composite membranes, and ceramic NF membranes. The emerging areas of membranes for energy and biomedical applications have 3 and 2 chapters, respectively. Energy applications consider ion exchange membranes for use in fuel cells, membranes for electrodialysis, and membranes for use in microbial fuel cells. For biomedical applications the chapters focus on hemodialysis membranes and redox responsive membranes.

This book presents a detailed analysis in relation to pollutant processes and transport pathways encompassing atmospheric pollutants, atmospheric deposition and build-up on road surfaces of traffic generated key pollutants. The research study undertaken by the authors created extensive knowledge relating to the relevant processes and establishing their relationships as a chain of processes. The information presented in this book was derived based on comprehensive experimental investigations including field sampling, laboratory testing, mathematical modelling and multivariate and univariate statistical data analyses. The knowledge presented will be of particular interest to readers such as stormwater treatment design specialists, decision-makers and urban planners since these outcomes provide practical suggestions and recommendations to effective urban stormwater treatment design.

This volume focuses on practical aspects of sustainable water management in urban areas and presents a discussion of key concepts, methodologies, and case studies of innovative and evolving technologies. Topics include: (1) challenges in urban water resiliency; (2) water and energy nexus; (3) integrated urban water management; and (4) water reuse options (black water, gray water, rainwater). This volume serves as a useful reference for students and researchers involved in holistic approaches to water management, and as a valuable guide to experts in governmental agencies as well as planners and engineers concerned with sustainable water management systems in urban environments.

This book promotes better understanding and awareness of South Africa' significant water problems by describing the country's and especially the Upper Vaal River's water resources. It is a "go-to" book for students, professionals and regular citizens when information is required regarding the country's and more specifically the Upper Vaal River's freshwater resources. It highlights the major problems and risks which need to be addressed and give a realistic and true representation of the current water affairs.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

This volume offers an overview of the occurrence of emerging organic contaminants in Mediterranean rivers and their relevance to their chemical and ecological quality under water scarcity. With chapters covering the effects under multiple stress conditions of pharmaceuticals, polar pesticides, personal care products, and industrial chemicals, the observations presented can be applicable to other parts of the world where water scarcity is an issue . It is of interest to environmental chemists, ecologists, environmental engineers, and ecotoxicologists, as well as water managers and decision-makers.

This book concerns the theoretical foundations of hydro mechanics of Pelton turbines from a viewpoint of engineering. For reference purposes all relevant flow processes and hydraulic aspects in a Pelton turbine have been analyzed completely and systematically. The analyses especially include the quantification of all possible losses existing in the Pelton turbine and the indication of most available potential for further enhancing the system efficiency. As a guideline the book therefore supports further developments of Pelton turbines with regard to their hydraulic designs and optimizations. It is thus suitable for the development and design engineers as well as those working in the field of turbo machinery. Many laws described in the book can also be directly used to simplify aspects of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or to develop new computational methods. The well-executed examples help better understanding the related flow mechanics.

Subject of the book is Uranium and its migration in aquatic environments. The following subjects are emphasised: Uranium mining, Phosphate mining, mine closure and remediation, Uranium in groundwater and in bedrock, biogeochemistry of Uranium, environmental behavior, and modeling. Particular results from the leading edge of international research are presented.

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 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.

This book seeks to enrich the growing literature on mine legacies by examining a case study of a small abandoned mine in Latin America. Using a combination of Rapid Rural Appraisal and secondary source analysis, this study assessed some of the most damaging legacies of the San Sebastian mine in eastern El Salvador, compared the country's mine closure legislation against world's best practice standards and provided strategies for awareness, prevention and remediation. The most damaging legacy to the environment is that of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) contamination of the local river. The impact of AMD is felt well beyond the mining district and the costs of prevention and remediation were found to be significant. Apart from environmental legacies, the mine also left a number of socio-economic legacies including: limited access to non-polluted water that results in San Sebastian residents devoting a high proportion of their income in obtaining water, lost opportunities due to the cessation of mining, uncertain land tenure situation and increasing growth of ASGM activities that exacerbate already existing environmental pollution due to use of mercury. The study also found that the state's capacity to ensure compliance with the law is very weak and that in many important respects the country's current legal framework does not meet world's best practice when it comes to mine closure requirements. The findings are important because they demonstrate that the lack of closure planning can lead to private operators socializing the costs of pollution. The study also shows that the lack of state capacity may result in extractive projects becoming socio-economic liabilities in the long term.

This SpringerBrief focuses on Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) in the three basins in the Witwatersrand, South Africa. It provides a background to AMD and its impactsfrom a social science perspective.The South African government and non-governmental organizations' response to AMD is assessed, as well the socio-economic and developmental effects of AMD. This volume, which is based on the author's Master's dissertation at UNISA, involves interviews with a range of experts in the field from government departments, environmental organisations (activists), the private sector (mining), tourism sector and the agricultural sector. The book discusses existing policy documents on AMD and provides recommendations in response to the many socio-economic impacts which have not been fully addressed. A literature review on the global context of AMD is provided. South Africa's water systems are already severely harmed by climate change, different forms of pollution, and poorly managed sanitation systems. For these reasons, the country is becoming increasingly water-stressed and therefore, water will continue to become much scarcer in the future. As a result of AMD's continued impact on South Africa's water systems, as a technical or scientific matter as well as the policy implications for the mining sector, water security and socio-economic sustainability has become a highly contested issue.

This volume offers an overview of the occurrence and distribution of personal care products in continental and marine waters, presents analytical methods and degradation technologies and discusses their impact on human health. Experts from different disciplines highlight major issues for each family of compounds related to their occurrence in the water column as well as in solid and biota samples, methodological strategies for their analysis, non-conventional degradation technologies, (eco)toxicity data and their human and environmental risk assessment. The book also includes a general introduction to personal care products, covering their properties, use, behaviour and regulatory framework, and a final chapter identifying knowledge gaps and future research trends. It will appeal to experts from various fields of research, including analytical and environmental chemistry, toxicology and environmental engineering.

This book is intended for engineers, technicians and people who plan to use fuzzy control in more or less developed and advanced control systems for manufacturing processes, or directly for executive equipment. Assuming that the reader possesses elementary knowledge regarding fuzzy sets and fuzzy control, by way of a reminder, the first parts of the book contain a reminder of the theoretical foundations as well as a description of the tools to be found in the Matlab/Simulink environment in the form of a toolbox. The major part of the book presents applications for fuzzy controllers in control systems for various manufacturing and engineering processes. It presents seven processes and problems which have been programmed using fuzzy controllers. The issues discussed concern the field of Environmental Engineering. Examples are the control of a flood wave passing through a hypothetical, and then the real Dobczyce reservoir in the Raba River, which is located in the upper Vistula River basin in Southern Poland, the control and water management in a cascade of reservoirs, a broadly defined combustion process model, modern water heating systems  and many other.

This book highlights research in flood related areas and sustainable management conducted by researchers around the world, compiling their innovative work in order to share best practices for managing floods and recommended flood solutions. The individual papers cover the fundamentals and latest advances in the areas of flood research and management, providing in-depth coverage complemented by illustrations, diagrams and tables. The book offers a valuable source of information on methods and state-of-the art technology for effective flood management.

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 is about the consequences of the Fukushima disaster in light of their technological, societal, political, cultural and environmental origins. The magnitude of the nuclear accident is investigated in this book in the contexts of politics, economy, and society. The authors scrutinize the relationships between science, technology and society leading to this accident. Further, the authors reveal how these relationships were constructed historically. This book provides a case analysis on the Fukushima disaster in political, societal, economic and cultural dimensions. In addition, analyses for historically grown relationships between different societal spheres mouthing into disasters are presented using examples of the Minamata disease (Mercury pollution), Itai-Itai Disease (Cadmium pollution), BSE, and GMOs. With this book, Yuko Fujigaki achieves to connect local and cultural peculiarities with generalized scientific information and practices in a coherent, logical fashion to a comprehensive volume on a very actual topic of global significance. In light of a globally increasing energy gap, this book has a distinct global relevance, providing an honest account on different triggers mouthing into the nuclear disaster. This book not only gives a scientific account. It also can also contribute to prevent future disasters starting from similar vectors.

WATER RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT provides a detailed introduction to the full range of advanced, multidisciplinary techniques used in the study of water resources from understanding individual aquifers to the protection and management of water in a sustainable way, compatible with the preservation of the environment. Based on a masters course from UNESCO’s International Hydrological Program, this textbook is accompanied by color figures and graphics, illustrating clearly the content of the text and showing real examples from the field. Each chapter also contains a list of exercises and practical activities as well as case studies.

The special focus of this proceeding is to cover the areas of infrastructure engineering and sustainability management. The state-of-the art information in infrastructure and sustainable issues in engineering covers earthquake, bioremediation, synergistic management, timber engineering, flood management and intelligent transport systems. It provides precise information with regards to innovative research development in construction materials and structures in addition to a compilation of interdisciplinary finding combining nano-materials and engineering.

This book examines the role of The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels with a particular reference to the current north-south tensions regarding the strategy for combating climate change in the maritime sector as well as the prevention of marine pollution from the ship-breaking industry. The IMO, a United Nations specialized agency, has been entrusted with the duty to provide machinery for cooperation among governments for the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels. The organization is responsible for drafting legal instruments as well as for facilitating technical cooperation for the protection of the marine environment. Although IMO legal instruments are mainly targeted at the prevention of pollution of the marine environment from vessels, there is a trend towards a liberal interpretation of this, and the organization has expanded its work to areas like shipbreaking, which is essentially a land-based industry.

The various safety organizations working on drinking water all warn about unhealthy constituents, as well as elements that can cause corrosion or scaling on pipes and installations. However, drinking water may also provide a substantial portion of the daily mineral intake, especially for the elderly and children, or those at risk of deficiencies due to unhealthy eating habits or starvation. Thus, a holistic approach to drinking water is presented in this book and the scope is extended from standards for undesirable substances to the basic mineral composition of water, examining 22 nutrient elements and ions and 21 toxic substances. The function of the nutrients in the body, symptoms of deficiency and overload, and advantages of the minerals from drinking water are presented, as well as symptoms of toxic elements from drinking water. The authors also suggest healthy ranges of minerals and mineral ratios for drinking water. The book offers a valuable resource for the health evaluation of drinking waters, for private well owners, public water producers and safety organizations alike.

The proposed book features a systematic and thorough treatment of the dominant persistent organic pollutants (POP's) encountered in the tropical marine environment of the Indian Sundarban mangrove wetlands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Chapters provide a comprehensive and realistic account of the world's most hazardous organic compounds. Readers will discover a detailed account of the characteristics, potential point and non-point sources, analytical techniques and the ecotoxicological relevance of selected POPs, namely organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated phenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These pollutants are of considerable interest because their exposure could cause immunologic, teratogenic and neurological problems in humans and other living beings. The book is intended to serve as a reliable and up-to-date reference source for students, teachers and researchers engaged in the field of chemical oceanography, ecotoxicology and pollution management.

This book addresses most of the environmental impacts of sand mining from small rivers The problems and solutions addressed in this book are applicable to all rivers that drain through densely populated tropical coasts undergoing rapid economic growth. Many rivers in the world are drastically being altered to levels often beyond their natural resilience capability. Among the different types of human interventions, mining of sand and gravel is the most disastrous one, as the activity threatens the very existence of river ecosystem. A better understanding of sand budget is necessary if the problems of river and coastal environments are to be solved.