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Books > Professional & Technical > Environmental engineering & technology > Sanitary & municipal engineering
Dispersion in Estuaries and Coastal Waters describes the physical processes which result in the dilution of a substance in the marine environment. The emphasis is mainly on the fundamental mechanisms of dispersion and the occurrence of these processes in estuaries and coastal waters Aspects of the present understanding of fluid dynamics in homogenous and stratified flows are discussed, with particular reference to the relevance of flow conditions to the turbulent state. The book describes how the associated dispersion processes are represented in mathematical models to quantify dilution in marine systems and the experimental techniques used to derive the mixing parameters required for the models. Concluding by discussing the application of the concepts of dispersion in well mixed, stratified and partially mixed systems, Dispersion in Estuaries and Coastal Waters acts as an excellent guide book for those needing to solve practical problems relating to marine dispersion. It also provides a useful review of dispersion as it cites key publications, both recent and long-standing, which are invaluable in interpreting and quantifying the dilution and fate of material in the marine environment.
Flooding in urbanized areas has become a very important issue around the world. The level of service (or performance) of urban drainage systems (UDS) degrades in time for a number of reasons. In order to maintain an acceptable performance of UDS, early rehabilitation plans must be developed and implemented. In developing countries the situation is serious, little investment is done and there are smaller funds each year for rehabilitation. The allocation of such funds must be "optimal" in providing value for money. However this task is not easy to achieve due to the multicriteria nature of the rehabilitation process, taking into account technical, environmental and social interests. Most of the time these are conflicting, which make it a highly demanding task. This book introduces a framework to deal with multicriteria decision making for the rehabilitation of urban drainage systems, and focuses on several aspects such as the improvement of the performance of the multicriteria optimization through the inclusion of new features in the algorithms and the proper selection of performance criteria. The use of Genetic Algorithms, parallelization and application in countries like Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela are treated in this book.
In the Eastern corridor of Northern region of Ghana, presence of high fluoride concentration in the groundwater has made many drilled boreholes unusable for drinking. Little is, however, known about the factors contributing to the occurrence of high fluoride in this part of Ghana and it's spatial distribution. Treatment of the fluoride-contaminated groundwater by adsorption is also hampered by the lack of suitable adsorbents that are locally available. Based on principal component analysis, and saturation indices calculations, this thesis highlights that, the predominant mechanisms controlling the fluoride enrichment probably include calcite precipitation and Na/Ca exchange processes, both of which deplete Ca from the groundwater, and promote the dissolution of fluorite. The mechanisms also include F-/OH- anion exchange processes, as well as evapotranspiration processes which concentrate the fluoride ions, hence increasing its concentration in the groundwater. Spatial mapping showed that the high fluoride groundwaters occur predominantly in the Saboba, Cheriponi and Yendi districts. The thesis further highlights that, modifying the surface of indigenous materials by an aluminium coating process, is a very promising approach to develop a suitable fluoride adsorbent. Aluminum oxide coated media reduced fluoride in water from 5. 0 +/- 0.2 mg/L to 1.5 mg/L (which is the WHO health based guideline for fluoride), in both batch and continuous flow column experiments in the laboratory. Kinetic and isotherm studies, thermodynamic calculations, as well as analytical results from Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy, suggest the mechanism of fluoride adsorption onto aluminium oxide coated media involved both physisorption and chemisorption processes. Field testing in a fluoritic community in Northern Ghana showed that the adsorbent is also capable of treating fluoride-contaminated groundwater in field conditions, suggesting it is a promising defluoridation adsorbent. The adsorbent also showed good regenerability potential that would allow re-use, which could make it practically and economically viable. Additional research is, however, required to further increase the fluoride adsorption capacity of developed adsorbent.
Seawater desalination is rapidly growing in terms of installed capacity (~80 million m3/day in 2013), plant size and global application. An emerging threat to this technology is the seasonal proliferation of microscopic algae in seawater known as algal blooms. Such blooms have caused operational problems in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants due to clogging and poor effluent quality of the pre-treatment system which eventually forced the shutdown of the plant to avoid irreversible fouling of downstream SWRO membranes. As more extra large SWRO plants (>500,000 m3/day) are expected to be constructed in the coming years, frequent chemical cleaning (>1/year) of SWRO installations will not be feasible, and more reliable pre-treatment system will be required. To maintain stable operation in SWRO plants during algal bloom periods, pre-treatment using ultrafiltration (UF) membranes has been proposed. This thesis addresses the effect of algal blooms on the operation of UF pre-treatment and SWRO. Experimental investigations demonstrated that marine algal blooms can impact the backwashability of UF and can accelerate biological fouling in RO. However, it is unlikely that algae themselves are the main causes of fouling but rather the transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) that they produce. To better monitor TEPs, a new method capable of measuring TEP as small as 10 kDa was developed and showed that TEPs can be effectively removed by UF pre-treatment prior to SWRO. This work also demonstrated that although TEPs and other algal-derived material (AOM) are very sticky and can adhere to UF and RO membranes, adhesion can be much stronger on membranes already fouled with AOM. Moreover, a model was developed to predict the accumulation of algal cells in capillary UF membranes which further demonstrated that the role of algal cells in UF fouling is not as significant as that of AOM and TEPs. Overall, this study demonstrates that better analytical methods and tools are essential in elucidating the adverse impacts of algal blooms in seawater on the operation of membrane-based desalination plants (UF-RO). It also highlighted the importance of developing effective pre-treatment processes to remove AOM from the raw water and reduce the membrane fouling potential of the feed water for downstream SWRO membranes.
Urban informal settlements or slums are growing rapidly in cities in sub-Saharan Africa. Most often, a sewer system is not present and the commonly-used low-cost onsite wastewater handling practices, typically pit latrines, are frequently unplanned, uncontrolled and inefficient. Consequently, most households dispose of their untreated or partially treated wastewater on-site, generating high loads of nutrients to groundwater and streams draining these areas. However, the fate of nutrients in urban slums is generally unknown. In excess, these nutrients can cause eutrophication in downstream water bodies. This book provides an understanding of the hydro-geochemical processes affecting the generation, fate and transport of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in a typical urban slum area in Kampala, Uganda. The approach used combined experimental and modeling techniques, using a large set of hydrochemical and geochemical data collected from shallow groundwater, drainage channels and precipitation. The results show that both nitrogen-containing acid precipitation and domestic wastewater from slum areas are important sources of nutrients in urban slum catchments. For nutrients leaching to groundwater, pit latrines retained over 80% of the nutrient mass input while the underlying alluvial sandy aquifer was also an effective sink of nutrients where nitrogen was removed by denitrification and anaerobic oxidation and phosphorus by adsorption to calcite. In surface water, nutrient attenuation processes are limited. This study argues that groundwater may not be important as regards to eutrophication implying that management interventions in slum areas should primarily focus on nutrients released into drainage channels. This research is of broad interest as urbanization is an ongoing trend and many developing countries lack proper sanitation systems.
The rate of global increase in water abstraction for irrigation has been declining since the 1970's due to declining potentials for large and medium-scale irrigation developments, and is expected to further decline in the next decades. As such the significant proportion of the expected increase in production would have to be supplied from existing irrigated and /or cultivated lands. This in turn could be achieved by enhancing land and water productivity through improved performance and optimal operation and maintenance. With less than 15% of over 5 million ha irrigation potential harnessed, irrigation devolvement in Ethiopia remained low. Over 70% of the developed irrigation in the country belongs to small-scale irrigation serving smallholder farmers. While accelerated development of new irrigation, particularly of large and medium-scale schemes is relevant in Ethiopia, ensuring the performance and sustainability of existing schemes is also equally important. The existing irrigation schemes in Ethiopia are generally characterized by an overall performance and technical sustainability levels of below expectation. This thesis evaluates the performance of two large-scale (Wonji-Shoa and Metahara) and two community-managed (Golgota and Wedecha) irrigation schemes located in the Awash River Basin of Ethiopia. The study focussed on hydraulic/water delivery performance in the large-scale schemes, and on comparative and internal irrigation service (utility) evaluation in the community-managed schemes. Water delivery performance was evaluated using routine data and hydrodynamic modelling. Farmers' utility was evaluated using qualitative responses of water users. Major performance challenges in each category of schemes were addressed and operational/water management options for improvement were identified.
Africa has been severely affected by droughts in the past, contributing to food insecure conditions in several African countries. In view of the (even more) severe drought conditions and water shortage that may be expected in sub-Saharan Africa in the coming years, efforts should focus on improving drought management by ameliorating resilience and preparedness to drought. This study contributes to the development of a modelling framework for hydrological drought forecasting in sub-Saharan Africa as a step towards an effective early warning system. The proposed hydrological drought forecasting system makes use of a hydrological model that was found to be suitable for drought forecasting in Africa and could represent the most severe past droughts in the Limpopo Basin. The modelling results showed that there is an added value in computing indicators based on the hydrological model for the identification of droughts and their severity. The proposed seasonal forecasting system for the Limpopo Basin was found to be skilful in predicting hydrological droughts during the summer rainy season. The findings showed that the persistence of the initial hydrological conditions contribute to the predictability up to 2 to 4 months, while for longer lead times the predictability of the system is dominated by the meteorological forcing. An effective drought forecasting and warning system will hopefully contribute to important aspects in the region such as water security, food security, hazard management, and risk reduction.
Selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) are metalloids of commercial interest due to their physicochemical properties. The water soluble oxyanions of these elements (selenite, selenate, tellurite and tellurate) exhibit high toxicities; hence, their release in the environment is of great concern. This study demonstrates the potential use of fungi as Se- and Te-reducing organisms. The response of Phanerochaete chrysosporium to the presence of selenite and tellurite was evaluated, as well as its potential application in wastewater treatment and production of nanoparticles. Growth stress and morphological changes were induced in P. chrysosoporium when exposed to selenite and tellurite. Synthesis of Se0 and Te0 nanoparticles entrapped in the fungal biomass was observed, as well as the formation of unique Se0-Te0 nanocomposites when the fungus was cultivated concurrently with Se and Te. The response of P. chrysosporium to selenite exposure was investigated in different modes of fungal growth (pellets and biofilm). A bioprocess for selenite removal and Se0 nanoparticles recovery using an up-flow fungal pelleted reactor was developed. 70% selenite removal (10 mg Se L-1 d-1) was achieved under continuous mode. The use of Se0 nanoparticles immobilized in P. chrysosporium pellets as a new sorbent material for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater was demonstrated.
Seawater desalination is a rapidly growing coastal industry that is increasingly threatened by algal blooms. Depending on the severity of algal blooms, desalination systems may be forced to shut down because of clogging and/or poor feed water quality. To maintain stable operation and provide good feed water quality to seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) systems, ultrafiltration (UF) pre-treatment is proposed. This research focused on assessing the ability of UF and other pre-treatment technologies to reduce biofouling in SWRO systems. An improved method to measure bacterial regrowth potential (BRP) was developed and applied at laboratory, pilot and full scale to assess the ability of conventional UF (150 kDa) and tight UF (10 kDa) alone and in combination with a phosphate adsorbent to reduce regrowth potential and delay the onset of biofouling in SWRO. The improved bacterial regrowth potential method employs a natural consortium of marine bacteria as inoculum and flow cytometry. The limit of detection of the BRP method was lowered to 43,000 +/- 12,000 cells/mL, which is equivalent to 9.3 +/- 2.6 g-Cglucose/L. The reduction in bacterial regrowth potential after tight UF (10 kDa) was 3 to 4 times higher than with conventional UF (150 kDa). It was further reduced after the application of a phosphate adsorbent, independent of pore size of the UF membrane. Pilot studies demonstrated that the application of tight UF (10 kDa) coupled with a phosphate adsorbent consistently lowered the bacterial regrowth potential and no feed channel pressure drop increase was observed in membrane fouling simulators (MFS) over a period of 21 days. The study also showed that non-backwashable fouling of UF membranes varied strongly with the type of algal species and the algal organic matter (AOM) they release. The presence of polysaccharide (stretching -OH) and sugar ester groups (stretching S=O) was the main cause of non-backwashable fouling. In conclusion, this study showed that an improved BRP method is suitable for the assessment of SWRO pre-treatment systems and it can be a useful tool to develop potential strategies to mitigate biofouling and improve the sustainability of SWRO systems.
Lack of clean water is one of the most important public health challenges in less developed communities. Due to insufficient financial and technical resources in places in need, development of low-cost water treatment technologies can play a key role in sustainable water provision. In this context, this PhD research investigated the removal of pathogenic microorganisms in simple sand filtration set-ups supplemented with low-cost adsorbents (hydrochar) produced via hydrothermal carbonization of biowastes. Two types of hydrochar, derived from hydrothermal carbonization of agricultural residue of maize and stabilized sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plant, were evaluated as adsorbents for Escherichia coli removal in saturated sand columns. The removal efficiency of sand columns amended with these adsorbents improved from 20-70% to ~90 % by alkali activation carried out in room temperatures using 1 M potassium hydroxide solution. This PhD research also demonstrates the removal of human pathogenic viruses in sand columns supplemented with hydrochar adsorbents derived from stabilized sewage sludge and fresh swine waste. In order to enumerate human pathogenic rotavirus and adenovirus in virus removal experiments, low-cost polymerase chain reaction assays were developed under this PhD study. These assays show a competent performance in analyzing virus concentrations in both laboratory and environmental samples. Amendment with either hydrochar (without alkali activation) in sand columns was able to remove more than 99% of both viruses.
Microbiological tests have proven to be an indispensable part of environmental contaminant detection. It has also been tremendously difficult to find a comprehensive training manual and laboratory manual for those procedures.
The author of Impact of Hazardous Waste on Human Health is a public
health official with the unique perspective that only insider
status can provide. His book is intended for policy makers,
environmentalists, toxicologists, public health officials, academic
personnel, and health care providers.
Uganda's Nakivubo swamp has been receiving wastewater from Kampala for over 30 years and consists of a floating root mat. It's potential to remove nutrients and pathogens from wastewater in a sustainable way, while maintaining ecological quality and biodiversity, is investigated in this work.
This monograph provides a framework and guidelines for the assessment of institutional frameworks for integrated water resources management (IWRM). The framework and guidelines were developed to enable expert teams of the Inter-American Development Bank to incorporate capacity-building considerations into water-related projects. The framework and guidelines were tested in four countries with different physical, social and economic environments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Using this framework, it is possible to identify shortcomings in existing water management arrangements and to formulate interventions at and between the constitutional, organizational, and operational levels. To guide the formulation of interventions, an ideal IWRM situation is formulated. Due to the temporal and spatial specificity, a desired IWRM situation is formulated in a process which consists of ten operational steps. This process is based on an extensive consultation and participation of all relevant stakeholders. The fields of interventions concern awareness creation, policy development, legal and financial arrangements, human resources development and management information and decision support systems.
A complete guide to environmental, safety, and health engineering, including
This monograph provides a framework and guidelines for the assessment of institutional frameworks for integrated water resources management (IWRM). The framework and guidelines were developed to enable expert teams of the Inter-American Development Bank to incorporate capacity-building considerations into water-related projects. The framework and guidelines were tested in four countries with different physical, social and economic environments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Using this framework, it is possible to identify shortcomings in existing water management arrangements and to formulate interventions at and between the constitutional, organizational, and operational levels. To guide the formulation of interventions, an ideal IWRM situation is formulated. Due to the temporal and spatial specificity, a desired IWRM situation is formulated in a process which consists of ten operational steps. This process is based on an extensive consultation and participation of all relevant stakeholders. The fields of interventions concern awareness creation, policy development, legal and financial arrangements, human resources development and management information and decision support systems.
Well rehabilitation techniques have been the focus of major advancements in recent times. Environmental engineers can keep pace with those changes with the book Water Well Rehabilitation.
This book represents a new "earth systems" approach to catchments that encompasses the physical and biogeochemical interactions that control the hydrology and biogeochemistry of the system. The text provides a comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals of catchment hydrology, principles of isotope geochemistry, and the isotope variability in the hydrologic cycle -- but the main focus of the book is on case studies in isotope hydrology and isotope geochemistry that explore the applications of isotope techniques for investigating modern environmental problems.
This workbook is a companion to Applied Math for Water Plant Operators (ISBN: 9780877628743) and part of the Applied Math for Water Plant Operators Set (ISBN: 9781566769884). It contains self-teaching guides for all water treatment calculations, skill checks, hundreds of worked examples, and practice problems.
At a time of great turmoil and crisis, environmentally, socially and politically, water has emerged as a topic of huge global concern. Moreover, many argue that what is needed in order to change our relationship with the environment is a cultural paradigm shift. To this end, this volume brings together diverse approaches to exploring human relationships with the watery world and the other living things that rely upon it. Through exploring multiple creative ways of engaging with water and people, the volume adds to the current zeitgeist of writing about water by expanding the discussion about this vital substance and how, as humans, we relate to it. Chapters focus on creative explorations and explorations of creativity in relation to developing these understandings, including concepts such as hydrocitizenship and responses to drought and flooding. Drawing on the in-depth research and experience of arts practitioners including participatory artists, as well as academics from a variety of fields including geography, anthropology, health studies and environmental humanities, the book provides a rich and multidisciplinary perspective on water and creative ways of engaging and understanding human-water relationships. It represents a valuable source and inspiration for academics, arts practitioners and those involved in environmental policy and governance.
Reservoir operation is a multi-objective optimization problem, and is traditionally solved with dynamic programming (DP) and stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) algorithms. The thesis presents novel algorithms for optimal reservoir operation, named nested DP (nDP), nested SDP (nSDP), nested reinforcement learning (nRL) and their multi-objective (MO) variants, correspondingly MOnDP, MOnSDP and MOnRL. The idea is to include a nested optimization algorithm into each state transition, which reduces the initial problem dimension and alleviates the curse of dimensionality. These algorithms can solve multi-objective optimization problems, without significantly increasing the algorithm complexity or the computational expenses. It can additionally handle dense and irregular variable discretization. All algorithms are coded in Java and were tested on the case study of the Knezevo reservoir in the Republic of Macedonia. Nested optimization algorithms are embedded in a cloud application platform for water resources modeling and optimization. The platform is available 24/7, accessible from everywhere, scalable, distributed, interoperable, and it creates a real-time multiuser collaboration platform. This thesis contributes with new and more powerful algorithms for an optimal reservoir operation and cloud application platform. All source codes are available for public use and can be used by researchers and practitioners to further advance the mentioned areas.
This volume deals with water quality issues drawing on examples from around the former Soviet Union. It commences by providing the background to the natural water resources and composition of surface and ground waters of the former Soviet Union and then proceeds to examine the influence of human activity on those resources and water quality systems. With unique material not previously available in English, the text presents detailed analyses of generic problems and possible solutions applicable beyond the former Soviet Union. It covers: salinization, eutrophication and acidification; heavy metal, organic and microbial pollution; ecological state of water bodies; water quality monitoring systems in the former USSR; and impact of pollution on fisheries. With more than 200 line illustrations and tables, the long term detailed case studies of the Lower Don Basin, the Amy Darya river, the Rybinsk reservoir, the Dnieper river, Lakes Baikal and Ladoga, and water resources in Moscow and the Moscow region, should enable valuable lessons in environmental management to be learnt. The text should be a valuable source of information and case studies for professionals in government, national and
The evolution and utilization of estuarine and coastal regions are greatly restricted by sediment problems. This thesis aims to better understand fine sediment transport under combined action of waves and currents, especially in the wave-current bottom boundary layer (BBL). Field observations, experimental data analysis, theoretical analysis and numerical models are employed. Silt-dominated sediments are sensitive to flow dynamics and the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) increase rapidly under strong flow dynamics. This research unveils several fundamental aspects of silty sediment, i.e., the criterion of the incipient motion, the SSC profiles and their phase-averaged parameterization in wave-dominated conditions. An expression for sediment incipient motion is proposed for silt-sand sediment under combined wave and current conditions. A process based intra-wave 1DV model for flow-sediment dynamics near the bed is developed in combined wave-current conditions. The high concentration layer (HCL) was simulated and sensitivity analysis was carried out by the 1DV model on factors that impact the SSC in the HCL. Finally, based on the 1DV model, the formulations of the mean SSC profile of silt-sand sediments in wave conditions were proposed. The developed approaches are expected to be applied in engineering practice and further simulation.
This dictionary provides some 40,000 terms and references in all the major areas in the field, including: Air Pollution and Air Quality Control - Environmental Policy - Noise Pollution - Soil Contamination and Remediation - Water Pollution & Waste Water Treatment - Water Supply and Drinking Water - and many others.
As pressures on water resources have increased, problems of water quality have claimed high priority in national concern and governmental policy. In this book, first published in 1969, Lyle E. Craine describes how Great Britain enacted new governmental procedures for studying, planning, and executing water management programmes. Although the physical and social characteristics of the United States' water resources problems differ from those of England, this analysis of the British institutional arrangements for water management suggests constructive insights for managing water resources within the individual states. This title is a valuable resource for students interested in environment and sustainability issues, national water resources problems, and government policy making. |
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