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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Energy industries & utilities > Water industries
To plan successfully and manage the increased uncertainties posed by likely future climate change, knowledge needs to advance much more for the water profession beyond what it is now available. Meeting these challenges does not depend exclusively on advances in climatological-hydrologic models. Policies for adaptation and strategies for mitigation measures have to be formulated on the basis of what are likely to be the potential impacts. These will have to be regularly fine-tuned and implemented according to changing needs and as more reliable knowledge and data become available. Even more challenging will be the politics of policy making and implementation, which will require a quantum leap from current policy-making and implementation processes. One can even say that, in addition to the development of more reliable models, the politics of climate change and water management remains one of the greatest uncertainties for the water profession. This book addresses water management practices and how these should and could be modified to cope with climatic and other related uncertainties over the next two to three decades; the types of strategies and good practices that may be available or have to be developed to cope with the current and expected uncertainties in relation to climate change; and the types of knowledge, information and technological developments needed to incorporate possible future climate change impacts within the framework of water resources management. Decision making in the water sector under changing climate and related uncertainties, and societal water security under altering and fluctuating climate are also discussed. Several case studies are included from several basins, cities, regions and countries in both developed and non-developing countries. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.
This book focuses on participation of the public and private sectors in urban water management and on the role of water pricing. It discusses in-depth topics such as public choices of urban water service management; dynamics of privatization and regulation of water services; adoption of water demand instruments; impacts of price and non-price policies on residential water demand; quality of water services; lessons from not-for-profit public-private partnerships; and critical examinations of models and projections of demands in water utility resource planning in England and Wales. Appropriateness of water prices and tariffs in achieving socially desirable outcomes is also analyzed and a global survey of urban water tariffs is approached with a focus on sustainability, efficiency and fairness. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Management.
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.
Mountains are water towers of our world, but their role in global water resources may be altered due to changing climate. This book provides an integrated assessment of the spatial and temporal variability of both recent and future climate change impacts in the Yellow River source region (YRSR) with specific focus on extremes. The book is structured across four different topics from detecting contemporary hydro-climatic changes, comparing three different statistical downscaling methods, assessing elevation dependency of expected changes in temperature, and projecting future climate-induced hydrologic changes in the YRSR. The detection of historical hydro-climatic changes in recent decades indicates that climate change may already be happening and may pose a serious threat to water availability in this region. However, an ensemble of climate change projections for the periods 2046-2065 and 2081-2100 based on two GCMs and three emission scenarios demonstrates that the future water availability of this region would increase due to climate change. This discrepancy suggests that contemporary hydro-climatic experience based on past records alone may not always provide a reliable guide to the future. This study makes an important contribution toward an improved understanding of climate change impacts in the YRSR. The knowledge generated has major implications for water resources management in the Yellow River and will be instructive for climate change impacts studies in other mountain areas.
This proceedings volume contains papers and extended abstracts presented at the International Conference on Sustainable Watershed Management (SuWaMa 2014). The Conference was the second in a series of Sustainable Watershed Management Conferences. The objective of the Conference Series was to present and discuss advanced environmental models and contemporary decision support tools for the sustainable use and development of watersheds. Contributions cover the following topics: sound watershed management practices (case studies and examples from various countries including lessons learned from implementation of both successful and deficient management scenarios), decision support tools (such as monitoring, GIS, ecological economics, cost/benefit analysis and decision making models), integrated environmental model applications for management (including watershed, air-shed, coastal, and living resource models), trans-boundary environmental issues (air pollution, climate change, coastal oceans at regional, continental, and global scales) and global watershed sustainability. This multidisciplinary volume will benefit natural and social scientists, engineers, managers and other professionals as well as stakeholders with an interest in water resources and their management.
Freshwater is our planet's most precious resource, and also the least conserved. Freshwater makes up only 3 percent of the total water on the planet, and yet the majority (1.9 percent) is held in a frozen state in glaciers, icebergs, and polar ice fields. This leaves approximately one-half of 1 percent of the total volume of water on the planet as freshwater available in liquid form. This book traces the complex history of the steady growth of humankind's water consumption, which today reaches some 9.7 quadrillion gallons per year. Along with a larger population has come the need for more drinking water, larger farms requiring extensive irrigation, and more freshwater to support business and industry. At the same time, such developments have led to increased water pollution. Three detailed case studies are included. The first looks at massive water systems in locations such as New York City and the efforts required to protect and transport such resources. The second shows how growth has affected freshwater quality in the ecologically unique and geographically isolated Lake Baikal region of eastern Russia. The third examines the success story of the privatized freshwater system in Chile and consider how that country's water sources are threatened by climate change.
A city is more than a massing of citizens, a layout of buildings and streets, or an arrangement of political, economic, and social institutions. It is also an infrastructure of ideas that are a support for the beliefs, values, and aspirations of the people who created the city. In City Water, City Life, celebrated historian Carl Smith explores this concept through an insightful examination of the development of the first successful waterworks systems in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago between the 1790s and the 1860s. By examining the place of water in the nineteenth-century consciousness, Smith illuminates how city dwellers perceived themselves during the great age of American urbanization. But City Water, City Life is more than a history of urbanization. It is also a refreshing meditation on water as a necessity, as a resource for commerce and industry, and as an essential-and central-part of how we define our civilization.
Management, Performance, and Applications of Micro Irrigation Systems, the fourth volume in the Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation series, emphasizes sustainable and meaningful methods of irrigation to counter rampant water scarcity. In many parts of the world, this scarcity significantly affects crop yield, crop quality, and, consequently, human quality of life. This important volume presents the best management practices in sustainable micro irrigation, with the goal of increasing crop yield and quality and conserving water. The practices described are practical and attainable and are based on research and studies from many areas of the world, including India, South Africa, and other areas. The applications described can be adapted and applied to many regions with a critical need to address the water crisis in crop production. The practices and applications presented include: Partial root-zone surface drip irrigation Effective maintenance techniques Web-based irrigation scheduling Water use efficiency methods The use of flushing and filtration systems This valuable book is a must for those struggling to find ways to address the need to maintain efficient crop production in the midst of water shortages. With chapters from hands-on experts in the field, the book will be an invaluable reference and guide to effective micro irrigation methods. "
Presenting the hydrological research carried out in the Migina catchment (260 km2), Southern Rwanda with the objective to explore the hydrological trends and climate linkages for catchments in Rwanda (26,338 km2), and to contribute to the understanding of dominant hydrological process interactions. Different Hydro-meteorological instrumentations have been installed for several months in the Migina catchment and measurements have been carried out. The trend analysis is based on Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Pettitt test on times series data varying from 30 to 56 years before 2000. The hydrometric data and modern tracer methods is used for hydrograph separation and show that subsurface runoff is dominating the total discharge even during rainy seasons at Cyihene-Kansi and Migina sub-catchments, respectively. Further, a semi-distributed conceptual hydrological model HEC-HMS is applied for assessing the spatio-temporal variation of water resources in the Migina catchment. The model results are compared with tracer based hydrograph separation results in terms of the runoff components. The model performed reasonably well in simulating the total flow volume, peak flow and timing as well as the portion of direct runoff and baseflow.
This study investigates the role of coagulation in enhancing
hydraulic performance and permeate quality of UF membranes and
provides insight into options for minimizing or ideally eliminating
coagulation from UF pre-treatment to SWRO. Results show that
coagulation improves UF hydraulic performance mainly by reducing
non-backwashable fouling of the membranes. This can be achieved at
very low coagulant dose ( 0.5 mg Fe/L) by coating the membranes
with sub-micron particles.
Industrial activities like textile processing and mining are typical sources of heavy metal-rich wastewaters. The sulfate reducing process has become an attractive method for the production of sulfide to precipitate metals since most of these streams also contain sulfate, which is the electron acceptor and, in less common cases, chemical oxygen demand which is the electron donor of sulfate reducing bacteria. The inverse fluidized bed (IFB) reactor is a system for the production of biogenic sulfide and metal precipitation in the same unit due to its configuration: the biomass floats on top of the reactor, whereas metal sulfide precipitates settle and thus can be recovered at the bottom. The main objective of this thesis was to elucidate the factors affecting simultaneous sulfate reduction and precipitation of heavy metals in an IFB reactor in order to optimize the metal recovery from wastewaters such as acid mine drainage. Therefore, this thesis focused on varying different operational conditions to study their effect on the solid-liquid separation and purity of the metal sulfide precipitates as well as on their effect on the sulfate reducing process. Furthermore, one chapter was focused on the study of strategies for sulfide control in the IFB reactor. In addition, recommendations for further research to improve the recovery of the metal sulfides in bioreactors are given.
Spain is facing an increasingly difficult situation in terms of water stress. This is an issue that is due mostly to poor management practices in all sectors. Large amounts of water have been used for agricultural purposes at very low prices for too long; there is an uncontrolled use of most aquifers in rural areas which result from ineffective control by the public administration; per capita consumption continues increasing as well as water used for industrial and energy generation, the construction and tourism sectors and for recreation activities. In fact, they have all exerted additional pressure on available water resources. In order to face the above challenges, water policy has made a gradual shift towards more rational and sustainable management of water resources. This has also been influenced by the European Water Framework Directive about which, as the book discusses, there are both myths and misunderstandings. This book analyses the very complex position of all sectors in the country, the alternatives available and the challenges ahead. In so doing, it makes an important contribution to the literature on water resources management. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.
International cooperation for reaching development goals has expanded gradually since the 1950s. The effectiveness of the Overseas Development Aid (ODA) has become a topic of great public interest. A growing body of experience exists to demonstrate that finance alone is not sufficient for development, and capacity and knowledge are increasingly seen as the constraints to proper decision making, absorption of funds, and effective results on the ground. This book presents the investigation into the role of Knowledge and Capacity Development (KCD) in public water resources management in Indonesia and the Netherlands. The two cases indicate that the institutional environment is defining for the type of knowledge and capacity development that is prevailing in that period and it also determines the formal organisational structure and the KCD mechanisms in use. The cases further show the importance yet the low valuation of tacit knowledge, while the Indonesian case also suggests that tacit knowledge is among the most important assets gained from international post-graduate education. The conceptual model introduced in this book allows to measure knowledge and capacity at three nested levels: the institutional, organisational and individual level. It provides insight in the numerous contextual factors that influence knowledge and capacity and KCD mechanisms.
Urban flood risks and their impacts are expected to increase as urban development in flood prone areas continues and rain intensity increases as a result of climate change while aging drainage infrastructures limit the drainage capacity in existing urban areas. Flood mitigation strategies are required as part of sound urban flood management plans to assess flood risk and identify technically feasible and cost-effective options to reduce the risk. Central to the development of flood mitigation strategies is the efficient prediction of flood propagation characteristics in urban areas. Detailed predictions of flood flows in urban areas require the use of high resolution topographic data. However, due to computational demand topographic data is often generalised to a more manageable resolution and floodplain models are built at much coarser resolutions. The research presented in this thesis addresses the problem of capturing small-scale features in coarse resolution urban flood models with the aim of improving flood forecasts in geometrically complex urban environments. The approach adopted in the research used a two-dimensional surface flow modelling system that can extract and incorporate useful information available in high resolution topographic data into coarse grid models. The thesis also presents modelling of the complex interaction between surcharged sewer and flows associated with urban flooding and incorporation of infiltration process in surface flow modelling tools. Case study results showed that the incorporating volume-depth and flow-area-depth relationships extracted from high resolution topographic data significantly improved the results of coarse grid urban flood models while taking the advantage of reduced computational time to ensure efficient prediction of urban flood characteristics.
A considerable amount of scientific evidence has been collected leading to the conclusion that urban wastewater components should be designed as one integrated system, in order to protect the receiving waters cost-effectively. Moreover, there is a need to optimize the design and operation of the sewerage network and wastewater treatment plant (WwTP) considering the dynamic interactions between them and the receiving waters. This book introduces a method called Model Based Design and Control (MoDeCo) for the optimum design and control of urban wastewater components. The book presents a detailed description of the integration of modelling tools for the sewer, the wastewater treatment plants and the rivers. The complex modelling structure used for the integrated model challenge previous applications of integrated modelling approaches presented in scientific literature. The combination of modelling tools and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms demonstrated in this book represent an excellent tool for designers and managers of urban wastewater infrastructure. This book also presents two alternatives to solve the computing demand of the optimization of integrated systems in practical applications: the use of surrogate modelling tools and the use of cloud computer infrastructure for parallel computing.
Water is becoming increasingly scarce. If recent usage trends continue, shortages are inevitable. Aquanomics discusses some of the instruments and policies that may be implemented to postpone, or even avoid, the onset of "water crises." These policies include establishing secure and transferable private water rights and extending these rights to uses that traditionally have not been allowed, including altering in-stream flows and ecosystem functions. The editors argue that such policies will help maximize water quantity and quality as water becomes scarcer and more valuable. Aquanomics contains many examples of how this is being accomplished, particularly in the formation of water markets and market-like exchanges of water rights. Many observers see calamity ahead unless water supplies are harnessed and effectively conserved, and unless water quality can be improved. It is also clear that declining water quality is a serious problem in much of the world, as increasing human activities induce high levels of water degradation. Those who voice these concerns, argue the contributors to this volume, fail to consider the forces for improvement inherent in market political-economic systems that can address water issues. The contributors see water quality in economically advanced countries as improving, and they believe this establishes the validity of market-based approaches.
The damages and hardships caused by floods and flooding remain an issue and are continuously increasing in the Chi River Basin, Thailand. It is difficult to make an accurate assessment of the costs and consequences associated with floods. However, flood hazards can also be seen as an opportunity, a chance to correct possible flaws and ambiguities in the flood management. The Chi River system cannot handle the regularly occurring floods, consequently, flooding of the low-lying areas occurs on a regular basis. Therefore, an integrated flood management framework needs to be developed to minimize the negative effects of floods of different magnitude. In response, a hydrological model (SWAT) and a hydraulic (1D/2D SOBEK) model were integrated to simulate floods in detailed way and to analyse the current system. A reliable simulation of the river flows and inundated areas is an essential component of a holistic flood management plan. The developed modelling framework enabled to analyse the impact of different structural measures such as river normalisation, green river (bypass), and retention basin. In addition, non-structural measures including reservoir operation and spatial land use planning were assessed in their capability to protect people and valuable infrastructure. For each measure, several possible scenarios were tested and evaluated based on economic and technical efficiency criteria to determine the most promising and efficient scenario. However, effective interventions may involve a judicious combination of flood mitigation approaches, rather than reliance on a stand-alone solution. A truly optimum combination of aforesaid measures was then chosen since it could considerably reduce flood extent and its damage. Finally, the study illustrates the effects of land use changes on floods, which indicated little or no significant potential impact on flood regime at river basin level, but rather at sub-basin scale. This finding is important for a better understanding of the scale and direction of impacts of developments in the future. Integrated land use planning was shown to be an essential component of a comprehensive flood management framework.
Water is becoming increasingly scarce. If recent usage trends continue, shortages are inevitable. Aquanomics discusses some of the instruments and policies that may be implemented to postpone, or even avoid, the onset of "water crises." These policies include establishing secure and transferable private water rights and extending these rights to uses that traditionally have not been allowed, including altering in-stream flows and ecosystem functions. The editors argue that such policies will help maximize water quantity and quality as water becomes scarcer and more valuable. Aquanomics contains many examples of how this is being accomplished, particularly in the formation of water markets and market-like exchanges of water rights. Many observers see calamity ahead unless water supplies are harnessed and effectively conserved, and unless water quality can be improved. It is also clear that declining water quality is a serious problem in much of the world, as increasing human activities induce high levels of water degradation. Those who voice these concerns, argue the contributors to this volume, fail to consider the forces for improvement inherent in market political-economic systems that can address water issues. The contributors see water quality in economically advanced countries as improving, and they believe this establishes the validity of market-based approaches.
This study investigates the patterns that describe reliability of water distribution networks focusing to the node connectivity, energy balance, and economics of construction, operation and maintenance. A number of measures to evaluate the network resilience has been developed and assessed to arrive at more accurate diagnostics of regular and irregular demand scenarios. These measures have been proposed as a part of the methodology for snap-shot assessment of network reliability based on its configuration and hydraulic performance. Practical outcome of the research is the decision support tool for reliability-based design of water distribution networks. This computer package named NEDRA (NEtwork Design and Reliability Assessment) consists of the modules for network generation, filtering, initialisation, optimisation, diagnostics and cost calculation, which can be used for sensitivity analyses of single network layout or assessments of multiple layouts. The study concludes that none of the analysed aspects develops clear singular patterns. Nevertheless, the proposed network buffer index (NBI) and the hydraulic reliability diagram (HRD) as visual representation of the network resilience give sufficient snap-shot pointing the composition of the index value, and displaying possible weak points in the network that can be hidden behind the averaged values of various reliability measures.
This book presents carbon nanotubes as a potential material for the development of new waste water treatment technologies. Reviews on adsorption, catalysis, membrane, filtration and desinfection methods are provided. A special chapter presents the use of carbon nanotubes to sense and monitor water pollutants. The text underlies each technology and process as well as the current commercialization efforts. Research gaps are highlighted at the end with links to further reading material in the field.
Dealing with stormwater runoff in urban areas is a problem that is getting bigger and more expensive. As we cover porous surfaces with impervious structures commercial buildings, parking lots, roads, and houses finding places for rainwater and snowmelt to soak in becomes harder. Many landscapers, architects, planners, and others have proposed that the use of "green" localized management practices, such as rain gardens and bio-swales, may function as well as traditional "gray" pipes and basins at reducing the effects of stormwater runoff, and do so in a way that is more attractive in the landscape and possibly also less expensive. To make stormwater management practices work, however, communities need to know the real costs and policy makers need to give people incentives to adopt the best practices. Economic Incentives for Stormwater Control addresses the true costs and benefits of stormwater management practices (SMPs) and examines the incentives that can be used to encourage their adoption. Highlighting the economic aspects, this practical book offers case studies of the application of various stormwater runoff control policies. It also presents the theory behind the different mechanisms used and illustrates successes and potential obstacles to implementation. The book covers:
Primarily concerned with the sociodemographic and economic aspects of people s participation in stormwater runoff control, this accessible volume explores opportunities available to municipalities, stormwater managers, and stakeholder groups to enact sustainable, effective stormwater management practices.
This work describes the role of sediment transport in operation
and maintenance of demand based downstream controlled irrigation
canals. Sediment deposition in these irrigation canals severely
affects the operation of the automatic flow control system.
Sediment transport modelling in irrigation canals are also
discussed. A simplified 1-D mathematical model SETRIC (SEdiment
TRansport in Irrigation Canals) has been improved with the
inclusion of downstream control component for the downstream
controlled irrigation canals. Based on field measurements and
sediment transport modelling a number of approaches have been
proposed for sediment management in such irrigation canals by
improvement in the design and operation of such irrigation
canals.
People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it:
Freshwater is our planet's most precious resource, and also the least conserved. Freshwater makes up only 3 percent of the total water on the planet, and yet the majority (1.9 percent) is held in a frozen state in glaciers, icebergs, and polar ice fields. This leaves approximately one-half of 1 percent of the total volume of water on the planet as freshwater available in liquid form. This book traces the complex history of the steady growth of humankind's water consumption, which today reaches some 9.7 quadrillion gallons per year. Along with a larger population has come the need for more drinking water, larger farms requiring extensive irrigation, and more freshwater to support business and industry. At the same time, such developments have led to increased water pollution. Three detailed case studies are included. The first looks at massive water systems in locations such as New York City and the efforts required to protect and transport such resources. The second shows how growth has affected freshwater quality in the ecologically unique and geographically isolated Lake Baikal region of eastern Russia. The third examines the success story of the privatized freshwater system in Chile and consider how that country's water sources are threatened by climate change.
The management of water resources across boundaries, whether sub-national or international, is one of the most difficult challenges facing water managers today. The upstream exploitation or diversion of groundwater or rivers can have devastating consequences for those living downstream, and transboundary rivers can provide a source of conflict between nations or states, particularly where water resources are scarce. Similarly, water based-pollution can spread across borders and create disputes and a need for sound governance. This book is the first to bring together in a concise and accessible way all of the main topics to be considered when managing transboundary waters. It will raise the awareness of practitioners of the various issues needed to be taken into account when making water management decisions and provide a practically-based overview for advanced students. The authors show clearly how vital it is to cooperate effectively over the management of shared waters to unlock their contribution to regional sustainable development. The book is largely based on a long-running and tested international training programme, run by the Stockholm International Water Institute and Ramboll Natura, and supported by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida), where the respective authors have presented modules on the programmes. It addresses issues not only of conflict, but also of managing power asymmetries, benefit-sharing, stakeholder participation, international water law, environmental water requirements and regional development. It will be particularly useful for those with a background in hydrology or engineering who wish to broaden their management skills. |
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