When it comes to water, we are fed a daily diet of doom and gloom, of a looming crisis: wars of the future will be over water; nearly one-billion people lack access to clean water; river basins are closed so there is no more water to be allocated despite ever-growing demand; aquifers are overdrawn to such an extent that a global food crisis is just around the corner and major cities, such as Bangkok and Mexico, are sinking. And let us not forget about pollution or vector-borne diseases.

The challenges for sustainable water management are massive. Yet, as shown in this book, there are many positives to be drawn from the southern African experience. Despite abiding conditions of economic underdevelopment and social inequality, people rise to the challenge, oftentimes out of necessity and through self-help, but sometimes through creative coalitions operating at different scales - from the local to the global - and across issue areas - from transboundary governance to urban water supply.

This first volume in the Off-Centre series argues that we must learn to see water and the region differently if we are to meet present challenges and better prepare for an uncertain, climate-changing future.

Larry A. Swatuk is Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo, Canada; Extraordinary Professor at the Institute for Water Studies, University of Western Cape, South Africa; and Research Associate, Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC). Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, he was Associate Professor of Natural Resources Governance at the Okavango Research Institute, Maun, Botswana.

This book highlights novel materials for dye-containing wastewater treatment and presents an up-to-date information on dye degradation/adsorption using new promising materials such as nanocomposites. Development of various industrial sectors, including textile, food, paper, leather, rubber, cosmetic and printing has led to generation of wastewater which contain dye molecules as well as other inorganic and organic compounds. Considering serious health hazards and environmental damage associated with dyes in the environment, researchers and professionals have been attempting to find the most effective methods of treatment. Of late, various composites have received wide attention due to their outstanding properties in wastewater treatment, that are presented in this book.

This book analyses and quantifies how and where energy and water are consumed by the ceramic sanitary-ware industry and provides solutions as to how to reduce this. The whole production process is mapped, including modelling methods. The book begins by providing an introduction to ceramic sanitary-ware production and types of factories casting technology. It then moves on to discuss the process and energy modelling for the production line, analysis of energy and water consumptions and proposals for improvements. The last chapter presents the practical implementation of the selected modelling configuration. This book is of particular interest to water and energy management professionals within the ceramic industry, but the methods are of interest to those in other production industries as well.

This book offers essential information on geospatial technologies for water resource management and highlights the latest GIS and geostatistics techniques as they relate to groundwater. Groundwater is inarguably India's single most important natural resource. It is the foundation of millions of Indian farmers' livelihood security and the primary source of drinking water for a vast majority of Indians in rural and urban areas. The prospects of continued high rates of growth in the Indian economy will, to a great extent, depend on how judiciously we can manage groundwater in the years to come. Over the past three decades, India has emerged as by far the single largest consumer of groundwater in the world. Though groundwater has made the country self-sufficient in terms of food, we face a crisis of dwindling water tables and declining water quality. Deep drilling by tube wells, which was once part of the solution to water shortages, is now in danger of becoming part of the problem. Consequently, we urgently need to focus our efforts on the sustainable and equitable management of groundwater. Addressing that need, this book presents novel advances in and applications of RS–GIS and geostatistical techniques to the research community in a precise and straightforward manner.

Due to an ever-decreasing supply in raw materials and stringent constraints on conventional energy sources, demand for lightweight, efficient and low cost structures has become crucially important in modern engineering design. This requires engineers to search for optimal and robust design options to address design problems that are often large in scale and highly nonlinear, making finding solutions challenging. In the past two decades, metaheuristic algorithms have shown promising power, efficiency and versatility in solving these difficult optimization problems. This book examines the latest developments of metaheuristics and their applications in water, geotechnical and transport engineering offering practical case studies as examples to demonstrate real world applications. Topics cover a range of areas within engineering, including reviews of optimization algorithms, artificial intelligence, cuckoo search, genetic programming, neural networks, multivariate adaptive regression, swarm intelligence, genetic algorithms, ant colony optimization, evolutionary multiobjective optimization with diverse applications in engineering such as behavior of materials, geotechnical design, flood control, water distribution and signal networks. This book can serve as a supplementary text for design courses and computation in engineering as well as a reference for researchers and engineers in metaheursitics, optimization in civil engineering and computational intelligence.

Low-pressure (MF and UF) membranes can remove nearly all microbial pathogens as long as the integrity of the membranes remains intact. Membrane integrity testing identifies tiny defects in MF and UF membranes. The book describes various methods for membrane integrity testing. You will learn the types and causes of integrity breaches, tests to discover them, and how to establish a membrane integrity testing program.To comply with disinfection regulations, utilities using low-pressure membranes for drinking water treatment must validate and verify the removal efficiency of the targeted contaminant through integrity testing. Owners and operators of water treatment systems that use MF or UF membranes should use the testing methods described in this book to protect public health.

This book provides a systematic exposition of the design features of constructed wetlands, and their management (in terms of siting, physical maintenance, and operation). Only very few books (or chapters) have been published on constructed wetlands in tropical conditions and none are current. The selection of plant species, managing their growth and harvesting cycles, and the impact these have on the attenuation of organic and inorganic pollutants, nutrients, and pathogens would be of interest to students and practitioners of the art working under tropical conditions. The potential of constructed wetlands as a low-cost intervention for developing countries in tropical regions that faced water pollution problems, in particular, deserves to be explored systematically.

This book presents the phylogeny, taxonomy and biogeography of freshwater red algae. Its content is divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides a brief history of freshwater red algal research, habits and collecting methods, general biogeographic trends and an overview of the taxonomic/phylogenetic placement of freshwater taxa. The other four chapters are taxonomic treatments of non-marine red algae based on taxonomic levels, i.e. classes within the phylum Rhodophyta, orders within each class, families within each order, and genera within each family. Descriptions, phylogenetic data (including numerous trees), geographic range (maps for most species) and dichotomous keys for identification are presented. Comprehensive data are provided for more than 220 species.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on the fate and interaction of pharmaceuticals in soil-crop systems. It addresses the principles of their transport, uptake and metabolism and reviews methodologies for their analytical determination. It also discusses ecotoxicological effects arising from their presence and highlights bioremediation approaches for their removal. The use of treated wastewater to irrigate crops is becoming more widespread in regions where freshwater is limited. This practice conserves freshwater resources and contributes to nutrient recycling. However, concerns remain regarding the safety of irrigation with treated wastewater since it contains residues of pharmaceuticals that have survived treatment, which means that soil and fauna are potentially exposed to these xenobiotics. Various pathways govern the fate of pharmaceuticals in crop-soil systems, including soil degradation; formation of non-extractable residues; uptake by soil-dwelling organisms (e.g. earthworms); and uptake, transport, and metabolism in agricultural crops. Investigations into these aspects have only recently been initiated, and there is still a long way to go before a meaningful assessment of the impact of wastewater has been completed.

This book reviews the latest information on the assessment of surface and groundwater resources in Algeria. The authors cover a large diversity of topics, including the status and assessment of water resources, impacts of pesticides, soil droughts, analysis of flood characteristics, hydrogeological investigations and modeling applications, and evapotranspiration. Special attention is given to the impacts of climate changes on water resources. The assessment methods present in this book can be used or adapted to study other regions of North Africa, Middle East and/or in the Mediterranean with similar climate conditions as Algeria. This book and the companion volume Water Resources in Algeria - Part II: Water Quality, Treatment, Protection and Development will appeal to engineers, researchers, graduate students and policymakers interested in the field of groundwater and surface water assessment.

2011 Benjamin Franklin Award winnerSustainability recognizes that organizational decisions concern more than just the bottom line. The societal and environmental impacts of decisions must be considered, as well. Most water utilities incorporate some sustainability principles and practices in their day-to-day operations-even if they don't realize it.The Green Utility: A Practical Guide to Sustainability provides ideas, plans, and tools to make it easy for your water utility to reduce negative effects on the environment, maximize positive impact in the community, and keep delivering water at a cost that reflects its value and allows everyone to receive all they need. The book is meant to inspire and encourage you to quickly take important steps in your own organization to "go green" and become a champion of sustainability in your community.

This book gathers the main international research findings on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as emerging contaminants in water. It focuses on the major routes of exposure, and the destinations and life cycles of NSAIDs in water, as well as the manifestations of toxicity in different organisms. It also reviews the methods used in the detection, analysis and quantification of NSAIDs in water as well as the biological and chemical methods of removing them. Lastly, the book offers an overview of the legal frameworks in place and provides conclusions and recommendations for the future. Given its scope, the book is an indispensable resource for scientists in academia and industry, as well as for decision-makers involved in contamination assessment and environmental analysis and NGOs interested in the problem of water contamination by NSAIDs.

This volume takes a multidisciplinary approach to study and evaluate the global human vulnerability to the exposure of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in the natural environment. It provides a comprehensive resource on structurally diverse groups of chemical compounds that have adverse effects on the aquatic environment. It explores the global strength, environmental status, chemical risk assessment and management strategies of CECs with relevant modern techniques. The principle focus is on concurrent emerging water quality issues. It defines the impacts of the environmental exposure of trace concentrations of CECs and/or their metabolites and discusses possible technological advances to combat the emerging pollutants. It will be useful to researchers, multi-stakeholder expert groups, policymakers, and graduate students.

This book reviews the latest developments concerning the analysis, fate, behaviour and toxicity of pyrethroid insecticides. Over the last few decades, pyrethroid insecticides have increasingly replaced organochlorine pesticides due to their relatively lower mammalian toxicity, selective insecticide activity and lower environmental persistence. They represent 25% of global sales of insecticides, and are considered to be "safe" since they are converted to non-toxic metabolites by oxidative metabolism in fish and by hydrolysis in mammals. However, recent studies have demonstrated their environmental ubiquity, their bioaccumulation and their toxicity in various aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and even in humans. Featuring contributions by leading experts, the book discusses the physico-chemical properties and uses of pyrethroid insecticides; the latest chemical analytical methods; their occurrence in the environment, biota and food; and their isomeric and enantiomeric behaviour. It particularly highlights the toxicological effects and human exposure to pyrethroid insecticides, and also offers insights into the effects of the salmon industry on the marine environment with a case study of sea lice treatment using pyrethroids. This comprehensive book is a valuable source of information for environmental scientists, policymakers and producers interested in issues related to pyrethroid insecticides.

The central role that Reservoir engineers play in a field s development and planning cannot be overestimated. Recommending, the most appropriate and most cost effective reservoir depletion schemes has a great impact on a field s and ultimately a company s profitability. If done correctly, it will result in a windfall for the company but if done incorrectly or haphazardly, it will result in financial disaster. Working Guide to Reservoir Engineering is designed for technical professionals who need a "quick look up" reference for solving day-to-day engineering, management, and optimization problems. Basic and easy to use, this working guide provides those new to reservoir engineering a starting point for understanding the basics and going on to formulate effective workflow solutions. The book provides instruction on topics such as estimating reservoir reserves, enhances oil recovery methods, fluid movement and material balance and volumetric analysis.
Predict local variations within the reservoir Explain past reservoir performance Predict future reservoir performance of field Analyze economic optimization of each property Formulate a plan for the development of the field throughout its life Convert data from one discipline to another Extrapolate data from a few discrete points to the entire reservoir"

A heavy backlog of gaseous, liquid, and solid pollution has resulted from a lack of development in pollution control. Because of this, a need for a collection of original research in water and wastewater treatment, industrial waste management, and soil and ground water pollution exists. Advanced Treatment Techniques for Industrial Wastewater is an innovative collection of research that covers the different aspects of environmental engineering in water and wastewater treatment processes as well as the different techniques and systems for pollution management. Highlighting a range of topics such as agriculture pollution, hazardous waste management, and sewage farming, this book is an important reference for environmental engineers, waste authorities, solid waste management companies, landfill operators, legislators, environmentalists, and academicians seeking research on waste management.

Liquid Membranes: Principles and Applications in Chemical Separations and Wastewater Treatment discusses the principles and applications of the liquid membrane (LM) separation processes in organic and inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biomedical engineering, gas separation, and wastewater treatment. It presents updated, useful, and systematized information on new LM separation technologies, along with new developments in the field. It provides an overview of LMs and LM processes, and it examines the mechanisms and kinetics of carrier-facilitated transport through LMs. It also discusses active transport, driven by oxidation-reduction, catalytic, and bioconversion reactions on the LM interfaces; modifications of supported LMs; bulk aqueous hybrid LM processes with water-soluble carriers; emulsion LMs and their applications; and progress in LM science and engineering. This book will be of value to students and young researchers who are new to separation science and technology, as well as to scientists and engineers involved in the research and development of separation technologies, LM separations, and membrane reactors.

The series Topics in Current Chemistry Collections presents critical reviews from the journal Topics in Current Chemistry organized in topical volumes. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical science including the interfaces with related disciplines such as biology, medicine and materials science. The goal of each thematic volume is to give the non-specialist reader, whether in academia or industry, a comprehensive insight into an area where new research is emerging which is of interest to a larger scientific audience. Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field. The chapter "Mechanochemical Forces as a Synthetic Tool for Zero and One-Dimensional Titanium Oxide-Based Nano-photocatalysts" is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 License via link.springer.com.

Waterborne Pathogens: Detection Methods and Applications, Second Edition, gives an overview of advanced and emerging technologies in the detection of a range of waterborne pathogens. In addition, the book presents existing methodologies, highlights where improvements can be made, includes applications, and touches on the ways in which new technologies can be applied in water management. Finally, the book addresses issues of sample preparation (from sampling, to concentration and enrichment), a key stage in any detection protocol.