...comprehensive national study of water quality data at shellfish...of sources, including urban and agricultural runoff...important for potable water supply as desalination...in various stages of planning and operation in California...Given that net potable water demand exceeds...

With accelerating urbanization it is crucial to understand how urban ecosystems play a part in generating ecosystem services for urban dwellers, such as clean water, spaces for recreation, stress relief and improved air quality. An equally important question relate to who gets to enjoy these bene...

Watershed and stormwater managers need modeling tools to evaluate how best to address environmental quality restoration and protection needs in urban and developing areas. Significant investments are needed to protect and restore water quality, address total maximum daily loads (...

Watershed and stormwater managers need modeling tools to evaluate how best to address environmental quality restoration and protection needs in urban and developing areas. Significant investments are needed to protect and restore water quality, address total maximum daily loads ...

A study of selected water-quality and macroinvertebrate community data was conducted at 10 stream sites in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire to determine if a relation is present between stream quality and the extent of urbanization in a watershed. Watersheds with similar characteristics, but varying in their degree of urban development, were studied. The percent of impervious surface, the percent of urban land use in a watershed, and the percent of urban land use in two types of stream buffers were compared and correlated with stream-quality variables. \\r\

Anthropogenic sediment and nutrients inputs to aquatic systems associated with urbanization are commonly cited as threatening water quality and ultimately overall ecosystem stability and productivity. Although anthropogenic nutrient sources are rarely detected as elevated diss...

Procedures for evaluating the technical, economic, and financial aspects of urban water quality management planning problems are presented. Accepted principles of benefit-cost analysis are used to conduct the economic analysis. Benefits are measured as the reduction in damages as...

The amenity value provided by urban green spaces, water bodies and good environmental quality is difficult to assess and incorporate into urban planning and development. Developers and governments in China hitherto have seldom objectively factored these attributes into property pricing and associate...

SummaryStormwater drainage systems can have a large effect on urban runoff quality, but it is unclear how ephemeral urban streams alter runoff hydrochemistry. This problem is particularly relevant in semi-arid regions, where urban storm runoff is considered a renewable water resource. Here we address the question: how do stream channels alter urban runoff hydrochemistry? We collected synoptic stormwater samples during three rainfall-runoff events from nine ephemeral streams reaches (three concrete or metal, three grass, three gravel) in Tucson, Arizona. We identified patterns of temporal and spatial (longitudinal) variability in concentrations of conservative (chloride and isotopes of water) and reactive solutes (inorganic-N, soluble reactive phosphorous, sulfate-S, dissolved organic carbo...

The form and design of cities and towns have a direct impact on the quality of the natural environment, particularly air and water quality. This paper illustrates some of the dynamic relationships between the form of urban environments and air and water pollution. Recent research suggests how urban form affects environmental quality in at least three ways: (a) how suburban development and its dependency on the private motor vehicle increases air pollution, (b) how exterior building materials help to generate urban heat islands and ozone precursors, and (c) how conventional stormwater drainage systems transport polluted urban runoff into waterways. Today`s aging urban infrastructure provides an important and timely opportunity to re-examine the design of cities and towns with a goal of enhancing overall environmental quality. Many miles of roads, freeways, bridges, and stormwater culverts and pipes are in poor condition and need to be repaired or replaced, while many cities are now failing to meet air and water quality standards designed to protect human and environmental health. This paper also explores seven urban planning and design concepts that could reduce the magnitude of air and water pollution in urban environments and help to improve the health of both cities and their residents.

Interest in the biodiversity value of urban waters is growing. Understanding key ecological processes is essential for effective management of these aquatic ecosystems. Our paper focuses on identifying the key factors that structure chironomid assemblages, such as water quality and dredging, in urban waters strongly influenced by seepage of large rivers. Chironomid assemblages were studied in urban surface-water systems (man-made drainage ditches) in polder areas along lowland reaches of the rivers Rhine-Meuse in The Netherlands. Multivariate analysis was used to identify the key environmental factors. Taxon richness, Shannon index (H'), rareness of species, and life-history strategies at urban locations were compared with available data from similar man-made water bodies in rural areas, and the effectiveness of dredging for restoring chironomid diversity in urban waters was tested. Three different chironomid associations were distinguished by Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis. Variation within and among chironomid associations were significantly related to substrate (sludge layer and substrate type: sand vs clay), %% cover of lemnids, submerged vegetation, filamentous algae, and water transparency. Chironomid taxon richness and H' were similar in urban and rural waters, probably because of their similar hydrologic, morphologic, and water-quality conditions and their similar dredging and weed-control regimes. Rareness was slightly higher in urban than in rural waters. In urban water systems, chironomid taxon richness was negatively related to sludge layer and %% cover of lemnids. Dredging changed chironomid species composition, and increased taxon richness and life-history strategies indicative of good O2 conditions. Therefore, dredging can be regarded as an effective measure to restore diversity of chironomid communities in urban waters affected by nutrient-rich seepage or inlet of river water

The hydrology and water quality of an urbanized reach of Little Cottonwood Creek near Salt Lake City, Utah, were examined as part of the Great Salt Lake Basins study, part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment program. Physical and chemical properties of the stream were referenced to established aquatic-life criteria as available. Two fixed sampling sites were established on Little Cottonwood Creek with the purpose of determining the influence of urbanization on the water quality of the stream. The fixed-site assessment is a component of the National Water-Quality Assessment surface-water study design used to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of selected water-quality constituents.\\r\

An investigation has been made which disclosed a need for storage in Skykomish River watershed to meet future water demands in the Everett urban area. A need for storage for water quality control is not foreseen at this time. Future water requirements and...

Seasonal and spatial variations in major ion chemistry and isotope composition in the rural-urban catchment of the Shigenobu River were monitored to determine the influences of agricultural and urban sewage systems on water quality. Temporal patterns of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and suspended sediment (SS) were examined at four sites in the rural-urban catchment. Urban land cover, incorporating the effects of increased population, domestic water use, and industrial wastewater, was positively associated with increases in water pollution and was included as an important explanatory variable for the variations in all water quality parameters. Significant trends were found in each parameter. BOD concentrations ranged widely, and were high in urban regions, due to the presence of a waste water treatment plant. TN and SS showed various trends, but did not vary widely, unlike TP. TP concentrations varied greatly, with high concentrations in cultivated areas, due to fertilizer use. Local water quality management or geology could further explain some of the variations in water quality. Non-point-source pollution exhibited strong positive spatial autocorrelation, indicating that incorporating spatial dimensions into water quality assessment enhances our understanding of spatial patterns of water quality. Data from the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) and Environment Ministry (EM) were used to investigate trends in land management. Stepwise regression analysis was used to test the correlation between specific management practises and substance concentrations in surface water and sediment. MLIT and EM data for 1981-2003 showed an increase in TN, TP, and SS concentrations in surface water. High levels of fertilizer in dormant sprays and domestic water use were associated with high pesticide concentrations in water and sediment. This paper presents a novel method of studying the environmental impact of various agricultural management practises and recommends a management strategy that combines the use of reduced-risk pesticides with irrigation and non-irrigation periods in paddy fields. PMID:21450393

Urban wetland parks are a new type of urban park that have developed rapidly in recent years and have caught the attention of multiple governmental departments. The objective of this paper was to describe the trophic states of creeks and their relationship to water levels in an urban wetland park in Xixi, China. The study was based on temporal and spatial data collected monthly between March 2009 and March 2010. The results indicated that: (1) water quality significantly changed from upstream to downstream in study creeks. From upstream to downstream, water quality of creeks I and III improved; however, the water quality of creek IV and V declined; (2) trophic states in Xixi creeks differed according to seasons. Overall, the nutrition in creeks was measured at the slight eutrophication lev...

Residential development in the canyons and foothills surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah, is growing at a rapid pace. Urban development typically degrades the water quality when formerly natural lands are developed. In Emigration Canyon, however, residential development is replacing land formerly used for grazing and recreation. It is not clear how this land use change has affected the water quality and biotic communities in this watershed. The water quality and macroinvertebrate communities of Emigration Creek and neighboring Red Butte Creek were examined by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) during summer 1999.

During the past decades, the traditional state monopoly in urban water management has been debated heavily, resulting in different forms and degrees of private sector involvement across the globe. Since the 1990s, China has also started experiments with new modes of urban water service management and governance in which the private sector is involved. It is premature to conclude whether the various forms of private sector involvement will successfully overcome the major problems (capital shortage, inefficient operation, and service quality) in China’s water sector. But at the same time, private sector involvement in water provisioning and waste water treatments seems to have become mainstream in transitional China.

Rainfall runoff becomes contaminated as it passes over urban land. Billions of gallons of water can be recovered for beneficial uses if urban stormwater is properly controlled and treated. The Storm and Combined Sewer Program of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development has continuously supported the development and demonstration of stormwater control systems and treatment processes. Water quality of the treated storm runoff can meet the required standards for subpotable usage. Current urban stormwater control and treatment technology are discussed, leading to the feasibility of urban stormwater reuse for various purposes in industry, irrigation and recreation. A hypothetical case study illustrating the cost effectiveness of reclaiming urban stormwater for complete industrial supply is presented.

Previous studies indicate that the local aquifer systems in the Mid-Levels, a highly urbanized coastal area in Hong Kong, have commonly been affected by leakage from water mains. The identification of leakage locations was done by conventional water quality parameters including major and trace eleme...

Depending upon how people use land in a watershed, whether it be farming, livestock grazing, timber harvesting, mining, urbanization, or even recreation, all have significant impacts on the water moving through that watershed. This paper will focus on the urban watershed and how stormwater runoff from urbanization affects erosion, sedimentation, and water quality. It also will explore the potential of a watershed as the basis for managing and protecting water resources. Watershed-based management offers a clear look at how land-use changes affect not only water quality but also erosion and sedimentation; in addition, this approach develops preventive strategies to restore those affected water and land resources. The preventive strategies the author uses for this watershed can be applied to other New Mexico urban watersheds. This paper is divided into three parts. The first part shows how past and present land-use activities affect erosion, sedimentation, and water quality in the Bear Canyon arroyo system. The second part provides solutions to the problems of soil erosion and stormwater pollution in the urban areas through government intervention. The third part discusses how Best Management Practices (BMPs) can be used to limit or reduce stormwater pollution in residential and industrial areas.

As the economic and financial center of China, Shanghai has experienced an extensive urban expansion since the early 1980s, with an attendant cost in environmental degradation. We use an integrated pollution index to study the temporal variations of surface water quality in urban, suburban and rural areas between 1982 and 2005. Data on monitored cross-sections were collected from the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center. The results indicated that the spatial pattern of surface water quality was determined by the level of urbanization. Surface water qualities in urban and suburban areas were improved by strengthening the environmental policies and management, but were worsening in rural areas. The relationship between economic growth and surface water quality in Shanghai showed an inversed-U-shaped curve, which reflected a similar pattern in most developed countries. This research suggests that decision makers and city officials should be more aware of the recent pollution increases in Shanghai. - An integrated pollution index documents the deterioration of water quality in greater Shanghai, recently most serious in rural sections.

Impervious surfaces are important environmental indicators and are related to many environmental issues, such as water quality, stream health and the urban heat island effect. Therefore, detailed impervious surface information is crucial for urban planning and environment management. To extract impervious surfaces from remote sensing imagery, many algorithms and techniques have been developed. However, there are still debates over the strengths and limitations of linear versus nonlinear algorithms in handling mixed pixels in the urban landscapes. In the meantime, although many previous studies have compared various techniques, few comparisons were made between linear and nonlinear techniques. The objective of this study is to compare the performance between nonlinear and linear methods for...

Legislative drivers for water quality and urban flood risk are driving a growing need to accurately determine the performance of urban drainage systems in near real time. Rainfall data are clearly a key input to urban drainage system models. Historically rain gauge data have been used, however radar rainfall data are now widely available and benefits from significantly higher spatial coverage than rain gauges in most UK urban catchments. This paper describes a detailed study based on a small (11km^2) urban catchment in West Yorkshire, England. Radar and rain gauge data have been compared and used as the input to hydrodynamic sewer flow simulations, and the results of these simulations have been compared with measured flows in the sewer system. The results showed that for this size of catch...

Rivers are important components of many urban systems, and research into urban rivers is increasing internationally, both in scope and intensity. As an introduction to a special section on urban rivers, this short article briefly highlights some key trends in urban river research based on a survey of published articles from Web of Knowledge, before summarising the contributions made by the special section papers. In particular, there has been a general increase in work on urban rivers since the 1990s, with a more dramatic increase from 2001. Most published research has concentrated on water quality and its wider environmental implications; ecologically, many studies have focused on autecology, community ecology or river restoration/rehabilitation, with the main emphasis on macroinvertebrat...

In Pearl River Delta (PRD), river water quality has deteriorated gradually due to population increase and ongoing industrialization and urbanization. In this study, multivariate statistic methods were used to assess water quality spatial pattern and to identify characteristics of water quality variation in the PRD. Water quality monitoring of the PRD during the year 2005 and 2008 was conducted at 25 different stations. Seventeen water quality parameters were analyzed for further studying. Results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that all the parameters except air temperature, water temperature and zinc showed significant difference among monitoring stations in both dry and wet season. Monitoring stations in the PRD were separately classified into three statistically signif...

Green roofs involve growing vegetation on rooftops and are one tool that can help mitigate the negative effects of pollution. This review encompasses published research to date on how green roofs can help mitigate pollution, how green roof materials influence the magnitude of these benefits, and suggests future research directions. The discussion concentrates on how green roofs influence air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon sequestration, longevity of roofing membranes that result in fewer roofing materials in landfills, water quality of stormwater runoff, and noise pollution. Suggestions for future directions for research include plant selection, development of improved growing substrates, urban rooftop agriculture, water quality of runoff, supplemental irrigation, the use of grey water, air pollution, carbon sequestration, effects on human health, combining green roofs with complementary related technologies, and economics and policy issues. - Green roofs can help mitigate air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, sequester carbon, conserve energy, reduce the urban heat island, and improve water quality.

Protecting groundwater from nitrogen contamination is an important public-health concern and a major national environmental issue in China. In this study, we monitored water quality in 29 wells from 2009 to 2010 in a village in Shanghai city, whick belong to typical rural-urban continuum in China. T...

The Upper Oconee watershed of Georgia is typical of the Piedmont and water quality is a key issue in the urbanization of this historically agricultural region. Fecal indicators may be found in higher numbers than regulatory targets and agricultural non-point sources are sometimes implicated. We en...

Wetlands water quality is influenced by the anthopogenic activities in the catchments’ areas. Wastewaters from the urban storm, agricultural runoff and sewage treatment often end up in wetlands before flowing to rivers, lakes and the sea. A lot of pollutants are readily transported in these wastewat...

Surface water quality monitoring is one of the most important instruments to know and test water resource, with reference to the attainment of the aims enacted by the `Regional Plan for Water Reclamation`. This article explains the microbiological research results, fecal coliforms have been regarded as environmental and fecal pollution indicators of surface waters. Final results supply some useful pieces of information about water self-purification capacity of the tested surface watercourses and about the necessity to bio purify urban and zootechnical waste-waters running into receiving waters.

This report describes the effects of urbanization on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of stream ecosystems in 28 watersheds along a gradient of urbanization in the Willamette River basin and surrounding area, Oregon and Washington, from 2003 through 2005. The study that generated the report is one of several urban-effects studies completed nationally by the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Watersheds were selected to minimize natural variability caused by factors such as geology, elevation, and climate, and to maximize coverage of different stages of urban development among watersheds. Because land use or population density alone often are not a complete measure of urbanization, a combination of land use, land cover, infrastructure, and socioeconomic variables were integrated into a multimetric urban intensity index (UII) to represent the degree of urban development in each watershed. Physical characteristics studied include stream hydrology, stream temperature, and habitat; chemical characteristics studied include sulfate, chloride, nutrients, pesticides, dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic carbon, and suspended sediment; and biological characteristics studied include algal, macroinvertebrate, and fish assemblages. Semipermeable membrane devices, passive samplers that concentrate trace levels of hydrophobic organic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls, also were used. The objectives of the study were to (1) examine physical, chemical, and biological responses along the gradient of urbanization and (2) determine the major physical, chemical, and landscape variables affecting the structure of aquatic communities.\\r\

Wei River is the major source of water for the urban residents, industrial production and agricultural activities in the central Shaanxi plain of China. Water quality of the Wei River was determined by collecting water samples from 25 locations along the Baoji Xi?an reach and analyzing for pH, EC, BOD5, DO, COD, F, Se, As, and Hg. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation with the entropy method for weight determination was used to assess the water quality of the river. Results indicate that the water quality of 23 sampling sites fall into the fifth grade (bad level), whereas two sampling sites are in the fourth grade (poor level). The comparison of this method with the typical fuzzy synthetic evaluation shows that it is effective in water quality assessment. The assessment results indicate that the Wei ...

We analyzed data from riffle and snag habitats for 39 small cold water streams with different levels of watershed urbanization in Wisconsin and Minnesota to evaluate the influences of urban land use and instream habitat on macroinvertebrate communities. Multivariate analysis indicated that stream temperature and amount of urban land use in the watersheds were the most influential factors determining macroinvertebrate assemblages. The amount of watershed urbanization was nonlinearly and negatively correlated with percentages of Ephemeroptera-PlecopteraTrichoptera (EPT) abundance, EPT taxa, filterers, and scrapers and positively correlated with Hilsenhoff biotic index. High quality macroinvertebrate index values were possible if effective imperviousness was less than 7 percent of the watershed area. Beyond this level of imperviousness, index values tended to be consistently poor. Land uses in the riparian area were equal or more influential relative to land use elsewhere in the watershed, although riparian area consisted of only a small portion of the entire watershed area. Our study implies that it is extremely important to restrict watershed impervious land use and protect stream riparian areas for reducing human degradation on stream quality in low level urbanizing watersheds. Stream temperature may be one of the major factors through which human activities degrade cold-water streams, and management efforts that can maintain a natural thermal regime will help preserve stream quality.

It has been recognized for many years that stormwater runoff provides a transport mechanism for non-point pollutants into the nation's waterways. As more watershed areas continue to urbanize, greater increases in pollutant loadings will continue to impact the water quality of the receiving water bodies. In many instances, the pollutant impact exceeds the assimilative capacity of the receiving water. To estimate the potential impacts of stormwater pollution, mathematical models are constructed. In this dissertation, mathematical models have been constructed to estimate the non-point pollutant loadings from an urbanizing area as well as to model the assimilative capacity of the receiving tidal embayment system. The models are capable of simulating the hydrologic aspects as well as the water quality cycles of the system as a function of urbanization. In determining the response of the receiving water system to stormwater loadings, the change in receiving water quality is modeled spatially as well as temporally. The overall model is composed of three subsystem models: a stormwater model, a hydrodynamic tidal model, and a receiving water quality model. Construction of the stormwater model is based on STORM (Storage, Treatment, Overflow, Runoff Model) by the US Army Corps of Engineers. A ground water component to the model has been added to adjust the model for application to the study area, Lakes Bay, New Jersey. The tidal model is developed from a pseudo two-dimensional approach. The methodology utilizes the link-node concept to simulate the embayment system. Solutions to equations of motion and continuity are solved using a finite difference method. The receiving water quality model is a two-dimensional time variable water quality model which is based in a finite segment approach.

We quantified the relationships among urbanization, fishes, and habitat quality to determine how assemblags respond to urbanization and if a habitat quality assessment reflects urban effects on stream ecosystems. We sampled 30 wadeable streams along an urban gradient in the Etow...

River flow rates were measured in hills west to the city of Sendai and its surroundings in November 1994 and the water quality was analyzed to verify differences in discharge characteristics of small rivers caused by urbanization. The branch river basin of Natori River having its basin in the subject area was subdivided into small basins each with an area of 10 km {sup 2} or smaller. Specific flow rate (a value of flow rate divided by the area of each small river basin) in basins advanced in urbanization was as large as 10 liters/second/km {sup 2}, while that in undeveloped areas was as small as 5 liters/second/km {sup 2} or less. In general, river waters not subjected to artificial influences have water quality of Ca-HCO3 type, and show electric conductivity of lower than 200 {mu} S/cm. If any contamination is added, chloride ions and sulfuric acid ions increase, changing the water quality to Ca-Cl type or CaSO4 type. Electric conductivity also increases in association therewith. Basins that show natural river type are very few, with most of the basins showing the electric conductivity of higher than 200 {mu} S/cm. A place showing as high value as 1180 {mu} S/cm also exists. These phenomena can be regarded as the influence of artificial contamination associated with the urbanization. Strong influence of the urbanization appears particularly in rivers in the small basins. 4 figs., 2 tabs.

Integrated urban water system (IUWS) modelling aims at assessing the quality of the surface water receiving the urban emissions through sewage treatment plants, combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and stormwater drainage systems. However, some micropollutants have the tendency to occur in more than one environmental medium. In this work, a multimedia fate and transport model (MFTM) is “wrapped around” a dynamic IUWS model for organic micropollutants to enable integrated environmental assessment. The combined model was tested on a hypothetical catchment using two scenarios: a reference scenario and a stormwater infiltration pond scenario, as an example of a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS). A case for Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was simulated and resulted in a reduced surface water concentration for the latter scenario. However, the model also showed that this was at the expense of increased fluxes to air and groundwater.

Urbanization is arguably one of the most dramatic forms of landscape change, and an important anthropogenic influence on the structure and function of ecosystems. Cities have obvious impacts on local ecologies and environments, such as shifts in species diversity and alteration of local microclimates. While scientists are now familiar with many of these localized impacts of urbanization, cities and suburban areas contribute to 10-15 % of surface land cover in the conterminous U.S., pointing to the potential, yet poorly understood, contribution of cities to regional, national, and global carbon (C) and energy budgets. As cities continue to expand urban ecologists place more emphasis on understanding the functions of urban ecosystems and the ecosystem services (e.g. habitat, air, and water quality) that cities provide. While studies demonstrate that the urban environment alters the structure and function of remnant patches of native ecosystems relative to their non-urban counterparts, the ability of restoration, planning, and design to improve the provision of ecosystem services is a new approach within ecology. One strategy involves green urban design, or using ecological principles for planning or reinvigorating certain ecological processes, in cities. Increasing the amount of vegetative cover can reduce this effect by reinforcing ecosystem services in cities, including shading of surfaces, promotion of cooling through evapotranspiration, and the sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in plant tissues and soils. However, the on-the-ground reality of such strategies is relatively unknown. A pilot study is being conducted in Tucson, AZ to investigate the impact of increasing the cover of trees in the urban landscape on local microclimates and the urban heat island. Trees (Velvet Mesquite, Chilean Mesquite, and Desert Willow) were planted in two neighborhoods in Tucson in 1990. We are collecting data during the summer 2011 monsoon (DBH, crown volume, and hemispherical canopy photos) to asses growth of the trees in the urban environment. These growth rates, and associated ecosystem services (C-sequestration, energy savings, pollution mitigation, etc.) are evaluated using US Forest Service models (Tree Carbon Calculator and i-tree software) to determine how the performance of trees in the Tucson urban environment perform vs. model predictions. We hypothesize that the models overestimate tree performance as Tucson differs in water availability relative to the cities the model was parameterized in (e.g. Glendale), both in terms of soil water holding capacities and also city "water culture." This preliminary study will provide a data collection framework for a citizen science urban forestry project which will provide data to improve environmental decision making related to the interaction of plants, water, and energy balance in this arid city.

Discharges that affect both water quality and habitat quality can have complex effects on flowing water communties. - We studied the effect of an industrial effluent on the water quality, habitat quality, and benthic macroinvertebrates of an urban stream in southwestern Michigan (USA). The effluent affected water quality by raising in-stream temperatures 13-18 deg. C during colder months and carrying high amounts of iron (>20xhigher than ambient) that covered the streambed. The effluent also affected habitat conditions by increasing total stream discharge by 50-150%, causing a significant change in substrate and flow conditions. We used three methods to collect benthic macroinvertebrates in depositional and erosional habitats and to understand the relative importance of habitat quality and water quality alterations. Macroinvertebrate response variables included taxonomic richness, abundance, and proportional abundance of sensitive taxonomic groups. Results indicated that the effluent had a positive effect on macroinvertebrate communities by increasing the quantity of riffle habitat, but a negative effect on macroinvertebrate communities by reducing water quality. Results illustrated the need for careful consideration of habitat quality and water quality in restoration or remediation programs.

On the basis of the analytical findings in four sampling stations along the Turia basin near Teruel (1), the water quality is evaluated according to the different parameters and groups of parameters. The water is classified according to is potential uses, following the E.U. regulations. The impact of Teruel on the river Turia is important: it is necessary to treat the industrial and urban effluents. We propose of following-up analysis, additional sampling and the modelization of the aquatic system. (Author)

The pamphlet is intended to help citizens, like those participating in water quality monitoring programs, who want to understand the complex nature of state, federal, and local laws that apply to the chief sources of coastal water pollution: point source pollution--pollution discharged from pipes which require state and federal permits; and nonpoint source pollution--generally unregulated runoff from agricultural operations and urban land uses, timber harvesting (silviculture), and construction activities. The pamphlet explains the legal standards and penalties established by coastal water quality laws so that citizens can better participate in the implementation and enforcement of these laws.

In urban water quality management, several models are connected and integrated for analysing the fate of pollutants from the sources in the urban catchment to the final recipient; classical problems connected with the selection and calibration of parameters are amplified by the complexity of the modelling approach increasing their uncertainty. The present paper aims at studying the influence of reductions in available data on the modelling response uncertainty with respect to the different integrated modelling outputs (both considering quantity and quality variables). At this scope, a parsimonious integrated home-made model has been used allowing for analysing the combinative effect of data availability regarding the different parts of the integrated urban drainage system; the uncertainty ...

...990.115 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban Development (Continued...DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT THE PUBLIC...long-term and strategic planning. Current consumption...gas, heating fuel, water, and sewerage...

...Dodge project includes urban interface fuels treatments...located in the Young Dodge planning subunit on the Rexford...outside the Wildland-Urban Interface, to decrease...outside of the wildland-urban interface, to decrease...reduce impacts to soil and water resources;...

Under an umbrella labeled Water Quality 2000, 86 organizations - ranging from the Natural Resources Defense Council to the Chemical Manufacturers Association - have reached a consensus on the major water quality problems currently facing the US. Their broad-based conclusions have been released in a report entitled Challenges for the Future, which represents one step in an ongoing discussion among representatives of these diverse groups on improving water quality. Although the report presents a long-term view, William Matuszeski from EPA described the document as a superb background for the upcoming debate over reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. In general terms, the report cites the major sources of current water problems as agricultural and urban runoff, especially following storms; airborne pollutants; continued dumping of toxic wastes; accidental spills; overharvesting of fish and shellfish; habitat competition from exotic species; and land and water use practices. This article summarizes some of the findings.

The State of California uses more ground water than any other State in the Nation. With a population of over 30 million people, an agricultural economy based on intensive irrigation, large urban industrial areas, and naturally elevated concentrations of some trace elements, there is a wide range of contaminant sources that have the potential to contaminate ground water and limit its beneficial uses. In response to the many-and different-potential sources of ground-water contamination, the State of California has evolved an extensive set of rules and programs to protect ground-water quality, and agencies to implement the rules and programs. These programs have in common a focus on compliance with regulations governing chemical use and (or) ground-water quality. Although appropriate for, and successful at, their specific missions, these programs do not at present provide a comprehensive view of ground-water quality in the State of California. \\r\

The European Water Framework Directive requires a good ecological status of the European water bodies and the necessary measures to obtain this have to be implemented. The water quality of a river is the result of complex anthropogenic systems (buildings, waste water treatment infrastructure, regulations, etc.) and biogeochemical and eco-hydrological interactions. It is therefore essential to obtain more insight in the factors that determine the water quality in a river. Research into the relation between land use and water quality is necessary. Human activities have a huge impact on the flow regimes and associated water quality of river systems. Effects of land use bound activities on water quality are often investigated, but these studies generally ignore the hydrological complexity of a human influenced catchment. Infrastructure like sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) can displace huge quantities of polluted water. The transfers change flow paths, displace water between catchments and change the residence time of the system. If we want to correctly understand the effect of land use distribution on water quality we have to take these sewer systems into account. In this study we analyse the relation between land use and water quality in the Nete catchment (Belgium) and investigate the impact of the sewage infrastructure on this relation. The Nete catchment (1.673 km²) is a mosaic of semi natural, agricultural and urbanized areas and the land use is very fragmented. For the moment 74% of the households within the catchment are connected to a WWTP. The discharges from these WWTP's compose 15% of the total discharge of the Nete. Based on a runoff model the surface of upstream land use was calculated for 378 points. These data were then corrected for the impact of WWTP's. Using sewage infrastructure plans, urban areas connected to a WWTP were added to the upstream land use of the WWTP's water receiving stream. In order to understand the effect of the sewage infrastructure we analysed water quality parameters and upstream land use with, and without, taking the sewage infrastructure into account. Water quality data were obtained from the Flemish Environmental Agency. The incorporation of the sewage system in the upstream land use calculation resulted in important changes in the upstream land use area. While some sample points experienced a reduction in total upstream area up to 18% compared to the run-off model, others saw an increase in their upstream area up to 43%. Upstream urban area decreased by 100% or increased up to 430%. Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of the impact of the sewer systems on the river water quality. Almost no significant results were found between urban area and water quality if sewage system transfers were disregarded. When however a distinction was made between WWTP-connected and not-connected households, we found comprehensible, positive and significant results for several water quality parameters. Our study demonstrates that if upstream land use areas are calculated without taking the sewer system in to account the impact of certain land use classes and the impact of anthropogenic activities on the river system in general can be underestimated. We believe that these results not only demonstrate the importance of sewer infrastructure that relate land use to water quality, but that it also has important implications for water quantity and quality modelling. In complex, human influenced catchments, simple run-off models simply cannot realistically represent the catchment system.

The relative importance of nonpoint-source (NPS) pollution in the degradation of water quality has increased in the last two decades due to the control of pollutant releases from point sources. The most important source of NPS pollutants are agriculture and urban areas, which impact water quality in rivers, lakes, estuaries and groundwaters through the release of eroded sediments, fertilizers, pesticides, and municipal sewage sludge. Because of this, NPS pollution is an important environmental concern at state and national levels. Several transport processes control the dispersal of NPS pollutants, including leaching to groundwater, surface runoff, and aerial transport and deposition. Once in groundwater, these contaminants can impact surface water during stream recharge. While the losses of NPS pollutants from agricultural fields or urban areas can be small as a percentage of the total amount released, the cumulative additions to river systems from large drainage areas can be significant.

The effects of urbanization on hydrology, water quality and macroinvertebrates were examined in 7 headwater tributaries of the St. Johns River in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of northeast Florida. All streams had sandy substrata and drained small catchments (24?231?ha) that ranged from 0 to 51% total impervious area (TIA). Streams unaffected by urbanization had intermittent stream flow and completely dry channels for several weeks in autumn and spring. Urbanized streams always possessed channel water, but 2 streams ceased flowing and became stagnant in autumn and spring. Principle components analysis of chemical and physical measures (i.e. conductivity, nutrients, pH, metals, and stream flow) produced one axis (PCA1) that explained 54% of the total variation among the streams. The variables ...

Faecal coliform (FC) levels in surface water and clams (Ruditapes decussatus) and variations in environmental parameters were studied in two bivalve harvesting areas in the Alvor lagoon (southern Portugal). Land use and cover characteristics in adjacent subwatersheds were also analysed to assess their contributions as sources of faecal contamination. High FC levels in clams from the harvesting area in the most urbanized subwatershed (impervious surface coverage approximately 10.5%) were positively associated with rainfall and with the cooler periods of the year. FC levels in clams from the least urbanized subwatershed were generally very low and did not present any detectable seasonal trend. From these results, it was concluded that the periodic deterioration of the microbiological quality of clams derives from the cumulative impact of the reservoir of faecal contamination created in urbanized areas, entering into the lagoon during storm water runoff. PMID:17286181

In Pearl River Delta (PRD), river water quality has deteriorated gradually due to population increase and ongoing industrialization and urbanization. In this study, multivariate statistic methods were used to assess water quality spatial pattern and to identify characteristics of water quality variation in the PRD. Water quality monitoring of the PRD during the year 2005 and 2008 was conducted at 25 different stations. Seventeen water quality parameters were analyzed for further studying. Results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that all the parameters except air temperature, water temperature and zinc showed significant difference among monitoring stations in both dry and wet season. Monitoring stations in the PRD were separately classified into three statistically significant clusters at ( D link/ D max) < 2 in dry and wet season, respectively. The three clusters indicated the similarity and dissimilarity of river water quality among 25 monitoring stations, corresponding to heavy pollution, moderate pollution and slight pollution. Thus, the results of this study are useful to evaluate water quality and manage water resources in the PRD.

Non-point sources of pollution are difficult to identify and control, and are one of the main reasons that urban rivers fail to reach the water quality objectives set for them. Whilst sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are available to help combat this diffuse pollution, they are mostly installed in areas of new urban development. However, SuDS must also be installed in existing built areas if diffuse loadings are to be reduced. Advice on where best to locate SuDS within existing built areas is limited, hence a semi-distributed stochastic GIS-model was developed to map small-area basin-wide loadings of 18 key stormwater pollutants. Load maps are combined with information on surface water quality objectives to permit mapping of diffuse pollution hazard to beneficial uses of receiving waters. The model thus aids SuDS planning and strategic management of urban diffuse pollution. The identification of diffuse emission 'hot spots' within a water quality objectives framework is consistent with the 'combined' (risk assessment) approach to pollution control advocated by the EU Water Framework Directive. PMID:15572076

Non-point pollution is caused by pollutant loads outflowing from diffuse sources other than point sources, such as domestic effluent, factories, and mines. Especially in urban areas, road surfaces have a high potential for non-point pollution. The present review presents actual conditions, impacts, measures and perspectives relating to non-point pollution in urban areas, with reference also to problems and countermeasures relating to the sewerage system. The implementation of countermeasures against non-point pollution will contribute to the future improvement of the quality of the water environment.   

... Congregate housing: Housing quality standards. 982.609 Section 982.609 Housing and Urban Development Regulations...PROGRAM Special Housing Types Congregate Housing § 982.609 Congregate housing: Housing quality...

Urbanization can degrade water quality and alter watershed hydrology, with profound effects on the structure and function of both riparian wetlands (RWs) and aquatic ecosystems downstream. We used freshwater RWs in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA, as a model system to examine: (1) the effects of increasing urbanization (indexed by the percentage of impervious surface cover [%ISC] in the surrounding watershed) on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in surface soils and plant tissues, soil P saturation, and soil iron (Fe) chemistry; and (2) relationships between RW soil and plant nutrient chemistries vs. the physical and biotic integrity of adjacent streams. Soil total P and NaOH-extractable P (representing P bound to aluminum [Al] and Fe hydrous oxides) varied significantly but nonlinearly with %ISC (r2 = 0.69 and 0.57, respectively); a similar pattern was found for soil P saturation but not for soil total N. Relationships were best described by second-order polynomial equations. Riparian wetlands appear to receive greater P loads in moderately (8.6-13.3% ISC) than in highly (25.1-29.1% ISC) urbanized watersheds. These observations are consistent with alterations in watershed hydrology that occur with increasing urbanization, directing water and nutrient flows away from natural RWs. Significant increases in total and crystalline soil Fe (r 2 = 0.57 and 0.53, respectively) and decreases in relative soil Fe crystallinity with increasing %ISC suggest the mobilization and deposition of terrestrial sediments in RWs, likely due to construction activities in the surrounding watershed. Increases in RW plant tissue nutrient concentrations and %ISC in the surrounding watershed were negatively correlated with standard indices of the physical and biotic integrity of adjacent streams. In combination, these data suggest that nutrient and sediment inputs associated with urbanization and storm-water management are important variables that affect wetland ecosystem services, such as water quality improvement, in urbanizing landscapes. ?? 2007 by the Ecological Society of America.

OBJECTIVES:Living in substandard housing may be one factor that increases the risk of fire and burn injuries in low-income urban environments. The purposes of this study are to (1) describe the frequency and characteristics of substandard housing in urban homes with young children and (2) explore the hypothesis that better housing quality is associated with a greater likelihood of having working smoke alarms and safe hot water temperatures.METHODS:A total 246 caregivers of children ages 0 to 7 years were recruited from a pediatric emergency department and a well-child clinic. In-home observations were completed by using 46 items from the Housing and Urban Development's Housing Quality Standards.RESULTS:Virtually all homes (99%) failed the housing quality measure. Items with the highest failure rates were those related to heating and cooling; walls, ceilings, and floors; and sanitation and safety domains. One working smoke alarm was observed in 82% of the homes, 42% had 1 on every level, and 62% had safe hot water temperatures. For every increase of 1 item in the number of housing quality items passed, the odds of having any working smoke alarm increased by 10%, the odds of having 1 on every level by 18%, and the odds of having safe hot water temperatures by 8%.CONCLUSIONS:Many children may be at heightened risk for fire and scald burns by virtue of their home environment. Stronger collaboration between housing, health care, and injury prevention professionals is urgently needed to maximize opportunities to improve home safety. PMID:23147973

As the world's biggest economy, China is becoming the biggest consumer of resources globally. Given this trend, the over-proportional fast increase in urbanization presents China with fundamental problems. Among the most urgent ones is the increasing loss of agricultural land as urbanization takes place in the most productive regions along the coast. The latter is being responsible for a shift in agriculture production towards climatically less favorable areas. At the same time, the loss of green areas in and around growing cities is increasing the effect of the urban heat island. The perception of the potential risks related to this phenomenon, in the context of climate change, has led the Shanghai city administration to increase its urban-greening efforts, expanding the per capita area of green from 1m2 in 1990 to 12.5m2 in 2008. In this context, this paper aims at identifying the influence of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) on the sustainability of the urban regions of Shanghai and Nanjing. In particular, it focuses on the effects of UPA on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil nutrients and water balances, local climate and the structure and functions of the urbanized areas. We propose an interdisciplinary framework combining remote sensing, model simulations and GHG field observations and targeted at identifying "win-win" strategies for sustainable planning pathways showing high potentials for UPA. The framework is based on spatial scenario modeling, automatic classification of urban structure types and on a prototype of a high-quality spatial database consisting of a 3D city model. Dynamic boundary conditions for climate and urban development are provided by state of the art models. These approaches meet the needs of stakeholders and planners in China. A special emphasis is put on interdependencies between small holder farming in the urban and peri-urban zone and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies focusing on improved management of local water and nutrient cycles. The whole database generated will be structured and made accessible for planners and stakeholders in the form of a 3D city visualization model.

Green roofs involve growing vegetation on rooftops and are one tool that can help mitigate the negative effects of pollution. This review encompasses published research to date on how green roofs can help mitigate pollution, how green roof materials influence the magnitude of these benefits, and suggests future research directions. The discussion concentrates on how green roofs influence air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon sequestration, longevity of roofing membranes that result in fewer roofing materials in landfills, water quality of stormwater runoff, and noise pollution. Suggestions for future directions for research include plant selection, development of improved growing substrates, urban rooftop agriculture, water quality of runoff, supplemental irrigation, the use of g...

Increasing population and welfare puts water management under stress, especially in what concerns water quality. Surface water properties are strongly linked with hydrological processes and are affected by stream flow variability. Changes in some chemical substances concentrations can be ascribed to different water sources. Runoff generated in urban areas is considered the main responsible for water quality degradation inside catchments. This poster presents the methodology and first results of a study that is being developed to assess the impact of urbanization on surface water quality, during rainfall events. It focuses on the Ribeira dos Covões catchment (620 ha) located in central Portugal. Due to its proximity to the Coimbra city in central region, the urban areas sprawled during the last decades. In 2008, urban areas represented 32% of the area. Recently a highway was constructed crossing the catchment and a technological industrial park is being build-up in the headwaters. Several water samples were collected at four different locations: the catchment outlet and in three sub-catchments with distinct urbanization patterns - Espírito Santo that represents a highly urbanized area (45%) located over sandstone, Porto do Bordalo with 30% of urbanized area located over limestone, and IParque, mainly forest and just downstream the disturbed technological industrial park construction area. The samples were collected at different times during rainfall events to monitor the variability along the hydrograph. Six monitoring campaigns were performed: two in April 2011, at the end of the winter period, and the others between October and November 2011, after the dry summer. The number of samples collected per monitoring campaign is variable according with rainfall pattern. Parameters such as pH, conductivity, turbidity and total suspended sediments were immediately analyzed. The samples were then preserved, after filtered (0.45µm), and later analyzed for dissolved chemical oxygen demand, total phosphorous, nitrogen (Kjeldahl, nitrate and ammonium), some cations and heavy metals, according with standard methods. In each monitored location there is a continuous-recording water-level that provides flow data. The rainfall data is monitored with a raingauge located at the catchment outlet. The results show that surface runoff affects stream water quality according with rainfall pattern. During rainfall events the rising limb flow is associated with an increase in suspended sediment concentration and turbidity, particularly at Iparque. In this sub-catchment, the deforestation and the topsoil removal associated with the technological industrial park construction, promotes suspended sediments growth ranging from 395% to 1645%, corresponding to peak concentrations of 1049mg/L and 3621mg/L, for similar rainfall amounts but with distinct intensities (0.4mm/5minutes and 1.2mm/5minutes, respectively). As regards to the monitored dissolved chemical properties, despite the variability, related with the hydrograph, the increase is much lower comparing with the suspended sediments. Generally, the values are higher at the catchment outlet, which can indicate that the contact time between rainfall and the surfaces before reach the water line affects water quality. This should be considered during urban planning to improve water quality and reduce environmental impacts with low investment.

Snowmelt is known to cause peak concentrations of pollutants, which may adversely affect receiving water quality. High concentrations of metals and suspended solids in snow have been reported, whereas studies on organic pollutants are rare. This study aims at investigating the occurrence of anthropogenic organic compounds in urban snow in Gothenburg (Sweden). The most frequently detected organic pollutants in the collected snow samples were polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), high molecular-weight phthalates, 4-nonylphenol and 4-t-octylphenol. Brominated flame retardants and chlorinated paraffins were only sporadically detected. In several snow samples, the concentrations of specific PAHs, alkylphenols and phthalates were higher than reported stormwater concentrations and European water quality standards. Pollutant source identification and sustainable management of snow are important instruments for the mitigation of organic contaminants in the urban environment. PMID:22053476

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a 16-month investigation of water quality, aquatic-community structure, bed sediment, and fish tissue in Village and Valley Creeks, two urban streams that drain areas of residential, commercial, and industrial land use in Birmingham, Alabama. Water-quality data were collected between February 2000 and March 2001 at four sites on Village Creek, three sites on Valley Creek, and at two reference sites near Birmingham, Fivemile Creek and Little Cahaba River, that drain less urbanized areas. The occurrence and distribution of chemical constituents in the water column and bed sediment provided an initial assessment of water quality in the streams. Aquatic-community structure, physical condition of fish, and analysis of fish tissue provided an indication of the cumulative effects of the water quality on the aquatic biota. Degraded water quality was seen at the more urbanized sites on Village and Valley Creeks. Elevated concentrations of nutrients, bacteria, trace elements, and organic contaminants were detected in the water column. Trace-element priority pollutants, pesticides, and other organic compounds were detected in higher concentrations in bed sediment and fish tissue at the Village and Valley Creek sites than at the reference site. The richness and density of the fish and benthic-invertebrate communities indicate that the integrity of the aquatic communities in Village and Valley Creeks is poor in comparison to that observed at the two reference sites. Correlations between land use and aquatic-community structure, water quality, bed sediment, and fish tissue were observed. The abundance of mayflies and the number of EPT (ephemeroptera, plecoptera, tricoptera) taxa were negatively correlated with industrial land use. The abundance of midges (an indicator of poor water quality) was positively correlated with industrial land use; the percentage of mosquitofishes (a tolerant species) was positively correlated with commercial land use. In contrast, the numbers of fish species, fish families, and the percentage of sunfishes (intolerant species) were positively correlated with forested land use, indicating that the more diverse fish communities were found in basins with a higher percentage of forested land. The concentrations of 12 water-quality constituents and 18 organic compounds detected in bed sediment were positively correlated with industrial land use. Mercury and molybdenum concentrations detected in fish-liver tissue also were positively correlated with industrial land use. The water quality and aquatic-community structure in Village and Valley Creeks are degraded in comparison to streams flowing through less urbanized areas. Decreased diversity and elevated concentrations of trace elements and organic contaminants in the water column, bed sediment, and fish tissues at Village and Valley Creeks are indicative of the effects of urbanization. Industrial land use, in particular, was significantly correlated to elevated contaminant levels in the water column, bed sediment, fish tissues, and to the declining health of the benthic-invertebrate communities. The results of this 16-month study have long-range watershed management implications, demonstrating the association between urban development and stream degradation. These data can serve as a baseline from which to determine the effectiveness of stream-restoration programs.

There is a growing need for urban water managers to take a more holistic view of their water resource systems as population growth, urbanization, and current resource management practices put different stresses on local water resources and urban infrastructure. Total Water Manag...

This Circular provides a basic understanding of the characteristics, location, distribution, and quality of infrastructure resources (natural aggregate, energy, and water) in the Colorado Front Range urban corridor between Denver and Ft. Collins. With this understanding, the reader explores the many factors that affect the current and future availability of those resources, including the socioeconomic aspects of the resources and the complexly interwoven individual and collective interests that policymakers, decisionmakers, and the public must address.

We studied the effect of an industrial effluent on the water quality, habitat quality, and benthic macroinvertebrates of an urban stream in southwestern Michigan (USA). The effluent affected water quality by raising in-stream temperatures 13-18 degree C during colder months and carrying high amounts of iron (> 20 x higher than ambient) that covered the streambed. The effluent also affected habitat conditions by increasing total stream discharge by 50-150%, causing a significant change in substrate and flow conditions. We used three methods to collect benthic macroinvertebrates in depositional and erosional habitats and to understand the relative importance of habitat quality and water quality alterations. Macroinvertebrate response variables included taxonomic richness, abundance, and proportional abundance of sensitive taxonomic groups. Results indicated that the effluent had a positive effect on macroinvertebrate communities by increasing the quantity of riffle habitat, but a negative effect on macroinvertebrate communities by reducing water quality. Results illustrated the need for careful consideration of habitat quality and water quality in restoration or remediation programs. PMID:12663200

Vehicular traffic in urban areas may adversely affect urban water quality through the build-up of traffic generated semi and non volatile organic compounds (SVOCs and NVOCs) on road surfaces. The characterisation of the build-up processes is the key to developing mitigation measures for the removal of such pollutants from urban stormwater. An in-depth analysis of the build-up of SVOCs and NVOCs was undertaken in the Gold Coast region in Australia. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multicriteria Decision tools such as PROMETHEE and GAIA were employed to understand the SVOC and NVOC build-up under combined traffic scenarios of low, moderate, and high traffic in different land uses. It was found that congestion in the commercial areas and use of lubricants and motor oils in the industria...

The Greater Vancouver area has undergone significant land use and land cover (LULC) change over the past several decades, often adversely affecting stream health and water quality, particularly in those areas that have undergone the most urbanization. In this study 30 years of historical LULC and water quality data were examined using GIS and statistical analysis to better understand these impacts and to help build a broader understanding of cause and effect relationships of changing LULC, especially since urbanization is increasingly occurring within sensitive watersheds at greater distances from the City of Vancouver. Urban, agriculture, and disturbed LULC data from 1976, 1986, and 2000 were examined within a number of watersheds and related to historical water quality data sampled from streams during similar time frames. Additional higher resolution 2006 LULC data from a smaller number of watersheds were then examined and compared to stream health data to investigate the sensitivity of LULC data resolution on monitoring watershed impact. While LULC impact can be clearly seen at both high and lower resolutions, issues of ambiguous land cover and land use designations can potentially affect the magnitude of the relationship. PMID:23076660

Changes in land-use practices have affected the integrity and quality of water resources worldwide. In Patagonia there is a strong concern about the ecological status of surface waters because these changes are rapidly occurring in the region. To test the hypothesis that greater intensity of land-use will have negative effects on water quality, stream habitat and biodiversity we assessed benthic macroinvertebrates, riparian/littoral invertebrates, fish and birds from the riparian corridor and environmental variables of 15 rivers (Patagonia) subjected to a gradient of land-use practices (non-managed native forest, managed native forest, pine plantations, pasture, urbanization). A total of 158 macroinvertebrate taxa, 105 riparian/littoral invertebrate taxa, 5 fish species, 34 bird species, and 15 aquatic plant species, were recorded considering all sites. Urban land-use produced the most significant changes in streams including physical features, conductivity, nutrients, habitat condition, riparian quality and invertebrate metrics. Pasture and managed native forest sites appeared in an intermediate situation. The highest values of fish and bird abundance and diversity were observed at disturbed sites; this might be explained by the opportunistic behavior displayed by these communities which let them take advantage of increased trophic resources in these environments. As expected, non-managed native forest sites showed the highest integrity of ecological conditions and also great biodiversity of benthic communities. Macroinvertebrate metrics that reflected good water quality were positively related to forest land cover and negatively related to urban and pasture land cover. However, by offering stream edge areas, pasture sites still supported rich communities of riparian/littoral invertebrates, increasing overall biodiversity. Macroinvertebrates were good indicators of land-use impact and water quality conditions and resulted useful tools to early alert of disturbances in streams. Fish and birds having a greater ability of dispersion and capacity to move quickly from disturbances would reflect changes at a higher scale. PMID:21094515

...Communities Regional Planning Grant Program...of Housing and Urban Development...Communities Regional Planning Grant Program...transportation, water infrastructure...of Housing and Urban Development Reform...Communities Regional Planning Grant Program...the SNRPC, 240 Water St.,...

Urban development extensively modifies the natural hydrology, biodiversity, carbon balance, air quality and climate of the local and regional environment mainly due to increased impervious surface area (roads, pavements, roofs, etc.). Impervious surface are a legacy of urban infrastructure planning based on a ‘drained city’ to minimise flood risk. The result is a modification of the microclimate around buildings and on a city scale results in the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect where the urban areas are much hotter than the surrounding rural areas. Such heating comes on top of 20th century human induced climate change, namely decreased rainfall and higher temperatures. Drought conditions have triggered water restrictions in many Australian cities that have dramatically reduced ‘irrigation’ in urban areas. Ironically the drying influence from climate change has now been compounded by the drying influence of water restrictions and the efficient removal of stormwater resulting in desert like climates during summer. This will be further exacerbated by the projected increases in hot days, extreme hot days, heat waves, etc. In turn this excessive heating will compromise the health and liveability of urban dwellers. Stormwater is a potential critical resource that could be used to keep water in the landscape to irrigate urban areas to improve urban micro-climates, sustain vegetation and provide other multiple benefits to create more liveable and resilient urban environments. In Australia's major cities, stormwater harvesting has the potential to provide a low cost, low energy, fit-for-purpose source of water to help secure city supplies. Stormwater reuse not only provides a potential mitigation tool for the UHI and global climate change but has multiple benefits to provide resilience such as 1) Improved human thermal comfort to reduce heat related stress and mortality, 2) Healthy and productive vegetation and increased carbon sequestration, 3) Decreased stormwater runoff and reduced infrastructure cost, 4) Improved air quality through deposition, 5) Improved amenity of the landscape and improved water regimes for urban waterways. We present an overview of a major national research program called ‘Cities as Water Supply Catchments' that has been funded by industry stakeholders and all levels of Government across four major cities. The program is aimed at providing a strong evidence base for mainstreaming stormwater harvesting in Australia. This 5-year inter-disciplinary program involves 8 sub-projects including: the design of sustainable stormwater harvesting technologies; new governance, policy mechanisms and servicing models; and an assessment of the micro-climatic benefits of stormwater harvesting and management solutions. We then focus on the ‘green cities and micro-climates sub-project’ that will undertake a combination of observational and modelling approaches to measure, demonstrate, and project the effectiveness of stormwater harvesting and water sensitive urban design as an approach for improving urban micro-climates.

Abstract The Upper Mississippi River is characterized by a series of locks and dams, shallow impoundments, and thousands of river channelization structures that facilitate commercial navigation between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Cairo, Illinois. Agriculture and urban development over the past 200 years have degraded water quality and increased the rate of sediment and nutrient delivery to surface waters. River enhancement has become an important management tool employed to address causes and effects of surface water degradation and river modification in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. We report information on individual river enhancement projects and contrast project densities, goals, activities, monitoring, and cost between commercially non-navigated and navigated rivers (Non-navigate...

Tampa Bay is Florida's largest open-water estuary and one of the most highly urbanized. This report summarizes and synthesizes many years of scientific investigation into Tampa Bay's geology, hydrology and hydrography, water chemistry, and biotic components. The estuary is a phytoplankton-based system, with mangroves being the second most important primary producer. Benthic organisms are abundant and diverse, although in parts of the bay the benthos consists of a relatively few opportunistic and pollution indicator species. The estuary provides habitat for the juveniles and adults of a number of commercial and recreational fishery species. Significant changes occurring as a result of urbanization and industrialization include significant declines in intertidal wetlands and seagrass meadows, changes in circulation and flushing, and degradation of water quality. Important management issues include dredge and fill operations, restoration of fisheries, increasing freshwater flow to the bay, and eutrophication. 257 refs., 85 figs., 27 tabs.

Understanding how to properly manage urban stormwater is a critical concern to civil and environmental engineers the world over. Mismanagement of stormwater and urban runoff results in flooding, erosion, and water quality problems. In an effort to develop better management techniques, engineers have come to rely on computer simulation and advanced mathematical modeling techniques to help plan and predict water system performance. This important book outlines a new method that uses probability tools to model how stormwater behaves and interacts in a combined- or single-system municipal water system. Complete with sample problems and case studies illustrating how concepts really work, the book presents a cost-effective, easy-to-master approach to analytical modeling of stormwater management systems.

Water is a necessity for life. Currently, because of different contaminations in tap water, most people prefer using bottled mineral waters. Pesticides (e.g., organophophorous, carbamates, etc.) are among the most dangerous chemicals that may be found in drinking waters, which can cause long- and short-term complications. Because all people consume at least 2 L of water per day, water-quality monitoring is vital. In this study, we determined the concentration of three pesticides (aldicarb, parathion, and thiobencarb) in 13 tap-water samples collected from 13 different urban areas and 10 samples of bottled mineral water in Mashhad, a major city in northeast Iran. Samples were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with a pulsed flame photometric detector after solid-phase extraction. Result...

Intensive agriculture by indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, sewage water, and polluted drain water has posed a serious threat to groundwater quality in some peri-urban areas of Delhi like Najafgarh block. The objective of the study was to determine the groundwater quality and to map their spatial variation in terms of suitability for irrigation and drinking purpose. Ordinary kriging method was used for preparation of thematic maps of groundwater quality parameters such as electrical conductivity, sodium adsorption ratio, bicarbonate, magnesium/calcium ratio, total dissolved solids, chloride, nitrate and hardness. Exponential semivariogram model was best fitted for all quality parameters except chloride and hardness, where spherical model fitted best. Pollution level was highest at south ...

While preserving water quality by contracting with farmers has been examined previously, we analyze these arrangements from a different perspective. This study uses a transaction cost framework, in conjunction with detailed case studies of two water quality payment schemes, to examine factors that increase and decrease transaction costs in order to improve policy choice as well as policy design and implementation. In both the Munich and New York City cases, agreements with farmers to change land management practices resolved the water quality problems. In Munich, factors including lack of rural/urban antipathy, homogeneous land use, utilization of well-developed organic standards, and strong demand for organic products decreased transaction costs. Using existing organic institutions addres...

An array of river health assessment approaches and water quality variables have been suggested in the past for assessing the level of river health. However, the selection of suitable variables to be monitored for the assessment remains ambiguous and often it is not practical to monitor all the suggested variables. In this study, we employ a multivariate data reduction technique, called Factor Analysis (FA), to identify the key river health variables for a peri-urban river system, viz., the Hawkesbury-Nepean River system in New South Wales, Australia. Out of 40 water quality variables included in the analysis, the FA identified nine key variables, under three varifactors (VFs), explaining 50% of the variance in the river water quality. Variables in the first, second and third VFs revealed a...

In a time of climate uncertainty and drought in Australia, improved urban stormwater quality management practices are required not only for protecting waterway health, but also as a fit-for-purpose supply source. To conceive of urban stormwater as an environmental threat as well as a water supply source requires a substantial shift in our traditional linear supply and wastewater structures towards more hybrid and complex infrastructure systems. To understand what drives and limits treatment technology adoption for stormwater management, over 800 urban water professionals in three Australian capital cities completed an online questionnaire survey in November 2006. Using the conceptual framework of receptivity assessment, the results revealed the professional community to be highly associated with the importance of improving stormwater quality for receiving waterway health, yet they do not consider that politicians share this perspective by placing a substantially lower level of importance on stormwater quality management. Significant acquisition barriers within each city, including institutional arrangements, costs, responsibilities, and regulations and approvals processes were all identified as constraining more sustainable practices. Capacity building programs, fostering greater socio-political capital and developing key demonstration projects with training events are recommended as useful policy interventions for addressing current institutional impediments. PMID:19237759

This study aimed at relating the abundance and diversity of invertebrate communities of urban soils to chemical and physical soil characteristics and to identify the taxa most sensitive or tolerant to soil stressors. The invertebrate community of five urban soils in Naples, Italy, was sampled. To assess soil quality invertebrate community indices (Shannon, Simpson, Menhinick and Pielou indices), Acarina/Collembola ratios, and the soil biological quality index (QBS) were calculated. The chemical and physical characteristics of the soils strongly differed. Abundance rather than taxa richness of invertebrates were more affected by soil characteristics. The community was more abundant and diverse in the soils with high organic matter and water content and low metal (Cu, Pb, Zn) concentrations....

We include demands for water of different salinity concentrations as input parameters and decision variables in a regional hydro-economic optimization model. This specification includes separate demand functions for saline water. We then use stochastic non-linear programming to jointly identify the benefit maximizing set of infrastructure expansions, operational allocations, and use of different water quality types under climate variability. We present a detailed application for the Gaza Strip. The application considers building desalination and waste-water treatment plants and conveyance pipelines, initiating water conservation and leak reduction programs, plus allocating and transferring water of different qualities among agricultural, industrial, and urban sectors and among districts. Results show how to integrate a mix of supply enhancement, conservation, water quality improvement, and water quality management actions into a portfolio that can economically and efficiently respond to changes and uncertainties in surface and groundwater availability due to climate variability. We also show how to put drawn-down and saline Gaza aquifer water to more sustainable and economical use.

Surface- and ground-water quality data from the Mosquito Lagoon Basin were compiled and analyzed to: (1) describe historical and current monitoring in the basin, (2) summarize surface- and ground-water quality conditions with an emphasis on identifying areas that require additional monitoring, and (3) develop a water-quality monitoring network to meet the goals of Canaveral National Seashore (a National Park) and to fill gaps in current monitoring. Water-quality data were compiled from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's STORET system, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Information System, or from the agency which collected the data. Most water-quality monitoring focused on assessing conditions in Mosquito Lagoon. Significant spatial and/or seasonal variations in water-quality constituents in the lagoon were quantified for pH values, fecal coliform bacteria counts, and concentrations of dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, and total suspended solids. Trace element, pesticide, and ground-water-quality data were more limited. Organochlorine insecticides were the major class of pesticides analyzed. A surface- and ground-water-quality monitoring network was designed for the Mosquito Lagoon Basin which emphasizes: (1) analysis of compounds indicative of human activities, including pesticides and other trace organic compounds present in domestic and industrial waste; (2) greater data collection in the southern part of Mosquito Lagoon where spatial variations in water-quality constituents were quantified; and (3) additional ground-water-quality data collection in the surficial aquifer system and Upper Floridan aquifer. Surface-water-quality data collected as part of this network would include a fixed-station monitoring network of eight sites in the southern part of the basin, including a canal draining Oak Hill. Ground-water quality monitoring should be done routinely at about 20 wells in the surficial aquifer system and Upper Floridan aquifer, distributed between developed and undeveloped parts of the basin. Water samples collected should be analyzed for a wide range of constituents, including physical properties, nutrients, suspended sediment, and constituents associated with increased urban development such as pesticides, other trace organic compounds associated with domestic and industrial waste, and trace elements.

Human land cover can degrade estuaries directly through habitat loss and fragmentation or indirectly through nutrient inputs that reduce water quality. Strong precipitation events are occurring more frequently, causing greater hydrological connectivity between watersheds and estuaries. Nutrient enrichment and dissolved oxygen depletion that occur following these events are known to limit populations of benthic macroinvertebrates and commercially harvested species, but the consequences for top consumers such as birds remain largely unknown. We used non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to understand how land cover and annual variation in rainfall interact to shape waterbird community composition in Chesapeake Bay, USA. The MDS ordination indicated that urban subestuaries shifted from a mixed generalist-specialist community in 2002, a year of severe drought, to generalist-dominated community in 2003, of year of high rainfall. The SEM revealed that this change was concurrent with a sixfold increase in nitrate-N concentration in subestuaries. In the drought year of 2002, waterbird community composition depended only on the direct effect of urban development in watersheds. In the wet year of 2003, community composition depended both on this direct effect and on indirect effects associated with high nitrate-N inputs to northern parts of the Bay, particularly in urban subestuaries. Our findings suggest that increased runoff during periods of high rainfall can depress water quality enough to alter the composition of estuarine waterbird communities, and that this effect is compounded in subestuaries dominated by urban development. Estuarine restoration programs often chart progress by monitoring stressors and indicators, but rarely assess multivariate relationships among them. Estuarine management planning could be improved by tracking the structure of relationships among land cover, water quality, and waterbirds. Unraveling these complex relationships may help managers identify and mitigate ecological thresholds that occur with increasing human land cover. PMID:22558286

In the last years design procedures of urban drainage systems have shifted from end of pipe design criteria to ambient water quality approaches requiring integrated models of the system for evaluation of measures. Emphasis is put on the improvement of the receiving water quality and the overall management of river basins, which is a core element of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) as well.Typically, it is not necessary to model the whole variety of effects on the receiving water but to focus on the few dominating ones. Only pollutants and processes that have a direct and significant influence on the selected impacts need to be described quantitatively, whereas all other processes can be neglected. Hence, pragmatism is required to avoid unnecessary complexity of integrated models. This i...

Water management can be an integral part of urban comprehensive planning in a large metropolitan area. Water both imposes constraints on land use and offers opportunities for coordinated land and water management. Salt Creek basin in Cook and Du Page Counties of the Chicago metropolitan area is typical of rapidly developing suburban areas and has been selected to illustrate some of these constraints and opportunities and to suggest the effects of alternative solutions. The present study concentrates on the related problems of ground-water recharge, water quality, management of flood plains, and flood-control measures. Salt Creek basin has a drainage area of 150 square miles. It is in flat to. gently rolling terrain, underlain by glacial drift as much as 200 feet thick which covers a dolomite aquifer. In 1964, the population of the basin was about 400,000, and 40 percent of the land was in urban development. The population is expected to number 550,000 to 650,000 by 1990, and most of the land will be taken by urban development. \\r\

Inland watersheds in the southeastern United States are transitioning from agricultural and forested land uses to urban and exurban uses at a rate greater than the national average. This study sampled creeks representing a variety of land use factors in a rapidly urbanizing watershed that also serves as a drinking water supply. Samples were collected bimonthly under dry-weather conditions and four times during each of three storm events and assessed for microbial indicators of water quality. Concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) including fecal coliforms and Escherichia coli were measured using standard membrane filtration techniques. Results showed that FIB concentrations varied between 100 and 104 colony forming units (CFU) per 100 mL. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed th...

Groundwater is the only reliable water resource for drinking, domestic, and agricultural purposes for the people living in the Mount Cameroon area. Hydrogeochemical and R-mode factor analysis were used to identify hydrogeochemical processes controlling spring water quality and assess its usability for the above uses. Main water types in the study area are Ca-Mg-HCO(3) and Na-HCO(3). This study reveals that three processes are controlling the spring water quality. CO(2)-driven silicate weathering and reverse cation exchange are the most important processes affecting the hydrochemistry of the spring waters. While tropical oceanic monsoon chloride-rich/sulfate-rich rainwater seems to affect spring water chemistry at low-altitude areas, strong correlations exist between major ions, dissolved silica and the altitude of springs. In general, the spring waters are suitable for drinking and domestic uses. Total hardness (TH) values indicate a general softness of the waters, which is linked to the development of cardiovascular diseases. Based on Na %, residual sodium carbonate, sodium adsorption ratio, and the USSL classification, the spring waters are considered suitable for irrigation. Though there is wide spread use of chemical fertilizers and intense urban settlements at the lower flanks of the volcano, anthropogenic activities for now seem to have little impact on the spring water quality. PMID:22539220

The link between urban morphology and air quality in various dense residential environments of Hong Kong are investigated through field measurements and statistical analysis. With regard to the myriads of parameters available in the literature, this study aims to identify the most important urban morphological parameters in the street-level and district levels that affect air quality dispersion in Hong Kong. The study postulates that there is an association between urban morphology and urban air quality and a statistical model is developed to explain the relationship amongst urban air quality, micro-meteorology and urban morphological dimension. The study considered 20 different urban residential areas in five major districts of Hong Kong and real-time street-level air pollutant and microc...

The quality of El Jadida Atlantic coastal water was monitored from April 1998 to March 1999 by measuring hydrological parameters (dissolved oxygen, suspended particulate matter, phosphates and nitrites) and using the seaweed Ulva lactuca as a quantitative bio-indicator of cadmium, copper, iron, manganese and zinc contamination. Metal content in seaweeds, collected every month from four stations characterized by the discharge of urban and industrial waste water, showed significant variations depending on the station and sampling period. However, the seaweed of El Jadida exhibited generally lower contents compared to those of similar species from other geographical areas. PMID:15212368

Ecohydrologic models are a key tool in understanding plant?water interactions and their vulnerability to environmental change. Although implications of uncertainty in these models are often assessed within a strictly hydrologic context (for example, runoff modeling), the implications of uncertainty for estimation of vegetation water use are less frequently considered. We assess the influence of commonly used model parameters and inputs on predictions of catchment-scale evapotranspiration (ET) and runoff. By clarifying the implications of uncertainty, we identify strategies for insuring that the quality of data used to drive models is considered in interpretation of model predictions. Our assessment also provides insight into unique features of semi-arid, urbanizing watersheds that shape ET...

Urbanization is a form of land-use change that is increasing in coastal watersheds and may affect the quantity and quality of organic carbon delivered to streams and coastal ocean. Here, we examine the changes in optical and isotopic characteristics of organic matter in streams (Gwynns Fall and Buffalo Bayou) draining Baltimore and Houston Metropolitan Areas (USA), relative to nearby less affected forested watersheds. A summer longitudinal sampling in Gwynns Fall along a rural-urban gradient showed increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and fluorescent protein to humic ratio but a decrease in specific UV absorption (SUVA). Parallel Factor modeling shows dominance of terrestrial component of DOC, and the ratio of an unknown component to the component of humic substance was high in urban watersheds and it was positively correlated impervious surface cover (an index of urbanization). Incubation experiments with leaves and stream algae suggest origin of decayed leaf leachate of this component. Conversely, DOM in Buffalo Bayou showed higher intensity of protein-like fluorescence, and the intensity increased longitudinal along a rural-urban gradient but decreased from low-flows to a flooding event. The difference in fluorescent organic matter composition between the two streams probably reflected different management of wastewater in watersheds. Surface sediment collected at sites of sub-watersheds of Gwynns Fall showed changes in particle size, elemental and isotopic composition with land use. Sediment incubations showed that higher temperature (due to urban heat island effect) enhanced loss of labile organic matter and release of refractory organic matter into stream water. Release of reactive soluble phosphorus, loss of nitrogen and reduction of sulfate also occurred at high incubating temperatures, along with mineralization of sediment organic matter. Bed sediment collected along Buffalo Bayou displayed a longitudinal decrease in N-15, probably reflecting the displacement of waste water treatment plant in upper watershed. Organic matter compositions of suspended sediment, however, were more related to abundance of phytoplankton biomass.

Increasing quantity and decreasing quality of urban stormwater threatens biodiversity in local streams and reservoirs, jeopardizes water supplies, and ultimately contributes to estuarine eutrophication. To estimate the effects that present and alternative landscaping practices and land use patterns may have on urban stormwater quantity and quality, simulations of existing land use/land cover using the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESSys), a process-based surface hydrology and biogeochemistry model, were developed for watersheds in Baltimore, MD (as part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site) and Durham, NC (as part of the NSF Urban Long-Term Research Area (ULTRA) program). The influence of land use patterns and landscaping practices on nutrient export in urban watersheds has been explored as part of the BES; this work has focused on improving our understanding of how residential landscaping practices (i.e. lawn fertilization rates) vary across land use and socioeconomic gradients. Elsewhere, others have explored the political ecology of residential landscaping practices - seeking to understand the economic, political, and cultural influences on the practice of high-input residential turf-grass management. Going forward, my research will synthesize and extend this prior work. Rather than pre-supposing predominant residential land use patterns and landscaping practices (i.e. lower-density periphery development incorporating high-input turf landscapes) alternate land use and landscaping scenarios (e.g. higher-density/transit-oriented development, rain gardens, vegetable gardens, native plant/xeriscaping) will be developed through interviews/focus groups with stakeholders (citizens, public officials, developers, non-profits). These scenarios will then be applied to the RHESSys models already developed for catchments in Baltimore and Durham. The modeled scenario results will be used to identify alternate land use patterns and landscaping practices that would: (1) help to reduce non-point sources of nutrient pollution in urban watersheds; and (2) be likely to gain public support. This research will inform sustainable development policy while furthering interdisciplinary research in the fields of planning and water resource management.

Exploring the quantitative relationship between landscape characteristics and surface water quality indicators can provide important information to urban landscape planning and water environment protection. Jiuxiang River watershed in Nanjing city, being as a typical case study area, its landscape classification maps was conducted in 2009 by remote sensing digital images interpretation. Based on the remote sensing images and real-time monitoring data from October 2009 to September 2010, geospatial analysis and statistical analysis were integrated to explore the relationship between landscape composition, landscape pattern (landscape-level and class-level) and river water quality at the subwatershed scale. Results showed that most of landscape compositions influenced river water quality. Percentage of built-up land and unused land was positively related to total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), ammonia nitrogen (NH4(+) -N) and permanganate index, while percentage of forestland showed a negative relationship. At the landscape level, the water quality was good when the size of patch was big. But at class-level, the aggregated distribution of the built-up land, unused land and arable land might cause TN, TP, permanganate index and NH4(+) -N concentration increased. But the aggregated distribution of the forestland had the opposite effect on water quality indicators. PMID:22624370

Improper urbanization and industrialization are causing a critical stress on groundwater quality in urban areas of the developing countries. The present study under investigation describes the pollution caused by leachate from a waste management site in southwestern Bangalore city causing pollution of the surface water and groundwater reserves. The characterization of 20 groundwater samples and Haralukunte lake sample indicated high pollution of these water reserves by leachate entry into the groundwater and surface water sources. The study area focuses around the solid waste management site, carrying out bio-composting and vermi-composting of municipal solid waste. Further investigations on the severe health problems faced by the public in the study area has revealed a clear pointer towards the usage of polluted water for rearing live-stock, farming, and domestic activities. The characterization of the leachate with high values of BOD at 1,450 mg/l, TDS at 17,200 mg/l, nitrates at 240 mg/l, and MPN at 545/100 ml indicates a clear nuisance potential, which has been substantiated by the characterization of lake water sample with chlorides at 3,400 mg/l, TDS at 8,020 mg/l, and lead and cadmium at 0.18 and 0.08 mg/l, respectively. Analysis of groundwater samples shows alarming physicochemical values closer to the waste disposal site and relatively reduced values away from the source of the waste management site. Bureau of Indian Standards have been adapted as the benchmark for the analysis and validation of observed water quality criteria. PMID:20859680

The potential effect of widespread rainwater harvesting practices on mains water demand and quality management are investigated for three different types of urban areas characterized by different roof area to water demand ratios. Two rainfall patterns are considered with similar average annual depths but very different temporal distributions. Supply reliability and the extent of reliance on the public distribution system are identified as suitable performance indicators for mains water infrastructure. A uniform temporal distribution of rainfall in an oceanic climate like that of Dinard, Northern France, yielded supply reliabilities close to 100% for reasonable tank sizes (0.065 m3/m2 of roof area in Dinard compared with 0.262 m3/m2 in Nice with a RWSO of 30% for a detached house). However, the collection and use of rainfall results in a permanent decrease in mains water demand leading to an increase in water age in the distribution network. Investigations carried on a real network showed that water age is greatly affected when rainwater supplies more than 30% of the overall water demand. In urban water utilities planning, rainwater supply systems may however be profitable for the community if they enable the deferment of requirements for new mains water infrastructure.

An overview of the problems associated with worldwide water shortage problem and of the increasing public participation and awareness to this problem is presented in this work. The existing water treatment processes and their importance in terms of amount, quality and cost of water produced as well as their environmental impact are illustrated. That includes a survey of the current desalination techniques in use and an overview of possible future technologies, aiming at solving different water issues. The technological developments and challenges together with new possible production modes for the future urban water planning are also presented. Finally, routes towards a modern and advanced city planning in a cheaper and more sustainable way based on a more rational use of water, by supplyi...

Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP) consisted of 28 projects which evaluated the type and extent of urban runoff problems, impacts of urban runoff on receiving waters and the effectiveness of control practices. The impacts of urban runoff on the receving stream were assessed. The effects of urban runoff on the biota of both the urban receiving stream were evaluated. Boneyard Creed, and the agricultural stream into which it flows, the Saline Branch Drainage Ditch, Fish and macroinvertebrate communities were sampled upstream and downstream from Champaign-Urbana area. Chlorophyll samples were collected upstream and downstream of the urban area.

ABSTRACT Urbanization and agriculture are highly coupled. However, the impacts of urbanization(e.g. transformation in urban and rural population and change in diet) on water and nitrogen (N) use remain poorly understood. The objectives of this study are to quantify water flows in the food chain o...

The objective of this study was to use an integrative approach to assess the ecological status of a small river impacted by multiple sources of disturbance. The River Febros (NW Portugal) is a small and highly impacted non-regulated river; approximately 44% of the watershed area is dedicated to agriculture, but there is also some urbanization. Environmental status was evaluated using a new multi-index approach, combining quality indices for water (Water Quality Index (WQI)), benthic macroinvertebrates (Iberian Biological Monitoring Working Party Index (IBMWP)), and human modification (Riparian Forest Quality Index (QBR)); Ecological Status River Mediterranean Index (ECOSTRIMED); River Habitat Survey (RHS)). Surveys were carried out between October 2002 and 2003, along four stretches of the...

Thirumanimuttar sub-basin is of particular importance in the study of groundwater quality due to the release of effluents from industries, agricultural, sewage and urban runoff, brining considerable change in water quality. An investigation was carried out by collecting a total of 194 groundwater samples for two seasons to decipher hydrogeochemistry and groundwater quality for determining its suitability for agricultural purposes. The water is neutral to alkaline in nature with pH ranging from 6.78 to 9.22 with an average of 7.37. Higher electrical conductivity (EC) was noted in NW and mid-downstream parts of the study area. Higher NO 3 ? was observed during post-monsoon (POM) due to the action of leaching and anthropogenic process. The piper plot reveals the dominance of Na+?Cl? and Na+?H...

In sub-Saharan Africa only 35% of the urban population has access to a piped water connection on their premises. The majority of households obtain water from public standpipes or from neighbors who are connected to the municipal network. Water resale is often prohibited, however, because of concerns about affordability and risks to public health. Using data collected from 1,377 households in Maputo, Mozambique, we compare the microbiological quality, as well as the time and money costs of water supply from individual house connections, public standpipes, and water obtained from neighbors. Households with their own water connections have better service across virtually all indicators measured, and express greater satisfaction with their service, as compared with those using other water sources. Households purchasing water from their neighbors pay lower time and money costs per liter of water, on average, as compared with those using standpipes. Resale competes favorably with standpipes along a number of service quality dimensions; however, after controlling for water supply characteristics, households purchasing water from neighbors are significantly less likely to be satisfied with their water service as compared with those using standpipes. PMID:22048436

In the past the quality of receiving waters has been continuously improved by upgrading measures on both industrial and urban waste water treatment plants (WWTP) and sewer systems. However, latest inventories of sources and pathways of pollutants originating from industrial and domestic use and activities, for example carried out for the river Rhine catchment, emphasize the importance of diffuse nonpoint pollution on water quality in urbanized river catchments in comparison to the loads of point sources form industrial or urban WWTPs, for which a reduction on about 70% of the status of 1985 was considered in 1995. In order to obtain detailed information on the fate of heavy metals in river catchments, this study was carried out mainly to collect representative literature about possible diffuse nonpoint pollution sources, to monitor concentration of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Hg, Ni and Zn) in stormwater overflows and to assess these loads discharged into receiving waters. An extensive literature survey was carried out resulting in a database containing 121 references with more than 2100 values especially about the pollution sources FARMING and URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE. The database was adapted to the register on diffuse nonpoint pollution of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR). While only a few references on diffuse nonpoint pollution sources were evaluated for Hg, Cr and Ni and the pathways within the urban drainage systems (e.g. effluents of stormwater retention basins, combined sewer overflows) a remarkable number of references could be collected for the other heavy metals and diffuse sources and pathways respectively. Due to the lack of precise data on the current state of the art of stormwater treatment in Germany a field study was carried out in Herrenberg. Objects of the investigation were two different stormwater retention basins (SRB) at two well defined catchments. In the field study about nine events of stormwater overflows at SRB 1 and eleven events at SRB 2 were sampled. The results (event mean concentration) indicate a high level but match the values of the evaluated references. However, specific heavy metal pollution loads referring to the impervious catchment area show high values in particular SRB 1 with its urbanized hinterland. Based on the evaluated literature database and observed EMCs in stormwater overflows a semi-empirical model has been developed to assess heavy metal loads in receiving waters from considered pollution sources. (orig.)

In the context of the Water Framework Directive (EP and CEU, 2000), management plans have to be set up to monitor and to maintain water quality in groundwater bodies in the EU. In heavily industrialized and urbanized areas, the cumulative effect of multiple contaminant sources is likely and has to be evaluated. In order to propose adequate measures, the calculated risk should be based on criteria reflecting the risk of groundwater quality deterioration, in a cumulative manner and at the scale of the entire groundwater body. An integrated GIS- and flux-based risk assessment approach for groundwater bodies is described, with a regional scale indicator for evaluating the quality status of the groundwater body. It is based on the SEQ-ESO currently used in the Walloon Region of Belgium which defines, for different water uses and for a detailed list of groundwater contaminants, a set of threshold values reflecting the levels of water quality and degradation with respect to each contaminant. The methodology is illustrated with first results at a regional scale on a groundwater body-scale application to a contaminated alluvial aquifer which has been classified to be at risk of not reaching a good quality status by 2015. These first results show that contaminants resulting from old industrial activities in that area are likely to contribute significantly to the degradation of groundwater quality. However, further investigations are required on the evaluation of the actual polluting pressures before any definitive conclusion be established.

A new modeling effort exploring the opportunities, constraints, and interactions between mitigation and adaptation at regional scale is utilizing stakeholder engagement in an innovative approach to guide model development and demonstration, including uncertainty characterization, to effectively inform regional decision making. This project, the integrated Regional Earth System Model (iRESM), employs structured stakeholder interactions and literature reviews to identify the most relevant adaptation and mitigation alternatives and decision criteria for each regional application of the framework. The information is used to identify important model capabilities and to provide a focus for numerical experiments. This paper presents the stakeholder research results from the first iRESM pilot region. The pilot region includes the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwest portion of the United States as well as other contiguous states. This geographic area (14 states in total) permits cohesive modeling of hydrologic systems while also providing gradients in climate, demography, land cover/land use, and energy supply and demand. The results from the stakeholder research indicate that iRESM should prioritize addressing adaptation alternatives in the water resources, urban infrastructure, and agriculture sectors, such as water conservation, expanded water quality monitoring, altered reservoir releases, lowered water intakes, urban infrastructure upgrades, increased electric power reserves in urban areas, and land use management/crop selection changes. Regarding mitigation alternatives, the stakeholder research shows a need for iRESM to focus on policies affecting the penetration of renewable energy technologies, and the costs and effectiveness of energy efficiency, bioenergy production, wind energy, and carbon capture and sequestration.

Konya City, located in the central part of Turkey, has grown and urbanized rapidly. A large amount of the water requirement of Konya City is supplied from groundwater. The quality of this groundwater was determined by taking samples from 177 of the wells within the study area. The purposes of this investigation were (1) to provide an overview of present groundwater quality and (2) to determine spatial distribution of groundwater quality parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, Cl???, SO4 ???2, hardness, and NO3 ??? concentrations, and (3) to map groundwater quality in the study area by using GIS and Geostatistics techniques. ArcGIS 9.0 and ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst were used for generation of various thematic maps and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst to produce the final groundwater quali...

...Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban Development (Continued) ...HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT PUBLIC HOUSING...of the facilities management planning and execution, capital improvements...utilities (gas, electrical and water), and fuel storage...

A nutrient mass balance - accounting for nutrient inputs from atmospheric deposition, fertilizer, crop nitrogen fixation, and point source effluents; and nutrient outputs, including crop harvest and storage - was calculated for 18 subbasins in the Mobile River Basin, and trends (1970 to 1997) were evaluated as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. Agricultural nonpoint nitrogen and phosphorus sources and urban nonpoint nitrogen sources are the most important factors associated with nutrients in this system. More than 30 percent of nitrogen yield in two basins and phosphorus yield in eight basins can be attributed to urban point source nutrient inputs. The total nitrogen yield (1.3 tons per square mile per year) for the Tombigbee River, which drains a greater percentage of agricultural (row crop) land use, was larger than the total nitrogen yield (0.99 tons per square mile per year) for the Alabama River. Decreasing trends of total nitrogen concentrations in the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers indicate that a reduction occurred from 1975 to 1997 in the nitrogen contributions to Mobile Bay from the Mobile River. Nitrogen concentrations also decreased (1980 to 1995) in the Black Warrior River, one of the major tributaries to the Tombigbee River. Total phosphorus concentrations increased from 1970 to 1996 at three urban influenced sites on the Etowah River in Georgia. Multiple regression analysis indicates a distinct association between water quality in the streams of the Mobile River drainage basin and agricultural activities in the basin.

The present paper presents the SAFIR project (www.safir4eu.org), which addresses two fundamental problems that over the past decade increasingly have become concerns of the general public: the one problem being the jeopardizing of safety and quality of our food products, while the other being the increasing competition for clean freshwater. The SAFIR project has a multi-disciplinary approach, which integrates the European as well as the global dimension of the EU-policy on food quality and safety. The main driving force behind the project idea is new research results that demonstrated that scheduled uneven irrigation patterns can increase the water use efficiency as well as the quality of vegetable crops. Furthermore, recent innovations in the water treatment and irrigation industry have shown potential for the use of low quality water resources, such as reclaimed water or surface water in peri-urban agriculture, for irrigation of vegetable crops without threaten food safety and quality. The results of SAFIRwere achieved from field experiments in Europe and China and modeling activities both at field and farm scale. The present article describes the structure of the project and highlights the main findings and recommendations of the project described in detail in already published papers and in accompanying papers in this special issue.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the concepts of ecosystem services and disservices when assessing the efficacy of using urban forests for mitigating pollution. A brief review of the literature identifies some pollution mitigation ecosystem services provided by urban forests. Existing ecosystem services definitions and typologies from the economics and ecological literature are adapted and applied to urban forest management and the concepts of ecosystem disservices from natural and semi-natural systems are discussed. Examples of the urban forest ecosystem services of air quality and carbon dioxide sequestration are used to illustrate issues associated with assessing their efficacy in mitigating urban pollution. Development of urban forest management alternatives that mitigate poll...

Enterococci bacteria are used to indicate the presence of human and/or animal fecal materials in surface water. In addition to human influences on the quality of surface water, a cattle grazing is a widespread and persistent ecological stressor in the Western United States. Cattle may affect surface water quality directly by depositing nutrients and bacteria, and indirectly by damaging stream banks or removing vegetation cover, which may lead to increased sediment loads. This study used the State of Oregon surface water data to determine the likelihood of animal pathogen presence using enterococci and analyzed the spatial distribution and relationship of biotic (enterococci) and abiotic (nitrogen and phosphorous) surface water constituents to landscape metrics and others (e.g. human use, percent riparian cover, natural covers, grazing, etc.). We used a grazing potential index (GPI) based on proximity to water, land ownership and forage availability. Mean and variability of GPI, forage availability, stream density and length, and landscape metrics were related to enterococci and many forms of nitrogen and phosphorous in standard and logistic regression models. The GPI did not have a significant role in the models, but forage related variables had significant contribution. Urban land use within stream reach was the main driving factor when exceeding the threshold (> or =35 cfu/100 ml), agriculture was the driving force in elevating enterococci in sites where enterococci concentration was <35 cfu/100 ml. Landscape metrics related to amount of agriculture, wetlands and urban all contributed to increasing nutrients in surface water but at different scales. The probability of having sites with concentrations of enterococci above the threshold was much lower in areas of natural land cover and much higher in areas with higher urban land use within 60 m of stream. A 1% increase in natural land cover was associated with a 12% decrease in the predicted odds of having a site exceeding the threshold. Opposite to natural land cover, a one unit change in each of manmade barren and urban land use led to an increase of the likelihood of exceeding the threshold by 73%, and 11%, respectively. Change in urban land use had a higher influence on the likelihood of a site exceeding the threshold than that of natural land cover. PMID:18758981

Increasing concerns regarding water quality in the Great Lakes region are mainly due to changes in urban and agricultural landscapes. Both point and non-point sources contribute pollution to Great Lakes surface waters. Best management practices (BMPs) are a common tool used to reduce both point and non-point source pollution and improve water quality. Meanwhile, identification of critical source areas of pollution and placement of BMPs plays an important role in pollution reduction. The goal of this study is to evaluate the performance of different targeting methods in 1) identifying priority areas (high, medium, and low) based on various factors such as pollutant concentration, load, and yield, 2) comparing pollutant (sediment, total nitrogen-TN, and total phosphorus-TP) reduction in prio...

In December 1994, the staff of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board), assisted by its Technical Review Committee (TRC), developed an Interim Site Assessment and Cleanup Guidebook to serve the regulated community in the Region. The regulated community consist of businesses, industries, wastewater treatment plant operators, agriculture and mining industries, stormwater and urban runoff management agencies, etc. The TRC and Regional Board staff were challenged with the task of identifying and recommending ways to reduce the cost incurred by businesses and public agencies as they strive to meet clean water laws--without compromising water quality and public health. During several public workshops, complaints were heard regarding soil and groundwater work plans. In response to the complaints, action was taken to develop a site assessment and cleanup guidebook that provides clear and consistent work plan procedures.

Green roofs involve growing vegetation on rooftops and are one tool that can help mitigate the negative effects of pollution. This review encompasses published research to date on how green roofs can help mitigate pollution, how green roof materials influence the magnitude of these benefits, and suggests future research directions. The discussion concentrates on how green roofs influence air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon sequestration, longevity of roofing membranes that result in fewer roofing materials in landfills, water quality of stormwater runoff, and noise pollution. Suggestions for future directions for research include plant selection, development of improved growing substrates, urban rooftop agriculture, water quality of runoff, supplemental irrigation, the use of grey water, air pollution, carbon sequestration, effects on human health, combining green roofs with complementary related technologies, and economics and policy issues. PMID:21074914

The Hawkesbury-Nepean River (HNR) system in South-Eastern Australia is the main source of water supply for the Sydney Metropolitan area and is one of the more complex river systems due to the influence of urbanisation and other activities in the peri-urban landscape through which it flows. The long-term monitoring of river water quality is likely to suffer from data gaps due to funding cuts, changes in priority and related reasons. Nevertheless, we need to assess river health based on the available information. In this study, we demonstrated how the Factor Analysis (FA), Hierarchical Agglomerative Cluster Analysis (HACA) and Trend Analysis (TA) can be applied to evaluate long-term historic data sets. Six water quality parameters, viz., temperature, chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen, oxides of nitrogen, suspended solids and reactive silicates, measured at weekly intervals between 1985 and 2008 at 12 monitoring stations located along the 300 km length of the HNR system were evaluated to understand the human and natural influences on the river system in a peri-urban landscape. The application of FA extracted three latent factors which explained more than 70 % of the total variance of the data and related to the 'bio-geographical', 'natural' and 'nutrient pollutant' dimensions of the HNR system. The bio-geographical and nutrient pollution factors more likely related to the direct influence of changes and activities of peri-urban natures and accounted for approximately 50 % of variability in water quality. The application of HACA indicated two major clusters representing clean and polluted zones of the river. On the spatial scale, one cluster was represented by the upper and lower sections of the river (clean zone) and accounted for approximately 158 km of the river. The other cluster was represented by the middle section (polluted zone) with a length of approximately 98 km. Trend Analysis indicated how the point sources influence river water quality on spatio-temporal scales, taking into account the various effects of nutrient and other pollutant loads from sewerage effluents, agriculture and other point and non-point sources along the river and major tributaries of the HNR. Over the past 26 years, water temperature has significantly increased while suspended solids have significantly decreased (p?system. The insights gained from this study have the potential to improve the effectiveness of river health-monitoring programs in terms of cost, time and effort, particularly in a peri-urban context. PMID:23054266

This paper investigates the notion of the urban form in a metropolis which has changed rapidly relate to modernization. By discussing the infiltration of modern urban ideology and its reacted experience in a metropolis, this investigation seeks the way of revealing the present condition of urban space. In this changing cognition of urban experience and the quality of space reffer to two spectral forms of a metropolis, "assemblage" and "hologram," through the influence of distributing modern ideology.   

There has been a significant shift in the recent past towards protecting chemical and microbial quality of source waters rather than developing advanced methods to treat heavily polluted water. The key to successful best management practices in protecting the source waters is to identify sources of non-point pollution and their collective impact on the quality of water at the intake. This article presents a few successful applications where artificial neural networks (ANN) have proven to be the useful mathematical tools in correlating the nonlinear relationships between routinely measured parameters (such as rainfall, turbidity, fecal coliforms etc.) and quality of source waters and/or nature of fecal sources. These applications include, prediction of peak concentrations of Giardia and Cryptosporidium, sorting of fecal sources (e.g. agricultural animals vs. urban animals), predicting relative ages of the runoff sources, identifying the potential for sewage contamination. The ability of ANNs to work with complex, inter-related multiparameter databases, and provide superior predictive power in non-linear relationships has been the key for their successful application to microbial water quality studies. (author)

The surface water qualities of Hussainsagar, an eutrophic urban lake in the midst of twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad (India) receiving large quantities of external inputs?both untreated municipal sewage containing industrial effluents, and treated sewage, a large number of annually immersed idols of God and Goddess, and intense boating activities were assessed in relation to the concentration of elements including heavy metals of the water along the necklace road of the lake. Elemental analyses of water using ICP-MS revealed 26 elements including heavy metals?As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu, Fe, Mn, Se, Ba, Zn, Mo, V, Co, Ag, Sr, Rb, Mg, K, Ca, Al, Si, Sb, Na, Li, and B, in the surface water of the lake. Of these, the first 15 elements were found in elevated concentrations in the water at...

Water Management publishes papers on all aspects of water treatment, water supply, river, wetland and catchment management, inland waterways and urban regeneration. Coverage includes the traditional areas of applied fluid dynamics and water (including supply, treatment and sewerage) and...

The Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) of the United States Department of Agriculture funds research, extension, and education grants in all aspects of agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities. Water is key natural resource for all of these areas and there are several types of funding opportunities available. The primary sources for watersheds and water management funding within CSREES are the Water and Watersheds program of the National Research Initiative, and the National Integrated Research, Education and Extension Program in Water Quality. These two programs have substantially reduced their focus in the last three years in order to meet the federal budget office demands for measurable outcomes. This paper will discuss the current and priorities and likely trends in funding in these areas. In addition, to the above two programs, agricultural water security is a prominent issue related to water management and policy. A recent listening session on agricultural water security and policy resulted in white paper available on the CSREES website. This paper will also describe a recommended strategy for CSREES efforts and current and projected needs and opportunities. Briefly, six themes for research, education, and extension activities were identified: Irrigation Efficiency and Management; Drought Risk Assessment and Preparedness; General Water Conservation and Management; Rural/Urban Water Reuse; Water Marketing, Distribution and Allocation; and Biotechnology. Of these six themes, it was recommended that CSREES should focus on the three: 1.Exploring new technologies and systems for the use of recycled/reuse water in agricultural, rural, and urbanizing watersheds, 2.Probing the human, social, and economic dimensions of agricultural water security (including water markets) with a focus on adoption-outreach and behavioral change, and 3.Discovering biotechnological improvements in water use efficiency of crop and horticultural plants to achieve greater "crop per drop."

Urban water management requires further clarification about pollutants in storm water. Little is known about the release of organic additives used in construction materials and the impact of these compounds to storm water runoff. We investigated sources and pathways of additives used in construction materials, i.e., biocides in facades' render as well as root protection products in bitumen membranes for rooftops. Under wet-weather conditions, the concentrations of diuron, terbutryn, carbendazim, irgarol 1051 (all from facades) and mecoprop in storm water and receiving water exceeded the predicted no-effect concentrations values and the Swiss water quality standard of 0.1 microg/L. Under laboratory conditions maximum concentrations of additives were in the range of a few milligrams and a few hundred micrograms per litre in runoff of facades and bitumen membranes. Runoff from aged materials shows approximately one to two orders of magnitude lower concentrations. Concentrations decreased also during individual runoff events. In storm water and receiving water the occurrence of additives did not follow the typical first flush model. This can be explained by the release lasting over the time of rainfall and the complexity of the drainage network. Beside the amounts used, the impact of construction materials containing hazardous additives on water quality is related clearly to the age of the buildings and the separated sewer network. The development of improved products regarding release of hazardous additives is the most efficient way of reducing the pollutant load from construction materials in storm water runoff. PMID:21902038

A recent CAREER award (2009) has been used to facilitate environmentally-based outreach and education in local urban Los Angeles schools, primarily through an established NSF GK-12 program. Mini-weather stations, purchased through this CAREER award, were installed at two partner GK-12 schools, University High School (LAUSD) and Culver City Middle School (CCUSD). Each system contains an automated data logging system that record continuous observations of a range of variables (including precipitation, UV, temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, dewpoint temperature and pressure). Observations are being downloaded and used by GK-12 Fellows and Teachers in curriculum development. In addition, the PI has worked with the GK-12 fellows in developing water-related inquiry lessons for both middle and high school science curriculum. Specific lessons facilitated during the initial stages of this CAREER award include urban ecosystems and satellite imagery, water quality, stream biota and ecosystem health, water treatment, urban climate and heat index, and soil chemistry testing. All lessons that have been implemented in the middle or high school classrooms are uploaded to the SEE-LA GK-12 website (http://measure.igpp.ucla.edu/GK12-SEE-LA/lessons.html). Examples of lesson development and integration in the classroom setting will be highlighted as well as tools required for sustainability of the projects. In addition to the K-12 outreach activities, the PI has engaged several undergraduates in independent research projects, working on various aspects of the primary research project. Highlights and lessons learned from outreach and mentoring activities will be presented.

Twenty-three stream sites representing a range of forested, agricultural, and urban land uses were sampled in the South Platte River Basin of Colorado from July through September 2002 to characterize water quality during drought conditions. With a few exceptions, dissolved ammonia, Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, and dissolved orthophosphate concentrations were similar to seasonal historical levels in all land use areas during the drought. At some agricultural sites, decreased dilution of irrigation return flow may have contributed to higher concentrations of some nutrient species, increased primary productivity, and higher dissolved oxygen concentrations. At some urban sites, decreased dilution of base flow and wastewater treatment plant effluent may have contributed to higher dissolved nitrite-plus-nitrate concentrations, increased primary productivity, and higher dissolved oxygen concentrations. Total pesticide concentrations in urban and agricultural areas were not consistently higher or lower during the drought. At most forested sites, decreased dilution of ground water-derived calcium bicarbonate type base flow likely led to elevated pH and specific-conductance values. Water temperatures at many of the forested sites also were higher, contributing to lower dissolved oxygen concentrations during the drought.

Different land uses affect the characteristics of a hydrographic basin, reflected in the river water quality, and consequently affecting the aquatic biota. The benthic community closely reflects the alterations caused by different human activities. In this study, the effects of different land uses were evaluated by analysis of the benthic community structure in streams with urban, agricultural and pasturage influences, as well as areas in better-conserved regions. The abiotic parameters showed distinct seasonal variability, which did not occur with the benthic organisms. A degradation gradient was observed among the study sites, in the headwaters-agriculture-pasture-urban direction. By the CCA its possible to observe that the density of organisms tended to increase along this gradient, whereas richness, diversity, evenness, and EPT families decreased. The most intense effects of land use on the benthic community composition, richness, and diversity were observed in urban areas (F (1,4) = 16.0, p = 0.01; F (1,4) = 8.97, p = 0.04; respectively). In conclusion a trend in the benthic community is observed in to predict alterations caused for the different land uses, mainly, when the source point pollution, as the case of urban area. PMID:18843547

The key stocks and flows of phosphorus (P) through food consumption in Beijing and Tianjin, two megacities in northern China, were explored using a material flow analysis (MFA) approach to construct a static model of P metabolism. A total of 4498 t P has accumulated with 72% of P flow imported through food consumption eventually remaining in Beijing in 2008. Around 64% of the total inflow of P (2670 t) remained in Tianjin in 2008. P in the uncollected sewage from both urban and rural residents and the effluents from sewage treatment plants has significant negative effects on water quality. An average of 55% the P flow remained in the sewage sludge through urban food consumption. The key problems in P metabolism and management in megacities are identified based on the quantitative analysis ...

Roofs are the first candidates for rainwater harvesting in urban areas. This research integrates quantitative and qualitative data of rooftop stormwater runoff in an urban Mediterranean-weather environment. The objective of this paper is to provide criteria for the roof selection in order to maximise the availability and quality of rainwater. Four roofs have been selected and monitored over a period of 2 years (2008-2010): three sloping roofs - clay tiles, metal sheet and polycarbonate plastic - and one flat gravel roof. The authors offer a model for the estimation of the runoff volume and the initial abstraction of each roof, and assess the physicochemical contamination of roof runoff. Great differences in the runoff coefficient (RC) are observed, depending mostly on the slope and the roughness of the roof. Thus, sloping smooth roofs (RC>0.90) may harvest up to about 50% more rainwater than flat rough roofs (RC=0.62). Physicochemical runoff quality appears to be generally better than the average quality found in the literature review (conductivity: 85.0 ± 10.0 ?S/cm, total suspended solids: 5.98 ± 0.95 mg/L, total organic carbon: 11.6 ± 1.7 mg/L, pH: 7.59 ± 0.07 upH). However, statistically significant differences are found between sloping and flat rough roofs for some parameters (conductivity, total organic carbon, total carbonates system and ammonium), with the former presenting better quality in all parameters (except for ammonium). The results have an important significance for local governments and urban planners in the (re)design of buildings and cities from the perspective of sustainable rainwater management. The inclusion of criteria related to the roof's slope and roughness in city planning may be useful to promote rainwater as an alternative water supply while preventing flooding and water scarcity. PMID:21492898

... false Group home: Housing quality standards. 982.614 Section 982.614 Housing and Urban Development Regulations...VOUCHER PROGRAM Special Housing Types Group Home § 982.614 Group home: Housing quality standards....

Asian megacities have severe pollution problems in both coastal and urban areas. In addition, the groundwater potential has decreased and land subsidence has occurred because of intensive groundwater pumping in urban areas. To prevent the adverse effects of urbanization on groundwater quality, it is necessary to confirm the changes in groundwater flow and contaminant transport caused by urbanization. We examined the effects of urbanization on contaminant transport in groundwater. The research areas were located around Bangkok, Thailand, and akarta, Indonesia, cities with populations of approximately 8 and 12 million, respectively. Each metropolitan city is located on a river delta and is adjacent to a bay. We measured the water level and collected water samples at boreholes at multiple depths (100 to 200 m) in 2004 and 2006 in Bangkok and Jakarta, respectively. The current hydraulic potential is below sea level in both cities because of prior excess abstraction of groundwater. As a result, the direction of groundwater flow is now downward in the coastal area. The Cl{sup -} concentration and {delta}{sup 18}O distributions in groundwater suggest that the decline in hydraulic potential has caused the intrusion of seawater and shallow groundwater into deep groundwater. Concentrations of Mn and NO3{sup -}-N in groundwater suggest the intrusion of these contaminants from shallow to deep aquifers with downward groundwater flow and implies an accumulation of contaminants in deep aquifers. Therefore, it is important to recognize the possibility of future contaminant transport with the discharge of deep groundwater into the sea after the recovery of groundwater potential in the coastal areas.

/ Land-use activities affect water quality by altering sediment, chemical loads, and watershed hydrology. Some land uses may contribute to the maintenance of water quality due to a biogeochemical transformation process. These land-use/land-cover types can serve as nutrient detention zones or as nutrient transformation zones as dissolved or suspended nutrients or sediments move downstream. Despite research on the effects of individual land-use/land-cover types, very little has been done to analyze the joint contributions of multiple land-use activities. This paper examines a methodology to assess the relationships between land-use complex and nitrate and sediment concentrations [nonpoint source (NPS) pollutants] in streams. In this process, selected basins of the Fish River, Alabama, USA, were delineated, land-use/land-cover types were classified, and contributing zones were identified using geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) analysis tools. Water samples collected from these basins were analyzed for selected chemical and physical properties. Based on the contributions of the NPS pollutants, a linkage model was developed. This linkage model relates land use/land cover with the pollution levels in the stream. Linkage models were constructed and evaluated at three different scales: (1) the basin scale; (2) the contributing-zone scale; and (3) the stream-buffer/riparian-zone scale. The contributing-zones linkage model suggests that forests act as a transformation zone, and as the proportion of forest inside a contributing zone increases (or agricultural land decreases), nitrate levels downstream will decrease. Residential/urban/built-up areas were identified as the strongest contributors of nitrate in the contributing-zones model and active agriculture was identified as the second largest contributor. The regression results for the streambank land-use/land-cover model (stream-buffer/riparian-zone scale) suggest that water quality is highest when passive land uses, such as forests and grasslands, are located adjacent to streams. Nonpassive land uses (agricultural lands or urban/built-up areas) located adjacent to streams have negative impacts on water quality. The model can help in examining the relative sensitivity of water-quality variables to alterations in land use made at varying distances from the stream channel. The model also shows the importance of streamside management zones, which are key to maintenance of stream water quality. The linkage model can be considered a first step in the integration of GIS and ecological models. The model can then be used by local and regional land managers in the formulation of plans for watershed-level management. KEY WORDS: Water quality; Land-use complex; Geographic information system; Nonpoint source pollution; Forested buffers PMID:10085386

With the socioeconomic and urban development of Chongming Island (the largest alluvial island in the world), water demand is rapidly growing. To make adjustments to the water utilization structure of each industry, allocate limited water resources, and increase local water use efficiency, this study performed a scenario analysis for the water sustainability of Chongming Island. Four different scenarios were performed to assess the water resource availability by 2020. The growth rate for water demand will be much higher than that of water supply under a serious situation prediction. The water supply growth volume will be 2.22×10(8)m(3) from 2010 to 2020 under Scenario I and Scenario II while the corresponding water demand growth volume will be 2.74×10(8)m(3) and 2.64×10(8)m(3), respectively. There will be a rapid growth in water use benefit under both high and low development modes. The water use benefit will be about 50CNY/m(3) under Scenarios I and II in 2020. The production structure will need to be adjusted for sustainable utilization of water resources. Sewage drainage but not the forest and grass coverage rate will be a major obstacle to future development and environmental quality. According to a multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, Scenario II is finally deemed to be the most desirable plan, suggesting that the policy of rapid socioeconomic development and better environmental protection may achieve the most sustainable development of Chongming Island in the future. PMID:23063918

Water in the Maltese islands is a scarce resource. Malta has one of the highest population densities in the world, a small surface area (316 km{sup 2}) and high percentage of urban development. All these contribute towards intense pressure and high competition for available water resources. Water to meet the needs of the population is obtained from two main sources: groundwater and desalination. Desalination facilities were introduced in the 1980s in response to water scarcities arising from increasing demand and insufficient natural supplies. Other secondary water resources available in Malta include treated sewage effluent and stormwater. Their production and collection is currently limited and their use is restricted to agriculture and some industries. Management of water resources in Malta is a challenging issue. The need to implement sustainable actions in an integrated manner to ensure greater environmental protection and improvement in the quality of life is recognised. Major challenges include the protection of existing water resources from contamination, improvement of the quality of the water supplied, fair allocation of resources between users and reduction in unsustainable water consumption patterns. (orig.)

We assessed the relative performance of diatoms and macroinvertebrates to measure municipal and industrial impacts on the ecological integrity of the three major rivers flowing through Addis Ababa. Both community metric and multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyze the environmental variables and species data along the pollution gradient. This study in the Addis Ababa urban area revealed that three biologically highly stressed rivers are being impacted primarily by physical habitat degradation and both point and nonpoint pollution. The macroinvertebrate composition was liable to severe physical habitat and chemical water quality degradation. Consequently, macroinvertebrates were less diverse and not found at all at the most polluted sites with very low dissolved oxygen level...

Abstract in english Underground storage tanks (UST) are widely used in the Porto Velho area. A large number of these USTs are in bad condition due to corrosion processes causing groundwater contamination. A large number of these leaking underground fuel tanks (LUFT) are in urban areas but due to the lack of water quality monitoring, they are only detected when there is a high contamination level. This study identified petroleum hydrocarbons, derived from a LUFT, by a silica gel/petroleum eth (more) er partitioning gravimetric method and by gas chromatographic analysis of samples collected in wells dug in a gas station and in houses in the aforementioned neighborhood.

In order to assay superficial flow wetlands efficiency in the urban-industrial mixed wastewater quality improve and their effect in its re valorization for potential reuse in irrigation, three Free Water Surface Flow Wetlands were studied. the system presents a high capacity to reduce TSS, nitrate, nitrite and NT concentrations and this efficiency was growing up as the system mature. Denitrification processes in sediment is the main cause of nitrogen elimination. On the other hand reeds biomass development during this period could be contributing to treatment efficiency by means of reeds nutrients assimilation. (Author) 25 refs.

Alternative methods for stormwater management in urban areas, also called Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) methods, have become increasingly important for the mitigation of urban stormwater management problems such as high runoff volumes, combined sewage overflows, poor water quality in receiving waters, urban flooding etc. WSUD structures are generally small, decentralized systems intended to manage stormwater near the source. Many of these alternative techniques are based on infiltration which can affect both the urban sewer system and urban groundwater levels if widely implemented. In order to assess these effects at local- and catchment-scale, there is a need for reliable and efficient modeling tools that can account for the interaction between the various urban water systems involved. This thesis focuses on small-scale stormwater infiltration structures, often called soakaways, and how these can be modeled in an integrated environment with distributed urban drainage and groundwater flow models. The thesis: 1. Identifies appropriate models of soakaways for use in an integrated and distributed urban water and groundwater modeling system 2. Develops a modeling concept that is able to manage the bi-directional interaction between stormwater infiltration and groundwater 3. Develops suitable upscaling/downscaling techniques for the integrated soakaway model 4. Assesses the effects of extensive use of soakaways on sewer and groundwater flows in case studies Based on a review of the literature and on modeling studies, a new modeling concept is proposed which fulfills the need for integrated models coupling distributed urban drainage with groundwater. The suggested solution consists of a base equation for soakaway infiltration and additional components for clogging, upscaling/aggregation and groundwater interaction. The soakaway infiltration model consists of a mass balance equation for the soakaway with a depth dependent term for outflow that is based on the Darcy equation. Clogging is accounted for by modifying the hydraulic conductivity to account for low conductivity sediments deposited in the bottom of the soakaway. Upscaling considers variation in soil properties and it is shown that an upscaled geometric mean conductivity best matches a spatially variable model. Finally, the decrease in soakaway infiltration due to groundwater table rise is accounted for using an analytical expression for the local mounding under the soakaway. These components can be combined to create a model that is best suited to the desired application. The model is tested on a case study in Harrestrup Å, Copenhagen where it is shown that in areas with high groundwater tables and low permeability soils, soakaways provide only a modest reduction of peak stormwater loads to the sewer system. The case study shows that soakaways will work best in areas with deeper groundwater and more permeable soils. The soakaway modeling system developed in this thesis provides a simple, but complete description of soakaway behavior. The next step is to include it in commercial software and benchmark it for a broad range of case studies.

Spain has one of the highest risks of water shortage due mainly to the growth of the urban population, the development of different economic activities, such as tourism, in regions with major hydrological constraints and under the effect of global climate change. Government authorities and public and private institutions have stressed the need to develop alternative water supplies to respond to the growing demand in cities, which are home to more than 70% of Spain's population. Rainwater constitutes an alternative water supply for uses that require lower quality than that provided by tap water. Although there are financial-feasibility studies and other studies on the potential environmental impacts of Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) systems, there is no integration between these studies that al...

The River Adyar flows through the fault of south Chennai for about 50?Km and enters into the Bay of Bengal. This river is almost stagnant and do not carry enough water except during rainy season. Rapid industrialization and urbanization along the river course during 80s and 90s of last century has increased the pollution of the river water. The main objective of this study is to identify and assess the nature of pollution. In order to achieve this objective, necessary geochemical parameters were determined and the quality of water is evaluated using various tools, such as Wilcox diagram, USIS, Piper, sodium absorption ratio (SAR), 3D scattered diagrams, and seasonal variation diagrams. The monsoonal variations in the data matrix of the river water (River Adyar) was monitored at 33 stations...

...the main body of an urban area. The increase...result of changing planning practices that led...within a qualifying urban territory. Hops...territory in which planning and zoning processes...land; the areas of water contained within...proposes to define urban areas primarily...

The significance of urban runoff as a water pollution source to the Great Lakes, was discussed. A review of all the water pollution control studies in Ontario has shown that most studies do not explicitly report stormwater quality data . With that as a challenge, and a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC), a database of stormwater data and related information such as rainfall, catchment and drainage system characteristics has been compiled to facilitate the retrieval of storm and related data. The database includes land characteristics, hydrological characteristics and runoff event quality parameters. The data, together with data from other studies, will be used to develop regression relationships for stormwater pollutants. 6 refs., 5 tabs., 1 fig.

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) aim to improve water quality and reduce the environmental impact of wastewater, by requiring member states to introduce better treatment levels. This study was carried out in order to detect the most suitable treatment type or flow level for reducing benthic environmental impact. Therefore, soft-bottom polychaete assemblages affected by discharges of six treatment plants, with different treatment technologies and flow rates, were analysed over three consecutive years. Polychaete assemblages changed as a result of sewage discharge. These changes were related to treatment level and flow rates. Both disposal quality and quantity are important since changes in soft-bottom assemblages in stations affected by pre-treated sewage with medium and high flow rates are observed. However, the location with a low-flow pre-treated effluent has similar polychaete assemblages with regard to locations with biological treatment or controls. PMID:20863533

In 2007, the National Research Council's committee on Extending Observations and Research Results to Practical Applications recommended that NASA's Applied Science Program (ASP) directly engage with a broader community of users - not just federal agencies. Soon afterwards, scientists at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center began discussions on a collaborative research project with EMBARQ - the World Resource Institute's Center for Sustainable Transport. The discussions initially focused on how best to utilize satellite observations and atmospheric models for assessing the impact of a proposed transportation project on land use and air quality. Discussions exposed the participants to a broad spectrum of science and policy challenges that these diverse organizations face on a routine basis. It brought into clear focus the need for an observation-modeling system that will allow a proactive approach towards development planning, and the fact that satellite systems do not always provide the spatial and temporal resolution useful for urban-scale applications, underscoring the need for earth system models to bridge this gap. Realizing the significant risk that unplanned urbanization and climate change pose to the social and functional stability of large cities, both organizations decided to expand the scope of their preliminary discussion to include water resources and agriculture. A pilot project, funded by NASA ASP, EMBARQ and Istanbul Technical University focused on quantifying the magnitude and extent of urbanization in Istanbul, and analyzed the combined effect of urbanization and projected climate change on local climate, air quality, and its consequent effects on agricultural productivity. Preliminary results show that Istanbul has undergone a significant amount of Land Use/Land Cover change over the past two decades. While some forested areas have been lost to urban-landscapes, urbanization has mostly occurred over former croplands due to the fact that in contrast to forested areas, croplands have flat terrain, making them a more attractive target for conversion to urban land. The reduction in land area for agricultural and increase in temperature has reduced agricultural production in the vicinity of the city. The United Nations expects the world population to reach 9.2 billion by 2050. Most of this increase will be absorbed by countries that are least able to sustain it. Rapid economic growth is likely to continue and will require massive infrastructure investments. If not properly managed, the magnitude and extent of these initiatives will overwhelm sensitive ecosystems around the world. Successful relationships such as the one described here are critically important if we are to stabilize the threatened ecosystems on which human systems ultimately rely. The challenges, needs, culture, and operating environment of development planning organizations are fundamentally different from a research organization. An appreciation of these differences is a prerequisite for any successful collaboration.

This paper introduces results of investigation on evaluation of pollutants from nonpoint sources in urban area. Effects of sewage facility improvements on water quality are remarkably great during sunny days or a period with smaller precipitation. However, with an increased precipitation, the facilities had a sudden increase in the run-off loads, showing very little effect of water quality improvement. An investigation on suspended substance run-off mechanisms can quote a case that coarser particles run off driven by the sweeping power from the water basin during a water swelling period, but run off in a very small amount during a water decreasing period, and a reverse case that the coarser particles run off in the latter stage. Higher concentrations have been detected in low boiling point organic chlorine compounds with the greater the precipitation. Road surfaces had pollutant sources polarized into a living-based source and an industry-based source, presenting clear difference because of that in organic contents and heavy metal contents. In river basins, difference in upper stream and lower stream is clear. This leads to a prediction that difference of a considerable degree will come out in quality of the run-off waters. Existing sediments were found to contain sand particles that are large in grain size and more difficult to run off, organics that are relatively easy to run off, and total phosphorus and total nitrogen that are easy to run off. 15 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

The Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, or CCRUN, was funded in October 2010 under NOAA's Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program to serve stakeholder needs in assessing and managing risks from climate variability and change. It is currently also the only RISA team with a principal focus on climate change adaptation in urban settings. While CCRUN's initial focus is on the major cities of the urban Northeast corridor (Philadelphia, New York and Boston), its work will ultimately expand to cover small and medium-sized cities in the relevant portions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well, so that local needs for targeted climate-risk information can be served in a coordinated way. CCRUN is designed to address the complex challenges that are associated with densely populated, highly interconnected urban areas, including such as urban heat island effects; poor air quality; intense coastal development, and multifunctional settlement along inland waterways; complex overlapping institutional jurisdictions; integrated infrastructure systems; and highly diverse, and in some cases, fragile socio-economic communities. These challenges can best be addressed by the stakeholder-driven interdisciplinary approach taken by the CCRUN RISA team. As an important added benefit, the research accomplishments and lessons learned through stakeholder engagement will provide a foundation for managing climate risks in other urban areas in the United States. CCRUN's initial projects are focused in three broad sectors: Water, Coasts, and Health. Research in each of these sectors is linked through the cross-cutting themes of climate change and community vulnerability, the latter of which is especially important in considerations of environmental justice and equity. CCRUN's stakeholder-driven approach to research can therefore support investigations of the impacts of a changing climate, population growth, and urban and economic policies on the social, racial and ethnic dimensions of livelihoods and of communities in the urban Northeast corridor. Disadvantaged socio-economic groups have been particularly underserved in the area of climate change, and one of CCRUN's long-term goals is the building of adaptive capacity among such groups to current and future climate extremes.

Water quality has degraded dramatically in the Chocancharava River (Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina) due to point and non-point sources. This paper aims to assess spatial and temporal variations of physical and chemical parameters of the river. Six sampling sites and six sampling campaigns were developed. During the period 2007-2008, wet and dry seasons were included. A statistical analysis was carried out with 23 physical and chemical variables. Then, a new statistical analysis was carried out including the Riparian Corridors Quality Index and the physical and chemical variables (24 variables). Considering a multivariate system, analysis of variance, principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used. From the statistical analysis, the river was divided into two zones with different degrees of contamination. The most polluted zone is due to pollution inputs of urban, industrial and agricultural sources. This area showed a remarkable deterioration in water quality, mainly due to wastewater discharges. According to Riparian Quality, better results were found in sections of poor water quality, due to the fact that the river bank forest was less degraded downstream of the sewage discharge. PMID:22270585

In past decades, due to the rapid urbanization, land development has replaced forests, fields and meadows with impervious surfaces such as roofs, parking lots and roads, significantly affecting watershed quality and having an impact on aquatic systems. In this study, non-point source pollution from a diesel bus loop was assessed for the extent of trace metal contamination of Cu, Mn, Fe, and Zn in the storm water runoff. The study was carried out at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) of British Columbia, Canada. Fifteen storm events were monitored at 3 sites from the diesel bus loop to determine spatial and temporal variations of dissolved and total metal concentrations in the storm water runoff. The dissolved metal concentrations were compared with the provincial government discharge criteria and the bus loop storm water quality was also compared with previous studies conducted across the GVRD urban area. To prevent storm water with hazardous levels of contaminants from being discharged into the urban drainage system, a storm water catch basin filter was installed and evaluated for its efficiency of contaminants removal. The perlite filter media adsorption capacities for the trace metals, oil and grease were studied for better maintenance of the catch basin filter. Dissolved copper exceeded the discharge criteria limit in 2 out of 15 cases, whereas dissolved zinc exceeded the criteria in 4 out of 15 cases, and dissolved manganese was below the criteria in all of the events sampled. Dissolved Cu and Zn accounted for 36 and 45% of the total concentration, whereas Mn and Fe only accounted for 20 and 4% of their total concentration, respectively. Since they are more mobile and have higher bioaccumulation potentials, Zn and Cu are considered to be more hazardous to the aquatic environment than Fe and Mn. With high imperviousness (100%) and intensive traffic at the UBC diesel bus loop, trace metal concentrations were 3, 0.7, 9, and 3.2 times higher than the GVRD urban area limits for Cu, Mn, Fe, and Zn, respectively. The filter showed high and stable capture efficiencies in total metals (Cu 62%, Mn 75%, Fe 83%, Zn 62%), dissolved metals (Cu 39%, Mn 37%, Fe 47%, Zn 32%), turbidity (72%), and suspended solids (74%) removal during the first month of operation. After that, there was gradual degradation. The catch basin filter performance improved significantly for the suspended solids and total metal removal after cleaning. However, the perlite filter medium showed poor performance for dissolved metal removal in the second study period. Based on the findings, a catch basin filter is effective in storm water management to control suspended solids loading from storm water runoff.

Impacts from urban stormwater runoff on receiving environments have been well documented, particularly through specific regional scientific studies. Using various local government planning and management elements, urban developments in Brisbane City are now able to address stormwater management in an increasingly holistic context. One key initiative includes facilitating Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) components within an Integrated Water Management Strategy that looks at policy formation, planning strategies, design option, community marketing and acceptance, maintenance programs and finally evaluation of various WSUD approaches. These can include the use of Natural Channel Designs, grassed swales, bio-filtration systems, porous pavements and roofwater tanks in several economic combinations. By linking with the Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology, Brisbane City Council has influenced the design of WSUD planning tools and benefited the city with academic inputs into extensive evaluation programs. As well, it has also contributed to the Cooperative Research Centre's research outcomes. These evaluation programs are increasingly providing better understanding of various stormwater quality best management practices throughout Australia. As part of the overall implementation process, active involvement by a range of stakeholders has been crucial. These stakeholders have included internal planning, development assessment and design staff, external consultants, developers, and other local and state government agencies. The latter two groups are assisting in the important task of "regionalisation" of Brisbane City Council's policies and guidelines. Implementation of WSUD initiatives and stormwater re-use strategies under Council's new "Integrated Water Management" agenda are showing some excellent results, suggesting that sustainable urban development is no longer like the search for the Holy Grail. PMID:12793664

Minocqua and Kawaguesaga Lakes are 1,318- and 690-acre interconnected lakes in the popular recreation area of north-central Wisconsin. The lakes are the lower end of a complex chain of lakes in Oneida and Vilas Counties, Wis. There is concern that increased stormwater runoff from rapidly growing residential/commercial developments and impervious surfaces from the urbanized areas of the Town of Minocqua and Woodruff, as well as increased effluent from septic systems around their heavily developed shoreline has increased nutrient loading to the lakes. Maintaining the quality of the lakes to sustain the tourist-based economy of the towns and the area was a concern raised by the Minocqua/Kawaguesaga Lakes Protection Association. Following several small studies, a detailed study during 2006 and 2007 was done by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Minocqua/Kawaguesaga Lakes Protection Association through the Town of Minocqua to describe the hydrology and water quality of the lakes, quantify the sources of phosphorus including those associated with urban development and to better understand the present and future effects of phosphorus loading on the water quality of the lakes. The water quality of Minocqua and Kawaguesaga Lakes appears to have improved since 1963, when a new sewage-treatment plant was constructed and its discharge was bypassed around the lakes, resulting in a decrease in phosphorus loading to the lakes. Since the mid-1980s, the water quality of the lakes has changed little in response to fluctuations in phosphorus loading from the watershed. From 1986 to 2009, summer average concentrations of near-surface total phosphorus in the main East Basin of Minocqua Lake fluctuated from 0.009 mg/L to 0.027 mg/L but generally remained less than 0.022 mg/L, indicating that the lake is mesotrophic. Phosphorus concentrations from 1988 through 1996, however, were lower than the long-term average, possibly the result of an extended drought in the area. Water-quality data for Kawaguesaga Lake had a similar pattern to that of Minocqua Lake. Summer average chlorophyll a concentrations and Secchi depths also indicate that the lakes generally are mesotrophic but occasionally borderline eutrophic, with no long-term trends. During the study, major water and phosphorus sources were measured directly, and minor sources were estimated to construct detailed water and phosphorus budgets for the lakes for monitoring years (MY) 2006 and 2007. During these years, the Minocqua Thoroughfare contributed about 38 percent of the total inflow to the lakes, and Tomahawk Thoroughfare contributed 34 percent; near-lake inflow, precipitation, and groundwater contributed about 1, 16, and 11 percent of the total inflow, respectively. Water leaves the lakes primarily through the Tomahawk River outlet (83 percent) or by evaporation (14 percent), with minor outflow to groundwater. Total input of phosphorus to both lakes was about 3,440 pounds in MY 2006 and 2,200 pounds in MY 2007. The largest sources of phosphorus entering the lakes were the Minocqua and Tomahawk Thoroughfares, which delivered about 39 and 26 percent of the total, respectively. The near-lake drainage area, containing most of the urban and residential developments, disproportionately accounted for about 12 percent of the total phosphorus input but only about 1 percent of the total water input (estimated with WinSLAMM). The next largest contributions were from septic systems and precipitation, each contributing about 10 percent, whereas groundwater delivered about 4 percent of the total phosphorus input. Empirical lake water-quality models within BATHTUB were used to simulate the response of Minocqua and Kawaguesaga Lakes to 19 phosphorus-loading scenarios. These scenarios included the current base years (2006?07) for which lake water quality and loading were known, nine general increases or decreases in phosphorus loading from controllable external sources (inputs from the tributa

Planning is an integral element of good management and necessary to anticipate events not merely respond to them. Projecting the quantity and spatial distribution of urban growth is essential to effectively plan for the delivery of city services and to evaluate potential environmental impacts. The major drivers of growth in large urban areas are increasing population, employment opportunities, and quality of life attractors such as a favorable climate and recreation opportunities. The spatial distribution of urban growth is dictated by the amount and location of developable land, topography, energy and water resources, transportation network, climate change, and the existing land use configuration. The Atlanta region is growing very rapidly both in population and the consumption of forestland or low-density residential development. Air pollution and water availability are significant ongoing environmental issues. The Prescott Spatial Growth Model (SGM) was used to make growth projections for the metropolitan Atlanta region to 2010,2020 and 2030 and results used for environmental assessment in both business as usual and smart growth scenarios. The Prescott SGM is a tool that uses an ESRI ArcView extension and can be applied at the parcel level or more coarse spatial scales and can accommodate a wide range of user inputs to develop any number of growth rules each of which can be weighted depending on growth assumptions. These projections were used in conjunction with meteorological and air quality models to evaluate future environmental impacts. This presentation will focus on the application of the SGM to the 13-County Atlanta Regional Commission planning jurisdiction as a case study. The SGM will be described, including how rule sets are developed and the decision process for allocation of future development to available land use categories. Data inputs required to effectively run the model will be discussed. Spatial growth projections for ten, twenty, and thirty year planning horizons will be presented and results discussed, including regional climate and air quality impacts.