scholarly journals Survey of green building water systems reveals elevated water age and water quality concerns

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Rhoads ◽  
Amy Pruden ◽  
Marc A. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Water Age ◽  
Widespread Adoption ◽  
Elevated Water

Widespread adoption of innovative water conservation strategies has potential unintended consequences for aesthetics and public health.

Drinking water microbiology in a water-efficient building: stagnation, seasonality, and physicochemical effects on opportunistic pathogen and total bacteria proliferation

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 2902-2913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian J. Ley ◽  
Caitlin R. Proctor ◽  
Gulshan Singh ◽  
Kyungyeon Ra ◽  
Yoorae Noh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Opportunistic Pathogen ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Water Age ◽  
Water Microbiology ◽  
Degraded Water Quality ◽  
Total Bacteria

The rising trend in water conservation has led to the use of water-efficient fixtures for residential potable water systems, which raises concerns about increasing water age and degraded water quality at the tap.

scholarly journals Legionella: A Promising Supplementary Indicator of Microbial Drinking Water Quality in Municipal Engineered Water Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiqian Zhang ◽  
Jingrang Lu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Drinking Water Quality ◽  
Water Quality Parameters ◽  
Fecal Coliforms ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variations ◽  
Hydraulic Residence Time

Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) are natural inhabitants and the predominant disease causative biotic agents in municipal engineered water systems (EWSs). In EWSs, OPs occur at high frequencies and concentrations, cause drinking-water-related disease outbreaks, and are a major factor threatening public health. Therefore, the prevalence of OPs in EWSs represents microbial drinking water quality. Closely or routinely monitoring the dynamics of OPs in municipal EWSs is thus critical to ensuring drinking water quality and protecting public health. Monitoring the dynamics of conventional (fecal) indicators (e.g., total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and Escherichia coli) is the customary or even exclusive means of assessing microbial drinking water quality. However, those indicators infer only fecal contamination due to treatment (e.g., disinfection within water utilities) failure and EWS infrastructure issues (e.g., water main breaks and infiltration), whereas OPs are not contaminants in drinking water. In addition, those indicators appear in EWSs at low concentrations (often absent in well-maintained EWSs) and are uncorrelated with OPs. For instance, conventional indicators decay, while OPs regrow with increasing hydraulic residence time. As a result, conventional indicators are poor indicators of OPs (the major aspect of microbial drinking water quality) in EWSs. An additional or supplementary indicator that can well infer the prevalence of OPs in EWSs is highly needed. This systematic review argues that Legionella as a dominant OP-containing genus and natural inhabitant in EWSs is a promising candidate for such a supplementary indicator. Through comprehensively comparing the behavior (i.e., occurrence, growth and regrowth, spatiotemporal variations in concentrations, resistance to disinfectant residuals, and responses to physicochemical water quality parameters) of major OPs (e.g., Legionella especially L. pneumophila, Mycobacterium, and Pseudomonas especially P. aeruginosa), this review proves that Legionella is a promising supplementary indicator for the prevalence of OPs in EWSs while other OPs lack this indication feature. Legionella as a dominant natural inhabitant in EWSs occurs frequently, has a high concentration, and correlates with more microbial and physicochemical water quality parameters than other common OPs. Legionella and OPs in EWSs share multiple key features such as high disinfectant resistance, biofilm formation, proliferation within amoebae, and significant spatiotemporal variations in concentrations. Therefore, the presence and concentration of Legionella well indicate the presence and concentrations of OPs (especially L. pneumophila) and microbial drinking water quality in EWSs. In addition, Legionella concentration indicates the efficacies of disinfectant residuals in EWSs. Furthermore, with the development of modern Legionella quantification methods (especially quantitative polymerase chain reactions), monitoring Legionella in ESWs is becoming easier, more affordable, and less labor-intensive. Those features make Legionella a proper supplementary indicator for microbial drinking water quality (especially the prevalence of OPs) in EWSs. Water authorities may use Legionella and conventional indicators in combination to more comprehensively assess microbial drinking water quality in municipal EWSs. Future work should further explore the indication role of Legionella in EWSs and propose drinking water Legionella concentration limits that indicate serious public health effects and require enhanced treatment (e.g., booster disinfection).

Conceptualizing trade-offs of water conservation strategies and unintended consequences using a system dynamics approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Odongo ◽  
Giuliano Di Baldassarre ◽  
Maurizio Mazzoleni
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Cropping Patterns ◽  
Rebound Effects ◽  
Agricultural Water Use ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Use Efficiency

<p>Improving water use efficiency in agriculture is a key strategy in reducing water scarcity, especially during drought seasons. However, the benefits of these water saving strategies can be reduced if farmers switch to more profitable and water consuming crops or increasing irrigable area, i.e. rebound effects. These feedbacks will likely offset the water savings benefits and subsequently intensify agricultural water use. Here we propose a new system dynamic model that represents the interactions and feedback loops between hydrological and social processes to explore rebound effects by analysing competing water needs for both urban and agricultural allocation. The model is then used to explore the dynamics of different mitigation policy options to alleviate the phenomenon: (i) Restricting water allocation (ii) Limiting size of agricultural land (iii) Changing cropping patterns (iv) Deficit irrigation.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Water quality evaluation and apportionment of pollution sources: a case study of the Baralia and Puthimari River (India)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunwar Raghvendra Singh ◽  
Ankit Pratim Goswami ◽  
Ajay S. Kalamdhad ◽  
Bimlesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Water Quality Monitoring ◽  
Pollution Sources ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Monitoring Programs

Abstract Water quality monitoring programs are indispensable for developing water conservation strategies, but elucidation of large and random datasets generated in these monitoring programs has become a global challenge. Rapid urbanization, industrialization and population growth pose a threat of pollution for the surface water bodies of the Assam, state in northeastern India. This calls for strict water quality monitoring programs, which would thereby help in understanding the status of water bodies.In this study, the water quality of Baralia and Puthimari River of Assam was assessed using cluster analysis (CA), information entropy, and principal component analysis (PCA) to derive useful information from observed data. 15 sampling sites were selected for collection of samples during the period May 2016- June 2017. Collected samples were analysed for 20 physicochemical parameters. Hierarchal CA was used to classify the sampling sites in different clusters. CA grouped all the sites into 3 clusters based on observed variables. Water quality of rivers was evaluated using entropy weighted water quality index (EWQI). EWQI of rivers varied from 61.62 to 314.68. PCA was applied to recognise various pollution sources. PCA identified six principal components that elucidated 87.9% of the total variance and represented surface runoff, untreated domestic wastewater and illegally dumped municipal solid waste (MSW) as major factors affecting the water quality. This study will help policymakers and managers for making better decisions in allocating funds and determining priorities. It will also assist in effective and efficient policies for the improvement of water quality.

scholarly journals Stringency of Water Conservation Determines Drinking Water Quality Trade-Offs: Lessons Learned from a Full-Scale Water Distribution System

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 2579
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Hatam ◽  
Gabrielle Ebacher ◽  
Michèle Prévost
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Distribution System ◽  
Reliability Index ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Water Distribution System ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Reference Scenario ◽  
Water Age

Demand variations over time affect the hydraulic and water quality behavior of water distribution systems. Therefore, it is important to assess the network performance under various future water demand scenarios to plan effectively for demand management strategies, considering the network’s topology, volume, and operational conditions. The performance of a full-scale water distribution system is evaluated by means of hydraulic and water quality simulations under different hypothetical demand management strategies. Residential and nonresidential consumptions are varied, resulting in different global multiplicative factors (from 0.53 to 1.18). Criteria including water loss, velocity, water age, free chlorine, and THMs are selected to compare the performance of the network between the current scenario and eight demand scenarios. Water conservation generally increases nodal water age values more in smaller diameter pipes. A nodal chlorine residual reliability index is proposed to account for the duration of low chlorine residuals. With a goal of maintaining a reference free chlorine concentration of ≥0.2 mg/L, the reliability index is less than 0.9 for about 14% of nodes under the reference scenario and this proportion increases to 34% of nodes under the most extreme future water conservation scenario. The robustness of the studied network under different water conservation scenarios is tested by increasing the chlorine residual at the outlet of the WTPs from 1 to 2 mg/L. This is an easily implemented adjustment and dramatically improves the chlorine reliability (<0.9 at only 15% of the nodes), even for the most extreme future water conservation scenario. However, this reliability comes at the cost of higher yet compliant THM concentrations for the low demand scenarios, revealing the challenges of balancing competing water quality goals. With a goal of maintaining a reference level of THMs at ≤80 ug/L, the THM reliability index is ≥0.9 at almost all nodes even under the most extreme conservation scenario. The evaluation of self-cleaning potential velocities shows that sufficient velocities can only be reached at daily maximum flow in 5% of smaller diameter piping even in the reference scenario.

Unintended consequences of biofuels production?The effects of large-scale crop conversion on water quality and quantity

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Welch ◽  
Christopher T. Green ◽  
Richard A. Rebich ◽  
Jeannie R.B. Barlow ◽  
Matthew B. Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Water Quality And Quantity

Sewers and the Quality of Canals and Ditches in Amsterdam

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 61-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Jacobs ◽  
J. W. van Sluis
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Sediment Quality ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Sewer System ◽  
Water And Sediment ◽  
Combined Sewer ◽  
Water And Sediment Quality

The surface water system of Amsterdam is very complicated. Of two characteristic types of water systems the influences on water and sediment quality are investigated. The importance of the sewer output to the total loads is different for both water systems. In a polder the load from the sewers is much more important than in the canal basin. Measures to reduce the emission from the sewers are much more effective in a polder. The effect of these measures on sediment quality is more than the effect on water quality. Some differences between a combined sewer system and a separate sewer system can be found in sediment quality.

scholarly journals “The Hoist of the Yellow Flag”: Vulnerable Port Cities and Public Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 153851322199871
Author(s):  
Dirk Schubert ◽  
Cor Wagenaar ◽  
Carola Hein
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Social Darwinism ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Port City ◽  
Port Cities ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Yellow Flag ◽  
Dutch City

Port cities have long played a key role in the development, discovery, and fight against diseases. They have been laboratories for policies to address public health issues. Diseases reached port cities through maritime exchanges, and the bubonic plague is a key example. Port city residents’ close contact with water further increased the chance for diseases such as cholera. Analyzing three European port cities, this article first explores the relevance of water quality for public health through the lens of the Dutch city of Rotterdam. It then examines plans and projects for London that were shaped by social Darwinism and stressed the moral failings of slum dwellers as a major cause for their misery. It finally explores the case of Hamburg as the perfect example of a city that cultivated ideals of purity and cleanliness by addressing all issues at stake in public health. This article on urban hygiene in three port cities shows how remarkably rich this field of study is; it also demonstrates that the multifaceted aspects of public health in port cities require further attention.

scholarly journals Public health measures to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Canada during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. e046177
Author(s):  
Julie Polisena ◽  
Maria Ospina ◽  
Omolara Sanni ◽  
Brittany Matenchuk ◽  
Rachel Livergant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Pandemic Preparedness ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Priority Populations ◽  
New Evidence

ObjectiveThe main objectives of this study were to synthesise and compare pandemic preparedness strategies issued by the federal and provincial/territorial (P/T) governments in Canada and to assess whether COVID-19 public health (PH) measures were tailored towards priority populations, as defined by relevant social determinants of health.MethodsThis scoping review searched federal and P/T websites on daily COVID-19 pandemic preparedness strategies between 30 January and 30 April 2020. The PROGRESS-Plus equity-lens framework was used to define priority populations. All definitions, policies and guidelines of PH strategies implemented by the federal and P/T governments to reduce risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission were included. PH measures were classified using a modified Public Health Agency of Canada Framework for Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness.ResultsA total of 722 COVID-19 PH measures were issued during the study period. Of these, home quarantine (voluntary) (n=13.0%; 94/722) and retail/commerce restrictions (10.9%; n=79/722) were the most common measures introduced. Many of the PH orders, including physical distancing, cancellation of mass gatherings, school closures or retail/commerce restrictions began to be introduced after 11 March 2020. Lifting of some of the PH orders in phases to reopen the economy began in April 2020 (6.5%; n=47/722). The majority (68%, n=491/722) of COVID-19 PH announcements were deemed mandatory, while 32% (n=231/722) were recommendations. Several PH measures (28.0%, n=202/722) targeted a variety of groups at risk of socially produced health inequalities, such as age, religion, occupation and migration status.ConclusionsMost PH measures centred on limiting contact between people who were not from the same household. PH measures were evolutionary in nature, reflecting new evidence that emerged throughout the pandemic. Although ~30% of all implemented COVID-19 PH measures were tailored towards priority groups, there were still unintended consequences on these populations.

Assessment of drinking water quality on public health at Alappuzha district, southern Kerala, India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geena Prasad ◽  
A.S. Reshma ◽  
Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Drinking Water Quality
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