The Influence of Concrete and Urban Water Quality On The Growth of An Invasive Weed (Salix Spp.) in One of Australia’s Most Endangered Aquatic Environments.

Riparian vegetation along urban streams and wetlands is frequently dominated by invasive weeds. Elevated nitrogen and phosphorous in urban waters and soils are well-known to encourage invasive urban weeds, but this research demonstrates that other urban geochemical contaminants may also be influential. Previous studies have demonstrated that the dissolution of urban concrete is a poorly recognised source of modified water and soil geochemistry, which may enhance the growth of some invasive weeds. This study investigated the relationship between urban water quality and the growth of an invasive urban riparian weed, willow (Salix spp.) to examine the contribution of concrete materials. The study used water from a wetland in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. These wetlands have a unique biodiversity but are fragile and susceptible to degradation from human activity. Many are in urban catchments and are frequently dominated by invasive weeds, including Salix spp. In this study, willow cuttings were grown in a laboratory using four water treatments: pristine, urban, and pristine water exposed to two different concrete materials. The urban and concrete water treatments had higher pH, salinity, calcium, potassium, and higher concentration of several metals and were associated with increased growth of Salix spp. We suggest that the modification of urban water and riparian soil chemistry by urban concrete materials may contribute to the success of invasive species in urban wetlands and riparian zones. Some metals (barium, strontium) were present in urban water and in pristine water exposed to concrete and bioaccumulated in plant tissue.

Urban Water Quality Assessment Based on Remote Sensing Reflectance Optical Classification

With the acceleration of urbanization, increasing water pollution means that monitoring and evaluating urban water quality are of great importance. Although highly accurate, traditional evaluation methods are time consuming, laborious, and vastly insufficient in terms of the continuity of spatiotemporal coverage. In this study, a water quality assessment method based on remote sensing reflectance optical classification and the traditional grading principle is proposed. In this method, an optical water type (OWT) library was first constructed using the measured in situ remote sensing reflectance dataset based on fuzzy clustering technology. Then, comprehensive scoring rules were established by combining OWTs and 12 water quality parameters, and water quality was graded into different urban water quality levels (UWQLs) based on the scoring results. Using the proposed method, the relative water quality of urban waterbodies was qualitatively evaluated at the macro level based on images from the multispectral imager of Sentinel-2. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between the UWQLs and the water quality index (WQI). These results indicate the potential of this method for quantitative assessment of urban water quality, providing a new way to evaluate water quality using remote sensing algorithms in the future.

Developing Floating Constructed Wetland in Laboratory Scale as Domestic Waste Contaminant Reductor in Urban Waters

Low awareness of sanitation of urban citizens creates negative effects on the environment which varied. The triggering factors of the phenomenon are education and conservation technology. A conservation technology, eco-technology e.g. constructed wetlands, is proposed to solve the problem. Laboratory work is conducted to obtain comprehensive analysis about floating constructed wetland. The research paper aims to illustrate the efficiency performance of constructed wetlands, with domestic species, in the lab-scaled area from urban wastewater. The constructed wetland media is prepared horizontally. The analysis of its performance leads to a discussion of urban water quality. Samplings and laboratory tests are conducted to examine pH, phosphorus, nitrogen, suspended solids, conductivity, COD, and BOD. The benefit of Nasturtium officinale as FTW media reduce phosphate, nitrate, and BOD as 100% in 14 days. The discharge simulation during 14 days reduce TDS and TSS as 100%.

Urban Water Quality Scenario by using Geospatial Engineering

In the world scenario the contamination of water due to the various reasons is one of the major problems in the urban and semi-urban areas which have both positive and negative impact on the existed environment and also on the quality of human life. The developing activities taking place in and around the urban areas covers soil with concrete which leads to reduced soil recharge capacity at one side and the other side releasing of untreated urban sewage in to nearby open water bodies without any concern became most practicing method in most of the urban areas. The new capital region of Andhra Pradesh is selected as study area which is rapidly developing with commercial and residential built-up area. Due to which the pressure on groundwater is increased rapidly with respect to its quality and the quantity to meet the requirement of the living as well as migrating people from all the corners to the newly developing capital region. If the similar situation continues there will be a severe and irreparable damage to the availability of groundwater for the future generation and also there will be a notable reduction in the living standards of urban people. The present study examines groundwater and surface water quality and compared with water quality standards to determine the status of water quality at study area. A total three samples were collected for three times in three consecutive months of study period and analyzed by using standard analytical procedures.Geo spatial technology was adopted to represent the statistical data of water quality in the form of GIS maps for more accuracy to identify the periodical changes in water quality at study area