Search results for "Water resources"
showing 10 items of 152 documents
Vertical stratification patterns of methanotrophs and their genetic controllers in water columns of oxygen-stratified boreal lakes
2021
ABSTRACT The vertical structuring of methanotrophic communities and its genetic controllers remain understudied in the water columns of oxygen-stratified lakes. Therefore, we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to study the vertical stratification patterns of methanotrophs in two boreal lakes, Lake Kuivajärvi and Lake Lovojärvi. Furthermore, metagenomic analyses were performed to assess the genomic characteristics of methanotrophs in Lovojärvi and the previously studied Lake Alinen Mustajärvi. The methanotroph communities were vertically structured along the oxygen gradient. Alphaproteobacterial methanotrophs preferred oxic water layers, while Methylococcales methanotrophs, consisting of putative…
Opportunity Costs of Ensuring Sustainability in Urban Water Services
2011
This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is u…
Improving operation of a complex headworks system for municipal use and hydropower production by mathematical programming
2013
The paper presents a Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming (MINLP) model of the water resources system supplying Genoa, in northern Italy. The system presently features five reservoirs, three main river intakes, and two well fields. The hydrological regime is typically Mediterranean; water availability is however relatively abundant, so that drought issues are limited, especially now that water demand from the supply sources has decreased due to reduced population, deindustrialization and to improvement in the operation and maintenance of the water distribution network. In this context, it is worthwhile considering the possibility to relax an over-conservative management of resources, justif…
The Necessary Integration of Green Infrastructures in the Public Transport Infrastructure Design
2021
The spatial planning of the new infrastructures for the urban mobility can provide the opportunity for the development of the urban green areas toward the condition of a healthy city. Elements such as architectural, heritage, and landscape centralities can lead to build a converging point between the two infrastructural systems of green and mobility. The development of the new urban railway lines in the city of Palermo (Italy) offers the chance to apply an integrated approach to the field. The local potentials of the biodiversity on one side and the fragmented landscape and environment systems on the other side build the framework for the development of a case study oriented to the enhancem…
From local measures to regional impacts: Modelling changes in nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea
2021
Study Region: Our study region is the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin (BSDB), which covers an area of 1.8 Mio km2 distributed over 14 countries in northern Europe. Study Focus: We use a large-scale hydrological and nutrient transport model (E-HYPE) to model basin-wide impacts of measure scenarios on the Baltic Sea, where eutrophication is a critical issue for the marine ecosystem. We constructed measure scenarios based on stakeholder acceptance, established in workshops in different regions around the Baltic. These measures include local stream reach to catchment scale measures aiming to reduce nutrient transport into the stream network (buffer strips, stormwater ponds) and measures aiming to red…
Flowers, Water accumulation and Corporate Social Responsibility: Certification of the Production of Roses and Claims for Environmental Justice in Ecu…
2018
La producción comercial de flores, el acaparamiento del agua y las luchas sociales por un reparto equitativo y un ambiente sano tienen una estrecha relación. Ecuador es el tercer exportador mundial de rosas. Cayambe-Tabacundo es la principal zona de producción y presenta una fuerte presión sobre los recursos hídricos. El agua es acaparada por las grandes empresas florícolas, quedando el resto para agricultura/ganadería de subsistencia en comunidades indígenas. Las florícolas utilizan las certificaciones ambientales y de comercio justo privadas, pero los estándares son permisivos. Este artículo analiza las relaciones de poder detrás de las prácticas de certificación de flores. Concluye que s…
Citizens AND HYdrology (CANDHY) : conceptualizing a transdisciplinary framework for citizen science addressing hydrological challenges
2021
Widely available digital technologies are empowering citizens who are increasingly well informed and involved in numerous water, climate, and environmental challenges. Citizen science can serve many different purposes, from the "pleasure of doing science" to complementing observations, increasing scientific literacy, and supporting collaborative behaviour to solve specific water management problems. Still, procedures on how to incorporate citizens' knowledge effectively to inform policy and decision-making are lagging behind. Moreover, general conceptual frameworks are unavailable, preventing the widespread uptake of citizen science approaches for more participatory cross-sectorial water go…
Ecological and human health risks appraisal of metal(loid)s in agricultural soils: a review
2019
Agriculture is one of the major human activities that changed the landforms, water resources and the biogeochemical cycles. Pollution of agricultural soilsby metal(loid)s is a serious and global hazard but worldwide studies related to metal(loid)s pollution in agricultural soils are very limited. To fulfil this gap, metal(loid)s content in agricultural soils from 2001 to 2019 all over the world was reviewed. Multivariate statistical techniques, contamination indices and human health risk assessment were determined for the metal(loid)s. Among the analysed metal(loid)s, the average contents of Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd, As and Ni exceeded the Canadian, and China soil guidelines limits. The results o…
Urban Storm-Water Quality Management: Centralized versus Source Control
2010
The continuous growth of urban areas and the increasing public awareness of the environmental impacts of storm water have raised interest on the quality of the receiving water bodies. In the past two decades, many efforts have been directed at improving urban drainage systems by introducing mitigation measures to limit the negative environmental impacts of storm water. These mitigation measures are generally called best management practices (BMPs), sustainable urban drainage systems, or low impact developments, and they include practices such as infiltration and storage tanks that reduce the peak flow and retain some of the polluting materials. Choosing the best mitigation measure is still …
Spatial distribution of rainfall trends in Sicily (1921–2000)
2006
Abstract The feared global climate change could have important effects on various environmental variables including rainfall in many countries around the world. Changes in precipitation regime directly affect water resources management, agriculture, hydrology and ecosystems. For this reason it is important to investigate the changes in the spatial and temporal rainfall pattern in order to improve water management strategies. In this study a non-parametric statistical method (Mann–Kendall rank correlation method) is employed in order to verify the existence of trend in annual, seasonal and monthly rainfall and the distribution of the rainfall during the year. This test is applied to about 25…