scholarly journals Adaptation of Water Supply to Changing Climate and Land-Use Activities, Case of Ljubljana Water Supply, Slovenia

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Barbara Cencur Curk ◽  
Branka Bracic Zeleznik ◽  
Istvan Bogardi

A risk management methodology is presented for the adaptation of water supply to changing climate and land-use activities, considering socio-economic aspects. Several management options were selected for the case of the public water supply of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The major management actions for improving drinking water safety are (1) land-use limitations within the drinking water protection areas and (2) drinking water treatment. Trends in groundwater level are decreasing, above all in the area of well fields; therefore, artificial recharge and setting up a new independent well field were also considered. The management actions were evaluated according to several criteria, such as water supply risk reduction for the various users (drinking, agricultural, and industrial) and realization of the actions (cost, flexibility, and leg time). For management options, the ranking “Fuzzy Decimaker” tool was applied, which is based on a Multiple Criterion Decision Making (MCDM) technique. Ranking of management actions has shown that all management actions are good as they are clustering in the corner close to the ideal value. For a particular well field, farming limitations in the drinking water protection areas are the best and water treatment is the worst management action, which is due to high costs, low flexibility, and longer lag time.

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Miller ◽  
B. Whitehill ◽  
D. Deere

This paper comments on the strengths and weaknesses of different methodologies for risk assessment, appropriate for utilisation by Australian Water Utilities in risk assessment for drinking water source protection areas. It is intended that a suggested methodology be recommended as a national approach to catchment risk assessment. Catchment risk management is a process for setting priorities for protecting drinking water quality in source water areas. It is structured through a series of steps for identifying water quality hazards, assessing the threat posed, and prioritizing actions to address the threat. Water management organisations around Australia are at various stages of developing programs for catchment risk management. While much conceptual work has been done on the individual components of catchment risk management, work on these components has not previously been combined to form a management tool for source water protection. A key driver for this project has been the requirements of the National Health and Medical Research Council Framework for the Management of Drinking Water Quality (DWQMF) included in the draft 2002 Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). The Framework outlines a quality management system of steps for the Australian water industry to follow with checks and balances to ensure water quality is protected from catchment to tap. Key steps in the Framework that relate to this project are as follows: Element 2 Assessment of the Drinking Water Supply System• Water Supply System analysis• Review of Water Quality Data• Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Element 3 Preventive Measures for Drinking Water Quality Management• Preventive Measures and Multiple Barriers• Critical Control Points This paper provides an evaluation of the following risk assessment techniques: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP); World Health Organisation Water Safety Plans; Australian Standard AS 4360; and The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines – Drinking Water Quality Management Framework. These methods were selected for assessment in this report as they provided coverage of the different approaches being used across Australia by water utilities of varying: scale of water management organisation; types of water supply system management; and land use and activity-based risks in the catchment area of the source. Initially, different risk assessment methodologies were identified and reviewed. Then examples of applications of those methods were assessed, based on several key water utilities across Australia and overseas. Strengths and weaknesses of each approach were identified. In general there seems some general grouping of types of approaches into those that: cover the full catchment-to-tap drinking water system; cover just the catchment area of the source and do not recognise downstream barriers or processes; use water quality data or land use risks as a key driving component; and are based primarily on the hazard whilst others are based on a hazardous event. It is considered that an initial process of screening water quality data is very valuable in determining key water quality issues and guiding the risk assessment, and to the overall understanding of the catchment and water source area, allowing consistency with the intentions behind the ADWG DWQM Framework. As such, it is suggested that the recommended national risk assessment approach has two key introductory steps: initial screening of key issues via water quality data, and land use or activity scenario and event-based HACCP-style risk assessment. In addition, the importance of recognising the roles that uncertainty and bias plays in risk assessments was highlighted. As such it was deemed necessary to develop and integrate uncertainty guidelines for information used in the risk assessment process. A hybrid risk assessment methodology was developed, based on the HACCP approach, but with some key additions and modifications to make it applicable to varying catchment risks, water supply operation needs and environmental management processes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 922-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Richard ◽  
E. Mayr ◽  
M. Zunabovic ◽  
R. Allabashi ◽  
R. Perfler

The implementation and evaluation of biological nitrification as a possible treatment option for the small-scale drinking water supply of a rural Upper Austrian community was investigated. The drinking water supply of this community (average system input volume: 20 m3/d) is based on the use of deep anaerobic groundwater with a high ammonium content of geogenic origin (up to 5 mg/l) which must be treated to prevent the formation of nitrites in the drinking water supply system. This paper describes the implementation and operation of biological nitrification despite several constraints including space availability, location and financial and manpower resources. A pilot drinking water treatment plant, including biological nitrification implemented in sand filters, was designed and constructed for a maximum treatment capacity of 1.2 m3/h. Online monitoring of selected physicochemical parameters has provided continuous treatment performance data. Treatment performance of the plant was evaluated under standard operation as well as in the case of selected malfunction events.


1999 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Griffini ◽  
M. L. Bao ◽  
D. Burrini ◽  
D. Santianni ◽  
C. Barbieri ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (9) ◽  
pp. 923-928
Author(s):  
Oxsana O. Sinitsyna ◽  
Victor V. Turbinsky

Increased competition between producers has now become one of the critical features of the country’s economy. Within the framework of the Water Strategy of the Russian Federation, technological issues play a significant role both in the protection of water resources and in compliance with the safety requirements and favourable quality of the water used. For more than 20 years worldwide, there has been a transition from a hazard-oriented to a risk-oriented approach in the organization of nature and water protection activities. The use of a risk-based approach determines the mandatory monitoring of all pollutants and calculation methods for assessing various types of toxicity of a substance, their hazardous concentrations based on knowledge of the structure and information about the hazard of substances from international databases and registers. Based on the analysis of the main provisions of the Water Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2020 in conjunction with the conditions of water use affecting the health of the population, the priority problems of technological development in the water protection sector and their medical and preventive support were identified. Measures have been outlined to ensure the compliance of the technology for the protection of water bodies, sources of household and drinking water supply to the population and industrial development for monitoring the effectiveness and efficiency of hygienic regulation, sanitary and epidemiological examination of project documentation and a risk-oriented approach to ensuring the activities of business entities on the territory of sanitary protection zones of drinking water sources: water supply, wastewater treatment from point and diffuse sources of pollution.


Author(s):  
Marina Valentukeviciene ◽  
Aukse Amosenkiene ◽  
Regimantas Dauknys

Quality changes of drinking water in the water supply network (case study from Lithuania) The purpose of this research was to examine water quality changes by distributing in to the water supply network. Water samples were collected from Varena town (Lithuania) drinking water distribution system fed by groundwater from well field. Parameters related to undesirable increasing of nitrites and nitrates concentrations have been measured considering these samples: pH, conductivity, concentration of total iron, manganese, ammonium, nitrates and nitrites. Results showed that groundwater from well field were extremely susceptible to favor bacterial growth in the pipelines. The occurrence of nitrites and nitrates in drinking water samples correlated positively with the lengths of old iron pipelines and negatively with the content of newly laid pipelines. The obtained results also showed that the potential nitrates increasing induced by the distribution of treated water could be reduced if: nitrates levels were below detection limits at the outlet of the water treatment plant; biological ammonium removal treatment implementation should reduce the levels of the nitrates and nitrites of the treated supplied water. Although the nitrates concentration increase in drinking water distribution systems, the issues with nitrites accumulation are rare in Lithuania. However, such processes still need to be proved in more extensive investigation, but these research results could be applied as a basic scenario.


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Irmscher ◽  
I. Teermann

Hygiene standards and parasites have been a special focus of drinking water utilities for several years. In this context the development of new, high-tech water treatment methods is often taken into consideration. However, we have been applying riverbank filtration as an inexpensive, natural method in Düsseldorf for over 130 years. Indeed it had been introduced for “hygiene reasons” at the time and, according to our experience, riverbank filtration is well suited to meet these “new” hygiene challenges. We have intensively examined the infiltration of river water into the aquifer. We view this core process as the prerequisite for the sustained function of riverbank filtration. It is closely linked with the retention of turbid matters in the riverbed and the shearing forces on the subsurface. In addition, we have investigated the effectiveness of bank filtration as regards the elimination of microorganisms over recent years. According to these examinations, bacteria are reduced by an average of 3 log orders by bank filtration; individual breakthroughs correlate with high water events. According to our measurements Giardia and Cryptosporidium have been completely eliminated in riverbank passage. The retention of three examined types of viruses was also found to be almost completely accomplished.


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 235-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Randall ◽  
T. J. Grizzard

The high dam on the Occoquan River of Northern Virginia, United States of America, was constructed in 1957, forming a drinking water reservoir with a capacity of 37.1 × 106m3 formed by drainage from a 1 460 km2 watershed, and providing a safe yield of 189 251 m3 per day. Deteriorating water quality in the late 1960s led to a special “policy” for the watershed, designed to preserve the reservoir as a drinking water supply. Key provisions of the policy mandated replacement of the watershed's 11 publicly owned wastewater treatment works with a single advanced wastewater treatment plant (AWT), and establishment of the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Programme. Early results from the programme established non-point nutrient pollution as a major cause of water quality deterioration and resulted in the implementation of non-point pollution controls throughout the watershed during the late 1970s. The AWT plant went on-line in July 1978. Continuous monitoring since 1973 has demonstrated both the necessity and the effectiveness of point and non-point nutrient controls for the preservation of the reservoir's water quality. The AWT plant provides excellent removal of organics and phosphorus, plus complete nitrification. The nitrates are discharged to the receiving stream to enhance conditions in the reservoir. Control policies include land-use management for the preservation of this essential water supply for 750 000 people in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Land-use management decisions are based on the results obtained with a watershed-reservoir linked computer model which predicts water quality changes resulting from land-use changes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazim K. El-Naser ◽  
Barry Smith ◽  
Susan Kilani ◽  
Ismail Abdeldin ◽  
Barry Howarth ◽  
...  

This paper describes management options and interventions taken by the Government of Jordan to ensure that the quality of drinking water supplied to consumers via the Disi Water Conveyance Project (DWCP) meets Jordanian drinking water standards and WHO guidelines for drinking water quality in respect of their radiological composition. Results from an initial survey of radioactivity present in water abstracted from each of the 55 wells (which comprise the operational well field) indicated an average radiological dose of 0.8 milliSieverts per year (mSv/y) would be accrued by members of the population if consuming water directly from the well head. During full scale operation, the estimated accrued dose from the well field as a whole decreased to an average of 0.7 mSv/y which was still approximately 1.4 times the Jordanian reference radiological limit for drinking water (0.5 mSv/y). Following assessment of treatment options by relevant health and water authorities, blending prior to distribution into the consumer network was identified as the most practicable remedial option. Results from monthly sampling undertaken after inline blending support the adoption of this approach, and indicate a reduction in the committed effective dose to 0.4 mSv/y, which is compliant with Jordanian standards.


1984 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 383-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Sherlock ◽  
D. Ashby ◽  
H.T. Delves ◽  
G.I. Forbes ◽  
M.R. Moore ◽  
...  

1 The water supply in Ayr (Scotland, UK) was plumbosolvent and many dwellings in Ayr contained lead pipes. In 1981 treatment of the water supply to reduce its plumbosolvency was initiated. Measurements of water and blood lead concentrations were made before and subsequent to the treatment. Most of the measurements made before and after water treatment began were made on water samples from the same dwellings and blood samples from the same women. 2 Water treatment produced a sharp fall in water lead concentrations and a decrease in the median blood lead concentration from 21 to 13 μg/100 ml. 3 Two women had higher than expected blood lead concentrations, both these women had been removing old paint. 4 Women who had lead pipes removed from their dwellings all showed substantial decreases in their blood lead concentrations. 5 The curvilinearity of the relation between blood lead and water lead concentrations is confirmed. Even relatively low (<40 μg/l) water lead concentrations may make a substantial contribution to blood lead concentrations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 8741-8756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Heberling ◽  
Christopher T. Nietch ◽  
Hale W. Thurston ◽  
Michael Elovitz ◽  
Kelly H. Birkenhauer ◽  
...  

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