General Purpose Water Research Articles

Aquatic Macro-Invertebrate Diversity and Abundance in Eleyele Lake, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

The availability and quality of water system in 21st century plays a vital role in the growth and survival of all living organisms. Eleyele Lake is a general-purpose water body which supplies water to various communities in Ibadan metropolis. This research aimed to investigate the quality of the water using physico-chemical parameters and their influence on the diversity, abundance and distribution of aquatic macro-invertebrates of the lake. Monthly, sample of water and macro-invertebrates from April to September, 2021 at eight sampling points were done, using standard APHA and Winkler’s methods. Macro-invertebrates collected were identified using standard identification guides. Relationship between physico-chemical parameters and aquatic macro-invertebrates was determined using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). Species diversity, taxa richness, evenness and similarity were determined using Simpson, Shannon-Weiner, Margalef, Evennes and Equitablity. A total number of 670 macro-invertebrates belonging to 7 orders namely, Hemiptera (47%), Odonata (20%), Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Trombidiformes and Hygrophila were collected and identified during the study period. Positive correlations occurs between BOD, EC, TDS, Nitrate and Phosphate and Chironomus sp. Also, pH was positively correlated with Lestes sp. and Aeshna sp. while DO have negative correlation with Lethocerus sp., Physa sp. and Lymnaea sp. The physico-chemical parameters and the diversity indices of macro-invertebrates encountered indicated that the lake was moderately polluted and tends toward degradation as a result of indiscriminate discharge of domestic, agricultural and industrial effluents into the Lake. Therefore, proper management of the lake is required to prevent further deterioration.

Development of Stable CO2 Electro-Reduction Catalyst in Real Water Matrix

Artificial photosynthesis refers to the conversion of water and CO2 into value-added chemicals powered by sunlight, and is the holy grail of a sustainable carbon cycle of chemicals. Since a big challenge facing this system is the conversion of stable CO2 into the desired chemicals, most studies have focused on the development of high-performing catalysts within well-refined and restricted test environments. However, such superior performances cannot guarantee their feasibilities in realistic conditions for future commercialization or practical application unless their durability issues are secured. Here we report a one-step ahead approach to develop a more practical and advanced CO2 electro-reduction catalyst with essential clues to overcome the obstacles from realistic conditions, based on the understanding of CO2 reduction reaction deactivation phenomena. Our investigation firstly deals with the performance profile of an Ag electrode, selected as a standard catalyst for CO production, in real-life used tap water which is representative general purpose water. Screening and accompanying thorough analyses on various components in tap water ranging from alkali earth metals to transition/post-transition metals elucidated the types of impurities that can impede the catalytic activity by surface deposition, and consequentially cause the deactivation. Based on the findings involving Ag, a design strategy for a catalyst having excellent tolerance to the deactivation factors was suggested using a carbon-based material with heteroatom-doped active sites. A metal-free nitrogen-doped short carbon nanotube was prepared by a simple three-step process, and was denoted as ball mill N-CNT. As expected, the ball mill N-CNT showed a competitive and tolerant performance to the metal impurities regardless of the nature of the water sources, deionized water and tap water.

Carbon-Supported IrCoOx nanoparticles as an efficient and stable OER electrocatalyst for practicable CO2 electrolysis

The development of an efficient and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst operating under pH-neutral conditions is vital for the realization of sustainable CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) systems in the future. For commercializing this system, it is also important to be able to use general-purpose water as an electrolyte. Here, we explore, characterize and validate a new IrCoOx mixed metal oxide as efficient and stable OER catalyst, before we investigate and proof its suitability as counter electrode to a CO2RR cathode operating under pH-neutral conditions. More specifically, carbon-supported IrCoOx core-shell nanoparticles exhibited a highly efficient OER catalytic activity and stability compared to state-of-art reference IrOx catalysts in CO2-saturated 0.5 M KHCO3 tap-water. IrCoOx/C also exhibited a significantly improved electrochemical oxidation and corrosion resistance than IrOx, resulting in a beneficial suppression of Ir dissolution. The application of IrCoOx/C in the CO2 electrolyzer displayed superior CO space-time yields over prolonged electrolyzer tests.

General Purpose Water Model Can Improve Atomistic Simulations of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins.

Unconstrained atomistic simulations of intrinsically disordered proteins and peptides (IDP) remain a challenge: widely used, "general purpose" water models tend to favor overly compact structures relative to experiment. Here we have performed a total of 93 μs of unrestrained MD simulations to explore, in the context of IDPs, a recently developed "general-purpose" 4-point rigid water model OPC, which describes liquid state of water close to experiment. We demonstrate that OPC, together with a popular AMBER force field ff99SB, offers a noticeable improvement over TIP3P in producing more realistic structural ensembles of three common IDPs benchmarks: 55-residue apo N-terminal zinc-binding domain of HIV-1 integrase ("protein IN"), amyloid β-peptide (Aβ42) (residues 1-42), and 26-reside H4 histone tail. As a negative control, computed folding profile of a regular globular miniprotein (CLN025) in OPC water is in appreciably better agreement with experiment than that obtained in TIP3P, which tends to overstabilize the compact native state relative to the extended conformations. We employed Aβ42 peptide to investigate the possible influence of the solvent box size on simulation outcomes. We advocate a cautious approach for simulations of IDPs: we suggest that the solvent box size should be at least four times the radius of gyration of the random coil corresponding to the IDP. The computed free energy landscape of protein IN in OPC resembles a shallow "tub" - conformations with substantially different degrees of compactness that are within 2 kB T of each other. Conformations with very different secondary structure content coexist within 1 kB T of the global free energy minimum. States with higher free energy tend to have less secondary structure. Computed low helical content of the protein has virtually no correlation with its degree of compactness, which calls into question the possibility of using the helicity as a metric for assessing performance of water models for IDPs, when the helicity is low. Predicted radius of gyration ( R g) of H4 histone tail in OPC water falls in-between that of a typical globular protein and a fully denatured protein of the same size; the predicted R g is consistent with two independent predictions. In contrast, H4 tail in TIP3P water is as compact as the corresponding globular protein. The computed free energy landscape of H4 tail in OPC is relatively flat over a significant range of compactness, which, we argue, is consistent with its biological function as facilitator of internucleosome interactions.

The challenges and opportunities of implementing general purpose groundwater accounting in Australia

ABSTRACTGroundwater is a critical resource both worldwide and in Australia and, although groundwater information is central to its effective management, it is generally poor. General Purpose Water Accounting (GPWA), an innovative Australian system developed to account for water resources based on financial accounting principles, has been identified as a possible improvement to groundwater information. As previous studies have mainly considered the application of GPWA to surface water, we investigate groundwater accounting under GPWA. We adopt a theoretical framework of transparency, which is a critical component of accountability. Interviews were conducted within two Australian government departments responsible for groundwater management and reporting. Findings indicate that while GPWA could improve the transparency of groundwater reporting, methodological challenges remain unresolved. These challenges were grouped under two key themes, namely pre-existing data limitations (such as data availability) and translating financial accounting into groundwater (such as the difficulty of determining groundwater assets). Additionally, accountability was not seen as a likely outcome (or even a key objective) of GPWA. Key implications of our study are that further refinement of the standard is required to address the methodological issues identified and more major revisions may be required to achieve the stated objective of enhanced accountability.

Accounting for water in the minerals industry: Capitalising on regulatory reporting

Australia has been rapidly advancing the field of water accounting as a tool to improve water management across the country. Water accounting is the application of a consistent and structured approach to identify, measure and report water resource information. The Bureau of Meteorology (the Bureau) has developed Australian Water Accounting Standards for General Purpose Water Accounting Reports.Following collaboration between the Bureau and the Newmarket Gold Mining Company, this paper investigates how General Purpose Water Account Reporting can be applied and used in the minerals industry to simplify and improve aspects of regulatory reporting. This case study demonstrates how General Purpose Water Accounting Reports and the lessons learned from the ongoing development of the Australian National Water Account can be practically applied to regulatory reporting and corporate data management for a mining operation in the Australian Northern Territory. This paper also demonstrates the benefits of aligning a standardised water account with data that is already routinely collected as part of mining operations environmental compliance.

Intercomparison of a Personal CPC and Different Conventional CPCs

ABSTRACTWe here report on a study that examines the performance of a water based personal condensation particle counter (CPC) PUFP C100 (Enmont, LLC) when sampling a variety of different test aerosols. Three additional CPCs were included in the study, namely, the general purpose water based CPC model 3787 (TSI) as well as the more than 20 year old CPC model 3022 (TSI) and ultrafine CPC model 3025A (TSI), both based on butanol. The responses of these CPCs were compared to a reference ultrafine CPC model 3776 (TSI). Test aerosols included hydrophilic NaCl, moderately hydrophobic carbon and highly hydrophobic DEHS aerosols of various sizes and concentrations. The CPC PUFP C100 measured according to its specifications with high precision and accuracy as long as the particles were not highly hydrophobic, but failed to adequately measure the concentrations of highly hydrophobic DEHS aerosols. Its detection efficiency for very small particles, e.g., 5.4 nm, was decreased, which was expected based on its particle size detection limit. The TSI water CPC model 3787 showed a similar behavior for all aerosols, except that this CPC was able to accurately measure the concentration of 5.4 nm NaCl particles. The concentrations measured with the two old and unserviced butanol CPCs were highly correlated with the concentrations delivered by the reference CPC. Nevertheless, the concentrations measured with both old CPCs were clearly below the reference concentrations.

“Straight from the heavens into your bucket”: domestic rainwater harvesting as a measure to improve water security in a subarctic indigenous community

ABSTRACTBackground: Black Tickle-Domino is an extremely water-insecure remote Inuit community in the Canadian subarctic that lacks piped-water. Drinking water consumption in the community is less than a third of the Canadian national average. Water insecurity in the community contributes to adverse health, economic, and social effects and requires urgent action.Objectives: To test the ability of domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH) for the first time in the subarctic with the goal of improving water access and use in the community.Design: This project utilised quantitative weekly reporting of water collection and use, as well as focus group discussions. DRWH units were installed at seven water-insecure households chosen by the local government. Results were measured over a 6-week period in 2016.Results: Participants harvested 19.07 gallons of rainwater per week. General purpose water consumption increased by 17% and water retrieval efforts declined by 40.92%. Households saved $12.70 CDN per week. Participants reported perceived improvements to psychological health. Because no potable water was collected, drinking water consumption did not increase. The study identified additional water-insecurity impacts.Conclusion: DRWH cannot supply drinking water without proper treatment and filtration; however, it can be a partial remedy to water insecurity in the subarctic. DRWH is appropriately scaled, inexpensive, and participants identified several significant benefits.

Potential users’ perceptions of general purpose water accounting reports

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of potential users about water accounting reports prepared under Australian general purpose water accounting (GPWA), which applies financial accounting techniques to water and could be extended to other areas of natural resource management. In particular, the paper examines the extent to which users believe GPWA reports are useful and facilitate the discharge of accountability by water managers. Design/methodology/approach – As a theoretical lens the authors apply an extended version of Gray et al.’s (1996) accountability model. The authors utilise mixed method research design comprising a questionnaire administered to users with water-related interests and an analysis of public submissions to the Water Accounting Standards Board on the Exposure Draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 1. Findings – Overall, users perceive the introduction of GPWA as useful and believe that the benefits will outweigh the costs. The adoption of a financial accounting approach in terms of accounting standards and prescribed methods for booking and disclosing water “transactions” was broadly supported. In terms of the main users of reports, there was some ambiguity but findings suggested that government agencies were likely to be the main users of GPWA. Users were also concerned about the degree of judgement required to determine the identity and boundaries of a “water report entity”. Perhaps the most controversial aspect related to accountability; while the Accountability Statement was broadly supported there was little consensus that GPWA collectively discharged the accountability of water managers. Taken collectively, these results suggest that GPWA may be more useful for improving management performance than accountability. Practical implications – The findings suggest that future iterations of the standard need to reconsider how accountability might be discharged through the production of GPWA. The broad support for GPWA suggests, however, that the financial accounting approach – and hence the accounting community – may also make a valuable contribution to other areas of natural resource accounting. Originality/value – This study contributes to the emerging but still limited literature on GPWA and the fundamentally different approach to natural resource accounting it represents. While some previous studies have examined potential users of GPWA none have done so after the standard has been fully developed, and no previous studies have adopted the mixed research design utilised in this study.

Robust NMR water signal suppression for demanding analytical applications.

We describe the design and application of robust, general-purpose water signal suppression pulse sequences well suited to chemometric work. Such pulse sequences need to deal well with pulse mis-calibrations, radiation damping, chemical exchange, and the presence of sample inhomogeneities, as well as with significant variations in sample characteristics such as pH, ionic strength, relaxation characteristics and molecular weight. Of course, such pulse sequences should produce un-distorted lineshapes and baselines and work well both under automation and in the hands of non-experts. As an example, one such pulse sequences, Robust-5, will be presented. This new pulse sequence meets those criteria and is able to reduce a 50 M proteo water signal down to a 0.9 mM level, without fine tuning, and under automation, and it is therefore well suited to the most demanding of analytical applications.

Review of Environmental and Hydrological Systems Modeling by A. W. JayawardenaCRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL 33487; 2014; ISBN 978-0-415-46532-8; 516 pp.; $99.95.

Review of <i>Environmental and Hydrological Systems Modeling</i> by A. W. JayawardenaCRC Press Taylor &amp; Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL 33487; 2014; ISBN 978-0-415-46532-8; 516 pp.; $99.95.

Regulatory theory insights into the past, present and future of general purpose water accounting standard setting

Purpose – Accounting and water industry experts are developing general‐purpose water accounting (GPWA) to report information about water and rights to water. The system has the potential to affect water policies, pricing and management, and investment and other decisions that are affected by GPWA report users' understanding of water risks faced by an entity. It may also affect financial returns to accounting and auditing firms and firms in water industries. In this paper the authors aim to examine the roles of the accounting profession, water industries and other stakeholders in governing GPWA. Recognising that the fate of GPWA depends partly upon regulatory power and economics, they seek to apply regulatory theories that explain financial accounting standards development to speculate about the national and international future of GPWA.Design/methodology/approach – Official documents, internal Water Accounting Standards Board documents and unstructured interviews underpin the authors' analysis.Findings – ...

Water Management: A Solution to Water Scarcity in Pakistan

With the increase in population of our country and changing geo-political landscape, the available water resources are fast depleting. We also understand that without water, there can be no life as we see in this physical world. The solution lies in judicious usage of water and realization to preserve, which ultimately leads to superior management of this essential resource. This paper addresses the issues pertaining to water required for agriculture, drinking as well as for other purposes. The measures recommended for preservation of irrigation water include cost effective maintenance of water channels under an integrated mechanism of public-private partnership and ownership through community participation. Similarly to resolve the issues related to drinking and general purpose water, a distinction between the two categories has been proposed for putting in practice under an integrated approach. For the purpose of enhancing storage capacity, instead of fighting on the construction of much awaited mega dams, the paper suggests construction of small dams and run of the water channels auto-spillover bunds. These measures, apart from being cost effective (i.e. affordable) shall have no political controversies. The concept is storage of water through spread over river beds and storage sites. The paper also suggests measures for creating awareness among our people to make judicious use of water.

MODELING THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF IRRIGATION WATER SUPPLY IN DRY AND HUMID REGIONS

This paper tests the economic efficiency of irrigation water as supplied by single purpose and by general purpose public utilities in dry and humid regions, respectively, in terms of underprovision and overprovision. The proposed methodology mixes conceptual frameworks developed by Farrell (1957) and Brueckner (1979, 1982). A typical agricultural production function uses the institutional attributes of the water-providing authority as an argument. Both short-run and long-run estimates are provided. Although in both cases irrigation water is heavily subsidized, there is no evidence of systematic underprovision or overprovision for the dry north and west, under the single purpose Irrigation Authority. However, water is oversupplied to more humid areas by the general purpose Central Water Authority. Empirical estimates confirm that the efficiency of the single purpose Irrigation Authority cannot be attributed to irrigation technique. The general purpose Water Authority suffers from inefficiency in coordinating rainwater availability with the institutional water supply.

A low-cost, large-volume general purpose water sampler

Here we describe the design, construction and subsequent routine use of a large-volume general purpose water sampler. The sampler is designed to be used in both remote sites and deep lakes with a minimum of logistical support, and can be made from commercially available parts at low cost.