World Water Congress Research Articles

The World Water Envoys Programme

The International Water Resources Association (IWRA) has been working for more than 50 years towards a more sustainable use and management of the world’s water resources. One of the key instruments is the World Water Congress where knowledge exchange across continents and disciplines is the main mission. For the recent Congress in Daegu, South Korea, IWRA not only worked closely with Korean stakeholders to increase awareness of water-related issues but launched an Envoy Programme inviting young and ambitious people from various countries in the world to bridge the world of the conference audience and the realities of societies for whom clean and sufficient water is out of reach.

Brazilian Declaration of Judges on Water Justice of March 2018 as a source of soft environmental law

This article provides the results of research conducted within the framework of the concept of international legal protection of Lake Baikal on the outcome of environmental work of international non-governmental organizations in the sphere of protection and sustainable of water resources. Coverage is given on the activity of the World Water Council. Special attention is turned to the reflection of the main results of the World Water Forum, including the outcome of its activity in form of the Brazilian Declaration of Judges on Water Justice adopted in March 2018. Leaning on the results of the work with authentic text, the author examines 10 basic principles contained in the Brazilian Declaration of Judges on Water Justice, which a certain degree reflect the environmental priority in the consideration of civil, administrative and criminal cases related to the use and protection of waters, with the disclosure of their basic content. One of the proposals is the formation of the Expert Council on Lake Baikal that incorporates the academic staff of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, other representatives of scientific community who take part in preparation of assessment of the scientific validity of draft documents in the sphere of conservation of Lake Baikal that significantly affect then environmental activity in the Baikal Nature Reserve. A proposal is formulated on the inclusion into the current and newly developed programs for the advanced training of judges and prosecutors that imply the study of the key aspects of law enforcement practice in the sphere of environmental protection (considering the natural specificity of the region for the judges to implement their activity). Attention is given to the work of the International Water Resources Association and the results of the 16th World Water Congress held in Cancun (Mexico). The analyzed international experience is extrapolated to the problematic of conservation of the ecosystem of Lake Baikal.

Деятельность неправительственных международных организаций как предпосылка совершенствования законодательства об охране озера Байкал

The reported study aims to analyze the instruments adopted by international environmental non-governmental organizations in the sphere of protection and sustainable use of water resources. The structure of the World Water Council and its principal outcomes are reviewed. The practice of holding the World Water Forum is analyzed due to its rare coverage in Russian legal literature. Primary attention is paid to the outcomes of the Forum in the form of declarations. The activities of the International Water Resources Association are reviewed, particularly the outcomes of the 16th World Water Congress. The above mentioned international experience is extrapolated to the problems of Baikal’s legal protection. The documents adopted by the mentioned forums are proposed to be used as an inspiration and model for the legislative improvements in Baikal’s legal regime. For instance, the Ministerial Declaration “An urgent call for decisive action on water”, adopted at the 8th World Water Forum stresses the public attention on the issues of climate change and encourages the states to take into account this global problem in national water strategies. However, due to various reasons, the climate change issues are completely out of the legal discourse of Baikal protection. The Sustainability Declaration of the Forum has a significant potential for legislative and political improvements. Its 8th recommendation calls for business to value and mainstream water into its strategies, materiality and decision making process and share good practices in water management. Baikal’s business community’s commitment to the goals of sustainable development (in the form of Declaration) would be a useful politico-legal instrument within the lake’s legal regime. The outcomes of the 16th World Water Council in Cancun hosted by International Water Resources Association may also be a premise for the improvement of environmental policy and legislation in Baikal region. Among the most fruitful ideas of the forum is the acknowledgment of the pivotal role of scientific expertise in the environmental policy-making. The management system of Lake Baikal clearly needs an expert council, exercising advisory powers in respect to all the regulatory instruments concerning the ecosystem of the lake.

Xylem executives participate in IWA World Water Congress in Tokyo

A number of Xylem executives took part in industry discussions during the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition which was held in Tokyo, Japan from 16–21 September 2018.

Xylem executives participate in IWA World Water Congress in Tokyo

A number of Xylem executives took part in industry discussions during the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition which was held in Tokyo, Japan from 16–21 September 2018.

River Basin Restoration and Management

River Basin Restoration and Management is the result of two workshops that took place at the 4th IWA World Water Congress: The Restoration of Degraded River Basins and River Basin Management Using Machine Learning. The Restoration of Degraded River Basins set out to share experience in the institutional, policy, and public participation elements of restoration programmes, the ‘soft’ issues surrounding restoration of a degraded river basin and the development of the river basin plan. The resulting papers include a number of case studies from a variety of river basins in Israel, South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia and Central Europe. The River Basin Management Using Machine Learning workshop highlighted and compared the two different approaches to watershed management: the physically based modelling approach relying on the system physics versus the data driven modelling approach based on exploring the system ‘data behaviour’. The workshop was motivated by the recent rapid advance in information processing systems. These have pushed the hydrological research community to explore the possibilities of using intelligent systems aimed at automatically-evolving models of natural phenomena. This is the discipline of machine learning (ML), the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. This title belongs to Water and Environmental Management Series (WEMS) ISBN: 9781843395102 (Print) ISBN: 9781780402581 (eBook)

The Water Short List: The Most Effective Actions U.S. Households Can Take to Curb Water Use

The long-term sustainability of many urban water supply systems in the United States is under assault from a confluence of forces. Climate change, an aging and increasingly obsolete water infrastru...

Climate change impacts on river basin and freshwater ecosystems: some observations on challenges and emerging solutions

Despite uncertainty pertaining to methods, assumptions and input data of climate change models, most models point towards a trend of an increasing frequency of flooding and drought events. How these changes reflect water management decisions and what can be done to minimize climate change impacts remains unclear. This paper summarizes and extends the workshop outcomes on ‘Climate Change Impacts on Watershed Management: Challenges and Emerging Solutions’ held at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, Montréal, 2010, hosted by the IWA Watershed and River Basin Management Specialist Group. The paper discusses climate change impacts on water management of freshwater ecosystems and river basins, and illustrates these with three case studies. It is demonstrated through the case studies that engagement of relevant stakeholders is needed early in the process of building environmental flows and climate change decision-making tools, to result in greater buy-in to decisions made, create new partnerships, and help build stronger water management institutions. New alliances are then created between water managers, policy makers, community members, and scientists. This has been highlighted by the demonstration of the Pangani integrated environmental flow assessment, through the Okavango River Basin case study, and in the more participatory governance approach proposed for the Delaware River Basin.

Guidelines for Using Activated Sludge Models

Mathematical modelling of activated sludge systems is used widely for plant design, optimisation, training, controller design and research. The quality of simulation studies varies depending on the project objectives, finances and expertise available. Consideration has to be given to the model accuracy and the amount of time required carrying out a simulation study to produce the desired accuracy. Inconsistent approaches and insufficient documentation make quality assessment and comparison of simulation results difficult or almost impossible. A general framework for the application of activated sludge models is needed in order to overcome these obstacles.The genesis of the Good Modelling Practice (GMP) Task Group lies in a workshop held at the 4th IWA World Water Congress in Marrakech, Morocco where members of research groups active in wastewater treatment modelling came together to develop plans to synthesize the best practices of modellers from all over the world. The most cited protocols were included in the work, amongst others from: HSG (Hochschulgruppe), STOWA, BIOMATH and WERF.The goal of the group is to set up an internationally accepted framework to deal with the ASM type models in practice. This framework shall make modelling more straightforward and systematic to use especially for practitioners and consultants. Additionally, it shall help to define quality levels for simulation results, a procedure to assess this quality and to assist in the proper use of the models.The framework will describe a methodology for goal-oriented application of activated sludge models demonstrated by means of a concise guideline about the procedure of a simulation study and some illustrative case studies. The case studies shall give examples for the required data quality and quantity and the effort for calibration/validation with respect to a defined goal. The final report will include an extended appendix with additional information and details of methodologies.Additional features in Guidelines for Using Activated Sludge Models include a chapter on modelling industrial wastewater, an overview on the history, current practice and future of activated sludge modelling and several explanatory case studies. It can be used as an introductory book to learn about Good Modelling Practice (GMP) in activated sludge modelling and will be of special interest for process engineers who have no prior knowledge of modelling or for lecturers who need a textbook for their students. The STR can also be used as a modelling reference book and includes an extended appendix with additional information and details of methodologies.This title belongs to Scientific and Technical Report Series.ISBN: 9781780401164 (eBook)ISBN: 9781843391746 (Print)

Industry News

This article announces that the International Water Association (IWA) awarded the national environmental engineering firm Brown and Caldwell (BC) the 2008 Global Project Innovation Superior Achievement Award. The award, presented at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition in Vienna, Austria, was presented for the Columbus Biosolids Flow‐Through Thermophilic Treatment (CBFT3) and Cogeneration System Project built for the Columbus Water Works (CWW) in Columbus, Georgia.

Engineering Design Standards and Liability for Stream Channel Restoration

At the annual meeting of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute EWRI River Restoration Committee at the World Water and Environmental Resources Congress in May of 2005, a lively discussion was held on engineering liability issues associated with river restoration projects. Why engineering liability issues? Because by sealing river restoration designs, engineers assume professional liability for those designs. The course of the liability discussion led the authors to conclude that there is a need for objective, performance-based guidelines or a manual of practice for river and stream restoration design as well as improved channel design standards. This article reviews the state of practice of restoration design and suggests a basis for design standards to improve project results and manage risk. The River Restoration Committee hopes to see a broader professional acceptance of multiple scientific design approaches for river restoration projects, a distinction between engineering and nonengineering practices, and quantifiable project goals to more easily evaluate success or failure. For example, the Committee would like to see regulatory agencies adopt performance-based criteria for river restoration designs to meet specific objectives rather than guidelines or rules that constrain engineers to use a prescribed design approach. By gearing designs to satisfy specified, measurable criteria, engineers will be able to select the most appropriate design methods for a given project across a wide variety of boundary conditions and system processes. Tailoring a solution to satisfy quantifiable goals for given stream and watershed conditions over the lifespan of the design makes more sense than trying to fit a prescribed design approach to all types of projects over a wide range of project and watershed scales.

Retracted: Optimization of Suzhou Creek Rehabilitation Project Stage I: Based on Water Quality Model

The published article entitled, Optimization of Suzhou Creek Rehabilitation Project Stage 1: Based on Water Quality Model, by Zuxin Xu and Zhenliang Liao. Environ Eng Sci 2006; 23(2):253–262. DOI: 10.1089/ees.2006.23.253 is being officially retracted from Environmental Engineering Science due to duplicate publication. One of the coauthors, Dr. Zhenliang Liao, contacted the Editor of Environmental Engineering Science on October 29, 2018 to report that their work had been previously published in the International Water Association (IWA) journal, Water Science and Technology in November of 2005. Dr. Liao stated that the “paper was first submitted to the 4th World Water Congress of the International Water Association, Marrakesh, Morocco, September 19–24,” and that, “there was no response from IWA for a long time after the conference. Thus, [we] believed that IWA would not publish it. Then, [we] rewrote it and submitted it to Environmental Engineering Science.” Dr. Liao's communication continues by saying, “However, I found that the original version of the paper was published by Water Science and Technology of IWA…2005, 52(9):69–75.” Dr. Liao willingly brought this discovery to the Editor of EES and stated that the duplicate submission was unintentional and issued an apology. He stated that he was unaware that Water Science and Technology had published the paper as he had not been notified of its acceptance. Environmental Engineering Science is committed to upholding the proper protocols and best practices of scientific publishing and in keeping with these guidelines, is officially retracting the article from the literature. The editorial leadership of Environmental Engineering Science has also reported this incident to the editors of the IWA journal, Water Science and Technology.

Ven Te Chow Memorial Lecture: XIIth World Water Congress New Delhi, India, 23 November 2005

(2005). Ven Te Chow Memorial Lecture: XIIth World Water Congress New Delhi, India, 23 November 2005. Water International: Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 558-561.

Mechanisms of microwave irradiation involved in the destruction of fecal coliforms from biosolids

Microwaves have been found to be effective in destructing pathogens in sewage sludge (biosolids) (75th Annual Water Environment Federation Conference, Chicago, September 29–October 2, 2002; Third World Water Congress, International Water Association, Melbourne, Australia, April 7–12, 2002). Mechanisms and roles of microwaves on fecal coliform destruction were investigated using bacterial viability tests, electron transport system (ETS) and β-galactosidase activity assays, gel electrophoresis, and genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) optical density (OD) measurements with fecal coliforms isolated from biosolids. Bacterial viability tests demonstrated cell membrane damage as microwave irradiation intensity and temperature increased. Above 60±3°C, viable cells were rarely found when pure fecal coliforms were irradiated with microwaves. ETS and β-galactosidase activity assays revealed increased activity for externally heated samples due to fecal coliform growth but decreased activity for microwave-irradiated samples as temperature was increased from 20°C to 57°C, indicating other destruction mechanisms besides heating. Between 57°C and 68°C, microwave irradiation led to a more rapid decrease in activity than external heating by convection. Above 68°C, bacterial activity almost ceased for both pretreatments. DNA bands in gel electrophoresis tests and OD of genomic DNA decreased more rapidly for microwave-irradiated samples than for externally heated samples, implying that microwaves disrupted DNA in fecal coliform cells at lower temperatures than external heating. Microwave irradiation of sludge appears to be a viable and economical method of destructing pathogens and generating environmentally safe sludge.

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21stCentury“

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21stCentury“

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21st Century”

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21st Century”

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21st Century”

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21st Century”

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21st Century”

XI World Water Congress of IWRA “Water Resources Management in the 21st Century”

The IWRA XIIth World Water Congress on Water Resources

The IWRA XIIth World Water Congress on Water Resources

IWRA 21: Water Resources Management into the 21st Century: Focus Session of the Xth World Water Congress of IWRA

IWRA 21: Water Resources Management into the 21st Century: Focus Session of the Xth World Water Congress of IWRA