Water consumption in Barcelona and its regional environmental imprint: a long-term history (1717–2008)

We present the evolution of urban water withdrawal and consumption of Barcelona from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The boundaries of the urban system have been set into the limits of the current municipality, adjusting the data of earlier periods to include the estimated consumption in former municipalities aggregated to the city. Different sorts of water flows have been either recorded or estimated from scant and indirect information, such as local groundwater extractions obtained from a hydrological model calibrated with historical data on variations in the water table. The changes experienced in catching infrastructures, the regional ecological imprint of the domestic or industrial water consumed together with the rates of growth in population, economic activity and water intensity have been taken into account as driving forces. The series obtained reveal an overall increase in accessibility to safe freshwater, and a corresponding extension of water terrestrial imprints of Barcelona over the Catalan river basins, up to the peak reached in 1967?C1970 both for per capita and total water withdrawn. The subsequent downward trend, mainly driven by a lesser water intensity of the local economy, a halt in population growth, and a recently link to the emergence of a New Sustainable Water Culture in Catalan society, stands out against the alleged need for new transfers from farthest basins such as the Ebro or Roine rivers.     

Degradation of clofibric acid in acidic aqueous medium by electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton

Acidic aqueous solutions of clofibric acid (2-(4-chlorophenoxy)-2-methylpropionic acid), the bioactive metabolite of various lipid-regulating drugs, have been degraded by indirect electrooxidation methods such as electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton with Fe(2+) as catalyst using an undivided electrolytic cell with a Pt anode and an O(2)-diffusion cathode able to electrogenerate H(2)O(2). At pH 3.0 about 80% of mineralization is achieved with the electro-Fenton method due to the efficient production of oxidant hydroxyl radical from Fenton's reaction between Fe(2+) and H(2)O(2), but stable Fe(3+) complexes are formed. The photoelectro-Fenton method favors the photodecomposition of these species under UVA irradiation, reaching more than 96% of decontamination. The mineralization current efficiency increases with rising metabolite concentration up to saturation and with decreasing current density. The photoelectro-Fenton method is then viable for treating acidic wastewaters containing this pollutant. Comparative degradation by anodic oxidation (without Fe(2+)) yields poor decontamination. Chloride ion is released during all degradation processes. The decay kinetics of clofibric acid always follows a pseudo-first-order reaction, with a similar rate constant in electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton that increases with rising current density, but decreases at greater metabolite concentration. 4-Chlorophenol, 4-chlorocatechol, 4-chlororesorcinol, hydroquinone, p-benzoquinone and 1,2,4-benzenetriol, along with carboxylic acids such as 2-hydroxyisobutyric, tartronic, maleic, fumaric, formic and oxalic, are detected as intermediates. The ultimate product is oxalic acid, which forms very stable Fe(3+)-oxalato complexes under electro-Fenton conditions. These complexes are efficiently photodecarboxylated in photoelectro-Fenton under the action of UVA light.     

Poor-data and data-poor species stock assessment using a Bayesian hierarchical approach

Appropriate inference for stocks or species with low-quality data (poor data) or limited data (data poor) is extremely important. Hierarchical Bayesian methods are especially applicable to small-area, small-sample-size estimation problems because they allow poor-data species to borrow strength from species with good-quality data. We used a hammerhead shark complex as an example to investigate the advantages of using hierarchical Bayesian models in assessing the status of poor-data and data-poor exploited species. The hammerhead shark complex (Sphyrna spp.) along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States is composed of three species: the scalloped hammerhead (S. lewini), the great hammerhead (S. mokarran), and the smooth hammerhead (S. zygaena) sharks. The scalloped hammerhead comprises 70-80% of the catch and has catch and relative abundance data of good quality, whereas great and smooth hammerheads have relative abundance indices that are both limited and of low quality presumably because of low stock density and limited sampling. Four hierarchical Bayesian state-space surplus production models were developed to simulate variability in population growth rates, carrying capacity, and catchability of the species. The results from the hierarchical Bayesian models were considerably more robust than those of the nonhierarchical models. The hierarchical Bayesian approach represents an intermediate strategy between traditional models that assume different population parameters for each species and those that assume all species share identical parameters. Use of the hierarchical Bayesian approach is suggested for future hammerhead shark stock assessments and for modeling fish complexes with species-specific data, because the poor-data species can borrow strength from the species with good data, making the estimation more stable and robust.     

Life cycle assessment of solar photo-Fenton and solar photoelectro-Fenton processes used for the degradation of aqueous α-methylphenylglycine

A comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of solar photo-Fenton and solar photoelectro-Fenton, two solar-driven advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) devoted to the removal of non-biodegradable pollutants in water, is performed. The study is based on the removal, at laboratory scale, of the amino acid α-methylphenylglycine, a good example of soluble and non-biodegradable target pollutant. The system under study includes chemicals, electricity, transport of all raw materials to the plant site, and the generation of emissions, but it does not take into account the impact of the infrastructure needed to build a hypothetical solar plant. Nine environmental impact categories are included in the LCA: global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, aquatic eutrophication potential, acidification potential, human toxicity potential, photochemical ozone formation potential, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity potential, marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential, and terrestrial ecotoxicity potential and abiotic resource depletion potential. Although previous experimental results show that both AOPs are able to efficiently degrade the pollutant, the LCA indicates that solar-driven photo-Fenton is the most environmentally friendly alternative, mainly because the use of electricity in solar photoelectro-Fenton experiments involves high environmental impacts.     

Photoelectro-Fenton treatment of pesticide triclopyr at neutral pH using Fe(III)–EDDS under UVA light or sunlight

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - One of the main challenges of electrochemical Fenton-based processes is the treatment of organic pollutants at near-neutral pH. As a potential...     

Detection of airborne Legionella while showering using liquid impingement and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)

Aerosols of water contaminated with Legionella bacteria constitute the only mode of exposure for humans. However, the prevention strategy against this pathogenic bacteria risk is managed through the survey of water contamination. No relationship linked the Legionella bacteria water concentration and their airborne abundance. Therefore, new approaches in the field of the metrological aspects of Legionella bioaerosols are required. This study was aimed at testing the main principles for bioaerosol collection (solid impaction, liquid impingement and filtration) and the in situ hybridization (FISH) method, both in laboratory and field assays, with the intention of applying such methodologies for airborne Legionella bacteria detection while showering. An aerosolization chamber was developed to generate controlled and reproducible L. pneumophila aerosols. This tool allowed the identification of the liquid impingement method as the most appropriate one for collecting airborne Legionella bacteria. The culturable fraction of airborne L. pneumophila recovered with the liquid impingement principle was 4 and 700 times higher compared to the impaction and filtration techniques, respectively. Moreover, the concentrations of airborne L. pneumophila in the impinger fluid were on average 7.0 x 10(5) FISH-cells m(-3) air with the fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) method versus 9.0 x 10(4) CFU m(-3) air with the culture method. These results, recorded under well-controlled conditions, were confirmed during the field experiments performed on aerosols generated by hot water showers in health institutions. This new approach may provide a more accurate characterization of aerobiocontamination by Legionella bacteria.     

Degradation of the herbicide 2,4-DP by anodic oxidation, electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton using platinum and boron-doped diamond anodes

This paper reports the degradation of 2,4-DP (2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)-propionic acid) solutions of pH 3.0 by environmentally friendly electrochemical methods such as anodic oxidation, electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton with a Pt or boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode. In the two latter techniques an O(2)-diffusion cathode was used and 1.0mM Fe(2+) was added to the solution to give hydroxyl radical (*OH) from Fenton's reaction between Fe(2+) and H(2)O(2) generated at the cathode. All treatments with BDD are viable to decontaminate acidic wastewaters containing 2,4-DP since they give complete mineralization, with loss of chloride ion, at high current due to the great production of oxidant *OH at the BDD surface favoring the destruction of final carboxylic acids. *OH formed from Fenton's reaction destroys more rapidly aromatic products, making the electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton processes much more efficient than anodic oxidation. UVA light in photoelectro-Fenton with BDD has little effect on the degradation rate of pollutants. The comparative procedures with Pt lead to slower decontamination because of the lower oxidizing power of this anode. The effect of current on the degradation rate and efficiency of all methods is studied. The 2,4-DP decay always follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics. Chlorohydroquinone, chloro-p-benzoquinone and maleic, fumaric, malic, lactic, pyruvic, acetic, formic and oxalic acids are detected as products by chromatographic techniques. A general sequence accounting for by the reaction of all these intermediates with the different oxidizing agents is proposed.