Adapting a geographical information system-based water resource management to the needs of the Romanian water authorities

Background, aim, and scope

The need for global and integrated approaches to water resources management, both from the quantitative and the qualitative point of view, has long been recognized. Water quality management is a major issue for sustainable development and a mandatory task with respect to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive as well as the Swiss legislation. However, data modelling to develop relational databases and subsequent geographic information system (GIS)-based water management instruments are a rather recent and not that widespread trend. The publication of overall guidelines for data modelling along with the EU Water Framework Directive is an important milestone in this area. Improving overall water quality requires better and more easily accessible data, but also the possibility to link data to simulation models. Models are to be used to derive indicators that will in turn support decision-making processes. For this whole chain to become effective at a river basin scale, all its components have to become part of the current daily practice of the local water administration. Any system, tool, or instrument that is not designed to meet, first of all, the fundamental needs of its primary end-users has almost no chance to be successful in the longer term.

Materials and methods

Although based on a pre-existing water resources management system developed in Switzerland, the methodological approach applied to develop a GIS-based water quality management system adapted to the Romanian context followed a set of well-defined steps: the first and very important step is the assessment of needs (on the basis of a careful analysis of the various activities and missions of the water administration and other relevant stakeholders in water management related issues). On that basis, a conceptual data model (CDM) can be developed, to be later on turned into a physical database. Finally, the specifically requested additional functionalities (i.e. functionalities not provided by classical commercial GIS software), also identified during the assessment of needs, are developed. This methodology was applied, on an experimental basin, in the Ialomita River basin.

Results

The results obtained from this action-research project consist of a set of tangible elements, among which (1) a conceptual data model adapted to the Romanian specificities regarding water resources management (needs, data availability, etc.), (2) a related spatial relational database (objects and attributes in tables, links, etc.), that can be used to store the data collected, among others, by the water administration, and later on exploited with geographical information systems, (3) a toolbar (in the ESRI environment) offering the requested data processing and visualizing functionalities. Lessons learned from this whole process can be considered as additional, although less tangible, results.

Discussion

The applied methodology is fairly classical and did not come up with revolutionary results. Actually, the interesting aspects of this work are, on the one hand, and obviously, the fact that it produced tools matching the needs of the local (if not national) water administration (i.e. with a good chance of being effectively used in the day-to-day practice), and, on the other hand, the adaptations and adjustments that were needed both at the staff level and in technical terms.

Conclusions

This research showed that a GIS-based water management system needs to be backed by some basic data management tools that form the necessary support upon which a GIS can be deployed. The main lesson gained is that technology transfer has to pay much attention to the differences in existing situations and backgrounds in general, and therefore must be able to show much flexibility. The fact that the original objectives could be adapted to meet the real needs of the local end-users is considered as a major aspect in achieving a successful adaptation and development of water resources management tools. Time needed to setup things in real life was probably the most underestimated aspect in this technology transfer process.

Recommendations and perspectives

The whole material produced (conceptual data model, database and GIS tools) was disseminated among all river basin authorities in Romania on the behalf of the national water administration (ANAR). The fact that further developments, for example, to address water quantity issues more precisely, as envisaged by ANAR, can be seen as an indication that this project succeeded in providing an appropriate input to improve water quality in Romania on the long term.

     

Characterization and sources assignation of PM2.5 organic aerosol in a rural area of Spain

The results from a year-long study of the organic composition of PM2.5 aerosol collected in a rural area influenced by a highway of Spain are reported. The lack of prior information related to the organic composition of PM2.5 aerosol in Spain, concretely in rural areas, led definition of the goals of this study. As a result, this work has been able to characterize the main organic components of atmospheric aerosols, including several compounds of SOA, and has conducted a multivariate analysis in order to assign sources of particulate matter. A total of 89 samples were taken between April 2004 and April 2005 using a high-volume sampler. Features and abundance of n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alcohols and acids were separately determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography analysis. The Σn-alkane and ΣPAHs ranged from 3 to 81 ng m^?3 and 0.1 to 6 ng m^?3 respectively, with higher concentrations during colder months. Ambient concentrations of Σalcohols and Σacids ranged from 21 to 184 ng m^?3 and 39 to 733 ng m^?3, respectively. Also, several components of secondary organic aerosol have been quantified, confirming the biogenic contribution to ambient aerosol. In addition, factor analysis was used to reveal origin of organic compounds associated to particulate matter. Eight factors were extracted accounting more than 83% of the variability in the original data. These factors were assigned to a typical high pollution episode by anthropogenic particles, crustal material, plant waxes, fossil fuel combustion, temperature, microbiological emissions, SOA and dispersion of pollutants by wind action. Finally, a cluster analysis was used to compare the organic composition between the four seasons.     

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition in south-east Scotland: Quantification of the organic nitrogen fraction in wet,dry and bulk deposition

Water soluble organic nitrogen (WSON) compounds are ubiquitous in precipitation and in the planetary boundary layer, and therefore are a potential source of bioavailable reactive nitrogen. This paper examines weekly rain data over a period of 22 months from June 2005 to March 2007 collected in 2 types of rain collector (bulk deposition and “dry + wet” deposition) located in a semi-rural area 15 km southwest of Edinburgh, UK (N55°51′44″, W3°12′19″). Bulk deposition collectors are denoted in this paper as “standard rain gauges”, and they are the design used in the UK national network for monitoring precipitation composition. “Dry + wet” deposition collectors are flushing rain gauges and they are equipped with a rain detector (conductivity array), a spray nozzle, a 2-way valve and two independent bottles to collect funnel washings (dry deposition) and true wet deposition. On average, for the 27 weekly samples with 3 valid replicates for the 2 types of collectors, dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) represented 23% of the total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) in bulk deposition. Dry deposition of particles and gas on the funnel surface, rather than rain, contributed over half of all N-containing species (inorganic and organic). Some discrepancies were found between bulk rain gauges and flushing rain gauges, for deposition of both TDN and DON, suggesting biological conversion and loss of inorganic N in the flushing samplers.     

Assessing spatial variability of SO2 field as detected by an air quality network using Self-Organizing Maps,cluster, and Principal Component Analysis

In Bilbao (Spain), an air quality network measures sulphur dioxide levels at 4 locations. The objective of this paper is to develop a practical methodology to identify redundant sensors and evaluate a network's capability to correctly follow and represent SO₂ fields in Bilbao, in the frame of a continuous network optimization process.The methodology is developed and tested at this particular location, but it is general enough to be useable at other places as well, since it is not tied neither to the particular geographical characteristics of the place nor to the phenomenology of the air quality over the area.To assess the spatial variability of SO₂ measured at 4 locations in the area, three different techniques have been used: Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs), cluster analysis (CA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show that the three techniques yield the same results, but the information obtained via PCA can be helpful not only for that purpose but also to throw light on the major mechanisms involved. This might be used in future network optimization stages. The main advantage of cluster analysis and SOMs is that they provide readily interpretable results. All the calculations have been carried out using the freely available software R.     

Conversion of Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy into Chemical Energy

When a concentrated solar beam is irradiated to the ceramics such as Ni-ferrite, the high-energy flux in the range of 1500–2500 kW/m² is absorbed by an excess Frenkel defect formation. This non-equilibrium state defect is generated not by heating at a low heating-rate (30 K/min), but by irradiating high flux energy of concentrated solar beam rapidly at a high heating rate (200 K/min). The defect can be spontaneously converted to chemical energy of a cation-excess spinel structure (reduced-oxide form) at the temperature around 1773 K. Thus, the O₂ releasing reaction (α-O₂ releasing reaction) proceeds in two-steps; (1) high flux energy of concentrated solar beam absorption by formation of the non-equilibrium Frenkel defect and (2) the O₂ gas formation from the O^2? in the Frenkel defect even in air atmosphere. The 2nd step proceeds without the solar radiation. We may say that the 1st step is light reaction, and 2nd step, dark reaction, just like in photosynthesis process.     

Spectroscopic Analysis of NIR-Dye Sensitization in Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells

The photovoltaic conversion efficiency for near-infrared (NIR) sunlight is improved successfully by dye sensitization of bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells, in which the active layer was prepared by a ternary blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene), a fullerene derivative (1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-[6,6]-methanofullerene), and an NIR dye, silicon phthalocyanine bis(trihexylsilyl oxide). The mechanism of the NIR-dye sensitization is studied by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy.     

Monitoring the Multi-Year Carbon Balance of a Subarctic Palsa Mire with Micrometeorological Techniques

This article reports a dataset on 8 years of monitoring carbon fluxes in a subarctic palsa mire based on micrometeorological eddy covariance measurements. The mire is a complex with wet minerotrophic areas and elevated dry palsa as well as intermediate sub-ecosystems. The measurements document primarily the emission originating from the wet parts of the mire dominated by a rather homogenous cover of Eriophorum angustifolium. The CO₂/CH₄ flux measurements performed during the years 2001–2008 showed that the areas represented in the measurements were a relatively stable sink of carbon with an average annual rate of uptake amounting to on average ?46 g C m^?2 y^?1 including an equally stable loss through CH₄ emissions (18–22 g CH₄–C m^?2 y^?1). This consistent carbon sink combined with substantial CH₄ emissions is most likely what is to be expected as the permafrost under palsa mires degrades in response to climate warming.     

Evaluation of effectiveness of EDTA and sodium thiosulfate in removing metal toxicity toward sea urchin embryo-larval applying the TIE

Since the development of the TIE (Toxicity Identification and Evaluation) in 1988 it has been assumed that the capacity of EDTA and sodium thiosulfate to complex some metals, and thus remove their toxicity, can be applied to both freshwater and seawater ecotoxicological tests and the results subsequently interpreted. However, it is now known that there is a wide variability in the extent of this complexation. In this context, the removal of toxicity caused by the presence of Hg²⁺, Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺, Cr⁶⁺, Zn²⁺, Ni²⁺, Pb²⁺, Ag¹⁺ and Se²⁺, through metal complexation by EDTA and sodium thiosulfate, in relation to the performance of embryo-larval tests with the sea urchin Arbacia lixula was investigated. It was observed that EDTA was capable of removing the toxicity of Pb²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Cu²⁺ while sodium thiosulfate only reduced the toxicity of Ag¹⁺. Compared to the complexation observed in freshwater ecotoxicological tests, the complexing agents used in this study (EDTA and sodium thiosulfate) have a lower capacity to complex metals in the marine ecotoxicological test with A. lixula.     

Pesticide residue dynamics in passion fruits: Comparing field trial and modelling results

We evaluated the exposure to pesticides from the consumption of passion fruits and subsequent human health risks by combining several methods: (i) experimental field studies including the determination of pesticide residues in/on passion fruits, (ii) dynamic plant uptake modelling, and (iii) human health risk assessment concepts. Eight commonly used pesticides were applied onto passion fruits cultivated in Colombia. Pesticide concentrations were measured periodically (between application and harvest) in whole fruits and fruit pulp. Measured concentrations were compared with predicted residues calculated with a dynamic and crop-specific pesticide uptake model, namely dynamiCROP. The model accounts for the time between pesticide application and harvest, the time between harvest and consumption, the amount of spray deposition on plant surfaces, uptake processes, dilution due to crop growth, degradation in plant components, and reduction due to food processing (peeling). Measured and modelled residues correspond well (r² = 0.88-0.99), with all predictions falling within the 90% confidence interval of the measured values. A mean error of 43% over all studied pesticides was observed between model estimates and measurements. The fraction of pesticide applied during cultivation that is eventually ingested by humans is on average 10⁻⁴-10⁻⁶, depending on the time period between application and ingestion and the processing step considered. Model calculations and intake fractions via fruit consumption based on experimental data corresponded well for all pesticides with a deviation of less than a factor of 2. Pesticide residues in fruits measured at recommended harvest dates were all below European Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) and therefore do not indicate any violation of international regulatory thresholds.     

Atrazine promotes biochemical changes and DNA damage in a Neotropical fish species

The effects of Atrazine, an herbicide used worldwide and considered as a potential contaminant in aquatic environments, were assessed on the Neotropical fish Prochilodus lineatus acutely (24 and 48 h) exposed to 2 or 10 μg L⁻¹ of atrazine by using a set of biochemical and genetic biomarkers. The following parameters were measured in the liver: activity of the biotransformation enzymes ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) and glutathione S transferase (GST), antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), content of reduced glutathione (GSH), generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and occurrence of lipid peroxidation (LPO); in brain and muscle the activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and DNA damage (comet assay) on erythrocytes, gills and liver cells. A general decreasing trend on the biotransformation and antioxidant enzymes was observed in the liver of P. lineatus exposed to atrazine; except for GR, all the other antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT and GPx) and biotransformation enzymes (EROD and GST) showed inhibited activity. Changes in muscle or brain AChE were not detected. DNA damage was observed in the different cell types of fish exposed to the herbicide, and it was probably not from oxidative origin, since no increase in ROS generation and LPO was detected in the liver. These results show that atrazine behaves as enzyme inhibitor, impairing hepatic metabolism, and produces genotoxic damage to different cell types of P. lineatus.