Water, sanitation and sustainability: lessons from a community project

This paper captures the lessons learned from the implementation of water supply and sanitation interventions in Mayiwane community in the rural northeastern region of the Kingdom of Swaziland, relating to water system rehabilitation, water quantity and quality improvements, and the promotion of latrine construction. The issues examined include both the dimensions of implementation efficiency and project effectiveness: first identifying the inputs, activities and final outputs and, then, tracking the entire project cycle, from design to implementation and monitoring. To draw meaningful lessons for the sustainability of similar interventions, project evaluation involved extensive fieldwork, water sampling and testing, review of documentation, and interviews with community members and officials of governmental, civil society and collaborating external agencies. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Public support for carrot,stick, and no-government water quality policies

Public support for environmental policy provides an important foundation for democratic governance. Numerous policy innovations may improve nonpoint source pollution, but little research has examined which types of individuals are likely to support various runoff reduction policies. We conducted a household mail survey of 1136 residents in southern Wisconsin. In general, residents were more likely to support water quality policies if they were communitarians, egalitarians, concerned about water pollution, and perceived water quality as poor. The majority of respondents somewhat to strongly supported all of the seven proposed water quality policies, but opposed relying on voluntary action without government involvement on farms. Residents had higher support for incentives and market-based approaches (carrot policies) than regulation and taxes (stick policies). A more complicated pattern emerged in within-subject comparisons of residents’ views of carrot and stick approaches. Stick approaches polarized respondents by decreasing support among people with individualistic worldviews, while slightly increasing support among people with communitarian worldviews. Residents with an agricultural occupation were more likely to support voluntary, non-governmental approaches for reducing agricultural runoff, and were also more likely to support regulation for reducing urban lawn runoff. This research highlights the dominant role of cultural worldviews and the secondary roles of water pollution concern, perceived water quality, and self-interest in explaining support for diverse policies to reduce nonpoint source pollution.     

Long-term water quality in the lower Seine: Lessons learned over 4 decades of monitoring

The Seine River is a highly artificialised catchment in Europe, comprising both productive agricultural areas and intense industrial and commercial activity. Due to its strategic importance, monitoring programs in the river started as early as the 1970s. The present study compiles and analyses this valuable data set (1970–2014), thoroughly describing the riverine section downstream of Paris and the estuary. We identify long-term trends and shifting patterns in nutrients and oxygen, and pay special attention to the river’s evolution after the year 2000, when the European Water Framework Directive came into force. The study has a manifest management perspective, and the results are discussed on the basis of the environmental quality standards proposed in current environmental regulations. The data show that water quality has improved remarkably over the past two decades, with sharp reductions of ammonium and phosphate and a progressive increase of dissolved oxygen levels. The amelioration is prominent in the estuary, where summer anoxic episodes have nearly disappeared. As a result, these three parameters are nowadays in good or very good condition throughout the year. The successful abatement of point sources contrasts, however, with the low effectiveness of the measures provided for the control of nutrients from diffuse sources. Nitrate concentration has increased by 150% since the early 1980s, and only very recently has the upward trend been reversed. Bold agri-environmental management measures are required if we are to prevent chronic pollution problems and truly restore the good ecological status of rivers.     

细水雾幕衰减热辐射的数值模拟研究

针对现有防火分隔技术的不足,以细水雾幕作为新的防火分隔技术,开展了不同细水雾幕雾特性对衰减热辐射影响的数值模拟研究。通过建立长通道模型,在火源和被保护物体中间设置细水雾幕系统,测量有无细水雾幕及不同细水雾特性条件下被保护侧温度及热辐射强度值,来定性定量研究细水雾幕衰减热辐射的效率。模拟结果表明:细水雾幕可以很好的降低被保护侧空间的温度和热辐射强度;衰减热辐射效率随雾滴粒径的减小,喷雾流量的增大,喷头排数增加而增大;另外,其衰减热辐射效率与喷头布置方式有关,上喷方式明显优于下喷方式。研究结果将对现有防火分隔技术的改善提供帮助和技术支持。     

Extinguishment of hydrogen laminar diffusion flames by water vapor in a cup burner apparatus

Transient computations with full hydrogen chemistry were performed to reveal the flame structure and extinguishment process of co-flow, hydrogen diffusion flame suppressed by water vapor. As the concentration of water vapor was increased, the flame detached away from the burner brim and formed an edge flame at the flame base. Water vapor showed larger chemical inhibition effect than nitrogen when extinguishing hydrogen flame, which was attributed to its enhanced third body effect in the reaction H + O₂ + M = HO₂ + M. The minimum extinguishing concentration (MEC) of water vapor and nitrogen was predicted by Senecal formula and perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) model respectively. The MECs predicted by PSR model agree with the MECs calculated by Fluent, which shows that 1) the flame extinction is controlled by the flame base, and 2) radiation absorption is negligible. The measured MECs are in a reasonable agreement with the values calculated by Fluent, which demonstrates the accuracy of the CFD model. A simple model was used to investigate the relative importance of extinguishing mechanisms of water vapor. The results show that in a co-flow configuration the thermal cooling and chemical inhibition effect are the main extinguishing mechanisms in suppressing hydrogen diffusion cup burner flame.     

Numerical modeling of water spray suppression of conveyor belt fires in a large-scale tunnel

Conveyor belt fires in an underground mine pose a serious life threat to miners. Water sprinkler systems are usually used to extinguish underground conveyor belt fires, but because of the complex interaction between conveyor belt fires and mine ventilation airflow, more effective engineering designs are needed for the installation of water sprinkler systems. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to simulate the interaction between the ventilation airflow, the belt flame spread, and the water spray system in a mine entry. The CFD model was calibrated using test results from a large-scale conveyor belt fire suppression experiment. Simulations were conducted using the calibrated CFD model to investigate the effects of sprinkler location, water flow rate, and sprinkler activation temperature on the suppression of conveyor belt fires. The sprinkler location and the activation temperature were found to have a major effect on the suppression of the belt fire, while the water flow rate had a minor effect.     

A new methodology for the synthesis of an optimum flexible water networks

This paper presents a new optimization model for the synthesis of direct reuse/recycle water networks with data uncertainties. In this case, data uncertainties were originated from the varying parameters of the water sources and sinks, which fluctuate within a given range of values. The aim of the method is to design an optimum flexible water network (FWN) that ensures minimum fresh water consumption and yet fulfilling all process constraints and uncertain parameters. The resulting FWN also features the minimum number of pipelines, which will ease process operation and control. Due to the complexity of the problem, multistep solving method based on theorem of corner points has been developed. The FWN obtained using the proposed method also includes information on the maximum flow rate in the pipelines, which is essential for detailed network design stage. The resulting model is a mixed integer linear problem (MILP), which may be solved to obtain global optimum solution. Two case studies were used to elucidate the newly proposed method.     

城市污泥对不同质地土壤保水效果研究

利用城市污泥滞水性强的特性可开发污泥作为保水剂的新功能。通过土培实验,在砂土、壤土和粘土中加入不同质量的污泥,研究污泥对不同质地土壤的保水效果。结果表明:在充分供水条件下,添加污泥能显著提高3种质地土壤的持水能力,土壤中添加20%的污泥后,砂土、粘土和壤土初始含水率分别增加11.2%、8.7%和8.8%;在3种质地土壤中添加污泥均可增大土壤的保水性,使水分蒸发减慢,且污泥添加量越多,土壤含水率越大;土壤累积失水量主要受到土壤中含水量的影响,也和不同质地土壤自身的蒸发量有关;在150 g土壤中添加10 g污泥,对砂土保水性提高不大,对壤土保水性提高最大,随着添加污泥量的增多,污泥对砂土的保水效果提高最明显。研究表明:开发污泥做为保水剂是可行的,这为污泥的资源化利用提供了新的途径,也为复合保水剂的研制提供了新的廉价材料,对于污泥治理及农业节水都有重要意义。     

浅析辽河流域水环境管理现状及改善措施

辽河流域是我国北方重要的河流型流域,水环境污染问题突出。文章从水环境管理体制、水污染控制方式、水生态安全管理、预警监控4个方面剖析了辽河流域水环境管理现状,并提出针对性的改善措施,对促进辽河流域水环境管理能力提高具有积极的实际意义。     

中国城市饮用水法的历史发展及其启示

近年来中国城市饮用水事件频发,威胁着城市饮用水安全,直接关系着公民的生命权和健康权.然而,中国有关城市饮用水的规定散见于相关法律、行政法规及环境、水利、卫生、建设等部门制定的规章中,还没有一部完整意义上的城市饮用水法.城市饮用水法历经四个历史阶段的发展,仍然只关注于城市饮用水某个阶段的发展.因此,城市饮用水法应加强城市饮用水各个阶段的管理,建立城市饮用水全过程控制法律制度.