Prioritization of Sustainable Groundwater Management Needs: The Case of the Israel's Stressed Coastal Aquifer

On-going population growth and resulting domestic demand for water require rapid and effective decision-making as regards groundwater management and control of the various sources of salinization and pollution in Coastal aquifers. Sustainability of water resources for utilization by future generations must therefore be a high priority, not only for the purpose of fulfilling needs for water usage but also for bringing people into harmony with their ambient natural environment.The objective of this paper is to propose an empirical approach for prioritization of the needs involved for sustainable aquifer management. The approach involves a schematic format to:(1) develop a global understanding of an aquifer's hydrological and environmental properties in order to delineate appropriate eco-hydrological scenarios and recommend corresponding operational management activities; and(2) emphasize the importance of educating and increasing the awareness of the population involved as to the need for and viability of socially acceptable measures for sustainable management of groundwater and other resources.The psychologist Abraham Maslow utilized a pyramid to illustrate that until people's most basic needs were fulfilled, higher levels of needs would remain irrelevant. This paper postulates a comparable pyramid prioritizing hydrological needs required for progressing towards sustainable groundwater resources. Two sub-regions of Israel's Coastal aquifer in the Sharon region have been presented as representative areas, each characterized by different stress of exploitation. In assessing these sub-regions situation, specific measures have been recommended for achieving and/or maintaining sustainable groundwater resources in light of the ambient environment, and the level of the population on the pyramidal hierarchy of groundwater needs.     

A comparison of results from two test methods for assessing the toxicity of aminotriazole to Selenastrum capricornutum

Two different test methods for assessing the toxicity of aminotriazole to Selenastrum capricornutum are compared. Growth medium composition is demonstrated to have a significant effect on the toxicity of aminotriazole.     

Octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in wood treatment materials and treated wood

The octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) concentrations have been determined in aged samples of commercial pentachlorophenol (PCP), in wood protection formulations containing PCP and in wood treated with PCP as a preservative or as an anti-sapstain treatment. The concentrations of OCDD found in the various samples are within the range expected from the amount of commercial PCP initially present in the samples. In view of the known stability of OCDD the results are interpreted as indicating that the formulation, treatment and ageing processes have not led to any substantial conversion of PCP to OCDD; although one result indicates that outdoor exposure of treated samples increased the OCDD concentration by a factor of approximately 2 after $\text{3}\text{1}\text{2}$ years. Analysis of aged samples of treated wood indicate that OCDD is lost much less rapidly from the wood than PCP.     

Harmonizing water management and social needs: a necessary condition for sustainable development. The case of Israel's coastal aquifer

This study focuses on the problem of most efficiently fulfilling the water requirements of society for sustainable water resources management. The goal is to coordinate effectively the social needs of the resident population with operational water resources management planning.The proposed approach consists of a pyramidal hierarchy of water resource management needs, similar to that suggested by psychologist Abraham Maslow for human social needs. The two pyramidal hierarchies can be simultaneously employed to delineate guidelines to synchronize planning for sustainable water resources development with the concerns and expectations of the resident population. In both hierarchies, higher level needs remain irrelevant and difficult to attain until lower level needs of the resident population have been fulfilled.Management planning measures employed with regard to Israel's coastal aquifer have been used to illustrate this approach. Observation of Israel's experience indicates markedly reduced effectiveness where such measures have failed to be properly synchronised with societal needs. Conversely, where hydrological management measures were successfully synchronized with societal concerns, increased efficiency towards attaining sustainable groundwater management was evident.     

Analysis of polychlorobiphenyls from used transformers for polychlorodibenzofurans

The results of analyses for polychlorodibenzofuran (PCDF) content in two samples of polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) from used electrical transformers are presented and discussed. In neither sample was there evidence for enhanced PCDF concentrations even though one of them had been subjected to overheating while in service.     

Polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans in technical pentachlorophenol - results of a collaborative analytical exercise

Results of analyses of eight samples of technical pentachlorophenol conducted by three different analytical methods are presented and discussed.     

A Hierarchy of Groundwater Management, Land-Use, and Social Needs Integrated for Sustainable Resource Development

The pyramid of human needs developed by Abraham Maslow is based upon the presumption that until a person's lower level needs are fulfilled, higher level needs remain irrelevant. Groundwater and land-use management can likewise utilize such a hierarchy in integrating plans and operations with the needs of the society. Only once a region's population has fulfilled more basic concerns can higher-level groundwater and land-use management needs be effectively achieved. Attaining the ultimate goal of resource sustainability would certainly require considerable public backing, both for financial support and minimizing ambient pollution. For efficient water management to supply a society's water needs for future generations, sustainable groundwater management will require the full support of an educated society. The objective of the authors is to point out how essential it is to integrate operational strategies into regional hierarchies of needs applicable to groundwater management, land-use, and social planning. The situation of groundwater resources in Israel's Sharon Coastal aquifer region is taken as a case in point. Remedial groundwater activities have been undertaken in the management program for this aquifer. But it appears that maximal management efficiency cannot be achieved until the public's basic concerns are satisfactorily addressed and water resources planners reach consensus and a working partnership with the society in question. Operational measures must be clearly shown to benefit the region's population as regards their social, economic, and environmental concerns. This can only be achieved through public education, promoting awareness of the issuesbreak involved.     

Long term changes in polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxin concentrations in wood treated with technical pentachlorophenol

Wood samples treated with technical pentachlorophenol (PCP), technical sodium pentachlorophenoxide (NaPCP) and octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin have been exposed outdoors for periods up to $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ years. Analysis of extracts from the samples show that photolytic reductive dechlorination of highly chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins to less chlorinated isomers occurs. However there is no discernible increase in polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxin concentrations in the technical PCP treated wood presumably because further photolytic reactions and volatilisation compete effectively with the photolytic formation. There is no evidence for formation of octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) in technical PCP treated wood in this study, probably because photolytic destruction and volatilisation compete effectively with formation reactions when the initial OCDD concentration is relatively high.     

The “Short Cut” Approach for the Reality of Enhanced Groundwater Contamination

Based on the reality of (a) soil heterogeneity in the vadose zone, (b) enhanced desorption from soil and solubility in water of water insoluble contaminants in the presence of surfactants, and (c) wetting/drying cycles of groundwater recharge (a major cause of fractures formation), a coherent “short-cut” conceptual approach is advanced to account for enhanced groundwater contamination. This is an attempt to close the gap between theory, lab simulations and conventional modelling-based predictions, and observed higher concentrations and more rapid arrival times of contaminants reaching groundwater. Recent data concerning chloride ion and non-ionic surfactants concentrations in aquifers and groundwater wells, combined with previous results concerning the concentrations of tritium, chlorides, metals, organic hydrocarbons and surfactants in the unsaturated and saturated zones of Israel's aquifers, are accounted for in terms of the “short-cut” approach. The contradiction between predictions of groundwater contamination made with conventional, deterministic, homogeneous models and the actual observed behavior of contaminants in soils and aquifers is thus explaind. The “short cut” approach should not be perceived as a better type of model to guide modelling. Rather, it is a proposal for a conceptual change from the realistically invalid, but commonly accepted, conventional “buffer-protective soil/long-term groundwater contamination” to the “short cut” conceptual model to explain the enhanced groundwater contamination actually observed. Although the validity of the proposed approach is strongly supported by the data here presented for the case of Israel (serving as an illustrative case study), selected results and conclusions drawn from studies conducted worldwide suggest its general applicability and usefulness. A major conclusion evolved from the “short-cut” conceptual model is that contemporary groundwater management policies, based on the current perception of groundwater contamination processes and their modelling, may result in an irreversible detrimental effect on the environmental situation in the long run. In any case, prevention, rather than correction/remediation, is strongly recommended as the strategy of choice for rational long-term management of groundwater resources.