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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Quality and Contamination".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2023) | Viewed by 32039

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Bahram Gharabaghi

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON NIG 2W1, Canada
Interests: hydrology; sediment transport; water quality; watershed management; climate change; water resources
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Hossein Bonakdari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
Interests: water resources; hydrology; AI; climate change; sustainable development; time series; hydrological modelling; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Ed McBean

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Interests: water supply security; municipal infrastructure integrity; risk assessment and management; statistical analyses of environmental data

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Striving to achieve, maintain, and provide reliable access to clean and affordable water is one of the greatest challenges of municipalities across the globe. In the next few decades, over 80% of the world population will be concentrated in urban areas, with the most rapid rates of urbanization expected to occur in developing countries, putting stress on the limited available freshwater resources. Urbanization and agri-food systems located near and within them can also lead to stream degradation and groundwater depletion, if not properly managed. The urban stream syndrome is characterized by symptoms such as flashy hydrology, increased rates of erosion, and degradation of aquatic habitat quality. However, novel urban stormwater management systems have shown promising results that have potential to effectively mitigate the adverse effects of urbanization on streamflow and sediment regimes. Systems that prioritize storage, infiltration, and evapotranspiration should be included, in attempts to prevent significant deterioration of the water budget from pre-development conditions. Additionally, in efforts to reduce the component of the annual sediment load mobilized by larger flood flows, streambed and bank stabilization, as well as stormwater management systems that provide significant controls of peak flows during major storm events, will prove to be most beneficial to restore the health of the ecosystem of urbanizing streams. Therefore, the needs are increasing to attain more effective management strategies that can minimize the risk of water pollution and encourage water recycling to ensure sustainable development. Advanced, real-time water quality monitoring, remote sensing, and new generations of artificial intelligence models designed to accurately simulate different spatial and temporal hydrologic scales have been developed to help water managers with science-informed and timely decision making to more cost-effectively maintain and expand aging urban water infrastructure (including drinking water supply, wastewater collection and treatment, and stormwater management systems) to meet the growing demands of the population through smart monitoring, treatment, recycling, and reuse. This Special Issue entitled “Water Quality for Sustainable Development” of the MDPI journal Water is designed to draw attention to the body of knowledge that aims at providing direction to new research ideas and technological development for smart and resilient cities of the future. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all;
Protection of urban stream water quality through improved road winter maintenance and road salt management;
Urban and agri-food water use efficiency, water recycling, and safe reuse technologies;
Urban stormwater management systems, low-impact development, and bioretention systems;
Real-time monitoring, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence modeling;
Aging water infrastructure and asset management;
Integrated surface and groundwater resource management;
Urban stream stability, stream water quality, and stream restoration;
Groundwater modeling and surface water modeling;
Health of the ecosystem of urban streams, lakes, and wetlands.

Prof. Dr. Bahram Gharabaghi
Dr. Hossein Bonakdari
Prof. Dr. Ed McBean
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

water quality trends
environmental modeling
real-time monitoring
artificial intelligence
water quality modeling
sustainable infrastructure design
remote sensing
urban streams
groundwater protection
water quantity modeling

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 3722 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Prediction Model to Cost-Optimize Clean-Out of Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavers

by Sachet Siwakoti, Andrew Binns, Andrea Bradford, Hossein Bonakdari and Bahram Gharabaghi

Water 2023, 15(11), 2135; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15112135 - 4 Jun 2023

Viewed by 2186

Abstract

Permeable Interlocking Concrete Paver (PICP) systems provide onsite stormwater management by detaining runoff and removing contaminants. However, a major problem with PICPs is the significant maintenance cost associated with their clean-out to restore the original functionality, which discourages landowners and municipalities from adopting the systems. A combination of laboratory experiments and machine-learning techniques are applied to address this challenge. A total of 376 laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate four independent variables (cleaning equipment speed over the pavement, air speed in the cleaning jets, top opening width of the cupule, and filter media gradation) that affect the cleaning of PICPs. The Buckingham Pi-Theorem was used to express the four main input variables in three dimension-less parameters. This current investigation provides a novel understanding of variables affecting the sustainable and economically feasible maintenance of PICPs. A new model is derived to more accurately predict the percentage of mass removal from PICPs during clean-out using a machine-learning technique. The Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) model exhibits high performance, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.87 for both the training and testing stages. The established simple explicit equation can be applied to optimize the maintenance costs for industrial applications of Regenerative Air Street Sweepers for sustainable and cost-effective PICP maintenance. Pavements with larger surface areas are found to have lower maintenance costs ($/m²/year) compared to the ones with smaller surface areas. This study estimates $0.32/m²/year and $0.50/m²/year to maintain pavements with larger (5000 m²) and smaller (1000 m²) surface areas, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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31 pages, 11200 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Graph-Based Deep Learning Model to Predict Flooding with Validation on a Case Study on the Humber River

by Victor Oliveira Santos, Paulo Alexandre Costa Rocha, John Scott, Jesse Van Griensven Thé and Bahram Gharabaghi

Water 2023, 15(10), 1827; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15101827 - 10 May 2023

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3609

Abstract

Floods are one of the most lethal natural disasters. It is crucial to forecast the timing and evolution of these events and create an advanced warning system to allow for the proper implementation of preventive measures. This work introduced a new graph-based forecasting model, namely, graph neural network sample and aggregate (GNN-SAGE), to estimate river flooding. It then validated the proposed model in the Humber River watershed in Ontario, Canada. Using past precipitation and stage data from reference and neighboring stations, the proposed GNN-SAGE model could estimate the river stage for flooding events up to 24 h ahead, improving its forecasting performance by an average of 18% compared with the persistence model and 9% compared with the graph-based model residual gated graph convolutional network (GNN-ResGated), which were used as baselines. Furthermore, GNN-SAGE generated smaller errors than those reported in the current literature. The Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) revealed that prior data from the reference station was the most significant factor for all prediction intervals, with seasonality and precipitation being more influential for longer-range forecasts. The findings positioned the proposed GNN-SAGE model as a cutting-edge solution for flood forecasting and a valuable resource for devising early flood-warning systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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15 pages, 1890 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Assessment of the Application of Four Water Quality Indices (WQIs) in Three Ephemeral Rivers in Greece

by Georgios D. Gikas, Dimitrios Lergios and Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis

Water 2023, 15(8), 1443; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15081443 - 7 Apr 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2785

Abstract

In this work, the possibility of using four water quality indices (WQIs) to evaluate the quality status of small rivers in the Mediterranean region (Northern Greece) was investigated. The WQIs selected were the NSF WQI, Oregon WQI, CCME WQI and Prati’s Index of Pollution and were applied to three rivers, namely Laspias, Kosynthos and Lissos, located in the prefectures of Xanthi and Rhodope, Northern Greece. The individual indices were calculated based on the values of 11 physicochemical parameters derived from field measurements and chemical laboratory analyses of water samples at two monitoring stations in each river. The in situ measurements and samplings were executed at a frequency of approximately 10 days and lasted 20, 12 and 10 months for rivers Laspias, Kosynthos and Lissos, respectively. The comparative results from the four indices in the three rivers showed that for rivers Kosynthos and Lissos, which had comparable values of physicochemical parameters, Prati’s and CCME indices classified these water bodies into the highest quality classes, the NSF WQI into a slightly lower class and the Oregon WQI into the lowest classes of quality ranking. Regarding Laspias River, whose physicochemical parameter values indicated inferior water quality than the other two rivers, the Oregon index ranked this water body in the lowest quality class, while the other indices in slightly higher classes. In conclusion, regarding the water quality of ephemeral streams in the Mediterranean, it seems that the Oregon index is stricter followed by the NSF, and then, Prati’s and CCME WQIs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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20 pages, 11263 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integral Index of Water Quality: A New Methodological Proposal for Surface Waters

by José Teodoro Silva-García, Gustavo Cruz-Cárdenas, Rodrigo Moncayo-Estrada, Salvador Ochoa-Estrada, Fabián Villalpando-Barragán, Luis Fernando Ceja-Torres, Rebeca Flores-Magallón, Miriam Arroyo-Damián, Francisco Estrada-Godoy and Dioselina Álvarez-Bernal

Water 2023, 15(7), 1414; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15071414 - 5 Apr 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2882

Abstract

A methodology is proposed aimed at defining an integral index of water quality in surface waters that incorporates the information for five variables currently used to independently measure the condition of water in the Cupatítzio River, Michoacán. The variables considered were the current water quality index used by CONAGUA, the concentration of metals, biodiversity as assessed through the BMWP index, microbiological values for Escherichia coli, and the level of toxicity. The index was applied at 17 sites along the Cupatitzio riverbed in the dry season of 2017. Each variable was assigned a rank, which was standardized to a scale of 1–10 and subsequently multiplied by a weight (W) that numerically represented the degree of importance and influence that each factor had in terms of pollution. These factors depended on the anthropic condition of the area, with a value of 5 indicating the method with the most significant impact and 1 the least. The integral index of water quality (IIWQ) was calculated as the arithmetic sum of each factor considered, generating a single value. It had intervals of 15 points minimum to 150 maximum. Five water quality levels were proposed: excellent, good, fair, bad, and very bad. The results showed that, of the 17 sites studied, the majority (ten) were in the fair quality category, ranging from 69 to 95 points; six were in the good category (96 to 122 points); and only one was in the bad category (42–68 points). With the application of this methodology incorporating the information for the five variables already described, it was possible to assess the water quality conditions in the Cupatitzio River as adequate and the water as suitable for its uses in the different socioeconomic activities for which it is destined. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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23 pages, 6795 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drivers of Spatial and Temporal Dynamics in Water Turbidity of China Yangtze River Basin

by Jian Li and Chunlin Xia

Water 2023, 15(7), 1264; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15071264 - 23 Mar 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2091

Abstract

The sustainable development of the water environment in the Yangtze River basin has become a critical issue in China. Turbidity is a comprehensive element for water quality monitoring. In this study, the baseline of water turbidity in the Yangtze River was constructed using 36 years of Landsat images from 1986 to 2021. The spatial and temporal dynamics of turbidity and its driving factors were explored. The results show that (i) the proposed Landsat-based turbidity model performs well, with a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.68 and a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 7.83 NTU for the whole basin. (ii) The turbidity level in the Yangtze River basin is spatially high in the upper reaches (41.7 NTU), low in the middle reaches (30.9 NTU), and higher in the lower reaches (37.6 NTU). The river turbidity level (60.1 NTU) is higher than the turbidity in lakes and reservoirs (29.6 NTU). The turbidity in the Yangtze River basin shows a decreasing trend from 1986 to 2021, with the most significant decrease in the mainstream of the Yangtze River. Seasonally, the mean turbidity in the Yangtze River basin shows a “low in summer and high in winter” trend, but opposite trends were revealed for the first time in rivers and lakes, such as Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, and Taihu Lake, etc. (iii) Natural factors, including precipitation and natural vegetation cover (woodlands, grasslands, and shrubs) could explain 58% of the turbidity variations, while human activities including impervious surfaces, cropland, and barren land are lower impact. Annual precipitation was negatively correlated with water turbidity, while cropland and barren land showed a significant positive correlation. The study is of great practical value for the sustainable development of the water environment in the Yangtze River basin and provides a reference for remote sensing monitoring of the water environment in inland water bodies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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13 pages, 5006 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Protecting Salt Vulnerable Areas Using an Enhanced Roadside Drainage System (ERDS)

by Sepideh E. Tabrizi, Jessica Pringle, Zahra Moosavi, Arman Amouzadeh, Hani Farghaly, William R. Trenouth and Bahram Gharabaghi

Water 2022, 14(22), 3773; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14223773 - 20 Nov 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3021

Abstract

De-icing road salt application as a part of winter road maintenance is a standard practice with over 60 billion kilograms applied to roads worldwide each winter to ensure traffic safety. However, high concentrations of chlorides in melted ice and snow runoff from roads and parking lots can have adverse effects on both surface and ground water, especially in salt vulnerable areas. A salt vulnerable area is a sensitive area to road salts where additional salt management measures may be required to mitigate potential adverse environmental effects. The main objectives of this paper were to present a new design method for sizing Enhanced Roadside Drainage Systems (ERDS), demonstrate the findings of a 3 year field monitoring and to assess the long term performance of the ERDS design using PCSWMM. A new conceptual design of ERDS was also modelled to demonstrate its effectiveness in protecting salt vulnerable areas. To showcase the new design method, we completed two case studies, one for a relatively pristine headwater stream and one for a moderately impacted urban stream. Stormwater management models were developed for the two scenarios—with and without the ERDS—to assess the benefits of the new system and its effectiveness in protecting salt vulnerable areas at each site. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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20 pages, 7675 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Treatment and Recycle of Greenhouse Nutrient Feed Water Applying Hydrochar and Activated Carbon Followed by Reverse Osmosis

by Abu-Taher Jamal-Uddin, Takashi Matsuura, Fadi Al-Daoud and Richard G. Zytner

Water 2022, 14(21), 3573; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14213573 - 7 Nov 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2476

Abstract

Leached greenhouse nutrient feed (GNF) water is a great challenge for greenhouse (GH) producers. Unbalanced higher micronutrient metal’s phytotoxicity impact GH plant growth, and the high phosphorous levels can cause lake eutrophication if not treated. The analytical results of three GNFs revealed no microbial contamination in any of the GNFs, but the potassium, calcium, magnesium levels, and pH range were above the target level for root zone conditions. Both higher and lower limit concentrations are phytotoxic, causing poor or non-developed roots, leaves, and stems. Sodium was also not in the balanced range. Phosphate and nitrate nutrients were above the measurable range, showing that it would be a threat to lake eutrophication if disposed of. Due to uptake by plants at varied rates, nutrient ion imbalance in GNF is usual, but proper control or treatment is essential as GNF is not a waste but a resource providing fertilization to plants. Potential treatment options investigated include coagulation filtration, sorption with hydrochar (HC), and activated carbon (AC), followed by reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration. The HC and AC were produced from waste tomato plants biomass (TPB) of the same GHs to enhance the recycle–reuse of wastes. Neither metals nor nutrient concentrations were reduced to the desired levels by coagulation treatments. The HC and AC treatment provided the recycle–reuse possibility of GNF. RO membrane filtration provided about 97–99% reduction of metals and 99% reduction of nutrients, allowing GNF preparation by adding new fertilizer to the RO permeate. In such a case, the RO reject needs to be reused as feed for TPB carbonization. Different options for GHs to manage TPB and GNF are provided. As RO is an energy-expensive process, an assessment of technical know-how to provide an energy economic process is demonstrated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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10 pages, 2001 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Natural Flocculant from a Combination of Moringa oleifera Seeds and Cactus Cladodes (Opuntia ficus-indica) to Optimize Flocculation Properties

by Christian Eichhorn, Sina Weckmüller and Wilhelm Urban

Water 2022, 14(21), 3570; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14213570 - 6 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4156

Abstract

The lack of access to clean water worldwide and organic, inorganic as well as biological contamination of existing freshwater sources are a major problem for around 2 billion people, especially in the countries of the global south. One sign of polluted water is turbidity. It is generally caused by colloidal and particulate suspended solids. Chemical flocculants are often used to reduce turbidity and thus eliminate the mostly harmful substances that cause it. However, these have some disadvantages, such as cost and availability, so increasingly natural plant-based flocculants are coming into focus and are considered as an alternative option. In this study, Moringa seeds (Moringa oleifera) and cactus cladodes (Opuntia ficus-indica) were investigated as innovative and environmentally friendly flocculants for water treatment. The parameters investigated included absolute turbidity reduction and flocculation activity, as well as shear strength of the resulting flocs. The flocculation experiments were conducted as simultaneous tests in beakers. Experiments were conducted using both a laboratory-prepared model suspension with an initial turbidity of approximately 139 NTU and natural surface water with an initial turbidity of approximately 136 NTU. The flocculant dosages used ranged from 100 to 300 mg/L. The results show that although Moringa seeds had the highest flocculation activity (up to 93%), the flocs were very fragile and were destroyed again even at low induced shear forces. Flocculants from cactus yielded stable flocs, but the flocculation activity (maximum at 54%) was not as high as that of Moringa. The combination of the two materials resulted in a flocculant with sufficiently high flocculation activity (76%) and stable flocs, which could withstand higher shear forces potentially induced in further treatment steps. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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Review

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30 pages, 2210 KiB

Open AccessReview

Adapted Water Quality Indices: Limitations and Potential for Water Quality Monitoring in Africa

by Dorothy Khasisi Lukhabi, Paul Kojo Mensah, Noble Kwame Asare, Tchaka Pulumuka-Kamanga and Kennedy Ochieng Ouma

Water 2023, 15(9), 1736; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15091736 - 30 Apr 2023

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 6970

Abstract

A Water Quality Index (WQI) is a tool that describes the overall water quality by combining complex and technical water quality information into a single meaningful unitless numerical value. WQIs predict water quality since they reflect the impact of multiple Water Quality Parameters (WQPs) and allow for spatial-temporal comparison of water quality status. Most African countries employ adapted WQIs by modifying the original index (or indices) and propose their concepts for evaluating the quality of surface and groundwater, which is normally accompanied by irregularities. The current review examined the process(es) involved in WQI modifications for monitoring water quality in Africa, explored associated limitations, and suggested areas for improvement. A review of 42 research articles from five databases in the last ten years (2012–2022) was conducted. The findings indicated Weighted Arithmetic (WAWQI) and the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment (CCMEWQI) as the most adapted WQIs. However, several limitations were encountered in WQI developmental steps, mainly in parameter selection and classification schemes used for the final index value. Incorporation of biological parameters, use of less subjective statistical methods in parameter selection, and logical linguistic descriptions in classification schemes were some recommendations for remedying the limitations to register the full potential of adapted WQIs for water quality monitoring in Africa. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Quality for Sustainable Development)

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