Water Quality Indices

Water Quality Indices
Author: Tabassum Abbasi
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2012-03-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0444543058

This book covers water quality indices (WQI) in depth – it describes what purpose they serve, how they are generated, what are their strengths and weaknesses, and how to make the best use of them. It is a concise and unique guide to WQIs for chemists, chemical/environmental engineers and government officials. Whereas it is easy to express the quantity of water, it is very difficult to express its quality because a large number of variables determine the water quality. WQIs seek to resolve the difficulty by translating a set of a large number of variables to a one-digit or a two-digit numeral. They are essential in communicating the status of different water resources in terms of water quality and the impact of various factors on it to policy makers, service personnel, and the lay public. Further they are exceedingly useful in the monitoring and management of water quality. With the importance of water and water quality increasing exponentially, the importance of this topic is also set to increase enormously because only with the use of indices is it possible to assess, express, communicate, and monitor the overall quality of any water source. - Provides a concise guide to WQIs: their purpose and generation - Compares existing methods and WQIs and outlines strengths and weaknesses - Makes recommendations on how the indices should be used and under what circumstances they apply

EnvStats

EnvStats
Author: Steven P. Millard
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2013-10-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1461484561

This book describes EnvStats, a new comprehensive R package for environmental statistics and the successor to the S-PLUS module EnvironmentalStats for S-PLUS (first released in 1997). EnvStats and R provide an open-source set of powerful functions for performing graphical and statistical analyses of environmental data, bringing major environmental statistical methods found in the literature and regulatory guidance documents into one statistical package, along with an extensive hypertext help system that explains what these methods do, how to use these methods, and where to find them in the environmental statistics literature. EnvStats also includes numerous built-in data sets from regulatory guidance documents and the environmental statistics literature. This book shows how to use EnvStats and R to easily: * graphically display environmental data * plot probability distributions * estimate distribution parameters and construct confidence intervals on the original scale for commonly used distributions such as the lognormal and gamma, as well as do this nonparametrically * estimate and construct confidence intervals for distribution percentiles or do this nonparametrically (e.g., to compare to an environmental protection standard) * perform and plot the results of goodness-of-fit tests * compute optimal Box-Cox data transformations * compute prediction limits and simultaneous prediction limits (e.g., to assess compliance at multiple sites for multiple constituents) * perform nonparametric estimation and test for seasonal trend (even in the presence of correlated observations) * perform power and sample size computations and create companion plots for sampling designs based on confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, prediction intervals, and tolerance intervals * deal with non-detect (censored) data * perform Monte Carlo simulation and probabilistic risk assessment * reproduce specific examples in EPA guidance documents EnvStats combined with other R packages (e.g., for spatial analysis) provides the environmental scientist, statistician, researcher, and technician with tools to “get the job done!”

Mercury in Fish, Bed Sediment, and Water from Streams Across the United States, 1998-2005

Mercury in Fish, Bed Sediment, and Water from Streams Across the United States, 1998-2005
Author: Barbara C. Scudder
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2010-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1437921132

Report on how mercury (Hg) was examined in top-predator fish, bed sediment, and water from streams that spanned regional and national gradients of Hg source strength and other factors thought to influence methylmercury bioaccum. Sampled settings include stream basins that were agr¿l, urbanized, undeveloped, and mined. Predator fish were targeted for collection, and composited samples of fish were analyzed for total Hg (THg), as most of the Hg found in fish tissue is MeHg. Samples of bed sediment and stream water were analyzed for THg, MeHg, and characteristics thought to affect Hg methylation, such as loss-on-ignition and acid-volatile sulfide in bed sediment, and pH, dissolved organic carbon, and dissolved sulfate in water. Illus.

Regional Cooperation for Water Quality Improvement in Southwestern Pennsylvania

Regional Cooperation for Water Quality Improvement in Southwestern Pennsylvania
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2005-04-04
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0309181313

The city of Pittsburgh and surrounding area of southwestern Pennsylvania face complex water quality problems, due in large part to aging wastewater infrastructures that cannot handle sewer overflows and stormwater runoff, especially during wet weather. Other problems such as acid mine drainage are a legacy of the region's past coal mining, heavy industry, and manufacturing economy. Currently, water planning and management in southwestern Pennsylvania is highly fragmented; federal and state governments, 11 counties, hundreds of municipalities, and other entities all play roles, but with little coordination or cooperation. The report finds that a comprehensive, watershed-based approach is needed to effectively meet water quality standards throughout the region in the most cost-effective manner. The report outlines both technical and institutional alternatives to consider in the development and implementation of such an approach.

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 611
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0309125391

The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.

Ecosystem Responses to Mercury Contamination

Ecosystem Responses to Mercury Contamination
Author: Reed Harris
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2007-03-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0849388899

As rising levels of mercury in the environment pose an increasing threat of toxicity to humans and wildlife, several laws already call for industries to reduce mercury emissions at the source. Ecosystem Responses to Mercury Contamination: Indicators of Change outlines the infrastructure and methods needed to measure, monitor, and regulate the conce