Martina Winker

Fertiliser products from new sanitation systems: their potential values and risks.

The plant nutrients consumed in human society today are lost through the established wastewater treatment systems in industrialised countries as well as via insufficient or non-existent handling of sewage in the developing world. New sanitation systems have been designated to overcome this failure. The source separated wastewater streams collected within these systems contain a high nutrient content, and can be used as fertiliser as well as soil conditioner after appropriate storage and/or treatment. Application in agriculture with existing techniques is feasible. However, pathogens and pharmaceuticals contained in these fertiliser types are a potential hazard. Nevertheless, storage and appropriate treatment can minimise the risks. The products deriving from these systems have a high potential to preserve available plant nutrient resources and deficiencies in agriculture as well as being able to substitute synthetic plant nutrients and at the same time prevent unwanted environmental nutrient over-enrichment.

Ryegrass uptake of carbamazepine and ibuprofen applied by urine fertilization.

Human urine is a potential alternative fertilizer for agriculture. However, its usage is associated with a risk of spreading pharmaceutical residues to fields. The individual and combined behavior of carbamazepine and ibuprofen was investigated by GC/MS analysis in a greenhouse experiment using ryegrass fertilized with pharmaceutical-spiked urine. Only carbamazepine could be detected in soil, roots, and aerial plant parts. Fifty-three per cent of carbamazepine originally present in the urine was recovered in soil samples taken after three months. Additionally, 34% of carbamazepine was found in aerial plant parts and 0.3% in roots. Model calculations showed that neither roots nor Casparian strip posed a considerable barrier to uptake. Carbamazepine transport was clearly driven by transpiration. Ibuprofen was not detected in the soil or in any plant parts after three months. This was assumed to be due to biodegradation of ibuprofen. Carbamazepine and ibuprofen, singly or in combination, did not adversely affect the growth of ryegrass.

Comparison of analytical and theoretical pharmaceutical concentrations in human urine in Germany

Urine is considered as a valuable plant fertiliser due to its high nutrient content. However, urine also contains pharmaceuticals. Currently, little is known regarding expected pharmaceutical concentrations in urine and the resulting risks. Through series of analyses in Hamburg and Berlin and results from the development of a concentration prediction model this knowledge gap was intended to be filled. To which extent the theoretical calculations can substitute analyses of pharmaceuticals was also tested. Results showed that the model fits well for bezafibrate, carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, phenazone, and pentoxifylline. In Hamburg an R(2) value of 0.98 and in Berlin of 0.90 was achieved for correlations between predicted and analysed concentrations. Additionally, it was shown that a sufficient number of people discharging their urine to the respective collection system are important to allow for reasonable predictions via calculation. Also, comparisons of predicted pharmaceutical concentrations to those determined in other projects showed good correlations. Overall, it can be concluded that in any case the calculated concentrations exceed the measured ones and are therefore conservative. This overestimation can be explained by several factors discussed in this article.

A comparison of human pharmaceutical concentrations in raw municipal wastewater and yellowwater

Currently, many articles report on pharmaceutical residues detected in various compartments of the environment. A major pathway into the aquatic environment is municipal wastewater. This article discusses the relevance of yellowwater (urine) as pharmaceutical source within this wastewater stream. Literature data about concentrations of 28 pharmaceutical residues detected in raw wastewater are compared to their theoretically calculated concentrations in urine. The study shows that these pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are excreted predominantly via urine although some substances show reasonable excretion via faeces. It is demonstrated that the influence of pharmacokinetic activities is one important issue affecting the presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. Nevertheless, only a weak correlation between concentrations of pharmaceuticals calculated in yellowwater and analysed in raw wastewater was observed. This is due to environmental effects taking place between the excretion of urine and the entrance of sewerage into the wastewater treatment plant. The data show that urine separation and separate handling/treatment of this wastewater stream represents a promising approach to protect the aquatic environment safely from human pharmaceuticals.

Novel urban water systems in Germany : Governance structures to encourage transformation

Abstract Novel technologies and concepts for urban water systems regarding the supply of different types of water, the separation of wastewater streams and the use of wastewater as a resource already exist, but for the most part have only been implemented in Germany in pilot projects. Limitations in the ability of governance structures to adapt might be one reason for the stagnation in their implementation. This hypothesis was investigated by means of literature analysis, expert interviews and stakeholder workshops. Obstacles to innovation were identified along with activities and measures that encourage implementation. In particular, institutional barriers and the difficulties institutions have in adapting represented key constraints. Thus routes to institutional innovation and new institutional arrangements among key players were identified and optimised. All in all, specific measures leading to cooperative management have the potential to support the necessary restructuring of institutional arrangements and pave the way for transformation.

Integrated water research and how it can help address the challenges faced by Germany’s water sector

Abstract The article describes the approach of integrated water research, in particular its overall design, the use of suitable procedures and methods, and the dissemination of its results. Based on four case studies from the German water sector, focusing on water demand forecasting, assessment of technical options, improvement of user acceptance and the selection of measures, respectively, the article explores the potential benefit of integrated water research for addressing the challenges facing the water sector today. Analysis of the case studies shows that the incorporation of integrated water research into a project design results in added value for the practical relevance of the results achieved as well as facilitating the transfer of the results into practice. In each case, different methods were combined within the research process to achieve the common goal of integrating science and society and demonstrate the vital importance of careful planning and method selection if one is to bring about the desired effects. It thus follows that integrated research is not undertaken spontaneously at short notice but is mostly implemented as the result of a general decision after considering the respective benefits and potential added value as well as the resources available. The time span of such research and the intensity of integration can vary considerably. However, a certain amount of flexibility in the process is inevitable in order to react to intermediate results and needs and is a precondition for the serious application of an integrated water research process.

Impact assessment of emission management strategies of the pharmaceuticals Metformin and Metoprolol to the aquatic environment using Bayesian networks

The issue of pharmaceuticals in the environment has caused increasing concern in the recent years and various strategies have been proposed to tackle this problem. This work describes a Bayesian network (BN)-based socio-ecological impact assessment of a set of measures aimed at reducing the entry of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. The measures investigated were selected across three sectors: public health market, environmental politics and drug design innovation. The BN model was developed for two drugs, Metformin and Metoprolol, and it models the distribution of the Predicted Environmental Concentration (PEC) values as a function of different measures. Results show that the sensitivity of the PEC for the two drugs to the measures investigated reflects the distinct drug characteristics, suggesting that in order to ensure the successful reduction of a broad range of substances, a spectrum of measures targeting the entire lifecycle of a pharmaceutical should be implemented. Furthermore, evaluation of two scenarios reflecting different emission management strategies highlights that the integrated implementation of a comprehensive set of measures across the three sectors results in a more extensive reduction of the contamination. Finally, the BN provides an initial forecasting tool to model the PEC of a drug as a function of a combination of measures in a context-specific manner and possible adaptations of the model are proposed.

Greening and Cooling the City Using Novel Urban Water Systems: A European Perspective

Abstract In todays cities water appears as drinking water, wastewater, rainwater, and runoff, as well as natural and artificial waterbodies. These water streams play a key role in the urban metabolism. The management of the water streams is challenging, especially in dense urban areas and in the context of climate change. Moreover, additional requirements have evolved including adapting to climate change, improving the quality of urban life, creating urban cooling and green areas in the cities, increasing resource protection, and flood protection and prevention. To tackle these challenges, current water infrastructure needs to strongly adapt or even transform its essential character. It has to become more flexible regarding its response time to adaptation and provide services more targeted toward the specific local needs. Here, recent innovations in water infrastructures, also called novel urban water systems, come into the picture. They provide possibilities able to react both faster and more specifically, and to build strong bridges to other technical infrastructure and urban planning. Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) focuses on the management of all water streams within the city. Although the focus of this approach is mostly identified in stormwater management, WSUD also includes the sustainable management of domestic wastewater. When it comes to the projects built under WSUD design principles, stormwater is usually considered, whereas communal/domestic wastewater is often not taken into account. This chapter argues that there are specific cases in novel urban water systems where an active integration of wastewater into the WSUD concept should be considered, as it provides clear advantages and benefits for both. Moreover, it provides further details on the integration of novel urban water systems into a WSUD approach and shows examples where such integration is already practiced.

Vulnerability analysis of critical infrastructures in the case of a semi-centralised water reuse system in Qingdao, China

Abstract Urban centres in newly industrialised countries are experiencing rapid population growth, which poses challenges for infrastructure planning. Semi-centralised water infrastructures have a modular architecture that enables water reuse, and thus they are able to meet these challenges. Since such socio-technical systems represent critical infrastructures, it is appropriate to analyse their vulnerability to internal and external hazards (e.g., technical failure, drought) as well as their dependencies on other infrastructures (e.g., energy supply). The vulnerability analysis in this paper focuses on the pilot plant of a semi-centralised water infrastructure in Qingdao, China, and uses a newly developed methodology combining expert discussions, questionnaires, a vulnerability assessment heuristic, and cross-impact matrices. The results identified the technical components that were more vulnerable to hazards or the failure of other components. This applied mainly to technical components in the resource recovery centre (RRC). Hazards and system components that have the greatest impact on the vulnerability of other components were also identified. This applied mainly to human failure and the RRC control system. It can be concluded that vulnerability management measures need to focus on the identified hazards and system components. Furthermore, measures to minimise health risks for users should be specifically analysed.