Catchment information

Information on agricultural practices that may impact on drinking-water may be obtained from direct surveys of catchments and from a variety of other sources, such as farmers associations, agricultural authorities or university extension services. Information on pesticide use may be available from these sources but, in many countries, registration authorities are the most important source of information. Where pesticides are imported, customs authorities may also be able to provide valuable advice. The department of agriculture or farming organizations may know which pesticides are used in a particular catchment. Information on production of pesticides for local markets may be available from departments of industry, chambers of commerce, industry associations and similar bodies. 

Indicator parameters and simple tests Guidance on identifying relevant chemicals Catchment information Acidity Algal toxins References... 

As we have indicated in the previous sections, there is little information on sediment transport in the River Ebro, and most of it is concentrated in the lower reaches of the catchment, downstream the reservoir complex of Mequinenza-Riba-roja-Flix (Fig. 1). We present here a summary of the results obtained from direct measurements on suspended and bedload obtained by the UdL group during the period 2002-2004 upstream (i.e. SMS) and downstream (i.e. MEMS) the reservoir complex, together with the data collected downstream from the dams during the period 2005-2008 (in the later case referred only to suspended sediment). A hydrological context is provided for each of the sediment transport data sets. 

The description of a water body and its catchment area underpins the pressures and impacts analysis. Useful information includes climate, geology, and land and soil use. In addition to a general description of the water body, it is essential to identify the driving forces that may be exerting pressures on the water body. Driving forces... 

Active alluvial sites are normally avoided in prospect scale MMI analysis in this case active alluvium has been used on purpose to obtain information representative of large catchments. 

Local assessment of the mass balance of the most critical PhCs (the most frequently administered antibiotics, analgesics/anti-inflammatories and the psychiatric dmg carbamazepine, considered an anthropogenic marker in wastewaters [121]) also provides useful information about the PhC contribution of the hospital effluent with respect to that of the catchment area. The extent of this contribution will differ between compound, but Beier et al. [92], in particular, reported that it can reach as high as 94% for some antibiotics (ciprofloxacin), although Kummerer [53], on the other hand, stated that only up to 25% of the antibiotics administered in Germany are used in hospitals. 

Small hospital in a small urban catchment area a local mass balance analysis of micro- and macropoUutant loads can provide useful information about the contribution of the different users. Environmental risk assessment of the expected final effluent and analysis of the characteristics of the local receiving water body will guide selection of the advanced treatment sequence (MBR, ozone, UV). 

Detritus from a paleolandscape contains information on the paleorelief (in fact, the paleohypsometry), of its former catchment, through its probability distribution of cooling ages, provided the paleoerosion rate can be estimated, and some assumption about the spatial uniformity of erosion (and bedrock abundance of the thermochronometric mineral) can be made. The former could potentially be estimated from mineral-pair methods, such as using coupled apatite He and apatite FT ages from the same clast, or from AERs of bedrock samples that record the erosion rate through the time interval in question. In general, the latter constraint must be assumed, however. 

Rayment, G.E., Simpson, B.W., 1993. Pesticide audit for the Condamine-Balonne-Culgoa Catchment . In Water Quality Management in the Condamine-Balonne-Culgoa Catchment Land Use, Fertiliser Use, Pesticide Audit and Water Quality Issues, Monitoring and Available Information. August 1993. Condamine-Balonne Water Committee. 

Geological and other maps Maps such as geology, land-use and soil type to help provide samplers with supplementary information about sites and catchments... 

Geological or mineralogical information suggests that potentially hazardous chemicals may be present in elevated concentrations in the rocks, soils or groundwater within the catchment area. 

A variety of chemicals used or produced in industrial processes may be harmful to human health if released into drinking-water sources. Chemicals likely to be in a particular watershed may be identified by developing inventories of the industrial processes undertaken in the catchment, An inventory for each industrial source should include the following information type of industry ... 

Tables A1.1 and A1.2 also list the major uses of each chemical and the specific industries that may discharge the chemical (classified by the United Nations (UN) industry/process code numbers, details of which are given in Appendix 2). The lists are not comprehensive, because there may be considerable variation in the uses of chemicals by individual industries in different countries and regions. However, the information given may be useful to water authorities and related agencies when preparing an inventory of potential chemical contaminants within a catchment, Some of the uses listed may be very minor, but are nevertheless included in the list because it is not clear that they can be ignored when assessing the potential for contamination from industrial sources,...

Part C comprises the appendices. It includes guidance on the most likely sources of potential contaminants and on identifying chemicals that could be of concern in particular circumstances. The appendices address potential sources of chemicals considered in the WHO drinking-water guidelines (WHO, 2004 WHO, 2006), chemicals potentially discharged in effluents from industrial sources, and the association of pesticides with crops and crop types. This information is presented in an accessible format that will help users to determine the chemical hazards that can arise in the catchment, in treatment and in distribution, in large, medium and small water supplies. 

Attempts to model chemical weathering of catchments have used a variety of approaches and were originally designed to understand acidification processes. The BIRKENES code (Christophersen et al., 1982) was one of the first developed to model catchment stream chemistry. It used cation-anion charge balance, a gibbsite equilibrium solubility control for aluminum concentrations, a Gapon ion exchange for metals sorption, and rates for sulfate adsorption/ desorption in a two-reservoir model. The model was calibrated by input mass fluxes and output mass fluxes for the Birkenes catchment in Norway to provide the water flux information and to fit empirical parameters. 

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