Water upland

Upland waters of low hardness, as supplied to most towns in Scotland, Wales and the North of England. 

Soft upland waters are aggressive to most metals, their behaviour depending to some extent on pH values as discussed on p. 2.53. They are inevitably unsaturated with respect to calcium carbonate and it is not usually practicable to modify the carbonate equilibrium to make them non-aggressive. 

Broad, swift rivers drain mountains that receive large amounts of rain and snow. Dropping from the uplands, water rapidly accumulates kinetic energy (kinetic energy is the energy in a moving object). Hydroelectric... 

Figure 8.10 Frequency plots of the total organic carbon (TOC) levels and incident rainfall for a Scottish upland water...

Soft, so-called upland waters are aggressive to most metals. 

The most effective corrosion inhibitor for reducing lead solubility is orthophosphate which converts some of the lead carbonate, within the internal corrosion deposits of lead pipes, to lead phosphate which has a lower solubihty. This conversion depends on the alkaUnity of the water and the dose of orthophosphate. Lead solubihty can also be affected by natural organic matter, particularly the humic and fiilvic acids associated with coloured upland waters. Further details on corrective water treatment measures can be found in IWA s Best Practice Guide for the Control of Lead in Drinking Water (IWA, 2010). 

Many waters from mountainous uplands such as Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, or the moors of southwest England are surface mnoff and have not percolated through mineral strata. They are low in minerals generally, and hardness and alkalinity in particular, though even there the hardness... 

Upland surface water. This is low in hardness salts having run over impervious rocks but will often be high in organic matter, i.e. fulvic and humic acids. 

Clean rivers. These originate from upland surface waters, but contain more organic matter and also silt. 

Schwesig D, Ilgen G, Matzner E. 1999. Mercury and methylmercury in upland and wetland acid forest soils of a watershed in NE-Bavaria, Germany. Water Air Soil Pollut 113 141-154. 

Organic solvents or mixtures of water and solvents such as acetone or water-acetone are commonly used to extract chemicals from sediment samples as for upland soil. An analysis of sediment, collected from waterways or extremely low Eh paddies, frequently requires the removal of sulfur-containing species, although there is little interference from sulfur if the sediments are in a not very reductive condition. Reduced copper and silver nitrate columns are usually used for the removal, but these procedures are not always successful. Recovery studies could be needed to confirm an interference with sulfur. 

De Mora SJ, Harrison RM, Wilson SJ (1984/1987) The effect of water treatment on the speciation and concentration of lead in domestic tap water derived from a soft upland source. Water Res 21(l) 83-94... 

Upland. Grown in level to steeply sloping fields that are rarely flooded. No effort is made to impound water as for other rice ecosystems. Crop is direct seeded on ploughed dry soil or dibbled in wet, non-puddled soil. 

At the boundary between uplands and wetlands there is, in some circumstances, an interaction between organic matter accumulation in sediments and the development of wetland conditions. Some level of organic matter accumulation is required to drive anaerobic metabolism. But also, because, in general, well-decomposed organic matter improves the water holding capacity of mineral soils, particularly in medium to coarse texmred sediments, and particularly if the clay mineralogy is dominated by low activity kaolinitic clays, there is a feedback between organic matter accumulation and the extent and duration of water saturation. 

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