Both rice production and fish culture in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam have a close mutual relationship with the use of water and land resources. First, they are competitive in the use of land and water. Second, rice production discharges pesticides into water bodies causing an external cost to fish culture, which, in turn, leads to an increase in fish cost and price. A dynamic model for maximizing the social surplus is developed for optimal management of resources as well as production. Its first-order conditions provide some important quantitative as well as qualitative interpretation that explains the dynamic relationships among prices, water quality, and shadow price. The time paths and phase diagrams of the model show the variations and the changes in prices, outputs, and water quality over time, and the initial position in regions leading to divergence or convergence. As a result, effective policies are set up to maximize social welfare. Data are collected and used in estimations of demand functions of rice and fish, the function of assimilative capacity, the fish cost function, and the parameter of pesticide discharge. The total loss of fish culture (total external cost in the year 2001) due to pesticide use is about 9 billion $US. Two cases of linear and nonlinear forms are simulated with scenarios of initial values for the year 2001. The simulation shows optimistic results with prices going down and water quality going up over time, meaning the social surplus will rise. The phase diagram shows that the social manager should look for policies to raise the initial value of water quality to get an optimal solution. A comparative analysis of the model simulation shows the directions of change in parameters leading to a change in the steady state values. How to change the parameter values is analyzed and the analysis suggests different policies.

The use of on-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) for the treatment and dispersal of domestic effluent is common in urban fringe areas which are not serviced by centralised wastewater collection systems. However, due to inappropriate siting and soil characteristics, the failure of these systems has become a common scenario. The current standards and guidelines adopted by many local authorities for assessing suitable site and soil conditions for OWTS are increasingly coming under scrutiny due to the public health and environmental impacts caused by poorly performing systems, in particular septic tank-soil adsorption systems. In order to achieve sustainable on-site wastewater treatment with minimal impacts on the environment and public health, more appropriate means of assessment are required. The research described in the thesis details the processes adopted for the development and implementation of an integrated risk based approach to OWTS siting, design and management. This involved detailed investigations into resolution of some of the inherent deficiencies identified in the existing OWTS codes and guidelines, including more thorough site and soil assessment and data analysis, integration of the key risk facets of OWTS siting and design, environmental and public health, and the incorporation of scientific knowledge into the assessment processes. The research undertaken focused on four key research areas; (i) assessment of soil suitability for providing adequate treatment and dispersal of domestic wastewater; (ii) contamination of ground and surface waters as a result of OWTS failure and the major factors influencing contaminant fate and transport; (iii) assessment of environmental and public health risks due to poor OWTS performance; and (iv) the development of an integrated risk assessment framework for OWTS siting, design and management. The research conducted was multidisciplinary in nature, with detailed investigations of the physical, chemical and biological processes involved in on-site wastewater treatment and dispersal. This involved extensive field investigations, sampling, laboratory testing and detailed data analysis across the fields of soil science, groundwater and surface water quality, chemical and microbiological contamination, and contaminant fate and transport processes. The interactions between these different disciplines can be complex, resulting in large amounts of data being generated from the numerous field investigations and sampling processes undertaken. In order to understand the complex relationships that can occur, multivariate statistical techniques were utilised. The use of these techniques were extremely beneficial, as not only were the respective relationships between investigated parameters identified, but adequate decisions based on the respective correlations were formulated. This allowed a more appropriate assessment of the influential factors, and subsequently the inherent hazards related to OWTS, to be conducted. The primary research objectives for this research were investigated through a series of scientific papers centred on these key research disciplines. The assessment of soil suitability was achieved through extensive soil sampling throughout the study area and detailed laboratory testing and data analysis. The studies undertaken are described in Chapters 3, 4 and 5. Paper 1 (Framework for soil suitability evaluation for sewage effluent renovation) outlines a framework for assessing the renovation ability of the major soil groups located throughout Southeast Queensland. This framework formed the basis for the assessment of OWTS siting and design risks employed in the developed risk framework. Paper 2 (Use of Chemometric Methods and Multicriteria Decision-Making for Site Selection for Sustainable On-site Sewage Effluent Disposal) details and justifies the multivariate data analysis techniques used in establishing the soil framework. Paper 3 (Assessment of soil suitability for effluent renovation using undisturbed soil columns) describes investigations of the use of undisturbed soil cores for the assessment of long term soil renovation ability. This study was undertaken to validate the research outcomes achieved through the established framework developed in Paper 1. Papers 4, 5 and 6 (Chapters 6 - 8) focus on contamination issues of ground and surface waters resulting from poor OWTS treatment performance, and the different factors that influence pollutant fate and transport. The investigation of ground and surface water contamination, detailed in Paper 4 (Assessment of High Density of Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems on a Shallow Groundwater Coastal Aquifer using PCA) and Paper 5 (Environmental and anthropogenic factors affecting fecal coliforms and E. coli in ground and surface waters in a coastal environment) was achieved through extensive ground and surface water sampling and testing from several monitored study sites. Analysis of the resulting data indicated that several key factors, including rainfall, site and soil conditions and on-site system density can significantly influence the fate and transportation of pollutants emitted from OWTS. An additional issue found during this research in assessing faecal contamination of water resources was the necessity to ensure that the respective sources of contamination were actually OWTS. The inherent difficulty in identifying the actual source of contamination was resolved by employing a source tracking method, namely antibiotic resistance analysis of faecal coliforms (Paper 6; Sourcing fecal pollution from onsite wastewater treatment systems in surface waters using antibiotic resistance analysis). Finally, Paper 7 (Integrated Risk Framework for On-site Wastewater Treatment Systems) describes the development of the final generic integrated risk assessment framework and how the outcomes, as discussed through the previous 6 papers, were combined to assess the environmental and public health risks inherent in OWTS siting and design. The outcomes of this research have significantly contributed to knowledge of best practice in OWTS siting, design and management. The developed soil suitability framework allows more appropriate assessment of soil characteristics for providing effluent renovation. This is generally not done in the current assessment techniques for OWTS. Additionally, the use of this framework incorporates scientific knowledge into the assessment of OWTS, allowing a more rigorous and scientifically robust assessment process. The processes and techniques used in the soil suitability framework, although based on the common soil types typical of South East Queensland, can be implemented in other regions, provided appropriate soil information is collected for the area of interest. The integrated risk framework has also been developed on a generic level, allowing easy implementation into most assessment processes. This gives the framework the flexibility to be developed for other areas specifically targeting the most influential OWTS siting and design factors, and the potential environmental and public health hazards within those regions. The resulting research outcomes achieved through the studies undertaken were subsequently applied to a case study for the development of the integrated risk framework for the Gold Coast region. The developed framework, based on scientific research, has allowed a more appropriate means of assessing site suitability for OWTS and appropriate management and mitigation of the environmental and public health risks inherent with poor OWTS performance

The research project was formulated to solve serious environmental and possible public health problems in rural and regional areas caused by the common failure of soil disposal systems used for application of effluent from on-site domestic sewage treatment systems. On-site sewage treatment systems adopt a treatment train approach with the associated soil disposal area playing a crucial role. The most common on-site sewage treatment system that is used is the conventional septic tank and subsurface effluent disposal system. The subsurface effluent disposal area is given high priority by regulatory authorities due to the significant environmental and public health impacts that can result from their failure. There is generally very poor householder maintenance of the treatment system and this is compounded by the failure of the effluent disposal area resulting in unacceptable surface and groundwater contamination. This underlies the vital importance of employing reliable science-based site suitability assessment techniques for effluent disposal. The research undertaken investigated the role of soil physico-chemical characteristics influencing the behaviour of effluent disposal areas. The study was conducted within the Logan City Council area, Queensland State, Australia. About 50% of the Logan region is unsewered and the common type of on-site sewage treatment used is a septic tank with subsurface effluent disposal area. The work undertaken consisted of extensive field investigations, soil sampling and testing, laboratory studies and extensive data analysis. In the field study, forty-eight sites were investigated for their effluent application suitability. The sites were evaluated based on the soil physico-chemical characteristics. The field investigation indicated that there were nine soil orders in the study area. These soil orders were Dermosols, Chromosols, Kandosols, Kurosols, Vertosols, Sodosols, Tenosols, Rudosols and Anthrosols. The soils in all the investigated sites were acidic soils in the pH range between 5 and 6.5. The complexity of the large data matrix obtained from the analysis was overcome by multivariate analytical methods to assist in evaluating the soils' ability to treat effluent and to understand the importance of various parameters. The analytical methods selected to serve this purpose were PROMETHEE and GAIA. The analysis indicated that the most suitable soils for effluent renovation are the Kandosols whilst the most unsatisfactory soil order was found to be Podosol. The GAIA analysis was in agreement with quantitative analysis conducted earlier. An extensive laboratory column study lasting almost one year was undertaken to validate the results of the data analysis from the field investigation. The main objectives of this experiment were to examine the soil behaviour under practical effluent application and to investigate the long-term acceptance rate for these soils. Twelve representative soils were selected for the column experiment from the previously investigated sites and undisturbed soil cores were collected for this purpose. The results from the column study matched closely with the evaluation conducted at the earlier stages of the research. Soil physico-chemical analysis before and after effluent application indicated that the soils' acidity was improved toward neutrality after effluent application. The results indicated that soils have a greater ability to handle phosphorus than nitrogen. The most favorable cation exchange capacity for soils to treat and transmit effluent was between 15 and 40 meq/100g. Based on the results of the column study, the long-term acceptance rate (LTAR) was determined for the investigated twelve soil types. Eleven out of twelve soils reported specific LTAR values between 0.18-0.22 cm/day. For the duration of the laboratory study, the Podosol order did not reach its LTAR value due to the extremely sandy nature of the soil. The time required to achieve LTAR varied between different soils from 40 to 330 days. The outcomes of this research was integrated into a soil suitability map for on-site sewage treatment systems for Logan City Council. This will assist the authorities in providing sustainable solutions for on-site systems failure.

The relationships between metal exposure, dose and response were investigated in two sediment dwelling marine bivalves: a deposit feeder Tellina deltoidalis and a filter feeder Anadara trapezia. The bivalves were exposed in the laboratory to individual metal spiked sediments: Cadmium 10 and 50 Ag/g; lead 100 and 300 Ag/g; selenium 5 and 20 Ag/g dry mass, T. deltoidalis for 28 days A. trapezia for 56 days. A. trapezia was also exposed in the laboratory for 56 days to sediments from three sites along a metal contamination gradient of cadmium, lead, selenium, zinc and copper from Lake Macquarie, NSW. Metal total tissue dose was measured in whole tissue of T. deltoidalis over 28 days and in gill, hepatopancreas and haemolymph tissues in A. trapezia over 56 days. Subcellular metal distribution, biologically active metal (BAM) versus biologically detoxified metal (BDM) was measured in whole tissues of T. deltoidalis at day 28 and in gill and hepatopancreas tissues of A. trapezia at day 56. Biomarkers of response measured in spiked sediment exposed, at day 28 T. deltoidalis and day 56 A. trapezia were: total antioxidant capacity (TAOC); glutathione peroxidase enzyme activity (GPx); total glutathione concentration (GSH+2GSSG); reduced to oxidised glutathione ratio (GSH:GSSG); lipid peroxidation (TBARS); lysosomal membrane stability and micronuclei frequency. Response indices measured in A. trapezia exposed to Lake Macquarie sediments were: TAOC, TBARS, lysosomal membrane stability, micronucleus frequency and condition index. Native A. trapezia and sediments were also collected from Lake Macquarie and measured for sediment and tissue metal concentrations, TAOC, TBARS, lysosomal membrane stability and condition index to allow comparison between chronically exposed and previously unexposed organisms. T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia accumulated metal over time in all sediment metal exposures with most reaching equilibrium tissue metal concentrations by the end of the exposure period. T. deltoidalis generally reached equilibrium with the exposure concentration for cadmium and lead but had significantly higher selenium tissue concentrations than the sediment metal at the 5 Ag/g exposure. A. trapezia tissue lead was below the sediment concentration for all exposures including in the native organisms. A high proportion of accumulated lead and copper in A. trapezia was in the haemolymph, probably associated with haemoglobin which has a high affinity for these metals`. A. trapezia cadmium tissue concentrations were higher than the sediment metal in the 10 Ag/g spiked sediment exposure and between half and one eighth the sediment concentrations in other treatments, including in native organisms. A. trapezia including the native organisms exposed to selenium sediment concentrations at or below 5 Ag/g in the Lake Macquarie mixed metal sediments accumulated significantly higher than ambient selenium tissue concentrations while those exposed to 5 and 20 Ag/g selenium spiked sediments had lower than ambient selenium tissue concentrations. The majority of accumulated cadmium, selenium and zinc was associated with the gill/mantle tissues. A. trapezia hepatopancreas contributed significant selenium concentrations in the later part of the exposure period indicating and increased contribution from dietary derived selenium. Native A. trapezia had significantly lower tissue concentrations of selenium, copper and zinc, higher cadmium and approximately equal lead compared to organisms exposed to similar sediment metal concentrations in the laboratory. T. deltoidalis detoxified around 50 % of accumulated cadmium and 70 % of lead while A. trapezia detoxified around 70 % of accumulated cadmium and 60 % of lead. Much of T. deltoidalis BDM cadmium was converted to metal rich granules (MRG), while A. trapezia had most in the metallothionein like proteins (MTLP) fraction. The conversion of lead to MRG was 75 % of the total BDM in T. deltoidalis while A. trapezia had an even distribution between MRG and MTLP. The majority of recovered selenium in both species was associated with the nuclei+cellular debris fraction, probably as protein bound selenium associated with plasma and selenium bound directly to cell walls. Selenium exposed organisms had increased BDM selenium burdens which were associated with both MRG and MTLP fractions, indicating selenium detoxification. The majority of BAM cadmium, lead and selenium was associated with the mitochondrial fraction in both species with increases in cadmium burden in this organelle of T. deltoidalis up to 7200 fold; lead 154 fold; and selenium 7 fold and in A. trapezia up to 84 fold cadmium, 50 fold lead and selenium 7 fold in exposed organisms compared to controls. The subcellular distribution of all three metals in T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia indicates active metal detoxification processes which at these exposure concentrations were unable to prevent significant metal burdens from accumulating in sensitive organelles. A contamination gradient of zinc, lead, copper, cadmium and selenium was established in Lake Macquarie sediments which emanated from the same source. A. trapezia accumulated all metals in each sediment exposure. Accumulation and tissue distribution patterns of cadmium, lead and selenium were similar to those of the single metal spiked sediment exposures. Cadmium and lead BAM burdens increased at all exposures while selenium, zinc and copper did not. T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia in the spiked sediment metal exposures generally had reduced GPx activity. This resulted in an increase in total glutathione concentrations which the reduced GSH:GSSG ratios indicated was due to a build up of oxidised glutathione. T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia had reduced TAOC in all laboratory sediment metal exposures which corresponded with increased TBARS concentrations, lysosomal destabilisation and micronucleus frequency. A. trapezia exposed to Lake Macquarie metal contaminated sediments also had a reduction in physiological condition, indicated by the reduced condition index, after 56 days at the higher metal exposures. Clear exposure - dose - response relationships have been demonstrated for T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia exposed to single cadmium, lead and selenium spiked sediments and for A. trapezia exposed to Lake Macquarie mixed metal contaminated sediments. Detoxification of all metals was evident in both T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia but detoxification capacity was exceeded for cadmium, lead and selenium leading to significant accumulation of these metals in sensitive organelles. The significant relationships, in the laboratory exposed T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia, between TAOC reduction with increased TBARS, lysosomal destabilisation and micronuclei frequency and between increased TBARS with lysosomal destabilisation and micronuclei frequency indicates that increased tissue metal dose and BAM burdens caused significant impairment of the antioxidant reduction capacity which resulted in a cascade of effects from lipid peroxidation to cellular perturbation and genotoxic damage. The reduction in physiological condition in the organisms with the highest tissue metal doses suggests the response goes beyond subcellular perturbations to whole organism and potentially population effects. Chronically metal exposed native Lake Macquarie A. trapezia did not show a clear metal exposure - dose - response relationship. Accumulation of the essential elements zinc, copper and selenium appeared to be regulated while cadmium and lead were not. TAOC was significantly reduced and TBARS significantly increased compared to reference organisms but lysosomal stability and condition were not significantly affected. The suite of interrelated biomarkers used offers a weight of evidence approach for demonstrating adverse effects of metal tissue accumulation in T. deltoidalis and A. trapezia

Cleaning validation of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment is required by legislation. Generally, wet chemical techniques are employed using swabbing and/or rinse sampling methods. These are generally either selective and time consuming, or less selective and give results in a shorter period. The infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) technique explored here attempts to deliver accurate, selective surface contamination information in real time to complement current methods and reduce down-time. The IRRAS instrument used in this research is a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer coupled by an IR fibre-optic cable to a grazing-angle sampling head with a fixed incidence angle of 80°. The introduced flexibility permits collection of in situ spectra from contaminated surfaces. Calibration models are developed using the multivariate, linear partial least squares (PLS) statistical method. The research focuses on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a model cleaning agent, on metal (aluminium and stainless steel) and dielectric (glass, EPDM and silicone) surfaces. The effects of surface finish are investigated for SDS on stainless steel. Calibrations for SDS and paracetamol in the presence of each other on glass surfaces are examined, as well as a common industrial cleaner (P3 cosa® PUR80) on polished stainless steel. For the calibration sets in this thesis, RMSECV values were < 0.41 µg cm⁻², corresponding to conservative surface residues detection limits of better than ~0.86 µg cm⁻². However, RMSECV values depend on the calibration loading range, and the detection limits were typically ~0.2 µg cm⁻² for loading ranges 0-2.5 µg cm⁻². These are below visual detection limits, generally taken to be 1-4 µg cm⁻², depending on the analyte and substrate. This shows that IRRAS is a viable method for the real-time detection and quantification of surface contamination by surfactants and active pharmaceutical ingredients on metals and dielectrics.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thèse (D. en ressources minérales)--Université du Québec à Montréal, 2005. / En tête du titre: Université du Québec à Montréal. Comprend des réf. bibliogr. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Thesis (PhD.(Medical Virology)--Faculty of Health Sciences)-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Diss. (sammanfattning). Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.