<p> The goal of this study was to identify practical, cost-effective drinking water source protection measures in the Comarca Ng&auml;be-Bugl&eacute;, a remote indigenous region of Panama. Water samples from 40 spring captures were tested for <i>E. coli</i> and total coliforms, and quality results were then compared with maintenance and source protection criteria using odds ratios. The water was contaminated; only two samples passed Panamanian drinking water standards--0 CFU/100 ml for <i>E. coli</i> and 3 CFU/100 ml for total coliforms. Mean <i>E. coli</i> was 187 CFU/100 ml and mean total coliforms was 2036 CFU/100 ml. Few odds ratio tests of source protection practices produced statistically significant results. However, the presence of animals within ten meters of the source and cleaning out the spring capture structure had statistically significant relationships with water quality at some contamination thresholds. Surprisingly, at one threshold, the presence of surface water near the spring was unrelated to water quality. Protecting water sources from livestock can be complicated in this region by ambiguous land tenure laws. Likewise, cleaning and basic maintenance are often done on a volunteer basis, and thus subject to the limitations of the community management model. Panamanian and foreign organizations seeking to improve drinking water source quality should consider these complex issues and offer financial and technical support as they encourage source protection improvements.</p>

M.A. / Managers have an important and prominent role in an organisation. As decision-makers they hold the authority and responsibility to act on the available information. As leaders, they set examples and promote a culture of information sharing and collaboration. As strategists, they ensure that information policies are well aligned with the organisation's mission. One of the greatest challenges facing an organisation is to understand how the external environment is changing, what the changes mean, and how the organisation can best respond to the new provisos. The process of learning about the external environment is environmental scanning, i.e. the art of gathering and interpreting information about the environment enabling the organisation to have the knowledge to develop effective courses of action. The goal of information management is thus to harness information resources and information capabilities to enable the organisation to learn and adapt in an ever-changing environment. Key information processes will be assessed with reference to special problems of managing each process. At the same time the opportunity for change would be highlighted by combining an understanding of information use behaviours with a more flexible, user centred design of information services and systems. Competitive intelligence on the other hand is the systematic process of gathering and analysing information about the activities of competitors and general business trends to further the organisation’s goals. All definitions point toward creating knowledge from openly available information by use of a systematic process involving planning, collection, analysis, communication and management which result in decision-maker action. While competitive intelligence incorporates knowledge management processes of collecting and storing knowledge, competitive intelligence definitions discuss the actual analysis of the gathered information. Key factors for success of information management in organisations reinforce the need for the integration of business strategy and information. The key factors are the relationships with customers and suppliers; flatter management structures and better use of resources; training and quality and environmental issues. Each of these factors rests on information, its use, creation, storage and dissemination. A process approach to information management supports the integration of business strategy and information. The calls for integration come from at least three different communities: information management, information systems and management. Successful companies are those that adapt to and shape their environments. They do so by using and creating information in a process of continuous improvement and innovation. Key factors for success in organisations reinforce the need for integration of business strategy and information. Managers in firms see their success as dependent on their organisation's ability to accommodate and manage change and to respond to changes in their environments. The study concludes with a case study of Pyromet Technologies showing that it is possible to have an integrated strategic information management model incorporating all three variables successfully.

<p> Water quality monitoring is essential to human health, ecological stability, and scientific research but remains hampered by Large, expensive, inflexible, and sometimes unreliable systems. To address these problems, an open source, flexible, and inexpensive sonde was designed and created capable of meeting research needs, along with a buoy system to support its use. A new optical UV based sensor was created to help measure phosphate ion levels. Together these technologies could further ecological research and help safeguard ecosystems.</p>

Situated within the interpretive and critical traditions, this study aims to contribute to one of the continuing primary themes in urban preservation: how to interpret and preserve the intangible values of built environments. A comprehensive analysis of dominant theories of urban preservation forms the conceptual framework within which this dissertation takes place. It starts by locating the intellectual context of preservation in North America, and examines its basic premises and core issues. It identifies three limits to the traditional approach to preservation planning. The complexity and fragility of history, its narrative quality and its particularities, its emotional content and economic values, all connect urban preservation with public history. Therefore, in the spirit of communicative democracy and “a shared authority”, the study incorporates collective memory as an essential construct in urban landscapes, and suggests a culturally sensitive narrative approach (CSNA). The study employs an in-depth case study. The setting is Kensington Market in Toronto, Canada. It examines retrospectively the urban renewal planning of Kensington Market in the 1960s, identifies the pivotal events that prompted the change of urban renewal policies, and demonstrates, through the interpretive policy analysis, that sometimes urban renewal plans that fail to be implemented can become success stories in how to preserve urban neighborhoods as a kind of public history. To probe deeper into the sources of conflict between the professionals and the public, the study further explores the mutual relationship between collective memory and urban landscapes. It takes a selective look at some significant sites of memory, and connects them into a narrative path. Through oral history interviewing, field observation, and material cultural analysis, this part of the analysis constitutes an empirical study of CSNA. A proposition is derived from this critical case study. The study concludes with seven steps of CSNA, a guide for urban landscape preservation and planning.

abstract: Uncertainty is inherent in predictive decision-making, both with respect to forecasting plausible future conditions based on a historic record, and with respect to backcasting likely upstream states from downstream observations. In the first chapter, I evaluated the status of current water resources management policy in the United States (U.S.) with respect to its integration of projective uncertainty into state-level flooding, drought, supply and demand, and climate guidance. I found uncertainty largely absent and discussed only qualitatively rather than quantitatively. In the second chapter, I turned to uncertainty in the interpretation of downstream observations as indicators of upstream behaviors in the field of Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE), which has made possible the near real-time, yet anonymous, monitoring of public health via measurements of biomarkers excreted to wastewater. I found globally, seasonality of air and soil temperature causes biomarker degradation to vary up to 13-fold over the course of a year, constituting part of the background processes WBE must address, or detrend, prior to decision-making. To determine whether the seasonal change in degradation rates was introducing previously unaccounted for uncertainty with respect to differences in observed summertime and winter-time populations, I evaluated demographic indicators recorded by the Census Bureau for correlation with their distance from all major wastewater treatment plants across the U.S. The analysis identified statistically significant correlation for household income, education attainment, unemployment, military service, and the absence of health insurance. Finally, the model was applied to a city-wide case study to test whether temperature could explain some of the trends observed in monthly observations of two opiate compounds. Modeling suggests some of the monthly changes were attributed to natural temperature fluctuation rather than to trends in the substances’ consumption, and that uncertainty regarding discharge location can dominate even relative observed differences in opiate detections. In summary, my work has found temperature an important modulator of WBE results, influencing both the type of populations observed and the likelihood of upstream behaviors disproportionally magnified or obscured, particularly for the more labile biomarkers. There exists significant potential for improving the understanding of empirical observations via numerical modeling and the application of spatial analysis tools. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biological Design 2019

Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is implemented in urban landscapes to manage stormwater quantity and quality. Bioretention is an infiltration-based GSI strategy and demonstrates variable performance for total nitrogen (TN) removal. Internal water storage (IWS) is a sub-grade design feature that uses an underdrain with an elevated outlet to force a submerged layer. When a carbon source is present, often woodchips, IWS facilitates denitrification—the microbial reduction of nitrate (NO3-) to nitrogen gas (N2). This work considers the impact of IWS underdrain configuration, geometry, and IWS media on hydraulics, TN, and NO3- removal to enhance IWS design. To explore the impact of underdrain height, three laboratory columns with underdrains located at the bottom (0 cm), middle (15 cm), and top (30 cm) of a gravel-woodchip IWS were coupled with USGS VS2DRTI simulations. For narrow IWS geometries, width to depth (w/d) ratio < 1, hydraulic efficiency (ev) decreased from 1.0 to 0.76 as underdrain height increased from the bottom (0 cm) to top (30 cm). Changes in ev were attributed to the presence of immobile (low flow) zones below raised underdrains that limited solute transport. The presence of immobile zones impacted NO3- removal efficiency which decreased from 63% (bottom underdrain) to 32% (top underdrain) for a hydraulic loading rate (HLR) of 2.5 cm/h. However, simulated scenarios beyond the lab scale revealed ev varied less than 10% for IWS w/d ratios > 1 and indicated flow dynamics observed for narrow columns do not always translate to wider field systems. Under transient flow conditions, minimizing effluent NO¬3- concentrations and loads ranked least to greatest in the order bottom > middle > top underdrain configurations and dual isotopes in NO3- confirmed the presence of denitrification in mobile zones. Laboratory columns with bottom underdrain configurations considered three IWS media compositions of gravel, gravel-woodchip, and gravel-woodchip-biochar. Synthetic stormwater was modified to include dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and trace organic nitrogen compounds. Under continuous flow conditions, NO3- removal efficiency ranked in the order gravel-woodchip (78%) > gravel-woodchip-biochar (61%) > gravel (-10%) for a HLR of 2.5 cm/h. During antecedent dry periods, the gravel-woodchip-biochar and gravel-woodchip IWS removed NO3- within 18 hours following a transient event. However, the presence of biochar resulted in ammonium (NH4+) generation and effluent concentrations exceeded levels toxic to aquatic life. High-frequency field monitoring of an IWS with a raised underdrain was performed for eight storms over ten months. IWS nitrogen concentrations during storm events revealed that peak TN concentration generally occurred within the first hour during the rising limb of the IWS water level and that TN was likely exported from the system in the form of DON and NO3-. Additionally, NH4+ washout from unsaturated soil occurred during February through May and was attributed to sodium dispersion due to road salt application. This work coupled laboratory columns, modeling, and field studies to address the complexities of nitrogen management in bioretention as impacted by IWS underdrain height, geometry, ev, media selection, absorbent amendments, and seasonal patterns. When approaching IWS design for water quality enhancements, practitioners are encouraged to consider all these variables but recognize that the desired TN removal will not be achieved in some cases. / Environmental Engineering

No description available.

Yes / Water governance is a widely-used but ill-defined term. Our objective throughout this seminar series has been to analyse what it does mean and to question the consensus that seems to attach to it. In this paper for the final seminar I discuss what governance is not, I suggest what it is and I consider some propositions and issues that seem to have emerged from our meetings. In doing this, I appreciate that governance can mean different things to different people, but I suggest that, used in a specific way, it is a concept with particular value and significance for water development. / ESRC

Yes / The concept of water governance is a firmly established part of the consensus on international water development, and has become a constant theme in the policy processes we are discussing in this seminar. Originating in its present format at about the time of the second World Water Forum in 2002, it was specifically restated at the International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn, 2001 (¿the essential key is stronger, better performing governance arrangements¿), and it featured prominently in the outputs from the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, 2003. In the Alternative Water Forum, held here in Bradford just after the Kyoto event, we encouraged participants to analyse and critically debate the underlying ideas, In this paper I want to encourage this continuing analysis and debate. Like many of the issues we shall be discussing over the next couple of days, I believe it repays closer consideration, and that it encompasses a set of important ideas which must not be lost in constant re-iteration of a general theme. / ESRC

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the social, economic and technological factors that influence rates of adoption of innovative stormwater management approaches in municipal organizations in the Great Bay watershed, NH. The scope of this study was to investigate how innovations spread through municipal populations in a specific region and watershed area of the US. The methodology used mixed qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, case studies, and surveys to examine perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that influence the adoption of innovative stormwater management solutions, as well as the governance characteristics of municipalities at different stages of adoption. Major findings include: adopter categories can be relatively easily and quickly categorized into early and late majorities as a preliminary means to identify populations of ready and willing audiences interested in and capable of advancing innovations; early and late adopter classifications followed general diffusion theory, but differed in substantial ways that could influence overall project or program success; and finally that early majority communities have more internal and external capacity to advance innovations as well as higher levels of peer-to-peer trust to offset perceptions related to economic risk that can either advance or stall innovative stormwater management solution adoption. This research offers insights on how to allocate scarce resources to optimally improve water quality through stormwater management solutions, and makes recommendations for how to effectively and efficiently generate greater understanding of complex barriers to adoption that thwart innovation in municipal governance organizations. One significant implication is that agents of change who want to move innovations through a broad municipal population should focus their efforts on working with innovators and early adopters that have status within relevant peer networks and who have capacity to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of innovations.</p>