This study investigates how the data about environmental conditions can be used in order toprovide individuals with the tool to claim against industrial companies causing the pollutionand affecting people’s life. Based on extensive research in relation to the political, social,technological and ethical context of the use case, the design solution introduces an open dataplatform where individuals and NGOs can collect, store, analyse and reuse collected data. Proposed design outcome is creating a bridge between users outside of technological scopeand the emerging field of IoT devices in order to make the data collection affordable andaccessible. It introduces a workflow for implementing the off-shelf technology into the digitalinfrastructure together with supportive functionalities to use collected information forcontext-specific purposes. The concept was developed with strong emphasis on implementingdemocratic values into the design solution, such as protection of personal data, distributedgovernance and transparency.

No description available.

Marine debris is an ever growing environmental and human health concern. Beach litter is a major contributor to the issue of marine debris, especially in the Global South where lack of awareness and successful policy are factors in the continuous accumulation of debris on beaches and in coastal communities. Under the community-based, participatory action framework, this study will explore beach users’ and other key stakeholders in the local government and non-governmental organization sectors’ knowledge of waste in their environment and potential solutions to the issue of plastic marine pollution. It will also examine the waste composition on a local beach in São Sebastião, Brazil by collecting, quantifying and characterizing the waste to determine the major polluters. The study will explore ways of improving awareness and environmental education of beach users, as well as investigating ways to reduce littering of waste on beaches. Results from this research will help to provide suggestions for local decision makers to improve policy that addresses marine debris and beach littering. / Graduate / 2022-04-15

This is an exploration of the potential for a citizen science project, with the goal to get the general public involved in microbial soil biodiversity around Uppsala, Sweden. Biodiversity serves an important role in how an ecosystem performs and functions. A large part of Earth's biodiversity exists below ground in soil, where microorganisms interact with plants. It would be beneficial to analyse the abundance and spread of some microorganisms in order to gain a better understanding of soil biodiversity. We suggest that one species family to study could be Phytophthora. Phytophthora is a genus of oomycetes that often are pathogenic, causing disease in various trees and other plants. It is unknown exactly how widespread the genus is today, making it extra interesting for the proposed study. For the general public to be able to do this a device needs to be developed that is easy to use and preferably could be used directly in the field. An isothermal amplification method is suitable for identifying the microorganism under these conditions. Many isothermal amplification methods are expensive, perhaps too expensive for a citizen science study, but have great potential for easy field testing. We propose a device utilizing RPA and lateral flow strips. RPA - Recombinase Polymerase Amplification is a method for amplification that might be suitable since it is simple, sensitive, and has a short run time. It is however expensive, which is an issue, but isothermal amplifications are expensive across the board. Lateral flow strips can be used to visualize the results. They utilize antibodies to detect the previously amplified amplicons, and give a positive or negative test answer that would be understandable to even untrained study participants. One of the biggest obstacles identified in this project concerns amplifying DNA from a soil sample, because an extraction step is necessary. The methods we have identified for extraction are not performable in the field, since they require centrifugation. In the proposition for a device a possible work-around for this is proposed, but since it has yet to be tested it is not yet known whether it will work or not.

Lead and copper in drinking water are known to pose aesthetic and health concerns for humans and pets. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) set 90th percentile action levels for lead (15 ppb) and copper (1.3 mg/L), above which utilities must implement systemwide corrosion control. However, gaps in the US EPA LCR leave at least 10% of residents using municipal water and all private well users vulnerable to elevated lead and copper in their drinking water. To help address these gaps in the LCR, this dissertation 1) Evaluates accuracy of at-home lead in water test kits to help residents identify lead problems, 2) Refines orthophosphate corrosion control guidance to help reduce cuprosolvency, 3) Identifies challenges to mitigating cuprosolvency by raising pH, and 4) Develops guidance that can help residents assess and address cuprosolvency problems. Lead in drinking water can pose a variety of health concerns, particularly for young children. The revised LCR will still leave many residents unprotected from elevated lead in their drinking water and potentially wondering what to do about it. Many consumers concerned about lead may choose to purchase at-home lead in water test kits, but there is no certification authority to ensure their accuracy. Most off-the-shelf tests purchased in this work (12 of 16) were not able to detect dissolved or particulate lead at levels of concern in drinking water (i.e. near the lead action level of 15 ppb) due to high detection limits (5,000-20,000 ppb). Binary type tests, which indicate the presence or absence of lead based on a trigger threshold of 15 ppb, were often effective at detecting dissolved lead, but they failed to detect the presence of leaded particles that often cause high lead exposures in drinking water problems. Some of these problems detecting particles could be reduced using simple at-home acid dissolution with weak household acids such a vinegar or lemon juice. Our analysis points out the strengths and weaknesses of various types of at-home lead in water tests, which could be particularly important considering potential distrust in official results in the aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis. Elevated cuprosolvency, or copper release into drinking water, can be an aesthetic concern due to fixture staining, blue water, and green hair and can pose health concerns for residents and pets. In addition to the general gaps in the LCR described above, compliance sampling in the LCR focuses on older homes at highest risk of elevated lead, rather than the newer homes at highest risk of elevated copper. Problems with elevated copper can sometimes go undetected as a result. Guidance was developed to help proactive utilities address cuprosolvency issues through the addition of orthophosphate corrosion inhibitors or pH adjustment as a function of a water's alkalinity. Linear regressions developed from pipe cuprosolvency tests (R2>0.98) determined a "minimum" orthophosphate dose or a "minimum" pH for a given alkalinity that was expected to almost always reduce copper below the 1.3 mg/L EPA action level in a reasonable length of time. The subjective nature of the terms "almost always" and "reasonable length of time" were quantitatively discussed based on laboratory and field data. Orthophosphate addition was generally very effective at cuprosolvency control. Orthophosphate treatment in copper tube cuprosolvency tests produced cuprosolvency below the action level within the first week of treatment. As expected, orthophosphate treated waters sometimes resulted in higher long-term cuprosolvency than the same waters without orthophosphate corrosion control treatment. This is consistent with the formation of phosphate scales which have an intermediate solubility between the cupric hydroxide in new pipes and the malachite or tenorite scales expected in pipe aging without orthophosphate. A linear regression (R2>0.98) was used to determine the orthophosphate dose needed for a given alkalinity to yield copper below the 1.3 mg/L action level in the pipe segments with the highest, 2nd highest, 3rd highest copper concentrations (100th, 95th, or 90th percentile, n=20 replicates, five each from four manufacturers) after 4 or 22 weeks of pipe aging. This regression was generally in good agreement with a bin approach put forth in the 2015 Consensus Statement from the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, but in some cases the regression predicted that higher orthophosphate doses would be needed. In contrast, due to the greater complexity of the reactions involved, a similar simplistic approach for pH adjustment is not widely applicable. A linear regression predicted that higher "minimum" pH values would be needed to control cuprosolvency compared to those suggested by the 2015 National Drinking Water Advisory Consensus Statement. Results indicate that factors such as the potential for calcite precipitation, pipe age, and significant variability in cuprosolvency from pipes of different manufacturers may warrant further research. Field LCR monitoring data indicated that 90th percentile copper concentrations continued to decline over a period of years or decades when orthophosphate is not used, and our laboratory results demonstrate a few cases where copper levels even increased with time. Consideration of confounding effects from other water quality parameters such as natural organic matter, silica, and sulfate would be necessary before the "minimum" pH criteria could be broadly applied. Guidance was then developed to help address cuprosolvency issues on a single building or single home basis for residents with private wells or those with high copper in municipal systems meeting the LCR. A hierarchy of costs and considerations for various interventions are discussed including replumbing with alternative materials, using bottled water or point use pitcher, tap, or reverse osmosis filters to reduce copper consumption, and using whole house interventions like more conventional orthophosphate addition and pH adjustment, or unproven strategies like granular activated carbon filtration, reverse osmosis treatment, and ion exchange treatment. Laboratory and citizen science testing demonstrated that some inexpensive at-home tests for pH and copper, were accurate enough to serve as inputs for this guidance and could empower consumers to diagnose their problems and consider possible solutions. Citizen science field testing and companion laboratory studies of potential interventions indicate that short-term (<36 weeks) use of pH adjustment, granular activated carbon, anion exchange and reverse osmosis treated water were not effective at forming a protective scale for the resident's water tested. In this case-study, cuprosolvency problems were ultimately related to water chemistry and linked to variability in influent water pH. Overall, this work highlighted weaknesses in the current US EPA Lead and Copper Rule. It attempted to close some of these gaps by assessing the accuracy of at-home citizen science tests for lead and copper detection and developing guidance to support voluntary interventions by utilities or consumers. Ideally, local authorities (utilities, health departments, cooperative extension programs) could adapt this guidance to account for local water quality considerations and support consumers in resolving cuprosolvency issues. This guidance may also serve as a citizen science approach that some consumers could use to make decisions on their own. Future work could extend and improve on these initial efforts. / Doctor of Philosophy / Lead or copper in drinking water can come from corrosion of plumbing materials. Elevated levels of these metals can cause aesthetic concerns like blue water and fixture staining, as well as health concerns for humans and pets. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) is designed to address system wide lead and copper corrosion problems in municipal water supplies. According to the LCR, utilities must notify consumers and implement corrosion control if more than 10% of homes sampled have lead above 15 ppb or copper above 1.3 mg/L. However, gaps in the US EPA LCR leave at least 10% of residents using municipal water and all private well users vulnerable to elevated lead and copper in their drinking water. To help address these gaps in the LCR, this dissertation 1) Evaluates how accurate residential at-home tests are at detecting lead in water, 2) Refines orthophosphate corrosion control guidance to help address elevated cuprosolvency (i.e. copper release to water), 3) Identifies challenges addressing cuprosolvency issues by raising the pH, and 4) Develops guidance to help residents detect and address cuprosolvency problems. Lead in drinking water can come from corrosion of lead bearing plumbing such as lead service lines and lead solder. Lead can pose a variety of health concerns, particularly for young children. In spite of recent revisions, the LCR will still leave many residents unprotected from elevated lead in their drinking water and potentially wondering what to do about it. Many consumers concerned about lead may choose to purchase at-home lead in water test kits, but there is no certification authority to ensure that they are accurate. Most off- the-shelf tests purchased in this work (12 of 16) were not able to detect dissolved lead or lead from particulate at concentrations expected to occur in drinking water due to high detection limits (5,000-20,000 ppb). Binary type tests, which indicate the presence or absence of lead based on a trigger threshold of 15 ppb, were often effective at detecting dissolved lead, but they failed to detect the presence of leaded particles that often cause high lead exposures in drinking water problems. Some of these problems detecting particles could be reduced using a simple procedure to attempt to dissolve the particles using weak household acids like vine- gar or lemon juice. Our analysis points out the strengths and weaknesses of various types of at-home lead in water tests, which could be particularly important considering potential distrust in official results in the aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis. Elevated cuprosolvency, or copper release into drinking water, primarily causes aesthetic problems like fixture staining and blue water, and it can also pose acute and serious health concerns for residents and some pets. Many of the same issues with the LCR that leave residents at risk of lead can also lead to unaddressed issues with elevated copper. In addition to those issues, the LCR focuses on collecting water samples in older homes at highest risk of lead, instead of newer homes at highest risk of copper. This means that many cuprosolvency problems could go undetected. Guidance was developed to help proactive utilities address cuprosolvency problems throughout the whole water system by adding orthophosphate corrosion inhibitors or adjusting the pH of their water. Linear relationships were developed from cuprosolvency testing in copper pipes (strong correlations, R2>0.98) to determine the "minimum" orthophosphate dose or pH value needed based on the water alkalinity that was expected to almost always reduce copper below the 1.3 mg/L EPA action level in a reason- able length of time. We also discuss the subjective nature of the terms "almost always" and "reasonable length of time" based on laboratory and field data. Adding orthophosphate was generally very effective at controlling cuprosolvency. In tests in copper pipe segments, copper concentrations in the water were below the action level within one week of starting to add orthophosphate. As expected, sometimes waters with orthophosphate treatment resulted in higher long-term copper concentrations than waters without orthophosphate. This is in agreement with reports of formation of phosphate mineral scales which have an intermediate solubility between those in new pipes and the scales expected in pipe aging without orthophosphate. A linear regression (strong correlation, R2>0.98) was used to determine the orthophosphate dose needed for a given alkalinity to yield copper below the 1.3 mg/L action level in the worst, second worst, and third worst pipes of the 20 pipe segments tested (100th, 95th, or 90th percentile) after 4 or 22 weeks of pipe aging. This linear relationship was generally in good agreement with a bin approach put forth in the 2015 Consensus Statement from the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, but in some cases the regression predicted that higher orthophosphate doses would be needed. In contrast, we showed that adjusting the pH to control cuprosolvency was too simplistic to be widely applicable because the chemical reactions involved are more complex. The linear relationship we developed predicted that higher "minimum" pH values would be needed to control cuprosolvency compared to those suggested by the 2015 National Drinking Water Advisory Consensus Statement. Other factors such as the potential calcite precipitation, which can clog pipes, pipe age, and significant variability in copper coming off pipes from different manufacturers may require consideration when considering treatment options. LCR monitoring data from utilities indicated that copper concentrations continued to decline over a period of years or decades when orthophosphate was not used, and our laboratory results demonstrate a few cases where copper levels even increased with time. We also showed that other water quality components like natural organic matter, silica, and sulfate can affect cuprosolvency and could make it difficult to broadly apply the "minimum" pH approach for controlling cuprosolvency in places with different water qualities. Guidance was then developed to help address cuprosolvency issues on a single building or single home basis for residents with private wells or those with high copper in municipal systems meeting the LCR. A hierarchy of costs and considerations is described for various interventions including replumbing with alternative materials, using bottled water or point use pitcher, tap, or reverse osmosis filters to reduce copper consumption, and using whole house interventions like more conventional orthophosphate addition and pH adjustment, or unproven strategies like granular activated carbon filtration, reverse osmosis treatment, and ion exchange treatment. Laboratory and citizen science testing demonstrated that some in- expensive at-home tests for pH and copper, were accurate enough to serve as inputs for this guidance and could empower consumers to diagnose their problems and consider possible solutions. Testing of potential water treatments in the laboratory and citizen science testing in a resident's home showed that short-term (<36 weeks) use of pH adjustment, granular activated carbon, anion exchange, and reverse osmosis treated water did not form a permanent, low-solubility protective scale for this resident's water. In this case-study, cuprosolvency problems were ultimately related to water chemistry and linked to variability in incoming pH of the water. This thesis highlighted weaknesses in the current US EPA Lead and Copper Rule. It at- tempted to address some of these issues by determining the accuracy of at-home citizen science tests to help residents detect lead and copper and developing guidance to support voluntary interventions by utilities or consumers. Ideally, local authorities (utilities, health departments, cooperative extension programs) could adapt this guidance to account for local water quality considerations and support consumers in resolving cuprosolvency issues. This guidance may also serve as a citizen science approach that some consumers could use to make decisions on their own. Future work could extend and improve on these initial efforts.

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Damages caused by urban pluvial floods are believed to increase due to climate change and urbanization as more citizens are impacted in densely populated cities and extreme rainfalls occur more frequently with higher intensities. To prepare cities for these calamities, urban pluvial flood models are created to provide knowledge about how an extreme rainfall event could inundate the studied city. However, due to the scarcity of observation data from these rainfall events, flood models are seldom calibrated which is necessary to ensure their accuracy.  To improve the feasibility of calibrations an emerging data source was tested, crowdsourced images from citizens. Citizens’ observations have become increasingly available due to the increase of mobile phones and the development of social media enabling citizens to document and upload their observations to the public. Researchers could use these observations as an unconventional data source to calibrate models and reduce the knowledge gap regarding urban floods. The aim of this study was to explore and increase our understanding of how citizen’s observations can be used to calibrate an urban pluvial flood model. A case study about the cloudburst event in Malmö was conducted to study this topic. During that event, more than 100 mm of rain fell over a period of 6 hours in the city and caused 60 million euros of damages.  A total of 297 images depicting the flood caused by the cloudburst event were gathered from social media platforms, newspapers archives, and by inquiring citizens. Images were screened and analysed: water levels were estimated in 66 images and were then used to calibrate a 2D flood model. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of the calibrated results was conducted by calculating the RMSE for different subsets and compare it with the RMSE for the full dataset of citizens’ observations. This was done to study how different characteristics, such as timestamp and source as well as sample size and location of the images influences the calibration procedure. After the model was calibrated, the importance of spatial variability in the rainfall input was tested by comparing the flood model output between the spatially varied observed rainfall and a Chicago Design Storm rainfall, which lacks spatial variability.  It was concluded that images from citizens can be used to calibrate an urban pluvial flood model, but the procedure is time-consuming. However, it was also evident that images directly inquired from citizens reduced the time needed as their local knowledge could be integrated. The calibration procedure was also sensitive to the quality of the observations, especially when the images were photographed in relation to the rainfall event. Even though the study had limitations it demonstrates new possibilities to calibrate urban pluvial flood models. / Konsekvenserna av översvämningar från skyfall i städer, så kallade pluviala översvämningar, förväntas öka på grund av urbanisering och klimatförändringar. Det är för att fler påverkas av översvämningar i tätbyggda städer samt att skyfall förväntas öka, både i intensitet och frekvens. Med hjälp av skyfallsmodeller kan dock förståelsen för hur extrema regn översvämmar städer öka. Med denna kunskap kan åtgärder för att minimera konsekvenserna implementeras, såsom blågrön infrastruktur. Däremot finns det en brist av observationsdata från pluviala översvämningar och vilket medför att dessa modeller ytterst sällan kalibreras. Kalibrering är viktig för att säkerställa tillförlitliga modeller.  För att öka möjligheten att kalibrera dessa modeller undersöktes hur observationer från medborgare kan implementeras. Dessa observationer är en relativ oprövad metod men har blivit alltmer tillgängliga tack vare allt bättre mobiltelefonkameror och utvecklingen av sociala medier, vilket gör det enkelt för medborgare att dokumentera och ladda upp sina observationer till allmänheten. Syftet med denna studie är därför att öka förståelsen för hur bilder från medborgare kan användas för att möjliggöra kalibreringen av översvämningsmodeller. En fallstudie över ett skyfall i Malmö 2014 används för att utvärdera denna metod. Under detta skyfall regnade det mer än 100 mm vilket orsakade skador för cirka 600 miljoner kronor.  Totalt samlades 297 bilder som föreställde översvämningen som orsakades av skyfallet. Bilderna samlades ifrån sociala media, tidningsbildarkiv och genom att fråga medborgare efter bilder. Vattennivåerna uppskattades i 66 bilder och de användes sedan för att kalibrera en 2D- skyfallsmodell. Utöver kalibreringen genomfördes en känslighetsanalys av de kalibrerade resultaten genom att jämföra medelfelet för olika subgrupper av bilderna mot medelfelet för alla bilder. Detta gjordes för att studera hur olika egenskaper, såsom när bilden togs och deras ursprung samt bildernas urvalsstorlek och placering påverkar kalibreringsprocessen. Efter att modellen kalibrerats testades också betydelsen av spatial variation i nederbörden genom att jämföra de simulerade vattennivåerna mellan den spatialt varierade historiska regnet och ett syntetiskt CDS-regn som saknar variation.  Utifrån det drogs slutsatsen att bilder från medborgare kan användas för att kalibrera en skyfallsmodell, men metoden är tidskrävande. Dock var det tydligt att bilder som direkt efterfrågades från medborgarna minskade arbetsbördan då deras lokalkännedom kunde inkluderas. Kalibreringen var också känslig för observationerna datakvalitet, särskilt när bilderna fotograferades i förhållande till regnet. Även om studien hade begränsningar visar den att det finns stora möjligheter att kalibrera skyfallsmodeller med observationer från medborgare.