The goal of this study was to compare different methods to decompose the zinc ferrite from the waste streams of steel making. The samples were acquired from SSAB Raahe blast furnace and converter flue gas scrubbers and Outokumpu Tornio Works bag filters EAF1, EAF3, AOD and CRK. Sludges and dusts contain significant amounts of zinc in form of zinc oxide and zinc ferrite. Zinc ferrite is highly stable compound which makes recovery of the zinc difficult. The zinc could be recovered and recycled as a valuable material and the iron rich material could be fed back to process. New method was experimented to decompose the zinc ferrite. The pulsed corona discharge method creates highly oxidizing hydroxyl radicals and ozone which decompose impurities in water. The experiments with PCD equipment were not successful because the design of the equipment was not suitable for waters with particles. As another method, chemical leaching experiments were made with sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide. The most promising method for the zinc was the chemical leaching with the 5 mol/L NaOH at starting temperature of 70 °C for 120 minutes in case of the blast furnace sludge and leaching with 2 mol/L H₂SO₄ at 50 °C for 360 minutes for converter sludge from SSAB Ruukki. For the Outokumpu dusts (EAF1, EAF2, AOD and CRK) the 5 mol/L NaOH at 70 °C for 180 to 300 minutes leaching produced good results. Further studies are needed to optimise the conditions for the chemical leaching. / Työn tavoitteena oli verrata eri menetelmiä terästeollisuuden jätevirtojen sinkkiferriitin hajottamiseen SSAB Raahen masuunin ja konvertterin savukaasupesureiden lietteille sekä Outokumpu Oyj Tornio Worksin EAF1, EAF3, AOD ja CRK letkusuodatin pölyille. Lietteet ja pölyt sisältävät merkittäviä määriä sinkkiä sinkkioksidin ja sinkkiferriitin muodossa. Sinkkiferriitti on erittäin stabiili yhdiste, mikä tekee sinkin ja raudan erottamisen toisistaan vaikeaksi. Sinkki voidaan kerätä talteen ja kierrättää. Rautaa runsaasti sisältävä materiaali voitaisiin mahdollisesti kierrättää takaisin prosessiin, jos sinkki poistettaisiin lietteiden ja pölyjen seasta. Uutena menetelmänä sinkkiferriitin hajotukseen testattiin pulsed corona discharge -menetelmää, jossa vahvasti hapettavat hydroksyyliradikaalit ja otsoni hajottavat vedessä olevia epäpuhtauksia. Pulsed corona discharge -laitteisto ei sopinut kiintoaineita sisältävien jätevesien käsittelyyn, joten menetelmän toimivuudesta ei saatu tuloksia. Toisena menetelmänä testattiin kemiallista liuotusta rikkihapolla ja natriumhydroksidilla. Masuunilietteelle paras saanto saatiin 5 mol/L NaOH-liuotuksella lämpötilassa 70 °C 120 minuutin kontaktiajalla. Konvertterilietteelle paras saanto saatiin 2 mol/L H₂SO₄-liuotuksella lämpötilassa 50 °C 360 minuutin kontaktiajalla. Outokummun pölyille parhaat olosuhteet olivat 5 mol/L NaOH-liuotuksella lämpötilassa 70 °C 180–300 minuutin kontaktiajalla. Lisätutkimuksia optimaalisten olosuhteiden saavuttamiseksi tarvitaan vielä.

Tässä diplomityössä selvitettiin kiinteistökohtaisten etäluettavien vesimittareiden vaikutuksia vesihuoltolaitoksen toimintaan. Muutamat Suomen vesihuoltolaitoksista ovat aloittaneet mittareiden etäluentaan siirtymisen ja tällä hetkellä laitokset lukevat asennetut etäluettavat vesimittarinsa henkilöautosta mittarin ohi ajaen. Yksittäisen poikkeuksen tekee Forssan vesihuoltoliikelaitos, jolla on radiolinkkiverkon rakentaminen käynnissä ja sen tulisi olla valmis vuoden 2015 aikana. Radiolinkkiverkon kautta vedenkulutustietoa saadaan suoraan mittareilta vesihuoltolaitokselle. Diplomityön päätavoitteena oli laskea ja arvioida, onko vesihuoltolaitoksella kokonaistaloudellisesti perusteltua siirtyä perinteisistä mekaanisista mittareista ja perinteisestä luentatavasta ultraääniperiaatteella toimiviin etäluettaviin mittareihin ja täysin erilaiseen luentatapaan, jossa mittarit luetaan niiden ohi ajamalla. Ensimmäisenä osatavoitteena oli selvittää kiinteistökohtaisten etäluettavien vesimittareiden vaikutukset vesijohtoverkoston hydrauliseen hallintaan esimerkkikohteessa. Muita osatavoitteita olivat etäluettavien vesimittareiden aiheuttamien muiden hyötyjen ja mahdollisuuksien selvittäminen vesihuoltolaitoksen toimintoihin sekä Suomen markkinoilla toimivien mittareiden ja luentajärjestelmien toimittajien selvittäminen. Lisäksi osatavoitteena oli kartoittaa vesihuoltolaitoksen yhteistyömahdollisuuksia esimerkiksi sähkö- ja energiayhtiöiden kanssa etäluennan toteuttamiseksi. Suomessa etäluettaviin vesimittareihin ja niiden mahdollistamiin hyötyihin liittyviä julkisia selvityksiä ja tutkimuksia on toistaiseksi tehty vielä vähän. Osaksi juuri tämän takia työhön sisällytettiin runsaasti puhelin- ja sähköpostikeskusteluissa läpikäytyjä asioita, joiden pohjalta voitiin arvioida kokonaistaloudellista kannattavuutta sekä mittareiden aiheuttamia hyötyjä. Tietoa etsittiin myös kirjallisuudesta sekä kasvotusten suoritetuilla haastatteluilla. Vesijohtoverkoston hydraulisen hallinnan tutkimusalueena toimi Ylivieskan Vesiosuuskunnan toiminta-alueella sijaitseva vedenmittausalue, jonne paineenkorotuspumpulla pumpattu vesimäärä voitiin nähdä litran tarkkuudella tunneittain Ylivieskassa sijaitsevassa kaukovalvontapisteessä. Kun alueelle pumpattu vesimäärä tunnettiin ja kiinteistökohtaista vedenkulutusta seurattiin litran tarkkuudella kahden eri vuorokauden ajan tuntitasolla sekä kahden kuukauden ajan vuorokausitasolla, voitiin laskea vesijohtoverkoston alueellinen vedenkulutus eri pituisille aikajaksoille vesitaseyhtälön avulla. Tehtyjen laskelmien perusteella voitiin todeta, että siirtyminen ultraääniperiaatteella toimivien etäluettavien vesimittareiden luentaan mittareiden ohi ajamalla voidaan perustella taloudellisesti, jos vesihuoltolaitoksella on ollut tapanaan lukea mekaaninen vesimittarikantansa itse esimerkiksi neljän vuoden välein. Kokonaistaloudellisen kannattavuuden laskemiseen sekä arviointiin vaikuttavat kuitenkin useat eri tekijät ja sitä tulisi arvioida aina laitoskohtaisesti. Suurimmat erot mittareiden välillä aiheutuvat eri pituisista laskennallisista käyttövuosista ja sitä kautta muodostuvista vuosittaisista mittarinvaihtovolyymeistä, kokonaishankintahinnoista sekä mittareiden luennasta aiheutuvista kustannuksista. Alueellisella kiinteistöjen vuorokausikohtaisella vedenkulutuksen seurannalla voidaan parantaa verkostonhallintaa, jos tunnetaan myös alueelle pumpattu vesimäärä. Tehdyn tutkimuksen mukaan Ylivieskan Vesiosuuskunnan Säilynperän vesijohtoverkosto on tällä hetkellä hyväkuntoinen, sillä vuotovettä muodostuu keskimäärin vain noin 0,1 m³/verkosto-km vuorokaudessa. Jos halutaan minimoida kiinteistön sisäpuolisia vuotovahinkoja, vuorokausitasoinen data ei ole tällöin riittävää. Sen sijaan tuntitasoisella vedenkulutuksen seurannalla voidaan seurata tarkemmin kiinteistökohtaista vedenkulutusta, jolloin vuotoja voidaan ehkäistä ja niiden aiheuttamia vuotovahinkoja minimoida. Myös vuodon alkamisajankohta voidaan osoittaa huomattavan tarkasti. Tutkimuksessa tämä voitiin konkreettisesti huomata, kun tutkimusalueen erään kiinteistön vedenkulutus oli ensimmäisenä mittauspäivänä jatkuvasti vähintään 12 l/h. Syyksi paljastui vuotava WC-istuin. Etäluettavien vesimittareiden luentayhteistyömahdollisuuksia aloitettiin kartoittamaan tarkemmin sähkö- ja energiayhtiö Herrforsin kanssa ja sähkömittareihin asennettavia moduuleja on tarkoitus asentaa kokeille useampia. Sähkömittarin kautta ei ole kuitenkaan mahdollista lukea nykyisistä etäluettavista vesimittareista kuin vuorokausikohtaisia kulutuslukemia, sillä vesimittarit tallentavat vain vuorokausikohtaista dataa ja sähkömittarit luetaan vain kerran vuorokaudessa. / The aim of this Master Thesis was to determine the effects of residential smart water meters to the operation of water utilities. At present in Finland a few water utilities have started to move in on smart metering and these utilities read the smart meters from a car with drive-by meter reading solutions. A single exception is a water utility in Forssa, which has started to build a radio-link network and it should be ready within this year 2015. Via the radio-link network the data of residential water consumption will move straight to the water utility. The primary aim of this study was to calculate and estimate if it is economically justified to change conventional mechanical water meters and conventional reading methods for the meters, which measure water volume by ultrasonic technique and are read in a different way by a remote reading device installed in a vehicle. The first part aimed to determine the effects of residential water meters to the hydraulic management of a water supply network. Additionally, other goals of the thesis were to determine if there were more benefits and potentials of smart water meters to the operation of water utilities and to determine the suppliers of meters and intelligent networks in Finland’s market. Also the thesis aimed to determine cooperation possibilities for example with electric and energy companies in the reading of smart meters. At the present moment public studies and reports about smart water meters and their potential are scarce in Finland. Partly because of that many phone and email interviews were included in this study. These interviews were the basis in the estimation of cost-effectiveness and benefits of ultrasonic smart water meters. Information was also searched from literature and gathered from face to face interviews. The water-gauging area of Ylivieskan Vesiosuuskunta operated as a study area for the hydraulic management of a water supply network. The volume of pumped domestic water by a booster pump could be seen hourly from a telemonitoring office situated in Ylivieska with an accuracy of a liter. The volume of pumped domestic water was known for every hour and the residential water consumption was followed hourly for two days and during another two months on a daily basis. From this data the consumption of domestic water in a distribution system could be calculated for different time periods in the water consumption area. Based on calculations it could be noted, that the reading of ultrasonic smart water meters by a remote reading device installed in a vehicle can be justified economically, if the water utility has before read the mechanical water meters in person for example at intervals of four years. Various factors affect to the calculations and estimations of smart meter cost-effectiveness and because of that, it should be estimated always individually for different water utilities. The largest differences between the meter types are caused by different computational life expectancies which affect the total amount of meters to be changed every year, the total purchase price of meters and the costs of meter readings. The hydraulic management of a water supply network can be improved by following the daily regional residential water consumption, if the volume of pumped water is also known. Based on this study, the water distribution system of Säilynperä is in a good condition at the moment, because the amount of leaking water is on average only 0,1 m³/km/d. If the leaks are aimed to be minimized inside properties, daily data is not accurate enough. By acquiring hourly water consumption data more accurate water consumption in properties can be seen. Hourly data would help to reveal leakages to minimize damages. Also the starting time of a leakage can be indicated accurately. This was noticed in the Ylivieska case study, where water consumption of a property was in the first hourly gauging-day continuously at least 12 l/h. A leakage was found that was caused by a toilet-seat. The possible collaboration in the reading of smart meters was determined together with a local electric and energy company Herrfors and modules which are installed inside an electricity meter will be put in place to test them. Via an electricity meter it is only possible to read the daily water consumption, because current smart water meters save only daily data and electricity meters are read only once per day.

The Circular Economy Package, the National Waste Plan and Oulu Waste Management’s own strategy applies pressure to seek ways to improve waste management practices in order to promote sustainability and a more circular approach to waste. This thesis aims to assess the possibilities and to map the different alternatives for increasing municipal solid waste recycling in the operational area of Oulu Waste Management Ltd. The evaluation was based on cost, implementation time and effectiveness estimates. The research question for this thesis is: What are the options for Oulu Waste Management Ltd. to increase MSW recycling rates in its area of operations and what are the estimated costs? Investment calculations were done using the Net Present Value method. Values and information for the calculations as well as other evaluations were acquired from public sources, scientific articles, legislation and interviews. The first part of the thesis focuses on waste legislature and methods for affecting the amount of recoverable waste collected. The second part presents the current situation in the Oulu region and in the Oulu Waste Management operational area as well as the composition of mixed waste in Oulu and Finland. In the third part are presented the source separation methods and factors affecting it. The fourth part is the evaluation of the presented alternatives of the decentralized, centralized and hybrid solutions. The results for this thesis were that the most effective option would be to implement a Mixed Waste Processing Facility in combination especially with biowaste separate collection expansion to include all inhabitants in the Oulu Waste Management area of operations — or in short, a hybrid solution. Other recycling boosting options that would be good to implement with the aforementioned is to encourage detached house neighbourhoods to utilize small scale bring points. Information and public education campaigns would also have to be utilized to ensure proper consumer behaviour. The evaluated cost for the implementation of a Mixed Waste Processing Facility with the required capacity (100 000t/a) in tandem with supporting actions is circa 20M€. These results are to be used as a starting point by Oulu Waste Management to assess possible methods for increasing recycling rate in the Oulu Waste Management operational area in the future. In the process of this thesis, many questions rose regarding the use of recovered waste materials, the practical implementation of alternatives in addition to engaging consumers in source separation activities. As such, this thesis is a good starting point for future research. The results of this thesis are applicable and generalizable to other countries with modern waste management practices.

The non-timber forest products (NTFPs) sector in Nepal is being promoted with the concept of sustainable management as articulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity. To promote and regulate this sector, Nepal adopted the Herbs and NTFP Development Policy in 2004. The goal of this thesis was to assess the effectiveness of this policy along with other forestry and natural resource policies in Nepal concerning the conservation and sustainable use of NTFPs. I conducted open-ended semi-structured interviews with 28 key informants in summer 2006 in Nepal where I also collected relevant documents and publications. I did qualitative analysis of data obtained from interviews and document review. The research found many important issues that need to be addressed to promote the NTFP sector as envisioned by the Government of Nepal. The findings of this research will help to further implement the policy and promote the NTFP sector through sustainable management practices.

The main goals of this research are to investigate the anaerobic digestibility of algae and to investigate the effects of growth media on the growth rates, nutrient removal kinetics, and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) characteristics of wild type green algae. Anaerobic co-digestion of algae with sewage sludge is proposed to improve the digestibility of algae. It is hypothesized that the addition of sewage sludge improves the hydrolysis rate of algae, which is often the rate-limiting step for anaerobic digestion. It is also hypothesized that the composition and concentration of nutrients in growth media will affect the kinetics of nutrient removal and the content of EPS, which will influence algae flocculation and subsequent anaerobic digestion. In this research, algae collected from a local wastewater treatment plant were cultivated in synthetic medium, primary wastewater effluent and pure or diluted anaerobic sludge centrate. Light cycles and the level of CO 2 addition were varied at different stages of cultivation for nutrient removal and physiochemical properties of algae. Harvested algae were then anaerobically co-digested with varying proportions of sewage sludge under mesophilic condition. Results showed that when algae were digested alone (i.e. no sludge addition) with a small amount of seed sludge, algae were poorly digested. When algae were co-digested with sewage sludge, the gas yield was improved and the gas phase (CH4 generation) was reached faster. The biogas yield of algae increased to a comparable level to that of digestion of waste sludge when 44% (by VS) of seed sludge was inoculated for digestion. The addition of sewage sludge improved the hydrolysis rate and the overall digestibility of algae. Algae grown in primary effluent, which had a balanced N/P ratio showed a higher nutrient removal efficiency. The P-limitation in sludge centrate led to lower nutrient removal efficiency and higher EPS production compared to algae grown in primary effluent, indicating that sludge centrate was a harsher medium for algae growth. In conclusion, microalgae can grow in primary effluent and anaerobic sludge centrate for nutrient removal. Anaerobic co-digestion of algae withwaste sludge was strongly recommended to enhance the biogas generation.

Algae in drinking water supplies can cause problems with coagulation and production of disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Stringent regulations imposed by the Disinfectants/Disinfection Byproduct Rule have prompted many water utilities to consider using ozone as an alternative disinfectant to chlorine. The effects of ozone and chlorine on the coagulation of algae and the production of disinfection byproducts from algae were investigated. Two species of algae were cultivated: Scenedesmus quadricauda and Cyclotella sp. Initial experiments examined oxidant effects on algae cells and extracellular organic matter (EOM). Scanning electron micrographs indicated substantial alterations to the cell wall of Scenedesmus after oxidation, which was accompanied by a decrease in the particle charge. Particle size distributions of Scenedesmus showed a reduction in cell numbers after ozonation alone (no settling) when the cell concentration was low (20,000 cells/mL). In addition, the EOM was shifted to lower apparent molecular weights after oxidation. Cyclotella was less affected by oxidation: cells experienced little alteration. The effects of ozone on DBP production were determined. For both algae, preozonation increased the rate of formation and the formation potential (FP) of both trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). THM yields were increased by up to 50% following 1 mg/L ozone, while HAA concentrations were up to 20% greater than samples that did not receive preozonation. For Cyclotella, it was additionally found that the cells accounted for about 70% of the total yield, while the EOM accounted for the remaining 30%. Comparing the algae species, DBP yields from Cyclotella were double those from Scenedesmus when normalized to the total organic carbon concentration. Comparing DBP species, it was found that HAAFPs were approximately twice as high as THMFPs for both algae. Bench scale jar tests were performed to evaluate the effects of ozone and chlorine on coagulation of algae cells and EOM. Coagulation experiments with a polyaluminum. chloride showed that oxidation with either ozone or chlorine improved the coagulation and settling of Scenedesmus. This was evidenced by lowered settled water particle counts and turbidity. However, dissolved organic carbon concentrations were increased by oxidation, and this additional material was difficult to remove by coagulation. Under the same conditions, removals of Cyclotella without pretreatment were superior to removals of Scenedesmus. Coagulation of Cyclotella did not benefit from preoxidation with ozone or chlorine. Additional coagulation experiments examined the coagulation of algae-clay and EOM-clay suspensions. In both cases, increased calcium concentrations improved coagulation; however, preoxidation did not significantly impact the settled water quality.

Water suppliers that practice chlorine disinfection face conflicting objectives in providing adequate microbial protection while minimizing the formation of harmful chlorinated organic by-products such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). As a result of chemical and hydraulic dynamics, the chemical composition of water can vary substantially in time and space in distribution systems. Models that can capture these dynamics would be powerful tools for optimizing water quality. The goal of this research was to develop a mechanism-based model for chlorine/natural organic matter (NOM) reaction kinetics and incorporate it in a computer program for predicting distribution system chlorine, THM and HAA concentrations. Laboratory experiments were performed to characterize the kinetics of chlorine decay and chlorination by-product formation in treated drinking waters. In these experiments, treated waters were chlorinated under various conditions and chlorine, THM, and HAA levels were monitored as the reactions proceeded. The data from these experiments were used to develop and calibrate a kinetic model. The kinetic model is based on a simplified conceptual reaction mechanism. The form of the model is a system of differential equations that is solved numerically. Good fits (coefficients of determination > 0.90) to data sets that included as many as five different waters chlorinated under a variety of conditions were achieved. The kinetic model was incorporated into a computer program for predicting distribution system chlorine, THM, and HAA levels. The computer program tracks chlorine, by-product, and reactive NOM site concentrations. Local reaction rates may be computed as functions of one or more substance concentrations. The model was field-tested in the New Haven, Connecticut distribution system. In order to test the model, samples were collected in the distribution system and chlorine, THM, and HAA levels were measured. Computer simulations of the sampling days were created and model predictions were compared to the field measurements. Good agreement (most predictions within ±20% of observations) between field measurements and model predictions was observed, particularly for THMs. There was no apparent bias in the model predictions for chlorine, THMs, or for the di-halogenated HAA species.

In Sonic Apartheid: Ecoracism, Apartheid Geographies, and Noise Pollution in Cape Town's Blikkiesdorp, Alexandra Downing Watkins begins a project of mapping geographies of dispossession and abandonment in Blikkiesdorp (Afrikaans for "Tin Can Town"), a Temporary Relocation Area on the margins of Cape Town created in 2007 following a wake of mass evictions for the 2010 World Cup. After being created as a "temporary" solution, Blikkiesdorp remained a site of abandonment where evicted peoples, refugees, and other "undesirables" were sent to live. Seven years later, the City of Cape Town and the Airports Company of South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to realign one of the airport's runways, which would serve to relocate the community. Following the story of strategic organising by the Blikkiesdorp community to be included in the Environmental Impact Assessment that was being instrumentalized to further displace them, this work examines the community's struggle against conditions of abandonment through complicating the division of humans and the environment. This project engages with the mechanics of bio-, necro-, and geontopower, in contemporary South African environmental governance as an afterlife of apartheid spatial planning. The project features environmental research that was completed in cooperation with community members who shared their experiential environmental knowledge through interviews and diary entries as well as compiling decibel readings of excessive noise pollution. This data along with noise pollution diaries, photographs, and interviews has been compiled and placed in a digital archive in the form of an open-source ArchGIS Story Map. Combining theory and research contributed by the Blikkiesdorp community with the contemporary theoretical language of new materialism and critical race theory, this work engages with the porosity of bodies, the co-imbrication of bodies and landscape, how the creation of an "alternative social project" can serve to disturb and resist evidence-based technoscience and processes of ecoracist governance.

This research examines how recommendations for ecological restoration at a landscape scale are collaboratively developed and integrated into the United States Forest Service (USFS) decision-making and implementation processes. As the USFS embarks upon innovative approaches to collaboration after decades of legislation that encourages public input and collaborative planning processes, the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) marks a shift as it requires collaboration through planning, implementation and monitoring on landscape scale ecological restoration projects. While collaborative planning has become widely practiced in public lands management (Wondolleck & Yaffee, 2000; Koontz et al., 2004), challenges emerge about how to provide for effective collaboration throughout implementation. Collaborative literature suggests that formal processes create a clear decision-making structure and provide legitimacy (Bryson et al., 2006), and more informal processes help generate the dialogue and innovation necessary to resolve complex problems (Innes et al., 2007). Other normative principles suggest the success of collaborative planning is contingent upon having an open and inclusive process with representation from all stakeholder groups that have a stake in the issue at hand (Gray, 1989; Innes & Booher, 2010). In this research, I examine how different collaborative organizational structures can shape effective collaborative implementation. The question this research analyzes is: How do the different collaborative organizational structures perform in processing information, enabling dialogue among diverse interests, generating recommendations, and contributing to the implementation of landscape restoration? I address this question through a comparative case analysis of five of the collaborative groups originally funded under CFLRP in 2010. I conducted more than 10 interviews with participants from each landscape collaborative, analyzed numerous documents from the original proposals to annual reports, NEPA planning documents, meeting minutes and other relevant materials, and observed collaborative meetings on all of the landscapes. While each collaborative group developed various organizational structures and processes for creating opportunities for dialogue and processing technical information, they each performed differently in regard to the generation of recommendations for restoration treatments. Through my comparative analysis of the different collaborative groups, I found that the highest performing group was strategically and systematically inclusive of a range of interests and formally established with a charter between the group and USFS. Meanwhile, informal and exclusive structures struggled to obtain social legitimacy and were unable to develop and deliver recommendations that were incorporated into agency decision-making. Moreover, inconsistent meeting forums made it difficult to engage in dialogue, process information, or generate recommendations. I conclude with propositions about collaborative implementation. Among these propositions, there are two important structural elements that help refine the existing literature about how to structure collaboration to sustain itself throughout implementation. First, I argue that while informal dialogue is crucial to collaborative processes, formality provides legitimacy and transparency of process that can enhance consistent engagement in dialogue throughout all phases of the policy process. Second, inclusion of diverse stakeholders is critical to ensure that collaborative input is socially and politically legitimate as well as meeting minimal legal requirements for engaging with public land management agencies in planning, implementation and monitoring. These propositions refine existing theories of collaborative governance while adding nuance to our understanding of effective collaboration in practice. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban & Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 7, 2015. / Collaborative decision-making, Collaborative implementation, Forest restoration / Includes bibliographical references. / William Butler, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Christopher Coutts, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; John Scholz, University Representative; Eric Coleman, Committee Member.

abstract: Light-driven reactions can replace chemical and material consumption of advanced water treatment technologies. A barrier to light-driven water treatment is optical obstructions in aquafers (i.e. granular media) or built infrastructures (i.e. tubing) that limits light propagation from a single source such as the sun, or lamps. Side emitting optical fibers (SEOFs) can increase light distribution by > 1000 X from one-point source, but absorbance of UV light by conventional optical fibers limits their application to visible light only. This dissertation assessed how SEOFs can enable visible through ultraviolet light-driven processes to purify water. I first used an existing visible light polymer SEOF and phototrophic organisms to increase the dissolved oxygen level of a granular sand reactor to > 15 mg DO/L. The results indicated that SEOFs successfully guide light past optical obstructions for environmental remediation which encouraged the fabrication of UV-C SEOFs for microbial inactivation. I was the first to obtain consecutive UV-C side emission from optical fibers by placing nanoparticles on the surface of a UV transmitting glass core. The nanoparticles induced side-emission via Mie scattering and interactions with the evanescent wave. The side emission intensity was modulated by tuning the separation distance between the nanoparticle and fiber surface. Coating the fiber with a UV-C transparent polymer offered the optical fiber flexibility and prevented nanoparticle release into solution. One SEOF coupled to a 265 nm LED achieved 3-log inactivation of E. coli. Finally, a method was developed to quantify the zone of inhibition obtained by a low flux output source. By placing a SEOF connected to a UV-C LED over a nutrient-rich LB agar plate, I illustrated that one SEOF inhibited the growth of P. aeruginosa and E. coli within 2.8 cm along the fiber’s length. Ultimately this research informed that side-emitting optical fibers can enable light-driven water purification by guiding and distributing specific wavelengths of light directly to the microbial communities of interest. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Engineering 2020