Use of Recycled Water for Irrigation of Open Spaces: Benefits and Risks

The supply and sustainable use of recycled water may play an important role in enhancing urban water supplies in many water-scarce parts of industrialised countries like Australia because of the reduced treatment cost relative to seawater desalination and imported surface water. One such reuse option includes application of recycled water in the irrigation of urban open spaces. In 2009–2010, in Australia, the state-wide average of recycled water use in urban irrigation was 27.2 % and the nation-wide average was 14 % of the total recycled water produced. In Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) approximately 3.8 GL of recycled water is used for irrigating sports fields, golf courses, parks, landscapes and racecourses and, by 2015, it is expected that the recycled water will meet 12 % of the total water demand in greater Sydney. Despite significant benefits of recycled water, there are several concerns related to environmental and health risks. If not properly managed, recycled water could deteriorate soil health in terms of increased salinity and sodicity, heavy metal accumulation and decreased hydraulic conductivity of soil. However, there are tools to reduce risks due to urban irrigation using recycled water; such as, national and state-wide standards of recycled water quality for urban irrigation, sustainable urban water management strategy and the pollutant control framework. In this chapter, recycled water usage for urban open space irrigation was discussed in the international and national contexts. Also, benefits and risks associated with recycled water usage in open space irrigation were examined and possible control measures were discussed

Wastewater Reuse in Agriculture: Effects on Soil-Plant System Properties

The use of non-conventional water resources can help to mitigate water stress and can support the agricultural sector. Treated municipal wastewater is one of the most readily available alternative water resources and its use in ag-riculture has been adopted to reduce fresh water usage in several countries, under their respective water quality regulations. This chapter reviews the re-sults of past and current research on the reuse of treated wastewater (munici-pal and agro-industrial) for irrigation and the corresponding effects on soil and plant systems. Particular attention has been given to research efforts high-lighting the effects of chemical-physical wastewater characteristics (e.g., ni-trogen, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and heavy metals) and the corre-sponding microbiological indicators (e.g., Escherichia coli and Salmonella) on irrigated crops and soils. The selection of irrigation methods is another topic discussed in this chapter. Drip and subsurface irrigation methods are considered the more suitable irrigation techniques to be used with treated wastewater; they minimise toxicity hazards for plants, reduce the contamina-tion of edible crop products, and mitigate human health risks by minimising direct contact between wastewater and plant

Microalgal Biomass of Industrial Interest: Methods of Characterization

International audienceMicroalgae represent a new source of biomass for many applications. The advantage of microalgae over higher plants is their high productivities. The photoautotrophic microalgae include all photosynthetic microorganisms, i.e. Cyanobacteria (prokaryotes) or microalgae (eukaryotes). These microorganisms are characterized by a large biodiversity and chimiodiversity. Then, the analysis of microalgal and cyanobacterial biomass often needs specific adaptations of the classical protocols for extraction as well as for quantification of their contents. This chapter reviewed the main analytical methods used for the analysis of microalgae biomass and its main vaporizable compounds: proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, pigments and secondary metabolites