One of the major concerns for the successful application of ultrafiltration in drinking water production is membrane fouling due to NOM occurring in water resources. Coagulation as a prior step before ultrafiltration enhance membrane permeability and its general lifetime. The main objective of this work was to determine the impact of various coagulant dosage and backflush pressure on fouling behavior and cake layer formation in a lab-scale inline coagulation–ultrafiltration system treating surface water spiked with humics. Permeability loss and the irreversible fouling resistance were the most serious in the system without coagulation. As the coagulant dosage increased, permeability drifted toward lower values suggesting a higher degree of fouling. It was also pro-nounced by higher compressibility of cake layer under higher coagulant dosage. A strong correlation was found for backflush pressure and fouling resistance. The most serious fouling attributed to the highest value of irreversible resistance was observed for the lowest backflush pressure (0.35 bar). Backflushing under 0.65 bar resulted in complete removal of cake layer with no need of forward flushing. Mass balance calculation suggested that the irreversible fouling was an effect of the internal blocking of pores by adsorption of humic substances.

Handwashing with soap prevents diarrhea and respiratory disease, but it is rarely practiced in high-need settings. Among 100 randomly selected villages in rural Bangladesh, field workers enrolled 10 households per village and observed and recorded household activities for 5 hours. Field workers observed 761 handwashing opportunities among household members in 527 households who had just defecated or who cleaned a child’s anus who had defecated. In the final multivariate analysis, having water available at the place to wash hands after toileting (odds ratio = 2.2, 95% confidence interval 1.3, 4.0) and having soap available at the place to wash hands after toileting (odds ratio = 2.1, 95% confidence interval 1.3, 3.4) were associated with washing both hands with soap after fecal contact. Interventions that improve the presence of water and soap at the designated place to wash hands would be expected to improve handwashing behavior and health.

Winter is a critical period for aquatic organisms; however, little is known about the ecological significance of its extreme events. Here, we link winter ecology and disturbance research by synthesizing the impacts of extreme winter conditions on riverine habitats and fish assemblages in temperate and cold regions. We characterize winter disturbances by their temporal pattern and abiotic effects, explore how various drivers influence fish, and discuss human alterations of winter disturbances and future research needs. We conclude that (a) more data on winter dynamics are needed to identify extreme events, (b) winter ecology and disturbance research should test assumptions of practical relevance for both disciplines, (c) hydraulic and population models should incorporate winter- and disturbance-specific aspects, and (d) management for sustainability requires that river managers work proactively by including anticipated future alterations in the design of restoration and conservation activities.

Independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) were created in various sectors and on different governmental levels to implement liberalization policies. This paper investigates the link between IRAs' independence, which is said to promote regulatory credibility and the use of technical expertise, and their accountability, which is related to the need for controlling and legitimizing independent regulators. The literature on the regulatory state anticipates a positive relation between the independence and accountability of IRAs, but systematic empirical evidence is still lacking. To tackle this question, this paper measures and compares the independence and the accountability of IRAs in three differentially liberalized sectors in Switzerland (telecommunications, electricity and railways). With the application of Social Network Analysis, this piece of research shows that IRAs can be de facto independent and accountable at the same time, but the two features do not necessarily co-evolve in the same direction.

The deployment of flat concrete blocks on subtidal rocky reefs can replicate natural reef microhabitats and provides a means for standardized sampling of cryptic invertebrates. The shape of the cavity beneath the block is related to reef topography and may influence the invertebrate community by affecting the amount of space for cryptic fauna to colonise and influencing the effectiveness of their predator-defence mechanisms. To determine the effect of sub-block reef structure and different levels of external predators on cryptic molluscs and echinoderms, I deployed concrete blocks at locations inside and outside the Maria Island marine reserve in eastern Tasmania, Australia. Relationships between sub-block reef structure and the cryptic invertebrate assemblage were evident between locations, whereas only a small but significant proportion of variation of assemblages between blocks within location was explained by reef surface area. No clear association with external predation pressure was evident in multivariate analyses of variation in assemblage structure. Juvenile abalone <em>Haliotis rubra</em> were not influenced by microhabitat structure but were significantly less abundant at protected locations, the only species to exhibit such a response. This result follows a decline of emergent adult abalone in the marine reserve and raises the possibility of recruitment failure of abalone at some fully protected locations in the longer term.

Many regions in the EU aim to increase their forest cover in order to expand timber production, sequester CO<SUB>2</SUB> or to provide more opportunities for recreation. Despite funding opportunities to support afforestation on private land, some of these regions do not succeed in enhancing their forest area. The objective of this study is to explore the institutional, economic and ecological conditions that would encourage farmers to enrol in an agri-environmental scheme for afforestation in Saxony, Germany. Using choice experiments and qualitative interviews, farmers' demand for varying contract designs is estimated. The findings show that farmers have a strong disutility for large forests and long contracts and would be willing to receive less subsidy if they receive technical forest management advice and have the opportunity to return to agricultural land-uses after the contract ends. Biodiversity and ecosystem service related factors (species' diversity, timber production and recreational access) do not significantly influence farmers' choices.

The success of river restoration was estimated using the ecosystem services approach. In eight pairs of restored–unrestored reaches and floodplains across Europe, we quantified provisioning (agricultural products, wood, reed for thatching, infiltrated drinking water), regulating (flooding and drainage, nutrient retention, carbon sequestration) and cultural (recreational hunting and fishing, kayaking, biodiversity conservation, appreciation of scenic landscapes) services for separate habitats within each reach, and summed these to annual economic value normalized per reach area. We used locally available data and literature, did surveys among inhabitants and visitors, and used a range of economic methods (market value, shadow price, replacement cost, avoided damage, willingness-to-pay survey, choice experiment) to provide final monetary service estimates. Total ecosystem service value was significantly increased in the restored reaches (difference 1400 ± 600 € ha<SUP>–1</SUP> year<SUP>–1</SUP>; 2500 – 1100, <I>p</I> = 0.03, paired <I>t</I> test). Removal of one extreme case did not affect this outcome. We analysed the relation between services delivered and with floodplain and catchment characteristics after reducing these 23 variables to four principal components explaining 80% of the variance. Cultural and regulating services correlated positively with human population density, cattle density and agricultural N surplus in the catchment, but not with the fraction of arable land or forest, floodplain slope, mean river discharge or GDP. Our interpretation is that landscape appreciation and flood risk alleviation are a function of human population density, but not wealth, in areas where dairy farming is the prime form of agriculture.

More efficient and sustainable use of water is increasingly becoming an urgency in drought prone parts of the world. In particular, in water scarce regions such as the Mediterranean, water supply is expected to become more uncertain because of climate change. Consequently, pro-active policy initiatives are proposed to increase supply reliability. Local context is important when the effectiveness of policies is assessed. The aim of this paper is to evaluate farmers' acceptance of policy strategies to increase water supply reliability in the Segura, a water scarce river basin in the south-east of Spain. Results from a choice experiment suggest that farmers are willing to pay twice as much as their current irrigation water price to ensure water supply reliability through government supply guaranteed programs. However, they are averse to any institutional changes that might assist the government to achieve increased water supply.

This review article portrays the use of biological activated carbon for drinking water treatment. Biological treatment has applications in the reduction of drinking water instability caused by the presence of low levels of biodegradable organic matter and reduced inorganic compounds. Instability causes deterioration in the quality of drinking water, such as bacterial growth and biofilm formation in the water distribution system. The article discusses the causes and consequences of instability, the measures used for organic matter evaluation, the formation and control mechanisms of biofilms in granular activated carbon and the techniques used for microbiological and biodiversity assessment of biofilms. In addition, it analyzes the integration of biological activated carbon with other processes used for drinking water treatment.

In this study we model the preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) of downstream farmers in one of the largest irrigation schemes worldwide in Sudan for improved irrigation water supply through transboundary collaboration with farmers upstream in Ethiopia. In a choice experiment, Sudanese farmers are asked to pay an increase in existing irrigation fees to secure future irrigation water availability by either enhancing the removal of sediments in their local irrigation channels or compensating farmers in the Ethiopian highlands for taking soil conservation measures to prevent land degradation and soil erosion. Although Sudanese farmers downstream do not feel very connected to farmers upstream in Ethiopia, we find a high degree of trust in international cooperation and a positive WTP for improved irrigation water supply and water use efficiency through transboundary collaboration.

This study tests the transferability of the nonmarket values of water conservation for domestic and environmental purposes across three south European countries and Australia applying a common choice experiment design. Different approaches are followed to test the transferability of the estimated values, aiming to minimise transfer errors for use in policy analysis, comparing both single- and multicountry transfers, with and without socio-economic adjustments. Within Europe, significant differences are found between implicit prices for environmental water use, but not for domestic water use. In the Australian case study, alleviating restrictions on domestic water use has no significant value. Pooling the three European samples improves the transferability of the environmental flow values between Europe and Australia. Results show that a reduction in transfer error is achieved when controlling for unobserved and observed preference heterogeneity in the single- and multicountry transfers, providing additional support for the superiority of socio-economic adjustment procedures in value transfer.

The purpose of sustainable development is to minimize the likelihood of dynamic natural and/or man-made systems to exceed tipping points, when exposed to disturbances. In effect, the systems are protected from losing identity and integrity. The authors of this paper suggest accepting resilience thinking as a basis of setting sustainability goals and reaching the respective targets. The resilience theory provides the method needed to maintain identity and integrity, and to manage system´s dynamics. Of concern are three interwoven systems: environment, society and economy, forming a complex super-system coined <em>eco-social triad</em>. Sustainable development of the triad applies to each of the three sub-systems despite conflicting interests of the various actors within each.<br />Resilience is expressed by the ability of natural or man-made systems to respond dynamically to changes of ambient conditions with the aim to retain their inherent function, structure and feedbacks. To manage such changes and associated disturbances a repetitive sequence of processes (also called <em>adaptive cycle</em>) needs to be executed. In ecosystems these cycles are self-regulated and characterized by recycling of materials and energy. In systems dominated by humans adaptive cycles are characterized by phases such as re-evaluation, re-orientation and re-commencement. The concept of adaptive cycles and adaptive management embedded in the resilience theory is considered a promising method to satisfy sustainability goals and reach respective targets.

One of the climate change scenarios that have been developed for the Netherlands predicts hotter and drier summers and a substantial drop in river discharge. This might lead to water scarcity with detrimental economic and environmental effects. Among the possible adaptation responses to climate change-induced water scarcity, the re-allocation of water resources among competing uses should also be considered. In this paper, we extend and apply a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the potential of water markets (water allocation according to its shadow price) to guide the allocation of scarce water across agriculture, manufacturing, and public water supply. We develop four scenarios in which the scope of water markets is increased from industry-specific to economy-wide. The results show that the agricultural sector bears nearly all of the losses from a new water-scarce climate, while the manufacturing sectors are able to mitigate their losses to a large extent by technical measures. Extending the scope of water markets unambiguously increases economic output and results in a re-allocation of water to the manufacturing sector from the agricultural sector and from public water services. If, perhaps for political reasons, public water services are excluded from water trading, water is re-allocated from agriculture to manufacturing. Depending on which sectors are included, the construction of a water market can have negative or positive effects on a sector’s output, and although the implementation of water markets may be positive for overall economic output and can hence assist adaptation, the effect on vulnerable or societally sensitive economic sectors, such as public water, should be taken into account when implementing such a market.

Fractionalization is a phenomenon in which strong interactions in a quantum system drive the emergence of excitations with quantum numbers that are absent in the building blocks. Outstanding examples are excitations with charge <em>e</em>/3 in the fractional quantum Hall effect, solitons in one-dimensional conducting polymers and Majorana states in topological superconductors. Fractionalization is also predicted to manifest itself in low-dimensional quantum magnets, such as one-dimensional antiferromagnetic <em>S</em> = 1 chains. The fundamental features of this system are gapped excitations in the bulk and, remarkably, <em>S</em> = 1/2 edge states at the chain termini, leading to a four-fold degenerate ground state that reflects the underlying symmetry protected topological order. Here, we use on-surface synthesis to fabricate one-dimensional spin chains that contain the <em>S</em> = 1 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon triangulene as the building block. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy at 4.5 K, we probe length-dependent magnetic excitations at the atomic scale in both open-ended and cyclic spin chains, and directly observe gapped spin excitations and fractional edge states therein. Exact diagonalization calculations provide conclusive evidence that the spin chains are described by the <em>S</em> = 1 bilinear-biquadratic Hamiltonian in the Haldane symmetry-protected topological phase. Our results open a bottom-up approach to study strongly correlated phases in purely organic materials, with the potential for the realization of measurement-based quantum computation.

The Lastovo Islands Nature Park (Lastovo Islands NP) was one of the first protected areas to be designated in Croatia, established in 2006. The area has been able to preserve its natural and cultural heritage due to the fact that it is an isolated and distant archipelago that was a closed military zone until the 1990s. In the last two decades the Lastovo Islands have begun to develop their economy, which is primarily based on tourism, followed by fisheries and small-scale agriculture. The number of tourists visiting the archipelago is increasing each year, especially the number of nautical tourists, who are attracted by the well-preserved nature, numerous coves and bays and good fish restaurants. Infrastructure and tourist facilities are not well developed and more construction is expected in the future, bringing with it increased pressure on the environment in coves and bays where the installation of new mooring facilities is planned. The Nature Park is currently in the process of developing physical and park management plans to establish the basis of future tourism development and management. Here we explore how ecological economics could be used to support decisionmaking for the sustainable development of the Lastovo Islands.