Contents



Preface

This is a book about water quality. Like all books concerning water quality, it is not comprehensive and does not cover all possible water quality topics. *Water Quality – Science, Assessments and Policy* is comprised of nine chapters examining scientific issues; national, regional and local assessment practices and results; and national policy issues. It is organized into three sections dealing with water quality parameters, water quality treatments, and water quality assessments. The two chapters on science issues examine the basic indicators of water quality and a unique sociological indicator of water quality. The three chapters covering water quality treatment evaluate natural water treatment for soil-transmitted helminths and ecological risk assessment using a sedimentary approach. Finally, the four chapters dealing with water quality assessment examine the US lakes, streams,

The section on water quality indicators includes two chapters. The first, "Water Quality Parameters," summarizes the water quality parameters in an ecological theme not only for humans but also for other living things. This chapter maintains that water can be classified into four types according to its quality. Those water quality types are discussed and an extensive review of the important common physical, chemicals and biological indicators is provided. The indicators are reviewed in terms of definition, sources, impacts, effects and measuring methods. The final chapter in this section, "Sense of Place and Water Quality: Applying Sense of Place Metrics to Better Understand Community Impacts of Changes in Water Quality," examines a sociological indicator of water quality – sense of place. This chapter focuses on understanding people's values for coastal and freshwater systems. This focus is critical for protecting water resources and informing management decisions. Sense of place is a social indicator that captures the relative value that different people hold for specific places and offers promise as a tool for measuring an important aspect of the social value of water quality. This chapter proposes a quantitative sense-of-place scale and additional qualitative questions that can be used in conjunction with biophysical water quality data and water quality perceptions data to better understand how people's values change with improvements or degradations in water quality.

The section on water quality treatments includes three chapters. The first chapter, "Natural Wastewater Treatment Systems for Prevention and Control of Soil-Transmitted Helminths," examines exposures to wastewater and their association to greater prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths. Despite preventive chemotherapy, wastewaters in many countries still contain high concentrations of soil-transmitted helminth eggs that put exposed populations at risk of infection. This chapter explains the role of natural wastewater treatment systems as sustainable sanitation facilities in removing STH from wastewater and therefore preventing disease transmission. The second chapter, "Association of Polyethylene Glycol Solubility with Emerging Membrane Technologies, Wastewater Treatment and Desalination," examines membrane technologies for the treatment of wastewater. In addition, this chapter evaluates the use of membrane technology for desalination. The final chapter in this section, "Water Quality Ecological Risk Assessment with Sedimentological Approach," looks at the creation of the potential ecological risk

estuaries and wetlands.

Wetland Assessment: Beyond the Traditional Water Quality Perspective *by Mary E. Kentula, Amanda M. Nahlik, Steven G. Paulsen and Teresa K. Magee*
