**1. Introduction**

192 Studies on Water Management Issues

Young, A.J., Orset, S. & Tsavolos, A. (1996). Methods for carotenoids analysis. In: *Hanbook for* 

Despite the access to safe drinking and sanitary water, which is a precondition for human health and well-being, water quality is still seriously threatened by point and non-point sources of pollution, originating mostly from urban and rural areas. Due to rapid development, the problems associated with urbanization do not delay to appear: water scarcity, food insecurity and pollution (Esrey, 2000). Most people in Europe do have access to drinking water of good quality, but on the other hand there are one billion people worldwide with limited or no access to uncontaminated water (Jenssen et al., 2004). Conventional sewer systems use considerable amounts of valuable drinking water for flushing and transporting toilet waste. In the processes, huge amounts of fresh water, up to 50,000 liters per year per person, are contaminated and deemed unfit for other purposes. A massive flow of nutrients, drained from rural and urban areas, mixes with fresh waters. These nutrients take the form of excreta and are usually disposed into deep lakes or pits, rivers, and coastal waters. The excreta are toxic for many forms of aquatic life (*e.g*. fish and coral reefs), they cause eutrophication, reduce biodiversity, affect human health and soil quality (Esrey, 2000). Accretion of excreta also causes accumulation and release of toxic substances like heavy metals and micro-pollutants. On the other hand, research findings show that the world's reserves of commercial phosphate will exhaust in fifty to hundred years and, as predicted, the production of phosphorus will reach its peak around 2030 (Cordell et al., 2009). It is obvious that wrong flow of nutrients causes the loss of soil fertility and unnecessary water pollution at the same time.

However, agriculture is beside sewage still recognized as one of the major sources of nutrient loading and a significant factor in terms of ecological quality (Iital et al., 2008). According to OECD (2006) pollution from agriculture have been declining in recent years , diffuse pollution of ground and surface waters with excess nitrogen and phosphorus remains the most severe environmental problem of intensive agriculture (Herzog et al., 2008). Soluble reactive phosphorus originates from point sources (*e.g*. overflow from slurry tanks, farmyard cleaning) (Neal et al., 2008), meanwhile non-point sources of phosphorus are caused by soil erosion, agricultural runoff, and drainage where phosphorus is mainly

Ecosystem Technologies and Ecoremediation for Water Protection, Treatment and Reuse 195

physical damage caused by stormwater runoff, the water has to be retained and treated. Due to the dispersed origin and the big quantities of runoff water that have to be controlled, the strategy of nowadays stormwater treatment systems is towards a large number of low-cost decentralized facilities. A proper retention and treatment of stormwater enables reuse of treated water for different purposes including toilet flushing, watering gardens and parks, carwash etc. which can significantly reduce the consumption of drinking water. Stormwater systems are frequently located in parks and recreational zones, and thus need to be planned in consideration of urban and landscape architecture. They often represent a pleasant wetland or pond element in urban parks and residential areas and as such give an added value to the area. Many systems for stormwater retention and treatment enable percolation of stormwater to the underground and thus recharge of the aquifers, which are otherwise

Sources of data for this chapter are EC official web page (www.ec.europa.eu) and European

The EU legislation and international agreements have extensively addressed the pollution of aquatic ecosystems in the last three decades, to mention in particular the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC), the Nitrates Directive (Directive 91/676/EEC) and IPPC Directive (96/61/EC), the Bathing Waters Directive (76/160/EEC & 2006/7/EC) and the Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC). Data for this chapter are taken from the

The main requirements of the Water Framework Directive are to reach good ecological and chemical status of all inland, transitional and coastal waters by 2015. All pollutants and their associated anthropogenic activities must be addressed on river basin scale to ensure that good status is attained and maintained. Moreover, the WFD requires the removal or substantial reductions in the discharge of hazardous substances to water bodies. The adoption of the WFD has renewed debate on how the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy can contribute to achieving the goal of "good status" for all water bodies. Since 2000, a shift of the policy from a strictly production-oriented system towards a

Agri-environmental measures (AEM) have been a significant move towards achieving a good status for all water bodies, in particular with regard to nutrient losses. In the context of ecosystem technologies (ET) and ecoremediations (ERM), the AEM are the most effective legislative tool, which was first introduced into EU agricultural policy during the late 1980s. Since 1992, the application of agri-environment programmes has been compulsory for Member States in the framework of their rural development plans, whereas they remain

The commitments included in national/regional agri-environmental schemes are:

• conservation of high-value habitats and their associated biodiversity.

• preservation of landscape and historical features such as hedgerows, ditches and woods;

disconnected from the recharge by precipitation due to impervious surfaces.

**2. Approaches to water and pollution management** 

tool to support sustainable development has occurred (Agenda 2000).

• environmentally favourable extensification of farming;

• management of low-intensity pasture systems; • integrated farm management and organic agriculture;

Environment Agency web page (www.eea.europa.eu).

EC official web page (ec.uropa.eu).

optional for farmers.

attached to soil particles (Simon & Makarewicz, 2009). In addition to nutrients, pesticides and heavy metals are also frequent pollutants originating from agriculture. It is reported that only 0.1% of pesticides applied to fields actually reaches the target out of 500 different used pesticides, while the rest enters the environment and contaminate soil, water and air (Arias-Estevez et al., 2008). The reason for inefficient application of pesticides and the resulting high emissions to the environment is inappropriate use of pesticides, including the use of unsuitable equipment for pesticide application, preventive use of the pesticide instead of obeying application programmes according to the crop growth, and application before the rainfall (Appleyard & Schmoll, 2006). Pollution of water bodies with pesticides usually coincides with nitrate and bacteria pollution. Further on, there is little information available about the fate, the behaviour, and the potential effects of xenobiotics in the environment (Žegura et al., 2009). Nevertheless, both water and soil pollution has to be considered holistically, including the synergistic effects of pollutants; namely, in most cases of pollution with non-degradable or slowly degradable pollutants, such as heavy metals and xenobiotics, sediments are the final recipient of these substances that consequently accumulate there. A problem arises when toxic substances re-enter the biological mass flows and integrate into food chains, which may represent hazard to numerous organisms.

The human perception of non-limited water and soil resources and the assumption that the environment can assimilate the wastes that we produce from using these resources, leads to a linear flow of resources and waste that are not reconnected. The linear attitude that regards resources and wastes must be therefore changed towards a circular one, advancing towards to a recycling society. The concept of ecological sanitation therefore provides a "recycle" philosophy of dealing with what in the past has been regarded as waste and wastewater (Werner et al., 2000). The incentives for wastewater reuse/recycling are becoming ever stronger with increasing pressures on drinking water supplies. As a reaction, water reclamation, recycling and reuse are now recognized worldwide as the key constituent of the efficient management of water resources. An increasing number of novel systems integrating decentralized treatment approaches, source separation and nutrient recycling have evolved in recent years (Jenssen et al., 2009). With such an approach we can minimize water pollution while ensuring rational water consumption and its reuse for irrigation, groundwater recharge or even direct reuse to the benefit of agriculture (Werner et al., 2000,). Recycling by the recovery of phosphorous from waste products and the efficient use of phosphatic mineral fertiliser and manure in agriculture are the major opportunities of increasing its life expectancy. As Vinnerås (2002) said, 80-90% of plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) in wastewater are present in the toilet waste and if these nutrients are reclaimed by safe methods, they can be applied locally as fertilizer in sustainable agriculture.

An important aspect in water consumption and reuse as well as in pollution of natural water bodies is also management of stormwater. Stormwater runoff generates as a result of precipitation on impervious surfaces, from where it flushes different pollutants. It also presents a hydraulic load for the receiving water body causing erosion and floods. Stormwater is characterized by containing relatively low, but not insignificant pollutant concentrations. This characteristic of stormwater creates difficulties in treatment of runoff water because rather low pollutant levels in large volumes of water need to be reduced to yet lower concentrations. However, in the short period of first flush event high concentrations of pollutants can occur. In order to protect natural water bodies against pollution and physical damage caused by stormwater runoff, the water has to be retained and treated. Due to the dispersed origin and the big quantities of runoff water that have to be controlled, the strategy of nowadays stormwater treatment systems is towards a large number of low-cost decentralized facilities. A proper retention and treatment of stormwater enables reuse of treated water for different purposes including toilet flushing, watering gardens and parks, carwash etc. which can significantly reduce the consumption of drinking water. Stormwater systems are frequently located in parks and recreational zones, and thus need to be planned in consideration of urban and landscape architecture. They often represent a pleasant wetland or pond element in urban parks and residential areas and as such give an added value to the area. Many systems for stormwater retention and treatment enable percolation of stormwater to the underground and thus recharge of the aquifers, which are otherwise disconnected from the recharge by precipitation due to impervious surfaces.
