Could we estimate industrial wastewater flows composition using the UN-ISIC classification system?

Although we have extensive datasets on the location and typology of industries, we do not know much on their generated and discharged wastewater. This lack of information compromises the achievement of the sustainable development goals focused on water (Sustainable Development Goal 6) in Europe and globally. Thus, our goal was to assess to which degree the chemical composition of industrial wastewater could be estimated based on the industry's typology according to its International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) class.

Indirect potable water reuse to face drought events in Barcelona city. Setting a monitoring procedure to protect aquatic ecosystems and to ensure a safe drinking water supply.

The climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressures are expected to limit the availability of water resources. Hence, active measures must be planned in vulnerable regions to ensure a sustainable water supply and minimize environmental impacts. A pilot test was carried out in the Llobregat River (NE Spain) aiming to provide a useful procedure to cope with severe droughts through indirect water reuse.

The Catalan Surveillance Network of SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage: design, implementation, and performance.

Wastewater-based epidemiology has shown to be an efficient tool to track the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in communities assisted by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The challenge comes when this approach is employed to help Health authorities in their decision-making. Here, we describe the roadmap for the design and deployment of SARSAIGUA, the Catalan Surveillance Network of SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage.

Fate of N-nitrosodimethylamine and its precursors during a wastewater reuse trial in the Llobregat River (Spain).

In summer 2019, a full-scale trial was carried out to investigate the effects in drinking water quality when tertiary treated wastewater was discharged into the Llobregat River upstream of the intake of one of the major drinking water treatment plants of Barcelona and its metropolitan area. Two scenarios were investigated, i.e.

Combining multi-isotopic and molecular source tracking methods to identify nitrate pollution sources in surface and groundwater.

Nitrate (NO) pollution adversely impacts surface and groundwater quality. In recent decades, many countries have implemented measures to control and reduce anthropogenic nitrate pollution in water resources. However, to effectively implement mitigation measures at the origin of pollution,the source of nitrate must first be identified.

Occurrence of regulated pollutants in populated Mediterranean basins: Ecotoxicological risk and effects on biological quality.

Chemical stressors co-occur in mixtures into watercourses and this complicates predicting their effects on their ecological status. Our knowledge of river basin specific pollutants (RBSPs) is still limited, but it remains necessary to ensure the good chemical and ecological status. We performed an exercise on Mediterranean river sites exposed to urban and industrial pressures in order to, i) prioritize the occurring chemicals, ii) assessing the site's specific chemical risk (RQ), and iii) relating the chemical risk to the biological quality, using as evidences invertebrates and diatom indices.

Biomonitoring of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams in Europe: Current practice and priorities to enhance ecological status assessments.

Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) are common across Europe and dominate some Mediterranean river networks. In all climate zones, IRES support high biodiversity and provide ecosystem services. As dynamic ecosystems that transition between flowing, pool, and dry states, IRES are typically poorly represented in biomonitoring programmes implemented to characterize EU Water Framework Directive ecological status.

TREHS: An open-access software tool for investigating and evaluating temporary river regimes as a first step for their ecological status assessment.

When the regime of a river is not perennial, there are four main difficulties with the use of hydrographs for assessing hydrological alteration: i) the main hydrological features relevant for biological communities are not quantitative (discharges) but qualitative (phases such as flowing water, stagnant pools or lack of surface water), ii) stream flow records do not inform on the temporal occurrence of stagnant pools, iii) as most of the temporary streams are ungauged, their regime has to be evaluated by alternative methods such as remote sensing or citizen science, and iv) the biological quality assessment of the ecological status of a temporary stream must follow a sampling schedule and references adapted to the flow- pool-dry regime. To overcome these challenges within an operational approach, the freely available software tool TREHS has been developed within the EU LIFE TRIVERS project. This software permits the input of information from flow simulations obtained with any rainfall-runoff model (to set an unimpacted reference stream regime) and compares this with the information obtained from flow gauging records (if available) and interviews with local people, as well as instantaneous observations by individuals and interpretation of ground-level or aerial photographs.

Managing water quality under drought conditions in the Llobregat River Basin.

The primary effects of droughts on river basins include both depleted quantity and quality of the available water resources, which can render water resources useless for human needs and simultaneously damage the environment. Isolated water quality analyses limit the action measures that can be proposed. Thus, an integrated evaluation of water management and quality is warranted.

Regime shift from phytoplankton to macrophyte dominance in a large river: Top-down versus bottom-up effects.

The lower Ebro River (Catalonia, Spain) has recently undergone a regime shift from a phytoplankton-dominated to a macrophyte-dominated system. This shift is well known in shallow lakes but apparently it has never been documented in rivers. Two initial hypotheses to explain the collapse of the phytoplankton were considered: a) the diminution of nutrients (bottom-up); b) the filtering effect due to the colonization of the zebra mussel (top-down).

Water toxicity assessment and spatial pollution patterns identification in a Mediterranean River Basin District. Tools for water management and risk analysis.

In compliance with the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive, monitoring of the ecological and chemical status of Catalan river basins (NE Spain) is carried out by the Catalan Water Agency. The large amount of data collected and the complex relationships among the environmental variables monitored often mislead data interpretation in terms of toxic impact, especially considering that even pollutants at very low concentrations might contribute to the total toxicity. The total dataset of chemical monitoring carried out between 2007 and 2008 (232 sampling stations and 60 pollutants) has been analyzed using sequential advanced modeling techniques.

Wastewater reuse in Mediterranean semi-arid areas: The impact of discharges of tertiary treated sewage on the load of polar micro pollutants in the Llobregat river (NE Spain).

The presence of sewage-borne micro contaminants in environmental waters is directly related to the discharge of treated effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and the flow rate of the receiving river waters. Mediterranean rivers, in particular, are characterized by important fluctuations in the flow rates and heavy pollution pressures resulting from extensive urban, industrial and agricultural activities. This translates into contamination levels in these rivers often higher than those in other larger European basins.

Comparing the response of biochemical indicators (biomarkers) and biological indices to diagnose the ecological impact of an oil spillage in a Mediterranean river (NE Catalunya, Spain).

Three biomarkers of hydrocarbon exposure, liver 7-ethoxyresourfin-O-deethylase activity (EROD), fluorescent hydrocarbon compounds (FACs) in bilis, and the liver antioxidant enzyme catalase (CAT) were examined in the autochthonous fish species Barbus meridionalis collected in the river Fluvià (NE Catalunya, Spain) after an oil spillage. Four different locations were sampled, including the impacted site, upstream and downstream sites and a reference site. Biomarker responses were compared with diatom and macroinvertebrate community assemblage metrics (Specific Pollution Sensitivity index - IPS, and Iberian Biological Monitoring Working Party - IBMWP, respectively).

Defining river types in a Mediterranean area: a methodology for the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD), approved at the end of 2000 by the European Union, proposes the characterization of river types through two classification systems (A and B) (Annex II of the WFD), thereby obtaining comparable reference sites and improving the management of aquatic systems. System A uses fixed categories of three parameters to classify rivers: three altitude ranges, four basin size ranges, and three geological categories. In the other hand, System B proposes to establish river types analyzing different factors considered as obligatory and optional.