Measuring performance of low impact development practices for the surface runoff management.

Continuous urbanization over the last few years has led to the increase in impervious surfaces and stormwater runoff. Low Impact Development (LID) is currently receiving increased attention as a promising strategy for surface runoff management. To analyze the performance of LID practices for surface runoff management, a long-term hydrological modeling from 2001 to 2015 along with a cost-effectiveness analysis were carried out on a campus in Dresden, Germany.

Hot spots of antibiotic tolerant and resistant bacterial subpopulations in natural freshwater biofilm communities due to inevitable urban drainage system overflows.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a threat to human life. Recently, sewers have been identified as potential reservoirs. The intermittent injection of sewage into adjacent surface waters is inevitable, due to capacity limitations of the urban drainage system.

Abiotic, biotic and photolytic degradation affinity of 14 antibiotics and one metabolite - batch experiments and a model framework.

In this study, degradation affinities of 14 antibiotics and one metabolite were determined in batch experiments. A modelling framework was applied to decrypt potential ranges of abiotic, biotic and photolytic degradation coefficients. In detail, we performed batch experiments with three different sewages in the dark at 7 °C and 22 °C.

Sewer sediment-bound antibiotics as a potential environmental risk: Adsorption and desorption affinity of 14 antibiotics and one metabolite.

In this study, 14 antibiotics and one metabolite were determined in sewages and size-dependent sewer sediments at three sampling sites in the city of Dresden, Germany. Adsorption and desorption experiments were conducted with fractionated sediments. All antibiotics and the metabolite investigated were determined in the sewages; 9 of 14 antibiotics and the metabolite were adsorbed to sewer sediments.

The influence of land use on source apportionment and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in road-deposited sediment.

The pollution load of urban runoff is boosted due to the washing away of road-deposited sediment (RDS). Therefore, a source-oriented mitigation strategy is essential to integrated stormwater management. This study showcases the influence of land use dependent source apportionment and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in RDS.

Assessing antibiotic resistance of microorganisms in sanitary sewage.

The release of antimicrobial substances into surface waters is of growing concern due to direct toxic effects on all trophic levels and the promotion of antibiotic resistance through sub-inhibitory concentration levels. This study showcases (1) the variation of antibiotics in sanitary sewage depending on different timescales and (2) a method to assess the antibiotic resistance based on an inhibition test. The test is based on the measurement of the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) in wastewater samples with increasing concentrations of the selected antibiotic agents.