| 1. |
- Sköld, Nils-Petter, et al.
(author)
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Risk-Based Evaluation of Improvements in DrinkingWaterTreatment Using Cost-Benefit Analysis
- 2022
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In: Water. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-4441. ; 14:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Reliable and safe drinking water supply requires adequate risk management. Decisionsupport models can aid decisionmakers to effectively evaluate risk mitigation measures and allocatesocietal resources. Here, a Swedish case study illustrates how the installation of ultrafiltrationmembranes can be evaluated by combining risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis. Quantitativemicrobial risk assessment was used to assess several contamination sources and estimate the achievedrisk reduction from waterborne pathogens using Campylobacter, Norovirus, and Cryptosporidiumas reference pathogens. The societal value of the improved water quality was estimated in thecost-benefit analysis by monetising the gained quality adjusted life years and aesthetic water qualityimprovements. The calculated net present value (mean of 7 MEUR) indicated that the installation ofthe ultrafiltration membranes was a sound investment from a societal economic perspective. Theultrafiltration membranes reduced the annual probability of infection from 3x10-2 to 10-7, wellbelow the U.S. EPA’s acceptable level, as well as improving the aesthetic quality of the drinking water.The results provide a novel example of the importance for water distributors to consider not onlyhealth-related metrics when evaluating treatment options or monitoring the drinking water quality,but to also consider the aesthetic quality of the drinking water.
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| 2. |
- Wu, L., et al.
(author)
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Global diversity and biogeography of bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants
- 2019
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In: Nature Microbiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2058-5276. ; 4:7, s. 1183-1195
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Microorganisms in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are essential for water purification to protect public and environmental health. However, the diversity of microorganisms and the factors that control it are poorly understood. Using a systematic global-sampling effort, we analysed the 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences from ~1,200 activated sludge samples taken from 269 WWTPs in 23 countries on 6 continents. Our analyses revealed that the global activated sludge bacterial communities contain ~1 billion bacterial phylotypes with a Poisson lognormal diversity distribution. Despite this high diversity, activated sludge has a small, global core bacterial community (n = 28 operational taxonomic units) that is strongly linked to activated sludge performance. Meta-analyses with global datasets associate the activated sludge microbiomes most closely to freshwater populations. In contrast to macroorganism diversity, activated sludge bacterial communities show no latitudinal gradient. Furthermore, their spatial turnover is scale-dependent and appears to be largely driven by stochastic processes (dispersal and drift), although deterministic factors (temperature and organic input) are also important. Our findings enhance our mechanistic understanding of the global diversity and biogeography of activated sludge bacterial communities within a theoretical ecology framework and have important implications for microbial ecology and wastewater treatment processes. © 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
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