A review of greywater characteristics and treatment processes.

Life cycle assessment of organic versus conventional agriculture. A case study of lettuce cultivation in Greece

The present paper reviews the wastewater reuse regulations, practices and applications of countries around the Mediterranean Region, particularly focusing on reuse practices for municipal and industrial uses. Water scarcity and water need is established in Mediterranean countries using international indexes for a cross-border comparison of water availability specifically for fresh water supply for municipal and industrial applications. Wastewater reuse criteria based on necessary, application specific, treatment output quality are presented. Data for each individual country is reviewed, and the regulations governing each country around reuse and applications are summarized, focusing, when appropriate, on the production and use of reclaimed wastewater for municipal and industrial applications. Also a critical overview of the guidelines and regulations governing these countries is presented. After considering multiple parameters associated with adoption of municipal and industrial wastewater reuse, such as water supply and scarcity, country and regional parameters, as well as possible applications, we note that adoption is accelerated in countries that have stronger economies and higher water needs. This development is fueled by favorable guidelines and regulations; conversely it is hindered by prohibitive guidelines and regulations. Wastewater reuse for municipal and industrial applications so far remains a whimsical game of culture, perception, religion, available technology and politics. An increasing trend in wastewater treatment plant construction and planning is seen in almost all the countries of the Mediterranean region. In addition, reuse water standards are in the process of being developed in a way that will clearly take into account the local conditions while reasonably safeguarding the public health. Wastewater reuse for municipal and industrial applications in Mediterranean countries remains at the beginning stages of adoption and the potential for improvement is open.

Review of wastewater reuse in the mediterranean countries, focusing on regulations and policies for municipal and industrial applications

As the scale of the organic cultivation sector keeps increasing, there is growing demand for reliable data on organic agriculture and its effect on the environment. Conventional agriculture uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides, whilst organic cultivation mainly relies on crop rotation and organic fertilizers. The aim of this work is to quantify and compare the environmental sustainability of typical conventional and organic pepper cultivation systems. Two open field pepper cultivations, both located in the Anthemountas basin, Northern Greece, are selected as case studies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to quantify the overall environmental footprint and identify particular environmental weaknesses (i.e. unsustainable practices) of each cultivation system. Results are analysed at both midpoint and endpoint levels in order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the environmental sustainability of each system. Attributional LCA (ALCA) is employed to identify emissions associated with the life cycles of the two systems. Results are presented for problem-oriented (midpoint) and damage-oriented (endpoint) approaches, using ReCiPe impact assessment. At midpoint level, conventional cultivation exhibits about threefold higher environmental impact on freshwater eutrophication, than organic cultivation. This arises from the extensive use of nitrogen and phosphorus-based fertilizers, with consequent direct emissions to the environment. The remaining impact categories are mainly affected by irrigation, with associated indirect emissions linked to electricity production. At endpoint level, the main hotspots identified for conventional cultivation are irrigation and fertilizing, due to intensive use of chemical fertilizers and (to a lesser degree) pesticides. For organic pepper cultivation, the main environmental hotspots are irrigation, machinery use, and manure loading and spreading processes. Of these, the highest score for irrigation derives from the heavy electricity consumption required for groundwater pumping associated with the fossil-fuel-dependent Greek electricity mix. Organic and conventional cultivation systems have similar total environmental impacts per unit of product, with organic cultivation achieving lower environmental impacts in ‘freshwater eutrophication’, ‘climate change’, ‘terrestrial acidification’ and ‘marine eutrophication’ categories. Conventional cultivation has a significantly greater effect on the freshwater eutrophication impact category, due to phosphate emissions arising from application of chemical fertilizers.

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Life cycle assessment of the environmental performance of conventional and organic methods of open field pepper cultivation system

Field research was carried out to assess the effects of the application of reclaimed municipal wastewater on rice cultivation in Thessaloniki, Greece during a 2-year period (1999–2000). Effects on production cost, soil composition, and health risk were examined. A randomized complete block design was used for the paddy field with three treatments and four replicates. The treatments were (1) river irrigation water with N–P fertilization, (2) reclaimed wastewater irrigation with surface N fertilization, and (3) reclaimed wastewater irrigation without fertilization. The results showed that the total production cost decreased 8.8% and 11.9% by applying the second and third treatments, respectively, compared to the first treatment, without significant differences in the agronomic and rice quality traits. Soil composition showed discrepancies between the 2 years and the three treatments, whereas the pathogens of the reclaimed wastewater and rice tissues posed a low human risk when taking the needed precautions.

Assessment of Reclaimed Municipal Wastewater Application on Rice Cultivation

On 18 September 2020, the Karditsa prefecture of Thessaly region (Greece) experienced a catastrophic flood as a consequence of the IANOS hurricane. This intense phenomenon was characterized by rainfall records ranging from 220 mm up to 530 mm, in a time interval of 15 h. Extended public infrastructure was damaged and thousands of houses and commercial properties were flooded, while four casualties were recorded. The aim of this study was to provide forensic research on a reconstruction of the flood event in the vicinity of Karditsa city. First, we performed a statistical analysis of the rainfall. Then, we used two numerical models and observed data, either captured by satellites or mined from social media, in order to simulate the event a posteriori. Specifically, a rainfall–runoff CN-unit hydrograph model was combined with a hydrodynamic model based on 2D-shallow water equations model, through the coupling of the hydrological software HEC-HMS with the hydrodynamic software HEC-RAS. Regarding the observed data, the limited available gauged records led us to use a wide spectrum of remote sensing datasets associated with rainfall, such as NASA GPM–IMREG, and numerous videos posted on social media, such as Facebook, in order to validate the extent of the flood. The overall assessment proved that the exceedance probability of the IANOS flooding event ranged from 1:400 years in the low-lying catchments, to 1:1000 years in the upstream mountainous catchments. Moreover, a good performance for the simulated flooding extent was achieved using the numerical models and by comparing their output with the remote sensing footage provided by SENTINEL satellites images, along with the georeferenced videos posted on social media.

https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5338/9/5/93/pdf?version=1653053922

Forensic Hydrology: A Complete Reconstruction of an Extreme Flood Event in Data-Scarce Area

The sustainable management of water resources often requires the identification of wastewater as a valued source of water. Although the benefits of wastewater reuse and reclamation have increased significantly in Europe because of the advances in effectiveness of wastewater treatment and disinfection technologies there is currently no legislation nor guidelines regarding reuse. It is well known that there is a great variation of wastewater reuse quality criteria applied, mainly related to significant differences in socioeconomic conditions, environmental policies, available water resources. In this work the parameters that affect the wastewater reuse criteria in Greece are evaluated, concerning among others reuse priorities, available treatment plants and effluent characteristics and recommendations are made for developing future guidelines or regulations for Greece in relation to reuse practices (agricultural, urban, etc). The intention is not to propose an unquestionable and rigid set of standards, but to present them on the basis of the rationale developed, in order to form a basis for further consultation, involving all the interested parties. The recommendations are presented in relation to the different types of reuse, with appropriate specific standards and recommended treatment systems wherever applicable.

A. Tzimas

Papers

Forensic Hydrology: A Complete Reconstruction of an Extreme Flood Event in Data-Scarce Area

Wastewater reuse criteria in greece

The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) at the river basin of Anthemountas with emphasis on the pressures and impacts analysis