Diverse Challenges Faced in Developing Sustainable Catchments
V. Jegatheesan
L. Shu
J. L Liow
N. Sivakugan
Catchment Management This special issue is going to include articles that are discussing the diverse
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The second conference on the Challenges in
Environmental Science & Engineering series CESE-2009
was held at Jupiters Hotel, Townsville, Australia from
the 14th to the 17th of July 2009. The conference
brought together internationally renowned engineers,
scientists, and researchers in the fields such as
sustainability, water reuse, renewable energy, public
health, and biotechnology to discuss the
environmental challenges that the world is facing today and into
the future. The conference had parallel presentation
sessions for two full days that dealt with coastal
processes and the Great Barrier Reef, catchment
management, water quality, membranes, wastewater
treatment, storm water management, reuse,
sustainability, and bioprocess technology. The guest editors
of this special issue are thankful to the Chief Editor of
Water, Air & Soil Pollution: Focus for providing an
opportunity to publish selected papers that were
presented at CESE-2009 after peer review.
challenges faced from catchments to coasts by the
human race when developing sustainable catchments.
Sustainable developments of a catchment could happen
only if the activities related to such developments are
carried out in manners that cause minimum adverse
effects on the catchment. For example, establishing a
proper land use management and excellent water
sensitive urban designs (WSUD) are essential in
providing better standard of living to the inhabitants.
Thus, the first paper will discuss appropriate land use
for better catchment management, and the subsequent
papers will investigate various aspects that are required
for efficient water sensitive urban developments. One
of the major components of WSUD is storm water
management. Urban storm water has to be managed
properly, and thorough understanding on the design of
pollutant traps, leaching of pollutants in the storm
water, and treatment of storm water is important in
areas where many challenges are faced. What would
happen to the coastal catchments in extreme cases such
as inundation and could we conduct some modeling on
climate changes? Thus, the next six papers will provide
information on the above theme.
Water and Soil Treatment This will be followed by
considering Treatments for better catchments as a
topical activity and will consider contaminated lands
such as acid sulfate soil and lands that are used for
solid waste disposal, etc. as they can affect the water
quality in the catchment. Treatment of different water
sources will also be considered, and therefore, the
next seven papers will discuss the following:
1. The theory of adsorption of pollutants onto soil matrix
2. How to prevent leaching of pollutants from landfills and acid sulfate soils in order to keep the freshwater sources clean
3. How to treat storm water to keep the freshwater sources clean
4. How to get more water by treating rain water
5. What happens when treating wastewater
Sustainability and Environmental Management The
next aim for a better catchment management would be
to consider sustainability in other activities such as
production of energy and materials, construction of
roads, etc. Better environmental education is also
important in providing a better understanding on
sustainability. Five papers will be dedicated to discuss
this area. While considering sustainable development,
health, safety, and environmental education are
paramount factors. Safety culture in work places will
also be discussed under this section.
Air Pollution and Control This area of research is
also very important to maintain better standard of
living, and three papers will discuss how to model the
air quality in buildings, how to disinfect the air, and
the mass and energy transfer considerations for life
support systems in space.
Thus, the papers are giving a sample of challenges
that are faced in developing sustainable catchments,
and we hope that this special issue will open the door
to a new kind of approach in which challenges are
seen holistically to provide sustainable solutions.
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