Applied Environmental Waterbody Water Quality Investigations

Water quality indicates the relation of all hydrological properties including physical, chemical and biological properties of the water body. Hence, water quality assessment involves analysis of physico- chemical, biological and microbiological parameters that reflects the biotic and abiotic status of ecosystem [ 6 ].

Water quality index WQI provides a nominal number that represent overall water quality at a certain location and time, based on several water quality parameters. The objective of water quality index is to turn complex water quality data into detailedinformation useful for public. WQI indicatesthe water quality in terms of index number andoffers a useful presentation of overall quality of water for public or for any intended use as well as in the pollution abatement programmes and in water quality management [ 7 ].

The present study deals with the assessment of physico-chemical characteristics of water and on the basis of these variousparameters, water quality index is determined which revealed in the Chandlodia Lake, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Chandlodia lake is the man-made lake located at the Western part of the Ahmedabad city. The lake is bounded by a wooden hedge. Adjacent to the study area, there exists a temple.

The waste from the temple including polythene bags and the flowers were directly added into the lake. Beside, solid wastes and contaminated water which are utilized by the local peoples are also released into the lake. Five different sites were selected for the collection of water samples Figures 1 and 2. The samples were collected in sterilized polythene bottles of one litter capacity. Monitoring was performed during September to August seasonal monsoon, winter and summer.

For unstable parameters such as temperature, electrical conductivity EC , pH, and dissolved oxygen DO were measured at the sampling site. Samples were brought to the laboratory for analysis of other physico-chemical parameters like sodium, total alkalinity, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, chlorides, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate and biochemical oxygen demand BOD. The parameters were compared according to the standard methods described in the literature [ 8 - 10 ]. The weighted arithmetic index method [ 11 ] was used for the calculation of water quality index WQI of the water body.

Further, quality rating or sub index q n was calculated by the following expression. Satellite image of Chandlodia Lake showing the sampling Source: Photographs of Chandlodia Lake showing solid waste and domestic waste releasing site in to the water. Let there be n water quality parameters and quality rating or sub index q n corresponding to n th parameter is a number reflecting the relative of this parameter in polluted water with respect to its standard permissible value. Unit weight was calculated by a value inversely proportional to the recommended standard value Sn of the corresponding parameter.

The physico-chemical parameters such as pH, electric conductivity, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, total dissolve solid, calcium, magnesium, chloride, biological oxygen demand, nitrate and total hardness of water were analysed for the water samples collected from the Chandlodia lake. These parameters were taken at the five points of the lake season wise monsoon, winter and summer.

All parameters with the mean value of the data with standard error were calculated as shown in the Table 1 [ 12 , 13 ]. Water capability to transmit electric current is known as electrical conductivity and serves as tool to assess the purity of water [ 14 ]. This ability depends on the presence of ions, their total concentration, mobility, valence, relative concentrations and temperature of measurement [ 15 ].

The electrical conductivity ranged from 2. The highest electrical conductivity was reported during winter 3. Solids refersto the suspended and dissolved matter in water. They are very useful parameters describing the chemical constituents of the water and can be considered as edaphically relation that contributes to productivity within the water body [ 18 ]. The pH in water samples range of 7. In study period i. September to August pH value ranged from 8. The maximum pH reported during summer was very low due to the water levels and concentration of nutrients in water [ 20 ] and minimum was during monsoon due to the dilution of water by addition of rain water [ 21 ].

The alkalinity of surface water is primarily a function of carbonate, hydroxide content and also includes the contributions from borates, phosphates, silicates and other bases. Alkalinity is a measure of capacity of water to neutralize a strong acid [ 22 ].

The total hardness of water is not a specific constituent but is a variable and complex mixture of cations and anions. Principally the water hardness are changed by ions such as calcium and magnesium. The lowest amount of total hardness was recorded during winter season due to low concentration of calcium and magnesium [ 24 ]. Calcium is most abundant ions in fresh water and is important in shell construction, bone building and plant precipitation of lime. The lowest amount of calcium in water was recorded during winter season due to calcium absorbed by the large number of organisms for shell construction, bone building and plant precipitation of lime [ 17 ].

Magnesium is often associated with calcium in all kinds of waters, but its concentration remains generally lower than the calcium. Magnesium is essential for chlorophyll growth and acts as a limiting factor for the growth of phytoplankton [ 17 ]. The lowest value was recorded during summer season due to themagnesium essentiality for chlorophyll bearing plant for photosynthesis [ 23 ]. The higher value of dissolved oxygen indicates good aquatic life. The amount of dissolved oxygen of Chandlodia Lake watersamples ranged between 3.

The highest amount recorded during monsoon season was 5. The lowest dissolved recorded during summer season was 3. The chloride in drinking water originates from natural sources, sewage and industrial effluents, urban runoff containing de-icing salt and saline intrusion [ 17 ]. Nitrates are contributes to freshwater through discharge of sewage and industrial wastes and run off from agricultural fields [ 17 ].

The highest amount of nitrate concentration was known to support the formation of blooms [ 4 ]. The amount of nitrate recorded in the water of Chandlodia Lake ranged from 6. The highest amount of nitrate was recorded during winter season was 7. The lowest amount of nitrate in water was recorded during summer season was 7. The biochemical oxygen demand may be defined as the oxygen required for the microorganism to performed biological decomposition of dissolved solids or organic matter in the wastewater under aerobic conditions [ 28 ].

The biochemical oxygen demand reported from water samples at Chandlodia Lake was rangedbetween 1. The highest demand of oxygen in the water was recorded during monsoon season was 3. Ecofriendly and sustainable environmental demand is the hot and impressive topic due to public, economic, and legislation pressure. The best selection in complex framework is based on the sustainability of nutrient removal, biodegradation of suspended particles, and removal efficiency of the system.

In this situation, the major preference is to adopt any system that is more reliable for energy consumptions, conversion of chemicals into biomass, complex infrastructure, and the repairing or maintenance cost of the system. Bacterial Technology BT provides a plenty of opportunities for effectively treating these issues [ 2 ]. BT is an application of bioremediation that uses microorganism metabolism to remove nutrients from the water bodies and regenerate up to the original condition [ 2 , 6 , 9 ], and its operational cost is relatively low [ 15 ], which generally have a high public interest.

Due to its smart application, it is popular in the research area of environmental sciences and engineering. Temperature is the major concern that is directly effective in the process of the degradation of the substances [ 9 ]. Due to these considerations, we can adopt the new technique as BT with complete confidence. Their bacteria are usually hired to vitiate pollutants or nutrients into simple or nontoxic entity and produce suitable effluents [ 16 ].

This technology has reassuring advantages compared to other traditional techniques as already discussed. BT has been successfully implemented to recover the polluted lakes [ 17 ], restore polluted rivers, and assimilate effluent of wastewater treatment plant [ 9 ].

1. Introduction

To control the urban river pollution, BT has been employed in different places in China, that is, for treating the polluted urban water bodies [ 2 , 15 ]. It was determined to be successful with reliable results in boosting up the recovery processes of all water bodies compared to the other traditional technologies.

It extends for the rehabilitation of polluted lakes, rivers, and streams and is also reliable for the requirement of the wastewater effluent standards without constructing massive structures as compared to the other conventional methods [ 15 , 16 ]. In the past, the water quality index approach was considered as the best tool to determine the water quality of the water bodies [ 17 , 18 ]. Numerous researches represent the integrated uncertainty in evaluating the water quality.

For the relative significance of water quality parameters, AHP has been applied in the selected sites. For current study, the data matrix is very complicated, because the spatial and temporal parameters vary from site to site. It is not possible with simple AHP to evaluate the pollution status on each station of each site. Therefore, FAHP is the best technique which can help to determine the water quality parameters values as compared to the other techniques.

Its upper stream starts from the Jing-Hang main canal and travels towards the ancient small canal. River is under north subtropical humid zone and is marked by muddy sediments. This zone is facing four distinct seasons with the phenomenon of climatic influence circulation. For monitoring and sample collection of the experiment, the selected reaches of both rivers were divided into six points.

The appearance of the river water color was blackish or greenish, and bubbles were blowing on the surface of water. Therefore, the average depth of sediments is 0. The averaged physiographic conditions of these rivers are the same as the above rivers. On the basis of Chinese surface water quality standard, the rank or class of water quality in the source section was determined to be grade V Table 1. Class V shows the worst poor by the Chinese National Standard board and least water quality standard. For any purposes, this water quality of the river is extremely unsuitable.

BC is an important material that has a mixture of three types of ingredients as beneficial bacteria bacilli, Bacteroides , brown-rot spindle, and Lactobacillales, denitrifying with 6: The mixing ratio represents that it is harmless and has no any adverse effects. Nature Liquid NL is the mixture of trace element, multiple enzymes, humic acid, amino acid, and vitamins and composition of each adequate substance on judgment.

Biological Filter Media are used on a domestic level as the gap string filter media. As the bacterial agent is used to effectively work under relatively constant and slow flow of velocity, an artificial weir is installed at the end of the river reach which is the small wood bridge to stop effluent. This experiment was conducted from May 31 to July To employ BT operation, the implementation procedure could vary based on the physical condition of the site.

However, the method of adding beneficial bacteria directly to the polluted water body has proven to achieve desirable results for restoration programs. The addition of beneficial bacteria to polluted river is usually termed the Bacterial Technology. The sampling network was managed to cover the complete range along the inlet and outlet points of the rivers and determined the dominant point sources that have an impact on the water quality.

• RACHEL: A LIGHT IN PALESTINE III.
• .
• .
• Honouring Our Veterans Volume 2.

Both of the sites are located under the area of population and industrialization, so the samples were collected from various depths 0. The samples were collected from 8: To evaluate the water quality, the samples were kept in polyethylene bottles and stored in insulated ice cooler that were delivered to the laboratory on the same day. AHP is an MCDM method that provides the hierarchical framework to illustrate the concern objective and developed the scale of priority based on the application judgment [ 25 ]. The AHP operation belongs to six essential steps [ 26 ] as shown in Figure 2.

We define the concern objectives and consequence of the unstructured problem and the recognition of the specific characteristics. The AHP is based on the decision disintegration of the hierarchy unstructured problem that resides in the decision problem of the most important element [ 27 ]. The complicated task is decomposed into a hierarchical structure Figure 3 with the elements of decision.

For pairwise comparison matrices of each element of the hierarchy structure are compared as follows:.

Journal of Ecosystems

For the decision of the relative significance between hierarchy elements in matrix A , a linguistic scale is employed for the values to be rated from 1 to 9 Table 2. Scales for pairwise comparison [ 25 ]. The relative weights of elements in each pairwise comparison matrix are determined by some methods like eigenvalue method. The relative weights W of matrix A are determined as. The matrices consistency property is determined to ensure that the judgments of decision makers either are consistent or need more iterations. Consistency Index CI can be measured from the following equation:.

The reciprocal matrix is generated from the random Consistency Index that would be known as the random index RI. A sample size of was used to generate the average RI for the matrices of order of 1—15 [ 28 ]. The Saaty matrices represent the RI Table 3 that can be seen in the order of 1—10 [ 25 ]. The formulation of CR is. At the end, the relative decisions of element weights are compiled to gain the whole alternatives rating as follows:. Despite the recognition of AHP often this method is censured to sufficiently handle its failure for the imprecision and latent uncertainty associated with the grading of the decision maker's perception of exact values [ 29 ].

Fuzzy AHP as an extension of AHP investigate to be more efficient tool in the water management decision problems [ 30 , 31 ]. Since vagueness and fuzziness are ordinary characteristics in a number of decisions, a FAHP method should be able to indulge ambiguity or vagueness [ 32 ]. In FAHP, the eigenvector method is applied to simulate the reciprocal matrix and to evaluate the importance and alternative performance across the criteria. The additive weighting method is applied for the determination of the use of alternative across criteria.

When complex multifeatures are considered for decision making problems, FAHP has skill of capturing an uncertainty of human assessment [ 33 ]. This procedure is applied to determine the crisp judgments into fuzzy judgments [ 34 ]. This classic fuzzy set theory allowed [0,1] range of real numbers to operate the participation functions. The major fuzziness function is the individuals grouping elements into classes without clearly defining the boundaries [ 35 ].

The uncertainty judgment of comparison can be indicated by the fuzzy number.

1. La Latina de Elegancia.
2. Using the ANZECC Guidelines and Water Quality Objectives in NSW.
3. 1. The core concept: managing water quality for environmental values.
4. Esmeraldas Christmas (The Rainbow Book 4).
5. Associated Data.
6. Steps in decision-making for a healthy waterway.
7. .

A fuzzy number of the triangle is defined by three real numbers Figure 4 which belong to special class, expressed as x , b , k. The fuzzy numbers of the triangle are determined as follows:. In order to compose pairwise alternatives comparison under each criterion or benchmark, a triangular fuzzy comparison matrix is indicated as follows:.

Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Total alternatives preferences and weights can be acquired from different method. In this study, these two approaches or techniques will be posed in renewal. A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process FAHP has been developed to evaluate the status of water quality at the selected stations along each river under a Multicriteria Decision Making framework. A decision support mechanism has been introduced to select and prioritize stations, with specific reference to the universal principle as written below:.

The various water quality parameters have been considered as criteria to evaluate water quality status at a given station of each project site. Pairwise comparisons of the criteria and the stations have been performed to assess water quality using linguistic variables. The selected urban rivers are situated under the appalling environment and the river's conditions were awful before the operation of BT.

The huge amount of sewage was loaded directly and entered into these rivers. In addition, it is observed that there was not any preliminary facility to control or dump the domestic sewage. Therefore, the sewage is partially or directly a part of the urban river without any pretreatment. Under this alarming situation, the river's color was changed into greenish representing the thick oil floats and debris.

Therefore, in this sewer condition, any living organism in the river water could not exist. BT has been applied and water samples from the selected points were collected before and after the treatment of the experiment. The physiochemical parameters were collected on the specific monitoring points on every site. From the results, the DO was the most critical parameter for aquatic life of rivers that have maximum efficiency. To protect the environmental pollution, we determined that TP and COD efficiency also have favorable results. For more consideration, the color and algal from every site are also recovered as shown in Figures 5 a — 5 e.

The data were collected during 6 months and each station of the site was monitored with spatial as well as temporal variation. FAHP developed a selection support tool that describes the pairwise priority of the station with the particular beneficial reference, such as domestic, aquatic status, irrigation, and recreational and industrial enterprises.

The pairwise comparison matrix was formulated due to the variations and the complicity of the water quality parameters on each site, and the comparisons were accomplished based on the convincing of engineering results and each water quality parameter of all sites was formulated in Table 5.

The main concern in this present contribution is to explain the actual BT function to mitigate the pollution from urban water bodies.

Using the ANZECC Guidelines and Water Quality Objectives in NSW | NSW Environment & Heritage

AHP based on FAHP results are applied to the ranking of the water quality parameters Table 11 as well as the location ranking with an overall inconsistency of 0. The location-wise variations score is illustrated in Figure 6 , which represent the high ranking of the JHH site as compared to the others. After the evaluation of the current status from the results, the actual pollution status of each site after the BT operation is revealed. Figure 6 displays the summary of the results with the overall inconsistency of 0.

Besides, the river is placed in the industrial area. Similarly the value of TP is also high because, in the middle, a cement factory is working and the wastewater directly enters into the river. Instead of all, for the evaluation of BT, in the beginning of operation, there was an appalling condition as blackish water and odors that made part of the pollution.

When we applied BT operation, the polluted river was changed up to reliable condition without any odors. The river water color was also changed from blackish to its original form. However, we can adopt these advanced technologies to rehabilitate our environment, but there is a need to manage or fix horrific point sources of pollution.

The plus advantage of BT does not require destruction of an already built system. BT has no effect on the natural environment because it does not involve the use of chemicals. Therefore, it is helpful for friendly ecology. It is free from all other issues, as high construction and maintenance costs can be a huge burden to organization and policy makers. In view of this, with revolutionary calculations, the adoption of BT has been concluded to be the most convenient approach for developing countries [ 15 ].

For the long term, BT maintenance and artificial dregs cannot be needed for 10 years in the future [ 36 ]. In addition, the existing sanitation systems are deteriorating due to many-imperfection care.

So BT has ability to restore these systems due to its self-purification property. Similarly the maintenance cost of the sewerage system is unfavorable due to economic collapse. So we can prefer this technology due to its simplicity and low cost. In order to rehabilitate the urbanized water bodies as lakes, rivers, and streams, BT is sustainable and reliable for public health with no maintenance and further general costs to minimize the traditional system.