Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The ability to meet the global need for an adequate water supply will come
from new scientific insights that span traditional disciplines and from innovative
policy based on that science. Global water-research agendas have begun to ad-
dress needs in the various elements of science, engineering, technology, and
policy—drought and flood initiatives associated with climate variability, mitiga-
tion of water-related disasters, enhancement of water quality, emerging con-
taminants, interactions between water and food security, water and human set-
tlements, groundwater sustainability, advanced water-treatment technologies,
and ecohydrology. Related cross-cutting issues include the building of research
and technology capacity, education, governance, and international relationships
associated with water.
In addition to being driven by evolving water-quality problems, water-
policy change is likely required to respond to tightened public budgets and in-
creased concerns about efficiency in water-quality regulation (Stoner 2011). For
example, water-pollution control in agriculture, a leading cause of non-point-
source pollution problems in the United States, has been pursued largely through
voluntary compliance strategies supplemented by public assistance through the
adoption of pollution control practices. Reduced federal and state budgets may
require significant policy innovations if water-quality goals are to be achieved
with reduced financial support (Shortle et al. 2011).
Water Technology and Infrastructure Research
Monitoring technology is a vital component of water science. Emerging
concerns about contaminants have appeared dramatically (for example, the out-
break of
Cryptosporidium
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Mac Kenzie et al. 1994)
and resulted in the need for tools to be developed quickly or have arisen via ad-
vances in analytic capabilities (for example, identification of pharmaceuticals in
the water supply). (See Chapter 3 for a discussion of these tools.) Although the
health effects of some contaminants are clear, in most cases there are a host of
reasons why the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act have re-
sulted in a limited record of accomplishments. Some of those reasons include,
low concentrations found in water, specific limitations of the methods for patho-
gen recovery and viability assessment, failure to understand whether ingestion
or inhalation pathways are important, and inability to reconcile ecologic risks
and human health risks. The inadequate investment in scientific inquiry associ-
ated with sources, transport, and fate of contaminants has led to much uncer-
tainty about the most effective risk-reduction management approaches.
Advances in other fields have had important impacts on water science.
Nanomaterials, discussed further in Chapters 3 and 4, are a case in point. Al-
though nanomaterials have the opportunity to support novel water-treatment
approaches and more efficient disinfection, there is heightened concern about
nanoparticles as a contaminant and about the inability to measure and monitor
their fate. Nonetheless, nanomaterials may play a role in “tunable” reactive
Search WWH ::
Custom Search