WATER QUALITY

Author: GIBERT ROCAVERT CARLES.
Year: 2003.
University: POLITÉCNICA DE CATALUÑA [www.upc.edu].
Place of defense: Sala d´Acres de lPCT, CampusTerrassa.
Place of preparation: ETSEIB, EDIFICI H PLANTA 4 Campus SUD.

Author: OTERO PÉREZ NEUS.
Year: 2004.
University: BARCELONA [www.ub.es].
Place of preparation: FACULTAD DE GEOLOGIA.

Summary: The objective of this thesis is to validate the use of isotopes of the molecule sulfate (s34sso4, s18oso4) with hydrochemical data, as a tracer in the study of pollution in the river Llobregat. The work develops has allowed: a) to develop a new method for analyzing the S18OSO4 through pyrolysis, and compare it with the traditional, a line of high-vacuum b) characterize chemical and isotope major sources of pollution in the watershed among these sources are: waste from mining potash fertilizers and chemicals, this characterization allows for a baseline study, applicable to other areas, c) evaluate the influence of various pollutants in the river Llobregat, on the one hand from one point of view of statistical data analysis hydrochemical and, on the other hand, based on the isotopic data, both points of view are complementary d) validate the use of isotopic tracers as indicators of origin of the pollutants, and the processes they face in the middle.

Author: PÉREZ MARTÍN MIGUEL ANGEL.
Year: 2005.
University: POLITÉCNICA DE VALENCIA [www.upv.es].
Place of defense: ESCUELA POLITECNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS DE CAMINOS CANALES Y PUERTOS.
Place of preparation: ESCUELA TÉCNICAS SUPERIOR DE INGENIERO DE CAMINOS, CANALES Y PUERTOS..

Summary: Water as a natural resource under appropriate conditions for terrestrial ecosystems and human activities is becoming increasingly scarce, which is a source of growing tensions between different social groups. This shortage is compounded by the current capacity of human beings to alter significantly the hydrological cycle, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and the natural resource can be reduced, once again, an important by human activities. The quality of water in surface water bodies and groundwater dependent on the natural characteristics of the basin as well as the anthropic disorders occurring in the same, and is a determinant of the health of aquatic ecosystems and human activities that may be developed in an area. Currently, a crucial step in determining the status of water bodies and their expected future developments, is well known in the hydrological cycle phase as land and affect human activities. Due to the deterioration of water quality creates negative externalities on the environment, and finally in all human activities which may have an impact very high European society, aware of this situation, established by the Directive 60/2000 / EC Water Framework (DMA) (EC, 2000) the development of a process of analysis and action to improve the status of all water bodies in Europe in the year 2015. One step in this process is the "Pressures and Impact Analysis", which seeks to identify the pressures exerted by human activities and at the same time relate to the impacts occurring in water bodies, so who can establish the necessary steps to have more effective in mitigating the impacts of human activities. In this thesis has developed a module or tool for mathematical modeling of the hydrological cycle and water quality in major river basins, with particular attention to the groundwater component and relations río-acuífero. The purpose of this module is to be able to build simulation models that provide information about the flow of water, with their chemical characteristics, which occur in a watershed. The module PATRICAL (Precipitation contribution in Tranches Red with Integrated Water Quality) to build spatially distributed models of the hydrological cycle, fetching water flows occurring at different points of the basin and levels piezométricos media aquifers. In addition, it includes the simulation of nitrate content and the electrical conductivity of water in the soil, in the middle not saturated, aquifers and surface waters. It has also defined, in this theory, a methodology for phased implementation analysis of pressures and impacts established in the DMA, so that the simulation models that are built with this tool, the ability to perform more complex phase of analysis pressures and impacts and may also be with them, to quantify the effect of the measures that are defined in the future. The practical usefulness of the tool and methodology developed with the application demonstrates that has been done, the construction of a simulation model of a basin large as in the field of Hydrographic Confederation of car, with more than 42,000 km2, obtaining water flows occurring in the same values and the concentration of nitrate and electrical conductivity in the masses 8 water 28f surface and groundwater. These results make it possible to identify the causative agents of the modifications to the chemical conditions in different parts of the basin, and also know the historical evolution and the trend towards the future.

Author: Díeguez Villar Antonio.
Year: 2005.
University: A CORUÑA [www.udc.es].
Place of defense: Facultad de Ciencias.
Place of preparation: Facultad de Ciencias.

Summary: The current model of intensive farming has significant negative effects on the environment, among which the pollution of inland waters by nutrients, biocides, heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms. Measures should be taken to minimize the impact of these contaminants must be supported by reliable studies envelopes the real needs of the crop in terms of doses of agrochemicals and other types of fertilizers used and the factors that influence behavior in the middle of the pollutants from agricultural processes. The objective of this study is to make a contribution to the understanding of these factors, making a contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of transport to inland waters of the compounds contained in fertilizers, mainly of organic origin, and verify the extent and evolution of the loss of these two compounds with different levels of micro-agricultural use, offering, while two examples of the current situation regarding water quality of watersheds rural Galicia. As a unit of study were chosen two basins agroforestry very small dimensions and different levels of development, they lack sources of pollution resulting from agricultural processes or ranchers. To carry out this work sampling methods were used manual and automatic, the latter conducted only during stormy events in order to evaluate the quantitative importance of the loss of nutrients in peak flow. The parameters analyzed were: pH, electrical conductivity and concentrations of NH4 +, No2-, No3-, PO4 3-, Ca 2 +, Na +, K +, Cl-, So4 2-, Mg, Si and soluble fractions of Al, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn. The study period lasted from January 1997 until July 1999. The main conclusions to be drawn from the results of this work, there are on the one hand the high levels of contamination found in the waters of a river Agriculture (basin The Abelar) as a result of an intensive and management of inadequate resources, and on the other hand the significant differences in behavior in the midst of the various components studied and their relationship with the distribution of land uses, levels of application and the type of fertilizer used, and other factors, mainly type climate and soil.

Author: MAÑAS RAMIREZ MARIA PILAR.
Year: 2005.
University: CASTILLA-LA MANCHA [www.uclm.es].
Place of defense: E.T.S. DE ING. AGRO. DE ALBACETE.
Place of preparation: E.T.S. DE ING. AGRO. DE ALBACETE.

Summary: This thesis is divided into two lines of inquiry clearly defined. The first one deals with the study of the suitability of agricultural drainage water from the WPP Albacete using a horticultural species widely used in similar studies, such as lettuce (Lactuca sativa L). As a result of treating wastewater originates known as a solid waste mud or sludge that will be discussed at a second line of investigation carried out in parallel with the former, which used the same species grown in terms of horticulture greenhouse. In both cases have been identified effects on plant and soil after successive applications of various doses of mud and irrigation with waste water as a substitute for the conventional fertilizer. Similarly attempt has been made to determine the possible presence of pathogenic microorganisms in soil and plant material, and its persistence in both substrates. With all this, this is the ability to know both the agronomic purified wastewater as digested sludge coming from both the WPP Albacete. To achieve the goals of these two parallel studies have been conducted field work relevant to the cultivation of lettuce with installation in both cases (test irrigation wastewater and testing application of sludge) of a drip irrigation system, greenhouse for testing sludges and abroad in the case of test wastewater. Both plants, soil as by-products generated in the WPP purpose of this study (purified waste water and sludge), were sampled periodically making determinations physical, chemical and microbiological. The results were analyzed statistically and have identified broadly good agronomic suitability of both substrates. On the one hand, the application of sludge from WPP represents a beneficial effect on the cultivation and care provided content microbiological final product but the continued use of it implies caution over possible contamination with heavy metals from soil. Moreover it has been observed in the plant easier to accumulate heavy metals in waste water irrigation that with the application of sludge. The nitrogen content increases both in plants irrigated with wastewater as in the mud and paid with the height, size and weight increases both dry and fresh in plants irrigated with waste water purified as well as those who have received any treatment mud and as a result is produced in all cases an increase to a greater or lesser extent of the harvest. It has also been tested as the content in the soil organic matter increases with input from both wastewater with the sludge and that the application of sewage sludge or on the floor does not produce changes in pH and electrical conductivity.

Author: NAVARRO LLACER CALIZ.
Year: 2005.
University: CASTILLA-LA MANCHA [www.uclm.es].
Place of defense: E. INGENIEROS AGRONOMOS.
Place of preparation: ESCUELA TECNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS AGRONOMOS.

Summary: At present, makes clear the serious state in which water resources are global. In the Mediterranean region, weather patterns and the development of human activities on the environment of the resource have contributed to a steady decline in the quantity and quality. In the year 2000 came into force on the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) that radically changes the procedures used to monitor, assess and manage aquatic ecosystems in European countries. The most important concept introduced in this legislation is the 'ecological status'. The present work has established a system of evaluation of 'ecological status' of the rivers along the lines of this new Directive (WFD) in the region of Castilla-La Mancha during the period 2001-2004. As a first step, identify the DMA provides a classification of water bodies adjusted to biological variability in the area to enable the establishment of the reference conditions. The classification of rivers Castilians was performed using the methodology proposed by the DMA (System B), where water bodies are classified by environmental variables. The regions were obtained in the classification tested the macroinvertebrate community to verify that the divisions correspond to biological differences. The concept of 'ecological' includes the chemical status of water bodies as an important component in evaluating quality. Therefore, we performed an evaluation of the chemical status of the rivers, determining the level of contamination of rivers Castilians. This analysis allowed, in addition, the establishment of the physicochemical conditions reference to the rivers Castilians. With the goal of establishing a successful classification of rivers castellano-manchesgos, we performed an analysis of local and regional environmental factors to determine the factors responsible for the distribution of the macroinvertebrate community. The results of these tests led to the establishment of five biotic ecotypes in Castilla-La Mancha: Axis of Great Rivers, Headers Calcáreas, Tranches Means Calcáreos, Headers Silíceas and Tranches Means Silíceos. Very different pressures affecting the river ecosystems, but in the Mediterranean area highlights the impacts generated by nutrient pollution (eutrophication). In order to detect these impacts, creating a multimetric index based on the community macroinvertrebrados following the methodologies used in European work. To that end, discussed issues of tolerance and diversity in the community through 32 metric, and the result was a combination of three metric: aBMWQ, PT and GOLD. To evaluate the 'ecological status' of the rivers as established by DMA, provided the conditions biological reference index (MCLM) for the five ecotypes Castilians. Based on these specific conditions were obtained ranges for the five classes of quality in the value EQR Ratio (Quality Environment). After develop this whole process, the average value was obtained from the 'ecological status' of the sections sampled in the rivers of Castilla-La Mancha during the study period. Of a total of 108 river sections, the results showed that 30% of tranches comply with the objective of the WFD, ie had a 'very good or good'. To achieve the objective of achieving 'good' in all bodies of water before 2015 (DMA), should be a series of actions in the other sections that presented some of alteración.Estas actions will be lower when the rate tranche 'ecological status moderate' (37% in Castilla-La Mancha) 8 and must 2e2 No larger when the state is' poor '(25%) and' bad '(5%).

Author: BEATRIZ ECHAVARRI ERASUN.
Year: 2006.
University: CANTABRIA [www.unican.es].
Place of defense: E.T.S. DE INGENIEROS DE C.C.P..
Place of preparation: ESCUELA TECNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS DE CAMINOS, CANALES Y PUERTOS.

Summary: The condition giving rise to discharges of urban waste water treated and untreated from sanitation comprehensive built in the Cantabrian coast on water bodies affected is today one of the main environmental concerns arising from the entry managers in effect of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Despite the fact that environmental design applied in the construction of these sanitation systems has been considered as a primary environmental objective, compliance with the quality standards set out in the various bodies of water, there is little knowledge of the real magnitude of the condition that discharges procedents cause of the same (emissary and discharges of storm) on water bodies affected enough to validate the correct operation of these systems. For this purpose, and based on a thorough analysis of the environmental problems in this area, this thesis develops' study of the effects on the middle coast derived from the implementation of integral sanitation in the Cantabrian coast. This study aims to assess the validity of the designs of these environmental sanitation comprehensive as predictive tools for managing the quality of systems aucuáticos shoreline by conducting specific studies aimed at analyzing the one hand, the condition that originate discharges treated water through the underwater outfall on chemical and bacteriological trophic status of coastal waters, on the quality of sedimentary and funds on benthic communities established, as well as through the analysis of the evolution of the quality of water bodies estuarias affected by discharges of tormeta. The results obtained in this thesis have served, in addition to proposing a number of indications for the design of control programs operating raised at the DMA, to apply for managers in water bodies affected by this type of discharge.

Author: VALENCIA DELFA JOSE LUIS.
Year: 2006.
University: POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID [www.upm.es].
Place of defense: E.T.S.I.AGRONOMOS.
Place of preparation: ESCUELA TECNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS AGRONOMOS.

Summary: The investigation has been to the statistical study of water quality in the Basin Ebro for two decades -1983 to 2002 - and in the sub-grouping on the basis of physical and chemical parameters collected by the sampling stations and seating . To carry out this research have been used different statistical techniques among these is the most avant-garde, such as Kohonen networks, decomposition of functions in Series or wavelet algorithm MMCT. The latter, created by the author of the thesis, represents a new method of grouping of multivariate time series inspired by the algorithm Singhal-Seborg, and consistent in obtaining an array of similarities between the time series from the mixture of three measures based on the trends of the series, in its guidance and its position in the multi-dimensional space.

Author: CANATARIO DUARTE ANTONIO.
Year: 2006.
University: CÓRDOBA [www.uco.es].
Place of defense: ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS AGRÓNOMOS Y MONTE.
Place of preparation: ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIERÓS AGRÓNOMOS Y MONTES.

Summary: This study intends to study the diffuse pollution of surface water caused by farming irrigation, the scale of the watershed, with regard to nitrogen, salts and sediment. The basin selected for this study (189 ha) is located in the area Regable the Countryside of Idanha (Portugal), and has as its main crop irrigation on snuff, maize and sorghum, and as a main crop of dry oats . The comprotamiento hydrological basin in the irrigation season is very sensitive to irrigation practices, the frequency and the envelopes used. During the rainy season, the model hortoniano dominates comprotamiento of runoff, and the moisture content of the soil is critical to the magnitude of this runoff in the event of the utmost haste. Water derived for the watershed study in the regio campaign is very good at dealing with variables studied, not constatándose a significant degradation of his capacity to move water for this compound. During the rainy season, the quality of water is drained from the basin depends on the combination of intense precipitation events in the availability in the soil of contaminants studied. In order to use the model AnnAGNPS, we concluded that a digital elevation model of the terrain with vertical resolution of 1 m is enough to contemplate the topography of the watershed, and to define the existing drainage network while solving 5m insufficient. The proximity of surface runoff data observed at the station and hydrologic data for the simulated model AnnAGNPS suggests that this model may be a good tool for predicting the hydrology of the watershed study. However, this did not occur in proximity with regard to sediment and nitrogen, and it seems likely that a pilot scheme continuing risk of those pollutants leading to a woman relationship between observed and simulated data. KEYWORDS: Agriculture risk, diffuse pollution, watershed, simulation models, hydrology.

Author: CASELLES OSORIO ARACELLY.
Year: 2006.
University: POLITÉCNICA DE CATALUÑA [www.upc.edu].
Place of defense: SALA D'ACTES DE L'EPSC.
Place of preparation: ESAB, EDIFICI ESAB CMPUS BAIX LLOBREGAT.

Summary: The wetland systems constructed subsurface flow horizontally HCFSS constitute a valid technology for the treatment of urban wastewater. One delos main objectives of these systems is to remove the organic matter, solids and nutrients in the waste water decanted. The organic matter and mineral contained in the wastewater consists of a complex mixture of substances of different size and chemical composition. In conventional treatment systems has shown that the size distribution of particles in the wastewater influent can affect the efficiency of treatment. However, very few studies have been conducted in HCFSS to determine whether factors such as the size distribution or characteristics of the organic matter affecting the efficiency of treatment. Therefore, the initial assumption of this work is based on its position that in HCFSS, the characteristics of dissolved organic matter and can particularly affect the efficiency containers experimental low depth (0.27-0.3 m) with a surface area of 0.54 -0.77 m2. These systems were planted with Phragmites australis and most of the experiments were fed intermittently. The wastewater used was of two types, synthetic wastewater and urban decanted. The synthetic sewage was prepared with tap water and composed of glucose (readily biodegradable organic matter). Starch (slowly biodegradable organic matter) and nutrients. In Chapters 2 and 3 is a description of the efficiency of HACFFF pilot. These systems were excellent removal of COD with efficiencies between 70 and 94% independent of the type of substrate (glucose or starch) and dela organic load surface provided (5-6 g DQO/m2.dy 20-22 g DQO/m2.d) . The removal of ammonia in these systems was modest, the system was fed glucose greater efficiency (45-57%) with respect to system fed starch (40-43%). The hydraulic conductivity was lower in the system fueled by glucose, probably due to a higher growth biofil, AT HCFSS that operated with urban waste water decanted applying a preparamiento physico no improvement in the concentration of COD in the influent compared with the system that was not treated physico (82 vs. 88%), but reduced the turbidity and the conclusion of COD in alfluente. The elimination of ammonia was high and similar in both systems with a range between 63 and 94% .. The hydraulic conductivity was higher (28 m / d) in the system with treated waste water in the system who did not receive treatment (20 m / d). The results of this study suggest that a physical-chemical pretreatment could prevent the accumulation of solids in the area of entry delos HCFSS. Chapter 5 describes a study designed to evaluate the efficiency of removal of two experimental systems that operated in intermittent and continuous. The COD removal rates were high and similar in the two systems with an average value of 78%. The elimination of ammonia was significantly higher (P less 0.05) in the system fed into the system compared with intermittent fed continuously (87 vs. 69%). Chapter 6 proporicona informaicón on the quantity and claidad solids accumulated in the granular 6 - wetland built on a commercial scale. The resutlados of this study indicated that the largest number of solid was placed in the area of entry (3-57 kg/m2) with a significant difference for the zone output (2-16 kg/m2) This high amount of solids accumulated in the entry zone was variable and was associated with the organic load and solid received (3.1-17.5 g DQO/m2.d: 2.6-10 g SST/m2.d).

Author: BOUZA DEAÑO RAMÓN.
Year: 2006.
University: SEVILLA [www.us.es].
Place of preparation: FACULTAD DE QUÍMICA.

Summary: This Doctoral Thesis aims to study math tools that allow the detection and quantification of trends space on historical data of water quality and its evolution over time as well as to apply this methodology to the case of the River Basin River Ebro during the period 1981-2005, in order to assess changes in the various substances present in its waters during this period. There has been an extensive literature review on existing methods for the study of trends in environmental time series, with special emphasis on mathematical methods no-paramétricos. We have used the analytical data provided by the Ministry of Environment in Spain for 34 analytical parameters and Quality Index General, in 36 stations of the network Comprehensive Quality of Water River Ebro monthly for a period of 25 years (1981 -2005), thus forming a database of 147203 analytical data. It has conducted a survey hidroquímico by methods Multivariante narrative and analysis, in order to know the main characteristics of the waters in this basin. There has been a study of trends space through parametric methods and no-paramétricos, comparing the results, and a study of the evolution over time of these trends, which has allowed prepare conclusions of this Doctoral Thesis.