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Hydropower is one of the significant renewable energy resources. It is regularly requested at peak time steps to meet the load requirements of power systems resources allocation. Therefore, modeling the optimal operation of hydropower systems to maximize the entire energy production of reservoir systems can be a vital task for energy investment. Deriving optimal unknown decision parameters of these reservoir systems is a nonlinear, nonconvex, and complex optimization problem. Herein, a novel optimization algorithm, called an accelerated version of gradient-based optimization (AGBO), is developed to solve a complex multi-reservoir hydropower system. This advised technique uses an efficient adaptive control parameters mechanism to stabilize the global and local search; utilizing an enhanced local escaping operator (ELEO) to extend the chances of getting away from local optima; expanding the exploitation search by applying the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) technique. At first, the developed AGBO algorithm is employed to solve the optimal operation of a complex 10-reservoir hydropower system. Secondly, the possibility of the AGBO algorithm within the global optimization problems is illustrated by numerical tests of 23 mathematical benchmark functions. Optimal results show that the proposed AGBO can approach to 0.9999% of the optimal global solution. As a result, the advised method is the most superior one compared to the other advanced optimization algorithms for maximizing the load demands in hydropower system. In conclusion, this offers a productive tool to solve the complex hydropower multi-reservoir optimization systems.

The exploitation and management of groundwater in an integrated manner is gaining global interest. Rapid population growth is frequently linked to climate change. In order to meet the growing demand for public water supply and irrigation, especially in arid and semi-arid climate regions, groundwater is used excessively. This paper considers the Erbil province of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region as a representative case study for semi-arid climate areas where current practices of groundwater resource utilization lack a solid regulatory framework and where monitoring systems are often absent. The role of climate change in the assessment of aquifers is assessed. Long-term average recharge and extraction rates in relation to groundwater storage have been evaluated with the aim to avoid adverse long-term impacts on groundwater resources. A groundwater balance method has been used to quantify the storage of groundwater within aquifers. Results revealed that there is a considerable imbalance between the input (groundwater recharge) to the Erbil province aquifers and corresponding output (groundwater withdrawn). The reduction of losses in water use, increases in irrigation efficiency, raising of public good water-use practices, and the establishment of a regulatory framework to appropriately manage groundwater resources are outlined.

This study aimed to analyze stressors to which medical staff is vulnerable due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It also imposes a hierarchy on complex relations among stressors for excavating underlying structure and builds a model of interrelationships contrasting reality. The design of this study comprises a literature survey, data collection from primary sources, and analysis. Stressors have been explored from within current published/unpublished literature and validated by experts through approval vote. Data were collected from the focus group (panel of experts), and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) was used as the research methodology. Findings of ISM are avowed through “cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification” (MICMAC) analysis. As a result of the literature survey, a list of stressors was generated, and a total of 19 stressors qualified as representative of the phenomenon. The results of ISM show that two stressors (i.e., “unavailability of proper personal protective equipment (PPE)” and “lack of proper communication”) emerged as the most critical stressors since they occupy the bottom of the model, whereas, four stressors (i.e., “anxious about isolation/quarantine,” “subject to violent crimes,” “feeling frustrated and powerless,” and “exhausting shifts/hours without clear end”) are relatively less critical since they occupy the top of the model. The rest of the stressors occupy the middle of the model and therefore, have moderate-severe effects on frontline soldiers. The results of MICMAC show that the stressor “subject to violent crimes” is classified in the dependent cluster and the remaining fall in the linkage cluster but no stressor falls in independent and autonomous. Overall results indicate that all stressors are relevant to the phenomenon under this study, but they are currently not settled. This study is invaluable for policymakers, frontline soldiers, researchers, the international community, and society since it provides a lot of new information that is helpful in refining strategies and combating influential stressors.

The study is aimed to analyze the determinants of the effectiveness of SOPs in mass gatherings for containing COVID-19. The overall design of the study involves a literature review, data collection by field survey, structural modeling, and analysis. The study is built on the experts' opinion of a focus group (representing people who recently participated in and are responsible for mass gatherings). The study uses the discussion of the literature review to identify the determinants, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) for developing and analyzing a structural model, and Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquée a un Classement (MICMAC) for corroboration of results of the ISM/classification of determinants. From the literature review, a list of determinants is generated and verified by a panel of experts. The results of the ISM revealed that the determinants “legal environment of the country,” “practicability of SOPs,” “perceived benefit of adapting SOPs,” and “possibilities of avoiding gathering” occupied the top of the model, therefore, they are less critical determinants, whereas “nature of gathering” occupied the bottom of the model, and is thus the most critical determinant. The remaining determinants form the middle of the model, and are therefore moderately severe. The results of MICMAC show that the determinant “perceived benefit of adapting SOPs” is dependent, “nature of gathering” is independent, and all others are linked. The results of MICMAC implicitly substantiate the findings of the ISM. The overall results of the study show that “nature of gathering” is the key determinant. This research does not require a priori theory since it is a theory-building study that uses an inductive approach. It is based on real data and it is useful for local authorities, organizers, participants (attendees/visitors) of mass gatherings, health officials/regulators, researchers, and the community at large. This study has fundamental importance for planning and preparing for such events while ensuring the minimum risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Customers have become very sensitive regarding the innovative evaluation of services. Due to competition in the hospitality industry, it is a challenge for hotel marketers to understand customers’ behavior. There is scant research in the hotel industry of Pakistan and especially on boutique hotels. This research seeks to measure the relationship between substantive, communicative elements of the sustainable servicescape and behavioral intentions (word of mouth) in a boutique hotel setting. However, the mediating effect of the overall perceived image is examined between these constructs. Responses of boutique hotel visitors were collected from Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, and Murree. Data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results display that both substantive and communicative servicescape elements positively affect the perceived image of customers, which has a positive influence on behavioral intentions such as word of mouth (WOM). Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Since Pakistan is vulnerable to changing climatic conditions, the country needs emergency measures at every level to mitigate their effect. Many studies have addressed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the macro or institutional level, but its effect at the micro-level is largely ignored in the contemporary literature. The present study aims at filling this gap by highlighting the role of micro-level CSR on Environmental Performance (ENP) and how it is influenced by employees’ pro-environmental (PEB) behavior and gender. This study has been carried out in the context of deteriorating environmental conditions, scarce CSR activities and a male dominant society. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire targeting the manufacturing and the service sectors of Pakistan and analyzed through the structural equation modeling technique, using AMOS and SPSS software. The results of this study confirm that micro-level CSR initiatives directly (β = 0.39⁎⁎) and indirectly (β = 0.031⁎⁎) influence the environmental performance of an organization by means of employees’ PEB. A conditional indirect gender effect on this interaction was also observed, with women (β =0.17⁎⁎) exerting a stronger effect than men (β = 0.031⁎⁎). These findings may be helpful for policymakers involved in environmental management: It is possible to reduce the environmental footprint of Pakistan's organizations by encouraging employee's PEB and particularly by actively involving women which are systematically set apart from decision making in Pakistan.

The aim of this article is to determine how human interventions in upstream countries coupled with drought events are affecting the flow regime of downstream countries using the Nile River basin for illustrative purposes. This has been addressed by assessing climate change in the study area through analyses of precipitation data obtained from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and detecting if there is a trend, and subsequently calculating drought events in the main basins impacting on the downstream flow. Then river discharge data were analysed using different hydraulic indices at key stations in the downstream country and measuring the alterations occurring in the flow. The degree of alteration is a function of the number of civil engineering projects being in operation and classified by time windows; pre-alteration is between 1900 and 1925, while the alteration period is between 1933 and 2012. The alteration period was classified into three periods based on the degree of alteration. The findings revealed that there are changes in the river flow regime caused by both changes in the rainfall pattern in addition to the regulation in the upstream countries. There is a direct relationship between the interventions in the upstream countries and changes in the flow regime especially when coupled with drought events. By increasing the water usage upstream, there is an increase in the alteration of the flow downstream. The years between 2000 and 2012 were linked to the highest alterations between the modified years.

Indexación Scopus Achieving consumer loyalty will remain a prime objective of every business in the current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment (VUCA), which demands some out-of-thebox thinking on the part of policymakers to sustain the competitive advantage. Sustainability has been emerging as a “new normal” for all industries of the present era, which forces all sectors to incorporate it into their business operations. There have been studies on the relationship between sustainability and consumer loyalty, but these studies are inconclusive, further establishing the importance of more research in this area. In this frame of reference, the present research objective is to test the dimensional impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities (economic, environmental, social) on banking consumers’ loyalty in the context of Pakistan. The data were collected from different bank account holders, which were then analyzed through the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS. The results revealed that all three dimensions of CSR positively relate to consumer loyalty. The banking industry policymakers can benefit from the findings of the present study to understand sustainability from the lens of marketing to drive a higher level of consumer loyalty. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3828

While prior studies have largely addressed corporate social responsibility (CSR) at a macro or institutional level, its importance at the micro or individual level is to date underexplored, especially in the context of developing economies. Further, it is not clear from the studies in the extant literature how the role of females is more important in the context of environmental management as compared to males. Similarly, micro-level CSR (MCSR) is emerging as a “new organizational value”, and the organizations that acknowledge this “new organizational value” and incorporate it into their business operations are likely to achieve sustainability objectives far better as compared to their counterparts. The present study investigates the impact of MCSR on employees’ pro-environmental behavior with the moderating effect of gender in the healthcare sector of Pakistan. The data were collected from five large hospitals in the city of Lahore through a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS software. A total of 533 out of 800 responses were received, which were used for data analysis of the present study. The results revealed that MCSR positively influences employee’s pro-environmental behavior, and gender moderates this relationship but the moderating effect of females is stronger as compared to males. The findings of the present study would help policymakers understand the importance of MCSR as a “new organizational value” to influence employees’ pro-environmental behavior with a special focus to promote the proactive role of females at workplaces.

Currently, it is important to develop strategic frameworks to support the selection of sustainable resource recovery solutions. This study applies a new framework for planning, implementation, and assessment of resource recovery strategies for a full-scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in S&atilde, o Paulo megacity. The framework comprises several steps based on case study-specific data and information from current literature. Data were collected from various sources: a survey with a wastewater treatment utility, national and regional databases, and review of local regulations and international literature. Treatment configuration, wastewater and by-products composition, potential demand (for water, energy, and phosphorus), stakeholder identification, and local legislation were thoroughly discussed regarding decision-making on resource recovery. Scenario analysis was used to explore suitable nutrient and energy recovery measures based on indicators. Biogas recovery and sewage sludge composting showed more favorable conditions due to similar experiences in the area and robust legislation. The proposed framework is a simplified tool, and its application can support managers to get information on resource recovery and how to plan such initiatives in easier ways to facilitate wiser decision-making, and better operation and management. The results on framework use and refinement can guide potential applications in other contexts and stimulate public policy formulation and further research.

Most pyrolysis reactors require small sizes of biomass particles to achieve high-quality products. Moreover, understanding the usefulness of high-pressure systems in pyrolysis is important, given the operational challenges they exhibit specific to various biomass materials. To actualize these aspects, the authors first checked previous reviews involving pyrolysis on different biomass and different conditions/situations with their respective objectives and subsections. From these already existing reviews, the team found that there has not been much emphasis on high-pressure fast pyrolysis and its potential in biomass conversion, showing that it is a novel direction in the pyrolysis technology development. Therefore, this review aims to shed more light on high-pressure fast pyrolysis, drawing from (a) classification of pyrolysis; (b) reactors used in fast pyrolysis; (c) heat transfer in pyrolysis feedstock; (d) fast pyrolysis parameters; (e) properties/yields of fast pyrolysis products; (f) high pressure on pyrolysis process; (g) catalyst types and their application; and (h) problems to overcome in the pyrolysis process. This review increases the understanding regarding high-pressure fast pyrolysis. An attempt has been made to demonstrate how high-pressure fast pyrolysis can bring about high-quality biomass conversion into new products. It has been shown that fluidized bed (bubbling and circulating) reactors are most suitable and profitable in terms of product yield. The high-pressure, especially combined with the fast-heating rate, may be more efficient and beneficial than working under ambient pressure. However, the challenges of pyrolysis on a technical scale appear to be associated with obtaining high product quality and yield. The direction of future work should focus on the design of high-pressure process reactors and material types that might have greater biomass promise, as well understanding the impact of pyrolysis technology on the various output products, especially those with lower energy demands. We propose that the increase of process pressure and biomass particle size decrease should be considered as variables for optimization.

The contemporary literature has largely addressed corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the macro or institutional level, whereas its effect at the micro-level is largely ignored. In addition, contemporary researchers have also ignored the importance of employee pro-environmental behavior to reduce the environmental footprint of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). With this background, the present study attempts to decrease the environmental footprint of the SME sector of China by implementing CSR at the micro-level through the involvement of employees because employees spend a significant amount of their time at workplaces, and hence their environment-related behavior may significantly contribute to improve the natural environment. In this regard, here we examined the impact of the micro-foundation of CSR on SMEs’ environmental performance with mediating effect of employees’ pro-environmental behavior. The data were collected from the different organizations in China. Our sample constitutes a supervisor–subordinate dyad from which we collected 562 filled questionnaires (281 from each). We used the structural equation modeling technique using AMOS software for data analysis, the results show that CSR, directly and indirectly, through employee’s pro-environmental behavior affects the environmental performance of SMEs, and employee pro-environmental behavior partially mediates this relationship. The findings of the present study are helpful for policymakers of the SME sector of China to address widespread environmental issues caused by their business operations.

There is scientific evidence of accelerated sea level rise and saline intrusion. Some impacts, such as stratification and estuarine circulation, are subtle; others are dramatic including shifts in salt-sensitive habitats and limited water availability of suitable quality for industrial and municipal uses. These results have become a remarkable reality resulting in a set of integrated surface water organisation issues. Tremendous population increases overwhelming many coastal areas have expanded the problem. These challenges have been studied from many perspectives using various objectives and methodologies, and then arriving at different findings. However, all research assured that significant rises in sea level have influenced estuaries and tidally affected rivers, and these observations are expected to become rapidly worse in the future. This study introduces, categorises, critically investigates, and synthesises the most related studies regarding accelerated sea level rise and challenges of the development associated with the resources of surface water in estuaries and tidally-affected rivers. This critical review reveals that there is a need for research that focuses on the development of sustainable surface water resources.

This paper uses an analytical framework of multi-level and multi-phase perspectives to explore low carbon transition pathways for the UK road transport system. The work draws on the impact made by the national (UK) and regional (EU) low carbon policy instruments on the UK road sector. The results show that the transformation pathway, which is at the take-off phase on a large scale, is the only fully active pathway. The transformation is mainly characterized by the adoption of biofuel blends and hybrid electric vehicles, as well as niche technologies. For the emergence of an ideal low carbon road system in the UK, it is shown that the transformation pathway is insufficient and the likely pathway sequence to full decarbonization will be transformation-substitution-de-alignment/re-alignment. However, the dynamics that can favour a smooth process of this sequence will demand a range of active niche technologies and strong government intervention.

Biodeterioration challenges range from poor indoor air quality and exterior marble defacing to more dangerous building degradation. People often change the look of degraded walls by painting over them, removing carpets as well as replacing damaged wood and papers to improve their aesthetic value. Due to a lack of public awareness and health care infrastructure, the degradation rate is increasing in many countries. There is a need for a review of the international literature supporting practical recommendations. In this critical review paper, the role of microbes in deteriorating buildings, their health impacts in terms of mycotoxins and diverse strategies to handle them are discussed. Moreover, the forthcoming challenges associated with biodegradation and their health impacts have been addressed. Key recommendations have been made: (a) increase of awareness due to community involvement in enhancing moisture control, (b) improvement of cleaning processes and the use of air conditioning systems, (c) regular inspection and maintenance regimes for buildings and (d) cleaning of heating and air conditioning units and associated replacements of filters. The review provides a broad overview of the subject area and should be of interests to generalists working in a wide range of disciplines relevant to indoor air quality.

The aim of this paper is to provide guidance in selecting phosphorus recovery options within the municipal wastewater treatment sector regarding developing countries. This critical review includes a brief contextualization of the resource-oriented sanitation paradigm, the discussion of processes for phosphorus recovery based on methods at full-scale, pilot-scale and laboratory-scale, and a concise discussion of the environmental impacts and benefits associated with phosphorus recovery strategies. Finally, the main challenges related to the implementation of resource recovery strategies, especially for phosphorous, were identified and discussed. According to the results, some of the main drivers for phosphorus recovery are the limited availability of phosphorus, increasing cost of phosphate fertilizers and reduction of maintenance costs. Currently, most of the operational processes are based on crystallization or precipitation from the digester supernatant. Struvite is the most common recovered product. The recovery rate of phosphorus from the liquid phase is lower (10-60% from wastewater treatment plant influent), than from sludge (35-70%) and from sludge ashes (70-98%). Phosphorus recovery remains challenging, and some barriers identified were the integration between stakeholders and institutions, public policies and regulations as well as public acceptance and economic feasibility. In developing countries, the implementation of nutrient recovery systems is challenging, because the main concern is on the expansion of sanitation coverage. Resource recovery approaches can provide benefits beyond the wastewater treatment sector, not only improving the sustainability of wastewater treatment operations, but generating revenue for the utility provider.

Textile industries are responsible for one of the major environmental pollution problems in the world, because they release undesirable dye effluents. Textile wastewater contains dyes mixed with various contaminants at a variety of ranges. Therefore, environmental legislation commonly obligates textile factories to treat these effluents before discharge into the receiving watercourses. The treatment efficiency of any pilot-scale study can be examined by feeding the system either with real textile effluents or with artificial wastewater having characteristics, which match typical textile factory discharges. This paper presents a critical review of the currently available literature regarding typical and real characteristics of the textile effluents, and also constituents including chemicals used for preparing simulated textile wastewater containing dye, as well as the treatments applied for treating the prepared effluents. This review collects the scattered information relating to artificial textile wastewater constituents and organises it to help researchers who are required to prepare synthetic wastewater. These ingredients are also evaluated based on the typical characteristics of textile wastewater, and special constituents to simulate these characteristics are recommended. The processes carried out during textile manufacturing and the chemicals corresponding to each process are also discussed.

Efficient water allocation for sustainable irrigated agriculture has become a growing concern, especially in transboundary river basins where the competition between upstream and downstream countries is substantially increasing. In this paper, the Diyala basin, one of the most water-stressed basins shared between Iraq and Iran, was used as an example case study. The water-stress situation is projected to get worse in the foreseeable future, as climate change adversely altered runoff at a time when demand for water is witnessing remarkable growth. Irrigated agriculture is the greatest consumer of the water supply, having a critical role for the efficiency of water use. The study aims at examining the sensitivity of irrigation demands to a set of potential improvements in irrigation efficiency (between 40 % and 60 %) in the riparian countries under different operational conditions. The investigation of the climate trends discloses that the area tends to be drier, with lower precipitation and higher rates of potential evapotranspiration. The possible impacts of climate change on water availability were examined through the simulation of various climatic scenarios with a rainfall-runoff model. Results show that the annual runoff may be reduced from 14 % to 30 %. It is estimated that such reduction can cause considerable water deficits, especially when there are small improvements in irrigation efficiency. This approach can support the development of a set of plausible scenarios to reduce irrigation water demand while maintaining a healthy agricultural sector.

In developing countries, there is often a lack of a comprehensive data set that supports the development of coherent policies on resource recovery from wastewater treatment. This paper aims to contribute to the elaboration of resource recovery projects by providing accurate and updated data from wastewater treatment plants such as those located in the region of the Macrometropolis of Sao Paulo. The authors discuss possibilities of improvement of resource recovery for this illustrative example. Comprehensive analyses were performed based on data from 143 municipal wastewater treatment plants to understand the situation regarding resource recovery implementation in this region. The results show that just 26% of the plants perform at least one resource recovery practice. The predominant resource recovery practice is internal water reuse, and recovery is concentrated more in large plants than in medium and small ones. The sludge is disposed in landfills except for three plants, which perform sludge recycling for compost. Some plant managers reported interest in recovering energy from biogas, in expanding water reuse and in recovering sludge for fertilizer production or for building materials. Several aspects that have been regarded as relevant to the implementation of resource recovery processes in previous literature are discussed, such as the size of the plant, related legislation as well as treatment technologies and configurations. Finally, the authors propose a generic framework with several steps that can help to achieve resource recovery implementation. Therefore, the results can provide support for planning of resource recovery projects for large cities in developing countries.

This study focuses on drivers for changing urban flood risk. We suggest a framework for guiding climate change adaptation action concerning flood risk and manageability in cities. The identified key drivers of changing flood hazard and vulnerability are used to provide an overview of each driver's impact on flood risk and manageability at the city level. We find that identified drivers for urban flood risk can be grouped in three different priority areas with different time horizon. The first group has high impact but is manageable at city level. Typical drivers in this group are related to the physical environment such as decreasing permeability and unresponsive engineering. The second group of drivers is represented by public awareness and individual willingness to participate and urbanization and urban sprawl. These drivers may be important and are manageable for the cities and they involve both short-term and long-term measures. The third group of drivers is related to policy and long-term changes. This group is represented by economic growth and increasing values at risk, climate change, and increasing complexity of society. They have all high impact but low manageability. Managing these drivers needs to be done in a longer time perspective, e.g., by developing long-term policies and exchange of ideas.

Background: In order to save potable water, this study aims to evaluate the contamination of soil and Capsicum annuum L. (chilli) watered with urban wastewater (sewage) pre-treated by various wetland systems. Methods: The appropriateness of wetland outflow for irrigation when applying reused wastewater with high contamination of minerals and pathogens was assessed. The impact of wastewaters pre-treated by various wetlands on soil and harvest was tested in terms of mineral and biological contamination risk. Results: The wetlands met the standards for irrigation water for most water quality variables. However, the thresholds for key water quality parameters were significantly (p &lt, 0.05) exceeded. The highest values for total coliforms, ammonium-nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were 157,072 CFU/100 mL, 8.5 mg/L, 5.0 mg/L, and 7.0 mg/L, respectively. The harvest was moderately polluted only by zinc according to vegetable quality standards (threshold of 50 mg/kg). Zinc concentrations for Filters 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 were 35.8, 60.6, 65.1, 65.5 and 53.2 mg/kg, respectively. No bacterial contamination was detected. Conclusions: Treatment of domestic wastewater applying constructed wetlands and subsequent recycling of the treated wastewater for irrigation of crops is a good substitute to the traditional application of drinking water for irrigation purposes.

The ambiguity of diverse functions of sustainable flood retention basins (SFRBs) may lead to conflict and risk in water resources planning and management. How can someone provide an intuitive yet efficient strategy to uncover and distinguish the multiple potential functions of SFRBs under uncertainty? In this study, by exploiting both input and output uncertainties of SFRBs, the authors developed a new data-driven framework to automatically predict the multiple functions of SFRBs by using multi-instance multi-label (MIML) learning. A total of 372 sustainable flood retention basins, characterized by 40 variables associated with confidence levels, were surveyed in Scotland, UK. A Gaussian model with Monte Carlo sampling was used to capture the variability of variables (i.e., input uncertainty), and the MIML-support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was subsequently applied to predict the potential functions of SFRBs that have not yet been assessed, allowing for one basin belonging to different types (i.e., output uncertainty). Experiments demonstrated that the proposed approach enables effective automatic prediction of the potential functions of SFRBs (e.g., accuracy &gt, 93%). The findings suggest that the functional uncertainty of SFRBs under investigation can be better assessed in a more comprehensive and cost-effective way, and the proposed data-driven approach provides a promising method of doing so for water resources management.

There is growing concern in Iraq about the inefficiency of reactive drought management practices. Corresponding actions are largely characterized as emergency-based responses that treat the symptoms of drought rather than consider the vulnerability components associated with impacts. The Diyala watershed shared between Iraq and Iran has been used as an example transboundary river basin marked by ineffectiveness of drought management. The standardized precipitation index and the reconnaissance drought index were used to determine the historical meteorological drought episodes and analysis indicated climate change-induced alterations in the area. Spatiotemporal drought maps were drawn, which can be used for the identification of drought prone areas and assist with proactive planning. This paper discusses the underlying causes of the impairments of drought management policies, and the challenges and difficulties accompanying the governance of drought in Iraq. Given the influence of climate change and the upstream anthropogenic pressures, the time has come to adopt a gradual nation-wide transition step to drought risk planning incorporating a management approach at the transboundary scale. Moreover, the institutional and technical water vulnerability components associated with drought management should be considered in an integrated manner. The paper presents a generic technical template to support decision-makers in drought risk management.

Monitoring large-scale treatment wetlands is costly and time-consuming, but required by regulators. Some analytical results are available only after 5 days or even longer. Thus, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) models were developed to predict the effluent concentrations of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and NH4-N from a full-scale integrated constructed wetland (ICW) treating domestic wastewater. The ANFIS models were developed and validated with a 4-year data set from the ICW system. Cost-effective, quicker and easier to measure variables were selected as the possible predictors based on their goodness of correlation with the outputs. A self-organizing neural network was applied to extract the most relevant input variables from all the possible input variables. Fuzzy subtractive clustering was used to identify the architecture of the ANFIS models and to optimize fuzzy rules, overall, improving the network performance. According to the findings, ANFIS could predict the effluent quality variation quite strongly. Effluent BOD5 and NH4-N concentrations were predicted relatively accurately by other effluent water quality parameters, which can be measured within a few hours. The simulated effluent BOD5 and NH4-N concentrations well fitted the measured concentrations, which was also supported by relatively low mean squared error. Thus, ANFIS can be useful for real-time monitoring and control of ICW systems.

Recent increases in human activities in shared river basins have unquestionably raised concerns about potential hydrological impacts, especially impacts of dams and large-scale water withdrawal schemes in the highlands. Anthropogenic pressures twinned with drought impacts have exacerbated water management challenges. This article assesses the cumulative consequences of upstream anthropogenic pressures and drought spells on temporal river flow regimes for the downstream country. The size and complexity of problems confronting transboundary river watersheds makes it necessary to use a representative example basin to study the problems and potential solutions. The Diyala (Sīrvān) river basin, which shares dozens of transboundary watersheds between Iraq and Iran, has been selected as a representative case study. A subset of the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) was utilised and climate variability was considered in assessing the combined effect of various forms of upstream human-river regulations and climatic conditions on natural flow regimes in the downstream state. Findings indicated that the anthropogenic river-regulation coupled with the impact of drought periods have noticeably modified the natural flow paradigm. The yearly average runoffs, which are no longer available for the downstream country, have soared to very high levels, particularly over the last fifteen years. More adverse impacts were detected in the non-rainy season. Findings reveal also that damming and considerable water diversion to large-scale irrigation projects in the upstream state are the main regulations affecting the management of shared water resources in the downstream country.

This article assesses the adverse impact of upstream anthropogenic regulation of a transboundary river watershed on the natural flow regime of the downstream country, by focusing on a case study: the Diyala (Sīrvān) River watershed shared between Iraq and Iran. The article explores transboundary watershed management difficulties in a three-level system called the transboundary three-scalar framework, which helps to sustainably manage water resources. The average rates of reduction in flow between 2004 and 2013 ranged from nearly 24% in February to about 77% in September. The median of the reduction of rates between June and October was 66.4%.

There is a need for a geospatial decision support tool for different professions such as drainage engineers and urban planners, which is useful for a quick assessment of the potential of ecosystem services when retrofitting sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in urban areas. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop an innovative rapid decision support tool based on ecosystem service variables for retrofitting of key SuDS techniques by different professionals such as drainage engineers, developers, ecologists, planners and social scientists. This unique and transparent spreadsheet-based tool proposes the retrofitting of a SuDS technique that obtained the highest ecosystem service score for an urban site. This approach is based on a novel ecosystem service philosophy adapted to SuDS rather than on traditional engineering judgement associated with variables based on quick community and environment assessments. For the Greater Manchester example case study area, a comparison with the traditional approach of determining community and environment variables indicates that infiltration trenches, soakaways and belowground storage systems are usually less preferred than permeable pavement systems regardless of the professional perspective. However, ponds also received relatively high scores, because of their great potential impact in terms of water quality improvement and flood control. The estimation of variables was undertaken with high confidence and manageable error.

To better recognize the outstanding papers in the area of water sciences and technology published in Water, we announce the institution of an annual award.[...]

The retrofitting of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) such as permeable pavements is currently undertaken ad hoc using expert experience supported by minimal guidance based predominantly on hard engineering variables. There is a lack of practical decision support tools useful for a rapid assessment of the potential of ecosystem services when retrofitting permeable pavements in urban areas that either feature existing trees or should be planted with trees in the near future. Thus the aim of this paper is to develop an innovative rapid decision support tool based on novel ecosystem service variables for retrofitting of permeable pavement systems close to trees. This unique tool proposes the retrofitting of permeable pavements that obtained the highest ecosystem service score for a specific urban site enhanced by the presence of trees. This approach is based on a novel ecosystem service philosophy adapted to permeable pavements rather than on traditional engineering judgement associated with variables based on quick community and environment assessments. For an example case study area such as Greater Manchester, which was dominated by Sycamore and Common Lime, a comparison with the traditional approach of determining community and environment variables indicates that permeable pavements are generally a preferred SuDS option. Permeable pavements combined with urban trees received relatively high scores, because of their great potential impact in terms of water and air quality improvement, and flood control, respectively. The outcomes of this paper are likely to lead to more combined permeable pavement and tree systems in the urban landscape, which are beneficial for humans and the environment.

Water-related impacts due to change in climatic conditions ranging from water scarcity to intense floods and storms are increasing in developing countries like Pakistan. Water quality and waterborne diseases like hepatitis, cholera, typhoid, malaria and dengue fever are increasing due to chaotic urbanization, industrialization, poor hygienic conditions, and inappropriate water management. The morbidity rate is high due to lack of health care facilities, especially in developing countries. Organizations linked to the Government of Pakistan (e.g., Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Climate Change, Planning and Development, Ministry of Forest, Irrigation and Public Health, Pakistan Meteorological Department, National Disaster Management, Pakistan Agricultural Research Centre, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, and Global Change Impact Study Centre), United Nation organizations, provincial government departments, non-governmental organizations (e.g., Global Facility and Disaster Reduction), research centers linked to universities, and international organizations (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Food and Agriculture, Global Climate Fund and World Bank) are trying to reduce the water-related impacts of climate change, but due to lack of public awareness and health care infrastructure, the death rate is steadily increasing. This paper critically reviews the scientific studies and reports both at national and at international level benefiting generalists concerned with environmental and public health challenges. The article underlines the urgent need for water conservation, risk management, and the development of mitigation measures to cope with the water-related impacts of climate change on agriculture and subsequently on public health. Novel solutions and bioremediation methods have been presented to control environmental pollution and to promote awareness among the scientific community. The focus is on diverse strategies to handle the forthcoming challenges associated with water resources management.

Sustainable water resources management attracts considerable attention in today’s world. Recycling and reuse of both wastewater and greywater are becoming more attractive. The strategy is to protect ecosystem services by balancing the withdrawal of water and the disposal of wastewater. In the present study, a timely and novel synthetic greywater composition has been proposed with respect of the composition of heavy metals, nutrients and organic matter. The change in water quality of the synthetic greywater due to increasing storage time was monitored to evaluate the stability of the proposed chemical formula. The new greywater is prepared artificially using analytical grade chemicals to simulate either low (LC) or high (HC) pollutant concentrations. The characteristics of the synthetic greywater were tested (just before starting the experiment, after two days and a week of storage under real weather conditions) and compared to those reported for real greywater. Test results for both synthetic greywater types showed great similarities with the physiochemical properties of published findings concerning real greywater. Furthermore, the synthetic greywater is relatively stable in terms of its characteristics for different storage periods. However, there was a significant (p

Chapter 29 highlights the need for a geospatial decision support tool for different professions, which is useful for a quick assessment of the potential of ecosystem services when retrofitting sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in urban areas. Therefore, the aim is to develop an innovative rapid decision support tool based on ecosystem service variables for retrofitting of key SuDS techniques by different professionals such as drainage engineers, developers, ecologists, planners, and social scientists. The approach is based on a novel ecosystem service philosophy adapted to SuDS rather than on traditional engineering judgment associated with variables based on quick community and environment assessments. After studying this chapter, readers will appreciate that the traditional approach of determining community and environment variables indicates that infiltration trenches, soak-aways, and below-ground storage systems are usually less preferred than permeable pavement systems regardless of the professional perspective. However, ponds also received relatively high scores because of their great potential impact in terms of water quality improvement and flood control.

Chapter 37 highlights that flooding is a complex spatial planning challenge and therefore requires a range of tools and approaches to solve the problem. Solutions are likely to require sustainable drainage system (SuDS) solutions applied on a small scale combined with sustainable flood retention basins (SFRB) used on a large scale. This chapter aims to provide guidance on 40 variables used to rapidly assess water bodies including SFRB in terms of their flood and diffuse pollution control purpose and potential. The variables described should be the basis for the characterization of SFRB, which are adaptive structural measures well integrated within the landscape promoting best management practice as part of a sustainable flood risk management strategy. Readers will learn about novel variables such as Engineered, Outlet Arrangement, Aquatic Animal Passage, Land Animal Passage, Basin and Channel Connectivity, Seasonal Influence, Relative Total Pollution, and Flotsam Cover. The list includes also sum parameters such as Relative Total Pollution, which address several complex environmental processes.

Chapter 35 highlights that due to water scarcity in many arid countries, there is considerable interest in recycling various wastewater streams, such as treated urban wastewater, for irrigation in the agricultural sector. The aim was therefore to assess if domestic wastewater treated by different wetlands can be successfully recycled to water commercially grown crops. The growth of both Sweet Pepper (California Wonder; cultivar of Capsicum annuum Linnaeus Grossum Group) and Chili (De Cayenne; Capsicum annuum (Linnaeus) Longum Group “De Cayenne”) fed with different treated and untreated wastewater types were assessed. A few plants suffered from a shortage and/or excess of some nutrients and trace minerals. The overall growth development of Sweet Peppers was poor due to the high concentrations of nutrients and trace minerals. Readers should appreciate that high Chili yields were associated with tap water, an organic growth medium, and a wetland with a high aggregate size, leaving sufficient space for biomass.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the process of sewage treatment. The waste disposed of by domestic households and industry is conveyed to the treatment works by means of pipes (sewers). In a traditionally combined sewer, all sewage, both foul and surface water, is conveyed in a single pipe. In case of separate systems, two pipes are laid in the trench for the sewerage system; one for the foul sewer, and the second for the surface water. Typically, raw sewage contains 99.9% water and 0.1% solids and the sewage treatment process fundamentally aims to separate solids from the water. The impurities in the sewage can be categorized as floating or suspended solids, colloidal solids, dissolved solids, and dissolved gases. The treatment of solids and sludge forms an important and costly area of sewage treatment and the impurities are removed from the sewage by using operations or processes, which are either physical, chemical, or biological in nature. The sewage treatment process has several stages, namely, preliminary treatment (physical); primary treatment (physical and/or chemical); secondary treatment (biological and/or chemical); and tertiary treatment (physical and/or chemical and/or biological). Wetland systems can be designed for each engineering stage, and for sludge treatment. However, constructed treatment wetlands are usually applied for secondary or tertiary treatment stages. Wetlands integrated in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) are frequently used for preliminary and primary treatment purposes.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on sludge blanket clarifiers that are widely used in water and wastewater treatment, and can also be applied as a pre-treatment step located before a constructed wetland. The sludge blanket is a fluidized bed formed by the accumulation of flocs. While the top of the blanket is very often well defined, there is no distinguishable bottom of the blanket. The sludge blanket effect is obtained simply by allowing chemically pre-treated water (i.e. coagulant added) to flow upwards in a clarification unit. As water rises in the clarifier, its velocity progressively decreases until, at a given level, the upflow velocity of the water equals the hindered settling velocity of the floc suspension. The flocs are therefore suspended in the water to form the sludge blanket. The principal elements of the sludge blanket clarification system include rapid mixing unit; inlet system to the clarifier; and sludge blanket and flocculation zone; supernatant clear water zone; excess sludge removal system; and clarified water collection system. The addition of chemicals to the raw water and their thorough mixing is the first stage in the clarification process. After the initial rapid mixing, an additional slower mixing time of a few minutes (i.e. delay time) is useful to assist perikinetic flocculation. The nature of the inlet flow to the clarifier is vital to the hydraulic stability of the blanket, the distribution of flow through the blanket, and hence settled water quality. Four different inlet distribution systems are used in practice, namely, perforated plate distribution system, point inlet distribution system, perforated pipe distribution system, and slot distribution system.

The retrofitting of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) is currently undertaken ad hoc using expert experience supported by minimal guidance based predominantly on hard engineering variables. The aim of this chapter is to develop an innovative, rapid decision support tool based on novel ecosystem service variables for retrofitting of permeable pavement systems close to trees. This tool proposes the retrofitting of permeable pavements that obtained the highest ecosystem service score for a specific urban site enhanced by the presence of trees. This approach is based on a novel ecosystem service philosophy adapted to permeable pavements rather than on traditional engineering judgment associated with variables based on quick community and environment assessments. A comparison with the traditional approach of determining community and environment variables indicates that permeable pavements are generally a preferred SuDS option. This chapter makes clear that permeable pavements combined with urban trees received relatively high scores because of their great potential impact in terms of water and air quality improvement and in terms of flood control.

Data collected from five Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust constructed wetland systems offering a range of styles and inflow water types between 2005 and 2009 were examined and compared to identify long-term trends in nutrient removal. Ammonia-nitrogen concentrations were reduced between 31.9 and 96.8%. In contrast, the concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen and total oxidised nitrogen in the effluent exceeded the influent in many of the systems. Reduction in ortho-phosphate-phosphorus and total phosphorous were between −10.5 and 87.6%, and between 6.9 and 92.5%, respectively. Removal efficiencies of biochemical oxygen demand were between 0.0 and 87.3%, and reductions of total suspended solids ranged from −249.3 to 57.6%. Ammonia-nitrogen reduction was effective during summer. Long-term nitrogen removal has been efficient and consistent. However, phosphorous reduction was only sufficient during the early stages of operation, and generally declined as the wetland aged.

This review discusses high impact research in sustainable urban and land management. The focus is on large European projects that have a holistic and multi-disciplinary assessment approach towards the total environment. This paper clearly indicates that many projects propose decision-making tools partly supported by numerical models. Successful projects were identified as applying the following criteria: a communicative and holistic approach involving economic, environmental and social sciences throughout the project; sufficient geographic coverage; engagement of stakeholders from a wide variety of sectors; and plans for dissemination of project outcomes and active knowledge sharing.

It is becoming good practice to prepare risk assessments of river basins and coastal areas on a global scale. The novel sustainable flood retention basin (SFRB) concept provides a rapid classification technique for impoundments, which have a pre-defined or potential role in flood defense. However, most SFRB do often perform multiple functions simultaneously and thus are associated with multiple SFRB types. Nevertheless, previous SFRB classification systems assign each SFRB to a specific type relying on its main function. To handle the problem, this study aims to comprehensively assess the multiple functions of SFRB with the help of multi-label classification. The popular multi-label classifiers multi-label support vector machine (MLSVM), multi-label K-nearest neighbor (MLKNN) and back-propagation for multi-label learning (BP-MLL) were applied to predict the types of SFRB based on two data sets (one from Scotland and one from Baden). Findings indicate that multi-label classification schemes provide deeper insights into all potential functions of SFRB and help planners and engineers to make better use of them.

Artificial intelligence techniques, such as neural networks, are modeling tools that can be applied to analyze urban runoff quality issues. Artificial neural networks are frequently used to model various highly variable and nonlinear physical phenomena in the water and environmental engineering fields. The application of neural networks for analyzing the performance of combined permeable pavement and earth energy systems is timely and novel. This paper presents the application of back-propagation neural networks and the testing of the Levenberg-Marquardt, Quasi-Newton, and Bayesian Regularization algorithms. The neural networks were statistically assessed for their goodness of prediction with respect to the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia-nitrogen, nitrate-nitrogen, and ortho-phosphate-phosphorus by numerical computation of the mean absolute error, root-mean-square error, mean absolute relative error, and the coefficient of correlation for the prediction compared with the corresponding measured data. The three neural network models were assessed for their efficiency in accurately simulating the effluent water quality parameters from various experimental pavement systems. The models predicted all key parameters with high correlation coefficients and low minimum statistical errors. The back-propagation and feed-forward neural network models performed optimally as pollutant removal predictors with regard to these two sustainable technologies.

This paper reviews the ecological environment protection measures of Chinese rural hydropower development schemes. China’s rapid economic growth is making great energy demands and developing rural hydropower currently provides 30.4 GW annually. There is a conflict of interest between hydropower development and ecological and environmental protection. Potential problems include changes in hydrological condition, eutrophication, downstream nutrient reduction, sediment deposition, aquatic ecosystem alteration, and ecological water demand variation. Since most of the rural hydropower resources are located in ecologically fragile regions, it is significantly more important that ecological environment protection is being considered. As exploitation of rural hydropower has developed in China, ecological environment protection schemes had to adapt to changing boundary conditions. Due to improvements in environmental protection management, various environmental impact assessment methods have been applied including fuzzy analysis hierarchy process, ecological scheduling, pressure-state-response, and ecological environment evaluation index. The latter index can both qualitatively and quantitatively analyze ecological environment impacts and has become the most frequently used tool in the evaluation of rural hydropower exploitation. To rebalance the interests regarding energy generation and environmental protection, countermeasures originating from different aspects such as engineering design optimization, management improvement, and ecological restoration were recommended to promote ecological environment protection. The review concludes that by taking ecological environment protection into consideration in the whole rural hydropower plan, adopting ecological scheduling to guarantee river ecological water demand and implementing ecological restoration in watershed management are the most effective approaches in furthering sustainable development of rural hydropower.

The use of constructed wetlands for the treatment of wastewater is an approach that has received increasing attention over the last 30 years due to their innate ability to deal with a wide range of highly variable influent types. The treatment of swine wastewater is an on-going issue due to its generally higher nutrient concentrations and the limited land available to owners. The implementation of the European Union Nitrates Directive and Water Framework Directive is currently placing considerable pressure on agriculture in EU member states with its focus on the improvement and sustained quality of surface waters. The limit of 170 kg of organic nitrogen/ha/annum imposed by the Nitrates Directive can cause severe difficulties for wastewater management in the piggery industry in Ireland, where spreadlands are already receiving high application rates of organic N. A replicated mesocosm integrated constructed wetland (ICW) approach was examined for the effective treatment of anaerobically digested separated swine wastewater with emphasis on nutrient removal. These mesocosm systems are based on operations identified in the available literature as well as on the ICW Concept pioneered in Ireland. The removal efficiency yielded substantial results over an 18 month period and highlighted high mass removal of ammonia–nitrogen (98.1–99.9%) from the influent. The removal recorded in all operational replicates throughout the study period showed that wetlands based on the ICW concept may very well prove to be a viable and sustainable approach for the treatment of swine wastewaters in Ireland whilst successfully addressing both the Nitrates and Water Framework Directives.

This study aimed to explore the relationship between Microcystis aeruginosa growth and nutrients released from fish food, which mainly simulates the effect of uneaten food on algae growth and water quality variables during aquaculture activities. Fish food (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 g dosages tested) of different grain sizes (original; 0.147 ≤ d ≤ 0.85 mm; d ≤ 0.147 mm) was added each into M-II culturing medium (nitrogen and phosphorus absent). During the experimental running period, the concentrations of total phosphorus (TP), orthophosphate phosphorus (PO43−-P), total nitrogen and ammonia-nitrogen (NH4+-N) increased significantly with increasing fish food dosages regardless of their grain sizes. Furthermore, grain size had a negligible effect on nutrient release from fish food with the same dosage. Based on the above experiment, M. aeruginosa was introduced into the culturing media at different dosages (nitrogen and phosphorus absent) with 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 g fish food to assess algae growth characteristics. Algae cell density significantly increased with the dosage ranging from 0 to 0.2 g. NH4+-N and PO43−-P were the main fractions of available nutrients used by M. aeruginosa in the fish food. In comparison to the growth dynamics of algae in M-II culturing medium, the lag phase for M. aeruginosa in the presence of fish food extended significantly when calculating the time from the addition of fish food and insignificantly when the time for nutrient release from fish food was excluded.

Meso-scale constructed wetlands have not been commonly used for the examination of interactions and operations within differently designed wetland systems. Sixteen meso-scale constructed wetland systems (4 operations with 4 replicates each) were therefore evaluated between November 2008 and June 2010. These systems were used to examine key operations identified in the literature including hydraulic loading rates, nutrient loading rates and nutrient recycling modes. The wetlands were managed in the following modes: normal, recycling, high nutrient loading and high flow rate. The designs were such that the influents could be varied at set loading rates and concentrations. The ammonia removal rates for the meso-scale integrated constructed wetland (ICW) systems were similar to other full-scale ICW systems that have been in operation in the south-east of Ireland for the past decade. These comparable results highlight the potential cost-effectiveness of these meso-scale experimental designs for the examination of novel operations for future ICW developments.

Geothermal pavement systems are novel to the paving industry. It is the combination of ground source heat pumps and permeable pavements which treats urban runoff and utilises renewable energy for heating and cooling applications. An energy and temperature balance was developed for two experimental geothermal paving systems. The heat fluxes were analysed for a heating and cooling cycle to determine the thermogeological relationship for the systems. A 4th order Runge-Kutta numerical method was developed to model the heat fluxes and energy balance using measured temperature data and other environmental factors such as solar radiation, convection and evaporation heat fluxes for the pavement system. The model was statistically tested for its validity and it can be concluded that the Runge-Kutta technique proved to be an effective and reliable predictive tool.

The relationships between pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and chlorophyll a in aquaculture and non-aquaculture waters are assessed in this paper. The research includes the evaluation of field and experimental studies at the Panjiakou Reservoir (between Aug and Oct 2009) and the review of international data covering two decades. The results indicated that typical eutrophic non-aquaculture water had mean concentrations of chlorophyll a of higher than 10 μg L−1, and significant positive correlations were found between pH, DO and chlorophyll a. When the mean concentration of chlorophyll a was less than 10 μg L−1, no correlation was found between DO and chlorophyll a for waters with a high exchange rate or heavily organically polluted natural waters. Diurnal variations were found for both pH and DO. A corresponding significant positive correlation was found between both water quality parameters. In general, when the mean concentration of chlorophyll a was less than 10 μg L−1 within aquaculture waters of low exchange rate, only a weak or no correlation at all was found between pH, DO and chlorophyll a during summer and autumn. On the other hand, a significant positive correlation between pH and chlorophyll a and a significant positive correlation or no correlation between DO and chlorophyll a were found for aquaculture waters with a high exchange rate during summer and autumn. Strong diurnal variations for both pH and DO were identified. A significant positive linear correlation between pH and DO was found for field enclosure experiments.

Using a revised version of a previously published expert classification system, a database of potential Sustainable Flood Retention Basins has been developed for Scotland. The research shows that the majority of small and former (often old) drinking water reservoirs are kept full and their spillways are continuously in operation. Utilising some of the available capacity to contribute to flood control could significantly reduce the costs of complying with the European Union Flood Directive. Furthermore, the application of a previously developed classification model for Baden in Germany for the Scottish data set showed a lower diversity for basins in Scotland due to less developed infrastructure. The classification system appears to be robust and has the potential, with minor modifications, to be applied across Europe. The principle value of this approach is a clear and unambiguous categorisation, based on standard variables, which can help to promote communication and understanding between stakeholders.

The use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) or Best Management Practice (BMP) is becoming increasingly common. However, rather than adopting the preferred “treatment train” implementation, many developments opt for end of pipe control ponds. This paper discusses the use of SuDS in series to form treatment trains and compares their potential performance and effectiveness with end of pipe solutions. Land-use, site and catchment characteristics have been used alongside up-to-date guidance, Infoworks CS and MUSIC to determine whole-life-costs, land-take, water quality and water quantity for different SuDS combinations. The results presented show that the use of a treatment train allows approaches differing from the traditional use of single SuDS, either source or “end of pipe”, to be proposed to treat and attenuate runoff. The outcome is a more flexible solution where the footprint allocated to SuDS, costs and water quality can be managed differently to satisfy more efficiently the holistically stakeholders' objectives.