A large number of micropollutants, also known as trace contaminants or emerging contaminants, and their transformation products (veterinary and human pharmaceuticals, pesticides and biocides, personal care products, organic pollutants such as PFAS or chlorinated compounds) and heavy metals pose a risk for soil, groundwater and surface water. The large diversity of compounds and of their sources makes the quantification of their occurrence in the terrestrial and aquatic environment across space and time a challenging task. Regulatory monitoring programs cover a small selection out of the compound diversity and quantify these selected compounds only at coarse temporal and spatial resolution. Carefully designed monitoring, however, allows to detect and elucidate processes and to estimate parameters in the aquatic environment. Modelling is a complementary tool to generalize measured data and extrapolate in time and space, which is needed as a basis for scenario analysis and decision making. Mitigation measures can help reduce contamination of groundwater and surface water and impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Notably, this session welcomes contributions focusing on circular economy principles, including case studies of emerging contaminants removal and recovery from water resources. The goal is to stimulate a dialogue that not only advances scientific knowledge but also promotes actionable outcomes that benefit society and the environment.
This session invites contributions that improve our quantitative understanding of the sources and pathways, mass fluxes, the fate and transport and the mitigation of micropollutants in the soil-groundwater-river continuum of catchments. The session additionally contributes to disseminating the REMEDI project results (Grant ID: 956384). REMEDI focuses on X-ray contrast medium agents and trains early-stage researchers to address pharmaceutical water contamination, treatment and recovery.
Water quality at the catchment scale: measuring, modelling and recovery of micropollutants
Convener:
Matthias Gassmann
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Co-conveners:
Felicia LinkeECSECS,
Shulamit NussboimECSECS,
Poornima NageshECSECS,
Giovanni Porta,
Mohaddeseh Mousavi Nezhad,
Alberto Guadagnini