Improving management and protection of drinking water supplies and environmental sustainability in urban settings

淡水生态系统的管理、保护和恢复是全球范围内的核心环境问题。特别是，水管理人员必须处理迅速的城市发展及其对水体的负面影响。这个多学科项目围绕四个研究轴展开，所有这些研究轴都旨在为城市水资源管理者提供额外的工具，以更好地监测和保护水生生态系统，特别关注城市环境。轴1的目的是通过耦合生物监测数据（基于藻类）和人类活动相关风险，对饮用水供应脆弱性进行流域尺度评估。简单地说，第1轴的目的是在流域尺度上将生物完整性数据和土地利用信息结合起来，向市政当局提供更完整的供水脆弱性情况。对饮用水源的一个重大威胁是城市雨水径流，轴线2、3和4的设计就是为了解决这个问题。雨水截留池（swrp）是减少城市径流的一种常见缓解做法，第2轴旨在确定其积极成果（污染物滞留），并评估其污水上下游接收环境的生物完整性。轴3的目标是估计城市swrp的生物多样性，而轴4的目标是估计swrp提供的生态系统服务的货币价值（以美元计算）。该项目的最终目标是评估绿色基础设施建设给纳税人带来的利益，然后将其用作经济、社会、政治和生态话语和决策的工具。更好地管理雨水径流是保护饮用水源的一个关键方面。该研究计划将培养四名硕士生、两名本科生和一名技术员。

Management, protection, and rehabilitation of freshwater ecosystems are central environmental concerns on a global scale. In particular, water managers must deal with rapid urban development and their associated negative consequences on water bodies. This multi-disciplinary project is built around four research axes that all aim at providing urban water managers with additional tools to better monitor and conserve aquatic ecosystems, with a particular focus on urban environments. The purpose of Axis 1 is to develop a watershed-scale assessment of drinking water supply vulnerability by coupling biomonitoring data (algae based) and human activity related risks. Simply stated, the aim of Axis 1 is to combine biological integrity data and land use information, at the watershed scale, to provide municipalities with a more complete portrait of water supply vulnerability. One significant threat to drinking water sources is urban stormwater runoff and Axes 2, 3, and 4 are designed to address this problem. Stormwater retention ponds (SWRPs) are a common mitigation practice to reduce urban runoff and Axis 2 aims to determine their positive outcomes (contaminant retention) and to evaluate the biological integrity of receiving environments upstream and downstream of their effluents. The objective of Axis 3 is to estimate the biodiversity in urban SWRPs, while the aim of Axis 4 is to estimate the monetary value, in dollars, of ecosystem services provided by SWRPs. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to provide an assessment of the benefits that constructed green infrastructures provide to taxpayers, which could then be used as a tool in economic, social, political, and ecological discourse and decision-making. Better management of stormwater runoff is one key aspect of drinking water source protection. The proposed research program will lead to the training of four Master's students, two undergraduate trainees, and one technician.