Catchments as the first stage of treatment

利用集水区或原水基础设施作为处理的第一阶段，将支持英国水务行业向无化学水处理过渡，抵消运营支出和基础设施投资的需求以及相关的环境影响。这一博士项目由纽卡斯尔大学领导，与英国水务工业研究中心(UKWIR)和谢菲尔德大学合作，旨在推进流域的自然和物理干预作为处理阶段，以补充英国和爱尔兰的其他流域管理方法。纽卡斯尔大学两个研究农场的实地调查和国家绿色基础设施(NGIF)的实验将确定土壤改良剂或缓冲区中特定植被的好处，以增强养分/农药/固体的保留，同时还将评估沟渠屏障、池塘和渗漏水坝等特征对水质的影响。谢菲尔德大学将提供专业知识和设备，以表征这些特征在不同流量下的水文性能(例如污染物衰减和保留时间)。纽卡斯尔大学将部署其“面包车实验室”，用于现场分析化学和微生物水质。从整体上看集水系统，实地调查、实验和文献的结果将被用来确定集水、水体和原水基础设施干预措施的组合，以实现以集水为基础的解决方案的全部好处。将与水务行业和土地管理利益攸关方共同开发决策支持工具，以确定适应气候变化的集水区处理解决方案和维护制度，以保护生物多样性，提高集水区的公共便利价值，并改善饮用水资源的质量。

Utilising catchments or raw water infrastructure as the first stage of treatment will support the UK Water industry's transition towards chemical-free water treatment, offsetting the need for operational expenditure and infrastructure investment and the related environmental impacts. This PhD project, led by Newcastle University, in collaboration with UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) and the University of Sheffield, looks to advance nature-based and physical interventions in catchments as treatment stages to supplement other catchment management approaches within the UK and Ireland. Fieldwork at Newcastle University's two research farms and experiments at the National Green Infrastructure Facility (NGIF) will establish the benefits of soil amendments or specific vegetation in buffer strips to enhance nutrient/pesticide/solids retention, while features such as ditch barriers, ponds, and leaky dams will also be evaluated for their water quality impacts. Sheffield University will contribute expertise and equipment to characterise the hydrological performance (e.g. pollutant attenuation and retention time) of such features under different flow rates. Newcastle University will deploy its "Lab in a Van" for onsite analysis of chemical and microbial water quality. Taking a holistic view of the catchment system, results from fieldwork, experiments and literature will be used to identify combinations of catchment, water body and raw water infrastructure interventions which realize the full benefits of catchment-based solutions. A decision support tool will be co-developed with water industry and land management stakeholders to define climate change resilient catchment-based treatment solutions and maintenance regimes that protect biodiversity, enhance the public amenity value of catchments and improve the quality of drinking water resources.