Browsing Theses by Supervisor "Emelko, Monica"
Now showing items 1-20 of 22
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Advancing Microbial Risk Assessments of Subsurface Water Sources
(University of Waterloo, 2020-07-14)Source water microbial quality evaluations are essential for the selection, design, and management of drinking water supplies. As biological sciences and technology continue to advance, how these assessments are performed ... -
Biofiltration-based “green technology” as a techno-ecological nature-based solution for drinking water treatment and climate change resilience
(University of Waterloo, 2022-06-02)While drinking water treatment process design is based on current and anticipated source water quality, changing climate makes it increasingly difficult to anticipate drinking water source quality and treatability. Although ... -
Biologically Active Filtration Media Properties: Practical and Mechanistic Implications
(University of Waterloo, 2017-01-16)Biologically active filtration [BAF] can be used to concurrently remove particles and natural organic matter during drinking water treatment. The selection of a given media type for use in BAF can impact filter performance, ... -
Coagulant addition for managing sediment-associated phosphorus bioavailability to prevent cyanobacterial blooms in drinking water reservoirs
(University of Waterloo, 2021-08-27)To ensure the uninterrupted supply of adequate amounts of drinking water, many utilities rely on reservoirs for raw (i.e., untreated) water storage prior to treatment. For example, reservoirs are integral to storing water ... -
Contemporary Forest Harvesting Impacts on Drinking Water Quality and Treatability
(University of Waterloo, 2019-10-31)Forested watersheds supply ~75% of global accessible freshwater resources and serve as important sources of drinking water. Both natural and anthropogenic landscape disturbances in these regions can deteriorate water quality ... -
Conventional and Oxidant-amended Biofiltration to Improve Treatment Resilience in Drinking Water Systems Vulnerable to Wildfire
(University of Waterloo, 2024-01-26)Climate-change-exacerbated landscape disturbances can create obstacles for the provision of safe drinking water. The threats posed by wildfires are of particular concern due not only to the potentially extreme nature of ... -
The Critical Role of Chemical Pre-Treatment in Ensuring Cryptosporidium Removal by Filtration of High Quality Source Water
(University of Waterloo, 2019-05-01)Drinking water utilities reliant on surface water utilize chemically-assisted filtration (CAF) as a key barrier against the passage of protozoan pathogens, like Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts, to treated water. The goal of ... -
Developing a Risk Assessment Framework for Evaluating and Mitigating Occupational Exposure of Migrant Farmworkers to Enteric Pathogens in Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program
(University of Waterloo, 2021-08-30)Seasonal migrant farmworkers are a group of workers that annually participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), a federally managed labour migration program set up to respond to the labour shortage in the ... -
Dissolved organic carbon concentration and character in northern hardwood-dominated headwater catchments: A paired-catchment investigation of legacy harvesting impacts
(University of Waterloo, 2023-08-01)The water quality of forested source water regions can be degraded by natural and anthropogenic landscape disturbances such as wildfires and forest harvesting, the latter an economically important primary industry in Canada ... -
Drinking Water Treatment Technology Resilience for Management of Severely Deteriorated Water after Wildfire
(University of Waterloo, 2021-09-29)Severe wildland fire is occurring with increased frequency in many regions and can be potentially catastrophic for the provision of safe drinking water due to increasingly variable or deteriorated source quality. Deteriorated ... -
Evaluation of Potential Health Risks from Microplastics in Drinking Water
(University of Waterloo, 2021-05-03)Microplastics have been detected, often abundantly, in freshwater environments over the past decade. While understanding of the ecological health implications of microplastics in aquatic environments has advanced considerably, ... -
Fine Sediment Contributions to Cyanobacterial Growth: Potential Threats to Drinking Water Reservoirs
(University of Waterloo, 2019-01-14)In the drinking water industry, the transport and release of nutrients such as phosphorus (P) to the water column is largely overlooked in reservoir management. Phosphorus is considered the key limiting nutrient for algal ... -
Identification and characterization of toxic cyanobacteria in two forested maritime watersheds in North America
(University of Waterloo, 2021-06-01)Healthy forested watersheds naturally provide high quality drinking water to communities. However, the integrity and quality of these water sources may be threatened by climate change-exacerbated disturbances such as ... -
Impact of the Horse River wildfire on the form and mobility of particulate phosphorus in a drinking water reservoir: Efficacy of dredging to manage internal phosphorus loading
(University of Waterloo, 2022-12-22)Forests are critical source water regions that are under increasing threat of wildfire which can accelerate the transfer of sediment from hillslope to receiving streams and downstream environments such as reservoirs. These ... -
Microcystin and Microcystis Destruction by Ozone in Drinking Water Treatment: Constraints and Effects
(University of Waterloo, 2016-07-14)Appropriate and effective drinking water treatment is critical to the protection of public health. Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are a globally increasing drinking water source quality-associated health risk as even very ... -
Nitrogen Dynamics in a Harvested Rocky Mountain Catchment
(University of Waterloo, 2018-01-19)While the impacts of forest harvesting on nitrogen (N) are largely well documented, changes to watershed N following harvesting are difficult to characterize within steep, mountainous terrain creating uncertainty for ... -
Phosphorus Sequestration for Control of Cyanobacterial Growth in Drinking Water Reservoirs
(University of Waterloo, 2016-10-05)Engineered drinking water reservoirs are designed to facilitate particle settling for reduction of turbidity prior to conveyance to a drinking water treatment plant (DWTP). Fine cohesive sediment particles can carry ... -
Removal of Organic Matter by Classical Biofiltration: Mechanistic Insights Regarding "Biodegradation"
(University of Waterloo, 2019-10-03)Pilot-scale biofiltration experiments were conducted at the Region of Waterloo’s Mannheim Drinking Water Treatment Plant to inform the scientific and operational understanding of drinking water treatment by biologically-active ... -
Spatial and Temporal Trends in Water Quality in a Mixed-Use Landscape: Agriculture vs. Urban Areas
(University of Waterloo, 2018-10-22)The eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems is a growing water quality concern as it can promote the proliferation of harmful algal blooms that have severe environmental, health, and economic impacts. In United States alone, ... -
Spatiotemporal Shifts in Cyanobacterial Communities in a Northern Temperate Watershed – Applications of Next-Generation Sequencing and Implications for Monitoring and Climate Change Adaptation
(University of Waterloo, 2021-08-05)Cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic bacteria, threaten water quality and drinking water resources globally through the production of potent toxins and the formation of dense surface blooms. These bloom events are ...