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Chapter 3: Water Quality

Chapter 3: Water Quality

pp. 67-134

Authors

, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal
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Summary

Learning Objectives

  • Identify pollutants present in water and evaluate their impact on the water quality of surface and groundwater resources

  • Analyze water samples for basic water quality parameters and describe their significance for public health or the environment

  • Describe the importance of pH and the factors affecting it

  • Define ionic strength and calculate it

  • Define activity coefficients and describe their importance in quantifying chemical equilibrium relationships

  • Define electrical conductivity and why it can serve as a surrogate for total dissolved solids

  • Differentiate between different categories of solids in water or wastewater samples based on their measurement methods

  • Describe the importance of temperature in evaluating the health of an aquatic system, the factors affecting it and water quality parameters affected by it.

  • Describe the importance of dissolved oxygen levels in water with respect to public health and aquatic systems

  • Describe the importance of turbidity in evaluating the health of an aquatic system and the factors affecting turbidity

  • Describe sources of alkalinity in water sources, and their importance in determining water quality

  • Describe problems associated with hardness, its impact on water quality and water uses.

  • Describe the importance of color as a water quality parameter

  • Define and describe different methods for estimating oxygen demand in water, their importance and applications

  • Calculate ThOD for specific compounds or for a wastewater with known chemical composition

  • Describe the COD test and its relation to ThOD

  • Describe the BOD test and its relation to ThOD and COD and to the health of aquatic systems

  • Describe the use and importance of TOC measurements for aquatic samples

  • Describe the processes by which synthetic organic compounds enter natural aquatic systems

  • Evaluate the presence of different elements in water and their importance

  • Evaluate concentrations of major macronutrients in water and their importance

  • Define the limiting nutrient in any aquatic system

  • Evaluate the concentrations of micronutrients in water and their impact on the growth of organisms

  • Evaluate the presence of toxic heavy metals in water and their impact on public health or environment

  • List microbiological constituents in natural waters and their importance from a water quality perspective

  • Differentiate between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

  • Describe viruses and list some examples of diseases associated with viruses

  • List common pathogenic bacteria and diseases associated with bacteria in water

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