Emschergenossenschaft

This study evaluates the performance of Low-Cost Internet of Things (LCIoT) sensors for measuring dissolved oxygen (DO) in urban streams, comparing their accuracy to state-of-the-art reference instruments. Through four field deployments between 2022 and 2025, both DIY and commercially available LCIoT sensor systems were tested alongside semi-permanent water quality monitoring stations used for regulatory monitoring. The results demonstrate strong agreement in temporal DO dynamics, with mean absolute errors consistently below 1 mg/L and Pearson correlations exceeding 0.90 in some cases. The Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) reached as high as 0.906, indicating excellent performance in capturing variance. Despite minor systematic deviations and power-related data losses, the LCIoT reliably detected diurnal and seasonal patterns and detected low and high DO events, with minimal sensor drift and low maintenance demands, even without recalibration. In specific situations, slightly larger daily ranges and deviations at extreme values were observed compared to reference instruments. While these differences did not impair trend detection or event identification, they point to potential differences in signal dynamics that warrant further study. Overall, the findings support the suitability of LCIoT sensors for long-term monitoring and large-scale deployment, particularly where budget or physical access constraints exist. Practical guidance on installation, data processing, and power management is also provided to facilitate future applications. • Low-cost IoT sensors accurately monitor dissolved oxygen in streams • Errors stayed below 1 mg/L with strong correlation to reference stations • IoT devices detected diurnal cycles, seasonal shifts, and pollution events • Affordable systems enable large-scale, long-term water quality monitoring

<h2>Abstract</h2> Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a valuable surveillance method for the early detection and monitoring of infectious diseases at the population level. By rapidly sequencing genetic material extracted from wastewater, local and regional virus surveillance can be enhanced, enabling earlier identification of emerging variants than routine clinical testing typically allows. This provides a critical advantage for immune-evasive pathogens. In this study, a cost-effective sequencing and sensitive analysis strategy has been employed to monitor SARS-CoV-2 variants in the metropolitan Ruhr area of Germany. Pathogen-specific tiled amplification was combined with both established analytical tools and a customized method for enhanced sensitivity utilizing unique single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in different lineages. Samples were collected twice weekly over six weeks, resulting in 55 samples from five sampling sites. Consistent with prior knowledge, the findings demonstrated earlier detection of emerging variants of concern (VOCs) in wastewater compared to patient-based genomic surveillance, which, at the national level, sequenced approximately 2.4 % of detected SARS-CoV-2 cases by April 2023. Particularly notable is that XBB.1.5 was identified in local wastewater from intra-urban sewersheds two weeks before its appearance in patient samples and XBB.1.9 several months prior to its local clinical manifestation. Furthermore, this study corroborates own and other prior reports that local sampling sites can extend the early-warning horizon for novel variants when compared to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), likely due to lower dilution and closer proximity to infection sources. Overall, these results underscore the utility of sequencing-based WBE in delivering timely, actionable insights to healthcare providers and authorities. Such methodologies represent a promising expansion of current surveillance infrastructures and quantitative frameworks, offering practical benefits for optimizing environmental viral monitoring and supporting improved public health responses.

ABSTRACT It is a recognised problem that the structure and parameters of hydrological models are often not transferable in time. This may reduce model performance, with negative implications for applications in water resources modelling or flood forecasting. We hypothesise that integration of time-varying model parameters has the potential to better account for different active meteorological or hydrological processes that lead to different flood event types. To enhance flood forecasting the parameter sets should therefore be weighted dynamically according to the event type. In addition, ensemble approaches can be employed to reduce parameter uncertainty and to increase simulations accuracy for both continuous and event-based flood forecast models. Here, we introduce a machine learning based flood-type specific dynamic parameter weighting for ensemble flood forecasting. The potential of this method is demonstrated for an example case study application, employing five different machine learning approaches. Four types of flood events were considered, heavy-rainfall floods, long-duration-rainfall floods, sequence-of-rain floods and minor events with no clear generating processes. The results show that applying flood-type-specific parameter sets outperforms the other methods. Moreover, the performance consistently matched or exceeded the benchmark models. This improved performance is particularly relevant for practical applications in operational flood forecasting.

• Standardized off-line SPE is a major drawback in the green analysis of EDC in water. • In-situ sampling or at-line analysis greatly increase the greenness. • Miniaturization enhances sustainability, analytical performance may be compromised. • Differentiating effect-based methods remains challenging due to tool limitations. • Green aspects should be part of analytical methods, not a retrospective analysis. The field of research and development offers promising opportunities to optimize sample preparation and analysis in the determination of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Using the green analytical chemistry tool Analytical GREEnness (AGREE) and the white analytical chemistry (WAC) framework, a comparative analysis of GC–MS/MS, LC-MS/MS and the yeast-cell-based reporter gene assay (A-YES) was conducted. This assessment critically evaluated each method's environmental impact, efficiency and practicality. An overview of potential improvements offers a path to further enhancing not only the greenness but also feasibility of applied methods. By incorporating these advances, each analysis can increase its scores in AGREE and WAC. The WAC analysis highlighted that considerations of analytical performance (red) principles have created an imbalance in contaminant analysis methodologies. Traditionally, developing procedures has primarily focused on red principles and neglected especially green chemistry aspects. In this context, AGREE is particularly useful as it takes a more detailed approach to green principles, rather than compressing them. These shortcomings should be addressed by re-evaluating standards and incorporating sustainable practices into existing and future frameworks. By emphasizing both retrospective assessments and the proactive development of new standards and routine applications, sustainable practices can be promoted without compromising high analytical standards.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was able to provide early indicators of an infectious event during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, complementing individual testing for outbreak detection. WBE also enables regional surveillance and can assist public health systems (PHS) in evaluating the effectiveness of infectious disease control measures. The German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) sees great benefit for the PHS in further development of WBE, even beyond COVID- 19. However, in order to bring the full potential of WBE into broad application, new analytical, technical, epidemiological, and institutional research questions need to be addressed.

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;1. The interim regional scalability plans (RSP) are the next step on the roadmap to upscale freshwater ecosystem restoration after the optimisation strategies (MERLIN Deliverable 2.1). They offer visions for upscaling restoration across wider areas by 2050.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n2. A template has been designed for collecting input using the manual &amp;quot;Scaling up - From vision to Large-Scale Change. A Management Framework for Practitioners&amp;quot; (Management Systems International 2016).&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n3. Seventeen case studies have prepared their interim RSPs answering questions related to the &amp;#39;what, &amp;#39;why&amp;#39;, &amp;#39;where&amp;#39;, &amp;#39;how&amp;#39;, and &amp;#39;who&amp;#39; of scaling up restoration initiatives.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n4. Further dialogue between cases from each cluster will provide inspiration and feedback to work towards a final RSP at the end of the MERLIN project.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n5. The upscaling in the RSPs has a time horizon towards 2050, and recommendations have been made to strengthen this visioning. This long-term visioning should be linked with stepwise implementation, for which the use of adaptive pathway thinking can be used as inspiration.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n6. The term &amp;#39;restoration&amp;#39; of freshwater ecosystems might put people on the wrong page in the light of changing climate and land use and the time horizon of the RSP. Improving freshwater ecosystems should take these shifting conditions into account to define realistic targets both for biodiversity and delivering ecosystem services.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n7. The formation of multidisciplinary teams that cover the bio-physical, socio-economic and legal/financial aspects of the RSPs is beneficial for the overarching success of the plans. A well embedded monitoring strategy across all these disciplines is needed.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n8. The interim RSPs have been prepared by each case study without interaction with the other case studies. The other interactions are with the financial expertise within MERLIN, the outcomes of the sector roundtables and with the case study board. These interactions will be the main actions to improve the RSPs.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;\n9. RSPs are designed within the MERLIN project. The implementation of the RSP will be a process to start once the MERLIN project has ended in 2025. During MERLIN, it is essential to define the consortium to adopt and implement the RSP.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

Abstract. The July 2021 flood in central Europe was one of the five costliest disasters in Europe in the last half century, with an estimated total damage of EUR 32 billion. The aim of this study is to analyze and assess the flood within an interdisciplinary approach along its entire process chain: the synoptic setting of the atmospheric pressure fields, the processes causing the high rainfall totals, the extraordinary streamflows and water levels in the affected catchments, the hydro-morphological effects, and the impacts on infrastructure and society. In addition, we address the question of what measures are possible to generate added value to early response management in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The superposition of several factors resulted in widespread extreme precipitation totals and water levels well beyond a 100-year event: slow propagation of the low pressure system Bernd, convection embedded in a mesoscale precipitation field, unusually moist air masses associated with a significant positive anomaly in sea surface temperature over the Baltic Sea, wet soils, and steep terrain in the affected catchments. Various hydro-morphodynamic processes as well as changes in valley morphology observed during the event exacerbated the impact of the flood. Relevant effects included, among many others, the occurrence of extreme landscape erosion, rapidly evolving erosion and scour processes in the channel network and urban space, recruitment of debris from the natural and urban landscape, and deposition and clogging of bottlenecks in the channel network with eventual collapse. The estimation of inundation areas as well as the derived damage assessments were carried out during or directly after the flood and show the potential of near-real-time forensic disaster analyses for crisis management, emergency personnel on-site, and the provision of relief supplies. This study is part one of a two-paper series. The second part (Ludwig et al., 2022) puts the July 2021 flood into a historical context and into the context of climate change.

&lt;p&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt;Robust demonstration case-studies are needed to evaluate&nbsp;whether improvements in ecosystem condition are translated into improvements in ecosystem services.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;This research is essential for effectively scaling-up nature-based solutions across Europe and providing the evidence to support transformation agendas in society and industries, and ultimately supporting the ambitions of the European Green Deal.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Clear guidance and standardised indicators help monitor the impact of freshwater and wetland restoration measures on European Green Deal goals.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;These monitoring indicators should include environmental indicators (e.g. for biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions and water storage capacity) as well as socio-economic indicators such as stakeholder representation, private finance mobilisation and job creation.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;A combined Before-After-Control-Intervention (BACI) monitoring design is recommended to provide robust evidence and attribute change to the restoration measures.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Benchmark (cost or effort) and local/regional context data (e.g. land use, governance) are also needed alongside monitoring of impacts to not just measure&nbsp;what&nbsp;has happened at a site but to understand&nbsp;why&nbsp;it has happened.&nbsp;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt; &lt;p&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

In central northern Namibia, challenges in water governance related to scarcity meet needs in capacity development on municipal levels. Reuse of treated water in agriculture forms a technical innovation in urbanizing arid regions, because it potentially contributes to both improving water availability and reducing pollution from waste water in arid regions. Governing this transformative approach entails a complexity of processes and actors at different levels and in a range of sectors. The aim of this research is to assess the potential of an informal municipal partnership to (a) support capacity development in implementation of innovation in urban water systems (here: water reuse), and (b) compensate for lack of coordination in governance. Establishing a municipal partnership for wastewater treatment was part of a living lab approach analyzing the potential for water reuse, in collaboration of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, municipal decision-makers, engineers and farmers. Findings show the potential and limitations in capacity development in municipal water governance by means of an informal partnership. The lessons learnt on establishing an informal municipal partnership for learning and capacity development in water governance provide valuable insights for water governance in both research and practice, in particular but not limited to the field of water reuse as means of transforming socio-hydrological relations toward sustainability. The research thus contributes to research on water reuse governance, and to transformative research on water in social-ecological systems.