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The Suez Irrigation Canal is the source of drinking water to a large community. Complaints have been raised regarding the odor and unpleasant taste of drinking water. The problems encountered reveled enrichment of the Canal with nutrients, degraded water quality and nuisance caused by algal growth. This paper aims to investigate these claims by evaluating the interaction between water and sediment with ecological indicators.

Bioassessments were used as a primary tool to evaluate the biological conditions and identify the degree of water quality degradation in the Suez Irrigation Canal. The monitoring program integrates biological, chemical, and physical data assessment. Several field surveys were carried out to these areas during the period between March 2003 and February 2005 (over 23 months) for acquiring all possible information about the current situation and to explore the impact of human activities along the canal banks on the canal ecosystem. Seasonal variations of phytoplankton and zooplankton standing crop, species diversity as well as physico‐chemical characteristics of water, sediment, fish and aquatic weeds at the intakes of drinking plants and from the discharge of agricultural and domestic drains into the Canal were investigated.

Preliminary field investigations showed great amounts of discharged wastes at several locations to the canal water creating unique conditions, which vary with changes of volume and properties of the discharged wastes. Rotifer and green algae for example demonstrated seasonal variable response to the ecological variations. Myriophyllum spicatum, Potamageton nodsus and Polygonum Salicfolium were the most common types of recorded weed. The Myriophyllum spicatum is the dominant submerged plant. The canal was characterized by high concentrations of HCO₃^‐ as well as high pH >8.2 which provides a favorable habitat for the growth of Myriophyllum spicatum. The results illustrated the ability of using the aquatic weed as biomarkers for monitoring heavy metals contaminates in the canal. The evidence suggests that there is a degree of selectivity in metals uptake and partitioning within the plant compartments.

The current paper adopts the idea of utilizing multiple organism groups in the bioassessment to effectively detect ecological change when they occur in one of the most important waterways in Egypt. These different organism groups are suited for detection various stressors, providing warnings and detection of stress impacts at different scales. The study presented provides decision makers with important information that can assist them in making objective decisions related to the design of monitoring programs based on scientific research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability and capability of models based on a genetic algorithm and support vector machine (GA-SVM) and a genetic algorithm and relevance vector machine (GA-RVM) for the prediction of phytoplankton abundances associated with algal blooms in a Macau freshwater reservoir, and compare their performances with an artificial neural network (ANN) model.

The hybrid models GA-SVM and GA-RVM were developed for the optimal control of parameters for predicting (based on the current month’s variables) and forecasting (based on the previous three months’ variables) phytoplankton dynamics in a Macau freshwater reservoir, MSR, which has experienced cyanobacterial blooms in recent years. There were 15 environmental parameters, including pH, SiO₂, alkalinity, bicarbonate (HCO₃−), dissolved oxygen (DO), total nitrogen (TN), UV254, turbidity, conductivity, nitrate (NO₃−), orthophosphate (PO₄³⁻), total phosphorus (TP), suspended solids (SS) and total organic carbon (TOC) selected from the correlation analysis, with eight years (2001-2008) of data for training, and the most recent three years (2009-2011) for testing.

For both accuracy performance and generalized performance, the ANN, GA-SVM and GA-RVM had similar predictive powers of R² of 0.73-0.75. However, whereas ANN and GA-RVM models showed very similar forecast performances, GA-SVM models had better forecast performances of R² (0.862), RMSE (0.266) and MAE (0.0710) with the respective parameters of 0.987, 0.161 and 0.032 optimized using GA.

This is the first application of GA-SVM and GA-RVM models for predicting and forecasting algal bloom in freshwater reservoirs. GA-SVM was shown to be an effective new way for monitoring algal bloom problem in water resources.

The shipbreaking sector in Bangladesh has spurred extensive academic and policy debates on relations between shipbreaking industries, environmental degradation and the health security of their workers. As shipbreaking is an economically significant industry in Bangladesh, it needs to implement both domestic and global mechanisms for environmental conservation and the protection of the labourers’ health from environmental risks. The purpose of this paper is to primarily explore the environmental and health security issues in shipbreaking activities in Bangladesh. It also identifies the challenges in implementing the rules and regulations for protecting the health of the workers at shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh and preserving the marine environment.

This is a qualitative paper based on secondary materials, including journal articles, books and national and international reports. It critically reviews the existing literature, rules, regulations and policing on shipbreaking with a particular focus on the environment and health security of the workers.

This paper finds that the implementation of the rules and regulations in shipbreaking in Bangladesh is complicated because of weak implementation mechanisms, political and economic interests of the yard owners, lack of coordination among different agencies, lack of adequate training and awareness among the workers and workers’ poor economic condition, which contribute to the degradation of marine and local environments and trigger health hazards among the workers. Therefore, degrading the environment and undermining occupational health and safety regulations have become regular; thus, accidental death and injury to the workers are common in this sector.

This paper is an important study on the issues of workers' health and safety and environmental hazards in the shipyard. It reports how the health security of the workers in shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh is vulnerable, and environmental rules are challenged. Finally, this paper frames some policy implications to safeguard the workers’ health rights and the marine environment.

The purpose of this study at the level of sustainability of oxbow lake was intended to determine the status of sustainability, leverage attributes and driving factors in the management of oxbow lake in Buluh Cina village in Kampar, Riau, Indonesia.

The types of data collected include primary data and secondary data. Data was collected using survey methods, library research, laboratory analysis and interviews. The analytical method used this study is multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis and prospect analysis. Sustainability analysis is done using the MDS analysis approach with the help of RapOxbow software and compared to Monte Carlo analysis results.

The current sustainability status of the management of Lake Baru ecosystem according to a number of dimensions is considered sustainable with a sustainability index value of 50.95. Meanwhile, the analysis results of each dimension shows that the sustainability index for the ecological dimension is 42.56 and the sustainability index for the economic dimension is 47.44, which means that the index is less sustainable.

The approach of this research is MDS analysis and prospect analysis and research locations in Buluh Cina village in Kampar, Indonesia which have never been studied before. This is one of few studies that investigates comprehensively the analysis of management sustainability, especially in the dimensions of ecology, economics and socio-culture, especially in Indonesia.

With the threat of climate change increasing, carbon sequestration could be expected to play a significant role in alleviating this problem. Unfortunately, the technology is not well understood and good literature overviews of the options in carbon sequestration are lacking. Hence, policy and research priorities are made without full understanding of the state of scientific knowledge, impacts, and policy trade‐offs. This paper contributes to the literature, providing a basic picture of the technological options for futurists and policy advisors to begin to address this need.

Estuaries and shallow coastal areas are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, being recognized as important nursery areas for marine fish. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the causes and consequences of recruitment variability in marine fish, contributing to ecosystem‐based management strategies of estuarine and coastal areas.

The authors conducted a literature review, exploring the role of estuaries as nursery areas for marine fish, and analyzed the connectivity between estuaries and coastal areas, the main processes driving recruitment variability in marine fish during their pelagic (larval) and estuarine residency (juveniles) phases, and how it can be translated into variable coastal stocks.

Recruitment variability in marine fish is still one of the most important issues in marine fisheries ecology. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the potential of several processes for inducing variability in recruitment, including density‐independent mechanisms such as temperature, hydrodynamics, river flow and large‐scale factors, as well as density‐dependent processes, related with food abundance, competition and predation. Lastly, the authors evaluated the connectivity between estuaries and the ocean, and how this relationship can influence coastal stocks in the future. The main findings were analyzed in the context of climate change, which has been demonstrated to influence marine life at the individual, population and ecosystem levels.

This paper is a valuable tool for marine researchers and stakeholders, since it summarizes some of the most important processes that drive recruitment variability in marine fish, and how this information can be used for establishing sustainable ecosystem management programmes.

The purpose of this paper on the level of sustainability of the oxbow lake is to determine the sustainability status, leverage of attributes and driving factors in the management of the oxbow lake in Buluh Cina Village in Kampar, Riau, Indonesia.

The types of data collected include primary data and secondary data. The data were collected using the methods of surveys, library research, laboratory analysis and interviews. The analysis methods employed in this research were the multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis and the prospect analysis. The sustainability analysis was undertaken using the approach of the MDS analysis with the assistance of software RapOxbow.

The current sustainability status of the management of Lake Baru ecosystems according to a number of dimensions is regarded as sustainable with a sustainability index value by 50.95. Meanwhile, analysis results of each dimension show that the sustainability index for the ecological dimension is 42.56 and the sustainability index for the economic dimension is 47.44, which means that they are less sustainable. While the sustainability index for the socio-cultural dimension is 54.81, the sustainability index for the technological dimension is 53.12 and the sustainability index for the legal-institutional dimension is 56.83, meaning that they are fairly sustainable.

The originality of this paper lies at the approaches of this research which are MDS analysis and a prospect analysis, and the research location in Buluh Cina Village in Kampar, Indonesia, that has not been researched before. This is one of few studies which investigate comprehensively the sustainability analysis of management, especially in ecological, economic and socio-cultural dimensions in Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the occurrence and risk of dispersion in the environment of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms from sanitary sewage sludge produced in two conventional wastewater treatment systems adopted in the West of the State of Paraná, Brazil.

The sludge samples were collected for three months from two wastewater treatment plants, totaling six sample points, and sent to the laboratory where the physical-chemical and biological determinations were performed.

This work made possible to find that the sludge produced in the sewage treatment plants presents potential risks related to the spread of microorganisms due to the occurrence of resistant isolates of Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp. It was also possible to detect that the largest concentrations of metal ions in the sludge favored the occurrence of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The occurrence of pathogens, heavy metals and other emerging pollutants in sewage indicates that the sludge requires proper treatment, to provide safe agricultural reuse or disposal.

The techniques applied for monitoring sludge were effective to check the risk of resistant microorganisms input into the environment. Studies concerning sewage treatment plants’ final effluents can bring additional data about the incorporation of such microorganisms into aquatic environments.

The results made possible to observe the need to provide post-treatment for the sludge, especially of the sludge obtained from the anaerobic fluidized bed reactor, since the removal of pathogens, as well as the nutrients, is not satisfactory.

Recently, Colac Otway Shire in Australia released its management plan for Lake Colac, claiming over‐enrichment of the lake with nutrients and degraded water quality. This paper aims to investigate these claims by establishing a correlation between key water and ecological indicators and land uses.

The paper examines the correlation between impairment and stressors in Lake Colac. This was achieved by identifying the likely sources of pollutants into Lake Colac; identifying any existing monitoring program; and characterizing the water and sediment inputs. The likely impacts of increased nutrients and sediment levels on indigenous flora and fauna were also examined. The use of meiofauna (very small benthic metazoan animals) was investigated as an indicator of degraded sites. Plankton diversity as a measure of water health was also assessed.

Water quality in Lake Colac was found to vary both temporally and spatially, and exhibited low attainment against acceptable trigger values/objectives. At current levels the lake can be classified as poorly degraded. Likely sources of pollution were identified to be related to land uses in the catchments. The biota of the lake, investigated at four study sites, yielded a sparse, benthic macrofaunal assemblage that was dominated by oligochaetes. In contrast, an abundant and taxonomically diverse meiofaunal assemblage was noted. Future meiofaunal analyses are likely to resolve suitable biotic indicator species of free‐living nematodes in response to land use and waterway threats specified in the study.

This work will provide a better understanding of integrated environmental systems to enable development of best management practices, thus transforming the way the land and water are used in the future. Following the present work, other key water and ecological indicators (increased dispersion and dominance of biological species) at five additional sites were studied. Alternative management options for the effluent generated at Colac Sewage Treatment Plant and possible ecological effects of each option were also evaluated. More recently, a sediment characterization study was also carried out at sensitive sites representative of locations where build up of sediments and algae outbreaks are reported. This will enable classification of sediment and evaluation of dredging options.