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Project properties |
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| Title | Re-Use of Treated Waste Water (Effluent) in Agriculture |
| Group | Soil Physics and Land Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Sjoerd van der Zee |
| Examiner(s) | Sjoerd van der Zee |
| Contact info | sjoerd.vanderzee@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2018/04/01 |
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| Description | Methodology: Treated effluents (domestic or industrial origin) are increasingly used for water supply in irrigated agriculture, predominantly in semi-arid countries, but also in The Netherlands. Not only does this lead to complex flow patterns, also transport of a broad range of contaminants occurs and is yet poorly understood. For either Dutch sites (see picture) or in other countries, you will be involved in experimental research of flow due to sub-irrigation, and several approaches to understand the flow of water and transport of contaminants. If you have a good soil physics/hydrology background, also complex modelling is feasible.
We focus on EC as pharmaceuticals, veterinary medicines, and pathogens. Research objective/question: For many of the contaminants (the ‘Emerging Contaminants’ EC), little is known about their mobility and persistence in soil. In addition, the dynamics of water and EC is spatiotemporally very variable. Therefore, we cannot judge well what risks are of using effluents in agriculture. You will choose a topic to elaborate either experimentally or by modelling. |
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