Challenges in Water Resources and Wastewater Treatment

Human activities place significant demands on our water resources and have potentially significant and negative environmental impacts. Especially, water resources are also important components of energy infrastructure systems as well as sustainable development [1,2]. Pollutants from watersheds, including agriculture activities of energy biomass resources developments and treated domestic wastewater discharge, are major sources for water quality impairment. In recent years, US EPA has developed and implemented regulations to limit total maximum daily loading from watersheds to water bodies. A systems approach can be used to analyze the potential environmental impacts, including impacts on the ecosystem and human health, potential contamination of water, soil, and air, demands on water resources, and greenhouse gases, etc. Following are some current challenges and development in water resources and wastewater treatment.