Ottavia Zoboli

TU Wien | TU Wien · Institute for Water Quality and Resource Management

Correction for ‘Exploring the variability of PFAS in urban sewage: a comparison of emissions in commercial versus municipal urban areas’ by N. Krlovic et al. , Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts , 2024, 26 , 1868–1878, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4EM00415A.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a widespread group of organic contaminants whose presence in water bodies is cause of severe concern. With few exceptions, the majority of PAHs is hydrophobic, presents a high adsorption affinity, and is thus primarily transported within river systems during high-flow events together with suspended partic...

The transfer of sediments and associated contaminants play an important role in catchment ecosystems as they directly influence water quality, habitat conditions and biogeochemical cycles. Contaminants may include heavy metals, pesticides, nutrients, radionuclides, and various organic, as well as organometallic compounds. The environmental risk pos...

Zusammenfassung Dieses Kapitel präsentiert und bewertet den aktuellen Stand des Wissens zum Konnex Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich aus dem systemischen Blickwinkel der UN Agenda 2030 für eine Nachhaltige Entwicklung. Dabei wird dem Thema entsprechend auf die Verflechtungen zwischen den lokalen, nationalen und internationalen Ebenen eingeg...

Zusammenfassung Die Technische Zusammenfassung des APCC-Sonderberichts ″Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich″ umfasst die Kernbotschaften der Kapitel 1–9. In ihr sind die Hauptaussagen zu den sozioökonomischen und klimatischen Treibern der Landnutzungsänderungen, zu den Auswirkungen von Landnutzung und -bewirtschaftung auf den Klimawandel, zu...

Zusammenfassung Die vielfältigen Auswirkungen des Klimawandels führen in Österreich zu einem dringenden Anpassungsbedarf von menschlichen und natürlichen Systemen (APCC, 2014). Während Anpassung prinzipiell ein biologischer oder sozialer Entwicklungsprozess ist, sind jene Anpassungen an den Klimawandel effektiver, die proaktiv, geplant und voraussc...

Background The European Water Framework Directive foresees the establishment of emission inventories for micropollutants (MP) to facilitate an evidence-based development of mitigation measures. Regionalized pathway analysis constitutes a moderately data-intensive approach to quantify the contribution of different pathways to the total pollution of...

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of persistent chemicals, whose impact has been observed in various environmental compartments. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered a major emission pathway of PFAS, specifically in the context of the aquatic environment. The goal of this study was to develop a compartmentalized,...

PFAS in an urban environment can come from various sources. The main activity in the area, i.e. commercial versus municipal, can influence the overall loads and speciation of PFAS in the examined wastewater.

-Regional nitrogen balances of food production and consumption have been analysed. -Nitrogen emissions into soils, atmosphere and waters have been quantified. -Production systems and related natural conditions cause regional differences. -Differences are particularly visible between alpine and non-alpine regions. -The achievable nitrogen use effici...

Purpose According to standard procedure recommended by the Water Framework Directive (WFD), dissolved concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in river water are determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in filtered (0.45 µm) and acidified (pH 2) samples. Properly prepared and stored composite samples can enhanc...

Shallow lakes provide a multitude of ecosystem functions, but they are particularly vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Understanding the driving factors determining the fate and spatial distribution of nutrients and pollutants in such systems is fundamental to assess the impact of ongoing or future external pressures endangering...

Trace substances represent one of the central challenges for water management in the Danube River Basin. This article presents the concept and an overview of the results of the project Danube Hazard m3c, which was carried out within the framework of the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme of the EU from 2020 to 2023. In the course of the projec...

PFAS are a class of synthetic chemicals used for many industrial and domestic purposes. However, once released in the environment, they are persistent, mobile and toxic. One of the most important transport routes to drinking water is through riverbank filtration. Although this is usually an effective strategy for removing many organic compounds, it...

The objective of this article is to provide an overview of concentrations of PFAS in different environmental media in the upper Danube catchment area and to draw initial semi-quantitative conclusions about potentially relevant emission pathways of these substances. Within the framework of the EU project PROMISCES, 32 PFAS individual substances were...

Fluorescence spectroscopy has numerous applications to characterize natural and human-influenced water bodies regarding dissolved organic matter (DOM) and contamination. Analyzing samples in a timely manner is crucial to gaining valid and reproducible excitation-emission matrices (EEM) but often difficult, specifically in transnational projects wit...

Zusammenfassung In den letzten Jahren kam es zu einem Paradigmenwechsel bei Kläranlagen, der den alleinigen Zweck der Abwasserreinigung um eine zusätzliche Funktion der Ressourcenrückgewinnung erweiterte. Dieser Wandel geht mit der Entwicklung neuer Rechtsvorschriften einher, die eine bessere Ressourcenrückgewinnung aus dem Abwasser ermöglichen wol...

In this study, we i) assessed the occurrence of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in sediments, pore water, and bulk water from three different areas in Lake Neusiedl, Austria, and ii) investigated mechanisms regulating adsorption and remobilization of these substances under different conditions via multiple lab-scale e...

Surface water pollution with poly- and perfluorinated compounds (PFAS) is a well-recognized problem, but knowledge about contribution of different emission pathways, especially diffuse ones, is very limited. This study investigates the potential of the pathway oriented MoRE model in shedding light on the relevance of different emission pathways on...

Fluorescence spectroscopy has become a widely used technique to characterize dissolved organic matter (DOM) and organic hazardous micro-pollutants in natural and human-influenced water bodies. Especially in rivers highly impacted by municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants' effluents, the fluorescence signal at low-flow is mainly domina...

Within the new policy framework shaped by the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plans, the field of wastewater and sludge treatment in Europe is subject to high expectations and new challenges related to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, micropollutant removal and resource recovery. With respect to phosphorus recovery, several tec...

Organic and inorganic substances have been emitted into the environment for many decades; however, the interest in their fate and behavior has grown mainly in recent years. Due partly to the meager amount they are present in environmental compartments such as rainwater, river water, or waste waters, substantial resources are needed to detect their...

Pollutants and excessive nutrient inputs into rivers pose a problem for aquatic ecosystems. Humans are also at risk when these substances enter the food chain via drinking water supplies and food. Water quality monitoring and research on pollutant transport are important components for protecting humans and endangered species. Since there are few r...

The identification of critical source areas (CSAs) is a key element in a cost-effective mitigation of diffuse emissions of phosphorus from agricultural soils into surface waters. One of the challenges related to CSAs is how to couple complex, data-intensive fate and transport models with easy-to-use information on field level for management purpose...

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas stemming mainly from nitrogen (N)-fertilizer application. It is challenging to quantify N2O emissions from agroecosystems because of the dearth of measured data and high spatial variability of the emissions. The eco-hydrological model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) simulates hydrological process...

Recent years came with a paradigm shift for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to extend the sole purpose of contaminant removal to an additional function as resource recovery facilities. This shift is accompanied by the development of new European legislation towards better inclusion of resource recovery from wastewater. However, long operational...

The release of micropollutants in surface water depends on different sources and on different pathways. Through substance flow analysis, this study estimates the annual load of two pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole) in a catchment area, due to different emission pathways: wastewater treatment plant effluent, combined sewer overflo...

The prediction and control of river sediment yield (SY) are critical but challenging tasks. Erosion and sediment transfer in river catchments are controlled by different processes, whose relative importance varies in space and time. We thus put forward that SY can be estimated more efficiently by using explicitly the information contained in the si...

Zusammenfassung Die anthropogen verursachte Schadstoffbelastung stellt für das Ökosystem ein potenzielles Risiko dar, weshalb in der EU-Wasserrahmenrichtlinie Zielzustände definiert wurden, um eine nachhaltige Nutzung von Oberflächengewässern auch zukünftig zu sichern. Die hohe Anzahl an Schadstoffen, die oft auch nur in sehr geringen Konzentration...

Im vorliegenden Artikel wird auf Basis unterschiedlicher Datenquellen in einem ersten Schritt die Belastung des Neusiedler Sees mit national oder gemeinschaftlich geregelten anthropogenen Spurenstoffen dargestellt. Darüber hinaus werden für ausgewählte Stoffe Eintragspfade in Wulka und Neusiedler See identifiziert und für weitere Stoffe wird ein mö...

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Nährstoffdynamik am Neusiedler See, ein Thema, das untrennbar mit den Einträgen und Austauschprozessen der Fest- oder Schwebstoffe verbunden ist. Es werden zusammenfassend ältere Untersuchungen von Anfang der 1980er-Jahre diskutiert und neueren Erkenntnissen aus einem laufenden EU-INTERREG-Projekt (REBEN) gegenü...

By combining an economic two-sector general equilibrium model with a material flow model we study the coupled human-resource-environment feedbacks associated with phosphorus use and recycling, and the economic and environmental effects of implementing phosphorus recovering technologies from waste water. Using recycled phosphorus as fertilizer incre...

Occurrence and concentration of a broad spectrum of micropollutants are investigated in Austrian river catchments, namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), organotin compounds, perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and metals. The parallel analysis across multiple environmental and engineered compartments sheds...

The tremendous increase in resource consumption over the past century and the environmental challenges it entails has spurred discussions for a shift from a linear to a circular resource use. However, to date most resource studies are restricted to one material or a single sector or process. In this work, a coupled material flow analysis taking the...

Phosphorus mining from phosphate rock is associated with economic as well as environmental concerns. Through phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater, countries could decrease their dependency on the global phosphate rock market, however, conceivably leading to an increase in environmental impacts from fertilizer production. In this work 18 ph...

There is increasing evidence of water temperature being a key controlling factor of stream ecosystem metabolism. Although the focus of research currently lies on carbon emissions from fluvial networks and their potential role as positive climate feedback, it is also important to estimate the risk of eutrophication streams will be exposed to in the...

In a resource efficient economy, entropy generation must be kept low and high-entropy wastes should be transformed into low-entropy recycled products, thus saving natural resources. Based on this idea, statistical entropy analysis (SEA) was put forward as a method to evaluate material flow systems with respect to their ability to concentrate or dil...

Supporting Information S2: This supporting information provides descriptions of flows, stocks, transfer coefficients and equations for their calculation, and data sources.

Supporting Information S4: This supporting information displays the degree of impact that reconciliation has had on the whole system.

Supporting Information S1: This supporting information provides visualizations of the MFA model subsystems.

Supporting Information S3: This supporting information characterizes data uncertainty.

Phosphorus (P) impairment of surface waters still represents a major concern worldwide, despite decades of awareness and implementation of remedial measures. In view of this situation, it is all the more necessary to provide decision makers with reliable modelling tools, which can correctly estimate the effect of alternative management strategies....

Protecting water bodies from eutrophication, ensuring long-term food security and shifting to a circular economy represent compelling objectives to phosphorus management strategies. This study determines how and to which extent the management of phosphorus in Austria can be optimized. A detailed national model, obtained for the year 2013 through Ma...

Material Flow Analysis (MFA) studies for a particular substance often exist for several different countries or regions, but share a similar goal and scope. In direct comparisons of such regional resource budgets, the importance of the choices made in establishing an MFA system tends to be disregarded. We identify and quantify the effects of choices...

The validity of material flow analyses (MFAs) depends on the available information base, that is, the quality and quantity of available data. MFA data are cross-disciplinary, can have varying formats and qualities, and originate from heterogeneous sources, such as official statistics, scientific models, or expert estimations. Statistical methods fo...

Material flow analysis is a tool that is increasingly used as a foundation for resource management and environmental protection. This tool is primarily applied in a static manner to individual years, ignoring the impact of time on the material budgets. In this study, a detailed multiyear model of the Austrian phosphorus budget covering the period 1...

Patterns of changes in the concentration of total and soluble reactive phosphorus (TP, SRP) and suspended sediments at different flow levels from 1991 to 2013 in the Austrian Danube are statistically analyzed and related to point and diffuse emissions, as well as to extreme hydrological events. Annual loads are calculated with three methods and the...

Phosphorus (P) is one of the key elements that sustain life on earth and that allow achieving the current high levels of food production worldwide. It is a non-renewable resource, without any existing substitute. Because of its current dissipative use by mankind and to its very slow geochemical cycle, this resource is rapidly depleting and it is st...

Phosphorus (P) is a finite and non-substitutable resource that is essential to sustaining high levels of agricultural productivity but is also responsible for environmental problems, e.g., eutrophication. Based on the methodology of Material Flow Analysis, this study attempts to quantify all relevant flows and stocks of phosphorus (P) in Austria, w...