The water management policies adopted to address Israel's chronic scarcity have not been without environmental consequences. Yet, through a trial-and-error process, a combined strategy of water transport, rainwater harvesting, and wastewater reuse and desalination, along with a variety of water conservation measures, have put the country on a more sustainable path for the future.

Fast-growing trees such as Salix viminalis L. and Populus tremula L. are well suited to phytoremediate heavy metal contaminated soils. However, information on tree performance, particularly leaf function, under conditions of heavy metal contamination is scarce. We used yearly coppiced saplings of S. viminalis and P. tremula growing in model ecosytems to test four hypotheses: (1) heavy metal con...

Concerns have been expressed that dust from the minerals processing facilities at Karumba Queensland Australia have resulted in elevated lead (Pb) concentrations in rain water tanks. The ores derived from the Century mine some 304 km from the port. High precision Pb isotopic measurements on environmental samples have been undertaken to evaluate the source of Pb in rainwaters and acid digests fr...

This paper examines the experiences of South East Queensland (SEQ) households concerning rainwater harvesting (RH). Although the adoption of household rainwater harvesting is currently booming after extended stagnation at around 8% in SEQ, what actually motivates this adoption is not well understood. A survey of 90 households in Ipswich (one of 18 Local Government Areas in the region) comprisin...

An outbreak of human Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium DT160 infection in New Zealand was investigated from May to August 2001. Handling of dead wild birds, contact with persons with diarrheal illness, and consumption of fast food were associated with infection. Contaminated roof-collected rainwater was also detected.