Description
Municipal wastewater is one of the significant sources of pollution resulting in water quality degradation. The goal of this project is to prepare the content and infrastructure for delivering a practical course on assessment of environmental impacts of disposal of effluents from wastewater treatment plants. The scope of this course is focused on municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging effluent into natural water bodies. The course will include practical and interdisciplinary aspects. The course will improve the participants’ awareness of sustainable development issues, by practical application of the DPSIR management model. In longer perspective (repeated for many WWTPs and various water bodies) the course will create a subject-oriented knowledge base at WUT and lead to capacity building in the long run. Furthermore, the course alumni will become a group of well educated specialists familiar with WFD principles, ready to work in water management sector.
Summary of project results
Municipal wastewater is one of the significant sources of pollution resulting in water quality degradation. The goal of this project was to prepare the content and infrastructure for delivering a practical course on assessment of environmental impacts of disposal of effluents from wastewater treatment plants. The scope of this course was focused on municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWTPs) discharging effluent into natural water bodies. The course included practical and interdisciplinary aspects and improved the participants’ awareness of sustainable development issues. The general goal of the Project was to educate a group of qualified specialists familiar with integrated water management. This included planning and remedial actions performed according to Water Framework Directive. the project sought to educate water management specialists with water resources protection issues by familiarizing them with decision supporting tools (water quality models) and practical means (field and laboratory measurements) necessary for quantitative assessment of environmental impact of disposal of effluents from MWTPs. Such practical and interdisciplinary skills were previously missing in Environment Protection or Environment Engineering courses curriculum at Warsaw University of Technology. In the project, two editions of the course were conducted, with 56 participants in total (6 participants more than initially envisaged). A printed handbook was created and distributed to all participants. . The course had an innovative character because of its interdisciplinary nature. It was tutored by specialists from various fields (chemistry, hydrology, water management, numerical modeling) and combined theoretical and practical aspects. Such an approach is a novelty in the Polish university education system. During both editions of the course each team prepared a final report. The scope of the report included detailed environmental impact assessment of disposal of effluents from MWTP on water body, forecast for further changes within the water body ecosystem and proposed controls to control water quality degradation or improve water quality. The key conclusions from the report were presented by each participating team during the summarizing seminar at the end of each course edition. All envisaged project's objectives were achieved.
Summary of bilateral results