Who wants quality, needs to measure!
The transfer of substances from residential areas, from landscape adjacent to water bodies and from the atmosphere is described as substance input. Examples of relevant input pathways are:
- Sewage treatment plants
- Rainwater channels in separated sewer systems
- Stormwater overflows in combined sewer systems
- Direct discharges from industry
- Surface and soil water runoff
- Drainages
- Groundwater runoff.
Numerous substances enter the watercourses via the aforementioned input pathways. Important substance groups in water management are:
- Carbon compounds and oxygen depleting substances
- Nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus)
- Heavy metals
- Pesticides
- Industrial chemicals
- Pharmaceuticals (human and veterinary medicinal products)
- Pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites)
- Nanoparticles
- Microplastics
