News2 – Page 21 – Water Research laboratory

Water quality management in cities

From 3rd to 6th November 2015, Tālis JUHNA was visiting leading universities in Colombia, he gave several lectures to students on “Water quality management in cities” and has established relationship for jointed project proposal for upcoming ERAnet -LAC project calls and beyond this.

Presentation available here

BioMicroWorld Conference in Barcelona

From 29th to 30th October were BioMicroWorld Conference in Barcelona. Conference is a well-established forum that has brought together researchers in the applied microbiology field every two years since 2005. This forum is aimed at communicating current progress in the fields of environmental, industrial, food, or medical microbiology, as well as in microbial biotechnology or technology development. Being a truly international meeting (with all editions having been attended by researchers from more than 40 countries), it also aims at serving as an instrument for building bridges to strengthen global collaborations in many microbiological issues that are global in nature. From Water research laborotory in this conference were Brigita Dalecka. She presented «Comparison of various DNA extraction methods for Fusarium solani detection and enumeration with real-time PCR».

Water – a Taste of Innovation

On the 22nd October 2015, Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce jointly with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in Latvia organised Afternoon networking «Water – a Taste of Innovation» that was kindly co-hosted by the Netherlands Embassy. The Networking gathered together specialists in the water industry – professors, contractors and employers as well as bottled water producers. Water research laboratory team was represented by Prof.Juhna and assoc.prof. Rubulis. Mr. Juhna in own speech pointed out previous cooperation with research institution/universities and companies from the Nederlends and highlited signing of MoU with Wetsus and activities related with development of Center of Excellence for Smart Engineering Technologies (CoESET).

Photo from irlat.com

Жизнь сегодня

On 20th October in Latvian television programme «Жизнь сегодня» were story about drinking water in Riga and it’s quality. Kamila Gruskevica showed how were determined drinking water quality in laboratory.

Full video watch here.

Review of Existing and Emerging Biological Contamination Detection Tools for Drinking Water Distribution Systems (DWDS) Online Monitoring

On 17th to 19th of October Sandis Dejus presented the paper «Review of Existing and Emerging Biological Contamination Detection Tools for Drinking Water Distribution Systems (DWDS) Online Monitoring» at the 7th Eastern European Young Water Professionals Conference in Belgrade, Serbia.

More about conference here.

Biofiltration process at a full scale WTP

From 10th to 11th October 2015, Kamila Gruskevica and Kristina Tihomirova participated in Third International Conference on Advances In Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering- ACSEE 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. Kamila also had a speach on the topic of Application of organic matter fractionation technique for evaluation of coagulation – biofiltration process at a full scale WTP.

The conference materials are available here and the paper here.

Latvian science – how to achieveexcellence

On Friday October 9th Talis Juhna participated in the forum «Latvian science – how to achieveexcellence?», organised by Latvian Council of Science together with University of Latvia. In this forum participated latvian prime minister Laimdota Straujuma, minister of education and science Mārīte Seile. Talis Juhna in the forum represented the engineering sector with the participation of the report on drinking water quality problems and solutions in urban areas. The paper will set out in more detailthe different research results.

Pomacea

On October 8th 2015, were Pomacea (Affordable technology for mitigation of membrane (bio)fouling through oPtimizatiOn of pre- treatMent And ClEAnIng methods) kick-off meeting in Porto (Portugal). In meeting participated Faculdade de Engenharia Universidade do Porto (FEUP), who is leader of the group, and participiants from Germany, India and Latvia. From Water Research Laboratory there were Talis Juhna.

Cyber-physical systems, ontologies and biophotonics for safe&smart city and society

On 7th October 2015, were National Research Programme «Cyber-physical systems, ontologies and biophotonics for safe&smart city and society» meeting, where participants shared their results of first phase. In this meeting Sandis Dejus presented Rigas Technical university part in this project – development of urban drinking water supply systems biological quality control system. He said «We want develop effective method with who we can detect pollution in water in five minutes not in 24 hours».

Project WATERCHAIN

In October 2015th our team will start working on a new Project WATERCHAIN Pilot watersheds as a practical tool to reduce the harmful inflows into the Baltic Sea.

Project is approved under Central Baltic Programme INTEREG and helps to reduce inflows of nutrients and hazardous substances to the Baltic Sea from all types of land-based sources by using pilot watersheds and environmental technology (more information here http://www.centralbaltic.eu/content/24-reduced-nutrients-hazardous-substances-and-toxins-inflow-baltic-sea).

The resulting approach will be tested in a the pilot watersheds in each partner country with the practical actions targeted to sustainable impact.