Water & the Environment: Current Challenges and Solutions

Water-related challenges are raising major concerns worldwide. These challenges are found at both ends of the pipe: the need to supply usable water of adequate quality for a rapidly growing human population, and the need to prevent pollution and diseases from wastewater discharge. In this hybrid virtual and in person, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary course, top researchers from Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev partner with experts from Yale University, Northwestern University (USA), and Stanford to discuss pressing water issues and present innovative solutions and technologies for treating wastewater and ensuring safe reuse, mitigating water shortage globally, and reversing pollution of surface and subsurface water. The course provides a thorough introduction discovering the newest technologies being developed at the forefront of research: Recovering nutrients from wastewater for use as fertilizers in agriculture, desalination of brackish groundwater, soil aquifer treatment (SAT), recirculated vertical flow constructed wetland (RVFCW), and more. We will review these technologies from an engineering perspective as well as the physical, chemical and biological processes involved. We will also see (via video) these technologies in use in several systems in Israel.