Catalan Water Research Institute research and innovation for the sustainable use of water

WATER QUALITY

The Water Quality and Safety area wants to provide a complete and effective response to the problems and challenges related to water quality, especially in the Mediterranean region. We do this by considering both the chemical and microbiological contamination of water bodies, allowing us to identify the tools necessary for their management and proper preservation.

The main objective of this area is to define, both in natural water and in reuse, the concentrations, the fate and the mechanisms of action of the polluting elements and pathogens. The most modern analytical methods are used, both chemical, microbiological and ecotoxicological, in order to assess the quality of the water and examine the characteristics of surface water, underground water and tracted water, these last ones include drinking water and the reused The diagnosis of the risk of gut due to the presence of contaminants in the water is determined through the analysis of the environmental impact of the organic components in the water masses. Studying the presence, diversity and microbial activity in aquatic environments are also objectives of this area.

Head of Area

ICREA Research Professor, graduated in Chemical Engineering (1988), MSc in Environmental Chemistry (1991) and PhD in Chemical Sciences (1995) from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her main field of research about it is the study of the destination and behavior of emerging organic contaminants (pharmacs and endocrine disruptors) in wastewater and drinking water tracts. The specific lines of research about it include the study of the biological and abiotic transformations of the emerging contaminants, identification of the transformation products, elucidation of the ways of transformation, study of the presence and distribution of emerging contaminants in the aquatic environment and risk  environmental assessment .

Research lines