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Water quality

Projects

Society
Citizen science and public participation
The customer as ‘follow-up treatment actor’

Drinking water customers seem increasingly open to the idea of home filtration and rainwater applications in their own households. This project sheds light on the number and the kinds of customers concerned,…

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Enabling technologies
Innovative water treatment technologies
Development of a water-quality sensor

Large volumes of water are used all over the world for a variety of processes which generate large waste streams. Before it can be discharged, this water has to be treated to…

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Health
Microbial safety
Quick picture of microbial water quality

Microbial water quality is an important element in determining the safety of water for humans, animals, plants and the environment. Today’s methods only conclude afterwards whether the water quality was poor. This…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Instruments – Laboratory for Materials Research and Chemical Analysis

The Laboratory for Materials Research and Chemical Analysis is equipped with specialised instruments, the most important of which are described in this page. Mass Spectrometry Mass spectrometry is…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Highly polar compounds – II

The monitoring of highly polar compounds – particularly in low concentrations (ng/L range) – presents a great challenge. Compared with known, classical environmental pollutants (e.g., PCBs, pharmaceuticals, pesticides), there is a knowledge gap for highly polar compounds…

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Health
Biological activity
Circular Rain

With Circular Rain we are investigating an innovative storage, purification and use of rainwater. By buffering and simultaneously purifying harvested rainwater, a variety of useful applications can be envisaged. Rainwater harvesting is becoming increasingly important. This is…

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Enabling technologies
Innovative water treatment technologies
Identifying contaminations with numerical source-determination

The Dutch drinking water utilities abide by the legal provisions for monitoring the microbial quality of drinking water in the distribution network. The monitoring programme for this regular…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
Seasonal influences of surface water on fouling potential in UF

The link between seasonal changes in the quality of surface waters and the operation of a membrane plant (especially ultrafiltration) regularly causes problems in practice. With a new…

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Enabling technologies
New materials and technologies
The effect of water quality on leaching in pipes containing cement

In order to limit the leaching of asbestos cement and the cement contained in pipes, the Dutch Drinking Water Act includes the Saturation Index (SI), a measure of…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Non-target screening: quantitative and on time

The confident identification of a compound followed by accurate quantification of its concentration in a water sample is a prerequisite for risk assessment. In recent years, chemical water quality monitoring has developed…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Chain Explorer – fewer emissions

If it isn’t in the water, you won’t need to remove it. Besides end-of-pipe measures aimed at improving water quality, it is also advisable to study how emissions of substances earlier in…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Water-quality map

A water-quality map allows one to determine the combined effects of emissions from various sources on the level of pollution in surface waters in the Netherlands. In specific instances it permits the calculation of the total toxic…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
Healthy soil, healthy water system

The properties of the soil have a major influence on drought sensitivity and leaching into groundwater, for instance, of fertilisers. Both agriculture and the drinking water utilities that abstract groundwater have an…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
Leaching of the geochemical buffer capacity in the subsurface

The geochemical buffer capacity of the subsurface assists in breaking down pollutants before they reach drinking water abstraction zones. But this involves the generation of reaction products that…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
Cocktail of Substances (RIWA-Meuse)

RIWA Maas collects large amounts of water quality data at a number of locations, both in the Netherlands and upstream, which is summarized in annual reports. These reports show that substances exceed…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
Nutrients: which agricultural measures make sense?

This project is part of the Water Quality Knowledge Impulse. Agriculture plays a major part in the nutrient loading in our waters. In this project we are studying the effects of measures…

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Society
Citizen science and public participation
Behavioural knowledge: dealing differently with water

This project is part of the Water Quality Knowledge Impulse. Water quality is not only a matter for water managers. We are all collectively responsible for water of…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Toxicity: effect-directed water-quality measurement

This project is part of the Water Quality Knowledge Impulse. More than 140,000 chemical compounds are produced, used and traded in Europe. And a portion of them end…

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Sustainability
Sustainable resources
Quick picture of water quality

Because of the rapidly growing reuse of water in greenhouse horticulture, there is an increasing need to have quick access to information about the water quality, so that, whenever necessary, corrective measures can be quickly taken regarding…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
Water reuse and the freshwater provision

We are confronted more and more with increasing drought damage in agriculture and nature. There is growing pressure on our supply of water for high-quality uses, such as drinking water production. The…

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Society
Citizen science and public participation
Radical new sources of drinking water

The drinking water provision in the Netherlands makes use of fresh groundwater and fresh surface water as its principal sources. After the water’s intake or abstraction, it is used to produce drinking…

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Society
Valorisation
Knowledge valorisation

This project is part of the Water Quality Knowledge Impulse programme. The knowledge acquired in the Knowledge Impulse must find its way to practice and prove its utility in that context. This calls for a coordinated approach…

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Health
Microbial safety
Quickly measuring after work on network

When water utilities carry out work on their distribution networks, there is a risk that dirt, which might contain pathogens, will get into the pipes. For this reason, the activities are conducted…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Exploring standard tests for effect-measurements for chemical water quality

Neurotoxicity is the occurrence of adverse effects on the nervous system. Particularly during its early-development stages, the brain is sensitive to disturbances caused by exposure to substances in…

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Enabling technologies
Future-proof networks
Wat-Qual

Safe drinking water is paramount for the health and wellbeing of all populations. Unsafe drinking water can contain pathogenic microorganisms and/or chemicals that can make people immediately unwell or can potentially cause serious illness over prolonged exposures.…

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Health
Microbial safety
KWR to advise the State of Michigan in Flint research dispute

In October 2017 KWR conducted a scoping mission for the State of Michigan in the US to get a clear idea of the status of the multidisciplinary project,…

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Health
Biological activity
Area-focused national-regional collaboration to tackle nutrients

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) formulates objectives concerning good water quality. These include an approach to the nutrient problem in the Meuse region. This project researches and…

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Society
Citizen science and public participation
The Clean Water Experiment

In this citizen science research project, initiated by Deltares, Wageningen University, KWR, Waternet, Regional Public Water Authority Amstel, Gooi en Vecht, AMS Institute and Pavèl van Houtenvan, Amsterdam citizen scientists will research the quality of Amsterdam’s surface…

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Sustainability
Sustainable resources
Remineralisation of RO permeate

Oasen is working on the full-stream treatment of, among others, river-bank filtrate using RO, which entails the complete removal of practically all substances, including minerals, from the water. A crucial aspect of this development is the conditioning…

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Health
Safe innovation and the water sector
Shale Gas and Water

Before the Netherlands can initiate shale gas extraction, answers must be given to the question of the possible environmental risks involved for the water system. The Shale Gas and Water programme is focused on issues in the…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
AquaNES

Water scarcity, excess water in cities and micro-pollutants in the water cycle are challenges for now and the future. In AquaNES, we test constructed Natural and Engineered Systems (cNES) to face these challenges, develop a monitoring programme…

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Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
The Urban Waterbuffer

Urban areas are increasingly faced with temporary flooding caused by heavy rainfall, or water shortages due to longer drought periods. The conventional solutions aim in particular at rapidly discharging the water and at supplying water from external…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Developments in water quality at surface water intake points for drinking water supply

Future developments in water quality at surface water intake points for drinking water supply constitute the key climate-change associated risk for the drinking water sector. This was a…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Improving water quality prognosis at surface water intake points for drinking water supply

In an earlier project, ‘Developments in water quality at surface water intake points for drinking water supply’, prognoses were made for water quality under the impact of climate…

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All projects ()

Experts

Milo de Baat PhD
Scientific researcher
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Milo de Baat PhD

Scientific researcher

Milo de Baat is a researcher in the Chemical Water Quality and Health team. His activities focus on sampling, measuring and understanding the effects of the growing diversity of chemical…

030-6069756

06-21704402

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Christie Stuut-Klaucke MSc
Communications consultant
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Christie Stuut-Klaucke MSc

Communications consultant

Christie Stuut is an experienced marketing and communications consultant. Her expertise lies in the field of positioning, strategic communication and the further development of company vision to (online) communication. Within…

030-6069635

06-15604976

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Joep van den Broeke
Senior scientific researcher Project manager
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Joep van den Broeke

Senior scientific researcher Project manager

Joep van den Broeke is a senior researcher and project manager in the Innovation and Valorisation team. Drawing on his background in technology development, implementation and commercialisation, he contributes to…

030-6069658

06-11729993

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Peer Timmers
Scientific researcher Project manager
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Peer Timmers

Scientific researcher Project manager

Peer Timmers is trained in microbial ecophysiology. He applies as broad a range of chemical and molecular biological techniques as possible to determine which microorganisms are responsible for a particular…

030-6069636

06-15403473

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Tessa Pronk
Scientific researcher
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Tessa Pronk

Scientific researcher

Tessa Pronk is a scientific researcher in the Chemical Water Quality and Health team. She has a broad interest in complex systems and, over the last few years, has worked…

030-6069681

06-29337806

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Milou Dingemans PhD
Chief Science Officer / Senior scientific researcher, European Registered Toxicologist (ERT)
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Milou Dingemans PhD

Chief Science Officer / Senior scientific researcher, European Registered Toxicologist (ERT)

Milou Dingemans works as Chief Science Officer of KWR and as a researcher and toxicologist in the Chemical Water Quality and Health team. She has over 15 years' experience in…

030-6069505

06-21997524

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Michiel Hootsmans PhD MSc
Senior scientific researcher Project manager
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Michiel Hootsmans PhD MSc

Senior scientific researcher Project manager

Michiel Hootsmans is a senior researcher in aquatic ecology. In this position, he is in charge of the development, broadening and deepening of a new ecological research niche in the…

030-6069648

06-22951843

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Stefan Kools PhD
Manager Scientific researcher
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Stefan Kools PhD

Manager Scientific researcher

Stefan Kools works at KWR as a researcher and team leader. He has more than 20 years' experience in the water sector, both as a scientific researcher and ecotoxicology advisor.…

030-6069539

06-46818786

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Arnaut van Loon PhD MSc
Scientific researcher Project manager
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Arnaut van Loon PhD MSc

Scientific researcher Project manager

Arnaut van Loon is a wide-ranging hydrogeologist, who is active as a researcher and project manager in the field of rewetting, freshwater management and groundwater protection. As an applied researcher,…

030-6069550

06-52826050

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Paul van der Wielen PhD
Senior scientific researcher
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Paul van der Wielen PhD

Senior scientific researcher

Paul van der Wielen is Principal Scientist in the field of (micro)biological activity in water in man-made water systems, and a member of KWR's Scientific Council. He is also guest…

030-6069642

06-25241293

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Mirjam Blokker PhD
Principal scientist
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Mirjam Blokker PhD

Principal scientist

Mirjam Blokker is a Principal Scientist on the Drinking Water Infrastructure team. She is an expert in drinking water demand and developed the SIMDEUM model, which can be used to…

030-6069533

06-15861099

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Patrick Bäuerlein PhD
Scientific researcher Project manager
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Patrick Bäuerlein PhD

Scientific researcher Project manager

Patrick Bäuerlein is a chemical researcher in the Chemical Water Quality and Health team, and his main field of expertise is the chemical quality of the entire water cycle. He…

030-6069702

06-54296020

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All experts ()

News

Blog

IUVA World Congress 2021

14 June 2021 — Every two years the International UV Association (IUVA) organizes a world congress. Last year, due to Covid, the…

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Blog

Blog Patrick Smeets on WASH emergency response in Equatorial Guinea

10 June 2021 — Looking out my window through the palm trees at the ocean, it’s hard to realise that on 7…

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News

Assessment framework to involve stakeholders in asset management

01 June 2021 — The sector study ‘360° stakeholder management’ systematically mapped out and analysed stakeholder involvement in three practical cases in…

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News

Deltafact Biocides: no clear picture as yet of impact on water quality

17 May 2021 — For water managers there is still only limited knowledge available about biocides and their impact on water quality,…

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News

Hazards of consumer products to the water cycle

30 March 2021 — An investigation of twenty types of consumer products makes it clear that we are still far from the…

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News

World Water Day 2021: Valuing Water

22 March 2021 — A team of more than 20 KWR colleagues signed up to join the World Water Run from 16-22…

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News

Sources and effects of microplastics in water still not sufficiently known

22 February 2021 — The Deltafact Microplastics of the Chain Explorer, a project within the Water Quality Knowledge Impulse programme, was recently…

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News

‘New regulatory and legal framework for water reuse calls for an interdisciplinary approach’

05 January 2021 — In 2020 the European Union approved a legislative proposal on the requirements for water reuse in irrigation applications.…

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News

Intelligent data acquisition method is a prize-winner

16 November 2020 — The identification of toxic compounds in drinking water is an important issue for the drinking water sector. KWR…

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Blog

Hazardous Substance Incident Control Week

07 October 2020 — This week the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is holding the ‘hazardous material incident control week’. During…

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News

Water Wise: Decision-support system for safe water-use and water-reuse cycles

15 September 2020 — KWR has developed Water Wise, a concept to meet the need for a simple-to-use, transparent and consistent tool…

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News

Successful application of umu test in KWR laboratories

10 June 2020 — KWR disposes of advanced laboratories for research into the quality of drinking water and drinking water sources. Our…

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Water Sector

Acquired habits and new solutions

14 January 2020 — At the end of 2019, researchers in the Behavioural Knowledge project, part of the Water Quality Impulse, invited…

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News

Distribution experts from Europe and the US look behind each other’s scenes

09 December 2019 — Over the last two years, experts and researchers from Europe and the US have had the opportunity to…

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Blog

International Groundwater Quality Conference (GQ19)

24 September 2019 — Last week, the news was all about the deterioration of Dutch groundwater quality and the resulting stress on…

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News

What is the status of plastics in water?

11 July 2019 — It was recently reported on the news that people ingest a teaspoon, that is 5 grams, of microplastics…

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Column

Looking for a needle in a haystack? Non-target screening

02 July 2019 — Recent developments in analytical chemistry in combination with data handling appear to be a major gain for the…

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Column

As Hong Kong grows, so does demand for better water infrastructure

23 April 2019 — From 8-10 April I visited Hong Kong together with Idsart Dijkstra, Water Systems and Technology manager, and Prof.…

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News

Water Quality Knowledge Impulse launched

05 April 2019 — The water quality in large parts of the country has clearly improved over the last few years, but…

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Blog

Knowledge exchange on environmental incident response in China

07 January 2019 — The week before Christmas 2018 I joined a mission of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management…

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Blog

DPWE Workshop: Water Quality and Sources

13 November 2018 — On November 5th I attended a DPWE mini workshop in Castricum at the visitors center of PWN. DPWE is…

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News

Water Quality Knowledge Impulse: room for acceleration

30 October 2018 — The participants in the Water Quality Knowledge Impulse are the national government, provinces, Water Authorities, water utilities, knowledge…

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Blog

WHO Meeting underscores importance of achieving SDG 6

24 October 2018 — KWR was present at the WHO High Level Meeting and Technical Workshop on Water Safety and SDG 6…

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Blog

Bioanalytical tools: state-of-the-science

18 September 2018 — The aim of the 11th BioDetectors conference 2018 was to bring together scientists involved in the development and…

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News

Growing interest in the business community in water quality

25 June 2018 — Water quality has been attracting lots of media attention lately. The business community is also expressing growing interest…

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Blog

Useful UK-Dutch exchanges in the first 6 months of WatQual

20 June 2018 — Within the WatQual project, researchers from universities visit industry in another country and vice versa to study water…

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News

Health relevance of contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water

19 June 2018 — New substances are being constantly produced and used, and also ending up in the groundwater and surface water…

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News

How can we achieve excellent water quality?

22 February 2018 — Good water quality is extremely important for an ecologically healthy water system. Despite the fact that the water…

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News

KWR again WHO Collaborating Center Water Quality & Health

15 November 2017 — WHO has again designated KWR as a Collaborating Centre on Water Quality and Health. Over the next four…

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Blog

Symposium Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

13 November 2017 — On October 27, the network for environmental professionals VVM organized the symposium ‘Green Pharmacy’ on pharmaceuticals in the…

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News

Research into microplastics in Dutch water

07 September 2017 — On 6 September The Guardian published an article on research into plastic fibres in tap water. The research…

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Blog

About my first time ‘interactive vlogging’

05 July 2017 — Presenting at conferences is exciting. Sometimes I travel far and meet interesting new people. Like last November, when…

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News

Looking for citizen scientists for Amsterdam water research

30 June 2017 — What does the water in the canal smell of today? Is the Sloterplas lake water really so clean…

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News

Urban Waterbuffer now also in practice

19 May 2017 — How can we retain rainwater in the subsurface of urban areas longer and more effectively? And can we…

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News

Water4India project contributes to a better drinking water provision for rural India

10 April 2017 — In the short term, the drinking water provision in rural India can most benefit from the use of…

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Blog

Forensic hydrology: Detecting traces in groundwater

22 March 2017 — Water contains a large number of dissolved substances. These include all non-synthetic elements and many synthetic organic micropollutants,…

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Blog

KWR contribution to the GWRC bioassay workshop

23 February 2017 — GWRC organized a workshop to get insight in the developments in bioassay applications and the aims and needs…

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News

Joan Rose lectures at KWR on the importance of genomics for the water sector

19 January 2017 — On 16 January, Joan B. Rose of Michigan State University and Stockholm Water Prize winner, paid a visit…

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News

Urban Waterbuffer gives value to excess rainwater

22 December 2016 — Urban areas increasingly face flooding due to intense rainfall, as well as water shortages due to long droughts.…

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News

Knowledge institutes join forces for clean and healthy water

16 November 2016 — Alterra, Deltares, KWR and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) are going to strengthen…

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News

Joan Rose appointed KWR Honorary Fellow

11 October 2016 — The prominent international researcher, Joan Rose, was appointed KWR Honorary Fellow on 11 October during the congress of…

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News

INTEREST: rules of thumb for costs and returns of sensor networks in drinking water distribution

10 October 2016 — Sensor networks allow us to monitor drinking water more comprehensively and detect contaminants more effectively. However, we need…

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News

Rapid optical detection of enterococci in surface water possible

23 September 2016 — A rapid method for enterococci detection in surface water has been developed which could contribute to more efficient…

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News

KWR’s labs at WoTS 2016: ‘The microworld of water’

15 September 2016 — Looking for a needle, not in a haystack but in water. That’s what we do well at KWR.…

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News

KWR is looking for Amsterdam residents for drinking water research

25 April 2016 — In the ‘Water Freshness’ field trial citizens will be participating for the first time as researchers in scientific…

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News

Water4India: KWR introduces new sampling and analysis methods in India

29 March 2016 — From 5 to 15 March three KWR analysts were in India to contribute to the EU’s Water4India project,…

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News

Monitoring fish populations, migration and water quality through environmental DNA

02 March 2016 — This spring research gets underway into an innovative manner, through ‘fish DNA’ in the water, of monitoring the…

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News

Cooperating knowledge institutes: ‘Biomonitoring could be faster, more reliable and cheaper’

12 January 2016 — In March 2015, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and KWR Watercycle Research Institute sealed their agreement to become preferred partners…

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Article

European TAPES project concludes in Brussels

30 September 2015 — On 24 September 2015, over 50 participants attended the closing conference of the Interreg programme’s Transnational Action Program…

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Article

DEMEAU conclusion: bioassays add great value in determining water quality

10 September 2015 — The three-year DEMEAU project was concluded in September 2015. KWR led the consortium, comprising 17 members from 5…

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