Proceedings of the International Conference on Marine and Freshwater Environments (iMFE 2014)

Proceedings of the International Conference on Marine and Freshwater Environments (iMFE 2014) - Our Water, Our Future

Editors: Drs. Bing Chen, Baiyu Zhang, Liang Jing, Pu Li, and Yinchen Ma

Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL Canada A1B 3X5

Marine and freshwater are essential components of the earth's hydrosphere and their protection has been one of the most critical and challenging tasks for all the involved researchers, engineers and decision makers at a global scale. Within a changing global context, effective protection and management of water environments demand continuously improved knowledge and technologies, sound decisions and practices, and benign legal and socio-economic environments. The iMFE 2014 provided a unique international platform for exchange of ideas and experiences amongst researchers, practitioners and regulators in the field. The conference was organized jointly by the 2014 Atlantic Symposium of the Canadian Association on Water Quality, the 2014 Annual General Meeting and 30th Anniversary Celebration of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering Newfoundland and Labrador Section, the 2014 Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Information Sciences, and the 2nd International Conference of Coastal Biotechnology of the Chinese Society of Marine Biotechnology and Chinese Academy of Sciences. This two and half day event was packed with 23 informative sessions, more than 60 oral presentations, and 15 poster exhibitions. Over 100 participants from 9 countries attended the conference to discuss and appreciate of various aspects involved in the protection of freshwater and marine environments as well as sustainable development of natural resources (water, oil & gas, mineral, etc.).

The iMFE 2014 conference was able to provide a unique platform for exchange of ideas and experiences amongst decision-makers, managers, researchers and academics from different areas of water environmental protection; to provide a communication forum for scientists and engineers to discuss and appreciate of various aspects involved in the protection of freshwater and marine environments as well as sustainable development of natural resources in coastal areas and oceans, particularly under harsh environmental conditions; and to foster an integrative understanding of water and the environment as well as exploring sound engineering solutions. The wealth of information exchanged at this conference will be of great benefit to all involved with marine and freshwater protection problems. It is also expected to help achieve the following long-term goals: to extend the research network to a national and then an international level; and to help develop long-term research collaborations on water management and sustainable development, especially in harsh environment.

The conference proceedings, as shown below, has a total of 48 papers that cover the following areas:

Climate Change, Energy Systems and Emission Reduction
Environmental and Marine Biotechnology
Environmental Modeling, Risk Assessment and Decision Making
Marine Oil Spill Response and Countermeasures
Marine Resource Management and Sustainable Development
Ocean Observation and Pollution Mitigation
Oil Spill Environmental Forensics and Chemical Fingerprinting
Persistent and Emerging Contaminants
Subsurface Contamination and Remediation
Water and Wastewater Treatment
Water Management in Harsh and Arctic Environments
Water Safety and Public Health
Watersheds, Wetlands and Estuaries Management

This proceedings is devoted to help refine future strategies for effective management of the world’s marine and fresh waters by the summary of recent scientific research on the management of water quality through model- and technology-based investigations and case studies. In summary, all papers represent some of the latest and most promising research results in the field of marine and freshwater quality management. We believe that this proceedings will inspire further research and benefit practice along the same lines. Finally, we thank all the authors for their worthy contributions and the reviewers for their precious time and efforts to help ensure the high caliber of quality.