In this study, changes of microbial substrate metabolic patterns by BIOLOG assay were discussed through a sequential wastewater reuse process, which includes activated sludge and treated effluent in wastewater treatment plant and soil aquifer treatment (SAT), especially focussing on the surface sand layer in conjunction with the vadose zone, concerning sand depth. A SAT pilot-scale reactor, in which the height of packed sand was 237 cm (vadose zone: 17 cm and saturated zone 220 cm), was operated and fed continuously by discharged anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2O) treated water. Continuous water quality measurements over a period of 10 months indicated that the treatment performance of the reactor, such as 83.2% dissolved organic carbon removal, appeared to be stable. Core sampling was conducted for the surface sand to a 30 cm depth, and the sample was divided into six 5 cm sections. Microbial activities, as evaluated by fluorescein diacetate, sharply decreased with increasing distance from the surface of the 30 cm core sample, which included significant decreases only 5 cm from the top surface. A similar microbial metabolic pattern containing a high degree of carbohydrates was obtained among the activated sludge, A2O treated water (influent to the SAT reactor) and the 0-5 cm layer of sand. Meanwhile, the 10-30 cm sand core layers showed dramatically different metabolic patterns containing a high degree of carboxylic acid and esters, and it is possible that the metabolic pattern exhibited by the 5-10 cm layer is at a midpoint of the changing pattern. This suggests that the removal of different organic compounds by biodegradation would be expected to occur in the activated sludge and in the SAT sand layers immediately below 5 cm from the top surface. It is possible that changes in the composition of the organic matter and/or transit of the limiting factor for microbial activities from carbon to phosphorus might have contributed to the observed dramatic changes in SAT metabolic patterns.
The objective of this study was to reveal the relationship between the individual sense of ownership among municipal officials in local governments and the efficacy of disaster waste management as an organization. This was done by conducting a questionnaire survey on individual ownership and efficacy assessment for the municipal governments in the Nankai Trough Earthquake disaster prevention area. The results of this relational analysis indicated that the efficacy of disaster waste management tends to be high in the basic municipalities, where the officials have a high sense of ownership. With regard to the Incident Command System framework, it was shown that even municipal officials whose governments had formulated a disaster waste management plan would find it difficult to improve the efficacy of disaster waste management if they exhibited a low sense of ownership. In other words, even beyond formulating a disaster waste management plan, the survey indicated that continuous efforts would be needed to foster a sense of ownership among municipal officials through human resource development for greater efficacy. This paper examines the importance of this sense of ownership in improving the efficacy of disaster waste management and confirms a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the connection.
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