Wun Jern Ng

'Cities are not just brick and mortar; they represent the dreams, aspirations, and hopes of societies.'UN Habitat (2008)Urban lakes are part of many of the cities we live in. They are often intricately bound with the city's social fabric, valued for direct utility purposes such as drinking water provision, or for their aesthetic, historical, cultural, and religious significance. However, oftentimes in spite of their unique spatial, socio-cultural, and economic value and 'relationship' with the city, urban lakes end up as receptacles for waste, or are infilled for development. This book traces the socio-cultural and technological dimensions at play for the protection and remediation of a tropical urban lake, and how these dimensions guide the design of need-based solutions. It explores design requirements based on the need for sensitivity to religious and cultural norms, social values and aesthetic requirements. First-hand experiences of the writers in planning and executing an urban lake remediation project in a fast-growing city and a UNESCO heritage site, are drawn as practical examples. The lessons learnt can find application in other lakes of cultural significance in tropical regions.

'Cities are not just brick and mortar; they represent the dreams, aspirations, and hopes of societies.'UN Habitat (2008)Urban lakes are part of many of the cities we live in. They are often intricately bound with the city's social fabric, valued for direct utility purposes such as drinking water provision, or for their aesthetic, historical, cultural, and religious significance. However, oftentimes in spite of their unique spatial, socio-cultural, and economic value and 'relationship' with the city, urban lakes end up as receptacles for waste, or are infilled for development. This book traces the socio-cultural and technological dimensions at play for the protection and remediation of a tropical urban lake, and how these dimensions guide the design of need-based solutions. It explores design requirements based on the need for sensitivity to religious and cultural norms, social values and aesthetic requirements. First-hand experiences of the writers in planning and executing an urban lake remediation project in a fast-growing city and a UNESCO heritage site, are drawn as practical examples. The lessons learnt can find application in other lakes of cultural significance in tropical regions.

This book adopts a “show and tell” approach to guiding readers in the area of industrial wastewater treatment and the facilities associated with such treatment. It assumes the reader is familiar with wastewater treatment theory but may be unfamiliar with the reasons why certain unit processes or equipment are included in practice, how these work, and why they fail therein. Industrial wastewaters are extremely varied and this complicates their treatment and discussion. Numerous tables showing industrial wastewater characteristics and photographs of facilities are provided so that the reader can better appreciate industrial wastewater treatment and its “culture” in Asia, and gain a degree of familiarity with the subject unachievable if only text descriptions were used. The book aims to provide a link between theory and practice. It does not only cover typical textbook material but also includes much information that would usually be accessible only to persons who have handled wastewaters and treatment facilities personally. The numerous examples provided have been drawn from the author's own field experience over two decades in Asia.

This book adopts a “show and tell” approach to guiding readers in the area of industrial wastewater treatment and the facilities associated with such treatment. It assumes the reader is familiar with wastewater treatment theory but may be unfamiliar with the reasons why certain unit processes or equipment are included in practice, how these work, and why they fail therein. Industrial wastewaters are extremely varied and this complicates their treatment and discussion. Numerous tables showing industrial wastewater characteristics and photographs of facilities are provided so that the reader can better appreciate industrial wastewater treatment and its “culture” in Asia, and gain a degree of familiarity with the subject unachievable if only text descriptions were used. The book aims to provide a link between theory and practice. It does not only cover typical textbook material but also includes much information that would usually be accessible only to persons who have handled wastewaters and treatment facilities personally. The numerous examples provided have been drawn from the author's own field experience over two decades in Asia.