Glossary of Environmental Science - W

W

• waste - any material (liquid, solid or gaseous) that is produced by domestic households and commercial, institutional, municipal or industrial organisations, and which cannot be collected and recycled in any way for further use. For solid wastes, this involves materials that currently go to landfills, even though some of the material is potentially recyclable.
• waste analysis -the quantifying of different waste streams, recording and detailing of it as a proportion of the total waste stream, determining its destination and recording details of waste practices.
• waste assessment - observing, measuring, and recording data and collecting and analysing waste samples. Some practitioners consider an assessment to be one where observations are carried out visually, without sorting and measuring individual streams (see visual waste audit).
• waste audit -see waste assessment.
• waste avoidance – primary pillar of the waste hierarchy; avoidance works on the principle that the greatest gains result from efficiency-centred actions that remove or reduce the need to consume materials in the first place, but deliver the same outcome.
• waste factors - (used in round-wood calculations) give the ratio of one cubic metre of round wood used per cubic metre (or tonne) of product.
• waste generation - generation of unwanted materials including recyclables as well as garbage. Waste generation = materials recycled + waste to landfill.
• waste hierarchy (waste management hierarchy)– a concept promoting waste avoidance ahead of recycling and disposal, often referred to in community education campaigns as 'reduce, reuse, recycle.' The waste hierarchy is recognised in the Environment Protection Act 1970, promoting management of wastes in the order of preference: avoidance, reuse, recycling, recovery of energy, treatment, containment, disposal.
• waste management - practices and procedures that relate to how the waste is dealt with.
• waste minimisation - techniques to keep waste generation at a minimum level in order to divert materials from landfill and thereby reduce the requirement for waste collection, handling and disposal to landfill; recycling and other efforts made to reduce the amount of waste going into the waste stream.
• waste reduction - Measures to reduce the amount of waste generated by an individual, household or organisation.
• waste stream - Waste materials that are either of a particular type (e.g. 'timber waste stream') or produced a particular source (e.g. 'C&I waste stream').
• waste treatment - where some additional processing is undertaken of a particular waste. This may be done to reduce its toxicity, or increase its degradability or compostability.
• wastewater - used water; generally not suitable for drinking.
• water consumption - in water accounting: distributed water use + self-extracted water use + reuse water use - distributed water supplied to other users - in-stream use (where applicable).
• water cycle (hydrological cycle) passage of the water between the oceans and waterbodies, land and atmosphere.
• water entitlement - the entitlement, as defined in a statutory water plan, to a share of water from a water source.
• Water Footprint - the total volume of freshwater that is required in a given period to perform a particular task or to produce the goods and services consumed at any level of the action hierarchy. Country water footprint is a concept introduced by Hoekstra in 2002 as a consumption-based indicator of water use in a country – the volume of water needed to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of a country.
• water harvesting – see rainwater harvesting.
• water intensity - volume of water used per unit of production or service delivery; this is generally further reduced to monetary unit return per given volume of water used. Essentially equivalent to water productivity.
• water neutral – a scientifically based calculator for individuals to be extended to cover the construction industry, the food and beverage sector and other corporations or organisations. The water offset calculators aimed at business and other organisations are being developed and will be launched with the Individual Water Offset Calculator.
• water productivity – the efficiency of outcomes for the amount of water used; the quantity of water required to produce a given outcome. WP-field relates to crop output e.g. kg of wheat produced per m3 of water. WP-basin relates to water productivity in the widest possible sense as including crop, fishery yield, environmental services etc. Increasing WP means obtaining increasing value from the available water.
• water quality - the microbiological, biological, physical and chemical characteristics of water.
• water resources - water in various forms, such as groundwater, surface water, snow and ice, at present in the land phase of the hydrological cycle—some parts may be renewable seasonally, but others may be effectively mined.
• water restrictions - mandatory staged restrictions on the use of water, which are relative to water storage levels.
• water trading - transactions involving water access entitlements or water allocations assigned to water access entitlements.
• water treatment - the process of converting raw untreated water to a public water supply safe for human consumption; can involve, variously, screening, initial disinfection, clarification, filtration, pH correction and final disinfection.
• water table – upper level of water in saturated ground.
• watershed – a water catchment area (North America) or drainage divide (non-American usage).
• weather - the hourly/daily change in atmospheric conditions which over a longer period constitute the climate of a region cf. climate.
• well-being – a context-dependent physical and mental condition determined by the presence of basic material for a good life, freedom and choice, health, good social relations, and security.
• wetlands - areas of permanent or intermittent inundation, whether natural or artificial, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water not exceeding 6 m at low tide. (Adapted from definition of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance). Engineeredd wetlands are becoming more frequent and are sometimes called constructed wetlands. In urban areas wetlands are sometimes referred to as the kidney of a city.
• whitegoods - household electrical appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, and dishwashers.
• wind energy - the kinetic energy present in the motion of the wind. Wind energy can be converted to mechanical or electrical energy. A traditional mechanical windmill can be used for pumping water or grinding grain. A modern electrical wind turbine converts the force of the wind to electrical energy for consumption on-site and/or export to the electricity grid.
• wind turbines – see wind energy.
• work – physical or mental effort; a force exerted for a distance; an energy transformation process which results in a change of concentration or form of energy.