This paper presents a case study which describes water‐availability problems and corresponding public‐health implications for a rural area in Nigeria. A water‐availability assessment was carried out in eight villages which are controlled by the Jalingo Local Government of Taraba State. Questionnaires were used to obtain data from sixty households (approximately 650 participants) concerning issues of water‐supply sources, water quantity, water quality and community participation in water‐resources projects. It was found that (i) community well water is the major source of water, (ii) 35% of the inhabitants depend on well water during the wet season, and (iii) 69% depend on it during the dry season. About 80% of the households have access to less than 30 litres of water per person per day and, because of low water availability, there is a prevalence of water‐related diseases.

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Examines rainwater chemistry as it relates to atmospheric pollution in Southern Nigeria. Rainwater samples were collected and analysed for major cations and anions in Lagos, Ibadan and Port Harcourt, these sites reflecting industrial, residential and oil flaring regions respectively. In general, water samples from Ibadan were about neutral. Correlation studies revealed that HCl and H 2 SO 4 dominated the slightly acidic rainwater in the Lagos and Port Harcourt areas respectively. The effect of marine spray from the Gulf of Benin was observed with trace of NaCl. The reaction of the much emitted NH 3 with the available SO 4 2± in the atmosphere produced (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 which acted as a neutralizer for samples from the Lagos area. The findings suggest that rainwater from most industrial cities of Nigeria are tending towards acidity and if oil flaring activities are not checked, there is a tendency of increasing acidic rainwater in the delta regions. The observation and findings are useful for preliminary assessments of the influence of rapid industrial and urban development on atmospheric pollution and indirectly rainwater constituents.

In times of recession, expert systems supporting environmental managers undergo a revival. However, the retrofitting of sustainable water structures is currently undertaken ad hoc using engineering experience supported by minimal formal guidance. There is a lack of practical decision tools that can be used by different professions for the rapid assessment of ecosystem services that can be created when retrofitting water structures. Thus the aim was to develop an innovative decision support tool based on the rapid estimation of novel ecosystem service variables at low cost and acceptable uncertainty. The tool proposes the retrofitting of those sustainable drainage systems that obtained the highest ecosystem services score for a specific urban site subject to professional bias. The estimation of variables was undertaken with high confidence and manageable error at low cost. In comparison to common public opinion, statistically significant differences between social scientists and the general public for the estimation of land costs using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test were found. It was also surprising to find no significant differences in the estimation of habitat for species by civil engineers and ecologists. The new methodology may lead to an improvement of the existing urban landscape by promoting ecosystem services.

This study aims to assess the potential of trees for integration in urban development by evaluating the damage caused by trees in relation to various tree characteristics. Tree damage to permeable pavement systems and other urban structures such as impermeable pavements, kerbs, roads, retaining walls, footpaths, walls and buildings were assessed to identify the most suitable trees for the urban environment. One hundred square sites of 100 m × 100 m were randomly selected in Greater Manchester for this representative example case study to demonstrate the assessment methodology. Among tree species in this study, Acer platanoides L. (Norway maple) occurred most frequently (17%); others were Tilia spp. L. (Lime; 16%), Fraxinus excelsior L. (common ash; 12%), Acer pseudoplatanus L. (sycamore; 10%) and Prunus avium L. (wild cherry; 8%). The study concludes that 44% of the damage was to impermeable pavements and 22% to permeable pavements. Other damage to structures included kerbs (19%), retaining walls (5%), footpaths (4%), roads (3%) and walls (3%). Concerning the severity of damage, 66% were moderate, 21% light and 19% severe. Aesculus hippocastanum L. (horse chestnut) caused the greatest damage (59%) expressed in percentage as a ratio of the tree number related to damage over the corresponding tree number that was found close to structures.