The best papers from the three-day conference on Safe Drinking Water from Source to Tap June 2009 in Maastricht are published in this book covering the themes of challenges of the water sector and adaptive strategies, treatment, distribution, risk assessment and risk management, sensors and monitoring, small scale systems, simulation, alternative water supply & sources, consumer involvement, and future drinking water. Worldwide, the water supply sector is facing tremendous challenges. Every new emerging contaminants and pathogens and aging infrastructures that are vulnerable for deliberate contamination pose a threat to the quality of water supplies. Shortage of good quality and readily treatable resources is increasing due to global warming, urbanisation and pollution from agriculture and industry. Regulators and consumers are becoming more demanding. Techneau - the largest European project on drinking water - addresses these challenges by developing adaptive supply system options and new and improved treatment and monitoring technologies. Future system options to be studied are flexible, small scale and multi-source supplies, utilising non conventional resources like brackish ground water, treated wastewater and urban groundwater.

Mountainous regions, which cover nearly half of the continent’s area, are in many ways of vital importance for the European population. They supply much of the continent ́s water, are centres of biological and cultural biodiversity, provide various opportunities for recreation/ farmers. But mountainous regions are characterised by permanent natural handicaps due to topographic and climatic restrictions on economic and agricultural activity. Because of the geographical constraints to farming, work productivity is on average lower by 28% in mountain areas compared with less favoured areas, and by 40% compared with lowlands. Agriculture in mountainous regions can therefore, in general, not compete with agriculture in advantaged lowlands and, with very few exceptions, cannot hope to become competitive in adopting intensive models in response to the growing global competition.

There are only few topics in organometallic chemistry, which have stimulated research activities in as many areas, as transition-metal carbene (alkylidene) complexes. About 25 years after the first planned synthesis of a carbene complex in E.O. Fischer's laboratory in Munich the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Transition-Metal Carbene Complexes was the first meeting which,brought together scientists from different disciplines to discuss inorganic, organic, theoretical structural catalysis-related aspects of metal carbene chemistry. The 70th birthday of Professor E.O. Fischer was a good occasion for this enterprise. The organizers of the meeting (K.D. Dotz, Marburg; F.R. KreiBl, Munchen; U. Schubert, Wurzburg) were encouraged by the fact that most of the leading scientists in this area were able to participate in the workshop. The very high standard of the contributions is reflected in this book, which contains papers from the majority of the participants. The Proceedings show the state of the art in metal carbene chemistry and will hopefully be a landmark in the development of this area of chemistry. Generous financial support for the workshop and for the preparation of this book was provided by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO and some companies. The organizers also acknowledge the efforts of the staff of the Bildungs zentrum der Hans-Seidel-Stiftung in Wild bad Kreuth for creating a pleasant and stimulating atmosphere during the conference.

For many years, the subject matter encompassed by the title of this book was largely limited to those who were interested in the two most economically important organic materials found buried in the Earth, namely, coal and petroleum. The point of view of any discussions which might occur, either in scientific meetings or in books that have been written, was, therefore, dominated largely by these interests. A great change has occurred in the last decade. This change had as its prime mover our growing knowledge of the molecular architecture of biological systems which, in turn, gave rise to a more legitimate asking of the question: "How did life come to be on the surface of the Earth?" A second motivation arose when the possibilities for the exploration of planets other than the Earth-the moon, Mars, and other parts of the solar system-became a reality. Thus the question of the possible existence of life elsewhere than on Earth conceivably could be answered.