Abstract: The contents of nitrates and nitrites were monitored in
15 ground water resources of a selected region earmarked for the
emergency supply of population. The resources have been selected on
the basis of previous assessment of natural conditions and the
exploitation of territory in the infiltration area as well as the
surroundings of water resources. The health risk analysis carried out
in relation to nitrates and nitrites, which were found to be the most
serious water contaminants, proved, that 14 resources met the health
standards in relation to the assessed criterion and could be included in
crisis plans. Water quality of ground resources may be assessed in the
same way with regard to other contaminants.
Abstract: Environmental statistics reveals that the pollution of
acid rain in South Korea is a serious issue. Yet the awareness of people
is low. Even after a gradual decrease of pollutant emission in Korea,
the acidity has not been reduced. There no boundaries in the
atmosphere are set and the influence of the neighboring countries such
as China is apparent. Governmental efforts among China, Japan and
Korea have been made on this issue. However, not much progress has
been observed. Along with the governmental activities, therefore, an
active monitoring of the pollution among the countries and the
promotion of environmental awareness at the civil level including
especially the middle and high schools are highly recommended. It
will be this young generation who will face damaged country as
inheritance not the current generation.
Abstract: This paper dissertates about issues which may occur
after next year will be major part of civil aviation in EU included into
system of Emission trading. This system should help to fight against
global warming and to fulfill Kyoto Protocol commitments of
European countries. Main issues mentioned in this paper are
connected with problem of radiative forcing from emissions and lack
of their monitoring and charging in EU legislative. There are
mentioned main differences between industrial emissions and
emissions form aviation with notification about possible negative
impacts of neglecting these differences. Special attention is dedicated
to risk of possible reverse effect of inclusion aviation in EU ETS,
which may theoretically occur.
Abstract: The influence of human activities produced by dams
along the river beds is minor, but the location of accumulation of
water directly influences the hydrological regime. The most
important effect of the influence of damming on the way water flows
decreases the frequency of floods. The water rate controls the water
flow of the dams. These natural reservoirs become dysfunctional and,
as a result, a new distribution of flow in the downstream sector,
where maximum flow is, brings about, in this case, higher values. In
addition to fishing, middle and lower courses of rivers located by
accumulation also have a role in mitigating flood waves, thus
providing flood protection. The Vaslui also ensures a good part of the
needs of the town water supply. The most important lake is Solesti,
close to the Vaslui River, opened in 1974. A hydrological regime of
accumulation is related to an anthropogenic and natural drainage
system. The design conditions and their manoeuvres drain or fill the
water courses.
Abstract: The use of bioindicators plants (lichens, bryophytes
and Sphagnum....) in monitoring pollution by heavy metals has been
the subject of several works. However, few studies have addressed
the impact of specific type-s pollutants (fertilizers, pesticides.) on
these organisms.
We propose in this work to make the highlighting effect of NPKs
(NPK: nitrogen-phosphate-potassium-sulfate (NP2O5K2O) (15,15,15),
at concentrations of 10, 20, 30 , 40 and 50mM/L) on the activity of
detoxification enzymes (GSH/GST, CAT, APX and MDA) of plant
bioindicators (mosses and lichens) after treatment for 3 and 7 days.
This study shows the important role of the defense system in the
accumulation and tolerance to chemical pollutants through the
activation of enzymatic (GST (glutathione-S-transferase, APX
(ascorbat peroxidase), CAT (catalase)) and nonenzymatic biomarkers
(GSH (glutathione), MDA (malondialdehyde)) against oxidative
stress generated by the NPKs.
Abstract: The study of tourist activities and the mapping of their routes in space and time has become an important issue in tourism management. Here we represent space-time paths for the tourism industry by visualizing individual tourist activities and the paths followed using a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS). Considerable attention has been devoted to the measurement of accessibility to shopping, eating, walking and other services at the tourist destination. I turns out that GIS is a useful tool for studying the spatial behaviors of tourists in the area. The value of GIS is especially advantageous for space-time potential path area measures, especially for the accurate visualization of possible paths through existing city road networks. This study seeks to apply space-time concepts with a detailed street network map obtained from Google Maps to measure tourist paths both spatially and temporally. These paths are further determined based on data obtained from map questionnaires regarding the trip activities of 40 individuals. The analysis of the data makes it possible to determining the locations of the more popular paths. The results can be visualized using 3D GIS to show the areas and potential activity opportunities accessible to tourists during their travel time.
Abstract: Cameron Highlands is a mountainous area subjected
to torrential tropical showers. It extracts 5.8 million liters of water
per day for drinking supply from its rivers at several intake points.
The water quality of rivers in Cameron Highlands, however, has
deteriorated significantly due to land clearing for agriculture,
excessive usage of pesticides and fertilizers as well as construction
activities in rapidly developing urban areas. On the other hand, these
pollution sources known as non-point pollution sources are diverse
and hard to identify and therefore they are difficult to estimate.
Hence, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to provide
an extensive approach to evaluate landuse and other mapping
characteristics to explain the spatial distribution of non-point sources
of contamination in Cameron Highlands. The method to assess
pollution sources has been developed by using Cameron Highlands
Master Plan (2006-2010) for integrating GIS, databases, as well as
pollution loads in the area of study. The results show highest annual
runoff is created by forest, 3.56 × 108 m3/yr followed by urban
development, 1.46 × 108 m3/yr. Furthermore, urban development
causes highest BOD load (1.31 × 106 kgBOD/yr) while agricultural
activities and forest contribute the highest annual loads for
phosphorus (6.91 × 104 kgP/yr) and nitrogen (2.50 × 105 kgN/yr),
respectively. Therefore, best management practices (BMPs) are
suggested to be applied to reduce pollution level in the area.
Abstract: Hexavalent chromium is highly toxic to most living organisms and a known human carcinogen by the inhalation route of exposure. Therefore, treatment of Cr(VI) contaminated wastewater is essential before their discharge to the natural water bodies. Cr(VI) reduction to Cr(III) can be beneficial because a more mobile and more toxic chromium species is converted to a less mobile and less toxic form. Zero-valence-state metals, such as scrap iron, can serve as electron donors for reducing Cr(VI) to Cr(III). The influence of pH on scrap iron capacity to reduce Cr(VI) was investigated in this study. Maximum reduction capacity of scrap iron was observed at the beginning of the column experiments; the lower the pH, the greater the experiment duration with maximum scrap iron reduction capacity. The experimental results showed that highest maximum reduction capacity of scrap iron was 12.5 mg Cr(VI)/g scrap iron, at pH 2.0, and decreased with increasing pH up to 1.9 mg Cr(VI)/g scrap iron at pH = 7.3.
Abstract: Biological Ammonia removal (nitrification), the
oxidation of ammonia to nitrate catalyzed by bacteria, is a key part of
global nitrogen cycling. In the first step of nitrification,
chemolithoautotrophic ammonia oxidizer transform ammonia to
nitrite, this subsequently oxidized to nitrate by nitrite oxidizing
bacteria. This process can be affected by several factors. In this study
the effect of influent COD on biological ammonia removal in a
bench-scale biological reactor was investigated. Experiments were
carried out using synthetic wastewater. The initial ammonium
concentration was 25mgNH4
+-N L-1. The effect of COD between
247.55±1.8 and 601.08±3.24mgL-1 on biological ammonia removal
was investigated by varying the COD loading supplied to reactor.
From the results obtained in this study it could be concluded in the
range of 247.55±1.8 to 351.35±2.05mgL-1, there is a direct
relationship between amount of COD and ammonia removal.
However more than 351.35±2.05 up to 601.08±3.24mgL-1 were
found an indirect relationship between them.
Abstract: Rapid urbanization, industrialization and population
growth have led to an increase in number of automobiles that cause
air pollution. It is estimated that road traffic contributes 60% of air
pollution in urban areas. A case by case assessment is required to
predict the air quality in urban situations, so as to evolve certain
traffic management measures to maintain the air quality levels with
in the tolerable limits. Calicut city in the state of Kerala, India has
been chosen as the study area. Carbon Monoxide (CO) concentration
was monitored at 15 links in Calicut city and air quality performance
was evaluated over each link. The CO pollutant concentration values
were compared with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS), and the CO values were predicted by using CALINE4 and
IITLS and Linear regression models. The study has revealed that
linear regression model performs better than the CALINE4 and
IITLS models. The possible association between CO pollutant
concentration and traffic parameters like traffic flow, type of vehicle,
and traffic stream speed was also evaluated.
Abstract: This paper reviews the objectives, methods and results of previous studies on biodrying of solid waste in several countries. Biodrying of solid waste is a novel technology in developing countries such as in Malaysia where high moisture content in organic waste makes the segregation process for recycling purposes complicated and diminishes the calorific value for the use of fuel source. In addition, the high moisture content also encourages the breeding of vectors and disease-bearing animals. From the laboratory results, the average moisture content of organic waste, paper, plastics and metals are 58.17%, 37.93%, 29.79% and 1.03% respectively for UKM campus. Biodrying of solid waste is a simple method of waste treatment as well as a cost-efficient technology to dry the solid waste. The process depends on temperature monitoring and air flow control along with the natural biodegradable process of organic waste. This review shows that the biodrying of solid waste method has high potential in treatment and recycling of solid waste, be useful for biodrying study and implementation in Malaysia.
Abstract: Petroleum refineries discharged large amount of
wastewater -during the refining process- that contains hazardous
constituents that is hard to degrade. Anaerobic treatment process is
well known as an efficient method to degrade high strength
wastewaters. Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanker (UASB) is a
common process used for various wastewater treatments. Two UASB
reactors were set up and operated in parallel to evaluate the treatment
efficiency of petroleum refinery wastewater. In this study four
organic volumetric loading rates were applied (i.e. 0.58, 0.89, 1.21
and 2.34 kg/m3·d), two loads to each reactor. Each load was applied
for a period of 60 days for the reactor to acclimatize and reach steady
state, and then the second load applied. The chemical oxygen demand
(COD) removals were satisfactory with the removal efficiencies at the
loadings applied were 78, 82, 83 and 81 % respectively.
Abstract: The equilibrium, thermodynamics and kinetics of the
biosorption of Cd (II) and Pb(II) by a Spore Forming Bacillus (MGL
75) were investigated at different experimental conditions. The
Langmuir and Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R)
equilibrium adsorption models were applied to describe the
biosorption of the metal ions by MGL 75 biomass. The Langmuir
model fitted the equilibrium data better than the other models.
Maximum adsorption capacities q max for lead (II) and cadmium (II)
were found equal to 158.73mg/g and 91.74 mg/g by Langmuir model.
The values of the mean free energy determined with the D-R equation
showed that adsorption process is a physiosorption process. The
thermodynamic parameters Gibbs free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°),
and entropy (ΔS°) changes were also calculated, and the values
indicated that the biosorption process was exothermic and
spontaneous. Experiment data were also used to study biosorption
kinetics using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic
models. Kinetic parameters, rate constants, equilibrium sorption
capacities and related correlation coefficients were calculated and
discussed. The results showed that the biosorption processes of both
metal ions followed well pseudo-second-order kinetics.
Abstract: In India, the quarrel between the budding human
populace and the planet-s unchanging supply of freshwater and
falling water tables has strained attention the reuse of gray water as
an alternative water resource in rural development. This paper
present the finest design of laboratory scale gray water treatment
plant, which is a combination of natural and physical operations such
as primary settling with cascaded water flow, aeration, agitation and
filtration, hence called as hybrid treatment process. The economical
performance of the plant for treatment of bathrooms, basins and
laundries gray water showed in terms of deduction competency of
water pollutants such as COD (83%), TDS (70%), TSS (83%), total
hardness (50%), oil and grease (97%), anions (46%) and cations
(49%). Hence, this technology could be a good alternative to treat
gray water in residential rural area.
Abstract: In July 2012, an indoor/outdoor monitoring
programme was undertaken in two university sports facilities: a
fronton and a gymnasium. Comfort parameters (temperature, relative
humidity, CO and CO2) and total volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) were continuously monitored. Concentrations of NO2,
carbonyl compounds and individual VOCs were obtained. Low
volume samplers were used to collect particulate matter (PM10). The
minimum ventilation rates stipulated for acceptable indoor air quality
were observed in both sports facilities. It was found that cleaning
activities may have a large influence on the VOC levels. Acrolein
was one of the most abundant carbonyl compounds, showing
concentrations above the recommended limit. Formaldehyde was
detected at levels lower than those commonly reported for other
indoor environments. The PM10 concentrations obtained during the
occupancy periods ranged between 38 and 43μgm-3 in the fronton and
from 154 to 198μgm-3 in the gymnasium.
Abstract: The effects of down slope steepness on soil splash distribution under a water drop impact have been investigated in this study. The equipment used are the burette to simulate a water drop, a splash cup filled with sandy soil which forms the source area and a splash board to collect the ejected particles. The results found in this study have shown that the apparent mass increased with increasing downslope angle following a linear regression equation with high coefficient of determination. In the same way, the radial soil splash distribution over the distance has been analyzed statistically, and an exponential function was the best fit of the relationship for the different slope angles. The curves and the regressions equations validate the well known FSDF and extend the theory of Van Dijk.
Abstract: In this research, an aerobic composting method is
studied to reuse organic waste from rubber factory waste as soil fertilizer and to study the effect of cellulolytic microbial activator
(CMA) as the activator in the rubber factory waste composting. The
performance of the composting process was monitored as a function
of carbon and organic matter decomposition rate, temperature and
moisture content. The results indicate that the rubber factory waste is best composted with water hyacinth and sludge than composted
alone. In addition, the CMA is more affective when mixed with the rubber factory waste, water hyacinth and sludge since a good fertilizer is achieved. When adding CMA into the rubber factory
waste composted alone, the finished product does not achieve a
standard of fertilizer, especially the C/N ratio.
Finally, the finished products of composting rubber factory waste and water hyacinth and sludge (both CMA and without CMA), can be an environmental friendly alternative to solve the disposal problems of rubber factory waste. Since the C/N ratio, pH, moisture
content, temperature, and nutrients of the finished products are acceptable for agriculture use.
Abstract: The coalescer process is one of the methods for oily water treatment by increasing the oil droplet size in order to enhance the separating velocity and thus effective separation. However, the presence of surfactants in an oily emulsion can limit the obtained mechanisms due to the small oil size related with stabilized emulsion. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to improve the efficiency of the coalescer process for treating the stabilized emulsion. The effects of bed types, bed height, liquid flow rate and stage coalescer (step-bed) on the treatment efficiencies in term of COD values were studied. Note that the treatment efficiency obtained experimentally was estimated by using the COD values and oil droplet size distribution. The study has shown that the plastic media has more effective to attach with oil particles than the stainless one due to their hydrophobic properties. Furthermore, the suitable bed height (3.5 cm) and step bed (3.5 cm with 2 steps) were necessary in order to well obtain the coalescer performance. The application of step bed coalescer process in reactor has provided the higher treatment efficiencies in term of COD removal than those obtained with classical process. The proposed model for predicting the area under curve and thus treatment efficiency, based on the single collector efficiency (ηT) and the attachment efficiency (α), provides relatively a good coincidence between the experimental and predicted values of treatment efficiencies in this study.
Abstract: Decentralized eco-sanitation system is a promising and sustainable mode comparing to the century-old centralized conventional sanitation system. The decentralized concept relies on an environmentally and economically sound management of water, nutrient and energy fluxes. Source-separation systems for urban waste management collect different solid waste and wastewater streams separately to facilitate the recovery of valuable resources from wastewater (energy, nutrients). A resource recovery centre constituted for 20,000 people will act as the functional unit for the treatment of urban waste of a high-density population community, like Singapore. The decentralized system includes urine treatment, faeces and food waste co-digestion, and horticultural waste and organic fraction of municipal solid waste treatment in composting plants. A design model is developed to estimate the input and output in terms of materials and energy. The inputs of urine (yellow water, YW) and faeces (brown water, BW) are calculated by considering the daily mean production of urine and faeces by humans and the water consumption of no-mix vacuum toilet (0.2 and 1 L flushing water for urine and faeces, respectively). The food waste (FW) production is estimated to be 150 g wet weight/person/day. The YW is collected and discharged by gravity into tank. It was found that two days are required for urine hydrolysis and struvite precipitation. The maximum nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) recovery are 150-266 kg/day and 20-70 kg/day, respectively. In contrast, BW and FW are mixed for co-digestion in a thermophilic acidification tank and later a decentralized/centralized methanogenic reactor is used for biogas production. It is determined that 6.16-15.67 m3/h methane is produced which is equivalent to 0.07-0.19 kWh/ca/day. The digestion residues are treated with horticultural waste and organic fraction of municipal waste in co-composting plants.
Abstract: Petrology and geochemical characteristics of granitic
rocks from South Sulawesi, especially from Polewaliand Masamba
area are presented in order to elucidate their origin of magma and
geodynamic setting. The granitic rocks in these areas are dominated by
granodiorite and granite in composition. Quartz, K-feldspar and
plagioclase occur as major phases with hornblende and biotite as
major ferromagnesian minerals. All of the samples were plotted in
calc-alkaline field, show metaluminous affinity and typical of I-type
granitic rock. Harker diagram indicates that granitic rocks experienced
fractional crystallization during magmatic evolution. Both groups
displayed an extreme enrichment of LILE, LREE and a slight negative
Eu anomaly which resemble upper continental crust affinity. They
were produced from partial melting of upper continental crust and
have close relationship of sources composition within a suite. The
geochemical characteristics explained the arc related subduction
environment which later give an evidence of continent-continent
collision between Australia-derived microcontinent and Sundalandto
form continental arc environment.