Abstract: Pipeline infrastructures normally represent high cost of investment and the pipeline must be free from risks that could cause environmental hazard and potential threats to personnel safety. Pipeline integrity such monitoring and management become very crucial to provide unimpeded transportation and avoiding unnecessary production deferment. Thus proper cleaning and inspection is the key to safe and reliable pipeline operation and plays an important role in pipeline integrity management program and has become a standard industry procedure. In view of this, understanding the motion (dynamic behavior), prediction and control of the PIG speed is important in executing pigging operation as it offers significant benefits, such as estimating PIG arrival time at receiving station, planning for suitable pigging operation, and improves efficiency of pigging tasks. The objective of this paper is to review recent developments in speed control system of pipeline PIGs. The review carried out would serve as an industrial application in a form of quick reference of recent developments in pipeline PIG speed control system, and further initiate others to add-in/update the list in the future leading to knowledge based data, and would attract active interest of others to share their view points.
Abstract: Technology transfer of renewable energy technologies is very often unsuccessful in the developing world. Aside from challenges that have social, economic, financial, institutional and environmental dimensions, technology transfer has generally been misunderstood, and largely seen as mere delivery of high tech equipment from developed to developing countries or within the developing world from R&D institutions to society. Technology transfer entails much more, including, but not limited to: entire systems and their component parts, know-how, goods and services, equipment, and organisational and managerial procedures. Means to facilitate the successful transfer of energy technologies, including the sharing of lessons are subsequently extremely important for developing countries as they grapple with increasing energy needs to sustain adequate economic growth and development. Improving the success of technology transfer is an ongoing process as more projects are implemented, new problems are encountered and new lessons are learnt. Renewable energy is also critical to improve the quality of lives of the majority of people in developing countries. In rural areas energy is primarily traditional biomass. The consumption activities typically occur in an inefficient manner, thus working against the notion of sustainable development. This paper explores the implementation of technology transfer in the developing world (sub-Saharan Africa). The focus is necessarily on RETs since most rural energy initiatives are RETs-based. Additionally, it aims to highlight some lessons drawn from the cited RE projects and identifies notable differences where energy technology transfer was judged to be successful. This is done through a literature review based on a selection of documented case studies which are judged against the definition provided for technology transfer. This paper also puts forth research recommendations that might contribute to improved technology transfer in the developing world. Key findings of this paper include: Technology transfer cannot be complete without satisfying pre-conditions such as: affordability, maintenance (and associated plans), knowledge and skills transfer, appropriate know how, ownership and commitment, ability to adapt technology, sound business principles such as financial viability and sustainability, project management, relevance and many others. It is also shown that lessons are learnt in both successful and unsuccessful projects.
Abstract: Global environmental changes lead to increased frequency and scale of natural disaster, Taiwan is under the influence of global warming and extreme weather. Therefore, the vulnerability was increased and variability and complexity of disasters is relatively enhanced. The purpose of this study is to consider the source and magnitude of hazard characteristics on the tourism industry. Using modern risk management concepts, integration of related domestic and international basic research, this goes beyond the Taiwan typhoon disaster risk assessment model and evaluation of loss. This loss evaluation index system considers the impact of extreme weather, in particular heavy rain on the tourism industry in Taiwan. Consider the extreme climate of the compound impact of disaster for the tourism industry; we try to make multi-hazard risk assessment model, strategies and suggestions. Related risk analysis results are expected to provide government department, the tourism industry asset owners, insurance companies and banking include tourist disaster risk necessary information to help its tourism industry for effective natural disaster risk management.
Abstract: Human always tried to create a suitable situation for their life according to environmental conditions. In fact, geography has an important role in the shape of our living area. Iran also as a four-season country has different climate type: hot and humid, hot and dry, mid and humid, and cold; therefore, we can find different architecture styles in Iran. Gilan-s traditional architecture is a suitable sample of sustainable construction in Iran. Because the main factors of every dwelling are the climatic, social, economic and cultural effects which demonstrate the interaction between environment and people settlement. This paper was determined the interaction between environmental factors and the rural dwellings in the Gilan province. Also, traditional village (city) of Masouleh as a rare sample of rural and sustainable architecture was introduced.
Abstract: In technological processes, in addition to the main
product, result a large amount of materials, called wastes, but due to
the possibilities of recovery, by means of recycling and reusing it can
fit in the category of by-products. These large amounts of dust from
the steel industry are a major problem in terms of environmental and
human health, landscape, etc. Solving these problems, the impressive
amounts of waste can be done through their proper management and
recovery for every type of waste. In this article it was watched the
capitalizing through pelleting and briquetting of small and powdery
waste aiming to obtain the sponge iron as raw material, used in blast
furnaces and electric arc furnaces. The data have been processed in
the Excel spreadsheet program, being presented in the form of
diagrams.
Abstract: Methods of clustering which were developed in the
data mining theory can be successfully applied to the investigation of
different kinds of dependencies between the conditions of
environment and human activities. It is known, that environmental
parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric
pressure and illumination have significant effects on the human
mental performance. To investigate these parameters effect, data
mining technique of clustering using entropy and Information Gain
Ratio (IGR) K(Y/X) = (H(X)–H(Y/X))/H(Y) is used, where
H(Y)=-ΣPi ln(Pi). This technique allows adjusting the boundaries of
clusters. It is shown that the information gain ratio (IGR) grows
monotonically and simultaneously with degree of connectivity
between two variables. This approach has some preferences if
compared, for example, with correlation analysis due to relatively
smaller sensitivity to shape of functional dependencies. Variant of an
algorithm to implement the proposed method with some analysis of
above problem of environmental effects is also presented. It was
shown that proposed method converges with finite number of steps.
Abstract: Developing a nation geared by the principle of
sustainable development has been one of the piers in moulding a
greater nation for Malaysia since its independence. This is seen by
the act of joining the United Nations in 1957, just a month after
gaining their independence. The United Nations is an international
organization that aims to unite the nations worldwide based on
justice, human dignity and human well-being. Malaysia has
established a local body called the United Nations Malaysia which
collaborates with the government to accomplish the aim of
supporting sustainable development in Malaysia. Agenda 21 is an
international document produced from the Earth Summit providing
guidelines of implementing sustainable development globally,
nationally and locally. Initiatives of applying Agenda 21 in Malaysia
have been taken by the government and non-profit organizations to
expose issues regarding sustainable development and providing
environmental education to the community to increase awareness
towards environmental protection.
Abstract: Today Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is known as one of the most important tools for decision makers in the construction of civil and industrial projects towards sustainable development. In the past, projects were evaluated based on cost and benefit analysis regardless of the physical and biological environmental effects and its socio-economical impacts. According to the Department of Environment (DOE) of Iran's regulations, the construction of hydroelectric dams is an activity that requires an EIA report. In this paper the environmental impact assessment of the Gotvand hydro-electrical dam has been evaluated in the three environment elements, biological, Physical-chemical and cultural units. This dam is one of the largest dams in Iran with a volume of 4500 MCM and is going to be the last dam on the Karoon River in the south of Iran. In this paper the ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) technique was employed for the environmental impact assessment of the dam. The research includes all socio economical and environmental effects of the dam during the construction and operation of the hydro electric dam and Environmental management, monitoring and mitigation of negative impacts were analyzed. In this project the results led to using some techniques to protect the destructive impacts on biological aspects beside the effective long time period impacts on the biological aspects. The impacts on physical aspects are temporary and negative commonly that could be restored and rehabilitated in natural process in the long time in operation period.
Abstract: Due to the low heavy metal concentrations, the
bottom ash from a 32 MW municipal district heating plant was
determined to be a potential forest fertilizer as such. However,
additional Ca would be needed, because its Ca concentration of 1.9-
% (d.w.) was lower than the statutory Finnish minimum limit value
of 6.0-% (d.w.) for Ca in forest fertilizer. Due to the elevated As
concentration (53.0 mg/kg; d.w.) in the fly ash from the 32 MW
municipal district heating plant, and Cr concentration (620 mg/kg;
d.w.) in the ash fraction (i.e. mixture of the bottom ash and fly ash)
from the 6 MW municipal district heating plant, which exceed the
limit values of 30 mg/kg (d.w.) and 300 mg/kg (d.w.) for As and Cr,
respectively, these residues are not suitable as forest fertilizers.
Although these ash fractions cannot be used as a forest fertilizer as
such, they can be used for the landscaping of landfills or in industrial
and other areas that are closed to the public. However, an
environmental permit is then needed.
Abstract: The objective of this study is to determine the thermal comfort among worker at Malaysian automotive industry. One critical manual assembly workstation had been chosen as a subject for the study. The human subjects for the study constitute operators at Body Assembly Station of the factory. The environment examined was the Relative Humidity (%), Airflow (m/s), Air Temperature (°C) and Radiant Temperature (°C) of the surrounding workstation area. The environmental factors were measured using Babuc apparatus, which is capable to measure simultaneously those mentioned environmental factors. The time series data of fluctuating level of factors were plotted to identify the significant changes of factors. Then thermal comfort of the workers were assessed by using ISO Standard 7730 Thermal sensation scale by using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). Further Predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) is used to estimate the thermal comfort satisfaction of the occupant. Finally the PPD versus PMV were plotted to present the thermal comfort scenario of workers involved in related workstation. The result of PMV at the related industry is between 1.8 and 2.3, where PPD at that building is between 60% to 84%. The survey result indicated that the temperature more influenced comfort to the occupants
Abstract: Most agricultural crops cultivated in Brazil are highly
nutrient demanding. Brazilian soils are generally acidic with low base
saturation and available nutrients. Demand for fertilizer application
has increased because the national agricultural sector expansion. To
improve productivity without environmental impact, there is the need
for the utilization of novel procedures and techniques to optimize
fertilizer application. This includes the digital soil mapping and GIS
application applied to mapping in different scales. This paper is
based on research, realized during 2005 to 2010 by Brazilian
Corporation for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) and its partners.
The purpose was to map soil fertility in national and regional scales.
A soil profile data set in national scale (1:5,000,000) was constructed
from the soil archives of Embrapa Soils, Rio de Janeiro and in the
regional scale (1:250,000) from COMIGO Cooperative soil data set,
Rio Verde, Brazil. The mapping was doing using ArcGIS 9.1 tools
from ESRI.
Abstract: Quality evaluation of urban environment is an integral
part of efficient urban environment planning and management. The
development of fuzzy set theory (FST) and the introduction of FST
to the urban study field attempts to incorporate the gradual variation
and avoid loss of information. Urban environmental quality
assessment pertain to interpretation and forecast of the urban
environmental quality according to the national regulation about the
permitted content of contamination for the sake of protecting human
health and subsistence environment . A strategic motor vehicle
control strategy has to be proposed to mitigate the air pollution in the
city. There is no well defined guideline for the assessment of urban
air pollution and no systematic study has been reported so far for
Indian cities. The methodology adopted may be useful in similar
cities of India. Remote sensing & GIS can play significant role in
mapping air pollution.
Abstract: Light rail systems have proliferated in Spain in the last decade, following a tendency that is common not only in other European countries but also in other parts of the world. This paper reviews the benefits of light rail systems, both related to environmental issues and mobility issues. It analyses the evolution of light rail projects in Spain and shows that light rail systems in this country have evolved towards an extensive use of public-private partnerships. The analysis of the Spanish projects, however, does not contribute any conclusive evidence about whether public-private partnerships have been more efficient than publicly owned enterprises in building and operating light rail systems.
Abstract: Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in many economies. In New Zealand, for example, 97% of all manufacturing companies employ less than 100 staff, and generate the predominant part of this industry sector-s economic output. Manufacturing SMEs as a group also have a significant impact on the environment. This situation is similar in many developed economies, including the European Union. Sustainable economic development therefore needs to strongly consider the role of manufacturing SMEs, who generally find it challenging to move towards more environmentally friendly business practices. This paper presents a systems thinking approach to modelling and understanding the factors which have an influence on the successful uptake of environmental practices in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. It presents a number of causal loop diagrams which have been developed based on primary action research, and a thorough understanding of the literature in this area. The systems thinking model provides the basis for further development of a strategic framework for the successful uptake of environmental innovation in manufacturing SMEs.
Abstract: The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, bestowed
by His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the people of
Thailand, highlights a balanced way of living. Three principles of
moderation reasonableness, and immunity, along with the conditions
for morality and knowledge, can be applied to any level of the
society–from an individual to the nation. The Philosophy of
Sufficiency Economy helps address the current development
challenges, which are issues on institutions, environmental
sustainability, human well-being, and the role of the government.
Abstract: Fuel cells have become one of the major areas of
research in the academia and the industry. The goal of most fish
farmers is to maximize production and profits while holding labor
and management efforts to the minimum. Risk of fish kills, disease
outbreaks, poor water quality in most pond culture operations,
aeration offers the most immediate and practical solution to water
quality problems encountered at higher stocking and feeding rates.
Many units of aeration system are electrical units so using a
continuous, high reliability, affordable, and environmentally friendly
power sources is necessary. Aeration of water by using PEM fuel cell
power is not only a new application of the renewable energy, but
also, it provides an affordable method to promote biodiversity in
stagnant ponds and lakes. This paper presents a new design and
control of PEM fuel cell powered a diffused air aeration system for a
shrimp farm in Mersa Matruh in Egypt. Also Artificial intelligence
(AI) techniques control is used to control the fuel cell output power
by control input gases flow rate. Moreover the mathematical
modeling and simulation of PEM fuel cell is introduced. A
comparison study is applied between the performance of fuzzy logic
control (FLC) and neural network control (NNC). The results show
the effectiveness of NNC over FLC.
Abstract: In this paper a new approach to prioritize urban planning projects in an efficient and reliable way is presented. It is based on environmental pressure indices and multicriteria decision methods. The paper introduces a rigorous method with acceptable complexity of rank ordering urban development proposals according to their environmental pressure. The technique combines the use of Environmental Pressure Indicators, the aggregation of indicators in an Environmental Pressure Index by means of the Analytic Network Process method and interpreting the information obtained from the experts during the decision-making process. The ANP method allows the aggregation of the experts- judgments on each of the indicators into one Environmental Pressure Index. In addition, ANP is based on utility ratio functions which are the most appropriate for the analysis of uncertain data, like experts- estimations. Finally, unlike the other multicriteria techniques, ANP allows the decision problem to be modelled using the relationships among dependent criteria. The method has been applied to the proposal for urban development of La Carlota airport in Caracas (Venezuela). The Venezuelan Government would like to see a recreational project develop on the abandoned area and mean a significant improvement for the capital. There are currently three options on their table which are currently under evaluation. They include a Health Club, a Residential area and a Theme Park. The participating experts coincided in the appreciation that the method proposed in this paper is useful and an improvement from traditional techniques such as environmental impact studies, lifecycle analysis, etc. They find the results obtained coherent, the process seems sufficiently rigorous and precise, and the use of resources is significantly less than in other methods.
Abstract: This paper attempts to investigate the factors that influence hotel managers- attitudes towards sustainable tourism practices (STP) in Kuala Lumpur and the state of Selangor in Malaysia. The study distributes 104 questionnaires to hotels ranging from one star to five-star categories including budget hotels. Out of this figure, 60 copies of the questionnaires were returned and analyzed. The finding revealed that of all the seven factors investigated, only the variables measuring incentives and knowledge have significantly influenced sustainable tourism practices in the country. Therefore, government and other green bodies within the country should continue to provide hotels with incentives for sound technologies. Moreover, the government agencies should continue to educate hoteliers on the relevance of environmental protection for the successful implementation of sustainable tourism practices.
Abstract: Amphawa is the most popular weekend destination for
both domestic and international tourists in Thailand. More than 112
homestays and resorts have been developed along the water
resources. This research aims to initiate appropriate environmental
management system for riverside tourist accommodations in
Amphawa by investigating current environmental characteristics.
Eighty-eight riverside tourist accommodations were survey from
specific questionnaire, GPS data were also gathered for spatial
analysis. The results revealed that the accommodations are welled
manage in regards to some environmental aspects. In order to reduce
economic costs, energy efficiency equipment is utilized. A substantial
number of tourist accommodations encouraged waste separation,
followed by transfer to local administration organization. Grease
traps also utilized in order to decrease chemical discharged, grease
and oil from canteen and restaurants on natural environment. The
most notable mitigation is to initiate environmental friendly cleansers
for tourist accommodation along the riverside in tourism destinations.
Abstract: Climate change and environmental pressures are
major international issues nowadays. It is time when governments,
businesses and consumers have to respond through more
environmentally friendly and aware practices, products and policies.
This is the prime time to develop alternative sustainable construction
materials, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, look to
renewable energy sources and recycled materials, and reduce waste.
The utilization of waste materials (slag, fly ash, glass beads, plastic
and so on) in concrete manufacturing is significant due to its
engineering, financial, environmental and ecological benefits. Thus,
utilization of waste materials in concrete production is very much
helpful to reach the goal of the sustainable construction. Therefore,
this study intends to use glass beads in concrete production.
The paper reports on the performance of 9 different concrete
mixes containing different ratios of glass crushed to 5 mm - 20 mm
maximum size and glass marble of 20 mm size as coarse aggregate.
Ordinary Portland cement type 1 and fine sand less than 0.5 mm were
used to produce standard concrete cylinders. Compressive strength
tests were carried out on concrete specimens at various ages. Test
results indicated that the mix having the balanced ratio of glass beads
and round marbles possess maximum compressive strength which is
3889 psi, as glass beads perform better in bond formation but have
lower strength, on the other hand marbles are strong in themselves
but not good in bonding. These mixes were prepared following a
specific W/C and aggregate ratio; more strength can be expected to
achieve from different W/C, aggregate ratios, adding admixtures like
strength increasing agents, ASR inhibitor agents etc.