INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (IJER)
Year:2010 | Volume:4 | Issue:1|Papers Count:19

Oleander was tested as biomonitoring plant for surfactant polluted marine aerosol. Potted plants in the greenhouse were sprayed once a week for 5 weeks with seawater containing sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (SDS) at the following concentrations: 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 120, 250, 500 mg/L. A significant correlation was found between SDS concentration in the spray and surfactant deposit on the leaves at the end of the 5 weeks. At that time and two months later, we assessed: leaf visible injury, foliar chloride content, damage to stomatal crypts, water potential, net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. Relative to controls (not sprayed and sprayed either with deionized water or with seawater without surfactants), all the parameters were affected (P<0.05) by the presence of surfactant. Furthermore they were correlated (P<0.05) with the concentration of surfactant. Visible injury occurred after treatments containing concentrations of surfactant exceeding 30 mg/L.

In this paper, a new systematic design methodology has been developed for the simultaneous energy and water minimization in multiple-contaminant systems that also feature maximum re-use of water. In addition to allowing re-use of water in multiple-contaminant systems, issues about heat losses and flowrate changes inside unit operations have also been incorporated in this new design method. To implement such a design, two new design aspects are introduced; new method for “Non-isothermal Mixing” point identification and new “Separate System” generation. The first aspect involves “non-isothermal mixing”, which enables direct heat recovery between water streams, and therefore allows the reduction of the number of heat transfer units. The other aspect is the generation of “separate system “in heat exchanger network design. The flexibility of mixing and splitting of water streams allows separate systems to be created as a cost-effective series of heat-exchanger units between freshwater and wastewater streams. The new design aspects have been illustrated with two examples.

In this study, cross linked chitosan resin (CCR) was prepared by cross linking chitosan with glutaraldehyde, and then a-ketoglutaric acid-modified chitosan resin (KCR) was obtained by modifying CCR with a-ketoglutaric acid. The sorption behavior of methylene blue (MB) on KCR and CCR from aqueous solution was investigated. The effect of various experimental parameters (e.g. initial pH, sorbent dose, dye concentration, contact time, and temperature) was examined. The maximal MB sorption ratio on KCR and CCR was respectively reached beyond pH 8 and at pH 8. The MB removal ratio on KCR and CCR increased with increasing sorbent dose but decreased with increasing dye concentration. The isothermal data of MB sorbed on KCR and CCR followed the Langmuir model. The MB sorption process could be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic study indicated that the MB sorption process was spontaneous and exothermic

Anaerobic digestion of organic solid waste (OSW) from kitchen was conducted in completely stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) under both mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. The lab-scale reactors were fed with the OSW containing 10% of total solids (TS) at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 30 days (3.0-3.5 g-TS/L/d of volumetric loading rate). Both mesophilic and thermophilic reactors exhibited process failure due to severe acidification. A restoration of methane yield based on the volatile solids (VS) of the OSW added was observed after the addition of minerals (Ni, Co, and Fe) in the mesophilic reactor but not in the thermophilic reactor, suggesting that the requirement for minerals is higher in thermophilic anaerobic digestion than in mesophilic digestion. It is suggested that, among those minerals, Ni is the most important for anaerobic digestion of the OSW.

Gradual decrease of biodiversity related to the rapid industrialization and urbanization is stimulating the fundamental research towards a better understanding of the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Present study emphasizes the nature and status of floral diversity in the vicinity of Integrated Industrial Estate-Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India (IIE-Pantnagar). Three monitoring locations were selected in the vicinity of industrial estate and data were collected to compute species richness, evenness, Importance Value Index (IVI), Shannon and Wiener Species Diversity Index and Simpson’s Index of biodiversity. Cynodon dactylon was found to be major dominant species among all three monitoring locations, followed by Sorghum halepense and Parthenium sp. The Simpson’s index of biodiversity varied at a range of 0.28 to 0.41, signifying the presence of less biodiversity. Species evenness, a measure of relative abundance of the different species was at a range of 0.36 to 0.46. Monitoring location outside industrial area (site-2) revealed slight higher diversity with Shannon and Wiener Species Diversity Index of 0.742 in comparison to other monitoring locations inside the industrial area. Mostly the encountered vegetation were found as invasive species, therefore, recommendations were hereby made to take precautions regarding its further spread. Development and maintenance of greenbelt in and around industrial area were also suggested.

The quality of Hg contaminated sediments in artisanal gold mining areas of Tanzania have to date only been assessed through bulk chemical analysis. However, measurement of contaminant levels alone has a limited ability to predict adverse effects on living resources. In this study we investigated the possible effects of Hg contaminated sediments from the river Mabubi which drains the artisanal gold mine on the hatching success, larval survival and growth of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus). The tested species is a resident fish whose demersal behavior keeps it in frequent contact with the sediment. Sediments collected downstream of the mine decreased survival and impaired growth of Clarias gariepinus but did not affect its hatching success. These effects were observed up to six kilometres downstream of the mining activity. The calculated 5 d- LC50 value (larval survival) was 1.75  mg/g Hg dw (95% CL of 0.72 – 2.53), the 5d-NOEC for hatching was >2.3 mg/g Hg dw and that for larval survival and growth was 0.23 mg/g Hg dw. In conclusion, chemistry and ecotoxicity results from this study suggest that sediments collected downstream of the mine adversely affect catfish and probably other fauna and as such present a considerable local environmental risk.

Present communication deals with the study of four village fish culture ponds (two wild and two managed ponds) from district Hisar of Haryana, India was undertaken, to correlate the water quality and biological cycles in ponds with fish production. Studies have revealed that the ponds are in good trophic status. Chlorides, total hardness, calcium, magnesium, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), phosphates (o-PO4) and ammonia were high whereas dissolved oxygen and fish growth/ yield was low in wild ponds in comparison to managed ponds. This may be due to high organic loads. The net primary productivity mg C L/d was high in the wild ponds in comparison to the managed ponds. And thus high fish growth /yield are not directly related with net primary productivity. The deterioration of water quality, as indicated by very high ammonia and BOD in wild ponds might have decreased the fish growth.On the other hand, grazing pressure might have decreased the Net Primary Productivity (NPP) but resulted in the high fish biomass. Thus, fish production appear to depend to lesser degree on the magnitude of primary production and therefore, universal relation between primary productivity and fish production could not be established and a variety of factors like organic load, ammonia production, nature/quantity of fertilizers influence such correlations. Management of water quality by managing the optimization of waste input in village ponds may help in enhancing the fish production through such small scale aquaculture.

Identification and enumeration of phytoplankton species from Ilaje and Lagos sectors of the Nigerian coastal waters were conducted using standard procedures. Effects of different crude oil concentrations (6 to 50 ppm) on population of Coscnodiscus centralis, Thalassionema frauenfeldii, Odontella mobiliensis, and Ceratium trichoceros at different exposure periods (6 to 42 h) via microcosm experiments were then assessed. Results showed that the phytoplankton species consisted of diatoms (83.33%) and dinoflagellates (16.67%) whose abundance ranged from 2 to 516 Cell/mL. Crude oil toxicity varied from 0.06 to 36.43% for C.centralis, 1.41 to 35.58% for C.trichoceros, 1.71 to 46.11% for T.frauenfeldii and 0.66 to 44.90% for O.mobiliensis and showed direct relationship (r -+ 0.81 to +0.97; p < 0.001) with concentration but inverse with exposure period (r = -0.83 to – 0.90; p < 0.001). Vulnerability within 24-h contact decreased in the order: T.frauenfeldii > O.mobiliensis > C.centralis > C.trichoceros. Study is a contribution to the scarce data bank on crude oil doseresponse assessment on plankton species in Nigeria, demonstrating that influx of crude oil into the Nigerian coastal waters is a risk factor to ecological status.

Movement of pesticides through soils to groundwater and surface water has long been considered a potentially serious environmental problem in different parts of the world. Remediation of such problems requires monitoring of site specific data. Considering these facts a laboratory based investigation was carried out to determine the sorption and leaching parameters of two contrasting and widely used pesticides (malathion and atrazine) in three different agricultural soils: loamy sand (Typic Xerosament), sandy loam (Acid Lateritic Haplustalf) and clay loam (Hyperthermic Typic Haplusterts). Standard batch sorption technique was used to determine the sorption coefficient (Kd) and organic carbon distribution coefficient (Koc). Miscible displacement experiments were conducted to determine the transport parameters such as pore water velocity (v), dispersion coefficient (D), retardation factor (R) and degradation rate constant (l). The results of batch sorption experiments revealed that malathion had higher Kd values as compared to atrazine for all soils. The grouping of soils according to sorption capacity followed the order: clay loam > sandy revealed that malathion could leach up to 30 cm depth whereas atrazine could leach up to 65 cm depth in the test soils. The values of transport parameters determined by method of moments ranged from 0.79 to 1.63 cm/h for v and 3.15 to 12.26, cm2/h for D in the test soils. The R values of malathion obtained using Kd were 3.1 to 3.4 times higher than atrazine for the test soils. The half life of malathion and atrazine obtained from λ ranged from 0.3 to 1.7 days and 50 to 64 days, respectively in the above mentioned soils.

The objectives of this work was to examine the toxicological effect and molecular changes caused by a heavy metal pollutant mercuric chloride (HgCl2), in fresh water snakehead Channa punctatus, locally known as Taki fish in Bangladesh. When fishes were exposed to HgCl2, it induced death of the fishes in a concentration-dependent manner. 1 mM, the highest concentration tested in this study, was found to be the deadliest and it induced death of the fishes within 35 to 40 minutes. As the concentration lowered (0.5 mM – 0.1 mM) the survival time increased dose dependently to near about five hours. HgCl2 dissolved in different types of water (such as distilled water, tap water and pond water) was found to have no effects in changing the required time of fish death. We later investigated the effect of HgCl2 on fish liver cells as liver cells are known to be mostly affected by toxic metals. HgCl2 found to decrease liver cell viability to 32% by the higher concentration (1 mM) tested. Liver cell viability increased up to 82% with decreasing concentration of HgCl2 from 0.5 mM to 0.1 mM. To characterize the mechanism of cell death induced by HgCl2, the changes in molecular level was then examined. It was found that the heavy metal induced chromosomal DNA fragmentation and expression of certain proteins.

The surface sediment samples were analyzed for grain size carbonates (CaCO3) and organic carbon (OC) to obtain a preliminary view of its environmental conditions near Point Calimere along the southeast coast of Vedaranyam, India. The total concentrations of major elements namely, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Na, K and P in the surface sediments of Vedaranyam coast are estimated. The element/Al ratios also are computed. The geochemical analysis for trace elements like Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Co, Pb, and Zn has been carried out for the surface sediments. Normalization with Al values has been done for all the trace elements and enrichment factors have been calculated. The studies indicate geogenic origin for most of the elements.

Sensitivity analysis might be considered as one of inevitable steps in modelling sinceit would help to determine the behaviour of model, which was developed for further application. Sensitivity analysis was not paid much attention in studies that have been conducted for modeling the relationship between stream water quality and land cover except machine learning techniques such as artificial neural networks was applied for specifying the possible relationship between alteration in area (%) of land cover types and changes in water quality variable. Two linkage models for predicating stream water total nitrogen (r2= 0.70, p<0.01) and total phosphorus (r2=0.47, p<0.01) concentrations were developed using multiple regression approach in twenty-one river basins in the Chugoku district of west Japan. Application of Monte Carlo method-based sensitivity analysis indicated that TN regression model would be able to predict stream water concentration between 0.4-3.2 mg/L without any possibility for generation of negative value. For the TP regression model, predicting capacity would vary between 0.04, 0.32 mg/L. The results revealed that the Monte Carlo method-based sensitivity analysis would provide reliable information for determining output space in which the model would accurately respond.

The automobile industry’s wastewater not only contains high levels of suspended and total solids such as oil, grease, dyestuff, chromium, phosphate in washing products, and coloring, at various stages of chassis manufacturing but also, a significant amount of dissolved organics, resulting in high BOD or COD loads. Suspended solids can be removed from the wastewater by chemical precipitation. However, the dissolved BOD/COD compound can only be removed by biological or chemical oxidation. Effluent wastewater from the chemical sedimentation stage and the sanitary wastewaters (ratio 1:1 of sanitary to industrial feed rate) at the Bahman automobile factory was characterized and subjected to a biological treatment in a laboratory scale activated sludge unit. Experiments were conducted at different hydraulic and solid retention times. The best results were obtained with  qh=20 h of hydraulic and qc=20 days of solids retention time (sludge age) resulting in an effluent COD concentration of 60 mg/Lit from an industrial feed and sanitary wastewaters of 920 mg/Lit COD content. The suspended solid content of the activated sludge effluent was approximately 57 mg/Lit. Also according to the results of experiments, kinetics constants k, ks, kd, and y, obtained (0.75, 110, 0.28 and 1.1) respectively and subsequently design equa-tions were developed.

Bioethanol made from lignocelluloses biomass resources, provides unique environmental, economic and strategic benefits, when compared to gasoline as automobile fuel. To be able to substitute gasoline by bioethanol, one should over come many obstacles, including the production of furfural and hydroxyl-methyl furfural, which are produced when cellulosic materials are treated in the presence of acids in high temperature and pressure to produce simple sugars. These inhibitory compounds have a profound negative effect on the growth of ethanol producing yeasts and their ethanol production. Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lalvin EC1118™, an industrial ethanologenic strain, was used in media with high concentrations of furfural (i.e. 4, 5 and 6 g/L) to study the tolerance it shows against this compound. Results showed that both the amount of growth and ethanol production were decreased when furfural was present in the media. The amount of decrease was higher in the concentration of 6 g/L of furfural than 4 and 5 g/L.

Filling stations inside the urban environment are known as one of the existing and potential dangers in cities which according to their centralized fire load can be of high safety importance. Tehran holds 101 active filling stations faced to extreme accidents and high explosion potentials. In this study, 59 out of 101 gas stations were investigated under the fire risk assessment implementation. By the application of the existing standards, a checklist consisting of the entire hazards related to filling stations fire safety was organized, then customers’ behavior of smoking and usage of mobile phones were assessed and accounted for determination of probability of fire. Finally, using Williams–Fine and FMEA methods along with an assessment providing model for under study filling stations, the fire risk measurements and estimations were performed. By means of a questionnaire and the related experts’ viewpoints, the impact of each parameter in the probability and severity of fire in the filling stations were determined and applied to risk calculations. Also experts’ viewpoints, information and data were used for determination of risk tolerance. The results showed that about 68 % of filling stations in Tehran suffer from poor conditions and improper constructions to face risks and crisis. This shows inadequate implementation of risk and crisis management and also inadequacy of manpower training in fire extinguishing techniques. Besides, just three of these gasoline stations were equipped with automatic fire extinguishing system. Regarding preparation for encountering critical conditions, most of the personnel were trained to extinguish fire at gas stations, but only 5 % of them were informed on crisis management. Thus, they attempted to execute a maneuver to be well-prepared when there is urgency. Therefore, prompt and urgent improvements, as well as training are needed through application of crisis management in all directions.

Water quality aspect with regard to dissolved oxygen was studied for a 24 kilometer stretch of Malaprabha River in Karnataka State, India. Main objective of the research was to simulate the predicted dissolved oxygen depletion due to the waste load allocation in the river with the ambient observed values of dissolved oxygen, and to ascertain the application of mathematical modeling for predicting the dissolved oxygen in a mixing zone. The entire river stretch selected for the study was divided in to four stations and water samples were collected from each station, and analyzed for different parameters. Station S1 was purely the upstream of the sewage discharge point and hence reflected the water quality of the river without pollution. Station S2 and downstream stations were the part of mixing zone where the discharged sewage at S2 kept spreading. Dissolved oxygen levels at these four stations were calculated through mathematical modeling, considering all variables that affect dissolved oxygen variation. Further, this predicted dissolved oxygen found with the application of mathematical modeling was then simulated with the actual observed values of dissolved oxygen in these four stations. The results were highly encouraging, with the predicted values almost agreeing with the observed values. Thus the application of such mathematical modeling may be useful for a river stretch where water pollution due to the discharge of effluents is expected, and will help the engineers in arriving at a proper waste-load allocation for the river.

A critical eye on the destructive impact of air pollution in Tehran is needed as the basis for urban planning, protection policy and management. This paper is focused on modeling in the GIS (Geospatial Information System) to estimate the concentration of particulate matter (PM) in any point of a typical part of Tehran which extends over 18.2 km2 and includes the so-called “Traffic Zone”. Many important general hospitals are located in this region, some of which are within the zone. The model is built on the data obtained in 42 stations located within the region. The results strongly indicate that the concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 of any points inside the region, including the traffic zone, do not meet the required international standard values. The extracted estimate values for the 22 hospitals reveal that the concentration of PM10 for “Azadi Psychic”, “Children” and “Mustafa Khomeini” hospitals are the worst, estimating from the model to be 119.42 mg/m3, 107.09 mg/m3 and 101.14 mg/m3 respectively. The percent ratio of the mean concentrations of PM10 /PM2.5 / PM1.0 in this region is found to be approximately 7: 2: 1.

The management and analysis of flood hazards is of great socio- economic and ecological importance as it was estimated that 50 percent of word’s population resides and works within the costal zone till 2030. The management of coastal flood hazard reflects the cumulative effects and criteria more than the human mind can handle effectively. The flood management requires decision making for relatively far and largely unknown parameters and face to the largest uncertainties.This paper aims to provide a quantified method for developed decision making in coastal flood management. It discusses the applying of strategic management in a spatial decision support system (DSS) for analysis and modeling of flood management as important part of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM). This study focuses on flood management in South- west of Iran as case study and use SWOT analysis for gaining to the best result. The main finding of paper is provision of systematic method to choose best strategic alternative in flood management. To reach this target numerical model in multi criteria decision making are developed. The new methodology in this study shows that applying quantitative methods with a combination of DSS and SWOT analysis in flood management can be adopted carefully and helps coastal managers to decrease uncertainties and human errors.

Flocculation processes during estuarine mixing can reduce the elemental concentrations of river water. In the present investigation, natural flocculation processes concept is used to reduce the elemental contents of industrial wastewater. For this purpose, various amounts of saline water were added to an artificial industrial wastewater with known concentrations of heavy metals. The results of investigation show that in the salinity of 0.9‰, percentage of elemental flocculation occurs in the order of: Ni (95.4%) > Pb (87.6%) > Zn (85%) > Mn (56.25%) > Cu (14.4%). Flocculation of Cu is insignificant at lower salinities. Though higher removal of heavy metals is obtained at greater salinities but due to the environmental limitations, we propose salinity of 0.9‰. Use of seawater to flocculate heavy metals can greatly reduce the costs associated with the purification of wastewater treatment.