Journal of Environmental Studies
Year:2004 | Volume:30 | Issue:33|Papers Count:11

The goal of this study was to establish a harmony between BandarAbbas oil refinery activities and environmental requirements. This study also attempted to introduce an appropriate Environmental Management System (EMS) model by giving practical guidelines to alleviate main pollutants and to achieve the goals by planning. In this regard, after description of different stages of establishing EMS, because of the importance of site selection stage in oil industry at the time of environmental planning and management, proper ecological models for industrial developments were compared with site selection criteria. Then, programs, developed for different sections, were investigated based on which effective guidelines were proposed to control and to mitigate environmental pollution. Furthermore, a cost-benefit analysis was carried out regarding the introduction of EMS. This study proves that the introduction of EMS, considering highly contaminant oil refineries, results in reducing pollutants which are caused by BandarAbbas oil refinery. Therefore, it is anticipated that by introduction of EMS, environmental crisis in the region would reduce.

Toxic organic material and heavy metal are industrial waste materials which are found in many industries. If these materials occur simultaneously in wastewater, they can make the treatment difficult. In mixed industrial wastewater, the presence of metal ions can retard the degradation of organic contaminants and the efficiency of recovery of the metal is reduced by the presence of the organic compounds. The objectives of this investigation are to study the effects of copper ions on the photolytic degradation of 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic (2,4-D) and on the effects of 2,4-D on the electrolytic recovery of copper and describe a combined photolytic and electrolytic cell system for the simultaneous removal of copper and the degradation of2,4-D. The results show that a photolytic cell alone can achieve the degradation of 2,4-D at pH 3.5 but leaves copper in the solution. 2,4-D is degraded 86% in the presence of 100 mgdm-3 copper ions by the 400w UV-probe in photolytic system. Recovery of copper and degradation of 2,4-D are 81.02% and 2% respectively in electrolytic system. A combined photolytic electrochemical system using activated carbon concentrator cathode achieves the rapid simultaneous degradation of 2,4-D and recovery of copper. The results show that the removal of copper is 90% and 99.9% degradation of 2,4-D in a solution containing 100 mgdm-3 copper and 50 mgdm-3 2,4-D.

For landfills construction, considering that there may not be a suitable soil in the area, bentonite clays are usually added to the insitu soils to decrease their permeability. Taking into consideration that the amount of contaminants in the landfill's leachates are relatively high, the clay particles may adsorb many of the contaminants, changing the thickness of the clay particles, thus affecting their permeability. Bentonite clays also due to their large surface area and high cation exchange capacities, have more potential to adsorb contaminants than the other soils. For example, leachates containing organic liquids such as heptane, methanol, benzene ethanol amine, and tetra chloro-ethylene may increase the permeability of the clayey soils up to thousand folds. Heavy metals such as arsenic, barium, cadmium, copper, and nickel also causes some changes in the permeability of the clays. Based on the above-mentioned information, this research was carried out to assess the effect of a real leachate on the structure and the coefficient of permeability of a bentonitic soil. To accomplish this research, various geotechnical tests such as grain size distribution, unit density, permeability, X-ray diffraction analysis, and environmental tests were carried out on the soil samples with 2%, 4% and 6% bentonites, and the effect of water and a real landfill leachate on the samples were investigated. The results of the above tests showed that the coefficient of permeabilities of 4% and 6% bentonite-soil mixes were lower than the U.S.EPA standards required for landfill liners. Moreover, the permeability of the above mixed decreased 2.3 x 103 and 4 x 105 times respectively, after mixing with bentonite clays.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds are some of the most important pollutants and carcinogens in the environment. These compounds are produced from incomplete combustion of fossil rules. Benzo (a) pyrene is known to be the strongest carcinogens.In this study, 13 PAH compounds are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively in the ambient air of the city of Tehran. The samples were taken in summer at 7 location (shoosh – Azadi – Ferdousi – Pirouzi – Beheshti – Tadjrish - Kaj) both in the morning and in the afternoon for 8 hours. The samples were extracted and analyzed by GC-FID. The results indicate the high concentration of P AH compounds exist in ambient air. And no Benzo (a) pyrene was detected. The maximum concentration of PAH was identified in Pirouzi (East of Tehran) in the morning and afternoon(4449, 3078 ng/m3) and the minimum concentration was in the shoosh (south of Tehran) in the morning (1070 ng/m3) and in Tadjrish (North of Tehran) in the afternoon (1055 ng/m3).There is no significant difference between morning and afternoon in locations of Tehran, but there is a significant difference in the morning between locations (South and East) and there is no difference in the afternoon.This study and results shows a. rational relationship between traffic and P AH concentration.

Filtration process has an evident manner. Primarily, surface of the filter media is not ready to adsorb particles, therefore some of them would have the chance to pass through the filter, which causes the unsuitability in the quality of the effluent. After a few minutes, the surface media would obtain the capability to adsorb the particles and idiomatically would have the chance to get ripened. The ripening stage would improve the effluent quality up to a level, which stays approximately constant through the end of the operation time. The effect of filter ripening stage on the removal of giardia cysts is evaluated in this study by using a laboratory pilot consisting of raw water supplying system, coagulation unit, flocculation unit, single and triple media filters. The results obtained showed that the average number of cysts in the effluent related to the ripening stage is greater than the number of the average cysts in the effluent related to the whole operation time. It was also seen that addition of two milligrams of ferric chloride to the filter washing water during the rinsing period would enormously improves the quality of the effluent and shortens the ripening stage.

It has been more than two decades that the concept of sustainability has been gained a basic role in the global, regional, national and local development plans (urban design and planning). Therefore, many studies have tried to transform the concept of sustainability in the form of "principles and rules" of urban design and planning. Nevertheless, the scientific and professional society of urban planners in Iran has not achieved a properly formulated set of principles and rules. The first condition to reach such a goal would be considering the evolution of cities according to new information technologies, which results in globalization. Thus, globalization is considered here as a background which is affecting the cities and changing them into global cities. Then, human needs in the global cities both as a member of world society and a local society (Iran) have been considered. In the author's view, development planning will not lead to sustainability unless defined principles and rules for improving both global and local needs of society are suggested. Therefore, the result of a comparative analysis between the two sets of information: 1- global suggestions extracted from International studies, 2-Empirical ways extracted from traditional cities of Iran.is presented. This analysis has led to two important expected results: 1- Formulation of of human needs in an ideal type global city, 2- Formulation of some common principles and rules for sustainable urban design of Iranian global cities in the future, which is based on recognized human needs. Because of the great amount of the formulated principles and rules, only some of them which convey the biological needs as one of the most important requirments, are presented.

The importance of the ecology and ecotourism and natural conservation of the natural southern coastal areas of Caspian sea, especially the international coastal wetlands of Guilan, Mazindaran and Golestan provinces which serve as places of refuge for many migratory birds as well as habitat for aquatic animals, have been the reason for undertaking this study. The study area with avarage altitude -23 m and surface of 8000 ha covers coastal areas near the cities of Langerud and Lahijan. It begins from the Caspian Sea on the east and from the western side of the Amirkelayeh and other wetlands on the west. The northern and southern limits of the study area is defined by main bridge in the rural Chamkhaleh and the main bridge in the rural Jirbagh. Amirkelayeh wetland which has been designated as an international wetland is situated in this region. This study covers climatic effects and geological conditions in the region. On the whole 320 plant species were examined of which 105 species were related to the Amirkelayeh wetland. Some of these determined species have been reported as new records for the flora of Iran and some of them are endemics in Hyrcanian area. Throphytes and hemicryptophytes are the most frequent life forms of the area. According to chorology, plants belong to several phytoregions. Additionally, plants found in three main aquatic, sandy and dry plain habitats were also studied. Limits and characteristics of each habitat are thoroughly explained.

Effects of some environmental factors (aspect and slope gradient) on improvement of qualitative conditions (stem form and vitality) of pinus eldarica Medw. was investigated in an urban green space of Tehran (Lavizan Forest Park). For this purpose, some quadrangular sample plots of 2.56 Ar were chosen at main geographical aspects and 0-15% and 20-40% slopes. The results present that contrary to stem form, vitality is influenced by aspect and slope gradient (P<0.05). The greatest frequency of vitality quality with grades of 1 and 2, without considering the slope gradient, are found respectively in southern and eastern aspect, and without considering the aspect are presented respectively in 0-15% and 20-40% slopes. From this research, it can be deduced that these environmental factors (aspect, slope gradient) only influence on vitality, whereas, as a whole, tree growth is more vital on slope gradient of 0-15% and southern and or eastern aspect than on other slope gradient and aspects.

Five different criteria were proposed to assess the conservation status as well as determination of their priority rankings of Iranian wetlands. These were: Birds, fishes, threatening factors, socio-economic factors and wetland conservation status. Special attention was paid to endangered species, species diversity, endemism, exotic species, nesting and reproduction, pollutants and drainage.As a result, the top thirteen wetlands in terms of ecological importance and their great demand for more conservation measures were: Choghakhhor                                                     Hor-o-Al AzimMound River                                                      Gorgan Bay, Miankaleh, lapooHamoun-e-saberi-Hirmand                                  ShadeganKhorekhoran                                                      Helleh estuaryGandoman                                                         AnzaliUrumieh                                                            Argan of parieeshan                                                                        Hamoun-e-pouzak

Status of international wildlife organizations in the world were investigated according to their activities whether they partially or entirely and directly or indirectly study wildlife animals. In this survey, the organizations were categorized in 15 groups, as association, centre, commission, convention, council, foundation, fund, institute, leage, organization, programme, service, society, trust and union. In total, 36 organizations were identified which 10 of them were from governmental organizations, while rest of them recorded as non-governmental organizations. History of foundation were varied between 10 to 100 years and parties number were recorded from 19 to 157 countries. The mission of these organizations categorized on the basis of 1- wildlife (17 org.) 2- habitat (6 org.) 3- information (5 org.) 4- society affairs (11 org.). Islamic republic of Iran is participatory in 8 governmental organizations and 4 non- governmental organizations (12 organizations).

Green chemistry revolution is an interdisciplinary subject which sets out to reduce the materials and energy consuming of chemical processes and products, minimise or eliminate the dispersion of harmful chemicals in environment, maximise the use of renewable resources and extend the durability and recyclability of products.The following accounts are the viewpoints to the educational and research aspects of the green chemistry:1. To study the possibility of changing the course of a reaction to reach to a new and useful selectivities.2. To investigate the improvements of selectivities, eg: yiels, waste minimization, rates, energy savings, etc.3. The study using non-classical reagents or reagents obtained under unusual conditions, eg: the possibility of running solvent-free synthesis. Using water as a solvent in organic reactions, running reactions in supercritical carbon dioxide, performing biomass and biotechnology, and utilizing ultrasound, microwaves and hetrogeneous catalyst, etc. during the course of a reaction.New chemistry improves the economics of chemical manufacturing and enhances the position of chemistry.The more successful researchers and educationalists will be those that can appreciate the value of green chemistry in innovation, application and teaching. The conclusions obtained from research proposals of green chemistry would be beneficial to design and redesign of the chemical syntheses and chemical products to prevent pollution. It also improves the perception of educational goals to find a new way of looking at chemicals and their manufacturing processes to minimize any negative environmental impacts. This approach provides a fundamental methodology for changing the intrinsic nature of chemical research and education.