Journal of Environmental Studies
Year:2010 | Volume:35 | Issue:52|Papers Count:13

The gaseous composition of the Earth's atmosphere is changing at an accelerated rate because of the Influence of human activities. Different factors increase the air contamination by CO2. Understanding factors affecting atmosphere gaseous is important for managing and reducing air contaminants. The natural presence of the so-called 'greenhouse gases' (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides and methane) in the atmosphereis essential for life. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the lower atmosphere and keep the Earth far warmer than it would be without such gases. Over the Earth's long history, the concentration of these gases has markedly decreased. This decline has occurred due to complex transformation processes that operate at different time scales and involve transfer of materials between the three carbon reservoirs: atmosphere, land biosphere and oceans. However, over the past century human activities have been releasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) at a rate unprecedented in geologic time. As a consequence of this acceleration in the rate of emissions, the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere has increased by 30%, since pre-industrial times.

In this paper meteorological conditions of some acute air pollution periods for the city of Tehran have been considered. The data used, were obtained from the Air Quality Control Company (AQCC) of Tehran Municipality and from synoptic station of the Institute of Geophysics, university of Tehran. Initially some statistical methods were used to find the episodes for acute air pollution episodes, and then their meteorological conditions were considered.One suitable method for determining acute air pollution episodes is the use of P parameter which is defined as the number of events in which the air pollution concentrations is 1.5 times (and more than) the averaged seasonal mean. A typical case for this study for P value is shown in figure (1) in which a bubble structure between polar and subtropical jet streams over the area, (see below) has led to large values of showing an acute air pollution episode.

The Limitation of energy resources and its considerable consumption growth in Iran has doubled the necessity of optimization and conservation of energy in the country compared to the average consumption rate of energy in the world. Also the high consumption rate causes adverse effects in the environment. Heating systems are the main consumers of energy. Therefore, using a high efficiency method in different sections, especially industrial sections and warehouses seem to be necessary. In this regard, radiation heating systems have higher efficiencies compared to other methods. In the present research, assessment of the electrical energy and the gas consumed in a case study shows that (after optimizing the heating pattern) using this method causes fuel conservation of up to 75% and power conservation of up to 95% (compared to other heating systems) and can have a considerable impact in optimizing the consumption of energy and the environment. Powerhouse related activities result in producing pollutant gases such as S02, Co2 & NOx and optimization of energy consumption means reduction of powerhouse emissions. Consequently it reduces destructive effects which energy production process imposes on the country's environment by the powerhouses. The results of extending the activities in the case study and optimization of heating pattern in similar building, shows a considerable reduction in social costs.

According to reports of forest range and watershed management organization of Iran, hundreds of forest fires take place in our country every year. Due to destroying forest and grass land in different parts of Iran, especially in Zagross and Alborz Mountain, it is necessary to develop new methods to reduce fire effects in these places. There are many parameters that increase probability of fire occurrence. Without considering these parameters, environmental and biomass impacts are very critical problems. As fire could be occur in many grass lands and forests, fire monitoring of fire in vegetation regions is impossible. Using Remote Sensing technology and geographic information system (GIS) modeling is a basic way to monitor and prevent from this national disaster. In this study, spatial distribution of fires which occurred in the last 8 years in Iran and were detected by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) satellite images was used. Then, by using NDVI index and considering repetitive fires, permanent fires were distinguished from random fires. Finally, density function and spatial autocorrelation in GIS were employed as statistical parameters to detect potential regions to fire. The results show a correlation coefficient of 0.9 between the fires and NDVI mean.

Land use management policy and method are two important factors in usage of land by human. In this regard, Evaluation of environmental capability would serve as a valuable basis for the best use practice of soil and water resources in addition to the reduction in environment consequences of the projects. In the current study, the environmental capability of Birjand, located in the south khorasan province, has been evaluated using the delivery method. Result shows that salinity and Alkalinity, under loped soil profile, inappropriate soil texture, low and dispersed precipitations and lack of adequate plant coverage are the most remarkable limitation in agricultural usage of the land in Birjand. By combining the maps of geographical dimensions land slop, altitude suitability and plant coverage, considering ecologic - climatic, population and hydrologic characteristics. Result also shows that a considerable portion of the plan, excluding the central parts, is not suitable agricultural use. Aquatic agricultural is only possible in the area above the aquifer in the plain area. User Dryland Farming in the range of aquifer and aquifer levels slightly higher than on the upper and plains Tras'hay range and applies in areas with deep soils and user garden area aquifer and valleys and mountainous part of the manifestation aqueduct. Results also show that only area having slopes of above 10 is suitable.

In view of the comprehensive governmental policies, on the grounds of exploitation developments from the South Pars Gas Field, on one hand and the impacts of the plan implementation on the environment on the other hand, the performance of impact assessments and consequences arising from regional building operations, taking into consideration the coastal strip is the principle objective of this research. In addition to which, the survey of abiding to environmental criteria, the rendering of modes to decrement and prevent the adverse impacts of activities, the preparation of monitoring environmental programs and establishing compatibility between regional activities and the environment, is another aim of this research.

The groundwater system responds slowly to contamination events and the travel times to reach the groundwater zone are often long. Cleaning and restoring contaminated groundwater is often technically problematic and expensive. Moreover, finding alternative sources for water supply is not always possible. Therefore, the most effective and realistic solution is to prevent the contamination of groundwater through. Groundwater vulnerability is considered an intrinsic property of groundwater and can be defined as the possibility of percolation and diffusion of contaminants from the ground surface into the groundwater system (Babiker et al. 2005). Groundwater vulnerability is a relative, dimensionless and characteristic that cannot be directly measured in the field and depends on aquifer characteristics, geology and hydrogeology. Many different methods have been developed for assessing this vulnerability (Vrba and Zaporozec 1994). One of the most commonly used of method of groundwater vulnerability assessment is the DRASTIC method. In the present study, vulnerability assessment was carried out to evaluate the potential for groundwater contamination through the construction of a map for groundwater aquifer system in the study area. For this purpose the combined use of the DRASTIC and geographical information system (GIS) demonstrated as an effective method for groundwater pollution risk assessment.

Anzali wetland is located between two different saline-freshwater body where constituted a unique ecosystem, internationally known as an important wetland and is registered as Ramsar site in 1975. Anzali wetland is under several stresses such as sea water level fluctuation, different human induced impact, exotic species and the eutrofication which are the causes of early destruction of wetland. Eutrofication or nutrient enrichment is a problem of wetlands, rivers, streams and lakes all over in the world. Hydrology of the watershedhas profound effect on the eutrofication process of Anzali wetland which drains 52 % of its water through Siadarvishan river into central region, 44 % via Pirbazar, Komamrud river into eastern region and 4% by the other rivers. The water from eastern and central regions drains into Caspian sea faster than the westernbasin which has more retention time.The Eutrofication of Anzali wetland first reported at 1970 and approved by several other authors. Those reportswere base on the biotic and abiotic parameters which describe Anzali wetland were eutroph between the years 1991 to 1995 but the evaluation based on the trophic index of phosphorous to nitrogen shows that mostregion of Anzali wetland reported to be mesotroph.In this survey we are going to use the available data from 1992 to 2002 to identify the change in over nutrient an enrichment of Anzali wetland at three periods by employing the trophic state index system.

In this research, we try to use the three kinds of Reverse Osmosis membranes for treatment of ion exchange resins regeneration wastewater, which currently this wastewater is discharged to evaporation lagoons after neutralization. The common methods used for the disposal of these kinds of wastewater in the environment consist of discharge to brackish or saline receiving waters, deep-well injection, and in the case of small facilities, discharge to wastewater collection systems. Despite numerous researches about using membrane processes for industrial wastewater treatment, there was no study or research about using reveres osmosis for treatment of wastewater form ion exchange regeneration process. So, considering the similarities between this kind of wastewater and brackish water or saline water, it has been hypothesized that reverse osmosis has ability to remove dissolved solids from this kind of wastewater; therefore it is necessary to conduct feasibility tests of membrane samples. Feasibility tests can be done by using membrane cell in pilot plant. Thus, we need to provide a pilot plant which has membrane cell and facilities to indicate and control of pressure, temperature and flow to evaluate and investigate the wastewater treatability. Although, at this kind of pilot plant, usually spiral wound RO membrane is used, to achieve the better results with low expenses, the bench scale instruments such as membrane cell were used. In this method, we can use a small sheet of membrane about l0×15 (cmxcm) that sandwiched between two steel part which can tolerate high pressure. The pilot plant designed and set up according to fig.(1). The main parts of pilot plant consist of wastewater tank with 250 liter volume, low pressure pump, cartridge filters, high pressure pump, membrane cell and devices for pressure and temperature control.

Biomonitoring is the one of the cost-effective and simple ways for investing the environmental quality and refers to process that uses living organisms to obtain quantitative information on environmental quality. Industrial activities causes to entrance considerable amount of heavy metals to the atmosphere and use of boimonitoring potential of plants growing in the nearby zone of industrial areas can be useful. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of monitoring atmospheric pollution with Iron, Nickel and Lead in the vicinity of Mobarakeh Steel Company as an industrial zone with using biomonitoring potential in plants. For this reason, three trees (Cupressus arizonica, Pinus eldarica and Quercus branatii) and three shrubs(Nerium oleander, Berberis vulgaris and Thuja orientalis) were selected and concentration of these metals were measured in soils and aboveground plant parts (leaves and bark) by ICP-AES. In studied soils, a little concentration of these metals were available for plants due to high pH value (8.02), presence of more than60% CaC03 and 0.5% organic matter, while Fe and Ni concentration in aboveground plant parts states atmospheric pollution with these metals. In most cases, trees better than the shrubs and evergreen plants better than the deciduous ones indicated heavy metal contamination and bark of these plants had more ability. The highest concentration of Fe and Ni were observed in leaves of Cupressus and bark of Pinus which indicated significant differences with all plants for Fe and in most plants for Ni. Pb content in plants was lower than pollution limit of this element. Results also indicated that Nerium was not a good indicator for Fe monitoring in this area.

Million tons of organic wastes are land filled or incinerated annually. Each of these methods for disposal of wastes can make various damages to environment. Also, gathering, landfill or incineration of these materials imposes high costs. In landfill of wastes in addition to problems related to costs and occupying of ground by wastes, there is infiltration threat of nitrate and other contaminants to groundwater. One of the useful methods for processing the organic wastes is recycling to organic fertilizer. As a result of this process, in addition to health and environmental problems' reduction, considerable amount of organic fertilizer produced. Nowadays, applying earth worms for production of organic fertilizer from wastes, which is called vermin-compost, has found special popularity.In process of compost production by worms, worms are fed by organic wastes and the worms change it to fertilizer. In this process, by feeding the worms with organic materials, some useful bacteria for organic wastes decomposition are added which expedited the process. Also these bacteria have positive effects on stabilization and making minerals that are applicable for plants. Positive effect of adding vermi-compost to soil in tomato field had shown by Federico. In another research, the increasing of rice stalks and soil fertility obtained by adding vermi-compost. Iran has a production potential of 4 million tons compost from municipal solid wastes, annually. So attention to this matter can be useful in solid waste management for improving the produced compost's quality.

Rural environment is the reflect of the historical practices over the time, mutually feedback of human settle, activities, nature and include aesthetic quality, environmental function, local knowledge, tradition and customs. Nevertheless, rapid growth of consuming economy and the emphases on functional character without linkage to different environmental socio-cultural and economical condition led to model of design that cannot reproduce their valued in landscape. This process result is unsustainably in rural environment. Sustainable literature introduced different aspect of this unsustainably and prevention methods. However, less attention paid to the nature of operational method. Nature of design is base on dialectic linkage between social and natural systems and holism approach. Therefore, sustainable environmental design without paying attention to different factors, social groups, stockholders and their behaviors is impossible. When design will be reach to its optimal condition that happen in social context with applying participatory methods. Participatory methods prepare context to increase sustainable environmental actions. Participation can improve conditions that affect the sustainable environment. Some sample proved that applying participatory methods could improve result of design and shape new approach in local community to apply in different process designs. Applying participatory methods has two face of a coin. It has positive impact but result in negative impacts. Since, this function needs to manage and solve inherent conflicts.