Journal of Environmental Studies
Year:2013 | Volume:39 | Issue:3 (67)|Papers Count:19

The development activities would impose some risks to environment. These probable risks are different with respect to the nature of the project and vulnerabilities of the environment. The brick kilns factories have considerable potential effects on the environment. So, by assessing the environment and presenting a suitable management these negative potential effects can be decreased to a minimum to improve the affected area. The main goal of the present research is to check the environmental effects of the brick kilns factories of Isfahan (Mohammad Abad Ghohab zone). According to assumptions, the most important environmental effect of brick kilns is the suspending particles, and using the soil for brick factories would cause the erosion of soil in the areas. First, extensive data from 10 brick kilns located on Mohammed Abad Ghohab, in Isfahan, are collected and a sample of the air chimney for testing the (sound) Audio of the area was performed. Then, they are compared with environmental standards by using SPSS software and also using the techniques of testing checklist and counter balance to recognize the index of environmental effects. Analytical Hierarchy Method (AHP) has been used for giving value to the effects used in checklist, TOPSIS technique for grading the choices which had been used in the test.

A landfill is a location designed for systematic long-term storage of waste under the conditions that it will prevent contamination of air and water. Landfill gas is produced by bacterial decomposition, which occurs when organic waste is broken down by the bacteria naturally present in the waste and in the soil used to cover the landfill. Landfill gas is composed of a mixture of hundreds of different gases. By volume, in general the landfill gas typically contains 45% to 60% methane and 40% to 60% carbon dioxide. This study has estimated total produced gas, carbon dioxide and methane, by the basic first-order decay model for Aradkooh Landfill till the next 30 years after the landfill is closed. Gas production has decreasing trend in time, as the maximum gas production for methane and carbon dioxide is in order of 6 and it will be 16 million kg in the year 2015.The minimum contribution will also be in order of 0.3 and 0.8 million kg in 2044. The total produced gas in the 30 years is 213 million m3 which 27% of its mass belongs to methane and 73% is carbon dioxide gas. In addition, the amount of methane, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide contributed from energy generation technology is calculated for 30 years and compared. The results show that the emission rate of controlled carbon dioxide gas is 1.85 times in uncontrolled state and the emission of controlled methane gas is 0.15 in uncontrolled state. In addition, using energy generation technology leads to sulfur dioxide contribution. The estimation for total amount of this gas in 30 years is predicted about 361 kg. Finally, the gases emissions predicted from this model are validated using the mass balance method according to other studies. Comparison of results shows good agreement with other studies.

Several laundry houses throughout Tehran consume a large amount of water each day and discharge the resulting wastewater into septic tanks or municipal sewage system without any suitable pretreatment. This would result in severe contamination and other serious environmental issues. In the present study, performance of electrocoagulation/flotation process with aluminum and iron electrodes is compared with electro-fenton process for the simultaneous removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), phosphate and turbidity from laundry wastewaters. The effects of operative chemical and electrochemical variables such as initial pH and hydrogen peroxide concentration, electrode arrangement, current density and electrolysis time on removal efficiency of COD, phosphate and turbidity were also investigated and optimized. During the optimization of effective parameters in these processes, energy consumptions and removal efficiencies were considered simultaneously.

Chromium (Cr) is one of the elements presents in crust of the earth. Due to its toxicity, chromium is considered as water contaminant that may disturb metabolic activity. In the present study, adsorption of dissolved Chromium (VI) onto Elaeagnus angustifolia fruit charcoal, Jujube fruit charcoal and the standard granular activated carbon (GAC) has been investigated and compared. The effect of contact time, pH value, initial concentration of dissolved Chromium and amount of adsorbent on the adsorption of Cr were investigated by the mentioned adsorbents. Results showed that the adsorption process was highly dependent on pH. Maximum Cr removal was achieved when the pH of the mixture fell within 2. Adsorption test results revealed that Cr adsorption on the studied adsorbents could be better described by Longmuir isotherm. Maximum Cr removal efficiencies were obtained by Elaeagnus angustifolia fruit charcoal, Jujube fruit charcoal and GAC 1.66 mg/g, 35 mg/g, 66 mg/g. Based on Cr (VI) removal efficiency, it is concluded that jujube powder could be considered as one of the natural and inexpensive adsorbent to remove Cr (VI) from aqueous solution.

The goal of this research is simulating an optimum reactor to eliminate greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, through combined cycle in stacks of power plant, using a strong base (sodium hydroxide) thinned by water. During this process sodium bicarbonate salt is generated together with water and the produced salty water is desalinated and its useful salts are also extracted. Four scenarios have been considered which are simulated by ASPEN PLUS and HYSYS softwares. By using scenario A as an optimum scenario simulated by ASPEN PLUS, the amount of existing water and existing CO2 in the exhaust of the Rudeshour power plant's stack have decreased from 102.780 to 36.642 tons/hr and from 116.430 to 5.3 × 10-10 tons/hr in the reactor's output to be released into the atmosphere, respectively. The amount of water in exiting salty water flow from the bottom of the reactor equals to 1115.280 tons/hr. The amount of produced salt which is a mixture of carbonate, bicarbonate and sodium hydroxide salts also equals to 406.365 tons/hr.

Lead as non-essential metal, is known the source of toxicity and impacts on the environment and humans. The goal of recent paper is to determine the Pb concentration of road and road margin dust of Ghamishlu wildlife refuge in Isfahan province with an area about 120,000 hectares surrounded by four main roads. Traffic load in the southern freeway have been reported as about 3600-19000 cars/day. 12 road dust and 72 soil samples (0-5 cm in depth) were collected from transects of the road in distances of 3, 20 and 50m. The sample Lead was extracted according to ISO11466 international standard procedure and analyzed with flame AAS. Pb concentrations of road dust were measured in range of 800.17±109.28 and 582.28±71.28 mg/kg for area with heavy and low traffic load, respectively. In addition, The result of ANOVA shows there is significant difference between Pb concentration of area with high and low traffic loads (P=0.005). The rate of mean Pb concentrations of the high to low traffic loads was calculated about 1.37, 1.97, 1.42 and 1.40 for distance of 3, 20 and 50m from the road, respectively. The results shows vehicle transit is the main source of road Pb pollution in the road and its margins. The results indicate Pb concentration decreases significantly with increasing distance from road center. The results show significant difference between road dust and 20m distance from road margin and lead concentration doesn't change significantly far away 20m from road center. Two indices entitled Index of Geo-accumulation and Pollution Index were applied for classifying pollution in recent study. The result of lead road dust indices detects high intensity pollution, and the soil in three meter distance of road margin has non to moderate pollution. Ipoll detects significant difference compared with Igeo in margins (P=0.00). More than 22.4% of studied points have high anthropogenic pollution values (at about 75 to 100% of total concentration).

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are in categories of mankind and environmentally harmful materials. Some of VOCs are also carcinogenic and mutagen. Because of expanded application of these compounds as various domestic and industrial usages, prevention of environmental contamination of these compounds is a substantial issue. In this study, the effect of zero-valent iron nanoparticles application on a natural zeolite media, for VOCs removal efficiency was surveyed.The Clinoptilolite zeolite after acidic amendment was used as a bed and coated with zero-valent iron nanoparticles. The particles were in size of 30-60 nm. The BTX compounds including Benzene, Toluene and Xylenes were applied as indices for VOCs pollutants. The obtained results showed a significant difference in removal of the pollutants whether by use of iron nanoparticles or not (P-v= 0.008). The average removal efficiency without iron nanoparticles application was %43.31±24.84, and by application of the nanoparticles it was %83.83±1.3. Application of iron nanoparticles caused more complete decomposition of the pollutants up to 57.82%. According to the results, iron nanoparticles increased the VOCs removal efficiency of the zeolite and led to decomposing more amounts of pollutants in a unit volume of the zeolite. The amount of pollutants which completely decomposed to CO2 is also increased.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as anthracene, naphthalene, and phenanthren are the most toxic and carcinogenic pollutants which cause severe damages on soil and water resources. In order to remove these materials, biological methods and using potential of local microorganisms of oil contaminated soils are preferred because of cheapness and availability. Existing soil microorganisms use these hydrocarbons as carbon and energy and finally produce water, CO2, biomass, and harmless material sources. In the present study, the sampling was conducted from different points in soil of Tabriz and oil-polluted soils from oil materials of Tabriz refinery. The samples were cultured microbial in YGM and starch case in agar. About 100 microbial colonies and isolations were obtained. 1000 mg/l of anthracene hydrocarbons were obtained in Muller Hilton broth, and then fixed amounts of these bacteria were added separately. They were treated and incubated by shaker in 130 RPM, at 28oC for one week. The rate of mentioned hydrocarbons’ destruction was evaluated by the spectrophotometer that determined reliability of primary aromatic compounds by TLC method. Up to 90 anthracene reducing bacteria were isolated that their destroying rates were 3.4-82.6%. Some samples from secondary metabolites of each hydrocarbon which had the most destroying percentage were under GC-Mass analysis in order to be identified. Then, some toxic-free mediatory substances were obtained because of anthracene biological reduction. By improving the growth and proliferation of effective bacteria and identifying obtained metabolites, it can be possible to clear polluted spoils from PAHSs and to produce useful metabolites and other harmless materials in semi-industrial and practical pilots.

Because of the importance of health, safety and environment (HSE) issues in urban parks, this paper is organized in the form of integrated management of health, safety and environmental assessment in urban parks of 6th district of Tehran. Assessment of HSE in urban parks provide quality of their field and positive experiences to the next., Based on the results of the expectations of citizens and municipal services in planning of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology and comparison with the results of analysis on existing parks models are developed to assess the status of HSE, especially in dealing with urban parks. Indicators for classification of citizens voice, output of the AHP methodology and indicators of classification concerns about the municipal parks and green spaces has been outputs of Delphi survey method.

One of the most important subjects in 21 century in relation to sustainable urban development is urban form. Urban form that is pattern of spatial distribution of human activities in a specific period can be divided into two kinds: Compact city and Urban sprawl. Because there is a close relation between urban form and urban sustainability, urban planners have to know about urban pattern and form to achieve more sustainability. For understanding urban form of the study area, the city of Gorgan, we used several methods: Population density, Map of the city in different periods and Holdern model. Attained results show that Gorgan sprawl was very high in 1996, and it increases in next period (2006). This city in addition to high population growth, has had a unplanned physical development that cause some undesirable outcomes in social, economical and environmental dimensions. These effects such as loss of agricultural lands and forests, contamination of waters, and air are considerable.

Environmental impact assessment is one of the acceptable methods for achieving sustainable development. It is considered as a planning tool for managers and decision makers. Based on the potential effects that could occur as a result of project construction and development it is reasonable to eliminate or reduce the adverse effects. Today, the activities of the copper industry in providing the country's copper requirements and the growing importance of environmental compliance issues affecting various industries, especially the copper industry, make it necessary by the need for better and more efficient methods to identify and control the effects of the industrial complex activity. In this study, the environmental impacts of Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex were studied. In this regard, by use of experts opinion, and a check list for assessment of the environmental and socio-economic factors that are affected by the project, the assessment data is gathered. Then, using rapid impact assessment matrix (RIAM) which weighted by ANP Method (Method AN-AM), and with the help of experts, the impact assessment were done. Results show that 12 environmental factors, and 3 social factors are moderate and less affected by the project and 5 socio-economic factors are benefited very positively by the project. As a result, given the strategic situation of the copper industry in the country and with the improvement plans and corrective options, continuation of the works of Sarcheshmeh Copper Project is suggested.

The current study was carried out with the aim of environmental risk assessment and management of 26 inch petroleum product pipeline from Bandar Abbas to Sirjan (273 km). For this purpose, the environmental risk assessment was performed using the method of Indexing System. Accordingly, identification of hazards and assessment of risks were performed by analyzing two indices; Sum index and Leak Impact index. Afterwards, the risk score was determined based on relative risk model of indexing system. Subsequently, a zonation was made of the pipeline route at three levels of high (0.08-0.26), medium (0.26–0.44) and low (0.44–0.62) risks using Arc GIS 9.3 software. For environmental risk management Bow-tie Method was applied. The method has the ability to display the relationship between all components applied in the analysis of potential harmful factors with control measures, activities and critical duties. This offers the clearest graphic illustration of the risk management.

Peri-urban area development process decreases agricultural land use because of significant trend of city sprawl. In the agricultural sector, goals for sustainability generally include maintenance or enhancement of the natural environment, meeting of human needs for food, economic viability, and social welfare. As agriculture has enormous environmental impacts on peri-urban regions, it is necessary to evaluate agriculture land use. Therefore, agricultural land suitability analysis is a prerequisite to achieve optimum utilisation of the available land resources for sustainable agricultural production. This paper presents an integrated technique of Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) to evaluate the land for peri-urban agriculture. Ecological word model, slope, climatic soil properties, water resources and vegetation density were chosen as the major factors affecting the peri-urban agriculture. Then, in a model, it was evaluated by Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) with the Analytic Network Process (ANP) and DEMATEL after overlaying the layers by Simple Additive Weighting (SAW). Assessment of results confirmed presence of six classes of agricultural land use. according to the results, northern parts are not suitable for the agriculture development. However, the layers determined that 98598.20 ha of the polygons are extremely high suitable to medium suitable for agriculture. In fact, the specific model represented a effective solution to help group decision making of evaluators.

Collecting, transferring, and excretion of urban garbage have sanitary and socio-economic importance. The plethora of waste generation cause many acute problems, which are considered as environmental crisis in many countries. Based on necessity and facilities, garbage collecting and transferring is carried out by many ways. The most common way is to use the garbage transferring stations. Transfer station efficiently increases collecting waste matters and decreases transportation costs, pollution, energy, trucks transportation, and road exhaustion. The sites for these stations should be selected considering financial and technical facilities. Considering the goals of this research, at first, effective factors and criteria in site selections were recognized by a review of previous studies and former researches. For recognizing internal relations between criteria, DEMATEL technique was employed. Weight of each criterion was determined after completion of pairwise comparison questionnaire using fuzzy analysis network process model. It was combined with a sum function in ArcGIS software. This process runs for recognizing optimum places in Esfahan. This research helps urban managers and programmers to recognize and choose establishment places for garbage transferring stations by recognizing effective factors in determining the garbage transferring stations site selection.

Accelerated process of urbanization and global warming make urban flood one of the most important issues in urban planning. Tehran recently has been affected by the flooding and its damages. High intensity rainfall and uncontrolled urban development and main inefficient networks of drainage system are the main reasons. This research uses an efficient approach for flood hazard assessment in Tehran city. This study is to develop an urban flood hazard zonation based on multi-criteria decision analysis and GIS. This model was developed using the following five criteria: distance to the drainage network, flow accumulation, slope, height, and built or not built land areas. Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) method as one of the most efficient multi-criteria decision-making systems was used for this study. The final hazard map obtained using the weights of criteria and each of their classes in GIS. Urban flood hazard maps indicate that the waterways and their privacy and central to the southern city area have the highest potential of overflowing and flood rise.

Change detection is process of identifying differences in the state of an object or phenomenon by observing it at different times when it can play an important role in regional planning. This study is an integration of remote sensing data and Geographic Information System in order to detect changes of land use/land cover around the Bakhtegan Lake in Fars province from 1956 to 2007. After geometric and atmospheric corrections, we have classified satellite images in five categories of water zone, land farming, shrubbery, bare and salt lands using maximum likelihood algorithm. Then, we have compared the output images using post- classification method. This method leads to calculating rates of changes. We have also maintained the effect of rainfall oscillation on water lake area because it has huge effect on ecologic condition of the lakes in semi-arid regions. Results showed whenever lake water decreases in a period of time, bare and saline lands increase, which correspond the dryness of the lake. Comparing water lake areas during a period of 51 years indicates a total decrease of 296 square kilometers from the water body of the lake. Calculated overall accuracy and kappa coefficients for output results showed maximum accuracy in classification of TM data and minimum accuracy for MSS images.

After power stations, transportation section, especially road traffic, is known as the most important cause of climate change. In the transportation literature these costs, known as the external costs, are not paid by people who cause them. Conversely, based on the economic welfare theory, any cost that takes place in society must be paid by people who cause it. So these costs must be recognized to be converted into the monetary value. The values, then, must be taken by charges or other ways taxes.