Search results for: forest resource

Authors: Davidson E. Egirani, Nanfe R. Poyi, Napoleon Wessey

Abstract:

This paper would report on the effect of solid waste on water resource quality in the Gbarain catchment of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The Gbarain catchment presently hosts two waste-dump sites located along the flanks of a seasonal flow stream and perennially waterlogged terrain. The anthropogenic activity has significantly affected the quality of surface and groundwater in the Gbarain catchment. These wastes have made the water resource environment toxic leading to the poisoning of aquatic life. The contaminated water resources could lead to serious environmental and human health challenges such as low agricultural yields to loss of vital human organs. The contamination is via geological processes such as seepage and direct infiltration of contaminants into watercourses. The results obtained from field and experimental investigations followed by modeling, and graphical interpretation indicate heavy metal load and fecal pollution in some of the groundwater. The metal load, Escherichia coli, and total coliforms counts exceed the international and regional recommended limits. The contaminate values include Lead (> 0.01 mg/L), Mercury (> 0.006 mg/L), Manganese (> 0.4 mg/L and Escherichia coli (> 0 per 100ml) of the samples. Land use planning, enactment, and implementation of environmental laws are necessary for this region, for effective surface water and groundwater resource management.

Keywords: aquatic life, solid waste, environmental health, human health, waste-dump site, water-resource environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Swathi Ganesan, Nalinda Somasiri, Rebecca Jeyavadhanam, Gayathri Karthick

Abstract:

The COVID-19 crisis presents a substantial and critical hazard to worldwide health. Since the occurrence of the disease in late January 2020 in the UK, the number of infected people confirmed to acquire the illness has increased tremendously across the country, and the number of individuals affected is undoubtedly considerably high. The purpose of this research is to figure out a predictive machine learning archetypal that could forecast COVID-19 cases within the UK. This study concentrates on the statistical data collected from 31st January 2020 to 31st March 2021 in the United Kingdom. Information on total COVID cases registered, new cases encountered on a daily basis, total death registered, and patients’ death per day due to Coronavirus is collected from World Health Organisation (WHO). Data preprocessing is carried out to identify any missing values, outliers, or anomalies in the dataset. The data is split into 8:2 ratio for training and testing purposes to forecast future new COVID cases. Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forests, and linear regression algorithms are chosen to study the model performance in the prediction of new COVID-19 cases. From the evaluation metrics such as r-squared value and mean squared error, the statistical performance of the model in predicting the new COVID cases is evaluated. Random Forest outperformed the other two Machine Learning algorithms with a training accuracy of 99.47% and testing accuracy of 98.26% when n=30. The mean square error obtained for Random Forest is 4.05e11, which is lesser compared to the other predictive models used for this study. From the experimental analysis Random Forest algorithm can perform more effectively and efficiently in predicting the new COVID cases, which could help the health sector to take relevant control measures for the spread of the virus.

Keywords: COVID-19, machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, linear regression, support vector machine, random forest

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Abdelaziz Wided, Khiat Nawel, Khiat Inssaf

Abstract:

The present study was initiated to: Determine burned forest-inhabiting fungi in Zouagha, Terri Beinène, Mila and study the antagonistic activity of Trichoderma sp against Fusarium sp, Penicillium sp, Rhizoctonia sp, Alternaria sp. 18 fungal strains were isolated from Soil samples taken from the forest Zouagha (Burned) in the region Mila representing 6 genera: Trichoderma sp et Fusarium sp, Penicillium sp, Rhizoctonia sp, Alternaria sp, Rhizopus sp. The tests of dual culture method on culture medium (PDA) against Trichoderma sp et Fusarium sp, Penicillium sp, Rhizoctonia sp, Alternaria sp revealed that: Trichoderma sp could reduce l mycelium grouth of Fusarium sp23.13%, Penicillium sp33.13%, Rhizoctoniasp33.75 %and Alternaria sp 38.31% in comparaison with the witness after 6 days at room temperature. The strains of Fusarium sp ,Penicillium sp, Rhizoctonia sp et Alternaria sp showed differences sensibility to the antagoniste.

Keywords: isolation, identification, molds, burned soil of zouagha, antagonism, trichoderma sp

Procedia PDF Downloads 253

Authors: Faith Eweluegim Enahoro-Ofagbe

Abstract:

Worldwide, every nation is experiencing the effects of global warming. In developing countries, due to the heavy reliance on agriculture for socioeconomic growth and security, among other things, these countries are more affected by climate change, particularly with the availability of water. Floods, droughts, rising temperatures, saltwater intrusion, groundwater depletion, and other severe environmental alterations are all brought on by climatic change. Life depends on water, a vital resource; these ecological changes affect all water use, including agriculture and household water use. Therefore adequate and adaptive water usage strategies for sustainability are essential in developing countries. Therefore, this paper investigates Nigeria's challenges due to climate change and adaptive techniques that have evolved in response to such issues to ensure water management and sustainability for irrigation and provide quality water to residents. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents in the study area, central Nigeria, for quantitative evaluation of sustainable water resource management techniques. Physicochemical analysis was done, collecting soil and water samples from several locations under investigation. Findings show that farmers use different methods, ranging from intelligent technologies to traditional strategies for water resource management. Also, farmers need to learn better water resource management techniques for sustainability. Since more residents obtain their water from privately held sources, the government should enforce legislation to ensure that private borehole construction businesses treat water sources of poor quality before the general public uses them.

Keywords: developing countries, irrigation, strategies, sustainability, water resource management, water usage

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Abraha Hatsey, Nesibu Yahya, Abeje Eshete

Abstract:

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has a long tradition of conserving the Church vegetation and is an area treated as a refugee camp for many endangered indigenous tree species in Northern Ethiopia. Though around 36,000 churches exist in Ethiopia, only a few churches have been studied so far. Thus, this study assessed the land use land cover change of 3km buffer (1986-2018) and the woody species diversity and regeneration status of Tsimur St. Gebriel monastery in Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia. For vegetation study, systematic sampling was used with 100m spacing between plots and between transects. Plot size was 20m*20m for the main plot and 2 subplots (5m*5m each) for the regeneration study. Tree height, diameter at breast height(DBH) and crown area were measured in the main plot for all trees with DBH ≥ 5cm. In the subplots, all seedlings and saplings were counted with DBH < 5cm. The data was analyzed on excel and Pass biodiversity software for diversity and evenness analysis. The major land cover classes identified include bare land, farmland, forest, shrubland and wetland. The extents of forest and shrubland were declined considerably due to bare land and agricultural land expansions within the 3km buffer, indicating an increasing pressure on the church forest. Regarding the vegetation status, A total of 19 species belonging to 13 families were recorded in the monastery. The diversity (H’) and evenness recorded were 2.4 and 0.5, respectively. The tree density (DBH ≥ 5cm) was 336/ha and a crown cover of 65%. Olea europaea was the dominant (6.4m2/ha out of 10.5m2 total basal area) and a frequent species (100%) with good regeneration in the monastery. The rest of the species are less frequent and are mostly confined to water sources with good site conditions. Juniperus procera (overharvested) and the other indigenous species were with few trees left and with no/very poor regeneration status. The species having poor density, frequency and regeneration (Junperus procera, Nuxia congesta Fersen and Jasminium abyssinica) need prior conservation and enrichment planting. The indigenous species could also serve as a potential seed source for the reproduction and restoration of nearby degraded landscapes. The buffer study also demonstrated expansion of agriculture and bare land, which could be a threat to the forest of the isolated monastery. Hence, restoring the buffer zone is the only guarantee for the healthy existence of the church forest.

Keywords: church forests, regeneration, land use change, vegetation status

Procedia PDF Downloads 205

Authors: Jozef Mindas, Jaroslav Skvarenina, Jana Skvareninova

Abstract:

Study of the effects of climate change on Norway Spruce (Picea abies) forests has mainly focused on the diversity of tree species diversity of tree species as a result of the ability of species to tolerate temperature and moisture changes as well as some effects of disturbance regime changes. The tree species’ diversity changes in spruce forests due to climate change have been analyzed via gap model. Forest gap model is a dynamic model for calculation basic characteristics of individual forest trees. Input ecological data for model calculations have been taken from the permanent research plots located in primeval forests in mountainous regions in Slovakia. The results of regional scenarios of the climatic change for the territory of Slovakia have been used, from which the values are according to the CGCM3.1 (global) model, KNMI and MPI (regional) models. Model results for conditions of the climate change scenarios suggest a shift of the upper forest limit to the region of the present subalpine zone, in supramontane zone. N. spruce representation will decrease at the expense of beech and precious broadleaved species (Acer sp., Sorbus sp., Fraxinus sp.). The most significant tree species diversity changes have been identified for the upper tree line and current belt of dwarf pine (Pinus mugo) occurrence. The results have been also discussed in relation to most important disturbances (wind storms, snow and ice storms) and phenological changes which consequences are little known. Special discussion is focused on biomass production changes in relation to carbon storage diversity in different carbon pools.

Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, Norway spruce forests, gap model

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Eric Mensah

Abstract:

The effects of rapid urbanisation of tropical sub-Saharan developing cities on local and global climate are of great concern due to the negative impacts of Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects. The importance of urban parks, vegetative cover and forest reserves in these tropical cities have been undervalued with a rapid degradation and loss of these vegetative covers to urban developments which continue to cause an increase in daily mean temperatures and changes to local climatic conditions. Using Landsat data of the same months and period intervals, the spatial variations of land cover changes, temperature, and vegetation were examined to determine how vegetation improves local temperature and the effects of urbanisation on daily mean temperatures over the past 12 years. The remote sensing techniques of maximum likelihood supervised classification, land surface temperature retrieval technique, and normalised differential vegetation index techniques were used to analyse and create the land use land cover (LULC), land surface temperature (LST), and vegetation and non-vegetation cover maps respectively. Results from the study showed an increase in daily mean temperature by 0.80 °C as a result of rapid increase in urban area by 46.13 sq. km and loss of vegetative cover by 46.24 sq. km between 2005 and 2017. The LST map also shows the existence of UHI within the urban areas of Accra, the potential mitigating effects offered by the existence of forest and vegetative cover as demonstrated by the existence of cool islands around the Achimota ecological forest and University of Ghana botanical gardens areas.

Keywords: land surface temperature, climate, remote sensing, urbanisation

Procedia PDF Downloads 320

Authors: Hsiu Hua Hu

Abstract:

Digital transformation has widely affected various industries. It provides technological innovation, process redesign, new business model construction, and talent value creation. This transformation not only allows organizations to obtain and deploy specific technologies and methods suitable for organizational reengineering but also is an important way to solve management problems in human resource (HR) reengineering, business efficiency, and process redesign. In this study, we present the results of a qualitative study that offers insight into a series of key feature of reengineering related to the digital transformation and how to create talent value when the companies successfully perform digital transformation and human resource reengineering, which is led by business digitalization strategies including talent planning, talent acquisition, talent adjustment, and talent development. Drawing from the qualitative investigation findings, we built an inductive model of HR reengineering, which aims to provide research and practical references on future digital transformation and management inquiry.

Keywords: talent value creation, digital transformation, HR reengineering, qualitative study

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Valmir Baloshi, Fran Gjoka, Nehat Çollaku, Elvin Toromani

Abstract:

As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla watershed, including the decline of water quality of the Bovilla reservoir that provides drinking water to Tirana city (the capital of Albania). Therefore, an experiment with 25 erosion plots for soil erosion monitoring has been set up since June 2017. The aim was to determine the soil loss on plot and watershed scale in Bovilla watershed (Tirana region) for implementation of soil and water protection measures or payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs. The results of erosion monitoring for the period June 2017 - May 2018 showed that the highest values of surface runoff were noted in bare land of 38829.91 liters on slope of 74% and the lowest values in forest land of 12840.6 liters on slope of 64% while the highest values of soil loss were found in bare land of 595.15 t/ha on slope of 62% and lowest values in forest land of 18.99 t/ha on slope of 64%. These values are much higher than the average rate of soil loss in the European Union (2.46 ton/ha/year). In the same sloping class, the soil loss was reduced from orchard or bare land to the forest land, and in the same category of land use, the soil loss increased with increasing land slope. It is necessary to conduct chemical analyses of sediments to determine the amount of chemical elements leached out of the soil and end up in the reservoir of Bovilla. It is concluded that PES programs should be implemented for rehabilitation of sub-watersheds Ranxe, Vilez and Zall-Bastar of the Bovilla watershed with valuable conservation practices.

Keywords: ANOVA, Bovilla, land cover, slope, soil loss, watershed management

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: A. S. Salimzhanova, J. C. Sardinas, O. A. Yanovskaya

Abstract:

The objective of this research work is to discuss the concept of green growth in the Republic of Kazakhstan introduced by its government in the National Sustainable Development Strategy with the objective of transition to a resource-efficient, green economy. We believe that emerging economies like Kazakhstan can pursue a cleaner and more efficient development path by introducing an environmental tax system based on resource consumption rather than only income and labor. The key issues discussed in this article are the eco-efficiency, which refers to closing the gap between economic and ecological efficiencies, and the structural change of the economy toward green growth. We also strongly believe that studying the experience of East Asian countries on green reform including eco-innovation and green solutions in business is essential to the case of Kazakhstan. All of these will raise the status of Kazakhstan to the level of one of the thirty developed countries over the next decades.

Keywords: economic strategy, green growth, green solutions, natural resource management, environmental tax system

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Redha M. Elhuni

Abstract:

The critical key success factors, which have to be targeted with appropriate change management, are the user acceptance and support of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at the early implementation stages. This becomes even more important in Arab context where national and organisational culture with a different value and belief system, resulting in different management styles, might not complement with Western business culture embedded in the predefined standard business processes of existing ERP packages. This study explains and critically evaluates research into national and organizational culture and the influence of different national cultures on the implementation and reengineering process of ERP packages in an Arab context. Using a case study, realized through a quantitative survey testing five of Martinsons’s and Davison’s propositions in a Libyan sample company, confirmed the expected results from the literature review that culture has an impact on the implementation process and that employee empowerment is an unavoidable consequence of an ERP implementation.

Keywords: enterprise resource planning, ERP systems, organisational culture, Arab context

Procedia PDF Downloads 316

Authors: Jiwan Kumar, Pooja, Sandeep Negi, Anjum Rouf, Amit Kumar, Naveen Lakra

Abstract:

In modern times where, health issues are increasing day by day, breast cancer is also one of them, which is very crucial and really important to find in the early stages. Doctors can use this model in order to tell their patients whether a cancer is not harmful (benign) or harmful (malignant). We have used the knowledge of machine learning in order to produce the model. we have used algorithms like Logistic Regression, Random forest, support Vector Classifier, Bayesian Network and Radial Basis Function. We tried to use the data of crucial parts and show them the results in pictures in order to make it easier for doctors. By doing this, we're making ML better at finding breast cancer, which can lead to saving more lives and better health care.

Keywords: Bayesian network, radial basis function, ensemble learning, understandable, data making better, random forest, logistic regression, breast cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Abida Haddouche, Ahmed Chrif Toubal

Abstract:

The Neogene basin of the Eastern Mitidja, object of the study area, represents potential water resources and especially groundwater reserves. This water is an important economic; this resource is highly sensitive which need protection and preservation. Unfortunately, these waters are exposed to various forms of pollution, whether from urban, agricultural, industrial or merely accidental. This pollution is a permanent risk of limiting resource. In this context, the work aims to evaluate the intrinsic vulnerability of the aquifer to protect and preserve the quality of this resource. It will focus on the disposal of water and land managers a cartographic document accessible to locate the areas where the water has a high vulnerability. Vulnerability mapping of the Easter Mitidja quaternary aquifer is performed by applying three methods (DRASTIC, DRIST, and GOD). Comparison and validation results show that the DRASTIC method is the most suitable method for aquifer vulnerability of the study area.

Keywords: Aquifer of Mitidja, DRASTIC method, geographic information system (GIS), vulnerability mapping

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Bencherif Kada

Abstract:

In the forest management practice, landscape and Mediterranean forest are never posed as linked objects. But sustainable forestry requires the valorization of the forest landscape, and this aim involves assessing the spatial distribution of biodiversity by mapping forest landscaped units and subunits and by monitoring the environmental trends. This contribution aims to highlight, through object-oriented classifications, the landscaped biodiversity of the National Park of Tlemcen (Algeria). The methodology used is based on ground data and on the basic processing units of object-oriented classification, that are segments, so-called image-objects, representing a relatively homogenous units on the ground. The classification of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) imagery is performed on image objects and not on pixels. Advantages of object-oriented classification are to make full use of meaningful statistic and texture calculation, uncorrelated shape information (e.g., length-to-width ratio, direction, and area of an object, etc.), and topological features (neighbor, super-object, etc.), and the close relation between real-world objects and image objects. The results show that per object classification using the k-nearest neighbor’s method is more efficient than per pixel one. It permits to simplify of the content of the image while preserving spectrally and spatially homogeneous types of land covers such as Aleppo pine stands, cork oak groves, mixed groves of cork oak, holm oak, and zen oak, mixed groves of holm oak and thuja, water plan, dense and open shrub-lands of oaks, vegetable crops or orchard, herbaceous plants, and bare soils. Texture attributes seem to provide no useful information, while spatial attributes of shape and compactness seem to be performant for all the dominant features, such as pure stands of Aleppo pine and/or cork oak and bare soils. Landscaped sub-units are individualized while conserving the spatial information. Continuously dominant dense stands over a large area were formed into a single class, such as dense, fragmented stands with clear stands. Low shrublands formations and high wooded shrublands are well individualized but with some confusion with enclaves for the former. Overall, a visual evaluation of the classification shows that the classification reflects the actual spatial state of the study area at the landscape level.

Keywords: forest, oaks, remote sensing, diversity, shrublands

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: Rafael Castilho Carvalho, Edjair de Souza Mota

Abstract:

As the largest contributor to the biogeochemical functioning of the Earth system, the Amazon Rainforest has the greatest biodiversity on the planet, harboring about 15% of all the world's flora. Recognition and preservation are the focus of research that seeks to mitigate drastic changes, especially anthropic ones, which irreversibly affect this biome. Functional and low-cost monitoring alternatives to reduce these impacts are a priority, such as those using technologies such as Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). Promising, reliable, secure and with low energy consumption, LPWAN can connect thousands of IoT devices, and in particular, LoRa is considered one of the most successful solutions to facilitate forest monitoring applications. Despite this, the forest environment, in particular the Amazon Rainforest, is a challenge for these technologies, requiring work to identify and validate the use of technology in a real environment. To investigate the feasibility of deploying LPWAN in remote water quality monitoring of rivers in the Amazon Region, a LoRa-based test bed consisting of a Lora transmitter and a LoRa receiver was set up, both parts were implemented with Arduino and the LoRa chip SX1276. The experiment was carried out at the Federal University of Amazonas, which contains one of the largest urban forests in Brazil. There are several springs inside the forest, and the main goal is to collect water quality parameters and transmit the data through the forest in real time to the gateway at the uni. In all, there are nine water quality parameters of interest. Even with a high collection frequency, the amount of information that must be sent to the gateway is small. However, for this application, the battery of the transmitter device is a concern since, in the real application, the device must run without maintenance for long periods of time. With these constraints in mind, parameters such as Spreading Factor (SF) and Coding Rate (CR), different antenna heights, and distances were tuned to better the connectivity quality, measured with RSSI and loss rate. A handheld spectrum analyzer RF Explorer was used to get the RSSI values. Distances exceeding 200 m have soon proven difficult to establish communication due to the dense foliage and high humidity. The optimal combinations of SF-CR values were 8-5 and 9-5, showing the lowest packet loss rates, 5% and 17%, respectively, with a signal strength of approximately -120 dBm, these being the best settings for this study so far. The rains and climate changes imposed limitations on the equipment, and more tests are already being conducted. Subsequently, the range of the LoRa configuration must be extended using a mesh topology, especially because at least three different collection points in the same water body are required.

Keywords: IoT, LPWAN, LoRa, coverage, loss rate, forest

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Dina Ahmed Alkhodary

Abstract:

Human Resources are the individual skills, knowledge, attitude, capabilities and experience collected to produce wealth to the company. Human Resource disclosure is the process of involving, reporting, and sharing the Investments made in the Human Resources of an Organization that such as organizations short goals and objectives, employees creation value, training and development plan are presently not accounted for in the conventional accounting practices which is importance nowadays to reduce the employee`s turnover. For the purpose of the study 3 telecommunications companies in Jordan have been selected. Telecommunication industry has been chosen for this study since it is a successful sector in Jordan and Human resource disclosure practices were adopted in all the selected companies and companies was aware to the HR practices. The objective of the study is to find out the HR disclosures practices of the telecommunication Companies in Jordan and to find the relationship between the HR Disclosures practices and employees’ turnover which has been measured by leaver proficiencies, remaining member proficiencies and the new comers proficiencies. The researcher has used the questioner to collect data for the research purpose. Results reveal that There are human resource disclosure practices in telecommunication companies in Jordan but in some areas only and has found There that there is a significant relationship between the human resource disclosure practices of the telecommunication companies in Jordan and Employees turnover. It is important to the companies to disclose more information and it’s important to the researchers to study the HR disclosure in the other industries in Jordan to increase the awareness about it.

Keywords: HR, disclosure, employee, turnover

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Nsubuga Bright Titus

Abstract:

The resource curse is an unavoidable phenomenon among oil producing states in Africa. There is no oil production currently in Uganda although exploration projections set 2020 as the year of initial production. But as the exploration proceeds and Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) are negotiated, so does the anticipation for oil revenues. The Indigenous people of Bunyoro are claiming the right to their indigenous lands through the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) of the African Union. They urge the commission to investigate the government of Uganda on violations of their human rights. In this paper, oil as a resource curse is examined through the Dutch disease. Regional and global entanglements, as well as the contestation between the indigenous Bunyoro group and the oil industry in Uganda is explored. The paper also demonstrates that oil as a local possibility and national reality has propelled anxiety about oil revenues among various, local actors, State actors, regional and global actors.

Keywords: Entanglements, Extractive resources, Framing, web of relations

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Abhigyan Hedau, Priya Shelke, Riddhi Mirajkar, Shreyash Chaple, Mrunali Gadekar, Himanshu Akula

Abstract:

The heart is the coordinating centre of the major endocrine glandular structure of the body, which produces hormones that profoundly affect the operations of the body, and diagnosing cardiovascular disease is a difficult but critical task. By extracting knowledge and information about the disease from patient data, data mining is a more practical technique to help doctors detect disorders. We use a variety of machine learning methods here, including logistic regression and support vector classifiers (SVC), K-nearest neighbours Classifiers (KNN), Decision Tree Classifiers, Random Forest classifiers and Gradient Boosting classifiers. These algorithms are applied to patient data containing 13 different factors to build a system that predicts heart disease in less time with more accuracy.

Keywords: logistic regression, support vector classifier, k-nearest neighbour, decision tree, random forest and gradient boosting

Procedia PDF Downloads 50

Authors: Aklilu Getahun Sulito

Abstract:

Land Use and Land Cover change dynamics is a result of complex interactions betweenseveral bio- physical and socio-economic conditions. The impacts of the landcoverchange on stream flow and sediment yield were analyzed statistically usingthehydrological model, SWAT. Genale Dawa Dam III watershed is highly af ectedbydeforestation, over grazing, and agricultural land expansion. This study was aimedusingSWAT model for the assessment of impacts of land use land cover change on sediment yield, evaluating stream flow on wet &dry seasons and spatial distribution sediment yieldfrom sub-basins of the Genale Dawa Dam III watershed. Land use land cover maps(LULC) of 2000, 2008 and 2016 were used with same corresponding climate data. During the study period most parts of the forest, dense forest evergreen and grass landchanged to cultivated land. The cultivated land increased by 26.2%but forest land, forest evergreen lands and grass lands decreased by 21.33%, 11.59 % and 7.28 %respectively, following that the mean annual sediment yield of watershed increased by 7.37ton/haover16 years period (2000 – 2016). The analysis of stream flow for wet and dry seasonsshowed that the steam flow increased by 25.5% during wet season, but decreasedby29.6% in the dry season. The result an average annual spatial distribution of sediment yield increased by 7.73ton/ha yr -1 from (2000_2016). The calibration results for bothstream flow and sediment yield showed good agreement between observed and simulateddata with the coef icient of determination of 0.87 and 0.84, Nash-Sutclif e ef iciencyequality to 0.83 and 0.78 and percentage bias of -7.39% and -10.90%respectively. Andthe result for validation for both stream flow and sediment showed good result withCoef icient of determination equality to 0.83 and 0.80, Nash-Sutclif e ef iciency of 0.78and 0.75 and percentage bias of 7.09% and 3.95%. The result obtained fromthe model based on the above method was the mean annual sediment load at Genale DawaDamIIIwatershed increase from 2000 to 2016 for the reason that of the land uses change. Sotouse the Genale Dawa Dam III the land use management practices are neededinthefuture to prevent further increase of sediment yield of the watershed.

Keywords: Genale Dawa Dam III watershed, land use land cover change, SWAT, spatial distribution, sediment yield, stream flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Md. Jisan Ahmed, M. A. Taher

Abstract:

One of the cities in Bangladesh that is developing the fastest is Narayanganj City Corporation. In 2011, the municipality of Narayanganj was transformed into a city corporation, with 27 wards combining Kadamrasul Municipality, Siddhirganj Municipality, and Narayanganj Town. It is also one of Bangladesh's most important industrial centers in Bangladesh. Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC), which has had high development growth, is also generating more solid waste on a high per-capita basis. Because of the increasing rate of population expansion, business activity, industrial development, and fast urbanization, NCC is today creating more waste than ever before. The enormous amount of solid garbage produced in NCC is currently causing air pollution, soil contamination, water pollution, drainage system blockages, and an unpleasant urban environment. The study aimed to find out the amount of solid waste produced per day in NCC by exploring the waste composition and potentiality of resource recovery from the produced solid waste. This study considered household surveys, polythene bag surveys, questionnaire surveys in commercial and industrial sectors, KIIs, FGDs, and lab tests to identify the total amount of waste generated in NCC with waste composition and potentiality for energy recovery from the generated waste. This study has explored that NCC is producing about 922 tons of solid waste per day from households, commercial activities, and industrial sectors where the existing waste collection rate by NCC authority is only about 50% of total generated waste. This study has also explored that about 75% of daily-produced solid waste is perishable with comparatively high moisture content whereas 18 % and 7% are non-perishable and hazardous. It is also explored that there is no resource recovery plant for solid waste management in NCC. On the other hand, this study has explored that the calorific value of the produced solid waste favors resource recovery like waste to electricity. The generated solid waste composition is also in favor of waste-to-biogas, and waste-to-compost fertilizer production. This study has advocated that initiatives need to develop a solid waste management plant in NCC for resource recovery from solid waste. This research may provide a quick overview of the rate of solid waste generation, its composition, and the potential for resource recovery from solid waste in Bangladesh's metropolitan regions. It can also provide information and knowledge to other trash departments in different cities and municipalities in Bangladesh.

Keywords: solid waste, waste composition, waste management, resource recovery from solid waste

Procedia PDF Downloads 20

Authors: Derradji Chebli, Abdallah Bouguettoucha, Abdelbaki Reffas Khalil Guediri, Abdeltif Amrane

Abstract:

The removal of Methyl Green dye (MG) from aqueous solutions using modified P-brutia cones (PBH and PBN), has been investigated work. The physical parameters such as pH, temperature, initial MG concentration, ionic strength are examined in batch experiments on the sorption of the dye. Adsorption removal of MG was conducted at natural pH 4.5 because the dye is only stable in the range of pH 3.8 to 5. It was observed in experiments that the P-brutia cones treated with NaOH (PBN) exhibited high affinity and adsorption capacity compared to the MG P-brutia cones treated with HCl (PBH) and biosorption capacity of modified P-brutia cones (PBN and PBH) was enhanced by increasing the temperature. This is confirmed by the thermodynamic parameters (ΔG° and ΔH°) which show that the adsorption of MG was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The positive values of ΔS° suggested an irregular increase in the randomness for both adsorbent (PBN and PBH) during the adsorption process. The kinetic model pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion coefficient were examined to analyze the sorption process; they showed that the pseudo-second-order model is the one that best describes the adsorption process (MG) on PBN and PBH with a correlation coefficient R²> 0.999. The ionic strength has shown that it has a negative impact on the adsorption of MG on two supports. A reduction of 68.5% of the adsorption capacity for a value Ce=30 mg/L was found for the PBH, while the PBN did not show a significant influence of the ionic strength on adsorption especially in the presence of NaCl. Among the tested isotherm models, the Langmuir isotherm was found to be the most relevant to describe MG sorption onto modified P-brutia cones with a correlation factor R²>0.999. The capacity adsorption of P-brutia cones, was confirmed for the removal of a dye, MG, from aqueous solution. We note also that P-brutia cones is a material very available in the forest and low-cost biomaterial

Keywords: adsorption, p-brutia cones, forest wastes, dyes, isotherm

Procedia PDF Downloads 377

Authors: Jahede Tekeykhah, Seyed Mohsen Hossini, Gholamali Jalali

Abstract:

Industrial and traffic activities cause large amounts of heavy metals enter into the atmosphere and the use of plant species can be effective in assessing and reducing air pollution by metals. This study aimed to investigate the adsorption level of heavy metals in leaves of Fraxinus rotundifolia, Robinia, Platanus orientalis, Platycladus orientalis and Pinus eldarica trees in Abidar forest park. For this purpose, samples leaves of the trees were prepared from the contaminated and control areas in each region in 3 stations with 3 replicates in mid-August and finally 90 samples were sent to the laboratory. Then, the concentrations of heavy metals were measured by graphite furnace. To do this, factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design with two factors of location on two levels (contaminated area and control area) and the factor of species on five levels (Fraxinus rotundifolia, Robinia, Platanus orientalis, Platycladus orientalis and Pinus eldarica) with three replications was used. The analysis of collected data was performed by SPSS software and Duncan's multiple range test was used to compare the means. The results showed that the accumulation of all metals in the leaves of most species in the infected area with a significant difference at 95% level was higher than the control area. In the contaminated area, with a significant difference at 5% level, the highest accumulations of metals were observed as the following: lead, cadmium, zinc and manganese in Platanus orientalis, nickel in Fraxinus rotundifolia and copper in Platycladus orientalis.

Keywords: airborne, tree species, heavy metals, absorption, Abidar Forest Park

Procedia PDF Downloads 311

Authors: Neha Awasthi, Ujjwal Kumar

Abstract:

Density of large carnivores is primarily dictated by the density of their prey. Therefore, optimal management of ungulates populations permits harbouring of viable large carnivore populations within protected areas. Ungulate density is likely to respond to regimes of protection and vegetation types. This has generated the need among conservation practitioners to obtain strata specific seasonal species densities for habitat management. Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) of 2074 km2 area comprises of two distinct management strata: The core (940 km2), devoid of human settlements and buffer (1134 km2) which is a multiple use area. In general, four habitat strata, grassland, sal forest, bamboo-mixed forest and miscellaneous forest are present in the reserve. Stratified sampling approach was used to access a) impact of human use and b) effect of habitat and season on ungulate densities. Since 2013 to 2016, ungulates were surveyed in winter and summer of each year with an effort of 1200 km walk in 200 spatial transects distributed throughout Kanha Tiger Reserve. We used a single detection function for each species within each habitat stratum for each season for estimating species specific seasonal density, using program DISTANCE. Our key results state that the core area had 4.8 times higher wild ungulate biomass compared with the buffer zone, highlighting the importance of undisturbed area. Chital was found to be most abundant, having a density of 30.1(SE 4.34)/km2 and contributing 33% of the biomass with a habitat preference for grassland. Unlike other ungulates, Gaur being mega herbivore, showed a major seasonal shift in density from bamboo-mixed and sal forest in summer to miscellaneous forest in winter. Maximum diversity and ungulate biomass were supported by grassland followed by bamboo-mixed habitat. Our study stresses the importance of inviolate core areas for achieving high wild ungulate densities and for maintaining populations of endangered and rare species. Grasslands accounts for 9% of the core area of KTR maintained in arrested stage of succession, therefore enhancing this habitat would maintain ungulate diversity, density and cater to the needs of only surviving population of the endangered barasingha and grassland specialist the blackbuck. We show the relevance of different habitat types for differential seasonal use by ungulates and attempt to interpret this in the context of nutrition and cover needs by wild ungulates. Management for an optimal habitat mosaic that maintains ungulate diversity and maximizes ungulate biomass is recommended.

Keywords: distance sampling, habitat management, ungulate biomass, diversity

Procedia PDF Downloads 303

Authors: James Purnama, Riri Fitri Sari

Abstract:

We investigate the machine learning algorithm selection problem in the term of a depth image based eye gaze estimation, with respect to its essential difficulty in reducing the number of required training samples and duration time of training. Statistics based prediction accuracy are increasingly used to assess and evaluate prediction or estimation in gaze estimation. This article evaluates Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and R-Squared statistical analysis to assess machine learning methods on depth camera data for gaze estimation. There are 4 machines learning methods have been evaluated: Random Forest Regression, Regression Tree, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Linear Regression. The experiment results show that the Random Forest Regression has the lowest RMSE and the highest R-Squared, which means that it is the best among other methods.

Keywords: gaze estimation, gaze tracking, eye tracking, kinect, regression model, orange python

Procedia PDF Downloads 538

Authors: D. Eranda N. Mandawala, P. A. D. Mokshi V. Perera

Abstract:

The RajagalaArchaeological site (RAS) is located 26 km from Ampara town (7º29'25.22" N, 81º36'59.05" E) accessible through the Ampara-Uhana-MahaOya highway of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. This site has recently been added to the tentative list of UNESCO world heritage site and is also a forest reserve. This dry zone forest consists of tropical mixed evergreen vegetation and scrublands on a rocky outcrop of elevation of about 350 meters above mean sea level. It is also scattered with several ponds of differing sizes on rocky outcrops, rocky cliffs, and about 50 cave dwellings. No comprehensive biodiversity survey of any sorts has been conducted at the RAS so far. Therefore, a preliminary survey was conducted to determine its butterfly fauna diversity. An opportunistic Visual Encounter Survey method was used to observe various butterfly species during the morning between 8:00am-12:00noon and in the evening between 2:00-6:00pm on 3 site visits in October 2017, February 2018, and November 2019. All encountered species were photographed using a Nikon D750 camera with Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM macro lens, and field guide books were used to identify them. Sri Lanka is home to 248 species of butterflies, of which are 26 are endemic. At RAS, we observed a total of 39 species (15%) of butterflies belonging to 5 Lepidoptera families. Out of these, one endemic species(4%) and 9 endemic subspecieswere also identified. The former was Troidesdarsius, also known as the Sri Lanka birdwing which is the national butterfly and the largest butterfly in Sri Lanka, and the latter were Plains cupid (Chiladespandavalanka), Yamfly (Loxuraatymnus arcuate), Common Cerulean (Jamidescelenotissama), Tawny Rajah(Charaxespsaphonpsaphon), Tamil Yeoman(Cirrochroathaislanka), Angled Castor(Ariadne ariadneminorata), GladeyeBushbrown(Mycalesispatnia patina), Common Crow (Euploea core asela)and Blue Mormon (Papiliopolymnestorparinda). The endemic subspecies belonged to 3 Lepidoptera families (3from Lycaenidae, 5 from Nymphalidae, and 1 from Papilionidae family). Anthropogenic activities such as unauthorized cattle farming, forest clearance, and man-made forest fires currently threaten this site. If such trends continue, it may lead to the reduction of butterfly fauna diversity within this area in the future.

Keywords: lepidoptera, rajagala, Sri Lanka birdwing, endemic

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Vaibhav Rathi, Soumen Maity, Achu R. Sekhar, Abhijit Banerjee

Abstract:

Construction sector in India is extremely resource and carbon intensive. It contributes to significantly to national greenhouse emissions. At the resource end the industry consumes significant portions of the output from mining. Resources such as sand and soil are most exploited and their rampant extraction is becoming constant source of impact on environment and society. Cement is another resource that is used in abundance in building and construction and has a direct impact on limestone resources. Though India is rich in cement grade limestone resource, efforts have to be made for sustainable consumption of this resource to ensure future availability. Use of these resources in high volumes in India is a result of rapid urbanization. More cities have grown to a population of million plus in the last decade and million plus cities are growing further. To cater to needs of growing urban population of construction activities are inevitable in the coming future thereby increasing material consumption. Increased construction will also lead to substantial increase in end of life waste generation from Construction and Demolition (C&D). Therefore proper management of C&D waste has the potential to reduce environmental pollution as well as contribute to the resource efficiency in the construction sector. The present study deals with estimation, characterisation and documenting current management practices of C&D waste in 10 Indian cities of different geographies and classes. Based on primary data the study draws conclusions on the potential of C&D waste to be used as an alternative to primary raw materials. The estimation results show that India generates 716 million tons of C&D waste annually, placing the country as second largest C&D waste generator in the world after China. The study also aimed at utilization of C&D waste in to building materials. The waste samples collected from various cities have been used to replace 100% stone aggregates in paver blocks without any decrease in strength. However, management practices of C&D waste in cities still remains poor instead of notification of rules and regulations notified for C&D waste management. Only a few cities have managed to install processing plant and set up management systems for C&D waste. Therefore there is immense opportunity for management and reuse of C&D waste in Indian cities.

Keywords: building materials, construction and demolition waste, cities, environmental pollution, resource efficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 304

Authors: D. Kliaugaitė, J. K, Staniškis

Abstract:

In this study tree types of multilayer gas barrier plastic packaging films were compared using life cycle assessment as a tool for resource efficient and environmentally low-impact materials selection. The first type of multilayer packaging film (PET-AlOx/LDPE) consists of polyethylene terephthalate with barrier layer AlOx (PET-AlOx) and low density polyethylene (LDPE). The second type of polymer film (PET/PE-EVOH-PE) is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and co-extrusion film PE-EVOH-PE as barrier layer. And the third one type of multilayer packaging film (PET-PVOH/LDPE) is formed from polyethylene terephthalate with barrier layer PVOH (PET-PVOH) and low density polyethylene (LDPE). All of analyzed packaging has significant impact to resource depletion, because of raw materials extraction and energy use and production of different kind of plastics. Nevertheless the impact generated during life cycle of functional unit of II type of packaging (PET/PE-EVOH-PE) was about 25% lower than impact generated by I type (PET-AlOx/LDPE) and III type (PET-PVOH/LDPE) of packaging. Result revealed that the contribution of different gas barrier type to the overall environmental problem of packaging is not significant. The impact are mostly generated by using energy and materials during raw material extraction and production of different plastic materials as plastic polymers material as PE, LDPE and PET, but not gas barrier materials as AlOx, PVOH and EVOH. The LCA results could be useful in different decision-making processes, for selecting resource efficient and environmentally low-impact materials.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, polymer packaging, resource efficiency, materials extraction, polyethylene terephthalate

Procedia PDF Downloads 362

Authors: Remy Jonkam Oben

Abstract:

Using a time series approach, this study investigates how natural resources impact financial development from a global perspective over the 1980-2019 period. Some important determinants of financial development (economic growth, trade openness, population growth, and investment) have been added to the model as control variables. Unit root tests have revealed that all the variables are integrated into order one. Johansen's cointegration test has shown that the variables are in a long-run equilibrium relationship. The vector error correction model (VECM) has estimated the coefficient of the error correction term (ECT), which suggests that the short-run values of natural resources, economic growth, trade openness, population growth, and investment contribute to financial development converging to its long-run equilibrium level by a 23.63% annual speed of adjustment. The estimated coefficients suggest that global natural resource rent has a statistically-significant negative impact on global financial development in the long-run (thereby validating the financial resource curse) but not in the short-run. Causality test results imply that neither global natural resource rent nor global financial development Granger-causes each other.

Keywords: financial development, natural resources, resource curse hypothesis, time series analysis, Granger causality, global perspective

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: W. Chatan, W. Promprom

Abstract:

Phu Langka National Park is located in Nakhon Phanom Province, the Northeast of Thailand. It contains about 50 km2 of one mountain and three types of forest including deciduous dipterocarp, mixed deciduous and dry evergreen forests. It was interesting area because of that there were some local ethnic groups living around the national park and most people use plants in this area for their life. The objective of this research is to preliminary survey of the use of medicinal plants from this area by local ethnic groups living around the national park. Colour photographs of each species were prepared. In addition, ecology, distribution in the study area, utilization and vernacular names were provided. The result showed that sixteen species of medicinal plant species were found and most plants were used for digestive system and wound. The voucher specimens were deposited in the Forest Herbarium, Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (BKF), Thailand.

Keywords: diversity, ethnobotany, ethnophamacology, taxonomy, utilization

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Jacqui Robertson

Abstract:

The sustainable governance of groundwater is of the utmost importance in an arid country like Australia. Groundwater has been relied on by our agricultural and pastoral communities since the State was settled by European colonialists. Nevertheless, the rapid establishment of a coal seam gas (CSG) industry in Queensland, Australia, has had extensive impacts on the pre-existing groundwater users. Managed aquifer recharge of important aquifers in Queensland, Australia, using treated coal seam gas produced water has been used to reduce the impacts of CSG development in Queensland Australia. However, the process has not been widely adopted. Negative environmental outcomes are now acknowledged as not only engineering, scientific or technical problems to be solved but also the result of governance failures. An analysis of the regulatory context for aquifer injection using treated CSG water in Queensland, Australia, using Ostrom’s Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory and a ‘heat map’ designed by the author, highlights the importance of governance arrangements. The analysis reveals the costs and benefits for relevant stakeholders of artificial recharge of groundwater resources in this context. The research also reveals missed opportunities to further active management of the aquifer and resolve existing conflicts between users. The research illustrates the importance of strategically and holistically evaluating innovations in technology that impact water resources to reveal incentives that impact resource user behaviors. The paper presents a proactive step that can be adapted to support integrated water resource management and sustainable groundwater development.

Keywords: managed aquifer recharge, groundwater regulation, common-pool resources, integrated water resource management, Australia

Procedia PDF Downloads 237