Search results for: Chao Phraya river basin

Authors: Zhihua Cao, Hongfei Zhao, Zhongneng Wu

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The development of polar-based agroforestry was necessary due to the influence of the timber market environment in China, which can promote the coordinated development of forestry and agriculture, and gain remarkable ecological, economic and social benefits. The main agroforestry models of the main poplar planting area in Huaibei plain and along the Yangtze River plain were carried out. 11 typical management models of poplar were selected to sum up: pure poplar forest, poplar-rape-soybean, poplar-wheat-soybean, poplar-rape-cotton, poplar-wheat, poplar-chicken, poplar-duck, poplar-sheep, poplar-Agaricus blazei, poplar-oil peony, poplar-fish, represented by M0-M10, respectively. 12 indexes related with economic, ecological and social benefits (annual average cost, net income, ratio of output to investment, payback period of investment, land utilization ratio, utilization ratio of light energy, improvement and system stability of ecological and production environment, product richness, labor capacity, cultural quality of labor force, sustainability) were screened out to carry on the comprehensive evaluation and analysis to 11 kinds of typical agroforestry models based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results showed that the economic benefit of each agroforestry model was in the order of: M8 > M6 > M9 > M7 > M5 > M10 > M4 > M1 > M2 > M3 > M0. The economic benefit of poplar-A. blazei model was the highest (332, 800 RMB / hm²), followed by poplar-duck and poplar-oil peony model (109, 820RMB /hm², 5, 7226 RMB /hm²). The order of comprehensive benefit was: M8 > M4 > M9 > M6 > M1 > M2 > M3 > M7 > M5 > M10 > M0. The economic benefit and comprehensive benefit of each agroforestry model were higher than that of pure poplar forest. The comprehensive benefit of poplar-A. blazei model was the highest, and that of poplar-wheat model ranked second, while its economic benefit was not high. Next were poplar-oil peony and poplar-duck models. It was suggested that the model of poplar-wheat should be adopted in the plain along the Yangtze River, and the whole cycle mode of poplar-grain, popalr-A. blazei, or poplar-oil peony should be adopted in Huaibei plain, northern Anhui. Furthermore, wheat, rape, and soybean are the main crops before the stand was closed; the agroforestry model of edible fungus or Chinese herbal medicine can be carried out when the stand was closed in order to maximize the comprehensive benefit. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reference for forest farmers in the selection of poplar agroforestry model in the future and to provide the basic data for the sustainable and efficient study of poplar agroforestry in Anhui province, eastern China.

Keywords: agroforestry, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), comprehensive benefit, model, poplar

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Authors: Alisa Salimova, Jiane Zuo, Christopher Homer

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The objective of this study is to analyse the North Canal riparian zone land use with the help of remote sensing analysis in ArcGis using 30 cloudless Landsat8 open-source satellite images from May to August of 2013 and 2017. Land cover, urban construction, heat island effect, vegetation cover, and water system change were chosen as the main parameters and further analysed to evaluate its impact on the North Canal water quality. The methodology involved the following steps: firstly, 30 cloudless satellite images were collected from the Landsat TM image open-source database. The visual interpretation method was used to determine different land types in a catchment area. After primary and secondary classification, 28 land cover types in total were classified. Visual interpretation method was used with the help ArcGIS for the grassland monitoring, US Landsat TM remote sensing image processing with a resolution of 30 meters was used to analyse the vegetation cover. The water system was analysed using the visual interpretation method on the GIS software platform to decode the target area, water use and coverage. Monthly measurements of water temperature, pH, BOD, COD, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus in 2013 and 2017 were taken from three locations of the North Canal in Tongzhou district. These parameters were used for water quality index calculation and compared to land-use changes. The results of this research were promising. The vegetation coverage of North Canal riparian zone in 2017 was higher than the vegetation coverage in 2013. The surface brightness temperature value was positively correlated with the vegetation coverage density and the distance from the surface of the water bodies. This indicates that the vegetation coverage and water system have a great effect on temperature regulation and urban heat island effect. Surface temperature in 2017 was higher than in 2013, indicating a global warming effect. The water volume in the river area has been partially reduced, indicating the potential water scarcity risk in North Canal watershed. Between 2013 and 2017, urban residential, industrial and mining storage land areas significantly increased compared to other land use types; however, water quality has significantly improved in 2017 compared to 2013. This observation indicates that the Tongzhou Water Restoration Plan showed positive results and water management of Tongzhou district had been improved.

Keywords: North Canal, land use, riparian vegetation, river ecology, remote sensing

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Authors: Reza Bazargan lari, Mohammad H. Fattahi

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Natural resources management including water resources requires reliable estimations of time variant environmental parameters. Small improvements in the estimation of environmental parameters would result in grate effects on managing decisions. Noise reduction using wavelet techniques is an effective approach for pre-processing of practical data sets. Predictability enhancement of the river flow time series are assessed using fractal approaches before and after applying wavelet based pre-processing. Time series correlation and persistency, the minimum sufficient length for training the predicting model and the maximum valid length of predictions were also investigated through a fractal assessment.

Keywords: wavelet, de-noising, predictability, time series fractal analysis, valid length, ANN

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Authors: Shahzadi Laibah Burq, Gina Scarpete Walters

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Piipaash, representing one large family of North American languages, Yuman, is reported as one of the seriously endangered languages in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of Arizona. In a collaborative venture between Arizona State University (ASU) and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC), efforts have been made to revitalize and preserve the Piipaash language and its cultural heritage. The present study is one example of several other language documentation and revitalization initiatives that Humanities Lab ASU has taken. This study was approved to receive a “Beyond the lab” grant after the researchers successfully created a Teaching Guide for Early Childhood Piipaash storybook during their time working in the Humanities Lab. The current research is an extension of the previous project and focuses on creating customized teaching materials and tools for the teachers and parents of the students of the Early Enrichment Program at SRPMIC. However, to determine and maximize the usefulness of the teaching materials with regards to their reliability, validity, and practicality in the given context, this research aims to conduct Environmental Analysis and Need Analysis. Environmental Analysis seeks to evaluate the Early Enrichment Program situation and Need Analysis to investigate the specific and situated requirements of the teachers to assist students in building target language skills. The study employs a qualitative methods approach for the collection of the data. Multiple data collection strategies are used concurrently to gather information from the participants. The research tools include semi-structured interviews with the program administrators and teachers, classroom observations, and teacher shadowing. The researchers utilize triangulation of the data to maintain validity in the process of data interpretation. The preliminary results of the study show a need for culturally appropriate materials that can further the learning of students of the target language as well as the culture, i.e., clay pots and basket-making materials. It was found that the course and teachers focus on developing the Listening and Speaking skills of the students. Moreover, to assist the young learners beyond the classroom, the teachers could make use of send-home teaching materials to reinforce the learning (i.e., coloring books, including illustrations of culturally relevant animals, food, and places). Audio language resources are also identified as helpful additional materials for the parents to assist the learning of the kids.

Keywords: indigenous education, materials development, need analysis, piipaash language revitalizaton

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Authors: Xi Quan Cheng, Yan Chao Xu, Xu Jiang, Lu Shao, Cher Hon Lau

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A hydrophilic thin-film-composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane has been developed through the interfacial polymerization (IP) of amino-functional polyethylene glycol (PEG) and trimesoyl chloride. The selective layer is formed on a polyethersulfone (PES) support that is characterized using FTIR, XPS and SEM, and is dependent on monomer immersion duration, and the concentration of monomers and additives. The higher hydrophilicity alongside the larger pore size of the PEG-based selective layer is the key to a high water flux of 66.0 L m-2 h-1 at 5.0 bar. With mean pore radius of 0.42 nm and narrow pore size distribution, the MgSO4 rejections of the PEG based PA TFC NF membranes can reach up to 80.2 %. The hydrophilic PEG based membranes shows positive charged since the isoelectric points range from pH=8.9 to pH=9.1 and the rejection rates for different salts of the novel membranes are in the order of R(MgCl2)>R(MgSO4)>R(NaCl)>R(Na2SO4). The pore sizes and water permeability of these membranes are tailored by varying the molecular weight and molecular architecture of amino-functional PEG. Due to the unique structure of the selective layer of the PEG based membranes consisting of saturated aliphatic construction unit (CH2-CH2-O), the membranes demonstrate dual resistance to fouling and chlorine. The membranes maintain good salt rejections and high water flux of PEG based membranes after treatment by 2000 ppm NaClO for 24 hours. Interestingly, the PEG based membranes exhibit excellent fouling resistance with a water flux recovery of 90.2 % using BSA as a model molecule. More importantly, the hydrophilic PEG based NF membranes have been exploited to separate several water soluble antibiotics (such as tobramycin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic applied in the treatment of various types of bacterial infections), showing excellent performance in concentration or removal of antibioics.

Keywords: nanofiltration, antibiotic separation, hydrophilic membrane, high flux

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Authors: Asma Bettahar, Imed Eddine Nezli, Sameh Habes

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Groundwater resources in the Oued Righ valley are represented like the parts of the eastern basin of the Algerian Sahara, superposed by two major aquifers: the Intercalary Continental (IC) and the Terminal Complex (TC). From a qualitative point of view, various studies have highlighted that the waters of this region showed excessive mineralization, including the waters of the terminal complex (EC Avg equal 5854.61 S/cm) .The present article is a statistical approach by two multi methods various complementary (ACP, CAH), applied to the analytical data of multilayered aquifer waters Terminal Complex of the Oued Righ valley. The approach is to establish a correlation between the chemical composition of water and the lithological nature of different aquifer levels formations, and predict possible connection between groundwater’s layers. The results show that the mineralization of water is from geological origin. They concern the composition of the layers that make up the complex terminal.

Keywords: complex terminal, mineralization, oued righ, statistical approach

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Authors: Zi-Yan Chao

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With the rapid development of urbanization and increasing demand for efficient transportation systems, the interaction between land use diversity and transportation resource allocation has become a critical issue in urban planning. Achieving a balance of land use types, such as residential, commercial, and industrial areas, is crucial role in ensuring social equity and sustainable urban development. Simultaneously, optimizing multimodal transportation networks, including bus, subway, and car routes, is essential for minimizing total travel time and costs, while ensuring fairness for all social groups, particularly in meeting the transportation needs of low-income populations. This study develops a bilevel programming model to address these challenges, with land use diversity as the foundation for measuring equity. The upper-level model maximizes land use diversity for balanced land distribution across regions. The lower-level model optimizes multimodal transportation networks to minimize travel time and costs while maintaining user equilibrium. The model also incorporates constraints to ensure fair resource allocation, such as balancing transportation accessibility and cost differences across various social groups. A solution approach is developed to solve the bilevel optimization problem, ensuring efficient exploration of the solution space for land use and transportation resource allocation. This study maximizes social equity by maximizing land use diversity and achieving user equilibrium with optimal transportation resource distribution. The proposed method provides a robust framework for addressing urban planning challenges, contributing to sustainable and equitable urban development.

Keywords: bilevel programming model, genetic algorithms, land use diversity, multimodal transportation optimization, social equity

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Authors: J. P. Gorninski, J. M. L. Reis

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This present work was aimed to develop polymeric mortars having as binder two polyester resins namely isophtalic and orthophtalic polyester. The inorganic phase was composed by medium-size river sand and fly ash fíller, a by-product of the burning of coal in power plants. The compositions in this study are high performance mortars and were assessed by mechanical properties, through compressive strength and flexural strength, by durability strength when exposed to the cyclical variation of temperature from -400C to +300C and by the chemical aggression test. The composites displayed good performance when exposed to cyclical temperature variations and chemical solutions. The mechanical strength values reached the 100 MPa, the flexural strength yielded values of about twenty percent of mechanical strength.

Keywords: polymer mortar, mechanical strength, cyclical temperatures, chemical strength, sustainability

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Authors: Asma Bettahar, Imed Eldine Nezli, Sameh Habes

Abstract:

Groundwater resources in the Oued Righ valley are represented like the parts of the eastern basin of the Algerian Sahara, superposed by two major aquifers: the Intercalary Continental (IC) and the Terminal Complex (TC). From a qualitative point of view, various studies have highlighted that the waters of this region showed excessive mineralization, including the waters of the terminal complex (EC Avg equal 5854.61 S/cm). The present article is a statistical approach by two multi methods various complementary (ACP CAH), applied to the analytical data of multilayered aquifer waters Terminal Complex of the Oued Righ valley. The approach is to establish a correlation between the chemical composition of water and the lithological nature of different aquifer levels formations, and predict possible connection between groundwater’s layers. The results show that the mineralization of water is from geological origin. They concern the composition of the layers that make up the complex terminal.

Keywords: oued righ, complex terminal, infill continental, mineralization

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Authors: Ebru Aktepe Erkoç, Atilla Uluğ

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In this research which has been prepared to show the relationship between Gökova Bay’s morphotectonic structure and seismicity, it is clear that there are many active faults in the region. The existence of a thick sedimentary accumulation since Late Quaternary times is obvious as a result of the geophysical workings in the region and the interpretation of seismic data which has been planning to be taken from the Bay. In the regions which have been tectonically active according to the interpretation of the taken data, the existence of the successive earthquakes in the last few years is remarkable. By analyzing large earthquakes affecting the areas remaining inside the sediments in West Anatolian Collapse System, this paper aims to reveal the fault systems constituting earthquakes with the information obtained from this study and to determine seismicity of the present residential areas right next to them. It is also aimed to anticipate the measures to be taken against possible earthquake hazards, to identify these areas posing a risk in terms of residential and urban planning and to determine at least partly the characteristics of the basin.

Keywords: Gökova Bay, sedimentation, seismic, West Anatolian

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Authors: Mihaela Alina Stanciu, Daniel Toma

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With a touristic and economic potential among the highest in our country, Neamț County has a large number of impressive storage lakes (Izvoru Muntelui – Bicaz, Bâtca Doamnei, Vaduri, Pângărați), with high hydrographic capacities, but also a diversity of biotopes and habitats. Being an area with frequent exceedances of environmental quality indicators, we analyzed in this work their impact on the water quality parameters in three of the most visited lakes of Neamț County: Bâtca Doamnei, Vaduri, and Pângărați. An additional reason is the risk of the water eutrophication process in these lakes, representing one of the first six most important pollution problems worldwide. During the research carried out over a period of four years (2020 – 2024), we identified the major sources of water pollution for the mentioned reservoirs. We analyzed the type of impact produced by each source separately, and we proposed preventiong and control measures detailed according to their action on water quality parameters.

Keywords: ecosystem, environment, eutrophication, lakes, nutrients, pollution, water quality

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Authors: Mara Getachew Zenebe, Luuk Fleskens, Abdu Obieda Ahmed

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This paper seeks to advance our scientific understanding of optimizing flood utilization in regions impacted by climate change, with a focus on enhancing agricultural productivity through effective irrigation management. The study was conducted as part of a three-year (2021 to 2023) USAID-supported initiative aimed at promoting Economic Growth and Peace in the Gash Agricultural Scheme (GAS), situated in Sudan's water-stressed Eastern region. GAS is the country's largest flood-irrigated scheme, covering 100,800 hectares of cultivable land, with a potential to provide the food security needs of over a quarter of a million agro-pastoral community members. GAS relies on the Gash River, which sources its water from high-intensity rainfall events in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea. However, climate change and variations in these highlands have led to increased variability in the Gash River's flow. The study conducted water balance analyses based on a ten-year dataset of the annual Gash River flow, irrigated area; as well as the evapotranspiration demand of the major sorghum crop. Data collection methods included field measurements, surveys, remote sensing, and CropWat modelling. The water balance assessment revealed that the existing three-year rotation-based irrigation system management, capping cultivated land at 33,000 hectares annually, is excessively risk-averse. While this system reduced conflicts among the agro-pastoral communities by consistently delivering on the land promised to be annually cultivated, it also increased GAS's vulnerability to flood damage due to several reasons. The irrigation efficiency over the past decade was approximately 30%, leaving significant unharnessed floodwater that caused damage to infrastructure and agricultural land. The three-year rotation resulted in inadequate infrastructural maintenance, given the destructive nature of floods. Additionally, it led to infrequent land tillage, allowing the encroachment of mesquite trees hindering major sorghum crop growth. Remote sensing data confirmed that mesquite trees have overtaken 70,000 hectares in the past two decades, rendering them unavailable for agriculture. The water balance analyses suggest shifting to a two-year rotation, covering approximately 50,000 hectares annually while maintaining risk aversion. This shift could boost GAS's annual sorghum production by two-thirds, exceeding 850,000 tons. The scheme's efficiency can be further enhanced through low-cost on-farm interventions. Currently, large irrigation plots that range from 420 to 756 hectares are irrigated with limited water distribution guidance, leading to uneven irrigation. As demonstrated through field trials, implementing internal longitudinal bunds and horizontal deflector bunds can increase adequately irrigated parts of the irrigation plots from 50% to 80% and thus nearly double the sorghum yield to 2 tons per hectare while reducing the irrigation duration from 30 days to a maximum of 17 days. Flow measurements in 2021 and 2022 confirmed that these changes sufficiently meet the sorghum crop's water requirements, even with a conservative 60% field application efficiency assumption. These insights and lessons from the GAS on enhancing agricultural resilience and sustainability in the face of climate change are relevant to flood-based livelihood systems globally.

Keywords: climate change, irrigation management and productivity, variable flood flows, water balance analysis

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Authors: Amira Zatir, Abderahmane Mokhtari, Amina Foufa, Sara Zatir

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It exists in several regions in the world, of numerous historic monuments, buildings and housing environment, built in traditional ways which survive for earthquakes, even in zones where the seismic risk is particularly raised. These constructions, stemming from vernacular architecture, allow, through their resistances in the time earthquakes, to identify the various sismo-resistant "local" techniques. Through the examples and the experiences presented, the remark which can be made, is that in the traditional built, two major principles in a way opposite, govern the constructions in earthquake-resistant. It is about the very big flexibility, whom answer very light constructions, like the Japanese wooden constructions, Turkish and even Chinese; that of the very big rigidity to which correspond constructions in masonry in particular stone, more or less heavy and massive, which we meet in particular in the Mediterranean Basin, and in the historic sanctuary of Machu Pacchu. In it sensible and well-reflected techniques of construction are added, of which the use of the humble materials such as the earth and the adobe. The ancient communities were able to face the seismic risks, thanks to them know-how reflected in their intelligently designed constructions, testifying of a local seismic culture.

Keywords: earthquake, architecture, traditional, construction, resistance

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Authors: Radu Pop, Adrian Bot, Vasile Rednic, Emil Bruj, Oana Raita, Liviu Vaida

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Our research presents a study concerning optimization of water flow capture for micro-hydro power plants in order to increase the energy production. It is known that the fish ladder whole, were the water is capture is fix, and the water flow may vary with the river flow, this means that on the fish ladder we will have different servitude flows, sometimes more than needed. We propose to demonstrate that the ‘winter intake’ from micro-hydro power plant, could be automated with an intelligent system which is capable to read some imposed data and adjust the flow in to the needed value. With this automation concept, we demonstrate that the performance of the micro-hydro power plant could increase, in some flow operating regimes, with approx. 10%.

Keywords: energy, micro-hydro, water intake, fish ladder

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Authors: Ci Lin, Tet Yeap, Iluju Kiringa

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This paper introduces the subspace rotation algorithm (SRA) to train the Restricted Hopfield Network (RHN) as an auto-associative memory. Subspace rotation algorithm is a gradient-free subspace tracking approach based on the singular value decomposition (SVD). In comparison with Backpropagation Through Time (BPTT) on training RHN, it is observed that SRA could always converge to the optimal solution and BPTT could not achieve the same performance when the model becomes complex, and the number of patterns is large. The AUTS case study showed that the RHN model trained by SRA could achieve a better structure of attraction basin with larger radius(in general) than the Hopfield Network(HNN) model trained by Hebbian learning rule. Through learning 10000 patterns from MNIST dataset with RHN models with different number of hidden nodes, it is observed that an several components could be adjusted to achieve a balance between recovery accuracy and noise resistance.

Keywords: hopfield neural network, restricted hopfield network, subspace rotation algorithm, hebbian learning rule

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Authors: Ekaterina Posokhova, Boris Gavrilov

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Priority national projects have become an essential phenomenon in the Russian Federation. Both regional and local government institutions and a significant part of the society have been involved in their implementation. The scale and multispectricity of the national projects give a reason to believe that their concept is beyond the scope of the individual state programs. The national project “environment” contains federal projects on waste management, water, and air quality, ecotourism development, and biodiversity conservation highlights the importance of the preservation and restoration of Volga River and Lake Baikal ecosystems. This study assesses the national projects according to their relativeness with the current SDGs (i.e., SGD 14 and 15), evaluates the methodology of the projects. The paper considers the peculiarities of the national projects as strategic management tools as well as the possibility of amending the project objective indicators. Conclusion on the effectiveness of NP in terms of achieving SDGs is provided.

Keywords: management, SDP, russia, conservation, law

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Authors: Alana C. M. Santana, Mary L. G. S. Senna

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T Sustainable development is very important for the existence of life on the planet. The use of any space without planning can cause impacts on the environment, which depending on the proportion may be irreversible. Buritis beach is very frequented by visitors, but it has no information on use and does not have enough infrastructure to collaborate with the preservation of the environment. Therefore, the objective of this study was to adopt a simple control list of environmental impacts in river beaches, in order to identify the environmental impacts generated in the post-holiday seasons of Buritis beach and to characterize the beach in terms of infrastructure. The holidays that carried out the analyzes were the nationals of the second half of 2017, as well as the universal fraternization holiday of 2018. The results show that the beach needs investments in its infrastructure and educational campaigns to minimize environmental impacts caused by anthropic action.

Keywords: environmental impacts, sustainable development, Buritis Beach, Brazil.

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Authors: Duong Thi Hong, Nguyen Van Hung, Martin Gummert

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Good practices of mechanical drying can reduce losses of grain quality. Recently, with demands of higher capacity for paddy drying in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam, columnar dryers have been introduced rapidly in this area. To improve the technology, this study was conducted to investigate and optimize the parameters for drying Jasmine paddy using an empirical cross-flow columnar dryer. The optimum parameters were resulted in air flow rate and drying temperature that are 1-1.5 m³ s-¹ t-¹ of paddy and 40-42°C, respectively. The investigation also addressed a solution of reversing drying air to achieve the uniformity of grain temperature and quality. Results of this study should be significant for developments of grain drying, contributing to reduce post harvest losses

Keywords: paddy drying, columnar dryer, air flow rate, drying temperature

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Authors: Mohamrd Ali Alrabib

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Sandstones samples were selected from cores of seven wells ranging in depth from 5040 to 7181.4 ft. The dominant authigenic cement phase is quartz overgrowth cement (up to 13% by volume) and this is the major mechanism for porosity reduction. Late stage carbonate cements (siderite and dolomite/ferroan dolomite) are present and these minerals infill intergranular porosity and, therefore, further reduce porosity and probably permeability. Authigenic clay minerals are represented by kaolinite, illite, and grain coating clay minerals. Kaolinite occurs as booklet and vermicular forms. Minor amounts of illite were noted in the studied samples, which commonly block pore throats, thereby reducing permeability. Primary porosity of up to 26.5% is present. Secondary porosity (up to 17%) is also present as a result of feldspar dissolution. The high intergranular volume (IGV) of the sandstones indicates that mechanical and chemical compaction played a more important role than cementation of porosity loss.

Keywords: authigenic minerals, porosity types, porosity reduction, mamuniyat sandstone reservoir

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Authors: L. G. Abubakar, A. M. El-Okene, M. L. Suleiman, Z. Abubakar

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Fadama tillage in Northern Nigeria and in Zaria in particular, has relied on manual labour and corresponding implements which are associated with drudgery, loss of human energy due to bending and reduced productivity. A survey was conducted to study the present tillage practices and determine the constraints associated with the use of animal traction for mechanized tillage of the Fadama. The study revealed that Fadama farmers (mostly aged between 36 and 60 years) use manual labour with tools like small hoe, big hoe and rake to till during the dry season (October of one year to March of the next year). Most of the Fadama farmers believe that tillage operations like ploughing, harrowing and basin making are very important tillage activities in the preparation of seedbeds for crops like green maize, sugarcane and vegetables, but are constrained to using animal traction for tillage due to beliefs like unsuitability of the workbulls and corresponding implements, Fadama soil being too heavy for the system and the non-attainment of deep tillage required by crops like sugarcane and potato. These were affirmed by local blacksmiths of animal traction implements and agricultural officers of government establishments.

Keywords: snimal traction, Fadama, tillage implements, workbulls

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Authors: Negin Binesh, Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan, Amin Sarang

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Best Management Practices (BMPs) are considered as one of the most important structural adaptive measures to climate change and urban development challenges in recent decades. However, not every location is appropriate for applying BMPs in the watersheds. In this paper, location prioritization of two kinds of BMPs was done: Pourous pavement and Detention pond. West Flood-Diversion (WFD) catchment in northern parts of Tehran, Iran, was considered as the case study. The methodology includes integrating the results of Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) into Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method using Geographic Information System (GIS). The results indicate that mostly suburban areas of the watershed in northern parts are appropriate for applying detention basin, and downstream high-density urban areas are more suitable for using permeable pavement.

Keywords: adaptive measures, BMPs, location prioritization, urban flooding

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Authors: Olagunju John Olusesan-Remi

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The study area Ijero-Ekiti falls within the Ilesha-Ekiti Schist belt, originating from the long year of the Pan-Africa orogenic events and various cataclysmic tectonic activities in history. Ijero-Ekiti is situated within latitude 7 degree 45N and 7 Degree 55N. Ijero Ekiti is bordered between the Dahomean Basin and the southern Bida/Benue basin on the Geological map of Nigeria. This research work centers on majorly on investigating the chemical composition and as well as the mineralogical distribution of the various mineral-bearing rocks that composed the study area. This work is essentially carried out with a view to assessing and at the same time ascertaining the economic potentials and or the industrial significance of the area to Ekiti-south western region and the Nigeria nation as a whole. The mineralogical distribution pattern is of particular interest to us in this study. In this regard essential focus is put on the mostly the economic gemstones distributions within the various mineral bearing rocks in the zone, some of which includes the tourmaline formation, cassiterite deposit, tin-ore, tantalum columbite, smoky quartz, amethyst, polychrome and emerald variety beryl among others as they occurred within the older granite of the Precambrian rocks. To this end, samples of the major rock types were taken from various locations within the study area for detail scientific analysis as follows: The Igemo pegmatite of Ijero west, the epidiorite of Idaho, the biotitic hornblende gneiss of Ikoro-Ijero north and the beryl crystalline rock types to mention a few. The slides of the each rock from the aforementioned zones were later prepared and viewed under a cross Nichol petro graphic microscope with a particular focus on the light reflection ability of the constituent minerals in each rock samples. The results from the physical analysis viewed from the colour had it that the pegmatite samples ranges from pure milky white to fairly pinkish coloration. Other physical properties investigated include the streak, luster, form, specific gravity, cleavage/fracture pattern etc. The optical examination carried out centers on the refractive indices and pleochroism of the minerals present while the chemical analysis reveals from the tourmaline samples a differing correlation coefficient of the various oxides in each samples collected through which the mineral presence was established. In conclusion, it was inferred that the various minerals outlined above were in reasonable quantity within the Ijero area. With the above discoveries, therefore, we strongly recommend a detailed scientific investigation to be carried out such that will lead to a comprehensive mining of the area. Above all, it is our conclusion that a comprehensive mineralogical exploitation of this area will not only boost the socio-economic potential of the area but at the same time will go a long way contributing immensely to the socio-economic growth and development of the Nation-Nigeria at large.

Keywords: Ijero Ekiti, Southwestern Nigeria, economic minerals, pegmatite of the pan African origin, cataclastic tectonic activities, Ilesha Schistbelt, precambrian formations

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Authors: Priyanka Mondal, Santosh K. Sarkar

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The present study investigated the spatiotemporal distribution and ecological risk assessment of trace elements of surface sediments (top 0 - 5 cm; grain size ≤ 0.63 µm) in relevance to sediment quality characteristics along the Ganges River Estuary, India. Sediment samples were collected during ebb tide from intertidal regions covering seven sampling sites of diverse environmental stresses. The elements were analyzed with the help of ICPAES. This positive, mixohaline, macro-tidal estuary has global significance contributing ecological and economic services. Presence of fine-clayey particle (47.03%) enhances the adsorption as well as transportation of trace elements. There is a remarkable inter-metallic variation (mg kg-1 dry weight) in the distribution pattern in the following manner: Al (31801± 15943) > Fe (23337± 7584) > Mn (461±147) > S(381±235) > Zn(54 ±18) > V(43 ±14) > Cr(39 ±15) > As (34±15) > Cu(27 ±11) > Ni (24 ±9) > Se (17 ±8) > Co(11 ±3) > Mo(10 ± 2) > Hg(0.02 ±0.01). An overall trend of enrichment of majority of trace elements was very much pronounced at the site Lot 8, ~ 35km upstream of the estuarine mouth. In contrast, the minimum concentration was recorded at site Gangasagar, mouth of the estuary, with high energy profile. The prevalent variations in trace element distribution are being liable for a set of cumulative factors such as hydrodynamic conditions, sediment dispersion pattern and textural variations as well as non-homogenous input of contaminants from point and non-point sources. In order to gain insight into the trace elements distribution, accumulation, and their pollution status, geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and enrichment factor (EF) were used. The Igeo indicated that surface sediments were moderately polluted with As (0.60) and Mo (1.30) and strongly contaminated with Se (4.0). The EF indicated severe pollution of Se (53.82) and significant pollution of As (4.05) and Mo (6.0) and indicated the influx of As, Mo and Se in sediments from anthropogenic sources (such as industrial and municipal sewage, atmospheric deposition, agricultural run-off, etc.). The significant role of the megacity Calcutta in relevance to the untreated sewage discharge, atmospheric inputs and other anthropogenic activities is worthwhile to mention. The ecological risk for different trace elements was evaluated using sediment quality guidelines, effects range low (ERL), and effect range median (ERM). The concentration of As, Cu and Ni at 100%, 43% and 86% of the sampling sites has exceeded the ERL value while none of the element concentration exceeded ERM. The potential ecological risk index values revealed that As at 14.3% of the sampling sites would pose relatively moderate risk to benthic organisms. The effective role of finer clay particles for trace element distribution was revealed by multivariate analysis. The authors strongly recommend regular monitoring emphasizing on accurate appraisal of the potential risk of trace elements for effective and sustainable management of this estuarine environment.

Keywords: pollution assessment, sediment contamination, sediment quality, trace elements

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Authors: Ewa Bednorz, Marek Polrolniczak, Bartosz Czernecki, Arkadiusz Marek Tomczyk

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This study is meant as a contribution to the research of the upwelling phenomenon, which is one of the most pronounced examples of the sea-atmosphere coupling. The aim is to confirm the atmospheric forcing of the sea waters circulation and sea surface temperature along the variously oriented Baltic Sea coasts and to find out macroscale and regional circulation patterns triggering upwelling along different sections of this relatively small and semi-closed sea basin. The mean daily sea surface temperature data from the summer seasons (June–August) of the years 1982–2017 made the basis for the detection of upwelling cases. For the atmospheric part of the analysis, monthly indices of the Northern Hemisphere macroscale circulation patterns were used. Besides, in order to identify the local direction of airflow, the daily zonal and meridional regional circulation indices were constructed and introduced to the analysis. Finally, daily regional circulation patterns over the Baltic Sea region were distinguished by applying the principal component analysis to the gridded mean daily sea level pressure data. Within the Baltic Sea, upwelling is the most frequent along the zonally oriented northern coast of the Gulf of Finland, southern coasts of Sweden, and along the middle part of the western Gulf of Bothnia coast. Among the macroscale circulation patterns, the Scandinavian type (SCAND), with a primary circulation center located over Scandinavia, has the strongest impact on the horizontal flow of surface sea waters in the Baltic Sea, which triggers upwelling. An anticyclone center over Scandinavia in the positive phase of SCAND enhances the eastern airflow, which increases upwelling frequency along southeastern Baltic coasts. It was proved in the study that the zonal circulation has a stronger impact on upwelling occurrence than the meridional one, and it could increase/decrease a chance of upwelling formation by more than 70% in some coastal sections. Positive and negative phases of six distinguished regional daily circulation patterns made 12 different synoptic situations which were analyzed in the terms of their influence on the upwelling formation. Each of them revealed some impact on the frequency of upwelling in some coastal section of the Baltic Sea; however, two kinds of synoptic situations seemed to have the strongest influence, namely, the first kind representing pressure patterns enhancing the zonal flow and the second kind representing synoptic patterns with a cyclone/anticyclone centers over southern Scandinavia. Upwelling occurrence appeared to be particularly strongly reliant on the atmospheric conditions in some specific coastal sections, namely: the Gulf of Finland, the south eastern Baltic coasts (Polish and Latvian-Lithuanian section), and the western part of the Gulf of Bothnia. Concluding, it can be stated that atmospheric conditions strongly control the occurrence of upwelling within the Baltic Sea basin. Both local and macroscale circulation patterns expressed by the location of the pressure centers influence the frequency of this phenomenon; however, the impact strength varies, depending on the coastal region. Acknowledgment: This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant number 2016/21/B/ST10/01440.

Keywords: Baltic Sea, circulation patterns, coastal upwelling, synoptic conditions

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Authors: Ahmed N. Shmroukh, Gamal Tag Abdel-Jaber, Rashed D. Aldughpassi

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The feasibility of improving the performance of the proposed solar still unit which operated in very hot climate is investigated numerically and verified with experimental data. This solar desalination unit with proposed auxiliary device as seawater preheating system using petrol based textherm oil was used to produce pure fresh water from seawater. The effective evaporation area of basin is about 1 m². The unit was tested in two main operation modes which are normal and with seawater preheating system. The results showed that, there is good agreement between the theoretical data and the experimental data; this means that the numerical model can be accurately dependable for predicting the proposed solar still performance and design parameters. The results also showed that the fresh water productivity of the solar still in the modified preheating case which is higher than normal case, leads to an increase in productivity of 42%.

Keywords: improving productivity, seawater desalination, solar stills, theoretical model

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Authors: Arash Ahmadi, Amirreza Kavousizadeh, Sanaz Heidarzadeh

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Stage-discharge curve is one of the conventional methods for continuous river flow measurement. In this paper, an innovative approach is proposed for predicting the stage-discharge relationship using the application of isovel contours. Using the proposed method, it is possible to estimate the stage-discharge curve in the whole section with only using discharge information from just one arbitrary water level. For this purpose, multivariate relationships are used to determine the mean velocity in a cross-section. The unknown exponents of the proposed relationship have been obtained by using the second version of the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2), and the appropriate equation was selected by applying the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) approach. Results showed a close agreement between the estimated and observed data in the different cross-sections.

Keywords: rating curves, SPEA2, natural rivers, bed roughness distribution

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Authors: Sophia Ming Lee Wen, Chao-Ching Kuo, Yu-Line Hu, Yu-Lung Ho, Chih-Cheng Huang, Yi-Hwa Lee

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Teaching and learning should involve social issues by which effectiveness and humanity is due consideration as a guideline for sharing and co-creating knowledge. A qualitative method was used after a pioneer study to confirm pre-service teachers’ awareness of open knowledge. There are 17 in-service teacher candidates sampling from 181 schools in Taiwan. Two questions are to resolve: a) How did teachers change their educational ideas, in particular, their attitudes to meet the needs of knowledge sharing and co-creativity; and b) How did they acknowledge the necessity of working out an appropriate way between the educational efficiency and the nature of education for high performance management. This interview investigated teachers’ attitude of sharing and co-creating knowledge. The results show two facts in Taiwan: A) Individuals who must be able to express themselves will be capable of taking part in an open learning environment; and B) Teachers must lead the direction to inspire high performance and improve students’ capacity via knowledge sharing and co-creating knowledge, according to the student-centered philosophy. Collected data from interviewing showed that the teachers were well aware of changing their teaching methods and make some improvements to balance the educational efficiency and the nature of education. Almost all teachers acknowledge that ICT is helpful to motivate learning enthusiasm. Further, teaching integrated with ICT saves teachers’ time and energy on teaching preparation and promoting effectiveness. Teachers are willing to co-create knowledge with students, though using information is not easy due to the lack of operating skills of the website and ICT. Some teachers are against to co-create knowledge in the informational background since they hold that is not feasible for there being a knowledge gap between teachers and students. Technology would easily mislead teachers and students to the goal of instrumental rationality, which makes pedagogy dysfunctional and inhumane; however, any high quality of teaching should take a dialectical balance between effectiveness and humanity.

Keywords: critical thinking, dialectic between effectiveness and humanity, open knowledge, pedagogy

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Authors: Chi-Jung Chung, Chao-Hsiang Chang, Chiu-Shong Liu, Sheng-Wei Li, Mu-Chi Chung, Ting-Jie Wen, Hui-Ling Lee

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Cigarette smoke contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as acrylamide, 1,3-butadiene, and benzene. This study aimed to explore the associations between the urinary levels of cotinine and VOC metabolites and the risk of urothelial carcinoma (UC). A hospital-based case–control study involving two groups matched on the basis of age ( ± 3 years) and gender was designed. UC was clinically diagnosed through urological examinations and pathologically verified. Smoking-related information was collected through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with all study participants. Urine samples were collected for the analysis of the urinary levels of VOC metabolites, cotinine, and 8-hydroxydeoxygua- nosine (8-OHdG), which was selected as a proxy of oxidative stress. Multiple logistic regressions were applied to estimate the risk of UC. The urinary cotinine and 8-OHdG levels of the UC group were higher than those of the control group. The urinary levels of VOC metabolites, including N-acetyl-S-(2-carbamoylethyl)-L-cysteine (AAMA), N- acetyl-S-(2-carbamoyl-2-hydroxyethyl)-L-cysteine, N-acetyl-S- (4- hydroxy-2-buten-1-yl)-Lcysteine-3, trans, trans-muconic acid (t,t- MA), and S-phenylmercapturic acid (SPMA) increased as the urinary levels of cotinine increased. Relevant dose-response relationships between the risk of UC risk and the urinary levels of AAMA , t,t-MA, SPMA, and 8-OHdG were found after adjusting for potential risk factors. The UC risk of participants with high urinary levels of cotinine, AAMA, t,t-MA, SPMA, and 8-OHdG were 3.5–6-fold higher than those of other participants. Increased urinary levels of VOC metabolites were associated with smoking-related UC risk. The development of UC should be explored in large-scale in vitro or in vivo studies with the repeated measurement of VOC metabolites.

Keywords: volatile organic compound, urothelial carcinoma, cotinine, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine

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Authors: Tomasz Wejrzanowski, Łukasz Kaczmarek, Michał Maksimczuk

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High-resolution X-ray computed microtomography (µCT) is a non-destructive technique commonly used to determine the internal structure of reservoir rock sample. This study concerns µCT analysis of Silurian and Ordovician shales and mudstones from a borehole in the Baltic Basin, north of Poland. The spatial resolution of the µCT images obtained was 27 µm, which enabled the authors to create accurate 3-D visualizations and to calculate the ratio of pores and fractures volume to the total sample volume. A total of 1024 µCT slices were used to create a 3-D volume of sample structure geometry. These µCT slices were processed to obtain a clearly visible image and the volume ratio. A copper X-ray source filter was used to reduce image artifacts. Due to accurate technical settings of µCT it was possible to obtain high-resolution 3-D µCT images of low X-ray transparency samples. The presented results confirm the utility of µCT implementations in geoscience and show that µCT has still promising applications for reservoir exploration and characterization.

Keywords: fractures, material density, pores, structure

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Authors: Hayder H. Kareem, Shunqi Pan

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Groundwater is a vital water resource in many areas in the world, particularly in the Middle-East region where the water resources become scarce and depleting. Sustainable management and planning of the groundwater resources become essential and urgent given the impact of the global climate change. In the recent years, numerical models have been widely used to predict the flow pattern and assess the water resources security, as well as the groundwater quality affected by the contaminants transported. In this study, MODFLOW is used to study the current status of groundwater resources and the risk of water resource security in the region centred at Al-Najaf City, which is located in the mid-west of Iraq and adjacent to the Euphrates River. In this study, a conceptual model is built using the geologic and hydrogeologic collected for the region, together with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data obtained from the "Global Land Cover Facility" (GLCF) and "United State Geological Survey" (USGS) for the study area. The computer model is also implemented with the distributions of 69 wells in the area with the steady pro-defined hydraulic head along its boundaries. The model is then applied with the recharge rate (from precipitation) of 7.55 mm/year, given from the analysis of the field data in the study area for the period of 1980-2014. The hydraulic conductivity from the measurements at the locations of wells is interpolated for model use. The model is calibrated with the measured hydraulic heads at the locations of 50 of 69 wells in the domain and results show a good agreement. The standard-error-of-estimate (SEE), root-mean-square errors (RMSE), Normalized RMSE and correlation coefficient are 0.297 m, 2.087 m, 6.899% and 0.971 respectively. Sensitivity analysis is also carried out, and it is found that the model is sensitive to recharge, particularly when the rate is greater than (15mm/year). Hydraulic conductivity is found to be another parameter which can affect the results significantly, therefore it requires high quality field data. The results show that there is a general flow pattern from the west to east of the study area, which agrees well with the observations and the gradient of the ground surface. It is found that with the current operational pumping rates of the wells in the area, a dry area is resulted in Al-Najaf City due to the large quantity of groundwater withdrawn. The computed water balance with the current operational pumping quantity shows that the Euphrates River supplies water into the groundwater of approximately 11759 m3/day, instead of gaining water of 11178 m3/day from the groundwater if no pumping from the wells. It is expected that the results obtained from the study can provide important information for the sustainable and effective planning and management of the regional groundwater resources for Al-Najaf City.

Keywords: Al-Najaf city, conceptual modelling, groundwater, unconfined aquifer, visual MODFLOW

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