Search results for: crop water productivity

Authors: František Bozek, Alexandr Bozek, Alena Bumbova, Eduard Bakos, Jiri Dvorak

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The article deals with the classification of alternative water resources in terms of potential risks which is the prerequisite for incorporating these water resources to the emergency plans. The classification is based on the quantification of risks resulting from possible damage, disruption or total destruction of water resource caused by natural and anthropogenic hazards, assessment of water quality and availability, traffic accessibility of the assessed resource and finally its water yield. The aim is to achieve the development of an integrated rescue system, which will be capable of supplying the population with drinking water on the whole stricken territory during the states of emergency.

Keywords: Classification, Emergency Supply, Risk, Water Standby Resource.

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Authors: J. Pawłat, H. Stryczewska

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Shortening of natural resources will impose greater limitations of electric energy consumption in various fields including water treatment technologies. Small water treatment installations supplied with electric energy from solar sources are perfect example of zero-emission technology. Possibility of solar energy application, as one of the alternative energy resources for decontamination processes is strongly dependent on geographical location. Various examples of solar driven water purification systems are given and design of solar-water treatment installation based on ozone for the geographical conditions in Poland are presented.

Keywords: solar energy, water purification, ozone water treatment

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Authors: Reihaneh Montazeri Shatouri, Rosmini Omar, Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail

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This study aims at investigating factors in research and development (R&D) growth and exploring the role of R&D management in enhancing social innovation and productivity improvement in Iran-s industrial sector. It basically explores the common types of R&D activities and the industries which benefited the most from active R&D units in Iran. The researchers generated qualitative analyses obtained from primary and secondary data. The primary data have been retrieved through interviews with five key players (Managing Director, Internal Manager, General Manager, Executive Manager, and Project Manager) in the industrial sector. The secondary data acquired from an investigation on Mazandaran, a province of northern Iran. The findings highlight Iran-s focuses of R & D on cost reduction and upgrading productivity. Industries that have benefited the most from active R&D units are metallic, machinery and equipment design, and automotive. We rank order the primary effects of R&D on productivity improvement as follows, industry improvement, economic growth, using professional human resources, generating productivity and creativity culture, creating a competitive and innovative environment, and increasing people-s knowledge. Generally, low budget dedication and insufficient supply of highly skilled scientists and engineers are two important obstacles for R&D in Iran. Whereas, R&D has resulted in improvement in Iranian society, transfer of contemporary knowledge into the international market is still lacking.

Keywords: Productivity, R&D, Transfer of Knowledge

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Authors: Teewin Plangsrinont, Wasawat Nakkiew

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In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was utilized to simulate and predict the path of water from water soot blower through an ambient flow field in 300-megawatt tangentially burned pulverized coal boiler that utilizes a water soot blower as a cleaning device. To predict the position of the impact of water on the opposite side of the water soot blower under identical conditions, the nozzle size and water flow rate were fixed in this investigation. The simulation findings demonstrated a high degree of accuracy in predicting the direction of water flow to the boiler's water wall tube, which was validated by comparison to experimental data. Results show maximum deviation value of the water jet trajectory is 10.2%.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, tangentially fired boiler, thermal power plant, water soot blower.

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Authors: Yilmaz Bayhan, Emin Güzel, Ömer Barış Özlüoymak, Ahmet İnce, Abdullah Sessiz

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In this study, determining of reduced tillage techniques in green bean farming as a second crop after harvesting wheat was targeted. To this aim, four different soil tillage methods namely, heavy-duty disc harrow (HD), rotary tiller (ROT), heavy-duty disc harrow plus rotary tiller (HD+ROT) and no-tillage (NT) (seeding by direct drill) were examined. Experiments were arranged in a randomized block design with three replications. The highest green beans yields were obtained in HD+ROT and NT as 5,862.1 and 5,829.3 Mg/ha, respectively. The lowest green bean yield was found in HD as 3,076.7 Mg/ha. The highest fuel consumption was measured 30.60 L ha^-1 for HD+ROT whereas the lowest value was found 7.50 L ha^-1 for NT. No tillage method gave the best results for fuel consumption and effective power requirement. It is concluded that no-tillage method can be used in second crop green bean in the Thrace Region due to economic and erosion conditions.

Keywords: Soil tillage, green bean, vegetative, generative, yield.

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Authors: Hossein Taherian Far, Ali Bazaee

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Achieving continuous sustained economic growth and following economic development can be the target for all countries which are looking for it. In this regard, distribution industry plays an important role in growth and development of any nation. So, estimating the efficiency and productivity of the so called industry and identifying factors influencing it, is very necessary. The objective of the present study is to measure the efficiency and productivity of seven branches of Nina Distribution Company using window data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index from spring 2013 to summer 2015. In this study, using criteria of fixed assets, payroll personnel, operating costs and duration of collection of receivables were selected as inputs and people and net sales, gross profit and percentage of coverage to customers were selected as outputs. Then, the process of performance window data envelopment analysis was driven and process efficiency has been measured using Malmquist index. The results indicate that the average technical efficiency of window Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model and fluctuating trend is sustainable. But the average management efficiency in window DEA model is related with negative growth (decline) of about 13%. The mean scale efficiency in all windows, except in the second one which is faced with 8%, shows growth of 18% compared to the first window. On the other hand, the mean change in total factor productivity in all branches of the industry shows average negative growth (decrease) of 12% which are the result of a negative change in technology.

Keywords: Nina Distribution Company branches, window data envelopment analysis, Malmquist productivity index.

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Authors: M. M. Ali, Ahmed Al-Ani, Derek Eamus, Daniel K. Y. Tan

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In this glasshouse study, we developed a new imagebased non-destructive technique for detecting leaf P status of different crops such as cotton, tomato and lettuce. The plants were grown on a nutrient solution containing different P concentrations, e.g. 0%, 50% and 100% of recommended P concentration (P0 = no P, L; P1 = 2.5 mL 10 L-1 of P and P2 = 5 mL 10 L-1 of P). After 7 weeks of treatment, the plants were harvested and data on leaf P contents were collected using the standard destructive laboratory method and at the same time leaf images were collected by a handheld crop image sensor. We calculated leaf area, leaf perimeter and RGB (red, green and blue) values of these images. These data were further used in linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to estimate leaf P contents, which successfully classified these plants on the basis of leaf P contents. The data indicated that P deficiency in crop plants can be predicted using leaf image and morphological data. Our proposed nondestructive imaging method is precise in estimating P requirements of different crop species.

Keywords: Image-based techniques, leaf area, leaf P contents, linear discriminant analysis.

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Authors: Chansheng He, Carlo DeMarchi

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A physically based, spatially-distributed water quality model is being developed to simulate spatial and temporal distributions of material transport in the Great Lakes Watersheds of the U.S. Multiple databases of meteorology, land use, topography, hydrography, soils, agricultural statistics, and water quality were used to estimate nonpoint source loading potential in the study watersheds. Animal manure production was computed from tabulations of animals by zip code area for the census years of 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002. Relative chemical loadings for agricultural land use were calculated from fertilizer and pesticide estimates by crop for the same periods. Comparison of these estimates to the monitored total phosphorous load indicates that both point and nonpoint sources are major contributors to the total nutrient loads in the study watersheds, with nonpoint sources being the largest contributor, particularly in the rural watersheds. These estimates are used as the input to the distributed water quality model for simulating pollutant transport through surface and subsurface processes to Great Lakes waters. Visualization and GIS interfaces are developed to visualize the spatial and temporal distribution of the pollutant transport in support of water management programs.

Keywords: Distributed Large Basin Runoff Model, Great LakesWatersheds, nonpoint source pollution, and point sources.

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Authors: G. Tozsin, F. Bakir, C. Acar, E. Koç

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Kurtbogazi Dam has gained special meaning for Ankara, Turkey for the last decade due to the rapid depletion of nearby resources of drinking water. In this study, the results of the analyses of Kurtbogazi Dam outlet water and the rivers flowing into the Kurtbogazi Dam were discussed for the period of last five years between 2008 and 2012. Some physical and chemical properties (pH, temperature, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), nitrate, phosphate and chlorine) of these water resources were evaluated. They were classified according to the Council Directive (75/440/EEC). Moreover, the properties of these surface waters were assessed to determine the quality of water for drinking and irrigation purposes using Piper, US Salinity Laboratory and Wilcox diagrams. The results showed that all the water resources are acceptable level as surface water except for Pazar Stream in terms of ortho-phosphate and BOD5 concentration for 2008.

Keywords: Kurtbogazi dam, water quality assessment, Ankara water, water supply.

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Authors: Jürgen Roßmann, Gerrit Alves

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In today-s world, the efficient utilization of wood resources comes more and more to the mind of forest owners. It is a very complex challenge to ensure an efficient harvest of the wood resources. This is one of the scopes the project “Virtual Forest II" addresses. Its core is a database with data about forests containing approximately 260 million trees located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Based on this data, tree growth simulations and wood mobilization simulations can be conducted. This paper focuses on the latter. It describes a discrete-event-simulation with an attached 3-D real time visualization which simulates timber harvest using trees from the database with different crop resources. This simulation can be displayed in 3-D to show the progress of the wood crop. All the data gathered during the simulation is presented as a detailed summary afterwards. This summary includes cost-benefit calculations and can be compared to those of previous runs to optimize the financial outcome of the timber harvest by exchanging crop resources or modifying their parameters.

Keywords: Timber harvest, simulation, 3-D, optimization.

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Authors: Ehsan Shahrabian, Ali Soleymani

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Several yield-based stress indices have been developed that may be more applicable to work on drought tolerance. In this study, we investigate possibility of using stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield stability index (YSI), yield index (YI), stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), harmonic mean (HARM), mean productivity (MP) to identify genotypic performance of some maize cultivars under normal and stressed condition. The results indicate that it was possible to identify superior genotypes for drought tolerance based on their stress indices and generally SSI indices which showed the lowest negative correlation with dry matter yield can be used as the best index for maize breeding programs to introduce drought tolerant hybrids. It was found that SC 647 showed the best behavior under drought stress condition based on TOL and SSI. A higher STI, GMP, and HARM values were attained for ko_6. It can be suggested that ko₆ should be cultivated in moderate stressful environment of Iran.

Keywords: Index, productivity, stress, susceptibility tolerance, yield.

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Authors: Sisuwan Kaseamsawat, Sivapan Choo-In

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This study aimed to evaluated the surface water quality for agriculture and consumption in the Amphawa District. The surface water quality parameters in this study included water temperature, turbidity, conductivity, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD, nitrate, suspended solids, phosphorus, total dissolved solids (TDS), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd). The water samples were collected from small excavation, Lychee, Pomelo and Coconut orchards for 3 seasons from January to December 2011.

The surface water quality from small excavation, Lychee, pomelo and coconut orchards were met the type III of surface water quality standard. The concentration of heavy metal and did not differ significantly at 0.05 level, except dissolved oxygen.

The surface water was suitable for consumption by the usual sterile and generally improving water quality through the process before and was suitable for agriculture.

Keywords: Water Quality, Surface Water Quality.

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Authors: Xiangtuo Chen, Paul-Henry Cournéde

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Crop yield prediction is a paramount issue in agriculture. The main idea of this paper is to find out efficient way to predict the yield of corn based meteorological records. The prediction models used in this paper can be classified into model-driven approaches and data-driven approaches, according to the different modeling methodologies. The model-driven approaches are based on crop mechanistic modeling. They describe crop growth in interaction with their environment as dynamical systems. But the calibration process of the dynamic system comes up with much difficulty, because it turns out to be a multidimensional non-convex optimization problem. An original contribution of this paper is to propose a statistical methodology, Multi-Scenarios Parameters Estimation (MSPE), for the parametrization of potentially complex mechanistic models from a new type of datasets (climatic data, final yield in many situations). It is tested with CORNFLO, a crop model for maize growth. On the other hand, the data-driven approach for yield prediction is free of the complex biophysical process. But it has some strict requirements about the dataset. A second contribution of the paper is the comparison of these model-driven methods with classical data-driven methods. For this purpose, we consider two classes of regression methods, methods derived from linear regression (Ridge and Lasso Regression, Principal Components Regression or Partial Least Squares Regression) and machine learning methods (Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbor, Artificial Neural Network and SVM regression). The dataset consists of 720 records of corn yield at county scale provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the associated climatic data. A 5-folds cross-validation process and two accuracy metrics: root mean square error of prediction(RMSEP), mean absolute error of prediction(MAEP) were used to evaluate the crop prediction capacity. The results show that among the data-driven approaches, Random Forest is the most robust and generally achieves the best prediction error (MAEP 4.27%). It also outperforms our model-driven approach (MAEP 6.11%). However, the method to calibrate the mechanistic model from dataset easy to access offers several side-perspectives. The mechanistic model can potentially help to underline the stresses suffered by the crop or to identify the biological parameters of interest for breeding purposes. For this reason, an interesting perspective is to combine these two types of approaches.

Keywords: Crop yield prediction, crop model, sensitivity analysis, paramater estimation, particle swarm optimization, random forest.

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Authors: M. S. M. El-Bady

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Water quality and heavy metals pollution of the Damietta Nile Branch at Damietta governorate were investigated in the current work. Fourteen different sampling points were selected along the Damietta Nile branch from Ras EL-Bar (sample 1) to Sheremsah (sample 14). Physical and chemical parameters and the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Fe, Al, Hg, Pb and Zn were investigated for water quality assessment of Damietta Nile Branch at Damietta Governorate. Most of the samples show that the water is suitable for drinking and irrigation purposes. All locations of samples near the sea are unsuitable water but the samples in the south direction away from the sea are suitable or good water for drinking and irrigation.

Keywords: Water quality indices, Damietta Governorate, Nile River, pollution.

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Authors: M. A. Lotfollahi Yaghin, R. Rezaei

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Demanding structural safety under various loading conditions, has focused attention on their variation and structural elements behavior due to these variations. Jacket structures are designed for a specific water level (LAT). One of the important issues about these kinds of structures is the water level rise. For example, the level of water in the Caspian Sea has risen by 2.5m in the last fifteen years and is continuing to rise. In this paper, the structural behavior of one typical shallow or medium water jacket platform (a four-leg steel jacket platform in 55m water depth) under water level rise has been studied. The time history of Von Mises stress and nodal displacement has chosen for evaluating structural behavior. The results show that dependent on previous water depth and structural elements position; different structural elements have different behavior due to water level rise.

Keywords: Jacket offshore platform, Time- history, Von Mises, Water level rise, Utilization Ratio.

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Authors: K. Arunachalam, P. Mannar Jawahar

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Presently, engine cooling pump is driven by toothed belt. Therefore, the pump speed is dependent on engine speed which varies their output. At normal engine operating conditions (Higher RPM and low load, Higher RPM and high load), mechanical water pumps in existing engines are inevitably oversized and so the use of an electric water pump together with state-of-the-art thermal management of the combustion engine has measurable advantages. Demand-driven cooling, particularly in the cold-start phase, saves fuel (approx 3 percent) and leads to a corresponding reduction in emissions. The lack of dependence on a mechanical drive also results in considerable flexibility in component packaging within the engine compartment. This paper describes the testing and comparison of existing mechanical water pump with that of the electric water pump. When the existing mechanical water pump is replaced with the new electric water pump the percentage gain in system efficiency is also discussed.

Keywords: Cooling system, Electric water pump, Mechanical water pump.

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Authors: Himali N. Balasooriya, Kithsiri B. Dassanayake, Saman Seneweera, Said Ajlouni

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Increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentration [CO₂] and ambient temperature associated with changing climatic conditions will have significant impacts on agriculture crop productivity and quality. Independent effects of the above two environmental variables on the growth, yield and quality of strawberry were well documented. Higher temperatures over the optimum range (20-25ºC) lead to crop failures, while elevated [CO₂] stimulated plant growth and yield but compromised the physical quality of fruits. However, there is very limited understanding of the interaction between these variables on the plant growth, yield and quality. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the interactive effect of high temperature and elevated [CO₂] on growth, yield and quality of strawberries. Strawberry cultivars ‘Albion’ and ‘San Andreas’ were grown under six different combinations of two temperatures (25 and 30ºC) and three [CO₂] (400, 650 and 950 µmol mol^-1) in controlled-environmental growth chambers. Plant growth measurements such as plant height, canopy area, number of flowers, and fruit yield were measured during phonological development. Photosynthesis and transpiration, the ratio of intercellular to atmospheric [CO₂] (Ci/Ca) were measured to estimate the physiological adjustment to climate stress. The impact of temperature and [CO₂] interaction on growth and yield of strawberry was significant (p < 0.05). Across both cultivars, highest fruit yields were observed at 650 µmol mol^-1 [CO₂], which was particularly clear at 25°C. The fruit yield gradually decreased at 30°C under all the treatment combinations. However, photosynthesis rates were highest at 650 µmol mol^-1 [CO₂] but no increment was found at 900 µmol mol^-1 [CO₂]. Interestingly, Ci/Ca ratio increased with increasing atmospheric [CO₂] which was predominant at high temperature. Similarly, fruit yield was substantially reduced at high [CO₂] under high temperature. Our findings suggest that increased Ci/Ca ratio at high temperature is likely reduces the photosynthesis and thus yield response to elevated [CO₂].

Keywords: Atmospheric [CO2], fruit yield, strawberry, temperature.

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Authors: Affordability, Expenditure Patterns towards Sustainable Consumption in Malaysia

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Safe drinking water is needed for survival. Households have to pay the water bill monthly. However, lower income households are sometimes unable to afford the cost. This study examines water access and affordability among households in Malaysia and the determinants of water affordability using cross-sectional data and multiple regression. The paper expects that the bill for basic water consumption is inversely related to average income. This means that policy makers need to redesign the water tariff to improve the quality of life of lower income households.

Keywords: Affordability, households, income, water tariff.

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Authors: Dr. Wendy Wang, Dr. Sigalit Ronen

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Telecommuting has become an increasingly popular work arrangement. However, little research has examined the impact of telecommuting on the relationship between employees and the organization. This study aims to shed light on this aspect by comparing the loyalty of telecommuters and non telecommuters as it can be viewed from three angles: organizational loyalty, peer loyalty, and professional loyalty. Furthermore, this paper will explore the dynamics among employee loyalty, productivity, and job satisfaction. Whereas previous studies had looked on employees that are not fully telecommuting, the current study concentrates on employees that are exclusively working from home.

Keywords: loyalty, productivity, satisfaction, telecommuting

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Authors: Keivan Karimlou, Nemat Hassani, Abdollah Rashidi Mehrabadi

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Climate change, industrial bloom, population growth and mismanagement are the most important factors that lead to water shortages around the world. Water shortages often lead to forced immigration, war, and thirst and hunger, especially in developing countries. One of the simplest solutions to solve the water shortage issues around the world is transferring water from one watershed to another; however it may not be a suitable solution. Water managers around the world use supply and demand management methods to decrease the incidence of water shortage in a sustainable manner. But as a matter of economic constraints, they must define a method to select the best possible action to reduce and limit water shortages. The following paper recognizes different kinds of criteria to select the best possible policy for reducing water shortage in mega cities by examining a comprehensive literature review.

Keywords: Criteria, management, shortage, sustainable, water.

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Authors: Raghad Alhusari, Farag Omar, Moustafa Fadel

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A traditional greenhouse is a metal frame agricultural building used for cultivation plants in a controlled environment isolated from external climatic changes. Using greenhouses in agriculture is an efficient way to reduce the water consumption, where agriculture field is considered the biggest water consumer world widely. Controlling greenhouse environment yields better productivity of plants but demands an increase of electric power. Although various control approaches have been used towards greenhouse automation, most of them are applied to traditional greenhouses with ventilation fans and/or evaporation cooling system. Such approaches are still demanding high energy and water consumption. The aim of this research is to develop a fuzzy control system that minimizes water and energy consumption by utilizing outside weather conditions and underground heat exchanger to maintain the optimum climate of the greenhouse. The proposed control system is implemented on an experimental model of thermally isolated greenhouse structure with dimensions of 6x5x2.8 meters. It uses fans for extracting heat from the ground heat exchanger system, motors for automatic open/close of the greenhouse windows and LED as lighting system. The controller is integrated also with environmental condition sensors. It was found that using the air-to-air horizontal ground heat exchanger with 90 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness placed 2.5 m below the ground surface results in decreasing the greenhouse temperature of 3.28 ˚C which saves around 3 kW of consumed energy. It also eliminated the water consumption needed in evaporation cooling systems which are traditionally used for cooling the greenhouse environment.

Keywords: Automation, earth-to-air heat exchangers, fuzzy control, greenhouse, sustainable buildings.

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Authors: Nurliani, Ida Rosada

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The national rice consumption keeps increasing along with raising income of the households and the rapid growth of population. However, food availability, particularly rice, is limited. Impacts of rice-field conversion have run cumulatively, as we can see on potential losses of rice and crops production, as well as work opportunity that keeps increasing year-by-year. Therefore, it requires policy recommendation to control rice-field conversion through economic, social, and ecological approaches. The research was a survey method intended to: (1) Identify internal factors; quality and productivity of the land as the cause of land conversion, (2) Identify external factors of land conversion, value of the rice-field and the competitor’s land, workforce absorption, and regulation, as well as (3) Formulate strategies in controlling rice-field conversion. Population of the research was farmers who applied land conversion at Pangkep Regency, South Sulawesi. Samples were determined using the incidental sampling method. Data analysis used productivity analysis, land quality analysis, total economic value analysis, and SWOT analysis. Results of the research showed that the quality of rice-field was low as well as productivity of the grains (unhulled-rice). So that, average productivity of the grains and quality of rice-field were low as well. Total economic value of rice-field was lower than the economic value of the embankment. Workforce absorption value on rice-field was higher than on the embankment. Strategies in controlling such rice-field conversion can be done by increasing rice-field productivity, improving land quality, applying cultivation technique of specific location, improving the irrigation lines, and socializing regulation and sanction about the transfer of land use.

Keywords: Land conversion, quality of rice-field, land economic value, strategy in controlling.

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Authors: R. Bourziza, W. El Khoumsi, I. Mghabbar, I. Rahou

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The flood-risk zones called Merjas are lowlands that are flooded during the rainy season. Indeed, these depressed areas were reclaimed to dry them out in order to exploit their agricultural potential. Thus, farmers were able to start exploiting these drained lands. As the development of modern agriculture in Morocco progressed, farmers began to practice irrigated agriculture. In a context of vulnerability to floods and the need for optimal exploitation of the agricultural potential of the flood-risk zones, the question of how farmers are adapting to this context and the degree of exploitation of this potential arises. It is in these circumstances that this work was initiated, aiming at the characterization of irrigation practices in the flood-risk zones of the Ghareb lowland (Morocco). This characterization is based on two main axes: the characterization of irrigation techniques used, as well as the management of irrigation in these areas. In order to achieve our objective, two complementary approaches have been adopted; the first one is based on interviews with administrative agents and on farmer surveys, and the second one is based on field measurements of a few parameters, such as flow rate, pressure, uniformity coefficient of drippers and salinity. The results of this work led to conclude that the choice of the practiced crop (crop resistant to excess water in winter and vegetable crops during other seasons) and the availability and nature of water resources are the main criteria that determine the choice of the irrigation system. Even if irrigation management is imprecise, farmers are able to achieve agricultural yields that are comparable to those recorded in the entire irrigated perimeter. However, agricultural yields in these areas are still threatened by climate change, since these areas play the role of water retaining basins during floods by protecting the downstream areas, which can also damage the crops there instilled during the autumn. This work has also noted that the predominance of private pumping in flood-risk zones in the coastal zone creates a risk of marine intrusion, which risks endangering the groundwater table. Thus, this work enabled us to understand the functioning and the adaptation measures of these vulnerable zones for the sustainability of the Merjas and a better valorization of these marginalized lowlands.

Keywords: Flood-risk zones, irrigation practices, climate change, adaptation measures.

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Authors: J. Nikolov, N. Todorovic, S. Forkapic, I. Bikit, D. Mrdja

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Exposure to radon occurs when breathing airborne radon while using water: showering, washing dishes, cooking, and drinking water that contain radon. The results of radon activity measurements in water from public drinking fountain in city of Novi Sad, Serbia is presented in this paper. Radon level in some samples exceeded EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recommendation for maximum contaminant level (MCL) for radon in drinking water of 11.1 Bq/l.

Keywords: radon, radioactivity dose, public drink fountain.

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Authors: Seyedeh Belin Tavakoly Sany, H. Rosli, R. Majid, S. Aishah

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In this study, water monitoring was performed from Nov. 2012 to Oct. 2013 to assess water quality and evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of physicochemical and biological variables in water. Water samples were collected from 10 coastal water stations of West Port. In the case of water-quality assessment, multi-metric indices and operational indicators have been proposed to classify the trophic status at different stations. The trophic level of West Port coastal water ranges from eutrophic to hypertrophic. Chl-a concentration was used to estimate the biological response of phytoplankton biomass and indicated eutrophic conditions in West Port and mesotrophic conditions at the control site. During the study period, no eutrophication events or secondary symptoms occurred, which may be related to hydrodynamic turbulence and water exchange, which prevent the development of eutrophic conditions in the West Port.

Keywords: Water quality, multi-metric indices, operational indicator, Malaysia, West Port.

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Authors: Yousef Bakhbakhi, Mourad Boumaza

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Only recently have water ethics received focused interest in the international water community. Because water is metabolically basic to life, an ethical dimension persists in every decision related to water. Water ethics at once express human society-s approach to water and act as guidelines for behaviour. Ideas around water are often implicit and embedded as assumptions. They can be entrenched in behaviour and difficult to contest because they are difficult to “see". By explicitly revealing the ethical ideas underlying water-related decisions, human society-s relationship with water, and with natural systems of which water is part, can be contested and shifted or be accepted with conscious intention by human society. In recent decades, improved understanding of water-s importance for ecosystem functioning and ecological services for human survival is moving us beyond this growth-driven, supplyfocused management paradigm. Environmental ethics challenge this paradigm by extending the ethical sphere to the environment and thus water or water Resources management per se. An ethical approach is a legitimate, important, and often ignored approach to effect change in environmental decision making. This qualitative research explores principles of water ethics and examines the underlying ethical precepts of selected water policy examples. The constructed water ethic principles act as a set of criteria against which a policy comparison can be established. This study shows that water Resources management is a progressive issue by embracing full public participation and a new planning model, and knowledgegeneration initiatives.

Keywords: water resources, environmental management, publicparticipation.

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Authors: F. C. Khong, M. H. Isa, S. R. M. Kutty, S. A. Farhan

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An experimental study of anaerobic treatment was performed by hybrid upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (HUASB) reactor to treat produced water (PW) of an onshore crude oil terminal (COD: 1597 mg/L, NH3-N: 14.7 mg/L, phenol: 13.8 mg/L, BOD5: 862 mg/L, sodium: 6240 mg/L and chloride 9530 mg/L). The produced water with high salinity and other toxic substances will inhibit the methanogens performance if there is no adaptation on biomass before anaerobic digestion. COD removal from produced water was investigated at five different dilutions of produced water and tap water (TW) without any nutrient addition and pre-treatment. The dilution ratios were 1PW:4TW, 2PW:3TW, 3PW:2TW, 4PW:1TW and 5PW:0TW. The reactor was evaluated at mesophilic operating condition (35 ± 2 °C) at 5 days of HRT for 250 days continuous feed. The average COD removals for 1PW:4TW, 2PW:3TW, 3PW:2TW, 4PW:1TW and 5PW:0TW were found to be approximately 76.1%, 73.8%, 70.3%, 46.3% and 61.82% respectively, with final average effluent COD of 123.7 mg/L, 240 mg/L, 294 mg/L, 589 mg/L and 738 mg/L, respectively.

Keywords: Anaerobic, fixed film, hybrid UASB, produced water, inhibitor

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Authors: Abdal-Kader Saeed Latif, Reyam Naji Ajmi, Huda Farooq Zeki, Wathiq Abaas Hatit

Abstract:

These studies have been carried out on the behavior of pesticides in aquatic environments of marshes to monitoring water and sediment. A total of 25 water and 25 sediment samples were collected at five sampling station during April, June and September. 2013 the levels of organochlorine (OCP) pesticide as a case study to find out the extent of pesticide contamination and accumulation, in water was the concentration of OCPs (0.02, 0.066, 0.7, 0.8, 0.072, 0.058) ppb. In sediment was the concentration of OCPs (5.897, 10.987, 0.089, 0.096, 7.897, and 12.389) ppb respectively in DDT, DDE, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Lindane, and Endosulfan. There is a relationship between pesticides and sediment and water with physical properties because the concentrations of pesticide in water and sediment are not always in equilibrium Furthermore, when sediments are smaller, the rate of deposition is slower. There the wetlands of pesticides due to factors of high temperature and evaporation but used in the control of pesticides in water and sediment also there still exist a variety of organochlorine pesticide residues in water and sediments of wetlands.

Keywords: Bioindicators, Iraqi marshes, Pesticides, Sediment, Water.

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Authors: Alaa Al Hawari, Mohammad Khader, Tarek Zayed, Osama Moselhi

Abstract:

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is one of the most effective electromagnetic techniques for non-destructive non-invasive subsurface features investigation. Water leak from pipelines is the most common undesirable reason of potable water losses. Rapid detection of such losses is going to enhance the use of the Water Distribution Networks (WDN) and decrease threatens associated with water mains leaks. In this study, GPR approach was developed to detect leaks by implementing an appropriate imaging analyzing strategy based on image refinement, reflection polarity and reflection amplitude that would ease the process of interpreting the collected raw radargram image.

Keywords: Water Networks, Leakage, Water pipelines, Ground Penetrating Radar.

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Authors: G. Disciglio, G. Gatta, F. Lops, A. Libutti, A. Tarantino, E. Tarantino

Abstract:

The experimental trial was carried out in open field at Foggia district (Apulia Region, Southern Italy), during the spring-summer season 2014, in order to evaluate the effect of four biostimulant products (RadiconÒ, Viormon plusÒ, LysodinÒ and SiaptonÒ 10L), compared with a control (no biostimulant), on the infestation of processing tomato crop (cv Dres) by the chlorophyll-lacking root parasite Phelipanche ramosa. Biostimulants consist in different categories of products (microbial inoculants, humic and fulvic acids, hydrolyzed proteins and aminoacids, seaweed extracts) which play various roles in plant growing, including the improvement of crop resistance and quali-quantitative characteristics of yield. The experimental trial was arranged according to a complete randomized block design with five treatments, each of one replicated three times. The processing tomato seedlings were transplanted on 5 May 2014. Throughout the crop cycle, P. ramosa infestation was assessed according to the number of emerged shoots (branched plants) counted in each plot, at 66, 78 and 92 day after transplanting. The tomato fruits were harvested at full-stage of maturity on 8 August 2014. From each plot, the marketable yield was measured and the quali-quantitative yield parameters (mean weight, dry matter content, colour coordinate, colour index and soluble solids content of the fruits) were determined. The whole dataset was tested according to the basic assumptions for the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the differences between the means were determined using Tukey’s tests at the 5% probability level. The results of the study showed that none of the applied biostimulants provided a whole control of Phelipanche, although some positive effects were obtained from their application. To this respect, the RadiconÒ appeared to be the most effective in reducing the infestation of this root-parasite in tomato crop. This treatment also gave the higher tomato yield.

Keywords: Biostimulants, control methods, Phelipanche ramosa, processing tomato crop.

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