Original Articles
Mahnaz Eskandari; Mehdi Homaee; Shahla Mahmodi; Ebrahim Pazira
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill site selection is an important task in waste management, because the optimal siting must consider numbers of evaluation criteria. The objective of this study was to propose a new quantitative method for reducing the number of evaluation criteria inputs for landfill ...
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Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill site selection is an important task in waste management, because the optimal siting must consider numbers of evaluation criteria. The objective of this study was to propose a new quantitative method for reducing the number of evaluation criteria inputs for landfill siting, simplifying the siting process and reducing the time needed as well as enhancing the multi-applicability of available soil maps. Consequently, after presenting the proposed method, it was applied to select a suitable landfill site for Marvdasht city and was compared to the common environmental siting method afterwards. At the first step, the necessary criteria for landfill siting including four constraint and eight factor criteria was specifically obtained from land classification map of the study area. In the next step, the criteria were standardized by rating approach and were then weighted. Thereafter, by using simple additive weighting method, the suitability map for landfill siting was obtained in a 0-1 domain and divided into five suitability classes. Comparing the results of the proposed method with the common environmental siting approach indicated that the best suitable lands for landfill siting based on both methods are located almost in the same region. Despite the fact that the numbers of evaluation criteria in the proposed method were less than the traditional methods, the weighting method was much easier and constructing the database for landfill siting was more convincing. Further, the results obtained from land classification map can well consider the productivity of soils.
Original Articles
Mohammad Faraji; Nadia Ahmadi; Roya Noorbakhsh
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Batch adsorption experiments were carried out for removal of basic dye, namely Basic Yellow 28 (BY 28), from synthetic wastewater sample of textile’s company, using sodium dodecyl sulphate coated magnetite nanoparticles (SDS-Fe3O4 NPs). The effects of various experimental parameters (e.g. initial ...
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Batch adsorption experiments were carried out for removal of basic dye, namely Basic Yellow 28 (BY 28), from synthetic wastewater sample of textile’s company, using sodium dodecyl sulphate coated magnetite nanoparticles (SDS-Fe3O4 NPs). The effects of various experimental parameters (e.g. initial pH, SDS amount, ion strength) were examined and optimal experimental conditions were obtained. The results showed that adsorption process onto the adsorbent is very fast and nearly 30 min of contact time was found to be sufficient for the dye adsorption to reach equilibrium. Equilibrium isotherm data were analyzed according to Langmuir and Freundlich equations. The characteristic parameters for each model have been determined. The Langmuir isotherm gave the best correlation for the adsorption of the BY 28 onto the adsorbent. On the basis of the Langmuir analysis, the maximum adsorption capacities were determined to beand 140.8 mg g-1. Also, regeneration studies showed that Fe3O4 NPs can be regenerated and reused at least for six times.
Original Articles
Saeed Motesaddi Zarandi; Ashraf Mazaheri Tehrani; Mohammad Reza Assoudinejad
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Biofiltration is an efficient, easy and cost effective, environmental friendly process for treating of ammonia from air. The aim of this study is a comparative study of ammonia removal from air by biofilters with porous compost and processed soil. In order to remove ammonia, two columns with 14 cm inner ...
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Biofiltration is an efficient, easy and cost effective, environmental friendly process for treating of ammonia from air. The aim of this study is a comparative study of ammonia removal from air by biofilters with porous compost and processed soil. In order to remove ammonia, two columns with 14 cm inner diameter were used. One of the columns is filled with porous compost and another column is filled with processed soil and scallop (scallop: processed soil, 1:4). The performances of biofilters were studied under 10 different flow rates (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 lit/min) and 5 different NH3 concentrations intervals (0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80 and 80-100 ppm) in the 25 degree Celsius temperature and optimum moisture (40-80%) interval. The results of this study show that efficiency is decreased when flow rate or concentration is increased. The efficiency of porous compost was changed between 84.6 - 98.2% and the efficiency of processed soil was changed between 91.5 – 100%. Maximum efficiency for both of the beds occurred on 0.19 g/(m3.h) loading rate. Efficiency of processed soil and porous compost was in 0-20 concentrations intervals at 1 lit/min flow rate and beds attained 240 seconds. According to the results, for ammonia removal, the processed soil bed is more efficient than the porous compost bed.
Original Articles
Farid Moore; Saman Khabazi; Behnam Keshavarzi; Mohammad Saraji
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
In order to examine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination in surface water and wastewater of Isfahan metropolis, 18 samples were collected sixty kilometers from the center of Isfahan City. The highest level of Total PAH (Σ PAH) occurred in treated wastewater, discharged by wastewater ...
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In order to examine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination in surface water and wastewater of Isfahan metropolis, 18 samples were collected sixty kilometers from the center of Isfahan City. The highest level of Total PAH (Σ PAH) occurred in treated wastewater, discharged by wastewater treatment plant of Mobarake steel plant (3.04μg/l). Based on different isomer ratio in most of the samples, pyrolysis was considered to be the possible source of PAH compositions. Profiles of the total carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic PAHs in sampling stations showed that in most samples the concentration of carcinogenic compounds was higher than that of non-carcinogenic ones. PAHs composition, according to the number of rings, displayed the following trend: 4 rings >3 rings> 5, 6 rings > 2 rings. The potentially toxic PAH compositions, in water and wastewater samples, were assessed using TEQ. Pierson correlation coefficient of PAHs in water and wastewater samples indicates that compositions, having the same number of rings, displayed good correlation. Cluster Analysis of water and wastewater samples indicated that the samples belong to three main clusters.
Original Articles
Fariba Zamani Hargalani; Abdolreza Karbassi; Seyed Masoud Monavari; Parviz Abroomand Azar
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Anzali, one of the most important international wetlands, is located on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran. This wetland receives discharges of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastewater, which affect the distribution of elements. In this study, ten sediment samples from the Anzali wetland ...
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Anzali, one of the most important international wetlands, is located on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran. This wetland receives discharges of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastewater, which affect the distribution of elements. In this study, ten sediment samples from the Anzali wetland were collected and analyzed for total concentration of metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Fe). The results showed relatively higher concentrations of most elements in comparison to that of crust. The chemical partitioning of metals in each sample was determined in four fractions (Loosely bonded, Sulphide bonded, Organo-metallic bonded, Resistant bonded). Based on the chemical partitioning of metals, As and Cd were the most abundant in the loosely bonded, so these elements were major hazard for the aquatic environment and were a major pollutant in this area. Cd is the metal that showed the highest percentages in the Organo-metallic bonded. As, Fe and Cr are displayed in the greatest percentages in the resistant bonded; this imply that these metals are strongly linked to the sediments.
Original Articles
Fatemeh Yazdani nejhad; Hossein Torabi
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of kriging and inverse distance weighting (IDW) estimators for determination of spatial variability and mapping of iron, zinc, copper and manganese heavy metals in 196 points of surface soil(0-30cm) with a distance of 1000 m in 20,000 hectares of Southern ...
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This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of kriging and inverse distance weighting (IDW) estimators for determination of spatial variability and mapping of iron, zinc, copper and manganese heavy metals in 196 points of surface soil(0-30cm) with a distance of 1000 m in 20,000 hectares of Southern area of Tehran. The best models for iron and manganese were exponential and spherical for zinc and copper. For determining the accuracy of estimator, Jack Knife technique, the mean error (ME) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSE) were evaluated. For estimating the inverse distance weighting (IDW) the powers of 1 to 5 were used. The contents of ME and RMSE in kriging were less than the IDW for four elements. The results showed that the total average concentrations of iron, zinc, copper and manganese, respectively were 29.37 g.kg-1, 131.2 mg.kg-1, 46.1 mg.kg-1 and 682.6 mg.kg-1`. Manganese and zinc pollution in soils were widespread. Iron and copper levels were below the critical limit. Comparison of the land use map with continuous map of iron, zinc, copper and manganese showed the land use, distance and proximity to the highways, industrial and residential areas and irrigation with wastewater had significant effect on the contents of heavy metals to different extent.
Original Articles
Leila Rahimi Blouchi; Bahram Malekmohammadi
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
This study has been done to provide a method for vulnerability assessment of wetland ecosystems based on their ecological and hydrological values and threatening factors. At first, wetland values and their threatening factors have been reviewed and rated. Next, the relations between wetland values and ...
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This study has been done to provide a method for vulnerability assessment of wetland ecosystems based on their ecological and hydrological values and threatening factors. At first, wetland values and their threatening factors have been reviewed and rated. Next, the relations between wetland values and their threats have been assessed. By multiplying the scores achieved by all factors studied, the vulnerability of wetland values are calculated, and finally management strategies to deal with the most important threats are presented. Shadegan international wetland, which is located in Khuzestan Province, was chosen as a case study and according to the proposed method was assessed. According to the results of this study, ecological values such as aquatic fauna, aquatic flora, ecologically sensitive areas, wetland biodiversity, and hydrological values such as hydrological stability, storing the overflow water and preventing from flooding are the most important wetland values that are exposed to threats such as variation of hydrological regime due to upstream activities, inflow industrial contaminants to the wetland, indiscriminate exploitation of the vegetation and aquatic resource of the wetland and land use change in wetland habitats to agricultural land. By developing vulnerability assessment for Shadegan Wetland, the most effective strategies in the ecosystem approach for the best management were presented.
Original Articles
Mohammad Agha pour Sabaghi; Simin Masih; Hadi Moaazed
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Because of excessive use of chemical fertilizer at Khuzestan province farms, each year volume equivalent 2 milliard meter cube drainage water import directly to Karun. With attention to high volume of agriculture’s pollution, determination factors affecting on farmers attitude to improve system ...
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Because of excessive use of chemical fertilizer at Khuzestan province farms, each year volume equivalent 2 milliard meter cube drainage water import directly to Karun. With attention to high volume of agriculture’s pollution, determination factors affecting on farmers attitude to improve system planning in order to reduce water pollution have special importance. In recent study, in order to estimate wheat grower's tendency to payment in Province Molasanifor reduction of pollution in Karun river, contingent valuation method inclusive two method, Logit and two-step Heckman are used. The needed data collected with use of questionnaire and verbal interview with120 person and stochastic sampling method. Study result show that in both two Logic and Heckman models variable involve age, proposed price, river pollution reason, family size have negative effects on agricultures willing to pay. Also results show that each family willing to pay amount1880000 and 1640000 Rails in year for water pollution reduction. Reception farmers for assigned partial of own income in order to reduce Karun river pollution suggest of importance and position of this river between region`s farmers. At this meantime, to factors affecting amount of farmer’s payment in order to reinforcement farmers role to reduce river pollution have especial importance.
Original Articles
Reza Bashiri Khuzestani; Bubak Souri
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Emission of dust-fall particles in western Iran has been considered as one of the most important environmental issues in recent years. Additionally, presence of heavy metal in these particles due to their toxicity and health problems has been an issue of interest by researches. Therefore evaluation of ...
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Emission of dust-fall particles in western Iran has been considered as one of the most important environmental issues in recent years. Additionally, presence of heavy metal in these particles due to their toxicity and health problems has been an issue of interest by researches. Therefore evaluation of the contamination level of this kind of pollution and then determination of proper management strategies for controlling their emission is very important. In fact, the main scope of this research was to evaluate the contamination level of heavy metals in dust-fall particulates precipitated in western Iran using Geo-accumulation index (Igeo). In this research these particles were sampled through passive deposit gauge method for a period of one year, from April 2010 to March 2011, in Sanandaj city, western Iran, where has been reportedly the third highly polluted city of the world in 2010 for dust-fall particles. The results demonstrated that mean ± SD of the concentration of heavy metals were 14003.570±915.3 for Fe, 497.731±29.817 for Mn, 61.307±5.414 for Cu and 18.287±1.955 for As in mg/Kg based on dry weights of dustfall particles. Also the analysis of the Geo-accumulation index showed that the maximum amounts of Igeo values were -1.751 for Fe, -0.63 for Mn, 0.848 for Cu and 1.249 for As, which were evaluated as uncontaminated for Fe and Mn and moderate contamination Cu and As.
Original Articles
Alireza Koocheki; GhorbanAli Asadi; Reza Ghorbani; Elham Azizi
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
In order to investigate the role of marigold (Tagetes erecta) interference effects on weed composition and diversity of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), an experiment was conducted as split plot based on complete randomized block design with 3 replications at Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University ...
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In order to investigate the role of marigold (Tagetes erecta) interference effects on weed composition and diversity of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), an experiment was conducted as split plot based on complete randomized block design with 3 replications at Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, during 2010 to2011. Treatments included three tomato varieties (Jina, Flat and strain hitack Tork) and five cropping patterns (tomato monoculture and marigold- tomato intercropping with 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 ratio). Results indicated that in the first sampling, the highest weed density was observed in tomato monoculture (78.96 plants per m2). The lowest weed density was obtained in marigold and tomato intercropping with 1:3 ratio (37.62). In the second sampling, the lowest weed density was in marigold and tomato intercropping with 1:3 ratio. In the first sampling, total dry weight of weed was more than that in the second sampling. In two sampling, the highest total dry weight of weed was observed in the marigold and tomato intercropping with 1:3 ratio. By altering the cropping pattern, Shannon, Margalof and Simpson diversity indices of weed were changed. The lowest weed diversity indices were observed in the marigold and tomato intercropping with 1:1 ratio. Also, significant positive regressions were obtained between insect diversity indices (Shannon, Margalof and Simpson) and weed diversity indices. y Indices, Intercropping, Monoculture, Weeds.
Original Articles
Mehdi Ghanbarzadeh Lak; Nader Shariatmadari; Mohamad Reza Sabour; Reza Ghanatiyan-Najafabadi; Mehdi Heydari
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Selecting Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management alternatives, adaptable to local conditions as well as environmental, technical, and economical concerns, would be a time consuming and complicated task without carrying out modern methods of site selection and decision making. The horizontal development ...
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Selecting Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management alternatives, adaptable to local conditions as well as environmental, technical, and economical concerns, would be a time consuming and complicated task without carrying out modern methods of site selection and decision making. The horizontal development of settlement areas which in turn may enforce high costs of waste collection and transportation, beside the lack of unconstructed fields in the vicinity of large cities, enacting rigorous legislation contributing to the minimum distances of waste processing facilities by dwelling areas, and finally, the social objections, are the most noticeable challenges facing solid waste management practices. The main objective of the present research is to develop a computerized model facilitating MSW disposal site selection task, in addition to the determination of best applicable management scenarios capable with environmental, technical, and economical concerns. Tehran city was chosen as a case study to implement the model and to interpret its sensitivity to the factors affecting the overall decision making process. At the first stage of the current research, data layers, such as protected regions, military areas, historical and cultural areas, topography, rivers and lakes, faults, geology and land use information, was provided about the study area. By the means of a GIS based software, and superimposing the above-mentioned layers, acceptable areas were determined in the second stage. Finally, several scenarios including Material Recovery Facilities (MRF), compost production systems, incineration units, Waste-Derived Fuel (RDF) facilities, and landfilling sites were allocated to any acceptable area, according to the quality and quantity of wastes generated in the city of Tehran. These scenarios were evaluated using developed ANP model in this paper. Results showed the superiority of the first scenario (with normal weight of 0.3079), while the normal priority of other scenarios were as 0.2441, 0.2393 and 0.2087 for the second, fourth and third alternative, respectively. As the priority values of the second and forth scenarios were approximately the same, sensitivity analysis based on selective changes in the weight of main clusters were performed. Due to the fact that the fourth scenario, in which the bulk of collected wastes would be landfilled, might impose the greatest environmental risks among other scenarios, by any amplification in the weight of environmental criteria, the preference of this option would decrease. However, increasing the weight of technical criteria, might prefer the forth scenario because of its simplest technology used. Other scenarios have shown to be less sensitive to changes in the weights of the main criteria, so that the first scenario was usually dominant to the second one and the second scenario had always the top priority comparing to the third scenario.
Original Articles
Gholamali Sharzeie; Matin Borghei
Volume 11, Issue 2 , July 2013
Abstract
Fresh water is one of the main resources which have special importance in achieving sustainable development. The water footprint of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. A nation’s water footprint ...
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Fresh water is one of the main resources which have special importance in achieving sustainable development. The water footprint of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. A nation’s water footprint has two components; the internal and the external water footprint. As countries go through industrialization, it is valuable to be able to predict the impact of economic growth on consumption habits. In this paper, the relationship between national income and water use were studied. National water footprint per capita was analyzed as a function of per capita income. We utilized cross sectional data to estimate the above relations. Results show that income is an important factor in increasing the water footprint per capita in the industrial sector and the external water footprint.
