A joint prevention and control mechanism for air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in china based on long-term and massive data mining of pollutant concentration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Hongbo; Zhao, Laijun

2018-02-01

China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region suffers from the country's worst air pollution. The problem has caused widespread concern both at home and abroad. Based on long-term and massive data mining of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration, we found that these pollutants showed similar variations in four seasons, but the most severe pollution was in winter. Through cluster analysis of the winter daily average concentration (DAC) of the two pollutants, we defined regions with similar variations in pollutant concentrations in winter. For the most polluted cities in BTH, the relationship between correlation coefficients for winter DAC and the distance between cities revealed that PM2.5 has regional, large-scale characteristics, with concentrated outbreaks, whereas PM10 has local, small-scale characteristics, with outbreaks at multiple locations. By selecting the key cities with the strongest linear relationship between the pollutant's DAC of each city and the daily individual air quality index values of the BTH region and through cluster analysis on the correlations between the pollutant DACs of the key cities, we defined regional divisions suitable for Joint Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution (JPCAP) program to control PM2.5 and PM10. Comprehensively considering the degree of influence of regional atmospheric pollution control (RAPC) on air quality in BTH, as well as the elasticity and urgency of RAPC, we defined the control grades of the JPCAP regions. We found both the regions and corresponding control grades were consistent for PM2.5 and PM10. The thinking and methods of atmospheric pollution control we proposed will have broad significance for implementation of RAPC in other regions around the world.

Evaluation of transboundary environmental issues in Central Europe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Engi, D.; Kapustka, L.A.; Williams, B.A.

1997-05-01

Central Europe has experienced environmental degradation for hundreds of years. The proximity of countries, their shared resources, and transboundary movement of environmental pollution, create the potential for regional environmental strife. The goal of this project was to identify the sources and sinks of environmental pollution in Central Europe and evaluate the possible impact of transboundary movement of pollution on the countries of Central Europe. In meeting the objectives of identifying sources of contaminants, determining transboundary movement of contaminants, and assessing socio-economic implications, large quantities of disparate data were examined. To facilitate use of the data, the authors refined mapping proceduresmore » that enable processing information from virtually any map or spreadsheet data that can be geo-referenced. Because the procedure is freed from a priori constraints of scale that confound most Geographical Information Systems, they have the capacity to generate new projections and apply sophisticated statistical analyses to the data. The analysis indicates substantial environmental problems. While transboundary pollution issues may spawn conflict among the Central European countries and their neighbors, it appears that common environmental problems facing the entire region have had the effect of bringing the countries together, even though opportunities for deteriorating relationships may still arise.« less

Calculation method for steady-state pollutant concentration in mixing zones considering variable lateral diffusion coefficient.

PubMed

Wu, Wen; Wu, Zhouhu; Song, Zhiwen

2017-07-01

Prediction of the pollutant mixing zone (PMZ) near the discharge outfall in Huangshaxi shows large error when using the methods based on the constant lateral diffusion assumption. The discrepancy is due to the lack of consideration of the diffusion coefficient variation. The variable lateral diffusion coefficient is proposed to be a function of the longitudinal distance from the outfall. Analytical solution of the two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation of a pollutant is derived and discussed. Formulas to characterize the geometry of the PMZ are derived based on this solution, and a standard curve describing the boundary of the PMZ is obtained by proper choices of the normalization scales. The change of PMZ topology due to the variable diffusion coefficient is then discussed using these formulas. The criterion of assuming the lateral diffusion coefficient to be constant without large error in PMZ geometry is found. It is also demonstrated how to use these analytical formulas in the inverse problems including estimating the lateral diffusion coefficient in rivers by convenient measurements, and determining the maximum allowable discharge load based on the limitations of the geometrical scales of the PMZ. Finally, applications of the obtained formulas to onsite PMZ measurements in Huangshaxi present excellent agreement.

Remote sensing applied to numerical modelling. [water resources pollution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sengupta, S.; Lee, S. S.; Veziroglu, T. N.; Bland, R.

1975-01-01

Progress and remaining difficulties in the construction of predictive mathematical models of large bodies of water as ecosystems are reviewed. Surface temperature is at present the only variable than can be measured accurately and reliably by remote sensing techniques, but satellite infrared data are of sufficient resolution for macro-scale modeling of oceans and large lakes, and airborne radiometers are useful in meso-scale analysis (of lakes, bays, and thermal plumes). Finite-element and finite-difference techniques applied to the solution of relevant coupled time-dependent nonlinear partial differential equations are compared, and the specific problem of the Biscayne Bay and environs ecosystem is tackled in a finite-differences treatment using the rigid-lid model and a rigid-line grid system.

Changes in O3 and NO2 due to emissions from Fracking in the UK.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Archibald, Alexander; Ordonez, Carlos

2016-04-01

Poor air quality is a problem that affects millions of people around the world. Understanding the driving forces behind air pollution is complicated as the precursor gases which combine to produce air pollutants react in a highly non-linear manner and are subject to a range of atmospheric transport mechanisms compounded by the weather. A great deal of money has been spent on mitigating air pollution and so it's important to assess the impacts that new technologies that emit air pollutant precursors may have on local and regional air pollution. One of the most highly discussed new technologies that could impact air quality is the adoption of wide-scale hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" for natural gas. Indeed in regions of the USA where fracking is commonplace large levels of ozone (O3 - a key air pollutant) have been observed and attributed directly to the fracking process. In this study, a numerical modelling framework was used to assess possible impacts of fracking in the UK where at present no large scale fracking facilities are in operation. A number of emissions scenarios were developed for the principle gas phase air pollution precursors: the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These emissions scenarios were then used in a state-of-the-art numerical air quality model (the UK Met Office operational air quality forecasting model AQUM) to determine potential impacts related to fracking on UK air quality. Comparison of base model results and observations for the year 2013 of NOx, O3 and VOCs from the UK Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) showed that AQUM has good skill at simulating these gas phase air pollutants (O3 r=0.64, NMGE=0.3; NO2 r=0.62, NMGE=0.51). Analysis of the simulations with fracking emissions demonstrate that there are large changes in 1hr max NO2 (11.6±6.6 ppb) with modest increases in monthly mean NO2, throughout the British Isles (150±100 ppt). These results highlight that stringent measures should be applied to prevent deleterious impacts on air quality from emissions related to fracking in the UK.

Study on the Measurement and Calculation of Environmental Pollution Bearing Index of China’s Pig Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leng, Bi-Bin; Gong, Jian; Zhang, Wen-bo; Ji, Xue-Qiang

2017-11-01

According to the environmental pollution caused by large-scale pig breeding, the SPSS statistical software and factor analysis method were used to calculate the environmental pollution bearing index of China’s breeding scale from 2006 to 2015. The results showed that with the increase of scale the density of live pig farming and the amount of fertilizer application in agricultural production increased. However, due to the improvement of national environmental awareness, industrial waste water discharge is greatly reduced. China's hog farming environmental pollution load index is rising.

Century-scale perspective on water quality in selected river basins of the conterminous United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stets, Edward G.; Kelly, Valerie J.; Broussard, Whitney P.; Smith, Thor E.; Crawford, Charles G.

2012-01-01

Nutrient pollution in the form of excess nitrogen and phosphorus inputs is a well-known cause of water-quality degradation that has affected water bodies across the Nation throughout the 20th century. The recognition of excess nutrients as pollution developed later than the recognition of other water-quality problems, such as waterborne illness, industrial pollution, and organic wastes. Nevertheless, long-term analysis of nutrient pollution is fundamental to our understanding of the current magnitude of the problem, as well the origins and the effects. This report describes the century-scale changes in water quality across a range streams in order to place current water-quality concerns in historical context and presents this history on a national scale as well as for selected river reaches. The primary focus is on nutrient pollution, but the development and societal responses to other water-quality problems also are considered. Land use and agriculture in the selected river reaches also are analyzed to consider how these factors may relate to nutrient pollution. Finally, the availability of relevant nutrient and inorganic carbon data are presented for the selected river reaches. Sources of these data included Federal agencies, State-level reports, municipal public works facilities, public health surveys, and sanitary surveys. The availability of these data extends back more than a century for most of the selected river reaches and suggests that there is a tremendous opportunity to document the development of nutrient pollution in these river reaches.

Environmental status of livestock and poultry sectors in China under current transformation stage.

PubMed

Qian, Yi; Song, Kaihui; Hu, Tao; Ying, Tianyu

2018-05-01

Intensive animal husbandry had aroused great environmental concerns in many developed countries. However, some developing countries are still undergoing the environmental pollution from livestock and poultry sectors. Driven by the large demand, China has experienced a remarkable increase in dairy and meat production, especially in the transformation stage from conventional household breeding to large-scale industrial breeding. At the same time, a large amount of manure from the livestock and poultry sector is released into waterbodies and soil, causing eutrophication and soil degradation. This condition will be reinforced in the large-scale cultivation where the amount of manure exceeds the soil nutrient capacity, if not treated or utilized properly. Our research aims to analyze whether the transformation of raising scale would be beneficial to the environment as well as present the latest status of livestock and poultry sectors in China. The estimation of the pollutants generated and discharged from livestock and poultry sector in China will facilitate the legislation of manure management. This paper analyzes the pollutants generated from the manure of the five principal commercial animals in different farming practices. The results show that the fattening pigs contribute almost half of the pollutants released from manure. Moreover, the beef cattle exert the largest environmental impact for unitary production, about 2-3 times of pork and 5-20 times of chicken. The animals raised with large-scale feedlots practice generate fewer pollutants than those raised in households. The shift towards industrial production of livestock and poultry is easier to manage from the environmental perspective, but adequate large-scale cultivation is encouraged. Regulation control, manure treatment and financial subsidies for the manure treatment and utilization are recommended to achieve the ecological agriculture in China. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Overview on the Air Pollution Issues of the City Clusters in China and its Control Strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, X.

2007-12-01

Mega-cities in China, such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai are located in three large city clusters, Bo-Hai Bay surrounding area, Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Yangtze River Delta. Like the rest of the coastal regions in China, these mega-cities have been experiencing fast economic developments and consequently serious environmental pollution. Air pollution in those areas is characterized by concurrent occurrence of high concentrations of multiple primary pollutants and secondary pollutants, which lead to the development of "air pollution complex" (perhaps typically Chinese) problem. Several campaigns of field experiments covering the regions such as PRD and Beijing City with surrounding areas have been conducted critically to understand the chemical and physical processes leading to the formation of regional scale air pollution since 2004. Some policy-relevant suggestions for air quality attainment have been made after these campaigns, specially the attainment of air quality during 2008 Beijing Olympic game, which has been attracted as an important concern worldwide. A scientific field campaign was conducted during August of 2007 for testing the control strategies suggested for air quality attainment in 2008-Olympic. An overview of the results of PRD and Beijing Campaigns will be presented.

Diffuse pollution of soil and water: Long term trends at large scales?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grathwohl, P.

2012-04-01

Industrialization and urbanization, which consequently increased pressure on the environment to cause degradation of soil and water quality over more than a century, is still ongoing. The number of potential environmental contaminants detected in surface and groundwater is continuously increasing; from classical industrial and agricultural chemicals, to flame retardants, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products. While point sources of pollution can be managed in principle, diffuse pollution is only reversible at very long time scales if at all. Compounds which were phased out many decades ago such as PCBs or DDT are still abundant in soils, sediments and biota. How diffuse pollution is processed at large scales in space (e.g. catchments) and time (centuries) is unknown. The relevance to the field of processes well investigated at the laboratory scale (e.g. sorption/desorption and (bio)degradation kinetics) is not clear. Transport of compounds is often coupled to the water cycle and in order to assess trends in diffuse pollution, detailed knowledge about the hydrology and the solute fluxes at the catchment scale is required (e.g. input/output fluxes, transformation rates at the field scale). This is also a prerequisite in assessing management options for reversal of adverse trends.

Principle of Parsimony, Fake Science, and Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeh, T. C. J.; Wan, L.; Wang, X. S.

2017-12-01

Considering difficulties in predicting exact motions of water molecules, and the scale of our interests (bulk behaviors of many molecules), Fick's law (diffusion concept) has been created to predict solute diffusion process in space and time. G.I. Taylor (1921) demonstrated that random motion of the molecules reach the Fickian regime in less a second if our sampling scale is large enough to reach ergodic condition. Fick's law is widely accepted for describing molecular diffusion as such. This fits the definition of the parsimony principle at the scale of our concern. Similarly, advection-dispersion or convection-dispersion equation (ADE or CDE) has been found quite satisfactory for analysis of concentration breakthroughs of solute transport in uniformly packed soil columns. This is attributed to the solute is often released over the entire cross-section of the column, which has sampled many pore-scale heterogeneities and met the ergodicity assumption. Further, the uniformly packed column contains a large number of stationary pore-size heterogeneity. The solute thus reaches the Fickian regime after traveling a short distance along the column. Moreover, breakthrough curves are concentrations integrated over the column cross-section (the scale of our interest), and they meet the ergodicity assumption embedded in the ADE and CDE. To the contrary, scales of heterogeneity in most groundwater pollution problems evolve as contaminants travel. They are much larger than the scale of our observations and our interests so that the ergodic and the Fickian conditions are difficult. Upscaling the Fick's law for solution dispersion, and deriving universal rules of the dispersion to the field- or basin-scale pollution migrations are merely misuse of the parsimony principle and lead to a fake science ( i.e., the development of theories for predicting processes that can not be observed.) The appropriate principle of parsimony for these situations dictates mapping of large-scale heterogeneities as detailed as possible and adapting the Fick's law for effects of small-scale heterogeneity resulting from our inability to characterize them in detail.

An Overview of Air Pollution Problem in Megacities and City Clusters in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, X.

2007-05-01

China has experienced the rapid economic growth in last twenty years. City clusters, which consist of one or several mega cities in close vicinity and many satellite cities and towns, are playing a leading role in Chinese economic growth, owing to their collective economic capacity and interdependency. However, accompanying with the economic boom, population growth and increased energy consumption, the air quality has been degrading in the past two decades. Air pollution in those areas is characterized by concurrent occurrence of high concentrations of multiple primary pollutants leading to form complex secondary pollution problem. After decades long efforts to control air pollution, both the government and scientific communities have realized that to control regional scale air pollution, regional efforts are needed. Field experiments covering the regions like Pearl River Delta region and Beijing City with surrounding areas are critical to understand the chemical and physical processes leading to the formation of regional scale air pollution. In order to formulate policy suggestions for air quality attainment during 2008 Beijing Olympic game and to propose objectives of air quality attainment in 2010 in Beijing, CAREBEIJING (Campaigns of Air Quality Research in Beijing and Surrounding Region) was organized by Peking University in 2006 to learn current air pollution situation of the region, and to identify the transport and transformation processes that lead to the impact of the surrounding area on air quality in Beijing. Same as the purpose for understanding the chemical and physical processes happened in regional scale, the fall and summer campaigns in 2004 and 2006 were carried out in Pearl River Delta. More than 16 domestic and foreign institutions were involved in these campaigns. The background, current status, problems, and some results of these campaigns will be introduced in this presentation.

Large-scale additive manufacturing with bioinspired cellulosic materials.

PubMed

Sanandiya, Naresh D; Vijay, Yadunund; Dimopoulou, Marina; Dritsas, Stylianos; Fernandez, Javier G

2018-06-05

Cellulose is the most abundant and broadly distributed organic compound and industrial by-product on Earth. However, despite decades of extensive research, the bottom-up use of cellulose to fabricate 3D objects is still plagued with problems that restrict its practical applications: derivatives with vast polluting effects, use in combination with plastics, lack of scalability and high production cost. Here we demonstrate the general use of cellulose to manufacture large 3D objects. Our approach diverges from the common association of cellulose with green plants and it is inspired by the wall of the fungus-like oomycetes, which is reproduced introducing small amounts of chitin between cellulose fibers. The resulting fungal-like adhesive material(s) (FLAM) are strong, lightweight and inexpensive, and can be molded or processed using woodworking techniques. We believe this first large-scale additive manufacture with ubiquitous biological polymers will be the catalyst for the transition to environmentally benign and circular manufacturing models.

Mercury and gold concentrations of highly polluted environmental samples determined using prompt gamma-ray analysis and instrument neutron activation analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osawa, Takahito; Hatsukawa, Yuichi; Appel, Peter W. U.; Matsue, Hideaki

2011-04-01

The authors have established a method of determining mercury and gold in severely polluted environmental samples using prompt gamma-ray analysis (PGA) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Since large amounts of mercury are constantly being released into the environment by small-scale gold mining in many developing countries, the mercury concentration in tailings and water has to be determined to mitigate environmental pollution. Cold-vapor atomic absorption analysis, the most pervasive method of mercury analysis, is not suitable because tailings and water around mining facilities have extremely high mercury concentrations. On the other hand, PGA can determine high mercury concentrations in polluted samples as it has an appropriate level of sensitivity. Moreover, gold concentrations can be determined sequentially by using INAA after PGA. In conclusion, the analytical procedure established in this work using PGA and INAA is the best way to evaluate the degree of pollution and the tailing resource value. This method will significantly contribute to mitigating problems in the global environment.

Large-scale weather dynamics during the 2015 haze event in Singapore

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djamil, Yudha; Lee, Wen-Chien; Tien Dat, Pham; Kuwata, Mikinori

2017-04-01

The 2015 haze event in South East Asia is widely considered as a period of the worst air quality in the region in more than a decade. The source of the haze was from forest and peatland fire in Sumatra and Kalimantan Islands, Indonesia. The fires were mostly came from the practice of forest clearance known as slash and burn, to be converted to palm oil plantation. Such practice of clearance although occurs seasonally but at 2015 it became worst by the impact of strong El Nino. The long period of dryer atmosphere over the region due to El Nino makes the fire easier to ignite, spread and difficult to stop. The biomass emission from the forest and peatland fire caused large-scale haze pollution problem in both Islands and further spread into the neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, for about two months (September-October, 2015) the air quality was in the unhealthy level. Such unfortunate condition caused some socioeconomic losses such as school closure, cancellation of outdoor events, health issues and many more with total losses estimated as S700 million. The unhealthy level of Singapore's air quality is based on the increasing pollutant standard index (PSI>120) due to the haze arrival, it even reached a hazardous level (PSI= 300) for several days. PSI is a metric of air quality in Singapore that aggregate six pollutants (SO2, PM10, PM2.5, NO2, CO and O3). In this study, we focused on PSI variability in weekly-biweekly time scales (periodicity < 30 days) since it is the least understood compare to their diurnal and seasonal scales. We have identified three dominant time scales of PSI ( 5, 10 and 20 days) using Wavelet method and investigated their large-scale atmospheric structures. The PSI associated large-scale column moisture horizontal structures over the Indo-Pacific basin are dominated by easterly propagating gyres in synoptic (macro) scale for the 5 days ( 10 and 20 days) time scales. The propagating gyres manifest as cyclical column moisture flux trajectory around Singapore region. Some of its phases are identified to be responsible in transporting the haze from its source to Singapore. The haze source was identified by compositing number of hotspots in grid-space based on the three time scales of PSI. Further discussion about equatorial waves during the haze event will also be presented.

A model for managing sources of groundwater pollution

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gorelick, Steven M.

1982-01-01

The waste disposal capacity of a groundwater system can be maximized while maintaining water quality at specified locations by using a groundwater pollutant source management model that is based upon linear programing and numerical simulation. The decision variables of the management model are solute waste disposal rates at various facilities distributed over space. A concentration response matrix is used in the management model to describe transient solute transport and is developed using the U.S. Geological Survey solute transport simulation model. The management model was applied to a complex hypothetical groundwater system. Large-scale management models were formulated as dual linear programing problems to reduce numerical difficulties and computation time. Linear programing problems were solved using a numerically stable, available code. Optimal solutions to problems with successively longer management time horizons indicated that disposal schedules at some sites are relatively independent of the number of disposal periods. Optimal waste disposal schedules exhibited pulsing rather than constant disposal rates. Sensitivity analysis using parametric linear programing showed that a sharp reduction in total waste disposal potential occurs if disposal rates at any site are increased beyond their optimal values.

EPA RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS -- MODELS-3/CMAQ OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO AIR QUALITY MODELING

EPA Science Inventory

Regional and global coordinated efforts are needed to address air quality problems that are growing in complexity and scope. Models-3 CMAQ contains a community multi-scale air quality modeling system for simulating urban to regional scale pollution problems relating to troposphe...

Designing, Testing, and Validating an Attitudinal Survey on an Environmental Topic: A Groundwater Pollution Survey Instrument for Secondary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lacosta-Gabari, Idoya; Fernandez-Manzanal, Rosario; Sanchez-Gonzalez, Dolores

2009-01-01

Research in environmental attitudes' assessment has significantly increased in recent years. The development of specific attitude scales for specific environmental problems has often been proposed. This paper describes the Groundwater Pollution Test (GPT), a 19-item survey instrument using a Likert-type scale. The survey has been used with…

Possible Influences of Air Pollution, Dust and Sandstorms on the Indian Monsoon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, William K. M.; Kim, Kyu-Myong; Hsu, Christina N.; Holben, Brent N.

2010-01-01

In Asian monsoon countries, such as China and India, human health and safety problems caused by air pollution are becoming increasingly serious, due to the increased loading of atmospheric pollutants from waste gas emissions and from rising energy demand associated with the rapid pace of industrialization and modernization. Meanwhile, uneven distribution of monsoon rain associated with flash floods or prolonged drought, has caused major loss of human life and damage to crops and.property with devastating societal impacts. Historically, air-pollution and monsoons research are treated as separate problems. However recent studies have suggested that the two problems may be intrinsically linked and need to be studied jointly. Fundamentally, aerosols can affect precipitation through radiative effects cif suspended particles in the atmosphere (direct effect) and/or by interfering and changing: the cloud and precipitation formation processes (indirect effect). Based on their optical properties, aerosols can be classified into two types.: those that absorb solar radiation, and those that do not. Both types of aerosols scatter sunlight and reduce the amount of solar radiation from reaching the Earth's surface, causing it to cool. The surface cooling increases atmospheric stability and reduces convection potential, Absorbing aerosols, however, in addition to cooling the surface, can heat the atmosphere. The heating of the atmosphere may reduce the amount of low clouds by increased evaporation in cloud drops. The heating, however, may induce rising motion, enhance low-level moisture, convergence and, hence, increases rainfall, The latent heating from enhanced rainfall may excite feedback processes in the large-scale circulation, further amplify.the initial response to aerosol heating and producing more rain. Additionally, aerosols can increase the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), increase cloud amount and decrease coalescence and collision rates, leading to reduced precipitation. However, in the presence of increasing moist and warm air, the reduced coalescence/collision may lead to supercooled drops at higher altitudes where ice precipitation falls and melts. The latent heat release from freezing aloft and melting below implies greater upward heat transport in polluted clouds and invigorate deep convection. In this way, aerosols may lead to increased local convection. Hence, depending on the ambient large-scale conditions and dynamical feedback processes, aerosols' effect on precipitation can be positive, negative or mixed. In the Asian monsoon and adjacent regions, the aerosol forcing and responses of the water cycle are even more complex, Both direct and indirect effects may take place locally and simultaneously, interacting with each other. in addition to local effects, monsoon rainfall may be affected by aerosols transported from other regions and intensified through large-scale circulation and moisture feedback. Thus, dust transported by the large-scale circulation from the adjacent deserts to northern India may affect rainfall over the Bay of Bengal; sulphate and black carbon front industrial pollution in central, southern China and northern India may affect the rainfall regime over the Korean peninsula and Japan; organic and black carbon front biomass burning from Indo-China may modulate the pre-monsoon rainfall regime over southern China and coastal regions, contributing to variability in differential heating and cooling of the atmosphere and to the land-sea thermal contrast. During the pre-monsoon season and monsoon breaks, it has been suggested that radiative forcing by absorbing aerosols have nearly the same order of magnitude as the forcing due to latent heating from convection and surface fluxes. The magnitude of the total aerosol radiative cooling due to sulphates and soot is of the order of 20-40 W/m2 over the Asian monsoon land region in the pre-monsoon season, compared to about 1-2 W/m2 for global warng. However, the combined forcing at the surface and in the atmosphere, including all species. if aerosols, and details of aerosol mixing, and impacts on the energy and water cycles in the monsoon land regions, are not well known.

SCIMAP: Modelling Diffuse Pollution in Large River Basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milledge, D.; Heathwaite, L.; Lane, S. N.; Reaney, S. M.

2009-12-01

Polluted rivers are a problem for the plants and animals that require clean water to survive. Watershed scale processes can influence instream aquatic ecosystems by delivering fine sediment, solutes and organic matter from diffuse sources. To improve our rivers we need to identify the pollution sources. Models can help us to do this but these rarely address the extent to which risky land uses are hydrologically-connected, and hence able to deliver, to the drainage network. Those that do tend to apply a full hydrological scheme, which is unfeasible for large watersheds. Here we develop a risk-based modelling framework, SCIMAP, for diffuse pollution from agriculture (Nitrate, Phosphate and Fine Sediment). In each case the basis of the analysis is the joint consideration of the probability of a unit of land (25 m2 cell) producing a particular environmental risk and then of that risk reaching the river. The components share a common treatment of hydrological connectivity but differ in their treatment of each pollution type. We test and apply SCIMAP using spatially-distributed instream water quality data for some of the UK’s largest catchments to infer the processes and the associated process parameters that matter in defining their concentrations. We use these to identify a series of risky field locations, where this land use is readily connected to the river system by overland flow.

Large-scale geographical variation in eggshell metal and calcium content in a passerine bird (Ficedula hypoleuca).

PubMed

Ruuskanen, Suvi; Laaksonen, Toni; Morales, Judith; Moreno, Juan; Mateo, Rafael; Belskii, Eugen; Bushuev, Andrey; Järvinen, Antero; Kerimov, Anvar; Krams, Indrikis; Morosinotto, Chiara; Mänd, Raivo; Orell, Markku; Qvarnström, Anna; Slate, Fred; Tilgar, Vallo; Visser, Marcel E; Winkel, Wolfgang; Zang, Herwig; Eeva, Tapio

2014-03-01

Birds have been used as bioindicators of pollution, such as toxic metals. Levels of pollutants in eggs are especially interesting, as developing birds are more sensitive to detrimental effects of pollutants than adults. Only very few studies have monitored intraspecific, large-scale variation in metal pollution across a species' breeding range. We studied large-scale geographic variation in metal levels in the eggs of a small passerine, the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), sampled from 15 populations across Europe. We measured 10 eggshell elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Se, Sr, and Ca) and several shell characteristics (mass, thickness, porosity, and color). We found significant variation among populations in eggshell metal levels for all metals except copper. Eggshell lead, zinc, and chromium levels decreased from central Europe to the north, in line with the gradient in pollution levels over Europe, thus suggesting that eggshell can be used as an indicator of pollution levels. Eggshell lead levels were also correlated with soil lead levels and pH. Most of the metals were not correlated with eggshell characteristics, with the exception of shell mass, or with breeding success, which may suggest that birds can cope well with the current background exposure levels across Europe.

Policy Guidance From a Multi-scale Suite of Natural Field and Digital Laboratories of Change: Hydrological Catchment Studies of Nutrient and Pollutant Source Releases, Waterborne Transport-Transformations and Mass Flows in Water Ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Destouni, G.

2008-12-01

Continental fresh water transports and loads excess nutrients and pollutants from various land surface sources, through the landscape, into downstream inland and coastal water environments. Our ability to understand, predict and control the eutrophication and the pollution pressures on inland, coastal and marine water ecosystems relies on our ability to quantify these mass flows. This paper synthesizes a series of hydro- biogeochemical studies of nutrient and pollutant sources, transport-transformations and mass flows in catchment areas across a range of scales, from continental, through regional and national, to individual drainage basin scales. Main findings on continental scales include correlations between country/catchment area, population and GDP and associated pollutant and nutrient loading, which differ significantly between world regions with different development levels. On regional scales, essential systematic near-coastal gaps are identified in the national monitoring of nutrient and pollutant loads from land to the sea. Combination of the unmonitored near-coastal area characteristics with the relevant regional nutrient and pollutant load correlations with these characteristics shows that the unmonitored nutrient and pollutant mass loads to the sea may often be as large as, or greater than the monitored river loads. Process studies on individual basin- scales show long-term nutrient and pollutant memories in the soil-groundwater systems of the basins, which may continue to uphold large mass loading to inland and coastal waters long time after mitigation of the sources. Linked hydro-biogeochemical-economic model studies finally demonstrate significant comparative advantages of policies that demand explicit quantitative account of the uncertainties implied by these monitoring gaps and long-term nutrient-pollution memories and time lags, and other knowledge, data and model limitations, instead of the now common neglect or subjective implicit handling of such uncertainties in strategies and practices for combating water pollution and eutrophication.

LARGE-SCALE PREDICTIONS OF MOBILE SOURCE CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONCENTRATIONS OF TOXIC AIR POLLUTANTS

EPA Science Inventory

This presentation shows concentrations and deposition of toxic air pollutants predicted by a 3-D air quality model, the Community Multi Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Contributions from both on-road and non-road mobile sources are analyzed.

Abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining industry: restructuring the policy and research agendas.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin

2006-06-01

This paper critiques contemporary research and policy approaches taken toward the analysis and abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining sector. Unmonitored releases of mercury from gold amalgamation have caused considerable environmental contamination and human health complications in rural reaches of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. Whilst these problems have caught the attention of the scientific community over the past 15-20 years, the research that has since been undertaken has failed to identify appropriate mitigation measures, and has done little to advance understanding of why contamination persists. Moreover, the strategies used to educate operators about the impacts of acute mercury exposure, and the technologies implemented to prevent further pollution, have been marginally effective at best. The mercury pollution problem will not be resolved until governments and donor agencies commit to carrying out research aimed at improving understanding of the dynamics of small scale gold mining communities. Acquisition of this knowledge is the key to designing and implementing appropriate support and abatement measures.

Pollutant dispersion in a large indoor space: Part 1 -- Scaled experiments using a water-filled model with occupants and furniture.

PubMed

Thatcher, T L; Wilson, D J; Wood, E E; Craig, M J; Sextro, R G

2004-08-01

Scale modeling is a useful tool for analyzing complex indoor spaces. Scale model experiments can reduce experimental costs, improve control of flow and temperature conditions, and provide a practical method for pretesting full-scale system modifications. However, changes in physical scale and working fluid (air or water) can complicate interpretation of the equivalent effects in the full-scale structure. This paper presents a detailed scaling analysis of a water tank experiment designed to model a large indoor space, and experimental results obtained with this model to assess the influence of furniture and people in the pollutant concentration field at breathing height. Theoretical calculations are derived for predicting the effects from losses of molecular diffusion, small scale eddies, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulent mass diffusivity in a scale model, even without Reynolds number matching. Pollutant dispersion experiments were performed in a water-filled 30:1 scale model of a large room, using uranine dye injected continuously from a small point source. Pollutant concentrations were measured in a plane, using laser-induced fluorescence techniques, for three interior configurations: unobstructed, table-like obstructions, and table-like and figure-like obstructions. Concentrations within the measurement plane varied by more than an order of magnitude, even after the concentration field was fully developed. Objects in the model interior had a significant effect on both the concentration field and fluctuation intensity in the measurement plane. PRACTICAL IMPLICATION: This scale model study demonstrates both the utility of scale models for investigating dispersion in indoor environments and the significant impact of turbulence created by furnishings and people on pollutant transport from floor level sources. In a room with no furniture or occupants, the average concentration can vary by about a factor of 3 across the room. Adding furniture and occupants can increase this spatial variation by another factor of 3.

Odor compounds in waste gas emissions from agricultural operations and food industries.

PubMed

Rappert, S; Müller, R

2005-01-01

In the last decades, large-scale agricultural operations and food industries have increased. These operations generate numerous types of odors. The reduction of land areas available for isolation of agricultural and food processing industrial operations from the public area and the increase in sensitivity and demand of the general public for a clean and pleasant environment have forced all of these industries to control odor emissions and toxic air pollutants. To develop environmentally sound, sustainable agricultural and food industrial operations, it is necessary to integrate research that focuses on modern analytical techniques and latest sensory technology of measurement and evaluation of odor and pollution, together with a fundamental knowledge of factors that are the basic units contributing to the production of odor and pollutants. Without a clear understanding of what odor is, how to measure it, and where it originates, it will be difficult to control the odor. The present paper reviews the available information regarding odor emissions from agricultural operations and food industries by giving an overview about odor problems, odor detection and quantification, and identifying the sources and the mechanisms that contribute to the odor emissions. Finally, ways of reducing or controlling the odor problem are discussed.

Optimal city size and population density for the 21st century.

PubMed

Speare A; White, M J

1990-10-01

The thesis that large scale urban areas result in greater efficiency, reduced costs, and a better quality of life is reexamined. The environmental and social costs are measured for different scales of settlement. The desirability and perceived problems of a particular place are examined in relation to size of place. The consequences of population decline are considered. New York city is described as providing both opportunities in employment, shopping, and cultural activities as well as a high cost of living, crime, and pollution. The historical development of large cities in the US is described. Immigration has contributed to a greater concentration of population than would have otherwise have occurred. The spatial proximity of goods and services argument (agglomeration economies) has changed with advancements in technology such as roads, trucking, and electronic communication. There is no optimal city size. The overall effect of agglomeration can be assessed by determining whether the markets for goods and labor are adequate to maximize well-being and balance the negative and positive aspects of urbanization. The environmental costs of cities increase with size when air quality, water quality, sewage treatment, and hazardous waste disposal is considered. Smaller scale and lower density cities have the advantages of a lower concentration of pollutants. Also, mobilization for program support is easier with homogenous population. Lower population growth in large cities would contribute to a higher quality of life, since large metropolitan areas have a concentration of immigrants, younger age distributions, and minority groups with higher than average birth rates. The negative consequences of decline can be avoided if reduction of population in large cities takes place gradually. For example, poorer quality housing can be removed for open space. Cities should, however, still attract all classes of people with opportunities equally available.

Influence of atmospheric transport on ozone and trace- level toxic air contaminants over the northeastern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brankov, Elvira

This thesis presents a methodology for examining the relationship between synoptic-scale atmospheric transport patterns and observed pollutant concentration levels. It involves calculating a large number of back-trajectories from the observational site and subjecting them to cluster analysis. The pollutant concentration data observed at that site are then segregated according to the back-trajectory clusters. If the pollutant observations extend over several seasons, it is important to filter out seasonal and long-term components from the time series data before pollutant cluster-segregation, because only the short-term component of the time series data is related to the synoptic-scale transport. Multiple comparison procedures are used to test for significant differences in the chemical composition of pollutant data associated with each cluster. This procedure is useful in indicating potential pollutant source regions and isolating meteorological regimes associated with pollutant transport from those regions. If many observational sites are available, the spatial and temporal scales of the pollution transport from a given direction can be extracted through the time-lagged inter- site correlation analysis of pollutant concentrations. The proposed methodology is applicable to any pollutant at any site if sufficiently abundant data set is available. This is illustrated through examination of five-year long time series data of ozone concentrations at several sites in the Northeast. The results provide evidence of ozone transport to these sites, revealing the characteristic spatial and temporal scales involved in the transport and identifying source regions for this pollutant. Problems related to statistical analyses of censored data are addressed in the second half of this thesis. Although censoring (reporting concentrations in a non-quantitative way) is typical for trace-level measurements, methods for statistical analysis, inference and interpretation of such data are complex and still under development. In this study, multiple comparison of censored data sets was required in order to examine the influence of synoptic- scale circulations on concentration levels of several trace-level toxic pollutants observed in the Northeast (e.g., As, Se, Mn, V, etc.). Since the traditional multiple comparison procedures are not readily applicable to such data sets, a Monte Carlo simulation study was performed to assess several nonparametric methods for multiple comparison of censored data sets. Application of an appropriate comparison procedure to clusters of toxic trace elements observed in the Northeast led to the identification of potential source regions and atmospheric patterns associated with the long-range transport of these pollutants. A method for comparison of proportions and elemental ratio calculations were used to confirm/clarify these inferences with a greater degree of confidence.

Towards predictive simulations of soot formation: from surrogate to turbulence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Blanquart, Guillaume

The combustion of transportation fuels leads to the formation of several kinds of pollutants, among which are soot particles. These particles, also formed during coal combustion and in fires, are the source of several health problems and environmental issues. Unfortunately, our current understanding of the chemical and physical phenomena leading to the formation of soot particles remains incomplete, and as a result, the predictive capability of our numerical tools is lacking. The objective of the work was to reduce the gap in the present understanding and modeling of soot formation both in laminar and turbulent flames. The effort spanned severalmore » length scales from the molecular level to large scale turbulent transport.« less

Large-scale marine ecosystem change and the conservation of marine mammals

USGS Publications Warehouse

O'Shea, T.J.; Odell, D.K.

2008-01-01

Papers in this Special Feature stem from a symposium on large-scale ecosystem change and the conservation of marine mammals convened at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists in June 2006. Major changes are occurring in multiple aspects of the marine environment at unprecedented rates, within the life spans of some individual marine mammals. Drivers of change include shifts in climate, acoustic pollution, disturbances to trophic structure, fisheries interactions, harmful algal blooms, and environmental contaminants. This Special Feature provides an in-depth examination of 3 issues that are particularly troublesome. The 1st article notes the huge spatial and temporal scales of change to which marine mammals are showing ecological responses, and how these species can function as sentinels of such change. The 2nd paper describes the serious problems arising from conflicts with fisheries, and the 3rd contribution reviews the growing issues associated with underwater noise. ?? 2008 American Society of Mammalogists.

A framework for managing runoff and pollution in the rural landscape using a Catchment Systems Engineering approach.

PubMed

Wilkinson, M E; Quinn, P F; Barber, N J; Jonczyk, J

2014-01-15

Intense farming plays a key role in increasing local scale runoff and erosion rates, resulting in water quality issues and flooding problems. There is potential for agricultural management to become a major part of improved strategies for controlling runoff. Here, a Catchment Systems Engineering (CSE) approach has been explored to solve the above problem. CSE is an interventionist approach to altering the catchment scale runoff regime through the manipulation of hydrological flow pathways throughout the catchment. By targeting hydrological flow pathways at source, such as overland flow, field drain and ditch function, a significant component of the runoff generation can be managed in turn reducing soil nutrient losses. The Belford catchment (5.7 km(2)) is a catchment scale study for which a CSE approach has been used to tackle a number of environmental issues. A variety of Runoff Attenuation Features (RAFs) have been implemented throughout the catchment to address diffuse pollution and flooding issues. The RAFs include bunds disconnecting flow pathways, diversion structures in ditches to spill and store high flows, large wood debris structure within the channel, and riparian zone management. Here a framework for applying a CSE approach to the catchment is shown in a step by step guide to implementing mitigation measures in the Belford Burn catchment. The framework is based around engagement with catchment stakeholders and uses evidence arising from field science. Using the framework, the flooding issue has been addressed at the catchment scale by altering the runoff regime. Initial findings suggest that RAFs have functioned as designed to reduce/attenuate runoff locally. However, evidence suggested that some RAFs needed modification and new RAFs be created to address diffuse pollution issues during storm events. Initial findings from these modified RAFs are showing improvements in sediment trapping capacities and reductions in phosphorus, nitrate and suspended sediment losses during storm events. © 2013.

Understanding the Patterns and Drivers of Air Pollution on Multiple Time Scales: The Case of Northern China.

PubMed

Liu, Yupeng; Wu, Jianguo; Yu, Deyong; Hao, Ruifang

2018-06-01

China's rapid economic growth during the past three decades has resulted in a number of environmental problems, including the deterioration of air quality. It is necessary to better understand how the spatial pattern of air pollutants varies with time scales and what drive these changes. To address these questions, this study focused on one of the most heavily air-polluted areas in North China. We first quantified the spatial pattern of air pollution, and then systematically examined the relationships of air pollution to several socioeconomic and climatic factors using the constraint line method, correlation analysis, and stepwise regression on decadal, annual, and seasonal scales. Our results indicate that PM 2.5 was the dominant air pollutant in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, while PM 2.5 and PM 10 were both important pollutants in the Agro-pastoral Transitional Zone (APTZ) region. Our statistical analyses suggest that energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) in the industry were the most important factors for air pollution on the decadal scale, but the impacts of climatic factors could also be significant. On the annual and seasonal scales, high wind speed, low relative humidity, and long sunshine duration constrained PM 2.5 accumulation; low wind speed and high relative humidity constrained PM 10 accumulation; and short sunshine duration and high wind speed constrained O 3 accumulation. Our study showed that analyses on multiple temporal scales are not only necessary to determine key drivers of air pollution, but also insightful for understanding the spatial patterns of air pollution, which was important for urban planning and air pollution control.

Understanding the Patterns and Drivers of Air Pollution on Multiple Time Scales: The Case of Northern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yupeng; Wu, Jianguo; Yu, Deyong; Hao, Ruifang

2018-06-01

China's rapid economic growth during the past three decades has resulted in a number of environmental problems, including the deterioration of air quality. It is necessary to better understand how the spatial pattern of air pollutants varies with time scales and what drive these changes. To address these questions, this study focused on one of the most heavily air-polluted areas in North China. We first quantified the spatial pattern of air pollution, and then systematically examined the relationships of air pollution to several socioeconomic and climatic factors using the constraint line method, correlation analysis, and stepwise regression on decadal, annual, and seasonal scales. Our results indicate that PM2.5 was the dominant air pollutant in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, while PM2.5 and PM10 were both important pollutants in the Agro-pastoral Transitional Zone (APTZ) region. Our statistical analyses suggest that energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) in the industry were the most important factors for air pollution on the decadal scale, but the impacts of climatic factors could also be significant. On the annual and seasonal scales, high wind speed, low relative humidity, and long sunshine duration constrained PM2.5 accumulation; low wind speed and high relative humidity constrained PM10 accumulation; and short sunshine duration and high wind speed constrained O3 accumulation. Our study showed that analyses on multiple temporal scales are not only necessary to determine key drivers of air pollution, but also insightful for understanding the spatial patterns of air pollution, which was important for urban planning and air pollution control.

Modeling large-scale adoption of intercropping as a sustainable agricultural practice for food security and air pollution mitigation around the globe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fung, K. M.; Tai, A. P. K.; Yong, T.; Liu, X.

2017-12-01

The fast-growing world population will impose a severe pressure on our current global food production system. Meanwhile, boosting crop yield by increasing fertilizer use comes with a cascade of environmental problems including air pollution. In China, agricultural activities contribute to 95% of total ammonia emissions. Such emissions are attributable to 20% of the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) formed in the downwind regions, which imposes severe health risks to the citizens. Field studies of soybean intercropping have demonstrated its potential to enhance crop yield, lower fertilizer use, and thus reduce ammonia emissions by taking advantage of legume nitrogen fixation and enabling mutualistic crop-crop interactions between legumes and non-legume crops. In our work, we revise the process-based biogeochemical model, DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) to capture the belowground interactions of intercropped crops and show that with intercropping, only 58% of fertilizer is required to yield the same maize production of its monoculture counterpart, corresponding to a reduction in ammonia emission by 43% over China. Using the GEOS-Chem global 3-D chemical transport model, we estimate that such ammonia reduction can lessen downwind inorganic PM2.5 by up to 2.1% (equivalent to 1.3 μg m-3), which saves the Chinese air pollution-related health costs by up to US$1.5 billion each year. With the more enhanced crop growth and land management algorithms in the Community Land Model (CLM), we also implement into CLM the new parametrization of the belowground interactions to simulate large-scale adoption of intercropping around the globe and study their beneficial effects on food production, fertilizer usage and ammonia reduction. This study can serve as a scientific basis for policy makers and intergovernmental organizations to consider promoting large-scale intercropping to maintain a sustainable global food supply to secure both future crop production and air quality.

China's Air Quality and Respiratory Disease Mortality Based on the Spatial Panel Model.

PubMed

Cao, Qilong; Liang, Ying; Niu, Xueting

2017-09-18

Background : Air pollution has become an important factor restricting China's economic development and has subsequently brought a series of social problems, including the impact of air pollution on the health of residents, which is a topical issue in China. Methods : Taking into account this spatial imbalance, the paper is based on the spatial panel data model PM 2.5 . Respiratory disease mortality in 31 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2008 is taken as the main variable to study the spatial effect and impact of air quality and respiratory disease mortality on a large scale. Results : It was found that there is a spatial correlation between the mortality of respiratory diseases in Chinese provinces. The spatial correlation can be explained by the spatial effect of PM 2.5 pollutions in the control of other variables. Conclusions : Compared with the traditional non-spatial model, the spatial model is better for describing the spatial relationship between variables, ensuring the conclusions are scientific and can measure the spatial effect between variables.

Overview of the 2006 MILAGRO Campaign in Mexico City: Transport and Transformation of Emissions from a Megacity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molina, L.; MILAGRO Science Team

2009-04-01

Megacities (metropolitan areas with population over 10 million) and large urban centers present a major challenge for the global environment. Population growth, increasing motorization and industrialization have resulted in a higher demand for energy, greater use of fossil fuels, and more emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. As a result, air pollution has become not only one of the central environmental problems of the century, but also presents serious consequences to human health and ecosystems and economic costs to society. MILAGRO (Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations) is the first international effort to study the impact of air pollutants generated and exported by megacity. The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) - one of the largest megacities in the world - was selected as the initial case study for MILAGRO. The measurement phase consisted of a month-long series of carefully coordinated observations of the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere in and near Mexico City during March 2006, using a wide range of instruments at ground sites, on aircraft and satellites, complemented by meteorological forecasting and numerical simulations. Together, these research observations have provided the most comprehensive characterization of Mexico City's urban and regional air pollution that will take years to analyze and evaluate fully. Initial analysis of the data is focused on understanding meteorology, emissions, urban and regional photochemistry, aerosol evolution and radiative effects - spanning the urban to regional scale transition. Many interesting aspects of atmospheric chemistry in and near the MCMA are emerging and have already added significantly to our understanding of the chemical and physical properties of the city's reactive atmosphere and the regional impacts. The information can be useful for decision-makers in Mexico in developing air quality management strategies as well as provide insights to air pollution problems in other megacities and large urban centers around the world.

Optimizing basin-scale coupled water quantity and water quality man-agement with stochastic dynamic programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davidsen, Claus; Liu, Suxia; Mo, Xingguo; Engelund Holm, Peter; Trapp, Stefan; Rosbjerg, Dan; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2015-04-01

Few studies address water quality in hydro-economic models, which often focus primarily on optimal allocation of water quantities. Water quality and water quantity are closely coupled, and optimal management with focus solely on either quantity or quality may cause large costs in terms of the oth-er component. In this study, we couple water quality and water quantity in a joint hydro-economic catchment-scale optimization problem. Stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) is used to minimize the basin-wide total costs arising from water allocation, water curtailment and water treatment. The simple water quality module can handle conservative pollutants, first order depletion and non-linear reactions. For demonstration purposes, we model pollutant releases as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and use the Streeter-Phelps equation for oxygen deficit to compute the resulting min-imum dissolved oxygen concentrations. Inelastic water demands, fixed water allocation curtailment costs and fixed wastewater treatment costs (before and after use) are estimated for the water users (agriculture, industry and domestic). If the BOD concentration exceeds a given user pollution thresh-old, the user will need to pay for pre-treatment of the water before use. Similarly, treatment of the return flow can reduce the BOD load to the river. A traditional SDP approach is used to solve one-step-ahead sub-problems for all combinations of discrete reservoir storage, Markov Chain inflow clas-ses and monthly time steps. Pollution concentration nodes are introduced for each user group and untreated return flow from the users contribute to increased BOD concentrations in the river. The pollutant concentrations in each node depend on multiple decision variables (allocation and wastewater treatment) rendering the objective function non-linear. Therefore, the pollution concen-tration decisions are outsourced to a genetic algorithm, which calls a linear program to determine the remainder of the decision variables. This hybrid formulation keeps the optimization problem computationally feasible and represents a flexible and customizable method. The method has been applied to the Ziya River basin, an economic hotspot located on the North China Plain in Northern China. The basin is subject to severe water scarcity, and the rivers are heavily polluted with wastewater and nutrients from diffuse sources. The coupled hydro-economic optimiza-tion model can be used to assess costs of meeting additional constraints such as minimum water qual-ity or to economically prioritize investments in waste water treatment facilities based on economic criteria.

OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF RESIDENTIAL BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR STORMWATER RUNOFF CONTROL

EPA Science Inventory

Excess stormwater runoff is a serious problem in a large number of urban areas, causing flooding, water pollution, groundwater recharge deficits and ecological damage to urban streams. Solutions currently proposed to deal with this problem often involve large centralized infrastr...

Research and Development in the Anthropogenic Cryosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Jong, C.; Luthe, T.; Hohenwallne, D.

2009-04-01

Much of todays cryosphere research is oriented towards the polar regions and is strongly supported by large associations and funding. On the other hand, funding and institutional support is still limited for mountains. In Europe, mountain research is mainly funded through Alpine Space Interregs, FP7, ESF and COST. However, there is growing global change pressure on mountain regions, particularly in the more fragile, higher altitudes such as between 1000 - 3200 m in the Alps. Although these zones are comparable to the Arctic in terms of climatic and physiographic conditions, they are not in terms of human pressures and atmospheric pollution released from surrounding agglomerations. A re-orientation of research into more applied projects that tackle present day problems is necessary. Not only is climate change rapidly changing the face of mountains, socio-economic multipliers are also acting fast. New problems such as conflicts over natural resources are evolving at a rapid rate, requiring research funding and projects to respond at according rates if timely and efficient solutions are to be proposed. Other problems include contamination of high altitude lakes and ecosystems through atmospheric precipitation of persistent organic pollutants and concentration of radio-active substances. The rapid melt of glacier ice is also releasing pollutants that have been captured for many decades. Many of the present day problems develop due to a miscomprehension of the cryosphere. Short-term economical reasoning outweighs the long-term ecological impacts that could be very counter-productive at the long term. Both the glaciological, snow, permafrost, geomorphological, ecological, hydrological and atmospheric conditions are increasingly heavily modified by human impacts. The effects include the alteration of the ice cover (by artificial covering of glaciers), production of artificial snow cover, snow and ground compaction, erosion, landsliding, change in vegetation cover and fauna, modification of local hydrological cycle and modification of local climate and atmospheric pollution. Research in mountains should balance the needs of scientists and stakeholders alike, but this requires re-orientation of mountain research into multi-disciplinary projects next to basic science. Unlike the polar regions (with exceptions like Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen), seasonal population pressure in mountains is intense, causing local problems such as water scarcity. Research in these areas therefore requires close collaboration with stakeholders. Large-scale events such as Winter Olympics that have benefited from the classical mountain cryosphere in the past are now increasingly becoming internationally competitive and independent of the natural cryospheric conditions. New ski areas are developed world-wide in zones that do not offer natural climatological conditions for maintaining ski runs. Sub-zero temperatures are used as a basis for snow-making even in those regions that do not benefit from sufficient natural snow-fall. Large-scale landscape modification results in motorway like ski runs, large snow water reservoirs and extensive housing projects on vulnerable slopes. Due to steep and remote topography, transport is often dominated by cars and increases CO2 emissions intensively at local hot spots. In future, mountain slopes that have been heavily modified for winter tourism, may rapidly become neglected zones due to rapid snowline retreat. As the summer season extends, the modifications to the cryosphere will become more and more evident. Even with positive temperatures and snow-free ground, the vegetation season will not be extensive enough to enable rapid recovery, especially at altitudes above 2000 m a.s.l and north-facing aspects. Several decades of anthropogenic modification may require several centuries of recovery to provide new economical benefits.

The effectiveness of agricultural stewardship for improving water quality at the catchment scale: Experiences from an NVZ and ECSFDI watershed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kay, Paul; Grayson, Richard; Phillips, Martin; Stanley, Karen; Dodsworth, Alan; Hanson, Ann; Walker, Andrew; Foulger, Miles; McDonnell, Iain; Taylor, Simon

2012-02-01

SummaryAgriculture is estimated to be responsible for 70% of nitrate and 30-50% of phosphorus pollution, contributing to ecological and water treatment problems. Despite the fact that significant gaps remain in our understanding, it is known that agricultural stewardship can be highly effective in controlling water pollution at the plot and field scales. Knowledge at the catchment scale is, to a large extent, entirely lacking though and this is of paramount concern given that the catchment is the management unit used by regulatory authorities. The few studies that have examined the impact of agricultural stewardship at the catchment scale have found that Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) in the UK have resulted in little improvement in water quality which concurs with the current catchment study. In addition to NVZs, there was little evidence to suggest that the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative had impacted water quality and suggestions have been made for improvements, such as ensuring that stewardship measures are used in key pollution source areas and their implementation and impacts are monitored more closely. This will be essential if agricultural catchment management schemes are going to provide the benefits expected of them. Nevertheless, more intensive monitoring than that carried out by regulators showed a significant trend in decreasing winter nitrate peaks in some streams which is hypothesised to be due to recent reduced inorganic fertiliser application as a result of increasing prices. It was concluded that, collectively, these findings indicate that agricultural stewardship measures have the potential to improve water quality at the catchment scale but that voluntary schemes with insufficient financial reward or regulatory pressure are unlikely to be successful.

Long range transport of air pollutants in Europe and acid precipitation in Norway

Treesearch

Jack Nordo

1976-01-01

Observations show that pollutants from large emission sources may cause significant air concentrations 500 to 1000 miles away. Very acid precipitation occurs in such periods. The scavenging is often intensified by the topography. Case studies will be presented, with special emphasis on acid precipitation in Scandinavia. Large scale dispersion models have been developed...

Respiratory disease and particulate air pollution in Santiago Chile: Contribution of erosion particles from fine sediments

Treesearch

Pablo A. Garcia-Chevesich; Sergio Alvarado; Daniel G. Neary; Rodrigo Valdes; Juan Valdes; Juan Jose Aguirre; Marcelo Mena; Roberto Pizarro; Paolo Jofre; Mauricio Vera; Claudio Olivares

2014-01-01

Air pollution in Santiago is a serious problem every winter, causing thousands of cases of breathing problems within the population. With more than 6 million people and almost two million vehicles, this large city receives rainfall only during winters. Depending on the frequency of storms, statistics show that every time it rains, air quality improves for a couple of...

Soils as sinks or sources for diffuse pollution of the water cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grathwohl, Peter

2010-05-01

Numerous chemical compounds have been released into the environment by human activities and can nowadays be found everywhere, i.e. in the compartments water, soil, and air, at the poles and in high mountains. Examples for a global distribution of toxic compounds are the persistent organic pollutants (PCB, dioxins, PAH, fluorinated surfactants and flame retardants, etc.: "the Stockholm dirty dozen") but also mercury and other metals. Many of these compounds reached a global distribution via the atmo¬sphere; others have been and are still directly applied to top soils at the large scale by agriculture or are released into groundwater at landfill sites or by discharge of treated or untreated waste waters. Sooner or later such compounds end up in the water cycle - often via an intermediate storage in soils. Pollutants in soils are leached by seepage waters, transferred to ground¬water, and transported to rivers via groundwater flow. Adsorbed compounds may be transported from soils into surface waters by erosion processes and will end up in the sediments. Diffuse pollution of the subsurface environment not only reflects the history of the economic development of the modern society but it is still ongoing - e.g. the number of organic pollutants released into the environment is increasing even though the con¬centrations may decrease compared to the past. Evidence shows that many compounds are persistent in the subsurface environment at large time scales (up to centuries). Thus polluted soils already are or may become a future source for pollution of adjacent compartments such as the atmosphere and groundwater. A profound understanding on how diffuse pollutants are stored and processed in the subsurface environment is crucial to assess their long term fate and transport at large scales. Thus integrated studies e.g. at the catchment scale and models are needed which couple not only the relevant compartments (soil - atmosphere - groundwater/surface waters) but also flow and reactive transport. Field observations must allow long-term monitoring (e.g. in hydrological observatories, TERENO etc.), new cross-compartment monitoring strategies need to be applied, and massive parallel numerical codes for prediction of reactive transport of potential water pollutants at catchment scale have to be developed. This is also a prerequisite to assess the impact of climate change as well as land use change on future surface and groundwater quality.

The Aerosol-Monsoon Climate System of Asia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, William K. M.; Kyu-Myong, Kim

2012-01-01

In Asian monsoon countries such as China and India, human health and safety problems caused by air-pollution are worsening due to the increased loading of atmospheric pollutants stemming from rising energy demand associated with the rapid pace of industrialization and modernization. Meanwhile, uneven distribution of monsoon rain associated with flash flood or prolonged drought, has caused major loss of human lives, and damages in crop and properties with devastating societal impacts on Asian countries. Historically, air-pollution and monsoon research are treated as separate problems. However a growing number of recent studies have suggested that the two problems may be intrinsically intertwined and need to be studied jointly. Because of complexity of the dynamics of the monsoon systems, aerosol impacts on monsoons and vice versa must be studied and understood in the context of aerosol forcing in relationship to changes in fundamental driving forces of the monsoon climate system (e.g. sea surface temperature, land-sea contrast etc.) on time scales from intraseasonal variability (weeks) to climate change ( multi-decades). Indeed, because of the large contributions of aerosols to the global and regional energy balance of the atmosphere and earth surface, and possible effects of the microphysics of clouds and precipitation, a better understanding of the response to climate change in Asian monsoon regions requires that aerosols be considered as an integral component of a fully coupled aerosol-monsoon system on all time scales. In this paper, using observations and results from climate modeling, we will discuss the coherent variability of the coupled aerosol-monsoon climate system in South Asia and East Asia, including aerosol distribution and types, with respect to rainfall, moisture, winds, land-sea thermal contrast, heat sources and sink distributions in the atmosphere in seasonal, interannual to climate change time scales. We will show examples of how elevated absorbing aerosols (dust and black carbon) may interact with monsoon dynamics to produce feedback effects on the atmospheric water cycle, leading to in accelerated melting of snowpacks over the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, and subsequent changes in evolution of the pre-monsoon and peak monsoon rainfall, moisture and wind distributions in South Asia and East Asia.

BROAD SPECTRUM ANALYSIS FOR TRACE ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN LARGE VOLUMES OF WATER BY XAD RESINS-COLUMN DESIGN-FACTS AND MYTHS.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gibs, J.; Wicklund, A.; Suffet, I.H.

1986-01-01

The 'rule of thumb' that large volumes of water can be sampled for trace organic pollutants by XAD resin columns which are designed by small column laboratory studies or pure compounds is examined and shown to be a problem. A theory of multicomponent breakthrough is presented as a frame of reference to help solve the problem and develop useable criteria to aid the design of resin columns. An important part of the theory is the effect of humic substances on the breakthrough character of multicomponent chemical systems.

Mapping the groundwater vulnerability for pollution at the pan African scale.

PubMed

Ouedraogo, Issoufou; Defourny, Pierre; Vanclooster, Marnik

2016-02-15

We estimated vulnerability and pollution risk of groundwater at the pan-African scale. We therefore compiled the most recent continental scale information on soil, land use, geology, hydrogeology and climate in a Geographical Information System (GIS) at a resolution of 15 km × 15 km and at the scale of 1:60,000,000. The groundwater vulnerability map was constructed by means of the DRASTIC method. The map reveals that groundwater is highly vulnerable in Central and West Africa, where the watertable is very low. In addition, very low vulnerability is found in the large sedimentary basins of the African deserts where groundwater is situated in very deep aquifers. The groundwater pollution risk map is obtained by overlaying the DRASTIC vulnerability map with land use. The northern, central and western part of the African continent is dominated by high pollution risk classes and this is very strongly related to shallow groundwater systems and the development of agricultural activities. Subsequently, we performed a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the relative importance of each parameter on groundwater vulnerability and pollution risk. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the removal of the impact of vadose zone, the depth of the groundwater, the hydraulic conductivity and the net recharge causes a large variation in the mapped vulnerability and pollution risk. The mapping model was validated using nitrate concentration data of groundwater as a proxy of pollution risk. Pan-African concentration data were inferred from a meta-analysis of literature data. Results shows a good match between nitrate concentration and the groundwater pollution risk classes. The pan African assessment of groundwater vulnerability and pollution risk is expected to be of particular value for water policy and for designing groundwater resources management programs. We expect, however, that this assessment can be strongly improved when better pan African monitoring data related to groundwater pollution will be integrated in the assessment methodology. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

KENTUCKY STRAIGHT PIPES REPORT, DECEMBER 2002

EPA Science Inventory

The poor sanitary conditions and water pollution problems EPA observed in the Kentucky counties of Harlan, Martin, Bath, and Montgomery were of the highest concern. The widespread scale of both the straight pipe issues as well as package plant wastewater problems present an envir...

Priorities for toxic wastewater management in Pakistan

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rahman, A.

1996-12-31

This study assesses the number of industries in Pakistan, the total discharge of wastewater, the biological oxygen demand (BOD) load, and the toxicity of the wastewater. The industrial sector is a major contributor to water pollution, with high levels of BOD, heavy metals, and toxic compounds. Only 30 industries have installed water pollution control equipment, and most are working at a very low operational level. Priority industrial sectors for pollution control are medium- to large-scale textile industries and small-scale tanneries and electroplating industries. Each day the textile industries discharge about 85,000 m{sup 3} of wastewater with a high BOD, whilemore » the electroplating industries discharge about 23,000 m{sup 3} of highly toxic and hazardous wastewater. Various in-plant modifications can reduce wastewater discharges. Economic incentives, like tax rebates, subsidies, and soft loans, could be an option for motivating medium- to large-scale industries to control water pollution. Central treatment plants may be constructed for treating wastewater generated by small-scale industries. The estimated costs for the treatment of textile and electroplating wastewater are given. The legislative structure in Pakistan is insufficient for control of industrial pollution; not only do existing laws need revision, but more laws and regulations are needed to improve the state of affairs, and enforcement agencies need to be strengthened. 15 refs., 1 fig., 9 tabs.« less

Prevented mortality and greenhouse gas emissions from historical and projected nuclear power.

PubMed

Kharecha, Pushker A; Hansen, James E

2013-05-07

In the aftermath of the March 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the future contribution of nuclear power to the global energy supply has become somewhat uncertain. Because nuclear power is an abundant, low-carbon source of base-load power, it could make a large contribution to mitigation of global climate change and air pollution. Using historical production data, we calculate that global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2-eq) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning. On the basis of global projection data that take into account the effects of the Fukushima accident, we find that nuclear power could additionally prevent an average of 420,000-7.04 million deaths and 80-240 GtCO2-eq emissions due to fossil fuels by midcentury, depending on which fuel it replaces. By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than expansion of nuclear power.

Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Historical and Projected Nuclear Power

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kharecha, Pushker A.; Hansen, James E.

2013-01-01

In the aftermath of the March 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the future contribution of nuclear power to the global energy supply has become somewhat uncertain. Because nuclear power is an abundant, low-carbon source of base-load power, it could make a large contribution to mitigation of global climate change and air pollution. Using historical production data, we calculate that global nuclear power has prevented an average of 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and 64 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2-eq) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would have resulted from fossil fuel burning. On the basis of global projection data that take into account the effects of the Fukushima accident, we find that nuclear power could additionally prevent an average of 420 000-7.04 million deaths and 80-240 GtCO2-eq emissions due to fossil fuels by midcentury, depending on which fuel it replaces. By contrast, we assess that large-scale expansion of unconstrained natural gas use would not mitigate the climate problem and would cause far more deaths than expansion of nuclear power.

Recent trends in nitrogen flows with urbanization in the Shanghai megacity and the effects on the water environment.

PubMed

Liu, Chen; Wang, Qinxue; Zou, Chunjing; Hayashi, Yoshitsugu; Yasunari, Tetsuzo

2015-03-01

The objectives of this study are to diagnose and prevent environmental problems that threaten urban sustainability, the impact of changes in lifestyle (diet, domestic sanitation, and motorization), and production style (agriculture, industry, and services) with the rapid urbanization on regional nitrogen (N) flows, and the water environment was quantitatively evaluated. The megacity Shanghai was chosen as a case study to investigate the temporal changes in nitrogen flow during 1980-2008 by a multidisciplinary approach (a field survey, a regional nitrogen mass balance model, input-output analysis, etc.). Although the total potential nitrogen load in Shanghai has decreased in the 2000s and water pollution problems seem to have improved, the problem has shifted and expanded to affect a wider area through the food/product chain and water/air movement. Further effective solutions that aim at material cycles are necessary and have to be implemented on a large scale.

Side effects of problem-solving strategies in large-scale nutrition science: towards a diversification of health.

PubMed

Penders, Bart; Vos, Rein; Horstman, Klasien

2009-11-01

Solving complex problems in large-scale research programmes requires cooperation and division of labour. Simultaneously, large-scale problem solving also gives rise to unintended side effects. Based upon 5 years of researching two large-scale nutrigenomic research programmes, we argue that problems are fragmented in order to be solved. These sub-problems are given priority for practical reasons and in the process of solving them, various changes are introduced in each sub-problem. Combined with additional diversity as a result of interdisciplinarity, this makes reassembling the original and overall goal of the research programme less likely. In the case of nutrigenomics and health, this produces a diversification of health. As a result, the public health goal of contemporary nutrition science is not reached in the large-scale research programmes we studied. Large-scale research programmes are very successful in producing scientific publications and new knowledge; however, in reaching their political goals they often are less successful.

North Atlantic Oscillation and pollutants variability in Europe: model analysis and measurements intercomparison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pausata, F.; Pozzoli, L.; Van Dingenen, R.; Vignati, E.; Cavalli, F.; Dentener, F. J.

2013-12-01

Ozone pollution and particulate matter (PM) represent a serious health and environmental problem. While ozone pollution is mostly produced by photochemistry in summer, PM is of main concern during winter. Both pollutants can be influenced nt only by local scale processes but also by long range transport driven by the atmospheric circulation and stratospheric ozone intrusions. We analyze the role of large scale atmospheric circulation variability in the North Atlantic basin in determining surface ozone and PM concentrations over Europe. Here, we show, using ground station measurements and a coupled atmosphere-chemistry model simulation for the period 1980-2005, that with regard to ozone the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) does affect surface ozone concentrations - on a monthly timescale, over 10 ppbv in southwestern, central and northern Europe - during all seasons except fall. We find that the first Principal Component, computed from the time variation of the sea level pressure (SLP) field, detects the atmosphere circulation/ozone relationship not only in winter and spring but also during summer, when the atmospheric circulation weakens and regional photochemical processes peak. Given the NAO forecasting skill at intraseasonal time scale, the first Principal Component of the SLP field could be used as an indicator to identify areas more exposed to forthcoming ozone pollution events. Finally, our results suggest that the increasing baseline ozone in western and northern Europe during the 1990s could be related to the prevailing positive phase of the NAO in that period. With regard to PM, our study shows that in winter the NAO modulates surface PM concentrations accounting in average up to 30% of the total PM variability. During positive NAO phases, positive PM anomalies occur over southern Europe, and negative anomalies in central-northern Europe. A positve shift of the NAO mean states, hence, leads to an increase in cardiac and resipratory morbidity related to PM exposure in the Mediterranean countries with up to over 5000 more deaths per 20 million people for a 2000 emission inventory.

77 FR 66837 - Workshop To Define Approaches To Assess the Effectiveness of Policies To Reduce PM2.5

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-07

... composition of air pollution in urban areas that will occur over both time and space. The purposes of this... implementation of these large-scale changes in levels of air pollution. Consistent with the recent North American... verify the relationship between reductions in air pollution emissions, ambient concentrations, human...

75 FR 3706 - Intent to Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-22

.... Chronic marine pollution stresses fish and wildlife resources, possibly delaying recovery of resources... chronic marine pollution are believed to be at least as important as those of large-scale spills. The... and lower Cook Inlet. The Council seeks to further reduce pollution in the marine environment to...

[Evaluation and source analysis of the mercury pollution in soils and vegetables around a large-scale zinc smelting plant].

PubMed

Liu, Fang; Wang, Shu-Xiao; Wu, Qing-Ru; Lin, Hai

2013-02-01

The farming soil and vegetable samples around a large-scale zinc smelter were collected for mercury content analyses, and the single pollution index method with relevant regulations was used to evaluate the pollution status of sampled soils and vegetables. The results indicated that the surface soil and vegetables were polluted with mercury to different extent. Of the soil samples, 78% exceeded the national standard. The mercury concentration in the most severely contaminated area was 29 times higher than the background concentration, reaching the severe pollution degree. The mercury concentration in all vegetable samples exceeded the standard of non-pollution vegetables. Mercury concentration, in the most severely polluted vegetables were 64.5 times of the standard, and averagely the mercury concentration in the vegetable samples was 25.4 times of the standard. For 85% of the vegetable samples, the mercury concentration, of leaves were significantly higher than that of roots, which implies that the mercury in leaves mainly came from the atmosphere. The mercury concentrations in vegetable roots were significantly correlated with that in soils, indicating the mercury in roots was mainly from soil. The mercury emissions from the zinc smelter have obvious impacts on the surrounding soils and vegetables. Key words:zinc smelting; mercury pollution; soil; vegetable; mercury content

MODELS FOR SUBMARINE OUTFALL - VALIDATION AND PREDICTION UNCERTAINTIES

EPA Science Inventory

This address reports on some efforts to verify and validate dilution models, including those found in Visual Plumes. This is done in the context of problem experience: a range of problems, including different pollutants such as bacteria; scales, including near-field and far-field...

China’s Air Quality and Respiratory Disease Mortality Based on the Spatial Panel Model

PubMed Central

Cao, Qilong; Liang, Ying; Niu, Xueting

2017-01-01

Background: Air pollution has become an important factor restricting China’s economic development and has subsequently brought a series of social problems, including the impact of air pollution on the health of residents, which is a topical issue in China. Methods: Taking into account this spatial imbalance, the paper is based on the spatial panel data model PM2.5. Respiratory disease mortality in 31 Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2008 is taken as the main variable to study the spatial effect and impact of air quality and respiratory disease mortality on a large scale. Results: It was found that there is a spatial correlation between the mortality of respiratory diseases in Chinese provinces. The spatial correlation can be explained by the spatial effect of PM2.5 pollutions in the control of other variables. Conclusions: Compared with the traditional non-spatial model, the spatial model is better for describing the spatial relationship between variables, ensuring the conclusions are scientific and can measure the spatial effect between variables. PMID:28927016

Nanotechnology, resources, and pollution control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillett, Stephen L.

1996-09-01

The separation of different kinds of atoms or molecules from each other is a fundamental technological problem. Current techniques of resource extraction, which use the ancient paradigm of the differential partitioning of elements into coexisting phases, are simple but extremely wasteful and require feedstocks (`ores') that are already anomalously enriched. This is impractical for pollution control and desalination, which require extraction of low concentrations; instead, atomistic separation, typically by differential motion through semipermeable membranes, is used. The present application of such membranes is seriously limited, however, mostly because of limitations in their fabrication by conventional bulk techniques. The capabilities of biological systems, such as vertebrate kidneys, are vastly better, largely because they are intrinsically structured at a molecular scale. Nanofabrication of semipermeable membranes promises capabilities on the order of those of biological systems, and this in turn could provide much financial incentive for the development of molecular assemblers, as well established markets exist already. Continued incentives would exist, moreover, as markets expanded with decreasing costs, leading to such further applications as remediation of polluted sites, cheap desalination, and resource extraction from very low-grade sources.

The NO{sub x} Budget trading program: a collaborative, innovative approach to solving a regional air pollution problem

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Napolitano, Sam; Stevens, Gabrielle; Schreifels, Jeremy

2007-11-15

The NO{sub x} Budget Trading Program showed that regional cap-and-trade programs are adaptable to more than one pollutant, time period, and geographic scale, and can achieve compliance results similar to the Acid Rain Program. Here are 11 specific lessons that have emerged from the experience. (author)

Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII): Advancing State of the Science in Regional Photochemical Modeling and Its Applications

EPA Science Inventory

Although the focus in the 1970s was primarily on urban air pollution models, it is well known that pollution problems such as acid rain, ozone, and fine particulate matter are regional in scope, requiring regional-scale multipollutant models. In North America and Europe, several ...

The need for harmonization of methods for finding locations and magnitudes of air pollution sources using observations of concentrations and wind fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanna, Steven R.; Young, George S.

2017-01-01

What do the terms "top-down", "inverse", "backwards", "adjoint", "sensor data fusion", "receptor", "source term estimation (STE)", to name several appearing in the current literature, have in common? These varied terms are used by different disciplines to describe the same general methodology - the use of observations of air pollutant concentrations and knowledge of wind fields to identify air pollutant source locations and/or magnitudes. Academic journals are publishing increasing numbers of papers on this topic. Examples of scenarios related to this growing interest, ordered from small scale to large scale, are: use of real-time samplers to quickly estimate the location of a toxic gas release by a terrorist at a large public gathering (e.g., Haupt et al., 2009);

Modeling urban air pollution with optimized hierarchical fuzzy inference system.

PubMed

Tashayo, Behnam; Alimohammadi, Abbas

2016-10-01

Environmental exposure assessments (EEA) and epidemiological studies require urban air pollution models with appropriate spatial and temporal resolutions. Uncertain available data and inflexible models can limit air pollution modeling techniques, particularly in under developing countries. This paper develops a hierarchical fuzzy inference system (HFIS) to model air pollution under different land use, transportation, and meteorological conditions. To improve performance, the system treats the issue as a large-scale and high-dimensional problem and develops the proposed model using a three-step approach. In the first step, a geospatial information system (GIS) and probabilistic methods are used to preprocess the data. In the second step, a hierarchical structure is generated based on the problem. In the third step, the accuracy and complexity of the model are simultaneously optimized with a multiple objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm. We examine the capabilities of the proposed model for predicting daily and annual mean PM2.5 and NO2 and compare the accuracy of the results with representative models from existing literature. The benefits provided by the model features, including probabilistic preprocessing, multi-objective optimization, and hierarchical structure, are precisely evaluated by comparing five different consecutive models in terms of accuracy and complexity criteria. Fivefold cross validation is used to assess the performance of the generated models. The respective average RMSEs and coefficients of determination (R (2)) for the test datasets using proposed model are as follows: daily PM2.5 = (8.13, 0.78), annual mean PM2.5 = (4.96, 0.80), daily NO2 = (5.63, 0.79), and annual mean NO2 = (2.89, 0.83). The obtained results demonstrate that the developed hierarchical fuzzy inference system can be utilized for modeling air pollution in EEA and epidemiological studies.

Spatiotemporal Patterns, Monitoring Network Design, and Environmental Justice of Air Pollution in the Phoenix Metropolitan Region: A Landscape Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pope, Ronald L.

Air pollution is a serious problem in most urban areas around the world, which has a number of negative ecological and human health impacts. As a result, it's vitally important to detect and characterize air pollutants to protect the health of the urban environment and our citizens. An important early step in this process is ensuring that the air pollution monitoring network is properly designed to capture the patterns of pollution and that all social demographics in the urban population are represented. An important aspect in characterizing air pollution patterns is scale in space and time which, along with pattern and process relationships, is a key subject in the field of landscape ecology. Thus, using multiple landscape ecological methods, this dissertation research begins by characterizing and quantifying the multi-scalar patterns of ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan region. Results showed that pollution patterns are scale-dependent, O3 is a regionally-scaled pollutant at longer temporal scales, and PM10 is a locally-scaled pollutant with patterns sensitive to season. Next, this dissertation examines the monitoring network within Maricopa County. Using a novel multiscale indicator-based approach, the adequacy of the network was quantified by integrating inputs from various academic and government stakeholders. Furthermore, deficiencies were spatially defined and recommendations were made on how to strengthen the design of the network. A sustainability ranking system also provided new insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the network. Lastly, the study addresses the question of whether distinct social groups were experiencing inequitable exposure to pollutants - a key issue of distributive environmental injustice. A novel interdisciplinary method using multi-scalar ambient pollution data and hierarchical multiple regression models revealed environmental inequities between air pollutants and race, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic classes. The results indicate that changing the scale of the analysis can change the equitable relationship between pollution and demographics. The scientific findings of the scale-dependent relationships among air pollution patterns, network design, and population demographics, brought to light through this study, can help policymakers make informed decisions for protecting the human health and the urban environment in the Phoenix metropolitan region and beyond.

Thermal exploitation of wastes with lignite for energy production.

PubMed

Grammelis, Panagiotis; Kakaras, Emmanuel; Skodras, George

2003-11-01

The thermal exploitation of wastewood with Greek lignite was investigated by performing tests in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed reactor, a 1-MW(th) semi-industrial circulating fluidized bed combustor, and an industrial boiler. Blends of natural wood, demolition wood, railroad sleepers, medium-density fiberboard residues, and power poles with lignite were used, and the co-combustion efficiency and the effect of wastewood addition on the emitted pollutants were investigated. Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen emissions were continuously monitored, and, during the industrial-scale tests, the toxic emissions (polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans and heavy metals) were determined. Ash samples were analyzed for heavy metals in an inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy spectrophotometer. Problems were observed during the preparation of wastewood, because species embedded with different compounds, such as railway sleepers and demolition wood, were not easily treated. All wastewood blends were proven good fuels; co-combustion proceeded smoothly and homogeneous temperature and pressure profiles were obtained. Although some fluctuations were observed, low emissions of gaseous pollutants were obtained for all fuel blends. The metal element emissions (in the flue gases and the solid residues) were lower than the legislative limits. Therefore, wastewood co-combustion with lignite can be realized, provided that the fuel handling and preparation can be practically performed in large-scale installations.

Study on dynamic multi-objective approach considering coal and water conflict in large scale coal group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Qing; Lu, Li

2018-01-01

In the process of coal mining, destruction and pollution of groundwater in has reached an imminent time, and groundwater is not only related to the ecological environment, but also affect the health of human life. Similarly, coal and water conflict is still one of the world's problems in large scale coal mining regions. Based on this, this paper presents a dynamic multi-objective optimization model to deal with the conflict of the coal and water in the coal group with multiple subordinate collieries and arrive at a comprehensive arrangement to achieve environmentally friendly coal mining strategy. Through calculation, this paper draws the output of each subordinate coal mine. And on this basis, we continue to adjust the environmental protection parameters to compare the coal production at different collieries at different stages under different attitude of the government. At last, the paper conclude that, in either case, it is the first arrangement to give priority to the production of low-drainage, high-yield coal mines.

Modeling atmospheric effects - an assessment of the problems

Treesearch

Douglas G. Fox

1976-01-01

Our ability to simulate atmospheric processes that affect the life cycle of pollution is reviewed. The transport process is considered on three scales (a) the near-source or single-plume dispersion problem, (b) the multiple-source dispersion problem, and (c) the long-range transport. Modeling the first of these is shown to be well within the capability of generally...

NON-POLLUTING METAL SURFACE FINISHING PRETREATMENT AND PRETREATMENT/CONVERSION COATING

EPA Science Inventory

Picklex, a proprietary formulation, is an alterantive to conventional metal surface pretreatments and is claimed not to produce waste or lower production or lower performance. A laboratory program was designed to evaluate Picklex in common, large scale, polluting surface finishin...

Large-Eddy Simulation of Flow and Pollutant Transport in Urban Street Canyons with Ground Heating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xian-Xiang; Britter, Rex E.; Koh, Tieh Yong; Norford, Leslie K.; Liu, Chun-Ho; Entekhabi, Dara; Leung, Dennis Y. C.

2010-11-01

Our study employed large-eddy simulation (LES) based on a one-equation subgrid-scale model to investigate the flow field and pollutant dispersion characteristics inside urban street canyons. Unstable thermal stratification was produced by heating the ground of the street canyon. Using the Boussinesq approximation, thermal buoyancy forces were taken into account in both the Navier-Stokes equations and the transport equation for subgrid-scale turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). The LESs were validated against experimental data obtained in wind-tunnel studies before the model was applied to study the detailed turbulence, temperature, and pollutant dispersion characteristics in the street canyon of aspect ratio 1. The effects of different Richardson numbers ( Ri) were investigated. The ground heating significantly enhanced mean flow, turbulence, and pollutant flux inside the street canyon, but weakened the shear at the roof level. The mean flow was observed to be no longer isolated from the free stream and fresh air could be entrained into the street canyon at the roof-level leeward corner. Weighed against higher temperature, the ground heating facilitated pollutant removal from the street canyon.

Potential health impacts of burning coal beds and waste banks

USGS Publications Warehouse

Finkelman, R.B.

2004-01-01

Uncontrolled release of pollutants from burning coal beds and waste banks presents potential environmental and human health hazards. On a global scale, the emissions of large volumes of greenhouse gases from burning coal beds may contribute to climate change that alters ecosystems and patterns of disease occurrence. On regional and local scales, the emissions from burning coal beds and waste banks of acidic gases, particulates, organic compounds, and trace elements can contribute to a range of respiratory and other human health problems. Although there are few published reports of health problems caused by these emissions, the potential for problems can be significant. In India, large numbers of people have been displaced from their homes because of health problems caused by emissions from burning coal beds. Volatile elements such as arsenic, fluorine, mercury, and selenium are commonly enriched in coal deposits. Burning coal beds can volatilize these elements, which then can be inhaled, or adsorbed on crops and foods, taken up by livestock or bioaccumulated in birds and fish. Some of these elements can condense on dust particles that can be inhaled or ingested. In addition, selenium, arsenic, lead, tin, bismuth, fluorine, and other elements condense where the hot gaseous emissions come in contact with ambient air, forming mats of concentrated efflorescent minerals on the surface of the ground. These mats can be leached by rainwater and washed into local water bodies providing other potential routes of exposure. Although there are little data linking burning coal beds and waste banks to known health problems, a possibly analogous situation exists in rural China where mineralized coal burned in a residential environment has caused widespread and severe health problems such as fluorosis and arseniasis. ?? 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Workshop on Spanning Regional-to-Global Pollution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Anne M.; Newman, Paul A.; Gleason, James F.; Brune, William H.; Dickerson, Russell R.

2002-01-01

Pollution is often considered a localized phenomenon, but it is now clear that it travels from region-to-region, country to country, and even continent to continent. In addition to urban pollution in developed countries, large emissions from developing nations and large-scale biomass fires add to the global pollution burden. Ozone and aerosols are two components of pollution that contribute to radiative forcing of the earth s climate. In turn, as climate changes, rates of chemical and microphysical reactions may be perturbed. Considering the earth as a coupled chemical-microphysical-climate system poses challenges for models and observations alike. These issues were the topic of a Workshop held in May 2002 at NASA GSFC s Laboratory for Atmospheres. Highlights of the Workshop are summarized in this article.

The use of GIS and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) to identify agricultural land management practices which cause surface water pollution in drinking water supply catchments.

PubMed

Grayson, Richard; Kay, Paul; Foulger, Miles

2008-01-01

Diffuse pollution poses a threat to water quality and results in the need for treatment for potable water supplies which can prove costly. Within the Yorkshire region, UK, nitrates, pesticides and water colour present particular treatment problems. Catchment management techniques offer an alternative to 'end of pipe' solutions and allow resources to be targeted to the most polluting areas. This project has attempted to identify such areas using GIS based modelling approaches in catchments where water quality data were available. As no model exists to predict water colour a model was created using an MCE method which is capable of predicting colour concentrations at the catchment scale. CatchIS was used to predict pesticide and nitrate N concentrations and was found to be generally capable of reliably predicting nitrate N loads at the catchment scale. The pesticides results did not match the historic data possibly due to problems with the historic pesticide data and temporal and spatially variability in pesticide usage. The use of these models can be extended to predict water quality problems in catchments where water quality data are unavailable and highlight areas of concern. IWA Publishing 2008.

Antarctica and global change research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weller, Gunter; Lange, Manfred

1992-03-01

The Antarctic, including the continent and Southern Ocean with the subantarctic islands, is a critical area in the global change studies under the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) and the World Climate Research Program (WCRP). Major scientific problems include the impacts of climate warming, the ozone hole, and sea level changes. Large-scale interactions between the atmosphere, ice, ocean, and biota in the Antarctic affect the entire global system through feedbacks, biogeochemical cycles, deep-ocean circulation, atmospheric transport of heat, moisture, and pollutants, and changes in ice mass balances. Antarctica is also a rich repository of paleoenvironmental information in its ice sheet and its ocean and land sediments.

Using the DPSIR Framework to Develop a Conceptual Model: Technical Support Document

EPA Science Inventory

Modern problems (e.g., pollution, urban sprawl, environmental equity) are complex and often transcend spatial and temporal scales. Systems thinking is an approach to problem solving that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system are best understood in the contex...

COMMUNITY STRESSORS AND SUSCEPTIBILITY TO AIR POLLUTION IN URBAN ASTHMA

EPA Science Inventory

Given our large sample size within and across communities, our unique data on year-round fine-scale variability in multiple air pollutants, and our strong experience in community –based environmental health education and outreach, we believe that our study will provid...

NETWORK DESIGN FOR OZONE MONITORING

EPA Science Inventory

The potential effects of air pollution on human health have received much attention in recent years. In the U.S. and other countries, there are extensive large-scale monitoring networks designed to collect data to inform the public of exposure risks from air pollution. A major cr...

Anthropogenic effects on forest ecosystems at various spatio-temporal scales.

PubMed

Bredemeier, Michael

2002-03-27

The focus in this review of long-term effects on forest ecosystems is on human impact. As a classification of this differentiated and complex matter, three domains of long-term effects with different scales in space and time are distinguished: Exploitation and conversion history of forests in areas of extended human settlement, Long-range air pollution and acid deposition in industrialized regions, Current global loss of forests and soil degradation. There is an evident link between the first and the third point in the list. Cultivation of primary forestland--with its tremendous effects on land cover--took place in Europe many centuries ago and continued for centuries. Deforestation today is a phenomenon predominantly observed in the developing countries, yet it threatens biotic and soil resources on a global scale. Acidification of forest soils caused by long-range air pollution from anthropogenic emission sources is a regional to continental problem in industrialized parts of the world. As a result of emission reduction legislation, atmospheric acid deposition is currently on the retreat in the richer industrialized regions (e.g., Europe, U.S., Japan); however, because many other regions of the world are at present rapidly developing their polluting industries (e.g., China and India), "acid rain" will most probably remain a serious ecological problem on regional scales. It is believed to have caused considerable destabilization of forest ecosystems, adding to the strong structural and biogeochemical impacts resulting from exploitation history. Deforestation and soil degradation cause the most pressing ecological problems for the time being, at least on the global scale. In many of those regions where loss of forests and soils is now high, it may be extremely difficult or impossible to restore forest ecosystems and soil productivity. Moreover, the driving forces, which are predominantly of a demographic and socioeconomic nature, do not yet seem to be lessening in strength. It can only be hoped that a wise policy of international cooperation and shared aims can cope with this problem in the future.

Quantification of Aerosol Derived Particulate Matter and Trace gases in the Coastal Belt of Kochi, Kerala, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

H, S. C.

2016-02-01

Aerosol chemistry is a window to unravel the various environmental health hazard problems. This open forum which deals with the study of formation, interaction, transformation of aerosol species, which could enable in the assessment of biogeochemical cycling of anthropogenic and toxic species. It also preserves the temperature balance and reservoir and sink for nutrients, trace metals and organic species. An inventory of air pollutants is a proactive and necessary first step towards the control of air pollution. Surveys and studies on the sources of pollution and their apportionment to different sources are a pre-requisite for alleviating environmental disorder. The Kochi City (The Queen of Arabian Sea), Kerala, India is a fast growing industrial region where mounting urbanization has been affecting the quality of the atmospheric environment. Cochin estuarine environment is progressively affected by marine pollution concomitant by industrial hazardous chemicals and municipal waste. Further, rapid urbanization and industrialization has lead to lofting and large scale advection of these omnipresent species in the atmosphere. Studies were conducted to assess the significance and potential impact occupied to these ubiquitous species. The major gaseous pollutants include gases like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia and particulate matter (PM). An attempt was performed to unravel the inorganic species in the atmosphere and programmed by means of quantification of PM10 and trace gases. Their distribution pattern and outcomes are inferred.

Environmental concerns and diet in Singapore.

PubMed

Burger, Joanna; Fleischer, Jennifer; Jeitner, Chris; Gochfeld, Michael

2003-08-08

Many factors affect how people perceive the world and their environment, and how such perceptions affect lifestyle decisions, yet the relationship between personal perceptions about environmental hazards and diet is rarely examined. In this study, environmental concerns on a local and global scale were examined, along with dietary patterns, to determine if there were associations and age-related differences. The hypothesis that concerns about water pollution might be reflected in choices about seafood consumption was examined. Many aspects of dietary choices varied significantly by age, including (1) younger people ate more "fast food" than others, (2) subjects aged 22-32 yr ate more meals in restaurants than older or younger people, (3) older individuals drank more tea than younger subjects, while younger people drank more soda than older people, and (4) there were few significant differences in total fish and shellfish meals, although young people ate more meals of other types of meat. Individuals who rated their health the best reported significantly fewer seafood meals than others. People who listed pollution as the major environmental problem did not consume seafood less often than others. While pollution was listed as the most important environmental problem globally, people distinguished between air and water pollution only for Singapore. Although Singapore, with its rapidly expanding economy, has reason to be concerned about both water and air pollution, only 14% of those listing pollution as the main Singapore environmental problem mentioned "water pollution." Singapore has been able to take measures to reduce water pollution from internal sources. Respondents considered air pollution a greater problem, perhaps reflecting recent haze disasters from deliberately set forest fires in Indonesia, which are beyond the direct control of Singapore or Singaporeans.

AMMONIA EMISSIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON FINE PARTICULATE MATTER FORMATION IN NORTH CAROLINA

EPA Science Inventory

Ammonia (NH₃) is an important atmospheric pollutant that plays a key role in several air pollution problems. The accuracy of NH₃ emissions can have a large effect on air quality model (AQM) predictions of aerosol sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium concentration...

MANAGEMENT OF DIFFUSE POLLUTION IN AGRICULTURAL WATERSHEDS: LESSONS FROM THE MINNESOTA RIVER BASIN. (R825290)

EPA Science Inventory

Abstract

The Minnesota River (Minnesota, USA) receives large non-point source pollutant loads. Complex interactions between agricultural, state agency, environmental groups, and issues of scale make watershed management difficult. Subdividing the basin's 12 major water...

Watershed Models for Predicting Nitrogen Loads from Artificially Drained Lands

Treesearch

R. Wayne Skaggs; George M. Chescheir; Glenn Fernandez; Devendra M. Amatya

2003-01-01

Non-point sources of pollutants originate at the field scale but water quality problems usually occur at the watershed or basin scale. This paper describes a series of models developed for poorly drained watersheds. The models use DRAINMOD to predict hydrology at the field scale and a range of methods to predict channel hydraulics and nitrogen transport. In-stream...

The preparation and characterization of chitin and chitosan under large-scale submerged fermentation level using shrimp by-products as substrate.

PubMed

Zhang, Hongcai; Yun, Sanyue; Song, Lingling; Zhang, Yiwen; Zhao, Yanyun

2017-03-01

The crustacean shells of crabs and shrimps produces quantities of by-products, leading to seriously environmental pollution and human health problems during industrial processing, yet they turned into high-value useful products, such as chitin and chitosan. To prepare them under large-scale submerged fermentation level, shrimp shell powders (SSPs) was fermented by successive three-step fermentation of Serratia marcescens B742, Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014 and Rhizopus japonicus M193 to extract chitin and chitosan based on previously optimal conditions. Moreover, the key parameters was investigated to monitor the changes of resulted products during fermentation process. The results showed that the yield of prepared chitin and chitosan reached 21.35 and 13.11% with the recovery rate of 74.67 and 63.42%, respectively. The degree of deacetylation (DDA) and molecular mass (MM) of produced chitosan were 81.23% and 512.06kDa, respectively. The obtained chitin and chitosan was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The established microbial fermentation method can be applied for the industrial large-scale production of chitin and chitosan, while the use of chemical reagents was significantly reduced. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Simulating urban-scale air pollutants and their predicting capabilities over the Seoul metropolitan area.

PubMed

Park, Il-Soo; Lee, Suk-Jo; Kim, Cheol-Hee; Yoo, Chul; Lee, Yong-Hee

2004-06-01

Urban-scale air pollutants for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter > or = 10 microm, and ozone (O3) were simulated over the Seoul metropolitan area, Korea, during the period of July 2-11, 2002, and their predicting capabilities were discussed. The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) and the highly disaggregated anthropogenic and the biogenic gridded emissions (1 km x 1 km) recently prepared by the Korean Ministry of Environment were applied. Wind fields with observational nudging in the prognostic meteorological model TAPM are optionally adopted to comparatively examine the meteorological impact on the prediction capabilities of urban-scale air pollutants. The result shows that the simulated concentrations of secondary air pollutant largely agree with observed levels with an index of agreement (IOA) of >0.6, whereas IOAs of approximately 0.4 are found for most primary pollutants in the major cities, reflecting the quality of emission data in the urban area. The observationally nudged wind fields with higher IOAs have little effect on the prediction for both primary and secondary air pollutants, implying that the detailed wind field does not consistently improve the urban air pollution model performance if emissions are not well specified. However, the robust highest concentrations are better described toward observations by imposing observational nudging, suggesting the importance of wind fields for the predictions of extreme concentrations such as robust highest concentrations, maximum levels, and >90th percentiles of concentrations for both primary and secondary urban-scale air pollutants.

A refined regional modeling approach for the Corn Belt - Experiences and recommendations for large-scale integrated modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panagopoulos, Yiannis; Gassman, Philip W.; Jha, Manoj K.; Kling, Catherine L.; Campbell, Todd; Srinivasan, Raghavan; White, Michael; Arnold, Jeffrey G.

2015-05-01

Nonpoint source pollution from agriculture is the main source of nitrogen and phosphorus in the stream systems of the Corn Belt region in the Midwestern US. This region is comprised of two large river basins, the intensely row-cropped Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) and Ohio-Tennessee River Basin (OTRB), which are considered the key contributing areas for the Northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Thus, in this area it is of utmost importance to ensure that intensive agriculture for food, feed and biofuel production can coexist with a healthy water environment. To address these objectives within a river basin management context, an integrated modeling system has been constructed with the hydrologic Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, capable of estimating river basin responses to alternative cropping and/or management strategies. To improve modeling performance compared to previous studies and provide a spatially detailed basis for scenario development, this SWAT Corn Belt application incorporates a greatly refined subwatershed structure based on 12-digit hydrologic units or 'subwatersheds' as defined by the US Geological Service. The model setup, calibration and validation are time-demanding and challenging tasks for these large systems, given the scale intensive data requirements, and the need to ensure the reliability of flow and pollutant load predictions at multiple locations. Thus, the objectives of this study are both to comprehensively describe this large-scale modeling approach, providing estimates of pollution and crop production in the region as well as to present strengths and weaknesses of integrated modeling at such a large scale along with how it can be improved on the basis of the current modeling structure and results. The predictions were based on a semi-automatic hydrologic calibration approach for large-scale and spatially detailed modeling studies, with the use of the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting algorithm (SUFI-2) and the SWAT-CUP interface, followed by a manual water quality calibration on a monthly basis. The refined modeling approach developed in this study led to successful predictions across most parts of the Corn Belt region and can be used for testing pollution mitigation measures and agricultural economic scenarios, providing useful information to policy makers and recommendations on similar efforts at the regional scale.

Air pollution trends over Indian megacities and their local-to-global implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurjar, B. R.; Ravindra, Khaiwal; Nagpure, Ajay Singh

2016-10-01

More than half of the world's population lives in urban areas. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be 41 megacities and most of them will be located in developing countries. The megacities in India (Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata) collectively have >46 million inhabitants. Increasing population and prosperity results in rapid growth of the already large consumption of energy and other resources, which contributes to air pollution, among other problems. Megacity pollution outflow plumes contain high levels of criteria pollutants (e.g. Particulate matter, SO2, NOx), greenhouse gases, ozone precursors and aerosols; which can affect the atmosphere not only on a local scale but also on regional and global scales. In the current study, emissions and concentration trends of criteria and other air pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases) were examined in the three Indian megacities. Further, various policies and control strategies adopted by Indian Government are also discussed to improve air quality. Decreasing trends of SO2 was observed in all three megacities due to decrease in the sulfur content in coal and diesel. However, increasing trend for NOx was found in these megacities due to increase in number of vehicles registered and high flash point of CNG engines, which leads to higher NOx emission. In terms of SPM and PM10, highest emissions have been found at Kolkata, whereas highest ambient concentrations were recorded in Delhi. For Mumbai and Kolkata fluctuating trends of SPM concentrations were observed between 1991 and 1998 and stable afterwards till 2005; whereas for Delhi, fluctuating trend was observed for the entire study period. However, several steps have been taken to control air pollution in India but there is a need to focus on control of non-exhaust emissions including municipal solid waste and biomass burning in the megacities and surrounding areas.

Regional transport and dilution during high-pollution episodes in southern France: Summary of findings from the Field Experiment to Constraint Models of Atmospheric Pollution and Emissions Transport (ESCOMPTE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drobinski, P.; SaïD, F.; Ancellet, G.; Arteta, J.; Augustin, P.; Bastin, S.; Brut, A.; Caccia, J. L.; Campistron, B.; Cautenet, S.; Colette, A.; Coll, I.; Corsmeier, U.; Cros, B.; Dabas, A.; Delbarre, H.; Dufour, A.; Durand, P.; GuéNard, V.; Hasel, M.; Kalthoff, N.; Kottmeier, C.; Lasry, F.; Lemonsu, A.; Lohou, F.; Masson, V.; Menut, L.; Moppert, C.; Peuch, V. H.; Puygrenier, V.; Reitebuch, O.; Vautard, R.

2007-07-01

In the French Mediterranean basin the large city of Marseille and its industrialized suburbs (oil plants in the Fos-Berre area) are major pollutant sources that cause frequent and hazardous pollution episodes, especially in summer when intense solar heating enhances the photochemical activity and when the sea breeze circulation redistributes pollutants farther north in the countryside. This paper summarizes the findings of 5 years of research on the sea breeze in southern France and related mesoscale transport and dilution of pollutants within the Field Experiment to Constraint Models of Atmospheric Pollution and Emissions Transport (ESCOMPTE) program held in June and July 2001. This paper provides an overview of the experimental and numerical challenges identified before the ESCOMPTE field experiment and summarizes the key findings made in observation, simulation, and theory. We specifically address the role of large-scale atmospheric circulation to local ozone vertical distribution and the mesoscale processes driving horizontal advection of pollutants and vertical transport and mixing via entrainment at the top of the sea breeze or at the front and venting along the sloped terrain. The crucial importance of the interactions between processes of various spatial and temporal scales is thus highlighted. The advances in numerical modeling and forecasting of sea breeze events and ozone pollution episodes in southern France are also underlined. Finally, we conclude and point out some open research questions needing further investigation.

Large scale air pollution estimation method combining land use regression and chemical transport modeling in a geostatistical framework.

PubMed

Akita, Yasuyuki; Baldasano, Jose M; Beelen, Rob; Cirach, Marta; de Hoogh, Kees; Hoek, Gerard; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark; Serre, Marc L; de Nazelle, Audrey

2014-04-15

In recognition that intraurban exposure gradients may be as large as between-city variations, recent air pollution epidemiologic studies have become increasingly interested in capturing within-city exposure gradients. In addition, because of the rapidly accumulating health data, recent studies also need to handle large study populations distributed over large geographic domains. Even though several modeling approaches have been introduced, a consistent modeling framework capturing within-city exposure variability and applicable to large geographic domains is still missing. To address these needs, we proposed a modeling framework based on the Bayesian Maximum Entropy method that integrates monitoring data and outputs from existing air quality models based on Land Use Regression (LUR) and Chemical Transport Models (CTM). The framework was applied to estimate the yearly average NO2 concentrations over the region of Catalunya in Spain. By jointly accounting for the global scale variability in the concentration from the output of CTM and the intraurban scale variability through LUR model output, the proposed framework outperformed more conventional approaches.

Proceedings of the second US-USSR symposium: air pollution effects on vegetation including forest ecosystems

Treesearch

Reginald D. Noble; Juri L Martin; Keith F., eds. Jensen; Keith F. Jensen

1989-01-01

To commemorate the 10th year of cooperation between the US-USSR in the field of environmental protection, a symposium was organized, the major objectives of which were to acquaint US-USSR scientists with project accomplishments; to promote understanding of the nature of environmental problems that relate to air pollution effect on vegetation on a more global scale; to...

Profile and Remote Sensing Observation Datasets (Trace Gases and Aerosols) for Regional- Scale Model Evaluation under the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII)- North American and European Perspectives

EPA Science Inventory

While the vast majority of operational air-pollution networks across the world are designed to measure relevant metrics at the surface, the air pollution problem is a three-dimensional phenomenon. The lack of adequate observations aloft to routinely characterize the nature of ai...

Bridging the scales in a eulerian air quality model to assess megacity export of pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siour, G.; Colette, A.; Menut, L.; Bessagnet, B.; Coll, I.; Meleux, F.

2013-08-01

In Chemistry Transport Models (CTMs), spatial scale interactions are often represented through off-line coupling between large and small scale models. However, those nested configurations cannot give account of the impact of the local scale on its surroundings. This issue can be critical in areas exposed to air mass recirculation (sea breeze cells) or around regions with sharp pollutant emission gradients (large cities). Such phenomena can still be captured by the mean of adaptive gridding, two-way nesting or using model nudging, but these approaches remain relatively costly. We present here the development and the results of a simple alternative multi-scale approach making use of a horizontal stretched grid, in the Eulerian CTM CHIMERE. This method, called "stretching" or "zooming", consists in the introduction of local zooms in a single chemistry-transport simulation. It allows bridging online the spatial scales from the city (∼1 km resolution) to the continental area (∼50 km resolution). The CHIMERE model was run over a continental European domain, zoomed over the BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) area. We demonstrate that, compared with one-way nesting, the zooming method allows the expression of a significant feedback of the refined domain towards the large scale: around the city cluster of BeNeLuX, NO2 and O3 scores are improved. NO2 variability around BeNeLux is also better accounted for, and the net primary pollutant flux transported back towards BeNeLux is reduced. Although the results could not be validated for ozone over BeNeLux, we show that the zooming approach provides a simple and immediate way to better represent scale interactions within a CTM, and constitutes a useful tool for apprehending the hot topic of megacities within their continental environment.

A TRAJECTORY-CLUSTERING CORRELATION METHODOLOGY FOR EXAMINING THE LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT OF AIR POLLUTANTS. (R825260)

EPA Science Inventory

We present a robust methodology for examining the relationship between synoptic-scale atmospheric transport patterns and pollutant concentration levels observed at a site. Our approach entails calculating a large number of back-trajectories from the observational site over a long...

Applications and Prospective of Peroxidase Biocatalysis in the Environmental Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torres-Duarte, Cristina; Vazquez-Duhalt, Rafael

Environmental protection is, doubtless, one of the most important challenges for the human kind. The huge amount of pollutants derived from industrial activities represents a threat for the environment and ecologic equilibrium. Phenols and halogenated phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, endocrine disruptive chemicals, pesticides, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial dyes, and other xenobiotics are among the most important pollutants. A large variety of these xenobiotics are substrates for peroxidases and thus susceptible to enzymatic transformation. The literature reports mainly the use of horseradish peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, lignin peroxidase, and chloroperoxidase on the transformation of these pollutants. Peroxidases are enzymes able to transform a variety of compounds following a free radical mechanism, giving oxidized or polymerized products. The peroxidase transformation of these pollutants is accompanied by a reduction in their toxicity, due to a biological activity loss, a reduction in the bioavailability or due to the removal from aqueous phase, especially when the pollutant is found in water. In addition, when the pollutants are present in soil, peroxidases catalyze a covalent binding to soil organic matter. In most of cases, oxidized products are less toxic and easily biodegradable than the parent compounds. In spite of their versatility and potential use in environmental processes, peroxidases are not applied at large scale yet. Diverse challenges, such as stability, redox potential, and the production of large amounts, should be solved in order to apply peroxidases in the pollutant transformation. In this chapter, we critically review the transformation of different xenobiotics by peroxidases, with special attention on the identified transformation products, the probable reaction mechanisms, and the toxicity reports. Finally, the design and development of an environmental biocatalyst is discussed. The design challenges are mainly focused on the enzyme stability in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and operational conditions, an enzyme with high redox potential to be able to oxidize a wide range of xenobiotics or pollutants, and the protein overexpression at large-scale in industrial microorganisms is discussed.

Aquatic Plant Control Research Program. Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants. Report 5. Synthesis Report.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-06-01

RD-Rl45 988 AQUATIC PLANT CONTROL RESEARCH PROGRAM LARGE-SCALE 1/2 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ..(U) ARMY ENGINEER WATERWAYS EXPERIMENT STATION VICKSBURG MS...REPORT A-78-2 LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE WHITE AMUR FOR -, CONTROL OF PROBLEM AQUATIC PLANTS Report 5 SYNTHESIS REPORT bv Andrew...Corps of Engineers Washington, DC 20314 84 0,_1 oil.. LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE WHITE AMUR FOR CONTROL OF PROBLEM AQUATIC

Nutrient pollution of coastal rivers, bays, and seas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Howarth, Robert; Anderson, Donald; Cloern, James; Elfring, Chris; Hopkinson, Charles; Lapointe, Brian; Malone, Tom; Marcus, Nancy; McGlathery, Karen; Sharpley , Andrew; Walker, Dan

2000-01-01

Over the past 40 years, antipollution laws have greatly reduced discharges of toxic substances into our coastal waters. This effort, however, has focused largely on point-source pollution of industrial and municipal effluent. No comparable effort has been made to restrict the input of nitrogen (N) from municipal effluent, nor to control the flows of N and phosphorus (P) that enter waterways from dispersed or nonpoint sources such as agricultural and urban runoff or as airborne pollutants. As a result, inputs of nonpoint pollutants, particularly N, have increased dramatically. Nonpoint pollution from N and P now represents the largest pollution problem facing the vital coastal waters of the United States.

Challenges with minimising mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining sector: experiences from the Guianas.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin; Vieira, Rickford

2007-12-01

This paper examines the barriers to mitigating mercury pollution at small-scale gold mines in the Guianas (Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname), and prescribes recommendations for overcoming these obstacles. Whilst considerable attention has been paid to analysing the environmental impacts of operations in the region, minimal research has been undertaken to identify appropriate policy and educational initiatives for addressing the mounting mercury problem. Findings from recent fieldwork and selected interviews with operators from Guyanese and Surinamese gold mining regions reveal that legislative incapacity, the region's varied industry policy stances, various technological problems, and low environmental awareness on the part of communities are impeding efforts to facilitate improved mercury management at small-scale gold mines in the Guianas. Marked improvements can be achieved, however, if legislation, particularly that pertaining to mercury, is harmonised in the region; educational seminars continue to be held in important mining districts; and additional outlets for disseminating environmental equipment and mercury-free technologies are provided.

Water security and the science agenda

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wheater, Howard S.; Gober, Patricia

2015-07-01

The freshwater environment is facing unprecedented global pressures. Unsustainable use of surface and groundwater is ubiquitous. Gross pollution is seen in developing economies, nutrient pollution is a global threat to aquatic ecosystems, and flood damage is increasing. Droughts have severe local consequences, but effects on food can be global. These current pressures are set in the context of rapid environmental change and socio-economic development, population growth, and weak and fragmented governance. We ask what should be the role of the water science community in addressing water security challenges. Deeper understanding of aquatic and terrestrial environments and their interactions with the climate system is needed, along with trans-disciplinary analysis of vulnerabilities to environmental and societal change. The human dimension must be fully integrated into water science research and viewed as an endogenous component of water system dynamics. Land and water management are inextricably linked, and thus more cross-sector coordination of research and policy is imperative. To solve real-world problems, the products of science must emerge from an iterative, collaborative, two-way exchange with management and policy communities. Science must produce knowledge that is deemed to be credible, legitimate, and salient by relevant stakeholders, and the social process of linking science to policy is thus vital to efforts to solve water problems. The paper shows how a large-scale catchment-based observatory can be used to practice trans-disciplinary science integration and address the Anthropocene's water problems.

Non-Thermal Removal of Gaseous Pollutants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srivastava, S.; McGowan, J. William; Chiu, K. C. Ray

1995-01-01

The removal of fluorine based exhaust gases such as CFC's, PFC's, NF3, and SF6 used for plasma etching of and deposition on semi-conductors is a subject of increasing interest because of safety, air pollution, and global warming issues. Conventional treatment methods for removing exhaust gas pollutants are wet scrubbing, carbon and resin adsorption, catalytic oxidation, and thermal incineration. However, there are drawbacks associated with each of these methods which include difficulties in implementation, problems with the disposal of solid and liquid pollutant waste, large water and fuel consumption, and additional pollutants such as NOx emissions which are generated in thermal incineration processes.

Solutions of large-scale electromagnetics problems involving dielectric objects with the parallel multilevel fast multipole algorithm.

PubMed

Ergül, Özgür

2011-11-01

Fast and accurate solutions of large-scale electromagnetics problems involving homogeneous dielectric objects are considered. Problems are formulated with the electric and magnetic current combined-field integral equation and discretized with the Rao-Wilton-Glisson functions. Solutions are performed iteratively by using the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA). For the solution of large-scale problems discretized with millions of unknowns, MLFMA is parallelized on distributed-memory architectures using a rigorous technique, namely, the hierarchical partitioning strategy. Efficiency and accuracy of the developed implementation are demonstrated on very large problems involving as many as 100 million unknowns.

Using the PORS Problems to Examine Evolutionary Optimization of Multiscale Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reinhart, Zachary; Molian, Vaelan; Bryden, Kenneth

2013-01-01

Nearly all systems of practical interest are composed of parts assembled across multiple scales. For example, an agrodynamic system is composed of flora and fauna on one scale; soil types, slope, and water runoff on another scale; and management practice and yield on another scale. Or consider an advanced coal-fired power plant: combustion and pollutant formation occurs on one scale, the plant components on another scale, and the overall performance of the power system is measured on another. In spite of this, there are few practical tools for the optimization of multiscale systems. This paper examines multiscale optimization of systemsmore » composed of discrete elements using the plus-one-recall-store (PORS) problem as a test case or study problem for multiscale systems. From this study, it is found that by recognizing the constraints and patterns present in discrete multiscale systems, the solution time can be significantly reduced and much more complex problems can be optimized.« less

Analysis of the Momentum and Pollutant Transport at the Roof Level of 2D Idealized Street Canyons: a Large-Eddy Simulation Solution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Wai Chi; Liu, Chun-Ho

2010-05-01

To investigate the detailed momentum and pollutant transports between urban street canyons and the shear layer, a large-eddy simulation (LES) model was developed to calculate the flow and pollutant dispersion in isothermal conditions. The computational domain consisted of three identical two-dimensional (2D) idealized street canyons of unity aspect ratio. The flow field was assumed to be periodic in the horizontal domain boundaries. The subgrid-scale (SGS) stress was calculated by solving the SGS turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) conservation. An area pollutant source with constant pollutant concentration was prescribed on the ground of all streets. Zero pollutant concentration and an open boundary were applied at the domain inflow and outflow, respectively. The quadrant and budget analyses were employed to examine the momentum and pollutant transports at the roof level of the street canyons. Quadrant analyses of the resolved-scale vertical fluxes of momentum and pollutant along the roof level were performed to compare the contributions of different events/scales to the transport processes. The roof of the street canyon is divided into five segments, namely leeward side, upwind shift, center core, downwind shift and windward side in the streamwise direction. Among the four quadrants considered, the sweeps/ejections, which correspond to the downward/upward motions, dominate the momentum/pollutant transfer. The inward/outward interactions play relatively minor roles. While studying the events in detail, the contribution from the sweeps is mainly large-scale fluctuation compared with that of ejections. Moreover, most of the momentum and pollutant transports take place on the windward side. The strong shear at the roof level initiates instability that in turn promotes the increasing turbulent transport from the leeward side to the windward side. At the same time, the roof-level fluctuations grow linearly in the streamwise direction leading to the vigorous turbulent transport and mixing near the windward facade. Budget analyses of the velocity variance, shear stress, pollutant concentration and pollutant flux were also performed. A sharp peak of TKE production is developed at the roof level. Owing to the strong gradient of streamwise velocity, the streamwise velocity fluctuation is promoted first. The TKE is then transferred from the streamwise to the spanwise and vertical velocity fluctuations via the pressure-rate-of-strain tensor. Analogous to the quadrant analyses, the TKE production grows from a sharp peak (~0.1h width, where h is the building height) on the leeward side to a broad one (~0.5h width) on the windward side. This pattern is partly attributed to the growth of the flow instability and the enhanced turbulent processes along the roof of the street canyon in the streamwise direction. The pollutant removal mechanism is clearly illustrated by the budget analysis of the pollutant concentration. The pollutant is carried by the primary recirculation from the ground level to the roof level of the street canyon. The vertical turbulent pollutant flux dominates the pollutant removal in the region right below the roof level (0.8h

Output-feedback control of combined sewer networks through receding horizon control with moving horizon estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joseph-Duran, Bernat; Ocampo-Martinez, Carlos; Cembrano, Gabriela

2015-10-01

An output-feedback control strategy for pollution mitigation in combined sewer networks is presented. The proposed strategy provides means to apply model-based predictive control to large-scale sewer networks, in-spite of the lack of measurements at most of the network sewers. In previous works, the authors presented a hybrid linear control-oriented model for sewer networks together with the formulation of Optimal Control Problems (OCP) and State Estimation Problems (SEP). By iteratively solving these problems, preliminary Receding Horizon Control with Moving Horizon Estimation (RHC/MHE) results, based on flow measurements, were also obtained. In this work, the RHC/MHE algorithm has been extended to take into account both flow and water level measurements and the resulting control loop has been extensively simulated to assess the system performance according different measurement availability scenarios and rain events. All simulations have been carried out using a detailed physically based model of a real case-study network as virtual reality.

Effects of canyon geometry on the distribution of traffic-related air pollution in a large urban area: Implications of a multi-canyon air pollution dispersion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Xiangwen; Liu, Junfeng; Ban-Weiss, George A.; Zhang, Jiachen; Huang, Xin; Ouyang, Bin; Popoola, Olalekan; Tao, Shu

2017-09-01

Street canyons are ubiquitous in urban areas. Traffic-related air pollutants in street canyons can adversely affect human health. In this study, an urban-scale traffic pollution dispersion model is developed considering street distribution, canyon geometry, background meteorology, traffic assignment, traffic emissions and air pollutant dispersion. In the model, vehicle exhausts generated from traffic flows first disperse inside street canyons along the micro-scale wind field generated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Then, pollutants leave the street canyon and further disperse over the urban area. On the basis of this model, the effects of canyon geometry on the distribution of NOx and CO from traffic emissions were studied over the center of Beijing. We found that an increase in building height leads to heavier pollution inside canyons and lower pollution outside canyons at pedestrian level, resulting in higher domain-averaged concentrations over the area. In addition, canyons with highly even or highly uneven building heights on each side of the street tend to lower the urban-scale air pollution concentrations at pedestrian level. Further, increasing street widths tends to lead to lower pollutant concentrations by reducing emissions and enhancing ventilation simultaneously. Our results indicate that canyon geometry strongly influences human exposure to traffic pollutants in the populated urban area. Carefully planning street layout and canyon geometry while considering traffic demand as well as local weather patterns may significantly reduce inhalation of unhealthy air by urban residents.

A Pontential Agriculture Waste Material as Coagulant Aid: Cassava Peel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Othman, N.; Abd-Rahim, N.-S.; Tuan-Besar, S.-N.-F.; Mohd-Asharuddin, S.; Kumar, V.

2018-02-01

All A large amount of cassava peel waste is generated annually by small and medium scale industries. This has led to a new policy of complete utilization of raw materials so that there will be little or no residue left that could pose pollution problems. Conversion of these by-products into a material that poses an ability to remove toxic pollutant would increase the market value and ultimately benefits the producers. This study investigated the characteristics of cassava peel as a coagulant aid material and optimization process using the cassava peel was explored through coagulation and flocculation. This research had highlighted that the Cassava peels contain sugars in the form of polysaccharides such as starch and holocellulose. The FTIR results revealed that amino acids containing abundant of carboxyl, hydroxyl and amino groups which has significant capabilities in removing pollutants. Whereas analysis by XRF spectrometry indicated that the CP samples contain Fe2O3 and Al2O3 which might contribute to its coagulation ability. The optimum condition allowed Cassava peel and alum removed high turbidity up to 90. This natural coagulant from cassava peel is found to be an alternative coagulant aid to reduce the usage of chemical coagulants

Approaches to standardization of atmospheric pollution undergoing long-range and transboundary transport.

PubMed

Izrael, Y A; Nazarov, I M; Ryaboshapko, A G

1982-12-01

The authors consider some possible ways of regulating three types of atmospheric emission of pollutants: - emission of substances causing pollution of the natural environment on the global scale (global pollutants); - emission of substances causing pollution on a regional scale, most often including territories of several countries (international pollutants); - emission of substances causing negative effects in a relatively limited region, for example within border area of two adjoining countries. Substances (gaseous, as a rule) of a long life-time in the atmosphere that can contaminate natural media on a global scale irrespective of the place of emission refer to the first class of pollutants that are subject to emission regulation at an international level and to quota establishement for individual countries. They are carbon dioxide, freon, krypton-85.Various approaches to determining permissible emission and to quota establishing are discussed in the paper.The second group includes substances of a limited, yet rather long, life-time whose emission intensity makes a notable contribution to environmental pollution of a large region including territories of several countries. Here it is needed to regulate internationally not the atmospheric emission as it is but pollutant transport over national boundaries (sulphur and nitrogen oxides, pesticides, heavy metals).The third group includes substances of relatively short time of life producing local effects. Emission regulation in such cases should be based upon bilateral agreements with due account of countries' mutual interests.

Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Law, Kara Lavender; Morét-Ferguson, Skye; Maximenko, Nikolai A.; Proskurowski, Giora; Peacock, Emily E.; Hafner, Jan; Reddy, Christopher M.

2010-09-01

Plastic marine pollution is a major environmental concern, yet a quantitative description of the scope of this problem in the open ocean is lacking. Here, we present a time series of plastic content at the surface of the western North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1986 to 2008. More than 60% of 6136 surface plankton net tows collected buoyant plastic pieces, typically millimeters in size. The highest concentration of plastic debris was observed in subtropical latitudes and associated with the observed large-scale convergence in surface currents predicted by Ekman dynamics. Despite a rapid increase in plastic production and disposal during this time period, no trend in plastic concentration was observed in the region of highest accumulation.

Allometric scaling of UK urban emissions: interpretation and implications for air quality management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacKenzie, Rob; Barnes, Matt; Whyatt, Duncan; Hewitt, Nick

2016-04-01

Allometry uncovers structures and patterns by relating the characteristics of complex systems to a measure of scale. We present an allometric analysis of air quality for UK urban settlements, beginning with emissions and moving on to consider air concentrations. We consider both airshed-average 'urban background' concentrations (cf. those derived from satellites for NO2) and local pollution 'hotspots'. We show that there is a strong and robust scaling (with respect to population) of the non-point-source emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, as well as the toxic pollutants nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5, and 1,3-butadiene. The scaling of traffic-related emissions is not simply a reflection of road length, but rather results from the socio-economic patterning of road-use. The recent controversy regarding diesel vehicle emissions is germane to our study but does not affect our overall conclusions. We next develop an hypothesis for the population-scaling of airshed-average air concentrations, with which we demonstrate that, although average air quality is expected to be worse in large urban centres compared to small urban centres, the overall effect is an economy of scale (i.e., large cities reduce the overall burden of emissions compared to the same population spread over many smaller urban settlements). Our hypothesis explains satellite-derived observations of airshed-average urban NO2 concentrations. The theory derived also explains which properties of nature-based solutions (urban greening) can make a significant contribution at city scale, and points to a hitherto unforeseen opportunity to make large cities cleaner than smaller cities in absolute terms with respect to their airshed-average pollutant concentration.

Local to regional scale industrial heavy metal pollution recorded in sediments of large freshwater lakes in central Europe (lakes Geneva and Lucerne) over the last centuries.

PubMed

Thevenon, Florian; Graham, Neil D; Chiaradia, Massimo; Arpagaus, Philippe; Wildi, Walter; Poté, John

2011-12-15

This research first focuses on the spatial and temporal patterns of heavy metals from contrasting environments (highly polluted to deepwater sites) of Lake Geneva. The mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb) records from two deepwater sites show that the heavy metal variations before the industrial period are primarily linked to natural weathering input of trace elements. By opposition, the discharge of industrial treated wastewaters into Vidy Bay of Lake Geneva during the second part of the 20th century, involved the sedimentation of highly metal-contaminated sediments in the area surrounding the WWTP outlet pipe discharge. Eventually, a new Pb isotope record of sediments from Lake Lucerne identifies the long-term increasing anthropogenic lead pollution after ca. 1500, probably due to the development of metallurgical activities during the High Middle Ages. These data furthermore allows to compare the recent anthropogenic sources of water pollution from three of the largest freshwater lakes of Western Europe (lakes Geneva, Lucerne, and Constance). High increases in Pb and Hg highlight the regional impact of industrial pollution after ca. 1750-1850, and the decrease of metal pollution in the 1980s due to the effects of remediation strategies such as the implementation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, at all the studied sites, the recent metal concentrations remain higher than pre-industrial levels. Moreover, the local scale pollution data reveal two highly contaminated sites (>100 μg Pb/g dry weight sediment) by industrial activities, during the late-19th and early-20th centuries (Lake Lucerne) and during the second part of the 20th century (Vidy Bay of Lake Geneva). Overall, the regional scale pollution history inferred from the three large and deep perialpine lakes points out at the pollution of water systems by heavy metals during the last two centuries due to the discharge of industrial effluents. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Review and synthesis of problems and directions for large scale geographic information system development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boyle, A. R.; Dangermond, J.; Marble, D.; Simonett, D. S.; Tomlinson, R. F.

1983-01-01

Problems and directions for large scale geographic information system development were reviewed and the general problems associated with automated geographic information systems and spatial data handling were addressed.

Towards Personal Exposures: How Technology Is Changing Air Pollution and Health Research.

PubMed

Larkin, A; Hystad, P

2017-12-01

We present a review of emerging technologies and how these can transform personal air pollution exposure assessment and subsequent health research. Estimating personal air pollution exposures is currently split broadly into methods for modeling exposures for large populations versus measuring exposures for small populations. Air pollution sensors, smartphones, and air pollution models capitalizing on big/new data sources offer tremendous opportunity for unifying these approaches and improving long-term personal exposure prediction at scales needed for population-based research. A multi-disciplinary approach is needed to combine these technologies to not only estimate personal exposures for epidemiological research but also determine drivers of these exposures and new prevention opportunities. While available technologies can revolutionize air pollution exposure research, ethical, privacy, logistical, and data science challenges must be met before widespread implementations occur. Available technologies and related advances in data science can improve long-term personal air pollution exposure estimates at scales needed for population-based research. This will advance our ability to evaluate the impacts of air pollution on human health and develop effective prevention strategies.

Emissions of air pollutants from scented candles burning in a test chamber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Derudi, Marco; Gelosa, Simone; Sliepcevich, Andrea; Cattaneo, Andrea; Rota, Renato; Cavallo, Domenico; Nano, Giuseppe

2012-08-01

Burning of scented candles in indoor environment can release a large number of toxic chemicals. However, in spite of the large market penetration of scented candles, very few works investigated their organic pollutants emissions. This paper investigates volatile organic compounds emissions, with particular reference to the priority indoor pollutants identified by the European Commission, from the burning of scented candles in a laboratory-scale test chamber. It has been found that BTEX and PAHs emission factors show large differences among different candles, possibly due to the raw paraffinic material used, while aldehydes emission factors seem more related to the presence of additives. This clearly evidences the need for simple and cheap methodologies to measure the emission factors of commercial candles in order to foresee the expected pollutant concentration in a given indoor environment and compare it with health safety standards.

The expanding scope of air pollution monitoring can facilitate sustainable development.

PubMed

Knox, Andrew; Mykhaylova, Natalia; Evans, Greg J; Lee, Colin J; Karney, Bryan; Brook, Jeffrey R

2013-03-15

This paper explores technologies currently expanding the physical scope of air pollution monitoring and their potential contributions to the assessment of sustainable development. This potential lies largely in the ability of these technologies to address issues typically on the fringe of the air pollution agenda. Air pollution monitoring tends to be primarily focused on human health, and largely neglects other aspects of sustainable development. Sensor networks, with their relatively inexpensive monitoring nodes, allow for monitoring with finer spatiotemporal resolution. This resolution can support more conclusive studies of air pollution's effect on socio-ecological justice and human quality of life. Satellite observation of air pollution allows for wider geographical scope, and in doing so can facilitate studies of air pollution's effects on natural capital and ecosystem resilience. Many air pollution-related aspects of the sustainability of development in human systems are not being given their due attention. Opportunities exist for air pollution monitoring to attend more to these issues. Improvements to the resolution and scale of monitoring make these opportunities realizable. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Students' Ideas and Attitudes about Air Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skamp, Keith; Boyes, Eddie; Stanisstreet, Martin

2004-01-01

The results of a large scale (N=1001) cross-sectional (Years 6, 8 and 10) study of students' ideas about the composition of unpolluted air, the nature of air pollution, the biological consequences of air pollution, and about acid rain and the Greenhouse Effect are reported. A range of persistent alternative conceptions were identified, in some…

Studies in Environment--Volume III: Pollution and the Municipality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Pamela C.; And Others

Recent studies have focused attention on the fact that residents of inner-city neighborhoods are subject to greater amounts of pollutants than are other neighborhoods of large cities. In this study, the premise is set forth and investigated at the metropolitan scale, seeking to discover differences of impact between the center city and its…

Study of the air quality in the surroundings of an urban park: A micrometeorological approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sastre, Mariano; Yagüe, Carlos; Arrillaga, Jon A.; Román-Cascón, Carlos; Maqueda, Gregorio; Artíñano, Begoña; Díaz-Ramiro, Elías; Gómez-Moreno, Francisco J.; Barreiro, Marcos; Borge, Rafael; Narros, Adolfo; Pérez, Javier; Quaassdorff, Christina

2017-04-01

In this work we study the differences showed by two types of pollutants, particulate matter (PM) and NOx, by comparing ambient concentration measurements within an urban park versus the corresponding values nearby (but outside) it. The results are linked to both proximity to emission sources, such as road traffic, and the microscale atmospheric conditions. The work is motivated by the fact that poor air quality is a crucial issue of current cities. For some of them it is not uncommon to face this problem with occasional traffic restrictions when high concentrations of pollutants are reached. These events occur more frequently with specific large-scale atmospheric conditions, for example when a strong anticyclone is present. As the meteorological conditions may significantly influence the pollutants concentrations, the research project TECNAIRE-CM (Innovative technologies for the assessment and improvement of urban air quality) aims to provide new approaches to obtain proper descriptions of the urban pollution and its dynamics at different spatial and temporal scales, not only the synoptic scale. So far, a few field campaigns have been developed within TECNAIRE-CM at two locations in the city of Madrid, which are considered hot spots according to the air quality network records. Here we use the data from a field campaign carried out during summer 2016, which consider standard pollution and meteorological measurements, as well as sonic anemometer data. The latter help to include atmospheric turbulence as a significant agent for air quality characterization. The instrumentation was deployed at a location with considerable traffic density, but nearby a border of the main urban park of the city, so that its influence might be investigated. Supplementary data considered for this work correspond to permanent instrumentation within the park. With this extra information we can compare both measurements inside and outside the park. Therefore, we study the effect on wind, turbulence or air quality when we measure at a site either directly exposed to traffic emissions or partly protected and with a reduced influence of typical atmospheric urban phenomena. This work has been funded by Madrid Regional Research Plan through TECNAIRE (P2013/MAE-2972).

Ecological thresholds: The key to successful enviromental management or an important concept with no practical application?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Groffman, P.M.; Baron, Jill S.; Blett, T.; Gold, A.J.; Goodman, I.; Gunderson, L.H.; Levinson, B.M.; Palmer, Margaret A.; Paerl, H.W.; Peterson, G.D.; Poff, N.L.; Rejeski, D.W.; Reynolds, J.F.; Turner, M.G.; Weathers, K.C.; Wiens, J.

2006-01-01

An ecological threshold is the point at which there is an abrupt change in an ecosystem quality, property or phenomenon, or where small changes in an environmental driver produce large responses in the ecosystem. Analysis of thresholds is complicated by nonlinear dynamics and by multiple factor controls that operate at diverse spatial and temporal scales. These complexities have challenged the use and utility of threshold concepts in environmental management despite great concern about preventing dramatic state changes in valued ecosystems, the need for determining critical pollutant loads and the ubiquity of other threshold-based environmental problems. In this paper we define the scope of the thresholds concept in ecological science and discuss methods for identifying and investigating thresholds using a variety of examples from terrestrial and aquatic environments, at ecosystem, landscape and regional scales. We end with a discussion of key research needs in this area.

Local-Scale Air Quality Modeling in Support of Human Health and Exposure Research (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isakov, V.

2010-12-01

Spatially- and temporally-sparse information on air quality is a key concern for air-pollution-related environmental health studies. Monitor networks are sparse in both space and time, are costly to maintain, and are often designed purposely to avoid detecting highly localized sources. Recent studies have shown that more narrowly defining the geographic domain of the study populations and improvements in the measured/estimated ambient concentrations can lead to stronger associations between air pollution and hospital admissions and mortality records. Traditionally, ambient air quality measurements have been used as a primary input to support human health and exposure research. However, there is increasing evidence that the current ambient monitoring network is not capturing sharp gradients in exposure due to the presence of high concentration levels near, for example, major roadways. Many air pollutants exhibit large concentration gradients near large emitters such as major roadways, factories, ports, etc. To overcome these limitations, researchers are now beginning to use air quality models to support air pollution exposure and health studies. There are many advantages to using air quality models over traditional approaches based on existing ambient measurements alone. First, models can provide spatially- and temporally-resolved concentrations as direct input to exposure and health studies and thus better defining the concentration levels for the population in the geographic domain. Air quality models have a long history of use in air pollution regulations, and supported by regulatory agencies and a large user community. Also, models can provide bidirectional linkages between sources of emissions and ambient concentrations, thus allowing exploration of various mitigation strategies to reduce risk to exposure. In order to provide best estimates of air concentrations to support human health and exposure studies, model estimates should consider local-scale features, regional-scale transport, and photochemical transformations. Since these needs are currently not met by a single model, hybrid air quality modeling has recently been developed to combine these capabilities. In this paper, we present the results of two studies where we applied the hybrid modeling approach to provide spatial and temporal details in air quality concentrations to support exposure and health studies: a) an urban-scale air quality accountability study involving near-source exposures to multiple ambient air pollutants, and b) an urban-scale epidemiological study involving human health data based on emergency department visits.

Effect of real-time boundary wind conditions on the air flow and pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon—Large eddy simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yun-Wei; Gu, Zhao-Lin; Cheng, Yan; Lee, Shun-Cheng

2011-07-01

Air flow and pollutant dispersion characteristics in an urban street canyon are studied under the real-time boundary conditions. A new scheme for realizing real-time boundary conditions in simulations is proposed, to keep the upper boundary wind conditions consistent with the measured time series of wind data. The air flow structure and its evolution under real-time boundary wind conditions are simulated by using this new scheme. The induced effect of time series of ambient wind conditions on the flow structures inside and above the street canyon is investigated. The flow shows an obvious intermittent feature in the street canyon and the flapping of the shear layer forms near the roof layer under real-time wind conditions, resulting in the expansion or compression of the air mass in the canyon. The simulations of pollutant dispersion show that the pollutants inside and above the street canyon are transported by different dispersion mechanisms, relying on the time series of air flow structures. Large scale air movements in the processes of the air mass expansion or compression in the canyon exhibit obvious effects on pollutant dispersion. The simulations of pollutant dispersion also show that the transport of pollutants from the canyon to the upper air flow is dominated by the shear layer turbulence near the roof level and the expansion or compression of the air mass in street canyon under real-time boundary wind conditions. Especially, the expansion of the air mass, which features the large scale air movement of the air mass, makes more contribution to the pollutant dispersion in this study. Comparisons of simulated results under different boundary wind conditions indicate that real-time boundary wind conditions produces better condition for pollutant dispersion than the artificially-designed steady boundary wind conditions.

Turbulent Plume Dispersion over Two-dimensional Idealized Urban Street Canyons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, C. C. C.; Liu, C. H.

2012-04-01

Human activities are the primary pollutant sources which degrade the living quality in the current era of dense and compact cities. A simple and reasonably accurate pollutant dispersion model is helpful to reduce pollutant concentrations in city or neighborhood scales by refining architectural design or urban planning. The conventional method to estimate the pollutant concentration from point/line sources is the Gaussian plume model using empirical dispersion coefficients. Its accuracy is pretty well for applying to rural areas. However, the dispersion coefficients only account for the atmospheric stability and streamwise distance that often overlook the roughness of urban surfaces. Large-scale buildings erected in urban areas significantly modify the surface roughness that in turn affects the pollutant transport in the urban canopy layer (UCL). We hypothesize that the aerodynamic resistance is another factor governing the dispersion coefficient in the UCL. This study is thus conceived to study the effects of urban roughness on pollutant dispersion coefficients and the plume behaviors. Large-eddy simulations (LESs) are carried out to examine the plume dispersion from a ground-level pollutant source over idealized 2D street canyons in neutral stratification. Computations with a wide range of aspect ratios (ARs), including skimming flow to isolated flow regimes, are conducted. The vertical profiles of pollutant distribution for different values of friction factor are compared that all reach a self-similar Gaussian shape. Preliminary results show that the pollutant dispersion is closely related to the friction factor. For relatively small roughness, the factors of dispersion coefficient vary linearly with the friction factor until the roughness is over a certain level. When the friction factor is large, its effect on the dispersion coefficient is less significant. Since the linear region covers at least one-third of the full range of friction factor in our empirical analysis, urban roughness is a major factor for dispersion coefficient. The downstream air quality could then be a function of both atmospheric stability and urban roughness.

Coupling transfer function and GIS for assessing non-point-source groundwater vulnerability at regional scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppola, A.; Comegna, V.; de Simone, L.

2009-04-01

Non-point source (NPS) pollution in the vadose zone is a global environmental problem. The knowledge and information required to address the problem of NPS pollutants in the vadose zone cross several technological and sub disciplinary lines: spatial statistics, geographic information systems (GIS), hydrology, soil science, and remote sensing. The main issues encountered by NPS groundwater vulnerability assessment, as discussed by Stewart [2001], are the large spatial scales, the complex processes that govern fluid flow and solute transport in the unsaturated zone, the absence of unsaturated zone measurements of diffuse pesticide concentrations in 3-D regional-scale space as these are difficult, time consuming, and prohibitively costly, and the computational effort required for solving the nonlinear equations for physically-based modeling of regional scale, heterogeneous applications. As an alternative solution, here is presented an approach that is based on coupling of transfer function and GIS modeling that: a) is capable of solute concentration estimation at a depth of interest within a known error confidence class; b) uses available soil survey, climatic, and irrigation information, and requires minimal computational cost for application; c) can dynamically support decision making through thematic mapping and 3D scenarios This result was pursued through 1) the design and building of a spatial database containing environmental and physical information regarding the study area, 2) the development of the transfer function procedure for layered soils, 3) the final representation of results through digital mapping and 3D visualization. One side GIS modeled environmental data in order to characterize, at regional scale, soil profile texture and depth, land use, climatic data, water table depth, potential evapotranspiration; on the other side such information was implemented in the up-scaling procedure of the Jury's TFM resulting in a set of texture based travel time probability density functions for layered soils each describing a characteristic leaching behavior for soil profiles with similar hydraulic properties. Such behavior, in terms of solute travel time to water table, was then imported back into GIS and finally estimation groundwater vulnerability for each soil unit was represented into a map as well as visualized in 3D.

Innovating e-waste management: From macroscopic to microscopic scales.

PubMed

Zeng, Xianlai; Yang, Congren; Chiang, Joseph F; Li, Jinhui

2017-01-01

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) has become a global problem, due to its potential environmental pollution and human health risk, and its containing valuable resources (e.g., metals, plastics). Recycling for e-waste will be a necessity, not only to address the shortage of mineral resources for electronics industry, but also to decline environmental pollution and human health risk. To systematically solve the e-waste problem, more attention of e-waste management should transfer from macroscopic to microscopic scales. E-waste processing technology should be significantly improved to diminish and even avoid toxic substance entering into downstream of material. The regulation or policy related to new production of hazardous substances in recycled materials should also be carried out on the agenda. All the findings can hopefully improve WEEE legislation for regulated countries and non-regulated countries. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Large-scale structural optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J.

1983-01-01

Problems encountered by aerospace designers in attempting to optimize whole aircraft are discussed, along with possible solutions. Large scale optimization, as opposed to component-by-component optimization, is hindered by computational costs, software inflexibility, concentration on a single, rather than trade-off, design methodology and the incompatibility of large-scale optimization with single program, single computer methods. The software problem can be approached by placing the full analysis outside of the optimization loop. Full analysis is then performed only periodically. Problem-dependent software can be removed from the generic code using a systems programming technique, and then embody the definitions of design variables, objective function and design constraints. Trade-off algorithms can be used at the design points to obtain quantitative answers. Finally, decomposing the large-scale problem into independent subproblems allows systematic optimization of the problems by an organization of people and machines.

Relevance of the EU Structural Funds’ Allocation to the Needs of Combating Air Pollution in Poland. Analysis of the Operational Programmes of Regions Threatened With Critical Air Pollution from Distributed Energy Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Włodarski, Marcin; Martyniuk-Pęczek, Justyna

2017-10-01

Recent years, the European Environmental Agency, has been reporting air quality parameters in Poland, as the poorest among all the EU countries. Despite of adoption of the EU legislation on energy efficiency and energy performance of buildings, existing legal solutions occur insufficient in reducing air pollution in Polish regions. Lack of an effective schemes supporting complex thermal renovation of buildings, exchange of inefficient boilers, developing district heating based on clean and renewable fuels results in severe health problems and 40 000 of premature deaths related to air pollution. Availability of the EU structural funds may become a tremendous opportunity, especially for the residential sector, to conduct a massive scale modernization. Nevertheless, lack of a coordinated action involving all levels of governance may put the opportunity at risk. The article aims to answer the question on the readiness of the regional governments to effectively implement energy efficiency measures mitigating the problem of air pollution. Second objective is to analyse whether the Regional Operational Programmes allocating the ERDF funds to support specific development needs of the regions, have been constructed in a way that properly addresses the problems related to energy performance of residential buildings.

Identifying and Classifying Pollution Hotspots to Guide Watershed Management in a Large Multiuse Watershed.

PubMed

Su, Fangli; Kaplan, David; Li, Lifeng; Li, Haifu; Song, Fei; Liu, Haisheng

2017-03-03

In many locations around the globe, large reservoir sustainability is threatened by land use change and direct pollution loading from the upstream watershed. However, the size and complexity of upstream basins makes the planning and implementation of watershed-scale pollution management a challenge. In this study, we established an evaluation system based on 17 factors, representing the potential point and non-point source pollutants and the environmental carrying capacity which are likely to affect the water quality in the Dahuofang Reservoir and watershed in northeastern China. We used entropy methods to rank 118 subwatersheds by their potential pollution threat and clustered subwatersheds according to the potential pollution type. Combining ranking and clustering analyses allowed us to suggest specific areas for prioritized watershed management (in particular, two subwatersheds with the greatest pollution potential) and to recommend the conservation of current practices in other less vulnerable locations (91 small watersheds with low pollution potential). Finally, we identified the factors most likely to influence the water quality of each of the 118 subwatersheds and suggested adaptive control measures for each location. These results provide a scientific basis for improving the watershed management and sustainability of the Dahuofang reservoir and a framework for identifying threats and prioritizing the management of watersheds of large reservoirs around the world.

Identifying and Classifying Pollution Hotspots to Guide Watershed Management in a Large Multiuse Watershed

PubMed Central

Su, Fangli; Kaplan, David; Li, Lifeng; Li, Haifu; Song, Fei; Liu, Haisheng

2017-01-01

In many locations around the globe, large reservoir sustainability is threatened by land use change and direct pollution loading from the upstream watershed. However, the size and complexity of upstream basins makes the planning and implementation of watershed-scale pollution management a challenge. In this study, we established an evaluation system based on 17 factors, representing the potential point and non-point source pollutants and the environmental carrying capacity which are likely to affect the water quality in the Dahuofang Reservoir and watershed in northeastern China. We used entropy methods to rank 118 subwatersheds by their potential pollution threat and clustered subwatersheds according to the potential pollution type. Combining ranking and clustering analyses allowed us to suggest specific areas for prioritized watershed management (in particular, two subwatersheds with the greatest pollution potential) and to recommend the conservation of current practices in other less vulnerable locations (91 small watersheds with low pollution potential). Finally, we identified the factors most likely to influence the water quality of each of the 118 subwatersheds and suggested adaptive control measures for each location. These results provide a scientific basis for improving the watershed management and sustainability of the Dahuofang reservoir and a framework for identifying threats and prioritizing the management of watersheds of large reservoirs around the world. PMID:28273834

Emissions of CO2 and criteria air pollutants from mobile sources: Insights from integrating real-time traffic data into local air quality models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gately, Conor; Hutyra, Lucy

2016-04-01

In 2013, on-road mobile sources were responsible for over 26% of U.S. fossil fuel carbon dioxide (ffCO2) emissions, and over 34% of both CO and NOx emissions. However, accurate representations of these emissions at the scale of urban areas remains a difficult challenge. Quantifying emissions at the scale of local streets and highways is critical to provide policymakers with the information needed to develop appropriate mitigation strategies and to guide research into the underlying process that drive mobile emissions. Quantification of vehicle ffCO2 emissions at high spatial and temporal resolutions requires a detailed synthesis of data on traffic activity, roadway attributes, fleet characteristics and vehicle speeds. To accurately characterize criteria air pollutant emissions, information on local meteorology is also critical, as the temperature and relative humidity can affect emissions rates of these pollutants by as much as 400%. As the health impacts of air pollutants are more severe for residents living in close proximity (<500m) to road sources, it is critical that inventories of these emissions rely on highly resolved source data to locate potential hot-spots of exposure. In this study we utilize real-time GPS estimates of vehicle speeds to estimate ffCO2 and criteria air pollutant emissions at multiple spatial and temporal scales across a large metropolitan area. We observe large variations in emissions associated with diurnal activity patterns, congestion, sporting and civic events, and weather anomalies. We discuss the advantages and challenges of using highly-resolved source data to quantify emissions at a roadway scale, and the potential of this methodology for forecasting the air quality impacts of changes in infrastructure, urban planning policies, and regional climate.

Emissions of CO2 and criteria air pollutants from mobile sources: Insights from integrating real-time traffic data into local air quality models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gately, C.; Hutyra, L.; Sue Wing, I.; Peterson, S.; Janetos, A.

2015-12-01

In 2013, on-road mobile sources were responsible for over 26% of U.S. fossil fuel carbon dioxide (ffCO2) emissions, and over 34% of both CO and NOx emissions. However, accurate representations of these emissions at the scale of urban areas remains a difficult challenge. Quantifying emissions at the scale of local streets and highways is critical to provide policymakers with the information needed to develop appropriate mitigation strategies and to guide research into the underlying process that drive mobile emissions. Quantification of vehicle ffCO2 emissions at high spatial and temporal resolutions requires a detailed synthesis of data on traffic activity, roadway attributes, fleet characteristics and vehicle speeds. To accurately characterize criteria air pollutant emissions, information on local meteorology is also critical, as the temperature and relative humidity can affect emissions rates of these pollutants by as much as 400%. As the health impacts of air pollutants are more severe for residents living in close proximity (<500m) to road sources, it is critical that inventories of these emissions rely on highly resolved source data to locate potential hot-spots of exposure. In this study we utilize real-time GPS estimates of vehicle speeds to estimate ffCO2 and criteria air pollutant emissions at multiple spatial and temporal scales across a large metropolitan area. We observe large variations in emissions associated with diurnal activity patterns, congestion, sporting and civic events, and weather anomalies. We discuss the advantages and challenges of using highly-resolved source data to quantify emissions at a roadway scale, and the potential of this methodology for forecasting the air quality impacts of changes in infrastructure, urban planning policies, and regional climate.

Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants. Report 2. First Year Poststocking Results. Volume II. The Fish, Mammals, and Waterfowl of Lake Conway, Florida.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-02-01

7AD-AI3 853 ’FLORIDA SAME AND FRESH WATER FISH COMMISSION ORLANDO F/ 616 LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE WHITE AMUR--ETC(U...of a series of reports documenting a large-scale operations management test of use of the white amur for control of problem aquatic plants in Lake...M. 1982. "Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants; Report 2, First Year Poststock- ing

Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants. Report 4. Third Year Poststocking Results. Volume VI. The Water and Sediment Quality of Lake Conway, Florida.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-01-01

RAI-RI247443 LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE i/i UNITE AMUR FOR CONTR.. (U) MILLER RND MILLER INC ORLANDO FL H D MILLER ET RL...LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE WHITE AMUR FOR CONTROL OF PROBLEM AQUATIC PLANTS Report 1: Baseline Studies Volume I...Boyd, J. 1983. "Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants; Report 4, Third Year Poststocking

The long road to improving the water quality of the Western Bug River (Ukraine) - A multi-scale analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagemann, N.; Blumensaat, F.; Tavares Wahren, F.; Trümper, J.; Burmeister, C.; Moynihan, R.; Scheifhacken, N.

2014-11-01

River basin management (RMB) was introduced to combat high levels of water pollution across Ukraine. The Western Bug River provides an example of how water quality is impacted by industrial and domestic wastewater discharges as well as pollution from agriculture and mining activities. The paper draws from a broader interdisciplinary study which aims to outline the sources of pollution within the upper Western Bug River catchment and identify the driving institutional forces behind this enduring environmental problem. The results of this study show that the administrative and spatial scales concerning river catchment management in the Western Bug River basin are not aligned. Furthermore, the temporal scale is often conflicting with the two above mentioned scales. The current political and financial situation of the State, as well as outdated administrative structures hinders effective water governance and results in low water quality. Despite these findings, there is also some evidence that in the longer term the RBM approach could succeed in the Western Bug River, especially if political and legal reforms are properly implemented and enforced.

A non-linear optimization programming model for air quality planning including co-benefits for GHG emissions.

PubMed

Turrini, Enrico; Carnevale, Claudio; Finzi, Giovanna; Volta, Marialuisa

2018-04-15

This paper introduces the MAQ (Multi-dimensional Air Quality) model aimed at defining cost-effective air quality plans at different scales (urban to national) and assessing the co-benefits for GHG emissions. The model implements and solves a non-linear multi-objective, multi-pollutant decision problem where the decision variables are the application levels of emission abatement measures allowing the reduction of energy consumption, end-of pipe technologies and fuel switch options. The objectives of the decision problem are the minimization of tropospheric secondary pollution exposure and of internal costs. The model assesses CO 2 equivalent emissions in order to support decision makers in the selection of win-win policies. The methodology is tested on Lombardy region, a heavily polluted area in northern Italy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Drainage Basins as Large-Scale Field Laboratories of Change: Hydro-biogeochemical- economic Model Study Support for Water Pollution and Eutrophication Management Under Uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Destouni, G.

2008-12-01

Excess nutrient and pollutant releases from various point and diffuse sources at and below the land surface, associated with land use, industry and households, pose serious eutrophication and pollution risks to inland and coastal water ecosystems worldwide. These risks must be assessed, for instance according to the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD demands economically efficient, basin-scale water management for achieving and maintaining good physico-chemical and ecological status in all the inland and coastal waters of EU member states. This paper synthesizes a series of hydro-biogeochemical and linked economic efficiency studies of basin-scale waterborne nutrient and pollutant flows, the development over the last decades up to the current levels of these flows, the main monitoring and modelling uncertainties associated with their quantification, and the effectiveness and economic efficiency of different possible abatement strategies for abating them in order to meet WFD requirements and other environmental goals on local, national and international levels under climate and other regional change. The studies include different Swedish and Baltic Sea drainage basins. Main findings include quantification of near-coastal monitoring gaps and long-term nutrient and pollutant memory in the subsurface (soil-groundwater-sediment) water systems of drainage basins. The former may significantly mask nutrient and pollutant loads to the sea while the latter may continue to uphold large loads to inland and coastal waters long time after source mitigation. A methodology is presented for finding a rational trade-off between the two resource-demanding options to reduce, or accept and explicitly account for the uncertainties implied by these monitoring gaps and long-term nutrient-pollution memories and time lags, and other knowledge, data and model uncertainties that limit the effectiveness and efficiency of water pollution and eutrophication management.

Heavy metal pollution in soil associated with a large-scale cyanidation gold mining region in southeast of Jilin, China.

PubMed

Chen, Mo; Lu, Wenxi; Hou, Zeyu; Zhang, Yu; Jiang, Xue; Wu, Jichun

2017-01-01

Different gold mining and smelting processes can lead to distinctive heavy metal contamination patterns and results. This work examined heavy metal pollution from a large-scale cyanidation gold mining operation, which is distinguished from artisanal and small-scale amalgamation gold mining, in Jilin Province, China. A total of 20 samples including one background sample were collected from the surface of the mining area and the tailings pond in June 2013. These samples were analyzed for heavy metal concentrations and degree of pollution as well as sources of Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg. The mean concentrations of Pb, Hg, and Cu (819.67, 0.12, and 46.92 mg kg -1 , respectively) in soil samples from the gold mine area exceeded local background values. The mean Hg content was less than the first-class standard of the Environmental Quality for Soils, which suggested that the cyanidation method is helpful for reducing Hg pollution. The geochemical accumulation index and enrichment factor results indicated clear signs that enrichment was present for Pb, Cu, and Hg, with the presence of serious Pb pollution and moderate presence to none of Hg and Cu pollution. Multivariate statistical analysis showed that there were three metal sources: (1) Pb, Cd, Cu, and As came from anthropogenic sources; (2) Cr and Zn were naturally occurring; whereas (3) Hg and Ni had a mix of anthropogenic and natural sources. Moreover, the tailings dam plays an important role in intercepting the tailings. Furthermore, the potential ecological risk assessment results showed that the study area poses a potentially strong risk to the ecological health. Furthermore, Pb and Hg (due to high concentration and high toxicity, respectively) are major pollutants on the risk index, and both Pb and Hg pollution should be of great concern at the Haigou gold mines in Jilin, China.

Characterization and variability of pollutant concentrations for the Las Vegas implementation of the National Near-Road Mobile Source Air Toxics Study

EPA Science Inventory

EPA, in collaboration with FHWA, has been involved in a large-scale monitoring research study in an effort to characterize highway vehicle emissions in a near-road environment. The pollutants of interest include particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microns ...

Decomposition approach of the nitrogen generation process: empirical study on the Shimabara Peninsula in Japan.

PubMed

Fujii, Hidemichi; Nakagawa, Kei; Kagabu, Makoto

2016-11-01

Groundwater nitrate pollution is one of the most prevalent water-related environmental problems worldwide. The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of nitrogen pollutant changes with a focus on the nitrogen generation process. The novelty of our research framework is to cost-effectively identify the factors involved in nitrogen pollutant generation using public data. This study focuses on three determinant factors: (1) nitrogen intensity changes, (2) structural changes, and (3) scale changes. This study empirically analyses three sectors, including crop production, farm animals, and the household, on the Shimabara Peninsula in Japan. Our results show that the nitrogen supply from crop production sectors has decreased because the production has been scaled down and shifted towards lower nitrogen intensive crops. In the farm animal sector, the nitrogen supply has also been successfully reduced due to scaling-down efforts. Households have decreased the nitrogen supply by diffusion of integrated septic tank and sewerage systems.

Urban planning and interactions with atmospheric pollution in Arve valley

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langlois de Septenville, William; Cossart, Étienne

2017-04-01

Atmospheric pollution is a major concern of urbanised areas and territory managers have to conduct efficient policies to decrease population exposure and vulnerability. Even if pollution peaks are subject to an important mediatisation and to a large part of preventive actions, background pollution remains responsible of the largest sanitary effects. They depend on (1) the concentration and the duration of the exposure and (2) to the kind of pollutants considered. Many sources of pollutants can be identified in urban areas as heating, industry or traffic; and each of them generates specific particles. Currently, the major part of pollution risk studies focuses on modelling particle emissions and their dissemination in the environment. These kinds of studies highlight the hazard intensity and its spatiality, commonly named the hazard exposure. Another part of risk studies, less frequent, considers the vulnerability. Vulnerability is a complex concept that involves a wide range of scales and objects ranging from biophysical parameters to social characteristics. They notably concern accessibility to information, knowledge and perceptions about the risk. The Arve valley (south-east of France) is subject to heavy pollution concentrations. High levels recording in this area have imposed the implementation of an Atmosphere Protection Plan. This type of plan is triggered if a peak occurs and enforces provisional binding measures for polluters, such as highway speed limitation for traffic emissions. These measures are only focused on emissions and have no effect for reducing vulnerability and exposition, for a long- and short-term time scales. An opportunity to ensure this objective is to consider how local urban morphologies can combine exposition and vulnerability situations. Indeed, cities have been planned without taking into account atmospheric pollution and morphologies. This context may conduct to the increase in both of these two risk components and producing hotspots of air pollution risk situations. In this poster, we purpose to present a methodology for analysing the relationships between actual city morphologies and pollutants. To ensure this objective, we consider the spatial characteristics of vulnerabilities. We also consider urban morphology responsible for a large part of the population exposure, particularly because it influences people's mobility and the frequentation of specific areas. Last part of the analysis will integrate the local street morphologies and their ability to concentrate pollutants, mainly focusing on traffic emissions. For example, close and large buildings may create areas where the low ventilation increases concentration of pollutants.

The harm of petroleum-polluted soil and its remediation research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shuguang; Xu, Yan; Lin, Zhaofeng; Zhang, Jishi; Norbu, Namkha; Liu, Wei

2017-08-01

Land resources are the foundation of human's survival and development, and it's one of the most valuable natural resources of each country. In view of the serious problems of petroleum pollution to soil caused during the exploration and development processes, this article based on a large number of literature researches, firstly discussed the compositions and properties of petroleum contaminants, secondly investigated some restoration methods for the current situation of petroleum polluted soil, compared and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of three kinds of bioremediation technologies. Finally, according to the deficiencies of previous research and existing problems, made an outlook of the physical and chemical remediation, bioremediation, and microbe-plant remediation, to provide some enlightenments for petroleum-contaminated soil remediation.

Ingestion of marine debris by the White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis): Is it increasing over time off southern Brazil?

PubMed

Petry, Maria V; Benemann, Victória R F

2017-04-15

Seabirds are amongst the most affected organisms by plastic pollution worldwide. Ingestion of marine debris has been reported in at least 122 species, and owing to the increasing global production and persistence of these anthropogenic materials within the marine environment, it is expected to be a growing problem to the marine fauna. Here we report evidence of an increasing frequency in marine debris ingestion and a decrease in the amount of plastic pellets ingested by White-chinned Petrels attending south Brazilian waters during the last three decades. Future studies comprising large temporal scales and large sample sizes are needed to better understand the trends of marine debris ingestion by seabirds. We expect our findings to highlight the need for prevention policies and mitigation measures to reduce the amount of solid litter in the oceans. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of long-term and large-scale even-odd license plate controlled plan effects on urban air quality and its implication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Suping; Yu, Ye; Qin, Dahe; Yin, Daiying; He, Jianjun

2017-12-01

To solve traffic congestion and to improve urban air quality, long-lasting and large-scale even-odd license plate controlled plan was implemented by local government during 20 November to 26 December 2016 in urban Lanzhou, a semi-arid valley city of northwest China. The traffic control measures provided an invaluable opportunity to evaluate its effects on urban air quality in less developed cities of northwest China. Based on measured simultaneously air pollutants and meteorological parameters, the abatement of traffic-related pollutants induced by the implemented control measures such as CO, PM2.5 and PM10 (the particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 μm and 10 μm) concentrations were firstly quantified by comparing the air quality data in urban areas with those in rural areas (uncontrolled zones). The concentrations of CO, NO2 from motor vehicles and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were shown to have significant decreases of 15%-23% during traffic control period from those measured before control period with hourly maximum CO, PM2.5, and NO2/SO2 reduction of 43%, 35% and 141.4%, respectively. The influence of the control measures on AQI (air quality index) and ozone was less as compared to its effect on other air pollutants. Therefore, to alleviate serious winter haze pollution in China and to protect human health, the stringent long-term and large-scale even-odd license plate controlled plan should be implemented aperiodically in urban areas, especially for the periods with poor diffusion conditions.

Performance of Grey Wolf Optimizer on large scale problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Shubham; Deep, Kusum

2017-01-01

For solving nonlinear continuous problems of optimization numerous nature inspired optimization techniques are being proposed in literature which can be implemented to solve real life problems wherein the conventional techniques cannot be applied. Grey Wolf Optimizer is one of such technique which is gaining popularity since the last two years. The objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm on large scale optimization problems. The Algorithm is implemented on 5 common scalable problems appearing in literature namely Sphere, Rosenbrock, Rastrigin, Ackley and Griewank Functions. The dimensions of these problems are varied from 50 to 1000. The results indicate that Grey Wolf Optimizer is a powerful nature inspired Optimization Algorithm for large scale problems, except Rosenbrock which is a unimodal function.

Large-scale modeling on the fate and transport of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in multimedia over China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Y.; Liu, M.; Wada, Y.; He, X.; Sun, X.

2017-12-01

In recent decades, with rapid economic growth, industrial development and urbanization, expanding pollution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has become a diversified and complicated phenomenon in China. However, the availability of sufficient monitoring activities for PAHs in multi-compartment and the corresponding multi-interface migration processes are still limited, especially at a large geographic area. In this study, we couple the Multimedia Fate Model (MFM) to the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model in order to consider the fugacity and the transient contamination processes. This coupled dynamic contaminant model can evaluate the detailed local variations and mass fluxes of PAHs in different environmental media (e.g., air, surface film, soil, sediment, water and vegetation) across different spatial (a county to country) and temporal (days to years) scales. This model has been applied to a large geographical domain of China at a 36 km by 36 km grid resolution. The model considers response characteristics of typical environmental medium to complex underlying surface. Results suggest that direct emission is the main input pathway of PAHs entering the atmosphere, while advection is the main outward flow of pollutants from the environment. In addition, both soil and sediment act as the main sink of PAHs and have the longest retention time. Importantly, the highest PAHs loadings are found in urbanized and densely populated regions of China, such as Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. This model can provide a good scientific basis towards a better understanding of the large-scale dynamics of environmental pollutants for land conservation and sustainable development. In a next step, the dynamic contaminant model will be integrated with the continental-scale hydrological and water resources model (i.e., Community Water Model, CWatM) to quantify a more accurate representation and feedbacks between the hydrological cycle and water quality at even larger geographical domains. Keywords: PAHs; Community multi-scale air quality model; Multimedia fate model; Land use

Complete physico-chemical treatment for coke plant effluents.

PubMed

Ghose, M K

2002-03-01

Naturally found coal is converted to coke which is suitable for metallurgical industries. Large quantities of liquid effluents produced contain a large amount of suspended solids, high COD, BOD, phenols, ammonia and other toxic substances which are causing serious pollution problem in the receiving water to which they are discharged. There are a large number of coke plants in the vicinity of Jharia Coal Field (JCF). Characteristics of the effluents have been evaluated. The present effluent treatment systems were found to be inadequate. Physico-chemical treatment has been considered as a suitable option for the treatment of coke plant effluents. Ammonia removal by synthetic zeolite, activated carbon for the removal of bacteria, viruses, refractory organics, etc. were utilized and the results are discussed. A scheme has been proposed for the complete physico-chemical treatment, which can be suitably adopted for the recycling, reuse and safe disposal of the treated effluent. Various unit process and unit operations involved in the treatment system have been discussed. The process may be useful on industrial scale at various sites.

The natural resources supply indexes study of the pig breeding scale in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leng, Bi-Bin; Zhang, Qi-Zhen; Ji, Xue-Qiang; Xu, Yue-Feng

2017-08-01

For the pollution problem of the pig breeding scale, we took three indexes as evaluation criterion, including arable land per capita, the water resource per capita and per capita share of grain. Then SPSS was used to synthesized the natural resources supply indexes of the pig breeding scale. The results show that with the fast development of technology and the steadily rising of grain production, the natural resources supply indexes of the pig breeding scale are raising constantly.

Development and Applications of a Modular Parallel Process for Large Scale Fluid/Structures Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guruswamy, Guru P.; Kwak, Dochan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

A modular process that can efficiently solve large scale multidisciplinary problems using massively parallel supercomputers is presented. The process integrates disciplines with diverse physical characteristics by retaining the efficiency of individual disciplines. Computational domain independence of individual disciplines is maintained using a meta programming approach. The process integrates disciplines without affecting the combined performance. Results are demonstrated for large scale aerospace problems on several supercomputers. The super scalability and portability of the approach is demonstrated on several parallel computers.

Development and Applications of a Modular Parallel Process for Large Scale Fluid/Structures Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guruswamy, Guru P.; Byun, Chansup; Kwak, Dochan (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A modular process that can efficiently solve large scale multidisciplinary problems using massively parallel super computers is presented. The process integrates disciplines with diverse physical characteristics by retaining the efficiency of individual disciplines. Computational domain independence of individual disciplines is maintained using a meta programming approach. The process integrates disciplines without affecting the combined performance. Results are demonstrated for large scale aerospace problems on several supercomputers. The super scalability and portability of the approach is demonstrated on several parallel computers.

Large-Scale Aerosol Modeling and Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-30

deserts of the world: Arabian Gulf, Sea of Japan, China Sea , Mediterranean Sea , and the Tropical Atlantic Ocean. NAAPS also accurately predicts the...fate of large-scale smoke and pollution plumes. With its global and continuous coverage, 1 Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188...origin of dust plumes impacting naval operations in the Red Sea , Mediterranean, eastern Atlantic, Gulf of Guinea, Sea of Japan, Yellow Sea , and East

Implications of salinity pollution hotspots on agricultural production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Floerke, Martina; Fink, Julia; Malsy, Marcus; Voelker, Jeanette; Alcamo, Joseph

2016-04-01

Salinity pollution can have many negative impacts on water resources used for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes. Elevated concentrations of salinity in irrigation water can lead to decreased crop production or crop death and, thus, causing an economic problem. Overall, salinity pollution is a global problem but tends to be more severe in arid and semi-arid regions where the dilution capacity of rivers and lakes is lower and the use of irrigation higher. Particularly in these regions agricultural production is exposed to high salinity of irrigation water as insufficient water quality further reduces the available freshwater resources. According to the FAO, irrigated agriculture contributes about 40 percent of the total food production globally, and therefore, high salinity pollution poses a major concern for food production and food security. We use the WaterGAP3 modeling framework to simulate hydrological, water use, and water quality conditions on a global scale for the time period 1990 to 2010. The modeling framework is applied to simulate total dissolved solids (TDS) loadings and in-stream concentrations from different point and diffuse sources to get an insight on potential environmental impacts as well as risks to agricultural food production. The model was tested and calibrated against observed data from GEMStat and literature sources. Although global in scope, the focus of this study is on developing countries, i.e., in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as these are most threatened by salinity pollution. Furthermore, insufficient water quality for irrigation and therefore restrictions in irrigation water use are examined, indicating limitations to crop production. Our results show that elevated salinity concentrations in surface waters mainly occur in peak irrigation regions as irrigated agriculture is not only the most relevant water use sector contributing to water abstractions, but also the dominant source of salinity pollution. Additionally, large metropolitan regions are initially loading hotspots and pollution, too, and prevention becomes important as point sources are dependent on sewer connection rates and treatment levels. In conclusion, this study provides a detailed picture of the spatial and temporal distribution of salinity pollution and identifies hotspot areas as well as the dominant sources. Furthermore, impacts of water quality degradation on agricultural production and food security are quantified, which aim for a better understanding of the risks for food security caused by water quality impairment.

EPA'S LANDSCAPE SCIENCES RESEARCH: NUTRIENT POLLUTION, FLOODING, AND HABITAT

EPA Science Inventory

There is a growing need to understand the pattern of landscape change at regional scales and to determine how such changes affect environmental values. Key to conducting these assessments is the development of land-cover databases that permit large-scale analyses, such as an exam...

Meteorological conditions during a severe, prolonged regional heavy air pollution episode in eastern China from December 2016 to January 2017

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Xueliang; Cao, Weihua; Huo, Yanfeng; Yang, Guanying; Yu, Caixia; He, Dongyan; Deng, Weitao; Fu, Wei; Ding, Heming; Zhai, Jing; Cheng, Long; Zhao, Xuhui

2018-03-01

A severe, prolonged and harmful regional heavy air pollution episode occurred in eastern China from December 2016 to January 2017. In this paper, the pollutant characteristics and the meteorological formation mechanism of this pollution event, including climate anomalies, surface weather conditions, planetary boundary layer structure and large-scale circulation features, were analysed based on observational pollution data, surface meteorological data, sounding data and ERA-Interim reanalysis data. The results are as follows. (1) Five pollution stages were identified in eastern China. The two most severe episodes occurred from December 27, 2016 to January 4, 2017 and from January 8 to 12 2017. During these two pollution episodes, fine mode particles were major contributors, and hourly PM2.5 concentrations often exceeded 150 μg/m3, reaching a maximum of 333 μg/m3 at Fuyang station. Gaseous pollutants were transformed into secondary aerosols through heterogeneous reactions on the surface of PM2.5. (2) Compared with the same period over the years 2000-2016, 2017 presented meteorological field climate anomalies in conjunction with unfavourable surface conditions (weak winds, high relative humidity, fewer hours of sunshine, high cloud cover) and adverse atmospheric circulation (weak East Asian winter monsoon and an abnormal geopotential height of 500 hPa), which caused poorer visibility in 2017 than in the other analysed years. (3) During the development of heavy pollution event, unfavourable surface weather conditions, including poorer visibility, weaker pressure, higher relative humidity, lower wind speed with unfavourable wind direction and less precipitation suppressed the horizontal diffusion ability of air pollutants. Furthermore, the unfavourable structure of the atmospheric boundary layer was the key cause of the rapid PM2.5 increase. The deep, strong temperature inversion layer and weak vertical wind velocity could have suppressed vertical motion and enhanced the stability of the near-surface atmosphere, causing the air pollutants to accumulate at low levels and exacerbating the air pollution problem. Finally, a persistent stagnant weather system with a weak geopotential height field of 1000 hPa and warm air advection at 850 hPa was the main feature of atmospheric circulation associated with the heavy pollution.

Watershed Controls on the Proper Scale of Economic Markets for Pollution Reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rigby, J.; Doyle, M. W.; Yates, A.

2010-12-01

Markets for tradable discharge permits (TDPs) are an increasingly popular policy instrument for obtaining cost-effective nutrient reduction targets across watersheds. Such markets are also an emerging, dynamic coupling between economic institutions and stream hydrology/biogeochemistry as trading markets become explicit determinants for the spatial distribution of stream nutrient loads. A central problem in any environmental market program is setting the size of the market, as there are distinct trade-offs for large versus small markets. While the overall cost-effectiveness of permit trading increases with the size of the market, the potential for localized and highly damaging nutrient concentrations, or “hotspots”, also increases. Smaller market size reduces the potential for hot spots by dispersing the location of trades, but this may increase the net costs of water quality compliance significantly through both the restriction of possible trading partners and price manipulation by market participants. This project couples a microeconomic model for TDPs (based on possible configurations of mutually exclusive trading zones within the basin) with a semi-distributed water quality model to examine watershed controls on the configuration and scale of such markets. Our results show a wide variation in total annual cost of pollution abatement based on choice of market design -- often with large differences in cost between very similar configurations. This framework is also applied to a 10-member trading program among wastewater treatment plants in the Neuse River, NC, in order to assess (1) the optimum market design for the Upper Neuse basin and (2) how these costs compare with expected costs under alternative market structures (e.g., trading ratio system) and (3) the cost improvements over traditional command-and-control regulatory frameworks. We find that the optimal zone configuration is almost always a lower cost option when compared to a trading ratio scheme and that the optimal design depends largely on the range of plant sizes and their geographic distribution within the stream network. Leveraging this model, we can develop a heuristic understanding of how the shape or topography of watersheds, and/or the spatial distribution of polluters may constrain the utility of market mechanisms in water quality regulation.

Source apportionment analysis of air pollutants using CMAQ/BFM for national air quality management policy over Republic of Korea.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moon, N.; Kim, S.; Seo, J.; Lee, Y. J.

2017-12-01

Recently, the Korean government is focusing on solving air pollution problem such as fine particulate matter and ozone. Korea has high population density and concentrated industrial complex in its limited land space. For better air quality management, it is important to understand source and contribution relation to target pollutant. The air quality analysis representing the mutual contribution among the local regions enables to understand the substantive state of the air quality of a region in association with neighboring regions. Under this background, the source apportionment of PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, SO2 using WRF and CMAQ/BFM was analyzed over Korea and BFM was applied to mobile, area and point sources in each local government. The contribution rate from neighboring region showed different pattern for each pollutant. In case of primary pollutants such as NO2, SO2, local source contribution is dominant, on the other hand secondary pollutants case especially O3, contribution from neighboring region is higher than that from source region itself. Local source contribution to PM10 showed 20-25% and the contribution rate to O3 has big difference with different meteorological condition year after year. From this study, we tried to estimate the conversion rate between source (NOx, VOC, SO2, NH3, PMC, PM2.5, CO) and concentration (PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, SO2,) by regional group over Korea. The result can contribute to the decision-making process of important national planning related to large-scale industrial developments and energy supply policies (eg., operations of coal-fired power plants and diesel cars) and emission control plan, where many controversies and concerns are currently concentrated among local governments in Korea. With this kind of approach, various environmental and social problems related to air quality can also be identified early so that a sustainable and environmentally sound plan can be established by providing data infrastructures to be utilized by central government agencies, local governments, and even private sectors.

Regional and long-range transport scenarios for photo-oxidants on the Mediterranean basin in summer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Millan, M.; Mantilla, E.; Salvador, R.

1996-12-31

Atmospheric research, begun in 1988, has shown that the dynamics of air pollutants in the Mediterranean basin in summer are governed by processes ranging from local to large meso-scale with diurnal cycles. Large scale convection over some regions, and up-slope winds in others, can inject aged pollutants into the Mid-troposphere, where they can participate in long-range processes within Southern and Central Europe. Two scenarios have been identified for the regional and long-range transport of photo-oxidants and other pollutants within, and out of, the Western Mediterranean basin. The first scenario involves the pollutants injected over the Spanish Central Plateau directly intomore » the mid-troposphere, and the second, the reservoir layers created along the Mediterranean coast. In the second scenario the key components are: the semi-permanent high(er) pressure area over the colder waters in the Gulf of Lion-Western Mediterranean basin, the mountain ranges which surround it, and the coastal processes. During the day the coastal circulations renovate the upper reservoir layers while the lower ones are drawn inland with the sea-breeze, and effective flow is mostly perpendicular to the coast.« less

A spatial model to aggregate point-source and nonpoint-source water-quality data for large areas

USGS Publications Warehouse

White, D.A.; Smith, R.A.; Price, C.V.; Alexander, R.B.; Robinson, K.W.

1992-01-01

More objective and consistent methods are needed to assess water quality for large areas. A spatial model, one that capitalizes on the topologic relationships among spatial entities, to aggregate pollution sources from upstream drainage areas is described that can be implemented on land surfaces having heterogeneous water-pollution effects. An infrastructure of stream networks and drainage basins, derived from 1:250,000-scale digital-elevation models, define the hydrologic system in this spatial model. The spatial relationships between point- and nonpoint pollution sources and measurement locations are referenced to the hydrologic infrastructure with the aid of a geographic information system. A maximum-branching algorithm has been developed to simulate the effects of distance from a pollutant source to an arbitrary downstream location, a function traditionally employed in deterministic water quality models. ?? 1992.

Mathematical and Numerical Techniques in Energy and Environmental Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Z.; Ewing, R. E.

Mathematical models have been widely used to predict, understand, and optimize many complex physical processes, from semiconductor or pharmaceutical design to large-scale applications such as global weather models to astrophysics. In particular, simulation of environmental effects of air pollution is extensive. Here we address the need for using similar models to understand the fate and transport of groundwater contaminants and to design in situ remediation strategies. Three basic problem areas need to be addressed in the modeling and simulation of the flow of groundwater contamination. First, one obtains an effective model to describe the complex fluid/fluid and fluid/rock interactions that control the transport of contaminants in groundwater. This includes the problem of obtaining accurate reservoir descriptions at various length scales and modeling the effects of this heterogeneity in the reservoir simulators. Next, one develops accurate discretization techniques that retain the important physical properties of the continuous models. Finally, one develops efficient numerical solution algorithms that utilize the potential of the emerging computing architectures. We will discuss recent advances and describe the contribution of each of the papers in this book in these three areas. Keywords: reservoir simulation, mathematical models, partial differential equations, numerical algorithms

Distribution and sources of air pollutants in the North China Plain based on on-road mobile measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Yi; Zhang, Jiping; Wang, Junxia; Chen, Wenyuan; Han, Yiqun; Ye, Chunxiang; Li, Yingruo; Liu, Jun; Zeng, Limin; Wu, Yusheng; Wang, Xinfeng; Wang, Wenxing; Chen, Jianmin; Zhu, Tong

2016-10-01

The North China Plain (NCP) has been experiencing severe air pollution problems with rapid economic growth and urbanisation. Many field and model studies have examined the distribution of air pollutants in the NCP, but convincing results have not been achieved, mainly due to a lack of direct measurements of pollutants over large areas. Here, we employed a mobile laboratory to observe the main air pollutants in a large part of the NCP from 11 June to 15 July 2013. High median concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) (12 ppb), nitrogen oxides (NOx) (NO + NO2; 452 ppb), carbon monoxide (CO) (956 ppb), black carbon (BC; 5.5 µg m-3) and ultrafine particles (28 350 cm-3) were measured. Most of the high values, i.e. 95 percentile concentrations, were distributed near large cities, suggesting the influence of local emissions. In addition, we analysed the regional transport of SO2 and CO, relatively long-lived pollutants, based on our mobile observations together with wind field and satellite data analyses. Our results suggested that, for border areas of the NCP, wind from outside this area would have a diluting effect on pollutants, while south winds would bring in pollutants that have accumulated during transport through other parts of the NCP. For the central NCP, the concentrations of pollutants were likely to remain at high levels, partly due to the influence of regional transport by prevalent south-north winds over the NCP and partly by local emissions.

Sensitivity analysis for large-scale problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Noor, Ahmed K.; Whitworth, Sandra L.

1987-01-01

The development of efficient techniques for calculating sensitivity derivatives is studied. The objective is to present a computational procedure for calculating sensitivity derivatives as part of performing structural reanalysis for large-scale problems. The scope is limited to framed type structures. Both linear static analysis and free-vibration eigenvalue problems are considered.

Some aspects of control of a large-scale dynamic system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aoki, M.

1975-01-01

Techniques of predicting and/or controlling the dynamic behavior of large scale systems are discussed in terms of decentralized decision making. Topics discussed include: (1) control of large scale systems by dynamic team with delayed information sharing; (2) dynamic resource allocation problems by a team (hierarchical structure with a coordinator); and (3) some problems related to the construction of a model of reduced dimension.

Bayesian hierarchical model for large-scale covariance matrix estimation.

PubMed

Zhu, Dongxiao; Hero, Alfred O

2007-12-01

Many bioinformatics problems implicitly depend on estimating large-scale covariance matrix. The traditional approaches tend to give rise to high variance and low accuracy due to "overfitting." We cast the large-scale covariance matrix estimation problem into the Bayesian hierarchical model framework, and introduce dependency between covariance parameters. We demonstrate the advantages of our approaches over the traditional approaches using simulations and OMICS data analysis.

NEAR-SURFACE AIR PARCEL TRAJECTORIES - ST. LOUIS, 1975

EPA Science Inventory

The utility of air parcel trajectories is described for the diagnosis of mesometeorological and urban air pollution problems. A technique is described that uses the St. Louis Regional Air Monitoring System (RAMS) to provide wind measurements for the local urban scale. A computeri...

Light pollution: Assessment of sky glow on two dark sky regions of Portugal.

PubMed

Lima, Raul Cerveira; Pinto da Cunha, José; Peixinho, Nuno

2016-01-01

Artificial light at night (ALAN), producing light pollution (LP), is not a matter restricted to astronomy anymore. Light is part of modern societies and, as a consequence, the natural cycle day-night (bright-dark) has been interrupted in a large segment of the global population. There is increasing evidence that exposure to certain types of light at night and beyond threshold levels may produce hazardous effects to humans and the environment. The concept of "dark skies reserves" is a step forward in order to preserve the night sky and a means of enhancing public awareness of the problem of spread of light pollution worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the skyglow at two sites in Portugal, the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG) and the region now known as Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve. The latter site was classified as a "Starlight Tourism Destination" by the Starlight Foundation (the first in the world to achieve this classification) following a series of night sky measurements in situ described herein. The measurements at PNPG also contributed to the new set of regulations concerning light pollution at this national park. This study presents the first in situ systematic measurements of night sky brightness, showing that at the two sites the skies are mostly in levels 3 to 4 of the Bortle 9-level scale (with level 1 being the best achievable). The results indicate that the sources of light pollution and skyglow can be attributed predominantly to contamination from nearby urban regions.

Functions of slags and gravels as substrates in large-scale demonstration constructed wetland systems for polluted river water treatment.

PubMed

Ge, Yuan; Wang, Xiaochang; Zheng, Yucong; Dzakpasu, Mawuli; Zhao, Yaqian; Xiong, Jiaqing

2015-09-01

The choice of substrates with high adsorption capacity, yet readily available and economical is vital for sustainable pollutants removal in constructed wetlands (CWs). Two identical large-scale demonstration horizontal subsurface flow (HSSF) CWs (surface area, 340 m(2); depth, 0.6 m; HLR, 0.2 m/day) with gravel or slag substrates were evaluated for their potential use in remediating polluted urban river water in the prevailing climate of northwest China. Batch experiments to elucidate phosphorus adsorption mechanisms indicated a higher adsorption capacity of slag (3.15 g/kg) than gravel (0.81 g/kg), whereby circa 20 % more total phosphorus (TP) removal was recorded in HSSF-slag than HSSF-gravel. TP removal occurred predominantly via CaO-slag dissolution followed by Ca phosphate precipitation. Moreover, average removals of chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand were approximately 10 % higher in HSSF-slag than HSSF-gravel. Nevertheless, TP adsorption by slag seemed to get quickly saturated over the monitoring period, and the removal efficiency of the HSSF-slag approached that of the HSSF-gravel after 1-year continuous operation. In contrast, the two CWs achieved similar nitrogen removal during the 2-year monitoring period. Findings also indicated that gravel provided better support for the development of other wetland components such as biomass, whereby the biomass production and the amount of total nitrogen (TN; 43.1-59.0 g/m(2)) and TP (4.15-5.75 g/m(2)) assimilated by local Phragmites australis in HSSF-gravel were higher than that in HSSF-slag (41.2-52.0 g/m(2) and 3.96-4.07 g/m(2), respectively). Overall, comparable pollutant removal rates could be achieved in large-scale HSSF CWs with either gravel or slag as substrate and provide a possible solution for polluted urban river remediation in northern China.

Remediation of biochar on heavy metal polluted soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shuguang; Xu, Yan; Norbu, Namkha; Wang, Zhan

2018-01-01

Unreasonable mining and smelting of mineral resources, solid waste disposal, sewage irrigation, utilization of pesticides and fertilizers would result in a large number of heavy metal pollutants into the water and soil environment, causing serious damage to public health and ecological safety. In recent years, a majority of scholars tried to use biochar to absorb heavy metal pollutants, which has some advantages of extensive raw material sources, low-cost and high environmental stability. This paper reviewed the definition, properties of biochar, the mechanism of heavy metal sorption by biochar and some related problems and prospects, to provide some technical support for the application of biochar into heavy metal polluted soils.

Application of ERTS-1 imagery in the Vermont-New York dispute over pollution of Lake Champlain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lind, A. O. (Principal Investigator)

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery and a composite map derived from ERTS-1 imagery were presented as evidence in a U.S. Supreme Court case involving the pollution of an interstate water body (Lake Champlain). A pollution problem generated by a large paper mill forms the basis of the suit (Vermont vs. International Paper Co. and State of New York) and ERTS-1 imagery shows the effluent pattern on the lake surface as extending into Vermont during three different times.

Travel of pollution, and purification en route, in sandy soils

PubMed Central

Baars, J. K.

1957-01-01

The travel of pollution in sandy soils, and the extent to which purification takes place en route, are discussed, with special reference to the possible contamination of ground water—a problem which is of particular importance in the Netherlands, where the water-supply for many of the large towns is drawn from the water underneath the dunes. Specifically, two types of soil pollution are considered: (a) severe pollution of the surface layers with matter concentrated in a small volume of water (e.g., faecal matter from pit privies at camping-sites); and (b) moderate pollution of the surface layers with matter contained in large quantities of water (e.g., organic matter and bacteria in river water used for the artificial recharge of ground water). It is shown that in both these types of pollution the self-purification is sufficient to prevent contamination of the ground water, provided that the soil is very fine and—in the case of the first type—dry and well aerated, and provided that the ground-water level is not too high or the rate of infiltration too great. PMID:13472428

A numerical study on flow and pollutant transport in Singapore coastal waters.

PubMed

Xu, Ming; Chua, Vivien P

2016-10-15

Intensive economic and shipping activities in Singapore Strait have caused Singapore coastal waters to be under high risk of water pollution. A nested three-dimensional unstructured-grid SUNTANS model is applied to Singapore coastal waters to simulate flow and pollutant transport. The small domain (~50m resolution) Singapore coastal model is nested within a large domain (~200m resolution) regional model. The nested model is able to predict water surface elevations and velocities with high R(2) values of 0.96 and 0.91, respectively. Model results delineate the characteristics of circulation pattern in Singapore coastal waters during the Northeast and Southwest monsoons. The pollutants are modeled as passive tracers, and are released at six key sailing locations Points 1-6 in Singapore coastal waters and are named as Passive Tracers 1-6, respectively. Our results show that the rate of dispersion is twice as large for the Northeast monsoon compared to the Southwest monsoon due to differences in large-scale monsoons and small-scale local winds. The volume averaged concentration (VAC) diminishes faster and the local flushing time is shorter during the Northeast monsoon than the Southwest monsoon. Dispersion coefficients K and the VAC decreasing rate are maximum for Tracers 2 and 3 with shortest local flushing time due to the strong surrounding currents and abrupt bathymetry changes near Senang and St. John Islands. Dispersion coefficients K and the VAC decreasing rate are minimum for Tracer 1 due to weak currents induced by the semi-enclosed coastline near Tuas. It is found that both the lateral dispersion coefficient Ky and the compound dispersion coefficient K obey a "4/3-law", which defines a linear correlation between dispersion coefficients and 4/3-power of selected length scale. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applications of remote sensing to estuarine problems. [estuaries of Chesapeake Bay

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Munday, J. C., Jr.

1975-01-01

A variety of siting problems for the estuaries of the lower Chesapeake Bay have been solved with cost beneficial remote sensing techniques. Principal techniques used were repetitive 1:30,000 color photography of dye emitting buoys to map circulation patterns, and investigation of water color boundaries via color and color infrared imagery to scales of 1:120,000. Problems solved included sewage outfall siting, shoreline preservation and enhancement, oil pollution risk assessment, and protection of shellfish beds from dredge operations.

The Modified HZ Conjugate Gradient Algorithm for Large-Scale Nonsmooth Optimization.

PubMed

Yuan, Gonglin; Sheng, Zhou; Liu, Wenjie

2016-01-01

In this paper, the Hager and Zhang (HZ) conjugate gradient (CG) method and the modified HZ (MHZ) CG method are presented for large-scale nonsmooth convex minimization. Under some mild conditions, convergent results of the proposed methods are established. Numerical results show that the presented methods can be better efficiency for large-scale nonsmooth problems, and several problems are tested (with the maximum dimensions to 100,000 variables).

Relationship between trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning in Southeast Asia using satellite and emission data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azuma, Yoshimi; Nakamura, Maya; Kuji, Makoto

2012-11-01

Southeast Asia is one of the biggest regions of biomass burning with forest fires and slash-and-burn farming. From the fire events, a large amount of air pollutants are emitted such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and aerosol (black carbon; BC). Biomass burning generally causes not only local, but also transboundary air pollution, and influences the atmospheric environment in the world accordingly. However, impact of air pollutants' emissions from large-scale fire in Southeast Asia is not well investigated compared to other regions such as South America and Africa. In this study, characteristics of the atmospheric environment were investigated with correlative analyses among several satellite data (MOPITT, OMI, and MODIS) and emission inventory (GFEDv3) in Southeast Asia from October 2004 to June 2008 on a monthly basis. As a result, it is suggested that the transboundary air pollution from the biomass burning regions occurred over Southeast Asia, which caused specifically higher air pollutants' concentration at Hanoi, Vietnam in spring dry season.

Defining a "Zone of Impact": Transport Processes and Patterns for Small-Scale Land Runoff.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Largier, J. L.; Basdurak, B.

2016-12-01

Nearshore pollution is a well-recognized environmental problem, yet the pattern of this pollution is not well studied and it is little recognized in policy. Whether nutrients, pathogens or toxins, the highest concentrations of pollutants in the nearfield are controlled by transport and mixing, rather than decay of the constituent. Thus, this becomes a challenge to determine patterns of runoff (and tidal outflow) and to account for the dominant processes that control these patterns. Salinity and fecal indicator bacteria data exhibit coherent space-time patterns, indicating that a coherent "zone of impact" can be determined, i.e., a time-varying spatial zone in which the constituent of concern exceeds a reference concentration (level of concern). To explain field observations, modeling of small-scale runoff plumes and wave-driven transport can be used. In contrast to larger river plumes, wind forcing is a critical factor in plume behavior and the resultant pattern of pollution. This preliminary work suggests that coherent spatio-temporal patterns can explain the apparently not-so-well-behaved patterns of pollution that are reported when concentrations are under-sampled. And it throws out a challenge to nearshore oceanographers to better explain transport and mixing patterns for the benefit of reducing coastal pollution and its impacts.

Environmental contaminant exposure data and monitoring priorities for wild terrestrial vertebrates at national parks in coastal and estuarine habitat

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rattner, B.A.; Ackerson, B.K.; Eisenreich, K.M.; McKernan, M.A.; Harmon, David

2006-01-01

The Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends (BEST) Project of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assesses the exposure and effects of environmental contaminants on select species and habitats in the United States. One of the many BEST Project activities entails the development of decision-support tools to assist in the identification of chemical threats to species and lands under the stewardship of the Department of the Interior. Although there are many ecotoxicological monitoring programs that focus on aquatic species and habitats, there are currently no large-scale efforts that are focused on terrestrial vertebrates in the United States. Nonetheless, organochlorine contaminants, metals, and new pollutants continue to pose hazards to terrestrial vertebrates at many spatial scales (ranging from small hazardous-waste-site point sources to entire watersheds). To evaluate and prioritize pollutant hazards for terrestrial vertebrates, a ?Contaminant Exposure and EffectsTerrestrial Vertebrates? (CEE-TV) database (www.pwrc.usgs.gov/contaminants-online) was developed. The CEE-TV database has been used to conduct simple searches for exposure and biological effects information for a given species or location, identification of temporal contaminant exposure trends, information gap analyses for national wildlife refuge and national park units, and ranking of terrestrial vertebrate ecotoxicological information needs based on data density and water quality problems. Despite widespread concerns about environmental contamination, during the past decade only about one-half of the coastal National Park units appear to have terrestrial vertebrate ecotoxicological data. Based upon known environmental contaminant hazards, it is recommended that regionalized monitoring programs or efforts focused on lands managed by the Department of the Interior should be undertaken to prevent serious natural resource problems.

Connections Between Stratospheric Pollution and the Asian Summer Monsoon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Susanne E.; Tsigaridis, Konstas

2015-01-01

The Asian Monsoon leads to rapid vertical transport of gases and aerosols into the upper troposphere. Some of the pollution might be transported above cloud levels, which will allow it to spread globally and possibly at some occasions reach into the stratosphere. In this study we will use the GISS climate model to investigate the interactions between pollution and convective transport as well as secondary aerosol formation. Pollution resulting from anthropogenic activity as well as from natural sources such as small and large volcanic eruptions, dust storms and forest fires will be quantified. This modeling study will be accompanied by satellite observations from space that monitor aerosol optical thickness (AOT), and absorption AOT (AAOT) in two and three dimensions. Our goal is a better process level understanding of the evolution of natural and anthropogenic aerosol plumes in conjunction with the Asian Monsoon. Hence, we aim to explain their large-scale expansion, which eventually determines their impacts on climate.

Large-Eddy Simulation of Chemically Reactive Pollutant Transport from a Point Source in Urban Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Tangzheng; Liu, Chun-Ho

2013-04-01

Most air pollutants are chemically reactive so using inert scalar as the tracer in pollutant dispersion modelling would often overlook their impact on urban inhabitants. In this study, large-eddy simulation (LES) is used to examine the plume dispersion of chemically reactive pollutants in a hypothetical atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) in neutral stratification. The irreversible chemistry mechanism of ozone (O3) titration is integrated into the LES model. Nitric oxide (NO) is emitted from an elevated point source in a rectangular spatial domain doped with O3. The LES results are compared well with the wind tunnel results available in literature. Afterwards, the LES model is applied to idealized two-dimensional (2D) street canyons of unity aspect ratio to study the behaviours of chemically reactive plume over idealized urban roughness. The relation among various time scales of reaction/turbulence and dimensionless number are analysed.

Connections between Pollution and the Asian Monsoon Circulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bauer, S.

2015-12-01

The Asian Monsoon leads to rapid vertical transport of gases and aerosols into the upper troposphere. Some of the pollution might be transported above cloud levels, which will allow it to spread globally and possibly at some occasions reach into the stratosphere. In this study we will use the GISS climate model to investigate the interactions between pollution and convective transport as well as secondary aerosol formation. Pollution resulting from anthropogenic activity as well as from natural sources such as small and large volcanic eruptions, dust storms and forest fires will be quantified. This modeling study will be accompanied by satellite observations from space that monitor aerosol optical thickness (AOT), and absorption AOT (AAOT) in two and three dimensions. Our goal is a better process level understanding of the evolution of natural and anthropogenic aerosol plumes in conjunction with the Asian Monsoon. Hence, we aim to explain their large-scale expansion, which eventually determines their impacts on climate.

[Interrelationships between soil fauna and soil environmental factors in China: research advance].

PubMed

Wang, Yi; Wei, Wei; Yang, Xing-zhong; Chen, Li-ding; Yang, Lei

2010-09-01

Soil fauna has close relations with various environmental factors in soil ecosystem. To explore the interrelationships between soil fauna and soil environmental factors is of vital importance to deep understand the dynamics of soil ecosystem and to assess the functioning of the ecosystem. The environmental factors affecting soil fauna can be classified as soil properties and soil external environment. The former contains soil basic physical and chemical properties, soil moisture, and soil pollution. The latter includes vegetation, land use type, landform, and climate, etc. From these aspects, this paper summarized the published literatures in China on the interrelationships between soil fauna and soil environmental factors. It was considered that several problems were existed in related studies, e.g., fewer researches were made in integrating soil fauna's bio-indicator function, research methods were needed to be improved, and the studies on the multi-environmental factors and their large scale spatial-temporal variability were in deficiency. Corresponding suggestions were proposed, i.e., more work should be done according to the practical needs, advanced experiences from abroad should be referenced, and comprehensive studies on multi-environmental factors and long-term monitoring should be conducted on large scale areas.

Fundamental organometallic reactions: Applications on the CYBER 205

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rappe, A. K.

1984-01-01

Two of the most challenging problems of Organometallic chemistry (loosely defined) are pollution control with the large space velocities needed and nitrogen fixation, a process so capably done by nature and so relatively poorly done by man (industry). For a computational chemist these problems are on the fringe of what is possible with conventional computers (large models needed and accurate energetics required). A summary of the algorithmic modification needed to address these problems on a vector processor such as the CYBER 205 and a sketch of findings to date on deNOx catalysis and nitrogen fixation are presented.

Problems with the dating of sediment core using excess (210)Pb in a freshwater system impacted by large scale watershed changes.

PubMed

Baskaran, Mark; Nix, Joe; Kuyper, Clark; Karunakara, N

2014-12-01

Pb-210 dating of freshwater and coastal sediments have been extensively conducted over the past 40 years for historical pollution reconstruction studies, sediment focusing, sediment accumulation and mixing rate determination. In areas where there is large scale disturbance of sediments and the watershed, the vertical profiles of excess (210)Pb ((210)Pbxs) could provide erroneous or less reliable information on sediment accumulation rates. We analyzed one sediment core from Hendrix Lake in southwestern Arkansas for excess (210)Pb and (137)Cs. There is no decrease in excess (210)Pb activity with depth while the (137)Cs profile indicates sharp peak corresponding to 1963 and the (137)Cs penetration depth of (137)Cs corresponds to 1952. The historical data on the accelerated mercury mining during 1931-1944 resulted in large-scale Hg input to this watershed. Using the peak Hg activity as a time marker, the obtained sediment accumulation rates agree well with the (137)Cs-based rates. Four independent evidences (two-marker events based on (137)Cs and two marker events based on Hg mining activity) result in about the same sedimentation rates and thus, we endorse earlier suggestion that (210)Pb profile always needs to be validated with at least one another independent method. We also present a concise discussion on what important factors that can affect the vertical profiles of (210)Pbxs in relatively smaller lakes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global impacts of the meat trade on in-stream organic river pollution: the importance of spatially distributed hydrological conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, Yingrong; Schoups, Gerrit; van de Giesen, Nick

2018-01-01

In many regions of the world, intensive livestock farming has become a significant source of organic river pollution. As the international meat trade is growing rapidly, the environmental impacts of meat production within one country can occur either domestically or internationally. The goal of this paper is to quantify the impacts of the international meat trade on global organic river pollution at multiple scales (national, regional and gridded). Using the biological oxygen demand (BOD) as an overall indicator of organic river pollution, we compute the spatially distributed organic pollution in global river networks with and without a meat trade, where the without-trade scenario assumes that meat imports are replaced by local production. Our analysis reveals a reduction in the livestock population and production of organic pollutants at the global scale as a result of the international meat trade. However, the actual environmental impact of trade, as quantified by in-stream BOD concentrations, is negative; i.e. we find a slight increase in polluted river segments. More importantly, our results show large spatial variability in local (grid-scale) impacts that do not correlate with local changes in BOD loading, which illustrates: (1) the significance of accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological processes along river networks, and (2) the limited value of looking at country-level or global averages when estimating the actual impacts of trade on the environment.

Organic chemicals jeopardize the health of freshwater ecosystems on the continental scale

PubMed Central

Malaj, Egina; von der Ohe, Peter C.; Grote, Matthias; Kühne, Ralph; Mondy, Cédric P.; Usseglio-Polatera, Philippe; Brack, Werner; Schäfer, Ralf B.

2014-01-01

Organic chemicals can contribute to local and regional losses of freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, their overall relevance regarding larger spatial scales remains unknown. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first risk assessment of organic chemicals on the continental scale comprising 4,000 European monitoring sites. Organic chemicals were likely to exert acute lethal and chronic long-term effects on sensitive fish, invertebrate, or algae species in 14% and 42% of the sites, respectively. Of the 223 chemicals monitored, pesticides, tributyltin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and brominated flame retardants were the major contributors to the chemical risk. Their presence was related to agricultural and urban areas in the upstream catchment. The risk of potential acute lethal and chronic long-term effects increased with the number of ecotoxicologically relevant chemicals analyzed at each site. As most monitoring programs considered in this study only included a subset of these chemicals, our assessment likely underestimates the actual risk. Increasing chemical risk was associated with deterioration in the quality status of fish and invertebrate communities. Our results clearly indicate that chemical pollution is a large-scale environmental problem and requires far-reaching, holistic mitigation measures to preserve and restore ecosystem health. PMID:24979762

A novel artificial fish swarm algorithm for solving large-scale reliability-redundancy application problem.

PubMed

He, Qiang; Hu, Xiangtao; Ren, Hong; Zhang, Hongqi

2015-11-01

A novel artificial fish swarm algorithm (NAFSA) is proposed for solving large-scale reliability-redundancy allocation problem (RAP). In NAFSA, the social behaviors of fish swarm are classified in three ways: foraging behavior, reproductive behavior, and random behavior. The foraging behavior designs two position-updating strategies. And, the selection and crossover operators are applied to define the reproductive ability of an artificial fish. For the random behavior, which is essentially a mutation strategy, the basic cloud generator is used as the mutation operator. Finally, numerical results of four benchmark problems and a large-scale RAP are reported and compared. NAFSA shows good performance in terms of computational accuracy and computational efficiency for large scale RAP. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants. Report 2. First Year Poststocking Results. Volume VII. A Model for Evaluation of the Response of the Lake Conway, Florida, Ecosystem to Introduction of the White Amur.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-11-01

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT S. TYPE OF REPORT A PERIOD COVERED TEST OF THE USE OF THE WHITE AMUR FOR CONTROL OF Report 2 of a series PROBLEM AQUATIC PLANTS...111. 1981. "Large-Scale Operations Management Test of the Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants; Report 2, First Year Poststock...Al 3 LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE WHITE AMUR FOR CONTROL OF PROBLEM AQUATIC PLANTS A MODEL FOR EVALUATION OF

Multi-Scale Enviro-HIRLAM Forecasting of Weather and Atmospheric Composition over China and its Megacities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahura, Alexander; Amstrup, Bjarne; Nuterman, Roman; Yang, Xiaohua; Baklanov, Alexander

2017-04-01

Air pollution is a serious problem in different regions of China and its continuously growing megacities. Information on air quality, and especially, in urbanized areas is important for decision making, emergency response and population. In particular, the metropolitan areas of Shanghai, Beijing, and Pearl River Delta are well known as main regions having serious air pollution problems. The on-line integrated meteorology-chemistry-aerosols Enviro-HIRLAM (Environment - HIgh Resolution Limited Area Model) model adapted for China and selected megacities is applied for forecasting of weather and atmospheric composition (with focus on aerosols). The model system is running in downscaling chain from regional to urban scales at subsequent horizontal resolutions of 15-5-2.5 km. The model setup includes also the urban Building Effects Parameterization module, describing different types of urban districts (industrial commercial, city center, high density and residential) with its own morphological and aerodynamical characteristics. The effects of urbanization are important for atmospheric transport, dispersion, deposition, and chemical transformations, in addition to better quality emission inventories for China and selected urban areas. The Enviro-HIRLAM system provides meteorology and air quality forecasts at regional-subregional-urban scales (China - East China - selected megacities). In particular, such forecasting is important for metropolitan areas, where formation and development of meteorological and chemical/aerosol patterns are especially complex. It also provides information for evaluation impact on selected megacities of China as well as for investigation relationship between air pollution and meteorology.

SCALE PROBLEMS IN REPORTING LANDSCAPE PATTERN AT THE REGIONAL SCALE

EPA Science Inventory

Remotely sensed data for Southeastern United States (Standard Federal Region 4) are used to examine the scale problems involved in reporting landscape pattern for a large, heterogeneous region. Frequency distributions of landscape indices illustrate problems associated with the g...

Soil and tree ring chemistry changes in an oak forest.

Treesearch

Quentin D. Read

2009-01-01

Changes in soil chemistry due to historic large-scale disturbances, e.g. pollution inputs, storm damage, and logging, have previously been shown to cause similar changes in the nutrient concentrations...

Large-scale terrestrial solar cell power generation cost: A preliminary assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spakowski, A. E.; Shure, L. I.

1972-01-01

A cost study was made to assess the potential of the large-scale use of solar cell power for terrestrial applications. The incentive is the attraction of a zero-pollution source of power for wide-scale use. Unlike many other concepts for low-pollution power generation, even thermal pollution is avoided since only the incident solar flux is utilized. To provide a basis for comparison and a perspective for evaluation, the pertinent technology was treated in two categories: current and optimistic. Factors considered were solar cells, array assembly, power conditioning, site preparation, buildings, maintenance, and operation. The capital investment was assumed to be amortized over 30 years. The useful life of the solar cell array was assumed to be 10 years, and the cases of zero and 50-percent performance deg-radation were considered. Land costs, taxes, and profits were not included in this study because it was found too difficult to provide good generalized estimates of these items. On the basis of the factors considered, it is shown that even for optimistic projections of technology, electric power from large-sclae terrestrial use of solar cells is approximately two to three orders of magnitude more costly than current electric power generation from either fossil or nuclear fuel powerplants. For solar cell power generation to be a viable competitor on a cost basis, technological breakthroughs would be required in both solar cell and array fabrication and in site preparation.

The influence of large-scale wind power on global climate.

PubMed

Keith, David W; Decarolis, Joseph F; Denkenberger, David C; Lenschow, Donald H; Malyshev, Sergey L; Pacala, Stephen; Rasch, Philip J

2004-11-16

Large-scale use of wind power can alter local and global climate by extracting kinetic energy and altering turbulent transport in the atmospheric boundary layer. We report climate-model simulations that address the possible climatic impacts of wind power at regional to global scales by using two general circulation models and several parameterizations of the interaction of wind turbines with the boundary layer. We find that very large amounts of wind power can produce nonnegligible climatic change at continental scales. Although large-scale effects are observed, wind power has a negligible effect on global-mean surface temperature, and it would deliver enormous global benefits by reducing emissions of CO(2) and air pollutants. Our results may enable a comparison between the climate impacts due to wind power and the reduction in climatic impacts achieved by the substitution of wind for fossil fuels.

Turbulent boundary layer over roughness transition with variation in spanwise roughness length scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Westerweel, Jerry; Tomas, Jasper; Eisma, Jerke; Pourquie, Mathieu; Elsinga, Gerrit; Jonker, Harm

2016-11-01

Both large-eddy simulations (LES) and water-tunnel experiments, using simultaneous stereoscopic PIV and LIF were done to investigate pollutant dispersion in a region where the surface changes from rural to urban roughness. This consists of rectangular obstacles where we vary the spanwise aspect ratio of the obstacles. A line source of passive tracer was placed upstream of the roughness transition. The objectives of the study are: (i) to determine the influence of the aspect ratio on the roughness-transition flow, and (ii) to determine the dominant mechanisms of pollutant removal from street canyons in the transition region. It is found that for a spanwise aspect ratio of 2 the drag induced by the roughness is largest of all considered cases, which is caused by a large-scale secondary flow. In the roughness transition the vertical advective pollutant flux is the main ventilation mechanism in the first three streets. Furthermore, by means of linear stochastic estimation the mean flow structure is identied that is responsible for exchange of the fluid between the roughness obstacles and the outer part of the boundary layer. Furthermore, it is found that the vertical length scale of this structure increases with increasing aspect ratio of the obstacles in the roughness region.

Modelling the catchment-scale environmental impacts of wastewater treatment in an urban sewage system for CO₂ emission assessment.

PubMed

Mouri, Goro; Oki, Taikan

2010-01-01

Water shortages and water pollution are a global problem. Increases in population can have further acute effects on water cycles and on the availability of water resources. Thus, wastewater management plays an important role in mitigating negative impacts on natural ecosystems and human environments and is an important area of research. In this study, we modelled catchment-scale hydrology, including water balances, rainfall, contamination, and urban wastewater treatment. The entire water resource system of a basin, including a forest catchment and an urban city area, was evaluated synthetically from a spatial distribution perspective with respect to water quantity and quality; the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique was applied to optimize wastewater treatment management with the aim of improving water quality and reducing CO₂ emissions. A numerical model was developed to predict the water cycle and contamination in the catchment and city; the effect of a wastewater treatment system on the urban region was evaluated; pollution loads were evaluated quantitatively; and the effects of excluding rainwater from the treatment system during flooding and of urban rainwater control on water quality were examined. Analysis indicated that controlling the amount of rainwater inflow to a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in an urban area with a combined sewer system has a large impact on reducing CO₂ emissions because of the load reduction on the urban sewage system.

Respiratory disease and particulate air pollution in Santiago Chile: contribution of erosion particles from fine sediments.

PubMed

Garcia-Chevesich, Pablo A; Alvarado, Sergio; Neary, Daniel G; Valdes, Rodrigo; Valdes, Juan; Aguirre, Juan José; Mena, Marcelo; Pizarro, Roberto; Jofré, Paola; Vera, Mauricio; Olivares, Claudio

2014-04-01

Air pollution in Santiago is a serious problem every winter, causing thousands of cases of breathing problems within the population. With more than 6 million people and almost two million vehicles, this large city receives rainfall only during winters. Depending on the frequency of storms, statistics show that every time it rains, air quality improves for a couple of days, followed by extreme levels of air pollution. Current regulations focus mostly on PM10 and PM2.5, due to its strong influence on respiratory diseases. Though more than 50% of the ambient PM10s in Santiago is represented by soil particles, most of the efforts have been focused on the remaining 50%, i.e. particulate material originating from fossil and wood fuel combustion, among others. This document emphasizes the need for the creation of erosion/sediment control regulations in Chile, to decrease respiratory diseases on Chilean polluted cities. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Application of portable XRF and VNIR sensors for rapid assessment of soil heavy metal pollution.

PubMed

Hu, Bifeng; Chen, Songchao; Hu, Jie; Xia, Fang; Xu, Junfeng; Li, Yan; Shi, Zhou

2017-01-01

Rapid heavy metal soil surveys at large scale with high sampling density could not be conducted with traditional laboratory physical and chemical analyses because of the high cost, low efficiency and heavy workload involved. This study explored a rapid approach to assess heavy metals contamination in 301 farmland soils from Fuyang in Zhejiang Province, in the southern Yangtze River Delta, China, using portable proximal soil sensors. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (PXRF) was used to determine soil heavy metals total concentrations while soil pH was predicted by portable visible-near infrared spectroscopy (PVNIR). Zn, Cu and Pb were successfully predicted by PXRF (R2 >0.90 and RPD >2.50) while As and Ni were predicted with less accuracy (R2 <0.75 and RPD <1.40). The pH values were well predicted by PVNIR. Classification of heavy metals contamination grades in farmland soils was conducted based on previous results; the Kappa coefficient was 0.87, which showed that the combination of PXRF and PVNIR was an effective and rapid method to determine the degree of pollution with soil heavy metals. This study provides a new approach to assess soil heavy metals pollution; this method will facilitate large-scale surveys of soil heavy metal pollution.

Hydrochemical characterization and pollution sources identification of groundwater in Salawusu aquifer system of Ordos Basin, China.

PubMed

Yang, Qingchun; Wang, Luchen; Ma, Hongyun; Yu, Kun; Martín, Jordi Delgado

2016-09-01

Ordos Basin is located in an arid and semi-arid region of northwestern China, which is the most important energy source bases in China. Salawusu Formation (Q3 s) is one of the most important aquifer systems of Ordos Basin, which is adjacent to Jurassic coalfield areas. A large-scale exploitation of Jurassic coal resources over ten years results in series of influences to the coal minerals, such as exposed to the oxidation process and dissolution into the groundwater due to the precipitation infiltration. Therefore, how these processes impact groundwater quality is of great concerns. In this paper, the descriptive statistical method, Piper trilinear diagram, ratios of major ions and canonical correspondence analysis are employed to investigate the hydrochemical evolution, determine the possible sources of pollution processes, and assess the controls on groundwater compositions using the monitored data in 2004 and 2014 (before and after large-scale coal mining). Results showed that long-term exploration of coal resources do not result in serious groundwater pollution. The hydrochemical types changed from HCO3(-)-CO3(2-) facies to SO4(2-)-Cl facies during 10 years. Groundwater hardness, nitrate and sulfate pollution were identified in 2014, which was most likely caused by agricultural activities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Application of portable XRF and VNIR sensors for rapid assessment of soil heavy metal pollution

PubMed Central

Hu, Bifeng; Chen, Songchao; Hu, Jie; Xia, Fang; Xu, Junfeng; Li, Yan; Shi, Zhou

2017-01-01

Rapid heavy metal soil surveys at large scale with high sampling density could not be conducted with traditional laboratory physical and chemical analyses because of the high cost, low efficiency and heavy workload involved. This study explored a rapid approach to assess heavy metals contamination in 301 farmland soils from Fuyang in Zhejiang Province, in the southern Yangtze River Delta, China, using portable proximal soil sensors. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (PXRF) was used to determine soil heavy metals total concentrations while soil pH was predicted by portable visible-near infrared spectroscopy (PVNIR). Zn, Cu and Pb were successfully predicted by PXRF (R2 >0.90 and RPD >2.50) while As and Ni were predicted with less accuracy (R2 <0.75 and RPD <1.40). The pH values were well predicted by PVNIR. Classification of heavy metals contamination grades in farmland soils was conducted based on previous results; the Kappa coefficient was 0.87, which showed that the combination of PXRF and PVNIR was an effective and rapid method to determine the degree of pollution with soil heavy metals. This study provides a new approach to assess soil heavy metals pollution; this method will facilitate large-scale surveys of soil heavy metal pollution. PMID:28234944

Pollution, health and development: the need for a new paradigm.

PubMed

Landrigan, Philip J; Fuller, Richard

2016-03-01

Pollution is the largest cause of death in low- and middle-income countries. WHO estimates that 8.9 million persons die each year of diseases caused by pollution - 94% of them in poor countries. By comparison, HIV/AIDS causes 1.5 million deaths per year, and malaria and tuberculosis cause fewer than 1 million each. Diseases caused by pollution are very costly. Pollution can be prevented. In high-income countries, legal and technical control strategies have been developed and yielded great health and economic benefits. The removal of lead from gasoline increased the mean IQ of all American children and has generated an annual economic benefit of $213 billion. Unmet need: Despite its enormous human and economic costs, pollution has been overlooked in the international development agenda. Pollution control currently receives <0.5% of development spending. We have formed The Lancet-GAHP-Mount Sinai Commission on Pollution, Health and Development. This Commission will develop robust analyses of the impacts of pollution on health, economics, and development. It will inform heads of state and global funders about the enormous scale pollution's effects. The ultimate goal is to raise the priority of pollution and increase the resources allocated to control of this urgent public health problem.

Population density controls on microbial pollution across the Ganga catchment.

PubMed

Milledge, D G; Gurjar, S K; Bunce, J T; Tare, V; Sinha, R; Carbonneau, P E

2018-01-01

For millions of people worldwide, sewage-polluted surface waters threaten water security, food security and human health. Yet the extent of the problem and its causes are poorly understood. Given rapid widespread global urbanisation, the impact of urban versus rural populations is particularly important but unknown. Exploiting previously unpublished archival data for the Ganga (Ganges) catchment, we find a strong non-linear relationship between upstream population density and microbial pollution, and predict that these river systems would fail faecal coliform standards for irrigation waters available to 79% of the catchment's 500 million inhabitants. Overall, this work shows that microbial pollution is conditioned by the continental-scale network structure of rivers, compounded by the location of cities whose growing populations contribute c. 100 times more microbial pollutants per capita than their rural counterparts. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

An informal paper on large-scale dynamic systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ho, Y. C.

1975-01-01

Large scale systems are defined as systems requiring more than one decision maker to control the system. Decentralized control and decomposition are discussed for large scale dynamic systems. Information and many-person decision problems are analyzed.

[Phthalic acid esters (PAEs) pollution in farmland soils: a review].

PubMed

Wang, Kai-Rong; Cui, Ming-Ming; Shi, Yan-Xi

2013-09-01

The environmental pollution and food safety problems caused by phthalic acid esters (PAEs) have been attracted 'extensive attention around the world. As a large PAEs producer and consumer, China is facing severe PAEs environmental pollution problems. This paper reviewed the present pollution status of six PAEs classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the priority pollutants in China farmland soils, analyzed the sources of these six PAEs in this country, and discussed the absorption and accumulation characteristics of the PAEs in different crops as well as the bio-toxic effects of PAEs pollutants. The PAEs concentrations in China farmland soils are significantly higher those in the farmland soils of the United States and European countries. The main sources of PAEs in China farmland soils are atmospheric deposition, agricultural films, sewage sludge application, and wastewater irrigation. There exist significant differences in the characteristics of PAEs absorption, accumulation, and distribution among different crops. PAEs not only have negative effects on soil quality, crop growth, and crop physiological and biochemical properties, but also possess bio-accumulative characteristics. The weaknesses in current researches were pointed out, and the suggestions for the further researches were given, e. g., to expand the scope of PAEs pollution survey, to explore the toxic mechanisms of PAEs on crops, and to develop the techniques for in situ remediation of PAEs-polluted soils.

Modeling flow around bluff bodies and predicting urban dispersion using large eddy simulation.

PubMed

Tseng, Yu-Heng; Meneveau, Charles; Parlange, Marc B

2006-04-15

Modeling air pollutant transport and dispersion in urban environments is especially challenging due to complex ground topography. In this study, we describe a large eddy simulation (LES) tool including a new dynamic subgrid closure and boundary treatment to model urban dispersion problems. The numerical model is developed, validated, and extended to a realistic urban layout. In such applications fairly coarse grids must be used in which each building can be represented using relatively few grid-points only. By carrying out LES of flow around a square cylinder and of flow over surface-mounted cubes, the coarsest resolution required to resolve the bluff body's cross section while still producing meaningful results is established. Specifically, we perform grid refinement studies showing that at least 6-8 grid points across the bluff body are required for reasonable results. The performance of several subgrid models is also compared. Although effects of the subgrid models on the mean flow are found to be small, dynamic Lagrangian models give a physically more realistic subgrid-scale (SGS) viscosity field. When scale-dependence is taken into consideration, these models lead to more realistic resolved fluctuating velocities and spectra. These results set the minimum grid resolution and subgrid model requirements needed to apply LES in simulations of neutral atmospheric boundary layer flow and scalar transport over a realistic urban geometry. The results also illustrate the advantages of LES over traditional modeling approaches, particularly its ability to take into account the complex boundary details and the unsteady nature of atmospheric boundary layer flow. Thus LES can be used to evaluate probabilities of extreme events (such as probabilities of exceeding threshold pollutant concentrations). Some comments about computer resources required for LES are also included.

Dredging for dilution: A simulation based case study in a Tidal River.

PubMed

Bilgili, Ata; Proehl, Jeffrey A; Swift, M Robinson

2016-02-01

A 2-D hydrodynamic finite element model with a Lagrangian particle module is used to investigate the effects of dredging on the hydrodynamics and the horizontal dilution of pollutant particles originating from a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) in tidal Oyster River in New Hampshire, USA. The model is driven by the semi-diurnal (M2) tidal component and includes the effect of flooding and drying of riverine mud flats. The particle tracking method consists of tidal advection plus a horizontal random walk model of sub-grid scale turbulent processes. Our approach is to perform continuous pollutant particle releases from the outfall, simulating three different scenarios: a base-case representing the present conditions and two different dredged channel/outfall location configurations. Hydrodynamics are investigated in an Eulerian framework and Lagrangian particle dilution improvement ratios are calculated for all cases. Results show that the simulated hydrodynamics are consistent with observed conditions. Eulerian and Lagrangian residuals predict an outward path suggesting flushing of pollutants on longer (>M2) time scales. Simulated dilution maps show that, in addition to dredging, the relocation of the WWTF outfall into the dredged main channel is required for increased dilution performance. The methodology presented here can be applied to similar managerial problems in all similar systems worldwide with relatively little effort, with the combination of Lagrangian and Eulerian methods working together towards a better solution. The statistical significance brought into methodology, by using a large number of particles (16000 in this case), is to be emphasized, especially with the growing number of networked parallel computer clusters worldwide. This paper improves on the study presented in Bilgili et al., 2006b, by adding an Eulerian analysis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contamination, misuse and abuse of the global oceans leading to ecosystem damage and destruction, health consequences and international conflict

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Unregulated uses of the oceans may threaten the global ecological balance, alter plant and animal life and significantly impact the global climatic systems. Recent plans to locate large scale structures on the oceans and to exploit the mineral riches of the seas pose even greater risk to the ecological system. Finally, increasing use of the oceans for large scale transport greatly enhances the probability of collision, polluting spills and international conflict.

[The ecological and epidemiological principles of prevention of ascariasis under the conditions of large-scale solid waste storage].

PubMed

Kas'ianov, V I

2005-01-01

The paper presents the results of a study of the impact of large-scale solid waste storage on ascariasis morbidity in the population. The use of sewage sediments as an organic soil fertilizer to grow strawberries and table greens is shown to substantially increase the risk of Ascaris infection in the population. Storage of solid domestic garbage on specialized dumping grounds does not lead to mass environmental pollution with geohelminthic eggs.

SWAT: Agricultural water and nonpoint source pollution management at a watershed scale - Part II

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Global change and demographic changes increasingly cause water, food, and health problems in many areas of the world. In addition, the growth in bioenergy production leads to land-use change and associated environmental impacts. The lack of integration in resource assessments and policy-making leads...

SWAT: Agricultural water and nonpoint source pollution management at a watershed scale

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Global change and demographic changes increasingly cause water, food, and health problems in many areas of the world. In addition, the growth in bioenergy production leads to land-use change and associated environmental impacts. The lack of integration in resource assessments and policy-making leads...

A topology visualization early warning distribution algorithm for large-scale network security incidents.

PubMed

He, Hui; Fan, Guotao; Ye, Jianwei; Zhang, Weizhe

2013-01-01

It is of great significance to research the early warning system for large-scale network security incidents. It can improve the network system's emergency response capabilities, alleviate the cyber attacks' damage, and strengthen the system's counterattack ability. A comprehensive early warning system is presented in this paper, which combines active measurement and anomaly detection. The key visualization algorithm and technology of the system are mainly discussed. The large-scale network system's plane visualization is realized based on the divide and conquer thought. First, the topology of the large-scale network is divided into some small-scale networks by the MLkP/CR algorithm. Second, the sub graph plane visualization algorithm is applied to each small-scale network. Finally, the small-scale networks' topologies are combined into a topology based on the automatic distribution algorithm of force analysis. As the algorithm transforms the large-scale network topology plane visualization problem into a series of small-scale network topology plane visualization and distribution problems, it has higher parallelism and is able to handle the display of ultra-large-scale network topology.

Spatially based management of agricultural phosphorus pollution from diffuse sources: the SCIMAP risk based approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reaney, S. M.; Heathwaite, L.; Lane, S. N.; Buckley, C.

2007-12-01

Pollution of rivers from agricultural phosphorus is recognised as a significant global problem and is a major management challenge as it involves processes that are small in magnitude, distributed over large areas, operating at fine spatial scales and associated with certain land use types when they are well connected to the receiving waters. Whilst some of these processes have been addressed in terms of water quality forecasting models and field measurements, we lack effective tools to prioritise where action should be taken to remediate the diffuse pollution problem. From a management perspective, the required information is on 'what to do where' rather than absolute values. This change in focus opens up the problem to be considered in a probabilistic / relative framework rather than concentrating on absolute values. The SCIMAP risk management framework is based on the critical source area concept whereby a risk and a connection are required to generate a problem. Treatments of both surface and subsurface hydrological connectivity have been developed. The approach is based on the philosophy that for a point to be considered connected there needs to be a continuous flow path to the receiving water. This information is calculated by simulating the possible flow paths from the source cell to the receiving water and recording the required catchment wetness to allow flow along that route. This algorithm gives information on the ease at which each point in the landscape can export risk along surface and subsurface pathways to the receiving waters. To understand the annual dynamics of the locational diffuse P risk, a temporal risk framework has been developed. This risk framework accounts for land management activies within the agricultural calendar. These events include the application of fertiliser, the P additions from livestock and the offtake of P in crops. Changes to these risks can be made to investigate management options. The SCIMAP risk mapping framework has been applied to 12 catchments in England as part of the DEFRA / Environment Agency's Catchment Sensitive Farming programme. Result from these catchments will be presented.

Environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology: in greater demand than ever.

PubMed

Scheringer, Martin

2017-01-01

Environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology have been losing support, resources, and recognition at universities for many years. What are the possible causes of this process? A first problem may be that the need for research and teaching in environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology is no longer seen because chemical pollution problems are considered as largely solved. Second, environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology may be seen as fields dominated by routine work and where there are not many interesting research questions left. A third part of the problem may be that other environmental impacts such as climate change are given higher priority than chemical pollution problems. Here, several cases are presented that illustrate the great demand for innovative research and teaching in environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology. It is crucial that environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology are rooted in academic science and are provided with sufficient equipment, resources, and prospects for development.

COPS: Large-scale nonlinearly constrained optimization problems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bondarenko, A.S.; Bortz, D.M.; More, J.J.

2000-02-10

The authors have started the development of COPS, a collection of large-scale nonlinearly Constrained Optimization Problems. The primary purpose of this collection is to provide difficult test cases for optimization software. Problems in the current version of the collection come from fluid dynamics, population dynamics, optimal design, and optimal control. For each problem they provide a short description of the problem, notes on the formulation of the problem, and results of computational experiments with general optimization solvers. They currently have results for DONLP2, LANCELOT, MINOS, SNOPT, and LOQO.

Large-Scale Operations Management Test of Use of the White Amur for Control of Problem Aquatic Plants. Report 2. First Year Poststocking Results. Volume III. The Plankton and Benthos of Lake Conway, Florida,

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-11-01

AD-AI09 516 FLORIDA UNIV GAINESVILLE DEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGIN--ETC F/G 6/6 LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE,WHITE AMUR--ETC(U... OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF THE WHITE AMUR FOR CONTROL OF PROBLEM AQUATIC PLANTS Report I: Baseline Studies Volume I: The Aquatic Macropyes of...COVERED LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TEST OF USE OF Report 2 of a series THE WHITE AMUR FOR CONTROL OF PROBLEM AQUATIC (In 7 volumes) PLANTS

Nutrients in the nexus

USGS Publications Warehouse

Davidson, Eric A.; Niphong, Rachel; Ferguson, Richard B.; Palm, Cheryl; Osmond, Deanna L.; Baron, Jill S.

2016-01-01

Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has enabled modern agriculture to greatly improve human nutrition during the twentieth century, but it has also created unintended human health and environmental pollution challenges for the twenty-first century. Averaged globally, about half of the fertilizer-N applied to farms is removed with the crops, while the other half remains in the soil or is lost from farmers’ fields, resulting in water and air pollution. As human population continues to grow and food security improves in the developing world, the dual development goals of producing more nutritious food with low pollution will require both technological and socio-economic innovations in agriculture. Two case studies presented here, one in sub-Saharan Africa and the other in Midwestern United States, demonstrate how management of nutrients, water, and energy is inextricably linked in both small-scale and large-scale food production, and that science-based solutions to improve the efficiency of nutrient use can optimize food production while minimizing pollution. To achieve the needed large increases in nutrient use efficiency, however, technological developments must be accompanied by policies that recognize the complex economic and social factors affecting farmer decision-making and national policy priorities. Farmers need access to affordable nutrient supplies and support information, and the costs of improving efficiencies and avoiding pollution may need to be shared by society through innovative policies. Success will require interdisciplinary partnerships across public and private sectors, including farmers, private sector crop advisors, commodity supply chains, government agencies, university research and extension, and consumers.

Pollutant Dispersion in Boundary Layers Exposed to Rural-to-Urban Transitions: Varying the Spanwise Length Scale of the Roughness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomas, J. M.; Eisma, H. E.; Pourquie, M. J. B. M.; Elsinga, G. E.; Jonker, H. J. J.; Westerweel, J.

2017-05-01

Both large-eddy simulations (LES) and water-tunnel experiments, using simultaneous stereoscopic particle image velocimetry and laser-induced fluorescence, have been used to investigate pollutant dispersion mechanisms in regions where the surface changes from rural to urban roughness. The urban roughness was characterized by an array of rectangular obstacles in an in-line arrangement. The streamwise length scale of the roughness was kept constant, while the spanwise length scale was varied by varying the obstacle aspect ratio l / h between 1 and 8, where l is the spanwise dimension of the obstacles and h is the height of the obstacles. Additionally, the case of two-dimensional roughness (riblets) was considered in LES. A smooth-wall turbulent boundary layer of depth 10 h was used as the approaching flow, and a line source of passive tracer was placed 2 h upstream of the urban canopy. The experimental and numerical results show good agreement, while minor discrepancies are readily explained. It is found that for l/h=2 the drag induced by the urban canopy is largest of all considered cases, and is caused by a large-scale secondary flow. In addition, due to the roughness transition the vertical advective pollutant flux is the main ventilation mechanism in the first three streets. Furthermore, by means of linear stochastic estimation the mean flow structure is identified that is responsible for street-canyon ventilation for the sixth street and onwards. Moreover, it is shown that the vertical length scale of this structure increases with increasing aspect ratio of the obstacles in the canopy, while the streamwise length scale does not show a similar trend.

Influence of rainfall data scarcity on non-point source pollution prediction: Implications for physically based models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Lei; Xu, Jiajia; Wang, Guobo; Liu, Hongbin; Zhai, Limei; Li, Shuang; Sun, Cheng; Shen, Zhenyao

2018-07-01

Hydrological and non-point source pollution (H/NPS) predictions in ungagged basins have become the key problem for watershed studies, especially for those large-scale catchments. However, few studies have explored the comprehensive impacts of rainfall data scarcity on H/NPS predictions. This study focused on: 1) the effects of rainfall spatial scarcity (by removing 11%-67% of stations based on their locations) on the H/NPS results; and 2) the impacts of rainfall temporal scarcity (10%-60% data scarcity in time series); and 3) the development of a new evaluation method that incorporates information entropy. A case study was undertaken using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in a typical watershed in China. The results of this study highlighted the importance of critical-site rainfall stations that often showed greater influences and cross-tributary impacts on the H/NPS simulations. Higher missing rates above a certain threshold as well as missing locations during the wet periods resulted in poorer simulation results. Compared to traditional indicators, information entropy could serve as a good substitute because it reflects the distribution of spatial variability and the development of temporal heterogeneity. This paper reports important implications for the application of Distributed Hydrological Models and Semi-distributed Hydrological Models, as well as for the optimal design of rainfall gauges among large basins.

A Limited-Memory BFGS Algorithm Based on a Trust-Region Quadratic Model for Large-Scale Nonlinear Equations.

PubMed

Li, Yong; Yuan, Gonglin; Wei, Zengxin

2015-01-01

In this paper, a trust-region algorithm is proposed for large-scale nonlinear equations, where the limited-memory BFGS (L-M-BFGS) update matrix is used in the trust-region subproblem to improve the effectiveness of the algorithm for large-scale problems. The global convergence of the presented method is established under suitable conditions. The numerical results of the test problems show that the method is competitive with the norm method.

A comparison of self reported air pollution problems and GIS-modeled levels of air pollution in people with and without chronic diseases

PubMed Central

Piro, Fredrik Niclas; Madsen, Christian; Næss, Øyvind; Nafstad, Per; Claussen, Bjørgulf

2008-01-01

Objective To explore various contributors to people's reporting of self reported air pollution problems in area of living, including GIS-modeled air pollution, and to investigate whether those with respiratory or other chronic diseases tend to over-report air pollution problems, compared to healthy people. Methods Cross-sectional data from the Oslo Health Study (2000–2001) were linked with GIS-modeled air pollution data from the Norwegian Institute of Air Research. Multivariate regression analyses were performed. 14 294 persons aged 30, 40, 45, 60 or 75 years old with complete information on modeled and self reported air pollution were included. Results People who reported air pollution problems were exposed to significantly higher GIS-modeled air pollution levels than those who did not report such problems. People with chronic disease, reported significantly more air pollution problems after adjustment for modeled levels of nitrogen dioxides, socio-demographic variables, smoking, depression, dwelling conditions and an area deprivation index, even if they had a non-respiratory disease. No diseases, however, were significantly associated with levels of nitrogen dioxides. Conclusion Self reported air pollution problems in area of living are strongly associated with increased levels of GIS-modeled air pollution. Over and above this, those who report to have a chronic disease tend to report more air pollution problems in area of living, despite no significant difference in air pollution exposure compared to healthy people, and no associations between these diseases and NO2. Studies on the association between self reported air pollution problems and health should be aware of the possibility that disease itself may influence the reporting of air pollution. PMID:18307757

History of ancient copper smelting pollution during Roman and Medieval times recorded in Greenland ice

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hong, Sungmin; Candelone, J.P.; Patterson, C.C.

1996-04-12

Determination of copper concentrations in Greenland ice dated from seven millennia ago to the present showed values exceeding natural levels, beginning about 2500 years ago. This early large-scale pollution of the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere is attributed to emissions from the crude, highly polluting smelting technologies used for copper production during Roman and medieval times, especially in Europe and China. This study opens the way to a quantitative assessment of the history of early metal production, which was instrumental in the development of human cultures during ancient eras. 27 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.

Sulfur-based autotrophic denitrification from the micro-polluted water.

PubMed

Zhou, Weili; Liu, Xu; Dong, Xiaojing; Wang, Zheng; Yuan, Ying; Wang, Hui; He, Shengbing

2016-06-01

Eutrophication caused by high concentrations of nutrients is a huge problem for many natural lakes and reservoirs. Removing the nitrogen contamination from the low C/N water body has become an urgent need. Autotrophic denitrification with the sulfur compound as electron donor was investigated in the biofilter reactors. Through the lab-scale experiment, it was found that different sulfur compounds and different carriers caused very different treatment performances. Thiosulfate was selected to be the best electron donor and ceramsite was chosen as the suitable carrier due to the good denitrification efficiency, low cost and the good resistibility against the high hydraulic loads. Later the optimum running parameters of the process were determined. Then the pilot-scale experiment was carried out with the real micro-polluted water from the West Lake, China. The results indicated that the autotrophic denitrification with thiosulfate as electron donor was feasible and applicable for the micro-polluted lake water. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Environmental effects and large space systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garrett, H. B.

1981-01-01

When planning large scale operations in space, environmental impact must be considered in addition to radiation, spacecraft charging, contamination, high power and size. Pollution of the atmosphere and space is caused by rocket effluents and by photoelectrons generated by sunlight falling on satellite surfaces even light pollution may result (the SPS may reflect so much light as to be a nuisance to astronomers). Large (100 Km 2) structures also will absorb the high energy particles that impinge on them. Altogether, these effects may drastically alter the Earth's magnetosphere. It is not clear if these alterations will in any way affect the Earth's surface climate. Large structures will also generate large plasma wakes and waves which may cause interference with communications to the vehicle. A high energy, microwave beam from the SPS will cause ionospheric turbulence, affecting UHF and VHF communications. Although none of these effects may ultimately prove critical, they must be considered in the design of large structures.

Satellite skill in detecting extreme episodes in near-surface air quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruiz, D. J.; Prather, M. J.

2017-12-01

Ozone (O3) contributes to ambient air pollution, adversely affecting public health, agriculture, and ecosystems. Reliable, long-term, densely distributed surface networks are required to establish the scale, intensity and repeatability of major pollution events (designated here in a climatological sense as air quality extremes, AQX as defined in Schnell's work). Regrettably, such networks are only available for North America (NA) and Europe (EU), which does not include many populated regions where the deaths associated with air pollution exposure are alarmingly high. Directly measuring surface pollutants from space without lidar is extremely difficult. Mapping of daily pollution events requires cross-track nadir scanners and these have limited sensitivity to surface O3 levels. This work examines several years of coincident surface and OMI satellite measurements over NA-EU, in combination with a chemistry-transport model (CTM) hindcast of that period to understand how the large-scale AQX episodes may extend into the free troposphere and thus be more amenable to satellite mapping. We show how extreme NA-EU episodes are measured from OMI and then look for such patterns over other polluted regions of the globe. We gather individual high-quality O3 surface site measurements from these other regions, to check on our satellite detection. Our approach with global satellite detection would avoid issues associated with regional variations in seasonality, chemical regime, data product biases; and it does not require defining a separate absolute threshold for each data product (surface site and satellite). This also enables coherent linking of the extreme events into large-scale pollution episodes whose magnitude evolves over 100's of km for several days. Tools used here include the UC Irvine CTM, which shows that much of the O3 surface variability is lost at heights above 2 km, but AQX local events are readily seen in a 0-3 km column average. The OMI data are taken from X. Liu's dataset using an improved algorithm for detection of tropospheric O3. Surface site observations outside NA and EU are taken from research stations where possible.

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) contamination of fish in urban lakes: a prioritization methodology for lake management.

PubMed

Xiao, Feng; Gulliver, John S; Simcik, Matt F

2013-12-15

The contamination of urban lakes by anthropogenic pollutants such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is a worldwide environmental problem. Large-scale, long-term monitoring of urban lakes requires careful prioritization of available resources, focusing efforts on potentially impaired lakes. Herein, a database of PFOS concentrations in 304 fish caught from 28 urban lakes was used for development of an urban-lake prioritization framework by means of exploratory data analysis (EDA) with the aid of a geographical information system. The prioritization scheme consists of three main tiers: preliminary classification, carried out by hierarchical cluster analysis; predictor screening, fulfilled by a regression tree method; and model development by means of a neural network. The predictive performance of the newly developed model was assessed using a training/validation splitting method and determined by an external validation set. The application of the model in the U.S. state of Minnesota identified 40 urban lakes that may contain elevated levels of PFOS; these lakes were not previously considered in PFOS monitoring programs. The model results also highlight ongoing industrial/commercial activities as a principal determinant of PFOS pollution in urban lakes, and suggest vehicular traffic as an important source and surface runoff as a primary pollution carrier. In addition, the EDA approach was further compared to a spatial interpolation method (kriging), and their advantages and disadvantages were discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Satellite measurements of large-scale air pollution - Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaufman, Yoram J.; Ferrare, Richard A.; Fraser, Robert S.

1990-01-01

A technique for deriving large-scale pollution parameters from NIR and visible satellite remote-sensing images obtained over land or water is described and demonstrated on AVHRR images. The method is based on comparison of the upward radiances on clear and hazy days and permits simultaneous determination of aerosol optical thickness with error Delta tau(a) = 0.08-0.15, particle size with error + or - 100-200 nm, and single-scattering albedo with error + or - 0.03 (for albedos near 1), all assuming accurate and stable satellite calibration and stable surface reflectance between the clear and hazy days. In the analysis of AVHRR images of smoke from a forest fire, good agreement was obtained between satellite and ground-based (sun-photometer) measurements of aerosol optical thickness, but the satellite particle sizes were systematically greater than those measured from the ground. The AVHRR single-scattering albedo agreed well with a Landsat albedo for the same smoke.

Influence of traffic-related noise and air pollution on self-reported fatigue.

PubMed

Jazani, Reza Khani; Saremi, Mahnaz; Rezapour, Tara; Kavousi, Amir; Shirzad, Hadi

2015-01-01

A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to environmental pollutions is related to health problems. It is, however, questionable whether this condition affects working performance in occupational settings. The aim of this study is to determine the predictive value of age as well as traffic related air and noise pollutions for fatigue. 246 traffic officers participated in this study. Air pollution data were obtained from the local Air Quality Control Company. A sound level meter was used for measuring ambient noise. Fatigue was evaluated by the MFI-20 questionnaire. The general and physical scales showed the highest, while the reduced activity scale showed the lowest level of fatigue. Age had an independent direct effect on reduced activity and physical fatigue. The average of daytime equivalent noise level was between 71.63 and 88.51 dB(A). In the case of high noise exposure, older officers feel more fatigue than younger ones. Exposure to PM10 and O3 resulted in general and physical fatigue. Complex Interactions between SO2, CO and NO2 were found. Exposure to noise and some components of air pollution, especially O3 and PM10, increases fatigue. The authorities should adopt and rigorously implement environmental protection policies in order to protect people.

Causation mechanism analysis for haze pollution related to vehicle emission in Guangzhou, China by employing the fault tree approach.

PubMed

Huang, Weiqing; Fan, Hongbo; Qiu, Yongfu; Cheng, Zhiyu; Xu, Pingru; Qian, Yu

2016-05-01

Recently, China has frequently experienced large-scale, severe and persistent haze pollution due to surging urbanization and industrialization and a rapid growth in the number of motor vehicles and energy consumption. The vehicle emission due to the consumption of a large number of fossil fuels is no doubt a critical factor of the haze pollution. This work is focused on the causation mechanism of haze pollution related to the vehicle emission for Guangzhou city by employing the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) method for the first time. With the establishment of the fault tree system of "Haze weather-Vehicle exhausts explosive emission", all of the important risk factors are discussed and identified by using this deductive FTA method. The qualitative and quantitative assessments of the fault tree system are carried out based on the structure, probability and critical importance degree analysis of the risk factors. The study may provide a new simple and effective tool/strategy for the causation mechanism analysis and risk management of haze pollution in China. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Problems and Solutions in Evaluating Child Outcomes of Large-Scale Educational Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abrams, Allan S.; And Others

1979-01-01

Evaluation of large-scale programs is problematical because of inherent bias in assignment of treatment and control groups, resulting in serious regression artifacts even with the use of analysis of covariance designs. Nonuniformity of program implementation across sites and classrooms is also a problem. (Author/GSK)

Environmental management of small-scale and artisanal mining: the Portovelo-Zaruma goldmining area, southern Ecuador.

PubMed

Tarras-Wahlberg, N H

2002-06-01

This paper considers technical measures and policy initiatives needed to improve environmental management in the Portovelo-Zaruma mining district of southern Ecuador. In this area, gold is mined by a large number of small-scale and artisanal operators, and discharges of cyanide and metal-laden tailings have had a severe impact on the shared Ecuadorian-Peruvian Puyango river system. It is shown to be technically possible to confine mining waste and tailings at a reasonable cost. However, the complex topography of the mining district forces tailings management to be communal, where all operators are connected to one central tailings impoundment. This, in turn, implies two things: (i) that a large number of operators must agree to pool resources to bring such a facility into reality; and (ii) that miners must move away from rudimentary operations that survive on a day-to-day basis, towards bigger, mechanized and longer-term sustainable operations that are based on proven ore reserves. It is deemed unlikely that existing environmental regulations and the provision of technical solutions will be sufficient to resolve the environmental problems. Important impediments relate to the limited financial resources available to each individual miner and the problems of pooling these resources, and to the fact that the main impacts of pollution are suffered downstream of the mining district and, hence, do not affect the miners themselves. Three policy measures are therefore suggested. First, the enforcement of existing regulations must be improved, and this may be achieved by the strengthening of the central authority charged with supervision and control of mining activities. Second, local government involvement and local public participation in environmental management needs to be promoted. Third, a clear policy should be defined which promotes the reorganisation of small operations into larger units that are strong enough to sustain rational exploration and environmental obligations. The case study suggests that mining policy in lesser-developed countries should develop to enable small-scale and artisanal miners to form entities that are of a sufficiently large scale to allow adequate and cost-effective environmental protection.

Bioremediation 3.0: Engineering pollutant-removing bacteria in the times of systemic biology.

PubMed

Dvořák, Pavel; Nikel, Pablo I; Damborský, Jiří; de Lorenzo, Víctor

2017-11-15

Elimination or mitigation of the toxic effects of chemical waste released to the environment by industrial and urban activities relies largely on the catalytic activities of microorganisms-specifically bacteria. Given their capacity to evolve rapidly, they have the biochemical power to tackle a large number of molecules mobilized from their geological repositories through human action (e.g., hydrocarbons, heavy metals) or generated through chemical synthesis (e.g., xenobiotic compounds). Whereas naturally occurring microbes already have considerable ability to remove many environmental pollutants with no external intervention, the onset of genetic engineering in the 1980s allowed the possibility of rational design of bacteria to catabolize specific compounds, which could eventually be released into the environment as bioremediation agents. The complexity of this endeavour and the lack of fundamental knowledge nonetheless led to the virtual abandonment of such a recombinant DNA-based bioremediation only a decade later. In a twist of events, the last few years have witnessed the emergence of new systemic fields (including systems and synthetic biology, and metabolic engineering) that allow revisiting the same environmental pollution challenges through fresh and far more powerful approaches. The focus on contaminated sites and chemicals has been broadened by the phenomenal problems of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and the accumulation of plastic waste on a global scale. In this article, we analyze how contemporary systemic biology is helping to take the design of bioremediation agents back to the core of environmental biotechnology. We inspect a number of recent strategies for catabolic pathway construction and optimization and we bring them together by proposing an engineering workflow. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global baseline data on phosphorus pollution of large lakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fink, Gabriel; Flörke, Martina; Alcamo, Joseph

2016-04-01

Lakes are exposed to harmful eutrophication which is the most concerning water quality issue on global scale. Eutrophication is caused by phosphorous pollution in most lakes. Hence, global consistent base line data on phosphorus loadings are needed to assess future sustainable development. We used the modeling framework WaterGAP3 to calculate present total phosphorus loadings to the world's largest lakes. Estimates of modeled total phosphorus (TP) loadings as well as the contributions of different sectors were successfully validated against measured data. Based on these findings, annual total phosphorus loadings to lakes were calculated for diffuse and point sources according to the different sectors domestic, manufacturing, urban surface runoff, agriculture and background for the time period 1990 to 2010. Our results show high phosphorus loadings into lakes in southern latitudes. On global average, industrial fertilizer is the main anthropogenic source while background loadings are low in comparison. Nevertheless, both features indicate a high potential to reduce the exposure to eutrophication in lakes which are faced with high phosphor inputs. The global average of TP loadings was 7% higher in the time period 2005-2010 than in the period 1990-1995. The global average in 2005-2010 results from an increase in TP loadings of 79% in South America, which was dampened by a decrease in Europe, North America, and Asia. Chinese lakes were exposed to massive increasing phosphorus loadings, too. Both increasing and decreasing trends are caused primarily by changing industrial fertilizer application rates. In conclusion, this study provides a consistent and model based synopsis of global trends and sources of phosphorus loadings to large lakes. The estimates of phosphorus pollution of lakes present a basis for assessing and managing the global eutrophication problem.

The air quality and health co-benefits of alternative post-2020 pathways for achieving peak carbon targets in Jiangsu, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, M.; Bi, J.; Huang, Y.; Kinney, P. L.

2016-12-01

Jiangsu, which has three national low-carbon pilot cities, is set to be a model province in China for achieving peak carbon targets before 2030. However, according to local planning of responding to climate change, carbon emissions are projected to keep going up before 2020 even the strictest measures are implemented. In other words, innovative measures must be in action after 2020. This work aimed at assessing the air quality and health co-benefits of alternative post-2020 measures to help remove barriers of policy implementation through tying it to local incentives for air quality improvement. To achieve the aim, we select 2010 as baseline year and develop Bussiness As Usual (BAU) and Traditional Carbon Reduction (TCR) scenarios before 2020. Under BAU, only existing climate and air pollution control policies are considered; under TCR, potential climate policies in local planning and existing air pollution control policies are considered. After 2020, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and large-scale substitution of renewable energy seem to be two promising pathways for achieving peak carbon targets. Therefore, two additional scenarios (TCR-IGCC and TCR-SRE) are set after 2020. Based on the projections of future energy balances and industrial productions, we estimate the pollutant emissions and simulate PM2.5 and ozone concentrations by 2017, 2020, 2030 and 2050 using CMAQ. Then using health impact assessment approach, the premature deaths are estimated and monetized. Results show that the carbon peak in Jiangsu will be achieved before 2030 only under TCR-IGCC and TCR-SRE scenarios. Under three policy scenarios, Jiangsu's carbon emission control targets would have substantial effects on primary air pollutant emissions far beyond those we estimate would be needed to meet the PM2.5 concentration targets in 2017. Compared with IGCC with CCS, large-scale substitutions of renewable energy bring comparable pollutant emission reductions but more health benefits because it reduces more emissions from traffic sources which are more harmful to health. However, large-scale substitution of renewable energy posed challenges on energy supply capacity, which need to be seriously considered in future policy decision.

FLASH Technology: Full-Scale Hospital Waste Water Treatments Adopted in Aceh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rame; Tridecima, Adeodata; Pranoto, Hadi; Moesliem; Miftahuddin

2018-02-01

A Hospital waste water contains a complex mixture of hazardous chemicals and harmful microbes, which can pose a threat to the environment and public health. Some efforts have been carried out in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh), Indonesia with the objective of treating hospital waste water effluents on-site before its discharge. Flash technology uses physical and biological pre-treatment, followed by advanced oxidation process based on catalytic ozonation and followed by GAC and PAC filtration. Flash Full-Scale Hospital waste water Treatments in Aceh from different district have been adopted and investigated. Referring to the removal efficiency of macro-pollutants, the collected data demonstrate good removal efficiency of macro-pollutants using Flash technologies. In general, Flash technologies could be considered a solution to the problem of managing hospital waste water.

Landscape planning for agricultural nonpoint source pollution reduction III: Assessing phosphorus and sediment reduction potential

USGS Publications Warehouse

Diebel, M.W.; Maxted, J.T.; Robertson, Dale M.; Han, S.; Vander Zanden, M. J.

2009-01-01

Riparian buffers have the potential to improve stream water quality in agricultural landscapes. This potential may vary in response to landscape characteristics such as soils, topography, land use, and human activities, including legacies of historical land management. We built a predictive model to estimate the sediment and phosphorus load reduction that should be achievable following the implementation of riparian buffers; then we estimated load reduction potential for a set of 1598 watersheds (average 54 km2) in Wisconsin. Our results indicate that land cover is generally the most important driver of constituent loads in Wisconsin streams, but its influence varies among pollutants and according to the scale at which it is measured. Physiographic (drainage density) variation also influenced sediment and phosphorus loads. The effect of historical land use on present-day channel erosion and variation in soil texture are the most important sources of phosphorus and sediment that riparian buffers cannot attenuate. However, in most watersheds, a large proportion (approximately 70%) of these pollutants can be eliminated from streams with buffers. Cumulative frequency distributions of load reduction potential indicate that targeting pollution reduction in the highest 10% of Wisconsin watersheds would reduce total phosphorus and sediment loads in the entire state by approximately 20%. These results support our approach of geographically targeting nonpoint source pollution reduction at multiple scales, including the watershed scale. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Solving large-scale fixed cost integer linear programming models for grid-based location problems with heuristic techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noor-E-Alam, Md.; Doucette, John

2015-08-01

Grid-based location problems (GBLPs) can be used to solve location problems in business, engineering, resource exploitation, and even in the field of medical sciences. To solve these decision problems, an integer linear programming (ILP) model is designed and developed to provide the optimal solution for GBLPs considering fixed cost criteria. Preliminary results show that the ILP model is efficient in solving small to moderate-sized problems. However, this ILP model becomes intractable in solving large-scale instances. Therefore, a decomposition heuristic is proposed to solve these large-scale GBLPs, which demonstrates significant reduction of solution runtimes. To benchmark the proposed heuristic, results are compared with the exact solution via ILP. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the exact method in runtime with minimal (and in most cases, no) loss of optimality.

Advantages of a city-scale emission inventory for urban air quality research and policy: the case of Nanjing, a typical industrial city in the Yangtze River Delta, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Y.; Qiu, L. P.; Xu, R. Y.; Xie, F. J.; Zhang, Q.; Yu, Y. Y.; Nielsen, C. P.; Qin, H. X.; Wang, H. K.; Wu, X. C.; Li, W. Q.; Zhang, J.

2015-11-01

With most eastern Chinese cities facing major air quality challenges, there is a strong need for city-scale emission inventories for use in both chemical transport modeling and the development of pollution control policies. In this paper, a high-resolution emission inventory (with a horizontal resolution of 3 × 3 km) of air pollutants and CO2 for Nanjing, a typical large city in the Yangtze River Delta, is developed, incorporating the best available information on local sources. Emission factors and activity data at the unit or facility level are collected and compiled using a thorough on-site survey of major sources. Over 900 individual plants, which account for 97 % of the city's total coal consumption, are identified as point sources, and all of the emission-related parameters including combustion technology, fuel quality, and removal efficiency of air pollution control devices (APCD) are analyzed. New data-collection approaches including continuous emission monitoring systems and real-time monitoring of traffic flows are employed to improve spatiotemporal distribution of emissions. Despite fast growth of energy consumption between 2010 and 2012, relatively small interannual changes in emissions are found for most air pollutants during this period, attributed mainly to benefits of growing APCD deployment and the comparatively strong and improving regulatory oversight of the large point sources that dominate the levels and spatial distributions of Nanjing emissions overall. The improvement of this city-level emission inventory is indicated by comparisons with observations and other inventories at larger spatial scale. Relatively good spatial correlations are found for SO2, NOx, and CO between the city-scale emission estimates and concentrations at nine state-operated monitoring sites (R = 0.58, 0.46, and 0.61, respectively). The emission ratios of specific pollutants including BC to CO, OC to EC, and CO2 to CO compare well to top-down constraints from ground observations. The interannual variability and spatial distribution of NOx emissions are consistent with NO2 vertical column density measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). In particular, the Nanjing city-scale emission inventory correlates better with satellite observations than the downscaled Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC) does when emissions from power plants are excluded. This indicates improvement in emission estimation for sectors other than power generation, notably industry and transportation. A high-resolution emission inventory may also provide a basis to consider the quality of instrumental observations. To further improve emission estimation and evaluation, more measurements of both emission factors and ambient levels of given pollutants are suggested; the uncertainties of emission inventories at city scale should also be fully quantified and compared with those at national scale.

Advantages of city-scale emission inventory for urban air quality research and policy: the case of Nanjing, a typical industrial city in the Yangtze River Delta, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Y.; Qiu, L.; Xu, R.; Xie, F.; Zhang, Q.; Yu, Y.; Nielsen, C. P.; Qin, H.; Wang, H.; Wu, X.; Li, W.; Zhang, J.

2015-07-01

With most eastern Chinese cities facing major air quality challenges, there is a strong need for city-scale emission inventories for use in both chemical transport modeling and the development of pollution control policies. In this paper, a high-resolution emission inventory of air pollutants and CO2 for Nanjing, a typical large city in the Yangtze River Delta, is developed incorporating the best available information on local sources. Emission factors and activity data at the unit or facility level are collected and compiled using a thorough onsite survey of major sources. Over 900 individual plants, which account for 97 % of the city's total coal consumption, are identified as point sources, and all of the emission-related parameters including combustion technology, fuel quality, and removal efficiency of air pollution control devices (APCD) are analyzed. New data-collection approaches including continuous emission monitoring systems and real-time monitoring of traffic flows are employed to improve spatiotemporal distribution of emissions. Despite fast growth of energy consumption between 2010 and 2012, relatively small inter-annual changes in emissions are found for most air pollutants during this period, attributed mainly to benefits of growing APCD deployment and the comparatively strong and improving regulatory oversight of the large point sources that dominate the levels and spatial distributions of Nanjing emissions overall. The improvement of this city-level emission inventory is indicated by comparisons with observations and other inventories at larger spatial scale. Relatively good spatial correlations are found for SO2, NOx, and CO between the city-scale emission estimates and concentrations at 9 state-opertated monitoring sites (R = 0.58, 0.46, and 0.61, respectively). The emission ratios of specific pollutants including BC to CO, OC to EC, and CO2 to CO compare well to top-down constraints from ground observations. The inter-annual variability and spatial distribution of NOx emissions are consistent with NO2 vertical column density measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). In particular, the Nanjing city-scale emission inventory correlates better with satellite observations than the downscaled Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC) does when emissions from power plants are excluded. This indicates improvement in emission estimation for sectors other than power generation, notably industry and transportation. High-resolution emission inventory may also provide a basis to consider the quality of instrumental observations. To further improve emission estimation and evaluation, more measurements of both emission factors and ambient levels of given pollutants are suggested; the uncertainties of emission inventories at city scale should also be fully quantified and compared with those at national scale.

Impacts of synoptic condition and planetary boundary layer structure on the trans-boundary aerosol transport from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to northeast China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miao, Yucong; Guo, Jianping; Liu, Shuhua; Zhao, Chun; Li, Xiaolan; Zhang, Gen; Wei, Wei; Ma, Yanjun

2018-05-01

The northeastern China frequently experiences severe aerosol pollution in winter under unfavorable meteorological conditions. How and to what extent the meteorological factors affect the air quality there are not yet clearly understood. Thus, this study investigated the impacts of synoptic patterns on the aerosol transport and planetary boundary layer (PBL) structure in Shenyang from 1 to 3 December 2016, using surface observations, sounding measurements, satellite data, and three-dimensional simulations. Results showed that the aerosol pollution occurred in Shenyang was not only related to the local emissions, but also contributed by trans-boundary transport of aerosols from the Beiijng-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. In the presence of the westerly and southwesterly synoptic winds, the aerosols emitted from BTH could be brought to Shenyang. From December 2 to 3, the aerosols emitted from BTH accounted for ∼20% of near-surface PM2.5 in Shenyang. In addition, the large-scale synoptic forcings could affect the vertical mixing of pollutants through modulating the PBL structure in Shenyang. The westerly and southwesterly synoptic winds not only brought the aerosols but also the warmer air masses from the southwest regions to Shenyang. The strong warm advections above PBL could enhance the already existing thermal inversion layers capping over PBL in Shenyang, leading to the suppressions of PBL. Both the trans-boundary transport of aerosols and the suppressions of PBL caused by the large-scale synoptic forcings should be partly responsible for the poor air quality in Shenyang, in addition to the high pollutant emissions. The present study revealed the physical mechanisms underlying the aerosol pollution in Shenyang, which has important implications for better forecasting and controlling the aerosols pollution.

The relationship between urban form and air pollution depends on seasonality and city size.

PubMed

Liu, Yupeng; Wu, Jianguo; Yu, Deyong; Ma, Qun

2018-06-01

Understanding how urban form is related to air pollution is important to urban planning and sustainability, but the urban form-air pollution relationship is currently muddled by inconsistent findings. In this study, we investigated how the compositional and configurational attributes of urban form were related to different air pollution measures (PM 2.5 , API, and exceedance) in 83 Chinese cities, with explicit consideration of city size and seasonality. Ten landscape metrics were selected to quantify urban form attributes, and Spearman's correlation was used to quantify the urban form-air pollution relationship. Our results show that the urban form and air pollution relationship was dominated by city size and moderated by seasonality. Specifically, urban air pollution levels increased consistently and substantially from small to medium, large, and megacities. The urban form-air pollution relationship depended greatly on seasonality and monsoons. That is, the relationship was more pronounced in spring and summer than fall and winter, as well as in cities affected by monsoons. Urban air pollution was correlated more strongly with landscape composition metrics than landscape configuration metrics which seemed to affect only PM 2.5 concentrations. Our study suggests that, to understand how air pollution levels are related to urban form, city size and seasonality must be explicitly considered (or controlled). Also, in order to mitigate urban air pollution problems, regional urban planning is needed to curb the spatial extent of built-up areas, reduce the degree of urban fragmentation, and increase urban compactness and contiguity, especially for large and megacities.

Biomagnetic Monitoring of Atmospheric Pollution: A Review of Magnetic Signatures from Biological Sensors.

PubMed

Hofman, Jelle; Maher, Barbara A; Muxworthy, Adrian R; Wuyts, Karen; Castanheiro, Ana; Samson, Roeland

2017-06-20

Biomagnetic monitoring of atmospheric pollution is a growing application in the field of environmental magnetism. Particulate matter (PM) in atmospheric pollution contains readily measurable concentrations of magnetic minerals. Biological surfaces, exposed to atmospheric pollution, accumulate magnetic particles over time, providing a record of location-specific, time-integrated air quality information. This review summarizes current knowledge of biological material ("sensors") used for biomagnetic monitoring purposes. Our work addresses the following: the range of magnetic properties reported for lichens, mosses, leaves, bark, trunk wood, insects, crustaceans, mammal and human tissues; their associations with atmospheric pollutant species (PM, NO x , trace elements, PAHs); the pros and cons of biomagnetic monitoring of atmospheric pollution; current challenges for large-scale implementation of biomagnetic monitoring; and future perspectives. A summary table is presented, with the aim of aiding researchers and policy makers in selecting the most suitable biological sensor for their intended biomagnetic monitoring purpose.

Methodology for Air Quality Forecast Downscaling from Regional- to Street-Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baklanov, Alexander; Nuterman, Roman; Mahura, Alexander; Amstrup, Bjarne; Hansen Saas, Bent; Havskov Sørensen, Jens; Lorenzen, Thomas; Weismann, Jakob

2010-05-01

The most serious air pollution events occur in cities where there is a combination of high population density and air pollution, e.g. from vehicles. The pollutants can lead to serious human health problems, including asthma, irritation of the lungs, bronchitis, pneumonia, decreased resistance to respiratory infections, and premature death. In particular air pollution is associated with increase in cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. In 2000 WHO estimated that between 2.5 % and 11 % of total annual deaths are caused by exposure to air pollution. However, European-scale air quality models are not suited for local forecasts, as their grid-cell is typically of the order of 5 to 10km and they generally lack detailed representation of urban effects. Two suites are used in the framework of the EC FP7 project MACC (Monitoring of Atmosphere Composition and Climate) to demonstrate how downscaling from the European MACC ensemble to local-scale air quality forecast will be carried out: one will illustrate capabilities for the city of Copenhagen (Denmark); the second will focus on the city of Bucharest (Romania). This work is devoted to the first suite, where methodological aspects of downscaling from regional (European/ Denmark) to urban scale (Copenhagen), and from the urban down to street scale. The first results of downscaling according to the proposed methodology are presented. The potential for downscaling of European air quality forecasts by operating urban and street-level forecast models is evaluated. This will bring a strong support for continuous improvement of the regional forecast modelling systems for air quality in Europe, and underline clear perspectives for the future regional air quality core and downstream services for end-users. At the end of the MACC project, requirements on "how-to-do" downscaling of European air-quality forecasts to the city and street levels with different approaches will be formulated.

Locating Groundwater Pollution Source using Breakthrough Curve Characteristics and Artificial Neural Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, J.; Jain, A.; Srivastava, R.

2005-12-01

The identification of pollution sources in aquifers is an important area of research not only for the hydrologists but also for the local and Federal agencies and defense organizations. Once the data in terms of pollutant concentration measurements at observation wells become known, it is important to identify the polluting industry in order to implement punitive or remedial measures. Traditionally, hydrologists have relied on the conceptual methods for the identification of groundwater pollution sources. The problem of identification of groundwater pollution sources using the conceptual methods requires a thorough understanding of the groundwater flow and contaminant transport processes and inverse modeling procedures that are highly complex and difficult to implement. Recently, the soft computing techniques, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) and genetic algorithms, have provided an attractive and easy to implement alternative to solve complex problems efficiently. Some researchers have used ANNs for the identification of pollution sources in aquifers. A major problem with most previous studies using ANNs has been the large size of the neural networks that are needed to model the inverse problem. The breakthrough curves at an observation well may consist of hundreds of concentration measurements, and presenting all of them to the input layer of an ANN not only results in humongous networks but also requires large amount of training and testing data sets to develop the ANN models. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at using certain characteristics of the breakthrough curves and ANNs for determining the distance of the pollution source from a given observation well. Two different neural network models are developed that differ in the manner of characterizing the breakthrough curves. The first ANN model uses five parameters, similar to the synthetic unit hydrograph parameters, to characterize the breakthrough curves. The five parameters employed are peak concentration, time to peak concentration, the widths of the breakthrough curves at 50% and 75% of the peak concentration, and the time base of the breakthrough curve. The second ANN model employs only the first four parameters leaving out the time base. The measurement of breakthrough curve at an observation well involves very high costs in sample collection at suitable time intervals and analysis for various contaminants. The receding portions of the breakthrough curves are normally very long and excluding the time base from modeling would result in considerable cost savings. The feed-forward multi-layer perceptron (MLP) type neural networks trained using the back-propagation algorithm, are employed in this study. The ANN models for the two approaches were developed using simulated data generated for conservative pollutant transport through a homogeneous aquifer. A new approach for ANN training using back-propagation is employed that considers two different error statistics to prevent over-training and under-training of the ANNs. The preliminary results indicate that the ANNs are able to identify the location of the pollution source very efficiently from both the methods of the breakthrough curves characterization.

Comparative studies of groundwater vulnerability assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maria, Rizka

2018-02-01

Pollution of groundwater is a primary issue because aquifers are susceptible to contamination from land use and anthropogenic impacts. Groundwater susceptibility is intrinsic and specific. Intrinsic vulnerability refers to an aquifer that is susceptible to pollution and to the geological and hydrogeological features. Vulnerability assessment is an essential step in assessing groundwater contamination. This approach provides a visual analysis for helping planners and decision makers to achieve the sustainable management of water resources. Comparative studies are applying different methodologies to result in the basic evaluation of the groundwater vulnerability. Based on the comparison of methods, there are several advantages and disadvantages. SI can be overlaid on DRASTIC and Pesticide DRASTIC to extract the divergence in sensitivity. DRASTIC identifies low susceptibility and underestimates the pollution risk while Pesticide DRASTIC and SI represents better risk and is recommended for the future. SINTACS method generates very high vulnerability zones with surface waters and aquifer interactions. GOD method could be adequate for vulnerability mapping in karstified carbonate aquifers at small-moderate scales, and EPIK method can be used for large scale. GOD method is suitable for designing large area such as land management while DRASTIC has good accuracy and more real use in geoenvironmental detailed studies.

Evaluating the role of soil variability on groundwater pollution and recharge at regional scale by integrating a process-based vadose zone model in a stochastic approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppola, Antonio; Comegna, Alessandro; Dragonetti, Giovanna; Lamaddalena, Nicola; Zdruli, Pandi

2013-04-01

Interpreting and predicting the evolution of water resources and soils at regional scale are continuing challenges for natural scientists. Examples include non-point source (NPS) pollution of soil and surface and subsurface water from agricultural chemicals and pathogens, as well as overexploitation of groundwater resources. The presence and build up of NPS pollutants may be harmful for both soil and groundwater resources. The accumulation of salts and trace elements in soils can significantly impact crop productivity, while loading of salts, nitrates, trace elements and pesticides into groundwater supplies can deteriorate a source of drinking and irrigation water. Consequently, predicting the spatial distribution and fate of NPS pollutants in soils at applicative scales is now considered crucial for maintaining the fragile balance between crop productivity and the negative environmental impacts of NPS pollutants, which is a basis of sustainable agriculture. Soil scientists and hydrologists are regularly asked to assist state agencies to understand these critical environmental issues. The most frequent inquiries are related to the development of mathematical models needed for analyzing the impacts of alternative land-use and best management use and management of soil and water resources. Different modelling solutions exist, mainly differing on the role of the vadose zone and its horizontal and vertical variability in the predictive models. The vadose zone (the region from the soil surface to the groundwater surface) is a complex physical, chemical and biological ecosystem that controls the passage of NPS pollutants from the soil surface where they have been deposited or accumulated due to agricultural activities, to groundwater. Physically based distributed hydrological models require the internal variability of the vadose zone be explored at a variety of scales. The equations describing fluxes and storage of water and solutes in the unsaturated zone used in these modelling approaches have been developed at small space scales. Their extension to the applicative macroscale of the regional model is not a simple task mainly because of the heterogeneity of vadose zone properties, as well as of non-linearity of hydrological processes. Besides, one of the problems when applying distributed models is that spatial and temporal scales for data to be used as input in the models vary on a wide range of scales and are not always consistent with the model structure. Under these conditions, a strictly deterministic response to questions about the fate of a pollutant in the soil is impossible. At best, one may answer "this is the average behaviour within this uncertainty band". Consequently, the extension of these equations to account for regional-scale processes requires the uncertainties of the outputs be taken into account if the pollution vulnerability maps that may be drawn are to be used as agricultural management tools. A map generated without a corresponding map of associated uncertainties has no real utility. The stochastic stream tube approach is a frequently used to the water flux and solute transport through the vadose zone at applicative scales. This approach considers the field soil as an ensemble of parallel and statistically independent tubes, assuming only vertical flow. The stream tubes approach is generally used in a probabilistic framework. Each stream tube defines local flow properties that are assumed to vary randomly between the different stream tubes. Thus, the approach allows average water and solute behaviour be described, along with the associated uncertainty bands. These stream tubes are usually considered to have parameters that are vertically homogeneous. This would be justified by the large difference between the horizontal and vertical extent of the spatial applicative scale. Vertical is generally overlooked. Obviously, all the model outputs are conditioned by this assumption. The latter, in turn, is more dictated by the lack of information on vertical variability of soil properties. It is our opinion that, with sufficient information on soil horizonation and with an appropriate horizontal resolution, it may be demonstrated that model outputs may be largely sensitive to the vertical variability of stream tubes, even at applicative scales. Horizon differentiation is one of the main observations made by pedologists while describing soils and most analytical data are given according to soil horizons. Over the last decades, soil horizonation has been subjected to regular monitoring for mapping soil variation at regional scales. Accordingly, this study mainly aims to developing a regional-scale simulation approach for vadose zone flow and transport that use real soil profiles data based on information on vertical variability of soils. As to the methodology, the parallel column concept was applied to account for the effect of vertical heterogeneity on variability of water flow and solute transport in the vadose zone. Even if the stream tube approach was mainly introduced for (unrealistic) vertically homogeneous soils, we extended their use to real vertically variable soils. The approach relies on available datasets coming from different sources and offers quantitative answers to soil and groundwater vulnerability to non-point source of chemicals and pathogens at regional scale within a defined confidence interval. This result will be pursued through the design and building up of a spatial database containing 1). Detailed pedological information, 2). Hydrological properties mainly measured in the investigated area in different soil horizons, 3). Water table depth, 4). Spatially distributed climatic temporal series, and 5). Land use. The area of interest for the study is located in the sub-basin of Metaponto agricultural site, located in southern Basilicata Region in Italy, covering approximately 11,698 hectares, crossed by two main rivers, Sinni and Agri and from many secondary water bodies. Distributed output of soil pollutant leaching behaviour, with corresponding statistical uncertainties, will be provided and finally visualized in GIS maps. The example pollutants considered cover much of the practical pollution conditions one may found in the reality. Nevertheless, this regional- scale methodology may be applied to any specific pollutants for any soil, climatic and land use conditions. Also, as the approach is built on physically based equations, it may be extended to the predictions of any water and solute storage and fluxes (i.e., groundwater recharge) in the vadose zone. By integrating the scientific results with economic and political considerations, and with advanced information technologies, the NPS-pollution assessment may become a powerful decision support tool for guiding activities involving soil and groundwater resources and, more in general, for managing environmental resources.

Understanding enabling capacities for managing the 'wicked problem' of nonpoint source water pollution in catchments: a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Patterson, James J; Smith, Carl; Bellamy, Jennifer

2013-10-15

Nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution in catchments is a 'wicked' problem that threatens water quality, water security, ecosystem health and biodiversity, and thus the provision of ecosystem services that support human livelihoods and wellbeing from local to global scales. However, it is a difficult problem to manage because water catchments are linked human and natural systems that are complex, dynamic, multi-actor, and multi-scalar in nature. This in turn raises questions about understanding and influencing change across multiple levels of planning, decision-making and action. A key challenge in practice is enabling implementation of local management action, which can be influenced by a range of factors across multiple levels. This paper reviews and synthesises important 'enabling' capacities that can influence implementation of local management action, and develops a conceptual framework for understanding and analysing these in practice. Important enabling capacities identified include: history and contingency; institutional arrangements; collaboration; engagement; vision and strategy; knowledge building and brokerage; resourcing; entrepreneurship and leadership; and reflection and adaptation. Furthermore, local action is embedded within multi-scalar contexts and therefore, is highly contextual. The findings highlight the need for: (1) a systemic and integrative perspective for understanding and influencing change for managing the wicked problem of NPS water pollution; and (2) 'enabling' social and institutional arenas that support emergent and adaptive management structures, processes and innovations for addressing NPS water pollution in practice. These findings also have wider relevance to other 'wicked' natural resource management issues facing similar implementation challenges. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Towards large scale multi-target tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vo, Ba-Ngu; Vo, Ba-Tuong; Reuter, Stephan; Lam, Quang; Dietmayer, Klaus

2014-06-01

Multi-target tracking is intrinsically an NP-hard problem and the complexity of multi-target tracking solutions usually do not scale gracefully with problem size. Multi-target tracking for on-line applications involving a large number of targets is extremely challenging. This article demonstrates the capability of the random finite set approach to provide large scale multi-target tracking algorithms. In particular it is shown that an approximate filter known as the labeled multi-Bernoulli filter can simultaneously track one thousand five hundred targets in clutter on a standard laptop computer.

Survey of decentralized control methods. [for large scale dynamic systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Athans, M.

1975-01-01

An overview is presented of the types of problems that are being considered by control theorists in the area of dynamic large scale systems with emphasis on decentralized control strategies. Approaches that deal directly with decentralized decision making for large scale systems are discussed. It is shown that future advances in decentralized system theory are intimately connected with advances in the stochastic control problem with nonclassical information pattern. The basic assumptions and mathematical tools associated with the latter are summarized, and recommendations concerning future research are presented.

Design of an Air Pollution Monitoring Campaign in Beijing for Application to Cohort Health Studies.

PubMed

Vedal, Sverre; Han, Bin; Xu, Jia; Szpiro, Adam; Bai, Zhipeng

2017-12-15

No cohort studies in China on the health effects of long-term air pollution exposure have employed exposure estimates at the fine spatial scales desirable for cohort studies with individual-level health outcome data. Here we assess an array of modern air pollution exposure estimation approaches for assigning within-city exposure estimates in Beijing for individual pollutants and pollutant sources to individual members of a cohort. Issues considered in selecting specific monitoring data or new monitoring campaigns include: needed spatial resolution, exposure measurement error and its impact on health effect estimates, spatial alignment and compatibility with the cohort, and feasibility and expense. Sources of existing data largely include administrative monitoring data, predictions from air dispersion or chemical transport models and remote sensing (specifically satellite) data. New air monitoring campaigns include additional fixed site monitoring, snapshot monitoring, passive badge or micro-sensor saturation monitoring and mobile monitoring, as well as combinations of these. Each of these has relative advantages and disadvantages. It is concluded that a campaign in Beijing that at least includes a mobile monitoring component, when coupled with currently available spatio-temporal modeling methods, should be strongly considered. Such a campaign is economical and capable of providing the desired fine-scale spatial resolution for pollutants and sources.

Design of an Air Pollution Monitoring Campaign in Beijing for Application to Cohort Health Studies

PubMed Central

Vedal, Sverre; Han, Bin; Szpiro, Adam; Bai, Zhipeng

2017-01-01

No cohort studies in China on the health effects of long-term air pollution exposure have employed exposure estimates at the fine spatial scales desirable for cohort studies with individual-level health outcome data. Here we assess an array of modern air pollution exposure estimation approaches for assigning within-city exposure estimates in Beijing for individual pollutants and pollutant sources to individual members of a cohort. Issues considered in selecting specific monitoring data or new monitoring campaigns include: needed spatial resolution, exposure measurement error and its impact on health effect estimates, spatial alignment and compatibility with the cohort, and feasibility and expense. Sources of existing data largely include administrative monitoring data, predictions from air dispersion or chemical transport models and remote sensing (specifically satellite) data. New air monitoring campaigns include additional fixed site monitoring, snapshot monitoring, passive badge or micro-sensor saturation monitoring and mobile monitoring, as well as combinations of these. Each of these has relative advantages and disadvantages. It is concluded that a campaign in Beijing that at least includes a mobile monitoring component, when coupled with currently available spatio-temporal modeling methods, should be strongly considered. Such a campaign is economical and capable of providing the desired fine-scale spatial resolution for pollutants and sources. PMID:29244738

Inverse problem to constrain the controlling parameters of large-scale heat transport processes: The Tiberias Basin example

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goretzki, Nora; Inbar, Nimrod; Siebert, Christian; Möller, Peter; Rosenthal, Eliyahu; Schneider, Michael; Magri, Fabien

2015-04-01

Salty and thermal springs exist along the lakeshore of the Sea of Galilee, which covers most of the Tiberias Basin (TB) in the northern Jordan- Dead Sea Transform, Israel/Jordan. As it is the only freshwater reservoir of the entire area, it is important to study the salinisation processes that pollute the lake. Simulations of thermohaline flow along a 35 km NW-SE profile show that meteoric and relic brines are flushed by the regional flow from the surrounding heights and thermally induced groundwater flow within the faults (Magri et al., 2015). Several model runs with trial and error were necessary to calibrate the hydraulic conductivity of both faults and major aquifers in order to fit temperature logs and spring salinity. It turned out that the hydraulic conductivity of the faults ranges between 30 and 140 m/yr whereas the hydraulic conductivity of the Upper Cenomanian aquifer is as high as 200 m/yr. However, large-scale transport processes are also dependent on other physical parameters such as thermal conductivity, porosity and fluid thermal expansion coefficient, which are hardly known. Here, inverse problems (IP) are solved along the NW-SE profile to better constrain the physical parameters (a) hydraulic conductivity, (b) thermal conductivity and (c) thermal expansion coefficient. The PEST code (Doherty, 2010) is applied via the graphical interface FePEST in FEFLOW (Diersch, 2014). The results show that both thermal and hydraulic conductivity are consistent with the values determined with the trial and error calibrations. Besides being an automatic approach that speeds up the calibration process, the IP allows to cover a wide range of parameter values, providing additional solutions not found with the trial and error method. Our study shows that geothermal systems like TB are more comprehensively understood when inverse models are applied to constrain coupled fluid flow processes over large spatial scales. References Diersch, H.-J.G., 2014. FEFLOW Finite Element Modeling of Flow, Mass and Heat Transport in Porous and Fractured Media. Springer- Verlag Berlin Heidelberg ,996p. Doherty J., 2010, PEST: Model-Independent Parameter Estimation. user manual 5th Edition. Watermark, Brisbane, Australia Magri, F., Inbar, N., Siebert C., Rosenthal, E., Guttman, J., Möller, P., 2015. Transient simulations of large-scale hydrogeological processes causing temperature and salinity anomalies in the Tiberias Basin. Journal of Hydrology, 520(0), 342-355.

An Overview of the 3C-STAR project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Y.

2009-04-01

Over the past three decades, city clusters have played a leading role in the economic growth of China, owing to their collective economic capacity and interdependency. However, pollution prevention lags behind the economic boom, led to a general decline in air quality in city clusters. As a result, industrial emissions and traffic exhausts together contribute to high levels of ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution problems ranging from urban to regional scale. Such high levels of both primary and secondary airborne pollutants lead to the development of a (perhaps typically Chinese) "air pollution complex" concept. Air pollution complex is particularly true and significant in Beijing-Tianjin area, Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Yangtze River Delta. The concurrent high concentrations of O3 and PM2.5 in PRD as well as in other China city clusters have led to rather unique pollution characteristics due to interactions between primary emissions and photochemical processes, between gaseous compounds and aerosol phase species, and between local and regional scale processes. The knowledge and experience needed to find solutions to the unique pollution complex in China are still lacking. Starting from 2007, we launch a major project "Synthesized Prevention Techniques for Air Pollution Complex and Integrated Demonstration in Key City-Cluster Region" (3C-STAR) to address those problems scientifically and technically. The purpose of the project is to build up the capacity of regional air pollution control and to establish regional coordination mechanism for joint implementation of pollution control. The project includes a number of key components technically: regional air quality monitoring network and super-sites, regional dynamic emission inventory of multi-pollutants, regional ensemble air quality forecasting model system, and regional management system supported by decision making platform. The 3C-STAR project selected PRD as a core area to have technical demonstration, and thus provide opportunities as well as challenges for PRD to improve its regional air quality. An integrated field measurement campaign 3C-STAR2008 was organized during October 15-November 19, 2008, including 3-D regional air quality monitoring network, two super-sites, and in-site meteorological and air quality forecasting. With the efforts of more than 100 scientists and students from 12 research institutes, the 3C-STAR2008 was conducted with great success. A great amount of data with rigorous QA/QC procedures has been obtained and data analysis is underway. In this talk, an overview of the 3C-STAR project will be presented, together with major findings from previous PRD campaigns (PRD2004 and PRD2006).

Modelling of Carbon Monoxide Air Pollution in Larg Cities by Evaluetion of Spectral LANDSAT8 Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamzelo, M.; Gharagozlou, A.; Sadeghian, S.; Baikpour, S. H.; Rajabi, A.

2015-12-01

Air pollution in large cities is one of the major problems that resolve and reduce it need multiple applications and environmental management. Of The main sources of this pollution is industrial activities, urban and transport that enter large amounts of contaminants into the air and reduces its quality. With Variety of pollutants and high volume manufacturing, local distribution of manufacturing centers, Testing and measuring emissions is difficult. Substances such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and unburned hydrocarbons and lead compounds are substances that cause air pollution and carbon monoxide is most important. Today, data exchange systems, processing, analysis and modeling is of important pillars of management system and air quality control. In this study, using the spectral signature of carbon monoxide gas as the most efficient gas pollution LANDSAT8 images in order that have better spatial resolution than appropriate spectral bands and weather meters،SAM classification algorithm and Geographic Information System (GIS ), spatial distribution of carbon monoxide gas in Tehran over a period of one year from the beginning of 2014 until the beginning of 2015 at 11 map have modeled and then to the model valuation ،created maps were compared with the map provided by the Tehran quality comparison air company. Compare involved plans did with the error matrix and results in 4 types of care; overall, producer, user and kappa coefficient was investigated. Results of average accuracy were about than 80%, which indicates the fit method and data used for modeling.

A GIS-based multi-source and multi-box modeling approach (GMSMB) for air pollution assessment--a North American case study.

PubMed

Wang, Bao-Zhen; Chen, Zhi

2013-01-01

This article presents a GIS-based multi-source and multi-box modeling approach (GMSMB) to predict the spatial concentration distributions of airborne pollutant on local and regional scales. In this method, an extended multi-box model combined with a multi-source and multi-grid Gaussian model are developed within the GIS framework to examine the contributions from both point- and area-source emissions. By using GIS, a large amount of data including emission sources, air quality monitoring, meteorological data, and spatial location information required for air quality modeling are brought into an integrated modeling environment. It helps more details of spatial variation in source distribution and meteorological condition to be quantitatively analyzed. The developed modeling approach has been examined to predict the spatial concentration distribution of four air pollutants (CO, NO(2), SO(2) and PM(2.5)) for the State of California. The modeling results are compared with the monitoring data. Good agreement is acquired which demonstrated that the developed modeling approach could deliver an effective air pollution assessment on both regional and local scales to support air pollution control and management planning.

ACIDIC PRECIPITATION EFFECTS ON TERRESTRIAL VEGETATION

EPA Science Inventory

Acid precipitation is a significant air pollution problem in North America and Europe. Here, large amounts of sulfur and nitrogen oxides and many other substances are emitted into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels, the smelting of sulfide metal ores, and other in...

Spatial patterns of air pollutants and social groups: a distributive environmental justice study in the phoenix metropolitan region of USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pope, Ronald; Wu, Jianguo; Boone, Christopher

2016-11-01

Quantifying spatial distribution patterns of air pollutants is imperative to understand environmental justice issues. Here we present a landscape-based hierarchical approach in which air pollution variables are regressed against population demographics on multiple spatiotemporal scales. Using this approach, we investigated the potential problem of distributive environmental justice in the Phoenix metropolitan region, focusing on ambient ozone and particulate matter. Pollution surfaces (maps) are evaluated against the demographics of class, age, race (African American, Native American), and ethnicity (Hispanic). A hierarchical multiple regression method is used to detect distributive environmental justice relationships. Our results show that significant relationships exist between the dependent and independent variables, signifying possible environmental inequity. Although changing spatiotemporal scales only altered the overall direction of these relationships in a few instances, it did cause the relationship to become nonsignificant in many cases. Several consistent patterns emerged: people aged 17 and under were significant predictors for ambient ozone and particulate matter, but people 65 and older were only predictors for ambient particulate matter. African Americans were strong predictors for ambient particulate matter, while Native Americans were strong predictors for ambient ozone. Hispanics had a strong negative correlation with ambient ozone, but a less consistent positive relationship with ambient particulate matter. Given the legacy conditions endured by minority racial and ethnic groups, and the relative lack of mobility of all the groups, our findings suggest the existence of environmental inequities in the Phoenix metropolitan region. The methodology developed in this study is generalizable with other pollutants to provide a multi-scaled perspective of environmental justice issues.

Enhancement in secondary particulate matter production due to mountain trapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Teng; Fung, J. C. H.; Ma, H.; Lau, A. K. H.; Chan, P. W.; Yu, J. Z.; Xue, J.

2014-10-01

As China's largest economic development zone, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is subject to particulate matter (PM) and visibility deterioration problems. Due to high PM concentration, haze days impacting ambient visibility have occurred frequently in this region. Besides visibility impairment, PM pollution also causes a negative impact on public health. These negative impacts have heightened the need to improve our understanding of the PM pollution of the PRD region. One major cause of the PRD pollution problem is cold front passages in the winter; however, the mechanism of pollution formation stays unclear. In this study, the Comprehensive Air Quality Model (CAMx) is utilized to investigate the detailed PM production and transport mechanisms in the PRD. Simulated concentrations of PM2.5 species, which have a good correlation with observation, show that sulfate and nitrate are the dominant pollutants among different PM2.5 species. Before the cold front passage a large amount of gas-phase and particle-phase pollutants are transported to the mountainous regions in the north of the PRD, and become trapped by the terrain. Over the mountain regions, cloud driven by upwelling flow promotes aqueous-phase reactions including oxidations of PM precursors such as SO2 and NO2. By this process, production of secondary PM is enhanced. When the cold front continues to advance further south, PM is transported to the PRD cities, and suppressed into a thin layer near the ground by a low planetary boundary layer (PBL). Thus high PM concentration episodes take place in the PRD cities. After examining production and transportation pathways, this study presents that the complex terrain configuration would block pollutant dispersion, provide cloudy environment, and advance secondary PM production. Previous studies have pointed out that pollution emitted from outside this region largely influences the air quality in the PRD; however, this study shows that pollutants from the outside could be originated from the PRD and transported back resulting in significant increase of secondary PM concentration, and provides new insight into PM production and transport mechanism in the PRD.

Indirect field technology for detecting areas object of illegal spills harmful to human health: application of drones, photogrammetry and hydrological models.

PubMed

Capolupo, Alessandra; Pindozzi, Stefania; Okello, Collins; Boccia, Lorenzo

2014-12-01

The accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural soils is a serious environmental problem. The Campania region in southern Italy has higher levels of cancer risk, presumably due to the accumulation of geogenic and anthropogenic soil pollutants, some of which have been incorporated into organic matter. The aim of this study was to introduce and test an innovative, field-applicable methodology to detect heavy metal accumulation using drone-based photogrammetry and microrill network modelling, specifically to generate wetlands wetlands prediction indices normally applied at large catchment scales, such as a large geographic basin. The processing of aerial photos taken using a hexacopter equipped with fifth-generation software for photogrammetry allowed the generation of a digital elevation model (DEM) with a resolution as high as 30 mm. Not only this provided a high potential for the study of micro-rill processes, but it was also useful for testing and comparing the capability of the topographic index (TI) and the clima-topographic index (CTI) to predict heavy metal sedimentation points at scales from 0.1 to 10 ha. Our results indicate that the TI and CTI indices can be used to predict points of heavy metal accumulation for small field catchments.

A numerical projection technique for large-scale eigenvalue problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gamillscheg, Ralf; Haase, Gundolf; von der Linden, Wolfgang

2011-10-01

We present a new numerical technique to solve large-scale eigenvalue problems. It is based on the projection technique, used in strongly correlated quantum many-body systems, where first an effective approximate model of smaller complexity is constructed by projecting out high energy degrees of freedom and in turn solving the resulting model by some standard eigenvalue solver. Here we introduce a generalization of this idea, where both steps are performed numerically and which in contrast to the standard projection technique converges in principle to the exact eigenvalues. This approach is not just applicable to eigenvalue problems encountered in many-body systems but also in other areas of research that result in large-scale eigenvalue problems for matrices which have, roughly speaking, mostly a pronounced dominant diagonal part. We will present detailed studies of the approach guided by two many-body models.

REMOVAL OF SO2 FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE GASES

EPA Science Inventory

The paper discusses technology for sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution control by flue gas cleaning (called 'scrubbing') in the utility industry, a technology that has advanced significantly during the past 5 years. Federal Regulations are resulting in increasingly large-scale applica...

A simplified risk-ranking system for prioritizing toxic pollution sites in low- and middle-income countries.

PubMed

Caravanos, Jack; Gualtero, Sandra; Dowling, Russell; Ericson, Bret; Keith, John; Hanrahan, David; Fuller, Richard

2014-01-01

In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), chemical exposures in the environment due to hazardous waste sites and toxic pollutants are typically poorly documented and their health impacts insufficiently quantified. Furthermore, there often is only limited understanding of the health and environmental consequences of point source pollution problems, and little consensus on how to assess and rank them. The contributions of toxic environmental exposures to the global burden of disease are not well characterized. The aim of this study was to describe the simple but effective approach taken by Blacksmith Institute's Toxic Sites Identification Program to quantify and rank toxic exposures in LMICs. This system is already in use at more than 3000 sites in 48 countries such as India, Indonesia, China, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine. A hazard ranking system formula, the Blacksmith Index (BI), takes into account important factors such as the scale of the pollution source, the size of the population possibly affected, and the exposure pathways, and is designed for use reliably in low-resource settings by local personnel provided with limited training. Four representative case studies are presented, with varying locations, populations, pollutants, and exposure pathways. The BI was successfully applied to assess the extent and severity of environmental pollution problems at these sites. The BI is a risk-ranking tool that provides direct and straightforward characterization, quantification, and prioritization of toxic pollution sites in settings where time, money, or resources are limited. It will be an important and useful tool for addressing toxic pollution problems in LMICs. Although the BI does not have the sophistication of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Hazard Ranking System, the case studies presented here document the effectiveness of the BI in the field, especially in low-resource settings. Understanding of the risks posed by toxic pollution sites helps assure better use of resources to manage sites and mitigate risks to public health. Quantification of these hazards is an important input to assessments of the global burden of disease. Copyright © 2014 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Urban Runoff and Nutrients Loading Control from Sustainable BMPs (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Q.

2009-12-01

Climate change alters hydrodynamic and nutrient dynamic in both large and small geographic scales. These changes in our freshwater system directly affect drinking water, food production, business, and all aspects of our life. Along with climate change is increasing urbanization which alters natural landscape. Urban runoff has been identified as one of many potential drivers of the decline of pelagic fishes in san Francisco Bay-Delta region. Recent found of Pyrethroids in American River has increased scientists, public, and policy makers’ concern about our fresh water system. Increasing our understanding about the fundamental hydrodynamic, nutrient dynamics, and the transport mechanics of runoff and nutrients are important for future water resource and ecosystem management. Urbanization has resulted in significantly increasing the amount of impervious land cover. Most impervious land covers are hydrophobic that alters surface runoff because of the effects on surface retention storage, rainfall interception, and infiltration. Large volumes of excess storm runoff from urbanized areas cause flooding, water pollution, groundwater recharge deficits, destroyed habitat, beach closures, and toxicity to aquatic organisms. Parking lot alone accounts for more than 11% of these impervious surfaces. Contrast to impervious parking lot, turfgrass can accouter for 12% of urban land in California. Irrigated urban landscapes create considerable benefits to our daily living. However, the use of fertilizers and pesticides has caused environmental problems. Preventing fertilizers and pesticides from entering storm drains is an important goal for both landscape and storm runoff managers. Studies of urban runoff have found that the most fertilizers and pesticides are from dry weather runoff which conveys pollutants to sidewalks, streets, and storm drains. Controlling surface runoff is critical to preventing these pollutants from entering storm drains and water bodies. Large scale construction of runoff retention basins and treatment facilities to meet TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) regulations are not cost-effective or practical. An alternative approach is to control runoff and nutrients on-site through installation of decentralized BMPs that detain and infiltrate runoff before it reaches storm drains. Recent developed green-infrastructure which integrating engineered soil and trees to reduce runoff and nutrients loading is a self-sustained best management practice (BMP). This BMP has been testing and used in urban runoff control. In Davis, CA this type of BMPs were installed in a parking lot and a residential property to evaluate the system’s effectiveness on reducing storm runoff and pollutant loading from the parking lot and irrigated landscape. Storm runoff and pollutant loading were measured and monitored during February 2007 thru May 2009 from the parking lot. The BMP reduced surface runoff and nutrients by 88.8% and 95.3%, respectively. In the residential irrigated landscape, the dry-weather runoff was monitored during 2007 irrigation season, the BMP captured almost all dry weather runoff. The performance of these BMPs demonstrated their potential use for reducing runoff and nutrients loading. Control urban runoff from these 23% landscape (i.e., parking lot and irrigated turf grass) could largely alter the runoff and nutrients transport and their dynamic in our water system.

Stochastic backscatter modelling for the prediction of pollutant removal from an urban street canyon: A large-eddy simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Neill, J. J.; Cai, X.-M.; Kinnersley, R.

2016-10-01

The large-eddy simulation (LES) approach has recently exhibited its appealing capability of capturing turbulent processes inside street canyons and the urban boundary layer aloft, and its potential for deriving the bulk parameters adopted in low-cost operational urban dispersion models. However, the thin roof-level shear layer may be under-resolved in most LES set-ups and thus sophisticated subgrid-scale (SGS) parameterisations may be required. In this paper, we consider the important case of pollutant removal from an urban street canyon of unit aspect ratio (i.e. building height equal to street width) with the external flow perpendicular to the street. We show that by employing a stochastic SGS model that explicitly accounts for backscatter (energy transfer from unresolved to resolved scales), the pollutant removal process is better simulated compared with the use of a simpler (fully dissipative) but widely-used SGS model. The backscatter induces additional mixing within the shear layer which acts to increase the rate of pollutant removal from the street canyon, giving better agreement with a recent wind-tunnel experiment. The exchange velocity, an important parameter in many operational models that determines the mass transfer between the urban canopy and the external flow, is predicted to be around 15% larger with the backscatter SGS model; consequently, the steady-state mean pollutant concentration within the street canyon is around 15% lower. A database of exchange velocities for various other urban configurations could be generated and used as improved input for operational street canyon models.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Qian, Yun; Gong, Daoyi; Fan, Jiwen

Long-term observational data reveal that both the frequency and amount of light rain have decreased in eastern China (EC) for 1956-2005 with high spatial coherency. This is different from the trend of total rainfall observed in EC, which decreases in northern EC and increases in southern EC. To examine the cause of the light rain trends, we analyzed the long-term variability of atmospheric water vapor and its correlation with light rain events. Results show very weak relationships between large-scale moisture transport and light rain in EC. This suggests that light rain trend in EC is not driven by large-scale circulationmore » changes. Because of human activities, pollutant emission has increased dramatically in China for the last few decades, leading to significant reductions in visibility between 1960 and 2000. Cloud-resolving model simulations show that aerosols corresponding to heavily polluted conditions can significantly increase the cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) and reduce droplet sizes compared to pristine conditions. This can lead to a significant decline in raindrop concentration and delay raindrop formation because smaller cloud droplets are less efficient in the collision and coalescence processes. Together with weaker convection, the precipitation frequency and amount are significantly reduced in the polluted case. Satellite data also reveal higher CDNC and smaller droplet size over polluted land in EC relative to pristine regions, which is consistent with the model results. This evidence suggests that the significantly increased aerosol particles produced by air pollution are at least partly responsible for the decreased light rain events observed in China over the past fifty years.« less

Scale problems in reporting landscape pattern at the regional scale

Treesearch

R.V. O' Neill; C.T. Hunsaker; S.P. Timmins; B.L. Jackson; K.B. Jones; Kurt H. Riitters; James D. Wickham

1996-01-01

Remotely sensed data for Southeastern United States (Standard Federal Region 4) are used to examine the scale problems involved in reporting landscape pattern for a large, heterogeneous region. Frequency distribu-tions of landscape indices illustrate problems associated with the grain or resolution of the data. Grain should be 2 to 5 times smaller than the...

Eurasian continental background and regionally polluted levels of ozone and CO observed in northeast Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pochanart, Pakpong; Kato, Shungo; Katsuno, Takao; Akimoto, Hajime

The roles of Eurasian/Siberian continental air masses transport and the impact of large-scale East Asian anthropogenic emissions on tropospheric ozone and carbon monoxide levels in northeast Asia were investigated. Seasonal behaviors of O 3 and CO mixing ratios in background continental (BC) air masses and regionally polluted continental (RPC) air masses were identified using trajectory analyses of Eurasian continental air masses and multi-year O 3 and CO data observed at Happo, a mountain site in Japan. RPC air masses show significantly higher O 3 and CO mixing ratios (annual average of 53.9±6.0 and 200±41 ppb, respectively) than BC air masses (44.4±3.6 and 167±17 ppb, respectively). Large scale anthropogenic emissions in East Asia are suggested to contribute about 10 ppb of photochemical O 3 and 32 ppb of CO at Happo. A comparative study of O 3 and CO observed at other sites, i.e., Oki Islands and Mondy in northeast Asia, showed similarities suggesting that O 3 mixing ratios in BC air masses at Happo could be representative for remote northeast Asia. However, CO mixing ratios in BC air masses at Happo are higher than the background level in Siberia. The overestimate is probably related to an increase in the CO baseline gradient between Siberia and the East Asia Pacific rim, and perturbations by sub-grid scale pollution transport and regional-scale boreal forest fires in Siberia when the background continental air masses are transported to Japan.

Performance of Extended Local Clustering Organization (LCO) for Large Scale Job-Shop Scheduling Problem (JSP)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konno, Yohko; Suzuki, Keiji

This paper describes an approach to development of a solution algorithm of a general-purpose for large scale problems using “Local Clustering Organization (LCO)” as a new solution for Job-shop scheduling problem (JSP). Using a performance effective large scale scheduling in the study of usual LCO, a solving JSP keep stability induced better solution is examined. In this study for an improvement of a performance of a solution for JSP, processes to a optimization by LCO is examined, and a scheduling solution-structure is extended to a new solution-structure based on machine-division. A solving method introduced into effective local clustering for the solution-structure is proposed as an extended LCO. An extended LCO has an algorithm which improves scheduling evaluation efficiently by clustering of parallel search which extends over plural machines. A result verified by an application of extended LCO on various scale of problems proved to conduce to minimizing make-span and improving on the stable performance.

Rapid identification of soil cadmium pollution risk at regional scale based on visible and near-infrared spectroscopy.

PubMed

Chen, Tao; Chang, Qingrui; Clevers, J G P W; Kooistra, L

2015-11-01

Soil heavy metal pollution due to long-term sewage irrigation is a serious environmental problem in many irrigation areas in northern China. Quickly identifying its pollution status is an important basis for remediation. Visible-near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIRS) provides a useful tool. In a case study, 76 soil samples were collected and their reflectance spectra were used to estimate cadmium (Cd) concentration by partial least squares regression (PLSR) and back propagation neural network (BPNN). To reduce noise, six pre-treatments were compared, in which orthogonal signal correction (OSC) was first used in soil Cd estimation. Spectral analysis and geostatistics were combined to identify Cd pollution hotspots. Results showed that Cd was accumulated in topsoil at the study area. OSC can effectively remove irrelevant information to improve prediction accuracy. More accurate estimation was achieved by applying a BPNN. Soil Cd pollution hotspots could be identified by interpolating the predicted values obtained from spectral estimates. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Polar firn air reveals large-scale impact of anthropogenic mercury emissions during the 1970s.

PubMed

Faïn, Xavier; Ferrari, Christophe P; Dommergue, Aurélien; Albert, Mary R; Battle, Mark; Severinghaus, Jeff; Arnaud, Laurent; Barnola, Jean-Marc; Cairns, Warren; Barbante, Carlo; Boutron, Claude

2009-09-22

Mercury (Hg) is an extremely toxic pollutant, and its biogeochemical cycle has been perturbed by anthropogenic emissions during recent centuries. In the atmosphere, gaseous elemental mercury (GEM; Hg degrees ) is the predominant form of mercury (up to 95%). Here we report the evolution of atmospheric levels of GEM in mid- to high-northern latitudes inferred from the interstitial air of firn (perennial snowpack) at Summit, Greenland. GEM concentrations increased rapidly after World War II from approximately 1.5 ng m(-3) reaching a maximum of approximately 3 ng m(-3) around 1970 and decreased until stabilizing at approximately 1.7 ng m(-3) around 1995. This reconstruction reproduces real-time measurements available from the Arctic since 1995 and exhibits the same general trend observed in Europe since 1990. Anthropogenic emissions caused a two-fold rise in boreal atmospheric GEM concentrations before the 1970s, which likely contributed to higher deposition of mercury in both industrialized and remotes areas. Once deposited, this toxin becomes available for methylation and, subsequently, the contamination of ecosystems. Implementation of air pollution regulations, however, enabled a large-scale decline in atmospheric mercury levels during the 1980s. The results shown here suggest that potential increases in emissions in the coming decades could have a similar large-scale impact on atmospheric Hg levels.

Lidar system for air-pollution monitoring over urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moskalenko, Irina V.; Shcheglov, Djolinard A.; Molodtsov, Nikolai A.

1997-05-01

The atmospheric environmental situation over the urban area of a large city is determined by a complex combination of anthropogenic pollution and meteorological factors. The efficient way to provide three-dimensional mapping of gaseous pollutants over wide areas is utilization of lidar systems employing tunable narrowband transmitters. The paper presented describes activity of RRC 'Kurchatov Institute' in the field of lidar atmospheric monitoring. The project 'mobile remote sensing system based on tunable laser transmitter for environmental monitoring' is developed under financial support of International Scientific and Technology Center (Moscow). The objective of the project is design, construction and field testing of a DIAL-technique system. The lidar transmitter consists of an excimer laser pumping dye laser, BBO crystal frequency doubler, and scanning flat mirror. Sulfur dioxide and atomic mercury have been selected as pollutants for field tests of the lidar system under development. A recent large increase in Moscow traffic stimulated taking into consideration also the remote sensing of lower troposphere ozone because of the photochemical smog problem. The status of the project is briefly discussed. The current activity includes also collecting of environmental data relevant to lidar remote sensing. Main attention is paid to pollutant concentration levels over Moscow city and Moscow district areas.

Performance of a pilot demonstration-scale hybrid constructed wetland system for on-site treatment of polluted urban river water in Northwestern China.

PubMed

Zheng, Yucong; Wang, Xiaochang C; Dzakpasu, Mawuli; Ge, Yuan; Zhao, Yaqian; Xiong, Jiaqing

2016-01-01

Hybrid constructed wetland (HCW) systems have been used to treat various wastewaters across the world. However, large-scale applications of HCWs are scarce, particularly for on-site improvement of the water quality of highly polluted urban rivers in semi-arid regions. In this study, a large pilot-scale HCW system was constructed to improve the water quality of the Zaohe River in Xi'an, China. With a total area of about 8000 m(2), the pilot HCW system, composed of different configurations of surface and subsurface flow wetlands, was operated for 2 years at an average inflow volume rate of 362 m(3)/day. Local Phragmites australis and Typha orientalis from the riverbank were planted in the HCW system. Findings indicate a higher treatment efficiency for organics and suspended solids than nutrients. The inflow concentrations of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen (TN), NH3-N, and total phosphorus (TP) were 125.6, 350.9, 334.2, 38.5, 27.2, and 3.9 mg/L, respectively. Average removal efficiencies of 94.4, 74.5, 92.0, 56.3, 57.5, and 69.2%, respectively, were recorded. However, the pollutant removal rates were highly seasonal especially for nitrogen. Higher removals were recorded for all pollutants in the autumn while significantly lower removals were recorded in the winter. Plant uptake and assimilation accounted for circa 19-29 and 16-23% of the TN and TP removal, respectively. Moreover, P. australis demonstrated a higher nutrient uptake ability and competitive potential. Overall, the high efficiency of the pilot HCW for improving the water quality of such a highly polluted urban river provided practical evidence of the applicability of the HCW technology for protecting urban water environments.

Uncertainty analysis on simple mass balance model to calculate critical loads for soil acidity

Treesearch

Harbin Li; Steven G. McNulty

2007-01-01

Simple mass balance equations (SMBE) of critical acid loads (CAL) in forest soil were developed to assess potential risks of air pollutants to ecosystems. However, to apply SMBE reliably at large scales, SMBE must be tested for adequacy and uncertainty. Our goal was to provide a detailed analysis of uncertainty in SMBE so that sound strategies for scaling up CAL...

Double inflation - A possible resolution of the large-scale structure problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turner, Michael S.; Villumsen, Jens V.; Vittorio, Nicola; Silk, Joseph; Juszkiewicz, Roman

1987-01-01

A model is presented for the large-scale structure of the universe in which two successive inflationary phases resulted in large small-scale and small large-scale density fluctuations. This bimodal density fluctuation spectrum in an Omega = 1 universe dominated by hot dark matter leads to large-scale structure of the galaxy distribution that is consistent with recent observational results. In particular, large, nearly empty voids and significant large-scale peculiar velocity fields are produced over scales of about 100 Mpc, while the small-scale structure over less than about 10 Mpc resembles that in a low-density universe, as observed. Detailed analytical calculations and numerical simulations are given of the spatial and velocity correlations.

Participatory measurements of individual exposure to air pollution in urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madelin, Malika; Duché, Sarah; Dupuis, Vincent

2016-04-01

Air pollution is a major environmental issue in urban areas. Chronic and high concentration exposure presents a health risk with cardiovascular and respiratory problems and longer term nervous, carcinogenic and endocrine problems. In addition to the estimations based on simulations of both background and regional pollution and of the pollution induced by the traffic, knowing exposure of each individual is a key issue. This exposure reflects the high variability of pollution at fine spatial and time scales, according to the proximity of emission sources and the urban morphology outside. The emergence of citizen science and the progress of miniaturized electronics, low-cost and accessible to (almost) everyone, offers new opportunities for the monitoring of air pollution, but also for the citizens' awareness of their individual exposure to air pollution. In this communication, we propose to present a participatory research project 'What is your air?' (project funded by the Île-de-France region), which aims at raising awareness on the theme of air quality, its monitoring with sensors assembled in a FabLab workshop and an online participatory mapping. Beyond the discussion on technical choices, the stages of manufacture or the sensor calibration procedures, we discuss the measurements made, in this case the fine particle concentration measurements, which are dated and georeferenced (communication via a mobile phone). They show high variability between the measurements (in part linked to the substrates, land use, traffic) and low daily contrasts. In addition to the analysis of the measurements and their comparison with the official data, we also discuss the choice of representation of information, including mapping, and therefore the message about pollution to communicate.

River eutrophication: irrigated vs. non-irrigated agriculture through different spatial scales.

PubMed

Monteagudo, Laura; Moreno, José Luis; Picazo, Félix

2012-05-15

The main objective of this study was to determine how spatial scale may affect the results when relating land use to nutrient enrichment of rivers and, secondly, to investigate which agricultural practices are more responsible for river eutrophication in the study area. Agriculture was split into three subclasses (irrigated, non-irrigated and low-impact agriculture) which were correlated to stream nutrient concentration on four spatial scales: large scale (drainage area of total subcatchment and 100 m wide subcatchment corridors) and local scale (5 and 1 km radius buffers). Nitrate, ammonium and orthophosphate concentrations and land use composition (agriculture, urban and forest) were measured at 130 river reaches in south-central Spain during the 2001-2009 period. Results suggested that different spatial scales may lead to different conclusions. Spatial autocorrelation and the inadequate representation of some land uses produced unreal results on large scales. Conversely, local scales did not show data autocorrelation and agriculture subclasses were well represented. The local scale of 1 km buffer was the most appropriate to detect river eutrophication in central Spanish rivers, with irrigated cropland as the main cause of river pollution by nitrate. As regards river management, a threshold of 50% irrigated cropland within a 1 km radius buffer has been obtained using breakpoint regression analysis. This means that no more than 50% of irrigation croplands should be allowed near river banks in order to avoid river eutrophication. Finally, a methodological approach is proposed to choose the appropriate spatial scale when studying river eutrophication caused by diffuse pollution like agriculture. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consequences of urban pollution upon skin status. A controlled study in Shanghai area.

PubMed

Lefebvre, M-A; Pham, D-M; Boussouira, B; Qiu, H; Ye, C; Long, X; Chen, R; Gu, W; Laurent, A; Nguyen, Q-L

2016-06-01

After preliminary studies aimed at measuring pertinent biochemical parameters, potentially modified in subjects exposed to bad environmental conditions, a dedicated study was performed in Shanghai city to evaluate the effect of Urban pollution upon human skin and to collect feedback from the volunteers under study. This study was performed during summer 2008 in two different districts of Shanghai, on 159 local residents: 79 subjects from Xu Jia Hui (a centre Shanghainese area), more exposed to pollution, and 80 subjects from Chong Ming, an agricultural region closely located north of Shanghai (<100 kms) and less exposed to pollution, according to official data. Biochemical parameters were measured on skin, and feedback from volunteers was collected through a graduated 'Likert scale' questionnaire under a point scale (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree and none). The study demonstrated significant differences in several biochemical parameters measured in Chong Ming area, as compared to Urban area, with an increased ratio of squalene/lipids, a lower level of lactic acid and a better cohesion of stratum corneum. Both sebum excretion rate and sebum casual levels did not differ between the two districts. The volunteer's feedback evidenced a perceived link between pollution and their skin problems. This study demonstrated a significant impact of the pollution upon the skin status, as illustrated by changes in superficial biochemical parameters and volunteers' perception. © 2015 Society of Cosmetic Scientists and the Société Française de Cosmétologie.

Implications of alternative assumptions regarding future air pollution control in scenarios similar to the Representative Concentration Pathways

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuwah, Clifford; van Noije, Twan; van Vuuren, Detlef P.; Hazeleger, Wilco; Strunk, Achim; Deetman, Sebastiaan; Beltran, Angelica Mendoza; van Vliet, Jasper

2013-11-01

The uncertain, future development of emissions of short-lived trace gases and aerosols forms a key factor for future air quality and climate forcing. The Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) only explore part of this range as they all assume that worldwide ambitious air pollution control policies will be implemented. In this study, we explore how different assumptions on future air pollution policy and climate policy lead to different concentrations of air pollutants for a set of RCP-like scenarios developed using the IMAGE model. These scenarios combine low and high air pollution variants of the scenarios with radiative forcing targets in 2100 of 2.6 W m-2 and 6.0 W m-2. Simulations using the global atmospheric chemistry and transport model TM5 for the present-day climate show that both climate mitigation and air pollution control policies have large-scale effects on pollutant concentrations, often of similar magnitude. If no further air pollution policies would be implemented, pollution levels could be considerably higher than in the RCPs, especially in Asia. Air pollution control measures could significantly reduce the warming by tropospheric ozone and black carbon and the cooling by sulphate by 2020, and in the longer term contribute to enhanced warming by methane. These effects tend to cancel each other on a global scale. According to our estimates the effect of the worldwide implementation of air pollution control measures on the total global mean direct radiative forcing in 2050 is +0.09 W m-2 in the 6.0 W m-2 scenario and -0.16 W m-2 in the 2.6 W m-2 scenario.

First ERTS-1 results in southeastern France: Geology, sedimentology, pollution at sea

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fontanel, A.; Guillemot, J.; Guy, M.

1973-01-01

Results obtained by four ERTS projects in southeastern France are summarized. With regard to geology, ERTS photos of Western Alps are very useful for tectonic interpretation because large features are clearly visible on these photographs even though they are often hidden by small complicated structures if studied on large scale documents. The 18-day repetition coverage was not obtained, and time-varying sedimentological surveys were impossible. Nevertheless, it was possible to delineate the variations of the shorelines in the Rhone Delta for a period covering the least 8,000 years. Some instances of industries discharging pollutant products at sea were detected, as well as very large anomalies of unknown origin. Some examples of coherent optical processing have been made in order to bring out tectonic features in the Alps mountains.

[Numerical simulation study of SOA in Pearl River Delta region].

PubMed

Cheng, Yan-li; Li, Tian-tian; Bai, Yu-hua; Li, Jin-long; Liu, Zhao-rong; Wang, Xue-song

2009-12-01

Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) is an important component of the atmospheric particle pollution, thus, determining the status and sources of SOA pollution is the premise of deeply understanding the occurrence, development law and the influence factors of the atmospheric particle pollution. Based on the pollution sources and meteorological data of Pearl River Delta region, the study used the two-dimensional model coupled with SOA module to stimulate the status and source of SOA pollution in regional scale. The results show: the generation of SOA presents obvious characteristics of photochemical reaction, and the high concentration appears at about 14:00; SOA concentration is high in some areas of Guangshou and Dongguan with large pollution source-emission, and it is also high in some areas of Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Jiangmen which are at downwind position of Guangzhou and Dongguan. Contribution ratios of several main pollution sources to SOA are: biogenic sources 72.6%, mobile sources 30.7%, point sources 12%, solvent and oil paint sources 12%, surface sources less than 5% respectively.

TRADING ALLOWANCES FOR STORMWATER CONTROL: HYDROLOGY AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS

EPA Science Inventory

Excess stormwater runoff is a serious problem in a large number of urban areas, causing flooding, water pollution, groundwater recharge deficits and ecological damage to urban streams. It has been posited that to mitigate the effects of excess stormwater runoff, policy makers...

TRADING ALLOWANCES FOR STORMWATER CONTROL: HYDROLOGY AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS

EPA Science Inventory

Excess stormwater runoff is a serious problem in a large number of urban areas, causing flooding, water pollution, groundwater recharge deficits and ecological damage to urban streams. It has been posited that to mitigate the effects of excess stormwater runoff, policy makers cou...

Pollutant impacts to Cape Hatteras National Seashore from urban runoff and septic leachate.

PubMed

Mallin, Michael A; McIver, Matthew R

2012-07-01

The sandy barrier islands of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, USA, attract large seasonal influxes of tourists, and are host to numerous motels, rentals and second homes. To investigate the impacts of nearby urbanization on public trust waters, sampling was conducted in nine brackish water bodies within this coastal national park. A large tidal urban ditch delivered runoff-driven fecal-contaminated water directly into public beach waters. At all sites except the control, ammonium, phosphorus and fecal bacteria concentrations were high, strongly seasonal and significantly correlated with community water usage, indicating that increased septic tank usage led to increased pollutant concentrations in area waterways. Nutrients from septic systems caused ecosystem-level problems from algal blooms, BOD, and hypoxia while fecal microbes created potential human health problems. Septic system usage is widespread in sensitive coastal areas with high water tables and sandy soils and alternatives to standard septic systems must be required to protect human health and the environment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contributions to the understanding of large-scale coherent structures in developing free turbulent shear flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, J. T. C.

1986-01-01

Advances in the mechanics of boundary layer flow are reported. The physical problems of large scale coherent structures in real, developing free turbulent shear flows, from the nonlinear aspects of hydrodynamic stability are addressed. The presence of fine grained turbulence in the problem, and its absence, lacks a small parameter. The problem is presented on the basis of conservation principles, which are the dynamics of the problem directed towards extracting the most physical information, however, it is emphasized that it must also involve approximations.

Solving Large-Scale Inverse Magnetostatic Problems using the Adjoint Method

PubMed Central

Bruckner, Florian; Abert, Claas; Wautischer, Gregor; Huber, Christian; Vogler, Christoph; Hinze, Michael; Suess, Dieter

2017-01-01

An efficient algorithm for the reconstruction of the magnetization state within magnetic components is presented. The occurring inverse magnetostatic problem is solved by means of an adjoint approach, based on the Fredkin-Koehler method for the solution of the forward problem. Due to the use of hybrid FEM-BEM coupling combined with matrix compression techniques the resulting algorithm is well suited for large-scale problems. Furthermore the reconstruction of the magnetization state within a permanent magnet as well as an optimal design application are demonstrated. PMID:28098851

Scale-up of the electrokinetic fence technology for the removal of pesticides. Part I: Some notes about the transport of inorganic species.

PubMed

López-Vizcaíno, R; Risco, C; Isidro, J; Rodrigo, S; Saez, C; Cañizares, P; Navarro, V; Rodrigo, M A

2017-01-01

This work describes the application electrokinetic fence technology to a soil polluted with herbicides in a large prototype containing 32 m 3 of soil. It compares performance in this large facility with results previously obtained in a pilot-scale mockup (175 L) and with results obtained in a lab-scale soil column (1 L), all of them operated under the same driving force: an electric field of 1.0 V cm -1 . Within this wide context, this work focuses on the effect on inorganic species contained in soil and describes the main processes occurring in the prototype facility, as well as the differences observed respect to the lower scale plants. Thus, despite the same processes can be described in the three plants, important differences are observed in the evolution of the current intensity, moisture and conductivity. They can be related to the less important electroosmotic fluxes in the larger facilities and to the very different distances between electrodes, which lead to very different distribution of species and even to a very different evolution of the resulting current intensity. 2-D maps of the main species at different relevant moments of the test are discussed and important information is drawn from them. Ions depletion from soil appears as a very important problem which should be prevented if the effect of natural bioremediation and/or phytoremediation on the removal or organics aims to be accounted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Classification of summertime synoptic patterns in Beijing and their associations with boundary layer structure affecting aerosol pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miao, Yucong; Guo, Jianping; Liu, Shuhua; Liu, Huan; Li, Zhanqing; Zhang, Wanchun; Zhai, Panmao

2017-02-01

Meteorological conditions within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) are closely governed by large-scale synoptic patterns and play important roles in air quality by directly and indirectly affecting the emission, transport, formation, and deposition of air pollutants. Partly due to the lack of long-term fine-resolution observations of the PBL, the relationships between synoptic patterns, PBL structure, and aerosol pollution in Beijing have not been well understood. This study applied the obliquely rotated principal component analysis in T-mode to classify the summertime synoptic conditions over Beijing using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis from 2011 to 2014, and investigated their relationships with PBL structure and aerosol pollution by combining numerical simulations, measurements of surface meteorological variables, fine-resolution soundings, the concentration of particles with diameters less than or equal to 2.5 µm, total cloud cover (CLD), and reanalysis data. Among the seven identified synoptic patterns, three types accounted for 67 % of the total number of cases studied and were associated with heavy aerosol pollution events. These particular synoptic patterns were characterized by high-pressure systems located to the east or southeast of Beijing at the 925 hPa level, which blocked the air flow seaward, and southerly PBL winds that brought in polluted air from the southern industrial zone. The horizontal transport of pollutants induced by the synoptic forcings may be the most important factor affecting the air quality of Beijing in summer. In the vertical dimension, these three synoptic patterns featured a relatively low boundary layer height (BLH) in the afternoon, accompanied by high CLD and southerly cold advection from the seas within the PBL. The high CLD reduced the solar radiation reaching the surface, and suppressed the thermal turbulence, leading to lower BLH. Besides, the numerical sensitive experiments show that cold advection induced by the large-scale synoptic forcing may have cooled the PBL, leading to an increase in near-surface stability and a decrease in the BLH in the afternoon. Moreover, when warm advection appeared simultaneously above the top level of the PBL, the thermal inversion layer capping the PBL may have been strengthened, resulting in the further suppression of PBL and thus the deterioration of aerosol pollution levels. This study has important implications for understanding the crucial roles that meteorological factors (at both synoptic and local scales) play in modulating and forecasting aerosol pollution in Beijing and its surrounding area.

Persistence analysis of extreme CO, NO2 and O3 concentrations in ambient air of Delhi

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chelani, Asha B.

2012-05-01

Persistence analysis of air pollutant concentration and corresponding exceedance time series is carried out to examine for temporal evolution. For this purpose, air pollutant concentrations, namely, CO, NO2 and O3 observed during 2000-2009 at a traffic site in Delhi are analyzed using detrended fluctuation analysis. Two types of extreme values are analyzed; exceeded concentrations to a threshold provided by national pollution controlling agency and time interval between two exceedances. The time series of three pollutants is observed to possess persistence property whereas the extreme value time series of only primary pollutant concentrations is found to be persistent. Two time scaling regions are observed to be significant in extreme time series of CO and NO2, mainly attributed to implementation of CNG in vehicles. The presence of persistence in three pollutant concentration time series is linked to the property of self-organized criticality. The observed persistence in the time interval between two exceeded levels is a matter of concern as persistent high concentrations can trigger health problems.

Improving awareness of mercury pollution in small-scale gold mining communities: challenges and ways forward in rural Ghana.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin; Hilson, Christopher J; Pardie, Sandra

2007-02-01

This paper critiques the approach taken by the Ghanaian Government to address mercury pollution in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector. Unmonitored releases of mercury-used in the gold-amalgamation process-have caused numerous environmental complications throughout rural Ghana. Certain policy, technological and educational initiatives taken to address the mounting problem, however, have proved marginally effective at best, having been designed and implemented without careful analysis of mine community dynamics, the organization of activities, operators' needs and local geological conditions. Marked improvements can only be achieved in this area through increased government-initiated dialogue with the now-ostracized illegal galamsey mining community; introducing simple, cost-effective techniques for the reduction of mercury emissions; and effecting government-sponsored participatory training exercises as mediums for communicating information about appropriate technologies and the environment.

TREATMENT OF MUNICIPAL WASTEWATERS BY THE FLUIDIZED BED BIOREACTOR PROCESS

EPA Science Inventory

A 2-year, large-scale pilot investigation was conducted at the City of Newburgh Water Pollution Control Plant, Newburgh, NY, to demonstrate the application of the fluidized bed bioreactor process to the treatment of municipal wastewaters. The experimental effort investigated the ...

Site Specific Management of Cotton Production in the United States

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Site-specific management or precision agriculture, as it is evolving in large-scale crop production, offers promising new methods for managing cotton production for optimized yields, maximized profitability, and minimized environmental pollution. However, adaptation of site-specific theory and meth...

PESTICIDE LEACHING ANALYTICAL MODEL AND GIS-BASED APPLICATION IN AGRICULTURAL WATERSHEDS

EPA Science Inventory

Groundwater contamination by pesticides and other organic pollutants has been detected across agricultural areas and is on the increase. Because groundwater monitoring is too costly to define the geographic extent of contamination at such large scales, indirect methods are needed...

A national assessment of the effect of intensive agro-land use practices on nonpoint source pollution using emission scenarios and geo-spatial data.

PubMed

Zhuo, Dong; Liu, Liming; Yu, Huirong; Yuan, Chengcheng

2018-01-01

China's intensive agriculture has led to a broad range of adverse impacts upon ecosystems and thereby caused environmental quality degradation. One of the fundamental problems that face land managers when dealing with agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is to quantitatively assess the NPS pollution loads from different sources at a national scale. In this study, export scenarios and geo-spatial data were used to calculate the agricultural NPS pollution loads of nutrient, pesticide, plastic film residue, and crop straw burning in China. The results provided the comprehensive and baseline knowledge of agricultural NPS pollution from China's arable farming system in 2014. First, the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) emission loads to water environment were estimated to be 1.44 Tg N and 0.06 Tg P, respectively. East and south China showed the highest load intensities of nutrient release to aquatic system. Second, the amount of pesticide loss to water of seven pesticides that are widely used in China was estimated to be 30.04 tons (active ingredient (ai)). Acetochlor was the major source of pesticide loss to water, contributing 77.65% to the total loss. The environmental impacts of pesticide usage in east and south China were higher than other parts. Third, 19.75% of the plastic film application resided in arable soils. It contributed a lot to soil phthalate ester (PAE) contamination. Fourth, 14.11% of straw produce were burnt in situ, most occurring in May to July (post-winter wheat harvest) in North China Plain and October to November (post-rice harvest days) in southeast China. All the above agricultural NPS pollution loadings were unevenly distributed across China. The spatial correlations between pollution loads at land unit scale were also estimated. Rising labor cost in rural China might be a possible explanation for the general positive correlations of the NPS pollution loads. It also indicated a co-occurred higher NPS pollution loads and a higher human exposure risk in eastern regions. Results from this research might provide full-scale information on the status and spatial variation of various agricultural NPS pollution loads for policy makers to control the NPS pollution in China.

Current content of selected pollutants in moss, humus, soil and bark and long-term radial growth of pine trees in the Mezaparks forest in Riga.

PubMed

Pīrāga, Dace; Tabors, Guntis; Nikodemus, Oļģerts; Žīgure, Zane; Brūmelis, Guntis

2017-05-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of various indicators in the assessment of environmental pollution and to determine the response of pine to changes of pollution levels. Mezaparks is a part of Riga that has been subject to various long-term effects of atmospheric pollution and, in particular, historically from a large superphosphate factory. To determine the spatial distribution of pollution, moss, pine bark and soil O and B horizons were used as sorbents in this study, as well as the additional annual increment of pine trees. The current spatial distribution of pollution is best shown by heavy metal accumulation in mosses and the long-term accumulation of P 2 O 5 pollution by the soil O horizon. The methodological problems of using these sorbents were explored in the study. Environmental pollution and its changes could be associated with the tree growth ring annual additional increment of Mezaparks pine forest stands. The additional increment increased after the closing of the Riga superphosphate factory.

An improved risk-explicit interval linear programming model for pollution load allocation for watershed management.

PubMed

Xia, Bisheng; Qian, Xin; Yao, Hong

2017-11-01

Although the risk-explicit interval linear programming (REILP) model has solved the problem of having interval solutions, it has an equity problem, which can lead to unbalanced allocation between different decision variables. Therefore, an improved REILP model is proposed. This model adds an equity objective function and three constraint conditions to overcome this equity problem. In this case, pollution reduction is in proportion to pollutant load, which supports balanced development between different regional economies. The model is used to solve the problem of pollution load allocation in a small transboundary watershed. Compared with the REILP original model result, our model achieves equity between the upstream and downstream pollutant loads; it also overcomes the problem of greatest pollution reduction, where sources are nearest to the control section. The model provides a better solution to the problem of pollution load allocation than previous versions.

Scaling of surface-plasma reactors with a significantly increased energy density for NO conversion.

PubMed

Malik, Muhammad Arif; Xiao, Shu; Schoenbach, Karl H

2012-03-30

Comparative studies revealed that surface plasmas developing along a solid-gas interface are significantly more effective and energy efficient for remediation of toxic pollutants in air than conventional plasmas propagating in air. Scaling of the surface plasma reactors to large volumes by operating them in parallel suffers from a serious problem of adverse effects of the space charges generated at the dielectric surfaces of the neighboring discharge chambers. This study revealed that a conductive foil on the cathode potential placed between the dielectric plates as a shield not only decoupled the discharges, but also increased the electrical power deposited in the reactor by a factor of about forty over the electrical power level obtained without shielding and without loss of efficiency for NO removal. The shield had no negative effect on efficiency, which is verified by the fact that the energy costs for 50% NO removal were about 60 eV/molecule and the energy constant, k(E), was about 0.02 L/J in both the shielded and unshielded cases. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

State and perspectives in the sphere of marine waste: data from Russian Far East

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korshenko, Ekaterina; Tyurina, Elena; Kravchenko, Alla; Glotova, Elena; Sergeeva, Olesya; Korshenko, Alexander; Nesterova, Olga; Tregubova, Valentina; Semal, Viktoriia; Derbentseva, Alla; Purtova, Lyudmila; Kostenkov, Nikolay

2016-04-01

Today, pollution of seas and coastal areas by waste is one of the most important environmental issues recognized at international scale. This problem consists in negative effect on marine flora and fauna, and as global experience shows, requires cooperation of government, business sector and civil society to overcome it. A large number of studies confirm the serious impact of marine litter: sea inhabitants easily take pieces of plastic as something edible, these particles can get into stomach of fish, and then through the food chain into humans. Barnes highlighted the potential threat due to the appearance of alien species. Brown studied the entanglement of marine creatures at nets that eventually leads to the extinction of certain species and destruction of underwater fauna. According to the UN every year about one million seabirds, one hundred thousand turtles and other marine mammals entangle in fishing gear and die. The problem of marine waste is also relevant for Primorsky Krai of the Russian Federation. Within the project "Ocean without borders" in 2014 monitoring of Japan Sea pollution was carried out: 2,67 hectares of 16 coasts were investigated, more than 500 kg of litter were collected and studied, among which 363 grams of marine debris was an average per 100 m2, and a number of collected waste units was about 143. It should be noted that the largest proportion of collected litter is plastic which is followed by glass and ceramics. Today, marine debris in Primorsky Krai is disposed at specially organized landfills, where the air is contaminated by sulfur dioxide and various harmful organic compounds. It may lead not only to the deterioration of the environment, but also to the infectious diseases, the pollution of groundwater and soil. Therefore, an environmental entrepreneurship can be considered as a solution for the problem. One of the first who dared to use ocean litter is the studio Swain (UK), which proposed the project of transforming collected waste into furniture. Another company, Adidas, has developed a new design of running shoes made of plastic and fishing nets where the key point is waste-free production. Municipalities from different countries also began to take actions: in order to familiarize young people with environmental pollution, they hold workshops for the manufacture of handicrafts from marine litter. In Primorye since 2012 the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has hold similar workshops. Thus, to create decent living conditions for people, the use of natural resources must be highly efficient, that means their reuse and recycling. Of course, the solutions for the problem of marine waste proposed by companies and government can not solve this problem, but their actions in the sphere of recycling marine litter can become an example for other entrepreneurs.

Isospin symmetry breaking and large-scale shell-model calculations with the Sakurai-Sugiura method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizusaki, Takahiro; Kaneko, Kazunari; Sun, Yang; Tazaki, Shigeru

2015-05-01

Recently isospin symmetry breaking for mass 60-70 region has been investigated based on large-scale shell-model calculations in terms of mirror energy differences (MED), Coulomb energy differences (CED) and triplet energy differences (TED). Behind these investigations, we have encountered a subtle problem in numerical calculations for odd-odd N = Z nuclei with large-scale shell-model calculations. Here we focus on how to solve this subtle problem by the Sakurai-Sugiura (SS) method, which has been recently proposed as a new diagonalization method and has been successfully applied to nuclear shell-model calculations.

Bioremediation at a global scale: from the test tube to planet Earth.

PubMed

de Lorenzo, Víctor; Marlière, Philippe; Solé, Ricard

2016-09-01

Planet Earth's biosphere has evolved over billions of years as a balanced bio-geological system ultimately sustained by sunpower and the large-scale cycling of elements largely run by the global environmental microbiome. Humans have been part of this picture for much of their existence. But the industrial revolution started in the XIX century and the subsequent advances in medicine, chemistry, agriculture and communications have impacted such balances to an unprecedented degree - and the problem has nothing but exacerbated in the last 20 years. Human overpopulation, industrial growth along with unsustainable use of natural resources have driven many sites and perhaps the planetary ecosystem as a whole, beyond recovery by spontaneous natural means, even if the immediate causes could be stopped. The most conspicuous indications of such a state of affairs include the massive change in land use, the accelerated increase in the levels of greenhouse gases, the frequent natural disasters associated to climate change and the growing non-recyclable waste (e.g. plastics and recalcitrant chemicals) that we release to the Environment. While the whole planet is afflicted at a global scale by chemical pollution and anthropogenic emissions, the ongoing development of systems and synthetic biology, metagenomics, modern chemistry and some key concepts from ecological theory allow us to tackle this phenomenal challenge and propose large-scale interventions aimed at reversing and even improving the situation. This involves (i) identification of key reactions or processes that need to be re-established (or altogether created) for ecosystem reinstallation, (ii) implementation of such reactions in natural or designer hosts able to self-replicate and deliver the corresponding activities when/where needed in a fashion guided by sound ecological modelling, (iii) dispersal of niche-creating agents at a global scale and (iv) containment, monitoring and risk assessment of the whole process. © 2016 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.

TRADING ALLOWANCES FOR STORMWATER CONTROL: ACCOUNTING FOR CONTINUOUS HYDROLOGY AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS

EPA Science Inventory

Excess stormwater runoff is a serious problem in a large number of urban areas, causing flooding, water pollution, groundwater recharge deficits and ecological damage to urban streams. It has been posited that to mitigate the effects of excess stormwater runoff, policy makers cou...

The evaluation of the development mode of electric energy and air pollution control in Beijing based on the IPAC-SGM model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Erdong; Guo, Chaoran; Liu, Liwei; Dai, Sichen; Li, Shangqi

2017-04-01

In recent years, China broke out a large-scale of fog and haze, particularly Beijing. Energy production and consumption of fossil fuel combustion emissions is the main source of environmental pollution and haze, and it is most prominent in the power industry. In this paper, we evaluate the relationship between Beijing power structure and the prevention and control of atmospheric pollution by Integrated Policy Assessment Model for China - Second Generation Model (IPAC-SGM). This paper explores the propulsion effect of the new energy industry on Beijing’s air pollution prevention and control by simulating the change of development of electric energy in Beijing under three scenarios which are benchmark scenario, general policy scenario and reinforced policy scenario.

Implicity restarted Arnoldi/Lanczos methods for large scale eigenvalue calculations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sorensen, Danny C.

1996-01-01

Eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of linear operators are important to many areas of applied mathematics. The ability to approximate these quantities numerically is becoming increasingly important in a wide variety of applications. This increasing demand has fueled interest in the development of new methods and software for the numerical solution of large-scale algebraic eigenvalue problems. In turn, the existence of these new methods and software, along with the dramatically increased computational capabilities now available, has enabled the solution of problems that would not even have been posed five or ten years ago. Until very recently, software for large-scale nonsymmetric problems was virtually non-existent. Fortunately, the situation is improving rapidly. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the numerical solution of large-scale algebraic eigenvalue problems. The focus will be on a class of methods called Krylov subspace projection methods. The well-known Lanczos method is the premier member of this class. The Arnoldi method generalizes the Lanczos method to the nonsymmetric case. A recently developed variant of the Arnoldi/Lanczos scheme called the Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi Method is presented here in some depth. This method is highlighted because of its suitability as a basis for software development.

Introducing the MCHF/OVRP/SDMP: Multicapacitated/Heterogeneous Fleet/Open Vehicle Routing Problems with Split Deliveries and Multiproducts

PubMed Central

Yilmaz Eroglu, Duygu; Caglar Gencosman, Burcu; Cavdur, Fatih; Ozmutlu, H. Cenk

2014-01-01

In this paper, we analyze a real-world OVRP problem for a production company. Considering real-world constrains, we classify our problem as multicapacitated/heterogeneous fleet/open vehicle routing problem with split deliveries and multiproduct (MCHF/OVRP/SDMP) which is a novel classification of an OVRP. We have developed a mixed integer programming (MIP) model for the problem and generated test problems in different size (10–90 customers) considering real-world parameters. Although MIP is able to find optimal solutions of small size (10 customers) problems, when the number of customers increases, the problem gets harder to solve, and thus MIP could not find optimal solutions for problems that contain more than 10 customers. Moreover, MIP fails to find any feasible solution of large-scale problems (50–90 customers) within time limits (7200 seconds). Therefore, we have developed a genetic algorithm (GA) based solution approach for large-scale problems. The experimental results show that the GA based approach reaches successful solutions with 9.66% gap in 392.8 s on average instead of 7200 s for the problems that contain 10–50 customers. For large-scale problems (50–90 customers), GA reaches feasible solutions of problems within time limits. In conclusion, for the real-world applications, GA is preferable rather than MIP to reach feasible solutions in short time periods. PMID:25045735

Using biochar for remediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals and organic pollutants.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiaokai; Wang, Hailong; He, Lizhi; Lu, Kouping; Sarmah, Ajit; Li, Jianwu; Bolan, Nanthi S; Pei, Jianchuan; Huang, Huagang

2013-12-01

Soil contamination with heavy metals and organic pollutants has increasingly become a serious global environmental issue in recent years. Considerable efforts have been made to remediate contaminated soils. Biochar has a large surface area, and high capacity to adsorb heavy metals and organic pollutants. Biochar can potentially be used to reduce the bioavailability and leachability of heavy metals and organic pollutants in soils through adsorption and other physicochemical reactions. Biochar is typically an alkaline material which can increase soil pH and contribute to stabilization of heavy metals. Application of biochar for remediation of contaminated soils may provide a new solution to the soil pollution problem. This paper provides an overview on the impact of biochar on the environmental fate and mobility of heavy metals and organic pollutants in contaminated soils and its implication for remediation of contaminated soils. Further research directions are identified to ensure a safe and sustainable use of biochar as a soil amendment for remediation of contaminated soils.

An unbalanced spectra classification method based on entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zhong-bao; Zhao, Wen-juan

2017-05-01

How to solve the problem of distinguishing the minority spectra from the majority of the spectra is quite important in astronomy. In view of this, an unbalanced spectra classification method based on entropy (USCM) is proposed in this paper to deal with the unbalanced spectra classification problem. USCM greatly improves the performances of the traditional classifiers on distinguishing the minority spectra as it takes the data distribution into consideration in the process of classification. However, its time complexity is exponential with the training size, and therefore, it can only deal with the problem of small- and medium-scale classification. How to solve the large-scale classification problem is quite important to USCM. It can be easily obtained by mathematical computation that the dual form of USCM is equivalent to the minimum enclosing ball (MEB), and core vector machine (CVM) is introduced, USCM based on CVM is proposed to deal with the large-scale classification problem. Several comparative experiments on the 4 subclasses of K-type spectra, 3 subclasses of F-type spectra and 3 subclasses of G-type spectra from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) verify USCM and USCM based on CVM perform better than kNN (k nearest neighbor) and SVM (support vector machine) in dealing with the problem of rare spectra mining respectively on the small- and medium-scale datasets and the large-scale datasets.

Phytoremediation: novel approaches to cleaning up polluted soils.

PubMed

Krämer, Ute

2005-04-01

Environmental pollution with metals and xenobiotics is a global problem, and the development of phytoremediation technologies for the plant-based clean-up of contaminated soils is therefore of significant interest. Phytoremediation technologies are currently available for only a small subset of pollution problems, such as arsenic. Arsenic removal employs naturally selected hyperaccumulator ferns, which accumulate very high concentrations of arsenic specifically in above-ground tissues. Elegant two-gene transgenic approaches have been designed for the development of mercury or arsenic phytoremediation technologies. In a plant that naturally hyperaccumulates zinc in leaves, approximately ten key metal homeostasis genes are expressed at very high levels. This outlines the extent of change in gene activities needed in the engineering of transgenic plants for soil clean-up. Further analysis and discovery of genes for phytoremediation will benefit from the recent development of segregating populations for a genetic analysis of naturally selected metal hyperaccumulation in plants, and from comprehensive ionomics data--multi-element concentration profiles from a large number of Arabidopsis mutants.

Longitudinal effects of prenatal exposure to air pollutants on self-regulatory capacities and social competence.

PubMed

Margolis, Amy E; Herbstman, Julie B; Davis, Katie S; Thomas, Valerie K; Tang, Deliang; Wang, Ya; Wang, Shuang; Perera, Frederica P; Peterson, Bradley S; Rauh, Virginia A

2016-07-01

We evaluated the influence of prenatal exposure to widespread urban air pollutants on the development of self-regulation and social competence in a longitudinal prospective cohort of children born to nonsmoking minority women in New York City. Air pollutant exposure was estimated categorically by level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-DNA adducts in maternal blood collected at delivery, providing a biomarker of maternal exposure to PAH over a 2- to 3-month period. Deficient emotional self-regulation (DESR) was defined as moderate elevations on three specific scales of the child behavior checklist (anxious/depressed, aggressive behavior, and attention problems). We used generalized estimating equations to assess the influence of prenatal exposure to PAH on DESR in children at 3-5, 7, 9, and 11 years of age, adjusted for gender and race/ethnicity. Next, we assessed the association of prenatal exposure to PAH with social competence, as measured by the social responsiveness scale (SRS), the association of impaired self-regulation with social competence, and whether impairment in self-regulation mediated the association of prenatal exposure to PAH with social competence. We detected a significant interaction (at p = .05) of exposure with time, in which the developmental trajectory of self-regulatory capacity was delayed in the exposed children. Multiple linear regression revealed a positive association between presence of PAH-DNA adducts and problems with social competence (p < .04), level of dysregulation and problems with social competence (p < .0001), and evidence that self-regulation mediates the association of prenatal exposure to PAH with social competence (p < .0007). These data suggest that prenatal exposure to PAH produces long-lasting effects on self-regulatory capacities across early and middle childhood, and that these deficits point to emerging social problems with real-world consequences for high-risk adolescent behaviors in this minority urban cohort. © 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Research on the negative externality of breeding wastewater in rural construction—Taking the large-scale breeding project of Tongnan in Chongqing as an example

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Mingqiang; Hu, Wen; Wu, Haonan

2018-03-01

The country vigorously promotes the collective operation of traditional culture, which brings a lot of negative externalities of environmental pollution. Environmental pollution causes the difference between social cost and private cost. The cost of pollution is not borne by private enterprises, it is an external cost for the polluters. This paper attempts to take the Chongqing pig farm as an example to select the COD and TN indicators in the wastewater as the focus point of the analysis. We explore the equilibrium point based on the personal cost of Party A and the public welfare cost brought by environmental pollution, and test the rationality and accuracy of the existing norms. On the basis of existing research, the end of the paper tries to explore the better solution according to the law of Pigou and the property rights delimitation.

Hotspots within the Transboundary Selenga River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasimov, Nikolay; Lychagin, Mikhail; Chalov, Sergey

2013-04-01

Gathering the efficient information on water pollution of transboundary river systems remains the crucial task in international water management, environmental pollution control and prevention health problems. Countries, located in the low parts of the river basins, depend on the water strategy and water use in the adjacent countries, located upstream. Surface water pollution is considered to be the most serious problem, facing the above-mentioned countries. Large efforts in terms of field measurement campaigns and (numerical) transport modeling are then typically needed for relevant pollution prediction and prevention. Russian rivers take inflow from 8 neighboring countries. Among them there are 2 developing economies - People Republic of China and Mongolia, which are located in water-scarce areas and thus solve their water-related problems through the consumption of international water. Negative change of water runoff and water quality in the foreign part of transboundary river is appeared inside Russian territory with more or less delay. The transboundary river system of Selenga is particularly challenging, being the biggest tributary of Lake Baikal which is the largest freshwater reservoir in the world. Selenga River contributes about 50 % of the total inflow into Baikal. It originates in the mountainous part of Mongolia and then drains into Russia. There are numerous industries and agricultural activities within the Selenga drainage basin that affect the water quality of the river system. Absence of the single monitoring system and predictive tools for pollutants transport in river system requires large efforts in understanding sources of water pollution and implemented data on the relevant numerical systems for the pollution prediction and prevention. Special investigations in the Selenga river basin (Mongolia and Russia) were done to assess hot spots and understand state-of-the art in sediment load, water chemistry and hydrobiology of transboundary systems. Hot spot assessment included 100 gauge stations in the river basin with discharge measurement by ADCP, turbidity (T) and suspended sediment concentration (SSC), bed load by bed load traps, composition of salt, biochemical oxidation, nitrogen and phosphorous content in water, pH, redox and conductivity values, and also content of heavy metals in water, suspended matter and sediments. The study revealed rather high levels of dissolved Fe, Al, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Mo in the Selenga River water which often are higher than MPC for water fishery. Most contrast distribution is characteristic for W and Mo, which is caused by mineral deposits in the Selenga basin. The most severe pollution of aquatic systems in the basin caused by mining activities is characteristic for a small river Modonkul, which flows into Dzhida River (left tributary of Selenga).

Numerical prediction of pollutant dispersion and transport in an atmospheric boundary layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeoli, Stéphanie; Bricteux, Laurent; Mech. Eng. Dpt. Team

2014-11-01

The ability to accurately predict concentration levels of air pollutant released from point sources is required in order to determine their environmental impact. A wall modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) of the ABL is performed using the OpenFoam based solver SOWFA (Churchfield and Lee, NREL). It uses Boussinesq approximation for buoyancy effects and takes into account Coriolis forces. A synthetic eddy method is proposed to properly model turbulence inlet velocity boundary conditions. This method will be compared with the standard pressure gradient forcing. WMLES are usually performed using a standard Smagorinsky model or its dynamic version. It is proposed here to investigate a subgrid scale (SGS) model with a better spectral behavior. To this end, a regularized variational multiscale (RVMs) model (Jeanmart and Winckelmans, 2007) is implemented together with standard wall function in order to preserve the dynamics of the large scales within the Ekman layer. The influence of the improved SGS model on the wind simulation and scalar transport will be discussed based on turbulence diagnostics.

Space-Time Urban Air Pollution Forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russo, A.; Trigo, R. M.; Soares, A.

2012-04-01

Air pollution, like other natural phenomena, may be considered a space-time process. However, the simultaneous integration of time and space is not an easy task to perform, due to the existence of different uncertainties levels and data characteristics. In this work we propose a hybrid method that combines geostatistical and neural models to analyze PM10 time series recorded in the urban area of Lisbon (Portugal) for the 2002-2006 period and to produce forecasts. Geostatistical models have been widely used to characterize air pollution in urban areas, where the pollutant sources are considered diffuse, and also to industrial areas with localized emission sources. It should be stressed however that most geostatistical models correspond basically to an interpolation methodology (estimation, simulation) of a set of variables in a spatial or space-time domain. The temporal prediction of a pollutant usually requires knowledge of the main trends and complex patterns of physical dispersion phenomenon. To deal with low resolution problems and to enhance reliability of predictions, an approach based on neural network short term predictions in the monitoring stations which behave as a local conditioner to a fine grid stochastic simulation model is presented here. After the pollutant concentration is predicted for a given time period at the monitoring stations, we can use the local conditional distributions of observed values, given the predicted value for that period, to perform the spatial simulations for the entire area and consequently evaluate the spatial uncertainty of pollutant concentration. To attain this objective, we propose the use of direct sequential simulations with local distributions. With this approach one succeed to predict the space-time distribution of pollutant concentration that accounts for the time prediction uncertainty (reflecting the neural networks efficiency at each local monitoring station) and the spatial uncertainty as revealed by the spatial variograms. The dataset used consists of PM10 concentrations recorded hourly by 12 monitoring stations within the Lisbon's area, for the period 2002-2006. In addition, meteorological data recorded at 3 monitoring stations and boundary layer height (BLH) daily values from the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium Weather Forecast), ERA Interim, were also used. Based on the large-scale standard pressure fields from the ERA40/ECMWF, prevailing circulation patterns at regional scale where determined and used on the construction of the models. After the daily forecasts were produced, the difference between the average maps based on real observations and predicted values were determined and the model's performance was assessed. Based on the analysis of the results, we conclude that the proposed approach shows to be a very promising alternative for urban air quality characterization because of its good results and simplicity of application.

Large-Scale Disasters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gad-El-Hak, Mohamed

"Extreme" events - including climatic events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and drought - can cause massive disruption to society, including large death tolls and property damage in the billions of dollars. Events in recent years have shown the importance of being prepared and that countries need to work together to help alleviate the resulting pain and suffering. This volume presents a review of the broad research field of large-scale disasters. It establishes a common framework for predicting, controlling and managing both manmade and natural disasters. There is a particular focus on events caused by weather and climate change. Other topics include air pollution, tsunamis, disaster modeling, the use of remote sensing and the logistics of disaster management. It will appeal to scientists, engineers, first responders and health-care professionals, in addition to graduate students and researchers who have an interest in the prediction, prevention or mitigation of large-scale disasters.

Active subspace: toward scalable low-rank learning.

PubMed

Liu, Guangcan; Yan, Shuicheng

2012-12-01

We address the scalability issues in low-rank matrix learning problems. Usually these problems resort to solving nuclear norm regularized optimization problems (NNROPs), which often suffer from high computational complexities if based on existing solvers, especially in large-scale settings. Based on the fact that the optimal solution matrix to an NNROP is often low rank, we revisit the classic mechanism of low-rank matrix factorization, based on which we present an active subspace algorithm for efficiently solving NNROPs by transforming large-scale NNROPs into small-scale problems. The transformation is achieved by factorizing the large solution matrix into the product of a small orthonormal matrix (active subspace) and another small matrix. Although such a transformation generally leads to nonconvex problems, we show that a suboptimal solution can be found by the augmented Lagrange alternating direction method. For the robust PCA (RPCA) (Candès, Li, Ma, & Wright, 2009 ) problem, a typical example of NNROPs, theoretical results verify the suboptimality of the solution produced by our algorithm. For the general NNROPs, we empirically show that our algorithm significantly reduces the computational complexity without loss of optimality.

Protection of drinking water reservoirs in buried glacial valleys in the ice-marginal landscape for securing future demand in the European perspective (ENCORE-Project).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smit, F. W. H.; Bregman, E. P. H.

2012-04-01

Quaternary glaciations have left a significant sedimentological fingerprint in the subsurface of north Europe, in the form of buried glacial valleys. These structures are important drinking water reservoirs for millions of people in the ice-marginal landscape, but are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pollution (nitrate, sulphate and organic pollutants) and geogenic pollution (salinization). That is one of the conclusion of a recent overview study in the IML of northern Europe from the North Sea to the southern Baltic area. Adequate policy making is yet not possible for several reasons: - Large amounts of data are needed to get a good grip on the lateral continuity of the complex infill. - The BurVal Working Group (2006) has shown that a combination of high resolution seismic survey, together with transient electromagnetic (TEM) surveys can provide realistic data for 3D hydrogeological models. However, these data have not yet been retrieved on a European scale. - Available borehole data can only be used as control points in 3D hydrological models, since the infill of buried glacial valleys is often lateral too complex to make sound interpolations possible. Pollution in buried glacial valleys crosses national borders in northern Europe and therefore national geological surveys have to cooperate in a newly formed European project on protection of these structures. The ENCORE - project (Environmental Conference of the European Regions) has shown in the past that it can facilitate fruitful European cooperation, which is urgently needed due to the costs of gathering data and due to knowledge gaps between different countries. By working together in a European context, these problems can be reduced so that better policy making is possible in order to secure our future drinking water availability.

Pollutant sources in an arsenic-affected multilayer aquifer in the Po Plain of Italy: Implications for drinking-water supply.

PubMed

Rotiroti, Marco; McArthur, John; Fumagalli, Letizia; Stefania, Gennaro A; Sacchi, Elisa; Bonomi, Tullia

2017-02-01

In aquifers 160 to 260m deep that used for public water-supply in an area ~150km 2 around the town of Cremona, in the Po Plain of Northern Italy, concentrations of arsenic (As) are increasing with time in some wells. The increase is due to drawdown of As-polluted groundwater (As ≤144μg/L) from overlying aquifers at depths 65 to 150m deep in response to large-scale abstraction for public supply. The increase in As threatens drinking-water quality locally, and by inference does so across the entire Po Plain, where natural As-pollution of groundwater (As >10μg/L) is a basin-wide problem. Using new and legacy data for Cl/Br, δ 18 O/δ 2 H and other hydrochemical parameters with groundwater from 32 wells, 9 surface waters, a sewage outfall and rainwater, we show that the deep aquifer (160-260m below ground level), which is tapped widely for public water-supply, is partly recharged by seepage from overlying aquifers (65-150m below ground level). Groundwater quality in deep aquifers appears free of anthropogenic influences and typically <10μg/L of As. In contrast, shallow groundwater and surface water in some, not all, areas are affected by anthropogenic contamination and natural As-pollution (As >10μg/L). Outfalls from sewage-treatment plants and black water from septic tanks firstly affect surface waters, which then locally infiltrate shallow aquifers under high channel-stages. Wastewater permeating shallow aquifers carries with it NO 3 and SO 4 which suppress reduction of iron oxyhydroxides in the aquifer sediments and so suppress the natural release of As to groundwater. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The future of emissions trading in light of the acid rain experience

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McLean, B.J.; Rico, R.

1995-12-31

The idea of emissions trading was developed more than two decades ago by environmental economists eager to provide new ideas for how to improve the efficiency of environmental protection. However, early emissions trading efforts were built on the historical {open_quotes}command and control{close_quotes} infrastructure which has dominated U.S. environmental protection until today. The {open_quotes}command and control{close_quotes} model initially had advantages that were of a very pragmatic character: it assured large pollution reductions in a time when large, cheap reductions were available and necessary; and it did not require a sophisticated government infrastructure. Within the last five years, large-scale emission trading programsmore » have been successfully designed and started that are fundamentally different from the earlier efforts, creating a new paradigm for environmental control just when our understanding of environmental problems is changing as well. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the largest national-scale program--the Acid Rain Program--and from that experience, forecast when emission trading programs may be headed based on our understanding of the factors currently influencing environmental management. The first section of this paper will briefly review the history of emissions trading programs, followed by a summary of the features of the Acid Rain Program, highlighting those features that distinguish it from previous efforts. The last section addresses the opportunities for emissions trading (and its probable future directions).« less

Mitigation of environmental problems in Lake Victoria, East Africa: causal chain and policy options analyses.

PubMed

Odada, Eric O; Olago, Daniel O; Kulindwa, Kassim; Ntiba, Micheni; Wandiga, Shem

2004-02-01

Lake Victoria is an international waterbody that offers the riparian communities a large number of extremely important environmental services. Over the past three decades or so, the lake has come under increasing and considerable pressure from a variety of interlinked human activities such as overfishing, species introductions, industrial pollution, eutrophication, and sedimentation. In this paper we examine the root causes for overfishing and pollution in Lake Victoria and give possible policy options that can help remediate or mitigate the environmental degradation.

Numerical modeling of flows and pollutant dispersion within and above urban street canyons under unstable thermal stratification by large-eddy simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chan, Ming-Chung; Liu, Chun-Ho

2013-04-01

Recently, with the ever increasing urban areas in developing countries, the problem of air pollution due to vehicular exhaust arouses the concern of different groups of people. Understanding how different factors, such as urban morphology, meteorological conditions and human activities, affect the characteristics of street canyon ventilation, pollutant dispersion above urban areas and pollutant re-entrainment from the shear layer can help us improve air pollution control strategies. Among the factors mentioned above, thermal stratification is a significant one determining the pollutant transport behaviors in certain situation, e.g. when the urban surface is heated by strong solar radiation, which, however, is still not widely explored. The objective of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the effects of unstable thermal stratification on the flows and pollutant dispersion within and above urban street canyons through numerical modeling using large-eddy simulation (LES). In this study, LES equipped with one-equation subgrid-scale (SGS) model is employed to model the flows and pollutant dispersion within and above two-dimensional (2D) urban street canyons (flanked by idealized buildings, which are square solid bars in these models) under different intensities of unstable thermal stratifications. Three building-height-to-street-width (aspect) ratios, 0.5, 1 and 2, are included in this study as a representation of different building densities. The prevailing wind flow above the urban canopy is driven by background pressure gradient, which is perpendicular to the street axis, while the condition of unstable thermal stratification is induced by applying a higher uniform temperature on the no-slip urban surface. The relative importance between stratification and background wind is characterized by the Richardson number, with zero value as a neutral case and negative value as an unstable case. The buoyancy force is modeled by Boussinesq approximation and the intensity of stratification is controlled by the gravitational acceleration. The urban characteristic is modeled by periodic boundary conditions at the domain inlet-outlet and spanwise extent, so as to simulate the infinitely long and wide urban area. Pollutant dispersion is modeled by scalar transport with the pollutant area source on the ground of the first street canyon and by open boundary condition at the domain outlet. The numerical models are solved with incremental time steps until it reaches the pseudo steady-state. Afterwards, a set of data is collected for each model such that the temporal averages of mean and fluctuating field variables do not vary significantly if more time steps are included. It is found that the ventilation performance is improved and the plume dispersion in shear layer is enhanced when the stratification is more unstable. The mean flows, turbulent transports of pollutant and momentum, pollutant concentration fields in different unstable stratifications will be discussed with profile and contour plots. The ventilation performance of a street canyon evaluated by air exchange rate (ACH) and pollutant exchange rate (PCH) at roof level and the plume dispersion characterized by the mean plume height and dispersion coefficient in shear layer will also be discussed.

Lattice Boltzmann modeling of transport phenomena in fuel cells and flow batteries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Ao; Shyy, Wei; Zhao, Tianshou

2017-06-01

Fuel cells and flow batteries are promising technologies to address climate change and air pollution problems. An understanding of the complex multiscale and multiphysics transport phenomena occurring in these electrochemical systems requires powerful numerical tools. Over the past decades, the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method has attracted broad interest in the computational fluid dynamics and the numerical heat transfer communities, primarily due to its kinetic nature making it appropriate for modeling complex multiphase transport phenomena. More importantly, the LB method fits well with parallel computing due to its locality feature, which is required for large-scale engineering applications. In this article, we review the LB method for gas-liquid two-phase flows, coupled fluid flow and mass transport in porous media, and particulate flows. Examples of applications are provided in fuel cells and flow batteries. Further developments of the LB method are also outlined.

Phytoremediation of industrial mines wastewater using water hyacinth.

PubMed

Saha, Priyanka; Shinde, Omkar; Sarkar, Supriya

2017-01-02

The wastewater at Sukinda chromite mines (SCM) area of Orissa (India) showed high levels of toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr VI). Wastewater from chromium-contaminated mines exhibit potential threats for biotic community in the vicinity. The aim of the present investigation is to develop a suitable phytoremediation technology for the effective removal of toxic hexavalent chromium from mines wastewater. A water hyacinth species Eichhornia crassipes was chosen to remediate the problem of Cr (VI) pollution from wastewater. It has been observed that this plant was able to remove 99.5% Cr (VI) of the processed water of SCM in 15 days. This aquatic plant not only removed hexavalent Cr, but is also capable of reducing total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and other elements of water also. Large-scale experiment was also performed using 100 L of water from SCM and the same removal efficiency was achieved.

Phytoremediation of industrial mines wastewater using water hyacinth

PubMed Central

Saha, Priyanka; Shinde, Omkar; Sarkar, Supriya

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The wastewater at Sukinda chromite mines (SCM) area of Orissa (India) showed high levels of toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr VI). Wastewater from chromium-contaminated mines exhibit potential threats for biotic community in the vicinity. The aim of the present investigation is to develop a suitable phytoremediation technology for the effective removal of toxic hexavalent chromium from mines wastewater. A water hyacinth species Eichhornia crassipes was chosen to remediate the problem of Cr (VI) pollution from wastewater. It has been observed that this plant was able to remove 99.5% Cr (VI) of the processed water of SCM in 15 days. This aquatic plant not only removed hexavalent Cr, but is also capable of reducing total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and other elements of water also. Large-scale experiment was also performed using 100 L of water from SCM and the same removal efficiency was achieved. PMID:27551860

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hernandez, Y.; Carriazo, J.G.; Almanza, O.

Materials from a mining process, in which ferronickel metal extraction is the principal aim, were studied. The residual solid (scum) obtained in this process leads to large-scale accumulation of a vitreous material (pollutant) which creates an environmental problem. These materials were characterized by EPR, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. The results indicate that the analyzed solids are rich in Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} and NiO among other oxides. The scum material shows diffraction signals corresponding to the minerals enstatite (pyroxene) and {alpha}-alumina. Moreover, the scum EPR analysis showed a broad line around g = 2.1 corresponding to Fe{sup 3+} clusters inmore » a complex glassy matrix. An analysis of EPR at different temperatures was also performed. The objective of this work, as a first exploratory stage, is to develop a better understanding of the residual solids in order to identify potential applications.« less

Dust, Pollution, and Biomass Burning Aerosols in Asian Pacific: A Column Satellite-Surface Perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsay, Si-Chee

2004-01-01

Airborne dusts from northern China contribute a significant part of the air quality problem and, to some extent, regional climatic impact in Asia during spring-time. However, with the economical growth in China, increases in the emission of air pollutants generated from industrial and vehicular sources will not only impact the radiation balance, but adverse health effects to humans all year round. In addition, both of these dust and air pollution clouds can transport swiftly across the Pacific reaching North America within a few days, possessing an even larger scale effect. The Asian dust and air pollution aerosols can be detected by its colored appearance on current Earth observing satellites (e.g., MODIS, SeaWiFS, TOMS, etc.) and its evolution monitored by satellites and surface network. Biomass burning has been a regular practice for land clearing and land conversion in many countries, especially those in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. However, the unique climatology of Southeast Asia is very different than that of Africa and South America, such that large-scale biomass burning causes smoke to interact extensively with clouds during the peak-burning season of March to April. Significant global sources of greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2, CH4), chemically active gases (e.g., NO, CO, HC, CH3Br), and atmospheric aerosols are produced by biomass burning processes. These gases influence the Earth-atmosphere system, impacting both global climate and tropospheric chemistry. Some aerosols can serve as cloud condensation nuclei, which play an important role in determining cloud lifetime and precipitation, hence, altering the earth's radiation and water budget. Biomass burning also affects the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen and carbon compounds from the soil to the atmosphere; the hydrological cycle (i.e., run off and evaporation); land surface reflectivity and emissivity; as well as ecosystem biodiversity and stability. Two new initiatives, EAST-AIRE (East Asian Study of Tropospheric Aerosols: an International Regional Experiment) and BASE-ASIA (Biomass-burning Aerosols in South East-Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment) will be presented and discussed their contribution to better understand the impacts of aerosols on regional-to-global climate, hydrological and carbon cycles, and tropospheric chemistry.

Urbanization, Trace Metal Pollution, and Malaria Prevalence in the House Sparrow

PubMed Central

Bichet, Coraline; Scheifler, Renaud; Cœurdassier, Michaël; Julliard, Romain; Sorci, Gabriele; Loiseau, Claire

2013-01-01

Anthropogenic pollution poses a threat for the environment and wildlife. Trace metals (TMs) are known to have negative effects on haematological status, oxidative balance, and reproductive success in birds. These pollutants particularly increase in concentration in industrialized, urbanized and intensive agricultural areas. Pollutants can also interfere with the normal functioning of the immune system and, as such, alter the dynamics of host-parasite interactions. Nevertheless, the impact of pollution on infectious diseases has been largely neglected in natural populations of vertebrates. Here, we used a large spatial scale monitoring of 16 house sparrow (Passer domesticus) populations to identify environmental variables likely to explain variation in TMs (lead, cadmium, zinc) concentrations in the feathers. In five of these populations, we also studied the potential link between TMs, prevalence of infection with one species of avian malaria, Plasmodium relictum, and body condition. Our results show that lead concentration is associated with heavily urbanized habitats and that areas with large woodland coverage have higher cadmium and zinc feather concentrations. Our results suggest that lead concentration in the feathers positively correlates with P. relictum prevalence, and that a complex relationship links TM concentrations, infection status, and body condition. This is one of the first studies showing that environmental pollutants are associated with prevalence of an infectious disease in wildlife. The mechanisms underlying this effect are still unknown even though it is tempting to suggest that lead could interfere with the normal functioning of the immune system, as shown in other species. We suggest that more effort should be devoted to elucidate the link between pollution and the dynamics of infectious diseases. PMID:23342022

Aerosol Light Absorption and Scattering Assessments and the Impact of City Size on Air Pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paredes-Miranda, Guadalupe

The general problem of urban pollution and its relation to the city population is examined in this dissertation. A simple model suggests that pollutant concentrations should scale approximately with the square root of city population. This model and its experimental evaluation presented here serve as important guidelines for urban planning and attainment of air quality standards including the limits that air pollution places on city population. The model was evaluated using measurements of air pollution. Optical properties of aerosol pollutants such as light absorption and scattering plus chemical species mass concentrations were measured with a photoacoustic spectrometer, a reciprocal nephelometer, and an aerosol mass spectrometer in Mexico City in the context of the multinational project "Megacity Initiative: Local And Global Research Observations (MILAGRO)" in March 2006. Aerosol light absorption and scattering measurements were also obtained for Reno and Las Vegas, NV USA in December 2008-March 2009 and January-February 2003, respectively. In all three cities, the morning scattering peak occurs a few hours later than the absorption peak due to the formation of secondary photochemically produced aerosols. In particular, for Mexico City we determined the fraction of photochemically generated secondary aerosols to be about 75% of total aerosol mass concentration at its peak near midday. The simple 2-d box model suggests that commonly emitted primary air pollutant (e.g., black carbon) mass concentrations scale approximately as the square root of the urban population. This argument extends to the absorption coefficient, as it is approximately proportional to the black carbon mass concentration. Since urban secondary pollutants form through photochemical reactions involving primary precursors, in linear approximation their mass concentration also should scale with the square root of population. Therefore, the scattering coefficient, a proxy for particulate matter mass concentration, is also expected to scale the same way. Experimental data for five cities: Mexico City, Mexico; Las Vegas and Reno, NV, USA; Beijing, China; and Delhi, India (the data for the last two cities were obtained from the literature); are in reasonable accord with the model. The scaling relation provided by the model may be considered a useful metric depending on the assumption that specific city conditions (such as latitude, altitude, local meteorological conditions, degree of industrialization, population density, number of cars per capita, city shape, etc.) vary randomly, independent of city size. While more detailed studies (including data from more cities) are needed, we believe that this relatively weak dependence of the pollution concentration on the city population might help to explain why the worsening of urban air quality does not directly lead to a decrease in the rate of growth in city population.

Efficient stochastic approaches for sensitivity studies of an Eulerian large-scale air pollution model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dimov, I.; Georgieva, R.; Todorov, V.; Ostromsky, Tz.

2017-10-01

Reliability of large-scale mathematical models is an important issue when such models are used to support decision makers. Sensitivity analysis of model outputs to variation or natural uncertainties of model inputs is crucial for improving the reliability of mathematical models. A comprehensive experimental study of Monte Carlo algorithms based on Sobol sequences for multidimensional numerical integration has been done. A comparison with Latin hypercube sampling and a particular quasi-Monte Carlo lattice rule based on generalized Fibonacci numbers has been presented. The algorithms have been successfully applied to compute global Sobol sensitivity measures corresponding to the influence of several input parameters (six chemical reactions rates and four different groups of pollutants) on the concentrations of important air pollutants. The concentration values have been generated by the Unified Danish Eulerian Model. The sensitivity study has been done for the areas of several European cities with different geographical locations. The numerical tests show that the stochastic algorithms under consideration are efficient for multidimensional integration and especially for computing small by value sensitivity indices. It is a crucial element since even small indices may be important to be estimated in order to achieve a more accurate distribution of inputs influence and a more reliable interpretation of the mathematical model results.

Toward a geoinformatics framework for understanding the social and biophysical influences on urban nutrient pollution due to residential impervious service connectivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miles, B.; Band, L. E.

2012-12-01

Water sustainability has been recognized as a fundamental problem of science whose solution relies in part on high-performance computing. Stormwater management is a major concern of urban sustainability. Understanding interactions between urban landcover and stormwater nutrient pollution requires consideration of fine-scale residential stormwater management, which in turn requires high-resolution LIDAR and landcover data not provided through national spatial data infrastructure, as well as field observation at the household scale. The objectives of my research are twofold: (1) advance understanding of the relationship between residential stormwater management practices and the export of nutrient pollution from stormwater in urbanized ecosystems; and (2) improve the informatics workflows used in community ecohydrology modeling as applied to heterogeneous urbanized ecosystems. In support of these objectives, I present preliminary results from initial work to: (1) develop an ecohydrology workflow platform that automates data preparation while maintaining data provenance and model metadata to yield reproducible workflows and support model benchmarking; (2) perform field observation of existing patterns of residential rooftop impervious surface connectivity to stormwater networks; and (3) develop Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys) models for watersheds in Baltimore, MD (as part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site) and Durham, NC (as part of the NSF Urban Long-Term Research Area (ULTRA) program); these models will be used to simulate nitrogen loading resulting from both baseline residential rooftop impervious connectivity and for disconnection scenarios (e.g. roof drainage to lawn v. engineered rain garden, upslope v. riparian). This research builds on work done as part of the NSF EarthCube Layered Architecture Concept Award where a RHESSys workflow is being implemented in an iRODS (integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) environment. Modeling the ecohydrology of urban ecosystems in a reliable and reproducible manner requires a flexible scientific workflow platform that allows rapid prototyping with large-scale spatial datasets and model refinement integrating expert knowledge with local datasets and household surveys.

Effects of Stormwater Pipe Size and Rainfall on Sediment and Nutrients Delivered to a Coastal Bayou

EPA Science Inventory

Pollutants discharged from stormwater pipes can cause water quality and ecosystem problems in coastal bayous. A study was conducted to characterize sediment and nutrients discharged by small and large (, 20 cm and .20 cm in internal diameters, respectively) pipes under different ...

78 FR 57153 - Proposed Information Collection Request; Comment Request; NOX

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-17

... to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO X ) from power plants and other large combustion sources...), a pervasive air pollution problem in many areas of the eastern United States. The NO X Budget... Collection Request; Comment Request; NOX Budget Trading Program To Reduce the Regional Transport of Ozone...

[Study on the quality of digested piggery wastewater in large-scale farms in Jiaxing].

PubMed

Wei, Dan; Wan, Mei; Liu, Rui; Wang, Gen-Rong; Zhang, Xun-Da; Wen, Xiao-Gang; Zhao, Yuan; Chen, Lü-Jun

2014-07-01

Pollution characteristics of digested piggery wastewater (DPW), including not only the chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen and phosphorus but also the veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals, were investigated in ten large-scale pig farms in Jiaxing City. Results showed that the water quality of DPW greatly varied with farms and seasons. DPW in the spring group showed the highest pollutant concentration, with seven of the ten pig farms demonstrating COD of over 2 000 mg x L(-1), total nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen of over 1 000 mg x L(-1) and total phosphorus of over 60 mg x L(-1). Pollutant concentrations of DPW were lower in the autumn and winter groups, while the lowest was observed in the summer group. Unbalanced nutrient was observed in DPW, the carbon nitrogen ratio showed the lowest value of 0.8-4.3 in the autumn group. Four classes (tetracyclines, quinolones, macrolides and sulfonamides) of ten antibiotics and six heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni and Cr) were detectable in DPW from all the ten farms. Cu and Zn were the top two dominant heavy metals, with an average concentration of 1.88 mg x L(-1) and 7.63 mg L(-1), respectively. Tetracyclines (including Tetracycline, Oxytetracycline and Chlortetracycline) were always the dominant antibiotics. The total concentration of the ten antibiotics was in the range of 10.1 microg x L(-1) to 1090 microg x L(-1), far exceeding the antibiotics limit of 10 ng x L(-1) in the water environment specified by EU. Efficient but low cost treatment technologies are in urgent need in order to deal with the pollution by DPW, a wastewater that is not only difficult to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, but also seriously polluted by heavy metals and antibiotics.

Microplastic and tar pollution on three Canary Islands beaches: An annual study.

PubMed

Herrera, A; Asensio, M; Martínez, I; Santana, A; Packard, T; Gómez, M

2018-04-01

Marine debris accumulation was analyzed from three exposed beaches of the Canary Islands (Lambra, Famara and Las Canteras). Large microplastics (1-5mm), mesoplastics (5-25mm) and tar pollution were assessed twice a month for a year. There was great spatial and temporal variability in the Canary Island coastal pollution. Seasonal patterns differed at each location, marine debris concentration depended mainly of local-scale wind and wave conditions. The most polluted beach was Lambra, a remote beach infrequently visited. The types of debris found were mainly preproduction resin pellets, plastic fragments and tar, evidencing that pollution was not of local origin, but it cames from the open sea. The levels of pollution were similar to those of highly industrialized and contaminated regions. This study corroborates that the Canary Islands are an area of accumulation of microplastics and tar rafted from the North Atlantic Ocean by the southward flowing Canary Current. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bacterial population and biodegradation potential in chronically crude oil-contaminated marine sediments are strongly linked to temperature.

PubMed

Bargiela, Rafael; Mapelli, Francesca; Rojo, David; Chouaia, Bessem; Tornés, Jesús; Borin, Sara; Richter, Michael; Del Pozo, Mercedes V; Cappello, Simone; Gertler, Christoph; Genovese, María; Denaro, Renata; Martínez-Martínez, Mónica; Fodelianakis, Stilianos; Amer, Ranya A; Bigazzi, David; Han, Xifang; Chen, Jianwei; Chernikova, Tatyana N; Golyshina, Olga V; Mahjoubi, Mouna; Jaouanil, Atef; Benzha, Fatima; Magagnini, Mirko; Hussein, Emad; Al-Horani, Fuad; Cherif, Ameur; Blaghen, Mohamed; Abdel-Fattah, Yasser R; Kalogerakis, Nicolas; Barbas, Coral; Malkawi, Hanan I; Golyshin, Peter N; Yakimov, Michail M; Daffonchio, Daniele; Ferrer, Manuel

2015-06-29

Two of the largest crude oil-polluted areas in the world are the semi-enclosed Mediterranean and Red Seas, but the effect of chronic pollution remains incompletely understood on a large scale. We compared the influence of environmental and geographical constraints and anthropogenic forces (hydrocarbon input) on bacterial communities in eight geographically separated oil-polluted sites along the coastlines of the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The differences in community compositions and their biodegradation potential were primarily associated (P < 0.05) with both temperature and chemical diversity. Furthermore, we observed a link between temperature and chemical and biological diversity that was stronger in chronically polluted sites than in pristine ones where accidental oil spills occurred. We propose that low temperature increases bacterial richness while decreasing catabolic diversity and that chronic pollution promotes catabolic diversification. Our results further suggest that the bacterial populations in chronically polluted sites may respond more promptly in degrading petroleum after accidental oil spills.

Bacterial population and biodegradation potential in chronically crude oil-contaminated marine sediments are strongly linked to temperature

PubMed Central

Bargiela, Rafael; Mapelli, Francesca; Rojo, David; Chouaia, Bessem; Tornés, Jesús; Borin, Sara; Richter, Michael; Del Pozo, Mercedes V.; Cappello, Simone; Gertler, Christoph; Genovese, María; Denaro, Renata; Martínez-Martínez, Mónica; Fodelianakis, Stilianos; Amer, Ranya A.; Bigazzi, David; Han, Xifang; Chen, Jianwei; Chernikova, Tatyana N.; Golyshina, Olga V.; Mahjoubi, Mouna; Jaouanil, Atef; Benzha, Fatima; Magagnini, Mirko; Hussein, Emad; Al-Horani, Fuad; Cherif, Ameur; Blaghen, Mohamed; Abdel-Fattah, Yasser R.; Kalogerakis, Nicolas; Barbas, Coral; Malkawi, Hanan I.; Golyshin, Peter N.; Yakimov, Michail M.; Daffonchio, Daniele; Ferrer, Manuel

2015-01-01

Two of the largest crude oil-polluted areas in the world are the semi-enclosed Mediterranean and Red Seas, but the effect of chronic pollution remains incompletely understood on a large scale. We compared the influence of environmental and geographical constraints and anthropogenic forces (hydrocarbon input) on bacterial communities in eight geographically separated oil-polluted sites along the coastlines of the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The differences in community compositions and their biodegradation potential were primarily associated (P < 0.05) with both temperature and chemical diversity. Furthermore, we observed a link between temperature and chemical and biological diversity that was stronger in chronically polluted sites than in pristine ones where accidental oil spills occurred. We propose that low temperature increases bacterial richness while decreasing catabolic diversity and that chronic pollution promotes catabolic diversification. Our results further suggest that the bacterial populations in chronically polluted sites may respond more promptly in degrading petroleum after accidental oil spills. PMID:26119183

Organic contamination and remediation in the agricultural soils of China: A critical review.

PubMed

Sun, Jianteng; Pan, Lili; Tsang, Daniel C W; Zhan, Yu; Zhu, Lizhong; Li, Xiangdong

2018-02-15

Soil pollution is a global problem in both developed and developing countries. Countries with rapidly developing economies such as China are faced with significant soil pollution problems due to accelerated industrialization and urbanization over the last decades. This paper provides an overview of published scientific data on soil pollution across China with particular focus on organic contamination in agricultural soils. Based on the related peer-reviewed papers published since 2000 (n=203), we evaluated the priority organic contaminants across China, revealed their spatial and temporal distributions at the national scale, identified their possible sources and fates in soil, assessed their potential environmental risks, and presented the challenges in current remediation technologies regarding the combined organic pollution of agricultural soils. The primary pollutants in Northeast China were polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) due to intensive fossil fuel combustion. The concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and phthalic acid esters (PAEs) were higher in North and Central China owing to concentrated agricultural activities. The levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were higher in East and South China primarily because of past industrial operations and improper electronic waste processing. The co-existence of organic contaminants was severe in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, which are the most populated and industrialized regions in China. Integrated biological-chemical remediation technologies, such as surfactant-enhanced bioremediation, have potential uses in the remediation of soil contaminated by multiple contaminants. This critical review highlighted several future research directions including combined pollution, interfacial interactions, food safety, bioavailability, ecological effects, and integrated remediation methods for combined organic pollution in soil. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Wetlands as large-scale nature-based solutions: status and future challenges for research and management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thorslund, Josefin; Jarsjö, Jerker; Destouni, Georgia

2017-04-01

Wetlands are often considered as nature-based solutions that can provide a multitude of services of great social, economic and environmental value to humankind. The services may include recreation, greenhouse gas sequestration, contaminant retention, coastal protection, groundwater level and soil moisture regulation, flood regulation and biodiversity support. Changes in land-use, water use and climate can all impact wetland functions and occur at scales extending well beyond the local scale of an individual wetland. However, in practical applications, management decisions usually regard and focus on individual wetland sites and local conditions. To understand the potential usefulness and services of wetlands as larger-scale nature-based solutions, e.g. for mitigating negative impacts from large-scale change pressures, one needs to understand the combined function multiple wetlands at the relevant large scales. We here systematically investigate if and to what extent research so far has addressed the large-scale dynamics of landscape systems with multiple wetlands, which are likely to be relevant for understanding impacts of regional to global change. Our investigation regards key changes and impacts of relevance for nature-based solutions, such as large-scale nutrient and pollution retention, flow regulation and coastal protection. Although such large-scale knowledge is still limited, evidence suggests that the aggregated functions and effects of multiple wetlands in the landscape can differ considerably from those observed at individual wetlands. Such scale differences may have important implications for wetland function-effect predictability and management under large-scale change pressures and impacts, such as those of climate change.

Intake-to-delivered-energy ratios for central station and distributed electricity generation in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heath, Garvin A.; Nazaroff, William W.

In previous work, we showed that the intake fraction (iF) for nonreactive primary air pollutants was 20 times higher in central tendency for small-scale, urban-sited distributed electricity generation (DG) sources than for large-scale, central station (CS) power plants in California [Heath, G.A., Granvold, P.W., Hoats, A.S., Nazaroff, W.W., 2006. Intake fraction assessment of the air pollutant exposure implications of a shift toward distributed electricity generation. Atmospheric Environment 40, 7164-7177]. The present paper builds on that study, exploring pollutant- and technology-specific aspects of population inhalation exposure from electricity generation. We compare California's existing CS-based system to one that is more reliant on DG units sited in urban areas. We use Gaussian plume modeling and a GIS-based exposure analysis to assess 25 existing CSs and 11 DG sources hypothetically located in the downtowns of California's most populous cities. We consider population intake of three pollutants—PM 2.5, NO x and formaldehyde—directly emitted by five DG technologies—natural gas (NG)-fired turbines, NG internal combustion engines (ICE), NG microturbines, diesel ICEs, and fuel cells with on-site NG reformers. We also consider intake of these pollutants from existing CS facilities, most of which use large NG turbines, as well as from hypothetical facilities located at these same sites but meeting California's best-available control technology standards. After systematically exploring the sensitivity of iF to pollutant decay rate, the iFs for each of the three pollutants for all DG and CS cases are estimated. To efficiently compare the pollutant- and technology-specific exposure potential on an appropriate common basis, a new metric is introduced and evaluated: the intake-to-delivered-energy ratio (IDER). The IDER expresses the mass of pollutant inhaled by an exposed population owing to emissions from an electricity generation unit per quantity of electric energy delivered to the place of use. We find that the central tendency of IDER is much greater for almost every DG technology evaluated than for existing CS facilities in California.

Evolving policies to regulate pollution from animal feeding operations.

PubMed

Centner, T J

2001-11-01

Due to concentrations of animals at large facilities, animal feeding operations (AFOs) have emerged as a major potential source of water pollution. The federal government regulates concentrated animal feeding operations under its point-source pollution permitting regulations. A major determinant of whether an operation must apply for a permit is the number of animals at an individual lot or facility. This paper examines federal mandatory controls and voluntary guidelines that seek to reduce contaminant pollution from AFOs. Land treatment practices are delineated due to their importance in reducing the injurious by-products of agricultural production. An evaluation of proposed revisions to federal regulations on confined animal feeding operations suggests they diverge from their goal of controlling water pollution. Federal regulations focus on the size of operation and amount of manure governed by the permitting process to the exclusion of other criteria related to the impairment of water quality. Given the uncertainties about the amount of pollution from AFOs, lack of enforcement of existing regulations, localization of problems, and possible alternatives for addressing the pollution, more demanding federal regulations may not form an appropriate response.

Air Pollution, Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramanathan, V.

2007-12-01

The global build up of greenhouse gases (GHGs), is the most significant environmental issue facing the planet. GHGs warm the surface and the atmosphere with significant implications for, rainfall, retreat of glaciers and sea ice, sea level, among other factors. What is less recognized, however, is a comparably major global problem dealing with air pollution. Until about ten years ago, air pollution was thought to be just an urban or a local problem. But new data have revealed that, due to fast long range transport, air pollution is transported across continents and ocean basins, resulting in trans-oceanic and trans-continental plumes of atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) containing sub micron size particles, i.e, aerosols. ABCs intercept sunlight by absorbing as well as reflecting it, both of which lead to a large surface dimming. The dimming effect is enhanced further because aerosols nucleate more cloud drops which makes the clouds reflect more solar radiation. While the solar heating at the surface is reduced by aerosols in ABCs, the atmospheric solar heating increases due to soot solar absorption. The net difference between the dimming and the atmospheric solar heating is estimated be negative which contributes to a global cooling effect. The global cooling from this negative ABC forcing may have masked as much as 50% of the warming due to GHGs. We will identify regional and mega-city hot spots of ABCs. Long range transport from these hot spots gives rise to wide spread plumes over the adjacent oceans. Such a pattern of regionally concentrated surface dimming and atmospheric solar heating, accompanied by wide spread dimming over the oceans, gives rise to large regional effects. Only during the last decade, we have begun to comprehend the surprisingly large regional impacts. The large north-south gradient in the ABC dimming has altered the north-south gradients in sea surface temperatures, which in turn has been shown by models to decrease rainfall over the continents. The uncertainties in our understanding of the ABC effects are large, but we are discovering new ways in which human activities are changing the climate and the environment.

The National Near-Road Mobile Source Air Toxics Study: Las Vegas

EPA Science Inventory

EPA, in collaboration with FHWA, has been involved in a large-scale monitoring research study in an effort to characterize highway vehicle emissions in a near-road environment. The pollutants of interest include particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microns ...

The Case for the Large Scale Development of Solar Energy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Reilly, S. A.

1977-01-01

Traces the history of solar energy development. Discusses global effects (temperature, particle and other pollution) of burning fossil fuels. Provides energy balance equations for solar energy distribution and discusses flat plate collectors, solar cells, photochemical and photobiological conversion of solar energy, heat pumps. (CS)

Evaluation of Two PCR-based Swine-specific Fecal Source Tracking Assays (Abstract)

EPA Science Inventory

Several PCR-based methods have been proposed to identify swine fecal pollution in environmental waters. However, the utility of these assays in identifying swine fecal contamination on a broad geographic scale is largely unknown. In this study, we evaluated the specificity, distr...

APEX Model Simulation for Row Crop Watersheds with Agroforestry and Grass Buffers

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Watershed model simulation has become an important tool in studying ways and means to reduce transport of agricultural pollutants. Conducting field experiments to assess buffer influences on water quality are constrained by the large-scale nature of watersheds, high experimental costs, private owner...

FDTD method for laser absorption in metals for large scale problems.

PubMed

Deng, Chun; Ki, Hyungson

2013-10-21

The FDTD method has been successfully used for many electromagnetic problems, but its application to laser material processing has been limited because even a several-millimeter domain requires a prohibitively large number of grids. In this article, we present a novel FDTD method for simulating large-scale laser beam absorption problems, especially for metals, by enlarging laser wavelength while maintaining the material's reflection characteristics. For validation purposes, the proposed method has been tested with in-house FDTD codes to simulate p-, s-, and circularly polarized 1.06 μm irradiation on Fe and Sn targets, and the simulation results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.

Influence of Diffused Sourcers of Water Pollution In The Basin of Volga River

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasilchenco, O.

The intensive development of industry and agriculture, great growth of cities in the last decades result in an increase of the nature water consumption and deterioration. Different anthropogenic load change characteristics of water objects regime and de- pletion and qualitative degradation of water resources. Sources of pollution are divided on two classes: controlled and uncontrolled. The first includes industrial and domestic wastewater disposal. Their discharge and concentration of pollutants are quite stable. These sources of pollution are identified as "point". Surface run-off from of cities, industrial platforms, agricultural object, navigation, recreation are not controlled have dispersed nature and are identification as diffuse. Pollution from such sources is es- timates by computation. Quantitative assumption of pollution amounts reaches water objects is complicated and independent problem. The significant amount of full-scale observations and information processes of concerning dissolved and fluidized frag- ments movement are required. According to available guidelines the part of the pollu- tant entering water objects, is about 1-10For estimation of pollution mass and transport are mathematical modeling. Preliminary calculations of contaminants transport for different territories under an- thropogenic impact of river-Volga basin were made either for point sources of pol- lution or for non-point. Received data made it possible to analyze the correlation of contaminant volumes, coming from different sources pollution.

Retrospective Review of Watershed Characteristics and a Framework for Future Research in the Sarasota Bay Watershed, Florida

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kish, George R.; Harrison, Arnell S.; Alderson, Mark

2008-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program conducted a retrospective review of characteristics of the Sarasota Bay watershed in west-central Florida. This report describes watershed characteristics, surface- and ground-water processes, and the environmental setting of the Sarasota Bay watershed. Population growth during the last 50 years is transforming the Sarasota Bay watershed from rural and agriculture to urban and suburban. The transition has resulted in land-use changes that influence surface- and ground-water processes in the watershed. Increased impervious cover decreases recharge to ground water and increases overland runoff and the pollutants carried in the runoff. Soil compaction resulting from agriculture, construction, and recreation activities also decreases recharge to ground water. Conventional approaches to stormwater runoff have involved conveyances and large storage areas. Low-impact development approaches, designed to provide recharge near the precipitation point-of-contact, are being used increasingly in the watershed. Simple pollutant loading models applied to the Sarasota Bay watershed have focused on large-scale processes and pollutant loads determined from empirical values and mean event concentrations. Complex watershed models and more intensive data-collection programs can provide the level of information needed to quantify (1) the effects of lot-scale land practices on runoff, storage, and ground-water recharge, (2) dry and wet season flux of nutrients through atmospheric deposition, (3) changes in partitioning of water and contaminants as urbanization alters predevelopment rainfall-runoff relations, and (4) linkages between watershed models and lot-scale models to evaluate the effect of small-scale changes over the entire Sarasota Bay watershed. As urbanization in the Sarasota Bay watershed continues, focused research on water-resources issues can provide information needed by water-resources managers to ensure the future health of the watershed.

Vulnerability of China's nearshore ecosystems under intensive mariculture development.

PubMed

Liu, Hui; Su, Jilan

2017-04-01

Rapid economic development and increasing population in China have exerted tremendous pressures on the coastal ecosystems. In addition to land-based pollutants and reclamation, fast expansion of large-scale intensive mariculture activities has also brought about additional effects. So far, the ecological impact of rapid mariculture development and its large-scale operations has not drawn enough attention. In this paper, the rapid development of mariculture in China is reviewed, China's effort in the application of ecological mariculture is examined, and the vulnerability of marine ecosystem to mariculture impact is evaluated through a number of examples. Removal or reduced large and forage fish, due to both habitat loss to reclamation/mariculture and overfishing for food or fishmeal, may have far-reaching effects on the coastal and shelf ecosystems in the long run. Large-scale intensive mariculture operations carry with them undesirable biological and biochemical characteristics, which may have consequences on natural ecosystems beyond normally perceived spatial and temporal boundaries. As our understanding of possible impacts of large-scale intensive mariculture is lagging far behind its development, much research is urgently needed.

A novel heuristic algorithm for capacitated vehicle routing problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kır, Sena; Yazgan, Harun Reşit; Tüncel, Emre

2017-09-01

The vehicle routing problem with the capacity constraints was considered in this paper. It is quite difficult to achieve an optimal solution with traditional optimization methods by reason of the high computational complexity for large-scale problems. Consequently, new heuristic or metaheuristic approaches have been developed to solve this problem. In this paper, we constructed a new heuristic algorithm based on the tabu search and adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) with several specifically designed operators and features to solve the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was illustrated on the benchmark problems. The algorithm provides a better performance on large-scaled instances and gained advantage in terms of CPU time. In addition, we solved a real-life CVRP using the proposed algorithm and found the encouraging results by comparison with the current situation that the company is in.

Fast Algorithms for Designing Unimodular Waveform(s) With Good Correlation Properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yongzhe; Vorobyov, Sergiy A.

2018-03-01

In this paper, we develop new fast and efficient algorithms for designing single/multiple unimodular waveforms/codes with good auto- and cross-correlation or weighted correlation properties, which are highly desired in radar and communication systems. The waveform design is based on the minimization of the integrated sidelobe level (ISL) and weighted ISL (WISL) of waveforms. As the corresponding optimization problems can quickly grow to large scale with increasing the code length and number of waveforms, the main issue turns to be the development of fast large-scale optimization techniques. The difficulty is also that the corresponding optimization problems are non-convex, but the required accuracy is high. Therefore, we formulate the ISL and WISL minimization problems as non-convex quartic optimization problems in frequency domain, and then simplify them into quadratic problems by utilizing the majorization-minimization technique, which is one of the basic techniques for addressing large-scale and/or non-convex optimization problems. While designing our fast algorithms, we find out and use inherent algebraic structures in the objective functions to rewrite them into quartic forms, and in the case of WISL minimization, to derive additionally an alternative quartic form which allows to apply the quartic-quadratic transformation. Our algorithms are applicable to large-scale unimodular waveform design problems as they are proved to have lower or comparable computational burden (analyzed theoretically) and faster convergence speed (confirmed by comprehensive simulations) than the state-of-the-art algorithms. In addition, the waveforms designed by our algorithms demonstrate better correlation properties compared to their counterparts.

Remote Sensing Application in Oil and Gas Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sizov, Oleg; Aloltsov, Alexander; Rubtsova, Natalia

2014-05-01

The main environmental problems of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (a federal subject of Russia) related to the activities of oil and gas industry (82 active companies which hold 77,000 oil wells). As on the 1st of January 2013 the subject produces more than 50% of all oil in Russia. The principle of environmental responsibility makes it necessary to minimize human impact and ecological impact. One of the most effective tools for environmental monitoring is remote sensing. The main advantages of such approach are: wide coverage of areas of interest, high temporal resolution, precise location, automatic processing, large set of extracted parameters, etc. Authorities of KhMAO are interested in regular detection of the impact on the environment by processing satellite data and plan to increase the coverage from 434.9 to 659.9 square kilometers with resolution not less than 10 m/pixel. Years of experience of our company shows the significant potential to expand the use of such remote sensing data in the solution of environmental problems. The main directions are: monitoring of rational use of associated petroleum gas (detection of all gas flares and volumes of burned gas), monitoring of soil pollution (detection of areas of oil pollution, assess of the extent of pollution, planning of reclamation activities and assessment of their efficiency, detection of potential areas of pipelines corrosion), monitoring of status of sludge pits (inventory of all sludge pits, assessment of their liquidation), monitoring of technogenic impact (detection of changes), upgrading of a geospatial database (topographic map of not less than 1:50000 scale). Implementation of modeling, extrapolation and remote analysis techniques based on satellite images will help to reduce unnecessary costs for instrumental methods. Thus, the introduction of effective remote monitoring technology to the activity of oil and gas companies promotes environmental responsibility of these companies.

Sparse deconvolution for the large-scale ill-posed inverse problem of impact force reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiao, Baijie; Zhang, Xingwu; Gao, Jiawei; Liu, Ruonan; Chen, Xuefeng

2017-01-01

Most previous regularization methods for solving the inverse problem of force reconstruction are to minimize the l2-norm of the desired force. However, these traditional regularization methods such as Tikhonov regularization and truncated singular value decomposition, commonly fail to solve the large-scale ill-posed inverse problem in moderate computational cost. In this paper, taking into account the sparse characteristic of impact force, the idea of sparse deconvolution is first introduced to the field of impact force reconstruction and a general sparse deconvolution model of impact force is constructed. Second, a novel impact force reconstruction method based on the primal-dual interior point method (PDIPM) is proposed to solve such a large-scale sparse deconvolution model, where minimizing the l2-norm is replaced by minimizing the l1-norm. Meanwhile, the preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm is used to compute the search direction of PDIPM with high computational efficiency. Finally, two experiments including the small-scale or medium-scale single impact force reconstruction and the relatively large-scale consecutive impact force reconstruction are conducted on a composite wind turbine blade and a shell structure to illustrate the advantage of PDIPM. Compared with Tikhonov regularization, PDIPM is more efficient, accurate and robust whether in the single impact force reconstruction or in the consecutive impact force reconstruction.

The Mercury Problem in Artisanal and Small‐Scale Gold Mining

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Abstract Mercury‐dependent artisanal and small‐scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of mercury pollution on Earth. In this practice, elemental mercury is used to extract gold from ore as an amalgam. The amalgam is typically isolated by hand and then heated—often with a torch or over a stove—to distill the mercury and isolate the gold. Mercury release from tailings and vaporized mercury exceed 1000 tonnes each year from ASGM. The health effects on the miners are dire, with inhaled mercury leading to neurological damage and other health issues. The communities near these mines are also affected due to mercury contamination of water and soil and subsequent accumulation in food staples, such as fish—a major source of dietary protein in many ASGM regions. The risks to children are also substantial, with mercury emissions from ASGM resulting in both physical and mental disabilities and compromised development. Between 10 and 19 million people use mercury to mine for gold in more than 70 countries, making mercury pollution from ASGM a global issue. With the Minamata Convention on Mercury entering force this year, there is political motivation to help overcome the problem of mercury in ASGM. In this effort, chemists can play a central role. Here, the problem of mercury in ASGM is reviewed with a discussion on how the chemistry community can contribute solutions. Introducing portable and low‐cost mercury sensors, inexpensive and scalable remediation technologies, novel methods to prevent mercury uptake in fish and food crops, and efficient and easy‐to‐use mercury‐free mining techniques are all ways in which the chemistry community can help. To meet these challenges, it is critical that new technologies or techniques are low‐cost and adaptable to the remote and under‐resourced areas in which ASGM is most common. The problem of mercury pollution in ASGM is inherently a chemistry problem. We therefore encourage the chemistry community to consider and address this issue that affects the health of millions of people. PMID:29314284

The Mercury Problem in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining.

PubMed

Esdaile, Louisa J; Chalker, Justin M

2018-05-11

Mercury-dependent artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of mercury pollution on Earth. In this practice, elemental mercury is used to extract gold from ore as an amalgam. The amalgam is typically isolated by hand and then heated-often with a torch or over a stove-to distill the mercury and isolate the gold. Mercury release from tailings and vaporized mercury exceed 1000 tonnes each year from ASGM. The health effects on the miners are dire, with inhaled mercury leading to neurological damage and other health issues. The communities near these mines are also affected due to mercury contamination of water and soil and subsequent accumulation in food staples, such as fish-a major source of dietary protein in many ASGM regions. The risks to children are also substantial, with mercury emissions from ASGM resulting in both physical and mental disabilities and compromised development. Between 10 and 19 million people use mercury to mine for gold in more than 70 countries, making mercury pollution from ASGM a global issue. With the Minamata Convention on Mercury entering force this year, there is political motivation to help overcome the problem of mercury in ASGM. In this effort, chemists can play a central role. Here, the problem of mercury in ASGM is reviewed with a discussion on how the chemistry community can contribute solutions. Introducing portable and low-cost mercury sensors, inexpensive and scalable remediation technologies, novel methods to prevent mercury uptake in fish and food crops, and efficient and easy-to-use mercury-free mining techniques are all ways in which the chemistry community can help. To meet these challenges, it is critical that new technologies or techniques are low-cost and adaptable to the remote and under-resourced areas in which ASGM is most common. The problem of mercury pollution in ASGM is inherently a chemistry problem. We therefore encourage the chemistry community to consider and address this issue that affects the health of millions of people. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Coastal Aerosol Distribution by Data Assimilation

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-09-30

useful for forecasts of dust storms in areas downwind of the large deserts of the world: Arabian Gulf, Sea of Japan, China Sea , Mediterranean Sea ...and the Tropical Atlantic Ocean. NAAPS also accurately predicts the fate of large-scale smoke and pollution plumes. With its global and continuous...The collaboration with Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the University of Warsaw has led to the addition of a sea salt component to NAAPS. The

Polar firn air reveals large-scale impact of anthropogenic mercury emissions during the 1970s

PubMed Central

Faïn, Xavier; Ferrari, Christophe P.; Dommergue, Aurélien; Albert, Mary R.; Battle, Mark; Severinghaus, Jeff; Arnaud, Laurent; Barnola, Jean-Marc; Cairns, Warren; Barbante, Carlo; Boutron, Claude

2009-01-01

Mercury (Hg) is an extremely toxic pollutant, and its biogeochemical cycle has been perturbed by anthropogenic emissions during recent centuries. In the atmosphere, gaseous elemental mercury (GEM; Hg°) is the predominant form of mercury (up to 95%). Here we report the evolution of atmospheric levels of GEM in mid- to high-northern latitudes inferred from the interstitial air of firn (perennial snowpack) at Summit, Greenland. GEM concentrations increased rapidly after World War II from ≈1.5 ng m−3 reaching a maximum of ≈3 ng m−3 around 1970 and decreased until stabilizing at ≈1.7 ng m−3 around 1995. This reconstruction reproduces real-time measurements available from the Arctic since 1995 and exhibits the same general trend observed in Europe since 1990. Anthropogenic emissions caused a two-fold rise in boreal atmospheric GEM concentrations before the 1970s, which likely contributed to higher deposition of mercury in both industrialized and remotes areas. Once deposited, this toxin becomes available for methylation and, subsequently, the contamination of ecosystems. Implementation of air pollution regulations, however, enabled a large-scale decline in atmospheric mercury levels during the 1980s. The results shown here suggest that potential increases in emissions in the coming decades could have a similar large-scale impact on atmospheric Hg levels. PMID:19805267

Using Microbial Source Tracking to Enhance Environmental Stewardship of Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, Sherry; Rose, Joan; Flood, Matthew; Aw, Tiong; Hyndman, David

2016-04-01

Large scale agriculture relies on the application of chemical fertilizers and animal manure. It is well known that nutrients in excess of a plant's uptake and soil retention capacity can travel to nearby waterways via surface run-off and groundwater pathways, indirectly fertilizing these aquatic ecosystems. It has not yet been possible to distinguish water quality impacts of fertilizer from those derived from human and animal waste sources. However, new microbial source tracking (MST) tools allow specific identification of fecal pollution. Our objective was to examine pollution risks at the regional scale using MST, mapping and classification and regression tree analysis. We present results Bovine M2 genetic marker data from three flow regimes (baseflow, snow melt, and post-planting rain). Key landscape characteristics were related to the presence of the bovine markers and appear to be related to fate and transport. Impacts at this regional watershed scale will be discussed. Our research aims to identify the impacts of agricultural management practices on water quality by linking nutrient concentrations with fecal pollution sources. We hope that our research will provide guidance that will help improve water quality through agricultural best management practices to reduce pathogen contamination.

An investigation of mercury sources in the Puyango-Tumbes River: Using stable Hg isotopes to characterize transboundary Hg pollution.

PubMed

Schudel, Gary; Miserendino, Rebecca Adler; Veiga, Marcello M; Velasquez-López, P Colon; Lees, Peter S J; Winland-Gaetz, Sean; Davée Guimarães, Jean Remy; Bergquist, Bridget A

2018-07-01

Mercury (Hg) concentrations and stable isotopes along with other trace metals were examined in environmental samples from Ecuador and Peru's shared Puyango-Tumbes River in order to determine the extent to which artisanal- and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Portovelo-Zaruma, Ecuador contributes to Hg pollution in the downstream aquatic ecosystem. Prior studies investigated the relationship between ASGM activities and downstream Hg pollution relying primarily on Hg concentration data. In this study, Hg isotopes revealed an isotopically heavy Hg signature with negligible mass independent fractionation (MIF) in downstream sediments, which was consistent with the signature observed in the ASGM source endmember. This signature was traced as far as ∼120 km downstream of Portovelo-Zaruma, demonstrating that Hg stable isotopes can be used as a tool to fingerprint and trace sources of Hg over vast distances in freshwater environments. The success of Hg isotopes as a source tracer in fresh waters is largely due to the particle-reactive nature of Hg. Furthermore, the magnitude and extent of downstream Hg, lead, copper and zinc contamination coupled with the Hg isotopes suggest that it is unlikely that the smaller artisanal-scale activities, which do not use cyanidation, are responsible for the pollution. More likely it is the scale of ores processed and the cyanide leaching, which can release other metals and enhance Hg transport, used during small-scale gold mining that is responsible. Thus, although artisanal- and small-scale gold mining occur in tandem in Portovelo-Zaruma, a distinction should be made between these two activities. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Monitoring Street-Level Spatial-Temporal Variations of Carbon Monoxide in Urban Settings Using a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Framework

PubMed Central

Wen, Tzai-Hung; Jiang, Joe-Air; Sun, Chih-Hong; Juang, Jehn-Yih; Lin, Tzu-Shiang

2013-01-01

Air pollution has become a severe environmental problem due to urbanization and heavy traffic. Monitoring street-level air quality is an important issue, but most official monitoring stations are installed to monitor large-scale air quality conditions, and their limited spatial resolution cannot reflect the detailed variations in air quality that may be induced by traffic jams. By deploying wireless sensors on crossroads and main roads, this study established a pilot framework for a wireless sensor network (WSN)-based real-time monitoring system to understand street-level spatial-temporal changes of carbon monoxide (CO) in urban settings. The system consists of two major components. The first component is the deployment of wireless sensors. We deployed 44 sensor nodes, 40 transmitter nodes and four gateway nodes in this study. Each sensor node includes a signal processing module, a CO sensor and a wireless communication module. In order to capture realistic human exposure to traffic pollutants, all sensors were deployed at a height of 1.5 m on lampposts and traffic signs. The study area covers a total length of 1.5 km of Keelung Road in Taipei City. The other component is a map-based monitoring platform for sensor data visualization and manipulation in time and space. Using intensive real-time street-level monitoring framework, we compared the spatial-temporal patterns of air pollution in different time periods. Our results capture four CO concentration peaks throughout the day at the location, which was located along an arterial and nearby traffic sign. The hourly average could reach 5.3 ppm from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm due to the traffic congestion. The proposed WSN-based framework captures detailed ground information and potential risk of human exposure to traffic-related air pollution. It also provides street-level insights into real-time monitoring for further early warning of air pollution and urban environmental management. PMID:24287859

Monitoring street-level spatial-temporal variations of carbon monoxide in urban settings using a wireless sensor network (WSN) framework.

PubMed

Wen, Tzai-Hung; Jiang, Joe-Air; Sun, Chih-Hong; Juang, Jehn-Yih; Lin, Tzu-Shiang

2013-11-27

Air pollution has become a severe environmental problem due to urbanization and heavy traffic. Monitoring street-level air quality is an important issue, but most official monitoring stations are installed to monitor large-scale air quality conditions, and their limited spatial resolution cannot reflect the detailed variations in air quality that may be induced by traffic jams. By deploying wireless sensors on crossroads and main roads, this study established a pilot framework for a wireless sensor network (WSN)-based real-time monitoring system to understand street-level spatial-temporal changes of carbon monoxide (CO) in urban settings. The system consists of two major components. The first component is the deployment of wireless sensors. We deployed 44 sensor nodes, 40 transmitter nodes and four gateway nodes in this study. Each sensor node includes a signal processing module, a CO sensor and a wireless communication module. In order to capture realistic human exposure to traffic pollutants, all sensors were deployed at a height of 1.5 m on lampposts and traffic signs. The study area covers a total length of 1.5 km of Keelung Road in Taipei City. The other component is a map-based monitoring platform for sensor data visualization and manipulation in time and space. Using intensive real-time street-level monitoring framework, we compared the spatial-temporal patterns of air pollution in different time periods. Our results capture four CO concentration peaks throughout the day at the location, which was located along an arterial and nearby traffic sign. The hourly average could reach 5.3 ppm from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm due to the traffic congestion. The proposed WSN-based framework captures detailed ground information and potential risk of human exposure to traffic-related air pollution. It also provides street-level insights into real-time monitoring for further early warning of air pollution and urban environmental management.

TREATMENT OF A PENTACHLOROPHENOL AND CREOSOTE-CONTAMINATED SOIL USING THE LIGNIN-DEGRADING FUNGUS PHANERO- CHAETE SORDIDA: A FIELD DEMONSTRATION

EPA Science Inventory

The feasibility of large-scale fungal bioaugmentation was evaluated by assessing the ability of the lignin-degrading fungus Phanerochaete sordida to decrease the soil concentrations of pentachlorophenol (PCP) and 13 priority pollutant polynuclear aromatic (PNA) creosote component...

Resolving Local-Scale Emissions for Modeling Air Quality near Roadways

EPA Science Inventory

A large body of literature published in recent years suggests increased health risk due to exposure of people to air pollution in close proximity to roadways. As a result, there is a need to more accurately represent the spatial concentration gradients near roadways in order to ...

A Community-Scale Modeling System to Assess Port-Related Air Quality Impacts

EPA Science Inventory

Near-port air pollution has been identified by numerous organizations as a potential public health concern. Based upon multiple near-road and near-source monitoring studies, both busy roadways and large emission sources at the ports may impact local air quality within several hun...

Impact of compost process conditions on organic micro pollutant degradation during full scale composting.

PubMed

Sadef, Yumna; Poulsen, Tjalfe Gorm; Bester, Kai

2015-06-01

Knowledge about the effects of oxygen concentration, nutrient availability and moisture content on removal of organic micro-pollutants during aerobic composting is at present very limited. Impact of oxygen concentration, readily available nitrogen content (NH4(+), NO3(-)), and moisture content on biological transformation of 15 key organic micro-pollutants during composting, was therefore investigated using bench-scale degradation experiments based on non-sterile compost samples, collected at full-scale composting facilities. In addition, the adequacy of bench-scale composting experiments for representing full-scale composting conditions, was investigated using micro-pollutant concentration measurements from both bench- and full-scale composting experiments. Results showed that lack of oxygen generally prevented transformation of organic micro-pollutants. Increasing readily available nitrogen content from about 50 mg N per 100 g compost to about 140 mg N per 100 g compost actually reduced micro-pollutant transformation, while changes in compost moisture content from 50% to 20% by weight, only had minor influence on micro-pollutant transformation. First-order micro-pollutant degradation rates for 13 organic micro-pollutants were calculated using data from both full- and bench-scale experiments. First-order degradation coefficients for both types of experiments were similar and ranged from 0.02 to 0.03 d(-1) on average, indicating that if a proper sampling strategy is employed, bench-scale experiments can be used to represent full-scale composting conditions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advanced Atmospheric Modeling for Emergency Response.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fast, Jerome D.; O'Steen, B. Lance; Addis, Robert P.

1995-03-01

Atmospheric transport and diffusion models are an important part of emergency response systems for industrial facilities that have the potential to release significant quantities of toxic or radioactive material into the atmosphere. An advanced atmospheric transport and diffusion modeling system for emergency response and environmental applications, based upon a three-dimensional mesoscale model, has been developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site so that complex, time-dependent flow fields not explicitly measured can be routinely simulated. To overcome some of the current computational demands of mesoscale models, two operational procedures for the advanced atmospheric transport and diffusion modeling system are described including 1) a semiprognostic calculation to produce high-resolution wind fields for local pollutant transport in the vicinity of the Savannah River Site and 2) a fully prognostic calculation to produce a regional wind field encompassing the southeastern United States for larger-scale pollutant problems. Local and regional observations and large-scale model output are used by the mesoscale model for the initial conditions, lateral boundary conditions, and four-dimensional data assimilation procedure. This paper describes the current status of the modeling system and presents two case studies demonstrating the capabilities of both modes of operation. While the results from the case studies shown in this paper are preliminary and certainly not definitive, they do suggest that the mesoscale model has the potential for improving the prognostic capabilities of atmospheric modeling for emergency response at the Savannah River Site. Long-term model evaluation will be required to determine under what conditions significant forecast errors exist.

Modelling Regional Hotspots of Water Pollution Induced by Salinization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malsy, M.; Floerke, M.

2014-12-01

Insufficient water quality is one of the main global topics causing risk to human health, biodiversity, and food security. At this, salinization of water and land resources is widely spread especially in arid to semi-arid climates, where salinization, often induced by irrigation agriculture, is a fundamental aspect of land degradation. High salinity is crucial to water use for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes, and therefore poses a risk to human health and ecosystem status. However, salinization is also an economic problem, in particular in those regions where agriculture makes a significant contribution to the economy and/or where agriculture is mainly based on irrigation. Agricultural production is exposed to high salinity of irrigation water resulting in lower yields. Hence, not only the quantity of irrigation water is of importance for growing cops but also its quality, which may further reduce the available resources. Thereby a major concern for food production and security persists, as irrigated agriculture accounts for over 30% of the total agricultural production. In this study, the large scale water quality model WorldQual was applied to simulate recent total dissolved solids (TDS) loadings and in-stream concentrations from point and diffuse sources to get an insight on potential environmental impacts as well as risks to food security. Regional focus in this study is on developing countries, as these are most threatened by water pollution. Furthermore, insufficient water quality for irrigation and therefore restrictions in irrigation water use were examined, indicating limitations to crop production. For this purpose, model simulations were conducted for the year 2010 to show the recent status of surface water quality and to identify hotspots and main causes of pollution. Our results show that salinity hotspots mainly occur in peak irrigation regions as irrigated agriculture is by far the dominant sector contributing to water abstractions as well as TDS loadings. Additionally, large urban areas are initially loading hotspots and pollution prevention becomes important as point sources are dependent on sewer connection rates. River discharge plays a crucial role due to the dilution potential, especially in semi-arid to arid regions and in terms of seasonal variability.

Networks and landscapes: a framework for setting goals and evaluating performance at the large landscape scale

Treesearch

R Patrick Bixler; Shawn Johnson; Kirk Emerson; Tina Nabatchi; Melly Reuling; Charles Curtin; Michele Romolini; Morgan Grove

2016-01-01

The objective of large landscape conser vation is to mitigate complex ecological problems through interventions at multiple and overlapping scales. Implementation requires coordination among a diverse network of individuals and organizations to integrate local-scale conservation activities with broad-scale goals. This requires an understanding of the governance options...

The effects of outdoor air pollution on the respiratory health of Canadian children: A systematic review of epidemiological studies.

PubMed

Rodriguez-Villamizar, Laura Andrea; Magico, Adam; Osornio-Vargas, Alvaro; Rowe, Brian H

2015-01-01

Outdoor air pollution is a global problem with serious effects on human health, and children are considered to be highly susceptible to the effects of air pollution. To conduct a comprehensive and updated systematic review of the literature reporting the effects of outdoor air pollution on the respiratory health of children in Canada. Searches of four electronic databases between January 2004 and November 2014 were conducted to identify epidemiological studies evaluating the effect of exposure to outdoor air pollutants on respiratory symptoms, lung function measurements and the use of health services due to respiratory conditions in Canadian children. The selection process and quality assessment, using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, were conducted independently by two reviewers. Twenty-seven studies that were heterogeneous with regard to study design, population, respiratory outcome and air pollution exposure were identified. Overall, the included studies reported adverse effects of outdoor air pollution at concentrations that were below Canadian and United States standards. Heterogeneous effects of air pollutants were reported according to city, sex, socioeconomic status and seasonality. The present review also describes trends in research related to the effect of air pollution on Canadian children over the past 25 years. The present study reconfirms the adverse effects of outdoor air pollution on the respiratory health of children in Canada. It will help researchers, clinicians and environmental health authorities identify the available evidence of the adverse effect of outdoor air pollution, research gaps and the limitations for further research.

Air pollution problem in the Mexico City metropolitan zone: Photochemical pollution

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alvarez, H.B.; Alvarez, P.S.; Echeverria, R.S.

1997-12-31

Mexico City Metropolitan Zone (MCMZ) represents an example of a megacity where the air pollution problem has reached an important evolution in a very short time, causing a risk in the health of a population of more than 20 million inhabitants. The atmospheric pollution problem in the MCMZ, began several decades ago, but it increased drastically in the middle of the 80`s. It is important to recognize that in the 60`s, 70`s and the first half of the 80`s the main pollutants were sulfur dioxide and total suspended particles. However since the second half of the 80`s until now, ozonemore » is the most important air pollutant besides of the suspended particles (PM{sub 10}) and other toxic pollutants (1--8). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of the ozone atmospheric pollution problem in the MCMZ, as well as to analyze the results of several implemented air pollution control strategies.« less

Observations of the temporal variability in aerosol properties and their relationships to meteorology in the summer monsoonal South China Sea/East Sea: the scale-dependent role of monsoonal flows, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, tropical cyclones, squall lines and cold pools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reid, J. S.; Lagrosas, N. D.; Jonsson, H. H.; Reid, E. A.; Sessions, W. R.; Simpas, J. B.; Uy, S. N.; Boyd, T. J.; Atwood, S. A.; Blake, D. R.; Campbell, J. R.; Cliff, S. S.; Holben, B. N.; Holz, R. E.; Hyer, E. J.; Lynch, P.; Meinardi, S.; Posselt, D. J.; Richardson, K. A.; Salinas, S. V.; Smirnov, A.; Wang, Q.; Yu, L.; Zhang, J.

2015-02-01

In a joint NRL/Manila Observatory mission, as part of the Seven SouthEast Asian Studies program (7-SEAS), a 2-week, late September 2011 research cruise in the northern Palawan archipelago was undertaken to observe the nature of southwest monsoonal aerosol particles in the South China Sea/East Sea (SCS/ES) and Sulu Sea region. Previous analyses suggested this region as a receptor for biomass burning from Borneo and Sumatra for boundary layer air entering the monsoonal trough. Anthropogenic pollution and biofuel emissions are also ubiquitous, as is heavy shipping traffic. Here, we provide an overview of the regional environment during the cruise, a time series of key aerosol and meteorological parameters, and their interrelationships. Overall, this cruise provides a narrative of the processes that control regional aerosol loadings and their possible feedbacks with clouds and precipitation. While 2011 was a moderate El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) La Niña year, higher burning activity and lower precipitation was more typical of neutral conditions. The large-scale aerosol environment was modulated by the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and its associated tropical cyclone (TC) activity in a manner consistent with the conceptual analysis performed by Reid et al. (2012). Advancement of the MJO from phase 3 to 6 with accompanying cyclogenesis during the cruise period strengthened flow patterns in the SCS/ES that modulated aerosol life cycle. TC inflow arms of significant convection sometimes span from Sumatra to Luzon, resulting in very low particle concentrations (minimum condensation nuclei CN < 150 cm-3, non-sea-salt PM2.5 < 1 μg m-3). However, elevated carbon monoxide levels were occasionally observed suggesting passage of polluted air masses whose aerosol particles had been rained out. Conversely, two drier periods occurred with higher aerosol particle concentrations originating from Borneo and Southern Sumatra (CN > 3000 cm-3 and non-sea-salt PM2.5 10-25 μg m-3). These cases corresponded with two different mechanisms of convection suppression: lower free-tropospheric dry-air intrusion from the Indian Ocean, and large-scale TC-induced subsidence. Veering vertical wind shear also resulted in aerosol transport into this region being mainly in the marine boundary layer (MBL), although lower free troposphere transport was possible on the western sides of Sumatra and Borneo. At the hourly time scale, particle concentrations were observed to be modulated by integer factors through convection and associated cold pools. Geostationary satellite observations suggest that convection often takes the form of squall lines, which are bowed up to 500 km across the monsoonal flow and 50 km wide. These squall lines, initiated by cold pools from large thunderstorms and likely sustained by a veering vertical wind shear and aforementioned mid-troposphere dry layers, propagated over 1500 km across the entirety of the SCS/ES, effectively cutting large swaths of MBL aerosol particles out of the region. Our conclusion is that while large-scale flow patterns are very important in modulating convection, and hence in allowing long-range transport of smoke and pollution, more short-lived phenomena can modulate cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations in the region, resulting in pockets of clean and polluted MBL air. This will no doubt complicate large scale comparisons of aerosol-cloud interaction.

Domain wall and isocurvature perturbation problems in a supersymmetric axion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawasaki, Masahiro; Sonomoto, Eisuke

2018-04-01

The axion causes two serious cosmological problems, domain wall and isocurvature perturbation problems. Linde pointed out that the isocurvature perturbations are suppressed when the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) scalar field takes a large value ˜Mpl (Planck scale) during inflation. In this case, however, the PQ field with large amplitude starts to oscillate after inflation, and large fluctuations of the PQ field are produced through parametric resonance, which leads to the formation of domain walls. We consider a supersymmetric axion model and examine whether domain walls are formed by using lattice simulation. It is found that the domain wall problem does not appear in the SUSY axion model when the initial value of the PQ field is less than 1 03×v , where v is the PQ symmetry breaking scale.

Large-scale linear programs in planning and prediction.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-06-01

Large-scale linear programs are at the core of many traffic-related optimization problems in both planning and prediction. Moreover, many of these involve significant uncertainty, and hence are modeled using either chance constraints, or robust optim...

Final Report: Large-Scale Optimization for Bayesian Inference in Complex Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ghattas, Omar

2013-10-15

The SAGUARO (Scalable Algorithms for Groundwater Uncertainty Analysis and Robust Optimiza- tion) Project focuses on the development of scalable numerical algorithms for large-scale Bayesian inversion in complex systems that capitalize on advances in large-scale simulation-based optimiza- tion and inversion methods. Our research is directed in three complementary areas: efficient approximations of the Hessian operator, reductions in complexity of forward simulations via stochastic spectral approximations and model reduction, and employing large-scale optimization concepts to accelerate sampling. Our efforts are integrated in the context of a challenging testbed problem that considers subsurface reacting flow and transport. The MIT component of the SAGUAROmore » Project addresses the intractability of conventional sampling methods for large-scale statistical inverse problems by devising reduced-order models that are faithful to the full-order model over a wide range of parameter values; sampling then employs the reduced model rather than the full model, resulting in very large computational savings. Results indicate little effect on the computed posterior distribution. On the other hand, in the Texas-Georgia Tech component of the project, we retain the full-order model, but exploit inverse problem structure (adjoint-based gradients and partial Hessian information of the parameter-to- observation map) to implicitly extract lower dimensional information on the posterior distribution; this greatly speeds up sampling methods, so that fewer sampling points are needed. We can think of these two approaches as "reduce then sample" and "sample then reduce." In fact, these two approaches are complementary, and can be used in conjunction with each other. Moreover, they both exploit deterministic inverse problem structure, in the form of adjoint-based gradient and Hessian information of the underlying parameter-to-observation map, to achieve their speedups.« less

An Integrated Environmental Assessment of the US Mid-Atlantic Region

Treesearch

James D. Wickham; K.B. Jones; Kurt H. Riitters; R.V. O' Neill; R.D. Tankersley; E.R. Smith; A.C. Neale; D.J. Chaloud

1999-01-01

Many of today's environmental problems are in scope and their effects overlap and interact. We developed a simple method to provide an integrated assessment of environmental conditions and estimate cumulative impacts across a large region, by combining data on land-cover, population, roads, streams, air pollution, and topography. The integrated assessment...

Mixed strategy to allocate resources with air pollution treatment in China: based on the analytic network process and large-group decision-making method.

PubMed

Chen, Xi; Zhao, Liu; Özdemir, Mujgan Sagir; Liang, Haiming

2018-04-05

The resource allocation of air pollution treatment in China is a complex problem, since many alternatives are available and many criteria influence mutually. A number of stakeholders participate in this issue holding different opinions because of the benefits they value. So a method is needed, based on the analytic network process (ANP) and large-group decision-making (LGDM), to rank the alternatives considering interdependent criteria and stakeholders' opinions. In this method, the criteria related to air pollution treatment are examined by experts. Then, the network structure of the problem is constructed based on the relationships between the criteria. Further, every participant in each group provide comparison matrices by judging the importance between criteria according to dominance, regarding a certain criteria (or goal), and the geometric average comparison matrix of each group is obtained. The decision weight of each group is derived by combining the subjective weight and the objective weight, in which the subjective weight is provided by organizers, while the objective weight is determined by considering the consensus levels of groups. The final comparison matrices are obtained by the geometric average of comparison matrices and the decision weights. Next, the resource allocation is made according to the priorities of the alternatives using the super decision software. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the use of the proposed method.

Urban emissions hotspots: Quantifying vehicle congestion and air pollution using mobile phone GPS data.

PubMed

Gately, Conor K; Hutyra, Lucy R; Peterson, Scott; Sue Wing, Ian

2017-10-01

On-road emissions vary widely on time scales as short as minutes and length scales as short as tens of meters. Detailed data on emissions at these scales are a prerequisite to accurately quantifying ambient pollution concentrations and identifying hotspots of human exposure within urban areas. We construct a highly resolved inventory of hourly fluxes of CO, NO 2 , NO x , PM 2.5 and CO 2 from road vehicles on 280,000 road segments in eastern Massachusetts for the year 2012. Our inventory integrates a large database of hourly vehicle speeds derived from mobile phone and vehicle GPS data with multiple regional datasets of vehicle flows, fleet characteristics, and local meteorology. We quantify the 'excess' emissions from traffic congestion, finding modest congestion enhancement (3-6%) at regional scales, but hundreds of local hotspots with highly elevated annual emissions (up to 75% for individual roadways in key corridors). Congestion-driven reductions in vehicle fuel economy necessitated 'excess' consumption of 113 million gallons of motor fuel, worth ∼ $415M, but this accounted for only 3.5% of the total fuel consumed in Massachusetts, as over 80% of vehicle travel occurs in uncongested conditions. Across our study domain, emissions are highly spatially concentrated, with 70% of pollution originating from only 10% of the roads. The 2011 EPA National Emissions Inventory (NEI) understates our aggregate emissions of NO x , PM 2.5 , and CO 2 by 46%, 38%, and 18%, respectively. However, CO emissions agree within 5% for the two inventories, suggesting that the large biases in NO x and PM 2.5 emissions arise from differences in estimates of diesel vehicle activity. By providing fine-scale information on local emission hotspots and regional emissions patterns, our inventory framework supports targeted traffic interventions, transparent benchmarking, and improvements in overall urban air quality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parameter estimation in large-scale systems biology models: a parallel and self-adaptive cooperative strategy.

PubMed

Penas, David R; González, Patricia; Egea, Jose A; Doallo, Ramón; Banga, Julio R

2017-01-21

The development of large-scale kinetic models is one of the current key issues in computational systems biology and bioinformatics. Here we consider the problem of parameter estimation in nonlinear dynamic models. Global optimization methods can be used to solve this type of problems but the associated computational cost is very large. Moreover, many of these methods need the tuning of a number of adjustable search parameters, requiring a number of initial exploratory runs and therefore further increasing the computation times. Here we present a novel parallel method, self-adaptive cooperative enhanced scatter search (saCeSS), to accelerate the solution of this class of problems. The method is based on the scatter search optimization metaheuristic and incorporates several key new mechanisms: (i) asynchronous cooperation between parallel processes, (ii) coarse and fine-grained parallelism, and (iii) self-tuning strategies. The performance and robustness of saCeSS is illustrated by solving a set of challenging parameter estimation problems, including medium and large-scale kinetic models of the bacterium E. coli, bakerés yeast S. cerevisiae, the vinegar fly D. melanogaster, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and a generic signal transduction network. The results consistently show that saCeSS is a robust and efficient method, allowing very significant reduction of computation times with respect to several previous state of the art methods (from days to minutes, in several cases) even when only a small number of processors is used. The new parallel cooperative method presented here allows the solution of medium and large scale parameter estimation problems in reasonable computation times and with small hardware requirements. Further, the method includes self-tuning mechanisms which facilitate its use by non-experts. We believe that this new method can play a key role in the development of large-scale and even whole-cell dynamic models.

Leaching behaviour of different scrap materials at recovery and recycling companies: full-, pilot- and lab-scale investigation.

PubMed

Blondeel, E; Chys, M; Depuydt, V; Folens, K; Du Laing, G; Verliefde, A; Van Hulle, S W H

2014-12-01

Scrap material recovery and recycling companies are confronted with waste water that has a highly fluctuating flow rate and composition. Common pollutants, such as COD, nutrients and suspended solids, potentially toxic metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and poly chlorinated biphenyls can exceed the discharge limits. An analysis of the leaching behaviour of different scrap materials and scrap yard sweepings was performed at full-scale, pilot-scale and lab-scale in order to find possible preventive solutions for this waste water problem. The results of these leaching tests (with concentrations that frequently exceeded the Flemish discharge limits) showed the importance of regular sweeping campaigns at the company, leak proof or covered storage of specific scrap materials and oil/water separation on particular leachates. The particulate versus dissolved fraction was also studied for the pollutants. For example, up to 98% of the polyaromatic hydrocarbons, poly chlorinated biphenyls and some metals were in the particulate form. This confirms the (potential) applicability of sedimentation and filtration techniques for the treatment of the majority of the leachates, and as such the rainwater run-off as a whole. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Multicity Analysis of the Short-Term Effects of Air Pollution on the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Hospital Admissions in Shandong, China.

PubMed

Liu, Yi; Sun, Jingjie; Gou, Yannong; Sun, Xiubin; Li, Xiujun; Yuan, Zhongshang; Kong, Lizhi; Xue, Fuzhong

2018-04-17

Although there is growing evidence linking chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospital admissions to the exposure to ambient air pollution, the effect can vary depending on the local geography, pollution type, and pollution level. The number of large-scale multicity studies remains limited in China. This study aims to assess the short-term effects of ambient air pollution (PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO₂, NO₂) on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospital admissions from 2015 to 2016, with a total of 216,159 records collected from 207 hospitals in 17 cities all over the Shandong province, east China. Generalized additive models and penalized splines were applied to study the data whilst controlling for confounding meteorological factors and long-term trends. The air pollution was analyzed with 0–6 day lag effects and the percentage change of hospital admissions was assessed for a 10-μg/m³ increase in the air pollution levels. We also examined the percentage changes for different age groups and gender, respectively. The results showed that air pollution was significantly associated with adverse health outcomes and stronger effects were observed for females. The air pollution health effects were also impacted by geographical factors such that the air pollution had weaker health effects in coastal cities.

Midweek Intensification of Rain in the U.S.: Does Air Pollution Invigorate Storms?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bell, T. L.; Rosenfeld, D.; Hahnenberger, M.

2005-01-01

The effect of pollution on rainfall has been observed to depend both on the type of pollution and the precipitating environment. The climatological consequences of pollution for rainfall are uncertain. In some urban areas, pollution varies with the day of the week because of weekly variations in human activity, in effect providing a repeated experiment on the effects of pollution. Weekly variations in temperature, pressure, cloud characteristics, hails and lightning are observed in many areas. Observing a weekly cycle in rainfall statistics has proven to be more difficult, although there is some evidence for it. Here we examine rainfall statistics from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite over the southern U.S. and adjacent waters, and find that there is a distinct, statistically significant weekly cycle in summertime rainfall over the southeast U.S., as well as weekly variations in rainfall over the nearby Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Rainfall over land peaks in the middle of the week, suggesting that summer rainfall on large scales may increase as pollution levels rise. Both rain statistics over land and what appear to be compensating effects over adjacent seas support the suggestion that air pollution invigorates convection and outflow aloft.

Physicochemical conditions and properties of particles in urban runoff and rivers: Implications for runoff pollution.

PubMed

Wang, Qian; Zhang, Qionghua; Wu, Yaketon; Wang, Xiaochang C

2017-04-01

In this study, to gain an improved understanding of the fate and fractionation of particle-bound pollutants, we evaluated the physicochemical conditions and the properties of particles in rainwater, urban runoff, and rivers of Yixing, a city with a large drainage density in the Taihu Lake Basin, China. Road runoff and river samples were collected during the wet and dry seasons in 2015 and 2016. There were significant differences between the physicochemical conditions (pH, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), and electroconductivity (EC)) of rainwater, runoff, and rivers. The lowest pH and highest ORP values of rainwater provide the optimal conditions for leaching of particle-bound pollutants such as heavy metals. The differences in the physicochemical conditions of the runoff and rivers may contribute to the redistribution of pollutants between particulate and dissolved phases after runoff is discharged into waterways. Runoff and river particles were mainly composed of silt and clay (<63 μm, 88.3%-90.7%), and runoff particles contained a higher proportion of nano-scale particles (<1 μm) but a lower proportion of submicron-scale particles (1-16 μm) than rivers. The ratio of turbidity to TSS increased with the proportion of fine particles and was associated with the accumulation of pollutants and settling ability of particles, which shows that it can be used as an index when monitoring runoff pollution. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pollution monitoring of puget sound with honey bees.

PubMed

Bromenshenk, J J; Carlson, S R; Simpson, J C; Thomas, J M

1985-02-08

To show that honey bees are effective biological monitors of environmental contaminants over large geographic areas, beekeepers of Puget Sound, Washington, collected pollen and bees for chemical analysis. From these data, kriging maps of arsenic, cadmium, and fluoride were generated. Results, based on actual concentrations of contaminants in bee tissues, show that the greatest concentrations of contaminants occur close to Commencement Bay and that honey bees are effective as large-scale monitors.

Air pollution, greenhouse gases and climate change: Global and regional perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramanathan, V.; Feng, Y.

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) warm the surface and the atmosphere with significant implications for rainfall, retreat of glaciers and sea ice, sea level, among other factors. About 30 years ago, it was recognized that the increase in tropospheric ozone from air pollution (NO x, CO and others) is an important greenhouse forcing term. In addition, the recognition of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on stratospheric ozone and its climate effects linked chemistry and climate strongly. What is less recognized, however, is a comparably major global problem dealing with air pollution. Until about ten years ago, air pollution was thought to be just an urban or a local problem. But new data have revealed that air pollution is transported across continents and ocean basins due to fast long-range transport, resulting in trans-oceanic and trans-continental plumes of atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) containing sub micron size particles, i.e., aerosols. ABCs intercept sunlight by absorbing as well as reflecting it, both of which lead to a large surface dimming. The dimming effect is enhanced further because aerosols may nucleate more cloud droplets, which makes the clouds reflect more solar radiation. The dimming has a surface cooling effect and decreases evaporation of moisture from the surface, thus slows down the hydrological cycle. On the other hand, absorption of solar radiation by black carbon and some organics increase atmospheric heating and tend to amplify greenhouse warming of the atmosphere. ABCs are concentrated in regional and mega-city hot spots. Long-range transport from these hot spots causes widespread plumes over the adjacent oceans. Such a pattern of regionally concentrated surface dimming and atmospheric solar heating, accompanied by widespread dimming over the oceans, gives rise to large regional effects. Only during the last decade, we have begun to comprehend the surprisingly large regional impacts. In S. Asia and N. Africa, the large north-south gradient in the ABC dimming has altered both the north-south gradients in sea surface temperatures and land-ocean contrast in surface temperatures, which in turn slow down the monsoon circulation and decrease rainfall over the continents. On the other hand, heating by black carbon warms the atmosphere at elevated levels from 2 to 6 km, where most tropical glaciers are located, thus strengthening the effect of GHGs on retreat of snow packs and glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan glaciers. Globally, the surface cooling effect of ABCs may have masked as much 47% of the global warming by greenhouse gases, with an uncertainty range of 20-80%. This presents a dilemma since efforts to curb air pollution may unmask the ABC cooling effect and enhance the surface warming. Thus efforts to reduce GHGs and air pollution should be done under one common framework. The uncertainties in our understanding of the ABC effects are large, but we are discovering new ways in which human activities are changing the climate and the environment.

Modelling pollutants dispersion and plume rise from large hydrocarbon tank fires in neutrally stratified atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Argyropoulos, C. D.; Sideris, G. M.; Christolis, M. N.; Nivolianitou, Z.; Markatos, N. C.

2010-02-01

Petrochemical industries normally use storage tanks containing large amounts of flammable and hazardous substances. Therefore, the occurrence of a tank fire, such as the large industrial accident on 11th December 2005 at Buncefield Oil Storage Depots, is possible and usually leads to fire and explosions. Experience has shown that the continuous production of black smoke from these fires due to the toxic gases from the combustion process, presents a potential environmental and health problem that is difficult to assess. The goals of the present effort are to estimate the height of the smoke plume, the ground-level concentrations of the toxic pollutants (smoke, SO 2, CO, PAHs, VOCs) and to characterize risk zones by comparing the ground-level concentrations with existing safety limits. For the application of the numerical procedure developed, an external floating-roof tank has been selected with dimensions of 85 m diameter and 20 m height. Results are presented and discussed. It is concluded that for all scenarios considered, the ground-level concentrations of smoke, SO 2, CO, PAHs and VOCs do not exceed the safety limit of IDLH and there are no "death zones" due to the pollutant concentrations.

Integrated modelling of nitrate loads to coastal waters and land rent applied to catchment-scale water management.

PubMed

Refsgaard, A; Jacobsen, T; Jacobsen, B; Ørum, J-E

2007-01-01

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires an integrated approach to river basin management in order to meet environmental and ecological objectives. This paper presents concepts and full-scale application of an integrated modelling framework. The Ringkoebing Fjord basin is characterized by intensive agricultural production and leakage of nitrate constitute a major pollution problem with respect groundwater aquifers (drinking water), fresh surface water systems (water quality of lakes) and coastal receiving waters (eutrophication). The case study presented illustrates an advanced modelling approach applied in river basin management. Point sources (e.g. sewage treatment plant discharges) and distributed diffuse sources (nitrate leakage) are included to provide a modelling tool capable of simulating pollution transport from source to recipient to analyse the effects of specific, localized basin water management plans. The paper also includes a land rent modelling approach which can be used to choose the most cost-effective measures and the location of these measures. As a forerunner to the use of basin-scale models in WFD basin water management plans this project demonstrates the potential and limitations of comprehensive, integrated modelling tools.

An algorithm for generating modular hierarchical neural network classifiers: a step toward larger scale applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roverso, Davide

2003-08-01

Many-class learning is the problem of training a classifier to discriminate among a large number of target classes. Together with the problem of dealing with high-dimensional patterns (i.e. a high-dimensional input space), the many class problem (i.e. a high-dimensional output space) is a major obstacle to be faced when scaling-up classifier systems and algorithms from small pilot applications to large full-scale applications. The Autonomous Recursive Task Decomposition (ARTD) algorithm is here proposed as a solution to the problem of many-class learning. Example applications of ARTD to neural classifier training are also presented. In these examples, improvements in training time are shown to range from 4-fold to more than 30-fold in pattern classification tasks of both static and dynamic character.

Fuel savings and emissions reductions from light duty fuel cell vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mark, J.; Ohi, J. M.; Hudson, D. V., Jr.

1994-04-01

Fuel cell vehicles (FCV's) operate efficiently, emit few pollutants, and run on nonpetroleum fuels. Because of these characteristics, the large-scale deployment of FCV's has the potential to lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil and improve air quality. This study characterizes the benefits of large-scale FCV deployment in the light duty vehicle market. Specifically, the study assesses the potential fuel savings and emissions reductions resulting from large-scale use of these FCV's and identifies the key parameters that affect the scope of the benefits from FCV use. The analysis scenario assumes that FCV's will compete with gasoline-powered light trucks and cars in the new vehicle market for replacement of retired vehicles and will compete for growth in the total market. Analysts concluded that the potential benefits from FCV's, measured in terms of consumer outlays for motor fuel and the value of reduced air emissions, are substantial.

Earth Trek...Explore Your Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Gerald

This publication introduces children to water, air, and noise pollution, solid waste disposal, and pesticide use problems. Several pollution problems are explained and the importance of solving them is stressed. Some concepts such as recycling, closed systems, and environments that are related to pollution problems are also introduced. Each…

The island coalescence problem: Scaling of reconnection in extended fluid models including higher-order moments

DOE PAGES

Ng, Jonathan; Huang, Yi -Min; Hakim, Ammar; ...

2015-11-05

As modeling of collisionless magnetic reconnection in most space plasmas with realistic parameters is beyond the capability of today's simulations, due to the separation between global and kinetic length scales, it is important to establish scaling relations in model problems so as to extrapolate to realistic scales. Furthermore, large scale particle-in-cell simulations of island coalescence have shown that the time averaged reconnection rate decreases with system size, while fluid systems at such large scales in the Hall regime have not been studied. Here, we perform the complementary resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), Hall MHD, and two fluid simulations using a ten-moment modelmore » with the same geometry. In contrast to the standard Harris sheet reconnection problem, Hall MHD is insufficient to capture the physics of the reconnection region. Additionally, motivated by the results of a recent set of hybrid simulations which show the importance of ion kinetics in this geometry, we evaluate the efficacy of the ten-moment model in reproducing such results.« less

Preventing Large-Scale Controlled Substance Diversion From Within the Pharmacy

PubMed Central

Martin, Emory S.; Dzierba, Steven H.; Jones, David M.

2013-01-01

Large-scale diversion of controlled substances (CS) from within a hospital or heath system pharmacy is a rare but growing problem. It is the responsibility of pharmacy leadership to scrutinize control processes to expose weaknesses. This article reviews examples of large-scale diversion incidents and diversion techniques and provides practical strategies to stimulate enhanced CS security within the pharmacy staff. Large-scale diversion from within a pharmacy department can be averted by a pharmacist-in-charge who is informed and proactive in taking effective countermeasures. PMID:24421497

Studying Cracking and Oil Invasion in Porous Medium During Drying

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Qiu

We study two interesting phenomena occurred during the evaporation of solvent in porous medium: first, the cracking behavior; and second, the expanding mechanism and the collecting methods of the non-evaporative phase. In the first part of this thesis, we visualize the cracking behavior of colloidal suspensions during drying by a confocal microscope. We develop an effective method which can completely eliminate cracking during drying: by adding emulsion droplets into colloidal suspensions, we can systematically decrease the amount of cracking, and eliminate it completely above a critical droplet concentration. We also find another effect that the emulsion droplets can bring: it varies the speed of air invasion and provides a powerful method to adjust drying rate. Besides, we investigate the samples' fundamental mechanical properties with a rheometer and clarify the underlying physical mechanism for the decreasing of crack amounts. With the effective control over cracking and drying rate, our study may find important applications in many drying and cracking related industrial processes. In the second part of the thesis, we conduct a study on the expanding mechanism and collecting methods of the non-evaporative phase in porous medium, which is inspired by a practical pollution problem that occurs when oil spills to the sandy beach. We build a system in a smaller scale to mimic the practical pollution and investigate the distribution change of the polluting phase as the flushing cycle increases. We find an obvious expansion of the polluting phase after several flushing cycles in both hydrophilic and hydrophobic porous media, but with different distributions and expanding behaviors. We explained this difference by analyzing the pressure distribution in the system at the pore level. Finally, we develop two methods to concentrate the polluting phase in some particular regions, which is beneficial to collect and solve the practical pollution problem.

A review of environmental and human exposure to persistent organic pollutants in the Pearl River Delta, South China.

PubMed

Zhang, Kai; Wei, Yan-Li; Zeng, Eddy Y

2013-10-01

Rapid economic growth in South China (including Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Macau), particularly within the Pearl River Delta region, has resulted in severe pollution of the natural eco-environment in the last three decades. Large amounts of monitoring data on organic pollution in the Pearl River Delta have been accumulated, which allows us to conduct a fairly comprehensive assessment of the state of the Pearl River Delta and elucidate spatial and temporal patterns of pollution on a regional scale. Of various causes for environmental deterioration, negative impact from persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is a global concern. This review examines the current levels and distribution patterns of several POPs, namely DDT (and its metabolites DDD and DDE), hexachlorocyclohexanes, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in various environmental compartments of South China. The general information on environmental occurrence, regional behaviors, ecological effects, and human exposure of these POPs in this region are reviewed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

77 FR 9239 - California State Motor Vehicle and Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; Truck Idling...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-16

... Pollution Control Standards; Truck Idling Requirements; Notice of Decision AGENCY: Environmental Protection... to meet its serious air pollution problems. Likewise, EPA has consistently recognized that California... and high concentrations of automobiles, create serious pollution problems.'' \\37\\ Furthermore, no...

Hybrid Modeling Approach to Estimate Exposures of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) for the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA).

PubMed

Scheffe, Richard D; Strum, Madeleine; Phillips, Sharon B; Thurman, James; Eyth, Alison; Fudge, Steve; Morris, Mark; Palma, Ted; Cook, Richard

2016-11-15

A hybrid air quality model has been developed and applied to estimate annual concentrations of 40 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) across the continental United States (CONUS) to support the 2011 calendar year National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA). By combining a chemical transport model (CTM) with a Gaussian dispersion model, both reactive and nonreactive HAPs are accommodated across local to regional spatial scales, through a multiplicative technique designed to improve mass conservation relative to previous additive methods. The broad scope of multiple pollutants capturing regional to local spatial scale patterns across a vast spatial domain is precedent setting within the air toxics community. The hybrid design exhibits improved performance relative to the stand alone CTM and dispersion model. However, model performance varies widely across pollutant categories and quantifiably definitive performance assessments are hampered by a limited observation base and challenged by the multiple physical and chemical attributes of HAPs. Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are the dominant HAP concentration and cancer risk drivers, characterized by strong regional signals associated with naturally emitted carbonyl precursors enhanced in urban transport corridors with strong mobile source sector emissions. The multiple pollutant emission characteristics of combustion dominated source sectors creates largely similar concentration patterns across the majority of HAPs. However, reactive carbonyls exhibit significantly less spatial variability relative to nonreactive HAPs across the CONUS.

Sedimentary records of trace elements from large European lakes (Switzerland) document historic to recent freshwater pollution and climate-induced runoff variations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thevenon, F.; Wirth, S. B.; Fujak, M.; Poté, J.; Thierry, A.; Chiaradia, M.; Girardclos, S.

2011-12-01

Continuous sedimentary records of anthropogenic and natural trace elements determined by ICPMS, from 5 large and deep perialpine lakes from Central Europe (Switzerland), evidence the environmental impacts of industrial fossil fuel pollution. In fact, the greatest increase in heavy metal pollution was registered at all the studied sites following the European industrial revolution of ca. AD 1800; with the highest values during the middle part of the 20th century. On a regional scale, anthropogenic heavy metal input subsequently stopped increasing thanks to remediation strategies such as the implementation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). On the other hand, the discharge of industrial treated wastewaters into Vidy Bay of Lake Geneva during the second part of the 20th century involved the sedimentation of highly contaminated sediments in the area surrounding the WWTP outlet pipe discharge; less than 4 km from the main supply of drinking water of Lausanne (127'000 hab.). Microbial analyses furthermore reveal i) high increase in bacterial densities following the lake eutrophication in the 1970s, and that ii) the related sediments can be considered as a reservoir of antibiotic resistant bacteria/genes (of human origin). We finally compare instrumental hydrological data over the last century with variations of lithogenic trace elements (e.g., titanium) as registered in three large lakes (Brienz, Thun and Bienne) connected by the River Aar. This task allows to better constraining the runoff variations on a regional scale over the last decades for the the River Aar, and its possible increase under warming climate conditions in the European Alps.

Determining volume sensitive waters in Beaufort County, SC tidal creeks

Treesearch

Andrew Tweel; Denise Sanger; Anne Blair; John Leffler

2016-01-01

Non-point source pollution from stormwater runoff associated with large-scale land use changes threatens the integrity of ecologically and economically valuable estuarine ecosystems. Beaufort County, SC implemented volume-based stormwater regulations on the rationale that if volume discharge is controlled, contaminant loading will also be controlled.

Space Station: Key to the Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC.

The possible applications, advantages and features of an advanced space station to be developed are considered in a non-technical manner in this booklet. Some of the areas of application considered include the following: the detection of large scale dynamic earth processes such as changes in snow pack, crops, and air pollution levels; the…

Partial degradation of five pesticides and an industrial pollutant by ozonation in a pilot-plant scale reactor.

PubMed

Maldonado, M I; Malato, S; Pérez-Estrada, L A; Gernjak, W; Oller, I; Doménech, Xavier; Peral, José

2006-11-16

Aqueous solutions of a mixture of several pesticides (alachlor, atrazine, chlorfenvinphos, diuron and isoproturon), considered PS (priority substances) by the European Commission, and an intermediate product of the pharmaceutical industry (alpha-methylphenylglycine, MPG) chosen as a model industrial pollutant, have been degraded at pilot-plant scale using ozonation. This study is part of a large research project [CADOX Project, A Coupled Advanced Oxidation-Biological Process for Recycling of Industrial Wastewater Containing Persistent Organic Contaminants, Contract No.: EVK1-CT-2002-00122, European Commission, http://www.psa.es/webeng/projects/cadox/index.html] founded by the European Union that inquires into the potential coupling between chemical and biological oxidations for the removal of toxic or non-biodegradable contaminants from water. The evolution of pollutant concentration, TOC mineralization, generation of inorganic species and consumption of O3 have been followed in order to visualize the chemical treatment effectiveness. Although complete mineralization is hard to accomplish, and large amounts of the oxidant are required to lower the organic content of the solutions, the possibility of ozonation cannot be ruled out if partial degradation is the final goal wanted. In this sense, Zahn-Wellens biodegradability tests of the ozonated MPG solutions have been performed, and the possibility of a further coupling with a secondary biological treatment for complete organic removal is envisaged.

A forward-advancing wave expansion method for numerical solution of large-scale sound propagation problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rolla, L. Barrera; Rice, H. J.

2006-09-01

In this paper a "forward-advancing" field discretization method suitable for solving the Helmholtz equation in large-scale problems is proposed. The forward wave expansion method (FWEM) is derived from a highly efficient discretization procedure based on interpolation of wave functions known as the wave expansion method (WEM). The FWEM computes the propagated sound field by means of an exclusively forward advancing solution, neglecting the backscattered field. It is thus analogous to methods such as the (one way) parabolic equation method (PEM) (usually discretized using standard finite difference or finite element methods). These techniques do not require the inversion of large system matrices and thus enable the solution of large-scale acoustic problems where backscatter is not of interest. Calculations using FWEM are presented for two propagation problems and comparisons to data computed with analytical and theoretical solutions and show this forward approximation to be highly accurate. Examples of sound propagation over a screen in upwind and downwind refracting atmospheric conditions at low nodal spacings (0.2 per wavelength in the propagation direction) are also included to demonstrate the flexibility and efficiency of the method.

Aquatic Nitrate Retention at River Network Scales Across Flow Conditions Determined Using Nested In Situ Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wollheim, W. M.; Mulukutla, G. K.; Cook, C.; Carey, R. O.

2017-11-01

Nonpoint pollution sources are strongly influenced by hydrology and are therefore sensitive to climate variability. Some pollutants entering aquatic ecosystems, e.g., nitrate, can be mitigated by in-stream processes during transport through river networks. Whole river network nitrate retention is difficult to quantify with observations. High frequency, in situ nitrate sensors, deployed in nested locations within a single watershed, can improve estimates of both nonpoint inputs and aquatic retention at river network scales. We deployed a nested sensor network and associated sampling in the urbanizing Oyster River watershed in coastal New Hampshire, USA, to quantify storm event-scale loading and retention at network scales. An end member analysis used the relative behavior of reactive nitrate and conservative chloride to infer river network fate of nitrate. In the headwater catchments, nitrate and chloride concentrations are both increasingly diluted with increasing storm size. At the mouth of the watershed, chloride is also diluted, but nitrate tended to increase. The end member analysis suggests that this pattern is the result of high retention during small storms (51-78%) that declines to zero during large storms. Although high frequency nitrate sensors did not alter estimates of fluxes over seasonal time periods compared to less frequent grab sampling, they provide the ability to estimate nitrate flux versus storm size at event scales that is critical for such analyses. Nested sensor networks can improve understanding of the controls of both loading and network scale retention, and therefore also improve management of nonpoint source pollution.

Remote Sensing of Environmental Pollution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

North, G. W.

1971-01-01

Environmental pollution is a problem of international scope and concern. It can be subdivided into problems relating to water, air, or land pollution. Many of the problems in these three categories lend themselves to study and possible solution by remote sensing. Through the use of remote sensing systems and techniques, it is possible to detect and monitor, and in some cases, identify, measure, and study the effects of various environmental pollutants. As a guide for making decisions regarding the use of remote sensors for pollution studies, a special five-dimensional sensor/applications matrix has been designed. The matrix defines an environmental goal, ranks the various remote sensing objectives in terms of their ability to assist in solving environmental problems, lists the environmental problems, ranks the sensors that can be used for collecting data on each problem, and finally ranks the sensor platform options that are currently available.

Water availability and quality in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries: implications for public health.

PubMed

Sherif, Mohsen

2010-07-01

Environmental problems and their potential impacts on public health vary in scale and time depending on the level and nature of pollutants. Although water is regarded as the source of all kinds of life on earth, it also acts as an efficient carrier of pollutants. Contamination of drinking water, agricultural water, or recreational water by infectious pathogens, chemical pollutants, or others can have significant impacts on public health. During the past few decades, waterborne diseases continued to spread and the health risks continued to increase. The correlation between water resources and public health is more evident in arid regions. This article discusses the availability of water resources in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and elaborates on the possible impacts of water resources on public health. It emphasizes the importance of preservation of water quality and prevention of waterborne diseases, which could be achieved through a coordinated effort from diverse groups and disciplines.

Asymmetric correlations in the ozone concentration dynamics of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meraz, M.; Alvarez-Ramirez, J.; Echeverria, J. C.

2017-04-01

Mexico City is a megalopolis with severe pollution problems caused by vehicles and industrial activity. This condition imposes important risks to human health and economic activity. Based on hourly-sampled data during the last decade, in a recent work (Meraz et al., 2015) we showed that the pollutant dynamics in Mexico City exhibits long-term and scale-dependent persistence effects resulting from the combination of pollutants generation by vehicles and removal by advection mechanisms. In this work, we analyzed the dynamics of ozone, a key component reflecting the degree of atmospheric contamination, to determine if its long-term correlations are asymmetric in relation to the actual concentration trend (increasing or decreasing). The analysis is conducted with detrended fluctuation analysis. The results showed that the average ozone dynamics is uncorrelated when the concentration is increasing. In contrast, the ozone dynamics shows long-term anti-persistence effects when the concentration is decreasing.

Solving large scale traveling salesman problems by chaotic neurodynamics.

PubMed

Hasegawa, Mikio; Ikeguch, Tohru; Aihara, Kazuyuki

2002-03-01

We propose a novel approach for solving large scale traveling salesman problems (TSPs) by chaotic dynamics. First, we realize the tabu search on a neural network, by utilizing the refractory effects as the tabu effects. Then, we extend it to a chaotic neural network version. We propose two types of chaotic searching methods, which are based on two different tabu searches. While the first one requires neurons of the order of n2 for an n-city TSP, the second one requires only n neurons. Moreover, an automatic parameter tuning method of our chaotic neural network is presented for easy application to various problems. Last, we show that our method with n neurons is applicable to large TSPs such as an 85,900-city problem and exhibits better performance than the conventional stochastic searches and the tabu searches.

Lidar Monitoring of Mexico City's Atmosphere During High Air Pollution Episodes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quick, C. R., Jr.; Archuleta, F. L.; Hof, D. E.; Karl, R. R., Jr.; Tiee, J. J., Jr.; Eichinger, W. E.; Holtkamp, D. B.; Tellier, L.

1992-01-01

Over the last two decades, Mexico City, like many large industrial and populous urban areas, has developed a serious air pollution problem, especially during the winter months when there are frequent temperature inversions and weak winds. The deteriorating air quality is the result of several factors. The basin within which Mexico City lies in Mexico's center of political, administrative and economic activity, generating 34 percent of the gross domestic product and 42 percent of the industrial revenue, and supporting a population which is rapidly approaching the 20 million mark. The basin is surrounded by mountains on three sides which end up preventing rapid dispersal of pollutants. Emissions from the transportation fleet (more than 3 million vehicles) are one of the primary pollution sources, and most are uncontrolled. Catalytic converters are just now working their way into the fleet. The Mexico City Air Quality Research Initiative in an international collaboration project between the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Mexican Petroleum Institute are dedicated to the investigation of the air quality problem in Mexico City. The main objective of the project is to identify and assess the cost and benefits of major options being proposed to improve the air quality. The project is organized into three main activity areas: (1) modeling and simulation; (2) characterization and measurements; and (3) strategic evaluation.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hoffman, M.

Six months after Saddam Hussein's torching of more than 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, health officials, meteorologists, and environmental experts convened during mid-August in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to assess the impact of the fires. The soot cloud produced by the fires hasn't produced a nuclear winter, nor are the carbon dioxide and other gases released going to have an appreciable effect on global warming, although regional weather changes are possible. So far adverse health effects from the heavy pall of pollution caused by the fires have been surprisingly mild. This isn't to say that premature deaths will not occur, but many scientistsmore » had feared much worse. Nevertheless, all researchers concede that the data for this particular conclusion are still preliminary, and they expressed concerns that health problems may worsen in the coming months. Most of the health effects are expected in a region blanketed by a plume of smoke 800 to 1,000 kilometers long. The average concentrations of the primary pollutants it contains, carbon-based particles and sulfur dioxide, are similar to those in any large urban center. Still, the oil fires increase the pollution burden on Kuwait, which already had a problem with particulates in the air, and some epidemiologists expect that the extra pollutants will take their toll.« less

Biomonitoring of air pollution as exemplified by recent IAEA programs.

PubMed

Smodis, B; Parr, R M

1999-01-01

Biomonitoring is an appropriate tool for assessing the levels of atmospheric pollution, having several advantages compared with the use of direct measurements of contaminants (e.g., in airborne particulate matter, atmospheric deposition, precipitation), related primarily to the permanent and common occurrence of the chosen organisms in the field, the ease of sampling, and trace element accumulation. Furthermore, biomonitors may provide a measure of integrated exposure over an extended period of time and are present in remote areas and no expensive technical equipment is involved in collecting them. They accumulate contaminants over the exposure time and concentrate them, thus facilitating analytical measurements. Based on large-scale biomonitoring surveys, polluted areas can be identified, and by applying appropriate statistical tools, information can be obtained on the type of pollution sources and on the transboundary transport of atmospheric pollutants. The International Atomic Energy Agency is including the research on biomonitors in its projects on health-related environmental studies. Biomonitoring activities from several coordinated research projects on air pollution are presented, and results from an international workshop are discussed. In addition, activities in supporting improvement quality in the participating laboratories are outlined.

Cosmic strings and the large-scale structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stebbins, Albert

1988-01-01

A possible problem for cosmic string models of galaxy formation is presented. If very large voids are common and if loop fragmentation is not much more efficient than presently believed, then it may be impossible for string scenarios to produce the observed large-scale structure with Omega sub 0 = 1 and without strong environmental biasing.

Characterization and Scaling of Black Carbon Aerosol Concentration with City Population Based on In-Situ Measurements and Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paredes-Miranda, G.; Arnott, W. P.; Moosmuller, H.

2010-12-01

The global trend toward urbanization and the resulting increase in city population has directed attention toward air pollution in megacities. A closely related question of importance for urban planning and attainment of air quality standards is how pollutant concentrations scale with city population. In this study, we use measurements of light absorption and light scattering coefficients as proxies for primary (i.e., black carbon; BC) and total (i.e., particulate matter; PM) pollutant concentration, to start addressing the following questions: What patterns and generalizations are emerging from our expanding data sets on urban air pollution? How does the per-capita air pollution vary with economic, geographic, and meteorological conditions of an urban area? Does air pollution provide an upper limit on city size? Diurnal analysis of black carbon concentration measurements in suburban Mexico City, Mexico, Las Vegas, NV, USA, and Reno, NV, USA for similar seasons suggests that commonly emitted primary air pollutant concentrations scale approximately as the square root of the urban population N, consistent with a simple 2-d box model. The measured absorption coefficient Babs is approximately proportional to the BC concentration (primary pollution) and thus scales with the square root of population (N). Since secondary pollutants form through photochemical reactions involving primary pollutants, they scale also with square root of N. Therefore the scattering coefficient Bsca, a proxy for PM concentration is also expected to scale with square root of N. Here we present light absorption and scattering measurements and data on meteorological conditions and compare the population scaling of these pollutant measurements with predictions from the simple 2-d box model. We find that these basin cities are connected by the square root of N dependence. Data from other cities will be discussed as time permits.

Calibration and validation of a phenomenological influent pollutant disturbance scenario generator using full-scale data.

PubMed

Flores-Alsina, Xavier; Saagi, Ramesh; Lindblom, Erik; Thirsing, Carsten; Thornberg, Dines; Gernaey, Krist V; Jeppsson, Ulf

2014-03-15

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the full-scale feasibility of the phenomenological dynamic influent pollutant disturbance scenario generator (DIPDSG) that was originally used to create the influent data of the International Water Association (IWA) Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2 (BSM2). In this study, the influent characteristics of two large Scandinavian treatment facilities are studied for a period of two years. A step-wise procedure based on adjusting the most sensitive parameters at different time scales is followed to calibrate/validate the DIPDSG model blocks for: 1) flow rate; 2) pollutants (carbon, nitrogen); 3) temperature; and, 4) transport. Simulation results show that the model successfully describes daily/weekly and seasonal variations and the effect of rainfall and snow melting on the influent flow rate, pollutant concentrations and temperature profiles. Furthermore, additional phenomena such as size and accumulation/flush of particulates of/in the upstream catchment and sewer system are incorporated in the simulated time series. Finally, this study is complemented with: 1) the generation of additional future scenarios showing the effects of different rainfall patterns (climate change) or influent biodegradability (process uncertainty) on the generated time series; 2) a demonstration of how to reduce the cost/workload of measuring campaigns by filling the gaps due to missing data in the influent profiles; and, 3) a critical discussion of the presented results balancing model structure/calibration procedure complexity and prediction capabilities. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The developing framework of marine ecotoxicology: Pollutants as a variable in marine ecosystems?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luoma, Samuel N.

1996-01-01

Marine ecosystems include a subset in which at least some interrelated geochemical, biochemical, physiological, population and community characteristics are changed by pollutants. Moderate contamination is relatively widespread in coastal and estuarine ecosystems, so the subset of ecosystems with at least some processes affected could be relatively large. Pollutant influences have changed and will probably continue to change on time scales of decades. Biological exposures and dose in such ecosystems are species-specific and determined by how the species is exposed to different environmental media and the geochemistry of individual pollutants within those media. Bioaccumulation models offer significant promise for interpreting such exposures. Biological responses to pollutants need to be more directly linked to exposure and dose. At the level of the individual this might be improved by better understanding relationships between tissue concentrations of pollutants and responses to pollutants. Multi-discipline field and laboratory studies combined with advanced understanding of some basic processes have reduced the ambiguities in interpreting a few physiological/organismic responses to pollutants in nature. Recognition of pollutant-induced patterns in population responses could lead to similar advances. A rational framework for ecotoxicology is developing, but its further advance is dependent upon better integration of ecotoxicology with basic marine ecology and biology.

A Satellite-based Assessment of Trans-Pacific Transport of Pollution Aerosol

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Hongbin; Remer, Lorraine; Chin, Mian; Bian, Huisheng; Kleidman, Richard; Diehl. Thomas

2007-01-01

It has been well documented that pollution aerosol and dust from East Asia can transport across the North Pacific basin, reaching North America and beyond. Such intercontinental transport extends the impact of aerosols for climate change, air quality, atmospheric chemistry, and ocean biology from local and regional scales to hemispheric and global scales. Long term, measurement-based studies are necessary to adequately assess the implications of these wider impacts. A satellite-based assessment can augment intensive field campaigns by expanding temporal and spatial scales and also serve as constraints for model simulations. Satellite imagers have been providing a wealth of evidence for the intercontinental transport of aerosols for more than two decades. Quantitative assessments, however, became feasible only recently as a result of the much improved measurement accuracy and enhanced new capabilities of satellite sensors. In this study, we generated a 4-year (2002 to 2005) climatology of optical depth for pollution aerosol (defined as a mixture of aerosols from urbanlindustrial pollution and biomass burning in this study) over the North Pacific from MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) observations of fine- and coarse-mode aerosol optical depths. The pollution aerosol mass loading and fluxes were then calculated using measurements of the dependence of aerosol mass extinction efficiency on relative humidity and of aerosol vertical distributions from field campaigns and available satellite observations in the region. We estimated that about 18 Tg/year pollution aerosol is exported from East Asia to the northwestern Pacific Ocean, of which about 25% reaches the west coast of North America. The pollution fluxes are largest in spring and smallest in summer. For the period we have examined the strongest export and import of pollution particulates occurred in 2003, due largely to record intense Eurasia wildfires in spring and summer. The overall uncertainty of pollution fluxes is estimated at about 80%. A reduction of uncertainty can be achieved with a better characterization of pollution aerosol through integrating emerging A-Train measurements. Simulations by the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) and Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) models agree quite well with the satellite-based estimates of annual and latitudeintegrated fluxes, with larger model-satellite differences in latitudinal variations of fluxes.

Extreme air pollution events in Hokkaido, Japan, traced back to early snowmelt and large-scale wildfires over East Eurasia: Case studies.

PubMed

Yasunari, Teppei J; Kim, Kyu-Myong; da Silva, Arlindo M; Hayasaki, Masamitsu; Akiyama, Masayuki; Murao, Naoto

2018-04-25

To identify the unusual climate conditions and their connections to air pollutions in a remote area due to wildfires, we examine three anomalous large-scale wildfires in May 2003, April 2008, and July 2014 over East Eurasia, as well as how products of those wildfires reached an urban city, Sapporo, in the northern part of Japan (Hokkaido), significantly affecting the air quality. NASA's MERRA-2 (the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2) aerosol re-analysis data closely reproduced the PM 2.5 variations in Sapporo for the case of smoke arrival in July 2014. Results show that all three cases featured unusually early snowmelt in East Eurasia, accompanied by warmer and drier surface conditions in the months leading to the fires, inducing long-lasting soil dryness and producing climate and environmental conditions conducive to active wildfires. Due to prevailing anomalous synoptic-scale atmospheric motions, smoke from those fires eventually reached a remote area, Hokkaido, and worsened the air quality in Sapporo. In future studies, continuous monitoring of the timing of Eurasian snowmelt and the air quality from the source regions to remote regions, coupled with the analysis of atmospheric and surface conditions, may be essential in more accurately predicting the effects of wildfires on air quality.

Integrating High-Resolution Datasets to Target Mitigation Efforts for Improving Air Quality and Public Health in Urban Neighborhoods

PubMed Central

Shandas, Vivek; Voelkel, Jackson; Rao, Meenakshi; George, Linda

2016-01-01

Reducing exposure to degraded air quality is essential for building healthy cities. Although air quality and population vary at fine spatial scales, current regulatory and public health frameworks assess human exposures using county- or city-scales. We build on a spatial analysis technique, dasymetric mapping, for allocating urban populations that, together with emerging fine-scale measurements of air pollution, addresses three objectives: (1) evaluate the role of spatial scale in estimating exposure; (2) identify urban communities that are disproportionately burdened by poor air quality; and (3) estimate reduction in mobile sources of pollutants due to local tree-planting efforts using nitrogen dioxide. Our results show a maximum value of 197% difference between cadastrally-informed dasymetric system (CIDS) and standard estimations of population exposure to degraded air quality for small spatial extent analyses, and a lack of substantial difference for large spatial extent analyses. These results provide the foundation for improving policies for managing air quality, and targeting mitigation efforts to address challenges of environmental justice. PMID:27527205

Application of Pesticide Phytoremediation in Irrigated Rice Fields System Using Eceng Gondok (Eichhornia crassipes) Plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Febriani, Ika Kartika; Hadiyanto

2018-02-01

The problem of environmental pollution especially urban water pollution becomes major issue in Indonesia. The cause of water pollution is not only from industrial factory waste disposal but also other causes which become pollution factor. One cause of water pollution is the existence of agricultural activities with the use of the amount of pesticides that exceed the threshold. As regulated in Government Regulation No. 82/2001 on Water Quality Management and Water Pollution Control, it is necessary to manage water quality and control water pollution wisely by taking into account the interests of current and future generations as well as the ecological balance. To overcome the problem of water pollution due to agricultural activities, it is necessary to conduct research on phytoremediation technique by utilizing eceng gondok plant. It is excepted that using this phytoremediation technique can reduce the problem of water pollution due to the use of pesticides on agricultural activities.

Air Pollution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilpin, Alan

A summary of one of our most pressing environmental problems, air pollution, is offered in this book by the Director of Air Pollution Control for the Queensland (Australia) State Government. Discussion of the subject is not restricted to Queensland or Australian problems and policies, however, but includes analysis of air pollution the world over.…

The problem of pollution for the SST

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferri, A.

1977-01-01

A qualitative review of the possible effects of the exhaust gases discharged by a large fleet of SST's in the upper atmosphere is given. The review indicates the importance of the NO production in the exhaust gases. The mechanism of NO formation by the combustion process is described. A method for reduction of the NO formation is presented.

75 FR 22439 - Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Lead Emissions From Piston-Engine Aircraft Using Leaded...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-28

... fuel that is used in commercial aircraft, most military aircraft, or other turbine-engine powered... largely converted to jet turbine-engine propelled aircraft. However, the use of avgas containing 4 grams... or group of sources are the sole or even the major part of an air pollution problem. Moreover...

Tropospheric Ozone and Photochemical Smog

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sillman, S.

2003-12-01

The question of air quality in polluted regions represents one of the issues of geochemistry with direct implications for human well-being. Human health and well-being, along with the well-being of plants, animals, and agricultural crops, are dependent on the quality of air we breathe. Since the start of the industrial era, air quality has become a matter of major importance, especially in large cities or urbanized regions with heavy automobile traffic and industrial activity.Concern over air quality existed as far back as the 1600s. Originally, polluted air in cities resulted from the burning of wood or coal, largely as a source of heat. The industrial revolution in England saw a great increase in the use of coal in rapidly growing cities, both for industrial use and domestic heating. London suffered from devastating pollution events during the late 1800s and early 1900s, with thousands of excess deaths attributed to air pollution (Brimblecombe, 1987). With increasing use of coal, other instances also occurred in continental Europe and the USA. These events were caused by directly emitted pollutants (primary pollutants), including sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulates. They were especially acute in cities with northerly locations during fall and winter when sunlight is at a minimum. These original pollution events gave rise to the term "smog" (a combination of smoke and fog). Events of this type have become much less severe since the 1950s in Western Europe and the US, as natural gas replaced coal as the primary source of home heating, industrial smokestacks were designed to emit at higher altitudes (where dispersion is more rapid), and industries were required to install pollution control equipment.Beginning in the 1950s, a new type of pollution, photochemical smog, became a major concern. Photochemical smog consists of ozone (O3) and other closely related species ("secondary pollutants") that are produced photochemically from directly emitted species, in a process that is driven by sunlight and is accelerated by warm temperatures. This smog is largely the product of gasoline-powered engines (especially automobiles), although coal-fired industry can also generate photochemical smog. The process of photochemical smog formation was first identified by Haagen-Smit and Fox (1954) in association with Los Angeles, a city whose geography makes it particularly susceptible to this type of smog formation. Sulfate aerosols and organic particulates are often produced concurrently with ozone, giving rise to a characteristic milky-white haze associated with this type of air pollution.Today ozone and particulates are recognized as the air pollutants that are most likely to affect human health adversely. In the United States, most major metropolitan areas have periodic air pollution events with ozone in excess of government health standards. Violations of local health standards also occur in major cities in Canada and in much of Europe. Other cities around the world (especially Mexico City) also experience very high ozone levels. In addition to urban-scale events, elevated ozone occurs in region-wide events in the eastern USA and in Western Europe, with excess ozone extending over areas of 1,000 km2 or more. Ozone plumes of similar extent are found in the tropics (especially in Central Africa) at times of high biomass burning (e.g., Jenkins et al., 1997; Chatfield et al., 1998). In some cases ozone associated with biomass burning has been identified at distances up to 104 km from its sources (Schultz et al., 1999).Ozone also has a significant impact on the global troposphere, and ozone chemistry is a major component of global tropospheric chemistry. Global background ozone concentrations are much lower than urban or regional concentrations during pollution events, but there is evidence that the global background has increased as a result of human activities (e.g., Wang and Jacob, 1998; Volz and Kley, 1988). A rise in global background ozone can make the effects of local pollution events everywhere more acute, and can also cause ecological damage in remote locations that are otherwise unaffected by urban pollution. Ozone at the global scale is also related to greenhouse warming.This chapter provides an overview of photochemical smog at the urban and regional scale, focused primarily on ozone and including a summary of information about particulates. It includes the following topics: dynamics and extent of pollution events; health and ecological impacts; relation between ozone and precursor emissions, including hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NOx); sources, composition, and fundamental properties of particulates; chemistry of ozone and related species; methods of interpretation based on ambient measurements; and the connection between air pollution events and the chemistry of the global troposphere. Because there are many similarities between the photochemistry of ozone during pollution events and the chemistry of the troposphere in general, this chapter will include some information about global tropospheric chemistry and the links between urban-scale and global-scale events. Additional treatment of the global troposphere is found in Volume 4 of this work. The chemistry of ozone formation discussed here is also related to topics discussed in greater detail elsewhere in this volume (see Chapters 9.10 and 9.12) and in Volume 4.

Patterns of Hits to the Nearshore from a Major Fairway in the Gulf of Finland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viikmae, B.; Soomere, T.

2012-04-01

The Baltic Sea hosts one of the heaviest ship traffic in the world. Although relatively small in size, still up to 15% of the world's cargo is transported along its numerous fairways. The largest threat to the environment is oil transportation that has increased more than by a factor of two in 2000-2008 and a 40% increase is expected by the year 2015. One of the major marine highways in the European waters enters the Baltic Sea through the Danish Straits, crosses the Baltic Proper and stretches through the Gulf of Finland to Saint Petersburg. An area that is highly vulnerable to ship pollution is the nearshore that usually has the largest ecological value. While the probability of coastal pollution for open ocean coasts can be reduced by shifting ship routes farther offshore, the problem for narrow bays, like the Gulf of Finland, is how to minimize the probability of hitting any of the coasts. To a certain extent, light can be shed to this problem by means of quantification of the offshore areas in terms of their ability to serve a danger to coastal environment if pollution would happen in these areas. A convenient way to address this problem is to use statistical analysis of a large number of Lagrangian trajectories of test particles representing the potential pollution and passively carried by surface currents. In this paper, we make and attempt to quantify the link between potential sources of pollution along an existing fairway and the sections of the coast reached by current-driven pollution. The problem is analysed by means of considering hits to the nearshore from a major fairway in the Gulf of Finland and by making sure whether certain parts of the coast are hit by pollution particles most frequently and whether or not these pollution particles stem from certain specific parts of the fairway. Trajectories are simulated in the Gulf of Finland by placing tracers among a line that follows one of the major fairways from the Baltic Proper to Saint Petersburg. The probabilities for the hit to different parts of the nearshore and the ability of different sections of the fairway to provide coastal pollution have extensive seasonal variability. The potential impact of the fairway is roughly proportional to its distance from the nearest coast. A short section of the fairway to the south of Vyborg and a segment to the west of Tallinn are the most probable sources of coastal pollution. The most frequently hit coastal areas are short fragments between Hanko and Helsinki, the NE coast of the gulf to the south of Vyborg, and longer segments from Tallinn to Hiiumaa on the southern coast of the gulf.

[Contents of macromineral and trace elements in spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) from France, Chad, Togo, Niger, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Central African Republic].

PubMed

Vicat, Jean-Paul; Doumnang Mbaigane, Jean-Claude; Bellion, Yves

2014-01-01

Data on mineral elements in spirulinas being limited, we analyzed macrominerals and trace elements of samples from France and Africa. Spirulinas cultivated in France have a composition in macromineral elements similar to those of the literature. The entire contents of trace elements are low. Unlike marine cyanobacteria, they do not concentrate rare-earth elements. Spirulina harvested in Chad has high levels in macrominerals and trace elements, due to traditional drying and harvesting methods. Rare-earth element levels are attributed to this pollution and not to their concentration in spirulinas, because rare-earth element normalized profiles of spirulina are strictly parallel to those of ouadis mud and very different from those of ouadis water. Despite the sometimes high content of total As, normal water consumption in Chad presents no health problems. Spirulinas grown in Togo, Niger, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Central African Republic have chemical compositions similar to those of Chad spirulinas, but with a lower content of macromineral and trace elements, reflecting a lower mineral pollution. Rare-earth element normalized patterns dismiss an aeolian pollution and the pollution is rather of pedological origin. They show no toxicity problem except spirulinas from Burkina-Faso, whose Pb content is too high. The variability of composition of spirulinas can be largely attributed to the mineral pollution of the samples. Significant levels of rare-earth elements sometimes found in the literature reflect this pollution. Copyright © 2013 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Lessons from a pilot program to induce stove replacements in Chile: design, implementation and evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gómez, Walter; Chávez, Carlos; Salgado, Hugo; Vásquez, Felipe

2017-11-01

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a subsidy program to introduce cleaner and more efficient household wood combustion technologies. The program was conducted in the city of Temuco, one of the most polluted cities in southern Chile, as a pilot study to design a new national stove replacement initiative for pollution control. In this city, around 90% of the total emissions of suspended particulate matter is caused by households burning wood. We created a simulated market in which households could choose among different combustion technologies with an assigned subsidy. The subsidy was a relevant factor in the decision to participate, and the inability to secure credit was a significant constraint for the participation of low-income households. Due to several practical difficulties and challenges associated with the implementation of large-scale programs that encourage technological innovation at the household level, it is strongly advisable to start with a small-scale pilot that can provide useful insights into the final design of a fuller, larger-scale program.

The public health relevance of air pollution abatement.

PubMed

Künzli, N

2002-07-01

Assuming a causal relationship between current levels of air pollution and morbidity/mortality, it is crucial to estimate the public health relevance of the problem. The derivation of air pollution attributable cases faces inherent uncertainties and requires influential assumptions. Based on the results of the trinational impact assessment study of Austria, France, and Switzerland, where prudent estimates of the air pollution attributable cases (mortality, chronic bronchitis incidence, hospital admissions, acute bronchitis among children, restricted activity days, asthma attacks) have been made, influential uncertainties are quantified in this review. The public health impact of smoking, environmental tobacco smoke, and air pollution on the prevalence of chronic cough/phlegm are outlined. Despite all methodological caveats, impact assessment studies clearly suggest that public health largely benefits from better air quality. The studies are selective underestimates as they are strongly driven by mortality, but do not include full quantification of the impact on morbidity and their consequences on quality of life among the diseased and the caregivers. Air pollution abatement strategies are usually political in nature, targeting at polities, regulation and technology in mobile or stationary sources rather than at individuals. It is of note that key clean air strategies converge into abatement of climate change. In general, energy consumption is very closely related to both air pollution and greenhouse gases. The dominant causes of both problems are the excessive and inefficient combustion of fossil fuel. Thus, for many policy options, the benefit of air pollution abatement will go far beyond what prudent health-impact assessments may derive. From a climate change and air pollution perspective, improved energy efficiency and a strong and decisive departure from the "fossil fuel" combustion society is a science-based must. Health professionals must raise their voices in the political decision process to give strong support for clean air policies, both on a national and international level.

Pollution monitoring of Puget Sound with honey bees

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bromenshenk, J.J.; Carlson, S.R.; Simpson, J.C.

To show that honey bees are effective biological monitors of environmental contaminants over large geographic areas, beekeepers of Puget Sound, Washington, collected pollen and bees for chemical analysis. From these data, kriging maps of arsenic, cadmium, and fluoride were generated. Results, based on actual concentrations of contaminants in bee tissues, show that the greatest concentrations of contaminants occur close to Commencement Bay and that honey bees are effective as large-scale monitors. 27 references, 2 figures.

Trend and current practices of palm oil mill effluent polishing: Application of advanced oxidation processes and their future perspectives.

PubMed

Bello, Mustapha Mohammed; Abdul Raman, Abdul Aziz

2017-08-01

Palm oil processing is a multi-stage operation which generates large amount of effluent. On average, palm oil mill effluent (POME) may contain up to 51, 000 mg/L COD, 25,000 mg/L BOD, 40,000 TS and 6000 mg/L oil and grease. Due to its potential to cause environmental pollution, palm oil mills are required to treat the effluent prior to discharge. Biological treatments using open ponding system are widely used for POME treatment. Although these processes are capable of reducing the pollutant concentrations, they require long hydraulic retention time and large space, with the effluent frequently failing to satisfy the discharge regulation. Due to more stringent environmental regulations, research interest has recently shifted to the development of polishing technologies for the biologically-treated POME. Various technologies such as advanced oxidation processes, membrane technology, adsorption and coagulation have been investigated. Among these, advanced oxidation processes have shown potentials as polishing technologies for POME. This paper offers an overview on the POME polishing technologies, with particularly emphasis on advanced oxidation processes and their prospects for large scale applications. Although there are some challenges in large scale applications of these technologies, this review offers some perspectives that could help in overcoming these challenges. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Air pollution and mortality: A history

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, H. R.

Mortality is the most important health effect of ambient air pollution and has been studied the longest. The earliest evidence relates to fog episodes but with the development of more precise methods of investigation it is still possible to discern short-term temporal associations with daily mortality at the historically low levels of air pollution that now exist in most developed countries. Another early observation was that mortality was higher in more polluted areas. This has been confirmed by modern cohort studies that account for other potential explanations for such associations. There does not appear to be a threshold of effect within the ambient range of concentrations. Advances in the understanding of air pollution and mortality have been driven by the combined development of methods and biomedical concepts. The most influential methodological developments have been in time-series techniques and the establishment of large cohort studies, both of which are underpinned by advances in data processing and statistical analysis. On the biomedical side two important developments can be identified. One has been the application of the concept of multifactorial disease causation to explaining how air pollution may affect mortality at low levels and why thresholds are not obvious at the population level. The other has been an increasing understanding of how air pollution may plausibly have pathophysiological effects that are remote from the lung interface with ambient air. Together, these advances have had a profound influence on policies to protect public health. Throughout the history of air pollution epidemiology, mortality studies have been central and this will continue because of the widespread availability of mortality data on a large population scale and the weight that mortality carries in estimating impacts for policy development.

Air pollution and cardiovascular and respiratory disease: Rationale and methodology of CAPACITY study.

PubMed

Rabiei, Katayoun; Hosseini, Sayed Mohsen; Sadeghi, Erfan; Jafari-Koshki, Tohid; Rahimi, Mojtaba; Shishehforoush, Mansour; Lahijanzadeh, Ahmadreza; Sadeghian, Babak; Moazam, Elham; Mohebi, Mohammad Bagher; Ezatian, Victoria; Sarrafzadegan, Nizal

2017-11-01

Considering the high level of air pollution and its impact on health, we aimed to study the correlation of air pollution with hospitalization and mortality of cardiovascular (CVD) and respiratory diseases (ResD) (CAPACITY) to determine the effects of air pollutants on CVD and ResD hospitalizations and deaths in Isfahan, Iran. Hourly levels of air pollutants including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and ozone (O3), information of CVD and ResD admissions and death certificate were obtained respectively from Department of Environment (DOE), Iran, hospitals and cemetery. Time series and case-crossover model were used to find the impact of air pollutants. This paper only summarizes the descriptive findings of the CAPACITY study. The total number of hospitalized patients were 23781 in 2010 and 22485 in 2011. The most frequent cause of hospitalization and death was ischemic heart diseases in both years. While the mean annual levels of O3, CO, and PM10 were lower in 2011 than in 2010, NO2 and SO2 levels higher in 2011. In both years, PM10 was similarly increased during last month of fall, late spring and early summer. In 2011, the PM2.5 and PM10 monthly trend of change were similar. The CAPACITY study is one of the few large-scale studies that evaluated the effects of air pollutants on a variety of CVD and ResD in a large city of Iran. This study can provide many findings that could clarify the effects of these pollutants on the incidence and burden of both disease groups.

Air pollution and cardiovascular and respiratory disease: Rationale and methodology of CAPACITY study

PubMed Central

Rabiei, Katayoun; Hosseini, Sayed Mohsen; Sadeghi, Erfan; Jafari-Koshki, Tohid; Rahimi, Mojtaba; Shishehforoush, Mansour; Lahijanzadeh, Ahmadreza; Sadeghian, Babak; Moazam, Elham; Mohebi, Mohammad Bagher; Ezatian, Victoria; Sarrafzadegan, Nizal

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND Considering the high level of air pollution and its impact on health, we aimed to study the correlation of air pollution with hospitalization and mortality of cardiovascular (CVD) and respiratory diseases (ResD) (CAPACITY) to determine the effects of air pollutants on CVD and ResD hospitalizations and deaths in Isfahan, Iran. METHODS Hourly levels of air pollutants including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and ozone (O3), information of CVD and ResD admissions and death certificate were obtained respectively from Department of Environment (DOE), Iran, hospitals and cemetery. Time series and case-crossover model were used to find the impact of air pollutants. This paper only summarizes the descriptive findings of the CAPACITY study. RESULTS The total number of hospitalized patients were 23781 in 2010 and 22485 in 2011. The most frequent cause of hospitalization and death was ischemic heart diseases in both years. While the mean annual levels of O3, CO, and PM10 were lower in 2011 than in 2010, NO2 and SO2 levels higher in 2011. In both years, PM10 was similarly increased during last month of fall, late spring and early summer. In 2011, the PM2.5 and PM10 monthly trend of change were similar. CONCLUSION The CAPACITY study is one of the few large-scale studies that evaluated the effects of air pollutants on a variety of CVD and ResD in a large city of Iran. This study can provide many findings that could clarify the effects of these pollutants on the incidence and burden of both disease groups. PMID:29643921

Space Industrialization: The Mirage of Abundance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deudney, Daniel

1982-01-01

Large-scale space industrialization is not a viable solution to the population, energy, and resource problems of earth. The expense and technological difficulties involved in the development and maintenance of space manufacturing facilities, space colonies, and large-scale satellites for solar power are discussed. (AM)

Lessons Learned from Large-Scale Randomized Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slavin, Robert E.; Cheung, Alan C. K.

2017-01-01

Large-scale randomized studies provide the best means of evaluating practical, replicable approaches to improving educational outcomes. This article discusses the advantages, problems, and pitfalls of these evaluations, focusing on alternative methods of randomization, recruitment, ensuring high-quality implementation, dealing with attrition, and…

Large-scale optimization-based non-negative computational framework for diffusion equations: Parallel implementation and performance studies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chang, Justin; Karra, Satish; Nakshatrala, Kalyana B.

It is well-known that the standard Galerkin formulation, which is often the formulation of choice under the finite element method for solving self-adjoint diffusion equations, does not meet maximum principles and the non-negative constraint for anisotropic diffusion equations. Recently, optimization-based methodologies that satisfy maximum principles and the non-negative constraint for steady-state and transient diffusion-type equations have been proposed. To date, these methodologies have been tested only on small-scale academic problems. The purpose of this paper is to systematically study the performance of the non-negative methodology in the context of high performance computing (HPC). PETSc and TAO libraries are, respectively, usedmore » for the parallel environment and optimization solvers. For large-scale problems, it is important for computational scientists to understand the computational performance of current algorithms available in these scientific libraries. The numerical experiments are conducted on the state-of-the-art HPC systems, and a single-core performance model is used to better characterize the efficiency of the solvers. Furthermore, our studies indicate that the proposed non-negative computational framework for diffusion-type equations exhibits excellent strong scaling for real-world large-scale problems.« less

Large-scale optimization-based non-negative computational framework for diffusion equations: Parallel implementation and performance studies

DOE PAGES

Chang, Justin; Karra, Satish; Nakshatrala, Kalyana B.

2016-07-26

It is well-known that the standard Galerkin formulation, which is often the formulation of choice under the finite element method for solving self-adjoint diffusion equations, does not meet maximum principles and the non-negative constraint for anisotropic diffusion equations. Recently, optimization-based methodologies that satisfy maximum principles and the non-negative constraint for steady-state and transient diffusion-type equations have been proposed. To date, these methodologies have been tested only on small-scale academic problems. The purpose of this paper is to systematically study the performance of the non-negative methodology in the context of high performance computing (HPC). PETSc and TAO libraries are, respectively, usedmore » for the parallel environment and optimization solvers. For large-scale problems, it is important for computational scientists to understand the computational performance of current algorithms available in these scientific libraries. The numerical experiments are conducted on the state-of-the-art HPC systems, and a single-core performance model is used to better characterize the efficiency of the solvers. Furthermore, our studies indicate that the proposed non-negative computational framework for diffusion-type equations exhibits excellent strong scaling for real-world large-scale problems.« less

Solving LP Relaxations of Large-Scale Precedence Constrained Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bienstock, Daniel; Zuckerberg, Mark

We describe new algorithms for solving linear programming relaxations of very large precedence constrained production scheduling problems. We present theory that motivates a new set of algorithmic ideas that can be employed on a wide range of problems; on data sets arising in the mining industry our algorithms prove effective on problems with many millions of variables and constraints, obtaining provably optimal solutions in a few minutes of computation.

Understanding students visions about environmental global problems. Experience and lessons learned of teaching in Lithuania.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereira, Paulo; Siarova, Hanna; Misiūnė, Ieva; Cerda, Artemi; Úbeda, Xavier

2015-04-01

Nowadays, environment is accepted to be an important element of our welfare. Our activities and societal status are strongly related with the quality of the environment where we live. On the other hand historical and cultural backgrounds shape importantly our views about the environment and how we act towards it in our daily life. In a context of globalization and increase of competition at international level, knowledge appears to be one of the key components for the advance of the word. Most of the knowledge produced comes from high level education institutions and research centres, which have responsibility to create and encourage critical thinking. Individuals aware of the problems can be more active and can push things forward. We think that environmental knowledge and awareness are fundamental for the future of the society. In order to develop better methodologies are developed if we have a better perception of students understanding of environmental problems. The objective of this work is to study the Lithuanian university level student's perception about some environmental challenges of our society. We selected several questions for the students rate according the relevance of the question, as "Air Pollution", "Waste Management", "Resources overexplotation", "Biodiversity reduction", "Human Overpopulation" "Poverty", "Global Warming/Climate change", Natural disasters", "Terrorism", "Economical crisis", "War and armed conflicts" and the "Spread of infectious diseases". We ask to the respondents to rate the importance using a likert scale (1=Not Important, 2= not so important, 3=important, 4=very important, 5=the most important). Among all the questions, the most rated where the Water pollution, the Spread of infectious diseases and Air Pollution and the less important where Biodiversity Reduction, Human overpopulation and climate change. These results helped us to identify where some efforts should be taken to raise student's awareness about global environmental problems. The awareness is different according to the gender. Normally females are more concerned than males about environmental questions. Students between the age of 18-24 are more concerned problems related to the Spread of infectious diseases and war and armed conflicts, while the respondents between the age of 25-39, rated higher Air pollution, Water pollution and Poverty. These preliminary results allowed us to identify potential topics that could be more explored at university level and increase the environmental awareness.

Reconstruction of atmospheric trace metals pollution in Southwest China using sediments from a large and deep alpine lake: Historical trends, sources and sediment focusing.

PubMed

Lin, Qi; Liu, Enfeng; Zhang, Enlou; Nath, Bibhash; Shen, Ji; Yuan, Hezhong; Wang, Rong

2018-02-01

Atmospheric pollution, one of the leading environmental problems in South and East Asia, and its impact on the terrestrial environmental quality remain poorly understood particularly in alpine areas where both historical and present-day mining and smelting operations might leave an imprint. Here, we reconstructed atmospheric trace metals pollution during the past century using core sediments from a large and deep alpine lake in Southwest China. The implication of in lake and/or in watershed sediment focusing in pollution quantification is discussed by analyzing 15 sediment cores. Factor analysis and enrichment factor indicated Cd, Pb and Sb as the typical pollutants. Distinct peaks of Pb and Sb pollution were observed around the 1920s, but little Pb pollution was detected in recent decades, different from other studies in similar regions. Cadmium pollution was observed until the mid-1980s synchronized with Sb. The distinctive variations in atmospheric trace metal pollution process in Southwest China highlight the regional and sub-regional sources of metal pollutants, which should be primarily attributed to non-ferrous metal smelting emissions. Both natural and anthropogenic metals showed wide concentration ranges though exhibited similar temporal trends in the 15 cores. Spatial variations of anthropogenic metals were influenced by the in-watershed pollutants remobilization, whereas, natural metals were regulated by the detrital materials in the sub-basin. In-lake sediment focusing had little influence on the spatial distributions of all metals, different from the traditional sediment focusing pattern observed in small lakes. Anthropogenic Cd accumulation in sediments ranged from 1.5 to 10.1mgm -2 in a specific core with an average of 6.5mgm -2 for the entire lake, highlighting that a reliable whole-lake pollutant budget requires an analysis of multiple cores. Our study suggests that the management of aquatic ecosystem health should take the remobilization of in-watershed stored pollutants into consideration especially under increasing human perturbation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Application of stochastic models in identification and apportionment of heavy metal pollution sources in the surface soils of a large-scale region.

PubMed

Hu, Yuanan; Cheng, Hefa

2013-04-16

As heavy metals occur naturally in soils at measurable concentrations and their natural background contents have significant spatial variations, identification and apportionment of heavy metal pollution sources across large-scale regions is a challenging task. Stochastic models, including the recently developed conditional inference tree (CIT) and the finite mixture distribution model (FMDM), were applied to identify the sources of heavy metals found in the surface soils of the Pearl River Delta, China, and to apportion the contributions from natural background and human activities. Regression trees were successfully developed for the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Ni, As, and Hg in 227 soil samples from a region of over 7.2 × 10(4) km(2) based on seven specific predictors relevant to the source and behavior of heavy metals: land use, soil type, soil organic carbon content, population density, gross domestic product per capita, and the lengths and classes of the roads surrounding the sampling sites. The CIT and FMDM results consistently indicate that Cd, Zn, Cu, Pb, and Cr in the surface soils of the PRD were contributed largely by anthropogenic sources, whereas As, Ni, and Hg in the surface soils mostly originated from the soil parent materials.

Regional and National Use of Semi-Natural and Natural Depressional Wetlands in Green Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lane, C.; D'Amico, E.

2016-12-01

Depressional wetlands are frequently amongst the first aquatic systems to be exposed to pollutants from terrestrial source areas. Wetland functions include the finite ability to process nutrients and other pollutants. Through assimilation or sequestration of pollutants, depressional wetlands can affect other waters. While the functions of wetlands are well known, the abundance of depressional wetlands throughout the United States is not well known. Recent estimates conclude that approximately 16% of the freshwater wetlands of the conterminous United States may be depressional wetlands, or putative "geographically isolated wetlands" (Lane and D'Amico JAWRA 2016 52(3):705-722). However, there remains uncertainty in the impact or effects of depressional wetlands on other waters. We present geographic information system analyses showing the abundance and types of depressional wetlands effectively serving as green infrastructure throughout the conterminous U.S. We furthermore analyze the landscape position of depressional wetlands intersecting potentially pollutant-laden surficial flow paths from specific land uses (e.g., depressional wetlands embedded in agricultural landscapes). We discuss how similarities and differences in types and abundances of depressional wetlands between and among ecoregions of the conterminous US provide an opportunity for wise management at broad geographic scales. These data may suggest utility in including wetland depressions in large-scale coupled hydrological and nutrient modeling.

Catchment scale assessment of risk posed by traffic generated heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

PubMed

Ma, Yukun; McGree, James; Liu, An; Deilami, Kaveh; Egodawatta, Prasanna; Goonetilleke, Ashantha

2017-10-01

Heavy metals (HMs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most toxic chemical pollutants present in urban stormwater. Consequently, urban stormwater reuse is constrained due to the human health risk posed by these pollutants. This study developed a scientifically robust approach to assess the risk to human health posed by HMs and PAHs in urban stormwater in order to enhance its reuse. Accordingly, an innovative methodology was created consisting of four stages: quantification of traffic and land use parameters; estimation of pollutant concentrations for model development; risk assessment, and risk map presentation. This methodology will contribute to catchment scale assessment of the risk associated with urban stormwater and for risk mitigation. The risk map developed provides a simple and efficient approach to identify the critical areas within a large catchment. The study also found that heavy molecular weight PAHs (PAHs with 5-6 benzene rings) in urban stormwater pose higher risk to human health compared to light molecular PAHs (PAHs with 2-4 benzene rings). These outcomes will facilitate the development of practical approaches for applying appropriate mitigation measures for the safe management of urban stormwater pollution and for the identification of enhanced reuse opportunities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development and analysis of air quality modeling simulations for hazardous air pollutants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luecken, D. J.; Hutzell, W. T.; Gipson, G. L.

The concentrations of five hazardous air pollutants were simulated using the community multi-scale air quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Annual simulations were performed over the continental United States for the entire year of 2001 to support human exposure estimates. Results are shown for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, 1,3-butadiene and acrolein. Photochemical production in the atmosphere is predicted to dominate ambient formaldehyde and acetaldehyde concentrations, and to account for a significant fraction of ambient acrolein concentrations. Spatial and temporal variations are large throughout the domain over the year. Predicted concentrations are compared with observations for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene and 1,3-butadiene. Although the modeling results indicate an overall slight tendency towards underprediction, they reproduce episodic and seasonal behavior of pollutant concentrations at many monitors with good skill.

Implications of alternative assumptions regarding future air pollution control in RCP-like scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuwah, Clifford; van Noije, Twan; van Vuuren, Detlef; Hazeleger, Wilco; Strunk, Achim; Deetman, Sebastiaan; Mendoza Beltran, Angelica; van Vliet, Jasper

2013-04-01

Estimation of future emissions of short-lived trace gases and aerosols from human activities is a main source of uncertainty in projections of future air quality and climate forcing. The Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), however, all assume that worldwide ambitious air pollution control policies will be implemented in the coming decades. In this study, we therefore explore the consequences of four alternative emission scenarios generated using the IMAGE integrated assessment model following the methods used to generate the RCPs. These scenarios combine low and high air pollution variants of the scenarios with radiative forcing targets in 2100 of 2.6 W/m2 and 6.0 W/m2 (the high air pollution variants assume no improvement in emission factors, representing a hypothetical upper end of emission levels). Analysis using the global atmospheric chemistry and transport model TM5 shows that climate mitigation and air pollution control policy variants studied here have similar large-scale effects on the concentrations of ozone and black carbon; the impact of climate policy, however, has a stronger impact on sulphate concentrations. Air pollution control measures could significantly reduce the warming by tropospheric ozone and black carbon and the cooling by sulphate already in 2020, and on the longer term contribute to enhanced warming by methane. These effects tend to cancel each other at the global scale. According to our estimates the effect of the worldwide implementation of air pollution control measures on the total global mean direct radiative forcing in 2050 is +0.09 W/m2 in the 6.0 W/m2 scenario and -0.16 W/m2 in the 2.6 W/m2 scenario.

Acid Earth--The Global Threat of Acid Pollution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCormick, John

Acid pollution is a major international problem, but the debate it has elicited has often clouded the distinction between myth and facts. This publication attempts to concerning the acid pollution situation. This publication attempts to identify available facts. It is the first global review of the problem of acid pollution and the first to…

Diagnosing forest vegetation for air pollution injury

Treesearch

Keith F. Jensen

1989-01-01

The purpose of this Note is to help you become more technically informed about air pollution when serious problems need to be diagnosed by pollution specialists. (Except for ozone, most of the information discussed does not attempt to describe possible air pollution damage caused by long distance transport. This complex problem is currently under intense study.)

Principles and problems of environmental pollution of groundwater resources with case examples from developing countries.

PubMed Central

Egboka, B C; Nwankwor, G I; Orajaka, I P; Ejiofor, A O

1989-01-01

The principles and problems of environmental pollution and contamination are outlined. Emphasis is given to case examples from developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America with a comparative analysis to developed countries. The problems of pollution/contamination are widespread in developed countries but are gradually spreading from the urban to rural areas in the developing countries. Great efforts in research and control programs to check pollution-loading into the environment have been made in the industrialized countries, but only negligible actions have been taken in developing countries. Pollutants emanate from both point and distributed sources and have adversely affected both surface water and groundwaters. The influences of the geologic and hydrologic cycles that exacerbate the incidences of pollution/contamination have not been well understood by environmental planners and managers. Professionals in the different areas of pollution control projects, particularly in developing countries, lack the integrated multiobjective approaches and techniques in problem solving. Such countries as Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, and India are now menaced by pollution hazards. Appropriate methods of control are hereby suggested. PMID:2695325

Ground-water flow in low permeability environments

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neuzil, Christopher E.

1986-01-01

Certain geologic media are known to have small permeability; subsurface environments composed of these media and lacking well developed secondary permeability have groundwater flow sytems with many distinctive characteristics. Moreover, groundwater flow in these environments appears to influence the evolution of certain hydrologic, geologic, and geochemical systems, may affect the accumulation of pertroleum and ores, and probably has a role in the structural evolution of parts of the crust. Such environments are also important in the context of waste disposal. This review attempts to synthesize the diverse contributions of various disciplines to the problem of flow in low-permeability environments. Problems hindering analysis are enumerated together with suggested approaches to overcoming them. A common thread running through the discussion is the significance of size- and time-scale limitations of the ability to directly observe flow behavior and make measurements of parameters. These limitations have resulted in rather distinct small- and large-scale approaches to the problem. The first part of the review considers experimental investigations of low-permeability flow, including in situ testing; these are generally conducted on temporal and spatial scales which are relatively small compared with those of interest. Results from this work have provided increasingly detailed information about many aspects of the flow but leave certain questions unanswered. Recent advances in laboratory and in situ testing techniques have permitted measurements of permeability and storage properties in progressively “tighter” media and investigation of transient flow under these conditions. However, very large hydraulic gradients are still required for the tests; an observational gap exists for typical in situ gradients. The applicability of Darcy's law in this range is therefore untested, although claims of observed non-Darcian behavior appear flawed. Two important nonhydraulic flow phenomena, osmosis and ultrafiltration, are experimentally well established in prepared clays but have been incompletely investigated, particularly in undisturbed geologic media. Small-scale experimental results form much of the basis for analyses of flow in low-permeability environments which occurs on scales of time and size too large to permit direct observation. Such large-scale flow behavior is the focus of the second part of the review. Extrapolation of small-scale experimental experience becomes an important and sometimes controversial problem in this context. In large flow systems under steady state conditions the regional permeability can sometimes be determined, but systems with transient flow are more difficult to analyze. The complexity of the problem is enhanced by the sensitivity of large-scale flow to the effects of slow geologic processes. One-dimensional studies have begun to elucidate how simple burial or exhumation can generate transient flow conditions by changing the state of stress and temperature and by burial metamorphism. Investigation of the more complex problem of the interaction of geologic processes and flow in two and three dimensions is just beginning. Because these transient flow analyses have largely been based on flow in experimental scale systems or in relatively permeable systems, deformation in response to effective stress changes is generally treated as linearly elastic; however, this treatment creates difficulties for the long periods of interest because viscoelastic deformation is probably significant. Also, large-scale flow simulations in argillaceous environments generally have neglected osmosis and ultrafiltration, in part because extrapolation of laboratory experience with coupled flow to large scales under in situ conditions is controversial. Nevertheless, the effects are potentially quite important because the coupled flow might cause ultra long lived transient conditions. The difficulties associated with analysis are matched by those of characterizing hydrologic conditions in tight environments; measurements of hydraulic head and sampling of pore fluids have been done only rarely because of the practical difficulties involved. These problems are also discussed in the second part of this paper.

Ground Level Ozone Regional Background Characteristics In North-west Pacific Rim

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiang, C.; Fan, J.; Chang, J. S.

2007-12-01

Understanding the ground level ozone regional background characteristics is essential in understanding the contribution of long-range transport of pollutants from Asia Mainland to air quality in downwind areas. In order to understand this characteristic in north-west Pacific Rim, we conducted a coupled study using ozone observation from regional background stations and 3-D regional-scale chemical transport model simulations. We used O3, CO, wind speed and wind direction data from two regional background stations and ¡§other stations¡¨ over a ten year period and organized several numerical experiments to simulate one spring month in 2003 to obtain a deeper understanding. The so called ¡§other stations¡¨ had actually been named as background stations under various governmental auspices. But we found them to be often under strong influence of local pollution sources with strong diurnal or slightly longer time variations. We found that the Yonagunijima station (24.74 N, 123.02 E) and Heng-Chuen station (21.96 N,120.78 E), about a distance of 400 km apart, have almost the same ozone time series pattern. For these two stations in 2003, correlation coefficients (R2) for annual observed ozone concentration is about 0.64, in the springtime it is about 0.7, and in a one-month period at simulation days it is about 0.76. These two stations have very little small scale variations in all the variables studied. All variations are associated with large scale circulation changes. This is especially so at Yonagunijima station. Using a 3-D regional-scale chemical transport model for East Asia region including contribution from Asia continental outflow and neighboring island pollution areas we found that the Yonagunijima and HengChuen station are indeed free of pollutants from all neighboring areas keeping in mind that pollutants from Taiwan area is never far away. Ozone concentrations in these two stations are dominated by synoptic scale weather patterns, with diffused pollutant contribution from distant sources. When the weather system brings in air mass from the low latitude of western Pacific Ocean, ozone concentrations are about 10-20 ppb. When the China high pressure system moves eastward and with the accompanying Asian continental outflow plume, ozone concentrations are about 65-80 ppb.

Synthesis and characterization of the removal of organic pollutants in effluents.

PubMed

Bakayoko, Moussa; Kalakodio, Loissi; Kalagodio, Adiara; Abo, Bodjui Olivier; Muhoza, Jean Pierre; Ismaila, El Moctar

2018-06-27

The use of a large number of organic pollutants results in the accumulation of effluents at the places of production and the environment. These substances are, therefore, dangerous for living organisms and can cause heavy environmental damage. Hence, to cure these problems certain methods were used for the elimination of organic effluents. Indeed, the methods of elimination through magnetic adsorption and/or separation prove to be effective in the treatment of certain wastes, but the effectiveness of each one of these methods depends on several characteristics and also present limitations according to the pollutants they adsorb. This review examines on the one hand the capacity of certain elements of these methods in the elimination of certain pollutants and on the other hand the advantages and limits of these methods. Elements like biochars, biosorbents and composite materials are used due to their very strong porosity which makes it possible for them to develop an important contact surface with the external medium, at low costs, and the possibility of producing them from renewable sources. The latter still run up however against the problems of formation of mud and regeneration. Depollution by magnetic separation is also used due to its capacity to mitigate the disadvantages of certain methods which generally lead to the formation of mud and overcoming also the difficulties like obtaining an active material and at the same time being able to fix the pollutants present in the effluents to treat and sensitize them to external magnetic fields.

Experimental design for estimating unknown groundwater pumping using genetic algorithm and reduced order model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ushijima, Timothy T.; Yeh, William W.-G.

2013-10-01

An optimal experimental design algorithm is developed to select locations for a network of observation wells that provide maximum information about unknown groundwater pumping in a confined, anisotropic aquifer. The design uses a maximal information criterion that chooses, among competing designs, the design that maximizes the sum of squared sensitivities while conforming to specified design constraints. The formulated optimization problem is non-convex and contains integer variables necessitating a combinatorial search. Given a realistic large-scale model, the size of the combinatorial search required can make the problem difficult, if not impossible, to solve using traditional mathematical programming techniques. Genetic algorithms (GAs) can be used to perform the global search; however, because a GA requires a large number of calls to a groundwater model, the formulated optimization problem still may be infeasible to solve. As a result, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is applied to the groundwater model to reduce its dimensionality. Then, the information matrix in the full model space can be searched without solving the full model. Results from a small-scale test case show identical optimal solutions among the GA, integer programming, and exhaustive search methods. This demonstrates the GA's ability to determine the optimal solution. In addition, the results show that a GA with POD model reduction is several orders of magnitude faster in finding the optimal solution than a GA using the full model. The proposed experimental design algorithm is applied to a realistic, two-dimensional, large-scale groundwater problem. The GA converged to a solution for this large-scale problem.

A systematic review of air pollution as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in South Asia: limited evidence from India and Pakistan.

PubMed

Yamamoto, S S; Phalkey, R; Malik, A A

2014-03-01

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are major contributors to mortality and morbidity in South Asia. Chronic exposure to air pollution is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, although the majority of studies to date have been conducted in developed countries. Both indoor and outdoor air pollution are growing problems in developing countries in South Asia yet the impact on rising rates of CVD in these regions has largely been ignored. We aimed to assess the evidence available regarding air pollution effects on CVD and CVD risk factors in lower income countries in South Asia. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and Web of Science. Our inclusion criteria included peer-reviewed, original, empirical articles published in English between the years 1990 and 2012, conducted in the World Bank South Asia region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). This resulted in 30 articles. Nine articles met our inclusion criteria and were assessed for this systematic review. Most of the studies were cross-sectional and examined measured particulate matter effects on CVD outcomes and indicators. We observed a bias as nearly all of the studies were from India. Hypertension and CVD deaths were positively associated with higher particulate matter levels. Biomarkers of oxidative stress such as increased levels of P-selection expressing platelets, depleted superoxide dismutase and reactive oxygen species generation as well as elevated levels of inflammatory-related C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 were also positively associated with biomass use or elevated particulate matter levels. An important outcome of this investigation was the evidence suggesting important air pollution effects regarding CVD risk in South Asia. However, too few studies have been conducted. There is as an urgent need for longer term investigations using robust measures of air pollution with different population groups that include a wider range of air pollutants and outcomes, including early indicators of CVD. These regions are facing burdens from increasing urbanization, air pollution and populations, generally weaker health infrastructure, aging populations and increased incidence of non-communicable diseases, included CVD. The extent to which the problem of air pollution and CVD will impact these countries will depend largely on the information available to inform policy and programs, which are still lacking, political will as well as social and economic development. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

A New Type Hi-Speed BLDC Control System Base on Indirect Current Control Strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, D. P.; Wang, Y. C.; Zhang, F. G.; Jin, S.

2017-05-01

High speed BLDC has the characteristic as larger air gap smaller armature inductance, traditional PWM modulation will produce a great number of high frequency current harmonics which led problem like large torque ripple and serious motor heat. In the meantime traditional PWM modulation use the diode rectifier which cause harmonic pollution in electric power net. To solve the problem above, proposes a new motor controller topology. Using the IGBT device to replace the diode on frequency converter rectifier side, apply the power factor correction technology, reduce the pollution on the grid. Using busbar current modulation on the inverter, driving bridge-arm use 3-phase 6-state open as driving Mode, realize the control on a 10000r/min,10kw BLDC. The results of Simulation on matlab show the topological structure as proposed can effectively improve the network side power factor and reduce the motor armature winding harmonic and motor torque ripple.

The medieval metal industry was the cradle of modern large-scale atmospheric lead pollution in northern Europe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Braennvall, M.L.; Bindler, R.; Renberg, I.

1999-12-15

There is great concern for contamination of sensitive ecosystems in high latitudes by long-range transport of heavy metals and other pollutants derived from industrial areas in lower latitudes. Atmospheric pollution of heavy metals has a very long history, and since metals accumulate in the environment, understanding of present-day pollution conditions requires knowledge of past atmospheric deposition. The authors use analyses of lead concentrations and stable lead isotopes ({sup 206}Pb/{sup 207}Pb ratios) of annually laminated sediments from four lakes in northern Sweden to provide a decadal record of atmospheric lead pollution for the last 3000 years. There is a clear signalmore » in the sediments of airborne pollution from Greek and Roman cultures 2000 years ago, followed by a period of clean conditions 400--900 A.D. From 900 A.D. there was a conspicuous, permanent increase in atmospheric lead pollution fallout, The sediments reveal peaks in atmospheric lead pollution at 1200 and 1530 A.D. comparable to present-day levels. These peaks match the history of metal production in Europe. This study indicates that the contemporary atmospheric pollution climate in northern Europe was established in Medieval time, rather than in the industrial period. Atmospheric lead pollution deposition did not, when seen in a historical perspective, increase as much as usually assumed with the Industrial Revolution.« less

Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases Producing E. coli in Wildlife, yet Another Form of Environmental Pollution?

PubMed Central

Guenther, Sebastian; Ewers, Christa; Wieler, Lothar H.

2011-01-01

Wildlife is normally not exposed to clinically used antimicrobial agents but can acquire antimicrobial resistant bacteria through contact with humans, domesticated animals and the environment, where water polluted with feces seems to be the most important vector. Escherichia coli, an ubiquitous commensal bacterial species colonizing the intestinal tract of mammals and birds, is also found in the environment. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases producing E. coli (ESBL-E. coli) represent a major problem in human and veterinary medicine, particular in nosocomial infections. Additionally an onset of community-acquired ESBL-E. coli infections and an emergence in livestock farming has been observed in recent years, suggesting a successful transmission as well as persistence of ESBL-E. coli strains outside clinical settings. Another parallel worldwide phenomenon is the spread of ESBL-E. coli into the environment beyond human and domesticated animal populations, and this seems to be directly influenced by antibiotic practice. This might be a collateral consequence of the community-onset of ESBL-E. coli infections but can result (a) in a subsequent colonization of wild animal populations which can turn into an infectious source or even a reservoir of ESBL-E. coli, (b) in a contribution of wildlife to the spread and transmission of ESBL-E. coli into fragile environmental niches, (c) in new putative infection cycles between wildlife, domesticated animals and humans, and (d) in problems in the medical treatment of wildlife. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge on ESBL-E. coli in wildlife, in turn underlining the need for more large scale investigations, in particular sentinel studies to monitor the impact of multiresistant bacteria on wildlife. PMID:22203818

Evaluating waste printed circuit boards recycling: Opportunities and challenges, a mini review.

PubMed

Awasthi, Abhishek Kumar; Zlamparet, Gabriel Ionut; Zeng, Xianlai; Li, Jinhui

2017-04-01

Rapid generation of waste printed circuit boards has become a very serious issue worldwide. Numerous techniques have been developed in the last decade to resolve the pollution from waste printed circuit boards, and also recover valuable metals from the waste printed circuit boards stream on a large-scale. However, these techniques have their own certain specific drawbacks that need to be rectified properly. In this review article, these recycling technologies are evaluated based on a strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. Furthermore, it is warranted that, the substantial research is required to improve the current technologies for waste printed circuit boards recycling in the outlook of large-scale applications.

Environmental Law and the Export of Pollution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, John F.

1984-01-01

Environmental problems do not stop at state boundaries; they reach beyond local or national jurisdictions and require international control. Problems concerning air quality, water pollution, and indirect pollution are discussed. Environmental legislation can have a significant impact. (RM)

Spatial Variation in Particulate Matter Components over a Large Urban Area

PubMed Central

Fruin, Scott; Urman, Robert; Lurmann, Fred; McConnell, Rob; Gauderman, James; Rappaport, Ed; Franklin, Meredith; Gilliland, Frank D.; Shafer, Martin; Gorski, Patrick; Avol, Ed

2014-01-01

To characterize exposures to particulate matter (PM) and its components, we performed a large sampling study of small-scale spatial variation in size-resolved particle mass and composition. PM was collected in size ranges of < 0.2, 0.2-to-2.5, and 2.5-to-10 μm on a scale of 100s to 1000s of meters to capture local sources. Within each of eight Southern California communities, up to 29 locations were sampled for rotating, month-long integrated periods at two different times of the year, six months apart, from Nov 2008 through Dec 2009. Additional sampling was conducted at each community’s regional monitoring station to provide temporal coverage over the sampling campaign duration. Residential sampling locations were selected based on a novel design stratified by high- and low-predicted traffic emissions and locations over- and under-predicted from previous dispersion model and sampling comparisons. Primary vehicle emissions constituents, such as elemental carbon (EC), showed much stronger patterns of association with traffic than pollutants with significant secondary formation, such as PM2.5 or water soluble organic carbon. Associations were also stronger during cooler times of the year (Oct through Mar). Primary pollutants also showed greater within-community spatial variation compared to pollutants with secondary formation contributions. For example, the average cool-season community mean and standard deviation (SD) for EC were 1.1 and 0.17 μg/m3, respectively, giving a coefficient of variation (CV) of 18%. For PM2.5, average mean and SD were 14 and 1.3 μg/m3, respectively, with a CV of 9%. We conclude that within-community spatial differences are important for accurate exposure assessment of traffic-related pollutants. PMID:24578605

Residential metal contamination and potential health risks of exposure in adobe brick houses in Potosí, Bolivia

EPA Science Inventory

Potosí, Bolivia, is the site of centuries of historic and present-day mining of the Cerro Rico Mountain, known for its rich polymetallic deposits, and was the site of large-scale Colonial era silver refining operations, both of which have left a legacy of pollution. In this study...

Improved water quality and reduction of odorous compounds in anaerobic lagoon columns receiving pre-treated pig wastewater

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Large volumes of wastewater from confined pig production are stored in anaerobic lagoons. Control methods are needed to reduce air pollution by foul odors released from these lagoons. In a pilot-scale experiment, we evaluated the effect of pig wastewater pre-treatment on reducing the concentration o...

Computational Complexity of Bosons in Linear Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

photon statistics while strongly reducing emission probabilities: thus leading experimental teams pursuing large-scale BOSONSAMPLING have faced a hard...Potentially, this could motivate new validation protocols exploiting statistics that include this temporal degree of freedom. The impact of...photon- statistics polluted by higher-order terms, which can be mistakenly interpreted as decreased photon-indistinguishability. In fact, in many cases

On the pollutant removal, dispersion, and entrainment over two-dimensional idealized street canyons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Chun-Ho; Wong, Colman C. C.

2014-01-01

Pollutant dispersion over urban areas is not that well understood, in particular at the street canyon scale. This study is therefore conceived to examine how urban morphology modifies the pollutant removal, dispersion, and entrainment over urban areas. An idealized computational domain consisting of 12 two-dimensional (2D) identical street canyons of unity aspect ratio is employed. The large-eddy simulation (LES) is used to calculate the turbulent flows and pollutant transport in the urban boundary layer (UBL). An area source of uniform pollutant concentration is applied on the ground of the first street canyon. A close examination on the roof-level turbulence reveals patches of low-speed air masses in the streamwise flows and narrow high-speed downdrafts in the shear layer. Different from the flows over a smooth surface, the turbulence intensities are peaked near the top of the building roughness. The pollutant is rather uniformly distributed inside a street canyon but disperses quickly in the UBL over the buildings. Partitioning the vertical pollutant flux into its mean and turbulent components demystifies that the pollutant removal is mainly governed by turbulence. Whereas, mean wind carries pollutant into and out of a street canyon simultaneously. In addition to wind speed promotion, turbulent mixing is thus required to dilute the ground-level pollutants, which are then removed from the street canyon to the UBL. Atmospheric flows slow down rapidly after the leeward buildings, leading to updrafts carrying pollutants away from the street canyons (the basic pollutant removal mechanism).

Large- and small-scale constraints on power spectra in Omega = 1 universes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gelb, James M.; Gradwohl, Ben-Ami; Frieman, Joshua A.

1993-01-01

The CDM model of structure formation, normalized on large scales, leads to excessive pairwise velocity dispersions on small scales. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, we study three scenarios (all with Omega = 1) with more large-scale and less small-scale power than the standard CDM model: (1) cold dark matter with significantly reduced small-scale power (inspired by models with an admixture of cold and hot dark matter); (2) cold dark matter with a non-scale-invariant power spectrum; and (3) cold dark matter with coupling of dark matter to a long-range vector field. When normalized to COBE on large scales, such models do lead to reduced velocities on small scales and they produce fewer halos compared with CDM. However, models with sufficiently low small-scale velocities apparently fail to produce an adequate number of halos.

A cooperative strategy for parameter estimation in large scale systems biology models.

PubMed

Villaverde, Alejandro F; Egea, Jose A; Banga, Julio R

2012-06-22

Mathematical models play a key role in systems biology: they summarize the currently available knowledge in a way that allows to make experimentally verifiable predictions. Model calibration consists of finding the parameters that give the best fit to a set of experimental data, which entails minimizing a cost function that measures the goodness of this fit. Most mathematical models in systems biology present three characteristics which make this problem very difficult to solve: they are highly non-linear, they have a large number of parameters to be estimated, and the information content of the available experimental data is frequently scarce. Hence, there is a need for global optimization methods capable of solving this problem efficiently. A new approach for parameter estimation of large scale models, called Cooperative Enhanced Scatter Search (CeSS), is presented. Its key feature is the cooperation between different programs ("threads") that run in parallel in different processors. Each thread implements a state of the art metaheuristic, the enhanced Scatter Search algorithm (eSS). Cooperation, meaning information sharing between threads, modifies the systemic properties of the algorithm and allows to speed up performance. Two parameter estimation problems involving models related with the central carbon metabolism of E. coli which include different regulatory levels (metabolic and transcriptional) are used as case studies. The performance and capabilities of the method are also evaluated using benchmark problems of large-scale global optimization, with excellent results. The cooperative CeSS strategy is a general purpose technique that can be applied to any model calibration problem. Its capability has been demonstrated by calibrating two large-scale models of different characteristics, improving the performance of previously existing methods in both cases. The cooperative metaheuristic presented here can be easily extended to incorporate other global and local search solvers and specific structural information for particular classes of problems.

A cooperative strategy for parameter estimation in large scale systems biology models

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Mathematical models play a key role in systems biology: they summarize the currently available knowledge in a way that allows to make experimentally verifiable predictions. Model calibration consists of finding the parameters that give the best fit to a set of experimental data, which entails minimizing a cost function that measures the goodness of this fit. Most mathematical models in systems biology present three characteristics which make this problem very difficult to solve: they are highly non-linear, they have a large number of parameters to be estimated, and the information content of the available experimental data is frequently scarce. Hence, there is a need for global optimization methods capable of solving this problem efficiently. Results A new approach for parameter estimation of large scale models, called Cooperative Enhanced Scatter Search (CeSS), is presented. Its key feature is the cooperation between different programs (“threads”) that run in parallel in different processors. Each thread implements a state of the art metaheuristic, the enhanced Scatter Search algorithm (eSS). Cooperation, meaning information sharing between threads, modifies the systemic properties of the algorithm and allows to speed up performance. Two parameter estimation problems involving models related with the central carbon metabolism of E. coli which include different regulatory levels (metabolic and transcriptional) are used as case studies. The performance and capabilities of the method are also evaluated using benchmark problems of large-scale global optimization, with excellent results. Conclusions The cooperative CeSS strategy is a general purpose technique that can be applied to any model calibration problem. Its capability has been demonstrated by calibrating two large-scale models of different characteristics, improving the performance of previously existing methods in both cases. The cooperative metaheuristic presented here can be easily extended to incorporate other global and local search solvers and specific structural information for particular classes of problems. PMID:22727112

A mechanistic modeling system for estimating large scale emissions and transport of pollen and co-allergens

PubMed Central

Efstathiou, Christos; Isukapalli, Sastry

2011-01-01

Allergic airway diseases represent a complex health problem which can be exacerbated by the synergistic action of pollen particles and air pollutants such as ozone. Understanding human exposures to aeroallergens requires accurate estimates of the spatial distribution of airborne pollen levels as well as of various air pollutants at different times. However, currently there are no established methods for estimating allergenic pollen emissions and concentrations over large geographic areas such as the United States. A mechanistic modeling system for describing pollen emissions and transport over extensive domains has been developed by adapting components of existing regional scale air quality models and vegetation databases. First, components of the Biogenic Emissions Inventory System (BEIS) were adapted to predict pollen emission patterns. Subsequently, the transport module of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system was modified to incorporate description of pollen transport. The combined model, CMAQ-pollen, allows for simultaneous prediction of multiple air pollutants and pollen levels in a single model simulation, and uses consistent assumptions related to the transport of multiple chemicals and pollen species. Application case studies for evaluating the combined modeling system included the simulation of birch and ragweed pollen levels for the year 2002, during their corresponding peak pollination periods (April for birch and September for ragweed). The model simulations were driven by previously evaluated meteorological model outputs and emissions inventories for the eastern United States for the simulation period. A semi-quantitative evaluation of CMAQ-pollen was performed using tree and ragweed pollen counts in Newark, NJ for the same time periods. The peak birch pollen concentrations were predicted to occur within two days of the peak measurements, while the temporal patterns closely followed the measured profiles of overall tree pollen. For the case of ragweed pollen, the model was able to capture the patterns observed during September 2002, but did not predict an early peak; this can be associated with a wider species pollination window and inadequate spatial information in current land cover databases. An additional sensitivity simulation was performed to comparatively evaluate the dispersion patterns predicted by CMAQ-pollen with those predicted by the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, which is used extensively in aerobiological studies. The CMAQ estimated concentration plumes matched the equivalent pollen scenario modeled with HYSPLIT. The novel pollen modeling approach presented here allows simultaneous estimation of multiple airborne allergens and other air pollutants, and is being developed as a central component of an integrated population exposure modeling system, the Modeling Environment for Total Risk studies (MENTOR) for multiple, co-occurring contaminants that include aeroallergens and irritants. PMID:21516207

A mechanistic modeling system for estimating large-scale emissions and transport of pollen and co-allergens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efstathiou, Christos; Isukapalli, Sastry; Georgopoulos, Panos

2011-04-01

Allergic airway diseases represent a complex health problem which can be exacerbated by the synergistic action of pollen particles and air pollutants such as ozone. Understanding human exposures to aeroallergens requires accurate estimates of the spatial distribution of airborne pollen levels as well as of various air pollutants at different times. However, currently there are no established methods for estimating allergenic pollen emissions and concentrations over large geographic areas such as the United States. A mechanistic modeling system for describing pollen emissions and transport over extensive domains has been developed by adapting components of existing regional scale air quality models and vegetation databases. First, components of the Biogenic Emissions Inventory System (BEIS) were adapted to predict pollen emission patterns. Subsequently, the transport module of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system was modified to incorporate description of pollen transport. The combined model, CMAQ-pollen, allows for simultaneous prediction of multiple air pollutants and pollen levels in a single model simulation, and uses consistent assumptions related to the transport of multiple chemicals and pollen species. Application case studies for evaluating the combined modeling system included the simulation of birch and ragweed pollen levels for the year 2002, during their corresponding peak pollination periods (April for birch and September for ragweed). The model simulations were driven by previously evaluated meteorological model outputs and emissions inventories for the eastern United States for the simulation period. A semi-quantitative evaluation of CMAQ-pollen was performed using tree and ragweed pollen counts in Newark, NJ for the same time periods. The peak birch pollen concentrations were predicted to occur within two days of the peak measurements, while the temporal patterns closely followed the measured profiles of overall tree pollen. For the case of ragweed pollen, the model was able to capture the patterns observed during September 2002, but did not predict an early peak; this can be associated with a wider species pollination window and inadequate spatial information in current land cover databases. An additional sensitivity simulation was performed to comparatively evaluate the dispersion patterns predicted by CMAQ-pollen with those predicted by the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, which is used extensively in aerobiological studies. The CMAQ estimated concentration plumes matched the equivalent pollen scenario modeled with HYSPLIT. The novel pollen modeling approach presented here allows simultaneous estimation of multiple airborne allergens and other air pollutants, and is being developed as a central component of an integrated population exposure modeling system, the Modeling Environment for Total Risk studies (MENTOR) for multiple, co-occurring contaminants that include aeroallergens and irritants.

Effect of heavy haze and aerosol pollution on rice and wheat productions in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tie, Xuexi; Huang, Ru-Jin; Dai, Wenting; Cao, Junji; Long, Xin; Su, Xiaoli; Zhao, Shuyu; Wang, Qiyuan; Li, Guohui

2016-07-01

In China, regional haze pollution is a serious environmental problem. The impact on ecosystem, however, is not clearly understood. This study investigates the effect of regional haze pollution on the yields of rice and wheat in China. The spatial and temporal distributions of aerosol optical depth (AOD) show high particulate pollution in the North China Plain region, Yangtze River Delta region, the central eastern China, and the Si Chuan Basin, coexisted largely with crop growth in time and space. The solar irradiance reaching these regions is estimated to reduce by up to 28-49%, calculated using the AOD distributions and tropospheric ultraviolet-visible (TUV) model. Reduction of solar irradiance in these regions can depress optimal yields of about 45% of rice and 75% of wheat growth in China, leading to 2% reduction in total rice production and 8% reduction in total wheat production in China. However, there are large uncertainties of the estimate related to the diffuse solar radiation. For high diffuse radiation case, the estimate reductions of rice and wheat decrease to 1% and 4.5%, respectively. A further detailed study is needed to clearly understand this effect to meet the growing food demand in the nation in the coming decades.

Engineering management of large scale systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sanders, Serita; Gill, Tepper L.; Paul, Arthur S.

1989-01-01

The organization of high technology and engineering problem solving, has given rise to an emerging concept. Reasoning principles for integrating traditional engineering problem solving with system theory, management sciences, behavioral decision theory, and planning and design approaches can be incorporated into a methodological approach to solving problems with a long range perspective. Long range planning has a great potential to improve productivity by using a systematic and organized approach. Thus, efficiency and cost effectiveness are the driving forces in promoting the organization of engineering problems. Aspects of systems engineering that provide an understanding of management of large scale systems are broadly covered here. Due to the focus and application of research, other significant factors (e.g., human behavior, decision making, etc.) are not emphasized but are considered.

Chemistry and the Internal Combustion Engine II: Pollution Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, C. B.

1979-01-01

Discusses pollution problems which arise from the use of internal combustion (IC) engines in the United Kingdom (UK). The IC engine exhaust emissions, controlling IC engine pollution in the UK, and some future developments are also included. (HM)

Parallel computing for probabilistic fatigue analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sues, Robert H.; Lua, Yuan J.; Smith, Mark D.

1993-01-01

This paper presents the results of Phase I research to investigate the most effective parallel processing software strategies and hardware configurations for probabilistic structural analysis. We investigate the efficiency of both shared and distributed-memory architectures via a probabilistic fatigue life analysis problem. We also present a parallel programming approach, the virtual shared-memory paradigm, that is applicable across both types of hardware. Using this approach, problems can be solved on a variety of parallel configurations, including networks of single or multiprocessor workstations. We conclude that it is possible to effectively parallelize probabilistic fatigue analysis codes; however, special strategies will be needed to achieve large-scale parallelism to keep large number of processors busy and to treat problems with the large memory requirements encountered in practice. We also conclude that distributed-memory architecture is preferable to shared-memory for achieving large scale parallelism; however, in the future, the currently emerging hybrid-memory architectures will likely be optimal.

Algorithm and Application of Gcp-Independent Block Adjustment for Super Large-Scale Domestic High Resolution Optical Satellite Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Y. S.; Zhang, L.; Xu, B.; Zhang, Y.

2018-04-01

The accurate positioning of optical satellite image without control is the precondition for remote sensing application and small/medium scale mapping in large abroad areas or with large-scale images. In this paper, aiming at the geometric features of optical satellite image, based on a widely used optimization method of constraint problem which is called Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) and RFM least-squares block adjustment, we propose a GCP independent block adjustment method for the large-scale domestic high resolution optical satellite image - GISIBA (GCP-Independent Satellite Imagery Block Adjustment), which is easy to parallelize and highly efficient. In this method, the virtual "average" control points are built to solve the rank defect problem and qualitative and quantitative analysis in block adjustment without control. The test results prove that the horizontal and vertical accuracy of multi-covered and multi-temporal satellite images are better than 10 m and 6 m. Meanwhile the mosaic problem of the adjacent areas in large area DOM production can be solved if the public geographic information data is introduced as horizontal and vertical constraints in the block adjustment process. Finally, through the experiments by using GF-1 and ZY-3 satellite images over several typical test areas, the reliability, accuracy and performance of our developed procedure will be presented and studied in this paper.

Apportioning Sources of Riverine Nitrogen at Multiple Watershed Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyer, E. W.; Alexander, R. B.; Sebestyen, S. D.

2005-05-01

Loadings of reactive nitrogen (N) entering terrestrial landscapes have increased in recent decades due to anthropogenic activities associated with food and energy production. In the northeastern USA, this enhanced supply of N has been linked to many environmental concerns in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, such as forest decline, lake and stream acidification, human respiratory problems, and coastal eutrophication. Thus N is a priority pollutant with regard to a whole host of air, land, and water quality issues, highlighting the need for methods to identify and quantify various N sources. Further, understanding precursor sources of N is critical to current and proposed public policies targeted at the reduction of N inputs to the terrestrial landscape and receiving waters. We present results from published and ongoing studies using multiple approaches to fingerprint sources of N in the northeastern USA, at watershed scales ranging from the headwaters to the coastal zone. The approaches include: 1) a mass balance model with a nitrogen-budgeting approach for analyses of large watersheds; 2) a spatially-referenced regression model with an empirical modeling approach for analyses of water quality at regional scales; and 3) a meta-analysis of monitoring data with a chemical tracer approach, utilizing concentrations of multiple elements and isotopic composition of N from water samples collected in the streams and rivers. We discuss the successes and limitations of these various approaches for apportioning contributions of N from multiple sources to receiving waters at regional scales.

Groundwater Pollution and Vulnerability Assessment.

PubMed

Kurwadkar, Sudarshan

2017-10-01

Groundwater is a critical resource that serve as a source of drinking water to large human population and, provide long-term water for irrigation purposes. In recent years; however, this precious resource being increasingly threatened, due to natural and anthropogenic activities. A variety of contaminants of emerging concern such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, perfluorinated compounds, endocrine disruptors, and biological agents detected in the groundwater sources of both developing and developed nations. In this review paper, various studies have been included that documented instances of groundwater pollution and vulnerability to emerging contaminants of concern, pesticides, heavy metals, and leaching potential of various organic and inorganic contaminants from poorly managed residual waste products (biosolids, landfills, latrines, and septic tanks etc.). Understanding vulnerability of groundwater to pollution is critical to maintain the integrity of groundwater. A section on managed artificial recharge studies is included to highlight the sustainable approaches to groundwater conservation, replenishment and sustainability. This review paper is the synthesis of studies published in last one year that either documented the pollution problems or evaluated the vulnerability of groundwater pollution.

In Memoriam - Marvin L. Wesely.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gaffney, J. S.; Environmental Research

2003-06-01

Marvin L. Wesely, senior meteorologist at Argonne National Laboratory, died January 20, 2003, from a rare form of heart cancer. He was an internationally know and highly respected leader in the scientific measurement and modeling of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence and dry deposition of air pollutants. His fundamental contributions in the development of methodologies for fomulating dry deposition processes are used in atmospheric and biospheric models applied on all scales, worldwide. His extensive research aimed at finding solutions to such environmental problems as air pollution and global warming resulted in more than 150 published articles. Dr. Wesley was also anmore » editor for the Journal of Applied Meteorology and chief scientist of the atmospheric chemistry program in Washington, DC.« less

Fractional kalman filter to estimate the concentration of air pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vita Oktaviana, Yessy; Apriliani, Erna; Khusnul Arif, Didik

2018-04-01

Air pollution problem gives important effect in quality environment and quality of human’s life. Air pollution can be caused by nature sources or human activities. Pollutant for example Ozone, a harmful gas formed by NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from various sources. The air pollution problem can be modeled by TAPM-CTM (The Air Pollution Model with Chemical Transport Model). The model shows concentration of pollutant in the air. Therefore, it is important to estimate concentration of air pollutant. Estimation method can be used for forecast pollutant concentration in future and keep stability of air quality. In this research, an algorithm is developed, based on Fractional Kalman Filter to solve the model of air pollution’s problem. The model will be discretized first and then it will be estimated by the method. The result shows that estimation of Fractional Kalman Filter has better accuracy than estimation of Kalman Filter. The accuracy was tested by applying RMSE (Root Mean Square Error).

Fuzzy adaptive strong tracking scaled unscented Kalman filter for initial alignment of large misalignment angles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jing; Song, Ningfang; Yang, Gongliu; Jiang, Rui

2016-07-01

In the initial alignment process of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), large misalignment angles always bring nonlinear problem, which can usually be processed using the scaled unscented Kalman filter (SUKF). In this paper, the problem of large misalignment angles in SINS alignment is further investigated, and the strong tracking scaled unscented Kalman filter (STSUKF) is proposed with fixed parameters to improve convergence speed, while these parameters are artificially constructed and uncertain in real application. To further improve the alignment stability and reduce the parameters selection, this paper proposes a fuzzy adaptive strategy combined with STSUKF (FUZZY-STSUKF). As a result, initial alignment scheme of large misalignment angles based on FUZZY-STSUKF is designed and verified by simulations and turntable experiment. The results show that the scheme improves the accuracy and convergence speed of SINS initial alignment compared with those based on SUKF and STSUKF.

Finite difference and Runge-Kutta methods for solving vibration problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lintang Renganis Radityani, Scolastika; Mungkasi, Sudi

2017-11-01

The vibration of a storey building can be modelled into a system of second order ordinary differential equations. If the number of floors of a building is large, then the result is a large scale system of second order ordinary differential equations. The large scale system is difficult to solve, and if it can be solved, the solution may not be accurate. Therefore, in this paper, we seek for accurate methods for solving vibration problems. We compare the performance of numerical finite difference and Runge-Kutta methods for solving large scale systems of second order ordinary differential equations. The finite difference methods include the forward and central differences. The Runge-Kutta methods include the Euler and Heun methods. Our research results show that the central finite difference and the Heun methods produce more accurate solutions than the forward finite difference and the Euler methods do.

Sandy beaches: state of the art of nematode ecology.

PubMed

Maria, Tatiana F; Vanaverbeke, Jan; Vanreusel, Ann; Esteves, André M

2016-01-01

In this review, we summarize existing knowledge of the ecology of sandy-beach nematodes, in relation to spatial distribution, food webs, pollution and climate change. We attempt to discuss spatial scale patterns (macro-, meso- and microscale) according to their degree of importance in structuring sandy-beach nematode assemblages. This review will provide a substantial background on current knowledge of sandy-beach nematodes, and can be used as a starting point to delineate further investigations in this field. Over decades, sandy beaches have been the scene of studies focusing on community and population ecology, both related to morphodynamic models. The combination of physical factors (e.g. grain size, tidal exposure) and biological interactions (e.g. trophic relationships) is responsible for the spatial distribution of nematodes. In other words, the physical factors are more important in structuring nematodes communities over large scale of distribution while biological interactions are largely important in finer-scale distributions. It has been accepted that biological interactions are assumed to be of minor importance because physical factors overshadow the biological interactions in sandy beach sediments; however, the most recent results from in-situ and ex-situ experimental investigations on behavior and biological factors on a microscale have shown promise for understanding the mechanisms underlying larger-scale patterns and processes. Besides nematodes are very promising organisms used to understand the effects of pollution and climate changes although these subjects are less studied in sandy beaches than distribution patterns.

Evaluation of agricultural nonpoint source pollution potential risk over China with a Transformed-Agricultural Nonpoint Pollution Potential Index method.

PubMed

Yang, Fei; Xu, Zhencheng; Zhu, Yunqiang; He, Chansheng; Wu, Genyi; Qiu, Jin Rong; Fu, Qiang; Liu, Qingsong

2013-01-01

Agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution has been the most important threat to water environment quality. Understanding the spatial distribution of NPS pollution potential risk is important for taking effective measures to control and reduce NPS pollution. A Transformed-Agricultural Nonpoint Pollution Potential Index (T-APPI) model was constructed for evaluating the national NPS pollution potential risk in this study; it was also combined with remote sensing and geographic information system techniques for evaluation on the large scale and at 1 km2 spatial resolution. This model considers many factors contributing to the NPS pollution as the original APPI model, summarized as four indicators of the runoff, sediment production, chemical use and the people and animal load. These four indicators were analysed in detail at 1 km2 spatial resolution throughout China. The T-APPI model distinguished the four indicators into pollution source factors and transport process factors; it also took their relationship into consideration. The studied results showed that T-APPI is a credible and convenient method for NPS pollution potential risk evaluation. The results also indicated that the highest NPS pollution potential risk is distributed in the middle-southern Jiangsu province. Several other regions, including the North China Plain, Chengdu Basin Plain, Jianghan Plain, cultivated lands in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, also showed serious NPS pollution potential. This study can provide a scientific reference for predicting the future NPS pollution risk throughout China and may be helpful for taking reasonable and effective measures for preventing and controlling NPS pollution.

State of the art for the biosorption process--a review.

PubMed

Michalak, Izabela; Chojnacka, Katarzyna; Witek-Krowiak, Anna

2013-07-01

In recent years, biosorption process has become an economic and eco-friendly alternative treatment technology in the water and wastewater industry. In this light, a number of biosorbents were developed and are successfully employed for treating various pollutants including metals, dyes, phenols, fluoride, and pharmaceuticals in solutions (aqueous/oil). However, still there are few technical barriers in the biosorption process that impede its commercialization and thus to overcome these problems there has been a steadily growing interest in this research field. This resulted in large numbers of publications and patents each year. This review reports the state of the art in biosorption research. In this review, we provide a compendium of know-how in laboratory methodology, mathematical modeling of equilibrium and kinetics, identification of the biosorption mechanism. Various mathematical models of biosorption were discussed: the process in packed-bed column arrangement, as well as by suspended biomass. Particular attention was paid to patents in biosorption and pilot-scale systems. In addition, we provided future aspects in biosorption research.

Changes in the marine pollution management system in response to the Amorgos oil spill in Taiwan.

PubMed

Chiau, Wen-Yen

2005-01-01

The Marine Pollution Control Act (MPCA) of Taiwan was promulgated on November 1, 2000, with the specific aim of controlling marine pollution, safeguarding public health, and promoting the sustainable use of marine resources. In addition to land-based pollution, oil spills are one of the most significant threats to the local marine environment largely on account of the some 30,000 tankers which pass through Taiwan's coastal waters each year. In January 2001, two months after the enactment of this newly-introduced law, a Greek merchant vessel, the Amorgos ran aground in the vicinity of a national park on the southern tip of Taiwan, causing a serious oil spill and leading to considerable changes with regard to the marine pollution management system. The incident brought to the forefront many serious problems, such as a lack of experience, expertise as well as equipment required to respond to such disasters, as well as the ambiguous, unclear jurisdiction among related agencies. Thus, this paper reviews the incident of the Amorgos spill, identifies the major issues and lessons learned, and proposes several recommendations in an effort for Taiwan to further improve its marine pollution management system.

Probability mass first flush evaluation for combined sewer discharges.

PubMed

Park, Inhyeok; Kim, Hongmyeong; Chae, Soo-Kwon; Ha, Sungryong

2010-01-01

The Korea government has put in a lot of effort to construct sanitation facilities for controlling non-point source pollution. The first flush phenomenon is a prime example of such pollution. However, to date, several serious problems have arisen in the operation and treatment effectiveness of these facilities due to unsuitable design flow volumes and pollution loads. It is difficult to assess the optimal flow volume and pollution mass when considering both monetary and temporal limitations. The objective of this article was to characterize the discharge of storm runoff pollution from urban catchments in Korea and to estimate the probability of mass first flush (MFFn) using the storm water management model and probability density functions. As a result of the review of gauged storms for the representative using probability density function with rainfall volumes during the last two years, all the gauged storms were found to be valid representative precipitation. Both the observed MFFn and probability MFFn in BE-1 denoted similarly large magnitudes of first flush with roughly 40% of the total pollution mass contained in the first 20% of the runoff. In the case of BE-2, however, there were significant difference between the observed MFFn and probability MFFn.

Integrated methodology for assessing the HCH groundwater pollution at the multi-source contaminated mega-site Bitterfeld/Wolfen.

PubMed

Wycisk, Peter; Stollberg, Reiner; Neumann, Christian; Gossel, Wolfgang; Weiss, Holger; Weber, Roland

2013-04-01

A large-scale groundwater contamination characterises the Pleistocene groundwater system of the former industrial and abandoned mining region Bitterfeld/Wolfen, Eastern Germany. For more than a century, local chemical production and extensive lignite mining caused a complex contaminant release from local production areas and related dump sites. Today, organic pollutants (mainly organochlorines) are present in all compartments of the environment at high concentration levels. An integrated methodology for characterising the current situation of pollution as well as the future fate development of hazardous substances is highly required to decide on further management and remediation strategies. Data analyses have been performed on regional groundwater monitoring data from about 10 years, containing approximately 3,500 samples, and up to 180 individual organic parameters from almost 250 observation wells. Run-off measurements as well as water samples were taken biweekly from local creeks during a period of 18 months. A kriging interpolation procedure was applied on groundwater analytics to generate continuous distribution patterns of the nodal contaminant samples. High-resolution geological 3-D modelling serves as a database for a regional 3-D groundwater flow model. Simulation results support the future fate assessment of contaminants. A first conceptual model of the contamination has been developed to characterise the contamination in regional surface waters and groundwater. A reliable explanation of the variant hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) occurrence within the two local aquifer systems has been derived from the regionalised distribution patterns. Simulation results from groundwater flow modelling provide a better understanding of the future pollutant migration paths and support the overall site characterisation. The presented case study indicates that an integrated assessment of large-scale groundwater contaminations often needs more data than only from local groundwater monitoring. The developed methodology is appropriate to assess POP-contaminated mega-sites including, e.g. HCH deposits. Although HCH isomers are relevant groundwater pollutants at this site, further organochlorine pollutants are present at considerably higher levels. The study demonstrates that an effective evaluation of the current situation of contamination as well as of the related future fate development requires detailed information of the entire observed system.

A General Iterative Shrinkage and Thresholding Algorithm for Non-convex Regularized Optimization Problems.

PubMed

Gong, Pinghua; Zhang, Changshui; Lu, Zhaosong; Huang, Jianhua Z; Ye, Jieping

2013-01-01

Non-convex sparsity-inducing penalties have recently received considerable attentions in sparse learning. Recent theoretical investigations have demonstrated their superiority over the convex counterparts in several sparse learning settings. However, solving the non-convex optimization problems associated with non-convex penalties remains a big challenge. A commonly used approach is the Multi-Stage (MS) convex relaxation (or DC programming), which relaxes the original non-convex problem to a sequence of convex problems. This approach is usually not very practical for large-scale problems because its computational cost is a multiple of solving a single convex problem. In this paper, we propose a General Iterative Shrinkage and Thresholding (GIST) algorithm to solve the nonconvex optimization problem for a large class of non-convex penalties. The GIST algorithm iteratively solves a proximal operator problem, which in turn has a closed-form solution for many commonly used penalties. At each outer iteration of the algorithm, we use a line search initialized by the Barzilai-Borwein (BB) rule that allows finding an appropriate step size quickly. The paper also presents a detailed convergence analysis of the GIST algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by extensive experiments on large-scale data sets.

Dynamic ruptures on faults of complex geometry: insights from numerical simulations, from large-scale curvature to small-scale fractal roughness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulrich, T.; Gabriel, A. A.

2016-12-01

The geometry of faults is subject to a large degree of uncertainty. As buried structures being not directly observable, their complex shapes may only be inferred from surface traces, if available, or through geophysical methods, such as reflection seismology. As a consequence, most studies aiming at assessing the potential hazard of faults rely on idealized fault models, based on observable large-scale features. Yet, real faults are known to be wavy at all scales, their geometric features presenting similar statistical properties from the micro to the regional scale. The influence of roughness on the earthquake rupture process is currently a driving topic in the computational seismology community. From the numerical point of view, rough faults problems are challenging problems that require optimized codes able to run efficiently on high-performance computing infrastructure and simultaneously handle complex geometries. Physically, simulated ruptures hosted by rough faults appear to be much closer to source models inverted from observation in terms of complexity. Incorporating fault geometry on all scales may thus be crucial to model realistic earthquake source processes and to estimate more accurately seismic hazard. In this study, we use the software package SeisSol, based on an ADER-Discontinuous Galerkin scheme, to run our numerical simulations. SeisSol allows solving the spontaneous dynamic earthquake rupture problem and the wave propagation problem with high-order accuracy in space and time efficiently on large-scale machines. In this study, the influence of fault roughness on dynamic rupture style (e.g. onset of supershear transition, rupture front coherence, propagation of self-healing pulses, etc) at different length scales is investigated by analyzing ruptures on faults of varying roughness spectral content. In particular, we investigate the existence of a minimum roughness length scale in terms of rupture inherent length scales below which the rupture ceases to be sensible. Finally, the effect of fault geometry on ground-motions, in the near-field, is considered. Our simulations feature a classical linear slip weakening on the fault and a viscoplastic constitutive model off the fault. The benefits of using a more elaborate fast velocity-weakening friction law will also be considered.

On-demand high-capacity ride-sharing via dynamic trip-vehicle assignment

PubMed Central

Alonso-Mora, Javier; Samaranayake, Samitha; Wallar, Alex; Frazzoli, Emilio; Rus, Daniela

2017-01-01

Ride-sharing services are transforming urban mobility by providing timely and convenient transportation to anybody, anywhere, and anytime. These services present enormous potential for positive societal impacts with respect to pollution, energy consumption, congestion, etc. Current mathematical models, however, do not fully address the potential of ride-sharing. Recently, a large-scale study highlighted some of the benefits of car pooling but was limited to static routes with two riders per vehicle (optimally) or three (with heuristics). We present a more general mathematical model for real-time high-capacity ride-sharing that (i) scales to large numbers of passengers and trips and (ii) dynamically generates optimal routes with respect to online demand and vehicle locations. The algorithm starts from a greedy assignment and improves it through a constrained optimization, quickly returning solutions of good quality and converging to the optimal assignment over time. We quantify experimentally the tradeoff between fleet size, capacity, waiting time, travel delay, and operational costs for low- to medium-capacity vehicles, such as taxis and van shuttles. The algorithm is validated with ∼3 million rides extracted from the New York City taxicab public dataset. Our experimental study considers ride-sharing with rider capacity of up to 10 simultaneous passengers per vehicle. The algorithm applies to fleets of autonomous vehicles and also incorporates rebalancing of idling vehicles to areas of high demand. This framework is general and can be used for many real-time multivehicle, multitask assignment problems. PMID:28049820

On-demand high-capacity ride-sharing via dynamic trip-vehicle assignment.

PubMed

Alonso-Mora, Javier; Samaranayake, Samitha; Wallar, Alex; Frazzoli, Emilio; Rus, Daniela

2017-01-17

Ride-sharing services are transforming urban mobility by providing timely and convenient transportation to anybody, anywhere, and anytime. These services present enormous potential for positive societal impacts with respect to pollution, energy consumption, congestion, etc. Current mathematical models, however, do not fully address the potential of ride-sharing. Recently, a large-scale study highlighted some of the benefits of car pooling but was limited to static routes with two riders per vehicle (optimally) or three (with heuristics). We present a more general mathematical model for real-time high-capacity ride-sharing that (i) scales to large numbers of passengers and trips and (ii) dynamically generates optimal routes with respect to online demand and vehicle locations. The algorithm starts from a greedy assignment and improves it through a constrained optimization, quickly returning solutions of good quality and converging to the optimal assignment over time. We quantify experimentally the tradeoff between fleet size, capacity, waiting time, travel delay, and operational costs for low- to medium-capacity vehicles, such as taxis and van shuttles. The algorithm is validated with ∼3 million rides extracted from the New York City taxicab public dataset. Our experimental study considers ride-sharing with rider capacity of up to 10 simultaneous passengers per vehicle. The algorithm applies to fleets of autonomous vehicles and also incorporates rebalancing of idling vehicles to areas of high demand. This framework is general and can be used for many real-time multivehicle, multitask assignment problems.

Combining environment and health information systems for the assessment of atmospheric pollution on human health.

PubMed

Skouloudis, Andreas N; Kassomenos, Pavlos

2014-08-01

The use of emerging technologies for environmental monitoring with satellite and in-situ sensors have become essential instruments for assessing the impact of environmental pollution on human health, especially in areas that require high spatial and temporal resolution. This was until recently a rather difficult problem. Regrettably, with classical approaches the spatial resolution is frequently inadequate in reporting environmental causes and health effects in the same time scale. This work examines with new tools different levels of air-quality with sensor monitoring with the aim to associate those with severe health effects. The process established here facilitates the precise representation of human exposure with the population attributed in a fine spatial grid and taking into account environmental stressors of human exposure. These stressors can be monitored with innovative sensor units with a temporal resolution that accurately describes chronic and acute environmental burdens. The current understanding of the situation in densely populated areas can be properly analyzed, before commitments are made for reductions in total emissions as well as for assessing the effects of reduced trans-boundary fluxes. In addition, the data processed here with in-situ sensors can assist in establishing more effective regulatory policies for the protection of vulnerable population groups and the satellite monitoring instruments permit abatement strategies that are close to real-time over large geographical areas. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The relationship between birch pollen, air pollution and weather types and their effect on antihistamine purchase in two Swedish cities.

PubMed

Grundström, Maria; Dahl, Åslög; Ou, Tinghai; Chen, Deliang; Pleijel, Håkan

2017-01-01

Exposure to elevated air pollution levels can aggravate pollen allergy symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between airborne birch ( Betula ) pollen, urban air pollutants NO 2 , O 3 and PM 10 and their effects on antihistamine demand in Gothenburg and Malmö, Sweden, 2006-2012. Further, the influence of large-scale weather pattern on pollen-/pollution-related risk, using Lamb weather types (LWTs), was analysed. Daily LWTs were obtained by comparing the atmospheric pressure over a 16-point grid system over southern Sweden (scale ~3000 km). They include two non-directional types, cyclonic (C) and anticyclonic (A) and eight directional types depending on the wind direction (N, NE, E…). Birch pollen levels were exceptionally high under LWTs E and SE in both cities. Furthermore, LWTs with dry and moderately calm meteorological character (A, NE, E, SE) were associated with strongly elevated air pollution (NO 2 and PM 10 ) in Gothenburg. For most weather situations in both cities, simultaneously high birch pollen together with high air pollution had larger over-the-counter (OTC) sales of antihistamines than situations with high birch pollen alone. LWTs NE, E, SE and S had the highest OTC sales in both cities. In Gothenburg, the city with a higher load of both birch pollen and air pollution, the higher OTC sales were especially obvious and indicate an increased effect on allergic symptoms from air pollution. Furthermore, Gothenburg LWTs A, NE, E and SE were associated with high pollen and air pollution levels and thus classified as high-risk weather types. In Malmö, corresponding high-risk LWTs were NE, E, SE and S. Furthermore, occurrence of high pollen and air pollutants as well as OTC sales correlated strongly with vapour pressure deficit and temperature in Gothenburg (much less so in Malmö). This provides evidence that the combination of meteorological properties associated with LWTs can explain high levels of birch pollen and air pollution. Our study shows that LWTs represent a useful tool for integrated daily air quality forecasting/warning.

Exploring the planetary boundary for chemical pollution.

PubMed

Diamond, Miriam L; de Wit, Cynthia A; Molander, Sverker; Scheringer, Martin; Backhaus, Thomas; Lohmann, Rainer; Arvidsson, Rickard; Bergman, Åke; Hauschild, Michael; Holoubek, Ivan; Persson, Linn; Suzuki, Noriyuki; Vighi, Marco; Zetzsch, Cornelius

2015-05-01

Rockström et al. (2009a, 2009b) have warned that humanity must reduce anthropogenic impacts defined by nine planetary boundaries if "unacceptable global change" is to be avoided. Chemical pollution was identified as one of those boundaries for which continued impacts could erode the resilience of ecosystems and humanity. The central concept of the planetary boundary (or boundaries) for chemical pollution (PBCP or PBCPs) is that the Earth has a finite assimilative capacity for chemical pollution, which includes persistent, as well as readily degradable chemicals released at local to regional scales, which in aggregate threaten ecosystem and human viability. The PBCP allows humanity to explicitly address the increasingly global aspects of chemical pollution throughout a chemical's life cycle and the need for a global response of internationally coordinated control measures. We submit that sufficient evidence shows stresses on ecosystem and human health at local to global scales, suggesting that conditions are transgressing the safe operating space delimited by a PBCP. As such, current local to global pollution control measures are insufficient. However, while the PBCP is an important conceptual step forward, at this point single or multiple PBCPs are challenging to operationalize due to the extremely large number of commercial chemicals or mixtures of chemicals that cause myriad adverse effects to innumerable species and ecosystems, and the complex linkages between emissions, environmental concentrations, exposures and adverse effects. As well, the normative nature of a PBCP presents challenges of negotiating pollution limits amongst societal groups with differing viewpoints. Thus, a combination of approaches is recommended as follows: develop indicators of chemical pollution, for both control and response variables, that will aid in quantifying a PBCP(s) and gauging progress towards reducing chemical pollution; develop new technologies and technical and social approaches to mitigate global chemical pollution that emphasize a preventative approach; coordinate pollution control and sustainability efforts; and facilitate implementation of multiple (and potentially decentralized) control efforts involving scientists, civil society, government, non-governmental organizations and international bodies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the performance of exponential integrators for problems in magnetohydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Einkemmer, Lukas; Tokman, Mayya; Loffeld, John

2017-02-01

Exponential integrators have been introduced as an efficient alternative to explicit and implicit methods for integrating large stiff systems of differential equations. Over the past decades these methods have been studied theoretically and their performance was evaluated using a range of test problems. While the results of these investigations showed that exponential integrators can provide significant computational savings, the research on validating this hypothesis for large scale systems and understanding what classes of problems can particularly benefit from the use of the new techniques is in its initial stages. Resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling is widely used in studying large scale behavior of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. In many problems numerical solution of MHD equations is a challenging task due to the temporal stiffness of this system in the parameter regimes of interest. In this paper we evaluate the performance of exponential integrators on large MHD problems and compare them to a state-of-the-art implicit time integrator. Both the variable and constant time step exponential methods of EPIRK-type are used to simulate magnetic reconnection and the Kevin-Helmholtz instability in plasma. Performance of these methods, which are part of the EPIC software package, is compared to the variable time step variable order BDF scheme included in the CVODE (part of SUNDIALS) library. We study performance of the methods on parallel architectures and with respect to magnitudes of important parameters such as Reynolds, Lundquist, and Prandtl numbers. We find that the exponential integrators provide superior or equal performance in most circumstances and conclude that further development of exponential methods for MHD problems is warranted and can lead to significant computational advantages for large scale stiff systems of differential equations such as MHD.

Airborne persistent toxic substances (PTSs) in China: occurrence and its implication associated with air pollution.

PubMed

Wang, Pu; Zhang, Qinghua; Li, Yingming; Matsiko, Julius; Zhang, Ya; Jiang, Guibin

2017-08-16

In recent years, China suffered from extensive air pollution due to the rapidly expanding economic and industrial developments. Its severe impact on human health has raised great concern currently. Persistent toxic substances (PTSs), a large group of environmental pollutants, have also received much attention due to their adverse effects on both the ecosystem and public health. However, limited studies have been conducted to reveal the airborne PTSs associated with air pollution at the national scale in China. In this review, we summarized the occurrence and variation of airborne PTSs in China, especially in megacities. These PTSs included polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), halogenated flame retardants (HFRs), perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals. The implication of their occurrence associated with air pollution was discussed, and the emission source of these chemicals was concluded. Most reviewed studies have been conducted in east and south China with more developed economy and industry. Severe contamination of airborne PTSs generally occurred in megacities with large populations, such as Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. However, the summarized results suggested that industrial production and product consumption are the major sources of most PTSs in the urban environment, while unintentional emission during anthropogenic activities is an important contributor to airborne PTSs. It is important that fine particles serve as a major carrier of most airborne PTSs, which facilitates the long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT) of PTSs, and therefore, increases the exposure risk of the human body to these pollutants. This implied that not only the concentration and chemical composition of fine particles but also the absorbed PTSs are of particular concern when air pollution occurs.

The variability of methane, nitrous oxide and sulfur hexafluoride in Northeast India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganesan, A. L.; Chatterjee, A.; Prinn, R. G.; Harth, C. M.; Salameh, P. K.; Manning, A. J.; Hall, B. D.; Mühle, J.; Meredith, L. K.; Weiss, R. F.; O'Doherty, S.; Young, D.

2013-06-01

High-frequency atmospheric measurements of methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) from Darjeeling, India are presented from December 2011 (CH4)/March 2012 (N2O and SF6) through February 2013. These measurements were made on a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector and electron capture detector and were calibrated on the Tohoku University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO)-98 and SIO-2005 scales for CH4, N2O and SF6, respectively. The observations show large variability and frequent pollution events in CH4 and N2O mole fractions, suggesting significant sources in the regions sampled by Darjeeling throughout the year. In contrast, SF6 mole fractions show little variability and only occasional pollution episodes, likely due to weak sources in the region. Simulations using the Numerical Atmospheric dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) particle dispersion model suggest that many of the enhancements in the three gases result from the transport of pollutants from the densely populated Indo-Gangetic plains of India to Darjeeling. The meteorology of the region varies considerably throughout the year from Himalayan flows in the winter to the strong South Asian summer monsoon. The model is consistent in simulating a diurnal cycle in CH4 and N2O mole fractions that is present during the winter but absent in the summer and suggests that the signals measured at Darjeeling are dominated by large scale (~100 km) flows rather than local (<10 km) flows.

The variability of methane, nitrous oxide and sulfur hexafluoride in Northeast India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganesan, A. L.; Chatterjee, A.; Prinn, R. G.; Harth, C. M.; Salameh, P. K.; Manning, A. J.; Hall, B. D.; Mühle, J.; Meredith, L. K.; Weiss, R. F.; O'Doherty, S.; Young, D.

2013-11-01

High-frequency atmospheric measurements of methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) from Darjeeling, India are presented from December 2011 (CH4)/March 2012 (N2O and SF6) through February 2013. These measurements were made on a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector and electron capture detector, and were calibrated on the Tohoku University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO)-98 and SIO-2005 scales for CH4, N2O and SF6, respectively. The observations show large variability and frequent pollution events in CH4 and N2O mole fractions, suggesting significant sources in the regions sampled by Darjeeling throughout the year. By contrast, SF6 mole fractions show little variability and only occasional pollution episodes, likely due to weak sources in the region. Simulations using the Numerical Atmospheric dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) particle dispersion model suggest that many of the enhancements in the three gases result from the transport of pollutants from the densely populated Indo-Gangetic Plains of India to Darjeeling. The meteorology of the region varies considerably throughout the year from Himalayan flows in the winter to the strong south Asian summer monsoon. The model is consistent in simulating a diurnal cycle in CH4 and N2O mole fractions that is present during the winter but absent in the summer and suggests that the signals measured at Darjeeling are dominated by large-scale (~100 km) flows rather than local (<10 km) flows.

Assessing Potential Air Pollutant Emissions from Agricultural Feedstock Production using MOVES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eberle, Annika; Warner, Ethan; Zhang, Yi Min

Biomass feedstock production is expected to grow as demand for biofuels and bioenergy increases. The change in air pollutant emissions that may result from large-scale biomass supply has implications for local air quality and human health. We developed spatially explicit emissions inventories for corn grain and six cellulosic feedstocks through the extension of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Feedstock Production Emissions to Air Model (FPEAM). These inventories include emissions of seven pollutants (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, and carbon monoxide) generated from biomass establishment, maintenance, harvest, transportation, and biofuel preprocessing activities. By integrating the EPA'smore » MOtor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) into FPEAM, we created a scalable framework to execute county-level runs of the MOVES-Onroad model for representative counties (i.e., those counties with the largest amount of cellulosic feedstock production in each state) on a national scale. We used these results to estimate emissions from the on-road transportation of biomass and combined them with county-level runs of the MOVES-Nonroad model to estimate emissions from agricultural equipment. We also incorporated documented emission factors to estimate emissions from chemical application and the operation of drying equipment for feedstock processing, and used methods developed by the EPA and the California Air Resources Board to estimate fugitive dust emissions. The model developed here could be applied to custom equipment budgets and is extensible to accommodate additional feedstocks and pollutants. Future work will also extend this model to analyze spatial boundaries beyond the county-scale (e.g., regional or sub-county levels).« less