A remote sensing tool for near real-time monitoring of harmful algal blooms and turbidity in reservoirs

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) diminish the utility of reservoirs for drinking water supply, irrigation, recreation, and ecosystem service provision. HABs decrease water quality and are a significant health concern in surface water bodies. Near real-time monitoring of HABs in reservoirs and small water bodies is essential to understand the dynamics of turbidity and HAB formation. This study uses satellite imagery to remotely sense chlorophyll-a concentrations (chl-a), phycocyanin concentrations, and turbidity in two reservoirs, the Grand Lake O′ the Cherokees and Hudson Reservoir, OK, USA, to develop a tool for near real-time monitoring of HABs. Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 imagery from 2013 to 2017 and from 2015 to 2020 were used to train and test three different models that include multiple regression, support vector regression (SVR), and random forest regression (RFR). Performance was assessed by comparing the three models to estimate chl-a, phycocyanin, and turbidity. The results showed that RFR achieved the best performance, with R² values of 0.75, 0.82, and 0.79 for chl-a, turbidity, and phycocyanin, while multiple regression had R² values of 0.29, 0.51, and 0.46 and SVR had R² values of 0.58, 0.62, and 0.61 on the testing datasets, respectively. This paper examines the potential of the developed open-source satellite remote sensing tool for monitoring reservoirs in Oklahoma to assess spatial and temporal variations in surface water quality.     

Investigation of long-term river water quality variations using different urbanization indices and assessment of common scientific perspectives of urbanization on water quality

This study investigated the water quality variation spanning 30 years (1986–2017) in 16 catchments of Hong Kong against different urbanization indices, namely, built area fraction; population; and product of population and built area fraction. Pearson correlations of three different periods of time (1988–1990, 1998–2000, and 2015–2017) indicated that water quality trends were dependent on the urbanization index. Total solids, nitrite-nitrogen, total phosphorus, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and flow rate had significant deteriorative trends (Pearson r > 0.5 and p < 0.05) with population and product of built area and population. Results also interpreted that built area fraction and product of built area and population were the worst and best indices that represented urbanization and/or its impacts, respectively. Mann-Kendall test for the entire 30 year period showed that water quality had improved with time with respect to certain water quality parameters (e.g., dissolved oxygen, ammoniacal nitrogen and total suspended solids). The results portrayed that although the urbanization of catchments had increased with time, the river water quality with respect to many parameters showed signs of improvement and the legislative measures implemented seemed to be effective in controlling pollution.     

Environmental justice in Nigeria: A narration of residents’ experience in Ile-Ife

The sharing of environmental cost by residents in various residential areas in the developing world is perceived to be unfair. This study therefore assessed residents’ experiences of environmental justice in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Three residential areas were identified in the study area and samples were selected using systematic sampling. Using availability and condition of urban infrastructure, severity of environmental problems and residents’ involvement in environmental issues, the study examined environmental justice in the study area. The study established a variation in environmental issues across identified residential areas. The severity of environmental problem measured through an index tagged Severity of Environmental Problem (SEPI) revealed that environmental problems was most severe in the core (SEPI = 4.00), followed by the peripheral area (SEPI = 3.71) and least in the transition area (SEPI = 3.56). On the condition of available environmental infrastructure, the study revealed that the conditions of infrastructure were most improved in the peripheral area (ICI = 3.07), followed by the core (ICI = 2.67) and the least in the transition area (ICI = 2.42). The study concluded that residents’ experiences of environmental justice differ significantly across the different residential zones as reflected by residents’ socio-economic characteristics. Furthermore, it established that age, gender, educational status, and number of years spent in the area can be used to explain the differences in residents’ experience of environmental justice in the study area. To enhance the liveability, the study recommends adequate provision of environmental amenities needed by each category of people in the city.     

Public perception of air pollution sources across Europe

Air pollution is one of the primary concerns of our society for its effect on human health and the environment. Among the policy measures that can be put in place to limit air pollutant emissions, end-of-pipe technologies and/or regulatory instruments may be implemented through legislative acts. Also, equally important are behavioural measures, requiring citizens’ active involvement. The success of any measure to limit pollutant emissions requires the acceptance by the citizens that, in turn, implies a correct perception of the main pollutant emission drivers. We present here the comparison between the public perception of air pollution sources and the real-world situation through a survey carried out in seven European countries and involving 16 101 respondents. Our study shows a dramatic underestimation of the contribution of the agri-food sector to air pollution. This result is common to all respondents in the seven countries examined and only to a small extent depends on gender, age and socio-economic status of the respondents.     

Using hydrochemical signatures to characterize the long-period evolution of groundwater information in the Dagu River Basin,China

• The long-period groundwater evolution was identified by hydrochemical signatures. • The dominant processes in the groundwater evolution were verified. • Groundwater quality in the coastal areas was susceptible to deterioration due to SI. • Groundwater contamination arose from fertilizer, livestock manure & domestic sewage. The evolution of hydrochemical compositions influenced by long-period interactions between groundwater and the geo-environment is a fundamental issue for exploring groundwater quality and vulnerability. This study systematically investigated the hydrochemical processes and anthropogenic interference occurring in the river basin by bivariate plots, Gibbs diagrams, saturation index, and the major ions ratios. Apparent changes in groundwater hydrochemistry have been observed in the study area, illustrating the origins of major ions are affected by various internal and external factors. Results highlighted that TDS varied from freshwater to brackish water, ranging between 187.90 and 2294.81 mg/L. Ca²⁺ and HCO₃⁻ are the dominant ions in the studied samples. The results gained by Gibbs diagrams, bivariate plots, saturation index, and the major ions ratios demonstrated that minerals dissolution/precipitation, cation exchange, and human inputs play crucial roles in the unconfined aquifers. Moreover, the overuse of nitrogen fertilizer, livestock manure, and industrial/domestic sewage led to nitrate and nitrite contamination and brought significant challenges to the surrounding hydrogeo-environment. The present study could make an unambiguous identification of natural processes and anthropogenic interventions influencing groundwater hydrochemistry’s long-period evolution and create a preliminary strategy for groundwater resources management.     

Institutional quality,financial development and sustainable economic growth among lower income countries

This article postulates strong endogenous relationships in lower income countries between institutional quality, financial development and sustained economic growth. These associations were investigated using the vector-error correction model (VECM) and Granger causality method for a sample of 79 countries from 2005 to 2022. The findings show that (1) these variables reinforce each other in the short run. (2) In the long run, both institutional quality and financial development can fuel economic growth. (3) The positive effect of institutional quality on economic growth is greater than that of financial development. Policy implications of these findings are that careful attention should be paid to co-development policies to enhance the institutional quality and the financial system in these economies. Policies should also consider economic growth strategies to enable sustainable economic growth rates.     

The deflectors influence on flow complexity,bed morphology,sediment transport and water quality of urban lotic waters - A laboratory study

In this laboratory study different combinations of bed (sand, pebble gravel [gravel], and a mix of sand and gravel) and flow (typical and overtopping) were experimented with to investigate the impact of porous deflectors in flow diversity, water quality, and fish performance in prismatic open channels. Deflectors changed the gradually varied flow to a rapidly varied flow, as a sudden change in the water depth was observed at the deflectors, and this change was large for smooth beds. With the presence of gravel, the scouring near the downstream deflector was almost twice that of the sand bed, and with the scouring at its own upstream deflector, irrespective of whether the flow was typical or overtopping. This behavior was a result of sand mobilization due to shear stress and sand mobilization aided gravel transport. The mixed bed showed less gravel movement compared to the gravel-only bed. The percentage of sediment washed out was minor for all bed scenarios, indicating that sediment transport was local. Relative to the sand bed without deflectors (representing a typical urban canal), deflectors resulted in reduced and improved water quality (in terms of sediment load) for sand, and mixed bed, respectively. The fishes found refuge and were comfortable in the pool areas created by deflectors unlike in channels without deflectors where they showed exhaustion.     

基于改进的非线性GM(1,1)模型的职业病预测研究

为了更准确地预测职业病，在传统GM(1,1)模型的基础上，提出改进的非线性GM(1,1)模型，在传统的GM(1,1)模型中引入弱化算子，将紧邻均值与原始数据之间的线性假设改为非线性假设，提高曲线的拟合度。以2005—2014年的全国职业病例数为研究对象，进行数据拟合和预测分析，其中以2014年职业病例数作为验证数据，并利用后验差比值和小误差概率2个参数，检验该改进模型的预测精度。由应用实例的分析结果可知:在职业病发病趋势的预测方面，改进的非线性GM(1,1)模型的预测精度提高到一级，曲线拟合度较高，预测得到2015年的职业病例数为34 900例。     

磺胺类化合物对大肠杆菌突变QSAR预测模型初探

抗生素被广泛应用于医疗、农业和畜牧业等领域,但是长期滥用会促进细菌的突变作用。本文以大肠杆菌(E.coli)为受试生物,测定了10种磺胺类抗生素(SAs)单一暴露时对E.coli的突变效应,采用物化参数Ebinding(抗生素与其靶蛋白的相互作用能力)与突变效应参数lgRC0-2(最高可观测突变促进效应浓度)或lgRCmax(突变促进率最大值对应的浓度),建立了突变效应的QSAR模型,并采用雷达图进行验证。结果表明,lgRC0-2与Ebinding模型和lgRCmax与Ebinding、DMG(偶极矩)模型的拟合系数R2分别是0.888、0.873,即lgRC0-2或lgRCmax与Ebinding相关性均较好,可能由于磺胺类化合物(SAs)会作用于叶酸合成通路,影响嘌呤、嘧啶碱基的合成,从而对E.coli的突变具有促进效应,且雷达图验证表明,上述2个模型均具有良好的内部预测能力。本研究有望为抗生素使用带来的生态风险评价以及药物设计提供相关指导。     

基于变权灰色云模型的江苏省水环境系统脆弱性评价

水环境系统脆弱性是水资源利用与生态环境研究的热点问题，通过研究水环境系统的内在机理，综合考虑影响水环境系统脆弱性的资源、环境、经济、社会等因素，借助驱动力-压力-状态-影响-响应-管理（DPSIRM）框架构建水环境系统脆弱性评价指标体系。在此基础上，构建基于变权灰色云模型的评价方法，对2004~2014年江苏省水环境系统脆弱性进行评价。结果表明：2004~2014年水环境系统脆弱性指数由47.056提高到63.210，脆弱性等级由“重度脆弱”演化为“中度脆弱”，并长期维持在“中度脆弱的”等级，2014年出现了向“轻度脆弱”状态转变的趋势。分析各个子系统对水环境系统脆弱性影响程度可知，影响子系统和响应子系统对江苏省水环境脆弱性系统的影响程度逐年增加；而压力子系统和管理子系统对水环境系统脆弱性的影响程度逐年下降；其它子系统对水环境系统脆弱性的影响维持在一定水平小幅度波动。