Assessing groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh using GIS and multivariate statistical approaches

Sustainable groundwater quality is a key global concern and has become a major issue of disquiets in most parts of the world including Bangladesh. Hence, the assessment of groundwater quality is an important study to ensure its sustainability for various uses. In this study, a combination of multivariate statistics, geographical information system (GIS) and geochemical approaches was employed to evaluate the groundwater quality and its sustainability in Joypurhat district of Bangladesh. The results showed that the groundwater samples are mainly Ca–Mg–HCO₃ type. Principal component analysis (PCA) results revealed that geogenic sources (rock weathering and cation exchange) followed by anthropogenic activities (domestic sewage and agro-chemicals) were the major factors governing the groundwater quality of the study area. Furthermore, the results of PCA are validated using the cluster analysis and correlation matrix analysis. Based on the groundwater quality index (GWQI), it is found that all the groundwater samples belong to excellent to good water quality domains for human consumption, although iron, fluoride and iodide contaminated to the groundwater, which do not pose any significant health hazard according to World Health Organization’s and Bangladesh’s guideline values. The results of irrigation water quality index including sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), permeability index and sodium percentage (Na %) suggested that most of the groundwater samples are good quality water for agricultural uses. The spatial distribution of the measured values of GWQI, SAR, Fe (iron), EC (electrical conductivity) and TH (total hardness) were spatially mapped using the GIS tool in the study area.     

Elaboration of geopolymer binder from pharmaceutical glass waste and optimization of its synthesis parameters

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The objective of this study is to manufacture a new geopolymer binder from pharmaceutical glass waste as a main raw material. The geopolymer...     

Treibhausgasemissionen zukünftiger Erdgasbereitstellung für Deutschland

Ohne Zusammenfassung Original erschienen in UWSF – Z Umweltchem ?kotox 20(2):133–144 (2008) DOI: Herausgeber: Martin Pehnt und Eckard Helmers     

Development of a test method against hot alkaline chemical splashes.

High temperature alkaline chemical liquids have caused injuries and hazardous situations in Finnish pulp manufacturing mills. There are no requirements and/or test method standards concerning protection against high temperature alkaline chemical splashes. This paper describes the test method development process to test and identify materials appropriate for hot liquid chemical hazard protection. In the first phase, the liquid was spilled through a stainless steel funnel and the protection performance was evaluated using a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film under the test material. After several tentative improvements, a graphite crucible was used for heating and spilling the chemical, and a copper-coated K-type thermometer with 4 independent measuring areas was designed to measure the temperature under the material samples. The thermometer was designed to respond quickly so that peak temperatures could be measured. The main problem was to keep the spilled amount of chemical constant, which unfortunately resulted in significant variability in data.     

Outcomes of Collaborative Water Policy Making: Applying Complexity Thinking to Evaluation

Collaborative policy making has become increasingly significant in environmental management, but it is often evaluated by whether or not agreement is reached and implemented. The most important outcomes of such policy dialogues are often invisible or undervalued when seen through the lens of a traditional, modernist paradigm of government and accountability. These dialogues represent a new paradigm of governance that can be best understood in the light of a complex adaptive system model of society. From this perspective collaborative policy making is a way of making a system more flexible, adaptive and intelligent. The authors document such outcomes in three cases of water policy making in California, including the San Francisco Estuary Project, the CALFED Bay-Delta Program and the Sacramento Area Water Forum. The outcomes include social and political capital, agreed-on information, the end of stalemates, high-quality agreements, learning and change, innovation and new practices involving networks and flexibility.