A database for a multi-institutional environment monitoring program

A several year program is underway in Israel for monitoring a wastewater reclamation and storage complex for agriculture irrigation. The program covers wastewater treatment and storage, irrigation, aquifers, air pollution, crops, soil, geography and meteorology, and is operated by one Principal Institution and several Participant Institutions. The institutions feed their data to a central database. Multi-institutional databases are fed by research teams whose areas of activity are traditionally unrelated. The main problem of the Database Administrator consists in combining data created by different methods under different basic assumptions. And to make them available to investigators from several disciplines and institutions who are used to different data analysis procedures. Database Administrator's background should cover both computer and environmental sciences fields. The selection of a flexible multipurpose software is recommended, but there are several decisions on database design that depend not on the software but on the characteristics and requirements of the Monitoring Program. Entering the data from different sources in independent files facilitates input, debugging, administrative control of the contribution of each institution, and changes in units and parameters. This multi-file design also overcomes difficulties due to excessive file size, and better matchs the actual usage of the database in a multi-institutional program. To enter the data with their original characteristics and units also matchs better the database usage. Ready-to-use routines for file merging and unit conversion, and debugging and documentation needs are also discussed. The Database-User interactions are the mechanism that maintains an evolving dynamic Database.     

Herding tendency as an aggregating factor in a binary mixture of social entities

The role of herding tendency in the group formation of social entities is hereby explored. The herding tendency is quantified by a parameter α∈[0,1]$\alpha \in [0\text{,}1]$. The system consists of a mixture of two types of entities: (i) those with α>0$\alpha >0$ and (ii) those with α=0$\alpha =0$. The latter consist a fraction p   of the entire population. The dynamics of agent interactions leads to the formation of clusters of different sizes. The size distribution D(s)$D(s)$ of these clusters are found to obey a power-law only in the limit that α→1$\alpha \to 1$ and p→0$p\to 0$. Group-size data of several real-world animal systems are fitted with curves generated by the model. This study contributes further to the understanding of group-forming behavior commonly cited in ecological studies.     

Salt enrichment of municipal sewage: New prevention approaches in Israel

Wastewater irrigation is an environmentally sound wastewater disposal practice, but sewage is more saline than the supplied fresh water and the salts are recycled together with the water. Salts have negative environmental effects on crops, soils, and groundwater. There are no inexpensive ways to remove the salts once they enter sewage, and the prevention of sewage salt enrichment is the most immediately available solution. The body of initiatives presently structured by the Ministry of the Environment of Israel are herein described, with the aim to contribute to the search for a long-term solution of salinity problems in arid countries. The new initiatives are based on: (1) search for new technologies to reduce salt consumption and discharge into sewage; (2) different technologies to cope with different situations; (3) raising the awareness of the public and industry on the environmental implications of salinity pollution; and (4) an elastic legal approach expressed through new state-of-the-art regulations. The main contributor to the salinity of sewage in Israel is the watersoftening process followed by the meat koshering process. Some of the adopted technical solutions are: the discharge of the brine into the sea, the substitution of sodium by potassium salts in the ion-exchangers, the construction of centralized systems for the supply of soft water in industrial areas, the precipitation of Ca and Mg in the effluents from ion-exchangers and recycling of the NaCI solution, a reduction of the discharge of salts by the meat koshering process, and new membrane technology for salt recovery.