Sensitivity analysis of TOPSIS method in water quality assessment: I. Sensitivity to the parameter weights

Sensitivity analysis is becoming increasingly widespread in many fields of engineering and sciences and has become a necessary step to verify the feasibility and reliability of a model or a method. The sensitivity of the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method in water quality assessment mainly includes sensitivity to the parameter weights and sensitivity to the index input data. In the present study, the sensitivity of TOPSIS to the parameter weights was discussed in detail. The present study assumed the original parameter weights to be equal to each other, and then each weight was changed separately to see how the assessment results would be affected. Fourteen schemes were designed to investigate the sensitivity to the variation of each weight. The variation ranges that keep the assessment results unchangeable were also derived theoretically. The results show that the final assessment results will change when the weights increase or decrease by ±20 to ±50 %. The feedback of different samples to the variation of a given weight is different, and the feedback of a given sample to the variation of different weights is also different. The final assessment results can keep relatively stable when a given weight is disturbed as long as the initial variation ratios meet one of the eight derived requirements.     

A new approach to criteria for health risk assessment

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a developing component of the overall impact assessment process and as such needs access to procedures that can enable more consistent approaches to the stepwise process that is now generally accepted in both EIA and HIA. The guidelines developed during this project provide a structured process, based on risk assessment procedures which use consequences and likelihood, as a way of ranking risks to adverse health outcomes from activities subjected to HIA or HIA as part of EIA.The aim is to assess the potential for both acute and chronic health outcomes. The consequences component also identifies a series of consequences for the health care system, depicted as expressions of financial expenditure and the capacity of the health system.These more specific health risk assessment characteristics should provide for a broader consideration of health consequences and a more consistent estimation of the adverse health risks of a proposed development at both the scoping and risk assessment stages of the HIA process.     

城市空气质量模糊评价新方法

在权广义距离概念的基础上提出一种新的城市空气质量模糊评价方法,评价过程能充分利用实际数据所包含的各种信息.与模糊综合评判模型的同一应用实例结果进行比较,表明文章提出的评价方法更为有效.     

A new method for water quality assessment: by harmony degree equation

Water quality assessment is an important basic work in the development, utilization, management, and protection of water resources, and also a prerequisite for water safety. In this paper, the harmony degree equation (HDE) was introduced into the research of water quality assessment, and a new method for water quality assessment was proposed according to the HDE: by harmony degree equation (WQA-HDE). First of all, the calculation steps and ideas of this method were described in detail, and then, this method with some other important methods of water quality assessment (single factor assessment method, mean-type comprehensive index assessment method, and multi-level gray correlation assessment method) were used to assess the water quality of the Shaying River (the largest tributary of the Huaihe in China). For this purpose, 2 years (2013–2014) dataset of nine water quality variables covering seven monitoring sites, and approximately 189 observations were used to compare and analyze the characteristics and advantages of the new method. The results showed that the calculation steps of WQA-HDE are similar to the comprehensive assessment method, and WQA-HDE is more operational comparing with the results of other water quality assessment methods. In addition, this new method shows good flexibility by setting the judgment criteria value HD₀ of water quality; when HD₀?=?0.8, the results are closer to reality, and more realistic and reliable. Particularly, when HD₀?=?1, the results of WQA-HDE are consistent with the single factor assessment method, both methods are subject to the most stringent “one vote veto” judgment condition. So, WQA-HDE is a composite method that combines the single factor assessment and comprehensive assessment. This research not only broadens the research field of theoretical method system of harmony theory but also promotes the unity of water quality assessment method and can be used for reference in other comprehensive assessment.     

Degradation of three fungicides following application on strawberry and a risk assessment of their toxicity under greenhouse conditions

The health risk to humans of pesticide application on minor crops, such as strawberry, requires quantification. Here, the dissipation and residual levels of three fungicides (pyraclostrobin, myclobutanil, and difenoconazole) were studied for strawberry under greenhouse conditions using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-tandem mass spectrometry after Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe extraction. This method was validated using blank samples, with all mean recoveries of these three fungicides exceeding 80 %. The residues of all three fungicides dissipated following first-order kinetics. The half-lives of pyraclostrobin, myclobutanil, and difenoconazole were 1.69, 3.30, and 3.65 days following one time application and 1.73, 5.78, and 6.30 days following two times applications, respectively. Fungicide residue was determined by comparing the estimated daily intake of the three fungicides against the acceptable daily intake. The results indicate that the potential health risk of the three fungicides was not significant in strawberry when following good agricultural practices (GAP) under greenhouse conditions.     

A new four-step hierarchy method for combined assessment of groundwater quality and pollution

A new four-step hierarchy method was constructed and applied to evaluate the groundwater quality and pollution of the Dagujia River Basin. The assessment index system is divided into four types: field test indices, common inorganic chemical indices, inorganic toxicology indices, and trace organic indices. Background values of common inorganic chemical indices and inorganic toxicology indices were estimated with the cumulative-probability curve method, and the results showed that the background values of Mg²⁺ (51.1 mg L^?1), total hardness (TH) (509.4 mg L^?1), and NO₃ ^? (182.4 mg L^?1) are all higher than the corresponding grade III values of Quality Standard for Groundwater, indicating that they were poor indicators and therefore were not included in the groundwater quality assessment. The quality assessment results displayed that the field test indices were mainly classified as grade II, accounting for 60.87% of wells sampled. The indices of common inorganic chemical and inorganic toxicology were both mostly in the range of grade III, whereas the trace organic indices were predominantly classified as grade I. The variabilities and excess ratios of the indices were also calculated and evaluated. Spatial distributions showed that the groundwater with poor quality indices was mainly located in the northeast of the basin, which was well-connected with seawater intrusion. Additionally, the pollution assessment revealed that groundwater in well 44 was classified as “moderately polluted,” wells 5 and 8 were “lightly polluted,” and other wells were classified as “unpolluted.”     

A new assessment method for urbanization environmental impact: urban environment entropy model and its application

The thermodynamic law is one of the most widely used scientific principles. The comparability between the environmental impact of urbanization and the thermodynamic entropy was systematically analyzed. Consequently, the concept "Urban Environment Entropy" was brought forward and the "Urban Environment Entropy" model was established for urbanization environmental impact assessment in this study. The model was then utilized in a case study for the assessment of river water quality in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. The results indicated that the assessing results of the model are consistent to that of the equalized synthetic pollution index method. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Urban Environment Entropy model has high reliability and can be applied widely in urbanization environmental assessment research using many different environmental parameters.     

A new method for environmental site assessment of urban solid waste landfills

Regarding various types of pollutant, waste management requires high attention. Environmental site selection study, prior to landfill operation, and subsequently, monitoring and maintaining of the location, are of foremost points in landfill site selection process. By means of these studies, it is possible to control the undesirable impacts caused by landfills. Study ahead aims at examination of effectiveness of a new method called Monavari 95–2 in landfill site assessment. For this purpose, two landfills Rasht and Andisheh, which are, respectively, located on humid and arid areas, were selected as case studies. Then, the results obtained from both sites were compared with each other to find out the weaknesses and strengths of each site. Compared with others similar methods, much more criteria (53 parameters) can be considered within this method, so the results will be more calculable. According to this method, Rasht landfill (site H) is classified as unacceptable landfill site i.e. there is an urgent need for a new suitable site for landfill, while Andishe Landfill (site D) is ranked as acceptable landfill site but needs environmental management program to handle the existing weaknesses.     

A docking-based receptor library of antibiotics and its novel application in predicting chronic mixture toxicity for environmental risk assessment

As organisms are typically exposed to chemical mixtures over long periods of time, chronic mixture toxicity is the best way to perform an environmental risk assessment (ERA). However, it is difficult to obtain the chronic mixture toxicity data due to the high expense and the complexity of the data acquisition method. Therefore, an approach was proposed in this study to predict chronic mixture toxicity. The acute (15 min exposure) and chronic (24 h exposure) toxicity of eight antibiotics and trimethoprim to Vibrio fischeri were determined in both single and binary mixtures. The results indicated that the risk quotients (RQs) of antibiotics should be based on the chronic mixture toxicity. To predict the chronic mixture toxicity, a docking-based receptor library of antibiotics and the receptor-library-based quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model were developed. Application of the developed QSAR model to the ERA of antibiotic mixtures demonstrated that there was a close affinity between RQs based on the observed chronic toxicity and the corresponding RQs based on the predicted data. The average coefficients of variations were 46.26 and 34.93 % and the determination coefficients (R ²) were 0.999 and 0.998 for the low concentration group and the high concentration group, respectively. This result convinced us that the receptor library would be a promising tool for predicting the chronic mixture toxicity of antibiotics and that it can be further applied in ERA.     

Sensitivity analysis of TOPSIS method in water quality assessment II: sensitivity to the index input data

This is the second part of the study on sensitivity analysis of the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method in water quality assessment. In the present study, the sensitivity of the TOPSIS method to the index input data was investigated. The sensitivity was first theoretically analyzed under two major assumptions. One assumption was that one index or more of the samples were perturbed with the same ratio while other indices kept unchanged. The other one was that all indices of a given sample were changed simultaneously with the same ratio, while the indices of other samples were unchanged. Furthermore, a case study under assumption 2 was also carried out in this paper. When the same indices of different water samples are changed simultaneously with the same variation ratio, the final water quality assessment results will not be influenced at all. When the input data of all indices of a given sample are perturbed with the same variation ratio, the assessment values of all samples will be influenced theoretically. However, the case study shows that only the perturbed sample is sensitive to the variation, and a simple linear equation representing the relation between the closeness coefficient (CC) values of the perturbed sample and variation ratios can be derived under the assumption 2. This linear equation can be used for determining the sample orders under various variation ratios.     

A framework for combining social impact assessment and risk assessment

An increasing focus on integrative approaches is one of the current trends in impact assessment. There is potential to combine impact assessment with various other forms of assessment, such as risk assessment, to make impact assessment and the management of social risks more effective. We identify the common features of social impact assessment (SIA) and social risk assessment (SRA), and discuss the merits of a combined approach. A hybrid model combining SIA and SRA to form a new approach called, ‘risk and social impact assessment’ (RSIA) is introduced. RSIA expands the capacity of SIA to evaluate and manage the social impacts of risky projects such as nuclear energy as well as natural hazards and disasters such as droughts and floods. We outline the three stages of RSIA, namely: impact identification, impact assessment, and impact management.     

一种基于可靠性理论的区域环境质量风险评价模型探讨

首先从理论上研究了用可靠性理论进行区域环境质量风险评价需要解决的几个基本问题,在此基础上,构建了环境污染故障树和区域环境质量风险评价的数学模型.这是一种以概率为基础的、新的区域环境质量风险评价模型,对于研究污染型工业系统的环境质量风险具有重要意义.     

Health risk assessment for toxic emissions from a manufacturing facility

This paper presents the risk associated with the release of toxic chemicals from a manufacturing facility, following the State of California's approach to risk assessment. The facility emits five toxic substances from eight stacks. The building downwash is considered during dispersion calculations. The zone of impact, identified using a risk criteria (i.e. excess cancer risk of 10 in a million), is located in the southeast quandrant from the plant. The size of the impact area is 3.3 km². The cancer and non-cancer effects are considered for chromium (VI), benzene, formaldehyde, gasoline vapors, methylene chloride, and selenium using the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association Guidelines. No significant non-cancer effects are found due to the emissions. The maximum calculated risk is 1.197×10^-5 and is an extremely conservative value. Analysis shows that the use of realistic assumptions for exposure duration and unit risk factors during the risk calculations could reduce the zone of impact to 0 km².     

Modelling-tracer study for risk assessment of a proposed sour gas facility

As an integral part of a risk assessment of a sour gas pipeline proposed for a recreational area in the Rocky Mountain foothills, the dispersion of hydrogen sulphide was assessed using meteorological monitoring, tracer gas concentration measurement and a complex terrain diffusion model. Sulphur hexafluoride was released into the nocturnal drainage winds of two valleys in the eastern slopes of the Alberta Rockies southwest of Calgary. The resulting concentrations were measured at several points on transects at various distances from the source. The NUVAL version of the dispersion model IMPACT (Integrated Model for Plumes and Atmospherics in Complex Terrain) was site tuned using the measured concentrations and concurrent meteorological data. Relative mean absolute errors of 24–50% were obtained. The Gaussian model (PLUMES) with modified stability classes gave relative mean absolute errors of 42–64% in predicting transect maxima. Dilution rates were found to be much larger than would be experienced under similar conditions over flat terrain.