Sustainable supplier selection for the cold supply chain (CSC) in the context of a developing country

Cold supply chain (CSC) is a process that involves temperature-controlled activities ranging from the acquisition of raw materials and down to the end consumers. A sustainable cold chain supplier is the one that incorporates sustainable practices in its complete cycle of operations. This is to ensure keeping the products from going to waste, especially in the case of a developing country. To identify the driving factors towards the sustainable cold chain supplier, this study utilizes the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach in the first phase. Fifteen various sustainability factors were analyzed and the “utilization of renewable resources” factor concluded to be the most important driving factor. By implementing renewable resources, a supplier can be able to convert its manufacturing processes and services to sustainable assets. The second phase of this study conducts the selection of cold chain suppliers in the context of Pakistan. For this purpose, fuzzy VIKOR, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique is incorporated to analyze eight suppliers based on fifteen distinct criteria. The results concluded Mitchell foods to be the most economically, environmentally and socially sustainable suppliers in the context of Pakistan. This study recommends providing business-friendly incentives to suppliers like Mitchells and new investors who tend to keep their operations sustainable by adopting renewable resources. Furthermore, the relaxation of taxes and creating job employability by working with sustainable suppliers can contribute positively towards economic growth and the overall society. The study holds novelty in the area of cold chain supplier selection for Pakistan by utilizing a novel approach in the form of ISM and fuzzy VIKOR techniques, thus forming a major application of this research study.

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Impact of Massanjore Dam on hydro-geomorphological modification of Mayurakshi River,Eastern India

Massanjore reservoir (area ~67 km²) located 84 km downstream from the most distant upstream source capacitates 620,000,000 m³ of water, and regulated flow characters are highly responsible for dam downstream alteration of hydrological, sedimentological and geomorphological characteristics of Mayurakshi River. In dam after condition, monsoon water level (mean water level during monsoon months) and pre-monsoon water level (mean water level during pre-monsoon months, i.e., March–May) have attenuated about 0.56 and 0.32 m, respectively. Maximum duration of high flow period during monsoon has reduced up to 16.5 %; coefficient of variation of diurnal fluctuation of water level during monsoon has increased from 31 to 47 %. Suspended sediment load in Mayurakshi River is reduced to 34 % in dam after period as recorded at Narayanpur gauge station. Average suspended sediment load has decreased even after Tilpara barrage construction from 4.960 to 4.350 mg/L. Average suspended sediment load is 7.875 mg/L in the sites of dam upstream course, and this average is only 4.46 mg/L in different sites of dam downstream course. Volume of discharge has decreased up to 11.3 % during monsoon time in dam after condition. Such reduction in discharge volume in turn has reduced about 24.6 % bed load-carrying capacity. As a result, huge deposition within channel invigorated channel bed aggradations (average 73.6 cm up to Saspara, site 14 at Fig. 1) in dam after condition. Narrowing of active channel, coarsening of channel bed materials, lowering of lateral stability, accelerating rise of braiding index, mixed response of the channel adjustment of the tributaries to local scale positive or negative base level change due to river bed aggradations and degradation, etc. signify the morphological alteration of dam downstream course.

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Fig. 1 Mayurakshi River basin indicating Massanjore Dam, Tilpara barrage and sample working sites

     

Reuse of mining wastewater in agricultural activities in Jordan

A pilot study was completed in the Al-Abyad area near phosphate mining activity in Jordan. Six plots of 50 m² each were planted with two types of plant species (Zea mays spp. and Medicago lupulina spp.) and irrigated using three types of water (fresh groundwater, mine wastewater, and hydride water consisting of 50% fresh and 50% mine wastewater) to investigate the suitability of utilizing mine wastewater for food production in the area. Water, soil and plant sampling was completed for each plot over different time intervals and analyzed for heavy metal (Cr⁺⁶, Ni⁺², Zn⁺² and Pb⁺²) in addition to major ionic composition of the water used for irrigation. Crop yield was estimated at the end of the experiment. Plots irrigated with mine wastewater showed slightly higher heavy metals concentrations and soil salinity during the experiment period was higher for plots irrigated with mine wastewater compared to plots irrigated with fresh water, and it was uniform through the upper 45 cm of the soil profile due to the high amount of irrigation water used during the experiment. Crop yield was inversely proportional to salinity as an increase of salinity by 2-folds resulted in reducing yield by almost 50%. However, no risk of heavy metals contamination was found in plants and soil. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Biogas plants efficiency in purifying Indian sago factory waste water with wide C/N ratios: strategies for process water reuse

Cassava tubers produced under hot, dry and monsoon governed climate in the Salem region, Tamil Nadu, South India, consume together with the about 1000 starch extracting industries daily, 9 millions of litres of groundwater which have to be pumped from a depth of 80 m below ground level. Because of water shortage, adjacent fields are irrigated with organically highly enriched sago factories wastewater and the land becomes unproductive. One-third of the wastewater is presently channelled through a few installed biogas plants with a purification efficiency, biological oxygen demand, of only around 30%. Microbiologically and chemically analysed in- and effluents of biogas plants exhibited nutrient contents sufficient to maintain a rice crop and significantly higher population densities of fermenting bacteria and methanogenic archaea, despite C/N ratio of about 250. CO₂ and CH₄ emissions from aerobic and anaerobic incubated sago factory biogas plants in- and effluents indicated that the present purification efficiency of 30% can be further enhanced. This investigation has given clues for designing a purification system that connects the already installed biogas plants with a well-aerated, hydro-cultured, constructed wetland and a Stirling motor device for electric power gains and heat distillation, for enabling reuse of process water and saving groundwater.     

Assessing potential risks from exposure to natural uranium in well water

Over 50% of the wells in the Nambe region of northern New Mexico exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency's recommended drinking water standard of 20 microg l(-1) for 238U; the highest in the area was measured at 1,200 microg U l(-1). Uranium uptake was estimated in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), squash (Cucurbita pepo), lettuce (Lactuca scarriola), and radish (Raphanus sativus) irrigated with Nambe well water containing <1, 150, 500, and 1,200 microg U l(-1). Plant uptake and human dose and toxicity associated with ingestion of water and produce and inhalation of irrigated soil related to gardening activities were evaluated. Uranium concentration in plants increased linearly with increasing U concentration in irrigation water, particularly in lettuce and radish. The estimated total committed effective dose for 70 years of maximum continuous exposure, via the three pathways to well water containing 1,200 microg U l(-1), was 0.17 mSv with a corresponding kidney concentration of 0.8 microg U g(-1) kidney.     

Multicriteria decision-making for efficient water and land resources allocation in irrigated agriculture

The irrational use of water in agriculture is often responsible for several problems concerning the depletion and/or the pollution of water resources. In these cases specific policy measures should be taken to protect water resources from harmful agricultural activities, mitigating at the same time their potential impact on farmers’ welfare. To this end, a multicriteria decision-making model is formulated that aims at allocating efficiently water and land resources in a rural area of Greece, by optimizing a set of important socio-economic and environmental objectives. According to the model’s output, past and current decisions on irrigated agriculture turned out to be oriented towards meeting exclusively the socio-economic objectives. Yet, there are several other possible allocations schemes that could be applied in order to improve the performance of environmental indicators and to contribute to a more sustainable use of natural resources. Moreover, the decision-making model can be further employed to assess a number of additional policy measures in irrigated agriculture. In this framework, the outcome of imposing various water pricing policies was evaluated. The efficiency of these policies was found tightly connected to the elasticity of water demand. Namely, higher elasticity seems to enhance the flexibility in resource allocation and the movement towards environmental objectives. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Optimum Supportable Global Population: Water Accounting and Dietary Considerations

In this paper we develop a novel, comprehensive method for estimating the global human carrying capacity in reference to food production factors and levels of food consumption. Other important interrelated dimensions of carrying capacity such as energy, non-renewable resources, and ecology are not considered here and offer opportunities for future work. Use of grain production (rain-fed/irrigated), animal product production (grazing/factory farm), diet pattern (grain/animal products), and a novel water accounting method (demand/supply) based on actual water consumption and not on withdrawal, help resolve uncertainties to find better estimates. Current Western European food consumption is used as a goal for the entire world. Then the carrying capacity lies in the range of 4.5–4.7 billion but requiring agricultural water use increase by 450–530% to 4725–5480 km³, the range based on different estimates of available water. The cost of trapping and conveying such water, will run 4.5–13.5 trillion over 50 years requiring an annual spending increase of 150–400%, straining the developing world where most of the population increase is expected. We reconfirm estimates in the literature using a dynamic model. ‘Corner scenarios’ with extreme optimistic assumptions were analyzed using the reasoning support software system GLOBESIGHT. With a hypothetical scenario with a mainly vegetarian diet (grazing only with 5% animal product), the carrying capacity can be as high as 14 billion. Ecological deterioration that surely accompanies such a population increase would negatively impact sustainable population. Using our approach the impact of ecological damage could be studied. Inter- and intra-regional inequities are other considerations that need to be studied.     

Arsenic concentrations in rice, vegetables, and fish in Bangladesh: a preliminary study

Arsenic contaminating groundwater in Bangladesh is one of the largest environmental health hazards in the world. Because of the potential risk to human health through consumption of agricultural produce grown in fields irrigated with arsenic contaminated water, we have determined the level of contamination in 100 samples of crop, vegetables and fresh water fish collected from three different regions in Bangladesh. Arsenic concentrations were determined by hydride generation atomic absorption spectrophotometry. All 11 samples of water and 18 samples of soil exceeded the expected limits of arsenic. No samples of rice grain (Oryza sativa L.) had arsenic concentrations more than the recommended limit of 1.0 mg/kg. However, rice plants, especially the roots had a significantly higher concentration of arsenic (2.4 mg/kg) compared to stem (0.73 mg/kg) and rice grains (0.14 mg/kg). Arsenic contents of vegetables varied; those exceeding the food safety limits included Kachu sak (Colocasia antiquorum) (0.09-3.99 mg/kg, n=9), potatoes (Solanum tuberisum) (0.07-1.36 mg/kg, n=5), and Kalmi sak (Ipomoea reptoms) (0.1-1.53 mg/kg, n=6). Lata fish (Ophicephalus punctatus) did not contain unacceptable levels of arsenic. These results indicate that arsenic contaminates some food items in Bangladesh. Further studies with larger samples are needed to demonstrate the extent of arsenic contamination of food in Bangladesh.     

The water footprint of sweeteners and bio-ethanol

An increasing demand for food together with a growing demand for energy crops result in an increasing demand for and competition over water. Sugar cane, sugar beet and maize are not only essential food crops, but also important feedstock for bio-ethanol. Crop growth requires water, a scarce resource. This study aims to assess the green, blue and grey water footprint (WF) of sweeteners and bio-ethanol from sugar cane, sugar beet and maize in the main producing countries. The WFs of sweeteners and bio-ethanol are mainly determined by the crop type that is used as a source and by agricultural practise and agro-climatic conditions; process water footprints are relatively small. The weighted global average WF of sugar cane is 209 m³/tonne; for sugar beet this is 133 m³/tonne and for maize 1222 m³/tonne. Large regional differences in WFs indicate that WFs of crops for sweeteners and bio-ethanol can be improved. It is more favourable to use maize as a feedstock for sweeteners or bio-ethanol than sugar beet or sugar cane. The WF of sugar cane contributes to water stress in the Indus and Ganges basins. In the Ukraine, the large grey WF of sugar beet contributes to water pollution. In some western European countries, blue WFs of sugar beet and maize need a large amount of available blue water for agriculture. The allocation of the limited global water resources to bio-energy on a large scale will be at the cost of water allocation to food and nature.     

A Simple Discussion on the Supply and Demand of Water Resources in the Western Region of China

Abstract

We are accustomed to solve the problem of the water scarcity in the western region by the thought of increasing the effective supply of water to meet the needs of Go-west Campaign. After introducing the dynamic equilibrium principle on supply and demand in economy, we find that we should solve the problem of the water scarcity in the western region through reducing total demand to achieve the dynamic equilibrium of supply and demand. Finally water resources in the western region can be enlarged by an accumulated way.     

Intra-annual dynamics of water stress in the central Indian Highlands from 2002 to 2012

India’s continued development depends on the availability of adequate water. This paper applies a data-driven approach to estimate the intra-annual dynamics of water stress across the central Indian Highlands over the period 2002–2012. We investigate the spatial distribution of water demanding sectors including industry, domestic, irrigation, livestock and thermal power generation. We also examine the vulnerability of urban centers within the study area to water stress. We find that 74 % of the area of the central Indian Highlands experienced water stress (defined as demand exceeding supply) for 4 or more months out of the year. The rabi (winter) season irrigation drives the intra-annual water stress across the landscape. The Godavari basin experiences the most surface water stress while the Ganga and Narmada basins experience water stress due to groundwater deficits as a result of rabi irrigation. All urban centers experience water stress at some time during a year. Urban centers in the Godavari basin are considerably water stressed, for example, Achalpur, Nagpur and Chandrapur experience water stress 8 months out of the year. Irrigation dominates water use accounting for 95 % of the total water demand, with substantial increases in irrigated land over the last decade. Managing land use to promote hydrologic functions will become increasingly important as water stress increases.     

Impact of climatic conditions on irrigation water requirements and hydraulic characteristics of modern irrigation systems

Irrigation system performance regards as a function of climatic conditions. The present study was carried out to study this phenomenon. Sugar beet and sesame corps were cultivated during two agricultural seasons of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 irrigated with drip and sprinkler systems. The drip and sprinkler systems performance was evaluated in terms of hydraulic characteristics added to irrigation water requirements. The recorded monthly values were compared to the traditional estimation method. The results revealed that irrigation system efficiency was increased by increasing ambient temperature for the drip irrigation system, and vice versa was noticed with the sprinkler irrigation system. Emission uniformity and application efficiency of emitters were increased by increasing ambient temperature. While the sprinkler flow rate and distribution uniformity were decreased by increasing ambient temperature. For drip irrigation system, the average total amount of irrigation water requirements using traditional estimation for sugar beet (2372 m³/fed) was less than the actual calculated (2439 m³/fed), while for sesame crop, the traditional estimation method (2556 m³/fed) was higher than actual calculated (2477 m³/fed). Using a sprinkler system, the average total amount of irrigation water requirements by the traditional estimation (2689 and 2897 m³/fed) was less than the actual calculated (2709 and 3044 m³/fed) for sugar beet and sesame crops, respectively. So, it is important to consider the effects of climatic conditions through the agricultural season.

     

Hydrogeochemical characterization and suitability of water for irrigation in new and old reservoirs in northern Espirito Santo,Brazil

Environment, Development and Sustainability - During the water crisis of 2015–2016, the construction of small earth-filled dams grew to supply irrigated crops of the north of Espírito...     

Application of environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies for an automotive component

Application of appropriate environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies enables the sustainable development of products and processes. Automotive component manufacturers recognise the potential of applying appropriate strategies for attaining Triple Bottom Line benefits. In this context, three strategies such as eco-efficiency, waste minimisation and material efficiency are being applied to minimise environmental impacts associated with the manufacture of automotive products and its associated processes. A case study of an automotive component manufacturing firm has been exemplified. After conducting the study, the potential environmental impact was reduced by 20% and eco-efficiency was improved by 13%. Further, improvements have been observed in terms of overall resource consumption and material efficiency. The overall power consumption was reduced by 18% and weight of the component was reduced by 11%. The study aimed at improving the sustainable performance of product by incorporating green and environmentally friendlier manufacturing practices.

Abbreviations: USEPA: United Nations Environmental Protection Agency; OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; WBCSD: World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Eco-QFD: Environmental Quality Function Deployment; WCED: World Commission on Environment and Development; LCA: Life Cycle Assessment     

Analysis of Soil and Water Balance on the Land Arrangement Function

Abstract

The natural supply of land resources is limited, but the economic supply may change along with social and economic development, and its size is decided bye nature and social and economic body conditions. When the supplying ability of land resources threatens the development of society and the conflict between people and land becomes tense, it forced people to improve land utilization and to increase the effective supply of land resources. The paper made an overall consideration on the characteristics of the irrigated farming and the frail ecological environment in Fuhai County, Altay Area, Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region and explored land arrangement planning as well as water resource planning and environmental protection. The paper evaluated natural resources, land utilization and water resource of the case study areas and focused on the spatio-temporal balance between the utilization of water and land resources. In the end the paper a feasible plan was made out for the land arrangement project.     

Assessment of irrigation system sustainability using the Theil–Sen estimator of slope of time series

Agriculture, especially the irrigated sector, is the mainstay of Sudan’s economy as it accounts for 40 % of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 70 % of the workforce. The economic viability of irrigated schemes is dependent on three factors: crop yield, water management and cropped area. The research question of this study was whether or not the current status of these factors can be sustained in order to maintain the economic viability of irrigation systems? To answer this question, a new (to the best of the author’s knowledge) approach was developed based on time series analysis, and on the Theil–Sen estimator of slope. The study defined sustainability conceptually as “the ability of an irrigation system to sustain crop yields using the optimum cropped area and water consumption to realize the economic viability of the irrigation system without a decline in soil quality and environment”. Time series datasets of crop yields, cropped area and irrigation water consumption are collected routinely by statistical departments. Any abrupt years in the development of trends were detected and related to their driving forces/causes, of which climatic conditions and marketing policies were found to be the most important. The simple approach developed proved its suitability for quantifying the progress of irrigated schemes’ towards sustainability development as tested under the conditions of Gezira irrigated scheme in Sudan—the largest singly managed irrigation scheme in the world. The scheme was found to be sustainable under the condition that the crop yield is considered as the top priority; otherwise, the sustainability of the scheme is jeopardized.