The Parameter Optimization in the Inverse Distance Method by Genetic Algorithm for Estimating Precipitation

This study aimed to analyze long-term urban land use (LU) change and its negative implications on the coastal environment of Iskenderun, Turkey. Information on urban LU change for the 144-year period between 1858 and 2002 was extracted from a historic city plan, black-white monoscopic aerial photographs, and Landsat ETM+ imagery. According to the results, areal extent of urban areas has increased approximately 40 times during the past 144 years. The population growth as a result of industrial developments and permanent migration was main driving force to the urbanization. Environmental problems that resulted from rapid development in the region such as air, water and soil pollution were highlighted and some recommendations were made in the light of qualitative and quantitative information on the urbanization and its negative consequences.     

Design of a Domain Specific Language for modelling processes in landscapes

The modelling of processes that occur in landscapes is often confronted to issues related to the representation of space and the difficulty of properly handling time and multiple scales. In order to investigate these issues, a flexible modelling environment is required. We propose to develop such a tool based on a Domain Specific Language (DSL) that capitalises on the service-oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm. The modelling framework around the DSL is composed of a model building environment, a code generator and compiler, and a program execution platform. The DSL introduces five language elements (entity, service, relation, scenario and datafacer) that can be combined to offer a wide range of possibilities for modelling in space and time at different scales. When developing a model, model parts are either built using the DSL or taken from libraries of previously built ones, and adapted to the specific model. The practical usage of the DSL is illustrated first with the Lotka–Volterra model, and then with a landscape modelling experiment on the spread of a mosquito-borne disease in the Sahelian region of West Africa. An interesting characteristic of this approach is the possibility of adding new elements into an existing model, and replacing others with more appropriate ones, thus allowing potentially complex models to be built from simpler parts.     

First steps in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) adoption for coastal planning in Sicily (South Italy)

The Industrial District (I.D.) of Messina was the first public authority to consider useful the application of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) procedure for the development of an Industrial Plan regarding a coastal area. At the moment the I.D. includes six areas, but the application of the SEA concerns only the area of Pace del Mela (along the north-eastern coast of Sicily), where a “District of the two Seas” will be created, based on the synergetic development between an industrialized niche (shipbuilding) and touristic development (port and hotels). The area in which this type of intervention will occur is not in use at the moment and it was not possible to collect environmental data. For this reason, in order to describe the environmental features of this territory, we took into consideration a few indicators which could be easily identified, necessary for a post evaluation which considers the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the industrial and suburban structures to be built.     

Physical and numerical modelling of tsunami generation by a moving obstacle at the bottom boundary

This paper presents a study of the waves generated by a solid block landslide moving along a horizontal boundary. The landslide was controlled using a mechanical system in a series of physical experiments, and laser-induced fluorescence measurements resolved both spatial and temporal variations in the free surface elevation. During its constant-velocity motion, the landslide transferred energy into ‘trapped’ offshore-propagating waves within a narrow frequency band. The wave trapping is demonstrated by investigating the wave dispersion characteristics using a two-dimensional Fourier Transform. The first of the trailing waves broke at Froude numbers greater than or equal to 0.625. The parametric dependence of the largest-amplitude waves and the potential energy within the wave field are discussed. The experimental results were compared to the predictions of an incompressible Navier–Stokes solver with and without turbulence models. The numerical model under-predicted the measured wave amplitudes, although it accurately predicted the measured wave phasing. The turbulent model more accurately predicted the shapes of the trailing waves. Both experimental and numerical results confirmed that investigations into wave generation by submerged objects moving at constant velocity should also consider the initial acceleration of the object, as this affects the overall evolution of the wave field. The applicability of the horizontal-boundary results to more realistic field scenarios is discussed.     

Microwave treatment and struvite recovery potential of dairy manure

Microwave digestion of liquid dairy manure was tested for the release of nutrients, such as orthophosphates, ammonia-nitrogen, magnesium, calcium and potassium, both with and without the aid of an oxidizing agent (hydrogen peroxide). The orthophosphate to total phosphorus ratio of the manure increased from 21% to greater than 80% with 5 minutes of microwave treatment. More than 36% of total chemical oxygen demand (t-COD) of the manure was reduced when microwave digestion was assisted with peroxide addition. In addition, the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) distribution shifted to simpler chain acids (acetic acid in particular) with an increase in operating temperature. In the second part of the study, digested manure with increased soluble phosphate was tested for the recovery of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) at different pH. It was found that up to 90% of orthophosphate can be removed from the solution. Overall, it was concluded that the oxidizing agent-assisted microwave digestion process can be used upstream of anaerobic digestion, following which the anaerobically digested manure can be used for struvite recovery. Thus, this microwave digestion process presents the potential for enhanced efficiencies in both manure digestion and struvite recovery.     

Ultrafiltration tests for the reutilization of greenhouse wastewater

Abstract

A lab‐scale experiment was performed using two different pore‐size ultrafiltration membranes to investigate the removal efficiency of Tomato Mosaic Virus (ToMV), retainability of pollutant and nutrients, and flow characteristics. From the experiment, it may be concluded that ultrafiltration can be used effectively to eliminate ToMV. Tests with a 30K pore‐size ultrafiltration membrane achieved 99% virus removal efficiency and a 5K membrane practically removed 100% of the virus in greenhouse wastewater. Nutrient analysis indicated that all the essential nutrients could be retained and re‐utilized.     

Pyrolysis Kinetics and Residue Characteristics of Petrochemical Industrial Sludge

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the pyrolysis characteristics of sludge from wastewater treatment plants in the petrochemical industry and focused on the pyrolysis kinetics, elemental composition of residue, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of exhaust gas. As pyrolysis temperature increased to 773 K, the increasing rate of crude oil production tended to a stable condition. The result indicated that the optimal temperature of crude oil and water mixed production was 773 K. When pyrolysis temperature increased from 673 to 973 K, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen concentrations of residue decreased and the sulfur concentration of residue increased. The concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and styrene increased by the increasing pyrolysis temperature. We found that the reaction order of sludge pyrolysis was 2.5 and the activation energy of the reaction was 11.06 kJ/mol. We believe that our pyrolysis system is transitional between devolatilization and combustion.     

Nutrient release from fish silage using microwave-enhanced advanced oxidation process

The microwave-enhanced advanced oxidation process was used to treat fish silage for nutrient release and solids reduction prior to its use as a fertilizer for greenhouse operations. Fifteen sets of experiments with varying hydrogen peroxide dosages and treatment temperatures were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the process on the solubilization of fertilizer constituents. It was found that up to 26% of total Kjeldahl nitrogen could be released as ammonia with 6% hydrogen peroxide dosage at 170°C. An increase of nitrate/nitrite concentration was observed with higher hydrogen peroxide dosage and higher microwave temperature; the highest concentration of 10.2 mg L^{? 1} nitrates/nitrites was achieved at at 170°C and 6% H₂O₂ dosage. Up to 20 ± 9.5% of total chemical oxygen demand was reduced at temperatures between 120 and 170°C. Large quantities of volatile fatty acids were generated at lower temperatures, corresponding to an increase in soluble chemical oxygen demand, but not at higher temperatures. The treatment of fish silage using the microwave-enhanced advanced oxidation process appears to be promising.     

Upstream flood pattern recognition based on downstream events

Reverse stream flood routing determines the upstream hydrograph in a stream reach given the downstream hydrograph. The Muskingum model of flood routing involves parameters that govern the routed hydrograph. These parameters are herein estimated using simulation methods coupled with optimization tools to achieve optimized parameters. Different simulation methods are shown to perform unequally in the estimation of nonlinear Muskingum parameters. This paper presents two simulation methods for nonlinear Muskingum reverse flood routing: (1) Euler equations and (2) Runge-Kutta 4th order equations. Moreover, the generalized reduced gradient (GRG) is used as the optimization tool that minimized the sum of the squared deviations (SSQ) between observed and routed inflows in a benchmark flood routing problem. Results show the Runge-Kutta 4th order equations yield better routed hydrographs with smaller SSQ than obtained in previous research and with the first simulation method (Euler equations).