Assessing forest canopy closure in a geospatial medium to address management concerns for tropical islands—Southeast Asia

The present study outlines an approach to classify forest density and to estimate canopy closure of the forest of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The vector layers generated for the study area using satellite data was validated with the field knowledge of the surveyed ground control points. The methodology adopted in this present analysis is three-tiered. First, the density stratification into five zones using visual interpretation for the complete archipelago. In the second step, we identified two island groups from the Andaman to investigate and compare the forest strata density. The third and final step involved more of a localised phytosociological module that focused on the North Andaman Islands. The results based on the analysis of the high-resolution satellite data show that more than 75% of the mangroves are under high- to very high-density canopy class. The framework developed would serve as a significant measure to forest health and evaluate management concerns whilst addressing issues such as gap identification, conservation prioritisation and disaster management—principally to the post-tsunami assessment and analysis.     

Abiotic Oxidation Studies of Oxo-biodegradable Polyethylene

The best approach to induce oxo-biodegradation in polyethylene is the use of special additives known as pro-oxidants. Pro-oxidants accelerate abiotic oxidation and subsequent polymer chain cleavage rendering the product apparently more susceptible to biodegradation. In this work, the abiotic oxidation is studied to understand how the addition of nanoclay affects the oxidation rate and the degradation mechanism of oxo-biodegradable polyethylene. In order to achieve this, the following materials were used in this study: (1) polyethylene (PE), (2) oxo-biodegradable polyethylene (OPE), (3) polyethylene nanocomposite (PENac), and (4) oxo-biodegradable polyethylene nanocomposite (OPENac). Wide-Angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) studies reveal that grafting in the preparation of composites helps to achieve mixed intercalated/exfoliated morphology in PENac and OPENac. Abiotic oxidation was carried out in an oven for a period of 14 days at 70 °C with air supply. The effect of abiotic oxidation was evaluated by measuring the changes in tensile strength, elongation at break, carbonyl index and molecular weight. Results show that OPE and OPENac are more susceptible to oxidation than PENac. The molecular weight distribution data obtained from GPC reveal that the addition of nanoclay does not alter the oxidation mechanism in OPE significantly.     

Assessment of the effects of municipal sewage,immersed idols and boating on the heavy metal and other elemental pollution of surface water of the eutrophic Hussainsagar Lake (Hyderabad,India)

The surface water qualities of Hussainsagar, an eutrophic urban lake in the midst of twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad (India) receiving large quantities of external inputs—both untreated municipal sewage containing industrial effluents, and treated sewage, a large number of annually immersed idols of God and Goddess, and intense boating activities were assessed in relation to the concentration of elements including heavy metals of the water along the necklace road of the lake. Elemental analyses of water using ICP-MS revealed 26 elements including heavy metals—As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu, Fe, Mn, Se, Ba, Zn, Mo, V, Co, Ag, Sr, Rb, Mg, K, Ca, Al, Si, Sb, Na, Li, and B, in the surface water of the lake. Of these, the first 15 elements were found in elevated concentrations in the water at the outfall point of the untreated municipal sewage (site 3), which was the main dominating source of contamination of the lake water while Cu and Sb were recorded in higher concentrations at the outfall of treated effluent from Sewage Treatment Plant, and three elements (Ba, Si, and B) were in higher concentration at the sites of outfall of sewage flowing from an oxygenated pond (site 4), Ca, Zn, and Sr, at the site immersed with idols (site 1), and Pb, Ag, and Al at the center of the lake (site 5) with intense boating activities. Concentrations of most of these elements exceeded the maximum permissible limits of national (Indian Council Medical Research) standards for drinking water. The concentrations of most of the elemental contaminants showed significant positive correlations between them.     

Parametric study of MSW landfill settlement model

A newly developed and validated constitutive model that accounts for primary compression and time-dependent mechanical creep and biodegradation is used for parametric study to investigate the effects of model parameters on the predicted settlement of municipal solid waste (MSW) with time. The model enables the prediction of stress strain response and yield surfaces for three components of settlement: primary compression, mechanical creep, and biodegradation. The MSW parameters investigated include compression index, coefficient of earth pressure at-rest, overconsolidation ratio, and biodegradation parameters of MSW. A comparison of the predicted settlements for typical MSW landfill conditions showed significant differences in time-settlement response depending on the selected model input parameters. The effect of lift thickness of MSW on predicted settlement is also investigated. Overall, the study shows that the variation in the model parameters can lead to significantly different results; therefore, the model parameter values should be carefully selected to predict landfill settlements accurately. It is shown that the proposed model captures the time settlement response which is in general agreement with the results obtained from the other two reported models having similar features.     

Processing plastics from ASR/ESR waste: separation of poly vinyl chloride (PVC) by froth flotation after microwave-assisted surface modification

The feasibility of the selective surface hydrophilization of poly vinyl chloride (PVC) using microwave treatment to facilitate the separation of PVC via froth flotation from automobile shredder residue (ASR) and electronic waste shredder residue (ESR) was evaluated. In the presence of powder-activated carbon (PAC), 60-s microwave treatment selectively enhanced the hydrophilicity of the PVC surface (i.e., the PVC contact angle decreased from 86.8° to 69.9°). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results are consistent with increased hydrophilic functional groups (i.e., ether, hydroxyl, and carboxyl), amounting to significant changes in the morphology and roughness of the PVC surface after treatment. After only 60 s of microwave treatment, 20 % of the PVC was separated in virgin and ASR/ESR plastics with 33 and 29 % purity, respectively, as settled fractions by froth flotation at a 150 rpm mixing speed. The microwave treatment with the addition of PAC had a synergetic effect with the froth flotation, which brought about 100 and 90 % selective separation of PVC from the other virgin and ASR/ESR plastics, with 91 and 82 % purity. The use of the combined froth flotation and microwave treatments is an effective technology for separating PVC from hazardous waste plastics.     

Enhancement by anthraquinone-2-sulphonate of the photonitration of phenol by nitrite: implication for the photoproduction of nitrogen dioxide by coloured dissolved organic matter in surface waters

Anthraquinone-2-sulphonate (AQ2S) under UVA irradiation is able to oxidise nitrite to (·)NO(2) and to induce the nitration of phenol. The process involves the very fast reactions of the excited triplet state (3)AQ2S(*) and its 520-nm absorbing exciplex with water, at different time scales (ns and μs, respectively). Quinones are ubiquitous components of coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in surface waters and AQ2S was adopted here as a proxy of CDOM. Using a recently developed model of surface-water photochemistry, we found that the oxidation of nitrite to (·)NO(2) by (3)CDOM(*) could be an important (·)NO(2) source in water bodies with high [NO(2)(-)] to [NO(3)(-)] ratio, for elevated values of column depth and NPOC.     

A succinct review on the durability of treated recycled concrete aggregates

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Building materials constitute a considerable portion of all the materials we use and about half the waste (in solid form) generated worldwide....