Investigation of impact of environmental changes on precipitation pattern of Pakistan

In this paper, variability in precipitation pattern of Pakistan due to environmental and climatic changes has been studied. Maps have been generated to depict global precipitation variation. Precipitation data of 25 stations of Pakistan have been used. These data were taken from Meteorological Department, Islamabad, Pakistan. The results of two global climate models, namely Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research’s third generation general circulation model and National Center for Atmospheric Research’s first generation precipitation circulation model for A2 scenario have been applied to investigate the changes. It is observed that precipitation pattern will change significantly in the future. The occurrence of precipitation in all seasons for Pakistan is expected to increase with almost uniform distribution across a season. Average annual precipitation of the country will undergo an increase in the range of +57 to +71 % as compared to average of the base period.     

Monitoring the impact of urban effluents on mineral contents of water and sediments of four sites of the river Ravi, Lahore

We assessed the impact of urban effluents on the concentrations of selected minerals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Zn, Mn, Ni, and Hg) in river Ravi before and after its passage through Lahore city. Water and sediment samples were collected from three lowly to highly polluted downstream sites (Shahdera (B), Sunder (C), and Balloki (D)) alongside the least polluted upstream site (Siphon (A)) during high and low river flow seasons. All the mineral concentrations increased up to site C but stabilized at site D, showing some recovery as compared to the third sampling site. The trend of mean mineral concentration was significantly higher during the low than the high flow season at all the sites. The mean Hg concentrations approached 0.14 and 0.12 mg/l at site A which increased (%) up to 107 and 25 % at site B, 1,700 and 1,317 % at site C, and 1,185 and 1,177 % at site D during low and high river flows, respectively. All mineral concentrations were much higher in the sediment than the water samples. Mean Cd (917 %), Cr (461 %), Cu (300 %), Fe (254 %), Pb (179 %), Zn (170 %), Mn (723 %), Ni (853 %), and Hg (1,699 %) concentrations were higher in riverbed sediments sampled from site C in comparison with the sample collected at site A during low flow season. The domestic and industrial discharges from Lahore city have created undesirable water qualities during the low river flow season. As majority of the mineral levels in the river Ravi were higher than the permissible and safe levels, this is of immediate concern for riverine fish consumers and the users of water for recreation and even irrigation. The use of these waters may pose health risks, and therefore, urgent intervention strategies are needed to minimize river water pollution and its impact on fish-consuming communities of this study area and beyond.     

Heavy metals in a typical city-river-reservoir system of East China: Multi-phase distribution, microbial response and ecological risk

The rapid construction of artificial reservoirs in metropolises has promoted the emergence of city-river-reservoir systems worldwide. This study investigated the environmental behaviors and risks of heavy metals in the aquatic environment of a typical system composed of main watersheds in Suzhou and Jinze Reservoir in Shanghai. Results shown that Mn, Zn and Cu were the dominant metals detected in multiple phases. Cd, Mn and Zn were mainly presented in exchangeable fraction and exhibited high bio...     

Artificial intelligence modeling to evaluate field performance of photocatalytic asphalt pavement for ambient air purification

In recent years, the application of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) as a photocatalyst in asphalt pavement has received considerable attention for purifying ambient air from traffic-emitted pollutants via photocatalytic processes. In order to control the increasing deterioration of ambient air quality, urgent and proper risk assessment tools are deemed necessary. However, in practice, monitoring all process parameters for various operating conditions is difficult due to the complex and non-linear nature of air pollution-based problems. Therefore, the development of models to predict air pollutant concentrations is very useful because it can provide early warnings to the population and also reduce the number of measuring sites. This study used artificial neural network (ANN) and neuro-fuzzy (NF) models to predict NO_x concentration in the air as a function of traffic count (T_r) and climatic conditions including humidity (H), temperature (T), solar radiation (S), and wind speed (W) before and after the application of TiO₂ on the pavement surface. These models are useful for modeling because of their ability to be trained using historical data and because of their capability for modeling highly non-linear relationships. To build these models, data were collected from a field study where an aqueous nano TiO₂ solution was sprayed on a 0.2-mile of asphalt pavement in Baton Rouge, LA. Results of this study showed that the NF model provided a better fitting to NO_x measurements than the ANN model in the training, validation, and test steps. Results of a parametric study indicated that traffic level, relative humidity, and solar radiation had the most influence on photocatalytic efficiency.     

Impact of industrial wastewater disposal on surface water bodies in Mostord area north Greater Cairo

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＴｈｅｕｓｅｏｆｗａｓｔｅｗａｔｅｒｉｎａｇｒｉｃｕｌｔｕｒｅｉｓｏｆｓｕｐｒｅｍｅｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｃｅｉｎａｒｉｄａｎｄｓｅｍｉ ａｒｉｄｃｏｕｎｔｒｉｅｓ.Ｉｎｓｕｃｈｃｏｕｎｔｒｉｅｓｗａｔｅｒｉｓｂｅｃｏｍｉｎｇａｎｉｎｃｒｅａｓｉｎｇｌｙｓｃａｒｅｒｅｓｏｕｒｃｅａｎｄｐｌａｎｎｅｒｓａｒｅｆｏｒｃｅｄｔｏｃｏｎｓｉｄｅｒａｎｙｓｏｕｒｃｅｏｆｗａｔｅｒｗｈｉｃｈｍｉｇｈｔｂｅｕｓｅｄｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃａｌｌｙａｎｄｅｆｆｅｃｔｉｖｅｌｙｔｏｐｒｏｍｏｔｅｆｕｒｔｈ…     

Temporary natural resource cartels

We analyze the behavior of a nonrenewable resource cartel that anticipates being forced, at some date in the future, to break up into an oligopolistic market in which its members will then have to compete as rivals. Under reasonable assumptions about the value function of the individual firms in the oligopolistic equilibrium that follows the breakup, we show that the cartel will then produce more over the same interval of time than it would if there were no threat of dissolution, and that its rate of extraction is a decreasing function of the cartel's life; that there are circumstances under which the cartel will attach a negative marginal value to the resource stocks, in which case the rate of depletion will be increasing over time during the cartel phase; that, for a given date of dissolution, the equilibrium stocks allocated to the post-cartel phase will increase as a function of the total initial stocks, whereas those allocated to the cartel phase will increase at first, but begin decreasing beyond some level of the total initial stocks.