Self-preserving characteristics in wall-wake flow downstream of an isolated bedform

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - The results of an experimental study on the turbulence characteristics in flow over and downstream of an isolated bedform are presented. The vertical profiles of...     

Ecological compensation of grain trade within urban,rural areas and provinces in China: a prospect of a carbon transfer mechanism

Environment, Development and Sustainability - In order to solve regional ecological inequity in carbon emissions, building a balanced ecological compensation mechanism is paramountly important....     

Innovative application of facile single pot green synthesized CuO and CuO@APTES nanoparticles in nanopriming of Vigna radiata seeds

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Nanopriming is an emerging field of science which uses nanoparticles in solution to improve parameters of seed vigor. This leads to an initial...     

Integration of SWAT and HSPF for Simulation of Sediment Sources in Legacy Sediment‐Impacted Agricultural Watersheds

A total maximum daily load for the Chesapeake Bay requires reduction in pollutant load from sources within the Bay watersheds. The Conestoga River watershed has been identified as a major source of sediment load to the Bay. Upland loads of sediment from agriculture are a concern; however, a large proportion of the sediment load in the Conestoga River has been linked to scour of legacy sediment associated with historic millpond sites. Clarifying this distinction and identifying specific segments associated with upland vs. channel sources has important implications for future management. In order to address this important question, we combined the strengths of two widely accepted watershed management models — Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for upland agricultural processes, and Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) for instream fate and transport — to create a novel linked modeling system to predict sediment loading from critical sources in the watershed including upland and channel sources, and to aid in targeted implementation of management practices. The model indicates approximately 66% of the total sediment load is derived from instream sources, in agreement with other studies in the region and can be used to support identification of these channel source segments vs. upland source segments, further improving targeted management. The innovated linked SWAT‐HSPF model implemented in this study is useful for other watersheds where both upland agriculture and instream processes are important sources of sediment load.     

Study on the quality and stability of compost through a Demo Compost Plant

This study is concerned with the performance of a Demo Compost Plant for the development of acceptable composting technology in Bangladesh. The Demo Compost Plant was setup at the adjacent area of an existing compost plant located at Khulna city in Bangladesh. Four different composting technologies were considered, where Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) were used as a raw material for composting, collected from the adjacent areas of the plant. Initially the whole composting system was conducted through two experimental setups. In the 1st setup three different types of aerators (horizontal and vertical passively aerator and forced aerator) were selected. For a necessary observation four piles, using only MSW as the input materials in the first three compost pile, the fourth one was the existing Samadhan’s compost pile. Based on the analysis of the experimental findings, the horizontal passively aerated composting technique is suitable for Bangladesh as it had better performance for reducing composting period than that of the others. It was being observed from the quality parameters of compost in the both 1st and 2nd setup that as the waste directly come from kitchen, degradation rate of waste shows a positive result for reducing this waste and there is no possibility of toxic contamination, when it would be used as a soil conditioner. Though there is no significant improvement in the quality of the final product in the 2nd setup as comparing with the 1st setup but it fulfills one of the main objectives of this study is to reduce the whole composting period as well as immediate management of the increasing amount of waste and reducing load on landfill. Selfheating tests reveal that degree of stability of compost with respect to maturation period was remained in the acceptable level, which was further accelerated due to the use of organic additives.     

Sustaining livelihoods in face of groundwater depletion: a case study of Punjab, India

The study focuses on assessing the sustainable livelihoods of farmers in Indian Punjab focusing on the key aspects of cropping pattern, cost of cultivation, agricultural productivity and profitability amongst different classes of farmers at different levels of groundwater depletion. It further gives a comparative analysis of the proportionate gains the farmers avail from the government subsidies of electricity and procurement price and relates it to their coping mechanisms to sustain agriculture in future. The findings indicate to the fact that technology to extract groundwater, being capital intensive, gives greater accessibility to groundwater to large farmers who gain enormously from growing the remunerative but water-intensive rice crop. Electricity subsidy being not targeted is also misappropriated by the resource rich, water extraction machine owners. To cope with this resource depletion, the large farmers dig and deepen more tube-wells and the small and marginal farmers with little savings who are unable to invest in costly water extraction machines, buy water, shift to less profitable maize crop, lease out or sell their land.     

Variations of physicochemical properties in Kalpakkam coastal waters, east coast of India, during southwest to northeast monsoon transition period

A significant variation in physicochemical properties of the Kalpakkam coastal waters, eastern part of India, was observed during the event of southwest to northeast monsoon transition. Increase in nitrate, total nitrogen, and silicate concentrations were noticed during post-transition period. Ammonia concentration was at peak during transition period as compared to pre- and post-transition periods. Hypo-saline condition (~23 psu) was observed during post-transition as the surface water salinity decreased by ~10 psu from the pre-transitional values. Turbidity, suspended particulate matter, phosphate and total phosphorous values decreased marginally, coinciding with northward to southward current reversal. A drastic decrease (eightfold) in chlorophyll-a concentration was observed in the coastal water during post-transition period.     

Efficient removal of heavy metals from electroplating wastewater using polymer ligands

Poly(hydroxamic acid)-poly(amidoxime) chelating ligands were synthesized from poly(methyl acrylate-co-acrylonitrile) grafted acacia cellulose for removing toxic metal ions from industrial wastewaters. These ligands showed higher adsorption capacity to copper (2.80 mmol?g⁻¹) at pH 6. In addition, sorption capacities to other metal ions such as iron, zinc, chromium, and nickel were also found high at pH 6. The metal ions sorption rate (t_1/2) was very fast. The rate of adsorption of copper, iron, zinc, chromium, nickel, cobalt, cadmium and lead were 4, 5, 7, 5, 5, 8, 9 and 11 min, respectively. Therefore, these ligands have an advantage to the metal ions removal using the column technique. We have successfully investigated the known concentration of metal ions using various parameters, which is essential for designing a fixed bed column with ligands. The wastewater from electroplating plants used in this study, having chromium, zinc, nickel, copper and iron, etc. For chromium wastewater, ICP analysis showed that the Cr removal was 99.8% and other metal ions such as Cu, Ni, Fe, Zn, Cd, Pb, Co and Mn removal were 94.7%, 99.2%, 99.9%, 99.9%, 99.5%, 99.9%, 95.6% and 97.6%, respectively. In case of cyanide wastewater, the metal removal, especially Ni and Zn removal were 96.5 and 95.2% at higher initial concentration. For acid/alkali wastewater, metal ions removing for Cd, Cr and Fe were 99.2%, 99.5% and 99.9%, respectively. Overall, these ligands are useful for metal removal by column method from industrial wastewater especially plating wastewater.