Modeling of agricultural drought risk pattern using Markov chain and GIS in the western part of Bangladesh

The aim of the study is to assess the agricultural drought risk condition in the context of global climate change in the western part of Bangladesh that covers about 45% area of the country for the period of 1960–2011. Drought Index (DI) and Drought Hazard Index (DHI) have been calculated by Markov Chain analysis and that of Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) from socioeconomic and physical indicators. The DI values show that the northern part in general is more drought-prone, having less crops prospect, whereas the southern part is less drought-prone with high crop potentiality. The probability of extreme drought occurrence increases in recent decades in some parts as a result the drought events become more frequent in the areas. The DHI ranges from 15 to 32, and northern part suffers from more extreme drought hazards than that of southern part. DVI also indicates that northern part is exposed to high to very high drought vulnerability as higher percentage of illiterate people are involved in agricultural practices and high percentage of irrigation to cultivable land, but southern part exposed to moderate to low vulnerability because of low values of vulnerability indicators. Finally, agricultural drought exists at high risk condition in northern part and low in southern parts and 21.63, 26.54 and 29.68% of the area poses very high, high and moderate risk, respectively. So, immediate adaptation measures are needed keeping in mind climate features like rainfall and temperature variability, drought risk and risk ranking to make viable adaptation measures.     

Life cycle assessment tool of electricity generation in Portugal

This paper investigates multi-stakeholder arrangements initiated by businesses and NGOs from the North that aim to enhance a more sustainable agricultural production at specific localities in Southern countries. We aim to better understand the search for concerted action in multi-actor arrangements. Therefore, this paper presents a diagnostic framework with three strategic challenges the partnership projects are facing: linking global economic objectives to local needs, values and interests; bridging public and private interests and responsibilities; and seeking trade-offs between social, environmental and economic values. Starting from the partnerships’ Theory of Change, this diagnostic framework is applied to comparative case studies of partnership projects in the cocoa sector in Indonesia, which are part of a Northern-based public–private partnership to improve farmers’ prospective. It is concluded that the economic reality faced by the farmers differs from that of the Northern actors; collaboration with governments is difficult because of different organizational cultures; and the partnership projects underestimate the strength of vested social relations the smallholders are part of. Overall, the initiators of the partnerships seem to work with a too restricted economic interpretation of the local reality.     

Traffic and outdoor air pollution levels near highways in Baghdad,Iraq

In Iraq, the number of passenger cars, trucks and buses, local generators, and heavy construction equipment rose to a considerable extent since 2003, causing high environmental problems. Many types of pollutants were monitored and recorded for 24 h during March 2016. The study attempts to explore and establish a relationship between the volume of activity and the movement of motor vehicles of various compounds and contaminants resulting from their exhaust pipes, such as sulfur dioxide, particulate matters, oxides of nitrogen, VOCs, and unburned hydrocarbons. The study focused in and around Mohammad Al-Qasim highway adjacent to the University of Technology, Baghdad. The results showed the need for urgent treatments addressed by the environmental authorities in the city. The study results demonstrated that these contaminants are increased during periods of the beginning and end of working hours for government departments. Some types of sulfur compounds (H₂S and SO₂) concentrations were at serious health-threatening levels, which is a result of the high sulfur content in the Iraqi fuel. The concentrations of NOx and VOC were high, also, which could make the studied area vulnerable to the risk of smog formation. The Iraqi government should make greater efforts to protect the environment and human in this country from the transportation pollution risks.     

An automated (novel) algorithm for estimating green vegetation cover fraction from digital image: UIP-MGMEP

Green vegetation cover fraction (VCF) is an important indicator of vegetation status in ecology and agronomy. Digital image analysis (DIA) has been widely accepted as a new VCF measurement technique. In this study, we present a novel fully automatic threshold segmentation algorithm for VCF measurements, which is named as upper inflection point plus mean gradient magnitude of edge pixels (UIP-MGMEP). The algorithm performs VCF estimation upon the vegetation index Excess Green (EXG). UIP-MGMEP optimizes the EXG threshold by searching the upper inflection point (UIP) of the M-Et curve (mean gradient magnitude of edge pixels (MGMEP) vs. EXG threshold), based on the assumption that EXG variance of the boundary pixels between vegetation and background is larger than the variance of the background. Five typical sample images are used to illustrate how ground complexity reduces the distinctness of the UIP. Three controlled experiments are illustrated to test the robustness of UIP-MGMEP to resolution, exposure, and ground complexity. The results show that UIP-MGMEP is a promising algorithm for automatic VCF estimation upon digital images. Compared to broad-leaved grass, narrow-leaved grass is more sensitive to resolution and exposure. To reduce ground complexity, smaller footprint size while more images to cover the same area may be better than one image with large footprint size. UIP-MGMEP is fully automatic, making it promising for batch processing of VCF measurements that is very difficult in any wide-range field survey in the past. UIP-MGMEP algorithm can only extract green vegetation and is not suitable for non-green (even grayish-green) vegetation, due to the limits of vegetation index EXG. In addition, UIP-MGMEP is not recommended for images with VCF less than 0.5% or greater than 99.5%.     

T酸一次洗水初步处理的研究

采用重氮化－偶合－混凝沉淀和重氮化－混凝沉淀两种方法对Ｔ酸一次洗水的初步处理进步了研究。Ｔ酸一次洗水经两种方法处理后,ＣＯＤ去除率分别为６１．３％、５０．５％,色度去除率分别为７４．６％、７１％。     

Degradation kinetics of anthracene by ozone on mineral oxides

To further understand the role of substrates on the heterogeneous reactions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the reactions of ozone with anthracene adsorbed on different mineral oxides (SiO₂, α-Al₂O₃ and α-Fe₂O₃) and on Teflon disc were investigated in dark at 20 °C. No reaction between ozone and anthracene on Teflon disc was observed when the ozone concentration was ～1.18 × 10¹⁴ molecules cm^?3. The reactions on mineral oxides exhibited pseudo-first-order kinetics for anthracene loss, and the pseudo-first-order rate constant (k_1,obs) displayed a Langmuir–Hinshelwood dependence on the gas-phase ozone concentration. The adsorption equilibrium constants for ozone (K_O3) on SiO₂-1, SiO₂-2, α-Al₂O₃ and α-Fe₂O₃ were (0.81 ± 0.26) × 10^?15 cm³, (2.83 ± 1.17) × 10^?15 cm³, (2.48 ± 0.77) × 10^?15 cm³ and (1.66 ± 0.45) × 10^?15 cm³, respectively; and the maximum pseudo-first-order rate constant (k_1,max) on these oxides were (0.385 ± 0.058) s^?1, (0.101 ± 0.0138) s^?1, (0.0676 ± 0.0086) s^?1 and (0.0457 ± 0.004) s^?1, respectively. Anthraquinone was identified as the main surface product of anthracene reacted with ozone. Comparison with previous research and the results obtained in this study suggest that the reactivity of anthracene with ozone and the lifetimes of anthracene adsorbed on mineral dust in the atmosphere are determined by the nature of the substrate.     

生物法-人工湿地组合工艺处理小城镇混合污水研究

为适应小城镇污水处理高效、低耗、管理简单的要求,开展了生物法(水解酸化/生物接触氧化)-人工湿地组合工艺(A/BCO-CW)处理小城镇片区混合污水的研究。结果表明,A/BCO系统在停留时间为3～6 h条件下,对悬浮物和有机物有高的去除效率,COD、BOD5和TSS去除率分别达到63.1%、67.7%和66.2%,避免了人工湿地堵塞和提高处理效率,减少了所需湿地面积44%。全年运行结果表明,在0.30～0.59 m/d水力负荷率下,垂直流-表面流-水平潜流人工湿地组合系统对COD、BOD5和TSS平均去除负荷达9.4、5.1和7.2 g/(m2.d)(42%、71.2%和85.2%);COD、BOD5去除速率常数为74.6±12.1 m/y、166±30.5 m/y,这些数值均处于文献中k值范围的高量程内。A/BCO-人工湿地系统对COD、BOD5和TSS具有好的处理效果,出水水质能够稳定达到《地表水环境质量标准》(GB 3838-2002)的IV类水标准,2种处理方法有效组合起来,所开发的低成本、高效率、可持续运行的城镇废水处理组合系统,将会在实际应用尤其是高有机负荷污水处理中发挥良好效用。     

新型SBBR处理畜禽废水脱氮实验研究

以畜禽废水为处理对象,将序批式运行模式应用到好氧三相内循环生物流化床中,考察在不同模式下的处理效果及氮的转化情况。实验结果表明,在室温条件下,进水COD浓度为2 000 mg/L左右,总氮为140 mg/L左右时,保持溶解氧在2~2.5 mg/L,交替好氧/缺氧运行方式处理效果优于单一的好氧/缺氧方式;模式为3 h(曝气)-1.5 h(停曝)-1.5 h(曝气)-1 h(停曝)时系统对总氮和氨氮处理效果最好,总氮去除率达到90%,系统主要脱氮方式为同步硝化反硝化和短程硝化反硝化。     

两阶段曝气生物滤池的硝化性能

曝气生物滤池(BAF)是近年来受到广泛关注的一种新型污水处理技术,具有占地面积少、投资费用低、处理效率高、出水水质好等优点。现已被应用于许多污水处理厂的二级处理、深度处理以及污水的回用。实验以陶粒为填料,自行设计了升流式两阶段BAFs(UBAFs)处理模拟生活污水,考察了反应器运行条件对COD与氨氮去除影响,并探讨了UBAFs反应器内氮流失及同步硝化反硝化情况。结果表明,UBAFs对生活污水处理具有良好的净化效果。在进水COD和氨氮浓度分别为200~363 mg/L和16.8~31.3 mg/L条件下,UBAFs处理出水水质均达到《城市污水再生利用城市杂用水水质》(GB/T 18920-2002)标准,能够满足回用要求。通过采用氮平衡分析方法和借助电子扫描电镜技术,初步认为UBAFs反应器脱氮方式是由于在UBAFs第一阶段局部厌氧环境中以传统方式进行硝化反硝化脱氮,第二阶段是在好氧条件下,异养好氧硝化菌的同步硝化反硝化脱氮。     

污泥水解蛋白液对食用菌生长的影响研究

将污泥(食品工厂污泥)经过酸碱水解制备水解蛋白液(肽类和氨基酸复合物,属于微生物蛋白)、并与豆粕(植物蛋白)、屠宰厂动物羽毛(动物蛋白)水解蛋白液、以及常规食用菌氮源麸皮、大米制糖厂米渣作为平菇栽培氮源或营养添加剂,测试对平菇的菌丝生长、产量和生物转化率的影响。结果表明,几种水解蛋白液对平菇的菌丝生长、产量、生物转化率影响明显,污泥水解蛋白液对菌丝的生长效果最好,其余2种水解蛋白液也有促进作用。添加污泥水解蛋白液最高产量可达806 g/袋,添加豆粕水解蛋白液的最高产量为532 g/袋,添加屠宰厂动物羽毛水解蛋白液的产最高量为525 g/袋;对照为480 g/袋(常规棉籽壳)。生物转化率分别为161.2%、106.4%和105.0%,而对照生物转化率为96%;增产率分别为67.92%、10.83%和9.38%。因此,污泥、豆粕、屠宰厂动物羽毛蛋白水解液可提高平菇产量,该研究也为污泥资源化利用建立了基础。