Petroleum waste biodegradation with porous biomass support system (PBSS) on rotating biological contactor

A laboratory scale study was conducted to assess the feasibility of the new coupling of rotating biological contactor (RBC) plus porous biomass support system (PBSS) using polyurethane foam as porous support media to biodegrade petroleum refinery wastewater. Polyurethane foam was attached on disks of two four-stage laboratory scale cascade connected RBC units.The two RBC units were operated simultaneously at different but constant, flowrates giving hydraulic loading rates of 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 m3/m2/d in two runs keeping the same rotational speed 10 r/min throughout. Organic loading was a less controllable factor in this study.For all of the hydraulic loadings, it was found that the removal efficiency of total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and oil were above 80 percent. Ammonia nitrogen and phenol removal were above 90 and 80 percent respectively. The maximum biomass concentration within polyurethane foam was about 30 g/m2 in the first stage for 0.03 m3/m2/d hydraulic loading.The results show that t     

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.     

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.     

Analyzing temporal–spatial characteristics of drought events in the northern part of Cyprus

Drought in the northern part of Cyprus has become a recurrent phenomenon. In the last few decades, Cyprus has experienced significantly severe drought events occurring periodically, and this trend is now continuing. With rainfall distribution varying considerably across the region and frequent drought conditions, the water resources, agriculture, economy and the environment have been adversely affected. This study aims to investigate spatial–temporal characteristic of drought using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at multiple timescales (3, 6 and 12 months). Monthly time series of 36 years (1977–2013) rainfall data from nine weather stations are used to derive SPI values. Based on different drought categories, this study focuses on propagation of drought from one timescale to another and estimating critical rainfall values during moderate, severe and extreme drought conditions. The analysis revealed that there is a strong correlation among different timescales in detecting drought events. On average, 79 and 78% of 3-month timescale drought propagated into 6- and 12-month drought events, respectively, while 90% of 6-month timescale drought events propagated into 12-month drought events. The derived critical rainfall value for extreme droughts over a 12-month timescale was less than 255 mm/year in the town of Alsancak, while for Guzelyurt, a major citrus growing city, this figure was less than 135 mm/year. The results are validated through drought events detected at various regions of the Mediterranean basin and local flood occurrences during the wet periods and decline in water tables at drought seasons.     

Singular Spectrum Analysis of Hydroecological Parameter Dynamics of Lake Naroch’ in the Years 1978–2015

Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) has been used to decompose continuous series of data on certain characteristics of Lake Naroch’ ecosystem during the vegetative seasons of years 1978–2015 into a long-time trend, a periodic component, and a residue not amenable to decomposition. The contribution of each component to changes in this variable has been assessed. The trends accounted for 78–97% of parameter variability, and the periodic components accounted for 2.5–15%. The fluctuations of phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass dynamics were the most diverse, and the contribution of these components was the greatest (15 and 8%, respectively). The periodic components in the changes of all parameters could be divided into four groups according to period duration (17–22, 7–15, 4–7, and less than 4 years). Multidimensional factor analysis of seven biotic parameters was performed in order to identify fluctuations in the ecosystem. Five major factors accounting for 93.6% of ecosystem changes together were identified, and each factor variable was subjected to SSA analysis. The period durations were similar for the oscillatory components identified. The first factor was interpreted as a trophic status of the water body, the second was taken to be the geographical location that defines the amount of solar radiation energy available, the third was taken to be the availability of biogenic elements (phosphorus in particular), and the fourth was interpreted as specific developmental cycles of live components of the ecosystem.     

Comparative Analysis of Variation in Ecological Forms of Altai Osman, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oreoleuciscus potanini</Emphasis> (Cyprinidae), in Lakes Ayrag,Khyargas, and Nogon (Western Mongolia)

Analysis of variation in morphological characters of Potanin Altai osman, Oreoleuciscus potanini, from two freshwater and one brackish water lakes of Western Mongolia has shown that specimens of different ecological forms—herbivorous and piscivorous—form two integral and, at the level under consideration, internally indivisible units in the system of phenetic diversity of the species O. potanini.