نشریه علوم و تکنولوژی محیط زیست
سال بیست و دوم شماره 11 (پیاپی 102، بهمن 1399)

This study aimed to investigate the antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles on Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and producing silver nanocomposites with suitable and biodegradable antibacterial properties by Solution Blending method.

To investigate the antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles were first synthesized by NaBH4 reduciton and after performing UV-VIS, DLS, XRD and TEM and FT-IR  tests, Staphylococcus aureus as a Gram-positive, Escherichia coli as  a Gram-negative bacteri was used, investigated by MIC, MBC and Inhibition Zone. In the next step, the nanocomposite was prepared and prepared by Solution Blending method and its antibacterial activity was evaluated by Inhibition Zone method.

The results showed that silver nanoparticles had inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans at concentrations of 50, 20 and 355 μg / ml respectively and also at concentrations of MIC. 60, 40 and 370, respectively, have the lethal effect on the aforementioned microorganisms (MFC, MBC). A diameter of 3-5 mm was observed around the silver nanoparticles in the cultures of the mentioned microorganisms and in the test of nanocomposite Inhibiion zone, the halo was created based on expected values.the results of the experiments were calculated with 3 replications and the amount of PValue was significant (P<0/0001)by ANOVA method.we used also 3 antibiotic as control for Inhibition zone test.

Silver nanoparticles showed good inhibitory and lethal effects on Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and Also, the nanocomposites produced by the mentioned method have high antibacterial and viscolastic properties.

Oil refineries are the most energy-intensive industries and produce a lot of pollutions. So, thermodynamic simulation is important for performance analysis of equipment, estimation of emissions and environmental impacts. In this paper, simulation and thermodynamic and environmental analysis of Tehran refinery power and steam plant have been studied.

In this regards, two scenarios for performance improvement of steam and power system have been proposed for Tehran refinery. Thermodynamic simulation of each main component has been performed in Matlab Environment. To verification of simulation results, Thermoflex and Star software have been employed. Also, Sima Pro software has been used for estimation of environmental impacts based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

Results show the accuracy of the thermodynamic simulation is very high. The power of steam turbines has been increased by 8.87 % in the second and third scenarios. Also, the environmental impacts have been reduced 16 % in second and 60% in third scenarios.

According to the proposed scenarios and optimization of Tehran Refinery steam network, the efficiency of the network increases energy consumption and production of pollutants is significantly reduced.

In today's competitive market, companies are surely able to make competitive advantage and benefit from it in the long run, paying more attention to environmental issues. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of environmental knowledge on attitudes and behaviors of consumers’ conscious of the environment.

This research, is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of research method. The statistical population of this research includes all customers of Pegah Company throughout the country in January 2019. To this end, 384 samples were selected using available sampling method. In order to confirm the validity of the questionnaire, content validity, construct validity and convergent validity were examined. To assess the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS 22 and LISREL 8.8 software.

All research hypotheses were approved and the coefficient of determination of attitudes toward the environment and behavior of consumers’ conscious of the environment is 0/51 and 0/35.

The results of the research show that general environmental knowledge and Eco-friendly knowledge has a significant impact on attitudes toward the environment and environmental experience has a significant impact on attitudes and behaviors of conscious consumers toward environment. Also, attitudes toward environment has a significant impact on behavior of consumers’ conscious of the environment.

 High concentration of elements (particularly heavy elements) have been always associated with environmental problems in terms of threats for local animals and plants, making it necessary to determine the concentration of heavy elements when assessing environmental quality. Geogenically high concentration of heavy elements and their spread across protected zones tend to impose irreparable damages to regional environment.

 In the present research, remote sensing studies based on ETM and ASTER data were undertaken to determine regional alterations and structures, and geochemical studies were performed to determine how and why environmentally heavy elements are spread across Palang-Darreh region and Dali deposit located in Markazi province, with the results finally compiled into an environmental interpretation. Approximately, a total of 471 samples were processed، of which 62 samples were taken from Palang-Darreh area. The samples taken from Palang-Darreh area were analyzed via ICP and ICP-OES methods.

 Once finished with processing and statistically analyzing the chemical data، elemental anomaly diagrams and maps were prepared and, finally, statistical populations were investigated with respect to the international criteria set by WHO (World Health Organization).

It was indicated that, high concentration of some elements across the area was of geogenic nature. Since this location is a protected area and Dali mine is situated here, so survey of medical geology studies and proper solutions were presented to lower human and environmental of locations.

Adolescents need the most basic environmental features, namely the need for social power in the environment The purpose of this study is to investigate physical, non-physical and perceptual characteristics to explain the optimal environmental affordances in order to obtain maximum socialization in adolescent educational and cultural settings..

This is a descriptive-analytic study carried out in two sections. The first part deals with theoretical framework with a qualitative approach, reviewing the theoretical foundations of the research. The second part uses a qualitative-qualitative approach and case study method in combination with factor analysis of a large number of variables using SPSS and Smart PLS software to examine the results of the questionnaire. Five Likert scale questionnaires have been developed based on the theoretical framework indicators.

Social spaces are among the ones' and bodies that provide the focus for dynamic activities in certain parts. According to the following six factors, "physical", "non-physical", "personality", "social", "cultural" and "emotional" as the capabilities of each environment, The analyzes showed that in the field of environmental capability, four factors were important (physical, personality, social and emotional) in order to socialize adolescent environments, which demonstrates the provision of peripheral- personality capabilities of these group of individuals.

the results showed that physical environmental capability is as the most effective factor that it can be expected to increase the socialization of adolescents in cultural-educational spaces with the least change. According to the paths extracted from the PLS model, the path to social capital factors having the highest path coefficient (0.516) is the critical one of the conceptual model of socialization among others.

The present study was carried out in order to investigate the influence of citizenship education on social responsibility, social skills and environmental skills of Bojnord municipal employees.

This study is practical quasi-experimental pre-test post-test type with a control group. The statistical population includes all the 810 municipal employees of Bojnord, from which 60 employees were chosen using simple random sampling. The chosen employees were divided into two 30-member groups. One group was control and the other was considered the test group. The pre-test was administered for both groups. After holding 12 sessions of citizenship education for the test group, the post-test was administered for both groups. Matsun social skills questionnaires (1983), Emam Goli environmental behavior (2012), Five NEO personality traits of responsibility subscale (1985) were used for data collection. The validity of questionnaires was of face and content validity, which was approved by professors. The validity of Matsun social skills questionnaires (1983), Emam Goli environmental behavior (2012), Five NEO personality traits of responsibility subscale (1985) was 0.859, 0.899, and 0.821, respectively. Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution table, mean, standard deviation), inferential statistics (the investigation of data normality via Kolmogrov-Smirnov, covariance analysis, t-test), SPSS 22 and PLS 3 were used for data analysis.

Factor analysis results revealed that citizenship education influences social responsibility, social skills and environmental skills 25%, 39% and 79%, respectively. Hence, it can be claimed that citizenship education has had a positive meaningful influence on social responsibility, social skills and environmental skills of Bojnord municipal employees.

According to the results of factor analysis in the post-test phase on the experimental group, citizenship education had the greatest impact on responsibility. Therefore, as citizenship education increases, employees' responsibility for the two components (social and environmental skills) is more affected and improved.

Due to high mobility and toxicity of mercury in environment and also high accumulation of mercury in food chain, it is important to understand and predict human exposure and ecological risk assessment of mercury.  The purpose of this study was to investigate the total concentration of mercury and it's bioavailabilty in sediment of Petrochemical and Ja'fari creeks.

In the present study, 27 sediment samples were collected from the sampling sites. Digestion was employed in sample digestion followed by analysis using MOOPAM. samples were analyzed and determined for mercury concentrations by Mercury Analyzer model VM-3000 MERCURY VAPOR MONITOR. Sediments were further investigated for mercury fractions using a three step sequential extraction procedure of BCR.

The concentrations of THg in sediment samples with a minimum of 2.19 and maximum of 45.71 and average of 23.9 milligram per liter show that area is contaminated with mercury according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration standard.

The sequential extraction procedure showed that most Hg in the sediments was largely bound un exchanable phases. Therefore it can not be exchanged between water and sediment under the physicochemical conditions with alkaline pH. The mercury which bound to exchanagble phase can easily desorb and adsorb by sediments. High content of mercury was in station close to chloralkaline factory and with distance, Hg concentration was decreased.

The purpose of this study was to map the spatial distribution of common yarrow(Achilla millefolium)and thyme (Thymus kotschianus) using artificial neural network model in rangelands Donna, Mazandaran Province.

Sampling was carried out with equal random classification in 29 homogenous units. In each unit, 3 soil samples were harvested from depth of 0-30 cm. In this study, 20 environmental factors were the independent variables and the presence of plant species were the dependent variable. For the preparation spatial distribution map of the species, environmental data were converted to maps in GIS. Then each of these factors was classified using the frequency. In this research, network Multilayer Perceptron that is the most common feed forward neural network was used. Optimal structure for the network was determined 1, 20, and 20. Then distribution maps of studied species were prepared with 4 class absence and low presence, medium presence and high presence in the GIS software. Models were evaluated using ROC curves and Kappa coefficient.

AUC were 96.8 and 84.7 for the species Achilla millefolium and Thymus kotschianus was, respectively  that indicates models are excellent or very good for the prediction.

Also kappa coefficient were calculated as 89.0 and 76.0 for Achilla millefolium and Thymus kotschyanus,  respectively which  indicate very good and good prediction.

Assessing and estimating the high-accuracy transmission potential is an important step in the process of land use and land cover changes modeling and predicting. The aim of this study is to investigate the transmission potential of land use and land cover changes using Similarity Weighted Instance based Learning, Logistic regression and Geomod methods.

The land use and land cover maps for a 30-year period (1985-2015) were prepared using Landsat 5 and 8 satellite imagery. Land use and land cover transmission potential modeling was done using Similarity Weighted Instance based Learning, Logistic regression and Geomod methods and effective variables in the process of change. The accuracy of the results obtained from the models was determined by comparing with ground reality map for mentioned year.

The Kappa coefficient of Similarity Weighted Instance based Learning, Logistic regression and Geomod were 0.84, 0.76 and 0.67, respectively. The investigating predicted maps for 2030 prepared by Similarity Weighted Instance based Learning and Markov chain showed that the area of residential areas, gardens and agricultural lands is increasing and the area of bare land, forests, pastures and water resources will have a decrease trend.

Finally, the results indicate a relatively high accuracy of three methods in estimating the transmission potential for land use and land cover changes, but according to the kappa coefficients, the accuracy of Similarity Weighted Instance based Learning method more than the other two methods.

the aim of this survey was prevent the environmental pollutant, urban sewage sludge management and vermicompost production by beneficial usage of rice straw as an agricultural trash which burn in arable rice grounds.

This study conduct to evaluate the nutrition matter consist of nitrogen, phosphorus, potash in (21±4˚c) temperature and pH (7±0.5) in urban sewage management, and provided the suitable vermicompost by pure dehydrate urban sewage mixed in rice straw as compared with rice straw and manure complex and pure dehydrate urban sewage (control; PDUS) containing E. feothida from three replication in 8 week. At the end of the test amount of nutrition matter was compared between treatments in (p<0.05) value.

Results shown, significant difference between treatment and reduced the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, potash (p<0.05).So, the best level of nitrogen (1.21±022)% ,phosphorus(0.69±0.03)% and potash(0.07±0.01)%  was determined in rice chaff and manure complex treatment. After this treatment, the PDUS mixed by rice chaff group had best point than control group innutrition matter except in amount of potassium. In potassium level after rice chaff and manure complex, control group was set in second station and the lower point was in dehydrate urban sewage mixed by rice chaff group.

Followed our results, we can say that rice chaff was more effective to produce the urban sewage vermicompost. Also this is good agricultural manure cause to best nutritional value and it could be help us in urban sewage management.

Pollution caused by petroleum compounds (PAHs) and heavy metals due to their properties Cumulative and High toxicity Causing major environmental problems. These compounds, although detected in air and water, are the final and main receptive soil. Soil washing process using surfactants is a high-performance physicochemical technology for the removal of phenanthrene and cadmium from the soil environment and transferring them to the aqueous phase.

In this study, the efficiency of the process with the BBD method, with RSM, was designed to optimizing parameters such as surfactant concentration in the range 1000,1500 and 2000 mg/L, washing Time 2,12, 24 hours with L/S 10, 20 and 30 ml/g. To contaminated soil samples were added high concentrations Phenanthrene (500 mg/kg) and Cadmium (80 mg/kg), surfactant Tween 80 and EDTA.

The final concentration of Phenanthrene and Cadmium was measured by HPLC and atomic absorption spectrometry (ASS). The results showed that the efficiency of the process under optimal conditions for the separation of 76% Phenanthrene and 81% Cadmium in separate concentrations of Tween 80 and EDTA was reached in 2000 mg/L, L/S 30 ml/g (v/w), washing time 2 hours. Surfactant concentration was the most influential variable in this regard (p< 0.0001).

The separation of phenanthrene and Cadmium from the soil through the help of surfactants is an effective technique for remediation of contaminated soil.

Growing urbanization has different consequences which one of them is increasing the temperature of cities thus, more usage of mechanical air-condition, more energy consumption and environmental and health consequences are inevitable. The necessity of thermal mitigating methods in designing sustainable cities, especially by adjusting received radiation, has been emphasized. Therefore, Sky View Factor (SVF) as a quantitative index has been proposed.  Considering the fact that, urban streets have the largest area among other urban spaces and play an important role in thermal comfort in cities, streets in hot and dry climate (Isfahan) in two directions of N-S and E-W were selected.

In this study, field studies and simulation have been applied. Field study has been conducted in 17 streets with different width, closeness and green coverage, in summer 2014.. In ENVI-met  5 green arrangements in 3 closeness scale (1, 1/2, ¼) were simulated to investigate green and physical SVF separately. Data gathering, calculating SVF (Rayman has been applied in field study), homogenizing data and statistical and logical analysis between variations, in the procedure applied in both methods.

The minimum SVF, which is effective to heat mitigation in Isfahan, is 0.6, which can be greenery or buildings. In addition, the most effective SVF is less than 0.2. As a result, Sabat with SVF equals to zero have been a traditional smart choice in this climate. 

Discussion and Conclusion:

Finally, the results indicate a relatively high accuracy of three methods in estimating the transmission potential for land use and land cover changes, but according to the kappa coefficients, the accuracy of Similarity Weighted Instance based Learning method more than the other two methods.

One of the most important international structures that play a major role in the development of international environmental law is the Conference of the parties in the environmental treaties. However, the Conference of the Parties’ status and legitimacy for environmental regulations, developing and restricting the parties’ obligations and requirements which contained in the environmental treaties and implementation of the treaties by its decisions and resolutions should be addressed. This study is based on analysis of legal inductive. According to this method, some environmental treaties from the 1970s until today which contained the Conference of the Parties’ structure has been collected, analyzed and evaluated. After studying the opportunities and legal capacity of the "Conference of the Parties" for development of international environmental law, the result of this study showed that the environmental treaties’ Conference of the Parties have faced some gaps and limitation. In this perspective, the paper makes some recommendation to sole these gaps and limitations.

Due to the negative effects caused by the inappropriate use of land and land use changes, it is necessary to be aware about the variability process in the environmental impacts assessment witch arising from different developments to have the best planning and sustainable management of land. This study was conducted to check the effects of landscape changes in the city of Malayer. Malayer city due to various factors such as population growth, modernization of suburban neighborhoods and etc. is experiencing changes in land cover but among them the most effective factor is policies managers.

For achieving the studies objectives first step was mapping land cover change analysis, Landsat satellite images were used in the period between 2000 and 2014 and metrics were: class area (CA), number of patches (NP), patch density (PD), largest patch index (LPI) and landscape shape index (LSI).

Findings like landscape metrics analysis shows wide replacement of open lands in the area with green and built lands. This means that from 2000 to 2014 green space is nearly doubled and open land also have decreased about 50%.  Also the increase of number of patches was more than double that shows the microlithic landscape in the region.

The final results show that the changes of green lands are promising and improving and behind of this improvement there is nothing except management focus on green space which should continue in the future for sustainable development.

With the increase of population and development and expansion of urbanization, human beings have gradually moved away from nature and excessive population density and interference in natural environment and creation of man-made environments have further expressed the environmental and spiritual needs of human beings to address this. Needs Urban man has created gardens and artificial green spaces inside cities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the indicators of environmental management in Saei Park in Tehran.

First of all, the population of the statistical society consisted of Saeif park visitors and the sample size was determined 384 people. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire containing two parts with individual and professional characteristics of respondents and environmental management indicators. Validity of the questionnaire was carried out by a survey of professors and experienced experts and experts. Reliability and reliability the questionnaire was determined through Cronbach's alpha. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 20. Hierarchical method (AHP) was used to rank the indices

findingsshowed that the indicators of "noise pollution" and "quality and quantity of fertilizer" were in the highest and "status of care and maintenance of wildlife" and "surface water disposal and sewage system" were in the lowest ranks. Other findings showed that the personal and professional characteristics of citizens have been effective in environmental management indicators. And there was a difference between the views of different groups based on these characteristics. There was a significant relationship between the environmental management of Saei Park in Tehran and there was a significant difference between the level of client participation in the environmental management indicators of Saei Park in Tehran based on gender and age groups.

Comparison tests showed that there was a significant difference between citizens' satisfaction with indicators of the status of treatment and conservation of wildlife, variety of plant species, quality and quantity of fertilizer, irrigation status and base of solar lights. There was a significant difference between the amount of satisfaction of citizens from the quality and quantity indexes of fertilizers, the basis of solar lights, vegetation diversity, the status of the processing and maintenance of wildlife, and the disposal of surface water and sewage system. . Therefore, it is necessary to consider the individual and professional characteristics of different groups of respondents in the programs carried out in the field of environmental management.

Mishdagh protected area is located in Khuzestan province. Due to the value and importance of this region and the Iranian deer species protected in this region, as well as the biodiversity of the region, which contains a rich genetic source, has so far Valuation work has not been done for it. Due to its protective importance, the purpose of this study was to estimate the conservation value of protected area using conditional valuation and hierarchical analysis methods.

The conditional valuation method was used to estimate the conservation value of the area. Data were collected through questionnaires filled out by 136 people. The role and contribution of each individual, social and economic factor and the willingness to pay respondents based on the Logit model were estimated and then, with the aid of a hierarchical analysis, prioritizing the indirect, direct, indirect, value, direct and indirect values ​​of the value of the area and heritage value Depending on the degree of importance they took.

The average willingness to pay for the protection of the area was 73230 rials per visitor and the total protective value was determined to be 7432845000 rials. The results of hierarchical analysis showed that the legacy value of the region in the first rank and then the existential value, optional value, indirect value of use and direct consumption value are in the next rank.

The results showed that increasing the level of education, household income and awareness of the visitors increases their willingness to pay. The level of awareness of visitors and tourists from the protected area was low. Because only 5% of the people already knew the sample of the information provided about the area, this indicates that there should be enough information to identify the area to be made available to the public.

In Asyabk Zarandieh town, located in Central Province, sewage discharge is released within 20 meter from arable land of wheat. This research is to determine the concentration of lead and cadmium in contaminated soils, sewage, irrigation water and wheat grown in the area around the town Asyabk and the correlation between them and assessing the potential risks arising from the consumption of wheat grown in the region.

The sampling of drainage and irrigation water, surface soil, wheat was done by random. Lead and cadmium concentrations in all samples were measured. The results were statistically analyzed. Also the zonation map was prepared by GIS software.

Concentration of lead and cadmium in soil samples obtained less than limit permissible but concentration of Cd and pb in wheat obtained exceeded the national standard of Iran. Based on the correlation results between the amount of   lead and cadmium in the wheat samples, soil and irrigation water, there was a strong positive correlation. While there was no relationship between the concentrations of these elements in the wheat samples and the amount of metals in the wastewater samples.

The lack of correlation between the concentration of lead and cadmium in wheat and wastewater showed sewage spread in the region unaffected in the process of increasing the concentration of lead and cadmium in wheat. The main reason of increase Pb and Cd in wheat samples is related to irrigation water (well water). The risk index (HQ) of wheat consumption in the region obtained smaller than 1 for lead and cadmium.

The study of the response and adaptation of the trees' leaves exposed to air pollutants is a good indicator of plant yield in contaminated environments. In this study, the effect of metal contaminants on changing the morphological traits of platanus orientalis leaves in Chitgar and Azadi Square in Tehran was investigated.

Two areas were selected for sampling. Area one was a low-traffic environment (from the interior space of Chitgar Park) and a high-traffic environment (Azadi Square). In each area, five healthy and disease-free tree base of plantain type (Platanus orientalis) were randomly selected at the shortest distance from the street. Completely healthy leaves were collected from the outermost part of each tree canopy from the street side in the first half of September. The leaves were collected at 10 to 11 am. To ensure that the stomata were open. The leaves were put in wrapped nylons in an ice tank with minimal hand contact and transported to the laboratory in the shortest time. Morphological traits of plantain leaves and stomata were measured. Metal concentration was also measured.

Pb, Hg, Fe, Cu, Cr, Co, Cd, and Ni were more polluted than other metals and their toxicity in Azadi was more than Chitgar. The results of the study indicated that in the presence of heavy metal contaminants in the environment, the leaf length, width, area, fresh and dry weight, and the relative water content decreased while the dent per area unit, vein distribution per blade area, and special area of the leaf increased. As Cu increases, the leaf area decreases and the symptoms of Cholosis appear. The accumulation of cadmium, lead and nickel will reduce the size of Mesophile tissue and epidermal cells. Dry and fresh weight of platanus orientalis leaves in Azadi reduced in comparison to Chitgar. The decrease of dry weight is a complication of cadmium toxicity. Stomatal length, width, and size decreased while stomatal density increased. Stomatal strength, stomatal density, and stomatal size increased in upper leaf area.

By decreasing the contact surface with the pollutant and changing the stomatal size and density, platanus orientalis adjusts gas exchanges with the environment. The occurrence of these morphological adaptations increases the stability of platanus orientalis to the air pollutants stress.

knowledge about the animal Population size is important for Wildlife management and is the main requirement tool for management and is the prerequisite for management. Western mole-vole have special life. It has underground life and for this reason the researchers have been little attention to it. Estimating abundance is important and first information that use wildlife management. Therefore study estimating abundance is done for this species.

We use to distance models (T-square sampling and Byth and Ripley). This models don’t need plot and quadrats and Using Seber (1982) model for sample size. Also we use Burnham et al. (1980) for total length of transect and using Ecological Methodology software.

The T-square method, the sample size n=27, density was estimated 56 species per hectare that the 95% confidence interval limits of 38/44 to 63/8 species per hectare (SE=0/0039). The Byth and Ripley method, the sample size n=27, density was estimated 49 species per hectare that the 95% confidence interval limits of 45/2 to 52/6 species per hectare (SE=0/00076).

The final mean population size was considered 50 species per hectare.

Quercus macranthera is extended in forest areas of the upper elevations in north of Iran and play an effective role in conserving soil and water infiltration. The biggest problem in the regions is livestock grazing and forest dwellers. The aim of this study was to study effects of protection on the quantity and quality characteristics of Persian oak(Quercus macranthera) in Roudbar forests of Guilan province.

In total, 40 plots of 1000 m2 (20 plots in protected area and 20 plots in unprotected area) were collected using randomized systematic method and grid sampling of 100 × 100 m. In each plot, number and type of tree and shrub species, diameter in breast height, height, crown position and trunk quality were measured. Also, a micro-plot of 100m2 in center of plots was used to calculate regeneration.

The results showed that density of trees, the average of diameter at breast height, total basal area, plant height, volume and regeneration were significantly were higher in protected than unprotected areas. There were no differences in other tree species. Density of barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.), Crataegus microphylla K. Koch and cherry plum (Prunus divaricata) were significantly higher in unprotected than protected area. Also, quality of crown and trunk were better in protected than unprotected area. Study of diameter classes in structure triangle showed that protected area located in irregular section and degraded area located in small-medium diameter section.

As Quercus macranthera trees play an important role in upper parts of the forest, maintaining this valuable species and continuity programs of livestock and human emersion is essential.