فصلنامه محیط شناسی
سال چهلم شماره 1 (پیاپی 69، بهار 1393)

Several methods have been developed to aid in selecting a network of biodiversity protected areas. One of these methods is artificial intelligence which includes a number of different computer algorithms that use an objective function to find the best solution. An algorithm is a mathematical process or a set of rules used for problem solving. Recently, site selection algorithms have been widely used to identify areas of high conservation value. Two main types of site selection algorithms are optimal algorithms and heuristic ones. In this research, three types of heuristic algorithms, namely, annealing, greedy, and rarity simulated in the selection of the protected areas were compared to find the best regions for efficient environmental protection in Mazandaran Province. The effects of different parameters including conservation goals, scale, algorithms, and compactness of zones on the results were also investigated.

Heavy metal contamination has disastrous effects on plant productivity and threatens human and animal health. Among metals, cadmium (Cd) is commonly released into the environment from industrial processes. Cd is known to cause cellular damage in plants by producing oxidative stress via the over-production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). To combat oxidative damage, plants have developed a defense system consisting of a variety of antioxidant enzymes which can neutralize, convert, and scavenge the ROS. Proline accumulates heavily in several plants under stress providing the plants protection against damage by the ROS. When translocated to the shoots, Cd causes strong oxidative stress and the inhibition of plant metabolism, including photosynthesis by direct and indirect mechanisms. To reduce the environmental risks of cadmium contamination, phytoremediation has been considered as the most promising and a relative new method for cleanup of polluted environments. This study investigated Cd uptake by root through Myrtus communis and Pinus brutia. The objectives of this study were 1. to compare the Cd accumulation of Myrtus communis and Pinus brutia and 2. to provide evidence for the role of proline and soluble sugar in lead tolerance of the studied species.

Nowadays climate changes as one of the major environmental issues have been put forward the most important challenge in sustainable development and poverty elimination. Carbon sequestration is a process in which carbon dioxide absorbs from the atmosphere and accumulates in carbohydrates form in plant tissues, litter, and soil. Rangelands ecosystems have a great potential in carbon sequestration because of including half of the lands on the earth. In addition, their carbon storage is about 10 percent of total biomass carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems and 30 percent of organic carbon. In a global scale, about 500 billion tons of carbon sequestrate in the rangelands annually. To reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas balance, atmospheric carbon should be captured and sequestrated. Carbon as one of the main greenhouse gases element sequesters by photosynthesis in plant biomass. Carbon sequestration by the rangelands plants is the most simple and the cheapest way to decrease this gas. Therefore identifying the species that have high ability to carbon sequestration can help us in the rangelands rehabilitation and reclamation. Materials and methods The study area was 2598 ha including the exclosures and grazed rangelands in the mountainous region of Behshahr. This region is located on 53°54'01- 53 52' 06" longitudes and 36° 38' 24"- 36° 36' 16" latitude. The maximum and minimum elevations are 1707 meters and 1043 meters above sea level, respectively. The area annual precipitation is 409 mm and the temperature is between -15 °C to 37 °C that its maximum occurs in the May. The climate is semi-arid cold based on Emberger technique.In this study, the effects of exclosure and grazed on the carbon sequestration was studied in two plant species in the Vezvar rangelands of Hezarjarib in Behshahr. Vegetation and soil sampling was done by random-systematic method with two 100 m transects and 40 plots. The plot numbers were obtained based on the plant distribution pattern in the area. The soil sampling was done in two depths of 0-15 and 15-30 cm with a total 80 soil samples. Organic carbon determined by the Walkley-Black method. The species biomass measurement was done in above-ground and under-ground completely by weight and cutting method.Shooting and rooting organs of the species Astragalus gossypinus F. and Dactylis glomerata L. were separated from each other after transfer to the laboratory. The carbon sequestration coefficient of the plant organs was determined with combustion method.The carbon sequestration coefficient of the different species, organs, and the soils under these species were then analyzed in the Lab. In this study, Comparison of the carbon sequestration in two species was done by t-Test method. This investigation was done by SPSS v.19 and EXCEL software. Results and discussion The statistical results presented in Table 1 showed that the mean of canopy percent in enclosure area is higher than that of the grazed region. Table 1. t-Test analysis of canopy percent in the exclosure and grazed area

Chainsaw and cable skidder are two main logging machines for wood harvesting in the Caspian forests. Selection cutting is the main silvicultural method in these forests. Harvesting in the Caspian forests has the potential to damage the trees that are left standing. Damages to residual trees during the selection cutting operation may decrease the quality of residual trees and increase stand mortality through insect and disease infestation. The wounds can cause stem deformity and significant losses of the final crop volume and value. The wound characteristics such as size, location, and intensity are the main factors that influence on the future quality of damaged trees. Logging damages to the residual trees increase as the time passes. The literature review shows that minor damage to the stem of residual trees during logging operation can have a major impact on the final stand volume as future saw logs. In the Caspian forests, many studies focused on the primary logging damage (immediately after logging operation) and a few studies were done on the secondary logging damage (after years). The objective of this research was to study the condition of logging wounds on residual trees after 12 years elapsed in the Caspian forests. Materials and methods The study was carried out in two adjacent compartments (35 and 42) of the district No., one of Nav watershed in Guilan province in the Caspian forest of Iran. The Nav watershed is located between 37° 38' 34" to 37° 42' 21" N and 48° 48' 44" to 48° 52' 30" E. The elevation of the study area is ranged from 1350 to 1600 m and the mean of annual precipitation and temperature are approximately 950 mm and 9.1°C, respectively. The original vegetation of this area is an uneven-aged mixed forestand is dominantly covered by Fagus orientalis and Carpinus betulus stands. These compartments selectively logged by ground-based logging operation during December and January of 2000. The characteristics of wounds (size, intensity, and location) on the residual trees were measured immediately after logging operation. The condition of wounds was restudied after 12 years from logging operation in the year of 2012. Results and discussion The results of this study showed that 67.1% of wounds were closed and 32.8% of the damaged trees were not able to improve their wounds. About 4.2 percent of wounds caused to tree mortality as shown in Table 1.

The process of urbanism in countries that are developing, like Islamic Republic of Iran with increasing of the number and the size of cities and the fast accepting of population have been caused the forming of problems like an in-official economics and in-official settlement and was become creating high population in main and old places of city and increasing of air pollution and the kinds atmospheric pollutants in cities. (Pazhouhian and Morad Hasel, 1386). The most atmospheric pollution of big cities of Iran have direct relating between kind and the rate of the pollutants with density blocks of population in crowded places and full of population in term of the period of time and a place have geographic aspects. Every phenomenon of air pollution is in term of density and kind of the coordination pollutant have specific place and time. In this study has been used density classification method for studying relation between population and quantity & kind of atmospheric pollution in the big city of Kermanshah base on estimating number of population and calculating pollution in statistical block that are include 62 statistical point sample with determining rate of quantity of populations and geographic coordination studied place by using universal finding coordinate system (GPS). Statistical populations of ready research are include quantity of populations and quantity & kind of pollution that time period is 7 day in the suburb of Kermanshah big city.

NO2 is not only a potential air pollutant in urban and industrial environments but also a precursor for smog of urban environment that is another ozone pollutant as well. Some of the urban environments in Iran have high tropospheric and near surface NO2 which requires research attentions especially in these years. That is the issue of concern in the present study using satellite data of OMI from 2004 to 2012. Here, we compare the trends of NO2 for some cities of Iran while looking at the correlation between the near surface values of NO2 and that of the tropospheric column values. Spatial and temporal variations of the tropospheric column nitrogen dioxide over Iran are studied using the satellite data of OMI from 2004 to 2012. The surface data of NO2 for Tehran is also considered. The data were acquired from the air monitoring stations of the city for this period. Weather synoptic maps were also used for interpretation of the observed NO2 variations. The monthly mean values of NO2 for large cities were plotted for comparison; while long term trends for all this period were also presented for the large cities as well as the other less populated places for comparison. The maps of overall variations of column NO2 for the Middle East were also obtained from the TEMIS database that have its monthly mean values as maps as well as the data for all places over the globe. The synoptic maps were also obtained from the NOAA web site. This web site has the weather maps for different pressure levels of the globe, for various parameters of meteorology. Although, we only used the maps of 500 mb for the Middle East for the cold season months, as December. As will be observed, the higher values of NO2 are found in colder months.

Because of expansion of agricultural activities and excessive use of chemical fertilizers and location of municipal and industrial wastewater of Andimeshk, it is possible for this aquifer to be polluted. Therefore, the aim of present study is to assess the aquifer vulnerability of Andimeshk plain and recognition of sensitive areas against pollution which this work can be conducted by using DRASTIC and SINTACS models. Although these models are among the most used models for assessment of aquifer vulnerability, therefore these models should be corrected on the basis of local hydrological conditions to obtain correct results. Therefore the main aim of this study is correction of DRASTIC and SINTACS models according to local hydrological conditions and finally determining the best aquifer vulnerable model for the plain. Materials and methods Study area: Andimeshk plain is located in the north west of Khuzestan province with the area of 295 km2 and its geographical coordinates is in north latitude, 32° 15′ to 32° 35′ and east longitude 48° 29′ to 48° XX′. DRASTIC and SINTACS models: Generally, parameters used in these models are consist of depth to watertable, net recharge (effective infiltration), aquifer media (aquifer hydrogeologic characteristics), soil media, topography (slope), impact of vadose zone (unsaturated condition) and hydraulic conductivity.

Quality of urban life is known as one of the major elements of urban development. Thus, evaluation urban environmental quality has much importance in the planning of urban development. Cities are complex ecosystems affected by social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors. Inefficient urban planning and management and lack of coherent environmental policies have led to many urban environmental problems in a lot of modern cities. The number and scope of these problems are significant and they are becoming serious threats to the health and safety of residents. Environmental damages in large cities of Iran such as Isfahan have threatened health and welfare of the residents. Therefore, evaluation of environmental elements quality in Isfahan city for identifying the current state of environment is necessary. Thus, the main objective of this study is to measure qualitative indicators in different fields using urban environmental quality evaluation model in Isfahan city. Recent experiences for providing the analytical methods in urban environmental quality evaluation have shown the worth of indicators. Therefore various collections of indicators have designed for evaluation of urban environmental quality. The Foundation’s work on urban sustainability indicators started in 1994 when some researchers proposed a set of indicators based upon the charter of European sustainable cities and towns. The framework was subsequently tested by the cities participating in the research network of medium-sized cities. In another research, the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) has been developed for use in 135 different countries. The SSI integrates the most important aspects of sustainability and quality of life of a national society in a simple and transparent way. In another research, urban sustainability is evaluated by 19 indicators in four cities in China. Although, all four cities are moving towards sustainable development, the current situation shows still weak sustainability in three cities and even non-sustainability in one. Researchers in Italy used the Dashbourd of Sustainability to measure the local urban sustainable development. 61 various indicators has presented in their work. The Dashboard of Sustainability (DS) is a mathematical and graphical tool designed to integrate the complex influences of sustainability and to support the decision-making process by creating concise evaluations. In a similar study, 51 sustainability indicators have selected for evaluation of the urban characteristic of Taipei city. These indicators are classified into economic, social, environmental, and institutional dimensions. Analysis of the results demonstrates that social and environmental indicators are moving towards sustainability indicators, while economical and institutional dimensions are performing poorly. Some of the best foresaid have been used appropriately in order to evaluate urban environment in Isfahan. Iran has recently paid special attention to evaluate the urban environmental quality by the use of various indicators too. In a main study, after reviewing traditional methods, a model has been presented for evaluation of urban environmental quality. On the other hand, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Tehran’s environmental quality were evaluated as average with a score of 53.3% in a similar study that was conducted in 1996. After that, Tehran's urban environmental quality has been evaluated again by reforming and optimization of previous indicators.

Gotvand-Olia as one of the largest constructional projects in Iran has been constructed on the Karoun River, between Masjed Soleiman and Gotvand Regulatory dam in Khuzestan Province. It is situated in 382.8 km away from the river estuary at a distance of 25 km north of Shoushtar city. This study was conducted to identify and assess the risk of Gotvand-Olia dam on the environment at the operational phase. As a part of the management of water resources, the dam is one of the most important structures playing a major role in the regulation of surface flows, especially in the areas that have poor spatial and temporal distribution of rainfalls. Due to developments in dam construction in the world and particularly in Iran, the need to assess the environmental impacts of dams is very important. Environmental risk assessment is able to establish a relationship between the impacts of unwanted events with those that are not catastrophic. The quantitative risk assessment provides evident objectivity and transparency in the assessment of the impacts. The current study aims at assessing the risk of Gotvand-Olia dam at the operational phase. Accordingly, after reviewing the relevant literatures, field studies, and interviewing with expertise and research team, a questionnaire was designed to identify the potential risks during the operational phase. According to the studies conducted in the field of dam risks in the world and particularly in Iran as well as the technical and environmental reports on the Gotvand-Olia dam, the risk factors of the operational period were identified at first using the checklist of the PHA Method and were then assessed by EFMEA. In FMEA, techniques to obtain have degrees of severity, probability, and extent of contamination. After obtaining, the three number can be calculated through the formula Risk Priority Number (RPN)= Severity of risk × Event Risk × Extent of contamination. Subsequently, a list of potential risk factors at the operational phase was included in the questionnaire and placed at disposal of the individuals who were expert on dam and environment. Afterwards, considering the current situation of the study area, overall risk options at the operational phase (21 cases) were classified in the form of physicochemical, biological, socioeconomic, cultural, health-safety, and natural hazards using the PHA checklist. To make a decision on acceptance or rejection of risks, statistical methods were applied to prioritize risk factors and specify their hazardous level due to lack of prioritization of the risks in EFMEA. Accordingly, the high-level risks were identified.

Common pool water resources (CPWRs) face overuse and congestion due to increased competition for the non-excludability and subtractability nature of their use. In the CPWRs conflicts, beneficiaries base their actions on individual rationality which negatively affect all users eventually due to the lack of trust between them, their self-optimizing tendencies, and inadequate information about the consequences of their actions. Game theory provides a formal mathematical framework to strategic analysis of such conflict and to able presenting some institutions to prevent tragedy of commons. Lake Urmia is the most valuable ecosystem located in the same name basin in Iran. In the recent years, the basin's upstream water resources faced to overuse due to an increase in the attitudes of parties to gain more economic benefits from agriculture activities which led to conflicts as well as threats to Lake Urmia's life. The literatures which studied this environmental crisis are limited with respect to understanding strategic interactions between the actors and how such interactions may affect the results of the Lake Urmia water conflict. In order to study the Lake Urmia water conflict, basic information were prepared through a review of the relative literatures, the technical documents, and the news reports. These collected data were completed by referring to experts opinions and finally the conflict was modeled and analyzed based on the GMCR process of resolving conflicts. As a non-cooperative game theoretical model, the Graph model for conflict resolution (GMCR) was developed through a combination of extensive form of conflict analysis and graph theory. Figure 1 outlines the GMCR process of resolving conflicts which involves two main stages including modeling and analyzing. The modeling stage includes defining decision makers and their options, removing infeasible states of the conflict, specifying allowable transitions from each state for each player, and finally defining the relative preferences of each player over each state. In the analyzing stage, stability of the feasible states for each player is first analyzed using the formal mathematical definitions named non-cooperative solution concepts. The second stage is followed by finding the equilibria or likely outcomes of the conflict (states which are stable for all stakeholders under a given solution concept). If a given state is known as equilibrium under a range of solution concepts, then it is a strong equilibrium with a higher likelihood of being the final outcome of the game. After that, some alternative scenarios are defined in order to examine the sensitivity of the results to changing input information. Finally, strategic insights from decision makers’ interactions are presented to help them for better decision making.

Introduction Thermodynamically, the surface waters in mountain environments are unstable and their chemical composition is a reflection of water-rock interactions. Few studies have also been undertaken on the geochemistry of the surface waters in mountain environments. Hence, this paper deals with the source of elements as well as the chemistry of the stream which drains from the caldera of Bidkhan volcano. The Bidkhan is an inactive stratovolcano having a caldera located at southeast Iran at a distance of 115 Km from Kerman (40 Km southeast of Bardsir town). Its geographical coordinates include 56º, 25׳ to 56º, 30׳ eastern longitude and 29º, 35׳ to 29º, 40׳ northern latitude. This volcano lies at the southeastern part of the volcanic belt of central Iran (Orumieh-Dokhtar belt). The Bidkhan volcano occupies an area of 400 km2 and its highest summit lies at about 3800 m above mean sea level. The Bidkhan stream drains its caldera. The caldera lies in almost 12 kilometers of the course of the Bidkhan stream and supplies several villages in its course. There is no hydrometric station along this stream, but based on field observations, the highest flow is about 600 L/s in April. This stream usually dries out in the August-December period. Its average flow is about 610 L/s. According to the undertaken measurements, the water temperature varies from 15 to 20 Cº along its course in summer times. The pH values range from 6. 9 to 7. 4.

Heavy metals are largely found in dispersed form in rock formations. Industrialization and urbanization have increased the anthropogenic contribution of heavy metals in the biosphere. Heavy metal pollution not only affects the production and the quality of crops, but also influences the quality of the atmosphere and water bodies, and threatens the health and life of human beings. Clean-up technologies have been developed for the removal of heavy metals but often these are expensive or have some environmentally deleterious consequences. Phytoremediation emerged in the early 1980s is an important technology for remediation of contaminated sites. One of the most promising phytoremediation technologies is phytoextraction using hyperaccumulators to remove heavy metals from contaminated soils. However, the known hyperaccumulator plants usually accumulate only a specific element and are usually small. Recently, most attention is focused to the plants that produce high biomass and are tolerant to the soils pollutted with heavy metals. T. caerulescens was found to colonize areas with high Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn present in soils due to mining. M. chenopodiifolia has good potential for absorbing Pb and Zn. Eruca sativa is tolerante to soil pollution with heavy metals and can accumulate Pb and Cd from contaminated soils. B. napus accumulated cadmium and zinc and translocated these elements into the harvestable parts of the plant. S. nigrum is often found in contaminated areas. It has previously been identified as a Cd hyperaccumulator. H. annuus is known for its high biomass yield. In addition, it is tolerant to soil pollution with heavy metals. Z. mays produce high biomass as well. In this study, we studied the capability of stability, growth, and uptake of heavy metals by means of T. caerulescen, Z. mays, H. annuus, E. sativa, B. napus, S. nigrum, and M. chenopodiifolia on the industrial discharge of Mobarakeh Steel Complex.

Malachite green (MG) has been used as a food coloring agent, food additive, medical disinfectant as well as a dye in silk, wool, jute, leather, cotton, paper, and acrylic industries. It is also extensively used as a topical fungicide and ectoparasiticide in aquaculture industries throughout the world. The findings reveal that this dye has now become one of the most controversial compounds used in aquaculture due to the risks it poses on the consumers, including its effects on the immune and reproductive systems as well as its genotoxic and carcinogenic potentials. Despite being banned in several countries, the dye is still being used in many parts of the world due to lack of a proper alternative. Thus, we must also focus our attention on ways for reducing malachite green from aquaculture and industrial wastewaters. Different methods are available for the remediation of dye wastewaters. These include physicochemical methods such as chemical oxidation, precipitation, coagulation, filtration, electrolysis, and photodegradation. The major disadvantage of the physicochemical methods are high operational cost, limited versatility, interference by other wastewater constituents, and less adaptability to a wide range of dye wastewaters. Sorption on activated carbon is an effective method for the removal of color, but it is an expensive method. The development of efficient and environmentally friendly technologies to decrease dye content in industrial wastewater to acceptable levels at an affordable cost is of great importance. In recent years, a number of studies have been focused on some bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and micro/macroalga. Biosorption of MG in the presence of algae such as Caulerpa racemosa cylindracea, Cosmarium sp., Pithophora sp., Hydrilla verticillata, and Chara sp. has been reported previously. The aim of this study was to investigate the biosorption characteristics of green microalgae Scenedesmus quadricauda and Chlorella vulgaris for the removal of MG dye. The effects of such process parameters as initial MG dye concentration (mg/L), initial solution pH, algae amount (mg/L), and contact time (min) on the dye biosorption were analyzed using Box–Behnken design in this work.

Wastewater treatment using activated sludge process (ASP) produces huge amounts of sludge that must be treated by efficient methods. Wastewater sludge handling is one of the most important economic-technical challenges of wastewater treatment projects. Conventional methods for this purpose are very time consuming, expensive and in lots of cases have limited success. In recent years the electrochemical oxidation techniques have been progressively used for water and wastewater treatment process. Many reports showed that these methods are very effective to eliminate or decrease the organic loading content of wastewater and sludge. Combination of electrochemical reactions and Fenton process has widely been studied for the destruction of organics and bio-refractory pollutants contained in industrial wastewater by highly oxidative hydroxyl radicals formed from reaction of H2O2 with Fe2+. This method offers more advantages than the chemical Fenton process due to the high efficiency of Fenton reagents (e.g., H2O2) utilization and lower retention time. The integrated Fenton and electrochemical reactor were used to reduce concentration of volatile suspended solids in sludge. High consumption rate of divalent iron ions is one of the disadvantages of Fenton method compared with its reduction. In this research, the electrochemical method has been used to solve this problem. The electrochemical method increases the reduction rate of divalent iron by converting the trivalent iron ions into the bivalent ones and it reduces the production of iron sludge. In this research, the effective parameters including ratio of iron to hydrogen peroxide, pH, retention time, concentration of hydrogen peroxide and the amount of electric current were investigated.

Industrialization and urbanization of societies have caused many environmental problems. Therefore, environmental protection has recently become highly important. Water resources are particularly of high risk of pollution from industrial waste disposal to river, surface, and ground water, and also from discharge of water to municipal waste water collection systems. These effluents usually contain a high concentration of heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, copper, and zinc which create many environmental problems due to their high toxicity. Cadmium and lead are listed as dangerous heavy metals. These elements could contaminate soil and water resources in different ways. Remediation of soil and water contaminated with heavy metals is one of the important environmental policies in industrialized and developed countries. Many methods have been invented and used for waste water treatment such as chemical precipitation, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. One of the methods developed in recent years is the use of inorganic adsorbents. Different kinds of clay minerals such as smectite, palygorskite, sepiolite, Fe, Al and Mn hydroxides, and organic materials can be used for the sorption of heavy metals. This study has been carried out to compare the ability of Semnan zeolite and Yazd sepiolite in the removal of lead and cadmium from contaminated solutions and also to estimate the adsorption behavior of the zeolite and sepiolite minerals for cadmium and lead.

The problem of solid waste management is one of the most critical environmental issues because of rapid population and economic growth, urbanization, and industrialization. Furthermore, global attitudes are bent on accessing sustainable agriculture and conserving a clean and green environment. Vermicomposting is a process to convert organic waste by the use of earthworms to produce peat-like material which has an added advantage of possessing the potential for improving plant growth as soil conditioner. Earthworms eat, grind, and digest organic waste combined with aerobic and some anaerobic microflora converting it into stable and homogenous biofertilizer. Earthworm cast has a larger microbial population, containing plant growth hormones, higher level of soil enzymes, and also displaying desirable aesthetics. Different species of earthworms can convert various natural and anthropogenic wastes such as crop residue, dairy plant sludge, industry sludge, and cattle manure into a useful product. There is a growing interest in the use of an integrated system approach involving precomposting followed by vermicomposting to achieve specific technical objectives. This approach will be more microbially active besides being of more uniform size, hastening degradation rate, and enhancing pathogen control than either of the individual processes. It is very important having the best quality of vermicompost product to be used appropriately as a stabilized biofertilizer in agricultural applications. Good quality of vermicompost can be obtained by mixing industrial sludge with nitrogen rich material to provide higher nutrient content and an inoculum of microorganisms. Inoculation of suitable strains has been reported to hasten the rate of vermicomposting which reduce the time needed to complete the process of composting and enrichment of nutrients in the final product. Vermicomposting of solid waste may result in an increase in heavy metal content in the final product due to mineralization of organic matter in the vermicompost obtained from various organic wastes of different chemical composition. So the organic matter mineralization and dry weight loss of the waste during the process has the effect of increasing the level of heavy metal, being the consequence of the decomposition of the waste organic matter by earthworms during vermicomposting. The application of inoculation of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi in the substrate may accelerate the stabilization process due to biological nitrogen fixation and phosphorus solubilization. Furthermore, the heavy metals content in vermicomposts can accumulate a lot in the body of earthworms and also reduce as a result of extra water drainage. The purpose of the study were to investigate the role of inoculation of active sewage sludge in vermicomposting process to evaluate the changes of the heavy metal content possibly present in this substrate to determine potential environmental hazards. The purpose of the study was to test the technical viability of this system, initially utilizing wheat straw, and later to be employed on other substrates.

Water is consumed in almost all industries. Consequently the used water is turning to a waste that usually should be treated to meet the regulated standard level prior to reuse or discharge into the environment. Cutting oil wastewater is an emulsion normally comprised of1-10% oil and the remainder water. The main functions of this oil in industry are lubrication, friction reduction, and cooling of instrument’s parts. This wastewater is classified as a toxic waste according to the existence of some additive material to prevent corrosion and bacterial growth. Breakage of the emulsion and separation of the water and the oil can alone reduce more than about 90% of the aqueous phase pollution and prepare it for treatment. The emulsion breakage can be applied with various electrolytes. According to previous researches, calcium chloride is a suitable material from an economical and technical perspective. After separation, the oil phase can be recycled or burned and the aqueous phase should be treated before disposal or reuse. A removal efficiency of about 90% doesn’t satisfy the standard level for discharge to the environment. Aerobic process usually applies in sewage with lower loading rates and anaerobic processes are more suitable for high loading rates. The design and application of up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors developed in the latter years of 1970s. The advantages of UASB reactors include lower area and volume requirement, lesser energy consumption, adjustment in shocking condition such as cutting off the substrate supply, and especially lower sludge production which all facilitate application in the industrial factories even inside of towns. Possibility of the anaerobic biological treatment of the aqueous phase of the oil water emulsion in the UASB reactor and also aerobic biodegradation of the remained pollution as secondary treatment and the verification of Monod model are considered in this paper.

Air pollution has harmful effect on human health and the environment. Accordingly, considerable effort has been put to analyze the air pollutants. One important issue is the spatial distribution of these pollutants. Dispersion of the pollutants released from sources on the ground is mostly driven by the planetary boundary layer where turbulent flow causes mixing of the content of the stationary ground layer of atmosphere with higher moving layers and thereby clears out the pollutants rapidly. To predict the dispersion of air pollution in the atmosphere, researchers investigate the behavior of plume rise under certain conditions. Two factors critically affect the result of the test: primary plume rise and its dispersion. In this work, we study the effective height of emission which determines the dispersion of the pollutants. The height of the plume has been subjected to semi-empirical and to more accurate numerical studies. These approaches suffer from some shortcomings. For instance, the gravitational effects and fluctuations of the wind speed are neglected. Numerical approaches are typically based on a Gaussian plume rise model so called ISC3 (published by EPA). In this paper plume rise of emission of an air pollutant is simulated using Fluent software which allows one to input natural wind velocity profile and to consider the gravity. Another advantage of this approach lies in the usage of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and temperature profiles. In this work, theoretical plume rise using the ISC3 model were being calculated at first. The calculated values of xf and ∆h are equal to 437.85 m and 50.87m, respectively. Then, the dispersion was being simulated accordingly using Fluent and the results were compared with those of the numerical studies.

Air pollution has harmful effect on human health and the environment. Accordingly, considerable effort has been put to analyze the air pollutants. One important issue is the spatial distribution of these pollutants. Dispersion of the pollutants released from sources on the ground is mostly driven by the planetary boundary layer where turbulent flow causes mixing of the content of the stationary ground layer of atmosphere with higher moving layers and thereby clears out the pollutants rapidly. To predict the dispersion of air pollution in the atmosphere, researchers investigate the behavior of plume rise under certain conditions. Two factors critically affect the result of the test: primary plume rise and its dispersion. In this work, we study the effective height of emission which determines the dispersion of the pollutants. The height of the plume has been subjected to semi-empirical and to more accurate numerical studies. These approaches suffer from some shortcomings. For instance, the gravitational effects and fluctuations of the wind speed are neglected. Numerical approaches are typically based on a Gaussian plume rise model so called ISC3 (published by EPA). In this paper plume rise of emission of an air pollutant is simulated using Fluent software which allows one to input natural wind velocity profile and to consider the gravity. Another advantage of this approach lies in the usage of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and temperature profiles. In this work, theoretical plume rise using the ISC3 model were being calculated at first. The calculated values of xf and ∆h are equal to 437.85 m and 50.87m, respectively. Then, the dispersion was being simulated accordingly using Fluent and the results were compared with those of the numerical studies.

Air pollution is one of the critical challenges in metropolitans around the world. According to World Health Organization (WHO), three millions people die from air pollution annually. In some studies mortality costs by air pollution was estimated. Social cost of air pollution was estimated 28990 billions Rials in Tehran city. The mortality cost by air pollution was estimated about 4.31% of GDP in Singapore. Air pollution was increased the mortality rate by 868 in Manchester city annually in 1992-98, where the social cost was estimated about £572 million. Recently air pollution has become a serious crisis in Isfahan city in Iran. In this study the mortality cost by air pollution as a social cost was estimated in this metropolitan in 2010-2011. Also mortality rate and long run effect of air pollution were estimated. Air pollution has short run and long run effect on the mortality. Air pollution accelerate patient' death and also can shorten life expectancy of other citizens. In most empirical studies only short run effect was investigated using dose response function. In this study, an ARMAX model was used to decompose short run and long run effect of air pollution on the mortality:

Along with increasing population, technology has had more developments for raising the efficiency of agricultural production. Modern agriculture must keep its production against destruction risk by pests. Then, for maintaining the production and crops against pests and diseases, large amounts of pesticides are used each year. Addition to the environment, this also threats consumer's health. Pollution resulting from pesticides in the water due to long term effects and the high toxicity of pesticides as an environmental problem in the recent decades has been led to concerns about public health and non-target species. It should be considered that some insects and funguses will become resistant against chemical compounds over the time and therefore, farmers use ever more concentration after a while of use, so it causes to worry about toxins residues and its effects on the environment. In the present days, there are more concerns about using irregular use or misusing pesticides and its effects on the environment and human's health. This concern] needs to some extent the programs for decreasing the use of pesticides as a part of the agricultural major strategy. The lack of basic information about concentration and source of pesticides is a limitation for determining standard values that make it possible to set up the programs for decreasing the use of pesticides. Pesticide standards were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Corporation and all reagents purchased from Merck Company. The Siahrud Basin with an area of over 10,070 hectares is placed in Mazandaran province in Qaemshahr city in the north of Iran, the length of this river is 5 km.