Issue 4
The Ninth International Symposium on Salt and the Ecological Importance of Solar Saltworks
General
The Ninth International Symposium on Salt (www.worldsalt2009.com) organized by China National Salt Industry Corporation, China Salt Association and many other salt organizations of the world was held in the Beijing International Convention Center on the 4-7 September 2009. It is the ninth in a...
Determination of PAHs in marine sediments: analytical methods and environmental concerns
General
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the major categories of pollutants entering the marine environment and finally accumulating in the sediments. Their occurrence raises major concerns for human health, especially during coastal activities (bathing waters, aquaculture, etc), having...
Neural networks approached for modelling river suspended sediment concentration due to tropical storms
General
Artificial neural networks are one of the advanced technologies employed in hydrology modelling. This paper investigates the potential of two algorithm networks, the feed forward backpropagation (BP) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN) in comparison with the classical regression for...
Eutrophication assessment of coastal waters based on indicators: a literature review
General
Numerous methods have been developed for the quantitative assessment of eutrophication: statistical techniques, simulation models and water quality indicators are the most widely used techniques to assess trophic levels. All these methods share a common goal: to evaluate the environmental impact due...
Evaluation of dissipation mechanisms for pyrene by maize (Zea Mays L.) in cadmium co-contaminated soil
General
Sites co-contaminated with organic and metal pollutants are common and considered to be a more complex problem, as the two components often have a synergistic effect on cytotoxicity. This study investigated the dissipation mechnisms for pyrene in cadmium co-contaminated soil in which maize (ZEA MAYS...
Heavy metal interrelationships in soil in the presence of treated waste water
General
An experiment was conducted in a greenhouse located in Agrinion, Greece, in order to study the effect of the treated municipal wastewater (TMWW) on the soil heavy metal interactions, in comparison to ordinary well irrigation water, denoted as control. The ultimate aim was the establishment of sound...
Changes in Greek industry and their effect on air pollutant emissions
General
Energy use in Greek Industry, fuel mix changes and contribution of major sectors from 1960 to 2004 are presented and analysed. Energy related air pollutant emissions are estimated and presented too. Energy use in Industry has shown a growing trend. Residual fuel oil was the predominant energy form...
Aircraft air pollutant emissions in Greek airports
General
During recent years special attention has been paid to various environmental impacts from aircraft emissions. The effects become more important considering the present situation in the air traffic sector and future expectations for higher air travel demands. In this paper the evolution of aircraft...
Soil water management problems using fuzzy arithmetic
General
Drainage management problems are usually very hard to simulate due to the uncertainty of the hydraulic parameters involved. Fuzzy analysis is one of the available tools that can be used for such problems, involving uncertain data. A fuzzy analysis approach usually involves the consideration of...
An investigation on treatment of tannery wastewater by electrocoagulation
General
Treatability by the electro-coagulation (EC) and electro-Fenton (EF) methods have been applied to the tannery wastewater from an organized industrial region consisting mostly of tannery plants and compared with each other in this study. Iron plates were used as the anode and cathode. Electrical...
Oil spill sorption using carbonized pith bagasse. Application of carbonized pith bagasse as loose fiber
General
Recent oil tanker accidents in the sea are very serious, not only since they pollute the environment but also because they release heavy oil. The preparation of activated carbon from agricultural waste increases economic return and reduces pollution. On carbonized fibers, sorption capacity for...
Influence of inorganic oxidants and metal ions on photocatalytic activity of prepared zinc oxide nanocrystals
General
Zinc oxide nanocrystals were prepared by precipitation method using ZnSO4.7H2O and NaOH as raw materials. The prepared ZnO nanocrystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Primary objective was to focus on the influence of inorganic oxidants, metal ions and anions on photocatalytic...
Principal component analysis of precipitation in Thessaly region (Central Greece)
General
Characteristics of the precipitation pattern are determined for Thessaly region in central Greece by using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Mean monthly precipitation data from 75 meteorological stations are used covering a 35 year period (1960-1994). The first two principal components (PCs)...
Prediction and study of passive pollutant dispersion in a street-canyon in London using computational fluid dynamics techniques
General
Pollution levels in an urban street-canyon area are determined numerically as part of the European research project OSCAR using the ADREA-HF code. Aim of the modeling is twofold: (i) to investigate the flow-field and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in the area and (ii) compare with measurements...
Optimization of the furrow irrigation efficiency
General
Furrow irrigation is used for row crops. S.C.S., based on a great number of field experiments, under different circumstances and soil families, has developed design equations for furrow irrigation. These equations have been used for steady flow rate or for flow rate with one reduction when the water...
Biological pretreatment of municipal solid waste prior to landfilling
General
The conventional landfilling does not promote sustainable waste management due to uncontrolled emissions which potentially degrade the environment. In this regard, pre-treatment of municipal solid waste prior to landfilling significantly enhance waste stabilization and provides various advantages...
Mediterranean's changing saltscapes; a study of the abandonment of salt-making business in Greece
General
Saltscapes are landscapes with a long lasting salt-making activity, thus embedded with a blend of salt-related characteristics that marked them physically, ecologically, economically, and culturally. This study, based on a broad survey, focuses on the changing atlas of saltmaking business and the...
Disposal options for dredged marine sediments based on physicochemical and toxicological characterization
General
This paper presents a methodology of evaluating management options for dredged sediments on the basis of an array of characterization tests and gives an example application for the sediments of Piraeus port. A conceptual model is proposed to guide selection among three management options. The model...
Spatial hedonic pricing models for the valuation of irrigation water
General
The main objective of this work is to apply the hedonic pricing method using the methodology of spatial econometrics in order to assess the economic value of irrigation water, as one of the individual attributes of the value of agricultural land parcels. Most of the agricultural land’s value...
Applications of FTIR spectroscopy in environmental studies supported by two dimensional correlation analysis
General
In this paper, we report the joint use of FTIR spectroscopy and two dimensional correlation analysis (2DCORR) applied to the identification of the aggregation pathways of natural organic matter (i.e. humic substance) extracted from marine sediments and in the second case of study, to the comparison...
A novel tool for estimating the odour emissions of composting plants in air pollution management
General
Odour emissions are a major environmental issue in sanitary environmental engineering plants, due to the increasing number of complaints being made by the exposed population. The particular and complex nature of the substances considered to be the cause of the odour impact, their variability in time...
Investigation of the Annual Variability of the Aleppo Pine Tree-Rings Width: the Relationships with the Climatic Conditions in the Attica Basin
General
The relationships between the annual variability of the Aleppo pine tree-ring widths and the variability of the main climatic parameters in the Attica basin are analysed in the present study for a 45-year period (1959-2003). The Principal Components Analysis was applied to the times-series of the...