Total Environment Research Themes最新文献

Under the present research we have reviewed the sources, fate of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs) and its impact on the health of both human and the environment. Followed by this we examine the regulatory frameworks and policies from different continents across the world to identify those with the capacity to address EDCs. Data derived from experiments and epidemiological studies of EDCs demonstrated the negative impact of EDCs on organisms like humans and other animals even at very low concentration ranging from nano to micro grams per liter. As a result of a lack of efficient management and remediation operations these compounds are increasing consistently into the environment. Furthermore, a critical examination of the existing legal framework regarding use of EDCs revealed the presence of weak, vague and insufficient regulations worldwide. It also revealed that most of the substantial rules, regulation and legal framework are available only in developed nations like USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea and different countries of European Union. Handful information has been developed in some nations with transitional economies; essentially little or no information on EDCs was available from developing countries.

Amid the rapid influx of SARS‑CoV‑2 patients in various hospitals across India, the disposal of COVID-19 bio-medical wastes become a major challenging crisis in these days. As a consequence, the unexpected surge of utilizing Single-Use Plastics (SUP) from Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs) in particular protective gloves, nose masks, body aprons. is common in day to day and estimated as minimum of 730 g of waste can be generated per day/person in India. The research objectives on a national scale focuses that the document being active belongings, communications and preparations associated with hospital desecrates care and the existing facts on the physical condition and ecological risk on health care biomedical throw away which dropped during the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus disease pandemic. Based on number of confirmed COVID-19 cases 5,78,578 and 3,92,1149 health care workers as of 1st July 2020 (includes active, recovered and deaths) in India is assessed using GIS that an average 3150 tons per day of SUP waste generated only due to COVID-19 even though the hospitals make all safety measures to put away the clinical wastes. The States like Maharashtra (484.12tons/day), Tamil Nadu (337.76 tons/day), Andhra Pradesh (229.23 tons/day), Rajasthan (183.87 tons/day), Gujarat (181.41 tons/day), Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are over loaded with 212.73, 244.36 and 176.86 tons/day respectively greater than their normal per day bio-medical waste generated. This study finds the space in handling of Bio-Medical Waste Management of the pandemic COIVD-19 outbreaks and its’ remedial actions to improve the necessity in the future emergency in the developing countries like India.

There has been an increase in heavy metals and dyes contamination in the wastewater, and conventional treatment plants are not designed for such contaminants. Therefore, the heavy metals and dyes must be removed from wastewater for sustainable wastewater treatment. In recent decades adsorption is one of the most studied and applied techniques for heavy metals and dye removal from wastewater to be used as a useful treatment method. Nano-clay has been observed for its unique characteristics and properties as an adsorbent in many adsorption processes for the last few years. The scope of the current review work is removing dye and heavy metals using Nano clay with special context to the effect of pH and temperature. Due to its high specific surface area (>800 m2/g), high cation exchange capacity (>120 cmol kg⁻¹), low cost, and ability to be synthesised, Nano clay (NC) is known as an efficient adsorbent. To enhance the removal efficiency of NC, several studies reported the modifications of Nano-clay using different chemicals and polymers. Based on findings from the current analysis, it has been noted that Nano-Clay has promise as an adsorbent for almost all types of heavy metals and dyes. The review synthesis showed that the maximum removal varies from 31.5 to 2435.7 mg/g for Congo Red dyes and 9.02 to 100.09 mg/g (lead) for heavy metals by using Nano-clay. In this work, we have tried to summarize the advancement done in the adsorption technique to remove heavy metals and dyes using NC.

Forest fires threaten to biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, multiple ecosystem services, and it influences the emissions of large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This scientific study has been conducted at Ayodhya hill range of dry deciduous forest of Chota Nagpur plateau (India).The principal objectives of this research are (1) to measure the terrestrial ecosystem productivity by Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM); (2) to estimate the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission through forest fire following IPCC guidelines; and (3) to quantify the ecosystem service value and degradation of ecosystem services (ESs) by specific indices and focus group discussions (FGDs). Results show that biophysical, climatic and environmental factors notably affect the growth of ESs. A significant reduction of net primary production (NPP) and biomass has been measured in fire month (100.71 and 223.59 gC m⁻² month⁻¹) and values of spectral indices also show negative trend during fire month (-0.1279 to −0.2104) respectively. Total 294.15 g, 1.44 g, 21.03 g, 0.0099 g and 0.0231 g of CO₂, CH₄, CO, NO₂, and NO_X have been emitted respectively through forest fire from this hill range during forest burning period (March 2021). This study also revealed that average (18.50%) forest dependency or relative forest income (RFI) has been fallen in the recent years due to recurrent forest fires, execution of different developmental works and deforestation. The effective management of forest resources (through payment for ESs and willingness to pay approaches) is highly necessary in strengthening the rural economy and welfare of indigenous tribal people.

The impact of microplastics has been a significant concern for human health and aquatic organisms. Last few decades, the understanding the microplastic occurrences in freshwater environments is very limited compared with marine environments. The present study aims to investigate the microplastic contamination in water and surface sediments of Vellayani Lake, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala to assess the potential ecological risk status of the largest freshwater lake environment. The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) protocol was applied for this systematic assessment of plastic fibers. Totally, 95 microplastics were founded in both surface sediment and water samples. The mean value of microplastic in sediments and water ranging from 5.4 particles/kg and 4.1 particles/l, respectively. The morphology of microplastics suggests that the founded microplastic were dominated by fibrous and amorphous particles. The microplastics were derived into Vellayani Lake by the consequence of tourism and anthropogenic activities.

This paper portrays predictive models for Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels in an urban lake using common water quality parameters like Temperature, pH, Conductivity and Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP). Data were sampled using three real-time industry-standard sensors those are OPTOD, CTZN, and PHEHT, and then interpolated using the ArcGIS interpolation technique. Correlation studies were analyzed through the Machine Learning (ML) algorithm, the correlation study signified a positive linear correlation with DO against pH, temperature, salinity and conductivity and the model was corroborated by R-score which came to 0.687 and RMSE was 0.834. Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model was developed to predict the DO with the correlated data of water parameters. In addition, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was developed to build a model to predict the DO as well. Then, the models’ performance was validated and the R² accuracies were 0.963 for MLR and 0.93 for ANN and models were checked for the predicted data against the actual data. The appropriateness of the ANN model for forecasting investigated attributes is indicated by the fact that the discrepancy between the forecasted and real ANN model is significantly lesser than that of the regression model. The developed equation in this paper can be used to reveal DO data from unknown urban lake water.

Sustainability in construction has gained attention in recent years as the construction industry adversely impacts the environment and green construction has been emphasized. Various rating systems have been developed by various organizations across the world like LEED, USA; CASBEE), Japan; BREEMA, UK; GBCSL, Sri Lanka, IGBC, India; etc. to certify construction projects under the green projects category, based on parameters majorly considering three factors environmental, societal & economic impact during the entire span of a project from inception stage to demolition stage. In these sustainability assessment rating systems, the parameters relevant to the construction phase have not been emphasized except for a few factors which have been considered under pre-requisite. Though the construction phase has a comparatively shorter duration, it adversely impacts sustainability if considered collectively. So, a holistic approach is needed for sustainability assessment which shall include construction stage-based sustainability parameters too. In this paper, with a questionnaire survey & interaction with experts, the need for construction-based sustainability parameters has been discussed for making a holistic sustainability assessment rating system. The survey & interaction data were analyzed with an analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to understand the need for the additional parameter during the construction stage of the project.

Since 1980s over western Europe, warming trend intensifies strongly, consistent with climate simulations including anthropogenic forcing. As a result of this warming tendency, a shift is detected in France in maximum and minimum air temperature, delimiting two different climatic periods: 1959–1987 and 1988–2021. Along with this abrupt warming, a trend towards stagnation of crop yields is observed since the 1990s. Bread wheat yields are particularly affected. The impact of climate hazard and agro-climatic risk on the evolution of bread wheat yields is a major issue for agricultural sector, including insurance companies. This work aims at analyzing how surface warming shift impacted water balance over main French bread wheat production basins. The SIM (Safran-Isba-Modcou) dataset with an 8km spatial resolution grid of reanalyzed surface meteorological observations at daily time step from 1959 to 2021 offers the opportunity to address the complexity of processes leading to changes in local water cycle. Water balance is computed on main bread wheat production basins using a two-reservoirs model, SIM climate data and crop agronomic parameters as inputs. Our results suggest that the abrupt shift in air temperature in France in 1987/1988 had a strong influence on the water cycle variables evolution. Along with the increase of water demand and soil drying, water balance is modified on the post-shift period, with various spatial patterns between main production basins. Harsher hydric stress events alter the crop growth cycle. The evolution of climate hazard linked to water balance leads to changes in agro-climatic risk, identified as one of the main factor affecting the evolution of bread wheat yields. Such conclusions suggest that, with both mean and variability changes in water balance state, probability to overcome risk threshold increases. This is of major concern for our partners and may lead to adaptation process from managers.

With increasing awareness and impacts of climate change, many cities strive for resilience to absorb and recover from shocks and disruptions from climate extremes. Working towards making a city climate resilient implies the design and adjustment of strategies, which often involve water-related projects and require cross-sectoral collaboration. Various tools and approaches exist to support cities in assessing and improving their climate resilience. However, they often address the characteristics of large cities, and few of them consider how the governance context, including social, institutional and political circumstances, affects the implementation of strategies and projects. Tailor-made tools are needed for midsize cities to address their specific characteristics and assess their governance context. This paper presents such a governance assessment tool for practitioners in midsize cities. Building on an existing governance assessment tool, we co-designed and applied a practitioners’ tool in collaboration with seven mid-size cities in the North Sea Region. The tool guides the practitioners in midsize cities to assess how the governance context affects the realization of strategies and projects towards urban climate resilience. Experience of the practitioners that applied the tool indicate that it is easy to use and provides insights into supportive and restrictive aspects of governance, with room for improvement regarding formulation of the assessment questions and answers. While the tool is relevant for other policy fields, its application would require re-tailoring the questions and answers to the specific context of those fields.

The leakage of leachate from highly contaminated Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfill sites to the soil and groundwater may severely impact human health. The present study aimed to rank the levels of harmful metals Zn, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Ni evolving through leachate in different environmental matrices. An old but not stable landfill site near Morabharali River in Tezpur town, India, was selected for the study. The nature of groundwater was found to be slightly acidic, while leachate was alkaline in nature. While both landfill employees and locals in the target region were at a safe level (HI < 1), the children's hazard index (HI)levels (ing and inh) were higher than adults. The Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ICLR) rating for adults in the residential area was higher than that for children, however ILCR derm value found to be highest in children's bodies for Cr, Ni, Cd and Pb were 8.34 × 10⁻⁷,7.87 × 10⁻⁷, 7.09 × 10⁻⁷, and 9.02 × 10⁻⁷ respectively and may affect the skin of the children. A high Leachate Pollution Index (LPI) of 18.39 was observed, indicating that the waste dumped in the landfill has not yet attained stability and the LPI was highly influenced by total chromium. LPI was higher in a few sites, and in a few places, it was low to moderate. Groundwater's heavy metal pollution index was observed to be highest in Site 10 and Site 12 and the concentration of heavy metals in the water was in a sequence as Mn > Zn > Cr > Ni > Cu > Pb. The contamination index was found to be highest for manganese. Index of contamination for ground water categorized 30% of the sites to be “High” contaminated, 13% to be “Mid” contaminated, and 57% were found to be categorized as “Low” contamination. Correlation coefficient pairs for metals Zn, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Ni in soils ranged from 0.47 to 0.93. In contrast, it ranged from 0.92 to 0.96 in water samples which implied they were significantly positively correlated with each other at the 99% confidence level. The cluster analysis classified B, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, E.C. and pH as anthropogenic in origin and Mn and dissolved oxygen from mixed (anthropogenic and lithogenic) sources. Since the landfill site is unstable and continuously leaches contaminants into the soils and groundwater, there is an urgent need to manage the site, and regular monitoring of surrounding groundwater is recommended.