Resources and Environment最新文献

{"title":"Application of Canonical Correlation for Soil -Vegetation Interrelationship in the Cocoa Belt of South Western Nigeria","authors":"O. Ekanade, Oluwagbenga O. I. Orimoogunje","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120203.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120203.02","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the multivariate relationships between the soil and vegetation characteristics of plant communities of forest, fallow and cocoa for two reasons. The first is to bringing out the interactions among a set of inde- pendent variables and pinpoint the relative importance of each of these variables on a dependent variable be it a soil or a vegetation element. The second is to illustrate the changes that occur to the soil-vegetation properties as the tropical rainforest is cultivated to cocoa and field crops. The processes of choosing the study sites followed a random selection of sample points under three land use types: forest, fallow and cocoa (Theobroma cacao). A total of 300 sample points were selected under each of fallow and cocoa and 260 were selected under the forest. From each sample point soil samples were collected to a depth of 45 cm (i.e. 0-15 cm; 15-45 cm) placed into well-labelled polythene bags and taken to the laboratory for analysis. The results for the forest shows that the canonical variate of the vegetation variables account for 31% of the variance extracted by the soil factors, while the soil variables also account for 31% of the variance extracted by the vegetation variables while the result of the canonical correlation for fallow soil and vegetation extracted for the first and second canonical variates are 0.91 and 0.61 respectively. The result for the canonical correlation coefficients for cocoa for the first and second canonical variates is 0.68 and 0.51 respectively. The study concluded that while simple relationships were observed among soil and vegetation properties in the forest and fallow, complex relationships were recognised in the cocoa plant community.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"2 1","pages":"87-92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86763783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Clean Technologies and Environmental Management: A Study on a Small Dairy Industry in Brazil","authors":"Luciano Mendes","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120203.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120203.04","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental management has become a wild card to the companies, especially small and medium enterprises. Pressures from governments, civil society organizations and the market itself, have been pushing companies to adopt an environmentally friendly approach. Such situations of pressure driving companies to invest in technology called \"end of pipe\" or \"turn key\" showing that the adoption of the environmental variable is presented largely as business costs. The objective of this paper was to study how the process was the incorporation of environmental variable on a small dairy industry. Because the situation of low capital investment, especially in micro and small enterprises, alternatives to the adoption of the environmental variable has been the search for clean technologies and eco-efficiency. Therefore, in order to be the case study of a small dairy industry, the theoretical discourses on clean technologies and eco-efficiency, in order to present another alternative is that companies seeking to benefit from environmental attitude that are being driven to adopt. The results show that environmental management in the proposed model for clean technologies and eco-efficiency provided by, among several benefits, generating new revenues from the sale of byproducts previously considered waste. It is therefore concluded that the dairy industry gained numerous benefits, especially the way the project was conducted and it was adopted a proactive stance.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"72 1","pages":"100-106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87988941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unplanned Urban Growth and its Effect on the Sustainability","authors":"C. Discoli, Irene Martini","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120203.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120203.05","url":null,"abstract":"This work exposes a methodology to assess and to identify areas of greater urban vulnerability due to imbal- ances generated by spontaneous urban growth. The residential sector, basic infrastructure services, occupation in the territory, its evolution in terms of growth, energy needs and their respective emission of pollutants are evaluated. In relation to the basic infrastructure services, electricity and natural gas networks are analyzed. The offer is analyzed from its qualities, with the coverage of each network and the users' opinions (demand). With the obtained results, maps were built to identify homo- geneous areas in order to define the growing unsustainability. The energetic-environment problems raised from the ´70 decade and the globalization effects have significantly im- pacted in the organization and reorganization process of the territory, as well as the degradation of the Habitat and of the natural resources. Among the main consequences we can mention the socio-spatial fragmentation, in particular in the urban area, establishing significant imbalances and ine- qualities mainly in the undeveloped countries(1). In Argentina this fragmentation process, causes distortions, in relation to: inefficient management; a significant disper- sion and fragmentation of information; and the lack of ap- propriate tools to systematize data and to develop accurate diagnoses. The consequences involve socio-economic and socio-thermodynamic imbalance problems (interaction be- tween the laws of thermodynamics and the users behaviour), reaching the indiscriminate overexploitation of resources, the inequity of the expenditures, and unsustainable degrada- tion of the environment. In particular, the metropolitan area of La Plata, capital of the Buenos Aires province, conceived as the first planned contemporary city from Argentina, has registered, in spite of the socio-economic crisis of 1983/2001 an unplanned growth of the peri-urban areas. Its consequences have been an un- controlled growth that modified the original characteristics of the city. That peri-urban growth altered the original hy- gienists' precepts of the city, on the basis of its layout, structure and quality of the main urban systems. These","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"88 4 1","pages":"107-115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84691787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prediction of Particulate Matter Concentrations Using Artificial Neural Network","authors":"Surendra Roy","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.05","url":null,"abstract":"Mill tailings at Kolar Gold Fields are creating particulate pollution on air environment. In the previous study, multiple regression models were developed for the prediction of particulate matter concentrations using data of meteoro- logical parameters (wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity and solar radiation) and particulate matter (PM10 and TSP) monitored in different seasons(1). Artificial neural network is an excellent predictive and data analysis tool for the evaluation of air pollutants. Therefore, the data were used for the development of neural network models. During develop- ment of models, the values 0.02, 0.5 and 0.7 were used as target error, learning rate and momentum respectively. Three hidden layers were used to obtain acceptable values. Performance of the models was evaluated using those sets of data which were not used during learning of neural network. Architecture of developed networks, number of hidden neurons and weights, normalised and relative error, importance and sensitivity, etc have been discussed in this paper.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"53 1","pages":"30-36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77099912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrated Management of Water Resources and Land Use in Urban- Metropolitan Basins: Flood Control in the Iguaçu-Sarapuí River Basin (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)","authors":"P. Carneiro, Adauto Cardoso, Gustavo Bezerra Zampronio, M. Martingil","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.09","url":null,"abstract":"This research concerns the integration of urban land use planning to water resources management, focusing on flood control. A case study regarding the Iguacu-Sarapui River Basin, located in the western portion of the Guanabara Bay Basin, which lies in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro is discussed. This is one of the most critical areas in the state regarding urban flooding. This region is densely occupied and presents great urban and industrial development areas, as well as wide rural zones in an urbanising process, and reminiscent areas of natural vegetation on the upstream reaches of the basin. This case study intends to illustrate and to show how complex the interaction of urban drainage problems and the city growth can be in a context of an unplanned and non-integrated reality. In this region, urban expansion dynamics is, in general, marked by irregular occupation, in terms of land tenure and urban regularisation, and lack of sanitation. This creates a cycle difficult to treat: the urbanization without proper control compromises the drainage system which, in turn, fails and affects the urban environment, degrading it and creating situations of risk and losses. This paper aims at elucidating the challenges and perspectives to water resources management in densely urbanized basins in Brazil.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"81 3 1","pages":"56-66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88013202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Groundwater Quality Assessment of Yenagoa and between 2010 and 2011","authors":"G. Amangabara, E. Ejenma","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.04","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"9 1","pages":"20-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88958493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Application of Carbonized Poultry Waste in the Removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) from Dye Wastewater: Kinetic Study","authors":"S. Idris, J. Yisa, A. Itodo, K. Popoola","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.08","url":null,"abstract":"The removal of COD from dye wastewater by poultry waste activated carbon using KOH as an activating agent was carried out with two step process. Batch adsorption method was employed at various contact time. The study indicated optimum COD removal of 65.15% at the contact of 120 minutes and 150 minutes respectively. In the kinetic study, pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order, Natarajam and Khalaf first order and elovich model were tested but pseudo second-order showed the best fit for the adsorption process. The result further revealed that poultry waste, an available adsorbent is very effective in COD removal from dye wastewater.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"9 1","pages":"51-55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74751294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors influencing Farmers' Treatments to Use Irrigation Water","authors":"Elgilany A. Ahmed, Jamalludin Sulaiman, Saidatulakmal Mohd","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.11","url":null,"abstract":"Northern region of Sudan can rightly be considered as a River Nile-born nation where a high population density (90%) exists in the settled areas along the River Nile where agriculture production based on small-scale irrigation farms and the option of irrigation is mandatory from River Nile by pumps through the surface irrigation system. The country is below the water poverty line of 1000 cubic meter per capita per year and it may continue to be so for the foreseeable future\". The competition for irrigation water and land increases resource management complexity. The aim of this research is to assess the social and economical performance of tenants and to identify options to improve irrigation system and water resource management in the State. To realize these objectives structured survey questionnaires of 70 randomly selected respondents from area of the study were interviewed beside literature. Integrated techniques involving economical and hydrological components are used to assess water use efficiency, social and economical performance of tenants in the State. The results suggest that inefficient of irrigation water use coupled with high production cost and low productivity will need attention on water management, allocation, quantities and introduction of water saving technologies.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"26 1","pages":"73-81"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78921000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of Fluoride Concentrations in Surface Waters and Groundwater Sources in Northeastern Nigeria","authors":"M. Waziri, U. Musa, S. Hati","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.10","url":null,"abstract":"Drinking water is a major source of Fluoride intake, which at certain concentration is the cause of Fluorosis. The disease is preventable by having passable knowledge of fluoride sources, concentration levels and management tech- nique. This study was aim at presenting concentration levels of Fluoride (F) in drinking water sources from this region of northeastern Nigeria where cases of dental fluorosis have been reported. Samples of surface water and groundwater were analysed by the colorimetric SPADNS METHOD (CODE 3647-01-SC). Results revealed that F concentrations in surface water ranges between 0.03mg/L and 2.07mg/L, while in groundwater this ranges between 0.02mg/L and 2.42mg/L. The results also revealed up to 43% of sampling points within a location showing high F concentrations (≥1. 5mg/L) in groundwater. This is beyond the permissible limits set by World Health Organization. Since groundwater is a major source of drinking water in this region, the hazards posed by high F concentrations in this region still remains and would require constant monitoring and effective implementation of management practice to curtail.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"2 1","pages":"67-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83052977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"HEAVY METAL CONCENTRATION OF SURFACE DUST PRESENT IN E- WASTE COMPONENTS: THE WESTMINISTER ELECTRONIC MARKET, LAGOS CASE STUDY","authors":"A. Osuntogun, C. Ehi-Eromosele","doi":"10.5923/J.RE.20120202.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5923/J.RE.20120202.02","url":null,"abstract":"To evaluate the extent of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, Fe) contamination from e-waste, surface dust samples were collected from workshops (indoor), around the market areas (outdoor) and from a distance of about 100 metres away from the market area (control) of the Westminister Electronic market in Lagos, Nigeria. Aqua regia digestion was applied to the dust samples prior to determination of heavy metal by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The AAS analysis revealed mean concentrations in indoor dust (Pb 22.50, Cd 1.80, Fe 108.00, Cr 0.35 and Zn 295.50 mg/kg), outdoor dust (Pb 15.90, Cd 19.00, Fe 103.3, Cr 0.10 and Zn 213.00 mg/kg) and control dust ( Pb 9.40, Cd -, Fe 62.00, Cr - and Zn 78.00 mg/kg). Although the result showed a relatively low contamination in general, it could be inferred that the increased con- centration of heavy metals from the indoor electronic waste could be from the interaction of heavy metals in the e-waste components with the settled dust on them over time. Risk assessment predicted that Cd and Zn in the e-waste have the po- tential to pose serious health risks to workers, customers and local residents of Westminister area, especially children, and this underscores the urgent intervention by relevant government agencies.","PeriodicalId":21136,"journal":{"name":"Resources and Environment","volume":"104 1","pages":"9-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75980853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}