نشریه علوم و تکنولوژی محیط زیست
سال بیست و یکم شماره 5 (پیاپی 84، امرداد 1398)

Selection of appropriate technologies for wastewater treatment according to climate, economic and social conditions is very important. The use of non-advanced technology with low energy consumption wastewater treatment systems such as a constructed wetland is cost effective and contributes to environmental reclamation. The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency of surface flow constructed wetland in the removal of COD and TSS parameters from Bu-Ali industrial town wastewater.

For the removal of COD and TSS parameters from Bu-Ali industrial town wastewater, three shallow artificial wetlands with retention time of 2 days were made as pilot. The samples were collected using specific containers from the input and output of the reactor and analyzed according to the standard methods. The obtained data were analyzed using the SPSS 18.0 statistical package.

The results showed that the removal efficiencies of COD and TSS were 75% and 80% respectively. Discussion and

Although the removal efficiencies of COD and TSS in the surface flow constructed wetland containing Phragmites australis are acceptable, the treated wastewater is not suitable for irrigation because of the high concentration of organic matter at the wetland output.

Increased rate of chemicals production and their consumption in various industrial processes are consiederd as characteristics of an industrial community. Improper management and incorrect use of them will cause accidents and harmful damage to human health and the environment.

In this paper, considering the safety and health risks and the environmental aspects associated with storage, preservation and working with chemicals produced in sugar factory, these chemicals were identified by Walking & Talking Through method. Then, the multi-criteria decision-making methods such as AHP, TOPSIS and Eigenvector technique were used for analyzing the risks of the identified chemicals. Finally, the chemicals were divided into three categories in terms of risk by determining the median in SPSS.

The results of calculating the risk of the chemicals used in sugar factory show that ethyl alcohol with weight of 0.646, ammonia with weight of 0.566 and caustic soda with weight of 0.558 are the most important chemicals affecting the safety, health and environment of the factory and the surrounding area. Accordingly, the strategies to control and reduce the risks of chemicals were identified. Discussion and

In this study, introducing a multi-criteria method for calculating the risk factor, the highest number of features inducing the risk of a substance to the personnel is used in the calculation.

Uncertainties of the field parameters such as hydraulic conductivity and dispersion coefficient, unknown boundary conditions and the noise of the measured data are among the main limiting factors in the groundwater flow and contaminant transport (GFCT) modeling.

Miandoab plain was investigated as a case study for simulating groundwater level (GL) and chloride concentration (CC). This paper presents an artificial intelligence-meshless model for temporal GFCT modeling. In this study, time series of groundwater level (GL) and chloride concentration (CC) observed at different piezometers of Miyandoab plain (in Iran) were firstly de-noised by the wavelet-based data de-noising approach. Then, the effect of noisy and de-noised data on the performance of artificial intelligence model was compared. For this end, time series of GL and CC observed in 14 different piezometers were trained and verified via artificial neural network (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) models to predict the GL and CC at one month ahead.

The results showed that the threshold-based wavelet de-noising approach can enhance the performance of the modeling up to 25%. Reliability of ANFIS model is more than ANN model in both calibration and verification stages duo to the efficiency of fuzzy concept to overcome the uncertainties of the phenomenon. Discussion and

Waveletde-noising approach as a data preprocessing method enhances the performance of the artificial intelligence model in temporal modeling of GFCT.

Industrial waste is considered as the most important environmental pollutants that contain significant amounts of heavy metals are high salt density.Biotechnology removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater Babkargyry proved the ability of microorganisms developing in this field as an appropriate and efficient.In this study, the ability of strains of bacteria isolated from sediments of Lake Urmia Halomonas longate IBRC-M10433 for the removal of cadmium was investigated. The aim of this study was to optimize the removal of cadmium by bacterial environment was Halomonas longate IBRC- M10433.

Design of Experiments Taguchi method to determine the optimum conditions relative to environmental factors such as Ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) as a source of nitrogen, and phosphate potassium (K2HPO4) as a source of phosphorus and cadmium concentrations in biological removal of cadmium was studied by the bacterium Halomonas longata IBRC- M10433.

The optimum conditions for absorption of potassium phosphate at a concentration of 3.0 g/L, cadmium 100 mg/L, Ammonium chloride 2 g/L, at 37 °C and pH 7, respectively. Level 1 means that 3.0 g of potassium phosphate absorption biological factors. Discussion and

Due to high costs and environmental problems conventional methods to remove heavy metals, biological removal technique is effective and affordable. Use halophilic bacteria in biological treatment with high power absorption of heavy metals are useful. 

Water quality of lakes and reservoirs is affected by many factors. Precipitation, inflow and outflow, inlet water quality and water abstraction level are the most important ones. Informing about the magnitude of the factors can help us to choose the best abstraction level and water quality management in different periods of a year, efficiently.

In this study, water quality of the Meymeh reservoir, an under-construction dam, was evaluated by modeling of TDS using the 2-dimensional CE-QUAL-W2 software with available data, for a 5-year period.

The modeling results show that the amount of outflow TDS in all five years has exceeded the FAO permissible level for irrigation. Also, in order to evaluate the impacts of several factors on outflow TDS and choose the suitable solution to improve the quality of water, a sensitively analysis was performed. Discussion and Counclution: The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the quality of inflow water is the most effective factor on the outflow water quality, so that a 20% change in inflow TDS causes 18-20% change in outflow TDS and the other factors such as temperature, initial values of TDS in reservoir, wind sheltering coefficients (WSC), eddy viscosity and the diffusivity coefficient (AX, DX) do not have significant impacts.

The status and expectations of higher education and especially of the university have changed in recent decades, and the expectation of the community of higher education can play its place in the field of change and innovation and, consequently, sustainable development and the protection of traditional and new values ​​of human societies in a proper way. Therefore, universities need to actively participate in moving towards sustainable development and promotion of the environmental components of human habitats. Identifying the dimensions and components of green management in universities can be considered as a general road map, guidance for these centers in the direction of establishing green management. Therefore, this study has been conducted aimed to identify the dimensions and components of green management in universities.

In this study, Delphi technique has been used to identify the components of green management in universities. In this regard, using panel members' opinions that included 19 faculty members and experts in the field of higher education, environment and energy, first by integrating the extracted components from the theoretical foundations of the research and the proposed components of the experts, two closed and open-ended questionnaires were given to the experts in two stages. Experts' opinions were gathered in terms of the relationship between the components and the green management of the universities and determining the importance of each dimension in relation with the green management and their opinions were analyzed.

In this study, 12 key dimensions of leadership and strategies, policy making and planning, academic governance and organizational affairs, communications and interaction with the environment, human resources and personnel affairs, budget and financial resources, technology and information, infrastructures and equipment, education and research, affairs monitoring, evaluation and accountability, environmental measures and actions in the field of green management of universities were identified and approved by the experts, each of which includes several components. Finally, 77 components were identified and it was decided that high-weight components to be considered and used in more accurate planning and implementation of green management in academic environments. Discussion and

The results show that according to the experts, the most important dimensions in the green management of universities are the following: policy making and planning, resource management and university equipment, leadership and strategies, technology, executive issues and organizational affairs of the university, financial resources, human resources, research, education Communication with the environment and monitoring and evaluation.

Change point analysis technique is an important method to detect potential change in time series. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to determine and analysis of change points in the annual discharge of Golestan Province over 20 hydrometric stations in a 34-years period.

Time and magnitude of change points have been defined and the results have been analysed along with variations of temperature and precipitation through the study area. According to the results, a significant positive correlation is exist between discharge and precipitation (p<0.001). While, the correlation between discharge and temperature had a negative non-significant correlation.

The results showed that the dominance of change points are decreasing over the study area along with some increasing and no change cases. The number of significant decreasing points were significantly higher than increasing changes and the major changes had occurred in the 1994, 1995, and 1998 years in 4, 5, and 3 stations, respectively (the decreasing points happened over 1994-1998-time span). The highest observed changes was related to Lazoureh station in 1980 and 2011 years which the values of changes in discharge were 3.01 and 0.9 cubic meter per seconds, respectively. Discussion and

It can be concluded that, the number and amount of changes in water discharge can be determined by the change point analysis technique. Understanding the trends decrease or increase in watershed rainfall and discharge have an important role in water resources management and water-related issues.

Air pollution is a great concern in developed and developing countries and its economic costs accounts for a large share of gross national product of countries. This study aimed to investigate and assess the air quality around Mehrabad airport.

In this cross-sectional study, important pollutants including CO, TSP, TVOC and NOX were measured. Considering the privaling wind direction in Tehran, one station in residential area, one station representative of the airport, two stations around the airport and one station in high traffic area were selected. LSI-Babuc/A، Dust Trak TSI and Phocheck + 500 were employed to measure the pollutants. Measurement was done in each month and the statistical analysis was done using SPSS 21.

The mean concentration of all pollutants (except for nitrogen dioxide) was higher at the vicinity of the airport stations than in other stattions. Results of the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that there are significance differences between pollutants concentration around the airport and in other stations. No significant difference was found for NO2 among the stations. The mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, Co and TVOCs at the north of the airport were significantly different from those of other stations (p<0.001). Discussion and

Most of the pollutants around the airport had higher concentration compared to residential and high traffic stations, and thereby, the airport could be regarded as a pollutant source.

In arid and semi-arid regions dust phenomenon occurs frequently. These phenomenon seriously affects the human health, soil erosion, desertification and transport. Drought is one of the natural phenomena that decrease precipitation, reduce vegetation and increase dust in case study. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the number of dust events and climatic drought.

In this study, SPI index was used to estimate drought. Rainfall data for the years 1980-2010 and data of the dust for the years 2004-2010 were analyzed. The zoning dust and drought in the same period (2010-2004) was performed using the Kriging method in ArcGIS software.

The results of zoning the occurrence of dust and drought suggest that the greatest number of dust events (226 dust events) and severe drought happened in the province in 2008. Also, in 2005, the lowest number of dust events (85 dust events) and wet conditions prevailed in the province. Discussion and

The results indicate the direct relationship between dust event and drought, and dust event increased or decreased during the years that drought intensity increased or decreased.

Social carrying capacity of tourists refers to the degree of readiness admission congestion on their behalf and if the crowd is too much to bear it would degrade the quality of the experience. According to the present study has been conducted to determination of social carrying capacity of coastal of tourists.

The method of data analysis in this research is descriptive and analytical. Data collected by the library and field observations and questionnaires. To determination of Social carrying capacity of coastal tourists is used of image capture technology (ICT) and social norms curves and descriptive statistics.

According to the results, social carrying capacity of coastal tourists in the study area is maximum of 2019 persons and at least 425 persons at a time. Also in the present situation at an average number of people on the beach are 1,246 persons. Discussion and

With regard to the area of the study area, it was estimated that the maximum acceptable congestion in the study area is 2019 people; somehow that does not degrade the quality of the tourist experience. It also was to determine the minimum acceptable congestion 425 persons. In this regard, it was found that in the present circumstances there were 1,246 persons at a time in coastal areas, showing the number of tourists in beach of Bandar Gaz not more than the threshold of its social carrying capacity.

Today, development of irrigated lands is faced with limited resources. With the increased water scarcity, the importance of using municipal, industrial and agricultural wastewater is increasing. This study was conducted on laboratory scale to investigate the efficiency of some bioadsorbents (rice husks, wheat straw, woodchips and cotton stalks) in removing nitrate from aqueous solutions and their application as bio filters in agricultural wastewater treatment.

First, absorbents were well-washed with distilled water, dried and crushed by the mill, and percolated through a standard sieve mesh 30 to obtain uniform powder from the absorbent samples. In order to prepare the required concentrations, nitrate solution was added to the distilled water with certain amount of potassium nitrate. For each bioadsorber, a spectrophotometer was used to measure the extent of nitrate removal at contact periods in order to determine the periods required to reach equilibrium, the optimum pH values of adsorbents, and the suitable concentrations of adsorbents.

Results indicated the significant differences at the confidence level of 99% among the adsorbents in removing nitrate and these adsobents significantly reduced the nitrate in aquous soloutions. In the four adsorbents, the nitrate removal rates at the studied contact periods (5, 10, 20, 30, 60 and 90 minute) were statistically significant at the confidence level of 99%. Results from determining the suitable concentrations of the four studied adsorbents to reach the maximum efficiency showed that 1 g in 40 ml solution was the most suitable concentration. Moreover, reduction in the adsorbents amounts reduced their efficiencies. Study of isotherm models indicated that for all the studied adsorbents correlation coefficients in Langmuir’s isotherm model were higher compared to Friedrich isotherm model. Therefore, Langmuir isotherm model was more suitable for predicting nitrate removal from aqueous solutions by bioadsorbents. Discussion and

Plant absorbers significantly reduce the amount of nitrate in aqueous solution. In this study, Langmuir model can be used as an adsorption isotherm.for adsorption of the bioadsorbents.

Annually, large amount of date-palm leafs are produced as waste products of agriculture in Iran. In this study, the potential of date-palm leaf ashes as an inexpensive adsorbent for Cd(II) removal from aqueous solutions has been investigated.

The studied variables were pH (2-7), Cd (II) ion concentrations (50 – 350 mg/l) and adsorbent dose (0.1 – 14 g/l) in batch systems.

The optimum pH for the removal of Cd (II) ions was equal to 4. Investigation of the effect of adsorbent dose showed that the removal efficiency increased with the increase of adsorbent dose from 0.1 to 11 g/l, and after that the removal efficiency was stabled with the increase of adsorbent dose. The highest removal efficiency was obtained at 60 minutes in 100 mg/l Cd(II) concentration. Discussion and

According to results, optimum removal efficiency of Cd(II) in pH 4, adsorbent dose of 11 g/l and Cd(II) ions concentration of 100 mg/l was obtained as 92.36%. It was concluded that the date-palm leaf ash had a good potential as an adsorbent for the removal of toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, from aqueous solutions.

Prior to any planning for the development of urban green spaces, standards for green space development should be identified. From the very important principles of urban planning knowledge, it is necessary to address users in terms of standards and per capita and locate them. Air, sound and visual pollution is caused by urbanization that nowaday human societies are facing. Therefore, considering the green space use as an air styler and space organizer, is necessary to achieve the ecological efficiency of cities. The purpose of this study is to identify the criteria location and green spaces planning, that it is the achievement of providing solutions for operating the general principles of green space development, so that it can be generalized to similar cases.

The present study is a fundamental-applied research method and a descriptive-analytical study. To collect the data, Libraries and documents Sources was utilized. Data analysis was mainly based on qualitative analysis method and also using ARC / GIS software.

Findings of this study show that none of the per capita in Tabriz city are in accordance with the standards of urban planning and environmental point of view. From the urban planning point of view, in the plan comprehensive, per capita of about 15 m2 is proposed for each person, this per capita in the current situation for Tabriz is equal to 1/69 m2. From the environmental point of view, in the plan comprehensive, is between 15-50 m2 per person while per capita city in the current situation is equal to 11.69 m2. Discussion and

The results of the study show that in the city of Tabriz, the criteria and development principles green spaces planning and their location criteria, including per capita in neighborhoods, environmental and ecological criteria, and spatial metrics such as centrality, hierarchy, and access has not been regarded. Therefore, the status of the green spaces use in the present situation of Tabriz city do not match with the proposals of the comprehensive and details plan, and with national and international standards. Moreover, the lack of optimal distribution in the city is quite evident. Therefore, the calculation of the appropriate level of green space and its balanced distribution in the city is the key issue, so that the process of achieving the ecological efficiency of the city is possible.

Today, tourism industry is an important source of income, at the same time it is one of the vital factors in cultural exchanges among countries and it has a special postion in terms of being the most extensive service industry in the world. Despite abundant tourist attractions, Ardakan city, as one of the most beautiful regions in Yazd province, lacks the appropriate facilities to attract tourists. In this study, it has been attempted to identify the capabilities and limitations of tourism development in the city and to determine the suitable strategies for the development of tourism and ecotourism in this city.

The method used in this study is of a descriptive-analytic type. To collect the required information, library studies, document reviews and field studies, including interviews and questionnaires, were used. Study of attractions, amenities and services as well as overall situation of tourism and ecotourism in the region was rendered according to the information obtained. In the next step, SWOT method was used to analyze the information and provide guidelines and strategies for the development of tourism and ecotourism.

Results demonstrated that the total weighted scores of the matrices for table of internal and external factors are 2.63 and 2.36 respectively. The obtained value was lower than average, showing the strengths and opportunities are not used properly to overcome the weaknesses and threats. The weaknesses outweigh the strengths and the threats are dominant to opportunities. In addition, the type of strategy obtained was a variety (contingency) strategy. Discussion and

The results show that Ardakan city has great potential for tourism and ecotourism and by investing, planning and proper management these capabilities can be used for sustainable development of tourism in the city.

Echinoderms are one of the oldest and the most important marine groups. They play an important role in oceans’ ecology especially in coral reefs. Various species of Echinodermata were identified in the depth of 5 m and in intertidal zone of northern coasts of Kish Island in winter and summer of 2014.

Four stations at the northen coast of Kish Island (Simorgh, Didaniha, Kampe Rahimi, Derakhtsabz) were selected in terms of the characteristics of the zone, and Simorgh site was selected as the main station. Specimens were collected using a 1×1 m2 quadrat and identified following recovery and counting.

Totally, 184 specimens were collected and they belonged to 4 Classes, 6 Families and 7 Species of Echinometra mathaei, Diadema setosum, Clypeaster reticulates, Linckia multiflora, Macrophiothrix elongate, Holothuria (selenkothuria) Bacilla, Holothuria leucospilota. Except for Echinometra mathaei which was identified in “Simorgh station”, no other type of Echinodermata was found in intertidal zone of other stations. In this study, Clypeaster reticulatus, Holothuria leucospilota, Macrophiothrix elongate, Holothuria (selenkothuria) Bacilla were found for the first time in the depth of 5 m of Kish Island. Discussion and

Results showed that density of Echinodermata was higher in summer than in winter. Echinometra mathaei was the most prominent species in the southern cost of Kish Island with a stability coefficient of 24.4 and 18.4 for summer and the winter, respectively. Moreover, indexes of richness increases in cold season and decreased in warm season. According to the stability coefficient and indexes of richness and density in the northern cost of the island, only Simorgh station has no stress and contains rare species. However, other three stations of Didaniha, Derakhtsabz and Kampe Rahimi are under stress and have little common species

Undertaking precautionary means to avoid adverse impact of environmental activities about whose probability of occurrence lacks scientific certainty have found a profound position within international environmental law, this is generally referred to as precautionary principle. Since international community is always seeking solutions to protect environment, the precautionary principle has been emphasized as one of the fundamental principles of international law in numerous documents including hard law and soft law. According to the light of the precautionary principle, even in cases where any definitive scientific reason indicating harmfulness of environmental activities is yet to be found, it is still necessary to undertake precautionary practices by the best technology to reduce potential risks affecting the environment and activities that have potentially adverse effects should be reduced. Results of the present research indicate that the precautionary principle is engaged with numerous legal issues as it suffers from non-uniform implementation and lack of agreement on the concept of scientific uncertainty. To cope with this challenge, it is necessary to start with presenting a comprehensive definition of precautionary principle based on consultation in a document called convention-framework where generalities of the topic are discussed, followed by coming to an agreement on details and expressing possible disagreements such as implantation of the precautionary principle and formulating future agreements based on the principles and objectives defined in the convention to form future documents, generally referred to as protocols along with taking advantages of technical consultation with environmental experts to assess local environment.

Nowadays, participation of local communities has been recognized as a suitable approach to reach sustainable forest management. Participation of local communities in conservational projects and forest management can ensure the sustainable management of forest.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting social acceptability and intention to participate rural communities in forest management using field survey and questionnaire in Najardeh village near the Kheyrood forest in the north of Iran. The conceptual model used in this research was examined by defining 9 hypotheses, modeling structural equations and confirmatory factor analysis.

Statistical test results showed no significant difference between men and women tendencies to participate. Among the whole variables related to the respondents, education and occupational status of people did not show a significant difference in terms of tendency to participate. The results of correlation study and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the subjective norm is the most important factor affecting the tendency of villagers to participate in forest management and social acceptability of the project. Moreover, simplicity of the participation and the perceived usefulness positively and directly affect the tendency of villagers to participate in forestry projects. Discussion and

Accordingly, if the goal is to increase rural participation in forestry projects, then building trust and enhancing the knowledge of villagers about the simplicity and usefulness of participation can be helpful.

Thiocyanate is an inorganic, one compound carbon and an important member of the cyanide family, which is derived from natural and industrial sources. It is largely produced by Metal and coke extraction industries. This toxic compound, causing undesirable effects in living organisms. Due to the presence of this toxic compound in the Maharloo Lake, this study was aimed to isolate and molecular identification of bacteria degrading thiocyanate from sediments of the Maharloo.

Sampling was performed during summer and spring of 2015 and 2016 form 5 stations. Isolation of Thiocyanate-degrading bacteria was conducted in the M9 medium. After identifying the physiological and biochemical thiocyanate degrading bacteria, MIC test, kinetics of growth and the rate of decomposition of thiocyanate were conducted. Finally, resistant bacteria were identified by PCR-based gene 16S rRNA.

9 species had the ability of thiocyanate degradation in Maharloo lake. Bacillus sphaericus and Micrococcus luteus showed the highest potential to remove thiocyanate and the highest resistance (50 grams per liter) than other bacteria. The Most thiocyanate biodegrationrate was related to B. sphaericus (66.66%) and M. luteus (50%) which showed 97% and 92% homology to Planococcus citreus strain NBRC 15849and Bacillus aerius strain 24K respectively. Discussion and

The result of this study showed that the Maharloo lake contains powerful bacteria in thiocyanate biodegradation, so that B. sphaericus can break up to 66.66%. By providing a framework for the growth of these bacteria, they can be used to detoxify and remove thiocyanate from contaminated water.

Urban parks have a significant role in reducing air pollution and improving the quality of life of the people living in urban areas. Planning and site selection of urban parks can significantly change a man-made environment to an ideal human society and enhance the quality of life and identity of the inhabitants by promoting the visual beauty and reducing the adverse effects of industrial development. The aim of this study was to evaluate and locate neighborhood parks using the principles of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) in Ardabil city.

The used method was functional in terms of its objective and descriptive analysis in terms of its nature. The studied criteria consisted 12 components grouped for the spatial distribution of neighborhood parks. In this study, CRITIC techniques and pair-wise comparison were used to weight the criteria. Subsequently, the Vikor multi-criteria decision-making method was used in IDRISI to develope an appropriate model for the spatial distribution of green spaces in Ardabil. The obtained results were presented in the form of a graded map of desirability of place.

The results show that priority pixels introduced in the model output have optimum conditions in terms of the defined criteria. Discussion and

This model can be used as a decision support system in the spatial distribution of the existing neighborhood parks.

The black male Caucasians grouse (Tetrao mlokosiewiczi) is one of the rarest birds in the world. In Iran, it only lives in Arasbaran forests. The black male Caucasians grouse is among the birds included in the IUCN (International Union Conservation Nature) red list. It means that, it is in danger of extinction. Therefore, the importance of recognition and conservation of the habitat for this rare species is significantly clear.

In this study, relying on 10-year field observations by experts, habitat model map for this bird was made using geographical information system. Among the obtained-by-GPS points that the black male Caucasians grouse had been seen, some points were selected randomly. Then by overlaying them with altitude, slope, aspect, density of forest cover, plant species types and climate maps, the habitat model map of the black male Caucasians grouse was prepared.

To test the developed model, all of the points obtained in field observations were overlaid with the made. The results show the high accuracy of the prepared habitat model. The results also show that the black male Caucasians grouse lives in the fields with these specifications: dense and semi dense forests, altitude of 2100 to 2400, slope of over 30%, slope towards north, and humid and semi humid climate, where some plant species such as oak, hornbeam, seven cole, nagorno qat and eglantine are abundant. Discussion and

Habitats are as one of the most important factors for survival of the species in any environment. Understanding the need of any species can be effective in selecting the suitable habitats to set them free. The capabilities of GIS are very effective in this regard, since by using them in the analyses, a large volume of data can be studied and habitat modeling can be done.