Surface waters are exposed during their journey to various types of pollutants plus the contribution they receive from different effluents. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the concentration of Pb, Cd, and Cu in surface waters of the Cotaxtla-Jamapa basin in Veracruz, Mexico. Analyzes were carried out in triplicate in six sampling sites, during three seasons, in morning, and night hours. At the sampling sites, Bocana and Arroyo Moreno, concentrations higher than the maximum permissible international limits of Pb and Cd were reported. The Pb, by time of sampling, presented significant statistical differences (p < 0.05) in three seasons of the year, in contrast to Cd and Cu. The above results indicated a risk in the use of water from the Cotaxtla-Jamapa basin, despite the fact that the concentrations obtained according to the national limits for NOM-001-SEMARNAT were not exceeded. It is necessary to update the national legislation to ensure the reduction of risk from exposure to heavy metals and to ensure conservation in terms of environmental quality.

Cement has been widely used for low- to intermediate-level radioactive waste management; however, the long-term modelling of multiple mineral transfer between the cement leachate and the host rock of a geological disposal facility remains a challenge due to the strong physical-chemical interactions within the chemically disturbed zone. This paper presents a modelling study for a 15-year experiment simulating the reaction of crystalline basement rock with evolved near-field groundwater (pH = 10.8). A mixed kinetic equilibrium (MKE) modelling approach was employed to study the dolomite-rich fracture-filling assemblage reacting with intermediate cement leachate. The study found that the mineralogical and geochemical transformation of the system was driven by the kinetically controlled dissolution of the primary minerals (dolomite, calcite, quartz, k-feldspar and muscovite). The initial high concentration of calcium ions appeared to be the main driving force initiating the dedolomitization process, which played a significant role in the precipitation of secondary talc, brucite and Mg-aluminosilicate minerals. The modelling study also showed that most of the initially precipitated calcium silicon hydrate phases redissolved and formed more stable calcium silicon aluminium hydrate phases. The findings highlight the importance of a deep and insightful understanding of the geochemical transformations based on the type and characteristics of the host rock, where the system is under out of equilibrium conditions, and the rates of mineral reactions.

The pollution caused by As in soil menaces the health of humans. There are characteristics of waste utilization, low cost, and a wide range of materials by using dewatered sludge as the main component of soil repair agents. In this paper, dewatered sludge and biochar were used as repair agents for As pollution, which were rarely reported, and the related passivation experiments were carried out. Through the analysis of experimental data of the basic physical and chemical properties of contaminated soil, various characteristics of repair agent and As morphology were obtained, and the applicability and passivation effect of dewatered sludge-biochar compound repair agent and dewatered sludge as an individual repair agent on passivation of As pollution in soil was discussed. By comparing different passivation effects, the repairing effect increases with time, and the optimal repair time was 40 days; in the set experiment group, the best passivation effect of the individual repair agent was the S3 (dry sludge accounting for 20% of soil samples) experimental group, and the best effect of the compound repair agent was the S + B3 (dry sludge and biochar accounting for 10% and 2% of soil samples, respectively) group. As a repair agent, the dewatered sludge-biochar compound repair agent can be used to repair As-contaminated soil, which provides a new method for the recycling and waste utilization of dewatered sludge.

Agricultural production in China is facing great challenges to ensure food security and cleaner environment; further improvements are therefore required in crop nutrient management to increase grain yield and nutrient use efficiency while synchronously reducing environmental pollution. In this study, a total of 87 site-years of on-farm experiments were conducted from 2013 to 2018 in the main agro-ecological areas in Northeast China, to evaluate the agronomic and environmental benefits of nutrient expert (NE) system in maize and rice production. Results showed that NE had general and significant advantages in agronomic and environmental benefits relative to FP, by dramatically reducing N and P fertilizer inputs and optimizing nutrient management. As compared to FP, on average, NE increased grain yield by 8.4% and 6.6% significantly higher grain yield and N uptake for maize, respectively, while it obtained equal yield performance and 3.0% higher N uptake for rice, and consequently resulted in significantly higher N use efficiency. Environmental effects assessment showed that NE reduced substantially reactive N losses and greenhouse gas emissions by 46.9% and 37.2% for maize, respectively, and 10.1% and 6.6% for rice, respectively. Regression analysis indicated that NE effectively improved N use efficiency and mitigated environmental pollution was mainly associated with increasing plant N uptake and reduced N surplus. As compared to fertilization recommendation based on soil testing, NE system showed higher N use efficiency and better environmental benefits for both maize and rice. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that NE system is a feasible and promising approach to optimize crop nutrient management and promote cleaner agricultural production in Northeast China.

AgClₓBr₁₋ₓ composites with different halogen molar ratios (Cl/Br) were prepared by a facile ultrasound-assisted ion-exchange method. The formation of close contact between AgCl and AgBr facilitated the transportation of photoexcited charge carriers and contributed to the enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation of different kinds of antibiotics. The AgClₓBr₁₋ₓ composites had a sphere-like morphology and tunable band gaps from 2.95 to 2.57 eV depending on Cl/Br mole ratios. Besides, the AgClₓBr₁₋ₓ composite was optimized by varying halogen mole ratios (Cl/Br) to achieve the highest photocatalytic activity. Results indicated that AgCl₀.₇₅Br₀.₂₅ showed the best photocatalytic degradation performance, which was about 2.36 and 2.78 times that of the single AgCl towards ciprofloxacin (CIP) and metronidazole (MNZ) degradation, respectively. Meanwhile, a possible photocatalytic degradation mechanism was discussed, and results indicated that the holes (h⁺) and •OH were the dominant active species in the AgCl₀.₇₅Br₀.₂₅ system.

Nowadays, urban rivers play an important role in city development and make great contributions to urban ecology. Most urban rivers are the drinking water sources and water quality is extremely critical. The current assessment method in national standard of China has multiple limitations; therefore, this paper introduces an advanced assessment, that is, Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI). This method can help to provide comprehensive and objective water quality assessment for the urban rivers. Moreover, CWQI can prevent waste of the water resource, since current assessment is pessimistic and tent to underestimate water samples to a lower grade. Linyi development area is selected as study region and CWQI method is applied to assess two major urban rivers within the area. The water monitoring data from 2014 to 2017 is acquired in 24 parameters. Since the CWQI calculation is still based on traditional water quality measurement in parameters, there will be a huge cost when increasing research scale and accuracy. In this paper, remote sensing technique is employed to develop models of CWQI scores from satellite data. By utilizing 23 selected monitoring instances and matching satellite data, linear regression analysis shows that red band data has highest correlation with CWQI in both two urban rivers in the study region. In addition, two testing datasets with five instances for each river are used to validate the RS-based CWQI models and the results show that testing datasets can be fitted well. With the models, CWQI distribution diagrams are generated and assist both spatial and temporal analysis. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can indicate actual water quality pattern which is validated by field visit. The proposed approach in this paper has satisfying effectiveness and robustness.

Under the background of global climate change, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of daily mean temperature and diurnal temperature range (DTR) on the non-accidental mortality. Poisson generalized linear model (PGLM) combined with distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to evaluate these effects after adjusting the relative humidity and major air pollutants. All effects were presented as relative risk (RR), with 75th percentiles of daily mean temperature and DTR compare with their lowest RRs corresponding values. Daily mean temperature was associated with the non-accidental mortality with a U-shaped curve, and the non-accidental mortality increased by 1.8% (95% CI: 0.7~3.0%) when the temperature was 24.4 °C (20 °C as the reference). Additionally, the non-accidental mortality increased by 1.4% (95% CI: 0.1~2.7%) on lag6 day when DTR was 11.3 °C (7 °C as the reference). The elderly (≥ 65 years) were more susceptible to daily mean temperature and DTR, and females were more susceptible to high DTR effect than males. Our study provides evidence that daily mean temperature and DTR are significantly associated with non-accidental mortality and have delayed effects. Both females and elderly people are vulnerable to the potential adverse effects.

Egypt is a country with limited water resources. Egypt water needs are growing rapidly as a result of the population increase, climate change and development activities. The aim of the study is to analyse how Egypt can sustain its mega urban projects by utilizing greywater as a non-conventional water resource. A quantitative-based assessment has been conducted to investigate the overall evaluation of the greywater resources in Egypt. Greywater accounts for between 40 and 80% of the total water discharged from the house, and the total use of water for drinking and health use can be estimated at 10.4 billion cubic meters per year. The results show that the greywater resources may support a sustainable future of non-conventional water resources in a very positive way. Greywater can provide Egypt with about 4.15–8.30 billion cubic meters annually, which is a good support for water resources in Egypt. The paper concluded that greywater is an important resource to facilitate the success of the new mega urban projects. Egypt should maximize the share of greywater resources, especially in its new mega urban projects. Greywater resources can support Egypt and other arid and semiarid regions and countries in transition to a sustainable future.

Several industrial sectors produce tons of effluents daily containing a high amount of hazardous chemical pollutants that pose a major threat to the environment and human health. Current wastewater treatment methods, such as flocculation and activated carbon adsorption, have drawbacks linked to high material cost and too much energy consumption. Thus, the search for renewable, biodegradable, and efficient materials has been the object of research aimed at replacing the conventional materials used to cheapen processes and reduce environmental impacts. Lignin stands out in this context as it has low cost and high availability. Therefore, several scientific researches were developed to harness the potential of lignin, especially as adsorbent, for the removal of chemical agents from effluents. This paper presents a bibliometric review performed on the Scopus database, showing the evolution of studies related to the applicability of lignin in the removal of chemical pollutants in waters over the last five years. Data regarding annual publications, languages, journals, countries, institutions, keywords, and subjects were analyzed. The realized screening selected 130 articles that met the previously defined criteria. Results indicated a strong collaboration between countries and China’s substantial contribution to the documents. The analysis also has shown that lignin is mainly used as adsorbent material, sorbent, flocculant agent, and hydrogel and presents important results and information for future researchers on this topic.

The use of biochar for removal of heavy metals from stormwater is limited due to large area requirements and inadequate removal of nutrients and heavy metals at higher initial concentrations. In this study, biochar-supported nanoscale zerovalent iron (BC-nZVI) was effectively utilized for removing heavy metals from synthetic stormwater. We performed batch adsorption and laboratory-scale column experiments to demonstrate the exceptional ability of BC-nZVI to remove heavy metals (Cu, Cd, and Zn) at varying higher initial concentration range (2.5 to 60 mg L⁻¹) compared with typical urban stormwater runoff. The batch experiment results suggested that the metal removal efficiency of BC-nZVI compared with biochar was enhanced by 43% and 57% in individual metal solution and 50% and 42% in the mixed metal solution for Cd and Zn, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacities of BC-nZVI for individual metal ions increased by 97% and 40% for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺, respectively, compared with original biochar. A series of characterization studies based on scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller revealed the chemical and morphological features of BC-nZVI, which are responsible for the enhanced metal removal. A laboratory-scale column study mimicking the field scale revealed the metal removal efficiencies of BC-nZVI increased by 115% and 123% for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺, respectively, compared with unmodified biochar. The higher removal efficiencies and adsorption capacities demonstrate the potential use of BC-nZVI as a media for attenuating heavy metals in current stormwater management practices.