Urban Heat Island (UHI) is related to the theory of higher atmosphere and surface temperature taking place in the city area as compared to the nearby rural areas. The study results explain the advantages of green spaces in urban areas. Landsat TM/OLI concept of 1998 and 2017 years was attained from USGS for this work. To find out the land-use and land cover pattern supervised classification, the maximum prospect process is adopted. A total of four classes were mapped for the study area which includes built-up, barren land, vegetation, and water bodies. Effective sensor brightness temperature has been acquired from spectral radiance by using Plank’s reverse function. On the basis of surface emissivity, Normalize Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) classes are used to find out the ultimate temperature of the land surface (LST). The maximum temperature was recorded in the built-up area and barren land of the city and minimum temperatures were noted in areas with a greater cover of vegetation. The presence of UHI temperature is obvious from the land surface temperature views. An increase of 2 °C in surface temperature is recorded in district Lahore during the last two decades. Rise of 2.2 °C and 2.4 °C surface temperature has taken place in Faisalabad and Multan Districts in the last 19 years, respectively. In the establishment of a correlation among the LST, built-up, and vegetation, there is a positive sign present in their relation. With the increase in the built-up area, LST does increase as well. Moreover, with the reduction in vegetation cover, the LST is also raised. The study has revealed that there is a need for proper planning for the durable management of urbanization.

This study investigated whether the individual and combined effects of using biomass energy and living in the neighborhood of a cement plant were associated with the risk of COPD and respiratory symptoms among Congolese women. A total of 235 women from two neighborhood communities of a cement plant participated in this cross-sectional study. Participants were classified into the more exposed group (MEG = 137) and a less exposed group (LEG = 98), as well as into biomass users (wood = 85, charcoal = 49) or electricity users (101 participants). Participants completed a questionnaire including respiratory symptoms, sociodemographic factors, medical history, lifestyle, and household characteristics. In addition to spirometry performance, outdoor PM₂.₅ (μg/m³) was measured. Afternoon outdoor PM₂.₅ concentration was significantly higher in MEG than LEG (48.8 (2.5) μg/m³ vs 42.5 (1.5) μg/m³). Compared to electricity users, wood users (aOR: 2.6, 95%CI 1.7; 5.9) and charcoal users (aOR: 2.9, 95%CI 1.4; 10.7) were at risk of developing airflow obstruction. Combined effects of biomass use and living in the neighborhood of a cement plant increased the risk of COPD in both wood users (aOR: 4, 95%CI 1.3; 12.2) and charcoal users (aOR: 3.1, 95%CI 1.7; 11.4). Exposure to biomass energy is associated with an increased risk of COPD. In addition, combined exposure to biomass and living near a cement plant had additive effects on COPD.

Phosphorus (P) fertilizers from secondary resources became increasingly important in the last years. However, these novel P-fertilizers can also contain toxic pollutants such as chromium in its hexavalent state (Cr(VI)). This hazardous form of chromium is therefore regulated with low limit values for agricultural products even though the correct determination of Cr(VI) in these fertilizers may be hampered by redox processes, leading to false results. Thus, we applied the novel diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) technique for Cr(VI) in fertilizers and compared the results with the standard wet chemical extraction method (German norm DIN EN 15192) and Cr K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. We determined an overall good correlation between the wet chemical extraction and the DGT method. DGT was very sensitive and for most tested materials selective for the analysis of Cr(VI) in P-fertilizers. However, hardly soluble Cr(VI) compounds cannot be detected with the DGT method since only mobile Cr(VI) is analyzed. Furthermore, Cr K-edge XANES spectroscopy showed that the DGT binding layer also adsorbs small amounts of mobile Cr(III) so that Cr(VI) values are overestimated. Since certain types of the P-fertilizers contain mobile Cr(III) or partly immobile Cr(VI), it is necessary to optimize the DGT binding layers to avoid aforementioned over- or underestimation. Furthermore, our investigations showed that the Cr K-edge XANES spectroscopy technique is unsuitable to determine small amounts of Cr(VI) in fertilizers (below approx. 1% of Cr(VI) in relation to total Cr).

With the rapid industrialization, especially offshore oil exploitation, frequent leakage incidents of oils/organic solvents have adversely affected ecological systems and environmental resources. Therefore, great interest has been shown in developing new materials to eliminate these organic pollutants, which have become worldwide problems. In this study, a cost-effective, environmentally friendly porous aerogel with three-dimensional (3D) structure was prepared from grapefruit peel by a facile hydrothermal method as the adsorbent of oils/organic solvents. The as-prepared modified grapefruit peel aerogel (M-GPA) showed mesoporous structure with high specific surface area of 36.42 m²/g and large pore volume of 0.0371 cm³/g. The excellent hydrophobicity of M-GPA with a water contact angle of 141.2° indicated a strong potential for adsorption of oils and organic solvents. The high adsorption capacity of M-GPA for a series of oils and organic solvents was 8 to 52 times as much as its own weight. Moreover, the M-GPA was easily regenerated and a high adsorption capacity recovery above 97% was maintained after five adsorption–regeneration cycles. Therefore, the M-GPA is a promising recyclable adsorbent for the removal of oils/organic solvents from polluted water.

Trichloroethene (TCE) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) are notorious pollutants in groundwater. The biodegradation of them yields more toxic vinyl chloride (VC) and 1,1-dichloroethene (1,1-DCE). Although their biodegradation is highly feasible in the lab, field remediation still faces huge challenges. One challenge of them is the lack of good microbial indicators and consequently, monitoring famous species can cause the prediction of project time span and related expenses to fail. Here, in this study, we offer a solution by integrating predominance, correlation, and principal component analysis on the testing results of the biodegradation of VC and 1,1-DCE under seven different nutrient-amendment conditions. The inoculum was from a contaminated site with accumulated 1,1-DCE and VC. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was applied to 15 microbial communities. Traditional analysis relying predominance on NGS data may be misleading due to the variation of copy number per cell for different microorganisms. By considering predominance, correlation between copy number and removal efficiency, and PCA loading factors of the principle component analysis, bacteria of the Ruminococcaceae family, Syntrophomonas sp., Pseudomonas stutzuri, Candidatus Methanoregula, and Methanospirillum sp. could be microbial indicators for removing 1,1-DCE and VC in biodegradation. The results suggested a variety of combinations of bacteria and archaeal species can effectively remove 1,1-DCE but less so for VC. The influence of archaeal species in the natural environment on bioremediation of chlorinated solvents cannot be neglected.

World over, the instances where polluters are made to pay for the damages they have caused to the environment are on the rise. If more than one party is found responsible for pollution, our analyses of statutes of different countries, covering more than 57% of the world population and more than 45% of its land area, showed that liability is to be allocated among the involved parties on an equitable basis, often decided by the courts. Analyses of a number of court cases showed that the factors considered for allocation in such cases may be classified into two, technical and non-technical. It was also found that the legal liability of pollution was different from the technical liability in many cases due to the influence of non-technical factors that were very specific to the case. These non-technical factors often do not fall under the investigation purview of an environmental forensic expert who carries out technical investigations to find the responsible parties. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that the liability allocation be a two-stage process; the first stage being technical liability allocation done by the forensic expert and the second stage the final (legal) allocation by the court. It is also suggested that clear guidelines be prepared for technical liability allocation. There was also a felt need to quantify remediability to make the remediation liability allocation easier.

In this study, poly(methyl methacrylate) with different doping nano-cadmium sulfide (CdS/PMMA) is prepared and characterized. CdS/PMMA polymeric nanocomposite films were synthesized using solution casting methodology. SEM and XRD are used for structure analysis for the studied nanocomposite films. XRD revealed the amorphous domains of PMMA polymer, which increased with increasing CdS nanoparticle contents. SEM revealed the CdS dispersion within the PMMA matrix. CdS nanoparticles in the PMMA matrix are expected to be aggregated due to the casting technique. The optical energy gap is found to be decreased after the CdS addition. ε′ and ε″ have the same behavior with the applied frequency. Maxwell-Wagner interfacial polarization is the responsible factor for higher values of ε′–ε″ at the higher frequencies. Electrical conductivity behavior σAC tends to obtain a constant value at lower frequencies that approach from its DC conductivity values. After doping PMMA with nano-CdS, an exponential increase after a critical frequency value and the values of σAC was also increased. Besides, a significant reduction in laser energy power is identified by the reduction of the output power. CdS/PMMA can attenuate the laser power due to its nonlinear effect. CdS/PMMA nanocomposite can act as a photocatalyst to improve the performance of the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB). Among the different CdS/PMMA nanocomposite films, 3.33 wt% CdS/PMMA demonstrates the highest efficiency in visible photocatalysis of Rhodamine B. CdS/PMMA can be utilized as multifunctional materials use like laser optical limiting to reduce the power of laser sources and as a photocatalyst membranes.

Accumulation of transitory starch in leaves is an environment-dependent multifaceted process affected through stress caused by nutrient deficiency or excess of heavy metals in growing medium. On the other hand, textile effluent is one of the major pollution causing industrial waste due to the presence of heavy metal and organic contaminants. Besides the presence of higher pollution load, this effluent also contains some minerals essential for plant growth and metabolism and can serve as source of nutrients to plants. In presented experiment, a mesocosm study was conducted to evaluate the phenotypic, biochemical performance and trace element status of Triticum aestivum (cv. LOK-101 and GW-496) cultivars in response to transitory starch activity grown under textile effluent fertilization. Improved activity of transitory starch under textile effluent fertilization deals with plant growth by providing carbon in the form of soluble sugar. Study also finds a strong correlation of photosynthetic pigments, carbohydrates and plant biomass to transitory starch. As expected, the elemental concentration (Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Co, Pb, Cd, and As) in plants increased with increasing dose of textile effluent. The study concluded that the transitory starch is one of the key components in plant leaves that regulate plant growth under stress condition. Furthermore, the study also concluded that the lower dose of textile effluent significantly favours growth and nutrient status of plants without any negative impact. Therefore, the application of lower concentration of textile effluent as basal dose in agriculture may serve as source of nutrient/micronutrient to plants and also can be a sustainable way for effluent management.

The morphology and composition of roots with different degrees of oxidation as a function of time were evaluated aiming to identify possible hazardous elements and nanoparticles. The roots were obtained from an abandoned coal mine located in the city of Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brazil. From the roots, analyses were performed to identify nanoparticles (NPs) and ultrafine particles (UFPs), containing possible hazardous elements (PHEs) that cause potential environmental risks and impacts on human health. The identification of nanoscale materials requires greater robustness, so advanced integrated techniques have been used. The characterization of different types of roots was done by using focused ion beam (FIB), to evaluate nano-compound assemblies with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (HR-TEM/EDS). The results showed the presence of NPs containing Hg, Co, Cr, Ni, and V. The presence of these elements has increased consistently with the increase of C concentration in the roots, suggesting that the PHEs were gradually released from organic matter and inorganic minerals of coal. However, even with their decrease in roots, it was found that these elements still remained in the soil in significant quantities, even after 15 years of inactivation of the coal mine.

The present work is aimed at analyzing the performance of the commercial filters used for the mechanical filtration of suspended solid particles. In particular, it is intended to evaluate the head losses due to the presence of the filter in the plant and how these losses vary depending on the circulating flow rate, the nominal porosity of the filter, and its clogging degree. Filters with interstices of different sizes, from 1 to 50 μm, were compared for the performance analysis. The polypropylene wire, in facts, wrapped around a windowed cylinder of the same material, allows the creation of meshes with the desired degree of compactness. The experiments were carried out at the Laboratory of Environmental and Maritime Hydraulics (LIDAM) in a hydraulic circuit reproducing a domestic piping system, where different water demand scenarios were analyzed. The clogging of the cartridge was made with the aid of sand particles, attached, with the help of a natural glue, to the external surface of the filter. More than 200 measurements were carried out, which showed a clear increasing trend of the head losses at the filter as the clogging degree and the circulating flow rate increase. In all cases, the trend of the pressure drop at the filter has a more than linear trend. Also, it was observed that head losses did not exhibit a marked dependence on the nominal porosity. Best performances in terms of minor head losses were obtained by the 50-μm filter.