The present paper tries to assess different scenarios for solid waste management in Khorramabad industrial park. It uses a new hybrid method of fuzzy Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix, and proposes the Fuzzy theory, the ranking method of which is innovated so that the accuracy and flexibility of the RIAM method could be improved. Four scenarios are studied, namely open dumping, sanitary landfill, gasification, and incineration. They are then evaluated in terms of their physical/chemical, biological/ecological, social/cultural, and economic/operational effects. Afterwards, two scenarios have been selected with the aim of energy production. The evaluation of these aspects for each scenario is in accordance to the expert's judgments and field study, with the results showing that sanitary landfill has had the least undesirable effects. Hence, this approach is selected as the best scenario for waste management in the studied area. According to the obtained results, it is suggested to consider sanitary landfills as the main part of the waste management hierarchy program of the studied area. Also, it is highly recommended to use the Fuzzy RIAM technique in similar studies and to compare the results with the new ones in order to examine the accuracy of the new improved method.

The impact assessment method seeks to bring about a more ecologically, socio-culturally and economically sustainable and equitable environment. Determining the main factors affecting the attitudes of stakeholders is crucial for understanding the impacts of development plans. This approach helps planners and decision makers to identify the values and traits of stakeholders and accelerate the diffusion of innovations through designing proper incentives and removing available obstacles. The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting laser land levelling project impacts in Fars Province, Iran. The sample included 285 farmers who were selected using multi-stage random sampling. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were measured and revisions were made to improve measurement scales. The results of structural equation modelling indicated that reduction in water consumption was the most important variable which affected the recognition of impacts among laser land levelling adopters. Furthermore, laser land levelling impacts as dependent variables were influenced by the direct effect of the duration of adoption, attitude towards water and soil conservation, need perception and attitude toward prior projects. Based on the results, practical recommendations have been presented.

This viewpoint paper explores the potential of genomics technology to provide accurate, rapid, and cost efficient observations of the marine environment. The use of such approaches in next generation marine monitoring programs will help achieve the goals of marine legislation implemented world-wide. Genomic methods can yield faster results from monitoring, easier and more reliable taxonomic identification, as well as quicker and better assessment of the environmental status of marine waters.

The Gulf and Red Sea possess diverse coastal and marine environments that support rapidly expanding mass tourism. Despite the associated environmental risks, there is no analysis of the tourism-related literature or recent analysis of impacts. Environmental issues reported in 101 publications (25 from the Gulf, 76 from the Red Sea) include 61 purported impacts (27 from the Gulf, 45 from the Red Sea). Gulf literature includes quantitative studies (68% publications) and reviews (32%), and addresses mostly land reclamation and artificial habitats. Most Gulf studies come from Iran and UAE (64%). Red Sea literature includes quantitative studies (81%) and reviews (11%), with most studies occurring in Egypt (70%). The most published topics relate to coral breakage and its management. A full account of tourism’s environmental impacts is constrained by limited tourism data, confounding of impacts with other coastal developments, lack of baseline information, shifting baselines, and fragmentation of research across disciplines.

Marine ecosystems are structured by an array of natural and anthropogenic drivers, their diverse influences varying between different community types and across space. We assessed consistency in variation in composition and richness for three communities (macro- and meio-faunal communities associated with macroalgae, and soft-sediment infaunal communities) across natural and pollution gradients at the subcontinental scale of southeastern Australia. Community structure varied with natural environmental factors (temperature, wave exposure) and, to a lesser extent, pollutant loads (catchment effects, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and nutrients) across 43 sites spanning 2700 km. The community types showed differing sensitivities to pollutants: algal macrofauna was most strongly associated with hydrocarbon pollution and nutrient loading; algal meiofauna with heavy metals and nutrients; and infauna with catchment effects and nutrients. Different taxonomic resolutions were needed to detect significant pollution relationships for the three community types, indicating that monitoring programmes are most effective if pollutant- and fauna-specific.

For tidal range power plants to be sustainable, the environmental impacts caused by the implement of various tidal barrage schemes must be assessed before construction. However, several problems exist in the current researches: firstly, evaluation criteria of the tidal barrage schemes environmental impact assessment (EIA) are not adequate; secondly, uncertainty of criteria information fails to be processed properly; thirdly, correlation among criteria is unreasonably measured. Hence the contributions of this paper are as follows: firstly, an evaluation criteria system is established from three dimensions of hydrodynamic, biological and morphological aspects. Secondly, cloud model is applied to describe the uncertainty of criteria information. Thirdly, Choquet integral with respect to λ-fuzzy measure is introduced to measure the correlation among criteria. On the above bases, a multi-criteria decision-making decision framework for tidal barrage scheme EIA is established to select the optimal scheme. Finally, a case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Recent technology developments have turned present-day unmanned systems into realistic alternatives to traditional marine animal survey methods. Benefits include longer survey durations, improved mission safety, mission repeatability, and reduced operational costs. We review the present status of unmanned vehicles suitable for marine animal monitoring conducted in relation to industrial offshore activities, highlighting which systems are suitable for three main monitoring types: population, mitigation, and focal animal monitoring. We describe the technical requirements for each of these monitoring types and discuss the operational aspects. The selection of a specific sensor/platform combination depends critically on the target species and its behaviour. The technical specifications of unmanned platforms and sensors also need to be selected based on the surrounding conditions of a particular offshore project, such as the area of interest, the survey requirements and operational constraints.

Increasing concerns over decreasing water quality and the state of coral reefs and seagrass meadows along the inshore and mid-shelf regions of the Great Barrier Reef has led to a large-scale government catchment sediment and nutrient reduction program. However the mechanistic understanding of how fine sediments washed out of catchments and transported within flood plumes leads to ongoing increases in turbidity at locations far downstream from estuaries long after flood plumes have dissipated is poorly understood. Essential criteria which need to be met in order for catchment-derived sediments to play a major role in nearshore water quality are proposed. Preliminary estimates of these essential criteria suggest that it is dynamically possible for fine sediments washed out of catchments during floods to be preferentially re-mobilised at downstream locations following the dissipation of flood plumes. However the longer-term influence of catchment-derived material on water quality is dependent upon the rate of degradation of floc particles that fall out of flood plumes and the rate of background deposition; neither of which are well quantified.

Cu smelting has had a severe impact on the environment around the town of Karabash, Russia. Dispersion modelling has been carried out to estimate atmospheric fallout of metals and metalloids (henceforth termed metals for brevity) from the copper smelter, calibrated and ground-truthed using metal concentrations in transplanted and naturally growing lichens.Lichens (Hypogymnia physodes) were transplanted in June 2011 from a relatively little impacted ‘reference site’ to stations in NE–SW and W–E transects centred on the smelter at Karabash. The transplants were removed during September 2011 and then analysed for As, Cu and Pb. The results were compared with deposition loads estimated using TAPM modelling which was carried out for particles of various sizes, and with simple chemistries, and with the smelter conceptualised as a continuously emitting point source.Variation in the ratio of lichen divided by modelled concentrations was lowest for Pb, ranging from 30.3 to 939.9 and 4.9–107.8 for PM2.5 and PM10, respectively, across eight sample points.The TAPM modelling is in agreement with previous studies that smelter emissions are the major source of environmental Pb deposition around Karabash. Further modelling will be required to determine whether the Pb in the lichens is largely sourced from current smelter airborne emissions or windblown soil particles containing historic additions of Pb.