The need for oil and natural gas as a major source of energy is vital. On the one hand, it has affected the political and economic equations at the international, regional and national level. On the other hand, it has had negative effects on sociocultural, legal, and environmental aspects as well as on the physical and mental health of human beings. Therefore, the need to provide an environmental policy that addresses the various dimensions of the oil and gas industry will be necessary. The present paper aims to set up a conceptual model of environmental policy for sustainable development in the oil and gas industries of the Kurdistan Region through the use of these 6 components: political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal and environmental. It will also be using the techniques of PESTLE, SWOT, SPACE, FANP, FDEMATEL, and simulation with the VENSIM software. The results show the weights of the criteria respectively are Political; 1.59, Economic; 0.78, Sociocultural; 0.00, Legal; -0.99, Technological; -0.61 and Environmental; -0.70. So that all components are important, but that political and economic factors have a significant influence on environmental policies and oil and gas industries. Sociocultural components have a neutral role and the technological, legal and environmental components are impressible. Finally, fifteen strategies for the formulation of an effective environmental policy in the oil and gas industry were presented.

Unbalanced distribution of population in a country like Iran as well as accelerating urbanization and environmental degradation, both arising from incorrect location of industrial areas, are two problems that require appropriate industrial development policies to get resolved. Considering the expansion of industrial areas along with their role in contamination of the environment, it is necessary to develop strategies to improve environmental performance. The purpose of this study is to provide strategies for establishment of industrial areas, based on environmental spatial assessment, using SWOT technique and GIS. In this method, once the spatial data are mapped and analyzed with GIS software, leading to determination of effective factors for location of industrial areas and their, the maps of such effective factors can be prepared. After weighing effective layers on location, based on the AHP model, the GIS software capabilities have been used to merge and overlap the maps and the industrial areas location map are prepared. The map has been classified in five classes (very poor, poor, moderate, good, and very good) and finally, based on the final map and SWOT analysis, optimal strategies have been developed to reduce environmental degradations. The location analysis with integrated GIS and SWOT method is effective for providing optimal strategies. More accurate results of this study show that the study area is located in "defensive" position and the authorized areas to locate the industrial areas in the "very good" class are over 240,191.9 hectares large, being mostly in the south and southwest of Tehran.

The present investigation has been conducted to assess the status of physico-chemical parameters as well as the concentrations of some selected heavy metals to understand the present scenario of water quality at Perak River basin, Malaysia. The temperature, turbidity, pH, EC and DO values of all the examined samples have been within the range of 25.0 to 30.5 0C, 39.5 to 168.00 NTU, 6.8 to 7.33, 30.3 to 113.8 μs/cm and 3.62 to 7.01 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations of trace metallic constituents have been determined by means of Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), giving the following ranges: Cr: 0.01 to 0.052 mg/L; Pb: 0.01 to 0.03 mg/L; Zn: 0.11 to 0.92 mg/L; Fe: 1.38 to 5.55 mg/L; Mn: 0.10 to 0.25 mg/L and Ca: 2.55-23.23 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations of heavy metals at downstream of Perak River water were higher than the concentrations of upstream. The order of heavy metallic constituents in the water samples was Fe > Zn > Mn > Cr > Pb. R mode Cluster Analysis (CA) suggests that multiple anthropogenic activities like urban runoff, agricultural runoff, discharges of vehicles washing and workshops, land use changes, unplanned settlements, domestic effluents, wastewater of livestock husbandry farms etc., are influencing the physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations of Perak River water. The present study is highly significant for providing baseline information of potential hazardous level of heavy metals to human health, environment, and sustainable water resources management for economically and environment friendly uses of Perak River.

In this study, the concentrations of Zn and Cr in downstream waters from Uzunçayır Dam (Tunceli, Turkey) were monitored during spring (March, April, May) and summer (June, July, August) season. Zinc and Cr concentrations in surface water samples were detected using the ICP-MS device. According to the data obtained the lowest Zn and Cr concentrations in the spring season were 65.43±3.2 μg/L in March at 10th day for Zn and 0.28±0.02 μg/L in March at 10th and 20th day for Cr, the highest Zn and Cr concentrations were determined to be 83.12±4.1 μg/L in May at day 30 for Zn and 0.48±0.02 μg/L in May at day 30 for Cr. The lowest Zn and Cr concentrations in summer season were 55.48±2.7 μg/L at 30th day in August for Zn and 0.54±0.03 μg/L at 10th day in June for Cr. The highest Zn and Cr concentration in summer season were found as 69.48±3.5 μg/L in June at day 10 for Zn and 1.23±0.06 μg/L in August at day 30 for Cr. The Zn and Cr concentrations in the downstream of Uzunçayır Dam were found to be smaller than the Zn and Cr concentrations given by the Surface Water Quality Regulation (SWQR). As a result, it was determined that there was no harm in using water from the Uzunçayır Dam as irrigation water or drinking water in terms of Zn and Cr concentrations.

Environmental assessments are essential in order to align the process of country's progress towards sustainable development. It is important for the project to be implemented in direction of sustainable development, which is to carry out a project in such a way that in both short and long term, the greatest advantages and the least harm are inflicted on the environment, economy, communities, and culture. Environmental assessment of gas pipelines is classified as a linear projects; therefore, the design and implementation of an appropriate method in accordance with the project's linearity, due to the use of GIS tools and multi-criteria decision-making methods, can be a good innovation for this study, in comparison to previous similar projects. The purpose of this study is to identify the best option for gas pipelines. Once the project's study scope is specified, the study based the sensitive environmental parameters of the area (based on the requirements of environmental impact assessment reports) on two methods of Analyzing Hierarchical Process (AHP) and overlaying methods for sub-parameters, ranking and prioritizing the area of evaluation. Based on the results, the first and second priorities belong to the parameter of distance and position in the protected areas with a weight of 29.9% and hydrology with a weight of 24.7%, followed by slope, vegetation, land use, and fault, which are ranked third to seventh, respectively. After identifying the best map option, the study extracts the critical points for the construction of pipelines, identifies the negative effects of the project, and presents the environmental impacts and preventive measures, reduction and compensation of negative effects in both construction and operation phases, along with a summary of the Environmental Management Program (EMP).

The present study aims at investigating the feasibility of using solar energy as a power source to run electro-kinetic remediation in order to clean-up lead from three types of Iraqi soil. In order to do so, it carries out six tests with enhancement conditions, involving pH control and injection wells. Conducted in the city of Baghdad, Iraq, the experiment, is divided into two groups so that the effect of applying continuous and constant voltage from solar panels study, by means of charge control and battery along with non-continuous and non-constant DC voltage from solar panel could be studied. The DC voltage has been generated by two Solar panels, each with a maximum voltage of 17 volts. All experiments have commenced in March 2017, wherein the soil has been contaminated with a concentration of Pb, equal to 1500 mg/kg as well as initial moisture content equal to 30%. The remediation lasts for seven days, with a potential gradient of about 1.2 V/cm. At the end, the experimental results show that the overall removal efficiencies of 90.7%, 63.3%, and 42.8% have been achieved for sandy, sandy loam, and silty loam soils, respectively, when using solar panels with charge control and battery.

Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, environmental pollution has become a major concern in developing countries; therefore, the main objective of the current study is to determine heavy metal contents of Pb, and Ni for 42 topsoil samples, collected from 14 green spaces along the 1st and 2nd ring roads in Hamedan City in 2016. For this purpose, after determining some chemical properties as well as acid digestion of soil samples, Pb and Ni concentrations have been found in the soil samples with ICP-OES. All statistical analyses have been conducted, using SPSS 18.0 statistical package, with the results showing that the metal levels in soil samples, collected from green space of 1st and 2nd ring road, have been 34.86±10.28 and 41.57±10.08 mg/kg for Pb and 14.0-20.33 and 14.0-20.0 mg/kgfor Ni, respectively. Also the mean concentration of Pb and Ni have been lower than MPL. According to heavy metal concentration maps, the spatial distribution patterns of Pb, and Ni contents in the soil samples are generally similar along the 1st and 2nd ring road. Due to the fact that traffic volume in the 2nd ring was higher than the 1st one, there has been a significant difference in the mean contents of Pb between the topsoil samples, collected from the 1st and 2nd ring roads; therefore, it is recommended to keep environmental health in order to control the anthropogenic sources, causing the pollutants discharge into the environment is recommended.

Groundwater resources make up an important portion of potable and irrigation water in Iran, making it important to monitor toxic elements of pollutants in these resources in order to protect the inhabitants' health. The current study has been carried out to assess the health risks, caused by trivalent inorganic arsenic-polluted groundwater in Qaleeh Shahin Plain, an important agricultural region in Kermanshah Province. For this purpose, in total 20 groundwater wells have been chosen randomly. The samples have been filtered (0.45 μm) and preserved with HNO3 to a pH level lower than 2, then to be taken in acid-washed polyethylene bottles and kept at a temperature of 4 °C for further analysis. Finally, As(III) concentration has been determined, using ICP-OES with three replications. Results have shown that mean content of As (ppb) in groundwater samples were 6.0 ± 3.0 for winter and 9.0 ± 6.0 for summer in 2014. Also, according to the results, the computed values of the hazard quotient (HQ) and target risk (TR) of groundwater samples were below 1 and less than 10E-06, respectively; therefore, non-carcinogenic effect (chronic risk) and carcinogenic exposure are not likely for the inhabitants of this study area. However, due to over and long-term use of agricultural inputs in the study area, it is recommended to have some paramount consideration for better management and care of using agricultural inputs, especially chemical fertilizers, arsenical pesticides, or herbicides, and for treatment of As-polluted groundwater with proper removal methods prior to preparation of drinking water.

Qualitative status of the environment is signaled by a group of indicators, known as bioindicators, several of which are responsible for showing progressive impacts of different types of pollutants. Having addressed the influence of various bioindicators in environmental pollution, it has been revealed that bioindicators are sensitive to any disturbance in any environment. With regards to the pollution, the quality of an ecosystem can be judged by an organism, which is actually an indicator and play a key role in monitoring its changes. A reliable and cost effective way to evaluate the changes in the environment is possible by means of indicator species as ecological indicators, yet selecting a specific indicator poses a real challenge, followed by its identification as well as relation among indicators and their particular applications. As a result, environmental, ecological, and biodiversity indicators fulfill their goal of monitoring environmental quality. The current situation requires cost effective bioindicators along with their reliability to detect and mitigate the impacts of pollution in our environment.

Heavy metals that enter marine environment and remain in the water as well as the sediments are accumulated by aquatic organisms, thus becoming highly good indicators to monitor metal accumulation in the long run. Metals are potentially harmful to humans and most organisms at varied levels of exposure and absorption. Northern East Mediterranean Sea is a crucial region as it is an area, shared by numerous aquatic species with pollutant factors such as heavy marine traffic, transportation ports, industry plants, iron and steel works, oil pipeline installation, and other small factories. While the previous part of this review (Review of heavy metal accumulation on aquatic environment in Northern East Mediterranean Sea part I: some essential metals) evaluated the data from previous studies concerning toxic effects of selected essential metals on seawater, sediment, and different tissues of aquatic animals, collected from different areas in Northern East Mediterrenean Sea since the 1990s, the present part intends to evaluate the data from previous studies on toxic effects of selected non-essential metals. For this purpose, 94 articles and 6 theses have been examined and a good deal of information has been gathered to open a forward-looking view of the studied area’s pollution. Althought there has not been any harmonization, when comparing heavy metals investigations in the bay, all studies have shown that consumption of aquatic species from the region causes no problem to human health.