Sustainable development has by now become an element deeply integrated in the everyday design. It has many shades and may be found under many names. We speak about resiliency in design and procurement of passive, ecologic, plus energy, or nZEB buildings. Nevertheless, if we look closely, we may distinguish certain characteristic ideas. First, sustainable development of societies and urbanization processes should be consistent on a deeper level than presently, and be included within design processes, organization, and planning, as well as modernization and redevelopment procedures of existing urban tissue. Secondly, urbanization should be perceived holistically, as an interaction and harmonious development of both natural and manmade environments, with solutions based on the best technical and technological standards available. Lastly, described ideas are achievable only, if we include continuous cooperation between urban planners, architects, specialist consultants, as well as energy-efficient interdisciplinary solutions to achieve high standard energy measures. One of the thresholds is economic feasibility; the other is health and well-being of the users which should always be discussed as a priority. This paper—outside a brief theoretical approach to initial procedures in design management—will dwell on transformation and modernization of an existing building belonging to the Warsaw University of Technology, one of the oldest universities in Poland, its founding dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In 2015, a Nordic Finance Mechanism grant dedicated to the nZEB technology transfer from Norway to Poland was awarded to a group of researchers from Warsaw University of Technology and NTNU Trondheim. The main aim of the project is implementation of nZEB knowledge in Poland, as well as preparation of two integrated concept designs for public (University) buildings as exemplary case studies which could act as the benchmarks for other public buildings.

Investigations of deleterious effects on non-target species, including earthworms, have been conducted for a number of pesticides, but there is a need for additional assessments of potential adverse effects. In the present study, the acute toxicity of eight pesticides to the earthworm Eisenia andrei was assessed and compared. The exposures were conducted using the filter paper contact toxicity method. Based on the 48-h LC₅₀ values, one pesticide was classified as supertoxic (combined fungicide containing difenoconazole and fludioxonil), four as extremely toxic (combined herbicide containing pethoxamide and terbuthylazine, combined fungicide containing fluopyram and tebuconazole, fungicide containing pyrimethanil, and combined fungicide containing thiram and carboxin), two as very toxic (combined fungicide containing flutriafol and thiabendazole, and herbicide containing fluroxypyr-meptyl), and one as moderately toxic (insecticide containing thiamethoxam). Additionally, effects of pesticides on the multixenobiotic resistance (MXR) activity were measured. Results showed that four pesticides caused significant effects with a recorded inhibition of the activity, which can consequently lead to a higher toxicity due to longer retention of the pesticides in the cells. Finally, for three chosen pesticides, gene expression of cat, sod, and gst was measured, and significant changes were observed. The obtained results show that earthworms could be significantly affected by pesticides commonly used in agriculture.

This paper investigated the photodegradation of oxytetracycline (OTC) in the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and chloride ions, which is relevant to the estuary environment. The separate effects of chloride ions and DOM on the photodegradation of OTC were first studied, and then, the combined effects were studied. The photodegradation of OTC showed a tendency to decrease with increasing DOM levels: a low concentration of DOM (< 2 mg/L) enhanced the degradation of OTC, and a high concentration of DOM (> 5 mg/L) inhibited it. The addition of chloride ions (10–500 mmol/L) to DOM solutions (20 mg/L) significantly increased the degradation rate of OTC. The observed promotion effects may be a consequence of the participation of reactive chlorine species. Quenching experiments verified that the main active species in the presence of chloride ions and DOM are radicals including Cl•/Cl₂•⁻ and HO•. These results indicate a promotion of OTC degradation in saline water compared with fresh water, and this finding is important to better understand the environmental fate of OTC in estuarine and coastal waters.

A consortium of highly degrading microorganisms was used in an integrated bioaugmentation/electrocoagulation process for treating olive mill wastewater. The system was investigated for treating 1 m³ day⁻¹, at a pilot scale, for 2 years; hydraulic loading rate and organic loading rate were 2880 l m⁻² day⁻¹ and 37,930 g COD m⁻² day⁻¹, respectively. Average removal efficiency for COD, oils, and total phenols was 63.9%, 85.2%, and 43.6%, respectively. The olive mill consortium, OMC, consisted of seven actinomycete strains. The strains were confirmed, by 16S rDNA analysis, to belong to five Streptomyces, one Kitasatospora, and one Micromonospora strains, at 100–99.06% similarities. Hydrolytic enzyme activities of OMC strains were remarkably higher for degrading cellulosic and lipid constituents (enzyme-cumulative indices, 14–16.1), than the phenolic constituents (indices, 4.1–6.5). The establishment of actinomycetes in the treatment system was indicated by their increased counts in the biofilm at the end of the biofilter, reaching 13-fold higher than that in the control bed. The treated effluent was toxic to the seedlings of Jatropha curcas (Jatropha) and Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba). Though its application in irrigation of 3-year-old Jatropha shrubs, significantly, enhanced the fruit yield up to 1.85-fold higher than the control, without affecting the seed oil content, after 3-month application, the irrigated soil showed insignificant changes in its biochemical properties. This developed bioaugmentation/electrocoagulation process can treat wastewater with extremely high organic strength, while its approximate construction and operational costs are limited to 0.03 and 0.51 US$ m⁻³, respectively. It produces a treated effluent that can be reused in irrigation of specific plants. Graphical abstract

This study aimed to explore the nitrogen and phosphorus removal performance of the horizontal submerged constructed wetland (HSCW) with Ti-bearing blast furnace slag (T). Another two HSCWs, with the converter steelmaking slag (G) and the stone (S) as wetland substrates, respectively, were simultaneously running as control. The results showed that the nitrogen and phosphorus removal capacities of the T-HSCW were generally better than those of another two HSCWs. When the hydraulic retention time (HRT) was 6 days, the effluent concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) and total nitrogen (TN) were 6.66 mg L⁻¹ and 14.02 mg L⁻¹, respectively, and the removal rates of NH₄⁺-N and TN reached 77.54% and 71.07%, respectively. The T-HSCW had better removal efficiency of phosphorus. The effluent concentration of total phosphorus (TP) was lower than 0.3 mg L⁻¹, and the maximum removal rate could reach 98%. Through the characterization of the three substrates before and after experiments, it was found that the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus by T and G mainly relied on chemical adsorption, while S mainly relied on physical adsorption. Ti could also promote the absorption of nitrogen by plants and increase the nitrogen removal capacity of T-HSCWs.

The exploitation of thallium (Tl) resources through mining poses a significant threat to ecological systems and human health due to its high toxicity and ready assimilation by human body. We report the first assessment of the pollution, spatial distribution, source, and ecological-health risks of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in Tl mining area of southwest Guizhou, China. Spatial distribution maps for PTEs were visualized by ArcGIS to identify their distribution trends. We use the enrichment factor (EF), correlation analysis, and principal component analysis to identify likely sources of seven PTEs mining area. The wider risk assessment was evaluated using the geoaccumulation index (Igₑₒ), potential ecological risk index (RI), human non-carcinogenic risk (HI), and carcinogenic risk (CR). The results revealed the PTEs content in the study area identifies direct mining, metal production, and domestic pollution sources. In addition, the distribution of PTEs was also affected by the topography, rain water leaching, and river dispersals. The main elements of concern are Tl and As, while Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn do not show significant enrichment in the area despite associations with the ore deposit. Risk assessment identifies strong pollution and ecological risks and poses unacceptable human health risks to local residents, especially for children. The ecological risk in the study is identified to be predominantly from Tl (74.32%), followed by As (8.57%) and Cd (7.32%). The contribution of PTEs to the non-carcinogenic risk of humans in the study area is exclusively from As and Tl, while the carcinogenic risk is dominated by As, and the other elements pose no significant risk to human health.

Commercial department assumes the vital part in energy conservation and carbon dioxide emission mitigation of China. This paper applies the time-series data covering 2001–2015 and introduces the STIRPAT method to research the factors of commercial department’s carbon dioxide emissions in China. The combination of STIRPAT method and ridge regression is first adopted to research carbon dioxide emissions of commercial department in China. Potential influencing factors of carbon dioxide emission, including economic growth, level of urbanization, aggregate population, energy intensity, energy structure and foreign direct investment, are selected to establish the extended stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT) model, where ridge regression is adopted to eliminate multicollinearity. The estimation consequences show that all forces were positively related to carbon dioxide emissions in China’s commercial department except for energy structure. Energy structure is the only negative factor and aggregate population is the maximal influencing factor of carbon dioxide emissions. The economic growth, urbanization level, energy intensity and foreign direct investment all positively contribute to carbon dioxide emissions of commercial department. The findings have significant implications for policy-makers to enact emission reduction policies in commercial sector. Therefore, the paper ought to take into full consideration these different impacts of above influencing factors to abate carbon dioxide emissions of commercial sector.

A novel furnace throat structure was designed to reduce dust particle concentration in the flue gas emitted from the copper smelting industry. A two-stage turbulence model of the furnace throat based on the RNG k-ε model combined with the stochastic trajectory model was developed to analyze the gas flow and particle trajectories in this furnace throat structure. The resulting turbulent flow fields and particle trajectories under different operating conditions were shown and discussed. It indicates that the furnace throat plays an important role in separating the dust particles from the flue gas by applying centrifugal force and subsequent resistance force. Moreover, the effects of the radius of the inner flue, the number of the spiral plate, and the number of the spiral plate turns on the particle collection efficiency were analyzed to optimize the throat structure. The simulation results show that the furnace throat with inner flue radius of 0.05 m, two spiral plates, and two spiral plate turns has the highest particle collection efficiency. Furthermore, a series of experimental tests were conducted to validate the accuracy of the simulation results, and the measured experimental data show a good correlation with the numerical results.

Cadmium (Cd) phytoextraction efficiency basically depends on Cd accumulation in their tissues. Thus, our aim in this study was to select biochemical, morpho-physiological, nutritional, and productive responses associated to Cd accumulation in the roots, stems and sheaths, and leaf blades of Panicum maximum cv. Massai (Massai grass), using the random forests analysis. Massai grass was exposed to combinations of three sulfur (S) concentrations (0.1, 1.9, and 3.7 mmol L⁻¹) and two Cd concentrations (0.0 and 0.1 mmol L⁻¹) in nutrient solutions. The dry biomass production of Massai grass exposed to Cd decreased by around 50% in relation to control. However, there were no visual symptoms of Cd toxicity in the shoot of this plant, even with Cd concentrations in their shoot exceeding 100 mg kg⁻¹ DW. The lowest dry biomass production of the plants exposed to Cd combined with the absence of visual symptoms of Cd toxicity indicates us that Massai grass is a bioindicator plant that can greatly cope with the Cd-induced stress, but in a little bit different way from other plants. Antioxidant enzymes apparently are not essential for Massai grass cope with Cd-induced stress, differently of other mechanisms (e.g., higher synthesis of thiol compounds and amino acids involved on reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and Cd chelation). Probably, the plant responses that most explained Cd accumulation in Massai grass can be used to identify grasses with high capacity to accumulate Cd in phytoremediation programs with this group of plants.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of autochthonous microorganisms present in soil collected from heavy metal (HM) uncontaminated (Pb ≈ 59 mg kg⁻¹, Cd ≈ 0.4 mg kg⁻¹, Zn ≈ 191 mg kg⁻¹), moderately (Pb ≈ 343 mg kg⁻¹, Cd ≈ 12 mg kg⁻¹, Zn ≈ 1876 mg kg⁻¹), and highly (Pb ≈ 1586 mg kg⁻¹, Cd ≈ 57 mg kg⁻¹, Zn ≈ 3280 mg kg⁻¹) contaminated sites on Zea mays elemental composition, physiological status, and growth parameters. For this purpose, half of the collected soil was sterilized and soil characterization was performed. After 45 days of cultivation, the presence of HM in the soil negatively affected photosynthesis and transpiration rates, relative chlorophyll content, anthocyanins index, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, and content of oxidative stress products (H₂O₂ and Malondialdehyde) of Zea mays, while soil sterilization had a positive effect on those parameters. Average percentage of colonization of root segments by arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi decreased with an increase of HM contamination in the soil. The increase in shoot concentration of HMs, particularly Cd and Zn, was a result of contaminated soils sterilization. Aboveground biomass of maize cultivated on sterilized soil was 3-fold, 1.5-fold, and 1.5-fold higher for uncontaminated, moderately contaminated and highly contaminated soils respectively when compared to nonsterilized soils. Contrary to our expectation, autochthonous microflora did not improve plant growth and photosynthetic performance; in fact, they had a negative effect on those processes although they did reduce concentration of HMs in the shoots grown on contaminated soils.