Search results for " pollution"
showing 10 items of 1010 documents
Emission standards versus immission standards for assessing the impact of urban drainage on ephemeral receiving water bodies
2010
In the past, emission standard indicators have been adopted by environmental regulation authorities in order to preserve the quality of a receiving water body. Such indicators are based on the frequency or magnitude of a polluted discharge that may be continuous or intermittent. In order to properly maintain the quality of receiving waters, the Water Framework Directive, following the basic ideas of British Urban Pollution Manual, has been established. The Directive has overtaken the emission-standard concept, substituting it with the stream-standard concept that fixes discharge limits for each polluting substance depending on the self-depurative characteristics of receiving waters. Stream-…
Bioavailability and assessment of heavy metal pollution in sediment cores off the Mejerda River Delta (Gulf of Tunis): How useful is a multiproxy app…
2016
International audience; Three core samples were taken from zones offshore from the Mejerda River Delta (Tunisia) and analyzed formajor and trace elements to assess their relationships with organic matter, monosulfides and carbonates, aswell as for pollution and bioavailability. Chemical speciation,ΣSEM/AVS, the enrichment factor (EF) and thegeo-accumulation index (I-geo) were used. Iron, cadmium, lead and zinc – the most frequently mined metalsin the Mejerda catchment – were found as contaminants in the offshore areas. Estimations of trace elementaccumulation using the EF and the I-geo index show that lead, and to a lesser extent zinc, are the most pollutingmetals off the Mejerda outlet. Ac…
<title>Monitoring and analysis of air quality in Riga</title>
1995
Riga, the capital of Latvia is a city with nearly 900,000 inhabitants and various highly concentrated industries. Air pollution in Riga is a serious problem affecting health and damaging valuable buildings of historical importance, as acid rain and smog take their toll. Therefore the Air Quality Management System with significant assistance from Swedish Government and persistent efforts from Riga City Council was arranged in Riga. It contains INDIC AIRVIRO system which simulates and evaluates air pollution levels at various locations. It then processes the data in order to predict air quality based on a number of criteria and parameters, measured by OPSIS differential absorption instruments…
An infinite-horizon model of dynamic membership of international environmental agreements
2007
Abstract Much of the literature on international environmental agreements (IEAs) uses static models, although most important transboundary pollution problems involve stock pollutants. The few papers that study IEAs using models of stock pollutants do not allow for the possibility that membership of the IEA may change endogenously over time. In this paper we analyse a simple infinite-horizon version of the static model of self-enforcing IEAs, in which damage costs increase with the stock of pollution, and countries decide each period whether to join an IEA. Using a quadratic approximation of the value function of the representative country we show that there exists a steady-state stock of po…
A note on cooperative versus non-cooperative strategies in international pollution control
2002
Abstract In this note, we evaluate the scope of Dockner and Long’s [Journal of Environment Economics and Management 24 (1993) 13] conclusion on the efficiency of the non-cooperative outcome in a differential game of international pollution control. We also complete the study of the different equilibria the differential game can present. Our results show that their conclusion requires that the initial value of the stock of pollution be higher than the Pareto-efficient pollution stock so that the equilibrium path of emissions involves a decreasing stock of pollution. Our results also show that the application of the procedure proposed by Tsutsui and Mino [Journal of Economic Theory 52 (1990) …
Enhanced transport-related air pollution prediction through a novel metamodel approach
2017
Abstract This research proposes a novel approach to improve the ability to forecast low frequency extreme events of transport-related pollution in urban areas using a limited input data set. The approach is based on the idea of a self-managing model, able to adapt to unexpected changes in pollution level. In more detail, for a given combination of variables, it selects the most suitable prediction model within a set of alternative air quality models, estimated for a wider range of locations and conditions. In this study, the new approach is tested for the prediction of nitrogen dioxide concentration in the United Kingdom (UK), specifically in an air quality monitoring site of the Greater Ma…
CO<inf>2</inf> reduction exploiting RES for EV charging
2016
The world is facing an urgent need to reduce emissions, limiting pollution for a better quality of life. This objective has to be reached by all cities and governments worldwide. This paper focuses on the field of transportation, which is greatly responsible for air pollution, mainly in cities and urban areas such as towns, airports and seaports. The diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) enables a significant reduction of air pollutants emitted by combustion engines; however, their recharge can affect the total pollution by their increasing energy demand. A solution is the use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to charge EVs. This paper analyzes the feasibility of integrating EVs and RES, foc…
The environmental impact of air pollution on the built heritage of historic Cairo (Egypt)
2020
In the last decades, many researchers investigated the relation between environmental pollution and the degradation phenomena on the built heritage, because of their rapid increase and growing harmfulness. Consequently, the identification of the main pollution sources has become essential to define mitigation actions against degradation and alteration phenomena of the stone materials. In this way, the present paper is focused on the study of the effect of air pollution on archaeological buildings in Historic Cairo. A multi-methodological approach was used to obtain information about the chemical composition of examined black crusts and to clarify their correlation with the air pollution, sp…
Changes in air pollution during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain: a multi-city study
2021
Highlights • Variations in air quality in terms of CO, SO2, PM10, O3 and NO2 levels were studied • The lockdown of Spain was not able to reduce severe air pollution in all its forms • Significant reductions of NO2 levels were achieved in most cities • Increases of O3 pollution levels were found in several cities
One-year characterization of organic aerosol markers in urban Beijing: Seasonal variation and spatiotemporal comparison
2020
Abstract Organic aerosol (OA) is a major component of fine particulate matter (PM); however, only 10%–30% of OA have been identified as individual compounds, and some are used as markers to trace the sources and formation mechanisms of OA. The temporal and spatial coverage of these OA markers nonetheless remain inadequately characterized. This study presents a year-long measurement of 92 organic markers in PM2.5 samples collected at an urban site in Beijing from 2014 to 2015. Saccharides were the most abundant (340.1 ng m−3) species detected, followed by phthalic acids (283.4 ng m−3). In summer, high proportions (8%–24%) of phthalic acids, n-alkanes, fatty acids, and n-alcohols indicate dom…