Search results for "105"
showing 10 items of 9364 documents
Hydro-mechanical behaviour of a sandy silt from a river embankment
2020
The paper presents the results of an experimental campaign aimed at characterizing the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a sandy silt from a river embankment. Due to continuous river level fluctuations and changing climatic and environmental conditions, flood embankment materials experience frequent variations in degree of saturation and suction values. Such variations strongly impact the earthwork performance both in terms of seepage and stability conditions. For these reasons, a detailed characterization of the material behaviour in unsaturated conditions was carried out. Experiments were designed in order to highlight the response of the involved soil in terms of changes in matric suction an…
An Approach to Delineate Groundwater Bodies at Risk: Seawater Intrusion in Liepāja (Latvia)
2018
Groundwater quality in coastal areas is frequently affected by seawater intrusion as a consequence of intensive water consumption. To achieve “good chemical status” of a groundwater body according to Water Framework Directive the effects of saline or other intrusions should not be observed. Groundwater pumping in former decades has caused a significant seawater intrusion into confined aquifer in Liepāja and has led to deterioration of relatively wide coastal area of the third largest city in Latvia. However, the area affected by seawater intrusion is a small part of groundwater body F1 which overall chemical status is good. Thus, no specific management measures have been applied to explore …
Single chamber microbial fuel cell with Ni-Co cathode
2017
The possibility of wastewater treatment and the parallel energy production using the Ni-Co alloy as cathode catalyst for single chamber microbial fuel cells is presented in this research. The research included a preparation of catalyst and comparison of COD, NH4 + and NO3 - reduction in the reactor without aeration, with aeration and with using a single chamber microbial fuel cell with Ni-Co cathode. The reduction time for COD with the use of microbial fuel cell with the Ni-Co catalyst is similar to the reduction time with aeration. The current density (2.4 A·m-2 ) and amount of energy (0.48 Wh) obtained in MFC is low, but the obtained amount of energy allows elimination of the energy neede…
Leading agritourism facilities along Nearly Zero Energy paths: proposal of an easy-to-use evaluation method
2020
The tourist sector, despite the present severe constraints imposed by the sanitary emergence, can be considered as an important component of almost all countries’ economies. In Italy agriturism, in particular, has been experiences a continuously rising trend in recent years. Clearly, such great interest towards these businesses also calls for a deep attention by an energy point of view, in sight of an energy efficiency improvement, hence a lowering of the pressure that such facilities exert to the natural environment. On the other hand, the European Union has been engaged, for a long time, in awarding the tourist accommodations environmental excellence brands, like the EU Ecolabel. Unfortun…
Climate and extreme rainfall events in the Mono river basin (West Africa): investigating future changes with Regional Climate Models.
2020
This study characterizes the future changes in extreme rainfall and air temperature in the Mono river basin where the main economic activity is weather dependent and local populations are highly vulnerable to natural hazards, including flood inundations. Daily precipitation and temperature from observational datasets and Regional Climate Models (RCMs) output from REMO, RegCM, HadRM3, and RCA were used to analyze climatic variations in space and time, and fit a GEV model to investigate the extreme rainfalls and their return periods. The results indicate that the realism of the simulated climate in this domain is mainly controlled by the choice of the RCMs. These RCMs projected a 1 to 1.5 °
Tsunami Propagation and Flooding in Sicilian Coastal Areas by Means of a Weakly Dispersive Boussinesq Model
2020
This paper addresses the tsunami propagation and subsequent coastal areas flooding by means of a depth-integrated numerical model. Such an approach is fundamental in order to assess the inundation hazard in coastal areas generated by seismogenic tsunami. In this study we adopted, an interdisciplinary approach, in order to consider the tsunami propagation, relates both to geomorphological characteristics of the coast and the bathymetry. In order to validate the numerical model, comparisons with results of other studies were performed. This manuscript presents first applicative results achieved using the weakly dispersive Boussinesq model in the field of tsunami propagation and coastal inunda…
Experimental Analysis of Velocity Distribution in a Coarse-Grained Debris Flow: A Modified Bagnold’s Equation
2020
Today, Bagnold&rsquo
Optimal Solutions for the Use of Sewage Sludge on Agricultural Lands
2021
The use of sewage sludge in agriculture decreases the pressure on landfills. In Romania, massive investments have been made in wastewater treatment stations, which have resulted in the accumulation of important quantities of sewage sludge. The presence of these sewage sludges coincides with large areas of degraded agricultural land. The aim of the present article is to identify the best technological combinations meant to solve these problems simultaneously. Adapting the quality and parameters of the sludge to the specificity of the land solves the possible compatibility problems, thus reducing the impact on the environment. The physico-chemical characteristics of the fermented sludge were …
Decision-Making Tools to Manage the Microbiology of Drinking Water Distribution Systems
2020
[EN] This paper uses a two-fold multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach applied for the first time to the field of microbial management of drinking water distribution systems (DWDS). Specifically, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) was applied removing the need for reliance on expert judgement, and analysed interdependencies among water quality parameters and microbiological characteristics of DWDS composed of different pipe materials. In addition, the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) ranked the most common bacteria identified during trials in a DWDS according to their relative abundance while managing vagueness…
Fish Welfare in Aquaponic Systems: Its Relation to Water Quality with an Emphasis on Feed and Faeces—A Review
2017
Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (fish) and hydroponic cultivation of plants. This review examines fish welfare in relation to rearing water quality, fish feed and fish waste and faeces to develop a sustainable aquaponic system where the co-cultured organisms, fish, bacteria in biofilters and plants, should be considered holistically in all aquaponics operations. Water quality parameters are the primary environmental consideration for optimizing aquaponic production and for directly impacting fish welfare/health issues and plant needs. In aquaponic systems, the uptake of nutrients should be maximised for the healthy production of the plant biomass but without neglecting the best…