Search results for "FOREST"

Social decision making on technology and the environment in Spain

1999

Abstract This paper outlines the current status of the direct participation of citizens and public interest groups in decision making, on issues related to technology and the environment in the context of one specific country, namely Spain. It presents the kind of public participation possible today in Spain, where participatory management of technology is still relatively limited. The article analyzes the causes for the current situation, based on several recent case studies, as well as views expressed by key actors. The cases described, encompass a wide range of modern technologies, and include genetic engineering, environmental information, forestry management, and also the environmental…

Trends in scientific research on climate change in agriculture and forestry subject areas (2005–2014)

2017

The term “Climate change” involves an alteration of the mean and variability of the climate properties. It implies unusual variations in the planet earth atmosphere, which causes related effect on other parts of the planet. The reduction in the land crops annual yield is derived from those alterations. The objective of this paper was to contribute to a better understanding of the scientific knowledge of climate change and its effect concerning agriculture and investigate its evolution through published papers. The items under study were obtained from the Web of Science (WOS) platform from Thomson Reuters. A bibliometric and social network analysis was performed to determine the indicators o…

Estimation of pulp yield in industrial oxygen-alkali delignification of softwood kraft pulp

2002

Fate of Oxygen in Industrial Oxygen-Alkali Delignification of Softwood Kraft Pulp

2004

CHEMICAL PULPING. Oxidative degradation of AOX in softwood-based kraft mill effluents from E C F bleachin g

2012

Abstract Softwood-based kraft mill bleaching effluents from the initial bleaching stages D0 and E1 (the bleaching sequence being D0E 1D 1 E2D2) were treated by the oxidative Fenton method (H20rFeS04) to decompose organic pollutants contammg adsorbable organic halogens (AOX). Experiments designed using the Taguchi method were applied to predict the process conditions that would result in a cost-effective and adequate removal of AOX. In addition to the composition and concentration of the reagents (H202 and Fe2+), the main process parameters selected were temperature and reaction time, while pH was adj usted to an approximate value of 4 (the volumetric ratio of the mixed effluents D0:E 1 was …

Thermochemical behavior of Norway spruce ( Picea abies ) at 180-225 °C

2002

Norway spruce (Picea abies) was heated for 2–8 h in the temperature range 180–225 °C, under a steam atmosphere. The chemical analyses of the treated feedstock samples indicated that during heating (total mass loss 1.5–12.5% of the initial DS) carbohydrates (hemicelluloses and cellulose) were clearly more amenable to various degradation reactions than lignin. In addition, major water-soluble products released from the feedstock material during the treatments were classified into several compound groups and changes in the relative mass portion of these groups were monitored by GC during a separate experiment.

Soil Bioengineering in peri-urban Mediterranean areas, an international educational project developed by AIPIN Sicily, APENA, University of Palermo a…

2014

Soil Bioengineering applied to landscape architecture in urban and periurban areas characterized by mediterranean climate is a project funded by Italian MIUR within the program Messaggeri della Conoscenza. It aims to promote experimental initiatives in teaching and research in academic centers of excellence. The project is divided into 3 phases: didactic activity at the University of Palermo, internship at the Institute Superior de Agronomia of the University of Lisbon; dissemination activities of take home messages learned during the exchange period. During the first phase, more than 20 participants made three project proposals to achieve a practice construction exercises. The best five pa…

Saturation excess runoff numerical simulation

2005

Saturation excess runoff is a relevant process which needs additional experimental and modeling efforts. This work is focused on its numerical modeling. The final objective is the successive interpretation of ongoing experimental monitoring results in two watersheds in different areas of Italy where the saturation excess runoff formation mechanism seems to be important. The numerical solution of the two-dimensional Richards’ equation allows the evaluation of the sensitivity to the various influent parameters : rainfall intensity, soil properties, depth and initial water content, slope and hillslope length. Also the subsurface flow is simulated at the same time, allowing the evaluation of th…

Plant diversity enhances the natural attenuation of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAHs and oxygenated PAHs) in grassland soils

2019

Increasing plant species richness stimulates microbial activity in soil, which might favor biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs). To explore the relationship between plant community composition and PACs in grassland soils (Fluvisols exposed to an urban atmosphere), we determined the concentrations of 29 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 15 oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs) in topsoils of 80 plots of a grassland biodiversity experiment. The plots included different levels of plant species richness (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 60 species) and 1–4 plant functional groups (grasses, small herbs, tall herbs, and legumes) in a randomized block design. The concentrations (ng g−1) of ∑29PAHs an…

Manual packing and soil reuse effects on determination of saturated hydraulic conductivity of a loam soil

2022

Abstract Performing laboratory measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, of sieved soil is important for many scientific purposes such as testing theories and methods to determine Ks. A given soil mass can be used only once or it can be reused after a previous use. Little is known on the dependence of the Ks measurements on both the applied packing method and the reuse of the same soil mass. This lack of knowledge makes comparisons among different investigations more or less uncertain. Four packing methods were tested on an initially dry loam soil by measuring Ks with the simplified falling head (SFH) technique. The four methods differed by the used compacting procedure (dropping…