Search results for "Outfall"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Assessment of the embodied energy for manufacturing and laying a submarine outfall pipeline
2008
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to a submarine outfall pipeline intended for the disposal of treated MWW in the South Tyrrhenian Sea, on Western Coast of Sicily. The pipe serves 115 thousands inhabitants; it is 3,1 km long with an outer diameter of 800 mm and is allocated in a submarine trench down to 18 m bsl. The pipe ends with a multiport diffuser with outer diameter 500 mm. The whole pipeline is made in HDPE and is statically stabilized by cast iron rings and concrete anchor blocks. From the detailed constructive project of the pipeline the most relevant items involved were drawn and the most important ones were selected, both as materials employed and as laying …
Analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes as a tool for assessing the environmental impact of aquaculture: a case study from the western Medite…
2005
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios ( 13C/ 12 C and 15N/14 N) of in situ dominant primary producers and consumers were investigated to assess the impact on a natural ecosystem of a land-based fish farm along the south-western coast of Sicily (Italy). The putatively impacted area close to the farm along outfall was compared with other locations at increasing distances from the outfall. Carbon and mainly nitrogen stable isotopes revealed evidence of widespread aquaculture waste in the study site: benthic organisms collected in the impacted area showed more enriched δ 15N signatures than those at greater distances from the outfall, suggesting a large contribution of aquaculture waste to …
Epifaunal and infaunal responses to submarine mine tailings in a Norwegian fjord.
2019
Abstract Disposal of mine tailings in marine shallow water ecosystems represents an environmental challenge, and the present paper reports results from a field study in Fraenfjorden, Norway, which is subject to such disposal. Structural and functional responses of benthic infauna and epifauna were investigated along a gradient from heavy tailings deposition to reference conditions. The tailings clearly impacted the faunal composition, with lowered species number close to the outfall. Total abundance of infauna increased in the most impacted area due to dominance of opportunistic species, whereas the epifauna was reduced and represented by a few scattered specimens only. In the most impacted…
Urban water quality modelling: a parsimonious holistic approach for a complex real case study
2010
In the past three decades, scientific research has focused on the preservation of water resources, and in particular, on the polluting impact of urban areas on natural water bodies. One approach to this research has involved the development of tools to describe the phenomena that take place on the urban catchment during both wet and dry periods. Research has demonstrated the importance of the integrated analysis of all the transformation phases that characterise the delivery and treatment of urban water pollutants from source to outfall. With this aim, numerous integrated urban drainage models have been developed to analyse the fate of pollution from urban catchments to the final receiving …
Stable isotope evidence for the environmental impact of a land-based fish farm in the western Mediterranean
2004
Isotopic examination (delta(13)C and delta(15)N) of organic matter sources and consumers was used to assess the impact and trace the dispersal of wastewater from a land-based fish farm in western Mediterranean. The results provide evidence of the non-negligible effect of aquaculture facilities on the natural stable isotopic composition of organisms. Aquaculture waste entered the food web, altering the natural isotopic composition of organic matter sources at the base and the upper trophic levels. Nitrogen-rich fish waste mainly affected delta(15)N values, while delta(13)C showed less alteration. Waste seemed to disperse widely enough to affect the isotopic composition at the study site abou…
A brine evaporative cooler/concentrator for autonomous thermal desalination units
2011
In recent years growing attention has been paid to the problem of brine disposal due to the raising awareness of significant environmental issues related to the use of desalination processes for fresh water production. This is particularly relevant when desalination units are located in remote sites, characterised by major complexity in the construction and management of intake and outfall structures. In the present work a novel device, named brine evaporative cooler/concentrator (BECC, patent pending), has been developed for coupling with small-scale thermal desalination plants in order to reduce the problem of brine disposal. Such device fulfils two different functions: i) cooling of the …
Posa e recupero di cavi sottomarini per telecomunicazioni: energia e materiali in gioco.
2005
Undersea cables for telecommunications are put out after 20 to 25 years of service in order to be replaced by new type ones that can yield a better service. As a rule, decommissioned cables are retrieved for the part stretching from the shoreline to the line (-30 m). This operation is useful from the environmental standpoint, as at the price of an energy expenditure of about 3 MJ/m an amount of materials having embodied energy as high as 72 times of it are recovered. Still, the larger part of an undersea cable lies offshore and is usually left on the site, so the actual energy recovery is small – just about few units per cent – compared with the energy (embodied + used for laying) required …
Dual Multilevel Urban Drainage Model
2005
In urban areas, when heavy rains occur, the discharge capacity of sewers is usually unable to transport the effective rainfall reaching the streets. When the runoff flow rate exceeds the capacity of the storm sewer system, the excess flow is conveyed through the street network as overland flow. A dual model is proposed for modeling the system as a double network, formed by an upper network of open channels (street gutters) and a lower network of closed conduits (sewer pipes). What is new in this model is its capacity to take into account the hydrodynamic relationship between the flows in the upper and lower networks. The model is applied to computing the response of a real monitored basin; …