Application of GAINS model for assessing selected air pollutants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,Pakistan

Pakistan is a developing country existing geographically at a pivoted location between two of the world’s largest pollution emitting countries (China and India) which adds to the severity of environmental issues faced by the country. These concerns include air pollution, climate change, and extreme weather situations prevailing in Pakistan. This increasing air pollution is deteriorating the health, threatening the food security and adding up its share to the already existing global warming. The initial step in devising a wide ranging, multifaceted, economically feasible, and sustainable solution to deal with the severity of this issue is the quantification of the air pollution and greenhouse gas emission in Pakistan. The GAINS model is one of the most comprehensive tools, dealing with the air pollutants and greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol. This study has utilized this model to analyze the source-based anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants (NH₃ and SO₂), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and greenhouse gases (CH₄ and CO₂), their impacts and abatement cost, for the duration of 1990–2030, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan regions of Pakistan. An overall increasing trend was observed during 1990–2030 for (a) air pollutants: NH₃ (223.52–568.87kT/Y); SO₂ (50.52–332.95kT/Y), (b) VOCs (121.76–246.81kT/Y), and (c) greenhouse gases: CO₂ (7.83–62.45MT/Y) and CH₄ (1120-2314kT/Y). The emission inventories created for all greenhouse gases together estimated the increase of 42.37 to 138.57 MTCO₂eq. for greenhouse gases over the time duration of 1990–2030.     

Scleractinian coral communities of Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf

The abundance and health of scleractinian coral communities of Hormuz Island were investigated. For this purpose, we employed 20 m line intercept transects—12 in the intertidal zone and 15 subtidally to evaluate coral cover and community composition. The estimated dead coral coverage was 6.21%±0.81%, while live coral coverage was 16.93%±1.81%, considered as very poor. Totally, 12 genera were recorded, of which Porites with 11.9%±1.4% live cover was the dominant, while Goniopora had the least cover (0.07%±0.08%). Based on Mann-Whitney U-test, live coral coverage, dead coral coverage, algal coverage, cover of other benthic organisms and abiotic components showed significant univariate differences between zones (p<0.05). The Spearman correlation test between the abundance of biotic and abiotic components indicated significant negative correlation of live coral and sand with zoantharian and significant positive correlation of algae and other benthic organisms with rubble. The reef health indices used for the corals indicated that, in general, the environmental conditions were not suitable, which could be attributed to both natural and anthropogenic factors, the most important of which was zoantharian’ overgrowth on the scleractinian corals in this region.     

Correction to: New climatic zones in Iran: a comparative study of different empirical methods and clustering technique

Theoretical and Applied Climatology -     

Proposed algorithm for optimization of directional additional exploratory drill holes and computer coding

Block model estimated based on the drill hole information gathered during exploration stage is not appropriate for short- and medium-term mine planning. Additional information prior to mining is required for various purposes, that the source of this information is drill holes. In most situations, reducing the overall uncertainty on the estimation is the major objective of additional drilling and collecting samples from them. The topic of selecting the optimum location for additional exploratory drill holes has been of interest to mining engineers and geostatisticians in the second half of last century, but all of them are not able to optimize directional drill holes because they are based on the 2D space and do not consider the 3D extension of drill holes and block model. This study introduces a methodology to optimize the dip and location of additional exploratory drill holes based on the defined objective function with considering 3D extension of ore body and drill holes. Direct search simulated annealing used that is efficient and robust method for solving the nonlinear unconstrained global optimization problems. This method is very useful in the case that drilling the drill holes with different dips has been obligated due to topography condition and ore body situation. A case study in gold resource illustrates the method.     

Biodegradation of phenol from a synthetic aqueous system using acclimatized activated sludge

Phenol is one of the aromatic hydrocarbons. Phenol and its derivatives are highly toxic. These pollutants can be observed in the effluents of many industries. This research investigates the removal of phenol by the use of activated sludge in a batch system. The effects of influencing factors on biodegradation efficiency have been evaluated. The main factors considered in this study were the volume of acclimatized activated sludge inoculation, pH, temperature, and initial concentration of phenol. The inoculation volumes of 1, 3, and 5 mL of acclimatized activated sludge were taken into account. Different pH values of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were examined. The experiments were conducted for temperatures of 25, 30, 35, and 40 °C and initial phenol concentrations of 400, 800, 1,000, and 1,500 ppm. The results show that the acclimatized activated sludge has a high capacity for the removal of phenol. From a 100-mL aqueous solution was removed 1,500 ppm of phenol after 80 h. Furthermore, maximum phenol removal was observed for an inoculation volume of 5 mL for three different phenol concentrations of 100, 400, and 800 ppm. The best pH was 7 for the biodegradation process, and the optimum temperature was 30 °C. It was further found that an increase in the phenol concentration increased its removal time. Moreover, the activated sludge could effectively remove about 99.9 % of phenol from a synthetic aqueous solution in a batch system.     

Ascribing soil erosion types for sediment yield using composite fingerprinting technique

Abstract

Soil erosion and eroded sediment are serious threats to sound land management. However, less attention has been given to quantifying the importance of different soil erosion features based on appropriate control measures that could be designated. Accordingly, this research was planned to quantify the contribution of potential sediment sources, i.e. sheet, rill and gully erosion, in Idelo watershed in Zanjan Province, Iran, using composite fingerprinting. Toward this aim, 16 geochemical and organic tracers were detected in sediment sources and sediment deposited at the outlet. The results of applying the composite fingerprinting technique, with a relative error of 16%, showed that sheet, rill and gully sources contributed 56%, 44% and 0%, respectively, to sediment yield. It was also apparent from the results that the composite fingerprinting approach could be successfully utilized to assess the provenance of sediment deposited at the main outlet of the study watershed by soil erosion type.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz     

Analysis of recharge conceptualization in inverse groundwater modelling

ABSTRACT

This study presents a systematic illustration quantifying how misleading the calibration results of a groundwater simulation model can be when recharge rates are considered as the model parameters to be estimated by inverse modelling. Three approaches to recharge estimation are compared: autocalibration (Model 1), the empirical return coefficient method (Model 2), and distributed hydrological modelling using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, SWAT (Model 3). The methodology was applied in the Dehloran Plain, western Iran, using the MODFLOW modular flow simulator and the PEST method for autocalibration. The results indicate that, although Model 1 performed the best in simulating water levels at observation wells in the calibration stage, it did not perform satisfactorily in real future scenarios. Model 3, with SWAT-based recharge rates, performed better than the other models in the validation stage. By not evaluating the model performance solely on calibration results, we demonstrate the relative significance of using more accurate recharge estimates when calibrating groundwater simulation models.

EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis; ASSOCIATE EDITOR M. Besbes     

Age and composition of Antarctic sub-glacial bedrock reflected by detrital zircons,erratics, and recycled microfossils in the Ellsworth Land–Antarctic Peninsula–Weddell Sea–Dronning Maud Land sector (240°E–0°–015°E)

The age and composition of the 14 × 10⁶ km² of Antarctica's surface obscured by ice is unknown except for some dated detrital minerals and erratics. In remedy, we present four new analyses (U–Pb age, T_DM^C, εHf, and rock type) of detrital zircons from Neogene turbidites as proxies of Antarctic bedrock, and review published proxies: detrital hornblendes analysed for Ar–Ar age and bulk Sm–Nd isotopes; Pb isotope compositions of detrital K-feldspars; erratics and dropstones that reflect age and composition; and recycled microfossils that reflect age and facies. This work deals with the 240°E–0°–015°E sector, and complements Veevers and Saeed's (2011) analysis of the 70°E–240°E sector. Each sample is located in its ice-drainage basin for backtracking to the potential provenance. Gaps in age between sample and upslope exposure are specifically attributable to the provenance. The major provenance of detritus west of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is West Antarctica, and of detritus east of the AP East Antarctica. We confirm that the Central Antarctic provenance about a core of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM) and the Vostok Subglacial Highlands (VSH) contains a basement that includes igneous (mafic granitoids) and metamorphic rocks with peak U–Pb ages of 0.65–0.50, 1.20–0.9, 2.1–1.9, 2.8–2.6, and 3.35–3.30 Ga, T_DM^C of 3.6–1.3 Ga, and mainly negative εHf. The potential provenance of zircons of 650–500 Ma age with T_DM^C ages of 1.55 Ga, and of zircons of 1200–900 Ma age with positive εHf lies beneath the ice in East Antarctica south and southeast of Dronning Maud Land within the Antarctic part of the East African–Antarctic Orogen. Zircons with the additional ages of 1.7–1.4 Ga, 2.1–1.9 Ga, and 3.35–3.00 Ga have a potential provenance in the GSM.     

The interannual precipitation variability in the southern part of Iran as linked to large-scale climate modes

The interannual variation of precipitation in the southern part of Iran and its link with the large-scale climate modes are examined using monthly data from 183 meteorological stations during 1974–2005. The majority of precipitation occurs during the rainy season from October to May. The interannual variation in fall and early winter during the first part of the rainy season shows apparently a significant positive correlation with the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, a partial correlation analysis used to extract the respective influence of IOD and ENSO shows a significant positive correlation only with the IOD and not with ENSO. The southeasterly moisture flux anomaly over the Arabian Sea turns anti-cyclonically and transport more moisture to the southern part of Iran from the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf during the positive IOD. On the other hand, the moisture flux has northerly anomaly over Iran during the negative IOD, which results in reduced moisture supply from the south. During the latter part of the rainy season in late winter and spring, the interannual variation of precipitation is more strongly influenced by modes of variability over the Mediterranean Sea. The induced large-scale atmospheric circulation anomaly controls moisture supply from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.     

Nodal-based three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis (3-D DDA)

This paper presents a new numerical model that can add a finite element mesh into each block of the three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis (3-D DDA), originally developed by Gen-hua Shi. The main objectives of this research are to enhance DDA block’s deformability. Formulations of stiffness and force matrices in 3-D DDA with conventional Trilinear (8-node) and Serendipity (20-node) hexahedral isoparametric finite elements meshed block system due to elastic stress, initial stress, point load, body force, displacement constraints, inertia force, normal and shear contact forces are derived in detail for program coding. The program code for the Trilinear and Serendipity hexahedron elements have been developed, and it has been applied to some examples to show the advantages achieved when finite element is associated with 3-D DDA to handle problems under large displacements and deformations. Results calculated for the same models by use of the original 3-D DDA are far from the theoretical solutions while the results of new numerical model are quite good in agreement with theoretical solutions; however, for the Trilinear elements, more number of elements are needed.