Environment Assessment
Mohammad Reza Veysi; Pourya Pirmoradi; Delaram Garshasbi
Abstract
Introduction: In recent years, sustainable environmental development has become one of the most important topics in various sciences. One of the primary causes of global warming and environmental instability is the excessive production of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide has the greatest amount and effect ...
Read More
Introduction: In recent years, sustainable environmental development has become one of the most important topics in various sciences. One of the primary causes of global warming and environmental instability is the excessive production of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide has the greatest amount and effect among greenhouse gases. Urban transportation is increasingly emitting carbon dioxide. In recent decades, urban transportation has also been an indispensable part of the city and urban life with the increasing expansion of cities and population growth. In many cities, especially less developed cities, urban transportation as well as traffic have currently become a constant challenge and left many environmental effects. The increasing number of city trips has resulted in air pollution, noise pollution, and weather phenomena. The emission of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, is one of the most important destructive effects of urban transportation, which ultimately causes global warming and climate change. Therefore, if the production of carbon dioxide is more than the city's carrying capacity, it will endanger environmental sustainability in the long term. The ecological footprint index is used as an integrated method to calculate the absorption capacity of the city based on carbon production and to evaluate environmental sustainability in many countries of the world at different levels. The ecological footprint is generally a measure of how much land is needed to absorb the carbon produced by humans. The ecological footprint shows the environmental sustainability or unsustainability of the range determined based on the volume of carbon produced. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the ecological footprint of activities that pollute the environment. Since the city of Bojnurd has experienced a significant increase in population and sudden expansion in recent years, particularly after becoming the capital of the province and considering the multifold increase of urban trips in this city, the purpose of this research is evaluation of environmental sustainability for urban transportation patterns of Bojnurd by ecological footprint technique.Materials and Methods: The present research with the descriptive-analytical method evaluates the environmental sustainability of intra-city transportation in Bojnurd. To this end, the required data, including the number of trips, daily movements, and the average distance traveled per trip for each travel pattern by referring to documents, reports, as well as the relevant organizations, has been collected. Then, the ecological footprint of Bojnurd urban transportation is calculated.Results: Finally, by comparing the per ecological footprint capita of Bojnurd urban transportation with the world standard, it is found that out of the five modes of transportation, private cars, taxis, buses, minibuses, and motorcycles, only two models of buses and minibuses are environmentally sustainable. The private car is the most unstable model whose per ecological footprint capita is nine times larger than that of the global standard per capita. This research shows that the transportation system of Bojnurd is environmentally unstable because the volume of carbon dioxide produced by this system is much higher than the capacity of absorbing carbon dioxide by the city's lands.Discussion: Due to the increasing demand for using private cars and the trend of migration to the city, these problems will increase in the future and the process of bad ecological effects on the city of Bojnurd will accelerate, which requires urgent measures and careful planning.
Mohaddese Fereydooni Gavasaraei; Mona Sorahinobar; khadijeh kiarostami
Abstract
Introduction: The oil industry is an important, job-creating, and feeder industry whose products are used as raw materials for other industries. One of the important environmental problems related to this industry is that oil can leak into the environment during extraction, transfer, refining, and processing. ...
Read More
Introduction: The oil industry is an important, job-creating, and feeder industry whose products are used as raw materials for other industries. One of the important environmental problems related to this industry is that oil can leak into the environment during extraction, transfer, refining, and processing. Environmental oil pollution poses a major threat to the ecosystem and human health. Therefore, the elimination of oil contaminants entering the environment, especially soil, is essential for environmental health. The current study aims to provide general information about phytoremediation and review the latest research on the use of different plants to remove oil pollutants from the environment. Additionally, several plant species with the ability to remove oil pollutants have been introduced.Materials and Methods: To conduct this study, the electronic libraries of Elsevier, Springer, and Science Information Center (SID) were searched using the keywords Phytoremediation, Oil Contamination, Plant Remediation, Oil Pollution, and Oil Pollutant. The sources were analyzed after extraction and subject classification.Results: By exploring the sources of scientific information, 10 review articles were extracted as the core and a total of 99 references were extracted and analyzed. Based on the findings, the use of plants to remove all kinds of pollutants has been introduced as one of the cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods. Among the advantages of phytoremediation, the following were mentioned: The need for small financial investment, the possibility of removing pollutants on site, proper aesthetics, preventing soil erosion, preventing the release of toxic substances, and the possibility of using this method in areas with low pollutant concentrations. According to studies, plants utilize various mechanisms, including phytoextraction, phytovolatilization, phytostabilization, phytodegradation, rhizodegradation, or rhizofiltration to remove pollutants from environments. In this study, 12 plants effective in removing heavy metals and 30 plants capable of phytoremediation of oil and related toxic compounds, i.e. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were introduced. Discussion: Phytoremediation is an environmentally friendly method that is based on solar energy. It is economically reasonable and its commercialization is possible. Currently, phytoremediation technology is in its early stages and there are many technical problems to be overcome for its development. Among plants, herbaceous plants because of their high root surface area are efficient in the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Currently, especially in our country, there is an urgent need to discover new plant species with the ability to tolerate and remove environmental pollutants such as oil pollution. It is also necessary to carry out research to optimize plant treatment processes, understand plant–environment interactions, and microbial interactions and finding appropriate equipment to do it. In addition, the use of molecular techniques and the development of transgenic plants to increase the efficiency of the plant to remove toxic materials are expanding. Therefore, genetic engineering is expected to play an important role in increasing the application of plant breeding technologies. Studies on these strategies will be very useful in developing simpler and cost-effective tools for phytoremediation.
Mehri Shams Ghahfarokhi; Abbas Askari Nodoushan; Faride Shams Ghahfarokhi
Abstract
The population of the earth between 1960 and 2018 has risen from three billion to over seven billion. During this period, humankind has made unprecedented changes in the global environment. The relationship between population and environment is a two-way relationship. On the one hand, population growth ...
Read More
The population of the earth between 1960 and 2018 has risen from three billion to over seven billion. During this period, humankind has made unprecedented changes in the global environment. The relationship between population and environment is a two-way relationship. On the one hand, population growth and industrial progress impact on the environment, and on the other hand, environmental changes, drought and global warming, and the melting of glaciers ... affect population dynamics. With regard to environmental issues that have become acuter in recent years due to global warming and increasing greenhouse gases, increasing attention to the problem of population growth and the impact that population growth can have on the environment, is a concern an important issue for demographers. Environmental crises, especially the water crisis in recent years, have raised the question of whether Iran is capable of sustaining this population due to carrying capacity of the land. To this end, in this study, using a library method, the relationship between population and environment has been investigated. The results of the surveys showed that with a population increase of 106 million by 1420 and 107 billion cubic meters of drinking water needed for this population, and the continuing shortage of water in the country, as well as the lack of renewable water resources, the country faces challenges in the future.
Water Pollution
Mohammad Ebrahim Farashiani; Marziyeh Alinejad; Seyyedeh Masoomeh Zamani
Abstract
Rapid population growth has increased the need for agricultural and food products and paved the way for the development of agricultural activities. Due to the limited land for cultivation, the increasing need for food will be possible only by achieving maximum productivity per unit area and increasing ...
Read More
Rapid population growth has increased the need for agricultural and food products and paved the way for the development of agricultural activities. Due to the limited land for cultivation, the increasing need for food will be possible only by achieving maximum productivity per unit area and increasing crop quality. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides as well as irrigation are among the effective methods to increase the productivity of agricultural products, among which, the use of chemical fertilizers has always been one of the most important priorities in improving the agricultural activities of producers. Farmers consider the use of these chemical inputs to increase crop yield, improve soil fertility and increase their income. Recent studies have shown that excessive and untimely use of fertilizers has several adverse effects on the environment and human health. These effects include leaching and displacement of compounds in different soil layers, groundwater and surface water pollution, accumulation of heavy metals and nitrates, increased wetland feed, air pollution and accumulation of nitrogen gases, sulfur and greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and extinction. He noted the ozone layer and the acidification of rain and the accumulation of chemicals in plant, animal and human tissues. The purpose of this study is to identify the environmental and biological effects of improper use of chemical fertilizers and to provide a practical solution to reduce consumption and environmental pollution.
Environmental Education
Volume 1, Issue 57 , January 0, , Pages 47-56
Abstract
The environment watch assistance course (Mohit-Yar) was held with the aim of enhancing of environmental knowledge of primary students by the department of environment. The main purpose of this study was to the analysis of Mohit-Yar courses in the Ahvaz city. The present study is experimental and practical. ...
Read More
The environment watch assistance course (Mohit-Yar) was held with the aim of enhancing of environmental knowledge of primary students by the department of environment. The main purpose of this study was to the analysis of Mohit-Yar courses in the Ahvaz city. The present study is experimental and practical. All of the primary students were considered as the statistical population which a sample of 1325 students from 2 groups of trained and untrained (control group) was selected randomly. The present study has been done in two separate phase. The first phase was done with the purpose of determining overall educational situation and investigation of educational content. In the second phase investigated the environment knowledge of students with using researcher-made questionnaire on the basis of educational content. The second phase data were analyzed using SPSS (V20). The results showed that between environment knowledge means of the control group and trained group there is a significant difference. The result of chi-square test confirmed the relationship between environmental levels of knowledge and experimental groups, which indicating the high success of the training course on the enhancing of the environmental knowledge level of primary school students.