Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The traditional consequences of the economic growth are the overuse of natural resources and the generation of waste. Both consequences could cause negative environmental impacts. To achieve a sustainable development, the application of decoupling waste from economic growth could be the solution strategy. This study aims at analyzing the potential of decoupling waste of High Grade -Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipments from economic growth and its impact on saving natural resources and environmental Production. The analysis showed that there was a significant impact on offsetting the consumption of primary material sources from natural resources as well securing a secondary material source with less environmental negative impacts.

Kankaria Lake, the biggest artificial lake of Ahmedabad located in south-eastern part of the city is studied based on the data of water quality parameters and phytoplankton collected from the literature over one year. The data was categorized into summer, monsoon and winter seasons of the year. The available data is transformed into National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) and Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) using mathematical equations. The NSFWQI ranges from 70-80 for all the seasons while SDI in the range of 3.4-3.5 indicates the slight pollution level and good water quality of the lake. Through NSFWQI and SDI, it can also be concluded that physicochemical and biological characteristic of Kankaria lake water shows sign of further improvement somewhere between summer and monsoon. The Naviculla Species is found to be dominant among the investigated phytoplankton genera and has great impact on the lake water quality. Further, it is suggested to do an extensive study of Naviculla Species in summer and monsoon for further improvement of lake water quality in future.

Phytoattenuation is a novel green remediation approach which can be employed in both sediment and a soil decontamination. Pot experiments have been conducted to evaluation two pollution levels of a sediments consisted of high pollution from swine industries and low contamination from campus wetland. EDTA demonstrated satisfactory metal uptake and mobility enhancement has been achieved. Pb is less mobile which induced low vetiver translocation while Zn is the most mobile which possesses high bioavailability. Four sessions of planting and harvesting gradually decreasing Cu and Zn levels the constrictions decreasing to achieve local a sediment criteria which can be used for agricultural a soil conditioning. The results of this study is prominent with gradually mitigating a sediment contamination is less detriment to a sediment properties relative to commonly used a soil washing.

Field experiment was conducted in farmer’s field near Agricultural Research Station, Dharwad, Karnataka State, India which was on the bank domestic sewage course in split plot design with three replications. Main plots included two types of lands (land irrigated with sewage water since 1970 and land irrigated with bore well water since 1992). Sub plots allotted with sources of irrigation consisted of sewage alone, bore well water alone (good water) and alternate sewage and bore well water. Analysis of sewage water for major and minor plant nutrients content revealed its potential as source of nutrients and water for crop growth. The soil physical properties especially bulk density and moisture holding capacity was improved significantly in sewage land over bore well irrigated land. Yield of wheat crop was positively correlated with these soil properties. There was reduction in soil pH in sewage land (7.24) over bore well irrigated land (7.65). The sewage irrigated land recorded significantly more bacterial and fungal colonies, dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase enzymes activities in soil. Sources of irrigation also differed significantly producing the highest microbial colonies, phosphatase and dehydrogenase enzymes activity in sewage water irrigation treatment followed by alternate irrigation as sewage water is good source of organic phosphorus (11.9–17.3 ppm). Irrigation with sewage water improved the performance of wheat crop as evidenced by higher grain yield (4100 kg ha-1), protein content in grains (12.8%), and dry gluten (8.9%) compared to bore well water irrigation. Characterization of domestic sewage effluent showed that it can be used as source of irrigation water and top dressing nutrients.

This study mainly utilized model basins to conduct relevant water quality analyses and tests to understand the influence of the shading effect of wetland plants in the natural water purification system on algae control and eutrophication of water bodies. The model basin tests are based on the physical shading effect in order to evaluate and further understand the influence of algae control and water quality parameters. The physical shading tests were conducted at different rates (100, 70, 50, 30, and 0%) and the research results indicate that the initial dissolved oxygen concentration of each group is between 5 - 7 mg/L. On Day 5, the average dissolved oxygen concentration of the 100 (aerobic) , 100 (anaerobic), 70, 50, 30 and 0% groups is respectively 9.22 ± 1.24, 8.54 ± 1.23, 18.8 ± 3.74, 21.71 ± 0.41, 22 ± 0, and 22 ± 0 mg/L while that of the 70, 50, 30, and 0% groups significantly increases. The initial concentration of Chlorophyll a of the 100 (aerobic) , 100 (anaerobic), 70, 50, 30 and 0% groups is, respectively, 5.27 ± 0.93, 5.92 ± 0.00, 7.9 ± 5.59, 5.92 ± 0.00, 7.9 ± 5.59 and 13.82 ± 2.79 μg/L. On Day 5, the average concentration of Chlorophyll a is, respectively, 57.27 ± 11.17, 9.87 ± 2.79, 244.86 ± 50.34, 280.4 ± 32.92, 329.77 ± 15.55 and 250.78 ± 32.21 μg/L. In general, the physical shading effect can prevent photosynthesis by algae in water by absorbing light and converting light into chemical energy for self growth and proliferation that cause a rapid increase in the number of algae. The physical shading effect, however, cannot reduce nutrients; this leads to a high nutrient level in water bodies during the latter stages of the tests. After the introduction of the Carlson Tropic State Index (CTSI), the completely shaded water bodies at the initial stage of tests are mesotrophic water bodies that contain neutral nutrients. The partially shaded water bodies are eutrophic. In the latter stages of the tests, the former turned eutrophic while the latter turned mesotrophic. The main cause lies in the relatively higher weight CTSI placed on total phosphorous content.

Phytomediation is an environmentally friendly green rehabilitation technology that is often incorporated with an application to improve calcium peroxide and phytohormones required for the growth of agricultural plants with the expectation to improve the effectiveness of plant rehabilitation. This study mainly consists of two parts: (1) water culture experiment and (2) pot culture experiment. In the water culture experiment, we attempt to understand the influence of the addition of calcium peroxide, phytohormones (IAA and GA3) and a chelating agent on the growth of sunflower plants. From the growth, we are then able to know the effectiveness of the addition of phytohormones. However, in the pot culture experiment, when hormones and the chelating agent EDTA are introduced to different plant groups at the same time, if the nutrition in the water required by plants is not available, the addition of the hormone cannot negate the toxicity caused by EDTA. In terms of calcium peroxide, due to quick release of oxygen in water, this study fails to apply calcium peroxide to the water culture experiment. When the pot culture experiment is used to examine the influence of hormones at different concentration levels on the growth of sunflowers, GA3 10-8M is reported to have the optimal effectiveness, followed by IAA 10-8M; IAA 10-12M has the lowest effectiveness. According to an accumulation analysis of heavy metals at different levels, GA3 concentrates in leaves to transport nutrition in soil to leaves. This result in an excellent TF value of 2.329G of GA3 than 1.845 of the control group indicating that the addition of the hormone and chelating agent to GA3 increases the TF value and the chelating agent is beneficial to the sunflower plant. If we examine phytoattenuation ability, the onemonth experiment was divided into three stages for ten days each. The concentration level of heavy metals in the soil at each stage dropped continuously while that of the control group decreased from 31.63 mg/kg to 23.96 mg/kg, GA3 from 32.09 mg/kg to 23.04 mg/kg and EDTA from 30.65 mg/kg to 25.93 mg/kg indicating the quickest growth period of the sunflowers from the formation of the bud to blossom. During the stage, the quick upward transportation of nutrition results in quick accumulation of heavy metals; the accumulated speed of heavy metals is found higher than that of directly planted plants. This study shows an improvement in the effectiveness of the addition of hormones on plant extraction and when rehabilitation is incorporated with sunflowers with the beginning bud formation, better treatment effectiveness can be reached.