Recent Advances in Environmental Science from the Euro-Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions (3rd Edition)

Sewage from electroplating industries as well as waste after water treatment is especially dangerous for environment due to the high content of toxic heavy metal compounds. The paper presents novel technology that allows reducing initial concentrations of heavy metal ions in electroplating production wastewater from 25 g/dm3 to less than 0.7 mg/dm3. Proposed process of integrated wastewater treatment consists of two innovative methods: energy-efficient ferritisation with activation by electromagnetic pulse discharges instead of expansive thermal one as well as advance sorption treatment by suspensions containing new nanosorbents of polyvalent iron oxides obtained by electroerosion dispersion. This technology of water purification allows to meet requirements of current Ukrainian standards for water reuse in electroplating production. Structural studies of the treatment-generated waste have shown significant content of ferrite phases with magnetic properties and high potential for further utilisation. In contrast to traditional technologies, developed comprehensive process for treatment of liquid waste flows would ensure rational use of water and energy inputs in the system of industrial production.

Activated carbon (AC) is extensively known as an excellent adsorbent, suitable for contaminants removal from fluids (dyes, components of VOCs, heavy metals…), and numerous precursors have been deployed for its synthesis. In the current research, we used apricot stones due to their plenitude. The purpose of this work is to conduct the thermodynamic study of the adsorption of Victoria Blue dye by activated carbon (AC) synthesized from apricot stones. Therefore, we examined the influence of the stirring speed (300–600 rpm), the adsorbent mass (0.5–2 g), and the temperature (30–60 °C) to identify the optimal conditions for reaching maximum adsorption. The findings indicated that the optimal conditions were: a mass equal to 2 g, a temperature of 30 °C, a stirring speed of 600 rpm, and the adsorption process was exothermic (ΔH° < 0).

To protect the environment and human health from mineral pollutants recently highly rejected, the reuse of waste as adsorbent may be both efficient and economical solution to remove or reduce these environmental hazards. The iron (hydro) oxide impregnation of activated carbon produced from date stones was performed in this study to investigate the removal of Cd and Zn ions from aqueous media in individual and competitive systems. Adsorption tests were performed using both wastewater and synthetic solutions containing Cd or Zn (single system) and both Cd (II) + Zn (II) in the reactional medium (binary system). The pH value for maximum retention was 5.5 for both elements after an optimum contact time about two hours. Langmuir model was considered the best fit for the metal ions removal at 20 °C in both individual and competitive systems in one hand. In another hand, isotherm modulizations demonstrated the efficiency of the impregnated activated carbon in both single and binary systems compared to non-impregnated carbon. Iron-impregnated activated carbon preferentially adsorbed cations in the following order: Cd (II) in single system > Cd (II) in binary system > Zn (II) in single system > Zn (II) in binary system. Results demonstrated that iron-impregnated AC obtained from date stones waste may be used as a promising material to removal heavy metals ions (Cd and Zn) from wastewater.

Human activities such as the combustion of coal, oil, waste and certain industrial processes redistribute heavy metals in large quantities in the environment; they are biopersistent, disrupt ecosystems, deteriorate soils, surface water, forests and crops and accumulate in the food chain; some of these pollutants are carcinogenic to humans. Among the metals that are emitted in the environment, and in particular in water are cadmium and copper. These metals may pass into the blood and get accumulated in the liver, they can also cause kidney problems, and they form metal compounds with urea. To remedy the pollution and contamination problems of these metals, two composites of different ratios (3 parts clay and 2 parts activated carbon, 3C2A, and 2 parts clay and 3 parts activated carbon, 2C3A) based on Algerian clay and activated carbon were synthesized at different percentages by weight. The composite with the better adsorption capacity (3C2A) consisted of 60 (wt%) in activated carbon content. The adsorption of the heavy metals studied was improved by mixing the clay and the activated carbon. In fact, for the adsorption of cadmium on activated carbon, the adsorbed amount (Qa = 17.13 mg g−1) and it increased to 20.22 mg g−1 for the 3C2A composite. These low-cost composites are effective in the heavy metal removal.

Hydrophobic/oleophilic absorbent materials have been mostly studied and used in recovery spilled oil. A facile and ecofriendly strategy was developed to prepare new keratin/cellulose (Ker/Cell)-based composite via the dissolution and regeneration of chicken feather and cardboard wastes in1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BmimCl) ionic liquid solvent. The aim of the present work is to produce a hydrophobic keratin/cellulose cryogel absorbent using hexadecyltrichlorosilane (HTCS) both via liquid phase or gaseous phase conditions. The Ker/Cell cryogel modification with chlorosilanes was successfully verified by a variety of techniques. After silanization, the HTCS-modified Ker/Cell cryogels showed hydrophobicity with an average water contact angle of 110°. Furthermore, the hexadecyltrichlorosilane-modified Ker/Cell cryogel displayed fast and good absorption capacity in the range of 4–14 g/g for various types of oils and organic solvents. Thus, elaborated oleophilic sorbents could be considered as a good alternative for oil spillage cleaning.

In order to solve the oily wastewater problems caused by frequent oil spill accidents and industrial production, hydrophobic/oleophilic absorbent materials have been at the forefront of research to be used in oil/water separation. Herein, for the first time, a facile and green strategy was developed to prepare hydrophobic keratin/cellulose (Ker/Cell)-based composite cryogel. Ker/Cell based cryogel was prepared from chicken feather and cardboard wastes using (Bmim−Cl+) ionic liquid green solvent via regeneration, simply by the freeze-drying method. After being treated with hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) via plasma polymerization process, the obtained Ker/Cell has displayed both hydrophobic and oleophilic behavior. In particular, the plasma hydrophobic modification was significantly rapid (10 min), powerful, and cost-effective. Successful plasma functionalization on the surface of Ker/Cell cryogel was confirmed by a variety of techniques including FTIR, XPS, SEM, and WCA measurement. More importantly, the prepared hydrophobic Ker/Cell cryogel exhibits good and fast absorption capacity in only 30 s (from 4 to 14 g/g) toward various types of oil and organic solvents. Therefore, this renewable, biodegradable, and ecofriendly oil sorbent could be considered as a promising candidate for oil/water separation.

Replacing the synthetic polymer with a biodegradable material, which is mycelium biofoam, has been extensively explored to achieve a sustainable ?green? world. Recently, most of mycelium biofoam studies have focused on material development by using lignocellulosic materials as a substrate for the availability of the material. Nonetheless, wastepaper is one of the lignocellulosic materials that have great potential to be a reinforcement material for the mycelium biofoam fabrication. Therefore, in this study, wastepapers were used as substrates for the production of mycelium biofoam. The mycelium from three different species which are Pleurotus ostreatus, Volvariella volvacea and Schizophyllum commune was screened by using blended wastepaper as a substrate. Based on the growth conditions during the screening procedure, P. ostreatus showed the highest growth area (0.76 cm2) on the wastepaper after 7 days of inoculation compared to V. volvacea and S. commune. P. ostreatus then was subjected in the fabrication process and mechanically characterized after 24 h of the drying process. The effect of growth factors which are spawn loading, moisture content and temperature on fungi growth rate and mechanical behavior was determined. The results show that the highest dry density of mycelium biofoam was observed at 60% (w/w) of moisture content (0.451 g/cm3), and the highest compressive strength was observed at a temperature of 30 °C (2.343 MPa). Hence, wastepaper as the reinforcement material has great potential for the fabrication of mycelium biofoam.

The main aim of this work is to examine the adsorption mechanism of removing Methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solution using activated carbon prepared from palm tree fibers biomass waste (ACPTF) as a sustainable raw material by chemical–thermal activation (H3PO4). Batch method was used to study the adsorption experimental factors such as pH of the solution, adsorbent mass, concentration of dye and contact time. The equilibrium isotherms and kinetics of the adsorption process were studied. The desorption and regeneration of used ACPTF were examined to determine its efficiency to remove MB dye from wastewater. The results revealed that enhancement in adsorption capacity was observed at acidic medium pH 2. The maximum adsorption capacity 27.8 mg/g was obtained from an initial concentration 20 mg/L and an adsorbent dosage of 0.1 g. The high percentage removal of MB dye was 99.9% after 30 min contact time from aqueous solution. The adsorption isotherm study found that the adsorption process fitted well with the Langmuir model, with maximum adsorption capacity of 29.58 mg/g. The adsorption kinetic study found the adsorption process obeys pseudo-second-order model with correlation coefficients R2 value was 1.0. The ACPTF showed the ability to regenerate up to 5 successive cycles by using adjusted distilled water at pH 8.5 for desorption of MB. This indicated that the economical, renewable and efficient adsorbent ACPTF prepared from agriculture waste be used for the elimination of dye from wastewater with the possibility of its regeneration.

Food industries generate massive waste, which involves environmental and economic problems. The aim of this study was to explore the utilization of agro-industrial wastes, the pea pods, as a source for the production of cellulose microfibers (CMFs). The CMFs were obtained using a chemical alkali extraction and a bleaching treatment. The proximate analysis of the raw material showed that it is composed of 27.3 wt% α-cellulose, 17.3 wt% hemicelluloses and 14.94 wt% lignin, among other components. The yield, α-cellulose content and average diameter of the extracted cellulose were 26.1%, 84.16% and 11 μm, respectively. The removal of most hemicelluloses and lignin from the surface of the fibers was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The degree of crystallinity of CMFs was 63.61%, and the peaks observed in X-ray diffraction patterns refer to the presence of type I cellulose. Thermogravimetric analysis of the extracted cellulose demonstrated its thermal stability compared to the raw and treated materials. Results are promising for taking advantage of these vegetable residues for the isolation of cellulose microfibers and their potential application as reinforcement materials in polymer matrices leading to effective waste management.

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) use biomass as fuel and are expected to improve domestic waste treatment issues while producing bioelectricity. However, MFC technology has many unsolved challenges, such as low power output. This study used a soil microbial fuel cell (SMFC) that uses activated carbon sheets to fabricate the electrodes. We adopted Co-MnO2/C as a catalyst to improve the catalytic activity of the air cathode. The air cathode with the catalyst was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry measurements. The SMFC was also evaluated by measuring the power density. The SMFC with the air cathode loaded the catalyst showed a maximum power density of 1 µW/cm2, while that of the SMFC with the air cathode without the catalyst was 0.45 µW/cm2. In other words, the air cathode with catalyst showed about twice the output power density as the air cathode without catalyst. In addition, the 500 h experimental result confirmed the long-term stability of the catalyst. This study suggests that the use of the fabricated catalyst can improve SMFC output.

In this paper, the photocatalytic degradation and mineralization of the ciprofloxacin antibiotic (CPF) have been performed with anatase TiO2 catalyst, supported on cellulosic paper, under UV light, using lamps Philips (wavelength of 365 nm), and at various initial CPF concentrations, concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, pH, and reaction times. The CPF removal efficiencies and the total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiencies have been studied using the experimental responses obtained by a four-factor-three-level Box–Behnken design under response surface methodology (BBD-RSM). This provided 27 experiments for CPF initial concentration ranging from 10 to 40 mg/L, the concentration of hydrogen peroxide ranging from 50 to 300 mg/L, the solution pH ranging from 2 to 10, and the contact time ranging from 1 to 5 h, which were respectively coded as X1, X2, X3, and X4 at three levels (− 1; 0; and 1). The significances of the factors and their interactions were determined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests. The optimum experimental conditions of the tested variables were determined by graphical optimization, and the experimental conditions were found to reach maximum degradation (100%) and maximum mineralization (81.50%), at a CPF initial concentration of 10 mg/L, hydrogen peroxide concentration of 175 mg/L, pH 8, and reaction time of 4 h. The BBD resulted in a good-technique to study and optimize the effects of various factors on CPF degradation. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was performed to define the chemical compositions of the catalyst before and after the degradation of the antibiotic. The surface morphologies of the catalyst before and after the treatment were also characterized using scanning electron microscopy. The degradation mechanism was also discussed. The use of hydrogen peroxide in the presence of TiO2 catalyst and under UV light could be adopted as an efficient method for CPF degradation and mineralization.

Graphitic-carbon nitride–zinc oxide (g-C3N4/ZnO) composite was synthetized by one-pot method. Intimate mixtures of melamine and zinc nitrate prepared by milling were thermally treated in air. The obtained materials were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), physisorption of N2 at − 196 ºC, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and point zero of charge (pHPZC). Photocatalytic activity in aqueous solution under UV-LED irradiation (λ = 385 nm) was evaluated in the degradation of a model cytostatic drug, namely 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The formation of g-C3N4 particles on ZnO structures improved the porosity and the basic surface character of the composite, favoring the photoactivity for the 5-FU removal. g-C3N4/ZnO showed higher efficiency than the pure phases used as reference, including also a benchmark TiO2 photocatalyst.

Cerium- and Europium-doped titanium nanotube (Ce and Eu-TNTs) were obtained by one-step electrochemical anodization. The arrays were characterized by SEM–EDS, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that pure TNTs, Ce-TNTs and Eu-TNTs thin films exhibit (101) XRD peak corresponding to the TiO2 anatase phase. The latter is consistent with the recorded Raman signal observed at 143 cm−1 (Eg mode) and 394 cm (B1g mode), respectively. The morphology and surface studies reveal a nanotubular structure. The photoactivity of Ce- and Eu-doped TNTs was evaluated by a comparison of the photoelectric behaviors in an alkaline medium. EIS plots indicated that doped TNT photocatalyst possesses a lower electron transfer resistance than pure TNTs, which can lead to an effective separation of photogenerated electron/hole pairs. Under optimal conditions, a maximum photodegradation efficiency of AB dye, as pollutant model, was achieved at pH = 3, reaching about 94.79% and 96.77% respectively for Eu-TNTs (2mM) and Ce-TNTs.

Due to the increasing demand and unprecedented pressure, on overexploited water resources in Kairouan, the production of freshwater from unconventional sources (brackish water, impaired water) becomes necessary. Solar distillation is a promising method of providing freshwater from saltwater and brackish water. This work presents an experimental study of a spiral module, membrane distillation unit (MD) coupled with solar water collector. The study is made up of three circuits: The first circuit is a saltwater filling circuit, the second circuit consists of an MD module, and the third circuit is distilled water. The MD unit operates by a photovoltaic module. The system is a research and development cooperation project between the Tunisian LASEM Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Solar membrane distillation for resource-efficient desalination in remote areas. The effect of solar irradiation influences the temperature of the feed chamber, the flow of hot water through the feed chamber on the membrane side, and the heat exchanger which works with the external heat source, which varies between 60 and 83 °C. The hot vapor flow on the membrane side is cooled by the cold water intake in the condensation chamber on the membrane side. The results obtained can be detected at a high productivity of 18.6 l/h.

Natural organic matter (NOM) consists of a broad range of chemical compounds with different molecular structures usually present in natural surface water. The co-existence of NOM in surface water, streams, lakes, and rivers poses a serious challenge to the practical application of persulfate-activated advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). NOM can easily adhere to the surface of catalysts blocking the active sites with numerous oxygen groups serving as a barrier between the persulfate, catalysts, and organic contaminants. This inhibitive effect has been credited to the competition for the reactive oxygen species between the organic contaminant and NOM (e.g., humic acid). Moreover, it can act as an OH– scavenger as well as a scavenger of positive holes (h+) effectively forming a barrier limiting the reaction of persulfate with catalysts. Therefore, this short review examines the negative impact of NOM on persulfate-activated AOPs and different ways to which this can be mitigated.

Biogas purification should be done to enrich methane composition in biogas. The technology to enrich methane composition is by removing carbon dioxide as impurity gas. The effect of carbon dioxide adsorption in biogas has been investigated. In this study, biogas purification using rice-straw biochar aimed to reduce carbon dioxide composition in biogas increasing biogas performance. The experiment used different adsorption times. The treatment contact time of adsorption was divided into four treatments: 10, 15, 20, and 25 min. Before the experiment, the optimal volume of adsorbent also has been investigated. The result showed that the use of 100% by volume of biochar is the most optimal volume of adsorbent. The result also showed a decrease in carbon dioxide composition from four treatments in the different adsorption contact times by 75.57; 8.2; 3.11; and – 13.81%, respectively. The highest carbon dioxide adsorption was performed by 10 min of adsorption time. With the increasing adsorption time, the carbon dioxide adsorption ability also decreased. In the 20 min of adsorption time, the rice-straw biochar showed a saturation point, so the optimal adsorption time is 20 min.

A continuous photocatalytic ozonation reactor was developed at a laboratory scale for wastewater treatment. It was evaluated by using Amido Black (AB) in aqueous solution as a model pollutant. The TiO2 nano-catalysts presented as rutile phase were coated on stainless steel grids by the atomic layer deposition technique (ALD). The efficiency of ozonation (O3), photolytic ozonation (O3/UV), and combined photocatalytic ozonation process (TiO2/UV/O3) has been investigated and compared for AB removal. The effects of the initial dye concentration, pH, and radical scavenger (tert-butanol) have been examined using the designed reactor. Under the optimal operating parameters (C0 = 300 mg L−1, pH = 9 and ozone dose = 22 mg min−1), the results showed that about 64% of the initial TOC and 100% of AB color removal (at a concentration of 300 mg L−1) were achieved within 30 min. The overall reaction pseudo-first-order rate was significantly enhanced using the O3/UV/TiO2 process (kapp = 0.663 min−1), which allows achieving 100% of color removal in comparison with single ozonation (kapp = 0.589 min−1) and photolytic ozonation (kapp = 0.438 min−1) after 30 min of reaction time. Under the optimal conditions, the O3/UV/TiO2 oxidation process was the most effective process for AB removal from water.

In several fields, including environmental research, missing data are a pervasive issue. It causes serious problems that may lead to significant obstacles when interpreting the findings. Missing data in ecological research are usually due to mechanical malfunction, regular maintenance, and human mistakes. The key to selecting correct imputation techniques is by understanding which group of missing data mechanism observed. Missing data analysis methods are developed only for specific missing data mechanisms. Thus, any imputation techniques may yield bias results when they are not applied accordingly. In air quality data, the missing data mechanism is generally random, wherein the missing values are associated with MAR or MCAR. Therefore, this study aims to identify which group of missing data mechanism belongs to incomplete air pollution data sets in Malaysia. It utilised 15 years (2002–2016) of monitoring records on PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2 of the Alor Setar station in the urban area category. The percentage of missing values for each variable was identified individually. The pattern of missingness was analysed using an independent t-test and logistic regression. A significant p-value shows evidence against the null hypothesis. It showed that the missing air pollution data were MAR or MNAR. For that reason, a logistic regression analysis was performed, and the result was significant. Thus, the missing data mechanism in Malaysia for air pollution data was MAR. It is essential to determine the correct missing group so that any imputation methods applied to the incomplete dataset will not produce bias results.

Agriculture is one of the economic sectors mostly affected by water scarcity and water salinization in the Mediterranean region. In order to provide an innovative and robust solution for groundwater desalination, an all-in-one smart cube for sustainable irrigation was developed within the EU-PRIMA research project SmaCuMed. The goal of the project is to reduce the gap between water balances and optimize agricultural produce by aiming at long-term strategies to prevent and control soil/water salinization. Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) and low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) were tested and compared for the treatment of saline groundwater (TDS: 1–10 g/L) in laboratory scale and will be implemented at pilot scale in Morocco. The smart cube is equipped with foldable solar PV panels (7.4 kWp) to allow the autonomous operation in remote areas. An IoT-based soil and water management system is used for precision irrigation and crop intensification. Different scenarios were calculated for the desalination and the irrigation processes.

Expanding soil and water conservation (SWC) practices faces decision-making problems that are mainly caused by diversities of the environment and stakeholder needs/preferences, as well as difficulties in anticipating planning outcomes. This study applies Integrated LAnd Management Planning Tool (iLAMPT) to examine possible management pathways to address potential soil erosion and costs–benefits driven from different sustainable land management planning scenarios across the Rmel catchment in Tunisia. iLAMPT is an end-user-oriented, spatially explicit modeling tool based on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) adjusted for the sediment delivery ratio (SDR). Different databases and field characterization were used to calibrate the model for the Rmel catchment and validate model outputs at the catchment scale. The tool also has user-friendly interfaces that helped integrate users’ preferences. The tool is meant to integrate expert knowledge into the defining of SWC planning scenarios and related likely impact. A participatory grid-based appraisal was applied to validate the simulated spatial patterns of soil erosion at the catchment level. The first evaluation showed fairly good matching in erosion hotspots. Since the tool allows end-users define planning scenarios/options and provide outputs in a spatially explicit and timely responsive way, it assists effective discussions over landscape planning where land degradation neutrality is the ultimate goal.

Climate change, rising population, and high water usage are few of the factors related with water shortages in Malaysia. Schools are one of the environments where water conservation can be initiated. Thus, this study aims to construct a rainwater harvesting system in school building along with to assess the water conservation awareness (knowledge, attitude, and practices) level among primary school children. Rainwater harvesting system consists of two polyethylene storage tanks, plastic gutters and pipes, utilize building roofs along with electric pump was installed in school toilet building. The rainwater harvesting system installation in school building has resulted in water usage reduction between 91 and 215 m3 in year 2020 compared in year 2019. Besides water usage reduction, the installed rainwater harvesting system has also resulted in water bill reduction along with other environmental and social benefits. In terms of awareness level, a total of 33.8% of good knowledge, 43% of good attitude, and 74.8% of good practice were reported on water conservation initiative among primary school children. This rainwater harvesting system is seen as a low cost innovation which can be utilized as a way to restore water in any school at both local and global contexts.

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) in large watersheds is a major challenge due to the high spatial variability of rainfall, the effects of climate and environmental changes that are increasing and especially their transboundary nature accompanied by growing socio-political tensions. This case study focuses on the Congo River basin, which, due to its vastness, offers valuable insights into the impact of natural processes on sediment dynamics, coastal features, and the evolution of the estuary downstream from its mouth. This research proposes to model surface runoff based on the curves number method, implemented in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and QGIS (QSWAT) software. Data are collected from international public databases, satellite images and ground observations (hydrometric data for the period 2010–2014). For discretization, a spatial division of 303 sub-basins was made corresponding to average areas of Hydrologic Response Unit (HRU) ranging from 0.89 to 190,280.59 Km2. The built model allowed simulation of the monthly flows of the Congo River and its tributaries, with a global coefficient of determination (R2) evaluated at 0.79. It is shown that the most influential parameters on the model performance are: CN2, Sol_AWC, Gw_Delay, and Precipitation.

The central and southern region in Tunisia are highly dependent on groundwater resources especially for agriculture. Most of the extracted resources are slightly to moderately saline, unfit for irrigation. With the dwindling quantities, desalination of brackish waters seems like a viable solution, and it is used in some industries. However, this solution comes with a set of drawbacks that needs to be overcome, which are the high energy consumption and the environmental impacts. This study focuses on how to integrate water desalination for irrigation purposes without disrupting the energy mix of the country. We propose to use an open-source energy optimization model, OSeMOSYS, to study the impact of desalination using Reverse Osmosis on the Tunisian Energy Mix and to help understand how solar energy can play a role in lowering both the cost and environmental impacts.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a solution that can be used to contribute to clean water and sanitation, especially in remote places with difficult access and without optimal connections. The objectives of this work were to design and implement at a pilot level an automated low-cost flowmeters system with IoT to detect water consumption data in the city of Arenillas in southern Ecuador, the border with Peru, South América. The municipal management of Potable Water of Arenillas (EMRAPAH) does not have water meters installed in the homes. This work contributed to determining the feasibility of installing IoT flowmeters in all homes and that they can be billed based on the consumption of drinking water itself. A transmitter–receiver board and a direct one were manufactured with YF-S201 sensors. The plates were installed in a 1/2″ diameter PVC connection of the drinking water treatment plant (WTP) building and a single-family home to test its operation in real conditions. The Wi-Fi network was linked with the Arduino software for interconnection between boards, information processing, visualization, and downloading of historical data in ThingSpeak. The results presented a stationary trend with a total accumulated in the WTP building of 37.05 m3/month and the single-family house of 17.86 m3/month in November 2020. The real conditions test with Internet and electrical power coverage was successful and showed the potential of the IoT to automate the city in the future with flowmeters and control drinking water consumption to contribute to Goal 6 of Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

This work aims to study the kinetics and the adsorption models of organic pollutants in a real textile effluent on three different raw Tunisian clays [Rommanna green clay (RGC), Tabarka white clay (TWC), and Mednine red clay (MRC)]. Since the used effluent is real, the dye concentration is unknown, and the kinetics study and the adsorption isotherms are constructed based on the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The initial COD of the effluent is 3750 mg L−1. The low COD concentrations are obtained by dilution. According to the calculated model parameters from the slopes and intercepts of the linear models and the correlation coefficients R2, the adsorption obeys to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model for the three different clays. Moreover, adsorption isotherms are all L-type, and according to R2 values (R2 ~ 1), both models of Langmuir and Freundlich describe well the adsorption phenomena.

Adsorption represents an effective and reliable method to treat wastewater effluents containing dyes. In this work, authors tested a geopolymer-based adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue. Constant mass of powdered geopolymer (15 mg) was weighed into flasks containing 50 mL of dye solution of specified concentration (ranging between 4 and 200 mg L−1). Operative conditions were pH 9.3 and 25 °C. The concentration of methylene blue of the supernatant solution was determined using an UV spectrophotometer at 668 nm. The adsorption capacity at equilibrium increases from 2.4 to 39 mg g−1 with an increase in the initial dye concentration from 4 to 200 mg L−1. The isotherms of dye adsorption on the geopolymer are well described by Langmuir model. Experimental kinetic data fit a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The prepared geopolymer showed a high methylene blue removal efficiency.

In this study, three cactus formulations: cactus juice (CJ), lyophilized cactus powder (CLP), and oven-dried cactus powder at 60 °C (CDP) were evaluated for their flocculating efficiency in treating an industrial effluent loaded by heavy metals and taken from a local manufactory industry in the region of Sfax, Tunisia. Relevant concentration of heavy metals was registered in the raw wastewater such as iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) at high concentrations exceeding thus the Tunisian standards. For their removal, conventional coagulation using alum solely showed a considerable removal just for Fe and Ni. To enhance the elimination of the third metal, Zn, three cactus bio-flocculants were added as flocculants. A lyophilized and an oven-dried cactus powders ensured a total Zn removal of nearly 100%. However, just a slight improvement in Zn elimination was found after the supplement a cactus juice as flocculant. The flocculating activity of the cactus formulations is likely to be linked to the polysaccharides. Hence, owing to the presence of hydroxyl (–OH) and carboxyl (–COOH) groups on the backbones of the polysaccharides, beside to the divalent cations like Ca2+, Zn elimination was carried out through both adsorption-bridging and adsorption-charge neutralization mechanisms. The salient Zn removal using the cactus formulations casts light toward the wide application of a safe and a green material-based flocculants instead of the harmful chemical ones.

Zeolite membranes are capable to separate liquid and gas species due to their defined pore size at molecular level and high adsorption property. In fact, they are studied and in some case used at large scale in different separation processes as pervaporation, gas separation, and desalination. Their application in solvent dehydration and water desalination processes will be discussed.

Artificial intelligence (AI) overall and machine learning (ML) in particular have been increasingly popular in recent years. Two reviews are included in the paper: (1) A quick review of the four main machine learning (ML) approaches, which include artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), Gaussian-based regressions (i.e., Gaussian process regression (GPR) or Gaussian mixture models (GMM)), and clustering (such as k-means and k-shape clustering algorithms) that have been widely used in forecasting and enhancing building energy performance. (2) A review of possible applications for each technique in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Based on the two reviews, this paper proposes two layouts to assist everyone (especially MENA area engineers with limited experience in the building energy and machine learning fields) in selecting the most appropriate machine learning approach for a given application and explaining the prerequisites for each one to improve performance.

Despite being extremely relevant and widely discussed, the question of how environmental innovations affect firms’ financial performance remains controversial. The available literature on the topic shows ambivalent results. While some studies provide empirical evidence for the positive impact of green innovations on financial performance, others reveal a negligible or negative relationship between green innovations and financial performance. We performed a meta-analysis of the 29 selected studies covering the period from 1999 to 2017. It was found that there are no sufficient grounds to consider that the location of a firm substantially affects the possibility of the positive impact of environmental innovations on financial performance. Environmental innovations positively affect firms’ financial performance with the probability p ≈ (0.7–0.9). Usage of the qualitative research methods tends to provide a more positive assessment of the impact of environmental innovation on financial performance than quantitative methods.

This study aims at predicting nitrate concentrations in wells capturing the M’Bahiakro phreatic groundwater from in-situ measurable physico-chemical parameters. The study was conducted using neural models based on the gradient error back-propagation learning method (BPNN). The configuration of the models was performed by a constructivist approach according to the R2 and MSE performance criteria using supervised learning. The MATLAB simulation code was run for this purpose to find the optimal model. Pearson correlation analysis (r) on the data set indicates that NO3− concentrations are significantly correlated with EC, O2, depth, Eh, and T (r >  ± 0.5) during the wet and dry season. These significant correlations revealed the contribution of these physico-chemical parameters in the process of NO3− contamination of well water and were selected as input variables for the BPNN models. The constructivist approach allowed to define of four types of BPNN models with a single hidden layer of 6 neurons and an output layer of one neuron, including BPNN1 (2-6-1), BPNN2 (3-6-1), BPNN3 and BPNN4 (4-6-1). The BPNN models of the 4-6-1 vector type developed gave the best performance during learning with MSE values around 0.01 (BPNN3: 0.068-0.466-0.378 and BPNN4: 0.221-0.013-0.001) and R2 close to 1 (BPNN3: 0.99; 0.90; 0.96 and BPNN4: 0.98; 0.99; 0.99) respectively for 70% of the training data, 15% of the test data, and 15% of the validation data during the dry and wet periods. Moreover, using the weights and biases acquired after the final learning phase, these developed 4-6-1 vector models were able to satisfactorily represent the experimentally obtained nitrate values in the studied well waters in the city of M’Bahiakro. The BPNN models (BPNN3 and BPNN4) of the 4-6-1 vector type were able to reproduce satisfactorily the experimentally obtained nitrate concentration data in the 19 wells of the M’Bahiakro municipality. Thus, through the application of these proposed models, it would be more cost-effective to monitor nitrates in the well water of M’Bahiakro in order to prevent adverse health effects on the population.

The total energy requirement is increasingly high, particularly for residential and commercial buildings. For that purpose, the use of heat-driven cooling technologies presents a good alternative to deal with the current situation. In this paper, a comprehensive energy modeling and simulation based on the first law of thermodynamics has been performed numerically using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software. With a capacity of cooling of 16 kW, this study evaluates a single-effect absorption refrigeration system (ARS) where the most common absorbent-refrigerant pair of LiBr–H2O is used as a working fluid. Mass and energy balances are established for the different components of the system to perform the calculation, which leads us to determine the different parameters of the absorption chiller at a different states. The effects of the main operating parameters such as the exit temperature of the various components of the system on the energetic performance of the absorption chiller (heat load, coefficient of performance (COP), solution heat exchanger effectiveness, solution pump mass flow rate …) are investigated parametrically. Obtained results revealed the correlation between the main operating conditions and the absorption cooling system efficiency. Another significant result has been reported, which indicates that the absorber temperature is a key factor controlling the energetic efficiency of the absorption chiller.

The phase change materials PCMs are some kind of energy storage which represents a sustainable alternative for reducing energy consumption. The incorporation of PCMs in the condensation process allows the storage and the release of large amounts of energy in the form of heat during the melting and solidification process. The objective of this study is the design of a condensation system with PCM in order to extend the operating time of the condenser and to improve the efficiency of a humidification–dehumidification desalination system. A first study was carried out to select a phase change material (PCM) well adapted to the operating conditions of the desalination system by humidification dehumidification. A eutectic organic PCM mixture (80 wt% paraffin oil + 20 wt% paraffin wax) was chosen. An investigation on the PCM packaging type was carried out, different resins were tested. The packaging resins are showed problems of mechanical resistance and high solubility in water, hence the choice of a copper container which offers the advantages of tightness and good thermal conductivity. Accordingly, an experimental test setup was designed and fabricated to test the performance of the proposed condenser.

The European carbon market is one of the most important measures to tackle climate change and reduce emissions in an economically efficient way. While scholars have published several studies on the functioning of carbon markets evaluating different features, from the effectiveness in terms of environmental impact to the risk of carbon leakage, we aim to provide an indicator to assess the effectiveness of the European Emission Trading System with reference to manufacturing in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Poland. We calculated the incidence of the ETS using a min–max normalization approach. The policy implications of our work lie in the fact that information of this type is helpful for an assessment of the effectiveness of the system for fine-tuning purposes and for comparison reasons with other systems such as the carbon tax that is one a prominent debate on forging strategies to the transition toward a climate-neutral economy.

This research aims to prepare panels for green building that have the advantage of recovering and reusing materials, such as waste from exhausted tires, and the use of natural materials, such as natural plant resins.

In this work, we studied the effect of a series of obstacles during partial dam failure, using the VOF method with a turbulent LES model. In the first part, we compared our numerical results to the experimental ones taken from the literature. Very good agreements are obtained for the 2D and 3D configurations, particularly the evolution of the flow velocity distribution and the change of water interface. In the second part, our model, developed in 3D, simulated the evolution of the behavior of the complex flow during a partial rupture, under the effect of series of obstacles. These obstacles act as a brake and reflect the driving forces of water and the forces of gravity. Resulting from the inversion of the water column, a stable and shallow regime slowly sets in.

In this work, we analyze the AERONET’s solar photometer Aerosol Optical Depth from four stations in Brazil to investigate the scale-invariant behavior using the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis. The selected stations have different levels of exposure to pollution in a year and exhibit long-term correlation and multifractal behavior. All three measures, viz., the generalized Hurst exponent, mass exponent, and multifractal spectrum quantifies the multifractal behavior. For all the four stations, the fluctuations quantified by the Hurst exponent varying between 0.6 and 1.8 indicate long-term correlations in the data. Non-linear variation of the mass exponent with negative and positive moments, and the width of the multifractal spectra, between 0.5 and 1.27 confirm the multifractal behavior. To summarize, for the chosen stations the multifractal analysis is able to distinguish between sites influenced by biomass burning emissions from the urbanized ones. Results for all sites show the sensitivity to larger temporal scales.

The concentration of natural occurring radionuclides (238U, 232Th and 40K) and heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr and Fe) was analyzed in Eleko and Elegushi beach sediments in Lagos, Nigeria with the aim of evaluating human health, pollution and radiological risk assessment using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and high purity germanium (HPGe) γ-ray spectrometry techniques. Fourier infrared spectrometer and X-ray diffraction were used for sediment characterization and mineralogical analysis. The activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th and 40K ranged from 0.66 to 2.92, BDL-2.32, 0.08–1.58 and 0.26–1.17, 165.13–284.98 and 204.42–287.20 Bq kg−1 for Eleko and Elegushi beach, respectively. The values obtained were below the specified worldwide average threshold value in all the samples. Three other radiological and health hazard indices such as absorbed dose rate (DR), Radium equivalent (Raeq) and indoor excessive lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) were determined alongside the pollution and human health risk assessment of heavy metals. The indoor ELCR) for Elegushi beach sediment was higher than the worldwide average value set of 0.29 in one sample. The health risk assessment model was employed to calculate the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of heavy metals. Multivariate statistical analysis was used for the pollution sources identification. All the heavy metal concentrations in Eleko and Elegushi beach sediments were slightly higher than the local soil background values, indicating that this pollution might have resulted from anthropogenic inputs. Pollution assessment performed on the sample showed that the soil is strongly to moderately polluted and enriched with the heavy metals in the order: Fe > Cr > Pb > Cd mg/kg. Therefore, measures to reduce the human exposure to carcinogenic metals and radionuclides from the selected beaches must be implemented by the concerned stakeholders.

Olive trees are a distinctive and long-lived component of Mediterranean agro-ecosystems and could have the potential for dendrochemical investigations. To assess this potential, metal concentrations in young and old (60–370 14C years Before Present) olive wood, leaves, and soil from the Bidnija olive grove in Malta were analyzed using an acid-digestion and ICP-OES approach. Metal concentrations were low overall and those in wood were lower than in soils and generally lower than leaves, but there were no clear increases in metal concentrations in younger wood as hypothesized if pollution has increased over time. Our results suggest that olives do not appear to be a good dendrochemical proxy for changes in environmental chemistry, particularly in this minimally polluted environment.

In this present work, the main objective is the protection of the two electricity cogeneration units of the wastewater treatment plant of the city of Fez, from the harmful effect of dihydrogen sulphide (H2S), contained in biogas from anaerobic digestion. For this, the adoption of a new large-scale design project for the desulphurization tower within the wastewater treatment plant (STEP) in the city of Fez in Morocco has enabled us to develop a technique to multiple regimes for the treatment of dihydrogen sulphide. It consists of the chemical, biological and internal micro-aeration treatment of the digester. This technique has given very interesting results, for example, the increase in the number of hours of operation (NHO) of the two cogeneration units. In 2019, we were able to achieve an NHO of 14,418 h for the two units instead of an NHO of 8769 h in 2018, with a cogenerated electrical quantity of 7,237,844 Kilowatt-hour (KWh) in 2019 instead of 5,864,653 KWh in 2018.

Our study first aimed to establish preliminary outcomes on the indirect interrelation between the safe use of treated wastewater, agricultural production and consumer health as well as provide real and better view of the risk in relation with wastewater reuse. To do so, a specific survey for analytical purposes was carried out in 2015 including three critical stages. The first aimed the determination of trace metals in irrigation water, agricultural products and soil, both in irrigated areas with freshwater (control plots) and those with treated wastewater. The second stage concerned the interpretation of the survey conducted among farmers and inhabitants working or living in/near the irrigated districts selected under this study (Borj Touil, Ouardanine, Oued Souhil, El-Aguila and Hamma, located in the governorates of Ariana, Monastir, Nabeul, Gafsa and Gabes, respectively), at rate of 50 questionnaires per governorate. The third component was the evaluation of health risks related to the consumption of agricultural products from two study perimeters, a control perimeter and a perimeter irrigated with treated wastewater. Preliminary results focused on the occurrence of trace metals in treated wastewater indicate that water quality was in compliance with the Tunisian standards for reuse (NT.106.03). However, we have noticed that the lead content in some agricultural products intended for human consumption (milk from the Borj Touil area or citrus from Oued Souhil) had exceeded the limit values (0.02 mg/kg) admitted by the Codex standard or the Tunisian joint decree of May 13, 2013.

The study aimed to evaluate the ecological situation in the region of Novotroitsk mill tailing dump located in the Plast city of the Chelyabinsk Oblast by means of identifying the microelement content of the local soil and plants. Four wells 18 m deep were bored. Averages samples were probed from the surface and soil 0–1 m deep for the microelement assay. For the analysis of plants, the authors took samples of the above and below surface parts of the typical plant species of the Southern Urals in the radius of 2 m from the bored wells. The content of the elements was measured by the method of mass-spectrometry with inductively connected plasma mass-spectrometer Nexion 300D (Perkin Elmer, USA). The levels of 25 elements were measured and expressed in mg/kg. The most informative values were in arsenic (As), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn). The obtained data were processed by the methods of mathematical analysis and expressed as “mathematical expectation ± mean-square deviation.” In the part of the soil layer that was characterized by the highest concentration of root systems of plants typical for this region, a significant exceedance in the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) of toxic elements (several-fold, As—several 100-fold). The content of As was 1962.86 ± 1538.74 (normal—2.0), Cu—37.14 ± 28.7 (normal—3.0), Pb—45.71 ± 17.18 (normal—32.0), Ni—44.29 ± 44.67 (normal—4.0), Zn—92.86 ± 35.46 (normal—23.0). The mean contents of elements in the samples of plants were the following: As—4.68 ± 8.12, Cu—20.44 ± 53.67, Pb—0.88 ± 1.36, Ni—1.95 ± 2.75, Zn—116.32 ± 193.51. Considering the toxicity of the mill tailings in the mining industry to living organisms, there is an acute necessity in the recultivating measures.

A subsurface recirculating horizontal flow constructed wetland (RHFCW) was developed in a greenhouse. This system was planted with Typha domingensis, Phragmites australis and Bolboschoenus glaucus successively to study their phytoremediation capacity for the degradation of the pollutant Amaranth azo dye. The aim was to identify which species show better potential for dye degradation. Also, changes in the activities of antioxidant enzymes, and their relation to plant defence system against stress were studied. The order of dye removal, from highest to lowest was reported for the three macrophytes as follows: P. australis > T. domingensis > B. glaucus. P. australis outperformed the other two macrophytes for all parameters. It exceeds about 10% for chemical and biological oxygen demand removal values, and 2 to 5% for nitrate, nitrite and ammonium. Whereas enzyme activity evaluated in leaves of the three macrophytes during treatment increases in accordance with the high removal efficiency of amaranth dye. The highest enzyme activity was found in leaves of P. australis. In conclusion, the study demonstrates the interesting role of these plants in phytoremediation, while P. australis is a more suitable plant to degrade amaranth dye solution.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes is an alternative approach for a sustainable waste management. This biotechnology produces biogas and a nutrient-rich residue, digestate, which can be returned to land as a biofertilizer for crops. In the present study, membrane filtration was suggested to obtain a concentrated organic-mineral fertilizer from a liquid digestate obtained from the co-digestion of olive mill wastewater and poultry manure. The comparison of the nutrient profiles of raw and post-treated digestate showed that the retentate of microfiltration was the best nutrient-rich solution (N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Fe; Humic and fulvic acids) in comparison to the raw digestate and the filtrate. Moreover, digestates were suitable for use in agriculture because they were poorly contaminated by heavy metals. The results of the fertigation study have shown that the retentate of microfiltration increased the growth and the mean fruit weight of tomato plants up to 49.63% and 57.96%, respectively. Membrane filtration demonstrated efficient segregation of nutrients and provided a suitable biofertilizer for successful tomato plants cultivation.

Azolla is a free floating freshwater fern belonging to the family Azollaceae and order Pteridophyta. It grows naturally in stagnant water of drains, canals, ponds, rivers, haors-baors and marshy lands. Azolla represents an important source of valuable bio products, such as food, nutraceuticals, antioxidants and pigments. There is therefore, an urgent need to develop an appropriate separation and purification technologies. In this work, Azolla pinnata harvested in the north-west of Algeria was used as a source to recover and fractionate bio-derived molecules using ethanol. After analyzing its chemical composition, the ethanolic extracts of these plants were screened for their microbiological activities against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Fusarium oxysporum. The results have shown that the composition of Azolla contained 31.18% crude protein, 12.41% crude fiber, 2.57% ethanolic extract, 13.76% ash and 31.06% nitrogen free extract based on dry weight. In addition, the mean inhibition zones suggest potential antibacterial and antifungal properties of the ethanolic extracts of Azolla. The determination of the bioactive compounds present in the ethanolic extracts responsible in inducing such effect is necessary to know if the effects were due to a single compound or the interaction of several.

In this study, we compared the effect of gravity settling and flotation on white and rosé wines produced from chardonnay and Syrah varieties respectively during 2019 vintage. First, the course of fermentation was monitored according to the density. The settling technique did not affect the fermentation process for different tested wines. After wine production, stabilization and bottling, we focused on pH, conductivity, total acidity, volatile acidity, color parameters, phenolic compounds content, aromatic composition and the sensory properties of the studied wines. Contrary to fermentation, the obtained results showed that the wine studied parameters were significantly influenced by the settling technique. Overall, the floating procedure improved the wine characteristics and could be used as an alternative to gravitational settling.

The use of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) as green solvents to remove hydrophobic pollutants from soil such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) is an emerging alternative for environmental remediation because they come from a renewable and abundant source unlike traditionally used solvents (i.e., dichloromethane, hexane, acetone, chloroform, dimethyl ether and alcohols). Previous reports on this kind of treatment are scarce, and their results showed a potential positive effect of FAME as a chemical agent to desorbed PAHs or crude oil from soil. However, the biodegradability effect of FAME over recalcitrant organic compounds was not evaluated. Furthermore, using renewable chemicals obtained from local natural resources in these treatments significantly diminishes the environmental impact of their operations, so the use of emerging feedstock like Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) to produce FAME offers opportunities for biorefinery products. In this research, it was possible to obtain FAME from JCL seeds through a sustainable process where high-value by-products such as protein seed cake and glycerol were also obtained. The J. curcas L. FAME (FJC) was evaluated as a green solvent to remove anthracene (ANT) from contaminated soil (CS) in batch experiments using a mass/volume ratio (CS/FJC) of 1:10 and 1:5 at 30 °C for 8 h. The desorption yield was determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV–VIS spectroscopy and total organic carbon analysis. In addition, the biodegradability of ANT-FJC mixtures was evaluated through the ISO-10707:1994 method. The results revealed that the highest efficiency for cleaning contaminated soil with ANT was obtained at 1:2 ratio at which FJC removed 19.57% of ANT, whereas, at 1:1 ratio, the removal efficiency was 9.48%. Biodegradability of FJC-ANT in a1:1 mixture was 67%, improving in 10% the biodegradability of ANT after 28 days. Based on these results, the alternative of using FJC as a green solvent to remove recalcitrant organic compounds such as PAH is a promising option; however, further research is needed to evaluate its effect over additional PAH such as the priority pollutants recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Biomineralization is expected as an effective treatment technology to stabilize ferrochrome ash. It operates based on urea hydrolysis principle, and it requires an efficient medium for good bacterial growth and urease activity. An optimal medium is an ideal combination of protein, vitamin, and carbon source in the feed for bacteria. The objective of the current study is to optimize the medium and analyze the significance of its components on bacterial growth and urea hydrolysis. A central composite design (CCD) was developed with 20 experiments with different quantities of soybean (protein), yeast extract (vitamin), and dextrose (carbon) in the medium. Optical density at 600 nm and urease activity were determined after 12 h from inoculation and analyzed using response surface methodology (RSM) in Design-Expert software. Maximum urease activity of 27.83 mM of urea hydrolyzed/min and a maximum optical density of 1.92 were observed with the standard runs 4 and 10, respectively. According to the findings of the current study, the dosages of vitamin source and protein source were significantly affecting urease activity and optical density. It is inferred that the most crucial factor for optical density in the medium is protein dosage, and urease activity is vitamin dosage. Both bacterial growth and urea hydrolysis were minimally affected by the carbon dosage, suggesting that regulating the protein and vitamin doses, combined with a nominal carbon dose, results in an optimal growth medium for the biomineralization in ferrochrome ash.

The landscape results from natural events, history, and culture and reflects the interaction between local populations and the environment in space and time. In this sense, we can define “identifying landscapes” as those representing the essence of cultures born and developed in deep integration with the landscape. Mediterranean countries have in common the presence of different and highly characterizing landscapes. In most cases, geomorphology and climate condition the land use that allows sustainable development. This study aims to understand the different stages of evolution of the oasis’ landscape and involve society in shared actions toward sustainable land management and genetic resources conservation. The methodological basis of landscape ecology allows us to give a systemic reading of the oasis’ landscape, and such an approach allows the integration of physical features and cultural values. The resulting table highlights how the multiplicity of these factors is the key to understanding the different stages of evolution of the oasis’ landscape and its overall value. Moreover, the oasis’s authenticity could constitute a fundamental base for successful branding and offers new chances to sustainable tourism development in this local territory.

Because of the ecological problems related to the use of chemical products, the new detergents have progressed to become more eco-friendly. Accordingly, enzymes were incorporated as supplements to detergent formulations. The present investigation was related to the study of a new alkaline protease designated as SPBV produced by Bacillus velezensis strain F35, newly isolated from wastewater from a detergent company, as well as its biochemical characterization. The optimum of the protease activity of SPBV was obtained at pH 10 and at 60 °C on casein. This peptidase remains practically stable at elevated alkaline pH (8–11) for 75 min (more than 80% of its activity was retained after 6 h). Its thermo-activity and thermostability were considerably improved by calcium at 2 mM. The SPBV protease exhibited stability and remarkable compatibility with liquid and solid detergents compared to the commercial enzymes. The supplementation of SPBV enzyme to the detergent solution improved the performance of the Class liquid detergent in the sense of better discoloration of several protein stains. Consequently, the SPBV enzyme seems to meet the majority of the properties of a good protease for the detergent formulations.

The main objective of this study was to estimate the carbon footprint of livestock in the Governorate of Manouba (North Tunisia), using the FAO GLEAM tool, mainly through the recognition of the significant emission points of greenhouse gases. These emissions were assessed in relation to the different types of livestock farming. Some mitigation options were proposed. Results showed that in 2020, the overall GHG emissions from animal sectors in the Governorate of Manouba are estimated at 5 mega ton CO2-eq and that 55% of these emissions are composed of methane, 27% in the form of nitrous oxide, and 18% is in the form of carbon dioxide. The high intensity of observed GHG emissions is particularly due to bovine dairy production and sheep meat, because most farming systems are extensive, lowly productive, and based on poor pasture and food resources. The small ruminants are the main contributors to the emissions with a rate higher than 66% (65% of emissions come from sheep and 1% from goats). In the second row, we found cattle with 28% and finally poultry which participate in a lower extend at a rate of only 6%. It should be noted that the major part of GHG emissions comes mainly from enteric fermentations, effluent management, livestock feed production, and energy consumption.

Climate change and overexploitation of aquifers by irrigated agriculture and water consumption by the population caused the decline of water levels and hydrochemical changes in the aquifer. Our study area is the Maadher plain which is located in the north-central of Algeria, with an arid to semi-arid climate. The Mio-Plio-Quaternary aquifer often shows disordered alternations of sedimentary deposits. The aquifer is recharged mainly by wadis and drainage contributions from the Cretaceous and Miocene layers. The sampling campaign in 2019 based on 13 physicochemical parameters was carried out on water from 32 boreholes in the study area, compared to data archives of both sampling campaign in 1996. Multivariate statistical analyses were used to identify and know the groundwater origin from analysis results. Two statistical methods, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) are applied in order to define the major control factors that affect the hydrochemistry of Maadher plain. The results of groundwater samples showed that water is mainly hard. The order of abundance of major cations exchangeability for common ions in groundwater was: Ca2+ > Mg2+ > Na+ > K+ while the major anions reveal an order as follows SO42− > HCO−3 > Cl− > NO3−. The Piper diagram indicates that the hydrochemical facies of sulfate–chloride–nitrate–calcium (SO4−2–Cl−–NO3−–Ca2+ type water), which globally characterizes the study area, and these elements are the dominant dissolved ions. It was noted that the tendency of such groundwater is toward salinization because the minimum values of total hardness exceed the WHO standard, which has led to a water quality between average and poor. A total of 62% of the groundwater samples exceeded the Ca2+ standard, nearly 65% of the samples exceeded the Cl− standard, and also the sulfate concentrations were all above health guidelines. The electrical conductivity values are considerable, and 22% of the groundwater samples exceed the standard. PCA analysis showed that the first factors accumulated a percent variance of 74.22%. The first factor accounts for 40.45% variance, represented by a large number of mineralization parameters. The HCA analysis with Q-mode provided insight into the mineralization of aquifers (Mio-Plio-Quaternary), so that the main study area can be divided into three zones of different groundwater quality, with a total of three factors of control.

During the drought period, water transfer from north region to other regions is the main important decision of water policy in Tunisia. Also, decision makers arbitrate the water allocation between irrigation and drinking water. The last drought period 2015–2018 show a strong relationship between governance quality and water allocation performance. This paper aims to analyze the governance of the northern Tunisian water transfer system and assess its performance. Based on a systemic approach, a structural analysis uses the MICMAC method (Matrix of Cross Impacts, Multiplication Applied to a Classification) to identify the key configuration variables of this system. Then, we conduct a strategic analysis using MACTOR model (Method Actors, Objectives, and Force Reports) in order to explain the relationship and role of stakeholders involved in the water transfer system. Hence, we assess the power degree, the convergences, and the divergences between stakeholders. The main results of this study show that the current governance of water transfer network is characterized by the multiplicity of actors and the lack of synergy between stakeholders. The BPEH, STEG, and UTAP are the dominant players. However, SECADENORD, CRDA, and SONEDE as operational actors are dominated and dependent. Potential divergences in particular between SECADENORD and SONEDE, UTAP, and BPEH indicate a low cooperation level between the various stakeholders. The financial problems of national companies (SECADENORD and SONEDE), the conflict between actors, and water resource vulnerability confirm that governance problems affect negatively the performance of the Tunisian water transfer system.

Predicting the future impact of climate change on Stipa tenacissima is crucial to realize the potential of the future risks on Alfa grass steppes in southwest Europe and North Africa. The degradation of Alfa grass steppes due to the impact of global warming and human activities lead to desertification progress and land degradation. A comparative study of ecophysiological adaptations of S. tenacissima populations is an attempt to understand the ecological adaptations of this species. We selected seven populations, representing a precipitation range from 100 (Sfax, Tunisia) to 600 (Valencia, Spain) mm/year at the sites of seed collection. Seedlings were established in a common garden on Guadamar, Spain. Gas exchange measurements of CO2 and light response curves on S. tenacissima were conducted on seven seedlings per population to simulate the expected response of the species under limiting environmental conditions. Chlorophyll content and isotopic analysis were also analyzed to study the physiological differences between populations (post hoc S-N-K test at P < 0.05 level). There was a difference among populations on net photosynthesis where Thala (Kasserine, Tunisia) and Valencia (Spain) populations showed a contrasting response. However, these contrasted populations showed similar response in the maximum rate of carboxylation (Vcmax) and the maximum rate of electron transport (Jmax). Stipa tenacissima populations showed a variable response in relation to different light intensities. In fact, photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were significantly different among populations in response to light intensities (0, 25, 500, 1000, and 1500 μmol m−2 s−1). Populations possessed a similar chlorophyll content. The isotopic analysis highlighted a different carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition (δ13C and δ15N) and carbon content (C) among populations. However, the variability of populations is probably related to the genetic and not to climate, as no potential relationship between the studied physiological traits and climate variables at the study site was found. In relation to climate change, S. tenacissima seedlings could meet a serious risk that impaired their survival and growth. Extension of drought period already long in arid land could enhance mortality by carbon starvation and lack of photo-inhibition. Hence, elaboration of a protection program of Alfa grass steppes to degradation and understand the species behavior and adaptation could be useful to avoid the desertification progress.

The climate of the past in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East is studied with a broad spectrum, both in time and space, with long high-quality instrumental time series, documentary information, and natural archives that are limited to a certain location and different periods. Filling the gaps in time and space for longer periods is currently only possible with Earth system or general circulation models (ESM, GCM) with relatively coarse horizontal resolutions of about 200 km. They can hardly connect potential regional climate impacts to major societal events in historical periods. Thus, the regional climate model (RCM) COSMO-CLM (CCLM) is adjusted by us to paleoclimate needs with the integration of all climate forcings (orbital, solar and volcanic forcing, greenhouse gas concentrations, and land-use changes). The RCM-simulations with 0.44° and 0.11° spatial resolution are set with present-day (1979–2019) climate simulations forced by the ERA-Interim reanalysis data and by the MPI-ESM. The MPI-ESM model run ‘past2k’ performed under the CMIP6 protocol will also be used as initial and boundary data in a transient RCM-simulation of the last 2500 years. The present-day simulations with the adjusted, fully forced CCLM have already shown promising results compared to observational and reanalysis data sets. Mean annual cycles of temperature and precipitation and increasing temperatures due to climate change can both be represented in the model. A preliminary comparison to observational and reanalysis datasets is the difference between the 0.44° and 0.11° horizontal resolution which is not found to significantly improve the performance.

Increasing water scarcity in the Mediterranean region is enhanced by deficiencies in irrigation management and climate changes. Accurate determination of crop water consumption would be useful to improve irrigation water efficiency and productivity. The measurements of crop water requirements are based on observations, which are expensive, and the data analysis is challenging. Developed tools like water productivity through open access of remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR), providing free and fine-scale information, might help to improve irrigation water management. However, evaluation of this tool in local conditions is essential for complex agricultural systems. This study aims to evaluate the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) estimated by the WaPOR tool using local ETa observations of eddy covariance (EC) for a citrus orchard in the Cap Bon region north east of Tunisia. The drip-irrigated navel orange orchard covers 0.4 ha which is planted in 1998 at a density of 500 trees/ha. The study is conducted for 4 years (2014–2018). The dataset used is quite rich and characterized by the variability of climatic and hydric conditions, including periods of drought and floods. The obtained ETa using WaPOR is at a spatial resolution of 100 m. The monthly ETa values are extracted from one pixel covering the eddy covariance station. The monthly averaged ETa EC ranges from a minimum of 52 mm to a maximum of 126.7 mm, while values estimated by WAPOR range between 38 and 122 mm. The result of the comparison of both methods shows a close value during summer. WaPOR can be considered as a promising approach to spatialize evapotranspiration for citrus orchards.

The increased concentration of the greenhouse gases (first of all, carbon dioxide—CO2) is a global problem. Compared to the pre-industrial era, the content of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by about 40%. In the global carbon cycle, the oceans at least 30% of anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere. As a result, the acidity of the World Ocean waters is increasing. This process has a negative impact on marine organisms and biogeochemical cycles. A similar problem is relevant for the Black Sea. In the present study, the Black Sea data of the Institute of Natural and Technical Systems (IPTS) for the period from 1956 to 1996 were used to analyze the deep-sea pH time series and to predict the decadal-scale pH value. First of all, the pH time series were divided into two segments. These segments are characterized by different data quality and different sign of long-term pH trend. In interannual and seasonal pH variations, four (quasi)-periodic components of variability with periods of about 6.7, 2.5, 1, and ½ years were identified. The superimposition of trend, multiplicative seasonal, and interannual cyclical components indicates a decrease in pH after 1977 with an average speed of about 0.017 units pH/10 years which is close to the acidity trends in the other parts of the World Ocean. The pH forecast after 1996 using obtained decomposition was verified based on the data of 2010, 2019, and 2020.

The Hydropower plants (HPPs) directly affect river hydromorphology below the dam and cause the degradation of aquatic habitats. The impact of HPPs on the rivers system rapidly increased along with the effect of climate change. The main task of this research is to evaluate river hydromorphological changes in Lithuanian rivers under the influence of HPPs and the impact of climate change. Two Lithuanian rivers (Šešupė and Bartuva) were selected as case study objects. The hydromorphological surveys of river stretches below of the selected HPPs were done during the field works. For the projections of future river runoff, the hydrological models of selected rivers were created applying HBV software. The daily runoff projections for near and far future were simulated according to the ensemble of three RCMs outputs and two RCP scenarios. The results disclosed a strong relationship between hydromorphological units (HMU) and river discharge. At low discharges, some area of the river bed was lost, aquatic vegetation rose to the surface of the water and the HMU itself become to units with shallow depths and small velocity. The recurrence of low discharge situations will increase in the near and far future according to the simulated runoff projections. Such changes will create unfavorable conditions for the existence of the aquatic ecosystems, therefore, the environmental flow should be revised in the context of climate change.

Patch reefs are small isolated reefs commonly found on modern carbonate banks, and in (sub)tropical lagoons. To better understand the modern degradation of patch reefs, this study, based on a field survey of patch reefs and peri-reefal sediments by scuba diving, explores the biota and the processes influencing the preservation of patch reefs on East Beach, San Salvador Island, the Bahamas. Brown algae are the most abundant organisms generally covering > 95% of the top surface of some patch reefs. Stony coral cover is < 5%, with Diploria and Porites being the most abundant genera, whereas the estimated soft coral cover can get up to 10% on some reefs. Green (predominantly Halimeda) and red algae are common on and around all studied reefs. Comparison to previous studies shows that the studied reefs have significantly declined over the last three decades, with the present-day predominance of fleshy seaweeds and a decrease in crustose red algae and coral abundance. The latter also exhibit a shift from historically dominant reef-building acroporids to more opportunistic, stress-tolerant, non-framework-building coral species. Macroalgae have likely reached abundance beyond the grazing capacity of herbivores and have drastically reduced space for coral settlement and recruitment, which in turn has compromised the patch reef resilience on the island.

The mining industry is important for the sustainable development of Uzbekistan. At the same time, mining damages the environment and leads to land degradation. Over the past decade, free economic zones (FEZ) have been created to improve Republic of Uzbekistan’s economic growth and attraction of investments. Most FEZs are based on already existing mining complexes. Over the past 70 years, a large amount of waste has already accumulated on the territory of mining enterprises of Uzbekistan. This has a number of extremely negative effects on the state of the environment. In this research manuscript, we assess the environmental conditions of the two largest industrial FEZs in Uzbekistan: Navoi and Angren. In particular, this article presents the historical context and describes the accumulation of environmental damage present in FEZs due to the decades of mining in these areas. Based on these concerns, a number of measures that are important for the conservation and maintenance of natural assets are identified.

An unlined oxidised sulphide nickel mining tailings storage facility (TSF) at Onverwacht farm, Mpumalanga province, South Africa was constructed within an area underlain by fractured dolerite dykes aquifer. This is known to provide a preferential flow path for migration of toxic pollutants to deeper horizons and the surrounding environment. Subsequently, the possible deterioration of surface and groundwater quality was investigated. From May 2016 until January 2018, 168 water samples collected from supernatant water, boreholes and downstream surface water were analysed for ions and metals of potential concern using ICP-MS, which were then used to determine the impact of the TSF on water quality. Findings from the study indicated that the TSF was a source of pollution, which caused significant deterioration in the quality of groundwater and downstream surface water in the study area. The results revealed concentrations of SO4, Cl, Ca, Mg, Na, CaCO3 and EC in groundwater and downstream surface water exceeded acceptable numerical limits for drinking water in the Water Use Licence, South African National Standards, World Health Organization guidelines for drinking water quality and the background water quality data. Unlike other sulphide TSFs, the Onverwacht facility contained high concentrations of CaCO3 (maximum of 231 mg/L), which was the main distinction between the reduction and neutralisation of heavy metal concentrations, and the absence of acid mine drainage in the area. This study has shown that the geology of an area is a major consideration before siting a mining tailings storage facility in order to reduce possible environmental damages to the surrounding environment.

Investigation of the ore-hosting metasomatites has the same importance as study of the ore substance itself. Study of metasomatites allows to define conditions of the deposit formation, its zoning, etc. The ore-and-metasomatic zoning assumes study of the patterns of formation and distribution of the products of ore-forming processes and systems in space and time during the earth’s crust development. The main factors for the vertical metasomatic zoning forming are temperature and oxygen fugacity. Importance of the oxygen increases rapidly in the shallowest formations where intensive aeration of the groundwater is possible. Here, a change of zones (facies) in the vertical direction at a short distance is observed, following not only temperature zoning, but also a sharp increase of the oxidation degree of sulfur and iron forms in the solution while approaching the surface. The regular vertical zoning of quartz-sericite metasomatites at the Kokkiya gold deposit has been defined, that represents interest for understanding of the hydrothermal solutions composition evolution, together with the paths of their infiltration, as well as for practical purposes—to develop the prospecting criteria for hidden mineralization. The given components of the vertical metasomatic zoning allow to determine the level of denudation of the ore deposits and to estimate their prospects at the depth.

The agriculture practices differ from one oasis to another in south Tunisia, we proceeded to analyze the effects of three methods of implementation of the sandy amendment on the main physical and chemical properties of degraded oasis soil by compaction and salinization. The first modality is to introduce gypsum sand amendment after the removal of the topsoil layer (RT), the second is the application of the gypsum sand amendment directly in the original soil after it has been tilled in advance (T) and the third modality is the application of gypsum sand amendment without any tillage (T0). The results obtained showed that the three modalities modified the physical and chemical properties of the amended soil in comparison to the untreated soil the original soil of the oasis (U). The (RT) and (T) modalities are significantly more advantageous than the T0 modality in improving the physical characteristics of the soil: soil porosity achieves a maximum of 48.06 ± 0.08% in RT agriculture practices, the same case for the hydraulic conductivity of the soil. The soil chemical property pH and CE, the RT and T0 modalities are significantly more advantageous than the T modality they achieve respectively for the soil pH 7.31, 7.31, and 7.34 compared to 7.25 for untreated soil. For the soil salinity, the RT modality reduces more soil salinity than the other agriculture practices to achieve 4.73 mS/cm compared to 8.38 mS/cm for untreated soil (U). In terms of economic profitability, considering the expenses on the one hand and the revenues (gain in production) on the other hand, the terms T0 and T are more advantageous than the RT modality with, respectively, 1840 TD/ha, 1640 TD/ha, and – 260 TD/ha..

Searching for alternative crops in marginal environments represents a key challenge for adapting agriculture to the effects of climate change. Salinization is increasing on a global scale, decreasing average yields for most major crop plants. Investigations into salt resistance have been mainly focused on conventional crops, with few studies available on halophytes. Despite the large interest in the use of Chenopodium crops on extreme habitats, very little is known about growth response and seed yield under saline conditions. Quinoa was first introduced in Algeria in 2014. Our research objective is to assess the performance of five quinoa genotypes in Ouargla (Algeria): three varieties (Amarilla Sacaca, Blanca de Junin, Kancolla) and two cultivars (Santa Maria, Giza1). The trial was carried out in open fields with application of controlled irrigation. The experimental plan was a complete randomized block design with four replications. Agro-morphological descriptors were used to characterize the plants during the different phases of their development. Results showed a significant difference in seed yield per plant from 12.69 g/plant (Santa Maria) to 4.03 g/plant (Kancolla). The average height of the plants presented high variability from 55.66 cm to 27.12 cm, respectively, for Amarilla Sacaca and Kancolla. The shortest average cycle was for Blanca de Junin (136 days) followed by Giza1 (140.5 days), while Amarilla Sacaca presented the longest cycle duration with an average of 162.25 days. The first results are very promising but an analysis of genotypes’ tolerance to salinity is needed for exploring future areas of cultivation.

Abundance and distribution of earthworms were studied in the Mitidja plain at five stations under citrus. Earthworm abundance showed distinct seasonal patterns, with winter maxima and summer minima. Eleven species belonging to seven genera and three families have been identified. Allolobophora rosea (Savigny 1826) and Nicodrilus caliginosus (Savigny 1826) s.l. are the dominant species. The lowest density is represented in Hadjout, whilst the highest at Mefath, Boufarik and Reghaia, successively. Temperature and precipitation affected the distribution of species and possibly with the texture and the structure of the soil. The earthworm fauna of cultivated areas appears to be qualitatively and quantitatively different from that of the forests of Algeria.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a feeding system based on the grazing of Sulla or Oat supplemented with concentrate feed containing Rapeseed or Faba bean on the ewes’ milk production. Sixty Sicilo-Sarde ewes from the experimental farm Lafereg (béja, North West of Tunisia) were divided into two groups based on the nature of fodder: 30 grazing Sulla (Hedysarum coronarium L.) and 30 grazing Oat (Avena sativa L.). In sheepfold, each group divided into two sub-group based on the nature of concentrate feed: 15 received a supplementation of concentrate feed containing Rapeseed (AC and SC groups) and 15 received a supplementation of concentrate feed containing Faba bean (AF and SF groups). The comparison of the feeding systems showed a numerical superiority in term of milk production in favor of the ewes grazing Sulla and receiving a supplementation of concentrate containing Faba bean (526; 497; 494 and 481 ml/day, respectively for SF, AF, AC and SC groups). The best combination (Sulla and Faba bean) ameliorated the milk fat content (6.1%), protein (6.2%) and lactose (5.3%). The cheese yield was around 29%. A diet based on grazing Sulla or Oat with addition of concentrate feed contain Rapeseed or Faba bean is recommended since it improves the quantitative and qualitative milk production.

“The Mediterranean Basin, particularly Tunisia, is considered to be one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, due to the region’s high level of endemism”. Spontaneous plants, such as Onopordon nervosum subsp. platylepis Murb could be valorized and used as milk-clotting agent for cheese making in order to respond to an increasing demand of veg-friendly cheeses. O. nervosum subsp. Platylepis Murb is an endemic plant belonging to the Asteraceae family and growing particularly in north and central Tunisia. Cultivation and valorization of this plant is difficult because of seeds germination problems. Cypsela presents a high dormancy level. The cypselae were collected from Chott Meriem region (Sousse, Tunisia) and were tested for viability after 8 and 20 months of storage in laboratory conditions. Seeds collected in 2020 were germinated in Petri plates and in plug trays using increasing levels of gibberellins (GA3) from 0 to 0.1%. The highest germination rates 90% and 66.6% were obtained with 0.1% GA3 treatment in Petri plates and in plug trays tests, respectively. Comparing responses of seeds collected in 2019 and in 2020 to GA3 applications, results showed that while storage duration did not affect seeds viability, slight decrease in germination percentage was observed with the increase of storage duration. A maximum percentage of 97.7% was recorded with both 2019 and 2020 collected cypsela when treated with 0.075% GA3.

This study has focused on salt stress effect on photosynthetic parameters of three quinoa accessions (18GR, R-132 and DE-1), grown in open field that were measured at the end of panicle, flowering and fruiting stages. At panicle stage, when these accessions were irrigated by 100 and 150 mM of NaCl, they showed an increase of chlorophyll relative content compared to the control (41.8 and 42.5 mmol for 18GR; 39.2 and 43.8 mmol for R-132 and 38.4 and 37.4 mmol for DE-1, respectively). An increase of stomatic conductance was noted also under these concentrations (3193.9 and 2313.5 µmol/m2/s for 18GR, 2225.5 and 3189.3 µmol/m2/s for R-132 and 2025.4 and 1556.1 µmol/m2/s for DE-1, respectively). Photosynthetic activity of 18GR and DE-1was stimulated at 100 mM NaCl by 14 and 44%, respectively, and at 150 mM NaCl by 18% and 22%, respectively. However, this activity showed a decrease for R-132 by 11% compared to the control at 100 mM NaCl treatment. But under 200 mM of NaCl, a decrease of these traits was noted compared to the control and DE-1 accession seems to be less affected. In fact, chlorophyll relative content decreased by 6, 3 and 3%, respectively for 18GR, R-132 and DE-1. Stomatic conductance and photosynthetic activity showed a decrease also by 53.5% and 50.9% for 18GR, 51.6% and 42.9 for R-132 and by 5% and 18.8 for DE-1, respectively. At flowering and fruiting stages, a similar variation of photosynthetic parameters evolution was shown. These latter were positively and significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with total grain yield (from r = 0.5 to r = 0.7) and aerial dry matter (from r = 0.7 to r = 0.9).

Saline soils contain large amounts of water-soluble salts that inhibit seed germination and plant growth. Best management practices can control root zone salinity. It is, however, a major challenge to reclaim cultivated soils if the source of available irrigation is saline. This is because soil salinity increases if the irrigation water carries salts. An increase in soil salinity harms crop productivity and, ultimately, is a major cause of the decrease in income and a negative impact on the food security of local farmers. The primary goal of this research was to investigate the potential causes and effects of soil salinity and to determine the best irrigation practices that will reduce the impact of salinity in crop production in the Mandvi, Kutch district of Gujarat, India. The Kutch district usually receives low annual rainfall within a short period (June–September). This weather pattern tends to cause over-exploitation of groundwater for irrigation. This leads to the deterioration of the groundwater and results in high salinity, and is thus unsuitable for agricultural use. The results showed surface soil was more saline (Electrical Conductivity (EC) = 4.0–20.0 dS/m) than the root zone soil (EC = 0.95–7.2 dS/m). Besides, groundwater used for irrigation was mostly saline (EC = 1.5–8.76 dS/m). Since both irrigation water and soil were saline, water conservation could help in two ways: (a) conserve groundwater and (b) improve soil health because excessive irrigation water could add more salt to the soil. It is important to monitor soil water content and to irrigate based on crop water requirements. It is recommended that farmers should grow salt-tolerant crops, practice crop rotations, use crop residue as mulch, control water leakage, apply irrigation water during the night or when the evaporation rate is low, and use leaching to reclaim salt from the soil and chemicals to lower sodium from the salt-affected soils.

Tunisia is committed to working toward the integration of the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) into its development plans and to support their achievement. A major challenge for which SDG6 has set ambitious targets directly concerns the “water reuse”. In this context, a Tunisian NGO (GDA Sidi Amor) initiated a platform five years ago to promote the reuse of “treated” wastewater in agriculture, to support local farmers in the water management and demonstrate best practices. This project initially proposed the implementation of tertiary treatment wetlands to meet the quality requirements for water reuse. The present study aims, first, to investigate the potential of diversifying cropping patterns with secondary (tertiary) reclaimed water through participatory field trials (experimental plots). The first experiences initially focused on the possibility to introduce new crops with high added values such as cotton and geranium rosat. Although the first tests on cotton were successful, with satisfactory yield and lint quality, farmers were reluctant to grow it. However, the private sector was more interested and immediately undertook incremental field experiments with a view to scaling up. The second phase relating to aromatic and floral plantations was less successful in terms of up-scaling opportunities, yet the production yield and the quality of geranium essential oils were promising. Overall, farmers were much more interested in this crop than cotton. Although the preliminary outcomes are mitigated, building youth advocacy throughout this project recently motivated the buy-in of some local farmers to plan productive experimental plots.

Illustrating the spatial distribution of potentially toxic elements (PTE) concentration in soil is not enough for understanding the environmental and human health-related issues. Mobility and speciation of PTE in soils are essential prerequisites for performing a complete risk assessment. This study aims to perform a correlation of the As, Cd, Cu and Pb total concentration in the soils of Romania from the European Soil Data Center (ESDAC) dataset with the soil pH from LUCAS Soil (the largest expandable soil dataset) in order to identify the PTE mobility and their associated risks. The spatial distribution maps of PTE emphasize the impact of the intensive mining activities performed in the Zlatna, Copsa Mica and Baia Mare areas. The multivariate statistical analysis shows a positive correlation between Cd and Pb and between Cu and As, as a specificity of the local ore deposits. In many regions where smelting and mining activities occur, are produced sulfates and sulfuric acid (due to sulfide deposits oxidation) that often lead to wet and dry deposition of sulfate species and of other pollutants. In the respective areas, the soil pH is low; therefore, the marginal histograms of the PTE in relation to soil pH reveal a high probability to mobilize the PTE that were once stable (as adsorbed or precipitated complexes, but not only). Even in the areas where PTE concentration is below the threshold values for soil, as stated in the national legislation, the correlation of their concentration with soil pH highlights the existence of associated risks.

Intensive agriculture has been practiced in Bangladesh for the last few decades with the use of fertilizer, pesticides, hybrid crops and monoculture having significant impacts on agro-ecosystem. It is necessary to evaluate the present fertility status in comparison with the previous one. This study was carried out on the soil survey data of Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI) in Bangladesh. The organization has detailed soil surveys along for the last few decades. However, till today no spatial comparison has been made by the institute. The authors compared the surveyed (semi-detailed) data of few agro-ecological zones of the country of three Upazilas (subunit of a district): Monohardi (139.87 km2), Faridpur Sadar (407 km2) and Manikganj Sadar (214.8 km2) comprising of 120 sampling points each 300-m interval across the study area. The study area is under tropical climate with soil texture ranges from clay loam to loam. Response of soil parameters was studied in different layers of soil by performing an ordinal logistic regression to model soil parameters (pH, organic matter, N, P, K, S, Zn, B, Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, Mn) to categorize soil heights (highland, mid-highland, lowland and very lowland) in relation to flood line. A good fitting of the model showed that soil survey data could be modeled properly by using this regression model. At Faridpur and Monohardi Upazilas, the model fitted well with survey data (chi-square, X2 = 176.923, p = 0.845 and chi-square, X2 = 246.343, p = 0.813) where p > 0.05. However, at Manikganj Upazila, some discrepancy was found. A weak response was found between soil parameters with soil heights from 1990s to 2010s. This weak association was profound in macronutrients than micronutrients. Nutrient interaction of soil also studied in a correlation matrix. The correlation matrix also revealed the decreased association of soil macronutrients across the decades. It was concluded that the weak association among macronutrients in recent decades is due to addition of fertilizers by intensive agricultural practices.

Food waste is a growing and challenging issue. It is related to not only environmental sustainability but also food security, food safety and economical issues. Consequently, it is urgent to adapt suitable strategies to face food waste-related problems. In this context, solutions could not be universal and it is important to take into account particularities of each society. This research aimed to evaluate Tunisian consumers’ attitude toward different preventive actions. As this study was conducted during Covid-19 outbreak lockdown, only an online survey was conducted. A total of 317 respondents were asked about their socio-demographic characteristics and to which extent do they agree with different suggestions related to food waste reduction (totally agree, agree, disagree, totally disagree). Results provided by this survey showed Tunisian consumers’ awareness about food waste issue and their willingness to take right actions to avoid it. Respondent agreed with suggestions at different scales (rising awareness, political actions, post-consumption habits) except introducing taxes depending on the amount of waste (more than one third of respondents disagreed or totally disagreed). Tunisian consumers’ feedbacks are encouraging to adopt actions aiming to food waste reduction. Success of these actions would be a shared responsibility between government, transformers and citizens.

The palm oil industry generates significant waste each year which can be recycled as energy source. However, after recycling, other types of waste generated, largely in the form of biogas sludge and boiler ash that require treatment prior to disposal. This research studies the physical properties and nutrient release of biogas sludge and boiler ash. Waste samples were collected three times at three-month intervals (29 November 2019, 29 February 2020, and 29 May 2020) and were analysed for physical properties. The first biogas sludge sample had the highest macropore, micropore, bulk density, water absorption, and porosity values of 30.56%, 83.65%, 0.8516 g cm−3, 138.82%, and 114.22%, respectively. The micropore of boiler ash was the highest in the second sample with 69.69%, but the other parameters were not statistically different. The two materials were incubated under 60% moisture content at 25 ± 2 °C for 60 days. The biogas sludge had higher available nitrogen than boiler ash and was the highest after 60 days of incubation with 0.42 g kg−1 and 0.76 g kg−1 of NH4 and NO3, respectively. However, boiler ash released higher available P and extractable K and Mg than biogas sludge and was also the highest after 60 days of incubation with 6.40 g kg−1, 17.95 cmolc kg−1, and 50 cmolc kg−1 of available P and extractable K and Mg, respectively. Therefore, boiler ash and biogas sludge may prove to be a good source of macronutrients. Besides, some physical properties were not at appropriate levels so the material requires treatment or mixing with other materials to improve its physical properties before use as growing media.

Understanding the soil gas migration in unsaturated/partially saturated soil is vital in several timely problems that include carbon loading to the atmosphere from the bio-geochemical activity and leakage of gases resulting from subsurface activities, hydraulic fracturing, and geologic storage of carbon. This study describes the design and implementation of an intermediate-scale experimental setup to study soil gas migration that is affected by subsurface activity, such as geologic heterogeneity and spatial and temporal variability of soil water content. A 3D intermediate-scale laboratory test tank was packed with sandy soils, and tests were conducted under both homogeneous and heterogeneous packing configurations for comparison. A high spatial resolution distributed network of sensors was installed in the tank. After first saturating the tank, the water was allowed to drain to create static water distribution. The gas was injected at the bottom of the tank at a constant rate of 0.01 l/min. The data from the distributed sensor network allowed us to demonstrate how the spatial variability of the soil moisture controlled by the heterogeneity affects the gas migration pathways through the soil profile and the gas loading to the atmosphere. These types of accurate datasets generated under highly controlled laboratory conditions will be helpful for testing models before field application.

The present study aimed to evaluate self-assessment, behaviors and attitudes of students toward food wastage in a Tunisian University cafeteria. An online survey based on a structured questionnaire was conducted on 162 student respondents during two weeks in January 2021. Information on awareness and attitudes toward food waste, food purchase behavior and self-estimation of food waste in the cafeteria, and recommendations to reduce food waste were collected. Most respondents were women (82%). About 47.5% use cafeteria service daily, mainly for collation (48.8%). The main reasons for this use were the proximity (57.4%), no other place to eat (24.7%) and time savings (14.2%). Food quality service and quality of food items were evaluated as good by, respectively, 42.6% and 40.6% of respondents. About 38% declared to never discard food items bought in the cafeteria. The most discarded food items were pâtés and soufflés (49%), sandwiches (48%) and pizzas (45%), whereas cookies (20%), industrial cakes (22.5%) and pastries (31%) were the least discarded. Reasons for this waste were mainly related to poor perceived sensory quality (54.9%). Interestingly, about food waste awareness, a small majority stated to usually reduce (43.7%) or avoid discarding food items (9.5%). Recommendations for improvement of the university cafeteria to reduce food waste were listed as improving taste and flavor (25.9%), quality price ratio (25.3%), atmosphere and cleanliness (18.5%), food hygiene (17.3%) and menu variation (9.9%). These preliminary findings suggest considering these factors for forming food waste reduction strategies and policies.

The migratory flow of the population toward large cities, and the growth of industrial and agricultural activities in recent years, have caused an increase in demand for the phreatic aquifer of the Menzel Bourguiba basin in Northeast Tunisia. These excessive demands have resulted in high mineralization of the groundwater and degradation of its hydrochemical quality (salinization). The objectives of this short paper are to follow the spatial evolution of the hydrochemical quality of the groundwater and to interpret the processes of mineralization. Indeed, geochemical and statistical approaches were applied to groundwater samples collected from 18 wells and 17 boreholes during the campaign in October 2019. The results of the analyzed samples indicate groundwater pollution with high concentrations of nitrate. The analyzed hydrochemical facies show the predominance of two major water types in the study area. The first, located upstream of the studied basin, is of moderate salinity, SO4–Cl–Ca rich with the recently renewed part. The second type is highly mineralized and Na-Cl rich. The statistical analyses, the calculated saturation indexes, and the correlation between the major elements results indicate that groundwater mineralization is controlled by rock–water interaction, dissolution, precipitation processes, and ionic exchange mechanisms. This work provides technical support for developing strategies to preserve groundwater availability and protect water quality.

Nature is directly affected by drought, threatening human societies, ecosystems, and especially aquatic environments. This research is about: (i) monitoring the meteorological drought on the Guenniche Basin (Northern Tunisia) using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the standardized precipitation–evapotranspiration index (SPIE) based on available data covering a period between 1901 and 2018, (ii) comparing five (5) decades of groundwater level fluctuation with rainfall, and (iii) estimating the groundwater abstraction due to irrigation using the FAO-CROPWAT model. The SPIE 3-months and 12-months variability patterns are similar for each timeline, with major drought episodes classified as “Middle wet” to “Mild drought”. A total of 50% of the months had “Mild” to “Extreme” drought, while 11% had “Severe” to “Extreme” drought. The SPI-3 for the month of May in relation to the groundwater level fluctuation indicates the end of the rainy period and forecasts a potential drought. Guenniche shallow (since 1990) and deep (since 2010) aquifers have had significant water level declines, due to (i) increased water consumption and (ii) lengthy drought occurrences (95 months of severe drought in a 117-year span). The measured pumping water volumes and the injected artificial water recharge quantities are less than the crop annual irrigation needs, which are estimated to reach 36 Mm3. The results suggest that drought events due to climate are reflected in severe groundwater lowering. Therefore, finding solutions for groundwater rationing-use with considering SPI drought characterizing will help to reduce the depletion risk of Guenniche groundwater.

The main objective of the research is to evaluate the quality of Tunisia’s groundwater for irrigation. For this purpose, a total of 576 sample wells distributed over seven shallow aquifers (Grombalia; Kef, Sfax, Sidi Bouzid, Gafsa, Chott Jerid, and Maritime Djeffara) and six deep aquifers (Grombalia; Sfax, Sidi Bouzid, Gafsa, Djeffara, and Continental Intercalaire) have been extracted, and eleven hydro-chemical parameters including pH, EC, TDS, HCO3−, Cl−, SO42−, NO3–, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+ have been collected through twelve literature reviews. The selected aquifers have been assessed based on various qualitative parameters including EC (or TDS) to study the salinity problem of the water for irrigation, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), permeability index (PI), and magnesium adsorption ratio (MH) for water infiltration problem; and sodium and chloride for toxicity problem. USSL diagram and FAO guidelines are used to classify the aquifers according to their suitability to irrigation. The results reveal that the shallow aquifers (S.As) of Grombalia and Gafsa; the deep aquifer (D.A) of Gafsa have the best water quality for irrigation, followed by Grombalia, Kef, Sfax and Sidi Bouzid S.As and Sidi Bouzid and Continental Intercalaire D.A. Djeffara S.A and D.A, Chott Jerid S.A and Sfax D.A have the worst quality.

Contamination of groundwater poses a significant risk to public health and is, therefore, one of the most serious environmental threats around the world. For Palestinians in the West Bank, groundwater is the most important source for their drinking water, which means that poor water quality may have an impact on their overall health. This research aims at evaluating the environmental impact of wastewater flowing to the groundwater aquifers of the Wadi AL-Samen basin located in Hebron, Palestine. Samples from wastewater as well as springs and groundwater wells were collected during dry and wet seasons of the year 2019 from the Wadi AL-Samen area. Results of wastewater samples showed biological oxygen demand (BOD5) values up to 250 mg/l as well as high concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD) up to 400 mg/l. The results, furthermore, indicate pollution of the wells and springs due to untreated/ insufficiently treated wastewater flowing from the Hebron area and surrounding villages to the Wadi. It was found that the nitrate (NO3−) contents and the concentrations of phosphate (PO4−3) of the springs and wells samples were below the tolerance limits of the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, the WHO allowed concentrations are for BOD5 less than 5 mg/l, 50 mg/l COD, 50 mg/l NO3−, and 1.0 mg/l PO4−3. Total suspended solid (TSS) values exceeded the limits of 150 mg/l (WHO standard is < 5 mg/l), and in both seasons, the physical parameters, e.g., pH, showed clear evidence of contamination of some springs with wastewater. Regarding the microbial quality for water resources, high concentrations of fecal coliform (FC) and total coliform (TC) bacteria in the springs indicated evidence of pollution with wastewater. The results also showed that the concentration of trace elements, especially cadmium (Cd) and lithium (Li) exceeded the thresholds according to WHO standards, which are 6.5–8.5 for pH, < 1 CFU/ 100 ml FC, < 1 CFU/100 ml TC, 0.05 mg/l Cd, and < 0.2 mg/l Li.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the contribution of multivariate bias correction versus univariate correction to post-process climate simulation for the case of Oued El Abid catchment, situated in northern Tunisia. A recently developed multivariate bias correction method (MBCn) was used to post-process climate simulations (daily precipitation and temperature) from the recent EURO-CORDEX experience (CMIP5). Two climate models that have shown their effectiveness in the Maghreb region were used. The results were compared to those obtained by univariate quantile mapping (QDM) over a 30-year reference period (1970–2000). Several metrics were used to compare bias-corrected climate variables by QDM and MBCn. We found that there is not much difference between QDM and MBCn to reproduce correctly the seasonality of temperature and precipitation. Hydrological projection was then performed for the period 2040–2070 under RCP 8.5, using HBV-light conceptual rainfall-runoff model. This study has little conclusive evidence that multidimensional approaches to correcting climate change are generally preferable. It clearly demonstrates that integration or ignorance of inter-variable relationships between temperature and precipitation data did not substantially influence the conclusions drawn from hydrological studies on the impacts of climate change in a semi-arid area.

Chios, the fifth largest of the Greek islands, faces water quality and scarcity problems. The intense overexploitation and the detection of mercury (Hg) in water supplies suggest that it is unsuitable for drinking, and the available water resources must be protected. The rational management of water is a crucial priority for the local authorities of the island. Residents also have an essential responsibility regarding the way they use the available water resources. A questionnaire was conducted to investigate citizens’ actions and attitudes toward water management of Chios Island, focusing on the capital city. The results reveal that 82.7% of the respondents apply water-saving measures but policymakers must encourage further adopting water-saving measures. The findings are helpful for local authorities to design policies and strategies for water management of the island.

In semi-arid regions, the water scarcity and rainfall irregularity in time and space with increasing of water demand related to different sectors have led to overexploitation of surface and groundwater resources mainly because of irrigation needs. This is the case of Merguellil Basin situated in the central of Tunisia. To analyze the actual and future water balance of the Merguellil watershed, and to identify critical trends and thresholds and effective solutions, a water evaluation and planning system (WEAP) was used. The main objective of this study is to analyze climate, anthropogenic, and management changes scenarios in the Merguellil watershed, using remote sensing tools. Climatic scenarios were tested for RCP4.5 where temperatures are expected to increase by an average of one degree by 2030, then by an average of 1.5 °C until 2050. These increases could reach 1.3 and 2.3 °C on average, respectively, at the 2030 and 2050 horizons with the RCP8.5 scenario. Simulations show a rapid decrease of the water storage in the four aquifers in the basin especially for Kairouan aquifer under the different scenarios. Moreover, the combination between the increase of irrigated area and the two climatic scenarios will make the situation more difficult by 2050. A management solution was tested to improve the water balance situation in the area which is the interconnection between El Haouareb and Sidi Saad dams. Results show that an increasing volume over time of the transferred water to El Houareb dam according to the irrigation water needs in the public irrigated area is necessary to make this solution more efficient.

The growing population of the arid regions in Algeria increased the water resources needs for agriculture, and the wastewater reuse became key solution. In this study, we focused on the downstream Berriane treatment plant where the local farmers anticipated the reclaimed wastewater supply by adapting the farming system, what we can define as a “pioneer front.” Until 2016, unplanned irrigation with wastewater was commonly practiced by farmers from treatment plant discharge until the authorities banned this practice. Since then, farmers have turned to irrigation from wells and bore holes. The objective of this study is to assess the importance of official management and the role of the institutions in a reuse project. We are also interested in determining the position of all stakeholders including institutions and farmers in relation to this issue. We conducted more than ten interviews with stakeholders to highlight the reasons why the initial project designed for irrigation purpose failed. We came first to the conclusion that the water treatment process is not enough mature to a planned water reuse project. In fact, industrial wastes incomes were not included within the engineering studies. Second, there is no coordination between the local institutions: the water resource direction, the national sanitation office, the local environment direction, and the agriculture extension. In addition, there is no partnership between the institution representatives and the farmers. We propose a methodology enabling a better the exploitation of this resource throughout a dialog between all the actors of the wastewater sector. This methodology has been proven to be successful in other sites for a better water management.

With the widespread use of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS), mapping agricultural land suitability is becoming increasingly relevant. The main objective of this study was to elaborate and assess soil suitability maps for different rain-fed and irrigated crops. The study was conducted in the north-east area of Tunisia, and three speculations were adopted (cereals, arboriculture, and vegetables crops) in both rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Arithmetic multiplication methods were used based on Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) classification based on Free and Open Source Geographic Information System (QGIS) tools and soil pedological properties, slope, elevation, and climatic data. Overall, regardless of rain-fed or irrigated conditions, results showed that the study area soils were particularly suitable (S1) for cereals crops and marginal suitable (S3) for arboriculture crops with 20, 44, and 23.71%, respectively. More particular, we registered an improvement of soil land suitability under irrigated conditions for cereals with 28.63%. The findings indicated that using the GIS system, the soil in the study area is more suitable for cereals and then for arboriculture under irrigated conditions, which requires some improvement in use strategies and a good management of the soil resources.

The Russian system of water protection forests (WPF) is based on uniform areal principles for all huge territory of Russian Federation. It is too complicated, not targeted to problems of specific river basin and not effective as a whole. It is shown that so-named “restricted zones along water objects” have been an anachronism. The influence of forests to the main water-forming factors and to the water conservation effect of the forests on the catchment areas depends not only on forestry itself, but rather on soil cover, and on relief. All these factors are considered in detail. The conclusions about the necessity both for changes in requirements for loggers in the direction of conservation as of soils and vegetation cover during forestry activities, and for optimization of the existing over-complicated WPF in the direction of its simplification and clearer legislative justification are made.

Noble metals are one of the most valuable metals due to their exceptional properties, which directly lead to their wide applicability in many industries. Concerning the ongoing problems, such as recovering noble metals from contaminated solutions with their low concentration obtained from the recycling of wastes, the research work aimed to check the applicability and performance of the commercially available ion exchange resins in this field. It was established that among the tested resins, Puromet MTS9200, Lewatit MonoPlus MP600 and Diaion CR20 were the leading noble metals sorbents. Sorption isotherms were determined, and a ratio of 1:10 (Vresin: Vsolution) was selected as the ratio suitable for the further possible studies under dynamic conditions with the use of the tested technological solution. The research on the sorption kinetics allowed to determine that the solution–resin contact time of 30 min was appropriate and sufficient to recover around ~98% of Pt and > 80% of Rh. A solution of 1 M thiourea in 2 M hydrochloric acid could be used to elute noble metals from ion exchange resins with a good efficiency in the experimental conditions.

Analyses of chemical and biological properties of the eroded soil and the soil from the middle part of the slope were performed for four years. On average for the period of study, lower pH values (by 0.24 units), increased electrical conductivity (by 95.35 µS/cm), as well as higher amount of total organic carbon (by 0.13%), with reduced amount of total nitrogen were observed in the eroded soil. Eroded soil contained higher concentrations of available forms of phosphorus and potassium and mineral nitrogen and higher amount of microbial biomass carbon (by 149.38 mg/kg) and permanganate-oxidizable carbon (by 0.06 mg/g on average), as well as lower activity of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase than the soil from the middle part of the slope. The lower amounts of extractable in sodium pyrophosphate and sodium hydroxide solutions organic carbon and higher amount of insoluble organic fractions (by 0.17%) are measured in the eroded soil in the base of the slope, compared to the soil on the slope. The results point to two simultaneous processes in the eroded soil, accumulated at the lower parts of the field between the hills, such as increased fractions of labile carbon, which is associated with more intensive decomposition of organic matter and greenhouse gases emissions, as well as higher amount of insoluble organic matter, translocated with the surface runoff, which is difficult to degrade and accumulates.

The present study is on changes in some soil properties as well as CO2 emissions in relation with the application of conventional and soil protection technologies in the cultivation of wheat and maize on sloping terrains on Calcic Chernozem soil type. Bulk density, porosity, hardness, number of saprophytic bacteria, humus content, soil moisture, electrical conductivity, polyphenol oxidase, and peroxidase activity were determined. The dependence of CO2 emissions on the applied technologies and the cultivated crop has been established. The factors that most strongly influenced the CO2 emissions in the conducted experiments are related to the physical condition of the soil and the degree of compaction, hardness and porosity, as well as the processes involved in the accumulation of humus.

Hot and arid climate regions are facing challenging water scarcity, harsh weather conditions and growing demand for food. Protected cultivation systems were developed to both adapt above challenges and address underlying sustainability issues (carbon footprint and water resources depletion). The present work aims the analysis of a pilot greenhouse combining solar-powered RO desalination, fan-pad cooling and hydroponic systems for optimal water/energy savings. The pilot system is mono-pitched greenhouse (8 m × 15m) 2 m gutter height and 20° south-tilted rooftop. Side and rooftop are covered with 8 mm polycarbonate multiwall-sheets. PV-panels were disposed in the greenhouse rooftop to provide partial shading during hot season. The site is located in northern Saudi Arabia (Latitude: 30.8541 Longitude: 41.1758 Elevation: 534.55 m). A weather data series (12/31/1981–12/30/2019) was analyzed to inform the simulation of the greenhouse micro-climate response. The simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics© was performed for cooling and healing cycles. The greenhouse micro-climate model was constructed using coupled equations for convective and radiative heat and mass transfers. The thermo-physical properties of the system components and boundary conditions were introduced. Control variables were varied to determine the optimal conditions for plants growth inside the greenhouse. Results includes temperature space–time variations inside the greenhouse. It was found that fans arrangement affects the distribution of temperature and humidity in the greenhouse. Furthermore, temperature distribution efficiency factor of 95% (depicting the distribution homogeneity inside the greenhouse) can be achieved.

Our work consists in developing a new mathematical model of a wind energy conversion chain composed of a three-bladed horizontal turbine coupled directly to a permanent magnet synchronous generator, and two electronic converters connected to each other via a DC bus equipped with a filtering capacity and a storage system. The modeling of the wind turbine is based on the calculation and simulation of the aeronautical forces exerted by the wind on the blades, which made it possible to distinguish the variable which effectively acts on the power coefficient and to better understand the operating principle of a wind turbine.

To increase concerns over depleting fossil fuel energy, global warming, and environmental pollution, researchers worldwide exploit new sustainable and environmentally-friendly energy resources. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that can harvest energy from organic wastes through microbial metabolism have attracted attention in recent decades. In this study, we report on the application of high surface area-activated carbon derived from rice husks for the electrodes. Rice husk appears to be a promising source of carbon material for fabricating MFC cathodes and anodes because of its abundance, carbon–neutral property, and low cost. Identifying low-cost materials and efficient electrode architectures is important for improving the cost-effectiveness and performance of MFCs. Carbon-based materials are most frequently used as both anodes and cathodes. The anode was made of rice husk charcoal by attaching to a 2 cm × 2 cm steel mesh. In addition, the cathode was fabricated of a mixture of rice husk charcoal and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with a weight ratio of 8:2. After the rice husk charcoal and PTFE solution mixture formed a paste, it was put into bag-shaped steel mesh using and then pressed for 20 min at room temperature. PTFE has excellent electrical properties. PTFE was used for the purpose of improving conductivity. To confirm the effectiveness of the PTFE binder, we also prepared cathodes with rice husk charcoal only. It can be confirmed that the PTFE binder effectively improves the amount of power generation and long-term stability.

In this study, rice husks were used as the anode material for microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Rice husks are crop waste that is commonly discarded or incinerated, resulting in the production and pollution of large amounts of waste. Therefore, we thought that it would be possible to produce activated carbon from rice husks at a lower cost and using it in MFCs. Rice husk-activated carbon was made by carbonizing rice husks, removing silica, and treating at high temperatures. These have realized a porous structure. This rice husk-activated carbon was wrapped in a stainless mesh to serve as an anode electrode, and an activated carbon sheet was used for the cathode to create an MFC. The open-circuit voltage of this MFC was measured once an hour and waited for it to stabilize, but the unstable state continued. We focused on the connection between rice husk-activated carbon and stainless mesh. Therefore, the MFC shape was reconstructed by making an MFC case with a 3D printer that can press the stainless mesh with rice husks from above and below at the anode part. The MFC has a stable open-circuit voltage and a power density that has increased about five times. From this, the effectiveness of the rice husk-activated carbon and the MFC case was confirmed in the MFC.

On-demand hydrogen production through the reaction of water with mechanically activated Al powders is a promising technique to face the safety concerns related to the storage of this gas. In this work, a new and fast mechanical activation technique has been used to produce samples capable to generate up to 100 g of “white” hydrogen per kg of material with a yield above the 95%. Fuel cell systems fed with white hydrogen have been analyzed to determine the carbon footprint and the performance in terms of specific energy and energy density. With respect to other established technologies, the proposed system featured a superior energy density. Greenhouse gas emissions are currently relatively high with a foreseeable progressive reduction till competitive levels by 2050.

Waste management in most African countries sub of the Sahara is still a major challenge for the municipalities. In Ghana, less than 20% of the 14,000 t/day solid waste generated is collected. The remaining 80% are dumped in indiscreetly in open fields and drains. The effect is a heavily polluted environment with huge climatic consequences. Over the years, several initiatives have been taken to address this challenge by prioritizing collection and dumping of the waste notwithstanding the fact that the organic component of the waste without paper and wood is about 50%. The result is that even though collection efficiency has increased, dumping sites have now become a challenge with many communities refusing to allocate their land to be used as dumpsites or landfills. Additionally, the plastic fraction of the waste has seen a surge from about 10% a decade ago to about 20% currently. Meanwhile, even though Ghana claims to have overcapacity in terms of electricity generation, access to electricity is about 85%. Further, about 33% of rural communities in Ghana do not access to electricity. Additionally, only 20% of the population in Ghana have access to modern fuels leaving the over 80% of the population relying on wood fuels. This paper discusses the possibility of finding a more sustainable solution to these challenges by energetically valorizing the municipal solid waste. A hybrid waste to energy concept which combines solar PV, biogas technology to treat the organic fraction and pyrolysis to treat the plastic waste fraction is proposed for Ghana.

The transport sector is responsible for more than 25% of greenhouse gas emissions globally and for about 23% in Morocco. It constitutes an enormous potential for decarbonization. Like many countries, Morocco has adopted an ambitious roadmap considering that this sector is the second largest action potential after the building. The Roadmap for Sustainable Mobility in Morocco provides for 9 areas of intervention including: 1. Adoption of low carbon energy systems in transport 2. Optimization of the energy efficiency of modes and systems of transport 3. Defragment and shorten supply chains 4. Adoption of transport Solutions adapted to the rural area. The aimed target of this study is to: Characterize the intrinsic parameters that govern the transport sector in Morocco Indicate the main elements of the decarbonization strategy for this sector Discuss the scope of the measures in this strategy. The strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the Roadmap for Sustainable Mobility in Morocco will be highlighted and possibilities for improvement will be proposed.

The increased concern of energy efficiency has led to the development of new technologies for environmentally friendly thermal energy storage in construction sector. Phase change materials (PCM) constitute a real solution, which is able to regulate the temperature fluctuations and ensure the thermal comfort inside building by a storage-destocking cycles allowing cooling and heating insides passively. They are used to reduce the energy consumption in building through there integration in different building component and materials. The purpose of this paper is the evaluation of the impact of using PCM mortar into the building envelopes by conducting a parametric analysis displaying different configurations in two climates in Morocco. A simulation of the thermal behavior of a test room with and without PCM was performed using the difference finite method by Design Builder Software. Different parameters were studied as the type of PCM, temperature of melting, enthalpy, and climate. The optimal parameters describing the most performant configuration were determined for each climatic conditions considered, without forgetting the environmental and economic impact found in each case. Conclusively, the use of PCM in building envelope has shown a good energetic performance for cooling and heating purpose explained by 11% of reduction of the energetic load.

The wetlands in southern Iraq, known as the Mesopotamian Marshes, are an important element of the continental ecosystem that requires a simple and reliable observation system. The purpose of the work is to evaluate two methods of satellite monitoring of the restoration of water surface and wetland vegetation after their drainage in 1990–2002 and re-flooding since 2003. We analyzed multispectral Landsat images from 1990, 2000, 2013, and 2020 taken in June just after the end of Tigris River high water. These images were used in supervised landscape classification of barren soils, water surfaces, and vegetation landscapes. Our analysis revealed that marshes and temporarily flooded areas have increased markedly and bare soils are slowly shrinking. The landscape areas, which were automatically classified by the NDVI thresholds from 2013 to 2020, differ from the corresponding areas of supervised classification, but both methods returned similar indicators of the average area of marshes, making up 60–70% of their baseline area in the 1970s. Further studies are needed to delineate the Mesopotamian Marshes landscapes and to determine the evolution of land surface processes.

Reactive management of watercourses following flooding has concentrated on removal of gravel and clearing of vegetation, both of which are perceived to influence local flooding. Drone-based digital elevation models and orthophotography were employed to critically assess the location, type and magnitude of sediment mobilization on two watercourses in the English Lake District (River Kent at Kendal, and River Greta at Keswick), following several geomorphologically effective floods between 2018 and 2020. The detailed 0.02 m resolution imagery was interrogated to quantify individual clast scale movement across the range of grain sizes present. It would appear that both sites have become armored over time with large cobbles remaining generally immobile during flood events, while smaller gravels are being supplied and transported through the study reaches until the falling limb when this material is prone to stalling in over-wide reaches. This flood mobility suggests that material of this caliber, although present in the reaches, is soon mobilized and moved downstream in a flood and does not act to increase local flood risk unless stabilized by vegetation.

The precipitation regime is changing with global warming. This situation creates a risk of drought in some regions and water management becomes even more important. Water retaining structures are needed in order for agricultural activities to continue regularly. Ponds are preferred because of their high benefits for the environment, ecology, protection of groundwater, and economy. An irrigation pond is going to be built in Mersin province, Boztepe village. The study area, located in the Middle Tauride orogenic belt, is under the influence of the left-lateral strike-slip Ecemiş Fault Zone. The study area, characterized by the typical Mediterranean climate, is very suitable for agriculture. In this study, the pond site was modelled in 3D using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Using UAV pictures, Digital Surface Map (DSM), slope map, and orthophoto of the region were created in Agisoft Metashape software at high resolution. The information obtained by the remote sensing method has been transferred to the GIS environment. The volume and 3D surface area of the pond were calculated in ArcGIS from this model. Hydrological modelling of the region was created using the DEM data generated. With this study, the model of the pond site was created in a short time with a low-cost UAV. The obtained model of the terrain can be used as a basic base for the engineering project of the pond.

In the Mediterranean region, considered as the prominent hotspot in future climate change projections, water scarcity becomes the main challenge for the agricultural sector. This is mainly the case of the Tunisian agriculture that is substantially based on rainfed crops to ensure food security. Thus, monitoring and assessing the vegetation conditions may provide accurate information, which allows improving water productivity and helps decision-making including water management. Currently, satellite-derived vegetation data has been widely used to assess the crop production and the effect of water shortage and extreme climatic events. In this context, the FAO portal to monitor water productivity through open-access of remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) WAPOR database was developed to monitor the water productivity through remotely sensed derived data. The aim of this work is to evaluate WAPOR ability to estimate the biomass of rainfed annual crops in the Cap Bon region in the North-East of Tunisia. The WAPOR products covering the study area are available at the national level (Level 2) with a spatial resolution of 100 m. Measured aboveground of local cereals varieties of wheat, barley and oat and mixed fodder crops (faba-bean, triticale and vetch) was compared to the estimated actual evapotranspiration and interception (ETa_WAPOR), during four years with different climatic conditions. The area of the considered agricultural fields varies from less than one hectare to around 10 ha. The estimated cumulative actual evapotranspiration (ETa_WAPOR) calculated from the predicted decadal ETa shows an acceptable correlation with the monitored dry biomass (R2 = 0.78) but with high RMSE value of around 2.7 ton/ha. The performance of WAPOR estimation doesn’t seem to vary with seasonal climatic conditions.

The present work aims to study the water erosion in the watershed of Oued Rmel located in the North-East of Tunisia, using the PAP/CAR approach and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This method is focused on the integration of factors influencing water erosion (slope, vegetation cover and lithology) and then the search for the relationship that can link the result of the used methodology with the three spectral indices (NDVI, IB and MSAVI) that are most used to analyze the state of soil degradation. The modeling presented by the PAP/RAC guidelines was able to determine the changes in soil erosion risk between 2000 and 2020, and to identify priority areas for intervention. In fact, an area of 58 km2 presented an aggravation of erosion during the studied period. The analysis of the erosive map conditions in the year 2020 shows that only 13.9% of the studied area represents a very low erosive condition. This class is largely located in forested areas. However, the watershed is dominated by a low to medium erosive state, 68%, located in the central plain whose NDVI fluctuated between 0.25 and 0.5, the MSAVI between 0 and 0.4 and a gloss index that varies between 5 and 25%. The very high erosive class is also found in the northern and southwestern areas and does not exceed 5%. These areas are still undeveloped and require urgent intervention mainly on bare soils translated by a percentage of 45% of IB, or by the implementation of soil conservation techniques.

The vast Himalayan geography cannot be managed altogether for soil conservation practices. Therefore, identification of most severe areas is one way to proceed further. In this regard, this study has presented a watershed prioritization framework for the Himalayan Gandak River basin using morphological parameters and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach. In this study, twenty-three morphometric parameters related to linear, shape, basic, and landscape characteristics of watersheds have been derived using 30 m resolution digital elevation model (DEM) from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) and GIS techniques. Among twenty-three, sixteen morphological parameters were used as input criteria for four MCDM methods viz. COPRAS, SAW, VIKOR, and TOPSIS. The weight of the criteria was determined using automated Entropy weighting method. The results of MCDM methods were compared using percentage of change (∆P) and intensity of change (∆I) statistical indicators which categorized TOPSIS as best MCDM method than others to prioritize the watersheds for soil erosion. The TOPSIS method categorized the watersheds, WS13 (Qi = 0.87) and WS8 (Qi = 0.78), into first and second rank and demarked them into very high severe soil erosion index. Also, COPRAS and SAW have categorized the watersheds into low, medium, and high soil erosion susceptibility priority index. However, VIKOR and TOPSIS have categorized the watersheds into low, medium, and high priority indices. Also, it has been found that the rank of the watersheds has negative power function with mean bifurcation and second-order polynomial relation with compactness coefficient (Cc) and relief ration (Rf). Overall, each MCDM method was able to identify the erosion-prone watersheds, however, TOPSIS had higher predictive accuracy than others. Therefore, the TOSIS MCDM method can categorize and identify the severe erosion-prone watersheds in the Himalayan region.

The phenomenon of water erosion is one of the main factors in the de-gradation of the natural environment. In the absence of protective structures, this phenomenon can threaten socio-economic assets such as: (i) road infrastructure due to landslides, (ii) hydraulic structures due to siltation of dams and dams on hillsides, and (iii) the demolition of habitats on slopes. In Tunisia, the process of water erosion is very frequent and changes dynamic aspect according to the evolution and spatial variation of the lithological nature of the mother rocks, the geomorphology of the landscapes, the geometry of the watersheds, and their bioclimatic situation. The study of the interaction of these factors and their spatio-temporal evolution on the scale of the Medjerda Middle Valley (Jendouba-Bou Salem plain) allowed us to establish a cartographic zoning by class improvement of the study area into several areas according to their degree of susceptibility to erosion and an approximate quantification of soil loss. The objective of this study is to develop an open source GIS application, using the RUSLE methodology to estimate the rate of erosion at the watershed level of the Middle Medjerda Valley and provide the same application via a web access (web application). This model is the product of the five erosion factors: rainfall aggressiveness, soil erodibility, slope and slope length, plant neck density, and erosion control practices. Each of these factors was expressed in the form of a thematic map, the product of which corresponds to a resultant map representing soil losses with different rates of erosion: low, medium, and high and their corresponding areas having, respectively, 40%, 20%, and 40%. It was also concluded that the heavily eroded areas are related to high slope values, bare soil, and the highest P and C values. These threatened regions are mainly located around the Sidi Salem dam, which leads to a significant production of sediment deposited directly in the dam’s reservoir.

This framework aims to monitor the sediment dynamic evolution and land use occupation of the coastal salt-lake system—Sabkha of Ariana—extended in semi-arid region in the gulf of Tunis in Tunisia. We adopted a sedimentary analysis of the sediment crust from the landward to the coastal ridge in winter 2020. Land cover/land use (LCLU) assessment was based on different Remote Sensing (RS) data-scenes of Landsat 5 and 8 for the years 1972–1984–1985–1994–2010 and 2020, completed by the aerial scenes (1974s) and the K-means clustering. In coastal area, grain size distributions show medium to fine sand, well-sorted and which are mostly unimodal. The sabkha crust distribution reveals silty-clay logarithmic-shaped facies of turbidite channel deposit in shallow-water calm environment. The change detection of LC between 1985 and 2020 reveals a decrease of vegetation classes by ~ 27%, the sandy deposit by 7% and an increasing trend by 15% and 22% of bare soil and the urban areas, respectively. Diachronic assessment of the sabkha landscape from 1972 to 2020 datasets revealed the expansion of the salt-flat crust from 19 to 27 ha. Both the global aridification and the urbanization impacted the natural dynamics of the coastal sabkha, resulting in decreasing trend of the vegetation covers and natural features in favor of the salt flats and urban spaces.

The impact of measures to limit the COVID-19 pandemic on atmospheric composition and emissions of atmospheric impurities in scales of the whole Northern Eurasia and Moscow region was assessed. The effect of restrictive measures on the surface NO2 and CO concentrations and columns as well as aerosol optical depth AOD was investigated. Significant but short-time changes of NO2 tropospheric column spatial distribution comparing to 2019 reflecting the pandemic extension across Eurasia and reduction of regional emissions due to lockdowns were revealed for the first half of 2020 using TROPOMI data. Lockdown period in Moscow coincided with substantial decrease in both NOx and CO surface concentrations, and CO total content. However, the meteorological parameters in 2020 strongly differed from ones in previous years and favored Moscow regional air quality improvement in the spring months of 2020. Therefore, reduction of air pollution due to the lockdown is likely to be within interannual variability due to meteorological situation.

Microwave signal propagation caused by spatiotemporal differences of dry and wet atmospheric content results in an effect known as atmospheric delay. Atmospheric delay is a main source to obscure the land deformation signal derived from Interferometry. A very sparsely distributed GPS network is continually measuring atmospheric delay. However, as climatology parameters show strong spatiotemporal variability, the GPS derived delays are not interpolatable. Instead, InSAR community utilizes climatologic profiles provided by models or reanalysis. This process is time consuming and suffers from the lack of accuracy in terms of spatial and temporal resolutions. In this study, based on a statistical method, we try to link the total delay and near surface climatology. Using four years of hourly climatological profiles from ERA-5 reanalysis (2017–2020), we investigated the vertical autocorrelation within climatological parameter and dry and wet delay profiles within 25 barometric pressure levels (until 13.5 km). The analysis shows that, at about 3.5 km altitude, the accumulated Q, and accordingly, wet delay reaches maximum and remains unchanged upward. However, T and dry delay continue to decrease and increase respectively. We evaluate the results using GNSS GPS total zenith path delay (ZPD) for three stations in the region of study. GPS total zenith path delay showed a mean RMS value of 28 mm and 23 mm with bulk and near surface climatology respectively.

Leakage effect is one of the main sources of error limiting the satellite gravimetry data application in continental hydrology. Leakage rate is affected by several factors which are defined by the gravimetry data structure and by the study unit specifications. Continental hydrology usually deals with isolated study units of various surface area and geometric shapes (e.g., watersheds, lakes, and groundwater basins). Several studies have investigated the leakage effect for a specific study unit. However, there is a lack of a general method to estimate the signal contamination by leakage effects, for study units. In this study, by analyzing the principal factors causing leakage effect, we have modeled the scaling factor in order to compensate leakage effects. Necessary information includes the degree of spherical harmonic truncation, latitude, and area and shape of the study unit. Each factor is studied separately using fitting approach; then, integrated effects from different combinations are discussed. The importance and priorities are determined based on leakage factors separately and for factor combinations. Consequently, this study provided a schematic model allowing approximate leakage effect on satellite gravimetry signal for any arbitrary study units. This model allows users to select the data kind and decide on area and shape of the study unit in order to optimize leakage effects within their studies.

Identifying the micro and macro plastic sources, transport vectors and the plastic litter path to the sea is currently a difficult and crucial issue, given the coexistence of multiple variables. With this preliminary study, we intend to develop a methodology that can be applied on a large scale in future studies. For each of the four types of main urbanized scenarios (industrial/harbour/fluvial/remote area), a series of variables have been identified, integrated with a weighted approach (assigning a different weight to each variable), highlighting the specific site characteristics. This methodology will allow the creation of predictive maps of vulnerability in future selected Mediterranean test sites.

The mobilization and exploitation of surface water are ancient practices in Tunisia. Solid inputs from upstream watershed threaten the life of dams that cause its siltation. Predicting the rate of erosion upstream of the dam is very important in order to monitor and manage the siltation problem and to designate adequate means to reduce its extent. The main objective of this paper is to estimate the siltation rate of Tessa planned dam by RUSLE model (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation). To apply the model, the use of mapped field information requires the use of a Geographic Information System to properly plan the management actions to be taken and to protect priority areas at erosion risk. The simulation of the thematic maps of the RUSLE factors will allow a very efficient way to unravel the complexity and the interdependence of the factors, such as slope, soil erodibility, rainfall erosivity, land cover, and existing landscaping, to predict the volume of the vase. The current rate of sediment according to the model is therefore (53 t/ha/year); the sediment rate in the dam is expected to be in the order of 950 Mm3. After integration and combination of scenarios, this rate will decrease by 10%.

With time and cost savings, this work aims to identify in a very remote area of the Sahel: (1) the areas where aquifer infiltration and recharge are promoted; and (2) the potential areas where the drilling rate of productive aquifers is high. Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System and Multi-Criteria Analysis are the tools used in this work to elaborate the Ground Water Potential (GWP) maps. The results obtained on the basis of satellite imagery will be compared with ground geophysical data.

This study provides an overview to understand the role of spatial analysis in the sustainable development and management of aquaculture along the central area (28–32° N) of the Moroccan Atlantic continental shelf. Emphasis was placed on Meagre (Argyrosomus regius) such species is known for its high economic value. An in-depth knowledge of the mode and lifestyle of this aquaculture species makes it possible to know its sensitivity to the variability of environmental constraints. Thanks to the multidimensional data (bathymetry, in-situ measurements) analysis facilitated by (GIS Geoprocessing tools) and the use of daily acquired satellite data such as sea surface temperature (SST), currents, wave height and water quality in terms of suspended particles (SPM), and the phytoplankton species composition, it was possible to locate potential and appropriate areas for offshore aquaculture. The results show that the potential areas are geographically centered in two sub-areas on either side of latitude 29° N, between 28.5° N and 29.6° N and between 30.5° N and 31° N.

Human prosperity and well-being of Mediterranean watersheds are underpinned by their natural capital, which among others, provide clean water and multi-functional landscapes, today jeopardized. Historically, water demand for irrigation and industrial use, along with increased population density and land-use changes, has altered the landscape of Mediterranean basins. Mapping Ecosystem Services (ES) is thus key to understanding how basins depend on biodiversity, the effects of shortcutting ES functions, and the consequences to its societies. Based on land-use data and well-known relationships between ES, together with key spatial information for management purposes, we provide maps of a Mediterranean watershed placed in Eastern Spain called El Mijares, aimed at raising awareness about areas of ecosystem goods and services to watershed stakeholders. These outputs will then be used as the point of departure from which to identify ES priorities and discuss potential actions to promote ES with watershed stakeholders, in a participatory way. Lastly and based on the previous steps, different socio-ecological models will be constructed for assisting local actions for sustainable use of El Mijares ES. The methodology developed for El Mijares may be replicated in other Mediterranean watersheds which face similar challenges in water management and desertification. The up-scaling of this pilot study may promote nature conservation, climate protection, and disaster risk reduction in the Mediterranean by considering the scientific literature and the know-how of the local societies.

Mountainous areas around the world are commonly known as scarce-data regions, mainly due to the inaccessibility of its rugged terrain. It is the case of the Atlas range where the existing ground network is sparse and still insignificant to quantify climate and water variables despite the crucial role of such region in water and ecological management. To overcome this gap of in situ hydro-climatic measurements, a long-distributed time series of snow, precipitation and temperature are extracted from multiple sources and processed within the same temporal and spatial window. The snow cover time series were generated from MODIS satellite sensor data using a cloud filter algorithm. The air temperature datasets are extracted from ERA-5 reanalysis models and downscaled to finer spatial resolution by using the Barnes objective analysis scheme. Rainfall series were derived from GPM-IMERG satellite product. Results indicate that the presented datasets allow a realistic analysis and mapping for the main water-related variables at both temporal and spatial scale. Consequently, these chronological series may be useful for several applications related to water, ecological, land and risk management.

The detection of changes in landscape dynamics relies heavily on the effective integration of modern technologies and conventional ecological monitoring techniques, especially remote sensing and GIS, which are currently considered very important techniques for the study of LULC. This study illustrates the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC in an Algerian steppe region affected by desertification. For this study, we relied on field data, as well as satellite images from Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI, to perform a diachronic analysis of this steppe landscape, which is mainly composed of seven thematic classes: forest, agriculture, rangeland, wetland, built-up land, sandy land, and bare soil/rocky soil. Visual interpretation was employed as a starting point, followed by an unsupervised classification methodology using the ISODATA algorithm supported by seven different spectral indices calculated algebraically and the best composites for the identification of the characteristics of the terrain at different dates to find clusters and determine land use types. The Principal Component Analysis was also used to extract the most useful spectral information by compressing the redundant data contained in each spectral channel. Based on the results, we were able to identify the landscape units for both dates with very satisfactory results. Overall classification accuracy of 95% with a kappa coefficient of 0.94 for 1987 and 91% with a kappa coefficient of 0.90 was obtained for 2020. The analysis of the results showed that the Region of Djelfa has undergone a significant change. The results obtained revealed that the areas of forest, sandy land, and wetland have strongly decreased with rates of change of − 28.55%, − 84.65%, and − 27.27%, respectively, while that of the class of agriculture, rangeland, built-up land, and bare–rocky soil have experienced an increase with positive rates equal to 290.06%, 1.25%, 377.13, and 161.75%, respectively. These changes have been caused by the combined anthropogenic pressure as well as the extreme drought with very low PDSI equal to − 3.16 in 2020 which will help on the spread of diseases and put in difficulty the process of spontaneous regeneration of the old trees and the shrinking of the surface covered by water. Increase in population (urban and rural) and evolution of many agricultural practices in the region are also among the causes of change in LULC in the study area.

Remote sensing information can be used to monitor water stress in olive orchards. The focus of this chapter is to estimate and to map vegetation and moisture indexes by remote sensing of olive trees groves in different regions of Tunisia. The experimental study was carried out on different experimental plots in Kairouan (rain-fed, semi-intensive and intensive) and in Jendouba (rain-fed and intensive). For the determination of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), satellite images were used from Sentinel 2. The calculations were based on cloudless images. The results obtained by remote sensing show that NDVI values, during the experimental period (2019–2020), depend on the study region, cropping system, vegetation cover, planting density and the growing season. The highest values are recorded at the level of the Kairouan Intensive plot (0.95) and Jandouba Rainfed plot (0.77). The low values correspond to those of Kairouan semi-intensive plot (0.16) and Kairouan rainfed plot (0.13). For NDMI, the highest values correspond to the plots of Jandouba Irrigated plot (0.39), Jandouba Rainfed plot (0.39) and Kairouan Intensive plot (0.37). The NDVI values are in agreement with the results of NDMI and the cultivation mode of olive groves. According to these results, we deduce that these plots are therefore characterized by a high canopy and a well-irrigated state of the olive groves. On the other hand, the values recorded at the level of semi-intensive and rain-fed plots in the Kairouan region show that these olive groves suffer from water stress. The analysis of the correlations between NDVI and NDMI confirms the close relationship between these two parameters with high R2 values (between 0.63 and 0.98).

Green cover is important for the sustainability of urban area. Urban green area is a land space that covered by grass, shrubs, trees, and other vegetation that exist in the urban area. It functions to increases the environment quality and the beauty of an area. With the development of urban area, it is becoming harder to track and control the green cover area as some of the green cover is covered by building and the image failed to completely visualize and classify the green cover. Thus, this chapter investigates a method to store information of green cover in urban area using 3D point clouds. The point clouds data are acquired using Airborne LIDAR and classify several urban green areas, such as grass, shrubs, trees, and ground. Due to the very detail features captured by LIDAR data acquisition, this study proposed to organize the point clouds of urban green cover in NoSQL database. The NoSQL database offers capability in handling voluminous unstructured data efficiently. Since the main data source for this study are unstructured 3D point clouds, this chapter is aimed to test the capability of NoSQL database in handling information of green covers. Several queries related to urban sustainability such as sustainability value and nearest query are performed. Based on the result, it is showed that the NoSQL database efficiently organize the urban green cover dataset and successfully responded to the query operation. Even though traditional database is common than NoSQL, we believe for future application, the NoSQL database could offer better performance and features than traditional database in handling urban green covers, Ultimately, our finding is meant to support the planning and management of green infrastructure that can assist the local authorities for decision making and future planning of urban sustainability.

Anthropogenic impact on protected areas is a current issue, taking into consideration the perspectives of the current EU operational programs, as well as the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, that aim to allocate significant resources to infrastructure, thus bringing human activity closer to protected habitats and species. Due to the well-developed policy framework of Natura 2000 network with an unquestionable role in biodiversity conservation and in the long-term fight against climate change, the authors of this chapter propose an anthropogenic impact assessment based on the dynamics of land cover changes analyzed for the protected areas network. The main datasets used in this evaluation were Corine Land Cover databases, available for five time references: 1990, 2000, 2006, 2012, and 2018, as well as Corine Land Cover Changes datasets that provides additional data regarding land use transitions. The databases were integrated and processed using GIS spatial analysis methods. The results regarding the distribution and dynamics of ecosystems in Natura 2000 sites from Romania were correlated with the ecosystems dynamics of the entire country. This study aims to highlight possible trends in land use that may impact the stability of the ecosystems within the protected sites. The results of this assessment may be used in building a sustainable development strategy for the protected areas.

Desertification is one of the major environmental problems in the Algerian steppe. Reasonable assessment of the sensitivity of this region to desertification using geospatial technologies like Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) is crucial for the sustainable management of the region. In this study, the degree of desertification sensitivity of southern Hodna, was assessed, using combined remote sensing and GIS-based Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Landsat OLI-8 image of 2016 was used to prepare six thematic maps; Land Cover (LC), salinity (NDSI), erosion (EMI), agriculture (NDVI), relative drought (NMDI), and terrestrial albedo (Albedo), which are related to the desertification process. Pairwise comparison of the thematic layers was used to measure the importance of each layer, and the weights for each one were determined based on the expert’s judgment. All thematic layers were combined using the weighted overlay tool in ArcGIS 10.3, and the desertification sensitivity map was obtained and classified into five classes, namely very high vulnerability to desertification, high, moderate, low, and very low. In addition, fieldwork was performed out in combination with a visual observation of Google Earth images to measure the accuracy of the sensitive map. Results indicated that 41.3% of the study area falls under very high and high desertification grade, whereas 29.97% falls under the non-desertification grade (very low and low), which demonstrate that this region is very affected by desertification. The validation of the results revealed that the technique used was relevant for assessing desertification sensitivity with reasonably high accuracy (87%). Finally, this finding can be used as a decision support tool for effective management and desertification control in this region.

The Călimani Mountains belong to the volcanic chain stretching along the Western side of the Oriental Carpathians (Romania). The chapter sets out to evaluate the interactions between the natural and anthropic risk factors by hierarchizing the identified environmental risk levels. The results obtained have the potential to serve as a basis for the implementation of a set of measures to ensure the ecosystem resilience in the Călimani Mountains and to improve the quality of the goods and services provided by these ecosystems in order to boost the social and economic welfare of the local communities in an area considered to be underserved as per legislation. The disruptive factors analysed are: windthrows, forest fires and mining activities. Mining activities, specifically the exploitation and preparation of sulphur is arguably the most aggressive form of anthropic destruction of the natural environment in the Northeast of Romania. The paper proposes a risk evaluation matrix for better assessment, followed by a subsequent mapping of the areas exposed to the risks identified, emphasizing the need for new, adaptive rehabilitation measures.

Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) coupled with field data collection are powerful tools to elaborate the Ground Water Potential (GWP) and Groundwater Potential Index (GWPI) maps. All the data obtained remotely and from the ground make it possible to characterise two sectors with different characteristics. The eastern sector of the study area is characterised by moderate to good GWP and GWPI values; and aquifers hosted in alluvial and/or Aeolian deposits are shallow. In this sector, the identification of drilling sites is fairly easy and groundwater is available all year round. In the western sector, GWP and GWPI values vary from poor to good; and aquifers hosted mainly in saprolites or within the topmost part of the fractured and altered crystalline basement, are difficult to identify. In this area, pumping rates are often weak, and in many areas, groundwater is not available during part of the long dry season. The achieved remote-based and ground-based data also enable the development of both Flood Hazard Map and Disaster Risk Reduction Plan useful in ensuring the health and safety of local communities, and safe access to livelihoods and social services.

The chapter discusses a technique of river-type flood inundation modeling that is unavailable in contemporary desktop GIS software. Standard tools of desktop GISs can be used to implement the technique and to automate needed computations. The technique is based upon the raster algebra methodology and spatial proximity estimation. Reinterpolation can be applied to reduce artifacts in interpolated gridded map of the flood inundation water surface. Proposed technique can be applied to wide-area flood inundation mapping. It helps also to ensure flood inundation mapping for testing purposes or as an operative activity in the conditions of incomplete or inconsistent initial data.

Investing time and resources in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), not only influence disaster losses, but also enhance economic, social and environmental benefits that enhance the well-being and resilience of countries and communities. This study aimed at evaluating environmental and human benefits through drought disaster risk reduction based on the existing information on drought disaster events. Data used in this study were acquired from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT). This database compiles essential core data on the occurrence and effects of disasters, globally, from 1900 to date. Findings revealed that drought disasters affected about 31%, 22%, and 41% of the total population in Angola, Tanzania, and Zambia, respectively, during the survey period. More so, investing in drought disaster risk reduction can influence or contribute to disaster resilience. This unprecedented amount of investment in disaster risk reduction offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild better and guide the planet toward a safer, healthier, more sustainable, and inclusive future. We must, therefore, ensure that the funds invested in these projects are not destroyed due to disasters and that the new infrastructure does not implement new risks.

In the recent era, soil salinization has remained as one of the largest widespread environmental concerns, responsible for land degradation and desertification. The most alarming thing of this hazard is its way of propagation, predicted to affect vigorously more fertile areas worldwide in the coming years, namely in arid and semi-arid areas. In these zones, the lack of water resources combined with extreme weather conditions limits salts leachability, thus leading to a net increase of salt concentration within soil layers. The higher concentrations of salts have detrimental impacts on soil physicochemical and biological properties, causing thereby numerous damages to crop yield sustainability, civil infrastructures as well as the social well-being of the country. Current studies report that soil salinity is transforming fertile areas into barren unproductive lands, leading to economical loss of billion dollars annually. Therefore, it is imperative to discuss thoroughly about soil salinity issues, namely in arid and semi-arid areas, which are characterized as hot spots of soil salinization. This work aims at critical analysis of the salinity impacts on ecosystem biodiversity, human health and civil engineering facilities. Various classical desalinization techniques have been applied, including chemical amendment, irrigation and use of salt-tolerant plants. However, in field uses, their efficiency was not satisfactory, namely with low permeable soils. By contrast, electrokinetic technique (EKT) is a novel widely admitted process for soils remediation. During EKT, a set of mechanism is generated including electroosmosis, electromigration and electrophoresis, combined with electrolysis and geo-chemical reactions. These phenomena result in mobilization and removal of noxious salts followed with a net decrease of soil salinity. The current provided information would help to provide a useful future roadmap for the upcoming investigations in this domain for sustainable remediation of salinity problems around the globe.

The Cebala Borj-Touil perimeter is the largest area irrigated by treated wastewater (TWW) in Tunisia. A sector of about 748 ha containing 13 secondary open drains and a main canal was selected to study the environmental impact of the reuse of TWW. The depth and the water quality of the shallow saline groundwater were controlled by 16 piezometers during two dates: at the end of irrigation cycle in September 2014 and before the irrigation cycle in March 2015. Results showed an increase of the groundwater by 1 m in rainy season in winter especially in the northeast and the southwest part of the sector and decrease in dry season in summer by 1.5 m. The average EC is between 12.2 and 14.6 dS/m. The soluble salts are dominated by sodium chloride. The contents of metallic trace elements (MTE) exceed in some sites the Tunisian standards for TWW discharge. Cd and Cr contents lie frequently above the norms, Co, Fe and Pb content only in some dates. This pollution is caused by the leaching of soils irrigated with TWW. The contamination with MTE also affects the drainage water. Samples taken several times from an open drain showed high amounts of Cd, Cr, Pb and Co. The contents reached 0.019 mg/l, 0.196 mg/l, 0.231 mg/l and 0.179 mg/l, respectively. The results prove that there is a risk of contamination of the marine ecosystem, where the drainage water finally flows.

In this chapter, we mapped the residual pollution near the southern Inčukalns Acid Tar Lagoon (ATL) in Latvia, Northern Europe using Ground-penetrating Radar (GPR). The southern Inčukalns ATL is now remediated, and Acid Tars (AT) are excavated; however, the moving pollution plume has been identified from the borehole data. Due to the considerable variations in the GPR signal properties in the study area, we were able to interpret the differences in Quaternary sediments as well and correlate them with the borehole data. We have found that the lack of glacial till in places could be the main factor in facilitating the migration of pollution originated from ATL trough the sandy sediments towards the Devonian aquifers. Further, we distinguished a distinct area with increased losses of the GPR signal inside the sandy sediment layer appearing as the sharp lateral discontinuity of the deepest prominent GPR signal. We ascribe it to the enhanced electrical conductivity of groundwater that is related to the contamination by ATs. We have demonstrated that GPR is an effective method for the mapping of soil and groundwater pollution created by ATL and can substantially supplement the conservative monitoring methods.

In situ studies, as well as physical model investigations, are of fundamental importance for understanding fast-moving flows kinds of phenomena, for example, hyperconcentrated flows, pyroclastic flows, mud or debris flows. Related measurements provide insights to better understand flow properties. This work is motivated by recent observations that fast moving flows in low-gradient channels exhibit significant fluctuations in normal and shear stress with possible negative consequences on their erosive capacity, obtaining amplified volumes downstream. The work here presented is related to natural processes which may be well reproduced by single-phase simulation experiments, that is mud flows, pyroclastic flows and, to some extent to hyperconcentrated flows. It presents a laboratory procedure developed for the mean shear stress measurement at the bottom of channelized fast moving viscous free surface flows. Related flow rates were recorded as well. The investigation campaign was conducted using clear water and a solution of water and Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose (Na-CMC), the latter with an obtained viscosity of an order of magnitude greater than that of clear water. The obtained results indicate that the mean shear stresses exerted by the solution of water and Na-CMC at the bottom are higher than the ones measured for clear water, proving the greater resistance exerted by viscous flows.

Sakaka power plant was the first large National Renewable Energy Program solar project implemented in Saudi Arabia. This station is located in dry climate conditions where dust storms and sand encroachment are likely to occur during its lifespan. The aim of present study is to investigate and quantify the wind erosion effects on photovoltaic (PV) panels to develop and deploy proactively mitigation measures. To this end, field measurements were carried out using five Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) soil samplers identified by letters A, B, C, D and E and carefully located along plant boundaries where prevailing winds were identified. Three erosion events have been sampled during this campaign in relevant conditions informed by weather forecasts. The results showed that much more sand was collected in West, Southwest and Northwest with sediment fluxes of 149.05 kg/m, 47.14 kg/m and 9.42 kg/m, respectively. This trend is in general agreement with the known prevailing winds in Saudi Arabia region where the strongest wind being recorded in the West, Northwest and South sectors. Results allowed to identify a high potential for sand encroachment where anthropogenic and natural triggering factors act together mainly along the Western fence of Sakaka power plant. Recommended technical measures to reduce sediment fluxes include strategies to reduce wind speed. Hence, windbreaks made of artificial sand ridges (counter dunes) perpendicular to the prevailing winds direction should be designed, implemented and maintained throughout the plant’s lifespan.

Trachurus trachurus (Linné, 1758) is widely represented in Tunisian catches. These quantities landed varied according to the areas and seasons. Taking into account the quantitative importance and economic contributions for the fishing sector, it is useful to assess the biomass and locate areas of concentration. Exploration and experimental trawling operations are carried out aboard the oceanographic vessel O/V “Hannibal” in all Tunisian waters. This study focuses on the results obtained in the North and East areas of Tunisia. In the East area, the depth prospected vary from 40 to 227 m with 49 hauls and that of the North area oscillate between 30 and 512 m and 53 hauls. Three important areas of Trachurus trachurus concentration were reported in the Eastern waters, particularly in the Gulf of Hammamet, above the Curba banks, Mamur and Hallouf. The overall biomass index varies, depending on the area, from 100 to 455 kg/km2. In the Northern waters, 4 specific areas of concentration of this species were noted, including a particularly important toward the North East of the Gulf of Tunis, above the El Hawaria bank at depths of 100 m. The 3 other areas were, respectively, the north of Bizerte, above the Cani Islands bank; above Stafette and Fratelli benches and toward the extreme northwest of Tunisia, south of Galite. The biomass index estimated ranges from 118 to 532 kg/km2.

This study aims to determine the pattern of contamination of water and lagoon sediments and monitor their spatial dispersion through the coastal urban areas. A sedimentological, mineralogical and chemical investigations of the surface marine sediments of the lagoon and the surrounding nearshores were conducted in 2019 and 2020. The determination of the chemical quality of the water has also been studied. Grain size results revealed a relevant muddy distribution (< 0.063 mm) in the lagoon and the port sites. Mineralogical identification provided by XRD analysis showed that the most common components are quartz and calcite elements. Major and trace metals quantification by ICP-MS highlighted that surface water contained systematically arsenic at concentrations ranging from 1.5 to 1.9 times the environmental quality standard (EQS). Most of the water samples also showed high concentrations of Zn. A very high concentration of copper (12 µg/L, i.e., 7 times the EQS) was measured in the water column in the northeast zone of the lagoon. Very high concentrations of copper (402 ppm) and lead (245 ppm) were measured in the sediments collected in the harbor entrance channel. Overall, the analysis of the sediments of the low valley of Medjerda River and the nearshore of Ghar El Melah lagoon reveals a critical chemical enrichment of traces element (As, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) mainly trapped in muddy terrestrial sediment probably enriched by urban waste.

This study aims to provide ecological statement based on molluscan fauna distribution and related coastal sediment facies in urbanized regions, in the southern Gulf of Gabes, Mediterranean Sea. Foreshore survey of surface marine sediment sample and Malacological fauna are carried out in April 2017 and April 2018 in harbor and river coastal outlets area, respectively. Samples were collected from the intertidal area in high tide level (~105 tidal coefficient) along 72 stations extended in the southern coast of the Gulf of Gabes. Grain size particle analysis reveals unimodal (Mo = 0.1 to 0.125 mm), fine to very fine (2Ф < Mz < 3Ф), well-sorted (0.35 < σ < 0.5) sand distribution in 95% of cases. Harbor sediment facies is characterized by fine sand distribution rich in dead seagrass leaves. The sediment of the river mouth is characterized by fine-grained muddy distribution. The longshore spatial evolution of the particle size shows a decreasing pattern under the North to the southern coastal drift direction. The cross-shore grain size pathways is mainly influenced by the tidal current with an increasing pattern from the supratidal to the infratidal areas. The inventory of molluscan fauna identified 27 species of bivalves where the Veneridae family is the most represented (by 25%) with 7 species and 23 species of Gastropods. The specific richness (SR) is ranging from only one species to 22 species. The abundance rate (A) was highly variable and was fluctuating between 6 individuals/m2 and 22 near the harbor zone, and the maximum values were recorded in fine-sandy bottom zones which are closer to river mouth areas. The dominance (D) was highest for the Bivalve Ruditapes decussatus with a range of 19%, due to the favorable nearshore biotope conditions such as the sandy bottom and the coupled tidal waves physical action. Secondary, the Gastropods Cerithuim scabridium (D) record ranges 14% and Pirenella conica (D) rate is about 12%. According to diversity and molluscan fauna composition, the nearby harbor area (i.e., Zarrat) are characterized by a low richness and abundance. However, the southward coastal areas adjacent to river outlets which are under the active wave-tide hydrodynamic processes, reveals a higher molluscan fauna diversity mainly dominated by Ruditapes decussatus.

The sheltered tidal flat of El Gala coast in the Gulf of Gabes has experienced profound morphologic change illustrated by the genesis of a wide marsh domain at the upper limit of the foreshore. This flat is marked by a sufficient sediment supply leading to a regular expansion of the marsh domain. Sediment availability is illustrated by the development of the high regime sedimentary structure like the megaripples. Hydro-sedimentary processes are governed occasionally by violent energy tied to tidal currents. During spring tide, velocity of the ebb tidal current outpaces 40 cm/s, and such energy is needed to perform megaripples like car wheel features. These structures with 20–55 cm in radius invoke that the hydrodynamic conditions are marked by an increased velocity during the ebb tide period. This current is accelerated by the substrate slope angle.

The drainage water of onshore fish farms contains solid residues resulting from uneaten remnant feeds and fish feces that accumulated on the bottom. These could cause the emergence of new environments to increase the algae biomass and plankton and low oxygen level. The drainage unit consists of sedimentation ponds to remove the harmful elements and water turbidity and total suspended solids. The present research aims to evaluate the feasibility of planting mangrove Avicennia marina in the sedimentation ponds as a natural filter. The experiment was designed by excavating nine beach sedimentation ponds, each pond’s dimensions is 3.0 m length × 1.0 m width × 0.75 m depth. Sedimentation ponds will be divided into three groups (treatments), each group consisting of three ponds (replicates). The first treatment will plant with a high density of mangrove seedlings (12 seedlings/m2). The second treatment will plant with a medium density of mangrove seedlings (6 seedlings/m2) while the third group remain sinks deposition only without mangrove cultivation (control). Results indicated that there were significant differences in the experimental treatment of drain water by mangrove ponds. As long as the number of trees was intensive, there were significant differences and results for certain elements such as zinc, nitrite, nitrate, phosphorus, sulfate, and alkali in water, cadmium, iron, and zinc in the roots. The results showed some more significant differences in the first treatment than the rest of the treatments, followed by the second treatment. This drainage green treatment can be applied as promising inexpensive treatment for sustainable coastal fish farming.

Oil pollution is regarded as one of the most serious marine environmental issues. We conducted a study combining mapping, chromatography, geochemical analyses, and ecological monitoring to assess the state of hydrocarbon contamination in the southern Mediterranean Sea (Gulf of Tunis). Our study found that hydrocarbon contamination of surface sediments was high in all of the stations prospected in the study area, with levels (TPH = 1.4, 1.6, 2.11, 3.2, 4.6, 4.9, 6.29, 7.2, 7.4, 8.26 mg/g) significantly higher than the Tunisian standard set by the decree 2018-315 relating to soil management. We present evidence that suggests two point sources of crude oil contamination in the Gulf of Tunis: maritime traffic in the north region and the petrochemical industry of Rades in the south of the Gulf of Tunis. The parameters studied in this study indicate degradation of the surrounding ecosystem, including increased eutrophication and effects on the benthic community.

Microplastics are well-known vectors of hydrophilic toxic substances, such as pharmaceuticals, and there are increasing concerns about their negative impacts on aquatic organisms, the environment, and human health. Due to their widespread consumption, pharmaceuticals are ubiquitous and can readily adsorb onto microplastic surfaces. Antibiotics such as amoxicillin, tetracycline, sulfadiazine, ciprofloxacin, and trimethoprim are among these organic contaminants. They have shown differing binding capacity in a variety of environmental conditions, including pH, salinity, and temperature. The goal of this mini-review is to critically examine the environmental factors governing the adsorption, fate, and transport of pharmaceuticals on microplastics in the environment. Environmental factors including salinity, pH, ionic strength, and polymeric and pharmaceuticals properties, as well as their interactions with sorption phenomena and mechanisms, are briefly discussed. This paper summarizes previous experiments to elucidate the importance of environmental factors on antibiotics adsorption onto MPs, thus creating further understanding on the transport, fate, and ecological risk of pharmaceuticals in natural environments.

Modern agriculture uses a heavy tractor for cultural practices, and as a result, soil compaction can occur dramatically in the head of field caused by intensive traffic. Tractor traffic affects the essential physical soil properties with variable impact on the different parts of field. This research aims at understanding the effects of tractor traffics in different parts of fields on hydraulic and physical soil properties. This study was carried in arable fields of Belgium (Flanders region). Undisturbed soil cores were collected from topsoil (10–20 cm) layers, subsoil (30–60 cm) layers and the deeper subsoil (60–90 cm) layers to determine porosity and bulk density. Soil compaction levels in different parts of fields were determined by penetration resistance using a penetrologger and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) using the KSATTM falling head method. The high compaction level was detected in the head part of all experimental fields. Soil bulk density significantly increases, resulting in values of up to 1.7 Mg m−3 in the topsoil and compacted subsoil layers from loams and sandy loams soils. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) was significantly reduced by intensive tractor traffics in the head of fields. The results prove that different degrees of soil compaction could greatly influence hydraulic properties in different ways.

In the environmental studies, air and noise pollution monitoring is essential for risk assessment, identification of sources, simulation of mitigation measures, evaluation of the exposed population and urban planning. Related to this subject, current study presents a numerical analysis of air pollutant dispersion and noise propagation along a road axis. Traffic modeling is done by using a macroscopic approach based on the first-order traffic model. This model is coupled with two other models: The first is a Gaussian plume model for pollutant dispersion modeling, and the second is a statistical traffic noise model for traffic noise propagation modeling. Coupling between these three models allowed to predicting the pollutant concentration field and equivalent noise level. Obtained results indicate that pollutant dispersion and traffic noise propagation are strongly related to road traffic state and climatic parameters. Indeed, the monoxide carbon (CO) concentration and equivalent noise level increase with increasing the road congested cells number. Moreover, CO concentration increases when increasing the wind angle, and it is found to be decreased for high atmospheric instability.

The quality of the urban green spaces (UGS) plays a crucial role on human health, hence there is an importance of creating a quality assessment tool. After examining UGS as a vital component of the urban ecosystem, we developed a UGS QT, an evaluation tool, based on a set of criteria and indicators chosen after bibliographical research and exchanges with professionals. The weighting of the criteria is 1 for a desirable criterion, 2 for a necessary criterion, and 3 for an indispensable criterion. The evaluation tool includes 64 items divided into 25 indicators encompassing eight criteria, namely environmental regulating capacity, ecological balances, functional amenities, esthetic amenities, landscape aspects, integrity in its environment, development policy, and space drawbacks. We assessed the quality of UGS of the boulevards Yahya Ibn Oumar and Mohammed Maarouf, namely Beb Eljabli’s garden, Beb Elfinga’s garden, and Beb Elgharbi’s garden, respectively, covering an area of 8230, 3950, and 6824 m2. The findings show that Beb Eljabli’s garden fulfills its environmental regulation, ecological balance, esthetic functions, and development policy. It is still integrated into the environment, but with far fewer landscape and functional design criteria. When comparing the gardens of Beb Elfinga and Beb Elgharbi, the latter responds much better to landscape, esthetically pleasing, and functional criteria. We can conclude that the Ramparts’ gardens have good quality, but certain elements may be improved. The tool used in Sousse can be applied to other Tunisian cities as well as cities in developed countries experiencing UGS depletion.

As one of the natural resources, water needs to be conserved so that its quality and quantity can be guaranteed. For this reason, efforts need to be made so that large amount of water is expected to seep into the soil so that runoff can occur as minimal as possible. The development of settlements in urban areas has increased, resulting in reduced rain catchment areas. Increasing built up areas causes an increase in runoff. This study aimed to plan the dimensions of infiltration wells and calculate the effectiveness of infiltration wells in reducing runoff. The construction of these infiltration wells was an effort to increase the infiltration of rainwater into the ground and minimize runoff that may occur. This research was conducted in a residential area in Bogor Regency, West Java. The analysis was carried out based on rainfall data for the last 10 years, i.e., 2009–2019 and the applicable standards in Indonesia for the manufacture of infiltration wells (SNI 03-2453-2002). The planned rainfall was 126.05 mm/day, whereas the soil infiltration rate was 12.4 cm/h. For this reason, wells were planned with diameter of 1.4 m and depth of 2.3 m, so that a total of 206 infiltration wells were required in the housing location. With the presence of infiltration wells, the coefficient of runoff decreased because some of the runoff will enter the infiltration well, especially from rain falling on the roof. The construction of infiltration wells could reduce runoff discharge by 346.02 m3/h or 56% of the existing runoff. The development of infiltration wells was an effort to increase the amount of groundwater artificially as well as to slow down the occurrence of runoff downstream, because some amount of water will be retained in the infiltration well.

Research on post-industrial urban transformations in post-Soviet Ukraine has advanced the understanding of pathways to sustainable, inclusive, smart and resilient cities. Lack of studies about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on urban life and space represents an obstacle to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2030, particularly in Ukraine with more than 69% urban population. Pandemic changes have not also been really considered in the modern Ukrainian geourbanistics, which reveals a serious gap or even vulnerability of the existing approach to healthy urban development. Pandemic restrictions touch a lot of aspects of urban development, such as health infrastructure access, education accessibility, availability of public space, economic activity, connectivity and inequalities. The purpose of the present paper is to determine influence of pandemic-related factors on achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2030, in particular on development of public spaces. The paper draws on in-depth review of academic literature, using author’s own conceptualization, observations and studies. The social importance of public spaces as an environment that provides affordable mobility (public transport, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure), as a tool for supporting and restoring health (green areas and pedestrian streets), places of small trade activity (access to food and essential goods—local markets) has grown during pandemic time in Ukrainian cities. There is a need for further their research in terms of mobility, environmental friendliness, inclusiveness and social distancing at the same time.

Noise level from traffic activities is affected by many factors, of which traffic density and composition are crucial. For instance, passenger cars and heavy trucks emit noise with different levels and spectra. In Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia, the municipal water and sewer networks are incomplete. For this, many urban districts depend on water supply by water tankers while disposing off sewage by sewage tankers. This makes the number of such type of truck is high on roads. Since the noise generated from these tankers is expected to affect the urban noise in Jeddah, the objective of this research is to determine tankers’ contribution to urban traffic noise in two districts. The data required for prediction of traffic noise were collected and/or calculated and then processed using Predictor-LimA software using the CNOSSOS-EU method for road traffic noise. Noise maps during day, evening, night and 24-h average for all traffic forms, for tankers-free traffic, and for tankers only were generated. It was found that the water and sewage tankers increased the average traffic noise levels by values in the range 0–2.3 dB (Mean: 0.9 dB; S.D.: ± 0.7), depending on the closeness of the area of interest to the entry/exit routes of the tankers to/from the districts. Until the time to cover all the city by the sewerage system, traffic rules for the tanker may be enforced including time of routing and entry routes in a way that distributes the increase of noise level uniformly over the districts.

Urbanization is an inevitable attribute associated with modern civilization and development. However, rapid urbanization has led to increase in particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in several Indian cities. Here, we study Bengaluru, where the city has expanded by 62% from 2001 (457 km2) to 2019 (741 km2), and consequently the PM2.5 is mostly above the limit (40 ug/m3), except for the monsoon season. As the high ambient PM2.5 concentration has an adverse effect on public health, monitoring PM2.5 is key for air quality management. However, the sparse and non-uniform distribution of air quality monitoring stations (AQMSs) poses a hindrance in assessing the air quality in Bengaluru. Therefore, the present study uses satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD), land use, and road density maps together with meteorological parameters to model spatio-temporal PM2.5 levels in Bengaluru using general linear mixed effects regression (GLME) model. The chosen predictors explain about 62% variance in PM2.5. When tenfold cross-validation was performed, relative root mean square error (rRMSE) and relative mean bias error (rMBE) are 37.42% and 19.174%, respectively.

Placing urban morphology within the climate context raises insightful comments regarding energy consumption, air quality, and the liveability of cities. The aim of this study is to investigate the thermal and airflow characteristics of street canyons in historic centres with substantial geometrical heterogeneity. An additional aim is to decipher the role of urban compactness—both at street canyon and neighbourhood scales—in determining the possible variation of the ventilation characteristics in the real urban field. For this reason, field measurements of meteorological variables were conducted in three urban canyons situated in two dense, organically developed, neighbourhoods in the historic centre of Nicosia, Cyprus. The urban canyons were selected based on their morphometric characteristics, i.e. orientation, packing densities (λp, λf), aspect ratio, and sky view factor. The measurements show a clear difference in the regime of wind during the day and the night. In addition, the daily air temperature in the street canyons is greater than that measured at the rooftop level; yet the overall temperature levels do not differ significantly. The median of the normalised canyon velocity to reference wind speed (Uc/Uref) is 0.342. In conclusion, it is highlighted that airflow in heterogeneous street canyons is much more complex than in simplified homogeneous street canyon geometries.

Exposure to air pollutants from mobile sources is a daily situation in Latin American countries. Diesel, roads in bad condition and poor planning of the road network, generates that informal workers, pedestrians and people who use the bicycle paths, are exposed to air pollutants that affect their health. In order to quantify the concentrations of total suspended particulate (TSP), lead, and chromium, a monitoring of these pollutants was carried out at a fixed point adjacent to a three-lane high-flow vehicular road in Bogotá, Colombia, using personal exposure pumps for 14 h a day, for a period of 20 days. The concentrations for TSP and chromium exceed the daily (120 µg/m3) and annual (0.25 ng/m3) values suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO). For lead, the concentrations comply with the suggested annual value of WHO (0.5 µg/m3). It is concluded that informal workers are exposed to harmful concentrations of air pollutants, in acute and chronic periods of exposure, while for pedestrians and cyclists there is an unquantifiable risk, due to the exposure periods, which is why establishing the values of exposure in this population is of vital importance based on the findings of the present study.

The negative impact of climate change has created the need for an approach to achieve climate friendly sustainable and resilient urban communities. The sustainable neighborhood concept is closely linked with UN Habitat’s Sustainable Development Goal 11 by reducing the reverse environmental impacts of unsustainable planning and design implications. Neighborhoods function as core living environments in the city coupled with human–natural systems and have complex intrinsic qualities. Neighborhood design is called for a human-in-nature system’s perspective to combat with negative consequences of urbanization process, namely vegetation degradation, to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In this context the social–ecological system (SES) resilience perspective has become instrumental since the SES denotes the concept of humans are part of nature and takes into consideration of system’s absorption, adaptation and learning capacities within multiscale dimensions. This paper, therefore, introduces an approach to define and address human–nature interaction in spatial, social, environmental, and economic dimensions in neighborhood scale through the lens of the social–ecological system with a multi-scalar perspective.

Residential energy consumption (REC) is a common parameter developing sustainability indicator systems. Deeper knowledge on the nature of its spatial distribution is a key aspect for future urban and infrastructure planning as well as for the implementation of sustainable cities models based on distributed renewable energies production and storage. This scenario challenges us to develop an information model that allows exposing the predictive parameters and its resulting effect on the likely energy consumption. The main objective is to develop a methodological contribution to provide that information model. The relevant parameters for the REC are assessed and applied to a case study focused on the whole set of municipalities across Andalusia. To conduct the required geostatistical and energy analyses for mapping the potential REC at an urban and regional scale, open datasets are used to obtain the parameters involved in energy demand and consumption. Multiple nature parameters considered are grouped into three basic categories: location, occupation, and buildings. Therefore, with the selected data and parameters, a geostatistical model is developed in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Different stages of acquisition, preparation, exploration, and data modelling are described for this study along a Data-Mining or Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) data science process that allows observing patterns and trends. The results of the study provide a geographic segmentation or cluster definition among similar or peer municipalities using a density-based clustering algorithm on the set of predicting REC parameters stablished for the array of towns of Andalusia.

The north of Tunisia is characterized by a subtropical Mediterranean climate, the south, meanwhile, benefits from an arid Saharan climate, and yet, in recent years, the contemporary construction system has invaded all regions. Standard, this process has shown failures both thermally and energetically. Indeed, the unsuitability of buildings to the climate is not without consequences, since the building sector contributes 30% to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and 40% of energy consumption. Faced with the climatic damage caused by this sector, there is no longer any question of considering a building that does not take into account a sustainable approach. It is with this in mind that research is placing more and more emphasis on “bio-based” materials for their countless advantages. To this end, this article proposes, via an experimental study based on numerical simulation on the Trnsys model (version 16), to replace the envelope of a contemporary villa with a concrete envelope of date palm fibers (DPF). By saving 26% of energy in cooling (around 1371.7 kWh), the date palm-based envelope is a possible response to the reduction in energy and its impact on the environment. This work has also made it possible to enhance our local resources, in this case the plant fibers of the date palm which come from the Sahara of southern Tunisia, by highlighting their energy performance as well as their ecological footprint in order to integrate them in a rational way in the field of construction.

This paper reports a device, which has a simple structure with wet filter paper sandwiched by the photoanode made of a stainless mesh coated Sn3O4 and the platinum cathode. The photoanode was fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis. By using this method, ball-like Sn3O4 particles were formed on the stainless mesh substrate. Experimental results showed that the device generated stable power output for over one week in an indoor environment. In addition, the power density of 0.61 µW/cm2 was generated by the device.

Air quality is considered an essential issue for outdoor and indoor environments as we spend more than 90% of our time in indoor environments. For this reason, it is necessary to create systems and different techniques that allow the reducing typical indoor air pollutants, such as air purification systems with high efficiency and low energetic cost. This study aimed to synthesize photocatalysts based on TiO2, doped with nitrogen and copper with visible radiation and tested in the gas phase. Photocatalysts were prepared with nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide and other copper (I) oxide compounds. N-TiO2 preparation was tested at different calcination temperatures, using urea as a nitrogen precursor and TiO2 PC500 (Tronox) (N500). Another composite was prepared with Cu2O and N-TiO2 to generate the activation on the visible spectrum of the photocatalyst (CuN500). These were supported on the glass plates using the slurry of these materials and TiO2 sol–gel. The activity was tested using trichloroethylene (TCE) in the gas phase as VOCs model with UVA light, fluorescent light with and without a filter in a plate reactor using continuous flow at 300 mL min−1. The results using N500 presented 94%, 38% and 8.9% of efficiency using UVA and visible light and visible light with UVA filter, respectively. Lower TCE conversions were obtained using the photocatalyst containing copper. Finally, the TiO2 doped with N results show an excellent application for air decontamination using visible light. CuN500 could be more efficient for disinfection applications.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) have been proven to be harmful for human health and problematic in urban areas. These compounds are present in museums and there is not much knowledge about the influence of these VOCs on works of art. In this work, the effects of six pollutants proved to be in considerable concentrations at museums indoor air were studied. For the study, we use three pigments, Malachite, Viridian Green and Hematite. We were preparing two types of support for each pigment, glass and canvas, with a substratum of lead carbonate, titanium oxide and none. A blank mount with each of the substratum is also added to see the progression. The samples are placed in hermetical containers with controlled humidity and temperature with saturated atmosphere of Xylene (1), Acetic acid (2), Formaldehyde (3), Oxime (4), Formic Acid (5) and Hexanal (6). A Control (0) was used in the study. Three measurements of reflectance of the samples are taken during the 28 days of experiment, one before starting and other at day 14 and finally at the end of it. The results showed the interactions of VOCs with the pigments, changed the colours of Malachite and Lead White. The presence of VOCs in the indoor air of the museum is important factor to considerate in the conservation of the cultural heritage.

Bathing practices for hygienic, religious, secular, therapeutic or even social purposes are met in societies of the ancient world. The cleanliness of the body and the personal hygiene was necessary to humans from their appearance on earth. Even before the building of bath facilities, people cleaned their bodies using the water of rivers, lakes and even seas. The use of these waters for bathing is mentioned by Homer who depicts scenes of these kinds of baths in his work. In Greece, bath complexes suitable for bathing and cleanliness are first applied in the civilizations of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, in separate rooms of the royal palaces. In historical times, bathing culture was developed by using only cold water, whilst in the classical period or a little later, bathing with warm and cold water was equally applied. Public baths revolution occurred in the Hellenistic era, according to archaeological remains. The Roman baths originated from the Greek baths and bathing facilities. Baths and bathing culture co-evolved with the development of the human society. Baths architecture and interior design for bathrooms have coupled with complex hydraulic systems which figure in the daily life of the citizens of the West. This study focuses on two baths of the Roman period that have been brought to light by an archaeological excavation on a Mediterranean Island, Chios (Greece). The work aims to add the environmental dimension in ancient man’s relationship with baths and his culture, his social significance, the technologies and resources he applied with emphasis on hydraulic technology. The paper re-examines the old practices through the prism of new terms, like sustainability.

Wind flow cannot be visualized by human’s eyes, but it can be observed by looking at the effects of the wind, for example, trees, wind turbine and when it hits our body whilst passing the area with the wind flow. It is hard to visualize the effect of wind on solid and rigid object, such as building as it is static. Therefore, to visualize the wind flow especially for sustainable urban development, a simulation of wind flow surrounding an urban building model needs to be conducted. In this research, 12 different Level of Details (LoD) of three-dimensional (3D) building models are used and reconstructed based on City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) standard. This is intended to scientifically indicate the different effects of 3D wind flow on different LoDs. Furthermore, the 3D wind flow simulation is extended into a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. By utilizing VR technology, the experience in perceiving the real effect of the wind flow is achieved in a control environment without having to visit the study area. As a result, these research outputs are categorized into two, which are the simulation of wind flow and the 3D visualization using VR. By analysing these outputs, LoD3.1 from the 12 LoDs used is chosen as the best to represent the 3D wind flow surrounding of a building model and VR is good to be implemented for better visualization. Thus, any responsible agency can benefit this research to get a better understanding on 3D wind flow characteristics and improve the urban development planning sustainability.

The sustainable management of irrigated areas under arid climate change depends on achieving gains in both productivity and innovation. These gains are related substantially on capacity building and namely absorptive capacity. Integrating farms in a communicative and cooperative network with a Leader generates a dynamic capability and enhances absorptive capacity in the community. The observed “productivity gap” in irrigated areas is associated with two large sets of variables: the first determines the direct impact and the second captures the indirect impact of the absorptive capacity. The first block is composed of the differential value-added in interaction with the qualification of human capital, social capital and the rate of technical progress. The second block is composed of each variable’s differential relative to that of the leader. We develop a model based on two main composites describing firm’s capability characteristics. The first capability is the “degree of network integration” reflecting cooperation and communication. The second capability is the “qualification of Human capital” that describes the quality of institutions or social capital. The data are collected using surveys in irrigated areas which have developed a spontaneous local network. We use the method of Multiple Correspondences Analysis (ACM) to summarize these two composite indices. The paper shows two main results. Firstly, the “Degree of Network Integration” has a direct impact to exchange knowledge and an indirect impact to externalities’ absorption. Secondly, the “Qualification of Human resources” has only a direct impact: the level of “education and age” plays a significant role in the capacity to integration and in productivity gains processes.

This study used stainless steel mesh, carbon ink, and PDDA to fabricate the counter electrode. Generally, platinum is used for the counter electrode of DSSC because of its high ORR activity and excellent electrocatalytic activity. However, the platinum electrode has some demerits, such as high cost. Therefore, stainless steel mesh-based counter electrode was used in this study for the replacement of platinum-based counter electrodes to reduce the cost. This electrode does not compromise the flexibility of the DSSC. Furthermore, PDDA was used to facilitate the ORR through the electron transfer process. Carbon ink was proved to be an effective and low-cost counter electrode material. The counter electrode was flexible, low cost. To make the counter electrode, the stainless steel mesh was dipped in carbon ink mixed with PDDA, followed by drying at room temperature. The ratio of PDDA to carbon ink was 1:4. By using this fabrication method, two counter electrodes of carbon ink only and carbon ink mixed with PDDA (carbon ink/PDDA) were fabricated. The carbon ink/PDDA electrode generated about three times higher power density than the carbon ink-only electrode.

The main purpose of this work is to study the effect of the addition of low contents of cellulose nanofibers varying between 0.1 and 1 wt.% on the mechanical and thermal properties of cement-based composites. Three types of modified cellulose nanofibers, noted as NFC1, NFC2 and NFC3, were used in this work to prepare three series of composites based on cement matrix. An increase in the compressive strength was recorded by adding only 0.1 wt.% of NFC and the highest values were obtained at percentages of 0.1 wt.%, 0.7 wt.% and 0.5 wt.% for NFC1, NFC2 and NFC3, respectively. The obtained results confirm that the addition of modified cellulose nanofibers to the cementitious matrix improves the compressive strength of the nanocomposites. It was improved by 128% at a reinforcement rate of 0.7 wt.% of NFC2. The composite’s surface has changed from being hydrophilic to hydrophobic and it was confirmed through contact angle measurements. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites decreased remarkably after the addition of cellulose nanofibers to cement mortar and was reduced by up to 58% compared to the control’s thermal conductivity value.

In chemical industries, workers are exposed to a multitude of chemicals in the working environment. Evaluation of exposure to all these chemicals may be of high cost and time-consuming. In order to reduce these costs and develop an efficient air sampling strategy, the simplified chemical risk evaluation method might be a useful tool to determine the pollutant that should be given the priority for the assessment of exposure levels. The simplified chemical risk evaluation method is based on the classification of the chemicals used in the factory in accordance with the quantity used, the frequency of use, and the health hazards. The method was applied in a paint and thinner industry and evaluated through the analysis of personal air samples taken in the different workstations. Workers were equipped with a 3M-3500 dosimeter during the whole work shift. The samples were thereafter desorbed using carbon disulfide and the pollutants identified by GC-MSD and quantified by GC-FID. The results from the simplified method indicated that toluene has to be monitored in priority in the studied enterprise, which was confirmed by the analysis of air samples. The simplified method of assessment seems to be a useful tool for the development of an efficient air sampling strategy.

Urban flooding is a challenging issue especially in rapidly developing countries like Ethiopia. The Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves are commonly being used for flash flood and peak discharge estimation. The present study is carried out to establish the IDF curve for a rapidly growing Holeta town, Ethiopia. For this, rainfall records for 5 gauge stations and for 32 years (1986–2017) were collected from National Meteorology Agency of Ethiopia. After initial data checks, various distributing fittings (such as Log-Pearson III, General Extreme Value, Gumbel) have been used for estimation of intensity of rainfall for different time interval and return period. The effectiveness of the distributions was checked using three “Goodness of Fit” namely Kolmogorov Smirnov, Anderson Darling, Chi-Squared. The study found that Log-Pearson III type of distribution is having minimum goodness of fit error than others and thus, it has been ranked best among all. Also, two empirical IDF equations were derived for the study area using the IDF curves data. The developed IDF curve and empirical IDF equations can be utilized for extreme runoff and flash flood estimation for the data scare Holeta town and the illustrated framework can be followed for other towns of country by field engineers and practitioners.

About 17% of Moscow area is occupied by hazardous and potentially hazardous regions in relation to karst and suffusion. Projecting and civil construction there should be carried out with the preliminary assessment of karst-related hazard. In megacities, the karst-related hazard assessment depends on the type of an engineering structure. The first group of structures includes metro lines, linear on-surface transport facilities, etc., linked to urban infrastructure facilities so that their route cannot be changed. Another group of engineering structures encompasses subsurface facilities and buildings with deep-seated basements, where geological conditions are transformed substantially. The safety of engineering structures may be ensured in two ways. The first way implies making allowance for the possible karst collapses in the construction project. The second way is to place a building foundation below the karst-suffosion-prone layer in order to prevent collapses in the basement ground. When choosing project options and protective measures, the size of possible collapses or sinkholes in an engineering structure basement is one of the most important calculation indices. For metro lines, the choice of calculation model should be preceded by territory zoning for outlining sites differing in the mechanism of karst-suffosion development. The cases of Bol’shoi Theater reconstruction site and one of the new metro lines in Moscow are discussed as the examples.

The sampling carried out at the level of the upper Chéliff hydrographic network made it possible to collect 11,035 individuals. The taxonomic group of insects dominates the population with 94.35% followed by molluscs with 5.61% and crustaceans with 0.04%. The group of insects is the most diverse and abundant. It is represented by 6 orders of which the order Diptera is the most represented with 64.6% (6726 individuals), followed by Ephemeroptera with 24.1% (2509 individuals), Heteroptera with 5.11% (532 individuals), Coleoptera with 3.59% (374 individuals), Trichoptera with 1.9% (198 individuals) and Odonata with 0.66% (73 individuals) of the total number of insects. We note a total absence of Plecoptera at all study stations. The results of canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) show 3 groups: group 1 formed by stations which are characterized by a much muddier substrate. Groups 2 and 3 are formed by stations which are characterized by a heterogeneous substrate but with a different degree of pollution. The results show that the stations which are characterized by a muddy substrate harbor less diversified and less rich benthic macrofauna compared to the other stations which have a heterogeneous substrate. And the polluted stations harbor less diversified and less rich benthic macrofauna compared to the other stations.

Rotifers of the Order Bdelloidea occupy a large number of terrestrial and aquatic humid habitats from the Tropic to Antarctic regions. In this study, differences in species richness and composition among six sampled habitats (soil, roots, bark, plant, lichen, and moss) were tested to understand the biodiversity pattern of bdelloid rotifers. A total of 90 samples were collected from The National Park of Chrea (NPC), one of the most important humid areas in the north of Algeria, from six different sites in the winter of 2019. The samples were stored in a dry room and hydrated in a petri dish using distilled water. After the sampling, bdelloid taxa were observed under a microscope alive and identified using specific keys. Twelve species of bdelloids belonging to six genera and two families were found from the 2469 individuals analyzed in the different samples. Species richness for each sample ranged from 1 to 7 and was significantly different among habitats (ANOVA: F5,72 = 14.04, P < 0.0001). In the moss, soil, and bark habitats, Adineta vaga was the dominant species. In the lichen habitats, Philodina sp. was the dominant species, due to a small variation in factors such as temperature and dryness. This shows that the bdelloids do not exist only in the freshwater habitats but also in the terrestrial habitats and that microorganisms may have biodiversity and habitat preferences.

Freshwater ecosystems have a significant fauna diversity. Among the latter, fishes play an important role in the trophic chain and are subject to multiple attacks from anthropogenic or natural origins. Natural attacks are mostly caused by pathogenic or opportunistic bacteria responsible of a broad range of severe infections. The aim of this work was to study the diversity of ichtyopathogenic bacteria in the dam of Sekkak (northwest of Algeria). In order to determine the water quality, physico-chemical analysis of the dam water was carried out in situ (temperature, pH, salinity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen) and elsewhere in the laboratory (NO3, NO2, NH4, RS, PO4, DBO, DCO, MO). The identification of the selected bacterial isolates was carried out by API galleries and confirmed by molecular techniques (PCR and sequencing of the 16S r RNA gene). Besides, an antibiogram test of the studied strains was realized. The physico-chemical analysis allowed us to classify the dam water as moderately polluted to polluted whereas the results of the microbiological study showed an important diversity of ichtyopathogenic species such as Aeromonas hydrophila, Providencia rettgeri, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Yersinia enterocolitica were retrieved. The antibiogram test revealed notable resistance. The antibiotic family for which most resistances were found was the β-lactam family followed by aminoglycosides and macrolides. These results indicate that aquatic environments can shelter multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria representing a threat for the endemic fauna. Therefore, it is important to closely monitor these waters in order to improve the fish living environment and ensure healthier production.

This study presents a taxonomic and biological investigation of the macrozoobenthic communities in the Ghar El Melh lagoon. Samples were collected in 2019 (6 campaigns from April to September) from two various polluted and non-polluted stations. Identification was made using taxonomic keys for each group and a histological study was performed to determine the internal organization necessary for the identification of Rhabditophores Platyhelminths. Seven phyla were recorded: Annelida (class of polychaetes), Arthropoda (class of crustaceans), Mollusca (classes of gastropods, lamellibranchs and polyplacophores), Chordata (class of ascidiacea), Echinodermata (classes of ophiuridea and echinoidea), Platyhelminthes (class Rhabditophora) and Cnidaria (classes of Anthozoa and Scyphozoa). Fifty-one species belonging to 7 different phyla and 11 classes were recorded. Compared to previous studies, 15 species belonging to 6 identified phyla are considered new records for this lagoon ecosystem. Moreover, data dealing with ecology and biology of some reported species are given, and similarities and differences between the two areas of study are reported.

Leaf area index (LAI) is the key functional variable in canopy structure that governs different water and carbon flows and tree growth. This important parameter was determined by hemispherical photography, in three populations of Quercus suber L. chosen according to an altitudinal gradient in the North-West of Tunisia. The impact of the different strata on the water balance was studied using a “CASTANEA” mechanistic model based on eco-physiological processes in which LAI is the key parameter. The results showed that the contribution of the different strata in the whole LAI ecosystem is about 70% for the tree stratum occupied by cork oaks and 30% for the understory stratum which is occupied by shrub and herbaceous species. Modeling has shown that whatever the year, the intra-annual and inter-annual variability and the duration of the stress are greater when taking into account total LAI than those taking into account only the LAI of each stratum. Below the 40% threshold of Relative Extracted Water (REW), water stress begins on average on day 179 (end of June) with a large extent ranging from day 142 (1992—water stress begins earliest in the period 1982–2009) to day 212 (2004—water stress begins at the latest). The shortest stress duration was 50 days and the longest was 161 days.

The Montpellier maple (Acer monspessulanum L.) is a rare species in Tunisia located in Bargou, Serj and Zaghouan mountains of the Tunisian Dorsal with a limited distribution range. The species is located mainly in the Mediterranean basin and western Asia with a shallow presence in North Africa and Asian countries. Its ecological importance could be resumed in the fact that this species is one of few deciduous trees in calcareous summits of the Tunisian Dorsal area which helps in fixing and regenerating soils. The environmental properties as well as land properties that affect its recessive distribution area and its future distribution rest unclear. Based on a Maximum Entropy Model using MAXENT tool, bioclimatic and environmental variables, the historical and future potential distribution of the species were estimated for the RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios and the 2040–2060 and 2060–2080 periods. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to analyze its performance. For the historical potential distribution, suitable sites were located in few summits of the distribution area whereas, for the future distribution, the suitable areas for the species distribution will disappear from the Tunisian Dorsal. Precipitation seasonality, isothermality, tree cover and elevation are the main factors that define the distribution model of A. monspessulanum. These interesting results need more focus on other biodiversity driving factors in further investigations of the species distribution.

Tree species composition, structure and regeneration status were assessed in the priority habitat 91E0* (Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn and Fraxinus excelsior L.) in Nestos area, north-eastern Greece, to quantify conservation status and dynamics of the alluvial forest and properly plan restoration actions. Measurements were conducted in 15 plots distributed randomly in the area of the habitat (c. 300 ha). A total of 2091 individuals were recorded, representing 17 species and 13 families. In Group A (trees having DBH ≥ 2.5 cm), tree densities varied from 14 to 572 stems ha−1 and average basal area was 6.3 m2 ha−1, whereas the juvenile populations (Group B, trees having DBH < 2.5 cm and height > 20 cm) were more diverted presenting higher and more variable densities (28.3–2263.5 trees ha−1) and tree heights (0.21–9.75 m). The index of regeneration (IR) estimated for the juveniles was highly fluctuated among plots (0.17–31.75 cm m−2). According to our results, Alnus glutinosa dominates in the alluvial forest, establishing, however, more resilient communities with Salix alba L., Populus alba L. and A. glutinosa regeneration was adequate (IR 14.09 and 9.94 cm m−2, respectively), whereas Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl was very limited (IR = 0.17 cm m−2). Alarmingly, the regeneration of the alien species Amorpha fruticosa L. and Acer negundo L. were found to be the most extended (31.75 and 21.12 cm m−2, respectively). Results underline the urgent need for conservation actions and draw attention to the threats on the alluvial forest.

As part of a research project established between Sfax and Lisbon University, a multiproxy approach to infer the environmental evolution and coastal dynamics was conducted on sediment core with the aim to decipher forcing factors shaping the Hachichina wetland over the last 3000 years. The core was sub-sampled at each 2 cm and samples were used for sedimentological and micropaleontological study. These proxies afford us the means to discern distinct phases of marine transgression. Firstly, there are two notable phases: TR1, occurring roughly 3000 years before present, and TR2. During these phases, we observe elevated levels of CaCO3 alongside the prevalence of lagoonal ostracods taxa, notably Xestoleberis aurantia and Leptocythere pellucida, constituting approximately 60% of the assemblage. This is complemented by brackish (25%), marine (10%), and coastal (5%) species. Secondly, a regressive period around 1300 years before present is apparent, characterized by environmental restriction. This era is marked by a decline in coarse fraction and CaCO3, coupled with an increase in organic matter (OM), magnetic susceptibility (MS), and a predominance of brackish ostracod association, accounting for about 65% of the assemblage. Notably, this association includes euryhaline and eurythermic species such as Cyprideis torosa and Loxoconcha elliptica.

Increasing anthropogenic activity is a threat to biodiversity and life support services. Natura 2000 sites, key components of nature conservation at the European level, can play an important role in reducing the impact of ecosystem degradation. Protecting ecosystem services can align economic interests and biodiversity conservation. In this paper, based on existing data provided by competent local and central authorities, site description, identified ecosystems, protected species and identification of economic activity carried out, we have analyzed the variables underlying the ecosystem supply services offered by the Natura 2000 site ROSCI0434 Siretul Mijlociu (Romania) and the threats to them. Using data on activities in the minor riverbed, we applied a site-oriented approach to assess the provisioning ecosystem services. The results showed that there is no strategic management of the site based on ecosystem services. They can be used as a starting point for the development of strategies for biodiversity conservation and protection of ecosystem services so as to reduce the risk of losing the integrity of the system, its functions and adaptability.

Ponds make a significant contribution to flood management, pollution control, recreation and local biodiversity. Often these benefits are considered in isolation; this work considers these multiple benefits and their interdependencies for the Gore Glen pond, located in a floodplain of a country Park in Midlothian, Scotland, UK. This was achieved through extensive ecological monitoring and modelling. Hydrological and hydrodynamic modelling shows the pond provides a valuable buffering mechanism for the alleviation of flood risk. Measurements of the chemical composition of the pond show it is affected by sediments brought into the pond during big rainfall events. The hypoxic conditions in the pond are found from July to October. The amount of nutrients accumulated within bottom sediments combined with nutrient release during hypoxic conditions affect the water quality and the hydrobiological community of the pond, and consequently its amenity. Nevertheless, the pond makes an important contribution to the local biodiversity and recreation value of the site. Overall, the analysis highlights the multiple benefits provided by the pond and the interdependencies between the flow of water into the pond, hydrology of the surrounding area, chemical composition of the pond and biological water quality, hydrobiological and terrestrial community, and the overall amenity value of the site. These interdependencies have implications for the environmental management of the site and are also relevant for further research and practical applications related to rural and urban blue-green infrastructure, hydrobiology, woodland biodiversity, and river restoration.

Beekeeping has been considered a potential conservation tool for forests in Tanzania. We aimed to identify the potential role of youth in beekeeping activities and their possible effects on forest conservation. The study was conducted in July 2014 in three selected villages of Aghondi, Mwanzi, and Solya as one of the potentials for beekeeping in Manyoni District, Tanzania. Ninety young citizens with ages from 15 to 35 were chosen for an interview using a structured questionnaire. The results show only 46.7% of the respondents involved in beekeeping activities and 71.4% of them agreed to use traditional beehives. The use of traditional methods in both processing and honey production (especially the use of bark and fire) is a significant cause of low-quality bee products, less income, and biodiversity loss in the area. More training should emphasize using modern technology such as Top Bar and Langstroth hives, which are environmentally friendly and improves the honey output. Regarding conservation, the studies showed that 43.3% of the respondent’s emphasis on tree planting, while 35.6% insisted on stopping cutting trees. Expecting that, cutting trees will destroy the environment and pollens for the bees will disappear.

The present study was carried out to assess the impact of environmental variables and stressors on the assemblage and distribution of benthic macro-invertebrates. For this purpose, water samples and benthic fauna were collected seasonally from four sampling stations over a 36-km-long stretch of the Ganga River from 2015 to 2017. The study results revealed the alkaline nature of water and the total hardness observed in all samples fall under moderately hard to hard category. The abundance, richness, Shannon diversity index and evenness were calculated to evaluate the structure of benthic macro-invertebrate communities. The Shannon diversity and Ganga River System Biotic Score (GRS-bios) index indicates the ecological status of the sampling sites ranged from moderately to extremely polluted. Multivariate statistical techniques, such as principal component analysis, were carried out on the chemical variables. The result of CCA has clearly revealed the role of environmental variables over benthic fauna assemblage, and these faunas were found to be sensitive to inorganic pollutant load.

In this study, we analyse the most intense outbreak of autochthonous malaria during the twentieth century in Spain (1940–1944) which, traditionally, has been linked to the consequences of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Epidemiological data from historical archives during the period 1930–1950 have been analysed. The results show that the war did not have an impact on the lethality of the disease, but it did have an impact on its prevalence and spatial distribution. Between 1943 and 1953, the case fatality rate for the period was 0.34%, similar to those countries where malaria is still endemic. A mismatch was detected between the peak of highest malaria mortality (1942) and the peak of total mortality during the Spanish Civil War (1938). This time lag is associated with the return to their origins of troops and civilians once the war was ended. This caused that areas with low or no malaria prevalence received a large number of malaria carriers thus reactivating the disease. In addition, the climatic conditions during this epidemic peak with higher humidity and warmer temperatures could have contributed to the spread of the disease. The conclusions obtained could help a better understanding of the impact that this, and other more recent war episodes, have had on the appearance of new outbreaks of malaria.

The management of Infectious Health Care Waste (IHCW) has become a major concern for citizens because of its harmful risks to health and the environment. In Tunisia, few studies have focused on the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of health care workers regarding IHCW. The objective of this study was to evaluate the KAP among the paramedical staff of the Sahloul Sousse University Hospital on the IHCW Management (IHCWM). Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted in the inpatient wards of Sahloul University Hospital during July 2019. All paramedical staff meeting the inclusion criteria (senior health technicians, nurses and orderlies) responded to a self-administered and anonymous KAP questionnaire in compliance with ethical considerations. Data were collected and analyzed using IBM SPSS statistic version 20.0 software. The categorical variables measured were summarized as numbers and percentages. Results: The participation rate in the study was 78%. The majority of the 92 respondents were women (sex ratio 0.43) and aged 30–49 years (71.8%). Respondents’ knowledge of the different stages of the IHCWM circuit ranged from 2.2 to 75.0%. The subtypes of IHCW were known by 18.5%. Most respondents had a positive attitude (70%) toward IHCW triage. The majority of participants (74.1%) confirmed that they protect themselves when handling IHCW. Bending needles or recapping at the end of treatment was practiced by 59.2% and 40.2%, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that the KAP of the paramedical staff at Sahloul Hospital regarding the management IHCW are not optimal according to the guidelines. Therefore, appropriate training and education are essential to make these paramedical staff aware of the risks they face and to implement appropriate practices to optimize the management of these wastes and ensure the protection of all patients and citizens.

This study is carried out to describe the exposure and the impregnation of the population, living in the surrounding of the national society of cellulose and alfa paper (SNCPA) in Kasserine, to mercury. A simple random sampling of households was used to ensure the representativeness of the participants. 421 individuals participated in the study and total Hg levels were quantified in hair samples by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and urine by cold vapor atomic absorption (CVAAS). In hair, the median Hg (Hg-hair) concentration was 0.25 ppm with an interquartile interval of [0.14–0.45] ppm and 4.6% of individuals exceeded the baseline value of USEPA of 1 ppm. In multivariate analysis, mean Hg-hair was significantly higher in consumers of fresh tuna and non-smokers. In urine, the median Hg (Hg-U) concentration was < 1 µg/L with extremes reaching 65 µg/L, a P95 at 35 µg/L and 16.1% of individuals exceeded the reference value of 7 µg/L from the German Biomonitoring Commission, of which 8.5% exceeded the reference value of 25 µg/L. The Hg-hair measured in individuals corresponds to the impregnation of a population with a low frequency of fish consumption (< 1 time/week) and could make it possible to establish reference values for the Hg in the hair. The Hg-Urin shows that the participants are probably exposed to high concentrations of Hg, a priori in its inorganic form linked to industrial activities. People with Hg-U > 7 μg/L should benefit from monitoring values and research on the source of Hg exposure and those with Hg-U > 25 μg/L should be investigated.

The Gammaridae (Crustacea) represents a very important family in the functioning of lotic ecosystems and in the evaluation of the biological quality of its waters. We studied the distribution of the Gammaridae family and its relationship to environmental variables in 2013 and 2020, along 19 sampling stations located in two streams in northern Algeria, Seybouse, with ten sampling stations, and Tafna with nine sampling stations. We have collected 1299 individuals corresponding to two genera: Gammarus and Echinogammarus. We found Gammarus genus in the Tafna River’s sampling stations, which is located in north-west of Algeria, due to its moderate to poor physicochemical water quality, stony and pebble bottoms, abundant aquatic vegetation and its banks overgrown with riparian trees. Its presence is also related to the geological nature dominated by Jurassic limestone. As for the second genus, Echinogammarus, it was collected in the Seybouse River located in northeast of Algeria. These sampling stations have a substrate dominated by pebbles, large pebbles and stony bottoms, and an average abundance of aquatic vegetation. In addition, they are characterized by a poor physicochemical quality of water. The results of this study show that the distribution of the genus Gammarus and Echinogammarus is related to the environmental parameters: quality of water, riparian banks and aquatic vegetation, as well as to the substrate. There is also a difference in geographical position and nature of the geological formations between the west and the east of northern Algeria. In the Tafna River, nature is Jurassic limestone, while in the Seybouse River, Numidian sandstones, marls and limestone marls dominate.

Water is the driving force of nature, the health and well-being of mankind. At present, it is the most essential and most threatened natural source. Water pollution is one of the problems that concern all of humanity. Our study aims to study the physico-chemical characteristics and water pollution of the hydrographic network of Oued El Hachem (Wilaya of Tipaza. Algeria). Because the plain of Oued El Hachem is the main source of drinking water supply for large cities such as Tipaza and Cherchell, as well as the irrigation of large agricultural plots. The results of the physico-chemical analyses of the water in the hydrographic network of the Wadi El Hachem show that the waters present significant mineralization linked to the geological nature of the watershed and to domestic and agricultural discharges. The high rates of biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrient salts (nitrates, nitrites and phosphates) inform us about the presence of industrial, agricultural and urban activities in the watershed. The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) show that there are two types of pollution: mineral and organic at the level of the hydrographic network studied.

The aim of this paper is to study the individual perception and adaptation strategies of irrigating to climate change (CC) in southeastern Tunisia. A survey questionnaire was administered to 60 randomly selected households in the El Bsissi-Oued El Akarit area. The climatic variability felt by irrigating people is explained by a decrease in precipitation, the increase in temperature, the randomness of the rains and the increase in the occurrence rate of extreme weather events. To cope with these three individual strategies are distinguished. A first category is called offensive. It consists in investing to acquire water necessary to maintain the production system of the farm. The second strategy is called defensive or adaptive. It aims to adapt production systems to the water available on the farm, taking into account existing deep and shallow wells. Finally, the third category is said to be contractive, consisting in reducing the scale of operation of the farm by resorting to the reduction of the irrigated area and the conversion to rain-fed agriculture.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of institutional quality on water-use efficiency and sustainability. Hence, we proceed with the estimation of set of different types of indicators (social, economic, institutional and environmental) which have been combined to develop a dashboard for monitoring the irrigated area sustainability. Then, we analyze and explain sustainability of irrigated area. Surveys and field measurements in three irrigated areas from the Kairouan region in central Tunisia are the sources of data used here. Results showed significant differences in the performance levels for the three components of sustainability. Compromise between the three components of sustainability is difficult to achieve in current context of Tunisian irrigated area. Institutional arrangement and organization can be key factors of irrigation water sustainability and farmers welfare.

The Mediterranean basin is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change. The fast rise of temperatures and the decrease of precipitation are some of climate change issues. Aquifers’ recharge will be also decreased in the next century. Hydroeconomic modelling is a suitable tool to analyse the effects of climate change on the future state of groundwater resources at regional scales. Hydroeconomic models of Mahdia Ksour Essef coastal aquifer, Tunisia, were developed to show how climate change affects the groundwater scarcity and farmers’ profits. The models contain hydrological and economic parameters. Six scenarios covering three policies (no cooperation between farmers, partial cooperation regime and full cooperation regime) and two situations (normal conditions and climate change situations) are evaluated. The simulation results show the potential impacts of climate change scenarios on the aquifer water table level, groundwater extractions, crops superficies and famers’ benefits for each policy in the future. The full cooperation regime gives the best results in terms of aquifer sustainability and social welfare mainly under the climate change conditions.

Soil water content (SWC) is one of the main parameters determining crop yield in semiarid regions. SWC is characterized by high variability, both in space and time, and is strongly impacted by climate change. Soil and water conservation techniques (SWCT), such as contour ridge bench (CRB), are often used to reduce erosion and to increase available water for crops in arid and semiarid areas. In this study, the Siliana watershed in Northern Tunisia was selected as an investigation area for assessing the impact of CRB on SWC. The impact of CRB on SWC was evaluated at the end of the agricultural season 2017 and 2018. To assess SWC, data were collected from image satellite, using Google Earth Engine platform (GEE) and observed precipitation. The thermal optical trapezoidal model (TOTRAM) was applied to draw the relationship between land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to estimate SWC. The current study carried out at 22 sites. They were selected, one half with CRB and one other without CRB. Results indicate that the estimated SWC in areas with CRB was higher than those without CRB, suggesting the beneficial effect of CRB over SWC. The additional SWC varies among sites between 1 and 6%, during March to early May and drops to be in range < 1% during late May and June, corresponding to the end of the cropping season.

The ability of forests to adapt to drought is an important issue. Planting species or provenances adapted to drought conditions requires a good understanding of physiological behavior. This study examined the water-deficit responses of 19 black pine provenances planted in a common garden at the southern edge of its range. Gas exchange and hydraulic characteristics were measured. Some provenances tend to avoid water deficit by early stomatal control. An increase in specific hydraulic conductivity of sapwood and leaves was noted in other provenances. However, other provenances showed a very late transpiration control. Thus, the results showed significant differences between provenances in coping with drought conditions among black pine provenances, indicating genetic control of these parameters.

Mellegue watershed, located in the upper valley of Medjerda basin (North-West of Tunisia), plays a strategic role in the environmental protection and economic and social well-being for both the watershed and the entire region. It is characterized by a semi-arid bioclimatic stage, with an average annual rainfall of about 458.3 mm. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of forest change on the hydrological behavior of Mellegue watershed. The methodology developed to map the impact of forest cover dynamics on hydrological behavior is based on analyzing fires that have occurred in 1992, from 2014 to 2021 in Nebeur forest (3714 km2). The relationship of forest–watershed is evaluated by delimiting burnt areas and calculating runoff and sediment volume using empirical formula. In fact, the methodology adopted is the realization of land use, fire, and rainfall maps, to estimate the runoff from the average rainfall, which will serve to estimate the solid contribution. The empirical formula applied for the calculation of the runoff is the Algerian one and for the calculation of the solid contribution is the one of Frigui. Thus, the average rainfall is determined by spatial interpolation of the closest rainfall stations of Mellegue watershed using ArcGis software. In the light of the maps and calculated values, graphs and curves have been developed, and we conclude that the runoff and sediment supply increase with the increase of the burned area from one year to another in an exponential way. In an overpopulated world, forests and the environment cannot be saved. Family planning is the primary strategic tool to preserve forests and restore environmental sustainability.