A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Quality Assessment Methods for Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soils

Four assessment methods （two pollution indexes and two fuzzy mathematical models） were employed to investigate the environmental quality of four soils around a ferroalloy plant in Nanjing City. Environmental quality was assessed as class Ⅳ （moderately polluted） for each soil with single-factor index method, and was identified to be classes Ⅳ, Ⅲ （slightly polluted）, Ⅲ, and Ⅲ for soils A, B, C, and D, respectively, with the comprehensive index model. In comparison with the single-factor index method, the comprehensive index model concerned both dominant parameter and average contribution of all factors to the integrated environmental quality. Using the two fuzzy mathematical methods （single-factor deciding and weighted average models）, the environmental risks were determined to be classes Ⅳ, Ⅲ, Ⅱ （clean）, and Ⅱ for soils A, B, C, and D, respectively. However, divergence of the membership degree to each pollution class still occurred between the two methods. In fuzzy mathematical methods, membership functions were used to describe the limits between different pollution degrees, and different weights were allocated for the factors according to pollution contribution. Introduction of membership degree and weight of each factor to fuzzy mathematical models made the methods more reasonable in the field of environmental risk assessment.

Water Quality Analysis of Fuping Section of the Shichuan River Based on Different Evaluation Methods

In order to study the water quality of the Shichuan River basin in Fuping,Shaanxi Province,based on improved Nemerow index method,comprehensive pollution index method and principal component analysis method,eight water quality indexes such as pH,dissolved oxygen(DO),total dissolved solids(TDS),COD,total hardness,total phosphorus,total nitrogen and Zn in three monitoring sections of Fuping section of the Shichuan River in Shaanxi Province were detected and analyzed.The results show that the water quality of the surface water in the Shichuan River basin is gradeⅢorⅣwater,that is,the water is slightly polluted and moderately polluted.It is necessary to monitor the water quality after regulation and clarify the main factors causing the water pollution.

Spatial Model of Sky Brightness Magnitude in Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Sky brightness is an essential topic in the field of astronomy, especially for optical astronom- ical observations that need very clear and dark sky conditions. This study presents the spatial model of sky brightness magnitude in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. Two types of Sky Quality Meter （SQM） manu- factured by Unihedron are used to measure the sky brightness on a moonless night （or when the Moon is below the horizon）, when the sky is cloudless and the locations are at least 100 m from the nearest light source. The selected locations are marked by their GPS coordinates. The sky brightness data obtained in this study were interpolated and analyzed using a Geographic Information System （GIS）, thus producing a spatial model of sky brightness that clearly shows the dark and bright sky areas in Langkawi Island. Surprisingly, our results show the existence of a few dark sites nearby areas of high human activity. The sky brightness of 21.45 mag arcsec-2 in the Johnson-Cousins V-band, as the average of sky brightness equivalent to 2.8 × 10-4cd m-2 over the entire island, is an indication that the island is, overall, still relatively dark. However, the amount of development taking place might reduce the number in the near future as the island is famous as a holiday destination.

Viscoelastic modeling of the diffusion of polymeric pollutants injected into a pipe flow

This study focuses on the transient analysis of nonlinear dispersion of a polymeric pollutant ejected by an external source into a laminar pipe flow of a Newtonian liquid under axi-symmetric conditions.The influence of density variation with pollutant concentration is approximated according to the Boussinesq approximation and the nonlinear governing equations of momentum,pollutant concentration are obtained together with and Oldroyd-B constitutive model for the polymer stress.The problem is solved numerically using a semi-implicit finite difference method.Solutions are presented in graphical form for various parameter values and given in terms of fluid velocity,pollutant concentration,polymer stress components,skin friction and wall mass transfer rate.The model can be a useful tool in understanding the dynamics of industrial pollution situations arising from improper discharge of hydrocarbon pollutants into,say,water bodies.The model can also be quite useful for available necessary early warning methods for detecting or predicting the scale of pollution and hence help mitigate related damage downstream by earlier instituting relevant decontamination measures.

Determination of 15 phthalate esters in air by gas-phase and particle-phase simultaneous sampling

Based on previous research, the sampling and analysis methods for phthalate esters （PAEs） were improved by increasing the sampling flow of indoor air from 1 to 4 L/min, shortening the sampling duration from 8 to 2 hr. Meanwhile, through the optimization of chromatographic conditions, the concentrations of 9 additional PAE pollutants in indoor air were measured. The optimized chromatographic conditions required a similar amount of time for analysis as before, but gave high responsivity, the capability of simultaneously distinguishing 15 kinds of PAEs, and a high level of discrimination between individual sample peaks, as well as stable peak generation. The recovery rate of all gas-phase and particle-phase samples of the 15 kinds of PAEs ranged from 91.26% to 109.42%, meeting the quantitative analysis requirements for indoor and outdoor air sampling and analysis. For the first time, investigation of the concentration levels as well as characteristics of 15 kinds of PAEs in the indoor air from four different traffic micro-environments （private vehicles, busses, taxis and subways） was carried out, along with validation of the optimized sampling and analytical method. The results show that all the 9 additional PAEs could be detected at relatively high pollution levels in the indoor air from the four traffic micro-environments. As none of the pollution levels of the 15 kinds of PAEs in the indoor air from the 4 traffic micro-environments should be neglected, it is of great significance to increase the types of PAEs able to be detected in indoor air.