The study predicted the concentration of indoor total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) concentration in a randomly selected room at the Umar Kabir male Hostel located at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Readings were taken using an active sampler to measure particulate matter, PM (1.0, 2.5 and 10), TVOC, Relative Humidity (RH), Temperature and Formaldehyde. Two network types namely; feedforward back propagation and the cascaded forward back propagation were adopted randomly to predict TVOC as an output variable using data set generated from six different parameters mentioned earlier. The best performing neural network was the cascaded feed forward with a coefficient of determination of 0.98 which exhibited the lowest mean square error of 0.000124 with a network structure of 6-15-1-1. The results show the ability of Artificial Neural Networks to map inputs and outputs in complex non-linear situations such as the existence of volatile compounds in the atmosphere. It can be adopted for monitoring environmental systems by engineers and public health workers, stakeholders can use such models for initiating environmental related policies aimed at safeguarding human health.

Wastewater from abattoir sources in urban areas can adversely affect the environment and cause health problems. This research investigated the ability of a bamboo constructed wetland system (BCWS) using Bambusa vulgaris, to treat wastewater from abattoir by removing nutrients and organics. This study adopted pilot scale reactors with bed dimension of 1 m length x 1 m width x 1 m depth to simulate a horizontal sub-surface flow constructed wetland and planted with six strands of bamboo plants. Parameters analyzed include the nutrients (in the form of phosphate and nitrate) and the organics (in the form of Chemical oxygen demand, COD and Biochemical oxygen demand, BOD). The effluent analysis that were carried out within a 28-day retention period showed that there was a very good decrease in the nutrient pollutant parameters; phosphate (99.6 %), nitrate (98.5 %). The organics showed a lesser performance with a 39.3 % removal efficiency for COD and 49.9 % removal efficiency for BOD. Bamboo can be used in a BCWS for low cost green technology in urban areas and can be improved upon by increasing the number of bamboo shoot in order to have a larger root system.

This study investigated the influence of leachate prepared from Telfairia occidentalis on the geotechnical and geochemical properties of termite mound soil obtained from the premises of the federal university of agriculture, Abeokuta, south-western Nigeria. The termite mound soil samples were collected from three different locations and each sample collected was contaminated by mixing with leachates in percentage increments of 0% 10%, 15% and 20% of dry weight of the air-dried soil. The soil samples were subjected to Atterberg limits and hydraulic conductivity tests for geotechnical observation and X-ray fluorescence tests for geochemical tests. The range of values for the geotechnical analyses were obtained as; plastic limit (9.1% – 14.2%), liquid limit (28.6 % – 61%), plasticity index ((18.2% – 49.5%) and hydraulic conductivity (1.85 – 4.1 x 10-8) cm/sec) with a resultant reduction in the plastic limit, liquid limit and plasticity index values but an increase in the hydraulic conductivity of the samples as the leachate concentration increased. The results from X-ray fluorescence analyses after 20% leachate contamination showed that the major elemental chemical composition for the three samples were comprised of SiO2 (56.25 – 56.5%), Al2O3 (28.42 – 28.50%), Fe2O3 (4.46 – 6.5%), TiO2 (1.08 – 1.23%), CaO (1.45 – 1.60%), P2O5 (0 – 0.04%), K2O (0.9 – 6.1%) and MnO (0.02 – 4.7%). There was a marginal alteration of the indices with the values inferring the presence of a minimum composition of feldspar and a major composition of quartz-rich minerals and thus lending more credence to the presence of silicates as shown from the X-ray fluorescence results. It also infers that the termite mounds are predominantly made from sand materials. The termite soil samples obtained from the aforementioned locations may not be suitable for engineering works unless stabilization procedure is adopted.

Rapid industrialization has succeeded in constantly releasing hazardous heavy metals into the environment; however the need to minimize this risk has become a global concern. This study is to investigate the effectiveness of rice husk, sawdust and sugarcane bagasse as low cost adsorbents in heavy metals removal and to reduce the environmental pollution caused by these heavy metals. Columns of four different adsorbents (rice husk, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse and the mixture of the three) were set up and the Adire wastewater was passed through them. The adsorbents, the effluents and the filtrates were taken for physico-chemical and heavy metals analyses. The results shows that sugarcane bagasse adsorbent is the most effective in the physical and chemical treatment of the wastewater used, while the sawdust adsorbent is most effective in the removal of Copper, Chromium, Nickel and Iron.

The water samples were collected at three different periods of the year from locations around the Oluyole Estate Industrial hub housing many industries and located in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria. The observed values of the concentration of Aluminium, Chromium, Iron and Sodium show varied concentrations for Sodium (3.01 – 38.02) mg/L, Iron (0.8 – 28.68) mg/L, Chromium (0 – 0.38) mg/L, Arsenic (Not detected) and Aluminium (0 - 0.24) mg/L. The results were compared with standard values of the parameters under consideration as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).