A possible prediction methodology for the concentration of pollutants wave in aquatic environment using Rough Set Theory is presented. The issue is of increasingly importance especially for early pollution risk warning. The hydro-morphologic complex characteristics of surface water bodies should be taken into account when pollution dispersion models are designed. However, when more characteristics/multi-criteria are taken into account, including pollutants physical-chemical ones and their environmental-media partition trends and interactions, the complexity of the dispersion models increases, making those models appropriate only for specific case studies. Through the proposed computation formalism, Rough Set Theory is able to eliminate the uncertainty introduced by any model parameters, being based on the experimental and expert observations assessment. It is able to deal also with the uncertainty introduced by the data of non-homogeneous quality (incomplete, redundant etc). For those reasons it became a reliable new instrument to be used in diagnosis and prediction. Despite the fact that Rough Set Theory users' community is present in different fields of activity for few decades, in the environmental field the theory is sparingly used. The new proposed methodology using Rough Set Theory shows the possibility to extend its applicability within the environmental field as an instrument able to characterize the relation: "pollution source -migration ways of pollutants -targets" and to manage the uncertainty in relation to the pollution evolution phenomena. Implemented with minimum computation requirements the methodology might be used as an economically and user friendly decision support.
The problem of applying the concept of waste hierarchy is presented considering the practical situation of packaging waste management to reduce the disposed waste amount and to control the possible ecological risk brought by them. The updated European and Romanian legislation is presented with emphasis on practical application at the organizational level so that the packaging waste recovery objectives, as they are shown in the legislative documents and national strategies, to be fulfilled by finding first the recovery possibilities and only afterwards the disposal ones for the environmental and human health protection.
A general scheme for the assessment of dangerousness of waste is presented taking into consideration the new European and Romanian applicable laws in order to adequately manage them (storage, elimination with specialized firms -preparation for disposal/recovery, recovery, and final disposal). Some relevant examples from current practice will be reviewed emphasizing the interest aspects in applying the current legal provisions in order to adequately manage the waste in Romania in the spirit of sustainable development and protection of environment and human health on short, medium and long term. Keywords: dangerousness, disposal, elimination, recovery, wastes IntroductionThe paper presents a general scheme for waste assessment based on current environmental and waste legislation as a methodological approach to be used in practice in order to make an appropriate waste management. Following economic development, our modern society is facing increasing amounts of wastes and consequently there is a strong necessity to adequately manage them in the spirit of sustainable development. In this respect, nowadays, any developed wastes' policies and strategies should be conceived in order to find balance between continuing economic development on one hand and decreasing natural resources consumption and wastes production in order to minimize their environment and human health negative effects on the other hand.
The paper presents a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology to analyze environmental performance indicators of an organization designed according to Eco-Management and Audit Scheme III-Regulation (EMAS III). The newly proposed indicators are intended to achieve Best Environmental Management Practice (BEMP) to facilitate and harmonize the way the environmental performance is reported and analyzed periodically within the Environmental Management System (EMS) of the organization. During each environmental management analysis, the state regarding the accomplishment of the proposed objectives stated in the organization environmental policy should be checked. This way, adequate and timely measures should be taken to meet the objectives and improve environmental performance. While referential documents ISO 14000 standards series and European legislation-EMAS III Regulation requirements are well explained within environmental management literature, the instruments for their implementation at organizational level need yet improvements. One such improvement endeavor is the release of BEMP sectoral documents which include new EMAS III indicators for environmental performance analysis. Instruments that should be used in order to analyze those environmental performance indicators can also be improved to help in managing the significant environmental impacts of organization and the associated environmental risk. Using results from operational research field and applying them to the environmental management can produce reliable scientifically based methodologies. General considerations about how to use the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology as a MCDA tool for environmental management analysis are presented.
As global renewable energy demand grows, sludge from urban waste water treatment plants could be one of the available renewable energy resources. Thermal treatment of sludge is becoming more and more attractive due to the destruction of dangerous constituents and the reduction of their volume. The article presents a correlation equation based on the volatile matter content, which allows calculating the low heating value of sludge samples from a city wastewater treatment plant. The equation was developed by evaluating the characteristics of more than 40 sludge samples analysed in the laboratory. Validation of the equation revealed that the heating value deviation from the experimental one was below 3.5%. The estimation of the low heating value of sludge samples based on the determination of volatile matter content is important where the experimental determination of the low heating value involves time and the use of high-tech laboratory equipment.
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