Estimating the Impact of Landfill Proximity on the Value of Real Estate Goods

A part of the net benefit from goods consumption is determined by their environmental characteristics. The size of the benefit depends on the properties of the goods, but also on how these are perceived by consumers. Therefore estimating environmental benefits allows, on the one hand, environment’s monetization, and on the other hand to formulate opinions about awareness regarding environmental issues and their impact on individual wellbeing. Departing from these facts, the paper aims to measure the environmental benefits of a real estate goods consumer, realizing an estimation of incompliant landfills (ICL) proximity’s impact on the value of these goods. For estimation, it was used the method of hedonic pricing and were processed regarding Bucharest periphery. Providing quantitative information regarding the importance of ecological criteria in the procurement of real estate goods, verification of the relevance of available estimations for Romania and the identification of the model that explains the impact of ICL on the value of real estate goods are the main contribution brought to knowledge development. In fact, the results obtained are aligned with the results of similar assessments made in Europe, indicating that 31,2% of the variation of real estate goods’ value is determined by the proximity of landfil. Studies regarding the relation between the size of variation and the development level could contribute to increase the relevance of these results for other regions of Romania.environmental benefits, hedonic prices, landfill, real estate goods, Bucharest periphery

PROCJENA UTJECAJA GEOMETRIJE PUKOTINA NA PROPUSNOST, PRIMJER LABORATORIJSKOGA ISPITIVANJA I NUMERIČKOGA MODELIRANJA

The geometry of fractures includes orientation, spacing, aperture are among the parameters affecting permeability in rocks. Studying the effect of fractures geometry on the permeability in a laboratory scale requires the selection of a suitable sample in terms of physical and mechanical properties. Therefore, in this study, fibrous fiber was selected due to low water absorption and permeability as well as its non-brittle behavior and flexibility. In order to investigate the effect of fracture geometry on the permeability, 1, 2, 3, and 4 fractures with spacing greater than 50 mm, 50 mm, 25 mm, and 15 mm and with orientations of 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 degrees to the horizon in the sample were created. The fractures did not come into contact with the surface of the sample .The results showed that the permeability raises exponentially with increasing orientation and decreasing the spacing. This situation is mostly seen in fractures with orientations larger than 30 degrees. Also, the permeability measured in the laboratory was compared with the results obtained from the numerical method of distinct elements and UDEC software. The results showed an error of about 10-15%, which is well-matched between the permeability obtained from the laboratory and the numerical method.Geometrija pukotina uglavnom obuhvaća orijentaciju, razmak i promjer, kao varijable koje određuju propusnost stijena. Studije koje se bave izučavanjem geometrije pukotina na laboratorijskim uzorcima imaju preduvjet odabira prikladnih uzoraka za ocjenu fizičkih i mehaničkih svojstava. Stoga je ovdje odabrano vlakno s malom apsorpcijom vode i propusnošću te sa svojstvima nekrtosti, odnosno savitljivosti. Ispitane su 1, 2, 3 i 4 pukotine s razmacima većim od 50 mm, od 50 mm, od 25 i od 15 mm te orijentacijama od 0, 15, 30, 45 i 60 stupnjeva od vodoravne ravnine. Pukotine nisu bile u dodiru s površinom uzorka. Propusnost je rasla eksponencijalno, prateći porast kuta orijentacije i smanjivanje razmaka među pukotinama. To je najbolje opaženo s pukotinama pod kutom većim od 30 stupnjeva. Propusnost dobivena laboratorijski uspoređena je s rezultatima izmjerenim metodom konačnih elemenata i programom UDEC. Dobivena je pogrješka od 10 do 15 % čime je dokazano dobro podudaranje laboratorijskih i numeričkih rezultata

Optimization Of Well Location And Number Of Production Well

The optimal location of drilling the wells. in the oil and surrounding application has caused a significant economical impact on the reservoir management. The wells location issue in a productive formation is a vital aspect in order to have an effective . field development. However, the determination of the optimal wells location in the specific geographical locations is a challenging matter since it depends on the geological and the fluid properties, reservoir characteristics and as well as on the economic parameters. Hence, reservoir simulation is recognized as one of the most . reliable tools for defining the optimum strategy of production. Nevertheless, using the simulation approach in doing the forecasting bears the risk of uncertainty in the input data. Due to the reservoir inhomogeneity and the uncertainty in the reservoir description, solution to the problem is impossible at the intuitive level. Using the conventional approach to define the number of production wells and its locations is a costly trial and error process as the outcome is fully depends on the ability of the reservoir engineer to understand the reservoir behavior and its operational limits. Thus, an alternative approach in optimizing the well location which is by determining the high productivity zone within the reservoir where the hydrocarbon production is expected to reach the maximum field production. It is performed by evaluating each. of the possible well position at different locations and defining the sensitivity of several reservoir properties which will have the significant impact to the optimum well placement. The. studied was carried out on an actual Malaysia reservoir model which is the Gelama Merah field located in offshore Sabab. By utilizing the Eclipse lOO - A black oil model simulator software, several studies have been made and the predicted values of production were significantly promising. Furthermore, it was found that the. optimal well production duration is a function of well spacing with respect to the number of production well drilled. Apart from that, changing of oil saturation (So) will always contribute to the high impact for the optimal well placement and oil productivity. Hence, the method proposed could be one of the useful tool to assist the progress in the decision making for the field development and strikes towards the optimal and effective hydrocarbon recovery

3D-modelling of microfracture networks associated with faulting in the crystalline Wiborg rapakivi granite

The main purpose of this MSc thesis is to study the 3D geometry of secondary microfracture associated with faults by using grinding the tomography method. Information on the 3D geometry of microfractures can be used, for example, for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of rocks and for more accurate interpretation of generation mechanisms and kinematics of faults. A 3D model of a microfracture network of one oriented rock sample was constructed from data collected with grinding tomography methods. The interpretations made on the 3D model were compared with the field measurements and GIS fracture trace interpretations based on 2D orthophotography data collected with a drone and a digital SLR camera. The second purpose of this thesis was to compare these two scales of 2D fracture trace datasets and find out how the change of observation scale from meters to centimeters affects the 2D topology and orientation distribution of the fracture networks. The study area is located on the Island of Orrengrund, Loviisa, SW Finland. The fault studied in the thesis is a sinistral strike-slip fault with a vertical dip, and a N-S trend. In the grinding tomography method used in this thesis, a cylindrical 50*50*50 mm sample of rock is glued on a glass plate and grinded in slices with a 3D-grinder, so that after each slice the machine takes an image of the surface of the sample. When the images are combined by knowing the vertical position of each image, interpretations can be made on the observed fractures, and a 3D model can be constructed. In this thesis, a new GRN16 3D grinder of the University of Turku geology section was used. Grinding tomography images of the oriented rock sample were georeferenced on the orthophotos with QGIS software, so that the orientation data obtained from the 3D model of microfracture network was comparable with 2D fracture trace data and field measurements. The results of the thesis showed that the 3D model of microfracture network constructed using grinding tomography has almost perfect correlation with the orientation distribution and crosscut relationships of field measurements. The study also revealed that the new 3D grinder of the University of Turku geology Section solves numerous problems regarding the use of the grinding tomography method in geosciences. In addition, topological differences were observed between the two different-scale 2D fracture trace datasets, reflecting that the topological properties of the fault’s fracture systems could be scale-dependent

Recent Advances on Electrochemical Sensors for the Detection of Organic Disinfection Byproducts in Water

Irreversible organ damage or even death frequently occurs when humans or animals unknowingly drink contaminated water. Therefore, in many countries drinking water is disinfected to ensure removal of harmful pathogens from drinking water. If upstream water treatment prior to disinfection is not adequate, disinfection byproducts (DBPs) can be formed. DBPs can exist as wide variety of compounds, but up until now, only several typical compounds have drinking water standards attributed to them. However, it is apparent that the range of DBPs present in water can comprise hundreds of compounds, some of which are at high enough concentrations to be toxic or potentially carcinogenic. Hence, it becomes increasingly significant and urgent to develop an accessible, affordable, and durable sensing platform for a broader range and more sensitive detection of DBPs. Compared with well-established laboratory detection techniques, electrochemical sensing has been identified as a promising alternative that will provide rapid, affordable, and sensitive DBP monitoring in remote water sources. Therefore, this Review covers current state-of-the-art development (within the past decade) in electrochemical sensing to detect organic DBPs in water, which covered three major aspects: (1) recognition mechanism, (2) electrodes with signal amplification, and (3) signal read-out techniques. Moreover, comprehensive quality assessments on electrochemical biosensors, including linear detection range, limit of detection (LoD) and recovery, have also been summarized

Spectral analyses of the dual polarization Doppler weather radar data.

Echoes in clear air from biological scatterers mixed within the resolution volumes over a large region are presented. These echoes were observed with the polarimetric prototype of the forthcoming WSR-88D weather radar. The study case occurred in the evening of September 7, 2004, at the beginning of the bird migrating season. Novel polarimetric spectral analyses are used for distinguishing signatures of birds and insects in multimodal spectra. These biological scatterers were present at the same time in the radar resolution volumes over a large area. Spectral techniques for (1) data censoring, (2) wind retrieval and (3) estimation of intrinsic values/functions of polarimetric variables for different types of scatterers are presented. The technique for data censoring in the frequency domain allows detection of weak signals. Censoring is performed on the level of spectral densities, allowing exposure of contributions to the spectrum from multiple types of scatterers. The spectral techniques for wind retrieval allow simultaneous estimation of wind from the data that are severely contaminated by migrating birds, and assessment of bird migration parameters. The intrinsic polarimetric signatures associated with the variety of scatterers can be evaluated using presented methodology. Algorithms for echo classification can be built on these. The possibilities of spectral processing using parametric estimation techniques are explored for resolving contributions to the Doppler spectrum from the three types of scatterers: passive wind tracers, actively flying insects and birds. A combination of parametric and non-parametric polarimetric spectral analyses is used to estimate the small bias introduced to the wind velocity by actively flying insects

A DEA approach to regional development

Our research is based on the effect of fiscal policies on the Greek prefectures. Using DEA methodology we compare the efficiency of the prefectures over the last three decades. Moreover, we determine where the resources are distributed in an efficient way and /or have been used efficiently by the local authorities in order to stimulate regional development and provide quality of life to the Greek citizens. The efficient prefectures seem to have definite and strong characteristics, which are determined and discussed in detail. Our empirical results imply that the resources of a prefecture don’t necessarily ensure the efficiency of this prefecture.Data Envelopment Analysis; Regional Development; Living Standards; Greek Prefectures

Characterization and performance of nanofiltration membranes

The availability of clean water has become a critical problems facing the society due to pollution by human activities. Most regions in the world have high demands for clean water. Supplies for freshwater are under pressure. Water reuse is a potential solution for clean water scarcity. A pressure-driven membrane process such as nanofiltration has become the main component of advanced water reuse and desalination systems. High rejection and water permeability of solutes are the major characteristics that make nanofiltration membranes economically feasible for water purification. Recent advances include the prediction of membrane performances under different operating conditions. Here, we review the characterization of nanofiltration membranes by methods such as scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Advances show that the solute rejection and permeation performance of nanofiltration membranes are controlled by the composition of the casting solution of the active layer, cross-linking agent concentration, preparation method, and operating conditions. The solute rejection depends strongly on the solute type, which includes charge valency, diffusion coefficient, and hydration energy. We also review the analysis of the surface roughness, the nodule size, and the pore size of nanofiltration membranes. We also present a new concept for membrane characterization by quantitative analysis of phase images to elucidate the macro-molecular packing at the membrane surface

Dissolution-enlarged fractures imaging using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)

In recent years the electrical imaging techniques have been largely applied to geotechnical and environmental investigations. These techniques have proven to be the best geophysical methods for site investigations in karst terrain, particularly when the overburden soil is clay-dominated. Karst is terrain with a special landscape and distinctive hydrological system developed by dissolution of rocks, particularly carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite, made by enlarging fractures into underground conduits that can enlarge into caverns, and in some cases collapse to form sinkholes. Bedding planes, joints, and faults are the principal structural guides for underground flow and dissolution in almost all karstified rocks. Despite the important role of fractures in karst development, the geometry of dissolution-enlarged fractures remain poorly unknown. These features are characterized by an strong contrast with the surrounding formations in terms of physical properties, such as electrical resistivity. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was used as the primary geophysical tool to image the subsurface in a karst terrain in Greene County, Missouri. Pattern, orientation and density of the joint sets were interpreted from ERT data in the investigation site. The Multi-channel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) method and coring were employed to validate the interpretation results. Two sets of orthogonal visually prominent joints have been identified in the investigation site: north-south trending joint sets and west-east trending joint sets. However, most of the visually prominent joint sets are associated with either cultural features that concentrate runoff, natural surface drainage features or natural surface drainage --Abstract, page iii