127 research outputs found
Novel and Emerging Strategies for Sustainable Mine Tailings and Acid Mine Drainage Management
Renewable energy and clean storage technologies are at the forefront of the world’s fight against climate change, including the UN-led move towards a carbon-neutral society. Because these complex technologies require more ‘critical’ metals and elements than fossil fuel-based technologies, the demands for raw materials in their manufacturing are skyrocketing and are projected to continue to increase into the foreseeable future.With ore grades on a steep decline, huge amounts of low-grade ores will have to be mined and processed to satisfy the world’s current and future demands for ‘critical’ metals and elements. Expansion of mining and mineral processing operations would mean more mining-related wastes—tailings, waste rocks and acid mine drainage (AMD)—notorious for their devastating and long-term destructive impacts on the environment. This Special Issue explored repurposing/reprocessing of tailings and AMD treatment cost reduction as promising alternatives to manage mine wastes more sustainably. It also includes articles on the critical roles of redox conditions and galvanic interactions on mine waste stability, hydrogeochemical controls on waste rock weathering, and climate change impacts on AMD formation in closed mines
International Conference on Civil Infrastructure and Construction (CIC 2020)
This is the proceedings of the CIC 2020 Conference, which was held under
the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al
Thani in Doha, Qatar from 2 to 5 February 2020. The goal of the conference
was to provide a platform to discuss next-generation infrastructure and its
construction among key players such as researchers, industry professionals
and leaders, local government agencies, clients, construction contractors and
policymakers.
The conference gathered industry and academia to disseminate their research
and field experiences in multiple areas of civil engineering. It was also a unique
opportunity for companies and organizations to show the most recent
advances in the field of civil infrastructure and construction.
The conference covered a wide range of timely topics that address the needs
of the construction industry all over the world and particularly in Qatar. All
papers were peer reviewed by experts in their field and edited for publication.
The conference accepted a total number of 127 papers submitted by authors
from five different continents under the following four themes:
Theme 1: Construction Management and Process
Theme 2: Materials and Transportation Engineering
Theme 3: Geotechnical, Environmental, and Geo-environmental Engineering
Theme 4: Sustainability, Renovation, and Monitoring of Civil InfrastructureThe list of the Sponsors are listed at page 1
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Soil treatment to remove uranium and related mixed radioactive contaminants. Final report September 1992--October 1995
A research and development project to remove uranium and related radioactive contaminants from soil by an ultrasonically-aided chemical leaching process began in 1993. The project objective was to develop and design, on the basis of bench-scale and pilot-scale experimental studies, a cost-effective soil decontamination process to produce a treated soil containing less than 35 pCi/g. The project, to cover a period of about thirty months, was designed to include bench-scale and pilot-scale studies to remove primarily uranium from the Incinerator Area soil, at Fernald, Ohio, as well as strontium-90, cobalt-60 and cesium-137 from a Chalk River soil, at the Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario. The project goal was to develop, design and cost estimate, on the basis of bench-scale and pilot-scale ex-situ soil treatment studies, a process to remove radionuclides form the soils to a residual level of 35 pCi/g of soil or less, and to provide a dischargeable water effluent as a result of soil leaching and a concentrate that can be recovered for reuse or solidified as a waste for disposal. In addition, a supplementary goal was to test the effectiveness of in-situ soil treatment through a field study using the Chalk River soil
SUB-SURFACE MIGRATION OF AN OIL POLLUTANT INTO AQUIFERS
The risk to groundwater quality following a sub-surface spillage of immiscible pollutants
such as oil, petroleum and other organic chemicals is an increasingly potent threat,
through escalating industrial application of such pollutants.
This study significantly enhances the understanding of the flow of immiscible pollutants
within soil, through field scale investigations to define the spatial variability and extent of
a contaminated area and the development of a comprehensive framework for the analysis
of oil pollutant migration. This study represents a first attempt by researchers to analyse
oil pollutant migration on a wide range of scales, from pore- to field-level.
The research shows that quantity of pollutant is a critical factor in determining the extent
of oil migration. Permeability and porosity of the sample material are also important
secondary factors. High permeability assists the migration of oil pollutants. Soils with a
high porosity allow the pollutant to migrate vertically under the influence of gravity,
whereas soils with low porosity induce lateral oil migration, as the oil spreads from the
point of injection. A Jull scale field study using contrasting soil types determines that oil
migration is approximately symmetrical about the point of injection.
Experimental data is used to establish modelling capabilities for the characterisation of
pollutant migration. Modelling is undertaken at two levels. The first consists of the
development of simple Gaussian equations based upon observations of oil glomuses. The
glomus approach, newly developed in this work, can be compared to a fractal model, with
the glomuses observed in each of the different scales studied
Soil Erosion and Sustainable Land Management (SLM)
This Special Issue titled “Soil Erosion and Sustainable Land Management” presents 13 chapters organized into four main parts. The first part deals with assessment of soil erosion that covers historical sediment dating to understand past environmental impacts due to tillage; laboratory simulation to clarify the effect of soil surface microtopography; integrated field observation and the random forest machine learning algorithm to assess watershed-scale soil erosion assessment; and developing the sediment delivery distributed (SEDD) model for sub-watershed erosion risk prioritization. In Part II, the factors controlling soil erosion and vegetation degradation as influenced by topographic positions and climatic regions; long-term land use change; and improper implementation of land management measures are well dealt with. Part III presents different land management technologies that could reduce soil erosion at various spatial scales; improve land productivity of marginal lands with soil microbes; and reclaim degraded farmland using dredged reservoir sediments. The final part relates livelihood diversification to climate vulnerability as well as the coping strategy to the adverse impacts of soil erosion through sustainable land management implementation which opens prospects for policy formulation. The studies cover regions of Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, being dominantly conducted under the framework of international scientific collaborations through employing a range techniques and scales, from the laboratory to watershed scales. We believe those unique features of the book could attract the interest of the wider scientific community worldwide
Practical Guide to Measuring Wetland Carbon Pools and Fluxes
Wetlands cover a small portion of the world, but have disproportionate infuence on global carbon (C) sequestration, carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and aquatic C fuxes. However, the underlying biogeochemical processes that afect wetland C pools and fuxes are complex and dynamic, making measurements of wetland C challenging. Over decades of research, many observational, experimental, and analytical approaches have been developed to understand and quantify pools and fuxes of wetland C. Sampling approaches range in their representation of wetland C from short to long timeframes and local to landscape spatial scales. This review summarizes common and cutting-edge methodological approaches for quantifying wetland C pools and fuxes. We frst defne each of the major C pools and fuxes and provide rationale for their importance to wetland C dynamics. For each approach, we clarify what component of wetland C is measured and its spatial and temporal representativeness and constraints. We describe practical considerations for each approach, such as where and when an approach is typically used, who can conduct the measurements (expertise, training requirements), and how approaches are conducted, including considerations on equipment complexity and costs. Finally, we review key covariates and ancillary measurements that enhance the interpretation of fndings and facilitate model development. The protocols that we describe to measure soil, water, vegetation, and gases are also relevant for related disciplines such as ecology. Improved quality and consistency of data collection and reporting across studies will help reduce global uncertainties and develop management strategies to use wetlands as nature-based climate solutions
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