Improvement of Water Quality in a Highly Polluted River in Jordan

Zarqa River is considered one of the most important sources of surface water in Jordan. The construction of Al-Samra wastewater treatment plant has caused a considerable deterioration in water quality of that river and pollution of the groundwater of that basin. This paper aims to study the change in water quality in the river by applying hydraulic and quality models. Samples of wastewater from the inlet and outlet of the plant were collected and analyzed according to the standard methods. The obtained results concerning BOD, NH4 and DO were used as input to predict water quality in the river. For this purpose, a one dimensional quality model has been developed to simulate pollutants transport in the river. The model was constructed to represent the change in concentrations of such parameters in the river from the treatment plant to the King Talal dam. 296 quality samples and 90 hydraulic samples were taken in order to calibrate the model. Results indicate that the concentrations of BOD, COD and NH4 effluent from the plant exceeded the allowable limits according to Jordanian standards. From the results of simulation, it is found that the model is applied successfully to predict water quality in Zarqa River. Due to self purification, high reduction of pollutant concentrations occur along the river .The concentration of BOD is still higher than the allowable limit until 33 km downstream of the plant, while NH4 concentration is higher than the standards in all reaches

Two-Phase Capillary Pressure-Saturation Relationship for Kerosene in Iraqi Sand

Quantitative descriptions of the two-phase flow in the subsurface soil require knowledge of the relative permeability-saturation-capillary pressure Kr-S-Pc relationships. The significance of the present study lies in introducing a physical model that was used to measure the capillary pressure-saturation curve for the twophase kerosene-water system in Kerbala’s sand. The experimental results are fitted with the empirical mathematical function described by (Parker et al., 1987) which is based on (Van Genuchten’s model, 1980). This function can be used to specify the residual water saturation, Sr, and Van Genuchten’s soil parameters, α and n. The best-fit curve was found by using a nonlinear least squares fitting routine using the SPSS software version 7.5. The fitting parameters Sr, α and n for the best-fit to Van Genuchten’s capillary pressuresaturation curve for kerosene-water system have the values of 7%, 0.048 cm-1 and 2.7, respectively, for Kerbala’s sand

Spatial Prediction of Monthly Precipitation in Sulaimani Governorate using Artificial Neural Network Models

ANN modeling is used here to predict missing monthly precipitation data in one station of the eight weather stations network in Sulaimani Governorate. Eight models were developed, one for each station as for prediction. The accuracy of prediction obtain is excellent with correlation coefficients between the predicted and the measured values of monthly precipitation ranged from (90% to 97.2%). The eight ANN models are found after many trials for each station and those with the highest correlation coefficient were selected. All the ANN models are found to have a hyperbolic tangent and identity activation functions for the hidden and output layers respectively, with learning rate of (0.4) and momentum term of (0.9), but with different data set sub-division into training, testing and holdout data sub-sets, and different number of hidden nodes in the hidden layer. It is found that it is not necessary that the nearest station to the station under prediction has the highest effect; this may be attributed to the high differences in elevation between the stations. It can also found that the variance is not necessary has effect on the correlation coefficient obtained

PHYSICAL MODEL OF KEROSENE PLUME MIGRATION IN AN UNSATURATED ZONE OF THE SANDY SOIL

Physical model tests were simulated non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) spill in two-dimensional domain above the water table. Four laboratory experiments were carried out in the sand-filled tank. The evolution of the plume was observed through the transparent side of this tank and the contaminant front was traced at appropriate intervals. The materials used in these experiments were Al-Najaf sand as a porous medium and kerosene as contaminant. The results of the experiments showed that after kerosene spreading comes to a halt (ceased) in the homogeneous sand, the bulk of this contaminant is contained within a pancake-shaped lens situated on top of the capillary fringe

Preservation of Required Chlorine Concentration in Baghdad Water Supply Networks using On-Site Chlorine Injection

The chlorine concentration variation in Baghdad water networks was studied. The chlorine data were collected from Mayoralty of Baghdad and Ministry of Environment (MOE) for the networks for both sides of the city Karkh and Rasafa for (2008-2009). The study of these data indicates that there are no systematic testing program .Classified GIS maps showed that the areas far from the treatment plants have almost always low chlorine concentration .This indicates that the problem of the low chlorine concentration in the far areas is due to cracks of pipe along the conveyance path ,as expected. The area's most frequently have low concentration are Al-sadir,Al-Kadhimya, and Al-Amiria . It was found also that the chlorine concentrations were lowest in summer months than those in winter months.The Amiria area district (636) was selected as a case study to test the ability of using the quantitative- qualitative model in the EPANET software, to find the required onsite chlorine injection point number, locations and dose, so as to raise the chlorine concentration to the acceptable limits in the other nodes of the network. The bulk decay coefficient was found to be (-2.212)1/day and the wall coefficients were found to be between (-0.001)to(-0.9)1/day The main conclusion of this study is that the onsite injection can improve the chlorine concentration in Baghdad water supply networks. The EPANET model can be used effectively to obtain the required injection program for this purpose

BUILDING OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR WWTP OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT: RUSTIMIYAH SOUTH WWTP AS A CASE-STUDY

This paper presents the building of expert system to enable the inexperience plants operators to application of better of wastewater treatment plant. This methodology consists of three steps: (i) creation of a decision trees (algorithms) for the diagnosis operational problems; (ii) implementation into a real-based system; and (iii) verification. This system called expert system for Rustimiyah south wastewater treatment plant operation (ES-RS-WWTPO). The knowledge acquisitions to build this system ware extracted from literature. Moreover local experience ware also incorporated using the results of a well designed questionnaire. The results obtained in the application three operational states showed that the system was able to diagnosis (correctly) state of plant with reasonable accuracy. The programmer language for built this system id Visual Basic 6.0

A Computerized Integrated System for Geodetic Networks Design

This research presents a model for surveying networks configuration which is designed and called a Computerized Integrated System for Triangulation Network Modeling (CISTNM). It focuses on the strength of figure as a concept then on estimating the relative error (RE) for the computed side (base line) triangulation element. The CISTNM can compute the maximum elevations of the highest obstacles of the line of sight, the observational signal tower height, the contribution of each triangulation station with their intervisibility test and analysis. The model is characterized by the flexibility to select either a single figure or a combined figures network option. Each option includes three other implicit options such as: triangles, quadrilaterals, and central-point figures (which is to be subdivided into: triangle; quadrilateral, and pentagon). The model also has the property of the diverse modes of display for the output results; i.e. the results can be displayed in the shape of TwoDimensional (2-D) and Three- Dimensional (3-D) representations. Visual Basic is the software depended as a main core in designing CISTNM to draw the suggested network in 2-D to display the network point positions and formations, and it can be linked with the available software such as ArcMap (GIS). The input data which is used as an application of the targeted geodetic surveying techniques (triangulation) is Chamchamal region as a case study in this research. The area lies in the north of Iraq. The results obtained after this application and verification, have proved that the CISTNM can perform the required task easily and accurately

WATER QUALITY INDICES FOR TIGRIS RIVER IN BAGHDAD CITY

Due to the deterioration of water quality within the last few years because of the increase of water consumption and the waste water production and disposal into the river The water quality in both surface and ground water resources was negatively affected .The concept of water quality index is used as a tool for water quality classification in Tigris River within Baghdad City .Twenty two parameters of pollution were selected to measure the water quality indices of Tigris river within Baghdad city .Those parameters were measured during (2000-2004)as average monthly values ,three water treatment plants were selected out of the eight water treatment plants that exist along the river.Al Kharkh water treatment plant to reflect the water quality north of Baghdad ,Al Wathba water treatment plant to reflect water quality at the center and Al Rasheed water treatment plant located south of Baghdad to reflect the water quality at this area .The estimated water quality indices indicated that the river quality deteriorate south of Baghdad and the geological and hydrological conditions played the prime role relative to the agricultural and industrial activities within the catchments on the quality of Tigris river .Furthermore ,due to the continuous decrease of flow and the simultaneous increase in agricultural and industrial development with time ,the river showed a general deterioration in quality while the worst years were 2002,2003 due to the significant decrease in the amount of flow