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Topic Review
Filtration for Water Treatment
In drinking water treatment, filtration plays an important role in the multi-barrier approach employed for the removal of pathogens. The presence of suspended solids and other particulate matter in water increases the resistance of most microbes to disinfection. Therefore, high performance in the removal of particles achieved by granular filtration can increase the disinfection efficiency.
  • 1.8K
  • 27 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Trewartha Climate Classification
The Trewartha climate classification is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köppen-Geiger system, created to answer some of its deficiencies. The Trewartha system attempts to redefine the middle latitudes to be closer to vegetation zoning and genetic climate systems. It was considered a more true or "real world" reflection of the global climate. The changes were seen as most effective on the large landmasses in Asia and North America, where many areas fall into a single group (C) in the Köppen-Geiger system. For example, under the standard Köppen system, Washington (state) and Oregon are classed into the same climate zone (Csb) as Southern California, even though the two regions have strikingly different weather and vegetation. Another example was classifying cities like London in the same climate group (C) as Brisbane or New Orleans, despite great differences in seasonal temperatures and native plant life.
  • 1.8K
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), or e-waste, faces significant sustainability challenges. Characterised by high economic elasticity, i.e. a close correlation between WEEE generation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), WEEE is one of the fastest growing waste streams worldwide. Hazardous components require attention, while at the same time the potential to implement circular economy schemes with recuperation of valuable components is particularly high for e-waste. An overview on key aspects related to sound management of e-waste is provided in the following.
  • 1.7K
  • 05 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Production of Edible Films and Coatings
Generally, edible films and coatings are the primary forms of edible food packaging. The differences between edible films and coatings lie in their physical form and application process. Edible films are obtained as solid laminated sheets and then used as a food wrap that can be removed or consumed with food, whereas coatings are applied to foods in liquid form by coating, spraying, and immersion. After drying, an edible layer over the food is formed, and it can either be removed or consumed.
  • 1.7K
  • 21 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Risk-Based Flood Management
“Flood management” refers to the general method involved in flood prevention and subsequent flood loss, whereas “risk-based flood management” is the combination of all of the actions that aim at the amelioration of the overall activities in a floodplain.
  • 1.7K
  • 21 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Carbon Sequestration
Carbon sequestration or carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is the long-term removal, capture or sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow or reverse atmospheric CO2 pollution and to mitigate or reverse global warming. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in land use and agricultural practices, such as converting crop and livestock grazing land into land for non-crop fast growing plants. Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects, including large-scale, artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced CO2 using subsurface saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil fields, or other carbon sinks, bio-energy with carbon capture and storage, biochar, ocean fertilization, enhanced weathering, and direct air capture when combined with storage. The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues, including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri, the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres, and the World Watch Institute. Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and the Climate Decision Making Center, an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy.
  • 1.7K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Climate Fiction
Climate fiction (sometimes shortened cli-fi) is literature that deals with climate change and global warming. Not necessarily speculative in nature, works may take place in the world as we know it or in the near future. University courses on literature and environmental issues may include climate change fiction in their syllabi. This body of literature has been discussed by a variety of publications, including The New York Times , The Guardian , and Dissent magazine, among other international media outlets.
  • 1.7K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Biomass and Waste Produced
In the late twentieth century, the only cost-effective opportunity for waste removal cost at least several thousand dollars, but nowadays, a lot of improvement has occurred. The biomass and waste generation problems attracted concerned authorities to identify and provide environmentally friendly sustainable solutions that possess environmental and economic benefits. The present study emphasises the valorisation of biomass and waste produced by domestic and industrial sectors.
  • 1.7K
  • 05 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Climate of Ancient Rome
The climate of Ancient Rome varied throughout the existence of that civilization. In the first half of the 1st millennium BC the climate of Italy was more humid and cool than now and the presently arid south saw more precipitation. The northern regions were situated in the temperate climate zone, while the rest of Italy was in the subtropics, having a warm and mild climate. During the annual melt of the mountain snow even small rivers would overflow, swamping the terrain (Tuscany and the Pontine Marshes were deemed impassable in antiquity). The existence of Roman civilization (including the Eastern Roman Empire) spanned three climatological periods: Early Subatlantic (900 BC–175 AD), Mid-Subatlantic (175–750) and Late Subatlantic (since 750). The written, archaeological and natural-scientific proxy evidence independently but consistently shows that during the period of the Roman Empire's maximum expansion and final crisis, the climate underwent changes. The Empire's greatest extent under Trajan coincided with the Roman climatic optimum. The climate change occurred at different rates, from apparent near stasis during the early Empire to rapid fluctuations during the late Empire. Still, there is some controversy in the notion of a generally moister period in the eastern Mediterranean in c. 1 AD–600 AD due to conflicting publications.
  • 1.7K
  • 13 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Radar-based Rainfall Information
Radar-based rainfall information has been widely used in hydrological and meteorological applications, as it provides data with a high spatial and temporal resolution that improve rainfall representation. However, the broad diversity of studies makes it difficult to gather a condensed overview of the usefulness and limitations of radar technology and its application in particular situations. 
  • 1.7K
  • 22 Feb 2021
Topic Review
IoT-Cloud-Based Earthquake Early Warning Systems
Earthquake early warning systems (EEWS) are crucial for saving lives in earthquake-prone areas. Earthquake early warning systems rely on a variety of advanced signal processing techniques and specific parameters to detect and analyze seismic waves in real time. 
  • 1.7K
  • 11 Aug 2023
Topic Review
GTL in Wastewater Treatment
Gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology involves the conversion of natural gas into several liquid hydrocarbon products. The Fischer–Tropsch (F–T) process is the most widely applied approach for GTL, and it is the main source of wastewater in the GTL process. The wastewater is generally characterized by high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) content due to the presence of alcohol, ketones and organic acids. The discharge of this highly contaminated wastewater without prior treatment can cause adverse effects on human life and aquatic systems. Here, we provide an overview of recent literature related to the application of biotechnology for the treatment of GTL process water.  It examines aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment methods that have been shown to reduce the concentration of COD and organic compounds in wastewater. Advanced biological treatment methods, such as cell immobilization and application of nanotechnology are also evaluated. The removal of alcohol and volatile fatty acids (VFA) from GTL wastewater can be achieved successfully under anaerobic conditions. However, the combination of anaerobic systems with aerobic biodegradation processes or chemical treatment processes can be a viable technology for the treatment of highly contaminated GTL wastewater with high COD concentration. The ultimate goal is to have treated wastewater that has good enough quality to be reused in the GTL process, which could lead to cost reduction and environmental benefits.
  • 1.7K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Modeling Approaches of Biogas Production
Biogas production is a relevant component in renewable energy systems. Model approaches of biogas production show different levels of detail. They can be classified as white, gray, and black box, or bottom-up and top-down approaches. On the one hand, biogas modeling can supply dynamic information on the anaerobic digestion process, e.g., to predict biogas yields or to optimize the anaerobic digestion process. These models are characterized by a bottom-up approach with different levels of detail: the comprehensive ADM1 (white box), simplifications and abstractions of AD models (gray box), or highly simplified process descriptions (black box). On the other hand, biogas production is included in energy system models. These models usually supply aggregated information on regional biogas potentials and greenhouse gas emissions. They are characterized by a top-down approach with a low level of detail. Most energy system models reported in literature are based on black box approaches. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of the integration of detailed and deeply investigated process models in energy system models reveals the opportunity to develop dynamic and fluctuating business models of biogas usage. 
  • 1.7K
  • 29 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Education for Sustainable Development
Education can serve the purpose of trying to mitigate catastrophes, from the climate change education perspective. Therefore, understanding how teachers are engaging with sustainability issues can help to reveal how they cope with it. In a school context, teachers can have a role in enacting an interconnection between critical thinking (CT) as a potentially useful tool and education for sustainable development (ESD), in terms of educating and communicating the importance of sustainability to future generations.
  • 1.7K
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Factors Affecting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
The high levels of biodiversity found in natural ecosystems have positive effects on ecosystem functions (EFs), though the intensity and direction of such effects can vary. This is associated with the impacts of other EF-driving factors.
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Climate of the Alps
The climate of the Alps is the climate, or average weather conditions over a long period of time, of the exact middle Alpine region of Europe. As air rises from sea level to the upper regions of the atmosphere the temperature decreases. The effect of mountain topography on prevailing winds is to force warm air from the lower region into an upper zone where it expands in volume at the cost of a proportionate loss of heat, often accompanied by the precipitation of moisture in the form of snow, rain or hail. The position of the Alps in the central European continent profoundly affects the climate of all the surrounding regions. The accumulation of vast masses of snow, which have gradually been converted into permanent glaciers, maintains a gradation of very different climates within the narrow space that intervenes between the foot of the mountains and their upper ridges; it cools breezes that waft to the plains on either side, but its most important function is to regulate the water supply of the large region which is traversed by the streams of the Alps. Nearly all the moisture that is precipitated during fall, winter, and spring is stored in the form of snow and gradually diffused in the course of the succeeding summer; even in the hottest and driest seasons the reserves accumulated during a long preceding period of years in the form of glaciers are available to maintain the regular flow of the greater streams. Nor is this all; the lakes that fill several of the main valleys on the southern side of the Alps are somewhat above the level of the plains of Lombardy and Venetia, and afford an inexhaustible supply of water, which, from a remote period, has been used for that system of irrigation to which they owe their proverbial fertility. Six regions or zones, which are best distinguished by their characteristic vegetation, are found in the Alps. It is an error to suppose that these are indicated by absolute height above sea level. Local conditions of exposure to the Sun, protection from cold winds, or the reverse, are of primary importance in determining the climate and the corresponding vegetation.
  • 1.7K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Energy Efficiency
The importance and urgency of energy efficiency in sustainable development are increasing. Patterson [3] first proposed the concept of energy efficiency, considering that it means using fewer resources at the same output, and gave four indicators of energy efficiency measurement. According to this definition, the indicators that measure energy efficiency can be divided into economic energy efficiency and physical energy efficiency. In order to measure energy efficiency more accurately, many scholars have studied the measurement of energy efficiency. Among them, Hu and Wang [4] proposed the concept of total factor energy efficiency (TFEE), which was widely recognized.The TFEE index incorporates energy, labor, and capital into the input system to generate economic output. Energy efficiency is defined as the ratio of target energy input to actual energy input. As a total factor efficiency assessment method, DEA method can better deal with the efficiency evaluation of decision-making units under the complicated situation of multiple inputs–outputs, it has been widely used to study energy efficiency.
  • 1.7K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Iran's Five-Year Plans of Renewable Energy Policies
Renewable energy (RE) policies can play an effective role in the development of renewable resources. Iran’s current RE policies need to be reviewed, reformed, and strengthened. 
  • 1.7K
  • 24 Apr 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Air Quality during Covid-19 Lockdown
Air pollution exposure is one of the greatest risks to health worldwide. It is estimated to be responsible for about 4.2 million deaths around the world every year owing to many serious diseases such as heart disease, stroke, acute and chronic respiratory diseases, and lung cancer. The WHO guideline limits are exceeded in several areas around the world, and it is estimated that about 90% of the world’s population is exposed to high air pollution levels, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to implement severe mobility restriction measures to limit the spread of the virus. This represented a unique opportunity to study the impact of mobility on urban air quality. Several studies which have investigated the relations between the quality of the air and such containment measures have shown the significant reduction of the main pollutants in the urban environment so to encourage the adoption of new approaches for the improvement of the quality of air in the cities. The aims of this entry are both a brief analysis and a discussion of the results presented in several papers to understand the relationships between COVID-19 containment measures and air quality in urban areas.
  • 1.6K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Historical Climatology
Historical climatology is the study of historical changes in climate and their effect on civilization from the emergence of hominins to the present day. This differs from paleoclimatology which encompasses climate change over the entire history of Earth. These historical impacts of climate change can improve human life and cause societies to flourish, or can be instrumental in civilization's societal collapse. The study seeks to define periods in human history where temperature or precipitation varied from what is observed in the present day. The primary sources include written records such as sagas, chronicles, maps and local history literature as well as pictorial representations such as paintings, drawings and even rock art. The archaeological record is equally important in establishing evidence of settlement, water and land usage.
  • 1.6K
  • 13 Nov 2022
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