This study aims to assess the sustainability of healthcare waste treatment systems using surrogate weights and the Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE). For ...this purpose, ten treatment systems, including land disposal, incineration and non-incineration systems, were evaluated in terms of environmental, financial, social, and technical criteria. Firstly, fifteen reputed experts assigned their preferred rankings for the groups of criteria and the sub-criteria. The conversion of these rankings into numerical weights was performed using the SR function, which is an additive combination of Sum and Reciprocal weight functions. Secondly, the alternatives’ performance with regards to each criterion allowed PROMETHEE to generate the outranking flows for each alternative. The complete ranking revealed that the rotary kiln (A4) is the most sustainable system followed by steam disinfection (A8), dry heat disinfection and microwave disinfection. However, the municipal landfill is the least sustainable system, while chemical disinfection is ranked in the penultimate position of sustainability. The partial ranking indicated that A4 and A8 are incomparable and both were ranked as most sustainable. Therefore, the sustainability of a system cannot be assessed properly without the exact specification of the system itself. In addition, it is preferable to act on the criteria that affect negatively the system to improve its performance.
The Moroccan Mediterranean coast between Nador and Al Hoceima is known for its ideal environment that promotes ecological evolution as well as distinctive biodiversity. In this shoreline, a marine ...protected area for the conservation of the biological richness is under consideration. In this context, the present study was carried out to assess the environmental health based on water physicochemical parameters, sediment granulometry, and geochemical analysis of heavy metals. For this purpose, water and surface sediment samples were collected from ten locations in the seabed. The analysis of the physicochemical parameters of seawater shows that they are of good quality and within the international standards. The granulometric analysis demonstrated a diversity of facies represented by sandy mud, silt, and clay with a low percentage of organic matter, indicating a favorable environment for the reproduction and growth of marine fauna. The analysis of heavy metal concentrations, Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn, were below the natural average values. Furthermore, the contamination indices: pollution load index (PLI), modified contamination degree (mC
d
), geoaccumulation index (
I
geo
), the potential ecological risk index (RI), and mean ERM quotient (M-ERM-Q) indicated that the study area is beyond any metallic contamination. Consequently, the study area is a favorable habitat for marine fauna and thus it can perfectly host a marine protected area. The obtained results in this work can be used as a reference state for marine protected areas.
To cope with water scarcity, Morocco needs to integrate the reuse of treated wastewater fully into its water management strategies. However, this option imposes several concerns about the appropriate ...wastewater treatment system (WWTS) whose performance is balanced by technical, environmental, financial, and societal sustainability. To deal with these challenges, the present study aims to assess the sustainability of five WWTS using the cardinal (CAR) and PROMETHEE methods. After hierarchizing the criteria and identifying the WWTS, two separate surveys were performed in order to rank criteria and alternatives by preference strength. The delivered rankings were converted, then, respectively into cardinal weights (criteria) and cardinal scores (alternatives). The PROMETHEE rankings showed that the membrane systems are the most sustainable followed by trickling filters, while the infiltration-percolation is the least sustainable WWTS. The activated sludge and lagoon systems were incomparable using PROMETHEE I partial ranking, and they were both ranked in the third position of sustainability. In contrast, PROMETHEE II complete ranking favored the activated sludge than lagoon systems due to its slightly high net outranking flow. The stability intervals indicated that the weights of all criteria could not affect the two first actions, which is mainly due to the high precision and robustness of the CAR method in eliciting weights. Finally, each criterion affected variably the sustainability of WWTS according to their characteristics, but overall, the process efficiency is the key factor (21.07% of weight) to reaching higher sustainability levels in addition to gaseous emissions (12.41% of weight), flexibility (8.32% of weight), and energy requirement (7.50% of weight).
Composting is considered as a sustainable strategy for organic waste management, yet the choice of suitable technology makes its sustainability disputable. The subject under investigation concerns ...the sustainability assessment of large-scale composting technologies using surrogate weights and PROMETHEE method. In this regard, six composting systems, including open, enclosed and reactor technologies, were evaluated in terms of environmental, financial/economic, social and technical criteria. Firstly, ten internationally endorsed experts assigned their preferred rankings for the groups of criteria as well as the sub-criteria. The application of the additive combination of sum and reciprocal weight functions on these rankings allowed calculating the corresponding weights for each group of criteria and each sub-criterion. Secondly, the PROMETHEE method was applied, taking into account the alternatives’ performance with regards to each criterion, to calculate the outranking flows for each alternative. The obtained rankings revealed that reactor technologies are more sustainable than enclosed technologies, which in turn are more sustainable than open technologies. Overall, the rotating drum is ranked as the most sustainable composting technology achieving the optimal balance among the environmental, financial/economic, social, and technical criteria. However, the turned windrow seems to be the least sustainable composting technology.
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•Sustainability assessment of large-scale composting technologies was investigated.•Surrogate weights and PROMETHEE method were used.•Environmental, economic, social and technical criteria were considered.•Reactor technologies are more sustainable than enclosed and open technologies.•Rotating drum achieved the optimal balance among the considered criteria.
This study assesses the spatial distribution and contamination level of heavy metals in Safi Bay surface sediments. In this order, 28 surface sediment samples were retrieved from the study area and ...analyzed using the x-fluorescence method. To assess the contamination of the examined sediment, we used geo-ecological indices such as contamination factor (CF), degree of contamination (DC), geo accumulation index, and pollution load index (PLI). The results show that only Pb and Cd present moderate and considerable contamination in some sampling sites, while other elements (Cr, Cu, Zn, and Ni) indicate no contamination and low contamination by these elements. The inhomogeneous distribution of metal concentrations along the bay suggests different heavy metal sources. Given the ecological and socioeconomic importance of the study area, there is a need for a further analysis of both sediments and biological samples for a better understanding of the contamination levels and origin of metals, in addition to the sustainability of Safi Bay.
•New mineralogical insights to understand the genetic model of the Bounhas Cu-Ni deposit.•The presence of Ni-Cu minerals indicates a mafic fluid contribution.•Mineralization is related to the Central ...Atlantic magmatic province.•The Bounhas Cu-Ni ore deposit is structurally and stratigraphically controlled.
The Moroccan Anti-Atlas hosts numerous precious metal (Au, Ag, Co, PGE...) and base metal (Cu, Pb, Zn...) mineralizations that are developed in various geological and geodynamic contexts. Some of these mineralizations, such as copper and nickel, are known in the form of deposits at the scale of the Anti-Atlas and are the subject of mining development and exploitation. This is the case of the Bounhas deposit, which is located in the southern part of the Eastern Anti-Atlas, 50 km SE of the city of Alnif. It is characterized by Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn mineralizations, which are essentially hosted in sedimentary terrains of a sandstone-pelitic nature of the upper formation of the second Bani group (Upper Ordovician). These terrains are affected by brittle deformations that have developed faults that host the lenticular vein mineralization in an E-W direction. The arrangement and textural relationships between the mineral phases of the Bounhas deposit have allowed to distinguish two distinct mineralizing events: (i) a primary hydrothermal event subdivided into 3 metalliferous episodes the first, with Fe, characterized essentially by pyrite mineralization in a carbonate gangue (ankerite and siderite); the second with Cu, Ni, As ± Zn ± Pb, precipitates most of the arsenopyrite, sphalerite I, galena I, gersdorffite and chalcopyrite mineralization in a quartz gangue; and the third, with Pb, Zn, and Ba, places galena II and sphalerite II in a barytic gangue. A late supergene alteration event, characterized by the appearance of minerals typical of cementation, sulfation, carbonation and oxidation zones (covellite, native copper, anglesite, malachite, azurite and iron oxides). Moreover, the study of the fluid inclusions associated with the Cu, Ni, As ± Pb ± Zn mineralization from the Bounhas deposit reveals the presence of two types of fluids: (i) a hypersaline fluid, characterized by a salinity varying between 25 and 30 wt% NaCl eq and a homogenization temperature: Th = 200 to 240 °C. This fluid would be responsible for the development of the copper-nickel-arsenic mineralization of this deposit and (ii) a late medium saline fluid (12 to 15 wt% NaCl eq) and a homogenization temperature Th = 80 °C to 120 °C, to which would be attributed the development of the Pb and Zn mineralization of this deposit.
The Say’un-Masilah basin is one of the most prolific sedimentary basins in Yemen, and therefore it has attracted the attention of geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon prospection and ...exploration. The main objective of this research is to study the structural and stratigraphic subsurface features as well as to determine the lithological contents of the Sharyoof oil field, Block 53, in the Mesozoic rift basin, eastern Yemen, using seismic and well log data. The basic inputs in this study include log data, collected from six wells, such as gamma ray (GR), caliper, deep, and shallow laterlog resistivity (LLD, LLS), micro-spherically focused log (MSFL), photoelectric absorption index (PEF), and porosity tools (density, neutron, and sonic). In addition, seismic sections including 15 lines 2D, well tops, bottom, sheck shot, well header, and deviations were used to accomplish this study objective. The obtained results from the seismic profiles interpretations demonstrated the existence of a series of normal faults dissecting most of the mapped horizons toward NE-SW (major faults) and NW-SE and W-E (secondary faults) creating several graben and horst structures. Moreover, results analysis of the well log data indicates that the main lithology content is dominated by the presence of the carbonates (limestone and dolomite) in the Sa’ar Formations and Qishn Carbonates Member while the sandstones for the Qishn Clastics, Harshiyat, and Mukalla Formations. The lithostratigraphy succession consists of rock units ranging in age from Early to Upper Cretaceous age (from Sa’ar to Mukalla Formations). Furthermore, seismic section data allowed determining the subsurface feature styles from reflections maps of both isochronous (two-way travel time) on the tops of the Sa’ar to Mukalla Formations. They reflect the occurrence of several distinct structures (anticlines, synclines, and faults), added to trends of faulting (NW-SE dissected by NE-SW). The novel contribution of the present work consists in the identification of the structural characteristics of the Lower and Upper Cretaceous formations of Block 53 using new seismic lines. Therefore, the obtained results of this study allow determining the sections and composition holding the hydrocarbon reservoir characteristics. As such, this research can be used as a reference study.
We introduce the Favard spaces for resolvent families, extending some well-known theorems for semigroups. Furthermore, we show the relationship between these Favard spaces and the $L^p$-admissibility ...of control operators for scalar Volterra linear systems in Banach spaces, extending some results in 22. Assuming that the kernel a(t) is a creep function which satisfies $a(0^+)>0$, we prove an analogue version of the Weiss conjecture for scalar Volterra linear systems when p=1. To this end, we also show that the finite-time and infinite-time (resp. finite-time and uniform finite-time) $L^{1}$-admissibility coincide for exponentially stable resolvent families (reps. for reflexive state space), extending well-known results for semigroups.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this paper, heavy metal contamination in surface sediments along the Mediterranean coast of Morocco was investigated. Determining pollution degree as well as heavy metal origins were the main ...objectives of this investigation. For this reason, concentrations of nine heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn, Hg, Fe, and Mn) were analyzed at ten stations sampled during three different periods. The obtained concentrations showed significant variation between sampling periods, which was controlled by several environmental and chemical processes. According to contamination indices results using pollution load index (PLI), modified contamination degree (mC
d
), geoaccumulation index (
I
geo
), enrichment factor (EF), and potential ecological risk index (RI), sampling stations were classified between uncontaminated and strongly contaminated without detecting any intense heavy metal pollution in surface sediment. Likewise, the EF values were comprised between no enrichment and moderate to severe enrichment. According to sediment quality guidelines, the calculated M-ERM-Q indicated that heavy metal mixtures have between 9 and 49% probability for being toxic. This result revealed lowest to medium-low potential of adverse effects to biota populations. Regarding heavy metal origins, multivariate statistical investigation showed that Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn are derived mainly from anthropogenic activities, while Fe, Mn, Cr, and Ni were derived from natural sources. Despite Cd is considered as a typical anthropogenic metal, the very low concentrations obtained in this study support the involvement of natural factor in the enrichment with this metal. Therefore, the surface sediments contamination along the Mediterranean coasts of Morocco is particularly caused by a combination of anthropogenic and natural factors. As a result, the study area can be considered as not significantly enriched by human activities.
•Seawater intruded about 2 km in the coastal region, affecting water resources.•The Taylor diagram indicated that L1 robust is the best inversion method.•The new uncertainty approach indicated a ...considerable variation in seawater intrusion extent.•The BERT reached lower RMS error in less iteration compared to RES2DINV.•Mesh size did not improve the inversion results significantly.
Seawater intrusion (SWI) is one of the most important phenomena which occurs in shorelines and islands and affects groundwater storage in the region. This study aims to investigate how far seawater has intruded in a coastal area and what is its extent variation. The results can lead to different management plans. To achieve these goals, a geoelectrical method is applied in the coastal aquifer of Chaouia, Morocco. In order to choose the best inversion process, different settings are applied in two different software packages namely RES2DINV and BERT and the results are compared using the Taylor diagram. Also, to determine the minimum and maximum SWI extent in the region, a new approach of uncertainty analysis is applied in the inversion process by the Monte Carlo method. The general results indicate that the seawater has intruded about 2 km into the shore. The obtained results show that by considering uncertainty, there is a sensible difference between the maximum and minimum extent of SWI (maximum 9% variation in the area of SWI) which should be noted when doing water research management studies. The methodology procedure in this study can be applied to different coastal areas around the world.
