scholarly journals Physicochemical indicators of the influence of a lined municipal landfill on groundwater quality: a case study from Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Przydatek ◽  
Włodzimierz Kanownik

AbstractThe paper aims to determine the most significant physicochemical indicators of the effects that a lined landfill in southern Poland has had on groundwater quality. The results of the tests of groundwater and leachate water from the landfill for the period 2009 to 2016 were subjected to a detailed statistical analysis based on the 10 physicochemical parameters. A factor analysis was conducted considering the European Union and national requirements for landfills using analytical and statistical tools. The leachate contamination indicators from a landfill were analysed to reveal their interaction with the groundwater. The assessment indicated that there was an elevated and statistically significantly higher electrical conductivity and copper and total organic carbon concentrations in groundwater hydraulically downgradient of the landfill. The assessment also indicated that there were significant differences in the correlations between chemical parameters downgradient of the landfill and that there was a trend of increasing concentrations of some chemical constituents in groundwater. The adverse effects of the landfill were due to the deposited amount of waste exceeding 10 Mg per day. The impact was noticeable despite low and decreasing concentrations of heavy metals (Hg, Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn) in the leachate. The deterioration of the chemical state of the groundwater in the landfill vicinity could result in the extended time of pollutant migration or mass transport in the irrigated soil medium due to the limited efficiency of the leachate intake system or sealing screen after more than 20 years of landfill operation.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4100
Author(s):  
Mariana Huskinson ◽  
Antonio Galiano-Garrigós ◽  
Ángel Benigno González-Avilés ◽  
M. Isabel Pérez-Millán

Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is one of the main strategies defined by the European Union to reduce global energy costs. Amongst the actions to be carried out in buildings to achieve this objective is working with passive measures adapted to each type of climate. To assist designers in the process of finding appropriate solutions for each building and location, different tools have been developed and since the implementation of building information modeling (BIM), it has been possible to perform an analysis of a building’s life cycle from an energy perspective and other types of analysis such as a comfort analysis. In the case of Spain, the first BIM environment tool has been implemented that deals with the global analysis of a building’s behavior and serves as an alternative to previous methods characterized by their lack of both flexibility and information offered to designers. This paper evaluates and compares the official Spanish energy performance evaluation tool (Cypetherm) released in 2018 using a case study involving the installation of sunlight control devices as part of a building refurbishment. It is intended to determine how databases and simplifications affect the designer’s decision-making. Additionally, the yielded energy results are complemented by a comfort analysis to explore the impact of these improvements from a users’ wellbeing viewpoint. At the end of the process the yielded results still confirm that the simulation remains far from reality and that simulation tools can indeed influence the decision-making process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 669-690
Author(s):  
Federico M Mucciarelli

This work addresses the impact of language diversity and nation-specific doctrinal structures on harmonized company law in the EU. With this aim, two emblematic case studies will be analysed. The first case study is related to the definition of ‘merger’ adopted in the Company Law Directive 2017/1132 (originally in the Third Company Law Directive and the Cross-Border Merger Directive); by relying on the example of the SEVIC case decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), it will be shown that scholars’ and courts’ conception of the definition of ‘merger’ varies according to own domestic doctrinal structures. The second case study is related to the notion of ‘registered office’, which is key for establishing the scope of several harmonizing provisions and the freedom of establishment; this paper analyses terminological fluctuations across language versions of EU legislation and the impact of domestic taxonomies and legal debates upon the interpretation of these notions. These case studies show that company law concepts, despite their highly technical nature, are influenced by discourse constructions conducted within national interpretative communities, and by the language used to draft statutory instruments and discuss legal issues. The task of the CJEU is to counterbalance these local tendencies, and yet it is unlikely that doctrinal structures, rooted in national languages and legal cultures, will disappear.


2007 ◽  
Vol 141 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 309-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umesh Kumar Singh ◽  
Manish Kumar ◽  
Rita Chauhan ◽  
Pawan Kumar Jha ◽  
AL. Ramanathan ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 599-600 ◽  
pp. 844-853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahoora Sheikhy Narany ◽  
Ahmad Zaharin Aris ◽  
Anuar Sefie ◽  
Saskia Keesstra

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Lema ◽  
F. Omil

Environmental regulations in the European Union, based on the concept of integrated prevention and control of pollution, are oriented towards the sustainability of the production processes, and this leads to better recovery of resources from raw materials, energy saving, etc. This philosophy introduces a new framework to Environmental Engineers, who have to make efforts concerning waste minimisation. During the last few decades technologies based on the anaerobic treatment of wastewaters and organic wastes have been applied successfully to a wide variety of problems. A case study on the impact of applying anaerobic technology to the treatment of wastewaters from the sugar industry in Spain is presented. Nowadays, processes based on anaerobic treatment appear to be an excellent option as the core of an integrated process for waste and wastewater treatment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-92
Author(s):  
Stefano Montaldo

The article addresses the implementation of Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on the transfer of prisoners in the European Union (EU) and discusses its advances and shortcomings from a twofold perspective: the general features and objectives underpinning the Framework Decision and how these theoretical premises have been put into practice by domestic authorities. First, the article discusses the state of the art of the implementation of this mechanism in Italy and provides relevant data. Second, it addresses the main strategies enacted in Italy by the judiciary, the legislature and the executive power to maximise the impact of the national implementing laws. The analysis demonstrates that these efforts are mainly intended to dispose of unwanted EU citizens and to cope with prison overcrowding, thereby marking a clear departure from the rationale of the Framework Decision. Third, the article focuses on the recurring challenges regarding horizontal cooperation between domestic judicial authorities, with a specific focus on the division of competences between the issuing and the executing authorities in light of the EU and the Italian case law. The article supports the view that the Italian case study can represent a test bed for future quantitative and qualitative improvements in the implementation of this Framework Decision at the EU level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6708 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Reis ◽  
Paula Santo ◽  
Nuno Melão

Currently, artificial intelligence (AI) is at the center of academic and public debate. However, its implications on politics remain little understood. To understand the impact of the AI phenomenon on politics of the European Union (EU), we have carried out qualitative multimethod research by performing a systematic literature review and a case study. The first method was performed according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA), in order to report the state-of-the-art in the existing literature and explore the most relevant research areas. The second method contained contributions from experts in data science and AI of the Portuguese scientific community. The results showed that solutions such as intelligent decision support systems are improving the political decision-making process and impacting the Portuguese society at local, regional, and national levels. We also found that practitioners and scientists are currently shifting their interests from environmental and biological sciences to healthcare services, which is bringing new challenges in terms of protecting patient/citizen data and growing concerns about handling of critical information. Future research may focus on comparative studies with other EU States to obtain a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the AI phenomenon.


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