scholarly journals Methods for reducing the environmental impact of rock mass excavation

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Jasmin Jug ◽  
Kristijan Grabar
Keyword(s):  
Rock Mass ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Historic Buildings ◽  
Chemical Contamination ◽  
Rock Excavation ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Project Impact ◽  
Mechanical Excavation ◽  
Engineering Projects ◽  
Protected Animal

Many engineering projects and interventions have negative effects on the environment. Rock excavation in civil engineering, either in mining or in construction, often is unthinkable without the use of explosive. However, blasting can have extensive adverse environmental impacts, like vibrations, noise, dust and chemical contamination. Therefore, it is better to avoid blasting activities near urban areas, protected animal habitats, sensitive historic buildings, water protection zones, pipelines, etc. While mechanical excavation is often longer lasting and more expensive, in some cases it may adequately replace blasting, where the applicability of mechanical excavation methods greatly dependent on the rock mass characteristics which should excavate. This paper provides practical examples of using existing methods for the assessment of the applicability of excavation technologies. In order to minimize the project impact on the environment, mechanical excavation was applied in some cases. In one case, the blasting could not be avoided, but controlled careful blasting techniques were applied.

Problems of Development of Small and Medium Russian Towns

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
V V. Kafidov ◽  
V. N. Filippov ◽  
I. P. Filippova
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Fundamental Factor ◽  
New Buildings

The presented study addresses the problems of development of small and medium towns in Russia. Aim. The study aims to examine a town as a socio-economic environment where its residents exist and as the fundamental factor for the development of society.Tasks. The authors identify key problems in the development of small and medium Russian towns, which interferes with the historical appearance and has a negative impact on the living environment.Methods. Problems in the development of small and medium towns in Russia are examined using theoretical methods: systematic approach, statistical analysis, social and philosophical analysis.Results. The study identifies the main negative effects of the existing model of development of small and medium Russian towns, such as destruction of their historical and cultural appearance, distortion of the overall architectural motif, increased load on communications, and congestion of the transport infrastructure.Conclusions. At the current stage, efficient development of small and medium towns in Russia is impossible within the framework of the existing infill development. This chaotic process cannot be stopped without a new conceptual approach and changes in the legislative and normative framework of urban development. The only factor that determines the boundaries of the existing approach to urban development is the lack of physical space for new buildings in urban areas. The authors formulate proposals that would help to solve the problems of development of small and medium towns in Russia. 

scholarly journals The effect of climate change on depression in urban areas of western Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed Abbasi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Western Iran ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
Climatic Time Series ◽  
Climatic Elements

Abstract Objective Human is accustomed to climatic conditions of the environment where they are born and live throughout their lifetime. The aim of this study is to examine mood swings and depression caused by sudden climate changes that have not yet given the humans a chance to adapt. Results Our results showed that depression could be affected by climate change and as a result, the behavior of climatic elements and trends has damaged mental health in the western regions of Iran. By investigating the trends and changes of climatic time series and their relationship with the rate of depression in urban areas of western Iran, it can be said that climate change is probably a mental health challenge for urban populations. Climate change is an important and worrying issue that makes the life difficult. Rapid climate changes in western Iran including rising air temperature, changes in precipitation, its regime, changes cloudiness and the amount of sunlight have a negative effects on health. The results showed that type of increasing or decreasing trend, as well as different climatic elements in various seasons did not have the same effect on the rate of depression in the studied areas.

scholarly journals Mechanical Properties, Permeability, and Freeze–Thaw Resistance of Pervious Concrete Modified by Waste Crumb Rubbers

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanbing Liu ◽  
Guobao Luo ◽  
Yafeng Gong ◽  
Haibin Wei
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rubber Particle ◽  
Crumb Rubber ◽  
Pervious Concrete ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Island Phenomena ◽  
Pavement Material

Due to the negative effects that derive from large impervious surfaces in urban areas, pervious concrete has been developed, and has become an environmentally friendly pavement material. As a porous and permeable material, pervious concrete presents an overwhelming advantage in solving urban problems, such as flooding, groundwater decline, urban heat island phenomena, etc. Waste crumb rubber has been verified as a feasible modifier for pavement material. The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of rubber particle size and incorporation level on the permeability, mechanical properties, and freeze–thaw resistance of pervious concrete. Two kinds of rubbers (fine and coarse) with four incorporation levels (2%, 4%, 6%, and 8%) are used in the experiment. Permeability, compressive strength, flexural strength, flexural strain, and freeze–thaw resistance are tested. The results indicate that the addition of rubber slightly decreases strength and permeability, but significantly enhances ductility and freeze-thaw resistance. Fine crumb rubber with a suitable incorporation level could remarkably improve the ductility and freeze–thaw resistance of pervious concrete without sacrificing excessively strength and permeability.

scholarly journals A framework for IoT-enabled environment aware traffic management

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Mohamed Fazil Mohamed Firdhous ◽  
B. H. Sudantha ◽  
Naseer Ali Hussien
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Traffic Management ◽  
Fine Particles ◽  
Environment Pollution ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Traffic Condition ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Transport Services ◽  
The Cost

Vehicular traffic has increased across all over the world especially in urban areas due to many reasons including the reduction in the cost of vehicles, degradation of the quality of public transport services and increased wealth of people. The traffic congestion created by these vehicles causes many problems. Increased environment pollution is one of the most serious negative effects of traffic congestion. Noxious gases and fine particles emitted by vehicles affect people in different ways depending on their age and present health conditions. Professionals and policy makers have devised schemes for better managing traffic in congested areas. These schemes suffer from many shortcomings including the inability to adapt to dynamic changes of traffic patterns. With the development of technology, new applications like Google maps help drivers to select less congested routes. But, the identification of the best route takes only the present traffic condition on different road segments presently. In this paper the authors propose a system that helps drivers select routes based on the present and expected environment pollution levels at critical points in a given area.

scholarly journals A review of green roof incentives as motivators for the expansion of green infrastructure in European cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Burszta-Adamiak ◽  
Wiesław Fiałkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Green Roof ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
European Cities

Nowadays green roofs play a key role in alleviating the negative effects of urbanization. Despite investors awareness of the advantages of green roofs, there are still some barriers that hinder investments on a large scale. As a result a financial and non-financial incentives are implemented. The review presented in this paper allowed to identify the most popular initiatives and to formulate recommendations for creating incentive supporting implementation of green roofs in urban areas.

scholarly journals EFFECTS OF PESTICIDES ON MALE FARMER’S HEALTH: A STUDY OF MUZAFFAR GARH

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (04) ◽  
pp. 1021-1030
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali Tarar
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Family System ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Living Organism ◽  
Respiratory Disorder ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Excessive Sweating ◽  
Multistage Sampling ◽  
Risk Of Cancer

Application of pesticides are made to control those insects and pest that approach the crops and damage them. From centuries, for the protection of crops, different sorts of pesticides are in practice. On the one hand pesticide benefits the crops, meanwhile it injurious for environment and & human health. Because it’s unnecessary application poses negative effects on biodiversity and all living organism i.e. birds, animals and human etc. faces threats for their survival. Study objectives were (i) to find out the effects of pesticides on farmer’s health and (ii) to suggest some recommendations for future policy to improve farmer’s health. For this study, a sample of 160 respondents (male farmers) were selected through multistage sampling technique. At first stage, 4 union councils from total 111 UCs, at second stage, 8 localities/ Basties /urban areas (2 from each union council) were selected randomly and at third stage, 20 respondents from each locality were selected by convenient sampling technique. Results showed that majority respondents were young illiterate married persons who were living in joint family system (62.5%); had family income Rs. 12,001-25,000 (63.1%); land tendency status of majority (91.3%) was own cultivator and 1-4 acres cultivate per year (45.0%). Majority (86.9%) of the respondents said that through inhalation source pesticides enter the human body and they prepared the pesticides stuff in field (94.3%). Data also showed about pesticides usage in crops and its different effects on farmer’s health i.e. heard about illness caused by pesticides (87.5%); is cause of air pollution (65.6%); pesticides particularly harmful for farm workers health (88.8%); after the application of pesticides, farmers faced health problems (83.8%); family members felt sick (71.9%) while after handling pesticides they faced shortness of breath (75.6%); experienced redness of skin (69.4%), nervous disorder (77.5%), headache (56.9%), excessive sweating (51.2%), diarrhea (75.0%); abdominal pain (73.1%); eyes burning (85.0%); respiratory disorder (76.3%); dry cough (80.0%); fever (81.2%); dry throat (84.4%); sleeplessness and laziness (76.9%); vomiting (78.8%); vision disturbance (86.9%) and pesticides usage is the risk of cancer (81.9%). Data showed that during pesticides spray respondents used the different personal protective equipment i.e. ordinary clothes to apply pesticides (98.1%); long-sleeved shirt (81.9%); spray coat with hoods (80.0%); gumboots (85.0%); nose masks (89.4%); goggles (66.2%) and hand gloves (66.9%) as well as take a shower immediately after mixing/ spraying (86.9%). Bi-variate analysis showed significant relationship between more the use of improper goggles vs. more the burning of eyes and more the use of improper nose mask vs. more the respiratory disorder problems among farmers. Govt. need to take strict action & measures against producers of hazardous & injurious pesticides and through intensive trainings, & short term courses guide farmers regarding safe & harmless application of pesticides to protect themselves

Development of a GIS-based Expert System for on-site Storm-water Management

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Jin ◽  
F. Sieker ◽  
S. Bandermann ◽  
H. Sieker
Keyword(s):  
Expert System ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Water Infiltration ◽  
Storm Water ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
The City

Urbanization is accelerating worldwide. One of the negative effects of urbanization is the overloading of the city sewer system. To solve this problem, on-site storm water infiltration proves very promising due to its near natural characteristics and multiple effects on the drainage of stormwater runoff in urban areas. However, the judgment of whether a local area is appropriate to be drained in this way and which infiltration measures are optimal is rather complex and involves analysing a set of influential factors. This judgment depends on not only relevant theoretical considerations, but also a large amount of practical experience and the availability of relevant data, as well. Such a judgment is an unstructured problem and relates to changeable knowledge. To fulfill this task, the so-called expert system, or knowledge-based system, is introduced. One of the advantages of an expert system is that it provides automation of expert-level judgment. This is extremely helpful when an expert-level judgment is needed repeatedly for a large amount of cases, like in the planning of on-site stormwater infiltration systems for an entire city catchment. This paper describes a self-developed expert system tool for developing rule-based expert systems, as well as a case study: using an expert system for the selection of on-site storm water infiltration measures for the city of Chemnitz, Germany.

scholarly journals Restoring pieces of architectural heritage as a factor contributing to biosphere compatible urban space development

2020 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 05005
Author(s):  
Igor Pryadko
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Historic Buildings ◽  
State University ◽  
Architectural Heritage ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Moscow State University

The mission of the research is to study the main problems, arising in the course of restoring pieces of architectural heritage in the age of globalization and fast-paced expansion of urban areas, and to identify the influence produced by traditional built-up areas on formation of a biosphere compatible urban environment. In the 21st century, destruction threats in respect of pieces of architectural heritage aggravate due to their exposure to aggressive environments. Principal research methods, employed by the author, include the retrospective analysis of sources of law, media posts, and a comparative historical method. The following findings were obtained in the course of the research: firstly, it was identified that historic buildings serve as screens preventing the psychological decline of urban areas. Secondly, the author proved that this decline was a consequence of the destruction ideology that found its adherents both in the 20th and 21st centuries. Thirdly, the author offered the key to solving this problem: the solution is to enhance the training of future restorers and urban planners at universities of architecture and civil engineering. The events, delivered at the Moscow state university of civil engineering, may serve as an example.

Unexpected Arrivals

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 692-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilyn Ruble Whitesell ◽  
Leanna Stiefel ◽  
Amy Ellen Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
English Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Eighth Grade Students ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Impact

Across the country and in urban areas in particular, many students change schools during the academic year. While much research documents the impact of changing schools on the academic achievement of mobile students themselves, less research explores whether new arrivals have negative spillovers on stable classmates. The lack of research on impacts of mid-year entry is problematic, as poor, minority, and low-achieving students are disproportionately exposed to mid-year entry. In this study, we use a rigorous causal identification strategy and rich longitudinal data on fourth- through eighth-grade students in the New York City (NYC) public schools to estimate the impact of exposure to mid-year entry on the achievement of stable students. We analyze heterogeneous effects of mid-year entrants by origin (arriving from other NYC public schools, from other U.S. school systems, or from other countries), determine the extent to which mid-year entrants’ characteristics mediate the impact of mid-year entry, and explore the moderating influence of stable students’ characteristics. We find small negative effects of mid-year entry on both math and English language arts test scores in the short run. These impacts are not driven by mid-year entrant characteristics and are somewhat larger for Asian students and those who do not qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Finally, results suggest mid-year entry continues to negatively influence the math performance of stable students beyond the year of exposure. We discuss the relevance of results and conclude with recommendations for future research.

scholarly journals Pollination services enhanced with urbanization despite increasing pollinator parasitism

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1833) ◽  
pp. 20160561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Theodorou ◽  
Rita Radzevičiūtė ◽  
Josef Settele ◽  
Oliver Schweiger ◽  
Tomás E. Murray ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Pollination Success ◽  
Flower Visitation ◽  
Visitation Rates ◽  
Crithidia Bombi ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Animal-mediated pollination is required for the reproduction of the majority of angiosperms, and pollinators are therefore essential for ecosystem functioning and the economy. Two major threats to insect pollinators are anthropogenic land-use change and the spread of pathogens, whose effects may interact to impact pollination. Here, we investigated the relative effects on the ecosystem service of pollination of (i) land-use change brought on by agriculture and urbanization as well as (ii) the prevalence of pollinator parasites, using experimental insect pollinator-dependent plant species in natural pollinator communities. We found that pollinator habitat (i.e. availability of nesting resources for ground-nesting bees and local flower richness) was strongly related to flower visitation rates at the local scale and indirectly influenced plant pollination success. At the landscape scale, pollination was positively related to urbanization, both directly and indirectly via elevated visitation rates. Bumblebees were the most abundant pollinator group visiting experimental flowers. Prevalence of trypanosomatids, such as the common bumblebee parasite Crithidia bombi, was higher in urban compared with agricultural areas, a relationship which was mediated through higher Bombus abundance. Yet, we did not find any top-down, negative effects of bumblebee parasitism on pollination. We conclude that urban areas can be places of high transmission of both pollen and pathogens.

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