There is increasing evidence that the use of chemicals frequently results in widespread environmental contamination with little understanding of the toxicological implications. Benzotriazoles are used in, among other applications, dishwashing formulations for home use, and are a class of chemicals recently reported to be present in European waters. This study demonstrates their presence in UK wastewaters, rivers, and drinking water. It also estimates that their use as silver polishing agents in dishwasher tablets and powders may account for a significant proportion of inputs to wastewaters. The lack of a complete set of good quality (eco)toxicological data on possible chronic effects of these high use chemicals should caution against using them in a manner which may have contributed to such widespread environmental contamination.

One of the important steps towards optimizing land productivity and water availability for the semi-arid and arid areas is the identification of potential sites for water harvesting. Therefore, this paper uses the Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques to select the optimized sites for water harvesting in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, Iraq. Geographic water management capabilities are applied as a spatial analysis model. Data from global data repositories are retrieved followed by rescaling them to a spatial resolution to acquire a manageable input data set. The Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) model is used to calculate the potential runoff as an intermediate input. Multi-Criteria Evaluation techniques are adopted to identify the relative importance and suitability levels of the input parameters set to manage the water supply. The suitability for identifying irrigation pond and dam location(s) was considered in this study. To achieve this goal, the criteria for eligibility for water harvesting areas have been completed on the basis of the conditions in the study methods. Based on the hydrological and geomorphological standards of the study area, suitable sites for harvest areas were identified and it was divided into four classes in terms of their suitability for water harvesting, namely very low, low, moderate, and high suitable for water harvesting. It can be concluded that the findings of this research can be used to assist in water resources management as an efficient planning tool to ensure sustainable development of the water in Iraq who suffers from water shortages.

Coagulation-Flocculation plays a significant role in drinking water treatment. Laboratory experiments were carried out in order to assess the effectiveness of using Conocarpus Leaves Solution (CLS) as a natural coagulant in conjunction with the synthetic chemical represented by Alum in the water purification. Biological test was carried out to confirm that these leaves are not toxic, followed by optimizing the dosage of alum and then Alum and CLS were applied to the turbid water whose turbidity level has two ranges, (20 -35) NTU and (90 -120) NTU, using the JAR Test. The parameters determined before and after coagulation were turbidity, pH and temperature. The experiments showed that the optimum dose of alum coagulant (individually) for high turbid water is about 18 mg/l with PH = 7 and 24 mg/l f with PH = 5 and 9. In addition, for the low turbidity water, the optimum dose of alum was lower than in the high turbid water. In terms of using Alum in conjunction with CLS, at high range of turbidity, the results show that at 33% ratio of leaves solution to alum coagulant, there are 50% and 75% turbidity reduction performed for the PH equal to 5 and 9 respectively. Although about 62% and 65% turbidity reduction were achieved at PH = 7 and PH = 9 in the low range level. However, low reduction in turbidity has occurred when the water PH = 5. The amount of leaves solution added to the water in the water treatment plant is highly important, hence it decreases the amount of using the synthetic chemicals by about 33% of the quantity that required for water treatment and that will help both, the water industry and the human health. More studies need to be achieved in particular different concentration of the Conocarpus leaves solution in order to improve the percentage of using the natural material as a coagulant.

There are several factors affect the determination of the best location for schools, however, it is very difficult to satisfy by one method for location determination. These factors can be classified to environmental, economic, technical and political social demands. In this study, a frame work, depended on analytic hierarchy process, for determination of the best location an ArcGIS10.1 software was applied to deal with geographical information system and uncertainty situations. Nine sets were used in this study: distance from emergency facilities, distance from existing schools, distance from roads, distance from rivers, distance from railway, distance from land use, distance from gas pipe and population density. Four scores then were found depending on normalizing of the nine sets: Unsuitable, Less Suitable, Suitable and Most Suitable areas. This research aims to find the best locations for primary schools by creating a model which applied into construction and making digital maps and hard copy for the schools that can be updated with demanded. Using GIS will make a huge development in selecting the locations of new schools and also can be applied in different other sectors.

The improvement of engineering properties for surface soils is of significance through the resources shortage. Therefore, the present study focused on determined the silica fume influence as industrial waste products on engineering characteristics of surface available soil as a soft soil with poor engineering properties to enhance the hydraulic properties to be used for landfill lining layer and prevent migration leachate for surrounding environment. Silica fume was added to the soil to enhance the permeability with 5%, 10% weight ratio. Then, Atterberg limits and permeability tests were conducted. The results indicated that silica fume increase the flow and plasticity characteristics of the stabilized soils. Addition of 5% and 10% silica fume to surface soil reduce the permeability up to 46% and 57% respectively.. It was concluded that silica fume filled pore space between soil particles and a dense matrix were formed. This textural event caused an improvement in permeability characteristics which represent the major concern in design MSW lining layer.