No abstract

Although significant progress has been achieved in the field of environmental impact assessment in many engineering disciplines, the impact of wastewater treatment plants has not yet been well integrated. In light of this remarkable scientific progress, the outputs of the plants as treated water and clean sludge have become potential sources of irrigation and energy, not a waste. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of upgrading the wastewater treatment plants from primary to secondary treatment. The Lifecycle Assessment Framework (ISO 14040 and 14044) was applied using GaBi Software. Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) has been taken as a case study. Two scenarios were studied, Scenario 1 is the current situation of the WWTP using the primary treatment units and Scenario 2 is upgrading the WWTP by adding secondary treatment units. The study highlighted the influence and cumulative impact of upgrading all the primary WWTPs in Egypt to secondary treatment. With the high amount of energy consumed in the aeration process, energy recovery methods were proposed to boost the circular economy concept in Abu Rawash WWTP in order to achieve optimal results from environmental and economic perspectives.

This paper aims to propose methods to mitigate the risks of flash flood events in arid rural communities with poor infrastructure. A flash flood management case study was conducted at Afouna Village in Egypt, which is characterized by an arid climate and faced a devasting flash flood in 2015. First, the flash flood was modelled and it was found that it corresponds to a 100 year return period flood that led to an almost 13 million m3 total runoff volume. A structural protection approach, using an artificial infiltration pond, was applied to mitigate the flooding risks through water harvesting and recharging the groundwater of the Moghra aquifer. In this study, a novel approach was proposed, which is substituting the low permeability silty sand (2.0 × 10−4 m/s) in the pond area with a high permeability one (9.6 × 10−3 m/s), which will enhance water harvesting and reduce direct evaporation. Modern techniques of hydrological modelling were utilized in order to achieve the optimal use, and harvesting, of flash flood water.

Nile Delta Lagoons have been formed 7000 years before the present. The lagoons were aqua-cultural and ecological keystones for the early Egyptian agricultural civilization. The water quality of Nile Delta Lagoons has been deteriorated with the economic development, population rapid increase, and the related industrialization, which exert high pressure on the surrounding environment. The 4 lagoons (1) Maryut, (2) Edku, (3) Burullus, and (4) Manzala are large is surface area, shallow in depth and located on the Nile Delta that receive great amounts of agricultural drainage, sewage, and industrial effluents before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. The aim of this study is to monitor and assess the water and sediment quality of the lagoons. In light of this assessment, it was found that excessive nutrients are discharged into these lagoons causing severe eutrophication. In addition, relatively low values of dissolved oxygen were recorded causing fish mortality in the lagoons which amplifies in summer as the temperature increases. The article also examined the physical and biological parameters in addition to the chemical concentration of trace metals (Zn, Fe, Pb, Mn, Cr, and Cd) in the water and sediment samples that were collected from the 4 lagoons. High values of biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total coliform, fecal coliform, fecal streptococci, ammonia (NH3), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus were recorded. In addition, high concentrations of trace metals were found in the water and sediments of the 4 lagoons.

This article provides a comparative environmental assessment for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) learning from Itaipu dam experience. The article gives a full insight about the potential political and technical concerns that may affect the downstream countries as a result of the construction of GERD and proposed a solution and way forward for the negotiation based on joint collaboration perspective. Based on the analytical comparison conducted between GERD and Itaipu, the results showed that the total annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions expected to be released from the GERD during the operation is 3,927 tCO2eq, while other secondary emissions were estimated to be 16.17 tons, mainly of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Also, the ratio of power generation to reservoir capacity of the GERD was questionable, since Ethiopia has announced that the dam is built only for power generation and that there is no intention to utilize water from the dam reservoir. On the other side, the water quality - represented in turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) - behind the GERD is expected to deteriorate dramatically. Also, an increase in total nitrogen (TN) is expected to occur depending on human activities. Accordingly, the article discussed thoughtfully the potential adverse impacts of the GERD on downstream countries and the possible mitigation options. The article also extended to discuss proposals for practical solutions that pave the road for joint collaboration between the three countries to achieve a transparent resolution and a fair resources utilization.

This article aims to provide a thorough assessment of water quality and quantity incorporating the estimation of future patterns as a result of climate change from economic, environmental and social perspectives. Its scope extends from studying the physical parameters and rainfall patterns to maintaining an environmental flow with a better water quality using ecohydrological techniques. The village of Nagaa Mobarak in Souhag, Egypt, is taken as a case study being in a critical location that is vulnerable to flash floods. This paper managed to quantify change in water quantity and quality due to the impacts of flash floods and climate change. Several traditional engineering alternatives are proposed for flood management such as constructing a dam, a storage pond and a routing channel to the nearest water body; as well as non-traditional ecohydrological alternatives such as constructing a dam with vegetated foreshore, natural levees and constructed wetlands. The results of applying these methods for our case study showed that a hybrid solution that employs both traditional and non-traditional solutions for flood management is optimal. A constructed wetland along a section of the constructed channel for diverting flow into the Nagaa Hammade Canal would decrease the runoff volume and peak time so that the capacity of the Canal is not exceeded in a flood event and purifies the incoming stormwater improving its quality and the health of the ecosystem within the canal. Moreover, our proposed approach was investigated and found to target 10 out of the 17 UN SDGs.

In abstract mathematical music theory, the data format of denotators is associated with set-valued presheaves over module categories. In this paper, we present an implementation of this concept framework in the Rubato Composer system, a Java application comprising a GUI for manipulation and combination of rubettes. These are plug-ins that can be added and connected for communication of denotator data. Rubato Composer is a GPL software and is accessible to the computer music community for download and collaboration. In this paper, the functionality, architecture, concept framework, and the implemented mathematical operators are presented and illustrated with a "functorial composition".

Environmental concerns associated with nutrient-oriented eutrophication phenomenon have become a serious issue and a major cause of water quality deficiency nowadays. This necessitated eutrophication to occupy a front seat in research accompanied with climate change. Climate change has revealed to be a key player and a main contributor in the occurrence of such phenomenon. This paper discusses the ever-growing concern about eutrophication as a cause of climate change. Climate change affects storms intensity, changing the precipitation regime and increasing temperature. These effects increase the nutrient loading diffusion and cause excessive nutrients accompanied with storm water runoff, domestic wastewaters, and agricultural discharges to pour into water bodies. Eutrophication conversely contributes in the global warming by releasing greenhouse gases from deoxygenated waters and sediments. Some control and mitigation measures are needed to fight climate change and achieve desired water quality goals. These measures include mitigation of climate change causes, enhancement of natural ecohydrological processes, application of proper integrated water resource management and participation of communities and governments.