In addition, uncontrolled dumping of waste destroys the aesthetics of the surroundings, and burning of these wastes causes air pollution. Finding safe and effective ways to manage our solid waste will always be a challenge. Waste reduction and recycling, conversion of recovered materials to usable products eco- nomically, and the need for sanitary landfills becoming more and more important, there is urgent need for our municipalities to go in for more efficient solid waste management practices.
Many of the pollution problems can be solved with the available technologies, but unfortunately the efforts being made are inadequate. In order to ensure environmental protection, the Government of India has created the Ministry of Environment and Forests which has wide range of powers and responsibilities.
Similarly, many state level organisations have been established to deal with pollution related prob- lems. There are more than central and state laws in existence to protect the environ- ment. Presently, many large-scale projects related to energy and industry have to go through the environment appraisal with a view to evaluating environmental implications and incorporating necessary safeguards to protect and improve the environment.
If the gov- ernment is determined to use the technical know-how, legislative checks and management skills for controlling pollution, there is a reasonable hope for the goal of environmental protection. These uncertain- ties can be reduced in part, by better scientific information which can identify and deal with specific pollution problems.
Most of the pollution problems in real situations are integrated and, hence, a systems approach to environmental control is needed. In addition, greater public awareness of the environment is necessary and should be encouraged. It should be clear that with the present rate of growth of pollution, industrialisation and urbanisation, there is an urgent need for a holistic thinking on the management of our resources and environment.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Pomeroy, H. Mathews and H. Shik Min. Hutchinson, A Treatise on Limnology, Vol. John C. Ehrlich and J. Starr, M. Searl, S. World Resources, , Table Flavin and N. Hammons, J. Flacon, P. Hans H. Hileman, Environ. Technology, Vol.
TR, GE. Likens, FH. Borwann and N. Johnson, Environment, Vol. JS, Hoffman et al. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D. J, Houghton, G. Jenkins, and J. Ramanathan, R. Cicerone, HB. Singh, et al.
D3 , pp. Rath and B. Pachauri, Mac Millan Co. Manzer, Science, Vol. Edward J. Kormandy, Concepts of Ecology 2"4 ed. Prentice-Hall, N. Penman, The Water Cycle, Sci. Delwiche, The Nitrogen Cycle, Sci.
Houghton and GM. Scientist, Vol. Gibbons, PD. Blair, and H. Gwin, Strategise for Energy Use, Sci. Schneider, Climate Modeling, Sci. If the growth rate is maintained, what will be the population in the year ?
If the growth rate is decreased to 1. The average mass of each person in the world including children may be assumed to be 50 kg. Several types of population curves are observable in nature. One is the exponential growth curve. What are the other types? Briefly discuss. What environmental factors will influence future growths of population in India?
Write your own scenario for that India and explain,. The number of years T required to deplete a quantity of reserves R , when the present rate of consumption is P, and the consumption grows exponentially at the rate r per cent per year is given by the equation, Derive the above equation.
If the production in is A power plant burns kg of coal containing 4. Assuming 5 per cent of the sulphur in the coal ends up in the ash, what is the annual rate of emission of SO,? One way to control the buildup of CO, in the atmosphere is to grow trees and increase the forest cover. If 1,00, acres of forest cover could effectively reduce CO, gas emissions by 2.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, Discuss briefly each law. Which do you think is a greater danger to man: pesticides used by farmers and householders, or toxic substances discharged into the air and water by industrial plants? These substances include gases sulphur oxides, nitr ogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons etc. Thus, a Particular substance can ye considered an air pollutant only when its concentration is relatively high compare, with the background value and causes adverse effects.
For example, sulphur dioxide, if present in the atmosphere in concentrations greater than the background value of 2 x 10 ppm and causes measurable effects on humans, :animals, plants, or property, then only it is classified as an air pollutant. Four concentrations scales are generally used to describe the concentrations of either gaseous or particulate pollutants.
The second concentration scale is the volume concentration, y,, defined as the ratio of the volume of pollutant to the volume of air plus volume of pollutant. P V S Chandana. Sagar Sawant. Rohit Rahul. Amanjit Singh. Mahmoud Basha. Vandana Gupta. Marlar Shwe. Uchuk Pabbola. Zewdu Tsegaye.
Chan Kah Deng. Dewi Dwirianti Hadiwinoto. San Mateo Daily Journal. Zahid Mehboob. Carmen Dutu. Ibrahim Adan. Jinendra Sandeepa. Environmental Impact Assessment Theory and Practice. Pascal Tagne. More From Siharath Phoummixay. Python Scripting for Spatial Data Processing. SiAgam Devinfo. Siharath Phoummixay. Carel De Jager. Water Balance and Regulation Alternative Analysis. Gebeleizis Morbidu. Brayan Torres.
Close suggestions Search Search. User Settings. Skip carousel. Carousel Previous. Carousel Next. What is Scribd? Explore Ebooks. Bestsellers Editors' Picks All Ebooks. Explore Audiobooks. Bestsellers Editors' Picks All audiobooks. Explore Magazines. Editors' Picks All magazines. Explore Podcasts All podcasts. Difficulty Beginner Intermediate Advanced. Explore Documents. Uploaded by Siharath Phoummixay. Did you find this document useful?
Is this content inappropriate? Report this Document. Flag for inappropriate content. Download now. For Later. Related titles.
Carousel Previous Carousel Next. Studies on the properties of pervious fly ash—cement concrete as a pavement material. Environmental Guidelines for Crematoria and Cremators. Jump to Page. Search inside document. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, xerography, or any other means, or incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the copyright ISBN : X Rs. Maris: Mednsier Si 1.
Conversion Factors and Constants B. The biosphere is a shallow layer compared to the total size of the Earth and extends to about 20 km from the bottom of the ocean to the highest point in the atmosphere at which life can survive without man-made protective devices.
It is estimated that the biosphere contains some 1. The total number of existing species is much more and estimates of actual species range as high as 30 to million!. The essential requisites of life for all these species, namely, light, heat, water, food and habitats are supplied by the biosphere. Since the biosphere is very complex and large, it is usually divided into smaller units or ecosystems.
All ecosystems can be divided into two parts known as the biotic living and the abiotic non-living components. Abiotic substances are the basic elements such as phosphorus and nitrogen, and the compounds found in the environment.
The biotic category can be subdivided into three functional groups: i Producers-the autotrophic self-nourishing organisms, largely the green plants and algae. A typical example of an operating ecosystem is the pond. The abiotic substances are the water, the nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide etc. The producers in the ecosystem Fig. These store energy and liberate oxygen. The primary consumers are benthos, or bottom forms, and zooplankton with little or no swimming ability, The phytoplankton are consumed by zooplankton, which are in turn eaten by large aquatic life such as fish.
Table 1. Additional CO, is provided from the atmosphere and through the respiration of fish. In a healthy system, the availability of the nutrients natural cycles, the most important of which are probably 1 the hydrologic cycle and 2 the biogeochemical cycles of i carbon, ii nitrogen, iii phosphorus and iv sulphur. In the unpolluted natural environment, these cycles operate in a balanced state with little variation thereby contributing to the stability of the whole biosphere.
Ever since he appeared on the face of the Earth, man has exploited and modified the environment to his advantage in many ways. Until recently, however, these changes have represented only a small perturbation in a large system and have not seriously threatened the homeostatic mechanisms, called the feedback loops, which tend to maintain the system in a stable condition. Now unfortunately man is capable of inducing large enough perturbations in the ecosystems, which can permanently upset the balanced state of the natural cycles.
OQ; 60, Nutrients, Detritivores. More than 97 per cent of water in the biosphere is found in the oceans; the remaining 3 per cent is found on the continents and in the atmosphere.
But more than 70 per cent of this latter portion is locked in glaciers and icecaps. The water on which humans depend so heavily-lakes, streams and ground water-accounts for less than 1 per cent of the total supply and it is this water, which is currently being used and reused in many parts of the world.
The hydrologic cycle of the biosphere depends on the reciprocity of evaporation and precipitation. Liquid water on the Earth goes into the atmosphere as vapour by evapora- tion and transpiration of the plants. The vapour is returned to Earth as rain or snow precipitation. Most evaporation occurs over the oceans but some oceans lose more water by evaporation than they gain by precipitation. The difference is made up by runoff and seepage from the continents, over which there is more precipitation than evaporation.
The continents lose more than 50 per cent of the precipitation through evaporation and the remainder is temporarily stored in lakes and rivers or as ground water which is later discharged into the oceans. The global cycle can be summarised as shown in Table 1.
The amount of water, which is tempo- rarily stored and is later discharged into the oceans is 37, km! Minor local modifications to the hydrolic cycle are usually made by diverting or regulating the runoff and storage phases of fresh water for domestic or industrial purposes and for power generation, flood control, irriga- tion and recreation. The dynamics of the carbon cycle is pre- sented in Fig. This then passes through consumers and decomposers, then usually re- enters the atmosphere through respiration and decomposition.
Additional return from producers and consumers occurs through the nonbiological process of combustion. Typical reservoirs for carbon expressed in billion tonnes? Thus, the oceans store more than 50 times as much as the atmosphere. Human activity releases roughly 7. This is a small amount compared to that held by the atmosphere, and an even smaller figure compared with that held in the oceans.
Out of the 7. The exact mechanism by which the seawater interacts with the air above it to remove CO, is not clearly understood but the oceanic reservoir tends to regu- late the atmospheric CO, concentration. Even though the net amount of 8. Any global event that alters the exchange of CO, between the atmosphere and the ocean can significantly affect the concentration of CO, in the atmosphere. Apart from the daily production and consumption of carbon in the form of CO, , the Earth has significant reserves of bound carbon in the form of inorganic deposits such as limestone and organic fossil fuel deposits consisting of mainly coal and petroleum.
Due to combustion of fossil fuels, weathering and dissolution of carbonate rocks, and volcanic activity, some of the bound carbon returns to the atmospheric aquatic reservoir as carbon dioxide or carbonic acid. As a result, a detectable increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO, has been observed. Since the late s, the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities have increased the atmospheric concentrations more than 30 per cent, By , the CO, level in the atmosphere was ppm, a rise of 13 per cent over two centuries.
By , it had reached ppm—an increase of 17 per cent in just 39 years, and had reached nearly ppm by the year This corresponds to an anual increase of approximately 1. Whether this increase in global concentrations of CO, would alter climatic patterns or not indications are that the earth is warming is debatable. Human activities have disturbed the dynamic equilibrium among the major carbon dioxide reservoirs of the biosphere, and the effects of such disturbances are a matter of considerable and immediate concern.
However, it cannot be used directly by most forms of life. By fixation, nitrogen is converted into its chemical compounds, largely nitrates NO and ammonia NH;. The fixation of nitrogen takes place through both physicochemical and biological means although the latter is by far the much bigger contributor.
The biological fixation is limited to a few, but abundant organisms like the free living bacteria Azetobacter and Clostridium, nodule bacteria on leguminous plants like Rhizobium, and some blue-green Algae.
These are the keys to the movement of nitrogen from the atmospheric reservoir into the cycle shown in Fig. The nitrates are assimilated to form amino acids, urea, and other organic residues in the producer, consumer and decomposer cycles. To complete the cycle, denitrifying bacteria convert the ammonia into nitrites, then into nitrates, and then back into gaseous nitrogen. In this way, under normal circumstances, the total amount of nitrogen fixed equals the total amount returned to the atmosphere as gas.
As can be seen, there is no net consumption of Cl atoms and these merely act as a catalyst for the reaction. Thus one Cl atom can convert many ozone molecules to ordinary oxygen molecules before, ultimately forming a stable product which leads to its own removal from the stratosphere. Reactions to the accumulation of CFCs in the atmosphere has been relatively swift by the global community and there is a downward trend in atmospheric CFC concentrations in recent years resulting from international regulations.
Due to rapid growth in urban population, the amount of solid wastes that must be regularly collected, trans- ported and ultimately disposed off has increased tremendously and pose monumental management problems to the civic authorities.
In many cities, approximately half of the solid waste generated remains unattended, leading to unsanitary conditions, as the removal machinery is inadequate to cope with the required task. In addition, uncontrolled dumping of waste destroys the aesthetics of the surroundings, and burning of these wastes causes air pollution.
Finding safe and effective ways to manage our solid waste will always be a challenge. Waste reduction and recycling, conversion of recovered materials to usable products eco- nomically, and the need for sanitary landfills becoming more and more important, there is urgent need for our municipalities to go in for more efficient solid waste management practices.
Many of the pollution problems can be solved with the available technologies, but unfortunately the efforts being made are inadequate. In order to ensure environmental protection, the Government of India has created the Ministry of Environment and Forests which has wide range of powers and responsibilities. Similarly, many state level organisations have been established to deal with pollution related prob- lems. There are more than central and state laws in existence to protect the environ- ment.
0コメント