Network model-based analysis of the goals, targets and indicators of sustainable development for strategic environmental assessment.

Strategic environmental assessment is a decision support technique that evaluates policies, plans and programs in addition to identifying the most appropriate interventions in different scenarios. This work develops a network-based model to study interlinked ecological, economic, environmental and social problems to highlight the synergies between policies, plans, and programs in environmental strategic planning. Our primary goal is to propose a methodology for the data-driven verification and extension of expert knowledge concerning the interconnectedness of the sustainable development goals and their related targets. A multilayer network model based on the time-series indicators of the World Bank open data over the last 55 years was assembled. The results illustrate that by providing an objective and data-driven view of the correlated variables of the World Bank, the proposed layered multipartite network model highlights the previously not discussed interconnections, node centrality measures evaluate the importance of the targets, and network community detection algorithms reveal their strongly connected groups. The results confirm that the proposed methodology can serve as a data-driven decision support tool for the preparation and monitoring of long-term environmental policies. The developed new data-driven network model enables multi-level analysis of the sustainability (goals, targets, indicators) and will make it possible to plan long-term environmental strategic planning. Through relationships among indicators, relationships among targets and goals can be modelled. The results show that sustainable development goals are strongly interconnected, while the 5th goal (gender equality) is linked mostly to 17th (partnerships for the goals) goal. The analysis has also highlighted the importance of the 4th (quality education).

Modified Jordanian zeolitic tuff in hydrocarbon removal from surface water.

This work aims to investigate the potential of Jordanian raw zeolitic tuff (RZT) as oil adsorbent for oil-contaminated water. As hydrophobic properties are the primary determinants of effective oil adsorbents, the hydrophobicity of RZT was enhanced by dealumination process; since the degree of hydrophobicity of zeolites is directly dependent on their aluminum content. The microemulsion modification of the dealuminated zeolitic tuff (TZT) was also applied to increase its hydrophobicity. The raw and modified tuffs were characterized in terms of the surface area and porosity (BET), mineral composition (XRD), microstructure and morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In this work, a mixture of water and kerosene was used to examine the hydrophobic/organophilic character of raw and modified zeolitic tuff. Water/dodecane and water/octane mixtures were used to study the kinetics of the adsorption over zeolitic tuff. The results revealed that the sorption capacity using kerosene as a mixed model (water-oil) was enhanced by three- and four-fold for TZT and micro-emulsified zeolitic (MeTZT) tuff respectively. The adsorption capacity of modified zeolitic was compared with that of activated carbon adsorbents.

Does Lake Balaton affected by pollution? Assessment through surface water quality monitoring by using different assessment methods.

In order to maintain a good environmental status of surface waters, an assessment of water quality carried out at specific intervals to monitor the changes of water quality in function of time. Human knowledge and experience are currently focused on using assessment methods, especially the integration of multiple constraining factors and considering them in conjugation with the correct decision-making process concerning the environment. When surface water is highly exposed to human activities, either from recreational or economic activity, the degree of vulnerability is high, and the quality of surface water is highly compromised. In case of Lake Balaton, there are many activities that can disrupt water dynamics. The first goal of this study is to determine the location of the least and most polluted sites around Lake Balaton. The processing of data was carried out by using multi-criteria decision techniques and environmental impact assessment method based on physical-chemical parameters in comparison with the limiting parameters. Based on the results of those methods water quality needs to be improved in western parts of the lake by using several geoengineering treatment techniques. This work covers a novel approach to comparing methods based on sum of ranking differences, whereas many method comparison studies suffer from ambiguity or from comparisons not being quite fair. This problem can be avoided if there are differences between ideal and actual rankings.

Environmental assessment of physical-chemical features of Lake Nasser, Egypt.

Lake Nasser is one of the largest man-made lakes on earth. It has a vital importance to Egypt for several decades because of the safe water supply of the country. Therefore, the water quality of the Lake Nasser must be profoundly investigated, and physico-chemical parameter changes of the water of the Lake Nasser should be continuously monitored and assessed. This work describes the present state of the physico-chemical (nitrate-nitrogen, nitrite-nitrogen, orthophosphate, total phosphate content, dissolved oxygen content, chemical oxygen demand, and biological oxygen demand) water parameters of Lake Nasser in Egypt at nine measurement sites along the Lake Nasser. The algorithm was devised at the University of Pannonia, Hungary, for the evaluation of the water quality. The aquatic environmental indices determined alongside the Lake Nasser fall into the category of "good" water quality at seven sampling sites and exhibited "excellent" water quality at two sampling sites according to Egyptian Governmental Decree No. 92/2013. In light of the tremendous demand for safe and healthy water supply in Egypt and international requirements, the water quality assessment is a very important tool for providing reliable information on the water quality. The protocol for water quality assessment could significantly contribute to the provision of high-quality water supply in Egypt. In conclusion, it can be stated that the parameters under investigation in different regions of Lake Nasser fall within the permissible ranges and the water of the Lake has good quality for drinking, irrigation, and fish cultures according to Egyptian standards; however, according to European specifications, there are steps to be accomplished for future water quality improvement.

Environmental information system for visualizing environmental impact assessment information.

The Institute of Environmental Engineering at the University of Pannonia has undertaken the challenge to develop an online environmental information system. This system is able to receive and process the collected environmental data via Internet. The authors have attached importance to the presentation of the data and have included other comprehensible information for laymen as well in order to work out visualisation techniques that are expressive and attract attention for environmental questions through the developed information system. The ways of visualizing physical and chemical parameters of surface water and the effects of motorway construction were examined.

Data-driven multilayer complex networks of sustainable development goals.

This data article presents the formulation of multilayer network for modelling the interconnections among the sustainable development goals (SDGs), targets and includes the correlation based linking of the sustainable development indicators with the available long-term datasets of The World Bank, 2018 [1]. The spatial distribution of the time series data allows creating country-specific sustainability assessments. In the related research article "Network Model-Based Analysis of the Goals, Targets and Indicators of Sustainable Development for Strategic Environmental Assessment" [2] the similarities of SDGs for ten regions have been modelled in order to improve the quality of strategic environmental assessments. The datasets of the multilayer networks are available on Mendeley [3].

Aquatic environmental assessment of Lake Balaton in the light of physical-chemical water parameters.

One of the issues of the Hungarian Water Management Strategy is the improvement and upgrading of the water of Lake Balaton. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) specifies and sets forth the achievement of the good ecological status. However, the assessment of the water quality of the lake as a complex system requires a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation procedure. Measurements were carried out around the Lake Balaton at ten different locations/sites and 13 physical-chemical parameters were monitored at each measurement site.For the interpretation of the water chemistry parameters the Aquatic Environmental Assessment (AEA) method devised by authors was used for the water body of the Lake Balaton. The AEA method can be used for all types of the water bodies since it is flexible and using individual weighting procedure for the water chemistry parameters comprehensive information can be obtain. The AEA method was compared with existing EIA methods according to a predefined criterion system and proved to be the most suitable tool for evaluating the environmental impacts in our study.On the basis of the results it can be concluded that the status of the quality of studied area on the Lake Balaton can be categorized as proper quality (from the outcome of the ten measurement sites this conclusion was reached at seven sites).

Methodology development on aquatic environmental assessment.

The Water Framework Directive aims at reaching the good ecological status of the surface and ground water bodies (László et al. Microchem J 85(1):65-71, 2007). The paper deals with quality evaluation of waters with special focus on the water chemistry parameters as defined in the Water Framework Directive and pertaining legal regulations. The purpose of this paper is to devise a quantitative type of water quality assessment method which could provide rapid, accurate, and reliable information on the quality of the surface waters by using water chemistry parameters. Quality classes have been defined for every water chemistry parameter in light of the legal limit values of the water parameters. In addition to this, weight indices were calculated on the basis of the outcome of the paired comparison of water chemistry parameters and normalized matrix. This was followed by the parametric level analysis of the water chemistry parameters, and finally, the aquatic environment index (AEI) was calculated, which provided general information on the quality of water regarding the water chemistry parameters. The method was illustrated on Lake Balaton, Hungary in which case water samples taken from Balatonfüred City lake area were analyzed and evaluated with the method devised.

Effect of long retention time in the settler on phosphorus removal from communal wastewater.

GOALS: The objective of the paper is to illustrate the solution of a chronic problem occurring in a wastewater treatment facility with a capacity of 12,000 inhabitant equivalent. A drastic phosphorus concentration increase (two or three times higher than the Hungarian limit of 1 mg/l) was observed in the wastewater treatment facility for a long time (12-24 h) with changing time periods indicating malfunctioning in the operation of the facility. METHODS: Computer-aided simulation technique was used to develop a solution for the treatment of the problem using a software developed by the Department of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, University of Veszprém, Hungary. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The simulation studies show that if the nightly inflow is less than 200 m3/h at least for two hours, the system doesn't then receive enough fresh nutrients which can cause a deficiency in the nutrient uptake of the PAOs in the anaerobic zones. This can result in the fact that the PAOs accumulate less phosphorus into the aerobic zones. CONCLUSION: Long retention time (10 h) is the reason for the problem, namely--under special conditions--the phosphorus in the sludge of the settling tank of the wastewater treatment plant. The problem was caused by phosphorus dissolution from the sludge of the settling tank during the undesirably long retention time.

Simulation of the influence of industrial wastewater on a municipal sewage treatment plant--a case study.

PURPOSE: Industrial wastewater flow caused operational difficulties in the wastewater treatment plant in Debrecen, Hungary. Bioaugmentation was successfully applied to maintain effluent quality in the periods when wastewater of high starch content was accepted, but, at the end of 2008, the nitrification capacity of the plant decreased considerably due to improperly pre-treated pharmaceutical wastewater. METHODS AND MATERIAL: Dynamic simulations were carried out in a prototype programme developed by the Environmental Expert System Research Group at the University of Pannonia, Hungary. Several parameters for heterotrophic biomass were adjusted in function of time, and the specific growth rate of autotrophic biomass was altered in function of time and temperature in order to describe the effects of inoculation and toxic influence. Simulations were carried out with both constant and adjusted parameters. RESULTS: Though results on effluent COD of the different modelling versions were similar, the ammonia concentration fitted the measured data only when modified parameters were used. The study revealed that the autotrophic biomass had slowly adapted to the toxic compound. Different control strategies of aeration and decreased excess sludge removal rate were tested to enhance the nitrification in the critical time intervals. The amount of ammonia and inorganic nitrogen decreased in all cases while the oxygen demand increased to a maximum of 10.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing excess sludge removal rate gave satisfactory results even without changing aeration. Further improvement could be achieved by introducing aeration into the post-denitrification reactor. The combination of the two modifications can compensate for the effect caused by toxicity.