Mostrando resultados por autor "Sivakumaran Sivaramanan" en Todas las categorías

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is becoming major thread to the whole world. Its toxic emissions mixed with virgin soil and air and causing harmful effects to the entire biota either directly or indirectly. Direct impacts include release of acids, toxic compounds including heavy metals, carcinogenic chemicals and indirect effects such as bio magnification of heavy metals. Many private firms are involved in collecting, dismantling, separation and exporting e-wastes for recyclers. However, strict regulations are currently being followed as on approval of such firms such as e-...

Water is an essential renewable resource, increasing population, deforestation, soil degradation and desertification, soil and water pollution and the effects of climatic change and consequences such as droughts, changes in weather pattern have ultimately increases the demand for fresh potable water, thus the need for reclamation of used water is being realized. Several countries successfully recycle the water up to the consumable standards. Though it varies depending on the treatment systems, limiting the uses, public acceptance, social and health related controversy is still an ...

According to IUCN (2009) global mangrove cover is estimated to be between 167,000 and 181,000km2. Among 40 % of them are found in South and Southeast Asia. More than a third of the mangrove plants are vanished due to over exploitation and destruction of their habitats, as global annual mangrove deforestation ranges 2-8%. Shrimp culture account for 20-50% of mangrove destruction worldwide. It has been predicted if rehabilitation or conservation activities not prevail developing countries will lose 25% of their remaining mangrove cover by 2050. This book comprises habitats of mangroves, their...

A country’s status and reputation is more importantly determined by its cleanness. Sectors such as tourism, financial strength, public health and education all depend on clean environment. Clean environment also gives positive attitude to a human being as well as providing a glorious aesthetic environment. Though countries have achieved the successful waste management practices technically, many countries (particularly developing countries) not yet reach the objective clean environment even proper management strategies and technologies are available, the major reason is behavior of public...

Wetlands are transitional ecosystem falls between terrestrial and aquatic systems. About 4-6% of the earth’s surface are wetlands. Wetlands are unique for its biodiversity and functions such as trapping sediment, water purification, flood regulation and mitigating global warming as carbon sink. Coastal wetlands such as seagrass beds, mangroves and salt marshes are known as “blue carbon” as carbon is stored in the sea. In this review edition, wetlands are classified based on their water source such as wetlands with predominantly precipitation inputs (Pocosins, Cypress, domes, Prairie ...

Heavy metal pollution due to various sources such as from agro chemicals, ballast water, electronic waste, vehicle exhaust, industrial effluents, coal power plants, sludge wastes, medicinal chemicals, laboratory waste and domestic wastes are become a major threat to the environment. WHO has found there is a health risk due to long-range transboundary air pollutants containing heavy metals. Arsenic, Beryllium, radium, chromium and cadmium are well known carcinogens. Some of them(As and Cd) found in well waters (north central province of Sri Lanka, India, Korea, Chile and Bangladesh) or ...

Human population in a hike, thus deforestation and establishment of new agricultural lands are unavoidable, at the same time environmental hazards such as global warming, climate change, desertification of land and various types of pollution are threatening the human society today. In 1960 the scientists first began to understand that agroforestry systems could provide a sustainable land use and to solve most of the environmental issues by its environmental services such as sequester greenhouse gases, improve soil fertility and conservation of the soil, conservation of biodiversity, provide...

This part attempts to provide adequate evidences to explain that environmental problems are human origin and it argues more philosophically by providing the statements of the leading philosophers on the man’s state and responsibilities in the environment, it concludes in order to preserve the environment, changes to be done in social and behavior levels in the entire human system. Modified genes from engineered crop plants are escaping into weeds and other wild varieties. Today GE canola, corn and lesser extent soybean and cotton are contaminating their non-GE counterparts; this has ...

Environmental planning involved in protection of environment while promoting the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of ecological services and natural resources. It is a cooperative approach with the participation of government, communities, landholders, relevant stakeholders and indigenous people. Planning often associated with the evaluation tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Kyoto (CDM) project cycle are used to estimate and avoid the impact. Many planning policies remains in words without accounting the fact (...

Air pollution is a global issue, it is a growing challenge since the time of industrialization and according to WHO ambient both urban and rural areas was estimated to cause 3.7 million premature deaths all over the world in 2012, in addition 3 billion people still depend on coal and biomass fuel (in door), annually there is several billion CO2 and other greenhouse gases are brought to atmosphere. Industries, power plants and transport are some major anthropogenic sources. In industries and other stationary sources there are various emission reduction techniques are being practiced such as ...

Rising human population has given birth to so many environmental problems, noise, vibration and light pollution to the environment is an ever increasing threat. Increased road traffic noise including vehicle horns and sirens, construction activities of massive building structures, road construction, city development, ultra sound of the radars, noisy air crafts and blasts during the war and mining activities have malefic influence on the other living things as well as humans. In humans noise level at 45 dB disturb the wellbeing, the hearing damage begins at 85 dB, causes pain by 120 dB and ...

Increasing nutrient loading from agro-fertilizer effluents, industrial effluents, municipal and domestic effluents including black water contamination and urban runoff accelerates the eutrophication in many parts of the world, many developing countries discharges grey water directly to the coastal water which increases the coastal eutrophication. According to Dr.Robert Diaz (VIMS and WRI) there are 762 coastal areas affected by eutrophication and/or hypoxia, algal blooms are removed by methods such as magnetic separation (Acid modified fly ash and magnetite (Fe3O4)), using beach sand or ...

Thinning of Antarctic ozone layer during spring season has been observed since 1980s, largest depletion occurred during the period between 1980 and 2000. Incoming UV (particularly UVB & UVC) during the Antarctic spring causes deleterious effects such as cataract, skin burns, melanoma, reduction in agricultural food production and climatological changes. After 1987 Montreal protocol significant efforts are made mainly by UNEP, WMO and WHO to reduce the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone depleting substances (ODS), protocol established an international time frame on reducing ...

Ocean acidification is the equally evil twin of climate change and it happens alongside of the global warming. Ocean acidification has lowered the pH of the ocean waters by about 0.11 units (SCOR 2009 as cited in ‘Tech Ocean Science’, n.d.). This is mainly due to anthropogenic CO2 emission, amount of CO2 on upper layer of the ocean has been increasing by 2 billion tons per year. Oceans have absorbed 1/3 of the CO2 produced by human activities since 1800 and fossil fuel burning alone account for half of the CO2 in the atmosphere (Sabine et al., 2004 as cited in ‘Tech Ocean Science’, ...

World population clock has reached 7.307 billion when I start writing this part, increasing population is the no. 1 environmental problem to date. More people more consumption thus more environmental degradation. This book reviews impacts of population crises on the environment as well as various theories and predictions of population ecologists and population control methods and their implementation, it is also proved with evidences that women education and upgrading status of the women mitigate the increasing birth rate to a certain extent as well as strict government policies such as one...

Major sources of ground water contamination are fuel oil, chemicals such as pesticides, leakage from storage tanks, uncontrolled hazardous wastes, landfill leachate, road salts and atmospheric contaminants. Soil nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate can also contaminate in from inorganic fertilizers or chemical production plants, these factors make the ground water unsuitable for human consumption. Treating ground water is more complicated process as the aquifers are interconnected. In-situ bioremediation can be done in case of nitrate, perchlorate and sulphate contamination, microbial ...

The study revealed that rapid urbanisation has changed the world in many ways that result in several environmental problems and elevated occurrences of natural disasters. For instance, cities like New Delhi experience severe air pollution, extreme drought, deadly heatwaves in the dry season, and intense flooding in the wet season. This is mainly due to the fact that the cities converted stormwater percolation paths into impervious concrete, clay (roofs and tiles), asphalt, or tar and gravel structures. Due to this, natural percolation into the soil and groundwater aquifers fails. This ...

Agrochemicals are well known for their ill effects on non-targeted organisms and their persistency in nature. 99.9 per cent of the pesticide residues remain in the soil, water and air environment or consumed by the non-targeted organisms, with time they undergo physiochemical changes, undergo evaporation, volatilization, photodecomposition, breakdown by microbial activity, plant uptake and travel through the food chain (bioaccumulation and bio magnification). Persistent compounds such as organochlorine pesticides may concentrate in tissues of organisms and also its concentration through the...

Consequences of poverty are well pronounced all over the world. About 705 million people live at the poverty line of “international $” 1.90 a day in 2015worldwide. According to the estimates of United Nations Food and Agriculture organization (FAO), about 795 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world or one in nine suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2014-2016. United Nations reported, about 21,000 people die every day due to hunger or related causes. FAO finds about 60% of the victims of hunger are women. Annually 3.5 million of children die from acute malnutrition ...

Managing nuisance aquatic vegetation consist physical, biological and chemical methods. Among physical control, techniques such as mechanical operation from bank to the control of Aponogeton, Nymphaea, Nymphoides and Potamogeton, floating machinery for free-floating weeds such as Eichhornia sp. are in practice. Among chemical weedicides, flumioxazin (clipers) are widely used due to its broad spectrum activity, chemical herbicides are often applied with a gel adjuvant to increase its efficiency and avoid chemical wastage. Carps and Tilapia fishes are used in biological control methods; more ...