The heavy air pollution, known as Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC), has been research mainly for its radiative effects and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity that act to nucleate larger number of smaller cloud drops, and hence suppress coalescence and warm rain forming processes (Ramanathan et al., 2001). Precipitation in convective clouds with aerosol-induced suppressed coalescence is initi...

The host specificity of the five published sewage-associated Bacteroides markers (i.e., HF183, BacHum, HuBac, BacH and Human-Bac) was evaluated in Southeast Queensland, Australia by testing fecal DNA samples (n=186) from 11 animal species including human fecal samples collected via influent to a sewage treatment plant (STP). All human fecal samples (n=50) were positive for all five markers indi...

Stormwater runoff plumes, municipal wastewater plumes, and natural hydrocarbon seeps are important pollution hazards for the heavily populated Southern California Bight (SCB). Due to their small size, dynamic and episodic nature, these hazards are difficult to sample adequately using traditional in situ oceanographic methods. Complex coastal circulation and persistent cloud cover can further co...

Levels of six PCB congeners and seven organochlorine pesticides were investigated and compared in ambient air and in pine needle samples. The applied methods are suitable for the analysis of PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in environmental samples and for their detection in recent intakes. DDE, HCB, lindane, PCB-28, PCB-52, PCB-101, PCB-138 and PCB-153 were found in all pine needle and air s...

This review considers the current literature on sinkhole formation and occurrence. It incorporates several examples from around the world in order to gain a broader geographical scope on the problem. Challenges associated with sinkholes center around atmospheric acidification (pollution) and the formation of dissolution sinkholes. In addition, urbanization and its imposed changes on surface dra...

Air pollution measurements are aimed at improving our understanding of the chemical properties of the atmosphere, addressing mainly three issues with very different space and time scales: • Measurement of critical or peak values of air pollutant in densely urbanized/industrialized sites. • Long term observation and trend analysis on air quality. • Evaluation of photochemical pollution (smog) ep...

We present a semantic technology-based approach to emerging monitoring systems based on our linked data approach in the Tetherless World Constellation Semantic Ecology and Environment Portal (SemantEco). Our integration scheme uses an upper level monitoring ontology and mid-level monitoring-relevant domain ontologies. The initial domain ontologies focus on water and air quality. We then integra...

Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is a synthetical indicator which represents the degree of organic pollution in water. The near-infrared (NIR) transmission and the UV absorbance method based on photoelectric detection technology and spectroscopy analysis have some advantages such as high precision, speed, non-contact, no secondary pollution etc compared to conventional wet chemical method. The NIR ...

We present a semantic technology-based approach to emerging environmental information systems. We used our linked data approach in the Tetherless World Constellation Semantic Water Quality Portal (TWC-SWQP). Our integration scheme uses a core domain ontology and integrates water data from different authoritative sources along with multiple regulation ontologies to enable pollution detection and...

A comprehensive field investigation in several parts of India has revealed that the presence of coliforms in drinking water is associated with hydrogen sulfide-producing organisms. This paper describes a simple, rapid, and inexpensive field test for the screening of drinking water for faecal pollution, based on the detection of hydrogen sulfide. The new test showed good agreement with the stand...