Papers by Keyword: Water Scarcity

Abstract: Climate change has further exacerbated long-standing water use conflicts in the Lake Velence catchment area in Hungary. The lake is the ecological, social and economic central element of the area, with water scarcity as water levels having fallen to record lows in recent years due to severe summer droughts. As a result of infrastructure developments in the 20th century and the significant waves of immigrants in recent decades, the lake and its surroundings have been heavily modified, transformed into an artificial waterbody, while land and water use has significantly altered. Besides these negative effects on water resources and the lake’s water level, settlements in the catchment area have become the top solar energy producers per housing in Hungary in recent years. The aim of this research is to identify and develop a possible inter-basin water recharge solution that meets societal needs based on the suggested development ideas formulated in questionnaire responses. A sustainable alternative of these solutions is pumping from a nearby catchment, that was evaluated in detail. Based on ecological considerations, a multi-criteria analysis summarizing nearly 100 water quality and quantity parameters was developed to ensure that water supply meets qualitative requirements. To ensure economically sustainable operating costs, the nearby solar capacities were used for pumps operation and energy storage. For energy demand and carbon emissions reduction, the uphill pumping was complemented with a downhill turbine hydropower recovery system. Several scenarios of the pumped water recharge system were considered and hydrodynamically optimized in Matlab. The return on investment of the inter-basin pumped water replenishment systems were evaluated as well as the carbon emissions to assure additional economic benefits and low carbon-footprint. A bottom-up methodology with large scale stakeholder involvement that assesses social needs and applies well-balanced the three pillars of sustainable development, can achieve a Pareto effective displacement even during the development of a water replacement system at the catchment level and beyond, on an inter-basin level. With a comprehensive methodology developed for pumped water recharge from an external catchment using existing renewable energy sources, the deteriorating social atmosphere and ecological conditions caused by climate and land use changes may be improved. In the meantime, even economic benefits can be increased, all with a low energy demand and carbon footprint, in a sustainable way.

Abstract: In today's contemporary world, concrete is a top choice, but curing issues persist due to water scarcity. Civil engineering offers alternatives like polyethylene and self-curing concrete, but they are costly. Over the past two decades, wastewater recycling for purposes like concrete curing has gained attention after treatment. The aim of this literature review is to thoroughly assess the viability of using treated wastewater, particularly sewage water, for the curing process. It focuses on articles from reputable journals published over the last decade. The review begins by examining concrete curing and its techniques and insufficiency cause. Subsequently, it delves into the philosophy of wastewater treatment need, source and the treatment process itself. Consequently, waste water treatment is suggested as an affordable and eco-friendly solution for concrete curing. Lastly, the feasibility of adopting treated waste water in developing nations is scrutinized, with an emphasis on its real-world applicability following comprehensive analysis of its overall performance. Membrane filtration technique is preferred for treatment of waste water due to its reasonable results.

Abstract: Water scarcity is growing and in particularly in regions where population is high. It is estimated by world wild life organization that two thirds of human population may face water shortage by 2025. However, the amount of water available on earth covers approximately two thirds of the total surface area, but most of the water is seawater. Seawater cannot be used for any human use due to the high salinity levels. Desalination processes have been implemented on various scales whereby reverse osmosis is the most successful. However, such system is too complex and expensive. An alternative system utilizing humidification-dehumidification process for desalination is proposed in this paper. The process involves the use of a novel hydrophobic membrane allowing the humidification. Two configurations have been tested in a closed loop cycle, namely: static and moving membrane. The results from the experiments have shown that the efficiency of the moving membrane configuration is higher than the static by 46%. And based on 1 Litre brine feed, 50% of the volume has been successfully desalinated.

Abstract: This paper proposes a vertical assembled sprayer for supplying water and liquid fertilizer. This proposed sprayer consists of both iron structure and hardware modules, including a microcon-troller, LCD, keypad, batteries, nozzles, and diaphragm pumps. The height of this proposed sprayer ranges from 1.5 to 4.5 meters so as to be adjusted by a user. The water quantity and the nozzle numbers can be specified by a user’s demand. Moreover, either manual or automatic operations can also be selected by a user. The experimental results have been shown that the average spraying times for using 1 - 4 nozzles are equal to 95.2 sec, 48.41 sec, 32.3 sec, and 24.5 sec, respectively. Moreover, the average spraying times from the experiments are close to the calculated spraying time of microcontroller where the errors are less than 2%.

Abstract: The development in the field of nanofibers since last decade has reshaped the sense of polymer synthesis. Its high potential has rendered significant contributions in various advance applications. This featured article presents the nanofiber and its potential applications in various scientific and commercial fields. Moreover, the recent developments in the synthesis of nanofiber membranes for ultra and nano filtration of water are tabulated. Keeping the water scarcity problem in mind, many novel membranes (along with raw polymer and solvents) are discussed which are under research or being implemented for ultra and nanofiltration.