Search results

The purpose of this paper is to use rainwater quality parameters as indicators of pollution to assess the level of aerial pollution for sustainable environmental development.

Rainwaters were collected in open spaces within commercial, industrial and residential areas in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria during onset, peak and late rainy season. Values of NO₃⁻, NH₄⁺, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solid, total acidity and total alkalinity were determined using certified wet chemistry procedures, whereas those of Ca²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺ and Mg²⁺ were measured using atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

Overall results showed that the concentrations of the physical parameters, anions and cations, were comparatively higher at the onset of the rainy period than the latter periods, indicating washout of the pollutants as the rainy season progressed. Results of Pearson correlation matrix and Cluster analysis results showed that many of the parameters have similar source(s). Analysis of variance and t-test results indicated significant difference between the concentrations of the analyzed parameters at different rainy periods, whereas ratio values of sea salt fraction were higher than non-sea salt fraction for all species, depicting anthropogenic influences.

From the findings, the study concluded that the quality of the rainwaters was substandard due elevated levels of most of the analyzed quality parameters; this method proved to be economical, effective and simple compared to the conventional methods; it also proved rainwater quality to be a reliable pointer of aerial pollution and the concept can be used to assess the pollution level of areas of similar settings.

This paper aims to provide a review of the role of robots for monitoring the environment.

Following a short introduction, this paper discusses developments in aquatic, terrestrial and airborne robots for monitoring the environment. Brief conclusions are drawn.

This shows that robots are being developed for all manner of environmental monitoring applications. Aquatic devices are attracting the greatest attention but both terrestrial and airborne robots have the potential to play an important, future role. In many instances, their deployment reflects the difficulties in or impossibility of using manual monitoring methods. A longer‐term vision of large numbers of robots conducting environmental monitoring on a routine basis is unlikely to be realised unless lower cost solutions can be developed.

Environmental monitoring robots have been under development since the 1990s and this paper provides a review of recent activities.

The paper reports a study of the behaviour of on‐line searchers in looking for the answers to set questions. The work was carried out with a view to learning more about the way actual searches are conducted, so that instructions to users can be given to optimize the generation of references. The study suggests that developments in user education would be made considerably easier by some rationalization among file producers and systems, especially in spelling, vocabulary, basic commands and indexing philosophy.

Monitoring air, water and soil contamination by means of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria is increasingly in demand for assessing environmental quality, environmental impacts, and health and safety. It is essential that environmental monitoring by bioassays is credibly based on standardized procedures and on substantial scientific evidence which should include background measurements to establish baseline data. Cites case studies involving the use of organisms for monitoring heavy metals and radionuclides in order to demonstrate such procedural pre‐requisites in environmental surveillance.

‘The business of America’, said Calvin Coolidge in 1925, ‘is business’. Such a view, uncompromising and perhaps a trifle complacent, has been consistently reiterated in the West by many others. Such a proposition provided the basis for the protective managerial ideology with which the early English entrepreneurs sought to defend themselves against the Establishment in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The activities of those industrial pioneers irrevocably changed the society in which they lived. They ushered in not only a new technology upon which we are unalterably dependent, but a new hierarchical ordering of society and a new morality of utilitarianism to go with it. They institutionalized a new form of social conflict and provided the arena in which that conflict could take place.

The diverse nature of agricultural information and an increasing number of online databases containing relevant material present problems for the online searcher. Limited database comparisons have been previously carried out, but these have only concerned themselves with comparisons between major agricultural files. The present study compares eleven databases which contain information on various aspects of agriculture, in particular agrochemicals. An in‐depth investigation was carried out on the degree of database overlap with respect to two test questions, and the value of the available search facilities evaluated. The databases were ranked according to the volume of relevant output retrievable from the test questions, and the percentage of novel references calculated with respect to the highest ranking database, and also with respect to all databases. The larger biological databases and Chemical Abstracts supplied the greatest number of references with a relatively low level of overlap. The environmental files produced a lower number of references — even to a question on pollution of freshwater, although figures for percentage novelty were comparable. Thus a comprehensive search would entail the use of multiple databases, although 66% (question 1) to 84% (question 2) of the total number of references were retrieved using 2–3 files. A number of databases could be searched using classification codes, and four files contained abstracts which were searchable via keywords. The improvement in recall from using codes varied across the databases and, to a lesser degree, between questions. There was a uniformly marked increase in relevant recall when keywords were retrieved from abstracts. It was considered valuable for searchers to apply these techniques to other subject areas.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how sensors impart perceptive capabilities to robots. This is the second part of a two-part article. This second part considers positional awareness and sensing in the external environment, notably but not exclusively by autonomous, mobile robots.

Following a short introduction, this article first discusses positional sensing and navigation by mobile robots, including self-driving cars, automated guided vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). It then considers sensing with UAVs and AUVs, and finally discusses robots for hazard detection. Brief concluding comments are drawn.

This shows that sensors based on a multitude of techniques confer navigational capabilities to mobile robots, including LIDARs, radar, sonar, imaging and inertial sensing devices. UAVs, AUVs and mobile terrestrial robots can be equipped with all manner of sensors to create detailed terrestrial and underwater maps, monitor air and water quality, locate pollution and detect hazards. While existing sensors are used widely, many new devices are now being developed to meet specific requirements and to comply with size, weight and cost restraints.

The use of mobile robots is growing rapidly, and this article provides a timely account of how sensors confer them with positional awareness and allow them to act as mobile sensing platforms.