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Water is a basic human need, a finite life support system and a key to prosperity. Unplanned industrialisation, urbanisation and impact of liberalised import of wastes intended for recycling have negatively affected the water environments in India. This is further exaggerated by lack of discipline and a weak obligation towards conservation and pollution prevention. Measures have to be especially taken to resolve the groundwater problems. While groundwater resources are quite well assessed, overexploitation still occurs frequently. There has been a considerable lack in implementing existing policies as well as developing new laws and policies. To mitigate the problems, co‐operation needs to be mobilised at all levels of the federal set up with the stakeholders and the people at the lowest appropriate level concerning planning and decision making. Water must be considered as a national asset and a basic human right to be provided to citizens in proper quantity and safe quality with equity and fairness amongst the users.

There have been many positive recent developments in the groundwater legislation and policies of the 15 European Community member States (excluding Luxembourg), as the States recognise the importance of implementing the EC Groundwater Directive, The Integrated Pollution Prevention Control Directive and other relevant EC directives. All member States recognise the importance of protecting groundwater and most have enacted legislation and/or established policies to do so. However, there are significant variations in their approaches; these variations are reflected in their approaches to site registration and classification schemes. Similarly, some member States do not yet have policies that specify explicit risk assessment procedures, while others have formal risk assessment procedures in place for registering, classifying and prioritising sites.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the physico-chemical properties of the groundwater surrounding the Solous (solid waste dumpsite) at Isheri, Lagos, Nigeria.

In total, 40 groundwater samples were collected from ten pre-determined sampling stations. Three sample stations were established before the dumpsite; three sample stations were located in the vicinity of the dumpsite in the direction of the leachate plume, while the remaining four sample stations were situated further away and acted as a control. Sampling was carried out four times during the study period (twice each in the rainy and dry seasons). The parameters measured in situ were air and water temperatures (using mercury-in-glass bulb thermometer) and pH (using pH meter). Calcium and magnesium contents were measured using the Ca-Mg indicator; sodium content was measured using the flame emission spectrophotometry and phosphate was measured using the flame photometry. The selected heavy metals (copper, iron, lead, cadmium, zinc and manganese) were measured by using the atomic absorption spectrometer. The oxygen parameters, such as dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and organic matter, were determined titrimetrically. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The results showed that many parameters had higher values in the dry season than in the rainy season. Temperature (27.75±0.95°C), alkalinity (211.37±82.78 mg/LCaCO₃), phosphate (0.30±0.07 mg/L) and sulfate (2.78±0.35 mg/L), sodium ion (41.95±18.86 mg/L), dissolved oxygen (2.98±0.57 mg/L) and COD (33.54±4.50 mg/L) had higher mean values in the dry season than in the rainy season. On the other hand, the mean values of electrical conductivity (1,224.85±370.63), nitrate (0.01±0.003 mg/L), chloride (98.76±21.58 mg/L), calcium ion (5.38±0.68 mg/L), magnesium ion (3.05±0.05 mg/L), BOD (22.37±2.20 mg/L) and pH (6.31±0.18) were higher in the rainy season than in the dry season. The heavy metals (iron 1.10±0.05 mg/L, lead 0.12±0.07 mg/L, manganese 0.01±0.004 mg/L, copper 0.15±0.003 mg/L, zinc 0.07±0.004 mg/L and cadmium 0.02±0.02 mg/L) were fairly uniform all year round. There was also a marked decline in the values as one moved away from the dumpsite.

The implication of the findings is that human health is remarkably dependent upon safe and clean drinking water. Preserving the water resources and hindering them from pollution is preferred to the treatment of polluted water and rendering it suitable for consumption. The high electrical conductivity values obtained in the groundwater samples near the dumpsites are an indication of the effect of leachate on the groundwater quality. The high concentrations of dissolved solids in the groundwater may decrease the palatability and may cause gastro-intestinal irritation in humans, and laxative effect particularly on transits.

The pollutants from the various waste components disposed at the dumpsite percolate into the ground to pollute the groundwater. The groundwater is transported in the line of flow away from the vicinity of the dumpsite to pollute the groundwater in the area. The extent of contamination level of groundwater quality due to leachate percolation depends upon a number of factors like chemical composition of leachate, rainfall, depth and distance of the well from the dumpsite. Groundwater samples of different depths and distances from dumpsites were analyzed in the present study to understand the level of a combination.

This paper aims to select a type of mordant from aluminium salts, namely, aluminium sulphate, aluminium nitrate and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) with the lowest potential for contamination so that their use will minimise pollution from natural dye waste. It also aims to determine the pollution value of natural dye immersion waste from jackfruit wood extract, secang wood, mangsi fruit and several synthetic dyes, to identify potential environmental pollution.

Dyeing with natural dyes was performed by exhaust at room temperature by the pre-mordant method, while with synthetic dyes it was performed by exhaust according to the dyeing procedure (reactive, vat and naphthol). The groundwater, mordant solutions, natural dye extract and the waste-water from the natural and synthetic dyes were then tested to determine their biological oxygen demand (BOD₅), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), pH, Al and heavy metal contents such as chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co) and lead (Pb).

Aluminium sulphate had the lowest pollution load while PAC had the highest, as aluminium sulphate had a higher BOD₅/COD ratio (0.62–0.67) than aluminium nitrate (0.56–0.64) or PAC (0.44–0.54). The dyeing waste from the three natural dyes contained an acidic pH of 3.5–4.2, Al of 75.280–621.34 mg/L, Cr of 0.154–0.215 mg/L and Cu of 0.035–0.072 mg/L. The values of TSS, COD and BOD₅ are higher than the quality standards of the waste but are environmentally friendly because the ratio of the BOD₅/COD values from the waste ranges from 0.44–0.67.

The findings indicate that as a mordant, aluminium sulphate results in lower pollution loads than aluminium nitrate and PAC. However, all three mordants contain Cr and Cu, albeit in negligible concentrations. Therefore, it is recommended that future studies strive to identify a mordant that has lower pollution loads and does not contain metals but can increase dyeing results to satisfy consumer requirements. It is the hope that, with the discovery of a new mordant, natural dyes will be the solution for the heavy metal pollution caused by synthetic dyes.

The use of environmentally-friendly mordants and natural dyes in the Indonesian textile and batik industry will give rise to superior quality eco-textile and eco-batik products. Such environmentally-friendly and high-quality products will not only increase competition and consumer interest but increase product sales as well which will, in turn, increase incomes and the economy. Additionally, an increase in the use of natural dyes by the textile and batik industry will serve as additional income to the communities and farmers from which the raw materials for the natural dyes are sourced thereby creating jobs and increasing welfare.

As environmentally-friendly mordants and natural dyes replace the hazardous and toxic materials currently used in the textile and batik industry, it guarantees the health and safety of its consumers and workers. Furthermore, as the waste-water produced is biodegradable, it reduces river and groundwater pollution. It is, therefore, expected that this information will not only lead to a shift in attitude within the textile and batik industries but the adoption of environmentally-friendly materials, for the sake of the environment, as well as the development of eco-textile and eco-batik products.

Aluminium sulphate is a mordant type of aluminium salt with a lower potential for contamination than aluminium nitrate and PAC. However, PAC has been discovered to be a mordant for natural dyes, as has the fruit of the mangsi shrub, which has recently been discovered as a naturally occurring blue dye.

An interdisciplinary model network consisting of the regional agricultural economic model RAUMIS and the hydro(geo)logical models GROWA/WEKU is used to analyze the effect of different scenarios of maximum agricultural nitrogen balance surplus on water quality. The study area is the federal state of Lower Saxony, Germany, which features heterogeneous natural site conditions as well as agricultural production structures. A focus of the study is the modeling of supra-regional manure transports that, according to the model's results, considerably increase due to a lowering of maximum nitrogen balance surpluses. The assessment of the examined nitrogen reduction measures reveals that adequate indicators have to be applied. In this regard, the model results show that even though the analyzed measure leads to a substantial overall reduction of agricultural nitrogen surpluses, nitrogen discharges into surface and groundwater can regionally increase.

The elevated level of nitrate in groundwater is a serious problem in Texas aquifers. To control and manage groundwater quality, the characterization of groundwater contamination and identification of the factors affecting the nitrate concentration of groundwater are significant. The purpose of this paper is to determine factors which have significant impacts on the elevated groundwater nitrate concentrations of the Southern High-Plains and the Edwards-Trinity aquifers.

The characterization of groundwater nitrate contamination was undertaken by analyzing the hydrochemical data of groundwater within a statistical framework. The multivariate statistical analysis (ordinary least square) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were used to study the relationship between groundwater nitrate contamination and land use of the study areas.

Results show groundwater nitrate contamination is typically due to an overapplication of N fertilizers to cotton in the Southern High-Plains aquifer and to grassland in the Edwards-Trinity aquifer. Adjusted R² (0.45) explains variations of nitrate concentration by well-depth, cotton production, shrubland and grassland in the Edwards-Trinity aquifer. The results of an analysis of variations in N concentration with well depth for all 192 wells indicate that nitrate concentrations in water from wells in the Southern High-Plains and Edwards-Trinity aquifers tend to decrease with increasing well-depth.

In this study, the GWR model was built to identify nitrate concentration within a geographic framework to ensure sustainable use of groundwater, which is important for local management purposes. The analysis should include local spatial variations of elements such as hydrologic characteristics and the land use activities if groundwater nitrate contamination causes adverse effects on human and ecosystem health.

In recent years, to solve the contradiction between energy supply and demand, the Chinese Government has vigorously promoted shale gas development. With the rapid development of the shale gas industry, the environmental impact problems have become increasingly serious. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of shale gas development. This study aims to provide a theoretical basis for enterprises to make development decisions on shale gas projects by constructing a model of comprehensive environmental impact assessment for shale gas development.

In this paper, the comprehensive environmental impact factors of shale gas development are analyzed from the two aspects of the natural environment and macro environment, and the index system of comprehensive environmental impact assessment for shale gas development including 7 secondary indicators and 24 tertiary indicators is constructed. Owing to the fact that qualitative indicators are difficult to quantify in the evaluation process, the method of intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IFAHP) is adopted for evaluation. This method (IFAHP) can delicately describe the hesitancy degree of the decision-makers in the process of assigning a weight to the indicators, and make the weight assignment of each index more accurate. Furthermore, this method overcomes the shortcomings of the conventional methods, such as the complexity of calculation and the large amount of calculation.

The evaluation model is applied to a shale gas platform drilling project in Southwest China. Based on the ratings from 13 experts, the comprehensive environmental impact assessment grade of this project is good, indicating that the shale gas development project is feasible. The result is basically in line with the actual situation.

Based on the consideration of the natural environmental impacts of shale gas development, this paper also has considered the macro environmental impact of shale gas development, and has established the index system of comprehensive environmental impact assessment for shale gas development from the two aspects of the natural environment and macro environment. To overcome such difficulties as incomplete evaluation by decision-makers, cumbersome calculation process and a large amount of calculation, this paper has adopted the method of IFAHP to evaluate and has established a comprehensive environmental impact assessment model for shale gas development based on IFAHP.

The purpose of the project was to investigate environmental law issues surrounding the regeneration of brownfield land.

Following a literature review, an inductive approach and an interpretivist epistemology with a phenomenological focus were chosen. A constructionist ontological stance was adopted. A qualitative paradigm was selected to explore the issues in a focus group comprising industry, legal expert and academic contributors.

A critique of the literature on relevant environmental law issues including contaminated land, waste management, water pollution, environmental impact assessment (EIA) issues and finally the political agenda is presented. Contaminated land, waste management, regulators and legislation were discussed in the focus group. The participants contributed their experiences and proposed several changes to environmental law. However, water pollution and EIAs were not considered by the contributors.

Developers face many environmental law challenges when endeavouring to progress housing on brownfield sites including contaminated land, funding, waste treatment permits, water pollution and EIAs. The benefits of the remediation of brownfield sites for housing seem to be a political priority, but reform of challenging environmental law issues less so. Understandably, the legal complexities of Brexit will take precedence.

The literature review identified the need to research the experience of brownfield environmental law challenges and recommended changes to environmental law from industry, legal experts and academia.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize and classify sources, manifestations and implications of environmental degradation.

First, the typological analysis is used to conceptualize environmental degradation and its components. Then, the concepts are disaggregated into some dimensions organized in row-and-column variables and a cross-tabulated matrix is constructed. Finally, different types of environmental degradation are identified, labeled and discussed.

The study distinguishes between two types of degradation as pollution and deterioration and accordingly identifies ten types (five pairs) of environmental degradation. Furthermore, the paper presents a conceptual framework and offers insights into the dynamic interchange between the causes and effects of environmental degradation.

The originality/value of this study resides in reducing the ambiguities associated with the concept of environmental degradation and offering a multidimensional framework that can be used in empirical research to organize propositions, test hypotheses, analyze data and construct indexes.

Examines the relative nutrient status and public health aspects of six livestock manures when added to soil. Provides analysis of the chemical composition of soils at pig, cattle, goat, rabbit, sheep and poultry waste dump sites and shows a highly significant difference in the level of added nutrients. Draws the conclusion that the observed levels of micronutrients at all waste sites suggest that potential plant toxicity and food chain accumulation problems will be low. Highlights the effect of land application of the manure on human health.