Rafid Alkhaddar

Greening the Curricula within Construction Programmes

Abstract Improving the knowledge and understanding that construction managers possess of sustainable construction techniques and systems could lead to significant improvements in the environmental performance of the industry. Incorporating environmental issues within the construction education curricula provides an ideal mechanism for achieving this goal. It could be argued that a multi-stakeholder perspective is an effective facet of curriculum development, and that the curriculum be negotiated with interested parties. These parties have been identified as academia, government, industry and industry professional bodies. The perspectives of academia have been reviewed alongside government recommendations, and findings tested for validity via the analysis of primary quantitative data that has been collected. The data generated has illustrated that there are a number of differences in the approach to curriculum design, and that there is no ‘best practice’ clearly identifiable. This paper outlines the conclusions formed to date and describes the methodology to be used for the next stage of data collection.

Jordan's Water Resources: Supply and Future Demand

Abstract The water shortages facing Jordan are profound and, while the country is presently undertaking extensive reform and investment into the water sector, forecasts indicate that a significant shortfall will still exist. The problem is not only that there is not enough water but this is compounded by the high population growth rate of the country. The rate of population growth in Jordan is 3.6 percent, and with a current population of around 5 million, it is expected to reach 7 million by the year 2010. The increasing population, industrial requirements, and the need for irrigation water puts increased pressure on water industries. Added to that, the living standards have increased in Jordan during the second half of the 20th century, raising the per capita use of water. The present per capita daily water use is 85 liters, which is very small compared to the United Kingdoms average of 225 liters/day. But if living standards continue to rise at the present rate, the water consumption will also increase. Various sources of non-conventional supply have been considered to meet this shortfall and a review of current literature revealed one option to consider: water importation, which presents a justifiable mechanism for alleviating this need. This paper presents a review of the available water resources in Jordan. Then it covers the water demands within the country and where the deficit can be addressed. Scenarios of additional volumes of water supply to Jordan are also detailed and then the possibilities of water importation are discussed.

Residence time distribution of a model hydrodynamic vortex separator

Abstract This study investigates the macromixing within a hydrodynamic vortex separator (HDVS). The device is a scale model of a prototype unit and is operated with zero baseflow. The device under investigation is typically used for the removal of settleable and colloidal solids. The macromixing is investigated by conducting tracer experiments from which the residence time distribution (RTD) is obtained and interpreted to characterise the mixing regime within the HDVS. The method of moments and non-linear regression are used to obtain various RTD functions and flow-model parameters to aid in the characterisation of the devices mixing regime and the degree of any non-ideal flow behaviour. The axial dispersion model (ADM) and tanks-in-series model (TISM) are used in this study. The RTD imperfectly approximates a plug-flow distribution but, the device has some amount of dispersion and is equal to approximately 2–3 perfectly stirred tanks in series. The ADM seems to give a closer representation of the experimental curves compared to the TISM. The sludge hopper appears to be acting as a stagnant zone.

Use of Sensors in Wastewater Quality Monitoring—A Review of Available Technologies

Wastewater treatment involves removing nutrients from wastewater before discharging it to water courses. Many technologies have been developed for this purpose, such as the activated sludge process and others. This process is a biological method performed by a mixed community of microorganisms in an aerobic aquatic environment. These microorganisms derive energy from carbonaceous organic matter in aerated wastewater for the production of new cells in a process known as synthesis, while simultaneously releasing energy through the conversion of this organic matter into compounds that contain lower energy, such as carbon dioxide and water, in a process called respiration. As well, a variable number of microorganisms in the system obtain energy by converting ammonia nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen in a process termed nitrification. This consortium of microorganisms, the biological component of the process, is known collectively as activated sludge. EBPR (Enhanced biological phosphorus removal) is a wastewater treatment configuration applied to activated sludge systems for the removal of phosphate. The common element in EBPR implementations is the presence of an anaerobic stage (nitrate and oxygen are absent) prior to the aeration stage. Under these conditions a group of heterotrophic bacteria, called polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAO) are selectively enriched in the bacterial community within the activated sludge. These bacteria accumulate large quantities of polyphosphate within their cells and the removal of phosphorus is said to be enhanced (R. G. Benedict et al. 1971). SBR (Sequencing batch reactors) is a fill-and-draw activated sludge system which is used in most lab-scale systems in order to enrich the sludge with PAO. The management of these reactors is mostly based on off-line measurements such as volatile fatty acids and phosphorus. However, off-line monitoring of the SBR cycle implies low frequency data sampling and delay between sampling and availability of the results. This is an obstacle for a proper process monitoring and makes difficult the application of control strategies to the process. For this reason, the on-line monitoring of the SBR cycle would improve the daily process management, as well as facilitate the on-line detection of abnormal situations and the implementation of new control strategies. Moreover the control of these processes has become more complex and the demand on continuous monitoring has increased. This may cause difficulties if this is handled manually and an online control system should make the process more controllable and less complex. In recent years there has been a lack of a proper sensor which can be used for on-line real time monitoring. This paper will review the available technologies for online monitoring outlining their advantages and disadvantages. The paper will also present current developments at Liverpool John Moores University with regards to the development of such a sensor and investigate the possibility of applying it to in-situ applications. In addition, the use of microwave technology is investigated for enhancing sensor performance.

Real-time non-destructive microwave sensor for nutrient monitoring in wastewater treatment

A real-time non intrusive microwave sensor system able to monitor the nutrients found in wastewater has been designed, simulated and implemented. These liquids are continuously flowing through a PTFE pipe and the properties of these liquids gradually degraded in time. Microwaves have the ability to give real-time changes in any material permittivity by means of changing the velocity of the signal, attenuating or reflecting it. The primarily measurements show promising results for future sensor developments which lead to a novel system that can be used in wastewater treatment plants.

Flood risk assessment for urban water system in a changing climate using artificial neural network

Changes in rainfall patterns due to climate change are expected to have negative impact on urban drainage systems, causing increase in flow volumes entering the system. In this paper, two emission scenarios for greenhouse concentration have been used, the high (A1FI) and the low (B1). Each scenario was selected for purpose of assessing the impacts on the drainage system. An artificial neural network downscaling technique was used to obtain local-scale future rainfall from three coarse-scale GCMs. An impact assessment was then carried out using the projected local rainfall and a risk assessment methodology to understand and quantify the potential hazard from surface flooding. The case study is a selected urban drainage catchment in northwestern England. The results show that there will be potential increase in the spilling volume from manholes and surcharge in sewers, which would cause a significant number of properties to be affected by flooding.

Deep learning approach's effectiveness on sustainability improvement in the UK construction industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a deep learning approach can impact the construction industry.Design/methodology/approach – The objectives of this paper were to investigate: the awareness of people dealing with sustainability in their daily working environment; how much training and information construction industry workers have had in the topic of sustainability; and if a deep learning approach to sustainability teaching can make an impact on everyday practise in the industry. With these objectives, following a literature review, a questionnaire survey has been applied to 133 office and site‐based construction workers. In total, 50 office‐based workers and 50 site‐based workers participated.Findings – The findings reveal that deep learning can be a possible opportunity and that the Government and the construction industry should explore it when training their staff. Although there are agencies which specifically deal with green issues, they are not widely embraced and workers cu...

Quantitative assessment of sewer overflow performance with climate change in northwest England

Abstract Changes in rainfall patterns associated with climate change can affect the operation of a combined sewer system, with the potential increase in rainfall amount. This could lead to excessive spill frequencies and could also introduce hazardous substances into the receiving waters, which, in turn, would have an impact on the quality of shellfish and bathing waters. This paper quantifies the spilling volume, duration and frequency of 19 combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to receiving waters under two climate change scenarios, the high (A1FI), and the low emissions (B1) scenarios, simulated by three global climate models (GCMs), for a study catchment in northwest England. The future rainfall is downscaled, using climatic variables from HadCM3, CSIRO and CGCM2 GCMs, with the use of a hybrid generalized linear–artificial neural network model. The results from the model simulation for the future in 2080 showed an annual increase of 37% in total spill volume, 32% in total spill duration, and 12% in spill frequency for the shellfish water limiting requirements. These results were obtained, under the high emissions scenario, as projected by the HadCM3 as maximum. Nevertheless, the catchment drainage system is projected to cope with the future conditions in 2080 by all three GCMs. The results also indicate that under scenario B1, a significant drop was projected by CSIRO, which in the worst case could reach up to 50% in spill volume, 39% in spill duration and 25% in spill frequency. The results further show that, during the bathing season, a substantial drop is expected in the CSO spill drivers, as predicted by all GCMs under both scenarios. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor L. See

Assessing combined sewer overflows with long lead time for better surface water management

During high-intensity rainfall events, the capacity of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) can exceed resulting in discharge of untreated stormwater and wastewater directly into receiving rivers. These discharges can result in high concentrations of microbial pathogens, biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, and other pollutants in the receiving waters. The frequency and severity of the CSO discharge are strongly influenced by climatic factors governing the occurrence of urban stormwater runoff, particularly the amount and intensity of the rainfall. This study attempts to assess the impact of climate change (change in rainfall amount and frequency) on CSO under the high (A1FI) and low (B1) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios of the greenhouse concentration derived from three global circulation models in the north west of England at the end of the twenty-first century.

Real-time Optimisation of a Microwave Plasma Gasification System

A microwave plasma gasifier has been designed to produce syngas from waste. Gasification using microwave plasma has various controllable parameters to achieve optimal syngas production. These parameters include the microwave power applied, the reflected power from the microwave plasma jet, the EH tuner arm position, the gas flow and pressure, in addition to the temperature inside the gasifier. A variety of sensors are required to provide feedback and control for each of these parameters. This paper discusses the benefits of gasification, particularly via microwave plasma techniques, the first steps toward the optimisation of such a system and some preliminary results of this optimisation.