Search Results (10)

Stormwater runoff from areas with specific industrial, agricultural or logistic land use comprises a significant source of water pollution, yet research on its specific composition remains limited compared to urban stormwater pollution. This review synthesizes findings from different studies to analyze sampling methods, types of pollution parameters and their associated concentration ranges across various non-urban land use types, including industrial and commercial zones, transportation infrastructure (ports, airports, highways, railways) and agricultural areas. Studies differed in sample strategy, investigated phase (water, sediment) and analyzed chemical parameters. The latter can be grouped into sum parameters (e.g., total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD)), metals (e.g., nickel, copper, zinc, lead), nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus), organic micropollutants (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAA)) and microbial contaminants. Results indicate that pollutant loads vary widely depending on land use, with industrial and railway areas showing the highest metal contamination, while agricultural and livestock farming areas exhibit elevated nutrient and microbial concentrations. The heterogeneity of the sampling, analysis and subsequent data processing hindered the statistical condensation of data from different studies. The findings underscore the need for standardized monitoring methods and tailored stormwater treatment strategies to mitigate pollution impact effectively. Full article

The increase in the quantity and variety of contaminants generated during routine airport infrastructure maintenance operations leads to a wider range of pollutants entering soil and surface waters through runoff, causing soil erosion and groundwater pollution. A significant developmental challenge is ensuring that airport infrastructure meets high-quality environmental management standards. It is crucial to have effective tools for monitoring and managing the volume and quality of stormwater produced within airports and nearby coastal areas. It is necessary to develop methodologies for determining a wide range of contaminants in airport stormwater samples and assessing their toxicity to improve the accuracy of environmental status assessments. This manuscript aims to showcase the latest advancements (2010–2024 update) in developing methodologies, including green analytical techniques, for detecting a wide range of pollutants in airport runoff waters and directly assessing the toxicity levels of airport stormwater effluent. An integrated chemical and ecotoxicological approach to assessing environmental pollution in airport areas can lead to precise environmental risk assessments and well-informed management decisions for sustainable airport operations. Furthermore, this critical review highlights the latest innovations in remediation techniques and various strategies to minimize airport waste. It shifts the paradigm of soil and water pollution management towards nature-based solutions, aligning with the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. Full article

Through the construction of an ecological lawn regulation and storage system, the adaptability of airports to extreme weather can be enhanced. The problems of runoff, ponding and pollution faced by traditional airport flight areas during heavy rainfall can be solved, and the utilization efficiency of rainwater resources can be improved. In this paper, the SWMM is used to simulate and analyze an 4E-level airport of a certain city in Region III as the research object. The simulation results show that the ecological lawn regulation and storage system can significantly reduce runoff flow, ponding durations and runoff pollution with different return periods. In addition, the water storage module of the system can store 24,000 m³ of water and recycle it. This research proves that the ecological lawn regulation and storage system can effectively improve the rainwater control capability of the airport flight area, which has an important reference value for the sponge transformation of traditional airports and is helpful to promote green civil aviation construction and sustainable development. Full article

Despite the numerous benefits of intensive air transport development, many activities associated with the operation of airports contribute to environmental pollution. The purpose of this research was the development, optimization, and validation of a headspace–solid-phase microextraction–comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–time of flight–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC × GC-TOF-MS)-based procedure for determining anti-corrosive compounds in airport stormwater. Optimized HS-SPME conditions include: 45 min extraction time, 100 °C temperature, 1.0 g salt addition, and 10 min desorption time at 270 °C. The developed procedure is sensitive, selective, accurate (recoveries ≥ 80.0%), and precise (the coefficient of variation (CV) ≤ 14.9%), making it a highly suitable tool for extensive airport stormwater quality monitoring. The validated analytical protocol was successfully used to detect pollutants, including 1H-BT, 4-MeBT, 5-MeBT, and 5,6-diMe-1H-BT, in stormwater from various European airports with different flight capacities. Throughout the sampling period at the investigated airports, 1H-benzotriazole was found in the highest concentrations, ranging from below the MQL to 467 mg/L. An ecotoxicological risk assessment revealed that 69% of the sites exhibited high risk levels (Risk Quotient ≥ 1). The developed procedure and carried out environmental risk assessments of benzotriazoles in airport stormwater enable an evidence-based approach to sustainable airport stormwater management. Full article

Land reclamation has a profound impact on coastal environments. On the Chinese coast, the new Xiang’an International Airport has been built on newly reclaimed land. The impact of the massive land reclamation project (finished in 2018) on water quality and coast conditions in a nearby semi-enclosed bay is investigated using remotely sensed data. Factors affecting surface water quality and coast conditions are further analyzed using multiple regression. All water quality and coast condition indices show no long-term trend from 2005 to 2021. The suspended solid concentration (with a maximum value of 96.11 mg/L) is much lower than the threshold of 188 mg/L. When considering variations in sediment concentration, the probability that the concentration reaches the threshold is less than $1\times {10}^{-6}$%; therefore, suspended solids have little threat to the local oyster-growing industry. The trend of dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentration is steady, implying little alteration to nutrient circulation in the semi-enclosed bay. Within the observation timeframe of 2005–2021, a recent sedimentation trend (surrogated by the normalized difference water index) appears after 2018 but it needs to be confirmed by a longer observation. Statistical models based on multiple regression highlight the following links: (1) the sediment source is outside the bay, (2) the overland runoff from newly claimed land dilutes nutrient concentrations, and (3) the coast conditions are mainly affected by tides and rainfall. Neither actively reclaimed or cumulative reclaimed areas form a direct causal relationship to water quality or coast conditions in the semi-enclosed bay. Full article

Floods are amongst the most frequent and destructive type of disaster, causing significant damage to communities. Globally, there is an increasing trend in the damage caused by floods generated by several factors. Flooding is characterized by the overflow of water onto dry land. Tropical cyclones generate floods due to excess water in rivers and streams and storm surges; however, the hazard of both phenomena is presented separately. In this research we present a methodology for the estimation of flood hazards related to tropical cyclones, integrating runoff and storm surge floods. As a case study, we selected the south-western suburbs of the city of La Paz, the capital of the state of Baja California Sur in northwest Mexico. The city has experienced in recent years an expansion of the urban area. In addition, there is an infrastructure of great importance such as the transpeninsular highway that connects the capital with the north of the state, as well as the international airport. Our results indicate that urban areas, agricultural lands, as well as the air force base, airport, and portions of the transpeninsular highway are in hazardous flood areas, making necessary to reduce the exposure and vulnerability to these tropical cyclone-related events. A resulting map was effective in defining those areas that would be exposed to flooding in the face of the impact of tropical cyclones and considering climate change scenarios, which represents an invaluable source of information for society and decision-makers for comprehensive risk management and disaster prevention. Full article

One of the biggest problems of environmental protection in Serbia is landfills. It is often a case that the economic interests are predominant in the landfill sitting; thus, most landfills are not located according to standards. This study shows that detailed geological data assets combined with geographical modeling represents a reliable way to define and locate the landfill site. Geological evaluation is discussed in detail with regard to bedrock lithology, quaternary geology, geological structure, hydrogeology, surface runoff patterns, and topography. An approach combining geographical modeling and geology is presented for determining the sites suitable for landfill selection with respect to their geologic favorability. As opposed to numerous research papers on this topic, in the methodological procedure, special importance is devoted to the analysis of the geological criteria. In this way, it is significantly easier to determine the landfill area with the best characteristics due to geological structure and lithology which unequivocally and precisely indicates inadequate territories for candidate sites. The multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is based on geological criteria upgraded with road (primary, residential, secondary, and tertiary), settlements network, railway, airport, infrastructure, land use, hypsometry aquifer, wetland, and surface water. The score values are divided into four classes, i.e., restricted areas, suitable but avoid, suitable, and most suitable. Combining geographical modeling with geology led to the recognition of two locations to be most favorable for landfill site located in the most suitable area, which represents 25.3% of the study area. Full article

Despite the positive aspects of the intensive development of aviation, airports are considered large-scale polluters. Pollution caused by runoff water (stormwater) is one of the major problems related to airport operations. The aim of this study was to characterize the potential toxic impact on aquatic life from runoff water discharges from four international airports in Europe. Samples of stormwater were collected at airports with different capacities of passenger movement in four seasons of the year from 2011 to 2013. Within the ecotoxicological analyses, a battery of biotests incorporating organisms of different trophic levels (Microtox^® test, Thamnotoxkit F™) were used. A relatively high number of runoff water samples collected at the investigated airports in Europe was recorded as having very high acute hazard (16.8%), acute hazard (27.7%), and slight acute hazard (18.1%) levels. The results of the research indicate that winter and autumn present a greater toxic threat than the rest of the year. The highest number of toxic samples was observed for samples collected in the de-icing area, the runway and the vicinity of airport terminals. The ecotoxicological assessment applied in this research can be used as a tool for assessing the environmental effect of airports. Full article

Large volumes of pavement de-icing and anti-icing fluids, collectively termed de-icing agents, are used at airports to facilitate wintertime safe air travel. After use, most of the them get typically mixed with storm water runoff and may enter soil and waters near the airports. Wastewater resulting from airports’ winter operations is contaminated mainly with nitrogen and carbon compounds. Previous research results have shown that the use of biofilters filled with lightweight aggregates prepared from fly ash from sewage sludge thermal treatment (FASST LWA) could be an effective method for removing nitrogen and organic compounds at low temperatures, i.e., 0–8 °C. For this to be possible, it is necessary to maintain a proper ratio between the amounts of carbon and nitrogen in the treated wastewater, through the simultaneous application of de-icing agents containing urea and carbon compounds. Biofilter technology is part of the concept of sustainable development. Their filling is made of waste materials and one of the pollutants (organic compounds) present in the wastewater is used to remove other pollutants (nitrogen compounds). In this study, technological systems for the treatment of wastewater containing airport runway de-icing agents with biofilters were proposed, which allow for the treated wastewater to be discharged into natural waters, soil, and sewerage network. Full article

Airport runoff can contain high concentrations of various pollutants, in particular polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the environmental levels of which have to be monitored. Airport runoff water samples, collected at the Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Airport from 2008 to 2009, were analysed for PAHs and PCBs by gas chromatography. The aromatic fractions were separated by liquid-liquid extraction and analysed by GC/MS. Total PAH concentrations were 295–6,758 ng/L in 2008 and 180–1,924 ng/L in 2009, while total PCB levels in 2008 ranged from 0.14 to 0.44 µg/L and in 2009 from 0.06 to 0.23 µg/L. The PAH and PCB compositions in airport runoff waters were examined over a range of spatial and temporal scales to determine distributions, trends and possible sources. This pollution is mainly pyrolytic and related to anthropogenic activity. There were significant differences between the samples collected in the two seasons. An understanding of the magnitude of contamination due to airport runoff water is important for the effective management of airport infrastructure. Full article