Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 427–434 (2016)
Atmospheric pollution
ODOUR CAUSING DISCOMFORT AND THEIR IMPACT ON
HUMAN HEALTH
C. CERCELARU, I. IONEL*, R. M. BALOGH
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Politehnica University Timisoara, Mihai
Viteazu Blvd., 300 222 Timisoara, Romania
E-mail: ioana.ionel@upt.ro; ramon.balog@upt.ro;
cristina.cercelaru@yahoo.com
Abstract. Urban air pollution is rapidly becoming an environmental problem of public concern
worldwide. Monitoring and evaluation of air pollution became a necessity of great importance for
the sustainable development of the society and protection of the ecosystems. Compounds such as
hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) are clearly identified to be major odours specific for
urban areas, and due to their high olfactory impact, they have to be monitored. The paper relates to
such results, with respect to the urban and industrial area of Timisoara, considered one of the largest
cities in Romania which has a highly developed industry, and also a large urban crowded traffic. The
present paper presents results of a campaign accomplished in urban areas in the Timisoara city, and
conclusions driven versus measured values are indicated.
Keywords: pollution, odours, emission, health.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The need for continuous monitoring of non-standard pollutant concentration in
the air has increased considerably over recent years, driven by health and safety
concerns (toxic gases) and odour related nuisance or discomfort1. Nevertheless
many authors achieved research in the domain, for the Balkan region especially2,3.
The paper refers to a special campaign during which, for the first time in the
Timisoara area, monitoring compounds such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S), ammonia
(NH3) were clearly identified. These species have been selected for monitoring
due to their high olfactory impact. Besides healthy risks linked to particles or bio
aerosol emission, significant odour emissions are regularly encountered even if
species are emitted at low ppbv level.
The ecosystem of Timisoara is constantly changing also due to increased
surface constructed and measurements taken to reduce them; by this way the risk
of air pollution with particles is under control, as through the complex phenomena
of the annual average temperature global growth, thermal inversions are more occurring. Air pollution with odour/smell/ is considered as the introduction by man,
*
For correspondence.
427
directly or indirectly, or the presence in the atmosphere and enclosed areas, of
chemical biological or physical agents having prejudicial consequences likely to
cause odour nuisance. Under these circumstances, in order to be accepted by the
population, but also in order to avoid potential financial penalties, industrials have
to manage as well as possible their emissions of odourous compounds4.
EXPERIMENTAL
There are many ways to measure air odour, with both simple chemical and physical methods and with more sophisticated electronic techniques, in addition to
modelling possibilities, according special tailored programs, according emission
factors and pollutant inventory, for real or probable meteorological conditions5,6.
A lot of analysers available in the market, including fluorescence-based detection7
or flame photometric detector8 provide very precise measurements at a given time
and place, but such analytical devices are expensive in investment, operation and/
or not easily field transported. Focusing on hydrogen sulphide, the World Health
Organisation recommends‚ to avoid substantial complaints about odour annoyance
among the exposed population, hydrogen sulphide concentrations should not be
allowed to exceed 4.7 ppbv, with a 30-min averaging period’9.
The Cair CLIP sensors12 have been developed recently. These gas sensors are
based on electro-chemicals or semi-conductors. They are used to ensure health and
safety, mostly in open spaces or even on closed ones, at work, by measuring occupational exposure values in ppm. In the original time display mode, the level of
pollution measured appears on the screen only when a specific threshold is reached.
In the air quality measurement mode, the concentration of H2S and mercaptans is
given continuously by the 3 digits to the left of the separator (2 points), the time
of exposure is indicated by 2 digits to the right as multiple of 10 min (Ref. 12),
as presented by Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Cairclip sensor ‘Networks of miniature sensors for low concentrations (ppb) of H2S’
428
Under the first threshold of information, only the green light flashes. On the
first level of information threshold, equivalent to 30 ppb of H2S and mercaptans,
yellow light flashes. At the second information threshold, orange light is flashing
and is equivalent to 70 ppb. At this level nausea and headaches were reported. At
the first warning level, equivalent to 110 ppb is flashing red light. On the second
warning level, equivalent to 200 ppb is flashing purple light. The third warning
level corresponds to 600 ppb and flashing maroon light.
Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a weak non-organic acid. In its pure state it is a
colourless, flammable, toxic, with a strong odour. The low concentration has the
smell of rotten eggs. Depending on the concentration and duration of exposure
can cause acute or chronic effects. At concentrations above 0.1% by volume it
can kill in seconds.
Ammonia (NH3) is a gas with pungent smell toxic, lighter than air. Caustic
action of ammonia gas is in contact with wet surfaces, an irritant of the skin,
respiratory mucosa, digestive and eye. An ammonia concentration of 0.5% to the
inhaled air occurs over 30–60 min death. Romania quantified emission reduction
target for 2020 includes the reduction of the Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS)
emissions (–21% compared to 2005) and the positive limit established for non-EU
ETS sector (+19% compared to 2005), in line with Decision 406/2009/EC (Ref. 16).
Ozone (O3) is an allotropic form of oxygen, with the molecule consists of
three atoms; is a strong oxidant, has a characteristic odour, colour blue and is
very toxic. Ozone is formed in the troposphere as main atmospheric pollutant
generated in industrialised countries and traffic affected cities, especially during
summers. Ozone causes respiratory system (breathing difficulties, reduced lung
function, asthma), eye irritation, nasal congestion, reducing resistance to infection,
premature degradation of the lungs.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The monitoring campaigns were performed in Timisoara in the region of Freidorf
Industrial Park (a highly developed industrial area), and at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which is located in the central area of the city, having historical
footprint with traffic congestions. The technique such as described in Ref. 17 could
not be applied even main items were proofed and possible as similarity. Measurements were accomplished by 2014, during two episodes: first by March 21 and
lasted one day, and the second between May 28 to June 4 and values of H2S, NH3
and O3 with CAIR CLIP sensors were recorded.
429
Fig. 2. Level of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) measured in the Freidorf Industrial Park
As seen from Fig. 2, the first peak of H2S is recorded around 11 ppb, it has a
value of about 30 ppb. The next peak at around 14 exceeds 50 ppb, the last and the
highest being recorded at 17 and measuring 65 ppb. The presence of the hydrogen
sulphide (H2S) measured in the Freidorf Industrial Park can be associated with the
regular industrial activity in the area.
Fig. 3. Level of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) measured at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
According to the schedule (presented in Fig. 3), there were several peaks of
H2S; the most prominent values reached were in May 28, with a value of 65 ppb,
in May 30, with the value of 85 ppb. The highest peak was achieved on 3 June and
reaching the level of 94 ppb. The values are higher as compared to those in Fig. 2.
An explanation can be associated to the influence of the different meteorological
parameters and also to the intense traffic in the area representing a main route in
the central area of the city.
430
Fig. 4. Level of ammonia (NH3) measured in the Freidorf Industrial Park
Measured ammonia level (Fig. 4) reaches a high peak at around 14 o’clock,
and was measured as 4200 ppb.
Fig. 5. Level of ammonia (NH3) measured at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
There were several peaks of ammonia (Fig. 5), the most important being: in
June 1 with a value of 1500 ppb, in June 2 with a value of 1800 ppb, and the highest being the value of 2300 ppb, by June 3.
According to data from the two charts (Figs 4 and 5), one can conclude that
the peaks of ammonia recorded in the Industrial Park Freidorf are much higher
than those measured at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The result is expected and explained by the much much higher industrial specific activity in the
Freidorf region.
431
Fig. 6. Level of ozone (O3) measured in the Freidorf Industrial Park
The ozone level (Fig. 6) reached a maximum of 270 ppb at 14:00
Fig. 7. Level of ozone (O3) measured at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
The most important ozone peaks recorded (Fig. 7) are: in May 28 with a
value of 70 ppb, in May 30 with a value of 75 ppb, and the highest in June 3 with
a value of 79 ppb.
Comparing the data obtained in the two campaigns (Figs 6 and 7), it results
that the ozone levels measured in the Industrial Park Freidorf are much higher than
that of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Again the explanation is connected
by the industrial activity in the Freidorf area.
All sensors have shown peaks of exposure during peak hours and working
hours. The shape and the values reached can be explained by the influence of the
traffic and by production activity in the industrial area. The measured values were
432
influenced also by weather conditions as by May 31 and June 1 rainfall and wind
beat occurred.
CONCLUSIONS
The measurement shows that CairClip sensors perform well when detecting
hydrogen sulphide (H2S), ammonia (NH3) and ozone (O3) in real-life situations,
and that they can be used to monitor odour emission sources and occurrence in
great detail. As such, it is possible to take partial but precise action with a view
to reducing odour emissions. It has been proved that even the concentrations are
low, these three odour pollutants are still existing, in various sites (industrial or
traffic specific zones).
The next step will consist in combining this new sensor network approach with
multiple source modelling of wind movement, in order to obtain greater details of
the impact on the surrounding area and possibly forecast odour nuisance.
Acknowledgements. The authors gratefully acknowledge the substantial financial support from project AirQ (Ref. 13) project financed by UEFISCDI (http://mec.upt.ro/airq), as well from the project
TRANSAIRCULTUR – ‘Contribution to sustainable development by assessing the transboundary air
pollution upon the cultural & touristical heritage in HU – RO border’, supported by the HUNGARYROMANIA Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2007–2013 (ID HURO/1001/139/1.3.4), not at
least the project ‘Sustainable Development for Banat Region by Means of Academic Education and
Scientific Research and Development in Transboundary Air Quality Monitoring Issues’, (http://banatair.mec.upt.ro) in the frame of the cross border program Romania-Serbia. Also the Ph.D. program
offered by UPT to the first author must be acknowledged.
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G. VASILIKIOTIS, D. KARAGIANNIS, P. LAZOU, A. PAPASTAMOU, K. VOSNIAKOS,
V. ARGIRIADIS: Urban Air Pollution due to Vehicles in Katerini City on Comparison Basis
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Low Concentrations (ppb) of H2S. Available by January 2016 from: http://hydroflo.net/images/
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K. TODA, P. K. DASGUPTA, J. LI, G. A. TARVER: Fluorometric Field Instrument for Continuous Measurement of Atmospheric Hydrogen Sulfide. Anal Chem, 73, 5716 (2001).
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 16 March 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 435–444 (2016)
Water pollution
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A RAPID AND
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ANALYSIS METHOD
FOR DETERMINATION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC
HYDROCARBONS IN WATER BY MODIFICATION OF
QuEChERS EXTRACTION METHOD
B. SIK*, T. TONGUR, T. ERKAYMAZ, H. A. YATMAZ
Food Safety and Agricultural Research Centre, Akdeniz University, Antalya,
Turkey
E-mail: bulentilgaz@gmail.com
Abstract. In this study a rapid and environmentally friendly analysis method for the determination
of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (PAHs) in water was developed and validated.
Water samples were extracted by modified QuEChERS method and analysed by gas chromatography
mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Analytical separation was achieved in 18 min. The calibration curves
were linear in the selected range of each analyte. Limit of detections of PAHs were between 0.16
and 0.31 µg kg–1. % Recovery, repeatability (RSDr) and reproducibility (RSDR) values met AOAC
method validation acceptance criteria.
Keywords: PAH, water, analysis, method development, contamination.
AIMS AND BACKROUND
PAHs are one of the most significant potential polluters in waters. PAHs, as environmental contaminants, being present in very natural environments like air, water,
soil, have a stable and resistant chemical structure and high toxicity1–3. Polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbon compounds emerge for several reasons, particularly spilling
and burning of fossil fuels, home-industrial wastes, activities of energy, mining
and manufacturing sectors, and contaminate aquatic environments, air and soil4,5.
PAH compounds can be easily adsorbed in the organic matter of the soil and
sediments4. Consequently, it was indicated that PAH compounds are found in tap
waters, rain waters, underground waters and waste waters1.
More than 500 PAH compounds were found in the environment. However, 16
PAH compounds whose carcinogenic and toxic effects are considered higher have
been accepted as primary contaminants by the Environmental Protection Agency
of the United States of America (US-EPA). Also PAH compounds (15 of them)
*
For correspondence.
435
have been included in monitoring studies by the European Union3,5,6. Benzo(a)
pyrene is widely used as an indicator of PAH content in environmental analyses6–8.
Although the method of liquid-liquid extraction9 is used in sample preparation
stage in PAH analyses, various extraction methods such as solid phase extraction10,
cold fibre solid phase microextraction2, passive sampling extraction systems11 and
QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe)12 method have
also been developed as alternative sample preparation methods. Some of those
extraction methods use a high amount of solvent or despite a low amount of organic solvent and good precision, long extraction periods may be needed to reach
adequate detection limits13,14. In recent years the QuEChERS method has become
widely adopted for preparing dietary samples.
Gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and tandem mass spectrometer (GC-MS/MS) techniques are the leading analytic techniques used most
in PAH analyses2,15,16. There are various methods based on liquid chromatography
in the literature17–19.
In this study, it has been researched if it is possible to develop a method for
detection via GC-MS of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons notified by EPA as
a control requirement in waters by making some modifications on the QuEChERS
extraction method. The accuracy, precision, linearity, detection and measurement
limit, etc. significant performance criteria of the method have been determined
via method validation study.
EXPERIMENTAL
PAHs subject to the study have respectively been: naphthalene, acenaphthylene,
acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo[a]
anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, dibenz[ah]anthracene, benzo[ghi]perylene. Single
primary stock standard solutions from the standards procured as powder from Dr.
Ehrenstorfer in high purity (> 98%) have been prepared as approximately 1000
mg kg–1 concentration in methanol. 5 mg kg–1 primary stock standard mixture has
been prepared using those single primary stock standards. Calibration and recovery
works were conducted on the mixture standard solution.
For PAH analysis in waters a method was developed on the basis of QuEChERS
method. The analyses were made using GC-MS. Acetonitrile was used as extraction solvent, and the quality of the extraction made was checked using Antrasen
D10 as internal standard (ISTD).
Six different concentration points were used to prepare the calibration curve.
50 ml ultrapure water was weighed into a teflon-lid sealed Erlenmeyer flask of
250 ml to use in preparation of matrix-matched calibration solvent in 6 different
concentrations, and all procedures applied to the sample were applied in the same
436
manner. Quality control (QC) study was held to test the reliability of the method
throughout the period of the study. Into 250 ml Teflon-lid sealed Erlenmeyer
flask, 50 g ultrapure water was weighed and 20 µl PAH standard working solution (5 mg kg–1) added for quality control study. Each sample with such addition
theoretically contains 2 µg kg–1 of each PAH analyte in theory.
Fifty g sample were weighed into teflon-lid sealed Erlenmeyer flask of 250 ml.
For blank sample study, however, 50 g ultrapure water have been weighed into
teflon-lid sealed Erlenmeyer flask of 250 ml. 10 ml MeCN solvent including 1%
glacial HAc (acetic acid) were added with dispenser to each 50 g sample containing 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask. 100 µl ISTD (5 mg kg–1) solution is added via
automatic pipette to the sample and quality control sample to be analysed. The
sample theoretically includes 10 µg kg–1 ISTD. ISTD solution was not added to
the blank samples to be used preparing in matrix-matched calibration standards.
Twenty g anhydrous MgSO4 and 1 g anhydrous NaAc (sodium acetate) were
added to each Erlenmeyer flask and the Erlenmeyer lid is tightly closed. Rise of
the extraction temperature to 40–45°C was expected. Erlenmeyer flasks were kept
and agitated in an ice bath for 3 min to take temperature under control. The lid of
the Erlenmayer was tightly closed to avoid any leakage. Effective decomposition
of crystal agglomeration during the agitation has been checked to ensure interaction of the solvent with the entire sample. The Erlenmayer flasks including the
sample were incubated for 10 min, and having ensured that the organic phase and
the water phase were separated, transfer was made to 50 ml falcon tubes in a way
to take all of the organic phase remaining above. The tubes were placed in cooled
centrifuge and centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min. After completion of the centrifuging process, 4 ml MeCN extract (supernatant) were carefully transferred to
another 15 ml lidded falcon centrifuge tube including 400 mg PSA (100 mg for
each 1 ml extract) and 1200 mg anhydrous MgSO4 (300 mg for each 1 ml extract).
The lid of the centrifuge tubes was tightly closed and mixed manually (or by
vortex) for 60 s, and then centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 5 min. From the extraction
solution acquired after the centrifuge, 1000 µl were taken for injection to GC-MS
and transferred to 2 ml vials. The oven program used in GC-MS to separate PAHs
is given in Table 1. The quantification ions, confirmation ions and the retention
times of each PAH analytes used in determination via GC-MS are shown in Table 2.
Information on the total ion chromatogram obtained under the working conditions
set forth in Tables 1 and 2 via the injection of 50 µg kg–1 standard mixture solution
and on the retention times of each PAH analyte is given in Fig. 1.
437
Table 1. GC-MS oven program
Oven step
Initial
Ramp 1
Ramp 2
Ramp 3
Ramp 4
Ramping rate (°C/min)
25
20
20
20
Temperature (°C)
50
150
180
250
300
Hold time (min)
0.1
1
1
1
3.5
Table 2. Retention times (RT), quantification and confirmation ions of PAHs
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
438
RT (min)
3.12
4.73
4.99
5.80
7.29
7.36
7.40
7.43
9.75
11.45
11.50
13.21
13.25
13.64
14.95
14.99
15.27
PAHs
Quantification ion Confirmation ions
naphthalene
128
129, 127
acenaphthylene
152
151, 153
acenaphthene
153
154, 152
fluorene
166
165, 167
phenanthrene
178
179, 176
anthracene D10 (ISTD)
188
189, 186
anthracene
178
179, 176
fluoranthene
202
200, 203
pyrene
202
200, 203
benzo[a]anthracene
228
229, 226
chrysene
228
229, 226
benzo[b]fluoranthene
252
253, 125
benzo[k]fluoranthene
252
253, 125
benzo[a]pyrene
252
253, 125
indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene
276
138, 277
dibenz[ah]anthracene
278
139, 279
benzo[ghi]perylene
276
138, 277
relative abundance
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
RT: 13.64
14
RT: 0.00 - 18.11
NL:
2.02E7
TIC MS
50ppb_std
13
12
16
15 17
8 9
2
1
RT: 3.12
0
2
RT: 4.73
3.21
4
3
56
4
7.29
5.80
6.60
6
7
RT: 9.43
10
RT: 9.75
11
RT: 11.50
RT: 13.21
14.99
14.95
RT: 15.27
7.40
7.65 8.81
8
10
time (min)
10.86
15.76
12.77
12
14
16
16.70
18
Fig. 1. Total ion chromatogram (TIC) of PAHs
naphthelene (1), acenaphthylene (2), acenaphthene (3), fluorene (4), phenanthrene (5), anthracene
(6), anthracene d10 (7) fluoranthene (8), pyrene (9), benzo[a]anthracene (10), chrysene (11), benzo[b]
fluoranthene (12), benzo[k]fluoranthene (13), benzo[a]pyrene (14), indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene (15),
dibenz[ah]anthracene (16), benzo[ghi]perylene (17)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A method with an analysis period of 18 min has been developed for determination of 16 PAH analytes that might be found in waters upon investigation and
whose investigation has been set as a requirement by EPA. QuEChERS extraction method, a method used in pesticides, in foods was used as the extraction
method20,21; however, that method was modified to realise PAH extraction from
waters. In the QuEChERS method used in foods, sample of 10 or 15 g is weighed
for analysis, and 10 or 15 ml acetonitrile is used for extraction, respectively. Generally, concentration change shall not be realised at the stage of extraction step.
With the method we modified, it was aimed by extraction of 50 g water sample
with 10 ml acetonitrile, to extract PAHs, which are at very low concentrations
in waters, at a rate as high as possible by for sample ensuring extraction with
less solvent at a higher amount compared to the original method. As a result of
the trials, LOQ levels for analysed PAHs could be drawn below 1 µg kg–1 level.
In the studies via QuEChERS method for foods, generally, the water amount
in the medium at extraction stage is 12 ml maximum. Approximately 6 g of anhydrous magnesium sulphate are adequate to remove that amount of water from
organic phase, acetonitrile. Magnesium sulphate is a salt that can take water into
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its crystal structure, and is generally used in drying processes. It also allows easy
separation of organic and aqueous phases with its featuring soluble in water and
almost insoluble in organic phase22. Due to the high amount of water as sample
used in analysis, it was concluded that utilisation of 20 g anhydrous magnesium
sulphate would be appropriate at the stage of separation of acetonitrile, the extraction solvent, from water phase. Anhydrous magnesium sulphate taking water in its
crystal structure is an exothermic reaction which gives heat to the environments.
Extraction was realised under cold circumstances considering that excessive rising
of the temperature at extraction step would lead to distancing from medium of
and thus inability to detect some PAHs. In studies held with original QuEChERS
method, extraction temperature would not pass 40°C because the water amount
is little, and thus no cooling process is necessary. However, because the water
amount is 50 g and the magnesium sulphate used is 20 g in the developed method,
the extraction temperature to control the heat to reveal was taken under control
using an ice bath.
Method validation studies were held to determine the performance criteria
of the developed analysis method. In this context, linearity, recovery (trueness),
repeatability (intra-day precision) and reproducibility (inter-day precision) works
have been made. Matrix-matched calibration curve was prepared in the linearity
study, and was worked at 0, 2, 5, 10, 25 and 50 µg kg–1 range. Linearity (R2) was
found higher than 0.99 for all PAHs in the study. Limit of detection (LOD) and
limit of quantification (LOQ) studies were determined making 10 recovery studies
with the water sample where each PAH standard is at 2 µg kg–1 concentration. The
standard deviation value from the study was multiplied by 3 to calculate LOD,
and by 9 to calculate LOQ values for each analyte. Linearity (R2), LOD-LOQ and
recovery rate values are given in Table 3.
Recovery, repeatability and reproducibility studies were made with 5 replicate
with 2 different analysts in two different concentrations. Percentage recovery and
relative standard deviation pool (RSD pool %) including the study results of 2
different concentrations have been calculated.
Repeatability studies were made the same day, however reproducibility
studies on successive 5 different days. Average and percentage recovery, %RSD
and %RSDpool values for Analyst 1 and Analyst 2 are shown in Tables 4 and 5,
respectively.
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Table 3. LOD, LOQ, correlation coefficient (R2) and % recovery values of PAHs
Analyte
2.0 µg kg–1
spike result
Naphthalene
1.31
Acenaphthylene
1.70
Acenaphthene
1.80
Fluorene
1.96
Phenanthrene
1.63
Anthracene
1.64
Fluoranthene
1.68
Pyrene
1.98
Benzo[a]anthracene
1.68
Chrysene
1.82
Benzo[b]fluoranthene
1.53
Benzo[k]fluoranthene
1.63
Benzo[a]pyrene
1.92
Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene
1.74
Dibenz[ah]anthracene
1.77
Benzo[ghi]perylene
1.71
SD
0.08
0.08
0.09
0.08
0.07
0.10
0.09
0.08
0.09
0.10
0.10
0.09
0.08
0.10
0.05
0.08
LOD
(µg kg–1)
0.24
0.25
0.27
0.23
0.21
0.30
0.26
0.23
0.27
0.29
0.31
0.26
0.23
0.30
0.16
0.24
LOQ
Recovery
(µg kg–1)
(%)
0.79
65.5
0.83
85.0
0.91
90.0
0.77
98.0
0.69
81.5
1.01
82.0
0.86
84.0
0.78
99.0
0.91
84.0
0.97
91.0
1.04
76.5
0.86
81.5
0.78
96.0
0.99
87.0
0.55
88.5
0.79
85.5
R2
0.998
0.998
0.998
0.997
0.999
0.999
0.999
0.999
0.997
0.998
0.996
0.996
0.996
0.997
0.995
0.999
Table 4. Average and percentage recovery, %RSD and % RSDpool values for Analyst 1
Analyte
Naphthalene
Acenaphthylene
Acenaphthene
Fluorene
Phenanthrene
Anthracene
Fluoranthene
Pyrene
Benzo[a]anthracene
Chrysene
Benzo[b]fluoranthene
Benzo[k]fluoranthene
Benzo[a]pyrene
Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene
Dibenz[ah]anthracene
Benzo[ghi]perylene
At 2.5 µg kg–1 At 10 µg kg–1 Analyst 1 Analyst 1 Analyst 1
Analyst 1
Analyst 1
%RSD
%RSD
%RSD
average/re- average/re- 2.5 µg kg–1 10 µg kg–1
pool
covery %
covery %
1.51/60.4
6.36/63.6
6.69
8.08
7.42
1.90/76.0
9.22/92.2
5.80
7.59
6.76
1.90/76.0
8.55/85.5
5.62
3.31
4.61
1.93/77.2
8.40/84.0
5.58
4.74
5.18
1.98/79.2 10.42/104.2
8.71
5.30
7.21
1.95/78.0
9.46/94.6
7.50
5.07
6.40
2.10/84.0 10.05/100.5
7.31
4.77
6.17
1.98/79.2
8.75/87.5
7.89
7.66
7.78
2.11/84.4
9.13/91.3
13.27
8.20
11.03
1.86/74.4
8.47/84.7
6.39
7.74
7.10
1.96/78.4
9.33/93.3
7.28
8.71
8.03
2.06/82.4
9.75/97.5
4.87
10.28
8.04
1.86/74.4
8.74/87.4
2.08
7.21
5.31
2.08/83.2
8.63/86.3
8.91
8.15
8.54
2.03/81.2
9.27/92.7
5.80
7.05
6.46
2.14/85.6
8.54/85.4
8.54
5.80
7.30
441
Table 5. Average and percentage recovery, %RSD and %RSDpool values for Analyst 2
Analyte
At 2.5 µg kg–1 At 10 µg kg–1 Analyst 2 Analyst 2 Analyst 2
Analyst 2
Analyst 2
%RSD
%RSD %RSDpool
average/re- average/re- 2.5 µg kg–1 10 µg kg–1
covery %
covery %
Naphthalene
1.62/64.8
6.21/62.1
13.27
8.20
11.03
Acenaphthylene
1.86/74.4
8.79/87.9
9.46
12.95
11.34
Acenaphthene
1.83/73.2
8.64/86.4
6.19
4.81
5.54
Fluorene
1.94/77.6
9.60/96.0
4.98
3.35
4.24
Phenanthrene
1.90/76.0
9.61/96.1
7.08
6.34
6.72
Anthracene
1.97/78.8
9.77/97.7
6.00
9.02
7.66
Fluoranthene
2.11/84.4
9.41/9.41
6.79
8.71
7.81
Pyrene
2.09/83.6
9.20/9.20
3.55
6.39
5.17
Benzo[a]anthracene
2.03/81.2
9.41/94.1
12.45
6.88
10.06
Chrysene
1.89/75.6
8.85/88.5
4.70
5.76
5.26
Benzo[b]fluoranthene
1.98/79.2
9.03/90.3
5.94
6.37
6.16
Benzo[k]fluoranthene
2.00/80.0
9.98/99.8
6.94
8.46
7.74
Benzo[a]pyrene
1.82/72.8
8.67/86.7
4.73
4.19
4.47
Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene
2.03/81.2
9.36/93.6
12.42
8.39
10.60
Dibenz[ah]anthracene
2.03/81.2
9.24/92.4
6.50
3.92
5.37
Benzo[ghi]perylene
2.11/84.4
9.67/96.7
11.46
11.66
11.56
Results regarding the repeatability study of each analyst are shown in Tables 4
and 5. % RSDpool calculation was made from the results obtained by the analysts,
and it was found out that the obtained results complied with the method validation
criteria, RSD < 21 % and 60–115 % recovery, suggested by AOAC (Refs 23 and 24).
It was found out that the results obtained from reproducibility studies conducted by two different analysts on two different days complied with the method
validation criteria, general RSDpool < 32%, suggested by AOAC (Refs 23 and 24).
CONCLUSIONS
A method of short analysis time and high accuracy and precision value has been
developed that gives results within 18 min for 16 PAHs whose examination in
waters is important. The results of the validation study conducted to determine
the performance criteria of the method have been evaluated according to method
validation acceptance criteria in AOAC document (Refs 23 and 24). It was specified in the concerned document that at 10 µg kg–1 level, average recovery should
be at 60–115% interval, repeatability RSD% should be less than 21, and reproducibility RSD% less than 32. The values obtained for 16 PAHs as a result of the
validation study comply completely with the aforementioned criteria. QuEChERS
extraction method is considered an environmentally friendly method because of
442
the little amount of solvent used and because the example cleaning process steps
are based on a low amount of chemical use. The analysis method developed makes
PAH analysis in waters possible with some changes in the QuEChERS method
with high accuracy and precision values. In point of fact LOD values were not
sufficient for drinking water analysis but due to QuEChERS based the extraction
method this method is applicable for foods.
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Received 8 January 2016
Revised 16 February 2016
444
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 445–452 (2016)
Water pollution
EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF
2,6-DINITRO-N,N-DIPROPYL-4-TRIFLUOROMETHYLANIL
HERBICIDE ON THE GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION
IN THE THRACE REGION
U. K. CEBIa, R. CAKIRb, H. H. TOKc*
Ataturk Soil Water and Agricultural Meteorology Research Institute, Kirklareli,
Turkey
E-mail: ulviyecebi@yahoo.com
b
Lapseki Vocational College, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Lapseki,
17 800 Canakkale, Turkey
E-mail: rcakir@comu.edu.tr; crec56@yahoo.com
c
Soil Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Namik Kemal University,
Tekirdag, Turkey
E-mail: hasanhayritok@gmail.com
a
Abstract. The contamination effects of 2,6-dinitro-N,N-dipropyl-4-trifluoromethylanil (trifluralin)
herbicide, widely used in sunflower farming were studied on the fields of Turgutbey irrigation project in Thrace region. Shallow irrigation water wells, drilled by farmers across the irrigation project
covering approximately 320 ha fields, were evaluated in the study. Water samples collected from the
irrigation wells at monthly intervals along the irrigation season, were analysed for trifluralin residuals. General evaluation of the results obtained during the years of the study showed, that residual
concentrations determined in the well waters varied depending on location and time of sampling. It
was found out also that the lowest and highest residual concentrations of trifluralin in water samples
collected from the investigated wells, were 3.2 and 86.9 ppb, respectively. Higher residual concentrations in larger number of wells were available in the beginning of the season, and incidence as well
as concentrations of herbicide residual decrease towards the autumn.
Keywords: trifluralin, water, contamination, residuals.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The number of macro and micro live creatures that damage farming crops is around
65 000–70 000 and product loss due to various pest, weeds and diseases is estimated
to be in the ranges of 15 and 30%. The use of pesticides accepted as easiest and
cheapest way to cope with these damaging factors became widespread after 1950s.
Despite the fact that the amount of pesticides used in our country as a whole is
much lower than the amounts used in developed countries, the use of the mentioned
*
For correspondence.
445
chemicals is a matter of serious concern in regions with polycultural intensive
agriculture1. On the other hand, contamination of surface and groundwater due to
pesticide application in agriculture has been well documented around the world.
Pesticide residues in surface waters have been a concern since the first years of
use2,3. Actually nowadays the persistence of pesticide residues in the soil and their
movement in the water–soil system are accepted as key aspects in their environmental behaviour. Furthermore the environmental fates of pesticides have attracted
recent attention because of their increasing pollution potential to the environment.
Ground waters, lake and river waters can undoubtedly be contaminated with runoff
water from adjacent agricultural fields if pesticides are uncontrolled used.
Recently, the fate of pesticides in the environment has attracted more attention because of its polluting effect on the surrounding environment. Despite the
recognised benefits of pesticides in protecting crop yields, pesticide contamination
of the non-target system is undesirable because of the difficulties in predicting the
long term ecological and health effects4.
Among the chemicals applied in agricultural farming, herbicides are the most
used pesticide group in our country and in the Thrace region. The most widely
used herbicides in the region of the study are 2,4-D, trifluralin and propanil. Trifluralin [2,6-dinitro-N,N-dipropyl-4-(trifluoro-methyl) benzenamine] is selective
herbicide used for pre-emergence control of annual grasses and broadleaf weeds
in sunflower, maize, vegetables and other crops grown in Thrace region of Turkey.
In the classification on the bases of formulations trifluralin belongs to concentrated emulsion (EC) pesticide group. The chemicals into the mentioned group are
rapidly mixed and are persistent for a long period into water sources. Owing to its
physicochemical properties trifluralin is also long persistent in the soil which cause
damaging effect on wheat seed germination in the conditions of sunflower-wheat
rotation applied in region of the study. In some studies5 trifluralin residuals are
determined in lake and underground waters, while in other studies6 no trace of the
pesticide is found in any of the investigated 299 drinking water sources in Italy7.
In other studies carried out in Greece8,9 were determined presence of one or more
pesticides in water samples collected from Axios river in concentrations lower
than 0.1 μg/l, which is the highest permitted limit for each pesticide in drinking
water, according to the Directive 778/80 of the European union.
According to publications of EPA, FAO and International Cancer Research
Centre, trifluralin is cancerogenic and is highly toxic to aquatic organisms even
at low doses. Due to mentioned harmful effects, in the final notification of the 3rd
North Sea Conference was declared that the amount of pesticide use should be
decreased by 50% during the period of 1985–1995. Nevertheless the herbicide is
still widely used in Thrace region of Turkey.
446
This paper discussed the results obtained in the study aiming determination
the effects of trifluralin on underground water contamination along the lands of
Turgutbey irrigation project.
EXPERIMENTAL
Study area. The investigations were carried out on the lands of Turgutbey irrigation
project, located in the northern part of Kirklareli district in the Thrace region of
Turkey. The geographical position of the studied 16 water wells were determined
as 41o27′, 41o28′ and 41o29′ North latitude, and 27o23′, 27o24′ and 27o25′ East
longitude and elevation varied in the ranges of 73–96 m (Table 1).
Long-term precipitation and temperature averages for the investigation region were determined as 589.6 mm and 13oC, respectively. The highest average
monthly precipitation rates of 76.1 and 83.3 mm are determined for December and
January, while the hottest summer months July and August are characterised with
lowest precipitation averages of 21.7 and 24.6 mm, respectively10. The studied
area is characterised with xeric-usticmoisture and mesic temperature regimes,
and prevailing transition Marmara (Black Sea-Mediterranean Sea) climate type11.
The general geology of the region is quite similar to that described by Arkoc12
for a study area located nearby to the area of our study. The investigated area owns
flat or slight sloped (2–3%) topographic conditions and covered with medium deep
Alluvial soils (Entisol), with prevailing loamy clay texture in the upper and sandy
clay loam in the deeper part of the soil profile. No salinity or alkalinity problems
are reported for the studied soils13.
Table 1. Geographical position of the evaluated water wells
Well number
Geographical
Elevation Well
Geographical
Elevation
position
(m)
number
position
(m)
north
east
north
east
Drinking water 41o27′49 27o23′26
87
9
41o27′27 27o23′36
74
o
o
2
41 28′35 27 23′51
90
10
41o27′52 27o23′32
82
3
41o28′19 27o23′37
86
11
41o27′54 27o23′35
80
o
o
o
o
4
41 28′16 27 23′34
83
12
41 28′03 27 23′42
82
5
41o28′23 27o23′19
84
13
41o28′30 27o24′13
83
6
41o27′59 27o23′32
84
14
41o29′09 27o25′11
96
7
41o27′53 27o23′18
85
15
41o29′02 27o24′51
95
o
o
8
41 27′24 27 23′20
73
16
41o28′58 27o24′43
96
Sampling and analysing procedures. Water samples from one drinking water and
15 irrigation water wells were collected at monthly intervals during the irrigation
season (May, June, July, August and September) of the investigation years. Water
samples collected from wells located along the investigated irrigation project
447
were analysed in the laboratories of Ataturk Soil and Water Resources Research
Institute in Kirklareli. A PERICHROM PR 2100 gas chromatography apparatus
equipped with electron capture detector (ECD) and capillary column of 0.32 mm
inner diameter and 25 m long, was used in the analysing process. Pesticide residuals in water samples were determined using Environmental Chemistry in Water
Analysis Method (ECM) 155 978 (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Typical diagram for trifluralin residues in water samples
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Farmer wells located on the lands of Turgutbey irrigation project were used as
material of the study. Results of the analysis of samples collected in the beginning
of irrigation season (May) of the first experimental year showed, that the lowest
and highest amounts (3.6 and 86.9 ppb) of trifluralin respectively, existed in water
samples taken from wells 9 and 13. Pesticide residuals in water determined during
the following months (June, July and September) of the irrigation season were
in the ranges of 3.9–62.3, 7.14–79.2 and 3.8–9.6 ppb, respectively. As could be
seen from data illustrated in Fig. 2, during the first experimental year, the higher
residual concentrations, in larger number of wells, are available in the beginning
of the season, and incidence and levels of pesticide residual decrease with time.
As a general, from data plotted in Fig. 2 it could be derived, that though
herbicide residuals were available in all wells located close to fields with trifluralin herbicide application in 2006, the maximum residue concentrations of 86.9
and 62.3 ppb were obtained in water samples collected from wells 13 and 15,
respectively in May and June. The concentrations of the pesticide in water of the
mentioned wells were determined to decrease, during the following month (July),
when residual amounts were increasing up to 43.6, 59.2 and 79.2 ppb in waters
sampled from wells 6, 12 and 16, respectively.
448
Fig. 2. Trifluralin residuals in water of evaluated wells determined during irrigation season of the
first experimental year
Sampling and analysis applied approximately 3–4 months after utilisation of
the herbicide pointed out for presence of trifluralin residuals in very low concentrations in the range of 3.8–14.7 ppb in waters of only few wells.
Although determined less concentrations due to decreased sunflower acreages during the second experimental year, results were similar to those obtained
during 2006. Just as in the case of the previous year, pesticide residuals detected
in water samples during 2007, exhibited variation depending on interval between
application and sampling time. Moreover there were variations also in terms of
trifluralin concentrations in water samples taken from different wells. Sampling
in June showed low quantities of pesticide residuals in the range of 7.6–12.7 ppb
only in waters of wells 2, 4 and 5. Much more evident pollution of the ground
waters was observed during the next month July in water samples collected from
wells 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, located in the central part of the irrigation project.
Relatively high residual rates up to 40 and 60 ppb were recorded for some of
the pointed wells. In a manner similar to the first experimental year, only in few of
the water samples taken 3 or 4 months after trifluralin application were determined
herbicide residuals (Fig. 3).
449
Fig. 3. Pesticide concentrations detected in water of the evaluated wells during the irrigation season
of 2007 year
The highest and lowest residual concentrations detected in wells used as an
irrigation water source across the irrigation project in Turgutbey were, 86.9 and
3.2 ppb, respectively.
All the wells drilled for the mentioned purpose are shallow, with depth in the
ranges of 15–20 m, and in the majority of the water samples collected from the wells
were detected pesticide residuals in more or less amounts, during one or another
period of the study. On the contrary, no trifluralin residuals were determined during
any period of the investigation in water samples drawn from the 196 m deep well
(No 1), drilled to serve as a drinking water source for the population of Turgutbey.
A similar situation was observed also in investigations carried out abroad. In a
study conducted in the United States, a total of 2047 surface and 507 underground
water samples have been analysed, and only in 172 of them trifluralin residuals
have been detected. In addition, it was also determined that in 85% of samples
with designated residuals, the concentrations were less than 0.54 ppb. In a similar
study carried out in Italy, Funari and Sampaolo6 evaluated pesticide availability
in 299 drinking water samples, most of them from underground water sources,
and found no trifluralin residuals in any of the investigated sources. This situation is in agreement with our results in the absence of any residuals in the studied
drinking water well. The lack of the pollution in this case could be explained with
deep laying aquifer (200 m) surrounded by clay formations, probably preventing
the water body from contamination with trifluralin. It could be suggested also that
the molecules of the pesticide are tightly held by the soil colloids and prevent the
contamination.
According to Brignon14, in the directives of the European maximum trifluralin
levels in spring and drinking waters are limited to 2 and 0.10 ppb, respectively. No
450
relevant norms for trifluralin exist in national Turkish standards (TS- 266) related
to the hazardous levels of substances in spring and drinking waters. Evaluation
of the results related to residual levels in analysed water samples on the base of
mentioned European standards shows that pesticide amounts detected in some of
the irrigation wells are much higher than those pointed out in the European documents mentioned above.
CONCLUSIONS
Trifluralin herbicide has been widely used in our country since 1976, especially in
regions as Thrace with popular sunflower agriculture. Because of its carcinogenic
properties, the standard norms and values existing in the Directives of the European
Union should be accepted and included in the list of hazardous substances given
the national standard document TSS-266.
Currently, the recommended amount of the herbicide in summer crops farming
is 150–200 g da–1 which should be reduced, though overdosage is a common practice
in the country. Decreased amounts of trifluralin and/or application of equivalent
herbicides are supposed to be strong tools for limitation of hazardous effect of the
pesticide especially in the localities with shallow ground waters.
Use of shallows wells as drinking water source in areas with intensive use of
trifluralin, as in the case of the evaluated irrigation project lands should be avoided.
Acknowledgements. This paper includes some of the results obtained from a research project
(02210L01) funded by the Former General Directorate of Rural Services and General Directorate
for Agricultural Research, Ankara.
REFERENCES
1. H. H. TOK: Pesticide Usage in Thrace Region and Negative Effects of Pesticides on Environment. In: Proc. of Thrace Agriculture and Environment Symposium, Corlu, 1996.
2. R. P. RICHARDS, D. B. BAKER: Pesticide Concentration Patterns in Agricultural Drainage
Networks of the Lake Erie Basin. Environ Toxicol Chem, 12, 13 (1993).
3. S. J. LARSON, P. D. CAPEL, D. A. GOOLSBY, S. D. ZAUGG, M. W. SANDSTROM: Relations between Pesticide Use and Riverine Flux in the Mississippi River Basin. Chemosphere,
31, 305 (1995).
4. A. S. FELSOT, J. K. MITCHELL, L. KENIMER: Assessment of Management Practices for
Reducing Pesticide Runoff from Sloping Cropland in Illinois. J Environ Qual, 19, 539 (1990).
5. M. T. MOORE, R. E. LIZOTTE, S. S. KNIFHT, S. SMITH, C. M. COPPER: Assessment of
Pesticide Contamination in Three Mississippi Delta Oxbow Lakes Using Hyalella Aztec. Chemosphere Science for Environmental Technology, May 2007.
6. E. FUNARİ, A. SAMPAOLO: Herbicides in Drinking Water. Annali dell Istituto Superiore di
Sanità, 25, 353 (1989).
7. ANONYMOUS: Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Health Criteria and
Other Supporting Information. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1996.
451
8. F. VOSNIAKOS, T. ALMPANIS, G. VASILIKIOTIS, K. DIAMANTOPOULOS, E. CHRISTOFORIDOU, A. KARIDA, K. ZAVLARIS, P. METZELOU, D. LAMPROPOULOU, P. SELIMI,
A. KOUGOLOS, K.VOSNIAKOS, S. AVDIMIOTIS: Evaluation of Transboundary Pollution
Levels in The Axios River (Greece, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) – Direct and
Indirect Impacts on Man and Environment. J Environ Prot Ecol, 8 (3), 526 (2007).
9. T. ALBANIS , F. VOSNIAKOS, K. NIKOLAOU , G. VASILIKIOTIS, M. KOCHUBOVSKI,
D. GJORGJEF, Ch. DIAMANTOPOULOS, D. LAMPROPOULOU, K. ZAVLARIS, P. SELIMI:
Axios River Pollution. Part I. The Pesticides. J Environ Prot Ecol, 10 (1), 32 (2009).
10. Average Extreme Temperature and Precipitation Values Bulletin. T.R. Prime Ministry of General
Directorate of Meteorology Editions, Ankara, 1984. 678 p.
11. U. DINC, S. SENOL, S. KAPUR, I. ATALAY, C. CANGIR: Turkey Soils. C. U. Agricultural
Faculty. General Edition No 51, Edition No 12 (1995).
12. O. ARKOC: Assessment of Water Quality of East Part of the Ergene Basin, Turkey. J Environ
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13. Land Existence of Kirklareli Province. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Services.
Report No: 39. Ankara (1991)
14. J. M. BRIGNON : Données technico-économiques sur les substances chimiques en France:
Trifluraline. Données technico-économiques sur les substances chimiques en France, 2007, p. 23.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 22 February 2016
452
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 453–459 (2016)
Water pollution
DRINKING-UTILITY WATER PREFERENCES OF THE
PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE CENTRE OF TRABZON
PROVINCE AND THE REASONS FOR THESE
PREFERENCES
A. UFACIKa*, M. TOPBASb, S. S. NASa, C. C. KOLAYLIb,
E. ORTAHISARa, T. SAGDICa, S. CANKAYAb, Z. S. ERDOGANa,
B. BEYOGLUa
Faculty of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, 61 080 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: arife428@gmail.com
b
Faculty of Medicine Department of Public Health, Karadeniz Technical
University, Trabzon, Turkey
a
Abstract. The objective of the study was to research the drinking and utility water preferences of
the individuals who live in different neighbourhoods with different socio-economic characteristics
in the centre of Trabzon province and the reasons for these preferences. It was a cross-sectional
study in which the data were stratified according to socio-economic levels. Data were collected with
simple random method in the face-to-face interviews with 586 people from different neighbourhoods. 31.7% of the participants stated that they only prefer city water for drinking purposes, 13.3%
of them expressed that they prefer plastic bottled water, 9.9% of them pointed out that they prefer
dispenser size water and 3.1% of them indicated that they prefer water that springs from village. In
the study, it was found out that the use of city water as drinking water is highly low. The income and
educational level have an effect on this rate. In terms of quality, city water ranks the last according
to the views of the participants. In order to provide sufficient, clean, favourable and accessible water
that is the most basic need and right of humanity, relevant water policies should be established and
every central and local stakeholder should implement these policies.
Keywords: drinking water, water preferences, packaged water, tap water, spring water.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The major component of the human body, water is indispensable and unique for
the continuation of the life of any living form including human1. According to a
report prepared by the United Nations, 884 million people do not have access to
clean water and clean and safe utility water should be provided for any individual
in order to protect and improve public health2.
Today, water requirement of the public has increased due to the industrial
development, widespread urban life, irregular urbanisation, high life standards
*
For correspondence.
453
and increasing population3,4. As water requirement increases, the water resources
decrease due to irresponsible consumption, which may cause ecologic imbalance
and climate change. This creates a vicious circle in which any incident triggers one
another and water resources are not enough to meet the needs. In parallel with these
changes, people have begun to prefer different type of water for drinking purposes.
Tap water should be clean and safe in order to provide public health. It is
one of the main duties of the municipalities to provide clean and safe tap water.
However, drinking and utility water preferences of Turkish people have recently
changed. After water-born diseases and outbreaks emerged in almost every province in Turkey, news announced that city water is not healthy. Therefore, public
perception towards city water changed and people thought that it would not be
healthy to drink tap water. Additionally, as a result of packaged water advertisements and lack of access to clean water outside home in school, office and street,
people prefer packaged water to tap water. Are these changes that we observe
real? Which type of water do the public prefer in daily life? It is the main duty of
the municipalities to provide clean and safe city water but what is the perception
of the public towards city water? Studies and information on this issue are very
scarce in Turkey. Trabzon is a warm and rainy (800–850 kg/m2/year) province that
is located in northwest part of the Black Sea Region. The coast leaves a confined
residential area in Trabzon province. There is limited area between coast and hills
and mountains. Therefore, people own a house both in the city centre and in their
village. There is spring water running from the mountains. However, this spring
water can be described as uncontrolled water and some people prefer it for drinking purposes.
The objective of this study to research the drinking and utility water preferences of individuals who live in different neighbourhood with different socioeconomic characteristics in the centre of Trabzon province and the reasons for
these preferences.
EXPERIMENTAL
The population of this cross-sectional study is the people above the age of 18
who live in Ortahisar district of Trabzon province. Sample was chosen among
231999-person population, in 95% confidence interval, 50% unknown prevalence
and with 1.5 design effect and 576 people were identified as target population.
Neighbourhoods in Ortahisar district were stratified according to their socioeconomic levels and a research was conducted on 586 people in 3 different
neighbourhoods (Besirli, Bahcecik and Kalkinma neighbourhoods) with random
sampling method.
Data were collected on a volunteer basis and data forms were filled in faceto-face interviews in the opted neighbourhoods between February 20–April 30,
454
2015. Relevant approval was received from Karadeniz Technical University Ethics
Committee for the study. There were questions regarding the socio-demographic
features such as the sex, age, educational level of the participants, the number of
the people in their household, the number of the children under the age of 6 and
survey also included questions concerning chronic diseases and the amount of daily
fluid consumption (water/ tea/ ayran/ soft drinks). Additionally, there were other
questions to identify the daily drinking-utility water preferences of the participants
(city/ dispenser size/ plastic bottled/ spring water preferences for drinking/ cooking/ tea-coffee preparing/ dishwashing – laundering/bath-home-toilet cleaning
purposes). Participants stated that they prefer one type of water because they think
it is the healthy way or it is the economic way or they like its taste-smell-colour or
other people prefer this or they like the hardness of this water type.
SPSS 13.0 statistical software package was used in data analysis. Qualitative
data were represented in figures and percentages and numeric data were represented
in arithmetic mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was used while comparing qualitative data. Significance level of statistical alpha was identified as p < 0.05.
RESULTS
281 women (48%) and 304 men (52%) participated in the study. The average age
was 37.3 ± 14.2 and 59.6% of the participants (n = 349) were married and 37%
(n = 217) of them were bachelor. The reasons of the preference of the participants
who use only one type of water among city water, dispenser size water, packaged
water and spring water are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Reasons of the preference of specific type of water
Water type
Healthiness
%
n
City water
101 54.3
Dispenser size water 39 67.2
Packaged water
54 69.2
Spring water
15 83.3
Economy
Taste, smell Other people
and colour preference
%
%
%
n
n
32.3 33 17.7
45 24.2
22.4 26 44.8
2
3.4
17.9 32 41.0
9 11.5
0
8 44.4
0
0
Softness
n
60
13
14
0
n
14
15
13
3
%
7.5
25.9
16.7
16.7
32% of the participants (n = 186) stated that they only prefer city water for
drinking purposes, 13.3% of them (n = 78) expressed that they prefer plastic bottled
water, 9.9% of them (n = 58) pointed out that they prefer dispenser size water and
3.1% of them (n = 18) indicated that they prefer water that springs from village.
The rate of city water preference as drinking water among people who graduated from at least university was 24.0% (n = 56), who graduated from high school
was 31.4% (n = 71) and who graduated from primary school was 47.5% (n = 57)
(p < 0.001).
455
The rate of city water preference as drinking water among people whose
income is above TRY 2000 was 23.4% (n = 61) and whose income is below TRY
2000 was 37.4% (n = 113) (p < 0.001).
The reasons for their drinking water preferences, 63.8% of participants (n =
374) stated that they think their preference is the healthiest way to drink water,
32.6% of them (n = 191) expressed that they do like the smell and taste of their
preference, 26.8% (n = 157) of them pointed out that their preference is the economic way for drinking water, 18.1% (n = 106) remarked that other people prefer
this alternative and 17.1% (n = 100) emphasised that it is smooth.
The opinions of the participants about the quality of water are shown in Table 2.
Accordingly spring water is determined as the most qualified water.
Table 2. Opinions of the participants about the quality of water
Water type
City water
Packaged water
Dispenser size water
Spring water
Very bad
n %
59 10.3
6
1.1
15
2.8
2
0.4
Bad
n %
99 17.2
82 15.1
107 20.1
15 2.9
Average
n %
237 41.3
194 35.7
193 36.3
59 11.6
Good
Very good
n %
n %
161 28.0 18
3.1
244 44.9 18
3.3
197 37.0 20
3.8
185 36.3 249 48.8
When the daily water consumption of the participants were examined, the
average water consumption is 6.32 ± 3.6 water glass, tea consumption is 6.28 ±
4.4 water glass; and ayran and soft drink consumption is 1.59 ± 0.9. The types of
water that the participants prefer to meet variety of needs are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Types of water that participants prefer to meet variety of needs
Water type Cooking
Tea /
Dish
Laundry Bathing
House Bathroom
coffee
washing
cleaning cleaning
preparing
n %
n %
n %
n %
n %
n %
n %
City water 501 87.7 497 86.7 566 99.0 566 99.3 566 99.3 566 99.3 566 99.3
Dispenser 52 9.1 50 8.7
3 0.5
2 0.4
2 0.4
2 0.4
2 0.4
size
water
Packaged
8 1.4 14 2.4
0 0.0
0 0.0
0 0.0
0 0.0
0 0.0
water
Spring
10 1.8 12 2.1
3 0.5
2 0.4
2 0.4
2 0.4
2 0.4
water
456
DISCUSSION
In addition to ensuring public to have an access to clean and safe water, public
preference of water type is also an important issue. In parallel with the development that occurs in Turkey and in world, people have begun to prefer different
type of water.
Tap water, packaged water, dispenser size water and spring water are preferred
for drinking purposes. City water should be the main source of drinking and utility
water since individuals and public have a right to access to healthy and safe water.
Since packaged waters are expensive and there is the package waste problem and
also other water types are uncontrolled, they should not be preferred. In this study,
31.7% of the participants prefer only city water, 19.3% prefer drinking packaged
water, 9.9% prefer dispenser size water. According to a study conducted by Til et
al. on workers in Denizli province, these rates change as such, 39.5% city water,
36.3% dispenser size water, 5.8% consume packaged water5. In Tokat province,
according to the study conducted by Onder et al. with university students, it was
found that 93.2% of the students consume packaged water in dormitory, 6.8% of
the students drink city water as drinking water6. According to the study conducted
by Huerta-Saenz et al. in Philadelphia, 17% of the parents consume only tap water, 38% of the parents drink only packaged water7. In the study that Mcleod et
al. conducted was found that both tap water and packaged water are preferred for
daily consumption8. In this sense, these results show that people have a tendency
to prefer different types of water to city water.
In our study, it is seen that the participants think spring water, packaged water
and dispenser size water are healthier and in good quality, therefore, this opinion
affects their drinking water preference. The studies in literature show that people
think packaged water is healthier than city water, and they do not drink city water
because of the fear that they may get sick and they also do not let their children
drink too and the increase in packaged water consumption in recent years explains
this situation9–13. In addition to these reasons, we think that the epidemics emerged
because of the malfunctions in city water system, inadequate explanations of local
governors about the water quality and epidemics and also the news broadcasted
with the negative perception of media about water sources caused people to prefer
packaged water more.
In our study, it is seen that highly educated people and people with high income prefer city water less. In the study conducted in Denizli, while there was a
relation among these criteria, in America where different ethnic groups live, any
relation was not found in the study conducted by Gorelick et al.5,14 According to
study conducted in Mediterranean region by Gul et al. it was found that highly
educated people and people with high income prefer packaged water15. In the study
conducted in Purdue University by Saylor et al. it was found that undergraduate
students still prefer packaged water comparing to graduated students16. In our
457
study, people who live in Trabzon province and prefer packaged water claimed that
they think packaged water is healthier and also better in taste and smell. When the
studies are examined, it is seen that the socio-demographic characteristics affect
the water consumption preferences of the public.
In our studies it is found that people think spring water is more in good quality and prefer to consume spring water more because they think it is healthy and
soft and they like its taste and colour. Since spring water is not included in city
water, samples may not be taken to check regularly and test its chemical, physical
and microbiological convenience, this will cause health problems because of not
utilising healthy and safe water.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study, it was found out that city water preference of participants is very low.
The people with low income prefer city water utilisation more and economic reasons
matter in city water preference. The people who at least graduated from university
prefer city water less. According to participants opinions, city water quality ranks
the last in terms of quality. It is necessary to establish water policies and every
central and local stakeholder should implement these policies in order to provide
accessible, clean and proper water, which is the fundamental right of humanity.
REFERENCES
1. M. POPA, M. GLEVITZKY, D. M. POPA, G. A. DUMITREL: Study Regarding the Water Contamination and the Negative Effects on the Population from the Blaj Area, Romania. J Environ
Prot Ecol, 15 (4), 1543 (2014).
2. N. SHAHID, Z. ZIA, M. SHAHID, H. F. BAKHAD, S. ANWAR, G. M. SHAH, M. R. ASHRAF:
Assessing Drinking Water Quality in Punjab, Pakistan. Pol J Environ Stud, 24 (6), 2597 (2015).
3. M. KARATAS, S. CEVIK: Water as a Strategic and Natural Resource: An Evaluation of Turkey’s
Position. Journal of Academic Studies, 45, 1 (2010) (in Turkish).
4. S. A. ENE, A. Y. HOEKSTRA, M. M. MEKONNEN, C. TEODOSIU: Water Footprint Assessment in North-eastern Region of Romania. A Case Study for the Iasi Country, Romania. J Environ
Prot Ecol, 13 (2), 506 (2012).
5. A. TIL, S. TOPALOGLU, M. ZENCIR: Employee Population’s Water Preferences and Affecting Factors in Denizli Province. In: Proc. of the National Water and Health Congress, Antalya,
2015 (in Turkish).
6. Y. ONDER, R. CITIL, G. EMEKDAR: Drinking Water Preferences of University Students
Who Stay at Dormitory: Packaged Water. In: Proc. of the National Water and Health Congress,
Antalya, 2015 (in Turkish).
7. L. HUERTA-SAENZ, M. IRIGOYEN, J. BENAVIDES, M. MENDOZA: Tap or Bottled Water:
Drinking Preferences among Urban Minority Children and Adolescents. J Community Health,
37 (1), 54 (2012).
8. L. McLEOD, L. BHARADWAJ, C. WALDNER: Risk Factors Associated with the Choice to
Drink Bottled Water and Tap Water in Rural Saskatchewan. Int J Environ Res Public Health,
11 (2), 1626 (2014).
458
9. D. DUPONT, C. WALDNER, L. BHARADWAJ, R. PLUMMER, B. CARTER, K. CAVE,
R. ZAGOZEWSKİ: Drinking Water Management: Health Risk Perceptions and Choices in
First Nations and Non-first Nations Communities in Canada. Int J Environ Res Public Health,
11 (6), 5889 (2014).
10. D. DUPONT, W. L. ADAMOWICZ, A. KRUPNICK: Differences in Water Consumption Choices
in Canada: The Role of Socio-demographics, Experiences and Perceptions of Health Risks.
J Water Health, (4), 671 (2010).
11. Z. BAL: A Study on Consumers’ Packed Water Consumption in the Central District of Tokat.
Master Thesis, Gaziosmanpasa University, Tokat, 2014, 26–27 (in Turkish).
12. L. A. WARD, O. L. CAIN, R. A. MULLALLY, K. S. HOLLIDAY, A. G. WERNHAM, P. D.
BAILLIE, S. M. GREENFIELD: Health Beliefs about Bottled Water: A Qualitative Study. BMC
Public Health, 19 (9), 196 (2009).
13. W. L. HOBSON, M. L. KNOCHEL, C. L. BYINGTON, P. C. YOUNG, C. J. HOFF, K. F.
BUCHI: Bottled, Filtered, and Tap Water Use in Latino and Non-Latino Children. Arch Pediatr
Adolesc Med, 161 (5), 457 (2007).
14. M. H. GORELICK, L. GOULD, M. NIMMER, D. WAGNER, M. HEATH, H. BASHIR, D. C.
BROUSSEAU: Perceptions about Water and Increased Use of Bottled Water in Minority Children. Arch Pediatr Adolescmed, 165 (10), 928 (2011).
15. M. GUL, M. G. AKPINAR: An Assessment of Consumer Preferences on the Drinking Water
Market: Today to the Future. J Water Supply Res T, 63 (7), 525 (2014).
16. A. SAYLOR, L. S. PROKOPY, S. AMBERG: What’s Wrong with the Tap Examining Perceptions of Tap Water and Bottled Water at Purdue University. Environ Manage, 48 (3), 588 (2011).
Received 8 January 2016
Revised 15 March 2016
459
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 460–468 (2016)
Water pollution
EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF DISINFECTION
METHODS ON VOLATILE ORGANIC POLLUTANT LEVELS
AND SOME PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF
WATER
M. A. BABAYIGIT*, R. OGUR, O. F. TEKBAS
Department of Public Health, Gulhane Medical Faculty, Division of
Environmental Health, Etlik, 06 018 Ankara, Turkey
E-mail: mababayigit@gata.edu.tr; rogur@gata.edu.tr; oftekbas@gata.edu.tr
Abstract. The presence of volatile organic pollutants in city water supply networks may cause effects
on health such as anemia, reduced platelet levels, chromosomal fractures and increased cancer risk.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of various disinfection methods of drinking
water on some physicochemical parameters and levels of volatile organic pollutants. Samples of at
least 500 ml belonging to 75 different brands of packaged water sold commercially were obtained
from supermarkets and commercial distribution companies. For comparison 42 city supply water
samples (200 ml) and 38 well water samples (200 ml) were collected and kept at +4°C. Five different disinfection methods (chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone, ultraviolet and boiling) were applied to
selected 22 water samples. While all of the disinfection methods reduced the levels of chloroform
and tetrachloroethane, bromodichloromethane levels were reduced by methods other than chlorine
and the levels of 1,2-dichloroethane and dibromochloromethane were reduced statistically significantly only by UV treatment and boiling (p < 0.001). In general, it was observed that the reduction
of trichloroethane, epichlorohydrin and bromoform was not statistically significant, ozone caused
bromoform levels to rise and chlorine caused dibromochloromethane levels to rise. It can be concluded that boiling the water leads to a higher reduction in volatile organic pollutants than chlorine,
chlorine dioxide and ozone.
Keywords: packaged water, tap water, well water, disinfection methods, volatile organic pollutants.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
As information suggesting that drinking water and utility water are polluted by
some organic and inorganic pollutants gains public attention from time to time,
recently it has been observed that packaged water that is considered to be safer
than city supply in all aspects is being used especially for children1. Because of
the importance of this issue, all kinds of drinking water resources (city network,
ground water and packaged water) are subject to quality control analysis2–5.
It has been reported that more than fifty volatile organic compounds (VOC)
were detected in various water sources and that eight of these are classified as
*
For correspondence.
460
cancerogenic. When the effects of volatile organic compounds on public health
are being researched each of these chemicals are reviewed individually. Scientific
publications in this field have reported that individuals exposed to levels of benzene higher than the international limit [maximum contaminant level (MCL)] over
years are at higher risk for anemia, low platelet counts and cancer development6.
Exposure to benzene, that is defined as a group I carcinogen by the International
Cancer Agency through water increases the lifelong cancer risk7,8. In the World
Health Organisation sources, it is also reported that high doses of exposure affect
the central nervous system, and that lower doses of exposure affect the hematopoietic system and cause leukemia, and although these doses are not mutagenic,
they may also cause chromosomal fractures9.
It is proposed that one of the most commonly identified volatile compounds
in water, chloroform, forms due to chlorine treatment10. However, the fact that
chloroform is also one of the most commonly identified volatile compounds in
well water untreated with chlorine cannot be explained. Thus, this study is also
very important as it examines the effect of chlorine and other disinfection methods
on the formation of some VOCs such as chloroform.
When scientific literature was reviewed it was seen that there are publications
about the identification of volatile compounds in surface water, spring water, packaged water and especially drinking water using the purge and trap method11–17.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effect of various disinfection methods (chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone, ultraviolet and boiling) on some
physicochemical parameters and the levels of some volatile organic pollutants
(VOC = vinyl chloride, chloroform, benzene, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethane,
tetrachloroethane, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, epichlorohydrin and bromoform) in different types of drinking water (packaged water, tap
water and well water).
EXPERIMENTAL
Samples of at least 500 ml belonging to 75 different brands of packaged water
commercially available were obtained from markets and commercial water distribution companies and were kept at +4°C until the analyses were completed.
For comparison, a total of 42 (200 ml) tap water samples were obtained from 33
different areas of Ankara and 38 well water samples (200 ml) were obtained from
the Ankara Kizilcahamam district and were kept at +4°C until the analyses were
completed. Five different disinfection methods (chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone,
ultraviolet and boiling) were applied to the selected 22 samples (10 city network
tap water, 7 well water and 5 packaged water). The analyses of the basic water
parameters (pH, conductivity and total dissolved solids (TDS)) were performed
using a multi-analyser (Boeco, Hamburg, Germany), the ion levels were analysed
461
using an ion chromatography device (Dionex, Thermo-Scientific, CA, USA), and
the VOC levels were measured using DSQ™ II GC-MS (Thermo-Scientific, CA,
USA) and Purge and Trap Concentrator (Teledyne Tekmar, OH, USA) using the
EPA 5242 and 8260b methods10,18,19 (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Stages of obtaining water samples and their analysis
Treatment. The treatments were performed in the Gulhane Military Medical
Academy (GATA) Public Health Laboratories after bringing the samples to room
temperature (+20 ± 2°C) between the 14th of April and 20th of May 2015.
Active chlorine treatment. Samples of 20 ml were put in Erlenmeyer flasks and
were treated with 13.5 µl of 15% active chlorine (1/100) (≈ 0.5–0.7 ppm). After
the treatment they were rested for 30 min with closed lids, then 5 ml samples were
taken and analysed by using GC-MS (with purge and trap).
Chlorine dioxide treatment. Samples of 20 ml were put in Erlenmeyer flasks and
were treated with 4.5 µl of 0.45% chlorine dioxide (≈ 0.25 ppm). After the treatment they were rested for 30 min with a closed lid, then 5 ml samples were taken
and analysed by using GC-MS (with purge and trap).
Ozone treatment. Samples of 20 ml were put in Erlenmeyer flasks and the flasks
were closed with stoppers. 20 ml of air was suctioned and 20 ml of ozone was added
to the flasks containing the ozone (20 ml of water was treated with 920 µg/20 ml
ozone at a dose of 46 µg/l) (≈ 1 ppm). After the treatment they were rested for 30
min with closed lids, then 5 ml samples were taken and analysed by using GC-MS
(with purge and trap).
Ultraviolet treatment. Samples of 20 ml of water were put into 50 ml beakers and
were exposed to UV-C for 3 min at a distance of 20 cm from the UV-C lamp. After
462
the treatment they were rested for 30 min with closed lids, then 5 ml samples were
taken and analysed by using GC-MS (with purge and trap).
Boiling treatment. Samples of 20 ml were put into Erlenmeyer flasks and boiled for
1 min on a laboratory type electrical heater. After the treatment they were rested
for 30 min with closed lids, then 5 ml samples were taken and analysed by using
GC-MS (purge and trap).
The water samples were subjected to GC/MS (with purge and trap) analysis.
The GC/MS conditions were: initial temperature of 40ºC held for 4 min, temperature
increase to 90ºC at a rate of 4ºC/min and held for 0.10 min, and final temperature
of 220ºC at a rate of 20ºC/min and held at final temperature for 10 min. TG-5MS
column (30 M × 250 µM × 0.25 µM) (Thermo Scientific, CA, USA) was used.
The identification and quantification of VOCs were conducted by comparing
retention times and mass spectra of samples to the values obtained from standard
VOC preparations.
Statistical analysis. Continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard
deviation. Group comparisons for non-normal distributed continuous variables
were performed using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and the
Freidman test was used in dependent groups20. To identify the source group of the
differences, the Bonferroni and Wilcoxon Tests were used for further analysis of
paired group comparisons20. The calculations were done using statistics software
(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)) for Windows 15.0 (SPSS
Inc., Chicago, IL)). The statistical significance value was taken as p < 0.05 with
a confidence interval of 95%.
Ethical board permission. The ethical board approval for the study was obtained
from the GATA Ethical Board on the 11th of March of 2015.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The mean pH value before the treatment was 7.53 ± 0.48 and it was identified that
the UV (8.07 ± 0.43) and the boiling (8.65 ± 0.31) methods statistically significantly raised the pH levels of the water samples in general (p < 0.001). Whereas,
the other disinfection methods like chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone did
not make a significant difference in the pH levels (7.82 ± 0.40, 7.50 ± 0.55 and
7.60 ± 0.48, respectively). It was detected that the median conductivity values
of the water samples were 200.6 µS before treatment, and after the treatment the
median conductivity was 215.2 µS for chlorine, 217.6 µS for chlorine dioxide
and 260.5 µS for boiling (p < 0.001). The review of the TDS values showed that
statistically significant differences occurred after treatment with methods other
than ultraviolet (median = 139.2 mg/l) (chlorine = 151.4 mg/l, chlorine dioxide =
463
154.2 mg/l, ozone = 144 mg/l, boiling = 182.7 mg/l) when compared to the levels
before treatment (median=138.9 mg/l) (p < 0.05).
While chlorine, chlorine dioxide and boiling treatment significantly decreased
the fluorine levels, ozone led to a significant increase (p < 0.05). It was detected
that ozone treatment caused a general statistically significant increase in the anion
and cation levels examined in this study (Figs 2 and 3).
Fig. 2. Comparison of some anion levels for water samples treated by disinfection methods
Fig. 3. Comparison of some cation levels for water samples treated by disinfection methods
464
No vinyl chloride or benzene was detected in any of the water samples.
The mean values of the 155 samples were: chloroform = 0.019 ± 0.007 µg/l,
1,2-dichloroethane = 0.013 ± 0.002 µg/l, trichloroethane = 0.025 ± 0.023 µg/l,
bromodichloromethane = 4.41 ± 0.65 µg/l, trichloroethane = 0.167 ± 0.108 µg/l,
epichlorohydrin = 0.002 ± 0.0006 µg/l, dibromochloromethane = 0.32 ± 0.10 µg/l
and bromoform = 0.031 ± 0.031 µg/l. It was identified that the chloroform (18.52
± 0.82 µg/l), bromodichloromethane (15.80 ± 1.28 µg/l) and dibromochloromethane (1.08 ± 0.36 µg/l) levels were statistically significantly higher in tap water
when compared to packaged water and well water (p < 0.001). On the other hand,
the 1,2-dichloroethane (0.03 ± 0.009 µg/l) and epichlorohydrin (0.005 ± 0.002
µg/l) levels measured in well water were statistically significantly higher than the
readings of packaged water (p < 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively). The organic
pollutant levels detected in all of the samples were lower than the limit values of
the water intended for human consumption by law (Table 1).
The chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethane, bromodichloromethane,
tetrachloroethane, epichlorohydrin, dibromochloromethane and bromoform levels
were 9.84 ± 2.34, 0.03 ± 0.01, 0.16 ± 0.16, 9.85 ± 2.62, 0.98 ± 0.74, 0.006 ± 0.002,
0.93 ± 0.49, 0.22 ± 0.22 µg/l, respectively before treatment. All of the disinfection methods applied have decreased the chloroform and tetrachloroethane levels
significantly (p < 0.001). Bromodichloromethane levels were reduced by methods
except chlorine treatment, and 1,2-dichloroethane and dibromochloromethane levels were reduced only by the UV and boiling methods (p < 0.001). It was observed
that the reduction of the trichloroethane, epichlorohydrin and bromoform levels
was not statistically significant, and that ozone increased bromoform levels and
chlorine increased dibromochloromethane levels (Table 2).
465
466
0.00
0.019±0.007
0.00
0.013±0.002
0.025±0.023
4.410±0.65
0.167±0.108
0.002±0.0006
0.320±0.10
0.031±0.031
Total (n = 155)
mean±SD (µg/l)
Packaged water
(n = 75) mean±SD
(µg/l)
0.00
0.030±0.03
0.00
0.004±0.002*
0.040±0.04
0.070±0.02
0.320±0.22
0.001±0.0004*
0.028±0.008
0.060±0.06
0.00
18.52±0.82*
0.00
0.015±0.004
0.00
15.80±1.28*
0.028±0.003
0.002±0.0008
1.080±0.36*
0.00
0.00
0.030±0.02
0.00
0.030±0.009*
0.008±0.008
0.360±0.14
0.001±0.0006
0.005±0.002*
0.080±0.02
0.00
Pre-treatment
(n = 22)
mean±SD (µg/l)
0.00
9.840±2.34
0.00
0.030±0.01
0.160±0.16
9.850±2.62
0.980±0.74
0.006±0.002
0.930±0.49
0.220±0.22
chlorine
mean±SD
0.00
7.21±3.16*
0.00
0.03±0.009
0.16±0.10
9.71±2.27
0.57±0.42*
0.004±0.002
2.42±0.68
0.20±0.20
* Friedman test (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test for post-hoc analysis).
Vinyl chloride
Chloroform
Benzene
1,2-Dichloroethane
Trichloroethene
Bromodichloromethane
Tetrachloroethene
Epichlorohydrin
Dibromochloromethane
Bromoform
Type of VOC
Post-treatment (n = 22) (µg/l)
chlorine dioxide
ozone
ultraviolet (UV)
mean±SD
mean±SD
mean±SD
0.00
0.00
0.00
5.64±1.48*
3.7100±0.95*
3.350±0.84*
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.04±0.01
0.0100±0.009
0.00*
0.12±0.07
0.0800±0.04
0.120±0.07
6.89±1.78*
5.1300±1.48*
4.330±1.05*
0.39±0.28*
0.0090±0.003*
0.090±0.06*
0.006±0.005 0.0005±0.0005
0.001±0.0008
0.86±0.40
1.3200±0.39
0.510±0.21*
0.14±0.14
41.030±13.31
0.120±0.12
NA
<0.001
NA
<0.001
>0.050
<0.001
>0.050
0.004
<0.001
>0.050
p
boiling
mean±SD
0.00
0.0700±0.05*
0.00
0.00*
0.1000±0.05
0.3000±0.09*
0.00*
0.0015±0.0008
0.0600±0.25*
0.00
Tap water (n = 42) Well water (n = 38)
mean±SD (µg/l)
mean±SD (µg/l)
Table 2. VOC levels of the water samples disinfected before and after the treatment (packaged water, well water and tap water)
* One way ANOVA test (Bonferroni Corrected).
Vinyl chloride
Chloroform
Benzene
1,2-Dichloroethane
Trichloroethane
Bromodichloromethane
Tetrachloroethane
Epichlorohydrin
Dibromochloromethane
Bromoform
Type of VOC
Table 1. VOC levels before treatment in all of the water samples (packaged water, well water and tap water)
CONCLUSIONS
According to the results of the study, it may be concluded that boiling water and
UV treatment result in a further reduction of volatile organic pollutants than the
other disinfection methods such as chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone treatment. Thus, the quality of water that will be disinfected is extremely important in
choosing the disinfection method. To prevent the formation of organic/inorganic
disinfection byproducts and their negative impact on water quality, water should
be appropriately treated before disinfection. Even if the levels of trihalomethane
formation are under the standard limits, these pollutants must be monitored and
precautions must be taken to prevent public from long-term exposure.
Acknowledgements. This project was supported by the Gulhane Military Medical Academy Research and Development Centre (Project number: AR-2014/27). We would like to thank Mehmet
Cinar, Nedime Oflaz, Sercan Kurklu and Aykut Kilic, the laboratory assistants and technicians that
participated in the laboratory analyses.
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1995.
7. International Agency for Research on Cancer: IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Suppl. 7. Overall Evaluations of Carcinogenicity: An Updating of
IARC Monographs ,Vol 1–42, Lyon, 1987, 120–122.
8. Benzene in Drinking-water. Background Document for Development of WHO Guidelines for
Drinking-water Quality, World Health Organization, 2003 (http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/benzene.pdf).
9. Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality: 4th ed. World Health Organization, 2011 (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241548151_eng.pdf).
10. S. K. GOLFINOPOULOS, T. D. LEKKAS, A. D. NIKOLAOU: Comparison of Methods for
Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking Water. Chemosphere, 45 (3), 275
(2001).
11. R. A. KETOLA, V. T. VIRKKI, M. OJALA, V. KOMPPA, T. KOTIAHO: Comparison of Different Methods for the Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Water Samples. Talanta,
44, 373 (1997).
467
12. A. IKEM: Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds in Bottled and Tap Waters by Purge
and Trap GC–MS: Are Drinking Water Types Different? J Food Compos Anal, 23, 70 (2010).
13. H. W. KUO, T. F. CHIANG, I. I. LOA, J. S. LAI, C. C. CHANB, J. D. WANG: VOC Concentration in Taiwan’s Household Drinking Water. Sci Total Environ, 208 (1–2), 41 (1997).
14. H. F. Al-MUDHAF, F. A. ALSHARIFI, A. S. I. ABU-SHADY: A Survey of Organic Contaminants
in Household and Bottled Drinking Waters in Kuwait. Sci Total Environ, 407, 1658 (2009).
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Received 8 January 2016
Revised 14 February 2016
468
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 469–476 (2016)
Water pollution
IMPORTANT EMERGING PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM IN
THERMAL SPRINGS: AMOEBA. A PRELIMINARY STUDY
FROM TURKEY
D. CAMURa*, S. DEGERLIb, S. A. VAIZOGLUc, C. I. YAVUZd, H. ILTERa,
C. GULERe
Environmental Health Department, Public Health Institution of Turkey,
Ministry of Health, 06 100 Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey
E-mail: drderyacamur@yahoo.com
b
Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Cumhuriyet University,
Sivas, Turkey
c
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University,
Nicosia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
d
Ankara Directorate of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey
e
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University,
Ankara, Turkey
a
Abstract. Thermal springs are important for community health since they are public places and
being widespreadly used. Free-living amoeba are common in nature. Naegleria and Acanthamoeba
species in particular are found in thermal springs and may cause serious health problems. At the
first stage of the study, it is aimed to research the presence of Naegleria and Acanthamoeba species
in thermal springs in Turkey while the second stage looks into the frequency of subtypes of these
species by genotyping through molecular techniques. The results of the first stage are presented in
this article. The second stage is currently in progress. This is the first research where all the thermal
springs licensed in Turkey are included. The parasitological examination of 434 samples revealed
that 34.1% of the samples were amoeba positive. Upon the completion of this study, the frequency
of pathogen species and health risks linked to the amoeba will have been laid bare. Chlorination,
FLA determination and typology should be incorporated into monitoring criteria for thermal spring
water. To prevent health risks regarding amoeba, it would be beneficial to raise the awareness of users
about hygienic practices and thwart health risks induced by amoeba in thermal springs.
Keywords: thermal spring, free-living amoeba, Naegleria sp., Acanthamoeba sp., public health.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Thermal springs are widely-used public places where natural healing is offered.
The hygiene of thermal springs is of capital importance to prevent communicable
diseases. Free-living amoeba (FLA) are very common in the nature and Naegleria and Acanthamoeba, which may cause serious health problems, are frequently
*
For correspondence.
469
isolated from hot springs1–8. These amoeba are likely to be present in rivers, pools,
geo-thermal waters, soil and tap water. They cannot survive in salty water2,3,6,8–13.
The frequency of FLA in recreational and environmental water samplings is
between 20–92.9% in various countries14–19. In a study conducted in Turkey, the
frequency of FLA was found to account for 15–40% as evidenced from samples of
environmental water, tap water and soil20–22. FLA may stream into thermal springs
via geothermal water. Therefore, it is of vital importance to protect ground water
resources from contaminants23.
In recent years, Naegleria species have been emphasised more among the infectious agents all over the world since Naegleria fowleri is likely to lead to primary
amoebic meningo-encephalitis (PAM). PAM is a rare but a fatal central nervous
system disease. Amoeba enters the body from nasal mucosa and causes a disease
similar to bacteriological meningitides which mostly results in death2,6–8,13,14,24–35.
Despite the fact that Naegleria is highly common in environment, it is fortunate
that PAM cases are relatively rare. While there is not enough knowledge about the
frequency of PAM in Turkey, we know for sure that use of thermal therapies and
thermal springs are increasing. Therefore, more importance should be attached to
hygienic practices in such settings.
At the first stage, this study aims at identifying the presence of Naegleria
and Acanthamoeba species in thermal springs in Turkey while the second stage
focuses on the frequency of subtypes (pathogen and non-pathogen) of these species by genotyping through molecular techniques. The results of the first stage are
presented in this article. The second stage is currently in progress.
This is the first research where all the licensed thermal springs in Turkey are
included and genotyping through molecular techniques is conducted.
EXPERIMENTAL
This descriptive study was conducted by a collaboration protocol held between
the Turkish Public Health Association, the Ministry of Health, Cumhuriyet University and Hacettepe University. The ethical permission for this descriptive
study was obtained from the Senate Ethical Committee of Cumhuriyet University
(2013–11/04). The research was conducted in all of the licensed thermal springs
across 38 provinces and 203 facilities. Sampling of thermal water was conducted
by well-trained healthcare professionals by making use of a guideline released by
researchers.
First-round sampling. The water samples were taken from the common thermal
pools and in case there was not a pool in the facility, the sample was taken from
the source of water in the building water supply. No sample was taken from any
personal or private pool or the bath. The samples from the surface of the pools
were taken into 1-l plastic bottles. The status and frequency of water replacement
was informed by a pool operator.
470
Second-round sampling. In case the parasitological examination of the pool water
pointed to positive results for amoeba, a second-round sampling was conducted
to determine the location of pollution. The samples were taken from the source of
water and the water tank. If there was not a water tank, then the sample was taken
only from the source of water. If there was only one water tank for various facilities, only one sample was taken. If amoeba were found in the source of water, a
second-round sampling was not conducted since the pollution was considered to
be in the source of water.
Parasite examination. The preceding parasite examinations for all of the samples
were filtered. Filter papers were sowed on Non-Nutrient Agar Medium on which
E. coli was spread and followed to observe reproduction for 3 weeks. The passages
were done from the amoeba breeding plaques to the new mediums covered with
paraffin and kept at room temperature. The presence of trophozoite was examined
through a light microscope and Flagellum Test was conducted for the trophozoite positive plaques to differ Naegleria species from other amoeba species. The
plaques were excluded from the procedure when there was no reproduction at least
until the end of three weeks. Following the DNA isolation and PCR application
from the reproduced amoeba, the amplified PCR sample will be put into use for
genotyping36–44.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
At the first sampling stage, 92.2% of 434 samples were taken from the surface of
the pool whereas the ones taken from the source of the thermal water accounted
for 7.8%. The parasitologic examination revealed various types of amoeba reproduction in 148 (34.1%) of the samples. One hundred and forty two of them were
taken from the pool water while only 6 samples were from the source of thermal
water. There was amoeba reproduction in 35.5% of the pool water samples and
17.6% of the water source samples (Table 1).
Table 1. Characteristics of water samples
Characteristics
Number
Place of sampling (n = 434)
Pool surface
400
Water source
34
Amoeba reproduction (n = 434)
Positive
148
Negative
286
Place of sampling among amoeba positive samples
Pool
142
Water source
6
*
Percentage
92.2
7.8
34.1
65.9
35.5*
17.6**
n = 400, line percent is given; **n = 34, line percent is given.
471
For the second-round sampling, only the amoeba positive sources were included. This aims at evaluating the source of amoeba in thermal water. Fifty-five
samples from the source of thermal water and 32 samples from the water tanks
were put under analysis for amoeba. 10 (11.5%) of these samples (6 from the water
source and 4 from the water tanks) pointed to amoeba reproduction. In the source
of tanks, which were positive for amoeba for the first-round sampling, no amoeba
reproduction was observed (Table 2).
Table 2. Second-round samples taken from pool water sources and tanks with amoeba positive
Characteristics of second-round samples
Number of sample (n = 87)
From the water source
From the water tank
Amoeba reproduction (n = 87)
Positive
Negative
Place of sampling among amoeba positive samples
Water source
Water tank
Number
Percentage
55
32
63.2
36.8
10
77
11.5
88.5
6
4
10.9*
12.5**
n = 55, line percent is given; **n = 32, line percent is given.
*
Although the typology with PCR and pathogenic- non-pathogenic differentiation had not been conducted, the morphological examination, which pointed
to Naegleria and Acanthamoeba species of amoeba in 34.1% of the samples, is a
significant result. In a research conducted in Taiwan, the frequency of Naegleria
species in thermal waters turned out to be 43.3% (Ref. 45). In Italy, the frequency
of Naegleria and Acanthamoeba species in thermal waters ranged from 5.2 to
66.7 and 33.6%, respectively. In another research in Italy, the FLA frequency was
calculated to be 33% (Refs 46 and 47). In Iran, the frequency of FLA in thermal
waters was 26.7% and in Guadeloupe, the frequency of amoeba was 37.5% in
thermal baths7,48. We have to keep in mind that the typology of species has not been
conducted yet. In all the samples positive for amoeba, the typology studies with
PCR are still in progress. Upon the completion of the study, it will be possible to
establish the presence of pathogenic types, and the health risks induced by amoeba
for residents of thermal facilities.
The pool operators stated that the pool water is replaced in 97.0% of the pools.
The figure accounts for 47.9% when it comes to daily basis while it is 8.8% for
less than once a week (Table 3).
472
Table 3. Status and frequency of water replacement in thermal pools
Status and frequency of pool water replacement
Status of pool water replacement (n = 400)
Being replaced
Not being replaced
No knowledge
Frequency of pool water replacement (n = 388)
Daily
2–5 times a week
Once a week
Less than once a week and more than once a month
Once a month
Less than once a month
Number
Percent
388
6
6
97.0
1.5
1.5
186
128
40
15
5
14
47.9
33.0
10.3
3.9
1.3
3.6
CONCLUSIONS
The hygiene of the thermal springs is controlled and supervised by Ministry of
Health in Turkey. In accordance with the Thermal Springs Regulation, disinfection
of thermal water is not obligatory in Turkey49. Health problems, which may be
caused by pathogenic amoeba in thermal springs, can be prevented by complying
with hygienic principles, providing standard operational rules and supplying high
quality thermal water. Upon the completion of the second phase of the study, and
identification of the frequency of pathogenic agents, the chlorination of thermal
spring waters will be put on the agenda of the Turkish Ministry of Health. The
free chlorine level for the thermal spring waters is recommended as 1–3 ppm by
the WHO, CDC and various countries8,12,34,35. Amoeba determination and typology
can also be added to the monitoring criteria of thermal spring waters. The source
of amoeba is likely to be thermal water or amoeba may be carried by residents of
thermal facilities. Since the amoeba reproduction was mostly observed in the pool
water samples, and although there was amoeba reproduction in the pool water but
not in the source or the tank of the thermal spring water, it is safe to consider that
the pools were contaminated by the users, and not cleaned properly. Therefore, a
guideline drawn up by researchers on operation and maintenance of thermal spring
waters will be disseminated among thermal springs to prevent amoeba infections
and the current regulations will be updated. In addition, awareness should be raised
on hygienic principles among residents of thermal spring facilities. Such residents
should be informed of not diving into such water and putting their head above the
water surface in thermal springs2,8,12,38. All of the thermal springs should feature
posters, brochures and warning sideboards to inform residents. In addition, the
physicians practising in endemics for N. fowleri and thermal springs should be
knowledgeable with signs and symptoms of PAM.
473
A common health problem causes severe disability and suffering while mortality is a major public health problem. Although PAM is not a common disease
since it is mortal, it is a major problem for the public health. Therefore, it would
be beneficial to protect community health, and introduce regulations in consideration of the importance of thermal springs in terms of medical tourism and the
sustainability of tourism in general.
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476
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 477–487 (2016)
Water pollution
EFFECTS OF POLLUTION ON SOME TISSUES OF FISH
COLLECTED FROM DIFFERENT REGIONS OF BUYUK
MENDERES RIVER: A HISTOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY
Y. ADALI, Y. BASIMOGLU KOCA*
Department of Biology, Arts and Science Faculty, Adnan Menderes University,
Aydin, Turkey
E-mail: ykoca@adu.edu.tr
Abstract. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effects of pollution in the Buyuk Menderes River
on fish in terms of histopathological changes. For histopathological examinations, the tissues samples
of gills, liver, muscle and intestine of C. gibelio were studied by using light microscopy. Additionally,
surface water samples were also collected from the localities mentioned in the study and thereafter
water analysis was conducted. Aluminium and nitrite nitrogen were determined as most accumulated
chemicals in water. As a result of examinations and evaluations, it was determined that irreversible
histopathological changes were formed in C. gibelio gill, muscle, intestine and liver tissues. The
results of water analysis have also supported the findings. When water pollution, which occurs due
to many reasons and its effects on environment, public health and economy is considered, the results
of the study are of great importance for contributing to the identification of measures to be taken.
Keywords: Buyuk Menderes River, Carassius gibelio, histopathology, water pollution.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Water pollution can be defined as quality changes, resulting from anthropogenic
influences, limiting or preventing utilisation of water, disrupting the ecological
balance1,2. Buyuk Menderes River, located at Aegean Region has a length of
570 km (Ref. 3). Its major tributaries are: Banaz Stream, Curuksu Stream, Dandalaz
Stream, Cine Stream and Akcay Stream. Buyuk Menderes River and its tributary
rivers constitute basic water power of the Buyuk Menderes basin4. Buyuk Menderes River is visibly polluted and its pollution increases year by year because of
many reasons such as excessive pop-industrial enterprises in the region, domestic
wastes released from towns and villages growing without infrastructure, industrial
wastes formed in industrial organisations and wrong fertiliser and pesticide use in
agriculture5,6. Particularly, aquatic organisms are negatively affected by pollution
in water. Fish, since they are in contact with the environment in which they live,
is often preferred for pollution detection. In this study, it is aimed to determine the
physicochemical parameters causing pollution of Buyuk Menderes River and the
effects of pollution on Carassius gibelio tissues histologically.
*
For correspondence.
477
EXPERIMENTAL
Study area and sampling. Fish (C. gibelio) used in this study were caught at two
different stations (Kocarli and Umurlu Region) and in quantity by 10 samples
for each station (Fig. 1). These samples were then transported in tanks also contained river water belonging to both localities and delivered to Laboratory of
Histology-Embryology, Department of Biology, Adnan Menderes University on
the same day. The study was performed after obtaining permission from Animal
Experiments Ethical Committee, Adnan Menderes University (HADYEK Decision No 2014/017) and special care has been taken to comply with policies and
procedures on catching, transporting and euthanising fishes were established by
Animal Experiments Ethical Committee. Fishes used as a control group (n = 10,
for each locality) were placed in aquariums, filled with clean water which was
subsequently thoroughly aired, and kept in them for approximately 30 days. Fishes
were fed with standard fish food during this period. In this study, fishes 15–25 cm
in diameter were used.
Fig. 1. Map of Buyuk Menderes River (the station is marked by oval circle
Analytical procedures. Tanks filled with water samples, obtained from stations in
the vicinity of Kocarli Bridge and Umurlu region located along Buyuk Menderes
River in accordance with the established procedures, were kept in refrigerator and
transported to Izmir/Turkey People Health Laboratory in cold chain. The results of
water analyses performed by this laboratory were statically evaluated. The results
of water analyses were compared with Water Pollution Control Regulation, Potable
Water Standards7. The mean values of analysed pysicochemical parameters are
given in Table 1.
478
Table 1. Physical and chemical parameters of Umurlu and Kocarli region
Parameters
Umurlu
Kocarli
Aluminium (Al)
Copper (Cu)
Boron( B)
Zinc (Zn)
Iron (Fe)
Phosphate (PO4)
Conductivity (20°C)
Cadmium (Cd)
Calcium (Ca)
Cobalt (Co)
Chromium (Cr)
Lead (Pb)
Manganese (Mn)
Molybdenum (Mo)
Nickel (Ni)
pH
Potassium (K)
Sodium (Na)
Ammonia nitrogen (NH3–N)
Dissolved oxygen
Amonium nitrogen (NH4–N)
Nitrite nitrogen (NO2–N)
Diazinon
Ethion
Malathion
Endrin
Lindan
Aldrin
Dieldrin
0.57*
˂0.003
0.36
˂0.005
110
0.97
1220
˂2
98
˂2
˂2
˂2
11
4
4
8.9
9
96
0.24
49.1
0.26
0.07*
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
0.241*
˂0.003
0.3
˂0.005
68
0.73
1176
˂2
81
˂2
˂2
˂2
6
3
4
8.7
8
87
0.94
53.7
0.97
0.05*
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Units of
analysis
mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
µg/l
mg/l
µS/cm
µg/l
mg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
–
mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
%
mg/l
mg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
µg/l
1st class water quality
standards (TSI)
0.2 mg/l
20 µg/l
1000 µg/l
200 µg/l
300 µg/l
–
–
3 µg/l
75 mg/l
10 µg/l
20 µg/l
0.05 mg/l
100 µg/l
–
–
6.5–8.5
–
125 mg/l
–
8 mg/l
0.2 mg/l
0.50 mg/l
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
● – Could not be determined; TSI – Turkish Standardisation Institute.
Histological procedures. For light microscope analyses, the gill, liver, muscle and
intestine tissues from C. gibelio were fixed in Saint-Marie fixative (at +4°C and
for 24 h), dehydrated in graded ethanol series, cleared in xylene, and embedded in
paraffin. Sections (5–7 μm) cut by means of a rotary microtome (Leica RM2145),
stained with Mayer’s Haematoxylin-Eosin (H-E), Gomori trichrom and Periodic
Acid Shiff-Haematoxylin (PAS-H) stain8. The sections were examined and photographed using an Olympus BX 51 microscope.
479
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After measuring the physicochemical and chemical parameters of the Büyük Menderes River, the mean values were found to be 0.57 mg/l (Kocarli) and 0.241 mg/l
(Umurlu) for aluminium, 0.07 mg/l (Kocarli) and 0.05 mg/l (Umurlu) for nitrite
nitrogen (NO2–N). The mean values of other analysed pysicochemical parameters
are given in Table 1.
The control gill lamellae are regular in normal shape (Figs 2A,B,C). Deformation in lamella shapes observed in gill tissues of fishes collected from both
localities is a common symptom. Having obviously observed rupture points in
some primary lamellae, it was notable that secondary lamellae were shortened and
even these sections do not contain secondary lamella following a rupture. It was
observed that clavate lamellae, dissociation of the epithelia dependent on oedema
formation and ballooning dilatation of the veins were formed in the secondary
lamellae. A distinctive hyperplasia starting from primary lamellae and progressing
towards tips of secondary lamellae was determined. As a result of hyperplasia, it
was determined that partial and advance level of fusion was formed in secondary
lamellae. It was observed that mucus cells increase at especially primary lamellae
tips ruptured and fused secondary lamellae region (Figs 2D–I).
Fig. 2. Observed changes in gill of C. gibelio
J – rupture in primary lamellae and loss at secondary lamellae; Mc – increase in mucus cell; F – fusion of secondary lamellae; ù – degeneration of primary lamellae cartilage; + – oedema in primary
lamellae; ê – separation of secondary lamellae epithelium, ballooning dilatation (circle), rupture of
capillaries and erythrocyte releases ( ) in secondary lamellae; PL – primer lamel; SL – sekonder lamel;
Ct – connective tissue; Ga – gill arch; Sc – support cell; E – epithelium. Staining: A,C,E,G,H,I. H
and E; B – Gomori trichrome, D,F,I. – PAS. Magnification: A,B,F,G – 20×, D – 10×, C,E,H,I – 40×
480
Muscular tissue of control group is composed of longitudinal muscular fibres
and muscle cell (myocyte) held together with connective tissue (Figs 3A, B, C).
But some histopathological changes in muscular tissue of C. gibelio, caught at
both localities, were determined as a result of examinations made. Intermyofibrilar
oedema and reduction in muscular fibres atrophy is a characteristic symptom for
both localities. Necrotic myocytes, related to intermyofibrilar oedema, and vacuolisation are among the important symptoms. Dissociation at connective tissue
among muscular myotomes and necrotic muscle fibrils indicating strain differences
are noteworthy symptoms. Myocytes, which can partially store glycogen or can
not store any glycogen, in fish muscle tissues were also determined (Figs 3D–I).
Fig. 3. Light micrographs of muscle of C. gibelio
ù – myocyte nucleus, ● – necrosis in myofibrils, + – intermyofibrillar oedema, ¾ – eosinophilic
muscle fibrils, * – myocytes stored partially glycogen, ^ – myocytes not stored glycogen, ê– myofibrillar atrophy; Mf – myofibril, Ct – connective tissue; Staining: A, D, G, H and E; B, E, H – Gomori
trichrome; C, F, I – PAS; Magnification: A, C, D, E, F, G – 40×; B, H – 20×; I – 10×
Control group liver tissue consists of two sections: parenchyma and stroma
(Figs 4A, B, C). Some histopathological changes in liver tissue, caught at both
localities, were determined as a result of examinations made. Necrosis and oedema
is a characteristic symptom for both localities. Oedema-related expansion in the
perivascular area and vacuolar degeneration is also observed. Increase in the
number of eosinophilic leukocytes, congestion and hemorrhage is determined in
some sections. Glycogen accumulation and distortion of veins, in some sections,
481
are observed. Stain differences and hepatocellular degeneration are among the
notable symptoms. In some hepatocytes, pyknotic nucleus is observed and it was
determined these hepatocytes could not store glycogen (Figs 4D–I).
Fig. 4. Micrographs of liver of C. gibelio. ► – vacuolar degeneration and pyknotic nuclei in hepatocytes; ¯ – hepatocytes stored glycogen; ö – disruption in vessel; ¿ – oedema in hepatopancreatic
and perivascular region; x – altered stainning in hepatocytes; H – hepatocyte; S – sinusoid; Pa – portal
area; Vc – vena centralis; N – necrosis in hepatic parenchyma; C – congestion; Pd – hepatopancreatic
ductus; h – hemorrhage; Staining: A, D, E, G, H and E, B, H – Gomori trichrome; C, F, I – PAS;
Magnification: A, B, F, H – 40×, C, D, E – 20×, G, I – 10×
Intestinal tissue is composed of four layers: mucosa, submucosa, muscular
and serosa (Figs 5A, B, C). Epithelial oedema and epithelial cell hyperplasia in
intestine tissues of fishes were frequently encountered for both localities. Vacuolisation of epithelial cells and distortion at basal lamina were also determined. Stain
differences due to increasing in collagen fibres forming the stratum compactum,
submucosa increase in number of eosinophils and dissolution at muscular fibres
and hemorrhage were observed. Epithelial hyperplasia at the tips of intestine tissue, lymphocyte infiltration and necrosis were seen (Figs 5D–I).
482
Fig. 5. Observed changes in intestine of C. gibelio. Ò – collagen fibrils; ► – darker colour in collagen fibrils of str. Compactum; Ê – increase in eosinophilic leukocytes in submucosa; ê – epithelial exfoliation; “ – disruption in basal lamina of epithelium; Ê – degeneration in submucosa; ö
– epithelial hyperplasia; ù – dissolution in muscle fibrils; J – altered in muscle fibrils; Lu – lumen;
V – villus; E – epithelium, Lp – lamina propria; S – submucosa; M – muscular layer; * – serosa;
Staining: A, D, E, G, H, E; B, H – Gomori trichrome; C, F, I – PAS; Magnification: A, B, F, H – 40×,
C, D, E. 20×, G, I. 10×
Acute or chronic poisoning may occur in human and animals depending on the
quantity and chemical structure of nitrite ingested9,10. It has been reported nitrites
formed N-nitrosamines by reacting with secondary amines and other nitrogen
containing substances, and caused liver, esophagus, kidney, stomach, intestinal,
central nervous system lymphoid system cancers. Industrial wastewater containing
nitrogen, fertilisers and degraded organic matters constitute the most important
source of nitrate and nitrite11,12.
According to Aydin environmental status report, Buyuk Menderes River, within
Aydin Province, has water quality of 3rd class in terms of inorganic pollutants and
4th class in terms of organic pollutants (very dirty, cannot be used for agricultural
irrigation)13.. In water analysis performed in this study, according to Turkish Standards Institute (TSI) Water Pollution Control Regulation, it is determined that the
Umurlu region has water quality of 4th class and Kocarli region has water quality
of 3rd class in terms of nitrite nitrogen. Considering the increase in the amount
of nitrite in human bodies feeding with agricultural products irrigated with water
483
containing high nitrite levels and fish caught from same water, it is possible to
say the people living in this region will face serious health problems in the future.
Gills are important organs allowing passage of approximately 48 l of water
per hour. Therefore, gills can easily be affected by salt water, heavy metals, pesticides and wastewater in the environment they are present14. It is possible to say
that the results of studies conducted with the aluminum are in compliance with
our research. In a study made by Hadi and Alwan15, Tilapia zillii fish species were
treated with varying doses of aluminum and as a result of this treatment the damages observed in fish gills tissues were similar to the results obtained in our study.
When aluminum affects fish gills function, it leads to increased mucus secretion16–18.
According to our water analysis, the aluminum concentration is higher than the
acceptable value of the TSI in both localities (Umurlu – 0.57 µg/l, Kocarli – 0.241
µg/l). High aluminum content identified in the analysis of water and other toxic
substances in the water can be one of the reasons in the gill structure degeneration.
Kanthan and Richards19 have found that hyperplasia was formed by the increase
in the thickness of epithelial and thus it caused to a slowdown of blood flow. Fusion
and hyperplasia of gill lamellae may occur due to toxic substances in the water20.
Epithelial separation observed at gills is most likely due to intense oedema21.
Congestion, aneurysm and telangiectasia in lamellae is also a defense mechanism
aims to minimise the tissue damage when oxygen in the water diffuses into the
blood22. The accumulation of aluminum in gill tissue with a high concentration
can be explained by mucus secretion and structural disorder formed in gill tissue
due to contamination23. In our study, the increase in mucus cell numbers detected
in gill tissues can be considered as a defense mechanism that is intended to reduce
the absorption of aluminum and other toxic substances in water. Additionally, the
ability of ion exchange of chloride cells became impossible due to dense fusion
observed in secondary lamellae.
Fish mortality usually occurs through poisoning by toxic substances ingested
orally. Toxic substances absorbed in the digestive tract, can reach the whole body
through blood circulation. The absorption of toxic substances orally is higher
at small intestine. During the process of absorption in mucosa through villi and
microvilli, toxic substances stay in intestine longer and as a result of this they
come in more contact with mucosa24,25. In this study serious pathological findings
were determined in intestine tissues. We think that the reason of villus fusion is
a structural reaction evidenced by reduction of surface area to ensure minimum
absorption of the toxic material.
Generally, muscle tissue in fish does not play an active role in the metal accumulation. In the studies performed with freshwater fish, muscle tissue accumulates
lower level of aluminum content compared to other tissues26–28. In studies with
different species of fish caught from the natural environment29,30, similar to the
findings in our study pathologic evidence were identified. Damage to the muscle
484
fibres due to toxic substances might have caused the release of calcium ion. As a
result of this, myocyte membranes might have lost their glycogen storage capabilities by malfunctioning. Calcium ion release is also a reason for atrophy in muscle
fibres. Damage to the muscles may increase lactic acid secretion and prevent
important vital functions such as searching or capturing by affecting movement
performance in fish.
Liver, often exposed to toxic substances, is a good biomarker in the observation
of histological changes31,32. In this study, similarly to previous studies33–36, serious
histopathological changes in liver tissue such as parenchymal necrosis, oedema in
the perivascular areas, congestion, pyknotic nucleus in some hepatocytes, staining
differences and decrease in glycogen storage are identified and also it is determined
that pollution affected fish organ systems negatively.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings obtained from this study, it is possible to say that pollution
is present at the region where study is performed and fish are negatively affected
by this pollution. Better policies should be developed and necessary plans and
programs should be made in order to prevent pollution became a critical issue in
the region, eliminate pollutant factors and preserve water resources.
Acknowledgements. We thank the Adnan Menderes University Research Fund for financial support
of this research through grant number (2014-FEF-14017).
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Received 8 January 2016
Revised 14 March 2016
487
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 488–497 (2016)
Water pollution
USE OF WASTEWATER FOR AGRICULTURAL IRRIGATION
AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES. DIYARBAKIR EXAMPLE
N. UZEN
Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Agricultural Faculty,
Dicle University, 21 280 Diyarbakir, Turkey
E-mail: nuzen@dicle.edu.tr
Abstract. In order to meet the demand for scarce water resources, which decrease in quantity and
quality in many countries, especially domestic waste water is primarily treated and re-used. Discharging of waste water is an important resource to meet water demand in addition to achieving the
minimum flow in rivers. Treated wastewater could be used as an alternative water resource in many
areas especially in landscaping and irrigation of major agricultural products. Wastewater treatment
level and accuracy requirements vary based on the field of use. Biological treatment requires taking
into consideration of the public health in agricultural irrigation. Treated wastewater used in agricultural
irrigation could meet a portion or all nutrient requirements for plant growth. In addition, particularly
heavy metals and excessive amount of certain pathogens might have caused the adverse effects on
human health and also soil accumulation. Therefore, certain basic standards must be established
even if wastewater was treated for the purpose of utilisation. In this study, the suitability of treated
wastewater for irrigation and the possible effects on public health were discussed. Additionally, infectious diseases arising from the drinking and potable water were examined in Diyarbakir Province
between the years 2005–2015.
Keywords: treated municipal wastewater, water quality, public health.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Concurrent increase in population and nutritional and freshwater demand creates
an expansion in the land reserved for agricultural production and a requirement
to increase the yield in the agricultural production. A significant input in agricultural production, which increases the yield by 1 to 5-fold, water is utilised mainly
(70%) in agricultural irrigation1. Use of urban wastewater as an alternative to
scarce freshwater resources for agricultural irrigation became a rational solution. Furthermore, increase in urban population creates an increasing demand for
domestic water consumption. Utilisation of wastewater in agricultural irrigation
ensures the safe removal of the excessive discharge of domestic wastewater as
well. Also ensures the conservation of quality water for use in domains other than
agricultural irrigation.
Especially the nutrient content of domestic wastewater such as nitrogen (N)
and phosphorus (P) provides for a part or the whole fertiliser requirements for
488
the plants. Furthermore, wastewater irrigation increases the metabolic activities
of nutritious microorganisms in the soil2,3. However, if the urban wastewater is
of industrial origin, it could contain heavy metals with toxic effects such as arsenic (As), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), chrome (Cr), and lead (Pb).
These heavy metals are of specific concern due to their toxicity, bio-accumulation
tendency. Heavy metal pollution of agricultural soils is a major environmental
problem that can affect plant productivity, food quality and human health4. Only
small doses of these elements could cause toxicity in plants. The most significant
pollutant detriments for public health that could be found in wastewater used for
irrigation are pathogen microorganisms2.
It is inevitable for the agricultural soil, which is irrigated with wastewater, to
become the host station for pathogens that cause diseases and toxic effects such as
sodification and heavy metal concentration. Protective measures should be taken
to reduce these negative effects on environmental and public health.
POTENTIAL RISKS ON PUBLIC HEALTH DUE TO UTILISATION OF
WASTEWATER IN IRRIGATION
One of the most important problems that urban wastewater cause are the unicellular
or multicellular pathogenic organisms that result in significant health problems.
Several studies reported pathogen microorganisms in urban wastewater such as
viruses (Enteroviruses), bacteria (pathogen E. coli, Salmonella ssp, Shigella ssp,
Vibrio cholerae), protozoa (Entamoeba histolytica) and entozoa (Ascaris lumbricoides, Schistosoma mansoni, Trichuris trichiura)5. These pathogen microorganisms found in wastewater utilised in agricultural irrigation could cause a threat
risk through direct contact for workers who directly work on agricultural lands or
in transportation of the produce.
Risk factors connected to pathogens and chemicals contained in wastewater
are presented in Table 1.
The risks created by wastewater, which is an alternative resource for irrigation,
on human health are studied worldwide as well as Turkey. It was identified that the
rate of pathogen microorganisms such as Salmonella shigella, E. coli, Enterobacter
and Klebsiella increased in lands irrigated with Konya province sewage discharge
when compared to the lands not irrigated by this water7. In a study conducted again
on lands irrigated with Konya province wastewater, Mycobacterium ssp and several
micro-fungi, protozoa and nematodes were identified5. In a study conducted at
Hevsel Gardens in Diyarbakir, Turkey, irrigated directly with untreated domestic
wastewater, Hepatitis-E infection risk induced by eating uncooked vegetables and
irrigation applications that utilise untreated wastewater was investigated and it was
found that 34.8% of the workers were anti-HEV positive8.
489
Table 1. Risk sources of wastewater related to pathogens and chemicals6
Pathogens
Chemicals
heavy metals
nitrates and nitrites
organic micropollutants
Risk sources
bacteria
viruses
helminths
protozoa
Cause of the risk
one time or repeated con- repeated consumption
sumption or directly touching
Risk occurrence ways
(the ways of exposure
to risk sources)
by eating of shellfish, such as by eating of various foods and/
mussels and vegetables
or drinking water
by drinking water
as sourced from aerosols
to be in contact with water
from directly or indirectly
via vectors (such as insects
living around water)
Emergence of effect
generally it is observed for a generally it is observed for a
short time
long time
To prevent similar health problems and deterioration of environmental health,
the wastewater that would be utilised in alternative irrigation should meet certain
physical, chemical and biological quality standards. For this purpose, different
quality standards are implemented in different countries (WHO, FAO, EPA,…).
In Turkey, the current measures are implemented through Water Pollution Control
Regulations Technical Procedures Communiqué10. Quality standards for classification of irrigation water based on this communication are presented in Table 2.
Although national irrigation water quality standards are in effect since 1991
(Ref. 8), since water shortage is not yet significant in Turkey, reuse of treated
wastewater is still not a priority in the country. However, in near future, reuse of
wastewater will be the most significant environmental issue in Turkey9. Certain
technical limitations were introduced by Water Pollution Control Regulations
Technical Procedures Communiqué9 for use in implementation based on cultivated
plants and irrigation method used to minimise potential risks for public health
even though the wastewater complies with the quality standards depicted in Table 2. Table 3 demonstrates that wastewater utilisation is especially appropriate
for the produce that is not used for human nutrition. Furthermore, wastewater to
be used in irrigation of plants for human nutrition should be well-treated against
pathogens and to decrease the heavy metal load, in addition to the preference of
drip irrigation method where the water is provided to the root section without any
direct contact to the plant.
490
Table 2. Irrigation water quality parameters for classification9
Quality parameters
EC25 ×106
Exchangeable sodium
percentage (ESP)
Sodium adsorption ratio
(SAR)
Residual sodium carbonate, meq l–1
mg l–1
Chloride (Clˉ), meq l–1
mg l–1
Sulphate (SO42–), meq l–1
mg l–1
Total dissolved solids
(TDS), mg l–1
Boron, mg l–1
Class of water*
NO3ˉ or NH4+, mg l–1
Fecal coliform**
1/100 ml
BOI5 , mg l–1
Suspended solids, mg l–1
pH
Temperature, oC
I class
(excellent)
0–250
< 20
Water quality class
II class
III class
IV class
V class
(good)
(permis- (doubtful) (unsuitable)
sible)
250–750 750–2000 2000–3000 > 3000
20–40
40–60
60–80
> 80
< 10
10–18
18–26
> 1.25
< 66
1.25–2.5
66–133
> 2.5
> 133
0–4
0–142
0–4
0–192
0–175
4–7
142–249
4–7
192–336
175–525
0–0.5
C1S1
0–5
0–2
0–25
20
6.5–8.5
30
> 26
7–12
12–20
249–426
426–710
7–12
12–20
336–575
575–960
525–1400 1400–2100
0.5–1.12
1.12–2.0
> 2.0
C1S2, C2S2, C1S3, C2S3, C1S4, C2S4,
C2S1
C3S3, C3S2, C3S4, C4S4,
C3S1
C4S3, C4S2,
C4S1
5–10
10–30
30–50
2–20
20–100
100–1000
25–50
30
6.5–8.5
30
50–100
45
6.5–8.5
35
> 20
> 710
> 20
> 960
> 2100
–
–
> 50
> 1000
100–200
> 200
60
> 100
6.5–9 < 6 veya > 9
40
> 40
Table 3. Principles and technical limitations associated with the use of agricultural wastewaters9
Agricultural species
Fruits and viticulture
Technical limitations
– sprinkler irrigation method is prohibited
– fruits falling to the ground should not be eaten
– number of fecal coliform bacteria 1000/l00 ml
Fibre crops and seed production – surface or sprinkler irrigation can be done
– biologically purified and chlorinated wastewater used
in sprinkler irrigation
– number of fecal coliform bacteria 1000/100 ml
Forage crops, oil crops, raw
inedible plants and floricultural
– surface irrigation, mechanical treated wastewater
491
INFECTIOUS DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH WATER AND/OR
WASTEWATER
Infectious diseases could be examined in five main groups based on their modes
of transmission (Table 4).
Table 4. Diseases related to water or/and treated wastewater6
Categories
Waterborne diseases
Descriptions, observation, examples
infections that can be spread through the system in which
water is provided. water acts as a carrier for pathogens;
typhoid fever, cholera, giardiasis (diarrhea), dysentery, infectious hepatitis
Sanitation and hygienediseases resulting from lack of water for personal hygiene; it
related diseases
affects external surface of the body;
conjunctivitis, trachoma, leprosy, tinea, ascariasis, yaws
disease, giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis
Diseases suffering from
infections are moved by animals aquatic spineless
water
an important part of the life cycle of the organism causing the
infection occurs in these aquatic animals;
schistosomiasis, guinea worm, filariasis
Vector or insect-borne
these infections are spread through insects living near surface
diseases associated with water sources
water
trypanosomiasis, yellow fever, dengue, onchocerciasis (river
blindness), malaria
Infections caused by poor usually it spreads in the community due to lack of proper
sanitation precautions
sanitation practices
hookworm, roundworm, ascariasis
The life span of the pathogens transmitted to the soil by the use of wastewater for irrigation varies based on their endurance and compatibility to natural
conditions. According to Ref. 12, viruses (enteroviruses) and helminths (Ascaris
lumbricoides eggs, Taenia saginata eggs, Trichuris trichiura eggs, tepid larvae)
could survive longer both in the soil and on plant surfaces when compared to bacteria (Fecal coliform, Salmonella spp., Vibrio cholera), and protozoa (Entamoeba
histolytica cysts).
In Turkey, due to the distribution of water resources, differences in the amount
of available water, different climate characteristics, habits and differences in feudal
system, and partially because of socio-economic conditions, the prevalence of waterborne diseases differ based on the regions. 2004 statistical data for waterborne
disease cases such as Typhoid fever, Paratyphoid fever, B. dysentery, A. dysentery
and Hepatitis A and morbidity rate based on regions are presented in Table 5.
492
Table 5. Waterborne disease frequency distribution based on regions (typhoid fever, paratyphoid
fever, B. dysentery, A. dysentery and Hepatitis A), (one per hundred thousand)12
Regions
Typhoid
Paratyphoid B – dysenfever
fever
tery
case morb case morb case morb
Marmara
307 1.64
9 0.05 126 0.67
Aegean
244 2.62 21 0.23
85 0.91
Mediterranean
1871 20.25
5 0.05
66 0.71
Central Anatolia
122 1.01 26 0.22 179 1.48
Black Sea
17 0.20 27 0.32
15 0.18
Eastern Anatolia
704 11.09 50 0.79
42 0.66
Southeastern
20663 286.98 295 4.10
82 1.14
Anatolia
Turkey
23901 33.59 429 0.60 605 0.85
A – dysentery
case morb
1252 6.70
1591 17.09
5318 57.57
2966 24.58
822 9.89
472 7.44
7848 109.00
Hepatitis A
case
1116
988
1107
1107
522
447
3314
morb
5.97
10.61
11.98
9.17
6.28
7.04
46.03
20463 28.76 8824 12.40
Population figures used for morbidity rate (morb) were based on the projection made by utilising
2000 census figures by Turkey Statistical Institute13.
*
Data presented in Table 5 show significantly high prevalence of all disease
groups and the high morbidity rates in Southeastern Anatolia region. For instance,
86.45% of all typhoid fever cases in Turkey; 68.76% of all paratyphoid cases,
13.55% of all B. dysentery cases, 38.35% of all A. dysentery cases, and 37.55% of
all Hepatitis A cases were observed in the Southeastern Anatolia region. It could be
argued that this situation might be due to the level of education and habits of the
local population, climate conditions and feudal and cultural structure of the region.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Diyarbakir province is a significant part of Southeastern Anatolia region with its
size, population, land and water resources, and transportation and employment
potential. According to census data, Diyarbakir province population in 2012 was
approximately 1 635 048 (Ref. 14) and it continuously increases. This development causes an increase in agricultural production due to nutritional demands, an
increase in the demand for potable water and water for domestic use and similar
social problems. Local government has modern facilities for potable and domestic
water and treatment of such and a modern urban wastewater treatment plant. Construction of the wastewater treatment plant commenced in 2004 and in 2007, the
anaerobic sludge digester and a consequent pre-treatment) treatment facility, which
includes mechanical dehydration became operational. Construction of Diyarbakir
Advanced Biological Wastewater Treatment Plant started in 2012, and it is operational today, causing a significant reduction in the pollution load of Dicle River.
Furthermore, there are numerous existing and construction phase dams and
ponds in Diyarbakir province, which provide or will provide irrigation water in
the future within the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP). In addition, water from
493
Dicle River, which dissects the city centre, is also used by farmers for irrigation.
Dicle River has good quality standards as irrigation water and is a 2nd class water
based on by Water Pollution Control Regulations Technical Procedures Communiqué standards. Thus, toxic element and salt accumulations are not expected in
the soil even after long years of irrigation. However, in certain small and irregular
settlements around the province, domestic wastewater and agricultural irrigation
drainage water with worse quality are discharged directly into Dicle River. Similarly, it is very common to encounter certain cases in the city due to irrigation using
biologically bad quality water taken directly from the river. Table 6 presents the
waterborne bacterial cases surveyed in Diyarbakir Province by Diyarbakir Province
Public Health Directorate during the decade between 2005 and 2015.
Table 6. Number of bacterial infections transmitted by water in Diyarbakir Province, 2005–2015
(Ref. 13)
Bacteria
2005 2006 2007 2008
–
–
4
2
Salmonella
typhi
1
–
–
–
Salmonella
paratyphi A
–
–
1
–
Salmonella
paratyphi B
–
–
4
1
Salmonella
(other)
–
3
17
Shigella flexneri –
–
2
11
Shigella sonnei –
–
–
2
Shigella dysen- –
teriae
–
–
–
–
Shigella boydi
2
–
–
–
Chlamydra
trachomatis
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total
5 15
–
1
–
–
–
27
1
1
–
–
–
–
–
3
1
1
–
–
–
–
–
3
99
29
–
–
–
–
–
133
25
22
2
21
10
–
3
2
–
2
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
71
47
4
–
2
2
1
–
–
–
–
2
–
–
–
–
–
4
5
One of the riveting facts about Table 6 is the low number of cases observed
in 2005 and 2006 when compared to the figures in later years. This could be due
to the fact that all cases did not apply to a health institution or due to the unreliability of the records. Another interesting issue was another decrease in number of
cases after 2011 and especially observation of no cases in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
This could be a result of the supply of healthy potable tap water to almost whole
province by local governments, active operation of wastewater treatment facility,
and sensitivity of farmers for informed irrigation and fertilisation techniques. In
addition, the reason for high number of cases during the four-year period between
2007 and 2010 could be the fact that Wastewater Treatment System of Metropolitan Municipality of Diyarbakir was not functioning properly during this period.
494
Table 7 demonstrates waterborne viral and protozoan cases observed in the
decade between 2005 and 1015 in Diyarbakir Province based on the data obtained
from Diyarbakir Province Public Health Directorate13.
Table 7. Number of viral and protozoal infections transmitted by water borne in Diyarbakir Province,
2005–2015 (Ref. 13)
Diseases agents 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
182 214 559 515 792 134 610
Entamoeba
histolytica
Giardia intesti- 402 38 270 369 687 602 532
nalis
Hepatit A
38 59 62 58 103 111 273
2012 2013 2014 2015 Total
356 79 1581 493 6724
170
–
217 157 3444
225
59 50 4 1042
It could be observed in Table 7 that the Entamoeba histolytica amoeba had
the risk to cause infections in every year of the study period. This amoeba is a
human parasite. It causes an intestine infection called Intestinal amebiasis that
is basically indicated with bloody-mucous diarrhea. This protozoon cysts, which
are prevalent in nature, could cause the disease via drinking water and nutrients
that are consumed raw.
The source of parasite in giardiasis, which is induced by Giardia intestinalis,
is the humans that host this parasite in their bodies. Parasite is excreted via the
feces of these individuals. It is transmitted into other human bodies via consumed
vegetables and fruits when the agricultural lands are irrigated with river and irrigation water that are infected due to non-treatment of sewage discharge.
Hepatitis A virus, which was prevalent in Diyarbakir for the duration of the
present study, could be transmitted with inter-personal contact and infected food
or food washed in infected water. Raw or insufficiently cooked food (i.e. salads,
unpeeled fruits, seafood, etc.) is another mode of transmission. Known as jaundice,
Hepatitis A is a highly contagious viral disease. It affects numerous people via
epidemics that occur from time to time. Hepatitis A is 10–100 times more prevalent
than typhoid fever and 1000 times more frequent than cholera.
CONCLUSIONS
Solid waste and urban and industrial wastewater created as a result of increasing
urban and rural population should be collected properly and treated biologically,
physically and chemically. The standards for the discharge of domestic and industrial wastewater should be meticulously considered and this water should be
exposed to necessary treatment processes before delivering these into any receiving environment.
495
It is utmost beneficial to research the possibilities of utilisation for irrigation
before the removal of treated wastewater by discharge into surface waters and the
design studies should be conducted accordingly during the planning and project
phases of wastewater treatment facilities. Utilisation of wastewater in agricultural
irrigation should be encouraged. However, the implementation should be conducted
according to the regulations, without contact to the water and using appropriate
irrigation techniques and vegetation. Irrigation workers should use clothing that
would prevent direct contact with water such as gloves and boots. Authorised institutions and organisations, primarily health institutions should provide information
on the significance of waterborne diseases and ways of protection from these at
schools, businesses and health institutions. Toilet and hand wash training should
be provided for school age and young children, in a fun way. Training should be
provided for housewives, who do the cleaning and cooking chores of the household, on improving the quality of wastewater by using natural disinfectants such
as vinegar and using less chemicals by Provincial Health Directorates, administrative physicians and nurses of Family Healthcare Centres and Public Health Centre
staff. Sealed system sewage network infrastructure service should be provided
for the rural population. Disinfection of potable water should be performed using
different methods (boiling, chlorination, pH change, etc.). Preventive medicine
should be emphasised.
REFERENCES
1. O. CETIN: Agricultural Irrigation Methods. Administration of Publishing and Publications
of Food Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, Farmer Training Series, Publication No 2012/7,
Ankara, 2012, p. 7.
2. M. B. PESCOD: Wastewater Treatment and Use in Agriculture. FAO Irrigation Drainage Paper,
1992, 47–124.
3. S. TOZE: Reuse of Effluent Water – Benefits and Risks. Agr Water Manage, 80, 147 (2006).
4. M. ALBULESCUA, H. POPOVICIA, L. TURUGAA, S. MASUB, A. CHIRIAC: Analysis of
Heavy Metals Content of Soil and Vitis vinifera in Two Vineyard Areas of the Caras-Severin
County, Romania. J Environ Prot Ecol, 13 (1), 48 (2012).
5. R. UYANOZ: The Effects of Using Wastewater as Irrigation Water on Some Physical, Chemical
and Biological Characteristics of Agricultural Land in Konya. Ph.D. Thesis. Selcuk University,
Konya, 2000. 100 p. (in Turkish).
6. M. SALGOT: Hygienic Aspects of DESAR: Water Circuits. In: Decentralized Sanitation and
Reuse. Integrated Envir. Tech. Series, IWA Publishing, London, UK, 2001, 469–484.
7. K. GUR, R. UYANOZ, M. ZENGIN: Microbial Contamination in Agricultural Soils Irrigated
by Urban Wastewater in Konya. In: Proc. of the Agriculture-Environment Relationship Symposium, Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Mersin University. Engineering Faculty 13–15
May 1996, Mersin, 1996, 43–51.
8. A. CEYLAN, M. ERTEM, M. ILCIN, T. OZEKINCI: A Special Risk Group for Hepatitis E
Infection: Turkish Agricultural Workers Who Use Untreated Waste Water for Irrigation. Epidemiol Infect J, 131, 753 (2003).
496
9. Official Gazette: Water Pollution Control Technical Procedures Communiqué, Issue 20748,
Ankara, 1991. 40 p.
10. WHO: Guidelines for the Safe Use of Wastewater, Excreta and Greywater, Vol. 2, Wastewater
Use in Agriculture, World Health Organization, France, 2006.
11. D. W. WESTCOT: Quality Control of Wastewater for Irrigated Crop Production. Water Reports,
No 10, FAO, Rome, 1997. 86 p.
12. Anonymous: Ministry of Health, TSH Study Yearbook 2004, New York, Ministry of Health
Publications, 2005.
13. ANONYMOUS: Diyarbakir Provincial Directorate of Health Statistics (2005–2015). (2015b)
14. Anonymous: Diyarbakir. http://tr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbak%C+%B1r (2015c).
Received 8 January 2016
Revised 10 March 2016
497
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 498–502 (2016)
Water pollution
EFFECT OF HOUSEHOLD WATER TREATMENT DEVICES
ON THE MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF TAP WATER
S. KURKLU, M. CINAR, R. OGUR*, O. F. TEKBAS
Gulhane Medical Faculty, Department of Public Health, Division of
Environmental Health, Ankara, Turkey
E-mail: rogur@gata.edu.tr
Abstract. Although commercial household water treatment (HWT) devices are presented and accepted as a complete and absolute solution in order to improve water quality both for chemical and
microbiological aspects, their effects on microbial quality of water when they are used with municipal
tap water were not investigated. We examined water samples taken from tap waters and corresponding
HWT devices for heterotrophic plate and total coliform counts. Heterotrophic bacteria were seen in
12 (75.0%) processed water samples while five (41.7%) unprocessed tap water samples contained
colonies. It was determined that 62.5% of the water samples processed by HWT devices contained
coliform bacteria and were not potable. According to these results, it could be concluded that some
of the HWT devices may be source of microbiological contamination rather than disinfecting it.
Keywords: water treatment, water disinfection, household water treatment devices.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
It was estimated that 842 000 diarrhea deaths had been caused by unsafe drinkingwater, together with poor sanitation and poor hygiene, and this number equates
to 1.5% of the total disease burden and 58% of diarrheal diseases1. Just like other
well known considerations, also this estimate confirms the importance of improving water and sanitation in low- and middle-income settings for the prevention of
diarrheal disease and related deaths1,2.
Commercial household water treatment (HWT) units are presented as a complete and absolute solution in order to improve water quality both for chemical
and microbiological aspects. Also some findings, resulting from water quality
interventions, suggest that household water treatment activities, if combined with
safe storage is effective at improving drinking water quality and in preventing
diarrhea3–5. But also there is evidence that the health impact from HWT may be
exaggerated due to reporting bias, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and
UNICEF have recommended the use of HWT for populations relying on unsafe
supplies as part of a comprehensive strategy to prevent diarrhea4. WHO declared
that household water treatment and safe storage is one particular option within a
*
For correspondence.
498
broader Water Safety Plans to make water safer to drink. HWT and safe storage are
not a substitute for sustainable access to safe drinking-water but it does provide an
interim measure for removing pathogens from drinking-water, particularly where
access to clean and safe water supplies is not available6.
Although it is clear that HWT units should be used in developing areas which
people could not reach microbiologically safe drinking water in order to prevent
diarrheal diseases3,4,7,8, in municipal areas which treated and disinfected water was
presented to population, commercial firms try to sell HWT devices by emphasising the effects of them on physical properties which are not very important for
preventing microbiological diseases, and people generally believe that clear and
soft waters do not contain microorganisms which could cause disease burdens
and in cities it is not clear whether HWT devices reduce diarrheal diseases or
not2. And it is interesting that independent of source water quality, residents with
higher income and higher education levels were more likely to treat their water9.
It was planned to study the effect of using HWT devices, which are used generally in order to improve aesthetical properties of water, like taste and hardness,
on microbiological quality of tap water in a big city which treated and disinfected
water are available for all of the population.
EXPERIMENTAL
This study was performed on April–May 2015 in Ankara where people could reach
treated and disinfected municipal water in homes/buildings. Short information
about study was announced and all of the HWT devices of volunteers were accepted for study. All of the devices were connected to top water directly and used
in kitchen; they were preferred by users for the improving effects on hardness and
taste properties. Also all of the devices have disinfecting properties. The number
of devices which were tested in the study was 16.
Two water samples were taken from every HWT units (one of the samples
was taken from tap water just before tap water entrance of HWT and the other
sample was taken from the clean water output of HWT unit), into 250 ml sterile
water sample bottles by using sterile sampling techniques. Samples were reached to
GATA Laboratory of Department of Public Health in 2 h and they were incubated at
35ºC without any dilution, for analyses of heterotrophic plate count (heterotrophic
bacteria, total germ count or total viable microorganisms) and total coliform bacteria
for 48 and 24 h, respectively. Membrane filtration method and Endo agar were
used for the analyses of total coliform bacteria, while heterotrophic bacteria were
analysed by using ‘Pour Plate Method’, which is also known as the standard plate
count, and Tryptone Glucose Yeast Agar were used. Following incubation, plates
were examined for growth. The number of colonies was counted and results were
expressed as number of colony forming units (CFU) per ml of sample.
499
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
We examined water samples taken from tap waters and corresponding HWT devices
for heterotrophic plate and total coliform counts. Heterotrophic bacteria and total
coliform bacteria counts before and after HWT units are presented in Figs 1 and 2.
Fig. 1. Heterotrophic plate counts of sampled tap waters and corresponding HWT devices
Fig. 2. Total coliform bacteria counts of sampled tap waters and corresponding HWT devices
Heterotrophic bacteria were observed in 12 (75.0%) processed water samples of 16 HWT devices and 6 plates (37.5%) contained more than 100 CFU/ml
colonies. When we compare the results of corresponding unprocessed tap water
samples for heterotrophic bacteria counts, we determined that five of the samples
(41.7%) contained colonies and only in one of them total colony count was over
100 CFU/ml (Fig. 1).
Total coliform bacteria counts were obtained by examining plates after 24 h
incubation. Among water samples taken from HWT-processed waters, 10 (62.5%)
of them contained coliform bacteria (Fig. 2). It means that 62.5% of the water
samples processed by HWT units were not potable, for the devices included in
500
this study. This finding is very important, because only one of these samples contained total coliform bacteria before processed by HWT unit. Many studies which
were performed in order to evaluate HWT and safe storage activities in different
countries showed that availability of coliform free drinking water in homes were
low, although most of the residents declared that they used HWT devices2,3,7,9–12.
Microorganisms recovered through heterotrophic plate count tests generally
include those that are part of the natural and typically non-hazardous microbiota
of water, although in some instances, they may also include organisms derived
from diverse pollutant sources13. So it could be considered that the HWT devices
that caused increasing in the number of heterotrophic bacteria colonies may caused
changes in micro-environment of water that leads to changes in microbiota of
tap water. Biofilm formation may also contribute to the increase in heterotrophic
bacteria counts as providing supporting background for bacteria. It may be hypothesised that chloramines may be able to better penetrate into distribution system of
biofilms and inactivate attached bacteria13–15.
CONCLUSIONS
According to results obtained from this study, it could be concluded that HWT
devices may cause microbiological contamination in water rather than disinfecting it and it is clear that HWT units may cause diarrheal disease in homes even in
developed countries, and people should be informed and educated about possible
risks and proper usage of these devices.
REFERENCES
1. A. PRUSS-USTUN, J. BARTRAM, T. CLASEN, J. M. COLFORD, Jr., O. CUMMING,
V. CURTIS, S. BONJOUR, A. D. DANGOUR, J. DE FRANCE, L. FEWTRELL, M. C. FREEMAN, B. GORDON, P. R. HUNTER, R. B. JOHNSTON, C. MATHERS, D. MAUSEZAHL,
K. MEDLICOTT, M. NEIRA, M. STOCKS, J. WOLF, S. CAIRNCROSS: Burden of Disease
from Inadequate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Low- and Middle-income Settings: A Retrospective Analysis of Data from 145 Countries. Trop Med Int Health, 19 (8), 894 (2014).
2. J. WRIGHT, S. W. GUNDRY: Household Characteristics Associated with Home Water Treatment: An Analysis of the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey. J Water Health, 7 (1), 21
(2009).
3. L. FEWTRELL, R. B. KAUFMANN, D. KAY, W. ENANORIA, L. HALLER, J. M. COLFORD, Jr.: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Interventions to Reduce Diarrhoea in Less Developed
Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis, 5 (1), 42 (2005).
4. G. ROSA, M. L. HUAYLINOS, A. GIL, C. LANATA, T. CLASEN: Assessing the Consistency
and Microbiological Effectiveness of Household Water Treatment Practices by Urban and Rural
Populations Claiming to Treat Their Water at Home: A Case Study in Peru. PloS one, 9 (12),
e114997 (2014).
5. M. KOCHUBOVSKI: Water Safety in Small-scale Supplies and New Approaches. J Environ
Prot Ecol, 12 (4A), 2011 (2011).
501
6. WHO: A Toolkit for Monitoring and Evaluating Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage
Programmes. WHO, Geneva, 2012.
7. P. B. PAVLINAC, J. M. NAULIKHA, L. CHABA, N. KIMANI, L. R. SANGARE, K. YUHAS,
B. O. SINGA, G. JOHN-STEWART, J. L. WALSON: Water Filter Provision and Home-based
Filter Reinforcement Reduce Diarrhea in Kenyan HIV-infected Adults and Their Household
Members. Amer J Trop Med Hygiene, 91 (2), 273 (2014).
8. N. BUSHATI, A. NEZIRI, I. MALOLLARI, F. BUSHATI: Bacteriological Investigations of
Wells Water near the Shkodra Lake. J Environ Prot Ecol, 10 (3), 645 (2009).
9. N. LOTHROP, S. T. WILKINSON, M. VERHOUGSTRAETE, A. SUGENG, M. M. LOH,
W. KLIMECKI, P. I. BEAMER: Home Water Treatment Habits and Effectiveness in a Rural
Arizona Community. Water, 7 (3), 1217 (2015).
10. G. ROSA, P. KELLY, T. CLASEN: Consistency of Use and Effectiveness of Household Water
Treatment Practices among Urban and Rural Populations Claiming to Treat Their Drinking Water
at Home: A Case Study in Zambia. Am J Trop Med Hyg, (2015).
11. P. L. GURIAN, G. CAMACHO, J. Y. PARK, S. R. COOK, K. D. MENA: Evaluating In-home
Water Purification Methods for Communities in Texas on the Border with Mexico. Revista
Panamericana De Salud Publica (Pan American Journal of Public Health), 20 (6), 403 (2006).
12. S. P. LUBY, A. H. SYED, N. ATIULLAH, M. K. FAIZAN, S. FISHER-HOCH: Limited Effectiveness of Home Drinking Water Purification Efforts in Karachi, Pakistan. Int J Inf Dis, 4
(1), 3 (2000).
13. WHO: Heterotrophic Plate Counts and Drinking-water Safety: The Significance of HPCs for Water
Quality and Human Health (Eds J. Bartram, J. Cotruvo, M. Exner, C. Fricker, A. Glasmacher).
IWA Publishing, London, 2003.
14. M. W. LECHEVALLIER, C. D. LOWRY, R. G. LEE: Disinfecting Biofilms in a Model Distribution System. J Am Water Works Assoc, 82 (7), 87 (1990).
15. M. W. LECHEVALLIER, W. SCHULZ, R. G. LEE: Bacterial Nutrients in Drinking Water. Appl
Environ Microbiol, 57 (3), 857 (1991).
Received 8 January 2016
Revised 18 February 2016
502
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 503–511 (2016)
Soil pollution – effect of soil acidification on the soil microbiological activity
EFFECTS OF ACIDIFICATION ON THE SOIL
MICROBIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY IN THE ZLATNA AREA
A. MANEA*, M. DUMITRU, M. MATEI, A. LACATUSU, S. MATEI,
S. DUMITRU
National Research and Development Institute for Soil Science Agro-Chemistry
and Environment – ICPA, Bucharest, 61 Marasti Blvd, District 1,
73 331 Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: alexandrinamanea@yahoo.com
Abstract. The paper presents the effects of soil acidification on the soil microbiological activity
(bacteria, fungi, and soil respiration) studied in 22 sites for two layers (0–10 and 10–20 cm). The
number of bacteria is quite low in the analysed samples, the bacterial population being not completely
inhibited, but only reduced to the level of bacterial species adapted to adverse soil conditions. For
the same soil type, the bacteria counts were influenced by soil reaction, organic matter content, and
the distance from the pollution source. The soils near the pollution source, being strongly acidified,
have lower values of bacterial counts and low diversity, only several species of Bacillus, Athrobacter
and Pseudomonas being found. The soil data revealed the existence of a relatively low number of
fungi microorganisms. Generally, the Fusarium and Penicillium species, followed by Cladosporium
and Aspergillus species were most frequently identified, with a high tolerance to limiting soil conditions. Generally, the highest diversity is found in soils with neutral pH. Therefore, over 80% of soil
samples had a low potential and only 20% show a medium potential of soil respiration. At soil type
level, average content can be found in Fluvisols with neutral – slightly alkaline pH and medium
content of organic matter, allowing the development of numerous bacterial communities while fungi
counts were medium.
Keywords: Zlatna, soil acidification, soil microbiological activity.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
In Zlatna area, a mineral processing plant and smelter released large quantities of
SO2, SO3, heavy metal oxides, and sulphates leading to acid deposition1–3 during its
function. The main effects of the increased soil acidity are as following: decrease
of cation exchange capacity, mobilisation of aluminium ions, as well as a decrease
of biological activity4–6.
The effect of acid precipitation on soil microorganisms includes changes in
the bacteria counts and activity, changes in nutrient cycle and in organic matter
decomposition. The microorganisms counts in the soil also decreased with increasing acidity7.
*
For correspondence.
503
Soil reaction exerts great influence on activity and abundance of different
groups of soil microorganisms. As a general line, in soils with neutral or higher pH
the bacteria are predominant in the microbial activity8. The optimum conditions
for bacterial growth are on neutral reaction, whereas in the extremes of acidity
or alkalinity reaction, the diversity is reduced and only the tolerant bacteria are
found. Generally, bacteria are less tolerant to acidification than fungi. The number
of bacteria was significantly reduced in acid soils and soil biological activity was
severely affected at pH 3.0 (Ref. 9).
Actinomycetes do not tolerate acid soils and do not develop in soils with pH
below 5.0. They develop more slowly, starting when nutrient contents and pressure
of most active competitors tend to decrease10.
The paper presents the effects of soil acidification on the soil microbiological
activity (bacteria, fungi and soil respiration) studied in 22 sites for two soil (0–10
and 10–20 cm) layers.
EXPERIMENTAL
Soil samples were collected from 22 sites for two depths (0–10 and 10–20 cm). The
soil diagnostics were based on the concept of elementary pedogenetic processes,
in agreement with the World Reference Base for Soil Resources11.
Soil reaction (pH) was determined by potentiometric method, in water suspension (1:2.5). The values of the percentage base saturation (V8.3, %) were determined
by calculation, sum of exchangeable bases (SB, me/100 g soil) and hydrolytic acidity (HA) by the Kappen-Schofield-Chirita method12, and the total cationic exchange
capacity by calculation; the Ca2+ was determined by the Schollenberger, Dreibelbis,
Cernescu method12 and total humus content – by wet oxidation, Walkley-Black
method modified by Gogoasa13.
Microbiological analyses of soil samples were performed by plating soil decimal dilutions on specific solid culture media, topping for heterotrophic bacteria
and Czapek for fungi14. After incubation, the developed colonies were counted
and the densities of microbial structures were reported to a gram of dry soil.
Global physiological activities of microbial communities were determined by the
substrate-induced respiration method15.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The bacterial microflora species identified in soils from the Zlatna areas belong
to the Arthrobacter (Arthobacter simplex, Arthobacter globiformis, Arthobacter
citreus), Bacillus (Bacillus circulans, Bacillus polymyxa, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus megaterium), Pseudomonas, Actinomycetes, Mycobacterium, and Micrococus
genera.
504
The most common soil bacteria belong to the Bacillus (7–67%), Arthobacter
(5–60%) and Agrobacterium (1–20%) (Ref. 10) genera.
The highest frequency were recorded by Pseudomonas (70%, present at least
at one depth), followed by Circulans Bacillus (71%) and Arthrobacter (86%).
Among the Bacillus species, the most frequently are Bacillus circulans (70%),
followed by Bacillus Polymyxa (34%), while Bacillus cereus and Bacillus megaterium were identified only in 4 samples.
The Arthrobacter genus is represented by Arthrobacter globiformis in most
soil profiles, excepting 2 profiles where Arthrobacter simplex replaced them.
The most abundant bacterial community is present in soils with neutral reaction. Higher contents of calcium and neutral pH caused abundant and diverse
bacterial populations. With respect to soil properties, bacterial diversity strongly
increases with soil reaction from acid soil to low alkaline soil7.
Generally, the bacteria count are decreasing from topsoil to depth, but an
intense proliferation in the 10–20 cm layer in some soils with very strong acid
reaction were found.
High contents of bacteria were found in some Eutric Cambisols and Eutric
Fluvisols, due to soil reaction and humus content. Within the same type of soil,
the bacteria counts were determined by soil reaction, humus content and distance
from the pollution source. Close to the emission source, soils are strongly acidified and few number and low diversity of bacterial communities being found for
Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Athrobacter species.
The bacteria community is poor in Distric Cambisols, Regosols, and Luvisols
which have very strong – strong acid reaction.
In soils with neutral – weak alkaline reaction and high organic matter content, high contents of bacteria were determined in both layers (38 ×106 CFU/100
g soil in 0–10 cm layer and 22.38 cm ×106 CFU/100 g in 10–20 cm layer). Soils
with strong acid reaction have the lowest bacteria counts, generally below 5l×
106 CFU/g dry soil.
The microbial community in soils with strong acid reaction and very low
organic matter content is represented only by the Pseudomonas genus in the 0–10
cm layer, and a small number of bacteria represented by Bacillus circulans and
Arthrobacter globiformis in the 10–20 cm layer.
The bacteria number is quite low (Table 1), the bacterial population being not
completely inhibited, but only reduced to the level of bacterial species adapted to
poor/adverse soil conditions.
505
Table 1. Statistical parameters of microbiological activity (bacterial counts, fungal counts, soil
respiration)
Statistical parameter
Counts
Minimum
25%
Mediana
Average
75%
90%
Maximum
Cv%
Bacteria counts
Fungal counts
Soil respiration
(×106 CFU/g dry soil) (×103 CFU/g dry soil) (mg CO2/100 g soil)
44
44
44
1
10.3
5.42
5.4
37.5
11.90
11.6
49.55
19.69
14.7
66.21
21.59
19.53
89.35
26.45
35.8
120.51
40.55
44.5
294.5
53.50
80
78
60
In the same soil type, bacteria counts can greatly vary, from 38 ×103 CFU/100
g soil to 1.04 × 103 CFU /100 g soil, being directly influenced by soil properties.
To explain the differences, correlations between the soil bacteria number and soil
chemical characteristics were studied. Thus, correlations between bacteria counts
and the soil reaction, organic matter content, as well as the characteristics of the
cation exchange properties were revealed (Fig. 1).
The strongest correlation was determined for the soil type with the reaction
(r = 0.573***), followed by the degree of base saturation (r = 0.525**), calcium
content (r = 0.498**), the sum of the exchangeable base (r = 0.494**) and organic
matter content (r = 0.423**).
Strong correlations between the number of bacteria and humus content were
highlighted in the literature16, taking into the relationships between microbiological indicators and physicochemical properties according to soil type, ecological
characterisation and the effects of different pollutants.
Fungi are an important part of microbial biomass in different soil types. They
are spread especially in the first 10 cm of the soil profile in the litter with organic
substances under decomposition, in the cultivated soils, in forest soils and in the
acid soils. Fungi are very tolerant to extreme pH values, respectively, between
pH 2.0 and 9.0 (Ref. 10). At low pH values, fungi are dominant in soil8, because
they tolerate easier soil acidification than bacteria or other organisms. The lowest
diversity of fungal species is present in ecosystems with extremely conditions for
one or more environmental factors10.
From a microbiological point of view, the soil profiles revealed the existence
of a relatively low number of microorganisms belonging to the fungi group. The
highest counts detected, in one site, were 148.626 × 103 CFU/g dry soil in the
topsoil, respectively, 294.532 × 103 CFU/g in the 10–20 cm layer. Although this
site has a large population, diversity of genera and species is extremely low being
represented by Paecilomyces marquandii and Fusarium sp. in 0–10 cm layer and
506
only Paecilomyces marquandii in 10–20 cm layer. Also, values over 100 × 103
CFU/g dry soil were found in another two sites.
Fig 1. Correlation between different soil properties (pH, H+, Ca2+, SB, VpH 8.3, humus contents) and
bacterial counts
In other soils, the values did not exceed 100 × 103 CFU /g dry soil, the fungal
populations decreasing progressively from topsoil to less aerated depth. Decreases
of the fungal populations are accompanied by a decrease of specific diversity.
In soils with very strong acid reaction (pH 3.5, respectively, pH 3.6), less favourable to fungal growth, fungal microflora is poor in both layers. In these soils,
the lowest fungi counts were determined: 11.619 × 103 CFU/g dry soil in topsoil,
respectively, 10.302 × 103 CFU/g dry soil in 10–20 cm depth.
507
Also, these soils have been affected in terms of species diversity, Rhizopus
stolonifer, Penicillium janthinellum and Geotrichum candidum in 0–10 cm and
Rhizopus stolonifer in 10–20 cm layers being isolated.
In another soil with strong acid reaction, the topsoil was populated with up
to 22.890 ×103 CFU/g dry soil, while, in the next soil layer, the fungi counts were
smaller compared with values recorded on the topsoil (12.604 ×103 CFU/g dry
soil). In terms of diversity, Epicoccum nigrum, in the first layer, and Aspergillus
terreus in the next layer were isolated.
Decreases of the fungal populations are accompanied by a decrease in specific diversity in the 10–20 cm layer, in 20% of soil samples, only one species
or maximum two species have been isolated due to the existing conditions soil.
Generally, the Fusarium and Penicillium genera, followed by the Cladosporium and Aspergillus genera were most frequently identified, highlighting a
high degree of tolerance to the poor conditions of the soil. High diversity generally characterises soils with a neutral reaction. Correlation between soil chemical
properties and fungi counts (Fig. 2) have positive trends, and distinct significant or
significant values for soil reaction, the degree of base saturation, cation exchange
capacity and calcium contents. Correlations, although significant, are smaller than
those found for bacteria.
Fig. 2. Correlation between the soil properties (pH, Ca2+, SB, VpH 8.3) and fungal counts
508
Soil respiration is a characteristic of soil organic matter mineralisation and
other metabolic processes in which CO2 is released16. Under stress, stronger organisms respond by increasing respiratory activity, while more sensitive organisms
are characterised by decreased respiration values17.
Higher values of microbial biomass and respiration rates indicate a better
state of soil microorganisms, which could not be highlighted in the area studied.
Thus, over 80% of the soil samples presented a low potential of soil respiration values and only 20% presented a medium potential of soil respiration values
(Table 1).
Fig. 3. Correlation between the soil properties (pH, Ca2+, SB, VpH 8.3, organic matter contents) and
bacterial counts
509
In terms of soil type, average values of soil respiration can be found at Fluvisols, with neutral – slightly alkaline reaction, and medium organic matter content,
allowing thus the development of a various bacterial community and a medium
fungal microflora community. However, the profiles with average soil respiration
values, in the least one layer, higher than the bacterial biomass may suggest a
state of stress15.
Soil respiration is positively influenced by the soil calcium content, the cation
exchange capacity, the degree of base saturation and the total organic matter content (Fig. 3), establishing significant distinct or significant positive correlations.
Changes in soil respiration were found related to soil reaction, thus, in control
soils, respiration was greater at pH 6.1 compared to pH 4.0 (Ref. 17). Also, soil
respiration activity significantly correlated with total carbon content and total
nitrogen content18.
CONCLUSIONS
The bacteria counts are quite low in the analysed samples. The bacterial population is not completely inhibited, but only reduced to the level of bacterial species
adapted to adverse soil conditions. For the same soil type, the bacteria counts were
influenced by soil reaction, organic matter content, and the distance from the pollution source. The best correlation was determined between the bacteria counts and
soil reaction (r = 0.573***), followed by those with the degree of base saturation
(r = 0.525**), calcium content (r = 0.498**), the sum of the cation exchange (r =
0.494**), and humus content (r = 0.423**).
The soil profiles revealed the existence of a relatively low number of microorganisms belonging to the group of fungi. Decreases of fungal populations are
accompanied by a decrease in specific diversity. The correlations between soil
fungal number and soil chemical properties are generally positive and significant,
especially for soil reaction, the degree of soil base saturation, the sum of cation
exchange and calcium contents.
As regarding the soil respiration, over 80% of the soil samples highlighted a
low potential of soil respiration and only 20% highlighted a medium potential of
soil respiration.
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7. D. H.F. LIU, B. G.LIPTAK: Air Pollution. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1999.
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Upper Saddle River, NY, USA, 2008.
9. A. J. FRANCIS: Acid Rain Effects on Soil and Aquatic Microbial Processes. Cell Mol Life Sci,
42 (5), 455 (1986).
10. G. ZARNEA: General Microbiology. Theory of Ecology of Microorganisms: Microorganisms
and Their Natural Environments. Romanian Academy Publishers, Bucharest, 1994.
11. IUSS–FAO: World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014. International Soil Classification
System for Naming Soils and Creating Legends for Soil Maps. World Soil Resources Reports
No 106. FAO, Roma, 2014,
12. M. DRACEA, V. BLANARU, R. BOGACI: Determination of Soil Cation Exchange Properties.
MAIA, ASAS, ICPA, Bucharest, 1986, 220–258.
13. D. DANILIUC: Determination of Organic Carbon and Estimation of Soil Humus Content. In:
Soil Agrochemical Analysis Methodology in Order to Establish the Necessary Amendments and
Fertilizers. MAIA, ASAS, ICPA, I (I), 1981, 125–132.
14. P. PAPACOSTEA: Soil Biology. Scientific and Encyclopedic Publishers, Bucharest, 1976.
15. Gh. STEFANIC: Assay of the Potential Level of Soil Respiration with an Oxygen-Generating
Respirometer. Bull Acad Sci Agric Forest, 21, 87 (1991).
16. I. VASILINIUC: Soil Quality: Notions and Concepts. Al. Ioan Cuza University Ed., Iasi, 2009.
17. H. SANTRUCKOVA: Soil Respiration as a Measure of Soil Biological – Activity. Crop Production, 39, 769 (1993) (in Czech).
18. M. A. TABOR-KAPLON, J. BLOEM, P. ROMKENS, P.C. de RUITER: Functional Stability
of Microbial Communities in Contaminated Soils. Oikos, 111, 119 (2005).
Received 22 February 2016
Revised 28 April 2016
511
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 512–522 (2016)
Industrial pollution
GEOTECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INDUSTRIAL
WASTE SLAG AND SLUDGE FROM SMEDEREVO STEEL
MILL, SERBIA
D. RAKICa*, I. BASARICa, Z. BERISAVLJEVICb, D. BERISAVLJEVICc
Department of Geotechnics, Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of
Belgrade, 7 Djusina Street, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia
E-mail: dragoslav.rakic@rgf.bg.ac.rs
b
‘Koridori Srbije’ Ltd., 21 Kralja Petra Street, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia
c
Institute for Testing Materials-IMS, 43 Vojvode Misica Blvd., 11 000 Belgrade,
Serbia
a
Abstract. In 2011, steel mill in Smederevo has started with the construction of the first certified
plant for the industrial waste management in the Republic of Serbia. The most important facility of
this plant is the industrial waste landfill with independent cells: bigger – for non-hazardous waste
disposal and smaller – for hazardous waste disposal. Since this is the earthfill structure with a planned
height of 50 m, one of the main geotechnical problems, which is being analysed in these cases,
is landfill slope stability. Geotechnical parameters, especially shear strength parameters (internal
friction angle – j′ and cohesion c′) as well as general physical parameters (unit weights, moisture
content, particle size distribution, permeability) are used in these analysis. Their values, obtained by
laboratory geomechanical tests on different samples of slag and sludge, are presented in this paper.
Keywords: industrial waste, steel slag, sludge, geotechnical parameters, shear strength.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
In Serbia, only in manufacturing plants of the steel mill Smederevo, over
1 150 000 t of industrial waste generate each year. Almost half of it (500 000 t)
is been reused, either within the steel mill or beyond. The rest of waste, which
includes solid industrial waste (slag) and sludge from the industrial waste water
treatment plant are been permanently disposed. Thereby, the steel mill started with
the construction of the first certified plant for industrial waste management in the
Republic of Serbia. The aim of this plant, from the aspect of environmental protection, is to provide the space in a rational and safe way, i.e. to build a landfill for
permanent disposal of eleven types of industrial waste and for temporary storage
of certain waste types which are listed as secondary raw material. The total available capacity of the landfill is 4 685 000 m³, of which 4 450 000 m³ are planned
for non-hazardous waste disposal and 235 000 m³ for hazardous waste disposal.
*
For correspondence.
512
Estimated quantities of certain waste types, which would be disposed annually,
are presented in Table 1 (Ref. 1).
Besides these estimated annual quantities, at the landfill will be disposed and
900 000 m3 of slag from the blast furnace which is located at the site (Table 2)
(Ref. 2).
Waste management plant has the following functional units: landfill body
(consists of two separate cells: bigger – for non-hazardous waste disposal and
smaller – for hazardous waste disposal, Fig. 1), manipulative-service plateau,
internal roads and system of protective boundary channels.
Table 1. Annual quantity of waste for disposal1
Waste types
Classification Quantity
(t/year)
BF lump slag
nHZW-solid 253685
Convertor slag
nHZW-solid 260784
Mixer slag
nHZW-solid
78201
BF sludge
HZW-sludge
15361
Neutralisation sludge
HZW-sludge
8477
Refractory waste
HZW-solid
5286
Steel turnings
nHZW-solid
147
Roll shop machinery waste nHZW-solid
53
Tandem mill sludge
HZW-sludge
456
Filter cake
HZW-sludge
950
Tin mill sludge
HZW-sludge
13
Total
623413
Reuse
(%)
20
40
25
0
0
30
50
50
0
0
0
Density
(t/m3)
1.553
1.553
0.894
1.606
1.111
1.960
1.842
2.400
1.111
1.111
2.000
Volume
(m3)
130681
100754
65605
9565
7630
1888
40
11
411
855
6
317446
Table 2. Waste volumes for disposal from 1 year till 10 years1
Type of cell
nHZW-solid
HZW-solid
HZW-sludge
nHZW-solid
HZW-solid
HZW-sludge
Present waste Yearly produc(m3)
tion for landfilling (m3)
900000
297091
0
1888
0
18467
0
297091
0
1888
0
18467
Years
Total capacity
needed (m3)
1–5
2385455
9440
92335
1485455
9440
92335
6–10
513
Fig. 1. Location of the waste management plant with the final look of landfills for hazardous and
non-hazardous waste
EXPERIMENTAL
There is no internationally accepted standard sampling procedure of industrial
waste for the purpose of geomechanical tests. The reason for this is the extreme
waste heterogeneity (by chemical and mineral composition, size and shape of fractions, different characteristics of individual waste types). Analysis of literature data
showed that researchers used different sample sizes and different compositions
of industrial waste for determination of physical-mechanical characteristics2,3.
Prior mechanical preparation was mostly performed in terms of grinding (milling,
crushing or simply removal of larger pieces) or tests included only small fractions
of industrial slag from steel mills4.
Results presented in this paper were obtained by tests on artificially prepared
samples, taking into account moisture content, density, shape of waste particles
and with respect to recommendations related to dimensions of used apparatus
and size of the largest fractions in sample. For the first sample group formation
non-hazardous industrial waste (nHZW) was used, which was taken from the location where it has already been disposed. The sample of hazardous waste (HZW)
was taken directly from the process of industrial waste waters treatment (Fig. 2).
Geomechanical laboratory tests of non-hazardous waste were carried out on 4
samples (U-1A,B and U-2A,B), and one sample of hazardous waste (U-3) was
also laboratory tested. Both groups of industrial waste were treated as ‘artificial
soil’, so the laboratory testing methods used in soil mechanics were applied for
the definition of physical-mechanical parameters.
514
Fig. 2. Layout of hazardous waste (sludge) and non-hazardous waste (slag) which will be disposed
at the landfill
The average values of chemical composition of non-hazardous waste samples
(blast furnace slag – BF lump slag), on which laboratory geomechanical tests were
performed, are presented in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Chemical composition of blast furnace slag
The results of performed particle size distribution analysis, without previous
material preparation, for all three waste types, are presented in Fig. 4 (Ref. 5).
Shear strength is defined by direct shear test, using the direct shear apparatus.
Material is previously crumbled, homogenised and mixed in order to ensure an
adequate ratio of particle size distribution, i.e. ratio of characteristic apparatus
dimension (L) and fraction size (d), L/d ≥ 5. All tested samples had over 90%
of particles smaller than 20 mm, and the rest (6–9%) were larger particles with
maximum size of 40 mm.
515
Fig. 4. Particle size distribution curves of tested industrial waste samples
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Industrial waste slag has quite good physical-mechanical characteristics6: specific
gravity Gs = 3.2–3.6, dry unit weight gd = 16–19.2 kN/m3, water absorption up to
3%, Los Angeles – abrasion 20–25%, hardness between 6 and 7 and California
Bearing Ratio (CBR) can be over 100%. The results of performed laboratory tests
showed that waste slag can be used in road construction, since it shows a good
compaction characteristic and bearing capacity. Value of CBR ranged from 21.2 to
30.2%, and dry unit weight was in range gdmax = 16.4–18.9 kN/m3 at the optimum
moisture content wopt = 6.6–11.1% (Fig. 5) (Ref. 5).
Fig. 5. Comparison of standard Proctor test and modified Proctor test of different industrial waste
material
Correct design of landfill slopes implies knowledge of industrial waste shear
strength, whether it refers to the contact of waste and natural soil, waste and natural
516
protective systems or waste and artificial (geosynthetic) materials used as protective systems7. Tests in the direct shear apparatus showed that stress – displacement
relationship has a different character in different industrial waste types, regardless
to their density. So, for non-hazardous waste samples (U-1: BF lump slag and
U-2: conv. slag), with unit weights g = 15.5–16.5 kN/m3 and under higher normal
stresses (s′n = 200 kPa), this relationship for initial and medium displacements (Dl
< 6 mm), is the most similar to behaviour of material with deformation hardening.
The peak shear strength mobilises only at horizontal displacements large enough.
Under lower normal stresses (s′n < 100 kPa), the stress-displacement relationship
was mostly indicated the behaviour of waste similar to the behaviour of material
with distinct plastic failure (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Characteristic stress-displacement relationship for the non-hazardous waste samples
Stress-displacement relationship on a hazardous waste sample (U-3: BF –
sludge), despite its better density (g = 17.0 kN/m3) and value of normal stresses,
had different character. The stress-displacement behaviour of this sample is similar
to the behaviour of soil with distinct plastic failure at small horizontal displacements (Dl < 3 mm, Fig. 7).
Fig. 7. Characteristic stress-displacement relationship for the hazardous waste sample
517
For defining the industrial waste shear strength (tf), a linear Coulomb-MohrTerzaghi equation is usually proposed8. This equation is a function of normal total
stresses tf = f(sn), i.e. a function of normal effective stresses tf = f(s′n), using effective cohesion (c′) and effective internal friction angle (j′):
τf = c′ + σ′n tg φ′
(1)
Since that for all samples, regardless of normal stress levels, is clearly expressed failure, the peak values of shear strength were determined. The obtained
values for linear form of Coulomb-Mohr-Terzaghi equation, are presented in
Fig. 8, where they are compared with values of other authors that can be found in
the literature6,9. This relationship is the simplest approximation of stress at failure,
which is in reality presented with complex mechanism of interaction between grains
of different sizes, shapes and even composition. Therefore, the interpretation was
also performed based on the nonlinear failure envelope, using relations that correspond to the so-called hyperbolic shape10. Change of the effective secant shear
strength angle is expressed as a function of normal stress in the following form
ϕ ' = ϕ 'B +
∆ϕ '
;
1 + σ 'n / pN
∆ϕ '
τ f = c '+ σ 'n ⋅ tan ϕ 'B +
1 + σ 'n / p N
(2)
Fig. 8. Comparative display of proposed linear failure envelopes with literature data
On the BF lump slag samples (g = 15.3–15.5 kN/m3), analyses were performed
with cohesion of c′ = 0 and 4 kPa. This way, the nonlinear envelopes were obtained,
which showed good matching with linear Coulomb-Mohr-Terzaghi shear strength
equation (Fig. 9).
518
Fig. 9. Nonlinear shear strength equation of hyperbolic shape for BF lump slag
The same analyses were performed on the convertor slag samples (g = 16.5–
16.7 kN/m3), with cohesion values c′ = 0 and 3 kPa. For the convertor slag also,
nonlinear envelope showed good matching with linear Coulomb-Mohr-Terzaghi
shear strength equation (Fig. 10).
Fig. 10. Nonlinear shear strength equation of hyperbolic shape for convertor slag
Analysis with cohesion c′ = 0 and 3 kPa was performed on BF sludge sample
(g = 17.0 kN/m3), and nonlinear and linear shear strength equations for both cohesion values are presented in Fig. 11.
519
Fig. 11. Nonlinear shear strength equation of hyperbolic shape for BF sludge
Hyperbolic shape of shear strength equation has not been used so far for
description of industrial waste shear strength, and therefore obtained nonlinear
failure envelopes are compared with linear Coulomb-Mohr-Terzaghi equation
and cumulatively presented in Fig. 12. To highlight the importance of using the
nonlinear failure envelope and a significantly higher range of normal stresses, relationships for normal stresses interval from 0 to 1000 kPa are presented in Fig. 12.
It can be seen that the proposed hyperbolic shape of nonlinear failure envelope
showed good matching for the normal effective stresses interval s′n = 0–200 kPa,
while for the normal effective stresses s′n > 200 kPa, deviation trend is expressed
in terms of getting smaller values of internal friction angle, i.e. decrease of shear
strength. Since the planned landfill height was 50 m, and that in these conditions
the vertical effective stresses will be significantly higher than 200 kPa, for the stability analysis needs the nonlinear failure envelope of hyperbolic shape was used.
Fig. 12. Comparative review of proposed linear and nonlinear shear strength envelope of different
industrial waste material
520
CONCLUSIONS
Problem of industrial waste disposal does not generally fall into any traditional
engineering disciplines, but it is an interdisciplinary scientific area. However,
despite the use of prescribed regulations, certain problems often occur because
of insufficient knowledge of waste material in the landfill body. Waste material
in the landfill body changes physical and mechanical characteristics over time
due to constant circulation of leachate. Therefore, landfills that are more often
designed are those that exceed requirements defined in the regulations in some key
aspects that can endangered safety and certain technological systems and cause
specific ecological consequences on the environment. One of these requirements
is the analysis of the most important geotechnical aspects, primarily the landfill
slope stability and prediction of size and time of waste settlement. This includes
knowledge of physical-mechanical parameters of waste material (primarily the
shear strength parameters). Values of the shear strength parameters, which are
presented in this paper, vary depending on the industrial waste type, and therefore
values that can be found in the world literature are different. The composition
of steel slag varies from one region to another and from one country to another,
which significantly affects the physical-mechanical properties. That is why these
values cannot be directly taken from literature data without previous knowledge of
chemical composition of steel slag, preparation method during the sample formation and performed procedure for their determination.
Acknowledgements. This paper was realised under project number 36014 funded by the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia for the period 2011–2015.
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Developing Countries. Present Problems and Future Perspectives. J Environ Prot Ecol, 12 (2),
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5. D. RAKIC, B. VOJNOVIC, D. BERISAVLJEVIC. I. BASARIC: Geotechnical Conditions of
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Processing Congress, Sozopol, Bulgaria, 2013, 1056–1060.
6. A. S. NOURELDIN, R. S. McDANIEL: Evaluation of Surface Mixtures of Steel Slag and Asphalt. Transportation Research Record 1269, Transportation Research Board, National Research
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7. D. RAKIC, L. CAKI, S. CORIC: Shear Strength of Municipal Waste Materials from Two Landfills
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Received 12 February 2016
Revised 20 March 2016
522
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 523–531 (2016)
Industrial pollution – public health
RESPIRATORY IMPACT IN WORKERS EXPOSED TO AIR
POLLUTANTS FROM PETROLEUM REFINERY
E. DANTESa,b*, A. P. FILDANa,b*, C. L. TOMAc,d, GH. VOICUa,
C. OANCEAe
Clinical Pneumology Hospital of Constanta, Constanta, Romania
E-mail: ariadnapetrofildan@yahoo.com; elena.dantes@gmail.com
b
Faculty of Medicine, ‘Ovidius’ University, Al. Universitatii Street, Campus,
Corp B, 900 470 Constanta, Romania
c
Institute of Pneumology ‘Marius Nasta’, Bucharest, Romania
d
University of Medicine and Farmacy ‘Carol Davila’, Bucharest, Romania
e
University of Medicine and Pharmacy ‘Victor Babes’, Timisoara, Romania
a
Abstract. The aim of the study is to examine the frequency of respiratory symptoms in a representative group of employees exposed to possible chemical pollutants, who work in the petrochemical
refinery in Constanta County. We studied the exposure to environmental workplace air pollutants
emitted by major sources of refinery and the prevalence of cough, expectoration, wheezing, dyspnea,
chest pain or tightness in a group of 202 exposed employees and we compared this group with 121
non-exposed persons. The population of the 2 lots (N = 323) was investigated using a medical questionnaire and performing clinical examination. The prevalence of symptoms was calculated by sex,
age, seniority at work and associated respiratory risk factors (smoking). The results reveal the most
common chemical pollutants released into the atmosphere at the workplace: aliphatic and aromatic
hydrocarbons, (sulphur dioxide) SO2, carbon dioxide (CO2), oxide of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic
compounds (VOCs), particulate matter. The presence of these substances is systematically checked
by the toxicology laboratory. 258 of the patients (pts.) (80%) age between 31–50, 132 pts. (40%)
people had seniority at work between 6 and 15 years (91 pts. in the exposed group and 41 pts. in
the unexposed group), and 46 pts. (14%) a higher seniority, between 21 and 30 years (24 pts. in the
exposed group and 22 pts. in the non-exposed group). There was a predominance of respiratory symptoms in the exposed group, mainly cough (31.20%), expectoration (29.7%) and wheezing (29.2%).
Out of 323 subjects, 205 pts. (63%) presented at least one respiratory symptom, 132 pts. (65.3%) in
the exposed group versus 73 pts. (60.3%) in the non-exposed one. Symptoms were frequent in the
group of smokers and in smokers exposed to toxic emissions. The study shows the importance of
complying with regulations and requires ongoing monitoring of air quality in risk areas to prevent
occupational exposure of employees and development of respiratory diseases.
Keywords: refinery, exposure, respiratory symptoms.
*
For correspondence.
523
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The petroleum refinery manufactures crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, oils, feedstock for the petrochemical industry, hydrogen gas1. Petroleum
refinery activities include storage at the refinery, all petroleum handling and
refining operations starting with crude desalting (crude oil is washed with water
from contaminants), fluid catalytic cracking (a process that converts fractions of
petroleum into gasoline, olefinic gases and other products), catalytic reforming
(chemical process that converts naphtha into higher octane liquid products known
as reformates), sulphur recovery, thermal processing, delayed coking (cracks the
heavy long chain hydrocarbon molecules into gas oil and petroleum coke) and
terminate with distribution with loading of refined products into pipelines, tank
trucks or ships1–3. Criteria air pollutants and other non-hazardous air pollutants
that are emitted (nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide
(SO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), greenhouse
gases (GHG), total reduced sulphur) have adverse respiratory effect as irritation
of the upper and lower airways or inflammations1–5.
Asthma, chronic bronchitis and COPD are more common diseases that could
be developed by workers in refinery due to occupational exposure4,5. Hazardous
air pollutants emitted by this industry as organics (e.g. benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, phenol, ethylbenzene, xylene), inorganics (e.g. hydrogen
chloride (HCl), hydrogen cyanide (HCN)), reduced sulphur compounds (carbon
disulphide (CS2)), and metals (e.g. arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt) are involved especially in leukemia or other severe blood disorders, cancer,
hypersensitivity pneumonia, cardiovascular effects, depression of immune system,
neurological and skin diseases3,5,6. The aim of our study was to evaluate the exposure
to environmental workplace air pollutants emitted by major sources of refinery
and identify the prevalence of cough, expectoration, wheezing, dyspnea and chest
pain or chest tightness in exposed workers in petroleum refinery.
EXPERIMENTAL
The hypothesis of the study was that exposure to work in a refinery increases the
risk of respiratory symptoms and lung diseases. The study design was a prospective cohort study. The study is part of a large epidemiological research, aimed to
estimate the prevalence of symptoms and lung disease in a community exposed to
respiratory risk factors chemical, a petrochemical sector, within Constanta County,
Romania7. The notion of respiratory risk is defined as potential adverse effects on
respiratory health resulted from exposure to hazardous agents8, and the professional chemical noxa as substance used in the production process, under certain
circumstances, could damage the body causing his illness5.
524
Materials. A representative sample of the reference population was constituted,
represented by the 3094 exposed employed persons, choosing a statistic step of 14,
the accuracy of the sample being 95.5% and limit error of 0.1%. The study group
consisting of 221 exposed employees was compared with a sample population of
145 non-exposed individuals from the administrative department. Patients in the
study group (N = 323) representing 221 exposed individuals (Ex) and 145 nonexposed individuals (Non-Ex) were noted the general demographic data, respiratory
chemical pollutants exposed person status, smoker status, presence of respiratory
symptoms as cough, expectoration, wheezing, dyspnea, chest pain, acute episode
of dyspnea or chest tightness.
Methods. We analysed the presence of exposure and respiratory symptoms in the
group studied using questionnaires that included information on identifying the
workplace, general information (age, sex, residence, seniority at work), workplace
characteristics (lighting, ventilation, sanitary conditions, collective and individual
means of protection), information about symptoms and diseases for each employee
included in the study and exposure to smoking. Anamnesis, clinical examination,
pulmonary function test and chest X-ray were performed. All cases were centralised in a common database in electronic format using Microsoft Office Excel 2007
program. Statistical analysis of the data has been carried out using soft GraphPad
Prism and SPSS. Data were expressed as mean, percentage, standard deviation.
The prevalence rate of symptoms was used to calculate the exposure risk in certain
groups studied: exposed/non-exposed, women/men, smokers/non-smokers, low
seniority/high seniority at work.
RESULTS
The study was conducted on 323 employees of the Petrochemical refinery from
Constanta county, Romania, which were divided into 2 groups: a group of 202
people (62.5%) exposed to chemical hazards existing in their work environment and
a group of 121 non-exposed people (37.5%) working in the administrative department. The general characteristics of the population studied are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Characteristics of cohorts
Cohort population
Exposed
Non-exposed
(Ex)
(Non-Ex)
Subjects No (%)
323
202 (62.5)
121 (37.5)
Ratio male:female
136 (42.1):187 (57.9) 117 (57.9):85 (42.1) 19 (15.7):102(84.3)
Mean age
39.43+–7.13 (25–56) 38.07+–6.6 (24–56)
41.70+–7.42
History of occupational
12.41+–7.25
12.40 +–6.7
12.41+–7.25
exposure (years)
Smoking habits
Actual or former
214 (66.2)
143 (70.7)
71 (58.6)
Never
109 (33)
59 (29.21)
50 (40.65)
525
The distribution of cohort persons depending on the Petrochemical refinery
installations and the most common chemical hazards found are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Work place characteristics
Work place
Mixture of manufactured
expedition products
Coker
Chemical air Chemical air
Air chemical pollutants
pollution
pollution
exposed (Ex) non-exposed
(Non-Ex)
78 (38.6)
0 (0)
aliphatic hydrocarbons
16 (7.9)
0 (0)
10 (5)
0 (0)
8 (4)
0 (0)
7 (3.5)
0 (0)
2 (1)
0 (0)
Hydrofining
7 (3.5)
0 (0)
Loading petroleum products and packaging
Laboratory
3 (1.5)
0 (0)
7 (3.5)
0 (0)
Atmospheric vacuum distillation
Gas desulphurisation and
sulphur recovery
Electric
Gasoline hydrofining
Electronics automation Me0 (0)
chanical Department
Petroleum and petrochemi- 43 (21.3)
cal testing Inspection
Department
Technical Department
0 (0)
Administrative Department
0 (0)
Others
21 (10.4)
Total
202 (100)
28 (23.1)
0 (0)
SO 2, aliphatic hydrocarbons,
coke breeze
petroleum, gasoline, ethanol and
methyl, H2S
SO2, H2S, sulphur powder, mercaptans
aliphatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
CO2, H2S
gasoline, mercaptans, gases with
C3, C4, SO2, H2S
petrol, diesel, gasoline, ethanol
and methanol, catalyst powder
SO2, H2S
aliphatic hydrocarbons and butane
aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, sulphuric acid, nitric acid,
hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, CO2, CO, NO2, SO2, H2S
idem laboratory
5 (4.1)
88 (72.7)
0
miscellaneous
121 (100)
The main features evaluated in the workplace were lighting, ventilation, sanitary conditions and the existence of collective and individual protection means.
180 (89.1%) of the group exposed employees said they have the means of collective protection and 187 (92%) have personal protective equipment. All employees
526
have performed medical examination prior employment and 91.3% had regular
health checks.
The prevalence of respiratory symptoms among employees in the exposed
group compared to those in the unexposed group is presented in Table 3.
Table 3. Prevalence of respiratory symptoms among employees
Chemical air pollu- Chemical air pol- Prevalence report of
tion exposed (Ex) lution non-exposed
symptoms (PR)
(Non-Ex)
Cough
63 (31.20)
19 (15.70)
1.99
Expectoration
60 (29.70)
27 (22.30)
1.33
Wheezing
59 (29.20)
28 (23.10)
1.26
Dyspnea
46 (22.80)
27 (22.30)
1.02
Chest tightness
22 (10.90)
17 (14)
0.78
Acute crisis of dyspnea
25 (12.40)
38 (31.40)
0.39
Total symptoms
132 (65.30)
73 (60.30)
1.08
Risk assessment of occupational exposure to chemical pollutants at work was
performed by calculating the ratio of prevalence symptoms traced in different
groups of people compared. Prevalence ratio (PR) represents the ratio between
the prevalence of symptoms in group A and prevalence of symptoms in group B.
A PR ratio above 1 indicates a greater prevalence of symptom in the numerator
group. PR was calculated based on exposure vs. non exposure, sex, smoker vs.
nonsmoker, seniority at work (up to 15 years vs. over 20 years) (Table 4).
Table 4. Prevalence of respiratory symptoms among employees
Respiratory
Symptoms
Cough
Expectoration
Wheezing
Dyspnea
Chest tightness
Suffocation
Total symptoms
PR
exposed/ nonexposed
PR
female/male
(F/M)
PR
smoker/
never smoker
1.99
1.20
1.26
1.02
0.78
0.39
1.08
0.73
1.09
1.03
1.24
1.30
1.68
1.05
1.52
1.64
2.29
0.71
1.19
0.44
1.03
PR
under 15 years/
higher than 20
years
1.01
1.87
1.19
1.88
1.63
1.22
1.20
Respiratory symptoms were more common in the exposed (PR Ex/Non-Ex =
1.08), in women (PR = 1.05 F/M), in current smokers (PR = 1.03) and in those
with greater seniority (PR = 1.2). Cough was the most common symptom in the
exposed group (PR = 1.99). To identify the association of smoking as a risk factor
for pulmonary symptoms, we compared the prevalence of symptoms in smokers
527
and non-smokers in the 2 groups. It was observed that in smokers symptoms had
an equal partition regardless of exposure (smokers Ex/Non-Ex 61.29% versus
67.8% – PR = 0.90); but in non-smokers the frequency of symptoms was higher
in the exposed group (67.8% versus 50% – PR = 1.36). In the non-frequent exposed group the frequency of symptoms was higher in smokers (61.36% versus
50% – PR = 1.23). Seniority at work in the group of exposed patients showed a
higher prevalence of symptoms than those having worked over 20 years. (75%
versus 63.74% – PR = 1.17) and significantly higher than the one in the group of
non-exposed patients with the same working experience (over 20 years working
experience Ex/Non-Ex 75% versus 31.82% – PR = 2.36).
DISCUSSION
Both globally and in Romania, the development of the chemical industry, petrochemical industry in particular, can lead to employee exposure to risk factors for
lung disease from ambient exposure in the workplace5. The specific pollutants
are represented mainly by gas, fumes, fog, particles dispersed in air. Employees
frequently report long periods with respiratory symptoms without actually being
diagnosed with lung disease9. In the current use of chemicals, acute poisoning is
very rare, accidental, so attention must be directed towards chronic disease recorded
in time after moderate or low, continuous or intermittent exposure. The most common occupational diseases are pneumoconiosis, chronic bronchitis, COPD, lung
cancer, extrinsic allergic alveolitis9. 15 to 30% of asthmatics have work-related
asthma forms and 15% of COPD cases are secondary occupational exposure9.
The study proposed to assess how much human health is affected if exposed
to air pollutants of a specific chemical nature from a petrochemical plant. The
results of the study show that there is a significantly higher frequency of respiratory symptoms in the occupational exposed group (PR = 1.08), especially cough,
wheezing and expectoration. For this reason, the development of oil industry
required application of safety procedures and safe work environment for protecting employees health. They are required to wear personal protective equipment
with: glasses and goggles, safety shoes, hearing protection, respiratory protective
equipment and protective fire resistant clothing6. Each refinery has process units
controls like flares, scrubbers, steam strippers, electrostatic precipitators witch
prevent emission of air pollutants.
The presence of these substances is systematically controlled by the toxicology laboratory and the refinery must permanently declare the chemical noxious
emissions released into the environment. In 2000 over 3100 measurements of
chemical pollutants were made in the refinery and only 35 pts. (0.9%) exceeded
CMA. A health survey study published by Dales, was conducted on a rural Canadian population (n = 2157) living near refineries, exposed especially to sulphur
528
dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. The study reported more respiratory symptoms in
the exposed group among children and youngsters (5 to 13 years of age) and among
never-smokers (14 years of age) without impaired spirometric values (FEV1, FVC
and FEV1/FVC) and concluded that ‘the excess of respiratory symptoms in the
exposed area unassociated with impaired spirometric values would be compatible
with increased awareness of health or a small biologic environmental effect’10.
However, an Italian study showed that children living near a petrochemical complex are exposed to a higher risk for developing allergic respiratory diseases11.
To analyse the health effects of air pollutants the following phase is considered: gaseous or PM (suspension of very small particles with diameters under few
micrometers that can rich the distal airways of tracheobronchial tree (PM < 10
µm), where the exposure takes place (indoors, outdoors), the source of pollutant
mixture and association of other risk factors5. Smoking is a risk factor assumed
by population inducing pulmonary symptoms. In the cohort studied it did not
appear to have an additive effect (PR exposed smokers/non-exposed smokers =
0.90), occupational exposure appearing as an important risk factor. 46% of the
employees who presented occupational exposure were smokers, too, suggesting
that actions are needed in health education. Patients in the exposed group with
greater seniority at work were symptomatic. Smoking and occupational exposure
remain major risk factors for COPD appearance even if, too often, occupational
exposure is underappreciated4. Any history of a patient with COPD should include
a thorough history of his/her professional path, and recommendations target smoking and exposure to professional pollutants cessation. American Thoracic Society
emphasises that occupational exposure is responsible for 15–20% of symptoms
and respiratory functional impairment consistent with COPD diagnosis12. Wood
study shows that exposure to fuel-oil ash leads to acute upper airway inflammation, by the recruitment and activation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes and IL8
increase13, thus explaining occurrence of respiratory symptoms.
Our study did not reveal an exaggerated prevalence of respiratory symptoms
as we had expected to find in the employees exposed group compared to the nonexposed. Cough was the only one that had a doubled prevalence in the exposed
group. A study that examined mortality rates in petroleum and petrochemical
population working in refineries for a period of 25 years found significant fewer
deaths for all causes combined (different types of cancers, heart diseases, or
non-malignant respiratory diseases)14. Kochubovski et al.15 have registered correlations of pharyngitis and laryngitis incidence (non-specific diseases of upper
respiratory tract) under high levels of the air pollution and Moga et al.16 evaluated
the environmental organic contaminants found in industrial pollution and included
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as risk factors for carcinogenesis. The
present study, supported by data from literature, stresses the fact that constant
529
supervision of workers health in the petrochemical industry is required for the
rapid identification of diseases, including respiratory ones.
CONCLUSIONS
We found that the environmental exposure represents a respiratory risk factor but
a proper monitoring of technologic processes and a systematic control of toxic
emissions can limit this risk close to that of non-exposed individuals, being able
to say that there is no fatality that the work in a petrochemical complex be accompanied by worsening health condition. Medical education within the work place
and personnel protection is an important measure in preventing illness.
REFERENCES
1. Environmental Protection Agency: Gina McCarty. Petroleum Refinery Sector Risk and Technology Review and New Source Performance Standards EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0682. 2015, http://
www3.epa.gov/ttn/atw/petrefine/20140515fr.pdf.
2. P. F. RONALD, P. E. COLWEL: Oil Refinery Processes – a Brief Overview. http://www.processengr.com/ppt_presentations/oil_refinery_processes.pdf.
3. Addressing Air Emissions from the Petroleum Refinery Sector, Risk and Technology Review
and New Source Performance Standard Rulemaking. Tribal Consultation Presentation US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards Research Triangle
Park, NC.
4. Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. Global Strategy for the Diagnosis,
Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Updated 2016.
5. International Agency for Research of Cancer: Monograph Outdoor Air Pollution. Lyon 2015,
p. 109.
6. Occupational Safety & Health Administration: US Department of Labor. Petroleum Refining
Process. https://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/otm_iv/otm_iv_2.html.
7. G VOICU, A BECHIR, O. C. ARGHIR: Chemical Air Pollution and the Prevalence of Respiratory Disorders and Diseases. J Environ Prot Ecol, 13 (3), 1357 (2012).
8. V. GAVAT, G. F. PETRARIU, C. C. GAVAT, D. AZOICAI: Environmental Risk Factors and
Health. DAN, Iasi, 2001.
9. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention: The National Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health. Risk of Airway Diseases. 24http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/resp/risks.html.
10. R. E. DALES, W. O. SPITZER, S. SUISSA, M. T. SCHECHTER, P. TOUSIGNANT, N. STEINMETZ: Respiratory Health of a Population Living Downwind from Natural Gas Refineries. Am
Rev Resp Dis, 139 (3), 595 (1989).
11. F. CIBELLA, G. CUTTITTA, G. DRAGO, S. RUGGIERI, F. D’ANIELLO, S. BUCCHIERI,
M. R. MELIS, S. la GRUTTA, G. VIEGI: Residence in a Urban Area Close to a Petrochemical
Complex and Its Impact on Allergic Respiratory Diseases in Italian School Children. http://
www.ers education.org/ media / grade.aspx?idMedia2 =226831#sthash. AG6sM75m.dpuf Annual Congress 2013.
12. J. BALMES, M. BECKLAKE, P. BLANC, P. HENNEBERGER, K. KREISS, C. MAPP,
D. MILTON, D. SCHWARTZ, K. TOREN, G. VIEGI: American Thoracic Society Statement:
Occupational Contribution to the Burden of Airway Disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 167,
787 (2003).
530
13. M. WOOD, R. HAUSER, Y. LIU, T. J. SMITH, P. D. SIEGEL, D. M. LEWIS, D. J. TALLERUD, D. C. CHRISTIANI: Molecular Markers of Acute Upper Airway Inflammation in Workers
Exposed to Fuel-oil Ash. Am J Resp Crit Care Med, 158, 182 (1998).
14. S. P. TSAI, J. K. WENDT, K. M. CARDARELLI, A. E. FRASER: A Mortality and Morbidity
Study of Refinery and Petrochemical Employees in Louisiana. Occup Environ Med, 60, 628
(2003).
15. M. KOCHUBOVSKI, B. ALEKSOSKI, M. DIMOVSKA, D. GJORGJEV: Preliminary Environmental Health Impact Assessment of Exhaust Gases from Refinery ‘Okta’. J Environ Prot
Ecol, 9 (1), 60 (2009).
16. M. MOGA, Gh. PREDA: Environmental Factors in Carcinogenesis. J Environ Prot Ecol, 9 (2),
323 (2008).
Received 28 March 2016
Revised 20 May 2016
531
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 532–540 (2016)
Risk assessment
ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF
ACCIDENTS IN NATURAL GAS METERING-REGULATING
STATIONS
S. M. GLISOVICa*, D. J. PESICa, D. N. ZIGARa, I. ANGHELb
Faculty of Occupational Safety in Nis, University of Nis, 10a Carnojevica
Street, 18 000 Nis, Serbia
E-mail: srdjan.glisovic@znrfak.ni.ac.rs
b
Fire Officers Faculty, Police Academy, Privighetorilor Street, Sector 1,
Bucharest, Romania
a
Abstract. The failure of installations and equipments for transmission and control of natural gas
(NG) and its leakage may lead to many serious consequences for the people and the environment.
This study assesses the risk from accidents in NG metering-regulating stations (MRS). On the basis
of the hazard sources identification, the fault tree for the occurrence of accidents inside and outside
the MRS facility is defined. A NG metering-regulating station in Nis is selected as a research area
and the consequences of major hazardous events were investigated. The possible accident scenarios
have been the explosion, the jet fire and the dispersion of NG vapour cloud. In order to determine
consequence effect zones, for each identified hazard scenario the consequence analyses were performed by using advanced modelling tools. Simulation results of threat zones show influence of each
hazardous event on the whole risk relative to the distance from the hazardous source. The explosion
may cause window glass breakage to buildings in the endangered area, the thermal radiation from
jet fire may jeopardize the people and the vapour cloud heavy pollutes the air. Obtained results have
practical interest in choosing a MRS location in cities worldwide.
Keywords: natural gas, risk assessment, explosion, jet fire, vapour cloud.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Air quality has attracted great attention in the recent decades, due to increase in
pollutants emissions and air pollution within urban areas1. Therefore, air quality
monitoring and modelling involves surveillance of elements included in following categories: air pollutants sources and emissions; pollutants transfer into the
atmosphere; concentrations level of air pollutants and their spatial and temporal
distribution; air pollutants effects on human health2. The air pollution sources
might very often be concentrated and intensive, as a consequence of the hazardous materials accidents3.
Natural gas (NG) has been one of the fastest growing energy sources in recent
decades. NG comprised 24% of the European Union primary energy consumption
*
For correspondence.
532
in 2011, a number that is expected to grow to almost 30% by 2030 (Ref. 4). Due to
the physical and chemical characteristics, the NG is a significant source of hazard
accidents. The risk of this hazard could be high especially in distribution pipelines
network5,6 and metering-regulating stations (MRS).
MRS is a facility for monitoring of NG parameters. Due to equipments, installations and many joints, there is high possibility that their failure will occur. As
a result of a failure inside and outside MRS building, a large quantity of gas will
leak inside the building and into the atmosphere. Therefore, it is very important
to assess the risk of NG accidents in order to protect the people, the property and
the environment. In the field of risk assessment there are a series of acknowledged
and successfully used methods and techniques for industrial hazards identification
and risk assessment7.
In the present study, the results of risk assessment of accidents in the MRS in
NG transmission are presented. The procedure of hazard sources identification is
carried out and the fault tree for the accidents occurrence inside and outside the
MRS is defined. Since the modelling of pollution process is necessary in order to
forecast the levels of pollutant substances8, the advanced modelling tools, such as
Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS)9 and Computer-Aided Management of Emergency
Operations (CAMEO)10 softwares have been employed to predict the consequences
of NG accidents.
HAZARD SOURCES AND FAULT TREE ANALYSIS
A MRS is a facility for monitoring of NG parameters (mass flow, pressure and
temperature) that is transported through pipelines. In MRS also, the pressure is
reduced and the gas is odourised. Each MRS contains the following installations
and equipments: pipe systems, fittings (bends, tees, reducers, flanges, screwed
joints), gas filter, shut-off equipment (ball valves), regulating equipments (pressure
regulator, check valve), safety equipments (block and release valves), metering
equipments (mass flow meter, manometers, thermometers) and equipments for
telemetry (transmitters of temperature and pressure, alarm for excessive pressure
drop on the gas filter).
Hazardous accidents typically occur as a result of release and dispersion of
NG in and out MRS. Typical elements that are potential sources of gas leakage
in the inner space of a MRS faculty are: valves, pressure regulators, flanges and
screwed joints. A significant quantity of gas can also be released through safety
release valves outside the MRS building to the atmosphere. This can occur during normal operation in case of pressure fluctuations of inlet gas or failure of the
pressure regulator. The pressure regulator failure can force large quantity of gas to
be released continuously for longer time period through the safety release valve.
Risk assessment regarding MRS facility is therefore required for both inside
and outside spaces. The fault tree for the accidents occurrence is shown in Fig. 1.
533
Fig. 1. Fault tree for inner and outside spaces of MRS facility
As it can be seen in Fig. 1, explosion and jet fire, as well as vapour cloud of
NG represent major hazardous events in MRS facility.
Once the NG is released, it will immediately begin to disperse in MRS building.
The gas will intensively mix with the surrounding air. The methane and the air can
very often form the mixture with concentrations inside flammable limits. If there
is ignition source, an explosion of confined vapour cloud can occur. The building
structure restricts the free expansion of combustion products. As a consequence
of this event a significant damaging overpressure builds up.
In case that the inner space of MRS is not yet filled with NG, the instantaneous ignition of gas at the beginning of leakage, can provoke a jet fire inside the
MRS building. A jet fire will also develop in the case of immediate ignition of the
leaked gas in outside space. Since the pressure regulator failure can force large
quantity of gas, a jet fire can occur from its exhaust pipes. The risk of jet flame
can be quantitative presented by the measure of thermal radiation. When there
is not the ignition source, the NG released through safety release valves outside
the MRS building, will disperse to the atmosphere. Since it is lighter than the air
rapidly dissipates into it and forms vapour cloud which pollutes the atmosphere.
For each identified hazard event, consequence analysis can be performed to
determine consequence effect zones. The consequences of the MRS accidents are
usually: explosion in confined space, thermal radiation of the jet fire and the air
pollution due vapour cloud dispersion.
534
EXPERIMENTAL
MRS ‘Krivi Vir’ facility is located at northeast side of the Nis city and at east side
of manufacturing complex ‘Gradska Toplana’11 (Fig. 2). The main purpose of
the MRS is the reduction of the gas pressure from 12 to 2 bar for the purposes of
heating energy production process. The consumption of NG in ‘Krivi Vir’ boiler
room compared to its total consumption in ‘Gradska Toplana’ is given in Table 1.
Fig. 2. Map of the study area
Table 1. Quantities of NG consumption
Consumption (mN3) 2010/2011
Total
28 521 320
‘Krivi Vir’
19 563 532
2011/2012
29 001 010
20 758 346
2012/2013
28 014 756
19 057 567
2013/2014 2014/2015
27 034 835 26 021 422
18 034 365 16 060 666
In this numerical study, two scenarios of NG accident were performed: the
first is direct source when the duration of the gas maximum quantity releases due
to equipment failure is 60 min; and the second is gas pipeline when NG escapes
from broken pipe. The simulation parameters are listed in Table 2.
535
Table 2. Simulation settings
Class of data
Type of data
Values
Chemical
molecular weight
16.04 g/mol
data
lower explosive limit (LEL)
5%
upper explosive limit (UEL)
15%
ambient boiling point
–161.8°C
vapour pressure at ambient temperature greater than 1 atm
Atmosferic wind
2 m/s from NW at 2 m
data
air temperature
10°C
stability class
D
Scenario I – direct source
Source
description
max. quantity of NG releases due
strength
to equipment failure
direct source
18 400 m3/h
source pressure
11.84 atm
source temperature
10°C
release rate
2570 kg/s
total amount released
154 398 kg
Scenario II – source: gas pipeline
Source
pipe length
5000 m
strength
pipe diameter
15.0 cm
pipe roughness
smooth
pipe pressure
11.84 atm
10°C
pipe temperature
177.0 cm2
hole area
Scenario II.1 – burning – jet fire
Source
description
flammable gas is burning as it
strength
escapes from pipe
max flame length
13 m
max burn rate
2040 kg/min
total amount burned
8186 kg
Scenario II.2 – not burning
Source
description
flammable gas escapes from pipe
strength
max. average sustained release rate
207.0 kg/min
total amount released
8186 kg
For each scenario, consequence analyses have been conducted to determine
consequence effect zones. The NG vapour cloud explosion inside the MRS and the
jet fire from the pipe were performed using FDS code (https://firemodels.github.
io/fds-smv/). The accident consequences were simulated using CAMEO software
(http://www2.epa.gov/cameo/cameo-software) with Areal Locations of Hazardous
Atmospheres (ALOHA) which estimates hazardous chemical releases, including
toxic gas clouds, fires and explosions.
536
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The simulation results show that the major risks are related to the explosion overpressure and incident heat flux radiation from the fire.
Fig. 3. Vapour cloud explosion and consequence map
The results of vapour cloud explosion inside MRS (scenario I) are shown in
Fig. 3. The primary explosion hazards are overpressure and hazardous fragments.
The consequence map plot for hypothetical explosion is shown in Fig. 3b. In case
of explosion, Level of Concern (LOC) was never exceeded, i.e. there is not existed
the possibility of adjacent buildings destruction and serious injury of people since
the overpressure does not exceed the values of 55 158.06 and 24 131.65 Pa, respectively. Overpressure from the explosion may only cause the window glass breakage
of the buildings which are located up to 1.1 km distance downwind from MRS.
Fig. 4. Consequence maps: flammable area of vapour cloud (a), and vapour cloud total area (b)
When the NG releases into the atmosphere due to equipment failure, it forms a
vapour cloud that mixes with the surrounding air and forms the flammable mixture.
The flammable areas of gas vapour cloud for scenario I are shown in Fig. 4a. The
inner, dark ellipse describes the zone of 100% Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) of
537
the gas and the air mixture. It extends 1 km downwind. The white, larger ellipse
illustrates the zone of the vapour cloud flammable area which describes 60% of
LEL that can be flammable if there is an ignition source. In this case, the flame
pockets can occur at distance of 1.2 km from MRS. The vapour cloud formed
due to equipment failure disperses as it travels downwind. Consequences of toxic
vapour cloud areas are shown in Fig. 4b. There exist two zones for Protective Action Criterias (PACs). The dark ellipse that extends 1.2 km downwind indicates
the life-threatening health effects because the cloud contains 17 000 ppm of toxic
vapour. Under conditions of 2900 ppm of toxic vapour, the mild, transient health
effects may appear till distance 2.2 km from MRS.
The jet fire outside MRS occurs when NG is ignited after release from the
pipeline rupture (scenario II.1), resulting in the formation of a long stable flame
(Fig. 5).
Fig. 5. Jet fire and its thermal radiation
Jet flame poses a threat to the people near the leakage source. Thermal radiation thresholds for death from jet fire, second-degree burns and first-degree burns
are 10.0, 5.0 and 2.0 kW/m2, respectively. As it can be seen in Fig. 5, the maximum value of heat radiation from jet flame of 50 kW/m2 is much higher than the
adopted threshold values.
The simulation results for scenario II.2 are shown in Fig. 6. The flammable
areas of gas vapour cloud are shown in Fig. 6a. The area of the 100 % of LEL extends 30 m, while the area of 60% of LEL extends 47 m downwind. Consequences
of toxic vapour cloud areas are shown in Fig. 6b. The life-threatening health effects
can occur at distance of 58 m. The mild health effects may appear till distance of
141 m from pipe rupture.
538
Fig. 6. Consequence maps: flammable area of vapour cloud (a), and vapour cloud total area (b)
CONCLUSIONS
The leakage of NG can lead to different scenarios and outcomes. In the paper, both
inner and outer gas releases from the hazardous events inside MRS facility are
considered. The results of the hazard sources identification and the accidents risk
analyses are given through fault tree/event tree. The obtained results indicate that
the dominant hazardous event that can be provoked by gas leakage and its subsequent ignition in the inner confined space of the MRS building is explosion. The
main hazardous event outside of the MRS building can be jet fire of NG released
from safety release valve and pipe rupture. In both cases of accidents, the toxic
vapour cloud can be formed that may heavy pollute the air.
In order to assess the damage levels, three possible scenarios have been
investigated in a MRS facility in Nis. The FDS and CAMEO software packages
were employed to research the negative effects of the events on human health and
environment. Simulation results show influence of each hazardous event on the
whole risk relative to the distance from the hazardous source. The explosion may
cause window glass breakage to buildings in the endangered area, the thermal
radiation from jet fire may jeopardize the people and vapour cloud heavy pollutes
the air. Obtained results have practical interest in choosing a MRS location in
each city worldwide.
Acknowledgements. The research described in this article was realized as part of the scientific
project ‘Improvement of monitoring system and assessment of long-term population exposure to
environmental pollutants using neural networks’ funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 16 March 2016
540
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 541–548 (2016)
Risk assessment
EFFECT OF WIND TURBULENCE ON AEOLIAN ENERGY
POTENTIAL
G. BANDOCa*, M. DEGERATUb, E. DRAGOMIRa
Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, Centre for Coastal Research and
Environmental Protection, University of Bucharest, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Blvd.,
District 1, 010 041 Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: geobandoc@yahoo.com; bandoc@geo.unibuc.ro
b
Full Member of the Academy of Romanian Scientists, Technical University of
Civil Engineering Bucharest, 124 Lacul Tei Blvd., Sector 2, 020 396 Bucharest,
Romania
a
Abstract. This paper aims to highlight the influence of wind turbulence on wind power potential.
In order to achieve this objective the energy flow rate is computed as the ratio of the average flow
to the energy flow based on average speed calculated for averaging time values that correspond
to weeks, months, seasons, semesters and one year. In other words, the energy flow rate is determined on different turbulence macro-scales. The paper highlights the influence of wind turbulence
on energy potential increase. The originality of this study lies in the fact that simple engineering
calculations do not take into account the influence of turbulence on wind power potential. From the
results we obtained, the following conclusions can be drawn: the maximum average speed depends
on the averaging time, the higher the speed the lower the averaging time which is consistent with
the theory; power flow coefficients C are all > 1 which leads to the conclusion that the average energy flow is greater than the energy flow computed using the average speed for the averaging times
values used in the study (day, week, month, season, semester, year), i.e. turbulence macro-scales
(with averaging times greater than 12 h according to as Van de Hoven) (C)year, [(Cday)day, (Cweek)year,
(Cmonth)year, (Cseason)year, (Csemester)year], the coefficients have values that range between (3.13 ... 1.93)
which is consistent with the theory; it should be noted that the available measurements only allowed
an analysis of the macroturbulences influence has the greatest contribution to the increase in the
annual wind energy potential, much higher than the contribution of the winds microturbulence as
the latter coefficients are considerably smaller.
Keywords: wind, macroturbulence, aeolian energy potential.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Natural wind, for a given average time of its local velocity, can be different local
adimensional turbulence intensities, i.e. by different root-mean-square speed pulse
values the RMS speed1–4. When computing wind energy potential the annual average
energy flow plays a particularly important role. The sampling time is influenced
by the wind speed, and consequently by averaging time5–11.
*
For correspondence.
541
If T is the averaging time, the time average local wind speed can be written as:
U=
T
1
U (t ) dt,
T ∫0
(1)
where U is the instant local velocity which is equal to the sum of the average local
speed and the pulsation speed as follows:
U = U + U′
(2)
It should be noted that the average temporal pulse velocity is 0, i.e.:
U' =
T
1
U'(t)dt = 0
T ∫0
(3)
because speed pulses are either positive or negative around the average U value.
Therefore, in order to determine the average pulse velocity in time interval T
the root-mean-square is used, i.e. the RMS velocity:
URMS = (U′2)1/2
(4)
which shows the average pulse velocity. Dividing RMS velocity by average speed,
the local turbulence intensity is obtained:
I = URMS/U = (U′2)1/2/U
(5)
which expresses the average value of the pulsation speeds in relation to the average speed both of which are local and computed for the same averaging time T.
Given that pulse speed is the difference between instantaneous speed and
average speed:
U′ = U – U
(6)
and by substituting the expression (6), in equation (3) of the pulse temporal average speed U′, the following relationship is obtained:
U=
T
1
U − U dt = 0
T ∫0
(
)
(7)
The average energy flow for the same time period T is proportional to the U3
and considering equation (2) has the expression:
U3 =
1
T
T
∫ (U + U ) dt = U
'
3
3
2
+ 3U ⋅ U ' + 3U ⋅ U '2 + U '3
(8)
0
As U′ = 0, and because 3U U′2 ≠ 0 for U′2 ≠ 0 and given that U′3 ≠ 0 only if
the probability distribution of U′ is symmetrical, equation (8) becomes:
542
3
U '2 U '3
U 3 = U 1 + 3 2 + 3
U
U
(9)
By determining the ratio of the average energy flux U3 and the power flow
computed using the average speed U3, the following equation is obtained:
U3
U
3
= 1+ 3
U '2
U
2
+
U '3
U
3
(10)
where U′2/U2 is the turbulent intensity I.
This energy flow ratio can be noted as coefficient C, i.e.:
C = U3/U3 = 1 + 3I2 + U′3/U3
(11)
where the last two terms represent the contribution of turbulence to the size of the
average energy flow. The energy flow ratio expressed as the coefficient C strongly
depends on strong integration time T, i.e. on the averaging time12.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This paper used complex data that consisted of a large number of wind speed measurements made over one year, every 6 h. For a comprehensive analysis in terms
of climatic characteristics it can be used remote sensing and GIS technologies.
Firstly, the distribution of the velocity U considered to be instantaneous was
plotted in Fig. 1, but computed as a temporal average over a time period equal
to the averaging time of the employed anemometer and with a 6-hour sampling
period. The energy flow U3 was computed and its distribution throughout the year
was plotted as well (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1. Instantaneous speed distribution throughout the year
543
Fig. 2. Distribution of energy flow throughout the year
For the entire data set, we determined the two flows of energy U3 and U3 for
different averaging times T, i.e. days (Uday3, Uday3) (Fig. 3), weeks (Uweek3, Uweek3)
(Fig. 4), months (Umonth3, Umonth3) (Fig. 5), seasons (Useason3, Useason3) (Fig. 6) semesters
(Usemester3, Usemester3) (Fig. 7) and for the whole year (Uyear3, Uyear3) (Fig. 8).
Fig. 3. Distribution of Uday, Uday3, Uday3 throughout the year and the annual average value (Cday)year
544
Fig. 4. Distribution of Uweek, Uweek3, Uweek3 throughout the year and the annual average value (Cweek)year
Fig. 5. Distribution of Umonth, Umonth3, Umonth3 throughout the year and the annual average value (Cmonth)year
Fig. 6. Distribution of Useason, Useason3, Useason3 throughout the year and the annual average value
(Cseason)year
545
Fig. 7. Distributions of Usemester, Usemester3, Usemester3 throughout the year and the annual average value
(Csemester)year
C coefficients were determined for each day, week, month, season, semester
and year as the ratio of energy, after which these coefficients average value were
determined for the entire year, as follows:
– for the days: Cday = Uday3/Uday3 and (Cday)year;
– for weeks: Cweek = Uweek3/Uweek3 and (Cweek)year;
– for months: Cmonth = Umonth3/Umonth3 and (Cmonth)year;
– for seasons: Cseason = Useason3/Useason3 and (Cseason)year;
– for semesters: Csemester = Usemester3/Usemester3 and (Csemester)year
– for the entire year: Cyear = Uyear3/Uyear3 and (Can)an = Can.
Based on these calculations distributions over the entire year plotted, for U,
for U3, for U3 and for C, while also marking the annual average values of coefficient, (C)year , i.e. [Uday, Uday3, Uday3, (Cday)year] for days (Fig. 3), [Uweek, Uweek3, Uweek3,
(Cweek)year] for weeks (Fig. 4), [Umonth, Umonth3, Umonth3, (Cmonth)year] for months (Fig.
5), [Useason, Useason3, Useason3, (Cseason)year] for seasons (Fig. 6) and [Usemester, Usemesrer3,
Usemester3, (Csemester)year] for semesters (Fig.7).
The maximum average speed is a function of averaging time T, and increases
as the averaging time decreases which is consistent with the theory (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8. Variation depending maximum average speed (U)max over averaging time T
546
All energy flow C coefficients are > 1 which leads to the conclusion that the
average energy flow is greater than the energy flow computed using the average
speed (Fig. 9).
Fig. 9. Variation of energy flux coefficients annual average values (C)year depending on averaging
time T
CONCLUSION
From the results we obtained, the following conclusions can be drawn:
– the maximum average speed (U)max is a function of averaging time T, and
increases as the averaging time decreases whuch is consistent with the theory
– all energy flow C coefficients are > 1 which leads to the conclusion that the
average energy flow is greater than the energy flow computed using the average
speed (U3 > U3; C > 1);
– for the considered averaging times (day, week, month, season, semester,
year), i.e. turbulence macro-scales (with averaging time greater than 12 h, according to Van der Hoven), the coefficients (C)year, [(Cday)day, (Cweek)year, (Cmonth)year,
(Cseason)year, (Csemester)year] have values that range between (3.13 ... 1.93), which is
consistent with the theory;
– it should be noted that the available measurements only allowed an analysis
of the macroturbulence influence that has the greatest contribution to the increase
of the annual wind energy potential which is much higher than the contribution of
the wind microturbulence, as the latter (C)year coefficients are considerably smaller.
Acknowledgements. This work was performed as a part of research supported by the project
COSMOMAR No 58/2013, financed by STAR Program of ROSA, and the project ECOMAGIS No
69/2012, financed by UEFISCDI PN-IIPT-PCCA-2011-3.2 1427.
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547
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M. GOLUMBEANU: Turbulent Structure of the Wind Flow and Wind Tunnel Tests Achieved
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Wind Characteristics for Energy Conversion. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14 (4), 1760 (2013).
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Bucharest, 2005 (in Romanian).
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Timisoara, 2002 (in Romanian).
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(2012).
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15 (3), 1101 (2014).
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M. GOLUMBEANU: Atmospheric Boundary Layer Modeling as Mean Velocity Profile Used
for Wind Tunnel Tests on Contaminant Dispersion in the Atmosphere. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14
(1), 22 (2013).
Received 21 January 2016
Revised 7 7 March 2016
548
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 549–556 (2016)
Ecology
ISTANBUL UNDER PRESSURE OF SOME MEGA PROJECTS
(PREDICTION OF THE EFFECTS OF SOME MEGA PLANS
ON ISTANBUL)
SIMA POUYAa*, SAHAR POUYAb, O. DEMIRELa
Department of Landscape Architecture, Karadeniz Technical University,
Trabzon, Turkey
b
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Istanbul Technical University,
Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: sima_pouya2002@yahoo.com; pouya@itu.edu.tr; dofe01@gmail.com
a
Abstract. Istanbul city as a mega city bears strong background and concepts of history, tradition,
culture, and art of Turkish community. Every year, Istanbul with unique traits is able to absorb too
many tourists attention all around the world. However, in the recent years, it is under pressure of some
projects which are executing or planning to be performed. Construction the third bridge, Istanbul canal,
and third airport are examples of those controversial schemes which are still vague and indefinite
in some aspects. Even though there are various discussions on the projects from different scientific
views, it seems to be necessary to make a general analysis with strict decision on the possibilities
of their executions. This article tries to give an image of Istanbul future with consideration to all
what the plans are following. With putting together separate comments of researches and university
professors on the project, it is attempting to predict the threats and effect in the future situation of
Istanbul. Therefore, with regard to differently economic, social, political, ecological surveys of project
together, it is summarised the effect of them as a table. Finally this article evaluates how much those
projects make sense and meet the primary need of plans.
Keywords: Istanbul, analyses, mega projects, plan, future.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Istanbul is one of the cultural capital cities in the world and located at a very specific
region connecting Anatolia and Europe1. Experts predict that a devastating earthquake could hit the city within two to three decades which is to be considered in
infrastructure projects. Today, Istanbul is a mega city with over 12 million inhabitants, where population density exceeds 2200 inhabitants per km. The city population
nearly doubled in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000, the fastest growth period
for the population. For the period between 1990 and 2000, the population growth
rate of Istanbul was 29.64% for urban parts and 81% for rural parts of the city2.
Every year, Istanbul with unique traits is able to absorb too many tourists attention
all around the world. However, in the recent years, it is under pressure of some
*
For correspondence.
549
projects which are executing or planning to be performed. An inappropriate real
estate development could lead to the waste land resource, and also the declining
of townscape and environment quality3. Construction of the third bridge, Istanbul
canal, and third airport are examples of those controversial schemes which are still
vague and indefinite in some aspects. Even though there are various discussions
on the projects from different scientific views, it seems to be necessary to make a
general analysis with strict decision on the possibilities of their executions. This
article tries to give an image of Istanbul future with consideration to all what the
plans are following. With putting together separate comments of researches and
university professors on the project, it is attempting to predict the threats and effect
in the future situation of Istanbul. Therefore, with regard to differently economic,
social, political, ecological surveys of project together, it is summarised the effect
of them as a table. The SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
Threats) table is made for each project and the advantages and disadvantages of
each project have been researched and thus vision of the future was a head of the
practitioners and authorities for their better decisions.
EXPERIMENTAL
First project: Canal Istanbul. The canal is a 50 km long maritime transportation
canal, 150 m wide and 25 m deep, to be built between the Sea of Marmara and the
Black Sea, at the European part of the province of Istanbul. This project, which
is popularly known as the ‘crazy project’ as Prime Minister Erdogan, president of
Turkey, has named it, concerns the creation of a ‘new Bosporus’ in Istanbul4. This
mega project as well as having persuasive benefits, has drastic threats and various
side effects which will trigger some great changes and without any doubts, it will
put Istanbul under pressure over long time. As the project disrupts the ecological links existing ecosystem, it can be considered as big menace both for nature
and history of Istanbul. Regarding the proposed canal project and new settlement
which are planned to locate on the northern part of Istanbul are likely to cause vast
environmental problems in the future5.
Argument on effects of the project in short and long time: all benefits and
reasons mentioned in favour of the project seem scientifically fallacious and actually they will sweep the problems under the carpet. For instance, it claims that
the canal decreases the waiting time for vessels to pass the Bosphorus. While, in
the case of the Bosphorus Strait, there is neither a shorter, nor longer alternative
to connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Another defensive reason of
the project is that the canal will decrease maritime traffic in the Bosphorus Strait
and increase chance for sports, leisure and tourism activities, as well as intra-city
transportation. While, the Strait has always been an international maritime corridor
and Istanbul was the main gateway city for incoming and outgoing products. So,
increasing tourism activity puts pressure on the local government to provide more
550
leisure-related services6. Furthermore, it is claimed that current evidence suggests
that the wastewater and ballast water of sea vessels traveling across different seas
pose a significant threat to local habitat. However, the Black Sea already suffers
such an invasion from an alien species, in the last two decades. And, canals also
may facilitate such invasions, as is the case between the Mediterranean and the
Red Sea, where both Lessepsian and Anti-Lessepsian migration of species is
observed7 (Table 1).
Table 1. SWOT table for Canal Istanbul
Strengths
• The passage of vessels up to 300.000 DWT •
(deadweight tonnage).
• Using the debris of the canal on obsolete
quarries in the Northern European Istanbul •
for building of an airport, with a capacity of
60 million passengers per year.
•
• A seaport.
• Motorway bridges passing over the canal.
•
• Railway bridges passing over the canal urban
functions.
• Residential areas.
• Congress and convention centres.
• Cultural facilities.
• Tourism facilities.
• Business districts.
• Recreational functions.
• Recreation areas.
• Some existing lakes formed by filling up of
rainwater to old quarries.
Threats
• To threaten the fertile agricultural land and
crucial under-water reservoirs in the southern
part of the western bank of the city.
• To threaten two lagoon type lakes called
Buyukcekmece and Kucukcekmece which
are protected by the Master Plan of Istanbul.
• To increase the populations tourist and more
pressure on natural sources.
• To increase the rents, buildings and business.
• Reverse the balance between the cold and
fresh waters of the Black Sea and the warm
and salty waters flowing from the Mediterranean will change.
• To dry out the Sazlidere basin, which meets
6.7% of Istanbul water needs.
• Cultural shock to inhabitants who deal with
the new changes, business, crowd, and so on.
Weakness
Extremely high price of construction
without any defensive plan to compensate.
Destruction inhabitants and historically
drastic damage of that part.
To propagate negative impacts of development through adjacent areas.
The invasion an alien species of medus
named Mnemiopsis Leidyi into the sea
transmitted by vessels.
Opportunities
• To increase recreational activities and
intra-city sea transportation.
• To eliminate waiting time to pass the
Bosporus because it will allow a more
efficient passage of vessels.
• To eliminate the potential risk of discharge of wastewater from waiting
vessels.
• To increase the need for logistics and
transportation.
• To increase business districts for
producer services, international tourism areas, and housing for associated
workforce.
• To minimise threats on population and
cultural heritage that are posed by potential marine accidents.
551
Second project: The new airport in Istanbul. Transportation is the first problem
that comes to mind for a metropolitan city like Istanbul with special geographical
position, density of population, widespread setting areas, and historical background
and also with various social, cultural, commercial activities8. Istanbul is a city with
most important social, cultural and economic activities and expected to become one
of the mega aviation cities – more than 10 000 long-haul passengers per day – in
the coming years9. Istanbul New Airport is an airport under construction in Arnavutkoy district on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. The existing Atatürk
Airport, on the European side of Istanbul, does not meet increasing demand and
there is an increasing problem of air traffic congestion. There is no space to build
an additional runway as the airport is absorbed within the city of Istanbul. North
of the airport is covered with industrial areas where as east and west covered with
residential areas. Because of the limited capacity, the Turkish Airspace Authority
does not allow additional cargo or charter flights to the airport. Airlines which want
to start new routes and/or to add additional flights cannot do so.
Arguments on the long-term and short-terms effect of the project on Istanbul.
The most important reasons mentioned in the articles as to the third airplane in
the limitations that the two current airports have. For example, it says although
the Ataturk Airport is very near to the Sea (and Istanbul is surrounded by seas)
maritime transport connection and/or integration is not possible at all. The new
Istanbul airport will stretch over 7659 ha of land, of which 6172 ha are forest. It
is home to a rich variety of wildlife with hundreds of thousands of birds migrating over this very region and the nearby Terkos Lake and other smaller wetlands
serving as birds nesting and resting grounds throughout the year. Contaminants
such as lead, copper and zinc spreading from business in the third airport will
contaminate the Terkos Lake with heavy metals10 (Table 2).
Table 2. SWOT table for Istanbul New Airport
Strengths
Weakness
• Important transit point for international flights, • To cut 2513341 trees in the area
between Europe, Asia and Africa destinations.
including pine, spruce, oak, beech,
• Reaching more than 50 destinations in different juniper, redbud, willow and poplar
countries with less than 3.5 h flights from Istan- trees.
bul with limitation of the total passenger capacity • To damage the forest located in the
to 100 million passengers/year in Ataturk and airport land.
Sabihegukcen Airports.
• To destroy the nest of thousands of
• Attraction of passengers in the region of Euro- birds migrating over the region.
pean part to use the airport because of limitation
of the current airport for international flights.
• Main metropolitan airport for passengers and
cargo.
to be continued
552
Continuation of Table 2
Opportunities
• To be the major aviation centre of Turkey all
the time.
• Making the airport as a centre of attraction and
developing surrounding areas as an airport city.
• To have adequate and sufficient area for both
airport and airport city development.
• To develop in the vicinity of the airport, socialcultural activities, business and finance centres
(with office buildings), convention centres, logistic centres (with warehouses), shopping centres,
hotels, recreation and accommodation areas.
• To have multimodal transportation modes,
such as direct access or connection to interstate
highway and railway systems, express train
and metro facilities.
• To have appropriate infrastructure for existing
and future needs with detailed master planning
studies.
• The opportunity for this kind of aircraft operations which will maximise the passenger
transport.
• To eliminate noise problem in Ataturk Airport
because of the dense settlements surrounding.
Threats
• To threat wildlife of Terkos lake
• To damage the forest.
• To threat the lake near and other
wetlands beside the airport.
• More passengers and more pressure,
more pollution, and more destruction
over long time.
• Increase the population.
• Effect on history and nature of the
north.
Third project: The third bridge of Istanbul. The concentration of the world population in urban areas is growing at an enormously rapid rate creating megacities,
currently defined by the United Nations (UN) as cities of over 10 million people.
Although there are numerous examples in the developed world, megacities are
primarily a phenomenon of the developing world11. With an official population
of 13 255 685 Istanbul is the most crowded metropolitan city in Turkey. 15% of
Turkey total population live in Istanbul12. If Kanal Istanbul is indeed built, this will
be a disaster for the entire Marmara region, as it would bring the highly polluted
waters of the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmara, eating away at the oxygen levels
of the Marmara, and cause a new pollution problem that the authorities possibly
may not be able to deal with. Salt water will leak underground, as it flows through
the waterway, and affect underground water sources, and possibly the forests. The
real problem, however, is the new settlement areas and the population boom that
will go with it understandably the real purpose of the project10. The Third Bridge,
which is controversially also called the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, was met with
protests considering that Yavuz Sultan Selim has ordered the massacre of approximately 40 000 Alevis in the 16th century. 116:002 Nazli Tumerdem budgets’13.
The Third Bosphorus Bridge, as a part of Northern Marmara Motorway, is also
553
considered as a megaproject with its approximate budget of US$2.5 billion14. However today, a third bridge over the Bosphorus could have much more catastrophic
and irreversible impacts upon the city when compared to any former structure
that has transformed the geography of the city. First of all, the construction is a
fait accompli one since it is not approved by the preservation council and it lacks
a participatory planning medium which would ensure possibilities of opposition
and dispute at local levels15. Its route passes directly from natural barriers of the
city like ecologically sensitive forests, water reservoirs and catchments16. This is
highly problematic since the experts point out that it has caused the deletion of
245 thousand trees so far17. Probably it will also have adverse effects on the areas
of drinking water reserves, lead to an increase in local temperatures and cause the
extinction of endemic plants and animals18 (Table 3).
Table 3. SWOT table for Third bridge of Istanbul
Strengths
Weakness
• Support rail and sea transportation • Increase the vehicle passing from Asian side to
vehicle, autobuses.
European side without increasing in number of
• Solve the problem of metropolitan passengers.
such as the traffic of the two other • Exhaust gases emitting vehicle.
bridges.
• Increasing rubber tires.
• Damage lake and dam located in the North area.
• Damage forest of Kocaeli and Thurace Peninsulas.
Opportunities
Threats
• Solving the traffic problems of • Cutting blood vein of Istanbul.
Istanbul.
• To terminate water and forest sources of Istanbul.
• Threaten water collection and flora-fauna of
ecosystem.
• Lack of water in the global drought period by
using the water reservoir to build the bridge.
• Harm to natural Black sea coastline by linking to
the Black sea coastal highway.
• To cause settlers to leave their inhabitants.
CONCLUSIONS
Cities are characterised through their urban fabrics and urban fabric can be defined
as the ‘artificial geography of structures and infrastructures that are superimposed
over the natural geography’19. For centuries, cities have been developed according to their geographies and topographies, from which topologies were created
that determined the social, economic, spatial and phenomenological interactions
of cities. However, it is not a surprise that in the age of Anthropocene, geography
is no longer considered to be the preliminary shaping agent of urbanism, but it is
554
urbanism that emerges through activities of humankind that shapes the geography.
This could be defined with the term of geo-urbanism. The renowned urban planner Bruno Secchi claims that whenever he moves one square meter of soil from
one place to another to build, he is correcting and improving natural geography.
However, he also insists that these projects have to be useful and not be done just
to change the world20. In the specific case of Istanbul, the city that has been the
main focus of Turkish governance, the realisation of three projects is very questionable within the framework of geo-urbanism. The projects lack transparency in its
process and is opposed by experts and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisation).
It is built on the northern regions of the city which are the most vulnerable and
valuable naturally and ecologically. Moreover, the laws liability to change does not
promise that these regions will be protected in the years to come. Most importantly,
the previous examples show that development proceeds without being faithful to
any master plan. It can be argued that the city of Istanbul always had a tradition of
constructing mega structures and mega projects throughout its history. Whether it
be a way of proving dominion of mankind over nature through artifice or another
tool of visibility for the competence of the emperor and the sultan over his people;
structures like Hagia Sophia, Hippodrome of Constantinople, the Valens Aqueduct,
land and sea walls or Suleymaniye Mosque and many more can be considered as
mega projects of former times. These man-made structures created new landscapes
and territories within the city.
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gov/publications/publicroads/04jul/01.cfm [Accessed Sept. 2014], 2004.
15. H. GERCEK: The Case of Beyoglu, Istanbul Dimensions of Urban Development Transportation.
In: Planning and Big Transportation Projects in Istanbul (Ed. G. Erkut). Technische Universitat
Berlin, Endformat GmbH, Berlin, 2014.
16. M. GUVENC, E. YUCESOY: Urban Spaces in and Around Istanbul. In: Istanbul: City of Intersections (Ed. R. Burdett). Urban Age, 2009, p. 52.
17. U. ERDEM: 245 Thousand Trees Were Cut to the Bridge. Hurriyet Magazine, 13 July 2013.
Available at: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/23716861.asp [Accessed Sept. 2014].
18. A. FINKEL: The Bridge to Nowhere. New York Times, 16 November 2011.
19. N. KATSIKES: On the Geographical Organization of World Urbanization. MONU, Spring
Istanbul, No 20, 2014, 4–11.
20. B. UPMEYER: Working with Geography – Interview with Bruno Secchi. MONU, Spring, No
20, 2014, 28–33.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 26 March 2016
556
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 557–565 (2016)
Ecology
POTENTIAL OF WATER PURIFICATION OF MACKA
FOREST ECOSYSTEMS IN NORTHEASTERN TURKEY
L. ALTUN, U. KEZIK*, O. KARA, E. BABUR
Faculty of Forestry and Forest Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University,
61 000 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: kezik@ktu.edu.tr
Abstract. Forests are known to be critically important functions in terms of ecological, economical
and social functions they serve. Forest ecosystems play a crucial role in the production of high quality and quantitiy water. Forests lands contain the necessary mechanisms to provide clean, healthy
water, including the filtering effect provided by forests soils in watersheds. The objective of this
study was to estimate the water filtration of forest soil in Macka Ormanustu Forest Research area,
located in northeastern Turkey, which provides public drinking water supply to Trabzon province.
For this purpose, the amount of filtered water which contributes to the stream flow per unit area
was estimated by using water balance equation including annual precipitation, interception, surface
runoff and the amount of water stored in the soil (AWHC). Soil properties such as soil depth, coarse
fragment, texture, structure, pH, organic matter and avaliable water hoilding capacity (AWHC) were
also determined in forest and open (grassland) area. Results from this study showed that filtered
water was approximately 3751.2 m3 ha–1 yr–1 in forest and 2986.1 m3 ha–1 yr–1 in open area. Our
results revealed that forests can reduce drinking water treatment costs by naturally filtering water
through its porous soils.
Keywords: soil water, water production function, forest ecosystems, hydrological cycle.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Forest soils carry out essential ecosystem functions like carbon storage, nutrient
uptake, water storage and filtration. In this study, we attempted to determine the
ability of forest soil to filter water. This study was conducted in a small watershad
area belong to Ormanustu Research Forest, located in Trabzon povinence, Turkey.
The amount of filtered water was determined by using annual rainfall, interception,
surface runoff and avaliable water holding capacity (Fig. 1).
Water in our ecosystems is absolutely critical. It plays a fundemental role in our
healthy life, economy, agriculture, and environment. Human population growths
dramatically affect water resource. Storing the water during rainy periods present
on a regular and continuous manner for the benefit of life is paramount importance1.
In this regard, forest ecosystems forming the most significant terrestrial biome
play an important role in filtering water from the precipitation. It contributes to
*
For correspondence.
557
produce high quality, regular and continuous feeding of ground water resources
for public services2–5.
Fig. 1. Hydrological cycle in forest ecosystems6
Approximately 2/3 of the Earth is covered by water7 and 97% of Earth water is contained within the oceans and seas as salt water, while remaning 3% is fresh
water in lakes and frozen water in glaciers. Of that the 70% freshwater resources
consist of glacier, the amount of liquid freshwater can be found underground and
used for the continuation of terrestrial life, even less than 1% of the total water
on earth8.
Forests compose the world largest and most important terrestrial ecosystems9
and represent a large part of the plant biomass10. Forest ecosystems, as a result of
the interaction of biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) environment in a particular
region and embodying many ecological relationships (Fig. 2), are unique systems11.
A huge amount of organisms can be host in each gram forest soil12,13.
Fig. 2. Ecosystem compenents and their interrelations with each other
558
Forest ecosystems not only supply wooden raw material for the forest industry,
but also regulate and affect the local and global climate conditions that contribute to
the hydrological cycle, fresh air and water, regulating soil and water regime. They
are known as an open system with ecologic, economic and social functions2,14–16.
Soil systems in forest can perform usually several functions simultaneously17,18.
Considering the hydrological aspect, when rainwater reaches the soil, rises to
forefront of filtration function. This filtering function of the soil can be performed
with its physical, chemical and bological properties (micropores, negative charges,
decomposer organisms, etc.)19.
The hydrological functions of forest ecosystem affect indirectly our urban
ecosystem. The water, filtered to the forest soils after the rainfall, generates about
two thirds of fresh and clean water in the United States. Forests also help to prevent
waste that will be moved in many ways to the lakes, ground water and streams.
Furthermore, trees and other plant roots system ensure to filter the water by tending of soil pore system in several layers before entering the groundwater. In this
process, toxins, heavy metals and sediment are removed from water. Also leaves,
plant waste such as branches and cones in the forest ground play an important role
for water filtration. Through the process of denitrification, for example, bacteria
in wet forest soils convert nitrates-a nutrient that can lead to harmful algal blooms
if too much of it enters bodies of water-into nitrogen gas, releasing it into the air
instead of into local streams20–23. Enzymatic activities in forest soils also are higher
than in agricultural and cultivated lands24.
Living filter systems as trees processing of wastewater have been identified as
the best achievements in towns. The study states that in a city of 100 000 inhabitants, the daily amount of waste water is thought to be 4.5 million l. It has been
demostrated that 552 ha forest area are necessary for filtering this waste water by
living filter sistem25.
EXPERIMENTAL
The study was conducted in a 645 ha (forest = 479 ha, open area = 166 ha) Ormanüstu research area located between Paparza and Camliduz streams in the Trabzon provinence in Northeast Black Sea Region of Turkey (40o47′00″–40o44′30″
N and 39o28′41′30″–39o30′00″ E) (Fig. 3). The mean elevation is 1860 m, slope
– 32–70% with a west aspect. The region occupies a humid subtropical zone of
oceanic climate. According to climatological data of the last 30 years, the area
has mean annual temperature of 6.36°C and mean annual precipitation of 1042
mm, with about 424 mm of rainfall occuring in vegetation period between June
and September. Major forest species are oriental beech (Fagus orientalis), oriental
spruce (Picea orientalis) and Caucasian fir (Abies nordmanniana subsp. nordmaniana) and open area is grassland.
559
Fig. 3. Location of research area
Field working. Total 115 soil profiles, digged up to 120 cm depth, systematically
distributed where on forest (82 profile) and open area (33 profile) were evaluated.
Total 345 disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were taken based on soil layer
(Ah, Ael, Bts and Cv horizons)26.
Laboratory analysis. Some soil propeties such as soil texture27, soil organic matter (walkley-black)26,27, soil pH (H2O) (Ref. 27), coarsa fragment (> 2 mm), fine
fragment (< 2 mm), avaliable water holding capacity (AWHC) were determined.
The water holding capacity in soil is closely related to soil organic matter
content, soil type, stone content and soil depth. Several formulas are used in estimating of soil water characteristics by using soil texture and organic matter28.
In our study, we used soil texture, soil coarsa fragment (> 2 mm), soil depth and
soil organic matter as soil properties in estimating AWHC per unit area for both
forest and open area29,30.
Hydrological calculations. Solum at the end of B horizon in a soil profil was used
for determination of AWHC. During the calculations solum depth was taken as
100 cm because some soil depth is smaller or larger than 100 cm (AWHC values
interpoleted to 100 cm).
In forest and grassland ecosystems, a certain portion of the total annual precipitation per unit area filtreted feeds to the stream flow and ground water and finally
reaches the nearest reservoir. In these ecosystems, annual filtered water reaching
the ground water was calculated using formula shown below.
560
Annual water filtration potential (AWFP). Numerous water balane equations developed for a watershed31. In our study, AWFP of soils in both forest and grassland
(open area) ecosystems determined by using this equation X = Y – (Z + T + Q),
where X is the annual water filtration potantial (AWFP, mm); Y – the total annual
rainfall (1042 mm m–2); T – runoff (mixed forest: 18%, grassland: 36%) (Ref. 32);
Z – annual interception ratio (mixed forest: 28% and grassland: 17%) (Ref. 32), and
Q – available water holding capacity (AWHC) at 100 cm depth33. Water demands
for evapotranspiration are met by the stored soil water34. Therefore, evapotranspiration parameter was not used in the water balance equation.
Statistical analysis. Soil properties according to the above formula of AWHC were
analysed for comparison between forest and grasland area by One-way ANOVA at
95% confidence level. Statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS program
version 15 and Microsoft Office.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Forest and grassland soils in the study area are generally coarse-textured (sandy
loam) and with slightly acidity reaction. One-way ANOVA demonstrated that forest
soils contain significantly higher clay ratio, organic matter and AWHC than those
in the open area soils (Table 1). Increased organic matter in the forests soils may
be attributed to higher litter production compared to open area.
Table 1. Soil characteristics of the research area
Soil properties
Sand (%)
Silt (%)
Clay (%)
Coarsa fragment (> 2.0 mm, g l–1)
Fine fragment (< 2.0 mm, g l–1)
pH (H2O)
Organic matter (%)
AWHC (at 100 cm depth m–3)
Forest
69.33±10.85a*
10.21±5.68a
20.46±8.23a
260.69±151.9a
620.87±180.85a
5.76±0.35a
11.46±4.11a
3751.2±41.31a
Open area (grassland)
67.88±6.49a
19.57±5.95b
12.55±4.54b
241.82±134.50a
753.11±161.97b
5.84±0.30a
10.13±2.84b
2986.1±49.23b
*Different letters show significant differences at p < 0.05 level statistically. Values in rows represent
the mean standard deviation.
To estimate the filtered water in research soil, the following general steps were
carried out: firstly, available water holding capacity (AWHC) (kg m–3) at 1 m soil
depth was determined depending on some soil properties (Table 2); secondly, annual
filtrated water of per unit area (ha–1) was calculated by using water balance equation
mentioned above. It includes canopy interception, evapotranspiration, runoff and
soil water. Our estimates reveal that water filtration potential was higher in forest
561
area (3751.2 m3) than those in open area (2986.1 m3). Our results also show that
amount of filtered water in the study area was higher than previous studies may
be related to soil properties, climate and stand structure35. Similar studies show
that water quality has been affected positively by the increasing of forest area in
drinking water catchments. Increasing the forest area from 10 to 60%, the cost
of physical and chemical treatment of drinking water may be reduced by two to
third times (Ref. 21).
Table 2. Avaliable water holding capacity of research area (AWHC, kg m–3)
Land use
Forest
Grassland (open area)
N
82
33
Minimum
46.05
92.38
Maximum
316.80
396.96
Mean
188.50
191.13
Std. deviation
41.31
49.23
AWCP in forest area was significantly higher than in open area which might be
related to increased organic matter of forest soil and decreased runoff coefficient.
Forest litter that covering the soil surface protects the soil from sealing and crusting
by raindrop impact, thereby enhancing rainwater infiltration and reducing runoff.
In forest area, litter left on the soil surface leads to improved soil aggregation and
porosity, and to an increase in the number of macropores, and thus to greater infiltration rates. Studies have shown that, moder humus types developed in coniferous
forest, where high amount of rainfall (150 mm h–1) easily percolates to soil34.
The high content of organic matter in forest soil is another effective factor
in the production of quality water. Forest ecosystems with root, shoot, litter and
soil characteristics are affecting rainfall-runoff relationship in a positive direction.
Therefore, it can be interpreted that forest ecosystems have the ability to filter, trap
and recycle fertilisers, herbicides, urban waste and other forms of water pollution36.
One of the most important environmental problems of our century is climate
change and the other is water scarcity37. The structure and function of forest
ecosystems affect these issues directly. Forest dominates hydrological cycles,
soil development processes and the microclimate38. Forest ecosystems having
ecological, economical and social functions together with vegetation and soils are
unique systems39. These systems, on the one side, supply clean and qualified water
to upstream reservior established for water demand of urban40,41 and, on the other,
serve as a filter in the city wastewater treatment23,42. These hydrological tasks are
included in the ecological function of the forest ecosystems.
In this study, assuming that water treatment cost is about 2 Turkish Liras (₺)
per m–3, we calculated the annual treatment cost of water as approximately ₺ 7502
per 1 ha and ₺ 3 593 458 (7502 × 479) per the total forest area (479 ha). Our finding indicated that forests soils reduced drinking water treatment costs by naturally
filtering in research area. This is consistent with previous studies showing that forest area may decrease to almost 50% water treatment cost of local governments43.
562
CONCLUSIONS
Forests act as a natural water filter and storage system, keeping water clear, regulating streamflow, recharging groundwater supplies and reducing runoff. Our results
show that the water purification benefits of forests are economically valuable in this
ecosystem. Therefore, forest land managers consider the same ecosystem services
just as important in rural areas in need of clean water.
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565
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 566–575 (2016)
Ecology
PEDO-GEOCHEMICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
YOUNG SOILS: REGOSOLS AND SPOLIC TECHNOSOLS
IN NORTHERN PART OF EASTERN CARPATHIANS
(ROMANIA)
D. T. JURAVLEa*, C. V. SECUa, I. G. BREABANa, D. C. LESENCIUCa,
H. U. KASPERb, E. D. BOBRICa
‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’ University Iasi, 20A Carol I Blvd., 700 505 Iasi,
Romania
E-mail: jdorut@yahoo.com
b
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne,
50 674 Cologne, Germany
a
Abstract. Based on four young soil profiles (P), wherefrom two are situated on mining dumps (spolic
technosols, P1, P3) and the other two are closely located (skeletic regosols, P2, P4) on slopes of 30°,
it has been analysed the morphologic differences, the content of artefacts and the concentration of
environmental relevant metals. Spolic technosols are characterised by a large content of artefacts
(max. 70.9%) with profile variations while in regosols the skeleton content is slightly lower (up
65.3%), but increases steadily with depth. The high frequency of freeze-thaw cycles (88) compared
with the high mountain area (70) accelerates pedogenesis, by fragmenting the anthropogenic spolic
material (MAsp). The technosol formed by alteration of pyrite and chalcopyrite (P2) has maximum
concentrations of following specific trace elements like Ni (158 mg kg–1), Cu (696 mg kg–1), in bioaccumulative horizon, and Se (43.5 mg kg–1) in lower part of soil profile exceeding the benchmarks of
the Romanian legislation. By weathering manganese carbonates and silicates, the second technosol
(P3) has the maximum amounts for Ni (210 mg kg–1), Cu (395 mg kg–1), Pb (792 mg kg–1), Se (74.9
mg kg–1). In the topsoil of regosols, only Ni and Se are beyond the average values specified in literature. In all the studied profiles, Mn shifts to minor elements class while Fe into the major elements
class. The chemical properties of the pyrite dump favoured the installation of acidophil vegetation
that contrasts with the surrounding soils (regosols).
Keywords: artefacts, freeze-thaw cycles, trace elements, pedogenesis.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
In northern part of Eastern Carpathian, the mining activities had been conducted
in several stages. During 1944–1989, a period of extensive mining, the industrial
system was reflected in the formation of mining dumps, some small dumps (Izvorul Giumalaului, situated at 1070 m, 0.29 ha and 8735 m3) while others occupy
large areas (Colacu, situated at 1020 m, 5.45 ha and 822 800 m3). The bottom of
*
For correspondence.
566
the Izvorul Giumalaului mining dump has been partially sectioned by the streams,
being affected by the fluvial erosion. In addition, the slope of Colacu dump is affected by deep erosion through several rills associated in the superior part with
suffusion processes1.
Izvorul Giumalaului mining dump resulted from depositing sterile and the
extracted copper ore (on Izvorul Giumalaului stream, Moldova drainage basin),
being placed on epimetamorphic deposits of Tulghes 3 Formation (Tg3) from the
Bucovinic Nappe2, 3. Colacu mining dump was formed by the exploration works
for manganese ores, done on epi-metamorphic deposits of Tulghes 2 Formation
(Tg2) from the Subbucovinic Nappe (on Colacu stream, Bistrita drainage basin)2,3.
Petrographic composition of the mining dumps is conditioned by the attack mode
with mining works on horizons of interest.
Tg2 contains the most important deposits of manganese ores in Romania,
from where were exploited the primary (carbonates) and secondary (oxide) ones.
Moreover, the lithologic substrate is constituted from sericite-chlorite-quartz schist
and sericite-chlorite ± graphite schist, with intercalation of a complex black graphitic quartzite, in which holds the deposits of manganese ore2–4.
The main accumulations of copper and polymetallic ores are into the epimetamorphic deposits of Tg3. Tg3 has a volcano-sedimentary genesis, with a strong
rhyolitic character. Considering the lithostratigraphy, 3 units have been separated:
Morosan, Fundu Moldovei and Basca. The Morosan unit is at the basis of the
formation (consisting of sericite-chlorite schist with albite porphyroblasts, sericite
quartzite, rhyolitic metavulcanites and a thin discontinuous layer of black quartzite).
Fundu Moldovei is situated in the median part of the Tg3 Formation (consisting of
a succession of sericite-chlorite/chlorite-sericite schist, which contains sulphides).
Basca is the top unit of Tg3, being represented by a series of graphitic schist and
black quartzite, white quartzite and sericite-chlorite-quartz schist and phyllites)3,5.
Few studies had the purpose to analyse the chemical properties regarding the
dump soils from the northern part of Eastern Carpathians6, mostly being focused
on topics like: water pollution from pyrite mining waste dumps7 and iron mining
waste dumps8, environmental relevant metals load of sediments and water in central
part of Apuseni Mountains, Western Carpathians9.
The present study aims at comparing young soils formed on copper and
manganese deposits with natural undisturbed soils located nearby. Izvorul Giumalaului dump (P1, Table 1) resulted from prospecting and mining exploration
of copper pyrites and it was closed in 1990, while Colacu (P3) was formed by
exploiting manganese deposits and closed in 1999. The objectives of this study
are: (1) to identify relationships between pedogenetic factors and morphological
characteristics of the soils dumps; (2) to determine the chemical differentiation
of regosols and technosols formed on spolic parental materials stored at the mine
entrance (waste rock).
567
The present paper may contribute to the database of the following edition of
the Geochemical Atlas of Europe (2006), especially since data from Romania were
not included in its last edition.
EXPERIMENTAL
For each dump were performed soil profiles (P1 to 47°27′45″ N – Izvorul Giumalaului and 25°30′49″ E and P3 47°30′04″ N and 25°18′29″ E – Colacu) followed
by natural control profiles performed on nearby slopes (P2 the 47°27′44″ N and
25°30′48″ E and P4 to 47°30′10″ N and 25°18′24″ E) (Fig. 1). 17 horizons/layers
resulted, of which 10 were for technosols and 7 for regosols, which were analysed
in terms of morphological and physicochemical features.
Soil skeleton content was determined before soil sample preparation. Subsequently, 100 g dry soil passed through a 2-mm sieve, at the AS200 Retsch sieve
device for 3 min. Total organic carbon (TOC) content was determined by the
difference between total carbon (TC) and total inorganic carbon (TIC), measured
directly with the Multi N/C 2100 analyser equipped with a module for solid samples: HT 1300 – High-temperature combustion technology.
Fig. 1. Location of the soil profiles (1–4) and Tg2, Tg3 geological formations
Solid samples were treated by increasing temperature up to 950○C for TC as
well as after manually acidified with HCl 2M to pH 2 and dried in an oven for TIC.
The pH in water 1:5 and total dissolved solids (TDS) was analysed using a digital
pH-measuring device Eijkekamp 18. For the analyses of environmental relevant
metals the specimens were previously sieved to 2 mm and milled with an agate
mortar, 0.2 g of the fine powder were digested according to EPA method 3051A
with nitric acid, ultrapure in a closed microwave vessel system MARS 6. After
568
digestion, samples were filtered and filled up to 50 ml with 18 MΩ cm distilled
water. For each pair of soils (technosols – regosols) mobile form major (Fe, Mg),
and environmental relevant metals (As, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Ga, La, Li, Mo, Mn,
Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb , Sc, Se, Sr, Zn, Zr, and Y) were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry – Agilent 7700×, using Rh as internal standard.
Obtained results for elements from topsoil have been checks by the Geochemical
Laboratory of the University of Cologne.
Petrographic and mineralogical analyses were undertaken on thin sections,
using a JENAPOL polarising microscope, the analysed images being taken with
the Moticam 1000 camera.
Frequency of gelifraction cycles were measured with the LogTag Humidity
and Temperature HAXO-8 Recorder with a resolution of –0.1% and 0.1°C, located
near Izvorul Giumalaului dump.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Izvorul Giumalaului mining dump is formed by depositing rhyolitic metavulcanites
and sericite/chlorite schist in the inferior part, while in the upper part the copper
ore is present (compact or impregnated), the copper-pyrite ore content being over
60–70%. From the mineralogical point of view, the ore consists mainly of pyrite
(51–84%), with grain size between 0.012–0.64 mm; chalcopyrite with sizes varying from 0.011–0.11 mm; 1–5% sphalerite (0.0011–0.09 mm); sporadically, galena
(0.011–0.012 mm); 0–6% tetrahedrite ((Cu, Fe)12Sb4S13) and remaining minerals
(< 1%).
Colacu mining dump consists of black quartzite and graphitic schist (70–90%),
various sericite/chlorite-quartz schist (10–20%), manganese ore (5–10%) and
other material resulted from the digging process (carbide, beams, metallic materials, packaging, etc. 5%). Lens shaped manganese ores occur mainly in black
graphitic quartzite, with various dimensions. The mineralogical composition is
relatively homogeneous: 70% manganese carbonate, 25% manganese silicate and
5% oxides and sulphides of manganese and iron, among other minerals (less than
1%). Carbonates are represented by rhodochrosite (MnCO3), calcite, aragonite
(CaCO3), ankerite (Ca(Mg, Fe)(CO3)2) and siderite (FeCO3), followed by silicate,
predominantly being rhodonite (CaMn4Si5O15), pyrite (FeS2), pyrrhotite (Fe1–xS),
chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), sphalerite (ZnS) and galena (PbS), oxides such as jacobsite
(MnFe2O4), magnetite (FeFe2O4), hematite (Fe2O3) and hausmannite (MnMn2O4)
(Ref. 2).
On both mining dumps the spolic technosols were formed and on slopes between
29–30° skeletic regosols10 were present on parental materials, resulted through schist
weathering. Comparable with natural materials, spolic material evolves under the
influence of pedogenesis, but the mineral components of the technosols are less
569
affected by weathering and many of the morphological properties differ from those
of the natural soils even in small areas. For both dumps, the plateau is formed by
a succession of flat and wavy surfaces have been noticed. Micro-depressions and
ridges resulted from the disposal of material create discontinuities in the early stages
of pedogenesis. In the micro-depressions, vegetation installs faster than on ridges
contributing to the formation of a very thin bioaccumulative horizon. These differences are the effect of higher water content in micro-depressions than on ridges,
even if it is the case of a mining dump of relatively young age (12 years)11. In the
early years of its existence, mining dumps had physical and/or chemical properties
unfavourable cover of vegetation and soil formation. Horizontal surfaces of the
two dumps are covered by natural vegetation. In 15 to 25 years of pedogenesis
(Colacu respectively Izvorul Giumalaului) a thin A horizon was formed (Table 1).
Rohoskova put into the evidence the role of favourable conditions12, revealing
that on a coal dump after only 10 years an initial A horizon have been developed.
Table 1. Morphological properties of technosols (P1, P3) and regosols (P2, P4)
Pro- Horizona Depth
file
(cm)
1
2
3
4
A(u)
0–2
MAsp
MA2sp
MA3sp
2–16
16–24
24–47
MA4sp
Ao
AC
AC2
CR
A
MAsp
MA2sp
˃47
0–9
9–31
31–52
52–61
0–2
2–28
28–52
MA3sp
52–64
MA4sp
A
C
C2
R
˃64
0–1
1–33
33–65
˃65
moist
Colour
10YR3/1
dry
10YR 3/2
7.5YR 5/8
10YR 6/2
10YR 4/1
2.5Y 5/2
N3/1(70%)+10YR 2.5Y 5/2
3/1(30%)
10YR 3/1
10YR 6/8
10YR 3/3
10YR 4/3
10YR 4/4
10YR 5/8
10YR 4/2
10YR 5/2
10YR 4/1
10YR 5/2
10Y 2/1
10YR 3/1
10YR 4/1
10YR 5/1
N2.5/1(80%)+
10YR 3/2
2.5YR 4/5(10%)
N2.5/1(80%)+
10YR 2.5/3
2.5YR 4/5(10%)
5PB 2.5/1
N4.5/1
10YR 3/1
10YR 3/3
10YR 3.5/1
10YR 5/2
10YR 4/1
10YR 6/2
–
–
Rootsb
Horizon
abun- diameter boundaryc
dancy
(mm)/
restricting
depth (cm)
F
2–4
f
–
–
–/8
–
–
a
i
i
–
M
M
F
f
F
F
f
–
1–3
0.5–1
1–4
3–4/60
1–2
1–2
1–2
i
w
w
f
1–2/62
w
–
F
f
f
–
–
/65
–
a
a
a
a
a
a
–
MA – anthropogenic material; sp – spolic; bM – many, F – frequent, f – few; ca – abrupt, i – irregular, w – wavy
a
570
Artefact content varies within one layer to other, furthermore, it exceeds in
skeleton of regosols. The reduced weight of artefacts at surface can be randomly
due to the way the mining waste deposition or due to the results of freeze-thaw
cycles. Monitoring done from 2012 to 2013 at the Izvorul Giumalaului dump
allowed the identification of 88 diurnal cycles of freeze-thaw (Fig. 2), different
from the 70 recorded cycles by the meteorological station Rarau (1651 m). In the
case of dumps located in floodplains and below the thermal inversion, the higher
number of gelifraction cycles lead to the fragmentation of spolic materials and
pedogenesis of horizon A.
Fig. 2. Monthly distribution of the number of diurnal freeze-thaw cycles (2012–2013)
Chemical analyses highlight different values of pH for technosols. Thus, P1
ranges from strongly acidic setting in the A horizon (4.42) to extremely acidic in
subsurface layers (e.g. MAsp = 3.63, MA2sp = 3.61). In spolic technosols, pyrite,
being distinguishable by straw yellow colour (Table 2) in the middle part of the
profile, limiting roots penetration.
Pyrite oxidation and pH decrease are favoured by airflow due to the large
spaces between pebbles of few cm in diameter in the dumped materials. Higher
frequency of gelifraction phenomena induced the fragmentation of spolic material;
it is a matter of course that fine material is more reactive than coarse one, especially
where oxidation occurs on freshly crushed rocks. In P4, manganese carbonates are
responsible for high pH values, which varied little in the profile (7.63 to 8.07). In
both cases the technosol versus pH ratio displays a sharp contrast to the very low
(P1) or high (P4) in relation to regosols (4.5–5.3). Donisa have been determined
for dump resulted from manganese exploitation, situated on Oita valley, decreased
pH values (3.8–5.7) which are different from those found in P4 (Ref. 6). Because
of very low pH at the Izvorul Giumalaului dump acidophilic vegetation have
been installed (Picea abies, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Licopodium clavatum) which
contrasts with the neighbouring, where deciduous occur (e.g. Fagus sylvatica).
571
Table 2. Spolic material and skeleton content (%) in soil profiles
Horizons
Depth
(cm)
A(u)
MAsp
MA2sp
MA3sp
MA4sp
0–2
2–16
16–24
24–47
˃47
A
MAsp
MA2sp
MA3sp
MA4sp
0–2
2–28
28–52
52–64
˃64
Technosols
spolic material
(%)
Profile 1
68.39
44.49
60.39
64.17
70.95
Profile 3
47.41
51.62
49.71
46.96
60.50
Horizons
Depth
(cm)
Ao
AC
AC2
CR
0–9
9–31
31–52
52–61
A
C
C2
R
Regosols
skeleton (%)
Profile 2
42.34
56.51
60.87
56.19
Profile 4
0–1
51.78
1–33
65.33
33–65
53.75
˃65
>95
For technosols, the following nine environmental relevant metals (Cu, Pb,
As, Mn, Se, Cr, Co, Ni and Ba) exceed the normal value (NV) of the Romanian
legislation13 while for regosols, only four elements (Mn, Cr, Co, and Ni) are below
the benchmark. Spolic technosols are potentially contaminated with trace elements
resulted from mineral oxidation that contain relatively high amounts of such elements, but these elements result for minerals oxidising. The contents of Ga, Nb, Rb,
Sc, Sr, Y and rare earth elements (Ce and La) do not exceed mean values specified
by A. Kabata-Pendias14 in studied soils. In P1 and P2, Li exceed two time the mean
found in the soils from USA and China (33–35 mg kg–1) (Ref. 14). In the analysed
profiles some changes occur in framing of some elements such as: Mn shifts from
trace (< 100 mg kg–1) to minor (> 100 mg kg–1 < 0.1%) elements. In regosols, Mn
has different values in bioaccumulative horizons (2259 mg kg–1 in P4, respectively
886 mg kg–1 in P2), while at the bottom has relatively close values (P4 = 1200 to
P2 = 1500 mg kg–1) as a result of common origin of parent material as crystalline
schist, which gives similar geochemical characteristics.
In both regosols Fe concentration increases steadily on profile (P2: Au = 62695
mg kg–1, CR = 72819 mg kg–1, in P4: A = 24144 mg kg–1, C2 = 42320 mg kg–1)
with the depth. In technosols, concentrations are significantly different between the
bioaccumulative horizon (P1 A(u) = 80597 mg kg–1, in P3 = 52776 mg kg–1) and
the underlying layers (P1 MAsp = 41129 mg kg–1, in P3 MAsp = 38637 mg kg–1)
reflecting precisely the chemical properties of the spolic material stratifications.
Occasionally, soil is contaminated with high concentration of major elements
such as Fe, in areas affected by sulphide mining, in the Iberian Pyrite Belt15, but
the excess amount of Mn caused the reduction in absorption and translocation of
Fe resulted in a decrease of chlorophyll14, noticeable at leaves of young Picea.
572
Distribution of trace elements (Cu, Pb, As, Sr, Mn) reveal differences in technosols
depending both on parent material and profile based on stratification, but also to
soils formed under natural conditions. The benchmarks from national legislation
have been exceeded for the following potential toxic elements (Ni, Cu, Pb) to
which Se is added, from the metalloids group. The comparative analysis of soil
profiles (P1, P3) reveals that Ni, Cu and Pb with maximum values in the A horizons
of the technosols are higher than the concentration of the layers below (Table 3).
Table 3. Environmental relevant metals content in soil profiles
Horizons/depth
P1
(cm)
A(u)
0–2
MAsp
2–16
MA2sp 16–24
MA3sp 24–47
MA4sp
˃47
P3
A
0–2
MAsp
2–28
MA2sp 28–52
MA3sp 52–64
MA4sp
˃64
NV(756/1997)
Technosols
Ni Cu Pb
152 696.8 12.4
15.30 3.4 11.8
36.15 3.6 4.8
49.30 2.6 2.1
28.58 5.4 3.0
Se
29.4
34.3
34.7
22.4
43.5
210 153.8 9.9 12.9
68.2 10.9 2.2 40.4
133.3 16.0 164.5 40.0
154.8 395.4 792.6 40.0
99.4 9.43 1.9 74.9
20
20
20
1
Horizons/depth
P2
(cm)
Ao
0–9
AC
9–31
AC2
31–52
CR
52–61
Regosols
Ni Cu Pb
79.0 6.7 5.7
66.3 10.6 3.8
63.0 13.9 3.1
78.0 12.5 3.6
Se
39.0
45.1
30.2
39.6
P4
A
0–1
C
1–33
C2
33–65
R
˃65
Median in topsoil
Median in subsoil17
39.0 7.4 10.5
45.6 5.4 2.5
80.1 8.3 3.5
–
–
–
18.0 13.0 22.6
21.8 13.9 17.2
12.3
26.9
29.2
–
0.33
–
On the one side, for P1 this can be explained by the affinity of Ni, Cu, Pb for
natural organic matter and on the other side, by great mobility within oxidising,
acidic condition14,16. However, Cu can be toxic to plants at too high concentration.
Therefore, some plants have developed tolerance to high levels of Cu (Ref. 17).
This can explained partially why the waste dump Izvorul Giumalaului is better
covered by vegetation than Colacu. In P2, these elements have the same decreasing
trend of concentration at slightly alkaline pH and different TOC content between
A (0.38%) and MAsp (6.45%). In MAsp, Ni and Pb are strongly related to Fe (A
= 52776 mg kg–1, MAsp = 3863 mg kg–1) and Mn oxides, and less with TOC that
become from organic inclusions, used in mining activities. These elements seem
to be controlled mainly by the geochemical signature of sulphide mineralisation,
e.g. pyrite, chalcopyrite, and less by the other soil forming factors.
In regosols (P2, P4) Pb decreases steadily towards the value of the parent
material, while Cu is having a concentration tendency in the same direction due to
both chalcopyrite weathering and tetrahedrite. In addition to the above-mentioned
elements, Mg occurs in higher concentrations in all profiles (min = 1296 mg kg–1,
573
max = 5877 mg kg–1) from chlorite weathering while Na with a lower concentration (min = 74.92 mg kg–1, max = 365 mg kg–1), resulting from albite weathering.
CONCLUSIONS
Land micromorphology on plateau dump and geomorphological processes on the
talus slopes have a major contribution in the early stages of pedogenesis of soil
from mining dumps. Micro-depressions are favourable for pioneer plants while
ridges expose frequently surface rock. The horizontal surfaces are generally covered
with vegetation and favour the formation of a very thin bioaccumulative horizon.
At slope values of approximately 30°, the bioaccumulative horizon of regosols is
thicker beneath mixt vegetation (P2) and the thinner under softwood (P4). Waste
mine rocks (spolic materials), through its high share, limit the penetration of roots
and soil formation. The artefacts content and the land micromorphology may have
a higher influence in early stages of pedogenesis on waste mining dumps than
their chemical composition. More frequent cycles of gelifraction in lowlands than
in highlands accelerates the disaggregation of the spolic material, resulting in a
lower share in upper than in bottom layers of technosol. In regosols, the skeletal
content gradually increases toward the inferior part of the profile and limits in a
lesser extent the root development.
Chemical characteristics of spolic technosols are influenced mostly by the
concentration of the ore. In the technosols formed by pyrites weathering, at low pH
values were determined high concentrations of Ni, Cu, and Se whereas by altering
the spolic material in which manganese carbonate dominates, at alkaline pH, higher
concentrations were recorded for Cu, Ni, Pb and Se. Changes of concentration in
the profile is directly related to the rocks chemistry that forms stratification and
also to the pedogenesis, some elements being blocked in A horizon.
In regosols, Ni, Cu and Se express a normal growth trend of concentration
concomitantly with the depth while higher values of Pb are enriched in the bioaccumulative horizon.
Acknowledgements. This work was financial supported by the Department of Geography from
the ‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’ University of Iasi, and the infrastructure was provided through the
POSCCE-O 2.2.1, SMIS-CSNR 13984-901, No 257/28.09.2010 Project, CERNESIM (L4) and
Geoarchaeology Laboratory.
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(3), 1261 (2012).
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Received 22 February 2016
Revised 18 April 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 576–583 (2016)
Ecology
EXAMPLE STUDY ABOUT MERYEMANA VALLEY
(TRABZON/TURKEY) FOR DETERMINING THE
POTENTIAL CAMPGROUND IN THE SCOPE OF NATURE
TOURISM
S. S. KURT*, E. DUZGUNES, B. C. KURDOGLU , O. DEMIREL
Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Forestry, Karadeniz Technical
University, 61 080 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: sultansevinckurt@gmail.com; ertandusgunes@gmail.com;
banukurdoglu@windowslive.com; odofe01@gmail.com
Abstract. Mankind has lived in harmony with nature until the urbanisation process has led to
ecosystem degradation over time. This situation has brought irreparable wounds on natural and
resource values. Due to the adverse conditions experienced in urban areas, natural areas in recent
years are one of the most preferred recreation areas by people fleeing the city life. Nature tourism
includes adventure sports and recreational activities carried out in rural areas. Hiking, picnicking,
mountaineering, orienteering, bird watching, sport fishing, nature photography and camping, come
at the beginning of the events taking place in nature. Camping is one of these events, the desire
to perform in the nature; more than in natural areas is preferred because of the accommodations
facilities and low-cost. In this study, taking into account the needs and experiences of local people,
nature tourism activities within the scope of the Meryemana Valley (Trabzon/Turkey) on the potential
camp sites have been identified. In the study area, which is set by the National Camp Accreditation
Programme, land use, camping area and size, terrain, vegetation, climate, water resources, security,
transportation criteria, criteria within 9 ideal camping areas have been identified.
Keywords: nature tourism, camping, camp, Meryemana Valley.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
In modern society, social, economic, cultural, technological and political developments in parallel, recreation, open green spaces and important concepts of free time
and play an important role in human life. Nowadays, especially increasing trend
of urbanisation and the development of transport facilities, recreation demand and
diversity lead to significant changes1. Due to the adverse conditions experienced in
urban areas, natural areas in recent years, are one of the most preferred by people
fleeing the recreation area of city life.
Tourism is an exceptionally significant sector in regional development and
effective use of resources. Nature tourism in general, refers to trips made to the
*
For correspondence.
576
natural environment. It includes all forms of tourism related to the use of natural
resources such as scene integrity, topography, water, vegetation and wildlife.
Nature-oriented tourism was proposed at the beginning of 20th century; after the
reconsideration of recreation and natural ecological conservation in the following
years, ecotourism emphasised micro-tourism, different from mass tourism, focusing on local development with the activities based on local resources, economy,
characteristics, and life. It includes recreational and adventure sports activities
made in rural places2–5.
The sporting events take place in nature, ‘natural sports’, ‘open space recreation’, ‘adventure recreation’, depending on factors including the risks that they
take in and help elements used are classified by different names6. In recreational
areas a variety of activities such as hiking, picnicking, mountaineering, orienteering, trekking, bird watching, fishing, photography, camping, cycling, canoeing,
kayaking, horseback riding, water-skiing, air sports are carried out.
Camping is one of these events is an integral part of the extreme sports which
creates excitement, enthusiasm or addiction on people. Camping provides the opportunity to experience the nature first hand. Camping for the purpose of having
recreative and sports activities in nature, for a short time accommodation, to rest,
to spend time; is a recreation way to benefit from performing vehicles such as
tents, barracks, caravan7–11.
Places where held in the camp activities are called as camping area or campings. These areas are included in the route of highways and neighbourhoods in the
entrance of the city; they are established in places which have natural beauty such
as sea, lake, mountain. ‘Camping grounds can be found in forests and deserts, high
plains and mountains, the lake shoreline and ocean beaches’10.
According to standard measure establishing the camping area, shelter population in the area, the expansion requirement, shelter type to be used, the plot and
campground shelter scheme, the rate of available space is taken into account.
Shelter in the camping area, roads, including in the areas of administrative support per person (green spaces, social facilities, etc.) should not be dropped under
30 m2. Camping grounds should have the facilities at least 30 units (tents, caravans,
bungalows), should consist of no more than 1000 people7,12.
Campgrounds are divided into four groups including transit, recreational,
transit-recreational and organisation campingrounds9,13–15.
According to National Camp Accreditation Programme (NCAP), land use,
camping area and measurement, terrain, vegetation, climate, water resources,
security, transportation are important factors in the selection criteria for the ideal
camping ground. An ideal camp site,
● Should has a slightly sloped ground that can drain rain in an open area;
● Could endanger the lives of people in the camping area, where there is no
avalanche and landslide risk;
577
● Is located near the area of water resources for drinking and using;
● Are coarse or medium textured areas which have low level of ground water
to live on and to build facilities in order to facilitate, the ability to drain the surface
water quickly;
● Are regions which has not been taken under protection in accordance with
regulations or any law in terms of flora and fauna and non-sensitive in terms of
plant and animal existence;
● Should be zones which have altitudes between 800–2000 m in terms of bioclimatic comfort, facing east and south, wind speed is not high degree that could
affect activities and facilities in area (between 0–10 m/s), relative humidity values
that will not affect the events in a negative way (between 25–75%).
The criteria which should be considered in the selection and placement of
shelters in campgrounds are as follows:
● The average closed area for per person must be 3.5–4.5 m2;
● In hot and humid climates, shelter should be ensured with adequate air flow;
● In hot and dry climates, shelter material must be high temperature resistant;
● In cold climates, shelter material should be optimally insulated;
● Shelters should be installed back to back as much as possible. Tents are portable shelters made of lightweight canvas. There are various types and sizes of tents;
● Main roads inside the camp, which will allow vehicle and pedestrian traffic
should be 5 m wide;
● Access roads should be as 3 m wide to allow shipping;
● The average water use per person must be 15 l, per 250 person should fall
into a water point;
● The distance between any place with water point should be a maximum of
500 m;
● 1 bath cabin should be provided for every 25 people;
● 1 toilet stall should be provided for every 20 people;
● For places to collective laundry, 1 washing pool is required for every 100
people7,12,14–18.
EXPERIMENTAL
The main materials of study: Altindere, Bakircilar, Cayirlar, Cosandere, Kuscu,
Yuzuncuyil and covering Esiroglu resort with cottage villages, constitute Macka.
Macka district, with its natural and cultural features is the province of Trabzon
city. The study area is located in Turkish Black Sea region, in Eastern Black Sea
region (Fig. 1).
The method of the study constitutes observation, analysis, data collection,
analysis and assessment. To determine the boundaries of the study area, land survey
was done primarily, after taking opinions from the people who know they are well,
578
the regions with high tourism potential have been selected. Using the Arcgis 10.1
software, were produced maps of the area. In this context, Geographic Information
System was used as a tool to produce maps and to create a database of the area.
Fig. 1. Study area
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Eastern Black Sea unique geographic structure is described as a natural part of
the district of Macka, Meryenana Valley is still today hosting many of the valley
interesting, introverted traces of the cultural life. Many residential area situated
in the valley, with its rich cultural heritage they contain, and the terrific harmony
between man and nature reveals the most colourful examples of diversified financial environment accordingly. According to assessments made by taking into
consideration the criteria set by the NCAP, 9 ideal camping areas are determined
within the boundaries of the study area (see further Fig. 11).
Favaden Campground – 40°43′29.36″ north latitude – 39°39′55.78″ east
longitude Favaden camping area is located at a height of 872 m (Fig. 2). The area
has Black Sea climate.
Fig. 2. Present apprearence of Favaden Campground
579
Kebi Campground – 40°42′37.65″ north latitude – 39°40′26.11″ east longitude
Kebi camping area is located at a height of 1846 m (Fig. 3). The area has Black
Sea climate.
Fig. 3. Present appearance of Kebi Campground
Goflagol Campground – 40°42′21.56″ north latitude – 39°41′2.82″ east longitude Goflagol camping area is located at a height of 867 m (Fig. 4). The area
has Black Sea climate.
Fig. 4. Present appearance of Goflagol Campground
Kusal Campground – 40°43′31.87″ north latitude – 39°40′20.84″ east longitude Kusal camping area is located at a height of 568 m (Fig. 5). The area has
Black Sea climate.
Fig. 5. Present appearance of Kusal Campground
Lagana Campground – 40°47′49.06″ north latitude – 39°38′16.30″ east longitude Lagana camping area is located at a height of 1263 m (Fig. 6). The area
has Black Sea climate.
580
Fig. 6. Present appearance of Lagana Campground
Mezere Cayirlar Campground – 40°46′43.90″ north latitude – 39°38′16.35″
east longitude Mezera Cayirlar camping area is located at a height of 1171 m
(Fig. 7). The area has Black Sea climate.
Fig. 7. Present appearance of Mezera Cayirlar Campground
Rashi Campground – 40°46′8.84″ north latitude – 39°37′53.98″ east longitude
Rashi camping area is located at a height of 603 m (Fig. 8). The area has Black
Sea climate.
Fig. 8. Present appearance of Rashı Campground
Severiksa Yelef Campground – 40°44′25.57″ north latitude – 39°39′6.03″
eastern longitude Severiksa Yelef camping area is located at a height of 1271 m
(Fig. 9). The area has Black Sea climate.
Fig. 9. Present appearance of Severiksa Yelef Campground
581
Bottom of Severiksa-Kondova Campground – 40°44′2.19″ north latitude –
39°38′55.82″ east longitude Bottom of Severiksa-Kondoba camping area is located
at a height of 1725 m (Fig. 10). The area has Black Sea climate.
Fig. 10. Present appearance of Bottom of Severiksa-Kondoba Campground
Fig. 11. Map of the potential campgrounds
CONCLUSIONS
As a result of investigations made in the study, within the boundaries of the study
area, most suitable 9 areas are determined for camping activity. These areas are
determined to provide the conditions that must be owned for camping activity.
Suitable areas for camping activity are usually located on south aspects. The
most important reason for gaining density in this part of the camping area is the
degree of curvature that is between 0–6%. Other influential factors for these areas
582
are having soil texture of coarse-medium bodied, being 500–1800 m above sea
level, having a good soil drainage, having the ground water depth about 2 m and
above. Avalanche risk in these areas is weak.
Acknowledgements. This study was a part of the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency (TR90/10/
TURIZM001-A) project. We would like to thank Eastern Black Sea Development Agency for their
support.
REFERENCES
1. M. AKTEN, S. AKTEN: A Model Approach on Determining the Potential Recreation: Gülez
Management. 1. In: Proc. of the National Sarigol County and Values Symposium, February
2011, 17–19.
2. G. OZDEMIR, T. KIPER, B. BASARAN: Women Organisations in Turkey Rural Tourism.
J Environ Prot Ecol, 13 (2), 643 (2012).
3. N. OZGUC: Tourism Geography Properties Regions. Cantay Bookstore, Istanbul, 1998.
4. T. KIPER, M. ARSLAN: Example of Determining the Nature Tourism Hiking Route in Anatolia
Scope Study. Journal of Tekirdag Agricultural Faculty, 4 (2), 165 (2007).
5. C. J. SHIEH: Effects of Behavioural Norm Cognition on Tourist Satisfaction with Ecotourism.
J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (3A), 1273 (2014).
6. F. KOCAK, V. BALCI: Nature Made Environmental Sustainability in Sporting Events. Ankara
University Journal of Environmental Science, 2 (2), 213 (2010).
7. Acacamps: www.acacamps.org, 2008.
8. Talkcamping: www.talkcamping.co.uk, 2008.
9. M. TOPAY, N. KOCAN: Camping/Tented Camp and Determination of Site Selection Criteria for
Bartin-Uluyayla. A Case Study. Suleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Forestry, 1, 116 (2009).
10. TKDD: Hand in Hand with Our Case Studies for Modern Campsites Entrepreneurs. Turkey
Camping and Caravan Association, Turkey, 2013.
11. Tourism Dictionary: http://turizm.terimleri.com/Campsite.html, 2015.
12. CSGB: Determination and Application of Reference METIP Shelter Location. Republic of Turkey
Ministry of Labour and Social Security, 2012.
13. S. GULEZ: Forest Recreation Planning House. KTU Faculty of Forestry Journal, 6 (1983).
14. F. TANRIVERDI: Basic Principles and Application Method of Landscape Architecture Garden
Art. Ataturk University Publications, No 643, Erzurum, 1987.
15. N. KOC, S. SAHIN: Rural Landscape Planning. Ankara University Faculty of Agriculture,
Publication No 1509, Ankara, 1999.
16. ANONYMOUS: Scout Handbook. President of the Federation of Scouting Publications, Ankara
1996.
17. N. SOZEN, S. SAHIN: Camping (Planning-Implementation-Business). Landscape Architectural
Association Publications, Ankara, 1998.
18. M. TOPAY: Bartin-Uluyayla Landscape Features of Recreation and Tourism. A Research on
Evaluation of User. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Science and Technology Institute
of Mainland, Ankara, 2003.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 26 March 2016
583
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 584–592 (2016)
Biology
DO EUTROPHIC WATERS PROMPT TO TOXIC
CYANOBACTERIA IN TURKISH BLACK SEA COAST?
R. AKCAALAN*, L. KOKER, M. ALBAY
Fisheries Faculty, Istanbul University, No 200 Ordu Cad., Laleli, Istanbul,
Turkey
E-mail: rakcaalan@gmail.com
Abstract. Cyanobacteria is known to form harmful blooms in fresh and brackish waters and also
marine environments. Cyanobacteria blooms generally are the indicators of eutrophication in
freshwaters as well as estuaries and marine ecosystems. European Environmental Agency rated the
eutrophication in the Black Sea as highest concern in 1995. Since the Turkish coastline is also under
the pollution risk, the present study was conducted to investigate whether toxic cyanobacteria were
present and pose any risk hazard. Samples were taken in five sites along the Turkish coast between
Igneada to Samsun, ca 928.5 km long between May–October 2012 to investigate the potential of
toxic cyanobacteria presence. Twenty eight samples from surface waters were analysed using 16S
rRNA and sixteen of them were positive. Cyanobacteria was detected every sampling date in Sakarya river vicinity both microscopically and PCR method. HEP-PCR was used to detect the toxin
genes and four samples gave positive results. In contrast, no hepatotoxin was detected with ELISA.
Keywords: phytoplankton, 16SrRNA, HEP-PCR, surface waters, Black Sea.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The aim of this paper is to determine the potential of cyanobacteria blooms and
presence of cyanotoxins in the coastal waters of Southern Black Sea using PCR.
The Black Sea is a unique environment as a semi-enclosed system and subject
to high amount of nutrient inputs via rivers, mainly Danube which is responsible of the 87% of freshwater inputs to the Black Sea1. Nitrogen and phosphorus
enrichment in a waterbody result in eutrophication and the Black Sea coastal
environment has suffer from this problem for a long time2. The first result of
eutrophication and altered nutrient ratios is the change of phytoplankton composition in aquatic environments. There is a well-documented long-term data on the
variation of phytoplankton species diversity and abundance in the western Black
Sea, namely Romanian shelf and Bulgarian waters3,4 and there is a shift between
Bacillariophyta:Dinophyta ratio from 10:7 to 7:10 and intensity and frequency of
algal blooms have been increased over time as indicated by chlorophyll concentrations at Northwestern Black Sea area5. Turkoglu6 investigated algal blooms in
*
For correspondence.
584
Sinop Bay and reported that 11 species, mainly diatoms, reached to the cell densities equal or higher than 1×106.
Red-tides which is caused by dinoflagellate blooms is a well-known phenomenon in marine systems. However, cyanobacteria could also considered other
harmful species reaching high numbers in brackish waters and also Baltic Sea
which toxic Nodularia spumigena blooms recorded historically7. Toxic cyanobacteria records and published data are mainly available for European freshwater
systems, however, the Baltic Sea is the only marine ecosystem which have a
detailed investigation on cyanobacteria blooms and toxicity. The only report of
potentially toxic cyanobacteria bloom in the Black Sea was Nodularia spumigena
detected in Ukranian coast in July 2010 (Ref. 8). Teneva et al.9 identified seven
cyanobacteria species in Bulgarian coast in the summer of 2012 with a bloom of
Romeria gracilis, however no cyanotoxin was detected.
EXPERIMENTAL
Sampling was performed in monthly intervals between May and October in 2012. A
total 5 sites were chosen in the Southern Black Sea coast from Igneada to Samsun.
All sites were chosen near to main river inputs, except site 1, located in the border
of Bulgaria (Fig. 1). Site 2 was located next to the Bosphorus junction and in the
vicinity of a small river, namely Riva. The other sites were chosen in front of three
main rivers, Sakarya, Kizilirmak and Yesilirmak rivers, respectively.
Fig. 1. Location of sampling sites
Samples were taken from surface, 5 and 10 m depths. Temperature, dissolved
oxygen, pH and salinity were measured in situ using the YSI multiparameter (YSI
650 MDS). Water samples were collected using the Nansen bottle from the surface,
5 and 10 m depths for nutrients, phytoplankton and molecular analysis. Nutrient
analysis was carried out according to APHA, AWWA and WEF (Ref. 10) and
chlorophyll-a measurements were performed according to Nusch11. Phytoplank585
ton enumeration was done with a Zeiss inverted microscope using the Utermöhl
method12 and species were identified using the results of Hendey13 and Tomas14.
Total genomic DNA extraction from 0.2 μm membrane filters was performed
using MoBio DNA isolation kits. 16s rDNA amplification was performed using
forward primer (27F; 5′ AGA GTT TGA TCC TGG CTC AG 3′) and reverse primer
(809R; 5′ GCT TCG GCA CGG CTC GGG TCG ATA 3′). Thermal cycling was
performed at 92°C for 2 min followed by 35 cycles of 94°C for 10 s, 60°C for
20 s and 72°C for 1 min and a final extension step at 72°C for 5 min (Ref. 15).
Hepatotoxin (HEP) PCR reactions were performed using primers HEP and HEPR.
An initial denaturation step at 92oC for 2 min was followed by 35 cycles of 92oC
for 20 s, 52oC for 30 s, and 72oC for 1 min, with a final extension step at 72oC for
5 min (Ref. 16).
To determine differences of Chl a, and physicochemical variables among the
sites, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. The Tukey Honestly Significant
Different (HSD) test was applied to identify sources of variation, when significant
differences were determined as a result of ANOVA. These statistical analyses were
performed using SPSS 19.0.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
During the sampling period, surface water temperatures varied between 13 and
27.4oC among the sites. Dissolved oxygen was high in all sites with a minimum
7.1 mg/l and maximum 9.3 mg/l, since sampling was done in the coastal area with
a maximum depth of 10 m. Salinity did not changed between the sites and mean
salinity was 17.2 %o. Lower salinity was measured in surface waters due to the
higher freshwater inputs in sites 3 and 5 in May. However, any substantial variation did not detected throughout the sampling period. Secchi disc depth showed
marked differences between the sites. Mean Secchi disc depth was similar in
sites 1, 4 and 5 and maximum depth was detected as 7.5 m in site 2. Site 3 has the
lowest Secchi disc depth among them (Table 1). As it is located in the vicinity of
Sakarya river which is a long river and flow through the most industrialised cities
and also agricultural areas, it carries a high amount of suspended solids. Also, the
bottom of sampling area was fine sand and distributed in the water column easily
with a wind action.
Mean chlorophyll-a concentrations changed between minimum 0.5 and
maximum 1 µg/l among the sites. Lower values were detected in sites 1 and 2 and
other sites have higher concentrations. However, the results are still lower when
it compares with the NW Black Sea shelf area17. The difference between the sites
is mainly because of the phytoplankton species found.
586
Table 1. Mean values of physochemical parameters between May and October in sites
Parameters
Temperature (oC)
Conductivity (mS cm–1)
Total dissolved solids (mg l–1)
Salinity (g/l)
pH
Dissolved oxygen (mg l–1)
Secchi disc depth (m)
o-PO4 (µg l–1)
TP (µg l–1)
SiO2 (mg l–1)
NO3 + NO2 (mg l–1)
Chl-a (µg l–1)
St. 1
22.6 a
26.5 a
18.1 a
17.1 a
8.3 a
7.9 a
5.6 a
6.8 ac
20.8 a
0.2 a
0.2 a
0.5 a
St. 2
22.8 a
26.8 a
18.2 a
17.2 a
83 a
7.9 a
7.5 a
12.2 ac
30.8 a
0.2 a
0.6 a
0.5 a
St. 3
20.4 a
25.3 a
18.2 a
17.1 a
8.2 a
8.3 a
2.7 b
24.0 b
69.8 a
0.9 ac
0.7 a
1.0 a
St. 4
21.0 a
21.7 a
15.2 a
16.9 a
8.2 a
8.3 a
5.9 a
4.5c
30.6 a
1.4 bcd
0.4 a
0.8 a
St. 5
23.0 a
27.0 a
18.2 a
17.3 a
8.3 a
7.9 a
5.9 a
15.2 ab
59.2 a
0.8 ad
0.4 a
0.8 a
Similar letters indicated no statistical difference (p ≤ 0.05).
Increased nutrient inputs have a clear negative effect on ecosystem functioning. Especially in coastal areas nutrient concentration was generally higher and
under effect of urbanisation. Turkish coastline of Black Sea is about 1650 km
and 14 cities, 5 of them have more than 750 000 population, were located in the
coastal area. Moreover, four rivers and many streams flowing through the Black
Sea carrying nutrients collected in their catchment. Therefore, the concentration
of phosphorus and nitrogen is higher in site 3, which is located in front of Sakarya
river mouth. Strokal and Kroeze2 reported that the nutrient loads from the rivers in
the Turkish coastline is much lower compared to the ones in Northern Black Sea
with an exception of Sakarya river, however, an increase of 20 and 50% for DIN
and DIP respectively is expected till 2050.
Six phytoplankton groups were detected in sampling sites. Diatoms are the
dominant group in all sites, except site 3, however, subdominant groups showed
differences among the sites. The contribution of dinoflagellates was substantial
in site 1 and 2, on the other hand, their contribution to the total phytoplankton is
lower in other sites. Uysal18 indicated that diatoms and dinoflagellates are the main
constituents of phytoplankton in Turkish Black Sea coast. Site 3, which is located
in Sakarya river vicinity, separated from other sites with a dominancy of cyanobacteria which comprise 36% to the total phytoplankton and followed by diatoms
and chlorophytes. Cyanobacteria were detected in every months microscopically.
Sites 4 and 5 showed similarity in the percentage contribution of phytoplankton
groups; diatoms were dominant, followed by chlorophytes and cryptophytes were
the third group (Fig. 2).
587
Fig. 2. Relative contribution of phytoplankton groups in the sites
Cyanobacteria abundance varied spatially and temporally. Recorded species
were Pseudoanabaena limnetica, Planktolyngbya limnetica, Merismopedia sp.,
Synechocystis sp., Anabaena sp., and Planktothrix sp. The latter two species only
enumerated in sites 4 and 5 in very low numbers, probably drifting from freshwater
lakes connected with Kizilirmak and Yesilirmak rivers. Planktolyngbya limnetica
was recorded in site 2 in July. Maximum cyanobacteria abundance was recorded in
site 3 and responsible species was Pseudoanabaena limnetica (Fig. 3). Marsalek et
al.19 indicated this species as toxic in a bloom in one reservoir in Czech Republic.
P. limnetica prefers shallow, nutrient-rich, turbid waters. It is a freshwater species,
however, high organic carbon concentrations drifting from freshwaters can support
its presence in marine environment. It blooms also in Baltic Sea20.
588
Fig. 3. Cyanobacteria abundance in surface waters in all sites
Despite the seven cyanobacteria species identified in the sites, no cyanobacteria bloom with a water discoloration was detected during the study period. One
of the reasons could be salinity. Verspagen et al.21 found that Microcystis blooms
supressed in the salinities exceeding 14 g/l in an estuary. Similarly, Nodularia
spumigena blooms in Baltic Sea occur rarely outside the salinity range of 3–11 g/l
(Ref. 22). Alexandrov et al.8 reported the bloom of this species in Ukranian coast
with a salinity range of 12.9–14.5 g/l. In Turkish coast, the shelf is a narrow strip
compared to 200 km wide area with a depth of less than 200 m in the northwestern part of Black Sea, where also affected the major freshwater discharges from
Danube, Dniepr, and Dniestr23. Therefore, even though the samples were taken
near to the main rivers, the salinity was about 17 g/l. Moreover, a unique hydrodynamic feature of the Black Sea result in three anticyclonic eddies in the areas of
Bosphorus junction, Sakarya and Kizilirmak river vicinity which cause instability
in water18, in contrast to the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms in calm waters.
Total 28 samples from surface waters of five sites were analysed for the presence of cyanobacteria with 16s rRNA and genes were detected in 16 of them. Only
one sample from June has cyanobacteria in site 1 and three samples have cyanobacteria genes in sites of 2, 4 and 5. On the other hand, cyanobacteria was detected
in site 3 with molecular methods in every sampling date (Fig. 4). In this study,
picoplankton was overlooked microscopically, nonetheless they were included to
the molecular detection since DNA isolated from filters with a 0.2 mm pore size.
589
Fig. 4. Gel image of 16S rDNA (samples ranged from May to October excluded July in site 4 and
June in site 5)
1–6 – Site 1; 7–12 – Site 2; 13–18 – Site 3; 19–23 – Site 4; 24–28 – Site 5; PK – positive control,
NK – negative control
Only four samples were positive for HEP PCR and no toxin gene was detected
in sites 1 and 2. One sample from sites 3 and 5 and two samples from site 4 have
MCY/NOD genes (Fig. 5). Since presence of the genes does not mean the toxin
production, positive samples from HEP-PCR were subjected to immunochemical
analysis, ELISA, and no microcystin/Nodularin was detected.
Fig. 5. Gel image of Hep-PCR
1–6 – Site 1; 7–12 – Site 2; 13–18 – Site 3; 19–23 – Site 4; 24–28 – Site 5; PK – positive control;
NK – negative control
590
CONCLUSIONS
Black Sea suffers from eutrophication since 1970, because of increased nitrogen
and phosphorus inputs through rivers derived from anthropogenic sources3,24. According to our results, despite the differences among the sites, coastal waters could
be regarded as eutrophic based on nutrient concentrations. Cyanobacteria represented in low numbers and generally found in the main freshwater inputs, however,
species diversity remained very poor. Some potentially toxic species Planktothrix
sp. and Anabaena sp. were detected in very low numbers in the Southern Black
Sea coast. On the other hand, Pseudoanabaena limnetica reached relatively high
numbers. The detection of potentially toxic cyanobacteria with MCY/NOD genes
indicated the possibility of risk based on cyanobacteria in Southern Black Sea.
With a scenario of increased nutrient load in Turkish coastline24, the risk of harmful
algal blooms should be monitored closely and necessary measures has to be taken.
Acknowledgements. This work was supported by research grants BS ERA- NET (MARCY-019)
and TUBITAK 132T211. The authors are grateful to Onur Saglam, Cenk Gurevin and Zeynep Dorak
for their help in sampling, chemical analysis and data evaluation.
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Regional Environmental Change, 13 (1), 179 (2012).
3. O. A. YUNEV, J. CARSTENSEN, S. MONCHEVA, A. KHALIULIN, G. ÆRTEBJERG, S. NIXON: Nutrient and Phytoplankton Trends on the Western Black Sea Shelf in Response to Cultural
Eutrophication and Climate Changes. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 74 (1), 63 (2007).
4. D. PETROVA, D. GERDZHIKOV: The Changes of Phytoplankton Community. J Environ Prot
Ecol, 10 (2), 365 (2008).
5. T. OGUZ, A.G. DESHPANDE, P. MALANOTTE-RIZZOLI: The Role of Mesoscale Processes
Controlling Biological Variability in the Black Sea Coastal Waters: Inferences from SeaWIFSderived Surface Chlorophyll Field. Continental Shelf Research, 22 (10), 1477 (2002).
6. M. TURKOGLU, T. KORAY: Algal Blooms in Surface Waters of the Sinop Bay in the Black
Sea, Turkey. Pak J Biol Sci, 7, 1577 (2004).
7. T. FINNI, K. KONONEN, R. OLSONEN, K. WALLSTROM: The History of Cyanobacterial
Blooms in the Baltic Sea. Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment, 30 (4), 172 (2001).
8. B. G. ALEXANDROV, L. M. TERENKO, D. A. NESTEROVA: The First Case of a Bloom
of Nodularia spumigena Mert. ex Born. et Flah.(Cyanophyta) in the Black Sea. International
Journal on Algae, 14 (1) (2012).
9. I. TENEVA, P. STOYANOV, B. DZHAMBAZOV, R. MLADENOV, D. BELKINOVA: What
is Known about Cyanoprokaryota and the Algal Blooms along the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast:
an Overview. J BioSci Biotechnol, 4 (3), 239 (2015).
10. APHA, AWWA & WEF: Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. 17th
ed. American Public Health Association, Washington, 1989.
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11. E. NUSCH: Comparison of Different Methods for Chlorophyll and Phaeopigment Determination.
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5, Bacillariophyceae. H.M. Stationary Office, London, 1964, p. 317.
14. C. TOMAS: Identifying Marine Diatoms and Dinoflagellates. Academic Press, Inc., 1997, p. 598.
15. B. A. NEILAN: Identification and Phylogenetic Analysis of Toxigenic Cyanobacteria by Multiplex Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA PCR. Appl Environ Microbiol, 61, 2286 (1995).
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Hepatotoxins, Microcystin and Nodularin, Synthetase Genes in Three Orders of Cyanobacteria.
Arch Microbiol. 185, 107 (2006).
17. A. E. KIDEYS: Fall and Rise of the Black Sea Ecosystem. Science, 297 (5586), 1482 (2002).
18. Z. UYSAL: On the Formation of Net Phytoplankton Patches in the Southern Black Sea during
the Spring. Hydrobiologia, 485 (1), 173 (2002).
19. B. MARSALEK, L. BLAHA, P. BABICA: Analyses of Microcystins in the Biomass of Pseudanabaena limnetica Collected in the Znojmo Reservoir. Czech Phycology, Olomouc, 3, 195 (2003).
20. L. RIEMANN, C. LEITET, T. POMMIER, K. SIMU, K. HOLMFELDT, U. LARSSON, A. HAGSTRÖM: The Native Bacterioplankton Community in the Central Baltic Sea Is Influenced by
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Received 8 January 2016
Revised 5 February 2016
592
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 593–602 (2016)
Solid waste management
CARBON FOOTPRINT IMPORTANCE FOR AN
INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
E. GRECUa, D. C. PETRILEANb, I. IONELa*
Politehnica University of Timisoara, 2 Victoriei Square, 300 006 Timisoara,
Romania
E-mail: ioana.ionel@upt.ro; ionel_monica@hotmail.com
b
University of Petrosani, 20 Universitatii Street, 332 006 Petrosani, Romania
a
Abstract. The main difficulty in choosing a preferential site of a number of possible sites is the fact
that the environmental impact and transport cost of each location cannot always be quantified easily.
This paper analyses the environmental impact by evaluating the carbon footprint and transport cost
of such a waste collection system which can be implemented in Timis County. In order to minimise
handling costs, the location of waste landfills should be as close to the source of waste generation
as possible. Expected to be achieved initially near the largest town in Timis (the village Covaci), the
project was met with opposition from the neighbourhood population; another option is the location
situated 50 km from Timisoara, in Ghizela village, operating with 4 transfer stations (Timisoara,
Deta, Jimbolia, Faget). In particular, this paper offers a carbon foot analysis to establish a comparison between the variation of the carbon footprint and the waste transport cost, using trucks from 4
different areas of the county to 3 possible landfills.
Keywords: footprint, cost of transport, environmental impact of waste land filling, study case Timis
County.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
In order to justify the importance of the assessment, it must be therefore highlighted
that the open air or even the dedicated special waste landfills are an important soil,
water and air pollution generator, the environmental impact being a significant and
a long term one, landfills being considered possible pest holes. Ecological landfills
are final waste deposits, set up in areas which cannot be used for economic-social
purposes, located outside the cities, built and fitted with installations which do not
allow in any way the pollution of the environment.
Currently, many EU countries (such as Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden) have complex systems of waste collection. They
deposited to landfill less than 5% of the waste they produce1. In addition, these
countries have outstanding performance in terms of biodegradable waste recovery
(waste to energy concept). Regional Waste Management Plan for the West 5 regions
*
For correspondence.
593
(comprising Timis, Arad, Caras Severin and Hunedoara counties) is presumed to
apply the concept of effective solutions in terms of waste management costs2. For
this purpose, the use of modern technologies focused on creating deposits within
the meaning to be environmentally friendly and safer. Through effective awareness
of selective waste collection process was intended to make possible the selection
of many waste fractions.
In recent decades, due to the general increase in living standards and increasingly extensive use of packaging technologies, the quantities of organic waste and
packaging increased and changed considerably. To counter over this situation,
specific objectives have been defined: selective waste collection, recycling reusable resources and reducing the quantity of biodegradable waste landfilled. An
optimistic approach regards the selective collection of waste: paper and tar boards,
glass, plastics, metals, leather and rubber, wood, textiles, food garbage. Therefore,
several approaches regarding waste management are imposed, considering the
perspective brought forward in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Priorities regarding the waste management approach
The following aspects need to be taken into account when choosing the location of the integrated waste management system:
– Eliminating the risk of pollution of underground and surface waters;
– Reducing the effects the flow of polluted water, resulted from rain water
which goes through the waste, has on the soil;
– Reducing the pollution of soil with plastic, paper or other light waste, which
may be taken by wind and spread on the adjacent surfaces;
– Eliminating the discomfort of citizens by reducing the unpleasant and nonhygienic aspect of the points of collection and specific landfill;
– Eliminating possible pest holes;
– Reducing the amount of waste which can be stored by increasing the collection rate of recyclable waste (glass, metal, plastic, paper, organic waste);
– Improving the quality of waste collection services, which leads to the improvement of citizens comfort and quality of life3;
594
– Creating new jobs;
– Reducing environmental pollution by reducing the carbon footprint;
– Reducing transport expenses considering the location, i.e. the landfill should
be as close as possible to the waste generating source.
The assessment deals with the last two aspects regarding the location of the
ecologic landfill, namely:
– The comparative study regarding the variation of the carbon print through
the change of the location of the ecologic landfill in 3 possible locations (i.e.
Covaci, Cheveresu Mare and Ghizela). The transport is ensured by a fleet of 4
types of trucks, with different emission factors (Euro 2, Euro 3, Euro 4, Euro 5)
the transport capacity being comprised between 30–40 t/truck;
– The comparative study regarding the variation of cost generated with the
transport of waste to the 3 locations (Covaci, Cheveresu Mare and Ghizela), taking
into account the transport for 3 different tariffs foreseen by the transport legislation
in force (in Timisoara, Jimbolia, Deta and Faget).
EXPERIMENTAL
Materials and method. Storing waste in ecologic landfills is considered to be
the most popular waste management methods. Correctly choosing the site of the
landfill, adequately designing the landfills as well as the necessary studies to be
carried out represents an essential element of any waste management programme4.
The main difficulty in choosing a preferential site of a number of possible sites
is the fact that the environmental impact and transport cost of each location cannot
always be quantified easily. The impact of a site can be linked to costs, footprint,
but also the visual aspects and the effect on human health5.
The harmful effects of waste (pollution, contamination), but especially those
determined by inappropriately set-up landfills are determined by:
(1) Harmful gas emissions generated by the decomposition process of organic
waste (produced by fermentation), with effects on air quality;
(2) Leaks and infiltrations from rainwater and infiltrations of substances, dissolved and diluted, transported with this type of waters as well as the humidity
degree of solid components, the effect of which is the pollution of surface waters,
ground waters and soil of the adjacent areas and the soil of the site of the landfill6.
The main conditions for the site of the landfill regard the following7:
– Intensive use of the allocated space as simultaneously it should bring forward
stability regarding environmental conditions;
– The ground should correspond from a geotechnical point of view and it
should also present stability considering seismic phenomena;
– It should exclude the danger of flooding or rain water flushing and the creation of water planes or mud slides;
595
– The zone must be isolated from all communication ways, utility networks
(energy, water, wastewater, telephone networks, etc.), human settlements, industrial
areas and protected areas such as reservations, archaeological sites, parks, and
others, as much as possible, but must have an appropriate access route as well.
For depleted quarries, natural depressions, slums, totally degraded fields the
recovery means investing a large amount of money, efforts and planning and it is
hardly recommended to be use waste deposit sites. The implementation plan must
demonstrate that it is possible to obtain cost effective to achieve the objectives in
terms of collection, treatment and disposal of Romania and proposed targets for
packaging waste and reducing biodegradable waste deposits4.
Table 1 presents the constituents in solid wastes of Timisoara area6.
Table 1. Constituents in solid wastes of Timisoara area
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Components
paper and tar boards
glass
plastics
metals
leather and rubber
wood
textiles
food garbage
no identified with prevailing biological origin
Average
(mass.%)
8.2
13.1
6.2
1.1
1.8
0.3
4.9
37.0
27.4
Variation frames
(%)
4–23.9
1.8–14.3
1.6–9.0
0.71–5.9
0.24–2.6
1.6–3.0
1.29–11.0
25.5–39.6
3.8–71.94
Figure 2 brings the evolution in the composition of waste for the past few years.
Fig. 2. Evolution of the composition of waste during 2011–2014
596
In order to determine the carbon footprint generated by waste transportation
using trucks to all three possible sites/locations of deposits/ during a year, the following relation is used:
FP = fCO × L × 10–6 × 365 t/year
2
(1)
where fCO is the footprint resulted from the train manufacturer, g/km; L – distance
2
covered, km.
The comparative determination of transport costs to all possible sites is realised
using the following relation:
price = L × Sc Euro
(2)
where L is the distance covered, km; Sc – specific cost, €/km.
Case study. The project ‘Ecological Zone Landfill Timisoara’ began by late 1996.
The initiator of this project (Timisoara-City Hall) wanted to achieve, in accordance with European environmental standards, a modern landfill. It would have to
replace the landfill near Timisoara (from the side Parta) which needs to be closed.
First solution was an ecological land filling site in the locality Covaci, about 10 km
from Timisoara. Against this project there was a strong opposition from the civil
society4. Therefore, because of protests against the location of Covaci, the European
Union blocked the funding. By 2006, a new location was established for landfill: a
land in the commune Cheveresu Mare, 25 km from Timisoara. The project was not
completed because the inhabitants rebelled against its location on their locality, as
well. After further negotiations and delays, it was decided to build an ecological
landfill in Gisela, a village located 50 km from Timisoara. Concerning this location
acceptance from citizens occurred, as they associated this project with the hope
of creating jobs (in an area otherwise disadvantaged and with a significant level
of unemployment) and the creation of a transport infrastructure and utilities was
as well expected. Ghizela landfill is part of the Integrated Waste Management in
Timis County and involves three waste collection and transfer centres in the county
(Jimbolia, Deta, Faget) and a transfer station in Timisoara. The deposit is one of
the largest in the country (a total capacity of 5 131 300 m3). The number of people
to be served by the landfill covers up to 700 000 inhabitants.
In order to minimise transporting costs, the location of landfill should be as
close to the source of waste generation. If handling costs would be the only criterion
for placement, the optimum location of the landfill would be centred around a point
whose coordinates should be equal to the weighted average of the corresponding
values of waste generation points, depending on the quantities of waste generated1.
597
Table 2. Waste area and possible and selected storage (Regional Waste Management Plan)
Area
Total population Possible storage Possible storage Storage selected
served (thouCovaci (km)
Cheversu Mare
Ghizela
sands inhabit(km)
(km)
ants)
Area 1 Timisoara
399970
10.9
24.1
50.4
Area 2 Jimbolia
70673
51.3
66.9
93.4
Area 3 Deta
27070
55.1
51.9
94.7
Area 4 Faget
27689
92.7
69.6
56.0
Area 0 Ghizela
98056
55.4
45.0
0.0
According to this criterion, including possible alternatives, the solution chosen
was less favourable in terms of handling costs. The largest quantity of waste is
generated by the Area 1 Timisoara (which serves about 60% of the total population) and must be transported to landfill Ghizela covering a distance of over 50 km.
This is a double distance than if the site should have been selected near Cheveresu
Mare and nearly five times higher than if the site had been chosen to be Covaci.
It should be noted that the Regional Waste Management Plan was developed at a
moment, when the feasible landfill was still proposed to be located near Timisoara.
Also, it is notable to mention that the amounts corresponding to Area 2 Jimbolia and Area 3 Deta (corresponding to a population that is 15% of the population
served) are transported over a distance of more than 90 km to the landfill Ghizela.
All these wastes are transported by road and cause damage to the environment in
terms of pollutants emitted from exhaust gases, not mentioning the damaging of
the routes for transport and noise/vibrations generated (as all routes are traversing villages). Moreover, between operators of transfer stations are found marked
differences in the activity of sorting, recycling and transportation; The operator
station transfer 1 Timisoara performs sorting waste at a rate of about 40%, of which
about 20–30% of waste is recycled (providing a final recovery rate of 8–12% by
recycling), after which the waste is packaged in wrapping pallets of 1.5–1.8 t and
transported by trucks with a capacity of 35–40 t to landfill from Ghizela. In addition, even unsorted waste is transported over 90 km, because only the landfill
Ghizela is prepared/equipped to achieve sorting. A more advantageous solution
for the environment could be railway transport; but the location chosen for the
landfill, Gisela has no access to rail.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The relocation of the waste deposit site leads to significant changes concerning the
distances from the main waste generating source enhancing, therefore the environmental impact of the carbon footprint. Moreover, the waste transport expenses
598
will increase for the decades to come, aspect leading to the main aspect involved
in the correct managerial decision8.
Waste transport is ensured by a fleet of different trucks, the carbon emissions
declared by the manufacturer being presented in Table 3 (fleet functioning on
fossil fuel):
Table 3. Carbon emissions according to Euro type
No
Value (g/km)
Euro 2
600
Euro 3
550
Euro 4
500
Euro 5
450
The transport is carried out once a day with each type of truck (with different
emissions, as analysed). The determination of carbon emissions is considering the
distances from the waste generating sources to the three possible sites as indicated
in Table 2. The comparative determination is carried out for the determination of the
carbon footprint as well as for the determination of transport costs from the waste
generating source to the 3 possible sites (Covaci, Chervesu Mare and Ghizela).
(Timisoara-Covaci; Jimbolia-Covaci; Deta-Covaci; Faget-Covaci). The transport
tariff is considered to be comprised between 0.6 and 0.7 Euro/km.
Figures 3, 4 and 5 present the variation of the carbon footprint depending on
the variables, namely the distance and the carbon emissions.
Figures 6, 7 and 8 bring forward the dependencies of the cost of transport
considering the 2 variables: distance and transport.
Fig. 3. Linear dependence of the footprint on the following routes: Timisoara-Covaci; JimboliaCovaci; Deta-Covaci; Faget-Covaci, if the waste deposit site is located in Covaci (fCO2 =450, 500,
550, 600 g/km)
599
Fig. 4. Linear dependence of the footprint on the following routes: Timisoara-Chervesu Mare; Jimbolia-Chervesu Mare; Deta-Chervesu Mare; Faget-Chervesu Mare (fCO = 450, 500, 550, 600 g/km.)
2
Fig. 5. Linear dependence of the footprint on the following routes: Timisoara-Ghizela; JimboliaGhizela; Deta-Ghizela; Faget-Ghizela, if the waste site is located in Covaci (fCO = 450, 500, 550,
2
600 g/km)
600
Fig. 6. Variation of waste transport expenses/truck on the four routes considering the positioning of
the waste site in Covaci, the transport tariff varies between 0.6, 0.65 and respectively 0.7 Euro/km
Fig. 7. Variation of waste transport expenses/truck on the four routes if the waste site is located in
Chervesu Mare, the transport tariff varies between 0.6, 0.65 and 0.7 Euro/km
Fig. 8. Variation of waste transport expenses/truck on the four routes if the waste site is located in
Ghizela, the tariff varies between 0.6, 0.65 and 0.7 Euro/km
The lines in Figs 3–8 form a divergent bunch as the distance ran through by
the trucks increases. Also, from Figs 3–8 it may be observed a linear increase both
601
of the carbon footprint, as well as of the waste transport expenses, the fCO2 and the
transport tariff, according to the distance. The results calculated for the study case
are specific, but still can be used as a model of a professional, logic analysis that
should be run/achieved before establishing locations for landfills. By all means
ecological support and social acceptance must be correctly taken into account.
CONCLUSIONS
The determination of the carbon footprint and of the waste transport expenses are
determining factors in taking decisions. They are required and fluctuating in the
quantification of the environmental impact, which is an important condition when
choosing the final waste deposit site/location for a future landfill.
It is therefore considered that the carbon footprint and the waste transport
expenses are variable parameters with significant implications upon the environment, the other conditions brought forward by the paper being státu-quó conditions.
When one intends to take a decision concerning the location of a landfill, the
method and diagrams as proposed can be used as a model to generate a database
for making estimates on the carbon footprint and cost of transport, and leading
finally to a conclusion and scientific decision, even with accepted risks.
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Solid Waste Incineration Residue. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14 (3), 947 (2013).
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an Important Component of the Environmental Education and Public Awareness. J Environ Prot
Ecol, 13 (2A), 1139 (2012).
3. E. GRECU: The Selection of a Landfill Site Timisoara Case. In: Proc. of the 11th International
Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2011, Albena, Vol. 3, 2011, 731–738.
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Albena, Vol. 3, 2011, 677–684.
5. F. K. VOSNIAKOS, G. VASILIKIOTIS, P. MENTZELOU, M. KATSANTONI, M. LIAKOS:
The Impact of Hospital Wastes in the Environment. Fresen Environ Bull, 12 (10), 1233 (2003).
6. O. FALUP, I. MIRCEA, R. IVAN, I. IONEL: Novel Approach for the Current State of Greenhouse
Gases Emissions. Romanian Case Study. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (3), 807 (2014).
7. O. V. BOLD, R. F. MORARU, J. GRABARA, U. ASGHER: Environmental Impact Assessment
for an Industrial Solid Waste Deposit Located in Constanta Harbour. Annals of Faculty Engineering Hunedoara – International Journal of Engineering, 2, 61 (2015).
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 16 April 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 603–598 (2016)
Solid waste management
CELLULASE-MEDIATED HYDROLYSIS APPLIED ON
SEVERAL DANUBE DELTA BIORESOURCES
M. PARASCHIVa,b*, C. MANOLEa, I. TUSAa, M. PAUNa, L. TCACENCOa
National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences,
296 Spl. Independentei, 060 031 Bucharest, Romania
b
Research Centre for Advanced Materials, Products and Processes
(CAMPUS), University Politehnica of Bucharest, 313 Spl. Independentei,
060 042 Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: maria.paraschiv@incdsb.ro
a
Abstract. The paper deals with the cellulase-mediated hydrolysis applied to several residual biomass
resulting after extraction of biologically active principles from three medicinal plants: Melissa officinalis L., Melilotus officinalis L., Viola tricolor L. The yield of hydrolysis to hexoses was determined
based on the amount of free glucose in the reaction mixture identified by spectrophotometric analysis,
and total conversion of biomass residues was calculated. It was found that biomass resulted from
Viola tricolor L. exhibits best glucose amount (10.35%) after 1 h of enzymatic hydrolysis, while that
sourced from Melissa officinalis L. gives the highest total conversion of solid biomass (82.13%).
Keywords: bioresources, enzymatic hydrolysis, medicinal plants.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The aim of this work is to identify improved pathways for efficient use of biomass
resources. Enzymatic hydrolysis of other sugar-based biopolymers resulted from
industrial biotechnologies appears to offer a promising way to obtain glucose and
short-chain oligosaccharides used in different fields.
For bio-ethanol production by alcoholic fermentation, sugar and starch still
remain the main sources of raw materials1. This first generation of fuels, with the
origin in raw materials similar to those used for food and feed has to be limited.
Obviously advancing research directions are focused on obtaining hexoses using
sources that do not come into competition with human nutrition. One followed
pathway is the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic biomass, process conducted by
cellulase of different origins. This is related to the carbon cycle in nature, showing very high percentages calculations to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases
when using cellulosic biomass, as we can see in Fig. 1 (Refs 2 and 3).
*
For correspondence.
603
Fig. 1. Evolution of greenhouse gas emissions with raw material nature used for fuel production2
Biomass saccharification is the biggest obstacle for technical and economic
production of biofuels and bio-refining. To address this challenge there are different approaches or combinations thereof: pre-treatments for biomass fractioning
and then enzymatic hydrolysis of these fractions; cellulase engineering focused
on increasing its activity and stability; enhancing cellulase activity toward real
crystalline biomass4–6.
Thus, lignocellulosic biomass can be utilised to produce bio-alcohols, a
promising alternative energy source for the limited crude oil. For that, cellulose is
hydrolysed through enzymatic way to produce reducing sugars, and fermentation
of the sugars to ethanol.
The cost of bio-alcohol production from lignocellulosic materials is relatively high based on current technologies, and the main challenges are the low
yield and high cost of the hydrolysis process7. Considerable research efforts have
been made to improve the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials. Pre-treatment
of lignocellulosic materials to remove lignin and hemicellulose can significantly
enhance the hydrolysis of cellulose. Optimisation of the cellulase enzymes and the
enzyme loading can also improve the hydrolysis. Simultaneous saccharification
and fermentation effectively remove glucose, which is an inhibitor to cellulase
activity, thus increasing the yield and rate of cellulose hydrolysis and, respectively,
the ethanol production rate8.
Reducing sugars are not used only in renewable energy field. Sustained studies
on alternative carbon sources are developed in major biotechnological industries
since the main enzyme synthesis pathway is microbiological one. Thus, different
renewable-based sources for media and carbon sources needed in microorganism
growth are tested and evaluated from efficiency in enzyme production point of
view9,10.
604
In Romania about 300 species of medicinal plants are collected and recovered,
some of which are used as raw materials for drugs factories, pharmacies, for external or internal use. The presence of biologically active substances (such as free
amino acids, volatile oils, antioxidants, etc.) of different plant species gives them
therapeutic properties. An important zone with specific bioresources is represented
by Danube-Delta11, this region being declared a protected area (Biosphere Reserve).
Nearly a third of the total number of plant species that live in Romania is found
in the Danube-Delta Reserve, meaning over 1830 species. There are mostly herbs
species (195) but the largest world areas covered with reeds and two unique forests in Europe, consisting of centuries-old oaks and Mediterranean lianas (source:
http://www.info-delta.ro/).
The residual biomass remained after extraction of biologically active substances is often pelleted and burned. This biomass contain large amounts of cellulose (from 40 to 50%), the polysaccharide that can play an important role in
alternative source of glucose for different biotechnologies12.
Moreover, cellulose is associated with other substances such as lignin, pectin,
hemicellulose, various resins, lipids, glycosides, tannins, etc. Thus, chemical composition of lignocellulosic feedstock becomes a key factor affecting the efficiency
of biomass conversion process4. From this point of view, low lignin biomasses such
as agricultural wastes are excellent biomass resources for cellulose hydrolysis or
fermentation pathways13,14.
EXPERIMENTAL
The paper aims to use the waste biomass as alternative sources of monosaccharides
required in the production of biofuels or other bio-based products. The work is
related to the wastes resulted after the extraction of biologically active compounds
from medicinal plants.
In this respect, three type of medicinal plants where used famous for their
antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-proliferative activities15–17: Melissa officinalis
L., known as lemon balm, of that different extracts were tested for their activity
in the treatment of various disorders; Melilotus officinalis L., known as yellow
sweet clover, of which the flower extract has anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic
properties; Viola tricolor L., known as heartsease contains, as many viola plants,
small chain peptides used in drug development. It is known that extracts from
Viola tricolor L. have antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects due to their
complex flavonoids content.
The extractions of active molecules were performed in bi-distilled water and
the extraction biomass: solvent ratio was 1:13. The aqueous extracts were obtained
by maceration of cleaned and dried herbs, under slow agitation. The extraction
process lasted 72 h.
605
The aqueous extract was subjected to thin layer chromatography (TLC)
analysis, the objective being to separate and identify the amino-acids in a mixture
of compounds.
Materials used for TLC:
– Stationary phase: silica gel plate ALUGRAM SIL GEL (Macherey-NAGEL),
G / UV 254, 20 × 20 cm.
– Mobile phase: mixture of butanol, acetic acid and water (ratio 4:1:1);
– Amount applied: 10 ml standard amino acid, 50 ml aqueous extract sample;
– Migration distance: 15 cm;
– Revealing solution: 0.3% ninhydrin solution dissolved in acetone.
The waste biomass resulted after active biomolecules extraction was subjected
to enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulase. The enzyme solution (0.2% in sodium citrate
buffer 0.05 M, pH 4.8) was prepared with cellulase produced by Aspergillus niger
from Fluka. The reactions were carried out in a parallel reaction station (RS600
STEM Reaction Blocks with 6 positions from Electrothermal), which allows the
work at the same temperature and stirring rate simultaneously and ensures the
repeatability of reaction parameters. The temperature and pH were kept at 50°C
and 4.7–4.9, respectively.
The reaction time was set to 2 h and from 60 to 120 min, samples of 2 ml of reaction mixture have been taken and analysed every 20 min by UV-vis. spectroscopy.
For comparison, other cellulosic biomass (crops residues) has been processing
at the same conditions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The amino acids identified by TLC analysis in the aqueous extract are presented
in Table 1. It can be seen that the extracts have five common amino acids (L-hyd
roxyproline, L-histidine, Valine, L-proline and Glutamic acid). L-arginine and
L-alanine were found only in the extracts obtained from Melissa officinalis L. and
Viola tricolor L., while Tryptophan, L-lysine and L-tyrosine in Melilotus officinalis
L. and Viola tricolor L. On the other hand, L-serine and Aspartic acid have been
identified only in Melissa officinalis L. extract, and L-methionine in Viola tricolor L.
606
Table 1. Water-soluble amino acids present in the extract of tested medicinal plants
No
crt
Identified
amino-acid
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
L-hydroxyproline
L-arginine
L-histidine
L-alanine
Valine
L-proline
Glutamic acid
Tryptophan
L-lysine
L-asparagine
L-serine
Aspartic acid
L-phenylalanine
L-tyrosine
L-leucine
L-methionine
L-glycine
Chemical
formula
Aqueous extracts from medicinal plants
Melissa
Melilotus
Viola
officinalis L. officinalis L. tricolor L.
+
+
+
C5H9NO3
+
–
+
C6H14N4O2
+
+
+
C6H9N3O2
+
–
+
C3H7NO2
+
+
+
C5H11NO2
+
+
+
C5H9NO2
+
+
+
C5H9NO4
–
+
+
C11H12N2O2
–
+
+
C6H14N2O2
–
–
–
C4H8N2O3
+
–
–
C3H7NO3
+
–
–
C4H7NO4
–
–
–
C9H11NO2
–
+
+
C9H11NO3
–
–
–
C6H13NO2
–
–
+
C5H11NO2S
–
–
–
C2H5NO2
The cellulase-mediated hydrolysis performed on the biomass residues resulted after biomolecules extraction generated different amount of glucose in
the reaction mixture. The results (Table 2) allowed a distinct placement of Viola
tricolor L. residue as the most susceptible biomass source to produce glucose by
enzymatic hydrolysis. Moreover, the cellulase shows a good activity even at one
hour of reaction.
On the other hand, by determining the total biomass conversion during enzymatic hydrolysis it was found that, in addition to glucose, an important amount
of other water soluble sugar fragments are formed. The results of the investigated
samples are shown in Fig. 2, where it can be see that Melissa officinalis L. residue
was very well degraded in the described conditions.
607
Table 2. Glucose concentration obtained during cellulase-mediated hydrolysis
Nr
Crt
Biomass substrate
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Melissa officinalis L.
Melissa officinalis L.
Melissa officinalis L.
Melissa officinalis L.
Melilotus officinalis L.
Melilotus officinalis L.
Melilotus officinalis L.
Melilotus officinalis L.
Viola tricolor L.
Viola tricolor L.
Viola tricolor L.
Viola tricolor L.
Straw*
Straw *
Straw *
Straw *
Straw **
Straw **
Straw **
Straw **
Enzymatic
Glucose concen- Glucose yield (%)
hydrolysis time tration (mg/ml) (g/g) reported to
(min)
biomass
60
0.409
4.91
80
0.452
4.97
100
0.455
5.00
120
0.457
5.03
60
0.433
5.19
80
0.444
5.33
100
0.450
5.40
120
0.452
5.43
60
0.862
10.35
80
0.928
11.14
100
0.926
11.12
120
0.945
11.34
60
0.409
4.91
80
0.423
4.65
100
0.441
5.29
120
0.429
3.94
60
0.437
5.24
80
0.458
5.49
100
0.522
6.26
120
0.531
6.37
* – without aqueous extraction; ** – with aqueous extraction before enzymatic hydrolysis.
Fig. 2. Biomass conversion after 2 h of enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass with cellulase
608
Furthermore, the work performed in this paper highlights the importance of
biomass pre-treatment before enzymatic hydrolysis. Thus, the cellulase-mediated
hydrolysis applied on dried grass or straw led to a low degree of conversion (only
6–7%). Using water hydrolysing as pre-treatment method, the biomass structure
exhibits a much higher capacity to respond to the cellulase attack. Thus, the total
conversion increased drastically to 60% for grass and 53% for straw. On the other
hand, the pre-treatment did not bring an enhancement of glucose concentration,
as the obtained values show (Table 2).
CONCLUSIONS
This paper evaluates the possibility of biomass residues integration into valuable
chain pathways. Through the experimental work it was proved that during enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulase obtained from Aspergillus niger different amount
of glucose is released in the reaction mixture. The total conversion of biomass
depends on the nature of the substrate, but it is most depended of substrate pretreatment before adding the enzyme.
The best results were obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of Viola tricolor L.
residues (10.35 gglucose/gbiomass at 60 min, and 11.14 gglucose/gbiomass at 80 min). For the
rest of tested substrates, cellulase-mediated hydrolysis occurred at different level
in the used reaction conditions, but not until the final compound (glucose). Thus,
even if the total conversion reaches more than 80% (i.g. Melissa officinalis L.),
the yield of glucose remains below 5.5%.
As for crop samples, it was found that preliminary treatment does not significantly influenced the conversion to glucose, which is around 6.37% even after 2 h
of reaction but the total conversion can be significantly increased.
Acknowledgements. This work has been developed and was financially supported through the
National Core Program: BIODIVERS Project.
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Received 27 January 2016
Revised 20 March 2016
610
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 611–620 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
GREENWAY PLANNING PROCESS IN THE EXAMPLE OF
TOKLU VALLEY
B. C. KURDOGLUa*, S. S. KURTa, K. T. CELIKa, T. USTIN TOPALb
School of Forestry, Department of Landscape Architecture, Karadeniz
Technical University, 61 080 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: banukurdoglu@windowslive.com; sultansevinckurt@gmail.com;
kadirtolgaacelik@gmail.com
b
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Landscape
Architecture, Namik Kemal University, 59 000 Tekirdag, Turkey
E-mail: tugbaustun61@gmail.com
a
Abstract. In today cities the ecological framework requires the creation of sustainable landscape.
For this purpose the protection of the green corridor established relationships with existing and development of new tissue is important. In this context greenway planning approach is the preferred
planning model in cities. ‘Toklu Valley’, passing through the city of Trabzon and yet has not been
distorted by yearling settlement and connecting the city to rural and other types of land, was selected
as the study site. This area is evaluated in terms of greenway planning criteria for the determination
of appropriate land use decisions and may undertake functions were analysed. After analyses of the
valley, suggestions were given for appropriate goals for greenway planning strategy and functions.
Study includes the following steps: Literature Research, Analyses, Data Integrity and Statistical Results, Assessments and Presentation. As a result, suitable areas in respect to recreational and scenery
functions are presented in the study area. The area is evaluated in 3 zones. In the proposed scenarios
for these zones, the opportunities of the area as recreational, ecology and education corridors are
presented through illustrations. The 1st zone is evaluated as recreational and education corridors, the
2nd zone is evaluated as recreational, ecology and education corridors and the 3rd zone is evaluated
as recreational, ecology, education and scenery corridors.
Keywords: greenway planning, planning of urban corridors, sustainable cities, Trabzon.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Sustainable cities are ecologically planned and require obtaining, interpretation
and using all the ecological data with ecological land planning principles which
called urban landscape planning1. Deniz et al.2 state that in fragmented landscapes,
to minimise the negative impact of isolation, increasing the effectiveness of the
natural cycle and providing of type mobility are based on the establishment of
corridors to enable the connection of the field. In this sense, the most effective
way in improving the connection status of a landscape, protection of the natural
*
For correspondence.
611
and artificial corridor development or strengthening and creating new artificial
corridors. Corridor functions are described in 6 items:
(1) Help to increase on the continuity of species diversity and richness;
(2) Prepare an environment to ensure the recolonisation for extinct species,
due to the formation of suitable habitat matrix again;
(3) Provide genetic variation between isolated habitats,
(4) Provide alternative transitions to the species which need different habitats
periodically;
(5) Bring together different shelter and hunting areas;
(6) Provide recreational, visual and climatic benefits by creating a green belt
that borders the city3.
Greenways have played a significant role in the development of urban areas.
There are significant benefits from greenways4. According to Ahern5, the greenway
planning have linearity, binding, sustainability, a lot of functionality and features to
be integrated into landscape planning. When the greenways are assessed in terms
of these features, they will be able to play a very important role for sustainable
urbanisation.
On greenways, hiking, bike riding, skating, picnicking, horse riding, ski walking, etc. outdoor recreation activities are carried out. These are generally active and
passive activities including social, cultural and sporting events. When performing
daily activities on greenways, facilities and opportunities are available to perform
several days activities at the same time6. After the greenway movement started
with Frederick Law Olmsted Boston Park System referred to by name of ‘Emerald Necklace’, ‘Greenways for America’ book written by Charles Little in 1990
(Ref. 7), was an important step towards the concept. Yet very few literature about
the concept found, by Flink and Searns in 1993 (Ref. 8) that described greenway
history and planning principles have been published.
By Journal Landscape and Urban Planning (Fabos and Ryan Publishers)9 in
1995, ‘greenway’ was discussed in a special subject and about this topic 26 issues
were published. Searns10 described the greenways processes from past to now, also
provided information about their current status, meanings and functions on urban
landscapes. Starting from axis, boulevards, following the recreation path along
rivers, creeks, ridges, stages were described until today multi-purpose greenways.
Ahern5 describes Greenway planning strategies, concepts and plans, discusses the
properties and benefits by definition of greenway. The greenway classification made
in the study and was discussed in three sample areas. Turner11 has published an
article that contains the history of the greenway planning in England, development
proposals for the current state and future state.
The study of Ndbusi et al.12 describes the method for performing source
analysis and planning strategies for a greenway corridor application that will be
carried out in an example ecologically sensitive area. In an article published in
612
2004, Asakwa et al.13 defined five river corridors as example areas evaluating the
city river corridor in the greenway system, described the area as recreational use,
nature and views. Riberio and Barao14, compare five example greenway areas which
feature ensuring the continuity of recreational and landscape quality and emphasise the importance of this planning. The article published for the rural greenway
planning by Conine et al.15 in Konkord city, North Karolayna, in the direction of
planning multi-purpose greenway system, the works they created could be given
as example for the purpose of recreational, environmental protection and alternative transportation. Likewise, Lindsey16, in the article, by explaining the aims and
planning strategies of Indianapolis Greenway System, reveals visitors profiles and
the status of three roads used by visitors which belongs to the greenway system.
Mugavin17, besides the Tonnes River Linear Park, with the work made about Adelaide Greenways Planning application and assessment, introduces a 50 km-long
riverside greenway. Haren and Reich18, providing information about the greenway
network and habitats in Germany, discuss the rewards of a multi-purpose greenways and the advantages of the way to create habitat networks. In their published
article, Yokohari et al.19 report their views on the history of greenways and their
situation in the future in modern cities of Japan. Arslan20 defines the greenway
concept and function, focuses on the need to apply this model for our cities and
our rural areas. Again, in Turkey, a research project was performed by Arslan et
al.21 in Ankara University, Turkey. A study of decisions taken towards Greenway
Planning in Ankara occurs as a completed study in 2004. Kurdoglu6 in his thesis
work called ‘A Research on Planning Hamsikoy-Zigana Village Road that Owns
Trabzon-Gumushane Old State Highway as Greenway’, also with the number of
102Y067 CAYDAG-TUBITAK research project, has examined the feasibility of
Trabzon-Gumushane Old State Highway as greenway and in terms of recreationscenery-historical/cultural functions, he has assessed the suitability of the area by
using the ‘Suitability Analysis’ method. He has revealed a Greenway Planning
Model as the result of evaluation carried out in GIS environment.
Toklu Valley that passes through the city of Trabzon and has not been distorted
by construction yet, and connects the city to the countryside and to many areas
with special characteristics, has been selected as the study are. This field has been
analysed to determine the decisions about the undertaken functions and appropriate
land use in terms of greenway planning criteria. Then, recommendations have been
presented about strategies, aims and functions for a greenway planning in the area
that could contribute the sustainable urbanisation. The study has been performed
through the following steps: Literature research, Analyses, Data integrity and
Statistical results, Assessments and Presentation.
Geographic Information System (GIS) has been benefited for data and route
studies of the parameters and stage assessments in the study area. GIS support has
been taken again for the visualisation of data, mapping and data analysis steps of
613
concerned valley. At the last step, according to the statistics and analysis results,
assessments have been made and the results have been discussed.
In the research, the urban corridors of Trabzon Toklu Valley have been analysed
in terms of undertaken functions and possibility greenway planning. In this context:
● To provide a contribution to the planning of landscape by creating qualified
green areas with the evaluation of Toklu Valley Corridor potential to be greenway;
● Through this corridor, to provide the routes that offer the opportunities for
recreational activities like cycling, hiking, running, examination of nature, horse
riding, watching the village life, etc. for city people;
● With planning this corridor as a greenway to create the routes (corridors)
for providing socialisation and offering the opportunity to watch the view of the
city for people and local-foreign tourists coming to the city;
● With planning this corridor as a greenway to create the routes (corridors)
offering the opportunity to increase awareness of city people about the natural,
historical, cultural and semantic values of city;
● With planning this corridor as a greenway to connect with important focus
in terms of the city historic, cultural and natural values;
● With planning this corridor as a greenway, beside ensuring the knowledge
about the natural, historical and cultural resources to the visitors of all ages, to
contribute to education by making organisations for the natural and cultural sciences
in cooperation with primary and secondary schools, universities, other institutions
that give nature and environment education that near the greenway;
● Through this corridor, to create routes (corridors) that people with disabilities could use;
● To ensure increasing the amount of qualified green area per capita in the city;
● To manipulate a greenway linking urban areas to rural areas;
● With planning this corridor as a greenway to break the heat island by providing the air circulation which is important for the city climate;
● To contribute to the sustainable urbanisation phenomenon with planning
this corridor as a greenway.
EXPERIMENTAL
Study purposes and scopes were carried out using the following steps:
STEP 1: LITERATURE RESEARCH
Many articles, projects, reports related with subject and workspaces were examined
within the country and abroad in scope of the research.
614
STEP 2: ANALYSES
Area survey. The transport status, property status, recreational status, aesthetic
status, etc. of the field were examined by determining the value of current natural
and cultural resources, observations, photos, land patterns that belong the current
situation of area.
Mapping in Geographical Information Systems. Inventory of area has been mapped
in the GIS environment.
Survey studies. A survey will be achieved in order to identify the possibility of
being greenway and the functions that area could have by reference of the views
of local people and the people who visit the area. Overall, the survey was administered over 84 people. Trabzon Toklu Valley corridor is designated as study area.
Toklu Valley connects Trabzon seaside to the residental area and rural area in the
city. This area has opportunities in terms of potentials like recreation, education,
alternative transportation, etc. for city people.
Present condition analysis. In this step, according to the studies carried out in step
2, the possibilities of corridor were discussed according the current situation. The
analysis of area was carried out in the GIS environment.
Planning strategies, determination of goals and functions. Planning strategies,
purposes and greenway functions of corridor identified as an area of research have
been revealed in line with 1st and 2nd working steps and current situation analysis
that carried out in 3rd step.
● In this step, in line with data obtained from the result of 1st, 2nd and 3rd
working steps and literature assisted assessments of area, the Ahern planning
strategy stated in 1995 (Ref. 5) has been decided as appropriate combination for
Toklu Valley. In this step, protectionist, fighting, defensive and assessed opportunities four different strategies have been discussed; a combination of appropriate
strategies has been determined by considering one or more of the most suitable
combination together.
● In addition, with data obtained from the result of 1st, 2nd and 3rd working
steps and literature assisted assessments, environmental, humanitarian, economic,
application, development and management goals have been created for planning
Toklu Valley with greenway system.
● Again, with data obtained from the result of 1st, 2nd and 3rd working steps
and literature assisted assessments, convenient functions for greenway system of
the said valley (to be a corridor to protect natural and historical-cultural values, to
be a recreation corridor, to be an alternative transportation corridor, to be a tourism corridor, to be a scenic corridor, to be an educational purposes corridor, etc.)
have been determined.
615
STEP 3: DATA INTEGRITY AND STATISTICAL RESULTS
Determination of percentage and relations of survey data. In this step some results
of the survey are given. In the evaluation of the survey results the average values
of statistical results are given by using SPSS 16.0 software and determining frequency values.
Determination of land use rules. All previous assessments of this step, as a result
of GIS analysis to be performed later determining land use decisions for corridor
have been shown on the maps.
STEP 4: ASSESSMENTS AND PRESENTATION:
In this step, some results of the survey, maps prepared in GIS environment and
presentations prepared in other visualisation programs were given. Statistical
evaluations of the survey conducted have been presented with tables and graphs.
By discussing the findings of the research, recommendations are presented for
planning, implementation and management purposes with greenway model of
urban valleys.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results of Toklu Valley. Toklu (Karsiyaka) Valley that is the working area is a
valley that opens to the state coast road between Karsiyaka District in west and
Toklu and Aydinlikevler Districts in east. This valley as well as other valleys that
have unspoiled constructions in Trabzon, that can be reached from the beach
directly and has an uncut the connection with environment, has a quiet and calm
ambience; between the areas of life and education; is home to a rich countryside
tissue in an urban tissue.
1st Stage; the area between State Coast Road and Yavuz Selim Avenue has
been identified. Particularly the relation with activity areas in coast road is high.
2nd Stage limit starts from Yavuz Selim Avenue and proceeds to the bridge
located in the area. There are two entrances to this area. First one is the 5 m
secondary road located in the southwestern of the avenue and second one is 5 m
secondary road that opens 800 m from the sea through Toklu District. Along the
way, the landscape accompanies to valley floor with a wooded route. This route
provides the urban-rural linkages.
3rd Stage which is our last stage begins with the southern border of passive
activity area and extends along the greenhouse terrain. The location and terrain
that found in allows the activities like greenhouse cultivation and stockbreeding
(beekeeping and sponging of small ruminants-bovine animals).
Determination of percentage and relations of survey data. 61.90% of respondents
participating in the survey were female and 38.10% were male.
616
67.8% of respondents participating in the survey were between 15–25 years,
16.67% were 26–35 years, 7.1% were between 56–65 years, 4.76% were between
36–45 years, 2.38% were between 46–55 years and 1.19 % were 66 years and above.
65.48% of respondents participating in the survey were students, 8.33 % were
officers, 5.95% were housewives, 3.57% were retired, and 16.67% were among
other professions.
70.24% of respondents participating in the survey were graduated from university, 20.24% were graduated from postgraduate, 4.76% were graduated from
high school, 3.57% were graduated from primary school and 1.19% were graduated from secondary school.
When the average results were analysed, it was observed to fulfill the several
listed functions. Especially it is considered to be a very major contribution in the
subjects of ‘Urban-Rural-Natural Areas Connection (4.7500)’, ‘Recreation Facility
(4.5476)’, ‘Identity Addition (4.5238)’ and ‘Socialisation (4.5119)’. ‘Subtransportation (3.7976)’, ‘Accessibility (3.8214)’ and ‘Education (3.9048)’ will contribute
less in the study area.
When the stages are analysed separately, for 1st stage ‘Recreation (4.4286)’,
for 2nd stage ‘Recreation (4.4762)’ and for 3rd stage ‘Ecological (4.2857) and
Education (4.2619)’ functions come forward (Table 1).
Table 1. Average values of given points of awarded functions as planning Toklu Valley a greenway
within separately stages
A-recreation
A-scenic
A-historical cultural
A-ecological
A-education
B-recreation
B-scenic
B-historical cultural
B-ecological
B-education
C-recreation
C-scenic
C-historical cultural
C-ecological
C-education
Valid N (listwise)
N
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
84
minimum
2.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
3.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
2.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
Average statistics
maximum
average
5.00
4.4286
5.00
3.0595
5.00
2.8452
5.00
3.3690
5.00
3.6667
5.00
4.4762
5.00
3.5952
5.00
2.9881
5.00
3.8810
5.00
3.7976
5.00
4.3690
5.00
3.8810
5.00
3.0000
5.00
4.2857
5.00
4.2619
std. deviation
0.69915
1.19589
1.26581
1.30596
1.14422
0.68506
1.13136
1.24662
0.96199
1.00336
0.83276
0.94938
1.31717
0.85829
1.00743
Note: absolutely disagree – 1, disagree – 2, neutral – 3, agree – 4, absolutely agree – 5.
617
Planning strategies, determination of goals and functions. As a result of the inventory and land analysis carried out in Toklu Valley, an approach that was defined by
Ahern in 1995 which assesses the opportunities and protects the planning strategies
which has been followed for the area and the area has dealt with a planning approach
to ensure the sustainability of the existing natural and cultural values, primarily
for the people of Trabzon city and targeting the masses of tourist visiting the city.
As a result of survey application given in Table 1 assessment of area analyses;
the corridor has found suitable for recreation, scenic, ecological and educational
functions. Then, suggestion function map and sections are presented in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Suggestion function map and sections
CONCLUSIONS
This project work that is not found in the city of our country is a planning model
revealing a planning approach and dealing with landscape planning approaches.
Such a model may be an example for other cities. In this way, examples can be
formed by creating a model that deals with landscape planning approaches in
the lack of zoning plan. It is among the original values of the research to present
concrete proposals for a multi-functional planning approach that will improve the
quality of life of the city people, will protect the natural and cultural values of the
city, will improve the city climate, will offer alternative transportation opportuni-
618
ties, will reveal the urban-rural connection, will allow people the opportunity to
make recreational activities:
● Natural valleys in urban areas, are the corridors that needed to protect ecologically. At this point, there are important functions in terms of urban ecosystem.
A landscape planning approach will be presented by emphasising on this topic
with such a work.
● Such valleys are areas that should be left as corridors that used as green
area and allowed air circulation. In this sense, the research project will reveal a
planning approach model for other cities.
● Because of transportation that has become a major problem in our cities
every day, drivers provided to use other routes by creating alternative roads.
● Reducing effect can be created for environmental pollution (visual pollution, noise pollution, air pollution, etc.) by making the pedestrian or non-motorised
vehicle transportation possible.
● Survival effect can be created in the city by creating recreational areas for
people that can spend their free time.
● Qualified green spaces in the city and the amount of green space for per
person can be increased.
● The awareness of locals and foreign tourists about the city can be increased,
in historical-cultural and natural resource values with semantic values of rich routes.
This study on the lack of zoning plans in landscape planning approaches while
planning the urban open green space systems reveals an approach for the planning
of the valleys. This approach can be an example for many other urban valley.
Natural and cultural resource values of said valley may be integrated into the
system and may be loaded many different functions with this planning approach
that can access to large scale between urban-rural areas, a basic may be created
for a large greenway system.
This study is an example work that demonstrates the functions by taking a
holistic approach to urban green space, not the solution of point but the solution
of whole, in the meaning of the whole area to be planned in this line. This is
an approach that increases the green area per capita by increasing the qualified
green spaces. It takes attention to the concept of sustainable urbanisation and the
greenway.
Acknowledgements. This study make use of ‘Greenway Planning Approach on Urban Corridors:
Toklu Valley and Trabzon-Golcayir Village Route Example’ titled which was a part of the KTU BAP
(10741) project. We would like to thank KTU BAP for their support.
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Ankara University, Scientific Research Projects, 2004.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 10 March 2016
620
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 621–628 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
URBAN PARKS AND THEIR ROLE ON SUSTAINABLE
URBAN WATER CYCLE
D. D. KUSULUOGLU*, G. AYTAC
Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Taskisla Street,
34 437 Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: ddinemis@gmail.com
Abstract. From building scale to metropolitan, urban green areas vary in size and functions. One
of these green areas is urban parks, which have environmental, economic and social benefits for the
cities. Besides having recreational opportunities for the urban dwellers, they host rich bio-diversity
with diverse flora and fauna with respect their size and they contribute to the sustainability of the
city. Transformation of old hunting lands to public greens brings out the concept of urban parks.
In historical process, the main reason behind the designation of urban park is mostly to improve
life quality after the industrial revolution and rapid urbanisation. Urban green areas can also play
an important role in sustaining urban water cycle. Designing and planning of urban green areas are
critical to improve hydrological cycle and manage the water in site. From 19th century, Olmsted
designed urban parks as a part of the urban infrastructure as in Central Park and Emerald Necklace,
and he designed the parks to function as the natural drainage and reservoir systems. These two epic
urban parks not only bring rural to urban with aesthetical concerns, but also provide the resilience
and sustainability for city systems. Today, contemporary urban park designs deal with environmental
incidents more than ever because of the rising global ecological challenges. In this paper, how can
urban parks contribute to improve urban hydrological systems will be examined through projects
from the world.
Keywords: urban parks, urban water systems, hydrological cycle, Olmsted.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
From the first examples of designed landscape in Mesopotamia to Hanging Gardens of Babylon in 600 BC (Ref. 1), landscape has always been a part of human
art and life. Greeks and Romans conceived urban landscape in political and social
ways, while medieval gardens had influenced future with being pioneer for 18th
century romanticism and asymmetric composition, until Renaissance were made
to pacify men1.
From the beginning of the history, civilisations were settled in coastal lands
and water was the important matter for humanity. Water ecosystems provide many
ecosystem services such as water for consumption use, for food and generating
power, transportation and recreational activities for human; and also ecological
*
For correspondence.
621
services such as regulating water quality and maintaining sustainability of water
ecosystems2. However, one of the agreed results of Industrial Revolution is the
climate change as a critical global issue, threatening world systems.
The breaking point in late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution, had changed
entirely the social and economic world. The serious migration from rural end up
with rapid urbanisation bring with new concerns about cities. Starting from then,
many urban formation theories evolved to deal with fundamental changes in city
history especially for sanitary problems. After the change in water based land uses
along with the uncontrolled rapid urbanisation and impervious pavements caused
urban water runoff; loss of water quality and even water scarcity in the 21st century.
According to Lal3, the number of countries who suffer from water scarcity will be
34 in 2025 while the number was 20 in 1995 and 7 in 1955. This rapid urbanisation drove planners to find new design objectives to restore the hydrological cycle
naturally4. At this point the urban landscape planning comes seeing ecologic and
social benefits for both urban environment and human psychology. This is where
urban parks design arose, first in Europe from old hunting lands, then in America
with F. L. Olmsted.
URBAN PARK CONCEPT
Urban parks are considerably greater areas in urban scale and have many ecologic,
economic and social functions. Once being hunting lands for royals, such as Hyde
Park designed in 1536 (Ref. 5), now represent important examples of urban parks
especially in Europe. Having influences of them, Olmsted presented the concept
of urban parks for America. Urban parks are mainly designed to increase life
quality; they provide healthy recreational activities for human, and also help cities
for their sustainability with biodiversity, water cycle, air quality and many other
ecosystem services.
In historical process, from royal hunting land to other functioning greens
opened to public and considered urban public green areas. In 15th century, the
end of Medieval Era came along with major events affecting history such as end
of feudalism and new beginning of renaissance. After this century, green areas in
urban boundaries began to transform from royal hunting lands to public parks.
One of the London biggest parks, Hyde Park was opened to public by Charles I in
1637 (Ref. 6). Once being a hunting land known as Marylebone Park until 1649,
Regent Park first opened to the public in 1835 for limited days a week7. Paris has
many urban parks which was transformed from varied green spaces. One of the
most important public park of Paris, Tuileries Park was built as palace garden and
redesigned and opened to public by Le Notre in 17th century. Bois de Boulogne,
once designed for Napoleon as hunting land between 1852–1858 (Ref. 8), is the
second biggest public green space in Paris (Fig. 1).
622
Fig. 1. Hyde Park, London9 and Bois de Boulogne, Paris10
New technological improvements following Industrial Revolution changed
19th century urban formation and landscape design. 1899 City Beautiful Movement is the beautification act of the unhealthy cities for better aesthetic sense and
sanitary conditions. Along with bringing new identity with new architectural style
and orders, green areas were also planned for physical and social improvements.
As one of the pioneer of the movement, Olmsted visited Europe many times and
had great influences from London and Paris urban parks.
URBAN PARKS AND WATER CYCLE
Central Park and Emerald Necklace are two important urban park examples where
Olmsted took water as a design tool and created these parks to improve urban
hydrologic cycle. After experiencing urban life with great open green areas in
European cities, Olmsted returned to America with ideas of creating a national
park system and meets the clean air and green space need of the city. His first
remarkable design with Vaux, Central Park, is planned to serve ecologically,
socially and culturally to both city and people and be accessible for everyone to
reduce the negative effects of urban life and improve life quality. After winning
the competition with Greensward Plan which is a rural and picturesque design in
Manhattan grid, Olmsted and Vaux created the public urban park between 1857
and 1873, which still gives New York its identity. Olmsted stated that he created
the park so that working class can go after work to spend their leisure time away
from urban noise11.
Built in the 1862 as a temporary water supply for New York City regarding the
design of Central Park, the reservoir is a good example of guiding the city water
to the urban park as a natural drainage and replaced the Receiving Reservoir as
an important fresh water source12. The Reservoir, today called as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, is still used to water other green places in the park. The
reservoir today is one of the main ecological sanctuary in park with more than 20
water bird species and is an attractive point for bird watchers12 (Fig. 2).
623
Fig. 2. Central Park Reservoir13
Another important project of Olmsted which he took water as the basic
design tool is Boston Emerald Necklace. It was a very problematic area with a
contaminated river flooding every heavy rain and threatening user health. In the
second half of the 19th century, Muddy River in Boston became much polluted as
the urbanisation reduced infiltration and increased flooding to the point of danger
to public health. In 1896, Olmsted and Charles Eliot came with propose of open
green space system which connects neighbourhood into an integrated network14.
Boston Emerald Necklace is planned as Boston natural drainage and is created
as a green system with a linkage of public green spaces. It is planned as an urban
infrastructural part which regulates Boston hydrological cycle. Olmsted first started
the necklace with a large pond to provide wetland habitat and continue with ponds
and free-flowing channels which all act ecologically functional as an ecotone15. He
planted the streambeds with native and nonnative plants for recreational activities
and designed multiple pathways for social promenades from different economic
class16. After designing separate parks, an arboretum and Back Bay Fences where he
rehabilitated the river and the marshlands, he was asked to link these green spaces
and to create a system. He connected these green spaces with parkways (Fig. 3).
The most important water related problem of the Emerald Necklace was the
Back Bay Fences, which were a tidal swamp with shallow salt water. The swamp
water of Muddy River flooded when heavily rained and caused serious health
problems. Olmsted designed tidal gates between Fens and Charles River to control
the water flow and placed a sewage interceptor to reduce health problems, this is
how he made the Fens act as a temporary storage basin for run-off water19 (Fig. 4),
and turned the Fens a freshwater marsh again. The section of Muddy River was
changed with terraces to control flood and widened with two freshwater ponds in
624
two different places. One of them, Jamaican Pond was the first drinking reservoir
of Boston. Emerald Necklace project works as a constructed storm water wetland
which appears as a natural landscape.
Fig. 3. Topographic manipulation of Back Bay Fences in 1888 (Ref. 17), and 1903 drawing of streets
and Fens over original estuary18
Fig. 4. Storage basin of the Fens in 1882 (Ref. 20), and Back Bay Fens in 2013 (Ref. 13)
RESULTS
CONTEMPORARY DESIGNS WITH ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO URBAN WATER
CYCLE
In the beginning of the 21st century, world faced natural disaster more often and
became aware of global problems more than ever. One of the common disasters
are water based, such as floods, tsunami and sea level rise; however there are other
water based disaster that we will face more seriously such as water scarcity and loss
of water quality. Urban areas are covered with impervious pavements more than
rural areas, which causes urban storm water run-off. Storm water run-off causes
loss of urban water, negative environmental effects on aquatic ecosystems with
625
pollutants, and urban floods in heavy rains. The main struggle today is to eliminate
the effects of global warming and to take water under control in an ecologic way,
and on site constructed as a natural drainage to minimise the surface run-off and
restore urban hydrological cycle. Water is a naturally regenerating medium, however the qualitative characteristics are undefended against polluters such as waste,
urban agglomeration and intensive agriculture with lack of useful management,
and a compatible water management is a primacy for the local strategies due to
social and economical development21. There is increasing number of water based
park designs in different scale to provide a healthier urban hydrological cycle.
Tanner Springs Park is a city park in downtown Portland designed by Atelier
Dreiseitl in 2005. The area was formerly a wetland and Tanner Creek ran through
the area. The drained land transformed into a natural water feature and fed by storm
water runoff from the park (Fig. 5). The park offers many recreational activities to
Portland with historic industrial rails and water based landscape solution. Another
important point is that Portland park system is mainly guided by 1903 Olmsted
Portland Park Plan, which was proposed by Olmsted Brothers Company who was
the son of F. L. Olmsted.
Fig. 5. Hydrological cycle of Tanner Springs Park22
626
Another urban hydrology project of Atelier Dreiseitl is Potsdamer Plaza in
Berlin, designed in 1998. Created as an urban waterscape, the main idea behind
Potsdamer Plaza is using rainwater where it falls with a green and non-green roof
harvesting the annual rain23. The water is used in buildings and canals as recreational opportunities to plaza users (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Potsdamer Plaza, Berlin23
A plaza design or a city park, landscape design has diverse scale and forms
in history. From nineteenth century until today, water became a different design
element rather than historical feature. It is now an infrastructural problem to deal
with, especially after the problems caused by global warming. Urban hydrological
systems are now very critical for sustainable and resilient cities. As human life
depends on water and 2/3 of world population live coastal lands24, water scarcity
and decreasing quality is a very important issue for urban ecosystems. Now that
more than half of world population will live in urban areas in near future, in a site
scale or an urban scale, understanding the nature, as Olmsted did in nineteenth
century, may be the best way to achieve a sustainable design and to collaborate
with nature.
CONCLUSIONS
A plaza design or a city park, landscape design has diverse scale and forms in
history. From nineteenth century until today, water has become a different design
element rather than historical feature. It is now an infrastructural problem to deal
with, especially after the problems caused by global warming. Urban hydrological
systems are now very critical for sustainable and resilient cities. As human life
depends on water and 2/3 of world population live coastal lands24, water scarcity
and decreasing quality are very important issues for urban ecosystems. Now that
more than half of world population will live in urban areas in near future, in a site
scale or an urban scale, understanding the nature, as Olmsted did in nineteenth
627
century, may be the best way to achieve a sustainable design and to collaborate
with nature.
REFERENCES
1. G. A. JELLICOE, S. JELLICOE: The Landscape of Man, Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day. Thames and Hudson, London, 1975.
2. B. AYLWARD, J. BANDYOPADHYAY, J. C. BELAUSTEGUIGOTIA: Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Policy Responses: Findings of the Responses Working Group. Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment Series, 2005, 215–255.
3. R. LAL: Integrated Watershed Management in The Global Ecosystem, Ch. 1, CRC Press Boca
Raton London New York Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 16.
4. D. D. KUSULUOGLU, G.AYTAC: Water as a Design Strategy: Case Study of Kurbagalidere
Istanbul. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (4), 1536 (2014).
5. A. SELF: The Birds of London. A&C Black, 2014.
6. R. PORTER: London, a Social History. Penguin Books, 2000.
7. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent%27s_Park. Retrieved in 20.08.2015.
8. D. JARRASSE: Grammaire des jardins parisiens : De l’héritage des rois aux créations contemporaines. Parigramme, 2007.
9. https://www.flickr.com/photos/31363949@N02/6885510005. Retrieved in 12.08.2015.
10. http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~MCFW-jm/paris2008.htm. Retrieved in 12.08.2015.
11. F. L. OLMSTED: Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns. Cambridge, MA: Printed for
the American Social Science Association, 1870. pdf: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.
topic753413.files/11_Landscape%20Architecture%20City%20Planning/Olmsted_Parks.pdf.
12. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Kennedy_Onassis_Reservoir. Retrieved in
22.08.2015.
13. D. D. KUSULUOGLU: New York and Boston Visit (photos), 2013.
14. G. B. WATSON, I. BENTLEY: Identity by Design. Elsevier Ltd., Oxford, 2007.
15. V. NOVOTNY, J. AHERN, P. BROWN: Water Centric Sustainable Communities: Planning,
Retrofitting and Building the Next Urban Environment. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
16. K. HILL: Urban Design and Urban Water Ecosystems. In: The Water Environment of Cities (Ed.
L. A. Baker). Springer Science+Business Media, 2009, 141–170.
17. http://www.landscapeandurbanism.com/category/resources/. Retrieved in 26.08.2015.
18. http://www.olmsted.org/storage/documents/Reprints_Fall_2010_vol_12_no2.pdf. Retrieved in
26.08.2015.
19. C. ZAITZEVSKY: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System. Harvard University
Press, Cambridge, 1982.
20. http://www.muddyrivermmoc.org/restoring-olmsteds-vision/. Retrieved in 10.08.2015.
21. O. V. NISTOR, E. BOTEZ, D. G. ANDRONOIU, G. D. MOCANU: Water Quality in the Galati
District. J Environ Prot Ecol, 13 (2A), 862 (2012).
22. http://www.landezine.com/index.php/2013/03/tanner-springs-park-by-atelier-dreiseitl/. Retrieved
in 25.08.2015.
23. http://www.dreiseitl.com/index.php?id=82&lang=en. Retrieved in 25.08.2015.
24. OSIB: Wetlands. Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry, Nature Conservation and National Parks
General Directorate, Department of Sensitive Areas, Wetlands Branch, 2013.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 21 March 2016
628
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 629–637 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
RESEARCH OF GENOTOXIC EFFECT OF OLIVE MILL
WASTEWATER WITH ALLIUM TEST SYSTEM
S. KOCAa*, S. TURKOGLUb, L. GENCERb, M. OZDEMIRa
Department of Biology, Science and Arts Faculty, Adnan Menderes University,
Aydin, Turkey
E-mail: skoca@adu.edu.tr
b
Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey
a
Abstract. Wastewater of the olive oil factory or olive olive mill wastewater occurs at the time of
olive oil production and shows an important environmental contaminating feature due to the organic
substances inside them and the toxicities of these substances to various biological systems. The
toxicity of olive mill wastewater stems from the phenolic compounds which are included in olive
mill wastewater. In our study, genotoxic effects of the olive mill wastewater on the Allium cepa root
tip meristem cells have been examined. The onions were rooted at 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5% concentrations
of the olive mill wastewater. It was observed that concentrations decreased the mitotic index compared to the control and only the decrease at 0.5% group was statistically significant. In the study,
the abnormalities such as anaphase bridge, laggard chromosome, C-metaphase, stickness, irregular
distribution and polar deviation, etc. were observed. In the study done with 1, 3 and 5% concentrations of the olive olive mill wastewater, was concluded that root extension was too little and even
5% concentration showed a toxic effect.
Keywords: olive mill wastewater, Allium cepa, chromosome aberrations, mitotic index.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Aydin Province takes place on the top with 2 million da olive cropland, around 22
million olive trees and approximately 20 000 t olive oil production at 2014–1015
season in Turkey1. As a result of 200 000 t olive processing at the campaign term
of the olive (approximately 100 days) in nearly 200 olive oil enterprises located
in Aydin, 2 byproducts as pomace oil and olive mill wastewater were produced
except olive oil. While pomace oil is generally used as fuel in terms of economy,
olive mill wastewater is left to the environment randomly and imposes a big organic
load. Olive mill wastewater includes high organic susbstances (sugar, nitrogen,
volatile acids, polyalcohols, pectine, tannins) and phenolic compounds and metals that have a sharp smell and show toxic features2–6. The olive mill wastewater
occurring at the olive oil production was poured to the vaporisation pools and left
to the streams or expanded to the soil. Due to that natural waters acquire a dark
*
For correspondence.
629
colour by leaving the oilve mill wastewater randomly to the streams and environment, luminous transmittance decreases and as aquatic plants are not able to take
enough light, their life is imperiled. As well as that the oil included in the olive
mill wastewater covering the water surface may lead to that fish and other aquatic
organisms living in these waters are asphyxiated and die, the substances available
in the olive mill wastewater such as phenolic compunds and metals may show toxic
and genotoxic effect at fishes and other aquatic organisms. It was reported at different species subjected to these compounds that phenolic compunds may lead to
toxic, genotoxic, carcinogenic, immunotoxic, physiological and histopathologic
effects5,7–11.
There are very limited histopathologic and genotoxic studies that may be
resulted from that olive olive mill wastewater of which annual production in the
world is assumed to be 30 million t and annual production in the Aegean Region is
assumed to be approximately 670 000 t. So many physical and chemical analyses
have been done with the aim of detecting the contamination at the water and soil.
But these analysis are not sufficient solely. Cytogenetic, histologic, biochemical,
etc. studies are required to be done with the aim of detecting the effects of these
living creatures. In these studies, various animal, plant and bacterial test systems
were used. With the aim of detecting the genotoxicity in the water, micronucleus
test was done on aquatic livings such as fish12–16, amphibian17, mussel18. Allium
cepa and Vicia faba choromosome aberation and micronucleus tests were used to
detect the genotoxicty at contaminated water and soil19–22. In this study, A. cepa
choromose aberration test was used to test the genotoxicty stimulated at three different dosages (0.1, 0.3 and 0.5%) of raw olive mill wastewater.
EXPERIMENTAL
The olive mill wastewater was diluted in 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5% dosages and then put
into test tubes and onions were placed inside them. Stabilised tap water was used
for the control group. The roots were cut when they became 1.5–2 cm and then
fixed at the ethyl alcohol–glacial acetic acid (3:1) mixture. After the fixation procedure, the roots were hydrolysed in 0.2 HCI for 2–3 min and then stained with
aceto orcein. The peparates were prepared with squashed methods and inspected
under microscope. During the examinations, photos of observed cellular and
chromosomal abnormalities were taken. At the trials done with 1, 3 and 5% dosages of the olive mill wastewater, the onions were not adequately rooted (Fig. 1).
630
Fig. 1. Root length of Allium cepa after treatment with three different dosages
A – control; B – 1% dose; C – 3% dose, and D – 5% dose
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Effect of olive mill wastewater on mitotic index. As a result of the examinations, it
was observed that mitotic index of olive mill wastewater at Allium cepa decreased
at a significant ratio at only 0.5% dosage. The decrease at 0.1 and 0.3% dosage
was not statistically significant (Table 1).
Table 1. Effect of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5% concentrations of olive mill wastewater on mitotic index
Dose (%)
ETC
Control
0.1
0.3
0.5
2496
2639
2458
2110
Pro- Metaphase phase
58
27
47
26
40
29
27
18
Anaphase
19
17
23
13
Telophase
18
16
16
4
TM
122
106
108
36
Mitotic index Ort±SH*
4.88±0.18a
4.01±1.95a
4.39±1.37a
1.70±1.46b
TA
5
55
58
10
TA
(%)
0.20
2.08
2.35
0.47
*The differences between the ones marked with different letters were statistically significant (ETC –
examined total cell, TM – total mitosis, TA – total abnormalities).
Effect of olive mill wastewater on choromosomes. The effects of olive mill wastewater on mitotic division and chromosomes have also been researched except for
mitotix index. It was detected that it leads to chromosomal abnormalities such as
631
anaphase bridge, stickness, C-metaphase, irregular distribution, polar deviation,
etc. at the examinations. Abnormalities ratio was very high at 0.1 and 0.3% dosages compared to the control group. Altough the abnormalities slightly increased
at 0.5% group, it was not significant (Table 1, Figs 2A–H).
Fig. 2. Different types of aberrations induced by the olive mill wastewater in Allium cepa root-tips.
A – Anaphase bridge, B – Telophase bridge, C – Laggard chromosomes, D – Multipolar division,
E – Disturbed prophase, F – Sticky chromosomes and unequal distribution, G – Poliploid cell, H –
C-metafaz
Allium cepa chromosome aberration test was used with the aim of detecting the genotoxic potential of olive mill wastewater. It is known that olive mill
wastewater is toxic for aquatic organisms such as fish and mussel and bacteria,
plants23. In the study done with 1, 3 and 5% dosages of the olive mill wastewater,
it was observed that the onions were not adequately rooted and root tip were get
darkened and even roots did not grow at 5% dosage (Fig. 1). Similar results were
obtained from application of 1/10 and 1/100 concentrations of olive mill wastewater done by Aybeke et al.7 for 7.5 and 15 h to Triticum aestivum seeds and the
study done by El Hajjoui et al.5 with Vicia faba at 20% concentration of olive mill
wastewater. The reserachers stated that they observed darkening and mitosis loss
at the root tips and this may be related with the damage at necrotic cell and root
tip tissue damage. This may be an evidence that olive mill wastewater showed
toxic effect on a definite concentration of olive mill wastewater. Olive mill wastewater contains various metals6, nitrogen compounds, polyphenols, volatile acid
632
and polyalcohols5,24. El Hajjoui et al.5 stated that when concentratiosn of phenols
reached 900 mg/l, this leads to high toxicity of olive mill wastewater.
Onion root meristem cells are very sensitive to genetic damage that chemicals
and environmental contaminators lead to and Allium test includes root extension
and chromosome aberrations25. A. cepa is an important bioindicator for environmetal damages that affect mitosis and damage at metaphase chromosomes.
Mitotix index is an acceptable criteria for all living organisms26. Cytotoxic level
may be determined with the decrease on mitotic index ratio. Generally cytotoxic
substances show their effects on mitosis by inhibiting microtubul formation.The
effects of three different concentrations of olive mill wastewater on mitosis division
are given in Table 1. When compared with the control group, decreases at 0.1% and
0.3% dosages were not statistically significant. The decrease at 05.% dosage was
detected as statiscally significant. Aybeke et al.7 obtained smiliar results with the
study done with olive mill wastewater at Triticum aestivum, El Hajjoui et al.5 – at
V. faba, Samuel et al.27 at A. cepa and Aksoy6 – at Elodea canadensis. The decrease
of the mitotic index may be mitotic inhibition. A chemical susbstance contacts with
the cells for a time and may form an active form that leads to disorder between
the cell cycles if they stay in the cell at critic concentrations. This negative effect
may gradually increase depending on extenions of the period. Schreiderman et al.28
put forth that the decrease of mitotic activity may occur with inhibition of DNA
synthesis. Van’t Hof 29 stated that mitosis of the cell is prevented or delayed with
blockage or extension of G2 phase at cell cycle and this decreases mitotic index.
In our study, the abnormalities as well as the effect on the mitotic index were
detected and are shown in Table 1. These were abnormalities such as C-metaphase,
stickness, irregular distribution, laggard chromosome, multipolar division and
anaphase bridge. According to many researchers, the abnormalities such as Cmetaphase, multipolar anaphase and stickness depend on spindle apparatus formation26,30–32. It is called as C-metaphase that the chromosomes at the metaphase
are available as distributed and this is revealed out by the factors that affect the
spindle apparatus smiliar to colchicine and then damages them. Depending on
that, centromere division delayed and chromosomes were replicated but stayed
distributed in the cell as separated from each others. These kinds of abnormalities
at the metaphase may lead to decrease of mitotic index. C-metaphase cells were
obtained at the studies done with different chemical substances33–35. C-metaphaes
were obtained from the studies of Aybeke et al.7 and Aksoy6 with olive mill wastewater. This may be an indiciator that some sucbtances in the olive mill wastewater
had adverse effects on spindle apparatus.
Other abnormality type that we observed in our study was chromosomal
stickness. Patil and Bhat36 defined the chromosome stickness as a physiological
adhesion type that mostly includes protein matrix of chromatine material. Valle and
Ulmer37 stated that stickness may be accepted as the effect of chemical substances
633
on stickness at DNA and formation of complexes. It was stated that choromosome
stickness is an abnormality type that leads to irreverseble cell death38.
The laggard chromosomes are resulted from the chromosomes that got late
moving to different polars. Patil and Bhat36 put forth that residual chromosomes
may resulted from disorders at organisation and function of spindle apparatus. It
is accepted as residual chromosome at acentric fragments. The substances in the
olive mill wastewater in the study that we applied may have an adverse effect on
spindle apparatus and may lead to laggard chromosome.
The chemical substances that lead to choromosome fractures are known as
clastogenic agents and it is stated that they exhibit their effects on chromosomes
by affecting DNA39. Molecular mechanism of DNA fractures has not been clearly
understood. It was defined that oxidative stress played an important role at DNA
damage induction, because phenolic compounds are important componets of olive
mill wastewater and these support oxidative stress.
There are studies done on various organisms that showed cytotoxic and genotoxic effect of phenolic compunds and their derivatives on human, animal and
plants5,6,40–42. El Hajjoui et al.5 detected that 10% dosage of olive mill wastewater
and gallic acid (GA) and oleuropeinin (Ol) among phenolic compounds obtained
from olive mill wastewater significantly increase the micronucleus frequency at
Vicia faba and showed genotoxic effect. The abnormalities such as laggard chromosom and wrong polarisation that we observed in our study are the disorders that
may lead to micronucleus formation. This is an indicator that there are genotoxic
substances in the olive mill wastewater.
In our study the decrease in the mitotic index at 0.1 and 0.3% dosages (4.01
and 4.39) was not statistically significant compared to the control (4.88), while
the decrease at 0.5% dosage (1.70) was significant. While the abnormality ratios
(2.08 and 2.35) at 0.1 and 0.3% dosages were detected as higher than control (0.2),
the abnormality ratio at 0.5% dosage was closer to control (0.47). The reason is
that heavy metals and phenolic compunds available in the olive mill wastewater
decreased the mitotic index. According to De Marco et al.40, the decrease of the
mitotic index may resulted from the DNA synthesis of olive mill wastewater at
mitotic cycle and negative effects on enzymatic reactions at repair mechanism.
They stated that genotoxic effect of phenolic compounds depend on: (i) their
concentreations; (ii) pH of culture environment and (iii) existence of metal ions
especially such as Fe and Cu (Ref. 5).
CONCLUSIONS
The findings that we obtained from this study showed that olive mill wastewater
may have citotoxic and genotoxic effect on A. cepa root tip cells. As olive mill
wastewater decreased the mitotoxic index at 0.5% dosage, it is accepted that it has
634
citotoxic activity. It may be accepted as genotoxic due to its effects on heredity
material as well as cytotoxic effect. The results showed that olive mill wastewater
may be dangerous for environment without appropriate dilution and also may lead
to distinct adverse effects on the living organisms.
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 638–647 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
MEASURING FUNDED RESEARCH PERFORMANCE FOR
MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN THE DANUBE BASIN
M. SIDOROFF, M. PARASCHIV, A. AMARIOAREI, M. PAUN*
National Institute for Research and Development of Biological Sciences,
296 Splaiul Independentei Street, 060 031 Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: mihaela.paun@incdsb.ro
Abstract. Evaluation of funded research, by measuring the outcomes of the grants – publications,
journals, and citations – is not always done comparatively and publicised. Bibliometric indicators
were employed and applied to the 2009–2014 publications authored by academicians funded by
European research grants that are indexed in the Web of Science. Citation based approaches, such
as the h-index or the impact factor, have been widely used to evaluate researchers or journals. In
this study we use the aforementioned H-index to evaluate the funded research grants and to provide
a ranking in terms of the most successful ones. The ranking results can be used by evaluators in
determining how successful an applicant has potential to be, but also by researchers to choose their
publication outlets, or to pursue future collaborations.
Keywords: bibliometrics, research evaluation, citations, funded grants, highly cited papers.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Bibliometric analysis is an attempt to quantitative analysis, statistical properties and behaviour of recorded knowledge. Through bibliometric analysis one
can measure the recorded information and statistically identify patterns within a
given field or area of the literature. Most frequently researchers use bibliometric
methods of evaluation to determine the influence on one single entity or to find
the relationship among two or more entities (such as researchers, institutions, are
of research or publications).
The present study intends to investigate funded research excellence and what
a successful project means in the Environmental Science area. Obviously, the first
step is to define what do one means by a ‘successful’ project. How do one measures
success. Is success quantified in a unidimensional way or what factors are to be
considered? So far there is a lack of consensus in the literature in what one means
by success or excellence in research evaluation. Once the above definitions are set,
the scientific community has to agree on the common criteria and metrics to be
used in evaluating research performance uniformly. As in any instance when one
intends to use metrics for evaluation, there is not a single choice that is universally
*
For correspondence.
638
applicable and not one metric that is indisputably better, hence several metrics
should be used complementary and analysed together.
Several studies in the literature are investigating the impact of research grants
on academic output1,2, the citation counts3, as well as evaluating funded research in
different areas, such as medicine4,5, socio-economy6, oceanography7,8 or bioenergy9.
DATA SOURCE AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
The present work is based on the metadata collected through the efforts of the
project ‘Danube macroregion: Capacity Building and Excellence in River Systems (Basin, delta and sea) – DANCERS’, financed under the FP7- Environment
programme of the European Commission, in 2013. The data set contains projects
funded in the period 1993–2013 performing research with focus on Danube Basin and Coastal Black Sea, from national, European and international funds. The
analysis in this paper is focused on the sample consisting of all projects accepted
for funding during the interval 2009–2013. There are 31 projects funded to perform research in the Danube Basin in this timeframe that have been entered into
the database. The performance of the projects was based on the evaluation of the
number of publications produced, the citations generated, impact factor, ranking
of the journal based on quartiles. The performance considered also the degree of
collaboration in the paper authorships, the research productivity of the authors,
as well as the budget and number of partners in the projects and the geographic
location of the coordinating country. A nonparametric analysis was carried out to
answer the following hypothesis that we intended to test.
Hence the study has undertaken the examination of several aspects in order
to produce a ranking of funded research, by measuring publication performance,
by addressing the following questions:
1. Collaborative research dominates in research grant output? The percentages
for single authorships contributions, two authors contributions, are significantly
different?
2. An increasing trend on quantitative and qualitative contributions is present?
3. Citation evaluation does not produce different project ranking?
The paper assesses the degree of collaboration at the level of partnership in
the project versus the degree of the collaboration expressed through the authorship
of the publications. In the literature there are arguments in both directions10,11 – on
how adequate is to measure collaboration only through paper ‘co-authorship’?
We are supporting the claim that collaboration in research is an advantage and
should be stimulated at all levels: institutional and individual. There are various
ways in which collaboration among individual researchers can be developed –
centres of excellence, interdisciplinary research groups, participation in research
grants, especially those that funds interdisciplinary research since this leads to
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collaboration within thematic areas, as well as between thematic areas. Some
funding agencies are encouraging international collaboration between institutions
through specific calls design specifically to boost researchers interaction, such as
National Science Foundation (NSF) – Catalysing New International Collaborations
(CNIC) NSF wide call for proposals, Australian Academy of Science – Australia –
European Union Collaboration Program 2014, European JPI Climate Joint Call
for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects.
The metadatabase contains projects funded in the last two decades, and the
funding behaviour reflects the geopolitical events in the region, over the specified
period of time. The analysis is performed on a sample consisting of all projects
that were accepted for financing in the timeframe 2009–2013. There is one exception, FP7 project EARTH2OBSERVE, that formally started in January 2014 and
was also included in the dataset. The dataset consists of 31 funded projects. The
goal of the analysis is to either support or reject the hypothesis stated above and
to highlight best practices and outcomes of projects funded research with focus on
the Danube Basin, as well as identify the strengths and weaknesses of the scientific
outcomes. Additional data about these projects, related to the number of publications, citations, authorship, was collected from the Thomson Web of Knowledge,
by search on the acronym, funding agency and grant number search. The results
were validated to the information on the official webpage of the projects, when
current and updated information was available. One should note that there is not
a standardised manner in which various partners in a project are acknowledging
either the grant number or agency, or even affiliation, fact mentioned in the literature
for the format in which authors write the same affiliation on different papers12–14
which leads to inconsistencies in rankings.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 presents a ranking of the top 10 projects in the sample in terms of the number
of papers published and recorded on Thomson Web of Science, as of September
2014. One can note that although the project PERSEUS is ongoing and half-way
through the funded period, it is ranked on the 4th position by the number of papers
published up to the investigation date. This project can move up several positions
by the end of the implementation period.
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Table 1. Projects ranking by publication count
Rank Acronym of
the project
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
WISER
REFRESH
THESEUS
PERSEUS
BIOFRESH
CoCoNet
HYPOX
KNOWSEAS
KULTURISK
EPI_WATER
Coordi- Number of Starting Duration Number of Status
nating
papers
year in months partners
country
Germany
149
2009
36
25
completed
UK
111
2010
48
25
completed
Italy
78
2009
48
31
completed
Greece
63
2012
48
53
ongoing
Germany
56
2009
54
19
completed
Italy
55
2012
48
39
ongoing
Germany
44
2009
36
17
completed
UK
31
2009
51
32
completed
France
22
2011
36
11
completed
Italy
19
2011
36
11
completed
There are various reasons while some countries coordinate more projects than
others in Environmental research, but it is no real surprise that the most active
countries in environmental and water research are Germany and Italy. The study
identified that there is no significant correlation between the number of papers
produced and the number of partners in the project (p-value=0.5098) and in what
follows the study will evaluate the quality of the authors and collaboration to
identify if the hypotheses made are supported or not. The study revealed that the
top 10 ranked projects produced about 85% of the total number of publications
produced by the projects in the analysed sample. The distribution of papers by
year produced by the projects in the sample is presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Papers distribution by year
Year
Papers
2009
5
2010
21
2011
58
2012
195
2013
274
2014
188
There is an ascendant trend in the number of publications by year. The total
number of publications collected for the projects in the sample was 741 papers.
One should note that in 2014 the papers were collected from ISI Web of Knowledge
in September 2014, having July as the last month of publication recorded in the
database, hence 2014 only presents the number of publication for half a year and
there are 12 projects ongoing among the sampled 31 projects, that will continue to
produce papers, possible even some of the projects that have recently completed.
Investigating the sample with respect to other variables, such as quartile of the
journal, impact factor, number of citations, number of authors for the papers, the
study revealed that 56.8% of the papers are published in journals of quartile I, 28.9%
of the papers in journals of quartile II, 8.7% of the papers in journals of quartile
III and the remaining 5.6% of the papers in journals of quartile IV. One should
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note that the three projects ranked on top (WISER, REFRESH and THESEUS)
are keeping their ranking when the ranking is done by quartiles, these being the
projects that produced the highest number of quartile I, as well as quartile II papers.
Testing the qualitative growth, by testing if the journal quartile is increasing
yearly, confirms with 95% confidence that the journal quality increases by year,
hence there is an observed qualitative growth, as well as a quantitative increase in
number of publications, hence supporting the hypothesis stated above. Study also
reveals that multiple authorship is higher for the papers in the upper quartile, than
the lower quartiles. The claim is supported by testing and rejecting (p = 0.0208)
the hypothesis that the average number of papers is the same for each quartile.
Multiple comparison of the means identifies that in average the number of authors
on papers is different in each quartile, and the higher the quartile, the higher the
collaboration characteristic. For the quartile I papers the highest numbers of papers
are produced having 4 co-authors. The Degree of Collaboration (DC) is derived
in Ref. 15 as:
DC = Pm/(Pm + Ps′),
where Pm is the number of papers multi authored and Ps – the number of papers
single authored, while the Collaborative Coefficient (CC) derived in Ref. 16 is
calculated using the following formula:
A
CC = 1 – (1/N) ∑ (pi/i),
i=1
where pi is the number of papers with i authors in the given quartile over the defined
period of time; N – the total number of papers published in a given quartile during
a defined period of time, and A – the highest number of authors per paper in the
quartile. Using the above formulas, the DC measure calculated for the quartile I
papers is 0.97, and the CC measure for the papers in quartile I are 0.76. The CC is
higher with higher quartile and the analysis shows the qualitative and quantitative
increase in the joint authored papers, reflecting that the nature of collaboration is
very high, dominating the contributions in top journals (quartile I).
Investigating the journals of choice for the top three projects, the study identified that the authors producing papers under the WISER and REFRESH projects
have comparable choices, while the authors disseminating under the THESEUS
project are choosing different journals. The top five journals for each of these three
projects are presented in Table 3.
The findings in Table 3, agree with our hypothesis that the citation counts does
not produce a different ranking. The papers published by the projects in the study
are producing, as of September 2014, 3259 citations, with project WISER gathering 1221 citations, REFRESH gathering 431 citations and THESEUS gathering
251 citations, followed by BIOFRESH with 231 citations, PERSEUS with 156
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citations and CoCoNet with 106 citations. The top 5 journals presented in Table
3 for each project are accounting for 67% of the total citations of WISER, 63.3%
of the total citations of REFRESH and 45.8% of the total citations of THESEUS.
Table 3. Top 5 journals selected for publication and citations gathered
Project
WISER
Journal name
Ecological indicators
Freshwater biology
Marine pollution bulletin
Hydrobiologia
Fundamental and applied
limnology
REFRESH Freshwater biology
Global change biology
Journal of hydrology
Hydrobiologia
Hydrology research
THESEUS Coastal engineering
Environmental science &
policy
Plos one
Estuarine coastal and shelf
science
Natural hazards and earth
system sciences
Quartile 5-year Im- Article
Citations
pact factor influence count from
score
papers
Q1
3.384
0.817
260
Q1
3.857
1.217
91
Q1
3.118
0.769
79
Q2
2.350
0.679
315
Q2
1.297
0.403
73
Q1
Q1
Q1
Q2
Q2
Q1
Q1
3.857
8.595
2.693
2.350
1.810
2.343
3.948
1.217
3.124
1.141
0.679
0.555
0.864
1.204
68
82
2
115
6
77
17
Q1
Q2
4.015
2.782
1.370
0.873
13
1
Q2
2.075
0.619
7
Table 4 presents the ranking of the projects based on the highest number of
citations the 741 papers produced. In the top 3 highest ranked projects, project
HYPOX has the most cited paper, followed by WISER and REFRESH. HYPOS
project also has another paper in the top 5 most highly cited papers. We were
investigating if the authors of these high cited papers are also highly productive.
The highest cited paper in HYPOX has 2 authors that have authored over 342
papers that have gathered over 14299 citations, and have an H-index of 56 and
36, respectively in ISI Thomson Web of Science. The distribution of citations for
the three papers presented in Table 4 is presented in Fig. 1.
643
Table 4. Top 3 highest cited papers produced
Rank
1
2
3
Project
Paper
Journal
quartile
HYPOX Coastal hypoxia and sediment biogeochemistry,
Q1
By: Middelburg, J. J.; Levin, L. A., BIOGEOSCIENCES Volume: 6 Issue: 7 Pages: 1273–1293
Published: 2009
WISER
Three hundred ways to assess Europe’s surface
Q1
waters: An almost complete overview of biological
methods to implement the Water Framework Directive, By: Birk, Sebastian; Bonne, Wendy; Borja,
Angel; et al., ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
Volume: 18 Pages: 31–41 Published: JUL 2012
REFRESH Warmer climates boost cyanobacterial dominance
Q1
in shallow lakes, By: Kosten, Sarian; Huszar, Vera
L. M.; Becares, Eloy; et al., GLOBAL CHANGE
BIOLOGY Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Pages: 118–126
Published: JAN 2012
Citation
97
70
63
One can see that the paper published in BIOGEOSCIENCES has an ascendant
citation trend, having an impact in the literature since it was published in 2009. The
second and the third ranked papers exhibit a similar trend, and have the potential
that 6 years after publication (as is the case with the HYPOX paper) to have gather
a significantly larger number of citations, especially the WISER paper since in
both in 2013 and 2014 gathering more citations than the other two papers. This
reconfirms the fact that by measuring publications performance for output produced
by funded environmental research in the period 2009–2014, project WISER could
be considered as the most successful one.
Fig. 1. Citations distributions by year for the highest cited papers presented in Table 4
We have categorised the projects in terms of the budget size as it follows: small
budget projects (if budget is less than 1 mil Euro), mid-size budged projects (if
budget is between 1 to 5 mil Euros) and large size budget (if budget is greater than
5 mil Euro). The budgets of the projects were all converted to Euro, considering
the conversion rating at the time of funding. The results of the analysis show that
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the number of papers in each budget category is significantly different for each
category. Projects in the large size budget category have published more papers,
with project WISER standing as an outlier even for the large size budget projects.
Although project WISER is not the project with the largest number of partners,
the number of partners of this project is larger than the median number of partners
for the projects in the dataset.
The published papers were categorised under 26 different research areas in
Thomson Web of Science. The highest number of papers 197, where categorised
under the ‘Environmental Sciences & Ecology area’, followed by 170 papers
under the area of ‘Marine & Freshwater Biology’ and 68 papers under the area of
‘Biodiversity & Conservation’. The largest contributions for all these area came
from papers published under the projects WISER and REFRESH, that were also
funded under the Life and Earth Science areas.
To validate that our assessment and the produced ranking of top projects is
accurate, we will employ the well-known H-index, introduced by Hirsch17. In this
study the index will be used to characterise the scientific output of the grant, not
the researcher. We agree in employing this index, that citation impact is a very
important metric. Having papers that are highly cited is very important, as is having many papers and having a high total number of citations.
Table 5. Ranking by H-index
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Acronym of the project
WISER
REFRESH
BIOFRESH
HYPOX
KNOWSEAS
KULTURISK
PERSEUS
THESEUS
CoCoNet
EXPEER
H-index
16
10
8
8
8
6
6
6
5
5
g-index
25
15
12
17
12
8
10
11
8
6
The ranking in Table 4 is consistent with the findings of this study, presented
in Tables 1 and 3. If one is interested in identifying top projects counting the citations from the highly cited articles, the g-index should be considered. The g-index
is quantifying scientific productivity based on publications and calculated based
on the distribution of citations received by a given grant publications. Evaluating
the results provided by the g-index, one can see that project HYPOX is raising in
ranking, the results agreeing more to the finding from Table 4. All the rankings
employed are identifying the top 3 most successful projects as being: WISER,
REFRESH consistently, the third one being HYPOX, BIOREFRESH or THE645
SEUS – depending on the metric used. The g-index also differentiates between
projects ranked equally by the H-index, by attaching more weight to the highly
cited papers, hence differencing between the projects by highlighting the ones that
have papers that are more widely recognised in the scientific community.
Overall, the study provides a ranking of the funded research, by quantifying
the performance in terms of number of publications, journal category, degree of
collaboration and especially measuring the research impact, by number of citations.
CONCLUSIONS
Analysing the projects with respect to the allocated budged, one can note that projects with larger budget are producing more papers and also papers with highest
number of citations. These projects have more than the median number of partners.
The research outcomes are highly interdisciplinary spanning over Engineering,
Biodiversity, Environmental and Marine Sciences. It will be interesting to see if
partners of these projects are creating consortium in the future and if the projects
are as successful as the ones we investigated. The study provides a realistic glimpse
into the research in the fields of Environmental Sciences, Marine and Fresh Biology and Biodiversity, using the top European funded projects in the time interval
2009–2013. Based on the findings, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics
of the output, the investment in these grants can be considered justified, the grants
being considered successful.
The results suggest that a potential evaluator can use the information provided
by the ranking of past projects in which the applicants (institutions or researchers)
were partner, evaluate the quality of research and the success of former collaborations in predicting the outcomes of projects under review.
Acknowledgements. This work was financially supported by the Institutional Core Program
BIODIVERS-105 Project.
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Received 27 January 2016
Revised 4 April 2016
647
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 648–655 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
COMPARISON OF CROP CLASSIFICATION METHODS FOR
THE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE MANAGEMENT
M. USTUNERa*, M. T. ESETLILIb, F. B. SANLIa, S. ABDIKANc,
Y. KURUCUb
Department of Geomatic Engineering, Yildiz Technical University,
34 220 Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: mustuner@yildiz.edu.tr
b
Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Ege University,
35 100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
c
Department of Geomatics Engineering, Bulent Ecevit University,
67 100 Zonguldak, Turkey
a
Abstract. Accurate and reliable information regarding crop yields and soil conditions of agricultural
fields are essential for the sustainable management of agricultural areas. The increasing necessity of
the food due to the high population, global climate change and rapid urbanisation, the sustainable
management of the agricultural resources is becoming more crucial for countries. Remote sensing technology offers a feasible solution for gathering the cost-effective, reliable and up-to-date
information about crop monitoring by using high-resolution remote sensing data. Image classification is the one of most common method to obtain information from the remotely sensed images.
Despite machine learning based classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVM) could provide
high classification accuracy, the researchers have been still working to improve the classification
accuracy. Recently, the utilisation of ensemble learning approaches in remote sensing classification
is the research of interest for this purpose. In this study, we implemented six different supervised
classification techniques and a classifier ensemble: Maximum Likelihood, Mahalanobis Distance,
Minimum Distance, Spectral Angle Mapper, Parallelepiped, Support Vector Machines and Winnertakes-all (WTA) classification which is an ensemble based classifier. In this study, we investigated
the comparative performance of the classifiers within overall and corn-class category for the study
area located in Aydin, Turkey. Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel was used here for the SVM classification. Results demonstrate that WTA classification outperformed other classification methods
whilst the Parallelepiped obtained the lowest classification accuracy 13.24%. Moreover SVM gave
the second highest overall classification accuracy of 89.90%.
Keywords: remote sensing, image classification, RapidEye, agriculture management.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Over the years, food demand in the world has been increasing and global food
security have been crucial due to the global climate change, high population growth
and extreme weather events. These changes reduce the agriculture productivity
*
For correspondence.
648
and hence push the countries whose economy is mostly based upon the agriculture to enhance the efficiency, productivity, and performance of their sustainable
agriculture system. The extreme weather events damage the crops thus cause the
agflation1–3. In FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)
report in 2013, it is estimated that global population will be over nine billion by
2050 and the food production will have to increase by 60% to meet the expected
demand for food of the world4. Therefore, sustainable agriculture management is
pretty essential and crucial for global food security.
Recent advances in earth observation satellites have been making remote
sensing very important and essential tool for the environmental monitoring and
assessment as well as the agricultural applications since it could provide up-todate and cost-effective information of land use/cover types at different spatial and
temporal domain5–8. Remote sensing could provide many important information
such as spatio-temporal distribution of crops or yield estimation for the agricultural
decision support systems3,6,9. Classification of remotely sensed data is one of the
most common method for obtaining the land use/cover information10. The accuracy and reliability of the information gathered by the imagery is much depending
on the classification. Despite there are some advanced classification methods in
remote sensing such as support vector machines, random forest, rotation forest
etc., scientists and researchers have been still working to improve the classification
accuracy because classified images provide many important base information for
GIS application and analysis on decision making process. Several methods have
been used to increase the image classification accuracy such as combination of
spectral and texture features, multi-sensor image fusion or ensembles of classifiers11–13. Data fusion in remote sensing can be categorised into three different levels:
pixel-level, feature-level and decision level14,15. In this study, we implemented six
different supervised classification methods: Maximum Likelihood, Mahalanobis
Distance, Minimum Distance, Spectral Angle Mapper, Parallelepiped, Support
Vector Machines and an ensemble of classifiers or multiple classifiers, is based
on decision level fusion strategy, that is called Winner Takes All (WTA) for the
classification of RapidEye imagery of our study area.
This study examined the applicability and comparative performance of supervised classification techniques and classifier ensemble technique for crop mapping
using RapidEye in Aydin Province. Moreover classification accuracy for corn-class
category has been investigated as a specific task.
EXPERIMENTAL
Study area and data. The study area is located in Aydin Province, Aegean region
of Turkey and comprised of approximately 17.3 km2 of agricultural areas (Fig. 1).
Besides favourable climate and soil conditions of Aegean region, most of the ag649
ricultural lands in Aydin province are fed by Great Meander River, which enables
to intensive agriculture for the area. Study area covers nine land use classes which
are corn (first crop, second crop), cotton (well developed, moderate developed,
weak developed), soil (wet, moist, dry) and water surface (Fig. 2). The acquisition
date of the RapidEye imagery was August 23rd 2012.
Fig. 1. Study area
Fig. 2. Crop types
RapidEye was launched in 2008 with a primary focus of agricultural, environmental and cartographic applications16,17. Blackbridge, the provider of RapidEye
imagery, offers RapidEye data at three different processing levels. The imagery
was obtained in Level 3A (RapidEye Ortho product) processing level in which
radiometric, geometric and sensor corrections were applied. The RapidEye data
provides five spectral bands which are blue (440–510 nm), green (520–590 nm), red
(630–685 nm), rededge (690–730 nm) and near-infrared (760–850 nm) (Ref. 18).
Methods. Each method will be briefly described here however reader could reach
the further details and theoretical background for each method at remote sensing
textbooks such as Tso and Mather19, Mather and Koch20, and Richards21.
Maximum likelihood classification is the most common method in remote
sensing image classification. In this method, a pixel is assigned to the class of highest probability of belonging19,22,23. Minimum distance and Mahalanobis distance
classification uses the euclidean distance and mahalanobis distance, respectively.
Both methods assign the pixel to the corresponding class in which distance between class centre19,21,22. Spectral Angle Mapper classification compares the image
spectra and a known spectrum (or endmember) and calculates the spectral angle
650
between them to determine the spectral similarity24,25. Paralelpiped classification
uses maximum and minimum pixel values for each class, which is the boundaries
of paralelpiped. If a given pixel in features space is within class limits, the pixel
is assigned to the corresponding class19,20. SVM is a supervised machine learning
algorithm. It was initially developed for the binary classification by defining the
optimum hyperplane separating the two classes. SVM uses the kernels to contruct
the optimum hyperplane for the complex data that can not be linearly separated26–28.
Kernel based SVMs are commonly used in remote sensing for classification and
need parameters for kernel functions. The optimum parameters of cost (C) and
kernel width (σ) which are required for the Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel
have been determined by using grid search method as 100 and 0.125, respectively.
Further details of SVM algorithms were given by Huang et al.27 and Melgani and
Bruzzone28 in the context of remote sensing.
The ensemble based approaches or multiple classifiers have been utilised in
order to improve the classification accuracy by combining the outputs of several
classifiers11,29,30. Some strategies have been developed for the ensemble learning
approaches such as majority voting, fuzzy integral, Dempster-Shafer evidence
theory11,31. Majority voting is the most common method that collects label outputs
of each classifiers for a given pixel then assign the pixel to the majority label19,31.
We performed the classifier ensemble based upon WTA method in which majority voting was used. WTA classification assign each pixel to the corresponding
class that has the majority for all classification methods implemented32. Readers
requiring more and comprehensive detail for classifier ensembles should refer to
Briem et al.33, Foody et al.29 and Du et al.11
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section, comparative performance of the classifiers will be analysed by means
of overall accuracy and kappa coefficients (Table 1). Moreover the individual class
accuracies for most accurate three methods will be assessed by producer accuracy
for in-depth analysis of comparison (Table 2).
Minimum distance, SVM and WTA are the most accurate three classification
methods as their overall accuracy were obtained as 89.20, 89.90 and 90.94%, respectively. Since the accuracies of these three methods close to each other especially
minimum distance and SVM, we will compare the individual class-based accuracy
for comprehensive analysis by using producer accuracy. Among all methods performed here, Parallelepiped had the lowest classification performance as 13.25%
of overall accuracy while WTA had the highest one as 90.94% for this study. In
general, SVM performs better than single classifiers if the optimum parameters
have been used for kernel.
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Table 1. Classification accuracy
Method
Parallelepiped
Mahalanobis distance
Maximum likelihood
Spectral angle mapper
Minimum distance
Support vector machines
Winner-takes-all
Overall kappa
0.1202
0.7276
0.8010
0.8179
0.8762
0.8845
0.8964
Overall accuracy (%)
13.25
76.31
82.58
83.97
89.20
89.90
90.94
Table 2. Producer and user accuracy
Classes
Classification methods (most accurate three ones)
minimum distance
support vector
winner takes all
machines
prod. acc. user acc. prod. acc. user acc. prod. acc. user acc.
100.00
First crop corn
84.13
97.92
98.04
88.68
94.34
100.00
Second crop corn
82.93 100.00
100.00
87.23
93.18
90.00
Wet soil
85.00
62.96
90.00
60.00
60.00
100.00 100.00
Moist soil
100.00 100.00
100.00 100.00
70.59
Dry soil
96.00
64.71
91.67
64.71
91.67
97.06
Well-developed cotton
89.19
91.18 100.00
91.18 100.00
100.00
Moderate developed cotton 90.00
85.71
100.00
83.33
83.33
66.67 100.00
Weak developed cotton
66.67 100.00
66.67 100.00
94.74 100.00
Water body
97.74 100.00
94.74 100.00
Even though the overall accuracies of minimum distance and SVM are close
to each other and the difference is 0.70%, we will check the benefits of each classifier for individual class classification and compare the performances. The highest
accuracies for individual class category (producer accuracy) are given in bold in
Table 2 for each classification method. While minimum distance classify most
accurately only three classes (first crop corn, dry soil and well developed cotton),
WTA classified the remaining classes within producer accuracy. When we check
the results in Table 2, we can not find any method that classify the all classes on
highest accuracy. Producer accuracies of SVM and WTA are pretty close to each
other however WTA outperformed SVM 5.7% (Italic) of producer accuracy for
the first crop corn class as it is one of our investigation on this study.This 5.7%
increase on the producer accuracy for first crop corn enables the WTA had higher
overall accuracy than SVM as 1.74% (Table 2). Classification maps for the most
accurate three methods are given in Fig. 3.
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Fig. 3. Classification maps
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, we examined the sensitivity, applicability and comparative performance of six different supervised classification techniques and a classifier ensemble
for the classification of crop types in Aydin Province, Turkey. Also the suitability
of Rapideye imagery for crop mapping has been investigated.
It can be concluded that each type of classification method has different sensitivity and benefits on classes and classifier ensembles could increase the overall
classification accuracy as well as individual class-based accuracy for this study
area. Results demonstrate that WTA classification outperformed other classification methods whilst the Parallelepiped obtained the lowest classification accuracy
13.24%. Moreover SVM gave the second highest overall classification accuracy of
89.90%. Most accurate classification method (WTA in our study) can not have the
highest accuracy (producer accuracy) for all classes. Results indicate that since the
sensitivity of each classification method is different, it is possible to obtain high
classification accuracy as well as low classification accuracy for crop classification
even though same imagery and input data were used.
In future work, we are planning to assess the comparative classification performance of other advanced techniques such as rotation forest, relevance vector
machines and object based SVM for our study area. We also plan to integrate the
information by RapidEye and Sentinel-1 sensor that will be freely available and provide C-band that is commonly used in agricultural applications in remote sensing.
653
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 656–665 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
ENOTOURISM AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR PROMOTING
RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THRACE REGION (TURKEY)
A. P. BEKDEMIR*, N. K. AKTAS
Department of Landscape Planning and Design, Faculty of Forestry, Istanbul
University, Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: alevbk@istanbul.edu.tr; niluferk@istanbul.edu.tr
Abstract. Anatolia, which has hosted many civilisations for centuries, has great tourism potential
with its natural and cultural resource values. Not only as a general destination for tourism but also
as an alternative tourism destination, Anatolia is attracting the attention of local and foreign tourists.
In recent years enotourism has been developing in Turkey and by popularising new destinations it
has become an important sector for tourism. Turkey is located in the Earth most conducive climate
zone for viticulture. The history of viticulture in whole Anatolia goes back to 3500 years B.C.
Turkey consists of seven regions which have different geographic and climatic characteristics. In
almost every region, various grape species are cultivated and wine production is made. In Turkey,
49% of the land are used for agricultural purposes and 1.2% of agricultural land are used for grape
cultivation. According to FAO 2012 database, Turkey is ranked 6th out of all world countries in
the grape production but only 2% of grapes are used for wine production. With implementation of
wrong policies, prohibitions and obstructions for wine production and consumption, the benefits of
enotourism to Anatolia can not be adequately assessed. Within the context of this study, economic
contribution of enotourism, the changes in the employment opportunities of local communities and
changes in the tourism movements are examined in the Thrace region where 40% of Turkey wine
production is carried out.
Keywords: enotourism, alternative tourism destinations, viticulture, Thrace region, wine.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world.
Modern tourism is closely linked to development and encompasses a growing
number of new destinations. These dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver
for socio-economic progress1.
Evolving tourist trends have, over the last decade, led to a shift from standardised mass tourism to more individualistic patterns, in which greater flexibility and
a more meaningful experience have gained prominence2. These changing demand
trends have forced tourism practitioners to develop different products or alternatives. Smith and Eadington3 have mentioned that the birth of alternative tourism
*
For correspondence.
656
was due to high criticism for mass tourism and its negative effects on destination
areas4. Alternative tourism is sometimes referred to as ‘special interest tourism’
or ‘responsible tourism’ and is usually taken to mean alternative forms of tourism
which give emphasis on the contact and understanding of inhabitants way of living and the local natural environment5. The specific forms of alternative tourism
were identified by Mieczkowski6 as cultural, educational, scientific, adventure and
agri-tourism, with rural, ranch and farm subsets5.
Actually rural tourism seems to be a subset of agritourism among the alternative tourism types but in fact agritourism is one of the major form of rural tourism7.
While rural tourism is a more generic term, agritourism refers to specific sets of
leisure activities organised by farmers to cater for visitors8. Also rural tourism and
agritourism are terms which differ by their spatial range and form of area management. Rural tourism has placed special emphasis on the role of agro-tourism in
protecting and promoting cultural heritage of rural areas9. Agrotourism is a kind
of alternative tourism which is respectful and sensitive to people and the environment, has a minimum impact to the local rights and environment, also it helps to
create job opportunities and generate income. It is based on local residents and the
region geographic, cultural and traditional features. With agrotourism, it is aimed
the preservation, introduction and exploitation of the country cultural inheritance10.
Rural tourism can be defined as the country experience which encompasses a
wide range of attractions and activities that take place in agricultural or non-urban
areas. Its essential characteristics include wide-open spaces, low levels of tourism
development, and opportunities for visitors to directly experience agricultural and/
or natural environments11.
Rural tourism may, as its components and in principle, involve agrotourism,
outdoor activities, ecotourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, excursion
tourism and enotourism (wine tourism)12.
ENOTOURISM
Enotourism as an integral part of rural tourism and alternative tourism is widely
recognised as having a strong connection with in the rural landscape12,13. Nowadays, wine-related tourism is becoming increasingly important to a number of
rural areas around the world14.
Enotourism has been recognised as a significant component of both the wine
and tourism industries15. Enotourism is travel based on the desire to visit wine
producing regions, or in which travellers are enticed to visit wine producing regions, and wineries in particular, while travelling for other reasons16. As Brown
and Getz17 mentioned, enotourism has become an important form of tourism since
the mid 90s when one could observe a steady growth of tourists interested in wine
who displayed relatively high spending power18.
657
Most popular enotourism destinations worldwide can be sorted as Italy (Tuscany), France (Bordeaux), Spain (La Rioja), USA (Napa Valley), Portugal (Douro
Valley), Germany (Mosel), South Africa (Cape Town), Argentina and Chile, New
Zealand (Otago), Australia (Barossa Valley). Analysing wine tourism development
worldwide, it can be determined that the most of the wine-producing countries
are European representing over 70% of the world production. Europe has a significant history in comparison with countries in the new world; the vineyard is a
very important component of European heritage and enotourism in Europe rests
on the development of rural tourism which has experienced growth in the form
of wine roads19.
Anatolia, which has hosted many civilisations for centuries, has great tourism
potential with its natural and cultural resource values. Anatolia is attracting the
attention of local and foreign tourists not only for general destination tourism but
also for alternative tourism. In recent years enotourism is not developed in Turkey
but by creating new destinations it has become a new trend for our tourism sector.
The Turkish wine industry lags well behind that of other wine-producing
countries around the world despite being in such a productive climate20. The history of viticulture in Anatolia goes back to 3500 years B.C. The most important
indicators of viticulture in Anatolia are historical artifacts with grape related shapes
and reliefs, amphoras used for drinking and storage of wine which are extracted
from archaeological excavations at different parts of our country21.
In Turkey, 49% of the land are used for agricultural purposes and 1.2% of
agricultural land – for grape cultivation22. Despite this, according to FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)23 2012 database, Turkey is ranked
6th out of all world countries in the grape production (still maintains this position
in 2015) but only 2% of grapes are used for wine production. The contrast between
the high grape production results and low wine production is indeed remarkable.
Most of the countries use 90% of their total grape production for wine-producing
but the Turkish grape crop is used mainly as table grapes or dried as raisins20.
Turkey consists of seven regions and each of them has their own geographic
and climatic characteristics. In almost every region, a total of 18 provinces, various
grape species are cultivated and wine production occurs. Turkey has more than
1200–1500 named grape varities of which 800 are genetically different and there
are around 30 outstanding wine grape varieties among all these types24.
The major vineyards of Turkey by regions are: Denizli, Manisa and Izmir in the
Aegean region;Tekirdag, Edirne and Canakkale in the Thrace region; Cappadocia
in the Central Anatolia region, Diyarbakir in the Southeastern Anatolia region and
Elazig in the Eastern Anatolia region. These are followed by Bozcaada, Bursa,
Ankara, Malatya, Antalya, Konya, Adapazari and Tokat counties.
In terms of vineyard surface area, the Aegean region is ranked first in Turkey
in having 28% of the country total vineyard area. Due to the grape quality and high
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value added raisins, the proportion of grapes used in wine production is lower in
this region. On the other hand, the Thrace region, which has only 5% of country
total vineyard area, is ranked first place in wine production in Turkey. This region
can be described as the wine capital of our country because 40% of Turkey wine
production occurs here25.
ENOTOURISM IN THE THRACE REGION
The Thrace region, known as the wine capital of Turkey, constitutes our border with
Europe in the far West of our country. Besides having geo-strategic importance, this
region has also a wide range of natural and cultural values. Thrace can be defined
as a peninsula bounded by three seas: the Black, Marmara and Aegean. Along with
the coastline, southern and northern parts of the region have a significant presence
of forest. The Black Sea coast in the north, Gulf of Saros in the south and Ganos
Mountain stand out as an eco-tourism area.
As well as ecotourism and coastal tourism potential of the area, the Thrace
Region has a very rich diversity of tourism facilities like cultural heritage tourism,
rural tourism, extreme sports tourism, agrotourism and festival tourism (Kirkpinar
Oil Wrestling), etc.
The Thrace region also has a very important agricultural potential and the
main source of income is agriculture. This region has major agricultural areas
that can grow variety of products due to the variable climate, soil and topographic
features. 75% of agricultural income come from crop production26,27. Today, the
main agricultural products of the region are sunflower, wheat, grapes (for wineproducing), rice and sugar beet. As for the wine grapes which have a significant
place among the agricultural products, especially in the province of Tekirdag,
production is carried out in an area of 2470 ha (Ref. 28).
Though there is tourism potential in Thrace in addition to the industry and
agriculture, tourism in the region has not become a sector as yet. In order to constitute the basis for tourism development in the Thrace region, a Tourism Master
Plan was prepared by Trakya development agency. The main purpose of the plan
is to provide benefits to rural development of the region by planning different
types of tourism. Thus, some strategies and actions have been established for the
development of tourism in the region. An Action Plan has been prepared for the
region towards the determined goals and strategies. As a result of the review, the
attraction components of the region and the types of tourism were determined.
Enotourism has emerged as one of them29.
Basic objectives and strategies established for the medium term development
of enotourism with high priority are as follows29:
– Establishment of an enotourism platform;
– Determination of ancient wine routes;
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– Introducing new wine routes by determining the boutique wineries;
– Development of grape harvesting and wine tasting activities;
– Establishment of wineries and restaurants offering local wines in addition
to authentic dishes which cater to the top income group;
– Collaborating with the travel agencies for attracting foreign tourists to the
region;
– Effective advertising and information activities.
The Thrace region is trying to come to the fore in enotourism by using its
status of wine capital along with its geography and tourism opportunities. Just like
the Aegean region, the Thrace region is also an extremely important area for wine
producers. Viticulture in Thrace appears mainly in three regions: Kirklareli and
its environs, the Tekirdag vineyards between Ucmakdere and Sarkoy, and finally
Edirne-Uzunkopru29.
Thracian wine producers have developed a solution to enhance enotourism
activities in the region. Twelve boutique wine producers from Tekirdag, Sarkoy,
Kirklareli and Gelibolu gathered together in 2013 to promote a new ‘Vineyard
Routes Project’ with the support of the Thrace Development Agency (TDA) and
The Thrace Tourism Association (TTID) (Ref. 30).
The route is an opportunity to visit the wine producers, experience the territory, discover new tastes, and live the natural local village life. The surrounding
historical sites, cultural events and the rich nature add another dimension to the
Thrace Wine Route. Within the scope of the project the distribution of wineries by
region is as follows: 4 wineries from Tekirdag, 3 wineries from Sarkoy, 3 wineries
from Kirklareli, and 2 wineries from Galipoli.
EXPERIMENTAL
In the scope of this study, a representative face-to-face survey was done with
‘Thrace Tourism Operators Association’ member companies at one of their stated
meetings in July 2014. The Thrace Wine Route Project aims to merge gastronomy
and tourism by determining a route including the vineyards of 12 wine producers.
The distribution of the companies of the wine route by counties is as follows: in
Tekirdag, there is Umurbey, Chateau Nuzun, Barel and Barbare; in Sarkoy, there
is Melen, Gulor and Chateau Kalpak; in Kirklareli, there is Arcadia, Chamlija and
Vino Dessera, and in Gelibolu, there is the Gali and Suvla. Beside these, there are
an additional 32 companies in the Thrace region.
According to the information obtained from personal interview surveys
conducted with the 12 companies, 67% of these companies (3 companies from
Tekirdag, 3 from Sarkoy, 1 from Kirklareli and 1 from Gelibolu) have 11–25 ha of
vineyards, 17% (Gelibolu (1), Kirklareli (1)] have 51–75 ha, 8% (Kırklareli (1))
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have 26–50 ha and 8% (Tekirdag (1)) have less than 10 ha of vineyards. None of
these companies that we interviewed have more than 75 ha vineyards.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are the grapes grown in all of these vineyards.
This is followed by Sauvignon Blanc, which is the second type of grape grown
67% of these vineyards and Okuzgozu, Shiraz and Syrah are the third grape types
grown in 45% of these vineyards.
Almost all of these companies press 1–250 t of grapes annually with one
company pressing 251–1000 t annually. Considering the annual wine production
only one company produces 550 t of wine, 4 companies produce 50–100 t and the
others produce 25–50 t wine annually. Only three of these companies are making
an annual average export of 10 000 Euro, mostly though red, then rose and then
white wine production.
According to the information received about the products and services in the
area of vineyards, all vineyards have wine sales shops, in 88% of vineyards there
are wine tasting opportunities, guided tours in the vineyards, outdoor restaurants
which need a special reservation and opportunity of to meet with vineyard owners.
In 38% of vineyards there are picnics, various social events, conference facilities
and festivals. In 25% of vineyards there are accommodation and educational tours
in 13%.
In these companies, an average of 10 people are full-time employed, 3 people
are part-time and 15 people are seasonal or temporarily employed. For grape production the average number of full-time employees is 3 people, for wine production
the average 3 people, for tourism/accomodation the average is 2 people and for
sales the average is 2 people.
Part-time workers are few withan average of 2 workers for the grape production and 1 worker for wine production. Seasonal or temporarily workers are more
numerous with for grape production employing anaverage of 12 people and for
wine production 3 people.
In some companies, there are employees working part-time or seasonally for
tourism/accommodation, working part-time for sales and working full-time or part
time as restaurant/cafe staff.
In 78% of the companies, employees are predominantly from the local comminities (76–100%) and the remaining companies (22%) have their employees
from the local people with a rate of 51–75%.
The most popular month for tourists to visit the vineyard is August-SeptemberOctober period with 89% visitation. May-June-July period also experience as small
spike in visitor numbers. The lowest number of visitors is in February, March,
April (56%) and then November, December January (44%).
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Eversole and Martin31 thought that globalisation progressively threatens traditional
agriculture and tourism may become a necessity to support the continuation of
traditional production in rural areas32.
People who tire of daily city life show tendency to visit natural sites. This kind
of tourism enables people living in big cities to witness the rural life, to reflect
on natural life in their life style, to get to know new customs and local cultures.
This type of tourism is known as rural tourism and agro-tourism is a branch of
rural tourism33.
Rural tourism as a selective form of tourism includes a number of activities,
primarily various services and additional facilities which are provided by rural
population for the purpose of attracting tourists, generating extra revenue on
behalf of relating family businesses, raising the standard of living, decreasing the
outflow of rural households, all on the principles of sustainable development and
preservation of the existing natural resources12.
Wine tourism has been identified as a particularly appropriate rural tourism
product by Van Ausdle34. Wine production can help rural areas redesign their
economies through job creation for both wine production and the hospitality associated with fine dining32.
Wine tourism, generally plays a pivotal role in attracting visitors to rural
areas which, in turn, benefit local economies and communities35. Wine tourism
can consist of visits to wineries, vineyards, and restaurants known to offer unique
grapeharvesting events, as well as organised wine tours, wine festivals or other
special events.
Wine trails have been part of the German tourism industry since the 1920s
(Ref. 15). The oldest wine route in the world, the Deutsche Weinstrasse, opened on
19 October 1935 (German Wine Route). Today, Europe (which includes countries
such as Spain, Italy, France and Germany) has a large number of wine trails that
are organised by various profit and non-profit organisations36.
In Turkey, the Thrace region is one of the most important region of vineyards.
‘The Thrace Wine Route Project’ organised by the Thrace Tourism Operators Association is the first one of its kind in Turkey and supported by 12 boutique wine
producers. It is an important project to promote vineyards and rural economies. If
these type of projects can be completed across the country, it would be an important
step in the promotion of other major vine routes of our country and ultimately the
development of a thriving enotourism intensity.
The European Union supports wine production in Europe with a budget of EUR
1.3 billion per year, which is about 3% of the total for agriculture37. However, our
Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock does not currently give any support
to the production of wine grapes from its TL 5.4 billion annual support budget.
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While wine production in Turkey has been neglected for years for various
reasons (primarily religious ones) it can provide a significant contribution to our
national economies as it has done in European countries. This can be clearly seen
when considering the share of the wine sector in the gross domestic products of
major wine producing countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Australia.
France, as one of the biggest wine producers of the World, is a top tourist
destination attracting 83 million foreign tourists. 29% of all tourists visit the wine
regions of France38. The Thrace region is mostly preferred for sea-sun-sand tourism
during the high season of summer. Promoting wine tourism sector investments and
enotourism opportunities will boost the rural development by making the region
much more attractive to tourists throughout the year.
CONCLUSIONS
Enotourism events are seen to assist with social and economic development because it can increase business, income and employment in the region. Enotourism
plays an important role to impede migration from the country side by establishing
facilities like boutique hotels and restaurants. Regional touristic initiatives will
make an important contribution to the solution of social problems associated with
workforce development in the region.
Promoting enotourism in our country allows for the demonstration of multiple
other local activities. While visiting the vineyards, wine producers allow people
to walk through the vineyards, learn about the production process, harvest the
grapes, taste wines, attend wine festivals, educational tours and cultural activities
and discover the regional delicacies and gastronomy of Turkey. Thus, enotourism
is important for the economical development of our country.
All the wine producers that we interviewed, work with local people and communities. This shows the importance of enotourism for regional employment. The
development of enotourism is a very important opputunity in terms of the promotion
of our cultural values (local architecture, regional foods, pension, agro-tourism,
handicrafts, grapeharvesting tours, etc.) and allows local communities not only to
earn money but also to exhibit other cultural traditions.
Today, the wine-producing sector in Turkey is troubled because of new regulations and the increase in excise duties on alcoholic drinks. Entrepreneurs who
have come into this sector with huge investments can not sell their wines, which
they have produced with high effort. It is not permitted to advertise and publicize
these products over the internet either. Even those wines that have won medals at
international competitions cannot be offered for tasting. Organising grapeharvesting
tours has also been banned which had recently become quite popular.
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Rural development related to the enotourism in Thrace Region depends on
new regulations in development plans, master plans, legislations and an increase
in sales and marketing opportunities.
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 10 March 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 666–674 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
REGIONAL ACUPUNCTURE FOR IZMIR PENINSULA:
CREATING CAPITAL WEB FOR CREATIVE ECO-TOURISM
K. VELIBEYOGLU
Department of City and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Izmir
Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey
E-mail: korayvelibeyoglu@iyte.edu.tr
Abstract. Rural socio-economic development has gained utmost importance in Turkish Metropolitan
Municipalities within the frame of recent legal changes extending the boundary of such municipalities
towards their larger rural hinterland. Beforehand, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality had been started
‘Izmir Peninsula Sustainable Development Strategy’ in 2013 as a model of their local development
agenda based on the principles of ‘Urla-Cesme-Karaburun Peninsula Local Development Idea
Competition’ held in 2008. Izmir Peninsula region is the nature reserve for Izmir with its specific
flora and fauna always considered as perfect location for eco-tourism activities. This paper aims to
illustrate the development and implementation mechanisms of creative eco-tourism strategies for
the region with concrete examples including thematic tourism routes based on green transportation,
local production and consumption networks (i.e. local bazaars, family pensions) and special events
aim to create local buzz and global pipelines. The major contribution of this study is to illustrate
a model of networked integration strategy by using ‘creative’ eco-tourism opportunities of Izmir
Peninsula Region. It exemplifies the key implementation mechanisms of regional acupuncture and
capital web approach derived from the idea of network of local micro-projects working in synergy.
Keywords: creative eco-tourism, capital web, regional acupuncture, Izmir Peninsula.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Izmir Peninsula Region (IPR) lies on the western end of Izmir city (Fig. 1). IPR
covers five county municipalities and 49 rural settlements approximately a population of 150.000 people lives in the region (out of 4 million in Metropolitan region).
The region is considered as the nature reserve of Izmir metropolitan city which
has preserved its natural and cultural landscapes and properties, historical references as well as traditional-rural lifestyle. Characterising typical Mediterranean
transitional zone, IPR hosts remarkable/outstanding landscapes such as historic,
traditional-rural settlements, coastal regions, microbasins, forests and wetlands.
However, some ecological and socio-economic challenges stemmed from fish
farms, wind energy plants, highway (cutting IPR into two and damaging wildlife),
open cast mining, aging and youth migration, and misuse of agricultural fields and
coastal environments1.
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The urban change in IPR can be described with consecutive waves in conjunction with the changes in big Turkish metropolitan cities and global changes affecting
consumer behaviour and habits. In Izmir, IPR has experienced the emergence of
suburban developments started from 1970s via massive amount of middle-class
summer houses by housing cooperatives alongside with ecologically sensitive
coastal areas. Therefore, rural-urban continuum harmed and this movement created many vacant houses for the time being.
Second wave, affecting the future development of region, started after 1990s
due to changing global economic relations that have created new upper income
groups and new consumption habits. Those upper-middle income groups in Turkey
prefer new living environments at the peripheries of metropolitan cities2. Parallel to this, the construction sector in Turkey has become major economic sector,
therefore, changing habits of urban elites have resulted in the suburban housing
developments in Turkey and IPR as well. The construction boom in IPR strongly
related with the Izmir-Cesme Highway that connects IPR to Izmir central area in
1992. Alongside with luxurious consumption and new infrastructure investments,
this uneven development also brought greater accessibility to the region and permanent dwellings, commuters from Izmir central business districts to IPR. In this
decade, in relation to tourism development, small town identity has gained great
popularity, Alacati and Seferihisar (joined Citta Slow Network in 2010) brought
flagship of rebranding of IPR ‘small is beautiful’3.
Third wave brought two main development agenda to IPR:
● Reorganisation of Turkish metropolitan municipalities: In 2013, Act on New
Metropolitan Municipality (No 6360) incorporates all existing town municipalities, villages and rural territory were merged. Therefore, once known as villages
(köy), rural administrations have been abolished and connected to the metropolitan
district municipalities (ilce belediye) and renamed as neighbourhood (mahalle) of
those districts. Five district municipalities covered 49 villages in IPR try to figure
out newly connected settlements peculiar needs and administrative necessities.
The law also defines those new responsibilities of Metropolitan Municipality and
metropolitan district-municipalities to fulfill the former rural settlements major
economic necessities such as agriculture and animal husbandry. To support rural
economies, creating new agricultural projects, producing regular activities for
farmers well-being, and constituting partnerships with local economic and social
actors are encouraged with the new law.
● Urla-Cesme-Karaburun Peninsula Local Development Idea Competition:
Long before the recent legal arrangements, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality
held a local development idea competition in 2008. The aim was to provide local
sustainable development of the region with excessive care to their natural and
cultural assets. Then, it took six years to realise and renew original competition
ideas into strategic documents via ‘Urla-Cesme-Karaburun Peninsula Sustainable
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Development Strategy 2014–2023’, as a subsequent part of Izmir Regional Plan
produced by Izmir Regional Development Agency4. In sum, Izmir Metropolitan
Municipality has decided to implement key actions of this strategy document as
a model example of local economic developments.
The main idea asserted here is that rural or suburban regions are not places
of isolation and deprivation, by innovative asset-based approaches, it can restore
the healthy continuum between urban and rural. Therefore, the aim of the paper
is to illustrate creative eco-tourism implementation efforts in order to exemplify
the process of creating synergy management derived from various theoretical approaches including ‘capital web’ and ‘regional acupuncture’.
Fig. 1. Location of IPR in Izmir
CREATIVE ECO-TOURISM
Today local development agendas meet creative economy, experience economy
and sharing economy that imply users attitude towards consuming to collaborating
the surrounding environment. The terms ‘creative class’5 and ‘creative tourism’6
have brought new possibilities to various fields including eco-tourism that need
to be expanded beyond the commonly agreed borders.
According to Florida5, members of the creative class prefer more active,
authentic and participatory experiences such as rock climbing or cycling. They
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prefer an authentic place when travelling offering unique and original experiences.
Many increasingly define the quality of their lives by the quality of experiences
they consume. The typical tourist attractions such as theme parks, sport stadiums
are irrelevant to many creative class people: ‘What they look for in communities
are abundant high-quality amenities and experiences, an openness to diversity of
all kinds, and above all else the opportunity to validate their identities as creative
people’5. Florida depiction of creative class implies so-called creative tourists
whose values celebrate the new experience landscape mainly based on respectful
and sustainable use of natural resources and cultural assets7.
UNESCO8 defines creative tourism as ‘travel directed toward an engaged and
authentic experience, with participative learning in the arts, heritage, or special
character of a place, and it provides a connection with those who reside in this
place and create this living culture’. Similarly, Richards6 describes four distinct
elements implied within the frame of creative tourism: creative potential, active
involvement, characteristic experiences and co-creation. The path of experience,
as Richard6 outlines, follows the isolated experiences of individuals towards the
supporting networks necessary for successful experience production as a part of
communities of practice largely via social media and other open source and crowdsourced platforms. Therefore, networks are increasingly necessary for the creation
and distribution of products and experiences9.
Aside from demand side, creative/responsible tourist mentality may reduce
and help to renovate the fragile natural and local cultural systems which is utmost
important in the creative understanding of eco-tourism. As highlighted in the
definition of eco-tourism ‘responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the
environment, sustains the well-being of the local people’10 requires innovative
way of seeing natural environment as creative ecosystem (an active entity not the
passive one). Sustainable tourism covers all this human interaction with nature
based on environment preservation goals11. On the contrary, the global development of mass tourism activities has brought negative impacts to host cities and
regions that cause degradation of natural reserves, commercialisation of culture,
noise, pollution and waste and rising cost of services. These adverse effects on
natural and cultural assets are no exception occurs in IPR as summarised in its
development trajectory.
CREATIVE ECO-TOURISM EXPERIENCE IN IPR
IPR has no industrial or agricultural character. Cesme is the top national and international tourism destination in IPR. Karaburun has known as potential eco-tourism
destination due to its unique natural assets in the region (i.e. Mediterranean monk
seal). Seferihisar became famous because of its Citta Slow (Slow City) label. Guzelbahce locates various private colleges and special education institutions. Urla
669
is a growth pole in IPR and is mixed with housing, tourism, health, and education.
Therefore, IPR is expected to rise in services industry, especially in education,
tourism and health12.
This section covers specific strategic actions of ‘Urla-Cesme-Karaburun
Peninsula Sustainable Development Strategy 2014–2023’. Izmir Metropolitan
Municipality and associated metropolitan-district municipalities in IPR have coped
with the implementation process of prioritised asset-based local development ideas
mainly at the intersection of agriculture and tourism.
In terms of eco-tourism potential, Urla, Cesme and specifically Karaburun in
IPR have gifted by valuable natural and environmental assets. There are microregions fit for potential organic farming areas requiring suitability analysis to
uncover this reserve (for systematic study in this field see Ref. 13).
For the physical networks, thematic routes designed to connect various natural
and cultural assets in a network:
● Cultural route: It connects historical and cultural sites throughout IPR that
is considered as the backbone of all thematic routes.
● Wine route: It covers the cluster of wine producers mainly in Urla region
(as flourishing wine region) and extended to other parts of IPR.
● Olive route: Olive trees have been cultivated throughout the region. Like
wine production olive trees and olive oil are characteristic symbols of Mediterranean Basin. In IPR, one of the earliest olive oil production facilities can be found
in ancient Klazomenai. Olive route connects ancient olive oil workshop to olive
oil production sites as a part of region industrial heritage, olive museum to listed
olive trees.
For the purposes of local development strategy aims of these routes are
threefold (3E):
● Providing additional income (Economy): Establishing these thematic routes,
elder population of IPR may find opportunities to sell relatively small scale but
authentic agricultural and local cultural products to eco-tourists without searching
costly and high end promotional efforts.
● Reducing ecological footprint (Environment): All thematic routes have
been designed according to environmentally sustainable modes of transportation
including hiking, cycling and sailing, each of which considered as integral part of
regional and international networks. To this end, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality
has applied to European Cycling Federation for Eurovelo Routes connecting whole
European region to each other as a part of cycling tourism.
● Enriching local knowledge (Experience): Non-motorised transportation
choice in IPR may have increased contacts to the local culture, local cuisine,
local economy, local interaction, and natural environment that basically leads to
enhanced social learning and more enriching experiences.
670
At the functional networks, namely as production and consumption networks,
culture of local bazaars in IPR and potential old houses as family pensions in villages are aimed to mobilised. Local bazaars based on local farmers market, antiques
and night bazaars are carefully mapped for promotion. Also the establishment opportunities of new ones are explored, rules and regulations are defined based on
readily experiences in IPR and near vicinity such as Foca Slow Food Earth Market.
These efforts are celebrated in Europe within the frame of multifunctional farming
in which young and women farmers are given utmost priority. At the same time,
building inventory is created and municipality supported courses are arranged for
volunteer villagers to exploit opportunities in various thematic routes specifically
designed for IPR.
Individual networks are subjective in nature and based on their preferences.
Choices of creative tourist or eco-tourist have influenced by re-arrangement of
events or creation of totally new ones adjusted to strengths of local natural and
cultural assets. For instance, wine route is suggested to connect with an international network such as European Wine Cities. Recently, Izmir has joined DELICE
Network of Gourmet Cities including 23 cities leading in gastronomy worldwide.
Urla, one of the central cities in IPR arranged a local food event this year by using
the strength of this network and more on the way. Seferihisar has already the part of
Citta Slow (Slow City) network and gateway to other cities in Turkey. Karaburun,
economically the least developed settlement in IPR, wants to protect its natural
assets and Karaburun City Council (formerly Local Agenda 21) published a report
clarifying why Karaburun is eligible for UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Network.
Despite its strong claim Karaburun is tackling with massive wind energy investments that have paid no attention to local decision making mechanisms. Above
all, this layer can be best incorporated with soft networks such as social media,
national and international events and ecological communities that creates ‘visibility’
to promote and protect valuable natural and cultural assets.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Synergy management is the key to integrate all these networks to produce catalytic
effect in the development of creative eco-tourism development opportunities in
the region. Since the main strategy is to connect local assets into a network, David
Crane concept of the ‘capital web’ and related idea of ‘regional acupuncture’ may
help to improve the synergy management framework.
The original idea of capital web comes from urban design indicating all movement channels (i.e. public transport systems), the public realm (streets, squares,
parks) and public buildings as the manipulator, controller and guiding influence
on city form14. The primary focus of the capital web is on the richly configured
movement and green space networks interwoven to create as many qualitatively
671
different places and locations as possible. Chosen infrastructure is in fact a key
to future development of eco-tourism opportunities in IPR. For instance, the conscious choice of sustainable and green transportation modes is the solid proof of
this idea. Therefore, capital web can be seen as backbone, a major determinant of
various local asset-based projects and applications.
Capital web approach could be operational whether the identification and
selection of structurally and symbolically significant locations can be found. It
creates an infrastructure that paves the way for different micro-scaled, asset-based
local development projects. This resembles to operating rule of networks (nodes
and links) that if there are good and plenty of links, the node is powerful. These
nodes can be accepted as points of intensity suited to functional, experiential and
symbolical meanings although each of which might be suited to specialised or a
relatively limited range of uses. Those conscious investment of capital web brought
legibility, identity and choice to its underlying geographical places. Creating capital
web link local natural and cultural assets more effectively, facilitating new connections, supporting idea development and providing small, catalytic micro-projects.
Individual networks should not be fully managed but influenced like acupuncture hot spots securing to total wellness of the system and hence the creation
of synergy. Therefore, one alternative implementation strategy could be regional
acupuncture, involves small-scale and low-impact development harmonious with
the local asset base. When we think of regional acupuncture in IPR, there are
rural settlements with specialties, authentic products and experiential services
to develop, as the structurally significant nodes in a capital web of ‘small-scaled
settlements’ (Fig. 2). The promise of small-scaled settlements is their distinctive
character such as accessible places, identity, sociable and tasteful way of life3. Via
regional acupuncture approach these small-scaled settlements might be resistance
to change agents against the rapid and uncontrolled tourism development depended
on globalisation process.
So, where will be start? How a capital web of local micro-projects working
in synergy? If you have accepted regional acupuncture based on small, sparingly
and speedy interventions, their management becomes important. One alternative
is called the ‘Stepping Stones’ approach, of starting with the easy and simple
ones instead of the tough problems involving many actors. If it is useful, then
you increase the capacity. If that is also successful, then you widen the scale to a
whole capital web. Of course, there can be similar and widely known strategies.
One is to ‘Keep It Small and Simple’ (KISS), which advises one step at a time.
Another similarly bottom-up approach is the rather popular ‘Snowball’, ‘Domino’
or ‘Butterfly’ effect. This small scale and reversible strategy could be much more
effective if extended, creates snowball effect or what might called here is synergy.
Creativity needs its own ecosystem: creative ideas and creative environments to
emerge, develop and progress. Therefore, to extend creative eco-tourism activities
672
in IPR its capital web should carefully be structured within the guidelines of active
involvement, characteristic experiences and co-creation. Each small or micro-scale
projects should be the source of social innovation. This implies bottom-up structure
based on a network of creative hot spots that is organic and that can be developed
at a time by local people with adequate social capital.
Fig. 2. Structurally significant nodes as regional acupuncture points in a capital web
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, opportunities of the creative eco-tourism development within the case
of IPR. Operating in such a multilayered network Crane capital web and concept of
regional acupuncture were employed as alternative bottom-up strategies to extend
the influence of efforts exemplified in IPR.
The capital web here delivers a backbone that supports activities in functional
network (social and community facilities, trading and manufacturing facilities,
etc.) and individual network that enables visibility of the region; and providing a
regional acupuncture hot spots it creates an environment that offers pride of place
to its inhabitants.
Synergy management has become valuable in terms of stocking valuable local
assets, developing complementary products and services and sharing additional
possibilities throughout the region. To foster sustainable development, the power of
673
an interrelated ‘quad’ of actors (public, private, civil, and academic) needs to draw
on synergy management. Within this frame, civil society is important. NGOs or
local development cooperatives are the most familiar with conditions on the ground
in rural and urban communities. Therefore, further research should be to focus
on in-depth understanding of civil society inclusion mechanisms (i.e. place-based
leaders) in order to mobilise valuable local assets into the value-added capital web.
REFERENCES
1. A. KAPLAN: Urla-Cesme-Karaburun Peninsula Sustainable Development Strategy 2014–2023:
Asset-based Local Development with a Focus on ‘Sustainable Landscape – Rural Life and
Economy’ Equilibrium. Council of Europe, European Landscape Convention, Fifteenth Council
of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention, Nevsehir, Turkey, 2014.
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3. I. INCE, K. VELIBEYOGLU: Creative-based Tourism Development in Small Scale Towns:
A Case of Alacati. In: Proc. of the AESOP Annual Congress, July 13–16 2015, Prague, Czech
Republic, 2015.
4. K. VELIBEYOGLU, S. OZDEMIR, A. BABA, Z. D. ARSAN, H. YAZDANI, D. HAZAR, A.
KAPLAN, M. BOYACI, Y. KURUCU, N. ERDOGAN, O. YILDIZ, H. ERKAN, E. AFSAR, S.
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6. G. RİCHARDS: Tourism Development Trajectories – from Culture to Creativity? In: Proc. of
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7. R. KOREZ-VİDE: Promoting Sustainability of Tourism by Creative Tourism Development:
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10. TIES: What is Ecotourism?, The International Ecotourism Society, Accessed at: http://www.
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Framework of the Intensive Programme. Lecture was held at ERASMUS IP Archaeological
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13. E. TOK, F. PEKER, Y. KURUCU, H. H. TOK, E. SAYGİLİ: Determining and Mapping the
Potential Organic Farming Areas in Istanbul. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14 (2), 675 (2013).
14. M. CARMONA, T. HEATH, T. OC, S. TiESDELL: Public Places Urban Spaces. Architectural
Press, 2003.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 12 April 2016
674
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 675–680 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
IMPORTANCE OF VISITOR MANAGEMENT IN NATIONAL
PARK PLANNING
E. DUZGUNES*, O. DEMIREL
School of Forestry, Department of Landscape Architecture, Karadeniz Technical
University, 61 080 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: ertanduzgunes@gmail.com; odofe01@gmail.com
Abstract. With the increasing attention in the natural areas in recent years, especially the national
parks have become focus of interest thanks to natural, cultural and historical resource values they
embrace. These areas, which enable various forms of recreational and touristic activities, are under
threat because of uncontrolled flow of visitors. Although they have been under protection through
enacted laws, the continuous destruction on the resource values of the areas that lack visitor management plans is indispensable. The effects of recreational and touristic activities conducted especially
in national parks can be biophysical, social and economic in nature. Therefore, visitor management
is crucial in these areas for the sake of the continuity of sustainable utilisation. In the current study,
the importance and effects of visitor management in the scale of the national parks of our country
is stated, and suggestions are made in terms of relevant legislation.
Keywords: visitor management, national parks, national park planning, recreation, tourism.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
National parks, which constitute an important place among protected areas, serve
as a source of information for ecology, geology, biology, medicine, chemistry and
behavioural sciences. They especially play a key role in preservation of biological
diversity. In our present day, unfortunately, damages and deteriorations caused
by the utilisation of visitors are increasing in national parks, which have become
the focus of interest for both domestic and foreign visitors along with the rise of
alternative tourism trend. Soil compaction, loss of vegetation, extinction of wild
life or being under threat of extinction, and impairment of the balance of water
and food are some examples of the destruction taking place in national parks1–8.
National parks, which enable various types of recreational and tourism activities thanks to natural and cultural resource values they have, do contribute both
to local and country economy by hosting a great number of visitors. However,
uncontrolled visitor flow can cause irreparable damages on the resource values.
Thus, environmental protection plays an importance role in sustainable development9, local and country economy.
*
For correspondence.
675
There is a delicate balance between touristic return and the sustainability of
the resource values. In other words, the existence of the resource values ensures
the continuity of economic gains. Aggressive tourism practices have various irremediable effects to these resources because of lack of protective plans10. Therefore, various management strategies have been developed, beginning from 1964,
to maintain the sustainability of the resource values and to protect the biological
diversity.
Management is defined as the collaboration of the related people in order to
attain the goal of efficient use of the resources against the changing environmental
conditions11. Protected area management, on the other hand, can be perceived as
the management of the resource values in the protected areas in an efficient and
sustainable way through certain strategies and action plans12. The notion of management in the protected areas was first mentioned in 1972, in the 2nd World Parks
Congress. During the congress, it was advised to draft an annual park environmental
report that would examine the internal and external environmental factors affecting
national parks and reveal the actions to improve the conditions13. The following
are the basic principles in management planning of the protected areas14:
● To maintain the sustainability of resource values by protecting them;
● To efficiently use the scientific data in any sort of investment and utilisation;
● To generate the institutional structure that will enable sector-specific coordination;
● To minimise or eliminate the pressure and impact on the resource values;
● To maintain public involvement in the planning and decision-making processes.
One of the new methods and approaches developed peculiar for the protected
areas is the visitor management. In the current study, the importance and effects
of visitor management in the scale of national parks is explained and further suggestions are made in respect to legal regulations.
VISITOR MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPORTANCE
Visitor management is a management plan that lets visitors gain quality experiences with a sustainable environmental attitude, and that tries to realise visitor
satisfaction about different experiences along with sustaining the qualities of the
environment15. Impacts caused by utilisation of visitors can be minimised through
this management strategy, which has been developed based on carrying capacity.
Basic goals of visitor management are16:
● To increase the consciousness of the visitors and ensure the acknowledgement of the values of natural areas or regional resources;
676
● To spread the messages that contain natural and historical processes, ecological interactions and human activities;
● To enable people to spend time in natural places where they can have personal experiences with natural and cultural environments;
● To ensure elaborate use of natural resources, protect cultural and natural
heritage and minimise negative effects while increasing positive ones;
● To decrease seasonality;
● To include the experiences of the local people in the application;
● To provide meaningful experiences for visitors and make them feel that
they are actually in a special environment;
● To increase governmental support and understanding for management issues
and for peculiar policies.
The following are the major ways in visitor management as stated in the report
on the interaction between visitors and the environment published by UK Ministry
of Environment, the Department of Employment and the English Tourist Board
(ETB) in 1991 (Ref. 17):
● Limiting the visitor capacity and distribution;
● Maintaining compatibility of the visitors with the resources and minimising the harms;
● Changing the behaviours of visitors.
Impacts of visitors may be biophysical or social in protected areas, especially
in national parks18. Intensity of visitors, traffic and parking lot problems in parallel
with that, deterioration of the vegetation caused by over-treading, accompanied
with soil compaction, threats and pressure on wild life, spoilage of water sources,
erosion and negative impacts on the local people can be mentioned as examples
of the pressure factors on the carrying capacity.
Many parks around the world are under threat due to over-utilisation and
inadequacies in management. Though not being in our country, many studies
done abroad revealed that models that have been developed for visitor management resulted in very desirable yields19–22. All of those models aim at protecting
and improving the resource values, and they have been shaped by the legislative,
social and cultural conditions of the USA and Europe23.
In order that a visitor management model is successful, it must follow a
visitor-oriented approach, considering the balance between protection and utilisation, having an infrastructure supported by legislative regulations. In this scope,
a flexible and transparent decision making process which includes various information and precautions like complex and dynamic structure of natural resources,
environmental, economic, ecologic, technologic and social factors is required24.
677
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
One of the new methods and approaches developed for the sake of eliminating
the visitor-induced damages caused in protected areas is the visitor management
method. In this visitor-oriented method, different types of people coming from
different cultural backgrounds must leave well-satisfied when they come to visit
such protected areas. Therefore, a management model taking the differences into
account needs to be formed. Arrangements must be made with great care and
preciseness in this management model.
Management planning is generally made through such classical planning
approaches as Long Term Development Plan, and Environment Planning and
Development Plan. The authorised bodies in these are the Ministry of Forestry
and Water Affairs, and Ministry of Culture and Tourism. However, scrutinising the
planning processes reveal that centralist structure could not be truly broken in all
40 national parks announced, except for Kure Mountains National Park, as long
term development plans implemented are not user-oriented and they did not include
visitor management. It is observed that principles were identified and decisions
were taken merely for the sake of determining the areas where the visitors would
conduct their touristic activities and the ways in which they should be directed.
The new management understanding in the developed countries embraces the
participatory approach that considers the utilisation-protection balance. Nevertheless, there is not a consensus across the world about the level of participation,
the qualities of the participants, and the time when they should be realised. Yet,
according to Ref. 25, the list of participants include the local people living in or
nearby the protected area, visitors, persons, institutions or companies that are affected by the management, special interest groups, local, national and international
institutions and associations that deal with nature protection, governmental bodies,
local authorities and other relevant entities. As a result of all these, it is a must to
define the objectives of management clearly, to determine the relevant parties to
be included in the decision making process and accordingly reflect their opinions
to the planning decisions.
Turkey, too, is pushing hard to keep up with the new ideas and opinions
arising in the new globalising world order. Therefore, numerous legislative and
administrative regulations have been introduced. However, it is clear that the proposed management models would vary depending on the legal, social and cultural
conditions of every country in respect to actual implementation. So, in order to
be able to make efficient and applicable management plans, the legislation – both
laws and administrative decisions – should be revised, and efficient and an actually
applicable visitor management plan, which is compliant with the legal, social and
cultural conditions of our country, being participant-oriented and considering the
balance of utilisation-protection, should be put into practice.
678
REFERENCES
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2. B. SHELBY, J. J. VASKE, T. A. HEBERLEIN: Comparative Analysis of Crowding in Multiple
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Monit Assess, 37, 39 (1995).
4. J. BELNAP: Soil Surface Disturbances in Cold Deserts: Effects on Nitrogenase Activity in
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5. J. BELNAP: Choosing Indicators of Natural Resource Condition: A Case Study in Arches National Park, Utah, USA. Environ Manage, 22 (4), 635 (1998).
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7. Y. F. LEUNG, J. L. MARION: Spatial Strategies for Managing Visitor Impacts in National Parks.
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11. M. YUCEL: Protected Areas and Management, Landscape Management. Institute of Turkey
Middle East Public Administration Publication 35, Local Government Center Publications 27,
Ankara, 2009.
12. E. DUZGUNES: A New Model Proposal for Visitor Management in Planning National Parks:
Case of Altindere Valley National Park (Macka/Trabzon). Ph.D. Thesis, Institute of Natural
Sciences, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, 2015.
13. M. HOCKINGS, S. STOLTON, N. DUDLEY: Management Effectiveness: Assessing Managements of Protected Areas. J Environ Policy Plan, 6 (2), 157 (2004).
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Ph.D. Thesis, Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara University, Ankara, 2006.
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Park), M.Sc. Thesis, Institute of Natural Sciences, Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, 2009.
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Natural Areas’ Participant Management Plan. International Davraz. Congress on Social and
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World’s National Parks and Protected Areas. Ecotourism Society, 1994.
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Recreation Conference, 1989, 143–152.
20. A. R. GRAEFE, F. R. KUSS, J. J. VASKE: Visitor Impact Management: the Planning Framework.
National Parks and Conservation Association, Washington, DC, 1990.
679
21. R. MANNING, D. LIME, M. HOF: Social Carrying Capacity of Natural Areas: Theory and
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22. J. VASKE, M. DONNELLY, B. SHELBY: Establishing Management Standards: Selected Examples of the Normative Approach. Environ Manage, 17, 629 (1993).
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25. ANONYMOUS: Landscape Character Assessment, Guidance for England and Scotland. Edinburgh, England, 2002.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 18 April 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 681–686 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
IgG AVIDITY TEST FOR DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTE Toxoplasma
gondii IN PREGNANT WOMEN
E. ABAZAJ*, E. FERATAJ DELIU, O. PETRI, L. SHUNDI,
B. HYSAJ (VILA), E. ALI, S. XINXO, M. TANKA, S. QYRA
Control of Infection Disease and Epidemiology Department, Institute of Public
Health, Tirana, Albania
E-mail: abazajerjona@gmail.com
Abstract. Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite with a worldwide distribution. Toxoplasmosis is well known as an important infection in pregnant women. Detection of T. gondii-specific
antibodies is the most common approach used to identify toxoplasmosis. The aim of the study was to
detect the Toxoplasma IgG antibodies developed at the early stage of infection in pregnant women
for distinguishing recent from past toxoplasmosis. Anti-toxoplasma IgM, IgG and IgG avidity were
evaluated by ELISA method (Bio Rad kits). In total 152 pregnant women, who were in first months
of their pregnancy (3–12 weeks), enrolled in this study. In the total the prevalence for Toxoplasma
infection for IgG antibody were 31.6%. And for IgM antibody, 5.9% of them resulted positive.
Average age was 27 years (min < 17year, max 43 years). All pregnant women which resulted with
IgG+, IgM+, 5.9% in total were tested for IgG avidity. 3.3% of them had low avidity that revealed
an active infection in the pregnant women. All other cases presented high avidity. The presence of
high avidity IgG essentially excludes the possibility that infection occurred within the previous five
months. This is an indication that in our population the level of toxoplasmosis infection is high and
most women have had contacts with this parasite before pregnancy. Application of IgG avidity is a
significant test in diagnosis of acute infection especially in cases of pregnant women.
Keywords: Toxoplasmosis, IgG avidity, pregnant women.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite. Toxoplasmosis
infection caused by this protozoan is one of the most prevalent chronic infections
in humans. More than 109 people having chronic infection1,2. Acquired of Toxoplasmosis in immunocompetent patients are generally asymptomatic infections,
but in some patients this infection can be associated with self-limited symptoms
like: cervical lymphadenopathy, fever, malaise or ocular disease3. For some other
patients diagnosis of Toxoplasmosis was more critical. Four groups can be mention: (a) pregnant women: an acute T. gondii infection in early pregnancy carries
the risk of transmitting the infection to the foetus with serious consequence; (b)
foetus and newborns who are congenitally infected by their mother during the
*
For correspondence.
681
gestation; (c) immunocompromised patients, and (d) those with chorioretinitis3–6.
Infection occurred during the period of pregnancy and its transmission to the foetus through placenta continues to be the cause of tragic yet preventable disease
in the offspring7. The majority of infants infected by toxoplasmosis (congenital
transmission) appear to be healthy at birth, but significant long-term consequence
may become evident after birth, the first year of life ore adolescence. Some of the
severe consequences of congenital transmission are mental retardion, epilepsy and
most of cases cause blindness. As reason of this infection unfortunate outcome for
infants and children are the emotional and economic burden faced by the parents,
governments and society.
France applies a National Program for detection and treatment of this infection.
This program has reduced the rate and consequence of congenital infections8,9.
In recent years a number of new methods are proved to be a great value in
diagnosis of T. gondii as infection in pregnant women, foetus and newborn. The
first diagnosis is based to the serological test (detection of antibodies IgM and
IgG)10,11 and after that IgG avidity, PCR and western blots help in laboratory diagnosis of infection. The development of IgG avidity assays has revolutionised
serological diagnosis of Toxoplasma infections. The measurement of IgG avidity
has shown its power in various clinical settings, especially in situations where
timing and differentiation of primary and secondary infections is crucial. The
impact of IgG avidity measurement will be helped clinicians for diagnosis of 5
clinical scenarios: acute acquired infection, primary infection during pregnancy,
congenital toxoplasmosis, ocular toxoplasmosis and toxoplasma infection in immunocompromised patients. The aim of the study was to detect the Toxoplasma
IgG antibodies developed at the early stage of infection in pregnant women for
distinguishing recent from past toxoplasmosis.
EXPERIMENTAL
For each pregnant woman were collected 5 ml blood in one vacutainer during two
years (January 2011–December 2012). In total 152 pregnant women, were tested
for anti-toxoplasma IgG and IgM. This study samples enrolled pregnant women at
first months of their pregnancy (3–12 weeks). Also we have enrolled in this study
and pregnant women that presented clinical signs and symptoms suggestive for
toxoplasmosis during their pregnancy. A questioner was filled for each participant
in the study. Sera initially were analysed for the presence of toxoplasma specific
IgG antibodies for determinate the immune state of each participant. After that all
pregnant women were tested for the presence of toxoplasma specific IgM to determine if one of them present an acute infection. Pregnant woman with toxoplasma
specific IgG and IgM positive were evaluated for IgG avidity. ELISA method (Bio
Rad kits) was used during this study.
682
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Out of 152 pregnant women participate in this study, average age resulted 27 years.
Min age was < 17 years old and max 43 years old) were enrolled in this study. They
were at first months of their pregnancy range 3 to 12 weeks at time of specimen
collection. The mean length of pregnancy was 8.2 weeks. From calculate of questioners about socio-demographic characteristics, 118/152 pregnant women live in
urban area and other 34/152 in rural area. Single women resulted only 5/152 and
other was married 147/152. In our study were enrolled and 14 pregnant women
with clinical manifestation for T. gondii, other women were without clinical manifestation. Most of pregnant women have done Secondary and Higher education.
Toxoplasmosis disease is caused by drinking water or eating food, contaminated
with excrements of an infected animal; the cats, eating contaminated rodents are
an important reservoir of the disease12. Majority of them have contact with the
pets like cat and dog (Table 1).
Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics and seroprevalence of T. gondii among study participants
Characteristics of pregnant
Number IgG posi- Statistics data odds ratio CI 95%,
women
(=152) tive (%)
p-value < 0.05
Residence
Urban
118
22.4
1
Rural
34
9.2 OR 0.58 (0.26 to 1.27) p = 0.17
Marital status
Single
5
1.3
1
Married
147
30.3 OR 1.4 (0.23 to 9.06) p = 0.68
Clinical manifestation
Without clinical manifestation
138
24.3
1
With clinical manifestation
14
7.3 OR 0.01 (0.026 to 0.37) p = 0.80
Educational status
Illiterate
3
0.0
1
Primary educational
6
1.3 OR 0.25 (0.009 to 7.27) p = 0.4
8-years
21
7.35 OR 0.13 (0.006 to 2.83) p = 0.19
Secondary
65
15.8 OR 0.24 (0.012 to 4.88) p = 0.3
Higher education
57
7.35 OR 0.57 (0.028 to 11.98) p = 0.72
Do you have contact with the cat?
No
115
19.8
1
Yes
37
11.8 OR 0.4 (0.18 to 0.80) p = 0.011
Do you have contact with dog?
No
131
27.6
1
Yes
21
4.0 OR 1.17 (0.42 to 3.25) p = 0.7
All women were screened for Toxoplasma infection with ELISA for antibodies IgG, IgM and also for IgG avidity. In the total the prevalence for Toxoplasma
683
infection for IgG antibody was 31.8%, and for IgM antibody, 5.8% of them resulted
positive. In Table 2 is presented the positivity of IgM and IgG for each age groups.
Table 2. Positivitity for anti-Toxoplasma IgM and IgG divided by the age groups
Age groups Total number IgM negative IgM positive IgG negative IgG positive
17–25
43
42
1
31
12
26–35
89
84
5
79
20
36–43
20
17
3
2
18
Total
152
143
9
104
48
Measurement of T. gondii-specific IgG avidity has proven to be a powerful
tool for distinguishing recent from past toxoplasmosis13–15. Unlike most other
infections, primary toxoplasmosis cannot be reliably identified by detection of
T. gondii-specific IgM. For reasons not clearly understood, T. gondii-specific IgM
remains detectable as long as 2 years following primary infection15. Diagnosis of
primary toxoplasmosis in pregnant women early in the first trimester of pregnancy
is of most important in order to offer them early therapy or to do interventions for
prevention of congenital infection to the foetus16–18.
This study aimed to determine the usefulness of toxoplasma specific IgG
avidity (ELISA) as a tool to separate between recent and acute toxoplasma infection. Routine serological diagnosis of this infection provides high sensitivity, but
specificity varies depending on the test used. In this study 9 (5.9%) women in their
early pregnancy had antibody IgM for Toxoplasma. To those cases diagnosis of
primary infection with T. gondii in early pregnancy were improved by determination with IgG avidity. On avidity test only three of nine IgM positive women had
low antibody IgG avidity. This result suggests an acute infection to these women.
Four of nine pregnant women with IgM positive had high antibody IgG avidity;
this suggests that infection was acquired before gestation (Table 3). This apparent
disagreement in detection of IgM and IgG avidity antibodies by ELISA serology
may be due to the fact that IgM antibody may persist for months or even years
following the acute phase of an infection to some patients. So the presence of IgM
antibody is not always an indication of an acute infection15. This study showed
that there was no association between the level of the Toxoplasma – specific IgM,
IgG and IgG-avidity.
Table 3. Comparison of IgG avidity and IgM
IgG avidity (results)
Low
Borderline
High
684
Number of specimens with ELISA IgM positive (n = 9)
3 (33.33%)
2 (22.22%)
4 (44.44%)
CONCLUSIONS
Measurement of T. gondii-specific IgG avidity has proven to be a powerful tool
to distinguish recent from past toxoplasmosis. The presence of high avidity IgG
essentially excludes the possibility that infection occurred within the previous five
months. This is an indication that in our population the level of Toxoplasmosis
infection is high and most women have had contacts with this parasite before
pregnancy. Application of IgG avidity is a significant test in diagnosis of acute
infection especially in cases of pregnant women.
REFERENCES
1. J. S. REMINGTON, G. DESMONTS: Toxoplasmosis: Infectious Diseases of the Foetus and
Newborn Infants. 4th ed. WB Saunders, Philadelphia, 1995.
2. J. L. JONES, D. KRUSZON-MORAN, M. WILSON, G. McQUILLAN, T. NAVIN, J. B. McAULEY: Toxoplasma gondii Infection in the United States: Seroprevalence and Risk Factors. Am
J Epidemiol, 154, (4), 357 (2001).
3. J. G. MONTOYA, O. LIESENFELD: Toxoplasmosis. Lancet, 363 (9425), 1965 (2004).
4. J. G. MONTOYA: Laboratory Diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Toxoplasmosis.
J Infect Dis, 185 (Suppl 1), S7 (2002).
5. J. S. REMINGTON, R. McLEOD, P. THULLIEZ, G. DESMONTS: Toxoplasmosis. Infectious
Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant. 5th ed. W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 2001.
6. P. THULLIEZ, F. DAFFOS, F. FORESTIER: Diagnosis of Toxoplasma Infection in the Pregnant
Woman and the Unborn Child: Current Problems. Scand J Infect Dis Suppl, 84 (18-22), (1992).
7. J. S. REMINGTON, R. McLEOD, P. THUILLIEZ, G. DESMONTS: Toxoplasmosis. Infectious
Diseases of the Foetus and Newborn Infant. 6th ed. Philadelphia, 2006.
8. J. COUVREUR: Congenital Toxoplasmosis. Vie Med, 43, 1839 (1962).
9. W. FOULON, J. M. PINON, B. STRAY-PEDERSEN, A. POLLAK, M. LAPPALAINEN,
A. DECOSTER, I. VILLENA, P. A. JENUM, M. HAYDE, A. NAESSENS: Prenatal Diagnosis
of Congenital Toxoplasmosis: a Multicenter Evaluation of Different Diagnostic Parameters. Am
J Obstet Gynecol, 181, 843 (1999).
10. J. C. MONTOYA, J. S. REMINGTON: Management of Toxoplasma gondii Infection during
Pregnancy. Clin Infect Dis, 47, 554 (2008).
11. O. VILLARD, J. JUNG-ETIENNE, B. CIMON, J. FRANCK, H. FRICKER-HIDALGO,
N. GODINEAU, S. HOUZE, L. PARIS, H. PELLOUX, I. VILLENA, E. CANDOLFI: Le Reseau du Centre National de Référence de la Toxoplasmose. Sérodiagnostic de la toxoplasmose
en 2010: conduite à tenir et interprétation en fonction des profils sérologiques obtenus par les
méthodes de dépistage. Feuillets Biol, 52, 1 (2011).
12. S. D. PETROV, T. N. BILEVA: Economical and Public Health Importance of Rodents. J Environ
Prot Ecol, 11 (2), 529 (2010).
13. C. L. ROSSI: A Simple Rapid Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay for Evaluating Immunoglobulin G Avidity in Toxoplasmosis. Diag Microbiol Infect Dis, 30, 25 (1998).
14. M. PAUL: Immunoglobulin G Avidity in Diagnosis of Toxoplasmic Lymphadenopathy and
Ocular Toxoplasmosis. Clin Diag Lab Immuno, 6, 514 (1999).
685
15. J. C. MONTOYA, O. LIESENFELD, S. KINNEY, C. PRESS, J. S. REMINGTON: VIDAS Test
for Avidity of Toxoplasma-specific Immunoglobulin G for Confirmatory Testing of Pregnant
Women. Clin Microbiol, 40 (7), 2504 (2002).
16. B. S. AKOIJAM, S. SHASHIKANT, S. SINGH, S. K. KAPOOR: Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma
Infection among Primigravid Women Attending Antenatal Clinic at a Secondary Level Hospital
in North India. J Indian Med Assoc, 100, 591 (2002).
17. S. SINGH: Mother-to-child Transmission and Diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii Infection during
Pregnancy. Indian J Med Microbiol, 21, 69 (2003).
18. S. EMNA, A. KARIM, K. MOHAMMED, B. AIDA: Difficulty in Dating Primary Infections
by Toxoplasma gondii in Pregnant Women in Tunisia. Tunis Med, 84, 85 (2006).
Received15 December 2015
Revised 6 March 2016
686
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 687–695 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development
ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES CONCERNING
SUSTAINABILITY. A RESEARCH CASE ON ROMANIAN
TOURISM VENTURES
I. MESTER, D. BADULESCU*, A. BADULESCU, D.-P. BAC, R. SIMUT,
M. SEHLEANU
University of Oradea, 1 Universitatii Street, 410 087 Oradea, Romania
E-mail: daniel.badulescu@gmail.com
Abstract. Tourism industry presents a special relationship with the environment and sustainability
requirements, as a clean environment is the primary resource of this industry. The literature indicates
that the entrepreneurs and managers involved in responsible touristic ventures are expected to be
more aware of the importance of sustainability and more interested to possess advanced knowledge
on sustainability issues. On other side, customers are also assumed to be more sensitive to touristic
suppliers attitudes and practices regarding sustainability. Based on a survey research, in this paper
we investigate the sustainability-oriented attitudes and practices among ventures operating in tourism
and hospitality industry, in Bihor County, Romania. Our research revealed a consistent interest for
an effective sustainable tourism, but also some barriers and limits in understanding the problems of
sustainability, a short term focusing and a prevalence of conventional and low efficacy actions. The
undoubted interest in meeting the required standards and obtaining the relevant certificates is shadowed by the fact that many of these certificates do not say too much to tourists concerning operators
practices towards promoting an effective sustainable tourism. As a result, many touristic ventures are
reluctant to assign a significant economic effect to holding and implementing sustainability standards.
Keywords: sustainability attitudes and practices, sustainable tourism, certification.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Sustainability and environmental impact of human actions are widely considered
as major issues both in theoretical approaches and in specific empirical researches.
This concern raises numerous questions related to the activity of the ventures operating in tourism and hospitality industry, especially due to the fact that tourism is
inseparably related and even dependent on the quality of the natural environment
of tourist destinations. However, the various forms of tourism, the various sizes of
tourism ventures, the composite nature of the tourism product, all make it difficult
to implement a single policy, especially when business interests, performance and
profitability requirements are threatened1. The present paper, based on a research
among representatives of ventures operating in tourism and hospitality industry,
aims at examining how they do understand and practice sustainability actions,
*
For correspondence.
687
how they perceive benefits and barriers associated with sustainability practices.
The results allow us to point out some conclusions regarding the involvement in
sustainability actions, and to suggest policies to improve sustainable practices in
tourism.
The sustainable tourism development became important not only due to
ecological reasons at touristic destination, ‘but also for improving its competitiveness’2. Indeed, tourism has a complex impact on the environment, related to both
environmental degradation as a result of the increasing number of visitors, and
to the effects of business activity on tourism. Hence, sustainable tourism induces
responsibilities for both consumers and companies operating in tourism.
The fact that sustainable tourism combines various conceptual, moral, and
social elements with practical reasons, determines some researchers to doubt
about the sincere involvement in these actions, considered to be as a simple trick,
a marketing approach3, or new destinations promotion, instead of environmental
conservation1,4. On the other hand, it is very difficult to ask to an entire sector to
contribute to a cleaner world, as long as its links with the rest of the economy are
made through activities (such as transportation or construction) which consume
non-renewable resources, or represent major polluters.
However, sustainable tourism supports and respects the social, economic and
environmental concerns of host communities, strongly considering the local particularities and requirements, but it also involves rational consumption allowing a
natural regeneration of resources5. Finally, tourism as an economic activity is able to
provide consumers with comprehensive, satisfying and meaningful experiences1,6.
These goals can be implemented through various forms, e.g. encouraging
energy saving (lighting and heating), waste collection, purchasing from local
ventures, re-dimensioning tourist flows, preventing degradation of natural and
cultural sites, etc. These actions could lead mainly to environmental gains, but
also to monetary benefits (savings), increasing reputation, and providing pleasant
experiences to visitors, attracting influential customers and investors, and a positive response from local community1,7.
There is a consistent and diverse literature on the results of implementing
sustainability principles in tourist ventures and their effects on customers (i.e.
tourists). Kirk8 finds that major hotel chains have assimilated relatively quickly
and on large scale sustainability and environmental issues, among employees,
suppliers and business partners. On the other hand, for small tourism companies
the results were less visible and the actions proved to be more difficult to implement, as these small firms ‘do not have the interest, resources or time required to
introduce environmental management practices’1.
Some researchers found out an effective availability of hoteliers for sustainable tourism, but also a limited understanding of tourism – environment relation.
Sustainable practices were dominated by conventional and low efficiency actions,
688
i.e. recycling, low energy consumption devices, lead free vehicles or double
glazing. Horobin and Long and Stabler and Goodall consider that this inaction is
caused by ‘a high degree of complacency amongst the businesses, with satisfactory current environmental performance’9, insatisfaction related to the excessive
time spent carrying out these actions or even a plan to return to some classic
products, non-environmentally friendly but more efficient and, probably, cheaper10.
Geerts11, when interviewing a group of 21 London hotels managers, found out
that certification schemes provide knowledge to hoteliers and help against claims
of ‘greenwash’. However, the effect of certifications on profitability is unclear.
Moreover, certification schemes are very limited in providing guests with more
accurate information about the hotel efforts on sustainability. Brown12 analysing
the behaviour of large hotel groups managers, indicated that main incentives for
environmental initiatives are, firstly, cost savings, and then, the environmental
protection. In some cases, luxury hotels managers were reluctant to engage in
sustainability policies, considering that this could affect their image or even ‘the
enjoyment of a guest stay’. Horobin and Long10 suggested that, although there is a
lot of affinity for the general principles of sustainability, there is general confusion
around the concept of sustainability and even the environmental concern. Although
76% of the respondents are prepared to accept the link between the environment
and their businesses, however, many of them mention they did not find the occasion, incentive or time to put these beliefs into practice, do not see the chance to
turn ‘their own business practices green as a business opportunity, and between
59% and 80% are not aware of any information sources about sustainability’ 10.
Another aspect of the implementation of sustainable tourism practices is
given by the customers requirements and behaviour13. According to Martens and
Spaargaren14, or Budeanu15, the tourists are far less motivated to practice sustainable lifestyles or support responsible tourism products, reducing or even ignoring
industry’s sustainability goals, considering the active protection of the environment
and the support of local communities is a part of hotel responsibility16. Hjalager17
studies on tourist attitudes in Denmark indicate that two thirds of the visitors in
metropolitan area said that the environment has no importance for their choice of
destination, and this percentage reaches 80% if the travel motivation is business
or studies. Only rural locations tend to host vacationers with a high focus on environmental issues. While some tourists are willing to pay more for environmentally
less damaging products, around 71% of them prefer lodging in hotels that show
concern for the environment, but they are not willing to pay more for them8,17, and
one in three British travelers surveyed said they would pay more for an international
trip if their money went to preserving the local environment16.
689
EXPERIMENTAL
Our survey-based research aims at investigating some issues concerning the
sustainability-oriented attitudes and practices among tourism and hospitality
ventures. We are particularly interested on the real concern about sustainability
and the impact on the environment of touristic ventures, about the factors driving to sustainability, about the perception of tourism ventures managers on the
benefices and gains associated with sustainability practices. The research is based
on surveying 83 ventures operating in tourism and hospitality industry in Bihor
County (North Western Romania), the sampling being made by using the random
stratified proportional procedure.
The questionnaire consisted of 23 questions: the general questions are related
to the profile of the respondents, while the specific questions evaluate the awareness, attitudes and behaviours related to the environmental impact of the ventures
operating in tourism and hospitality industry. For the confirmation of the survey
reliability, we grouped the questions referring to the perception on the protection
of the environment, and by using the Cronbach alpha method we found that the
alpha coefficient is equal to 0.804, which indicates a reliable scale. The elimination
of any item leads to a lower alpha.
The sample consisted of guest houses (39%), clubs and restaurants (42%),
and hotels (19%). Small size companies, with less than 49 employees, were 86%
from total, the rest being medium or large companies. 61% of companies had an
annual turnover under 35 000 EUR, while the rest had an annual turnover between
35 000 and 7 300 000 EUR.
The actions reported by firm representatives as already undertaken in order to
protect the environment were as follows: the use of energy saving light bulbs (100%
of the firms), water saving devices (90.69%), the use of environmental friendly
products (74.4%), recycling glass (69.76%), recycling plastic recipients (53.48%),
the use of movement light sensors (7%), towel policy (4.65%), renewable energy
source (i.e. solar panels: 2.3%), recycling paper and/or aluminium wastes. Most
of the respondents considered that the most important advantage associated with
their sustainability practices had been the lowering of the electricity (58.1%) and
water consumption (46.5%) costs. The percentage of representatives considering that protecting the environment brought some advantages or benefits for the
businesses is 81.6%. However, 16.27% of the respondents argued that high prices
restricted them to take any action to protect the environment.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Research hypothesis H1. The managers perception regarding the impact of hospitality industry on the environment is correlated with the number and type of their
actions undertaken to protect the environment.
690
In Table 1 we have highlighted, starting for the sample, the number of actions
undertaken to protect the environment, and we have constructed the cross tabulation
between the answers of the respondents. A majority of 62.79% of the respondents
consider that ventures operating in tourism and hospitality have a medium impact
on the environment, whilst only 18.6% believe that their impact is significant.
Table 1. Correlation between managers’ perception regarding the impact of hospitality industry on
the environment and the number of their actions undertaken to protect the environment
Environmental impact of the
hospitality industry
Insignifi- observed frequency
cant
expected frequency
adjusted residual
Medium observed frequency
expected frequency
adjusted residual
Signifi- observed frequency
cant
expected frequency
adjusted residual
Total
Number of actions undertaken to protect the environment
1
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0.0 0.0 2.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 0.0 4.0 0.0
0.4 0.4 4.8 2.2 3.5 2.8 0.4 1.1 0.4
–0.7 –0.7 –1.7 –0.2 0.3 0.9 –0.7 3.1 –0.7
0.0 2.0 22.0 6.0 13.0 7.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
1.3 1.3 16.3 7.5 11.9 9.4 1.3 3.8 1.3
–1.9 1.1 2.8 –1.0 0.6 –1.4 1.1 –1.5 –1.9
2.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 2.0 4.0 0.0 0.0 2.0
0.4 0.4 4.8 2.2 3.5 2.8 0.4 1.1 0.4
3.0 –0.7 –1.7 1.4 –1.0 0.9 –0.7 –1.2 3.0
2.0 2.0 26.0 12.0 19.0 15.0 2.0 6.0 2.0
Total
16
54
16
86
Note: Adjusted residuals in bold are those that exceed +/– 2.
The calculated χ2 is 38.76, reflecting a strong correlation between the above
mentioned variables. To determine if this correlation is maintained also for the
total population, we need to compare the calculated value with the critical one.
In our case the critical value for 16 degrees of freedom and a 95% of probability
is 23.6, and therefore the strong correlation stands also for the total population.
To investigate the statistically significant omnibus Chi-square test results, we
used also the procedure that calculates the residuals18. In Table 1, four cells had
the adjusted residuals greater than +/– 2, all of them being positive, thus indicating
that the observed frequencies were bigger than the expected ones. For example,
more managers than expected evaluated the environmental impact of the hospitality industry as insignificant, for a number of 9 out of 10 possible actions to protect
the environment, and more managers than expected evaluated the environmental
impact of the hospitality industry as medium, for a number of 4 actions to protect the environment. The more values (in absolute value) are bigger than 2, the
stronger is the correlation between the two variables. All of them had positive
adjusted residual values, which indicates there were more managers than expected
by chance who consider the environmental impact of the hospitality industry as:
insignificant for a number of the actions undertaken to protect the environment
691
equal with 9, medium for a number of actions equal with 4, and significant for a
number of action equal with 1 and 10.
Therefore, research hypothesis H1 is validated at the sample level, and the
total population level.
Research hypothesis H2. The level of the market targeted by the ventures is positively correlated with the existence and the number of environmental standard
certifications they own.
The companies were investigated in order to assess whether they had environmental certificates and in what number. Following the investigation, scores
ranging from 1 to 3 were associated to each target market. For example, for luxury
consumers it was assigned 3, for average consumers it was assigned 2, for economy
class it was assigned 1. The next step was to determine the average score. Table 2
contains the cross tabulation between the respondents answers.
Table 2. Correlation between the level of the market targeted by the ventures and the number of
environmental standard certifications they own
Number of environment certificates
0 observed frequency
expected frequency
adjusted residual
1 observed frequency
expected frequency
adjusted residual
2 observed frequency
expected frequency
Adjusted residual
Total
1
4
3.1
0.8
2
2.7
–0.6
0
0.3
–0.6
6
Target market – average score
1.5
2
2.5
0
34
6
5.1
30.7
4.1
–3.4
1.6
1.4
10
24
0
4.4
26.5
3.5
3.8
–2.6
–1.2
0
2
2
0.5
2.8
0.4
2.9
–0.7
–0.9
10
60
8
3
0
1.0
–1.5
2
0.9
1.6
0
0.1
–0.3
2
Total
44
38
4
86
Note: Adjusted residuals in bold are those that exceed +/– 2.
The average consumer is targeted by a significant proportion of the companies
(i.e. 70.76%), while no environmental certificates were owned by more than half of
the ventures (i.e. 51.16%). There was a weak correlation between the two variables,
because of the distribution of the frequencies, at a sample level (calculated χ2 =
28.29, higher than the critical value of 15.51, for 5% significance level and 8 degrees
of freedom). Therefore, we can conclude that there is a correlation between the
two variables, valid for the sample and the total population. Regarding the adjusted
residual, four cells were associated with values greater than +/– 2. Two of the cells
have positive adjusted residual values, while the other two have negative adjusted
residual values. The positive values indicate that there were more companies than
expected by chance which have a target market 1.5 and one certificate, and a level
692
of the market targeted by the ventures 2.5 and two certificates. Conversely, the two
cells with negative values indicate that there were fewer companies than expected
by chance which have a target market 1.5 and no certificate, and a 2.5 target market
for one certificate. Consequently, research hypothesis H2 is validated.
Research hypothesis H3. The managers perception regarding the environmental
impact of the hospitality industry is correlated with the possession of an environmental certificate, with the accomplishment of certain actions to protect the
environment or the evidence of some interest to protect it.
The assumption is that between the awareness of the environmental impact
of the tourism and hospitality industry and the actions implemented to protect it,
there is a positive correlation.
A score from 0 to 5 was assigned to show the extent to which the ventures in
the sample got involved in environmental protection. The respondents who gave
negative answers to the questions related to research hypothesis RH3 were given
0 points, and for each positive answer they got 1 point. By summing up the three
scores mentioned above, we were able to determine the score of the company. Table 3 presents the cross tabulation between the responses and the assigned scores.
Table 3. Correlation between the managers perception regarding the environmental impact of hospitality industry and the possession of an environmental certificate
Environmental impact of the
hospitality industry on the environment
Insignificant
Medium
Significant
Total
Possession of an environmental certificate
0
1
2
3
5
0
8
0
8
6
14
2
22
10
22
8
40
0
8
6
14
0
2
0
2
Total
16
54
16
86
A medium intensity is shown by the distribution of the frequencies, while
between the two variables there is a direct correlation. Because the calculated
χ2 = 16.36, which is higher than the critical value 15.51 determined for 8 degrees
of freedom and a 95% of probability, the null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore,
research hypothesis H3 is validated. There is a correlation between the two variables, valid for the sample and the total population, even if at the level of the total
population the correlation is weak.
CONCLUSIONS
Our research on attitudes and behaviours related to sustainability-oriented business practices, among touristic ventures in Bihor County, Romania, revealed a
consistent interest for an effective sustainable tourism, but also some barriers and
693
limits in understanding the problems of sustainability. After testing the research
hypotheses, we found out that surveyed managers/representatives understand that
hospitality industry has a significant environmental impact and they undertake a
series of actions in order to protect the environment. However, these actions are
scaled, limited and reduced as effectiveness. The managers operating in tourism
consider that achieving and maintaining a target market is fostered by possessing
quality certificates which cover also environmental issues, even if those certificates do not say much on the concern to practice an effective sustainable tourism.
However, an important share of them are aware of the importance of practicing
sustainable tourism, and try to obtain those certificates, meet the requirements, and
act accordingly19. For other companies, obtaining such a certificate appears as a
waste of time and money with no tangible advantages. However, further research
is needed to more carefully address the research questions, mainly by extending
the sample and also the research hypotheses.
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3. S. BERRY, A. LADKIN: Sustainable Tourism: A Regional Perspective. Tourism Manage, 18
(7), 433 (1997).
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Hospitality Management (Ed. C. Cooper), 4, Belhaven, London, 1992, 140–145.
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Ventures: from Awareness to Specific Practices. In: Proc. of the 8th European Conference on
Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Brussels, 2, 2013, p. 434.
6. T. ANGELKOVA, C. KOTESKI, Z. JAKOVLEV, E. MITREVSKA: Sustainability and Competitiveness of Tourism. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 44, 221 (2012).
7. J. SWARBROOKE: Greening and Competitive Advantage. Insights, 5, 43 (1994).
8. D. KIRK: Environmental Management for Hotels. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1996.
9. M. STABLER, B. GOODALL: Environmental Awareness. Action and Performance in the
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694
14. S. MARTENS, G. SPAARGAREN: The Politics of Sustainable Consumption: the Case of the
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Received 26 February 2016
Revised 18 April 2016
695
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 696–702 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
LAND DEGRADATION DUE TO COASTAL URBANISATION
M. T. ESETLILIa*, Y. KURUCUa, T. TURKb, F. OZENa
Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Ege
University, 35 100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
E-mail: tolga.esetlili@ege.edu.tr; mustolga@gmail.com
b
Verim Harita Company, Izmir, Turkey
a
Abstract. Recently, rapid urbanisation has been triggered by a population increase in coastal areas
caused especially by migration, commercial development and tourism. Sever damage to natural
resources, particularly in the agricultural soils have resulted in a rise in rural unemployment, as well
as creating economic and ecological problems. The original population, farmers working the land,
have been replaced by a population which consists of those employed in tourism, and people who
have retired to areas of natural beauty. The new population structure demands the improvement of
urban requirements and more housing, with no particular regard nature. This study focuses on land
use changes in the coastal regions of the Izmir region, which are subjected to rapid growth. Aerial
photographs and satellite images from the period 1984 and 2011 have been used. A significant expansion of the urban areas, up to 552, 481 and 439% increase have been determined for the coastal
districts of Cesme, Karaburun, Foca, respectively, due to tourism and secondary residences. When
losses in the agricultural land of this region were investigated, results showed that 14 974 ha of land
are in the I and II land use capability class (LUCC) and 10597 ha – in the III and IV LUCC.
Keywords: remote sensing, GIS, urbanisation, Izmir, degradation, environment.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Important changes have affected cities and urbanisation, particularly in the last
fifty years. The first change is the rapid urbanisation parallel to an increase in
the population and the changes in production methods. This has brought a dense
population accumulation in cities. In the 1900s, 9% of world population lived in
cities, and this rate has increased to 40% by 1980 and to 50% by 2000. It is estimated that this rate will increase to 66% by the year 2025 (Ref. 1). The second
factor that effects urbanisation is the improvement in transportation and construction sectors due to technological advances. These developments have caused the
cities to greatly expand, and most cities globally have experienced a tendency to
encroach on their surroundings. When the urban expansion rates are evaluated
within this process, it has been determined that the greatest intensity was on and
adjacent to coastal regions. The attractiveness of the shores in terms of economic
and aesthetical concerns has brought a higher density population and an increase
*
For correspondence.
696
in associated activities, creating greater pressure on the environment. Intensification of activities such as industrialisation, urbanisation, infrastructure, defense,
tourism, mining, sporting events, transportation and housing within these regions
are the main causes of stress on the loading capacity in the region, and eventually
create an intense pressure on the natural areas2–6.
Loss of the natural structure in agricultural lands has economic and ecological
effects, decreasing agricultural employment. The soil, the source of agricultural
production that meets people basic requirements, is destroyed, either conscious
or unconsciously, with no possibility of recovery. Rapid urbanisation not only
causes the loss of natural structure, but also air, water and soil pollution7. Urban
diffusion causes an increase in greenhouse gas emission. Greenhouses gases cause
global warming and it is estimated that 55% emissions will originate from vehicles in the next 10 years8. As a result of transforming the forest lands, which are
sources of fresh water, into residential areas, water resources and quality have also
deteriorated. The distorted structuring within the cities deteriorates the hydraulic
pattern of water and the uncontrolled discharge of waste water causes the pollution of water sources. In addition, the disproportionate and unplanned growth of
urbanisation and industrialisation have caused the soil to become more vulnerable
to erosion; and as a result of the release of increasing amounts of city waste (e.g.
from sewers) into the soil with the rapid increase of population, natural resources
are irrevocably damaged.
The existence of forests, rivers and marshy land is necessary for the continuation of human life. But, urban diffusion not only creates pollution and threatens
biological diversity; it also degrades natural areas, and decreases the filtration
characteristic of water and air, and the capacity to absorb carbon dioxide9.
This study examined the changes in the use of space in coastal regions in the
province of Izmir, which has experienced a period of intense urbanisation from
1984.
EXPERIMENTAL
Study area. The study area consists of thirty districts within the borders of Izmir
province. The study is particularly intensified in the shore regions, which experienced the most intense urban development, and therefore the greatest increase in
pressure on natural structure (Fig. 1).
This study focuses on the pressure on natural resources and in particular, on
agricultural lands, within the 30 districts of Izmir province as a result of development or urban residential growth. Of particular interest were the shore regions,
where urban development is most intensely experienced. The sources of numerical and visual data were the Izmir Province Field Assets inventory of 1984, and
the updated Izmir Province Field Assets of 2010, with additional data from high
697
resolution aerial photographs and satellite images. The remote sensing technique
and geographical information systems were combined in this study to examine the
environmental effects of urban development in Izmir within the last 26 years. First,
high resolution aerial photographs were used in conjunction with 1/25.000 scale
maps, representing a detailed record of the field assets of Izmir province in 1984.
These maps were transferred to the digital environment using ArcGIS software
and a digital database was established. The external borders of residential areas
were determined in this database of 1984. In the second stage, the digital data of
Izmir Province Field Assets were created and updated, using the high resolution
orto-photographs and satellite images from 2010, and these were transferred to the
database as a separate layer. This database was used to determine the external borders of residential areas in 2010. The urban development which occurred in the 26
year period, and the resulting pressure on natural structure was digitally determined
and mapped with the investigation models developed in the GIS environment.
Fig. 1. Study area
698
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Aegean region and Izmir province is under intense threat from migration and
population increase, both due to the attractiveness of its climate and the richness
of its natural resources (Fig. 2). This demographic change simultaneously triggers
the urbanisation process and a rapid urban diffusion. This causes the irrevocable
loss of rich natural assets and valuable agricultural lands in the region. When we
consider that a large proportion of Izmir economy depends on agricultural sector,
it is clear that this situation has the potential to create problems in the future.
Fig. 2. Population data of districts by years
This study examined the agricultural lands lost in the last 26 years as a result
of urban diffusion. 1/25 000 scale digital Izmir province asset, revised in 1984,
constitutes the basic support database, and was integrated with the external boundaries of residential areas, which were recorded and digitalised in 2010 using the
high resolution ortho-photo and satellite images. As a result of this examination,
it was found that a total of 39 000 ha of land were lost as a result of restructuring
in the last 26 years (Table 1, Fig. 3). An examination of the land use capability of
these areas shows the irrevocable destruction of 14 974 ha of the most valuable
class I, and II, and 10 597 ha of class III and IV land.
699
Table 1. Distribution of total increase in residence and industry with respect to land use capability
classes (LUCC) in Izmir province
LUCC
I
II
III
IV
VI
VII
VIII
Total
Area (ha)
7914
7060
4732
5865
7080
6197
203
39052
Fig. 3. Distribution of lost area in terms of land use capability class
Within this process, when the losses are examined in terms of land usage types,
it is seen that 26.8% is rain-fed agricultural lands and 8.2% is irrigated agricultural
lands. In addition, it has been determined that forage lands make up 23.2%, and
olive groves, 20%. When generally reviewed, it is understood that 85.4% of the
land under threat was characterised as agricultural (rainfed/irrigated agricultural
lands, pasture, olive grove, orchards, vineyards) (Fig. 4).
It has also been determined that in the province of Izmir, and in particular,
the coastal districts of Cesme, Karaburun and Foca have experienced an urban
area expansion of 552, 481 and 439%, respectively. The shore regions were not
only affected by tourism, the establishment of new industrial regions and growth
in marine transportation facilities has led to the expansion of Aliaga district from
780 to 3580 ha, a total increase of 459%.
700
Fig. 4. Distribution of lost land in terms of land usage types
CONCLUSIONS
As a result of a rapid population increase and technological advances in the coastal
regions of Izmir within the last 26 years, forest, agriculture and forage areas have
become increasingly pressurised by elements such as industry, residential growth
and tourism. As a result of these pressures, these mainly valuable agricultural lands
have been irrevocably lost.
Ironically, the loss of agricultural lands as a result of rapid population and
urban diffusion reduces the possibility of meeting the increased demand for food
to feed this new population. Therefore, in order to reduce the loss rate in the coming years, precautions need to be taken to ensure the sustainability of existing
agricultural lands.
Agriculture remains the main economic sector in our country, as it is in much of
the world. Therefore, it is essential to recognise the strategic importance of agricultural lands, and to develop effective protection policies and programs accordingly.
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Field: Differences in the Use of ‘Urban’ between the Social and Natural Sciences ( Ed. J. M.
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701
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Comprehensive Reference Guide. Greenwood Press, USA, 2006.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 13 April 2016
702
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 703–710 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
REVEALING LANDSCAPE STRATEGIES FOR THE WATER
BASINS – CASE OF BUYUKCEKMECE LAKE, ISTANBUL
F. A. TURER BASKAYA*, E. TEKELI
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul
Technical University, Taskisla Building, 34 437 Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: turerfat@itu.edu.tr; tekilies@itu.edu.tr
Abstract. Today, existence of expanding megacities brings about a concern about how sustainable
their attitudes toward the natural resources. This study handles one of the major drinking water basins
of Istanbul megacity called the Buyukcekmece Lake which examines conflicting urban dynamics. Benefiting from the GIS technology, this study aims to reveal landscape strategies for the Buyukcekmece
Lake and concerns a two-phased evaluation process ranging from the overall water basin scale to the
scale of stream impact area. For the water basin scale, 4 main parameters are defined as ‘proximity
to urban transformation areas’, ‘assigned functions within the Istanbul environmental plan’, ‘urban
stream network’ and ‘dispersion of major land uses’. For the studies on the scale of stream impact
area, two major streams examining different urban dynamics are selected as Karasu and Kesliciftligi.
To reveal multi-scale landscape strategies, these streams and their impact areas are evaluated by two
major parameters as ‘green infrastructure capacity’, and ‘openness to intervention’. This study is an
attempt to highlight the importance of developing multi-scale landscape strategies for the benefit of
urban streams and water basins existing inside the ever-changing megacities.
Keywords: multi-scale landscape strategies, urban water basins, Buyukcekmece Lake, Istanbul.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
With its more than 14 million population, Istanbul is the most populated megacity of
Turkey. Although Istanbul comes into prominence with its cultural and economical
values, its natural values are actually important. Following the 1950s, the world
has experienced a breakthrough in the industry along with the urbanisation movement. Urbanisation has appeared to be a nodal point for environmental issues1. In
Turkey, Istanbul is a case in point. Due to an extreme increase in domestic migration and economics, the 1980s appeared to be a touchstone of the uncontrolled
development of Istanbul.
Today, existence of expanding megacities brings about a concern about how
sustainable their attitudes toward the natural resources2,3. This study handles Istanbul as one of these megacities. This dynamic city is both facing an urban expansion
that is bringing about mega infrastructure projects and a decaying urban fabric
vulnerable to earthquake risk that is bringing about urban transformation projects.
*
For correspondence.
703
Within the last two decades, rapid spatial expansion and transformation supported by the nonintegrated plans have put pressure on the natural resources of
Istanbul. Regarding the scope of this pressure, this study focuses on the Buyukcekmece Lake as one of the major drinking water basins of Istanbul, which examines
conflicting urban dynamics.
Istanbul provides its daily water demand from 18 surface water resources4
(Fig. 1). The Buyukcekmece Lake is the third largest water resource of Istanbul
with its annual water production of 100 million m3 (Ref. 5). It was transformed into
a lake from a lagoon by the construction of a dyke to provide water for Istanbul
in 1987 (Ref. 6). Capturing a drainage area of 621 km2, the Buyukcekmece Lake
is under a great risk of contamination in recent years.
Fig. 1. Water basins of Istanbul4 and the Buyukcekmece water basin with its protection areas and
major streams
Despite its ecological importance, Buyukcekmece Lake has no more protection
than the one defined by the Drinking Water Basin Regulation of Istanbul Water and
Sewage Administration7. This regulation defines several protection areas that are
strict (0–300 m), short-distance (300–1000 m), middle-distance (1000–2000 m),
and long-distance (2000 m-water basin boundary) ones8. Buyukcekmece Water
Basin captures several major streams which are Ahlat, Akalan, Ayus, Ayva, Beylikcayi, Cekmece, Damlidere, Delice, Eskidere, Hamza, Inter, Karasu, Karamurat,
Keslicifligi, Kiladine, Kizildere, Koy, Orcunlu, Seytan, Tahtakopru, and Tavsan8,9.
Although it is experiencing some adverse impacts of nonintegrated plans and
rapid urban alterations, The Buyukcekmece Water Basin has got a capacity to have
704
a sustainable future in this ever changing megacity. Regarding this capacity, this
study is focusing on it to develop multi-scale landscape strategies.
EXPERIMENTAL
Benefiting from the GIS technology and ArcGIS 10.0 software, this study aims
to reveal landscape strategies for the Buyukcekmece Lake and concerns a twophased evaluation process ranging from the overall water basin scale to the scale
of stream impact area. Within this study, 1/5.000 digital based maps are obtained
from Directorate of Cartography of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and current aerial photographs from the online map service of Yandex. Aerial photographs
are rectified according to the digital base maps. GIS based stream network map is
created by benefitting from the maps of Istanbul Water and Sewage Administration and field studies. 1/100.000 Environmental Plan of Istanbul10 is rectified to
determine assigned functions to the study area. Within this study, GIS-based data
are registered to Universal Transverse Mercator 3 Degree coordinate system with
European Datum 1950 as it is the coordinate system preferred by the Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality for landscape planning studies.
In this study, two evaluation phases with different scales are developed. For
the first phase that concerns the water basin scale, four main parameters are defined
as ‘proximity to urban alteration areas’, ‘assigned functions within the Istanbul
Environmental Plan’, ‘urban stream network’, and ‘dispersion of the current major
land uses’. For the studies on the scale of stream impact area, two major streams
examining different urban dynamics are selected as Karasu and Kesliciftligi. To
reveal multi-scale landscape strategies, these streams and their impact areas are
evaluated through the second phase by two major parameters as ‘green infrastructure capacity’, and ‘openness to intervention’.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Istanbul is a dynamic city open to spatial alterations. Mapping studies for the
urban macroform alteration of Istanbul11 and the Environmental Plan Report of
Istanbul12 highlight that Buyukcekmece Lake and its surrounding area had been
out of the urban macroform boundary prior to the year of 1970. In between the
years of 1970 and 1994, the southern areas of the water basin had appeared to be
inside the urban macroform boundary. Throughout the years, these southern areas
have experienced the impact of altering macroform more.
Urban alteration projects have several adverse impacts on the water basins
of Istanbul. Environmental Plan Report criticises the Formula 1 Area standing on
the Omerli Water Basin and the golf tourism facilities current trend to select sites
for themselves on the water basins13. A quite new mega project declared by the
705
government at 2011 is called Canal Istanbul, and it passes through the Sazlidere
Water Basin just standing at the north of the Buyukcekmece Lake.
It is evident that there is a conflict between 2009 dated Environmental Plan
of Istanbul and the current partial plans. Environmental Plan Report defines
Buyukcekmece Lake as a natural area capturing strategic ecological importance.
Therefore, it forwards planning decisions for the water basin as assigning areas
for the rehabilitation, agricultural protection, ecological agriculture, forest, environmental sustainability, and the protection of natural – rural character14.
Figure 2 illustrates the major assigned functions within the Istanbul Environmental Plan for the water basin10. Besides the plan decisions, this figure also
illustrates the dispersion of major streams and current land uses of the water basin.
In addition to a large number of factories and residential areas, there are quarries,
greenhouses, barns and an airport in study area. Residential areas with high to
medium and low density exist both on the geologically problematic and natural
threshold areas of the Buyukcekmece Water Basin12. Southern areas of the water
basin appear to be more problematic as they hold majority of the high density
residential areas. Figure 2 reveals that high density residential areas locate on
or close to natural-rural protection areas declared by the Environmental Plan of
Istanbul. Increasing industrial facilities is the biggest problem of the water basin.
Figure 2 illustrates how they stand on the plan based defined areas for rehabilitation, agricultural and natural–rural protection.
For the studies on the scale of stream impact area, two major streams examining different urban dynamics are selected from the stream network as Karasu and
Kesliciftligi. Stream buffer and stream front terms are adapted from a study on
urban streams existing outside the drinking water basins of Istanbul15. Regarding
the difference between the streams existing inside and outside the water basins,
this study enlarges the buffer radius from 250 to 500 m. The term of stream front
is defined as ‘the direct contact area between the stream and the first line of buildings together with the transportation lines’15. Figure 3 illustrates the 500-m buffer
areas and stream fronts of the two selected streams.
706
Fig. 2. Buyukcekmece Water Basin with its major streams, protection areas of Istanbul Water and
Sewage Administration4, current land uses, and assigned functions within the Istanbul Environmental
Plan10
This study defines two sub-parameters for the green infrastructure capacity. The first sub-parameter is the ratio between the buffer area and stream front.
The second sub-parameter regards the stream front existing on the natural-rural
protection areas, forests and agricultural protection areas. Hence, it is essential to
consider the stream fronts existing on the protection areas and not.
Openness to intervention is related to the interplay between rehabilitation area,
natural threshold area, protection areas of Istanbul Water and Sewage Administration, and the stream buffer. Stream buffers standing on the rehabilitation areas,
natural–rural protection areas, and the strict – short – middle distance protection
areas are more open to landscape interventions than the others.
707
Fig. 3. Stream buffers and stream fronts of the selected streams and their interplay with the protection
areas of Istanbul Water and Sewage Administration4, current major land uses, and assigned functions
within the Istanbul Environmental Plan10
The ratio between the buffer area and stream front of selected streams is an
indicator of green network capacity. These ratios are calculated as 54.43% for
Karasu Stream and 50.27% for Kesliciftligi Stream. Due to the first sub-parameter
of green infrastructure capacity, Karasu Stream that is three times longer than
the Kesliciftligi has a slightly stronger capacity than the other. The second subparameter of green infrastructure capacity regards the interplay between the stream
front and the areas involving protection based plan decisions. GIS-based studies
indicate that stream front area of Karasu Stream is 27 224 664 m2 and Kesliciftligi
is 9 884 194 m2. According to these mapping studies, 93.04% of the Karasu stream
front exists on the natural-rural protection areas, forests and agricultural protec708
tion areas while only 54.95% of the Kesliciftligi stream front exists on such areas.
This significant difference remarks the higher green infrastructure capacity of the
Karasu Stream.
Figure 3 illustrates the location of these streams and closeness of the barns,
factories, greenhouses, and residential areas. All of these urban dynamics affect
the ratios and ecological potential of streams. Extending to the northwest, Karasu
Stream is located in a more rural area but experiencing a fragmented landscape
due to dispersed settlements. Standing at the south, Kesliciftligi Stream is under
the risk of urban development.
Openness to intervention parameter considers the amount of rehabilitation,
natural-rural protection and IWSA strict to middle protection areas within the
stream buffer zone. These areas constitute 76.54% of the Kesliciftligi and 30.42%
of the Karasu Stream buffers. Hence, the Kesliciftligi stream appears to be more
open to landscape interventions.
All these GIS-based studies reveal that although they have got differing characteristics both of the streams can be responsive to multi-scale landscape strategies.
CONCLUSIONS
Today, water basins are under the adverse impacts of rapid urbanisation and
nonintegrated plans in the majority of megacities. By considering the complex
dynamics and problematic landscapes of Istanbul megacity, this study forwards a
two-phased evaluation process to develop multi-scale landscape strategies for the
urban streams and water basin of Buyukcekmece Lake. In order to cope with the
challenges of 21st century, cities should provide themselves with the multi-scale
studies. There is an urgent need for developing landscape strategies for the urban
streams and water basins. Regarding the benefit of megacities, this study constitutes
an initial step for further studies.
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(Accessed 01.08.2015) (2011).
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Istanbul. (http://cdr.cevre.gov.tr/icd_raporlari/istanbul2005.pdf) (Accessed 01.07.2015) (2006).
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 15 April 2016
710
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 711–718 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
INTERACTION BETWEEN URBAN DESIGN AND
ERGONOMICS OF FITTINGS. CASE STUDY OF TRABZON
COASTAL AREA
E. BAYRAMOGLU*, Y. CINDIK AKINCI, O. DEMIREL
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz
Technical University, 61 040 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: elifsol_@hotmail.com
Abstract. Human beings are among the main components of the environment that they live in. Cities,
on the other hand, are not just places where people conduct their daily activities, but the combination of spaces where people deal with such activities as resting and entertainment. Habitability of
the urban areas can only be possible in an environment which is compatible with its users. From
this perspective, the interaction of people with the urban fittings placed in the city is a key factor in
increasing the quality of life of people sharing the urban life. Elements of urban fittings maintain
a physical interaction between the users and the area, being in harmony with the environment they
are placed in and gaining function and an identity for the given area. Elements of urban fittings that
enable different activities for different users should be suitable for the measurements of human body.
As a result, elements of urban fittings should comply with ergonomic–anthropometric principles
in the evaluation of the physical environment. The current study has been conducted in order to
reveal the importance of ergonomics with the approach of increasing the quality of life of the users
of urban areas that benefit from the open green spaces within the city. In this sense, the ergonomic
compliance of the elements of landscape fittings placed on the Trabzon Shoreline recreational area,
which is intensively utilised especially during the summer months and constitute the only access
point to the sea for the community, will be assessed. Trabzon shoreline will be evaluated in terms of
purpose of utilisation and access to the city. By applying an interview to the users, the interaction of
human-fittings-ergonomics will be investigated. At the end of the study, suggestions will be made
especially to adjust the physical environment to the optimum level for its users.
Keywords: urban design, ergonomics, elements of fittings, Trabzon coastal area.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Urban green has a positive impact to the microclimate and air texture updates
humans quality of life, also improves both architectural and aesthetics view of cities1,2. Cities are not only considered for their buildings, but for open spaces outside
the buildings as well. Therefore, exteriors of the buildings should be ‘habitable’ as
well as their interiors. Main components of the spaces that are outside the buildings include urban areas like streets and squares. Being means of communication,
streets, avenues and squares play a crucial role in the interaction between man –
*
For correspondence.
711
environment and creative power of mankind3. The ones that really make the urban
open spaces more habitable and perceivable are the landscape elements, which
are made up of live (botanical elements) and inorganic materials (elements of
fittings). Elements of fittings that are called inorganic landscape elements enable
visual and physical interaction between the city and users4. Elements of urban
fittings, the user of which is the mankind, should be designed in compliance with
human beings in terms of colour, form and style. The discipline of anthropometry
has been developed as a result of this. Anthropometry is the field of science that
deals with the measurements of human body and its common factor with landscape
architecture is ‘human’5. Anthropometrical dimensions may vary depending on
nation, region, age, sex, physical activity and even vary according to the economic
and social status. Therefore, there are certain standards.
The current study has been conducted on the Trabzon Shoreline pathway,
which is intensively utilised especially during the summer months. In the study,
the compliance of benches, rubbish bins, illuminating elements, signboards and
land markers with anthropometric and ergonomic criteria has been assessed. Apart
from that, a questionnaire was implemented to the users during busy hours of the
day, aiming at evaluating the elements of fittings.
Landscape architecture-ergonomic-anthropometry. The term ‘ergonomics’ derives
from the Greek words ‘Ergon’ and ‘Nomic’3. According to Heng (1987), ergonomics is the implementation of engineering disciplines in connection with the fields
that study the biological structure of human beings6. Ergonomics, in fact, aims at
enabling all creatures live in harmony and maintaining healthy relationships with
the environment they are surrounded by. Anthropometry is the branch of science
that analyses the human and dimensions of human body metrically and socially,
depicting peculiar differences of human beings5,7. In other words, anthropometry
is the branch of science that defines the differences across individuals and groups
by measuring the human body8. Anthropometry is not a result-oriented branch,
yet it serves as a means to attain results9. It was first introduced by the Belgian
mathematician Quetlet in the second half of the 19th century, so as to identify the
similarities and differences across individuals and groups8.
While meeting their daily needs, human beings need some materials, devices,
machinery and equipment. These are classified as elements of fittings in the field of
landscape architecture10. Elements of fittings are the objects that facilitate the lives
of people in the urban texture, maintain interaction among individuals, make the
environment more functional, define and complete its surroundings11. Elements of
fittings in urban areas can vary depending on the purposes of use. In literature12, the
elements of fittings are classified in the following groups: floor elements (concrete,
stone, asphalt, stone, brick, etc.); sitting elements (benches, chair, group elements);
lighting elements; sign and information boards (routers, locators, traffic barriers);
surrounding elements (pedestrian barriers, traffic barriers); water element (ponds,
712
fountains, canals, etc.); cover elements (pauses, canopies, pergolas), sales elements
(buffets); art objects (sculptures), and other items (flag poles, trash cans, mailboxes,
flower beds, bike parking, watches, planting elements).
Design criteria of urban fittings: they should be evaluated in functional, psychological and technological terms. Functional criteria: it is the compatibility of
urban objects with the physical features and action characteristics of human beings. Psychological criteria: these are the criteria that maintain the environmental
measurement in accordance with the socio-cultural features of the society based on
perception and evaluation. Technological criteria; they are the combination of all
the criteria regarding materials, products and economy13. Designs compatible with
the measurements of human beings are usually preferred in the implementations
of landscape architecture. The required standards for landscape elements located
in urban spaces are explained in Table 1 according to Refs 14–18.
Table 1. Standards for landscape elements
Sidewalks
*Height: 12–15 cm
*Width: 150 cm
*Covering material should not be slippery
*Should not be reflect light
Pedestrian way
*Slope: 1–3%
*Covering material should not be slip*Width: 150 cm
pery
*Should not be reflect light
*Some cases slope can be increased up
to 5%
*Short distance paths max slope 10%
Lighting elements
*Pedestrian way: 3–4 m *To provide visual access in proper
*Street: 4.5–6 m
position and illumination level
*Main street: 7.5–9 m *It must support the structural and
*Highway: 10–12 m
plant design
*It must ensure colour surrounding
structure
Sign and information *Height: 210–250 cm
*It must be located in appropriate
boards
visual access in the space
Dustbin
*Height: 60–120 cm
*According to different materials used
and the user space
Sitting elements
*Height: 40–50 cm
*Back should be 50 cm height
*Width: 40–50 cm
*It must be able to sit back slightly
*21.5 to 22.8 cm above inclined and curved for comfort
the armrest seating
*Material must be appropriate to the
surface
weather conditions, vandalism and
corrosion
Cycle ways
Slope: lengthwise max *It must be hinder to the pedestrian and
3% transverse min. 2% vehicle traffic
One way 100 cm,
*It should not be bumps and pit on the
double way 200 cm
road
*It should be asphalt coating
*It can be used of blue ground path
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‘Human being’ is the shared factor by anthropometry and landscape architecture. Only with the knowledge provided by anthropometry is it possible to create
places suitable for human beings3. The common goal of landscape architecture
– ergonomics-anthropometry implementations is to regulate the open spaces in
the most suitable way in terms of health, safety and comfort, so as to be able to
ensure the harmony in the human-machinery-work place19. The means that users
of the urban open spaces utilise for their daily activities are called the elements
of fitting. The measures of all types of elements of fittings placed in the urban
area are evaluated in a unity. The common goal is to ensure that the user of these
areas, human beings, can use and move their body organs (hand, face, arms, feet,
etc.) as they wish. Therefore, the elements of fittings placed in urban open spaces
should be designed suitable for the measurements of human body, and elements
of urban fittings should be made ergonomic by designing them according to the
features of individuals.
EXPERIMENTAL
The current study has been conducted on the Trabzon Shoreline recreational area,
which is intensively utilised especially during the summer months and constitutes
the only access point to the sea for the community, in order to reveal the importance of ergonomics with the approach of increasing the quality of life of the users
of urban areas that benefit from the open green spaces within the city. Covering
an area of 6685 km2, the province of Trabzon is located in the eastern part of the
region. Thanks to its shoreline, urban texture and peculiar cultural values, Trabzon
embraces various different beauties. The shoreline of the province of Trabzon is
135 km along the Black Sea. The area of study covers the strip between Trabzon
Ayasofya junction and the junction located at the end of Besirli area. All types
of elements of fittings placed along the shoreline pedestrian pathway have been
accounted for study material.
Landscape research methods based on data collection, analysis and synthesis
were implemented in the current study. The area of study was observed, photographed and analysed at different times of day. A questionnaire was implemented
in the scope of the study at evening hours of weekdays, when the area is most
crowded. The questionnaire was applied to 80 individuals in August 2015. Randomly selected participants were used in the study through face-to-face meeting
method. In the survey, socio-demographic characteristics of participants were
determined and they were asked whether the elements of fittings (rubbish bins,
benches, signboards, and illuminating elements) were ergonomically suitable
for use. Existing elements of fittings were identified in the area, and they were
assessed in terms of compliance with ergonomic standards in the light of the obtained information. Assessed elements of fittings were evaluated in comparison
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with the anthropometric measurements according to Ref. 14, required standards
for landscape elements (Ref. 15), and data provided16–20.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The findings acquired in the study were evaluated in two groups in accordance
with the implemented questionnaire: I. Socio-demographic status of users, and II.
Suitability of the elements of fittings placed in the area in terms of ergonomics of
study for use.
Socio-demographic status of users. Socio-demographic characteristics of users
were identified in the first part of the questionnaire. 56% were female participants
while 44% – male, 39% were in the 15–20 age group, 42% – in the 21–35 age
groups, and 19% – in the 35–50 age groups. Considering the occupational groups
of the participants of the survey, it was found out that 28% worked in the private
sector, 18% – retired, and 34% – students, 10% worked for the state sector and
10% were unemployed. Participants were asked with which purpose they used the
shoreline pathway and it was found out that 24% used it for sightseeing, 27% used
it for walking and hiking, 11% for exercise on apparatus, 18% for eating, 14% for
sitting and relaxing and 6% used it for fishing.
In the second part of the questionnaire, participants were asked about the frequency of their use of the elements of fittings placed along the shoreline pathway;
65% used them quite frequently, 13% used them randomly and 12% indicated
that they never used those elements of fittings. 65% of the participants responded
that they most frequently used the shoreline pathway and the fittings on it during
summer, 20% during spring, 10% during fall and 5% during winter. Regarding the
question about the sufficiency of the number of elements of fittings on the shoreline
pathway, 68% assumed benches were sufficient while 86% thought the illuminating elements were enough; 75% of the participants believed rubbish bins were
insufficient while 89% were content with the number of signboards; 65% thought
limiting elements were insufficient while 88% were happy with the sculptures.
Regarding the question about the whether they approved of the proper ergonomically equipment components 28% were not appropriate while 72% were
appropriate. They stated that the approval only of those annoying the living unit.
They also stated that there were insufficient places in the lighting fixtures.
Suitability of the elements of fittings placed in terms of ergonomics. Sitting elements
are wooden material and fixed on concrete in the study area. According to Ref. 21,
sitting units must be in order to satisfy to user requirements and structure. In the
study area sitting settlements are intervals along the walkways: 200, 180, 60 and
30 cm. Sitting elements widths are different sizes to be desired in terms of users.
Because people sitting with groups at a different number in the coast road. Sitting
elements depth of 110 cm is not suitable for standards. However, it appears to be
715
an appropriate seating equipment designed to be used as doubled-sided. High from
the ground of sitting elements vary from place to place: 20, 30, 40, and 58 cm.
The height of sitting clement is supposed to be 37–45 cm. In this case people are
at ergonomically uncomfortable level. In addition, the absence of a certain period
of time the user clicks the back after sitting element is caused to pull back pain.
Walking and jogging paths along the coastal strip of discrimination is separated
by floor covering and floral elements. This is very suitable for people who are not
disturbed for sports. This value is the width of the runway 180 cm anthropometric
(not less than 150 cm) was viable. Seating elements of the material because it
directly affects physical comfort, ergonomics and design directly affect the user
physical comfort22. Similarly, it was recorded that the room for two pedestrians
to walk side-by-side should be about 110–130 cm (Ref. 14). Dustbin is fixed and
standard. In the study area bears the signs provide users with quality information
and directions. Also provide the information at regular km interval. Lighting elements in coastal road area are high quality and two. Such lighting components
are not suitable for areas of activity in terms of spread and the nature of light.
Lighting elements in place to be used and should be used selectively to function
in compliance with the environmental organisation23. More should be included on
the sea floor near the lower and lighting fixtures.
CONCLUSIONS
The profession of landscape architecture aims at creating aesthetic, functional and,
at the same time, useful spaces for human beings in accordance with the principles
of planning and design. Needs of these spaces, whose users are human beings, can
only be met and their harmony with their surroundings can only be maintained
by designing them ergonomically suitable. While creating functional spaces harmonious with nature, all types of materials and measurements used must comply
with anthropometrical values so that comfort is ensured. As a result, elements of
fittings used in such spaces should be correlated directly with the measurements
of human body. While considering the elements of fittings as per international
standards, such criteria as age and gender of the users and the characteristics of
the region they are placed should also be taken into account. Urban fittings should
be perceived as a component of the human-tool-environment system during the
design process. With the purpose of meeting the needs of individuals, urban fittings
should be designed compliant to physiological, psychological characteristics of
human beings, analysing the relationship with their perceptional and behavioural
features. Accordingly, elements of fittings should be functional, permanent, fit
for purpose, and feasible for the users. Hence, the sitting height of the benches,
which are the most frequently used elements of fittings, their leaning parts and
inclinations, the height of rubbish bins and their arm-reach distance, illuminating
716
angle of illuminating elements and the distance between them, height and stance
of signboards, height and width of limiting elements should all be identified taking into consideration the anthropometric measurements. It must be provided
psychological and technological criteria for urban furniture design. Based on the
observations made on the shoreline of Trabzon, limited with the area of study, it
was determined that the frequency of use was higher during evening hours. Users
mostly prefer using this area with the purpose of cooling off during hot summer
days, sightseeing, walking, eating and exercising on apparatus.
Urban fittings elements are suitable for ergonomics standards. In addition to
this serious problems have been observed. In particular more of width and the lack
of seating recline share is a big problem for the users. Furthermore, no differences
of height of the seating elements are not a desirable situation. It must bring the
appropriate standard of lighting fixtures along the coastal belt. According to the
low lighting should be included in ergonomic standards along the coastal zone.
Instead of using uniform lighting elements there should be use according to vary.
Dustbins are general standard size and stable, but it is insufficient. It is achieved
by not disturb people, both physically and in terms of health, social, cultural,
economic and psychological aspects of providing a high efficiency by the use of
appropriate anthropometric measurements. This is an unavoidable reality as work
in landscape architecture at every stage of our lives.
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 13 April 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 719–726 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
MARINE AND COASTAL AREAS INFORMATION SYSTEM
WITH GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
BASED ON CLOUD COMPUTING. TRABZON EXPERIENCE
Y. S. ERBAS*, R. NISANCI, S. BEDIROGLU, G. YILMAZ
Department of Geomatics Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University,
61 080 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: yselcukerbas@hotmail.com; rnisanci@gmail.com;
sevketbediroglu@gmail.com; gmzeyilmaz08@gmail.com
Abstract. Marine and coastal areas take an important place in Turkey, especially, the coastal provinces. Marine areas have intensive information sets including sea bed, sea surface and coastal areas.
So the spatial data are needed for a sustainable management of marine and coastal areas in Turkey.
It is very easy accessibility these collected spatial data with internet technology. Cloud Computing
(CC) which it is internet technology phenomena is rising fast, with its data centres growing at an
unprecedented rate. One can easily store data, data view or data processes on internet with this system
(CC). Cloud-based system is not only accessible computers, it can be used with phones, tablets, etc.
and it is a system based on GIS. In this study we have prepared a ’Marine Area Information System’
with cloud computing based on GIS for Trabzon province at the Black Sea region of Turkey.
Keywords: marine area, cadastre, cloud computing, GIS.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The management of the national marine ecological resources depends on the
constant improvement of scientific methods and information resources among
the researchers of the marine community. These improvements must come in the
form of better information and better access to information. To this end, the marine
community must develop standard methods of data management and analysis,
which provide rapid dissemination of data, easy comparability of research findings, and simple means to carry out complex analysis1. Coastal and marine areas
have a great value for the welfare of the country, communities and the regions.
These areas contribute a great deal for improving the living standards of social,
economic and natural functions2. In the world marine cadastre are applied in various
countries with GIS. Usually GIS is used in sustainable studies and projects all over
the world3, for example, in the United State, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) at the Department of Commerce and Ocean Planning
Information System (OPIS). Within Australia, the Australian and New Zealand
*
For correspondence.
719
Land Information Council (ANZLIC, the nations peak spatial information body)
has recommended that the Australian SDI (ASDI) incorporate spatial information
relating to all of Australia, including the marine environment. In New Zeland, Land
Information New Zealand (LINZ) is produced. It is a New Zealand government
department responsible for land titles, geodetic and cadastral survey systems and
variety of other functions. And also studies of marine cadastre continue in Canada,
Holland and South Korea4.
Cloud Computing (CC) whose internet technology phenomena are rising fast,
with its data centres growing at an unprecedented rate (Fig. 1). Cloud computing
is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a
shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. networks, servers, storage,
applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimum management effort or service provider interaction5. Cloud computing and
storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store
and process their data in third-party data centres6. Cloud computing, or in simpler
shorthand just ‘the cloud’, also focuses on maximising the effectiveness of the
shared resources. Cloud resources are usually not only shared by multiple users
but are also dynamically reallocated per demand. This can work for allocating
resources to users. For example, a cloud computer facility that serves European
users during European business hours with a specific application (e.g. email) may
reallocate the same resources to serve North American users during North America
business hours with a different application (e.g. a web server). This approach helps
maximise the use of computing power while reducing the overall cost of resources
by using less power, air conditioning, rack space, etc. to maintain the system. With
cloud computing, multiple users can access a single server to retrieve and update
their data without purchasing licenses for different applications (Fig. 1).
Proponents claim that cloud computing allows companies to avoid upfront
infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead
of on infrastructure7. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises
to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and
less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand8,9. The present availability of high-capacity
networks, low-cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualisation, service-oriented architecture, and autonomic and
utility computing have led to a growth in cloud computing10,11. Cloud computing is
a super computing paradigm based on internet, which makes use of computer nodes
in the cloud cluster through a network to complete a computing task in parallel12.
The technology and architecture that cloud service and deployment models offer
are the key areas of research and development for geographic information system
(GIS) technology13. Cloud technology capabilities make it possible to combine
data services from various data providers and distribute geospatial processing to
720
other processing service providers14. This capability can be as simple as running
a GIS on a cloud platform15. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have gained
popularity in recent years because they provide spatial data management and access
through16, so that in this study the marine and coastal areas information system is
built with cloud computing.
Fig. 1. Cloud computing application
EXPERIMENTAL
In these days tourism and industrialisation initiatives increase on the marine and
coastal areas. So marine and coastal areas information system is needed for sustainability and protection of marine and coastal areas. In this study as the research
area was selected the city of Trabzon marine and coastal area (Fig. 2). Total coastal
length of Trabzon is 161.5 km. Study aim was ensuring the management of marine
and coastal areas for planning marine area with support of information technologies for sustainable management.
Marine and coastal information system enables the boundaries of maritime
rights and interests to be recorded, spatially managed and physically defined in relationship to the boundaries of other neighbouring or underlying rights and interests.
721
Fig. 2. Study area (Trabzon)
Firstly, Trabzon Environmental Master Plan and fish farms from satellite images were analysed. Coordinates required for spins, which are currently obtained
from municipalities are obtained from the map for using satellite images (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Checkpoints and theirs entering
The others spatial data related to marine and coastal areas such as anchorage
areas, sand exraction areas, shoreline, harbours, lighthouses, shipyards, discharge
lines, marine military zones and restricted zones, port authority boundaries were
collected (Fig. 4). All these data were collected in ArcGIS software.
722
Fig. 4. Collected spatial data on marine and coastal areas
All collected spatial data and their information are presented by CC technology
(Fig. 5). Flexibility and speed in making spatial analysis problems are available in
the Classic WebGIS application. This problem is eliminated with CC technology
and so the cost is reduced.
723
Fig. 5. Collected spatial data are presented by CC technology
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
In these days marine and coastal areas must be protected because these areas are
disappering day by day. Thus, a spatial information system is an improtant need
about marine and coastal areas. Geographic information system (GIS) softwares
are the most suitable programs for spatial information systems. In this study,
ArcGIS 10 (one of the GIS softwares) is used because it constitutes an useful tool
724
for protection of coastal and marine areas, as well as in management projects.
It is used in defining, recording, analysing the rights and benefits on the coastal
and marine areas with defining their relationships. It will provide an extensive
spatial data information that includes rights, boundries and responsibilities to be
managed around the marine and coastal areas. In this way the managers will have
a good information system to the best knowledge that exists for the purposes of
management and applications. Besides ArcGIS software is compatible with cloud
computing. Their data formats are suitable for easy presentations with CC.
Presentation of marine and coastal areas information system based on CC
provides too many adventageous criterias for GIS such as flexibility, cheapness,
sustainability, etc. Classic WebGIS applications are very complex, slow and very
expensive. There is no data loss with CC technology because all spatial and nonspatial data are stored in the internet. CC is useful and easily applicable in client
or developer side. Through CC spatial data users can easily access their spatial
data from everywhere with their mobile phones, tablets, personel computers or
another device regardless of installing any GIS programs. So that in this study, a
marine and coastal areas information system model based on CC is suggested for
coastal and marine areas of Trabzon province with GIS.
Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank the Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey (TUBITAK; project number: 109Y304) for its financial support.
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Final Access date:31.08.2015.
11. E. KNORR: What Cloud Computing Really Means? InfoWorld, 2008. http://www.infoworld.
com/article/2683784/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means.html. Final Access
date:01.09.2015.
12. R. BUYYA, G. S. YEO, S. VENUGOPAL, J. BROBERG, I. BRANDIC: Cloud Computing and
Emerging IT Platforms: Vision, Hype, and Reality for Delivering Computing as the 5th Utility.
Future Generation Computer Systems, 25 (6), 599 (2009).
13. V. KOUYOUMJIAN: GIS in the Cloud: the New Age of Cloud Computing and Geographic
Information Systems. ArcNewsmagazine, 2010, 1–31.
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in the Cloud. Computers & Geosciences, 63, 116 (2014).
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A Cloud-integrated Web Platform for Marine Monitoring Using GIS and Remote Sensing. Application to Oil Spill Detection through SAR Images. Future Generation Computer Systems,
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Received 11 February 2016
Revised 20 April 2016
726
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 727–736 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
DETERMINATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS OF
AKCAKOCA COASTAL AREAS THROUGH HIERARCHICAL
ANALYSIS
P. K. AYDEMIR, G. F. GOKCE*, O. DEMIREL, M. OZBAY
Environmental Protection and Control Department, Kaynasli Vocational
College, Duzce University, Duzce, Turkey
E-mail: dr_gumusfunda@hotmail.com
Abstract. The fact that urban development plans, which are the main tool of physical planning
endeavors, consider coastal areas just as potential urban settlement zones can cause deterioration
of the coastline and irreversible ecological damages. Therefore, redesigning efforts of the coastal
areas started in the 1970s, and legal regulations were introduced regarding the coasts and utilisation
of coastal areas. This approach aims at re-maintaining the harmony of coasts and cities, which has
been lost due to unplanned utilisation. The purpose of this study is to determine the current status of
utilisation in the coastal areas located in Akcakoca district, and evaluate the environmental effect of
the coastal areas, which were deemed as ‘area for public use’ on Akcakoca district, accompanied with
coastal definitions, legal and administrative approach to coasts and Environmental Consciousness
movement of post 1970. In this perspective, the utilisation forms of coastal areas in Akcakoca-Duzce
will be identified, and SWOT (Strengths–Weeknesses–Opportunities–Threats) and AHP (Analytical
Hierarchy Process) methods will be applied for the analysis of environmental status.
Keywords: utilisation of coastal areas, 1970 environmental consciousness, analysis of ecological
and environmental status, Akcakoca.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
AREA OF STUDY
The area of study is located in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. It starts
at the point where Melen stream disembogue into the sea in the North, and ends at
the point where Melen meets with Karataş stream in the South1. It covers a surface
area of 463 km2. It is composed of 8 neighbourhoods namely, Osmaniye, Ayazli,
Yali, Orhangazi, Cumhuriyet, Haci Yusuflar, Yukari and Yeni Mahalle2 .
In the study, Application Development Plan scaled 1/1000, documents containing notes on Application Development Plan scaled 1/1000 and Master Development Plan scaled 1/5000 were used as the main materials. Environmental Plan
Decisions scaled 1/25 000, and current and potential development decisions of
*
For correspondence.
727
the area were also analysed. On-site observations, aerial photographs and digital
images were used in the field study. In order to identify the forms of utilisation
and current status of the coastal areas located within the border of the adjacent
area of Akcakoca Municipality, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method
based on a survey implemented to a group of specialists was employed, and the
environmental status was evaluated through the method of SWOT (StrengthsWeaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis.
COASTS OF AKCAKOCA AND FORMS OF UTILISATION
The coasts of Akcakoca are about 30 km in length. It has the beaches of Geneose
Fortress, Edilli, Degirmenagzi, Akevler, Cinar, Cayagzi, Cuhalli, Kalkin, Limoncuk and Karaburun. Tourism in Akcakoca, which is mainly based on recreational
facilities, dates back to 1948.
It has a significant potential for being close to Ankara and Istanbul. Buildings
standing along the shore are (in accordance with Law of Tourism Promotion Law)
the touristic buildings, namely secondary residences, hotels and recreational areas.
There are currently 28 tourism facilities offered for accommodation, 4 of
which bear the license given by the Ministry of Tourism . As per Law of Tourism
Promotion Law No 2634, planning decision approved the construction of open
and daily tourism facilities in the second section on the coastline, on condition
that they are offered for public use as indicated in articles 13 and 14 of the relating
Communiqué, not exceeding 5.5 m in height with a floor area ratio of 0.20 and
hmax of 4.5 (Ref. 3). Nevertheless, as there was not a development plan in force at
the time of their construction and because of inadequacy of inspections, Akcakoca
Sky-tower and Teachers Guest House were built up to hmax 12.5, clearly violating the
current requirements of the Communiqué, and they are currently used for touristic
purposes. The lack of such a communiqué at the time of sky-tower encouraged the
construction of private apartment hotels and similar buildings.
In accordance with the Tourism Promotion Law enacted in 1982, no fences,
walls, bars, etc., that will hinder the access can be built on the coast, and wastes like
debris, dirt, slag etc. that have a deteriorating effect on the nature can be dumped
in the coastal areas3. Yet, the walls built by sky-tower to mark their borders portray contradiction between privatisation and public use. Akcakoca Municipality
and District Governorship tried to stop construction but they could not attain a
significant success because of the legal process (Table 1).
When the structural area is analysed in terms of utilisation, it is observed
that secondary residences are generally built in Karaburun Village and towards
Melen Stream, which are located outside the municipal adjacent area (Table 1). In
terms of the port and pier, we can see that the port and fishing port located in Yali
neighbourhood contributed to the development and growth of the town. However,
728
we observed that the busy days of the current port are now over, and it is used as
a fishing port only. A scattered and irregular development took place in the port
(pier) by fishers who use it.
As the elevation increases as you go further west of the city, the road construction had to be stopped. The existence of vertical cliffs along the coast in certain
distances enabled the utilisation of these areas as recreational green areas and
meadows. Recently, a road has been planned leading down to Edilli beach, but it
was detected in the field visits that it has been cancelled due to high number of
potential curves and dangerous inclination (Table 1).
It will be necessary to evaluate in details how the sand on the beaches will
be affected by the construction of a road, whether it will cause coastal erosion,
whether it will change the wave movements and therefore how the ecosystems
will be affected; so the construction should start after the completion of all the
requirements and analyses. Settlements like Akcakoca, which have unique natural
and cultural characteristics, are very valuable in terms of cultural publicity and
tourism, and consequently for economic development.
The fact that there is a mosque (Central Mosque) and a clock tower on the
road located parallel to the coast, and they have close links with the commercial
units, gained relative reliability for the area and turned it into a focal point. This
avenue (Cinar Av.) is not currently fully pedestrianised, and it is partly closed for
vehicular traffic only in summer. It was observed that it is mainly used for transportation and parking purposes. This situation is a factor that limits the mobility
in terms of pedestrian circulation, thus negatively affecting the space perception.
Regarding utilisation, the differences in altitude in the coastal area made it
necessary to meet the recreational needs on slope lands (Table 1). The rising cliffs
located in parallel with the cost do not allow such recreational activities as hiking
and cycling along the shore. In order to gain functionality and mobility, hanging
access routes, wooden bridges, playgrounds, banks, enlarged pavements etc. would
be an efficient approach for better public utilisation and the silhouette of the town.
Introducing the teahouses and kiosks compatible with the communiqué increases
the recreational demand in utilisation of the area.
729
Table 1. Images of the costal sceneries in Akcakoca
EXPERIMENTAL
IDENTIFICATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS OF AKCAKOCA COASTS
THROUGH AHP (ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS) METHOD AND SWOT
ANALYSIS
In order to analyse the forms of utilisation in the coastal areas of Akcakoca and
their interactions, a survey study was conducted on 5 specialists (the landscape
architect of Akcakoca Municipality, the director of Directorate of Development and
Technical Works of Akcakoca Municipality, a graduate of Department of Public
Administration, a journalist from the local newspaper of Duzce province, a faculty
member of Faculty of Forestry in Istanbul University and a faculty member of
Faculty of Civil Engineering – Department of Geomatic Engineering in Istanbul
Technical University) taking into consideration the resources and capabilities of
the district.
Implementing the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process, one of the methods extensively used in various areas to analyse decision-making problems with
multiple criteria, we processed the multiple criteria and goals relating the given
area4. The data acquired through Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method are
explained step by step:
Step 1 – Identification of the Problem: In this phase, the criteria are determined
in accordance with the goals (Fig. 1).
730
Fig. 1. AHP analysis of environmental status of Akcakoca
As indicated in Fig. 1, as per the conducted survey, the goal of ‘Protection of
the coasts of Akcakoca and environmentally friendly town’ was taken as the reference in Akcakoca. According to the findings revealed from the questions asked
in the survey, the criteria such as ‘Generating the infrastructure of the city, Consciousness of public use in the costal areas, genuine city identity, socio-economic
development, being an accessible city and rehabilitating socio-cultural life’, etc.
were determined, and their priority levels were assessed for the coasts and current
status of Akcakoca, implementing the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process.
Step 2 – It is based on the comparison of the criteria according to their priority
levels. For this purpose, scoring is conducted based on priorities (Table 2).
Table 2. Priority ranking
1
3
4
7
9
Equal importance medium impor- high importance veri high impor- extremelly high
tance
tance
importance
Priority estimation is made through scoring according to pre-determined
criteria. As a survey was implemented on 5 specialists in the scope of the study,
the ‘consensus’ was identified by taking the geometric averages of their responses
(Table 3).
Dividing the consensus into the total number and taking the arithmetical average of the 6 criteria, ‘priority’ was determined.
731
Table 3. Consensus of the assessment and identification of priority
Infrastruc- ConGennuture of the sciousness ine city
city
of public identity
use
Infrastructure
1
0.999980 0.724780
of the city
Conscious1
0.802726 0.271725
ness of
public use
Gennuine city 0.889071 3.680110
1
identity
Socio1.718772 1.379702 0.436648
economic
development
Being an
0.802741 1.551846 0.644394
accessible
city
Rehabilitat- 1.312094 1.245706 0.644394
ing sociocultural
life
Total
6.722679 9.660069 3.721941
Socio- Being an RehaPriority
economic accessible bilitating
developcity
socio-culment
tural life
0.581799 1.245706 0.762140 0.139863
0.724780 0.644381 0.802725 0.107329
2.290126 1.551815 1.551815 0.268462
1
0.902880
1.379702 0.802741 0.165910
1
1.245706 1.551845
0.644381 0.139747
1
0.178690
6.745291 7.373448 5.563802
Step 3 – The consistency/inconsistency rate of the survey assessment was
identified. In the AHP analysis conducted with the opinions of 5 specialists, we
resolved that the data acquired in the survey were consistent as the inconsistency
rate was found to be 1.75%. After the survey, in order to be able to detect a common problem and suggest solutions, a SWOT analysis was conducted along with
the AHP method implemented to identify the environmental status of Akcakoca
coasts; in this way, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the study
area were evaluated (Tables 4 and 5).
732
Table 4. Positive and negative aspects detected in Akcakoca (strengths and weaknesses)5
Table 5. Opportunities and threats detected in Akcakoca5
733
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Governance and management of natural ecosystem, forests, lakes, wetlands,
rivers, natural resources and agricultures have to face the increased diversity of
connections between different environmental characteristics and decisions of local, regional, national, and supra-national relevance, with high coordination and
exchange between administrative entities and actors in the public/private and the
expert/stakeholder different sectors6.
However, it is observed that there are buildings constructed on the coasts of
Akcakoca violating the terms of Coast Law. Urbanisation, immigration, uncontrolled development structure and lack of sustainable tourism decisions resulted in
the increase in the number of hotels, secondary residences, etc. built on the coastal
areas. This situation creates a contradiction between public use and privatisation.
The road constructed in parallel with the coastline thanks to topographical structure creates a split between the sea and the town, thus causing breakdowns in the
sustainable holistic structure of the town. Such facilities as green areas and similar
recreational places are the factors that positively affect the public utilisation of the
coastal areas, and they should be improved so as to support the publicising and
the cultural structure of the city.
Akcakoca is a cultural mosaic that embodies archeological, natural and historical characteristics. Therefore, it should be protected and transferred to future
generations. A sustainable understanding of administration is necessary for that.
The phenomena of fishing and tourism are very essential in the economic development of Akcakoca. In terms of tourism, it will have a sustainable development
potential with Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) decisions, and its
economy will be stronger. In the AHP analysis conducted, it is observed that
importance must be placed on the genuine urban texture of the town and having
an environmentally friendly city (with a priority rate of 26%) in accordance with
the goals of protection of Akcakoca coasts. This is followed by rehabilitating the
socio-economic life with a rate of 18% (Table 6).
Akcakoca is a settlement prominent for its historical and cultural characteristics. Tourism is very essential for the district to develop in socio-economic terms.
The decisions of Development Plan scaled 1/1000 and Master Development Plan
scaled 1/5000 should be prepared in a way that they will support touristic development while protecting the holistic identity of the town. As is known, the main
cause of the environmental problems in our country and around the world are the
economic development strategies based merely on construction and investment.
Even if this is perceived as profitability in the short run, such an understanding
definitely causes serious problems damaging the infrastructure, physical and social
environment of a given city in the long run7,8.
734
Table 6. AHP analysis on Akcakoca
CONCLUSIONS
For being such areas where land-sea interaction is on the highest level, coastal
cities are experiencing an intensive and unorganised utilisation impact, along with
the rapid population growth and the present lifestyle that deems economic development as the ultimate goal. The fact that local administrations lack the required
personnel, equipment and opportunities in inspecting the construction activities
that are conducted as per efficient development regulations and without authorisation alike directly contradicts with the understanding that requires upmost public
utilisation on the coasts7,9,10.
Keeping a balance between the economical development and the environment
is one of the most serios current problems11. Therefore, any interference taking place
on the coasts does affect the ecological balance, life forms of coastal ecosystems,
as well as the urban silhouette. The district of Akcakoca, too, is a coastal town that
has a ‘rip tide’ style flow for being located in the Black Sea Region. Uncontrolled
construction to take place in the coastal areas can cause several damaging results
like erosion, calcification, rise in the sea level, etc.
735
REFERENCES
1. D. SEKER, A. TANIK, I. OZTURK, T. LEVET, S. OVEZ: Testing of Methodology on Spatial
Planning for ICZM. Akcakoca District Pilot Project, Istanbul Technical University, Environmental Engineering, Urban and Regional Planning, Geodesic Surveying and Photogrammetry
Department, Istanbul, 2007.
2. Akcakoca District Governorship: http://www.akcakoca.gov.tr/menu.php?id=7. 2015.
3. Regulation of Coastal Law Application. Turkey Chamber of Engineering and Architects, Journal
of Map and Cadastre Engineering, (86), 101 (1992).
4. H. BASLIGIL: The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process for Software Selection Problems. Journal
of Engineering and Science (Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul), 3, (2005).
5. Akcakoca Municipality Protection Council: 1\5000 and 1\1000 Akcakoca District. Planning
Approach for Urban Protected Area, Akcakoca, 2008.
6. Z. S. ANDREOPOULOU, A. K. KOKKINAKIS: Sustainable Fishery Management of Coastal
Wetlands Using Data Bases. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (2), 643 (2014).
7. P. OZDEN: The Importance of Environmental Fact of Zoning Area. Journal of Political Science
Department (Istanbul Technical University), (16-19), (1997).
8. Z. YENEN, Y. UNAL, Z. M. ENLIL: The Change of Istanbul’s Identity, from Water City to Land
City. Istanbul Metropolitan Planning, http://www.metropolistanbul.com. (2009).
9. A. SAGLIK, A. KELKIT, E. SAGLIK: Environmental Problems as a Result of Settlement Pressure at Urban Coastal Areas: Canakkale as an Example. Journal of Biological Science Research,
(2), 145 (2012).
10. P. OZDEN: The Consideration about the Role of Local Administration at Urban Renewal Application and Istanbul as an Example. Journal of Political Science Department (Istanbul Technical
University), (23-24), 1 (2001).
11. D. PLESOIANU: Current Situation of the Environment in the Midia-Navodari Area. J Environ
Prot Ecol, 12 (1), 1 (2011).
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 19 March 2016
736
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 737–746 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENTS IN BARTIN (TR) VIA GREEN
INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH
M. ARTARa*, S. GORMUSa, S. CENGIZb
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Forestry, Bartin University,
74 200 Bartin, Turkey
E-mail: mustafa.artar@gmail.com
b
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Inonu University,
Malatya, Turkey
a
Abstract. Recent researches on a sustainable relationship especially in urban areas have been focusing on ecosystem services. Green infrastructure approach together with green networks, green roofs
and storm water management systems offers benefits for ecological, socio-cultural and economical
functions. Natural areas including rivers, coasts or forest that located in and around cities are valuable assets for the unity and sustainability of urban landscapes. According to European Commission,
waterfront cities which rivers pass through are ecologically valuable and those rivers are important
components of green infrastructure that providing ecosystem services for urban areas. The aim of
this study was to evaluate Bartin River and vicinity with regard to green infrastructure potential
and the role and benefits of Bartin River in urban ecosystem as a natural ecological corridor. Study
was carried out within 18 neighbourhoods in Bartin Municipality and covering 92 city parks on and
around Bartin River.
Keywords: green infrastructure, Bartin, parks, European Landscape Convention, riverscape.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Due to rapid increase in population and construction for urbanisation, cities of 21st
century change rapid and dynamically. When the cities change, different characters
of the cities also eventually change. On the other hand, rivers, green spaces and
natural areas in the cities limit the change of urban texture and urban development
and often function as important natural characters of the cities.
Recently, the climate change has become an important topic and brought more
emphasis on the urban water management and green infrastructure connections.
Due to the large hard surfaces, heavily built urban texture and the lack of water
management systems the number of natural disasters like flooding increased enormously. Recently, Green infrastructure (GI) approach has become a critical issue
for experts for good urban development, landscape management and urban health.
*
For correspondence.
737
The enhancement of green areas has the potential to mitigate the negative
impacts of urbanisation on natural environment in a sustainable way, making cities more attractive to live in and buffering urban sprawl. Nowadays, there is an
increasing societal support for more green space in and around cities1.
Urban green spaces provide essential ecosystem services and improve environmental quality of life. But open space networks are often fragmented by urban
development, and therefore, it is difficult to reclaim natural lands after they have
been built up2.
Benedict and McMahon3 discussed that green infrastructure contributes greatly
to the health and quality of life for America communities and people as a strategically planned and managed network of wilderness, parks, greenways, conservation
easements and working lands with conservation value that supports native species,
maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources.
Rouse and Bunster-Ossa4 suggested that GI is more than just implementing
measures at various scales, from green roofs and rain gardens to regional greenways and open space.
Literally, GI refers to an interconnected green space network including natural areas and features, public and private conservation lands, working lands with
conservation values, and other protected open spaces that is planned and managed
for its natural resource values and for the associated benefits it confers to human
populations. Term of green infrastructure describes a process that promotes a systematic and strategic approach to land conservation at the national, state, regional,
and local scales, encouraging sustainable land-use planning and practices3.
Benedict and McMahon3 claimed that GI helps to sustain forests, farms, and
other working lands and allows natural systems to function as intended, saving
communities millions of dollars in flood mitigation, water purification. GI also
provides mental and physical health benefits as well as outdoor recreation, for the
inhabitants of the cities. It helps to protect valuable natural amenities by attracting
also tourists and visitors to the city.
A key question for planners and designers is how can we measure these benefits to demonstrate the value of green infrastructure brings to society? Besides
environmental and economic indicators, there are social (community) indicators
which include parks and open space access (typically measured in terms of walking
distance to the nearest resource), parks and open space equity (typically measured
in terms of distribution relative to demographics), public health outcomes, etc.4
Landscape Institute-UK stated that the role of GI in addressing the challenges
of the 21st century cannot be underestimated. GI is defined here as the network of
natural and semi-natural features, green spaces, rivers and lakes that intersperse and
connect villages, towns and cities. It is a natural, service-providing infrastructure
that is often more cost-effective, more resilient and more capable of meeting social,
environmental and economic objectives than ‘grey’ infrastructure5.
738
There is a clear need that GI should be designed and managed as a multifunctional resource capable of delivering those ecological services and quality of
life benefits required by the communities that it serves and needed to underpin
sustainability. Design and management of GI should also respect and enhance the
character and distinctiveness of an area with regard to habitats and landscape types.
The European Landscape Convention (ELC) brings a holistic approach to the
landscape by the definition as ‘…an area, as perceived by people, whose character
is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors’. The ELC
recognises the multifunctional value of our landscapes, which is fully consistent
with the green infrastructure approach. Recognition of landscape character is a
core part of Natural England Landscape Policy underpinning that retrofitting and
creation of green infrastructure elements can contribute to the landscape strategies. Other elements of green infrastructure planning, such as education and public
participation, are also consistent with the aims of the ELC (Ref. 6).
GI can be broadly defined as a strategically planned network of high quality natural and semi-natural areas. More specifically, being a spatial structure GI
can foster a better quality of life and human well-being, enhance environmental
quality, improve biodiversity by reconnecting isolated nature areas and increasing
the mobility of wildlife across the wider landscape, prevent environmental disasters by alleviating floods, storing carbon or preventing soil erosion, encourage a
smarter, more integrated approach to development in as efficient and coherent a
way as possible7.
The types of physical features that contribute to GI are diverse, specific to
each location or place and very scale-dependent. On the local scale, biodiversityrich parks, gardens, green roofs, ponds, streams, woods, hedgerows, meadows,
restored brownfield sites and coastal sand-dunes can all contribute to GI if they
deliver multiple ecosystem services. They have an important function: to deliver
multiple benefits, or connect ecosystems, so that they can deliver their services8.
A green infrastructure typology covers:
● Parks and gardens – urban parks, country and regional parks, formal gardens;
● Amenity greenspace – informal recreation spaces, housing green spaces, domestic gardens, village greens, urban commons, other incidental space, green roofs;
● Natural and semi-natural urban greenspaces – woodland and scrub, grassland, heath or moor, wetlands, open and running water, wastelands and disturbed
ground), bare rock habitats (e.g. cliffs and quarries);
● Green corridors – rivers and canals including their banks, road and rail
corridors, cycling routes, pedestrian paths, and rights of way;
● Other – allotments, community gardens, city farms, cemeteries and churchyards6.
Demiroglu et al.9 articulated that green infrastructures in Kilis city, Turkey,
are not planned as an integrated system and their contributions to sustainable
739
development of the city are quite weak. They found that as of 2013, with a total
population of 89 442 the city has a ratio of 3.65 m2 of active green areas per capita.
The 2nd International Conference ‘The New Generation of Green Infrastructure’ concludes that the green sustainable development is the only way for
the prudent use of natural resources and the environment for future generations.
Each state should encourage the Green Business and GI in order: (1) to promote
the development; (2) to reduce social inequality; (3) to limit the effects of climate
change; (4) to reduce environmental degradation; (5) to better manage the problems of the growing scarcity of raw materials; (6) to secure funding that will yield
long-term gains, and (7) to face the pressures of population growth10.
The focus of this research is to evaluate benefits and values of ecological corridors of Bartin River and vicinity, using GI approach and its contributions to urban
ecosystem based on parks and garden within Bartin Municipality. Resilience to
flooding and economic outcomes with regard to proposed management system of
Bartin River is also discussed. Bartin River has been a passive recreation area as
well as an ecologically important site with biological richness of flora and fauna. As
the requested connection with active recreational areas has not been supplied with
corridors, the parks and open public spaces of the city could not serve as an input
of green infrastructure element11. Bartin River has a character of a network connecting rural and urban landscape which surrounds the city and accordingly more
emphasis will be given to ‘parks and gardens’ and ‘green corridors’ in this paper.
EXPERIMENTAL
This research was held within the borders of 18 neighbourhoods covering the given
list of parks by the Bartin Municipality (Fig. 1). Ninety-two parks are examined
for the study located in different neighbourhoods. Some sites, those double written
or parks and children playgrounds on military ground were eliminated from the
study. As a data set 1:25 000 scale Environmental Plan, beside 1:5000 and 1:1000
scales Construction Plans were used.
The methodology of our study covered 4 stages of analytical approach: (1)
fieldworks and visualisation; (2) green/grey surface relation and density; (3) identification of park typology, and (4) proposals for green infrastructure.
740
Bartin City
Fig. 1. Location of the study area
Fieldworks and visualisation. All 92 parks listed by the Municipality had been
visited and evaluated on site. The location and the borders of the parks were
recorded by Global Positioning System (GPS). Urban furniture and green-grey
interaction had been recorded via taking photos. Borders of the parks and the
area were controlled via overlay analysis with Arcview Geographical Information
System (GIS) 10.1 version and the Basemap of the software and the actual areas
of the parks were obtained.
Green space density. Park borders were overlaid with the neighbourhood so the
number of parks located in concerning neighbourhoods was obtained. Areas were
compared with the population living along the neighbourhood and green space
per capita was calculated.
Identification of park typology. Green space and impermeable land of each park
was calculated. Due to this the ratios of green to grey were classified by less than
40, 40–70, more than 70% were classified as low-medium and high green spaces,
respectively.
Proposals for green infrastructure. In order to offer proposals for green corridors,
physical layout and data sets of 1:25 000 scaled Environmental Plan, 1:5000,
1:1000 scaled Construction Plans and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and current
Landuse-Landcover (LULC) map were used. Possible corridors were proposed
741
between actual parks and planned green spaces with reclassified DEM and the data
obtained had been overlaid with LULC.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Actual situation of the parks in Bartin. Relating to green infrastructure and user
density of public parks, population statistics in Bartin Municipality are given
in Table 1 and Fig. 2. According to the Address Based Population Registration
System (ADNKS) in 2014, the population of 18 neighbourhoods in Bartin is 63
253 people (Ref.12). The table reveals that the number of population below and
over +18 years of ages, number of parks and green spaces per capita along the
neighbourhoods (Table1).
Table 1. Neighbourhoods of Bartin, population and distribution of parks12,13
No Neighbourhood
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Total
Agdaci
Aladag
Cumhuriyet
Cayduzu
Demirciler
Esentepe
Golbucagi
Hurriyet
Karacay
Karakoy
Kemerkopru
Kirtepe
Koyortasi
Okulak
Orduyeri
Orta
Siremircavus
Tuna
Population
No of
parks
total
over
below
+18
+18
2622
2356
266
3
4714
3363
1351
7
2920
2131
789
7
3314
2413
901
4
3336
2452
884
3
2283
1613
670
7
7660
5762
1898
7
2688
1785
903
0
323
256
67
2
2412
1756
656
2
9692
7231
2461
15
3780
2982
798
8
1664
1399
265
3
1584
1263
321
0
6560
4909
1651
12
1881
1491
390
2
904
721
183
3
4916
3589
1327
7
63.253 47472 15781 92
Area of total Green space
green space per capita
(m2)
(m2)
2459.73
0.94
3611.78
0.77
3990.13
1.37
1871.53
0.56
713.33
0.21
6261.89
2.74
10162.93
1.33
0.00
0.00
16948.40
52.47
1210.76
0.50
16955.25
1.75
22138.62
5.86
26262.70
15.78
0.00
0.00
9561.12
1.46
2601.33
1.38
821.07
0.91
9493.07
1.93
135063.65
2.14
Green infrastructure assessment of Bartin City. According to the green/grey assessments in parks of Bartin city, it can be said that most of the parks are lack of
plant material, some of them have little amount of plant cover. There are 92 parks
listed by the municipality of which 37 have low green space, 29 medium and 26
high amount of green space with plant materials. Those are evaluated within the
742
fieldworks and measured on field due to the density of vegetation and hard landscapes. Parks with low level vegetation cover mostly related to children playground
basketball or volleyball areas. Some of them have outdoor fitness equipments. This
fact is open to discussion about what are the benefits for green infrastructure. For
those parks just have hard surfaces without no plant material the other discussion
is that the use of the areas in all different seasons. As most of the playgrounds with
no green space locate close or in private residential sites most of them cannot be
used under hot climate conditions in the daytime of summer season. When evaluated in means of urban equipment quality, cleanness, health and security it can be
said that most of the parks are lack of clean areas with broken banks and rubbish
boxes. Figure 2 shows the distribution of parks in Kemerkopru neighbourhood
which has low-medium and high density of vegetation with planned green spaces.
Fig. 2. Distribution of parks in Kemerkopru neighbourhood of Bartin Municipality
743
Most of the parks are not accessible for disabled people and many of them
have dangerous electricity transformer stations so close to children playgrounds.
Some are located under electricity power lines. Most of the parks fall into conditions that could not be evaluated as part of a GI system as they are totally located
under dangerous and unhealthy circumstances. Those areas might be evaluated as
a part of the system just only after revitalisation.
As seen in the construction plans, Bartin River forms an important ecological corridor in the city. Most of the parts of this corridor cannot be reached by the
people living around. This might be important for ecosystem services of the river
itself for flora and fauna but as seen from Table 1, green space per capita is only
2.14 m2 in Bartin even though the Construction Law describes it to be 10 m2 per
capita. Because of this fact the river banks and the corridor should be designed via
connections with other recreational areas of the city. Aladag neighbourhood has
the lowest green area per capita while Karacay neighbourhood with new landscape
design areas has the highest. Even though it has the highest amount per capita, that
does not cover the amount of 10 m2 of standard of the Construction Law.
Ecological corridor proposal. As described in the introduction excluding the
Bartin river itself, the green system of Bartin do not form an ecological corridor
which will feed the green infrastructure. So the methodology used in this paper
tried to form ecological network between planned green spaces and the actual
parks. Land use and land cover data which had been classified by twenty classes
had been used as a base. The corridor had been formed via appropriate features
such as actual roads, agricultural areas, residential landscapes, the river corridor,
etc. Destinations are described due to appropriate slopes and actual parks had been
connected to planned green spaces.
There are many possibilities for green infrastructure applications in Bartin
city. Beginning from state buildings green roofs might bring an enormous solution
for the rainwater investment. Most of the residential areas are covered by high
grey walls and green wall applications might also be solutions for many parts of
the city. Bartin city along the Western Black Sea is famous for its flood during all
seasons. Little amount of rain in a short period might also cause flood problems.
The rainwater line which is connected to sewage should be evaluated in a different manner. So as to use the rain water effectively rain gardens might be solution
especially close to low attitudes. As the river rises which meant flood for the city
design techniques via thinking sustainable use of water should be considered. The
ponds after rain might be temporary wetlands and designed with natural vegetation
which will mitigate the unexpected results of the flood.
744
CONCLUSIONS
Bartin city is well known with its floods. A vast flood in the Western Black Sea
region of Turkey in May 1998 caused great loss and caused significant damage.
Communication network, transportation, and construction cost of the disaster was
estimated around US $500 million. Rainwater management is an important issue
for the city. The flood exists in a very short and limited time as recent years brought
more alluvial material from highlands and the construction industry developed more
than expected. Green infrastructure approach is more important on such cases and
if GI is accepted as an approach, Bartin River might be not a problematic issue
than an important feature for recreation and tourism.
As the river in the past covered most of the characteristics of GI approach
which meant multifunctionality, connectivity, habitability, resiliency, identity, return on investment, it has a great potential. The river had been used for transport,
connected different aspects of the city, gave birth to ecosystem and gave its name
to the city. It is well known that GI offers cheaper solutions than traditional civil
engineering activities.
Even with just the pollination effect, green roofs and greenways have significant contribution to urban health. Green systems let energy save, water treatment
and better infrastructure planning capability.
The findings and comparisons with many case studies within Europe show
actual green spaces which are called parks by the local authorities do not cover
permeable pavements and roads, rain gardens, green roofs and roof gardens, rain
harvesting systems, road plantations, maintenance of landscape designs and wetland formations. There is also misuse of plant material especially at some of the
parks designed. GI approach is an important solution for cities living with floods
such as Bartin.
Landscape planning and design due to the characteristics of the cities themselves is an important approach. Regulations for secure life, healthy cityscapes
and happy nations might be supplied with interdisciplinary studies of green infrastructure approach. Grey infrastructure is assumed to be planned effectively if
only thought with interaction with the green infrastructure. Bartin River shows
an important ecological network feature and an important landscape character
for the region. The river with the ecosystem services might only be carried to
further generations with a common understanding of common understanding
with stakeholders. GI approach which offers for all actors of city management to
come together and plan the city might also bring effective results of increasing
total income for residents.
Acknowledgements. Authors wish to acknowledge Bartin University Scientific Research Projects
Commission for support given to the Project coded 2013.2.102 and master students who have been
involved during the field and office works.
745
REFERENCES
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Institute Position Statement. London, 2013. 32 p.
6. Natural England: Green Infrastructure Guidance. Catalogue Code: NE176. www.naturalengland.
org.uk, UK. 2009. 107 p.
7. European Commission: Building a Green Infrastructure for Europe. Luxembourg: Publications
Office of the European Union, 2013. 24 p.
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Infrastructure (GI). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Green
Infrastructure (GI). Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital.{COM(2013) 249 final}, Brussels, 2013.
9. D. DEMIROGLU, M. YUCEKAYA, A. COBAN, D. GOKCE: Investigation of Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities: the Kilis Case. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (3), 1199 (2014).
10. BENA: Conclusions of the 2nd International Conference on ‘The New Generation of Green
Infrastructure’. J Environ Prot Ecol, 13 (3A), 2050 (2012).
11. M. ARTAR: Regaining of Bartin River and Vicinity for Tourism via Landscape Planning Focus.
Fifteenth Council of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the Implementation of the European
Landscape Convention; Sustainable Landscapes and Economy’, 30 September–2 October, 2014,
Urgup, Nevsehir, Turkey, 2014.
12. TUIK: Neighborhoods of Bartin, Population and Distribution. Address Based Population Registration System Results 2014. Turkish Statistical Institute, 2015.
13. Bartin Municipality: The List of Parks according to the Neighborhoods in Bartin. Worksheet
from Parks and Gardens Administration, Bartin, 2015.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 16 April 2016
746
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 747–753 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
SUSTAINABILITY OF LANDSCAPE IN THE PORTALS OF
HIGHWAY TUNNELS
Y. CINDIK AKINCI*, O. DEMIREL, E. BAYRAMOGLU
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz
Technical University, 61 080 Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: yasemincindik@gmail.com
Abstract. Today, road construction which works as a natural consequence of extending the transport network and concordantly making tunnels and viaducts have brought change and differences
in general appearance of the landscape. Roads, bridges, viaducts and tunnels, as elements of the
transport network are straight corridors that solve the flow of traffic. They also play an effective
role in creating beautiful landscape. So simultaneously they have various functions in city structure.
The design of highway tunnel portals includes the structure entrances design, hillside stabilisation,
greenery systems, and landscape design effects. This paper reveals the importance of the tunnel portals in terms of landscape design and how they must be addressed with respect to design principles.
Moreover, the architectural and landscape aspects of design applied to tunnel portals was analysed
and compared with alternative architectural solutions.
Keywords: tunnel portal, landscape, sustainability, city structure.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Highways are the most common form of transportation in Turkey. The rapid increase in urbanisation and technological advances led to increased road building,
and certain parts of cities are more intensely used to provide urban services. The
number of tunnels also increased to make transportation more economical.
Right now, highways provide access to almost every human settlement in
Turkey. Tunnels are used for connections where different and mountainous land
morphologies make road building difficult.
Highway alignment, highway structural design, road materials, side slopes,
the highway cross-section and the organisation of their space constitute the ‘scenery of highway construction’. The alignment of the highway can give a pleasant
impression to road users, and what is more, the rise and fall of the alignment also
influence road users to appreciate the landscape. Highway alignment therefore has
a basic function in highway landscaping. Furthermore, the whole usage of space
in the highway has a pivotal effect on the highway landscape1.
*
For correspondence.
747
In recent years, tunnel portals are playing an important role in landscape design.
This study will consider essential problems related to tunnel development and tunnel portals and examine what needs to be done about their effect on the landscape.
It also aims to provide the most appropriate landscape design alternatives for the
existing natural landscape of the site, creating contemporary designs that offer
environmental protection. Finally, it aims to determine landscaping principles for
the variety of tunnel portal landscape designs.
IMPACT OF TUNNEL PORTALS ON USERS
Integration between tunnel portals and their environments is an important aspect
of road building and design. A detailed urban design study can offer opportunities
for integrated visual quality. The impact of tunnel portals on users are relieve tiredness, create a landmark, lighting and visual adaptation, environmental protection2–5.
ELEMENTS OF HIGHWAY TUNNEL PORTAL LANDSCAPES
A variety of landscape elements, including land grading, water elements, vegetation, plants functions, buildings and other structures, slope, vehicle traffic and
traffic volume, should be considered for highway tunnel portals.
PRINCIPLES OF HIGHWAY TUNNEL PORTAL DESIGN IN LANDSCAPE
There are specific principles that need to be considered in the landscape design
and maintenance of highway tunnel portals. Context of design; the project needs
to be appropriate for the natural and structural characteristics of the site. Strategic plans should be developed to improve the quality of the natural and the built
environment. Context of safety; negative impressions should be minimised at
tunnel portals. Scarp stabilisation and vegetation should be reassuring. Negative
aesthetic impressions should be eliminated. Road safety should be considered in
design solutions. Identity and distinctiveness; design and maintenance approaches
should reflect local identity. Landscape designs for tunnel portals should emphasise
distinguishing characteristics of the site. Panoramic images should be created,
emphasising the landmark features of the natural landscape. Minimum impact
for the natural environment; sensitive approaches with minimum impact on the
natural environment should be adopted. The most favourable ecological conditions
should be achieved. Existing vegetation is damaged in tunnel portal construction.
Restoring the vegetation after construction takes a long time. Technical scarp
stabilisation should be done in this period. Context of physiological; for drivers
to feel safe and comfortable, landscape design should keep the human scale in
mind. Physiologically, the beauty and diversity of nature should be embraced.
The colour green has an especially calming and soothing effect. Context of value
748
for money to economic; landscape architects have to do their best visually with
low costs. Design and maintenance proposals should be cost-effective. Solutions
should be long term and practical. Context of district impression; tunnels can be
built in different locations with different climatic conditions. People culture and
life styles differ from place to place. These particularities need to be considered
in the aesthetics of the design. Tunnel portals should give an impression of the
locale to their users, creating identity and spatial awareness.
TUNNEL PORTAL LANDSCAPE
There are some negative environmental impacts of highways increasing day by
day. Because of that there is a growing awareness for road projects in the World6.
The real cause of environmental problems is human-induced disturbance of ecological systems. Damaged landscapes take years to recover and renew themselves.
Principles and techniques are needed to restore these landscapes. Sustainable
landscape design has the potential to heal unhealthy sites and regenerate many of
the services of damaged ecosystems7.
Landscape maintenance has been a human activity since the first time people
turned natural landscapes into cultural landscapes. Landscape maintenance studies are becoming more common in our country. Some examples in this field are
described in Refs 8–17.
Landscape design for tunnel portals have been a popular field of study in
China in recent years. It is necessary to identify the most important problems in
landscape maintenance for tunnel portals. The surrounding landscape suffers serious damage because tunnel portal construction used a large amount of concrete
and damages nature. These kinds of sites (tunnel portals and their surroundings)
can be rehabilitated using landscape design.
There are original implementations that inteded for design at tunnel portal
landscape in China. According to Ref. 5, original implementations at tunnel
portal are: (1) Variety of geometric types of tunnel portals; (2) Integration with
local cultures (anthropological aspects, regional culture, historical culture); (3)
Environmental conservation; (4) Giving prominence to light transition at tunnel
portal; (5) Blending into the surrounding environment; (6) Nonrepresentational
tunnel portal landscape, and (7) Special decoration.
EASTERN BLACK SEA HIGHWAY TUNNEL APPLICATIONS
Mountains run parallel to the coast in the Eastern Black Sea Region. This region
has a mountainous terrain. The highest mountains are found in the eastern section
of the region. The layout of the mountains in this region slows down commercial
and economic development in coastal cities.
749
The flora of the Eastern Black Sea region varies according to climate and
altitude. Vegetation is lush on the northern side due to copious precipitation. The
natural flora of the Black Sea Region consists of dense forests of deciduous trees due
to high humidity and precipitation. The Black Sea Region contains 25% of Turkey
forests, and it is the region with the largest amount of land covered with forests.
The coastal road project in the Eastern Black Sea started in 1960s. The ground
was broken in 1987. After a 10 year halt, construction began again in 1997 with
the filling the shoreline with rocks and damaging the natural beauty of the clean
shores and bays. The project caused ecological and visual pollution (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Ecological and visual pollution (green extinction with concretion)
Tunnels are a part of a comprehensive road system. Tunnels were needed in
the coastal road system in the Eastern Black Sea due to the mountainous landscape
and topographical obstacles. The number of tunnels increased with the construction
of the Black Sea coastal road.
The number of tunnels in the Eastern Black Sea is 68 and counting, with 30
tunnels in the coastal road system (Fig. 2). The longest tunnel ever built in Turkey
is the 3825 m long double tube Nefise Akcelik Tunnel on the Persembe-Bolaman
Road (Fig. 3) (Ref. 18).
750
Fig. 2. A number of tunnels in the Eastern Black Sea
Fig. 3. Nefise Akcelik Tunnel on the Persembe-Bolaman Road
The longest tunnel in the planning stage in Turkey is Ovit Mountain Tunnel.
It will be a 12.6 km long double tube tunnel. When the Ovit Tunnel is completed,
it will also be the longest double tube tunnel in Europe and the second longest
double tube tunnel in the world19.
CONCLUSIONS
Highway landscape design is an essential component of highway landscaping.
Tunnel portals can be designed to leave a positive impression that highway users
will appreciate. The designs and perspectives on tunnel portals can actually display
elements of artistic composition.
Highway tunnels and their entrances can change a landscape and affect the
visual quality of the area. Damage to highway tunnel portals is considered landscape deterioration.
Visual damage to the landscape should be minimised. Maintenance (rehabilitation, restoration and reclamation) work is very important for ameliorating damaged
751
landscapes at highway tunnel portals. Landscape design and maintenance work is
important for creating livable spaces and use the natural environment sustainably.
Landscape maintenance is mentioned in the European Landscape Convention,
to which Turkey is a signatory. The Convention (October 20, 2000, Florence) focuses on the protection, planning (development, restoration and rehabilitation) and
management of landscapes. It also includes deteriorated areas and their landscapes.
The tunnels of the Black Sea Coastal Road project required the pouring of
much concrete for tunnel portals and damaged the vegetation on the side scarps.
Aesthetic and ecological values were not considered, and damaged ecosystems
were not repaired. No maintenance work took place around the tunnel portals,
leaving them to natural processes, which take a long time. Landscape planning
and maintenance work is needed for highway tunnel portals, which would make it
possible to restore the ecological, economical and aesthetic values of the damaged
area around the tunnel portal.
There are various landscape design methods for tunnel portals. Each design
is a result of the combination of the natural environment, topography, culture,
stabilisation factors, the designers aesthetics and the elements used in the design.
In conclusion, environmental, architectural and engineering needs should
be considered in highway tunnel portal design. Landscape design aims to create
landmarks, prevent driver fatigue, have visual quality, communication and culture
and protect the environment at highway tunnel portals.
REFERENCES
1. D. GONG, H. XIE, X. XU, X. FU, H. LI: A New Concept of Landscape Design in Highway
Construction. In: Proc. of the 24th Southern African Transport Conference (SATC 2005), 11–13
July, Pretoria, South Africa, 2005.
2. M. N. ZEDENO, D. AUSTIN, R. STOFFLE: Landmark and Landscape: A Contextual Approach
to the Management of American Indian Resources. Culture & Agriculture, 19 (3), (1997).
3. NPRA (Norwegian Public Roads Administration): Road Tunnels. Norwegian Public Roads
Administration Handbooks, 2004.
4. L. A. GELDERMALSEN: Environmental Aspects in Tunnel Design. Safe & Reliable Tunnels.
Innovative European Achievements, 1st International Symposium, Prague, 2004.
5. Y. FEI, H. CHUAN, W. SHI-MIN, Z. JIN-LONG: Landscape Design of Mountain Highway
Tunnel Portals in China. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 52–68, 29 (2012).
6. S. MANSUROGLUA, P. KINIKLIA , R. YILMAZ: Impacts of Highways on Land Uses: the
Case of Antalya–Alanya Highway. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14 (1), 293 (2013).
7. Z. DEMIROZ KIRAY, A. C. YILDIZCI: Impact of Landscape Architectural Practices on the
Environment. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (2), 565 (2014).
8. N. AKPINAR: Enverimental Impact Assesment for Strip Coal Mining and Land Reclamation
Case Study: Milas-Sekkoy Strip Coal Mine. Ph.D. Thesis, Ankara University, Science Institute,
Ankara, 1994 (in Turkish).
9. E. F. DILEK: Landspace Planning on the Solid Waste Disposal Areas of the City of Ankara.
Master Thesis, Ankara University, Science Institute, Landscape Architecture Department, Ankara, 2000 (in Turkish).
752
10. S. URGENC: Rural Landscape (Conservation-Restoration-Regulation). Yildiz Technical University, Architecture Faculty, Urban and Regional Planning Department. Istanbul, YTU-2000.004,
2000, p. 244.
11. E. GORCELIOGLU: Landscape Maintenance Technique. Istanbul University, Forestry Faculty
Publication: 4351, Istanbul, XXI+320, 2002 (in Turkish).
12. Y. YAVUZSEFIK, O. UZUN: Landscape Maintenance Technique. Abant Izzet Baysal University,
Duzce Forestry Faculty Publication, Duzce, 2005 (in Turkish).
13. Y. ULUSOY: Studies on the Reclamation and Rehabilitation of the Surface Mining Areas of the
Region: Sile-Avcikoru. Master Thesis,Yildiz Technical University, Science Institute, Urban and
Regional Planning Department, Landscape Planning Programme, Istanbul, 2006 (in Turkish).
14. H. SAHIN: Explore of the Planting after Open Pit Mining Activities: Example of Istanbul-SileYesilvadi Village. Master Thesis, Bartin University, Science Institute, Bartin, 2011 (in Turkish).
15. A. G. OZTURK: Evaluatin of the Degraded Forest Lands in Terms of Lanscape Restoration
Technique: Case of Edirne. Master Thesis, Namik Kemal University, Science Institute, Landscape
Architecture Department, Tekirdag, 2012 (in Turkish).
16. S. SAHIN, H. PERCIN, E. KURUM, O. UZUN, C. BILGILI: PEYZAJ-44: Landscape
Character Analysis in City Scale and Evaluation of Tourism/Recreation. (Landscape-44), No
109G074,TUBITAK KAMAG Project, Final Report, 2013 (in Turkish).
17. S. ERASLAN: The Landscape Restoration and Development Planning Approach after Facilities
of Marble Quarries. Ph.D. Thesis, Suleyman Demirel University, Science Institute, Environmental
Engineering Department, Isparta, 2014 (in Turkish).
18. ANONYMOUS: Republic of Turkey General Directorate of Highways. URL: http://www.kgm.
gov.tr/SiteCollectionDocuments/KGMdocuments/MerkezBirimler/TesislerveBakimDairesiBaskanligi/sanatyapilari.pdf Retrieved on 08.12.2015.
19. URL: http://www.zaman.com.tr/ekonomi_karayollari-ferhat-gibi-daglari-deliyor_1223130.html
Retrieved on 08.12.2015.
Received 11 Februaryy 2016
Revised 10 April 2016
753
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 754–762 (2016)
Environmental protection and sustainable development – landscape planning
EFFECT OF URBAN PLANNING DECISIONS ON
THE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF
AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN URLA, IZMIR
L. UNVERDI*, N. K. UNVERDI
Department of City and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University
of Dokuz Eylul, Izmir, Turkey
E-mail: levent.unverdi@deu.edu.tr; neslihan.karatas@deu.edu.tr
Abstract. The rapid course of urbanisation triggered by massive migration since the 1950s has
resulted in the rapid development of small peripheral settlements. This pressure for land development has caused the loss of fertile agricultural land. The main tendency of urban planning regarded
land development as obligatory for growth, while agricultural areas were deemed inappropriate for
planned areas. The last two decades, however, witnessed the rise of ecological approaches in planning, the consideration of natural and ecological thresholds for land development plans and a focus
on sustainable land use decisions based on proper balance of the use and protection of resources.
New restrictions have been introduced to protect agricultural lands in planning decisions. Urla is
an important coastal settlement under the pressure of rapid urbanisation and particularly secondary
housing trends due to its proximity to Izmir. Fertile agricultural lands have recently been transformed
into urban areas. Despite regulations against urban sprawl, urban plans fail to resist the increasing
pressure. Secondary housing emerges as the major component of rapid urban sprawl. Coastal areas
are increasingly dominated by the living spaces of higher income groups. This study intends to
scrutinise the extent to which conservation-based urban planning decisions guide the ongoing spatial
transformation of agricultural lands into residential areas.
Keywords: sustainability, agricultural lands, urban planning, Urla, urban sprawl.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The primary goal in preparing development plans is: ‘to protect and develop physical, natural, historical, and cultural values and ensure that land use is balanced,
and establish healthy and safe environments with high living quality’. Although
development plans are prepared according to these aim and goals, urban area
capital accumulation, the basic driver of the neoliberal policy framework that has
been in effect since the 1980s, has increased the pressure to develop specifically in
metropolitan cities. This pressure for development triggered urban growth towards
city peripheries, which created disjointed sprawl of low density form of settlements
dispersed within a setting of vacant lands. This new growth form is called ‘urban
sprawl’1. These areas are dynamic intersecting areas where both rural and urban
*
For correspondence.
754
qualities are seen together and play an important role for the sustainability of the
balance between the urban and the rural2. With urban sprawl, agricultural lands
are functionally changed by development where the basic land uses include nonurban, low density, work, housing, education, and shopping areas that are situated
separately3. In the 1990s, with the development of technology and transportation
the amount of urban sprawl increased4. Specially in the coastal areas, while tourism
policies are indexed on foreign tourism and the lack of alternative tourism have
changed the form of sprawl phenomenon in the coastal areas, urban growth in these
areas has developed in the form of summer homes (secondary homes), country cottages, farm houses and so forth5,6, since the 1980s, there has been a large increase
in the quantity and quality of these areas. While increases in economic activity
in coastal areas led to conflict and the depletion of natural resources7, especially
with houses being built on rich and fertile agricultural lands, the profitability of
these areas was reduced8. Also, the lack of an extensive coastal management tool
has permitted investors to use coastal laws for their own benefits9.
On the western axis and within a distance of 38 km from the city of Izmir, the
Urla district appears to be the best case for such development in urban development. While it holds the potentials for becoming a coastal touristic city as well as
an urban development centre, Urla still displays characteristics of a rural settlement where the traditional agricultural facilities dominate the spatial settings10.
Yet, Urla is one of the districts of Izmir metropolitan city most affected by rapid
urbanisation, flows of migration and disjointed growth of urban sprawl towards
peripheries. The purpose of this study is to show how, in reality, the agricultural
areas in Urla could not be protected, despite decisions to protect them as part of a
55-year planning process and how much these agricultural areas have been subject
to development.
EXPERIMENTAL
Urla was a coastal settlement that made a living off of agriculture, fishing, and
commerce. Today with the development of agricultural areas into urban lands,
agriculture has taken a downfall, and with the increasing population in the summer with the rise of tourism and commercial activities, Urla has begun to seem
like a city united with Izmir both spatially and socio-economically. In the course
of time, the agricultural lands appear to be subject to urban development despite
the related conservation decisions.
In this study, Turkey Fundamental Soil Map (1984), the Land Use Classification Map (2013), this officially defines the legend and the master plan on scale
1/5000 that was approved in 2003 and is still valid, was superposed in ArcGIS.
Then, current settlement areas in the land use classification map of 2013 and existing
settlements in the planned areas of 1984 were removed to determine the areas open
755
for development between these dates. In the next step, the identified areas were
separated according to their land use classification and type of land use. Finally,
the results of the research helped to determine the amount of agricultural lands,
which were originally designated as protected farming land within the planning
process, but which lost their agricultural characteristics in reality.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Urla previous development plans within the related planning area boundaries reveal
that, there are different development plans approved on different dates for different
areas in Urla. The first development plan approved by the Bank of Provinces in
1960 comprised the Urla settlement centre and only a small part the coastal areas.
During the period of 1967–1968, the plan boundaries were extended to include
the entire municipal boundaries11. Today, the existing land use of Urla appears to
have been shaped after approval of the land use plans in 1984.
In the plans of 1984, the city centre of Urla appears to develop towards the
agricultural lands on the northern and eastern parts, while the disjointed sprawl
on the coastal areas continue their growth along the waterfront and towards the
agricultural lands on the south both. Spatially, these settlement areas are disconnected; however, the agricultural areas between them were meant to be protected
for agricultural purposes. However, neither the municipal boundaries of these
development plans did include the entire agricultural areas, nor did they consider
the effects of the Izmir-Cesme highway, and a wide area was left out of the development plan approved boundaries. Given all of these developments and increasing
urbanisation demands due to the opening of the highway, in 1995 a new master
plan was deemed necessary. The plan approved in 2003 is still in effect and has
determined today planning boundaries.
In 1995 the approved master plan was evaluated in four different categories by
the planner observational evaluations: Agricultural Land to be Preserved, Agricultural Land that can be Preserved, Green House Areas and Woodland Character to
be Preserved. The plan, in addition to establishing a road connection to the areas
classified as agricultural land to be preserved, contained no plan decision. The
zoning plans aimed to create an agricultural housing development (TK I) where
permission would be granted for the construction of farm houses or country cottages. In agricultural lands that can be protected, in addition to establishing similar
roads and lacking plan decisions, zoning plans for agricultural housing (TK II)
areas were permitted12. With the exception of allocation conditions between TK II
agricultural areas and TK I agricultural areas, the most important difference is that
in TK II agricultural areas more than one structure is permitted. Thus large scale
housing estates began to be built in agricultural areas. However, partial urbanisation was foreseen in the plan where agricultural qualities are protected or to be
756
protected, and while the agricultural lands in the planned area were presumed to
be under protection, they were in fact destroyed.
In the 2003 plans, I, II and III class (land use capability class) agricultural
areas were placed under absolute protection and defined as 1st degree Agricultural
Lands to be Preserved and IV, V, VI, and VII class agricultural areas were defined
as 2nd degree Agricultural Lands to be Preserved. Olive groves were defined as
special product areas. However, by this definition, in the 1995 master plan, TK I
and TK II development areas and conditions were preserved identically.
Fig. 1. Existing settlement and planned areas (2003 Plan)
Fig. 2. Built areas in 1984 and the distribution of built and planned areas in 2013
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Table 1. Land use capability class (LUCC)
LUCC
I
II
III
IV
VI
VII
Total
Area (m²)
1146985
2973797
4415332
638049
1399281
315887
10889331
Percentage (%)
10.53
27.31
40.55
5.86
12.85
2.90
100.00
Reference: Prepared from the 2013 land use classification study developed earlier.
Based on this, the total area of the current Urla settlement to be developed
by planning is 1 5236 899 m2 (1523.6 ha). 4 347 568 m2 (434.7 ha) of this area
was opened to development by the 1984 plan or the remaining 10 889 331 m2
(1088.9 ha) area was developed after 1984 or developed according to the 2003
plan (Figs 1 and 2). In two decades, approximately an additional 1089 ha within
the boundaries of the Urla development plan area were included. In the process,
78% of the post-1984 developed or opened for development area are 1088.9 ha
and includes class I, II and III agricultural lands (Table 1).
Table 2. Land use (LU)
Land use
Grassland
Shurbland
Irrigated agriculture lands
Pasture
Forest
Rainfeed
Vineyard
Olive grove
Total
Area (m²)
503802
1618374.5
3821132
657250
209287
350661
674643
3054181
10889330
Percentage (%)
4.63
14.86
35.09
6.04
1.92
3.22
6.20
28.05
100.00
Reference: Prepared from the 2013 land use classification study developed earlier.
Table 2 shows developed areas and areas to be developed areas according
to plan decisions. While dry agricultural lands top the list with 35%, olive areas
are in second place with 28%. In both of these areas, but especially olive groves,
TK II conditions apply and gated housing developments emerge in the guise of
agricultural housing. When the land use capability classification is examined, 49%
of 1st degree agricultural land opened to development is dry agriculture, 19% are
wet agriculture, and 32% – olive groves. Of the 2nd degree agricultural lands,
35% are dry agricultural areas, 18% are vineyards, and 47% – olive groves. Of
the 3rd degree agricultural lands, 20% are brushwood, 3% – meadows, 47% – dry
agriculture, 3% – vineyards, and 27% – olive groves (Figs 3 and 4).
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Fig. 3. Land classification in the 2003 Urla development plan boundaries
Fig. 4. Land use in the 2003 Urla development plan boundaries
The 2013 development plan decisions and legal legend for the land use classification map show that in the agricultural lands north of Downtown Urla there
759
is a single structure on each TK I parcel. East of Downtown Urla, despite being
a 3rd degree agricultural area on a slope and a large part of the areas classified
as marginal, there are more than one structure on each parcel. This development,
which is disconnected and piecemeal, seriously threatens the agricultural areas
integrity. These areas, regardless of their classification as marginal agricultural
land, are in need of absolute protection (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5. Land use classification
All of these findings and evaluations show that although the development
plan decisions permit 7% building in 1st and 2nd class agricultural areas, fertile
agricultural areas are being diminished piece by piece, and agricultural areas are
being transformed into low density residential areas. Again, in a similar way, with
the exception of roads passing through developed areas along parcel borders,
the master plan decisions, approved zoning development plans, and TK II land
parcels, no technical or social infrastructural areas were left the public, and with
agricultural allotments and plans for urban development, agricultural areas have
inevitably been lost. For this reason, social development, urban planning and land
management play an important role in ensuring the environmental sustainability
of agricultural lands, wetlands and natural areas that are under the pressure of
uncontrolled urban expansion13.
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CONCLUSIONS
Coastal settlements along the boundaries of especially large metropolitan cities where urban sprawl is seen in the perimeters entered a rapid transformation
process under great pressure for urbanisation. Urla is located on the west axis of
Izmir and is a coastal settlement along the perimeter where this transformation
process can clearly be seen. Natural and agricultural areas are affected by this
transformation the most. Regardless of how plan decisions are devised to protect
agricultural areas, they have backfired and caused these areas to be transformed
into housing areas due to the increasing demands, pressures and the building of
secondary housing. Over time, the development of secondary housing in coastal
areas, as one goes towards Downtown Urla, has given way to the development of
specifically agricultural areas as primary housing areas. The most important factor
triggering this process are the conditions stipulated for the structures needed for
agricultural activities. In Urla, from 1984 to the present, 1089 ha are developed
or are planned to be developed as urban lands. This study determined that 78%
of these areas fell within class I, II, and II agricultural lands, and 63%, within dry
agriculture and olive groves. No matter how much plan decisions are brought to
protect agricultural areas, they fail to do so.
Today in Turkey, it is possible to see this type of transformation, as in Urla,
in many settlements. With this in mind, special protection measures must be implemented during the planning process, especially for agricultural areas whose
natural character requires protection. While the need to identify and regulate agricultural quality areas as protected areas constitutes an important part of land use
planning14, socio-economic factors and agro-economic models need to be handled
together to plan and protect the nature15. Creating alternative planning scenarios
with new planning and management policies, not ignoring the contribution of
dynamic spatial urban models and researching the potential effects of decisions
on the environment became a necessity16. Of course, one of the important conditions for providing the necessary incentives is for this process to be conducted
in the country political framework in a way that is suitable for agricultural areas
to be used. For providing a protective understanding within a holistic framework
in agricultural areas, first the implementation of long term regional plans incorporating protective measures is required. At the same time, this process needs to
be part of a more comprehensive developmental policy for rural development
planning17. At the regional scale where agricultural areas to be protected require
the establishment of ‘holistic agricultural area management’ so that regions can
protect planned agricultural areas with a holistic understanding and develop an important sustainability policy. Lower scale plans should include a special protective
legend, plan notes and decisions from the regional scale. Thus, special measures
preventing inappropriate development in agricultural areas will be implemented
and enforced. When needed, especially in fertile agricultural areas that have been
761
defined as special, such as archeological sites or nature reserves, developing special
conditions to be enforced in ‘agricultural protected areas’ will effectively protect
them. This will not only simplify the protection of agricultural area planning, but
also act as a deterrent to inappropriate development.
REFERENCES
1. N. KARATAS: Impact of Urban Sprawl upon Landovner Property Ownership in AyrancilarTorbali, Izmir (1968–2000). Union of Turkish Engineers and Architects, Chamber of City Planners Publication (Ankara), 40 (2), 3 (2007) (in Turkish).
2. D. KUSULUOGLU, G. AYTAC: Sustainability of Urban Fringes. Case Study of Arnavutkoy,
Istanbul. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (2), 779 (2014).
3. R. E. HEIMLICH, W. D. ANDERSON: Development at the Urban Fringe and Beyond: Impacts
on Agriculture and Rural. Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Economic Report No 803, 2001.
4. A. KALPAKCI: Integration of Paratransit Systems with Innercity Bus Systems, Case of Izmir.
Master Thesis, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, 2013 (in Turkish).
5. N. KARATAS: Effects of Land-Ownership Transformation in Metropolitan Fringe Areas on
Existing Urban Pattern (a Case Study of Ayrancilar–Torbali). Unpublished Master Thesis, Izmir
Institute of High Technology, Izmir, 2000 (in Turkish).
6. E. O. TORE, Z. O. EREN, G. CEVIK, Z. KORKMAZ, M. GOKDEMIR: Evaluation of Settlements on the Coastal Regions of Thrace Regarding Current Laws and Regulations. J Environ
Prot Ecol, 13 (2), 710 (2012).
7. E. OZHAN: Coastal Zone Management in Turkey. Ocean Coast Manage, 30 (2-3), 153 (1996).
8. D. BAYEZIT: Statistical Analysis of Impact of Secondary (Summer) Housing upon Tourism
Economy in Turkey. http://dspace.trakya.edu.tr:8080/jspui/bitstream/1/66/1/Bayezit%2c%20
Dil%C5%9Fat.pdf, 2003 (in Turkish).
9. S. BURAK, E. DOGAN, C. GAZIOGLU: Impact of Urbanization and Tourism on Coastal
Environment. Ocean Coast Manage, 47, 515 (2004).
10. G. EMEKLI: Evaluation of Urban Development of Urla in Terms of Urban Geography. Ege
University, Research Projects Final Report, Project No 2001-EDB-004, Faculty of Literature,
Department of Geography, Izmir, 2004 (in Turkish).
11. Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning:
Urla Analytical Survey Report, Izmir, 1992 (in Turkish).
12. EGEPLAN: Urla Master Plan Revision Report. Plan Codes. Municipality of Urla, Izmir, 2003
(in Turkish).
13. U. AKIN: Urban Agriculture: An Instrument for Sustainable Urban Development in the Metropolitan City of Istanbul. J Environ Prot Ecol, 12 (4A), 2245 (2011).
14. N. AKPINAR, I. TALAY, S. GUN: Priority Setting in Agricultural Land-Use Types for Sustainable Development. Renew Agr Food Syst, 20 (3), 136 (2014).
15. M. LÜTZ, O. BASTIAN: Implementation of Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation in
the Agricultural Landscape – a Case Study from Saxony. Agr Ecosyst Environ, 92, 159 (2002).
16. B. K. ATAK, N. ERDOGAN, E. ERSOY, E. NURLU: Analysing the Spatial Urban Growth Pattern by Using Logistic Regression in Didim District. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (4), 1866 (2014).
17. H. AHRENS, J. KANTELHARDT: Accounting Forfarmers’ Production Responses to Environmental Restrictions within Landscape Planning. Land Use Policy, 26 (4), 925 (2009).
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 16 April 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 763–771 (2016)
Environmental management
ASSESSMENT OF COASTAL AREA USES OF ORDU
PROVINCE WITH AN INTEGRATED COASTAL AREAS
PERSPECTIVE
E. AKYOL SATIROGLU, P. YESIL
Architecture Department, Faculty of Agriculture Landscape, Ordu University,
52 200 Ordu, Turkey
E-mail: elifakyol78@hotmail.com
Abstract. Coastal regions with their natural, social, cultural and economic potentials have become
the mostly preferred places and consequently such places have become the centre of intense human
activities. Rapidly increasing population and public right to use coasts gradually increased the pressures exerted over those coastal regions. Then, the limited resource, the coasts, destroyed in time
and started to lose their natural assets. Integrated coastal management plans have been implemented
in Turkey to bring a new perspective in coastal planning and implementation works, to provide
compatible and balanced preservation of coastal regions and decision-making process considering
entire sectors. These plans are expected to be a tool to meet the international obligations, to orient
local expectations and demands, to arrange conflicting responsibilities over coastal regions and
to provide a balance between economic development and environmental health. Along with these
objectives, integrated coastal management plans were prepared for Sinop, Samsun, Trabzon, Artvin and Rize provinces along the Blak Sea coastal line, but there are not any works done for Ordu
province. In this study, current status of coastal sections of Ordu province was assessed and zoning decisions and strategy recommendations were provided along with the principles of integrated
coastal management planning.
Keywords: integrated coastal area management, Ordu, coastal areas.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Coastal zone has been the most attractive and popular area for every time and for
all the populations and cultures1. Such sites have become the most preferred sites
economically and culturally. Natural resources, transportation opportunities and
convenient safe environments have made the coastal sections essential attraction
centres for human settlements rather than being only riparian sites2. Urbanisation has been an important component of land use and land cover change, and
its significance will undoubtedly continue to increase with the majority of the
world population swarming into cities. Coastal areas are the most variable units
on earth. Especially for the last 30 years, coastal areas of Turkey have been under
tremendous repression mainly because of population explosion arising from the
*
For correspondence.
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domestic and foreign tourism demands, and also settlements by holiday dwellers
and industrial companies, highways constructed to overcome traffic problems,
intentions to convert beaches to sand supplying quarries and the other applications3.
Just because of rich natural resources, coastal sections have intense human
activities, thus, they need a management plan because of conflicts in resource utilisations4. Coastline has effects both on land and sea ecosystem5. Coast preservation
is possible only with an official management system and coastal zone management
constitutes the uppermost significant part of such a management system. Coastal
zone management is an administrative and resource management process targeting
a balanced utilisation of coastal resources for a sustainable development of such
areas, designating the position of coast in economic and social life and arranging
the interactions with surrounding environments. ‘The objective of coastal zone
management are to create integrated policy and strategy-based management process
allowing compatible and altogether activities of public and local groups through
taking sensitive, limited and under-pressure nature of such sites into consideration’6.
Coastal and marine areas have a great importance for countries. Turkey has
a wealth of coastal areas and an abundance of their coastal resources7. Several
attempts have been made and pilot implementations were performed in Turkey
for integrated shore management. Recently, the Ministry of Environment and
Urbanisation have been implementing Integrated Coastal Management and Design Projects in different cities. These works are considered as the documents of
integrated spatial preservation and development strategies for coastal sites.
Integrated Coastal Management is a course of action for all planning and
implementations to be made in coastal region and terrestrial site of coastal section. It should be assessed as a physical plan. Integrated Coastal Management
Plan grounds on sustainability of coastal area which is a limited resource; targets
the management of utilisations, demands and conflicts of different sectors; aims
to develop planning process, principles and strategies of the shore and cooperation among institutions and organisations. The concept of ‘Management Plan’ is
a process design and Integrated Costal Management can then be defined as a set
of strategies8.
Within the scope of this study, current status of coastal uses of Ordu province
was assessed and along with basic principles of Coastal Management Planning
works, zoning decisions and resultant strategy recommendations were provided
and the need for the development of a new planning approach was brought forward
to point out the problems of urbanisation, industrialisation, tourism and secondhome construction over coastal regions and the deficiencies of current planning
implementations in solving such problems.
Shores are the conjunction sites between land and sea. Since these sites are
limited sources, cannot be increased and have sensitive ecosystems, preservation
priorities should be taken into consideration while benefiting from these sites. A
764
sustainable approach should be employed and preservation-utilisation balance
should always be taken into consideration in management of these areas.
Coastal regions of Turkey should be planned within the frame of a new approach and model; the coastal sites should not be considered as sites composed only
of coast and beach, they should be considered as a region covering the entire areas
with which coasts have interactions; and they should be planned with a regional
planning perception. Within this framework, integrated coastal management approach is envisaged as a significant tool for balanced resource use in coastal regions.
EXPERIMENTAL
The research site, Ordu province, is located on the north of Turkey in Central and
Eastern Black Sea region between 40˚18′–41˚09′ north latitudes and 38˚40′–38˚07′
East longitudes. The province is surrounded with Black Sea on the north (Fig. 1).
Surface area of the province is 5963 km2 and it covers about 0.8% of country
soils. The province is neighboring with Black Sea on the north, Samsun on the
West, Giresun on the east, Tokat and Sivas on the south.
Fig. 1. Research site
Ordu province has 19 towns including central town (Fig. 2). The province
has 107 km shore line and respectively from west to east the province has Black
Sea coasts in Unye, Fatsa, Persembe, Ordu Centre and Gulyali towns. The other
towns do not have a coast.
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Fig. 2. Administrative division of Ordu province
The research site was divided into 5 sub-regions composed of coastal towns
(Fig. 3). Beside similar characteristics of each region, they have also different
characteristics. Strong and week points of each region were assessed and strategic
decisions set forth for each region.
Fig. 3. Zoning decisions for the research site
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RESULTS
1st SUB-REGION: UNYE AND CLOSE VICINITY
Unye is neighbouring with Fatsa and Terme along the shoreline and with Akkus,
Ikizce and Caybasi through the inner sections. The town was established over a
smooth terrain with almost zero slope and such characteristic totally distinguish the
town from Eastern Black Sea. Unye town centre is located over a large crescentshaped bay. The Tabakhane stream passing through the town separated the town as
1/3–2/3 in each side. Akcay at western side constitutes the border of the town with
Terme. Unye is the most densely populated town of Ordu. Uzunkum, Incekum,
Inciralti, Cinarsuyu beaches extend kilometers along the coast.
Strengths
● Large and clean natural beaches.
● Rich flora and fauna.
● Coastal road and parks providing day and night recreation opportunities.
● Unye castle, historical houses, Ottoman bazaar, church and fountain-like
several historical structures.
● The most intense accommodation facilities in the city and thus more intense
tourism mobility.
● Convenient connection and transportation with surrounding settlements and
resultant commercial life.
Weaknesses
● Insufficient facility and infrastructure.
● Insufficient lodging facilities for eco-tourism and thus not meeting the needs.
● Insufficient qualified stuff for eco-tourism activities.
● Insufficient tour organisations.
● Insufficient publicity.
The strategies forecasted for the 1st sub-region of the research site: The town
has the luckiest position with regard to eco-tourism of Ordu province. These assets should be preserved and alternative tourism can be developed. Number of
tourism facilities and boutique hotels can be increased and existing ones can be
developed. Beaches along the cost can be preserved and significant contributions
can be provided to tourism potential of the province.
2nd SUB-REGION: FATSA AND CLOSE VICINITY
Fatsa is neighbouring with Persembe on the east, Unye on the west, Korgan, Camas,
Catalpinar and Kumru on the south and Black Sea on the north. There are smooth
fields around the close sections of Bolaman and Elekci Streams to the coast.
Strengths
● Highly mobile commerce because of Fatsa port.
767
● Existence of valuable eco-tourism assets like Gaga lake, Cingirt rock tombs,
Sarmasik hot springs.
● Diverse local income sources with development potential like agriculture,
livestock, aquaculture, carper business.
● Coastal road and parks providing day and night recreation opportunities.
● Rich flora and fauna.
Weaknesses
● Increasing intensive structuring.
● Insufficient facility and infrastructure.
● Insufficient lodging facilities for eco-tourism and thus not meeting the needs.
● Insufficient qualified stuff for eco-tourism activities.
● Insufficient tour organisations.
The strategies forecasted for the 2nd sub-region of the research site: Existing
port can be developed and capacity can be increased. Daily touristic use of the
port can be provided. Natural and cultural assets can sustainably be managed in a
preservation-utilization balance.
3rd SUB-REGION: PERSEMBE AND CLOSE VICINITY
Persembe town is a natural bay over Ordu-Samsun highway. It is a coastal town.
The town is neighbouring with Black Sea on the north, Ordu central town on the
east, Fatsa on the west and Ulubey on the south. The town was founded at the
skirts of small steep hill called Kordon Tepe. Persembe port is the second largest
and natural port of Black Sea.
Strengths
● Undisturbed nature and natural resources.
● Clean sea and beach and available places for water sports.
● Although providing highly proper and diverse places for tourism, the town
has not completed the development in this respect. Therefore, it is open for sustainable tourism planning works.
● The town received the title of calm city (cittaslow) in 2012. It is one of 9
calm cities of Turkey and the only one in Black Sea region. Works have been done
to reduce the noise levels on highway to meet the criteria for calm cities and calm
settlements have established along the coast line.
● Located in close vicinity of Ordu central town (14 km) and having convenient transportation opportunities.
● Existence of Akkus (Hoynat) island, a significant bird place, within the
borders of the town.
● Yason cape with natural and historical assets.
● Rocky sites, bays and under-water caves along the coast.
● Existence of nice beaches already decreased in Black Sea region, in town.
768
● Passage of Black Sea coastal highway from the south of the town without
following the coast line.
Weaknesses
● Insufficiently developed industry and trade because of close vicinity to
centrum.
● Negative pressures exerted by fish farms along the Persembe port on coasts.
● Insufficient publicity and marketing about eco-tourism.
● Insufficient facility and infrastructure.
● Insufficient lodging facilities for eco-tourism and thus not meeting the needs.
● Insufficient qualified stuff for eco-tourism activities.
● Insufficient tour organisations.
The strategies forecasted for the 3rd sub-region of the research site: Current
status of archeological and natural protection sites, sensitive natural and cultural
heritages can be preserved and tourism opportunities can be increased. The title
of calm city can be used to improve daily tourism activities. The beaches along
the coast line can be preserved and improved for public use.
4th SUB-REGION: ORDU CENTER AND CLOSE VICINITY
The region has an intense use because of beach parks and Boztepe telpher station.
Back side of coastal line, transportation connections and spatial arrangements are
relatively more complex than the other towns.
Strengths
● Existence of rich scenery watch points for province and surrounding assets.
● Natural resources and undisturbed natural environment.
● The beaches in centrum and along the large part of coastal line.
● Diverse plant cover and existence of site-specific endemic flora.
● Potential for water-related and various recreational activities.
● Local foods, cuisines and hand crafts.
● Stream passing through centrum and with untouched recreational potentials.
Weaknesses
● Oil factory and solid waste repository in coastal line.
● Discharge of domestic wastes to the sea through Melet River.
● Intense and unplanned urbanisation especially in centrum.
● Insufficient facility and infrastructure.
● Insufficient lodging facilities for tourism and thus not meeting the needs.
The strategies forecasted for the 4th sub-region of the research site: The
pressures exerted by intense use of Boztepe telpher station, which has a great significance for the tourism of Ordu centrum, should be minimised. Transportation
connections and traffic arrangements should be made in centrum and equipment
needs of current parks should be met. The solid waste repository sites located
769
within the borders of the region should be designed, solid wastes should be put
under control, negative impacts on natural resources and ecological balance should
be prevented.
5th SUB-REGION: GULYALI AND CLOSE VICINITY
The town is located at 8th km along the route from Ordu to Giresun. It is a unique
place with blue-flagged beaches in Ordu province. The Ordu-Giresun airport opened
in 2015 is the only airport of Turkey constructed over the sea.
Strengths
● Existence of an active airport.
● Close vicinity to Ordu central town.
● Being a unique place with blue-flagged beaches in Ordu province.
Weaknesses
● Insufficient publicity and marketing.
● Insufficient facility and infrastructure.
● Insufficient lodging facilities for tourism and thus not meeting the needs.
The strategies forecasted for the 5th sub-region of the research site: The OrduGiresun airport opened in the region is the first airport of Turkey constructed over
the sea. Runway was designed as 3000 m along the cost. The blue-flagged beaches
of the region should be preserved and improved. Considering the intensive use of
the airport, number of facilities should be increased to serve the region. Tourism
mobility will increase with the operation of the airport. Therefore, negative effects
of such mobility on natural assets and agricultural lands should be prevented.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Ordu province and close vicinity with coasts and natural beauties have great tourism potential. In this study, current status and potential structure of coastal sections
were assessed together with natural and cultural assets and urban life and strategic
forecasts were provided for further development and improvement of coastal sections. The research site was divided into 5 sub-regions including coastal towns.
Strengths and weaknesses of the regions were put forth. In the 1st sub-region covering Unye and close vicinity, preservation and eco-tourism development measures
can be taken. In the 2nd sub-region covering Fatsa and close vicinity, measures
can be taken to improve existing port and efficiency of port can be increased. In
the 3rd sub-region covering Persembe and close vicinity, public should be encouraged to use the beaches and arrangements should be made for beach and facility
utilisations to improve coastal uses. In the 4th sub-region covering Ordu centrum
and close vicinity, arrangements should be made to minimise the pressured exerted
by intensive use of telpher station and park equipment should be improved. Solid
770
wastes around the centrum should be put under control and negative impacts on
environment should be prevented. Finally, in the 5th sub-region covering Gulyali
and close vicinity, considering the potential improvements in regional tourism with
the operation of Ordu-Giresun airport, ground transport should be improved. Also
in coastal sections of the region, arrangements should be made for the public use
of coasts. Within this scope, recreative uses should be supported and developed.
In all works and implementation to be made in the region, entire natural resources of coastal sections should be planned and managed by taking preservationutilisation balance and bearing capacities into consideration. Sensitive ecosystems
should be identified and preservative measures should be taken over such sites.
Already protected sites should be managed in accordance with management
plans. Domestic and industrial wastewater discharges into sea should urgently be
terminated. In all planning activities, pressures exerted by potential uses should
be taken into consideration and efficient and sustainable use of coastal sections
should be supported.
REFERENCES
1. S. SAZAK: Legal and Administrative Issues on Pollution of Turkish Coasts. J Environ Prot Ecol,
10 (4), 1170 (2009).
2. S. UCLAR: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and a Case Study of Istanbul. MSc Thesis,
Graduate School of Science Engineering and Technology, Istanbul Technical University, Urban
Planning Program, Istanbul, 2012.
3. M. OZYAVUZ, Y. D. ONMEZ: Monitoring the Changing Position of Coastlines Using Information Technologies, an Example of Tekirdag. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (3), 1051 (2014).
4. O. BAHAR: The Value of Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure for Turkey. MSc Thesis, Institute of Natural Sciences, Karadeniz Technical University,
Trabzon, 2007.
5. G. GULER: Possible Conflicts between the Recreation and Ecology in the Coastal Region of
the Black Sea. Тhe Cilingoz Case. J Environ Prot Ecol, 12 (2), 543 (2011).
6. F. A. SESLI, A. C. AYDINOGLU, N. AKYOL: Management of Coastal Areas. Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, Chambers of Map and Cadastral Engineers, Turkey
Scientific and Technical Conference, Notification Book, Ankara, 2003, 757–768.
7. R. NISANCI, Y. S. ERBAS, V. YILDIRIM, H. E. COLAK: Management of Marine Cadastre
with Geographic Information System: A Case Study of Trabzon. J Environ Prot Ecol, 16 (1),
126 (2015).
8. BIB, Antalya Report: The Ministry of Public Work and Housing, General Directorate of Technical Research and Implementatiton, Antalya Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan Project
Report, Ankara, 2010.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 16 April 2016
771
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 772–780 (2016)
Environmental management
WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE HOSPITALS IN TRABZON
PROVINCE
M. TOPBAS*, N. E. BEYHUN, G. CAN, S. Y. UCUNCU, C. C. KOLAYLI,
S. KARAKULLUKCU, S. CANKAYA
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical
University, Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: murattopbas@yahoo.com
Abstract. There is a high demand of water in hospitals and wastewater can pose danger. However,
water should be provided without interruption. In other words, water should be professionally managed in hospitals. Survey methodology was used to collect data for this study in which the knowledge
and opinions of the managers of 23 private and public hospitals in Trabzon province of Turkey on
water management were analysed. It was found out that the managers do not know either the daily
water requirement of water in hospitals or the exact number of the items and places related to water
consumption such as faucets, toilets, urinals and shower stalls; many of the documents that show
in-building water supply networks are not available; there are not any technical staff for water-related
problems in 8 hospitals; there have been water cuts in 13 hospitals in the last year and problems in
providing water in the time of water cuts. It turned out that the hospital managers in Trabzon should
be informed about water management and awareness should be raised in this regard. Moreover,
water management issue should be tackled in green hospital context and relevant statutory obligations should be imposed.
Keywords: hospital, water management, Trabzon, drinking water, waste water.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Water is of vital importance for both clinical and other areas in hospitals. In hospitals, water is used for drinking, general cleaning, sterilisation and gardening and
in operating rooms, diagnosis and treatment units, kitchens and laundries in the
form of cold water, hot water and vapour1.
Healthcare systems are among a community largest consumers of water2.
Especially, hospital and pharmaceutical wastes are those that include serums and
vaccines which exceeded validity terms, expired drugs, chemotherapy substance
residues, which can be cytotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic, teratogenic or carcinogenic3. In addition, healthcare institutions pose a risk on the water requirement
of the public especially in settlements in arid regions because of the obligation to
provide water to hospitals without interruption.
*
For correspondence.
772
The amount of the consumed water varies according to the geographic location
of the hospital, water resources, water supply network of the city and in-building
water systems, type and age of the building, total size of the hospital premises, the
type and number of the healthcare services, bed and polyclinic capacity and the
number of the patients who receive daily care, the number of the staff, etc. Water
consumption per patient ranges from 150 to 1500 l in hospitals1.
Hospitals need clean and safe water, on the other hand, major part of the wastewater is dangerous since it is chemically, pharmaceutically, microbiologically and
radioactively contaminated as a result of hospital processes4. Additionally, there
should be in advance planning in order to meet clean and safe water requirements
of hospitals in extraordinary situation and remove sewage water5. Moreover, there
is a high demand of water in hospitals; however, water saving/limitation of water
use is not possible in hospitals by its nature. Necessary amount of water should be
used in the necessary areas. Therefore, water resources should be protected, water
should not be wasted, contamination should be prevented, wastewater should not
pose a threat on environment and public; in other words, water should be efficiently
and environment friendly utilised. This means that water should be professionally
managed in hospitals1,6.
Recently, the concept of ‘green hospital’ is on the global agenda7,8. Careful
and efficient use of water and water resources and reducing contaminative effect
of wastewater are the top priorities in green hospitals9. Therefore, it is of great
importance to develop strategies that aim to identify the areas where water is
consumed, determine the daily and monthly amount of consumed water in units
and reduce the unnecessary use of water in order to render the use of water in
hospital efficient4,9,10.
Chief physicians are the most authorised persons in hospitals in Turkey. Hospital managers are in charge of several issues such as providing food and beverage
for the hospitals, repair and maintenance of the building, taking precautions to
protect the surrounding, taking and implementing measures for extraordinary situations8,11,12. Therefore, there is not a specific person in charge of water management
but it seems that hospital managers are responsible for this issue.
With its 1000–3000 m3 water per capita in terms of water opulence ranking,
Turkey is one of the countries with ‘water problem’ and that may be adversely
affected by climate change13–15. Therefore, effective and efficient use of water
is highly important. But, what do the hospital managers in Turkey know about
water management? What is the knowledge and awareness level in terms of the
procedures of water management in their hospitals? In other words, do the hospital
managers have a good knowledge of water management? Seeking the answers
of these questions, this study is one of its kinds in Turkey, one of the few studies
in this field in the world and aims to set forth the knowledge and opinions of the
hospital managers in Trabzon on water management.
773
EXPERIMENTAL
We received approval from the Karadeniz Technical University (KTU), Faculty of
Medicine Scientific Research Ethics Committee (date of the meeting: 01.06.2015;
decision No 9) and necessary permissions from Trabzon Provincial Directorate
of Health and Trabzon General Secretariat of the Public Hospitals Union. After
obtaining oral permission from KTU Farabi Hospital Chief Physician and Chief
Physicians of Private Hospitals (since Trabzon Provincial Directorate of Health
is in charge of inspecting private hospitals, we received permission from the Directorate), we started to conduct our study.
23 hospitals in Trabzon province including KTU Faculty of Medicine Farabi
hospital, 3 training and research hospitals (Kanuni training and research hospital,
Numune training and research hospital, Ahi Evren training and research hospital),
10 state hospitals (Fatih state hospital, Yavuz Selim osteopathic and rehabilitation
hospital, Akcaabat Hackali Baba state hospital, Vakfikebir state hospital, Tonya
state hospital, Of state hospital, Surmene state hospital, Macka Omer Burhanoglu
physical therapy and rehabilitation hospital, Arakli Bayram Halil state hospital,
Atakoy psychiatric hospital), 4 private hospitals (Medicalpark Karadeniz hospital,
Medicalpark Trabzon hospital, Private imperial hospital, Private Clinart international hospital), 5 district hospitals (Salpazari district hospital, Arsin district state
hospital, Caykara Dr. M. Ilhan Durgun district hospital, Koprubasi Vali Recep
Yazicioglu district hospital, Duzkoy district hospital) were chosen as the research
population and all of the private and state hospitals participated in the study.
In face-to-face meetings with Directors of Patient Services and Healthcare
Hotel Management or Hospital Managers, research data were collected by using the
survey form that was prepared by the researchers between 01.06.2015–15.06.2015.
The questions of survey were about the daily and monthly water requirements of
hospitals, water resources, use of water and information on the use of water (the
number of faucets, toilets, shower stalls and urinals), water control, disposal of
wastewater, inclusion of water in emergency action plans.
Data collected from 23 hospitals were analysed as a whole. However, in
terms of data, no comparison was made among hospitals in order to prevent the
emergence of a potential problem in terms of ethics and health service provision.
RESULTS
Certain descriptive data of 23 hospitals in Trabzon are presented in Table 1.
Eight hospitals do not have trained personnel on sanitary systems and hydraulics. The number of bathrooms in 2 and the number of restrooms in 4 hospitals
were not even known. In order to be able to present current or closely concerning
situation about water management and water consumption in hospitals the number
of faucets, sensor faucets and urinals were demanded. However, during the surveys
774
due to the contradictory statements and the answers provided as ‘I do not know’
these data could not be presented accurately.
Table 1. Some of the descriptive features of hospitals in Trabzon
Features
Number of beds
Daily average number of polyclinic patients
Number of personnel
Sanitary system – number of educated personnel about
sanitary structure
Number of restrooms
Number of bathrooms
Median
88
550
300
1
78
18
Min.–Max.
(10–780)
(10–4000)
(28–2492)
(0–5)
(10–205)
(1–168)
It was detected that water source of 20 hospitals were city water, 2 were well
water and 1 was spring water.
The water consumption of the hospitals was questioned and the bills were
evaluated for this data. According to that, the average monthly water consumption of
hospitals was 1962 t of water (min. 9 – max. 7500) However, 3 of the hospitals that
were not using city water did not have information about their water consumption.
21 hospitals had their own drinking water tanks, 1 had a utility water tank and
1 did not have any. 4 of these drinking water tanks are cleaned once a month, 4 of
them once every 3 months, 8 of them once every 6 months and 5 of them once a year.
It was determined that there is a project for indoor water system in 4 of the
hospitals. However, there have been leaking/cracking problems in indoor water
systems before.
It was determined that 4 of the hospitals had water purification devices and that
they were being used in kitchens and 13 had water dispensers to provide drinking
water in public areas. Moreover, drinking water consumed by the personnel in
polyclinics and services was researched and it was detected that 6 hospitals used
city water, 1 was using well water, and others used dispenser-sized packaged water.
It was questioned whether there were any water cuts in the last year in hospitals and 13 of the hospitals that use city water responded this question as ‘there
was water cut’. 11 of these hospitals indicated that water cut happened more than
once. During the water cut 9 hospitals supplied their water from the auxiliary tank,
4 hospitals used dispenser-sized water and 1 hospital supplied water through the
municipality water trucks.
When the water reports were examined, water samples were taken by the
Public Community Health Directorate except for one hospital. However, according
to water checks it was detected that samples were collected every 15 days from
2 hospitals, once a month from 7 hospitals and that in 12 hospitals these checks
were carried out less frequently.
775
Ways of removal of waste water from qualified areas can be found in Table 2.
Table 2. Ways of removal of waste water from qualified areas
Qualified areas
Laboratory (n = 23)
Radiology (n = 11)
Chemotherapy unit (n = 4)
Nuclear medicine (n = 3)
General sewer
system
15
2
2
2
Private
containers
7
8
2
Private sewage
system
1
1
1
It was detected that emergency action plans of 21 hospitals tackled the issue
of drinking water, 2 hospitals were preparing it. Only one hospital had waste water
plan in case of emergency. However, the study was not able to receive details on
this issue.
The question of ‘What should be the order of priority of drinking water supply in hospital management?’ was asked. 14 hospital managers responded that it
should be top priority whereas 13 hospital managers expressed that they already
set drinking-utility water as top priority.
DISCUSSION
Water must be delivered from its source to consumption areas and after that consumption waste water must be disposed in a way that it does not constitute a health
risk for the environment or the society. In other words, water must be managed
professionally. In this study, which is one of the firsts on this field in literature,
knowledge and awareness of managers of all hospitals in Trabzon province, in
the Eastern Black Sea region on water management were evaluated. Due to its
geographical location and climate conditions, Trabzon receives over 800–850 kg/
m2 of precipitation every year16. The city water demand is met by Atasu Dam, built
in the Trabzon city centre. Even though some districts do have smaller dams, the
fundamental water sources in districts are caisson wells that are located around
surface waters that originate from the mountains and flow into the Black Sea. The
water collected from these wells is transferred into tanks. And after chlorination,
it is distributed through the network system. Since Trabzon receives high level of
precipitation, water scarcity and water cuts are not familiar concepts to the society.
In case of a cut, water can be supplied from villages and mountains. The perception
of hospital managers on water management may be originating from the high level
of precipitation and abundance of water sources in the province.
A successful hospital by-product management demands strict maintenance
policies for avoiding diseases spread out and leaching of hazardous chemicals on
soil and in ground water17. However, we have to know the source of water con776
sumed in hospitals. Study demonstrates that managers are aware of the source of
the water they use in their hospitals.
Study also examined monthly and daily water consumption. However, this
issue was replied by looking at their monthly bill and they set their daily consumption by dividing the monthly bill by 30. Managers of hospitals that do not receive
network water were not informed regarding this issue. However, based on the nature
of the processes in the hospital the water demand on each area and unit is different.
Water consumed in hospitals may vary depending on the area/unit, hours within
the day, days, months and seasons. These demands must be recognised in case of
cuts or emergency situations/disasters and water must be supplied accordingly. In
literature it is emphasised that water meters must be placed in strategic locations
in hospitals in order to manage water in a more healthy and planned fashion and
that daily, weekly, monthly and yearly water consumption data acquired from these
meters must be monitored. However, our study demonstrated that hospital managers were not sensitive towards and well-informed regarding this issue.
When it comes to water management in developed countries, the emphasis
is on the preservation of water sources that are also important for the society,
saving on water and preservation of water-water resources. Aim here is not to
decrease water consumption or water saving. Quite the contrary, the objective is
to make an effort in not wasting the water that exists and needs to be benefited
from. Therefore, low-flow fixtures must be installed onto all shower stalls, bathrooms and faucets. If equipment used in the hospital is old, the new ones must be
of the water-saving kind. It is also important to have the related project plans on
in-house water network systems for maintenance and repair works for possible
leaks and bursts. However, only 4 out of 23 hospitals have such plans. Our study
showed that hospital managers are not aware of the number of water structures
and fixtures such as bathrooms, toilets, urinals and faucets, that there were not
any inventory works in respect to this and that they do not have good knowledge
on in-house network systems.
Alongside with clean and safe water supply, it is also important to provide
water in a continuous way. It goes without saying that water is of vital importance
in hospitals for corporate and personal hygiene. In settlement areas and societies,
hospitals are one of the most adversely affected institutions by water cuts. In this
study, we see that this is the case for 13 out of 20 hospitals that are supplied with
network water. Nine of these hospitals use their auxiliary tanks in case of a cut.
There are two aspects here: First of all, water cuts are highly common in hospitals that meet their water demands from the city water network. Therefore, it is
important to have an auxiliary water tank. Second aspect is the maintenance and
cleaning of the auxiliary tanks. Systems and staff that will clean these tanks will
be needed. However, it is a serious disadvantage that most of the hospitals do not
have staff that would carry out this task.
777
According to the Regulation Concerning Water Intended for Human Consumption, the monitoring and inspection of drinking-utility waters in terms of health is
carried out by Provincial Directorates of Public Health, which are the provincial
organisations of the Turkish Public Health Agency affiliated to the Ministry of
Health18. In this vein, water quality checks in hospitals must be carried out more
regularly and taking samples from various spots. However, the interviews showed
that hospital managers are not informed about and sensitive towards these monitoring and inspections. Twenty-two hospital managers stated that the water in their
hospitals were inspected, however the frequencies were different. Our study is
somewhat limited in this regard. It did not question the results of the inspections or
what kinds of arrangements are being made when unfavorable situations emerge.
It is necessary and vital for the hospitals to be prepared for extraordinary
situations/disasters both to ensure the sustainability of the services provided and
to keep the society/environment away from problems that may arise out of health
care services. Therefore, emergency plans must be drawn up and its relative sections must be shared with all personnel. Researchers of the study also work in
a hospital and stated that no such documents were shared with them. However,
after receiving the statement that hospital managers did have disaster plans for
their hospitals, we thought that this was solely because of plans are required by
legislation. This created a concern that health care service organisation and risk
management may not be well-management in case of a disaster.
In literature information on the features of hospital waste water is quite scarce
and detailed studies are rather limited19. Hospital waste water may be hazardous. Particularly waste water from laboratories, chemotherapy units and nuclear
medicine units must be collected through separate systems. However, only a few
hospitals collect such waste water though separate systems and containers.
An important finding of this study is that 14 out of 23 hospital managers stated
that water was the top priority among the hospital services they provide. Considering the findings of the study, it can be seen that managers lack information and
training in terms of water management in hospitals even though 13 of them stated
that they deem it top priority.
CONCLUSIONS
According to the results of the study on hospital managers, which is a first both
in Turkey and in medical literature, it was recognised that managers of 4 different hospital groups in Trabzon need to be aware of, interested in and informed
on management of drinking-utility water in hospitals. Especially because of the
growing popularity of the green-hospital concept, many countries and institutions
have been publishing guidebooks on water management in hospitals. All hospital
managers must be aware of and sensitive towards green hospitals and water man778
agement. In this sense, we are sorry to see that Turkey and Trabzon is not familiar
with the concept of water management in hospitals. In every aspect, management
of drinking and utility water in hospitals must be carried out in a professional way.
Ministry of Health must assume the leading role and regulate the related legislation. We also have to organise trainings for all hospital managers.
REFERENCES
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16. Geography and Climate Conditions, Trabzon Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.
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Revised 18 February 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 781–788 (2016)
Environmental management
SEMANTIC EVALUATION OF WATERFALLS AS TOURISM
DESTINATIONS
O. KURDOGLU*, B. C. KURDOGLU
Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
E-mail: oguzkurdoglu@gmail.com
Abstract. In recent years, undisturbed nature and clean environment have become two factors that
define the competitive power in tourism. Waterfalls have enchanted people since ancient times and
have higher priority in the list of must-see places. However, few waterfalls can be described as tourism destinations since many of them are attractions. Accessibility and being well known are affecting
this. In many countries, including Turkey, waterfalls play important roles in tourism. Heavy demand
and mismanagement of destinations have a damaging effect on these natural monuments. In this
study, 9 important adjective pairs were used for 17 waterfalls located in different (various) regions
of Turkey, mostly along the Eastern Blacksea region. These adjective pairs were evaluated by 69
experts (32 forest engineers and 37 landscape architects) according to septet semantic differential
scale. Consequently, waterfalls were evaluated in terms of sustainable tourism management and
suggestions were given for conservation strategies.
Keywords: semantic differential, waterfalls, tourism destination, Turkey.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The last quarter of a century can specifically be considered as a period of more
intense interest in the unspoiled natural areas. The current developments in tourism are specifically in close relationship with environmental protection which also
means the protection of basic values of tourism destinations1. Currently, tourism
is closely related to the environment and especially to the climate change. It is
highly sensitive to the climate change as an economic sector since climate change
can directly or indirectly affect tourism destinations in various ways. The most
important expectation in a visit to a natural destination is a comforting atmosphere
and an unspoiled natural environment2. Numerous factors play a role on the orientation towards tourism. One of these factors is without doubt landscapes created by
water. That seas, lakes and rivers are among the most preferred locations has never
been a surprise. Water ecosystems create benefits for humanity for consumption,
energy, transport and recreational activities in addition to their ecological role. In
a sense, water is a basic element of recreation3,4. In numerous studies carried out
since the beginning of the last century; it has been emphasised that water is one
*
For correspondence.
781
of the most important and enchanting elements of natural and built landscape5.
Indeed, water has been accepted as an attractive and enchanting phenomenon
and an indispensable element of landscape3. According to environmental ethics,
while natural environment ethics is a matter of moral concern, nature is a matter
of aesthetical taste. From this perspective, waterfalls are considered as magnificent
presences flowing over special reliefs6. For this reason, waterfalls are among the
most visited locations at tourism destinations. Whether big or small, high or low,
natural or built, narrow or wide, waterfalls face visiting demand at various densities.
The answer for the question, ‘What is it that makes waterfalls so popular actually?’
has not been found by neither waterfall lovers nor scientists. According to a theory
expressed in some studies, formations like waterfalls create negative ions due to the
downfall of water which has stimulating effect on people. However, this is a view
not largely supported by scientists who study rivers and streams. Nevertheless, it
is clear that something in waterfalls affect people mood positively7.
Clearly, various natural and cultural assets are evaluated by their different
attributed meanings. The effective power of these assets is reflected in people
preferences and positive or negative attitudes emerge towards the related assets.
These attitudes find their correspondence in tourism and create preferences for
destinations and travel plans. Waterfalls have kept their popularity as visual attractions and areas for recreation for a long time. For this reason, waterfalls play an
important role in tourism for countries8. The purpose of this study is to determine
how waterfalls which face a dense touristic demand have semantically been evaluated by experts. In this respect, it has been aimed at determining which waterfalls,
evaluated by means of 9 adjective pairs, are most preferred and proposing suggestions for a better protection and management of those which take priority in
terms of preference.
EXPERIMENTAL
The material of the research includes 17 waterfall photographs from different
rural areas in Turkey (Fig. 1). The photographs have been evaluated according to
a septet semantic differential scale (in this 7-point scale 1 point was the lowest
and 7 was the highest) by a total of 69 experts comprised of 32 forest engineers
and 37 landscape architects by using 9 adjective pairs seen in the table and graphics. In addition, each waterfall was given a ‘worth seeing’ score. As a result, the
average scores of photographs were determined through descriptive analysis.
Then, in accordance with the purpose of the study, the scores of three waterfalls
which received the highest and lowest ‘worth seeing’ scores were tested through
non-parametric correlation analysis. The purpose of this test was to find out the
relationship between the adjective pairs and the ‘worth seeing’ condition.
782
Fig. 1. Waterfalls evaluated in the study and the cities they are located
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results reveal that all waterfalls were given a specific average score. It is
possible to interpret this as such: waterfalls affect people in any case with their
attractive value. In the evaluation, all waterfalls received a high score for the ‘built/
natural’ adjective pair. That all waterfalls were natural caused the result to be high
for each waterfall. This result shows that especially ‘naturalness’ is always effective on preferences (Table 1).
783
784
Monotonous /
active
5.0290
4.5507
5.6232
5.5507
5.5652
5.0870
5.8116
4.5797
5.6812
4.6232
4.7101
4.8841
5.7391
5.6957
5.3188
5.1884
5.1449
Photo
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
5.5507
4.9420
5.4348
5.6812
5.7246
5.2174
5.6232
4.8406
5.7101
4.8406
5.1449
5.0145
5.2754
5.6812
5.1014
5.2754
4.9710
Illegible /
legible
6.3188
6.0000
6.3623
6.2754
6.2609
5.4928
5.8406
5.0870
6.2319
5.2319
5.5652
5.5507
6.1014
6.0435
5.7536
5.6377
5.7391
Built /
natural
Simplicity / Not clear / Not interest- No-unity / Ordinary / Low visual Not worth
divercity
clear
ing /interestunity
unique
value /high seeing /
ing
visual value worth seeing
4.8696
5.6957
4.5217
5.2899
4.3913
5.3478
5.4493
4.6667
5.2029
4.0870
4.8406
4.5072
4.8406
4.6667
5.7391
5.6522
5.3478
5.5362
5.4203
5.6667
5.6087
5.3188
5.8986
5.2899
5.7246
5.7391
5.9130
5.9420
5.2319
5.6667
5.2319
5.5217
5.4348
5.6667
5.7971
5.1449
5.2319
4.7971
4.8406
4.7536
4.8406
4.8551
5.3188
5.7391
5.5507
5.6377
5.6232
5.7536
5.7536
4.7971
5.0725
4.7246
4.8406
4.7391
4.7101
4.6812
5.3043
5.8406
5.5072
5.3913
5.5652
5.8986
5.7391
4.3768
5.0870
4.2609
4.4203
4.3043
4.4203
4.5797
4.4928
5.3188
4.6667
4.8986
4.7101
4.9275
4.8696
4.9420
5.1594
4.5217
5.0725
4.6087
4.8551
4.8261
5.5507
5.3913
5.4928
5.3043
5.5362
5.6087
5.5507
5.4638
5.6667
5.6232
5.3333
5.6377
5.8986
5.9565
5.3623
5.1884
5.2319
5.4638
5.2029
5.4203
5.4058
4.5797
5.2029
5.2899
5.0870
5.3623
5.2319
5.2029
4.7826
5.0580
4.7826
5.1594
4.7971
5.1594
5.0145
Table 1. Average scores received by the waterfall photographs
In a study on visual quality by Gul and Kurdoglu9, it was observed that highest
scores were received by rivers and waterfalls located in unspoiled natural areas.
Although Waterfall 2 (W2) received the lowest score (4.5507) for the ‘monotonous/
active’ adjective pair, it was not found to be very monotonous. In other words, it
was found to be moderately active. The photograph receiving the highest score
was W7 (5.8116). The lowest score for being ‘legible/illegible’ was received by
W8 (4.8406). The highest score for this condition was received by W5 (5.7246).
The lowest score for the condition of ‘simplicity/diversity’ was received by W10
(4.3768). The highest score for this condition was received by W3 (5.7391). For
the condition ‘clear/not clear’, the lowest score was received by W17 (5.0580),
and the highest score was received by W4 (5.8986). For the ‘interesting/not interesting’ condition the lowest score was received by W2 (4.0870), and the highest
score was received by W14 (5.6232). When we consider the condition of ‘unity/
no unity’ lowest score was given to W10 (4.4203) and the highest score was given
to W4 (5.7246). The highest score for being ‘ordinary/unique’ was given to W10
(4.3043) and the highest score was given to W14 (5.6377).
Waterfall 10 received the lowest score for the condition ‘low visual value/
high visual value’ (4.4203), and W4 received the highest value (5.9130) for this
condition. When the condition of ‘worth seeing’ was examined in isolation, the
lowest score (4.5797) was received by W10 and the highest score (5.9565) was
received by W14. 2nd highest score (5.9420), was given to W4 and the 3rd highest
score (5.7971) was given to W5. The waterfalls which received the lowest scores
for ‘worth seeing’ condition were respectively W10 (4.5797), W2 (4.6667) and
W8 (4.6812). In addition, the relationship of the lowest scored waterfalls with the
other adjectives was tested (Table 2). This test revealed that all adjective pairs are
in significant relationship with each other. In other words, a significant relationship in the positive direction was found between the adjective pairs and the ‘worth
seeing’ condition. Here, for the 6 waterfalls which received the highest and lowest
scores in respect to the ‘worth seeing’ condition, the highest correlation was found
among the scores given for the landscape value. On the other hand, although a
significant relationship was found between the Waterfalls 4 and 5 and the conditions
‘simplicity/diversity’ and ‘worth seeing’, the correlation coefficient was low (0.365
for W4 and 0.385 for W5). Similarly, despite the significant relationship between
the conditions ‘legible/illegible’ and ‘worth seeing’, the correlation coefficient
was low (0.271 for W5). Although there is a significant relationship between the
conditions ‘clear/unclear’ and ‘worth seeing’, the correlation coefficient is low
(0.287 for W4). An overview of the results shows that waterfalls receive admiration under every condition although at different levels.
785
786
Monotonous /
active
0.852**
0.938**
0.908**
0.784**
0.755**
0.869**
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
Illegible / Built/ natu- Simplicity / Not clear / Not interest- No-unity / Ordinary / Low visual Not worth
legible
ral
divercity
clear
ing /
Unity
Unique
value /
seeing /
interesting
high visual worth seevalue
ing
2
0.755**
0.685**
0.638**
0.480**
0.628**
0.616**
0.760**
0.636**
8
0.709**
0.733**
0.685**
0.763**
0.880**
0.764**
0.714**
0.830**
10
0.761**
0.591**
0.675**
0.582**
0.521**
0.782**
0.655**
0.709**
4
0.523**
0.558**
0.533**
0.365**
0.287*
0.625**
0.560**
0.596**
5
0.497**
0.271*
0.523**
0.385**
0.358**
0.630**
0.481**
0.711**
14
0.655**
0.603**
0.579**
0.634**
0.603**
0.686**
0.544**
0.676**
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Photo
No
Table 2. Relationships between the adjective pairs and the ‘worth seeing’ (N= 69)
For this reason, at tourism destinations, waterfalls, monuments, temples and
museums are met with high density of tourists10. For example, in Turkey Maral
(No 1), Palovit (No 4), Muradiye (No 7), Mencuna (No 9) and Tortum waterfalls
(No 14) are met with high demand as important destinations. This is due to the fact
that from the beginning of the 20th century, waterfalls have been almost identified as an object of art, thus transforming them into a touristic geomorphosite6.
Accordingly, visual and various semantic evaluative data of attractions which
have become a subject of tourism help the making of sustainable planning and
the protection of landscape11.
RECOMMENDATIONS
High slope and steep topography which cause the formation of waterfalls, creates
a visually attractive view. However, high sloped water flow creates a high demand
not only for tourism but also for the construction of hydroelectric power plants
(HEPP). The constructions of HEPPs are damaging many tourist destinations especially in the Black Sea region. Specifically, waterfalls with high attractiveness
and an unspoiled naturalness should be kept away from all investment activities.
Especially in semi-arid regions, the use of waterfall waters for irrigation causes
them to dry out at the dense tourism season. This means the area can not be utilised for tourism. For this reason, the irrigation planning should be done so that
other resources are used for this purpose. Ekinci12 emphasises that the starting
point for all kinds of planning should be ‘protection’ and that any compromise
from this principle would mean orienting towards ‘non-sustainable tourism’ at the
long run. He also reminds that resources are facing immense pressure with the
high scale that international tourism activities have reached, and that in order to
sustain economies which rely on tourism the destinations have to be specifically
protected. Sustainability in tourism is only possible through the sustainability of
the resources. If the water is being polluted and/or diminished, forests are being
destroyed or natural resources are being transformed into constructed environment
in a tourism area, this means that the end is near for tourism.
CONCLUSIONS
In terms of adjective pairs, all waterfalls have received high scores, which show
that waterfalls have priority in preferences in regard to being worth seeing. According to the results, the condition ‘worth seeing’ has a high level relationship to
‘landscape value’. All adjective pairs support this result. The fact that all adjective
pairs are in a significant relationship with the condition ‘worth seeing’ shows that
the adjective pairs have been correctly selected. As expressed in the literature
widely waterfalls are water elements which are preferred with priority in Turkey.
Although a number of the 17 waterfalls which have been evaluated here have not
787
yet been established as a tourist destination, almost all have received at least an
average score for all adjective pairs. The most important result of this study has
emerged from the evaluation of the condition ‘worth seeing’. According to these
evaluation results, it could be said that the waterfalls receiving the highest scores
are indeed the most important destinations for their regions and they are especially
featured in numerous tourism brochures. On the other hand, the waterfalls with
low scores do not meet a high tourism demand.
REFERENCES
1. E. KUSHI: Sustainable Tourism and Environment Protection in Albania. J Environ Prot Ecol,
12 (1), 251 (2011).
2. L. CURCIC, J. STEPANOV, D. PROKIC: Interaction between Tourism and Climate Change.
J Environ Prot Ecol, 13 (2), 620 (2012).
3. Z. BULUT, H.YILMAZ: Determination of Waterscape Beauties through Visual Quality Assessment Method. Environ Monit Assess, 154, 459 (2009).
4. G. AYTAC, D. KUSULUOGLU: Water as a Design Strategy: Case Study of Kurbagalidere,
Istanbul. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15 (4), 1536 (2014).
5. A. FAGGI, J. BREUSTE, N. MADANES, C. GROPPER, P. PERELMAN: Water as an Appreciated Feature in the Landscape: A Comparison of Residents’ and Visitors’ Preferences in Buenos
Aires. J Clean Prod, 60, 182 (2013).
6. J. P. HAGHE: Do Waterfalls Have Value in Themselves? A Metamorphosis in the Values of the
Gimel Waterfall in France. Policy and Society, 30, 249 (2011).
7. K. ADAMS: North Carolina Waterfalls: A Hiking and Photography Guide. 4th ed. John F. Blair
Publisher, North Carolina, 2005. 590 p.
8. B. J. HUDSON: Waterfalls Resources for Tourism. Ann Tourism Res, 25 (4), 958 (1998).
9. A. U. GUL, O. KURDOGLU: To Determine Biodiversity and Visual Quality Numerically. In:
Proc. of the Symposium on Conceptual Expansions and New Targets on Forest Management,
18–19 April, Istanbul, 2002, 212–219.
10. G.WALL: Tourism Attractions: Points, Lines, and Areas. Ann Tourism Res, 24 (1), 240 (1997).
11. C. L. KRAUSE: Our Visual Landscape: Managing the Landscape under Special Consideration
of Visual Aspects. Landscape Urban Plan, 54 (1–2), 239 (2001).
12. S. EKINCI: Planning and Local Identity on Tourism Planning. Symposium on Tourism Policies
in 21st Century. Semra Atabay, 17–18 December, Istanbul, 1998, 105–110.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 15 April 2016
788
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 789–795 (2016)
Environmental management
SUSTAINABLE RAFTING TOURISM PLANNING AND
MANAGEMENT. AN EXAMPLE OF ANTALYA-KOPRUCAY
RAFTING AREA
E. POLAT*, E. KELES, F. UZUN, A. GUL
Faculty of Architecture, Department of City and Region Planning, Suleyman
Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey
E-mail: erkanpolat@sdu.edu.tr
Abstract. The river tourism, which is very important for nature tourism, does not require big investments and constitutes a whole together with environmental, historical, archaeological, cultural,
authentic values and other types of tourism. Turkey, which has rich natural resources, offers a significant potential with a variety of sporting activities (especially rafting, canoeing and river kayaking,
etc.). In this context, the rafting activities are done intensively on some rivers (such as Koprucay,
Manavgat, Dim, Adana Feke, Goksu and Zamat) of Turkey. The Koprucay Rafting Area (KRA)
which is located in the Koprulu Kanyon National Park (KKNP) of Antalya City is one of the most
important nature tourism destinations of Turkey. There are many environmental, social, economic,
political, spatial, administrative problems and so on in the KRA. The most important issues are
overcrowding with higher capacity utilisation, environmental pollution, irregular constructions, lack
of spatial organisation, failing of transportation, accommodation and restrictive legislation, etc. As
a result, there are some planning, management and economic suggestions for sustainable protection
and utilisation of tourism areas and within rafting tourism.
Keywords: rivers tourism, rafting, Antalya, Koprulu Kanyon National Park (KKNP), Koprucay.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Tourism is one of the world largest industries. It is not so easy to provide a clear
and all-encompassing definition of the tourism, particularly when one considers that
it is so closely interrelated with all other sectors of life: economic, social, cultural,
environmental, and political1. Today, sustainable tourism is about re-focusing and
adapting2 and can be threatened in two ways3; firstly, overcrowding can reduce
the enjoyment received from the tourism experience and deter some tourists from
a particular area since enjoyment and environmental quality are closely aligned4,
and secondly, tourist pressures and facilities designed to service tourists may
partially or completely degrade the tourist attraction that drew tourists in the first
place. The sustainable use of most nature-based resources is threatened because
of their ‘open access’ nature, which the owners or the managing agencies do not
*
For correspondence.
789
appropriate the economic rent accruing from these sites. Economic rent can be
defined as the economic surplus over and above normal profits earned from the
exploitation of resources5.
Today, sustainable tourism is diversified, socio-economic and cultural conditions vary as a result of the parallel rise in living standards6. These are referred
to as sports tourism, mountain tourism, ecotourism, health tourism, conference
tourism, nature tourism, cultural tourism and river tourism7. Today, protected areas management, besides the ecological and scientific values, economic, political
and social considerations are also taken into account for aesthetic and recreational
enjoyment8. One of the major problems faced by managers in the natural protected
areas is the protection of natural ecosystems, on the other hand, in this complexity is to use oriented to tourism and recreation9. Especially, it is difficult to make
together these two opposing tasks increasing in recreational demand10. Today,
scientific and technical sense are the main reasons for the protection of natural
areas getting under protected by law, which is especially in contradiction with
recreation and tourism purposes and can not compete11. The river tourism, which
is very important for nature-based tourism, one of the most dynamic sectors of
the tourism industry, provides significant potential for economic development in
regional areas12 and recreational users can cause significant ecosystem damage in
natural areas13.
Turkey, which has rich natural resources, offers a significant potential with a
variety of sporting activities (especially rafting, canoeing and river kayaking, etc.).
In this context, the rafting activities are done intensively on some important rivers
(Koprucay, Manavgat, Dim, Adana Feke, Goksu and Zamat) of Turkey. The KRA
is located in the KKNP in Antalya, which is one of the most important nature tourism destinations in Turkey. It has rich and important natural, social, cultural and
aesthetic values and there are a variety of problems about environmental, social,
economic, political, spatial and administrative dimensions.
The main aim of this paper is determine to current problems in the KRA and
make proposals for sustainable planning, management and economical instruments
and consists of a framework for solving of related problems.
One of the most common types of tourism is the river tourism. It is based on
a unique resource combination at the interface of land and sea offering amenities
such as water, scenic beauty, rich terrestrial and biodiversity, diversified cultural
and historic heritage, healthy food and, usually, good infrastructure. It includes a
diversity of activities that take place both in river zones and river waters, which
involve the development of tourism capacities (rafting, canoeing and river kayaking, etc.). River tourism, rafting performed on streams, stream sports like canoeing
and kayaking comes to mind. Rafting is a sport made on high rivers the flow rate.
In Turkey, Coruh River, Manavgat River and Canyonlands are considered among
the major rafting spots (Table 1) (Ref. 14).
790
Table 1. River tourism areas in Turkey
Regions
Mediterranean region
Central Anatolian region
Aegean region
Blacksea region
East Anatolian region
Southeast Anatolian region
Rivers for tourism
Antalya-Koprucay, Alara and Dim Streams, Manavgat
Stream, Anamur (Dragon Stream), Adana-Feke-Goksu
River
Zamanti River
Mugla Dalaman Stream
Altiparmak- Barhal Stream, Firtina Stream
Coruh River
Firat Stream
EXPERIMENTAL
In order to benefit from the current literature, by Keles15 conducted to survey and
SWOT analysis results were considered and evaluated. With local people, national
park managers, rafting operators and visitors in this area have been made opposed
interviews and also was detected identified common problems. For these problems,
some predictions for operational planning and management have been developed.
The KKNP was declared as a National Park in 1973 due to has rich flora and
fauna, biodiversity, archeological, cultural, jeomorfological, recreational, aesthetics values and others. It has 35 777 ha areas, which are located 85 km away from
Antalya, and is one of the important tourism destination areas of Turkey. It is
estimated almost 700 thousands visitors came to the area per year in KKNP and
also 90% preferred the KRA (Ref. 16).
Commercial rafting activity on the Koprucay River had begun at the end of
1992. On both sides are located some recreational facilities and sites for visitors.
The services to visitors include picnicking, trekking and other recreational activities. Visitors are usually accessed to the river by bus or car. There are a lot of settlements (Beskonak, Karabuk, Altinkaya, Gaziler and others) in its surroundings
and some facilities for rafting are located on all sides of the river16. However,
approximately 10% of these visitors prefer the rafting outside. A great number
of tourists visit the ancient city of Selge, i. e. around 20 000 visitors per year17.
There are 40 rafting services and catering service facilities as well as rafting. It
is estimated that about 25 million US dollars of the total annual income come
from rafting, and only around 6 million US dollars remain for the local rafting
companies. The remaining large amount remains for the tour operator18. These
areas provide suitable environment for many activities such as plant observation
and camping besides rafting, canyoning, trekking, climbing, bird-watching, etc.
Rafting industry is also creating seasonal jobs, but it can not benefit local people
and growing pollution on the river is a serious problem17.
791
DISCUSSION
Based on the studies about these areas, the general problems were determined17,18,
local people were still continuing their habits of casually land use and the activities
were as in the past in the KKNP. Management of the National Park is not effective,
efficient and perfect. It has not restrictive legislation in planning and management
of these areas and respectively, different conservation regulations (National Park
and Natural Sit Area). Thus, it is quite difficult to control and monitor all activities in this field. Other main problems are overcrowding and overuse per daily for
rafting activities; increasing environmental and visual pollutions during rafting
activities; building on the river sides in unplanned way and illegal; insufficient
recreation sites, facilities, pensions, sales places, car parks for visitors; the lack
of spatial planning and design projects of areas; no cooperation and coordination
between stakeholders; no participation of all stakeholders to processes of planning and management of areas; lack of quality and number of personal trainers
and guides for rafting activities; damaging of flora and fauna in area; eradicating
of natural and cultural values; lack of knowledge of stakeholders about nature
conservation and nature-based tourism; insufficient quality of services and safety
of rafting operators; lack of transportation and accessibility in areas and non controlled entrance and exit to areas; not realised rational land use and no multiple
benefits from areas to decrease satisfied level of visitors.
Basic aims of the sustainable planning and management should be conservation
of river water (spring point sources, river base, etc.) and its surroundings (flora,
fauna, ecosystem, etc.). It should also be increased local development and multiple
using levels. A complementary objective is the promotion of users awareness and
appreciation of the values of the river and its natural and cultural values. However,
the participation of all stakeholders (local people, visitors, rafting operators, etc.)
is very important in order to realise these aims. Sustainable using of the KRA
should be directly related to its planning, managerial and economic instruments.
Planning instruments. They should be related and integrated to master planning of
the KKNP. Koprucay River should be evaluated for rafting activities in first and
prepared to inventory of natural and cultural values of areas and taken into consideration in entirely rafting route from the first point of Koprucay to the finishing
point of rafting activities. It should be surely protected areas which are located
endangerous, rare or endemic flora and fauna species or ecosystem of the river
and its surroundings and suggested appropriate to new recreation areas, facilities
and types of recreation activities. Preparation of planning decisions and principles
(and also managerial and economic instruments) should be guided for managers,
operators and others and must be efficient, flexible, applicable and equitable. Recreation sites should be designed according to spatial carrying capacities. It should be
792
suitable and accessible for vehicle, bikes and pedestrians. Materials and formation
of buildings should be harmonious with natural characteristics and local identity.
Managerial and economic instruments. They should be an effective management
and/or local tourism organisations should be coordinated by tourism and business
investment. The new Koprucay Rafting Management Department in the KKN has
a lot of persons and volunteers and also stakeholders (local people, rafting operators, NGOs, other relevant government authorities, academician and others). They
should use appropriate recreational types and levels to determine and attribute
to zones of protection, organised and controlled an entrance and exit points, and
priority to local people for rafting operators and recreation sites keeping. Rafting
operators should do licenses and fee by the department. Some measures should
be taken for monitoring and control of the activities for visitors daily capacity
and environmental and visual pollutions. Local production and marketing by
local people should be encouraged. Recreational activity or compounds should
increasingly be diversified. The importance and local values of tourism should
be explained and communicate to visitors, local people, management personals,
operators, researches and others.
CONCLUSIONS
Today, nature-based tourism is rapidly expanding in the world unless sustainable
management and planning strategies, the natural and cultural values will become
degraded. Sustainable resource use, however, will ensure the maintenance of tourism assets and the provision of the tourism service into the future19. Degradation of
these values will also reduce their amenity and landmark value. Amenity value can
also be reduced through overcrowding and overuse. Various planning instruments
or tools have been adopted to ensure that environmental and amenity values are
maintained at recreational sites20. In addition to planning instruments, there are a
wide variety of economic instruments that can be used to control environmental
impacts19,20. Economic instruments can affect the environmentally damaging, that
is, via price or quantity controls for environmental goods or services20.
For developing an appropriate planning and management strategy for KRA,
it should be aimed to provide protecting and using levels balance with the carrying capacity approaches, establish an effective destination organisation and
stakeholder cooperation. These aims can be realised with planning, management
and economic instruments or action programmes. The planning instruments should
have protecting and using zones, spatial arrangement (landscape design project
and application) for recreation sites or facilities and activities, spatial carrying
capacity, number of commercial operators and others. Administrative and economic instruments should be effective, efficient and equitable. They should have
a management organisation, monitoring and checking of all activities, safety and
793
security tools. Fees should be checked, commercial and financial benefits should
be gained from the use, and licenses should be allocated to real operators. It is
also becoming increasingly important for resource managers to appropriate some
of the financial benefits gained from the use of the natural resources for recreation. Criteria of development for sustainable nature-based tourism are biodiversity
conservation, economic consistently, controlled marketing, cultural wealth, local
people prosperity, work and services quality, social equality, visitors pleased levels,
to spread to local of authorizes, community happiness, effective using of sources
and healthy environmental.
REFERENCES
1. The Economist: Travel and Tourism: The Pleasure Principle. The Economist, 3 (1991).
2. C. BARBU, L. STEFANESCU, L. UNGUREANU, M. A. CONSTANTINESCU, M. NEGULESCU, I. V. MATEI, M. GHIT: Natural and Anthropic Resources Used in Sustainable Tourism
Development in Oltenia. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14 (1), 303 (2013).
3. C. TISDELL: Economics of Environmental Conservation: Economics for Environmental and
Ecological Management. Aildershot, Edward Elgar, Melbourne, 1991.
4. L. H. PENDLETON: Environmental Quality and Recreation Demand in a Caribbean Coral Reef.
Coast Manage, 22, 399 (1994).
5. World Bank: Pacific Island Economies: Building a Resilient Economic Base for the Twenty-first
Century. World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1996.
6. E. KUSHI: Sustainable Tourism and Environment Protection in Albania. J Environ Prot Ecol,
12 (1), 251 (2011).
7. A. GUL, O. OZALTIN: Ecotourism and Isparta. Rose-environment, Isparta Directorate of Environment and Forestry, 1307 (2), 22 (2007).
8. Y. KUVAN: Management of Forest Recreation Resources in Balikesir Region, Problems and
Solutions. IU Faculty of Forestry, Institute of Science and Technololgy, Istanbul, 1997.
9. R. F. KUSS, A. R. GRAFE: Effects of Recreation Trampling on Natural Area Vegetation. Journal
of Leisure Research, 17, 165 (1985).
10. A. D. KLISKEY: A Comperative Analysis of Approaches to Wilderness Perception Mapping.
J Environ Manage, 41 (33), 199 (1994).
11. A. GUL, M. AKTEN: Recreational Carrying Capacity in Protected Natural Areas and Theoretical
Perspectives. In: Proc. of Protected Natural Areas Symposium, Isparta, 2005, 485–494.
12. Northern Rivers Regional Development Board (NRRDB): Northern Rivers Tourism Masterplan.
Lismore, 1994.
13. D. ALDEN: Recreational User Management of Parks: An Ecological Economic Framework.
Ecol Econ, 23, 225 (1997).
14. M. YAVUZ: Evaluation of Ecotourism Potential of Akdag Natural Park in Afyon-Sandikli County.
Afyonkarahisar, Afyon Kocatepe University, 2011.
15. E. KELES: Current Situation Analysis and Proposed Solutions of Antalya-Koprucay Rafting
Center. SDU Institute of Science, Department of Landscape Architecture, Isparta, 2015.
16. DKMPGM: Koprulu Canyon National Park Management Plan (2007–2011). General Directorate
of Nature Protection and National Parks, Antalya, 2007.
17. E. KELES, A. GUL, M. TUGLUER, O.F. UZUN: Current Situation Analysis and Tourism and
Recreational Aspects of Antalya-Koprucay Rafting Center. In: Proc. of the III International
Symposium on Non-wood Forest Products, Kahramanmaras, 2014, 809–819.
794
18. B. McKERCHER: Some Fundamental Truths about Tourism: Understanding Tourism’s Social
and Environmental Impacts. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1 (1), 6 (1993).
19. C. TISDELL: Environmental Economics: Policies for Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. Aildershot, Edward Elgar, Melbourne, 1993.
20. D. JAMES: Using Economic Instruments for Meeting Environmental Objectives: Australia’s
Experience. Environmental Economics Paper No 1, Department of the Environment, Sport and
Territories, Canberra, 1993.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 12 March 2016
795
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 796–804 (2016)
Environmental management
INVESTIGATING THE WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE
WITHIN A TARGET POPULATION WITH LOW
OPPORTUNITY COST AS A CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORIC
MONUMENTS PRESERVATION
O. KOPSIDASa*, L. FRAGKOS-LIVANIOSb*
Department of Civil Engineering, Alexander Technological Educational
Institute of Thessaloniki, 17th km Thessaloniki-Sindos, 57 400 Thessaloniki,
Greece
E-mail: odykopsi@yahoo.com
b
Division of Natural Sciences and Applications, Hellenic Army Academy,
16 673 Vari, Attiki, Greece
E-mail: leonfragos@yahoo.co.uk
a
Abstract. We present the results of a survey on a population of 200 conscript soldiers, probing their
willingness to participate (WTP) voluntarily to the maintenance and beautification of an archaeological site – the Heraion of Samos – during their military service. The evaluation of this good is
impossible in market terms; consequently, a modified version of the Contingent Valuation Method
(CVM) was applied. The population was divided in two equal groups. The first group received a
questionnaire and were asked to reply without any information on the significance of the particular
site. The other half were given informative material. Subsequently, the first group was divided in
two equal subgroups. One subgroup was asked to re-fill the same questionnaire following an update
in the form of the same informative material (post-questionnaire update). The results indicate strong
positive correlation between willingness to participate (WTP) and information. Further, WTP shows
positive correlation against age, level of education and locality.
Keywords: ancient monument restoration, parametric approach, willingness to participate (WTP).
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is an important tool for the evaluation of
abstract non-marketable goods. This technique is basically subjective, attempting
to acquire objectivity by extracting opinion/attitude and information/knowledge
from a stratified representative sample of interviewees, who are asked by means
of a questionnaire to assign a value on a non-marketable (e.g. cultural or environmental) good or an externality (considered as transaction spillover by laissez-faire
economists like Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek), meaning a benefit
or cost not related to market values1–3. The main objective of the questionnaire is
*
For correspondence.
796
to ‘measure’ the willingness of interviewees (i) to pay for a positive and/or (ii) to
be paid in order to accept a negative externality (WTP and WTA, respectively)2,4.
More precisely, WTP reflects the maximum amount in monetary units an individual
would pay to acquire the non-marketable good or service under examination,
while WTA corresponds to the minimum amount an individual would demand as
compensation in order to relinquish this good or service. Conceptually, the CVM
might be extended to (or considered to be part of) a corresponding cost-benefit
method by relating expenditure (implying capital and operating cost) to benefit,
including (but not limited to) externalities5.
Archaeological sites on a tourist destination such as an island on the Aegean
sea present potential both as a cultural as well as socio-cultural resource6. Such
is the case of the Heraion of Samos, a place of cultural significance on a tourist
destination. Cultural tourism can sustain the development of locations through
the outlining of the material and immaterial cultural patrimony, emphasising at a
superior level the natural potential of the given regions7. The Heraion was a large
sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Hera, in the southern region of Samos, Greece,
6 km southwest of the ancient city, in a low, marshy river basin near the sea. The
Late Archaic Heraion of Samos was the first of the gigantic free-standing Ionic
temples, but its predecessors at this site reached back to the Geometric Period of
the 8th century BC, or earlier. The site of the temple ruins, with its sole standing
column, was designated a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the
nearby Pythagoreion in 1992.
Regarding the opportunity cost of a soldier, in the case of conscripts, the individual soldier is forced to dedicate his time during his military service. By not
receiving a salary for this service – or receiving a small, mostly symbolic compensation – he is actually ‘paying’ in terms of opportunity cost and time. Ignoring
other parameters (their contribution to national defense, the acquirement of skills
during their military training, opportunities to visit in remote locations, etc.) the
conscripts lose the ability to pursue professional or other economic opportunities
or to further their education during their service (by Greek law, it is allowed to
study while in service but it is rarely the case, being taxing and unpractical). In
this sense, conscripts can be considered a low opportunity cost population.
EXPERIMENTAL
The respondents were soldiers in the area of Samos, serving mandatory military
service. Conscripts cannot have professional activity. To them, the participation
in the restoration of the archaeological site of the Heraion had no opportunity cost
in terms of working hours. As the opportunity cost for labour is zero, the production possibility frontier of each soldier is stable and indicates their availability
to participate in the redevelopment of the site with corresponding zero hours of
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participation in terms of work. Graphically, on a Cartesian plane, this would be
represented by a line parallel to the axis of the WTP. In this case WTP is the time
allocated to the soldier involved in voluntary work and L – the working time of
a soldier. The antiquities are treated as public and non-market goods. Conceptually, it is assumed that the demand function for volunteering tends to infinity in
the requested units, with voluntary work measured in time. The consent or nonconsent of the interviewees in the activity does not involve a cost and the cost of
transporting troops is zero as research is conducted in situ. The dependent variable
WTP is the time dedicated in this activity by the respondents. All other variables
are independent. This participation was not motivated. The evaluation of WTP is
done ceteris paribus for alternatives and parameters that could affect this evaluation. The weather conditions as well as catering for the soldiers are postulated.
Due to the specificity of the responding population – conscript soldiers – the
hypothetical appraisal method is applied to a hypothetical economy without money.
Time is what was offered and spent. With WTP, the individual willingness for participation is measured, by means of personal work for the restoration of the site.
The soldiers have to choose between standard military activities and participation
in this voluntary activity.
The research was conducted on people aged between 18–30 years old, of the
same sex and of the same nationality. The apparent homogeneity of the population is a systemic characteristic. All Greek male citizens that have completed their
18th year of age are obligated by law to enlist as conscripts. The military service
may be delayed on the excuse of educational responsibilities, undergraduate and
postgraduate studies. This leads to a male population aged between 18 and 30.
Further, in terms of sampling, all the soldiers in the barracks took part in the survey.
Consequently, there was no sampling, the whole population was surveyed. The
population was divided in two equal groups. The first group received a questionnaire and were asked to reply without any information on the significance of the
particular site. The other half was given informative material (‘informed’ group).
The effect each factor has to WTP was analysed by means of analysis of variance (ANOVA). To examine the role of information, the Independent-Samples
T-Test procedure was applied, comparing the means for two groups8,9.
To further investigate the correlation of WTP and information, the first group
of interviewees was divided into two subgroups, after filling the questionnaires.
One subgroup was given informative material on the monument (post-questionnaire
update, the same package as the ‘informed’ group). Then they were asked to refill
the same questionnaire. The other subgroup was a control, with no information
and no further action whatsoever. The willingness to participate between the two
subgroups was analysed by means of the Paired-Samples T-test procedure.
798
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To probe the opinion the interviewees have regarding the actual location of the
archaeological site of site Heraion of Samos, they were asked on the adverse effects
caused by the surroundings of the site, the measures taken by the authorities for
the protection and maintenance of the site and their preference on the necessary
intensity of intervention on the site (Fig. 1). The profile of the population was
generated by means of descriptive statistics. The results are shown in Fig. 2. It is
worth noting the substantially high percentage – 52% – of respondents that have
previous experience as volunteers to similar voluntary activity. Another interesting
point is the notably high educational level of the population, with 22% having a
university degree and 21.5% a postgraduate degree.
Fig. 1. Opinions regarding the archaeological site Heraion of Samos
a – bar chart for interviewees answers regarding the adverse effects on the monument due to the
surrounding environment, natural and anthropogenic (land and buildings): 31.5% of the interviewees
believe that the adverse effects are very low, 40% moderate, 28.5% believe they are high; b – bar
chart for interviewees answers about the measures taken by the authorities for the protection and
maintenance of the site: 20, 53, 27% of the interviewees feel that the measures taken by the authorities for the protection and maintenance of the site are negligible, moderate, and high, respectively;
c – bar chart on preference of intervention on the site: 29% of the interviewees prefer negligible,
48.5% simple/low, 22.5% radical (including further excavation and restoration with expropriations
of surrounding properties) intervention
799
Fig. 2. Interviewees profile
a – pie chart for previous volunteering; b – pie chart for previous visits on the site; c – age classes.
Interviewees answers regarding their age; d – bar chart for interviewees answers regarding education level
In Table 1, the effect of examined factors on WTP is reported, namely, adverse
effects (p-value = 0.000 < a = 0.05), visit events (p-value = 0.000 < a = 0.05), age
(p-value = 0.001 < a = 0.05), the educational level (p-value = 0.014 < a = 0.05),
and information (p-value = 0.000 < a = 0.05) at 5% significance level. The effect
each factor has to WTP was analysed by means of analysis of variance.
Table 1. Analysis of variance with the dependent variable WTP
Dependent variable: willingness to participate
Source
df
F
Corrected model
15
51.14
Intercept
1
336.000
Protection measure
2
0.534
Preference
2
0.853
Adverse effects
2
24.82
Previous volunteering
1
2.494
Visit
1
7.598
Age
2
7.798
Education
4
3.208
Information
1
95.050
Error
184
Total
200
Corrected total
199
R2 = 0.807 (adjusted R2 = 0.791)
800
Sig.
0.000
0.000
0.587
0.428
0.000
0.116
0.006
0.001
0.014
0.000
To examine the role of information, the WTP between those who received informative material and those who did not was compared. The Independent-Samples
t-test procedure was applied. The results of the analysis are shown in Tables 2
and 3. In Table 2, Group statistics is presented by means of descriptive statistical
indicators: the size (N) of each group, the average (Mean), the standard deviation
(Std. Deviation) and the standard error of the mean (Std. Error Mean). The WTP
correlation on information is shown in Table 3. In particular, the updated soldiers
(M = 5.9, SD = 3.329) show a greater willingness to participate compared to the
soldiers, who were not updated (M = 0.88, SD = 1.241), t (126.013) = 14.130, p =
0.000 < a = 0.05.
Table 2. Averages desire to participate per team update
WTP
Level
Mean
5.9
0.8
N
100
100
yes
no
SD
3.329
1.241
SE Mean
0.333
0.124
Table 3. Independent samples t-test of WTP by comparing information on whether they have been
informed
WTP
t
14.130
df
126.013
p-value
0.000
Mean difference
5.020
SE difference
0.355
At that stage, the t-test compares the means of two variables for a single group.
The procedure computes the differences between values of the two variables for
each case and tests whether the average differs from 0 (Table 5). As indicated by the
t-test for dependent samples, WTP increased when the participants were educated
on the significance of the site (M = 3.74, SD = 1.807), compared with when they
were ignorant (M = 1.00, SD = 0.000), t (99) = –15.164, p = 0.000 < a = 0.05. In
essence, the update caused a shift in opinion, positively affecting WTP (Table 4).
Table 4. Averages participation desire per information (before and after)
WTP
before information
after information
Mean
1.00
3.74
N
100
100
SD
0.000
1.807
SE mean
0.000
0.181
Table 5. Paired samples t-test of WTP before and after information
WTP
Before information –
after Information
Mean
–2.74
SD
1.807
SE Mean
t
0.181
–15.164
df
99
p-value
0
Summarising, the soldiers updated on the history and significance of the
archaeological site show a greater willingness to participate than soldiers who do
not have the same information (Tables 2 and 4 and Fig. 3c).
801
Fig. 3. WTP as a function of population factors (WTP is expressed in time units, namely days)
a – means plot for interviewees WTP per visit level; b – means plot for interviewees WTP per age
level; c – means plot for interviewees WTP before and after information; d – means plot for interviewees WTP per education level
Educational level and age affect the variable WTP. Respondents with higher
education show a greater willingness to participate than those of lower education
(Fig. 3d). Older respondents show a greater willingness to participate than younger
ones (Fig. 3b). Locality also plays a role. Interviewees originating from Samos
and surrounding islands show a greater willingness to participate than others. The
effect of locality on willingness to pay when environmental or cultural preservation is at stake has been shown in previous studies as well10. Further, respondents
who have previous experience as volunteers are more willing to participate than
those, who have not participated.
CONCLUSIONS
The willingness to participate of interviewees in volunteer activity for the redevelopment of the site of the Heraion of Samos verifies an optimum socioeconomic
status. The Pareto condition is satisfied and everyone involved in the activity optimize their position without reducing the position of anyone else. The reconstruction
of a monument of world cultural heritage is aided. The local community, with the
advantage of a restored archaeological site strategically promoted benefits with
additional revenue from tourism. The army enhances the acceptance enjoyed by
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the local community, demonstrates social and cultural sensitivity and strengthens
the morale of the soldiers. Local authorities profit from savings and reputation
from the end result. Such activities encourage companies to assist – for example
by means of food provisions for the volunteers – thus demonstrating Corporate
Social Responsibility. Downstream results include educational enhancement of
those involved or the residents and visitors on the fields of history and archaeology. In conclusion, the end result constitutes an excellent social solution according
to Pareto.
The findings are encouraging for meta-analysis and comparison with other
regions. WTP shows a positive correlation against information, age, level of education and locality.
In previous studies, on the evaluation of WTP in monetary units for the redevelopment of the ancient walls of Piraeus11, respondents showed significantly less
willing to participate in voluntary activity, which was restricted from zero to two
days with a strong preference for the one day. The two monuments – for the sake
of comparison – are of equal cultural significance. Respondents of that previous
survey belong to the country workforce. Consequently, any voluntary activity has
an opportunity cost in terms of working days (time) for the respondent.
Voluntary activity includes renovation, cleaning and optimisation of the archaeological site. The economic value of the monument is measurable, although
no insurance company undertakes insurance responsibilities on archaeological
monuments. The positive externalities generated by the reformation of an archaeological monument, even though abstract, are recognised by the public. They
are an incentive that keeps the marginal propensity to WTP positive. Τhe WTP is
the only variable input in terms of volunteer labour. Capital and other factors are
considered stable and exogenously defined. The interest and value that society
attach to heritage sites depend on the information the public receives, mainly by
means of education and secondly by the media.
REFERENCES
1. A. BEDATE, L.C. HERRERO, J. A. SANZ: Economic Valuation of the Cultural Heritage: Application to Four Case Studies in Spain. J Cult Herit, 5, 101 (2004).
2. W. M. HANEMANN: Testing and Calibrating the Measurement of Nonmarket Values for Oil
Spills via the Contingent Valuation Method. Am Econ Rev, 81, 635 (1991).
3. I. BATEMAN, A. MUNRO, B. RHODES, C. STARMER, R. SUGDEN: A Test of the Theory
of Reference-dependent Preferences. Q J Econ, 112, 479 (1997).
4. J. K. HOROWITZ, K. E. MCCONNELL: Willingness to Accept, Willingness to Pay and the
Income Effect. J Econ Behav Organ, 51, 537 (2003).
5. T. C. BROWN: Loss Aversion without the Endowment Effect, and Other Explanations for the
WTA–WTP Disparity. J Econ Behav Organ, 57, 367 (2005).
6. G. ARABATZIS, S. POLYZOS: Contribution of Natural and Socio-cultural Resources in Tourism Development of Mainland Greek Prefectures: a Typology. J Environ Prot Ecol, 9 (2), 446
(2008).
803
7. G. TIGUA, C. D. FURTUNAB, G. GHEORGHEB: Environmental Management Promotion of
the Immaterial Cultural Patrimony for a Lasting Local Development. J Environ Prot Ecol, 14
(4), 1803 (2013).
8. T. F. LIAO: Interpreting Probability Models: Logit, Probit, and Other Generalized Linear Models.
SAGE Publications Inc., 1994.
9. S. MENARD: Applied Logistic Regression Analysis, 2nd ed., SAGE Publications Inc., 2001.
10. A. KUBAS, I. H. INAN, H. HURMA, E. R. ERBAY: An Important Role of Local People to
Joining Wetland Protection and Analysis of Contingent Valuation Methods. J Environ Prot Ecol,
8 (2), 352 (2007).
11. O. KOPSIDAS, F. BATZIAS: Improvement of Urban Environment and Preservation of Cultural
Heritage through Experimental Economics by a Modified Contingent Valuation Method (CVM).
In: Recent Research in Energy, Environment, Devices, Systems, Communications and Computers
(Eds S. Chen, N. Mastorakis). WSEAS Press, 2011, 157–162.
Received 18 February 2016
Revised 15 April 2016
804
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 805–812 (2016)
Environmental legislation
MEDICAL WASTE INCINERATION IN SKOPJE.
REGULATION AND STANDARDS
Z. SAPURICa, D. DIMITROVSKIb*, M. DIMITROVSKIb, F. IVANOVSKIa
University American College, 60 Treta Makedonska Brigada, 1000 Skopje,
FYR Macedonia
b
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University St. Cyril and Methodius,
Karpos 2, b.b. 1000 Skopje, FYR Macedonia
E-mail: dame.dimitrovski@mf.edu.mk
a
Abstract. Treatment of medical waste is one of the most complex parts of waste management.
Despites the opposite views incineration of medical waste is one of the most favourable methods
of treatment, mainly because of waste volume reduction. But also incineration produces a number
of environmental risks. Incineration in FYR Macedonia covers only a part of hazardous medical
waste which is about 18% of the total volume of medical waste and the rest is deposited in the landfills which do not meet any EU and national standard. Incineration of medical waste in the state is
performing in an incineration plant which has an old fashion technology and creates a high level of
pollution. This causes the urgent measures for modernisation of incineration. It has to be followed by
acceleration of the implementation of EU legislation and standards in the state. The aim of this paper
is to analyse the regulation and standards in FYR Macedonia and in city of Skopje in the sphere of
medical waste incineration and to give recommendations for the future activities.
Keywords: medical waste, incineration, regulation, standard.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Medical waste sector is an important part of waste management. Medical waste
often is referred as health care waste. This waste type is generated from various
sources such as medical care institutions, laboratories, medical and animal research,
blood banks, pharmacy, etc. Hospital and medical waste are unavoidable outcomes
of health care1. A significant part of medical waste belongs to the hazardous waste.
Medical waste as a particular type of waste due its specific characteristics requires
a special treatment. This applies particularly to the hazardous medical waste. There
are different methods of medical waste treatment, like steam treatment, or autoclaving, chemical disinfection, dry heat sterilisation, land filing, incineration, etc. Even
there are notable different attitudes waste incineration is one of the most favourable methods of medical waste treatment. Incineration of medical waste enables a
significant reduction of waste volume and destroying hazardous substances. The
*
For correspondence.
805
technology of waste incineration has considerably improved in the last 20 years,
but the incineration still produces a number of risks. Medical waste incinerators
are currently at the top of the list of contributors of dioxins to the environment2.
This produces the need of comprehensive and precise regulations and standards.
FYR Macedonia faces with a number of problems in the waste area, especially
in the hazardous waste sphere. Despite some positive results in the implementation
of EU legislation in other waste spheres, the implementation of legislation concerning the medical waste incineration into national legislation has been performing
very slowly. In the state has operated an incineration plant since 2000, which is
located at the landfill ‘Drisla’, 14 km southeast of the city of Skopje (Latitude
41°55′35.95″N/Longitude 21°27′20.37″E). The plant has a very old technology
and does not meet any EU and national standards, which produces the significant
risks for the environment and human health. As a candidate state for the EU, FYR
Macedonia has to completely implement EU legislation and standards relating to
the waste incineration.
The overall goal of this paper is to analyse the conditions of medical waste
incineration in Macedonia and in the city of Skopje, particularly in the sphere of
regulation and standards. This paper highlights the risks which appear from medical waste and underlines the urgent need for the improvement of medical waste
incineration.
EXPERIMENTAL
Within the research there were analysed the main EU and national strategic documents and regulation referring to the medical waste and its incineration. The national legislation is compared with the EU legislation. Also there were studied the
permits issued from competent authorities, documentation, reports and technical
details related to the current incineration in the state and the studies of environmental impact assessment for the construction of a new incineration plant which
content the new data. It was visited the existing incineration plant in the landfill
‘Drisla’. There were used statistical data both of the EU and FYR Macedonia. It
was reviewed relevant published literature.
EUROPEAN UNION AND NATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The EU has built a comprehensive legislation which regulates treatment of medical
waste. This legislation determines the high standards of medical waste incineration.
The EU policies have been promoted though the EU directives and strategies3.
Directive 2008/98/EC regulates the basic principles on waste management including waste incineration. This Directive determines that hazardous waste should be
labelled in accordance with international and EU standards. It prohibits mixing of
806
hazardous medical waste with other waste types and creates a list of waste including
hazardous waste4. Directive 2000/76 stipulates operating, technical conditions and
setting emission limit values for waste incineration5. The procedures of handling and
incineration of all of hazardous waste types are regulated in details. This Directive
promotes prevention and limitation of negative effects on the environment, from
incineration. It sets the strict technical requirements. The minimum temperature
of waste incineration process has to be 850oC and if the waste content more than
1% of halogenated organic substances, minimum temperature is 1100oC which
has to be reached for at least 2 s. Furthermore Directive 2001/80/ EC creates the
standards for combustion plants with thermal input which is equal to or greater than
50 MW. The member states are obliged to adopt national plans for reduction of
total emissions of NOx, SO2 and dust from combustion plants6. Directive 2010/75/
EU promotes best available techniques and integrated approach for prevention and
control of emissions into air, water and soil in the process of incineration. The need
of strict conditions of the permits for waste incineration is particularly stressed7.
In the annexes of the Directive are defined air emission limit values in different
periods for various hazardous substances. Emission limit values are defined as
the mass, expressed in terms of certain parameters, concentration and/or level of
an emission, which may not, exceeded one or more period of time. Environmental quality standard is determined a set of requirements which must be fulfilled.
This Directive establishes a framework for the integrated approach and emission
prevention into, air water and soil from the industrial activities including waste
incineration. It determines that infectious medical waste shall be placed directly
in the furnace without being mixed with other waste categories. The Directive
promotes gradually replacement the provisions from the Directive 2000/76.
From the above mentioned, it can be concluded that the EU legislation sets the
high standards of medical waste incineration and provides conditions for sustainable medical waste management. It regulates the medical waste management in
a very complex way. Effective waste management requires substantial legislative
and organisation actions8.
RESULTS
In the process of the harmonisation of its legislation with the EU legislation, Macedonia has transposed only a part of this legislation, which refers to the medical
waste incineration. According to the Law on environment9 and Regulation for
IPPC licenses10, operator of the installation for hazardous waste incineration
must obtain A IPPC license, issued from Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning. Law on waste management determines classification of hazardous
waste, the sources and types of medical waste. This law also regulates segregation
procedures, packaging, labelling, transport, disposal and incineration of medical
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waste11. Regulation of handling, packaging and labelling of medical waste, specifies different methods of medical waste treatment including incineration12. The
List of waste types classifies waste types in 20 groups and appropriate subgroups.
Medical waste is classified in eighteenth group with twenty particular subgroups13.
Finally Regulation on limit values for incineration plants, regulates air and water
emission limits in the process of waste incineration. It determines designing and
working conditions, dynamic of measurement of the emissions and physical and
chemical analysis of waste samples. The minimum temperature for medical waste
incineration is 1100oC (Ref. 14).
A fact that Macedonia has transposed only a part of the EU legislation concerning to the medical waste incineration, produces a need for the future efforts
to accelerate transposition of Directive 2001/80/ EC and Directive 2010/75/ EU.
The medical waste incineration in Macedonia started in 2000 in a plant which
is placed in landfill ‘Drisla’. From 18 January 2013 the landfill started to be operated by a company ‘Drisla Skopje’ LLC, which is established by ‘FCL Ambiente’
MK DOOEL (a daughter company of the consortium from Italy). This consortium
is 80% owner of ‘Drisla Skopje’ LLC and the city of Skopje is 20% owner15.The
foreign partner has undertaken the obligations to invest in the modernisation of the
landfill, especially in building of a new ground floor infrastructure, a composting
plant, and a new incineration plant. But the realisation of these obligations has
performed very slowly by prolonging the specified time limits. Building a new
incineration plant still is in a preparatory phase. According to the National Waste
Management Strategy, the volume of generated medical waste in the country is
6.670 t per year, from which approximately 1200 t or 18% are hazardous waste16.
Hazardous medical waste for incineration is collected from the city of Skopje and a
partially from Kumanovo and Tetovo, the cities near Skopje. The other areas from
the country are not covered and hazardous medical waste is disposed in the landfills
which do not meet any environmental standard. Every health care institution, which
is covered by a system of medical waste incineration, has to sign a contract for
collecting of the hazardous medical waste. This waste has to be separated in the
process of its generation, disposal, and transport from other waste categories. The
collection and transport is performed with 5 special vehicles. The input of medical
waste is carried out manually, which produces the numerous of risks. Improper
management of medical waste can pose a great health risk to the waste workers17.
The incinerator is produced by INCINO Ltd. and has a very old technology. It has
one main purpose to incinerate medical waste and expired medicines. The capacity
of the incinerator is 100 kg/h or 500 t annually and can operate maximum 12 h per
day. Table 1 displays the amount of collected and incinerated medical waste for
the period 2004–2014. It shows significant increasing of incineration since 2004.
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Table 1. Collected and incinerated medical waste, 2000–2014 (t)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
114 231 248 255 322 375 327. 327 358 416 458 469 501 748 725
The incineration plant consists of two chambers, primary and secondary.
The primary is for waste burning and the second is for oxidation of exhaust gases
and smoke. Air supply in the primary and secondary chamber is carried out from
a centrifugal fan. Exhaust gases are discharging into the atmosphere through a
metal chimney without any purification. It is required an hour to reach a working
temperature of 850oC, which is very far from the EU and national standards. The
measurement of air emission is performed monthly and according to the Report
of operating of the landfill in 2014, all results show that the emissions of dust,
CO, SO2 and NOx are above the maximum permitted limits. The report does not
present the accurate results of measurement which is inconsistent with the EU and
national regulation. This shows a lack of transparency. The inert ash as a residue
of combusting is disposed into the landfill. The plant is combusting medical waste
from researching, diagnosis, expired medicines, medical treatment or prevention
of diseases, including animals according to the list from the national and EU
classification: 180 101 sharp objects;180 104 waste from single use (disposable
clothes, bandages, plasters and nappies); 180 106 chemicals containing the hazardous substances; 180 108 cytostatics and chemotherapy drugs; 180 109 other
medical drugs; 180 110 waste from dental protection and 108 202 waste which
has an infections threat.
The last study of environmental impact assessment on the environment of the
project for building a plant for hazardous waste incineration within the landfill
‘Drisla’, which is performed in 2012, determines construction and working conditions of a new planned incineration plant. The plant should operate with a high
level of automation with equipment for emission measurement. The plant will be
consisted of two chambers primary and secondary. In the primary chamber will be
a burner with a power of 800 kW. The secondary chamber will be consisted of two
burners with thermal power of 1500 kW. This chamber has a system for providing
a minimum temperature of 1100oC and permanent concentration of oxygen higher
than 6%. According to this study, the incinerator has equipment which could stop
the incineration process in case of drop the prescribed temperature. That will meet
the EU and the national standards. The waste will be loaded in the plant automatically by hydraulic equipment for the containers of 200 and 1100 l. The plant will
have equipment for continuous monitoring of the operation process and for air
emission monitoring and a system for ash separation. The whole space of a new
incineration plant will cover a surface of 630 m2 and it will be primary aimed for
incinerating of medical waste. The projected dimension of the incinerator is 37.10 ×
809
16.6 m with a height of 10 m. At the beginning heating will be with diesel oil and
in the future should use the gas captured from deposited waste in the landfill. It is
planned to use the thermal energy of the incinerator for heating the indoor space
in the landfill. The plant will have a capacity of 1600 t per year, which will be
significantly higher than existing and could meet collecting the hazardous medical waste from all medical institutions in the country. The existing plant will be
immediately closed after the start of operating a new incineration plant. In Table 2
are presented the main technical characteristics of the planned incineration plant,
which should significantly improve medical waste incineration.
Table 2. Main characteristics of planned incineration plant
Title
Duration of the operation
Maximum power
Minimum caloric power
Average waste density
Maximum humidity
Minimum temperature
Operability of the plant
Thermal power that can be renewed
Unit
h
kg/h
kJ/ kg
kg/ m3
%
o
C
h/year
kcal/h
Value
24/24
250
15000
80
25
1100
8000
1130000
In February 2013 the landfill ‘Drisla’ received an A permit for the harmonisation of the operational plan, which besides the other conditions determines the
conditions for medical waste incineration. The permit establishes the conditions
for medical waste incineration in a new incineration plan. The measurement of
emissions of furans, dioxins and heavy metals should be performed at least every
three months and the measurement of TOC, HCL, HF and SO2 will be continuously.
In Table 3 are presented air emission limits from the A permit. These limits should
enable the incineration of medical waste in line of the EU standards.
Table 3. Determined limit of air emission values for the planed incineration plant
Parameters
CO
SO2
NO and NO2
Total dust
HCl
Dioxins and furans
Tl
Hg
810
Concentration (mg/m3)
50
50
200
10
1
0.1
0.1
0.1
Frequency of monitoring
continuously
continuously
continuously
continuously
every three months
every three months
every three months
every three months
CONCLUSIONS
Treatment of medical waste is an important part of waste management. Incineration
is one of the most favourable methods of medical waste treatment. Medical waste
incineration in FYR Macedonia and in the city of Skopje faces with a number
of problems that are produced by a very old technology. The existing process of
incineration of medical waste does not meet any EU and national standard and the
level of emissions is significantly above the determined values. FYR Macedonia
has to finish completely the implementation of the EU legislation and standards,
concerning to the medical waste incineration. The situation could be improved by
acceleration of the planed investments in a new incineration plant. If the planned
new incineration plant will not start to operate by the end of 2016, the working of
an existing plant has to be forbidden, because of high level of pollution. This means
future treatment of medical waste by depositing in the landfill after sterilisation
and autoclaving. However, the whole treatment of medical waste in the country
must be significantly improved.
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and Management: Current Status and Future Trends. J Environ Prot Ecol, 15(2), 433 (2014).
4. Directive 2008/ 98 EC on Waste and Repealing Certain Directives. Official J of the EU,
L313/2008.
5. Directive 2000/76/EC on the Incineration of Waste. Official J of the EU, L 332/ 2000.
6. Directive 2001/ 80/ EC on the Limitation of Certain Pollutants into the Air from Combustion
Plants. Official J of the EU, L 309/ 2001.
7. Directive 2010/75/ EU on Industrial Emissions (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control).
Official J of the EU, L 334/2010.
8. E. ZEBEK, M. SZWEJKOVSKA, M. RACZKOWSKI: Legal and Organisational Solutions of
Municipal Waste Management in Poland in Compliance with Waste Directive 2008/98 EC. J
Environ Prot Ecol, 16 (2), 652 (2015).
9. Law on Environment. Official J of the RM, No 53/2005, 81/05, 24/07, 159/2008, 83/2009,
48/2010, 124/2010, 51/2011, 123/2012, 93/2013 and 44/2015.
10. Regulation on Determining the Activities for the Installation for which Is Issued Integrated
Environmental License and License for the Harmonization of the Operational Plan. Official J
of the RM, No 89/2005.
11. Law on Waste Management. Official J of the RM No 68/2004, 71/2004, 107/2007, 102/2008,
134/08, 9/2011, 123/ 2012, 132/2012, 147/2013 and 163/2013.
811
12. Regulation on Handling, Packaging and Labelling of Medical Waste. Official J of the RM, No
146/2007.
13. List of Waste Types. Official J of the RM, No 100/2005.
14. Regulation on Limit Values of Emissions from Waste Incineration and Conditions on Incineration
Plant Operating. Official J of the RM, No 123/2009.
15. Decision for the Transformation of the Public Company for Waste Disposal ‘Drisla’ in Limited
Trade Corporation. Official J of City of Skopje 11/2012.
16. Waste Management Strategy 2008 – 2020 of FYR Macedonia. Official J of the RM, No 39/2008
17. S. GOREN: Evaluation of Medical Waste Treatment Systems in Turkey. Environ Prot Ecol, 12
(2), 621 (2011).
Received 13 January 2016
Revised 15 March 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 813–821 (2016)
Environmental legislation
AGRI-TOURISM: A RURAL PLANNING INSTRUMENT FOR
SUSTAINABILITY OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS
E. D. TOPCU
City and Regional Planning Department of Middle East Technical University,
Ankara, Turkey
E-mail: odofe01@yahoo.com
Abstract. Agri-tourism is seen as an increasing tendency for providing the sustainability of especially
the agricultural areas/regions that are lost their productiveness through the way of adding value by
touristic activities. In Turkey, especially in the last 15 years, there is an observable increase in the
amount of agri-tourism initiatives. However, agri-tourism concept is still not a planning instrument
in the rural planning approach of Turkey. It is a certainty that, agri-tourism concept should have
a significant role in providing the sustainability of agricultural areas due to the reason of serious
agricultural land loss problem in Turkey. In this study, agri-tourism concept is aimed to present
as an alternative rural planning instrument for providing the sustainability of agricultural lands.
Through this aim, after the definition of agri-tourism concept, the required mechanisms for agritourism planning approach are exposed through examining the examples of agri-tourism initiatives
of Tuscany Region of Italy and Lublin Region of Poland. Finally, some suggestions are proposed
for agri-tourism development in Turkey.
Keywords: agri-tourism, agri-tourism planning, sustainability of agricultural areas.
AIMS AND BACKGROUND
In the world, agri-tourism planning concept is benefitted as a way of sustaining
agricultural areas for the agricultural lands those are under the threat of urbanisation. Agricultural areas are the unique ones of the rural areas with the properties of
agricultural economy (agricultural production + agricultural employment + marketing), soil, agricultural landscape elements (both natural and artificial elements)
and socio-cultural identity (socio-cultural character of rural people + agricultural
settlements + living styles).
‘In rural areas, tourism has become an important public policy issue because
of limited development options, increased public expenditures for promotion, increased local pressures for resultant public services, increased conflict among user
groups, and general concerns over societal costs and benefits of public support for
tourism development’1. Conserving the agricultural areas need specific planning
acts in both national and local rural planning approaches. This study asks for ‘How
agri-tourism concept should be benefitted for conserving the agricultural areas’.
Through this aim, agri-tourism concept is reviewed for determining the planning
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mechanisms to present the agri-tourism concept as being a planning instrument
for the solution way of agricultural land loss problem in Turkey.
In this study, interpretative-textual-comparative research method is used to
demonstrate the planning mechanisms of agri-tourism sector through two comparative examples those are the Lublin Region of Poland and Tuscany Region of
Italy. These cases are examined through their distinct governmental approaches
those are up-to-bottom approach of Polish and bottom-to-up approaches of Italian
governments. As the result, this interpretative- textual-comparative method allows
exposing the required mechanisms of agri-tourism planning approach for Turkey.
DEFINITION OF AGRI-TOURISM CONCEPT IN LITERATURE
Essentially, agri-tourism is defined as a branch of rural tourism in the related
literature and there are several definitions of the term according to the aim of
benefitting from agri-tourism in practice. Agri-tourism as a word is constituted of
uniting the words of agriculture and tourism; thus it is a type of tourism activity
incorporating the agriculture and tourism activities. ‘First of all it is essential to
explain about the confussion on the usage of the several terms, which are taking
place in the literature for describing the notion; before examining the various
definitions of agri-tourism. In the literature, there are several terms utilising for
each other instead of agri-tourism’2. The terms such as agrotourism/agro-tourism,
farm-based tourism, tourism on the farm and agriteinment/agri-teinment all have
the same meanings that mean agri-tourism.
‘Agri-tourism refers to an enterprise at a working farm, ranch or agricultural
plant conducted for the enjoyment of visitors that generates income for the owner.
Agricultural tourism refers to the act of visiting a working farm or any horticultural
or agricultural operation for the purpose of enjoyment, education or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation that also adds to economic viability’3.
According to the ‘A Guide for Local Governments and Indiana Farmers’
document, Indiana State Department of Agriculture, agri-tourism ‘is generally
understood to be a business model that links agricultural production/processing
with tourism in order to attract visitors onto a farm, forest, or the agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining and/or educating the visitors and generating
income for the farm, forest, or business owner. Durydiwka4 presents both the agritourism and rural tourism as a factor of the activation the rural areas in Poland.
Nowadays, there are various definitions of rural development programs of the
governments by the verified approaches to this agricultural and touristic activity.
One of these approaches, a sustainable way of economic survival in agricultural
regions, is the mostly accepted one in the literature. It is the approach of integration
among sustainable development, sustainable tourism and sustainable agriculture
principals2. According to Ivona5, ‘Rural tourism should be seen as a potential tool
for conservation and sustainability, rather than as an urbanising and development
814
tool’. ‘Agri-tourism includes any income-generating activity conducted on a
working farm or ranch for the enjoyment and education of visitors. It includes the
interpretation of the natural, cultural, historical, and environmental assets of the
land and people working on it6.
AGRI-TOURISM PLANNING AND AGRICULTURAL LAND CONSERVATION
Agricultural land is a category of ‘resource land’ in every sense of that term7. In
other words, agricultural lands are multidimensional resources those embracing
social, spatial, economic, ecologic and cultural aspects. Conserving agricultural
land is mostly the seen as the conservation of arable lands through the classical
point of view. However, in the world there are large amounts of agricultural lands
those are under the threats of deficiencies such as unproductiveness, disadvantageous locational reasons and/or income profits.
Rural tourism is one of the sectors benefitting for sustainability of rural areas
through rural development policies. ‘Well-developed agri-tourism systems in
rural areas have the potential to reverse negative economic trends by bringing in
visitors and creating new jobs and local business ventures for rural residents. For
those unfamiliar with the concept, agri-tourism is a hybrid concept that merges
elements of two complex industries – agriculture and travel/tourism – to open up
new, profitable markets for farm products and services and provide travel experience
for a large regional market’8. Agri-tourism includes the planning instruments of
sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism those are the elements of sustainable
rural development. Figure 1 shows the relationship between sustainable rural development, sustainable agriculture, sustainable tourism and agri-tourism planning.
Fig. 1. Sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism components of sustainable rural development
constitute the main principles of agri-tourism planning
Not only in Europe, almost in all developed countries of the world, rural solutions are produced to solve the problems through the local potentials of the area
or region. In the recent European approaches of rural development issue, rural
traditions and all type of rural materials are noticed and accepted as the tourism
goods. The development process of rural tourism in EU developed in a parallel
way to the development process of rural development approach and presented the
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supplementary role of rural tourism as on decreasing the regional inequalities and
increasing the employment in the disadvantageous areas.
In Table 1, Knickel and Renting9 identify the rural development issue according to two elements those are categorised through cultural landscapes and regional
identity and bio-energy production. Table 1 demonstrates the multi-functional
characteristics of rural economy that presents development and diversification of
non-agricultural sectors as one of the non-agricultural element of rural development. It is seen that natural resources maintenance is presented as the environmental
element of rural development approach that also contains conservation of land as
being one of the crucial components of natural resources.
Table 1. Rural development issue9
Rural develop- Environment
ment elements
1. Cultural
– Maintenance of
landscapes
natural resources
and regional and the diversity of
identity
cultural landscapes
2. Bio-energy – Reduction of air
production
pollution in conjunction with the production of energy crops
– Increasing crop
diversity
Agriculture
Rural development
– Marketing of agricultural products with
a regional image
– Processing and marketing at regional level
– Regional business
marketing
– Short food chains from
producer to consumer
– High quality food
products
– Development of rural
(green) tourism
– Diversification of
agricultural production
into non-food crops
– Product innovations
– New secondary
products and farmbased processing
technologies
– Development and
diversification of nonagricultural sectors
– Spin-off (multiplier)
effects in rural business
– ‘Seedbed capacity’ of
farming for new economic activities
Data source: Ref. 3.
METHOD
Agri-tourism planning in Lublin region of Poland. ‘Lublin region locates at the east
of Poland with a dominant agriculture sector. 57% of the total lands of Lublin region
are agricultural, 23% are forest areas and 20% are the other lands’2. ‘According
to the 2007 year of Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there
are about 246 000 small farms with the average land area of 6.9 ha per farm and
sector is in the tendency of development with the encouragements of EU financial
support programmes and 75% of the agri-tourism farms are operated by rural
women’2. According to Szymoniuk10, in Lublin Region there are 11 associations
and 300 agri-tourism farms offer 2500 beds for tourists per year.
816
In Poland, not only the rural tourism, each type of tourism is planned and
managed by the national administration, therefore the role of the regional institutions is not regulative; they are just the informative units for local people. The
Regional Chamber of Tourism and Consortium of the Tourist Organisation act
as the responsible institutions for the development of rural tourism in the region.
Lublin region agri-tourism planning practice model is an example for up-to-bottom
governmental management.
Demirbas Topcu2 determined 5 main planning mechanisms of developing
agri-tourism in an agricultural region through the Lublin Region case those are:
1. Legislative- regulative support mechanism: Polish Ministry of Sport and
Tourism (UKFIT) and European Union PHARE Programme constitute the legislative-regulative mechanism of Lublin region agri-tourism development planning;
2. Financial support mechanism: European Union is the financial supporter
of Polish government agri-tourism projects in Lublin Region;
3. Monitoring mechanism: National administrative monitoring units;
4. Action mechanism: Agri-tourism clusters;
5. Human resources mechanism: Owners of agri-tourism farms, land owners.
In Fig. 2 Topcu analyses the roles and relations of planning mechanisms of
agri-tourism sector in Poland2.
Fig. 2. Role and relations of planning mechanisms of agri-tourism sector in Poland2
817
Agri-tourism planning in Tuscany region of Italy. According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2005) data, ‘the numbers of
farms offering some kind of tourist services has doubled to 12 500 units in 2003
with a turnover of 750 000 million Euro, 100 000 units of accommodation, 7500
units of restaurants, 930 units of camping facilities and 1 520 units of horse riding’11.
According to Sonnino (2004), ‘agri-tourism is developed in the Tuscany region
as a complementary element for the income. Agricultural product diversification,
adding value to the products and direct marketing constitutes the cores of agritourism in Tuscany and the regional law introduces the notion as an opportunity
and a challenge for rural areas’.
In Italy, agri-tourism sector is decided to benefit for disadvantageous regions
by the decisions of national and regional administrations and EU financial supports.
Italian agri-tourism model is based on an agricultural production that is not just a
tourism activity, but an agricultural event due to aim of protecting the agricultural
lands according to the Italian national law. However, it is seen the diversification
of tourism activities in Italian rural regions2. In Fig. 3, Topcu2 analyses the Tuscany region agri-tourism planning process through the levels of the mechanisms.
Fig. 3. Analysis of the Tuscany region agri-tourism planning process through the levels of the planning mechanisms
818
Tuscany region is a success example for bottom-to-up planning approaches.
Regional administration has the key role within all the levels of the planning process. There are three legislative-regulative mechanisms those are EU LEADER
Programme, related Italian national laws and regional laws. EU LEADER Programme provides financial resources to local projects and directs the regional
administration for distribution of the financial resources. Also, a national law
regulates the fiscal regime for the agri-tourism farms through not reducing but
simplification of the taxes2.
RESULTS
In this study, agri-tourism development process is reviewed through two comparative examples for determining the planning mechanisms of agri-tourism. By
the study, it is exposed that there are five main planning mechanisms those have
different roles in agri-tourism planning process. It is also seen that by the same
planning mechanisms agri-tourism should be planned through different approaches.
Topcu2 defined these mechanisms as:
1. Legislative-Regulative Support Mechanism;
2. Financial Support Mechanism;
3. Monitoring Mechanism;
4. Action Mechanism;
5. Human Resources Mechanism.
These mechanisms have the same roles in both up-to-bottom or bottom-toup governmental approaches. However, according to the Tuscany case, it is seen
that bottom to up approach is more effective in providing a strong agri-tourism
planning sector. Because of the identity of being local initiative, stronger local
governments have more effective roles in agri-tourism planning by serving the
necessary services.
In Table 2, Lublin and Tuscany regions agri-tourism planning practices are
compared for exposing the differences and similarities of the two different planning approaches of agri-tourism planning.
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Table 2. Differences and similarities between Lublin and Tuscany Regions agri-tourism planning
approaches
Criteria/Differences
Bottom-up approach
Relationship between tourism and
agriculture
Regional image
Diversification in tourism product
Share of agricultural tourism in overall tourism sector
Legislative-regulative mechanism
Lublin region
weak
weak
Tuscany region
strong
stromg
weak
low
very low
strong
high
moderate/ increasing
specialised for rural land
conservation
EU LEADER programme +
national government
Monitoring mechanism
Action mechanism
Human resources mechanism
specialised for
tourism sector
EU PHARE programme+ national
government
central monitoring
weak
weak
Criteria/Similarities
Size of agri-tourism farms
Tradition of rural tourism
small
long time
small
long time
Financing mechanism
local monitoring
strong
strong
CONCLUSIONS
According to Topcu2, it should be generally said that ‘agri-tourism development
is based on four related groups that are the public sector, private sector, NGOs
and the local people. These four actors are complementary elements of the system by supporting each other through the cooperative studies of these groups to
achieve five main planning mechanisms examined in this study’. It is a certainty
that, establishment of these planning mechanisms is not adequate by itself for the
establishment of a strong agri-tourism sector. Entrepreneurship behaviour of local
societies, having the skills of being a tourism enterpreneur and acting together of
local people are the other three effective functions for the establishment of the
sector. However, it is the significant responsibilty of both the local and central
governments of acquiring the five main planning mechanisms. Establishment of
such an alternative sector is possible through the common work and policies of
both Turkish Ministries of Culture and Tourism and Food, Agriculture and Livestock. These ministries have to be act with local governments in the processes of
preparation of the agri-tourism projects.
Today, a few primary agri-toursim initiatives in Turkey are weak steps due
to weak rural tourism comprehension and strong up to bottom governmental approach. On the other hand, providing sustainability of agricultural lands is one of
820
the vital problems in Turkey. Agricultural lands are especailly face to face with
unproductiveness, constraints of urban land speculation and rapid decrease in
agricultural labour force. Therefore, especially for the economically unproductive agricultural lands, alternative solution ways such as agri-tourism have to be
researched. In other words, it has to be benefitted from the adding value methods
for the agricultural areas those are under the weak conditions with regard to agricultural production in Turkey.
REFERENCES
1. D. MARCAUILLER: Toward Integrative Tourism Planning in Rural America. J Plan Lit, (11),
337 (1997).
2. D. TOPCU: Agri-tourism as a New Element of Country Planning. Master Thesis, Middle East
Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 2007.
3. American Farm Bureau Federation Web Page, 2004. Annual Meeting Highlights, http: //www.
fb.org, last visited: 10.12.2015.
4. M. DURYDIWKA: Tourism as a Factor of the Activation in the Rural Areas in Poland. ACTA
Universitatis Carolinae Geographica, (1), 53 (2003).
5. A. IVONA: Farm Toursim and Rural Development, a Successful Combination? A Local Experience. 2003. https://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/867/1/f6ivona.pdf., last
visited: 11.10.2015.
6. H. GEORGE, E. RILLA: Agri-tourism Enterprises on Your Farm or Ranch: Where to Start.
University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication, (8334),
(2008). http://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8334.pdf, last visited: 14.01.2015.
7. D. P. WHEELER: The Conservation of Agricultural Land Resources. 1982. http://www.georgewright.org/021wheeler.pdf, last visited: 27.08.2015.
8. M. RAMSEY, N. A. SCHAUMLEFFEL: Agri-tourism and Rural Economic Development.
Indiana Business Review, 6 (2006).
9. K. KNICKEL, H. RENTING: Methodical and Conceptual Issues in the Study of Multifunctionality and Rural Development. Sociologica Ruralis, 40 (4), 512 (2000).
10. B. SZYMONIUK: Rural Clusters in the Lublin Region (Eastern Poland) Good Solution for a
Young Democracy. In: Proc. of the 43rd Congress of the European Regional Science Association, Finland, August 27–31, 2003, http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa03/cdrom/
papers/410.pdf., last visited: 16.01.2016.
11. OECD: New Approaches to Rural Policy, Lessons from around the World. OECD Publishing,
Paris, 2005.
Received 11 February 2016
Revised 18 March 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 822–824 (2016)
Information
B.EN.A.
Balkan Environmental Association
CONCLUSIONS
1st INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AND SUSTAINABILITY
28–29 May 2016, Tulcea, Romania
The 1st International Workshop on Environmental Protection and Sustainability,
organised by Balkan Environmental Association (B.EN.A.) and Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, under the auspices of the National
Authority for the Scientific Research and Innovation, was held during 28–29 May
2016, in Tulcea, Romania.
The workshop sessions were attended by more than 80 scientists and experts
from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and USA, presenting the results of their recent research work on
workshop-relevant topics.
The workshop was honoured by the president of Tulcea County Council,
followed by the Governor of Danube Delta, the representative of the Balkan Environmental Association Executive Board and the Danube Delta National Institute
for Research and Development, that hosted the workshop.
The technical content of the meeting was introduced by Dr. Marian Tudor,
the General Director of Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, and Dr. Mariana Golumbeanu, on behalf of the Executive Board of
B.EN.A. which introduced to the participants the event hosted by the National
Institute for Marine Research and Development ‘Grigore Antipa’, Constanta on
27th of May 2016, during which the room where many of the B.EN.A. activities
were held, was named ‘Prof. Dr. Fokion K. Vosniakos’, in a public ceremony. In
addition, Dr. Evangelos Papathanassiou, the Scientific Director of the Hellenic
822
Centre for Marine Research of Athens, Greece dedicated the Proceedings of the
FP7 PERSEUS Project Closing Conference – Integrated Marine Research in the
Mediterranean and Black Sea – to the memory of Prof. Vosniakos, chair of the
PERSEUS Advisory Board. Further opening remarks, addressing the participants
with talks relating the workshop thematic and expressing gratitude to the late Prof.
Dr. Fokion Vosniakos, were given by: Prof. Timothy Ehlinger from Wisconsin
University, USA; Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Fenice from the University of Tuscia,
Viterbo, Italy and Dr. Tania Zaharia, scientific director of the National Institute for
Marine Research and Development ‘Grigore Antipa’ Romania.
The workshop was structured in two parts – one dedicated to communications covering a large range a research fields: biodiversity assessment, aquatic
ecology, natural resources, ecological restoration, sustainable fundamental and
applied research on physics, chemistry, etc. in the management of environmental
concerns through planning and implementation/utilisation of environment-friendly
technologies in much needed sustainable infrastructures by the researchers and
experts in environmental sciences and management practices; and one field application in the Danube Delta.
The scientific program of the Workshop consisted of three sections, with a total
of 22 oral presentations, with extensive interdisciplinary approaches, followed by
wide discussions and comments by the audience.
During the first session, 6 presentations were given, dealing with different
scientific arguments, were well focused regarding the workshop topics and were
accompanied by interesting comments and discussions by the participants. The
presentations included an outline of the EU FP7 project ‘Perseus’, that was devoted
to investigating the selection and application of appropriate tools to assess the state
of South European marine environments.
In addition, other topics regarded: the complexity of social-ecological systems
for sustainable development, a new system to improve surface water quality by
aeration, criteria for differentiating patterns of natural resources management,
the problem of energy storage from solar and wind power plants and case studies
investigating the potentia of microorganisms from transition zones.
During the second session, 7 papers were presented, dealing with water management issues, economy and innovation. The world needs a safer water supply to
continue human life and water management programmes should provide the necessary steps and plans to decision makers. These steps can be organised as follows:
determine, analyse, assessment, monitoring, rise awareness, select priorities and
also give chances, funds, support to new innovative ideas. The participants gave
much feedback to the e-waste pollution, innovation platforms for environmental
and health decision makers, water management and ecohydrological approach, assessment of industrial processing impacts on water bodies, innovative management
tool for sustainable Marine Protecd Areas (MPAs) conservation. These reactions
823
show that future topics of BENA could be focused also on urban mining and innovation platforms on environmental and health collaboration.
The third session comprised 9 oral presentations, focusing mainly on marine
and freshwater environments. The first two presentations covered the application of Ecosystem-based Responsive Fisheries Management System (RFMS) in
the frame of several European research projects (FP7 EcoFishMan, WhiteFish,
MareFrame, PrimeFish, ClimeFish and SAF21). This approach entails including socio-economics and policy aspects in the process of managing fisheries in
European seas, in a dynamic co-creation process. Additionally, talks covered the
following topics: abnormalities/malformations recorded in turbot specimens caught
in Bulgarian and Crimean Black Sea waters; summary of the current state of the
main components of the marine environment of the Romanian Black Sea in 2015,
an alternative in controlling invasive species in wetlands, which is of great importance due to their potential impact on the native flora and fauna, ways towards a
sustainable sturgeon fishery in the Lower Danube Region, scientific contributions
of the Danube Floodrisk to the H2020 Floodserve project, which aims to enhance
ecosystem services for flood mitigation, assessing the genetic diversity of endangered species in the Danube Delta area, ways of strengthening the Natura 2000
network in Romania, using the advantages of the GIS.
The scientific knowledge and technical competence of BENA experts in all
aspects of environmental management issues are always available to provide support to the authorities and stakeholders involved in the decision-making process
in environmental protection in our region, without imposing economic burdens.
During the workshop it was possible to interact freely and exchange ideas
among the participants. It represented an excellent opportunity for discussing
newly developed tools for environmental management supporting environmental
and sustainability directions.
In conclusion, all the oral presentations fulfilled the goals of the workshop
very succesfully and increased the visibility of BENA members, and related Institutions, to connect research activities at the European and international levels.
The worksop activities concluded with a field day on the Danube Delta having the possibilitilty to understand the peculiar Delta environment; its integration
with local population and anthropogenic activities; problems and development
perspectives of a unique and wide geographic area showing a paramount importance within European natural resources.
30th of May 2016, Tulcea, Romania
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 2, 825–827 (2016)
Information
CONCLUSIONS
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
GREDIT2016 – GREEN DEVELOPMENT,
INFRASTRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY
Skopje, 31 March – 2 April 2016
The International Conference, ‘GREDIT2016 – Green Development, Infrastructure,
Technology’ co-organised by the Balkan Environmental Association (B.EN.A.) and
the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy of St. Cyril and Methodius University
in Skopje was held during 30 March–2 April 2016.
The conference sessions were attended by more than 200 scientists and experts
from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Romania,
Serbia, Turkey and the host country FYR Macedonia, presenting the results of
their recent research work on conference-relevant topics.
The conference was honoured with the presence of the Mayor of Skopje, followed by the State Secretary of the National Ministry of Environment and the Vicerector of St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje that hosted the conference.
The technical content of the meeting was introduced by Dr. Caner Zanbak of
BENA Executive Board while Prof. Dr. Mihail Kochubovski, head of the B.EN.A.
National Office and Dr. Mariana Golumbeanu of the Executive Board of B.EN.A.
addressed the participants with talks about life, science, achievements and heritage
of late Dr. Josif Tanevski and late Prof.Dr. Fokion Vosniakos. All the participants
paid their homage to the late Prof. Dr. Fokion Vosniakos, founding President of
B.EN.A., who suddenly passed away on March 16th, 2016 who has been the driving force for scientific and social endeavour in the Balkan Region for almost two
decades, with a minute of silence.
The objective of the Conference was to emphasize the importance of green
approaches in management of environmental concerns through planning and
825
implementation/utilisation of environment-friendly technologies in much needed
sustainable infrastructures by the researchers and experts in environmental sciences
and management practices. The scientific program of the conference consisted of
six sections with a significant number of papers and posters, proceeded with four
invited lectures at the Plenary Session.
The Plenary Lectures, delivered at the onset of the Conference, on World
Energy Issues and Advanced Nuclear Fusion, Green Infrastructure – Ecological
Networks, Integration of Environmental Values in Land Use Planning, Air Pollution from Transport in Urban Areas – Case Study Skopje, Urban Zones and Toxic
Waste carried special messages to the conference audience.
In the Oral Presentation Sessions, 12 keynote lectures and around 100 papers
with extensive interdisciplinary approaches were presented and opened to discussion under six specific thematic sessions below:
● Air – Water – Soil Pollution, Risk Assessment – Sustainable Development
● Renewable Energy Resources, and Management of Natural Resources
● Green Smart Cities / Societies – Green Architecture, and Landscape Design
● Agricultural Ecology, Food Quality Safety, Public Health Environmental
Medicine
● Management of Urban and Industrial Waste
● Climate Change – Biodiversity – Energy Efficiency.
During the six oral sessions, a total of 13 keynote presentations were made
on topics emphasising some of the most relevant aspects of the discussed topics. Important in the same way, around 144 poster papers were presented on the
conference topics, mainly jointly authored by young researchers and scholars of
the Balkan area, which revealed the importance of young researchers training
and involvement, following once again the tradition of B.EN.A and of B.EN.A.
conferences for the last fifteen years.
A round table on Higher Education and Industrial Environment also took
place, while the coverage by local and national media was quite wide; especially,
despite the fact that – on the same days – national politics issues were driving the
attention of the public opinion and media in Skopje.
Remarks about the different sessions are as follows: Oral Session 1 (Air – Water – Soil Pollution, Risk Assessment – Sustainable Development) consisted of 14
oral papers which delivered a wealth of information about current development in
that important research area in the Balkans and in Europe. Oral Session 2 consisted
in 11 presentations, concerning Renewable Energy Resources, and Management of
Natural Resources, while Oral Session 3 (Green Smart Cities / Societies – Green
Architecture, and Landscape Design) provided a medium for the participants to
listen to the 11 presentations on the main theme of the Conference.
The second day of the Conference on April 1st, Session 4, covered Agricultural
Ecology, Food Quality Safety, Public Health Environmental Medicine with 12
826
presentations, while Session 5, concerning Management of Urban and Industrial
Waste, again included 12 oral presentations. Likewise, Session 6 concluded the
technical sessions of the conference, with 13 presentations regarding Climate
Change – Biodiversity – Energy Efficiency topics.
Another specific topic emphasised at the conference was the application of
landscape architecture, which nowadays is more and more necessary for the sustainable development of the cities in the appropriate way in order to respect the
environment and to be more friendly to the people.
The Environmental Education and Training and raising Public Awareness on
Public Health, Climate Changes, Environmental Economics with the Urban Planning and the Land Use matters should be the current and future trends and targets
of our societies for a better life on this planet. B.EN.A. should contribute positively
to the above topics. In this regard, the inclusion of Landscape Architecture within
the key indicator topics proves the enhancement of B.EN.A. efforts to improve
long-range cooperation in the Balkan area.
As a conclusionary remark of the conference, it should be born in mind that
the economic crisis should not be used as a justification to let the environment
unprotected and without sustainable management. Therefore, emergencies of
different kinds must be taken into account and countermeasures must be put in
force in a quite short time. The scientific knowledge and technical competence of
B.EN.A. experts in all aspects of environmental health issues are always available
to provide support to the authorities and stakeholders involved in the decisionmaking process in environmental protection in the Balkan area, without imposing
economic burdens.
The GREDIT2016 conference was a great success in terms of the large number of paper submittals with a negligible amount of no-shows and commendable
flawless organisation. All the presenters did cope with the limited time allocations
given to them to present their findings of research projects followed with fruitful
discussions either during the sessions or at the coffee breaks and also at the social
events during the conference.
Selected papers of the conference will be published in the Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology (JEPE), the official journal of B.EN.A. and
the remaining papers will be published by a select publication of the Faculty of
Technology and Metallurgy of St. Cyril and Methodius University and five other
international publications managed by the B.EN.A. member institutions.
3 April 2016
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Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology – JEPE of B.EN.A. (www.jepe.gr)
Call for papers
Rapid Publication Journal
INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS
The language of the Journal is exclusively English. Contributions will be considered
only if they have not been previously published or been submitted elsewhere. The
manuscripts must be submitted only by active B.EN.A. members (at least one-year
old member) and should be submitted only in electronic form. Receipt of a contri
bution for consideration will be acknowledged immediately by the Editorial Office.
The acknowledgement will indicate the paper reference number assigned to the contribution. Authors are particularly asked to quote this number on all subsequent correspondence. The manuscripts are subjected to preliminary evaluation by the Editorial
Board, and after selecting and receiving the referees consent they are forwarded to
the appointed referees. The period of evaluation is 2–4 months. In case of negative
report, the manuscripts are processed to other referees.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Authors are requested to prepare the manuscripts considering the following options:
double-space, 2.5-cm margins on all sides, Times New Roman font, and ca. 60 characters per line and 30 lines per page or about 1800 characters per page (standard
page). Use an English keyboard layout and the Symbol Font for Greek letters and
mathematical symbols. All tables, figures, with their legends must be inserted within
the text following their citation.
The length of manuscripts should be as follows: articles – max. 7 pages (not more than
13 standard pages including references, tables and figures), for review articles – max.
10 pages (not more than 18 standard pages), and for short communications – max. 3
pages (not more than 7 standard pages).
ORGANISATION
The title page should include the title, authors and their affiliations, complete address
of the author to whom correspondence should be sent and an Abstract.
Abstract – should not exceed 200 words and should give the subjects and conclusions
of the article and all results of general interest. References and compound numbers
should not be mentioned in the Abstract. Maximum five keywords should follow the
Abstract.
Aims – should include brief and clear remarks outlining the specific purpose of the
work.
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Background – a short summary of the background material including numbered ref
erences.
Experimental – should be sufficiently detailed (but concise) to guarantee reproducibility.
Results and Discussion – should indicate the logic used for the interpretation of
data without lengthy speculations. Authors submitting material on purely theoretical
problems or on a new experimental technique might unite the sections Experimental,
Results and Discussion into one section under the heading Discussion.
Conclusions – short summary of the main achievements of the research.
References – should be typed at the end of the manuscript sheet and numbered in the
order of their first mention in the text. They should be indicated by superscript Arabic
numerical in the text. Abbreviations of journal titles should follow the style used in
Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index, 1970 edition and supplements. Sequence
and punctuation of references should be:
1. F. K. VOSNIAKOS, K. S. FARMAKIS: Radioactive Releases from Nuclear and
Thermoelectric Power Plant Operation and Their Effect to the Environment of
Northern Greece. J EnvironProt Ecol, 1 (2), 255 (2000).
2. E. P. PAPANIKOLAU, P. KRITIDIS: Contamination of the Agricultural Land of
Greece with Cs-137 and Its Effect on Crops. In: Intern. Conf. on Radioactivity in
the Mediterranean Areas, Barcelona, May 1988, 457–466.
3. K. TASCHNER: Environmental Management and Audit Scheme. EEB Industry
Handbook (Eds C. Key, K. Tashner). Brussels, Belgium, 1998.
In preparing the list of References attention must be drawn to the following points:
(a) Names of all authors of cited publications should be given;
(b) Only the initials of first and middle names should be given.
Tables – each bearing a brief title should be numbered in Arabic numerals and placed
in order of their mention in the text. Tables must be created using table format feature.
Figures and captions – figures must be numbered consecutively together with captions. Illustrations must fit the format of the Journal and should not exceed 12×18 cm.
For best results, illustrations are to be black and white, and submitted in the actual size
at which they will appear in the Journal.
Chemical structures should be produced with the use of a drawing program such as
ChemDraw or ChemWindows, and other graphics in Microsoft Excell or Microsoft
PowerPoint format. Particular attention is drawn to the use of SI system of units, and
IUPAC recommendations regarding symbols, units, and terminology.
Chemical equations must be supplied using equation editor.
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts should be submitted only in electronic form. Submission not in electronic form may face a delay in publication. All text (including the title page, abstract,
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keywords, all sections of the manuscript, figure captions, and references) and tabular
material should be in one file. The manuscript must be prepared using MS Word 6.0
and above. Manuscripts in PDF are not accepted.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts should be sent to the following address:
Prof. Dr. G. Vasilikiotis
BALKAN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION (B.EN.A.)
Alexander Technological Educational Institution, P.O. Box 141, 57 400 Sindos,
Thessaloniki, GREECE
E-mail: bena@gen.teithe.gr
http://www.jepe.gr; http://www.ge.teithe.gr/~bena
All manuscripts are subject to critical review and the names of referees will not be
disclosed to the authors. The manuscript sent back to the author for revision should be
returned within 2 months. Otherwise it will be considered withdrawn. Revised manu
scripts are generally sent back to the original referees for comments, unless (in case
of minor revisions) the editors accept them without seeking further opinions. Proofs
should be corrected and returned as soon as possible.
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