Zeolite was synthesized via alkaline fusion from the tailings dam sediments of a sand mine in southern Brazil. The sediments are composed of a mixture of illite, kaolinite, vermiculite, quartz and K-feldspar yielding a silty-loam texture. The extent of zeolite synthesis was tested under varied NaOH:sediment ratio, temperature and fusion time. At the NaOH:sediment ratio of 8:5 and fusion temperature

Artisanal mining activities in Enyigba community and its environs have become a major environmental problem, which exposes the water, soil, and vegetation within the environment to potential toxic elements (PTEs). However, the lateral extent that the PTEs have spread within the environment has not been ascertained. It is important to determine the lateral extent of the PTEs within the environment to

Self-potential (SP) method is one of the most non-expensive and unsophisticated geophysical methods. However, its application limits absence of reliable interpreting methodology, first for the complex geological–environmental conditions. The typical disturbances appearing in the SP method and ways for their removing (elimination) are discussed. Some brief review of the available interpretation methods

The original article has been published inadvertently with some errors in figures and their caption (Figs. 1, 2, 3) and errors only in captions of figures (Figs. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9), also errors in tables and their caption (Tables 1, 5, 6, 7) and errors only in captions of tables (Tables 2, 3).

Better understanding the impacts of land use changes on storm-based sedigraphs in semi-humid and humid regions is critical for their soil erosion control. Based on the LULC, soil, precipitation, evaporation, flow and sediment data in the 1990 s to 2000 s from the Dapoling catchment of the upper Huaihe river basin, land use changes from the 1990 s to 2000 s were examined, storm-based sedigraphs under

The application of chemical and organic fertilizers to agricultural lands increases nutrient pools and affects soil and water quality. Understanding changes in groundwater quality due to the anthropogenic activities over time is important to human and ecosystem health. In 2017, we resampled 58 wells monitored in the year 2000 to evaluate the rate of changes in groundwater quality and water quality

Groundwater represents a vast and highly important source of drinking water. As a part of the hydrological cycle, it can only be managed by understanding the components that make up its vulnerability profile. These are referenced with anthropogenic influences related to pressures connected with land use and the ever-increasing conversion of land surface for urban use. The quality of groundwater can

Boundaries of densely populated areas can approach with time to old subsurface repositories of radioactive waste due to growth of settlement territories. Protective isolation of the repositories was sometimes insufficient. Penetration of groundwater into the repository and discharge of the polluted water into neighboring rivers can lead to radioactive pollution of water resources of the region. Special

This study investigated the regional distribution of trace elements in 395 soil samples in the vicinity of the industrial complex of Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia, which comprises former lead and copper smelters, an integrated steelworks and associated industries. Total trace element concentrations in the soil samples showed the extent of contamination by Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, As, Se, Sn and Sb

The aim of this study was to develop a systematic method to analyze the rock failure mechanism under stress unloading conditions. In this method, three types of basic tests (Brazilian splitting, direct shear, and three-point bending) were used to extract acoustic emission (AE), dissipative energy, and fracture parameters to analyze the failure mechanism under stress unloading. The key parameters are

The Sultanate of Oman overlooks three water bodies: The Arabian Sea, the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Gulf with a coastal face of more than 3000 km. Due to the recent global climate change, storm intensity has increased and inundation of coastal areas is inevitable. The pattern of coastal flooding depends on the geomorphologic and oceanographic characteristics of the coastal zone. The current research

In this study, the water leakage susceptible areas in a loess multi-arch tunnel were examined, providing a basis for the prevention and control of water leakage disease during the operation periods of multi-arch tunnels in loess areas. Through the field investigation of the leakage in loess multi-arch tunnel, the leakage mainly focuses on three joints: construction joints, expansion joints, and settlement

Climate change projections indicate an increase in intense rainfall events with consequent river flooding, which could lead to devastating natural disasters with serious consequences for the quality of life of populations. The main objective of this work was to determine and analyze the flooding potential of watersheds by integrating morphometric attributes and the HAND (Height Above Nearest Drainage)

Mining and quarrying for minor minerals impart significant economic, environmental and social impacts in and around the affected areas. The problem is severe in the small river catchments as the effective area available for assimilating negative impacts of the activity is minimal, compared to large river basins. To address these issues, an investigation has been carried out in two river basins of southern

An integrated approach involving geophysical and physicochemical methods was undertaken to assess the potential availability of groundwater and its quality was carried out at Akole, Abeokuta Southwestern Nigeria. A combination of electrical resistivity and natural electric field methods were used in delineating the sub-surface lithology, determining potential groundwater-bearing zones, and the potential

The contaminated soil by mining activities could be transported through the erosive effect of wind. In this study, human health risk was assessed for exposure to heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) present in surface soil of Irankouh zinc–lead mine, (the nearest mine to Isfahan, Iran) as one of the main dust storm sources. The effect of improper mining waste and tailings management in the Irankouh zinc–lead

One of the most common geological hazards in mining and civil projects is the occurrence of instability in the rock slopes. Rock slope behavior is mainly influenced by the presence of discontinuities in the rock masses. Therefore, the determination of shear strength parameters for these weak surfaces is of particular importance. There are various shear strength criteria for estimating the shear strength

Historic sulphidic Pb–Zn mining catchments at Leadhills and Wanlockhead, in the south of Scotland, UK have a legacy of mining of PbS (galena) and ZnS (sphalerite) from the twelfth century to the 1930s. The mining activities created tailing piles, ponds, adits and contaminated soils that contribute leaching and surface runoff of potentially toxic elements, particularly lead (Pb), which impact on the

Rivers are one of the main sources to supply sand and gravel for construction projects. Depending on river morphology and hydraulic characteristics, its sediment transport capacity, and mining operation method, the extraction of river bed materials may affect its ecosystem through bank and bed erosion. To advance the mechanisms of river pit infilling, the effects of various parameters (i.e., the distance

Identification of the sensitive regions to soil erosion can be the foremost step in controlling the vigorous pace of soil degradation in agricultural lands. This study employs individual and ensemble models including compound factor (CF), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution-analytical hierarchy process (TOPSIS-AHP) for identifying the

A Bayesian belief network (BBN) was implemented to assess environmental vulnerability in the Itatiaia National Park (INP). Information of soils, land use/cover, climate, relief and parent material was used to create the BBN, and the input nodes were those presumed as having a direct influence on the environmental vulnerability analysis. The literature review and a participatory approach were the basis

Internal erosion is a common form of damage in geomaterial structures that is caused by the migration of soil particles under a seepage flow. The geometrical characteristics of soil particles is regarded as the intrinsic factor for internal instability; thus, in this study, a network modelling technique is formulated for this purpose. The soil particles and pores are generalised into a network model

Due to the complexity of the geological conditions in the ecologically fragile mining area in western China, water and sand inrush disasters during the mining process are controlled by various factors. Based on the geographic information system (GIS) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a suitability analysis system was developed to assess the suitability of aquifer-protection mining in the study

To investigate the hydrogeological characteristics of the karst trough zone in China, two groundwater systems (Yuquandong [YQD] and Migongquan [MGQ]) in Sixi Valley, western Hubei, were discussed. Seven groups of tracer experiments were conducted, with consideration of regional topography, geology and hydrogeology. By means of high-resolution continuous monitors, tracer breakthrough curves (BTC) of

Water quality in the Agan River catchment (West Siberia, Russia) was assessed based on data obtained between 1993 and 2017 at 25 monitoring stations. The purpose of the research was to assess the impact of oil field development on the quality of surface waters. Monitoring stations were located in the oil fields characterized by various levels of impact, from “moderate” (number of wells < 0.5 per 1

This paper demonstrates the results of a long-term study on the effect of water saturation on the mechanical properties and failure modes of tuffs and andesites. As an initial step, an extensive literature survey has been performed about the water effect on mechanical strength of rocks. Afterwards, experimental studies have been initiated and five different igneous rock samples (three tuffs and two

The present study has been conducted to evaluate the vulnerability of urban spaces to earthquake hazard using the catastrophe theory in the context of geographic information system. In the evaluation method based on the catastrophe theory, the importance of each criterion is calculated using the internal mechanism of system, so subjectivism resulted from decision makers' judgment decreases. This methodology

The heterogeneity of fractured and karstic aquifers is generally ignored, and not having an understanding of the hydrogeological evolution and functioning of these could potentially result in wrong water resource management practices. The geophysical methods are useful tools for hydrogeological investigations, helping in the detection of porosity and permeability zones in the subsoil that are important

Unloading zones are formed in shallow slopes after rock mass relaxation and crack extension. Generally, slope unloading assessment depends on the traditional methods mainly related to the phenomena. However, unloading is a process of energy release. Based on the fracture mechanics and the statistical theory of rock mass structure, a theoretical analysis was performed to establish the relationship between

Abstract To improve management and conservation in ungauged catchments in northern Iran, we developed regional models to predict annual runoff and discharge using multi-year time series from 20 gauged catchments in Ardabil, Province. We employed correlation, Ward cluster analysis, and principal component analysis to reduce the total parameter set (69 parameters represent catchment geometry, geology

During coal excavation, coal pillars can undergo shear failure due to repeated loading and unloading of mining-induced stress, and this failure may be followed by plastic flow. Change in the permeability of the coal pillar under plastic flow is closely related to the loading path. In this study, the development of the permeability of a coal seam under plastic flow was investigated by conducting permeability

This paper demonstrates the application of a recently developed free and open-source GIS-integrated hydrochemical–hydrogeological analysis tool (named AkvaGIS) for the management and interpretation of hydrogeological data with respect to a coastal aquifer system. The aforementioned tool is composed of a geospatial database implemented in Spatialite, complemented with a set of developed tools for the

Pattern analysis can estimate dune formation ages, judge wind conditions and extract environmental signals from the common pattern parameters of active dune field. For the extraterrestrial dune fields, this method is a great advantage while many in situ and laboratory techniques cannot do anything. An ideal location for the large-scale pattern analysis test is the Badain Jaran desert where the tallest

Correction to: Environ

In recent years, groundwater level in Arak plain aquifer, Iran, declines due to overabstraction and sustainable management of the aquifer is changed to a vital issue. Spatiotemporal variation groundwater quality associated with identifying hydrogeochemical characteristics is the goal of this research. In the current study, graphical methods results are compared to two distinct clustering methods, hierarchical

Naturally cooled granite specimens pretreated at 800 °C were separately subjected to conventional triaxial compression tests and triaxial confining pressure unloading tests under a constant deviatoric stress. Via these tests, the deformation characteristics of granite at different confining pressure unloading rates were explored. The research results showed that the granite specimens were more easily

Accurate knowledge of formation fracture pressure is essential to optimize well design at all stages of the field development. However, erroneous prediction of formation fracture pressure can lead to process safety incidents such as surface and underground blowouts. While fracture pressure prediction models have been developed for some sedimentary basins, it is difficult to transfer these models to

A loess accumulation dam in Ansai Area, Yan’an, Shaanxi province is selected as the research object, and the remolded soil of the dam body is taken as the test material to conduct the saturated loess indoor triaxial test. The test shows that the peak stress of saturated remolded loess increases with the enhancement of confining pressure and dry density, and the pore water pressure rises rapidly in

This paper presents new data on natural environmental radiation mapping in Meghalaya for the first time in India. Two alternate methods have been used to map (1) a regional low-density environmental radiation mapping by using radiation meters, (2) high-resolution radiation mapping of Shillong Basin using the data generated by an integrated litho- and pedo-geochemical sampling program using gamma ray

Acoustic tomography is an important test method in engineering geology and underground engineering, however, the problems of model parameterization, forward modeling and inversion in the process of tomographic imaging still need further study. In this work, the triangulation method of two-dimensional complex area was studied and the global algorithm of triangular ray tracing in two-dimensional complex

For rational solutions against seismic excitations of masonry bridges, the capability of 3D soil–structure interaction (SSI) modeling with experimental evidence has been insufficiently researched up to now. This is also valid for the effects of near- and far-fault earthquakes. Hence, the spectral responses measured by microtremors have been compared with the ones of 3D SSI analysis under the effects

The Paisuni River Basin forms the combined state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Madhya Pradesh (MP), India. It is an agricultural-dominated area in the flood plains where groundwater plays a crucial role for agricultural purpose. In the present study, an assessment of groundwater potential (GWP) zones is carried out using multi-criteria evaluation techniques. Different thematic maps such as landuse/landcover

The transport of rare earth elements (REEs) in surface runoff could have adverse ecological and public health impacts in some regions. In this study, the transport of REEs in a small watershed developed on coarse-grained granite in southern China (the Zhuxi Watershed) was analyzed using a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and an artificial rainfall experiment. The SWAT model was used to simulate

The aim of this study is the improvement of the TanDEM-X elevation model for future floodwater modeling by implementing surveyed road dams and the use of filter algorithms. Modern satellite systems like TanDEM-X deliver high-resolution images with a high vertical and horizontal accuracy. Nevertheless, regarding special usage they sometimes reach their limits in documenting important features that are

The groundwater cycle pattern in the arid and semi-arid regions is drastically affected by both natural condition changes and human activities, resulting in serious eco-geological environmental problems. This paper selected the south edge of the Junggar basin as a pilot area for the basin-scale assessment of groundwater renewal capacity. Assessment indicator system was first established, assessment

The first coal mining in India was started in the seventeenth century with an unplanned way in Raniganj coalfield, the coal capital of India. The coalfield was possessed by several small private companies which were nationalized in 1973. A part plan of Chanch/Victoria Area, Victoria West Colliery, BCCL, Raniganj Coalfield, India, indicates an underground coal mine gallery/goaf in the Begunia Coal-seam

The assessment of chronological evolution of the channel functional units is an imperative aspect to understand the channel avulsion nature and planform change. In this study, the channel functional units (channel, aggradational and abandoned) and their distinct micro-morphologies have been assessed through the landuse and landcover classification, terrain analysis, lithostratigraphic records and fluctuating

Rainfall and surface runoff are the two most important components, which control the groundwater recharge of the basin. The long-term groundwater recharge of an aquifer gets affected by the population growth, irregular agriculture activities and industrialization. Hence, estimation of rainfall-surface runoff is very much essential for proper groundwater management practices. In the present study, Soil

In many parts of the world, groundwater quality is decreasing due to urbanization industrialization and use of agricultures in rural areas. This subject has formed an urgent need to determine the suitability of groundwater for various purposes. The aim of this study is to determine a groundwater index for groundwater use for irrigation in agriculture. The study is carried out in an agricultural area;

A digital elevation model (DEM) is an essential dataset for many land feature analyses, such as geomorphological feature analyses, which are very important for many types of studies. The present study involved the evaluation of five of the most common DEMs and their derived geomorphological features in the Humrat Assahn basin. A 10-m reference DEM was generated for the study area from a contour map

Snout monitoring of the Gangotri glacier (Uttarakhand, India) during the ablation season (May to September) in years 2005 and 2015 by using rapid static and kinematic GPS survey reveals that the retreating rate has been comparatively more declined than shown by the earlier studies. Our study is based on the individual measurement by the remote sensing, added by the ground observations by using Differential

The Hunshandake Sandy Land (HSL) is a well-known water-rich sandy region in China that is home to many lakes. Most of these lakes are sustained by groundwater inflow. However, due to the limited hydrogeological survey data, the mechanism by which the lakes interact with groundwater is not well understood. Magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) is a geophysical method that has emerged in recent years that

Cases of closely spaced twin tunnels demonstrate that ground settlement above the 2nd tunnel, referred to as T2 constructed after the first tunnel (T1), exhibits pronounced differences from that above T1. The differences can be attributed to the disturbance induced by T1 construction. Based upon closed-form plasticity solutions for an unloading cylindrical cavity, this study employs subsurface settlement

In the present study, an experimental investigation was conducted to examine the effect of the size of additives on the improvement of collapsible soils. For this purpose, three collapsible soils with severe collapse potential were selected from Varamin Plain, Iran. The selected soils were then treated in the laboratory by the addition of alumina materials in two sizes of 70 nm (nano-alumina) and 685 nm

Pore structure is the key factor that affects the adsorption/desorption of coal. In order to study the change characteristics of pore structure in structural anisotropic coal under different impact loads, the low- temperature liquid nitrogen adsorption tests were carried out after the split Hopkinson bar (SHPB) impact, then the pore structure variation and fractal dimension were calculated and analyzed

With the increasing environmental pollution, access to clean water has become an important issue all over the world. Therefore, it is quite important to obtain new water resources or to use existing resources more effectively. In this regard, the usability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation use was investigated in Karabuk province in Turkey. The locations of wells in Karabuk province were determined

Contamination of agricultural soils with heavy metals is a growing global concern with an increase in anthropogenic activities. Despite local studies conducted, no accurate and comprehensive results about agricultural soils of Iran entirely and regarding the climate have been observed regarding heavy metal concentration. Therefore, the present study is aimed at determining a reliable heavy metal concentration

The Senguer River basin, located in central Argentinian Patagonia, has its headwater in the Andean Range and ends in extra-Andean Patagonian plains. Within this region, the water bodies may be affected by their localization and the climatic and hydrological seasonality. At the lower basin, there are higher temperatures, evaporation and human impact, and lower precipitation and land cover. In addition

Recently, researchers have conducted investigations with the possibility of utilising fly ash as a barrier material, which is justified by its chemical, physical and mechanical properties. The mean necessary characteristic, which should be tested is coefficient of permeability. The diversification of test methods and sample preparation techniques can significantly change test results. The purpose of

To achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive’s, the identification and reversal of significant upward trends in pollutant concentrations in groundwater is crucial. A statistically significant increase in a pollutant, groups of pollutants or pollution indicators in groundwater bodies, means an upward trend in concentration values, calculated using a recognized statistical method, at least