Urban land uses of all kinds are the constituent elements of the urban spatial structure. Because of the influence of economic and social factors, cities in general are characterized by the dynamic state of their elements over time. Urban functions occur in a certain way with different spatial patterns. Hence, urban planners and the relevant urban management teams should understand the future spatial pattern of these changes by resorting to quantitative models in spatial planning. This is to ensure that future predictions are made with a high level of accuracy so that appropriate strategies can be used to address the problems arising from such changes. The Markov chain method is one of the quantitative models used in spatial planning to analyze time series based on current values to predict the series values in the future without relying on the past or historical values of the studied series. The research questions in this study are formulated thus: What are the trends in the patterns of urban land use functions in Al-Najaf, Iraq, between 2005 to 2015? How can the values of the changes be predicted for the year 2025? The hypothesis is based on the increasing spatial functional change of land use patterns in the city during the study period due to various economic and social factors. Making accurate predictions of the size of spatial changes motivates this study as a guide to urban management towards developing possible solutions to address the effects of this change, as well as the need to understand its causes and future upward trends. The contribution of this article is the presented outlook for spatial functions for the next 10 years. The computations using the Markov chain model will enable management to understand future relations and develop appropriate policies to reduce the hazards of unplanned changes in the city. Results show that residential posts, slums, and commercial activities are getting worse, while change values for industrial functions and other things are going down.
The present work is devoted to investigate the performance of a homemade Y-shape catalytic microreactor for degradation of dibenzothiophene (DBT), as a model of sulphur compounds including in gas oil, utilizing solar incident energy. The microchannel was coated with TiO2 nanoparticles which were used as a photocatalyst. Performance of the microreactor was investigated using different conditions (e.g., DBT concentration, LHSV, operating temperature, and (H2O2/DBT) ratio). Our experiments show that, in the absence of UV light, no reaction takes place. The results revealed that outlet concentration of DBT decreases as the mean residence time in the microreactor increases. Also, it was noted that operating temperature s
... Show MoreThe exploitation of obsolete recyclable resources including paper waste has the advantages of saving resources and environment protection. This study has been conducted to study utilizing paper waste to adsorb phenol which is one of the harmful organic compound byproducts deposited in the environment. The influence of different agitation methods, pH of the solution (3-11), initial phenol concentration (30-120ppm), adsorbent dose (0.5-2.5 g) and contact time (30-150 min) were studied. The highest phenol removal efficiency obtained was 86% with an adsorption capacity of 5.1 mg /g at optimization conditions (pH of 9, initial phenol concentration of 30 mg/L, an adsorbent dose of 2 g and contact time of 120min and at room temperature).
... Show MoreDigital Models of Elevations (DEMs) Using Surfer 16, which are interpolated to create three-dimensional controls for the entire terrain, are typically used in visualization of geospatial entities. The interpolation method used determines how accurate the resulting terrain model will be, hence it is necessary to compare the effectiveness of various approaches in this situation. Numerous generic interpolation techniques, using inverse distance to a power, triangulation as with linear interpolation, the nearest neighbor, and kriging, have been studied. These interpolation techniques produced DEMs. With the aid of SURFER software 16, the primary goal of this effort was to introduce the DEM using a spatial interpolation method and to pre
... Show MoreFree Space Optics (FSO) plays a vital role in modern wireless communications due to its advantages over fiber optics and RF techniques where a transmission of huge bandwidth and access to remote places become possible. The specific aim of this research is to analyze the Bit-Error Rate (BER) for FSO communication system when the signal is sent the over medium of turbulence channel, where the fading channel is described by the Gamma-Gamma model. The signal quality is improved by using Optical Space-Time Block- Code (OSTBC) and then the BER will be reduced. Optical 2×2 Alamouti scheme required 14 dB bit energy to noise ratio (Eb/N0) at 10-5 bit error rate (BER) which gives 3.5 dB gain as compared to no diversity scheme. Th
... Show MoreIn this study, the circulating fluidized bed was used to remove the Tetracycline from wastewater utilizing a pistachio shell coated with ZnO nanoparticles. Several parameters including, Tetracycline solution flowrate, initial static bed height, Tetracycline initial concentration and airflow rate were systematically examined to show their effect on the breakthrough curve and the required time to reach the adsorption capacity and thus draw the fully saturated curve of the adsorbent. Results showed that using ZnO nanoparticles will increase the adsorbent surface area and pores and as a result the adsorption increased, also the required time for adsorbent saturation increased and thus the removal efficiency may be achieved at mi
... Show MoreThe biosorption of Pb (II), Cd (II), and Hg (II) from simulated aqueous solutions using baker’s yeast biomass was investigated. Batch type experiments were carried out to find the equilibrium isotherm data for each component (single, binary, and ternary), and the adsorption rate constants. Kinetics pseudo-first and second order rate models applied to the adsorption data to estimate the rate constant for each solute, the results showed that the Cd (II), Pb (II), and Hg (II) uptake process followed the pseudo-second order rate model with (R2) 0.963, 0.979, and 0.960 respectively. The equilibrium isotherm data were fitted with five theoretical models. Langmuir model provides the best fitting for the experimental results with (R2) 0.992, 0
... Show MoreThe development of analytical techniques is required for the accurate and comprehensive detection and measurement of antibiotic contamination in the environment. Metronidazole is a common antibacterial, antiprotozoal, and antibiotic drug. Thiamine is a vital biological and medicinal ingredient that is involved in the metabolism of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that produce energy. The study aims to identify the drugs in a mixture without separation to provide more information to confirm if a drug is present in a combination. Metronidazole and thiamine are two examples of pharmaceutical and environmental samples that can be identified using spectrophotometric techniques because of their low cost and simplicity of use. The operati
... Show MoreThis study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. The capability of mixed bacterial culture was examined to remediate the diesel-contaminated soil in bio piling system. For fast ex-situ treatment of diesel-contaminated soils, the bio pile system was selected. Two pilot scale bio piles (25 kg soil each) were constructed containing soils contaminated with approximately 2140 mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). The amended soil: (contaminated soil with the a
... Show MoreThis paper presents the results of experimental investigations to predict the bearing capacity of square footing on geogrid-reinforced loose sand by performing model tests. The effects of several parameters were studied in order to study the general behavior of improving the soil by using the geogrid. These parameters include the eccentricity value, depth of first layer of reinforcement, and vertical spacing of reinforcement layers. The results of the experimental work indicated that there was an optimum reinforcement embedment depth at which the bearing capacity was the highest when single-layer reinforcement was used. The increase of (z/B) (vertical spacing of reinforcement layer/width of footing) above 1.5 has no effect on the re
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