Globally, Sustainability is very quickly becoming a fundamental requirement of the construction industry as it delivers its projects; whether buildings or infrastructures. Throughout more than two decades, many modeling schemes, evaluation tools, and rating systems have been introduced en route to realizing sustainable construction. Many of these, however, lack consensus on evaluation criteria, a robust scientific model that captures the logic behind their sustainability performance evaluation, and therefore experience discrepancies between rated results and actual performance. Moreover, very few of the evaluation tools available satisfactorily address infrastructure projects. The research introduces a system engineering model that abstracts the environment, the construction product, and its production system as three interacting systems that exchange materials, energy, and information. The model utilizes this setup to capture and quantify essential flows exchanged between such three systems, to evaluate sustainability. The research walks through the development of a generic case of the model, and then demonstrates its utility in evaluating the sustainability performance of civil infrastructure projects. The developed model will address an identified gap within the current body of knowledge by considering infrastructure projects. Through the ability to simulate different scenarios, the model will enable identifying which activities, products, and processes impact the environment more, and hence potential areas for optimization and improvement.
Inefficient wastewater disposal and wastewater discharge problems in water bodies have led to increasing pollution in water bodies. Pollutants in the river contribute to increasing the biological oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (SS), total dissolved solids (TDS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and toxic metals render this water unsuitable for consumption and even pose a significant risk to human health. Over the last few years, water conservation has been the subject of growing awareness and concern throughout the world, so this research focused on review studies of researches that studied the importance of water quality of wastewater treated disposal in water bodies and modern technology to management w
... Show MoreThis study focuses on a comparison of the performance of two similar locally-fabricated solar water heaters. One of the collectors features a new design for accelerated absorber; its risers are made of converging ducts whose exit area is half that of the entrance. The other collector is a conventional absorber, with risers of the same cross sectional area along its length. Each collector is the primary part of an indirect thermosyphon circulation solar hot water system. Both collectors face south with a fixed tilt angle of 33.3
In this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current densi
... Show MoreThe increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial
... Show MoreIn this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current density (C
... Show MoreThis paper suggests a novel optimal inverse Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network model for the control of Twin Rotor Aerodynamic Systems (TRAS), such as Multi-Input–Multi-Output (MIMO) systems with high nonlinearity and coupling effects between channels. After analyzing and linearizing the dynamic model, TRAS is decoupled into two Single Input Single Output (SISO) systems, thereby creating vertical (pitch model) and horizontal (yaw model) systems. The relationship between the output angle of each subsystem and the input voltage is modeled using the inverse RBF neural network. The weights, biases, centers and widths of the Gaussian function are unknown parameters of the proposed inverse neural model, and they are obtained usi
... Show MoreAs material flow cost accounting technology focuses on the most efficient use of resources like energy and materials while minimizing negative environmental effects, the research aims to show how this technology can be applied to promote green productivity and its reflection in attaining sustainable development. In addition to studying sustainability, which helps to reduce environmental impacts and increase green productivity, the research aims to demonstrate the knowledge bases for accounting for the costs of material flow and green productivity. It also studies the technology of accounting for the costs of material flow in achieving sustainable development and the role of green productivity in achieving sustainable development. According
... Show MoreThe current study aims to test the impact of green training and development on sustainable performance and explore its effects within and outside the Iraqi Ministry of Environment. The main research problem revolves around the question of the extent of implementing green training and development and sustainable performance in the ministry (What is the nature of the relationship between green training and development and sustainable performance in the ministry?). To clarify the relationship between the research variables, two main hypotheses were formulated along with sub-hypotheses. The study also aims to assess the level of the ministry's interest in the research variables and provide key recommendations to enhance sustainable performan
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