Domestic sewage, solid waste, industrial activities, and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides are the main sources of pollution that threaten the main groundwater aquifers of Tulkarem City of Palestine which ad...Domestic sewage, solid waste, industrial activities, and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides are the main sources of pollution that threaten the main groundwater aquifers of Tulkarem City of Palestine which add to the problem of water scarcity already experienced by the Palestinians in the West Bank. These aquifers are a vital groundwater resource that provides high quality water. This paper presents the findings of the “Pro Aquifer” project funded by the EU, which aims to reduce groundwater polluting activities in the main municipalities such as Tulkarem. The scientific research of this paper was conducted on the potential and existing sources of groundwater pollution that threaten the Aquifer. GIS tools as well as vulnerability, hazard and risk mapping and pollution modeling were used to examine the impacts of pollution to the groundwater resources in the study area. The local-scale pollution transport model was developed to define the general characteristics of the groundwater flow system as well as to consequently assess the future transport trends of pollution in the groundwater water system of the Tulkarem area. The outputs of this scientific research were used to establish policies and guidelines for reducing water and environmental pollution in Palestinian municipalities. The recommendations produced aim to help Palestinian municipalities prevent pollution of the critical trans-boundary groundwater resources that underlie Tulkarem City. These guidelines provide a methodology to help municipalities begin solving the environmental issues they face. The goals of these guidelines are to protect and prevent further deterioration of the resources of the Mountain Aquifer and to enable and empower municipal officials and staff to achieve these goals.展开更多
Many environmental variables are frequently used to predict values of soil in locations where they are not measured. Digital soil mapping (DSM) has a long-standing convention to describe soils as a function of climate...Many environmental variables are frequently used to predict values of soil in locations where they are not measured. Digital soil mapping (DSM) has a long-standing convention to describe soils as a function of climate, organisms, topography, parent material, time and space. It is obvious that terrain, climate, parent material and organisms are used frequently in the prediction of soil properties while time and space factors are rarely used. Time is the indirect factor for the formation and development of soil. Moreover, it is very useful to explicit and implicit estimates of soil age for DSM. However, it is often difficult to obtain time factor. In the absence of explicit soil age data, geomorphologic data are commonly related to soil relative age. Consequently, this study adopts the geomorphologic types (genesis type of geomorphology) as surrogate to the time factor and analyzes its effect on DSM. To examine this idea, we selected the Ili region of northwestern China as the study area. This paper uses geomorphologic data from a new digital geomorphology map as the implicit soil age in predictive soil mapping. For this study, Soil-landscape inference model (SoLIM) was used to predict soil properties based on the individual representation of each sample. This model applies the terrain (topography), climate, parent material (geology) and time (geomorphologic type) to predict soil values in the study area where they are not measured. And the independent sample validation method was used to estimate the precision of results. The validation result shows that the use of geomorphologic data as surrogate to the time factor in the individual representation leads to a considerable and significant increase in the accuracy of results. In other words, implicit estimates of soil age by genesis type of geomorphology are very useful for DSM. This increase was due to the high purity of the geomorphologic data. This means that the geomorphologic variable, if used, can improve the quality of DSM. Predicted value through the proposed approach comes closer to the real value.展开更多
文摘Domestic sewage, solid waste, industrial activities, and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides are the main sources of pollution that threaten the main groundwater aquifers of Tulkarem City of Palestine which add to the problem of water scarcity already experienced by the Palestinians in the West Bank. These aquifers are a vital groundwater resource that provides high quality water. This paper presents the findings of the “Pro Aquifer” project funded by the EU, which aims to reduce groundwater polluting activities in the main municipalities such as Tulkarem. The scientific research of this paper was conducted on the potential and existing sources of groundwater pollution that threaten the Aquifer. GIS tools as well as vulnerability, hazard and risk mapping and pollution modeling were used to examine the impacts of pollution to the groundwater resources in the study area. The local-scale pollution transport model was developed to define the general characteristics of the groundwater flow system as well as to consequently assess the future transport trends of pollution in the groundwater water system of the Tulkarem area. The outputs of this scientific research were used to establish policies and guidelines for reducing water and environmental pollution in Palestinian municipalities. The recommendations produced aim to help Palestinian municipalities prevent pollution of the critical trans-boundary groundwater resources that underlie Tulkarem City. These guidelines provide a methodology to help municipalities begin solving the environmental issues they face. The goals of these guidelines are to protect and prevent further deterioration of the resources of the Mountain Aquifer and to enable and empower municipal officials and staff to achieve these goals.
文摘Many environmental variables are frequently used to predict values of soil in locations where they are not measured. Digital soil mapping (DSM) has a long-standing convention to describe soils as a function of climate, organisms, topography, parent material, time and space. It is obvious that terrain, climate, parent material and organisms are used frequently in the prediction of soil properties while time and space factors are rarely used. Time is the indirect factor for the formation and development of soil. Moreover, it is very useful to explicit and implicit estimates of soil age for DSM. However, it is often difficult to obtain time factor. In the absence of explicit soil age data, geomorphologic data are commonly related to soil relative age. Consequently, this study adopts the geomorphologic types (genesis type of geomorphology) as surrogate to the time factor and analyzes its effect on DSM. To examine this idea, we selected the Ili region of northwestern China as the study area. This paper uses geomorphologic data from a new digital geomorphology map as the implicit soil age in predictive soil mapping. For this study, Soil-landscape inference model (SoLIM) was used to predict soil properties based on the individual representation of each sample. This model applies the terrain (topography), climate, parent material (geology) and time (geomorphologic type) to predict soil values in the study area where they are not measured. And the independent sample validation method was used to estimate the precision of results. The validation result shows that the use of geomorphologic data as surrogate to the time factor in the individual representation leads to a considerable and significant increase in the accuracy of results. In other words, implicit estimates of soil age by genesis type of geomorphology are very useful for DSM. This increase was due to the high purity of the geomorphologic data. This means that the geomorphologic variable, if used, can improve the quality of DSM. Predicted value through the proposed approach comes closer to the real value.