Journal of Urban Environmental Management

Abstract Acid mine drainage is one of the most significant environmental consequences of mining activities and the accumulation of sulfide-bearing mine tailings. Owing to its high acidity and elevated concentrations of heavy metals, it poses a serious threat to water resources and surrounding ecosystems. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of an electrochemical process for the removal and recovery of copper from acid mine drainage generated at the Sungun Copper Mine, while simultaneously reducing the concentrations of other metallic contaminants. Experiments were conducted in a cubic Plexiglas reactor with a working volume of 1,100 mL using direct current. The actual acid mine drainage sample contained 134 mg/L of copper and 129 mg/L of aluminum. In the initial stage, the temperature, electrode spacing, reaction time, and applied voltage were maintained at 25 °C, 1 cm, 20 min, and 2.5 V, respectively. Under these conditions, a zinc anode and copper cathode were identified as the most effective electrode configuration. The dominant removal mechanisms included copper electrodeposition on the cathode surface, formation and precipitation of metal hydroxides, sweep flocculation, and flotation of a portion of the contaminants due to hydrogen evolution. Solvent extraction was also investigated in combination with the electrochemical process to improve the purity of the recovered copper. The results demonstrated that integrating these processes could provide an effective approach for copper recovery, reducing sludge production and chemical consumption, and controlling the pollutant load of acid mine drainage from copper mining operations.

Abstract Urban prosperity, as one of the key concepts in the modern literature of urban planning and sustainable development, represents the ability of a city to achieve a balance between various economic, social, environmental and physical dimensions. Today, rapid population growth, concentration of economic activities and increasing demand for urban services have caused cities to face challenges in the field of inequality, pollution, weak infrastructure and reduced quality of life. In such circumstances, assessing the level of urban prosperity and identifying the factors affecting it is a fundamental necessity for smart urban management and future-oriented decision-making.
The city of Bojnourd, the capital of North Khorasan Province, has undergone extensive changes in physical and demographic dimensions in recent years, such that numerous challenges have prevented it from achieving prosperity. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate and evaluate the level of prosperity of Bojnourd and determine the importance of each of its five dimensions with special emphasis on the environmental sustainability dimension.
The present study is an applied study conducted using a descriptive-analytical method. The required information was compiled through a study of documentary sources and a researcher-made questionnaire based on the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in the five main dimensions of prosperity (productivity, urban infrastructure, quality of life, social justice and inclusion, and environmental sustainability). The statistical population is university professors, managers, and specialists in Bojnourd city who were selected purposefully and using the snowball method. SPSS software and the Friedman test were used to analyze the data to rank the effective components. The results showed that urban infrastructure, with an average rating of 4.57, has the greatest impact on the prosperity of the city. The dimensions of environmental and social justice, quality of life, and productivity are in the next ranks, respectively.

Abstract Noise pollution is one of the environmental problems that has gained wider dimensions with the development of technology and industry and has harmful effects on the health of citizens. Urban traffic contributes significantly to noise pollution in metropolitan cities. Creating green spaces is known as an effective solution for reducing noise pollution. In this study, the sound level was measured on the Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani Highway in Mashhad and, while comparing it with environmental standards, a noise zoning map was prepared using the Ordinary Kriging interpolation method and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). To prepare the noise pollution zoning map, in addition to the 40 highway stations, 27 other stations around the highway were determined and the LAeq index was measured and the values were recorded. In the kriging method, the RMSE value is 6.2 and less than the RMSE value of 8.2 in the inverse weighting method, so the efficiency of the inverse weighting method is less than the kriging method. In another part of the research, the effect of different types of vehicles on noise pollution was examined through statistical tests. There is a positive correlation between the value of noise indices and the number of vehicles. The role of urban green space use in reducing and absorbing noise pollution was examined through statistical analysis using SPSS software. The results showed that the effects of green space on reducing pollution are positive and the extent of this effect varies depending on the differences in the characteristics of green space.

Abstract The main objective of this study was to identify and prioritize the drivers for enhancing environmental corporate social responsibility through a circular economy approach. In terms of methodology, this research is a mixed-methods study based on structural interaction matrix analysis with a strategic futures studies approach, and in terms of purpose, it is applied research. The statistical population consisted of 26 experts, including university professors and senior managers of organizations active in the field of environment in the country, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through library studies, structured interviews, and a scoring questionnaire based on the structural interaction matrix, and were analyzed using MICMAC software. The findings indicated that the drivers of "creating financial incentives and allocating rewards for environmentally friendly behaviors," "developing human resource training programs for responsible environmental behavior," and "promoting and improving organizational culture based on continuous environmental responsibility" are the most influential drivers for enhancing environmental corporate social responsibility through a circular economy approach. The results showed that identifying and prioritizing these drivers enables organizations to focus on key influential factors and allocate resources effectively. This leads to improved environmental performance, enhanced employee participation, and better stakeholder engagement.

Abstract Due to the increasing importance of providing security services and measures to prevent and deal with fire incidents and crisis management in cities, fire stations are very important. Undoubtedly, the timely service of fire stations, more than anything else, along with the need to establish them in suitable places in urban environments, requires having the necessary capabilities and equipment to respond to the needs of citizens. Greater Tehran, with a population of more than eight million people, is the largest city in the country, due to the parallel expansion, and also the increase in population, has increased the grounds of fire in the city. The current research is important because its audience is all managers, and fire chiefs and it can be used to investigate management systems and accident command. The research method in this research is the hierarchical analysis process, where the indicators are compared and scored one by one, and the priority between them is determined. Based on the analysis conducted in this research, the operational forces stationed in the fire stations and operational vehicles are not proportional to the capacity of the region, and the firefighting equipment of these stations will not be sufficient for the region during the fires after the earthquake, and this is one of the negative points of the study area that during the earthquake Fire control is almost impossible and we will face a serious crisis.

Abstract Urban resilience refers to the capacity of an urban system, over both temporal and spatial scales, to maintain or rapidly return to desired past functionalities in the face of disruptions or changes. Climate change essentially refers to the warming of the Earth's surface caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Urban ecological resilience refers to the capacity of ecological systems within cities to absorb disturbances and maintain necessary and intrinsic feedbacks, processes, and structures. Climate resilience is a subset of urban ecological resilience, denoting a city's potential to address problems arising from sudden weather phenomena and hazards influenced by climate change. Mitigating climate change focuses on five key factors: urban form, construction, artificial environment, urban infrastructure, transportation, and carbon production. Our research aims to contribute to current knowledge and deeper understanding and better identification of climate change and its effects on human life and urban climate quality, utilizing the features of urban green infrastructure, particularly in Tabriz city. We intend to report the effects of climate change and examine the components of resilience using previous studies by evaluating climatic elements. In this study, we employ the Park Cooling Effects method on Land Surface Temperature (LST) using urban green infrastructure. As an example, we sampled from the Bagh-e-Fajr in Tabriz, located in the city center. We have concluded that the presence of green spaces and urban green infrastructure plays a significant role in climate resilience and reducing land surface temperature.

Abstract Evaluating the environmental and social effects of urban projects separately can never show the mutual effects of the environment and the social environment, in other words; At the same time that the environment affects the society, there is no escape from the effects of the society on itself, and vice versa. In this article; The social and environmental effects of the southernmost section of Imam Ali highway - the distance between Daulat Abad freeway and the Shahr Ray ring road and its uneven intersection with the Shahr Ray ring road - located in the 20th district of Tehran municipality, based on an integrated evaluation process with five stages of construction And the operation of the mentioned highway has been integrated. Also, environmental and social mutual effects using the innovative impact assessment matrix, based on the network analysis process in the form of Super Decision software and the Delphi method; And by presenting the social preference coefficient and the environmental preference coefficient, it has been estimated for all environmental and social parameters in both construction and operation phases of the mentioned project. Based on the comparison of the results obtained from the established matrix with the current matrices; by applying the above coefficients, it is possible to quantitatively estimate the mutual environmental and social effects of intervention measures and take a step towards achieving the goals of sustainable urban development.

Abstract The most important objective of this paper is to provide an appropriate model for selecting best waste-to-energy technology for both private and public sector managers and investors. Urban waste management combined with energy recovery can be the most suitable solution not only for preserving environment but also for producing and supplying energy to urban and rural communities. Determining the most appropriate waste-to-energy technology is a challenging and complex process, requiring consideration of a wide range of diverse criteria. For this purpose, this study tries to apply two of the most widely used Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods, TOPSIS and VIKOR. Anaerobic digestion (AD), incineration, and pyrolysis were chosen as the main options for waste-to-energy conversion technologies. These options were evaluated based on three main criteria: environmental, technical, and economic, each of which included various sub-criteria. The results of pairwise comparisons indicate that among main criteria, environmental criterion holds the highest score and importance, followed by the economic and technical criteria, respectively. To ensure reliability, the options were ranked using three different MCDM models methods: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), VIKOR, and TOPSIS. The overall results of the decision-making models show that incineration is the best waste-to-energy technology, followed by anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis in respective order.

Abstract Occupational incidents in the oil industry have difficulties and problems in the various phases of construction and operation. In this research, we tried to investigate the effect of oil industry risk in phase construction in one of the largest oilfields in the country, Yadavaran field in Khuzestan province. For this purpose, the FMEA model has been used that is typically used to assess the risk of occupational accidents. According to surveys, interviews and statistics, 47 job incidents were identified during the construction phase of this oil field and the details were collected. According to the obtained results, the value of the risk priority value is obtained by an average of 212. Also, based on the type of events classified, several corrections’ suggestions were proposed, which is expected to decreased the RPN to 133.2 which shows a reduction of 37% of the risk priority number. Although changes have been made in the form of low-cost, continuous and periodic suggestions that showed the positive impact of the reform in this area.

Abstract Air pollution is recognized as one of the fundamental challenges in the field of environmental engineering. This study examines the impact of vehicle tires on air pollution and explores methods to reduce it. A significant portion of the energy generated by the vehicle engine is lost through tire rolling resistance. Consequently, reducing tire rolling resistance leads to decreased fuel consumption and, consequently, reduced air pollution. Modifying the formulation of tire tread compounds can be an effective approach to reducing tire rolling resistance. One proposed method for modifying the formulation is the addition of nanoparticles as fillers. In this research, the impact of adding varying amounts of nanosilica to the tire tread compound formulation, which is the main factor contributing to vehicular energy dissipation, has been investigated. The results indicate that the addition of nanosilica increases tire rolling resistance. Furthermore, the influence of tire thickness on its lifespan and rolling resistance has been examined, demonstrating an increase in rolling resistance over time. Additionally, necessary changes in the production process conditions and their impact on the mechanical properties and performance of the produced materials have also been investigated. Rheological analysis reveals that the addition of nanosilica leads to increased viscosity. Moreover, the examination of mechanical properties shows an increase in the modulus values of both 100% and 300% materials with the addition of nanosilica.

Abstract Rapid urbanization has increased construction and demolition waste (CDW), exacerbating issues around CDW collection, transportation, and disposal in cities lacking efficient management programs. This study applies life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental performance of current CDW management in Tehran and identify critical aspects for improvement. Using Impact 2002+, LCA was conducted for the base case (19.4% recycling), and two alternative scenarios combining landfilling, source separation, sorting, and varying percentages of CDW recycling. The life cycle inventory used primary data from field studies and secondary data from ecoinvent 3.7 and literature. Results demonstrate recycling benefits through avoided impacts from non-renewable energy, global warming, non-carcinogens, and respiratory inorganics and organics versus landfilling. Hence, findings can motivate improved CDW management based on environmental and technical factors, not just economic and political ones. Producers may be compelled to reduce waste sources, while recyclers and stakeholders are encouraged to continuously enhance C&D waste systems across Iran. Additionally, this study provides data to support other LCAs on CDW. Overall, applying LCA reveals critical ways to advance CDW management in Tehran toward a more sustainable system.