Recent Advances in Environmental Science from the Euro-Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions

Our research focuses on designing and discovering new 2D and other (3D, 1D, 0D) advanced functional nanomaterials (utilizing a target-oriented approach) and technologies that provide effective solutions in the energy, biomedical and environmental applications.

In the European Union (EU) the environmental risk of chemicals is regulated in various ways.

Ecological risk assessment of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) in the EU faces new and interesting challenges, and the soil compartment is no exception.

Wetland environments are important ecological systems, with high and ecotone characteristics.

In recent years concerns have grown over the occurrence in water bodies of emerging contaminants (ECs) because of their adverse effects on the environment and humans. ECs encompass a vast and expanding list of man-made and natural substances such as steroid hormones, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products. In this research, the removal of three potent estrogenic hormones estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) was studied using ozone combined with an immiscible solvent for effective extraction and oxidation of the hormones. The process was very efficient in removing the hormones from wastewater and its cost appeared lower than a conventional ozone gas process.

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are a well established and mature technology with many full-scale plants around the world treating municipal and industrial wastewater (Krzeminski et al. in J. Membr. Sci. 527:207–227, 2017).

In aquatic systems, most trace elements are mainly bound to particulate matter as they settle through the water column and are incorporated rapidly into the sediments.

Selenium (Se) is a naturally occurring, semi-metallic trace element (Se; atomic number 34) that was discovered 200 years ago by the Swedish chemists Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848) and Johan Gottlieb Gahn (1745–1818).

Urban agriculture and green infrastructures have been spreading worldwide in recent years due to a shift of the balance between urban and rural areas as living place for the people.

Coal, natural gas, and oil account for close to 90% of the energy consumed globally. The significance of these crucial feedstocks to key global economies cannot be overstated, and despite growing concerns related to Climate Change, reliance on these fuels is not going away any time soon.

Sandy beaches are dynamic systems evolving constantly as a result of the interaction between waves, wind and sea currents, and responding quickly to natural forcing by accreting or retreating.

A great number of rivers of North Africa are equipped with many dams for multiple purposes, mainly potable water, irrigation and energy production. In most of the countries—Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, the storage capacity exceeds the runoff capacity, which means that water is stored several times in a row during its course to the sea.

Grain-size distribution (GSD) analysis aims at understanding the conditions of sediment transport and deposition and can be a useful tool in providing parameters and indices.

Geodata have flooded our life and they are used for all kinds of applications with spatial characteristics.

The seismotectonics of North Africa suggest a kinematic model with transpression and block rotation for the NW regions and with rifting in the NE regions that illustrate the mechanics of the Africa–Eurasia convergence.

Cryptosporidium is now recognized as an important human pathogen and it counts second leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age.

Publication must be seen as an important, if not the most important, part of the research process. However, writing research papers for academic journals is not easy and is also very competitive. This keynote lecture gives some tips and hints on how to shape a successful paper.

The research/data curried out by scientists and submitted for publication requires fastidious tasks through a long pathway until the day of its publication.

The Euro-Mediterranean Consortium of Institutes of Higher Education and Industry (C3ESI) is made up of universities and colleges of engineering.

The city of Sfax (southeastern Tunisia) has lived, for more than 60 years, a very special environmental situation.

Water on Mars, on Jupiter Icy Moons, on Asteroids and perhaps even more water on more bodies of our solar system—Are water and life unique to Earth? The last decade of planetary exploration suggests that the liquid water, uniquely characterizing, our blue planet is potentially a transitional phase that other bodies of our solar system may have gone through or will be transiting to during their evolution.

The photo mineralization of organics by semiconductor photocatalysts is an area of intensive research, ideally the end products of these processes should be carbon dioxide, water, and inorganic mineral salts, which have a minimum environmental impact.

During the post 1950 period, the farms yields increased dramatically. In order to sustain the increasing yields and productivity, farmers used large quantities of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (Novotny in Water Sci Technol 39, 1999).

Unconventional natural gas extraction from tight shale reservoirs, or “shale gas”, has recently emerged as an attractive energy resource to face the rising worldwide demand.

Wheat stands as the major source of food for most of the Tunisian population.

The rapid global development is only adding to the ever-increasing world’s energy needs resulting in more consumption of fossil fuels. This has led to the serious climatic changes caused by global warming and greenhouse effect. Even though “renewable energies” is becoming a familiar term it is still far from being common place worldwide. Urban greenery may mitigate this as they can remove carbon dioxide by storing carbon in substrates and vegetation.

In this research we try to highlight the most influential typo-morphological indicators on outdoor thermal comfort in a subtropical Mediterranean climate during the summer. We rely on a comparative analysis of three different fabrics in Tunis, Tunisia, to evaluate the degree of outdoor thermal comfort. Then, we carry out numerical simulations of the urban microclimate in order to identify which indicators are the most influential, with the aim of helping a sustainable urban design.

The Mediterranean is a semi-closed Sea connected with the open ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar. Due to the circulation pattern and the long residence time.

Disposal process of lead batteries allows recovering not only lead but also sodium sulphate that could be used for the production of a very interesting material.

The soil organic matter (SOM) appears to play a remarkable role in sustaining four major ecosystem services: resistance to soil erosion, soil water retention, soil fertility for plants, and soil biodiversity.

Climate change has a multitude of immediate and long-term impacts on water resources in Arab countries.

Like the other agricultural sectors in Algeria, the olive value chain has undergone a profound change over the last two decades, thanks to the various agricultural policies put in place by the State. Through this practical study in the Djelfa region, we tried to identify the socio-economic and technical benefits of the National Agricultural Development Plan (PNDA) in the olive value chain, and to understand its evolutionary dynamics.

The road traffic is the main pollution source in the urban areas (Molina and Molina 2002; Moussiopoulos 2003; Vivanco and Andrade 2006; Metcalfea et al. 2002). Over the last years, a number of air quality models have been developed to predict air pollution and set emission reduction strategies (Metcalfea et al. 2002; Martilli et al. 2003).

The accumulation of valuable metals in plants has fascinated scientists ever since the 1700 s (Chaptal 1790; Malte-Brun 1824).

Nowadays, architectural creation is in a state of degradation. In fact forms and architectural styles show a lack of environmental aspiration. The studies in this area have revealed that the problem is directly related to the lack of coordination between architecture and the environment.

The MSW is the most worrying pollution source that must be managed by innovative treatment and recycling technologies. Its valorisation is required because of environmental legislation to limit its nuisance and preserve natural resources.

During a severe accident in a Nuclear Power Plant, fission products are released from the degraded fuel and might reach the environment by some nuclear containment building leakages.

The present work focuses on the filtration of drinking water with string-wound filter cartridges. The presence of filtration devices may have consequences on networks operating under low pressures. Results consisting of pressure drop curves obtained from measures taken on a pilot plant located at the Laboratory of Environmental and Maritime Hydraulics (LIDAM), University of Salerno, are discussed.

Passive measures, particularly natural or hybrid ventilation rather than air-conditioning, can dramatically reduce primary energy consumption.

The removal of colour from wastewater is often more important than the removal of the soluble colourless organic substances, which usually contribute to the major fraction of the biochemical oxygen demand (Khan and al. in Int J Eng Sci, 5(7):61–70, 2016).

The discharged wastewater of textile industry, which contains persistent organic dyes, is one of the main causes of water contamination.

The production and use of petrochemical plastics was always followed by negative environmental impacts because plastic wastes are non-biodegradable.

Phosphorus and nitrogen are important mineral elements for organisms’ growth, but their presence in water at high levels can cause serious environmental problems, such as eutrophication (Tamme et al. in Nitrates and nitrites in vegetables: occurrence and health risks, bioactive foods in promoting health 2010; Darwish et al. in Agricu Water Manage 99:74–84, 2011; Ashley et al. in Chemosphere 84:737–746, 2011). This phenomenon is caused by excessive growth of algae and other plants, which can seriously affect the water quality and induce irreversible damage on plants and animals.

Cerium (IV) oxide, CeO₂, is one of the most reactive rare-earth oxide, which has been attracting great interest in the past decade owing to its widespread variety of environment and energy-related applications including solid-state electrolytes for electrochemical devices (Mogensen et al. in Solid State Ionics 129:63–64, 2000), catalysts for three-way automobile exhaust systems (TWC) (Nikolaou in Sci Total Environ 235:71, 1999), polishing agents for chemical–mechanical planarization (Feng et al. in Science 312:1504–1508, 2006), sunscreens for ultraviolet absorbents (Imanaka et al. in Chem Mater 15:2289–2291, 2003), the adsorption and reaction of formaldehyde (Zhou and Mullins in Surf Sci 600:1540–1546, 2006), oxygen storage capacity, hybrid solar cells, H₂S removal and luminescent materials for violet/blue fluorescence.

Leather making is an important socio-economic activity for several countries throughout the world. This industry is, however, associated with severe health and ecological problems owing to the use of various chemicals and release of hazardous effluents in the environment.

The leather industry is one of the oldest and fast-growing industries in the world and plays a significant role today’s economic global economy. Leather is a versatile, flexible, and sustainable by-product of the meat industry used in the manufacture of a wide range of products. Despite its significant contributions to income generation and foreign exchanges, leather manufacturing has often been ranked as one of the most polluting industrial activities worldwide.

Nickel-Zinc ferrites are considered as among the most versatile soft ferromagnetic materials because of their high resistance, high saturation magnetization and low eddy current losses (Rashad et al. in Mat Chem Phys 94:365–370, 2005).

Our aim was to provide guidelines for restoring and enhancing the self-purification capacity of Mediterranean urban creeks (no summer flow), in particular their resilience to pollution induced by discharges of combined sewer overflows (CSO).

The research aim is to study the potential of using treated dried plant to remove Nickel ions from synthesized wastewater under different chemical modifications. For this purpose we have study the characterization of the chemical structure of palm fibers powder by FT-IR before and after the chemical modifications with different reagents as HNO₃, H₃PO₄, NaOH, CH₃OH, and HCOOH at the optimal conditions of adsorption: pH solution, contact time, initial concentration, adsorbent dose, and temperature. The results show that high adsorptive capabilities were observed with NaOH treatment.

The issue of environmental sustainability cannot be overemphasized in the Niger-Delta as this is fundamental to the overall well being and the development of the area especially the well being of future generations which is an important aspect of environmental economics (Eregha and Irughe in J Sustainable Develop Africa 11(4):160–175, 2009).

XRD reveals that the doping delays the transition Anatase to Rutile to high temperature. XRD pattern of 5%W-TiO₂ treated at 900 °C exhibits the appearance of new phase (H). Photocatalytic study shows an important activity in visible light of doped samples thermally treated at 700 and 900 °C. Appearing new phase enhances the photocatalytic reactivity of Rutile in visible light. The percentage of doping affects the photocatalytic activity.

Phosphorus stands as a key element, versatile for humans, animals and plants alike. Yet, its excessive presence in wastewaters could well favorize the development of eutrophication phenomena and, consequently, the deterioration of the water organis’ quality.

Most often, high-quality textiles with functional properties require further treatment of their surface to cater for global market requirements.

The response of durum wheat cultivars to different nitrogen levels was investigated in a field experiment in the sub humid area of Tunisia between ten durum wheat genotypes: seven improved genotypes and three landraces grown under three mineral N fertilization levels (0, 75 and 150 kg N.ha-1) during the cropping season 2015–2016. Allmost all growth parameters showed a significant effect (p < 0.05) between tested genotypes and applied levels. Therefore, There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between improved genotypes and landraces for all yield components and NAE. Maali and Salim seem to respond better at the high N rate than the other tested genotypes.

Being categorized as high strength wastewater, landfill leachate is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic matters many of which are toxic and harmful. The composition of leachate depends on landfill age, percolation, precipitation and type of solid waste (Narayanasamy et al. in Environ Sci Technol 33(2):482–489, 2014; Kochany and Lipczynska-Kochany in J Hazard Mater 166(1):248–254, 2009).

Arsenic is one of the most toxic and carcinogenic heavy metals, and is regarded by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the first priority issue among the toxic substances (Hughes in Toxicol Lett 133:1–116, 2002; Kapaj et al. in J Environ Sci Health A 41:2399–2428, 2006).

Sodium alginate is a biodegradable polymer that is generally regarded as a safe substance, because of its nontoxic properties and gel-enhancing properties (He et al. in Appl Clay Sci 109–110:68–75, 2015). The addition of Bentonite in gel forming alginate polymers produces an excellent matrix that increases the compound adsorption properties.

Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth and it is frequently extracted from plant sources. Generally, its use implies the dissolution of cellulose and for this “green” solvents are required. In this sense, ionic liquids (ILs) have been gradually used to dissolve cellulose due to their environmental friendliness. In particular, 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BmimCl) has been employed as an effective solvent in the dissolution of cellulose. The regenerated cellulose can be potentially used in various fields, such as biomedical science, pharmaceutical health care, cosmetics, energy science, and water treatment. So far, water treatment technologies have focused on the removal of various kinds of toxic pollutants, heavy metals being one of the main ones.

Magnetic particles have gained special attention as support of molecules, biomolecules and used in various fields related to life science such as in vitro diagnostic (Roveimiab et al. in J Colloid Sci Biotechnol 1:82, 2012; Macková et al. in in J Colloid Sci Biotechnol 1:235, 2012), in vivo imaging (Ahmd et al. in J Colloid Sci Biotechnol 1:201, 2012; Medeiros et al. in J Colloid Sci Biotechnol 2:1802013) and also in bioinorganic chemistry (Yan et al. in J Hazard Mater 229:371, 2012).

The adsorption of C₃H₆ on Faujasite type zeolite (FAU syn) prepared from Tunsian illitic clay has been investigated through fixed bed experiments. The effects of various operating parameters including inlet C₃H₆ concentration (2000–6000 ppm), gas flow rate (50–150 ml min−1) and the bed height (10–18 cm) on adsorption performance were studied.

The applications of organic chelators (citric acid, acetic acid, malic acid, oxalic acid, etc) significantly increased metal uptake by various plant species. These acids are easily soluble in water and increased metal mobilization by lowering soil pH. The application of organic acids with energy crops will open new directions in multidisciplinary research approach among researchers.

The textile sector represents the main source of water pollution. Indeed, textile discharges are mostly directly routed to watercourses without prior treatment. Because of their stability and their low biodegrability, the dyes present a real danger for man and his environment. There are several physical, chemical and biological methods to treat and discolor polluted effluents such as coagulation-flocculation, membrane filtration, photo catalytic degradation, chemical oxidation, ozonation, ion exchange, electrochemical methods and adsorption.

In this study, the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (referred to as CTAB) (Cao et al. in Bioresour Technol 163:199–205 2014) as a cationic surfactant has been loaded on the surface of Phragmites australis particles using the impregnation method.

This work studied the possibility of using an agricultural solid waste: maize leaves, as an inexpensive sorbent for the removal of cadmium (II) ions from synthetic aqueous solutions. A high cadmium sorption was observed by this material with a maximum sorption capacity about 57.84 mg/g.

Metal corrosion is a major problem that must be confronted for safety, environmental and economic reasons (Aded et al. in Bull Electrochem 17:105, 2001). Acids were deployed in many service environments such as pickling, boilers cleaning, des-scaling and acidification of oil wells.

The phenomenon of adsorption of organic compounds in porous materials is very complex. Several mathematical models have been developed in order to simulate the evolution of the adsorption efficiency as a function of the resistances to the mass transfer and to optimize the process versus the operating conditions.

Copper-nickel alloys are extensively used in marine applications and in desalination plants (Sherif et al. in Colloid J Interface Sci 311:144, 2007; Sherif and Park in J Electrochim Acta 51:4665, 2006) because of their good electrical and thermal conductivities, mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and ease of fabrication of the equipment (Revie in Uhlig’s corrosion handbook. Wiley, New York, p. 729, 2000).

A coagulation flocculation process was used to treat the fuel washing water of city of Mohammedia with ferric chloride (FeCl3) and polymer. A 42 central composite experimental design and response surface methodology were used to evaluate and optimize the reagents dosage and to achieve a compromise between efficiency and operational costs.

Availability and accessibility to freshwater stand as important determinants of the economic growth and social development associated patterns. Indeed, a safe water supply and an appropriate sanitation constitute the most essential factors necessary for a healthy and prosperous life to take placethe most essential factors necessary for a healthy and prosperous life to take place. In this respect, the issue of water treatment and reuse turns out to be a major and paramount global concern.

During the last few decades, new techniques have emerged in the field of water and wastewater treatment using renewable energies and green processes, among which the Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) belonging to the latest generation of techniques developed in this field.

Dyes are considered as one of the main sources of water pollution. It is estimated that over 100,000 tons of dyes are produced per year, approximately, up to 10% of which is discharged in the environment.

Vegetable oils contain various minor substances such as phospholipids, free fatty acids, waxes, coloring pigments.

Methylene Blue (MB) is the one of the most commonly used substances for cotton, wood and silk dyeing. Exposure to MB could cause serious injuries to humans and animals’ eyes and in some cases could lead to mental confusion and methemoglobinemia.

Many treatment processes have been used for the removal of dyes from wastewater. The Biosorption process is one of the most promising used methods because of its effective, cheap, dye-removing capacity from industrial wastewaters on the extensive scale.

Polluted water is a water containing a mixture of pollutants dissociated or dispersed in water resulting from the domestic, industrial or agricultural human activities. These pollutants are generally artificial substances. Once dispersed in the environment, they cause a negative impact because of their non-biodegradablity. Dyes are among these substances, mostly used in the textile sector. Because of their toxicity and non biodegradability, they are an environmental danger due to the presence of carcinogenic groups such as aromatic groups.

Wet air oxidation (WAO) is an interesting treatment of toxic and nonbiodegradable wastewater such as phenolic products, which are at the same time too dilute to be incinerated and highly concentrated for a biological treatment.

Our work consisted in the upgrading of a biopolymer derived from sawdust using chemical activation by chemical agents (acid, base and salt) to make our material applicable to the organic pollutants elimination in aqueous solution by The adsorption method with a study of chemical kinetics, temperature, and pH. Finally, the last part of this work consisted in checking the regeneration of the material after several desorption and readsorption cycles.

Hydrogels are three-dimensional polymeric networks whose main feature is the ability to absorb and retain large water volumes. Because of their excellent characteristics, these superabsorbents have been widely used in many areas, such as tissue engineering, wound dressings, agriculture and water treatment.

The rapid growth of the global economy has caused many environmental problems due to a serious pollution problem. The abuse use of chemical products is an environmental toxicological problem. The consequences can be serious for water resources. In this perspective, our study came to contribute to depollution with new means using new materials with interesting properties. Among these materials, LDHs whose synthesis is easy and inexpensive can be a tool in the treatment of polluted water.

Recently, polysaccharides and their derivatives have become a serious alternative polymers and found increasing industrial applications.

Green for Brown (G4B) is a novel, open-source, computer-based, and spatially-distributed tool for evaluating phytoextraction in soils polluted by heavy metals. G4B operates with easily quantifiable inputs related to the soil, plant, and climate compartments. We evaluate G4B’s potential by simulating the arsenic (As) phytoextraction performance of a fern. G4B predictions indicate that the tested fern was able to extract 17.23 mg L-1 of As per growing cycle, requiring 8 cycles to restore the soil As to safety level. G4B was shown to be an effective and viable tool for assessing heavy metal phytoextraction from polluted soil.

Over the last decade, the problem of pollution of aquatic environment by pharmaceutically active (PhACs) compounds including drugs and their active metabolites has raised an increasing concern because of their persistence in surface water and their negative impact on living organisms.

Milk is a very important part of our diet, due to the high demand on this product and the relevance of the environmental effects from its production. Hence, it was necessary to determine the environmental consequences related to this process.

Nanotechnology, a rapid evolving field of matter manipulation to develop and produce extremely small tools/materials, is having exponential increase in a number and diversity of materials. Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have, among other important intrinsic properties, active surfaces and are subject to transformations, adsorption, precipitation and accumulation on solid matrixes, contaminants or living organisms.

Urban wetlands play an important role in maintaining the environmental systems of cities in southeastern China where population is large, economy is active and rainfall is plentiful.

Biofilms are beneficial for bioremediation processes in terms of eliminating oil spills and sewage treatment. However, they can be harmful, mainly in the food industry sector and in water distribution systems.

Oil releases during drilling operations, operating and transportation is a major problem for oil companies that are forced to conduct an adequate and effective treatment of these pollutant emissions before any evacuation because of the environmental protection requirements.

The presence of radio nuclides in wastes is a major environmental concern. The removal of radioactive ions from wastewater is an important issue in liquid waste treatment.

Hydrocarbons in high concentrations in the environment and their transfer have a detrimental effect on human health and ecosystems.

Pesticides of the pyrethroid class, such as deltamethrin, are widely used as insecticides because of their short biodegradation period and their low tendency to accumulate in living organisms.

Using saline water for irrigation of forage crops, has becomes a priority to secure crop productivity specially in the arid and semiarid regions and alleviate water scarcity. Organic amendment was applied at a rate of 40 t.ha−1 on loamy clayey soil to assess the feasibility of compost to be used as a nutrient-releasing and saline soil remediation. Both compost and farmyard manure improved plant growth and nutrient uptake. Alternatively, this dose of compost involved an increase of plant copper, cadmium, and zinc concentrations in plant tissues compared to those in presence of manure. Furthermore, translocation factor reached 1 only in the case of Cd; however, bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of Zn, Cu and Pb was lower than 1. The salt stress increased TF and BAF for plants grown in unamended soils. The presence of compost did not increase translocation factors in the presence of salt. Nevertheless, the recorded levels of accumulation show that these elements do not seem to thwart the improvements due to the compost use.

Semi-arid agricultural areas are fragile territories where water and soil resources must be preserved. In this context, the impact evaluation is difficult due to the lack of data. In this study, we focused on the upstream Merguellil watershed, located in central Tunisia, where several water and soil conservation works (WSCW) were built since 1990 to control water erosion, increase local infiltration and protect the downstream area.

Copepods are tiny (~1 mm) crustaceans belonging to zooplankton which is a major trophic link in the aquatic food web. Their biomonitoring is ecologically relevant since their biological process and demoecological impairment must be read as early signs of hazard occurring in the environment, before higher levels organisms are concerned.HighlightsWater quality assessment is more efficient when it relays on early warning systems Copepods, occupying lower trophic levels, are considered as environmental sentinels in aquatic ecosystemsDigestive gut of animals exposed to either essential or non-essential metals gave evidence of a dose-dependent cell apoptosis, even at environmentally exposure concentration Copepod cell sensitivity to metals may open up a horizon to explore cell-based biosensing techniques for water quality assesment

Currently almost all the textile industries use synthetic dyes as coloring agents because these gave more colors and are long lasting. Large proportion of these dyes released into water in the form of effluent.

An arid zone is defined as an area of low precipitation, high temperature, and high evaporation rate. The soil in this zone is characterized by neutral, high salt content and low organic matter.

Tunisia, being arid to semi-arid country, is facing water shortage of increasing severity. Water scarcity problems are expected to intensify as a result of population growth, rising living standards and accelerated urbanisation.

A variety of hazardous environmental pollutants has been identified in recent years as contaminants such as synthetic compounds (e.g., pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and anti-foulants), non-synthetic substances and compounds (e.g., heavy metals and hydrocarbons), and radionuclides (Justino et al. 2015). Alkylphenols are commonly determined by traditional analytical techniques such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This results in the consumption of large amounts of organic solvents and laborious sample preparation, resulting in high costs and time-consuming methodologies.

Tunisia is one of the Mediterranean basin countries that have serious shortage of water with available water resources of about 480 m3/inhab/year (Al Atiri 2007). Water demand is predominantly in the agricultural sector, representing about 80% of the total demand, while drinking sector consumes 14%, industry accounts for 4% and tourism 2% (Al Atiri 2007). The country is also facing water-quality problems (salinization) and seawater intrusion in coastal areas due to excessive groundwater pumping.

The common use of insecticides in public health and agricultural schedules has caused severe environmental pollution and potential health hazards including different acute and chronic cases of animal poisonings. Neonicotinoids are the newest class of insecticides to be developed and represent the only major new class of insecticides in the past three decades.

The use of heavy metals has increased due to the rapid pace of industrialization. These metals persist in the environment and pose health problems for all living forms. The environmental microbiologists are making efforts to get rid of these metals in an eco-friendly way. One such way is bioremediation. Bioremediation involves the use of bacteria to clean up the environment.

The accidental introduction of new phytoplankton species can be accomplished by different means: transport by coastal currents, migratory bird faeces or by ballast water. However, the transfer of shellfish from one water body to another may also be responsible for this phenomenon.

Peach (Prunus persica) is one of the most important fruit tree species in Tunisia, its cultivation surface and its production are grown intensively.

Environmental pollution can have significant detrimental effects on animal populations (Hughes et al. in Science, 278:689–6923, 1997). Anthropogenic pressures have been increasing in the past decades in Gabès region, due to the installation of the Gabès-Ghannouche factory complex of phosphate treatment for fertilizer and acid production in the early 1970s. This pollution has affected wildlife at all levels of biological organization, from the molecular to the ecosystem levels.

Landfilling is one of the most widely used processes for the disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). It is designed to dispose high quantities of waste at economical costs. Landfill management may pose serious environmental impacts through the discharge of highly polluted wastewater also known as leachate. The treatment of landfill leachates (LFL) is very complicated, expensive and requires various combined process applications due to their high COD and nitrogen levels.

Novaluron is a chitin synthesis inhibitor, belonging to the class of benzoylurea insecticide with a high toxicity level and effectiveness against several mosquito larvae. In the present study, the impact of this compound was investigated on a non-target organism, shrimp Palaemon adspersus Rathke, 1837 (Decapoda, Palaemonidae) abundant in the lagoon El-Mellah (Northeast Algeria) and a relatively important for the local fishery industry. Its effects on cuticle was examined.

Cadmium (Cd) is the most toxic contaminant for plants and soil microorganisms. Generally, heavy metals cause oxidative damage to plants through reactive oxygen species (ROS), in response, plants developed defense systems by different antioxidant such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT) and Ascorbate peroxidase (APX).

As a part of a soil quality biomonitoring program in Northeast of Algeria, we have assessed the seasonnal variation of growth of a snail, Helix aspersa (Mollusca, Gastropoda), a bioindicator species of soil pollution, and measured the responses of some environmental stress biomarkers, Acetylcholinesterase, Glutathione S-transferase and Metallothionein, in sites subjected to different pollution sources. The results showed a seasonal and site effects on growth, an inhibition of acetylcholinesterase and an induction of glutathione S-transferase and metallothionein. These results are related to exposure of sites to pollution.

The Gulf of Gabes (southeastern - Tunisia), characterized by the abundance of halieutic resources, is nowadays facing strong anthropogenic pressures. This paper aimed to assess and compare the anthropogenic inputs of 30 stations belonging to three coastal areas of the Gulf of Gabes (Gulf of Gabes) i.e. the Southern and the Northern coastal areas of Sfax and the Ghannouch area during October and November 2014.

In agriculture, Fusariosis spies is a disease that causes big losses in industry. It affects not only the yield but also the crop health quality because of the presence of toxins in grains.

To avoid contaminating non target animals and pollution during pesticide treatments of crops, neonicotinoïds were developed during the ninetees. These neurotoxics target insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) making them harmless to mammals. However, they proved to be very toxic toward honeybees. Thiamethoxam is one of the most commercialized neonicotinoïd. It converts to clothianidin, a highly remnant neonicotinoïd.

Sea water in Skikda (in the North East of Algeria) is under great pressure because of industrial development (Boudelaa and Medjram 2011) and the release of hydrocarbon pollutants in the sea, which has affected the life quality in sea water.

This study was designed to evaluate the copper and zinc bioaccumulation in Orchestia montagui Audouin, 1826 which was exposed to a contaminated soil during three weeks and to determine the ultrastructural changes in the hepatopancreas of this species. Individuals were weekly weighed and the metals body burdens were determined at the end of the experiment. Furthermore, the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was calculated showing that this species is considered as a macroconcentrator of these two metals. The highest concentrations of copper and zinc induced significant changes in the ultrastructural organization of S and B cells in the hepatopancreas.

The tremendous growth of the world population in recent years, has caused a significant increase in the food consumption.

Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is one of the most important crops in the development of forage systems, because of its high yield, good mineral balance and better tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress.

Trace metals (TMs) are considered hazardous pollutants of aquatic environment since they are persistent, toxic, and could be concentrated in marine organisms.

Among heavy metals, cadmium (Cd) when released in soil, is harmful as it can easily penetrate the root system and reach plant photosynthetic tissues.

DDT and many of its metabolites have been linked to endocrine disruptions because of their capacity for mimicking or interfering with endogenous hormones and other signaling chemicals of the endocrine system.

Rotifers are microscopic organisms that could be present in fresh as in brackish water. Some species are widely tolerant of the environmental conditions, while others are characteristic of fresh water.

Hydrocarbons, including aliphatic hydrocarbons (AHs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are among the most ubiquitous organic contaminants in the marine environment.

Hydrocarbon sludges derived from oil refining industry represent both an economic and an environmental problem. Their remediation represents a challenge aimed at finding the most profitable eco-friendly processes.

Groundwater quality is very essential in a sense of practical utility for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes and plays significant role in the living organism that exist in the water world.

Pesticides, especially chlorpyrifos which is a broad-spectrum insecticide used extensively in agriculture worldwide, are applied as a low-cost and effective possibility to ensure and increase crop yields.

Today, nanosciences and nanotechnologies have promised remarkable progress in the areas of health, environment and energy. In recent years, the scientific community has shown a growing interest in these “new sciences” and human and financial resources are being used for their development.

This study aimed to reveal the biocontrol potential of Lecanicillium against roo-knot nematode (Meloidogyne javanica). The fungus isolated from parasitized mature female of Meloidogyne javanica was identified morphologically and molecular and subjected to phylogenetic analysis which confirmed that belongs to Lecanicillium genera (high similarity).The egg parasitism screening showed high efficiency of parsitising eggs as compared with other fungal isolates (81%). The exposure to five concentrations of filtrate culture of Lecanicillium showed a high inhibition of egg hatching which increase with time exposure and the maximum recorded with 50, 75 and 100% dilutions at 7 days post exposure. The mode of action of nematophagous fungus was revealed by SEM observation which suggest production of lytic enzymes degrading egg cuticule, penetrating and parasitizing fungal hyphae into unhatched M.javanica juveniles.

Although stored grains can be destroyed by insects, fungi, and vertebrate pests, insect pests are often the most important devastators because of the favourable environmental conditions that promote their development.

Intensive work is under way throughout the world to clean contaminated and saline soils and surface waters with higher aquatic plants

Cobalt oxide nanomaterial (nano-Co₃O₄) is among the least investigated NMs in terms of environmental ecotoxicity. However, nano-Co₃O₄ was widely used for pigments, catalysis, sensors, electrochemistry, magnetism and energy storage.

The annual incidence of shigellosis throughout the world is estimated at 164.7 million cases and 1.1 million of those infected die with 69% of all deaths involving children less than 5 years old.

Nanomaterials (NMs) are emergent compounds that have started to appear in soils already stressed by other commonly used chemicals, such metals. In this context, our concerns should be focused not only on the individual toxicity of NMs, but also on their binary toxicity.

Some bacteria play a considerable role in the pathology of fish, sometimes. They may infect with one or more fish species, which makes them true pathogens, capable of infecting most healthy animals. However, only opportunistic pathogens whose infectivity is expressed by a decline in the fish condition and of its natural defenses, are linked to disturbances of the environment or livestock practices, creating the most favorable context for the development of bacterial pathologies.

Boron (B) is one of the seven essential micronutrients required for the normal crop growth and yield of most plants (Ali et al. in Am J Plant Sci 6:1391–1400, 2015).

Among the pollutants entering Kuwait’s coastal areas, hydrocarbons (generally referred to as petroleum hydrocarbons) constitute the bulk and are considered to be a major environmental stress (Lyons et al. in Mar Pollut Bull 100:629–635, 2015).

Owing to the continuously-increasing quick pace of industrialization, the aquatic ecosystems turn out to be subjected to the release of a wide range of contaminants, resulting in remarkable stresses being incurred on organisms living in such environments (Phillips and Rainbow in Biomonitoring of trace aquatic contaminants. London, New York: Elsevier Applied Science, p 371, 1993).

Metals are found in the environment in many forms and extracted in several different countries. Especially chromium IV is considered as carcinogenic and may lead to health problems such as allergic reactions, nose irritations and nosebleed, weakened immune system, genetic material alteration, stomach ulcer, kidney and liver function disorders and death.

The concentration of heavy metals in fish is influenced by several factors, in particular, the biological differences (e.g. species, size, age, gender, sexual maturity, diet) and the environmental ones (e.g. water chemistry, salinity, temperature, and levels of contamination) (Carvalho et al. in Anal Bioanal Chem 382:426–432, 2005).

Prediction of Nitrogen (N) mineralization from soil Organic Matter (OM) is important when we try to optimize N fertilization and assess adverse N impacts on the environment. The focus of this research study was to investigate throughout a field and laboratory approach, the influence of the pedoclimate and some soil properties on N mineralization dynamics in four non-amended soils of a semi-arid zone in North Tunisia. The aim was also to propose a classification according to their potential N mineralization and kinetics.

The increasing development of industrial activity and domestic behaviors have resulted in a diversification of the types of pollution. The heavy metals’ related pollution, especially in the water-source areas, represents a serious threat to both aquatic fauna as well as human beings. In this regard, the present study is designed to highlight the rate of Mercury bioacumulation through genus Baetis (Ephemeroptera, macroinvertebrates) along the “El Harrach Wadi” river.

Petroleum hydrocarbons pollutants are toxic to all forms of life and are a great concern about environnemental pollutio issues. Existence or non-existence of pollutants and natural cleansing process around erstwhile oyem electrical station (2010 and 2013). Assessing hydrocarbons content decline by statistics and geostatistics around erstwhile oyem electrical station (2010 and 2013). Variogram modelling and kriging interpolation are efficient for describing pollutants spatial varaibility patterns over study area). Estimation and simulation used in geostatistics might be reliable whether environmental pollution questions are not trustwothy.

The excessive and unreasonable use of Plant Protection Products (PPP) in agriculture can cause side effects on the environment and human health. In this context, some risk indicators were developped to evaluate and manage the risk related to these chemical products.

Fish is an important source of food and income for many poor households in Egypt. Populations of fish-eating birds like Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors), Great Egret (Ardea alba), Great Bittern (Botaurus stellaris), Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis), Great Black-headed Gull (Larus ichthyaetus), Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), Common Moorhen, (Gallinula chloropus), Common Coot (Fulica atra), and even ducks and geese have increased dramatically and caused substantial economic impacts to aquaculture production.

The aim of the current study was to assess the environmental safety of the reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) for Korba local aquifer recharge. TWW and Groundwater quality screening for estrogenic potency using in vitro bioassays is crucial given the negative impacts induced by endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) on human health and aquatic organisms. Current screening of estrogenic activity using E-screen assay revealed the presence of EDCs in TWW and groundwater samples.

In Algeria, Culicidae form the most harmful biting insects to populations, among which some species may transmit infectious diseases (particularly malaria).

He release of untreated effluents from industries and domestic sources deteriorates the water quality of receiving water bodies and drains.

With the growing release of endocrine dustrupting chemicals such as 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) into aquatic ecosystems in recent years (Belhaj et al. in Environ Sci Pollut Res 24(8):7392–7402, 2015), concerns have been raised about their potential toxicity to aquatic organism.

ETMs are naturally presistent on earth soil. Some of these elements are trace elements, essential and beneficial to living beings, such as manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), iron (Fe) and chromium (Cr).

Mining has a very economic importance worldwide and remains an essential part of the economy in different countries (Nansai et al. in Environ Sci Technol 49(4):2022–2031, 2015; Galas and Galas in Resour Policy 49:204–212, 2016).

With the rapid economic development for the last 4 decades, wetland sediments in most cities in China have been polluted at different levels by heavy metals (Zhu et al. in Beijing Env Monit Assess 185:6049–6062, 2013; Bai et al. in China Ecol Model 222:301–306, 2011)

Sulfuric acid is an important liquid for chemical industries. It is used in making fertilizers, manufacturing a myriad of chemicals and materials, refining petroleum, etc.

The use of sewage sludge, generated during wastewater treatment, as an organic fertilizer has attracted more attention in view of soil amendment and nutrient supplying (Antolin et al. in Field Crops Res 94(2–3):224–237, 2005) and at the same time to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers (Passuello et al. in POP accumulation in the food chain: Integrated risk model for sewage sludge application in agricultural soils 36(6):577–583, 2010).

Soil contamination by toxic metals is a major environmental problem. These pollutants, contained in anthropogenic wastes, cannot be biodegraded and accumulate in soils and transported to human through the consumption of contaminated aliments or smoking. Several recent researchers showed that these elements are able to generate many diseases as cancer and renal or kidney dysfunctions.

Manufactured nanomaterials have new physicochemical properties which allow their use in a large number of food or cosmetic products, the development of tools for electronics or the biomedical sciences.

Nanoparticles (NPs) and Ultra fine particles (UFP) represent major components of the atmospheric pollution, associated with an increased morbidity and mortality, in particular at the cardiovascular and respiratory levels (Présumé et al. 2016; Atkinson et al. 2014; Qiu et al. 2014).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool used to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product or a system.

Mosquitoes can transmit serious human diseases such as malaria, dengue, filariasis, and yellow fever, which affect more than 700 million people annually throughout the world.

In recent decades, a pressure on water resources has increased at a same time of demand increase in the world and particularly in Tunisia.

Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for almost all living organisms and represents one of the most versatile metals in biology.

This study showed that phytoremediation of nitrogen or phosphate or a fungicide may be influenced by the presence of another contaminant in the medium, either positively or negatively. The simultaneous presence of contaminants may also have an influence on phytoremediation. Lemna gibba showed higher phosphor and nitrogen removal in growth medium without metals (86.82% and 75% respectively). Metals further decreased the efficiency of removal of phosphor and nitrogen. After 8 days, 10-4- 1 mg L-1 Cu reduced removal of phosphate by 58.64 to 8.30% and removal of nitrogen by 55% to 10%.

Abamectin is a mixture of avermectins containing more than 80% avermectin B1a and less than 20% avermectin B1b. These two components, B1a and B1b have very similar biological and toxicological properties

Soils contamination with heavy metals is a common problem throughout the world. The presence of heavy metals can lead to risks of water and soil contamination, transfers to the chain food, or the reduction of the soil biological activity (Sterckeman and al. 2008).

Heavy metals are considered to be point or nonpoint pollutant sources of dams, lakes, seas, and rivers. In general, heavy metals originate from terrestrial flows, atmospheric deposition and waste water discharge in water ecosystems

This paper deals with the urban heat stress phenomenon which cities have to face by improving their absorption and adaptation capacities at different space scales and time horizons. Hence, the objective is to characterize a potential filter mechanism serving to regulate the temperature and subsequently reduce the urban heat impact. Bab Ezzouar muncipality from Algiers is serves as a case study.

Since their commercial introduction in the early 1990s, Neonicotinoids have quickly become the most commonly used class of insecticides in the world. Thiamethoxam as an end-use product of Actara® (25 g of thiamethoxam in 100 g of insecticide) is a widely used in the Northeast Algerian region against Insects and Cereal Suckers, Fruit Trees and vegetable crops.

Heavy metal pollutants in aquatic environments cause a severe threat to public health and ecological systems (Wang et al. 2010; Ambashta and Sillanpää 2010). Cadmium, zinc, copper, nickel, lead, mercury and chromium are often detected in industrial wastewaters, which originate from metal plating, mining activities, tanneries, surface treatment processes, paint manufacture

Heterogeneous distributions of zooplankton originate from various processes, some of which can be attributed to internal factors; that is, they are related to the activity and swimming behaviour of the animals (Folt and Burns 1999).

Anthropogenic, industrial and agricultural activities can be the cause of an accumulation of metals in the environment and in particular in soils. The contribution of metals to soil is generally made either by atmospheric deposition or by direct application to the soil or indirectly via vegetation

The safe disposal of sewage sludge is one of the major concerns worldwide (Singh and Agrawel 2010). In Tunisia, sewage sludge generation has significantly increased in recent years (245 thousands m3 of dried sewage sludge in 2010 compared to 99 thousand m3 in 2002) and its management is still a significant problem. Among the proposed strategies for sewage sludge management and according to the report of the National Urban Wastewater Treatment Program, agricultural application of sewage sludge remains one of the methods.

The study area is located in the North of Algeria on the Northern side of the numidian chain, 30 km away from Skikda and 3–10 km from Azzaba.

Present work aims to assess the potential of phytoremediation of tree species namely: Quercus ilex LThe determination of concentration of certain heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni and Cd) in the leaves, shoots of both trees and soilThe pollution index calculated show that the soils of the urban site are more polluted than the rural site soils.

Salinity has always increased in agricultural soils where irrigation is employed in arid and semi arid areas (Djerroudi-Zidane et al. 2010). Abiotic stresses factors such as drought, heat and soil salinity cause significant crop yield losses by limiting plant growth on diverse crop species (Abbruzzese et al. 2009). Plant salt-tolerance expressed by morpho-physiological characteristics (Pessarakli 2002).

The use of treated wastewater for agricultural soils irrigation is an alternative to the water shortage affecting Tunisia.

Heavy metals do not all present the same risk due to their effects on the organisms, their chemical, physiochemical and biological properties. Their toxicity is very variable and their impact on the environment is very different.

Coal-fired power plants generate fly ash (FA) whose elemental composition (both nutrient and toxic elements) varies due to types and source of used coal.

The organic compounds, persistent in the different environmental spheres, have various origins. These compounds’ impact on different ecosystems is highly dependent on their interactions with the surrounding environment. Among the organic contaminants involved in chemical pollution are xenobiotics or phytosanitary compounds, introduced into the environment via anthropogenic activity, mainly agriculture, in a bid to improve crop production yields.

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) are largely used in the medical sector as a new tool in analytical tests and drug delivery systems.

The dieback and wilting symptoms induced by complex soilborne fungi has caused considerable economic losses in olive orchards in Tunisia.

Heavy metal contamination of soil may pose risks for men and environment. Soil may accumulate heavy metals through emission, thus creating risks to plants, animals, and humans.

The Maputo city (Mozambican Capital) has about 2 million inhabitants and is located in semi-arid zone with Annual mean rainfall of 800 mm. Due to water scarcity the vegetable producers use the contaminated water with sanitary sewage in the valley of the infulene collected in Maputo city and transported through a drainage channel to the Mualuzi river where it passes in the suburban region of infleune towards the Indian Ocean.

Coolia monotis has occurred recently in many coastal areas of the Gulf of Gabés (South of Tunisia) as potentially toxic marine phytoplankton.

Traditional ecotoxicity testing neglects possible contaminant-driven emigration, thus potentially underestimating ecological risks. A literature survey indicates several aquatic organisms may move away from contaminant-disturbed habitats, even before suffering toxicological effects. If spatial avoidance only occurs at partially lethal contaminant concentrations, coupled effects increase the population immediate extinction probability. Methodologies and a conceptual framework are already available to easily estimate contaminant-driven emigration and recolonisation patterns. We recommend contaminants be regarded not only as poisons, but also as repellents, and that avoidance and recolonisation testing be included in ecological risk assessments.

In this study, the microbial degradation of two antibiotics, enrofloxacin (ENR) and oxytetracycline (OXY), belonging respectively to fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines classes is reported. Biodegradation of the two antibiotics was tested by supplementing culture medium with ENR and OXY individually and in mixture. Two sediments from Douro estuary (Porto, Portugal) were used as inocula. Biodegradation experiments were conducted along a period of 2 months, during which the antibiotics were supplemented to the cultures every 10 days, at the concentration of 1 mgL−1, using acetate as a co-substrate. Complete removal of OXY from the inoculated culture medium was always observed within the 10 days period, while removal of ENR varied between 70% and 90%. The results presented in this study indicate that biodegradation can be an important mechanism for the environmental removal of the tested compounds.

The socio-economic development of the Jeffara of Gabes, located in the southeast of Tunisia, has led to a strong exploitation of the coastal aquifers groundwater which has induced a drying up of the springs that supplied the oases.

The Laayoune Dakhla Aquifer System (LDAS) covers approximately 120,000 km2 of the Sahara south of Morocco.

The Mitidja plain is situated in the North of Algeria. It extends over an area of about 1450 km2. It is bordered in the north by the Mediterranean Sea in its eastern part, and by the Sahel mountains (260 m l.a.s) in its western part.

In arid and semiarid regions groundwater is scarce, limited and non-renewable but it is a vital resource that supports a variety of societal uses and benefits. With growing demand due to extensions in agriculture and domestic sectors, groundwater resources are coming under greater pressure following reductions in surface water yields, due to reduced rainfall and over abstraction.

Groundwater is an essential resource in both Algeria and the rest of the world. Considered an important source of water supply in semi-arid areas, groundwater has several advantages over surface water, they are generally characterized by higher quality, better protected against chemical pollutants, less subject to fluctuations seasonal and permanent, and more evenly spread over large areas as surface water.

The poor quality of groundwater irrigation is an important problem in the arid and semi-arid regions as well as for the Lower Cheliff plain (Algeria) as it is a direct cause of soil salinization and reduces crop productivity.

In the central and southern parts of Tunisia, where surface water is both scarce and random, groundwater is the only source of irrigation. Favorable marketing opportunities for various crops and easy and heavily subsidized availability of water lifting technology launched in the arid and semi-arid regions have led to a real intensive groundwater extraction, tapping reserves which could not be reached with older technologies.

Tunisian areas suffer from regular water shortage and the increase of groundwater exploitation rates, causing a continuous decrease of groundwater level as a consequence of aquifers overexploitation.

The Segui region, situated in the southeastern part of Gafsa city, in the south of Tunisia, and characterized by an arid climate, suffers from water resources scarcity due to an excessive demand on domestic utilization and agricultural activity.

The approaches for groundwater monitoring network design can be classified as hydrogeologic and statistical.

The study of the water quality in the shallow aquifer of Tebessa-Morsott was carried out to perform a preliminary assessment of the hydrochemical quality of same groundwater samples and their suitability for irrigation uses. The high salinity coupled with groundwater level decline pose serious problems for current irrigation and domestic water supplies as well as for future exploitation. The statistical treatment of hydrochemical data by principal component analysis revealed two components related to salinity and pollution. The US salinity diagram illustrates that most of the groundwater samples fall in C3S1- C4S1 quality with high salinity hazard and low sodium hazard.

Describing the distribution of aquifer units in 3 dimensions can be intricate especially in heterogeneous environments. In our case, the investigations of the Sahel el Abebsa area revealed a considerable thickness and facies variation within the Triassic Sandstone aquifer, likely related to the structural setup of the area. The primary objective of this work was therefore to provide a good 3D geometrical representation of the aquifer system honoring geology and available data.

The development of the Saharan regions is imperatively conditioned by the persistence of water resources and their possibility of use over time (Haouchine et al. 2010). About 89% of the water resources are used by the agricultural sector and the existing industries are low water users (Bouammar 2010). Indeed, knowledge of the geochemical quality of groundwater in the Sahara is paramount because salinity is often linked to aridity.

The contamination of water resources available for household and drinking purposes with heavy elements, metal ions and harmful microorganisms is one of the major serious health problems (Karunanidhi et al. 2013). The fluoride is to scale as one of the pollutants of geological origin more frequently met in ground water.

Elevated nitrate levels in the Gaza strip, Palestine groundwater were and still are a major problem. The over fertilization of the Gaza strip sandy soil along with the discharge of non-treated wastewater leads to the rapid leaching of nitrates into the groundwater. The groundwater contamination with nitrate leaves Gaza, an extremely water scarce area, with no safe drinking water supply alternative.

Agriculture in our study area represents the first socio-economic activity. It is therefore necessary to consider that for an effective water management. Variation of groundwater quality in an area is a function of physical and chemical parameters that are greatly influenced by geological formations and anthropogenic activities.

Water quality is controlled by many factors including climate, soil topography and water rock interaction. These factors lead to a variation in the chemical composition and groundwater facies.

Water is one of the important sources for the survival of living species on the earth. As earth has only a limited number of water resources for drinking purposes, people in rural and urban areas are getting affected by consuming contaminated water that leads to water-borne diseases (Sathyamurthy et al. 2016). Groundwater is of great importance for many countries in the world, where most drinking water comes from aquifers. Aquifers have provided inexpensive drinking water for populations, a fact that can be associated with improvements in public health parameters and many other socioeconomic benefits.

The groundwater resources in the Algerian northern Sahara are represented by two superimposed major aquifers: the Continental Intercalaire (CI) and the Complex Terminal (CT). The waters of these aquifers pose serious physical and chemical quality problems; they are highly mineralized and very hard. The understanding of the mechanisms these waters acquire their chemical composition has become an important and vital stake in recent years for the protection and the management of our environment.

For the last thirty years, hydrogeologists have been concerned with the preservation of the groundwater of the Algerian eastern Mitidja. Mania et al. (1985), Toubal (1998), Djabri et al. (2003) and Djoudar and Toubal (2008) have highlighted a saline pollution of the Algiers groundwater. Piezometric maps show a clear and total reversal of sea water flow direction towards the continent reaching water catchments of Boureah and threatening those of Hamiz where Piezometric levels are 16 meters below sea level (ANRH 2006).

Actually many studies of groundwater resources expect that the features of rocks, runoff, climate, terrain, replenishment, drainage conditions and anthropic activities are the major factors, which impact on the variations of groundwater chemistry (Dragon 2008; Chen et al. 2008).

In Berrechid arid area, groundwater plays an important role as a water supply for drinking and irrigation. Unfortunately, due to drought, the rapid growing of the economy and the population across recent years has caused many severe problems such as salinization of groundwater and land. To remedy this situation a successful sustainable management of water in this region has become an urgent issue.

Chemistry of the groundwater in the Tamlouka plain is very varied. It depends on several factors that are able to modify its chemical characteristics. In groundwater, there are always variations from upstream to downstream. The water circulates in the leaching reservoir rocks with an increase in the total salt concentration.

Nowadays, thousands of people in the world do not always have access to drinking water. The situation of provision in drinking water is preoccupying in Benin and especially in out-of-town environments. More of 50% of Beninese living in semi-urban environment do not have access to drinking water.

Modeling that can provide a holistic understanding of technology at a fundamental level are of great necessity. Compared to experimental research and development, followed by commercialization of the technology, modeling studies are at a relatively rudimentary state.

The study area is located in the northern part of Iraq within Dohuk governorate. It is delimited by the longitudes (42° 57′ 29″)–(43° 04′ 00″) East, and Latitudes (36° 50′ 10″)–(36° 53′ 15″) North.

In coastal regions, groundwater serves as a major source used for the human activities satisfaction. Almost, 44% of the world’s population live within 150 km of the coast line (UN Atlas 2010; Reed 2010). Due to a drastic population growth, and an industrial, economic and agricultural sectors development, the groundwater resources were almost threatened by both qualitative (pollution, chemical modification) and quantitative (overexploitation) degradation.

The geochemistry and isotopic composition (18O, 2H) of groundwater from the alluvial phreatic aquifer in the Wady Guenniche basin (NE of Tunisia), were investigated in order to reveal the origin of the water salinity. The major geochemical processes in the aquifer are evaporite mineral dissolution and mineral exchange with clays. The salinization of groundwater would be a limiting factor in their use for irrigation. The stable isotopic composition of water indicates a groundwater recharge in current climate condition and the point closest to the sea indicates the possible beginning of a seawater intrusion as a result of the intensive exploitation of resources. The tritium data confirm a recent recharge younger than 1950.

Physical and chemical data, have been taken from the whole of Mateur plain (NE Tunisie) (Fig. 1a). In Mateur region, most waters come from phreatic aquifer and deep aquifers. These aquifers show indications of advanced overexploitation, revealed by decreasing piezometric surfaces and degradation in water quality. The total dissolved solids (TDS) were measured in September–October 2015 at 72 water points drilled in the phreatic aquifer and deep aquifers. The upstream zone of Mateur shows good chemical quality water, with a TDS varying from 0.7 to 1 g/l. However, highly mineralized waters (over 1.5 g/l) were found in the middle-Mateur plain and downstream zone.

The water resources of the city of Tiznit and the neighboring rural municipalities are very limited. The water requirements (needs) of this area are satisfied by the dam of Youssef Ibn Tachfine located on one of the streams of Oued Massa, from Reggada source located in the platform of Ouled Jerrar and from Talaint wells, distant respectively of 32.8, 20 and 24 km away from the city of Tiznit. The exploitation of the Reggada source water began in 1996.

An innovative partnership has been established between a university team (R&D unit of Aquapôle, University of Liège) and public stakeholders managing surface water quality (Water Agencies and Administrations) in order to develop a mathematical model included in a software suite that meets the expectations of operators. This development strategy based on the needs of partners is a guarantee of success, directly benefiting from the quality improvement of aquatic environments. The partners have complementary missions consisting in the monitoring of aquatic environment and in scientific research. The research was carried out in the European context where public water policy has to be supported by robust knowledge to establish the relationships between the state of environment and the associated pressures. In this context, the PegOpera software suite is a tool supporting the management of surface water quality, from local scale to transnational level, up to the River Basin District scale. The main purpose of this operational tool is its ability to explicitly describe the pressure/impact relationships and to help Administrations in their planning missions through prospective simulation of measures (River Basin Management Plans in the scope of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC).

Taima and Tleta wadis (NW Algeria), receives wastewaters discharged by local communities and some industrial activities of Nedroma city without any prior treatment. These wastewaters discharges contribute to the degradation of the river water quality. To this end, and in order to study the environment under a SETP monitoring, physical, chemical and bacteriological analyses were performed to quantify pollution parameters caused by wastewater discharges.

This paper explains the technical elements of the plant, the design of the diffuser system approach, conceptualization of the digital models regimes for effluents at short and far-field of the mixing zone, and design of the selected diffuser with a particular emphasis on modeling of mixing process in near-field.

Tindla is a town and commune in north west of El Oued Province in the south east of Algeria (Figure).

The paper is dedicated to investigate the results of a Third Party Validation TPV experience in Punjab. The Client, Punjub Saaf Pani Company, the State owned Authority, is allotted the task of providing fresh water to rural villages.

The runoff-rainfall relationship determination in a drought watershed together with data shortage becomes a tough mission. In this regard a conceptual model for the determination of runoff-rainfall is crucial. The gaol of this research is the assessment of two conceptual models, IHBV and HBV-Light, in the estimation of water harvesting increase to help the cloud seeding technology (Case study: Catchment Taft-Dehshir).

Hydrologic design of extreme rainfall structures (sewers, culverts, retention basins etc.) and other severe storm water management systems are typically performed based on specified design storms derived from the rainfall characteristics estimates. The use of inappropriate data could lead to malfunctions of the infrastructure systems.

This study explores the use of water quality data for groundwater protection management. The urban related environmental expansion acts as pollution indicators for the spring water quality. Groundwater quality indicators were mapped and integrated with spatial information about the surrounding environment.

Four different regulated deficit irrigation treatments were applied in 8-year-old apple trees in field conditions, in Switzerland. Soil water and plant water status were followed in the different treatments, during about 100 days, from 40 to 140 days after full bloom and are reported. Our results show that in spite of clear differences in water status, there were no important differences in yields.

The application of basic and multivariate statistical methods including cluster analysis (CA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Factor Analysis (FA) along with Water Quality Index (WQI) as statistical tools in the investigation of water quality data are widely found in literature.

The objective of this study is to analyze the hydro-climatic regimes of the watershed of Mitidja West, and then try to evaluate the influence of climate on superficial flows. Rainfall data and databank for monthly discharges come from the National Agency of Hydraulic Resources (ANRH), rainfall are recorded from 23 rainfall stations distributed over the watershed and whose size varies from one station to another, and Time series of discharges data are generally from 1987 to 2012, but vary in duration. However, we noted that flows have been subjected to ruptures of 1975 until the middle of the 1980s. However, this reduction is due to a the climate impact associated with precipitation which decrease significantly since the end of the 75 years; or an anthropogenic impact due to the many hydraulic infrastructure development since 1985. Thus, for the simulation of the discharges from the rains, the efficiency of the model to simulate monthly discharges of the basin is given by the analysis of the criterion of Nash, of which it gave satisfactory values ​​superior to (60%), we can say, afterwards, that the GR2M model has a certain efficiency to simulate the discharges in the monthly time step and to guarantee a better understanding of the hydrological behavior of the basin.

Water scarcity is very important because of its influence on all human activities in different communities and nations (Hoekstra et al. in The water footprint assessment manual: setting the global standard. Earthscan, London, UK, 2011), and there is a direct ratio between population and water use amount. Urban population may rise to double by 2050 and subsequently rate of water use is going to be increased (Corcoran in Sick water?: the central role of wastewater management in sustainable development: a rapid response assessment, UNEP/Earthprint, 2010). Based on records, water is mostly used in agriculture section, sometimes counting for about 70–90% (Morera et al. in J Clean Prod, 112:4741–4748, 2016). Recently population growth is combined with water scarcity and have severely affected sustainability urban development and environment.

Water exploitation for hydropower and irrigation alters the natural hydrologic regime of rivers, and consequently instream biocenosis and ecological processes. The identification of management decisions able to protect freshwater ecosystems while maintaining important water uses is a crucial issue for both science and management. This study presents and compares water management schemes into two large Mediterranean river basins. Environmental issues linked to management are discussed taking into account different local features and the regulatory framework.

Coastal lagoons are inland water bodies, usually oriented parallel to the shore, separated from the sea by a barrier, connected to the sea by one or more restricted inlets which remain open at least intermittently, and have water depths which seldom exceed a few meters (Kjerve in Elsevier Oceanograhy, 1994).

Aquaculture is a sector of food production that has evolved significantly in recent years. The sustainability of fish farming is today confronted with a regulatory constraint of environmental protection and a socio-economic context of limitations of water consumption.

Water management remains a difficult and complex task due to the multiplicity of user-users, which necessitates the use of decision-making tools, especially in regions with high water stress. This paper attempts to test a model to develop an integrated water resource management scenario, applied to a watershed (Mabtouh River in northwestern Algeria), hosting hydro-agricultural infrastructure (dam, irrigated perimeter), an industrial zone as well as urban agglomerations. The methodology adopted consists in applying the Water Assessment and Planning System (WEAP) model based on a reference year dataset (2014), which attempts to consider the allocation of water to the Horizon 2050, according to two scenarios involving climatic constraint. The results lead to the implementation of scenarios contributing to reducing conflicts of use between consumers.

Water demand in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is increasing rapidly due to high population growth and rapid increase in the various development sectors including agriculture, family and industry. The water supply is mainly served by over pumping of fossil groundwater resources and increasing the desalination capacity. Satisfying this water demand requires an intensive use of energy for treatment, desalination and water transfer along the supply chain from sources ultimately to the consumer. Hence, there is an inherent connection between water and energy and with climate change. These links between water and energy are expected to become even stronger. In this study, we assessed the climate change impacts on the water and energy nexus in GCC countries. The WEAP (Water Evaluation And Planning) model was used for water demand—and its main drivers—and water supply, simulating policies, priorities and preferences. For energy, LEAP (Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning) model was used for energy supply and demand, and is able to capture the impacts of low carbon development strategies. A coupled WEAP-LEAP model was then used to evaluate the future performance of the energy-water system under climate change and policy scenarios. The coupled models required detailed data, which were obtained through literature reviews and consultations with key stakeholders in the region. As part of this process, the outputs of both models were validated for historical periods using existing data. The models examined 5 policy scenarios of different futures of resource management to the year 2060. A future under current management practices with current climate and a climate projection based on the RCP8.5; a High Efficiency scenario where each country gradually implements policies to reduce the consumption of water and electricity; a Natural Resource Protection scenario with resource efficiency and phasing out of groundwater extraction and drastic reduction of fossil fuel usage in favor of solar; and an Integrated Policy scenario that integrates the prior two policy scenarios

In Tunisia, cereals represent 1.5 million hectares, of which more than 70% is wheat. They correspond to 35% of arable land. Wheat production is a priority in Tunisia and its increase is politically encouraged to reach national self-sufficiency. Weeds represent a continuous problem in Tunisian cereal production and are one of the limiting growing factors (Gressel et al. in Crop Protection 23(8):661–689, 2004; Latiri et al. in Eur J Agron 33(1):33–42, 2010).

The literature is rich with studies and models proposed to estimate soil erosion. Among many models, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978) remains the most widely used model to estimate soil erosion. This paper aims to map the soil loss using this equation under a GIS environment in the Ksob watershed, this latter is a sub-basin of the fifth large basin of Algeria (Hodna) with an area of 26,000 km2 and located in the center of Algeria

The presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in drinking water was reported in many studies (Reddersen et al. in Chemosphere, 49(6):539–544, 2002), (Benotti et al. in Environ Sci Technol, 43(3):597–603, 2008), (Dunn et al. in Int J Environ Res Publ Health, 11(5):4634–4651, 2014). Organic contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and pesticides residues which result from human activities in different sectors, and escape from traditional treatments by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) (Haroune et al. in Environ Sci Technol, 51(2):897–904, 2017), (Verlicchi et al. in Sci Total Environ, 429:123–155, 2012), (Boussahel et al. Tests on the elimination of present pesticides in Algerian waters. ANDRS, Oran, pp. 38–40, 2003) so they might affect human health (Focazio et al. in Sci Total Env, 402(2):201–216, 2008).

Flood in urban areas is one of the disasters effecting humans. This may occur due to various reasons such as encroachment of water bodies, inadequate carrying capacity of stormwater networks and changes in rainfall patterns.

For arid and semi-arid countries such as Tunisia, water is a fundamental issue for their development because of its rarity and the spatio-temporal irregularity of its distribution between the North and the South. The mobilization of water resources has become one of the fundamental objectives of the State.

Managed aquifer recharge systems must account for the expected long-run performance from a water quality viewpoint to be considered sustainable in ameliorating not only the groundwater quantity but also its quality. Gravity-driven infiltration ditches in newly afforested areas are one of many managed aquifer recharge systems that could enhance the availability of groundwater resources in medium and short runs. Although, in highly anthropized landscapes such as in Northern Italy, the need of large areas for managed recharge systems is often controversial with respect to the classical land use, which is prevalently agricultural. For this reason, a large scale field experiment has been conducted recently to assess the potential of combining managed aquifer recharge systems with the need of maintain productive the land (Mastrocicco et al. in Ecohydrology, 9(1):167–178, 2016).

The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) for olive irrigation purposes is a potential solution to reduce the fresh water demand and protect the environment. In fact, this effluent is rich in nutrients such as N, P and K, as well as micronutrients, that are considered essentiel for plant growth (Bedbabis et al. in Agric Water Manage, 160:14–21, 2015). Particularly, for plant nursery production, TWW represents an interesting alternative source of irrigation water, which is likely to help face the high water demand.

This study explores the water quality status and pollution sources in lake Ghrib, Algeria. Sampling was done monthly at six sites. Principal component analysis was used to analyze the dataset. PCA showed that three principal components explained 69.18% of water quality variability. The PCA-1 and PCA-3 bi-plot suggested that visibility in lake correlated directly to nutrients and calcium with close association with the sampling site close to the mouth of Chelif river. The pollution threat in lake includes agricultural and domestic sources.

Diversity, distribution, and variation in the biotic parameters provide a good indication of energy turnover in aquatic environments (Forsberg in Hydrobiol 86:143–146, 1982). Within these environments phytoplankton are located at the base level and are represented as a major source of organic carbon (Gaikwad et al. in J Curr Sci 5:749–754, 2004). Species diversity responds to changes in environmental gradients and may characterize many interactions that can establish the intricate pattern of community structure.

Since the early years of the 20th century, lakes have been classified according to their trophic state. A eutrophic lake has high nutrients and high plant growth. An oligotrophic lake has low nutrient concentrations and low plant growth. Mesotrophic lakes fall somewhere in between eutrophic and oligotrophic lakes. While lakes may be lumped into a few trophic classes, each lake has a unique constellation of attributes that contribute to its trophic status.

Extreme climate events often have serious impacts on society, water resources, health and agriculture. Actually, several scientists tend to characterize these extreme phenomena by the use of extreme climatic indices. However, the analysis of teleconnection between these climate extremes indices and the indices of atmospheric oscillations is very useful for understanding the relationship and impact of these atmospheric oscillations on the occurrence and frequency of extreme climatic phenomena.

The hydrological models and Geographic information system (GIS) are useful tools to understand the natural processes at the watershed scale. The distributed hydrological model response depends among others on the spatial resolution of the input data for a good representation of the hydrological processes.

The aim of this paper is to have a better understanding of the significant trends of stream flow in the Upper Blue Nile Basin (UBNB) for 40 years using statistical tools. Analyzing the stream flow is important as it gives a wide vision of a catchment’s response and helps in suggesting suitable future water resources management. Data from two stream flow stations in the basin were analyzed using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical trend test to determine positive or negative trends in the stream flow data series. The MK statistical test showed that for most of the year there is no significant trend for the stream flow time series data except for two months in the rainy season for the selected stations: Bahir_Dar station and Kessie Station. By applying Sen’s estimator, it was found that a decreasing in the trend slope occurred in Bahir_Dar station while it increased for Kessie Station.

Optimal management of water resources requires the use of hydrological modeling, which makes it possible to anticipate the available water resources from a few days to a few months and thus improve their management and consultation between the various actors in the water sector.

The Souk Tleta seawater desalination plant (North-West, Algeria), with a production capacity of 200,000 m3/d, allows the production of drinking water using ultrafiltration (UF) and Reverse osmosis (RO) thechniques for the supply of drinking water to 330,000 inhabitants. These osmosed water, weakly mineralized waters require additional treatments in order to comply with standards of nutritional potability and quality.

Flood risk management specially in arid urban area in different parts of the world is becoming an essential design criteria for flood protection measures. To contribute towards addressing such issue in a typical arid urban environment such as Saudi Arabia, this study tried to apply statistical, hydrological and hydraulic models for different flood frequencies. The models demonstrated application were evaluated on small urban catchment covering Taibah university campus in medina, Saudi Arabia. Urban development exists upstream and downstream of the university. The catchment is dreaned by upstream low drainage network and one main channell that runs through Taibah and then Islamic universities then jointing the main channell of Wadi Alaqiq shown in Fig. 1 left. The catchment covers an area of 34.11 km2, with 10% slope with a main 13.2 km channel length.Fig. 1Catchment delineation boundary projected on satellite image (left) and land use and land cover map (right) based on high resolution images for estimated curve number CN = 86

The steam turbine power plant represents the principal part of any industrial factory. It has a dual purpose which are the generation of electricity and the production of steam from distilled water.

Diffuse pollution in agricultural watershed may contribute to unsustainable use of water resources and implies new challenges in water management.

Over the past ten years, water quality of the Seybouse Wadi (River) in the Guelma region has worsened significantly, due to the intensive use of agricultural chemical fertilizers, urban waste and unbridled industrial discharges.

As a remedy to the water scarcity constraint, Tunisia has undertaken to adopt a number of technical measures whereby the irrigation systems’ efficiency could be improved and water resources well maintained (e.g., rehabilitation of the irrigation systems, subsidy for drip irrigation, etc.). Political measures are also institutional. In fact, the institutional framework developed for water management has been profound changes.

Water pollution is one of the most dominant and relevant ecological problems. For example, the wide presence of NO3− in the environment greatly alters the quality of surface and underground waters. In Algeria, intense soil fertilization practices in some agricultural plains and industrial and domestic effluent discharges have increased the nitrate content of groundwater in several regions in recent years.

North Africa is classified as one of the Earth’s driest environments (UNESCO 1979), with an aridity index that falls below 0.2 (Penman in Proc Roy Soc A 193(1032):120–145, 1948).

The increase of Ground Water Levels (GWL) is an important issue that should be taken into consideration by the responsibles for water resources managements. Monitoring of Ground Water Levels changes due to man-made structures (particularly, barrage construction on rivers) in Egypt is considered one of the main sources for the integrated water resource management implementation plan in this country.

The Alpechines or Margines from the Table-Olive Industry is the most complicated wastewater to treat. Here we present one industrial system installed for over 10 years in three of the leading world industries located in the South of Spain. The system allows the reuse of the depurate water for irrigation of the olive trees, the sludge as highly regarded fertilizer for the olive fields and other crops, whereas the salt maybe reused. A secondary benefit of this system is that the typical stench associated whit the table olive processing is eliminated.

Among the various forms of soil degradation, water erosion represents the most important form. It has economic, social and environmental consequences. In the semi-arid zones, in particular, soil erosion results in the reduction of the water storage, the siltation of dams and hill reservoirs and the degradation of the natural environment which threatens the economic sustainability of rainfed systems and farmers’ incomes.

Northern Tunisia is characterized by a semi-arid climate with an irregular and high spatial variability of rainfall. It is considered one of the least water-endowed countries in the Mediterranean. The dam’s capacity is continuously decreasing due to the silting up of reservoirs. To cope with this water scarcity context, the government has adopted a rigorous water policy that has lead to the development of the valuable hydraulic infrastructure in Tunisia.

In point view of drought tolerance, detailed understanding of the trait and improvement characteristics as well as various agronomic aspects of soybean varieties is very important in Iranian dry climate conditions.

The main purpose of the paper is to examine the potential of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), the Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) and their combination for concrete Dam displacements according to the Hydrostatic, seasonal, time displacement (HST) model. The ANNs are powerful tools for approximation and prediction of dam deformation and the SSA method is well suitable method for characterisation of seasonal signals and trend in time series of dam displacements. The novelty here is the combination of SSA with ANN under HST model for dam displacements prediction.

Environmental problems have recently attracted remarkable attention, and enormous efforts have been consacrated to reduce their effects. In this respect, the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) systems are designed to minimize the environmental impacts of discharging untreated wastewaters into the environment.

Knowledge about the moisture distribution pattern shape and volume of soil wetted by an emitter is the basic need for better subsurface drip irrigation system. The dimensions of the pattern are imperative in selecting the right spacing between emitters and the suitable distance between laterals.

Between 1994 and 2004, natural disasters affected 2.5 billion people, resulting in the death of 478,100 people and estimated economic losses of $ 690 billion.

C.liaw (2006) reported that the urbanization has also been shown to gradually alter urban watershed hydrology by increasing both the quantity and the peak of storm water runoff.

Since the beginning of urbanization, Morocco has experienced a health problem that has arisen dramatically. Due to the increase in population density, a concentration of waste of all kinds occurred.

Hammams are essential elements in Moroccan social and cultural life. However, these hammams consume large quantities of water (60–120m3/day/hammam) and wood-energy

Seasonal changes of Brachionidae community in three center stations of Lake Ghirb (North-West, Algeria) were investigated for two years. The species composition of the Brachionidae community was no stable during the sample period, when Keratella quadrata and K. tropica predominated in spring and summer respectively. In contrast, the decrease in density in the K. quadrata population, during late fall-spring, it might be related to the predation by larval fishes. The most marked change in species composition was the occurrence of Notholca acuminata, which had never been found in the aquatic ecosystems in Algeria. It classified as a new species in Algeria’s fauna.

The increase in drought features in North Africa and Mediterranean regions is one of the most threatening natural hazards related to climate change. The spatial extent of this phenomenon in the North-West of Algeria has caused serious economic, social, and environmental impact with enormous losses. In this study, the return periods of drought events characterized by high severities and the three main droughts characteristics (duration, severity, and intensity) in the future under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) over two representative watersheds in North-West Algeria have been estimated In order to plan and manage the water resources under drought conditions.

The hydraulic jump occurring in a dissipation basin of a compound form, a circular type with a bench seat, was studied in detail. The objective was to determine the general governing equation as well as its performance allowing to size the dissipation basin called to house the hydraulic jump in which its flow incident is known.

In Algeria, considerable efforts have been made to best meet the water needs of the population and to ensure that the needs of an economic development are met. This sector is the subject of particular attention by the public authorities, which are devoting increasingly important resources to it.

Agricultural production systems around the Mediterranean basin rely mostly on rainfed agriculture in hilly watersheds, although some irrigation is sustained downstream of water reservoirs. With climate change and increasing demand for water, most commonly cultivated species, particularly cereals, are exposed to high risks of water shortages during the growing season. Under such threats, managing agricultural activities, for optimum water use, requires a good assessment of crop actual evapotranspiration (ET), a major term of both land surface energy and water balances.

In Algeria, many researchers have developed relationships linking solid transport with geomorphological and climatological factors for some Algerian watersheds like Achite and Meddi (J Water Sci 37–56, 2006), Touaibia et al. (Hydrological Sci J 46(1):41–53, 2001), Benkhaled and Remini (J Water Sci 16(3):333–356 2003).

This experiment determined the effect of Treated wastewater from three stations Sfax, Agareb and Mahres (STW, ATW and MTW) in olive plants grown in three soil types. The implementation is carried out in a greenhouse under controlled conditions, with regular monitoring of plant morphology and followed by physic-chemical soil parameters. Following these experiences, the most interesting observations are found an observable increase soil alkalinity. An accumulation of nutrients (mainly P and K) and salts (Na) in soils 10 months after the application of four types of treated wastewater were observed in comparison to tap water.

The modeling of the hydrological behavior of watersheds is unavoidable when one is interested in problems related to the prediction, assessment and optimal management of water resources. This is illustrated by a quantitative aspect in countries like Algeria where water supply is a limiting factor. Such models are particularly useful for many applications where the estimation of the parameters and characteristics of a dam and to go back to the origin of the flows (the rains) makes it possible to extend the period of quantitative forecasting of water which gives a future statistical vision.

In the previous fifty years, there has been an astounding boom in agricultural groundwater use, improving livelihoods and food security (Giordano in Hydrogeol J 14(3): 310–318, 2006). Nevertheless, these remarkable improvements were not possible without a price to pay: agricultural groundwater use stands as a major threat to both quantity and quality of aquifers. This is particularly emblematic in semi-arid and arid regions where groundwater has always been an attractive solution for agriculture (Leduc et al. in Hydrogeol J 25(6): 1529–1547 2017). As a matter of fact, regions where agriculture strongly depend on groundwater uses such as the Mediterranean regions and Latin American countries are the most affected by aquifer overexploitation.

Water disinfection is an important final step in water supply and wastewater treatment schemes. Several disinfection techniques, examplified by chlorination, ultra violet disinfection, ozone disinfection and ozone and hydrogen disinfection, are commonly used to disinfect water. Despite the risks associated with chlorination by-products and due to the many disadvantages of other alternatives, chlorination remains the most common one for its efficiency and cost benefits.

Mediterranean coastal regions contain large high density urban populations and support diverse ecosystems. However, many of the countries in the region are being negatively affected by climate change in terms of increased flooding and erosion as the coasts fall below normal high-tide levels, as well as the increase in the number and landslide occurrences due to changing rainfall patterns.

In recent years, the interest in renewable energy has grown, driven by the increasing concern about global warming issues, energy security, resource recovery and the high production and disposal of organic solid wastes. Anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) combines different organic substrates to generate a homogeneous mixture as input to the reactor. AcoD offers several ecological, technological, and economical advantages for the management of solid waste.

Fossil fuels use reduction and waste recycling are two great challenges facing our society nowadays. A concept intended to solve both problems is Waste-to-Energy (WtE) approach (Brunner and Rechberger in Waste Manag 37: 3–12, 2015). The routes to the energy recovery can be grouped as thermo-chemical and biochemical approaches and the selection of the WtE technologies also depends on the waste composition. Waste sources can be industrial and agricultural production and urban regions but growing attention is paid to municipal solid waste in OECD countries (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata in What a waste: a global review of solid waste management. World Bank, Washington, DC 2012) consisting dominantly of organic materials (27%), paper (32%), plastic 11%, glass, metal and other components. Most widespread technologies for MSW thermal conversion are: (1) MSW incineration; (2) co-combustion with other fuels; (3) gasification; (4) pyrolysis (Astrup et al. in Waste Manage 37: 104–115 2015).

Several synthetic dyes are produced yearly around the world. MB has mostly been used as prototypical dye and has two aromatic rings which are hardly degradable. Advanced Oxidation Process (AOPs) are effective in the degradation of bio-reluctant organic pollutants. Fenton process is an AOP, based on the generation of hydroxyl radicals with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and ferrous iron (Fe2+). However, the homogeneous process generates, Iron sludges due to the complexity of the Iron species mainly at pH up to 3. Thus, the use of solid catalysts has been recommended in previous studies to get rid of these drawbacks.

Transplant can be a shock for plants, especially when they are moved from the nursery, where the environmental conditions are very favourable, to urbanised areas, where resources and maintenance are scarce. Moreover, some characteristics of urban soils, such as alkaline pH and compaction, make it difficult for trees to adapt. Recycled organic material (compost) added as mulch to trees plantings is effective in contrasting compaction in urban soils.

A laboratory vermicomposting (two months duration) was conducted to evaluate the effect of earthworm acclimatization (epigeic—Eisenia andrei) on decomposition and detoxification of olive mill wastewaters. The Earthworm growth rate and phenols reduction were superior in the mixture with acclimated earthworms (21.83 ± 0.01 mg worm−1 day−1 and 72% respectively), than mixture with unacclimated earthworms (4.67 ± 0.01 mg worm−1 day−1 and 41% respectively). The data reveal that acclimatization of earthworms is a promising alternative for OMWW detoxification and vermicomposting (using E. andrei) is a suitable technology for olive by-products conversion into value-added materials.

Oranges represent 75% of the total citrus fruits (Guiza in Ecol Eng, 99: 134–140, 2017) throughout the world, and Tunisia is one of the major juice producers. Orange peels could cause a significant disposal problem but they are also valuable biomass wastes (Valdes et al. in Langmuir 18: 2111–2116, 2002; Fang et al. in Electrochim Acta 50: 3616–3621, 2005; He et al. in J Surg Oncol 102: 676–682, 2010).

Housing as one of the most basic needs of human being has received much attention. As a physical shelter, it is a fundamental need in each family. The need to housing has been increased based on the population increase in cities and its high density and it is a big problem in cities. High price of housing and lack of quality including construction materials to form and cultural quality is one of the greatest concerns of most of families. The study to create methods or types of design is necessary to provide comfort and many suitable housing and quality indices. Quality issue in housing increases the price. To reduce construction time and improvement of construction operation, modular building is used in the world. This method is a good model in construction for housing mass production. It should be considered that housing as living place of human being should be mostly regarding cultural issues than a symbol for the life and survival of human being. The study design is descriptive-analytic. The present study aimed to approach two paradoxes of cheap price and quality (including materials and culture).

The use of organic dyes in many industrial products may threaten the water systems. For instance, the Methylene Blue (MB) is a cationic dye which is found in many industrial effluents (textile, cosmetic industries, paper and plastic). It is an important contaminant in soil and water bodies and it may induce health problems (Xing et al. in Desalination 259(1): 187–191 2010.

During the last few years, the municipal solid waste (MSW) has increased dramatically in Jordan as a result of the rapid population growth.

The collection and transport of household wastes are among the most important factors in the management of wastes, hence representing a major part of the budget.

Over the last decade, using Electric Vehicles (EV) has increasingly beenconsidered as a reliable potential solution for many global problems such as air pollution, acoustic pollution and dependence on petrol consumption. However, the Electric Vehicle short range hinders their adoption.

Many researchers focused their attention on the preparation of high performance ceramic membranes using an asymmetric multilayer configuration.

In Morocco, the production of solid waste is increasing, due to population growth and increased economical activity.

It is suggested that advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) can be integrated with other physicochemical pre-treatment methods in order to reduce the operational costs in wastewater treatment.

In water scarce regions where every drop matters, assessment of rainfall trends turns out to be a pertinent issue that could affect the water resources sustainability.

The wet oxidation is a commonly used technique for the treatment of wastewater.

Pressure control is effective to reduce water losses in water distribution systems. It can be achieved by installing pressure reduction valves controlled in real time. An experimental campaign was carried out to compare Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controllers for these valves. The Proportional controller presents the best results closely followed by the Proportional-Integral.

Between fresh water and salt water, between water and solar energy, between nature and culture, solar salt wastelands are a territorial heritage resource and tool of the first magnitude for a reflection on the potential of sustainable development of these ecosystems and of these iconic figures in the mosaic of landscapes of coastal or continental water (ancient “salt roads”) under Mediterranean climate subject to evolution processes, adaptation and resilience in the face of climate change.

South Africa’s electricity consumption has been marked with a rapid surge ever since 1980, which makes the government appeal to nuclear power as a potential solution.

In recent years, many researchers are interested in soil contamination by persistent organic pollutant and focus their studies on the impact of persistent pollutants on human health.

This work aimed to remove nitrogen oxide NO_x from the gaseous effluents of a nitric acid production process via absorption into a hydrogen peroxide solution. An experimental study was conducted using a laboratory bubble contactor connected to the chimney of the industrial nitric acid production unit belonging to the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT). Absorption tests were achieved at 293 K and atmospheric pressure. The NO_x concentration was equal to 500 ppm. Hydrogen peroxide aqueous solutions concentrations varied from 0 to 1.567 g/l. The effects of different variables such as the gas flow rate, the absorption time and the H₂O₂ initial concentration on NO_x removal efficiencies were investigated. It was found that that hydrogen peroxide is an effective oxidant. The NO_x absorption efficiency increased from 25 to 42% when H₂O₂ initial concentration rose from 0 to 1.567 g/l. Such increase was obtained because H₂O₂ can oxidize nitrous acid to a more soluble nitric acid. Finally, the preferred gas flow rate in this study was found to be 8 l/min.

Cotton fiber is one of the most important fibers in the textile industry as it represents 40% of the fibers consumed in 2004.

Water is an essential part of our lives. Hence its pollution is the greatest danger for humanity. Pollutants that affect water quality are diverse including methylene blue widely used in several areas. Its remarkably high toxicity urged environmental services to look for ways to normalize its concentration in water in order to reduce its impact on humans and the environment.

One can find nowadays a large quantity of works, both experimental and theoretical, dealing with the problem of vital interest for humanity of the (ad-, chemi- and bio-) sorption of harmful or potentially deadly pollutants from air, water and rocks.

Soil hydraulic properties are necessary to study the transfer water and solute throught the unsaturated zone, but often cannot be measured because of practical and material constraints. The focus of this work is the hydrodynamic characterization in_situ of the industrial zones oil in the region of Soussein Tunisia by analysing two different inverse methods and experimental results of soilwater content. This study estimated the hydraulic parameters of Mualem and Van Genuchten model using the monitored soil water changes.

An alternative way for predicting bed load transport rate in rivers for laminar flow was proposed by Charru et al. (2004).

The goal of the present paper is to determine the physical signification of the parameters of the Brouers-Sotolongo fractal BSf(n, α) kinetic and the generalized Brouers-Sotolongo GBS isotherm in relation with temperature and pH of the medium. In both methods the fractal parameter “α” is related to the energy and geometry of the surface. The parameter “n” in the BSf formula is a fractional reaction order and the exponent “c” in the isotherm formula is related to the cluster or aggregation structure of the sorbent.

Phthalic acid esters including Diallyl phthalate (DAP), which commonly named as phthalates, are considered as top priority and hazardous pollutants, and have received significant concernsover the last decades(1,2).

The subject of this study, Chott Ain Beida, is close to Ouargla city and surrounded by a vast palm plantation (Fig. 1). In the 70s, it was temporarily a solar evaporation pond of the Algerian Society of Salts (ENASEL). Since 2000s, it has been crossed by an artificial drainage network (Fig. 2), made up to evacuate the water surplus resulting from groundwater level rise.

Polymers are widely used in all agri-food sectors. Despite their low cost, among their main disadvantages is their short life span and consequent pollution.

In this study, we exploited a set of available data from a stretch of the Congo River's divagation region, where sediments of solid materials, mainly sands, were brought in through the Mayumbe Mountains. This dynamics of sandbanks due to multiple erosions and deposits causes the sanding recurrent of the navigation route of the ships. The results obtained by applying the Ashmore’e formula to estimate the solid transport in this divagation region have highlighted its limits outside its conditions of use. A new solid transport prediction model has been proposed to overcome these limitations.

Many researchers have sought to clarify the concept of sustainability by focusing on the current debates of the city, its planning, its governance and the adaptation paths to a sustainable development often using the analysis methods in the field of social sciences and humanities, quiet specifically in urbanism, environment, architecture and sociology.

The creation of an environmental tool diagnosis from existing modules in other models in order to contribute to improve the nitrogen management. Did the simplification of soil description, in terms of horizons number and of the shape’s curve of root profile in the French model of culture STICS, allows us to simulate correctly the quantity of leaching nitrogen?. The main objective is to feign the consequences of the variations of the environment (climatic parameters and soil properties) on the system of culture on agricultural plot production (wheat, corn and mustard) and on the environment (nitrogen leaching).

Nowadays, because of the developed industry, air of atmosphere contains a lot of pollutants and impurities.

The effluent discharged by various textile, paper or plastic industries contains a large number of dyes, increasing the total chemical oxygen demand (COD) of wastewaters (Mavros et al. in Environ Technol 15:601, 1994). Adsorption techniques appear as an efficient way to remove colored contaminants especially when they are non-biodegradable.

Atmospheric methane has adverse effects on the surrounding environment and can affect human life.

Today, electrostatic separation is considered a better possibility for the sorting of granular mixtures (insulator-conductor) because it offers high quality recycled plastic and better metal recovery (copper, aluminum, bronze, etc.)

In order to achieve the ever-growing energy demand, the best solution is to analyse one of the most abundant and affordable source on planet i.e. seawater. The population living within 100 km of 356,000 km coastline comprises of 40% of world population. The seawater analysis (Voltage and Current) under aerobic and anaerobic condition resulted in low energy potential, which restricts its widespread application. The change in Energy production system from Mass to Individual level will ensure affordable and sustainable source of energy to even the remote human habitat around the globe.

To study the fluid flow through tubes constructed with phase change materials, researchers usually use experimental correlations to represent the Nusselt number evolution along the tube.

The main purpose of the study is security and health of the bathers in swimming pools. It is based on the respect of water quality Standards and on the limit of microorganism development

In this work, a particular attention is paid for pressure changes because its decrease makes air bubbles and its increase implies their implosion. Both mathematical and experimental tools are used to describe the pressure evolution with flows and bubbles size.

Soil erosion caused by Water is a serious and continuous environmental problem in many parts of the world (Kamaludin et al. in Hydrol Earth Syst Sci Discuss 10(4):4567–4596, 2013; Shiferaw and Holden in World Dev 27(4):739–752, 1999). Globally, about 80% of the current degradation of agricultural land is due to soil erosion (Angima et al. in Agric Ecosyst Environ 97(1):295–308, 2003).

This contribution focused on the study of the channel bottom morphological evolution relying on an experimental study in a rectangular channel. Our approach is based on two main objectives. First, we studied the evolution of the erosion rate of sand particles

The magnetic treatment of irrigation water has been developed over the past two decades. It is known as an eco-friendly, non-expansive and easy to use technology.

Capture and storage of greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, are a major technological and environmental challenge of the present time.

Previously, we elaborated and studied the structures and mechanical properties of 304 stainless steel (SS) thin films fabricated by thermal evaporation (TE).

Tunisia is an agricultural country known for its wide variety of products for the local and international market. Tomato is one of the country’s key products. The annual production is estimated to be about 1.2 million tons. Despite the advantages on the economic balance of Tunisia, tomato production presents an environmental pressure on the natural ecosystem. The main objective of this research is to achieve an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of a soilless geothermal conventional multi-tunnel cherry tomato production located in Chenchou (South-West of Tunisia). The LCA is an ISO 14040-44 methodology used to assess the environmental impacts of products/processes or a service. The functional unit considered is one ton of soilless cherry tomato produced. The system boundaries included: (1) nursery production, (2) greenhouse preparation and plants transplantation, (3) climate control system (Heating, CO₂ injects), (4) irrigation, (5) fertilization, (6) phytosanitary treatments, (7) conditioning, (8) transportation and (9) waste management. The inventory data were collected from the farm exploitation. Nine impacts categories were computed using mainly the International reference Life cycle Data system (ILCD) impact assessment methodology: climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, non-renewable energy use, land use, toxicity and ecotoxicity and effects on human health. The results obtained show that the system considered detains good environmental performances.

In general, offshore oil exploitation requires drilling muds and starts with seismic studies followed by exploratory drilling with specific properties.

Indigo carmine (IC) was very used in the textile industry, this organic compound has a high toxicity and mostly non-biodegradable (Kakavandia et al. J Photochem Photobiol A Chem. 2016).

In today’s economy, the logistics, of transport and storage, account for more than 10% of the cost of a finished product (Psaraftis in Green transportation logistics: the quest for win-win solutions. Springer 2015). For social environmental concern, efficient management of transportation should consider the reduction of energy consumption and emitted pollution. This leads to the increasingly popular concept of horizontal collaboration in green logistics.

Fuel cells are a potential future technology that has started today, providing a change in the way heat and power are supplied to end users (Elmer in Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 2014).

Format drilling fluid is a new type of clean brine drilling fluid system which has been developed from inorganic salt brine drilling fluid system.

Over the past few years, the advanced oxidation technology process has drawn growing concern for the decomposition of organic dyes.

Microalgae are among the most important biological resources, currently receiving great attention due to multiple reasons such as ease of cultivation, rapid growth and its enormous potential for the production of a great variety of high added value products such as pigments, chemicals for pharmaceutical and cosmetic uses, and biofuels.

Antibiotics are an important group of pharmaceuticals which has been widely used in both human and veterinary medicine. After administration, and depending on the compound chemical properties, 5–90% of the antibiotic dose may be excreted as metabolites or parent compounds. Therefore, large amounts of antibiotics are susceptible to enter in aquatic systems directly via wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluent discharge. However, the application of treated waste water and to agricultural fields to irrigate plants may contaminate agricultural soils, and lead to indirect input of antibiotics into trees.

Statistical concepts for processing experimental data offer a simpler and more efficient approach to optimize several operational variables influencing the chemical process involved.

The urban expansion and the growth of industrial, transport and agricultural activities of Sfax agglomeration led to the change of air composition.

Fruits and berries are amongst the essential food components and their processing is a major direction of food industry.

Essential oils of plants and herbs are important natural sources of bioactive substances. In the Mediterranean basin there are numerous and varied species of great interest from such a point of view.

REALMed is a multilateral scientific project (Fig. 1), which involves the North–South Mediterranean countries, with the aim of “Pursuing authenticity and valorization of Mediterranean traditional products”.Fig. 1REALMed logo

Bioethanol, derived from biomass has established itself as one of the leading biofuels in the global market (Sarkar et al. in Renew Energ 19:19–27, 2012). Lignocellulosic biomass has proved to be one of the most abundant and cost effective renewable resource which is non-polluting agricultural residue and potential to be converted into biofuel.

Clay minerals represent natural and interesting host and guest organic chromophores components inducing the formation of dye molecular assemblies.

The use of conventional chemical based coagulants increases residual levels of chemical products. That is why they are considered harmful to the environment and toxic to human’s fauna and flora (Farooq et al. in Bioresour Technol 101:5043–5053, 2010). In addition, they have a relatively high procurement costs. The cost and the environmental side effects of these compounds led many researchers to investigate the possibility of using plant-based coagulants in water and wastewater treatment (Joseane et al. in Plast Polym Technol 2(3):55–62, 2013). Naturally occurring products are biodegradable and are presumed safe for human health (Muralimohan et al. in Int J Res Eng Technol 2(2):15–20, 2014).

The Campanian Duwi and Amman phosphate-rich formations, deposited within shallow marine environments in Egypt and Jordan, have been intensely studied due to their economic interest. These deposits belonged to the giant Tethyan phosphorite belt extending from the Caribbean in the west, through North Africa to the Middle East in the east (Notholt in J Geol Soc London 137:805–893, 1980). This province accounts for the greatest known accumulation of marine phosphorites, possibly in excess of 70 billion metric tons of phosphate rocks (Glenn and Arthur in Egypt Sediment 37:123–148, 1990).

Palygorskite is a kind of naturally occurring nanorod-like silicate mineral with a diameter of about 20–40 nm and length of 0.5–5 μm. It has received increasing attention in various fields such as polymer composites, drug delivery carrier, catalyst supporter, adsorbent (Jamoussi et al. in Clay Miner 38: 187–199 2003). In Tunisia, Eocene sediments present important facies variations from South to North, changing from continental to deep marine deposits (Xu et al. in Appl Clay Sci 95: 365–370 2014).

Most Moroccan bentonite deposits are located in northeastern Morocco, in the Nador region. This natural resource is linked to the volcanic activities of Gorougou and its satellites. This work focuses on the study of the Trebia bentonite deposit located 18 km west of the city of Nador on the western slope of the volcanic massif of Tidiennit. Tight sampling was carried out. The raw samples were subjected to several analytical tests such as geotechnical identification tests, namely water content, organic matter, calcimetry and sand equivalent. The granular repair was carried out using the laser particle size. The extracted clay fraction was prepared as a powder and oriented aggregate and then analyzed with DRX. The clay procession was differentiated by comparison of the three routine test diffractograms (normal, ethylene glycol, heating to 500 °C). The analysis of the disoriented powder spectrum allowed the mineralogical characterization of the raw samples.

It is approved that the essential oil of Eucalyptus globulus has an important insecticidal activity against pests grain stock. This study is interested in ensuring the terpenic compounds with the insecticidal activity on a Tunisian clay support. The aim of this study has developed an insecticide formulation without any negative impact on the environment.

Clay minerals of the smectite group are layered silicate extensively used as nanoparticle supported materials that have been efficiently tested for the removal of dyes organic pollutants resulting from industrial applications.

Several almond genotypes adapted to different climates of Tunisia have been identified and maintained in order to valorize their progenies as seedling rootstocks. This study aims to assess nut morphological characteristics and seed propagation ability of twelve local, two foreign and six hybrid almond genotypes having a very broad range of flowering period. Significant differences were observed among these genotypes. Seed germination started between 25 and 75 days from stratification date, was important for the majority of the genotypes and seems not affected either by the porosity or the hardness of the shell. The highest mean diameter of the radicle was recorded for G14-7, G25-5 and G23-15 genotypes. The emergence of seedlings was important in nursery.

Nowadays, due to climate change conditions, water scarcity in the Mediterranean basin is the major problem. Increasing water productivity is crucial to improve the sustainable development of olive tree, the most prominent crop in the Mediterranean basin. Chemlali plants valorizes better low quantities of water (T50%) rather than high quantities (T100%). Chemlali T50% plants increase their plant water use efficiency by 20% compared to T100% plants. Chemlali cultivar had a better capability to cope with low quantity of water and the combination Chemlali-T50% Available Water Content (AWC) water treatment was the most efficient.

Nowadays, with the expanding awareness about environmental safety, energy security and potential biomass recycling, much effort has been extended towards adding value to biowastes of agri-food industries. In this context, Tunisia was ranked among the first 10 countries in the world for the industrial transformation of tomatoes which resulted in large quantities of by-products, ranging between 20,000 and 30,000 tons per year.

EVOO from two minor Tunisian cultivars Chladmi and Oueslati have been evaluated. Volatile composition of monovarietal olive oil was determined using HS-SPME-GC-EIMS. Chladmi and Oueslati have very interesting olive oil quality and aroma. We can use these cultivars to improve Chemlali oil quality by blending oils or by crossings between varieties.

Knowing the Fish feeding diet in its natural environment is an important step to understand its biology and ecology. It summarizes, not only the predatory activity of these species, but can also explain growth variations, feeding and food research behavior, migration, and even some aspects of reproduction.

It is well known that two of the principal soil physical factors that affect root growth are its mechanical strength and temperature. Soil compaction, which results in mechanical impedance that might restrict root growth, arises from mainly externally applied forces such as trampling by animals or farm and tillage equipment and even a small increase in compaction can result in large decrease in root growth and major changes in root morphology.

In the present study, we used medium density SNP chips and comparisons with worldwide cattle to explore the phylogenetic history of Tunisian and Iberian cattle. We have pointed out an admixed origin of Tunisian populations and low African taurine proportions in the Iberian cattle genome. Our results suggest that iberian and Tunisian cattle derived from different origins and that a past admixture occurred between them.

Different basin modelling approaches are often adopted to understand hydrocarbon migration processes which usually, would require complicated computer models and a large amount of uncertain input data (Heum 1996). This limitation is even more exacerbating in fault controlled plays due to the complex hydraulic behavior of faults (Muggeridge and Mahmode in AAPG Bull 96(2):315–336, 2012). In view of these handicaps, hydrogeologic techniques are to be resorted to, especially for mature to semi-mature basins. The Tertiary Niger Delta Basin is an important hydrocarbon province that extends from land to offshore in the continental margin of the Gulf of Guinea as the youngest sub-basin of the West African Rift System. The tectonic and lithostratigraphic setting of the basin dictates three major groupings of lithofacies which are well exposed onland at the northern border and grade into the formations of the underlying rifts, the Anambra Basin. The occurrence of different hydrocarbon grades and the outcropping of lithofacies in the basin predicate the investigation of the prevalent hydrogeologic flow of groundwater in distribution of mass and energy in the sedimentary wedge.

Rivers have played a vital role in the development of human societies on every inhabited continent, but for the purposes of this discussion the focus shall be on the Mediterranean region. Recent environmental changes in the Mediterranean region urge the scientific community to re-examine the relationship between the environment and the humans. In spite of their vital importance, there is no comprehensive study of the natural characteristics and diversity of the Mediterranean basin rivers.

The majority of the studies on the degradation of the steppe trails evoke the most visible factors, considered to be the cause (drought, overgrazing, demographic evolution …), reduction of vegetation cover in a singular or interactive way. The steppe tracts of the high plains of Algeria have been marked by an intense degradation affecting vegetation cover, biodiversity and soil. At the beginning of this degradation, the most likely changes are those that affect certain dominant perennial plants that ensure the physiognomy of these pathways (Aidoud in J Sci Commun 163:51–59, 1994).

Ruminant production in the dry areas of Algeria faced problems of low availability of forages with poor nutritional quality of grasses and/or crop residues especially in dry seasons.

Ethnopharmacological relevance: The extract of M. spicata has several biological uses such as antioxidants, anti-inflammations, antispasmodics and antimicrobials.

Algeria is a country possessing rich and diverse natural health traditions based on the use of plants. The richness of the biodiversity provides a large number of plant speciesavailable for medicinal use. Diabetes, mainly type 2, is a burgeoning global issue for health care systems to address. Despite the biodiversity in Algeria, only a few reports are availableconcerning traditional treatments of diabetes. An ethnobotanical inventory of medicinal plantsused to treat diabetes in North-Eastern Algeria was created.

The study area is located in the plain of Kherraza (NE Algeria), in the Wadi Boudjemaa basin. The latter has a longitudinal lenticular form.

The intensive use of chemicals reagents in wastewater coagulation-flocculation process is believed to cause serious environmental and health problems to nowadays societies. This conventional treatment technique has to be either substituted or improved in terms of coagulants and flocculants nature.

The prediction of the end of flowering represent a novelty for agroclimatology because the grapevine varieties Maceratino, Montepulciano and Sangiovese have never been analyzed for the territory surrounding Macerata (Marche Region, central part of Italy).

The lignocellulosic biomass resource comes from agricultural and forestry residues or wood processing by-products as well as from dedicated crops, whether they are woody plants or herbaceous plants. Lignocellulosic material is the main constituent of the cell wall of plants.

Fungal diseases are currently a serious public health problem; they have become one of the major causes of death, especially for immunocompromised people around the world.

Biological control, by introducing beneficial microorganisms into the rhizosphere has been proposed as an alternative to chemical control. Bacillus sp. and Pseudomonas fluorescent spp. are considered as the group of rhizobacteria, most frequently identified and used in biological control mainly for their particularity to induce mortality in certain insects.

Locusts are highly ranked among insects that are harmful to agriculture. Locusta migratoria (Linné, 1758) is a heterogeneous group of grasshoppers as well as sautereaux (Doumandji and Doumadji-Mitiche in J Insect Physiol, 58 (3):335–341, 1994). Among the enemy locusts of Sahelian cultures, the migratory locust Locusta migratoria (Linne, 1758) is a major pest in Sahelian cultures.

p-nitrophenol (p-NP) is a common pollutant that serves as a precursor for many pharmaceuticals, pesticides, petrochemicals and other industries.

The indigo carmine (IC) is an anionic dye usually used in the textile, food, paper and cosmetic industries. It is one of the most common dyes in wastewater discharged from industries (Hu et al. J Environ Manage 166: 512–518, 2016). Discharge of indigo carmine into the environment may cause skin and eye irritations, injury to cornea and conjunctiva, dermatitis and cancer in humans.

Asthma is a complex inflammatory disease which constitutes an important problem of public health. Indeed, it is the one of the chronic pathologies most frequent, with more than 300 million people reached in the world and recording more than 250000 deaths a year. In our present study, we selected an animal model of asthma that shows all the salient features of allergic airway inflammation in humans including increased Th2 cytokine levels in BALF, enhanced airway responsiveness, airway eosinophilic inflammation, and goblet cell hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Nigella sativa commonly known as black seed is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Ranunculaceae family. It has been widely studied for its pharmacological and therapeutic effects and shown to have extensive range of activities.

Currently, several questions are raised about the effectiveness and safety of chemical products used in medicine or in the food industry. Indeed, because of the side effects of some synthetic antioxidants used in food processing and the resistance to antibiotics that some micro organisms have acquired, the development of new avenues of research to achieve alternatives seems indispensable. Recently, natural products from aromatic and medicinal plants have represented a fertile ground for the development of novel antibacterial agents.

Pulses such as peas (Pisum sativum L.) are essential components of the human diet. They are an important source of protein, energy, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients. They are recognized by their symbiosis with soil bacteria of the genus Rhizobium, fixing atmospheric nitrogen. However, the areas reserved for legumes in Tunisia are in constant decline, leading to a decrease in production particularly for peas production. The extension of this culture is limited by its extreme sensitivity to biotic and abiotic stresses. To resolve these problems, farmers resorted to the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, which is harmful to the environment. Therefore, sustainable alternative practices for pea production should be developed. Among the abiotic constraints, the absence of efficient and specific rhizobial strains for the cultivation of pea was noted.

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) production is one of the most serious environmental problems, mainly in countries where olive oil production is an important economic activity. Its contamination potential is related to its high organic load (COD between 40 and 210 g/L) and the significant concentrations of phenolic compounds (between 0.5 and 24 g/L) which are toxic and ecologically noxious.

Tunisia’s olive resources are estimated at over 83 million of olive trees, grown on 1.83 million ha. Despite the immense potential for olive production, Tunisia is known as an underprivileged country in water resource and water scarcity is evident in certain regions. In the long-term, this situation could become more and more exacerbated, considering the increased risk of aridity. Plants grown in these regions are often exposed to a long period of drought and harsh environmental conditions, which affects plant growth and, hence, agricultural development. In order to increase productivity of olive trees the intensification of the olive tree sector in Tunisia is a necessity. The irrigated olive orchards in Tunisia cover about 75000 ha in 2016.

The objective of this work is to complete the work already carried out on the fish farming station of Deroua (Province Fkih Ben Saleh, Morocco), monitoring the variability of physico-chemical parameters of water and biological (zooplankton, Phytoplankton) at the nursery ponds of three carp species: Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (silver carp), Ctenopharyngodon idella (herbivore carp) and Cyprinus carpio (common carp).

The fact that chitosan is an effective material because of its biocompatibility, biodegradability and nontoxicity, more efficient and environment-friendly way to valorize shrimp waste. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of deacetylation time of chitosan extraction on morphological, thermal (TGA) properties and the degree of deacetylation (DD).

This study aimed to assess the effect of storage on physicochemical characteristics of a functional yogurt enriched with Cyanobacterium Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis). Significant changes were found in titrable acidity, proteins and ashes contents of yogurt by addition of Spirulina and also during 9, 14, 18 and 28th days of storage at 4°C. Therefore, Spirulina-enriched yogurt was characterized by a better nutritional quality, and could be kept at 4°C for 28 days, without impairing its quality.

Wind erosion is one of the main processes controlling the functioning of the Earth system. The continental surfaces vulnerable to wind erosion being estimated to 33 million km2 (Middleton and Thomas in World Atlas of Desertification. Arnold Publication, london, p. 182, 1997). In North African the arid and semi-arid regions which are vey prone to soil erosion by wind, the rapid increase in population and the socio-economic development have induced a growing demand on agricultural products. As a result, the pressure on natural resources is growing steadily with an expansion of the cultivated areas, stimulated by the introduction of modern ploughing techniques (such as the disc plough, the mouldboard plough and the tiller plough).

Propolis is a resinous material produced by honeybees from vegetables resins, exudates, wax, pollen, leaf pieces and self secretion. It is used to seal and to protect the hive against heat, cold, wind, water, insects and microorganisms. Volatile compounds are found in low concentration in propolis, but their biological activity makes them important for propolis characterization. The propolis chemical composition as well as biological activities depends on its botanical origin and the local flora at the collection site. Propolis volatiles may be used as markers in the identification of the propolis botanical origin and its characterization.

H. albus L. is one of the principal plants of Solanaceae family endowed with broad therapeutics properties because of its rich content in tropic alkaloids used as parasympathetic drugs (Tarm and Catherine in Toxic plants and other natural toxicants CABI publishing, 2001).These alkaloids are synthesized in tiny quantities in this plant (Bonnier in Plantes médicinales 40–64, 1987).

To respond to the need of growing human population to food production, it is necessary to sustainably ensure the ability of soil to produce. After harvesting, the plants leave the roots, stems and leaves in the soil which constitutes an important source of organic material. This will be consumed by soil organisms, responsible for all life processes of soil evolution and balance.

In the unsaturated soils, the modeling of water flow and solute transport requires the characterization of hydraulic properties.

The Mediterranean basin is home to many wetlands with great ecological, economic and social values. During the twentieth century, these important natural resources were considerably degraded or destroyed. Algeria is no exception, in recent decades there has been a marked erosion of precious wetlands throughout the country.

Phosphogypsum is the by-product of the acid process for producing phosphoric acid from a phosphate rock. In Tunisia, phosphate production generates very large volumes of the phosphogypsum near the city of Sfax, which is stored without a real management.

This study aims to evaluate the state of soil and land degradation in oases and small-farming perimeters that are irrigated from groundwater. The study was conducted in three different sites in the Ziban region. Land degradation and soil salinization were assessed through the use of ancillary, field, laboratory, and remote sensing data and techniques. This work allowed to identify three different situations. The Tolga site is affected by high salinization and hydromorphy. The Sidi Okba site presents a low degree of halomorphy and light hydromorphy. In the El Outaya site, the degree of salinization is similar to the Tolga site, with alkalization occurring in the studied soils. Specific restrictions and practices (leaching and drainage) have to be adopted in the management of sites Tolga and El Outaya. This could ensure oasis survival and land productivity, also contributing to a sustainable land and agriculture management.

Acid cleaning, acid pickling, acid descaling and oil well acidizing need the use of corrosion inhibitors to stop their corrosion attack.

Corrosion control of metal, particularly in acidic media, appears to draw a critical importance from an economic, environmental and aesthetical prspective.

Pomegranate peels (PGP) are considered a waste product generally used as animals feed without any added value despite the high content of polyphenolic compounds that are more important than that contained in the edible part of the fruit.

Ruminants establish a symbiotic relationship with rumen microorganisms by which the animal provides nutrients and optimal environmental conditions, and microorganisms degrade fiber and synthesize microbial protein and protein supply for the animal.

Considerable research has been carried out in developing cost-effective heavy metal removal techniques. Physicochemical methods, such as chemical precipitation, chemical oxidation or reduction filtration, electrochemical treatment, membrane technology application, evaporation recovery, solvent extraction and ion-exchange processes, have been traditionally used for heavy metal removal from industrial wastewater.

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in Tunisia. The germplasm of which has a very large genetic patrimony, represented by an abundant number of native cultivated olives. However, the number is probably underestimated because of the scarce information on minor local varieties widespread in the different olive growing areas, especially in the traditional orchards. The objective of this study is to characterize the molecular fingerprinting of fifteen local olive varieties by the use of ten preselected microsatellite markers. A total number of 42 alleles were amplified by SSR loci with an allelic size ranged from 108 bp to 232 bp. The number of observed alleles passed from 3 for (GAPU71A and DCA18) to 5 for (GAPU103A,UDO12,UDO28 and UDO39) with a mean value of 4.2 alleles per locus and the observed heterosigosity ranged from 0.4 at ( UDO28 and UDO39) to 0.8 at DCA18. The UPGMA and PCoA cluster analysis based on molecular data grouped cultivars into three distinct clusters. The significant variability of the molecular fingerprinting of the studied varieties proved the efficiency of SSR markers for the management of the olive germoplasm and the importance to create the molecular patterns of the Tunisian olive cultivar in the international Green Global data base of the Tunisian National Gene Bank of Tunisia.

Nickel is a heavy metal used in many industries such as electroplating, battery manufacture, forging, finishing and metal extraction, which contributes to environmental pollution (Salini et al. in Sep Sci Technol 51:1317–1327, 2016).

Roads present the most important heritage and the main vein of development of any country.

The Oued Amizour granitoids (Fig. 1) were studied in order to assess the role of magma processes in the formation of the largest Zn-deposit in the region. The igneous rocks that host the giant Zn deposit, consist of two distinct lithologies: volcanic masses and subvolcanic-plutonic rocks, both of which suffered severe hydrothermal alterations. The boundary between the two lithologies is marked by a massive, ≈10 m thick anhydrite layer. Field observations and petrological study carried out at approximately 800 m length bore-hole that cross-cut the whole igneous masses show the following formations from the top to the bottom: pyroclastic rocks, andesites, porphyritic pyroclastic rocks, vesicular andesites, microgranites, tuff and lava flows, volcanic breccias and highly altered andesites that are intruded by aplites, metasomatized granodiorites and, finally, massive granodiorites.Fig. 1a Geological sketch map of Bejaia-Oued Amizour region. b Simplified geological map of the Oued Amizour region showing the Ait Bouzid sector (After O.R.G.M 1998, unpub. doc.)

At present, the growth of waste production associated with the awareness of the environmental problems and the need of a sustainable development make waste management the key disposal method

Drought and temperature extremes are major factors limiting wheat productivity particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The selection of a high and stable yield are an important objective in these environments. This is particularly true in the Mediterranean basin where harsh and fluctuating climatic conditions lead to the occurrence of qualitative genotype × environment interactions. Breeding relies, usually, on selection for yield and few alternatives to direct selection for yield have been adopted.

Atomic Force Microscopy is undoubtedly the most adaptable and dominant microscopic technology for studying nanoscale samples.

Dredging operations have always been essential in order to maintain, deepen or develop these sites and to ensure the proper functioning of trade by sea routes.

Naturally occurring sand deposit is an important geologic material for its role as source of sand that function as fine aggregates used in production of bricks, concrete, mortar, and bulk as well as in the industry as minerals in glass production, metallurgy and in some geotechnical process systems of sundry and fracturing.

Fuel cells and particularly solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are widely considered in research investigations due to clean energy production and their high efficiency.

Pomegranate, especially the Punica granatum L. variety, is widely grown in Tunisia. This fruit is a rich source of phenolic compounds including ellagitannins, phenolic acids and flavonoids.

This research was conducted to analysis genetic diversity and related relationships among fig and caprifig accessions growing under the same environmental conditions in the Tunisian ex situ fig germplasm bank. Accessions were characterized using molecular markers and morphological characters. This study indicated that there is great genetic diversity among local fig.

Sewage sludge is traditionally landfilled as it is. This leads to olfactory nuisances, health and environmental risks (Gutierrez et al. Environ Technol 2014;35: 709–718, 2014).

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad (2n = 22), closely related to domesticated watermelon (Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus) (Chomicki and Renner New Phytol 205:526–532, 2015), is a very drought-tolerant perennial herbaceous species in the Cucurbitaceae family

Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is native vegetation in the Mediterranean area; it is mainly cultivated for its environmental and economic benefits.

In the North West of Algeria, wastes represent a serious problem for environment and a potential risk for the population health.

Glycerol is an important renewable feedstock and its valorization greatly contributes to the economy of some processes mainly in the field of biofuels.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the mode of reproduction of two introduced accessions of Vicia narbonensis L. through two experiments: bagging and free pollination. The fertility of plants was estimated by the number of flowers giving pods and the number of seeds by flowers. Statistical analysis showed that the two accessions were preferentially autogamous (P/F=0.6). Significant differences were observed for the number of flowers and pods per plant and the number of seeds/pod. Significant correlations were obtained between the rate of autogamy and the number of pods by plant.

Tunisia is a semi-arid to arid country located at the northern edge of North Africa, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and characterized by specific ecosystems.

Carbon steel is widely used in various industrial fields.

Almond shell is a relatively abundant lignocellulosic agricultural by-product, in Tunisia, with a production of about 70000 tons in 2012 but it is not much valorized.

Piri Reis was a celebrated navigator and explorer of the 16th century.

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the exploitation of fish resources and the estimated quantity used for human consumption globally is about 75% of the worldwide fish production (105.6 million tons).

Many species belonging to the Lamiaceae family are a natural source of secondary metabolites such as essential oils, flavonoids, tannins and coumarins which are used in traditional medicines, chemistry and pharmaceutical industries, food preservation and perfumery.

The ploidy level alone is of little use in determining the species relationship.

Virgin olive oils (VOOs) were extracted from Chétoui variety at early and advanced ripening stages. The volatile compounds were analyzed using HS-SPME coupled to GC-MS. The lipoxygenase products were the main identified compounds. Aldehydes formed most of the C6 fraction. The percentages of alcohols and esters differed with ripening index suggesting a strict dependence on the enzymatic store.

Several researchers studied the factors that can affect seed production in aquaculture (Bromage et al. 1992; Kjesbu et al. 1991). Variations in egg quality can affect the successful production of larval fish in aquaculture (Treasurer and Ford 2010).

Osteoarthritis is a very common rheumatic disease associated with a couple of disabilities and chronic pains. Although, curative treatments are not available,, more and more patients are currently using complementary medicines and particularly phytotherapy. The aim of the present study was to determine the frequency of phytotherapy in patients with osteoarthritis.

The Algerian South-West, where this study was conducted, is known by the arid and even desert features of its biotope and plants have always been the main medications for different diseases. The medicinal use of these plants by the local population is mainly based on their empirical knowledge. The bétoum, this hardy species scientifically named Pistacia atlantica Desf. is known by its various nutritional and medicinal qualities. Following an ethnobotany investigation done before and through observations on the ground and based on scientific studies our main issue has been developed in the purpose of the valorization of Pistacia atlantica. Drupes and leaves of P. atlantica ssp. atlantica were harvested in an Algerian Southwest region (EL Bayadh) in order to carry out a physico-chemical analysis and a phytochemical screening to determine their composition in primary and secondary metabolites.

Geochemical processes such as weathering and soil formation are dominant alterations of feldspars which account for about 70% of the upper crust, if inert quartz is discounted (Nesbitt and Young in Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48:1523–1534, 1984 and J Geol 97:129–147, 1989). Silicate weathering indexes, (CIA, PIA, CIW, etc.) are widely used to interpret the weathering history of modern and ancient sediments (Harnois in Sedimentary Geol 55:319–322, 1988; Fedo et al. in Geology 23:921–924, 1995).

In 2006, Kerr entitled an editorial on Science “No doubt about it, the world is warming” (Kerr in Science 312:825, 2006). Particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, at middle latitudes, the mean air temperature is expected to increase by 1 to 3 ℃ while rainfall should decrease by 10–20% (e.g., IPCC, scenario A2, 2001). Ten years later, Guiot and Cramer (Science 354(6311):465–468, 2016) launched a warning for the Mediterranean environments.

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), represents a main resource for the development of the agricultural economy in the Palestinian Territories and in other countries around the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East. The date production doubled in the last 10 years, globally yelding about 7.5 millions t in 2014 (Al Alawi et al. in Front Plant Sci 8:845, 2017).

Continental fish farming has become one of the essential activities ensuring food security and maintaining high socio-economic impact values. Yet, inland aquaculture is still facing major constraints, relating particularly to water supply and quality. Water quality represents a major concern in aquaculture, as it may considerably result in limiting fish production. In this respect, the present study was conducted at the Deroua Fisheries Station, Fkih Ben Saleh in central Morocco, over the months of June to December 2013, on the rearing of Nil Tilapia in polyculture with the Black Bass and the Chinese carps. The study was aimed at monitoring the evolution of the fish-rearing water physical and chemical parameters, to determine whether the water’s quality displays any variations in regard of the fish-rearing recommended standards. This study has concerned nineteen ponds of 2000 m2 in surface area.

Climate change is a serious problem threatening human behavior. We talk about climate change when the global climate of the Earth or all the regional climates undergo a durable change, when atmospheric conditions are constantly changing (GIEC in Changement climatique (1/2): qu’est-ce que c’est?, 2007).

Phosphate derivatives, widely used in fertilizers, households, and industries (Xie et al. in Chem Eng J 254:163–170, 2014) are released to groundwater and surface water heavily after being used annually.

Organic soil reserves in Algeria have undergone several transformations under the constraint of intensive use of natural resources. Carbon storage in the soil reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves the soil fertility.

Every year, large volumes of dredged marine sediments are removed from Algerian water. Dredging activity is needed to maintain and enlarge water bodies.

In most fishing communities small scale fisheries are managed for resource sustainability through indigenous and traditional methods such as water tenure, ritual prohibitions, taboos and magic as well as gear restrictions, closed seasons and flood plain intensification management strategies.

Several studies have reported increased levels of pollution notably heavy metal contamination in the gulf of Annaba (Beldi et al. 2006; Soltani et al. 2012; Merad et al. 2017). For environmental risk assessment, a comprehensive understanding on adaptation and/or a recovery are important.

Recent observations on molluscan assemblages associated with photophilous algae on rocky substrates located in the Radès Basin (Tunis Bay), have showed an established population of the nudibranch mollusc Doris verrucosa Linnaeus, 1758. This species inhabits shallow rocky environments of the western Mediterranean basin, and its presence in Tunisia was doubtful.

Gypsum soil can be defined according to its content. A gypsum soil that contains less than 40% of gypsum and gypsiferous soil is soil specified with a percentage of gypsum between 1 and 40% (Pearson et al. 2015).

Phenolic compounds are secondary plant metabolites which provide defense to plants against oxididizing agents and free radicals.

Focus on lichens diversity and their bioindication towards mainly sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides within oak forest/matorral regions of north, center and southern west of Tunisia was undertaken since 2004. First results reveal a high specific diversity with more than 30 high sensitive epiphytic species. Used as indicators of the approximate average content (μg.m-3) of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides in atmospheric, the presence of these taxa remains a strong indicator of an unpolluted forestry ambience without hiding the fragmentation that their associations suffer from due to the continuous cutting of oak trees.

Experimental tests have been carried out on the sediments in order to obtain these geotechnical and environmental properties. The sediments studied present loamy nature, high plasticity, and low swelling potential with a capacity to immobilize the organic and inorganic pollutants. The sediments studied are contaminated by the organic matter and in heavy metals. The environmental behavior proves the immobility of heavy metals in the sediments. The valuation of the sediments is possible while taking into account its nature and these plastic properties.

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) is a major by-product of olive oil industry. More than 10 million m3 of OMW are generated annually in the Mediterranean region.

The main objective of this work was to use new approaches to measure the degradation cases of the steppe ecosystem of Tlemcen South region, which is very delicate and exposed to a desertification phenomenon.

The washing of Tunisian phosphate mined in the Kef Eddour area (Southwestern part of Tunisia) produce a large amount of sludge phosphate. It contains appreciable quantity of finer fraction. Moreover, the accumulation of this sludge damages the landscape and constitutes a potential source of pollution.

Studies of surface pollen samples have been widely used in Europe to assess the relationships between pollen composition and vegetation (Davis et al. 2013). However, such studies in the southern Mediterranean borderlands are rare, in particular in Tunisia. Before reconstructing the vegetation and climate variability over the past millennia from sedimentary archives from the lagoon Ghar el Melh, we have performed pollen analysis from surface samples to evaluate the representation of the northeastern Tunisian vegetation in pollen spectra.

Infections are a serious threat to postoperative surgical wound care. In fact, during surgery, bacteria from the ambient environment may enter the surgical site, and get attached to medical devices posing a high risk of contamination.

Energy usage in society is a common factor in residential homes and in the commercial and industrial sectors. In order to obtain adequate energy to maintain our current lifestyle, we have been extracting minerals and fossil fuels from the earth thus damaging the natural environment.

Solar energy is one of the most promising renewable sources in the South of Algeria. However, the share of this energy is still low, which is mainly due to the low cost of energy production by fossil fuels. The South of Algeria has appropriate irradiation (reach 7.2 KWh/m2/day) for solar energy deployment. Algeria has experienced a high population growth and a rise in the living standards, which have increased energy demand. These factors, combined with new renewable energy policies, could create an opportunity for the sun to provide some of the energy required to cover this increase.

In order to overcome the current growing environmental problems that threaten the world nowadays, it is necessary to rethink the long-term potential actions for sustainable development. Advanced innovations in renewable energy technologies offer a large number of effective and efficient solutions (Dincer 2000). In this regard, solar drying ées field has witnessed a growing interest in the last few years.

This experimental and theoretical work is part of increasing the profitability of an active solar still held in the shield,where the effect of the temperature difference on the system has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The proposed system reached a global efficiency of 44% with a distillate production of 24kg /m² day.

In the past, people in the South of Algeria built their houses with local building materials and thermal comfort in the hot long summer was guaranteed through a passive technique.

The depletion of the conventional energy resources (fossil, oil and gas), pollution, and climate change require reflection on the need for energy diversification by a fast integration of renewable energies.

Reducing the energy demand for air conditioning applications is an important goal to achieve for energy saving purposes. It is, therefore, necessary to develop alternative techniques to adapt and improve the existing refrigeration equipments. So, applying new technologies, using clean and environmentally friendly materials, appears unavoidable. Furthermore, the use of the solar panels’ generated heat constitutes an interesting option to adapt to the new generation of air conditioning processes, for the cold in demand usually coincides with the most warm and sunny period. In this regard, the ‘liquid desiccant cooling’ (LDC) stands as an innovative technology allowing atmosphere refreshment through changes in the state of water, the exploitation of solar energy and the use of liquid desiccant solutions, highly characterized with the specific distinction of dehumidifying the air. Indeed, the LDAC systems’ cooling capacity proves to increase with the integration of evaporative coolers, culminating in the design of a rather commercially competitive HVAC product.

Contaminants, including pharmaceuticals and particularly antibiotics, receive much attention because of their potential environmental pollution as consequence of their extended input in the aquatic ecosystem (Verlicchi et al. 2012; Homem and Santos in J Environ Manage 92:2304–2347, 2011). This pollution comes from human excretion after administration of the drug and goes through the sewage treatment plants (WWTPs).

In recent years, the heterogeneous photocatalysis for total oxidation of organic and inorganic water pollutants has been extensively studied (Wang in ApplSurfSci 258:9989–9996, 2012). Such reactions have usually been carried out using suspensions of powdered TiO₂.

One of the most important challenges the world meets at present is to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. It is clear that the solar refrigeration system can be an effective solution. Indeed, refrigerants used in these systems are natural and free and preserve the environment.

Algeria is a semi-arid country, likely to register a water deficit of around 1 billion m3 by the year 2025. So, it is clear that Algeria, like most African countries, displays a remarkable shortage of water resources, while needs are simultaneously increasing. In this regard, there exist several established ways whereby organic pollutants, mostly persistent in wastewater, could be removed, such as biological treatment; but it is not enough. For this reason, other alternatives should be retrieved, that are less costly and apply green energy, that stand as effectively useful for the removal of organics compounds from wastewater.

Pharmaceutical products have become a subject of major public interest due to their serious irreversible effects on the aquatic and terrestrial environments. In recent years, Sewage treatment plants (STPs) are recognized as being the main discharge sources of such substances in the environment.

This work proposed a landscaped study, concerning the feasibility of the photovoltaic and wind energy projects in Biskra. Looking for the qualitative evaluation of the energetic landscape, which is the result of setting-up of this project type, its social acceptance as well as the comparison between the urban landscape of the city of Biskra before and after these installations.

Renewable energy sources have one thing in common; they all existed before man appeared on this planet. Wind, wave, hydro, solar, geothermal and tidal powers are all forces of nature and are mostly intermittent energy sources, geothermal is the only consistent phenomenon.

This study aims to assess the economic feasibility of the biogas system in a small Palestinian poultry farm under realistic conditions by analyzing actual data which based on the primary data of the system. The results show great potential for making profit on the capital investment. The NPV, BCR, IRR, and PBP are 4,088 $, 2.53, 31.1 %, and 3 years respectively. The most profitable levels were determined through cost- benefit and break-even analysis. The results of the study could be used to analyze or further develop feasibility studies of biogas systems at other farms in Palestine and neighboring countries that share similar climatic characteristics and economic factors.

The demand for energy and freshwater resources is on the increase due to the growing urban populations in the world. High amounts of domestic municipal wastewater are being released which poses a serious threat to the environment.

The depletion of petroleum reserves, increasing energy demands, rising oil prices and current increase in greenhouse gas emissions associated with global petroleum consumption have made the renewable fuel derived from biomass more attractive (Sheehan in Nat Biotechnol 27(12):1128–1130, 2009). Microalgae are considered as a potential biofuel source thanks to their high lipid content, fast growth in various climates, ability to grow on marginal land and non-competitiveness with food production, the case of other food stocks.

Anaerobic technology has been widely applied for the conversion of various organic wastes, such as urban sewage, food processing industry wastes (candy, cheese…), agricultural residues (manure, liquid manure), animal manure and municipal solid wastes, to biogas.

This study is mainly devoted to the energetic conversion of Tunisian sewage sludge (SS) into second generation biofuels (bio-oil, syngas and bio-char) using pyrolysis process. In fact, urban wastewater treatment operations has generated increasingly large quantities of sewage sludge (SS) (around 2 million tons/year in 2009, ONAS 2010) in Tunisia, since 1974—date of implementation of the first wastewater treatment plants (WWTP).

Lignocellulosic biomass has been projected as an abundant carbon-neutral renewable source, which can decrease CO₂ emissions and atmospheric pollution. Thus, it is a promising alternative to limit crude oil, which can be utilized to produce bio fuels, biomolecules and biomaterials (Barakat et al. in Bioresour Technol 134: 362–373, 2013). In Tunisia, one of the most available lignocellulosic biomass is “Date Palm residues” which are produced yearly (around 200,000 tons per year; CRDA-Kebili 2011) since the economy is based on agricultural activities and mainly dates production. These by-products of Date palm tree extraction activities management could generate many environmental problems (landfilling, combustion …etc.).

Lignin is a hydrophobic polymer that provides mechanical strength to plant organs. However, the presence of lignin in plant cell walls reduces the efficiency of ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass and the digestibility of forage for animal consumption.

In recent years CO₂ emissions have become a serious environmental concern and a big effort is aimed at the study of technology for its reduction. Flue gas emissions of power plants are considered the most important source of CO₂. All the proposed technologies start with a CO₂ separation step, however separation of carbon dioxide from the flue gas is expensive and can be very difficult.

Residual organic biomass ans waste are a serious environmental problem. However, these can represent the solution to the demand of natural and biofuel, an alternative to fossil fuels.

Pleurotus ostreatus, which is one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms, generally contains low Ca. The present study focused on the influence of Ca supplementation in P. ostreatus using biological wastes including agricultural lime, eggshell and oyster shell. Addition of agricultural lime and eggshell powder resulted to higher yield and biological efficiency, and improved Ca level while using oyster shell powder did not vary with the control. Supplementation of all Ca sources reduced K and P contents; however, levels of Mg, Na, Si, Cl and S were generally increased. These findings suggest that varying levels of Ca from different sources can have a diverse effect on the mineral absorption efficacy of P. ostreatus.

This work presented an experimental investigation on the use of a bio-composite as an insulating material in building. During the past few years, many projects have tried to create new composites with a high insulating properties, essentially thermal, which plays an important role in buildings energy efficiency (Chikhi et al. in Energy Build 66:267–273, 2013).

In the last decade there has been a substantial desire towards the investigation in renewable energies since they are an illimited energy source.

A hierarchy of numerical sea models covering the large scale Mediterranean basin, the central Mediterranean area and local zones in given Tunisian ecosystems is developed.

Coastal lagoons are saline water bodies partially isolated from ocean or seas by one or more barrier islands, and linked to the sea by one or more relatively small channels. Lagoons naturally grade into other types of wetland habitat including semi enclosed marine bays, freshwater lakes and estuaries (Barnes in Coastal lagoons. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 106, 1980).

The circulation of central Mediterranean Sea is not yet well established despite the efforts that have been made. This mainly concerns the surface circulation along the Tunisian coasts which is still poorly understood.

Knowledge of hydrodynamics activity at the Bejaia bay is the missing data of the scientific studys, and a missing part for security services and coastal engineering services. The lack of waves records along the Bay, Led us to use the numerical model SWAN, based on the weather station data . One of the study objectives is the valorization of the coastal weather stations data and the exploitation of these data to simulate the sea states in real time. The work allowed us to improve the state of knowledge on the hydrodynamic behavior at the Bejaia bay, with dominants wind speeds and directions; According to a numerical and theoretical operating mode.

The Mediterranean is considered as one of the most vulnerable areas on the planet, a “Hotspot” of the global climate change (IPCC 2014).

The gulf of Gabes is individualized by variability of morphological forms. Beaches occupy border of structural depressions and sea cliffs delineating the edge of high plateaus (Ben Ouezdou 1983; Oueslati 2004).

Several years ago Climate change directly affected global oceans and mainly caused a rise in temperatures. This elevation is usually followed by more virulent waves and periods of greater storms as they would cause significant overtopping. These phenomena are a real problem for our site the “Sablettes” which is located in a sensitive area, subject to several constraints such as; the stability of natural land, coastal erosion and marine submersion among others including its position and its strategic value.

The aim of this study is to monitor the sediment pattern of the coastal lagoon of Bizerte in order to assess the human/natural effect on the environmental dynamic system. The methodology is based on a sedimentological study associated to Sediment Trend Analysis, STA model (Sunamura and Horikawa 1971) in order to update the grain size distribution of submarine sediment to better understanding the related relationship with hydrodynamic trend as well. A paleontological study was carried out allowing the identification of the micro faunistic changes related to the lagoon properties. The sediment transport model applied to granulometric indexes (Mz, sorting and SKI) reveals a preferential dispersion of a mixture of sedimentary structure along of the coast that converge towards the center of the lagoon, very similar to the hydrodynamic conditions of the lagoon.

The coastal zone of Morocco includes a large number of sandy beaches spread along the Atlantic and the Mediterranean shorres.

Coasts are very dynamic natural formations due to both natural and man-made reasons that affect the coastal environment.

Coasts are very dynamic natural formations that can be instantly affected by both natural and man-made reasons.

The coastal system is a fragile and unstable environment. The demographic pressure together with the importance of industrial and economic issues associated requires taking awareness of the fragility of coastal fronts.

Algerian coastline is highly exposed to coastal flooding. These floods are more important on low-lying coasts. Sea-level records of tide gauges installed along coastal world except those placed on shorelines known for their uplift or subsidence or seismicity clearly demonstrate that, for about a century, the sea level has risen at a rate of 1.5 mm/year.

Coastal ecosystems, including sandy beaches have a high value (Wilson et al. 2004; Crossland et al. 2005), as they provide a wide range of market and non-market benefits to human societies (MEA 2005).

The oceanic primary production represents 40% of the Earth’s primary production. For this reason, it is admissible to state that the oceanic primary production plays a fundamental role in the global carbon cycle.

The Algerian basin is characterized by a complex circulation of surface waters (Millot and Taupeir-Letage 2005), particularly by its coastal anticyclonic eddies (Millot 1989).

In the last few decades, reports of harmful species have been increasing in the shellfish production areas through the Gulf of Gabès (South-eastern Mediterranean Sea); of particular concern are the outbreaks of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum. Vegetative growth is crucial parameter to understand toxic blooms. In the current study, four A. minutum strains (Am.2, Am.26, Am.1b and Am.3b) were isolated from the Gulf of Gabès and their capacity to adapt to different salinities treatments was investigated. Our results indicated that all studied strains presented a similar behaviour, with the growth rate gradually increasing with increasing salinity between 20 and 40 and decreasing in experiments with salinity higher than 40. The strains were high-euryhaline and showed optimal growth at salinities between 35 and 45, peaking at 40.

Coastal marine ecosystems are subjected to both anthropogenic and natural pressures that put aquatic organisms under multi-stress situations. Trace metals represent the most widespread potential concern in the coastal marine environment, in particular copper (Cu) and silver (Ag).

Anticancer drug research, has now centered around Marine Drug Research, as secondary metabolites from marine organisms have proved to possess remarkable cytotoxic properties. Ara-C, & related nucleotides, were the foremost discoveries of cytotoxic metabolites from marine fauna.

Lagoons are highly productive areas situated in the transitional regions at the land-ocean boundary. They are important to mankind because many industrial, commercial, and recreational activities are concentrated in these regions.

Moroccan marine areas are characterized by important fishery richness, whether at the level of the Mediterranean Sea frontage or at the level of the Atlantic. It plays an important role in the economy through its fishery, which in 2014 generated 8 billion dirham’s or 2–3% of the national GDP.

In Algeria, more than 45% of the population resides and works near the coast where we have a continuous increase of anthropogenic activity, causing pollution. Indeed, finding and selecting sites for aquaculture have become a very difficult task, especially that finfish is characterized by its environment good quality requirements.

In the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, the goatfish (family Mullidae) locally known as “Barbouni”, is mainly exploited by the trawl fleet, using a trawl net of the Italian type.

Estuaries are important nutrient filters along the land-ocean continuum. However, the role of benthic diagenesis is still poorly quantified. Estuarine sediments are important environments regulating carbon, nutrient, metal, and sulfur fluxes.

Nutrient loads have been significantly increased by the human activity, particularly waste discharges and agricultural intensification, in rivers throughout the world (Seitzinger et al. 2005). For Mediterranean rivers Ludwing et al. (2009) reported that inputs to the Mediterranean Sea

Organotins, especially TBT, are well known for their potential biocidal properties that prompted their use in many industrial fields mainly as toxic additives in antifouling paints since the mid-1960’s.

The Latest Danian Event is a short warming event, documented for the early Paleogene. Similar to Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, this event is characterized by global warming, carbonate disolution and shallowing of lysocline and CCD, poor oxygenated and stratified column water.

The Marchica lagoon is located at the eastern end of the Moroccan Oriental Rif. Which constitutes a zone of encounter between the rifain and atlasic geological systems. Such a zone is characterized by small mountains which dominate wide depressions more or less flat and open on the Mediterranean. These geological units are drained by a network of streams that feed the Marchica lagoon and neighboring coastal areas into a detrital product of different kinds. The granulometric analyzes carried out on the surface sediments of the lagoon of Marchica made it possible to characterize in detail the granulometry of the current sedimentary cover after the opening of the new pass and to establish the spatial variations of these granulometric fractions. The following conclusions can be drawn from the analyzes: The sand contents vary between (14.6 and 77.7%), the highest content is recorded at the site of Chaâla and near the new pass; It is a sandy fraction rich in shellfish debris of gastropods. The fine silt contents vary between (0 and 20%), the highest content is recorded in the center of the lagoon. The highest proportions of coarse silt (60.4 and 52.65%) are recorded respectively at Kariat stations and at the center of the lagoon. This fraction is rich in woody debris from halophilic plants. The proportions of the clays are on average between 8 and 15%, the large proportions are recorded in the zones which can be considered as quiet depressions with low hydrodynamism favoring sedimentation by decantation and flocculation of the clays. It is a very evolved vase deposited in a calm environment by excess of charge without subsequent rearrangement. This study resulted in a sediment distribution, as well as a determination of the environment of sediment deposition.

The southern coastal area of Sfax is one of the Mediterranean coasts which has been suffering for several decades from a large industrial pressure occupying 50% of the total area. This status has caused a degradation of the environment

The dredging of the navigation channel of the Port of Kalâat Andalous is an important technical operation for the maintenance of the harbor activities.

Lagoons are defined as paralic environments. These ecosystems constitute sensitive productive environments. They receive many inputs from the watershed. The organization and characteristics of lagoon environments are closely dependent on the balance between marine and continental influences.

The gulf of Gabes is a special area in the Mediterranean known by its abundant marine wealth. The geological setting of the southern coast of Tunisia is characterized by an extended continental shelf.

The Mediterranean coast of Egypt suffers from a number of coastal problems as unplanned urbanization, land use conflicts, environmental degradation or shoreline retreat, that will be exacerbated by climate change. The problems are multi-dimensional and multi-located, and the Egyptian government has tried to respond to these challenges by implementing Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).

Tourism has been one of the fastest growing industries in recent decades. Undoubtedly, it has beneficial economic impacts on the visited regions, bur this growth undeniably increases the risk of harmful effects on ecosystems.

Solid wastes are all the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally solid and are discarded as unwanted material. In this study, the Solid Waste has been generated by dredging the famous Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir. Kashmir, the beautiful state is known as the Paradise on earth and Dal Lake has been the cradle of Kashmiri civilization from immemorial times. Dal Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes of India and the second largest in the J&K State.

Shorelines are defined as an interface where natural, anthropogenic, socio-economic constraints are exacerbated and constantly changing.

The environment pollution prevention is one of the essential concerns to assure a sustainable maritime industry. Our contribution consists of the study of the environmental impact of conventional ships (CS) such as, general cargoes, bulk carriers , and containers on sea, and air. Ships documents and reports were analyzed to identify and quantify the impact of fuel oil residues, greenhouse gases, garbage, sewage and ballasting operation in order to propose an environmental friendly alternatives.

The environmental and social issues are crucial for a sustainable maritime industry. The implementation of autonomous ship (AS) might be an alternative to assure this sustainability. Our contribution consists of the study and demonstration of the environmental and social impact of the integration of AS in the maritime industry. In this paper the AS was compared to conventional ship (CS) in respect of environmental pollution prevention and mariners social life enhancement.

The energy supply sector is considered a major polluter by the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Harmful algal blooms (HAB) are an ancient and natural phenomena that generally reflects the monospecific, and on rare occasions, the multispecific outgrowth of microalgae in marine coastal areas, estuaries, open waters and freshwater environments. The bloom of several species of HAB are triggered by a complex variety of environmental factors and cause mild to severe impacts on aquatic organisms and human health.

Urban Hedges are a natural filter of dust and pollutants. Recent studies have shown that hedges can help improve air quality in urban areas because they provide a shield at the exhaust pipe level for pedestrians and households. GIS analysis carried out in this study shows that footpaths along certain major roads in Cardiff city centre has ample space to grow hedges. Traffic emissions linked with these roads are naturally high, suggesting the need for more vegetation. It is emphasised that the available space can be utilised to grow urban hedges in order to improve the air quality in Cardiff city centre.

Alien plant invasions are becoming more widespread at a serious and alarming rate around the world. Many more species are becoming invasive; they can compete with and displace native plants, alter ecosystem functions, threaten biodiversity and also result in economic consequences.

Malnutrition remains a leading cause of death in children in low- and middle-income countries. Chronic malnutrition concerns globally approximately 159 million children under the age of five.

Simple and easily measured attributes as a surrogate for biodiversity are needed for a successful biodiversity management in forest ecosystems.

In Algeria the salinity has known an important increase at the last decade, the Lower Cheliff is one of the most heavily affected regions by soil salinity problems with 80% due to irrigation activities.

A Decision Support System (DSS) for groundwater resources management is developed for the Monastir region. It is a hydrogeological relational database joined with a Hydrogeological Information System (HISM) which enables fast and effective processing of large volumes of spatial data from multiple sources. The HISM has a great management capacity; it ensures the conversion from the geographic coordinates to the planimetric coordinates. It allows adding, modifying, deleting and editing data (Rainfall, piezometric and geochemical). It also ensures the storage and editing of the digitized and/or generated cartographic database.

Soil erosion is a natural process which is undoubtedly widely responsible for the current geomorphology. The “soil erosion” term cannot be used in a threatened environment or a damage that it is about accelerated erosion, beyond moderate rates, based on anthropogenic factors, which will cause loss of one or several functions of the soil.

Wildfires are an integral part of many terrestrial ecosystems (Pausas and Vallejo in Remote sensing of large wildfires. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 3–16, 1999), they affect a large portion of forests and other vegetation around the globe and the Mediterranean region is not an exception. Because forests’ fire accidents are a part of the major natural risk, starting them or putting them out depends mostly on human acts.

Forest degradation is a major concern on environmental, social or economic scales, given the important role forests play in affecting climate change.

Drought is a temporary event which occurs as a result of insufficient precipitation (Wilhite and Glantz in Water Int 10:111–120, 1985) during a given season and which may result in huge social and economic losses.

Lakes are a relatively small part of the Earth’s water. However, they have always been very important for mankind as source of water, food, power and landscaping.

This study investigates the accuracy of the ISCCP FD and AIRS surface air and skin temperatures, as well as the ISCCP FD and MODIS surface albedos and aerosol optical depths. The comparisons showed that the AIRS air and skin temperatures were slightly more accurate compared to the surface measurements than those in ISCCP FD. The MODIS surface albedos differed from the ISCCP FD values by no more than 0.02–0.07, but because these differences are mostly at longer wavelengths, they did not change the net solar radiation very much. Therefore, to obtain the best estimate of surface net radiation with the best combination of spatial and temporal resolution, we developed a method to adjust the ISCCP FD surface longwave fluxes using the AIRS surface air and skin temperatures to obtain the higher spatial resolution of the latter, while retaining the 3-hr time intervals of the former.

The present work was conducted within the framework of RAOP-MED project which was funded by the ENPI CBC MED programme.

The Tunisian oases represent the essential of the agriculture and the socio economic activity of the desert areas, and vegetation play an important role in the maintenance of the agricultural stability in arid regions (Hamza et al. 2006) and even in the survival of desert population.

The Nile River is vital to Egypt as it is considered the main source of fresh water for most of its populations. This river has experienced major morphological changes during the past decades.

The study area is part of the Saharan regions of the Arab world characterized by a hyperarid climate with a precipitation not exceeding 100 mm/year and temperatures that wait 45° in summer. Despite these difficult natural conduits, these regions.

Gabes region, located on the southeastern coast of Tunisia, is characterized by unique maritime oases in Mediterranean basin.

Environmental problems resulting from urbanization (e.g., global warming, air pollution, water pollution and environmental deterioration) have negatively affected the quality and comfort of urban livelihood.

Remote sensing is a reliable technique to quantify and qualify the detected objects and thus to inform on the extension and the identification of the agricultural areas.

Volcanic eruptions are a major natural source of gases and aerosols, which perturbs the atmospheric chemistry (Graf et al. in Chem Geol 147:131–45, 1998) and the Earth’s radiative transfer (Robock and Oppenheimer in Volcanism and the Earth’s atmosphere. Washington, DC, USA: American Geophysical Union, pp. 187–236, 2003).

The bay of Algiers is located in the heart of the Algerian coastline. It lies in the hollow of the plain of the Mitidja (South), characterized by its semi circular shape, delimited to the North by the Mediterranean Sea, to the West by the Pescade Point (RAIS HAMIDOU) and Cape Matifou (EL MARSA) to the East (DJEBARA et al.in Evaluation De La Pollution Marine Par Les Hydrocarbures Dans La Baie d’Alger et De Bou-Ismail. Alger: ENSSMAL, 2014).

Estimating the sediment capacity of the lakes is an essential task for the managers and decision makers of water management sector. Achieving this task based on the field measurements consumes time, money and effort. On the other hand, detecting bathymetric data (depths) using Remote Sensing (RS) data has led to overcome such problems if used in estimating the sediment amount and verified by field measurements.

The remote sensing application and land-use mapping are among the current challenges. The lower Chellif plain was the subject of our study. It is located at 220 km far from the west of Algiers, and has suffered from serious problems of its environment degradation, climate aridity. In addition to the salinization of soils which accelerated over the last two decades.This work constitutes a contribution in the study of land use changes using remote sensing combined with field data and soil salinity, The supervised classifications of the two satellite images allowed the determination and the follow-up of different land use classes. The changes were obtained by comparing two obtained classifications maps of the Landsat images between the two periods of summer 2006 and summer 2014 in terms of surface area and spectral behavior.

Water erosion is a form of land degradation and desertification that contributes to a large amount of soil loss in regions characterized by a semi-arid climate (Bermúdez in Erosion hydrique, désertification et aménagement dans l’environnement méditerranéen semi-aride. Universidad de Murcia, 1996).

The surface water sources dynamics is in most of the cases related to the climatic aspect of the region, from the global prospect, this useful resource requires the rationalization regarding its needs for the population and the nation’s economy without mortgaging the needs for the future generations (Corbane in Mémoire du doctorat, Reconnaissance des états de surface en milieu cultivé méditerranéen par télédétection optique à très haute résolution spatiale, 2006).

Satellite based navigation system was used in a great deal of research across the world for erosion prediction.

Flash Flood is a sudden water covering of land surface not normally covered by water as a result of localized high rainfall intensity (Collier in Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 133:3–23, 2007).

The region of Ouargla has suffered for long time from the phenomenon of upwelling of groundwater, this rise is theoretically due to the overexploitation of the waters of the deep aquifers, for the needs of irrigation and the supply of drinking water, in addition to natural constraints, such as almost flat topography, the probable presence in this region of faults and fractures, contributes to this phenomenon and the absence of an effective natural exit, which disturbs the natural drainage of the water table.

The change detection in arid and semi-arid zones is one of the challenges raised by spatial remote sensing researchers in order to obtain actualized and repeated information of the ground surface states evolution (Jauffret 2001). The change detection is the process which consists in identifying the difference in the sate of an object or a phenomenon observed on different dates (Singh 1989). It is an important procedure for assessing the environment.

This paper aims at providing helpful tools (i.e. empirical fragility curves) for the analysis and prediction of the damage to masonry buildings in areas affected by slow-moving landslides. This goal is pursued through the development of an innovative procedure based on the joint use of DInSAR data and building damage surveys and applied in two study areas of the Calabria region (southern Italy).

Jatinangor had been decided as a new location of several campuses such as Unpad, ITB, IKOPIN, and IPDN. This has the implication of development of many infrastructures to support the educational activities. To avoid the occurrence of problematic soils such as a infrastructural damage and landslide phenomena, it is necessary to identify the expansive soils as the basement of buildings and any infrastructures. The research method includes geological mapping, petrographic analysis, engineering geologic mapping, undisturbed soil sampling, mineralogical analysis and physical properties analysis. The result of this study shows that the study area is divided into four soil units due to the USCS (Unified Soil Classification System) and shows low—very high swelling potential, activity ranges from 0.34 to 1.36 and composed kaolinite, chlorite, and montmorillonite clay minerals.

Landslide is a natural geological disaster, greatly affected by geological features, precipitation and anthropogenic activities. The characteristics of the Abha mountainous watershed are sedimentary soft, hard silt and clay rocks.

Landslides are the most destructive natural hazard in mountainous regions of the NE of Algeria. They threaten many roads and facilities. This phenomenon is difficult to predict, although landslides could be managed and so its hazard can be reduced. Its assessment can be accomplished by providing managers with accurate information about landslide occurrence.

Ground movements represent a major threat to human life. They are recognized by the political authorities and the scientific community as natural events with a catastrophic socio-economic impact and represent a major danger for most of the stakes (population, habitats, basic infrastructures natural environment). In this context, the Kef region in Tunisia is an example of a territory heavily affected by landslides whose geological and cartographic thematic study enabled us to develop a slippage risk map.

The only heavyweight issue connecting the two sections of the city separated the wadi Rhumel affected by a landslide. Urban mobility has prompted the authorities to safeguard the bridge. Launch of periods of auscultation measurements for several years. The results showed that the structure moves 2 cm per year. A large-scale rehabilitation program was decided in 3 phases (micropiles, metal beams, concrete platform).

Landslides pose a threat to property and people all over the world. They include a set of soil or subsoil shifting. Northern Tunisia suffers from this phenomenon because of the steep slopes, of a fragile and sensitive lithology to the movement and of a bare vegetation cover by place. These factors have a remarkable extent especially along the national road n°11 (linking Bizerte and Béja).

GIS-based approaches are often used for Geo-hazards environmental impact assessment (Mezaal et al. 2017). It allows the integration of different data layers in complex environments (Pradhan et al. 2011). In this research the zoning of the spatial occurrence of a slope movement (SM) could help effectively to reduce their damages (Hadji et al. 2017).

One of the mechanical instabilities of granular soil corresponds to the phenomenon of liquefaction, which refers to its deformation behavior during shaking events. This report presented some experimental tests on soils and the characterization of their mechanical behavior. The laboratory experiments were led on a natural soil extracted from the region of Oran which presents a regular seismic activity, located in the north west of Algeria.

Landslides are the most recurring geological hazards in the world, causing injuries, loss of life, damage to the property as well as infrastructures and affecting a large number of resources. There are many factors that cause the instability of slopes, but the main controlling factors are rainfalls, seismic and human activities.

The primary aim of this study is to predict the landslide susceptibility zones for Laalam area (located in the east of Algeria) using Information value method.The study is organised through three main steps:The first step consists in creating an inventory map of the landslides identified using satellite imagery and field studies.The second step consists in creating landslides occurrence factors map that concerned (lithology, slope, slopes exposure, hydrographic network and lineament).The last step combines all the thematic maps and aims to evaluate the Laalam area landslides susceptibility map.

Landslides are one of the most frequent and major natural hazards that cause an annual loss of billions of dollars and claim thousands of lives along with damage to property and environment. Landslides can be defined as the movement of the rock mass, regolith, earth or any material forming the sloping surface, down the slope, under the influence of gravitational pool, triggered by a variety of external factors.

Landslides have caused large numbers of casualties and huge economic losses in mountainous areas around the world. Rapid movement of rock mass, debris or earth down a slope, has the potential to cause extensive damage to infrastructure such as roads, bridges, human dwellings, agricultural lands and forests, thus resulting in economic losses.

In the stability studies of a homogeneous earth dam many critical Cases have been taken into consideration such as end of construction, steady seepage, reservoir drawdown and earthquake. Under the steady-state seepage condition, the application of a horizontal drain has been a common method to lower the free surface and dissipate the excessive pore water pressure, especially for a dam having impervious foundation.

This paper presents the stability calculation results of an unstable slope located in Tizi-N’Bechar city (Province of Setif, Algeria) and proposes a solution for its reinforcement. Stability calculations show that this urbanized slope is potentially unstable. Among the possible solutions of its reinforcement, upstream pickling and downstream filling appear to be the most appropriate technique. However, this solution is insufficient when the slope will be subjected to a slight seism combined with a water table located at half-height of it. Reinforcement of this unstable urbanized slope by means of upstream nailing and downstream piling combined with an anchored wall at toe is thus necessary.

In this contribution, a new relationship between the fundamental site frequency and the thickness of soft sediments is obtained for many sites in Egypt. I validated and compared new formula results with the results obtained from other formulas of earlier scientists. The obtained results indicate that the calculated depth and geometry of the bedrock surface using new formula are in a good agreement with well logs data and previously published seismic refraction surveys in the investigated sites.

This technique was originally proposed by Nogoshi and Igarashi (J Seism Soc Japan 24:26–40, 1971) and modified by Nakamura (Railway Tech Res Inst (RTRI) Q Rep 30:25–33, 1989).

Tectonic of Romania includes both pre-alpine platforms and Alpine orogenic structures. The pre-alpine platforms are: Eastern European Platform, with its western margin in Romania—Moldavian platform; Scythian platform; Moesian platform.

The Western and Southwestern Anatolia are located in a tectonically active region in Turkey (Fig. 1). Many studies have been conducted on the mechanism of fault systems of this region.Fig. 1Major tectonic structures of the Southwestern Anatolia

Aksehir-Sultandagi Fault Zone (ASFZ) is one of the most important seismogenic zones located in the expansion region of Western Anatolia.

This paper suggests a technical tool elaborated on the fuzzy cases based reasoning technique. This model or technic is meant to be applied on seismic vulnerability assessment during the architectural design stages. It can be considered as a tool-help for decision-making during the design process of the parasismic architectural project. The performance of the proposal tool was compared to that of assessment results obtained by the seismic vulnerability index. The obtained results show that the proposed fuzzy inference system achieves an excellent correlation with expert knowledge and seismic vulnerability index results.

The Mediterranean region has experienced numerous extreme coastal events, such as flood events which caused casualties and economic damage.

This work is a comparative study of water erosion and suspended sediments in the two hydrometric stations timgad and reboa belonging respectively to of Wadi Soulrez and Wadi Reboa, located in the North-East of Algeria. The approach adopted for the quantification of sediment transport consists on researching the best regressive model to represent the statistical relation between the sediment yield and the measured water discharge at different scales: annual, seasonal and monthly. The available data cover 27 years from 1985 to 2012.

Although the natural factors may cause coastal erosion, the coast is very sensitive to the impact of coastal communities and human intervention (e.g. cities, roads, harbor, coastal defenses).

Urban flood hazards are becoming a worldwide problem. The change in climatic conditions has caused serious threats to humanity, one of which is the unexpected severe floods.

Evacuation is one of the most useful actions to reduce the impact of tsunami events on the population.

The primary function of an environmental impact assessment study is to predict and quantify potential impacts, assess and evaluate the magnitude and their importance to develop an environmental management plan to mitigate the impacts.

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide (Ferlay in Int J Cancer 127:2893–2917, 2010). Metastasis can be considered as a cascade of interrelated sequential steps.

Domestic chicken Gallus gallus domesticus (L. 1758) is the most domestic poultry used for meat and eggs (Lehmann 2015). In Algeria and until the early 1960s, poultry farming was essentially rustic and traditional.

Resistance to antibiotics is a very serious public health concern, affecting many countries. This is how the bacteria develop several strategies to resist the action of antibiotics.

Candida infections are frequently associated with the implantation of catheters especially in immunocompromised patients, which increase resistance to antifungal agents. Our study fits into this context and is to look for an epidemiological study of Candida albicans and testing their susceptibility against three antifungals alone: amphotericin B/voriconazole. It appears from this study that, caspofungin in combination with amphotéricin B exhibited potent activity against planktonic cells (C. albicans).

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) generate an inevitable by-product: wastewater sludges.

Almost all of the daily food is currently prone to endocrine disrupters.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a hospital germ causing of serious infections at the weakened subjects, their frequency increases considerably because of the antimicrobic agents extensive use in human medication and the animal breedings which leads to the resistant strains selection.

Health education participates in the progressive acquisition of knowledge and skills which will allow the pupils to make responsible choice regarding health. By developing competences in terms of prevention, responsibility, reached the objectives of education to the citizenship. In fact, the Tunisian youth is confronted with new problems, new challenges and plagues.

Leishmaniasis has been classified primarily as a vector-borne disease that poses a major threat to public health. The Biskra region, which has long been known as a focal point for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), has a low extent of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The objective of the present work was to highlight the spatial and temporal evolution of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis in Biskra over the last decade, with particular consideration of different environmental factors that were influencing their distribution.

The earth’s climate change, due to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of energy-trapping gases (greenhouse gases), is having considerable impact on various biological systems, including the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Extreme high air temperatures contribute directly to deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, particularly among the elderly.

The important role played by neighbourhood in shaping individual and community health is now recognised by researchers. This interest in the relationship between neighbourhood and health has increased significantly in the 1990s and a considerable number of studies on this aspect has been carried out.

In biology, poisons are substances that cause disturbances in organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when an organism absorbs a sufficient quantity.

Poor settings are predominantly symbolized by the old cities and present a more negative picture of mental health, as a result of working conditions, housing or family problems, which make individuals more vulnerable to the vagaries of mental health. The old town of Annaba is a good example.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, it occupies the first place in term of incidence and mortality. The objective of this study is to estimate the risk factors of breast cancer among women in east of Algeria. A case -control study of hereditary, nutrition, environmental and breast cancer was conducted with 140 women of which 70 breast cancer cases and 70 control subjects. The purpose of this work was carried to determine the relationships between breast cancer and hereditary, dietary and environmental risk factors.

It is scientifically established that air pollution is harmful to human health. On the basis of data linking health with air pollution, and combining field survey data with laboratory analysis of air pollution, we find that residential proximity to Industrial activity has a negative impact on heart disease and respiratory health in the Kenitra region. The study found causality between the onset of bronchial symptoms and decreased lung function in children, the incidence of heart disease in the elderly and levels of ambient air pollution.

Geographic and climate parameters influence the epidemiology of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). In Tunisia, information about the impact of environment factors on RSV infection is not well established. The objective is to predict the onset of RSV season based on meteorological parameters by investigating the association between RSV bronchiolitis and climate factors.

In recent years, major Moroccan agglomerations have experienced strong economic growth through the development of several sectors—energy, transport, industries, etc. This has been accompanied by a rapid increase in emissions of air pollutants, which has a potential impact on the health and living conditions of the population living in highly urbanized or industrial areas.

The problem of poisoning is intense. It is also applied worldwide with particular exacerbation in developed countries. It is a very complex and multi-faceted issue. This phenomenon appeared in the 1940s and since then, it has been blown out of proportion.

Waste anesthetic gases are small amounts of volatile anesthetic gases that leak from the patient’s anesthetic breathing circuit into the air of operating rooms during delivery of anesthesia.

House dust mites (HDMs) is the major source of allergen worldwide, up to 50% of allergic patients are sensitized to HDM allergens.

The established risk factors for bladder cancer (BC), which has been increasing in recent years worldwide and in Tunisia (Parkin et al. in Cancer J Clin, 55:74–108, 2005), could not explain the exceptionally high incidence of cancer by itself, suggesting that additional risk factors might be involved.

Synthetic organochlorine compounds (OCs), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have long been produced and used over the world and recognized as persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Mining activities are responsible for the increase of pollutants (i.e. metallic elements) in the environment. One of the main concerns of mining activities is the production of a huge amount of contaminated wastes, which are usually stored in the vicinity of mines.

High concentrations of Hg were determined in human blood and hair samples. 13% of the samples exceeded 200 µg L−1 which is more than WHO Standards limits (200 µg L−1). The concentrations of Hg2+ recorded a correlation with the age.

Building material products and raw materials originating from earth’s crust naturally contain radionuclides of the uranium (238U), and thorium (232Th) series, and the radioactive potassium (40K) depending on the geological and geochemical structure of their sites of origin.

Endocrine disruptions are changes in the natural functions of hormones, in any living species, imposed by external (anthropogenic) stressors. Endocrine disruptions are manifested as threats to the health of wildlife and humans as well as to the sustainable reproduction.

Sodium-glucose linked transporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors limit the reabsorption of glucose from glomerular filtrate in the kidneys, reducing blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2).

This study has been designed to establish the effect of an alkaloïd isolated first from Peganum harmala, on pregnant female rats, all manipulations had devided into two phases of pregnancy: second and third week of pregnancy, the treated stressed group demonstrated the antidepressant effect of the alkaloïd and its capacity to correct the affection of fecondity after a footshock stress during the both phases, so the β-carboline alkaloïde could prevent anxiety effect of pregnancy and that induced by footshock.

Assessment of risks posed by chemicals and particularly hazardous chemicals to human health is one of the elements in the entire methodology of risk analysis, embracing risk assessment, risk management, and risk notification.

Pesticides are known to be ubiquitous compounds, while a number of them are persistent pollutants posing real threat to human health and the environment.

The use of chemicals has spread throughout the world, affecting almost all branches of industry. These products present very specific risks to health and the environment in the short, medium and long runs. Chemical hazard control in the workplace is only possible if information on the nature of the risk is provided and if prevention and protection measures are available.

The adverse effects of hazardous materials emanating from the industrial activities on human health and environments have been extinsively documented.