Chapters authored
An Integrated Multicriteria and Fuzzy Logic Approach for Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Siting
Landfill site selection should take into account a wide range of alternative and evaluation criteria in order to reduce negative impacts on the environment. This study presents a geographic information systems-based multicriteria site selection of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in Ariana Region, Tunisia. The multicriteria decision integrates constraints and factors to select MSW landfill suitability. The methodology is used for ranking the best suitable landfill sites by the integration of fuzzy logic and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The fuzzy set theory is used to standardize criteria using different fuzzy membership functions while the AHP is used to establish the relative importance of the criteria. The AHP makes pairwise comparisons of relative importance between hierarchy elements assembled by environmental and socio-economic decision criteria. The landfill suitability is accomplished by applying weighted linear combination (WLC) that uses a comparison matrix to aggregate different importance scenarios associated with environmental and socio-economic objectives. Data were assorted into five suitability classes within the study area, i.e., high, suitable, moderate, low and very low suitability areas, which represented 5.4, 0.5, 12.5, 3.9 and 2.5%, of the study area, respectively. Additionally, 75.2% was considered to be completely unsuitable for a landfill site. As a result, two candidate landfill sites are suggested.
Part of the book: Fuzzy Logic Based in Optimization Methods and Control Systems and Its Applications
Marine Free-Living Nematodes as Tools for Environmental Pollution Assessment: A Special Focus on Emerging Contaminants Impact in the Tunisian Lagoon Ecosystems
Coastal ecosystems are exposed to pollution by various contaminants due to several anthropogenic activities. Numerous pollutants, such as pesticides, drugs, metals, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and Microplastics (MPs), transported in the water column tend to persist in the sediments. Among the Tunisian coastal areas, the Bizerte and Ghar El Melh lagoons are exposed to several pollutants resulting from different activities, such as agriculture, urbanization, and industrialization. Consequently, sediments are intensely dirtied by a wide range of pollutants. Due to their relatively short life cycles and high turnover rates, free-living nematodes reacted quickly to environmental changes. This most dominant meiobenthic taxon, has been mainly exploited as indicator of disturbance because of its ubiquity, high abundance, and taxonomic diversity. In this current chapter, we cited the different environmental pollutants effects and show the importance of nematodes as bio-indicator species in environmental monitoring.
Part of the book: The Toxicity of Environmental Pollutants