Improper management of hospital waste leads to serious health and environmental issues, particularly in the case of developing countries, where, often, applied technologies are obsolete and there is a lack of compliance with respect to international best practices. The present study is designed to assess the environmental impacts of hospital waste management practices in Swath District, Pakistan. For this purpose, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) is applied for the estimation of different impacts of current and alternative hospital solid waste (HSW) treatment practices. Two scenarios are used to describe the current alternative practices (Scenario A and Scenario B), referring either to incineration or to direct landfilling of HSW without any sorting of collected materials. Conversely, Scenario C, which includes the use of pyrolysis and chemical disinfection, are considered as an up-to-date alternative, based on current international recommendations in this field. Prior to the analysis of impacts, due to the lack of available information, data were directly collected from both government and private hospitals in District Swat, involving measurements and a characterization of collected waste. In parallel, interviews were conducted, involving the hospitals’ personnel. With respect to waste generation, government hospitals produce a larger amount of waste (74%) compared to private hospitals (24%). Poor regulatory indications and the absence of clear obligations for collection, disposal and management still represent a first obstacle to implement good practices. After defining the boundary of the system and the functional unit, according to standardized LCA practices, a life--cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was conducted, considering eight impact categories: human toxicity, freshwater eco-toxicity, marine aquatic eco-toxicity, terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification potential, climate change, eutrophication and photochemical oxidation. The current practices (Scenario A and Scenario B) turned out to be the worst for all categories. In particular, the largest impact of all is recorded for human toxicity generated by incineration. In parallel, it must be considered that, currently, no recycling or reusing practices are implemented. Conversely, Scenario C (alternative up-to-date practices) would generate lower impacts. In detail, the highest value was recorded for marine aquatic ecotoxicity in relation to pyrolysis. Applying Scenario C, it would be possible to recover some materials, such as plastics, paper and sharps. In detail, considering the observed compositional characteristics, it would be possible to recover up to 78% of sharps and recycle 41% of plastic and paper from the general waste stream. Moreover, energy could be recovered from the pyrolysis process, generating a further benefit for the surrounding area. A lack of awareness, knowledge and infrastructures prevents the application of correct management practices, further degrading life and environmental conditions of this remote region of Pakistan. The huge difference in impacts between current practices and alternatives is demonstrated, showing a clear alternative for future management plans in this remote region and supporting future actions for local policymakers and hospital managers.

The use of remote-sensing images is becoming common practice in the fight against environmental crimes. However, the challenge of exploiting the complementary information provided by radar and optical data, and by more conventional sources encoded in geographic information systems, is still open. In this work, we propose a new workflow for the detection of potentially hazardous cattle-breeding facilities, exploiting both synthetic aperture radar and optical multitemporal data together with geospatial analyses in the geographic information system environment. The data fusion is performed at a feature-based level. Experiments on data available for the area of Caserta, in southern Italy, show that the proposed technique provides very high detection capability, up to 95%, with a very low false alarm rate. A fast and easy-to-use system has been realized based on this approach, which is a useful tool in the hand of agencies engaged in the protection of territory

This study introduces new methods and applications for detecting, evaluating, and tracking signs of environmental contamination using a variety of advanced aerial platforms, a suite of advanced sensors, and new detection software. Aerial platform examples include: manned aircraft and helicopters, unmanned fixed wing aircraft (UAV), and unmanned rotorcraft. The onboard sensors include an array of multispectral and electro-optical infrared cameras. The developed system, which is being used by the Italian Coast Guard, is ideal for detecting illegal and unauthorized sewer and storm-drain environmental policy violations. The methods presented here were developed to detect pollution in rivers and the sea. The results of these current studies show that: (1) infrared thermography is an ideal tool to detect environmental contamination, (2) a variety of aerial platforms ranging from manned aircraft to small unmanned rotorcraft should be used to first globally scan the region and then locally focus on the suspected site, and (3) the measured high resolution database accurately defines the current state of the region which provides a benchmark for future investigations.

Cyanobacteria as indicators of water quality in Campania coasts, Italy: a monitoring strategy combining remote/proximal sensing and in situ data View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more 2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 024001

The feasibility of the surface water contamination monitoring by IR thermography is based on three different key points: (a) the thermal sensors able to measure the thermal energy radiating from water and land surfaces with high sensitivity and accuracy; (b) the thermal gradient existing between land/water surfaces and within these; (c) the rendering of the IR raw data, that produce images with a visible augmentation of the anomalies. Illegal sanitary sewer and storm-drain connections, illicit discharges and other “anomalies” on the surface waters could be easily identified by their thermal infrared signatures. If sources of pollution leak, seep or empty into creeks, streams, rivers, lakes and seas their thermal signatures vary from their surroundings and they can be highlighted accurately; in fact, the plume of liquid joining and flowing downstream with the body of water is visible in the thermal infrared spectrum due to the difference in temperatures of the two liquids. Standards methods of pollution-so...