Civil Engineering / İnşaat Mühendisliği
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/13
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Book Citation - Scopus: 6Climate Change and Its Effects on Water Resources: Issues of National and Global Security(Springer, 2011) Baba, Alper; Gündüz, Orhan; Friedel, Michael J.; Tayfur, Gökmen; Howard, Ken W.F.; Chambel, AntonioNational and global security can be assessed in many ways but one underlying factor for all humanity is to access to reliable sources of water for drinking, sanitation, food production and manufacturing industry. In many parts of the world, population growth and an escalating demand for water already threaten the sustainable management of available water supplies. Global warming, climate change and sea level rise are expected to intensify the resource sustainability issue in many water-stressed regions of the world by reducing the annual supply of renewable fresh water and promoting the intrusion of saline water into aquifers along sea coasts where 50% of the global population reside. Pro-active resource management decisions are required, but such efforts would be futile unless reliable predictions can be made to assess the impact of the changing global conditions that would impart upon the water cycle and the quality and availability of critical water reserves.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 4Determining Water and Sediment Quality Related To Lead-Zinc Mining Activity(Polish Academy of Sciences, 2018) Şanlıyüksel Yücel, Deniz; Baba, AlperThis study focuses on the Koru and Tesbihdere Pb-Zn mining districts, located at the upstream areas of the Umurbey dam basin. Mining activities in Koru, one of the longest operated mines in NW Turkey, date back to the beginning of the 1900s. The purpose of the study is to (1) determine the hydrochemical properties of the water resources and to assess the potential environmental consequences of mining activities in the Koru and Tesbihdere mining districts, and (2) investigate the effects caused by mining activities on the water resources and sediment quality in the Umurbey dam basin. Concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn in river sediments downstream of the Tesbihdere and Koru mining district, and in the Umurbey dam sediments were higher than the world average for river sediments. The geoaccumulation index and enrichment factor revealed that sediments were strongly polluted with Pb and Zn, moderately to strongly polluted with Cd and moderately polluted with Cu. The chemical analyses of water resources revealed that the maximum Fe, Zn, Pb, Mn, and Cu concentrations reached 2890 μg/l, 1785 μg/l, 1180 μg/l, 984 μg/l, and 419 μg/l, respectively. The Koru River is classified as polluted water according to Turkish inland water quality regulations. The environmental contamination problems in the local drainage system are caused by leakage from past and current tailing ponds into the Koru River.Article Citation - WoS: 14Citation - Scopus: 2Climate Change Mitigation With Renewable Energy: Geothermal(Springer Verlag, 2011) Baba, AlperOn a global scale, there is increasing evidence that climate is changing and of a discernible human influence. Many of scientists are confident that if current emissions of greenhouse gases continue, the world will be warmer, sea levels will rise and regional climate patterns will change. According to some scientist, global temperatures are expected to rise faster over the next century than over any time during the last 10,000 years. From this token, geothermal energy is now considered to be one of the most important alternative energy sources to minimize climate change. Geothermal technologies for power generation or direct use operate with little or no greenhouse gas emissions. Geothermal energy is generally accepted as being an environmentally-friendly energy source, particularly when compared to fossil fuel energy sources. Geothermal resources have long been used for direct heat extraction for district urban heating, industrial processing, domestic water and space heating, leisure and balneotherapy applications. Geothermal energy is used in more than 80 countries for direct heat application and 24 countries for power generation. Re-injection of fluids maintains a constant pressure in the reservoir, thus increasing the field's life and reducing concerns about environmental impacts. Geothermal energy has several significant characteristics that make it suitable for climate change mitigation.Article Citation - WoS: 2Citation - Scopus: 4Use of Electrospun Fiber Mats for the Remediation of Hypersaline Geothermal Brine(Desalination Publications, 2017) Çelik, Aslı; Koç, Gonca; Erdoğan, Emre; Shahwan, Talal; Baba, Alper; Demir, Mustafa MuammerGeothermal brines display high contents of various metal ions that can adversely affect surface and groundwater resources. Nevertheless, it is possible to sequestrate these metals and use some of them in certain engineering applications. The aim of this study was to fabricate electrospun chitosan fiber mats and remove heavy metal cations from geothermal brine of the Tuzla geothermal field (TGF) by employing these mats. TGF is located on the Biga Peninsula in the northwestern part of Turkey. The brine of TGF has high salinity (EC > 91 mS/cm) and high temperature (reservoir temperature is 173°C). The brine is rich in terms of metal cations. For instance, the concentration of lithium ion in geothermal fluid ranges from 17 to 35 mg/L, with little seasonal variations. A horizontal electrospinning setup was employed to obtain a non-woven mat comprising submicron diameter chitosan fibers at 2.0 kV∙cm−1. This material was then utilized as a stable membrane for the removal of metal ions present in the brine through sorption at 25°C overnight. The results showed that the chitosan fiber mats sequestrate various ions in the brine. Under the studied conditions, the material was capable of removing 46%, 44%, 50%, 44%, 40%, 67% and 48% of Li+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Sr2+, Mn2+, Ca2+ and K+ from the geothermal brine, respectively.Article Citation - WoS: 27Citation - Scopus: 31Statistical Analysis of Causes of Death (2005-2010) in Villages of Simav Plain, Turkey, With High Arsenic Levels in Drinking Water Supplie(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2015) Gündüz, Orhan; Bakar, Coşkun; Şimşek, Celalettin; Baba, Alper; Elçi, Alper; Gürleyük, Hakan; Mutlu, Merdiye; Çakır, AyşeThe purpose of this research was to compare the causes of death in 5 villages situated in Simav Plain, Turkey, during 2005-2010 where different arsenic levels were detected in drinking water supplies. Since groundwater in Simav Plain had arsenic concentrations that ranged between 7.1 and 833.9 ppb, a two-phase research was formulated. In the first phase, public health surveys were conducted with 1,003 villagers to determine the distribution of diseases. In the second phase, verbal autopsy surveys and official death records were used to investigate the causes of death. In total, 402 death cases were found in the study area where cardiovascular system diseases (44%) and cancers (15.2%) were major causes. Cancers of lung (44.3%), prostate (9.8%), colon (9.8%), and stomach (8.2%) were comparably higher in villages with high arsenic levels in drinking water supplies. Furthermore, the majority of cases of liver, bladder, and stomach cancers were observed in villages with high arsenic levels. © 2015 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.Article Citation - WoS: 2Citation - Scopus: 2Sample Collection Into Sterile Vacuum Tubes To Preserve Arsenic Speciation in Natural Water Samples(American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2013) Gündüz, Orhan; Gürleyük, Hakan; Çakır, Ayşe; Elçi, Alper; Baba, Alper; Şimşek, CelalettinThe accurate speciation analysis of arsenic is a serious concern for water quality monitoring programs. Because the preservation of sample integrity until analysis is one of the most important aspects of speciation, this study aims to compare the performance of four different sample preservation methods under diverse conditions of sample quality. Natural samples with different characteristics were collected into the following containers to study their effectiveness: (1) standard high-density polyethylene bottle with no preservative; (2) empty, sterile Vacuette tube with no preservative; (3) sterile tripotassium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (K3EDTA) Vacuette tube with K3EDTA additive; and (4) empty, sterile Vacuette tube with added hydrochloric acid (HCl). Known concentrations of arsenite [As(III)] were also added to each container to monitor the oxidation of As(III) to arsenate [As(V)]. The results revealed recovery ratios exceeding 95% in all containers with sterile vacuum conditions. In particular, the K3EDTA Vacuette tube yielded a recovery very close to 100% of the spiked As(III), which is known to rapidly oxidize to As(V). Overall, collecting the sample into a container under sterile vacuum conditions and using a universally accepted preserving agent such as EDTA or HCl significantly improved the preservation of the original species distribution in the water matrix studied, compared to sampling without the use of preservation methods. After validation by future research, these sterile vacuum tubes can possibly be utilized for collecting and storing samples for the routine speciation analysis of other elements such as selenium, chromium, and antimony.