design of an estimation model for environmental liability insurance [ELIS]

Pricing for an insurance policy can be described as the process of calculation of expected compensation to be paid to property losers as well as associated costs of potential risks. Loss forecast is accurate if the risks will be identified appropriately in order to calculate the frequency and expected severity of losses.This is particularly important about environmental risks since most of them appear in the long run. Environmental risk assessment model is both able to estimate the environmental liability premium for environmental pollution and degradation, and it can play a valuable role in promoting this industry. ELIS [Environmental Liability Insurance] software calculates the environmental risk number in industry sector and insurance charges for events resulting in environmental pollution. This paper deals with designing the model and outputs of the software. The user selects the type of project, and input the descriptive information concerning the occurrence of possible environmental pollutions. The model calculates risk numbers, the type of accidents, classification and weighting of severity of environmental impacts, risk priority numbers [RPN]; pollutant volume and environmental sensitivity, environmental cost of contaminates, and finally Net premium for Possible Accidents. The case study indicated the applicability of then model. For this case an oil refinery in Iran was selected with a capacity of 85,000.barrels of refined oil per day. The calculated premium on the basis of losses arising from air pollution was evaluated to be equivalent to 70,000$ US. The same procedure can be applied to evaluate the amount of premium for soil and water pollution

Investigating the impacts of global environmental evolutions on long-term planning of natural resources in Iran

The main objective of the current study is to investigate the impacts of environmental evolutions at global scale on Iran's environmental planning. Thereby, all political movements towards solving environmental issues in Iran were accurately reviewed to find out the impressibility of the events by the global environmental evolutions. The findings indicated that Iran has joined the conventions and protocols with a time lag. During the period 1948-1993, the mean time lag between holding an international convention until its approval in Iran was eleven years while from 1994 to 2007, the average lag time was shortened to four years. As the results show, attention to environmental issues was improved from one note on First Development Plan of the country [1989-1993], to three notes on the Second Development Plan [1995-1999], and one complete chapter on the Third Development Plan [2000-2005]. Moreover, one of the six chapters of the Fourth Development Plan [2005-2009] [about 20 percent of the whole program] was dedicated to the environmental issues. In the Fifth Development Plan [2011-2015], sixteen topics have been raised at Environment Chapter and thirteen legal articles have been proposed in other chapters with a focus on environmental issues. It can be concluded that there has always been a direct link between international treaties and major political decisions in Iran

Conceptual hydrosalinity model for prediction of salt load from wastewater flows into soil and ground water

Dynamic hydrosalinity models are available, but are not used extensively on a large scale soil which receives wastewater from industrial areas, partly because adequate database are expensive to be obtained. Thus, for this reason, there is an urgent need to assess the salt and other pollutant loads collected in wastewater flows into the soil and/ or ground water systems. A conceptual hydrosalinity model was used on two major underlying principals of mass balance and steady state. This model was initially tested on the 4,117 km[2] plains west of the Yazd-Ardakan district in the central part of Iran. This model was used at a time when the soil and ground water salinity problem was serious due to the high shortage of water. It was possible to calibrate the model with +/- 2% of the flow volume and total dissolved solids of the industrial wastewater discharge from over 2,000 factories. The verification results were 98% of the measured values. Moreover, this model was tested for the verification of the model data from the analysis of 36 wells' water in the area where industrial wastewater discharge was used. The results showed that most of the indices of total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand are above standard levels. The results of the model can be used for the management practice of the reduction of salt pollutant load in the area to achieve sustainable development for location of industries in the study area

compact model for predicting road traffic noise

Noise is one of the most important sources of pollution in the metropolitan areas. The recognition of road traffic noise as one of the main sources of environmental pollution has led to develop models that enable us to predict noise level from fundamental variables. Traffic noise prediction models are required as aids in the design of roads and sometimes in the assessment of existing, or envisaged changes in, traffic noise conditions. The purpose of this study was to design a prediction road traffic noise model from traffic variables and conditions of transportation in Iran. This paper is the result of a research conducted in the city of Hamadan with the ultimate objective of setting up a traffic noise model based on the traffic conditions of Iranian cities. Noise levels and other variables have been measured in 282 samples to develop a statistical regression model based on A-weighted equivalent noise level for Iranian road condition. The results revealed that the average L[Acq] in all stations was 69.04 +/- 4.25 dB[A], the average speed of vehicles was 44.57 +/- 11.46 km/h and average traffic load was 1231.9 +/- 910.2 V/h. The developed model has seven explanatory entrance variables in order to achieve a high regression coefficient [R[2]=0.901]. Comparing means of predicted and measuring equivalent sound pressure level [L[Acq]] showed small difference less than -0.42 dB[A] and -0.77 dB[A] for Tehran and Hamadan cities, respectively. The suggested road traffic noise model can be effectively used as a decision support tool for predicting equivalent sound pressure level index in the cities of Iran

Innovative approach to design a new national low speed wind tunnel

A new multipurpose wind tunnel with adjustable test section designed in the science and research branch of Islamic Azad University site could be used either as the environmental, subsonic or climatic wind tunnels. For this purpose, a new design approach was adopted in which through the adjustment of the wind tunnel cycle, i.e. the nozzle of test section,it could be utilized as any of the three wind tunnels. A design used for environmental wind tunnels and other contraction which was adjusted by 50% through changes in the polynomial contraction for other applications. As a result, the best fitted profile for the environmental wind tunnels contraction was selected by contraction best fit program. Consequently, the flow properties and flow separation of contractions were analyzed by the computational fluid dynamics model in a computer software. This method is also suitable for existing low speed wind tunnels with special applications

Thermal comfort evaluation in Tehran metro using relative warmth index

Underground railway systems, can generate heat from their operations to raise the temperatures of carriages and the station substantially. This may lead to passenger discomfort and complain especially in warm weather conditions that prevail in Tehran if underground environment is not cooled. Transportation air conditioning Committee of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and air-conditioning Engineers proposed the Relative Warmth Index for thermal comfort design and investigation in subway environment. In this research, thermal comfort at Tehran metro stations and carriages of lines 1 and 2 has been studied using this index. The measurements were taken during two periods of September 2006 and July 2007 at different zones of stations. For this purpose, temperature, relative humidity and air velocity were measured at different times. The status of the air-conditioning systems together with passenger traffic was also recorded. A total number of 231 measurements including 114 and 117 measurements were carried out in September 2006 and in July 2007 respectively. The measurements in September 2006 did not exceed the thermal limit. However, it did exceed in July 2007. In comparison, with thermal comfort level of metros all over the world, Tehran Metro stands in an acceptable condition, while the maximum capacity of air-conditioning systems was not used, if so the thermal comfort condition would be better

Road traffic noise model

The recognition of road traffic noise as one of the main sources of environmental pollution has led to develop models that enable to predict noise level from fundamental variables. Traffic noise prediction models are required as aids for designing roads and highways. In addition, sometimes are used in the assessment of existing or envisaged changes in traffic noise conditions. In this paper a statistical modelling approach has been used for predicting road traffic noise in Iranian road conditions. The study was performed during 2005-2006 in Hamadan city, in the west of Iran. The data set consisted of 282 noise measurements. The entire data set was utilized to develop a new model for Iranian condition using regression analysis. The developed model has twelve explanatory variables in order to achieve a proper fit for measured values of L[eq] [r[2]= 0.913]. The proposed road traffic noise model can be effectively used as a decision support tools for prediction of traffic noise index of L[eq[30min]], in Iran's cities

Implementation of green management concepts in sport complexes

Implementation of green management in sport complexes can ensure the continuous arrangement and assessment of activities from the environmental perspective and will end up in control and prevention of contaminants. Enghelab sport complex [ESC] in Iran is selected for this study due to its size and long-term activities. Due to the comprehensive plan of the aforesaid sports complex, numerous centers and departments were established in this site in order to materialize its envisioned sports, recreational and cultural objectives. The results of the questionnaires distributed amongst the members and the personnel of the complex revealed that approximately 50% occupants were not acquainted with green management and only 30% were faintly familiar with it. The personnel's knowledge on green management was much better and about 64% of them were well acquainted with the related issues. Total amount of solid waste produced in the complex is about 547.5 tons/yr. in 2004; constituents are plastic [24.1%], putrescible materials [45.9%], glass [7.6%], paper [19.3%] and metal [3.1%]. According to the economic analysis conducted, the investment required for implementation of all the solid waste separation techniques amounts to us $ 11200. The result of present investigation is indicative of a medium level of optimization for energy and water consumption in ESC and there is a high potential to improve the efficiency of the system

Carbon monoxide prediction using novel intelligent network

This paper introduces a new structure in neural networks called TD-CMAC, an extension to the conventional Cerebellar Model Arithmetic Computer [CMAC], having reasonable ability in time series prediction. TD-CMAC, the conventional CMAC and a classical neural network model called Multi-Layer Perceptron [MLP] are simulated and evaluated for 1-hour-ahead prediction and 24-hour-ahead prediction of carbon monoxide as one of primary air pollutants. Carbon monoxide data used in this evaluation were recorded and averaged at Villa station in Tehran, Iran from October 3 rd. 2001 to March 14 th. 2002 at one-hour intervals. The results show that the errors made by TD-CMAC is fewer than those made by other models

Modeling of thermal pollution in coastal area and its economical and environmental assessment

The Persian Gulf is one of the aquatic ecosystems which has recently faced with different pollutions. Cooling water discharges due to various industries such as power plants can cause important disorders on present ecosystem balance because of its high temperature. Obviously, due to thermal pollution, a great number of aquatic creatures face with a new situation that they can not tolerate. Thermal pollution leads to their migration, creates a potential for new coming species which in turn can thoroughly change the marine ecosystem feature. The other impacts of this phenomenon are: disorders in reproduction, nourishment and other biological habits. In this research, thermal pollution due to Bandar Abbas Thermal Power Plant [BATP] development plan was modeled using MIKE21 software. In order to avoid a decrease on the power plant efficiency in development plan, the distance between inlet and outlet was determined by comparing the results of different scenarios and economical aspects. After determining the distance between inlet and outlet, the water temperature in the coastal area was compared with standards of Iranian Department of the Environment [DOE]. The model results represent that the water temperature, in Bandar Abbas coastal area, exceeds than the permissible limit [3 oC] in a distance equal to 200 m. far from the discharging location, and in order to reduce its harmful impacts, some suggestions are made to reduce the associated thermal pollution