The coastal zone and estuaries of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong have great potential not only for economic development but also for protection and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem. Nowadays, due to industrial, agricultural and anthropogenic activities signs of water pollution in the region have been found. The level of surface water pollution can be determined by traditional methods through observatory stations. However, a traditional approach to determine water contamination is discontinuous, and thereby makes pollution assessment of the entire estuary very difficult. Nowadays, remote sensing technology has been developed and widely applied in many fields, for instance, in monitoring water environments. Remote sensing data combined with information from in-situ observations allow for extraction of polluted components in water and accurate measurements of pollution level in the large regions ensuring objectivity. According to results obtained from Spot-5 imagery of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong, the extracted pollution components, like BOD, COD and TSS can be determined with the root mean square error, the absolute mean error and the absolute mean percentage error (%): ±4.37 (mg/l) 3.86 (mg/l), 27%; ±55.32 (mg/l), 48.30 (mg/l), 14%; and ±32.90 (mg/l), 23.38 (mg/l), 28%; respectively. Obtained outcomes guarantee objectivity in assessing water contaminant levels in the investigated regions and show the advantages of remote sensing applications in Resource and Environmental Monitoring in relation to Water – Air – Land.

Odcieki wysypiskowe są to wody deszczowe migrujące przez złoże wysypiska, wymywające z niego rozpuszczalne frakcje organiczne i mineralne zawarte w składowanych odpadach.Trzyletnie badania odcieków pochodzących ze składowisk odpadów komunalnych w Siemianowicach Śląskich i Dąbrowie Górniczej wykazały, że ChZT odcieków na ogół waha się między wartościami 1000 i 2000 mg/dm3, a w nielicznych okresach w roku przekracza te wartości, osiągając stężenia nawet powyżej 14 000 mg ChZT/dm3• W przypadku gdy stężenie ChZT odcieków jest niskie i nie przekracza 2000 mg//dm3, mamy do czynienia ze związkami trudno rozkładalnymi biologicznie. Odmienną sytuację obserwowano, gdy ChZT odcieków znacznie przekraczało typowe niskie wartości. Napowietrzanie odcieków z osadem czynnym powodowało szybki rozkład związków organicznych i spadek ChZT. Już po 5 godzinach napowietrzania uzyskano 75% obniżenie stężenia ChZT.

Landfilling is the main method of waste disposal in Poland as well as in most countries all over the world. Leachate originating during waste deposition may be a source of ground water pollution. The aim of the paper was to characterize and compare the composition of leachate originating from three landfills in Lublin Province (Poland) and differing in their methods of waste pre-treatment. Ozonation was used in the initial trials to treat landfill leachate. Experiments were carried out to determine whether ozonation using a single dose of 1.8 gO,lm3 has the same effect on the efficiency of organic removal from leachates characterized by different ages and degrees of solid waste pretreatment. From analyses (BOD5, COD, N-NH,, heavy metals) it was concluded, that excluding some fractions (glass, paper, plastics, aluminum, fine organic fraction) from the waste mass affects the leachate quality. The studied oxidizing method was found to influence the BOD5 and COD levels

This paper presents the content changes in the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) solubilised in hydrolisates obtained from thermally disintegrated municipal waste biofractions. A series of tests related to biowaste undergoing thermal treatment at the following temperatures: 55, 75, 95, 115, 135, 155 and 175°C were conducted for 0.5, 1 and 2 hours. The highest increase in COD solid fraction solubilisation (238%) was observed for the samples disintegrated at 175°C for 2 hours. The values of the reaction rate coefficient k20 = 0.6 d-1 and temperature coefficient θ = 1.023 were determined. Statistical analysis of the multiple regression (correlation coefficient R = 0.89) showed that the temperature has a greater impact on COD solid fraction solubilisation - determined β = 0.66. The multiple correlation coefficient for the treatment time was β = 0.61.

The paper presents preliminary results of investigations on a relationship between turbidity and other quality parameters in the SBR plant effluent. The laboratory tests demonstrated a high correlation between an effluent turbidity and a total suspended solids (TSS) concentration as well as between TSS and COD. Such a relationship would help to continuously monitor and control quality of a wastewater discharge using turbidity measurement.

The double barrier separate confinement heterostructure (DBSCH) design aimed at reduction of vertical beam divergence and increase of catastrophic optical damage (COD) level for high power laser diodes (LDs) operation is presented. Insertion of thin, wide-gap barrier layers at the interfaces between waveguide and cladding layers of SCH gives an additional degree of freedom in design making possible more precise shaping of the optical field distribution in the laser cavity. By comparison with the large optical cavity (LOC) heterostructure design it has been shown that the low beam divergence emission of DBSCH LDs can be attributed to the soft-profiled field distribution inside the cavity. This ‘soft mode profile’ seems to determine narrow laser beam emission rather than the field distribution width itself.

The potential problem with the soft-profiled but relatively narrow (at half-maximum) mode distribution is a lower COD level. Widening of the mode profile by the heterostructure design corrections can increase it, but care must be taken to avoid excessive decrease of confinement factor (Γ). As a result it is shown that DBSCH design is possible, where the low beam divergence and high COD level is achieved simultaneously.

Wide stripe gain-guided LDs based on GaAsP/AlGaAs DBSCH SQW structures have been manufactured according to the design above. Gaussian-shaped narrow directional characteristics are in relatively good agreement with modelling predictions. Vertical beam divergences are 13–15◦ and 17–18◦ FWHM for design versions experimentally investigated. Threshold current densities of the order of 350–270 Acm-2 and slope efficiencies of 0.95 and 1.15 W/A have been recorded for these two versions, respectively. Optical power at the level of 1 W has been achieved. The version with lower beam divergence proves to be more durable. Higher optical power levels are to be obtained after heterostructure doping optimisation.