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Terms for subject Environment (5583 entries)
"boom" del petroli oil boom (A floating device used to contain oil on a body of water. Once the boom has been inflated, it is towed downwind of the oil slick and formed into a U-shape; under the influence of wind, the oil becomes trapped within the boom. Skimming equipment travels into the boom enclosure and the oil is pumped into containers)
abastament agrícola d'aigua rural water supply
abastament d'aigua water supply (A source or volume of water available for use; also, the system of reservoirs, wells, conduits, and treatment facilities required to make the water available and usable)
abastament urbà d'aigua urban water supply (The distribution of water, including collection, treatment and storage, for use in a town, city or municipal area, and used generally for domestic and industrial needs)
abella bee (Any of the membranous-winged insects which compose the superfamily Apoidea in the order Hymenoptera characterized by a hairy body and by sucking and chewing mouthparts)
abocador waste dump (Area where wastes are deposited and burned)
abocador landfill (The oldest method of waste disposal for the solid matter discarded in the domestic dustbin, along with the packaging material and paper from high street shops and offices. Landfill sites are usually disused quarries and gravel pits. When they were filled, previous practice was to cover them up with soil and forget about them. Housing estates have been built, often with disastrous consequences, on old landfill dumps. Waste burial has now become a serious technology and a potential source of energy. Landfill sites can be designed to be bioreactors, which deliberately produce methane, gas as a source of biofuel or alternative energy. Traditionally, waste tips remained exposed to air and aerobic microbes - those which thrive in air - in order to turn some of the waste into compost. However, open tips also encourage vermin, smell in hot weather and disfigure the landscape. In the 1960s, as a tidier and safer option, landfill operators began to seal each day's waste in a clay cell. While excluding vermin, the clay also excluded air. Decomposition relied on anaerobic microbes, which die in air. However, the process produced methane (natural gas), which was a safety hazard. The methane is now extracted by sinking a network of perforated pipes into the site)
abocador d'escombraries spoil dump (Place where rubbish and waste minerals dug out of a mine are deposited)
abocador de contaminació pollution sink (Vehicle for removal of a chemical or gas from the atmosphere-biosphere-ocean system, in which the substance is absorbed into a permanent or semi-permanent repository, or else transformed into another substance. A carbon sink, for example, might be the ocean (which absorbs and holds carbon from other parts of carbon cycle) or photosynthesis (which converts atmospheric carbon into plant material). Sinks are a fundamental factor in the ongoing balance which determines the concentration of every greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. If the sink is greater than the sources of a gas, its concentration in the atmosphere will decrease; if the source is greater than the sink, the concentration will increase)
abocador de ferralla scrap dump (Area where waste material, especially metal, is dumped)
abocador de residus perillosos hazardous waste dump (Disposal facilities where hazardous waste is placed in or on land. Properly designed and operated landfills are lined to prevent leakage and contain systems to collect potentially contaminated surface water run-off)
abocador incontrolat uncontrolled dump (Place where waste is left on the ground and not buried in a hole)
abocament a l'aigua emission to water (The discharge of solid, liquid or gaseous pollutants or contaminants into a body of water)
abocament al ríu river disposal (Discharge of solid, liquid or gaseous waste into a river)
abocament de residus waste dumping (The disposal of solid wastes without environmental controls)
abocament de residus a l'oceà ocean dumping (The process by which pollutants, including sewage, industrial waste, consumer waste, and agricultural and urban runoff are discharged into the world's oceans. These pollutants arise from a myriad of sources)
abocament de residus domèstics domestic waste landfill (Site for the disposal of wastes arising from domestic activities)
abocament en fons marí deep-sea disposal (The disposal of solid waste or sludge by carrying the wastes out to sea, usually in a barge, and dumping into deep water)
abocament radiactiu radioactive dumping (Waste generated by the emission of particulate or electromagnetic radiation resulting from the decay of the nuclei of unstable elements)
abocament subterrani underground disposal (The discharge, dumping or emission of wastes below the surface of the soil)