Mercury transport and fate in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic)—a two-dimensional modelling approach

The Gulf of Trieste is subject to mercury pollution from the So a River which drains polluted sediments from the region of a former mercury mine in Idrija, Slovenia. This has resulted in elevated mercury levels in some marine organisms. Due to a concern for human health, a study has been undertaken to predict mercury contamination trends through the use of a field program and a mathematical model. An annual mercury mass balance of the Gulf is presented first in the paper. This confirms the assumption of the importance of the particulate mercury loads and sedimentation in the mercury cycle. A two-dimensional (2D) advection-dispersion model for non-conservative pollutants which simulates mercury cycling in the Gulf, is then described. This model incorporates the results of a 2D steady-state, primarily wind-driven hydrodynamic model and a 2D sediment transport model. A coupling of the submodels and verification of the integral mercury cycling model are also presented.     

Cities and Grids: In Search of New Paradigms

The wider global influences of expanded populations, new technologies and economies in both Europe and the Far East are having a direct impact on the pattern and planning of urban form. Joan Busquets , the principal of B Arquitectura I Urbanisme (BAU) in Barcelona, and Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), describes how the urban grid is continuing to evolve with these changes, becoming ‘a matrix for innovation within urban development, allowing the creation of sustainable and compact cities’, enabling the forming of ‘new networks and innovative city systems’.     

Magical Transubstantiations: A Voyage to Italy

Visiting Italy in 1978 as part of his own Grand Tour, Lebbeus Woods was able to see some of the treasures of the Renaissance and the Baroque. The ensuing mix of reality and imagination prompted the Editors of this 2, Aleksandra Wagner and Neil Spiller , to consider the visual travelogue –Cityscapes – in a similar manner, combining speculation and truth.