Gold is a metal with high direct consumer demand; more than 75% of gold is used for jewellery and investment. Gold is extracted worldwide, including in Burkina Faso, one of Africa's fastest-growing and fourth-largest gold producers. Although gold extraction has had significant benefits for the Burkinabe economy, it has also led to many environmental and social problems, especially in the artisanal gold mining sector. Artisanal gold mining ...

This Master thesis analyzes the inner surrounding region of the binary system R Aquarii (R Aqr), observed using the SPHERE/ZIMPOL instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). On the one hand, the dynamics of the jet outflow is studied by means of Hα observations. It succeeded to trace several gas clouds in four consecutive observations: The innermost southwestern features show a linear increase in velocity as function of their distance, ...

The extraneous inflows and infiltration, particularly groundwater infiltration, have long been regarded as a primary problem of urban sewer systems. The detection and quantification of groundwater infiltration is the first and crucial step towards the more efficient, cost effective and sustainable sewer rehabilitation and management. The tracer based methods are a promising option to directly differentiate and quantify various water sources ...

Aerosols are an important part of the atmosphere, they are defined as liquid or solid particles suspended in air, ranging from one nanometer to tens of micrometers in diameter. Aerosols affect the climate directly, via aerosol radiation interactions, and indirectly, via aerosol-cloud interactions. While pollution in cities does not have the largest impact on global climate, it does affect local climate and weather. Aerosols can also be ...