PROFESSOR AVI (ABRAHAM) SHAVIV
Personal Background
Academic Degrees
Academic Appointments
Since March 2007 Head Dept. – Environmental, Water and Agricultural Eng. CEE, Technion – IIT.
Since January 2006 Full Professor, CEE, Technion – IIT
Recent Research Interests
Environmentally Friendly and Agronomically Efficient Application of Nitrogen. Controlled Release Fertilizers- CRF’s (Mechanisms of release: gel based CRF’s, membrane coated, effects of geometry, organic compounds.
Modeling of N-dynamics in soils or sediments: emphasis on environmentally friendly application methods/fertilizers (e.g., CRF’s), since 1998 emphasis on effluent irrigated soils
Long term Effects of Irrigation with Reclaimed Effluent: i. N transformations: lysimeter experiments, use of advanced 15N isotope based techniques, modeling N-dynamics, sediment processes; ii. P transformation mechanisms, NMR, Isotopes.
Mid-IR based (ATR, PAS, DRIFT, membrane) direct sensing of nitrate, OM and pollutants in water and soil and use of FTIR for identification/classification/characterization of soils
Graduate Students 25 MSc students
List of Recent Publications
1. Master, Y. Stevens, J. Laughlin, R. and Shaviv, A. 2004. Incubation studies of N transformations in Effluent irrigated soil using labeled 15N. J of Envr. Qual., 33(3): 852-860.
2. Segal-Rozenhaimer, Michal; Shavit, Uri; Vengosh, Avner; Gavrieli, Ittai; Farber, Efrat; Holtzman, Ran; Mayer, Bernhard; Shaviv, Avi . 2004. Sources and Transformations of Nitrogen Compounds along the Lower Jordan River. J of Envr. Qual., 33(4): 1440-1451
3. Linker, R. I. Shmulevich, A. Kenny, and A. Shaviv. 2004. FTIR/ATR nitrate determination in soil pastes using PCR, PLS and Cross-Correlation. Applied Spectroscopy, 58(5): 516-520.
4. Du, C, Zhou, J, Shaviv, Aand Wang, H. 2004. Mathematical model for potassium release from polymer-coated fertilizer. Biosystems Engineering. 88: 395-400.
5. Shaviv, A and G. Sinai. 2004. Application of conditioner solution by subsurface emitters for stabilizing the surrounding soil, J. Irrigation and Drainage Engineering ASCE, 130 (6): 485-490.
6. Master, Y., U. Shavit and A. Shaviv. 2004. Modified Isotope Pairing Technique to Study N Transformations in Polluted Aquatic Systems. Envir. Sci. & Tech. 39:1749-1756.
7. Kremen, A., J. Bear, U., Shavit and A. Shaviv. 2005. A model demonstrating the potential for coupled nitrification denitrification in aggregated soil. Envir. Sci. & Tech. 39: 4180-4188.
8. Linker, R., I. Shmulevich, A. Kenny, and A. Shaviv. 2005. Data Processing of FTIR/ATR Measurements of Nitrate Concentration in Soils, Chemosphere, 61:652-658.
9. Shaviv, A. 2005. Concepts for Environmental Friendly Nitrogen Fertilization. Life Sciences, (Series C of Science in China), 48(Spec. Issue), 937-947.
10. Raphael Linker, Michal Weiner, Itzhak Shmulevich and Avi Shaviv. 2006. Nitrate determination in soil pastes using FTIR-ATR mid-infrared spectroscopy: Improved accuracy via soil identification. Biosystems Engineering 94 (1): 111-118.
11. Du Changwen, Jianmin Zhou, A. Shaviv. 2006. Factors affecting release
characteristics from compound N-P-K coated-crfs. Journal of Polymers and The Environment 14 (3): 223-230
12. Jahn, B. R, R. Linker, S. K. Upadhyaya, A. Shaviv, D. Slaughter, I. Shmulevich. 2006. Analysis of Soil Fourier Transform Infrared/Attenuated Total Reflection Spectral Data using Wavelet Analysis to Determine Soil Nitrate Content. Biosystems Engineering 94 (4): 505-515.
14. Borenstein; R. Linker. I Shmulevitch and A. Shaviv. 2006. Determination of soil nitrate and water content using FTIR/ATR spectroscopy. Applied Spectroscopy 60 (11): 1267-1272.
15. Du, Changwen; Zhou, Jianmin; Shaviv, Avi. Characteristics of potassium release from polymer-coated controlled-release fertilizer and its modeling. Nongye Gongcheng Xuebao (2006), 22(2), 18-21.
16. Levin, Anna. Indelman P. and A. Saviv. 2007a. Influence of Root Resistivity on Plant Water Uptake Mechanism, Part I: Numerical Solution”, Transport in Porous Media. Transport in Porous Media (2007), 70(1), 81-95.
17. Levin, Anna. Indelman P. and A. Saviv. 2007b. Influence of Root Resistivity on Plant Water Uptake Mechanism, Part II: Analytical Solutions for Low/Moderate Soil-Root Conductivity Ratio. Transport in Porous Media. Transport in Porous Media (2007), 70(1), 63-79.
18. Du Changwen, Raphael Linker, Avi Shaviv. 2007. Characterization of Soils using Photoacoustic Mid-infrared Spectroscopy. Applied Spectroscopy, 61:1063-1067. http://cee.technion.ac.il/eng/ftp/characterization.pdf
19. Khashiboun, K.; Zilberman, A.; Shaviv, A.; Starosvetsky, J.; Armon, R. The Fate of Cryptosporidium Parvum Oocysts in Reclaimed Water Irrigation - history and Non-history Soils Irrigated with Various Effluent Qualities. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (2007), 185(1-4), 33-41.
Abstracts
Influence of root resistivity on plant water uptake mechanism, Part II: analytical solutions for low/moderate soil-root conductivity ratio
Levin, Anna; Shaviv, Abraham; Indelman, Peter
Transport in Porous Media 70(1), 81-95, 2007
A one-dimensional approx. anal. model, which preserves the main features of soil-crop-atm. hydrodynamics, has been suggested for plant roots of low soil-root cond. ratio (SRCR). The proposed approach involves phys. based concepts, such as mass balance equation, Darcy's law, and related water uptake and plant transpiration functions. Two main assumptions have been made to derive the anal. soln.: (1) gravitational flow is adopted and (2) the uniform soil moisture distribution within the root water activity zone is supposed. The mass balance equation in its integral form is solved by the method of characteristics. This leads to the two functional equations for soil pressure head and root potential, which can be solved simultaneously by using common software. The model has been further verified against the numerical one. The model represents a reasonable compromise between the complicated mechanism of unsatd. water flow with root water uptake (RWU) and still insufficient knowledge of the soil-plant-atm. continuum. It is able to account for temporal fluctuations in root activity zone and provides a relatively simple algorithm for investigation of RWU-mechanism. Besides the theor. and applicative importance, this flow model yields water and velocity distributions within soil profile, and, thereby, constitutes a preliminary step toward soln. of contaminant transport problems in vadose zone.
Influence of root resistivity on plant water uptake mechanism, part I: Numerical solution
Levin, Anna; Shaviv, Abraham; Indelman, Peter
Transport in Porous Media 70(1), 63-79, 2007
Determination of soil nitrate and water content using attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy.
Borenstein, A.; Linker, R.; Shmulevich, I.; Shaviv, A.
Applied Spectroscopy 60(11), 1267-1272, 2006
Direct detn. of nitrate and soil moisture can significantly improve N-application management and thus reduce N-derived environmental pollution related to agriculture. Several studies have shown that Fourier transform IR attenuated total reflectance (FT-IR/ATR) spectroscopy could be used to est. the nitrate content of standardized soil pastes. Paste standardization appeared to be the main obstacle to in situ application of this approach, and the present study shows how FT-IR/ATR can be used to est. both water content and nitrate concn. of field soil samples. Water content and nitrate concn. are detd. sequentially using two subsamples of the initial soil sample. An a priori detd. amt. of highly concd. nitrate soln. is added to the first subsample and the ATR spectrum of this paste is used to est. the sample water content. It is then possible to calc. the amt. of water that should be added to the second subsample so that the resulting paste is very close to the ideal std. paste. Nitrate concn., mg [N]/kg [dry soil], is estd. using the FT-IR/ATR spectrum of this second paste. Results are presented for a lab. expt. with four agricultural soils, as well as for a field trial with a calcareous soil. For water content, the detn. errors range from 0.01 to 0.02 g [water]/g [dry soil]. For nitrate concn., the errors for three of the soils range from 5.9 to 8.4 mg [N]/kg [dry soil], while for the fourth, calcareous clay soil, the detn. error is 13.6 mg [N]/kg [dry soil]. The detn. errors obtained for the field trial are similar to the ones obtained for a similar soil under lab. conditions, which shows the potential usefulness of the approach for improving N-application management and reducing environmental pollution.
Nitrate determination using anion exchange membrane and mid-infrared spectroscopy
Linker, Raphael; Shaviv, Avi
Applied Spectroscopy (2006), 60(9), 1008-1012
