Guatemala strives for environmental and economic sustainability in the Rio Dulce region

Conditions in Guatemala's Rio Dulce National Park (RDNP) present an immediate decision-making challenge concerning the reversal of current destructive environmental trends, and in establishing policies for restoration, protection, and sustainable use. This article summarises results of environmental assessment activities undertaken at three levels: an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of a proposed industrial forestry activity, an environmental assessment of management options for the Rio Dulce National Park, and water management planning for the Rio Dulce/Lago Izabal watershed. A key result of the EIA was to prohibit construction of a barge terminal within the boundaries of the park because it could set a precedent for future development. Management options for the park focused on establishing land-use controls, dealing with river transport more effectively, and identifying funding mechanisms to implement solutions. At the watershed scale, a strategic approach was recommended to identify priority issues for initiating change toward sustainability in the region.     

Alternative scenarios to meet the demands of sustainable waste management

This paper analyses different alternatives for solid waste management that can be implemented to enable the targets required by the European Landfill and Packaging and Packaging Waste Directives to be achieved in the Valencian Community, on the east coast of Spain. The methodology applied to evaluate the environmental performance of each alternative is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The analysis has been performed at two levels; first, the emissions accounted for in the inventory stage have been arranged into impact categories to obtain an indicator for each category; and secondly, the weighting of environmental data to a single unit has been applied. Despite quantitative differences between the results obtained with four alternative impact assessment methods, the same preference ranking has been established: scenarios with energy recovery (1v and 2v) achieve major improvements compared to baseline, with scenario 1v being better than 2v for all impact assessment methods except for the EPS'00 method, which obtains better results for scenario 2v. Sensitivity analysis has been used to test some of the assumptions used in the initial life cycle inventory model but none have a significant effect on the overall results. As a result, the best alternative to the existing waste management system can be identified.     

An Interval-Parameter Waste-Load-Allocation Model for River Water Quality Management Under Uncertainty

A simulation-based interval quadratic waste load allocation (IQWLA) model was developed for supporting river water quality management. A multi-segment simulation model was developed to generate water-quality transformation matrices and vectors under steady-state river flow conditions. The established matrices and vectors were then used to establish the water-quality constraints that were included in a water quality management model. Uncertainties associated with water quality parameters, cost functions, and environmental guidelines were described as intervals. The cost functions of wastewater treatment units were expressed in quadratic forms. A water-quality planning problem in the Changsha section of Xiangjiang River in China was used as a study case to demonstrate applicability of the proposed method. The study results demonstrated that IQWLA model could effectively communicate the interval-format uncertainties into optimization process, and generate inexact solutions that contain a spectrum of potential wastewater treatment options. Decision alternatives can be generated by adjusting different combinations of the decision variables within their solution intervals. The results are valuable for supporting local decision makers in generating cost-effective water quality management strategies.     

Urban channel adjustments in a management context: an Australian example

The impact of urbanization on stream channels has been investigated in a range of areas; the degree and extent of the channel adjustments have been demonstrated; and for a few areas these characteristics have recently been placed into a spatial context. A method of rapid field survey for depicting the channel network of urban areas in terms of near natural, adjusted, and channelized systems is illustrated for the urban area of Armidale NSW, for which Armidale Dumaresq Council had prepared a stormwater management plan. Such a survey could enable channel characteristics and adjustments, as well as water quantity and quality, to be included in the management plan. Possible options for management to address are suggested for each of the channel categories. A channel classification system of the kind suggested can provide a basic complement for the further development of the stormwater management plan, can afford a basis for specifying management alternatives, and can be helpful in demonstrating the options offered for community consultation.     

Sustainable construction--the role of environmental assessment tools

Construction has been accused of causing environmental problems ranging from excessive consumption of global resources both in terms of construction and building operation to the pollution of the surrounding environment, and research on green building design and using building materials to minimise environmental impact is already underway. However, relying on the design of a project to achieve the goal of sustainable development, or to minimise impacts through appropriate management on site, is not sufficient to handle the current problem. The aim for sustainability assessment goes even further than at the design stage of a project to consider its importance at an early stage, before any detailed design or even before a commitment is made to go ahead with a development. However, little or no concern has been given to the importance of selecting more environmentally friendly designs during the project appraisal stage; the stage when environmental matters are best incorporated. The main objectives of this paper are to examine the development, role and limitations of current environmental building assessment methods in ascertaining building sustainability used in different countries which leads to discuss the concept of developing a. sustainability model for project appraisal based on a multi-dimensional approach, that will allow alternatives to be ranked is discussed in detail in the paper.     

Environmental assessment of different management options for individual waste fractions by means of life-cycle assessment modelling

Several alternatives exist for handling of individual waste fractions, including recycling, incineration and landfilling. From an environmental point of view, the latter is commonly considered as the least desirable option. Many studies based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) highlight the environmental benefits offered by incineration and especially by recycling. However, the landfilling option is often approached unjustly in these studies, maybe disregarding the remarkable technological improvements that landfills have undergone in the last decades in many parts of the world.This study, by means of LCA-modelling, aims at comparing the environmental performance of three major management options (landfilling, recycling and incineration or composting) for a number of individual waste fractions. The landfilling option is here approached comprehensively, accounting for all technical and environmental factors involved, including energy generation from landfill gas and storage of biogenic carbon. Leachate and gas emissions associated to each individual waste fraction have been estimated by means of a mathematical modelling. This approach towards landfilling emissions allows for a more precise quantification of the landfill impacts when comparing management options for selected waste fractions.Results from the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) show that the environmental performance estimated for landfilling with energy recovery of the fractions “organics” and “recyclable paper” is comparable with composting (for “organics”) and incineration (for “recyclable paper”). This however requires high degree of control over gas and leachate emissions, high gas collection efficiency and extensive gas utilization at the landfill. For the other waste fractions, recycling and incineration are favourable, although specific emissions of a variety of toxic compounds (VOCs, PAHs, NO_x, heavy metals, etc.) may significantly worsen their environmental performance.     

Strategic Environmental Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options in the Canadian Agricultural Sector

This article presents a methodological framework for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) application. The overall objective is to demonstrate SEA as a systematic and structured policy, plan, and program (PPP) decision support tool. In order to accomplish this objective, a stakeholder-based SEA application to greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policy options in Canadian agriculture is presented. Using a mail-out impact assessment exercise, agricultural producers and nonproducers from across the Canadian prairie region were asked to evaluate five competing GHG mitigation options against 13 valued environmental components (VECs). Data were analyzed using multi-criteria and exploratory analytical techniques. The results suggest considerable variation in perceived impacts and GHG mitigation policy preferences, suggesting that a blanket policy approach to GHG mitigation will create gainers and losers based on soil type and associate cropping and on-farm management practices. It is possible to identify a series of regional greenhouse gas mitigation programs that are robust, socially meaningful, and operationally relevant to both agricultural producers and policy decision makers. The assessment demonstrates the ability of SEA to address, in an operational sense, environmental problems that are characterized by conflicting interests and competing objectives and alternatives. A structured and systematic SEA methodology provides the necessary decision support framework for the consideration of impacts, and allows for PPPs to be assessed based on a much broader set of properties, objectives, criteria, and constraints whereas maintaining rigor and accountability in the assessment process.     

Risk assessment as a management tool for inactive hazardous materials disposal sites

A protocol for risk assessment at inactive hazardous material disposal sites has been developed by using mathematical modeling and estimation techniques. Compared with ranking models, the protocol yields quantitative results with a minimum of input data that may be used to select among management, scientific, or engineering alternatives for the site. This article reviews the background, presents the protocol, illustrates the application of the protocol, and demonstrates the use of the protocol in conjunction with thecritical environmental area concept. Comparisons are also presented with other model systems such as the EPA HRS.     

BIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF SACRAMENTO WATERSHED MANAGEMENT OPTIONS1

ABSTRACT: This paper brings together spatially and temporally explicit mechanistic models of hydrodynamic, water quality, and ecological processes with an economic model to examine water management alternatives for California's Sacramento River and Delta ecosystem, a large‐scale watershed. Overallocated water supplies in most years, combined with increasing demand for water for environmental purposes, have created a politically charged atmosphere and a need for quantitative assessment of the implications of policy alternatives. By developing and analyzing a common set of policy scenarios, this integrated framework allows us to consider tradeoffs between agricultural economic factors, water quality, and population dynamics for two at‐risk fish species. We analyze two rather extreme types of policy options; one involves structural modifications to change the flow of water within the watershed but no change in water diversions, while the other reallocates water from agricultural users to fish and wildlife. Results suggest that substantial environmental improvements could be made at a relatively modest cost to farmers (1 to 4 percent reductions in revenues) but that those costs could be significant locally. In addition to tradeoffs between farmers and environmental interests, results suggest that policy makers may need to balance competing environmental objectives.     

NOX总量指标混合加权分配方法的研究

随着我国环境保护工作的深入发展,单因子加权已经越来越不能满足环境管理、环境预测与规划、环境影响评价的要求。＂十二五＂是我国重点区域实施火电氮氧化物总量控制的重要时期,本文提出了一种适合我国火电氮氧化物总量控制的多因子混合加权分配模型,使总量指标分配更具有公平性和可行性。     

A Framework for Net Environmental Benefit Analysis for Remediation or Restoration of Contaminated Sites

Net environmental benefits are gains in value of environmental services or other ecological properties attained by remediation or ecological restoration minus the value of adverse environmental effects caused by those actions. Net environmental benefit analysis (NEBA) is a methodology for comparing and ranking net environmental benefits associated with multiple management alternatives. A NEBA for chemically contaminated sites typically involves comparison of several management alternatives: (1) leaving contamination in place; (2) physically, chemically, or biologically remediating the site through traditional means; (3) improving ecological value through onsite and offsite restoration alternatives that do not directly focus on removal of chemical contamination; or (4) a combination of those alternatives. NEBA involves activities that are common to remedial alternatives analysis for state regulations and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, post-closure and corrective action permits under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, evaluation of generic types of response actions pertinent to the Oil Pollution Act, and land management actions that are negotiated with regulatory agencies in flexible regulatory environments (i.e., valuing environmental services or other ecological properties, assessing adverse impacts, and evaluating remediation or restoration options). This article presents a high-level framework for NEBA at contaminated sites with subframeworks for natural attenuation (the contaminated reference state), remediation, and ecological restoration alternatives. Primary information gaps related to NEBA include nonmonetary valuation methods, exposure–response models for all stressors, the temporal dynamics of ecological recovery, and optimal strategies for ecological restoration.Published online     

Evaluation of Environmental Aspects Significance in ISO 14001

The methodological framework set by standards ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 gives only general principles for environmental aspects assessment, which is regarded as one of the most critical stages of implementing environmental management system. In Estonia, about 100 organizations have been certified to the ISO 14001. Experience obtained from numerous companies has demonstrated that limited transparency and reproducibility of the assessment process serves as a common shortcoming. Despite rather complicated assessment schemes sometimes used, the evaluation procedures have been largely based on subjective judgments because of ill-defined and inadequate assessment criteria. A comparison with some similar studies in other countries indicates a general nature of observed inconsistencies. The diversity of approaches to the aspects’ assessment in concept literature and to the related problems has been discussed. The general structure of basic assessment criteria, compatible with environmental impact assessment and environmental risk analysis has also been outlined. Based on this general structure, the article presents a tiered approach to help organize the assessment in a more consistent manner.     

The UK Landfill Tax: an analysis of its contribution to sustainable waste management

The UK Government in October 1996 introduced a Landfill Tax to ensure that landfill waste disposal is properly priced so as to reflect its environmental cost and to help promote a more sustainable approach to waste management in which less waste is produced, reused or recycled. The UK Customs and Excise have recently reviewed the tax and the report indicates that there has been a modest reduction in waste going to landfill by industry but not households. It is submitted that for there to be a significant move towards a more sustainable approach to waste management to meet the targets set in the National Strategy the tax should be higher and the money raised by the tax should be invested to make alternatives to landfill cheaper and more readily available. It is also submitted that the Tax Credit Scheme, introduced as a means of enabling some of the tax to be invested to promote better waste management, is inadequately funded and the money is inappropriately focused. Following an examination of the projects and contributions made under the Scheme it is found that most of the contributions are not made towards projects which will fulfil the UK Government's perceived purposes. It is further submitted that there needs to be a more rational approach to waste management and legislation in Philadelphia forms a good case study of such an approach     

Implementing by-product management into the Life Cycle Assessment of the mussel sector

In Galicia (NW Spain), the mussel sector is an economic and social cornerstone, with great relevance at both regional and international scales. The environmental impact of this sector has been recently discussed from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) perspective. In previous studies, it was concluded that the management of mussel shells and mussel organic by-products needed to be implemented into future life cycle assessments. In this article, LCA methodology was used in order to assess the environmental performance of two valorization alternatives for mussel by-products: mussel shell valorization to produce calcium carbonate, and mussel organic remains valorization to produce pâté.From the environmental characterization for mussel shell valorization, propane and electricity production, sludge and ash management, haulage and atmospheric releases were identified as the hot-spots on which improvement potentials should be focused. Furthermore, the environmental profile for mussel shell valorization was compared to those for incineration and landfilling as alternative management options.The environmental characterization of pâté production from mussel organic by-product led to the recommendation of acting on the formulation of mussel pâté, the thermal energy demand and the product transport. Additionally, this valorization alternative was compared to another common scenario which considered the use of mussel organic by-product to manufacture fish meal.Finally, the valorization of mussel shells and organic by-products was implemented into the assessment of the Galician mussel sector. Thus, mussel by-product management was found to contribute to the potential environmental impacts to a lesser extent than mussel culture, purification and canning transformation.     

采掘行业环境影响评价制度存在问题的探讨

环境影响评价是环境管理的重要组成部分,为我国的环境管理决策提供重要依据。但在实际工作中,我国的环境管理工作仍然存在一定的问题。本文结合采掘行业的特点,分别从法律层面、设计层面和环境影响评价层面等三个方向进行分析,结合发现的问题提出建议,力求从不同的角度完善相关制度和技术要求。从而使采掘行业的环境管理能全面涵盖采掘行业开发过程,最大程度地减少采掘行业开发过程中的环境影响,完善采掘行业环境影响评价制度,对我国采掘行业生态环境的改善及环境影响评价法制建设起到一定的借鉴意义。     

Adaption to Extreme Rainfall with Open Urban Drainage System: An Integrated Hydrological Cost-Benefit Analysis

This paper presents a cross-disciplinary framework for assessment of climate change adaptation to increased precipitation extremes considering pluvial flood risk as well as additional environmental services provided by some of the adaptation options. The ability of adaptation alternatives to cope with extreme rainfalls is evaluated using a quantitative flood risk approach based on urban inundation modeling and socio-economic analysis of corresponding costs and benefits. A hedonic valuation model is applied to capture the local economic gains or losses from more water bodies in green areas. The framework was applied to the northern part of the city of Aarhus, Denmark. We investigated four adaptation strategies that encompassed laissez-faire, larger sewer pipes, local infiltration units, and open drainage system in the urban green structure. We found that when taking into account environmental amenity effects, an integration of open drainage basins in urban recreational areas is likely the best adaptation strategy, followed by pipe enlargement and local infiltration strategies. All three were improvements compared to the fourth strategy of no measures taken.     

Can developing countries benefit from innovative pricing in the power sector?

This study explores electricity pricing as a demand-side management (DSM) strategy, looking to the developed country experience for insights into the types of approaches currently used, their effects, and the direction in which electricity pricing is headed. The discussion should be especially useful for electric utilities in developing countries that are exploring alternatives to capacity expansion to meet current and future electric power demand. For these electric utilities, demand-side options are especially important under today's conditions in which the capital cost of new generating capacity is increasing rapidly, international funds for expanding power sectors are not expected to be sufficient for meeting projected capacity needs and environmental concerns over fossil fuel emissions have raised new questions about constructing thermal power plants.     

Re-thinking relationships between environmental attitudes and values for effective coastal natural resource management in Ghana

The coastal zone of Ghana is home to about a quarter of the total population of the country and its importance has been well emphasised in policy documents, such as the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda, the National Climate Change Policy as well as the National Environmental Policy. However, environmental degradation remains a critical issue as dependence on coastal natural resources continues to increase, and its effect is being felt more strongly by certain groups than others. This paper identifies women as key stakeholders, and through an empirical assessment highlights the need to factor their environmental attitudes and values into efforts to manage the coast in an integrated manner. The results show that respondents generally had positive environmental attitudes, which did not translate to good environmental behaviour. Respondents placed the greatest importance on the coastal natural resources as sources of wealth creation and of food, values which are often described as being “anthropocentric”. Hence, initiatives that could win the support of the local people and also help manage coastal resources effectively are those that link the livelihoods and well-being to coastal natural resource management.