化工石化集中区规划环评指标体系研究

本文提出了构建化工石化集中区规划环评指标体系的基本思路与程序。基本思路是从目标导向、影响识别、问题约束三个层面分析与筛选指标。基本程序包括三个步骤，首先以园区的规划功能定位分析为导向，从国内外化工石化集中区相关标准中筛选出基础指标；其次通过影响识别法和规划内容分析进行二次筛选指标；最后通过专家咨询和公众参与对指标进行最终筛选，形成一套适合集中区的规划环评指标体系。以某化工石化集中区应用了该方法，从规划合理性、规划相容性、规划实施环境影响、规划实施资源影响以及规划实施社会经济构建了五大类37项指标。     

城市规划环境影响评价指标体系综述

城市规划是实施城市可持续发展战略的重要载体。城市规划环境影响评价的内容应集中体现在评价指标体系上。本文首先将城市规划环评指标分为总体规划和下位规划(专业规划、详细规划)两个层面,再分别系统论述城市总体规划和专业规划环评指标体系主要内容和结构,指出当前城市规划环评指标体系建立、内容、实施、总体与下位规划协调等方面的问题,奠定城市规划环评指标体系研究基础并为未来研究指明方向。     

鄂尔多斯盆地油田开发规划环评指标体系构建

鄂尔多斯盆地油田开发规划环评处于探索起步阶段,还未形成一套普遍认可的评价指标体系,2008年对延安市某采油厂油田开发进行了区域开发规划环评。在环境调查、相关方走访及规划方案分析、环境影响识别的基础上,结合当地自然环境、社会环境特征,构建该规划环评的三级指标体系。从多方面对本指标体系结构进行剖析,归纳出鄂尔多斯盆地油田开发规划环评指标体系构建应满足的原则和基本要求。     

化工园区规划环评中应重点关注的问题分析——以新疆吐鲁番市沈宏化工园区为例

化工园区开发建设项目具有建设内容复杂、建设范围大、建设周期长等特点,且不确定性强,产生污染物种类多、数量大,对周边区域的环境影响复杂,其规划环境影响评价应主要依据《开发区区域环境影响评价技术导则》编制。根据化工园区开发项目的环境影响特点,选址、功能区布局、产业规划及可持续发展能力分析作为化工园区规划环评中重点关注的问题,并给予重点评价。     

低碳理念在工业园区规划环评中的应用

工业园区是温室气体排放的重要源头之一,工业园区规划环评应在规划的基础上,探讨如何在评价过程中通过制定合理的对策措施,促进园区低碳发展。本文分析了低碳发展理念纳入工业园区规划环评的工作重点,建议规划环评完善评价内容,在原有评价体系中融入园区温室气体排放特征、设定低碳发展评价指标、优化设计能源结构、构建低碳产业体系、低碳发展替代方案以及碳排放跟踪评价等内容,以达到规划环评指导工业园区按低碳路径发展的目的。     

现代农业科技园区环境影响评价研究

介绍了农业科技园区开展环境影响评价的必要性，对其环境影响评价的类别进行对比分析，确定了农业科技园区应按照规划环评的方式进行；指出现阶段农业科技园区规划环评的局限性和存在的问题；并从规划环评环境保护目标、总体技术路线和程序、规划环评指标体系构建的思路与框架、评价内容与重要专题设置4个方面对农业科技园区规划环评共性问题作了探讨。     

低碳理念在工业园区规划环评中的应用低碳理念在工业园区规划环评中的应用

工业园区是温室气体排放的重要源头之一，工业园区规划环评应在规划的基础上，探讨如何在评价过程中通过制定合理的对策措施，促进园区低碳发展。本文分析了低碳发展理念纳入工业园区规划环评的工作重点，建议规划环评完善评价内容，在原有评价体系中融入园区温室气体排放特征、设定低碳发展评价指标、优化设计能源结构、构建低碳产业体系、低碳发展替代方案以及碳排放跟踪评价等内容，以达到规划环评指导工业园区按低碳路径发展的目的。     

规划环评与建设项目环评之比较

文章对规划环评和建设项目环评在评价目的、决策作用、评价方法、评价指标、评价内容等方面进行较为全面的比较和探讨，分析寻求建设项目环评和规划环评目前所存在的问题，以此来探求未来环评工作开展的思路，提出想法和建议。     

青海省开展规划环评初探

文章在阐述我国规划环评发展以及规划环评作用和意义的基础上，通过分析青海省规划环评现状、及存在的主要问题，提出了青海省开展规划环评需注意的几个问题和建议。     

循环经济工业园区规划环评研究

概括了循环经济工业园区规划环境影响评价的框架思路,归纳总结了规划环评的主要内容,并以山西省长治市襄垣富阳循环经济工业园区为例,对规划环评指标体系的构建进行探讨。     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Provincial development plans in Zimbabwe: an analysis of their content,structure and methodology

Zimbabwean provincial plans were instituted to help in the achievement of the national goal of the creation of an egalitarian, socialist and integrated society. The national goal itself was adopted as an antithesis to the dualist society characterised by spatial, economic, social, politican and technological inequalities that Zimbabwe inherited from colonialism. This meant that provincial plans had to play both a functional (or growth allocating/distribution) and a territorial (or redistribution) role.

This paper reviews their role in achieving the national goal by examining their functions, content, structure and methodology. The paper concludes that because of their nature, provincial plans are not suitable tools for the achievement of the national goal.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.     

Bioremediation of Soils by Plant–Microbe Systems

Abstract

Sustainable ecosystems can be designed to eliminate environmental toxins and reduce pathogen loads through the direct and indirect consequences of plant and microbial activities. We present an approach to the bioremediation of disturbed environments, focusing on petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contaminants. Treatment consists of incorporating a plant-based amendment to enhance ecosystem productivity and physiochemical degradation followed by the establishment of plants to serve as oxidizers and foundations for microbial communities. Promising amendments for widespread use are entire plants of the water fern Azolla and seed meal of Brassica napus (rapeseed). An inexpensive byproduct from the manufacture of biodiesel and lubricants, rapeseed meal is high in nitrogen (6% wt/wt), stimulates >100-fold increases in populations of resident Streptomyces species, and suppresses fungal infection of roots subsequently cultivated in the amended soil. Synergistic enzymatic and chemical activities of plant and microbial metabolism in root zones transform and degrade soil contaminants. Emphasis is given to mechanisms that enable PHC functionalization via reactive molecular species.     

National minerals policies and stakeholder participation for broad-based development in the southern African development community (SADC)

This paper explains how the well-accepted concept of improved stakeholder participation during mineral policy development leads to a national mineral policy that accommodates the diverging views and interests that allows wide acceptance of decisions, enhancing the success of implementation and, ultimately, national benefits. This process is based on lessons learnt during the South African experience and has been successfully applied in the development of the Namibian and Malawian national minerals policies. An effective policy in the SADC will engineer the delicate balance between poverty reduction and an internationally competitive minerals sector. This balance enhances the possibility of long-term economic growth and development in the SADC region. The overriding advantage of this strategy is that it generates ‘home-grown’ policy instruments and implementation of mineral law with which stakeholders can identify. This process presents a new challenge to traditional policy formulation strategies in emerging economies and the bottom-up approach, linked to wide political support, allows the potential realisation of national objectives.     

Energetics and environmental costs of agriculture in a dry tropical region of India

The present article, based on a study of five village ecosystems, assesses the energy efficiency of rain-fed agriculture in a dry tropical environment and the impact of agricultural activity on the surrounding natural ecosystems. Agronomic yield is insufficient to meet the food requirement of the human population, hence 11.5%–49.7% of the required amount of food grains are imported from the market. Energy requirements of five studied agroecosystems are subsidized considerably by the surrounding forest in the form of fodder and firewood. Natural ecosystems supply about 80%–95% of fodder needs and 81%–100% of fuelwood needs. The output-input ratio of agriculture indicated that, on average, 4.1 units of energy are expended to obtain one unit of agronomic energy. Of this, 3.9 units are supplied by the natural ecosystem. In addition, 38% of the extracted firewood is marketed. The illegal felling and lopping of trees result in ever-increasing concentric circles of forest destruction around the villages and together with excessive grazing results in savannization. The forests can be conserved by encouraging fuelwood plantations (0.7 ha/ha cultivated land) and developing village pastures (1.6 ha/ha cultivated land) and reducing the livestock numbers. Agricultural production in the region can be stabilized by introducing improved dry farming techniques such as intercropping, planned rainwater management, and adequate use of fertilizers.     

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “METROPOLITAN WATER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONS?”1

ABSTRACT The term “institution” and several variants are used frequently in the literature on metropolitan water management. The state-of-the art investigation on which this paper is based revealed that 1) many uses of the term do not include careful definitions; 2) many users of the term seemed unaware of the general, theoretical literature on the subject of institutions; 3) there was little consistency among uses, either in the practical literature dealing with water or in the conceptual literature dealing with theories of institutions or institutionalization; 4) some usages were without significant meaning; 5) in many cases the term was used as a kind of “black box” to account for behavioral, societal, or managerial factors; 6) the term was often used as a synonym for “organization”. This latter use is frequently found in federal reports, including National Water Commission studies, and is most unfortunate because it tends to slight significant social-psychological factors. A suggested definition is: “An institution is the structured result or outcome of a process by which values are articulated, arranged, and communicated, having continuity over time, and influencing behavior of persons who did not necessarily participate in formulating those values (norms).”     

Waste minimisation in practice

One of the major hindrances to waste minimisation on a construction site is the difficulty in establishing a methodology and using this methodology to benchmark future construction projects. This paper introduces SMARTWaste, a software tool that has been used to audit, reduce and target waste arisings on a construction site. This tool tries to link the construction process and the waste hierarchy. That is reducing waste on a construction site rather than landfilling it. Three applications of the SMARTWaste software will be discussed using case studies from three different types of construction. An evaluation of these case studies shows that, by implementing a waste minimisation scheme on-site, you can improve material recovery for reuse. Also, by using the waste arisings as a benchmark you can reduce your waste arisings on future sites. Application of SMARTWaste or a similar waste minimisation tool on a wider basis could reduce waste arisings and could result in a built environment that consumed less natural resources and energy, and also produced less pollution and waste. Such a built environment would be environmentally and socially more responsive and responsible.