数字化环境综合管理信息平台建设

在现有的分散、缺乏有效整合的环保业务系统不能很好地服务于环境综合管理需要的形势下，建设以环境监测数据的快速响应、业务数据的统一协调、信息资源充分共享、高效的分析处理为首要目标的数字化环境综合管理信息平台，旨在推动环保工作信息化、现代化的进程，提高对污染源的环境监管水平和办事效率，以更好地服务于环境管理和政府综合决策，为全面实现环境管理业务的信息化和自动化奠定坚实的基础。     

省级环境信息中心数据整合平台建设

本文阐述了省级环境信息中心数据整合平台的建设与应用情况,包括平台建设背景、平台建设的几个阶段、平台架构、软硬件环境建设概况、平台特点、平台现状等。平台不仅能够满足现行环保业务的运行,更能够满足以后环保业务的发展,同时平台能够满足海量数据、数据挖掘,同时为数据安全、环境分析、环境预测提供依据和条件,为环境管理部门提供了海量型数据存储、安全型数据存储、节约型数据存储,为后期行业私有化的建设提供了基础。     

坚持科学发展 建设宜居城市

提出了在吉林省科学发展、加快振兴、富民强省的总目标下,通化市环保部门坚持科学发展观,建设宜居城市的思路。即:将强化污染防治,提高环境质量,做为建设宜居城市的基础;将严格环境监管,为建设宜居城市提供保障,打造生态建设品牌,为宜居城市建设创造条件。     

流域非点源水污染排放清单估算系统构建

基于流域水质改善与水环境管理需求,结合目前流域非点源水污染排放存在的问题,本研究采用SOA-B/S架构,运用MVC6和GIS与环境模型集成关键技术,构建流域非点源水污染排放清单估算系统,并系统梳理了地形数据、污染源环境统计数据、气象数据等基础信息,采用基于输出系数法的非点源水污染负荷估算模型,实现了对全年及年内各分水期非点源水污染排放清单的处理分析和估算。系统通过数据库、GIS平台、模型集成和业务系统建设,实现了对不同时间和空间尺度下不同地区的非点源水污染负荷估算,推进了流域非点源污染排放的信息化、科学化及可视化管理,为决策者制定流域水环境管理措施和方案提供了有力的技术支持。     

加强顶层设计以精准数据支撑环保决策

生态环境大数据,是反映生态环境状况,污染物来源、构成及排放主体,公众环境诉求等方面的数据集合,是预测环境质量变化、评价污染治理效果、解决紧迫环境问题的科学基础。推动生态环境保护大数据的发展和应用,对于我国供给侧结构性改革,加快绿色环保产业发展,优化社会治理结构,实现治理能力现代化等,具有重大的现实意义。应加强生态环境大数据建设的顶层设计,以改善环境质量和服务民生为核心,完善法规标准,统筹基础设施建设,推动互联互通和开放共享,为公众提供便捷、高效和低成本的公共环境信息服务,让公众看得见、感受到环境质量的改善和生活环境的宜居,确保信息安全。     

油田企业节能减排的实践与探索

实施节能减排是建设资源节约型和环境友好型社会的重要举措,具有重要的现实意义和深远的历史意义。油田企业采取一系列措施,建立和完善各项节能减排制度,通过总结油田节能减排工作实践,提出下步节能减排的工作目标和指导思想,建议要突出工作重点,尤其是要推进能源节约、推行污染减排、加强资源综合利用、促进节水等方面,实现全方位节能减排。同时,应制定中长期工作规划,采取示范工程、开展创建活动、加快体制机制建设、强化基础工作、加大监督检查力度等措施,为企业实现又好又快发展提供政策、体制、机制保障。     

污染源主数据统一协同管理设计

本文对江苏省生态环境监控的业务进行了分析,研究了协同管理各监控业务子系统及应用业务子系统中污染源信息的方法,统一集成了各业务子系统的污染源数据,重点描述了协同管理平台的架构设计、统一协同的设计流程。通过污染源统一协同平台的设计和建设,为江苏省环境保护决策提供了科学依据。     

城市环境安全模糊综合评价方法研究

北京作为我国的首都、环境保护的首善之区,在环境问题上应该,也必须是安全的。但实际上,北京大气污染、水体污染日益加剧,水资源紧张,环境安全形势严峻。本文根据2005—2014年十年环境污染统计数据,运用层次分析法、灰色聚类分析法对北京市城市环境安全进行了评价分析,结果表明,北京市城市环境安全度为6.3~6.89,属于较安全级别。十年来北京市环境安全状况呈好转趋势,环境安全度最低值出现在2006年,最高值出现在2011年,增幅9%。地表水的氨氮、BOD、高锰酸盐指数及大气污染中的PM10污染相对严重。PM10安全度指数2005—2007年偏低,由于奥运减排措施的持续作用及沙尘影响减弱,2006—2013年安全度逐年增高,2014年安全度略有下降,但整体呈好转趋势。北京市地表水污染仍为有机污染型,2005—2014年的十年间,通过结构减排、工程减排、监管减排等措施,地表水有机污染得到很大改善,各项污染物浓度总体呈下降趋势。总体而言,环境空气质量仍未达标,水环境污染仍较突出,应针对评价结果加大相应的环境治理措施,确保首都环境安全。     

建设用地动态监管理论框架与技术模式

面向建设用地动态监管工作内容,按照“批、供、用、补、查”的业务全流程、全覆盖监管要求,研究了建设用地动态监管技术理论框架,通过整合监管主体、监管环节和内容、监管技术手段和监管系统平台,提出了空地协同的建设用地动态监管技术模式,纵向上实现国家—省—市—县四级联动,横向上实现建设用地全程动态管理,最终为建设用地管理全业务、全流程的信息化监测与监管提供技术支撑.     

湖南省环境统计数据综合分析现状及改善建议

环境统计是环境保护工作的基础,环境统计数据的综合分析是环境形势判断和决策的一个重要前提条件。随着环境管理和经济管理工作的深入发展,环境统计指标和统计范围不断扩大,做好环境统计年报工作和污染物排放的综合分析评价工作,对完成好各项环境保护目标,对污染减排核查核算提供基础数据支持具有重要意义。     

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.