Rehabilitation of a lowland river: Reconciling flood defence with habitat diversity and geomorphological sustainability

Geomorphologically appropriate rehabilitation measures were proposed to enhance the in-stream environment of the lowland River Idle, north Nottinghamshire, UK. However, the River Idle has multi-functional management requirements including those of flood defence so environmental enhancement must be pursued without significantly increasing the flood risk. Hydraulic testing of rehabilitation proposals is complicated because of the stringent assumptions about flow and morphology in ‘traditional’ hydraulic models. While new generation two- and three-dimension hydraulic models may overcome some of these problems, they are extremely data intensive, require advanced modelling capabilities and are, therefore, very expensive to apply. Also, they do not yet predict morphology-flow interactions adequately. As an alternative, several simple hydraulic models were applied to test the rehabilitation proposals, based on a fitness-for-purpose criterion.BENDFLOW was applied to fine tune the optimal siting of measures and to estimate the additional near-bank scour generated by proposed bend re-profiling. HMODEL2 and the FCFA method were used to test the impact on local channel conveyance capacities and HECRAS was applied to simulate the impact of the proposals on regional flood defence. Indicative results from the testing suggested a maximum increase in near-bank scour of 0·15 m in re-profiled bends, a loss of approximately 10% in flood conveyance locally due to deflector installation or reed and tree planting, and a 0·12 m increase in flood stage within the reach for a 15 year flood. The modelling results were acceptable to the management authority as an indication of an acceptable compromise between flood defence and conservation interests, and construction of the measures followed in 1996. It is clearly that it will require the results of post-project monitoring to indicate whether compromises made to the rehabilitation initiatives in order to satisfy flood defence requirements have unduly reduced their environmental enhancement potential but, for assessing the proposed methods, the models are recommended for use other lowland river environments.     

SMALL SCALE MINING AND ECONOMIC AID IN BOLIVIA

Although the small-scale mining sector in Bolivia has absorbed economic aid, little or no improvement has resulted. It appears that much closer technical and financial co-operation with those operating small mines is called for, including rigid credit supervision. Problems in small-scale mines arise from difficult mining conditions, the tax structure and capital market situation as well as the employment patterns of the mine operators. It is suggested that mechanized projects may not always be the best way to overcome poor conditions, but where they are, lack of collateral is frequently an obstacle. In such cases, a three stage approach to project implementation is proposed.     

Sensitivity analysis of the asymptotic behavior of a model for the environmental movement of radionuclides

The asymptotic behavior of a linear compartment model for the environmental movement of radionuclides is investigated. Here, the expression asymptotic behavior is used to designate the behavior of q(t) as t → ∞, where q is the solution of a vector differential equation of the form dq/dt = h + Kq. The asymptotic behavior of such equations is described. For the model and conditions under consideration, each element of q converges monotonically to a steady-state value. A hydrologic system is defined and used to illustrate this behavior. An approach to sensitivity analysis employing Latin hypercube sampling, rank transformations and stepwise regression is presented and then applied to this system. A total of 20 independent variables is introduced and the following dependent variables are investigated for the various components of the system: amount of radionuclide present at steady state. concentration of radionuclide at steady state, and time required to reach 90% of steady state. Finally, an application of asymptotic behavior in the analysis of a hypothetical site for the geologic isolation of high-level radioactive waste is described and a brief discussion of differential sensitivity analysis is given.     

Anaerobic microbial dechlorination: an approach to on-site treatment of toxaphene-contaminated soil

Enhanced microbial degradation of toxaphene by natural microorganisms occurred in soil and sediment amended with organic matter kept under anaerobic (flooded) conditions. Laboratory experiments yielded a dissipation half-life of approximately 3 and 1 week for soil and sediment, respectively, containing 10 ppm of technical toxaphene and a 1% alfalfa meal amendment. Dissipation was accompanied by an increase in early eluting gas chromatographic peaks and a decrease in later eluting peaks, indicating that dechlorination had occurred. Enhanced anaerobic dissipation also took place in soil containing 500 ppm of toxaphene, although at a lesser rate than at 10 ppm, and when cotton gin waste was used as amendment in place of alfalfa meal. Sediment in a toxaphene-contaminated pesticide waste disposal ditch was amended with 10% steer manure and flooded to ascertain field utility of the technique for on-site decontamination. Toxaphene residues were reduced from 63 to 23 ppm in 120 days, and some degradation activity still occurred up to 8 months after this single treatment.     

Organic interference of solidified/stabilized hazardous wastes

Liquid hazardous waste disposal in landfills is usually allowed only after solidification/stabilization. Although various procedures are commonly practiced, little is known about the mechanism(s) of the processes. A particular problem is the interference of organics. Small amounts of organics can interfere with the reaction between inorganic sludges and cementitous matrices. The present communication reports studies of the interaction between selected organic hazardous wastes and Type I Portland cement. Microscopic studies of the structural differences between cements set with water and those set with water plus organic liquids are discussed. In these studies the scanning electron microscope is used to observe samples fractured at 78K. The results provide technical background data on the ultimate stability of critical waste constituents solidified by various binding agents.     

Genetic amniocentesis: 505 cases performed before the sixteenth week of gestation

Between May 1987 and November 1988, 505 early amniocentesis within the 15th week of gestation were performed at the First Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,‘L. Mangiagalli’ of the University of Milan and at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of ‘Gaslini’ hospital in Genoa. A total number often abnormal fetal karyotypes were diagnosed. In addition, one case of pseudomosaicism (not confirmed on fetal blood) and one case of osteogenesis imperfecta type II (observed at ultrasound examination) were also detected. Eleven pregnancies were therefore terminated because of an abnormal fetus. Out of 494 pregnancies (excluding terminated pregnancies) there were 16 fetal losses within the 28th week; ten of these occurred in the 2 weeks following the procedure. There were 475 live-births, of which 447 were term deliveries and the other 28 deliveries occurred before the 37th week of gestation.