Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Audit in Large-Scale Public Infrastructure Construction: The Case of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway

Large-scale public infrastructure projects have featured in China’s modernization course since the early 1980s. During the early stages of China’s rapid economic development, public attention focused on the economic and social impact of high-profile construction projects. In recent years, however, we have seen a shift in public concern toward the environmental and ecological effects of such projects, and today governments are required to provide valid environmental impact assessments prior to allowing large-scale construction. The official requirement for the monitoring of environmental conditions has led to an increased number of debates in recent years regarding the effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Governmental Environmental Audits (GEAs) as environmental safeguards in instances of large-scale construction. Although EIA and GEA are conducted by different institutions and have different goals and enforcement potential, these two practices can be closely related in terms of methodology. This article cites the construction of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway as an instance in which EIA and GEA offer complementary approaches to environmental impact management. This study concludes that the GEA approach can serve as an effective follow-up to the EIA and establishes that the EIA lays a base for conducting future GEAs. The relationship that emerges through a study of the Railway’s construction calls for more deliberate institutional arrangements and cooperation if the two practices are to be used in concert to optimal effect.     

柴油车尾气碳烟颗粒物催化燃烧催化剂的最新研究进展

柴油车尾气排放的碳烟颗粒已经引起了严重的环境污染问题,必须加以净化处理.柴油车碳烟颗粒的低温燃烧离不开高活性的催化剂.针对柴油车排放的碳烟颗粒物后处理方法中的催化氧化技术,总结了近年来几种主要类型的碳烟燃烧催化剂(贵金属催化剂、碱金属催化剂、单组分过渡金属氧化物催化剂、多组分混合氧化物催化剂和固定结构复合氧化物催化剂)的最新研究进展,并对该研究方向存在的主要问题和应用前景进行了探讨.     

蒙脱石颗粒吸附剂的制备及除锌研究

以蒙脱石为原料,粉煤灰为激发剂,添加一定量的黏结剂混合造粒制成复合颗粒吸附剂,用于处理含Zn2+废水,实验研究了蒙脱石/粉煤灰混合比例、焙烧温度、添加剂用量等因素对复合颗粒强度和吸附性能的影响。研究结果表明,制备复合颗粒较佳的工艺条件为:蒙脱石与粉煤灰的混合比为6∶4,焙烧温度105℃,硅酸钠的添加比例为15%(蒙脱石/粉煤灰混合物质量)。制成的颗粒吸附剂不仅吸附效果好,而且其散失率较低。     

An implementation assessment of China’s Environmental Information Disclosure Decree

China’s 2007 Open Government Information Regulations is widely considered as a milestone in the country’s information policy history and is praised as a “sunshine program”. The Environmental Information Disclosure Decree was the first to operationalize these general regulations into a sectoral information disclosure system on environment. This study assessed the implementation of the environmental information disclosure system about six months after the Decree took e ect on May 1, 2008. Through reviewing the websites of all 31 provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, conducting an experiment with actual information disclosure request, and through interviews with all provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus, this article concluded that the implementation of the environmental information disclosure system still falls short. Future improvements should focus on further publicity of the regulations and decree to enhance public participation, the establishment of an independent evaluation and supervision system for information disclosure, the exchange of experiences and best practices among provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus, and on strengthening the legal status of environmental information disclosure.     

The adsorption properties of functionalization vetiver grass-based activated carbon: the simultaneous adsorption of phosphate and nitrate

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this work, zirconium chloride octahydrate/CTAB/vetiver grass-activated carbon (ZR/CTAB/VGAC) was prepared from vetiver grass-activated carbon...     

Factors influencing polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) emissions and control in major industrial sectors：Case evidence from Shandong Province, China

Analyzing determinants that influence polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran（PCDD/F） emissions is helpful for decision-makers to find effective and efficient ways to mitigate PCDD/F emissions. The PCDD/F emissions and the contributions of the scale effect, structure effect and technology effect to emissions from eight main industrial sectors in2006, 2008 and 2010 in Shandong Province, were calculated in this article. Total PCDD/F emissions in Shandong increased by 52.8% in 2008（614.1 g I-TEQ） and 49.7% in 2010（601.8 g I-TEQ） based on 2006（401.9 g I-TEQ）. According to the decomposition method, the largest influencing factor on PCDD/F emission changes was the composition effect（contributed 43.4%in 2008 and 120.6% in 2010 based on 2006）, which was also an emission-increasing factor.In this case, the present industrial restructuring policy should be adjusted to control the proportion of production capacities with high emission factors, such as iron ore sintering and steelmaking and the secondary non-ferrous metal sector. The scale effect increased the emissions in 2008（contributed 21.9%） and decreased the emissions in 2010（contributed-28.0%）. However, as a source control measure, the excess capacity control policy indeed had a significant role in emission reduction. The main reason for the technology effect（contributed 34.7% in 2008 and 7.4% in 2010 based on 2006） having an emission-increasing role was the weakness in implementing policies for restricting industries with outdated facilities. Some specific suggestions were proposed on PCDD/F reduction for local administrators at the end.