Modeling farmer adaptations to climate change in South America: a micro-behavioral economic perspective

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - This paper evaluates behavioral adaptation models to climate change using South American agricultural data. This paper finds that the Ricardian model with...     

1H-NMR-based profiling of organic components in leachate from animal carcasses disposal site with time

Leachate, generated by the decomposition of animal carcasses, presents many environmental, sanitary, and food safety hazards. However, research on the characteristics of leachate is lacking. In this study, we performed biochemical profiling of leachate from two animal species (pig and cattle) in two soil types (sandy loam and sandy soil) using ¹H-NMR-based profiling, followed by multivariate data analysis. The leachate was collected from a well-controlled artificial burial site over a 31-week period. Principal components analysis (PCA) of the NMR data showed similar patterns between species and soil types. Organic components, including organic acids and phenols, predominated, and their levels increased with time. The methylamine level in leachate from pig carcasses 18 weeks following burial was significantly higher than that from cattle carcasses; leachate from cattle carcasses in sandy soil 1 week after burial contained unique components (specifically ethanol, formate, alanine, N-methylation, and taurine), in contrast with those from sandy loam soil. This study suggests that a NMR-based profiling approach is useful to characterize the organic components in leachate from animal carcasses over time.     

Analysis of the compensation system at the Environmental-Adverse-Effect Zone of a large-scale waste landfill site

Sudokwon landfill is the largest sanitary landfill in South Korea. The Environmental-Adverse-Effect Zone (EAEZ) from the boundary of a Sudokwon landfill site was set up to give the community compensation by a landfill developer to support special financial favors to every household resident. One group of residents in the EAEZ would continually receive the community compensation after 2010 and the other group would not because of changing the landfill site in 2009. These situations in Sudokwon landfill raise the question of whether the cash payment to residents for the community compensation may increase the acceptance of the waste landfill site and whether ceasing community compensation may create new Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome concerning landfill operations. Answers from questionnaires showed that 279 respondents (Group A) had experienced Resident Supportive Projects (RSP) and the other (86 respondents, Group B) had not. Most of the respondents (more than 80?%) in Group A who had received compensation answered that the sort of RSP was the direct cash payment. 37?% of respondents in Group A and 29?% of all respondents reported RSP as helpful. The 24?% of respondents who lived in the area released from the EAEZ in 2009 were ‘very reduced’ or ‘reduced’, while the corresponding results were 38?% in the continued EAEZ area. These different responses were statistically significant. And many respondents (70.6?%) recognized that the level of RSP (especially the monetary payment) was not enough. This ratio is unusual compared with a previous result (Lee PhD thesis, 2001), which was 6.2?% in 2000. The relative ratio of respondents living in the continued EAEZ area answered ‘very high’ or ‘high’ on the questions of knowledge regarding the sort of RSP, RSP cost, satisfaction of public participation, the process to decide the RSP, and the helpfulness of the RSP, which are statistically significant. In addition, respondents wanted the projects for welfare and resident convenience facilities with the same ratio (29.7?%) among several projects. These results suggest that the effect of the direct cash payment on the response of residents is similar to North America and Europe. Additionally, long periods of support of the public projects to develop resident communities may be required in order to improve resident acceptance of sitting landfill.     

Kinetic development and evaluation of membrane sequencing batch reactor (MSBR) with mixed cultures photosynthetic bacteria for dairy wastewater treatment

This experimental study was conducted to evaluate a membrane sequencing batch reactor (MSBR) with mixed culture photosynthetic bacteria for dairy wastewater treatment. The study was undertaken in two steps: laboratory and pilot scale experiments. In the first step, kinetics analysis of the MSBR was carried out in a laboratory scale experiment with influent COD concentration of 2500 mg/L. The pilot scale experiment was conducted to investigate the performance of the MSBR and checked the suitability of the kinetics for an engineering design. The kinetic coefficients K_s, k, k_d, Y and μ_m were found to be 174-mg-COD/L, 7.42/d, 0.1383/d, 0.2281/d and 1.69/d, respectively. There were some deviations of COD removal efficiency between the design value and the actual value. From the kinetics estimation, COD effluent from the design was 27 mg/L while the average actual COD effluent from the experiment was 149 mg/L. Due to the different light source condition, the factors relating to light energy (i.e. L_f and IR_%) must be incorporated into engineering design and performance prediction with these kinetic coefficients of the photosynthetic MSBR.     

Characteristics of products and PCDD/DF emissions from a pyrolysis process of urethane/styrofoam waste from electrical home appliances

A plastic fraction consisting mainly of polyurethane/styrofoam waste is generated after separating valuable spare parts and metals from used electrical home appliances. In Korea, such waste is currently incinerated in cement kilns or is landfilled. However, owing to its high volatile matter content, conversion into gaseous or liquid pyrolysis products is a preferable alternative. A pyrolysis process of polyurethane and styrofoam waste from electrical home appliances was evaluated by characterizing the products generated at 500°–800°C. The para meters determined were the yields of gas, oil, and char; the characteristics of the remaining char; and the con centration of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzo-furans in the product gas. As expected, the char yield decreased at higher temperatures, whereas gas and oil yields showed increasing tendency. The oil products could be used as storable fuels with a calorific value of 6000–8000 kcal/kg. Fine pores were observed in the char. The adsorption and decolorizing ability of the char were almost the same as those of activated carbon, so that pyrolysis char has potential for use as a sorbent. Further feasibility studies will be needed before utilizing pyrolysis technology to recover either fuels or usable products from polyurethane/styrofoam waste.     

Evaluation of Operational National Weather Service Gridded Flash Flood Guidance over the Arkansas Red River Basin

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service (NWS) flash flood warnings are issued by Weather Forecast Offices and are underpinned by information from the Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) system operated by the River Forecast Centers (RFCs). This study focuses on the quantitative evaluation and limitations of the FFG system using reported flash flood cases in 2010 and 2011. The flash flood reports were obtained from the NWS Storm Event database for the Arkansas‐Red Basin RFC (ABRFC). The current FFG system at the ABRFC provides gridded flash flood guidance (GFFG) system using the NWS Hydrology Laboratory‐Research Distributed Hydrologic Model to translate the upper zone soil moisture to estimates of Soil Conservation Service Curve Numbers. Comparisons of the GFFG and real‐time Multisensor Precipitation Estimator‐derived Quantitative Precipitation Estimate for the same duration and location were used to analyze the success of the system. Typically, the six‐hour duration was characterized by higher probability of detection values than the three‐hour duration, which highlights the difficulty of hydrologic process estimation for shorter time scales. The current system does not take into account physical characteristics such as land use, including irrigated agricultural farm and urban areas, hence, overly dry soil moisture estimates over these areas can lower the success rate of the GFFG product.     

Gasification applicability study of polyurethane solid refuse fuel fabricated from electric waste by measuring syngas and nitrogenous pollutant gases

To recycle polyurethane foam waste generated from electric appliance recycling centers for use as fuel in a gasification process, polyurethane solid refuse fuel fabricated as pellets was analyzed for the characteristics of elemental composition, proximate analysis, heating value, and thermo-gravimetric testing. It has a high heating value of 29.06 MJ/kg with a high content of combustibles, which could be feasibly used in any thermal process. However, the nitrogen content, of up to 7 %, was comparably higher than for other fuels such as coal, biomass, and refuse-derived fuel, and may result in the emission of nitrogenous pollutant gases of HCN and NH₃. By conducting gasification experiments on polyurethane solid refuse fuel in a fixed-bed reactor, a syngas with a heating value of 9.76 kJ/m³ and high content of both H₂ and CO were produced with good gasification efficiency; carbon conversion 54 %, and cold gas efficiency 60 %. The nitrogenous pollutant gases in syngas were measured at the concentrations of 160 ppm hydrogen cyanide and 40 ppm ammonia, which may have to be reduced using proper cleaning technologies prior to the commercialization of gasification technology for polyurethane waste.