Environmental management systems in the architectural,engineering and construction sectors: a roadmap to aid the delivery of the sustainable development goals

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Realisation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will provide improvements to people's lives and longevity of the planet. The architectural,...     

Equity-focused health impact assessment: A tool to assist policy makers in addressing health inequalities

In Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) the use of health impact assessment (HIA) as a tool for improved policy development is comparatively new. The public health workforce do not routinely assess the potential health and equity impacts of proposed policies or programs. The Australasian Collaboration for Health Equity Impact Assessment was funded to develop a strategic framework for equity-focused HIA (EFHIA) with the intent of strengthening the ways in which equity is addressed in each step of HIA. The collaboration developed a draft framework for EFHIA that mirrored, but modified the commonly accepted steps of HIA; tested the draft framework in six different health service delivery settings; analysed the feedback about application of the draft EFHIA framework and modified it accordingly. The strategic framework shows promise in providing a systematic process for identifying potential differential health impacts and assessing the extent to which these are avoidable and unfair. This paper presents the EFHIA framework and discusses some of the issues that arose in the case study sites undertaking equity-focused HIA.     

Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food,energy, water and the environment

Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the ‘nexus’ of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboration with researchers to devise solutions to some of the foremost sustainability challenges of today. Yet opportunities are missed because the private sector is rarely involved in the formulation of deliverable research priorities. We convened senior research scientists and influential business leaders to collaboratively identify the top forty questions that, if answered, would best help companies understand and manage their food-energy-water-environment nexus dependencies and impacts. Codification of the top order nexus themes highlighted research priorities around development of pragmatic yet credible tools that allow businesses to incorporate nexus interactions into their decision-making; demonstration of the business case for more sustainable nexus management; identification of the most effective levers for behaviour change; and understanding incentives or circumstances that allow individuals and businesses to take a leadership stance. Greater investment in the complex but productive relations between the private sector and research community will create deeper and more meaningful collaboration and cooperation.     

Community air monitoring for pesticides. Part 1: selecting pesticides and a community

The CA Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) developed methods to select pesticides and a community to fulfill criteria for an ambient air monitoring study it conducted as part of the CA Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Justice Action Plan. Using a scoring system, CDPR evaluated 100 pesticides based on statewide-reported pesticide use, volatility, and priority in CDPR's risk assessment process (indicators of exposure and toxicity) to produce a list of pesticides to consider as candidates for monitoring. The CDPR also evaluated and scored 83 communities based on demographics and health factors, availability of cumulative impacts data, and reported pesticide use to create a list of community candidates. The scores provide relative rankings to distinguish more highly impacted communities from less impacted ones and to identify which pesticides might contribute most to potential adverse health effects. These methods use criteria that can be quantified, validated, and verified in order to provide a transparent and fair selection process. Based on public comments and highest scores, CDPR recommended 40 pesticides (including some of their degradation products) and one community for its yearlong monitoring study. The CDPR then further refined its list of pesticides by soliciting input from local and technical advisory groups. The CDPR plans to use these methods to select pesticides and communities in future monitoring activities.     

Strontium isotope study of coal utilization by-products interacting with environmental waters

Sequential leaching experiments on coal utilization by-products (CUB) were coupled with chemical and strontium (Sr) isotopic analyses to better understand the influence of coal type and combustion processes on CUB properties and the release of elements during interaction with environmental waters during disposal. Class C fly ash tended to release the highest quantity of minor and trace elements-including alkaline earth elements, sodium, chromium, copper, manganese, lead, titanium, and zinc-during sequential extraction, with bottom ash yielding the lowest. Strontium isotope ratios ((87)Sr/(86)Sr) in bulk-CUB samples (total dissolution of CUB) are generally higher in class F ash than in class C ash. Bulk-CUB ratios appear to be controlled by the geologic source of the mineral matter in the feed coal, and by Sr added during desulfurization treatments. Leachates of the CUB generally have Sr isotope ratios that are different than the bulk value, demonstrating that Sr was not isotopically homogenized during combustion. Variations in the Sr isotopic composition of CUB leachates were correlated with mobility of several major and trace elements; the data suggest that arsenic and lead are held in phases that contain the more radiogenic (high-(87)Sr/(86)Sr) component. A changing Sr isotope ratio of CUB-interacting waters in a disposal environment could forecast the release of certain strongly bound elements of environmental concern. This study lays the groundwork for the application of Sr isotopes as an environmental tracer for CUB-water interaction.     

Monitoring, modelling and environmental exposure assessment of industrial chemicals in the aquatic environment

Monitoring and laboratory data play integral roles alongside fate and exposure models in comprehensive risk assessments. The principle in the European Union Technical Guidance Documents for risk assessment is that measured data may take precedence over model results but only after they are judged to be of adequate reliability and to be representative of the particular environmental compartments to which they are applied. In practice, laboratory and field data are used to provide parameters for the models, while monitoring data are used to validate the models' predictions. Thus, comprehensive risk assessments require the integration of laboratory and monitoring data with the model predictions. However, this interplay is often overlooked. Discrepancies between the results of models and monitoring should be investigated in terms of the representativeness of both. Certainly, in the context of the EU risk assessment of existing chemicals, the specific requirements for monitoring data have not been adequately addressed. The resources required for environmental monitoring, both in terms of manpower and equipment, can be very significant. The design of monitoring programmes to optimise the use of resources and the use of models as a cost-effective alternative are increasing in importance. Generic considerations and criteria for the design of new monitoring programmes to generate representative quality data for the aquatic compartment are outlined and the criteria for the use of existing data are discussed. In particular, there is a need to improve the accessibility to data sets, to standardise the data sets, to promote communication and harmonisation of programmes and to incorporate the flexibility to change monitoring protocols to amend the chemicals under investigation in line with changing needs and priorities.     

Simultaneous hermaphroditism in the marine shrimp Lysmata wurdemanni (Caridea: Hippolytidae): an undescribed sexual system in the decapod Crustacea

Simultaneous hermaphroditism with outcrossing, a previously unconfirmed sexual system in decapod crustaceans, is documented in the shrimp Lysmata wurdemanni (Gibbes), using time-lapse video observations on mating in pairs of “female-phase” (FP) individuals. Copulations between FPs resulted in successful spawning and development of embryos. However, female-phase hermaphrodites maintained in isolation were unable to self-fertilize spawned eggs. All smaller individuals possessed characters typical of caridean males, including male gonopores, appendices masculinae, ejaculatory ducts, and cincinnuli on the first pleopods. However, the gonad of these male-phase (MP) individuals was an ovotestis with an undeveloped ovarian portion. FPs, which spawn eggs and incubate embryos, also had male gonopores and an ovotestis terminating in ejaculatory ducts containing sperm. In FPs, male pleopod characters were absent or reduced, and a female incubatory character, expanded pleopod flanges, showed a greater relative size. Smaller size classes of the population were composed only of MPs while larger size classes consisted of both MPs and FPs. “Transitionals,” individuals with MP characters but an ovotestis containing vitellogenic oocytes, were rare and overlapped completely in size with FP and larger MP individuals. It is suggested that not all MPs transform into FP hermaphrodites. Social interactions may mediate MP change into FP hermaphrodites in L. wurdemanni. The social system of L. wurdemanni and other Lysmata spp. may determine the exact form of the sexual system in these species. Received: 26 October 1997 / Accepted: 21 April 1998     

Calibrating a Basin‐Scale Groundwater Model to Remotely Sensed Estimates of Groundwater Evapotranspiration

Remotely sensed vegetation indices correspond to canopy vigor and cover and have been successfully used to estimate groundwater evapotranspiration (ET_g) over large spatial and temporal scales. However, these data do not provide information on depth to groundwater (dtgw) necessary for groundwater models (GWM) to calculate ET_g. An iterative approach is provided that calibrates GWM to ET_g derived from Landsat estimates of the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). The approach is applied to different vegetation groups in Mason Valley, Nevada over an 11‐year time span. An uncertainty analysis is done to estimate the resulting mean and 90% confidence intervals in ET_g to dtgw relationships to quantify errors associated with plant physiologic complexity, species variability, and parameter smoothing to the 100 m GWM‐grid, temporal variability in soil moisture and nonuniqueness in the solution. Additionally, a first‐order second moment analysis shows ET_g to dtgw relationships are almost exclusively sensitive to estimated land surface, or maximum, ET_g despite relatively large uncertainty in extinction depths and hydraulic conductivity. The EVI method of estimating ET_g appears to bias ET_g during years with exceptionally wet spring/summer conditions. Excluding these years improves model performance significantly but highlights the need to develop a methodology that accounts not only on quantity but timing of annual precipitation on phreatophyte greenness.     

The digestive protease,chymotrypsin, as an indicator of nutritional condition in larval red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus)

Laboratory-reared red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) larvae were used to evaluate the potential of chymotrypsin as an indicator of nutritional condition in marine fish larvae. The response of chymotrypsin activity to food deprivation and reductions in nutrient intake was determined. Enzyme activity declined rapidly to undetectable levels in food-deprived larvae 6–18 days old. Larvae fed poor-quality live prey (starved rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis) exhibited reductions in growth (18%) and enzyme activity (84%) relative to larvae fed high-quality prey (enriched rotifers). Potential sources of variation in chymotrypsin activity unrelated to nutritional status, including diel periodicity, and exogenous enzymes sources were examined. A diel pattern in chymotrypsin activity was detected with an 8.7-fold increase in activity occurring from low to high points during a 24-h period. Highest activity levels occurred late in the day (1600 hours) and lowest activity in the morning prior to feeding (0800 hours). The estimated contribution of exogenous enzymes from prey in the digestive tract to measurements of larval enzyme activity was small, reaching a maximum of 4.1% on day 18 in well-fed larvae. Results indicate that exogenous enzymes will not lead to the misclassification of larvae in poor condition. A relationship between chymotrypsin activity and standard length was established for well-fed and food-deprived larvae that could potentially be used to determine the nutritional condition of wild-caught larvae.