现有建筑物的环境评价工具

许多国家已经采用了在建筑物管理中可以支持决策的环境评价方法.建筑和建造研究与革新国际理事会100工作小组(GIB W100)一直在考察几种这样的环境评价方法的实施.本文介绍的澳大利亚、瑞典、挪威与加拿大的评价工具是为评定现有建筑物设计的.法国与日本的做法也包括了现有建筑物的评价工具.本文简要地讨信纸了每种方法的优缺点.大多数评价方法是把自我评价与一些外部证明(通常与认证有关)结合起来,这就允许各方更加接近址接与评价方法有关的工作并同时确保评价的质量.越来越多的国家正在发展与实施建筑物环境评价方法和评价工具.最近的方法强调了环境问题,不仅是在各种设计阶段的环境问题,而且还有建筑施工期间的环境问题.     

The estimation of PAH bioavailability in contaminated sediments using hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin and Triton X-100 extraction techniques

A study was conducted to investigate whether cyclodextrins and surfactants can be used to predict polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bioavailability in contaminated sediments. Two sediment samples were extracted with aqueous solutions of hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPCD) and Triton X-100. PAH removal during extraction was compared with PAH removal during biodegradation and solid-phase extraction. The latter two methods were used as reference methods to establish which part of the PAHs could be biodegraded and to what extent biodegradation was governed by bioavailability limitations. It was demonstrated that HPCD extraction followed solid-phase extraction and removed primarily readily bioavailable PAHs, while Triton X-100 extracted both readily and poorly bioavailable PAHs. Moreover, HPCD did not affect the degradation of PAHs in biodegradation experiments, while Triton X-100 enhanced the degradation of low molecular weight PAHs. It was concluded that HPCD extraction may provide a good method for the prediction of PAH bioavailability. Triton X-100 extraction is unfit for the prediction of PAH bioavailability.     

Amorphous and condensed organic matter domains: the effect of persulfate oxidation on the composition of soil/sediment organic matter

The composition of amorphous and condensed soil/sediment organic matter (SOM) domains was investigated for one soil sample and four sediment samples. These samples were oxidized with persulfate to remove amorphous SOM, before and after which the composition of SOM was studied by thermogravimetric analysis, pyrolysis-GC/MS, and cross polarization magic angle spinning 13C-NMR. Comparison of the SOM composition before and after oxidation showed that condensed SOM was more thermostable and less polar than amorphous SOM. Condensed SOM was relatively low in O-alkyl C and carboxyl C and it was likely to contain only small amounts of labile organic components (carbohydrates, peptides, fatty acids). Apart from these general characteristics, the composition of the condensed and amorphous domains appeared to be highly dependent on the origin and nature of the SOM investigated. Condensed domains in relatively undecomposed SOM were enriched in aliphatic C, whereas condensed domains in relatively weathered SOM were enriched in aromatic C. Altogether, the compositional changes upon persulfate oxidation were similar to the compositional changes upon humification, which supports the idea that weathered SOM is more condensed than the original material.     

The Historical Dynamics of Social–Ecological Traps

Environmental degradation is a typical unintended outcome of collective human behavior. Hardin’s metaphor of the “tragedy of the commons” has become a conceived wisdom that captures the social dynamics leading to environmental degradation. Recently, “traps” has gained currency as an alternative concept to explain the rigidity of social and ecological processes that produce environmental degradation and livelihood impoverishment. The trap metaphor is, however, a great deal more complex compared to Hardin’s insight. This paper takes stock of studies using the trap metaphor. It argues that the concept includes time and history in the analysis, but only as background conditions and not as a factor of causality. From a historical–sociological perspective this is remarkable since social–ecological traps are clearly path-dependent processes, which are causally produced through a conjunction of events. To prove this point the paper conceptualizes social–ecological traps as a process instead of a condition, and systematically compares history and timing in one classic and three recent studies of social–ecological traps. Based on this comparison it concludes that conjunction of social and environmental events contributes profoundly to the production of trap processes. The paper further discusses the implications of this conclusion for policy intervention and outlines how future research might generalize insights from historical–sociological studies of traps.     

Environmental change and social conflict: the northeast Atlantic mackerel dispute

Regional Environmental Change - A recurrent critique of the proposition of a causal relation between environmental change and social conflict is that it fails to account for the complexities and...     

现有建筑物的环境评价工具

许多国家已经采用了在建筑物管理中可以支持决策的环境评价方法.建筑和建造研究与革新国际理事会100工作小组(GIB W100)一直在考察几种这样的环境评价方法的实施.本文介绍的澳大利亚、瑞典、挪威与加拿大的评价工具是为评定现有建筑物设计的.法国与日本的做法也包括了现有建筑物的评价工具.本文简要地讨信纸了每种方法的优缺点.大多数评价方法是把自我评价与一些外部证明(通常与认证有关)结合起来,这就允许各方更加接近址接与评价方法有关的工作并同时确保评价的质量.越来越多的国家正在发展与实施建筑物环境评价方法和评价工具.最近的方法强调了环境问题,不仅是在各种设计阶段的环境问题,而且还有建筑施工期间的环境问题.     

Against the current: rewiring rigidity trap dynamics in urban water governance through civic engagement

This paper investigates how the agency of local residents can affect persistent and unsustainable practices in urban water supply governance. Using a case study from Bangalore, India, we analyze a social–ecological trap which developed after a shift to external water provision paired with rapid urbanization. The reluctance of forsaking initial investments in infrastructure and competence, and the subsequent loss of the local network of lakes built for harvesting rainwater, reinforced dependence on external sources while undermining groundwater levels in the city. These feedbacks made water scarcity a structurally persistent feature of Bangalore. This situation started to change when local residents recently started organizing to preserve and restore Bangalore’s lakes. By entering collaborative management agreements with municipal authorities, these lake groups have restored and established effective protection of five lakes. Through a case study of this civic engagement we show that the lake restorations have the potential to counteract trap mechanisms by restoring ecological functions, and by reducing water scarcity as groundwater levels rise and authorities are relieved from maintenance and monitoring tasks. Importantly, these lake groups have also created opportunities for over a dozen similar groups to form across the city. This demonstrates that social movements can be an important source of change in social–ecological traps.     

Review of world sulphur demand and supply

Data on the sulphur market and sulphur production are presented for the period 1975–88 and projections are given for both to 2000. The largest consumer of sulphur during the period under review was the fertilizer industry. In general a surplus of sulphur is expected by 1995, but that should disappear by 2000. The validity of the prediction depends on no new environmental constraints and on the development of large sulphur deposits in Eastern Europe and the USSR.     

The ghosts of predators past: population cycles and the role of maternal programming under fluctuating predation risk

Maternal effects may be a major factor influencing the demography of populations. In mammals, the transmission of stress hormones between mother and offspring may play an important role in these effects. Laboratory studies have shown that stressors during pregnancy and lactation result in lifelong programming of the offspring phenotype. However, the relevance of these studies to free-living mammals is unclear. The 10-year snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) cycle is intimately linked to fluctuating predation pressure and predation risk. The enigma of these cycles is the lack of population growth following the decline phase, when the predators have virtually all disappeared and the food supply is ample. We have shown that a predator-induced increase in maternal stress hormone levels resulted in a decline in reproduction. Here we examine population and hormone changes over a four-year period from the increase (2005) to the decline (2008). We report (1) that an index of maternal stress (fecal corticosteroid metabolite [FCM] concentrations) fluctuates in synchrony with predator density during the breeding season; (2) that maternal FCM levels are echoed in their offspring, and this occurs at a population-wide level; and (3) that higher maternal FCM levels at birth are correlated with an increased responsiveness of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in their progeny. Our results show an intergenerational inheritance of stress hormones in a free-ranging population of mammals. We propose that the lack of recovery of reproductive rates during the early low phase of the hare cycle may be the result of the impacts of intergenerational, maternally inherited stress hormones caused by high predation risk during the decline phase.