Satisfaction with fishing and the desire to leave

Predicting who may leave a fishery is an important consideration when designing capacity reduction programs to enhance both ecological and economic sustainability. In this paper, the relationship between satisfaction and the desire to exit a fishery is examined for the Queensland East Coast Trawl fishery. Income from fishing, and changes in income over the last 5 years, were key factors affecting overall satisfaction. Relative income per se was not a significant factor, counter to most satisfaction studies. Continuing a family tradition of fishing and, for one group, pride in being a fisher was found to be significant. Satisfaction with fishing overall and the challenge of fishing were found to be the primary drivers of the desire to stay or leave the fishery. Surprisingly, public perceptions of fishing, trust in management and perceptions of equity in resource allocation did not significantly affect overall satisfaction or the desire to exit the fishery.     

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance Waterfront Justice Project

This paper reviews key challenges and opportunities addressed by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's (NYC-EJA) Waterfront Justice Project, a citywide campaign to promote climate resilience and sustainability in urban industrial waterfront communities of New York City. NYC-EJA is a non-profit membership-driven network linking grassroots organisations from low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour in their struggle for environmental justice. The Waterfront Justice Project is documenting community vulnerability in the context of climate change impacts, sources of industrial pollution, and demographic and socio-economic trends. This campaign is enabling community-based organisations, environmental justice communities, city planners, local and state government agencies, local business-owners, and other stakeholders to work in partnership to achieve community resilience while advocating for local jobs and promoting best practices in pollution prevention. New York City's waterfront policies ease the siting and clustering of public infrastructure, water pollution control plants, waste transfer stations, energy facilities, and heavy manufacturing uses in six areas designated as Significant Maritime and Industrial Areas (SMIAs). The SMIAs are located in environmental justice communities, largely low-income communities and communities of colour, in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City's local waterfront land use and zoning policies create cumulative risk exposure not only to residents and workers in the host waterfront communities, but also, in the event of storm surge or sea-level rise, to neighbouring, upland communities.     

When experts disagree: the need to rethink indicator selection for assessing sustainability of agriculture

Sustainability indicators are well recognized for their potential to assess and monitor sustainable development of agricultural systems. A large number of indicators are proposed in various sustainability assessment frameworks, which raises concerns regarding the validity of approaches, usefulness and trust in such frameworks. Selecting indicators requires transparent and well-defined procedures to ensure the relevance and validity of sustainability assessments. The objective of this study, therefore, was to determine whether experts agree on which criteria are most important in the selection of indicators and indicator sets for robust sustainability assessments. Two groups of experts (Temperate Agriculture Research Network and New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard) were asked to rank the relative importance of eleven criteria for selecting individual indicators and of nine criteria for balancing a collective set of indicators. Both ranking surveys reveal a startling lack of consensus amongst experts about how best to measure agricultural sustainability and call for a radical rethink about how complementary approaches to sustainability assessments are used alongside each other to ensure a plurality of views and maximum collaboration and trust amongst stakeholders. To improve the transparency, relevance and robustness of sustainable assessments, the context of the sustainability assessment, including prioritizations of selection criteria for indicator selection, must be accounted for. A collaborative design process will enhance the acceptance of diverse values and prioritizations embedded in sustainability assessments. The process by which indicators and sustainability frameworks are established may be a much more important determinant of their success than the final shape of the assessment tools. Such an emphasis on process would make assessments more transparent, transformative and enduring.     

Exploring the perceived influence of safety management practices on project performance in the construction industry

Although safety management is known to be vital to construction projects, very few studies have solicited views from construction practitioners about their perceptions of which safety management practices (SMPs) are important to construction projects and related to project performance. An empirical study was undertaken in Hong Kong in order to shed more light on this topic. In the study, the importance levels of 15 popular SMPs and five project performance criteria were rated by 232 respondents. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted, and three SMP categories - information, process, and committees - were extracted. Of these three categories, safety management process was perceived by the construction practitioners as being the most important, followed by safety management information and committees. Moreover, the effect of the three SMP categories on a composite project performance variable was tested using hierarchical regression analysis. Results indicate that the “information” and “committees” categories were associated with project performance positively and significantly. One of the major conclusions of the study is that the construction industry has paid relatively less attention to safety management committees, which were empirically analyzed as having a strong perceived impact on project performance. In order to improve project performance, construction companies should promote the criticality of safety management committees.     

Uneven distribution of urban green spaces in a coastal city in northwest Mexico

ABSTRACT

Extent and distribution of urban green spaces (UGS) in Mazatlan (Mexico) are analysed using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Vegetated areas (2,270?ha), a third of the urban area in 2015, were reclassified into green spaces (GS), urban tree (UT) and open spaces (OS), based in the normalised difference vegetation index, relating them with demographic and socioeconomic data. UGS allocation per capita amount 55?m², mainly represented by the UT class, with the largest patches associated with low developed and very high marginalised areas, and also with very low marginalised sectors, while the lowest allocation correspond to medium and low marginalisation, highly populated sector, without significant correlations. Despite the USG allocation, it is required a better urban planning to maintain public UGS and to protect the local flora, threatened by the introduction of exotic, ornamental species (64% of UT), to guarantee the provision of ecosystem services to the population.     

Impact of treated wastewater irrigation on antibiotic resistance in the soil microbiome

The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) for irrigation is a practical solution for overcoming water scarcity, especially in arid and semiarid regions of the world. However, there are several potential environmental and health-related risks associated with this practice. One such risk stems from the fact that TWW irrigation may increase antibiotic resistance (AR) levels in soil bacteria, potentially contributing to the global propagation of clinical AR. Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents have been recognized as significant environmental AR reservoirs due to selective pressure generated by antibiotics and other compounds that are frequently detected in effluents. This review summarizes a myriad of recent studies that have assessed the impact of anthropogenic practices on AR in environmental bacterial communities, with specific emphasis on elucidating the potential effects of TWW irrigation on AR in the soil microbiome. Based on the current state of the art, we conclude that contradictory to freshwater environments where WWTP effluent influx tends to expand antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic-resistant genes levels, TWW irrigation does not seem to impact AR levels in the soil microbiome. Although this conclusion is a cause for cautious optimism regarding the future implementation of TWW irrigation, we conclude that further studies aimed at assessing the scope of horizontal gene transfer between effluent-associated ARB and soil bacteria need to be further conducted before ruling out the possible contribution of TWW irrigation to antibiotic-resistant reservoirs in irrigated soils.     

NEAR REAL-TIME MAPPING OF THE 1975 MISSISSIPPI RIVER FLOOD IN LOUISIANA USING LANDSAT IMAGERY1

ABSTRACT: The project described in this report was undertaken by the Louisiana State Planning Office to establish the extent of backwater flooding in Louisiana in April 1975. Band 7 Landsat imagery, enlarged to a scale of 1:250,000 was used to visually identify flooded areas. Inundated areas were delineated on overlays keyed to 1:250,000 U.S. Geological Survey topographic quadrangles. Tabular data identifying acres flooded, according to land use type, were derived by merging the flood map overlays with computerized 1972 land use data. Approximately 1.12 million acres of the state were inundated by flood waters. The total acreage and land use types affected by flooding were determined within 72 hours from the time the flood areas were imaged. Flooded maps were prepared for 26 parishes. Field observations were made by Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service county agents in order to determine the accuracy of parish flood maps and flood acreage figures by land use type. Results indicated that this was a fast, accurate, and relatively inexpensive method of compiling flood data for disaster planning and postflood analysis.     

Sustainability aspects of vegetable production in the peri-urban environment of Bogotá, Colombia

Although the peri-urban region around Bogotá, Colombia contains a diversified horticulture sector, local vegetable production suffers from a critical lack of research and availability of un-biased, scientifically validated information on crop management. In this study, we identify current trends and deficiencies in fertilisation and pest management for local vegetable production. We relate pesticide type with target pests, evaluate temporal patterns in pesticide and fertiliser use for a key crop (i.e. spinach) and conduct basic nutrient budget accounting. Personal interviews with vegetable growers were combined with a detailed follow-up of management activities and soil nutrient profiles on pilot farms in two different peri-urban municipalities. Most (84%) vegetable growers relied on personal experience, and indicated a lack of unbiased information on fertiliser effectiveness and pesticide action spectra. The majority of farmers used pesticide mixtures on a calendar basis and commonly applied products below recommended doses. Soil nutrient accounts indicate insufficient fertilisation and a progressive depletion of key nutrients. Extraction rates for the principal vegetable crops exceeded by 33.6%, 20.5% and 93.0% soil nutrient availability of N, P and K, respectively. Organic products are included in local fertilisation schemes, with chicken manure as the principal source, at an average application rate of 6 t ha^?1. Our findings could help policymakers and local institutions set a research and extension agenda to promote sustainable peri-urban vegetable production and help secure peri-urban livelihoods while ensuring healthy and safe horticultural production.     

Objectives for management of socio-ecological systems in the Great Barrier Reef region,Australia

A wide range of goals and objectives have to be taken into account in natural resources management. Defining these objectives in operational terms, including dimensions such as sustainability, productivity, and equity, is by no means easy, especially if they must capture the diversity of community and stakeholder values. This is especially true in the coastal zone where land activities affect regional marine ecosystems. In this study, the aim was firstly to identify and hierarchically organise the goals and objectives for coastal systems, as defined by local stakeholders. Two case study areas are used within the Great Barrier Reef region being Mackay and Bowen–Burdekin. Secondly, the aim was to identify similarities between the case study results and thus develop a generic set of goals to be used as a starting point in other coastal communities. Results show that overarching high-level goals have nested sub-goals that contain a set of more detailed regional objectives. The similarities in high-level environmental, governance, and socio-economic goals suggest that regionally specific objectives can be developed based on a generic set of goals. The prominence of governance objectives reflects local stakeholder perceptions that current coastal zone management is not achieving the outcomes they feel important and that there is a need for increased community engagement and co-management. More importantly, it raises the question of how to make issues relevant for the local community and entice participation in the local management of public resources to achieve sustainable environmental, social, and economic management outcomes.