Adapting to climate change: the role of organisational personalities in natural resource management

Regional Environmental Change - Preparing for climate change represents a significant challenge to environmental managers and is influenced by their ability to access and use the latest...     

Integrated models for environmental management: Issues of process and design

Integration has become an important element of natural resource management over recent decades, and managers are now required to consider the social, economic, ecological, and bio-physical effects of alternative management interventions. The problem of managing across many issues is sometimes tackled by putting together a number of individual models. For this approach to work effectively, attention must be paid to both the technical details of the interactions between system components and also to the processes through which these integrated models are developed. This paper explores technical and social aspects of the development of integrated models for environmental management, and discusses two cases within which open modelling and interface prototyping processes were undertaken. The results of this exploration suggest that, for models to be used and accepted widely in integrated environmental management, developers must undertake a process that involves stakeholders and potential users, that exploits the current knowledge, and that illustrates the influence of uncertainty in the technical knowledge. This requires strict attention to the social and technical process of modelling, as well as additional skills in group facilitation and shared vision exploration, so that user expectations can be developed and met in such a way that the best information available is used by decision makers.     

Relations between innovation management and organisational sustainability: a case study in a Brazilian higher education institution

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The objective of this work was to analyse the relations between innovation management and organisational sustainability in a Brazilian higher education...     

Research on the management models of the rural primary water management from the view of public service: a case study of Zhejiang Province

The rural primary organizations of water management are the important parts of the public service system in the government administration. This paper studies several major management models of the rural primary water management in Zhejiang Province of China. The research result shows that ambiguous functions, lack of funding, and unreasonable personnel structure are the major problems of the rural primary water management. Therefore, it is urgent to improve service system, ensure sufficient funds, and qualify the population personnel of the rural primary organizations of water management.     

Research on the management models of the rural primary water management from the view of public service:a case study of Zhejiang Province

The rural primary organizations of water management are the important parts of the public service system in the government administration.This paper studies several major management models of the rural primary water management in Zhejiang Province of China.The research result shows that ambiguous functions,lack of funding,and unreasonable personnel structure are the major problems of the rural primary water management.Therefore,it is urgent to improve service system,ensure sufficient funds,and qualify the population personnel of the rural primary organizations of water management     

Requirements of future models for inhabited areas

Models for inhabited areas are used in a variety of applications for accidental or continuous releases of radioactivity to atmosphere. Pathways of interest are external exposure from radioactive material in the cloud or deposited on indoor and outdoor surfaces and people, inhalation from the plume and from material resuspended from the ground. In developing a model for inhabited areas it is necessary to consider what the end users may need and ensure that the model is appropriate for the application; different levels of detail may be appropriate for different applications. This paper considers the main processes governing exposure in inhabited areas, commenting on the extent to which we understand them and how well current models reflect this understanding. It also identifies where the authors believe future modelling is needed and the key areas where the current inhabited area models could be improved.     

Ecological risk as a tool for evaluating the effects of offshore wind farm construction in the North Sea

Offshore wind power generation represents a chance to supply energy in a more sustainable way; however, the ecological risks associated with the construction and operation of offshore wind farms are still largely unknown. This paper uses the concept of ecological risk for analysing ecological changes during construction of offshore wind farms. “Ecological risk” is defined as the potentially reduced ability of providing ecosystem services. The ERSEM ecosystem model allows assessing ecological risk based on a number of selected variables (integrity indicators) and under the assumption that increased suspended matter concentration during construction of wind farms affects ecosystem functioning. We conclude that ecological risk is adequate to describe the effects of wind farm constructions, although the computation procedure still needs to be refined and the choice of indicators further optimised. In this context, the choice of indicators available in modelling as well as in monitoring time-series may offer the way forward.     

Soil management practices for sustainable agro-ecosystems

A doubling of the global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses a huge challenge for the sustainability of both food production and global and local environments. Today’s agricultural technologies may be increasing productivity to meet world food demand, but they may also be threatening agricultural ecosystems. For the global environment, agricultural systems provide both sources and sinks of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which include carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O). This paper addresses the importance of soil organic carbon (SOC) for agro-ecosystems and GHG uptake and emission in agriculture, especially SOC changes associated with soil management. Soil management strategies have great potential to contribute to carbon sequestration, since the carbon sink capacity of the world’s agricultural and degraded soil is 50–66% of the historic carbon loss of 42–72 Pg (1 Pg=10¹⁵ g), although the actual carbon storage in cultivated soil may be smaller if climate changes lead to increasing mineralization. The importance of SOC in agricultural soil is, however, not controversial, as SOC helps to sustain soil fertility and conserve soil and water quality, and organic carbon compounds play a variety of roles in the nutrient, water, and biological cycles. No-tillage practices, cover crop management, and manure application are recommended to enhance SOC storage and to contribute to sustainable food production, which also improves soil quality. SOC sequestration could be increased at the expense of increasing the amount of non-CO₂ GHG emissions; however, soil testing, synchronized fertilization techniques, and optimum water control for flooding paddy fields, among other things, can reduce these emissions. Since increasing SOC may also be able to mitigate some local environmental problems, it will be necessary to have integrated soil management practices that are compatible with increasing SOM management and controlling soil residual nutrients. Cover crops would be a critical tool for sustainable soil management because they can scavenge soil residual nitrogen and their ecological functions can be utilized to establish an optimal nitrogen cycle. In addition to developing soil management strategies for sustainable agro-ecosystems, some political and social approaches will be needed, based on a common understanding that soil and agro-ecosystems are essential for a sustainable society.     

Causation in risk assessment and management: models, inference, biases, and a microbial risk-benefit case study

Causal inference of exposure-response relations from data is a challenging aspect of risk assessment with important implications for public and private risk management. Such inference, which is fundamentally empirical and based on exposure (or dose)-response models, seldom arises from a single set of data; rather, it requires integrating heterogeneous information from diverse sources and disciplines including epidemiology, toxicology, and cell and molecular biology. The causal aspects we discuss focus on these three aspects: drawing sound inferences about causal relations from one or more observational studies; addressing and resolving biases that can affect a single multivariate empirical exposure-response study; and applying the results from these considerations to the microbiological risk management of human health risks and benefits of a ban on antibiotic use in animals, in the context of banning enrofloxacin or macrolides, antibiotics used against bacterial illnesses in poultry, and the effects of such bans on changing the risk of human food-borne campylobacteriosis infections. The purposes of this paper are to describe novel causal methods for assessing empirical causation and inference; exemplify how to deal with biases that routinely arise in multivariate exposure- or dose-response modeling; and provide a simplified discussion of a case study of causal inference using microbial risk analysis as an example. The case study supports the conclusion that the human health benefits from a ban are unlikely to be greater than the excess human health risks that it could create, even when accounting for uncertainty. We conclude that quantitative causal analysis of risks is a preferable to qualitative assessments because it does not involve unjustified loss of information and is sound under the inferential use of risk results by management.     

Test of existing mathematical models for atmospheric resuspension of radionuclides

Atmospheric resuspension of radionuclides can be a secondary source of contamination after a release has stopped, as well as a source of contamination for people and areas not exposed to the original release. A test scenario based on measurements collected after the Chernobyl accident was used to evaluate existing mathematical models for contaminant resuspension from soil, to examine resuspension processes on both local and regional scales, and to investigate the importance of seasonal variations of these processes. Model predictions from 15 participants were compared with measured air concentrations and resuspension factors to investigate and explain the discrepancies both among model predictions and between model predictions and observations and thus to evaluate the predictive capabilities and drawbacks of commonly used generic resuspension models. The empirical models tested can give predictions within an order of magnitude of observations or better if adequately calibrated for site-specific conditions, but they do not describe the process-level events or account for spatial heterogeneity or temporal variations.     

Carbon-optimised land management strategies for southern Amazonia

Regional Environmental Change -     

Risk management for assuring safe drinking water

Millions of people die every year around the world from diarrheal diseases much of which is caused by contaminated drinking water. By contrast, drinking water safety is largely taken for granted by many citizens of affluent nations. The ability to drink water that is delivered into households without fear of becoming ill may be one of the key defining characteristics of developed nations in relation to the majority of the world. Yet there is well-documented evidence that disease outbreaks remain a risk that could be better managed and prevented even in affluent nations. A detailed retrospective analysis of more than 70 case studies of disease outbreaks in 15 affluent nations over the past 30 years provides the basis for much of our discussion [Hrudey, S.E. and Hrudey, E.J. Safe Drinking Water--Lessons from Recent Outbreaks in Affluent Nations. London, UK: IWA Publishing; 2004.]. The insights provided can assist in developing a better understanding within the water industry of the causes of drinking water disease outbreaks, so that more effective preventive measures can be adopted by water systems that are vulnerable. This preventive feature lies at the core of risk management for the provision of safe drinking water.     

Strategies for coastal ecosystem management in India

Present paper highlights various coastal issues and management strategies in India for effective environmental management for the sustainable development. The priorities for coastal management were selected based on the available date and material related to various international and national conferences. On the basis of secondary data, various strategies are suggested for the prioritized issues. These strategies include institutional strengthening, capacity building, policy plan, management plans for areas highly degraded, education and awareness; all these issues are discussed under the ecosystem-based management framework which gives better direction and is crucial for India??s costal management.     

Power management for hybrid distributed generation systems

The design of a new power management tool able to manage the power flow from different renewable energy sources is proposed in this paper. PV and wind are the primary power sources for the system, and a fuel cell with electrolyser and batteries are used as reserve. The designed controller purpose is to manage power flows among the different energy systems and to assure a continuous supply of load. Modelling and simulation of the various energy sources of distributed generation (DG) systems including wind turbine (WT), fuel cell-electrolyser (FC), photovoltaic (PV) and battery are developed. The coordination controller is designed based on the criteria of providing the load demand and the excess power is used either to produce hydrogen through electrolyser for the FC or to store it in battery. Simulation is carried out in MATLAB/Simulink environment and the results show satisfactory performance of the coordination scheme to satisfy the load requirements.     

Using ADMS models for Air Quality Assessment and Management in China

1 INTRODUCTION Many cities and regions are undertaking studies of air quality in cities to determine both the current state of the environment and the effect of future economic and environmental strategies in order to manage local air quality. Often these studies are driven by legislation such as the European Union requirement to model agglomerations or the Chinese requirements to study air quality capacity and to forecast air quality. ADMS-Urban is the most widely used advanced dispers…     

Applying mass transfer models for controlling organic compounds in ozonation process

Mass transfer plays a significant role in the ozonation process. The prediction models associated with the volumetric overall mass transfer coefficient (K_La) and initial fractional ozone absorption (FOA₀) during the ozonation process were developed through the use of dimensional analysis. It was found that the volumetric overall mass transfer coefficient is the function of diffusivity, agitation speed, and gas flow rate, and the parameters in the K_La equation are determined. Application of the prediction models for K_La and FOA₀ would yield information to choose the most practically feasible operating parameters. The removability of total organic carbon (TOC) can be estimated based on the mass balance relationship and kinetic expression of TOC oxidation, during continuous laboratory ozonation of humic acid solution. The reaction rate constant averaged 0.0291 L/mg·min. The developed model in combination with the mass transfer and reaction kinetics can be used successfully in forecasting the most efficient agitation speed to control the formation of organic compounds. Also, the critical value of ozone partial pressure to achieve the highest TOC removability can be determined through the use of the above developed model.     

Health impact metrics for air pollution management strategies

Health impact assessments (HIAs) inform policy and decision making by providing information regarding future health concerns, and quantitative HIAs now are being used for local and urban-scale projects. HIA results can be expressed using a variety of metrics that differ in meaningful ways, and guidance is lacking with respect to best practices for the development and use of HIA metrics. This study reviews HIA metrics pertaining to air quality management and presents evaluative criteria for their selection and use. These are illustrated in a case study where PM_2.5 concentrations are lowered from 10 to 8 μg/m³ in an urban area of 1.8 million people. Health impact functions are used to estimate the number of premature deaths, unscheduled hospitalizations and other morbidity outcomes. The most common metric in recent quantitative HIAs has been the number of cases of adverse outcomes avoided. Other metrics include time-based measures, e.g., disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), monetized impacts, functional-unit based measures, e.g., benefits per ton of emissions reduced, and other economic indicators, e.g., cost-benefit ratios. These metrics are evaluated by considering their comprehensiveness, the spatial and temporal resolution of the analysis, how equity considerations are facilitated, and the analysis and presentation of uncertainty. In the case study, the greatest number of avoided cases occurs for low severity morbidity outcomes, e.g., asthma exacerbations (n = 28,000) and minor-restricted activity days (n = 37,000); while DALYs and monetized impacts are driven by the severity, duration and value assigned to a relatively low number of premature deaths (n = 190 to 230 per year). The selection of appropriate metrics depends on the problem context and boundaries, the severity of impacts, and community values regarding health. The number of avoided cases provides an estimate of the number of people affected, and monetized impacts facilitate additional economic analyses useful to policy analysis. DALYs are commonly used as an aggregate measure of health impacts and can be used to compare impacts across studies. Benefits per ton metrics may be appropriate when changes in emissions rates can be estimated. To address community concerns and HIA objectives, a combination of metrics is suggested.