Physicochemical factors and sources of particulate matter at residential urban environment in Kuala Lumpur

Long-term measurements (2004–2011) of PM₁₀ (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 μm) and trace gases (carbon monoxide [CO], ozone [O₃], nitrogen oxide [NO], oxides of nitrogen [NO_x], nitrogen dioxide [NO₂], sulfur dioxide [SO₂], methane [CH₄], nonmethane hydrocarbon [NMHC]) have been conducted to study the effect of physicochemical factors on the PM₁₀ concentration. In addition, this study includes source apportionment of PM₁₀ in Kuala Lumpur urban environment. An advanced principal component analysis (PCA) technique coupled with absolute principal component scores (APCS) and multiple linear regression (MLR) has been applied. The average annual concentration of PM₁₀ for 8 yr is 51.3 ± 25.8 μg m^?3, which exceeds the Recommended Malaysian Air Quality Guideline (RMAQG) and international guideline values. Detail analysis shows the dependency of PM₁₀ on the linear changes of the motor vehicles in use and the amount of biomass burning, particularly from Sumatra, Indonesia, during southwesterly monsoon. The main sources of PM₁₀ identified by PCA-APCS-MLR are traffic combustion (28%), ozone coupled with meteorological factors (20%), and windblown particles (1%). However, the apportionment procedure left 28.0 μg m^?3, that is, 51% of PM₁₀ undetermined.

Implications: Air quality is always a top concern around the globe. Especially in the South Asian regions, measures are not yet sufficient; as revealed in our studies, the concentrations of particulate matters exceed the tolerable limits. Long-term data analysis and characterization of particular matters and their sources will aid the policy makers and the concerned authority to adapt measures and policies according to the circumstances. Additionally, similar intensive studies will give insight about future implications of air quality management.     

Fluxes of ions in precipitation, throughfall and stemflow in an urban forest in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A study was carried out to determine the chemical composition of bulk precipitation, throughfall and stemflow in an urban forest in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The mean weekly rainfall recorded during the period of study was 63.2 mm. Throughfall, stemflow and canopy interception of incident precipitation were 77.1%, 1.2% and 21.7% respectively. Bulk precipitation, througfall and stemflow were acidic, the pH recorded being 4.37, 4.71 and 4.15 respectively. In all cases the dominant ions were NO3, SO4, Cl, NH4, K, Ca and Na. Of the ions studied Ca, K, Cl, SO4, Mg and Mn showed net increases in passing through the forest canopy, while NH4, Na, NO3, Zn, H and Fe showed net retention. This study shows that the urban environment of Kuala Lumpur contributes considerable amounts of materials to the atmosphere, as reflected by the high ionic contents in bulk precipitation, throughfall and stemflow.     

Assessing the economic benefits and costs of conservation tillage

The economic benefits of the adoption of conservation tillage depend on site-specific factors, including soil characteristics, local climatic conditions, cropping patterns, and other attributes of the overall farming operation. While it is possible to draw some general inferences about components of economic returns and costs, a comprehensive assessment of the net private benefits from greater use of conservation tillage is not feasible.     

Access to urban green spaces in Hannover: An exploration considering age groups,recreational nature qualities and potential demand

City dwellers'' accessibility of urban green spaces (UGS) has recently gained immense interest in research and policy. Related scientific studies thus far have focused primarily on spatial distances, largely missing considerations of UGS qualities. We analysed the entire UGS setting of Hannover considering the recreational nature quality and potential demands to identify age-appropriate green spaces by applying a geographic information system analysis of several data sets. Additionally, we assessed the accessibility of UGS for different age groups, varying recreational nature qualities, and potential demands. Results indicate that children and elderly people have poor access to UGS that offers age-related requirements to enable unrestricted nature-based recreation. Nature quality and age-related requirements play a significant role in the assessment of UGS for recreation and accessibility. We conclude that detected vulnerabilities regarding age-related recreation in cities are anchors to mainstream the issue and enhance future planning practices and research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-022-01808-x.     

Life cycle implications of urban green infrastructure

Low Impact Development (LID) is part of a new paradigm in urban water management that aims to decentralize water storage and movement functions within urban watersheds. LID strategies can restore ecosystem functions and reduce runoff loadings to municipal water pollution control facilities (WPCF). This research examines the avoided energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of select LID strategies using life cycle assessment (LCA) and a stochastic urban watershed model. We estimate annual energy savings and avoided GHG emissions of 7.3 GJ and 0.4 metric tons, respectively, for a LID strategy implemented in a neighborhood in New York City. Annual savings are small compared to the energy and GHG intensity of the LID materials, resulting in slow environmental payback times. This preliminary analysis suggests that if implemented throughout an urban watershed, LID strategies may have important energy cost savings to WPCF, and can make progress towards reducing their carbon footprint.     

Go for green: green innovation through green dynamic capabilities: accessing the mediating role of green practices and green value co-creation

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Increasing business organizations are also damaging the natural infrastructure, and researchers are pressing hard on this issue since several decades....     

Assessing the genotoxicity of urban air pollutants using two in situ plant bioassays

Genotoxicity of urban air has been analysed almost exclusively in airborne particulates. We monitored the genotoxic effects of airborne pollutants in the urban air of Perugia (Central Italy). Two plant bioindicators with different genetic endpoints were used: micronuclei in meiotic pollen mother cells using Tradescantia-micronucleus bioassay (Trad-MCN) and DNA damage in nuclei of Nicotiana tabacum leaves using comet assay (Nicotiana-comet). Buds of Tradescantia clone # 4430 and young N. tabacum cv. Xanthi plants were exposed for 24 h at three sites with different pollution levels. One control site (indoor control) was also used. The two bioassays showed different sensitivities toward urban pollutants: Trad-MCN assay was the most sensitive, but DNA damage in N. tabacum showed a better correlation with the pollutant concentrations. In situ biomonitoring of airborne genotoxins using higher plants combined with chemical analysis is thus recommended for characterizing genotoxicity of urban air.     

Research on the coupling and coordination of green finance,higher education,and green economic growth

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Green finance is the main way to solve financing problems and support green technology innovation. The development of higher education is the source...     

Effects of green spaces on alleviating mortality attributable to PM2.5 in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Increasing research suggested that green spaces are associated with many health benefits, but evidence for the quantitative relationship between green...     

绿色屋顶蒸散发及其降温效果

植被的蒸散发潜热使得绿色屋顶具有明显的降温效果。但是,如何准确地观测绿色屋顶蒸散发量一直是蒸散发研究中的难点问题,这影响了绿色屋顶的降温机理研究和推广应用。为此,尝试利用热红外遥感+三温模型的方法,探讨亚热带城市深圳的绿色屋顶蒸散发量的定量观测及其降温效果。结果表明：在日变化方面,雨后4 d的日蒸腾量逐渐下降,分别为1.95、1.91、1.66、1.55 mm·d-1;相应的绿色屋顶表面温度逐渐上升,日平均温度分别为21.62、22.50、23.67、24.74℃,与参考叶片（无蒸腾叶片）表面温度的差值也逐渐缩小,分别为9.08、8.66、7.97、7.38℃;对屋顶气温（1 000 m3空气柱）的降温效果也逐渐降低,分别为1.82、1.79、1.17、1.10℃。在夏季和冬季的晴天条件下,绿色屋顶的白天蒸腾速率的变化范围分别可达0.04~0.54 mm·h-1和0.03~0.09 mm·h-1;在夏季和冬季,绿色屋顶与大理石屋顶的表面温度差分别可达到4.54和4.35℃,与水泥屋顶的表面温度差可达到9.94、9.35℃。在夏季晴天条件下,绿色屋顶、大理石屋顶和水泥屋顶表面温度的日较差分别是10.30、14.80、20.70℃。这些结果表明,绿色屋顶不仅可以显著地降低屋顶的表面温度和周围气温,而且可以有效地减弱屋顶表面温度的变化幅度,对城市人居环境的调节具有积极意义。     

Effect of green marketing mix,green customer value,and attitude on green purchase intention: evidence from the USA

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The undertaken research examines the impact of green attitude, green customer value (e.g., environmental image and perceived value), and green...     

Assessing urban atmospheric environmental efficiency and factors influencing it in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - With rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries, cities have become the major sources of air pollution. Studying urban...     

Assessing energy, environmental, and economic tradeoffs in intermodal freight transportation

This paper presents an energy and environmental network analysis model to explore tradeoffs associated with freight transport. The geospatial model uses an intermodal network built by the authors to connect various modes (rail, road, water) via intermodal terminals. Routes along the network are characterized not only by temporal and distance attributes, but also by cost, energy, and emissions attributes (including emissions of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, and oxides of nitrogen). Decision-makers can use the model to explore tradeoffs among alternative route selection across different modal combinations, and to identify optimal routes for objectives that feature energy and environmental parameters (e.g., minimize carbon dioxide emissions). The model is demonstrated with three case studies of freight transport along the U.S. eastern seaboard.     

Assessing the organic composition of urban surface films using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Recently it has been shown that urban surfaces are covered with a thin film which mediates the fate, distribution and accumulation of semi-volatile organic compounds in the environment. In this study we apply a combination of solution, semi-solids, and solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods to provide a general overview of the organic constituents. In surface film collected from 30 m2 of outside windows over an area of 12 km2 in downtown Toronto, we roughly estimate that the organic carbon is approximately 35% carbohydrate, approximately 35% aliphatics, approximately 20% aromatics, and approximately 10% carbonyl groups. Various aliphatic groups can be identified including a number of acids, alcohols, alkanes, and alkenes. Also, numerous intact aliphatic esters are apparent that have not been observed before, as well as carbohydrates. The aromatic species include a small portion that appears to be derived from a polymer of styrene, in addition a larger fraction is consistent with polyhydroxylated PAH derived material, although this assignment is tentative and based solely on 1-D NMR data only. In addition, signals from polybutadiene are present and while accurate quantification is not possible, it appears that this polymer may be up to a few percents by weight of the total organic material.     

再生水用于都市绿地灌溉的研究进展

污水再利用具有节水和治污双重功能,用于绿地灌溉意义重大。综述了再生水灌溉对绿地土壤、植物、地下水的影响。着重介绍了国外的研究情况,分析了其试验结果及影响因素,表明虽然再生水中的一些有害成分会发生积累,但由于处理工艺、降雨等因素影响,对绿地生态系统影响不大,使用再生水灌溉绿地是切实可行的。     

Towards a green economic policy framework in China: role of green investment in fostering clean energy consumption and environmental sustainability

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Recently, China has relished rapid green investment, and its influence on clean energy consumption and environment is substantial. Therefore, this...     

Heterogeneous environmental regulations and green economic efficiency in China: the mediating role of industrial structure

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Industrial upgrading is the key to promoting green economic efficiency. Coordination between environmental regulations and industrial structure can...     

Assessing the linkages of economic freedom and environmental quality in South Asian Countries: application of CS-ARDL

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - We examine the linkages of economic freedom (ECF), energy use, and CO2 emissions in selected South Asian countries of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and...     

Assessing the representativeness of monitoring data from an urban intersection site in central London,UK

The wind flow field around urban street-building configurations has an important influence on the microscale pollutant dispersion from road traffic, affecting overall dilution and creating localised spatial variations of pollutant concentration. As a result, the “representativeness” of air quality measurements made at different urban monitoring sites can be strongly dependent on the interaction of the local wind flow field with the street-building geometry surrounding the monitor. The present study is an initial attempt to develop a method for appraising the significance of air quality measurements from urban monitoring sites, using a general application computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to simulate small-scale flow and dispersion patterns around real urban building configurations. The main focus of the work was to evaluate routine CO monitoring data collected by Westminster City Council at an intersection of street canyons at Marylebone Road, Central London. Many monitors in the UK are purposely situated at urban canyon intersections, which are thought to be local “hot spots” of pollutant emissions, however very limited information exists in the literature on the flow and dispersion patterns associated with them. With the use of simple CFD simulations and the analysis of available monitoring data, it was possible to gain insights into the effect of wind direction on the small-scale dispersion patterns at the chosen intersection, and how that can influence the data captured by a monitor. It was found that a change in wind direction could result in an increase or decrease of monitored CO concentration of up to 80%, for a given level of traffic emissions and meteorological conditions. Understanding and de-coupling the local effect of wind direction from monitoring data using the methods presented in this work could prove a useful new tool for urban monitoring data interpretation.     

Positive effects of vegetation: urban heat island and green roofs

This paper attempts to evaluate the positive effects of vegetation with a multi-scale approach: an urban and a building scale.Monitoring the urban heat island in four areas of New York City, we have found an average of 2 °C difference of temperatures between the most and the least vegetated areas, ascribable to the substitution of vegetation with man-made building materials.At micro-scale, we have assessed the effect of surface albedo on climate through the use of a climatological model. Then, using the CO₂ equivalents as indicators of the impact on climate, we have compared the surface albedo, and the construction, replacement and use phase of a black, a white and a green roof. By our analyses, we found that both the white and the green roofs are less impactive than the black one; with the thermal resistance, the biological activity of plants and the surface albedo playing a crucial role.