Determination of dominant biogeochemical processes in a contaminated aquifer-wetland system using multivariate statistical analysis

Determining the processes governing aqueous biogeochemistry in a wetland hydrologically linked to an underlying contaminated aquifer is challenging due to the complex exchange between the systems and their distinct responses to changes in precipitation, recharge, and biological activities. To evaluate temporal and spatial processes in the wetland-aquifer system, water samples were collected using cm-scale multi-chambered passive diffusion samplers (peepers) to span the wetland-aquifer interface over a period of 3 yr. Samples were analyzed for major cations and anions, methane, and a suite of organic acids resulting in a large dataset of over 8000 points, which was evaluated using multivariate statistics. Principal component analysis (PCA) was chosen with the purpose of exploring the sources of variation in the dataset to expose related variables and provide insight into the biogeochemical processes that control the water chemistry of the system. Factor scores computed from PCA were mapped by date and depth. Patterns observed suggest that (i) fermentation is the process controlling the greatest variability in the dataset and it peaks in May; (ii) iron and sulfate reduction were the dominant terminal electron-accepting processes in the system and were associated with fermentation but had more complex seasonal variability than fermentation; (iii) methanogenesis was also important and associated with bacterial utilization of minerals as a source of electron acceptors (e.g., barite BaSO(4)); and (iv) seasonal hydrological patterns (wet and dry periods) control the availability of electron acceptors through the reoxidation of reduced iron-sulfur species enhancing iron and sulfate reduction.     

A new method for predicting vegetation distributions using decision tree analysis in a geographic information system

Decision tree analysis was used to predict the distribution of forest communities in an area on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. The analysis was carried out using a geographical information system environmental data base of those topographic and geological variables thought to influence the distribution of vegetation and derived from cartographic sources. The resulting maps of forest communities are of a resolution sufficient to delimit individual forest stands and contain much ecological information.     

Developing a spatial framework of common ecological regions for the conterminous United States

In 1996, nine federal agencies with mandates to inventory and manage the nation's land, water, and biological resources signed a memorandum of understanding entitled “Developing a Spatial Framework of Ecological Units of The United States.” This spatial framework is the basis for interagency coordination and collaboration in the development of ecosystem management strategies. One of the objectives in this memorandum is the development of a map of common ecological regions for the conterminous United States. The regions defined in the spatial framework will be areas within which biotic, abiotic, terrestrial, and aquatic capacities and potentials are similar. The agencies agreed to begin by exploring areas of agreement and disagreement in three federal natural-resource spatial frameworks—Major Land Resource Areas of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Hierarchy of Ecological Units of the USDA Forest Service, and Level III Ecoregions of the US Environmental Protection Agency. The explicit intention is that the framework will foster an ecological understanding of the landscape, rather than an understanding based on a single resource, single discipline, or single agency perspective. This paper describes the origin, capabilities, and limitations of three major federal agency frameworks and suggests why a common ecological framework is desirable. The scientific and programmatic benefits of common ecological regions are described, and a proposed process for development of the common framework is presented.     

Agricultural land evaluation and site assessment in the United States: An introduction

The US Soil Conservation Service has developed an agricultural land evaluation and site assessment (LESA) system. The LESA system is being used by the US Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies to implement the Farmland Protection Policy Act of 1981. The LESA system and three case studies from the Pacific North-west are introduced in this article.Scientific Paper no. 7166, College of Agriculture and Home Economics Research Paper. Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. Project no. 0010.     

A comparative evaluation of the major pollution control programs in the United States and West Germany

In order to provide a more adequate means for the preservation and the enhancement of the environment, the United States and West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany) have either created new institutions or altered existing agencies for the implementation of public policy. Along with these developments, a series of programs have been specifically designed to foster and maintain a quality environment. In this article, we examine the particular strategies employed in the implementation of environmental pollution control laws through the new or altered administrative arrangements in the two countries. The basic tools employed to implement environmental management strategies can be grouped as follows: traditional regulatory procedures, economic incentive concepts, information and volunteerism concepts, and government induced technological changes (USEPA 1976a). The following are examples of these techniques:

1. Traditional regulatory procedures
   1. laws
   2. ordinances
   3. permits
   4. zoning
2. Economic incentive concepts
   1. fines
   2. emission and effluent charges
   3. differential property rates
   4. subsidies
3. Information and volunteerism concepts
   1. labeling programs
   2. increased dissemination through mass media
4. Government-induced technological changes
   1. container controls
   2. subsidized recycling programs
   3. subsidized mass transportation systems

The specific applicability of any of these techniques varies with the particular type and degree of pollution control necessary. In some instances, a combination of these techniques may be appropriate. The degree of public acceptability and cost-effectiveness of the various techniques may vary as a result of regional differences. Furthermore, the success of all of these techniques is dependent upon a high degree of voluntary compliance. Through the examination of the various policy implementation strategies we should be able to appreciate the interrelationships between the different levels of government in pollution control efforts in the United States and West Germany.     

Regression modeling of streamflow, baseflow, and runoff using geographic information systems

Regression models for predicting total streamflow (TSF), baseflow (TBF), and storm runoff (TRO) are needed for water resource planning and management. This study used 54 streams with >20 years of streamflow gaging station records during the period October 1971 to September 2001 in Pennsylvania and partitioned TSF into TBF and TRO. TBF was considered a surrogate of groundwater recharge for basins. Regression models for predicting basin-wide TSF, TBF, and TRO were developed under three scenarios that varied in regression variables used for model development. Regression variables representing basin geomorphological, geological, soil, and climatic characteristics were estimated using geographic information systems. All regression models for TSF, TBF, and TRO had R(2) values >0.94 and reasonable prediction errors. The two best TSF models developed under scenarios 1 and 2 had similar absolute prediction errors. The same was true for the two best TBF models. Therefore, any one of the two best TSF and TBF models could be used for respective flow prediction depending on variable availability. The TRO model developed under scenario 1 had smaller absolute prediction errors than that developed under scenario 2. Simplified Area-alone models developed under scenario 3 might be used when variables for using best models are not available, but had lower R(2) values and higher or more variable prediction errors than the best models.     

Culture and the environment in the United States

The beliefs of Americans about the proper relationship between humans and their environment were profoundly affected by waves of immigration from Europe. Immigrants valued ownership of land, individuality, freedom, domination of nature, and technological development. These themes remain strong today as centerpieces of the American dominant social paradigm (DSP).That DSP has been reexamined and found wanting by an increasing proportion of Americans. This departure from the old DSP has progressed further among the public than among the elite who have a greater stake in preserving the status quo. Environmentalists constitute a vanguard trying to lead the people to a new, more environmentally oriented social paradigm. The beliefs of the old DSP and the new environmental paradigm (NEP) are contrasted in Table 2. Briefly, the NEP advocates stress love of nature rather than domination of it; compassion for other peoples, future generations, and other species; planning to avoid risk; limits to growth; fundamental social change; and a new structuring of politics.These two worldviews are likely to be in vigorous conflict for several decades in the USA. Social learning, spurred by deterioration of the old ways, is likely to lead Americans to a new perspective on their relationship to nature.With the advice and assistance of Barbara V. Fisher.     

Integrating emergy evaluation and geographic information systems for monitoring resource use in the Abruzzo region (Italy)

This paper presents an application of an environmental accounting method, namely emergy evaluation, developed for the monitoring and assessment of environmental resource use by local communities in the Abruzzo Region (Italy). Once quantified and classified according to their origin (renewable or non-renewable, local or external), emergy flows were elaborated through a geographic information system (GIS) that allowed us to represent their spatial distribution throughout the region. Outcomes took the form of patterns in which different emergy intensities, namely empower (unit: seJ yr^?1), were represented through a graduated grey-scale and visualized on a cartographic basis. The concentration of emergy flows, depending on the activity of local communities, showed variable levels of environmental load in different areas. In particular, spatial zones with homogeneous values of empower density (unit: seJ yr^?1 km^?2) – high, medium and low – were detected in order to identify areas with a similar “thermodynamic” nature, emergy being a thermodynamics based function. This allowed for the representation, at a glance, of a kind of geography that mirrors the behavior of a population settled in an area as additional information for investigating the effects of the use of urban structures and functions and improving our understanding of regional systems. A combined use of emergy evaluation and GIS could thus provide a complementary view of a territorial system and inform policy makers for planning specific strategies of future development.     

Philanthropy and the environmental movement in the United States

Summary Philanthropy has been vital to the environmental movement in the United States. Individual gifts and foundation grants have sustained the organizations, people, and programs of the independent sector which, although small in comparison to either government or industry, has contributed much through shaping environmental issues and setting directions for public policy. The importance of these efforts belies their size and the small amount of money which has supported them. Recent trends, however, indicate that the amount of support received by environmental groups may have peaked, a development which could have disturbing consequences for the field.Prior to this, E. Ames was Programme Officer for the Ford Foundations's Office of Resources and Environment. Former Director of the Wilderness Society and the Open Space Institute. Associated with Harvard University and the Carnegie Institution, Washington.     

Inventory of Interbasin Transfers in the United States

Interbasin transfers (IBTs) are man‐made transfers of water that cross basin boundaries. These transfers are used to distribute water resources according to supply and demand. The objectives of this work were to quantify the number of IBTs that exist in the United States (U.S.) and to examine the distribution of IBTs and potential causes associated with any observed clustering of IBTs. Defining “basin” was important to enable determination of which transfers qualify as “interbasin.” A variety of definitions are employed by states, with no federal definition. The most recent national studies of IBTs were conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1985 and 1986 using USGS Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) definitions of basins. To build a 2016 inventory of IBTs in the U.S., and to identify where they most commonly occur, the USGS National Hydrography Database (NHD) was utilized in conjunction with the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD). Transfers across HUC6 basin boundaries were considered interbasin. Geographical information analysis with the NHD and WBD databases revealed that there are a total of 2,161 man‐made waterways crossing HUC6 basin boundaries in the U.S. IBTs are somewhat concentrated: Florida, Texas, and North Carolina account for over 50% of the total identified IBTs. For some states, identified IBTs are locally clustered. Analysis of these clusters suggests a variety of reasons that IBTs have been built, including population, drainage, and agricultural factors.     

Agenda setting and acid precipitation in the United States

The objective of this research was to analyze the retention of acid precipitation as a viable policy issue on the Congressional agenda during the 1980s. Issue maintenance (a term borrowed from Barbara Nelson's discussion of the four stages associated with agenda decision making) was examined in relation to a set of issue characteristics originally developed by Roger Cobb and Charles Elder, i.e., concreteness, social significance, temporal relevance, complexity, and categorical precedence. Each issue attribute was found to be somewhat useful in explaining the longevity of acid rain as an agenda item although the direction of influence for two factors, complexity and temporal relevance, was contrary to expectations. It was suggested that a conceptual merger of this sort could contribute to the comparative analysis of agenda policy decisions by providing a clearer and more restricted set of decision points to be explained.     

Gas emissions from dairy cows fed typical diets of Midwest, South, and West regions of the United States

Gas emissions were determined for dairy cows fed three diets formulated to represent feed ingredients typical of the Midwest, South, or West regions of the United States. Dairy cows were housed and monitored in 12 environmentally controlled rooms (4 cows diet). Two experiments were performed, representing two lactation stages (initial days in milk were 115 ± 39 d in Stage 1 and 216 ± 48 d in Stage 2). The results demonstrated that the combination of different dietary ingredients resulted in different gas emissions while maintaining similar dry matter intake (DMI) and milk yield (MY). Diet effect on ammonia (NH) emissions was more prominent in Stage 1. During Stage 1, cows fed the Midwest diet had the highest daily NH emission, corresponding to the highest crude protein (CP) concentration among the three regions. The differences in NH emissions (39.0%) were much larger than the percent difference in CP concentrations between diets (6.8%). Differences in N intake, N excretion, or milk urea N alone may not serve as a strong indicator of the potential to reduce NH emissions. Lower emissions of methane (CH) per unit DMI or per unit MY were observed for cows offered the South diet during Stage 1 as compared with that from cows offered the Midwest or West diets. No diet effect was observed for hydrogen sulfide (HS) emission per unit S intake, nor for nitrous oxide (NO) emission. The measured NH and CH emissions were comparable, but the NO emissions were much higher than those reported for tie-stall dairy barns in the literature.     

Arctic Wilderness Policy in the United States and Finland

The United States and Finland have passed laws to classify and manage Arctic wilderness areas, but their national policies are based on different nature ideologies. Finns tend to perceive wilderness as a human-centered idea, while Americans are inclined to see the same land from a nature-based point of view. Rural residents in the Arctic, and especially indigenous peoples, use motorized vehicles for hunting and gathering in wilderness areas. Attempts of southern-based environmental groups to restrict motor use by imposing a nature-based ideology on rural residents in northern Alaska will result in high levels of political conflict. Alaska land managers need to respect the minority rights of rural residents and a study of wilderness policies in Finnish Lapland is instructive toward this end.     

Modeling the impacts of climate policy on the deployment of carbon dioxide capture and geologic storage across electric power regions in the United States

This paper summarizes the results of a first-of-its-kind holistic, integrated economic analysis of the potential role of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture and storage (CCS) technologies across the regional segments of the United States (U.S.) electric power sector, over the time frame 2005–2045, in response to two hypothetical emissions control policies analyzed against two potential energy supply futures that include updated and substantially higher projected prices for natural gas. This paper's detailed analysis is made possible by combining two specialized models developed at Battelle: the Battelle CO₂-GIS to determine the regional capacity and cost of CO₂ transport and geologic storage; and the Battelle Carbon Management Electricity Model, an electric system optimal capacity expansion and dispatch model, to examine the investment and operation of electric power technologies with CCS against the background of other options. A key feature of this paper's analysis is an attempt to explicitly model the inherent heterogeneities that exist in both the nation's current and future electricity generation infrastructure and in its candidate deep geologic CO₂ storage formations. Overall, between 180 and 580 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired integrated gasification combined cycle with CCS (IGCC + CCS) capacity is built by 2045 in these four scenarios, requiring between 12 and 41 gigatonnes of CO₂ (GtCO₂) storage in regional deep geologic reservoirs across the U.S. Nearly all of this CO₂ is from new IGCC + CCS systems, which start to deploy after 2025. Relatively little IGCC + CCS capacity is built before that time, primarily under unique niche opportunities. For the most part, CO₂ emissions prices will likely need to be sustained at over $20/tonne CO₂ before CCS begins to deploy on a large scale within the electric power sector. Within these broad national trends, a highly nuanced picture of CCS deployment across the U.S. emerges. Across the four scenarios studied here, power plant builders and operators within some North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) regions do not employ any CCS while other regions build more than 100 GW of CCS-enabled generation capacity. One region sees as much as 50% of its geologic CO₂ storage reservoirs’ total theoretical capacity consumed by 2045, while most of the regions still have more than 90% of their potential storage capacity available to meet storage needs in the second half of the century and beyond. A detailed presentation of the results for power plant builds and operation in two key regions: ECAR in the Midwest and ERCOT in Texas, provides further insight into the diverse set of economic decisions that generate the national and aggregate regional results.     

美国在环境议题上的分歧及对中国的启示

美国曾经在环境保护和治理污染上做出了卓越的成绩,但是如今环境议题成为撕裂美国的重要议题。美国的共和党和民主党在环境议题上互相牵制,难以达成共识。最近,美国特朗普总统宣布退出应对气候变化的《巴黎协定》就是这种分歧的表现。但当美国1970年代开始环境立法治理污染的时候,美国社会上下和两大党之间高度一致。在此后,因为环境思想上的差异和代际转变,政党斗争、选举体制、利益集团等多方面原因,美国不同政治势力在环境议题上越发分裂。美国在环境议题上的分歧对中国如今解决环境问题有重要的启示意义:首先,现在我国社会上下一致应对环境问题的广泛共识很宝贵,应该抓住难得的机遇期,为未来环境治理积极立法,留下宝贵法治遗产。另一方面,随着人们在环境议题上的利益变得多元,中国应该在环境治理上整合各方面利益,防止中国未来的环保事业被利益集团绑架。最后,中国应该明确环境议题的概念远远大于治理污染,为未来环境事业扩展空间。     

The dilemma of flood control in the United States

In spite of increasing annual expenditures for flood control, losses from flooding continue to rise in the United States. This seeming contradiction arises from overdependence on federally supported structural solutions to flood problems. Nonstructural controls are initiated reluctantly at local levels of government because of constitutional questions, restrictions of local tax bases, lack of federal subsidies for nonstructural solutions, and the high costs of delineating flood hazard areas. The success of the National Flood Insurance Program is doubtful since only about five percent of the flood-prone communities in the United States have qualified for the regular program. Future reduction of flood losses is dependent upon increasing popular awareness of flood hazards and altering federal subsidy policies to reduce the impact of local land-use regulations.     

Designing tools to track health and well-being in mining regions of India

The objective of this article is to illustrate the use of a framework to design a set of tools to assess progress towards improved well-being in a mining region. The framework uses an ecosystem approach to assess human well-being and is sensitive to the needs, concerns, and interests of at least the major stakeholders: government, company and community. The framework seeks to be useful to stakeholders and to be of policy relevance. The article presents the proposed framework with illustrations from a case study in Goa, India. Mining in Goa has had both positive and negative impacts on the well-being of local people. These impacts vary depending on the age of mining. In areas where mining is well established and active, the economic impacts are more positive. The social and environmental impacts are more negative in the regions where mining is new or is closing down. These characteristics generate their own set of issues of concern to stakeholders. Based on these issues, three types of tools to assess current well-being and progress towards improved well-being are suggested: (i) Indicators based on identified issues using the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework; (ii) A quality of life instrument, which can be developed either as an aggregate measure of well-being or in a more limited way to capture the satisfaction of the community with their living conditions; (iii) A regional income accounting framework to assess whether the mining region is able to continue functioning into the indefinite future without being forced into a decline through the degradation of its key natural, social, and human assets and resources. The article suggests that if these tools are used regularly, an information system will emerge that will, over time, provide markers of what mining is doing to the region and to the local communities.     

Review of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) in coastal zones of the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions of the United States with management implications

Groundwater serves as the primary drinking water source for over half of the coastal populations of the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions, two of the fastest growing regions in the United States. Increased demand for this resource has exceeded sustainable yields in many areas and induced saltwater intrusion of coastal aquifers. A process associated with coastal groundwater, submarine groundwater discharge (SGD), has been documented as a source of subsurface fluids to coastal ocean environments throughout the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions and is potentially a significant contributor to nearshore water and geochemical budgets (i.e., nutrients, carbon, trace metals) in many coastal regions. The importance of groundwater as a drinking water source for coastal populations and the influences of submarine groundwater discharge to the coastal ocean warrant increased research and management of this resource. This paper highlights findings from recent SGD studies on three hydrogeologically different continental margins (Onslow Bay, NC, southern Florida, and the Louisiana margin), provides background on the common methods of assessing SGD, and suggests a regional management plan for coastal groundwater resources. Suggested strategies call for assessments of SGD in areas of potentially significant discharge, development of new monitoring networks, and the incorporation of a regional coastal groundwater resources council.