Sustainable graywater reuse for residential landscape irrigation – a critical review

The demand for potable water is rising rapidly due to an ever-increasing population, economic activities, and dwindling water supplies. To provide adequate water supplies in the future, understanding the issues and challenges in the reuse of water and developing appropriate strategies for reuse will be critical. One way to augment water supplies for residential use is to reuse graywater – the wastewater from kitchens, bathrooms, and laundries. In this article, we critically review the evolution of water reuse, the definition of graywater, graywater reuse practices, volumes and flow in different situations, and graywater characteristics. We then examine the issues associated with different graywater treatment methods and how using graywater for irrigation around homes affects soil quality and plant growth. The study concludes that graywater treatment costs, human health risks, and its effect on soil quality are some of the challenges that need to be addressed in the future for widespread and sustainable reuse of graywater for irrigation around homes.     

The use of fixatives for response to a radiation dispersal devise attack – a review of the current (2009) state-of-the-art

Radiation dispersal devices (RDDs), or dirty bombs, are terrorist weapons designed to scatter radioactive materials in large urban areas. Although the main intent of a RDD is to produce general panic and chaos, other impacts such as health, environmental, property and economical damage may also occur. Although one certain method of reducing health risks from a RDD event is to remove the radioactive contaminants from the environment immediately, rapid cleanup after a RDD event may be impossible in many cases. However, preventing the migration of the radioactive contaminant is crucial. Although it may be necessary to allow the contaminant to remain in place, preventing its migration is still essential. Fixatives can reduce or eliminating migration potential of a contaminant introduced by a RDD. This paper reviews the significance of fixatives in response to a RDD event and some of the products which have been identified for such a purpose. Many of the products are promising for application. However, many reports lack quantitative information to allow for effective comparative evaluation. Further, key parameters, such as shelf life and product toxicity, are not typically evaluated. We recommend that standardized performance parameters be established to allow for better comparative evaluation.     

Holistic well-being and sustainable organisations – A review and argumentative propositions

Abstract

This article discusses holistic well-being in a balanced work system theory framework. Holistic well-being is a combination of well-being in both work and non-work domains. Theories of balanced work systems and balanced organisations are retold in light of holistic well-being to show how different individuals in organisations can contribute to achieving desired outcomes at different process levels. Further, this article provides new insights and research challenges to the balanced organisation theory by including a sustainability aspect and by proposing a new concept of balanced value networks.     

Understanding India’s forest bureaucracy: a review

Forest administrators play a crucial role in translating conservation and development policies into action, yet policy reformers and scholars rarely examine how these administrators make decisions about the implementation of conservation and development policy in India. In this paper, I address this gap. I begin by developing a framework that draws on Western policy implementation studies and Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development framework and then apply this framework to a review of published studies that examine the role of forest officials in implementing public policies in India. The framework differentiates between formal and informal institutions and between institutions which are developed within an agency and those that are directed from outside the agency. I find that forester behavior varies significantly across space and time and has an important influence on the outcome of forestry programs. Innovations and excellent program implementation appear related to foresters’ desire to demonstrate professional efficacy. On the other hand, many failings can be traced either to external direction or to foresters developing internal institutions that are poorly suited to the problems they are tasked with solving. Existing research is limited in its geographic and temporal scope and leaves many questions unanswered, and thus, the review concludes with a brief outline of future research needs.     

Site selection for a data centre – a multi-criteria decision-making model

IT data centres (DCs) are a huge investment and most mid-size companies need to set up their own DCs to run their business operations. Building new DCs is a time-consuming effort needing millions of dollars and months of planning. Companies cannot afford to make a wrong decision when designing and setting up a new DC as these need to build for a life of around 20 years. In this paper, we studied the challenges and issues faced by enterprise DCs and explored various criteria which can be used for selecting a site for a new DC. We use a hierarchical model to look into various financial, environmental, social, political and geographical factors which an organisation need to look into when choosing a city for their DC. The model discussed in the paper provides a general framework and can be adopted by a company operating in any industry and any country.     

Improved method of ecological footprint – Funing County ecological economic system assessments

This paper improves the ecological footprint method by regulating cropland area with cropping index. The results calculated by the improved method are the area of cropland that human needed, but not of cropping. This study analyzes the ecological supply/demand of Funing County in China with improved ecological footprint method. It suggested that ecological remainder per thousand U.S. dollar GDP is regarded as the indicator of regional sustainable development ability and pointed out that the stockbreeding is the keystone factor that affects the regional ecological footprint.     

Environmental impact assessment of a ceramic tile supply chain – a case study

The beginning of the twenty-first century saw a surge in the growth of construction industry, particularly the housing sector in India. This led to the growing demand of ceramic tiles. This growth is responsible for large-scale consumption of natural resources and generation of solid waste. The objective of this paper is to assess the environmental impact of vitrified ceramic floor tile supply chain by performing life cycle assessment (LCA) following international standards of ISO 14040 series guidelines. The impact has been determined by conducting a LCA using Umberto NXT software (eco-invent 3.0 database) with ReCiPe endpoint and midpoint methods. It has been found that the manufacturing stage of supply chain is generating highest impact on environment in all the categories. Impact analysis of different input resources/material shows that red oxide used in glaze preparation, electricity in manufacturing, packaging material, distribution by trucks, installation of tiles using concrete and disposal of packaging material are responsible for most of the environmental impact. This study will offer the essential quantitative assessment to recognise the phases and materials which are highly responsible for the degradation of environment so that appropriate interventions by the different stakeholders can be planed.     

H∞ loop-shaping controller design for a grid-connected single-phase photovoltaic system

This paper presents a H_∞ loop-shaping controller for controlling dc-link voltage by regulating the switching signal of the inverter associated with a grid-connected single-phase photovoltaic system. To facilitate a robust control design, state-space realisation of the system model is made with uncertainties represented by linear fractional transformation. The controller is achieved through H_∞ synthesis followed by obtaining desired loop shapes through the choice of the proper weighting functions. The controller order is reduced by Henkel-norm method for facilitating its practical implementation. Controller performance is evaluated through carrying out simulations on MATLAB/Simulink platform under standard and changing atmospheric conditions, and fault condition.     

Krypton-85 in the atmosphere 1950–1977: a data review

For over 20 years the radioactive noble gas ⁸⁵Kr, the product of nuclear industry, has been released to the environment mainly from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. Owing to its relatively long half-life $\text{T(}\text{1}\text{2}\text{= 10.76}\text{y}\text{)}$ and the absence of other appreciable sinks, a cumulative buildup of ⁸⁵Kr in the atmosphere is observed. The mean ⁸⁵Kr surface air activity in the northern hemisphere has increased from about 20 dpm/mmol Kr in 1950 to about 750 dpm/mmol Kr in 1977. In recent years, a substantial slow-down of the ⁸⁵Kr emission rate to the atmosphere has been observed. The published data indicate rather good mixing of ⁸⁵Kr in the northern hemisphere, but a gradient is observed in the southern hemisphere due to the fact that all nuclear fuel reprocessing plants are situated in the northern hemisphere and due to poor mixing of the atmosphere in the meridional direction.This paper summarizes nearly all of the data on ⁸⁵Kr activity in the atmosphere published up to the middle of 1978. The spatio-temporal distribution of ⁸⁵Kr atmospheric activity is discussed. Some forecasts of future ⁸⁵Kr concentration in the atmosphere and its possible ecological consequences are also presented.     

Optimizing a warranty–based sustainable product service system using game theory

Abstract

In recent years, the concepts of sustainability and product service system have been closely associated with each other. In today’s competitive markets, due to Extended Producer Responsibility and customer environmental awareness, producers shift from ‘product-seller’ towards ‘product-service provider’ for using the environmental and economic advantages of coupling a product with services. This paper proposes a novel approach to determine the optimal warranty period and the out-of-warranty replacement period, from the point of view of the producer and the customer to minimise the total cost of usage and end of life of product. As regards the fact that adopted strategies by producers and customers sometimes are in conflict and it affects choosing the optimal product usage period, a game theory model was developed in this study. Finally, a case study with data from chain of local notebook service centres was applied to demonstrate some practical aspects of the developed model.     

Economic assessment of producing a fluting paper using agricultural residues – a case study: Iran,Mazandaran Province

Given limited forest resources and increased paper consumption and imports, establishing fluting paper mills using non-wood raw materials seems more essential than ever. This paper aims to investigate, technically and economically, the possibility of establishing a fluting paper mill (with a capacity of 10,000 tons a year) from agricultural residues in Iran's Mazandaran province. The average annual agricultural residues output (including wheat, barley, rice, corn, oil seeds and cotton) in the province was about 1.3 million tons from 2000 to 2010, showing the potential of the province as an appropriate source for providing raw material from agricultural residues. For economic evaluation of the project, economic indices such as rate of return, pay-back period and production break-even point were measured. The results indicated that establishing a fluting paper mill based on agricultural residues is feasible.     

Feasibility of PV–biodiesel hybrid energy system for a cement technology institute in India

This paper compares an existing unreliable grid supply with a proposed PV–biodiesel hybrid energy system in order to find the feasibility of the latter for improvement in reliability of power supply, lower pollutant emissions and saving of coal reserves. In the present study, the electrical load of a cement technology institute located in Bhilai, India, has been selected for the purpose of analysis. The results show that hybrid PV–biodiesel system comprising 25 kW PV array, 8 kW biodiesel generator-1, 20 kW biodiesel generator-2, 10 kW inverter and 10 kW rectifier will supply power to the institute avoiding addition of 27.744 tons of CO₂ in atmosphere and save 55,080 kg of coal per year with improvement in reliability from 93.15 to 100%.     

The elaboration process – an approach for sustainable product development: a case study

Environmentally conscious product development, eco-design or design for environment is the methodology trying to introduce environmental requirements into product design. The first step of this process is the gathering of customer requirements for a structured product development procedure, such as quality function deployment (QFD). The problem is that environmental requirements are usually unspoken by the customers. This paper describes a methodology for uncovering such requirements by using environmental default questions in an elaboration process. This leads to an increased customer environmental awareness, and it generates a comprehensive list of requirements suitable for use in a subsequent QFD process. The effects of the elaboration process are demonstrated in one case study.     

Risks of global warming on montane and subalpine forests in Switzerland – a modeling study

In this study, we assess the risks of global warming on distributions of individual tree species in Switzerland. Applying a spatially explicit model, tree occurrence is predicted as a function of high resolution and physiologically relevant biophysical variables. The study shows that warming only slightly alters the overall abundance of tree species. However, the preferred temperature regimes are unevenly distributed along an elevational gradient, and the sensitivity to temperature varies considerably between the species. As a result, major reorganizations of forests in montane and subalpine belts are expected, i.e., a segregation of the core distributions of Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies is observed. Tree distribution potentials near timberlines, however, remain roughly the same. Electronic Publication     

Implementing water users’ association in Shiyang River Basin,China: a review from local’s perspective

This paper investigates the effectiveness of three WUAs in the arid and semi-arid regions of northwest China, drawing upon empirical evidence collected through mixed methodologies. Results show significant discrepancies between understanding, motives and experiences regarding WUAs among different water stakeholders. These discrepancies are affected by a complex interaction of a variety of factors, including geographical locations, socio-economic and political contexts, personal experiences, knowledge gaps, incentives and value systems rather than ordinary socio-demographic variables. It has also shown that in a traditionally clientelistic society such as China social networks and the pattern of relations between different levels (either cooperative or exploitative) can be more important in participatory irrigation management than the existence of formal institutions or regulation. Furthermore, the roles of social networks on water governance are not necessarily positive, including collective exploitation, corruption especially rent-seeking and collusion. It concludes that for WUAs to be effective, they have to be context specific better understanding and strategic uses of social networks with shared water motives and goals among different stakeholders.     

Impacts of climate change in rapidly urbanizing region – a case study in Hangzhou (China)

Climate change is expected to be a major driving force of landscape in the coming decades. It will have a multitude of potential impacts that vary in intensity and effect according to region and sector. In the context of global warming, the climate of China has changed significantly in the recent 100 years. The reason for climate change in China is mainly due to irrational land use caused by human activities, which chiefly results in the rapid industrialization and urbanization process. Based on an assessment model, this research represents a picture of the impacts of climate change in six districts of Hangzhou region. The aim of this paper is to conclude, on the one hand, some of Hangzhou sensitivities in relation to the primary effects of climate change. On the other hand, a reflection is made on a methodology to formulate preconditions on a scientific basis for further research by design of integrated adaptation options for the future spatial developments in function to upgrade Hangzhou resilience in relation to climate change challenges.     

Application of a tri-capital community resilience framework for assessing the social–ecological system sustainability of community-based forest management in the Philippines

This study proposes and empirically tests a framework that integrates the concepts of community resilience and social–ecological system (SES) resilience through community forestry case studies. The framework provides a possible approach for assessing community resilience based on the development and allocation of socio-cultural, economic, and natural capital of individual households within a given forest community. Furthermore, aspects of SES resilience and system dynamics are used to define the potential state thresholds of community resilience. This exploratory attempt to quantify community resilience, using the proposed framework, aims to advance understanding of the conceptual overlaps of SES and community resilience as applied to forestry management. We consider community forestry groups as SES examples in which the community is an important stakeholder in managing natural forest capital. We selected pioneer communities under the community-based forest management (CBFM) Program in the Philippines as our case studies. We found that, on average, CBFM group members demonstrated moderate levels of resilience according to their acquired levels of capital. Although economic capital remained the weakest capital, the CBFM program had a positive effect in increasing the socio-cultural and natural capital of an entire community.     

Fibre reinforced polymers in the sports industry – Life Cycle Engineering methodology applied to a snowboard using anisotropic layer design

Technological development has had huge impacts in sports performance throughout the years, fostering the development of specific materials and manufacturing processes for sports-related products. Within this context, a new technology for snowboards was developed taking advantage of the internal coupling effects of Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP) using an anisotropic layer design. This work deals with the technical, economic and environmental evaluation of a snowboard made of three alternative materials, namely carbon, glass and flax fibre reinforced plastics. It shows how a life cycle analysis can support the design and development of products by applying a Life Cycle Engineering methodology to the design process of a snowboard using an innovative technology. In this case, both the material choice and the fiber placement angles have a significant impact on the stiffness of the resulting FRP and thus in the three dimensions of analysis - cost, environmental and technical. The natural fiber is the most sustainable option environmentally, the glass fiber is the best one economically and the carbon fibre is the best in terms of technical performance. Therefore, the importance attributed to each dimension of analysis is pondered and traded-off to allow an aggregated analysis of the alternatives and a well-informed decision-making.     

The earth system: regional–global linkages

Understanding the earth system requires that the two-way linkages between regions and the global system be well understood and predictable. Most studies of global change are undertaken thematically across limited disciplinary boundaries; few are attempted holistically across many disciplines within regions. The regional approach offers many advantages. Here a variety of linkages associated with the regions of Southern Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia are presented to illustrate the power of a regional approach to earth system science. Major findings include the extent to which long-range transport of aerosols and nutrients affect terrestrial and marine ecosystem functioning in and around southern Africa. Aerosol transport, and the development of a regional haze layer, over South Asia are shown to alter significantly the radiative forcing of change in the atmosphere over the region. Changes in land cover and use over East Asia over along period of time are shown to have affected the strength of the monsoon circulation significantly. Finally, rampant economic development and globalization in Southeast Asia are demonstrated to have been a significant driver of regional change. Electronic Publication