Brazilian Amazonia: Industrial development and environmental monitoring

After a critical analysis of the strategies for conservation of the environment in Latin America and of large-scale development projects (agriculture and livestock raising, mining and electrical power plants) in the Amazon region of Brazil, this paper deals with the use of high-resolution satellite imagery for environmental monitoring. Two areas were considered in the study, Tucurui and Altamira. Spot/XS and Landsat/TM multispectral images were used, together with color aerial photographs of these areas. A computer-assisted visual interpretation procedure was employed to analyze images, and linear multispectral transformation was applied in selected subscenes in order to improve information extraction. The results indicate that high-resolution satellite imagery is generally compatible with the scale of the environmental problems in Amazonia and is a very efficient source of detailed information at a local scale on many aspects of the environment, in particular for monitoring changes over time in selected areas. Therefore, commercial satellite imagery, processed by specialized software, can accommodate a variety of analysis needs for decision makers and can also be an effective means of verification of international agreements on conservation of the environment in Amazonia.     

Survey on environmental monitoring requirements of European ports

A group of 26 European ports was interviewed to understand their requirements for environmental information and to establish how widespread the use of Earth Observation (EO) data was amongst them. Aspects covered by the research included port profile characterisation, environmental management activities, environmental needs and current monitoring practices. The study reflected the diversity amongst European ports and their environmental performances. Most of the ports were publicly owned and located in estuaries and rivers. General cargo was the most popular commodity handled. Practically all the ports had an environmental policy in place and half of them had been accredited by an external body. The main environmental parameters that ports required to be monitored were marine related issues (currents, waves and tide), water quality, meteorological parameters, turbidity and sediment processes. The principal driver for monitoring was maintaining key port operations, followed by legislation, and local responsibilities. Ports in general collected their own data in situ and only one-third had used remotely sensed data (data from Earth Observation satellites or from airplane mounted sensors) for environmental purposes. Half of them used computer modelling. This study was conducted within the framework of the European funded port environmental information collector project (PEARL).     

Better environmental future in Europe through environmental auditing?

environmental auditing must be rejected if the aim is to make companies introduce a specific management concept. Rather, it is preferable to leave the search for effective environmental protection strategies to the competitive system, especially since the criteria for environment-oriented management in the European Community audit proposal are without substance. Environmental auditing can, however, assume a complementary function in the framework of an overall environmental policy if it is designed as an information tool with which companies provide information on the development of environmental problems deriving from their manufacturing processes and products. However, the model required to establish a framework of quantity and evaluation criteria is not available. Further, auditing does not cover products. Similarly, there are no proposals defining the evaluation procedure for ecological resource scarcity. Thus, the attempt of the Commission of the European Communities to create the elementary prerequisites for consistent and verifiable environmental auditing in the corporate sector has failed.     

Biological monitoring and environmental assessment: a conceptual framework

Direct biological monitoring is essential for effective assessment efforts. Past approaches to biomonitoring are too simplistic (for example, toxicity testing, indicator species) or conceptually invalid (diversity indexes). Assessments that use ecological guilds use ecological principles in a more integrative fashion. The best long-term approach is development of suites of metrics, like those used in the index of biotic integrity (IBI), to reflect individual, population, community, and ecosystem attributes in an integrative framework. Efforts to use the conceptual content of IBI in a wider diversity of habitats should be encouraged and followed up with effective control actions.     

Implementation of failure modes and effects analysis in detergent production companies: A case study

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is the most important method used by production companies to identify potential risks regarding occupational and health hazards and environmental hazards. This method is also useful in defining preventive actions to reduce the effects of these risks. Detergent production companies continually encounter many occupational and health hazards and environmental hazards, the management and reduction of which requires complex assessment in real‐world applications. This paper presents a framework for application of FMEA for managing and ranking identified risks in detergent production companies. A case study is presented to show the application of an FMEA to investigate the results of its application and the outcomes from the analysis. A risk priority number (RPN) is proposed for each distinct risk. The application of FMEA in the detergent production company resulted in grouping the RPN of the identified risks into four different categories. The main corrective actions, which are determined to reduce the RPNs, are presented in this paper. Improving the RPN of the main risks is observed after executing the corrective actions.     

环境监测数据处理与分析

环境监测是保护环境的重要手段。随着科技发展,监测数据的处理与分析也有了很大的进步,为人类的生活提供了有力的保障。本文从数据获取出发,从多个角度对环境监测数据处理进行分析和研究,同时探讨新型方法在监测数据领域的应用。     

Life cycle indicators for monitoring the environmental performance of European waste management

As widely recognised by EU legislation, Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is a viable approach to support sound waste management choices. In this context, the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) has lead the development of macro-level, life cycle based waste management indicators to quantify and monitor the potential environmental impacts, benefits, and improvements associated with the management of a number of selected waste streams generated and treated in Europe.The waste management indicators developed make use of a combination of macro statistical waste management data combined with emissions/resource life cycle data for the different elements of the waste treatment chain. Indicators were initially calculated for the entire European Union (EU-27) and for Germany, covering several waste streams and a broad range of environmental impact categories.An indicator developed for a given waste stream captures the potential environmental impact associated with the generation and management of that waste stream. The entire waste management chain is considered, i.e. from generation to final treatment/disposal. Therefore, system boundaries for the selected waste streams include also the treatment or recycling of secondary waste (e.g. bottom ash from the incineration of household waste), and secondary products (e.g. recovered paper), as well as energy recovery.The experiences from the development of these life cycle based waste management indicators suggest that more detailed and quality-assured waste statistics are needed, especially covering the many different treatment operations and options. Also, it would be beneficial if waste statistics had a higher disaggregation level of waste categories, as well as more detailed information about waste composition. A further development of the indicators should include an increased number of waste streams, as well as calculation of the results for all Member States.     

Ecological effects monitoring in environmental impact assessment: What can it accomplish?

The premise that, strictly speaking, impact monitoring is impossible, is presented and discussed It is shown that a wide range of published objectives for environmental effects monitoring can be seen as special cases of the basic goal of reducing uncertainty in predictions. Monitoring in environmental-impact situations can only be used as a check on one of the two time series required to define impact. Four approaches to generating the other time series required in the difference calculation of impact are discussed, with the conclusion that the best approach relies on process-based simulation models. Impact analysts are encouraged to consider carefully what can and cannot actually be accomplished with environmental monitoring to assist impact detection.     

The effects of social desirability on self-reported environmental attitudes and ecological behaviour

There are several claims in the literature that social desirability concerns affect people’s response to self-reported measures of environmental attitudes and ecological behaviour. However, only a few empirical studies have indirectly evaluated the impact of social desirability on environmental issues measures, and those who did have found only a low impact. This article describes two studies that explicitly address whether socially desirable responding has direct and moderating effects on self-reported environmental attitudes and ecological behaviour. Results from correlational and moderated multiple regression analyses from both studies showed that social desirability had only a weak direct effect on environmental attitudes (but not ecological behaviour), and had no moderating effect on the environmental attitudes–ecological behaviour relationship. Implications of these findings for research on environmental issues are discussed.

Cadmium: Simulation of environmental control strategies to reduce exposure

The effects of selected environmental control strategies on human dietary and respiratory exposure to environmental cadmium (Cd) have been simulated. For each control strategy, mean Cd dietary and respiratory exposures are presented for a twenty-year simulation period.Human exposures related to cadmium are associated with both process waste disposal and product disposal. Dietary exposure is by far the dominant mechanism for Cd intake. Dietary exposure related to aqueous discharges is primarily a result of municipal sludge landspreading, whereas that associated with emissions to the atmosphere derives mainly from the deposition on cropland of airborne particulates from product incineration. Only relatively small dietary exposure reductions are possible through restrictions on anysingle Cd use. Combinations of waste management and environmental control measures promise greater reductions in dietary and respiratory exposure than those achievable through use restrictions.Work supported by Office of Toxic Substances U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.     

A novel system for environmental monitoring through a cooperative/synergistic scheme between bioindicators and biosensors

This paper addresses environmental monitoring through a robust dynamic integration between biomonitor and biosensor systems, a strategy that has not been attempted before. The two systems are conceptually interrelated and methodologically correlated to a cooperative/synergistic scheme (CSS) with a view to minimise uncertainty and monitoring costs and increase reliability of pollution control and abatement. The structures and operations of the biosensor component (in terms of sensitivity, device and method versatility, nature-mimicking physicochemical mechanisms, prospects and technological input) are such that they reinforce or promote the structures and operations of the natural component (in terms of bio-surveillance, impact assessment, environmental quality indexing, stress responses, metabolic pathways, etc.) and vice versa. The bioindicator ontology presented herein, including concepts, relations and controlled vocabulary aiming at establishing an integrated methodology for mapping/assessing negative environmental externalities, provides a useful tool for the design/development/implementation of an environmental network for the monitoring of a variety of pollutants over time and space and the assessment of environmental quality; the collection of the available information and its classification into taxonomic and partonomic relations allows the construction of a database that links pollutants with organisms' response, at a phenomenological and in-depth level, considering ecological parameters, relations and geomorphologic characteristics. As a result, a computer program has been designed/developed as a decision support system and has been successfully tested on a representative population of species indigenous to southern Greece. Significantly, a novel system in the form of a rational framework at the conceptual design level has been developed, that actually contributes towards achieving a cost-effective long-term monitoring program, with the flexibility to counter on-course any (anticipated or not) variations/modifications of the surveillance environment. This novel and pioneering approach will further offer a dynamic system utilised in (a) environmental impact studies and risk assessment (positive/analytic approach), (b) decision-making in the short-run (normative/tactic approach), and (c) policy-making in the long-run (normative/strategic approach). The proposed CSS, based on the integration of multiple data sources, can establish a local area network, incorporated into/expanding to a wide area network, thus offering the potential of better predictive ability and greater lead-time warning at alarm conditions than that provided by separate, stand-alone surveillance modalities.     

基于虚拟技术的环境监测仪器设备管理方法

利用虚拟现实、虚拟环境技术,通过人机交互方式,在现实空间之外创造另一个尽可能真实的、互动的模拟世界,使应用者可以直观、随意地观察和管理仪器设备,实现检测仪器全生命周期的运行轨迹记录和过程跟踪,凭其强大的可视性、溯源性和易操作性,较明显地提高仪器设备的利用率与管理水平。     

Self-organizing systems and environmental management

The characteristics of self-organizing systems are described and their implications for environmental management are discussed. It is concluded that the aim of management should be to enhance the capacity of the system for self-management, with active intervention being used only to steer it away from large discontinuities. Environmental managers must view ecosystems and themselves as parts of a larger sociobiophysical system, cultivate the capacity of environmental systems for self-management, and learn to live with change and uncertainty. Practical consequences of this approach for plans, policies, programs, and institutions are discussed.     

定氢仪在环境试验中的应用

本文叙述了定氢仪的测氢原理、结构、特点及定氢仪在环境试验中的用途。     

长江(江苏段)沿江开发水质监控预警系统建设

长江（江苏段）水质监控预警体系是以信息技术为基础,综合运用地理信息系统（GIS）、遥感（NS）、网络、多媒体等现代高新科技手段,在沿江开发现状分析和评价的基础上,建立长江（江苏段）水质基础信息平台、不同功能的水质模型及其相应的管理系统,为区域的环境风险管理提供数据支持。     

海洋环境立体监测技术

为了保护和合理利用海洋,必须对海洋环境进行长期连续、多要素、多维空间的立体监控。海洋环境立体监测系统技术摒弃了传统将水样带回实验室预处理、存放再进行后期分析的低效方法,极大地提高了数据的采集效率,减轻了海洋监测工作者的劳动强度,节省了人力、物力和财力。本文介绍了海洋环境立体监测技术中的系统集成及数据分析平台等。     

Distributional effects of environmental policies in Greece

Environmental protection policies generate an equity question concerning the fair allocation of environmental benefits and costs. This paper presents evidence from Greece during the 1980s. The findings reveal that Greek environmental policies, in the form of government self-regulatory programs, are mostly regressive in nature. At the regional level these programs combine all forms of vertical equity. Since the public sector finances the majority of related expenditures out of taxes, the regressive elements of environmental policies have been reinforced by discretionary fiscal measures and tax evasion, accompanied by inflation, which have distorted the country's progressive tax system.     

Integrated environmental monitoring and simulation system for use as a management decision support tool in urban areas

Leachates are generated as a result of water or other liquid passing through waste at a landfill site. These contaminated liquids originate from a number of sources, including the water produced during the decomposition of the waste as well as rain-fall which penetrates the waste and dissolves the material with which it comes into contact. The penetration of the rain-water depends on the nature of the landfill (e.g. surface characteristics, type and quantity of vegetation, gradient of layers, etc). The uncontrolled infiltration of leachate into the vadose (unsaturated) zone and finally into the saturated zone (groundwater) is considered to be the most serious environmental impact of a landfill. In the present paper the water flow and the pollutant transport characteristics of the Ano Liosia Landfill site in Athens (Greece) were simulated by creating a model of groundwater flows and contaminant transport. A methodology for the model is presented. The model was then integrated into the Ecosim system which is a prototype funded by the EU, (Directorate General XIII: Telematics and Environment). This is an integrated environmental monitoring and modeling system, which supports the management of environmental planning in urban areas.     

浅谈县级市环境监测与环境管理的关系

监测与管理是环保工作中最基本、最重要的两个方面,本文较详细地探讨了县级市环境监测和环境管理的定义、范围及内容,并从依靠与服务的根本关系上强调;只有两者有机结合、互相支持才能搞好新形势下的环保工作。