Developing a Decision-Support System for Waste Management in Aluminum Production

Industrial enterprises constitute a major portion of the world’s economy, as well as a large proportion of a country’s businesses and total employment. In Turkey, industrial enterprises are underdeveloped in terms of knowledge, skill, capital, and particularly accessing and benefiting from the advantages provided by modern information and communication technologies. Aluminum manufacturing has been reported to be the largest industry in Turkey with respect to production volumes and application fields. However, aluminum production is known to be an important contributor to environmental pollution, and the relative contribution of other related enterprises to the total industrial environmental impact is unknown. Environmental pollution sources can typically be classified into three categories: gaseous emissions, solid wastes, and wastewaters. The types of wastes produced by aluminum production vary based on the process line used, the variety of target products produced, and the production capacity of a given plant. As the capacities of facilities grow, the type and amount of waste become more variable. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to determine the priority of each waste type in aluminum manufacturing industries. This study was conducted in the Industrial Zone of Kayseri in Turkey. Three different facilities that range in size from large to small based on their production volume, plant capacity, and variety of production are selected for this study. The priority of waste types was determined by combining the AHP and PROMETHEE II multicriteria decision methods. While wastewater was categorized as having the highest priority in large facilities, solid waste was determined to be the highest priority in medium and small facilities.     

A Landscape Approach for Detecting and Evaluating Change in a Semi-Arid Environment

Vegetation change in the American West has been a subject of concern throughout the twentieth century. Although many of the changes have been recorded qualitatively through the use of comparative photography and historical reports, little quantitative information has been available on the regional or watershed scale. It is currently possible to measure change over large areas and determine trends in ecological and hydrological condition using advanced space-based technologies. Specifically, this process is being tested in a community-based watershed in southeast Arizona and northeast Sonora, Mexico using a system of landscape pattern measurements derived from satellite remote sensing, spatial statistics, process modeling, and geographic information systems technology. These technologies provide the basis for developing landscape composition and pattern indicators as sensitive measures of large-scale environmental change and thus may provide an effective and economical method for evaluating watershed condition related to disturbance from human and natural stresses. The project utilizes the database from the North American Landscape Characterization (NALC) project which incorporates triplicate Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) imagery from the early 1970s, mid 1980s, and the 1990s. Landscape composition and pattern metrics have been generated from digital land cover maps derived from the NALC images and compared across a nearly 20-year period. Results about changes in land cover for the study period indicate that extensive, highly connected grassland and desertscrub areas are the most vulnerable ecosystems to fragmentation and actual loss due to encroachment of xerophytic mesquite woodland. In the study period, grasslands and desertscrub not only decreased in extent but also became more fragmented. That is, the number of grassland and desertscrub patches increased and their average patch sizes decreased. In stark contrast, the mesquite woodland patches increased in size, number, and connectivity. These changes have important impact for the hydrology of the region, since the energy and water balance characteristics for these cover types are significantly different. The process demonstrates a simple procedure to document changes and determine ecosystem vulnerabilities through the use of change detection and indicator development, especially in regard to traditional degradation processes that have occurred throughout the western rangelands involving changes of vegetative cover and acceleration of water and wind erosion.     

Natural forest regrowth as a proxy variable for agricultural land abandonment in the Swiss mountains: a spatial statistical model based on geophysical and socio-economic variables

In many European mountain regions, natural forest regrowth on abandoned agricultural land and the related consequences for the environment are issues of increasing concern. We developed a spatial statistical model based on multiple geophysical and socio-economic variables to investigate the pattern of natural forest regrowth in the Swiss mountain area between the 1980s and 1990s. Results show that forest regrowth occurred primarily in areas with low temperature sum, intermediate steepness and soil stoniness as well as close to forest edges and relatively close to roads. Model results suggest that regions with weak labor markets are favored in terms of land abandonment and forest regrowth. We could not find an effect of population change on land abandonment and forest regrowth. Therefore, we conclude that decision makers should consider non-linearities in the pattern of forest regrowth and the fact that labor markets have an effect on land abandonment and forest regrowth when designing measures to prevent agricultural land abandonment and natural forest regrowth in the Swiss mountains.     

A Flexible Global Warming Index for Use in an Integrated Approach to Climate Change Assessment

Global Warming Potential (GWP) is an index used to measure the cumulative radiative forcing of a tonne of greenhouse house gas (GHG) relative to that of a ‘reference’ gas (CO₂). Under the Kyoto Protocol, GWP can be used as a fixed index to govern the trade-off between different GHGs in a multi-gas approach to GHGs abatement. The use of fixed GWPs has been criticized for not being very cost effective compared to the use of some flexible indices. To gain wider acceptance, however, a flexible index must also prove to be easy to use, and the economic gains from its adoption must be significant. In this paper, we develop a flexible index based on the concept of marginal rather than cumulative or average global warming potentials. These marginal global warming potentials (MGWPs) can be endogenously determined within a climate model given a particular climate objective based on radiative forcing level. The MGPWs are then linked to the marginal abatement costs of the GHGs, which are also endogenously determined within an economic model. When the two concepts are linked in this way, the result is a cost-effective way of achieving a particular climate change objective with multigas abatement. We show that the savings in costs when using this flexible MGPWs can be significant, and more importantly, they are not uniformly distributed across different regions.

Internet Web-Based Information System for Scrap Vehicle Disposal in Taiwan

The scrap vehicle recycling program was formally initiated in 1995 when the illegal dumping issues of scrap tires and cars turn out to be intolerable in the society of Taiwan. The inherent complexity of such a recycling program, however, by integrating many public and private sectors that functions as a whole from the collection, storage, transport, treatment, and the disposal of scrape vehicles, makes the entire managerial efficiency hard to be maintained. Therefore, the state-of-the-art information technology via the use of the Internet platform becomes an indispensable tool to present a good communication mechanism, to provide the essential information sharing between all users and agencies, and to end up with improving the overall managerial efficiency. The idea using advanced web database along with geographical information system to help general public to dump their scrap vehicles smoothly and to make governmental agency control the disposal procedure easily could be one of the best solutions from the long-term environmental management perspective. This paper, representing contemporary progress of environmental management skill performed by the Foundation for Reduction, Reuse and Recovery, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in Taiwan, is designed to illustrate how to build up such a system, as named by the Scrap Vehicles Recycling Program Information System (SVRPIMS) in order to meet the requirement from both supply and demand sides of scrap vehicles disposal. Experience gained in this study indicates that the SVRPIMS successfully integrates the Coldfusion^® and Mapguide^® software engineering technologies on the World Wide Web (WWW) platform. After actual implementation in 1999, it proved that communication between users and agencies at various levels in the recycling program became much easier through instant information retrieval and analysis via such a system. Besides, SVRPIMS also provides two decision-support functionalities to assist in automatic search for the most appropriate dumping site for the users and to perform possible trading of spare parts for the recyclers through a logistic optimization analysis.     

Influences of Climatic Change on Some Ecological Processes of an Insect Outbreak System in Canada's Boreal Forests and the Implications for Biodiversity

Insect outbreaks are a major disturbance factor in Canadian forests. If global warming occurs, the disturbance patterns caused by insects may change substantially, especially for those insects whose distributions depend largely on climate. In addition, the likelihood of wildfire often increases after insect attack, so the unpredictability of future insect disturbance patterns adds to the general uncertainty of fire regimes. The rates of processes fundamental to energy, nutrient, and biogeochemical cycling are also affected by insect disturbance, and through these effects, potential changes in disturbance patterns indirectly influence biodiversity. A process-level perspective is advanced to describe how the major insect outbreak system in Canadian forests, that of the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem. [Lepidoptera: Tortricidae]), might react to global warming. The resulting scenarios highlight the possible importance of natural selection, extreme weather, phenological relationships, complex feedbacks, historical conditions, and threshold behavior. That global warming already seems to be affecting the lifecycles of some insects points to the timeliness of this discussion. Some implications of this process-level perspective for managing the effects of global warming on biodiversity are discussed. The value of process-level understanding and high-resolution, long-term monitoring in attacking such problems is emphasized. It is argued that a species-level, preservationist approach may have unwanted side-effects, be cost-ineffective, and ecologically unsustainable.     

Toward a Practical Method for Setting Screening-Level, Ecological Risk-Based Water Temperature Criteria and Monitoring Compliance

We integrated basic concepts from fisheries science and toxicological risk assessment to form a potential method for setting screening-level, risk-based, site-specific water quality objectives for temperature. In summary, the proposed approach: (a) uses temperature impacts upon specific growth as a measure of chronic (cumulative) temperature effects; (b) explicitly incorporates the consequences of both magnitude and cumulative duration of exposures; (c) adjusts the result for local watershed conditions, reducing the likelihood that naturally warm systems are identified as thermally polluted while helping to ensure that naturally cool systems are closely monitored for ecologically harmful changes in thermal regime; and (d) expresses the net result both graphically and as a risk quotient, RQ, closely analogous to that used in toxicological risk assessments. The latter yields a site-specific, risk-based water quality objective and may serve as a straightforward decision rule for environmental managers. The method was applied to historical data from a small British Columbia stream subject to increasing urban development pressures. We also illustrate how the technique might be used to explore potential climatic change impacts, using coupled general circulation model predictions in conjunction with empirical downscaling. Overall, the method and results are presented as an introduction and illustration of concept, intended as a step toward the development of a logistically feasible risk-based approach to establishing screening-level, site-specific water temperature objectives, and monitoring compliance, in the context of large-scale, many-site, environmental monitoring networks. With further work, the technique offers potential to fill the gap between the temperature threshold-based targets typically specified in regulatory guidelines, which may be hydroecologically unrealistic, and detailed biophysical modelling, which typically is logistically infeasible in a day-to-day environmental monitoring and management context.     

A framework for assessment and monitoring of small mammals in a lowland tropical forest

Development projects in tropical forests can impact biodiversity.Assessment and monitoring programs based on the principles of adaptive management assist managers to identify and reduce suchimpacts. The small mammal community is one important component ofa forest ecosystem that may be impacted by development projects. In 1996, a natural gas exploration project was initiated in a Peruvian rainforest. The Smithsonian Institution's Monitoring andAssessment of Biodiversity program cooperated with Shell Prospecting and Development Peru to establish an adaptive management program to protect the region's biodiversity. In thisarticle, we discuss the role of assessing and monitoring small mammals in relation to the natural gas project. We outline theconceptual issues involved in establishing an assessment andmonitoring program, including setting objectives, evaluating the results and making appropriate decisions. We also summarizethe steps taken to implement the small mammal assessment, provideresults from the assessment and discuss protocols to identifyappropriate species for monitoring.     

Water Development Strategy as a Driving Force for Sustained Rangeland Management by Local Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Water is the major food component for the maintenance of animals. Although Africa is endowed with diverse agricultural environments, the survival of animals in Sahelian and sub-Sahelian Africa is threatened by the lack of water. Animals need water as an essential nutrient, a component of the body, and for conductive or evaporative cooling. Water needs are met mainly through drinking free water and to a lesser extent by utilising water that forms part of the feed. However during the long dry season, surface water resources dwindle and the water content of available forage decreases, thereby increasing the animals’ demand for water. Consequently animals have to walk for long distances to obtain adequate forage and water, which in turn raises the demand for these resources. Water can be used to direct and regulate rangeland management in this open access environment, to maintain range resources and to improve their quality. Water development, which takes into consideration usable forage, despite some intra- or inter-annual variability, plays an important role and its spatial distribution will affect the grazing intensity of forage resources. Sound water development and management strategies integrating local communities in the decision-making will set up a firm basis for sustained range management in the free and open access environment of sub-Saharan Africa where lack of financial input, social and cultural habits and above all the environmental condition do not permit large scale fencing as in other parts of the world.     

Land User Participation in Developing a Computerised Decision Support System for Combating Desertification

Combating desertification in natural rangelands has recently become a priority in large parts of southern Africa. Rangeland managers, farmers, scientists, conservationists and land users have been applying a variety of restoration technologies to address this problem. Bush encroachment, as part of the desertification process, involves the natural replacement of the herbaceous plant cover by undesirable problem woody species. The active and passive restoration technologies that are applied, are mainly based on indigenous knowledge and include the chemical, mechanical or manual reclamation of unproductive rangelands, as well as the combating of woody and alien species encroachment. Indigenous practices and knowledge play a major role in the effectiveness and success rate of these technologies. This project faces the challenge of bringing together both local and scientific knowledge in a single user-friendly, computerised Decision Support System (DSS) which is directly accessible by land users to support them in the process of decision making, concerning the combating of desertification. Case studies from central and northern Namibia were used to combine qualitative and quantitative data to develop this Decision Support System. The DSS currently consists of two databases and an expert system, which evaluates the results of land users’ management practices, and provides easily accessible information and advice for participants in the system, based on the incorporated data. The DSS is also linked to national and international web sites and databases to offer a wider range of information on technologies concerning agricultural and conservation practices.