Industrial ecology: engineered representation of sustainability

Industrial ecology is a relatively new field of research and academic study and is well established in North America and in several Asian countries. However, it has not yet received the attention it deserves in some other important parts of the industrialized world, including Germany. This paper may contribute to a better appreciation of industrial ecology as a tool in the process of sustainable development of economies, social systems, and of aquatic and terrestrial biotopes under the pressure of rapidly changing conditions triggered by global warming and urban growth. For this reason, methods are needed to quantify the successful application of industrial ecology measures. The “Integrated Sustainability Triangle” is introduced as a promising new possibility of quantification and monitoring. It enables justification of the contributions industrial ecology can make to sustainable development. The aggregation of individual economic contributions is assumed to create an overall impetus to the entire industrial sector including the sector of environmental engineering. Thus, the potential of industrial ecology is discussed from the macro-economic and the engineering perspective using the concept of sustainable development as a guiding principle. But the authors come to the conclusion that finding solutions to the pressing problems of our time requires more than collaboration of economy and engineering. It requires joint efforts of the whole spectrum of scientific disciplines in close collaboration with industrial and political stakeholders.     

Dynamics of species and species complexes as a field of research in historical ecology

Specific features of research on the dynamics of species and species complexes are considered on the basis of data on Late Cenozoic subfossil and fossil bone remains. Special attention is given to the objects to be reconstructed, the principles of their classification, and the concept concerning three scales of these dynamics: the actual, historical, and evolutionary scales. Published in Russian in Ekologiya, 2006, No. 6, pp. 452–456. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Industrial energy efficiency potentials: an assessment of three different robot concepts

The rise in energy consumption and the associated costs instigate financial concerns among industrial energy consumers. For industrial processes addressing heating and cooling as well as material transformation, a wide range of energy efficiency measures have been developed and successfully implemented. In contrast to that, most robot-based operations such as pick-and-place motions or assembly tasks still use inefficient standard concepts causing high-energy consumption and high-energy costs. Thanks to a rather low payload-to-weight ratio of new robot designs, such as parallel kinematic or hybrid robot manipulators, a high potential for energy savings is expected. This article identifies potentials for energy saving concerning industrial consumers by assessing three different robot concepts. Based on a literature review, two existing designs for robots – the conventional serial robot and the parallel kinematic robot are analysed and compared with respect to the energy utilised during a typical item placement task. Afterwards, the concept of PARAGRIP, a hybrid of the two presented robot designs is introduced and examined based on simulation regarding its energy consumption. The final results demonstrate significantly different energy consumptions between the robot concepts, identifying potential savings of about 40% in a selected industrial application scenario.     

中国产业生态化转型的IOOE模型分析——基于工业部门2003-2012年数据的实证

作为可持续发展的产业支撑,产业生态化不能仅仅局限于对经济增长的追求,而应将生态环境作为产业发展的外在约束条件.目前以产业生态化作为对象进行研究的成果较多,但将产业生态化作为一个动态发展进程的研究甚少,忽略了产业生态化到底是怎样的一个过程,分为哪几个阶段,每个阶段具有哪些特点,该怎样去衡量这个过程等问题.本文从这个角度出发,通过对传统经济增长模型约束条件的扩展,引入生态包袱的概念,并将其定义为生产活动对生态环境的占用,从投入、占用、产出与排放四个角度构建全面衡量产业生态化过程及阶段的IOOE模型,并以中国工业部门为例,分析全国及东、中、西部各区域工业生态化转型过程,得出以下结论:①我国工业投入逐年增加,污染物排放逐年减少,是产出增加的主要原因,占用量逐年增加使得其对产出仍然表现为阻碍作用;②我国工业生态化已经跨越了传统工业文明时代的产业发展,正处于向生态文明型转变的过渡阶段;③东、中、西部各区域间生态化阶段的不同符合各区域产业发展现实,如何在保持区域各自优势的基础上,实现整体产业生态化是未来产业发展重点.     

Industrial water conservation by water footprint and sustainable development goals: a review

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Application of advanced techniques to ensure the environment sustainability and freshwater ecosystem conservation is a paramount importance. Industrial...     

Construction and demolition waste generation in cities in India: an integrated approach

ABSTRACT

This paper quantifies construction and demolition waste (C&DW) generation rate in Indian cities using bottom-up material flow analysis approach. A dynamic model was applied to different classes of cities in India to investigate how C&DW generation rate varies across different classes of cities. The data on construction and demolition activities in different classes of cities were estimated from information reported in secondary literature. The results show that urban areas in India generated over 150 million tonnes of C&DW in 2016, and almost 50% of waste was generated in small to medium towns. The paper concludes with discussion on opportunities for recycling of C&DW and closing the material loops in Indian cities.     

Radionuclide transfer to freshwater biota species: review of Russian language studies

Around 130 publications reporting studies on radionuclide transfer to freshwater biota species conducted in the former USSR were reviewed to provide the concentration ratio values. None of these studies were available up to now in the English language reviews or publications. The values derived have been compared with the CR values used for freshwater systems in the International reviews. For some radionuclides reviewed in this paper, the data are in good agreement with the mean CR values presented earlier, however for some of them, in particular, for ²⁴¹Am (bivalve molluscs, gastropods and pelagic fish), ⁶⁰Co (gastropods, benthic fish and insect larvae), ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs (benthic fish and zooplankton), the mean values given here are substantially different from those presented earlier. The data reported in this paper for thirty five radionuclides and eleven groups of freshwater species markedly improve the extent of available data for evaluation of radiation impact on freshwater species.     

Pesticides exposure in Pakistan: a review

This is the first systematic review of studies done since 1960, and to give an integrated picture of pesticides exposure to humans, animals, plants, waters, soils/sediments, atmosphere etc. in Pakistan. Authors have extracted data from different departments, published literature in research journals and National reports. Although the wide-spread usage of pesticides in Pakistan has controlled the pests, but like other countries, it has started causing environmental problems in the area. In some areas of Punjab and Sindh groundwater has been found contaminated and is constantly being under the process of contamination due to pesticide use. There is considerable evidence that farmers have overused and misused pesticides especially in cotton-growing areas. It is evident from the biological monitoring studies that farmers are at higher risk for acute and chronic health effects associated with pesticides due to occupational exposure. Furthermore, the intensive use of pesticides (higher sprays more than the recommended dose) in cotton areas involves a special risk for the field workers, pickers, and of an unacceptable residue concentration in cottonseed oil and cakes. The authors have also discussed the merits and demerits of different studies. The review will set the future course of action of different studies on pesticide exposure in Pakistan. Data limitations are still the major obstacle towards establishing clear environmental trends in Pakistan. The authors suggest that a reliable monitoring, assessment and reporting procedures shall be implemented in accordance with appropriate environmental policies, laws and regulations in order to minimize the pesticides exposure.     

Ecological features and trends in the formation of the flora of liverworts under the impact of current volcanic and glacial activities: The example of Ushkovskii Volcano, Kamchatka

The flora of liverworts has been studied in the vicinity of the Bil’chenok glacier (the Ushkovskii volcano, Kamchatka), which is in a zone of volcanic ash fallout. Specific complexes of liverworts growing on young moraine and ash deposits have been identified. These complexes are dominated by thallose marchantioid species. Under the effect of periodic ash fallout (in the absence of glacial activity), communities are formed that contain increased proportions of xerophytes and species preferring sites with a disturbed ground vegetation cover.     

Po-210 and Pb-210 as atmospheric tracers and global atmospheric Pb-210 fallout: a review

Over the past ∼5 decades, the distribution of ²²²Rn and its progenies (mainly ²¹⁰Pb, ²¹⁰Bi and ²¹⁰Po) have provided a wealth of information as tracers to quantify several atmospheric processes that include: i) source tracking and transport time scales of air masses; ii) the stability and vertical movement of air masses iii) removal rate constants and residence times of aerosols; iv) chemical behavior of analog species; and v) washout ratios and deposition velocities of aerosols. Most of these applications require that the sources and sink terms of these nuclides are well characterized.Utility of ²¹⁰Pb, ²¹⁰Bi and ²¹⁰Po as atmospheric tracers requires that data on the ²²²Rn emanation rates is well documented. Due to low concentrations of ²²⁶Ra in surface waters, the ²²²Rn emanation rates from the continent is about two orders of magnitude higher than that of the ocean. This has led to distinctly higher ²¹⁰Pb concentrations in continental air masses compared to oceanic air masses. The highly varying concentrations of ²¹⁰Pb in air as well the depositional fluxes have yielded insight on the sources and transit times of aerosols. In an ideal enclosed air mass (closed system with respect to these nuclides), the residence times of aerosols obtained from the activity ratios of ²¹⁰Pb/²²²Rn, ²¹⁰Bi/²¹⁰Pb, and ²¹⁰Po/²¹⁰Pb are expected to agree with each other, but a large number of studies have indicated discordance between the residence times obtained from these three pairs. Recent results from the distribution of these nuclides in size-fractionated aerosols appear to yield consistent residence time in smaller-size aerosols, possibly suggesting that larger size aerosols are derived from resuspended dust. The residence times calculated from the ²¹⁰Pb/²²²Rn, ²¹⁰Bi/²¹⁰Pb, and ²¹⁰Po/²¹⁰Pb activity ratios published from 1970’s are compared to those data obtained in size-fractionated aerosols in this decade and possible reasons for the discordance is discussed with some key recommendations for future studies.The existing global atmospheric inventory data of ²¹⁰Pb is re-evaluated and a ‘global curve’ for the depositional fluxes of ²¹⁰Pb is established. A current global budget for atmospheric ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb is also established. The relative importance of dry fallout of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb at different latitudes is evaluated. The global values for the deposition velocities of aerosols using ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb are synthesized.     

Sustainable management of transboundary river basins: a line of reasoning

This paper identifies a line of reasoning based on a number of concepts and tools to facilitate river basin management, which have been applied in a case study. For long-term sustainable river basin management, a balance is needed between the human use of the river and its basin, the ecological functioning of the river and receiving waters, and the river's capacity to supply goods and services. To find such a balance a framework is needed that illustrates and clarifies possible trade-offs between economic use and environmental supply by integrating scientific information on cause–effect chains on a catchment scale. A number of concepts and tools are proposed as a basis for this framework. The tools are: (1) indicators that describe the complex interactions and processes in rivers; (2) a suite of linked models that predict the economic, environmental and ecological effect of management measures; (3) an evaluation framework to rank different management alternatives on the basis of three objectives: economic efficiency, spatial equity in costs and benefits and environmental quality of the river and receiving lakes. The concept of environmental quality defines the potential of the river environment (i.e. natural capital) to contribute to human welfare. The concept of environmental functions is used to identify societal interest in natural capital. The concept and tools have been applied in a case study involving the evaluation of four management strategies on nutrient abatement in the Rhine basin. The result of the case study is that economic efficiency is in conflict with spatial equity and environmental quality. Spatial equity is in agreement with environmental quality. Electronic Publication     

Sources of anthropogenic radionuclides in the environment: a review

Studies of radionuclides in the environment have entered a new era with the renaissance of nuclear energy and associated fuel reprocessing, geological disposal of high-level nuclear wastes, and concerns about national security with respect to nuclear non-proliferation. This work presents an overview on sources of anthropogenic radionuclides in the environment, as well as a brief discussion of salient geochemical behavior of important radionuclides. We first discuss the following major anthropogenic sources and current developments that have lead, or could potentially contribute, to the radionuclide contamination of the environment: (1) nuclear weapons program; (2) nuclear weapons testing; (3) nuclear power plants; (4) uranium mining and milling; (5) commercial fuel reprocessing; (6) geological repository of high-level nuclear wastes that include radionuclides might be released in the future, and (7) nuclear accidents. Then, we briefly summarize the inventory of radionuclides ⁹⁹Tc and ¹²⁹I, as well as geochemical behavior for radionuclides ⁹⁹Tc, ¹²⁹I, and ²³⁷Np, because of their complex geochemical behavior, long half-lives, and presumably high mobility in the environment; biogeochemical cycling and environment risk assessment must take into account speciation of these redox-sensitive radionuclides.     

The Ecology of Empire: Wal-Mart's Rhetoric of Environmental Stewardship and the Constitutive Power of the Multitude

This essay provides a critical account of Wal-Mart's rhetoric of environmental stewardship. By situating this discourse within a new political economy of production and governance that Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have termed empire, I argue that environmental communication scholars should limit the rush to deploy ideological criticism when explaining the corporation's rhetorical motives. Instead, I advocate reading Wal-Mart's rhetoric as a problem of historical conjunctures, a critical move that seeks to highlight, not only the structural interests of capital, but also the centrality of social antagonism. In the case of Wal-Mart, this means accounting for the increased significance of demand to economic production, changes in the composition of sovereignty, and the transgressive function of environmentalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century.     

Transfer parameter values in temperate forest ecosystems: a review

Compared to agricultural lands, forests are complex ecosystems as they can involve diverse plant species associations, several vegetative strata (overstorey, shrubs, herbaceous and other annual plant layer) and multi-layered soil profiles (forest floor, hemi-organic and mineral layers). A high degree of variability is thus generally observed in radionuclide transfers and redistribution patterns in contaminated forests. In the long term, the soil compartment represents the major reservoir of radionuclides which can give rise to long-term plant and hence food contamination. For practical reasons, the contamination of various specific forest products has commonly been quantified using the aggregated transfer factor (T_ag in m² kg⁻¹) which integrates various environmental parameters including soil and plant type, root distribution as well as nature and vertical distribution of the deposits. Long lasting availability of some radionuclides was shown to be the source of much higher transfer in forest ecosystems than in agricultural lands. This study aimed at reviewing the most relevant quantitative information on radionuclide transfers to forest biota including trees, understorey vegetation, mushrooms, berries and game animals. For both radiocaesium and radiostrontium in trees, the order of magnitude of mean T_ag values was 10⁻³ m² kg⁻¹ (dry weight). Tree foliage was usually 2–12 times more contaminated than trunk wood. Maximum contamination of tree components with radiocaesium was associated with (semi-)hydromorphic areas with thick humus layers. The transfer of radionuclides to mushrooms and berries is high, in comparison with foodstuffs grown in agricultural systems. Concerning caesium uptake by mushrooms, the transfer is characterized by a very large variability of T_ag, from 10⁻³ to 10¹ m² kg⁻¹ (dry weight). For berries, typical values are around 0.01–0.1 m² kg⁻¹ (dry weight). Transfer of radioactive caesium to game animals and reindeer and the rate of activity reduction, quantified as an ecological half-life, reflect the soil and pasture conditions at individual locations. Forests in temperate and boreal regions differ with respect to soil type and vegetation, and a faster decline of muscle activity concentrations in deer occurs in the temperate zone. However, in wild boar the caesium activity concentration shows no decline because of its special feeding habits. In the late phase, i.e. at least a few months since the external radionuclide contamination on feed plants has been removed, a T_ag value of 0.01 m² kg⁻¹ (fresh weight) is common for ¹³⁷Cs in the muscles of adult moose and terrestrial birds living in boreal forests, and 0.03 m² kg⁻¹ (fresh weight) for arctic hare. Radiocaesium concentrations in reindeer muscle in winter may exceed the summer content by a factor of more than two, the mean T_ag values for winter ranging from 0.02 to 0.8 m² kg⁻¹ (fresh weight), and in summer from 0.04 to 0.4 m² kg⁻¹. The highest values are found in the year of initial contamination, followed by a gradual reduction. In waterfowl a relatively fast decline in uptake of ¹³⁷Cs has been found, with T_ag values changing from 0.01 to 0.002 m² kg⁻¹ (fresh weight) in the three years after the contaminating event, the rate being determined by the dynamics of ¹³⁷Cs in aquatic ecosystems.     

Models for Initial Allocation of Emission Permits in a River Basin During Industrial Development： A Case Study of Huaihe River Basin, China

At present,water pollutant emission trading plays an increasingly important role in pollution control in many foreign countries,and its pilot studies and demonstration have also been started in China.In order to solve the problem of initial allocation of emission permits: premise and basis of emission trading in a river basin,basic principles on initial allocation of actual emission permits in China are put forward.And it is thought that local development stage of industry should be taken into full account for initial allocation model of emission permits.There are five different allocation models in different development stages of industry,including models like distribution according to needs,improved same-rate reduction,performance,integration and environmental capacity,etc.The initial allocation of emission permits in various basins should choose a suitable model in accordance with their respective development stages.It is suggested in this article that integrated allocation model should be a main choice for current development stage of industry in China.     

Air pollution and the demand for hospital services: a review

Time-series studies published since 1993 on the association between short-term changes in air quality and use of hospital services, including both inpatient and emergency room use, are reviewed. The use of nonparametric analysis, often incorporating generalized additive models (GAMs), has increased greatly since the early 1990s. There have also been three major multi-city studies, which together analyzed data from well over 100 cities in Europe and North America. Various air pollutants, especially ozone (O(3)), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and sulfur dioxide (SO(2)), were generally found to be significantly associated with increased use of hospital services. Ozone tends to have stronger effects in the summer during periods of higher concentrations. Several studies revealed synergistic effects between pollutants such as PM and SO(2). Overall, short-term exposure to air pollutants is found to be an important predictor of increased hospital and emergency room use around the world.     

Effects of environmental factors on low-molecular-weight peptides of fishes: a review

The present state of knowledge of the influence of heavy metals and some other environmental factors on fish metallothioneins, low-molecular-weight tissue polypeptides, is considered. The ecological-biochemical role of these polypeptides and their involvement in the development of adaptive responses of organs to heavy metal accumulation are demonstrated.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 1, 2005, pp. 48–54.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Smirnov, Sukhovskaya, Nemova.     

Maximum power point tracking methods for photovoltaic systems operating under partially shaded or rapidly variable insolation conditions: a review paper

To increase the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems, maximum power point (MPP) tracking of the solar arrays is needed. Under partially shaded conditions (PSCs), the solar arrays power–current (P–I) characteristic has multiple MPP. This paper presents various methods and approaches of tracking the MPP from a PV generator operating under PSC. Some comparisons, advantages, drawbacks and critical analysis of each method are discussed. It was found that, indirect methods use empirical data or mathematical expressions of numerical approximations to estimate the MPP from the PV generator’s voltage, current and irradiance. Direct methods offer the advantage of obtaining the actual maximum power from the PV generator’s voltage and current. Artificial intelligence methods do not need exact mathematical models. They can perform under parameter variation, load and supply voltage disturbances. Finally, novel methods require less number of iterations to converge, independent to the initial conditions. All these algorithms can be included in some of the DC/DC converters and MPP trackers for stand-alone or grid-connected systems.     

Polonium-210 and lead-210 in the terrestrial environment: a historical review

The radionuclides ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb widely present in the terrestrial environment are the final long-lived radionuclides in the decay of ²³⁸U in the earth’s crust. Their presence in the atmosphere is due to the decay of ²²²Rn diffusing from the ground. The range of activity concentrations in ground level air for ²¹⁰Po is 0.03-0.3 Bq m⁻³ and for ²¹⁰Pb 0.2-1.5 Bq m⁻³.In drinking water from private wells the activity concentration of ²¹⁰Po is in the order of 7-48 mBq l⁻¹ and for ²¹⁰Pb around 11-40 mBq l⁻¹. From water works, however, the activity concentration for both ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb is only in the order of 3 mBq l⁻¹.Mosses, lichens and peat have a high efficiency in capturing ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb from atmospheric fallout and exhibit an inventory of both ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb in the order of 0.5-5 kBq m⁻² in mosses and in lichens around 0.6 kBq m⁻². The activity concentrations in lichens lies around 250 Bq kg⁻¹, dry mass.Reindeer and caribou graze lichen which results in an activity concentration of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb of about 1-15 Bq kg⁻¹ in meat from these animals. The food chain lichen-reindeer or caribou, and Man constitutes a unique model for studying the uptake and retention of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb in humans. The effective annual dose due to ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb in people with high consumption of reindeer/caribou meat is estimated to be around 260 and 132 μSv a⁻¹ respectively.In soils, ²¹⁰Po is adsorbed to clay and organic colloids and the activity concentration varies with soil type and also correlates with the amount of atmospheric precipitation. The average activity concentration levels of ²¹⁰Po in various soils are in the range of 20-240 Bq kg⁻¹.Plants become contaminated with radioactive nuclides both by absorption from the soil (supported Po) and by deposition of radioactive fallout on the plants directly (unsupported Po). In fresh leafy plants the level of ²¹⁰Po is particularly high as the result of the direct deposition of ²²²Rn daughters from atmospheric deposition. Tobacco is a terrestrial product with high activity concentrations of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb. The overall average activity concentration of ²¹⁰Po is 13 ± 2 Bq kg⁻¹. It is rather constant over time and by geographical origin.The average median daily dietary intakes of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb for the adult world population was estimated to 160 mBq day⁻¹ and 110 mBq day⁻¹, corresponding to annual effective doses of 70 μSv a⁻¹ and 28 μSv a⁻¹, respectively. The dietary intakes of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb from vegetarian food was estimated to only 70 mBq day⁻¹ and 40 mBq day⁻¹ corresponding to annual effective doses of 30.6 μSv a⁻¹ and 10 μSv a⁻¹, respectively. Since the activity concentration of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb in seafood is significantly higher than in vegetarian food the effective dose to populations consuming a lot of seafood might be 5-15 fold higher.     

Nationwide indoor 222Rn and 220Rn map for India: a review

Considering the role of radon in epidemiology, an attempt was made to make a nation-wide map of indoor ²²²Rn and ²²⁰Rn for India. More than 5000 measurements have been carried out in 1500 dwellings across the country comprising urban and nonurban locations. The solid state nuclear track detectors based twin cup ²²²Rn/²²⁰Rn discrimination dosimeters were deployed for the measurement of indoor ²²²Rn, ²²⁰Rn and their progeny levels. The geometric means of estimated annual inhalation dose rate due to indoor ²²²Rn, ²²⁰Rn and their progeny in the dwellings was 0.94 mSvy⁻¹ (geometric standard deviation 2.5). It was observed that the major contribution to the indoor inhalation dose was due to indoor ²²²Rn and its progeny. However, the contribution due to indoor ²²⁰Rn and its progeny was not trivial as it was found to be about 20% of the total indoor inhalation dose rates. The indoor ²²²Rn levels in dwellings was significantly different depending on the nature of walls and floorings.