Fuelwood assessment at micro-watershed level in Northeast Himalaya:a case study in Manipur,India

Fuelwood is one of the major sources of energy in the domestic sector across the rural areas,especially in the developing regions across the world.The Northeastern Himalayan state of Manipur is dominated by the tribal population that largely depends on fuelwood from the nearby forest area.The entire dependence on forests for energy resources is affecting the sustainability of the forest ecosystem in the region,thus indicating the livelihood conditions.Since land-use land-cover change is the key driver to the change in resource availability of a region,the present study has tried to analyze the landcover changes over a period 28 years.The second major component affecting resource availability is the increasing population pressure that leads to changes in the land dynamics,which directly affect the resource production.Based on the existing consumption pattern,the total consumption of fuelwood in the watershed ranges fiom a minimum of 289.992 tons/year to a maximum of 3545.719 tons/year with an average of 1561.956 tons/year in the year 2009 and simulated fuelwood consumption for the year 2021 is around 1469.260 tons/year.Nine different probable scenarios of resource are proposed to calculate the stress value that can be used by the policy-makers and planners for suitable policy implementation at the micro level with a complex social system.     

Fuelwood assessment at the micro-watershed level:a case study in Garhwal Himalaya,India

Biomass,as fuelwood,is one of the major sources of energy in rural areas,especially in the mountainous regions of the world.As the increasing human population exerts more pressure on the forest thereby inducing an adverse effect on the sustainability of the ecosystem,which consequently causes fuelwood crisis at a local level,this crisis is spatio-temporal in nature.Thus,the major objective of this study is to assess the sustainability of fuelwood at different probable scenarios at a micro watershed level.The present study was conducted in the Phakot watershed,the Tehri Garhwal district of central Himalaya in India,during 2006-2008.Based on the vegetation composition in the study area,the net primary productivity(NPP)value of the Oak forest,and mixed oak and sal forests,was used for the quantification of fuelwood availability in evergreen and deciduous forests,respectively.The fuelwood demand was calculated on the basis of seasonal fuelwood consumption values.Nine probable permutations for availability-demand scenarios assuming the existence of high(H),low(L)and average(A)conditions were analyzed for evaluating the stress.The available annual harvestable fuelwood in the watershed is in the minimum and maximum ranges of 2283.28 to 4066.00 tons,respectively,per year whereas it has a demand of 110.76 tons as the minimum to 3659 tons as the maximum annually.This shows that in the current availabilitydemand scenario,the watershed does not have fuelwood crisis in the present situation but needs to maintain the sustainability of the system.Based on our study,it is concluded that,globally,more spatio-temporal study is required to understand the issues at the local level.     

Effects of anthropogenic disturbances on vegetation diversity and structure: a case study in the remnant forests surrounding the village ecosystems of Tripura,Northeast India

The types, frequency, and intensity of human interference with forests markedly affect the vegetation dynamics. Assessment of the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on forest diversity and structure is one of the central issues related to human behaviour and forest ecosystems and management. Both species diversity and density are very sensitive to local anthropogenic disturbance, which can be reduced depending on land-use systems. We used 10 line transects of 500 × 10 m to record and measure all plants ≥10 cm girth in some of the remaining forests surrounding villages in Tripura, Northeast India. To predict the effects of anthropogenic pressure on species richness and forest structure, we recorded and scored all ongoing disturbances in all transects of the forests. Although our study did not show any significant effects on the mean number of species, all diversity indices were significantly affected by disturbance. Total stem density (F = 128.60, p < 0.0001) and basal area (F = 65.30, p < 0.0001) of the forest stands were significantly affected by disturbance. Disturbance significantly (F = 84.81, p < 0.0001) impacts the abundance of mature voluminous trees removed by extensive illegal logging. Further, stem density at the middle (F = 10.01, p < 0.05) and upper (F = 131.70, p < 0.0001) canopy stories was also reduced by high disturbance intensity. The present analysis will be useful to policy-makers and planners for implementation of sustainable forest management at both the local and regional scale.     

Sustaining livelihoods in face of groundwater depletion: a case study of Punjab, India

The study focuses on assessing the sustainable livelihoods of farmers in Indian Punjab focusing on the key aspects of cropping pattern, cost of cultivation, agricultural productivity and profitability amongst different classes of farmers at different levels of groundwater depletion. It further gives a comparative analysis of the proportionate gains the farmers avail from the government subsidies of electricity and procurement price and relates it to their coping mechanisms to sustain agriculture in future. The findings indicate to the fact that technology to extract groundwater, being capital intensive, gives greater accessibility to groundwater to large farmers who gain enormously from growing the remunerative but water-intensive rice crop. Electricity subsidy being not targeted is also misappropriated by the resource rich, water extraction machine owners. To cope with this resource depletion, the large farmers dig and deepen more tube-wells and the small and marginal farmers with little savings who are unable to invest in costly water extraction machines, buy water, shift to less profitable maize crop, lease out or sell their land.     

Evaluation of sustainability using an integrated approach at process and product level: a case study

The present world is facing problems like rapid depletion of natural resources and undesired environmental changes on a global scale. Manufacturing organisations are realising the importance of mitigating the present crisis and are adopting sustainable manufacturing principles. Since it is important to achieve sustainable manufacturing, sustainability assessment models were developed. Sustainability assessment models have their own drawbacks and may not provide clear scope for complete sustainable development. A system approach has been developed to overcome this shortcoming by integrating various sustainability assessment models that are already in practice. This article reports the advantages of collecting the advantages of individual sustainability assessment models and how the implementation of the integrated approach has helped to identify the current sustainability level and the scope for future developments in an automotive industry.     

Exergy efficiency analysis of a refurbished dwelling: a case study in Ljubljana,Slovenia

Buildings contribute almost half of the world's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Energy and water consumption are some of the largest and fastest growing pressures on the global environment. The use of energy is mainly attributed to the heating and cooling of buildings. The type of materials used in the construction of buildings plays a significant role in the life-cycle emissions of each dwelling. Changing the material use in the construction of an existing building and adding insulation could have a major impact on energy use and the environment of the building in its entire life cycle. This paper investigates the amount of exergy savings and the decrease in CO₂ emissions resulting from the refurbishing of an existing building in Ljubljana. This study results from the growing awareness that in the choice of building materials, the designer must consider not only the requirements of the owner and occupier of the building, but also the resulting energy savings, the resource base and the effects of the manufacturing and processing of building materials on the environment. The exergy efficiency of the material use is calculated and the environmental impact assessment of energy and material use is accounted for.     

Sustainability assessment of EPS-geofoam in road construction: a case study

ABSTRACT

In the present study, construction procedure and performance assessment of expanded polystyrene EPS-geofoam layer, which is utilized in the repair and rehabilitation of road work, is demonstrated. EPS geo-foam application was suggested after observing excessive settlement and distress of approach roads near Cross drainage (C-D) works constructed on bypass road of an important National Highway Project in India. EPS-geofoam was used as an alternative to earth backfill in approaches of newly constructed culvert on the same bypass road on one side of the C-D work and, for comparison purpose; the other side of the C-D work was retained with existing earth backfill. EPS-Geofoam was convenient to handle, easy to place and executed effeciently in terms of machineries and man power. Also, after 6 months of observation, it was noted that Pavement Quality Concrete (PQC) constructed over earthfill material have shown sign of distress and longitudinal cracks were observed due to excessive settlement; on the other hand PQC constructed over EPS-geofoam was intact with no sign of distress. Outcome of the study suggest the use of EPS-geofoam in similar situations as per the proposed guidelines for construction as well as cross-sectional details and design recommended.     

Challenges of small protected areas in urban cities: a case study of Okhla Bird Sanctuary,India

Protected areas have been earmarked throughout the world for the purpose of conserving the biodiversity. The protected areas are facing serious threats due to rapid urban growth, especially in the developing countries like India. The current threats and impacts of urbanization on the Okhla Bird Sanctuary (Delhi, India) have been presented in this paper as a case in point. Uncontrolled urbanization and the lack of policy implementation have been identified as one of the major contributors to incessant biodiversity loss in India and other countries. In addition, a possible management framework for a smaller protected area in an urban setting is presented in brief.     

Causation in risk assessment and management: models, inference, biases, and a microbial risk-benefit case study

Causal inference of exposure-response relations from data is a challenging aspect of risk assessment with important implications for public and private risk management. Such inference, which is fundamentally empirical and based on exposure (or dose)-response models, seldom arises from a single set of data; rather, it requires integrating heterogeneous information from diverse sources and disciplines including epidemiology, toxicology, and cell and molecular biology. The causal aspects we discuss focus on these three aspects: drawing sound inferences about causal relations from one or more observational studies; addressing and resolving biases that can affect a single multivariate empirical exposure-response study; and applying the results from these considerations to the microbiological risk management of human health risks and benefits of a ban on antibiotic use in animals, in the context of banning enrofloxacin or macrolides, antibiotics used against bacterial illnesses in poultry, and the effects of such bans on changing the risk of human food-borne campylobacteriosis infections. The purposes of this paper are to describe novel causal methods for assessing empirical causation and inference; exemplify how to deal with biases that routinely arise in multivariate exposure- or dose-response modeling; and provide a simplified discussion of a case study of causal inference using microbial risk analysis as an example. The case study supports the conclusion that the human health benefits from a ban are unlikely to be greater than the excess human health risks that it could create, even when accounting for uncertainty. We conclude that quantitative causal analysis of risks is a preferable to qualitative assessments because it does not involve unjustified loss of information and is sound under the inferential use of risk results by management.     

Benthic fauna in relation to pollution: A case study at River Chambal near Kota in Central India

The Chambal river, subjected to industrial and sewage pollution, was studied with reference to the benthic fauna. Twenty seven taxa of benthic fauna of four main groups were observed at the stretch of the river: Oligochaeta, Diptera, Mollusca and Insecta (“others”). It was noted that the pollution input zone shows less fauna. The analysis of various physicochemical parameters showed an increase in pollution where domestic and industrial effluent were added. Changes in the benthic community have been explained with the help of the Diversity Index. The species diversity values showed a decrease from the prepollution point to the effluent discharge channel with an increase at the posteffluent point, indicating it to be a recovery zone. The coefficient of correlation was assessed between different physicochemical and different groups of benthic fauna.     

Community action for environmental restoration: a case study on collective social capital in India

In southern India, tens of thousands of village-level irrigation systems (‘tanks’ and feeder channels) are in disrepair. This paper analyses the results of a local NGO effort that focused on awareness-raising and advice to bring about self-sustained community action for irrigation system restoration. After designing a model structure that contains both motivational and capacity (social capital) factors, it is found that (pre-existing) collective social capital, as measured through five simple indicators, strongly correlates with success of the NGO strategy. The intensity of the NGO’s effort shows a negative correlation with success, however. The discussion focuses on issues of social capital definition and measurement and the practical implications of the concept for environmental action, especially the difference between using existing social capital for environmental management versus the construction of social capital as a basis for later self-sustained environmental work. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

A pattern for partnership between LMDH and Perhutani to enhance local community prosperity and preserve the forest: a case study at RPH Besowo,Kediri Regency,Indonesia

The deforestation in Indonesia is already alarming. One of the strategies used by the government to overcome forest deforestation is social forestry. This program is called PHBM (Pengelolaan Hutan Bersama Masyarakat/Joint Forest Management) which is basically a partnership program. This study aims at describing the partnership program between a local organization (i.e. LMDH) and a government unit (i.e. RPH of Perhutani) within the PHBM program. The objectives of this study are to (a) describe the model of partnerships between LMDH and RPH Besowo for sustainable forest management and local community empowerment; (b) determine the contribution of the forest to the national economy and rural household income; and (c) determine the obstacles commonly found in Besowo forest that have to be faced during the implementation of the partnerships. The study shows that with good partnership between these two units, the prosperity of the local community can be enhanced and the forest preservation can be maintained. The model of the partnerships in this particular area in Indonesia is expected to be applicable as well in other rural areas in Indonesia, as well as in other developing countries.     

Exploring quality of life concerns in the context of sustainable rural development at the local level: a Greek case study

Quality of life concerns in rural development planning and management processes at the local level need to be identified and evaluated through participatory bottom–up approaches. This paper provides an overview of the main issues related to the quality of life concept in the context of rural sustainable development and discusses the need for operational governance models in order to identify, evaluate, and incorporate in action planning quality of life concerns at the local level. Quality of life issues are explored through a governance model applied to a rural Greek case study as part of a sustainable development planning and management process.     

Risk assessment and pathway study of arsenic in industrially contaminated sites of Hyderabad: a case study

Different areas in the industrial region of Patancheru near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (A.P), India are contaminated with high concentration of arsenic, which is attributed to industrial source like veterinary chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticide industries, etc. Fourteen villages of this area of Patancheru were assessed for arsenic contamination by collecting samples of water (surface and ground), soil, fodder, milk, and vegetables. The total arsenic content in the whole blood, urine, hair, and nails of the residents showing arsenical skin lesions and other clinical manifestations were also studied. To understand the bioavailability of arsenic in this environment and its possible entry into human food chain, speciation studies of arsenic was carried out and the results are presented in this paper.     

Strategic environmental assessment application for sustainable transport-related air quality policies: a case study in Hanoi City,Vietnam

Recognition has grown among policy-makers that early in the decision-making process, there is a need for an environmental assessment of the effects of the policy, plan, and program (PPP) and their alternatives. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is widely recognized as a supporting tool that systematically integrates environmental aspects into strategic decision-making processes, thereby contributing to sustainable development. In this study, SEA was applied for an integrated assessment of environmental, social, and economic impacts of a wide range of scenarios for transport-related air quality policies to help decision-makers in identifying the most sustainable scenario with the purpose of reducing carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations from transport emissions in Hanoi City, Vietnam. In conducting SEA process, the urban air dispersion model MUAIR was used as a quantitative tool in prediction of CO concentrations. To evaluate the predicted impacts of scenarios, the SEA objectives concerning sustainability and the corresponding sustainable indicators were identified. Based on the likely significant predicted impacts on landscape, biodiversity, and health benefits, mitigation measures were proposed. These included planning in infrastructure development and implementation of public education campaign. The results of predicted and evaluated impacts of scenarios as well as proposed mitigation measures were taken into account for supporting sound decision-making that is consistent with the principles of sustainable development. Considering sustainable impacts of the scenarios, the SEA result clearly indicates that a combination of policy for public transport development and policy for installation of oxidation catalytic converter for motorcycles is the most sustainable scenario for reducing CO concentrations from transport emissions.     

Threatened access, risk of eviction and forest degradation: case study of sustainability problem in a remote rural region in India

Degradation of common pool resource (CPR) in developing countries has often been traced to high rate attached by poor people in discounting future flow of benefits, market failure, pressure on carrying capacity or sometimes property right failure. However, the concept of poorly enforced property right and particularly risk of eviction as a measure of insecurity of land tenure has not been adequately examined in the context of degradation of CPR. A game theoretic framework is developed where degradation of forest grazing land is explained in terms of changes in perceived risk of eviction from the encroached land. Logit regression is applied to empirically analyse the impact of perceived fear of reduced access and other variables on the state of degradation. For this purpose, a sample of seven villages is considered in tribal dominated region in West Bengal, India. It is observed that apart from a number of socio-economic variables like poverty, mutual trust and other incomes, perceived fear of eviction (represented as a dummy variable) arising from insecurity of forest land tenure, has a significant impact on forest degradation status in the study region.     

Spatiotemporal change in urban landscape and its effect on behavior of diurnal temperature range: a case study of Pune District,India

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Urbanization plays a crucial role in the urban landscape dynamics, contributing to numerous ecosystems and urban climate changes. Diurnal variation of...     

The win-win pathway of economic growth and CO2 emission reduction: a case study for China

ABSTRACT

Continuously reducing the CO₂ intensity of GDP is the core strategy for developing countries to realize the dual targets of economic growth and CO₂ emissions reduction. The measures are twofold: one is to strengthen energy saving and decrease energy intensity of GDP and the other is to promote energy structural decarbonization and reduce CO₂ intensity of energy consumption. In order to control global temperature rise no more than 2°C, the decrease in CO₂ intensity of GDP needs surpass 4% before 2030, but it could be merely about 2% based on the current trend. Therefore, all countries ought to speed up the low-carbon transition in energy and economy. As for China, keeping a continuous decline in CO₂ intensity of GDP of 4%–5% will ensure the realization of the NDC objectives, and also promotes the early peaking of CO₂ emissions before 2030. China will play a positive leading role in realizing a win-win low-carbon development coordinating sustainable development and climate change mitigation.     

Barriers Beyond the Partners: Bureaucratic and Political Constraints to Implementing Joint Forest Management in Tamil Nadu,India

Whereas past research has treated co-management of common pool resources as if villagers and project implementing authorities were the only relevant actors, numerous external factors beyond the control of these two partners create barriers to successful co-management. This paper draws on discussions with Forest Department officials to examine the influence of these forces on the outcomes of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Tamil Nadu, India. An empirical inquiry into the operational aspects of JFM indicates the important roles of political parties, powerful people, and other state institutions and functionaries as well as the flow of foreign funding. Further, the strong demand by local people for socio-economic development interventions as opposed to improvement of degraded forests belittles the role of the Forest Department relative to other departments. Numerous other conditioning factors and relationships are explored. The authors call for reforms in public governance to allow better participation of all the actors involved for this participatory management approach to succeed and sustain.     

A geographic information system-based socioeconomic impact assessment of the broadening of national highway in Sikkim Himalayas: a case study

Socioeconomic impact assessment (SEIA) is an undermined area of environmental impact assessment of highway projects. The problem becomes even more pronounced in remote and difficult terrains. The challenge in data gathering and impact prediction in mountainous areas can be mitigated using Geographic Information System (GIS). In this paper, an attempt has been made to apply the techniques of GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to perform a rapid SEIA on broadening of national highway in a mountainous terrain like Sikkim. The proposed spatial impact model shows the distribution of impacts of highway broadening on socioeconomic attributes and generates a composite impact inventory map. The composite impact is found to be slightly to moderately beneficial for the study area. Cross-validation of Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) and sensitivity analysis have also been carried out for model evaluation. Cross-validation results show a reliable spatial interpolation. Sensitivity analysis shows a robust decision model and identifies the socioeconomic attributes to which the spatial impact model is sensitive. The study presents a novel methodology of rapid spatial SEIA.