Conflict on the Coast: Using Geographic Information Systems to Map Potential Environmental Disputes in Matagorda Bay,Texas

The sustainable management of coastal natural resources inevitably involves identifying stakeholder conflicts and developing planning processes that prevent these conflicts from becoming intractable disputes. This study links environmental conflict to specific areas within a large ecological system. Specifically, we use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map potentially competing stakeholder values associated with establishing protected areas in Matagorda Bay, Texas. By overlaying multiple values associated with a range of stakeholders across space, we are able to identify hotspots of potential conflict as well as areas of opportunity for maximizing joint gains. Mapping stakeholder conflict is an approach to proactively locate potential controversy in response to a specific environmental management proposal and guide decision makers in crafting planning processes that mitigate the possibility of intractable disputes and facilitate the implementation of sustainable coastal policies. Results indicate that under different management scenarios, protected area proposals will generate more conflict in specific areas. Most notably, regulated uses would produce the greatest degree of conflict on or near shore, particularly at the mouth of the Colorado River. Additionally, of all the management scenarios evaluated, the prohibition of coastal structural development would generate the overall highest level of conflict within the Bay. Based on the results, we discuss the policy implications for environmental managers and provide guidance for future research on location-based conflict management within the coastal margin.     

Participatory development for regional sustainability in Western Australia: an enabling state?

Regionally specific sustainability processes that account for diverse environments and populations and that integrate social, economic, political and ecological spheres are being developed in Western Australia. A coordinated commitment to sustainability principles and a participatory philosophy by the state and local governments is necessary. This requires a transformation of the public service, from a director of passive programmes and laws to a facilitator of community projects and outcomes, towards an enabling state. An international participatory paradigm provides an array of concepts and methods for local and regional communities in partnership with government and industry to achieve this. Participatory methodologies are utilised successfully around the globe to create an institutional framework that facilitates a process of dialogue, partnership, networking, learning and managing change. This paper examines the potential contribution of a participatory approach to improve the participatory capacity of regional communities and both local and state governments towards the facilitation of regional sustainability processes.     

The role of population projections in environmental management

California and other regions in the United States are becoming more populated and ethnically diverse, and thus, ecological impacts on the wildland–urban interface are a significant policy concern. In a socioeconomic assessment focused on the geographic regions surrounding four national forests in southern California, population projections are being formulated to assist in the update of forest plans. In southern California, the projected trend of explosive population growth combined with increased ethnic and racial diversity indicates four challenges for environmental management. First, patterns of recreation use on wildlands are likely to change, and management of these areas will have to address new needs. Second, as land-management agencies face changing constituencies, new methods of soliciting public involvement from ethnic and racial groups will be necessary. Third, growth in the region is likely to encroach upon wildland areas, affecting water, air, open space, and endangered species. Fourth, in order to address all these concerns in a climate of declining budgets, resource management agencies need to strengthen collaborative relationships with other agencies in the region. How environmental managers approach these changes has widespread implications for the ecological sustainability of forests in southern California.     

Injury Severity Score alone predicts mortality when compared to EMS scene time and transport time for motor vehicle trauma patients who arrive alive to hospital

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study aims to identify the association, if any, between prehospital scene time, prehospital transport time, and Injury Severity Score (ISS) with in-hospital mortality.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on patients at least 18 years of age who arrived to the hospital alive via emergency medical services (EMS) after a motor vehicle collision (MVC) between 1992 and 2016. These patients were divided into groups based on minutes spent at the scene and in transport. The ISS of the in-hospital mortalities, as well as the entire patient sample for each time frame, was collected. Patients without documented scene time, transport time, or ISS were excluded.

Results: Four thousand one hundred ninety-four patients were captured when analyzing scene time, though only 3,980 met inclusion criteria. In addition, 4,177 patients were captured when analyzing transport time, though only 3,979 met inclusion criteria. Scene time and transport time were not statistically significant predictors of in-hospital mortality (P = .31 and P = .458, respectively). ISS was found to be a statistically significant predictor of in-hospital mortality (P < .001).

Conclusions: ISS predicts mortality independent of scene time or transport time for patients who arrive to the hospital alive following an MVC at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital. Limitations of our study include inability to capture prehospital deaths and inability to correlate ISS with prehospital injury severity scores.     

Climate Change and Energy Technologies in Undergraduate Introductory Science Textbooks

Global climate change and the implementation of energy technologies are among the most pressing issues facing society and the environment today. Related educational content spans the science disciplines. Through an analysis of introductory-level university textbooks from four major US publishers in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, this study presents trends in terminology and content. As the defining terms, “global warming” and “climate change” are used nearly equally. However, the first location of a working definition for climate change appears earlier. Energy technologies, climate change, and related environmental issues are found, on average, on ≤4% of textbook pages, and variation is large among individual textbooks. Discipline-based trends exist, especially for the energy technologies presented. Addressed separately as a non-renewable, non-fossil fuel, nuclear energy is found on ≤1% of textbook pages and unfavorably represented. The discussion within these science disciplines has implications on introductory-level education, public perception of science, and informed citizenship.     

Development and Integration of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Methods for Detection of Mitochondrial DNA and Methanobrevibacter smithii nifH Gene as Novel Microbial Source Tracking Tools

A novel microbial source tracking (MST) method based on the detection of human and non-human markers was developed and applied to track the origin of fecal pollution in water systems. Mitochondrial DNA sequences were used to develop new quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays for dog, poultry, and gull. The targets were included as part of a toolbox including human, cow, pig, and sheep assays. A primer and probe set for the detection of the human-specific nifH gene of Methanobrevibacter smithii was also designed as an indicator of human fecal contamination. The assays were tested for specificity and applied to fecal-spiked surface waters and environmental samples collected from two river catchments impacted by sources of human and non-human fecal contamination. The MST methods described were applicable to both spiked waters and environmental samples, and using the two approaches the origin of fecal pollution could be successfully determined in mixed source fecally polluted waters.     

Evaluation of Continuous Performance Monitoring Techniques for Hazardous Waste Incinerators

This paper discusses monitoring the waste destruction efficiency of hazardous waste incinerators. The particular problem is to ensure that incinerators do not release, without detection, significant quantities of waste as a result of operating fluctuations or equipment degradation. To detect these conditions, continuous, automated, and real-time source monitoring is required. Detection of degraded performance by monitoring and measuring waste compounds directly is not presently possible on a continuous basis. An alternative is to use commercially available continuous monitors to measure combustion intermediates (e.g., CO or hydrocarbons) and thereby infer waste destruction efficiency. Required, however, is a correlation between the emission of intermediates and the emission of waste. In this paper, the response of a number of these continuous monitors is compared with waste destruction efficiency measurements from a laboratory scale, liquid-spray incinerator operated on fuel oil doped with model waste compounds: benzene, chlorobenzene, acrylonitrile, and chloroform. Total hydrocarbon and CH₄ measurements are found to vary with waste emission in a nearly linear manner; however, a substantial increase in CO emission occurs before a significant amount of waste is released. These results suggest that CO may serve as an indicator of the approach of waste release, while total hydrocarbons may provide an indicator of immediate waste release.     

Adsorption and breakdown of penicillin antibiotic in the presence of titanium oxide nanoparticles in water

The fate and transport of antibiotics in natural water systems is controlled in part by interactions with nanometer (10⁻⁹ m) metal oxide particles. Experiments were performed by mixing solutions of ampicillin (AMP), a common, penicillin-class human and veterinary antibiotic, with 25 nm-TiO₂ (anatase) nanoparticles at different pH conditions. Both sorption and degradation of AMP were observed in the AMP-nanoparticle solutions. For AMP concentrations from ∼3 μM to 2.9 mM the overall AMP removal from solution can be described by linear isotherms with removal coefficients (K_r) of 3028 (±267) L kg⁻¹ at pH 2, 11,533 (±823) L kg⁻¹ at pH 4, 12,712 (±672) L kg⁻¹ at pH 6, and 1941 (±342) L kg⁻¹ at pH 8. Mass spectral analysis of AMP solutions after removal of the solid nanoparticles yielded ions that indicate the presence of peniclloic acid, penilloic acid and related de-ammoniated by-products as possible compounds resulting from the degradation of AMP at the TiO₂ surface.     

Effects of Heating Season on Residential Indoor and Outdoor Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Black Carbon, and Particulate Matter in an Urban Birth Cohort

Exposure to air pollutants has been associated with adverse health effects. However, analyses of the effects of season and ambient parameters such as ozone have not been fully conducted. Residential indoor and outdoor air levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), black carbon (measured as absorption coefficient [Abs]), and fine particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM)(2.5) were measured over two-weeks in a cohort of 5-6 year old children (n=334) living in New York City's Northern Manhattan and the Bronx between October 2005 and April 2010. The objectives were to: 1) characterize seasonal changes in indoor and outdoor levels and indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios of PAH (gas + particulate phase; dichotomized into Σ(8)PAH(semivolatile) (MW 178-206), and Σ(8)PAH(nonvolatile) (MW 228-278)), Abs, and PM(2.5); and 2) assess the relationship between PAH and ozone. Results showed that heating compared to nonheating season was associated with greater Σ(8)PAH(nonvolatile) (p<0.001) and Abs (p<0.05), and lower levels of Σ(8)PAH(semivolatile) (p<0.001). In addition, the heating season was associated with lower I/O ratios of Σ(8)PAH(nonvolatile) and higher I/O ratios of Σ(8)PAH(semivolatile) (p<0.001) compared to the nonheating season. In outdoor air, Σ(8)PAH(nonvolatile) was correlated negatively with community-wide ozone concentration (p<0.001). Seasonal changes in emission sources, air exchanges, meteorological conditions and photochemical/chemical degradation reactions are discussed in relationship to the observed seasonal trends.     

Theory of planned behaviour, identity and intentions to engage in environmental activism

This study incorporated identity constructs into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate intentions to engage in environmental activism. First year students and participants of a students of sustainability conference (n=169) were administered a questionnaire survey that measured standard TPB constructs as well as environmental group membership and self-identity as an environmental activist. Consistent with predictions, environmental group membership and self-identity were positive predictors of intentions. Thus, greater involvement in environmental groups and a stronger sense of the self as an environmental activist were associated with stronger intentions to engage in environmental activism. There was also evidence that self-identity was a stronger predictor of intentions for participants with low rather than high environmental group membership. In accordance with the standard TPB model, participants with more positive attitudes toward and a greater sense of normative support for environmental activism also had greater intentions to engage in the behaviour. The implications for groups seeking to harness support for activities to protect the environment are discussed.