Intra-annual dynamics of water stress in the central Indian Highlands from 2002 to 2012

India’s continued development depends on the availability of adequate water. This paper applies a data-driven approach to estimate the intra-annual dynamics of water stress across the central Indian Highlands over the period 2002–2012. We investigate the spatial distribution of water demanding sectors including industry, domestic, irrigation, livestock and thermal power generation. We also examine the vulnerability of urban centers within the study area to water stress. We find that 74 % of the area of the central Indian Highlands experienced water stress (defined as demand exceeding supply) for 4 or more months out of the year. The rabi (winter) season irrigation drives the intra-annual water stress across the landscape. The Godavari basin experiences the most surface water stress while the Ganga and Narmada basins experience water stress due to groundwater deficits as a result of rabi irrigation. All urban centers experience water stress at some time during a year. Urban centers in the Godavari basin are considerably water stressed, for example, Achalpur, Nagpur and Chandrapur experience water stress 8 months out of the year. Irrigation dominates water use accounting for 95 % of the total water demand, with substantial increases in irrigated land over the last decade. Managing land use to promote hydrologic functions will become increasingly important as water stress increases.     

Conservatism vs. conservationism: differential influences of social identities on beliefs about fracking

ABSTRACT

Although recent expansions in hydraulic fracking operations across the United States have led to greater news coverage and attention from the public, overall understanding remains fairly low. For some, relevant social identities, including environmental or political, may provide a short cut to becoming informed about fracking, or to determining what they believe about it and how that influences their positions on fracking policies. Social identity influence frameworks provide an approach to understanding the relationships between belief and identity, which this study investigates through its affiliational and attitudinal components. National survey data are used to model pathways from environmental and political identities to beliefs about risks associated with fracking. Environmental attitudes significantly predicted belief that fracking has health risks, and mediated a relationship from environmental group affiliation, but environmental information was not significant. Ideology had direct and indirect effects, through partisan media use, while partisanship had direct effects on beliefs about environmental risks.     

Sustainability assessment of water governance alternatives: the case of Guanacaste Costa Rica

Many new forms of water governance are emerging in response to economic and social needs and wants, as well as water-related problems such as scarcity, injustice, and conflict. However, there is little evidence on how sustainable these governance regimes are, which would be critical for making progress toward sustainable and just water governance. In this article, we present the results of a transdisciplinary multi-criteria sustainability assessment of alternative governance regimes for Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. The assessment specifies differences between sustainable and unsustainable governance regimes, while also pinpointing how the current water governance regime performs in comparison to those alternatives. The findings indicate that those governance regimes with just and deliberative stakeholder involvement, secure groundwater reserves, and healthy dry tropical ecosystems were considered sustainable and just. In contrast, the current state of water governance was found to be at high risk of digressing toward unsustainable systems where rural communities lack rights and influence, where economies favor agro-industry and high impact tourism at the expense of rural livelihoods, and where water scarcity overwhelms weak governance. This assessment study clarifies water sustainability goals, asserts the need for transformational change, and offers a pragmatic foundation for actions toward sustainable water governance.     

Evaluation of Progress in Achieving TMDL Mandated Nitrogen Reductions in the Neuse River Basin, North Carolina

Management efforts to control excess algal growth in the Neuse River and Estuary, North Carolina began in the 1980s, with an initial focus on phosphorus (P) input reduction. However, continued water quality problems in the 1990s led to development of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nitrogen (N) in 1999 to improve conditions in N-sensitive estuarine waters. Evaluation of the effectiveness of management actions implemented in the Neuse River basin is a challenging endeavor due to natural variations in N export associated with climate. A simplified approach is presented that allows evaluation of trends in flow-normalized nutrient loading to provide feedback on effectiveness of implemented actions to reduce N loading to estuarine waters. The approach is applied to five watershed locations, including the headwaters of the Neuse Estuary. Decreases in nitrate + nitrite (NO₃–N) concentrations occurred throughout the basin and were largest just downstream of the Raleigh metropolitan area. Conversely, concentrations of total Kjeldahl N (TKN) increased at many stations, particularly under high flow conditions. This indicates a relative increase in organic N (Org-N) inputs since the mid-1990s. Overall, patterns in different N fractions at watershed stations indicate both partial success in reducing N inputs and ongoing challenges for N loading under high flow conditions. In downstream waters, NO₃–N concentrations decreased concurrent with TMDL implementation in the upper portion of the estuary but not in the middle and lower reaches. The lack of progress in the middle and lower reaches of the estuary may, at least in part, be affected by remineralization of settled particle-bound N deposited under high river flows.     

Tissue bioaccumulation patterns, xenobiotic biotransformation and steroid hormone levels in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fed a diet containing perfluoroactane sulfonic or perfluorooctane carboxylic acids

In the present study, groups of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were fed gelatine capsules containing fish-food spiked with PFOA or PFOS (0.2 mg kg⁻¹ fish) and solvent (methanol). The capsules were given at days 0, 3 and 6. Blood, liver and whole kidney samples were collected prior to exposure (no solvent control), and at days 2, 5, 8 and 14 after exposure (Note: that day 14 after exposure is equal to 7 d recovery period). We report on the differences in the tissue bioaccumulation patterns of PFOS and PFOA, in addition to tissue and compound differences in modulation pattern of biotransformation enzyme genes. We observed that the level of PFOS and PFOA increased in the blood, liver and kidney during the exposure period. Different PFOS and PFOA bioaccumulation patterns were observed in the kidney and liver during exposure- and after the recovery periods. Particularly, after the recovery period, PFOA levels in the kidney and liver tissues were almost at the control level. On the contrary, PFOS maintained an increase with tissue-specific differences, showing a higher bioaccumulation potential (also in the blood), compared with PFOA. While PFOS and PFOA produced an apparent time-dependent increase in kidney CYP3A, CYP1A1 and GST expression, similar effects were only temporary in the liver, significantly increasing at sampling day 2. PFOA and PFOS exposure resulted in significant decreases in plasma estrone, testosterone and cortisol levels at sampling day 2, and their effects differed with 17α-methyltestostrerone showing significant decrease by PFOA (also for cholesterol) and increase by PFOS. PFOA significantly increased estrone and testosterone, and no effects were observed for cortisol, 17α-methyltestosterone and cholesterol at sampling day 5. Overall, the changes in plasma steroid hormone levels parallel changes in CYP3A mRNA levels. Given that there are no known studies that have demonstrated such tissue differences in bioaccumulation patterns with associated differences in toxicological responses in any fish species or lower vertebrate, the present findings provide some potential insights and basis for a better understanding of the possible mechanisms of PFCs toxicity that need to be studied in more detail.     

Influence of organic waste and residue mud additions on chemical,physical and microbial properties of bauxite residue sand

Background, aim and scope  

In an alumina refinery, bauxite ore is treated with sodium hydroxide at high temperatures and pressures and for every tonne of alumina produced, about 2 tonnes of alkaline, saline bauxite processing waste is also produced. At Alcoa, a dry stacking system of disposal is used, and it is the sand fraction of the processing waste that is rehabilitated. There is little information available regarding the most appropriate amendments to add to the processing sand to aid in revegetation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the addition of organic wastes (biosolids and poultry manure), in the presence or absence of added residue mud, would affect the properties of the residue sand and its suitability for revegetation.     

Using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model to link urinary biomarker concentrations to dietary exposure of perchlorate

Exposure to perchlorate is widespread in the United States and many studies have attempted to character the perchlorate exposure by estimating the average daily intakes of perchlorate. These approaches provided population-based estimates, but did not provide individual-level exposure estimates. Until recently, exposure activity database such as CSFII, TDS and NHANES become available and provide opportunities to evaluate the individual-level exposure to chemical using exposure surveillance dataset. In this study, we use perchlorate as an example to investigate the usefulness of urinary biomarker data for predicting exposures at the individual level. Specifically, two analyses were conducted: (1) using data from a controlled human study to examine the ability of a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model to predict perchlorate concentrations in single-spot and cumulative urine samples; and (2) using biomarker data from a population-based study and a PBPK model to demonstrate the challenges in linking urinary biomarker concentrations to intake doses for individuals. Results showed that the modeling approach was able to characterize the distribution of biomarker concentrations at the population level, but predicting the exposure-biomarker relationship for individuals was much more difficult. The type of information needed to reduce the uncertainty in estimating intake doses, for individuals, based on biomarker measurements is discussed.     

A Probabilistic Production Costing Analysis of SO2 Emissions Reduction Strategies for Ohio: Emissions,Cost, and Employment Tradeoffs

A new approach for state- and utility-level analysis of the cost and regional economic impacts of strategies for reducing utility SO₂ emissions is summarized and applied to Ohio. The methodology is based upon probabilistic production costing and economic input-output analysis. It is an improvement over previous approaches because it: (1) accurately models random outages of generating units, “must-run” constraints on unit output, and the distribution of power demands; and (2) runs quickly on a microcomputer and yet considers the entire range of potential control strategies from a systems perspective. The input-output analysis considers not only the economic effects of utility fuel use and capital investment, but also those of increased electric rates. Two distinct strategies are found to be most attractive for Ohio. The first, more flexible one, consists of emissions dispatching (ED) alone to meet short run emissions reduction targets. A 75 percent reduction can then be achieved by the turn of the century by combining ED and fuel switching (FS) with flue gas desulfiirization, limestone Injection multistage burners, and physical coal cleaning at selected plants. The second is a scrubber-based strategy which includes ED. By the year 2000, energy conservation becomes a cost effective component of these strategies. In order to minimize compliance costs, acid rain legislation which facilitates emissions trading and places regional tonnage limits on emissions is desirable.     

Alteration of acetylcholinesterase activity in Semele solida (MOLLUSCA: SEMELIDAE) as a biochemical response to coastal anthropogenic impact

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was analyzed as a molecular marker indicative of exposure to organophosphorus pesticide residues in individuals of the endemic clam species Semele solida in selected coastal locations of Chile's VIII Region. AChE activity was assayed in clams from (i) Penco Beach near the mouth of the Andalién River (Concepción Bay), (ii) Lenga Beach, near the mouth of the Lenga Estuary (San Vicente Bay), and (iii) Coliumo Beach, near the mouth of the Coliumo Estuary (Coliumo Bay). We also analyzed variations in protein content of clam hemolymph, and variability in the activity of AChE in relation to the sizes of the individual clams sampled. Collection of the clams was done using routine methods, during the spring of 2005, the period during which the use of pesticides is typically intensified in the surrounding forestry and agriculture. The results showed no significant correlation of AChE activity with either the size of the clam, or with the concentration of proteins in the hemolymph. The lowest AChE activity was observed in clams from mouth of the Andalién River (187.5 ± 34.9 Umin^?1) which was significantly less than that measured in specimens collected near the mouth of the Coliumo Estuary and the mouth of the Lenga Estuary. A very close relation was observed between the degree of anthropogenic inputs, ocean dynamics, and alterations in AChE activity in S. solida. This clam appears to be a useful indicator species, and AChE activity a sensitive marker for the presence of xenobiotics.