Community-based adaptation in low-lying islands in the Philippines: challenges and lessons learned

Community-based adaptation (CBA) seeks to address climate risks and socio-economic drivers of vulnerability simultaneously. However, as CBA activities appear very similar to standard development work, difficulties in identifying good practices arise. To clarify the role of CBA, this study elucidated how climate change can impact pre-existing development problems by investigating the experiences of four low-lying island communities in central Philippines. The islands currently suffer from frequent and extreme tidal flooding (following an earthquake-induced land subsidence in 2013, with a magnitude that is broadly similar to sea-level rise projections under a 1.5 to 2 °C global warming scenario), and endured a dry spell in 2016. The study also identified various publicly and privately initiated adaptation strategies, and evaluated their resilience against actual biophysical events. The study conducted focus group discussions with local leaders and in-depth interviews with government officials and residents in March 2016. Results show that tidal flooding impacted almost all aspects of daily life on the islands, while the dry spell completely depleted their limited water supplies. The strategies implemented by governments and NGOs (e.g., seawalls, rainwater collectors) were found to be inadequate in preventing tidal flooding and compensating for the dry spell. Also, communities used coral stones and plastic waste for raising the floors of their homes, which have an erosive effect on their capacity to adapt in the long term. Lack of community participation in publicly initiated projects and lack of adaptation funding for community-based strategies were the greatest obstacles to implementing climate-resilient solutions.     

Anatomical and ultrastructural studies of chemical defence in the sponge Dysidea fragilis

The marine sponge Dysidea fragilis from El Mar Menor, a hypersaline coastal lagoon (Murcia, Spain), contains the furanosesquiterpenoid ent-furodysinin as the major secondary metabolite. D. fragilis emits a defensive white fluid when it is disturbed. Electron micrographs of this fluid revealed intact vesiculated cells together with other amorphous material. Dissociated cells are more rounded in shape but maintain the same ultrastructural features as cells observed in ultra-thin sections of the whole sponge. The defensive secretion is composed mainly of sponge cells with abundant light vesicles. Sometimes these light vesicles appear to open into the intercellular space; this correlates with surface blebs on these cells observed under scanning electron microscopy. The intracellular location of ent-furodysinin was confirmed by Erlich staining. In laboratory assays, we examined the role of ent-furodysinin as a feeding deterrent to generalist fish predators. It was isolated from D. fragilis and incorporated into a carrageenan-based artificial diet. The addition of ent-furodysinin to the artificial diet reduced feeding by the fish Thalassoma pavo. Similarly, fish did not feed on artificial diet above which defensive secretion of D. fragilis had been ejected with a small syringe. Received: 4 June 1997 / Accepted: 28 January 1998     

Surveillance programme on dioxin levels in soils in the Campo de Gibraltar (southwest Spain)

The results of an epidemiologic study undertaken by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) after commission by the Spanish Parliament indicated that Huelva and Cádiz were the zones in Andalusia with elevated risk of cancer. A 6% (women) and 10% (men) cancer mortality excess was observed with respect to the other six Andalusian provinces. Huelva and Cádiz are located in the south-western region of Spain, and are characterized by a strong industrial activity concentrated in several industrial sites. This situation led to two environmental surveys in these areas, in which the presence of dioxins was studied among other parameters. A PCDD/F assessment in soils of the Campo de Gibraltar (Cádiz) was carried out from June 2003 to June 2004. A total of 20 samples were collected in this study divided in two sampling campaigns. The first 10 samples were taken in locations affected by high industrial activity zones as well as in landfills (hotspots). The rest of the samples were collected in areas that were not expected to be contaminated, such as agricultural zones and forests. I-TEQ values of the samples ranged from 0.26 to 15.08 ng/kg dm. In all, 85% of the samples were below the limit of 5 ng I-TEQ/kg I-TEQ concentrations of three samples only surpassed this limit. These zones corresponded to a landfill, a quarry used for dumping chemical product containers and a sample from the sewage system of the industrial site. These sites were used neither for agricultural nor for public purposes.     

Removal of atrazine and four organophosphorus pesticides from environmental waters by diatomaceous earth-remediation method

A new viable remediation technique based on the use of diatomaceous earth is proposed to improve the ecological system. Its ability to remove atrazine and the four organophosphorus pesticides parathion-methyl, chlorpyriphos, fenamiphos and methidathion from river and waste waters has been proven. A series of experiments including variable conditions, such as temperature, pH, contact time, pesticide concentration and adsorbent quantity, were performed to demonstrate the efficiency of pesticide removal from three different water samples. The batch experiments showed that diatomaceous earth was able to remove 95% of chlorpyriphos, 75% of methidathion and parathion-methyl and 55% of atrazine and fenamiphos from all types of waters tested. The individual adsorption of each pesticide on diatomaceous earth could be described by the Freundlich isotherm and a tentative adsorption mechanism was proposed. The Freundlich coefficient (Kf) and Freundlich constant (1/n) appeared to be closely related to the physicochemical properties (Kow, solubility) of the compounds. The actual results support the conclusion that diatomaceous earth has the potential to serve as an extractant in remediation techniques.     

Pilot-scale application of a single-stage hybrid airlift BioCAST bioreactor for treatment of ammonium from nitrite-limited wastewater by a partial nitrification/anammox process

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper presents the treatment of a nitrite-limited wastewater by partial nitrification/anammox process under different dissolved oxygen (DO)...     

Chlorophyll and suspended sediment mapping to the Caribbean Sea from rivers in the capital city of the Dominican Republic using ALOS AVNIR-2 data

This study aims to study the distribution of contaminants in rivers that flow into the Caribbean Sea using chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and suspended sediment (SS) as markers and ALOS AVNIR-2 satellite sensor data. The Haina River (HN) and Ozama and Isabela Rivers (OZ-IS) that flow through the city of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, were chosen. First, in situ spectral reflectance/Chl-a and SS datasets obtained from these rivers were acquired in March 2011 (case A: with no rain influence) and June 2011 (case B: with rain influence), and the estimation algorithm of Chl-a and SS using AVNIR-2 data was developed from the datasets. Moreover, the developed algorithm was applied to AVNIR-2 data in November 2010 for case A and August 2010 for case B. Results revealed that for Chl-a and SS estimations under cases A and B conditions, the reflectance ratio of AVNIR-2 band 4 and band 3 (AV4/AV3) and the reflectance of AVNIR-2 band 4 (AV4) were effective. The Chl-a and SS mapping results obtained using AVNIR-2 data corresponded with the field survey results. Finally, an outline of the distribution of contaminants at the mouth of the river that flows into the Caribbean Sea was obtained for both rivers in cases A and B.     

Predicting dioxin-like PCBs soil contamination levels using milk of grazing animal as indicator

Dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs) are ubiquitous persistent organic pollutants of recognized negative effects on human health. Assessing highly polluted areas should be an important public health issue. This study proposes to use the milk of grazing animals as a bioindicator of dl-PCB contamination in the environment. The hypothesis is that milk concentration of dl-PCBs are related to soil concentrations of these compounds, and that soils are generally reflective of a larger environmental issue of dl-PCB contamination. In this study, we evaluate the possibility of predicting soil concentrations using milk of sheep, cows and buffalos in a spatial model. For this purpose, samples of soil and milk collected in Campania (Italy) were introduced in a GIS platform to perform geostatistical analysis for building a simple predictive model. The ordinary least squares regressions (OLS) showed a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.05) between soil and milk contamination. However, this relationship was spatially variable. Thus, a geographically weighted regression (GWR) was performed, obtaining R² values of 0.91, 0.77 and 0.66 for sheep’s, buffalo’s and cow’s milk respectively. Assessed the mathematical relationships between the variables, new data was introduced to evaluate the performance of the model. Predictions of soil contamination with dl-PCBs using sheep’s, cow’s and buffalo’s milk showed a mean error of 23%, 25% and 36% respectively. According to these results the sheep’s milk can be considered the best bioindicator of dl-PCBs contamination among the three species. The results of this project evidence the potentialities of the proposed approach to assess bioindicator performance in a spatial predictive model.     

Evaluation of the Spanish hot dip galvanising sector as a source of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans

A survey to estimate the polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) emissions of Spanish hot dip galvanising sector was carried out during 2002. This investigation is the first presenting Spanish experimental data related to this industrial sector. Three different matrices: flue gas, ash and filter dust were tested to quantify the PCDD/Fs generated during the galvanising process. The organic source of PCDD/F formation could be from the insufficient degreasing o from inhibitors or additives used in the pickling steps such as quinoline, isoquinoline, 8-methylquinoline or polyether phosphoric acid. Low levels PCDD/Fs were achieved in air emissions when air control devices are used. On the contrary, filter dusts are highly contaminated; indicating that the absence of air control devices would increase the risk of fugitive emissions. Homologue profiles and Principal Component Analysis demonstrate there are differences in the formation mechanisms in the bath zone (ashes) compared to the stack location (filter dusts and air emissions), related to the de novo synthesis and reaction time. The annual PCDD/F emission to the atmosphere for this sector during 2002 has been estimated in 0.023g I-TEQ. The emission factor of plants with air control devices has been calculated at 0.030microg I-TEQ/ton of galvanised steel.     

Ten years measuring PCDDs/PCDFs in ambient air in Catalonia (Spain)

This work summarizes the results of a ten year surveillance programme on PCDD/F in ambient air carried out in Catalonia (Spain). The study has been conducted by the Dioxin Laboratory of Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in collaboration with the Environment Department of the Catalonian Government. 175 samples have been collected throughout Catalonia from 1994 to 2004. Different sampling locations classified as industrial, traffic, urban, suburban and rural sites have been monitored in order to find the most contaminated zones as well as the ones with expected background concentrations. The highest concentrations found in this study were determined at the industrial locations. Concentrations ranging from 5 to 1196 fg I-TEQ/m3, with a mean value of 140 fg I-TEQ/m3 and from 10 to 357 fg I-TEQ/m3, with a mean value of 72 fg I-TEQ/m3 were determined in industrial and traffic sampling points, respectively. In contrast, the lowest concentrations were found in rural stations, ranging from 5 to 45 fg I-TEQ/m3, with a mean value of 28 fg I-TEQ/m3. The PCDD/F concentration trend in Catalonian ambient air shown a clear drop of the median values occurred during the study sampling period. A decline of about 70% was observed from 1997-1998 to 2003-2004.     

Motivations for Adopting the ISO 14001 Standard: A Study of Spanish Industrial Companies

This article analyzes what motivates companies to obtain ISO 14001 certification and what factors within companies determine the success or failure of the environmental management standard. The most important motivators appear to be the worldwide recognition accorded the ISO 14000 norm, and its applicability to all sectors. The factors that most contribute to success are the company's experience in management systems and involvement by management. Failure most often results from lack of employee training and organizational rigidity. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.