WATER SAVINGS FROM LAWN WATERING RESTRICTIONS DURING A DROUGHT YEAR,FORT COLLINS,COLORADO1

ABSTRACT: During the drought year of 1977, unusually low river flows during the summer caused the City of Fort Collins, Colorado, to institute lawn watering restrictions for six weeks as a conservation measure. Water use during the restriction period decreased 41 percent below the previous year. The effectiveness of the restrictions, however, has been unclear because abnormally wet weather also appeared to reduce evapotranspiration rates during the period the restrictions were in effect. The statistical analysis indicates that the reduction in water use due to lawn watering restrictions was 603 acre-feet and that abnormal weather reduced use by an additional 659 acre-feet during the same period. During a period of normal evapotranspiration rates, such restrictions would be expected to reduce Fort Collins municipal water usage by 19.7 percent.     

GROUND WATER IN PERSPECTIVE1

ABSTRACT. Owing to their enormous capacity, ground-water reservoirs are at least equal in importance to the ground water itself. As regulators of water movement in the hydrological cycle, these reservoirs surpass all lakes combined, natural and manmade. While many aquifers are not well understood, data on many others are adequate for long-range broad-scale planning. An example is the basalt aquifer of the Snake River Plain in Idaho. However, the area has managerial problems which concern the time, the place and the feasibility of manipulations of water. All continents of the world contain great aquifers. For every huge aquifer, however, hundreds of smaller ones occur, and even these contain astonishing amounts of water. Aquifers in the Ohio River Basin of the United States are good examples. Management of total water resources is a difficult problem at many places. But many problems could be met and many water shortages alleviated or eliminated by use of aquifers, not merely as sources of water, but as reservoirs for management of water.     

DETERMINISTIC MODELS FOR PREDICTING RESIDENTIAL WATER CONSUMPTION1

ABSTRACT: Forecasts of future urban water demand traditionally have been made by the projection of historic trends in per capita consumption and population. This paper outlines the use of two deterministic models to forecast the residential component of urban water demand. The models incorporate specific representation of the activities which result in water consumption at each residence. Predictions of water use can then be made by modeling the changes expected in the number of these activities and the consumption for each such activity.     

The influence of place attachment, and moral and normative concerns on the conservation of native vegetation: A test of two behavioural models

This study examines the influence of place attachment, values, beliefs and personal norms about environmental action on the conservation of native vegetation in two primary production settings in South Australia. We use regression and multiple mediation analyses to test a base model of pro-environmental behaviour which includes variables from value-belief-norm (VBN) theory and then compare it to an expanded model which includes the same variables and five dimensions of place attachment. The expanded model including place attachment explained up to twice the amount of variance in native vegetation planting than the base model when controlling for all variables preceding behaviour, but the overall explanatory power was low (<22%). Place attachment had a stronger influence on the antecedents of behaviour compared with the behaviour itself, particularly nature bonding which was a significant moderate predictor of both personal norms and awareness of consequences in the two study regions. We assert that place attachment has statistically significant direct and indirect effects on variables included in VBN theory. Future studies may reveal stronger effects in settings where there are fewer resource and monetary costs associated with pro-environmental behaviour.     

Exploring the co-benefits (and costs) of home gardening for biodiversity conservation

ABSTRACT

Despite growing evidence pointing to the multiple benefits of home gardening, few studies have considered the health and well-being benefits perceived by gardeners who are principally motivated by biodiversity conservation (i.e. home gardening for biodiversity conservation). This study explores the environmental, social and economic co-benefits (and costs) of home gardening for biodiversity conservation in the City of Winnipeg, Canada. A total of 42 semi-structured interviews (30–60?min each) were conducted with 50 home gardeners who were formally certified or locally recognised for undertaking multiple gardening activities that promote biodiversity conservation. Thematic analysis revealed that study participants self-reported a range of environmental, psychological, physiological and social outcomes associated with their home gardening experiences. Despite home gardening often being a solitary activity, most gardeners valued the multiple forms of social interaction that occurred during important social events in their garden, or when connecting with passers-by. Home gardeners also cited benefits related to connection to nature and place attachment; attention restoration; reduced stress and anxiety; improved mood; satisfaction and pride; increased self-esteem and courage to do things differently in life; and, important education or learning opportunities. However, conflicts relating to the nexus between biodiversity and perceived tidiness of gardens emerged, which raise important ethical and social justice issues for sustainability planning. We compare key insights to the benefits (and costs) of community gardening and make some recommendations for future research, including how to engage more disadvantaged groups in gardening for conservation.     

A review of approaches for classifying benthic habitats and evaluating habitat quality

We have assessed the current state of knowledge relative to methods used in assessing sub-tidal benthic habitat quality and the classification of benthic habitats. While our main focus is on marine habitat, we extensively draw on knowledge gained in freshwater systems where benthic assessment procedures are at an advanced stage of maturity. We found a broad range of sophistication/complication in terms of the methods applied in assessing and mapping benthic habitats. The simplest index or metric involved some assessment of species richness, while the most complicated required utilizing multi-variate analysis. The simplest mapping attempts equated physical substrate with benthic habitat while the most sophisticated relied on extensive environmental preference and groundtruth data for species of concern. The leading edge of methods for benthic habitat mapping involves combining the advances in optical and acoustic methods that allow for routine classifying and mapping of the seafloor with biological and habitat data for species of concern. The objective of this melding of dispirit methods is to produce benthic habitat maps with broad system wide coverage and sound biological underpinning. It is clear that the disparity in information density between the physical and biological sides of the equation currently hinder applicability and acceptability of benthic habitat mapping efforts. In addition to the lack of basic information on the biological and environmental tolerances of targeted species, the proliferation of metrics for characterizing and assessing biological conditions further clouds the usefulness of any broad scale mapping attempt. The problem of data density mismatch between physical and biological methods will likely not be solved until acoustic methods can routinely resolve the elusive biological components that make a physical substrate a habitat.     

Environmental Management Systems at the Industrial Park Level in China

Environmental management systems (EMSs), such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001, can be used as a tool in China by industrial park managers to improve their environmental performance. This article uses the case of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone (DETDZ) to show how to establish a comprehensive environmental management system (CEMS) according to the ISO 14001 standard at the industrial park level by considering local realities. The particularly interesting feature of this case study is the use of a CEMS (in this case, ISO 14001) by the administrative group of the DETDZ to develop a more comprehensive approach to the wide range of environmental issues that they face in running the zone. In essence the goal is to address many of the issues at the level of the zone. The incentives, benefits, and barriers associated with implementing ISO 14001 are described. However, implementation of an EMS should not be thought of as the ultimate objective for an industrial parks environmental management. The next steps include encouraging further public participation and taking an integrated approach leading to an industrial ecosystem, which can realize better environmental performance at the industrial park level. Yong Geng is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University. Raymond Côté is a professor at Dalhousie University.     

Ammonia assessment from agriculture: U.S. status and needs

Recent studies suggest that human activities accelerate the production of reactive nitrogen on a global scale. Increased nitrogen emissions may lead to environmental impacts including photochemical air pollution, reduced visibility, changes in biodiversity, and stratospheric ozone depletion. In the last 50 yr, emissions of ammonia (NH3), which is the most abundant form of reduced reactive nitrogen in the atmosphere, have significantly increased as a result of intensive agricultural management and greater livestock production in many developed countries. These agricultural production practices are increasingly subject to governmental regulations intended to protect air resources. It is therefore important that an accurate and robust agricultural emission factors database exist to provide valid scientific support of these regulations. This paper highlights some of the recent work that was presented at the 2006 Workshop on Agricultural Air Quality in Washington, D.C. regarding NH3 emissions estimates and emission factors from agricultural sources in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, several best management practices are explored as the scientific community attempts to maximize the beneficial use of reactive nitrogen while simultaneously minimizing negative environmental impacts.