REGIONAL SCALE MODELING OF SURFACE AND GROUND WATER INTERACTION IN THE SNAKE RIVER BASIN1

ABSTRACT: Changes in irrigation and land use may impact discharge of the Snake River Plain aquifer, which is a major contributor to flow of the Snake River in southern Idaho. The Snake River Basin planning and management model (SRBM) has been expanded to include the spatial distribution and temporal attenuation that occurs as aquifer stresses propagate through the aquifer to the river. The SRBM is a network flow model in which aquifer characteristics have been introduced through a matrix of response functions. The response functions were determined by independently simulating the effect of a unit stress in each cell of a finite difference groundwater flow model on six reaches of the Snake River. Cells were aggregated into 20 aquifer zones and average response functions for each river reach were included in the SRBM. This approach links many of the capabilities of surface and ground water flow models. Evaluation of an artificial recharge scenario approximately reproduced estimates made by direct simulation in a ground water flow model. The example demonstrated that the method can produce reasonable results but interpretation of the results can be biased if the simulation period is not of adequate duration.     

Numerical modeling of tracer transport in a contact tank

Chlorine is extensively used to disinfect the drinking water supply. However, the inefficient use of chlorine as a disinfectant can result in the formation of chemical compounds which can have adverse health effects. Numerical models are increasingly being used in the design of efficient chlorine contact tanks. In this paper, details are given of the application of a two-dimensional semi-time-centred implicit QUICK scheme to model the transport of a tracer in a scaled physical model of a serpentine chlorine contact disinfection tank. The model is shown to give good agreement with laboratory measurements in the compartments of the tank where the flow is relatively uniform over the depth.     

Information technology

Summary This paper describes some of today's important information handling products and attempts to predict tomorrows devices in the light of convergence and greater flexibility offered through the use of microchip technology.The main contention of this paper is that Information Technology and its impact on privacy depends, as ever, on the way in which Information Systems are used. It is argued that the privacy issue is more to do with moral and physiological attitudes within society than the technicalities of implementation.As a conclusion, the paper asks that we should define standards and exercise vigilance in the maintenance of those standards. In addition, it recognises that attitudes to privacy will almost certainly change with time and that this should be regarded as a healthy and natural occurrence.Roger Reynolds has worked in the computer industry for 18 years and has experience in both hardware design and systems development. He has been employed in ICL for the last 5 years and has been deeply involved with the development of communications and Information Technology within this company.Previously he worked on a project designed to integrate various activities in the health service. This involved the development of computer based systems connected together by telecommunications.This article represents a personal view by Mr Reynolds and it is hoped that it will stimulate further thought and understanding in the development of future technologies.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons storage by Fusarium solani in intracellular lipid vesicles

Accumulation and elimination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were studied in the fungus Fusarium solani. When the fungus was grown on a synthetic medium containing benzo[a]pyrene, hyphae of F. solani contained numerous lipid vesicles which could be stained by the lipid-specific dyes: Sudan III and Rhodamine B. The fluorescence produced by Rhodamine B and PAH benzo[a]pyrene were at the same locations in the fungal hyphae, indicating that F. solani stored PAH in pre-existing lipid vesicles. A passive temperature-independent process is involved in the benzo[a]pyrene uptake and storage. Sodium azide, a cytochrome c oxidation inhibitor, and the two cytoskeleton inhibitors colchicine and cytochalasin did not prevent the transport and accumulation of PAH in lipid vesicles of F. solani hyphae. F. solani degraded a large range of PAHs at different rates. PAH intracellular storage in lipid vesicles was not necessarily accompanied by degradation and was common to numerous other fungi.     

Best available techniques (BAT) for the fruit and vegetable processing industry

Best available techniques (BAT) are an important reference point in the environmental permit regulation for industrial installations in the European Union Member States, which have to implement the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC)-directive (96/61/EC). BAT correspond to the techniques and organisational measures with the best overall environmental performance that can be introduced at a reasonable cost. In the Flanders part of Belgium, BAT are usually determined at the sector level. The ‘Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industry’ [BAT for Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industry. Gent, Belgium: Academia Press, 1999] is one of the industries for which a BAT report has been drafted. In this paper, the main results of this study are presented. Special attention is given to the use of high quality water¹, as this is the key environmental issue of the industry.     

Biodegradation of Fuel Oil Under Laboratory and Arctic Marine Conditions

The aerobic biodegradation of the components of a fuel oil under Arctic summer conditions follows a pattern that is indistinguishable from that exhibited under temperate conditions. Straight chain alkanes and small aromatics are degraded first, followed by branched alkanes and larger and alkylated aromatics. We present data on the biodegradation of heptadecane as a representative n-alkane, pristane as a representative iso-alkane, and naphthalene, phenanthrene, and chrysene and their alkylated forms as representative two-, three- and four-ring aromatic hydrocarbons. In particular, the pattern of degradation of the alkylated aromatics allows the identification of biodegradation in samples collected from the field and the estimation of the extent of biodegradation that occurred in the In-Situ Treatment of Oiled Sediment Shorelines Field Trials.     

Diversity and connections in community gardens: a contribution to local sustainability

Sustainability requires the integration of social, environmental and economic concerns in international, national and local policy-making. One of the most powerful forces for sustainable development in practice was the Earth Summit of 1992, with its Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21 (LA21). This latter agenda—the set of policies that aims to create the means to facilitate local sustainability—is particularly important for communities. Community development programmes that also include aspects of sustainable development would seem to embody the spirit of LA21. There are many such diverse schemes and what has emerged is a range of local initiatives that demonstrate parts of the sustainability concept but not a clear picture of sustainable development which covers all of its aspects.

In order to examine this proposition further, an analysis of the community garden movement in the UK was carried out. Community gardens are open spaces managed and operated by members of the local community for a variety of purposes. In the UK many of these are to be found in inner city areas such as in Bradford, Leeds, Bristol and Sandwell. Their growth is marked by their own association—the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. The gardens have a variety of purposes: in conjunction with vegetation growing (either as landscape or for consumption), some schemes are experimental permaculture plots, others use organic methods and yet others are concerned with health, education and training issues. All appear to be based in a sense of community, with participation and involvement being particularly strong features.

This sense of community participation and empowerment is what links examples of community gardening. The research reported here collates information gathered from the respondents of a questionnaire and from in-depth interviews, and draws out some of the similarities and themes that community gardens exhibit. From the results, it is suggested that the community garden movement could act as a model for the implementation of social, economic and environmental policies at the local level.     

Adverse perinatal outcome in patients screen-positive for neural tube defects and fetal down syndrome

An association between various abnormal mid-trimester maternal serum analyte values and adverse perinatal outcome has been reported. From an original sample of 14 857 women, we observed five women who were ‘screen-positive’ for both neural tube defects [maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) ≥2·5 multiples of the median] and Down syndrome [risk ≥1/274 using MSAFP, maternal serum unconjugated oestriol (MSuE3), maternal serum human chorionic gonadotropin (MShCG), and maternal age]. The four patients who elected to undergo amniocentesis all demonstrated both normal karyotype and normal amniotic fluid AFP levels. All five cases were associated with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and abnormal pregnancy outcomes. Two cases exhibiting severe IUGR on ultrasound examination were terminated at 19·1 and 21·2 weeks, respectively; the former also exhibited fetal calcifications and positive maternal serology for toxoplasmosis. In another case, fetal demise occurred at 36 weeks' gestation in a patient who had been treated for syphilis in the second trimester. Neither infection was confirmed in fetal tissue studies. Though resulting in live births, the remaining two cases required operative deliveries; emergency Caesarean sections for fetal distress were performed at 38 and 32 weeks, respectively, the latter case being associated with severe pre-eclampsia. We conclude that elevated mid-trimester MSAFP levels concurrent with maternal serum analyte values associated with increased risk for fetal Down syndrome may presage a poor perinatal outcome, particularly IUGR and possibly congenital infection.     

Natural capital in ecology and economics: an overview

The Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future, defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of futuregenerations to meet their own needs. Although the idea of sustainable development has been widely accepted, it has proveddifficult to identify and implement policies and practices thatpromote sustainable economic growth. Some economists, environmental scientists and policy analysts believe that they can transform the consensus about sustainability into manageablepractices. They propose to accomplish this feat with a set of new ideas about the relationships between the economy and theenvironment offered under the banner of 'natural capital'. An ideal account of natural capital would be one or more standard measures or models that would allow the direct comparison of environmental goods, like forests, fresh water and clean air, with economic goods, like money, capital and productivity. By bringing economic science and environmental science to an objective common ground, a natural capital model has the potentialto provide a concrete means of comparing the economic and ecological costs and benefits of particular policies and programmes. This paper offers a survey and analysis of several new contributions to the formation of the natural capital concept from economists, ecologists, policy analysts, biometricians, foresters and a philosopher. The paper concludes that existingmicroeconomic theory may be 'ungreenable', if it is not reformulated. While macroeconomic approaches to natural capitalhave been more successful, they share the limitation that ecosystems and species are valued solely in monetary terms. These problems are taken to suggest that the development of a successful natural capital model may require economic theory tobe recast to include non-monetary social preferences and values.