Biological index based on epiphytic diatom assemblages is more restrictive than the physicochemical index in water assessment on an Amazon floodplain,Brazil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI) provides protection for freshwater life promoting healthy ecosystems and safeguarding human health. Biological...     

Model for sustainability implementation and measurement in construction sites

Sustainable practices at construction sites should be considered from the start of the project, meaning during the design phase. A model for the implementation of sustainability at a site is an important management tool, and its adoption can indicate good practices and propose an assessment of local conditions. Thus, the main contribution of this article is to propose a practical model to evaluate the level of implementation of sustainable practices at construction sites. The model was based on sustainability certifications and validated at six construction sites in Brazil. The results indicate that construction companies that possess environmental certifications have better levels of implementation of good practices at their work sites. However, it was noted that it is not necessary for a company to obtain an environmental certification; rather, it is necessary for sustainability strategies to become corporate culture.     

Evolution of the landscape as a response of a demographic change. A case study in the Duero riverside,Spain

The Arribes del Duero area, in western Spain, at the border with Portugal, is suffering a drastic change in the landscape, as a response of the diminution of population. Traditional tasks related to agriculture have been abandoned, and heavy sheep farming on the area is provoking the impoverishment of soils. The effect derived from these actions is the disintegration of the terraces, which are one of the major attractions for tourists visiting the region. We propose that incentives for local people could help to develop those traditional labours to recover the landscape, together with the promotion of immigration of families with school-age children, could bring back the economy to the area.     

Statistical analysis in MSW collection performance assessment

The increase of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated over the last years forces waste managers pursuing more effective collection schemes, technically viable, environmentally effective and economically sustainable. The assessment of MSW services using performance indicators plays a crucial role for improving service quality. In this work, we focus on the relevance of regular system monitoring as a service assessment tool. In particular, we select and test a core-set of MSW collection performance indicators (effective collection distance, effective collection time and effective fuel consumption) that highlights collection system strengths and weaknesses and supports pro-active management decision-making and strategic planning. A statistical analysis was conducted with data collected in mixed collection system of Oporto Municipality, Portugal, during one year, a week per month. This analysis provides collection circuits’ operational assessment and supports effective short-term municipality collection strategies at the level of, e.g., collection frequency and timetables, and type of containers.     

The transition to a sustainable society: a new social contract

This paper explores issues that are central to ecological economics. In spite of a substantial body of research and other literature that has appeared in recent decades on transition, and countless other efforts, no progress has been made to halt the increase in global warming, global emissions, rampant population growth, or several hundred other critical planet sustainability indicators including global species extinction. The opposite is true. Consumption has escalated and it is poised to double and, with it, planetary decay has followed closely. The aim of this work is to introduce a pragmatic solution and the economics mechanisms solidly rooted in science, in the laws of conservation of mass and energy, and in environmental and ecological sustainability that are necessary to overcome the tremendous forces of social, political, and economic resistance to major change. To advance towards a sustainable civilization, adopting a holistic approach with those underlying principles in all aspects of human activity, among others economy, finance, industry, commerce, engineering, politics, architecture, and education, is both lacking and fundamentally required. A short review of the state-of-the-art of the science on the critical status of the planet’s resources and its life-supporting systems is presented, as well as a brief catalog of the seminal works of the science that gave rise to its metrics and established early on the groundwork for the understanding of the degree of sustainability of the planet. We present the argument why past and current schemes of human economics, organization, culture, and politics cannot achieve anything else, but complete and utter failure under their own underlying precepts. A rigorous and disciplined process on how to overcome and avoid the precipitous decline and collapse of the environmental and planetary biosystems on which all life depends, including human life, and a new view towards the world and the universe we all have no choice but to live in, are also offered.     

Cork stoppers as an effective sorbent for water treatment: the removal of mercury at environmentally relevant concentrations and conditions

The technical feasibility of using stopper-derived cork as an effective biosorbent towards bivalent mercury at environmentally relevant concentrations and conditions was evaluated in this study. Only 25 mg/L of cork powder was able to achieve 94 % of mercury removal for an initial mercury concentration of 500 μg/L. It was found that under the conditions tested, the efficiency of mercury removal expressed as equilibrium removal percentage does not depend on the amount of cork or its particle size, but is very sensitive to initial metal concentration, with higher removal efficiencies at higher initial concentrations. Ion exchange was identified as one of the mechanisms involved in the sorption of Hg onto cork in the absence of ionic competition. Under ionic competition, stopper-derived cork showed to be extremely effective and selective for mercury in binary mixtures, while in complex matrices like seawater, moderate inhibition of the sorption process was observed, attributed to a change in mercury speciation. The loadings achieved are similar to the majority of literature values found for other biosorbents and for other metals, suggesting that cork stoppers can be recycled as an effective biosorbent for water treatment. However, the most interesting result is that equilibrium data show a very rare behaviour, with the isotherm presenting an almost square convex shape to the concentration axis, with an infinite slope for an Hg concentration in solution around 25 μg/L.     

Hierarchical space-time models for fire ignition and percentage of land burned by wildfires

Policy responses for local and global fire management as well as international green-gas inventories depend heavily on the proper understanding of the annual fire extend as well as its spatial variation across any given study area. Proper statistical models are important tools in quantifying these fire risks. We propose Bayesian methods to model jointly the probability of ignition and fire sizes in Australia and New Zeland. The data set on which we base our model and results consists of annual observations of several meteorological and topographical explanatory variables, together with the percentage of land burned over a grid with resolution of 1° across Austalia and New Zealand. Our model and conclusions bring improvements on the results reported by Russell-Smith et al. in Int J Wildland Fire, 16:361–377 (2007) based on a similar data set.     

Evaluating seasonal dynamics of bacterial communities in marine fish aquaculture: a preliminary study before applying phage therapy

The increasing problem of antibiotic resistance in common pathogenic bacteria and the concern about the spreading of antibiotics in the environment bring the need to find new methods to control fish pathogens. Phage therapy represents a potential alternative to antibiotics, but its use in aquaculture requires a detailed understanding of bacterial communities, namely of fish pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, in this study the seasonal dynamics of the overall bacterial communities, microbiological water quality and disease-causing bacteria were followed in a marine aquaculture system of Ria de Aveiro (Portugal). Analysis of the bacterial diversity of the water samples by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA gene fragments indicates that the bacterial community structure varied seasonally, showing a higher complexity during the warm season. The diversity of the main fish pathogenic bacteria, assessed by DGGE targeting the Vibrio genus, showed lower seasonal variation, with new dominating populations appearing mainly in the spring. Bacterial indicators, faecal coliforms and enterococci, enumerated by the filter-membrane method, also varied seasonally. The fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) results showed that the specific groups of bacteria varied during the study period and that the non-indigenous Enterobactereaceae family was the most abundant group followed by Vibrio and Aeromonas. The seasonal variation detected in terms of density and structure of total and pathogenic bacterial communities demonstrates the need for a careful monitoring of water through the year in order to select the suitable phages to inactivate fish pathogenic bacteria. The spring season seems to be the critical time period when phage therapy should be applied.