Spatial variance and assessment of nitrogen dioxide pollution in major cities of Pakistan along N5-Highway

This paper discusses the findings of the first car MAX-DOAS (multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy) field campaign (300 km long) along the National Highway-05 (N5-Highway) of Pakistan conducted on 13 and 14 November, 2012. The main objective of the field campaign was to assess the spatial distribution of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) columns and corresponding concentrations along the N5-Highway from Islamabad to Lahore. Source identification of NO₂ revealed that the concentrations were higher within major cities along the highway. The highest NO₂ vertical column densities (NO₂ VCDs) were found around two major cities of Rawalpindi and Lahore. This study also presents a comparison of NO₂ VCDs measured by the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) and car MAX-DOAS observations. The comparison revealed similar spatial distribution of the NO₂ columns with both car MAX-DOAS and satellite observations, but the car MAX-DOAS observations show much more spatial details. Maximum NO₂ VCD retrieved from car MAX-DOAS observations was up to an order of magnitude larger than the OMI observations in urban areas.     

Characterizing sources of nitrate leaching from an irrigated dairy farm in Merced County, California

Dairy farms comprise a complex landscape of groundwater pollution sources. The objective of our work is to develop a method to quantify nitrate leaching to shallow groundwater from different management units at dairy farms. Total nitrate loads are determined by the sequential calibration of a sub-regional scale and a farm-scale three-dimensional groundwater flow and transport model using observations at different spatial scales. These observations include local measurements of groundwater heads and nitrate concentrations in an extensive monitoring well network, providing data at a scale of a few meters and measurements of discharge rates and nitrate concentrations in a tile-drain network, providing data integrated across multiple farms. The various measurement scales are different from the spatial scales of the calibration parameters, which are the recharge and nitrogen leaching rates from individual management units. The calibration procedure offers a conceptual framework for using field measurements at different spatial scales to estimate recharge N concentrations at the management unit scale. It provides a map of spatially varying dairy farming impact on groundwater nitrogen. The method is applied to a dairy farm located in a relatively vulnerable hydrogeologic region in California. Potential sources within the dairy farm are divided into three categories, representing different manure management units: animal exercise yards and feeding areas (corrals), liquid manure holding ponds, and manure irrigated forage fields. Estimated average nitrogen leaching is 872 kg/ha/year, 807 kg/ha/year and 486 kg/ha/year for corrals, ponds and fields respectively. Results are applied to evaluate the accuracy of nitrogen mass balances often used by regulatory agencies to assess groundwater impacts. Calibrated leaching rates compare favorably to field and farm scale nitrogen mass balances. These data and interpretations provide a basis for developing improved management strategies.     

Integrated Risk Framework for Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems

Onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) are becoming increasingly important for the treatment and dispersal of effluent in new urbanised developments that are not serviced by centralised wastewater collection and treatment systems. However, the current standards and guidelines adopted by many local authorities for assessing suitable site and soil conditions for OWTS are increasingly coming under scrutiny due to the public health and environmental impacts caused by poorly performing systems, in particular septic tank-soil adsorption systems. In order to achieve sustainable onsite wastewater treatment with minimal impacts on the environment and public health, more appropriate means of assessment are required. This paper highlights an integrated risk based approach for assessing the inherent hazards associated with OWTS in order to manage and mitigate the environmental and public health risks inherent with onsite wastewater treatment. In developing a sound and cohesive integrated risk framework for OWTS, several key issues must be recognised. These include the inclusion of relevant stakeholders throughout framework development, the integration of scientific knowledge, data and analysis with risk assessment and management ideals, and identification of the appropriate performance goals for successful management and mitigation of associated risks. These issues were addressed in the development of the risk framework to provide a generic approach to assessing risk from OWTS. The utilisation of the developed risk framework for achieving more appropriate assessment and management techniques for OWTS is presented in a case study for the Gold Coast region, Queensland State, Australia.     

Acoustic concomitants of the defensive discharges of a primitive bombardier beetle (Metrius contractus)

Summary. Metrius contractus, a primitive paussoid bombardier beetle, emits its defensive quinonoid froth with accompanying sound (a faint “hiss”), but the sound is not pulsed, indicating that the secretory emission itself is not pulsed. Pulsed secretory delivery in bombardier beetles appears to occur in Brachinini only. Received 8 July 2001; accepted 23 July 2001.     

Ectomised conductors in the golden orb-web spider, Nephila plumipes (Araneoidea): a male adaptation to sexual conflict?

Male genitalia may facilitate sperm protection by acting as a plug that prevents or hinders future matings. The pedipalps (intromittant organs) of males of the orb-web spider, Nephila plumipes, have a conductor with a peculiarly curved ending and a triangular process near the terminal end. The tip of the conductor, including the process, breaks during most matings and remains inside the female genital tract. We explored the possible function of the conductor as a mating plug using the double-mating sterile-male technique. Our data are not consistent with a plug function because males use only one pedipalp in each mating, thus leaving an unobstructed insemination duct available for future matings; conductors of males mating with virgin females are not more likely to break than those of males mating with mated females, and second males show no preference for used or unused spermathecae. In addition, males that inserted their palp in the insemination duct that contained a tip of the conductor from a previous male obtained a share in the paternity of the female's clutch of eggs. Interestingly, the conductor is more likely to break if it is inserted in an unused spermatheca. We argue that several lines of evidence suggest that the conductor breaks as a result of intersexual conflict over the duration of copulation.     

The quest for environmental justice in China: citizen participation and the rural–urban network against Panguanying’s waste incinerator

Environmental distribution conflicts (EDCs) related to the construction and operation of waste incinerators have become commonplace in China. This article presents a detailed case study of citizen opposition to an incinerator in the village of Panguanying, Hebei Province. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork, we show how this case was notable, because it transcended the local arena to raise bigger questions about environmental justice, particularly in relation to public participation in siting decisions, after villagers exposed fraudulent public consultation in the environmental impact assessment. An informal network between villagers and urban environmental activists formed, enabling the Panguanying case to exert influence far beyond the village locality. This network was critical in creating wider public debate about uneven power and substandard public participation in siting disputes, a central feature in many Chinese EDCs. By transcending local specificities and exposing broader, systemic inadequacies, this case became instrumental in supporting “strong sustainability”.     

Can post-2015 sustainable development goals survive neoliberalism? A critical examination of the sustainable development–neoliberalism nexus in developing countries

The Rio+20 summit of the United Nations in Brazil in 2012 committed governments to formulate a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) that would be integrated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) following its expiration in 2015. This decision has pushed sustainable development agenda into the limelight of development once again. Meanwhile, we note that the development agenda of many developing countries has been dominated by neoliberal orientation driven by market reforms, social inequality, and a move towards enhancing the economic competitiveness of the supply side of the economy. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between neoliberal economic agenda and sustainable development. We do so by examining how neoliberal policies of privatisation, trade liberalisation and reduction in governments spending stand to affect the attainment of sustainable development ideals and their implications on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The paper then suggests that relying solely on the mechanisms of the market in governing and allocating environmental resources is necessarily insufficient and problematic and therefore calls for a new approach—one which goes beyond just recognising the interdependency among social, environmental and economic goals and places issues of equity and addressing unfavourable power relations at the centre of interventions aimed at achieving the ideals of sustainable development.     

Finding common ground: birds, biodiversity, and the implications for collaboration with traditional landowners in New Guinea

It has been proposed that indigenous societies can be models for the conservation of biodiversity. However, attempts at implementing conservation-based development plans are being judged failures. In this article, I argue that these failures can be addressed by translating indigenous knowledge into context that is mutually intelligible to both indigenous people and conservation biologists. Drawing on sixteen months of ethnobiological fieldwork, this article uses indigenous knowledge to describe the relationship of traditional life to biodiversity for the Hewa of Papua New Guinea’s Central Range. The island of New Guinea is one of the planet’s last bastions of cultural and biological diversity. Using birds as an indicator of diversity, I argue that more productive conservation policies will emerge when indigenous activities are viewed not as vehicles for establishing equilibrium with the environment, but as a source of ecological disturbance. Although Hewa traditions currently play a significant role in shaping this biologically diverse environment, their lifestyle is not necessarily a template for sustainability in the future.