The development and application of water management sustainability indicators in Brazil and Scotland

This paper reports the formulation and application of a framework of catchment-level water resource management indicators designed to integrate environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability. The framework of nine indicators was applied to the River Dee and River Sinos catchments in Scotland and Brazil, respectively, following an indicator selection process that involved inputs from water management professionals in both countries, and a pilot exercise in Scotland. The framework was found to capture a number of key sustainability concerns, and was broadly welcomed by water resource managers and experts as a means of better understanding sustainable water resource management. Issues relating to poor water quality and public water supply were particularly prominent in the findings for the Sinos, while findings for the Dee suggested that more attention might be focused on building institutional capacity and public participation in catchment management. The use of some proxy indicators was required in both catchments due to poor data availability, and this problem may hinder the further development of indicator frameworks that attempt to better integrate environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability.     

From Forest Landscape to Agricultural Landscape in the Developing Tropical Country of Malaysia: Pattern,Process, and Their Significance on Policy

Agricultural expansion and deforestation are spatial processes of land transformation that impact on landscape pattern. In peninsular Malaysia, the conversion of forested areas into two major cash crops—rubber and oil palm plantations—has been identified as driving significant environmental change. To date, there has been insufficient literature studying the link between changes in landscape patterns and land-related development policies. Therefore, this paper examines: (i) the links between development policies and changes in land use/land cover and landscape pattern and (ii) the significance and implications of these links for future development policies. The objective is to generate insights on the changing process of land use/land cover and landscape pattern as a functional response to development policies and their consequences for environmental conditions. Over the last century, the development of cash crops has changed the country from one dominated by natural landscapes to one dominated by agricultural landscapes. But the last decade of the century saw urbanization beginning to impact significantly. This process aligned with the establishment of various development policies, from land development for agriculture between the mid 1950s and the 1970s to an emphasis on manufacturing from the 1980s onward. Based on a case study in Selangor, peninsular Malaysia, a model of landscape pattern change is presented. It contains three stages according to the relative importance of rubber (first stage: 1900–1950s), oil palm (second stage: 1960s–1970s), and urban (third stage: 1980s–1990s) development that influenced landscape fragmentation and heterogeneity. The environmental consequences of this change have been depicted through loss of biodiversity, geohazard incidences, and the spread of vector-borne diseases. The spatial ecological information can be useful to development policy formulation, allowing diagnosis of the country’s “health” and sustainability. The final section outlines the usefulness of landscape analysis in the policy-making process to prevent further fragmentation of the landscape and forest loss in Malaysia in the face of rapid economic development.

Indoor radon measurement and effective dose assessment of 150 apartments in Mashhad,Iran

Environmental monitoring and indoor radon measurement are important for public health, to estimate the cancer risk of respiratory system and, if necessary, to suggest proper methods that reduce indoor radon level. In this research, indoor radon concentration in the air has been measured in 150 apartments in Mashhad city. The result demonstrates about 94.7% of apartments have radon concentration less than 100 Bq/m³, taken by WHO as the action level, and 5.3% have the concentration higher than this level. As well as, annual radon dose has been assessed using the equation for annual effective dose calculation introduced by United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.     

Treatment of benzene and n-hexane mixtures in trickle-bed air biofilters

Trickle-bed air biofilters (TBABs) are suitable for treatment of hydrophilic volatile organic compounds, but they pose a challenge for hydrophobic compounds. Three laboratory-scale TBABs were used for the treatment of an airstream contaminated with different ratios of n-hexane and benzene mixtures. The ratios studied were 1:1, 2:1, and 1:3 n-hexane:benzene by volume. Each TBAB was operated at a pH of 4 and a temperature of 20 degrees C. The use of acidic-buffered nutrient solution was targeted for changing the microorganism consortium to fungi as the main biodegradation element. The experimental plan was designed to investigate the long-term performance of the TBABs with an emphasis on different mixture loading rates, removal efficiency with TBAB depth, volatile suspended solids, and carbon mass balance closure. n-Hexane loading rate was kept constant in the TBABs for comparison reasons and ranged from 4 to 22 g/(m3 x hr). Corresponding benzene loadings ranged from 4 to 43 g/(m3 x hr). Generally, benzene behavior in the TBAB was superior to that of n-hexane because of its higher solubility. n-Hexane showed improved performance in the 2:1 mixing ratio as compared with the other two ratios.     

Levels of glyphosate in surface waters, sediments and soils associated with direct sowing soybean cultivation in north pampasic region of Argentina

Levels of glyphosate were determined in water, soil and sediment samples from a transgenic soybean cultivation area located near to tributaries streams of the Pergamino-Arrecifes system in the north of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Field work took into account both the pesticide application and the rains occurring after applications. The pesticide was analysed by HPLC-UV detection, previous derivatization with 9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate (FMOC-Cl). In addition, SoilFug multimedia model was used to analyse the environmental distribution of the pesticides. In the field, levels of glyphosate in waters ranged from 0.10 to 0.70mg/L, while in sediments and soils values were between 0.5 and 5.0mg/Kg. Temporal variation of glyphosate levels depended directly on the time of application and the rain events. The results obtained from the application of the model are in accordance with the values found in the field.     

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil from the seeds of Enterolobium contortisiliquum (leguminosae)

Seeds of Enterolobium contortisiliquum were subjected to steam distillation to obtain a light yellow essential oil in a yield of 3 ml/kg of seeds. The major components of the oil were identified using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and were furfural, limonene, linalool, estragole, carvone, and apiole with carvone representing more than 50% of the total composition. Antimicrobial activities of the essential oil were determined against four species of gram positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus) and two gram negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia Marcescencs). The essential oil inhibited the growth of all tested bacteria but was most effective against the gram positive bacteria. Chemicals that are responsible for the antibacterial effect of the essential oil were determined using the bio-autography thin layer chromatography (TLC) technique. The active compounds responsible for the activity were found to be carvone and estragole.     

Comparison of levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in edible oils and oil-based products--possible link to environmental factors

Food consumption has been widely reported to be the main source of human exposure to PCBs. A total of 47 samples of food products on sale in supermarkets in the United Kingdom were thus analyzed for PCBs to determine residual levels in oil and oil-based products. The objective was to compare the measured levels of total PCBs (Sigma PCBs) in food products to those reported in various environmental compartments. Combined extraction and online clean up was achieved using Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) to recover target analytes for analysis by GC-MSD (gas chromatography mass spectrometry). Sigma PCBs (ng/g) in each product were in the ranges of 4.73-44.38 edible oil; 1.40-6.18 mayonnaise; 1.21-6.25 salad cream; 1.28-5.64 seafood sauce, and 0.97-15.08 exotic dressing. The level of human exposure to PCBs in all products was < 1 microg/kg body weight/day when considering a 70 kg male or 57 kg female, possibly reflecting the reported decline of PCBs in the environment.     

The influence of soil contamination on the concentrations of PCBs in milk in Siberia

Although atmospheric deposition is generally the dominant pathway of PCBs into agricultural food chains, soil ingestion by livestock can be important in some cases. The relationship between PCB levels in cow's milk and in pasture soil was studied in the Irkutsk region in Siberia where an historical atmospheric source(s) of PCBs has led to widespread contamination of soil. Milk samples were collected in spring and again in autumn from 18 different farms and analyzed for PCBs. Pasture soil samples were also collected and analyzed. The PCB concentrations in both milk and soil ranged over more than an order of magnitude between the farms. A good correlation was obtained between PCB levels in autumn milk and in soil. This together with a range of other evidence suggested that ingestion of pasture soil was the dominant source of the PCB contamination in the milk. The average soil ingestion rate was estimated to be 1700 g/d, which is at the upper end of values reported in the literature. This may be due to the arid summer climate or the animal husbandry practices in Siberia.     

Adsorption behavior of 2,4-dichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol in an allophanic soil

The adsorption of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) by a variable-charge soil from southern Chile was studied in a series of batch equilibration experiments. 2,4-DCP and PCP adsorption behavior was evaluated as a function of pH (pH values of 4.5, 6.0 and 7.5) in a 0.1M KCl (25 degrees C) background solution for soil material collected at three different depths (0-20 cm, 20-40 cm, and 40-60 cm). 2,4-DCP and PCP adsorption decreased with increasing soil pH, suggesting that the undissociated species were adsorbed more readily and that electrostatic repulsion may inhibit partitioning as pH increases. The PCP adsorption was greater than observed for 2,4-DCP and decreased with soil depth. Multiple regression analysis between K(d) and various soil properties indicated that the soil organic carbon content is a strong indicator of chlorophenol adsorption, and in addition to organic carbon, the soil pH is an important property controlling adsorption behavior.     

Recovery assessment of a refined-oil impacted and fire ravaged mangrove ecosystem

An assessment of the diversity and abundance of macrobenthic community in a refined-oil (petrol) impacted and fire-ravaged mangrove ecosystem within the vicinity of a marine receipt terminal facility (Atlas Cove) serving as a distribution and pump station for refined products was carried out. The mangrove ecosystem was subjected to massive petrol spillage from a leaking pipeline and eventual fire outbreak. Following rehabilitation activities, a recovery assessment of the impacted ecosystem was carried out. The field surveys revealed that the petrol leakage and fire outbreak resulted in a near complete destruction of the mangrove ecosystem around the Atlas Cove depot, with macrobenthic species diversity index ranging between 0−0.4, compared to 0.78−0.87 in the control stations. The dominant early arrivals or colonizers of the impacted stations areas were Clibanarius africanus and Callinectes amnicola. Early signs of recovery of the impacted area were observed within about two and a half (2 1/2) to three (3) months, based on diversity and abundance indices respectively. The period of early signs of recovery also coincide with an observed reduction in the total hydrocarbon content (THC) levels in the sediment collected from the impacted stations by about nine folds from 3.67 mg/kg to 0.42 mg/kg within 3 months. Despite the apparent signs of recovery, the need for long-term monitoring of the impacted stations was discussed.