Managing climate change vulnerabilities: formal institutions and knowledge use as determinants of adaptive capacity at the local level in Sweden

Though managing vulnerabilities posed by climate change calls for effective strategies and measures, its challenges have hitherto not been fully understood. In Sweden, municipalities have recently started incorporating vulnerability management into their political and administrative agendas. This study discusses such experiences and explores how institutional determinants may influence adaptive capacity within a local case study area, to illustrate emerging challenges and opportunities for Swedish municipalities in managing climate vulnerabilities. Specifically, formal institutional structure and the use of knowledge are analysed, concluding that vulnerability management often is focused on technical and reactive fixes, due to limited co-operation between local sector organisations, lack of local co-ordination, and an absence of methods and traditions to build institutional knowledge. Even so, opportunities, such as a high capacity to examine risks to technical systems and important establishments which in turn facilitates protection of technical infrastructure exposed to climate variability and change, also exist.     

Integrated Ocean Management as a Strategy to Meet Rapid Climate Change: The Norwegian Case

The prospects of rapid climate change and the potential existence of tipping points in marine ecosystems where nonlinear change may result from them being overstepped, raises the question of strategies for coping with ecosystem change. There is broad agreement that the combined forces of climate change, pollution and increasing economic activities necessitates more comprehensive approaches to oceans management, centering on the concept of ecosystem-based oceans management. This article addresses the Norwegian experience in introducing integrated, ecosystem-based oceans management, emphasizing how climate change, seen as a major long-term driver of change in ecosystems, is addressed in management plans. Understanding the direct effects of climate variability and change on ecosystems and indirect effects on human activities is essential for adaptive planning to be useful in the long-term management of the marine environment.     

Investigation of drugs of abuse and relevant metabolites in Dutch sewage water by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry

An extensive study on the presence of illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals with potential for abuse in sewage waters was made for the first time in the Netherlands. A total number of 24 target drugs were investigated in influent and effluent wastewater using liquid chromatography coupled to a high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometer. This powerful analyzer has allowed not only the detection and identification of the compounds under investigation, but also their quantification at very low levels, which is highly innovative in the field of drugs of abuse. Samples were taken from five sewage treatment plants (STPs) during a whole week. The selected STPs served four cities of different size and an international airport. Daily variances of drug loads were demonstrated and removal efficiencies calculated for each drug and STP individually. Twelve target compounds were found in at least one influent or effluent, and highest concentrations were observed in influents collected from more urbanized areas. The compounds more frequently detected were amphetamine, benzoylecgonine, cocaine and THCCOOH together with the pharmaceuticals codeine, oxazepam and temazepam. Established week trends in consumption of drugs showed distinct differences between individual drugs. A slightly different occurrence pattern was observed in wastewaters from the airport. Thus, methamphetamine was only detected at Schiphol, a fact that was interpreted to be caused by consumption of this drug by travelers. Despite the fact that the Netherlands has frequently been criticized for its liberal drug policy the results from this study did not reveal higher drug consumption than found elsewhere, with the exception of cannabis.     

Reconnecting Cities to the Biosphere: Stewardship of Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecosystem Services

Within-city green infrastructure can offer opportunities and new contexts for people to become stewards of ecosystem services. We analyze cities as social–ecological systems, synthesize the literature, and provide examples from more than 15 years of research in the Stockholm urban region, Sweden. The social–ecological approach spans from investigating ecosystem properties to the social frameworks and personal values that drive and shape human interactions with nature. Key findings demonstrate that urban ecosystem services are generated by social–ecological systems and that local stewards are critically important. However, land-use planning and management seldom account for their role in the generation of urban ecosystem services. While the small scale patchwork of land uses in cities stimulates intense interactions across borders much focus is still on individual patches. The results highlight the importance and complexity of stewardship of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services and of the planning and governance of urban green infrastructure.     

Contribution of Ecosystem Services to Air Quality and Climate Change Mitigation Policies: The Case of Urban Forests in Barcelona,Spain

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change mitigation in the municipality of Barcelona, Spain. We apply the i-Tree Eco model to quantify in biophysical and monetary terms the ecosystem services “air purification,” “global climate regulation,” and the ecosystem disservice “air pollution” associated with biogenic emissions. Our results show that the contribution of urban forests regulating services to abate pollution is substantial in absolute terms, yet modest when compared to overall city levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. We conclude that in order to be effective, green infrastructure-based efforts to offset urban pollution at the municipal level have to be coordinated with territorial policies at broader spatial scales.     

Validation of the inhalable dust algorithm of the Advanced REACH Tool using a dataset from the pharmaceutical industry

As it is often difficult to obtain sufficient numbers of measurements to adequately characterise exposure levels, occupational exposure models may be useful tools in the exposure assessment process. This study aims to refine and validate the inhalable dust algorithm of the Advanced REACH Tool (ART) to predict airborne exposure of workers in the pharmaceutical industry. The ART was refined to reflect pharmaceutical situations. Largely task based workplace exposure data (n = 192) were collated from a multinational pharmaceutical company with exposure levels ranging from 5 × 10(-5) to 12 mg m(-3). Bias, relative bias and uncertainty around geometric mean exposure estimates were calculated for 16 exposure scenarios. For 12 of the 16 scenarios the ART geometric mean exposure estimates were lower than measured exposure levels with on average, a one-third underestimation of exposure (relative bias -32%). For 75% of the scenarios the exposure estimates were, within the 90% uncertainty factor of 4.4, as reported for the original calibration study, which may indicate more uncertainty in the ART estimates in this industry. While the uncertainty was higher than expected this is likely due to the limited number of measurements per scenario, which were largely derived from single premises.     

The effect of nitrogen deposition on the species richness of acid grasslands in Denmark: a comparison with a study performed on a European scale

The effect of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on the species richness of acid grasslands was investigated by combining data from a large Danish monitoring program with a large European data set, where a significant non-linear negative effect of nitrogen deposition had been demonstrated (Stevens et al., 2010). The nitrogen deposition range in Denmark is relatively small and when only considering the Danish data a non-significant decrease in the species richness with nitrogen deposition was observed. However, when both data sets were combined, then the conclusion of the European survey was further corroborated by the results of the Danish monitoring. Furthermore, by combining the two data sets a more comprehensive picture of the threats to the biodiversity of acid grasslands emerge; i.e., species richness in remnant patches of acid grassland in intensively cultivated agricultural landscapes is under influence not only from nitrogen deposition, but also from current and historical land use.     

A load model based on antecedent dry periods for pollutants in stormwater.

A load model for stormwater constituents is proposed that describes mass retained on the drainage area after previous storms, as a function of a weighted sum of previous antecedent dry periods. It was used to compute the event load for 14 constituents--zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, chromium, lead, mercury, silver, total suspended solids (TSS), E. coli, fecal coliform, total soluble phosphorus, total phosphorus, and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand. The results show acceptable fits for most constituents based on over 400 rain events (2000 to 2004) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Considering the retained pollutant mass after one previous storm rather than assuming the area to be clean after the previous storm gives more accurate results for all constituents, except TSS and silver. The model can be used for mixed land-use areas. The ratios of deposition fluxes of zinc and individual metals were determined at a major parking lot producing a profile characteristic of automobile emissions.     

Production of polyhydroxyalkanoate during treatment of tomato cannery wastewater.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production was achieved using tomato cannery waste coupled with a mixed microbial culture during wastewater treatment. The two-stage PHA production process comprised a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), operating under a periodic feast-famine regime, to accomplish simultaneously wastewater treatment and selection of PHA-accumulating microbes, followed by a batch reactor for the production of PHA-rich biomass. The SBRs were efficient at removing soluble carbon (84%), ammonia (100%), and phosphorus (76%). Meanwhile, PHA-accumulating microbes were enriched under the SBR operating conditions, and PHA content on a cell-weight basis was within the range 7 to 11% in nonfiltered wastewater and 2 to 8% in filtered wastewater. Subsequently, batch studies were implemented with varying loading rates, ranging from 0.4 to 3.2 food-to-microorganism ratios. A maximum 20% PHA content on a cell-weight basis was obtained. Based on the experimental results, a PHA biosynthesis-degradation kinetic model was developed to (1) aid in the design of a pilot- or full-scale PHA production process coupled with wastewater treatment and (2) determine optimal conditions for harvest of PHA-rich biomass.     

Responses of wintering geese to the designation of goose foraging areas in The Netherlands

The Netherlands is important for wintering migratory herbivorous geese, numbers of which have rapidly increased, leading to conflict with agriculture. In 2005/2006, a new goose management policy aimed to limit compensation payments to farmers by concentrating foraging geese in 80 000 ha of designated ‘go’ areas—where farmers received payment to accommodate them—and scaring geese from ‘no go’ areas elsewhere. Monthly national counts of four abundant goose species during 10 years prior to the new policy and in 8 years following implementation found that 57% of all goose days were spent within ‘go’ areas under the new management, the same as prior to implementation. Such lack of response suggests no predicted learning effects, perhaps because of (i) increases in abundance outside of ‘go’ areas, (ii) irregularly shaped boundaries and enclaves of ‘no go’ farmland within ‘go’ areas and/or (iii) insufficient differences in disturbance levels within and outside designated areas.