SWOT Analysis and Challenges of Nile Basin Initiative：An Integrated Water Resource Management Perspective

River Nile is one of the longest transboundery rivers and it is shared and used by Burundi,Democratic Republic of Congo,Egypt,Ethiopia,Eritrea,Kenya,Rwanda,Sudan,Tanzania and Uganda.As of today,the Nile is a crucial resource for the economic development of the Nile Basin countries and a vital source of livelihood for 160 million inhabitants as well as 300 million people living in the 10 riparian countries.The Nile Basin Initiative(NBI) is one of the international cooperative river basin management program and regional partnership where all the Nile Basin countries except Eritrea unite to pursue long-term sustainable development,improved land use practices and management.This review therefore focused on the challenges not faced on NBI in terms of integrated use of the river and conducted analysis of strengths,weaknesses,opportunities and threats(SWOT) based on secondary data.The result of the review revealed that for decades,the Nile Basin people have been facing many complex environmental,social,economic and political challenges that have made it difficult for the proper management and sustainability of Nile water.The initiative provides training to develop skills in government ministries,non-governmental organizations and local communities in each country.It is also working to raise awareness of critical environmental issues by strengthening networks of environmental education practitioners;developing curriculum in the education sector.The challenges of NBI include the involvement and funding of World Bank,lack of sufficient staff,procedural and policies conflicts,lack of coordination and linkage with other regional institutions and lack of recognition as river basin organization.Considering the complex nature of the project,it is recommended that the NBI should come up with a strong multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation team to follow up all implemented projects.The NBI should carry out participatory land use planning in communities along the river basin.Moreover,livelihood analysis should be carried out especially in communities along the Nile to come up with poverty eradication projects which are socially acceptable,applicable,economically viable and affordable.     

Kodak's framework and assessment tool for implementing TQEM

Total Quality Management provides a powerful management foundation and framework to implement an organization's environmental vision and principles. The elements of TQM include customer/stakeholder focus, a high degree of senior management commitment, a long-term focus, and tools such as continuous improvement, empowerment, and a prevention-based approach. This article describes a matrix developed by major U.S. and Canadian firms that serves as (1) a guide to organizations implementing TQEM from the ground floor up and (2) an assessment tool that can be used internally or externally to measure progress toward environmental management excellence and to identify opportunities for improvement. The matrix is based on categories adapted from those used in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process. The relationship between individual matrix cell criteria and key concepts such as pollution prevention and sustainability is also described.     

The midlatitude North American background aerosol and global aerosol variation

Protocols for the particulate matter (PM) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and the Regional Haze Rule (RHR) give two complementary definitions for "natural" background airborne particle concentrations in the United States. The definition for the NAAQS derives largely from reported annual averages, whereas the definition for the RHR takes into account the frequency of occurrence of a range of visibility conditions estimated using fine particle composition. These definitions are simple, static representations of background or "unmanageable" aerosol conditions in the United States. An accumulation of data from rural-remote sites representing global conditions indicates that the airborne particle concentrations are highly variable. Observational campaigns show weather-related variations, including incidents of regional or intercontinental transport of pollution that influence background aerosol levels over midlatitude North America. Defining a background in North America based on long-term observations relies mainly on the remote-rural IMPROVE network in the United States, with a few additional measurements from Canada. Examination of the frequency of occurrence of mass concentrations and particle components provides insight not only about annual median conditions but also the variability of apparent background conditions. The results of this analysis suggest that a more elaborate approach to defining an unmanageable background could improve the present approach taken for information input into the U.S. regulatory process. An approach interpreting the continental gradients in fine PM (PM2.5) concentrations and composition may be warranted.     

Assessing climate change and health vulnerability at the local level: Travis County,Texas

We created a measure to help comprehend population vulnerability to potential flooding and excessive heat events using health, built environment and social factors. Through principal component analysis (PCA), we created non‐weighted sum index scores of literature‐reviewed social and built environment characteristics. We created baseline poor health measures using 1999–2005 age‐adjusted cardiovascular and combined diabetes and hypertension mortality rates to correspond with social–built environment indices. We mapped US Census block groups by linked age‐adjusted mortality and a PCA‐created social–built environment index. The goal was to measure flooding and excessive heat event vulnerability as proxies for population vulnerability to climate change for Travis County, Texas. This assessment identified communities where baseline poor health, social marginalisation and built environmental impediments intersected. Such assessments may assist targeted interventions and improve emergency preparedness in identified vulnerable communities, while fostering resilience through the focus of climate change adaptation policies at the local level.     

Assessment of Reclaimed Municipal Wastewater Application on Rice Cultivation

Field research was carried out to assess the effects of the application of reclaimed municipal wastewater on rice cultivation in Thessaloniki, Greece during a 2-year period (1999–2000). Effects on production cost, soil composition, and health risk were examined. A randomized complete block design was used for the paddy field with three treatments and four replicates. The treatments were (1) river irrigation water with N–P fertilization, (2) reclaimed wastewater irrigation with surface N fertilization, and (3) reclaimed wastewater irrigation without fertilization. The results showed that the total production cost decreased 8.8% and 11.9% by applying the second and third treatments, respectively, compared to the first treatment, without significant differences in the agronomic and rice quality traits. Soil composition showed discrepancies between the 2 years and the three treatments, whereas the pathogens of the reclaimed wastewater and rice tissues posed a low human risk when taking the needed precautions.     

基于SARIMA模型和普通Kriging法对杭州市主城区PM2.5短期预测和制图

基于SARIMA模型对杭州市主城区内的7个站点和周边3个站点的PM_(2.5)浓度进行4 h平均的短期预报,并利用普通Kriging法对杭州市主城区PM_(2.5)进行空间插值和制图.在建立SARIMA模型时,用批量自动化的方法,使用R语言编程对夏季和冬季各360期的数据进行SARIMA(p,d,q)×(P,D,Q)6模型的参数的确定和拟合,来预测下一期的值.在10个站点分别进行120期的预测,做出真实与预测的时间序列图,在精度分析中,夏季和冬季PM_(2.5)浓度总体的平均绝对误差(MAE)分别为8.4μg·m~(-3)和14.8μg·m~(-3).在Arc GIS中,对每期的数据使用普通Kriging法,用球面模型拟合半变异函数,决定各个站点的权重,来对杭州市区内未知空间样点进行插值,最后生成完整的杭州市主城区PM_(2.5)短期预测图.本研究创新性地将SARIMA模型广义化运用到小尺度时间序列中,预报效果较好,并且批量自动化预测和制图的方法,可为今后的预测制图产品化提供技术支持.     

Investigation of real-life operating patterns of wood-burning appliances using stack temperature data

ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken to identify patterns of consumer use of outdoor wood boilers or outdoor wood furnaces (technically referred to as outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters (OWHHs)) and indoor wood stoves (IWSs) to inform the development of performance testing protocols that reflect real-life operating conditions. These devices are manually fed, and their usage protocols are a function of a number of variables, including user habits, household characteristics, and environmental factors. In this study, researchers logged the stack wall temperatures of 4 OWHH and 20 IWS units in the states of New York and Washington over two heating seasons. Stack wall temperature is an indicator of changes in combustion modes. Two algorithms were developed to identify usage modes and cold and warm start refueling events from the stack wall temperature time series. A linear correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of heat demand on usage patterns. The results and methods presented here will inform the cataloging of typical operational patterns of OWHHs and IWSs as a step in the development of performance testing procedures that represent actual in-home usage patterns.

Implications: Current US regulatory programs for residential wood heating use a certification program to assess emissions and efficiency performance. Testing under this program uses a test that burns 100% of a single, standardized wood fuel charge to assess performance at different steady-state load conditions. This study assessed in-field operational patterns to determine if the current certification approach accurately characterized typical homeowner use patterns. The data from this study can be used to inform revisions to testing methods to increase certification test comparability between lab and field performance.     

Factors Affecting Sediment Oxygen Demand Dynamics in Blackwater Streams of Georgia’s Coastal Plain1

Abstract: Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) is believed to be an important process affecting dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in blackwater streams of the southeastern coastal plain. Because very few data on SOD are available, it is common for modelers to take SOD values from the literature for use with DO models. In this study, SOD was measured in seven blackwater streams of the Suwannee River Basin within the Georgia coastal plain for between August 2004 and April 2005. SOD was measured using four in situ chambers and was found to vary on average between 0.1 and 2.3 g O₂/m/day across the seven study sites throughout the study period. SOD was found to vary significantly between the watersheds within the Suwannee River Basin. However, land use was not found to be the driving force behind SOD values. Statistical analyses did find significant interaction between land use and watersheds suggesting that an intrinsically different factor in each of the watersheds may be affecting SOD and the low DO concentrations. Further research is needed to identify the factors driving SOD dynamics in the blackwater streams of Georgia’s coastal plain. Results from this study will be used by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – Environmental Protection Division as model input data for the development and evaluation of DO total maximum daily loads in the Georgia coastal plain.     

Ozone Control Strategies Based on the Ratio of Volatile Organic Compounds to Nitrogen Oxides

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments require states with O₃ nonattainment areas to adopt regulations to enforce reasonable available control technologies (RACT) for NO_X stationary sources by November 1992. However, if the states can demonstrate that such measures will have an adverse effect on air quality, NO_X requirements may be waived. To assist the states in making this decision, the U.S. EPA is attempting to develop guidelines for the states to use in deciding whether NO_X reductions will have a positive or negative impact on O3 air quality. Although NO_X is a precursor of O₃, at low VOC/NO_X ratios, the reduction of NO_X can result in increased peak O₃. EPA is examining existing information on VOC/NO_X ratios to develop “rules of thumb” to guide the states in their decision-making process. An examination of 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. VOC/NO_X ratios at a number of sites in the eastern U.S. indicates that the ratio is highly variable from day-to-day and there is no apparent relationship between ratios measured at different sites within the same area. In addition, statistical analysis failed to identify significant relationships between the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. VOC/NO_X ratio and the maximum 1-hr. O₃ within a given area. Since we know from smog chamber and modeling studies that such a relationship exists, this further invalidates the assumption that a ratio measured at a single site is representative of the ratio for the entire region. Based on this Information, we conclude that having the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ambient VOC/NO_X ratio for a given area is insufficient information, by itself, to decide whether a VOC-alone, a NO_x-alone, or a combined VOC-NO_X reduction strategy is a viable or optimum O₃-reduction strategy.     

Application of automated mass spectrometry deconvolution and identification software for pesticide analysis in surface waters

A new approach to surface water analysis has been investigated in order to enhance the detection of different organic contaminants in Nathan Creek, British Columbia. Water samples from Nathan Creek were prepared by liquid/liquid extraction using dichloromethane (DCM) as an extraction solvent and analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry method in scan mode (GC-MS scan). To increase sensitivity for pesticides detection, acquired scan data were further analyzed by Automated Mass Spectrometry Deconvolution and Identification Software (AMDIS) incorporated into the Agilent Deconvolution Reporting Software (DRS), which also includes mass spectral libraries for 567 pesticides. Extracts were reanalyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry single ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM) to confirm and quantitate detected pesticides. Pesticides: atrazine, dimethoate, diazinone, metalaxyl, myclobutanil, napropamide, oxadiazon, propazine and simazine were detected at three sampling sites on the mainstream of the Nathan Creek. Results of the study are further discussed in terms of detectivity and identification level for each pesticide found. The proposed approach of monitoring pesticides in surface waters enables their detection and identification at trace levels.