Institutional challenges of adopting ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change

In view of past environmental degradation and anticipated climate change impacts, we assessed the potential for ecosystem-based adaptation in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. In a workshop with staff from three Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) who had jurisdiction over three sub-basins, as well as technical experts, nine adaptation options were identified that ranged from environmental flows, restoring river channel habitat, reoperating infrastructure and controlling invasive species. A Catchment Adaptation Framework was developed and used to assess and compare these adaptation options with each of the CMAs, drawing on interviews with their key stakeholders, to identify the risks, benefits and costs. We found that ecosystem-based adaptation can augment catchment management programs and requires investment in a suite of different but complementary measures to lower risk. Our research found institutional challenges in implementing this approach, including the complexities of multi-agency management, constricting legal requirements, narrow funding arrangements, under-developed institutional capacity, difficulties of implementing catchment-scale programs on private property and the need to adhere to community expectations. These institutional issues are ubiquitous internationally and point to the wider issues of providing sufficient management capacity to support adaptation. The Catchment Adaptation Framework presented here enables river basin managers to systematically assess the adaptation options to better inform their decision-making.     

Conditions for the development of anaerobic digestion technologies using the organic fraction of municipal solid waste: perspectives for Poland

This article outlines problems related to the location of facilities designed to treat the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities are investigated as a treatment option, while taking into account the aspects of renewable energy generation. This research has been spurred on by the relationship between waste management, energy generation issues and spatial planning procedures. The analysis is focused on urban and semi-urban areas of medium and large cities. One of the most difficult issues associated with siting of waste processing plants is its integration with local infrastructures, avoiding conflicts and negative environmental impacts at the same time. This research aims to analyse possible locations for AD plants fuelled by OFMSW in Poland. Based on the experience gained from other countries and lessons learnt from the analysis of existing facilities in Europe, conditions for the location of this type of waste treatment plants have been defined, with the focus on economic, environmental and social issues. Most likely, the results of the multicriteria decision analysis for siting of municipal solid waste AD plants (M-BIST tool) could be transferred to other countries, especially those with a comparable GDP level and a similar framework for a waste management system.     

Enhanced science–stakeholder communication to improve ecosystem model performances for climate change impact assessments

In recent years, climate impact assessments of relevance to the agricultural and forestry sectors have received considerable attention. Current ecosystem models commonly capture the effect of a warmer climate on biomass production, but they rarely sufficiently capture potential losses caused by pests, pathogens and extreme weather events. In addition, alternative management regimes may not be integrated in the models. A way to improve the quality of climate impact assessments is to increase the science–stakeholder collaboration, and in a two-way dialog link empirical experience and impact modelling with policy and strategies for sustainable management. In this paper we give a brief overview of different ecosystem modelling methods, discuss how to include ecological and management aspects, and highlight the importance of science–stakeholder communication. By this, we hope to stimulate a discussion among the science–stakeholder communities on how to quantify the potential for climate change adaptation by improving the realism in the models.     

Development of a black carbon-inclusive multi-media model: application for PAHs in Stockholm

A multi-media model was developed for predicting the fate of organic chemicals in the Greater Stockholm Area, Sweden, and applied to selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Although urban models have been previously developed, this model is novel in that it includes sorption to pyrogenically-derived particles, commonly termed "black carbon" (BC), within the model structure. To examine the influence of BC sorption on environmental fate of PAHs, two versions of the model were generated and run: one in which sorption to BC was included and one in which BC sorption was excluded. The inclusion of BC sorption did not cause any significant variations to air levels, but it did cause an average 20-30% increase in sediment concentrations related to increased sediment solids partitioning. The model also predicted reduced advective losses out of the model domain, as well as chemical potential to diffuse from sediments, whilst total chemical inventory increased. In all cases, the lighter PAHs were more affected by BC inclusion than their heavier counterparts. We advocate the addition of sorption to BC in future multi-media fate and exposure models, which as well as influencing fate will also alter (lower) chemical availability and, thus, wildlife exposure to hydrophobic chemicals. A quantification of the latter was derived with the help of the soot-inclusive model version, which estimated a lowering of dissolved water concentrations between five and >200 times for the different PAHs of this study.     

Assessment of the effects of soil PAH accumulation by a battery of ecotoxicological tests

Surface soils were collected at remote, urban and industrial sites in the Southern of Italy in order to evaluate PAH concentrations and assess the toxic effects by a battery of ecotoxicological tests. The tests were performed on whole soils and on both organic and aqueous extracts. Further goal of this study was to integrate the results coming from each test and matrix in a synthetic toxicity index. The highest summation sigmaPAH concentrations were measured at the industrial soil, although this one did not show an high ecotoxicological risk. Among the performed tests, the phytotoxicity tests showed the highest sensitivity. For whole soil, the worst case always has been represented by test through bacteria. Our results could represent the first step toward the selection of a proper battery to characterize the soil ecotoxicological risk.     

Maternal transfer of brominated flame retardants in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

In many species reproduction and embryonic development have been shown to be sensitive to environmental contaminants. Understanding embryonic exposure to environmental contaminants is thus highly important. In this study concentrations of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) were measured in zebrafish eggs after parental exposure for 42 days via the diet. Zebrafish were exposed to two doses of eleven structurally-diverse BFRs. Eight BFRs were detected in the female zebrafish and maternal transfer to eggs was evident for all eight compounds. The highest concentrations in eggs were observed for hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and 2,4,4'-tribromodiphenyl ether (BDE 28), followed by 2,2',3,4,4',5',6-heptabromodiphenyl ether (BDE 183) and tetrabromobisphenol A 2,3-dibromopropyl ether (TBBPA DBPE). Five potential BFR metabolites were tentatively identified in female fish and maternal transfer was observed also for these compounds. The lipid adjusted concentrations in eggs were significantly higher than the concentrations in female fish for several of the BFRs. Further, the results showed a generally higher transfer in the lower exposure level and also indicated a dependency on the physico-chemical properties of the compounds.     

High chrome exhaustion in a non-float tanning process using a sulphonic aromatic acid

Tanning processes performed in drums consume large amounts of water and chemicals, most of which end up in the wastewater. This study explores an alternative approach at an industrial scale to the traditional pickle-chrome tanning method. The new method replaces formic and sulphuric acids with sulphonic aromatic acid. Because it is done without float, there is a sizeable reduction in the amount of added salt and chrome salt as well as an increase in temperatures at the end of the tanning process. From an environmental perspective, the new method offers important advantages. For instance, there is no float addition in the tannage. Also, there are reductions of 94% and 99%, respectively, in the discharge of chlorides and chrome, as well as a 75% reduction in the residual float. Our financial assessment demonstrated that the new method is 42% cheaper than a traditional approach.     

Minimization of the environmental impact in the unhairing of bovine hides

This study tests an alternative method to the traditional unhairing method used during the process of tanning the hides. The new method is based on the substitution of sodium sulfide by hydrogen peroxide as an unhairing agent in both hair recovery and recirculation of the floats employed in the process. The properties of the hides obtained using the two methods have been compared and the results indicate that those hides have similar physical, chemical, and organoleptic properties. However, the differences existing from an environmental point of view are significant. These include reductions of water consumption (approx 70%), chemical oxygen demand (approx 35%), toxicity (98%) and total kjendhal nitrogen (50%). Also, the risk associated with the production of hydrogen sulfide is eliminated, which implies a great improvement in terms of safety for the workers. Given the large amounts of water and chemical pollution discharged in the process, the reductions in absolute values represent a significant improvement. A financial assessment was carried out to demonstrate that the proposed new system is 16% more economic than the traditional one.