A targeted social marketing approach for community pro-environmental behavioural change

Community-level initiatives will play a key role in meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets. This paper examines the experience gained in applying a targeted social marketing approach to foster local-scale community pro-environmental behavioural change in the City of York, UK. This involved determining the neighbourhood carbon footprint, identifying residents that had access to appropriate infrastructure and were receptive to green issues. Six community teams were recruited from the selected neighbourhoods and provided with information, advice and mentoring on how to reduce their carbon footprint over a six-month period. A statistically significant reduction in carbon emissions was achieved. Each participant achieved a mean reduction in their carbon footprint of 2.0 tonnes of CO₂e/year. The largest reductions were achieved in the areas of shopping and home energy. In addition, it helped to foster community spirit. Based on the experience gained from implementing this approach, a cost-effective model of community engagement is proposed.     

Forecasts of habitat loss and fragmentation due to urban growth are sensitive to source of input data

The conversion of natural habitat to urban settlements is a primary driver of biodiversity loss, and species' persistence is threatened by the extent, location, and spatial pattern of development. Urban growth models are widely used to anticipate future development and to inform conservation management, but the source of spatial input to these models may contribute to uncertainty in their predictions. We compared two sources of historic urban maps, used as input for model calibration, to determine how differences in definition and scale of urban extent affect the resulting spatial predictions from a widely used urban growth model for San Diego County, CA under three conservation scenarios. The results showed that rate, extent, and spatial pattern of predicted urban development, and associated habitat loss, may vary substantially depending on the source of input data, regardless of how much land is excluded from development. Although the datasets we compared both represented urban land, different types of land use/land cover included in the definition of urban land and different minimum mapping units contributed to the discrepancies. Varying temporal resolution of the input datasets also contributed to differences in projected rates of development. Differential predicted impacts to vegetation types illustrate how the choice of spatial input data may lead to different conclusions relative to conservation. Although the study cannot reveal whether one dataset is better than another, modelers should carefully consider that geographical reality can be represented differently, and should carefully choose the definition and scale of their data to fit their research objectives.     

Perfluorinated phosphine oxide and sulfides as extractants for heavy metals and radionuclides

New highly fluorinated monodentate and bidentate phosphine oxide compounds of the type {CF(3)(CF(2))(n)CH(2)CH(2)}(3)PO (n = 5, 9) and [{CF(3)(CF(2))(5)CH(2)CH(2)}(2)P(O)CH(2)CH(2)P(O){CH(2)CH(2)(CF(2))(5)CF(3)}] have been prepared. Their ability to extract a number of metals and radionuclides from aqueous solutions into perfluorinated solvents has been established and the extractable species investigated. All extractants extract the metals As(V), Cd(II), Co(II), Cr(VI), Hg(II), Pb(II), and Sn(II) with >75% removal. In addition, the radioisotopes (90)Sr(II), (133)Ba(II), and U(VI) have been investigated, whilst (59)Fe(III) has been used to model the extraction of plutonium. (133)Ba(II) shows a high distribution ratio for monodentate phosphine oxides, whilst for UO(2)(2+) and (59)Fe(III) bidentate phosphine oxides are superior.     

Evaluation of lot-to-lot repeatability and effect of assay media choice in the recombinant Factor C assay

Measurement of environmental endotoxin exposures is complicated by variability encountered using current biological assay methods arising in part from lot-to-lot variability of the Limulus-amebocyte lysate (LAL) reagents. Therefore, we investigated the lot-to-lot repeatability of commercially available recombinant Factor C (rFC) kits as an alternative to LAL. Specifically, we compared endotoxin estimates obtained from rFC assay of twenty indoor dust samples, using four different extraction and assay media, to endotoxin estimates previously obtained by Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay and amounts of 3-hydroxy fatty acids (3-OHFA) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) using gas-chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). We found that lot-to-lot variability of the rFC assay kits does not significantly alter endotoxin estimates in house dust samples when performed using three of the four assay media tested and that choice of assay media significantly altered endotoxin estimates obtained by rFC assay of house dust samples. Our findings demonstrate lot-to-lot reproducibility of rFC assay of environmental samples and suggest that use of rFC assay performed with Tris buffer or water as the extraction and assay medium for measurement of endotoxin in dust samples may be a suitable choice for developing a standardized methodology.     

The institutional complexity of environmental policy and planning problems: the example of Mediterranean desertification

Environmental policy and planning problems are inherently complex societal problems whose solution requires the deployment of particular combinations of environmental and human resources to achieve sustainable socio-spatial development. Resources are subject, however, to diverse resource regimes. A stumbling block in devising and implementing solutions is the variance between actual resource regimes and those associated with proposed plans and policies as well as the possibility of combining them optimally. The paper explores how the institutional setting—the numerous and diverse actors and resource regimes involved—affects the output and outcomes of the principal stages of the policy and planning process, it offers proposals for institutional change and it suggests future research directions. Desertification control is analyzed as an illustrative example of a domain where institutional complexity is pronounced and crucial for the feasibility and effectiveness of policy and planning interventions.