Household preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for freshwater quality improvement in Pakistan’s Swat River Valley

This two-part study investigates household preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvement of the Swat River in Pakistan. First, a four-point Likert scale was used to rank preferences for water quality benefits without using any financial metric. Results show that households have comparatively strong preferences for non-use benefits. Second, a contingent valuation question was designed to determine WTP for adopting a management plan developed exclusively for water quality improvement in the Swat River. The estimated annual mean WTP per household for water quality improvement is $2.40 when donating to an NGO. Generalizing this value to households living in Swat Valley would generate up to $544,000 per year. The present value aggregate benefit for 15 years would be sufficient to cover the present value of aggregate costs to adopt the management plan. A mandatory program that would require paying for the management plan generates half the WTP compared to the voluntary plan, but is still sufficient to cover costs and may be more feasible than a voluntary program because payment is assured.     

Climate change,multiple stressors and human vulnerability: a systematic review

We systematically reviewed current climate change literature in order to examine how multiple processes that affect human vulnerability have been studied. Of the 125 reviewed articles, 79 % were published after 2009. There are numerous concepts that point out to stressors other than climate change that were used in reviewed studies. These different concepts were used interchangeably, and they illustrate processes that act on different scales. Most widely used concepts included non-climatic (40 % of the articles), multiple stressors (38 %) and other factors (37 %). About 75 % of the studies either acknowledged or carefully analyzed the social and environmental context in which vulnerability is experienced. One-third of the studies recognized climate change-related stressors as the most important, one-third argued that stressors other than climate are more important, and the rest of the studies did not analyze the relative importance of the different processes. Interactions between different stressors were mentioned in 76 % and analyzed explicitly in 28 % of the articles. Our review shows that there are studies that analyze the social context of vulnerability within climate change-related literature and this literature is rapidly expanding. Reviewed studies point out that there are multiple interacting stressors, whose interlinkages need to be carefully analyzed and targeted by policies, which integrate adaptation to climate change and other stressors. In conclusion, we suggest that future studies should include analytical frameworks that reflect dissimilarities between different types of stressors, methodological triangulation to identify key stressors and analysis of interactions between multiple stressors across different scales.     

US exposure to multiple landscape stressors and climate change

Regional Environmental Change - We examined landscape exposure to wildfire potential, insects and disease risk, and urban and exurban development for the conterminous US (CONUS). Our analysis...     

Decline of traditional rice farming constrains the recovery of the endangered Asian crested ibis (Nipponia nippon)

Traditional agriculture benefits a rich diversity of plants and animals. The winter-flooded rice fields in the Qinling Mountains, China, are the last refuge for the endangered Asian crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), and intensive efforts have been made to protect this anthropogenic habitat. Analyses of multi-temporal satellite data indicate that winter-flooded rice fields have been continuously reduced across the current range of crested ibis during the past two decades. The rate of loss of these fields in the core-protected areas has unexpectedly increased to a higher level than that in non-protected areas in the past decade. The best fit (R² = 0.87) numerical response model of the crested ibis population shows that a reduction of winter-flooded rice fields decreases population growth and predicts that the population growth will be constrained by the decline of traditional winter-flooded rice fields in the coming decades. Our findings suggest that the decline of traditional rice farming is likely to continue to pose a threat to the long-term survival and recovery of the crested ibis population in China.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0649-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Risk Assessment of 26 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Compounds in Parkıng Garages

The aim of this study was to determine the level of 26 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at parking garages and to provide the necessary annual information based on occupational inhalation exposure and non-occupational inhalation exposure, which carry risks for the environment. For this purpose, 22 samples were collected continuously from both gas and particulates phase PAHs from two parking garages at Konya City Center, Turkey. The exposure-based risk of these samples was evaluated using concentrations of the carcinogenic PAH compounds. None of the 26 PAHs measured had values exceeding the recommended exposure limits (RELs) standard values for inhalation rate recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Exposure levels of gas and particulate PAHs for the occupational group and the public (children and adults who spend time in shopping centers) were found to be 0.07–28.24 μgm^?3 and 0.05–5.753 μgm^?3, respectively, representing levels two to four times higher than those at the control site. Maximum daily inhalation of B[a]Py was estimated at 1.33 ngd^?1 for exposure of the public and as 274 ngd^?1 for the occupational group. It is believed that traffic makes a substantial contribution to the PAH profile, which had relatively high concentrations of naphthalene (Napth) and coronene (Coro). Highly carcinogenic dibenzo(a,l)pyrene (B[al]Pyre) was found in the ambient air at two parking garages. Napth and phenanthrene (Phen) were the main compounds found in nearly all the tested samples. In this study, benzo[e]pyrene (B[e]Py) was used as a reference for PAHs because its concentration is stable and does not change seasonally. Considering the importance of these compounds in relation to human health, the aim of this work was to characterize and quantify the more toxic PAHs in parking garages. Conducting PAH sampling and their chemical analysis is very costly and labor intensive. This study produced data that can be a powerful tool for environmental forensics.     

Developing Effective Decision Support for the Application of “Gentle” Remediation Options: The GREENLAND Project

Gentle remediation options (GRO) are risk management strategies/technologies that result in a net gain (or at least no gross reduction) in soil function as well as risk management. They encompass a number of technologies, including the use of plant (phyto‐), fungi (myco‐), and/or bacteria‐based methods, with or without chemical soil additives or amendments, for reducing contaminant transfer to local receptors by in situ stabilization, or extraction, transformation, or degradation of contaminants. Despite offering strong benefits in terms of risk management, deployment costs, and sustainability for a range of site problems, the application of GRO as practical on‐site remedial solutions is still in its relative infancy, particularly for metal(loid)‐contaminated sites. A key barrier to wider adoption of GRO relates to general uncertainties and lack of stakeholder confidence in (and indeed knowledge of) the feasibility or reliability of GRO as practical risk management solutions. The GREENLAND project has therefore developed a simple and transparent decision support framework for promoting the appropriate use of gentle remediation options and encouraging participation of stakeholders, supplemented by a set of specific design aids for use when GRO appear to be a viable option. The framework is presented as a three phased model or Decision Support Tool (DST), in the form of a Microsoft Excel‐based workbook, designed to inform decision‐making and options appraisal during the selection of remedial approaches for contaminated sites. The DST acts as a simple decision support and stakeholder engagement tool for the application of GRO, providing a context for GRO application (particularly where soft end‐use of remediated land is envisaged), quick reference tables (including an economic cost calculator), and supporting information and technical guidance drawing on practical examples of effective GRO application at trace metal(loid) contaminated sites across Europe. This article introduces the decision support framework. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Comprehensive investigation of various re-refining technologies of used lubricating oil: a review

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Waste lubricating oil is considered to be a hazardous waste and has tremendous impact on human health and environment. The present review...     

Recycling of printed circuit board e-wastes: a combined study of pyrolysis characteristics,kinetics and evolved gas analyses at various particle sizes

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - The current study aimed to determine the characteristics and kinetic parameters for the pyrolysis of printed circuit board (PCB) wastes including...