Book reviews

ANALYTICAL PLANNING: THE ORGANISATION OF SYSTEMS

Thomas L. Saaty and Kevin P. Kearns

Pergamon Press, 1985. Price: U.S. $40.00, U.K. £29.50.

THE GEOGRAPHER AT WORK

Peter Gould

Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1985’ Price: £8.95.

UTOPIA ON TRIAL

Alice Colman

Hilary Shipman Ltd., 19 Framfield Road, Highbury, London. May 1985 (reprinted August, 1985). Price: £7.95.

SIR RAYMOND UNWIN: ARCHITECT, PLANNER AND VISIONARY

Frank Jackson

A. Zwemmer Ltd., London 1985. 187 pp. with maps and illustrations.

STRATEGIC PLANNING IN ACTION: THE IMPACT OF THE CLYDE VALLEY REGIONAL PLAN 1946–1982

R. Smith and U. Wannop (eds)

Gower, 1985, 272 pp. Price: £16.50.

LOCALITIES, CLASS AND GENDER

The Lancaster Regionalism Group (Linda Murgatroyd, Mike Savage, Dan Shapiro, John Urry, Sylvia Walby, Alan Warde, with Jane Mark‐Lawson)

Pion Ltd., 1985. Price: £12.00.     

Assessment of sociocultural acceptability of biogas from faecal waste as an alternative energy source in selected areas of Benin City,Edo State,Nigeria

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The use of wastes for biogas production has been restricted to few feedstock like cattle manure and food waste. Increasing the feedstock base for...     

Rapid and Low-Cost Method for Evaluation of Nutrient Release from Controlled-Release Fertilizers Using Electrical Conductivity

Methods to determine nutrient release rates of coated fertilizers usually rely on chemical analyses, which often are time-consuming and/or expensive. Our goal was to develop an innovative and rapid low-cost method to evaluate nutrient release from polymer coated MAP or urea using conductometry. The release in water is determined by measuring the electric conductivity (EC) over time, with intervals dependent on release rates. In the case of soluble salt fertilizers, EC can be immediately determined and converted to a concentration using a calibration curve. In the case of urea, an additional step is needed to convert the neutral urea into ammonium. The release rates in water were assessed for a range of commercial and laboratory-coated fertilizers. A validation test demonstrated strong agreement with the release determined using analytical techniques. The EC method hence offers an easy way to quickly evaluate the time course of release of nutrients from controlled-release fertilizers.     

Wet deposition of mercury within the vicinity of a cement plant before and during cement plant maintenance

Hg species (total mercury, methylmercury, reactive mercury) in precipitation were investigated in the vicinity of the Lehigh Hanson Permanente Cement Plant in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA., USA. Precipitation was collected weekly between November 29, 2007 and March 20, 2008, which included the period in February and March 2008 when cement production was minimized during annual plant maintenance. When the cement plant was operational, the volume weighted mean (VWM) and wet depositional flux for total Hg (Hg_T) were 6.7 and 5.8 times higher, respectively, compared to a control site located 3.5 km east of the cement plant. In February and March, when cement plant operations were minimized, levels were approximately equal at both sites (the ratio for both parameters was 1.1). Due to the close proximity between the two sites, meteorological conditions (e.g., precipitation levels, wind direction) were similar, and therefore higher VWM Hg_T levels and Hg_T deposition likely reflected increased Hg emissions from the cement plant. Methylmercury (MeHg) and reactive Hg (Hg(II)) were also measured; compared to the control site, the VWM for MeHg was lower at the cement plant (the ratio = 0.75) and the VWM for Hg(II) was slightly higher (ratio = 1.2), which indicated the cement plant was not likely a significant source of these Hg species to the watershed.     

Unleaded Gasoline Shortages and Fuel Switching

The use of leaded gasoline in automobiles equipped with catalytic converters causes deactivation of the converters and leads to significant increases in emissions of reactive hydrocarbons, a precursor of ozone. Such fuel switching may be a contributing factor to the increase in photochemical smog levels recently observed in the South Coast Air Basin (SOCAB).     

Development of a new aerosol monitoring system and its application in Fukushima nuclear accident related aerosol radioactivity measurement at the CTBT radionuclide station in Sidney of Canada

A high volume aerosol sampler ("Grey Owl") has been designed and developed at the Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada. Its design guidance is based on the need for a low operational cost and reliable sampler to provide daily aerosol monitoring samples that can be used as reference samples for radiological studies. It has been developed to provide a constant air flow rate at low pressure drops (∼3 kPa for a day sampling) with variations of less than ±1% of the full scale flow rate. Its energy consumption is only about 1.5 kW for a filter sampling over 22,000 standard cubic meter of air. It has been demonstrated in this Fukushima nuclear accident related aerosol radioactivity monitoring study at Sidney station, B.C. that the sampler is robust and reliable. The results provided by the new monitoring system have been used to support decision-making in Canada during an emergency response.     

Multi-scale analysis of oxygen demand trends in an urbanizing Oregon watershed, USA

Human alteration of the landscape has an extensive influence on the biogeochemical processes that drive oxygen cycling in streams. We estimated trends from the mid-1990s to 2003, using the seasonal Mann-Kendall's test, for percent saturation dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and ammonia-nitrogen (NH(3)-N) for 12 sites in the Rock Creek watershed, northwest Oregon, USA. In order to understand the influence of landscape change, scale, and stormwater runoff management on dissolved oxygen trends, we calculated land cover change through aerial photo interpretation at full-basin, local (near sample point) basin, and 100m stream buffer scales, for the years 1994 and 2000. Significant (p < or = 0.05) trends occurred in DO (increasing at five sites), COD (decreasing at seven sites), TKN (decreasing at five sites, increasing at one site), and NH(3)-N (decreasing at one site, increasing at one site). Significant land cover change occurred in agricultural land cover (-8% for the entire basin area) and residential land cover (+10% for the entire basin area) (p < or = 0.05). Correlation results indicated that: (1) forest cover negatively influenced COD at the full basin scale and positively influences NH(3)-N at local scales, (2) residential land cover influenced oxygen demand variables at local scales, (3) agricultural land cover did not influence oxygen demand, (4) local topography negatively influenced TKN and NH(3)-N, and (5) stormwater runoff management infrastructure correlated positively with COD at the local scale. This study indicates that landscape factors influencing DO conditions for the study streams act at multiple scales, suggesting that better knowledge of scale-process interactions can guide watershed managers' decision making in order to maintain improving water quality conditions.     

Dispersion modeling to compare alternative technologies for odor remediation at swine facilities

The effectiveness of 18 alternative technologies for reducing odor dispersion at and beyond the boundary of swine facilities was assessed in conjunction with an initiative sponsored through agreements between the Attorney General of North Carolina and Smithfield Foods, Premium Standard Farms, and Frontline Farmers. The trajectory and spatial distribution of odor emitted at each facility were modeled at 200 and 400 m downwind from each site under two meteorological conditions (daytime and nighttime) using a Eulerian-Lagrangian model. To predict the dispersion of odor downwind, the geographical area containing the odorant sources at each facility was partitioned into 10-m2 grids on the basis of satellite photographs and architectural drawings. Relative odorant concentrations were assigned to each grid point on the basis of intensity measurements made by the trained odor panel at each facility using a 9-point rating scale. The results of the modeling indicated that odor did not extend significantly beyond 400 m downwind of any of the test sites during the daytime when the layer of air above the earth's surface is usually turbulent. However, modeling indicated that odor from all full-scale farms extended beyond 400 m onto neighboring property in the evenings when deep surface cooling through long-wave radiation to space produces a stable (nocturnal) boundary layer. The results also indicated that swine housing, independent of waste management type, plays a significant role in odor downwind, as do odor sources of moderate to moderately high intensity that emanate from a large surface area such as a lagoon. Human odor assessments were utilized for modeling rather than instrument measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, or particulates less than 10 microm in diameter (PM10) because these physical measurements obtained simultaneously with human panel ratings were not found to accurately predict human odor intensity in the field.