Of timelines and timeliness: lessons from Typhoon Haiyan in early disaster response

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013 with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometres per hour, adversely affecting at least 11 million people and displacing some 673,000 in the central regions of the country. The disaster clearly overwhelmed the Philippine government despite its seemingly well‐crafted disaster management plan. Using timelines of different organisations, this paper identifies gaps in the government's response, mainly due to its failure in coordinating and managing relief operations, which adversely affected its effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of critical goods and services following the disaster. The paper also demonstrates how non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations, foreign governments and other organisations provided assistance, mainly through aid niching, to cover the government's shortcomings. The paper recommends a paradigm shift in the government's disaster response by integrating collaborative arrangements between government agencies and NGOs, and giving local governments the lead role, with the national government as support, in disaster planning and response.     

Life-cycle impacts of the use of industrial by-products in road and earth construction

A two-stage study "Life cycle analysis of road construction and earthworks" was part of a more extensive Finnish research project "Assessment of the applicability of secondary products in earthworks". In the first stage of this work a life-cycle impact assessment procedure for the comparison and evaluation of alternative road and earth constructions was developed. Additionally, a database containing the environmental burdens of the most significant construction materials and unit operations was constructed. In order to evaluate the applicability of the procedure, the use of coal ash, crushed concrete waste and granulated blast-furnace slag in road construction was evaluated in case studies. The use of these secondary products was also compared with the use of natural materials in corresponding applications. The aim of the second stage was to transfer the assembled data for utilisation as a practical model by creating an inventory analysis program to calculate and compare the life cycle impacts of the most common road constructions and foundation engineering methods. The data obtained in the first stage was also augmented to the extent necessary for this purpose. The results of case studies indicate that the production and transport of the materials used in road constructions produce the most significant environmental burdens. Production of the bitumen and cement, crushing of materials and transport of materials are the most energy consuming single life-cycle stages of the construction. A large part of the emissions to atmosphere originates from energy production. In the expert assessment, consumption of natural materials and leaching behaviour were also regarded as being of great significance.     

Metal associations in anoxic sediments and changes following upland disposal†

The ecological effects of heavy metals in contaminated sediments are more determined by the chemical form and reactivity than by the level of accumulation. Dredging of anoxic sediments and disposal on land is attended by changes of redox conditions. Under oxidizing conditions some controlling solid compounds may change gradually thus changing the solubility of certain metals.

Chemical extraction experiments for estimating characteristic association forms of heavy metals in anoxic sediments were carried out, both under presence and absence of air during the analytical procedure. Drying of the sediment decreases the proportion of the sulfidic metal fractions to a stronger degree, and oxidized Cd and Zn are found in the most available, exchangeable fraction.

With respect to long‐term effects acidification of poorly buffered sludges after disposal on land is probably the most important factor affecting metal associations and mobility. For many metal examples a linear relationship has been found between decreasing pH values and increasing dissolved metal concentrations. To quantify these relationships and for better comparison of samples a simple test procedure is proposed which is based on pH differences before and after addition of acid.     

Study of atrazine degradation in soil from Kenyan sugarcane-cultivated fields in controlled laboratory conditions

A study to compare the extent of atrazine mineralization in soils from Kenyan sugarcane-cultivated fields with and without history of atrazine use was carried out in the laboratory under controlled conditions. The study was testing the hypothesis that repeated atrazine application to soil will not result in enhanced atrazine mineralization. The study was carried out with ¹⁴C-uniformly ring-labeled atrazine in a laboratory under controlled conditions. Atrazine mineralization to ¹⁴CO₂ in soil with no history of atrazine use was negligible (0.16%) after 163 days of soil incubation. The three metabolites hydroxyatrazine, desisopropylatrazine, and desethylatrazine in the proportion of 17.7%, 1.3%, and 2.6%, respectively, were in the soil after 75 days. In the soil from the sugarcane-cultivated field with history of atrazine use, atrazine mineralization was 89.9% after 98 days. The same soil, amended with mature compost, showed a lag phase of eight days before rapid atrazine mineralization was observed.     

ELISA determination of Aflatoxin M1 in milk and dairy products in Pakistan

A highly sensitive competitive ELISA was standardized to determine aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁) in milk and dairy samples randomly collected from Faisalabad city, using Riedel-de-Haen, Aflatoxin M₁ ELISA Systems, (Art–No. 45169). Standards of 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 ng L^?1 AFM₁ in sample/standard buffer were used in optimizing anti-AFM₁ antibodies and peroxidase–AFM₁ conjugate. Linear standard curve showed increase in concentration (log C) accompanied by decrease in maximal absorbance (%B/B₀) values (%B/B₀ = 124.3 ? 45.0 log C) with highly significant negative correlation (?0.973). The middle of the test (50% B/B₀) was at 30 ng L^?1 with 6.7 ng L^?1 the lowest detection limit (90% B/B₀). Duplicate analysis of 41 samples showed AFM₁ levels below EC permissible limits (50 ng L^?1) with maximums of 40, 13, and 7.4 ng L^?1 in milk, yogurt and butter, respectively. However, possibility of exceeding limits cannot be excluded, and demands regular monitoring.     

Salps in the Lazarev Sea, Southern Ocean: II. Biochemical composition and potential prey value

Two species of salps, Salpa thompsoni and Ihlea racovitzai, were sampled during three cruises to the Lazarev Sea, Southern Ocean, in summer (December–January) 2005/2006, Autumn (April–May) 2004 and Winter (July–August) 2006. Dry weight, carbon, nitrogen, protein, lipid and carbohydrate contents were measured to characterize the potential value of salps as a food source for predators in the Antarctic ecosystem. Biochemical composition measurements showed that despite having a high percentage of water (~94% of wet weight), both species had relatively high carbon and protein contents in their remaining dry weight (DW). In particular I. racovitzai showed high carbon (up to 22% of DW) and protein (up to 32% of DW) values during all seasons sampled, compared to lower values for S. thompsoni (carbon content only about 15% of the DW, protein content about 10% of the DW). At the same time, carbohydrates (CH) and lipids (Lip) only accounted for a small portion of salp DW in both species (1.4% CH and 3.6% Lip for I. racovitzai; 2.1% CH and 2.9% Lip for S. thompsoni). There was little variability in the biochemical composition of either salp species between the seasons sampled. Both biochemical composition and life cycle characteristics suggest that Antarctic salps, especially I. racovitzai, may be important prey items for both cold and warm-blooded predators in an environment where food is often very scarce.     

四川色达县切都柯沟"7.8"泥石流灾害特性及危险性分析

2004年7月8日四川色达县歌乐沱乡切都柯沟发生了中等规模泥石流,最大流速10.4 m/s,洪峰流量156 m3/s,冲出方量约7×104 m3,造成了一定的财产损失. 泥石流稠度大,冲击力强,具有明显的直进性特征,为粘性泥石流. 切都柯沟泥石流发育阶段为壮年(偏幼)期. 切都柯沟为中度危险的泥石流沟,该沟一次泥石流最大堆积危险范围39 902 m2,最大堆积长度284 m,最大堆积厚度4.32 m. 提出了相应的防治措施一是在滑坡崩塌处进行加固,采取沟岸护坡等措施;二是在沟谷上游修建谷坊、拦挡坝,以降低流速,削减泥石流能量和规模.     

Der Einsatz von Pflanzentests bei der Sedimentbewertung

Background and aim Aquatic organisms of the three trophic levels (producers, consumers, reducers) have been used for a long time for ecotoxicological assessments of water quality (HABAB 2000; HABAK 1999). In biotest systems that have become established standards, algae, daphnia, and luminescent bacteria as test organisms are often used so far. However, comparative studies have shown that algae are not sufficiently sensitive to all phytotoxic agents and thus cannot be the exclusive indicator organism of any toxic effects on autotrophic life. Moreover, the EU Water Framework Directive (EU-WFD 2000) sets macrobenthos, fish, phytoplankton, and macrophytes equally side by side as indicators of the status of waters. Nevertheless, biotest systems relying on higher plants have been rarely used in assessments of aquatic sediments so far. Against this background, the aquatic duckweed test (DIN EN ISO 20079) was developed and standardized, and a sediment contact test was developed with Myriophyllum aquaticum (Feiler et al. 2004). The latter was subject of a joint research project of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF-Verbundprojekt “SeKT”) that examined and compared several sediment contact tests (Feiler et al. 2005). Compared to tests with algae, a biotest using macrophytes has the advantage to be more representative of higher plants, since target organism and test organism are closer related in terms of evolutionary history. The present study demonstrates that the application of biotests with higher plants in analyses of contaminated sediments yields valuable results that may contribute to a concept for the integrative assessment of water quality.