Waste: Striving for a more sustainable future

Governments everywhere are recognising environmental sustainability as a major driver of technological and economic development—with innovative direction being found at the interface of our efforts to become more socially and environmentally sustainable. Rural communities, faced with the pressures of unprecedented change, have an opportunity to embrace the principles of sustainable development, to create a new future at the leading edge of global change—but they need help. They need both knowledge and skills to enable them to self-evaluate and strategically plan, and they need a highly motivated, creative, and coherent community to carry it through. Small Towns: Big Picture is a community development process designed to foster creative, energetic, and collaborative action by five small rural communities in central Victoria—focusing on the development of social, environmental, and economic sustainability indicators. The project bought together artists, researchers and local communities to produce a coherent and shared understanding of the sustainability issues and opportunities. This paper presents Small Towns: Big Picture, focusing specifically on the social dimension and the development of a Community Cohesion indicator through an arts-led community engagement process.     

The solution phase complexing of atrazine by fulvic acid: Equilibria at 25°c

Abstract

The solution phase complexing equilibria of atrazine by fulvic acid at 25°C±1.° have been investigated over the pH range of 1.3 to 6.0. Experiments with 0.1MKC1 and chelated Cu(II) are compared with those without metal ions. The use of a fulvic acid having calibrated acidic and Cu(II) chelation properties has made it possible to obtain stoicheometricly “exact”; chemical information. This is correlated with previous hydrolysis kinetics work. It is concluded that atrazine is hydrogen bonded in a labile equilibrium, to an identifiable set of protonated carboxyl groups, which act as Brönsted acid catalysts for hydrolysis. 0.1M KC1 changes (1‐α_A), the degree of protonation of the carboxyl groups, without otherwise affecting the atrazine complexing. Cu(II) chelation both reduces and weakens the complexing through a combination of carboxyl group blocking, and fulvic acid aggregation. Simple equations are presented for predictive calculations.     

Indirect Source Impact Analysis-Carbon Monoxide Modeling

This paper reviews current methods and models used in estimating the impacts of indirect sources on CO air quality, an important process in rapidly growing areas. The paper gives an overview of the modeling process, reviews how to obtain fleet average emission factors, presents a commonly used set of worst-case meteorology, identifies dispersion models available for predicting local CO concentrations and tells how to predict an 8-hour average CO concentration given a 1-hour prediction. The paper also discusses background CO concentrations and some of the issues involved in choosing reasonable receptor locations. Several problems exist with indirect source impact analysis—in both the technical area and the policy area. Increased effort is needed to correct these problems, especially to quantify the probability of the worst-case meteorology and to define the locations of reasonable receptors.     

Physiological and immunological conditions of wild populations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Farfantepenaeus duorarum </Emphasis>from the campeche sound (Crustacea,Penaeidae)

To assess the health status of aquatic ecosystems, specialized tools and strategies are needed to study the changes induced in oceanic systems by human activity. The Gulf of Mexico has a tremendous ecological importance because of its biological diversity. The present paper defines baseline levels of blood metabolites and immune components for wild tropical populations of F. duorarum: an important shrimp species of the Gulf of Mexico. Osmotic pressure (OP), osmotic capability (OC), oxy hemocyanin (OxyHc), glucose, digestive gland glycogen, proteins, cholesterol, lactate, acylglycerols (AG) were used as indicators of physiological and nutritional status; phenoloxidase activity, quantification of hemocytes, as well as respiratory burst, were used to assess the immunological status. There were no differences between sexes in either live weight or physiological and nutritional conditions. Only total blood protein, oxy hemocyanin, and digestive gland glycogen showed normally distributed data. All the remaining blood parameters were right- or left-skewed. A median live weight of 9.5 g was registered for the sampled population. Median values of 955 and −91.85 mOsm/kg (OP and OC, respectively) were obtained, indicating that shrimp were slightly hypo-osmotic in relation to sea water. A proportion of 27% of OxyHc of the total protein (OxyHc/Prot) was calculated for the F. duorarum population. ProPO and PO showed no normal distribution and were not different between sexes. A right-skewed distribution was observed. Total hemocytes, hyaline (HC) and granular cells (GC) showed differences between sexes, with higher values in females than males. A similar proportion of HC (69%) and GC (30%) of total cells were observed between sexes. Basal and activated respiratory burst showed differences between sexes with higher values for females than for males. The current results provide indicators of the nutritional and immune status of F. duorarum that can be used to detect changes in trophic relations and health at a population level.     

Using integrated food‐web and population‐based models for environmental monitoring,remediation decisions,and long‐term planning

While ecologists have used food‐web models to understand how ecosystems function, the potential role of integrated food‐web and population‐based models in environmental monitoring and decision making has been ignored. Sound ecological principles should be integrated with state‐of‐the‐art monitoring and management practices. This article presents the ways in which population‐based models can answer basic ecological questions necessary for decision making about remediation and restoration, and for monitoring to ensure long‐term stewardship. Discussed are the uses of food‐web and population‐based models for understanding the movement of chemicals through different trophic levels. Three examples, including global warming, tributyltin, and monomethylmercury scenarios, are presented to illustrate how such models are useful. The responses of the component parts varies, depending on parameters such as birth, death, and respiration, as well as feeding rates, predator‐prey rates, and uptake and elimination rates. There are several different models available for decision making, with different levels of complexity, based on the specific hypothesis or question being asked and the amount of current information available. Therefore, it is recommended to use deterministic‐based, population‐based food‐web models for ecological risk assessment. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

REHABILITATION OF WATERSHEDS WITH INCISING CHANNELS1

ABSTRACT: Channel incision is a pervasive problem that threatens infrastructure, destroys arable land, and degrades environmental resources. A program initiated in 1983 is developing technology for rehabilitation of watersheds with erosion and sedimentation problems caused by incision. Demonstration projects are located in 15 watersheds in the hills of northwest Mississippi. Watershed sizes range from 0.89 to 1,590 km², and measured suspended sediment yields average about 1,100 t km^-2-yr^-1. Water quality is generally adequate to support aquatic organisms, but physical habitat conditions are poor. Rehabilitation measures, which are selected and laid out using a subjective integration of hydraulic and geotechnical stability analyses, include grade controls, bank protection, and small reservoirs. Aquatic habitat studies indicate that stone-protected stilling basins below grade-control weirs and habitats associated with drop pipes and stone spur dikes are assets to erosion-damaged streams. Additional recovery of habitat resources using modified stone stabilization designs, woody vegetation plantings, and reservoir outlets designed to provide non-zero minimum flows is under investigation.