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The aim of sustainable development is to balance social, economic, and environmental needs. In order to justify the decisions they make, stakeholders must quantify the different impacts found in the operations and developments of companies and/or projects throughout their life cycle. However, as some areas are subjective in nature, the quantification process of the different impacts and the assessment of sustainable development performance become arduous tasks of development, validation, and application of scientific and empirical methods with the intrinsic objective of finding an agreement among the involved parties (i.e., stakeholders). Several environmental and sustainability assessment tools, instruments, processes, and methodologies have been developed; rating systems stand out and have gained attention and credibility, as demonstrated by the vast number of certified projects around the world and the widely-known usefulness and advantages of their application. The Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system presents an integrated approach to sustainability assessment by integrating three distinctive areas of knowledge: (1) sustainable development theory and fundamentals supports the ultimate goal of the rating system, which is to contribute to sustainability, with the aim of finding a path to balance social, economic, and environmental needs; (2) continual performance improvement becomes essential due to the duration of the projects, as it is critical to allow organizations or projects to improve performance over time; and (3) multi-criteria decision analysis assists with the assessment process through stakeholder engagement and participation, and the design and implementation of a criteria weighting system.     

Time activity modelling of domestic exposures to radon

Radon gas occurs naturally in the environment with a variable distribution. In some areas radon concentrates sufficiently within the built environment that it is considered as a public health risk. It is possible, successfully, to reduce radon levels in the built environment, and it has been shown that such remediation programmes can be justified in terms of the costs and benefits accruing. However, the estimated dose received by people in their homes depends on the time spent indoors. The research presented here uses data derived from time activity surveys in Northamptonshire, together with radon data from a representative home, to model potential exposures for different population sub-groups. Average home occupancy ranged from 14.8h (probable error 2.5h) for students to 17.7 (3.1) h for adults; schoolchildren spent an average of 14.9 (1.2) h at home. Over a quarter of adults, however, were in the home for 22 h on more. These differences in occupancy patterns lead to substantial differences in radon exposure. In a home with an average hourly ground floor radon concentration of 467 Bqm(-3), modelled hourly average exposures ranged from ca. 250 Bqm(-3) for students and school children, to over 340 Bqm(-3), for women based at home. Modelled exposures show a non-linear association with total time spent at home, suggesting that exposure estimates based on linear models may provide misleading estimates of health risks from radon and the potential benefits of radon remediation. Highest hourly exposures are likely to be experienced by people with highly occupancy, living in single-storey, ground floor accommodation (for example, the elderly the infirm and non-working young mothers). Since these may be least aware of radon risks, and least able to take up remediation measures, they should be specifically targeted for radon monitoring and for assistance in remediation schemes.     

INTEGRATING DEMOGRAPHIC AND LANDSAT (TM) DATA AT A WATERSHED SCALE1

ABSTRACT: Recurrent calls for integrated resource management urge that an understanding of human activities and populations be incorporated into natural resource research, management, and protection efforts. In this paper, we hypothesize that watersheds can be a valuable geography for organizing an inquiry into the relationship between humans and the environment, and we present a framework for conducting such efforts. The framework is grounded in the emerging field of landscape ecology and incorporates demographic theory and data. Demography has been advanced by technological capabilities associated with the 1990 Census. Employing Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, we couple Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) land cover data with census‐derived housing density data to demonstrate the operation of our framework and its utility for better understanding human‐landscape interactions. In our investigation of the Kickapoo Watershed and two sub‐ watersheds, located in southwestern Wisconsin, we identify relationships between landscape composition and the distribution and social structure of human populations. Our findings offer insight into the interplay between people and biophysical systems.     

TEMPERATURE AND THE PRODUCTIVITY-LIGHT RELATIONSHIP1

ABSTRACT: Seventy-three in situ primary productivity experiments over a six-month period in hypereutrophic Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, New York, demonstrated variations in the light saturation parameter, I_p, which in part describes the interaction between productivity and light. Substantial variations in I_p were observed (coefficient of variation = 60 percent). Variations in I_p were significantly correlated (greater than 99 percent confidence level) with temperature (°C). An Arrhenius-type relationship (I_p= 1.312 × 1.088 (^T-20)) accounted for approximately 37 percent of the variation in I_p and may be appropriate for other systems dominated by green algae.     

Queuing for dominance: gerontocracy and queue-jumping in the hover wasp <Emphasis Type="Italic">Liostenogaster flavolineata</Emphasis>

The mechanisms through which dominance is inherited within social groups vary from direct interactions such as fighting to non-confrontational conventions. Liostenogaster flavolineata is a primitively eusocial hover wasp in which one female, the ‘dominant’, is the only reproductive upon the nest. The remaining females, although capable of reproduction, behave as helpers. In this study, we investigate the rules by which helpers inherit dominance. We removed successive dominants from 56 nests and recorded accession on un-manipulated nests. The results showed that L. flavolineata has a strict age-based inheritance queue: new dominants are the oldest female in their groups 87% of the time. Thirteen cases of queue-jumping were found in which young individuals were able to supplant older nestmates and inherit dominance precociously. Queue jumpers did not differ from other wasps in terms of relatedness to other group members or body size. Individuals that had previously worked less hard than other females of equivalent rank were significantly more likely to later jump the queue. Queue-jumping may represent a cheating strategy or could indicate that the rule for inheriting dominance is not based purely on relative age. We also discuss possible reasons why age-based queuing has evolved and its potential to promote the evolution of helping behaviour.     

Quantifying the effects of fumarate on in situ reductive dechlorination rates

In situ methods are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of chemical amendments at enhancing reductive dechlorination rates in groundwater that is contaminated with the priority pollutant, trichloroethene (TCE). In this communication, a method that utilizes single-well, “push–pull” tests to quantify the effects of chemical amendments on in situ reductive dechlorination rates is presented and demonstrated. Five push–pull tests were conducted in each of five monitoring wells located in a TCE-contaminated aquifer at the site of a former chemical manufacturing facility. Rates for the reductive dechlorination of the fluorinated TCE-surrogate, trichlorofluoroethene (TCFE), were measured before (test 1) and after (test 5) three successive additions (tests 2–4) of fumarate. Fumarate was selected to stimulate the growth and activity of indigenous microorganisms with the metabolic capability to reduce TCFE and TCE. In three wells, first-order rate constants for the reductive dechlorination of TCFE increased by 8.2–92 times following fumarate additions. In two wells, reductive dechlorination of TCFE was observed after fumarate additions but not before. The transformation behavior of fumarate was also monitored following each fumarate addition. Correlations between the reductive dechlorination of TCFE and the reduction of fumarate to succinate were observed, indicating that these reactions were supported by similar biogeochemical conditions at this site.     

Parental care and sexual size dimorphism in wasps and bees

Sexual size dimorphism, in which one sex is larger than the other, occurs when body size has differential effects on the fitness of males and females. Mammals and birds usually have male-biased size dimorphism, probably because of strong sexual competition among males. Invertebrates usually have female-biased size dimorphism, perhaps because their inflexible exoskeletons limit ovary size, leading to a strong correlation between female body size and fecundity. In this paper, we test whether an additional factor, the type of parental care provided, affects the degree of sexual size dimorphism. Among wasps and bees, there is a contrast between provisioning taxa, in which females must gather and transport heavy loads of provisions to nests they have constructed, and non-provisioning taxa, in which females lay eggs but do not construct nests or transport provisions. Males have no role in parental care in either case. An analysis of British wasps and bees shows that provisioning taxa have significantly more female-biased size dimorphism than non-provisioning taxa. This is true for simple cross‑species comparisons and after controlling for phylogeny. Our data imply that the demands of carrying provision loads are at least part of the explanation for this pattern. Thus, sexual size dimorphism is greatest in pompilid wasps, which carry the heaviest prey items. Bees, which transport minute pollen grains, exhibit the least dimorphism. We also find that cavity‑nesting species, in which nest construction costs may be minimized, exhibit reduced dimorphism, but this was not significant after controlling for phylogeny.