A review of ecological mitigation measures in UK environmental statements with respect to sustainable development

SUMMARY

The European and UK legislation on environmental assessment (EA), as well as requiring assessment of significant ecological effects, also requires development proponents to recommend mitigation measures for adverse impacts.

Drawing on a review of proposed ecological mitigation measures in 194 environmental statements (ES) for UK development proposals, this paper highlights problems with the current legislation in ensuring that ecological impacts are mitigated effectively, with a view to sustainable development.

The review reveals confusion about the extent to which ecological mitigation is required. First, there is no objective basis for deciding which potentially adverse impacts should be mitigated. Proposed mitigation measures do not always relate directly to the ecological impacts identified in ES and there is a high risk of residual adverse effects. Second, there is no generally accepted method for evaluating the effectiveness of proposed mitigation measures, despite a clear recommendation from the UK's Department of the Environment (DOE, 1989) that an ‘assessment of the likely effectiveness’ of mitigation measures should be included in ES. Methods which can be used to evaluate the likely feasibility, costs and redistributional effects of ecological mitigation measures in EA are needed. Some of the factors which should be taken into account are considered in this paper.     

Assessing aquaculture sustainability: a comparative methodology

Little work dealing with the evaluation of aquaculture system sustainability has so far been undertaken on a global and comparative basis. Moreover, such work is mostly based on very unbalanced approaches in terms of the dimensions of sustainable development that are taken into account. The approach adopted in this article is designed to encompass all the dimensions of sustainability including the institutional one (governance). The taking into account of this latter, in particular, together with the role played by aquaculture in sustainability at the territorial level gives the approach its original and innovative nature. The process of establishing the checklist of sustainability indicators in aquaculture relies on a hierarchical nesting approach which makes it possible to link indicators with general sustainability criteria and principles. At once multidisciplinary and participatory, the approach compares several countries with highly differentiated types of aquaculture system. An original finding from this work is that the technically most intensive farming model scores better than more extensive systems, which might have been thought to be closer to natural systems in their environmental dimension and therefore intuitively more ‘sustainable’. This result suggests relating sustainability outcomes to the level of control and of devolved responsibilities.     

Application to the Port of Sines of a new tool for risk assessment in port navigation

This paper describes a first approach on the risk assessment in port navigation using GUIOMAR, an integrated system for port and coastal engineering modelling developed at the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC), Portugal, using a GIS software environment. A set of automatic procedures was designed to include a new methodology based on the amplitude of the wave-induced vertical movement of a ship along its trajectory. In this methodology, the risk in port navigation is assessed on the basis of a combination of the probability of exceedance of a pre-set threshold for the ship??s vertical movements and its consequences. To test the new procedures, a set of sea wave records obtained at the Sines wave-buoy from 1988 to 2002 was transferred into Sines Port using two numerical models of sea wave propagation and deformation (SWAN and DREAMS), included in the GUIOMAR system. The numerical model WAMIT was used for estimating the wave-induced ship??s vertical movements inside the port. By applying the new procedures, automatic generation of risk maps was carried out for navigation in the vicinity of the West breakwater of the Port of Sines. The recent developments contribute towards a more versatile and efficient GUIOMAR system, which results in a more adequate tool to support decision-making processes in port and coastal management.     

Submerged arc plasma system combined with ozone oxidation for the treatment of wastewater containing non-degradable organic compounds

• Submerged arc plasma was introduced in terms of wastewater treatment. • Ozone oxidation was coupled with submerged arc plasma system. • Ozone was converted into O and O₂ by submerged arc plasma. • Decomposition rate was accelerated by submerged arc plasma. • Introduction of ozone led to significant increase in mineralization. Submerged arc plasma technology was assessed for the removal of phenols from wastewater. The OH radicals generated from the boundary between the plasma and waste solution were considered as a significant factor on the degradation reaction. In this study, the effects of highly energetic electrons released from the submerged arc plasma were mainly studied. The highly energetic electrons directly broke the strong chemical bond and locally increased the reaction temperatures in solution. The effects of the submerged-arc plasma on the decomposition of phenol are discussed in terms of the input energy and initial concentration. The single use of submerged arc plasma easily decomposed the phenol but did not increase the mineralization efficiency. Therefore, the submerged arc plasma, coupled with the ozone injection, was investigated. The submerged arc plasma combined with ozone injection had a synergic effect, which led to significant improvements in mineralization with only a small increase in input energy. The decomposition mechanism of phenol by the submerged arc plasma with the ozone was analyzed.     

Environmental impact of incineration of calorific industrial waste: Rotary kiln vs. cement kiln

Rotary kiln incinerators and cement kilns are two energy intensive processes, requiring high temperatures that can be obtained by the combustion of fossil fuel. In both processes, fossil fuel is often substituted by high or medium calorific waste to avoid resource depletion and to save costs. Two types of industrial calorific waste streams are considered: automotive shredder residue (ASR) and meat and bone meal (MBM). These waste streams are of current high interest: ASR must be diverted from landfill, while MBM can no longer be used for cattle feeding. The environmental impact of the incineration of these waste streams is assessed and compared for both a rotary kiln and a cement kiln. For this purpose, data from an extensive emission inventory is applied for assessing the environmental impact using two different modeling approaches: one focusing on the impact of the relevant flows to and from the process and its subsystems, the other describing the change of environmental impact in response to these physical flows. Both ways of assessing emphasize different aspects of the considered processes. Attention is paid to assumptions in the methodology that can influence the outcome and conclusions of the assessment. It is concluded that for the incineration of calorific wastes, rotary kilns are generally preferred. Nevertheless, cement kilns show opportunities in improving their environmental impact when substituting their currently used fuels by more clean calorific waste streams, if this improvement is not at the expense of the actual environmental impact.     

Monitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a produced water disposal area in the Potiguar Basin,Brazilian equatorial margin

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The Potiguar Basin has oil and gas production fields offshore and onshore. All treated produced water (PW) from these fields is discharged through...     

Ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation under forestation scenarios: options to improve management in the Vez watershed,NW Portugal

Ensuring forest protection and the delivery of forest ecosystem services is a central aim of the European Union’s biodiversity strategy for 2020. Therefore, accurate modelling and mapping of ecosystem services as well as of biodiversity conservation value is an important asset in support of spatial planning and policy implementation. The objectives of this study were to analyse the provision of the multiple ecosystem services under two forestation scenarios (eucalyptus/pine vs. oak) at the watershed scale and to evaluate their possible trade-offs with the biodiversity conservation value. The Vez watershed, in northwest Portugal, was used as case study area, in which soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) was applied to simulate the provision of hydrological services, biomass and carbon storage services. Biodiversity conservation value was based on nature protection regimes and on expert judgement applied to a land cover map. Results indicated large provision of ecosystem services in the high and low mountain sub-basins. The overall performance for water quantity and timing is better under the shrubland and oak forest scenarios, when compared to the eucalyptus/pine forest scenario, which perform better for flood regulation and erosion control services, especially in the low mountain sub-basin. The current shrubland dominated cover also shows good performance for the control of soil erosion. The oak scenario is the one with less trade-offs between forest services and biodiversity conservation. Results highlight SWAT as an effective tool for modelling and mapping ecosystem services generated at the watershed scale, thereby contributing to improve the options for land management.     

A method for supporting the design of efficient heating systems using EU product policy data

The design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems is still a challenging engineering task which requires experienced and informed decision-making. These systems have a great energy-saving potential at the system level rather than at the level of the individual products of which they are composed. European environmental product policies have been very useful in facilitating a homogeneous rating scheme which can be used to compare the energy performance of different products that provide the same service. This paper proposes a simplified design method which uses the performance of components that are regulated by European product policies to obtain the overall performance of heating systems in residential buildings. It is a flexible method and allows different product configurations to be assessed so as to optimise the system performance during the design phase. The method is tested on a real case study with domestic hot water and space heating systems. The case study shows the potential for improving the heating systems according to the performance levels of its products currently available in the market. Results of the domestic hot water system show that upgrading its storage tank to the maximum energy class (A⁺) could bring the highest energy savings ( 4162 kWh/y).     

Influence of pH on the sonolysis of ciprofloxacin: Biodegradability, ecotoxicity and antibiotic activity of its degradation products

The presence of antibiotics in the aquatic environment has raised concerns due to the potential risk for the emergence or persistence of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are often poorly degraded in conventional wastewater treatment plants. In this study, sonolysis at 520 kHz and 92 W L⁻¹ was used for the degradation of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin. In a first experiment at pH 7, 57% of the ciprofloxacin (15 mg L⁻¹) was degraded after 120 min of ultrasonic irradiation at 25 °C. pH proved to be an important parameter determining the degradation rate, since the pseudo first order degradation constant increased almost fourfold when comparing treatment at pH 7 (0.0058 min⁻¹) and pH 10 (0.0069 min⁻¹) with that at pH 3 (0.021 min⁻¹). This effect can be attributed to the degree of protonation of the ciprofloxacin molecule. The BOD/COD ratio of the solutions, which is a measure for their biodegradability, increased from 0.06 to 0.60, 0.17, and 0.18 after 120 min of irradiation depending on the pH (3, 7, and 10, respectively). The solution treated at pH 3 can even be considered readily biodegradable (BOD/COD > 0.4). The antibiotic activity against Escherichia coli (G−) and Bacillus coagulans (G+) of the treated solutions also reduced after sonolysis. The highest decrease was again found when irradiated at pH 3. In contrast, ecotoxicity of the solutions to the alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata increased 3- to 10-fold after 20 min of treatment, suggesting the formation of toxic degradation products. The toxicity slowly diminished during further treatment.