Estimating Watershed Level Nonagricultural Pesticide Use From Golf Courses Using Geospatial Methods1

Abstract: Limited information exists on pesticide use for nonagricultural purposes, making it difficult to estimate pesticide loadings from nonagricultural sources to surface water and to conduct environmental risk assessments. A method was developed to estimate the amount of pesticide use on recreational turf grasses, specifically golf course turf grasses, for watersheds located throughout the conterminous United States (U.S.). The approach estimates pesticide use: (1) based on the area of recreational turf grasses (used as a surrogate for turf associated with golf courses) within the watershed, which was derived from maps of land cover, and (2) from data on the location and average treatable area of golf courses. The area of golf course turf grasses determined from these two methods was used to calculate the percentage of each watershed planted in golf course turf grass (percent crop area, or PCA). Turf‐grass PCAs derived from the two methods were used with recommended application rates provided on pesticide labels to estimate total pesticide use on recreational turf within 1,606 watersheds associated with surface‐water sources of drinking water. These pesticide use estimates made from label rates and PCAs were compared to use estimates from industry sales data on the amount of each pesticide sold for use within the watershed. The PCAs derived from the land‐cover data had an average value of 0.4% of a watershed with minimum of 0.01% and a maximum of 9.8%, whereas the PCA values that are based on the number of golf courses in a watershed had an average of 0.3% of a watershed with a minimum of <0.01% and a maximum of 14.2%. Both the land‐cover method and the number of golf courses method produced similar PCA distributions, suggesting that either technique may be used to provide a PCA estimate for recreational turf. The average and maximum PCAs generally correlated to watershed size, with the highest PCAs estimated for small watersheds. Using watershed specific PCAs, combined with label rates, resulted in greater than two orders of magnitude over‐estimation of the pesticide use compared to estimates from sales data.     

Spatial allocation of material flow analysis in residential developments: a case study of Kildare County,Ireland

Studies of urban metabolism provide important insights for environmental management of cities, but are not widely used in planning practice due to a mismatch of data scale and coverage. This paper introduces the Spatial Allocation of Material Flow Analysis (SAMFA) model as a potential decision support tool aimed as a contribution to overcome some of these difficulties and describes its pilot use at the county level in the Republic of Ireland. The results suggest that SAMFA is capable of identifying hotspots of higher material and energy use to support targeted planning initiatives, while its ability to visualise different policy scenarios supports more effective multi-stakeholder engagement. The paper evaluates this pilot use and sets out how this model can act as an analytical platform for the industrial ecology–spatial planning nexus.     

Temporal and Spatial Relationships Between Watershed Land Use and Salt Marsh Disturbance in a Pacific Estuary

Historical and recent remote sensing data can be used to address temporal and spatial relationships between upland land cover and downstream vegetation response at the watershed scale. This is demonstrated for sub-watersheds draining into Elkhorn Slough, California, where salt marsh habitat has diminished because of the formation of sediment fans that support woody riparian vegetation. Multiple regression models were used to examine which land cover variables and physical properties of the watershed most influenced sediment fan size within 23 sub-watersheds (1.4 ha to 200 ha). Model explanatory power increased (adjusted R(2) = 0.94 vs. 0.75) among large sub-watersheds (>10 ha) and historical watershed variables, such as average farmland slope, flowpath slope, and flowpath distance between farmland and marsh, were significant. It was also possible to explain the increase in riparian vegetation by historical watershed variables for the larger sub-watersheds. Sub-watershed area is the overriding physical characteristic influencing the extent of sedimentation in a salt marsh, while percent cover of agricultural land use is the most influential land cover variable. The results also reveal that salt marsh recovery depends on relative cover of different land use classes in the watershed, with greater chances of recovery associated with less intensive agriculture. This research reveals a potential delay between watershed impacts and wetland response that can be best revealed when conducting multi-temporal analyses on larger watersheds.     

Feasibility of Applying a Stable Isotopic Tracer for Direct Determination of Dry Particulate Deposition to Soybean Plants

ABSTRACT

A stable rare-earth isotopic tracer was used to measure the deposition of KNO₃ particles on soybean leaves by direct measurement of the tracer on the plant surfaces by thermal-ionization mass spectrometry. Submicrometer particles, made from a solution containing 3 |mg mL^-1 neodymium isotope (¹⁴⁸Nd, 87.9%) and 1,000 mg mL^-1 KNO₃, were dispersed with a two-fluid nozzle and released upwind of a soybean field. Total suspended- and size-fractionated-aerosol particles were collected on an open-face filter and in a micro-orifice impactor, respectively, at a distance of 40 m from the release point. Soybean leaves exposed to the plume were collected at distances ranging from 25 to 100 m. As little as 5.5 pg of the tracer (i.e., excess ¹⁴⁸Nd) was detected in soybean leaves at signal-to-noise ratios ranging from 7,500 to 240,000, in the presence of 200 to 2,700 pg of naturally occurring Nd. The dry-particle deposition velocity, determined from the ratio of the aerial concentration and directly deposited aerosol (geometric mass mean diameter, 0.20 mm) flux, and its corresponding analytical uncertainty were 0.30 cm sec^-1 and 2.5%, respectively.     

Uncertainty-based quantitative assessment of sustainability for higher education institutions

Evaluation of sustainability in various facets of life is gaining increasing importance. Traditionally, different multi-criteria decision-making methods have been used for sustainability assessment. “Sustainability” can be a qualitative concept, and as such several researchers have attempted fuzzy logic for the quantitative assessment of sustainability. This paper outlines a new evaluation model based on fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making. The model is tested for sustainability assessment of higher education institutions (HEIs). It is based on a driving force–pressure–state–exposure–effect–action (DPSEEA) framework and is called uncertainty-based DPSEEA-Sustainability index Model (uD-SiM). The uD-SiM is a causality-based model in which the sustainability index is an outcome of nonlinear impacts of sustainability indicators in different stages of DPSEEA. The percent contribution of driving forces on the sustainability index of HEI is investigated using sensitivity analysis. The study reveals that education in sustainability and global and local research trends are the major driving forces for achieving sustainability in HEI, followed by financial and economic growth rate, social equity, energy requirements rate, and institutional enhancement, in descending order. The results of uD-SiM were found to be more realistic and rational than our earlier proposed approach, D-SiM.     

Climate change mitigation policy paradigms—national objectives and alignments

The aim of this paper is to assess how policy goals in relation to the promotion of green growth, energy security, pollution control and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions have been aligned in policies that have been implemented in selected countries during the last decades as a basis for discussing how a multi objective policy paradigm can contribute to future climate change mitigation. The paper includes country case studies from Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea and the United States covering renewable energy options, industry, transportation, the residential sector and cross-sectoral policies. These countries and regions together contribute more than two thirds of global GHG emissions. The paper finds that policies that are nationally driven and that have multiple objectives, including climate-change mitigation, have been widely applied for decades in both developing countries and industrialised countries. Many of these policies have a long history, and adjustments have taken place based on experience and cost effectiveness concerns. Various energy and climate-change policy goals have worked together in these countries, and in practice a mix of policies reflecting specific priorities and contexts have been pursued. In this way, climate-change mitigation has been aligned with other policy objectives and integrated into broader policy packages, though in many cases specific attention has not been given to the achievement of large GHG emission reductions. Based on these experiences with policy implementation, the paper highlights a number of key coordination and design issues that are pertinent to the successful joint implementation of several energy and climate-change policy goals.     

Metabolic fate of dichloromethyl‐0,0‐diphenyl phosphonate (I) and dichloromethyl‐0,0‐di‐(p‐nitrophenyl) phosphonate (II) in/on rice plants∗

Abstract

Metabolic fate of two dichloromethyl diaryl phosphonates (³²P labelled) in/on rice plants was investigated. The test compounds were found to be less persistent on the surface of rice leaves with half lives 7.4 and 6.7 days respectively. Main degradation product from both the phosphonates were dichloromethyl phosphonic acid with trace of dichloromethyl‐O‐aryl phosphonate as a transitory intermediate product.     

Ion movements in the nervous system of the American cockroach,periplaneta Americana (L.), influenced by toxaphene

Abstract

The effect of toxaphene upon ion fluxes of the central nervous system (CNS) of the cockroach, Periplaneta americana (L.), was studied in vitro. The CNS, divided into three sections (brain, thoracic, and abdominal), was exposed to 10 M toxaphene in saline containing ²⁴Na⁺, ⁴²K⁺, ³⁶Cl^‐, or ⁴⁵Ca⁺⁺. Uptake and efflux of these ions were evaluated. Toxaphene was responsible for significant increases in the internal levels of ⁴²K⁺ and ⁴⁵Ca⁺⁺, but had little affect upon Na or ³⁶Cl^‐ movements. The resulting concentration changes of the ions may be involved in the neural activity observed with toxaphene poisoning. Of the three CNS sections, significant changes were more numerous and occurred earlier in abdominal sections.