Comparisons of the dust/smoke particulate that settled inside the surrounding buildings and outside on the streets of southern New York City after the collapse of the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001

The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001, generated large amounts of dust and smoke that settled in the surrounding indoor and outdoor environments in southern Manhattan. Sixteen dust samples were collected from undisturbed locations inside two uncleaned buildings that were adjacent to Ground Zero. These samples were analyzed for morphology, metals, and organic compounds, and the results were compared with the previously reported outdoor WTC dust/smoke results. We also analyzed seven additional dust samples provided by residents in the local neighborhoods. The morphologic analyses showed that the indoor WTC dust/smoke samples were similar to the outdoor WTC dust/smoke samples in composition and characteristics but with more than 50% mass in the <53-microm size fraction. This was in contrast to the outdoor samples that contained >50% of mass above >53 microm. Elemental analyses also showed the similarities, but at lower concentrations. Organic compounds present in the outdoor samples were also detected in the indoor samples. Conversely, the resident-provided convenience dust samples were different from either the WTC indoor or outdoor samples in composition and pH, indicating that they were not WTC-affected locations. In summary, the indoor dust/smoke was similar in concentration to the outdoor dust/smoke but had a greater percentage of mass <53 microm in diameter.     

Determining conservation priorities

One important component in achieving an optimal compromise between mineral development and environmental conservation is to rank different geographical areas according to their priorities for development and conservation respectively. The latter is considered here.There are three main steps in assigning conservation priorities: (i) acquisition and assessment of information on the existing baseline environment and on potential impacts; (ii) assignment of values to the environmental components concerned and integration of these to yield overall values for alternative possible conservation targets; and (iii) incorporation of logistic considerations to determine the practical priorities for conservation.One particularly critical aspect of this process is the relative significance of different conservation criteria, specifically including the presence of rare species, high diversity, pristine condition and representativeness. These criteria all reflect the same underlying conservation values, but their relative significance varies from case to case. Their integration is based on professional judgement rather than any formal algorithm and explicit guidelines for such judgement are needed to promote consensus in the determination of conservation priorities.     

Determination of polyfluoroalkyl compounds in water and suspended particulate matter in the river Elbe and North Sea, Germany

The distribution of polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) in the dissolved and particulate phase and their discharge from the river Elbe into the North Sea were studied. The PFCs quantified included C₄-C₈ perfluorinated sulfonates (PFSAs), 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FTS), C₆ and C₈ perfluorinated sulfinates (PFSiAs), C₄-C₁₂ perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs), perfluoro-3,7-dimethyl-octanoic acid (3,7m₂-PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA), and n-ethyl perfluroctane sulfonamidoethanol (EtFOSE). PFCs were mostly distributed in the dissolved phase, where perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) dominated with 2.9–12.5 ng/L. In the suspended particulate matter FOSA and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) showed the highest concentrations (4.0 ng/L and 2.3 ng/L, respectively). The total flux of ΣPFCs from the river Elbe was estimated to be 802 kg/year for the dissolved phase and 152 kg/year for the particulate phase. This indicates that the river Elbe acts as a source of PFCs into the North Sea. However, the concentrations of perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) in the North Sea were higher than that in the river Elbe, thus an alternative source must exist for these compounds.     

Influence of permeability on nanoscale zero-valent iron particle transport in saturated homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) particles can be used for in situ groundwater remediation. The spatial particle distribution plays a very important...     

How Can We Make Progress with Decision Support Systems in Landscape and River Basin Management? Lessons Learned from a Comparative Analysis of Four Different Decision Support Systems

This article analyses the benefits and shortcomings of the recently developed decision support systems (DSS) FLUMAGIS, Elbe-DSS, CatchMODS, and MedAction. The analysis elaborates on the following aspects: (i) application area/decision problem, (ii) stakeholder interaction/users involved, (iii) structure of DSS/model structure, (iv) usage of the DSS, and finally (v) most important shortcomings. On the basis of this analysis, we formulate four criteria that we consider essential for the successful use of DSS in landscape and river basin management. The criteria relate to (i) system quality, (ii) user support and user training, (iii) perceived usefulness and (iv) user satisfaction. We can show that the availability of tools and technologies for DSS in landscape and river basin management is good to excellent. However, our investigations indicate that several problems have to be tackled. First of all, data availability and homogenisation, uncertainty analysis and uncertainty propagation and problems with model integration require further attention. Furthermore, the appropriate and methodological stakeholder interaction and the definition of ‘what end-users really need and want’ have been documented as general shortcomings of all four examples of DSS. Thus, we propose an iterative development process that enables social learning of the different groups involved in the development process, because it is easier to design a DSS for a group of stakeholders who actively participate in an iterative process. We also identify two important lines of further development in DSS: the use of interactive visualization tools and the methodology of optimization to inform scenario elaboration and evaluate trade-offs among environmental measures and management alternatives.