Social sustainability and the art of engagement—the small towns: big picture experience

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.     

Integrated urban water resources management

The paper focuses on the organizational and institutional issues of water resources management strategies. It considers both as cross-sectoral issues, and in terms of the communication and coordination of activities among all levels of sector agencies. It concentrates heavily on the economic aspects of planning for urban and other water use. Over the past few decades tremendous progress has been made in providing basic water supply and sanitation to the people of the world. Nevertheless, much remains to be accomplished. The only way of resolving this problem appears to be to make the current utilities more effective economically. The single most important policy improvement would be to ensure that each utility covers its operating costs as well as its capital costs by the economic pricing of water use.     

Determination and assessment of the characteristic values for the evaluation of the thermal safety of chemical processes

Experience gained in the chemical industry in testing and assessing the thermal safety of chemical processes is published in this paper. Isothermal and adiabatic tests, which are the most important methods for both small and large quantities, are described and discussed. Methods for testing the thermal hazards of primary or desired reactions are also included, e.g. reaction calorimetry, adiabatic methods, investigations using a sampling method. More important are the criteria for assessing the test results. On the basis of energies produced by primary and secondary reactions and the temperature ranges within which they take place, thermal hazards can be predicted. If the rules for the safe design of batch and semi-batch reactions are observed, it is possible to control the thermal behaviour of reactions.     

A SURVEY OF STATE WATER CONSERVATION PROGRAMS IN THE U.S.1

ABSTRACT: Adequate water supplies are critical to the maintenance of a community's health and economic well-being. Across the nation communities are struggling to meet an expanding demand for water from municipal, industrial, agricultural, recreation, water quality, and power generation users. As the demand grows and communities actively compete with one another for a limited water supply, states are being called upon to help solve the problem. One possible solution that is being used in many areas is the development and implementation of a water conservation program to stretch the limited supply as far as possible. using a mailed survey, state water conservation programs and some of the characteristics of the different programs were documented. Responses to the nationwide survey were obtained from all 50 states. The specific water conservation program elements on which information was received from the survey included laws and restricted use, community assistance, education, research, and other services. Recommendations for states developing or considering the development of a water conservation program are outlined.     

Shifts in southern Wisconsin forest canopy and understory richness, composition, and heterogeneity

We resurveyed the under- and overstory species composition of 94 upland forest stands in southern Wisconsin in 2002-2004 to assess shifts in canopy and understory richness, composition, and heterogeneity relative to the original surveys in 1949-1950. The canopy has shifted from mostly oaks (Quercus spp.) toward more mesic and shade-tolerant trees (primarily Acer spp.). Oak-dominated early-successional stands and those on coarse, nutrient-poor soils changed the most in canopy composition. Understories at most sites (80%) lost native species, with mean species density declining 25% at the 1-m2 scale and 23.1% at the 20-m2 scale. Woody species have increased 15% relative to herbaceous species in the understory despite declining in absolute abundance. Initial canopy composition, particularly the abundance of red oaks (Quercus rubra and Q. velutina), predicted understory changes better than the changes observed in the overstory. Overall rates of native species loss were greater in later-successional stands, a pattern driven by differential immigration rather than differential extirpation. However, understory species initially found in early-successional habitats declined the most, particularly remnant savanna taxa with narrow or thick leaves. These losses have yet to be offset by compensating increases in native shade-adapted species. Exotic species have proliferated in prevalence (from 13 to 76 stands) and relative abundance (from 1.2% to 8.4%), but these increases appear unrelated to the declines in native species richness and heterogeneity observed. Although canopy succession has clearly influenced shifts in understory composition and diversity, the magnitude of native species declines and failure to recruit more shade-adapted species suggest that other factors now act to limit the richness, heterogeneity, and composition of these communities.     

Evaluation of combined morphological and molecular techniques for marine nematode (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Terschellingia</Emphasis> spp.) identification

Marine nematodes, which play an important role in many ecosystems, include a number of apparently cosmopolitan taxa that exhibit broad biogeographic ranges even though there is no obvious dispersal phase in their lifecycle. In this study, standard taxonomic approaches to marine nematode identification in conjunction with multivariate statistical analysis of morphometric data were compared with molecular techniques. Specimens of the marine nematode Terschellingia longicaudata that had been identified by their morphological features were investigated from a range of localities (East and West Atlantic, Bahrain, Malaysia) and habitats (estuarine, intertidal, subtidal) using molecular approaches based on the amplification and sequencing of the small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA). The study revealed that the majority of the morphologically defined T. longicaudata specimens share a single 18S rRNA sequence and apparently belong to a single taxon distributed from the British Isles to Malaysia. In addition, 18S rRNA analysis also revealed two additional sequences. One of these sequences was found in both the British Isles and Mexico, the other was recorded only from British waters. Individuals collected in Bahrain and identified from their morphology as T. longicaudata had two highly divergent 18S rRNA sequences. Separate morphological and morphometric approaches to identification of specimens from the same sites that had been formalin-preserved did not support evidence of multiple genotypes revealed previously by molecular analysis. Current taxonomy based on morphological characters detected using light-microscopy may be unable to discriminate possible species complexes. Biodiversity of marine nematodes may often be underestimated due to the presence of morphologically cryptic species complexes. High-throughput techniques such as DNA barcoding would aid in species identification but may require thorough analysis of multiple nuclear and mitochondrial molecular markers.     

Ex‐situ efficacy analysis of brine remediation products in clay loam soil

This study evaluated the effectiveness of gypsum and three proprietary products to remediate brine‐contaminated soil. The research objective was to determine if additives could increase plant cover germination in soils without costly prior soil‐washing or dilution techniques. The soil was shredded using a soil shredder equipped with a spray bar to apply the individual treatments of DeSalt Plus, SoilTech, Chlor*rid, and calcium sulfate (gypsum). Treatments were placed in 40‐mm high‐density polyethylene cells and small drainage systems were installed to allow removal of excess water. An initial 10‐point soil composite was taken from bulk untreated soils at a depth of more than 2.5 cm. Five‐point composite samples were collected from the same depth at weekly intervals and analyzed for: electrical conductivity, sodium adsorption ratio, cation exchange capacity, sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, chlorides, and pH. The Gapon selectivity coefficient was calculated and utilized to quantify the affinity for binding between ionic alkali salt constituent groups Na⁺, Ca ⁺⁺, and Mg ^++. Soil analysis indicated product‐related improvements in and bioavailability of salts. The nature of the products requires some prior treatment such as soil washing or dilution using clean soil to lower electroconductivity levels and allow the site to vegetate.