Reference criteria for the identification of accident scenarios in the framework of land use planning

Land use planning (LUP) around industrial sites at risk of major accidents requires the application of sound approaches in the selection of credible accident scenarios. In fact, the ‘technical’ phase of LUP is based on the identification and assessment of relevant accident scenarios. An improper choice of scenarios may critically affect both the ‘technical’ phase of risk assessment and the following ‘policy’ phase concerning decision making on land-use restrictions and/or licensing. The present study introduces a procedure aimed at the systematic identification of reference accident scenarios to be used in the gathering of technical data on potential major accidents, which is a necessary step for LUP around Seveso sites. Possible accident scenarios are generated by an improved version of the MIMAH methodology (Methodology for the Identification of Major Accident Hazards). The accident scenarios are then assessed for LUP relevance considering severity, frequency and time scale criteria. The influence of prevention and mitigation barriers is also taken into account. Two applications are used to demonstrate the proposed procedure. In both case-studies, the proposed methodology proved successful in producing consistent sets of reference scenarios.     

Assessing the impact of Cross Compliance measures on nitrogen fluxes from European farmlands with DNDC-EUROPE

We investigated the effects of the agricultural Cross Compliance measures for European cultivated lands, focusing on nitrogen (N) fluxes from corn fields. Four scenarios have been designed according to some conservation farming practices, namely no-till, max manure, catch crop and N splitting. Results indicated that (1) in the no-till scenario the N₂O fluxes are decreased during the first simulated years, with a return to default fluxes in following years; no-till particularly decreased N₂O emission in the dryer and colder simulation spatial units (HSMUs); (2) the no-till and the N splitting scenarios slightly increased the N surplus because of a decrease in plant uptake; (3) introducing a rotation with alfalfa decreased the N leaching in the corn crops following the catch crops; and (4) the application of fertilizer and manure during the cold and wet seasons led to an increase of N leaching.     

Preliminary study on persistence in soil and residues in maize of imidacloprid

The aim of this work was to study the distribution of imidacloprid in soil and its translocation to roots and aerial parts of maize plant. The main objective was to assess imidacloprid residues in field environment, in order to provide data on honeybees exposure level to such an active substance. Imidacloprid has been detected and quantified by Triple Quadrupole HPLC-MS-MS. Pesticide persistence in the soil and its residues in pollen and in maize plants have been evaluated during the growing of maize plants developed from seeds dressed with Gaucho 350 FS (imidacloprid: 1.0 mg/seed). The sowing has been performed by means of a pneumatic precision drill. Samples have been collected at 30, 45, 60, 80, 130 days after the sowing, as pollen samples have been collected at the tasseling. Imidacloprid presence in aerial part of maize plant declined to 2-3 μg/kg 80 days after the sowing, while concentration in kernel at harvest was <1 μg/kg. Maize pollen represents an important part of protein supply of beehives, and it is of critical importance to bee foraging. The values detected (imidacloprid residues <1 μg/kg) showed that maize pollen source should not be relevant for acute toxicity impact on honey bees.     

Integrative assessment of coastal pollution in a Ría coastal system (Galicia, NW Spain): correspondence between sediment chemistry and toxicity

Elutriate embryo-larval bioassays with sea-urchins (Paracentrotus lividus) and ascidians (Ciona intestinalis) were conducted concurrently with trace metal analyses as part of an integrative assessment of sediment pollution at Ría de Pontevedra (Galicia, NW Spain). High metal contents in sediments were found in localised areas from the inner part of the estuary indicating a clear anthropogenic influence. In particular, very high Cu, Zn and Pb levels were found at sites P2 and P3, which were also the most toxic to the embryo-larval bioassays. Sediment quality guidelines were used to help in the ecological interpretation of sediment chemistry data and to identify pollutants of concern. Cu and Zn in P3 were consistently above the effects range median (ERM) values, which seem to be good predictors of toxicity to sea-urchin and ascidian embryos. A toxic unit approach, based on published EC(50) values and metal levels in elutriates, was used to assess the harmful ecological effects associated to sediment chemistry. Toxicity detected in P3 may be explained on the basis of the toxic unit model; however, the high toxicity detected at P2 may be attributable not only to the metals quantified in the analyses but also to unmeasured organic pollutants. Multidimensional scaling applied independently to the toxicology and chemistry data resulted in a good agreement between both types of configurations. Moreover, the Mantel test revealed a significant correlation (r(M)=0.481; p=0.019) between metal concentrations and toxicity data profiles, supporting the correspondence between configurations.     

Element accumulation performance of living and dead lichens in a large-scale transplant application

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In bioaccumulation studies, sample devitalization through acid washing or oven drying is commonly applied to enhance the element accumulation...     

Autotrophic nitrogen removal for decentralized treatment of ammonia-rich industrial textile wastewater: process assessment,stabilization and modelling

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Digital textile printing (DTP) is a game-changer technology that is rapidly expanding worldwide. On the other hand, process wastewater is rich in...     

Improving plant-based genotoxicity bioassay through AFLP technique for trace metal-contaminated water: insights from Myriophyllum aquaticum (Vell.) Verdc. and Cd

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this work, we evaluated whether the species Myriophyllum aquaticum (Vell.) Verdc. can be a promising material for devising reliable...     

Random versus stratified location of transects or points in distance sampling: theoretical results and practical considerations

A composite approach mixing design-based and model-based inference is considered for analyzing line-transect or point-transect data. In this setting, the properties of the animal abundance estimator stem from the sampling scheme adopted to locate transects or points on the study region, as well as from the modeled detection probabilities. Moreover, the abundance estimation can be viewed as a “generalized” version of Monte Carlo integration. This approach permits to prove the superiority of the stratified placement of transects or points (based on a regular tessellation of the study region) over the uniform random placement. Even if the result was already established for the fixed-area sampling, i.e., when a perfect detection takes place, it was lacking in distance sampling. Comparisons with other widely-applied schemes pursuing an even placement of transects or points are also considered.     

Role of aluminous component of fly ash on the durability of Portland cement-fly ash pastes in marine environment

The durability, of mixtures of two kinds of Spanish fly ashes from coal combustion (ASTM class F) with 0, 15 and 35% replacement of Portland cement by fly ash, in a simulated marine environment (Na(2)SO(4)+NaCl solution of equivalent concentration to that of sea water: 0.03 and 0.45 M for sulphate and chloride, respectively), has been studied for a period of 90 days. The resistance of the different mixtures to the attack was evaluated by means of the Koch-Steinegger test. The results showed that all the mixtures were resistant, in spite of the great amount of Al(2)O(3) content of the fly ash. The diffusion of SO(4)(2-), Na+ and Cl- ions through the pore solution activated the pozzolanic reactivity of the fly ashes causing the corresponding microstructure changes, which were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As a result, the flexural strength of the mixtures increased, principally for the fly ash of a lower particle size and 35% of addition.     

Biomonitoring of element contamination in bees and beehive products in the Rome province (Italy)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, we determined the levels of elements (i.e. As, Be, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb, U, and Zn) in bees and edible beehive products (honey, wax,...