Statistical evaluation and analysis of safety intervention in the determination of an effective resource allocation strategy

This paper provides an analytical background for the development of an effective safety intervention program with the aim of minimizing incident rates. Safety intervention data were collected from the environmental health and safety department of an American-owned oil company in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. A safety model was developed to determine the safety intervention factors and interactions which minimize incident rates, with the aim of predicting a better resource allocation strategy. Five main safety intervention factors (factor A: leadership and accountability; factor B: qualification selection and pre-job; factor C: employee engagement and planning; factor D: work in progress; factor E: evaluation, measurement and verification) were highlighted and investigated to show their effects on incident rate performance. Analysis of variance test showed that four safety factors (A, C, D, and E) were significant. Statistical techniques such as response surface design plots were used to determine the resource allocation method. The developed safety model recommended the allocation of 16.66% of the available resources to the significant safety intervention activities in order to achieve the desirable incident rate. In order to reap the benefits of this research, it will be important to concentrate more efforts and resources on significant factors which have positive impacts in minimizing incident rates.     

International guidelines on mercury management in small-scale gold mining

This article reports on a stakeholder engagement process to develop the International Guidelines on Mercury Management in Small-Scale Gold Mining. Commissioned by the United Nations Global Mercury Project, the purpose of the guidelines is to assist policymakers, practitioners, researchers, miners and the public in developing strategies for reducing mercury use, eliminating major pollution point sources and reducing risks. The guidelines are proposed with the view of supporting miners and their communities by promoting safer, more efficient practices that improve environmental and human health. The paper discusses challenges in addressing mercury issues and technical measures in the guidelines. The paper also highlights the need for interactive engagement in communities to discuss and adapt the guidelines as appropriate, in order to create technology transfer strategies, regulatory measures and strategic priorities that are suitable to the local context.     

No evidence for selective follicle abortion underlying primary sex ratio adjustment in pigeons

Primary sex ratio adjustment in birds has been extensively studied, yet the underlying physiological mechanisms are far from understood. Avian females are the heterogametic sex (ZW), and the future sex of the offspring is determined at chromosome segregation during meiosis I, shortly before the oocyte is ovulated. Assuming that the mother can detect the sex of the developing oocyte before ovulation, it has been suggested that a follicle of the un-preferred sex could selectively be induced to become atretic and regress instead of being ovulated (selective follicle abortion). This potential mechanism has been proposed to underlie biased primary sex ratios in birds, including the homing pigeon (Columba livia domestica), which produces a modal clutch size of two eggs. However, without replacement by an additional, already mature follicle, abortion of a preovulatory follicle would most likely result in either reduced clutch sizes or laying gaps, since a not-yet-recruited follicle still needed to undergo the whole maturation phase. In the current study we killed female pigeons, which were adjusting embryo sex of first eggs according to change in body mass. We examined ovaries for signs of follicle abortion but did not find any supporting evidence. All females produced one or two mature follicles but only two out of the 56 experimental birds produced an additional third mature follicle. Therefore, our results do not corroborate the hypothesis that pigeon mothers manipulate primary offspring sex by selectively aborting follicles of the un-preferred sex.     

Frequency analysis of hazardous material transportation incidents as a function of distance from origin to incident location

According to the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), more than 3.1 billion tons of hazardous materials (HazMat) are shipped within the United States annually. This averages to about 800,000 individual shipments of HazMat per day, of which 300,000 are shipments of petroleum/flammable–combustible liquids. This paper presents a temporal trend study (1995–2004) of 2145 HazMat incidents occurring through the transportation of flammable/combustible liquids. The study also correlates between HazMat incidents and distances between shipment origin and incident location. These distances attained through great circle calculations since the data compilation did not allow for the identification of specific routes taken in commodity transport. Findings of this study illustrate a bimodal distribution of frequency as a function of the logarithm of the Distance with first mode (less than 105 miles) mean of 24 [km] and second mode mean of 1061 [km]. Additionally, transport phase introduced no significance to the distribution of frequencies.     

Developing a New Operations Plan for the Bow River Basin Using Collaborative Modeling for Decision Support

The Bow River Basin is a cornerstone of Alberta's development. In 2010, stakeholders representing interests from agriculture, municipalities, environment, and more formed the Bow River Project Research Consortium to help determine the potential for improving the operations in the basin. At present, upstream reservoirs are operated primarily for hydropower, whereas downstream reservoirs are operated for irrigation. Through Collaborative Modeling for Decision Support the stakeholders were able to develop a new method for operating the system that would dramatically improve environmental performance. The main components of the new operating strategy called for: purchase or setting aside of a small amount of storage volume in the power reservoirs; a set of rules for releases from that storage; an agreement by the major irrigation districts with the largest water licenses to utilize their ability to shift deliveries to and from their large offstream storage reservoirs to allow for increased instream flows, and to allow junior water license holders (mainly municipal and industrial supplies) an uninterrupted water supply; limitations of reservoir fluctuations to improve inreservoir habitat for fisheries; and increased minimum flows throughout the system leading to improved environmental outcomes. Costs of this strategy were minimal, impacts on power revenue were estimated at <US$2 million/yr on average. Compensatory arrangements should be possible.     

Synthesizing habitat connectivity analyses of a globally important human-dominated tiger-conservation landscape

As ecological data and associated analyses become more widely available, synthesizing results for effective communication with stakeholders is essential. In the case of wildlife corridors, managers in human-dominated landscapes need to identify both the locations of corridors and multiple stakeholders for effective oversight. We synthesized five independent studies of tiger (Panthera tigris) connectivity in central India, a global priority landscape for tiger conservation, to quantify agreement on landscape permeability for tiger movement and potential movement pathways. We used the latter analysis to identify connectivity areas on which studies agreed and stakeholders associated with these areas to determine relevant participants in corridor management. Three or more of the five studies’ resistance layers agreed in 63% of the study area. Areas in which all studies agree on resistance were of primarily low (66%, e.g., forest) and high (24%, e.g., urban) resistance. Agreement was lower in intermediate resistance areas (e.g., agriculture). Despite these differences, the studies largely agreed on areas with high levels of potential movement: >40% of high average (top 20%) current-flow pixels were also in the top 20% of current-flow agreement pixels (measured by low variation), indicating consensus connectivity areas (CCAs) as conservation priorities. Roughly 70% of the CCAs fell within village administrative boundaries, and 100% overlapped forest department management boundaries, suggesting that people live and use forests within these priority areas. Over 16% of total CCAs’ area was within 1 km of linear infrastructure (437 road, 170 railway, 179 transmission line, and 339 canal crossings; 105 mines within 1 km of CCAs). In 2019, 78% of forest land diversions for infrastructure and mining in Madhya Pradesh (which comprises most of the study region) took place in districts with CCAs. Acute competition for land in this landscape with globally important wildlife corridors calls for an effective comanagement strategy involving local communities, forest departments, and infrastructure planners.     

Closing the knowledge-action gap in conservation with open science

The knowledge-action gap in conservation science and practice occurs when research outputs do not result in actions to protect or restore biodiversity. Among the diverse and complex reasons for this gap, three barriers are fundamental: knowledge is often unavailable to practitioners and challenging to interpret or difficult to use or both. Problems of availability, interpretability, and useability are solvable with open science practices. We considered the benefits and challenges of three open science practices for use by conservation scientists and practitioners. First, open access publishing makes the scientific literature available to all. Second, open materials (detailed methods, data, code, and software) increase the transparency and use of research findings. Third, open education resources allow conservation scientists and practitioners to acquire the skills needed to use research outputs. The long-term adoption of open science practices would help researchers and practitioners achieve conservation goals more quickly and efficiently and reduce inequities in information sharing. However, short-term costs for individual researchers (insufficient institutional incentives to engage in open science and knowledge mobilization) remain a challenge. We caution against a passive approach to sharing that simply involves making information available. We advocate a proactive stance toward transparency, communication, collaboration, and capacity building that involves seeking out and engaging with potential users to maximize the environmental and societal impact of conservation science.     

Empirical modeling of atmospheric deposition in mountainous landscapes.

Atmospheric deposition has long been recognized as an important source of pollutants and nutrients to ecosystems. The need for reliable, spatially explicit estimates of total atmospheric deposition (wet + dry + cloud) is central, not only to air pollution effects researchers, but also for calculation of input-output budgets, and to decision makers faced with the challenge of assessing the efficacy of policy initiatives related to deposition. Although atmospheric deposition continues to represent a critical environmental and scientific issue, current estimates of total deposition have large uncertainties, particularly across heterogeneous landscapes such as montane regions. We developed an empirical modeling approach that predicts total deposition as a function of landscape features. We measured indices of total deposition to the landscapes of Acadia (121 km2) and Great Smoky Mountains (2074 km2) National Parks (USA). Using approximately 300-400 point measurements and corresponding landscape variables at each park, we constructed a statistical (general linear) model relating the deposition index to landscape variables measured in the field. The deposition indices ranged over an order of magnitude, and in response to vegetation type and elevation, which together explained approximately 40% of the variation in deposition. Then, using the independent landscape variables available in GIS data layers, we created a GIS-relevant statistical nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) deposition model (LandMod). We applied this model to create park-wide maps of total deposition that were scaled to wet and dry deposition data from the closest national network monitoring stations. The resultant deposition maps showed high spatial heterogeneity and a four- to sixfold variation in "hot spots" and "cold spots" of N and S deposition ranging from 3 to 31 kg N x ha(-1) x yr(-1) and from 5 to 42 kg S x ha(-1) x yr(-1) across these park landscapes. Area-weighted deposition was found to be up to 70% greater than NADP plus CASTNET monitoring-station estimates together. Model-validation results suggest that the model slightly overestimates deposition for deciduous and coniferous forests at low elevation and underestimates deposition for high-elevation coniferous forests. The spatially explicit deposition estimates derived from LandMod are an improvement over what is currently available. Future research should test LandMod in other mountainous environments and refine it to account for (currently) unexplained variation in deposition.     

The Value of Human Life in Global Warming Impacts – a Comment

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change -