The European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment

Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) can be loosely defined as policy‐relevant, multidisciplinary research on environmental issues. Many, diverse activities in this broad field are ongoing, but the approaches lack the structure, standardization and quality control common in disciplinary research. IEA has three stages: “structuring the problem”, “analyzing the problem” and “communicating the findings and insights”. Each stage has its inherent difficulties, not least because problem definition and analysis are neither separable nor unambiguous nor unique. Difficulties are exacerbated in the first and third stages by the necessity for science and policy to work together. Difficulties are exacerbated in the second stage by the necessity of different scientific disciplines to cooperate. The European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment is an initiative to improve scientific quality and policy‐relevance of IEA, by organizing two series of workshops, one looking in detail at current and desired scientific practices, the other reviewing current and establishing further applications of IEA to environmental issues in Europe. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Analysing demand for environmental quality: a willingness to pay/accept study in the province of Siena (Italy)

The province of Siena, Italy, enacted a new garbage plan (NGP) with the objective of increasing separate waste collection (SWC), shutting down six landfills and increasing incineration. The aim of the paper is to evaluate costs and benefits of the NGP. The hypothesis is that willingness to pay (WTP) should reflect the value to the community of having better environmental quality, according to the Contingent Valuation literature. The paper reports the results of a contingent valuation (CV). The sample was divided into two subsets: firms and households. Through the information gathered via a detailed questionnaire, parametric and non-parametric estimates were elaborated to analyse the WTP of the population for the benefits flowing from increased SWC, increased incineration and shutting down of landfills. These values were expressed as a share of the tax actually paid. Although a small subset of firms and households valued increasing incineration less positively, requesting compensation, on the whole interviewees (with large differences between firms and households) had a net positive WTP for the provisions included in NGP. Parametric estimation procedures enabled us to analyse the economic as well as social and demographic factors affecting these results. These elements are useful for computing a value for the waste charge that also reflects external effects. Finally, we estimated household income elasticity of WTP for the increase in SWC and found less than one: environmental quality is not a luxury good.     

Mytilus galloprovincialis as bioindicator in embryotoxicity testing to evaluate sediment quality in the lagoon of Venice (Italy)

The possibility of using Mytilus galloprovincialis from natural populations of the lagoon of Venice in toxicity bioassays based on embryo development, according to international standard methods, was investigated. In order to valuate this method for the lagoon, iterative steps including evaluation of reproducibility, sensitivity and discriminatory capacity towards some pure substances and environmental samples were performed. Evaluation of sensitivity towards a reference toxicant (copper) evidenced good replicability and repeatability. Results showed that natural population is better than hatchery population for performing bioassays. Evaluation of applicability to elutriates revealed that the method is able to discriminate among sediments of the lagoon of Venice at different typologies and levels of contamination, showing an important effect for almost all study sites.     

Assessing coastal vulnerability to climate change: comparing segmentation at global and regional scales

Recent concerns about potential climate-change effects on coastal systems require the application of vulnerability assessment tools in order to define suitable adaptation strategies and improve coastal zone management effectiveness. In fact, while various research efforts were devoted to evaluate coastal vulnerability to climate change on a national to global level, fewer applications were carried out so far to develop more comprehensive and site-specific vulnerability assessments suitable to plan possible adaptation measures at the regional scale. In this respect, specific indicators are needed to address climate-change-related issues for coastal zones and to identify vulnerable areas at the regional level. Two sets of coastal vulnerability indicators were selected, one for regional and one for global studies, respectively, concerning the same features of coastal systems, including topography and slope, geomorphological characteristics, presence and distribution of wetlands and vegetation cover, density of coastal population and number of coastal inhabitants. The proposed set of indicators for the regional scale was chosen taking into account the availability of environmental and territorial data for the whole coastal area of the Veneto region and was based on site-specific datasets characterized by a spatial resolution appropriate for a regional analysis. Moreover, a GIS-based segmentation procedure was applied to divide the coastline into linear segments, homogeneous in terms of vulnerability to climate change and sea-level rise at the regional scale. This approach allowed to divide the Veneto shoreline into 140 segments with an average length of about 1 km, while the global scale approach identified four coastal segments with an average length of about 66 km. The performed comparison indicated how the more detailed approach adopted at the regional scale is essential to understand and manage the complexities of the specific study area. In fact, the 25-m DEM employed at the regional scale provided a more accurate differentiation of the coastal area's elevation and thus of coastal susceptibility to the inundation risks, compared to the 1-km DEM used at the global level. Moreover, at the regional level the use of a 1:20,000 geomorphological map allowed to differentiate the unique landform class detected at the global level (e.g., fluvial plain) in a variety of more detailed coastal typologies (e.g., open coast eroding sandy shores backed by bedrock) characterized by a different sensitivity to climate change and sea-level rise. Accordingly, the information provided by regional indicators can support decision-makers in improving the management of coastal resources by considering the potential impacts of climate change and in the definition of appropriate actions to reduce inundation risks, to avoid the potential loss of valuable wetlands and vegetation and to plan the nourishment of sandy beaches subject to erosion processes.     

Understanding the interacting factors that influence social vulnerability: a case study of the 2016 central Italy earthquake

This paper seeks to identify those areas that proved socially vulnerable to the earthquake that struck central Italy on 24 August 2016. The study involved four key steps. First, six relevant social vulnerability indicators were selected, based on previous conclusions in the literature. Second, the indicators were mapped using the inverse distance weighted interpolation method. Third, social vulnerability was assessed according to a spatial combination of the indicators. Fourth, in order to build a heterogeneity map, another approach was employed to represent the spatial variability of social vulnerability and to provide additional information on the synergistic contributions of the indicators. The results indicate that age and accessibility indicators affect the entire region under review, with highly vulnerable zones being close to small historical centres. These findings will be useful to governments, policymakers, and stakeholders with regard to implementing vulnerability mitigation strategies in Italian territories that are highly susceptible to earthquake hazards.     

Handling of dioxin measurement data in the presence of non-detectable values: overview of available methods and their application in the Seveso chloracne study

Exposure measurements of concentrations that are non-detectable or near the detection limit (DL) are common in environmental research. Proper statistical treatment of non-detects is critical to avoid bias and unnecessary loss of information. In the present work, we present an overview of possible statistical strategies for handling non-detectable values, including deletion, simple substitution, distributional methods, and distribution-based imputation. Simple substitution methods (e.g., substituting 0, DL/2, DL/ radical2, or DL for the non-detects) are the most commonly applied, even though the EPA Guidance for Data Quality Assessment discouraged their use when the percentage of non-detects is >15%. Distribution-based multiple imputation methods, also known as robust or "fill-in" procedures, may produce dependable results even when 50-70% of the observations are non-detects and can be performed using commonly available statistical software. Any statistical analysis can be conducted on the imputed datasets. Results properly reflect the presence of non-detectable values and produce valid statistical inference. We describe the use of distribution-based multiple imputation in a recent investigation conducted on subjects from the Seveso population exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), in which 55.6% of plasma TCDD measurements were non-detects. We suggest that distribution-based multiple imputation be the preferred method to analyze environmental data when substantial proportions of observations are non-detects.     

Experiences with restoration of inland freshwater wetlands in the Netherlands: lessons for science and policy-making

The past decade has seen important changes in the approach to water management issues in the Netherlands. Urban development, recreational demands, agriculture, nature conservation and other space demanding functions compete with water management objectives in their claims for space. An analysis of some recent water management projects illustrates that the implementation of the new water management approach is not always easy. Catchment-based multifunctional projects encounter major constraints. These constraints are: 1) national goals versus local constraints; 2) limited sense of urgency; 3) lack of institutional coordination in the water management community; 4) unclear views over nature conservation, and; 5) limited understanding of wetland functioning in relation to flood risk management. We promote platforms for collaborative planning as a way to improve stakeholder participation in early stages of decision-making. Negotiation and mediation support tools can enable stakeholders and mediators to formulate the problems that need to be addressed more effectively. Early involvement of stakeholders in the planning process is almost a condition for successful implementation; however, it is no guarantee of success, and not all conflicts can be solved. Therefore assessment of the costs and benefits of different parties is important for compensation schemes to gain broad social acceptance.     

The combined benefits of motorcycle antilock braking systems (ABS) in preventing crashes and reducing crash severity

Objective: Several studies have reported the benefits of motorcycle antilock braking systems (ABS) in reducing injury crashes, due to improved stability and braking performance. Both aspects may prevent crashes but may also reduce the crash severity when a collision occurs. However, it is still unknown to what extent the reductions in injury crashes with ABS may be due to a combination of these mechanisms.

Methods: Swedish hospital and police reports (2003–2012) were used. The risk for permanent medical impairment (RPMI) was calculated, showing the risk of at least 1 or 10% permanent medical impairment. In total, 165 crashes involving ABS-equipped motorcycles were compared with 500 crashes with similar motorcycles without ABS.

The analysis was performed in 3 steps. First, the reduction in emergency care visits with ABS was calculated using an induced exposure approach. Secondly, the injury mitigating effects of ABS were investigated. The mean RPMI 1+ and RPMI 10+ were analyzed for different crash types. The distributions of impairing injuries (PMI 1+) and severely impairing injuries (PMI 10+) were also analyzed. In the third step, the total reduction of PMI 1+ and PMI 10+ injured motorcyclists was calculated by combining the reductions found in the previous steps. An additional analysis of combined braking systems (CBS) together with ABS was also performed.

Results: The results showed that emergency care visits were reduced by 47% with ABS. In the second step, it was found that the mean RPMI 1+ and RPMI 10+ with ABS were 15 and 37% lower, respectively. Finally, the third step showed that the total reductions in terms of crash avoidance and mitigation of PMI 1+ and PMI 10+ injured motorcyclists with ABS were 67 and 55%, respectively. However, PMI 1+ and PMI 10+ leg injuries were not reduced by ABS to the same extent. Indications were found suggesting that the benefits of ABS together with CBS may be greater than ABS alone.

Conclusions: This article indicated that motorcycle ABS reduced impairing injuries, mostly due to fewer emergency care visits but also due to a reduction in crash severity. This may seem reasonable as the improved stability and braking performance provided by ABS could prevent some crashes but would also decrease crash severity if a collision still occurs. As suggested by previous studies, however, the lower extremities would be more exposed in a crash with ABS. It is recommended that future research should follow up these results with additional data.     

Sources and trends of trace elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a shallow lake in the Mediterranean area from sediment archives of the Anthropocene

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, the anthropogenic contamination in Trasimeno lake (Central Italy) was investigated using three sediment cores spanning over the last...