Phytoremediation for co-contaminated soils of chromium and benzo[a]pyrene using Zea mays L.

A greenhouse experiment was carried out to investigate the single effect of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) or chromium (Cr) and the joint effect of Cr–B[a]P on the growth of Zea mays, its uptake and accumulation of Cr, and the dissipation of B[a]P over 60 days. Results showed that single or joint contamination of Cr and B[a]P did not affect the plant growth relative to control treatments. However, the occurrence of B[a]P had an enhancing effect on the accumulation and translocation of Cr. The accumulation of Cr in shoot of plant significantly increased by?≥?79 % in 50 mg kg^?1 Cr–B[a]P (1, 5, and 10 mg kg^?1) treatments and by?≥?86 % in 100 mg kg^?1 Cr–B[a]P (1, 5, and 10 mg kg^?1) treatments relative to control treatments. The presence of plants did not enhance the dissipation of B[a]P in lower (1and 5 mg kg^?1) B[a]P contaminated soils; however, over 60 days of planting Z. mays seemed to enhance the dissipation of B[a]P by over 60 % in 10 mg kg^?1 single contaminated soil and by 28 to 41 % in 10 mg kg^?1B[a]P co-contaminated soil. This suggests that Z. mays might be a useful plant for the remediation of Cr–B[a]P co-contaminated soil.     

不同植被对工业污染区盐渍土的改良效果

以包头市西郊工业污染区盐渍化弃耕地为对象，研究了不同植被对土壤水盐动态和体积质量的影响。研究表明，造林后使林地内草本植物得到较快恢复，且归还土壤的枯落物比木本植物多，改良盐渍土壤和促进脱盐的作用较好；随植被盖度增加，盐渍土土壤含盐量和体积质量降低，盐渍土性状逐步改善。因此，在实施以耐盐树种造林为先导的工业污染区盐渍土恢复植被工程时，应适当降低造林密度，以利于林地内草本植物的恢复和建立林草复合植被，提高工业污染区盐渍土的生物治理效果。     

Local Capacity for Groundwater Protection in Ontario

Preventing groundwater contamination is vastly cheaper than remediation. Recognizing this, attention in water and land management agencies in North America increasingly turn to groundwater protection. Local agencies, such as municipalities and watershed management districts, are vital to successful groundwater protection, but they face daunting challenges. In the United States, senior governments have recognized these challenges and provide considerable support for local agencies. In Ontario, Canada, local agencies are, to a much greater extent, on their own. The aims in this paper are to analyze factors that shape local capacity for groundwater protection, focusing on Ontario, and to recommend avenues for capacity building. Interrelationships among five dimensions of capacity (technical, financial, institutional, social, and political) are explored through an analysis of three smaller Ontario communities: City of Guelph (population 93,400), Town of Orangeville (population 22,188), and Town of Erin (population 11,000). Size clearly influences capacity for groundwater protection. However, other considerations unrelated to size appear to be as important. These other factors include the ability to form horizontal and vertical linkages with external agencies, political leadership and commitment, and citizen involvement. Thus, smaller communities in Ontario (and other jurisdictions with limited senior government support) would do well to focus on these areas at the same time as they develop their technical, financial, and institutional capacity.     

Book reviews

ANALYTICAL PLANNING: THE ORGANISATION OF SYSTEMS

Thomas L. Saaty and Kevin P. Kearns

Pergamon Press, 1985. Price: U.S. $40.00, U.K. £29.50.

THE GEOGRAPHER AT WORK

Peter Gould

Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1985’ Price: £8.95.

UTOPIA ON TRIAL

Alice Colman

Hilary Shipman Ltd., 19 Framfield Road, Highbury, London. May 1985 (reprinted August, 1985). Price: £7.95.

SIR RAYMOND UNWIN: ARCHITECT, PLANNER AND VISIONARY

Frank Jackson

A. Zwemmer Ltd., London 1985. 187 pp. with maps and illustrations.

STRATEGIC PLANNING IN ACTION: THE IMPACT OF THE CLYDE VALLEY REGIONAL PLAN 1946–1982

R. Smith and U. Wannop (eds)

Gower, 1985, 272 pp. Price: £16.50.

LOCALITIES, CLASS AND GENDER

The Lancaster Regionalism Group (Linda Murgatroyd, Mike Savage, Dan Shapiro, John Urry, Sylvia Walby, Alan Warde, with Jane Mark‐Lawson)

Pion Ltd., 1985. Price: £12.00.     

Changing Trends in World Metal Demand: The Case of Tin

This paper examines the changing trends in world tin demand for the period 1962–1985. In the early 1970s tin production peaked, and has since declined. The reasons for the decline are examined in terms of changes in product composition of income (i.e. mix of goods and services), changes in material composition of products, decline in gross domestic investment and the rising price of tin.     

The European Water Framework Directive: Water Quality Classification and Implications to Engineering Planning

The European Water framework directive (WFD) is probably the most important environmental management directive that has been enacted over the last decade in the European Union. The directive aims at achieving an overall good ecological status in all European water bodies. In this article, we discuss the implementation steps of the WFD and their implications for environmental engineering practice while focusing on rivers as the main receiving waters. Arising challenges for engineers and scientists are seen in the quantitative assessment of water quality, where standardized systems are needed to estimate the biological status. This is equally of concern in engineering planning, where the prediction of ecological impacts is required. Studies dealing with both classification and prediction of the ecological water quality are reviewed. Further, the combined emission–water quality approach is discussed. Common understanding of this combined approach is to apply the most stringent of either water quality or emission standard to a certain case. In contrast, for example, the Austrian water act enables the application of only the water quality based approach - at least on a temporary basis.     

Oxidative DNA damage levels and catalase activity in the clam Ruditapes decussatus as pollution biomarkers of Tunisian marine environment

Levels of the oxidative DNA damage 7, 8-dihydro-8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) and catalase (CAT) activity were measured in the digestive gland and gills of clams Ruditapes decussatus, related to the presence of pollutants along Tunisian marine environment. Increased levels of CAT were observed in tissues of clams from all the sites studied, compared to control values, and elevated 8-oxodG levels were observed at specific sites. Results obtained in this work indicate that the measurement of 8-oxodG levels and CAT activity in tissues of R. decussatus is promising in pollution monitoring studies of the Tunisian marine environment.     

Parent cultural control through organizational acculturation: HCN employees learning new work values in foreign business subsidiaries

Local employees in foreign business subsidiaries could learn new work values from the parent organizational culture through a process of organizational acculturation. As this is a new concept in academic research, it is important to explore organizational acculturation and its ramifications, especially since it may be used as a strategy of cultural control applied by the parent organization. Following a discussion of the theoretical foundation of this concept, the consequences of organizational acculturation are exemplified by an investigation of middle managers in Singapore. The study was undertaken in two stages. The first stage included a comparison of work values of Singaporean managers, employed by Swedish companies in Singapore, and those of a control group of Singaporean managers, not employed by Swedish companies. In the second stage, work values of managers in Singapore and Sweden were compared. Our results imply that some Swedish work values had been adopted, suggesting that the local managers had experienced organizational acculturation. Practical implications and possible further research are discussed.     

A meta-ethnography to synthesise household cultural research for climate change response

Cultural change is critical to climate change responses, but the in-depth qualitative research that investigates culture is necessarily conducted at scales difficult to integrate with policy. A focus of climate change mitigation and adaptation is affluent developed world households. Adapting methods used elsewhere in social science, we report and assess a meta-ethnography of household sustainability research, scaling up findings from 12 studies encompassing 276 Australian households. Seven themes are dominant: family concerns are central to household practice; adaptiveness is contingent but more pervasive than often assumed; households make sense of climate change not through abstract arguments, but through physical resources and materials; boundaries of the home space are dynamic and subjective; daily time is an important currency; paradoxes abound among everyday practice; and privacy and a sense of autonomy are prioritised. Insights from the method include new light on familiar themes when seen through an environmental lens, thickening and triangulation of existing research, and a stronger basis for international comparisons. Some findings have straightforward application to policy, others identify potential areas of risk and resistance, others still are more conceptual. We conclude the method has considerable potential and is worth developing further, providing a critical perspective is maintained.     

Ecological Compensation in Dutch Highway Planning

The ecological compensation principle was introduced by the Dutch government in 1993. This principle is designed to enhance the input of nature conservation interests in decision-making on large-scale development projects and to counterbalance the ecological impacts of such developments when implemented. This article evaluates the application of the Dutch compensation principle in highway planning. Six current highway projects reveal consistent implementation of this principle, although provincial policies on compensation and a national method for identifying compensation measures are still under development. As the planning process has not yet been completed for all the projects, no general conclusions can be drawn on the impact of the compensation principle on highway decision-making. Nevertheless, several examples show that the principle stimulates project initiators to develop alternative routes or route sections in order to avoid or reduce ecological impacts and the need for coherent compensation measures. If the compensation principle is to be properly implemented in the context of highway planning, particular attention should be paid to the following aspects: (1) sequential assessment of overall project legitimacy and the necessity of intersecting protected areas and compensation measures, (2) the initiator's attempts to avoid and mitigate ecological impacts in developing alternative routes prior to compensation for impacts, and (3) the role of uncertain ecological impacts in identifying compensation measures, especially those concerning habitat isolation.