Birmingham's Eastside story: Making steps towards sustainability?

Sustainability has come to play a dominant discursive role in the UK planning system, particularly relating to urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role that sustainability plays in a major regeneration programme, known as Eastside, currently underway in Birmingham, the UK. That this £6 billion redevelopment is now widely talked about by such key players as Birmingham City Council and the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, as having a central sustainability agenda points to the growing importance of the ideal of sustainability in planning and regeneration agendas. In this paper, we investigate in detail how and why sustainability has become part of the planning discourse for Eastside and critically evaluate what impact, if any, this is having on public policy decision-making.     

IRRIGATION METHODS AND TRANSPORT OF IMAZAMETHABENZ‐METHYL TO GROUND WATER: GREENFIELDS BENCH,MONTANA1

ABSTRACT: A series of gravel terraces support a shallow aquifer that is the sole source of drinking water for three public water supplies and more than 400 private wells on the Greenfields Bench in west‐central Montana. Farming practices on the Greenfields Bench include irrigation of malting barley and the yearly application of herbicides for the control of weeds. The most commonly used herbicide (imazamethabenz‐methyl, U.S. trade name Assert®) has been found in the ground water on the Greenfields Bench. An experiment was conducted in 2000 and 2001 to characterize the transport of Assert and its acid metabolite to ground water under three irrigation methods: flood, wheel line sprinkler, and center pivot sprinkler. Results show that Assert concentrations in ground water are controlled by hydraulic loading rates of each irrigation method, Assert persistence in soil, hydraulic characteristics of the aquifer, and adsorption/desorption of Assert onto clay particles and organic matter.     

控制卡塔尔居民生活用水量:评价

卡塔尔由于社会经济高速发展,人口大量增加,水资源存在严重问题.市政给水依靠高成本和不可持续的海水淡化,而对用水几乎没有限制,卡塔尔本国居民不用付水费,外国移居者付补助性的水费--大约1/3的成本费用,因此人们很少意识到水的真正成本,用水极其浪费.这篇文章讨论的是卡塔尔的用水趋势及与可持续用水有关的问题.一个针对卡塔尔社会各阶层的问卷调查了人们对水的意识和态度,结果显示,原有为了控制用水量而做的努力,如提高意识宣传活动、法律上的限制及水费是无效的.问卷评价了对限制用水可采取的措施的反应,其中有提高公众意识、使用法律措施和提高水费,从中提出一系列改变政策的建议,促使卡塔尔给水工业进入可持续发展阶段.     

氮沉降的全球化:对于陆地生态系统的意义

人类活动产生的氮(N),包括农田氮肥施肥和矿物燃料燃烧过程中所固定的氮,其来源和分布正在迅速地扩展到全球范围.这部分氮进入到陆地生态系统中,将会促进植物的生长,并产生过量的氮,最终通过淋溶和痕量气体排放的形式,增加了氮的损失.在某种情况下,还会导致物种组成的变化和生态系统功能的衰减.但并非所有的生态系统都对氯沉降具有类似的响应.它们的响应情况,取决于氮沉降的连续性、生态系统的类型,生态系统对氮的需求或保持能力、土地利用的历史、土壤状况、地形条件、气候背景以及氮沉降的速度、时间和类型等因素.我们认为,起重要作用的是:一些对人类影响具有显著意义的条件、一些控制生态系统响应变化的因素以及一些由于资料缺乏而使不确定性增大的地方.     

Effects of temperature on morphological landmarks critical to growth and survival in larval Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

The morphology and function of structures important to energy acquisition were studied from spawning to the stage of transformation of larva to pelagic juvenile in Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua L., from December 1991 to July 1992. Fertilized eggs produced by adult fish from two genetically discrete populations (Newfoundland and Scotian Shelf) were raised under similar conditions in the laboratory at temperatures of 5 and 10°C. Subsamples of larvae were removed from cultures daily for 10 d, and then less frequently, and fixed for light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Nine functional morphological landmarks important to feeding, respiration and locomotion were chosen from observation of 280 ind. These landmarks defined 12 major developmental stages, from hatching to the pelagic juvenile stage. One of the feeding landmarks, intestinal stage, varied as a function of age and size and the variance in development was higher at 10°C than at 5°C; Newfoundland larvae developed more complex intestines than did Scotian Shelf larvae. In addition, Newfoundland larvae had significantly higher growth rates than those of Scotian Shelf larvae. Despite the higher growth rates and greater structural complexity of the intestine in Newfoundland larvae, the rate of yolk utilization was not significantly different between Newfoundland and Scotian Shelf larvae. Staging of respiratory landmarks showed that the gill arches were probably used preferentially in feeding while respiration was cutaneous. The gills, operculum and gill rakers developed late in larval life and accompanied the transition from cutaneous to branchial respiration. In the yolk-sac period, development of feeding and respiratory structures may be largely genetically controlled. During exogenous feeding, extrinsic factors also become important, as shown by the size and age-independent variation in intestinal development of larval cod raised at different temperatures.     

Simulated green turtle grazing affects nutrient composition of the seagrass <Emphasis Type="Italic">Thalassia testudinum</Emphasis>

Before populations of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) were severely reduced by human overexploitation, the seagrass Thalassia testudinum was intensively grazed by green turtles in the Caribbean. To explore how nutrient composition of T. testudinum pastures responds to intense grazing pressure, we simulated green turtle grazing in 15 plots (each 3 m × 3 m) for 16 months in the central Bahamas. Comparisons of clipped plots with 15 adjacent control (unclipped) plots revealed that simulated grazing resulted in significantly higher energy, nitrogen, phosphorus, lignin, cutin, and condensed tannin content in blades in clipped plots, but sediment organic content was not affected. By continually re-cropping blades in grazing plots, turtles ingest young, actively growing blade tissue with higher energy, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations. Our 16-month clipping trial did not generate the expected decline in nutrient content in T. testudinum blades under intensive grazing. However, significant decreases in nitrogen and organic matter reserves in rhizomes, with declines apparent after 16 and 11 months, respectively, indicate that nutrient content of blades and/or blade productivity may decline under continued clipping.