Assessing national sustainable development strategies: Strengthening the links to operational policy

At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, it was agreed that all countries should develop a national sustainable develop‐ment strategy (NSDS) as a key component of implementing the goals of Agenda 21. Progress has been limited. Few countries have established a formal strategy, and many of the strategies that exist have been only partially implemented. This article proposes an approach that addresses the need to improve existing strategic planning mechanisms. The approach is based on a periodic assessment of existing systems, to evaluate the extent to which they incorporate NSDS principles, and identify areas to be strengthened. The article describes an assessment methodology, presents examples of its use, and discusses ways in which current approaches to NSDS may be complemented by continual review and improvement of existing planning processes.     

Sustainable Tourism and the Touristic Ecological Footprint

There is growing interest in ecological footprint analysis in aiding our understanding of societal demands upon the biosphere. Increasingly, attention is being focused on potential new applications of the technique. Tourism is one of the world's largest industries and can play a major part in encouraging more consumerist lifestyles. It is now widely accepted that tourism development may have profound impacts on local environments, and that, consequently, the sustainable development of tourism at destination areas is an important issue. However, sustainable tourism studies rarely look beyond the destination area, and there has been no substantive recognition of the wider ecological footprint of tourism activities. This paper attempts to connect, conceptually, the realms of sustainable tourism and ecological footprint thinking. In so doing, various conceptualisations of the 'touristic ecological footprint' (TEF) are suggested, along with some potential applications. It is argued that primary research should focus on calculating the touristic ecological footprint associated with individual tourism products, throughout the product's life-cycle. As well as bringing another dimension to our understanding of tourism's actual ecological demand, it is also argued that the concept of the touristic ecological footprint may be used to clarify theoretical aspects of the sustainable tourism debate, helping to rejuvenate this debate in the process.     

Sensitivity and first-step uncertainty analyses for the preferential flow model MACRO

Sensitivity analyses for the preferential flow model MACRO were carried out using one-at-a-time and Monte Carlo sampling approaches. Four different scenarios were generated by simulating leaching to depth of two hypothetical pesticides in a sandy loam and a more structured clay loam soil. Sensitivity of the model was assessed using the predictions for accumulated water percolated at a 1-m depth and accumulated pesticide losses in percolation. Results for simulated percolation were similar for the two soils. Predictions of water volumes percolated were found to be only marginally affected by changes in input parameters and the most influential parameter was the water content defining the boundary between micropores and macropores in this dual-porosity model. In contrast, predictions of pesticide losses were found to be dependent on the scenarios considered and to be significantly affected by variations in input parameters. In most scenarios, predictions for pesticide losses by MACRO were most influenced by parameters related to sorption and degradation. Under specific circumstances, pesticide losses can be largely affected by changes in hydrological properties of the soil. Since parameters were varied within ranges that approximated their uncertainty, a first-step assessment of uncertainty for the predictions of pesticide losses was possible. Large uncertainties in the predictions were reported, although these are likely to have been overestimated by considering a large number of input parameters in the exercise. It appears desirable that a probabilistic framework accounting for uncertainty is integrated into the estimation of pesticide exposure for regulatory purposes.     

Aliphatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments collected from the 110 mile hole and along a transect from 58 degrees 58.32'N 1 degree 10.38'W to the inner Moray Firth,Scotland

Sediments were collected from the 110 mile hole and along a transect from 58 degrees 58.32' N 1 degree 10.38' W to the UK National Marine Monitoring (NMMP) site in the inner Moray Firth, for determination of hydrocarbon concentration and composition. Total PAH concentrations (2- to 6-ring PAHs, parent and branched) were highest at NMMP site 95 and at the associated end of the transect in the inner Moray Firth. PAHs in this area were of predominately pyrolytic origin and could be attributed to urban and industrial activities. The majority of sediments collected in the middle section of the transect had low total PAH concentrations (< 100 ng g(-1) dry weight). The high proportion of naphthalenes and alkylated PAHs in this area suggested a predominately petrogenic input. The GC-FID aliphatic hydrocarbon profiles showed that the majority of sediments, including those in the inner Firth, had a limited petrogenic input. This was supported by the geochemical biomarker profiles, which contained triterpanes typical of Middle Eastern crude oil. Principal component analysis was used to investigate spatial trends in the PAH distributions and demonstrated that there were differences between areas. The NMMP site 95 and transect start and middle sediments were well separated. PCA further confirmed that sediments from the NMMP site 95, the 110 mile hole and the inner Moray Firth (south west) end of the transect contained PAHs from predominately pyrolytic sources, whereas sediments from the north east end (start) and the middle of the transect were typified by a greater petrogenic component.     

Suburbanization and drought: A mixed methods vulnerability assessment in rainy Massachusetts

This paper presents evidence that water restrictions in suburbanizing eastern Massachusetts towns are becoming more common, controlling for climate. We then assess the relationship between these suburban droughts and residential development. Focusing on the suburbs of Boston, seven towns independent of the Boston water supply system were selected to represent differing levels of sprawl-style growth. Water restrictions are becoming more frequent in all of the towns studied, and models demonstrate that restrictions are increasing in duration, independent of climate. Interviews suggest that residential development is playing a central role in this increasing sensitivity to suburban drought, though other factors are also important. Long-term planning and integration of land-use planning and water management emerged as two key paths for attenuating the impacts of development.     

A proposal for improving the measurement of benefits from pollution abatement

Two basic and competing approaches for measuring the benefits of pollution abatement have found support in the recent literature-the property value approach and the health damage function approach. The purpose of this paper is to show that conditions will often exist when the property value approach will not accurately measure all benefits and conditions will always be present that cause the health damage function approach to underestimate benefits. In general, neither approach can stand alone. It is possible, however, that the two approaches can be combined in such a way as to improve the measurement of abatement benefits. We present an approach for combining these two methods and do so by introducing an “information coefficient” that measures the degree of knowledge about pollution effects held by the public. Approaches to estimating the information coefficient are suggested.     

Surface geophysical exploration: developing noninvasive tools to monitor past leaks around Hanford’s tank farms

A characterization program has been developed at Hanford to image past leaks in and around the underground storage tank facilities. The program is based on electrical resistivity, a geophysical technique that maps the distribution of electrical properties of the subsurface. The method was shown to be immediately successful in open areas devoid of underground metallic infrastructure, due to the large contrast in material properties between the highly saline waste and the dry sandy host environment. The results in these areas, confirmed by a limited number of boreholes, demonstrate a tendency for the lateral extent of the underground waste plume to remain within the approximate footprint of the disposal facility. In infrastructure-rich areas, such as tank farms, the conventional application of electrical resistivity using small point-source surface electrodes initially presented a challenge for the resistivity method. The method was then adapted to directly use the buried infrastructure, specifically the steel-cased wells that surround the tanks, as “long” electrodes for both transmission of electrical current and measurements of voltage. Overcoming the drawbacks of the long electrode method has been the focus of our work over the past 7 years. The drawbacks include low vertical resolution and limited lateral coverage. The lateral coverage issue has been improved by supplementing the long electrodes with surface electrodes in areas devoid of infrastructure. The vertical resolution has been increased by developing borehole electrode arrays that can fit within the small-diameter drive casing of a direct push rig. The evolution of the program has led to some exceptional advances in the application of geophysical methods, including logistical deployment of the technology in hazardous areas, development of parallel processing resistivity inversion algorithms, and adapting the processing tools to accommodate electrodes of all shapes and locations. The program is accompanied by a full set of quality assurance procedures that cover the layout of sensors, measurement strategies, and software enhancements while insuring the integrity of stored data. The data have been shown to be useful in identifying previously unknown contaminant sources and defining the footprint of precipitation recharge barriers to retard the movement of existing contamination.