This article presents a model of remedial action planning, which includes four key variables that determine progress in plan development and implementation and explain the differing level of achievement in individual sites. The model is illustrated by the characteristics and developments of four remedial action plan (RAP) processes (Lower Green Bay and Fox River, Collingwood Harbour, Spanish Harbour, and the Metro Toronto and Region RAPs). Differences in the local context of the plans have, to a significant degree, predisposed individual planning and implementation experiences. Local context includes three variables, namely geographical—technical and sociopolitical aspects and the previous history of water pollution management in the area. RAP precursors are a necessary precondition for progress in planning and substantive achievements. While there is a tendency that most geographically focused RAPs in administratively simple areas accomplish most, the motivation and political clout of RAP participants are strongly intervening factors. Resource input from upper levels of government, in particular financial commitment for plan implementation, is the fourth necessary ingredient for progress due to the RAPs' weak regulatory and institutional framework. Unfortunately, upper levels of government have shown widespread reluctance to lead in remedial action planning. This was only in part offset by local commitment and support for RAP and its cause. 相似文献
Numerous studies have evaluated air quality and greenhouse gas mitigation benefits of biomass energy systems, but the potential environmental impacts associated with large-scale changes in land-use patterns needed to produce energy crops have not been quantified. This paper presents a framework to assess the potential soil, water, and biodiversity impacts that may result from the large-scale production of dedicated energy crops. The framework incorporates producer economic decision models with environmental models to assess changes in land use patterns and to quantify the consequent environmental impacts. Economic and policy issues that will affect decisions to produce energy crops are discussed. The framework is used to evaluate erosion and chemical runoff in two Tennessee regions. The analysis shows that production of dedicated energy crops in place of conventional crops will significantly reduce erosion and chemical runoff. 相似文献
This paper assesses the status of coastal zones in the context of expected climate change and its related impacts, as well as current and future socioeconomic pressures and impacts. It is argued that external stresses and shocks relating to sea-level rise and other changes will tend to exacerbate existing environmental pressures and damage in coastal zones. Coastal zones are under increasing stress because of an interrelated set of planning failures including information, economic market, and policy intervention failures. Moves towards integrated coastal zone management are urgently required to guide the coevolution of natural and human systems. Overtly technocentric claims that assessments of vulnerability undertaken to date are overestimates of likely future damages from global warming are premature. While it is the case that forecasts of sea-level rise have been scaled down, much uncertainty remains over, for example, combined storm, sea surge, and other events. In any case, within the socioeconomic analyses of the problem, resource valuations have been at best only partial and have failed to incorporate sensitivity analysis in terms of the discount rates utilized. This would indicate an underestimation of potential damage costs. Overall, a precautionary approach is justified based on the need to act ahead of adequate information acquisition, economically efficient resource pricing and proactive coastal planning. 相似文献
This paper describes the results from a series of fire tests that were carried out to measure the effect of defects in thermal protection systems on fire engulfed propane pressure vessels.
In North America thermal protection is used to protect dangerous goods rail tank-cars from accidental fire impingement. They are designed so that a tank-car will not rupture for 100 min in a defined engulfing fire, or 30 min in a defined torching fire. One common system includes a 13 mm blanket of high-temperature ceramic fibre thermal insulation covered with a 3 mm steel jacket. Recent inspections have shown that some tanks have significant defects in these thermal protection systems. This work was done to establish what levels of defect are acceptable from a safety standpoint.
The tests were conducted using 1890 l (500 US gallon) ASME code propane pressure vessels (commonly called tanks in the propane industry). The defects tested covered 8% and 15% of the tank surface. The tanks were 25% engulfed in a fire that simulated a hydrocarbon pool fire with an effective blackbody temperature of 870 °C.
The fire testing showed that even relatively small defects can result in tank rupture if the defect area is engulfed in a severe fire, and the defect area is not wetted by liquid from the inside. A wall failure prediction technique based on uniaxial high-temperature stress rupture test data has been developed and agrees well with the observed failure times. 相似文献
Rapid economic growth in Asia and the increasing transboundary movement of secondary resources will increasingly require both
3R endeavors (reduce, reuse, recycle) in each country and appropriate control of international material cycles. Recently,
managing electrical and electronic waste (E-waste) has become an important target for domestic and international material
cycles from the viewpoints of environmental preservation and resource utilization efficiency. To understand the current status
of E-waste issues in the context of international material cycles and to discuss the future tasks related to achieving 3R
in the region, we organized the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) E-waste Workshop in December 2004. This
article reviews past studies on E-waste and briefly describes the topics presented and discussions held at the workshop. The
topics at the workshop included E-waste generation, recycling systems, international trade, and environmental impacts. In
addition, we discussed various issues such as terminology, current environmental concerns, and possible solutions. Transboundary
shipments of E-waste should be conducted taking into consideration the concept of sustainable development. The direction of
future research and possible collaborations are also discussed. 相似文献