Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.     

Environmental damage: distinguishing human from geophysical causes

Abstract

During the past two decades it has become increasingly common to attribute “naturala” disasters and other damaging environmental events to proximate or underlying causes that are socially produced. Through an examination of three cases, two of them historical, this paper demonstrates that underlying causes within the geophysical domain are also important. Few types of environmental damage or disaster stem from unalloyed human causes or geophysical ones; complex intermixtures are the rule.     

No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential

Landowners can intentionally impair biodiversity values occurring on their land to pre-empt biodiversity protection. This often leads to significant negative effects on biodiversity. We studied whether landowners in Finland engaged in pre-emptive loggings after they were notified that their wooded mires are candidate sites for a mire protection program. After the notification, harvesting rates of the candidate wooded mires were significantly lower compared to harvesting rates of similar but non-candidate wooded mires. Annual and monthly harvesting rates indicated that notifying landowners of the conservation potential did not launch systematic pre-emptive logging behavior. Nevertheless, part of the candidate wooded mires were logged, so some landowners place more weight on other values than the biodiversity ones. Pre-emptive behavior has been observed in other studies suggesting that many country- or system-specific factors such as cultural background or level of compensation can affect landowners’ behavior.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01354-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Ambio’s legacy on monitoring,impact, and management of acid rain: This article belongs to Ambio’s 50th Anniversary Collection. Theme: Acidification

Early studies published in Ambio showed large-scale acidification of lakes in southern Sweden and Norway from acid rain. These studies were important for delimiting various scientific issues and thus for eventually contributing to legislation, which reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and helped to mitigate this major environmental problem. Long-term studies and monitoring in Sweden and Norway and at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire helped guide this legislation in Europe and in the USA.     

Climate change,risk perception,and protection motivation among high-altitude residents of the Mt. Everest region in Nepal

Mountain ecosystems are considered vulnerable to early impacts of climate change. Whether and how local residents of these areas perceive these changes, however, remain under-studied questions. By conducting a household survey in the Khumbu region of Nepal, this study assessed local residents’ experience-based perception of changes in climate trends and patterns, perceived risk, and attitudes towards climate issues. Multivariate cluster analysis based on residents’ climate change beliefs revealed three segments: “Cautious,” “Disengaged,” and “Alarmed.” A comparison of these segments along key psychosocial constructs of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) revealed significant inter-segment differences in residents’ perception of severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost associated with engaging in mitigating behavior. Results shed light on how residents of high elevation areas that are considered to be exposed to early impacts of climate change perceive the risk and intend to respond. These findings could also assist stakeholders working in other similar mountain ecosystems in understanding vulnerability and in working towards climate readiness.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01369-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Planning nature-based solutions: Principles,steps, and insights

Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning: Co-define setting, Understand challenges, Create visions and scenarios, Assess potential impacts, Develop solution strategies, and Realize and monitor. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely Place-specificity, Evidence base, Integration, Equity, and Transdisciplinarity. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01365-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Long-term changes in microbial water quality indicators in a hydro-power plant reservoir: The role of natural factors and socio-economic changes

Long-term changes, from 1984 to 2010, in the indicators of microbial pollution (total viable count, coliforms, Escherichia coli, enterococci, and Clostridium perfringens) are analysed in the Riga Hydropower Plant Reservoir, an essential source of drinking water for Riga, the capital of Latvia. Counts in microbial indicators fluctuated seasonally and were related to physicochemical parameters (nitrogen compounds, turbidity, temperature, and pH). The changes in microbial pollution were brought about by two major socio-economic developments. Firstly, Latvia’s independence from the USSR in 1991 which facilitated a distinct reduction in most microorganism counts due to a sharp decline in industrial and agricultural production. This resulted in a significant drop in point and nonpoint pollution in the river basin. A further development was Latvia joining the European Union in 2004. The corresponding focus on water management, including wastewater treatment, was a major priority of environmental investment and lead to improvements in microbial water quality.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01470-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

汽车制造项目环境影响评价技术要点分析

本文在实际开展汽车制造项目环境影响评价的基础上,对汽车制造项目生产工艺及产污环节进行梳理,重点对废气、废水、固废、噪声源强核算过程和方法进行解析,对污染防治措施论证内容进行探讨,同时从清洁生产水平分析、政策相符性分析等方面的技术要点进行总结整理,梳理了目前汽车制造项目环评文件编制的要点核心,指出汽车整车制造项目环境影响评价中应关注的重点问题,主要在于挥发性有机废气源强和含氮、磷及重金属废水源强核算、物料平衡等,为下阶段汽车制造项目建设和环境管理提供参考。     

低碳经济背景下我国产业结构升级对策研究

为了实现我国经济的平稳发展,改变以"高消耗、高增长、高污染"的传统经济增长方式,解决资源的过度消耗和温室气体的过量排放等问题,文章从我国产业及内部结构、产业的碳排放量和产业节能率三个方面进行了分析,提出了在低碳经济背景下实现我国产业结构升级的对策。     

Mesoporous carbon nanomaterials induced pulmonary surfactant inhibition, cytotoxicity, inflammation and lung fibrosis

Environmental exposure and health risk upon engineered nanomaterials are increasingly concerned. The family of mesoporous carbon nanomaterials(MCNs) is a rising star in nanotechnology for multidisciplinary research with versatile applications in electronics,energy and gas storage, and biomedicine. Meanwhile, there is mounting concern on their environmental health risks due to the growing production and usage of MCNs. The lung is the primary site for particle invasion under environmental exposure to nanomaterials. Here, we studied the comprehensive toxicological profile of MCNs in the lung under the scenario of moderate environmental exposure. It was found that at a low concentration of 10 μg/mL MCNs induced biophysical inhibition of natural pulmonary surfactant. Moreover, MCNs at similar concentrations reduced viability of J774 A.1 macrophages and lung epithelial A549 cells.Incubating with nature pulmonary surfactant effectively reduced the cytotoxicity of MCNs.Regarding the pro-inflammatory responses, MCNs activated macrophages in vitro, and stimulated lung inflammation in mice after inhalation exposure, associated with lung fibrosis.Moreover, we found that the size of MCNs played a significant role in regulating cytotoxicity and pro-inflammatory potential of this nanomaterial. In general, larger MCNs induced more pronounced cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory effects than their smaller counterparts. Our results provided valuable information on the toxicological profile and environmental health risks of MCNs, and suggested that fine-tuning the size of MCNs could be a practical precautionary design strategy to increase safety and biocompatibility of this nanomaterial.