Environmental degradation by mud in tropical estuaries

In wet tropical countries, the intense rainfall and the lack of effective restrictions on human activities in the river catchment leads to increased rates of soil erosion. This has increased the sediment loads many times over from the natural level. As a result, estuarine and coastal waters are becoming increasingly muddy with associated losses for society in terms of increased flooding and a degradation of the environment, the fisheries and the economic use of these waters. It is suggested that science-based models be used to predict the fate of mud in estuaries and coastal waters when planning development in river catchments, particularly in wet tropical countries. This would help integrate land and water management. Modelling technology is demonstrated by a combination of field and model studies in four turbid tropical estuaries, namely the Fly River in Papua New Guinea, the Mekong River in Vietnam, the Cimanuk River in Indonesia, and Hinchinbrook Channel in Australia. The final model is adapted to local conditions and extensively uses data assimilation especially for open boundary conditions. There can be a feedback between the hydrodynamics and the mud dynamics when the system silts; in wet tropical countries this can occur rapidly, sometimes in only 30 years. Electronic Publication     

Estimate on spillover effect of environmental pollution between peripheral areas

ABSTRACT

Interaction of environmental pollution between peripheral areas has become a central topic in the field of resources and environment but little is known about the actual impact on peripheral areas in the current literature. This paper sets out a simultaneous equation model to investigate the spillover effect of environmental pollution between China’s peripheral areas utilizing the panel data of 218 cities in China. Making use of indicators for measuring the impact on environmental pollution, it identifies that environmental pollution between cities of China has a significant two-way spillover effect. After standardization of variables, it is found that the spillover effect of peripheral areas on urban environmental pollution cannot be neglected. Nearly, a third of the environmental pollution level in a city is induced by the environmental pollution in peripheral areas. If the indicator of environmental pollution in peripheral areas is missing, wrong conclusions will be drawn. Therefore, government should shift the emphasis of environmental regulation from local to global, and improve the overall environmental quality through coordinated management of regional environment.     

Optimizing Messaging to Reduce Red Meat Consumption

Red meat production has a range of negative environmental impacts. We sought to characterize the motivations, environmental attitudes and demographics of red meat-eaters, and examine the effect of message framing in reducing future meat consumption. Canadian adult meat-eaters (593) completed a survey and were randomly assigned to one of six message treatments that presented information on the environmental impacts of meat production using frames representing social norms and/or place identity constructs. Taste and quality were the most important motivators for eating meat, while moral/ethical factors were the least. Forty-nine percent of respondents indicated they would reduce red meat intake after exposure to an information only message, while the social norms frame was more effective than others (χ2). Awareness of the environmental effects increased significantly after messaging for all 13 impacts. These findings should assist communicators with designing more effective messaging aimed at encouraging pro-environmental behaviours associated with meat consumption.     

The impact of ISO 14001 on corporate environmental performance: a study of Swedish manufacturing firms

The debate concerning the environmental effectiveness of environmental management systems (EMS) based on ISO 14001 is still open and scholars have called for further studies that can explain the contrasting evidence in previous research. As a response, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the effects of ISO 14001-based EMS by presenting fact-based environmental data. The study focuses on changes in performance over a period of 12 years and includes both firms with an EMS (66 firms) and firms without one (50 firms). Consideration is given to the improvement efforts in the firms before EMS adoption making it possible to neutralize any selection effects where better environmental performance precedes ISO 14001 adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for six different environmental areas. No statistically significant differences between certified and non-certified firms concerning the change in the rate of improvement could be found in any of the six areas. However, it can be suspected that EMS adoption has positive effects on energy use and waste production whereas the non-adopting firms seem to perform better concerning air emissions. These mixed results mirrors previous research, which is rather worrying considering the worldwide popularity of EMS based on ISO 14001 in industry.     

Ecological risk and accessibility analysis to assess the impact of roads under Habitats Directive

We propose a method for the appropriate assessment of adverse effects of roads in compliance with the European Union Habitats Directive. The method incorporates an analysis of ecological risk of edge effects by the proposed roads with the related increase in accessibility. The method was tested on 30 km of planned forest roads inside an 8,000-ha reserve included in two Natura 2000 sites. As a result, the cumulative effect of 19 road segments was judged as not significantly affecting the integrity of the sites, although they made accessible an extra 314 ha. On the basis of the accessibility calculation, 20 ha of land were set aside from forest exploitation as a mandatory mitigation measure. The method objectively determined the cumulative adverse effects, enabled comparison of plan revisions and alternatives and proved to measure direct and indirect significant effects with a realistic effort in terms of field survey and geographic information system processing.     

雷达关键部件对西北地区典型环境适应性的综合仿真研究

长期工作在西北地区大温差、多风砂和强紫外线等恶劣复杂环境下的雷达装备表面极易出现表面磨蚀或损坏。建立了雷达对西北地区综合环境适应性的仿真分析方法,以计算流体动力学(CFD)软件FLUENT为平台,对雷达典型部件在大温差、多风砂和强紫外线环境中的表面状态进行仿真模拟。仿真结果与雷达装备实际情况较为吻合,为进一步深入研究相关物理机理以及设计防护措施提供了理论依据。     

炼油厂厂界恶臭强度分级评估

石油炼制是产生恶臭污染的重点行业之一,恶臭强度是评估恶臭污染程度的重要参数。以炼油厂厂界大气特征污染物为研究对象,综合考虑检出率、嗅阈值和物质浓度3项指标,采用指标评分法筛选出厂界主要恶臭污染物硫化氢、氨、甲苯和二甲苯。基于韦伯-费希纳定律构建了恶臭强度分级评估方法,以某炼油厂为例进行了厂界恶臭强度评估,结果表明,厂界恶臭强度值为0.63,属于Ⅱ级(轻污染),硫化氢是恶臭强度的主要贡献源。应用感官测定法验证了该评估方法的可靠性。从恶臭管理的角度看,炼油厂在厂界达标排放的基础上应进一步实施恶臭污染综合治理措施,以改善周边的环境质量。     

Trust,political orientation,and environmental behavior

A growing body of large-N cross-national studies has identified key predictors of environmental behavior. Adopting a social dilemma perspective, where individuals must choose collective over self-interest to act pro-environmentally, integrated national datasets for 30 countries are used to examine the effects of generalized trust, trust in government, leftism, and post-materialism on three types of environmental behavior (intended action, informal action, and formal action). At the individual level, all predictors but institutional trust have significant positive effects on each type of behavior. Institutional trust is associated with greater willingness to make economic sacrifice for the environment and with less frequent informal environmental behavior, but it is unrelated to formal behavior. However, at the country level, the effect of trust is limited to intended behavior and depends on the type of trust. Individuals in countries with higher generalized trust averages are less willing to sacrifice for the environment, and those in countries with higher averages of institutional trust are more willing to do so.     

The farmer as a landscape steward: Comparing local understandings of landscape stewardship,landscape values,and land management actions

We develop a landscape stewardship classification which distinguishes between farmers’ understanding of landscape stewardship, their landscape values, and land management actions. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with small-holder (<5 acres), medium-holders (5–100 acres), and large-holders (>100 acres) in South-West Devon, UK. Thematic analysis revealed four types of stewardship understandings: (1) an environmental frame which emphasized the farmers’ role in conserving or restoring wildlife; (2) a primary production frame which emphasized the farmers’ role in taking care of primary production assets; (3) a holistic frame focusing on farmers’ role as a conservationist, primary producer, and manager of a range of landscape values, and; (4) an instrumental frame focusing on the financial benefits associated with compliance with agri-environmental schemes. We compare the landscape values and land management actions that emerged across stewardship types, and discuss the global implications of the landscape stewardship classification for the engagement of farmers in landscape management.     

Improving Pro-environmental Behaviours in Spain. The Role of Attitudes and Socio-demographic and Political Factors

Over the last 30 years, Spain has witnessed great economic growth. Nevertheless, in spite of an increasing degree of environmental concern, environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviours are still clearly below the European average. In this context, this paper analyses the impact of personal control and attitudes, and of certain socio-demographic, economic and political variables in the development of two environmentally friendly behaviours in Spain: consumption and purchase. The data were provided by a survey carried out in 2007 by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Centre for Sociological Research) in Spain. The results show the importance of personal control, level of environmental information, political ideology, age and educational level variables to explaining the development of pro-environmental-related consumption behaviours. Personal attitudes, work situation, female gender and level of environmental information influence pro-environmental purchase behaviour in a positive way. Taking into account that personal attitudes are more determining of pro-environmental purchase than consumption behaviour, policy measures such as informal education, tax measures, social and individual norms and interpersonal and institutional trust are discussed to increase the development of pro-environmental behaviours in Spain.