Assessment of a large watershed in Brazil using Emergy Evaluation and Geographical Information System

Humanity's future depends on the preservation of natural ecosystems that supply resources and absorb pollutants. Rural and urban productions are currently based on chemical products made from petroleum, which are responsible for high negative impacts on the Biosphere. In order to prevent those impacts, efficient public policies seeking for sustainable development are necessary. Aiming to assess the load on the environment (considering the gratuitous contributions of natural systems—a donor's perspective) due to human-dominated process, a scientific tool called Emergy Evaluation has been applied in different production systems, including crops and farms. However, there is still a lack of emergy studies in the context of watersheds, probably due to the difficulty of collecting raw data. The present work aims to carry out an assessment of Mogi-Guaçu and Pardo watershed, through the combined use of Emergy Evaluation and Geographical Information System. The agricultural and natural land uses were considered, while urban areas were excluded. Emergy flows (expressed in seJ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) obtained for all agricultural and natural land uses were expanded for the whole watershed and the emergy indices were calculated. The results show that the watershed has: low renewability (%R = 32%); low capture of natural resources through high external economic investment (EYR = 1.86); low dependence on natural resources (EIR = 1.16); and moderate load on the environment (ELR = 2.08). Considering a scenario where sugar-cane crops, orchards and pasture areas are converted from conventional to organic management, watershed's emergy performance improved, reaching a new renewability of 38%, but it is still not enough to be considered sustainable.     

煤自燃灾害气体指标的阶段特征试验研究

为分析煤自燃早期气体指标变化特征规律,更好地解决煤矿现场灭火救灾决策问题,通过煤自燃程序升温试验,首先得到煤样气氛中O2,CO,CO2,CH4,C2H4和C2H6气体的体积分数随温度的变化规律。根据煤体温度,将煤自燃前期划分为5个阶段(潜伏、储热、蒸发、活跃和乏氧)。分析3种不同变质程度的煤样的气体指标在各阶段的变化特征。建立煤自燃气体指标与特征温度阶段区间的对应关系。结果表明:在自燃潜伏阶段,煤的变质程度越低,早期越易产生CO,越难产生CH4;在储热阶段,煤的变质程度越低,早期越易且越快产生C2H6;在蒸发阶段,煤内外在水分脱附,低变质煤的C2H4也随之产生;在活跃阶段,各种气体体积分数均有剧烈增高的趋势,较高变质煤的C2H4也随之产生;在乏氧阶段,O2体积分数低于15%,与O2体积分数相关指标(CO/ΔO2,CO/CO2等)趋势有所改变。     

Reach‐Scale Geomorphic and Biological Effects of Localized Streambank Armoring

Armoring of streambanks is a common management response to perceived threats to adjacent infrastructure from flooding or erosion. Despite their pervasiveness, effects of reach‐scale bank armoring have received less attention than those of channelization or watershed‐scale hydromodification. In this study, we explored mechanistic ecosystem responses to armoring by comparing conditions upstream, within, and downstream of six stream reaches with bank armoring in Southern California. Assessments were based on four common stream‐channel assessment methods: (1) traditional geomorphic measures, (2) the California Rapid Assessment Method for wetlands, (3) bioassessment with benthic macroinvertebrates, and (4) bioassessment with stream algae. Although physical responses varied among stream types (mountain, transitional, and lowland), armored segments generally had lower slopes, more and deeper pools and fewer riffles, and increased sediment deposition. Several armored segments exhibited channel incision and bank toe failure. All classes of biological indicators showed subtle, mechanistic responses to physical changes. However, extreme heterogeneity among sites, the presence of catchment‐scale disturbances, and low sample size made it difficult to ascribe observed patterns solely to channel armoring. The data suggest that species‐level or functional group‐level metrics may be more sensitive tools than integrative indices of biotic integrity to local‐scale effects.     

Establishing the green neighbourhood: approaches to neighbourhood-scale sustainability certification in Portland,Oregon

ABSTRACT

While local governance is widely acknowledged as an important element in the pursuit of sustainability, local action alone is insufficient to produce lasting change. One recent solution to this quandary has been the production of certification frameworks that encourage sustainable development at the neighbourhood scale by providing local actors with standardised definitions of sustainable practices. While these frameworks facilitate the spread of sustainable development strategies between local communities, there are significant contrasts between their approaches to encouraging local sustainable development that simultaneously fulfils global objectives. This article explores these contrasts through two neighbourhood-scale sustainability certification frameworks: LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) and the EcoDistricts Protocol. Analysis of these frameworks in the context of two centrally-located neighbourhoods in Portland, Oregon, reveals substantial contrasts between the two frameworks in terms of the relative flexibility of their sustainability metrics, the time frame over which decisions regarding sustainable development are made, and community involvement in the process of pursuing specific objectives. Furthermore, it suggests that greater flexibility in the application of standards, continuous governance, and greater community involvement lead to more dynamic and holistic forms of sustainability that evolve as both local community needs and broader understandings of sustainability change over time.     

Monitoring and environmental modeling of earthwork impacts: A road construction case study

This study presents the contributions of materials, earth engineering machines and construction techniques to potential environmental impacts from the main items of typical road earthworks. To achieve this goal, the overall activity at a 1.9-km long French earthworks project site for a heavily trafficked highway was surveyed during its 2007–2009 construction period. Using data collected and a numerical model of road life cycle assessment (LCA), i.e. ECORCE, six indicators could be evaluated, namely: energy consumption, global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, and human chronic toxicity. When available, several life cycle inventories were implemented in order to appraise indicator sensitivity with respect to the considered panel of pollutants. Results also allowed estimating from an LCA point of view: (i) the conservation of both aggregates and soil as induced by quicklime treatment and (ii) the duration necessary for projected traffic levels to offset the potential environmental impacts of the earthworks stage.     

Is Nuclear Power Environmentally Sustainable?

The sustainability of nuclear energy is discussed in terms of its environmental impacts and its utilization of resources. The reactors in the present generation of fission reactors extract only a small percentage of the energy available from uranium. A solution to the long-term management of highly radioactive used reactor fuel is also a key factor in fission's sustainability. Recycling used fuel for enhanced energy production in advanced reactors and the mitigation of the long-term management of the remaining wastes, ideally with their ultimate destruction by nuclear transmutation, are technologies that need to be developed in order to ensure the long term sustainability of nuclear fission. In contrast, nuclear fusion, while not yet available for power production, promises to be inherently sustainable.     

河南鸡冠洞洞穴水对极端气候的响应及其控制因素研究

为揭示洞穴水地球化学动态的变化特征及其控制因素,从2009年10月至2013年12月对黄土高原东南缘河南西部栾川县鸡冠洞洞穴水的水化学指标进行了4个完整水文年的动态监测.结果表明:1鸡冠洞洞穴水的化学类型主要是HCO-3-Ca2+-Mg2+和HCO-3-Mg2+-Ca2+型,阴离子中HCO-3占80%以上,阳离子中Ca2+、Mg2+是优势离子,地下河常年处于溶蚀状态,池水、滴水处于沉积状态.2鸡冠洞洞穴滴水、池水可以很好地响应外部气候环境的变化,其地球化学指标具有显著的季节效应.3Ca2+、Mg2+、SO2-4能够敏感地响应极端气候事件引起的年际降水量变化,Ca2+、Mg2+、SO2-4浓度洪涝年升高,干旱年降低.HCO-3主要受CO2浓度控制,对极端气候事件响应不明显.4鸡冠洞地下河中Ca2+、Mg2+、HCO-3、SO2-4浓度波动幅度较小,且无明显的季节变化规律.对2010年和2013年的极端降水事件响应不明显.     

Personae and Natural Capitalism: Negotiating Politics and Constituencies in a Rhetoric of Sustainability

This essay critiques natural capitalism, a concept developed as a strategic response to the antagonism of capitalist production and the ideology of sustainability. I trace and critique the second and third personae of the book Natural Capitalism. The second persona of natural capitalism constitutes already dominant capitalists and technocrats as the constituency best prepared to meet the exigencies of sustainability. Simultaneously, civil society and non-propertied classes constitute a marginalized third persona whose interests can be satisfied only if aligned with those of the second persona. This precarious arrangement is possible due to the non-ideological representation of natural capitalism. I argue that such a representation is misleading. Criticism of the tensions between natural capitalism's personae suggests radical potential for environmental rhetoric.     

Unravelling the Threads: Discourses of Sustainability and Consumption in an Online Forum

This article analyzes an online discussion that followed an article published by UK environmental activist and journalist George Monbiot in The Guardian online newspaper. The analysis addresses the ways in which participants in an online forum debate responded to the tensions and contradictions between lifestyle, consumption, and sustainability highlighted in the original article. The discursive construction of class, green political orientations, and identities; visions of “the good life”; and appeals to religion and science are highlighted throughout the analysis—as are the discursive strategies for positioning self, other, and audience in the debate. The argument emphasizes the heterogeneity of discursive positioning and reflects on the role of social media in the politics of consumption and sustainability, especially given the inherent reflexivity of web forums as online communicative forms.     

Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies in Kenya

Abstract

To determine the climate changes that are due to natural variability and those due to human activities is quite challenging, just like delineating the impacts. Moreover, it is equally difficult to ascertain the adaptive strategies for coping with the climate changes and in particular for developing countries like Kenya. While climate change is a global phenomenon, the impacts are more or less specific to local areas such as observed in Kenyan case. Therefore climate change impacts adaptation strategies are appropriately applicable to a given local perspective. The study investigated the main indicators of climate change and effective adaptive strategies that can be employed in Kenya. Based on online questionnaire survey, the study established unpredictable rainfall patterns as the major indicator of climate change in the country, while water harvesting and change of cropping methods are the best adaptive strategies.