The effects of pricing waste generation: A synthetic control approach

To internalize pollution externalities into household waste generation, Unit Pricing Systems (UPS) have been adopted worldwide. This paper evaluates the causal effects of a UPS on the disposal of municipal solid waste in Trento, Italy. Using a unique panel dataset of monthly waste generation in Italian municipalities, we employ the synthetic control method, which allows us to account for possible time-varying effects of unobservables. Our results show that the policy was effective, with a significant decrease of the priced waste stream, unsorted waste, by 37.5%. This effect seems to be largely driven by behavioral changes towards waste avoidance (−8.6%) and possibly by a smaller increase in recycling (+6.1%). By comparing these results to those obtained by a difference-in-differences approach, we show that failing to account for time-varying effects of unobservables may lead to a mismeasurement of policy effects.     

On-board measurement of emissions from liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline and diesel powered passenger cars in Algeria

On-board measurements of unit emissions of CO,HC,NOx and CO2 were conducted on 17 private cars powered by different types of fuels including gasoline,dual gasoline–liquefied petroleum gas(LPG),gasoline,and diesel. The tests performed revealed the effect of LPG injection technology on unit emissions and made it possible to compare the measured emissions to the European Artemis emission model. A sequential multipoint injection LPG kit with no catalyst installed was found to be the most efficient pollutant reduction device for all of the pollutants,with the exception of the NOx. Specific test results for a sub-group of LPG vehicles revealed that LPG-fueled engines with no catalyst cannot compete with catalyzed gasoline and diesel engines. Vehicle age does not appear to be a determining parameter with regard to vehicle pollutant emissions. A fuel switch to LPG offers many advantages as far as pollutant emissions are concerned,due to LPG's intrinsic characteristics.However,these advantages are being rapidly offset by the strong development of both gasoline and diesel engine technologies and catalyst converters. The LPG's performance on a chassis dynamometer under real driving conditions was better than expected. The enforcement of pollutant emission standards in developing countries is an important step towards introducing clean technology and reducing vehicle emissions.     

基于GIS的流域水质目标管理TMYL构架研究——以赣江流域为例

以赣江流域为例,提出了基于GIS的TMYL计划技术框架,构建了以保持水生态系统健康为目标的流域水质目标管理技术体系.在ARCGIS9.3的环境中,利用GIS的叠置技术,建立基于控制单元为管理核心、污染源在线监控为配套建设的三级监控体系.结合流域水污染防治绩效评估体系的建立及评估分析,为流域水污染控制的总量控制方案和对策...     

Regulatory effectiveness and the long-run policy horizon: The case of U.S. toxic chemical use

This paper employs state-of-the-art time series analysis to examine the long-run economic and institutional drivers of toxic chemical use behavior in the U.S. Toxic chemicals are classified into growth, Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), and kinked-growth chemicals, according to their long-run use trend behavior. Cointegration analysis shows that while some toxic chemicals have been successfully reduced by regulatory efforts, a majority of the toxic chemicals used in commercial products share a long-run equilibrium with national accounts and industrial production, suggesting that toxic chemical use has been largely driven by changes in GDP, industrial production, and private R&D investments, rather than by government regulations. Estimated structural break results indicate that the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which created the Toxic Release Inventory has had impact on the consumptive use of more poisonous industrial chemicals than command-and-control regulations.     

EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES TO THE GARRISON DIVERSION UNIT1

ABSTRACT: The Garrison Diversion Unit is a multipurpose water resources project which is currently under development for the purpose of diverting water from the Missouri River basin to irrigate farmland in North Dakota. Due to the objections raised by various interest groups, the project has recently been reviewed by the International Joint Commission. This article surveys the background to the project and the various alternatives that have been proposed. By utilizing recently developed fuzzy set techniques, the proposed alternatives are evaluated and a plausible solution is proposed. The results of the study indicate that it may be advisable to remove the Souris Loop irrigation area from the Garrison project but the environmental impacts of the study may preclude the implementation of any alternative that can affect Canada. These findings are in partial agreement with the recommendations of the International Joint Commission.     

DISTRIBUTIONAL ISSUES IN WESTERN MUNICIPAL AND INDUSTRIAL WATER SUPPLY1

ABSTRACT Financing and repayment provisions of western water projects effect transfers of income among federal taxpayers, electric power users, local water users, and property owners. We use the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project as a case study in the distribution of municipal and industrial water costs. We examine the distribution of costs among taxpayers and water users in different political/geographical jurisdictions, and how this distribution is affected by water law, cost allocation procedures, and the choice of revenue source for local repayment of reimbursable costs. In light of the magnitude of distributional effects of present water policy, we conclude that lack of open debate on water issues is unfortunate. We conclude with speculation on the relationship of western water policy to the motivation of western water leaders who are instrumental in its formulation     

Assessment of coastal erosion susceptibility at the national scale: The Italian case

To improve the present national and local sustainable planning capability for the coastal zone a GI application for the Italian Coastal Susceptibility Assessment was planned within an institutional agreement between ENEA and the Land Defence Service of the Italian Ministry of Environment. Taking into account previous European actions a suitable methodology to assess, in a quantitative way, the susceptibility of beaches to be eroded has been set up. The methodology balances the coastline trend as evaluated for a defined time period with the present coastal areas morphology and land use, this in order to derive a value that expresses the evolutionary process in terms of probability of the loss of goods within the ‘Homogeneous Coastal Tracts’. The trend in the movement of the sea-land line has been used asgeo-indicator of a complex dynamic balance that refers both to marine and inland systems, and a vector GI application was built and locally applied in southern Italian coastal areas. The present shoreline position and some other information describing the intrinsic beach morphologies, and having significance for the coastal erosion hazard assessment, have been derived from the national 1∶10.000 ortho-images of the National Cartographic Reference System provided by the Italian Ministry of Environment. The illustrated GI application— CoSTAT—keeps the nominal scale of all data collected or produced. In this analysis the coastal dune presence is analysed as factor limiting coastal erosion susceptibility. Applying a matrix calculation a quantitative evaluation of erosion susceptibility degree was achieved and plans were made to develop new information for a suitable use of Italian coastal areas. The work describes the methodology, the conceptual frame-work and the results of a local application.     

Development of double-variable seismic fragility functions for oil refinery piping systems

Seismic risk assessment of piping systems, as a group of vulnerable facilities in oil refineries, is mostly based on the single-variable fragility curves. However, it is well-known that the fragility curves, developed based on a single intensity measure (IM), are not much reliable. For increasing the confidence level of seismic risk assessment of piping systems, it was tried, in this study, to develop double-variable fragility functions by using peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV) together as the IMs. For this purpose, the piping system of the ISOMAX Unit of Tehran oil refinery was considered, and modeled by a powerful finite element analysis program under various loadings, including gravity, pressure and seismic loads. For seismic analyses 157 set of three-component earthquake records were employed, with PGA and PGV values varying respectively from around 0.1 g–0.6 g and 10 cm/s to 60 cm/s. By using the nonlinear time histories analyses results, two single-IM fragility curves and one double-IM fragility surface were developed based on the probability of exceedance of the maximum created stress, considered as the ‘damage index’, from the allowable stress. The results indicate that using PGA and PGV jointly, as the IMs in the development of fragility functions, provides more reliable vulnerability estimations. For example, the single-IM fragility function gives, for PGA = 0.2 g, a probability of exceedance of 75%, while by using the double-IM fragility function this probability may change from 30% for PGV = 10 cm/s to 95% for PGV = 60 cm/s.     

A systematic approach for the comparative assessment of stormwater pollutant removal potentials

This paper describes the development of a methodology to theoretically assess the stormwater pollutant removal performances of structural best management practices (BMPs). The method combines the categorisation of the relative importance of the primary removal processes within 15 different BMPs with an evaluation of the ability of each process to remove a pollutant in order to generate a value representing the pollutant removal potential for each BMP. The methodology is demonstrated by applying it separately to a set of general water quality indicators (total suspended solids, biochemical and chemical oxygen demand, nitrates, phosphates and faecal coliforms) to produce a ranked list of BMP pollutant removal efficiencies. Given the limited amount of available monitoring data relating to the differential pollutant removal capabilities of BMPs, the resulting prioritization will support stakeholders in making urban drainage decisions from the perspective of pollutant removal. It can also provide inputs to existing urban hydrology models, which aim to predict the treatment performances of BMPs. The level of resilience of the proposed approach is tested using a sensitivity analysis and the limitations in terms of BMP design and application are discussed.