Optimal Environmental Management Strategy and Implementation for Groundwater Contamination Prevention and Restoration

An innovative management strategy is proposed for optimized and integrated environmental management for regional or national groundwater contamination prevention and restoration allied with consideration of sustainable development. This management strategy accounts for availability of limited resources, human health and ecological risks from groundwater contamination, costs for groundwater protection measures, beneficial uses and values from groundwater protection, and sustainable development. Six different categories of costs are identified with regard to groundwater prevention and restoration. In addition, different environmental impacts from groundwater contamination including human health and ecological risks are individually taken into account. System optimization principles are implemented to accomplish decision-makings on the optimal resources allocations of the available resources or budgets to different existing contaminated sites and projected contamination sites for a maximal risk reduction. Established management constraints such as budget limitations under different categories of costs are satisfied at the optimal solution. A stepwise optimization process is proposed in which the first step is to select optimally a limited number of sites where remediation or prevention measures will be taken, from all the existing contaminated and projected contamination sites, based on a total regionally or nationally available budget in a certain time frame such as 10 years. Then, several optimization steps determined year-by-year optimal distributions of the available yearly budgets for those selected sites. A hypothetical case study is presented to demonstrate a practical implementation of the management strategy. Several issues pertaining to groundwater contamination exposure and risk assessments and remediation cost evaluations are briefly discussed for adequately understanding implementations of the management strategy.     

水环境保护新战略研究

为适应社会主义市场经济的要求,必需不失时机地调整水环境保护整体思路,建立新战略。新战略的内容是：动员全社会在源头削减污染物产生量;全面实行排放水污染物总量控制;把水环境保护纳入市场经济轨道;建立强有力的水环境管理机制。     

The vertical integration of Lisbon and sustainable development strategies across the EU: How different governance architectures shape the European coherence of policy documents

In Europe, sustainable development (SD) is pursued with not one but two overarching strategies, i.e., the so-called Lisbon and SD strategies. While the Lisbon Strategy is a genuinely European response to global economic and social pressures, SD strategies are national efforts corresponding with international (mainly United Nations) guidance to better coordinate and integrate economic, social and, in particular, environmental policies. The present paper explores the vertical coordination and coherence of the two pan-European strategies. After reviewing the international background of SD strategies and the EU origins of the Lisbon strategy, the paper characterizes and compares the governance architectures of the two strategies. With a solid background on how vertical policy integration functions in the two processes, the paper then shows how this affects the coherence of respective strategy structures and monitoring indicators. Based on an extensive empirical stocktaking study of the objectives and indicators in Lisbon and SD strategies across Europe it is shown that, despite the stronger European coordination through the Open Method of Coordination, the Lisbon process entailed only slightly more coherent national strategies than international guidance did in the context of SD strategies. Thus, the paper concludes that the influence international organizations such as the UN and the OECD have on national policy-making must not be underestimated.     

Governance of Complex Socio-Environmental Risks: The Case of Hazardous Chemicals in the Baltic Sea

Complex socio-environmental risks challenge society. In response to scientific uncertainty and socio-political controversies, environmental governance, precaution, and the ecosystem approach to management are held forward as complements to governmental risk-based sector-restricted regulation. We analyze this development for hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea. Based on interviews and policy analysis, we study informal governance and, in particular, four central EU and international policies, and investigate how present governance relates to risks and objectives at hand. While showing emergence of broader governance approaches, we conclude that central objectives will not likely be met. Furthermore, we question the quest for broad environmental governance and emphasize the value of command and control regulation, if it implements precaution. These findings contribute to the theorizing on environmental (risk) governance. Finally, we provide some ideas that could help development and implementation of risk policies for hazardous chemicals in the Baltic Sea as well as other complex risks.     

水工环地质灾害危险性评估的策略研究

随着我国各方面持续的发展,工程建设中的基础建设也不断深入,在后续的使用过程中,因水利工程、矿山开采等对地质环境造成了极其严重的影响,如果不及时改变这些不良的地质环境问题,很有可能对我们以后的生活产生影响。所以,我们要在施工前对工程建设的水利地质灾害进行危险评估,通过科学并且合理的评估,分析当前我国水工环地质灾害的危险性,希望可以对改善我国不良环境提出一些针对性的解决方案。     

Nitrogen Inputs from Agriculture: Towards Better Assessments of Eutrophication Status in Marine Waters

Nutrient enrichment of coastal marine waters caused by losses of nitrate (NO₃⁻) from agriculture is an increasing global problem. In the European Union, the Nitrates Directive (ND) of 1991 was meant to be a cornerstone in reducing eutrophication effects in coastal waters downstream from intensively farmed catchments. Although reductions in losses of nitrate have been attained, very few Member States have yet been able to reduce eutrophication effects caused by inputs of NO₃⁻ from agriculture. We report trends in concentrations of NO₃⁻ and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in Danish coastal and open marine waters during the period from 1996 to 2011 together with an assessment of eutrophication status based on multiple indicators (e.g. nutrient concentrations, Chl-a, submerged aquatic vegetation and benthic macroinvertebrates). Despite decreasing concentrations of both NO₃⁻and Chl-a, Danish coastal waters are not yet to be classified as ‘unaffected by eutrophication’. In order to improve future pan-European evaluations of the effectiveness of the ND, we argue for the added value of including indicators and assessment principles from other European Directives, i.e. the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0514-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

关于环境监测市场化的管理措施研究

随着我国社会经济与工业行业的不断发展,空气污染越来越严重,而环境保护理念也越来越深入到人们内心深处,相关学者也开始了对环境监测市场化的管理的探究。环境监测是当前保护环境的重要手段,也是衡量环境管理水平的重要因素,环境监测市场化是社会发展与文明建设进步的必然趋势,因此本文就环境监测市场化的管理措施进行深入分析,为相关领域研究提供参考和借鉴。     

徐州市可持续发展评价与对策

在运用模糊数学方法对徐州市社会发展的可持续发展进行综合评价的基础上，提出该市的可持续发展对策。     

我国小城镇水污染控制战略的思考

我国广大小城镇的水污染形势目前正处在加刷状态，而由于我国小城镇的具体国情，决定了小城镇的小污染不能采取与大中城市“同构”的控制措施，本文结合我国小城镇的具体特点，从战略角提出了以建设生态型小城镇为导向，以控制乡镇企业水污染为核心，以控制导流－生态工程为最终出路的小城镇水污染控制模式。