Australia and Russia: How do their environmental policy processes differ?

This paper focuses on comparative review and analysis of the systems of environmental protection, national environmental strategies and fundamentals of environmental legislation in Australia and the Russian Federation. These countries have many socioeconomic similarities, such as low population densities and richness in natural resources which are largely exported. The main disparity between Australia and Russia is in the types of economy. This paper ‘continues’ the sequence of recent scholarly publications on comparison of various features of environmental policies in the countries from all over the world. Comparative analysis in this research has been based on examination of scholarly publications, legislation, government documents, mass media sources and NGO responses. The analysis has revealed a number of differences including top-down implementation of policies in Russia whereas in Australia, each State (Territory) implements policies with significant independence from the Commonwealth Government. At the same time, similarities between the countries have been identified: for example, in deficits in the budget of local environmental authorities and in the presence of contradictions in legislation at national and regional levels of government. Suggestions resulting from this analysis include further integration of sustainable development strategies at all levels of Australian government to encourage further protection of the environment and, for Russia, creating a separate Ministry of Environmental Protection. These approaches should assist facilitation of sustainable development for both nations. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

A methodology for assessing urban sustainability: Aalborg commitments baseline review for Riga, Latvia

Both the Aalborg Commitments and the guidance on integrated urban environmental management and sustainable urban transport plans proposed by the EU Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment foresee a baseline review as the first step in developing integrated urban management plans and systems. A baseline review of urban sustainability undertaken in Riga reveals significant discrepencies between the sustainability criteria of the Aalborg Commitments and the: responsibilities and competencies of the municipal government and administration as defined by statutes; policy goals and measures defined in municipal planning documents; policy goals and measures defined in the Riga Development Plan. To better orient the mandate of the municipality towards sustainable development, municipal statutes should be supplemented to more fully reflect the issues defined by the Aalborg Commitments and should include sustainability as a goal. In order to strengthen the implementation of sustainable development specific policy goals, measures and targets should be formulated for all the Aalborg Commitments issues when revising existing municipal planning documents or developing a municipal sustainable development management plan. An analysis of the European Common Indicators and the State of the Environment in Riga 2001 indicators indicates that they can only partially fulfill a monitoring function for the implementation of the Aalborg Commitments. This highlights a need to better coordinate sustainable development initiatives at the European level. The methodology used for the baseline review in Riga is useful for assessing the status of urban sustainability when preparing integrated urban management plans or systems, but requires testing elsewhere. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Willingness to pay and demand elasticities for two national parks: empirical evidence from two surveys in Pakistan

Using survey-based data approach for modeling the demand for environmental goods/resources, this study estimates income and price elasticities of demand for improved environmental quality of two National Parks in Northern Pakistan. The study uses data from two studies. The estimates indicate that improved environmental quality effects can be described as a luxury and an ordinary and price elastic service. Confidence intervals show however that the classification as a luxury is not statistically significant. Income elasticities of willingness to pay are estimated for a broad range of environmental services. The study finds that income and willingness to pay vary directly and significantly. The elasticity estimates, in general, are greater than zero, but less than unity. The study concludes that environmental improvements are more beneficial to low-income groups than for high-income groups.

Oxidative properties of ambient PM2.5 and elemental composition: Heterogeneous associations in 19 European cities

We assessed the extent to which constituents of PM_2.5 (transition metals, sodium, chloride) contribute to the ability to generate hydroxyl radicals (OH) in vitro in PM_2.5 sampled at 20 locations in 19 European centres participating in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. PM_2.5 samples (n = 716) were collected on filters over one year and the oxidative activity of particle suspensions obtained from these filters was then assessed by measuring their ability to generate OH in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Associations between OH formation and the studied PM constituents were heterogeneous. The total explained variance ranged from 85% in Norwich to only 6% in Albacete. Among the 20 centres, 15 showed positive correlations between one or more of the measured transition metals (copper, iron, manganese, lead, vanadium and titanium) and OH formation. In 9 of 20 centres OH formation was negatively associated with chloride, and in 3 centres with sodium. Across 19 European cities, elements which explained the largest variations in OH formation were chloride, iron and sodium.     

Neural network forecasting of air pollutants hourly concentrations using optimised temporal averages of meteorological variables and pollutant concentrations

The new method for the forecasting hourly concentrations of air pollutants is presented in the paper. The method was developed for a site in urban residential area in city of Zagreb, Croatia, for four air pollutants (NO₂, O₃, CO and PM₁₀). Meteorological variables and concentrations of the respective pollutant were taken as predictors. A novel approach, based on families of univariate regression models, was employed in selecting the averaging intervals for input variables. For each variable and each averaging period between 1 and 97 h, a separate model was built. By inspecting values of the coefficient of correlation between measured and modelled concentrations, optimal averaging periods for each variable were selected. A new dataset for building the forecasting model was then calculated as temporal moving averages (running means) of former variables. A multi-layer perceptron type of neural networks is used as the forecasting model. Index of agreement, calculated for the entire dataset including the data for model building, ranged from 0.91 to 0.97 for the respective pollutants. As suggested by the analysis of the relative importance of the input variables, different agreements for different pollutants are likely due to different sources and production mechanisms of investigated pollutants. A comparison of the new method with more traditional method, which takes hourly averages of the forecast hour as input variables, showed similar or better performance. The model was developed for the purpose of public-health-oriented air quality forecasting, aiming to use a numerical weather forecast model for the prediction of the part of input data yet unknown at the forecasting time. It is to expect that longer term averages used as inputs in the proposed method will contribute to smaller input errors and the greater accuracy of the model.     

Forecasting the outbreak of moorland wildfires in the English Peak District

Warmer, drier summers brought by climate change increase the potential risk of wildfires on the moorland of the Peak District of northern England. Fires are costly to fight, damage the ecosystem, harm water catchments, cause erosion scars and disrupt transport. Fires release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Accurate forecasts of the timing of fires help deployment of fire fighting resources.     

Protected Area Safeguard Tree and Shrub Communities from Degradation and Invasion: A Case Study in Eastern Madagascar

Despite their prevalence in both developed and developing countries, there have been surprisingly few field assessments of the ecological effectiveness of protected areas. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a key protected area in eastern Madagascar, Ranomafana National Park (RNP). We established paired 100 × 4-m vegetation transects (400 m²) within RNP and in remnant forests in the park’s peripheral zone. In each 400-m² plot, all woody stems >1.5 cm in diameter at breast height were measured and identified to species. All species were also identified as native or non-native. We identified utilitarian species within all transects and they were sorted into use category. We calculated plot-level taxonomic biodiversity and functional diversity of utilitarian species; the latter was calculated by clustering the multivariate distances between species based on their utilitarian traits, and all metrics were tested using paired t-tests. Our results showed that there was significantly higher biodiversity inside RNP than in remnant forests and this pattern was consistent across all diversity metrics examined. Forests not located within the park’s boundary had significantly higher non-native species than within RNP. There was no statistically significant difference in functional diversity of utilitarian species inside RNP vs. remnant forests; however, the overall trend was toward higher diversity inside park boundaries. These findings suggested that RNP has been effective at maintaining taxonomic diversity relative to surrounding unprotected areas and restricting the spread of non-native plants. The results also suggested that low functional redundancy of forests outside of RNP might be of concern, because residents in surrounding villages may have few other substitutes for the services provided by species that are of critical importance to their livelihoods. This study highlights the challenges of trying to reconcile biodiversity conservation with human use of natural resources in economically poor, remote areas.     

Use of Descriptors of Ecosystem Functioning for Monitoring a National Park Network: A Remote Sensing Approach

Baseline assessments and monitoring of protected areas are essential for making management decisions, evaluating the effectiveness of management practices, and tracking the effects of global changes. For these purposes, the analysis of functional attributes of ecosystems (i.e., different aspects of the exchange of matter and energy) has advantages over the traditional use of structural attributes, like a quicker response to disturbances and the fact that they are easily monitored through remote sensing. In this study, we described the spatiotemporal patterns of different aspects of the ecosystem functioning of the Spanish national parks and their response to environmental changes between 1982 and 2006. To do so, we used the NOAA/AVHRR-GIMMS dataset of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a linear estimator of the fraction of photosynthetic active radiation intercepted by vegetation, which is the main control of carbon gains. Nearly all parks have significantly changed during the last 25 years: The radiation interception has increased, the contrast between the growing and nongrowing seasons has diminished, and the dates of maximum and minimum interception have advanced. Some parks concentrated more changes than others and the degree of change varied depending on their different environmental conditions, management, and conservation histories. Our approach identified reference conditions and temporal changes for different aspects of ecosystem functioning, which can be used for management purposes of protected areas in response to global changes.     

White clover clones as a cost-effective indicator of phytotoxic ozone: 10 years of experience from central Italy

Data collected at one site in central Italy using the NC-S/NC-R clover (Trifolium repens) biotype system during 1997-2007 were analysed in order to assess: (a) its performance under Mediterranean conditions; (b) variations of ozone damage linked with meteorological conditions; (c) if critical level approach is a good predictor of ozone risk on vegetation. NC-S dry biomasses were systematically lower than those of NC-R, the mean ratio being 0.7. Relevant relationship between ozone visible injury and cumulated values of AOT40 were also reported. Temperature and number of rainy days were the most important factors associated with ozone presence and, as a consequence, with leaf injury index. Photosynthetic gas exchange properties indicate that NC-S has higher values of stomatal conductance.     

Assessment of present and future risk to Italian forests and human health: Modelling and mapping

A review of ozone pollution in Italy shows levels largely above the thresholds established by EU regulation for vegetation and human health protection. The Italian air quality monitoring network appears quantitatively inadequate to cover all the territorial surface, because of scarcity and unequal distribution of monitoring sites. By applying the integrated assessment model RAINS-Italy to the year 2000, the whole of Italy exceeds the AOT40 critical level for forest, while Northern and central areas show strong potential of O₃ impact on human health with ∼11% of territory >10 O₃-induced premature deaths. Two scenarios for the year 2020, the Current Legislation and the Maximum Technical Feasible Reduction, show a reduction of AOT40Forest by 29% and 44%, SOMO35 by 31% and 47%, and O₃-induced premature deaths by 32% and 48%, compared to 2000. RAINS-Italy can be used to improve the map quality and cover areas not reached by the national monitoring network.