The response of industry to environmental regulations in Alexandria, Egypt

The response of industry to current environmental regulations in Alexandria, Egypt was investigated. Environmental officers in 55 industrial firms completed a questionnaire examining their opinions about current environmental regulations, the statuses of their companies' compliance with those regulations, and the environmental management progress and problems in their companies. Although Egyptian industrialists had positive opinions about environmental regulations, their companies were not in satisfactory compliance with those regulations. The context in which environmental concern started in Egypt and the economic environment of Egyptian industry had lead to 'soft' enforcement and implementation of environmental regulations. The response of Alexandria's industrial firms to the issued environmental regulations was limited to adopting symbolic 'end-of-pipe' environmental protection measures. Progress in environmental management and problems in industries of Alexandria were also investigated.     

Links between food trade,climate change and food security in developed countries: A case study of Sweden

Food security is a global concern affecting even highly developed countries. Ongoing globalisation of food systems, characterised by trading interdependencies, means that agricultural production can be disrupted by climate change, affecting food availability. This study investigated Sweden’s food security by identifying major food import categories and associated trade partners (using the World Integrated Trade System database) and vulnerability to frictions in trade deriving from climate change. Vulnerability was assessed through three indicators: exposure based on diversity of sources, dominance and direct trade from supplying countries; sensitivity, assessed using the Climate Risk Index, and adaptive capacity, assessed using the Fragile State Index. The results revealed that Sweden’s grain imports may be most vulnerable, and animal products least vulnerable, to climate change. Management strategies based on this preliminary assessment can be developed by integrating climate vulnerability deriving from food trading into the ‘Gravity’ model, to improve prediction of trade flows.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01623-w.     

Non-powered hand tool improvement research for prevention of work-related problems: a review

Purpose. In lower-middle-income countries, most of the work is performed manually using non-ergonomic hand tools which results in work-related health problems. Using hand tools designed in line with ergonomic principles may play an important role in reducing work-related health concerns significantly. Methods. Scientific databases (PubMed, EBSCOhost) and e-publishers were searched for articles from 1985 to 2015 using the following keywords: ‘hand tool’, ‘ergonomics’, ‘usability’ and ‘design’. After applying selection criteria to 614 articles, 58 articles related to the physical design of hand tools were selected. Results. Seventeen articles were related to hand tool improvement in the manufacturing sector. Musculoskeletal disorders were found to be the most frequently occurring work-related health problems. Most of the articles focused on product and qualitative variables for improvement in hand tools, while few articles considered human and task variables. Conclusions. Literature shows that hand tool improvement studies have been given less importance in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. However, some work of significance is reported in the agriculture sectors of these countries. Hence, it is concluded that ergonomic intervention in hand tools is much needed for those industries which employ traditional methods of working.     

安徽省无为、和县区域主体功能的分区

主体功能区域划分是有别于过去任何区划的创新性的工作,目前作为全国及各省的一项重要战略任务已经全面展开,但涉及具体县域单元的典型实证研究较为薄弱。随着中部崛起战略的提出和实施,中部安徽沿江地区正掀起开发沿江的高潮,迎来快速发展期。以安徽沿江地区无为、和县为实证区域,以乡镇为基本空间单元,以GIS为技术支撑,运用“生态 经济社会支撑力”互斥性矩阵分区方法,将县域开发的功能区划分为优先开发区域、鼓励开发区域、适度开发区域、引导开发区域和禁止开发区域5种类型。并根据功能分区的分类结论,确定出县域开发轴线、产业空间布局、生态保护轴线与保护框架。最后,在实证研究基础上,对确定县域开发轴线和生态保护轴线的思路以及县域功能分区的方法论基础进行了探讨。     

Evolution of solid waste management in Malaysia: impacts and implications of the solid waste bill, 2007

Solid waste generation and its implications for people and the environment are global issues. The complexity of the waste composition and the ever-increasing percapita waste generation is a challenge for waste managers, particularly in developing countries. Thus, the need to have a clear policy on waste management and legislation to realize that policy is imperative. Malaysia is developing rapidly and problems such as the waste generation associated with development and industrialization are evident. The Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Bill, which was approved in August 2007 after a 10-year delay, is envisaged to have serious consequences in waste management practices and implementation in Malaysia. This article explores the main features of this all-encompassing bill and its impacts on the waste management scenario in Malaysia. In addition, a comparative evaluation is also discussed to explore the policies/legislation of selected countries vis-àvis the Malaysian bill.     

Financial sustainability in municipal solid waste management – Costs and revenues in Bahir Dar,Ethiopia

Providing good solid waste management (SWM) services while also ensuring financial sustainability of the system continues to be a major challenge in cities of developing countries. Bahir Dar in northwestern Ethiopia outsourced municipal waste services to a private waste company in 2008. While this institutional change has led to substantial improvement in the cleanliness of the city, its financial sustainability remains unclear. Is the private company able to generate sufficient revenues from their activities to offset the costs and generate some profit?This paper presents a cost-revenue analysis, based on data from July 2009 to June 2011. The analysis reveals that overall costs in Bahir Dar’s SWM system increased significantly during this period, mainly due to rising costs related to waste transportation. On the other hand, there is only one major revenue stream in place: the waste collection fee from households, commercial enterprises and institutions. As the efficiency of fee collection from households is only around 50%, the total amount of revenues are not sufficient to cover the running costs. This results in a substantial yearly deficit. The results of the research therefore show that a more detailed cost structure and cost-revenue analysis of this waste management service is important with appropriate measures, either by the privates sector itself or with the support of the local authorities, in order to enhance cost efficiency and balance the cost-revenues towards cost recovery. Delays in mitigating the evident financial deficit could else endanger the public-private partnership (PPP) and lead to failure of this setup in the medium to long term, thus also endangering the now existing improved and currently reliable service.We present four options on how financial sustainability of the SWM system in Bahir Dar might be enhanced: (i) improved fee collection efficiency by linking the fees of solid waste collection to water supply; (ii) increasing the value chain by sales of organic waste recycling products; (iii) diversifying revenue streams and financing mechanisms (polluter-pays-, cross-subsidy- and business-principles); and (iv) cost reduction and improved cost-effectiveness.We argue that in a PPP setup such as in Bahir Dar, a strong alliance between the municipality and private enterprise is important so that appropriate solutions for improved financial sustainability of a SWM system can be sought and implemented.     

Inactivation and injury assessment of Escherichia coli during solar and photocatalytic disinfection in LDPE bags

Solar disinfection (SODIS) of Escherichia coli suspensions in low-density polyethylene bag reactors was investigated as a low-cost disinfection method suitable for application in developing countries. The efficiency of a range of SODIS reactor configurations was examined (single skin (SS), double skin, black-backed single skin, silver-backed single skin (SBSS) and composite-backed single skin) using E. coli suspended in model and real surface water. Titanium dioxide was added to the reactors to improve the efficiency of the SODIS process. The effect of turbidity was also assessed. In addition to viable counts, E. coli injury was characterised through spread-plate analysis using selective and non-selective media. The optimal reactor configuration was determined to be the SBSS bag (t₅₀ = 9.0 min) demonstrating the importance of UVA photons, as opposed to infrared in the SODIS disinfection mechanism. Complete inactivation (6.5-log) was achieved in the presence of turbidity (50 NTU) using the SBSS bag within 180 min simulated solar exposure. The addition of titanium dioxide (0.025 g L⁻¹) significantly enhanced E. coli inactivation in the SS reactor, with 6-log inactivation observed within 90 min simulated solar exposure. During the early stages of both SODIS and photocatalytic disinfection, injured E. coli were detected; however, irreversible injury was caused and re-growth was not observed. Experiments under solar conditions were undertaken with total inactivation (6.5-log) observed in the SS reactor within 240 min, incomplete inactivation (4-log) was observed in SODIS bottles exposed to the same solar conditions.     

On The Research of Foreign and Domestic Human Capital Theory

1INTRODUCTION Human Capital Theory(HCT)'s idea origin recalls westernclassical political economics in the eighteen century.HCTcame into being in the middle and later periods of the20century,sprang up in the1960s and1970s,was introducedinto China in the1980s and is still one of the hotspotsin economic research.Foreign and domestic scholars havemade a lot of deep researches and important achievements.2FOREIGN RESEARCHIn the1950s,facing many"economic enigma"such as"Solow residual"an…     

Emissions from burning biofuels in metal cookstoves

Promoting stoves that burn wood and other biofuels more efficiently is one of the means to reduce fuel consumption, but such efficient stoves may also emit more carbon monoxide and total suspended particulates. In an earlier study, a standard chamber method was proposed to estimate emission factors from burning fuelwood (Acacia nilotica). Here that methodology is extended to measure emission factors from burning of dungcakes and crop residues (Brassica or mustard stalks)—common fuels in many developing countries. The amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) and total suspended particulates (TSP) emitted by four different models of stoves, when using each of the three biofuels, are measured.The CO emission factors range from 13–68 (g/kg) for fuelwood to 26–67 g/kg for dungcakes and 20–114 g/kg for crop residues, for particulates they range from 1.1–3.8 to 4.1–7.8 and 2.1–12.0 g/kg for the three fuels, respectively. On a per unit heat delivered basis, the emissions of CO and TSP from both dungcakes and crop residues are two to three times higher compared to those from fuelwood. While for some improved stove-fuel combinations, the increase in emission factors was offset by the increase in thermal efficiency, this was not always so and causes a dilemma. The more efficient stoves are found to have higher emission factors of both CO and TSP for all three fuels. Emissions per standard task (i.e, on a unit heat delivered basis) is proposed as a criterion to evaluate cookstoves.     

INCOME AND PRICE ELASTICITIES OF DEMAND FOR WATER IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES1

ABSTRACT: The income and proce elasticity of demand for domestic water is estimated for Penang Island, Malaysia. A cross-sectional analysis of a random sample of 1400 households indicated an income-elasticity of zero for low-income families (per capita income less than US$300) and an elasticity of 0.2-0.4 for higher-income families. A time-series analysis of a subsample of individuals of varying income levels suggests a short-run price elasticity of -0.1 to -0.2. The implications of these results for demand forecasting are discussed.