Reducing the risks posed by natural hazards and climate change: the need for a participatory dialogue between the scientific community and policy makers

In the last two decades we witnessed a progressive shift in the approach towards the reduction of the impact of natural hazards. From a general reactive approach, focusing on strengthening disaster response mechanisms, we have moved to proactive approaches. There has been recognition that each element of society, from public institutions to private sector, from community-based organizations to every single individual, can make a difference by acting before disasters strike to reduce the associated risks of human and economic losses. This proactive approach can be summarized in three words: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).Today, DRR is an approach used in several sectors and research areas. In the Development sphere, DRR is considered a key feature for sustainability of economic and development gains – especially for developing countries. Significantly, the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (2009) is titled “Risk and poverty in a changing climate” highlighting the importance of DRR in reducing poverty while being a means to address the challenges posed by adaptation to climate change.This paper, which serves as an introduction to the special issue of Environment Science & Policy on climate change impact on water-related disasters, intends to provide readers with an overview of the main policy frameworks addressing DRR internationally and in Europe. Further, it aims to offer some “food for thought” on the underlying opportunities we have to enhance the resilience of our communities towards the risks posed by weather-related hazards. It stresses the importance of governance of risks, which starts from an effective dialogue between the scientific community and the policy makers: those who have the responsibility to decide on the most cost-effective interventions to address climate change adaptation and risk reduction.     

浅谈产业基地规划建设过程的环境保护措施

产业基地的开发建设必须遵循循环经济理念,从源头控制污染的产生,优化产业结构,推行清洁生产,采取污染集中控制措施,制定相应的环境管理制度及工程防治措施,为入驻企业提供完善的基础设施,将其对周围的环境影响降至最小,从而获得经济发展和环境保护"双赢"。     

Estimating the economic,social and environmental impacts of wildfires in Australia

It is often said that bushfires are a fact of life in Australia. While Australian communities will always be affected by the impacts of bushfires, there is an element of human involvement that makes at least some bushfires avoidable. In Australia more bushfires are started by deliberate lighting than are caused by lightning or other natural sources. This creates an element of criminality in relation to bushfires which includes the establishment of bushfire arson as a serious criminal offence. The author presents a motive-based typology of deliberately lit bushfires and argues that a greater understanding of the reasons why people light bushfires can help prevention, investigation and treatment of offenders.     

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.     

Accidents: A discrepancy between indicators and facts!

Despite, the overwhelming amount of currently available safety management systems (and accompanying tools) accidents with hazardous substances still occur every now and then in the process industries.In this paper a large number of recently occurred accidents in the process industries are analysed showing that reoccurring disruptions during daily operation were present in the causal path of these accidents. The reoccurring disruptions can be seen as pre-warning signals. Their existence forms a gap with the common proactive safety indicators. This gap exists of information, already present and available in daily operation, of which it is UNKNOWN (to the local assessor) that it may lead to unsafe situations/accidents, e.g. maintenance backlogs, quality reports, etc.It is argued that these reoccurring events should be considered to be included in the safety indicators after assessment by an extended body of knowledge, because these events seem to become increasingly important regarding the prevention of accidents that still occur nowadays.     

《大气污染防治行动计划》实施的投融资需求及影响评估

当前我国大气污染形势严峻,严重损害人民群众身体健康,影响社会和谐稳定。为切实改善空气质量,国务院于2013年9月印发了《大气污染防治行动计划》(简称《行动计划》)。本研究测算了实施该行动计划所需投入资金,并定量评估了可能给中国带来的社会、经济、健康等影响。结果表明,《大气污染防治行动计划》直接投资共计需要资金约1.84万亿元,其中优化能源结构、移动源污染防治、工业企业污染治理、面源污染治理的投资需求约分别为2844亿元、14 067.66亿元、915.44亿元和615.72亿元;2017年全国因实施《大气污染防治行动计划》而减少的慢性死亡人数平均约为11.06万人,占人口总数的0.15‰,各地损失寿命年限均有所下降,即寿命有延长趋势;带来的社会经济影响为正效应,在2013—2017年,计划的实施将拉动我国GDP增长约20 403.01亿元,增加就业岗位约291.13万个。本研究对政策评估研究及未来大气污染治理发展方向具有重要参考价值。     

Towards a Tipping Point in Responding to Change: Rising Costs,Fewer Options for Arctic and Global Societies

Climate change incurs costs, but government adaptation budgets are limited. Beyond a certain point, individuals must bear the costs or adapt to new circumstances, creating political-economic tipping points that we explore in three examples. First, many Alaska Native villages are threatened by erosion, but relocation is expensive. To date, critically threatened villages have not yet been relocated, suggesting that we may already have reached a political-economic tipping point. Second, forest fires shape landscape and ecological characteristics in interior Alaska. Climate-driven changes in fire regime require increased fire-fighting resources to maintain current patterns of vegetation and land use, but these resources appear to be less and less available, indicating an approaching tipping point. Third, rapid sea level rise, for example from accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet, will create a choice between protection and abandonment for coastal regions throughout the world, a potential global tipping point comparable to those now faced by Arctic communities. The examples illustrate the basic idea that if costs of response increase more quickly than available resources, then society has fewer and fewer options as time passes.     

Experimental study of effectiveness of four radon mitigation solutions, based on underground depressurization, tested in prototype housing built in a high radon area in Spain

The present paper discusses the results of an empirical study of four approaches to reducing indoor radon concentrations based on depressurization techniques in underground sumps. The experiments were conducted in prototype housing built in an area of Spain where the average radon concentration at a depth of 1 m is 250 kBq m⁻³.Sump effectiveness was analysed in two locations: underneath the basement, which involved cutting openings into the foundation, ground storey and roof slabs, and outside the basement walls, which entailed digging a pit alongside the building exterior. The effectiveness of both sumps was likewise tested with passive and forced ventilation methods.The systems proved to be highly efficient, lowering radon levels by 91-99%, except in the solution involving passive ventilation and the outside sump, where radon levels were reduced by 53-55%. At wind speeds of over 8 m/s, however, passive ventilation across an outside sump lowered radon levels by 95% due to a Venturi effect induced drop in pressure.     

水产养殖中水环境污染的原因与防控探微

水产养殖在水产业中的比重日益提高,但养殖期间受各种因素影响导致水环境受到污染,富营养化、饲料污染等现象在一定程度上影响了水产养殖的可持续发展。对此,为推动我国水产养殖发展,本文将结合水产养殖中水环境污染的原因探讨相关防控措施。     

新时期下地质环境灾害防治现状与防治对策

新时期的背景下,地质灾害是危害人民群众生命财产安全、国家社会和谐稳定的重要因素。本文对地质灾害防治现状进行分析,从政府、技术两个层面提出解决策略,以期为我国地质灾害的防治工作提供有利参考。