Evaluating public open spaces through the lively planning integrative perspective: a developing country context

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Public open spaces (POSs) provide a forum for social gathering, health, leisure, and recreation opportunities for city dwellers. POSs are considered...     

The Water Poverty Index: An application in the Indian context

For developing countries, the proportion of households covered by improved water resources is conventionally used to assess the water stress situation. However, in a developing country like India with a high population growth rate, water demand and supply are considerably mismatched. An agro-based economy with large variations in socio-economic conditions and changing rainfall patterns across the states imposes greater challenge on water resources. Therefore, there is a need to assess the water situation across the country in a holistic manner. This paper proposes application of the Water Poverty Index as a comprehensive policy tool to assess actual water-stress situation across 20 major states in India. This index covers important socio-economic parameters such as access, capacity, use and environment in addition to water resources of each state. The results and findings are expected to be of use to policymakers and implementing agencies. In view of policy formulation, a state performing well on a Water Poverty Index component can act as a benchmark for another state.     

Ambient air quality changes after stubble burning in rice–wheat system in an agricultural state of India

Ground-based ambient air monitoring was conducted to assess the contribution of crop residue burning of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rice (Oriza sativa) at different locations in three districts (Kaithal, Kurukshetra, and Karnal) of the agricultural state of Haryana in India for two successive years (2016 and 2017). The Air Quality Index (AQI) and concentration of primary pollutants (SO_x, NO_x, and PM_2.5) were determined in rice and wheat crop season, for burning and non-burning periods. During crop residue burning periods, concentrations of SO_x, NO_x, and PM_2.5 were exceeded the NAAQS values by 78%, 71%, and 53%, respectively. A significant increase in SO_x (4.5 times), NO_x (3.8 times), and PM_2.5 concentration (3.5 times) was observed in stubble burning periods as compared to pre-burning (p < 0.05). A positive and significant correlation among the three pollutant concentrations was observed (p < 0.01). The AQI of KA site in Karnal district fell in severely polluted category during 2016 for rice as well as wheat residue burning period, and of KK site in Kaithal during wheat residue burning in year 2017. Results of present study indicate a remarkable increase in pollutant concentration (SO_x, NO_x, and PM_2.5) during the crop residue burning periods. To the best of our knowledge, the outcomes of present study in this region have not been reported in earlier reports. Hence, there is an urgent need to curb air pollution by adopting sustainable harvesting technologies and management of residues.

     

Screening and identification of early warning algal species for metal contamination in fresh water bodies polluted from point and non-point sources

The water bodies of Lucknow, Unnao and Kanpur (U.P.), India polluted through various point and non point sources were found to be either eutrophic or oligotrophic in nature. These water bodies supported a great number of algal diversity, which varied seasonally depending upon the physico-chemical properties of water. Further, the water bodies polluted through non point sources supports diverse algal species, while the water bodies polluted through point sources supports growth of tolerant blue green algae. High biomass producing algal species growing in these water bodies have accumulated significant amount of metals in their tissues. Maximum amount of Fe was found accumulated by species of Oedogonium sp. II (20,523.00 mug g(-1) dw) and Spirogyra sp. I (4,520.00 mug g(-1) dw), while maximum Chromium (Cr) was found accumulated in Phormedium bohneri (2,109.00 mug g(-1) dw) followed by Oscillatoria nigra (1,957.88 mug g(-1) dw) and Oedogonium sp. I (156.00 mug g(-1) dw) and Ni in Ulothrix sp. (495.00 mug g(-1) dw). Results showed that some of these forms growing in polluted environment and accumulating high amounts of toxic metals may be used as bioindicator species, however, their performance in metal contaminated water under different ecological niche is to be ascertained.     

Impact assessment of pesticide residues in fish of Ganga river around Kolkata in West Bengal

An investigation was conducted from 2001 to 2005 for determining the residual concentration of five pesticides, viz., total-HCH, total-DDT, total-Endosulfan, Dimethoate and Malathion in fish samples collected from various points of the river Ganga. Fish samples were analyzed for pesticide residues using standard laboratory procedures by GC method. It was found that total-HCH concentration remains above the MRL values for maximum number of times in comparison to four other pesticides. The pesticide contamination to fish may be due to indiscriminate discharge of polluted and untreated sewage-sludge to the river. The pesticide contents in some places are alarming. Thus proper care, maintenance, treatment and disposal of sewage water and sludge are most vital and should be the prime thrust for the nation.     

Impact of PAH on biological health parameters of soils of an Indian refinery and adjoining agricultural area—a case study

The present study is aimed at analysing and comparing different soil enzymes in soil samples of native contaminated sites of a Mathura refinery and adjoining agricultural land. Enzyme activities are considered as indicators of soil quality and changes in biogeochemical function due to management or perturbations. Soil samples were collected from the premises and nearby area of Mathura refinery, India. Biological health parameters (dehydrogenase, aryl esterase, aryl sulphatase, \upbeta \upbeta -glucosidase, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, lipase, laccase and catalase activity) were estimated in the soil samples. Among all the samples, sewage sludge soil showed maximum activity of enzymes, microbial biomass carbon and most probable number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degraders in soils spiked with three- to four-ring PAHs at 50 ppm. Available phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen was also exceptionally high in this sample, indicating maximum microbial bioconversion due to presence of nutrients stimulating potent PAH-degrading microorganisms.     

Use of water quality index and multivariate statistical techniques for the assessment of spatial variations in water quality of a small river

Rapid urban development has led to a critical negative impact on water bodies flowing in and around urban areas. In the present study, 25 physiochemical and biological parameters have been studied on water samples collected from the entire section of a small river originating and ending within an urban area. This study envisaged to assess the water quality status of river body and explore probable sources of pollution in the river. Weighted arithmetic water quality index (WQI) was employed to evaluate the water quality status of the river. Multivariate statistical techniques namely cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to differentiate the sources of variation in water quality and to determine the cause of pollution in the river. WQI values indicated high pollution levels in the studied water body, rendering it unsuitable for any practical purpose. Cluster analysis results showed that the river samples can be divided into four groups. Use of PCA identified four important factors describing the types of pollution in the river, namely (1) mineral and nutrient pollution, (2) heavy metal pollution, (3) organic pollution, and (4) fecal contamination. The deteriorating water quality of the river was demonstrated to originate from wide sources of anthropogenic activities, especially municipal sewage discharge from unplanned housing areas, wastewater discharge from small industrial units, livestock activities, and indiscriminate dumping of solid wastes in the river. Thus, the present study effectively demonstrates the use of WQI and multivariate statistical techniques for gaining simpler and meaningful information about the water quality of a lotic water body as well as to identify of the pollution sources.     

Assessing seasonal and spatial trends of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Indian agricultural regions using PUF disk passive air samplers

The first survey of persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentrations in air across several Indian agricultural regions was conducted in 2006-2007. Passive samplers comprising polyurethane foam (PUF) disks were deployed on a quarterly basis at seven stations in agricultural regions, one urban site and one background site. The project was conducted as a sub-project of the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) Network. In addition to revealing new information on air concentrations of several organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the study has demonstrated the feasibility of conducting regional-scale monitoring for POPs in India using PUF disk samplers. The following analytes were detected with relatively high concentrations in air (mean for 2006 and 2007, pg/m³): α- and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) (292 and 812, respectively); endosulfan I and II (2770 and 902, respectively); p,p′-DDE and p,p′-DDT (247 and 931, respectively); and for the sum of 48 PCBs, 12,100 (including a site with extremely high air concentrations in 2007) and 972 (when excluding data for this site).     

Social cost of environmental pollution and application of counter measures through clean development mechanism: in the context of developing countries

The developing countries i.e., the non-Annex-I countries (parties to the Kyoto Protocol but not responsible to any reduction target yet) in the Kyoto Protocol whose economies are in transition are also allowed to reduce GHG emissions. Among these, the countries that have accepted the Kyoto Protocol may be benefited from CDM projects to promote sustainable development. The developed countries i.e., the Annex-I countries (that have signed the Kyoto Protocol & are responsible to have specific GHG emission reduction target) or the investing countries, in return, have privilege to purchase CER credits (in units equivalent to one tonne of CO₂ gas emission reduction) to meet the emission target as specified in the Kyoto Protocol. The key step in understanding about CDM is to grasp the concept of “baseline” and “additionality”. The “Baseline” is the emissions level that would have existed if a CDM project had not happened. The feature of an approved CDM project is that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reduction credits; this concept is known as “Additionality”. According to environmental additionality concept, baseline emission minus project emission is equal to emissions reduction. “Investment Additionality,” ultimately rejected during negotiation of the “Marrakech Accords” and “Financial Additionality,” are the two important concepts. The concept of trading of CER matches to the idea of Pigovian tax (equal to the negative externality and which is considered one of the “traditional” means of bringing a modicum of market forces) in Economics, making pollution more costly to the polluter, as the polluters have negative cost since they save money by polluting; hence, there are supposed negative externalities associated with the market activity. Economic theory predicts that in an economy where the cost of reaching mutual agreement between parties is high and where pollution is diffuse, Pigovian tax will be an efficient way to promote the public interest and will lead to an improvement of the quality of life measured by the Genuine Progress Indicator and other human economic indicators, as well as higher gross domestic product growth. We can seek a level of pollution such that the marginal savings (MS) to one polluting unit from pollution (−MC) is equal to marginal damage (MD) from pollution over the entire population, since pollution is a public bad i.e., MS (x*) = ∑MD_i (x*) where ∑D_i (x) is the total damage. Though the responsibility of reduction in emission does not lie on the non-Annex-I countries, still effort of maintaining global emission balance can be expected equally from developed and developing countries. The responsibilities of Kyoto Protocol are (a) to reduce global GHG emissions, (b) to bring about sustainable development in the developing countries lie on above two groups since its effect on February 16, 2005. Different polluters have different costs of pollution control. The least costly way of controlling pollution from various sources that reflects different costs of pollution control making the set of environmental regulations to achieve the emission target at the lowest cost makes the regulation cost-effective. Though efficiency is not attainable for many regulations, cost-effectiveness is attainable.