T. Bulc, N. Ferfila and D. Vrhovsek.

Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2004, pp. 55-61.

The most common form of municipal waste disposal in the EU continues to be `undfilling, from which leachate could seriously contaminate ground water aquifers that serve as drinking water sources. Constructed wetland is considered as a sustainable option as it facilitates water recycling in landfill sites using closed loop technology. In Slovenia constructed wetlands have been successfully developed and there are already 6 landfills that have been remediated using this technique. An innovative co-natural approach that has been applied on the landfill site at Ormoz (1.5ha), allows a landfill site to become a bioreactor by permitting controlled infiltration. Leachate is purified using a constructed wetland covering 1,000m super(2). The average hydraulic load is 12m super(3)/d. Purified water will then be recycled through an underground irrigation system to fast growing trees. We assume that this solution will allow rapid stabilisation of the landfill site as the infiltrated water in the landfill site stimulates microbes to mineralise organic waste. There is no risk of leaks as the root systems of trees follow the non-uniform settling of waste. Owing to the closed hydrological and pollution cycle, the impact on the environment and especially the risk of water contamination will be reduced.

Ho-Wen Chen, Ni-Bin Chang and D. Shaw.

Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, Vol. 19, No. 2, Apr 2005, pp. 158-171.

Society benefits from rivers in many aspects. To the extent of water resources management, one of the salient issues is that the social benefit of in-stream water quality improvements is often difficult to be quantified for possible cost justification in many water pollution control programs. The difficulties arise from that many service flows of water quality are not channelled through the market system to consumers and producers. With different socio-economic structures, such valuation could be even more challenging when taking river basins with low-income level into account. Recent advances in fuzzy set theory provide a germain insight to viewing the in-stream water quality as a kind of fuzzy resource due to varying awareness of the quality of life. This paper provides a technical analysis using the fuzzy contingent valuation mothod (FCVM) to value in-stream water quality improvements in terms of three fuzzy resources from aesthetic to recreational, and to ecological aspects. Traditional CVM may allow interest groups or affected parties to join and present a more flexible asset assessment with respect to the prescribed environmental features in the river corridor. Yet the FCVM provides a mechanism that lies in providing a mapping (via fuzzy set theory) from a survey of respondents' valuation of subjective assessments of water quality into objective economic measures in terms of water quality parameters that management can more directly manipulate. With this new tool, the traditional CVM assessment outputs in a well-developed river basin may even lead to derive a simular valuaton function in a form of a regression equation in a developing river basin where the income level is relatively low. As part of the sustainability analysis basin wide, a case study in Taiwan showed that such effort may provide supportive information for cost benefit analysis in many water pollution control programs corresponding to different temporal and spatial scales.

J. Fuhrer and F. Booker.

Environment international, Vol. 29, No. 2-3, Jun 2003, pp. 141-154.

Research on the effects of ozone on agricultural crops and agro-ecosystems is needed for the development of regional emission reduction strategies, to underpin practical recommendations aiming to increase the sustainability of agricultural land management in a changing environment, and to secure food supply in regions with rapidly growing populations. Major limitations in current knowledge exist in several areas: (1) Modelling of ozone transfer and specifically stomatal ozone uptake under variable environmental conditions, using robust and well-validated dynamic models that can be linked to large-scale photochemical models lack coverage. (2) Processes involved in the initial reactions of ozone with extracellular and cellular components after entry through the stomata, and identification of key chemical species and their role in detoxification require additional study. (3) Scaling the effects from the level of individual cells to the whole-plant requires, for instance, a better understanding of the effects of ozone on carbon transport within the plant. (4) Implications of long-term ozone effects on community and whole-ecosystem level processes, with an emphasis on crop quality, element cycling and carbon sequestration, and biodiversity of pastures and rangelands require renewed efforts. The UNECE Convention on Long Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution shows, for example, that policy decisions may require the use of integrated assessment models. These models depend on quantitative exposure-response information to link quantitative effects at each level of organization to an effective ozone dose (i.e. the balance between the rate of ozone uptake by the foliage and the rate of ozone detoxification). In order to be effective in a policy, or technological context, results from future research must be funnelled into an appropriate knowledge transfer scheme. This requires data synthesis, up-scaling, and spatial aggregation. At the research level, interactions must be considered between the effects of ozone and factors that are either directly manipulated by man through crop management, or indirectly changed. The latter include elevated atmospheric CO sub(2), particulate matter, other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, UV-B radiation, climate and associated soil moisture conditions.

L. Gan.

Energy Policy, Vol. 31, No. 6, May 2003, pp. 537-551.

This article describes the state of the automobile industry and urban road transportation management in China. It reviews how the automobile industry is evolving to respond to challenges in economic development, environmental regulations, and technological change. The dynamics and barriers resulting from technological change of automobiles in response to reduction of exhaust emissions and energy-efficiency improvement are analyzed. It is argued that consideration of externality costs should be integrated in automobile industrial policymaking and transportation management. Efforts need to be made to use more economic incentives for emissions reduction, and to promote technological change for cleaner vehicle development. This paper questions the current government policy of encouraging private car ownership, and suggests that improvement in public transportation systems, stronger emissions control, and technology innovation on environmental friendly automobile technologies would be relevant to China's drive toward sustainable transportation development. Social inequities resulted from automobile use is also stressed in the analysis.

H. Huang, C. Z. Wu, J. Chang and Y. Chen.

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, Vol. 1, No. 4, Dec 2003, pp. 400-412.

With its vast territory and abundant biomass resources, China appears to have suitable conditions to develop biomass energy. It has long been recognised that it is important to develop advanced technologies for conversion of biomass into clean and convenient fuels in order to raise the efficiency of biomass energy utilisation and alleviate air pollution. Through past efforts some progress in biomass energy has been made, as illustrated in this paper by two case studies in China: 1 integrated biomass gasification and gas-supply system (Shandong Province) - in this project, a number of demonstration stations for biomass gasification and gas-supply have been constructed in various rural villages; these stations process agricultural residues, such as straw, into gas fuel using modern gasification technology and distribute the gas for household consumption. The size of the rural villages having such gas-supply stations ranges from as small as only 60 households, to as large as more than 1000 households. 2 A MW-scale biomass gasification and power generation system (Hainan Province) - in this project, an MW-scale biomass power plant was constructed at the Sanya Timber Factory. The central technology of this biomass power plant is an advanced circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) gasifier system. This power plant makes use of only the wood waste generated in the Sanya Timber Factory as fuel, and can supply electricity to partially meet the power demand of the Sanya Timber Factory. It is suggested that biomass energy projects have significant benefits in terms of environmental protection and energy conservation, although some aspects related to systems efficiency, secondary pollution by wastewater, and process economics, etc. are in need of further improvement.

S. M. Rao and P. Mamatha.

Current science, Vol. 87, No. 7, 10 Oct 2004, pp. 942-947.

Water pollution is a serious problem as almost 70% of India's surface water resources and a growing number of its groundwater reserves have been contaminated by biological, organic and inorganic pollutants. Pollution of surface and groundwater resources occurs through point and diffuse sources. Examples of point source pollution are effluents from industries and from sewage-treatment plants. Typical examples of diffuse pollution sources are agricultural runoffs due to inorganic fertilizers and pesticides and natural contamination of groundwater by fluoride, arsenic and dissolved salts due to geo-chemical activities. In pursuit of measures to achieve sustainability in water management, the Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has begun to address treatment of fluoride-contaminated ground-water for potable requirements. The fluorosis problem is severe in India as almost 80% of the rural population depends on untreated groundwater for potable water supplies. A new method to treat fluoride-contaminated water using magnesium oxide has been developed at IISc. The IISc method relies on precipitation, sedimentation, and filtration techniques and is efficient for a range of groundwater chemistry conditions.

J. Q. Shang.

Marine Georesources & Geotechnology, Vol. 21, No. 3-4, Jul-Dec 2003, pp. 227-235.

The proposed Taiwan Strait Tunnel will raise numerous challenges for environmental professionals. The environmental issues must be incorporated in the preliminary study, planning, design, and construction of the works and be addressed consistently throughout all phases of the project. In this article, the environmental issues that will be encountered in the construction stage are discussed, including environmental impact assessment, environmental monitoring, and specific environmental issues during construction such as spoil handling, air quality and noise control, drainage, and health and safety. The experience and practice of handling environmental issues during the construction English Channel Tunnel are reviewed throughout the discussion.

D. M. Taylor.

Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management, Vol. 9, No. 1, Jan 2005, pp. 13-19.

Radioactive waste is seen by many as the major issue for nuclear energy in the European Union (EU). Public opinion surveys conducted by the European Commission show that while they know little about radioactive waste, the public feels concerned about it. A solution to the waste issue is a vital issue in determining public perception. Few realize that the EU has already disposed safely of much of the waste it has produced. However, no long-lived intermediate or high-level radioactive waste has yet been disposed of in the European Union. Geological disposal is identified by nearly all experts in the field of waste management as the only safe and sustainable option presently available, but progress towards its implementation is slow. Lack of public acceptance in the identification of new sites is compounded by failures to take decisions at the political level. New European legislation has been proposed to help guarantee greater progress, but this has not yet been adopted.

A. Tutus and M. Usta.

Journal of Environmental Biology, Vol. 25, No. 2, Apr 2004, pp. 141-145.

Increasing environmental restrictions require a reduction in the use of chlorine-containing bleaching agents mainly chlorine gas. There are several approaches to this goal, including changes in the cooking process and the influent treatment. The aim of this study is to improve the physical and optical properties of chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP) which has low brightness and strong tendency towards aging in chlorine-free bleaching sequences. For this reason, initially 7 different sets of single stage hydrogen peroxide bleaching operations were performed. After the analysis of the data obtained, the optimum bleaching conditions were as: H sub(2)O sub(2) ratio on oven dry (o.d) raw material: 2%, NaOH ratio (on o.d raw material): 1.5%, MgSO sub(4) ratio (on o.d raw material): 0.5%, Na sub(2)SiO sub(3) ratio (on o.d raw material): 3%, EDTA ratio (on o.d raw material): 0.5%, reaction time: 60 minutes, reaction temperature: 70 degree C and concentration: 16%. Then, 11 different sets of two and multistage H sub(2)O sub(2) (P), NaBH sub(4) (B), and Na sub(2)S sub(2)O sub(4) (S) bleaching operations were carried out. Optimum bleaching conditions were found in bleaching of BPSP with 4 stage sequences. As a result, CTMP brightness was observed to increase from 47% to 81.37% elrepho while yellowness of bleached pulps decreased from 321ppt to 164.01ppt elrepho.

P. Wilmer.

NEA News, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2004, pp. 4-8.

In the context of policies aiming at sustainable development, minimising the quantity of waste generated is a key goal for any industry. The nuclear energy sector is not unique in generating unwanted material from which society must be protected. Toxic wastes arising from many industries and economic activities represent much larger volumes than radioactive waste from the nuclear energy sector. Indeed, the nuclear industry has been particularly attentive to monitoring, controlling and minimising its waste streams.

S. W. Yoon and D. K. Lee.

Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 63, No. 3, Apr 2003, pp. 145-160.

Beginning the late 1980s, major cities in a number of nations have been making efforts to realize the concept of 'sustainable development'. In South Korea, some theoretical studies, technology development and a case study on sustainable cities were also initiated. Such studies are believed to have made a significant contribution in enhancing the understanding of urban sustainability. Nevertheless, they were poor in presenting detailed methodologies on how to assess and create urban sustainability. This study aims at developing a model to assess urban sustainability. Given the vastness of data to be built as well as the time and financial constraints at hand, assessment indicators were chosen with a focus on elements affecting climate change and air pollution at an urban level. The developed model was applied to 57 case study cities out of 80 cities in South Korea in order to verify the applicability and feasibility of the model. Urban sustainability assessment model (USAM) is composed of three basic models: driving force, pressure, state, effect, response (DPSER) model, stage model, and the space size model. Unlike the past assessment system that was unclear in what and how to assess for assessing sustainability, the USAM presented in this study allows an organized and systematic analysis through the DPSER model. Furthermore, the stage model made it easy to formulate measures to create a sustainable city by understanding the development history and changes of a city as well as forecasting possible impacts. In addition, the space size model compares cities with different space sizes and also sets a relation between a nation and a city. It also offers a framework to define relations and to compare across nations or a nation with a city instead of simply viewing a city as a single unit. The USAM does not present the degree of urban sustainability as a final output. Instead, it generates and applies a series of processes and methods of assessment in an urban sustainability perspective. In the process, the development pattern of a city and its negative impact on environment will be understood and appropriate and effective countermeasures will be confirmed. Such a process establishes urban sustainability and may be used as a means for us to understand what specific actions we need to take in order to promote urban sustainability.

W. Zhu.

Journal of Lake Sciences, Vol. 15, No. 2, Jun 2003, pp. 133-138.

At present, the water pollution has become a severe problem in the Taihu Basin. The water scarcity caused by pollution has annually reached to 2-3.5 billions m super(3) in the basin. The water pollution will be a big problem in the next few decades, which may affect the sustainable socio-economic development in the Taihu Basin. On the base of water pollution control in the Taihu Basin, it is suggested that the Yangzhe River, Taihu Lake and the reservoirs in the mountainous area in the upper reaches should be chosen as the main drinking water sources in the long term and more clean water from River Yangtze into Taihu Lake be diverted in order to meet the need of supplying enough water with better quality. It is also suggested to discharge the wastewater from the basin to the East Sea and Hangzhou bay after the secondary treatment.