131,872 research outputs found
Environmental Analytical Chemistry
No full textEnvironmental analytical chemistry has evolved into a well-established interdisciplinary field (analytical chemistry, pollution chemistry, chemical engineering, etc [...
Environmental and wider economic implications of modifications to environmental tax reform
No full textThe most common definition of Environmental Tax Reform (ETR) is the use of the revenue from environmental taxes to reduce distortionary labour taxes. However, the PETRAS project has shown that there are a number of social and political impediments to implementing such reform. This paper
firstly outlines some of the environmental and economic implications of environmental taxes generally. It goes on to explore three broad approaches to ETR, based on the allocation of the tax revenues, and explores the environmental and economic implications of each approach and the likelihood of political and social acceptance. Particular attention is paid to ameliorating regressive impacts and impacts on competitiveness. It is concluded that some combination of hypothecating a proportion ofrevenues to environmental projects and diverting rest to reduce labour taxes is probably the best approach in light of the results of the project. The balance should depend upon local labour market and macroeconomic conditions, the extent to which environmental projects are already funded and the extent of government failure. Funding should only provided to environmental projects if it can be shown that, in themselves, they are economically efficient. In addition, it is most important that a proportion of the funds be used to ameliorate any regressive impacts. It is also important to bear in mind that hypothecation or recycling of revenue is not the same as a tax shift, which is a reform of the entire system, so some of these approaches may take away from the integrity of ETR. The paper concludes with some of the initiatives that are likely to be necessary to facilitate social and political acceptance of this approach to ETR
Novel analytical methods for the identification of emerging contaminants in aquatic environments
No full textGrowth in economics and prosperity has been a global trend during recent decades and the use of chemicals has increased tremendously as a part of industrial production, agriculture and everyday life. The use of hazardous chemicals has been restricted by many intergovernmental treaties and legislation but new replacement chemicals are synthesized constantly and no decrease in the future production volumes of chemicals is soon expected. The term chemicalization is used to describe the increased use of chemicals and resultant environmental contamination. In the analysis of environmental samples, usually only some selected regulated compounds are measured. The problem with these target analyses is that other compounds remain undetected. Complementary techniques without any preselection of the analytes are thus required to identify new compounds.
The aim of this study was to develop novel instrumental techniques for the determina-tion of organic compounds without any analyte preselection and to identify unknown anthropogenic contaminants in different water matrices. The methods developed were based on analytical separation, using gas and liquid chromatography combined with accurate mass measurement using time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The data produced were then processed with a deconvolution program to locate the chromatographic peaks and to extract their mass spectra. The measured accurate masses were then used to confirm the elemental compositions of the detected ions. The identification processes were validated, using spiked water samples, and finally the methods were applied to the identification of organic xenobiotics from wastewater effluent, stormwater, surface water and landfill leachate samples.
The results showed that analysis using time-of-flight mass spectrometry enables screening of large analyte groups without previous information on sample composition. The most comprehensive knowledge is yielded by analysing the sample with both gas and liquid chromatography. In many cases, tentative compound identification can be obtained if the deconvoluted spectra and accurate mass data are complemented with information, e.g. from spectral libraries and peak isotope patterns. This tentative identifications must, however, always be confirmed with a pure standard compound. The main limitations of the methods were related to insufficient features of the deconvolution program used. Most of the data-processing stages had to be performed manually or visually, which slows down the data processing and hinders their applicability, especially with large sample sets. Dozens of compounds were tentatively identified from water samples and several of them were also confirmed with a standard compound. The highest numbers of compounds were identified from wastewater effluent, stormwater and landfill leachate samples. The results confirmed the fact that anthropogenic waste streams are an important route for organic xenobiotics into the environment. Since the future volumes of chemicals will increase, the control and efficient treatment of these fluxes becomes evermore essential.Globaalin vaurastumisen myötä maapallon teollinen tuotanto, maatalous ja jokapäiväi-nen arkielämä perustuvat yhä enemmän erilaisten kemikaalien käyttöön. Tämän kehi-tyksen haittapuoli on ympäristön kemikalisoituminen, jolla tarkoitetaan yhä lisääntyvää kemikaalien käyttöä ja sitä kautta tapahtuvaa ympäristön pilaantumista. Haitalliseksi tunnistettujen yhdisteiden käyttöä on rajoitettu useilla kansainvälisillä sopimuksilla ja kansallisella lainsäädännöllä, mutta uusia korvaavia yhdisteitä kehitetään ja otetaan käyttöön jatkuvasti, eikä kemikaalien käytön vähenemistä ole näköpiirissä. Pitkään jatkuneesta tutkimuksesta huolimatta vain harvojen kemiallisten yhdisteiden päästöt ja pitoisuudet ympäristössä tunnetaan. Tyypillisesti kemikaalien määritykset ympäristöstä rajoittuvat lainsäädännössä mainittuihin haitta-aineisiin muiden yhdisteiden jäädessä huomiotta. Ympäristönäytteiden kokonaisvaltaisempi analyysi edellyttää laboratoriolta uusia menetelmiä, jotka mahdollistavat myös etukäteen määrittelemättömien yhdisteiden tunnistamisen ja mittaamisen.
Tämän väitöskirjatutkimuksen tavoitteena on ollut kehittää uusia, ensisijaisesti kvalitatiivisia, instrumenttianalyyttisiä menetelmiä vesien sisältämien orgaanisten yhdisteiden määritykseen ilman etukäteisvalintaa sekä tunnistaa antropogeenisiä haitta-aineita erityyppisistä vesinäytteistä. Tutkimuksessa kehitetyt menetelmät perustuvat kaasu- ja nestekromatografiseen erotukseen ja analyyttien tarkan massan mittaukseen lentoaikamassaspektrometrillä sekä kerätyn aineiston käsittelyyn dekonvoluutio-ohjelmistolla. Analyysimenetelmiin liittyvät tunnistusprosessit validoitiin tutkimalla tunnettuja väkevöityjä näytteitä, jonka jälkeen menetelmiä sovellettiin Päijät-Hämeen alueelta kerättyihin jätevesi-, hulevesi-, pintavesi- ja kaatopaikan suotovesinäytteisiin.
Tutkimustulokset osoittivat, että analyysi lentoaikamassapektrometrillä mahdollistaa suurten yhdistejoukkojen seulonnan ilman ennakkotietoa näytteen koostumuksesta. Kattavin tieto näytteestä saavutetaan, kun näyte analysoidaan sekä kaasu- että nestekromatografisilla menetelmillä. Useissa tapauksissa mittauksilla voidaan saavuttaa alustava tunnistus yhdisteestä, mikäli tarkan massan mittauksiin yhdistetään tietoa esimerkiksi spektrikirjastoista ja ionien isotooppisuhteista. Lopullisen tunnistuksen tulee kuitenkin aina perustua malliaineen käyttöön. Tunnistusmenetelmien suurimmat rajoitteet johtuivat käytetyn dekonvoluutio-ohjelman puutteellisista ominaisuuksista, jonka vuoksi valtaosa työvaiheista jouduttiin suorittamaan manuaalisesti. Tulosten käsittelyn hitaus, erityisesti suurten näytemäärien yhteydessä, rajoittaakin vielä toistaiseksi menetelmien laaja-alaista sovellettavuutta. Tutkituista näytteistä tunnistettiin alustavasti kymmeniä yhdisteitä, joista osa varmistettiin myös malliaineilla. Suurimmat lukumäärät yhdisteitä tunnistettiin puhdistetusta jätevedestä, hulevedestä ja kaatopaikan suotovedestä. Tulokset osoittavat, että ihmisen toiminnasta syntyvät jätevirrat muodostavat tärkeän reitin orgaanisten yhdisteiden kulkeutumiselle ympäristöön. Kemikaalien käyttömäärien kasvaessa, näiden päästölähteiden kontrolloinnin ja asianmukaisen käsittelyn merkitys tulee entisestään korostumaan.ei saavutettav
Environmental screening tools for assessment of infrastructure plans based on biodiversity preservation and global warming (PEIT, Spain).
Get PDFMost Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) research has been concerned with SEA as a procedure, and there have been relatively few developments and tests of analytical methodologies. The first stage of the SEA is the ‘screening’, which is the process whereby a decision is taken on whether or not SEA is required for a particular programme or plan. The effectiveness of screening and SEA procedures will depend on how well the assessment fits into the planning from the early stages of the decision-making process. However, it is difficult to prepare the environmental screening for an infrastructure plan involving a whole country. To be useful, such methodologies must be fast and simple. We have developed two screening tools which would make it possible to estimate promptly the overall impact an infrastructure plan might have on biodiversity and global warming for a whole country, in order to generate planning alternatives, and to determine whether or not SEA is required for a particular infrastructure plan
Technical Services, Geo-Environmental
No full textThis archived document is maintained by the Oregon State Library as part of the Oregon Documents Depository Program. It is for informational purposes and may not be suitable for legal purposes.Title from PDF caption (viewed on April 1, 2015).Mode of access: Internet from the Oregon Government Publications Collection.Text in English
Environmental indicators for the urban environment : a literature review
No full textA vast body of literature exists on the genesis and evolution of environmental indicators of all varieties. This document attempts to track the somewhat complicated progress of urban environmental indicators, where they are in usage and to what avail. It also emphasises the search to narrow down the range of 'ideal' indicators. The literature suggests that as experience and practice with indicators grows both in Ireland and world-wide the key set of urban environmental indicators can help policy makers and the public track sustainability issues more effectively. Indicators thus have a valuable role to play in the future of sustainable planning for urban areas.European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Environmental Services 1994-199
The economic viability of Environmental Management Systems: an application of Analytical Hierarchy Process as a methodological tool to rank trade-offs
Get PDFEnvironmental management systems [EMS] are now a well established management tool in the ‘greening’ of industry. There is a large body of literature on methodological procedures and application strategies for implementing EMS. Associated with this proliferation of ‘how to’ manuals has been a limited discussion of why a firm ought to implement a management tool that inevitably affects the bottom line of profitability. We argue that there has been much less by way of methodologically rigorous and academically objective analysis of the motivation for EMS application. Much of this literature is coined in terms of the potential benefits (social, ethical and financial) with arguably an insufficient emphasis on potential real cost burdens. This arises in part because researchers and analysts in the field want firms to adopt EMS. This can be motivated by environmental zeal and/or an enthusiasm to promote the sales of ‘how to’ manuals by accentuating the positive. The aim of this research is provide an objective and methodologically robust motivational analysis in the field of EMS applications. The methodology that we apply - Analytical Hierarchy Process [AHP], a variant of multi criteria analysis- has not to our knowledge been applied in the ‘greening’ of industry. Most methodologies relating to semi-structured interviews of respondents who have applied environmental management tools are either open-ended or apply a 5 point Likert scale or equivalent, where 1-5 corresponds with how important the respondent considers a given factor(e.g. affect on longrun profitability) is in stimulating EMS adoption. The outcome of such studies in general is that many factors contribute but that the extent to which one factor is more or less important remains unresolved. Under AHP, respondents make pair-wise ratings of importance between various attributes (e.g. profitability, corporate social responsibility) as well as between the ‘qualities’ or levels within an attribute (e.g. long term profitability, short term profitability). The outcome of the AHP is a set of attribute and quality weights that reflect their relative importance as well as their implied ranking. In this study, five attributes (profitability; compliance with legislation; competitiveness; social impacts and environmental impacts) with a total of 13 qualities were tested across a sample of respondents from SMEs that already had an EMS in place. The attributes ranged from financial (e.g. increases in production efficiency), social (e.g. improved public perceptions) to environmental (e.g. reduced emissions). We chose to investigate the motivations for on-going EMS adoption as managers would then have had the time to learn the extent to which the potential benefits had actually been realised and the costs incurred.. The results are interesting in that the most important factors were increased long term profitability and the opportunity to enter new product niches. The latter may arise owing to ‘supplier challenges’ applied by larger firms to their SME suppliers. A high scoring was achieved for improving local community relations. The highest score for the environmental attribute was reduced resource usage, linked to decreasing production costs. This score was significantly higher than CSR-type global concerns such as emissions reductions. However, overall environmental outcomes were not rated highly which perhaps suggest that the case that CSR stimulates the adoption of corporate eco-change might be overstated in the literature.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,
Taylor-and-Francis_Impact-Assessment-of-Earth-and-Environmental-Sciences-Research-Author-Survey_Raw-Data_Figshare
No full textAnonymized responses dataset from the Taylor & Francis Impact Assessment of Earth & Environmental Sciences Research: Author Survey.In Spring 2020, Taylor & Francis surveyed authors from across our Earth & Environmental Sciences portfolio.We investigated what benefits publishing in our journals could impart on both the research and on the authors following publication, and we looked at to what extent global challenges, such as those expressed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), were shaping researcher ambitions.</div
Strategies for dealing with uncertainties in strategic environmental assessment : An analytical framework illustrated with case studies from The Netherlands
No full textStrategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a widely applied policy tool that aims to aid decision-makers in making informed, higher-quality decisions that minimize negative environmental impacts. However, different types of uncertainties complicate the ex ante assessment of environmental impacts. Literature suggests uncertainties are often not well addressed, resulting in inaccurate and even unreliable SEAs. At the same time, SEA literature offers limited guidance in how to systematically identify and deal with uncertainties. Therefore, in this paper, we present an analytical framework for characterizing and classifying different forms of uncertainty in SEA, and for identifying strategies for dealing with these uncertainties. The framework is based on literature on uncertainties in other subdomains of the environmental sciences. The framework is applied to five case studies of SEAs for spatial planning in The Netherlands in order to illustrate and critically reflect on our framework, and to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Based on these case studies we concluded the following: (1) The framework is useful for identifying uncertainties in SEA in a systematic way; (2) There is a discrepancy between how uncertainties are dealt with in theory and in practice; (3) In practice, uncertainties seem to be dealt with in a rather implicit way. The framework may help dealing with uncertainties more systematically and more proactively; (4) The most successful way of coping with uncertainties seems to be the application of multiple strategies
Preface [New trends in analytical, environmental and cultural heritage chemistry]
No full textThis volume is intended to provide a general overview of principles and practical applications of various areas of analytical chemistry, in particular (but not exclusively) in the contexts of environmental and cultural heritage conservation
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