Abandonment Scenarios Research Articles

‘Liquid’ equilibria. New semantics for public spaces in the Apennines

The proposed contribution investigates the role of public space design for the management and regeneration of the river system in Apennine areas: in an environmental crisis and increasing abandonment scenario, water stands as a central issue of critical discussion, representing a valuable source of livelihood and, at the same time, a potential danger for these territories. Through the selection of some significant experiences, in which architectural and landscape design find in the particular antinomian character of water the opportunity for the construction of new balances in the place, an attempt will be made to identify appropriate regenerative strategies to define the 'liquid' public space as a safe place, through the necessary adaptation to the current environmental and climatic conditions, and as an ecosystem, through the re-signification of the delicate relationship between its anthropic and natural components.

Floating solar power plant planning based on electricity price fluctuations in Towuti, south Sulawesi

A company located in South Sulawesi, intends to mitigate emissions from the Power Plant by constructing an environmentally friendly alternative, namely the Floating Solar Power Plant (FSPP), in Towuti. The development plan involves a feasibility analysis for each configuration of the FSPP, considering technological, economic, and environmental criteria. The selection of the preferred configuration is determined using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, based on input from experts. According to this method, the chosen configuration is the on-grid non-battery Floating Solar Power Plant, with a Net Present Value of Rp. 1,431,159,245,752, an Internal Rate of Return of 9.46%, a Payback Period of 8.916 years, a Profitability Ind ex of 1.299, a system efficiency of 21.56%, a carbon footprint of 35,003 kg CO2, and an emission reduction of 9,136,808,273 kg CO2. Decision analysis, involving open and abandonment scenarios based on fluctuations in industrial electricity prices, was conducted using Monte Carlo simulation, yielding a volatility value of 31.2%. The real options analysis recommends abandonment in the twentieth year, with a decision success potential of 38%, based on the results.

Factors and Impacts to Abandoned Housing Projects in Malaysia

Nowadays, the challenges in confronting the abandonment scenario in housing provision only foresee on buyer as the primary victim without looking at the real root causes through the project development initiator, property developer. The significance of the study is attained as housing abandonment today takes an endless time to be completed, though some still need to tediously resort to rehabilitation programs. This paper introduces the study on the contributing factors, and their impacts, and assesses theircorrelation relationship before developing a relationship framework. The study used a quantitative approach to obtain responsive feedback through distributed questionnaire, which revealing the perspective of Malaysia's blacklisted property developers. By utilizing the relationship framework that highlights the most correlated factors and their impacts, the research findings serve as the best indicator for an effective mechanism controlled referred by authorities as well as constructional practitioner pertaining to the growing rate of housing abandonment in Malaysia.

The Energy Charter Treaty at a critical juncture: of knowns, unknowns, and lasting significance

Abstract This article envisions the future of international investment law and arbitration amidst the need to accelerate the shift towards renewable energy. Recognizing the risks of predicting the unknown, the article charts the delicate balance between forecasting a future legal framework and respecting past complexities. Focusing on the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), the article analyses ‘known-knowns’ rooted in positive law and ‘known-unknowns’ in the ECT’s future. The article examines the ECT’s design and scope in the first part, showing its pivotal role in organizing the renewable energy market through fair and equitable treatment and expropriation provisions. Against this backdrop, the article explores potential continuation, modernization, or abandonment scenarios and argues for a nuanced and anticipatory approach to the Treaty’s evolving dynamics. It underscores the variety of pending cases, the potential resurgence of State contracts, and the shift to contract-based arbitration influenced by ECT decisions. Given the impasse over the ECT’s modernization and the paradoxical nature of the ongoing energy transition, the ECT will continue to shape international investment law and international energy governance for the foreseeable future.

WASTELANDS. Recycling urban spaces for the shrinking city

Shrinkage processes are multidimensional phenomena affecting city sectors or regions that are experiencing a decline in their economic and social foundations and struggle in finding sound postindustrial revitalisation strategies. The symptoms of such structural crisis are population loss and ageing, economic recession, employment decline and social problems. The repeated international crises that followed the global economic, productive and cultural changes since the 1980s have resulted in the formation of neglected, underused and decay urban voids. The current abandonment scenario and related transformation opportunities are extremely complex and include a wide variety of typologically different wastelands. They comprise shrinking urban and peripheral fabrics, specific empty or obsolete infrastructure, derelict sites, and voids of with heritage value no longer animated by the socio-cultural “regime” that originated them. Wastelands are not unusual in Western society but their pervasiveness is certainly unprecedented given the general socioeconomic crises and dynamics. Abandonment is a challenging and constant process of space production to be filled with new functions by civil society. The re-cycle is even more challenging because the disposal of significant assets has occurred within a limited time frame compared to the post-industrial wastelands. Wastelands constitute a resource with relevant strategic opportunities for addressing a variety of issues – i.e., reducing land consumption, providing urban maintenance and rehabilitation, and increasing the supply of public open spaces, environmental quality characteristics, community standards and services. Last but not least, wastelands may provide new habitable and accessible spaces in contrast to various types of emergencies or polycrises the society is facing – i.e. climate, pandemics, territorial imbalances, ecological and energy resources impoverishment – thus addressing the transition scenario.

Spatial Patterns and Intensity of Land Abandonment Drive Wildfire Hazard and Likelihood in Mediterranean Agropastoral Areas

In Mediterranean agropastoral areas, land abandonment is a key driver of wildfire risk as fuel load and continuity increase. To gain insights into the potential impacts of land abandonment on wildfire risk in fire-prone areas, a fire-spread modeling approach to evaluate the variations in wildfire potential induced by different spatial patterns and percentages of land abandonment was applied. The study was carried out in a 1200 km2 agropastoral area located in north-western Sardinia (Italy) mostly covered by herbaceous fuels. We compared nine land abandonment scenarios, which consisted of the control conditions (NA) and eight scenarios obtained by combining four intensity levels (10, 20, 30, 40%) and two spatial patterns of agropastoral land abandonment. The abandonment scenarios hypothesized a variation in dead fuel load and fuel depth within abandoned polygons with respect to the control conditions. For each abandonment scenario, wildfire hazard and likelihood at the landscape scale was assessed by simulating over 17,000 wildfire seasons using the minimum travel time (MTT) fire spread algorithm. Wildfire simulations replicated the weather conditions associated with the largest fires observed in the study area and were run at 40 m resolution, consistent with the input files. Our results highlighted that growing amounts of land abandonment substantially increased burn probability, high flame length probability and fire size at the landscape level. Considering a given percentage of abandonment, the two spatial patterns of abandonment generated spatial variations in wildfire hazard and likelihood, but at the landscape scale the average values were not significantly different. The average annual area burned increased from about 2400 ha of the control conditions to about 3100 ha with 40% land abandonment. The findings of this work demonstrate that a progressive abandonment of agropastoral lands can lead to severe modifications in potential wildfire spread and behavior in Mediterranean areas, thus promoting the likelihood of large and fast-spreading events. Wildfire spread modeling approaches allow us to estimate the potential risks posed by future wildfires to rural communities, ecosystems and anthropic values in the context of land abandonment, and to adopt and optimize smart prevention and planning strategies to mitigate these threats.

EXPLAINING VARIABILITY IN ON-FLOOR ASSEMBLAGES: THE BEHAVIORAL-CONTEXTUAL METHOD

AbstractWe present a behavioral-contextual method for studying abandonment-related assemblages in order to ascribe them to a settlement abandonment scenario. Our approach examines the vertical and horizontal architectural contexts of assemblages, along with the nature of reconstructible vessels and other artifacts. This method accounts for gradual, rapid, mundane, and ceremonial abandonment scenarios, and for abandonment with anticipated return. Two advantages of this model are its replicability and its proposition of a shared taxonomy leading away from the concept of problematic deposits. The method is contextualized with two distinct case studies from the southern Maya lowlands: the palace of La Corona, Guatemala and an agricultural household group from greater Minanha, Belize. These dissimilar but contemporary (ca. A.D. 900) contexts revealed complex abandonment-related assemblages, including pre-abandonment middens,de factoand secondary material, and on-floor, exposed offerings. Both case studies are argued to reflect gradual, organized abandonment scenarios, although with significant temporal and behavioral distinctions.

Contingent Claim Approach for Pricing of Sovereign Sukuk for R&D Financing in Indonesia

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a model for financing research and development activities with a focus on the pricing of sukuk as the source of financing. Pricing scenarios are conducted using the real options approach consisting of continuity, abandonment, and substitution scenarios. The results establish possible future values of products depending on the risk value obtained by converting the project’s technology readiness level as well as the scenario chosen. The results show consistency with the risk-return tradeoff, and the complete continuity scenario provides the closest results to the yields of existing project-based sukuk.

Greenhouse Gas Emission of Electricity Generation and Field Abandonment Scenarios Using Empty Fruit Bunches at a Palm Oil Mill, Surat Thani Province, Thailand

In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, the pile abandonment of empty fruit bunches (EFBs) in the fields of palm oil mills is a common practice. This practice results in environmental issues such as generation of unpleasant odors and methane production due to anaerobic decomposition. In the present study, an abandoned moist EFB sample from Rubber Oil Co. Limited, a palm oil mill in the Thachi sub-district municipality, Surat Thani Province, southern Thailand, was collected and sun dried for physical analysis. The bulk density at 13.2% moisture content was 0.118 kg/L. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for electricity generation and methane production due to anaerobic decomposition were compared applying life cycle assessment. A cargo capacity of 621 kg of EFBs and a 59 km distance to the Surat Thani Biomass Power Plant in Surat Thani province were adapted with reference to Thailand’s GHG emission factors. The system boundary included the EFBs in the palm oil mill and the nearest power plant. The CO2 equivalent GHG emissions per kg of EFB for the transportation, generation, and field abandonment (methane emission) were 0.077, -0.877, and 2.136 kg-CO2e, respectively; a sum of -0.8 kg-CO2e emission via electricity generation use was noted as a significant environmental advantage.

How transnational labor migration affects upland land use practices in the receiving country: Findings from the China-Myanmar borderland

This paper examines the effects of transnational labor migration from Myanmar (Burma) on upland land use practices on the Chinese side of the China-Myanmar borderland, particularly in the context of out-migration and the aging of the local labor force. The study is based on a combined framework, with economic and geopolitical dimensions, and using in-depth fieldwork. The findings are as follows: (1) The increase of available labor from Myanmar, as a substitution for and supplementation of the outgoing local labor force that is migrating to China’s cities, helps local villagers cultivate crops, thus influencing smallholder land use. (2) This inward migration from Myanmar to China is long-term (rather than only being seasonal), based on the year-round nature and demands of China’s farming activities. (3) Due to the in-migration of labor from Myanmar, local villagers will flexibly adapt to planting cash crops that provide stable market prices. Such practices may delay the marginalization of farmland use. We argue that agricultural intensification can be achieved in the upland of the China-Myanmar borderland in the context of out- and in-migration. Smallholders can obtain profits from agricultural activities by hiring Burmese laborers, which helps to avoid a land abandonment scenario. This paper contributes to the existing body of literature on agrarian changes and rethinks agricultural growth in the upland rural society.

Catchment based hydrology under post farmland abandonment scenarios

Vegetation expansion following farmland abandonment is a complex process that depends on multiple natural and human-induced factors, resulting in differences in the evolution of land cover on former cultivated fields, with various environmental implications. To assess the complexity of the hydrogeomorphological consequences of farmland abandonment, the Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (CSIC) and the University of La Rioja monitored three small catchments, representative of different post land abandonment scenarios, in the Pyrenees and Iberian Range respectively. In the Pyrenees, a fourth small catchment, covered by natural forest, was monitored as a reference for an undisturbed environment. This study describes the evolution of land use in the abandoned catchments and examines its implications on catchment hydrological connectivity. It also analyses the hydrological responses of the three abandoned scenarios to similar rainfall events, and compares them to that of natural forested areas. .Vegetation tended to increase in the three catchments, but there were important differences in the characteristics of the current land cover. Arnás, the catchment left to a process of natural revegetation, contained a mosaic of shrubs (64%) and forest (27%) at different stages of succession, largely conditioned by the topography and soil properties. Araguás_afforestation was extensively afforested in the 1960s, with 75% of this catchment currently covered by forest, most of it planted artificially. In Munilla, occupied by terraced fields, vegetation recovery was partly restrained by the introduction of cattle, and 80% of the catchment was covered by sparse shrubs. Land abandonment resulted in a general reduction in computed hydrological connectivity in the three studied catchments, except in localized areas close to the main channel, new forest roads and trails, and upstream of terrace wall collapses, all areas of increased hydrological connectivity. The decrease in hydrological connectivity was much lower in Munilla, characterized by an absence of dense vegetation and still dominated by a terraced topography. The hydrological responses of the catchments to similar rainfall events differed significantly, showing the influence of not only vegetation cover but of the properties of soil remaining after previous agricultural activities. Significant storm-flow discharge was observed in Arnás, even under dry conditions, with high peakflows and fast responses. Lower streamflow response was observed in Araguás_Afforestation under dry conditions; however, once the soils were wet the hydrological response was notable and was characterized by high peakflow. The response under afforested trees differed greatly from that of a catchment covered by natural forest, with the latter characterized by gentler hydrographs. The hydrological response in Munilla was the lowest, with long response times and recessions, associated with the thick soils of the terraced fields. These results demonstrated the large variability of post land abandonment scenarios and associated hydrological implications, and highlighted the need to consider these differences to reduce future uncertainties in forecasting water resources and soil conservation.

Climate change versus land-use change—What affects the mountain landscapes more?

Land use and climate change are both strong drivers of landscape transformation. Using a representative valley of the Central Alps (Stubai Valley, Tyrol, Austria) we assess (1) the historical and likely future spatial patterns of land use/land cover (LULC), (2) the influence of temperature increase on the LULC distribution, and (3) the speed at which these changes will occur. Based on the historical landscape development and spatially explicit models, the effects of various land use and climate scenarios were modelled. Employing a pan-Alpine model, we were able to detect the temporal trajectory of spatial reforestation. The results show that land-use changes that already occurred during the last decades are responsible for the main future LULC changes (by secondary succession). Only an extreme land abandonment scenario and extreme climate scenarios (5K temperature increase) would bring about similar changes in LULC distribution and expansion of the forested areas. While alpine grasslands, alpine pioneer formation and glaciers would shrink drastically, especially deciduous forests would spread. To a considerable degree, such changes might take place over the next 300 years. By contrast, the increase in forest areas triggered by temperature changes would be slower and longer termed (up to 700–800 years).The effects and intensity of land-use change in the investigated valley, that is comparable to many regions in the Alps, will be at least equally severe and responsible for transformation of the landscape as those of a projected temperature increase.

Fire Events, Violence and Abandonment Scenarios in the Ancient Andes: The Final Stage of the Aguada Culture in the Ambato Valley, Northwest Argentina

Understanding how archaeological sites are abandoned is a vital part of archaeology. This paper explores abandonment as a phenomenon in a worldwide context, particularly in relation to sites with evidence of fire, and with a special focus on the South-Central Andes. I evaluate the patterns from an area of the Argentinian Andes and discuss the disappearance of the Aguada Culture, one of the central cultures in Argentinian prehistory, using evidence from the core area the Ambato Valley. I conclude that environmental factors were not the sole or determining source of stress, but rather part of a social–environmental dimension in which several factors combined to push a society into a vulnerable situation. In terms of the abandonment of the Aguada settlements in the Ambato Valley, the study shows that frequent forest fires might have played a role, but based upon the regularity of such events as seen in the sediment history, it is unlikely that these were the only factor in the process of abandonment of the valley.

A new Gaullist moment? European bandwagoning and international polarity

The transatlantic partnership needs to be reassessed. Since the end of the Cold War, Europe has chosen to bandwagon with the United States and to outsource its security to Washington. Bandwagoning has serious consequences when the use of force is at stake: it may lead to entrapment, where weaker allies may be involuntarily dragged into a conflict. It may also lead to abandonment, where the dominant ally may choose to discard their vital security concerns. With the evolution of the international system towards a multipolar configuration, this strategy of bandwagoning is becoming increasingly costly for Europe while the dominant power, the United States, is progressively confronted by other competitors at the systemic level. These classic dilemmas attached to an asymmetric partnership are exacerbated in a multipolar configuration. In particular, the abandonment scenario may become more and more frequent precisely because there is competition—and thus potential costs—at the international level: the United States may leave Europe alone, not by choice but by necessity. The current crisis in Ukraine illustrates this shift: while some American leaders were keen to escalate the conflict by arming Ukraine, the Obama administration's commitment to the defence of Europe has been minimal and it has largely delegated the management of the crisis to the Europeans themselves. Washington had other and more important priorities. Strategic autonomy is not an option for Europe; it has become a reality, a Gaullist moment where Europeans will have to learn to think and act strategically for themselves.

Adaptation of Bird Communities to Farmland Abandonment in a Mountain Landscape

Widespread farmland abandonment has led to significant landscape transformations of many European mountain areas. These semi-natural multi-habitat landscapes are important reservoirs of biodiversity and their abandonment has important conservation implications. In multi-habitat landscapes the adaptation of communities depends on the differential affinity of the species to the available habitats. We use nested species-area relationships (SAR) to model species richness patterns of bird communities across scales in a mountain landscape, in NW Portugal. We compare the performance of the classic-SAR and the countryside-SAR (i.e. multi-habitat) models at the landscape scale, and compare species similarity decay (SSD) at the regional scale. We find a considerable overlap of bird communities in the different land-uses (farmland, shrubland and oak forest) at the landscape scale. Analysis of the classic and countryside SAR show that specialist species are strongly related to their favourite habitat. Farmland and shrubland have higher regional SSD compared to oak forests. However, this is due to the opportunistic use of farmlands by generalist birds. Forest specialists display significant regional turnover in oak forest. Overall, the countryside-SAR model had a better fit to the data showing that habitat composition determines species richness across scales. Finally, we use the countryside-SAR model to forecast bird diversity under four scenarios of land-use change. Farmland abandonment scenarios show little impact on bird diversity as the model predicts that the complete loss of farmland is less dramatic, in terms of species diversity loss, than the disappearance of native Galicio-Portuguese oak forest. The affinities of species to non-preferred habitats suggest that bird communities can adapt to land-use changes derived from farmland abandonment. Based on model predictions we argue that rewilding may be a suitable management option for many European mountain areas.

Simulating long-term effects of abandonment on plant diversity in Mediterranean mountain farmland

In this paper, long-term impacts of meadow abandonment scenarios on plant diversity were forecasted for high nature value farmland in northern Portugal, and implications for conservation planning and agri-environmental management are addressed. Vegetation patches representative of forests, meadows and edges, on mesic and wet soils, were surveyed for vascular plant diversity. Species richness and composition were compared across vegetation types, and additive partitioning was used to quantify hierarchic components of species richness. The implications of total and partial meadow abandonment were simulated according to landscape outcomes predicted for each scenario, and confirmed with a Monte-Carlo resampling. Forests hosted the highest number of species, as well as of exclusive species. Nonetheless, from the total pool (213), 21.6% were exclusive to meadows. Vegetation types generally shared small proportions of their species pools. With total meadow abandonment, a drastic decrease in total species richness (41.1%) and in endemic species richness (loss of 20.8%) was forecasted. However, only 12.3% of all species were forecasted to disappear under scenarios of partial abandonment. Landscape-level plant diversity can, therefore, be maintained by promoting farmland mosaics, even if the loss of scattered meadows in favour of native forests could be acceptable. Agri-environmental schemes should thus prioritize the maintenance of landscape heterogeneity.

Participative landscape planning in rural areas: A case study from Novodvorsko, Žehušicko, Czech Republic

According to the European Landscape Convention, landscape quality objectives should be defined for assessed landscapes as a part of landscape policies. The pilot study for Novodvorsko and Žehušicko in Central Bohemia is focused on sustainable landscape development with regard to the economic development, but also on the protection of natural and socio-cultural landscape qualities. The aim of this study is to investigate the implementation of the European Landscape Convention at the local level. The landscape quality objective should be a long-term strategic vision for making a landscape policy that could be used as a basis for strategic landscape planning documents. First, a landscape diagnosis was proposed. Then, four different scenarios for landscape development were assessed (integration, segregation, exploitation, and abandonment scenario). Finally, a landscape quality objective was developed. All process was closely connected with participative landscape planning; local stakeholders were involved to the whole process.

The M/M/1 queue with synchronized abandonments

In this paper we present a detailed analysis of a single server Markovian queue with impatient customers. Instead of the standard assumption that customers perform independent abandonments, we consider situations where customers abandon the system simultaneously. Moreover, we distinguish two abandonment scenarios; in the first one all present customers become impatient and perform synchronized abandonments, while in the second scenario we exclude the customer in service from the abandonment procedure. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to the M/M/c queue under the second abandonment scenario. For these models we carry out an extensive analysis including the stationary, the busy period and the conditional sojourn time distributions deriving exact formulas and iterative algorithmic schemes. We also obtain explicit results under various limiting regimes that demonstrate the effect of the level of synchronization on the performance of the systems.

Glorious past, uncertain present, bad future? Assessing effects of land-use changes on habitat suitability for a threatened farmland bird species

Land-use changes have strong impacts on biological communities. Among them, land abandonment is threatening a large number of conservation-concern species associated with semi-natural habitats shaped by ‘traditional’ farming. We focused on the red-backed shrike as a model for investigating the effect of land abandonment on a threatened bird species, and used historical data to model dynamic scenarios. We explored variations in habitat suitability from the 1950s to the present and predicted possible future variations. After investigating local habitat preferences of the species, we formulated a spatially explicit model of habitat suitability for shrikes according to current land-use types; then, we evaluated past habitat suitability, by applying the model to three known past scenarios, and simulated the habitat changes after land abandonment. By combining a habitat-association approach with past and future land use scenarios, we assessed and predicted the effects of habitat changes caused by abandonment. Shrike occurrence was favoured by the cover of four types of grassland and of shrubland with trees, and negatively affected by broadleaved woodlands. The current average habitat suitability is less than half of what it was in the 1950s. Future predictions in a complete abandonment scenario suggest that important decrease could be expected 10 or 20 years after abandonment, and that after 30 years the red-backed shrike would be completely extinct. Alternative scenarios involving partial abandonment suggested that subsidy policies may mitigate the effects of abandonment. Knowing land-use dynamics allowed the exploration of effects of land-use changes and corroborated the importance of low-intensity farming for conservation.

Evaluation of the Potential for Gas and CO2 Leakage Along Wellbores

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 106817, "Evaluation of the Potential for Gas and CO2 Leakage Along Wellbores," by Theresa L. Watson, SPE, T.L. Watson & Assocs. Inc., and Stefan Bachu, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, prepared for the 2007 SPE E&P Environmental and Safety Conference, Galveston, Texas, 5–7 March. Implementation of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in geological media requires proper assessment of the risk of CO2 leakage from storage sites. Leakage pathways may exist through and along wellbores that penetrate or are near the storage site. One method of assessing the potential for CO2 leak-age is by mining databases that usually reside with regulatory agencies. Introduction CO2-injection schemes have been in operation since as early as the 1970s for tertiary oil recovery as miscible floods, with the indirect benefit of CO2 removal from the atmosphere. Other gas-injection schemes also are used in the oil and gas industry, such as natural-gas storage and acid-gas disposal. In the case of CO2 sequestration, the storage unit must be almost leak free to the atmosphere or other geological formations to meet safety requirements and greenhouse-gas-reduction objectives. The full-length paper focuses on human-created leak-age paths—in particular, abandoned wellbores that were drilled for oil and gas exploration and production. The analysis is based on data collected by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) for more than 315,000 wells drilled until the end of 2004 in the province of Alberta, Canada. EUB also records well leakage at the surface as surface-casing vent flow (SCVF) through wellbore annuli and gas migration (GM) outside casing. Background Abandonment Methods. Wells Drilled and Abandoned. For a typical openhole abandonment scenario in Alberta, regulations require that any porous zone be isolated or covered to prevent cross-flow between geological formations. In addition, useable groundwater must be covered with cement and isolated from potential hydrocarbon-bearing zones. After the downhole cement plugs have been set, the well must remain open for inspection for a minimum of 5 days. After this time, the well is checked for static fluid level or other indications of plug leakage before the casing can be cut and capped below grade level. Wells Drilled, Cased, Completed, and Abandoned. There are three main types of zonal isolation and abandonment for a typical cased-hole well after reservoir depletion.Bridge plug capped with cement above perforations.Retainer and cement squeezed into perforations.Cement plug set across perforations. Regulations since 2003 require zonal isolation behind casing and that useable groundwater be protected. In many cases, older wells were constructed with low annular cement tops, allowing many zones to be in communication behind casing. Under the current regulations, a cement squeeze would be required to achieve isolation before final abandonment. Wellbores must be abandoned with inhibited fluid inside the casing and be pressure tested to a minimum of 7000 kPa. Before cutting and capping the production and surface casing, the well must be checked for SCVF and