Environmental Resource Degradation Research Articles

Application of Termite Mound-Bentonite Mixture as Bottom Liner for Industrial Waste Containment

The indiscriminate disposal of waste into various dumpsites with noncompliance to the existing environmental laws and the inadequate provision for leachate containments had resulted in the degradation of environmental resources over the years. The research investigated the practicability of enhanced termite mound-bentonite mixture as an alternate landfill bottom liner. The percentage weight ratio of mound soil and bentonite used for the experimental study were (100:0), (95:5), (90:10) and (85:15) respectively. The study was conducted on a pilot scale artificial landfill (800 x 800 x 400 mm) with four sections AX, AY, BX and BY. Bottom liner was exposed to wastewater for 26 weeks retention period. The pilot scale experimental study revealed that liner mixtures in sections AX, AY and BX failed during the 6, 11 and 17th week retention periods respectively with a corresponding seepage amounting to , and mm3 respectively. However, no seepage was recorded for liner mixture in section BY which connotes that wastewater leakage was prevented throughout the experimental framework. Conclusively, the application of termite mound soil enhanced with 15% bentonite is recommended as a bottom liner in a waste containment system.

Crop diversification improves cropping system sustainability: An 8-year on-farm experiment in South-Western France

CONTEXTConventional cropping systems in south-western France contribute greatly to the degradation of environmental resources. Crop diversification is considered to be an effective mechanism to increase the sustainability of cropping systems and promote their transition to agroecology. To test this hypothesis, farmers, agricultural advisers and scientists developed a participative co-design project. OBJECTIVEThe main objective was to co-design cropping systems to reduce the use of inputs, experiment with them on farms and assess their sustainability over several years. METHODSEight diversified cropping systems were designed during multi-actor co-innovation workshops. These systems were established and monitored for eight years (2010–2017) on two fields on each of eight farms located in areas with different soil and climate conditions. At the end of the eight-year study, the performance of these cropping systems was evaluated using 15 economic, environmental and social indicators. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSCrop diversification improved most of the environmental indicators. Pesticide use decreased by 20–64% in five of the eight systems but increased in the other three, due to production contracts that required systematic applications or in order to control high levels of pest or weed pressure. In parallel, mean energy consumption (−30%), greenhouse gas emissions (−36%) and irrigation water consumption (−43%) decreased significantly after diversification, which helped the systems mitigate and adapt to climate change. The economic performance, however, was more contrasted, with four of the eight farms showing a decrease in semi-net margin of 10–35% compared to those of the initial systems, but the other four showing an increase of 5–190%. Production of food energy also generally decreased (by up to 40%) after diversification, mainly due to a decrease in the amount of cereals produced (especially maize). Thus, crop diversification usually improves the environmental sustainability of cropping systems; however, for certain specialised high-value cropping systems, which often have high environmental impacts, it tends to reduce their economic performances.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Cultivation Using Vermicompost-Amended Soil as an Aspect of Sustainable Plant Production

To achieve higher yields and maximum plant growth, excessive amounts of inorganic fertilisers are often applied to soils, affecting human and animal health and leading to the degradation of environmental resources. The use of organic fertilisers is proposed as an alternative to mineral fertilisation. One of the more frequently used organic fertilisers is vermicompost, which contains nutrients for plants in readily available forms and is characterised by the slow release of macronutrients and microelements into the soil environment. In a two-year field study, an attempt was made to use vermicompost produced from the waste mass of littoral plants as a soil amendment in the cultivation of garlic (Allium sativum). The experiment was conducted on raised beds with three treatments which were substitution of 10%, 25% and 50% vermicompost (V10, V25 and V50, respectively) to a heavy clay soil (SL), that with no addition acted as a control. Results showed that the 50% vermicompost addition had the most beneficial effect on selected (from a practical point of view) plant traits (e.g., diameter and mean bulb weight, mean number of cloves per bulb and mean clove weight, and mean yield), as well as on the content of macronutrients and microelements in garlic cloves. Lowest values of the analysed traits for A. sativum were found in the SL control group. No significant differences were found for the analysed parameters in the aboveground parts of plants in all the applied substrates.

Curtailing Pollution due to Processes on Plastic Disposal

Though the government has ruled ``Say No to Plastic'', plastic usage is increasing day by day. It is observed since last three decades that each process of plastic creates pollution affecting degradation of environmental resources like air, soil and water. The proposed mathematical model contains these three pollutions with its issues having a dynamical system of nonlinear differential equations. Feasible region contains three equilibrium points pollution-free, water-pollution free and optimum issue point. Basic reproduction number and center manifold theory is used for analyzing the local stability of a model. Castillo-Chavez theory with detailed computation has been used to check global dynamical behavior of equilibrium points and also gives the existence of backward bifurcation of plastic usage. To optimize the pollution, optimal control has been applied to the system. Graphical analysis is carried out.

The utilization of bentonite enhanced termite mound soil mixture as filter for the treatment of paint industrial effluent

This research investigates the applicability of bentonite enhanced termite mound soil mixture as an alternative filter medium for paint industrial wastewater (PIWW) management in a constructed pilot-scale filtration tank with four different sections. The mixture of bentonite (BC) and termite mound soil (MS) used as the filter was proportioned by percentage weight as (100% MS), {text{(5% BC}} + {text{95% MS),}}{text{(10% BC}} + {text{90% MS),}}{text{(15% BC}} + {text{85% MS)}} and placed into four sections, respectively. The filter materials were compacted, cured and subjected to wastewater loading for 30 weeks. The results obtained from the analysis of the filtrate samples revealed that filter with 15% BC content generally exhibited high and effective pollutant removal efficiencies of 51.3%, 98.9%, and 72.7% for total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, and copper, respectively, while a maximum removal efficiency of 100% was recorded for lead, chromium and cadmium. The pollutants (TDS, TSS, Pb, Cr, Cu and Cd) concentrations of the treated PIWW were below the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency permissible limits for discharge. Hence, the 15% bentonite and 85% termite mound soil mixtures are recommended for the small-scale paint industries as a point of use measure for effective pollutant removal. Its application would mitigate the degradation of environmental resources caused by indiscriminate disposal of untreated effluent.

River and harbor remediation: “polluter pays,” alternative finance, and the promise of a “circular economy”

Contaminated sediments in rivers, lakes, and harbors around the world result in diminished ecological health, degradation of environmental resources, economic losses, and, in rare cases, impacts on human health. Despite the ongoing interest in the cleanup of contaminated sediments in rivers and harbors, little progress has been made in reducing the number of contaminated sites worldwide. Proponents of a “circular economy” model assert that it can facilitate the cleanup of contaminated sediments through product and process design to eliminate waste of resources, to beneficially use (and reuse) products and materials, and to restore ecologies. This paper evaluates the application of circular economy models to practice in the treatment, removal, and processing of contaminated sediments found in waterways. No materials were used in this work. Methods consisted of literature research and review. Much of the difficulty in advancing the cause of contaminated sediment cleanup can be attributed to the high cost of cleanups and the difficulty in assigning financial responsibility for the cost. Simple schemes dependent on identifying polluters are fraught with underlying complexity. More elaborate approaches tied in with waterfront redevelopment show some promise but are yet to be applied routinely. New advances in the understanding of how sediments may, or may not, factor into the utility of circularity models pose new challenges and opportunities, with the potential to complement new funding paradigms. The most promising possibilities for achieving circularity in sediment management lie in a kind of punctuated circularity, which requires individual, project-based beneficial use opportunities. However, these ideal situations are likely to remain rare for the foreseeable future, without advancements in technology and regulatory approaches, as well as development of market demand for the products made from contaminated sediments.

Recent onset of eutrophication in Lake Izabal, the largest water body in Guatemala

Recent human population growth has contributed to the degradation of environmental resources in Guatemala. Since 1900, the population of the country grew from 17 million inhabitants. The watershed of Lake Izabal, eastern Guatemala, also experienced rapid population growth, and with it, development of intensive agriculture in areas adjacent to the lake. These recent demographic and land-use changes altered anthropogenic nutrient inputs to the water body, through delivery of raw sewage, and agricultural practices that include excessive use of fertilizers. Currently, Lake Izabal is marked by frequent algal blooms and associated fish-kill events. It also hosts a number of invasive, and in some cases, exotic plant and animal species. We used data from a sediment core collected in the western end of the lake to link past anthropogenic activities in the watershed to the deterioration of water quality and shifts in aquatic ecosystem functioning. We measured total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and δ13C and δ15N of organic matter in a 137Cs- and 14C-dated sediment core from the Polochic Delta in Lake Izabal to infer past limnological changes. The core chronology indicates that 505 cm of sediment accumulated in only the last 370 years (~ 1.4 cm a−1). TOC and TN concentrations increased since about 1950, a time during which the TOC:TN ratio decreased, indicating a relatively greater contribution of phytoplankton to the sediment organic matter. Stratigraphic shifts in δ13C and δ15N indicate recent increasing inputs of raw sewage and fertilizer to the lake during the same time period. Lake Izabal, like many other water bodies in Guatemala, is starting to undergo cultural eutrophication, which probably accounts for the frequent algal blooms, proliferation of invasive species (e.g. Hydrilla verticillata), and decline in fish abundance.

Identification and countermeasures of limiting factors of regional sustainable development: a case study in the Pearl River Delta of China

With the acceleration of global urbanization and the degradation of environmental resources, cities face enormous challenges in sustainable development, which is more pronounced in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) urban agglomeration of China. The influencing factors and countermeasures of the sustainable development of the PRD were identified through an ecological security assessment that was associated with the coupling coordination degree model and the BP-DEMATEL model. Three index systems were established, including socioeconomic indicators, eco-environmental indicators and both kinds of indicators; from the perspective of the ecological security and coordination degree, developing areas have better sustainability performance with a higher ecological security score on these three index systems (0.3909, 0.4210 and 0.3912, respectively). Further influencing indicator analysis suggested that the fundamental indicator that limits the regional sustainability of the PRD is the urban ecological elasticity (the “Prominence” value is 4.4713 and the “Relation” value is 3.3336), as well as driving indicators, including the normalized difference vegetation index, GDP per capita, the population density and pesticide usage per km2 of cultivated area. Therefore, coordinated development among different cities should be considered. Cities with more native environments are vulnerable to external factors, and industrialized cities lack powerful ecological restoration. Ecological restoration and management measures are suggested to provide guidance for urban managers and promote regional sustainable development.

Constraints and capacities for novel livelihood adaptation: lessons from agricultural adoption in an African dryland pastoralist system

Climate change, land use change, and sociopolitical and institutional transitions in African drylands have resulted in the loss, fragmentation, and degradation of environmental resources that pastoralists rely upon to sustain their livestock-based livelihoods. Diversification into irrigated agriculture is a potential strategy to increase food security. However, successful livelihood adaptation depends on access to key forms of natural, human, social, financial, and physical capitals, which may be lacking or unequally distributed in pastoralist communities. In two dryland pastoralist communities in Kenya, an international relief organization introduced irrigated farming in 2010. Nearly 200 individuals began farming, but within 4 years, all had quit. This study investigated the role of household access to different forms of capital in decisions to adopt agriculture, and how adaptive capacities, environmental conditions, and farming as a new livelihood practice interacted to shape household vulnerability. We found that decisions to farm were largely decoupled from access to assets that would afford greater adaptive capacity. The analysis also identified critical constraints that households encountered once they adopted farming. This study highlights the importance of more nuanced understandings of local capacities in the dynamics of adapting to environmental change. We recommend that prior to introducing interventions that promote new livelihood activities, development organizations should assess local capacities and pursue targeted strategies to increase household-level access to the forms of assets that will facilitate successful adaptation.

Understanding Sustainability through Traditional Maasai Pastoral Systems in Southern Kenya

In the developed world, we tend to think of sustainability as a newly articulated solution to challenges of environmental resource degradation and issues of social and economic injustice. However, pastoralism as traditionally practiced by the Maasai of southern Kenya is tied closely to the land and responds to climatic variation within the region. In the early 20 th century, colonial policies began to alter traditional land use systems, compromising inherently sustainable arrangements and isolating populations from the land. This trend has continued somewhat in contemporary development practice. As a result of a shift toward privatization of land tenure, traditional pastoral systems are no longer viable. While studying abroad with The School for Field Studies, we became aware of the struggle many Maasai face as they attempt to continue pastoralism in an increasingly hostile environment. Ultimately, development efforts in the region should focus not on implementing exogenous concepts of ‗sustainability‘ but rather on supporting and adapting systems that are already in place. Author’s Note Kaitlyn received an email from Consilience while we were in Kenya. That night, we started talking about sustainability in the context of the Maasai. While we come from different disciplinary backgrounds—Emma is focused on Africana Studies while Kaitlyn‘s background is in Environmental Biology—in Kenya we had both come to understand the inextricable relationship between people and conservation in the developing world. We wanted to share our thoughts on issues of sustainable development, as well as some of the more formative experiences that contributed to our understanding of the complex nature of social and environmental issues in southern Kenya. We‘ve both developed a strong connection to the area. Emma plans to return to southern Kenya and research sustainable agriculture, ultimately working toward a graduate degree in the field. After spending a year in western Kenya studying the behavioral ecology of blue monkeys, Kaitlyn plans to pursue graduate education in the field of conservation biology. She will continue to engage in projects that integrate conservation and development efforts.

SMEs and Sustainable Tourism - The Case of an Indian Himalayan Destination

This paper examines the impacts of unplanned growth of tourismSMEs on civic infrastructure and the environment in Manali - a major touristdestination of Himachal Pradesh. Using an indicator’s framework, the impacts oftourism on the economic, social, and environmental aspects are studied, and it isevident that SMEs working in isolation are damaging the environment at thedestination. While the local community is paying the cost of tourism developmentin the form of degradation of environmental resources, commercializationof landscape, and congestion, the majority of the economic benefits are flowingto the expatriate, making tourism at the destination unsustainable. A CommunityBenefit Tourism Initiative (CBTI) model is proposed to achieve sustainabletourism development at the destination through public-private partnership.

Rural livelihoods and environmental resource dependence in Cambodia

Understanding rural livelihood strategies and environmental resource dependence can help to reduce and prevent livelihood stresses induced by environmental resource degradation. This study identifies livelihood strategies of farm households in rural Cambodia and explores their determinants with a focus on environmental resource dependence. The data are derived from a survey of 580 households in 30 villages of Stung Treng province in Cambodia undertaken in 2013. An activity-based two-step cluster analysis is conducted to identify different livelihood clusters and regression models are performed to determine the major factors affecting the choice of livelihood strategies and the extraction of environmental resources. The results demonstrate how different levels of environmental and household capital influence livelihood strategies. Environmental resources contribute a significant portion of household income (27%) and act as a means to reduce income inequality (7%) among households. The absolute environmental income is positively correlated with the total income but the relative environmental income decreases with an increase in total income. Thus, it appears that low income households are not to be blamed for environmental degradation, because they are unable to undertake activities with high return. The findings of this study suggest that promoting off-farm employment, education and social networking reduces the extraction of environmental resources.

Testing Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis at Firm Level in India

All over the world, deterioration of environmental quality has been considered as a hot issue. The growing number of industries is one of the major reasons for the enhanced level of pollution and fast degradation of environmental resources. This situation urges the corporates to involve themselves in socially responsible activities and to periodically assess the ecofriendly technologies. This paper proposes to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis, with reference to sample companies listed in BSE S&P – 500, over the period 1 st April 2005 to 31 st March 2014. In order to determine the existence of EKC relationship, the sign and magnitude of regression coefficients were analyzed. The results exhibited U shaped relationship for ROE, ROCE, and ROS. At the same time, EKC relationship, by way of inverted U shaped curve, was found for ROA. Based on the empirical findings of this study, some suggestions have been put forward to the corporates and policy makers, to control the level of energy intensity, by implementing eco-friendly technologies.

Rural Livelihoods and Environmental Resource Dependence in Cambodia

Understanding rural livelihood strategies and environmental resource dependence can help to reduce and prevent livelihood stresses induced by environmental resource degradation. This study identifies livelihood strategies of farm households in rural Cambodia and explores their determinants with a focus on environmental resource dependence. The data are derived from a survey of 580 households in 30 villages of Stung Treng province in Cambodia undertaken in 2013. An activity-based two-step cluster analysis is conducted to identify different livelihood clusters and regression models are performed to determine the major factors affecting the choice of livelihood strategies and the dependence on environmental resources. The results demonstrate how different levels of environmental and household capital influence livelihood strategies. Environmental resources contribute a significant portion of household income (27%) and act as a means to reduce income inequality (7%) among households. The absolute environmental income is positively correlated with the total income but the relative environmental income decreases with an increase in total income. Thus, it appears that low income households are not to be blamed for environmental degradation, because they are unable to undertake activities with high return. The findings of this study suggest that promoting off-farm employment, education and social networking reduces the extraction of environmental resources.

Analysing the Vulnerability of Dry Ecosystems to Desertification Due to Environmental Resource Degradation in Anantapur: The Need for Enhancing Ecological and Social Resilience

Dry ecosystems are natural ecosystems on dry lands that are inherently vulnerable to desertification hazards. They are, however, becoming increasingly vulnerable due to environmental resource degradation in dry lands, which is caused, at least partly, by the socio-economic pressures of human population. As most dry ecosystems have natural resources at margins and experience the recurrence of extreme weather events, they have poor ecological resilience; hence, reducing their susceptibility to desertification hazard becomes is critical for the sustenance of the ecosystems as well as for the inhabiting human populations. At the same time, building social resilience is also important to buffer against the ecological and climatic catastrophes. Anantapur is one such dry land district located in the South-Central part of peninsular India that has been experiencing desertification conditions due to environmental resource degradation, which is conditioned by natural factors and exacerbated by anthropogenic factors. The current paper analyses the vulnerability of dry ecosystems in Ananatapur to the desertification hazards due to environmental resource degradation and discusses the need for mitigating it through a range of institutional and policy interventions. Desertification, in this context, is predisposition of ecosystem to natural vulnerability and an exacerbation in it caused by the above factors. The paper, however, does not venture into establishing direct cause-effect relationships, since these interactions are quite complex and intertwined.

Application of exergy analysis for quantification and optimisation of the environmental performance in wastewater treatment plants

This paper presented a new approach to estimate the degradation of environmental resources in a Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) using exergy analysis. In first part, a method was described to calculate various quantities of the wastewater exergy. Furthermore, units were analysed to determine the most defective unit. In second part, a case study was analysed based on the environmental exergy concepts. Two environmental indexes include Environmental Exergy Efficiency (EEE) and the Total Pollution Rate (TPR) were considered for quantification of environmental impacts. In third part, the primary clarifier was determined as the most defective unit. At least, the optimised network was presented to performance improvement and environmental impacts reducing. EEE and TPR indexes were changed from 6.14 and 0.14 to 1.79 and 0.36, respectively. In addition, the results of this paper showed that exergy analysis can be used as a tool for quantification and optimisation of WWTP.

Rainforest Alliance Certification of Kenyan tea farms: a contribution to sustainability or tokenism?

Abstract An Environmental Management System (EMS) refers to a set of guidelines that organisations can use to structure their management to prevent or minimise adverse environmental and social impacts. Rainforest Alliance Certification (RFC), one example of an EMS, was adopted by some Kenyan tea farms in 2007 to promote sustainable tea production. RFC addresses the three pillars of sustainable development (environmental, economic and social) and as such is suited to tea farming which has been characterised by environmental resource degradation, job insecurity, strenuous work conditions and child labour. To study the effect of certification, interviews with farm managers, and farm workers on certified and non-certified tea farms were carried out. Sets of agri-environmental and socio-economic indicators were then compared using these data. The results indicate that the RFC brings some important social and environmental benefits to certified tea farms. These benefits include improved work conditions and to a limited extent, natural resource conservation. However, there were no differences between certified and non-certified farms in a number of aspects, including access to health services and employee living conditions. Two main conclusions can be drawn. First, although there are important sustainability benefits from adopting the RFC, more efforts are still needed to achieve sustainability on certified farms. Secondly, there are sufficient benefits to indicate that all tea farms should be encouraged to become certified.

An Input-Output Analysis with an Environmentally Adjusted Agricultural and Forestry Sector in Bangladesh

Traditional national income accounting methods does not make an allowance for the environmental damages incurred while producing the current output. Agriculture is no longer considered to be an environmentally friendly activity. In Bangladesh, efforts to feed an ever-increasing population have meant unsustainable farming practices and a steady depletion of the resource base. The quality of the environment has been degraded and ability of the future generations compromised. This calls for “greening” of GDP by deducting negative changes in environmental quality in national income calculation. This paper begins by developing an environmental account for Bangladesh's agricultural sector. This is done by collecting physical data on depletion and degradation of environmental resources and then estimating their costs by appropriate valuation techniques. The environmentally adjusted agricultural sector is then integrated with a Social Accounting Matrix. Finally, sectoral products for agriculture and forestry are estimated net of environmental cost.

Does large-sized cities' urbanisation predominantly degrade environmental resources in China? Relationships between urbanisation and resources in the Changjiang Delta Region

Outward expansion of urban lands in the developing nations is often associated with a substantial loss of environmental resources such as forests, wetlands, freshwater and cash crop fields. Yet, determining how different aspects of urbanisation – such as city population size and spread pattern of built-up lands – contribute to the cumulative loss of resources remains controversial. In this study, data sets were constructed describing changes to land cover across 65,200 grid cells at 1 km2 spatial resolution for China's Changjiang Delta Region over the past 60 years. The results showed that the region lost 12.2% of total resource sites. The distribution of resource degradation showed a highly dispersed pattern and was not confined to a few intense areas associated with large cities. No empirical evidence was found that city population size alone accurately predicts the distribution of resource loss. Very large cities (N = 4) contributed 35% to the total loss, demonstrating impacts similar to those of much more scattered towns (N = 230). Urban expansion of large cities may lead to extensive resource loss; however, a set of non-linear mechanisms, such as the diminishing effects of per-unit area urban spread on resources and interactions between urban patterns and the size of urban spread, can also play a significant role in downsizing the negative effects of large cities on resource sites. Thus, effective urban policies should carefully weigh the cumulative urban spread mechanisms of both large and small cities responsible for spatially dispersed degradation of environmental resources.

Sviluppo e ambiente, un problema di equilibrio

In an organised society, planning acts on different levels to orient change within a logic that is consistent with the objectives. If the different stages take place in separate sectors, placing technical rigour before verification of the interrelations between the parts, contradictions arise which at times cannot be corrected. An example of this is seen in the degradation of environmental resources and their irreversible consumption beyond limit thresholds. The plan relates to all this, but it often fails to prevent it, because it is supported by scarce knowledge of the dynamics induced by certain technological processes. For science and technology parks it is particularly necessary to link location decisions to an assessment of the direct and indirect effects on humans, on the environment and on material and cultural assets as well as on the selection of the control and monitoring tools to be used after implementation.