Environmental Management Program Research Articles

A Study on the Operator Performance According to the Drastic Change of Illumination Level and Lighting Environment of Control Room in Nuclear Power Plants

Objective: This study describes the change of operator performance in drastic change of illumination level, and proposes an alternative method to cope with it. Background: The control standard of illumination for nuclear power plants(NPPs) is based on the set of limit criteria for maintaining a specific illumination level. However, there is a possibility to cause human errors according to the psychological and physiological influences to operators in the situation of drastic change of illumination such as SBO(Station Black Out), so a basic study is necessary to review the current approach. Method: We assessed the visual fatigue, subjective work load and task performance according to the three illumination situations(Normal Illumination, Emergency Illumination, and Drastic Change of Illumination). Result: Research finding shows that there are not significant differences in task performance between normal illumination (1,000lx level) and emergency illumination (100lx level), only if beyond the dark adaptation limit. However, subjective work load on mental demand and visual fatigue show a potential challenge to visual performance in drastic change of illumination. Conclusion/Application: Several trials can complement this challenge in NPPs by applying 3-way communication, enhancing readability of procedures, and managing the visual factors affecting the operators' performance through a Visual Environment Management Program including visual health aspects, etc.

Keberlanjutan Pengelolaan Lingkungan Pesisir Melalui Pemberdayaan Masyarakat di Desa Kwala Lama Kabupaten Serdang Bedagai

Masyarakat nelayan di Desa Kwala Lama Kabupaten Serdang Bedagai Provinsi Sumatera Utaramelaksanakan program pengelolaan Lingkungan Berbasis Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PLBPM) untukmembantu memperbaiki permasalahan kerusakan lingkungan pesisir di wilayah mereka. Studi inihendak mengetahui proses dan perubahan‐perubahan yang terjadi pada pengelolaan lingkunganberkelanjutan yang dilakukan oleh masyarakat tersebut. Studi ini melaksanakan (1) analisis perubahankondisi lingkungan, social, dan ekonomi masyarakat, (2) analisis perubahan sikap dan perilakumasyarakat, dan (3) analisis proses pembentukan komunitas yang berkelanjutan. Studi inimenyimpulkan bahwa pendekatan partisipasi masyarakat dalam pengelolaan lingkungan padaprogram PLBPM telah mendorong banyak perubahan pada penataan lingkungan yang berdampakpada perbaikan kondisi sosial dan ekonomi masyarakat. Studi ini mengindikasikan bahwa prosesseleksi terhadap kelompok fasilitator yang dilaksanakan pemerintah dalam tahap awal berhasildilakukan dengan baik karena kelompok tersebut mampu menjalankan program secara terbuka danadil, sehingga menumbuhkan kepercayaan masyarakat. Program tersebut juga berhasil membentuksolidaritas sehingga masyarakat siap untuk bertanggungjawab secara penuh dalam pengelolaanpembangunan komunitasnya dan untuk melanjutkan program tersebut.Kata kunci: pesisir, pengelolaan lingkungan, pemberdayaan masyarakat, pembangunan berkelanjutan

Heavy Metals in Vasai Creek, Mumbai: Applied Monitoring and Impact Assessment

The present study deals with the assessment of toxic heavy metals in water of Vasai Creek of Mumbai. The study was carried for the assessment years 2009-10 and 2010-11 at four different sampling stations. The heavy metals studied were Al, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sr and Mn. It was observed that the concentration level of the various toxic heavy metals for the year 2010-11 was higher than that obtained during the year 2009-10 by a factor of 1.1 to 1.5 µg/L. The environmental impact of these toxic heavy metals is discussed. The results of the present investigation point out the need to implement adequate environmental control and management programmes so as to minimise the toxicity effects of the heavy metals on marine life.

Impacts of climate-induced changes on the distribution of pesticides residues in water and sediment of Lake Naivasha, Kenya

This study reports evidence of increased chlorpyrifos contamination in sediment and water in Lake Naivasha following its intensive application in the horticultural farms in the catchment area. Analytical results show that levels of chlorpyrifos residues were influenced by climate-induced rainfall pattern with higher levels reported during period of heavy precipitation with significant decrease during low rainfall. On average, the levels ranged between 14.8 and 32.8ngg(-1) in sediment during rainy season compared to a range of 8.5-16.6ngg(-1) in the dry season. Additionally, the mean concentration of chlorpyrifos in water ranged between 8.61 and 22.4μgL(-1) during rainy season and below detection limit (bdl) -13.6μgL(-1) in dry season as quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Meanwhile, independent t test analysis indicated that there was significant difference in concentration at p ≤ 0.05 between the seasons with respect to sediment and water samples. This demonstrated that climate-induced variations had considerable influence on contamination. While diazinon and carbofuran were equally applied intensively, their levels were below the detection limit in the all the samples analyzed. ELISA results were validated by the capillary-HPLC photodiode-array detector instrument analysis, and statistical comparison showed no significant difference between them. It was evident that chlorpyrifos residues determination in water and sediment by ELISA can be a useful strategy in environmental management and monitoring program, and a complimentary analytical tool to high performance liquid chromatography. Levels of chlorpyrifos detected in sediment and water were found to exceed recommended criteria for protection of aquatic life and preservation of water quality and may be hazardous if not regularly monitored.

Delivering on environmental commitments? Guidelines and evaluation framework for an “on-board” approach

In contemporary contexts of complex, integrated policies, it has become ever more essential to assess whether environmental political commitments are effectively implemented. Endeavouring to find out, the evaluator finds himself ‘‘on-board’’: committed to one problematic, under strategic pressure, caught between paperwork and field investigation and looking for markers in ever changing situations and discourses. Based on evaluative research on environmental management programs in an arid region, the Senegal River valley, this paper reviews the pitfalls the evaluator has to confront, the successive deconstruction, reconstruction and assessment phases the evaluation has to go through, and proposes an ‘‘on-board’’ framework evaluation to prevent blurring of the environmental bottom-line.

Policies for Enhancing Corporate Environmental Management: a Framework and an Applied Example

ABSTRACTThis paper develops a four‐phase schematic representation dubbed the CEM lifecycle for conceptualizing how corporate environmental management (CEM) programs typically evolve in a given organization and then explicates the forces that influence corporate commitment as a CEM program progresses from inception to later phases of the CEM lifecycle. Examples are then presented on how the Singaporean government encourages enhancement of CEM programs by designing support programs that target the underlying corporate needs inherent to the first three CEM lifecycle phases. The examples provided in this paper of Singaporean CEM support programs illustrate how policy can be strategically designed to improve corporate uptake of CEM programs by enhancing CEM knowledge in the initial phase of the CEM lifecycle, providing technical support in the second lifecycle phase and providing opportunities for public recognition in the third lifecycle phase. The article concludes that replicating the strategic approach to policymaking exemplified in the Singaporean case study can significantly improve the competitiveness of domestic firms through encouraging more efficient use of resources; however, in order to design truly sustainable economies (provide for the needs of future generations), governments must be prepared to more coercively regulate the exploitation of natural endowments. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Making ecosystem reality checks the status quo

Holistic approaches to assessing stressors and managing aquatic ecosystems should be the rule; instead, they are the exception. Disjointed, overlapping, and competing environmental regulatory actions—all with the noble mission of protecting and restoring the environment—can no longer be justified. For at least 60 years, environmental regulatory programs in the United States, Europe, and other developed countries have relied heavily on various forms of assessing chemical risk to manage and protect ecosystems. Water quality, primarily focused on chemical regulation, emerged from the need to control water pollution problems caused by poor or nonexistent wastewater treatment. The result has been largely a singlechemical approach to environmental management and regulatory programs. To protect aquatic life uses for example, many countries developed water quality criteria for selected priority compounds. Legally enforcing these criteria (such as the Clean Water Act in the U.S.) has undoubtedly reduced chemical pollution, and many aquatic systems have benefited. Abundant information demonstrates, however, that singlechemical standards are just one approach to assess, manage, and regulate aquatic systems. For example, toxicity testing (e.g., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s [U.S. EPA] whole effluent toxicity program [WET]) has been used successfully to help assess effects of chemical interactions and the effects of unknown chemicals that may be present. Such testing, however, addresses only direct toxicity effects. Many aquatic systems are impaired by non-chemical stressors, including invasive species, habitat degradation from agriculture and urbanization, and flowmodifications or are influenced by complex interactions among chemicals and other stressors (e.g., nutrients) that are not addressed using either a singlechemical approach or mixture toxicity testing.

From Fish to Jellyfish in the Eutrophicated Limfjorden (Denmark)

The heavily eutrophicated Limfjorden (Denmark) provides a good illustration of the value of long-term monitoring, especially if this is combined with an experimental, interdisciplinary research approach. Here, we first give a short overview of the environmental status of Limfjorden, including the historical development of nutrient overloading and subsequent oxygen depletion in near-bottom water, and how the annual landings of edible bottom-dwelling fish species (plaice, flounder, eel and others) caught in Limfjorden have decreased from about 2,500 t in the early 1920s to only about 20 t in recent years where the fish have been replaced by an increasing number of especially the moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita, which mainly preys on zooplankton. Next, we evaluate the ecological consequences of the present high number of jellyfish, based on data from recent years’ research on the abundance of jellyfish, their population dynamics and predation impact. In Limfjorden, the benthic polyp stage of A. aurita ensures a large number of small ephyrae in the early spring and subsequently a large population of adult medusae that control the zooplankton during summer and autumn. The holopelagic invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, which was observed in Limfjorden for the first time in 2007, is a second carnivore adding additional predation pressure of the indigenous A. aurita so that copepods and other mesozooplankton organisms may be virtually absent, as observed in 2008 and 2009 where ciliates made up a substantial part of the zooplankton biomass. Marine environmental management programmes should be aware of the increasing importance of both indigenous and new invasive jellyfish species that may show mass occurrence in especially eutrophicated and over-fished areas.

Hotel companies' environmental policies and practices: a content analysis of their web pages

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the environmental management policies and practices of the top 50 hotel companies as disclosed on their corporate web sites.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed content analysis to review the web sites of the top 50 hotel companies as defined herein.FindingsOnly 46 per cent of the selected hotel companies used web pages to post information related to environmental issues on their public web sites. The web pages of Wyndham, IHG, Accor, Whitbread, Hyatt, Rezidor, Sol Melia, TUI, and Scandic featured more revealing environmental information than that posted by other companies, which indicated their environmental commitment and engagement. The results of content analysis identified 12 major environmental focus areas in which the sample hotel companies engaged.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings on environmental policies and practices are limited to the environmental information featured on the web sites of the top 50 hotel companies. Some of these companies may have established environmental policies or initiated environmental programs not disseminated on their web sites. In addition, web page information can be changed at any time, and the findings of this study are based upon a snapshot of the web sites as of March 2010.Practical implicationsThis study establishes a benchmark of the dissemination of environmental information on the internet by leading hotels, and provides a preliminary picture of environmental initiatives and engagement among these top hotel companies. The information generated from this study can serve as a guide for hotels that would like to engage in an environmental management program. This study also provides a source of information for hotels that would like to develop environmental web sites to demonstrate their environmental commitment to their stakeholders.Originality/valueInformation concerning the content of environmental information disseminated on the web sites of large hotel companies is sparse. Consequently, this study aims to provide a snapshot of where the hotel industry is with regard to on‐line environmental disclosure and related environmental policies and practices.

Eco‐design in total environmental quality management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology that may aid in assessing ecological quality multi‐trait screening through the use of simple and robust tools while exerting minimal effort in conducting trials and interpreting results.Design/methodology/approachResponse data for two popular site‐monitoring environmental indicators, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), are arranged by implementing an 8‐run saturated orthogonal array proposed by Taguchi. Unreplicated data consolidation is performed through the Super‐Ranking translation. This permits converting the two eco‐traits to a single master response which becomes much easier to manipulate statistically. Distribution‐free multi‐factor contrasting provides the data reduction engine to filter‐out non‐active eco‐design variables for a waste treatment unit in a large dairy‐products plant.FindingsEnvironmental quality improvement is achieved by accumulating structured eco‐data sets through an unreplicated‐saturated L8(27) Taguchi design. Concurrent minimization of the two selected eco‐responses, COD and BOD, promotes in a statistically significant fashion the quantity of incoming wastes, set at its minimum load, as the sole active eco‐factor.Practical implicationsBrief but robust experimentation is exploited in gaining information about the phenomenological behavior of environmental quality indicators, namely COD and BOD, in facilities that manage wastewater treatment. Design for environment is enforced through standard DOE planning schemes. Collected multi‐metric eco‐quality data are translated non‐parametrically in an easy‐to‐comprehend manner that requires no assist from software aids while bypassing more statistical intensive techniques which may demand involvement of more experienced personnel. The methodology is accessible to any level of statistical competence seamlessly intertwined to optimization demands for rapid inference needs.Originality/valueThe method mixes up three distinctive “design‐and‐analysis” elements in order to provide optimal solution in a design‐for‐environment project. The sampling capabilities of Taguchi's orthogonal arrays in concert with Super‐Ranking transformation fuse multi‐eco‐characteristics to a single easy‐to‐handle master unitless eco‐response. Order statistics tables recently published in terms of true probabilities have been adopted for supplying the proper cutoff points to be utilized for gauging against observed rank sums for an 8‐run orthogonal array screening. Quality managers and environmental engineers who contribute routinely to continuous eco‐improvement projects in their Total Environmental Quality Management (TEQM) program may find this approach attractive and viable en route to a typical industrial pollution prevention control deployment.

Environmental Education and Environmentally Responsible Behavior: The Case of International Tourists in Accra Hotels

The success of environmental programs in hotels hinges on the environmentally responsible behavior of guests. In spite of this, the hotel guest has remained peripheral to environmental management programs and initiatives in hotels. This paper therefore examines the environmentally responsible behavior of international tourists in hotels in Accra and whether environmental education by the hotels and gender of tourists have any relationship with environmentally responsible behavior. A sample of 343 international tourists was surveyed at major tourist attraction sites in Accra. The results of the study indicates that about three-quarters of respondents were neither informed about the environmental programs being undertaken by their hotels nor educated on environmentally responsible behavior. Also, women reported greater environmentally responsible behavior than men. Hotels in Accra should therefore step up environmental education especially through travel intermediaries and use women as change agents for inculcating environmentally responsible behavior.

Geoscience of the Built Environment: Pollutants and Materials Surfaces

An overview of issues with environmental relevance that arise from the interaction between pollutants and surfaces of the built environment is presented in this paper. Two broad perspectives are considered: decay of materials and recording of pollution characteristics. In relation to the former, we consider the possible implications on human activities restrictions, materials and morphological options, consumption of resources and release of pollutants resulting from the alteration of materials, conservation and restoration procedures. In terms of pollution recording, the interest of the stony materials as passive monitors of pollution, the question of heterogeneous conditions on buildings and the interest of qualitative and quantitative studies are highlighted. The importance of longitudinal studies on new and cleaned surfaces is considered, both for the understanding of materials decay and for the assessment of pollution conditions. The use of tracers to record the characteristics of pollution sources, interaction with materials and pathways of pollutants is also discussed. Finally, some recommendations are presented, based on the issues discussed on this paper that might be relevant for environmental management programs, including environmental education.

Water profiles of the forest products industry and their utility in sustainability assessment

Sustainability has become a key element of environmental management programs at most forest products companies. However, describing sustainability in terms of natural resource use and management can be challenging, owing to the evolution of practices deemed to be consistent with the concept. This paper provides quantitative and qualitative assessments and discussion of water resources as they relate to the activities of the forest products industry. Water resource use and management from the forest, through manufacturing, and on to potential effects of treated effluents on receiving waters is considered. Important findings from this work are that forests act to process precipitation into high-quality surface waters, and in North America, most surface waters are derived from forested areas. Forest management can affect water quality, but the use of forestry best management practices greatly minimizes harmful effects. Manufacturing of pulp and paper is water-use intensive relative to most other industries, although the amount of water consumed (i.e., evaporated or exported with product or residuals) represents a small fraction of the overall water used. The potential for treated effluent to affect receiving water systems has been widely investigated, and while effects are sometimes observed, aquatic community structures most commonly are not altered by well-treated mill effluents. Water profile results and water sustainability metrics are also briefly compared.

A new method for environmental site assessment of urban solid waste landfills

Regarding various types of pollutant, waste management requires high attention. Environmental site selection study, prior to landfill operation, and subsequently, monitoring and maintaining of the location, are of foremost points in landfill site selection process. By means of these studies, it is possible to control the undesirable impacts caused by landfills. Study ahead aims at examination of effectiveness of a new method called Monavari 95-2 in landfill site assessment. For this purpose, two landfills Rasht and Andisheh, which are, respectively, located on humid and arid areas, were selected as case studies. Then, the results obtained from both sites were compared with each other to find out the weaknesses and strengths of each site. Compared with others similar methods, much more criteria (53 parameters) can be considered within this method, so the results will be more calculable. According to this method, Rasht landfill (site H) is classified as unacceptable landfill site i.e. there is an urgent need for a new suitable site for landfill, while Andishe Landfill (site D) is ranked as acceptable landfill site but needs environmental management program to handle the existing weaknesses.

Improving Voluntary Environmental Management Programs: Facilitating Learning and Adaptation

Environmental planners and managers face unique challenges understanding and documenting the effectiveness of programs that rely on voluntary actions by private landowners. Programs, such as those aimed at reducing nonpoint source pollution or improving habitat, intend to reach those goals by persuading landowners to adopt behaviors and management practices consistent with environmental restoration and protection. Our purpose with this paper is to identify barriers for improving voluntary environmental management programs and ways to overcome them. We first draw upon insights regarding data, learning, and adaptation from the adaptive management and performance management literatures, describing three key issues: overcoming information constraints, structural limitations, and organizational culture. Although these lessons are applicable to a variety of voluntary environmental management programs, we then present the issues in the context of on-going research for nonpoint source water quality pollution. We end the discussion by highlighting important elements for advancing voluntary program efforts.

Financial and environmental consequences of a voluntary farm environmental assurance program in Michigan

The Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program is a voluntary environmental management program for Michigan farms. The Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program encourages farm managers to become better environmental stewards through writing Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans and incorporating changes to comply with regulations as well as generally accepted management practices and recommendations. Early-adopting livestock producers with verified operations were interviewed to identify and measure costs incurred, environmental outcomes achieved, and producer attitudes and perceptions as a result of verification. The average total cost to become verified was $120,600 per farm, of which the average producer paid $104,423, with the remaining $16,177 provided through cost-share funds. Much of this cost was for long-term investments such as manure storage and facilities improvements. Producers realized an average postverification annual cost savings of $2,792 by curtailing unnecessary use of commercial fertilizer. The financial values had large amounts of variation in every case. The per animal unit costs of verification were generally in the same range as the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates for cost of compliance with similar (but mandatory) proposed regulations. With respect to environmental outcome, after verification, average operation mass balance improved. The primary motivation to participate in the program stemmed from existing or potential environmental regulations.

Climate change impacts on groundwater temperature change in the Sendai plain, Japan

AbstractGroundwater temperature is a key parameter regulating the ecological balance of the ecosystems in groundwater dominated wetlands, estuaries and ponds. This study evaluated the potential impacts of climate change on groundwater temperature and proposed a methodology for use in areas with limited hydrological and metrological data. Groundwater temperatures were measured in 1 m intervals in five observation wells and used for groundwater recharge estimation. Three different techniques, the water balance method, the water level fluctuation (WLF) method and Darcy's method, were performed to verify the estimated recharge rates from the temperature‐depth profiles. Of the six sets of global climate model (GCM) predictions analysed, three of them were selected by considering a range of potential climate changes in the future. The transfer function method was used to downscale the GCM outputs of precipitation and temperature of the Sendai plain. Raw GCM data for nine scenarios (A2, A1B, and B1 from HADCM3, MRI, and ECHAM5 models) and observed data from 1967 to 2006 were used to develop the transfer functions. Derived functions, which were tested for 1927–1966, were used to downscale GCM data for 2060–2099. These predictions were used in a one‐dimensional heat transport model, which was calibrated to the existing site conditions by the water budget technique. There are marked differences among the scenarios and GCMs. However, all the model scenarios projected increasing trends in temperature and precipitation for the 2060–2099 time period. HADCM3 A2 scenario shows the strongest effect compared with the base line climate (1967–2006), which involves an increase in the air temperature of 3·9 °C and an increase in annual precipitation of 345 mm. When considering all GCM scenarios compared with observations in 2006, the aquifer temperature at 8 m depth from the ground surface could possibly increase within the range of 1·2–3·3 °C by 2080. The above findings from the methodology developed here will be important for estimating the impact of climate change and will be useful for environmental management programs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Identifying strengths and weaknesses of landscape visualisation for effective communication of future alternatives

Visualisation technologies are powerful tools for communicating the scientific outcomes of environmental planning models. This study specifically explores the strengths and weaknesses of landscape visualisation techniques in environmental planning by drawing upon insights from the multi-agency Lower Murray Landscape Futures (LMLF) integrated modelling and analysis project in south-eastern Australia. The project explored spatially explicit policy options and scenarios for assessing the impacts of achieving regional natural resource management targets. Alternative landscape futures were communicated using a range of visualisation techniques available online. We assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the suite of visualisation products deployed for communicating landscape futures to two audiences (i) current users comprising environmental managers and planners working within the study area and (ii) future users comprising university students currently studying spatial information sciences as part of their environmental management program. Semi-structured interviews and website evaluation surveys were undertaken with current users and future users, respectively. Results indicate that both audiences appreciated the environmental planning and investment decision support strengths of the visualisation products. The current users had concerns around the target audience and the nature and extent of communications and stakeholder engagement in product development. The future user group were more interested in the visual clarity of the visualisation products. End user feedback provided a number of useful recommendations in relation to how the visualisation products could be refined to improve the communication effectiveness and end user experience. We conclude by presenting a number of future directions for landscape visualisation science and communication of environmental modelling outcomes.

Inexact credibility constrained programming for environmental system management

This study proposed an inexact credibility constrained programming (ICCP) to deal with multi-formats of uncertainties in parameters and variables for an agricultural water planning system. The study system includes three subareas with different crop distributions. The redundant water in the wet season can be stored in the reservoir and utilized in the dry season. The ICCP method can reflect not only inexact uncertainties in the objective function, variables and parameters, but also fuzzy uncertainties in the right-hand side. Interval credibility levels which represent satisfaction degrees of the constraints can be analyzed. Scenario analysis is conducted to analyze possible events in wet and dry years. The resulting solutions can provide stable intervals for the objective function and decision variables with different levels of risk when violating the constraints.

Environmental impacts on soil and groundwater at airports: origin, contaminants of concern and environmental risks

Environmental impacts of airports are similar to those of many industries, though their operations expand over a very large area. Most international impact assessment studies and environmental management programmes have been giving less focus on the impacts to soil and groundwater than desirable. This may be the result of the large attention given to air and noise pollution, relegating other environmental descriptors to a second role, even when the first are comparatively less relevant. One reason that contributes to such "biased" evaluation is the lack of systematic information about impacts to soil and groundwater from airport activities, something the present study intends to help correct. Results presented here include the review of over seven hundred documents and online databases, with the objective of obtaining the following information to support environmental studies: (i) which operations are responsible for chemical releases?; (ii) where are these releases located?; (iii) which contaminants of concern are released?; (iv) what are the associated environmental risks? Results showed that the main impacts occur as a result of fuel storage, stormwater runoff and drainage systems, fuel hydrant systems, fuel transport and refuelling, atmospheric deposition, rescue and fire fighting training areas, winter operations, electrical substations, storage of chemical products by airport owners or tenants, and maintenance of green areas. A new method for ranking environmental risks of organic substances, based on chemical properties, is proposed and applied. Results show that the contaminants with the highest risks are the perfluorochemicals, benzene, trichloroethylene and CCl(4). The obtained information provides a basis for establishing the planning and checking phases of environmental management systems, and may also help in the best design of pollution prevention measures in order to avoid or reduce significant environmental impacts from airports.