Environmental Risk Management Research Articles

Risk assessment of land subsidence based on GIS in the Yongqiao area, Suzhou City, China.

This study focuses on the Yongqiao District in Suzhou City, Anhui Province, China, aiming to analyze the current situation of ground settlement and its influencing factors in the area. The selected risk indices include settlement rate, cumulative settlement amount, groundwater level drop funnel, thickness of loose sediment layer, thickness of soft soil layer, and the number of groundwater extraction layers. Additionally, vulnerability indices such as population density, building density, road traffic, and functional zoning are considered. An evaluation index system for assessing land Subsidence risk was established. The risk evaluation of land Subsidence was conducted using the Hierarchical analysis-composite index method and ArcGIS spatial analysis, The evaluation results show that the area of higher risk area is about 2.82 km2, accounting for 0.96% of the total area, mainly distributed in the area of Jiuli village, Sanba Street. The middle risk area is distributed around the higher area, with an area of about 9.18 km2, accounting for 3.13% of the total area. The lower risk areas were distributed in most of the study area, covering an area of 222.24 km2, accounting for 75.82% of the total area. The low risk assessment area is mainly distributed in Bianhe Street and part of Zhuxianzhuang Town, with an area of about 58.88 km2, accounting for 20.09% of the total area. The findings of this study are not only crucial for informing local policies and practices related to land use planning, infrastructure development, and emergency response but also enhance our understanding of the complexities of land Subsidence processes and their interactions with human activities, informing future research and practice in environmental risk assessment and management.

Transitioning a hydrogen facility from project to operations

Preparing any hazardous facility for transition from project to operations requires a rigorous management process. In the area of hydrogen operations, hazards are heightened and there are limited examples of transitioning a hydrogen facility from project to operations outside of large-scale oil refineries. This paper highlights the unique challenges of managing hydrogen process safety through the project to operate phase while maintaining safety standards that meet or exceed the expectations of the asset owner, regulator and the community in which we operate. Our experience transitioning hydrogen operations started in Queensland which has arguably the toughest engineering and safety standards in Australia. This experience has informed our methodologies and the important points of this paper detail for both owner and regulator, what to expect from the operator and what the operator will need to demonstrate compliance with. Hydrogen operations traditionally were on oil refineries which may have been in local communities, unlike remote upstream gas and oil projects far from the major populations. Refineries are typically close to transportation hubs and end users. Our experience is that hydrogen or hydrogen transport fluids such as ammonia, methylcyclohexane (MCH) and others are more likely to reside near major international ports with close access to both clean energy and available workforce which heightens the environmental, social, governance and community risk management requirements. This paper intends to inform regulators, owners and operators of the unique challenges and aspects of getting a hydrogen facility up and running in a safe and community sensitive way.

Operating in the context of evolving climate disclosure practices and frameworks

The standards for companies reporting on the environmental impacts of their operations have changed drastically over the last decade and are about to become even more complex. Initially, limited regulation or guidance available to companies in relation to climate disclosures led to widely diverging practices. This has resulted in many companies facing allegations of ‘greenwashing’ and in some cases litigation and shareholder activism. However, the Australian Government has recently announced it will implement mandatory climate reporting commencing from 1 July 2024 for many Australian companies. Additional climate disclosures – encouraged by pressure from stakeholders and required by the new reporting regulations – will make environmental risk management more complex. The additional disclosures will also provide further opportunities for interference with the approval process for new projects, if there are inconsistencies between a company’s climate disclosures generally and what they have said in their project approval documents. In this paper, we provide an overview of effective strategies and mitigation steps that can be taken to reduce this risk of disruption and disincentivise activist interference more generally, drawing from recent climate change proceedings and experience advising energy and resources clients in relation to climate change and Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) issues more broadly. In particular, we will cover the aspects of the new mandatory climate reporting regime that will be most difficult to comply with; common greenwashing pitfalls; stakeholder/activist engagement planning; and how Boards should approach these issues.

Enhancing Workplace Safety through Personalized Environmental Risk Assessment: An AI-Driven Approach in Industry 5.0

This paper describes an integrated monitoring system designed for individualized environmental risk assessment and management in the workplace. The system incorporates monitoring devices that measure dust, noise, ultraviolet radiation, illuminance, temperature, humidity, and flammable gases. Comprising monitoring devices, a server-based web application for employers, and a mobile application for workers, the system integrates the registration of workers’ health histories, such as common diseases and symptoms related to the monitored agents, and a web-based recommendation system. The recommendation system application uses classifiers to decide the risk/no risk per sensor and crosses this information with fixed rules to define recommendations. The system generates actionable alerts for companies to improve decision-making regarding professional activities and long-term safety planning by analyzing health information through fixed rules and exposure data through machine learning algorithms. As the system must handle sensitive data, data privacy is addressed in communication and data storage. The study provides test results that evaluate the performance of different machine learning models in building an effective recommendation system. Since it was not possible to find public datasets with all the sensor data needed to train artificial intelligence models, it was necessary to build a data generator for this work. By proposing an approach that focuses on individualized environmental risk assessment and management, considering workers’ health histories, this work is expected to contribute to enhancing occupational safety through computational technologies in the Industry 5.0 approach.

Research on the impact of green insurance on regional environmental quality: evidence from China

Green insurance (GI), as an innovative product integrating environmental protection and the financial sector, not only contributes to improving regional environmental quality (EQ) but also enhances corporate environmental risk management and awareness, driving the flourishing development of green finance and the environmental protection industry. Therefore, understanding the relationship between GI and EQ is crucial. This article delves into the mechanisms through which GI influences EQ, proposing a hypothesis that suggests an inverted “U” shape impact. Subsequently, based on panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning from 2000 to 2021, nonlinear regression models and threshold regression models were constructed to test the hypothesis. The research findings indicate: (1) Results from the fixed-effects regression model demonstrate that the impact of GI on China’s EQ follows an inverted “U” shape. (2) Results from the threshold regression model also reveal an inverted “U” shape impact of GI on China’s EQ, with a threshold value of 2.196. (3) Economic level and industrial structure exhibit significant inhibitory effects on EQ improvement. Technological level and environmental regulations demonstrate notable promotional effects. Population size shows no significant impact on EQ improvement. The study identifies a nonlinear effect of GI on EQ improvement, surpassing existing linear effect research, deepening the understanding of its impact on EQ, and contributing to the enhancement of regional EQ.

Green Banking Initiatives: Policy and Practices in Commercial Banks of Nepal

Environmental and social (E&S) risk management has grown in key aspects of sustainability in banks and other financial institutions these days. A socially inclusive, climate-friendly and green banking system is only possible with the effective management of E&S risk in their business transactions. This study assesses the present implementation status of sustainability within commercial banks in Nepal, by examining their adherence to the environment and social risk (ESRM) guidelines issued by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Using a descriptive research design, the study utilizes ESRM reports published by NRB in 2078/79 and 2079/80. The study examines the present state of ESRM guideline implementation across three key aspects of policy formation, training and development activities for bank employees, and incorporation of environmental and social risks within the core strategies of commercial banks. The result found a satisfactory level of implementation of ESRM guidelines. The policy formulation and governance indicators are almost realized and other indicators have satisfactory and progressive levels of operation in the banks. Effective implementation of sustainable guidelines and initiatives will be accomplished innovative financial instruments that incentivize green investments and support climate-resilient practices can further expedite the transition to a sustainable banking landscape. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into the current state of ESRM in Nepal's commercial banks, shedding light on the progress that can pave the way for a more sustainable and green financial system in Nepal.

Deep generative networks for multivariate fullstack seismic data inversion using inverse autoregressive flows

The simultaneous prediction of the subsurface distribution of facies and acoustic impedance (IP) from fullstack seismic data requires solving an inverse problem and is fundamental in natural resources exploration, carbon capture and storage, and environmental risk management. In recent years, deep generative models (DGM), such as variational autoencoders (VAE) and generative adversarial networks (GAN), were proposed to reproduce complex facies patterns honoring prior geological information. Variational Bayesian inference using inverse autoregressive flows (IAF) can be performed to infer the solution to a geophysical inverse problem from the encoded latent space of such pre-trained DGM. Successful applications of such approach on crosshole ground-penetrating radar synthetic data inversion demonstrated that the technique's accuracy is comparable to that of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) inference methods, while significantly reducing the computational cost. Nonetheless, these application examples did not account for the spatial uncertainty affecting the facies-dependent continuous physical property, from which the geophysical data are calculated. This uncertainty can significantly affect the inversion accuracy and its applicability to real data. In this work, specific VAE and GAN architectures are proposed to simultaneously predict facies and co-located IP, while accounting for their spatial uncertainties. The two types of generative networks are used in Bayesian inversion with IAF for the inversion of seismic data. The results are found to reproduce the statistics of the training images and solve the seismic inversion problem accurately, comparably to MCMC inversion. Furthermore, advantages and limitations of the two DGMs are evaluated by comparing the results obtained.

Species-specific eDNA assay development for enhanced box jellyfish risk management in coastal environments

Human interaction with marine creatures holds both positive and negative dimensions. Coastal communities benefit from marine environments, relying on them for sustenance and livelihoods. Fishing activities support economies, and marine biodiversity contributes to overall ecosystem health. However, challenges like overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution pose threats to both marine life and human communities. Recently, there has been widespread concern regarding the potential increase in jellyfish populations across global marine ecosystems, attributed mainly to environmental factors such as climate drivers and anthropogenic forces, or their complex interactions. Encounters with hazardous marine species, such as box jellyfish, exemplify the dangers associated with coastal activities. Unintended interactions may lead to stings, injuries, and even fatalities, necessitating proactive measures and advanced technologies. This study addresses the inadequacies of existing measures in preventing box jellyfish incidents by introducing environmental DNA (eDNA) assays for detecting the deadly Chiropsoides buitendijki and focuses on developing qPCR and dPCR-based eDNA assays. Emphasising prevention over treatment, the study establishes a proactive system to assess C. buitendijki distribution across 63 tourist beaches in the Gulf of Thailand. Comparative analysis highlights the superior performance of dPCR over qPCR and traditional surveys. The dPCR experiment yielded positive results for all eDNA samples collected at sites where C. buitendijki had previously been identified. Remarkably, the eDNA testing also detected positive results in 16 additional sample locations where no physical specimens were collected, despite reported jellyfish stings at some of these sites. These findings underscore the precision and efficacy of the proposed eDNA detection technology in the early detection and assessment of box jellyfish distribution. This advancement therefore not only aids ecological research but also serves as a valuable tool for safeguarding public health, providing an early warning system for potential jellyfish encounters. Balancing positive human-marine interactions with effective risk mitigation strategies is crucial for sustainable coexistence, the preservation of marine ecosystems, and human well-being.

Analyzing recent trends in deep-learning approaches: a review on urban environmental hazards and disaster studies for monitoring, management, and mitigation toward sustainability

Abstract Deep learning has changed the approach of urban environmental risk assessment and management. These methods enable solid models for large data sets, enabling early identification, prediction, and description of environmental risks. The current work analyses the advances in deep learning for urban environmental hazard assessments and disaster studies to provide monitoring, management, and mitigation measures. It reports the improvement in self-supervised learning, transformer architectures, persistent learning, attention mechanisms, adversarial robustness, associated learning, meta-learning, and multimodal learning within the domain of urban environmental hazard analysis. These approaches allow the creation of robust models for handling vast data volumes, facilitating early detection, prediction, and characterisation of diverse environmental threats. This trends analysis for urban applications will bring insights for connecting deep-learning models for effective and proactive approaches to tackle urban environmental hazards and disasters.

Unveiling Torrential Flood Dynamics: A Comprehensive Study of Spatio-Temporal Patterns in the Šumadija Region, Serbia

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of flood frequency and a spatio-temporal characterization of historical torrential floods in the Šumadija region using water discharge datasets and documented events. A chronology of 344 recorded torrential flood events, spanning from 1929 to 2020, illustrates the region’s vulnerability, with a death toll exceeding 43. The study defines the intra-annual primary and secondary peaks of torrential flood occurrences and explains their spatial distribution. Furthermore, the identification of suitable probability distribution functions underscores the necessity of tailored approaches for effective flood risk management in this diverse geographical environment. The study employed Flood Frequency Analysis (FFA) and goodness-of-fit tests, including the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K-S) and Cramér–von Mises (CvM) tests, to assess the frequency and magnitude of flood events and evaluate diverse distribution functions. The main results include the identification of suitable probability distribution functions for each river within the region, emphasizing the need for tailored approaches in flood risk management. Additionally, discharge values for various return periods offer crucial insights for informed decision-making in flood risk management and infrastructure planning.

Psychological Counseling Model Proposal for Reducing Violence in Emergency Services

Violence is destructive and abrasive for patients and their relatives as well as for healthcare workers. Violence, which leads to various emotional and physical injuries, job dissatisfaction, and absenteeism, causes fatal mistakes and has a negative impact on service quality. On the other hand, the patient and his relatives may be anxious, nervous, sensitive or inclined to show anger behavior due to the situation they are in. These summarized reasons can bring the healthcare worker and patient, who should be on the same side, and their relatives face to face. However, healthcare professionals and patients share a common goal and have to act together. Accordingly, it is thought that when the causes of violence are eliminated for both groups, violence will decrease to a large extent. In this context, efforts should be made to identify and eliminate the psychological and social reasons that lead people to act aggressively in order to prevent violence in the emergency room. The proposed model aims to build a bridge of compassion between healthcare workers and patients and their relatives, while also providing psychological support to healthcare workers and patients and their relatives, training healthcare workers in communication, compassion, empathy and emotion management, and teaching stress-reducing techniques to prevent violence in emergency services. Various search engines were used in the literature search. The search terms were determined as "violence in an emergency", "causes of violence", "prevention of violence" and "violence in health", but studies involving environmental risk management and security measures were excluded.

Trends in Sustainable Banking Practices: A Bibliometric Review of Green Financial Services and Risk Management Strategies

Sustainable banking practices and environmentally friendly financial services are becoming an increasing research focus in the modern financial era. This article performs a bibliometric review of trends and strategies in this domain. It was found that green finance concepts, such as green bonds and environmentally friendly banking practices, as well as the integration of financial technology (fintech), were in the main spotlight. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has also influenced green investment trends and environmental risk management strategies. In conclusion, this article highlights future challenges and opportunities, including the integration of fintech in green finance, green banking practices in various countries, and the contribution of the financial sector to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Hide away from implication: potential environmental reputation spillover and strategic concealment of supply chain partners’ identities

PurposeThis research investigates whether focal firms employ strategic supply chain information disclosure, focusing on the concealment of supplier and customer identities, as part of their supply chain environmental risk management strategies (supplier sustainability risk and customer loss risk, respectively).Design/methodology/approachUsing a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2019 and utilizing the suppliers’ environmental punishment of peer firms (peer events) as an exogenous shock and employing ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation, this study conducts a regression analysis to test how focal firms disclose the identities of their suppliers and customers.FindingsOur results indicate that focal firms prefer to hide the identities of their suppliers and customers following the environmental punishment of peer firms’ suppliers. In addition, supplier concentration weakens the effect of withholding supplier identities, whereas customer concentration strengthens the effect of hiding customer identities. Mechanism analysis shows that firms hide supplier identities to avoid their reputation being affected and hide customer identities to prevent the deterioration of customers’ reputations and thus impact their market share.Originality/valueOur study reveals that reputation spillover is another crucial factor in supply chain transparency. It is also pioneering in applying the anonymity theory to explain focal firms’ information disclosure strategy in supply chains.

ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ РИСКИ В СИСТЕМЕ УСТОЙЧИВОГО РАЗВИТИЯ

The work is devoted to an urgent topic: accounting and prevention of possible environmental risks, as one of the conditions for the sustainable use and development of the Planet's land resources. The article examines possible environmental risks beyond the climate agenda related to the physical impact on the environment: emissions into the atmosphere, soil and water pollution, waste generation and negative effects on natural biodiversity. The paper attempts to analyze methods of environmental risk management in the development and implementation of projects in various areas of the economy, including in the land use system.

Improving Analytic Hierarchy Process inside the Analytic Group Decision-Making Approach Method with Two-Dimensional Cloud Model for Water Resource Pollution Risk Warning Evaluation: A Case Study in Shandong Province, China

This study proposes a water resource pollution risk warning evaluation method. Firstly, an evaluation system is constructed, consisting of 15 secondary indicators in four aspects: water quality, ecology, utilization protection, and water disasters. Then, an improved AGA-AHP method and coefficient of variation method are used to determine the weights of each indicator. Cloud models are employed to describe the characteristics of standard clouds and evaluation clouds, establishing a two-dimensional cloud model with risk probability and hazard level as variables. Taking a certain region in Shandong Province, China, as an example, the quantitative analysis results indicate that the water pollution risk level in the area is classified as Level IV, with particular attention needed for water quality and management indicators. Simultaneously, a series of measures such as source control, monitoring and early warning, emergency response, and public participation are proposed to further reduce the risk. The research findings demonstrate the following: (1) The establishment of a comprehensive indicator system for multidimensional assessment; (2) The combination of the AGA-AHP method and cloud model for quantitative analysis; (3) The practicality of the method validated through the case study; (4) Providing a basis for subsequent decision-making. This study provides new insights for water environmental risk management, but a further optimization of the model to enhance predictive capability is required when applied in practical scenarios. Nevertheless, the preliminary validation of this method’s application prospects in water resource risk monitoring has been achieved.

Environmental risk assessment and management of nuclear power plants based on big data analysis

In traditional research, monitoring data and samples are limited, and it is difficult to achieve ideal results in real-time monitoring and rapid response to environmental risks. By leveraging extensive environmental data gathered from nuclear power plants, the research employed machine learning methodologies for accurate feature selection and extraction of environmental parameters. An efficient environmental risk assessment model was successfully established by using a random forest algorithm. The 95% confidence interval for the area under the curve value spanned from 0.6894 to 0.9292. This provided a more dynamic and effective means for assessing and managing the environmental risks of nuclear power plants.

High pesticide tolerance of S. mansoni: implications for the risk of schistosomiasis

BackgroundSchistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by trematodes of the genus Schistosoma. The pathogen is transmitted via freshwater snails. These snails are highly tolerant to agricultural pesticides and indirectly benefit from exposure due to adverse effects on their more sensitive enemy species. Pesticides in surface waters may thus increase the risk of schistosomiasis transmission unless they also affect the pathogen. We tested the tolerance of the free-swimming life stages (miracidia and cercariae) of Schistosoma mansoni to the insecticides diazinon and imidacloprid. We also investigated whether these pesticides decrease the ability of miracidia to infect and further develop as sporocysts within the host snail Biomphalaria pfeifferi.ResultsExposure to imidacloprid for 6 and 12 h immobilized 50% of miracidia at 150 and 16 µg/L, respectively (nominal EC50); 50% of cercariae were immobilized at 403 and 284 µg/L. Diazinon immobilized 50% of miracidia at 51 and 21 µg/L after 6 and 12 h; 50% of cercariae were immobilized at 25 and 13 µg/L. The observed insecticide tolerance is lower than those of the host snail B. pfeifferi and comparable to those of other commonly tested freshwater invertebrates. Exposure for up to 6 h decreased the infectivity of miracidia at high sublethal concentrations (48.8 µg imidacloprid/L and 10.5 µg diazinon/L, i.e. 20–33% of EC50), but not at lower concentrations commonly observed in the field (4.88 µg imidacloprid/L and 1.05 µg diazinon/L). The development of sporocysts within the snail host was not affected at any of these test concentrations.ConclusionsInsecticides did not affect the performance of S. mansoni at environmentally relevant concentrations. Particularly within its host snail the pathogen can escape exposure peaks that have been shown to affect other sensitive invertebrates and their biological control of host snails. Our findings suggest that freshwater pollution with agricultural pesticides increases the risk of schistosomiasis; they illustrate the need to integrate an environmental and public health risk assessment and management.

Safe Health-Care Environment Advisory Program Counseling Experience Sharing

<p>文以醫療機構環境與基礎建設各系統現場訪視，採系統追蹤方式，從受訪2家醫療院所環境風險管理與火災風險辨識著手，以消防安全設施設備管理；各樓棟防火區劃完整度檢視；避難逃生路徑規劃與逃生方向指引；醫用氣體使用安全；危險物質儲存、使用、洩漏管理；用電與各機房環境安全及緊急災害應變措施機制等面向，重點檢視受輔導醫療機構設施設備與環境安全現況及安全脆弱點，提供醫療機構管理階層，提升病人就醫環境整體安全之參考。</p> <p> </p><p>This paper describes a systematic tracking approach for conducting on-site inspections at two medical facilities and assessing their institutional environments and infrastructure. The assessment centers on the management of environmental and fire risks, including overseeing fire safety facilities and equipment. The comprehensiveness of the fire zoning of individual buildings and the planning of and guidance to evacuation routes are evaluated. Also assessed are the safe use of medical gases, the management (including storage, use, and leakage) of hazardous substances, electrical safety, environmental safety in rooms with heavy machinery, disaster response, and emergency management. The primary objective is to scrutinize the safety vulnerabilities of the facilities and to critically evaluate the general environmental conditions at the two medical institutions, providing management teams with insights to enhance the safety of the health-care environment.</p> <p> </p>

Assessing regressive erosion effects: Unveiling riverside land use land cover changes post hydroelectric project construction

In Ecuador, the Coca Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Project (CCSHP) provides 34 % of the country's energy demand. However, since its inauguration in 2016, regressive erosion in the Coca River has accelerated, causing the collapse of the San Rafael waterfall in 2020 and damage to oil and electricity infrastructure. This study aimed to assess the effects of regressive erosion along the Coca River through changes in land use and land cover (LULC) to identify the impact of CCSHP operations on migration, deposition, and river channel erosion during 2017–2021. The methodology includes: i) Creation of cloud-free mosaics with Sentinel-2 satellite imagery; ii) LULC classification LULC classification post-operation of the CCSHP (2017), before (2019) and after (2021) the San Rafael waterfall collapse, using the Random Forest algorithm; iii) Estimation of variations in the fluvial dynamics of the Coca River. The results showed that between 2017 and 2019, the extent of water bodies and bare soil increased by 258.58 ha (25 %) and 5195.45 ha (71 %), respectively. Meanwhile, between 2019 and 2021, the extent of sand deposits increased by 387.71 ha (42 %). These changes reflect an acceleration of regressive erosion since the construction and implementation of the CCSHP, information that can be used as an initial tool to analyze the impact of hydropower in the upper Amazon and strengthen environmental protection and risk management policies.

Implementation of international standards of risk management in ukrainian business environment: benefits and drawbacks

Introduction. Risk manageрment is an integral part of effective execution of any project. By applying international standards of risk management, project managers can improve the effectiveness of risk management in a project-oriented business, maximizing opportunities to achieve project goals and minimizing costs. The purpose of the paper is to clarify the essence of the concept of "risk management", to analyze the main international standards of risk management and to determine the main advantages and obstacles on the way to its implementation in Ukraine. Results. World experience and international risk management standards recommend that companies develop best practices, in particular, risk management policies and standards. Policies and standards are key elements that determine the consistency of risk management in a company. They are official documents developed and approved at the top management level. According to the risk management policy, companies must ensure the implementation of risk management to eliminate potential sources of non-compliance. A risk management standard describes how to assess risks and opportunities in an organization and the actions to be taken in response to identified risks and opportunities. The standard stipulates that all risks identified by company employees, regardless of their role or position, must be registered and assessed. Implementation of risk management systems at enterprises is one of the key elements of effective modern corporate management. Conclusion. The main advantage of implementing of international standards of risk management in the organizations is that they encourage companies to study their business processes in detail and focus on their constant optimization. However, it is worth noting that the implementation of international risk management standards in Ukraine has a multifaceted nature and faces a number of problems associated with the adaptation of these methods at domestic enterprises. It should be taken into account that the implementation of the risk management system will not bring immediate results. This process should be approached from the perspective of a long-term perspective and is aimed at achieving further competitive advantages in the future.