Assessment Of Environmental Security Research Articles

Evaluation of the environmental security of industrial regions: Evidence from the Kemerovo Oblast

Subject. The article studies the technological footprint of mining enterprises on the region's environmental system, especially in the vicinity of their location. Objectives. The research evaluates the technological footprint of coal mining enterprises on the region's environmental system, substantiates the continuing reporting and statistical monitoring of environmental indicators. We also analyze the ratio of current indicators to thresholds and identify menacing environmental trends. Methods. The research involves the method of environmental security assessment by pollution and water contamination. We also apply methods of statistical observation, consolidation and grouping of statistical materials, absolute and relative statistical values, analytical and synthetic methods. Results. The article describes the environmental specifics of the industrially advanced region with the predominance of the mining industry. We conducted the environmental monitoring by air and water contamination and point out the main environmental challenges and disparity of the region's environmental and economic well-being. We captured the correlation of the industrial development level, use of natural resources, environmental situation, finance of natural protection activities and public health. The article presents our recommendations for improving the environmental situation. Conclusions. The governmental involvement is not enough to eliminate the environmental challenges if there are no effective set of environmental standards in the region. The region's environmental situation cannot be improved if the social and environmental liability of most coal business owners and management is raised. It is necessary to tighten the governmental control and increase the social and environmental liability of industrial enterprises for their operations.

Regional ecological security assessment in the environmental management

The environmental threats and risks assessment is carried out on the basis of various anthropogenic criteria analysis. It’s reasonable to assess certain environmental indicators for each type of technogenic danger. The problems of the maximum permissible environmental load assessment and the development of the regional environmental security assessment methods have been actual. Therefore, the aim of the article is to develop the basics of the regional environment security level assessment methodology. It’s expedient to assess certain partial environmental indicators for each type of technogenic hazard. Such partial indicators were analyzed by statistical methods. The integration method was used to develop partial and integral indicators for assessing the regional environmental security level. The result of the research is proposition to assess the regional environmental security level by two groups of environmental factors: 1) antropogenic substances ingress into the environment and 2) natural systems change, caused by natural resources consumption and spatial planning factors. Application of the regional environmental security assessment methodology will allow to formalize environmental management problems by using the following indicators: integral environmental security indicator of reducing the anthropogenic substances ingress into the environments (II1)and integral environmental security indicator of reducing natural system change, caused by natural resources consumption and spatial planning factors (II2).

Regulation of metal ion selectivity of fluorescent gold nanoclusters by metallophilic interactions

Although numerous sensors have been successfully fabricated for the detection of various heavy metal ions by employing fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) as nanoprobes, serious cross-interference often occurs when these ions coexist in samples, which results in glaring errors in quantification. In this study, glutathione-protected AuNCs (GSH-AuNCs) were synthesized and found to respond to both Cu2+ and Hg2+ via fluorescence suppression. Intriguingly, addition of Ag+ to GSH-AuNCs could completely inhibit the quenching effect of Hg2+ while not affecting the Cu2+-mediated quenching process. Ag+ can combine with Au+ on the surface of AuNCs to form a strong Ag+-Au+ metallic bond, which disrupts the interaction between Hg2+ and Au+ and thus eliminates the corresponding quenching effect. Based on this phenomenon, a simple sensing approach for highly selective and sensitive detection of Cu2+ in aqueous solution was developed using the GSH-AuNC/Ag+ complex as a fluorescent turn-off nanoprobe. The proposed method exhibited good linearity in the concentration range 0.02–10 μM with a limit of detection of 12 nM. This assay was demonstrated to be suitable for determination of Cu2+ in real water samples even in the presence of Hg2+, showing great promise as a tool for assessment of environmental security and drinking water quality.

ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY: INTEGRAL ASSESSMENT (CASE OF UKRAINE)

Environmental security is a key issue in the context of the national security evaluating of each state and the world in whole. The lack of universality in the term definition, not to mention the technology of an assessment of environmental security, encourages researchers to develop and improve methods and approaches to assess integrated index of environmental safety at the level of the country and its regions. The main scientific results of this study include the following: given the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of well-known techniques and approaches to the evaluation of ecological security in the world and in Ukraine, represented the authorial approach to the calculation of the integral index of environmental security of Ukraine and its regions, with the option of cross-state comparison calculated integral index of ecological safety of Ukraine (1996 – 2013) held the comparative analysis of the ecological security of Ukraine and other selected countries proposed the system of indicators for ranking of regions of Ukraine at the level of its environmental security.

Case Study on the Spatial Development Impact Assessment Tool Applied in the Spatial Development Environmental Security Assessment

The paper deals with the spatial development environmental security assessment employing the Spatial Development Impact Assessment tool and the geographical information systems. The first part includes a more detailed description of the Spatial Development Impact Assessment tool and ESRI - ArcInfo, which were the basis for elaborating the case study. The case study is presented in the second part of the paper, which includes the spatial development environmental security assessment for a fictitious hazardous waste incineration plant located in the zone of Moravian-Silesian region of the Czech Republic. The acquired outcomes are presented in the final part of the paper together with the proposed measures to be taken in order to reduce the potential risk of intended spatial development.

Geopolitics of Climate Change and Australia’s ‘Re-engagement’ with Asia: Discourses of Fear and Cartographic Anxieties

Drawing theoretical insights offered by the Copenhagen School, in conjunction with a critical assessment of environmental security, the intention of this paper is to examine the ways in which Australia's ‘re-engagement with Asia’ is getting increasingly securitized through both speech acts and practices relating to climate change and energy security. These acts and practices are dictated and driven by the state-centric ‘national security’ discourses on the one hand, and by the geo-economic imperatives of fossil fuel-driven models of economic growth and energy security on the other hand. The key question, in our view, then becomes: What are the actual or potential linkages (and contradictions) between Australia's self-image as an energy superpower, alongside its increasingly embraced normative role as a responsible international (and even Asian) citizen committed to effectively mitigating climate change?