Monitoring Of Environmental Hazards Research Articles

Editorial: Advances and applications of distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) in multi-scales geoscience problems

Taking advantage of easy-to-deploy, dense-spacing, and multi-physical measurements (temperature and strain), distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) has drawn a lot of attention in the geoscience community. In contrast with traditional sensors, the optical fiber itself is used as both a sensing element and a means of data transfer. Sensing fibers can be easily deployed in harsh environments such as high-pressure and hightemperature downhole.Previous studies have demonstrated the capability of DOFS in multi-scale geoscience tasks related to resource exploration and environmental hazard monitoring. While DOFS shows promise to enhance our capabilities of tackling geoscience problems, there are still challenges and problems associated with its development and applications. This Research Topic reviews many of the recent advances and applications of DOFS and shows how the technology can be improved. We hope this collection may motivate more DOFS developments regards solving geoscience problems.Below presents a short review of the accepted papers on this Research Topic:

Geomatic monitoring of environmental hazards in technogenic-loaded territories

It was noted that the territory of Eastern Ukraine is saturated with potentially dangerous industrial facilities and areas with geodynamic processes that require constant control and monitoring to detect deformations. Geomatic methods and tools were proposed for a comprehensive assessment of deformations, indicators of environmental threats in technogenically loaded territories. The choice of the geomatic monitoring system depends on the type of environment and the direction of research. Visualization of the content of chemical substances, gas concentration, temperature, humidity, precipitation can be carried out through the interfaces of the Giovanni platform. Landsat, Sentinel-2, MODIS space images are processed to classify land cover objects, change their boundaries, monitor vegetation cover, analyze the geological structure, identify the dynamics of water and wetland objects, the scale of floods and inundation; SIR - C/X - SAR radar images are processed to determine the location of urban areas and individual buildings, to emphasize the relief of mountainous areas, to control the pollution of water bodies' surfaces; SRTM digital terrain models are processed to determine terrain characteristics. Observation of the deformation of the Earth's surfaces and construction of displacement maps is performed by the InSAR satellite radar method, which is based on the use of space images from the Sentinel-1 spacecraft. To clarify the identified problem areas, it is necessary to jointly use the ground-based geodetic methods of monitoring the deformations of man-made territories. Processing of the received data is carried out in various geoinformation systems ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth, Digital; the land subsidence estimation using Sentinel-1 Data in SNAP, the landslides detection using Sentinel-1. The article states that geomatics monitoring is carried out to neutralize threats, to restore natural resource potential, to ensure geopolitical, ecological, security and military stability.

The Empowering Virtues of Citizen Science: Claiming Clean Air in Brussels

The governance and monitoring of environmental hazards—and of air pollution in particular—is often dominated by technical expertise and scientific knowledge. Approaches of this kind remove the issue from the public debate and democratic deliberation: citizens are de facto excluded from related decision-making and their knowledge about the problem is barely taken into account. This article explores the potential and limits of citizen science to challenge unfair frameworks of environmental monitoring and governance, inasmuch as it empowers citizens, by enabling three critical processes: gaining knowledge, gaining epistemic recognition, and building transdisciplinary coalitions. Empirically, this study is based on AirCasting Brussels, a Citizen Science project that unrolled in Brussels in the context of a mobilization for cleaner air to which it contributed. The analysis shows that citizen science has increased the ability of participating communities to scrutinize air pollution policy and to contribute to and influence public discussion about it, albeit with certain limits. Overall, as a counterpart to their fundamental right to participate in democracy, Citizen Science proves effective to strengthen citizens’ capabilities to do so in a meaningful manner.

Integration of Bioinspired Fibrous Strands with 3D Spheroids for Environmental Hazard Monitoring

AbstractNumerous methods have been introduced to produce 3D cell cultures that can reduce the need for animal experimentation. This study presents a unique 3D culture platform that features bioinspired strands of electrospun nanofibers (BSeNs) and aquatic cell lines to compensate for shortcomings in the current cell spheroid generation techniques. The use of BSeNs in 3D zebrafish liver cell cultures is found to improve liver and reproductive functions through spheroid‐based in vitro assays such as whole transcriptome sequencing and reproductive toxicity testing, with optimized properties exhibiting results similar to those obtained for fish embryo acute toxicity (FET, OECD TG 236) following exposure to environmental endocrine‐disrupting chemicals (17β‐Estradiol (E2), 4‐hydroxytamoxifen (4‐HT), and bisphenol compounds (bisphenol A (BPA) and 9,9‐Bis(4‐hydroxyphenyl)fluorene (BPFL)). These findings indicate that the beneficial effects of bioinspired materials that closely mimic ECM environments can yield efficient zebrafish cells with intrinsic functions and xenobiotic metabolism similar to those of zebrafish embryos. As a closer analog for the in vivo conditions that are associated with exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals, the straightforward culture model introduced in this study shows promise as an alternative tool that can be used to further eco‐environmental assessment.

Classifying the Nunivak Island Coastline Using the Random Forest Integration of the Sentinel-2 and ICESat-2 Data

Shore zone information is essential for coastal habitat assessment, environmental hazard monitoring, and resource conservation. However, traditional coastal zone classification mainly relies on in situ measurements and expert knowledge interpretation, which are costly and inefficient. This study classifies a shore zone area using satellite remote sensing data only and investigates the effect of the statistical indicators from Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) information with the Sentinel-2 data-derived spectral variables on the prediction results. Google Earth Engine was used to synthesize long time-series Sentinel-2 images, and different features were calculated for this synthetic image. Then, statistical indicators reflecting the characteristics of the shore zone profile were extracted from ICESat-2. Finally, a random forest algorithm was used to develop characteristics and shore zone classification. Comparing the results with the data measured shows that the proposed method can effectively classify the shore zone; it has an accuracy of 83.61% and a kappa coefficient of 0.81.

Synthetic Drug Production in Belgium – Environmental Harms as Collateral Damage?

The production of illicit drugs contributes to important environmental harms. In the European context, the production of synthetic drugs, particularly MDMA and amphetamine (and more recently methamphetamine), increasingly poses environmental challenges. The production of these substances in Europe is mainly concentrated in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent in Belgium. In this contribution we focus on the Belgian case, particularly in Flanders—the Belgian region where synthetic drug production has been more present. The goals of our analysis are 1) to document the presence of illicit synthetic drug production and dumping of chemical waste material in that region, 2) to explore the media coverage of environmental harms associated with those activities, and 3) to identify the range of reported environmental harms. We draw on data from the Belgian Federal Police and on an analysis of 289 news articles published in selected Flemish newspapers (2013–2020). The findings indicate that although there is an increasing trend in the presence of synthetic drug production and dumping sites in Belgium, the details on the nature and extent of environmental harms are often unknown. Besides difficulties around detecting certain types of dumping events, there are also important blind spots in terms of the monitoring of environmental hazards by law enforcement agencies and how that information is shared among the relevant actors.

Editorial for the Special Issue: Multispectral and Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data for Mineral Exploration and Environmental Monitoring of Mined Areas

In recent decades, multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensing data provide unprecedented opportunities for the initial stages of mineral exploration and environmental hazard monitoring [...]

What Factors Predict Falls in Older Adults Living in Nursing Homes: A Pilot Study.

Background: In community-dwelling older adults, slow gait speed is linked to falls; however, little is known about the use of gait speed to predict falls in nursing home residents. The prevalence of risk factors for falls in nursing home residents is multifactorial. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between falls and multiple factors such as age, sex, gait speed, mobility device, fear of falling, cognitive function, medication, and environmental causes in a nursing home setting. Material and Methods: Participants were recruited from a nursing home. Independent variables such as age, sex, gait speed for 40 feet, use of a mobility device, fear of falls, cognitive function, medication, and environmental causes of falls were measured and recorded. The dependent variable was falls. Participants were followed-up for a period of six months for falls. Falls were documented from the computerized medical records at the facility. Results: Five of the 16 participants had falls in the follow-up period. Exact logistic regression, bivariate analysis, showed no significant relationship between falls and the independent variables of age, sex, gait speed, mobility device, fear of falls, cognitive function, and medication. More than 30% of recorded falls had an environmental cause, which was significant at p = 0.0005. Conclusion: Environmental causes had a significant relationship with falls in nursing home participants. Environment hazard monitoring is therefore important to ensure the safety of nursing home residents.

One-pass lossless data hiding and compression of remote sensing data

The information obtained by means of spectral remote sensing (i.e., the hyperspectral images) are involved in several real-life scenarios and applications. Historical research, monitoring of environmental hazards, forensics and counter-terrorism are some examples of contexts in which the hyperspectral data play an important role.In many contexts, the hyperspectral images could also play sensitive roles (e.g., in military applications, etc.) and are generally exchanged among several entities, in order to carry out different tasks on them. Therefore, it is important to guarantee their protection. A meaningful choice is the protection through data hiding techniques.In fact, by means of reversible data hiding techniques, the imaging data become a sort of information carrier and can be used for delivering other important data that can be used, for instance, to check the integrity of the original imaging data.In this paper, we introduce a one-pass framework that is able to perform the lossless data hiding and the lossless compression of the marked stream, at the same time, by exploiting the capabilities of the predictive paradigm. Substantially, in a single pass, a marked and compressed stego image is obtained, which can be exactly restored by the receiver: by decompressing and reversibly reconstructing the original unaltered image. In addition, our framework also permits to perform only the decompression (without the extraction of the hidden information). In this manner, the resulting stego (marked) hyperspectral image, could be used for several purposes, in which it is not necessary to extract the original data and an acceptable grade of degradation is tolerated. We also implement a proof-of-concept of the proposed framework to assess the effectiveness of our contribution. Finally, we report the achieved experimental results, which outperform other similar approaches.

COSMO-SkyMed potential to detect and monitor Mediterranean maquis fires and regrowth: a pilot study in Capo Figari, Sardinia, Italy

Mediterranean maquis is a complex and widespread ecosystem in the region, intrinsically prone to fire. Many species have developed specific adaptation traits to cope with fire, ensuring resistance and resilience. Due to the recent changes in socio-economy and land uses, fires are more and more frequent in the urban-rural fringe and in the coastlines, both now densely populated. The detection of fires and the monitoring of vegetation regrowth is thus of primary interest for local management and for understanding the ecosystem dynamics and processes, also in the light of the recurrent droughts induced by climate change. Among the main objectives of the COSMO-SkyMed radar constellation mission there is the monitoring of environmental hazards; the very high revisiting time of this mission is optimal for post-hazard response activities. However, very few studies exploited such data for fire and vegetation monitoring. In this research, Cosmo-SkyMed is used in a Mediterranean protected area covered by maquis to detect the burnt area extension and to conduct a mid-term assessment of vegetation regrowth. The positive results obtained in this research highlight the importance of the very high-resolution continuous acquisitions and the multi-polarization information provided by COSMO-SkyMed for monitoring fire impacts on vegetation.

Methodological Approaches to Planning the Organization of Supply Environmental Safety on Sport Industry Objects

Methodological approaches to planning the organization of environmental safety in sports facilities were developed taking into account the provisions of the environmental safety system concept for sports activities, including the implementation of the main provisions of the environmental safety system concept in sports activities: organizational principles, basic functions, current and future planning environmental safety management plan for sports objects holding a public discussion of the provisions set out in the plans. It was established that the planning of the organization of ensuring environmental safety at sports facilities should take into account the main provisions of the concept of the system for ensuring the environmental safety of sports activities: methodological approaches, organizational principles, basic functions. This should take into account the conceptual provisions of environmental risk management: zoning areas used for sports activities according to the degree of environmental risk (acceptable, moderate, elevated, high); acceptance of the limits of acceptable risk (fully acceptable, partially acceptable, completely unacceptable); regular monitoring of environmental hazards with a forecast of their occurrence; environmental education for those involved in sports activities; development of economic and social measures to prevent the negative impact of environmental hazards in the field of sports; health promotion athletes. The plan for the organization of environmental safety in a sports facility should consist of the following main areas of activities: organizational; operational; repair and reconstruction; environmental protection; legal; educational and financial. Conclusions. Planning the organization of ensuring environmental safety at sports facilities should take into account the main provisions of the concept of the system for ensuring the environmental safety of sports activities: methodological approaches, organizational principles, basic functions, conceptual approaches to environmental risk management. In order to draw up a plan for ensuring the organization of environmental safety at a sports facility, it is first necessary to collect and analyze environmental information in the direction of environmental safety. The plan for the organization of environmental safety in a sports facility should contain the following main sections: organizational and planning measures; operational activities; measures for the construction, repair and reconstruction of environmental facilities; legal measures on environmental safety issues; environmental education and training, financial support for the organization of environmental safety; regulatory standard maintenance of environmental safety.

CDC's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program in Action: Case Studies From State and Local Health Departments

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (Tracking Program) is a multidisciplinary collaboration that involves the ongoing collection, integration, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data from environmental hazard monitoring, human exposure surveillance, and health effects surveillance. With a renewed focus on data-driven decision-making, the CDC's Tracking Program emphasizes dissemination of actionable data to public health practitioners, policy makers, and communities. The CDC's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network), a Web-based system with components at the national, state, and local levels, houses environmental public health data used to inform public health actions (PHAs) to improve community health. This article serves as a detailed landscape on the Tracking Program and Tracking Network and the Tracking Program's leading performance measure, "public health actions." Tracking PHAs are qualitative statements addressing a local problem or situation, the role of the state or local Tracking Program, how the problem or situation was addressed, and the action taken. More than 400 PHAs have been reported by funded state and local health departments since the Tracking Program began collecting PHAs in 2005. Three case studies are provided to illustrate the use of the Tracking Program resources and data on the Tracking Network, and the diversity of actions taken. Through a collaborative network of experts, data, and tools, the Tracking Program and its Tracking Network are actively informing state and local PHAs. In a time of competing priorities and limited funding, PHAs can serve as a powerful tool to advance environmental public health practice.

Deriving Rich Coastal Morphology and Shore Zone Classification from LIDAR Terrain Models

ABSTRACT Nijland, W.; Reshitnyk, L.Y.; Starzomski, B.M.; Reynolds, J.D.; Darimont, C.T., and Nelson, T.A., 2017. Deriving rich coastal morphology and shore zone classification from LIDAR terrain models. Comprehensive mapping of shore-zone morphology supports evaluation of shore habitat, monitoring of environmental hazards, and characterization of the transfer of nutrients between marine and terrestrial environments. This article shows how rich shore-zone morphological metrics can be derived from LIDAR terrain models and evaluates the application of LIDAR to classify shore-zone substrates. The utility of LIDAR methods was tested in comparison with the current best-practice method of photo interpretation (i.e. the BC ShoreZone system) on Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada. Wider applications are considered. Indicators of shore-zone morphology (i.e. slope, width, roughness, backshore elevation) were calculated from LIDAR terrain models for regularly spaced transects perpendicular to the coastline. A co...

The spatiotemporal characteristics of environmental hazards caused by offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico

Marine ecosystems are home to a host of numerous species ranging from tiny planktonic organisms, fishes, and birds, to large mammals such as the whales, manatees, and seals. However, human activities such as offshore oil and gas operations increasingly threaten marine and coastal ecosystems, for which there has been little exploration into the spatial and temporal risks of offshore oil operations. Using the Gulf of Mexico, one of the world's hottest spots of offshore oil and gas mining, as the study area, we propose a spatiotemporal approach that integrates spatial statistics and geostatistics in a geographic information system environment to provide insight to environmental management and decision making for oil and gas operators, coastal communities, local governments, and the federal government. We use the records from 1995 to 2015 of twelve types of hazards caused by offshore oil and gas operations, and analyze them spatially over a five year period. The spatial clusters of these hazards are analyzed and mapped using Getis-Ord Gi and local Moran's I statistics. We then design a spatial correlation coefficient matrix for multivariate spatial correlation, which is the ratio of the cross variogram of two types of hazards to the product of the variograms of the two hazards, showing a primary understanding of the degrees of spatial correlation among the twelve types hazards. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first application of spatiotemporal analysis methods to environmental hazards caused by offshore oil and gas operations; the proposed methods can be applied to other regions for the management and monitoring of environmental hazards caused by offshore oil operations.

Mineral Information Extraction Using Hyper Spectral Remote Sensing Technology

Based on the hyper spectral data provided by small satellites for environmental hazard monitoring and forecasting (HJ-A), we convert the data format and reflectance to remove possible interference. Spectral angle mapping method is employed afterwards for mineral mapping of the study area. The small-scaled mineral distribution map is then generated for the whole study area. Our study suggests that mineral mapping using HJ-A satellite hyper spectral data is fairly effective in terms of mapping quality and cost.

Environmental Security in Arctic Ice-Covered Seas: From Strategy to Tactics of Hazard Identification and Emergency Response

AbstractEnvironmental change and increasing industrial activity in the maritime Arctic require strategies to adapt to change and ensure safe operations. This problem has been defined at the broader strategic level. We evaluate key aspects of environmental security in ice-covered waters, focusing on tactical and operational information needs, which have received less attention. Monitoring of environmental hazards and effective emergency response in sea ice environments require high-resolution data of ice hazard distributions (e.g., multiyear ice, landfast ice breakout, and ice push events), ice movement and deformation, as well as ice characteristics and dynamics relevant to emergency response. We have developed a prototype coastal observing system at Barrow, Alaska, that addresses such information needs. Imagery obtained from a marine X-band radar with a digital controller is combined with data from on-ice sensors (ice thickness, ice and water temperature, sea level) and assessments of potentially hazardous ice conditions by local experts. Digital imagery and data are processed and disseminated in near-real time. Using a combination of image processing approaches (optical flow, Lucas-Kanade tracker), ice velocity fields, floe trajectories, and boundaries of stationary ice are derived automatically. Early onset of hazardous events is detected through Hidden Markov Modeling, providing potential decision support in operational settings. We evaluate the utility of the system and strategies towards integration with broader emergency response efforts.

Gas and rock-bump hazard monitoring in the Polish mining

Described the main environmental hazards occurring in Polish underground mines and their continuous growth in recent years as well as equipment and systems which were used for monitoring mine air parameters and geodynamic phenomena. The latest versions of environmental hazard monitoring systems, having a form of a comprehensive set of underground and surface equipment, are presented and their functions characterized.

Digital condition monitoring of complex (bio)chemical reaction systems in the presence of model uncertainty: Application to environmental hazard monitoring

A new approach to the state estimation and condition monitoring problem for complex nonlinear (bio)chemical reaction systems in the presence of model uncertainty is proposed. In particular, a new robust nonlinear state estimation method is developed that can be digitally implemented with the aid of a computer. The proposed method explicitly incorporates and processes all the available pertinent information associated with two sources: (i) a dynamic process model which is inevitably characterized by various degrees of uncertainty, and (ii) a set of available sensor measurements through which the values of certain variables are recorded. Based on the above information, a robust digital state estimator is designed capable of dynamically (over time) reconstructing all other key physicochemical variables that cannot be measured online (due to physical and/or technical limitations), while remaining critical from a process condition monitoring point of view. A set of conditions are derived that ensure the existence of such a state estimator, whose algorithmic implementation can be readily realized via a simple MAPLE code. Furthermore, the convergence of the estimation error or the mismatch between the actual unmeasurable states and their estimates is analyzed and characterized in the presence of model uncertainty. Finally, the performance of the proposed digital estimator is evaluated in an environmental hazard monitoring case study, where a simple bioremediation model describing the degradation of an organic hazardous pollutant is considered that exhibits nonlinear behavior coupled with parametric uncertainty. The estimation objective is, through the use of the proposed estimator, to reliably reconstruct the dynamic profile of the unmeasurable organic pollutant (substrate) concentration using microorganism (biomass) concentration measurements, as well as the available process model. The performance characteristics of the proposed estimator in the presence of model uncertainty are assessed by conducting simulation studies.

Synergistic toxicity of multiple heavy metals is revealed by a biological assay using a nematode and its transgenic derivative

Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living nematode species, was adopted for a toxicity bioassay of 10 heavy metals. The lethal concentration (LC) of these metals was determined. Based on these data, we conducted pairwise and triple metal combination testing and demonstrated that these heavy metals displayed synergistic killing effects on C. elegans larvae. Drastic increases in mortality rate up to 100% could be observed at low metal concentrations. The results illustrate the complexity of toxicity tests in biological systems and show that physical–chemical monitoring of toxicants may underestimate biohazards in environmental samples. We also demonstrate that a transgenic derivative nematode strain, KC136, carrying a heat shock promoter driven gfp reporter gene could be used to reduce the duration of an assay so that the synergistic effects among toxicants could be revealed. This derivative strain allows rapid and frequent monitoring of environmental hazards, which usually requires the handling of a large number samples.

Oil shales and their analysis

Oil shales are defined as fine grained sedimentary rocks containing abundant mainly sapropelic organic matter which produce oil on distillation (the merits of their classification are discussed). They represent a vast, relatively untapped, potential source of energy. Oil shales are of wide geographic occurrence and are often represented by very large scale deposits, providing many opportunities for commercial exploitation (previous exploitation history is documented briefly, and resource potential of major shale areas discussed). To exploit this significant resource analytical support is necessary in all three stages, i.e., exploration, appraisal, and exploitation/production of a shale project. Product shale oil analysis provides information to assist in refinery design, allows feedstock quality assessment and provides for environmental hazard monitoring; many techniques are available for this but exact requirements and circumstances dictate the choice of method. Physical property assessment, microscopy and borehole specific gravity logging have been used in the field. Traditional laboratory analysis has relied on carbonization assay; Fischer Assay being the standard method. Indirect thermal methods, e.g. pyrolysis FID, thermal chromatography, laser pyrolysis and TGA/DTA have also been used to provide meaningful oil yield data. More recently, n.m.r., FT-i.r. and EPR techniques have been investigated. All methods for yield assessment, except carbonization assay, require careful calibration for their success and these methods and their application are discussed in detail. Shale oil analysis originally employed classical wet chemical analytical techniques but now relies almost exclusively on Chromatographic separation. Several analytical schemes are presented which provide compound class analysis, specific compound identification, and environmental hazard monitoring utilizing capillary column g.c., HPLC and g.c.—m.s. techniques. The use of shale oil and retort volatiles analysis in the assessment of retorting efficiency is reviewed and its application in process control and monitoring discussed.