Regional Environmental Control Research Articles

Проблема разграничения компетенции федеральных и региональных органов государственного экологического контроля(надзора)

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problem of delimitation of competence for carrying out control and supervisory activities vertically – between federal and regional executive authorities that implement the function of environmental control (supervision). Theoretical analysis. The delimitation of the powers of federal and regional authorities in the field of state environmental control (supervision) is rather vague. The transfer of a large amount of such powers has led to the complication of the system of state environmental control (supervision). The objects of regional state environmental supervision are determined according to the residual principle without the mandatory fixing their list. At the same time, the legislation does not provide for the possibility of transferring the powers of regional executive authorities in the field of environmental protection to federal authorities. Empirical analysis. In practice, there is often duplication of control and supervision powers in the environmental sphere between federal executive authorities and executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as local governments, which negatively affects their performance. In the constituent entities of the Russian Federation there are no specialized bodies exercising the implementation of the powers transferred by the Russian Federation. Results. It is concluded that there is no effective interaction between environmental control (supervision) bodies at all levels of government due to insufficient regulation of this issue in the legislation. In order to eliminate legal conflicts, simplify the interaction between subjects, the article substantiates the necessity of adoption of the Federal Law “On Environmental Control (Supervision)”; development and adoption of administrative regulations for the interaction of federal and regional environmental control (supervision) bodies; conclusion of agreements on the “reverse delegation” of powers from the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to the federal bodies of state environmental control (supervision).

Retracted] Research on the Effect Evaluation of Urban Regional Environmental Management and Control Based on Data Depth Mining

Industrial and economic development in China are both advancing at a rapid rate. China is currently the world’s second‐largest economy. The immediate result of China’s continuous economic development is a steady improvement in people’s living standards, the great improvement of living environment compared to the past, the deepening of the national urbanization level, and cities becoming the first choice for people’s living and life. Nonetheless, as the number of city dwellers continues to rise, the management and control of China’s urban regional environment face increasingly difficult challenges. The constant production of domestic waste by urban residents has a significant impact on the urban environment. Therefore, government departments have issued corresponding urban regional environmental control measures to improve the appearance of the urban environment at the government level. Due to the enormous size of the city, however, urban regional environmental control affects every aspect of residents’ lives. It has become extremely challenging to objectively, effectively, and precisely evaluate the impact of urban regional environmental control. On the basis of this issue, this paper seeks to develop an evaluation system employing data deep mining technology and computer and artificial intelligence‐related technologies in order to achieve an objective evaluation of the effect of environmental management and control in urban areas and to provide a scientific foundation for the subsequent decision‐making by government departments. Moreover, the model is highly robust and compatible with different levels of management and control regulations, even when the control effect of the corresponding control deployment is evaluated objectively.

Simulation model for assessing the risks of accidental oil spills based on cluster

The paper proposes a new risk-oriented approach to the implementation of control and supervision activities in the field of regional environmental control. The issues of building a simulation model of oil spill risks assessment, implemented in the form of a digital mapof the region based on a combination of clustering methods and spatial data analysis are considered. The analysis is based on data on accidents at field oil pipelines in the license areas of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug for the period from 2014 to 2020. The result of the analysis is a digital mappublished on the Internet with authorized access and reflecting 5 levels of risk for the districts of the study area.

Continental-scale soil carbon composition and vulnerability modulated by regional environmental controls

Soil organic carbon (C) is an essential component of the global C cycle. Processes that control its composition and dynamics over large scales are not well understood. Thus, our understanding of C cycling is incomplete, which makes it difficult to predict C gains and losses due to changes in climate, land use and management. Here we show that controls on the composition of organic C, the particulate, humus and resistant fractions, and the potential vulnerability of C to decomposition across Australia are distinct, scale-dependent and variable. We used machine-learning with 5,721 topsoil measurements to show that, continentally, the climate, soil properties (for example, total nitrogen and pH) and elevation are dominant controls. However, we found that such general assessments disregard underlying region-specific controls that affect the distribution of the organic C fractions and vulnerability. This can lead to misinterpretations that prejudice our understanding of soil C processes and dynamics. Regionally, climate is mediated through interactions with soil properties, mineralogy and topography. In some regions, climate is uninfluential. These results highlight the need for regional assessments of soil C dynamics and more local parameterization of biogeochemical and Earth system models. Our analysis propounds the development of region-specific strategies for effective C management and climate change mitigation. Soil geochemistry can be more important than climate in controlling carbon storage, its composition as well as stability, but controls are distinct, scale-dependent and variable, according to an analysis of topsoil measurements across Australia.

The relative role of spatial and environmental processes on seasonal variations of phytoplankton beta diversity along different anthropogenic disturbances of subtropical rivers in China

The phytoplankton community structure is potentially influenced by both environmental and spatial processes. In addition, the relative importance of these two processes to phytoplankton assemblage will be affected by hydrological connectivity. However, the impacts of anthropogenic activities on phytoplankton beta diversity and the relative importance of these two processes to phytoplankton are still poorly understood, especially in water conservation areas. Here, we examined the relative importance of local and regional environmental control and spatial structuring of phytoplankton communities in five rivers with different degrees of disturbance during wet and dry seasons. We found that community structure and local environmental conditions varied greatly in seasons and rivers. The reference river (with minimum disturbance) had the highest homogeneity of environmental conditions and phytoplankton assemblage, while the excessive disturbance rivers (sand mining activities) had the greatest environmental heterogeneity and species dissimilarity between sites. Variation partitioning analysis showed that the phytoplankton community variation was mainly explained by the spatial variables in the wet season (summer and autumn) and winter, while the local environmental variables explained the largest variation of phytoplankton community in the dry season (spring). However, broad-scale variables were selected by redundancy analysis in both dry and wet seasons, which indicates that long-distance scales always have low river connectivity, regardless of whether the river is overflowing or drying up. Local environmental processes explained the most variation in phytoplankton community within all of the rivers, suggesting that deterministic processes usually work on relatively small spatial scales. However, this effect would be weakened by anthropogenic activities, especially sand mining activities. We inferred that sand mining activities increased the environmental heterogeneity and species dissimilarity between sites by causing watercourse habitat patches and obstructing river connectivity. On the other hand, as the excessive disturbance, sand mining activities significantly reduced the species richness and abundance of phytoplankton.

Laws, place, history and the interpretation of landforms

AbstractThe state of an Earth surface system (ESS) is determined by three sets of factors: laws, place, and history. Laws (L = L1, L2, . . . , Ln) are the n general principles applicable to any such system at any time. Place factors (P = P1, P2, . . . , Pm) are the m relevant characteristics of the local or regional environment. History factors (H = H1 , H2, . . . , Hq) include the previous evolutionary pathway of the ESS, its stage of development, past disturbance, and initial conditions. Geoscience investigation may focus on laws, place, or history, but ultimately all three are necessary to understand and explain ESS. The LPH triad is useful as a pedagogical device, illustrated here via application to explaining the world's longest cave (Mammoth Cave, KY). Beyond providing a useful checklist, the LPH framework provides analytical traction to some difficult research problems. For example, studies of the avulsions of three southeast Texas rivers showed substantial differences in avulsion regimes and resulting alluvial morphology, despite the proximity and superficial similarity of the systems. Avulsions are governed by the same laws in all cases [L(A) = L(B) = L(C)], and the three rivers have undergone the same sea‐level, climate, and tectonic histories, as well as the same general anthropic impacts [H(A) ≈ H(B) ≈ H(C)]. Though regional environmental controls are similar, local details such as the location of the modern main channel relative to Pleistocene meander channels differ, and thus these place factors explain the differences between the rivers. The LPH framework, or similar types of reasoning, is implicit in many types of geoscience analysis. Explicit attention to the triad can help solve or address many specific problems and remind us of the importance of all three sets of factors. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Control of dangerous substances in discharges and microbiological abatement: European framework and a case study of an ozone disinfection system

Directive 2000/60/EC requires the achievement of a 'good chemical status' for surface water within pre-established dates. Disinfection is needed to achieve compulsory final microbial limit values (in Italy for wastewater discharges the parameter Escherichia coli - EC - is imposed by law with a maximum limit value of 5,000 cfu/100 mL). Liquid waste and disinfection by-products must be considered when designing appropriate monitoring of dangerous substances; the specific classes of substances must be investigated according to the typology of received wastewaters and liquid wastes (where applicable) and specific analytical techniques, with Limit of Detection (LOD) lower than the limit values, must be applied; the difficulties faced by national and regional environmental control Agencies is that these techniques have to be applied during ordinary activity and not only for research purposes. The study aims to present the control of dangerous substances, as a screening view, in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges in the province of Venice (Northern Italy) for the period 2007-2010 based on available data from institutional controls. In addition, the wastewater disinfection process with ozone applied to a medium size WWTP (45,000 Population Equivalents) is presented as a case study, with a view to assessing the microbiological abatement efficacy and the presence of dangerous substances. Discharge quality of the WWTPs in the province of Venice presented mean values that were higher than the LOD, but only for certain metals. For the Paese plant, zinc and chloroform were the only micro-pollutants detected with a higher level than the LOD. From microbiological data in the period 2006-2011 the disinfection abatement efficiency for Paese was, in most cases above 99% for EC, faecal coliform (FC), faecal streptococci (FS) while efficiency was slightly lower for total coliform (TC); however, the proposed criterion aimed at respecting 99.99% abatement was not completely satisfied. Therefore, despite the high organic and industrial load of the considered plant and the need to find an alternative system for chlorine, as chlorine disinfection has been banned in the Veneto region since December 2012, ozone efficiency is not completely satisfactory and other systems such as peracetic or performic acids and UV systems must be considered.

Synchrony in dynamics of giant kelp forests is driven by both local recruitment and regional environmental controls.

Populations of many species display spatially synchronous fluctuations in abundance. Synchrony is most commonly attributed to three processes: factors that influence recruitment (e.g., dispersal, early survival), large-scale environmental variability, and spatially autocorrelated trophic interactions. However it is often difficult to link population synchrony to a specific dominant process, particularly when multiple synchronizing forces are operating. We utilized a new satellite-based data set of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) canopy biomass to examine population synchrony in southern California kelp forests on spatial scales ranging from 50 m to 300 km and temporal scales ranging from 1 to 11 years. We examined the relationship between synchrony and distance for adult kelp populations, kelp recruits, sea urchin abundance (a major grazer of kelp), and environmental variables known to influence kelp population dynamics. Population synchrony in giant kelp decreased with distance between populations: an initial rapid exponential decrease between 50 m and 1.3 km was followed by a second, large-scale decrease between distances of 1.3 km and 172 km. The 50-m to 1.3-km spatial scale corresponded to the scales of synchrony in the abundance of sea urchins and young kelp recruits, suggesting that local drivers of predation and recruitment influence small-scale synchrony in kelp populations. The spatial correlation patterns of environmental variables, particularly wave height, were similar to the synchrony-distance relationship of kelp populations from 1.3 km to 172 km, suggesting that regional environmental variability, i.e., the Moran effect, was the dominant process affecting synchrony at larger spatial scales. This two-step pattern in the relationship between kelp biomass synchrony and distance was apparent in each of the 11 years of our study. Our results highlight the potential for synthesizing approaches from both landscape and population ecology in order to identify the multiple processes that generate synchrony in population dynamics.

Nitrate and Ammonium Leaching in Variable- and Permanent-Charge Paddy Soils

A variable-charge (VC) and a permanent-charge paddy soil (PC) were selected to study nitrate-N (NO − 3-N) and ammonium-N (NH + 4-N) leaching with N isotopes for one consecutive year. An irrigation and intermittent drainage pattern was adopted to mimic natural occurrence of rainfall during the upland crop season and drainage management during the flooded rice season. Treatments to each soil type were no-N controls (CK), 15N-labeled (NH 4) 2SO 4 (NS), and milk vetch (NV) applied at a rate equivalent to 238 kg N ha −1 to unplanted lysimeters, totaling six treatments in triplicates. Results indicated that the soil type dominated N leaching characteristics. In the case of PC, NO − 3-N accounted for 78% of the total leached inorganic N; NS was prone to leach three times more than the NV, being 8.2% and 2.4% of added 15N respectively; and > 85% of leached NO − 3-N came from native N in the soil. In the case of VC, NH + 4-N made up to 92% of the total inorganic N in leachate. Moreover, NH + 4-N particularly high during the flooded season. NO − 3-N leaching in VC occurred later at a lower rate compared to that in PC. The findings of this study indicate that NO − 3-N leaching during the drained season in permanent-charge paddy soils and NH + 4-N leaching in variable-charge soils deserve more attention for regional environmental control.

A comparative analysis of compositional variations in and between marine ferromanganese nodules and crusts in the South Pacific and their environmental controls

Regional variation of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu in ferromanganese oxides (nodules and crusts) in the central south Pacific is related to primary productivity, oxygen minimum layer, and calcium carbonate compensation depth. The largely latitudinal influence of these environmental parameters on nodule and crust composition reflects their predominantly latitudinal variation. Primary productivity is the principal regional environmental control, influencing diagenetic enrichment of these elements in nodules through its effect, mediated by the CCD, on supply and concentration of labile organic matter vs. carbonate remains to the sediments. It influences hydrogenetic enrichment of these elements in nodules and crusts through its effect, mediated by the oxygen minimum layer (mainly in the case of crusts), on their export from surface waters. The elements’ varying susceptibility to being scavenged or organically bound influences the contrasting composition of diagenetic vs. hydrogenetic ferromanganese oxides, which is further influenced by depth. Hydrogenesis is the fundamental process governing nodule and crust formation, superimposed on which is diagenesis under specific circumstances; both are subject to intermittent interruption, diminution and augmentation by changes in environmental parameters. Application of regionally operative environmental controls locally explains local compositional variations and helps refine exploration criteria for economically viable nodules and crusts.

Stable isotopic compositions of Recent freshwater cyanobacterial carbonates from the British Isles: local and regional environmental controls

ABSTRACTRecent (<50 years old) freshwater cyanobacterial carbonates from diverse environments (streams, lakes, waterfalls) throughout Britain and Ireland were analysed for their stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions. The mean δ18O value of −5–9‰ PDB for river and stream data represents calcite precipitation in equilibrium with the mean oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation in central Britain (−7–5‰SMOW) assuming a mean water temperature of 9°C. The mean δ18O of lake data, −4–5‰ PDB, is statistically different, reflecting the effects of residence time and/or variations in the oxygen isotopic composition of rainfall. Carbon isotopes have wide variations in both fluviatile and lake data sets (+ 3 to −12‰ PDB). These variations are principally controlled in the fluviatile samples by contribution of isotopically light ‘soil zone’ carbon relative to isotopically heavier carbon from limestone aquifer rock dissolution. Lake samples have the heaviest carbon isotope values, reflecting a trend toward isotopic equilibrium between atmospheric CO2 and aqueous HCO−3.We infer that isotopic compositions of ancient cyanobacterial carbonates should also record environmental information, although the effects of stabilization and diagenesis on primary δ18O values will need careful consideration. Primary carbon isotope compositions should be well preserved, although in marine samples values will be buffered by the isotopic composition of aqueous marine bicarbonate.