Social and Affordable Housing in Thames-Coromandel District

A commissioned report into housing needs of the Thames Coromandel region. Prepared as part of a Research Office Voucher Project. The report examines housing conditions, as well as particularly vulnerable groups in the region in relation to housing

Technical guidance on normal levels of contaminants in Welsh soil : Cadmium (Cd) : January 2013

Cadmium (Cd) is a metallic element naturally occurring in trace amounts at the Earth’s surface. It is toxic to humans, animals and plants, and known to be a human carcinogen. The metal associates with sulphide ores, mainly the mineral sphalerite (ZnS), and its cycling can be highly influenced by accumulation in plants and organic debris. Its abundance in igneous and sedimentary rocks is generally low, not exceeding 0.3 mg/kg, although Cd can concentrate in metalliferous ore deposits, in argillaceous (fine grained) rocks and in coal. A contributing factor in determining the Cd content of soil is the chemical composition of the parent material. Areas in which soils are enriched in Cd are those with high naturally occurring Cd concentrations, usually associated with sulphide mineralisation, in the underlying rocks. Cadmium is an element associated with many of the mineralised areas and the accompanying mining and processing activities such as ore smelting. Zinc smelters may cause large emissions of fumes enriched in CdO. Phosphate fertilisers and sewage sludges are also sources of Cd in soil. The presence of Cd in car tyres and motor oil often accounts for the relative accumulation of Cd in roadside soils. Other important anthropogenic sources are Ni-Cd batteries and coal burning

SNH Commissioned Report 313: Literature review of the history of grassland management in Scotland

The biodiversity of semi-natural grasslands (also known as unimproved grasslands) is a product of their past low-intensity agricultural management. Current knowledge of appropriate management for these species-rich pastures and meadows is often based on assumptions of the types of management in the past that created and maintained them. This project provides evidence from historical records to support SNH’s advice on the status and management of unimproved lowland grasslands. It describes the typical grassland management regimes of the past three centuries, looking at hay production and grazings, and at past methods of improvement and fertilisation. It shows which types of grassland were valued and which were considered undesirable, and thus how past grassland management has shaped the modern resource

The Kerslake Review has shone a light on the deeply dysfunctional nature of Birmingham local government

The former Head of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake recently published a government commissioned report into the governance of Birmingham City Council, and was withering about its shortcomings. Pauline Geohegan argues that the report simply confirms what was already widely known: that the city is disfunctionally run, and that its time for a big rethink of how things are done, and by whom

Technical Guidance Sheet (TGS) on normal levels of contaminants in English soils : lead (Pb) : technical guidance sheet TGS02, July 2012

Lead (Pb) is a metallic element naturally occurring in trace amounts in the Earth’s surface environment with concentrations in rocks averaging 15 mg/kg. Generally, acid igneous rocks (e.g. granites) are higher in Pb than basic ones (e.g. basalts) and concentrations in sedimentary rocks are variable with up to 70 mg/kg in some limestones. With a low melting point, Pb ore minerals are readily smelted and the metal is easily worked. Lead therefore has a long history of use in human activities. In England there are a number of historical lead mining areas (e.g. the Derbyshire Peak District) where there is a legacy of Pb contamination caused by mining and associated activities. Biologically it is considered as a non-essential element and toxic to man and animals through the food chain and soil dust inhalation or ingestion

Developing a framework for the analysis of power through depotentia

Stakeholder participation in tourism policy-making is usually perceived as providing a means of empowerment. However participatory processes drawing upon stakeholders from traditionally empowered backgrounds may provide the means of removing empowerment from stakeholders. Such an outcome would be in contradiction to the claims that participatory processes improve both inclusivity and sustainability. In order to form an understanding of the sources through which empowerment may be removed, an analytical perspective has been developed deriving from Lukes�s views of power dating from 1974. This perspective considers the concept of depotentia as the removal of �power to� without speculating upon the underlying intent and also provides for the multidimensionality of power to be examined within a single study. The application of this analytical perspective has been tested upon findings of the government-commissioned report of the Countryside and Community Research Unit in 2005. The survey and report investigated the progress of Local Access Forums in England created in response to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Consideration of the data from this perspective permits the classification of individual sources of depotentia which can each be addressed and potentially enable stakeholder groups to reverse loss of empowerment where it has occurred

Normal background concentrations (NBCs) of contaminants in English soils : final project report

The British Geological Survey (BGS) has been commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to give guidance on what are normal levels of contaminants in English soils in support of the Part 2A Contaminated Land Statutory Guidance. This has initially been done by studying the distribution of four contaminants – arsenic, lead, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and asbestos – in topsoils from England. This work was extended to a further four contaminants (cadmium, copper, nickel and mercury) which enabled methodologies developed to be tested on a larger range of contaminants. The first phase of the Project gathered data sets that were: nationally extensive; systematically collected so a broad range of land uses were represented; and collected and analysed to demonstrably and acceptable levels of quality. Information on the soil contaminant concentrations in urban areas was of particular importance as the normal background is considered to be a combination of both natural and diffuse anthropogenic contributions to the soil. Issues of soil quality are most important in areas where these affect most people, namely, the urban environment. The two principal data sets used in this work are the BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) rural and urban topsoils (37,269 samples) and the English NSI (National Soil Inventory) topsoils (4,864 samples) reanalysed at the BGS laboratories by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRFS) so both data sets were highly compatible. These two data sets provide results for most inorganic element contaminants, though results explored for mercury and BaP are drawn from a variety of different and much less extensive data sets

Technical Guidance Sheet (TGS) on normal levels of contaminants in English soils : supplementary information : cadium (Cd) : technical guidance sheet supplementary information TGS06s, July 2012

Both the NSI (XRFS) and G-BASE data sets are derived from a soil sample that has been aggregated (composited) from a number of subsamples collected over the area of a site, rather than a single point sample. In the case of NSI this is 25 cores (subsamples) from a 20-m square (McGrath and Loveland 1992) whereas G-BASE is 5 cores, also from a 20-m square (Johnson et al. 2005; Fordyce et al. 2005). If a sample is collected as a single core, and the result is compared to the NBC, it is important to be aware that short-range variation (which can be substantial) for the single core sample will be potentially much greater than for the samples from which the NBC values are derived (Lark, 2012)

Included outside: Evidence synthesis for engaging under-represented groups in nature

Natural England Commissioned Report NECR42