1,555 research outputs found

    An integrated study of earth resources in the State of California using remote sensing techniques

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    The author has identified the following significant results. The supply, demand, and impact relationships of California's water resources as exemplified by the Feather River project and other aspects of the California Water Plan are discussed

    California Comparative Risk Project (1994). Toward the 21st Century: Planning for the Protection of California\u27s Environment

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    Participants in the California Comparative Risk Project were charged with identifying environmental threats of the greatest ecological, human health, and societal concern using the risk ranking model. However, agreeing that risk is not the only factor that should be considered, our project also examined how economics, pollution prevention, environmental justice, education, and public participation contribute to environmental decision-making. The unique inclusion of this aspect in our project was in response to a growing debate nationally and in California about the limitations of a risk-ranking model for setting environmental priorities. The findings and recommendations of the California Comparative Risk Project are presented in the following report. It is a compilation of two and one-half years of work involving nearly 300 volunteers representing a wide diversity of backgrounds including industry, agriculture, community groups, county and state government, universities, and environmental organizations. Our report includes a nontechnical guide for the general reader, and several longer, more technical reports containing recommendations prepared by our working committees. Recommendations to Cal/EPA from the Statewide Community Advisory Committee, the California Comparative Risk Project\u27s primary citizens\u27 advisory body, are also included in this report

    California Comparative Risk Project (1994). Toward the 21st Century: Planning for the Protection of California\u27s Environment

    Get PDF
    Participants in the California Comparative Risk Project were charged with identifying environmental threats of the greatest ecological, human health, and societal concern using the risk ranking model. However, agreeing that risk is not the only factor that should be considered, our project also examined how economics, pollution prevention, environmental justice, education, and public participation contribute to environmental decision-making. The unique inclusion of this aspect in our project was in response to a growing debate nationally and in California about the limitations of a risk-ranking model for setting environmental priorities. The findings and recommendations of the California Comparative Risk Project are presented in the following report. It is a compilation of two and one-half years of work involving nearly 300 volunteers representing a wide diversity of backgrounds including industry, agriculture, community groups, county and state government, universities, and environmental organizations. Our report includes a nontechnical guide for the general reader, and several longer, more technical reports containing recommendations prepared by our working committees. Recommendations to Cal/EPA from the Statewide Community Advisory Committee, the California Comparative Risk Project\u27s primary citizens\u27 advisory body, are also included in this report

    Holistic environmental assessment of oil and gas field development

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    This study has developed a new life-of-field, goal orientated process of analysis called Holistic Environmental Assessment (HEA). HEA assesses the total environmental risk associated with a proposed oil and gas field development. It prioritises environmental risks and identifies cost effective strategies to reduce them. For the first time the process was applied to a real 'case study' field development programme to test its effectiveness. The application identified that it is a useful tool to help design eco-efficient and costeffective oil and gas field developments. Furthermore, it was discovered that much of the information required by HEA could be obtained in a quick and user-friendly format. The new assessment process was developed after a review of the interaction of the offshore oil and gas industry with the environment, and techniques employed to evaluate this interaction. The review identified that the industry interacts with the environment in a number of different ways, and that the level of interaction transgresses the boundaries of sea, air and land locally, regionally and internationally. Legislation and public concern demand no damage to the environment from offshore oil and gas field exploration and development. UK environmental legislation and people's expectations for environmental performance are in a state of change. This change, coupled with the uncertainty over how resilient the environment is to perturbation, and the increasing risk of environmental liability presents a need for operators to clearly manage environmental information and assess total environmental risk. It was discovered that Environmental Assessment, Lifecycle Analysis and Cost Benefit Analysis, when used separately, failed to assess total environmental risk, but when used in combination under the HEA process could. Many organisations, such as the British Medical Association, European Oilfield Speciality Chemicals Association, the Royal Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (Norway) and Shell Expro, now recognise that a holistic approach is essential to assess total environmental risk. The author proposes that HEA would be effective as a software tool to analyse different environmental risk mitigation systems. This would facilitate the identification of a system that steers an operator towards the triple bottom line of Sustainable Development.Schlumberger LimitedEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci

    Risk management and land use planning for environmental and asset protection purposes

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    The PhD thesis presents a semi-quantitative methodology, developed to increase the efficacy of Land Use Planning related to the Management of risks, in particular as far as it concerns multiple risks impinging on the same territory (Multi-risks). At the moment, each risk is managed through a dedicated sectorial plan, having its proper procedures and scale, and the only “meeting point” for these plans – at least in Italy - are the Municipal city plans. The Municipalities have to implement the contents related to the various risks and directly intervene on the territory, but the lack of linkage and coordination between the plans and the authorities in charge often makes the emergency management and LUP less effective towards the achievement of a real safety of territories. In addition, the actual legislative framework does not face the possible consequences of risk interactions. In this context, the objective of the thesis was to develop a simple risk pre-screening tool, expressly designed for local planners, able to point out the areas more exposed to risks and risks interactions, in order to better address the distribution of the municipal resources for further studies and interventions. The local planners that, especially in Italy, have a central role for the risk management of the territory, became the central point for the proposed framework, assuming the role of evaluators, and then decision-makers. The methodology was developed taking into account the existing experimental frameworks developed for Multi-risks and NaTech events. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were settled in the last years, however the scales and the complex approaches proposed collide with the objectives of this PhD thesis. In fact, few methodologies were elaborated for little scales, and frequently the application of quantitative multi-risk methodologies at a local scale encountered difficulties related to data availability; in addition, all the methodologies require the involvement of experts of several disciplines. These aspects, in particular considering the scarce financial resources of Municipalities, risk to limit the awareness of the importance of a multi-risk approach for LUP planners. Therefore, a semi-quantitative approach, based on an index scale from 0 to 3 onwards was developed for a direct use from Municipal technicians; the proposed scale is applied to measure both the impact of the risks and risk interaction. The methodology is composed by 4 steps: 1) characterization of the risks; 2) assignation of the ratings to the risks; 3) assessment of binary risk interactions; 4) assessment of the compatibility and planning phase. Each step is accompanied by GIS mapping. Steps 1 and 2) Risk characterization and rating. The users (local planners) are required to describe the main territorial risks according to 3 macro-categories: Historical Events, Protection Measures and Strengthening Effects. The macro-categories help in majorly focus on the different aspects of the risks, in particular those that could enhance its final impact, or that could have been neglected in the existing plans. Each macro-category is evaluated and rated on the basis of a dedicated guide, developed on the basis of literature data. Step 3) Risk interaction. The impact of one risk on another one (binary interaction) is assessed in the areas where risks overlay, thanks to a weighted average sum of the values of their macro-categories. An excel table for the application of the formula was developed. The calculation of the interaction vales can be also executed directly through GIS. Step 4) Compatibility. Territorial and environmental vulnerabilities are classified in compliance with E.R.I.R. national and regional regulations. Then, the compatibility is assessed on the basis of an “alarm threshold”; when highly vulnerable territorial or environmental elements fall down in areas where the risks macro-categories or risks interaction are above 2,5, a potential incompatibility is detected. The Municipalities will have to focus here further studies, and then possible interventions: a collection of the possible actions, extracted from existing Guidelines and Manuals was drafted to guide this process. An optional step for the compatibility assessment was added to provide the Municipalities with an indicative mapping of the spatial consequences of the interactions involving industrial plants. This is the only step of the methodology that could presents difficulties for not expert users, because it entails the use of two modelling software (ALOHA and HSSM), that simulates the consequences of the releases. The methodology was tested on two Italian case-studies, two Municipalities affected by multiple types of risks which could interact. Both the territories were connoted by low levels of risk, however the application of the methodology highlighted possible unforeseen problems deriving from the interactions, that currently are not described in any existing sectorial or local plan. Once that the areas more exposed are identified, ad-hoc investigations and actions can be settled to address the problem, on the basis of a guide-line. The proposed approach demonstrated to be able in identifying and bring multi-risks aspects to the attention of the decision makers; in this way, they have a simple guide to risk that can be integrated with the existing planning instruments to improve the quality of decisions related to risks. Furthermore, local administrators recover a more active role, increasing their awareness about the contents and information of the sectorial plans, but also exploiting their major direct knowledge of the territory. This approach tried to fill two different existing gaps: on one side, the absence of an official and recognized legislation on Multi-risks; on the other side, the difficulties for non-risk experts to effectively use the Multi-risk and NaTech experimental methodologies developed so far now. The framework developed for this PhD thesis can be easily adapted to LUP procedures of other countries, through a re-construction of the tables that guide the risk-rating; the simple index scale can be easily managed by different types of users. Being the methodology a risk pre-screening, it can be useful in every context in which it is necessary to acquire more information about multi-risks and their consequences, to better define future actions and drive the application of quantitative methodologies

    Wealth Creation without Pollution

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    The development of eco-industrial parks and associated ‘ecological industry’ concepts offer progressive integrated approaches to resolve pollution problems from effluents and wastes of all kinds. Most industry however is now located in business parks and industrial estates, with relatively few industries having direct discharges of process effluents to the water environment. But that does not mean no pollution. Many of these estates are very large, with many companies of all kinds spread over extensive areas. All have surface water drainage and stormwater runoff is often contaminated by many diffuse sources. Wealth Creation without Pollution is the culmination of several years of deliberations by academics and regulators, engaging with industrial and commercial sectors to characterise and quantify environmental problems and identify best practice solutions. Equally important have been efforts to explore sufficiently flexible regulatory regimes that offer effective means to prevent pollution and achieve good working environments in which industry and commerce can flourish. This book explores how modern industries are striving towards more sustainable practices, with case studies of impacts and of greener industry practices, as well as philosophical and policy papers. The role of regulators, planners and government in fostering a greener industrial base is also examined. Wealth Creation without Pollution is a valuable text book for environmental science and engineering students, and a useful resource for industrial architects, developers and practitioners

    Wastewater irrigation and health: assessing and mitigating risk in low-income countries

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    Wastewater irrigation / Public health / Health hazards / Risk assessment / Epidemiology / Sewage sludge / Excreta / Diseases / Vegetables / Leaf vegetables / Economic impact / Wastewater treatment / Irrigation methods / Developing countries

    Wealth Creation without Pollution

    Get PDF
    The development of eco-industrial parks and associated ‘ecological industry’ concepts offer progressive integrated approaches to resolve pollution problems from effluents and wastes of all kinds. Most industry however is now located in business parks and industrial estates, with relatively few industries having direct discharges of process effluents to the water environment. But that does not mean no pollution. Many of these estates are very large, with many companies of all kinds spread over extensive areas. All have surface water drainage and stormwater runoff is often contaminated by many diffuse sources. Wealth Creation without Pollution is the culmination of several years of deliberations by academics and regulators, engaging with industrial and commercial sectors to characterise and quantify environmental problems and identify best practice solutions. Equally important have been efforts to explore sufficiently flexible regulatory regimes that offer effective means to prevent pollution and achieve good working environments in which industry and commerce can flourish. This book explores how modern industries are striving towards more sustainable practices, with case studies of impacts and of greener industry practices, as well as philosophical and policy papers. The role of regulators, planners and government in fostering a greener industrial base is also examined. Wealth Creation without Pollution is a valuable text book for environmental science and engineering students, and a useful resource for industrial architects, developers and practitioners

    Water Systems towards New Future Challenges

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    This book comprises components associated with smart water which aims at the exploitation and building of more sustainable and technological water networks towards the water–energy nexus and system efficiency. The implementation of modeling frameworks for measuring the performance based on a set of relevant indicators and data applications and model interfaces provides better support for decisions towards greater sustainability and more flexible and safer solutions. The hydraulic, management, and structural models represent the most effective and viable way to predict the behavior of the water networks under a wide range of conditions of demand and system failures. The knowledge of reliable parameters is crucial to develop approach models and, therefore, positive decisions in real time to be implemented in smart water systems. On the other hand, the models of operation in real-time optimization allow us to extend decisions to smart water systems in order to improve the efficiency of the water network and ensure more reliable and flexible operations, maximizing cost, environmental, and social savings associated with losses or failures. The data obtained in real time instantly update the network model towards digital water models, showing the characteristic parameters of pumps, valves, pressures, and flows, as well as hours of operation towards the lowest operating costs, in order to meet the requirement objectives for an efficient system

    Application of ERTS-1 data to integrated state planning in the state of Maryland

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    There are no author-identified significant results in this report
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