Deep drains to manage groundwater

A channel that is 1.0 m to 3.0 m in depth is considered to be a deep drain. The drain is excavated to a depth that is sufficient to intercept the watertable in order to capture and convey that groundwater from flat, poorly drained land. The drain can either be ‘open’ to allow the inflow of surface water or ‘leeved’ to exclude surface water. An open deep drain has its spoil banks placed on one side or on alternate sides of the channel (Figure 1) while a leveed deep drain has continuous spoil banks placed on both sides of the drain channel (Figure 2). Leveed drains are the preferred design in the majority of cases and sites because they prevent surface flows from entering the drain and so reduce the risk of erosion and drain batter collapse.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1122/thumbnail.jp

The impact of agricultural activities on water quality: a case for collaborative catchment-scale management using integrated wireless sensor networks

The challenge of improving water quality is a growing global concern, typified by the European Commission Water Framework Directive and the United States Clean Water Act. The main drivers of poor water quality are economics, poor water management, agricultural practices and urban development. This paper reviews the extensive role of non-point sources, in particular the outdated agricultural practices, with respect to nutrient and contaminant contributions. Water quality monitoring (WQM) is currently undertaken through a number of data acquisition methods from grab sampling to satellite based remote sensing of water bodies. Based on the surveyed sampling methods and their numerous limitations, it is proposed that wireless sensor networks (WSNs), despite their own limitations, are still very attractive and effective for real-time spatio-temporal data collection for WQM applications. WSNs have been employed for WQM of surface and ground water and catchments, and have been fundamental in advancing the knowledge of contaminants trends through their high resolution observations. However, these applications have yet to explore the implementation and impact of this technology for management and control decisions, to minimize and prevent individual stakeholder’s contributions, in an autonomous and dynamic manner. Here, the potential of WSN-controlled agricultural activities and different environmental compartments for integrated water quality management is presented and limitations of WSN in agriculture and WQM are identified. Finally, a case for collaborative networks at catchment scale is proposed for enabling cooperation among individually networked activities/stakeholders (farming activities, water bodies) for integrated water quality monitoring, control and management

Climate change mitigation and the age of tourism accommodation buildings: a UK perspective.

notes: Accepted 03/03/2015publication-status: Acceptedtypes: Article"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sustainable Tourism on 3 March 2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09669582.2015.1027213.”Recent research on climate change mitigation has emphasized decision-making within tourism businesses is vital for sustainable futures. However, there has been little consideration of how the age of buildings and (historic) property frames, modifies or constrains the sector’s response to climate change. Through surveys of accommodation providers in South-West England, this paper explores relationships between property age, energy performance and pro-environmental innovations requiring adjustment to the fabric of buildings. Findings are presented from empirical research with small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) occupying properties often well over a century old. This paper’s large-scale dataset and series of intensive case-histories demonstrates that property age does not play a straightforward role in encouraging or hindering efforts among accommodation providers to tackle climate change. Some (but not all) businesses with the oldest buildings performed and responded strongest, successfully introducing the latest renewable energy technologies, although adapting older buildings was not without complications and cost implications. Conceptually, this research points to the limits of calls for greater pro-environmental behaviour change without clearer understanding of the contexts and settings in which such behaviour takes place. Its findings are important to heritage based destinations worldwide: accommodation in heritage buildings can be a unique selling point

Carbon villains? Climate change responses among accommodation providers in historic premises

Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Heritage Tourism on 25 September 2015 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1743873X.2015.1082569Building stock is a major anthropogenic source of emissions contributing to global warming. Older buildings are conventionally portrayed as performing worse environmentally than more recent buildings. For a sector like tourism, which relies heavily on historic building stock, this raises questions about its ability to contribute to emissions reductions moving forward. This paper explores the relationship between the age and environmental performance of historic premises for small accommodation businesses in South West England, first by correlation analysis and then three extensive case-studies. It argues that the failure to integrate heritage buildings in tourism scholarship on climate change is a major lacuna. Empirically, no statistically significant relationship is found between environmental performance and the date when the original premises were first built. Far from being carbon villains, several ccommodation providers in older premises perform very well against environmental benchmarking schemes. Three types of heritage accommodation providers are identified on the basis of their perceived and actual levels of environmental performance. The paper concludes that heritage building stock of itself is no impediment to action on climate change. Guidance to tourism businesses in such properties should make them aware of this, and provide tailored advice to help them realise potential opportunities.Economic and Social Research CouncilEuropean Regional Development Fund (2007-13

Energy practices among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises: a case of misdirected effort?

notes: Published online 18/09/2014publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleNOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Cleaner Production. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Cleaner Production. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.028Discussion of sustainable tourism has become dominated by the issue of climate change. As a major source of emissions, the tourism sector has a vital role to play in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Within the current body of knowledge and among major policy discourses, the prevailing paradigm has been to encourage action: reduced emissions will follow innovations in managerial practices and the uptake of the latest, most resource-efficient technologies. This paper examines energy practices among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs), reporting empirical research conducted as part of a five-year programme. Although energy was a significant cost of production, it did not feature prominently in the business administration of most SMTEs. A major knowledge gap was exposed regarding how energy was consumed and administered by individual businesses. The paper argues for a major shift in thinking away from the number of actions as the key success criterion. Action alone is no guarantee of emissions reductions in a sector where growth is the dominant imperative. Instead, a crucial reorientation towards stimulating higher levels of energy literacy among SMTEs is necessary in parallel to rebalancing of attention towards energy generation

Tree windbreaks in the wheatbelt

Windbreaks comprising trees, or tree and shrub combinations, can offer many benefits on wheatbelt farms, particularly for protection of soil, stock, crops and pastures from damaging winds and erosion. Additional benefits include reduced evaporation from farm dams, reduced groundwater recharge, their use as nature conservation corridors and habitats, increased biodiversity including predators of crop and pasture pests, fire control, tree products and improved lifestyle and aesthetics. In other areas and farming systems such as intensive horticulture, man-made windbreaks may be used, but their higher cost makes them unsuited for broadscale agriculture. Man-made windbreaks can be effective in reducing evaporative losses from farm dams in the short to medium-term but become costly if they are engineered to withstand strong winds or last a long time.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1196/thumbnail.jp

Potential runoff accumulation in wheatbelt towns of Western Australia

Describes an analysis of flood runoff volumes from 16 small, gauged catchments in the agricultural areas of south western Australia. It also describes methods for estimating flood runoff volumes from ungauged catchments. The independent variables found to be statistically significant in explaining the variability in flood runoff volumes from the gauged catchments were catchment area, mean annual rainfall and the percentage of the catchment that was cleared. No soil factor was found to be significant

Methoxy-phenyl groups reduce the cytotoxicity and increase the aqueous solubility of phosphonium zwitterions and salts

The ability of phosphonium cations to act as intracellular transport vectors is well-established. Previous research has demonstrated that phosphonioalkylthiosulfate zwitterions, and -thioacetylalkylphosphonium salts are useful precursors for the formation of phosphonium-functionalised gold nanoparticles and enable the nanoparticles to be transported into cells for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. In this report we describe the synthesis and characterisation of a series of phosphonioalkylthiosulfate zwitterions, and-thioacetylalkylphosphonium salts derived from the methoxy-phenylphosphines tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphine, tris(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)phosphine and tri(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine. The methoxyphenyl-substituted phosphonium compounds show greater solubility in aqueous systems than the corresponding phenyl derivatives and cytotoxicity studies reveal that the compounds are significantly less toxic than the related triphenylphosphonium derivatives. The solid-state structures of the tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)- and tris(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)-phosphoniopropylthiosulfate zwitterions have been investigated by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The differences in the molecular packing of the compounds may account for greater solubility of these zwitterions in aqueous solutions