bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Possible Environmental Impact on Inland Waters of Two Planned Major Engineering Projects in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Petr Tomislav
Published: August 2009

Two major development projects in Papua New Guinea, while still in the planning stage, are being approached with full awareness of their possible impact on the environment. A copper-mine high up in the catchment of a large river, the Fly, and a large hydroelectric dam on another sizeable river, the Purari, raise a number of questions. The extremely high rainfall in the area of the proposed copper-mine precludes the use of standard methods of tailings disposal. Thus if the tailings were stored behind a dam, it would frequently overflow; alternatively, they could be discharged directly into a stream. Both alternatives would have a negative environmental impact. Downstream dilution by tributaries would, however, be an important mitigating factor of tailing disposal. At present, frequent, naturally-occuring landslides in the upper catchment result in a very high input of sediments, with a disastrous impact on the aquatic life.
Evolution of the Dune and Machair Grassland Surface of South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
Authors: Moss Michael R. , Dickinson Gordon
Published: August 2009

The machair coastal areas of the Outer Hebrides form one of the more distinctive coastal environments in Britain and owe their origin to an apparently unique, as yet not clearly understood, combination of factors which operated in the late postglacial period. A further distinguishing characteristic is the often quite extensive level machair grassland plain, which is suggested here as being the last of a series of evolutionary phases which took place from the time of initial sand deposition (ca 6000 B.P.) until ca 2000 B.P. There is evidence that, in a modified form, these processes may have continued right through to the present time.
The Importance of Ecosystem Structure and Function in the Management of Water Quality in India
Authors: Rao S. V. Rama , Sharma S. K. , Singh V. P. , Mall L. P.
Published: August 2009

The term ecosystem integrity may be defined as the maintenance of the community structure and function that is characteristic of a particular locality or habitat. The study of aquatic ecosystem integrity in the rivers and lakes of India holds a bright prospect for the evaluation and management of the quality of our water.
Conserving the Genetic Integrity of Faunal Populations and Communities
Authors: Miller Ronald I.
Published: August 2009

Results of recent studies in population genetics provide significant evidence that genetic changes may occur in many small, isolated, preserve populations. The primary phenomena producing these changes will be inbreeding, genetic drift, and the ‘founder’ and ‘bottleneck’ effects. A permanent reduction in population vigour and in genetic diversity may result from these processes.
The Expanding Sahara
Authors: Cloudsley-Thompson J. L.
Published: August 2009

The belts of savanna lying to the south of the Sahara are described. Evidence is then presented which suggests that these have been created from forest by shifting cultivation and the use of fire: they have probably developed contemporaneously with the evolution of Man and increase in human population. The effect of climatic changes in creating desert are discussed, and the conclusion is reached that present conditions in much of the Sahara have been engendered almost entirely by human activities. These include felling of trees for firewood and charcoal, or to make their leaves accessible to stock in times of drought and, even more important, overgrazing—especially by goats. Finally, it is suggested that, in the long term, agriculture may not be the most promising way of developing arid regions. Overstocking the savanna and desert must inevitably lead to disaster.
Plastics in the Marine Environment
Authors: Cundell Anthony M.
Published: August 2009

The pollution of the marine environment by plastics such as polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, and polyurethane, is discussed. As plastic materials are relatively resistant to oxidative ageing and are generally not degraded by microorganisms, they will accumulate in coastal and oceanic waters. The origin of plastic pollutants, their distribution in the marine environment, and their persistence and ultimate fate, are largely unknown. The technology is available to manufacture plastic materials with a programmed service life which, if widely adopted, would reduce the accumulation of plastics in the sea. But their random distribution should be discouraged on behalf of the marine environment.
Snowmobile Impact on Three Alpine Tundra Plant Communities
Authors: Greller Andrew M. , Goldstein Madeline , Marcus Leslie
Published: August 2009

This paper describes the effects of 1,020 passages of snowmobiles, made over two winters, on three regularly winter-snow-free alpine tundra plant communities. A cushion-plant community on a 7-degrees slope showed a 31% reduction in total living plant coverage due to snowmobile impact. Destruction was greatest to soil lichens, rock lichens, and the cushion-plants Arenaria obtusiloba, Arenaria fendleri, Paronychia sessiliflora var. pulvinata, Silene acaulis, Eritrichium aretioides, and Phlox pulvinata. Graminoids generally survived to increase in importance. On a flat site, a cushion-plant community with Kobresia myosuroides as its most important species, showed the greatest loss of living-plant coverage, namely 46%. This was due primarily to the destruction of Kobresia, although Selaginella densa, Arenaria obtusiloba, Hymenoxys acaulis, and Eritrichium aretioides, also showed heavy losses. In a Kobresia turf community, destruction was decidedly less severe than in the cushion-plant communities, reduction in total living plant coverage being only 19%. It is suggested that the closed nature of the Kobresia turf, with its stiff tussocks, enables it to absorb impact well. It is recommended that snow-mobile travel be confined to Kobresia or similar turfs, when such travel is necessary under snow-free conditions.
Conservation, Counter-culture, and Separate Realities
Authors: Dasmann Raymond F.
Published: August 2009

Various social trends, not usually thought to be related to environmental conservation, are examined in relation to their impact on the conservation movement. The student rebellion of the 1960s is seen as an important force backing environmental causes. Leading as it did to a ‘return to the land’ and the development of alternative life-styles, it may become a significant pioneering effort towards finding a more viable relationship between Man and his environment. As a further outgrowth of the development of a ‘counter-culture,’ there is a renewed interest in those religious and psychological movements that seek to eliminate the dualities between body/mind, Man/Nature, matter/spirit, long imposed by traditional western philosophy. This is seen as having a potential for major changes in human attitudes towards nature conservation.
Worked-out Gravel Land: a Challenge and an Opportunity
Authors: Hartwright Timothy U.
Published: August 2009

In environmental terms the after-treatment and subsequent utilization of worked-out opencast mining areas is of the greatest importance. One of the largest extractive industries in the world using the opencast method is that of sand and gravel. Ready Mixed Concrete Limited is the largest sand and gravel producer in the United Kingdom, and is pioneering new approaches to the problems of after-treatment.

Unlike other forms of development, mineral workings constitute a temporary use of land of comparatively short duration, yet often involving considerable areas. Therefore the planned after-treatment and after-use of the worked-out areas is of the utmost importance.

Dry gravel workings can either be filled with waste materials and restored to the original ground-level or the soils can be replaced, so that a new surface is created on the floor of the excavation. In both cases the new surfaces can be made available for agriculture, playing fields, or other forms of development. Flooded gravel workings can also be filled in a similar manner. However, the British Government is now anxious to retain many of these artificial lakes for water sports and other leisure purposes. If the new lake areas are to be made available for public leisure and recreation, then large sums of capital expenditure will be necessary. Leisure Sport Limited has been formed for the purpose of designing, building, and operating, centres of this kind.
Sewage Treatment for Small Communities
Authors: Mann Henry T.
Published: August 2009

Many small communities use septic tanks as a method of partial sewage treatment in situations where effluents may be satisfactorily discharged into the soil. These systems are also suitable for use in many situations where intermittent occupation occurs. Where effluents are discharged into streams in which serious pollution is likely, further treatment by secondary processes is necessary, and in many situations tertiary treatment processes are added as a final safeguard. Prefabricated or package-plant systems using variants of the activated-sludge process or special types of percolating filter, have become available and can be designed by the manufacturers to satisfy all of the purposes of primary and secondary treatment in specific situations. Maintenance requirements of most of these processes are small, but no system may be operated for long periods without a minimum of maintenance.

Some of the simplest systems of sewage treatment can provide excellent sanitary conditions and a high level of protection from health hazards and environmental deterioration if properly designed and operated. Package plants are compact and convenient but not necessarily more effective. They are usually dependent on a reliable power-supply, but have many advantages on restricted sites or sites requiring rapid development or expansion.
The Coming Energy Crisis and Solar Sources
Authors: Bockris John O'M.
Published: August 2009

The nature of the present (pseudo) and coming (real) energy crises have been indicated. Recent evidence suggests that pollutive dangers from nuclear fission plants are far greater than had been thought. The resuscitation on a large scale of coal as an energy source would give pollutive dangers, including climatic changes due to excess carbon dioxide.

Solar energy systems, earlier impossibly expensive, are now predicted to have the same capital cost-range as have nuclear reactors. Cheap, high-purity silicon coatings which adsorb at <10–4 cm but do not emit at >10–4 cm, thin-film photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and photosynthesis, are areas of immediate solar energy research interest.

Roof-top energy collection may be a permanent part of the future, but will not avoid the necessity of large ‘solar farms’ to collect energy for industry and transportation. Storage should be in the form of hydrogen: there are advantages in developing cheap hydrogen as a general and clean fuel, for transportation and other purposes.
Restoration of the Northamptonshire Ironstone Areas
Authors: Gregory Malcolm
Published: August 2009

Since the passing of the Mineral Workings Act 1951 there have been (1) changing pursuits in agriculture and improved methods of restoration, (2) continually rising costs of machinery and labour, and (3) nationalization of the steel industry.

Recently, a new Act was passed, namely the Mineral Workings Act 1971, to make further provision in relation to contributions to and payments out of the Ironstone Restoration Fund, and to abolish the Advisory Committee on Ironstone Restoration. This Act necessited new regulations as follows:

Statutory Instrument 1972 No. 210:

‘This Order prescribes the full and reduced rates of contributions to be paid by ironstone operators towards the Ironstone Restoration Fund under section 1 of the Mineral Workings Act 1971, in respect of ironstone extracted on or after 1 April 1971 and the sum which may be deducted from payments made under mining leases and mineral rights orders (in accordance with section 3 of that Act) in respect of full-rate contributions.’

Statutory Instrument 1972 No. 211:

‘Section 9 of the Mineral Workings Act 1951 provides that the rate of payments out of the Ironstone Restoration Fund to be made to ironstone operators in respect of the restoration of worked ironstone land in compliance with conditions of a planning permission shall represent the amount by which the estimated cost per acre of the work of restoration exceeds such sum per acre as the Minister may determine to be the standard rate. The Ironstone Restoration Fund (Standard Rate) Order 1955 determined that rate to be £110 per acre.

This Order made under section 3 of the Mineral Workings Act 1971 prescribes a new rate of £260 per acre in respect of all work completed after 31 March 1972.’
Challenges in a Changing World
Authors: Mitchell Harold P.
Published: August 2009

Six problems faced by the developed and developing worlds are discussed and possible solutions are considered. Given its relatively stable populations and adequate food supplies, the developed world must be prepared both to pay for and to encourage efforts to control pollution of the environment. Its comparative over-consumption of energy must be countered by the development of new energy sources, bearing in mind the risks involved in the use of nuclear energy. Also, great efforts must be made to assist the developing world by improving the quality and quantity of aid and by voluntary changes in world trade patterns.

The developing world's most serious problem is its exploding population which can be slowed by birth control and improved standards of living. Population growth puts pressure on cities, and makes it imperative that new sources of food be found and new agricultural techniques be developed. Population also exacerbates the difficulties of providing education in the developing world.

Hope for the future rests on Man's capacity to foresee problems and to solve them.
The Crown-of-thorns Crisis in Australia: A Retrospective Analysis
Authors: Kenchington Richard A.
Published: August 2009

The Crown-of-thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci) was perceived to be a threat to coral reefs of the Indo–West Pacific region partly as a consequence of new technology, in the form of SCUBA diving, becoming generally available. It took some years, however, for field practices to be developed which employed the new technology effectively in sampling such a phenomenon over large areas.

In Australia an emotional environmental campaign followed the publication of a report to the Queensland Government in 1969, which claimed that the Starfish was a major threat to the Great Barrier Reef, that it was probably Man-induced, and that it could be controlled. The report was neither adopted nor rejected in the period of more than a year which elapsed between its submission and its publication. As the public campaign gained momentum, official inquiries reviewed and questioned the data-base of the initial report but no attempt was made to devise, test, or implement, a more acceptable sampling procedure until 1973. In retrospect it is suggested that an early practical initiative to assess and remedy claimed defects of the initial sampling programme, would have removed the element of speculation which led to considerable heat in the Crown-of-thorns debate in Australia.

The recommendation of the official inquiries resulted in the establishment of a trust fund to give special support to research into the problem. The research thus conducted materially increased understanding of the phenomenon, but it has been claimed that vital areas of investigation were omitted, and the value of such special support has been questioned. It is suggested here that the special problems and expense of research into the ecology of remote reefs would have precluded almost all research into the Crown-of-thorns Starfish and its effects without suchad hocsupport. However, it is further suggested that more direct management of the programme would have coordinated research effort and made more effective use of the facilities and support available.
Exotic Plants and Their Effects in Southeastern Florida
Authors: Austin Daniel F.
Published: August 2009

Europeans began introducing plants into southeastern Florida during the 16th century, and by the middle of the 18th century several of these were already naturalized. Few of these events have been recorded, but we know that the Guava, Papaya, and oranges, were among the early immigrants. American settlement in the middle 1800s began another phase of plant movement which continues to the present. H. M. Flagler, Henry Nehrling, John C. Gifford, and others, brought plants in for landscaping or other uses. Among those brought in by the United States Department of Agriculture were the Sisal, introduced by Henry Perrine, and the many food and ornamental plants sent by David Fairchild to the Miami Introduction Station. Many of the plants brought to Florida have become important as ornamentals or foods; however, some of the exotics have escaped and now present problems to the native ecosystems and to Man.

Over 170 species of ferns and flowering plants are naturalized in southeastern Florida. Hundreds of other exotic plants have been introduced into the region and the potential exists for others to escape. Species such asMelaleuca quinquenerviaare invading wet habitats and decreasing diversity; the Australian Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia) has become so abundant on some beaches that it interferes with nesting seaturtles and American Crocodiles, as well as contributing to dune erosion. Water-hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and Florida Elodea (Hydrilla verticillata) clog natural and artificial lakes, ponds, and canals, blocking boat traffic and slowing water movement. Several grasses that were introduced as pasture plants are now considered pests. Even human health is being threatened by exotic plants such as theMelaleucaand Pepper-tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), which cause respiratory allergies and contact dermatitis.
The Role of Landscape Ecology in Development
Authors: Naveh Zev
Published: August 2009

Landscape ecology is concerned with the interrelations between the Total Human Ecosystem—integrating natural ecosystems and human techno-ecosystems —and its concrete, spatial landscape units. It deals not only with natural and semi-natural landscapes but also with cultural–rural and urban–industrial landscapes and their inputs of fossil energy, artefacts, and cultural information and control. As an emerging branch of human ecosystem science with an interdisciplinary outlook on modern land-uses, it could play an important role in developing countries. Here, one of its greatest challenges is to find a compromise between the needs for conservation or reconstitution of open landscapes and the socio-economic needs of society. This can be achieved by transforming the noneconomic richness of the local ecosystem into workable parameters for the land-use planners and decisionmakers.

As an example of such an attempt, the development and improvement of non-tillable Mediterranean uplands is presented by a model of multiple-use ecosystem management strategies and their benefits. Highest overall benefit for nature conservation, wildlife and recreation amenities, protection of environmental quality as well as livestock, forestry production, and water yields, can be expected by multiple-purpose reafforestation and revegetation.

For the assessment of compatibility of these different land-use factors and their mutual influences, a cybernetic sensitivity model is proposed and the most active and critical variables—foresty, livestock production, and recreation—and the most passive one— water yields—are determined.

In order to make possible cost-benefit analyses and achieve optimization for dynamic planning, these relative values should be replaced by actual quantitative ecological, economic, and socio-ecological, parameters —to be implemented on a national level as parts of comprehensive landscape master-plans.
Propagation of Mangroves by Air-layering
Authors: Carlton Jedfrey M. , Moffler Mark D.
Published: August 2009

The biological and geological importance of mangroves in coastal environs is well recognized. These halophytes contribute leaf-fall to marine food-webs, act as sediment stabilizers, and serve as a habitat for quite numerous organisms (Odum, 1971; Carlton, 1974; Walsh, 1974). They are consequently of considerable ecological and environmental significance. Attempts to revegetate coastal areas that have become denuded of valuable mangrove cover are also important environmentally and have involved two approaches: planting propagules (seedlings) or transplanting older, established plants (Teas, 1977).
Background and Development of International Conservation Organizations and Their Role in the Future
Authors: Curry-Lindahl Kai
Published: August 2009

The internationalization of conservation activities in the form of organizations is essentially a post-World War I development. The first international initiatives were taken in North America during the first decade of the 20th century, and in 1910 other attempts were made in Europe; but it was not before 1922 that the first truly international conservation organization, the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), was created. After World War II, ecology evolved rapidly as a discipline and this development led to international cooperation in conservation. U.N. organizations such as FAO and UNESCO became established. In 1948 the latter took the initiative in the creation of IUCN. ICBP founded the International Waterfowl Research Bureau (IWRB), another important organization, and IUCN took the initiative to form in 1961 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as a fund-raising and public relations organization.
Land Reclamation and the Botanical Significance of Some Former Mining and Manufacturing Sites in Britain
Authors: Johnson Michael S.
Published: August 2009

Whilst major new industrial development sometimes poses a threat to scenic values and ecologically important habitats, it is also evident that industry has contributed significantly to the present-day biological resources of the British Isles. In particular, several former mineral-extraction sites have been maintained and developed specifically for the security and management of wildlife, and now constitute important habitats for the protection and survival of less-common members of the British flora. Several locations have even been successfully defended on biological grounds against proposals to reutilize them for disposing of industrial wastes and domestic refuse.
Additional Range Expansion in Florida of the Introduced Walking Catfish
Authors: Courtenay Walter R.
Published: August 2009

In April 1975, the Walking Catfish (Clarias batrachus) was known to be established in ten counties of Florida. The present range of this exotic species covers 18 counties or somewhat more than 25 % of the freshwater area of Florida, and this has happened in the ca ten years since the first specimens were found in the wild. Severely cold winters have failed to stem range expansion, and future northward migration in peninsular Florida can be expected.
Developments in Tertiary Environmental Engineering Education in Australasia
Authors: Lawson J. D. , Mainwaring S. J.
Published: August 2009

This paper examines the concept of environmental education as it relates to engineering education. The main area of applicability is considered to be in the continuing and postgraduate education areas, although some environmental input into undergraduate degree programmes is thought to be desirable.

The interdisciplinary nature of environmental problems necessitates a certain amount of formal coursework which should be coupled with a project to provide experience in solving real problems. The course-work should contain both broadening elements to introduce students to the relevance of disciplines outside their undergraduate experience and a specialization in a particular multidisciplinary area such as air pollution control or water resources engineering.

The criteria for environmental programmes in engineering are developed with special reference to the new Environmental Engineering Postgraduate Programme at the University of Melbourne.
Toxic Substances in Discharges of Hypolimnetic Waters from a Seasonally Stratified Impoundment
Authors: Oglesby George Bret , Noell W. C. , Delo H. O. , Dyer W. A. , England R. H. , Fatora J. R. , Grizzle J. M. , Deutsch Stuart J.
Published: August 2009

A massive fish-kill at a trout hatchery located below the discharge of a seasonally stratified impoundment provided a unique opportunity to examine mechanisms of toxicity (using in situ water) by means of a largescale experiment at the hatchery itself. In order to assess the relative impact on the fish of a number of water constituents such as heavy-metals and organic materials, a variety of dosing chemicals were employed within the hatchery. Fish tissue and blood samples were collected for histological and chemical analysis, respectively.

It was concluded that a combination of manganese and organic material (probably humic in nature) in reduced chemical states in discharges of bottom (hypolimnetic) waters of the impoundment during periods of minimum power-generation was responsible for the mortality. Parallels between the fish-kill under investigation and other reported causes of hypolimnetic water toxicity were also drawn. It would appear that the redox state and nature of organic materials present may control the mechanisms in the various fish-kill situations. Implications for other users of the water are currently under investigation in an expanded programme.
Urban Ecosystems and Island Biogeography
Authors: Davis Anthony M. , Glick Thomas F.
Published: August 2009

In urban areas, continuing fragmentation of natural habitat, disturbance, and increasing isolation of individual ‘habitat islands’, has brought on almost general reduction in species richness. Sensitive species are being replaced by aggressive synanthropic ones. Continued loss seems inevitable, but reducing the rate of that loss is a worthwhile conservation goal. It is imperative that the numerous and varied habitats within each urban area be considered as interrelated and not as separate units. Island biogeography models supply the means for unifying the disparate elements in urban ecological studies and can provide a useful strategy for conservation.

It is difficult to define colonization, extinction, and equilibrium, in disturbed, often transient, urban habitats. Pseudo- and successional turnover dominate. The occupation of each ‘habitat island’ is a function of its own geography and of its position relative to other ‘islands’. Each habitat may serve as isolated ‘island’, ‘stepping-stone’, or ‘corridor’, depending on its spatial relationships with other ‘habitat islands’ and with the nature of each organism present.

‘Habitat islands’ in small cities appear to function like large or near oceanic islands, while those in large cities seem to respond like small or distant oceanic islands. In all cases, the analogy with land-bridge islands is appropriate. Continuing urbanization is leading to reduced ‘habitat island’ size, and increasing the isolation of units from one another and from the surrounding rural ‘reservoir’.
The Gola Forest in Sierra Leone: A Remnant Primary Tropical Rain-forest in Need of Conservation
Authors: Cole N. H. Ayodele
Published: August 2009

The Gola Forest (North), located on the eastern border of Sierra Leone with Liberia, at 7°30′–7°45′N latitude and 11°0′ – 11°15′E longitude, is the farthest extension northwards and westwards of the Congo-West African closed forest formation type. Its inaccessibility had prevented its exploitation during historical times, and this has resulted in its preservation as primary forest. Evidence from the structure, species composition, and microclimate, of unexploited forest enclaves such as the study site, show that the Gola Forest is different from the common mature secondary forests situated elsewhere in the country.
Dieback of Salt-water Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora Loisel.) in the Lower Cape Fear Estuary of North Carolina: An Experimental Approach to Re-establishment
Authors: Linthurst Rick A. , Seneca Ernest D.
Published: August 2009

Spartina alterniflora is the dominant endemic saltmarsh angiosperm along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. Dieback of S. alterniflora became evident through aerial surveys of the Lower Cape Fear Estuary of North Carolina. The areas affected varied in size, the largest being greater than 40 ha in areal extent. As S. alterniflora productivity losses can subsequently affect the productivity of the estuarine detritus-based food-web, studies were initiated in 1975 to examine the dieback phenomenon, follow successional trends, and determine the recolonization potential of S. alterniflora in dieback-affected salt-marshes.

Three S. alterniflora dieback sites in the Lower Cape Fear Estuary were selected for study. Two of the sites, both above mean high-water, were recolonized by Salicornia europaea, Distichlis spicata, Scirpus robustus, Spartina patens, and S. alterniflora. At a third site, found to be below mean high-water, all volunteer plants were of S. alterniflora. Final stabilization of all three sites was mainly by S. alterniflora, with the living standing-crop biomass ranging from 341 to 1,565 g/m2 in September of 1978.

Experimental plots within each of the three dieback sites were sprigged with S. alterniflora plants from three sources: (i) sandy dredge-material, (ii) volunteer plants within affected sites, and (iii) unaffected sites near the dieback areas. The success of these sprigs was strongly site-dependent. It is suggested that the plants used for revegetation of dieback sites should be obtained from areas similar to the site that is being transplanted and/or plants which have large rhizome systems.
Zoogeographic Subregions of the Pacific Realm as a Background for Terrestrial Ecological Reserves: Part 2, Central and Eastern Regions, etc., with Conclusions
Authors: Curry-Lindahl Kai
Published: August 2009

Part 2 of this paper reviews the situation in the Central and Eastern regions of the Pacific Realm as well as in the Pacific mainland coasts of Australia, North America, and South America. Table I lists the ‘Pacific Faunal Balance’ as far as vertebrates are concerned, and gives the number and distribution of existing national parks or nature reserves in each subregion. It shows that the Hawaiian Islands have been subjected to a high number of extinctions. In addition an even larger number of Hawaiian vertebrates are at present on the verge of extinction. Hawaii tops the lists of both extinct (24) and endangered (37) vertebrates. It is also evident from Table I that Pacific islands are much more vulnerable to vertebrate extinctions than are the Pacific coasts of Australia, North America, and South America. Not less than six subregions of Pacific islands show a higher number of extinctions than the east coast of Australia, and 16 subregions are affected by extinctions, while the western coasts of North and South America are not.
Towards Protection of Scenic Resources
Authors: Dearden Philip
Published: August 2009

This essay has sought to draw together some of the reasons behind the recent upsurge in interest in the systematic evaluation of scenic beauty. It has covered a wide range of disciplines, because of the multi-faceted nature of feelings about landscape. These feelings have been synthesized into four themes representing landscape as a non-renewable resource, as a recreational resource, as a spiritual resource, and finally as a historical resource. Undoubtedly many other equally valid reasons exist as to why the visual resource of the landscape should be recognized as an important consideration in land-use planning decisions.
The Relevance of MAB
Authors: Batisse Michel
Published: August 2009

Recent debate has shown disenchantement over the capacity of technology to provide solutions to current and future development problems, and this has led to questioning the value of scientific research itself, including that in the environmental field. The paper describes the objectives and approach of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), which was launched by UNESCO in 1971 as a major solution to important environmental and resources problems.

Centred around 14 research themes relating to human interactions with major ecosystems, MAB activities are focused particularly on regional networks of integrated pilot projects, combining interdisciplinary research, demonstration, training, and education. Many of these pilot projects are associated with ‘Biosphere Reserves’, which provide a new tool for ecosystems conservation. As an example of this approach, which involves cooperation of research workers of various disciplines with decision makers and with the populations concerned, the paper describes the MAB network dealing with the problems of the humid tropics, which is now fully operational. While indicating the difficulties encountered, it stresses the merits of this new approach in filling existing knowledge-gaps, in ensuring social and economic applicability of the results achieved, and in allowing fruitful cooperation between developed and developing countries.
A Synopsis of Wildlife Conservation in Nigeria
Authors: Afolayan Timothy A.
Published: August 2009

Conservation and utilization of wildlife resources are not new among our local communities in Nigeria, although the present approach to the management of these resources is very recent. Modern technology, urbanization, and human population expansion, have caused the destruction of many indigenous animal and plant species in Nigeria.

This paper highlights the recent developments in the overall conservation programme in Nigeria. It describes the important role which wildlife is playing in helping to feed the nation, in creating employment opportunities, in education, in research, in recreation, and in local medicine. Inadequacy of Nigerian wildlife legislation and of trained manpower to protect and manage the wildlife resources are among the crucial wildlife management problems identified in this paper. It is also stressed that the basic information for effective management is often lacking where Nigerian wildlife reserves are concerned.
Impacts of Rural Development and Their Assessment in Southeastern Asia
Authors: Lohani B. N. , Thanh N. C.
Published: August 2009

The overall objective of development should be to improve the quality of people's lives, yet economic development without due environmental protection commonly leads to ecological or environmental impacts which have the reverse effect of reducing the quality of human life. A table showing some of the major environmental impacts that can result from uncontrolled rural development is presented to illustrate the fact that developmental activities with no environmental protection can be very seriously detrimental to the rural environment. Therefore, an environmental impact assessment, both short-term and long-term in scope, should be made of any major development scheme as a basis for drawing up strategies for minimizing undesirable impacts. Although a number of techniques are available for such impact assessment, the checklist and matrix approaches appear to be the most suitable for use in Southeast Asia, where impact studies are only just beginning to be introduced.
Wastewater Effluents from a Tannery: Their Effects on Soil and Vegetation in Pakistan
Authors: Sheikh Khalid Hamid , Irshad Muhammad
Published: August 2009

The wastewater of Firdaus Tanneries, Muridke, Pakistan, was very highly saline and very highly sodic (water-quality class: C4-S4). It was being used for irrigating fields near the Tanneries but there was a piece of wasteland which, because of its elevation, could not receive this water. The vegetation of this wasteland and that of the irrigated field was studied.

The effects of wastewater application on characteristics of the soil were studied in the irrigation field and, for comparison, also in the wasteland soil. The soil samples were taken from the surface and from 5, 10, and 20 cm depths. Moisture content, water-stable aggregates, water-holding and cation-exchange capacities, amounts of organic matter, and exchangeable sodium, were greater in the irrigated field as compared with wasteland soil at each corresponding soil-depth. Electrical conductivity, pH, and the amounts of calcium, magnesium, soluble sodium, chlorides, sulphates, and the values of Sodium Adsorption Ratio and Exchangeable Sodium Percentage, were significantly higher in wasteland as compared with those in the irrigated field at each corresponding soil-depth. These values tended to decrease from the surface to 20 cm soil depth in each site.
Long-term Consequences of Upstream Impoundment
Authors: Petts Geoffrey E.
Published: August 2009

Since 1970 a large number of environmental problems have been identified as resulting from the long-term effects of human impacts. Consideration of human activity within the environment as three orders of impact, provides a basic framework for the appreciation and evaluation of long-term problems. Consequent upon dam construction, major changes of flood magnitude and frequency and of the quantity and calibre of sediment loads (first-order impacts), will induce the readjustment of channel morphology and ecology (second-order impacts). However, the macrophytic and macro-invertebrate population, for example, are also adjusted to channel morphology—particularly channel shape and substrate composition—so that further readjustments of the macrophyte and macro-invertebrate populations may be effected by changes of channel form (third-order impacts).
Sustainable Development: Theoretical Construct or Attainable Goal?
Authors: Simon David
Published: August 2009

Awareness of the environmental implications of different development strategies has grown significantly since the early 1970s. Although much destruction is still being wrought, there are at last hopeful signs that some major multilateral development agencies, governments, and NGOs, are beginning to adopt more environmentally sensitive policies.

Recent advances in environmental and development theory have focused on the concept of sustainable development, arguing that the environment must be seen as an integral part of long-term sustainable development rather than merely as a resource to be exploited or traded for economic development.

This paper reviews recent contributions to the literature on both conceptual and empirical aspects of this topical debate, stressing particularly the ‘Brundtland Commission’ report and the work of Michael Redclift. An historically sensitive political perspective is proposed as most appropriate for embracing not only the more traditional ecological and economic aspects but also the crucial political factors underlying uneven development and underdevelopment in the age of an increasingly integrated global economic system. Although we now have a fairly sophisticated theoretical understanding of sustainable development, appropriate methodologies and techniques for translating this into practice are still required. The paper concludes that a blend of ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ approaches would give greatest flexibility, and suggests how the assessment of sustainability at the level of individual agro-ecological systems might be advanced.
Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond: A Framework for World Development
Authors: Dabholkar Uttam
Published: August 2009

The United Nations General Assembly, at its forty-second session, in 1987, adopted the ‘Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond’ as a framework to guide national action and international cooperation for environmentally sound development. The Environmental Perspective had been prepared by member governments in response to the General Assembly resolution 38/161 of 19 December 1983, which called for shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and of the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully with the challenge of protecting and enhancing the environment, aspirational goals for the world community, and a long-term agenda for action. The Perspective was prepared through a linked process of direct intergovernmental consultation and review, and the preparation by a Commission of eminent individuals, chaired Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway, of the report ‘Our Common Future’.
Environmental Impact of Dutch Military Activities
Authors: Vertegaal Paul J.M.
Published: August 2009

Mostly for political reasons, rather little research has been done on the environmental impacts of military activities. However, some data on this theme have been collected, especially in North America, the Federal Republic of Germany, and The Netherlands. In this last-mentioned country the overall military environmental impact appears to be considerable, and can be compared qualitatively and quantitatively with the pressures on the environment which other economic sectors impose.

The contribution of the military sector to the world-wide environmental degradation problem is estimated at more than 6%, resulting from its share in the gross international product and the heavy character of military practice in both war and peace-time. In The Netherlands this share appears to be about 2 to 5%, which can be deduced from the military share in the national total consumption of energy. The military use of such poisonous and often rare elements as thallium, thorium, copper, beryllium, cadmium, zinc, and lead, varies from about 10 to 40% of their total national use.
Environmental Conservation: Economics, Ecology, and Ethics
Authors: Tisdell Clement A.
Published: August 2009

This paper argues that the comparative lack of concern for Nature conservation in the ‘Western World’ has been a product of its economic development experience, the nature of its economic systems and economic organizations (both market and centrally controlled ‘state socialist’), and its centralized political systems as well as its Judaic-Christian value system. But some change in attitude has occurred in recent years, and there is now far more readiness than formerly to consider the economic and direct benefits to Man of conservation of living resources (see, for example, the World Conservation Strategy), and growing interest in the possible ethical rights of other sentient (and perhaps even non-sentient) beings. In general, however, economists remain unsympathetic to ecologists who do not subscribe to their economic value-systems.
Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO): A Case-study in Partial Bureaucratic Adaptation
Authors: O'Riordan Timothy
Published: August 2009

Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) is an invention, peculiar to the British approach to pollution-control, that should have wider application than at present. As the British have developed the idea, BPEO will initially be geared to the mix of residuals emanating from specially-scheduled processes. The aim is so to integrate the residuals' stream that the ultimate environmental alteration is minimized in an optimal but realistic manner. The concept is polluter-orientated—not policy-, planning-, or environmentally-, directed—the aim being so to encase a pollution emitter in a single but comprehensive regulatory envelope that, ideally, best technology, best management, and best science, combine to produce the most efficient and least-offensive discharges.

This paper analyses the genesis of the idea of BPEO, and examines the influence of the growing power of European Community environmental directives on its development and interpretation. For BPEO to work, more fundamental reforms to UK regulatory agencies and legislation will be required. These reforms relate to greater openness and documentation, to a more participatory form of judgement with innovations in economic auditing, and to a more explicit accountability through Parliament and the courts, than are currently practised.

Bureaucracies adapt only slowly, however. So far the British have moved a little way to recognizing the realities of the BPEO approach, but nowhere nearly far enough. BPEO is a philosophy that is close to the practice of sustainable development. Placed in a broader planning and policy context, BPEO has great significance for ecologically-sustainable practices. However, that prospect lies beyond any present proposals for administrative reorganization, and only imaginative experimentation, led by an enlightened and determined private sector, seems at all likely to create the changes in attitude and procedure that would be necessary to incorporate BPEO within a practical programme of ecologically sustainable development.
Strategies for Effective Information Dissemination in a ‘High-tech’ Age
Authors: Landfried Steven E.
Published: August 2009

Effective dissemination of information involves hard work, an ability to write, a sense of timing, some luck, and a capacity to keep things in perspective. More specifically, I think success in publicity and public relations depends on an ability to keep the following considerations or groups of considerations in mind on a regular basis:

1. What is the message or information to be conveyed?

2. Why should this information be shared with others?

What are the real motivations behind the desire to communicate it?

3. What audiences could this information be transmitted to? Which should it go to preferably?

4. What is the best medium to transmit the information? Which other media may also be effective?

5. To what degree are intermediaries required to deliver this information? What are the chances of their misediting the material? Are the risks of a foul-up worth the potential benefits of sending the information through second or third parties?

6. When is the best time to disseminate the material?

7. Can the effectiveness of this campaign be assessed for each target audience? If so, how? If not, why?

Communication is a tremendously complex process. No two people perceive the world in exactly the same manner—nor do they encode or decode messages identically (see Bugenthal et al., 1970). Indeed, the subtleties of communication are so fine that even the most carefully constructed message runs definite risks as it is transmitted from one person to another (see Knapp, 1972). In short, we should probably always assume that others will interpret our message somewhat differently from the way in which we intend it to be received.
Forest Degradation and the Structure of Biomass Utilization in a Himalayan Foothills Village
Authors: Moench Marcus
Published: August 2009

The linkage between socio-economic change in the Uttar Pradesh (Indian) Himalaya and forest resource condition is investigated through a case-study of Munglori village. Research focused on the village biomass utilization system, particularly fodder- and fuel-flows, as the key link through which socio-economic conditions can be translated into actual forest-use patterns.

In 1984, agriculture and animal husbandry in Munglori was dominantly subsistence-oriented. Rain-fed rice, wheat, and various millets, were the main food-crops. Animal fodder and fuel were derived from a variety of sources near the village, and demand for these resources was dispersed via a seasonal migration-cycle which provided access to resources outside of the immediate village area. This basic pattern of resource use has prevailed in the area throughout historic time, and has led to gradual degradation of forest resources primarily through inhibiting regeneration of Camus Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora), the dominant fodder- and fuel-species.