RETRACTED ARTICLE: Comparative study on the environmental impact assessment of golf course development between Korea and China

There are currently a number of planned development projects that threaten environmental assets in the Northeast Asian region, especially between Korea and China. To solve those problems, both countries initiated environmental impact assessment (EIA) systems in the 1980s. However, the actual supporting policies and legislative actions were finally developed in recent years. Koreas EIA Act was enacted in 1993 and then replaced by the Integrated Impact Assessment Act in 1999, and China adopted its independent law of EIAs in 2002 and enacted it in 2003. This study deals with the EIA systems in the two countries, focusing on golf course development, by comparing the differences and similarities between them in the following aspects: preparation of environmental impact statements (EISs), review process, approval procedure, and EIS contents. The aim of the study is to obtain a better understanding of the EIA systems in Korea and China, and to promote cooperation between the two countries related to any future potential environmental problems. The results show that EIA procedures and EIS contents in the two countries are relatively different. Specifically, although there are some limitations on technical analysis and survey experience in China, its EIA system is somewhat more advanced in legislative terms, requiring more advanced measures, such as screening and scoping. On the other hand, Koreas legislation contains more specific and concrete requirements, a compulsory supplement system, and technical methods of surveying. However, Korea needs to reform its system to make the application of the law more flexible and reasonable. This paper not only proposes that the two EIA systems can be improved by adopting each others good points, but also provides some policy suggestions to improve each countrys EIA system.     

The Environmental Importance of Energy Use in Chemical Production

In many cases, policy makers and laymen perceive harmful emissions from chemical plants as the most important source of environmental impacts in chemical production. As a result, regulations and environmental efforts have tended to focus on this area. Concerns about energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, however, are increasing in all industrial sectors. Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, we analyzed the full environmental impacts of producing 99 chemical products in Western Europe from cradle to factory gate. We applied several life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods to cover various impact areas. Our analysis shows that for both organic and inorganic chemical production in industrial countries, energy‐related impacts often represent more than half and sometimes up to 80% of the total impacts, according to a range of LCIA methods. Resource use for material feedstock is also important, whereas direct emissions from chemical plants may make up only 5% to 10% of the total environmental impacts. Additionally, the energy‐related impacts of organic chemical production increase with the complexity of the chemicals. The results of this study offer important information for policy makers and sustainability experts in the chemical industry striving to reduce environmental impacts. We identify more sustainable energy production and use as an important option for improvements in the environmental profile of chemical production in industrial countries, especially for the production of advanced organic and fine chemicals.     

Animal board invited review – Beef for future: technologies for a sustainable and profitable beef industry

The global consumption, notably in developing countries, and production of beef are increasing continuously, and this requires the industry to improve performance and to reduce the environmental impact of the production chain. Since the improvement in efficiency and the highest impacts occur at farm level, it is appropriate to focus on the profitability and environmental sustainability of these enterprises. In many areas of the world, beef production is economically and socially relevant because it accounts for a significant portion of the agricultural production and represents a vital economic activity in mountain and hill districts of many regions, where few alternatives for other agricultural production exist. Due to the important role in the agricultural and food economy worldwide, the future of the beef industry is linked to the reduction of ecological impacts, mainly adopting the agroecological mitigation practices, and the simultaneous improvement of production performances and of product quality. This review analyses the technical and managerial solutions currently available to increase the efficiency of the beef industry and, at the same time, to reduce its environmental impacts in response to the growing concerns and awareness of citizens and consumers.     

Policy Development for Environmental Licensing and Biodiversity Offsets in Latin America

Attempts to meet biodiversity goals through application of the mitigation hierarchy have gained wide traction globally with increased development of public policy, lending standards, and corporate practices. With interest in biodiversity offsets increasing in Latin America, we seek to strengthen the basis for policy development through a review of major environmental licensing policy frameworks in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Here we focused our review on an examination of national level policies to evaluate to which degree current provisions promote positive environmental outcomes. All the surveyed countries have national-level Environmental Impact Assessment laws or regulations that cover the habitats present in their territories. Although most countries enable the use of offsets only Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru explicitly require their implementation. Our review has shown that while advancing quite detailed offset policies, most countries do not seem to have strong requirements regarding impact avoidance. Despite this deficiency most countries have a strong foundation from which to develop policy for biodiversity offsets, but several issues require further guidance, including how best to: (1) ensure conformance with the mitigation hierarchy; (2) identify the most environmentally preferable offsets within a landscape context; (3) determine appropriate mitigation replacement ratios; and (4) ensure appropriate time and effort is given to monitor offset performance.     

Scientific quality of tourism environmental impact assessment

1. The scientific quality of environmental impact assessment (EIA), as exemplified by major tourism developments in Australia, is very poor.
2. Methods are inadequately specified.
3. Sampling is inadequately replicated in space or time.
4. Significant parameters are often ignored.
5. Impact predictions are rarely quantitative or testable and frequently are inaccurate.
6. Monitoring programmes generally are inadequate to detect likely impacts.
7. As an exercise in applied science, EIA fails to meet the most fundamental quality criteria.
8. As a tool in public decision-making, EIA needs much better applied science.     

A novel method for assessing and mapping multiple impacts due to a technical construction project

A novel approach to assess and evaluate environmental impacts associated with a technical construction project is presented using the case study of a dam construction. The proposed methodology consists of a stepwise procedure that includes impact assessment, impact ranking, impact analysis, and mapping the final impact score using GIS as the decision-making support system. This approach could be very beneficial, especially when collection of in situ data may be time consuming or difficult to obtain. Our quick, low-cost, assessment of expected impacts could help managers obtain a preliminary visual image of the forthcoming impacts before a project’s construction.     

基于GIS的视觉景观影响定量评价方法理论与实践

在人地关系日益紧张的今天,一些可能产生视觉景观不良影响的项目不得不建设于自然保护区、历史文化遗迹等视觉景观敏感区内或附近,为避免建设项目对自然、历史、文化、旅游资源产生不必要的损失或造成难以弥补的遗憾,视觉景观环境影响评价就显得尤为重要.视觉景观环境影响评价在中国尚处于探索阶段,相关的研究多数集中在理论综述和定性的评价.以某建设项目对明十三陵景区的景观影响评价为例,对如何运用GIS空间分析功能,开展视觉景观环境影响定量评价研究展开探讨.     

Combining industrial ecology tools to assess potential greenhouse gas reductions of a circular economy: Method development and application to Switzerland

Industrial ecology (IE) methodologies, such as input/output or material flow analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA), are often used for the environmental evaluation of circular economy strategies. Up to now, an approach that utilizes these methods in a systematic, integrated framework for a holistic assessment of a geographic region's sustainable circular economy potential has been lacking. The approach developed in this study (IE4CE approach) combines IE methodologies to determine the environmental impact mitigation potential of circular economy strategies for a defined geographic region. The approach foresees five steps. First, input/output analysis helps identify sectors with high environmental impacts. Second, a refined analysis is conducted using material flow and LCA. In step 3, circular strategies are used for scenario design and evaluated in step 4. In step 5, the assessment results are compiled and compared across sectors. The approach was applied to a case study of Switzerland, analyzing 8 sectors and more than 30 scenarios in depth. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) from waste incineration, biogas and cement production, food waste prevention in households, hospitality and production, and the increased recycling of plastics had the highest mitigation potential. Most of the scenarios do not influence each other. One exception is the CCS scenarios: waste avoidance scenarios decrease the reduction potential of CCS. A combination of scenarios from different sectors, including their impact on the CCS scenario potential, led to an environmental impact mitigation potential of 11.9 Mt CO₂-eq for 2050, which equals 14% of Switzerland's current consumption-based impacts.     

Theoretical exploration for the combination of the ecological,energy, carbon,and water footprints: Overview of a footprint family

Over the past two decades, a continuously expanding list of footprint-style indicators has been introduced to the scientific community with the aim of raising public awareness of how humanity exerts pressures on the environment. A deeper understanding of the connections and interactions between different footprints is required in an attempt to support policy makers in the measurement and choice of environmental impact mitigation strategies. Combining a selection of footprints that address different aspects of environmental issues into an integrated system is, therefore, a natural step. This paper starts with the idea of developing a footprint family from which most important footprints can be compared and integrated. On the basis of literature review in related fields, the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints are employed as selected indicators to define a footprint family. A brief survey is presented to provide background information on each of the footprints with an emphasis on their main characteristics in a comparative sense; that is, the footprints differ in many aspects more than just the impacts they are addressed. This allows the four footprints to be complementarily used in assessing environmental impacts associated with natural resource use and waste discharge. We evaluate the performance of the footprint family in terms of data availability, coverage complementarity, methodological consistency, and policy relevance and propose solutions and suggestions for further improvement. The key conclusions are that the footprint family, which captures a broad spectrum of sustainability issues, is able to offer a more complete picture of environmental complexity for policy makers and, in particular, in national-level studies. The research provides new insights into the distinction between environmental impact assessment and sustainability evaluation, properly serving as a reference for multidisciplinary efforts in estimating planetary boundaries for global sustainability.     

Life cycle assessment and socioeconomic evaluation of the illicit crop substitution policy in Colombia

The peace treaty of Colombia contemplates a crop substitution policy seeking to replace coca crops with legal alternatives. Although crop substitution diverts funding of illegal activities and provides an income to farmers, it is important to understand how the change to a variety of legal crops (coffee, sugarcane, and cacao) affects the income of farmers, and whether there is an environmental advantage of a crop over another. This study applies life cycle assessment (LCA) coupled with socioeconomic indicators to two regions, Putumayo and Catatumbo, over different policy scenarios. LCA results show that a policy success does not ensure a lower environmental impact across the board. Legal crops consume less fuel than coca crops, which reduce fuel‐related impacts, but the use of fertilizer in coffee and pesticide use in sugarcane increase toxicity‐related impacts. The results, however, are affected by a lack of characterization factors of agrochemicals, but once these are replaced by proxies, coca crops appear to have greater toxicity impacts. In terms of individual crops, cacao crops have a lower environmental impact than coffee and sugarcane, but it also takes the longest to harvest, which may pose a financial risk to farmers. The socioeconomic analysis reveals that for Catatumbo farmers, a policy success reduces the income, whereas for Putumayo farmers, a policy success increases income and job generation. In general, it was observed that the dynamics of the illegal supply chain vary for each region, influencing the environmental and socioeconomic outcome of the substitution policy.     

Environmental footprint of cooking fuels: a life cycle assessment of ten fuel sources used in Indian households

Purpose

Cooking energy is an essential requirement of any human dwelling. With the recent upsurge in petroleum prices coupled with intrinsic volatility of international oil markets, it is fast turning into a politico-socio-economic dilemma for countries like India to sustain future subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and compare the environmental performance of various cooking fuel options, namely LPG (NG), LPG (CO), kerosene, coal, electricity, firewood, crop residue, dung cake, charcoal, and biogas, in the Indian context. The purpose of this study is to find environmentally suitable alternatives to LPG and kerosene for rural and urban areas of the country.

Methods

The study assessed the cooking fuel performance on 13 ReCiPe environmental impact categories using the life cycle assessment methodology. The study modeled the system boundary for each fuel based on the Indian scenario and prepared a detailed life cycle inventory for each cooking fuel taking 1 GJ of heat energy transferred to cooking pot as the functional unit.

Results and discussion

The cooking fuels with the lowest life cycle environmental impacts are biogas followed by LPG, kerosene, and charcoal. The environmental impacts of using LPG are about 15 to 18 % lower than kerosene for most environmental impact categories. LPG derived from natural gas has about 20 to 30 % lower environmental impact than LPG derived from crude oil. Coal and dung cake have the highest environmental impacts because of significant contributions to climate change and particulate formation, respectively. Charcoal produced from renewable wood supply performs better than kerosene on most impact categories except photochemical oxidation, where its contribution is 19 times higher than kerosene.

Conclusions

Biogas and charcoal can be viewed as potentially sustainable cooking fuel options in the Indian context because of their environmental benefits and other associated co-benefits such as land farming, local employment opportunities, and skill development. The study concluded that kerosene, biogas, and charcoal for rural areas and LPG, kerosene, and biogas for urban areas have the lower environmental footprint among the chosen household cooking fuels in the study.     

河南周口至省界段高速公路建设对生态环境的影响

1　周口至省界段高速公路简介河南省周口至省界段高速公路西起周口 ,向东经商水、项城、淮阳、沈丘 ,止于河南省与安徽省两省交界处 ,接界 (首 )阜 (阳 )蚌 (埠 )高速公路 ,建设里程74 70ｋｍ。本段高速公路经周口市 3 35 9ｋｍ ,经商水县 2 0 891ｋｍ ,项城市 4 4 4 6ｋｍ ,淮阳县13 2 0 0ｋｍ ,沈丘县 32 80 4ｋｍ ,是河南省干线公路网规划的中南两横高等级公路主骨架的重要组成部分 ,其建设将对带动区域经济发展有重要作用。周界高速公路属非污染生态建设项目 ,其建设将占用大量的耕地 ,全线将有 4 2 0 3ｈａ耕地形成永久性占地 ,因…     

Evaluation of water services system through LCA. A case study for Iasi City,Romania

Purpose

The main objective of this paper is to analyse through life cycle assessment (LCA), the entire water services system in Iasi City (Romania): a representative city for the problems faced by the water services sector in Romania. Furthermore, the study is aimed at demonstrating the usefulness of the LCA approach as a support instrument for water resources management.

Methods

The life cycle inventory (LCI) of the Iasi water system was organized considering the water system components, as well as their function related to the water use life cycle: before the tap system as production phase (water abstraction, transport, treatment and distribution) and after the tap section as post-use phase (wastewater collection, treatment and discharge). The foreground data describing the LCI processes were provided directly by the company operating the Iasi water system, while the data for the background processes were sourced or selected from Ecoinvent 2.0 database. The assessment considers the quantification of environmental impacts (according to the CML 2000 baseline and Ecological Scarcity 2006 methodologies) of water supply (abstraction, treatment and distribution) and wastewater disposal (collection and treatment) relative to 1 m³ of tap water.

Results and discussion

For this given system, the results have pointed out that the before the tap system generates higher impacts than the after tap system, mainly due to the energetic effort needed for water supply and the fairly high water losses in the distribution system. However, the after the tap system, specifically the discharge of treated wastewater is still responsible for many of the water-related impact such as Eutrophication (when using CML) or Emissions to surface waters (when using the Ecological Scarcity method). Apart from the LCA approach, this study presents several scenarios for the improvement of the environmental performance of the water services, such as: changing between water sources, improving the distribution system and upgrading the wastewater treatment plant.

Conclusions

This study has demonstrated the usefulness of LCA to describe, compare and predict the environmental performance of complex water services systems (and all its components). The results have provided a reference case for the environmental profile of Iasi city water system, and have enabled the identification of its improvement alternatives. Also, this study, which represents a premiere for Romania, has opened future research directions which may include the development perspectives of the Iasi water services system, as well as improvements of LCIA methodologies to better represent the local specific water-related impacts.     

Toward sustainable climate change adaptation

Industrial ecology (IE) has made great contributions to climate change mitigation research, in terms of its systems thinking and solid methodologies such as life cycle assessment, material flow analysis, and environmentally extended input–output analysis. However, its potential contribution to climate change adaptation is unclear. Adaptation has become increasingly urgent in a continuously changing climate, especially in developing countries, which are projected to bear the brunt of climate‐change‐related damages. On the basis of a brief review of climate change impacts and adaptation literature, we suggest that IE can play an important role in the following two aspects. First, with the emphasis on a systems perspective, IE can help us determine how climate change interacts with our socio‐economic system and how the interactions may aggravate (or moderate) its direct impacts or whether they may shift burden to other environmental impacts. Second, IE methodologies can help us quantify the direct and indirect environmental impacts of adaptation activities, identify mitigation opportunities, and achieve sustainable adaptation. Further, we find that substantial investment is needed to increase the resilience of infrastructure (e.g., transport, energy, and water supply) and agriculture in developing countries. Because these sectors are also the main drivers of environmental degradation, how to achieve sustainable climate‐resilient infrastructure and agriculture in developing countries deserves special attention in future IE studies. Overall, IE thinking and methodologies have great potential to contribute to climate change adaptation research and policy questions, and exploring this growing field will, in turn, inspire IE development.     

环境影响评价的尺度约束性及技术框架

尺度约束是地表复杂系统的基本规律,环评尺度约束常隐存于主观经验或零存于环评导则中,环评尺度约束较少被明确关注。讨论了环境影响尺度约束、环评尺度约束和环评技术框架尺度约束。研究发现,环境影响的尺度约束性内在原因在于环境影响主体、客体和影响内容存在等级结构;环评受空间、时间和分析三类尺度约束,空间尺度约束体现于空间范围和空间信息分辨率对环评影响,时间尺度约束体现于环评的时长和时频,分析尺度约束表现为环评技术方法和环境影响主观认知水平对评价的影响,三类尺度约束同时贯穿于环评过程,任何环评都可以在三类尺度空间中定位;环评技术框架的关键环节都受空间、时间和分析尺度约束,且以环境影响主体的空间、时间尺度为核心,具有一定弹性,一般空间或时间范围先放大再缩小、分辨率由粗到细。     

Bioenergy production and sustainable development: science base for policymaking remains limited

The possibility of using bioenergy as a climate change mitigation measure has sparked a discussion of whether and how bioenergy production contributes to sustainable development. We undertook a systematic review of the scientific literature to illuminate this relationship and found a limited scientific basis for policymaking. Our results indicate that knowledge on the sustainable development impacts of bioenergy production is concentrated in a few well‐studied countries, focuses on environmental and economic impacts, and mostly relates to dedicated agricultural biomass plantations. The scope and methodological approaches in studies differ widely and only a small share of the studies sufficiently reports on context and/or baseline conditions, which makes it difficult to get a general understanding of the attribution of impacts. Nevertheless, we identified regional patterns of positive or negative impacts for all categories – environmental, economic, institutional, social and technological. In general, economic and technological impacts were more frequently reported as positive, while social and environmental impacts were more frequently reported as negative (with the exception of impacts on direct substitution of GHG emission from fossil fuel). More focused and transparent research is needed to validate these patterns and develop a strong science underpinning for establishing policies and governance agreements that prevent/mitigate negative and promote positive impacts from bioenergy production.     

The environmental impact of activities after life: life cycle assessment of funerals

Purpose

Although the funeral market is propagating new ‘green’ alternatives and exploring innovative techniques like resomation, very little is known about the environmental impact of funerals. This research aimed to develop a benchmark of funerals, by quantifying the environmental impacts of the most common funeral techniques, i.e. burial and cremation, by identifying where the main impacts originate from and by comparing these impacts to impacts of other activities during a person’s life.

Methods

The environmental impacts of funerals were analysed by means of a life cycle assessment (LCA), based on Dutch company information, literature and expert judgements. The results were analysed per impact category but also on an aggregated level by means of shadow prices. Two sensitivity analyses were performed: one examined the high impact of cotton in funeral coffins; the other checked the results by means of another weighting method.

Results and discussion

The results showed no significant difference between the two funeral techniques in five impact categories. Burial has the lowest impact in more than half of the categories, but its impact is many times higher in the two most differing categories than for cremation. The total shadow price of burial is about 30 % higher than the shadow price of cremation, but the main cause for this difference is a highly debated category, namely land use. If the results would be considered without the shadow prices of land impact categories, burial would score 25 % lower than cremation. These results are representing average practise and may deviate on certain aspects for other countries, but as a starting point for further studies, this benchmark is well applicable.

Conclusions and recommendations

This study delivered an environmental benchmark of funerals and insights in the impacts of the individual processes, which can be used in further assessment of ’green’ funeral options. The benchmark results show that the environmental impact of funerals is largely determined by secondary processes and that the total impact can be quite small in comparison to other human activities. Besides these environmental insights, it is important to take into account social, cultural, climatic, local, economical and ethical arguments before changing policies or giving recommendations.

     

Collaborative study for the validation of alternative in vitro potency assays for human tetanus immunoglobulins

An international collaborative study to validate 2 alternative in vitro methods for the potency testing of human tetanus immunoglobulin products was organised by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM). The study, run in the framework of the Biological Standardisation Programme (BSP) under the aegis of the European Commission and the Council of Europe, involved 21 official medicines control and industry laboratories from 15 countries.Both methods, an enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) and a toxoid inhibition assay (TIA), showed good reproducibility, repeatability and precision. EIA and TIA discriminated between low, medium and high potency samples. Potency estimates correlated well and both values were in close agreement with those obtained by in vivo methods. Moreover, these alternative methods allowed to resolve discrepant results between laboratories that were due to product potency loss and reporting errors.The study demonstrated that EIA and TIA are suitable quality control methods for tetanus immunoglobulin, which can be standardised in a control laboratory using a quality assurance system. Consequently, the Group of Experts on Human Blood and Blood Products of the European Pharmacopoeia revised the monograph on human tetanus immunoglobulins to include both the methods as compendial alternatives to the in vivo mouse challenge assay.     

Mapping Social Values of the Sigatoka River Estuary,Nadroga-Navosa Province,Viti Levu,Fiji

Human Ecology - Biophysical impacts tend to dominate environmental impact assessments (EIA), yet social values of the environment have an important role to play in decision-making. To foster the...