scholarly journals Using Attainment of the Designated Aquatic Life Use to Determine Adverse Environmental Impact

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1273-1280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Seegert
Keyword(s):  
Cooling Water ◽  
Ecological Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Biological Responses ◽  
Design Alternatives ◽  
Quality Health ◽  
The U.S

Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act requires that cooling-water intake structures (CWIS) use Best Technology Available (BTA) to minimize adverse environmental impacts (AEI). The U.S. EPA has not defined AEI, and there is no clear consensus regarding its definition. Nonetheless, operational definitions are necessary to evaluate design alternatives and to measure the success of mitigative measures. Rather than having to develop measures of aquatic health that are highly site-specific, controversial, and often unlikely to elicit agreement from all sides of the environmental “fence”, it may be more productive to use existing ecological assessment tools. Aquatic Life Uses (ALU) already provide a regulatory framework to assess the quality (health) of the aquatic community in various habitats (e.g., warmwater habitat, exceptional warmwater habitat). Attainment of the ALU indicates that further point source controls are unnecessary, whereas nonattainment indicates that those pollutants or stressors causing the nonattainment must be reduced. A similar approach for existing water intakes is recommended. That is, attainment of the designated ALU will be taken as an indication that there is no AEI. Although attainment of the ALU may not be a foolproof indicator of a lack of AEI, this approach seems more reasonable that using scarce monetary resources to fix problems that likely do not exist, or having both regulators and the regulated community expend their resources debating whether various observed biological responses do or do not constitute AEI.

Revision of Industrial Effluent Regulations in Israel

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Weber ◽  
G. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Clean Water Act ◽  
Industrial Effluent ◽  
Hazardous Materials ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Legal Situation ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The U.S

Industrial effluent regulations in Israel can be promulgated pursuant to four statutory sources. No clear boundaries delineating the scope of these laws exist, and some of them are neither environmental nor water laws per se. The resulting legal situation is one of confusion, duality and even contradiction both institutionally and substantively. A revision in the Israeli approach towards the regulation of industrial effluent is proposed, taking into consideration some elements of the U.S. Clean Water Act. Ideas are presented for setting up jurisdictional boundaries between the local and central government authorities to differentiate between organic loads and hazardous materials. In addition, the paper calls for criteria and discretionary limits on the setting up of permit conditions and enactment of regulations as well as the need for improvement of existing effluent criteria.

Urban and Community Fisheries Programs: Development, Management, and Evaluation

2008 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Resource Conservation ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Fishing Pressure ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Natural Resource Conservation ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Community Fisheries ◽  
Bodies Of Water ◽  
The U.S

<em>Abstract.—</em>As the United States has become increasingly urbanized, angling participation has declined. Urban fishing programs provide an opportunity to reverse this trend by effectively targeting new anglers while increasing fishing opportunities for current or recently lapsed urban anglers. There are three essential components in a successful urban fishing program: a resource with clean water and a quality fishery close to current or potential anglers, facilities to accommodate anglers, and advertisement of the fishery to inform and recruit anglers. Early in the development of an urban fishing program, urban anglers’ interests should be assessed and the program should be developed to meet these interests. Next, access to a quality fishery must be developed—either by creating new bodies of water or enhancing existing ones. Depending upon the level of fishing pressure and the species of interest to anglers, supplemental stocking and intensive management may be needed to maintain the fishery. Amenities such as restrooms, picnic areas, docks, and waste receptacles may also be important. Different angling groups may desire different amenities, so providing different sites to cater to these different groups is advisable. Once the facilities and amenities are in place, the resource must be marketed to targeted potential anglers. The marketing strategy should be tailored to each market segment being targeted. Lapsed anglers are the most easily recruited segment and should be a top priority for advertising. Minorities and children are also commonly targeted. As the U.S. population becomes more urbanized, urban fishing opportunities will continue to grow in importance. Without these opportunities, urbanites will likely be drawn toward the numerous other recreational activities that are conveniently available in urban centers, leading to further declines in angling involvement and concern for natural resource conservation and the environment.

A visual analytics process for maritime response, resource allocation and risk assessment

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abish Malik ◽  
Ross Maciejewski ◽  
Yun Jang ◽  
Silvia Oliveros ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Visual Analytics ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Maritime Environment ◽  
Atlantic Area ◽  
The U.S

In this paper, we present our collaborative work with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Ninth District and Atlantic Area Commands, in which we develop a visual analytics system to analyze historic response operations and assess the potential risks in the maritime environment associated with the hypothetical allocation of Coast Guard resources. The system includes linked views and interactive displays that enable the analysis of trends, patterns, and anomalies among the U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue (SAR) operations and their associated sorties. Our system allows users to determine the change in risks associated with closing certain stations in terms of response time and potential lives and property lost. It also allows users to determine which stations are best suited to assuming control of the operations previously handled by the closed station. We provide maritime risk assessment tools that allow analysts to explore Coast Guard coverage for SAR operations and identify regions of high risk. The system also enables a thorough assessment of all SAR operations conducted by each Coast Guard station in the Great Lakes region. Our system demonstrates the effectiveness of visual analytics in analyzing risk within the maritime domain and is currently being used by analysts at the Coast Guard Atlantic Area.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINGENCY MEASURES IN DETERMINING OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT

1981 ◽  
Vol 1981 (1) ◽  
pp. 571-575
Author(s):  
Raymond R. Emerson
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Production Potential ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT Oil spills are one of the major concerns associated with oil and gas development along the outer continental shelf. The U.S. Department of the Interior is presently planning lease sales at the rate of seven per year. Many of these leases are being proposed in areas where the risks associated with oil spills are difficult to assess. The major objective of the decisionmakers in this process is to select a leasing plan from the list of proposed blocks that will offer the maximum production potential within an acceptable level of environmental risk. This objective can be obtained with proper contingency planning which should include site-specific designs. A proposed leasing plan could be limited in its production potential by the habitats more vunerable to a potential oil spill. These areas are identified using a model system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. In this model, the local meteorology and physical oceanography are coupled to produce trajectories of hypothetical oil spills. These trajectories, along with oil resource estimates, are used to establish overall probabilities of an oil spill contacting specific coastal areas and habitats. Using linear programming techniques, the blocks that can yield the maximum resource recovery within specified limits of environmental risk are identified. Site-specific contingency measures (such as stockpiles of cleanup equipment) concentrated at the more vulnerable habitats will allow the decisionmaker to accept a higher level of environmental risk and significantly increase the number of blocks that are suitable for leasing. A proposed lease sale area for the northeast Gulf of Alaska is used to demonstrate the importance of contingency planning in determining various levels of offshore oil and gas resource development.

South African Land Degradation Monitor (SALDI) – A German – South African SPACES collaboration to advance land degradation assessments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Baade ◽  
Andreas Kaiser ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Soil Degradation ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Automated System ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Cooperative Research

&lt;p&gt;South Africa is greatly affected by land degradation, partly due to the high variability of its climatic conditions, the strong population growth and resulting economic demands. Thus reaching a number of SDGs, like achieving food security (#2), access to clean water (#6), and the sustainable use of terrestrial (#15) and marine (#14) resources represents a clear challenge under the present global change pressures. Land degradation has been linked in South Africa to the terms veld degradation and soil degradation and has been addressed by numerous measures. But there is still uncertainty on the extent of human induced land degradation as compared to periodic climate induced land surface property changes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In cooperation with South African institutions and stakeholders (ARC-ISCW, SAEON, SANParks, SANSA, Stellenbosch University and University of the Free State, Equispectives Research and Consulting Services, Nuwejaars Wetlands SMA), the overarching goal of SALDi is to implement novel, adaptive, and sustainable tools for assessing land degradation in multi-use landscapes in South Africa. Building upon the state of the art in land degradation assessments, the project aims to advance current methodologies for multi-use landscapes by innovatively incorporating inter-annual and seasonal variability in a spatially explicit approach. SALDi takes advantage of the emerging availability of high spatio-temporal resolution Earth observation data (e.g. Copernicus Sentinels, DLR TanDEM-X, NASA/USGS Landsat program), growing sources of in-situ data and advancements in modelling approaches. Particularly, SALDi aims to:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;i) develop an automated system for high temporal frequency (bi-weekly) and spatial resolution (10 to 30 m) change detection monitoring of ecosystem service dynamics,&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;ii) develop, adapt and apply a Regional Earth System Model (RESM) to South Africa and investigate the feedbacks between land surface properties and the regional climate,&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;iii)&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; advance current soil degradation process assessment tools for soil erosion, as this process represents an intrinsic limiting factor for biomass production and other regulating, supporting and provisioning ecosystem services, like providing clean water.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The aim of this presentation is to introduce this new cooperative research project to the EGU Community and to seek new opportunities for collaboration.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Preliminary checklist of marine mollusks from Beyt Dwarka, Gulf Of Kutch (eco-sensitive zone), Gujarat, India

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiren B Soni ◽  
Kavita Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Ecological Assessment ◽  
Present Survey ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Marine Mollusks ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
Overall Ratio ◽  
Rapid Ecological Assessment ◽  
Species Class ◽  
Specific Conservation

Correction: On 05/06/2016 The spelling of the first author's name was changed from "Biren B Soni" to "Hiren B Soni".The preliminary investigation of marine mollusks of Beyt Dwarka was carried out to prepare a checklist at the island of Beyt Dwarka, Gulf of Kachchh (Eco-sensitive Zone), Okhamandal Taluka, Jamnagar District, Gujarat, India. The rapid ecological assessment revealed the occurrence of 82 species of mollusks, belonging to 61 genera, 32 families, 9 orders, and 3 classes (including uncommon / rare species). Of the reported species, Class Bivalvia was represented by 5 orders, 8 families, and 20 species, followed by 4 orders of Gastropoda distributed in 23 families and 60 species, and only 1 order (Scaphopoda) with 1 family and 2 species. Of 82 species, 67 species were common throughout the study period (October 2013 to February 2014), whereas 15 species were designated as uncommon or rare therein. The overall ratio of Order, Family and Species of recorded molluscan taxa was found to be 3.00: 3.56: 2.56. From the present survey, it was observed that the study area (Beyt Dwarka) is endowed with rich diversity of marine mollusks prevailed therein. Therefore, it should be declared as “Sanctum sanctorum” by employing grassroots efforts involving local inhabitants with the help of forest officials suggesting site-specific conservation and management strategies.International Journal of Environment Vol.4(2) 2015: 243-255

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