The state of the environment

Author(s):  
2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Burgman

Despite the fact that the most changes in lists of threatened species reflect changes in knowledge rather than changes in conservation status, the lists continue to provide social and legal mandates for conservation; they are used to report on the state of the environment and to guide the allocation of scarce resources. There is a substantial under-representation of non-vascular species in threatened plant lists, reflected in an absence of documented extinctions among fungi and algae. Turnover in the composition of extinct flora lists in Australia suggests that the lists of threatened species may not be sufficiently reliable to form the basis for reporting on the state of the environment. They are of limited use in distinguishing between levels of threat and may not be a reliable guide for the allocation of scarce conservation resources among plant species. Systems for listing threatened species create a feedback loop, responsive to the subjective preferences of scientists, largely unresponsive to underlying true threats, self-perpetuating and accentuating bias with each iteration. Other tools, including formal decision approaches and the acquisition of new kinds of data, are needed to fill the roles.


2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-245
Author(s):  
Lakhdar Aggoun ◽  
Lakdere Benkherouf

This paper is concerned with a discrete time, discrete state inventory model for items of changing quality. Items are assumed to be in one of a finite number, M, of quality classes that are ordered in such a way that Class 1 contains the best quality and the last class contains the pre-perishable quality. The changes of items' quality are dependent on the state of the ambient environment. Furthermore, at each epoch time, items of different classes may be sold or moved to a lower quality class or stay in the same class. These items are priced according to their quality, and costs are incurred as items lose quality. Based on observing the history of the inventory level and prices, we propose recursive estimators as well as predictors for the joint distribution of the accumulated losses and the state of the environment.


2009 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 141-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanja Mustafic ◽  
Predrag Manojlovic ◽  
Miroljub Milincic

The drainage basin is spatially and functionally clearly defined and relevant hydrologic, geomorphologic and ecologic landscape totality. Therefore, it mostly represents basic geo-spatial unit of generation, monitoring, and studying numerous physical-geographical and geo-ecologic occurrences and processes. One of the most important components of geo-space, on the level of basin, is manifested through the state and quality of surface waters. So, the acceptance of systematic approach in studying mineralization of the surface waters would contribute to the deeper understanding of the process in complex systematic surroundings which drainage basin represents. The Visocica Drainage Basin was chosen as proving ground of this kind of the research approach for several reasons. The highest specific runoff on the territory of Eastern Serbia, heterogeneous geologic structure of terrain, almost complete absence of the influence of the anthropogenic factor on the state of the environment, as well as the existence of water accumulation enabled perception of the values of dissolved mineral substances of surface waters as landscape-ecologic component of geo-space.


Author(s):  
Массеров ◽  
D. Messerov

The experience of the industrialized countries on the state of the environment monitoring convincing shows that their success in environmental regulation are mainly due to the use of modern environmental management methods. The experience of the European Union concerning the control mechanisms in the field of environmental protection and the possibility of its application in Russia are analyzed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (164) ◽  
pp. 220-233
Author(s):  
O. Rybalova ◽  
O. Bryhada ◽  
O. Ilinskyi

The work examines modern methodological approaches to assessing the quality of life using environmental indicators. Analysis of the existing methods in Ukraine for determining the environmental component when measuring the quality of life showed the need to develop a new method for a comprehensive assessment of the state of the environment. This is due to the fact that the existing methodology for assessing the quality of life does not take into account the ecological component as a separate block of indicators, and also contains some inaccuracies in the formulas for calculating the final indicator. In this regard, a new method is proposed for determining the ecological component in the general system for assessing the quality of life of the population, which is the scientific novelty of the work. Based on the analysis of monitoring data on the quality of air, surface waters and soils of Ukraine, statistical reporting on environmental indicators of the development of regions of Ukraine, intermediate indicator indicators are calculated, and then the final complex indicator of the state of the environment is determined. Calculation formulas and assessment scales in points of the state of environmental components are proposed. The proposed method is based on the processing of data from official state statistics and environmental monitoring, which determines the reliability of the initial data. The proposed technique can easily be used as an algorithm for computerized calculations of the indicator of a comprehensive assessment of the state of the environment. The calculation of the indicator of the ecological state was made on the basis of current statistical data, which showed the need for immediate environmental protection measures in the industrially developed regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Lugansk regions.


ANVIL ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin J. Hodson

Abstract Environmentalists and scientists who study the environment often give a pretty bleak picture of the future. Surveys of secular views on the environment suggest that the general public in the developed West are concerned about the state of the environment. After considering all of the environmental problems that are causing scientists to worry, this paper then concentrates on four: climate change; biodiversity loss; global water supply; and the increase in our human population. Finally we will see what scientists have to say about hope in a time of environmental crisis


Author(s):  
Andrzej Łodziński

The paper presents the decision support under risk by the risk averse decision maker. Decision making under risk occurs when the result of the decision is not unequivocal and depends on the state of the environment. The decision making process is modeled with the use of multi-criteria optimization. The decision is made by solving the problem with the control parameters that determine the decision maker's aspirations and the evaluation of the solutions received. The decision maker asks the parameter for which the solution is determined. Then, evaluate the solution received accepting or rejecting it. In the second case, the decision maker gives a new parameter value and the problem is solved again for the new parameter. The work includes an simple discrete problem of decision support under risk


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (03) ◽  
pp. 253-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kavan Modi

We study preparation of states for open quantum mechanics. For non-Markovian systems that are initially correlated with the environment, the effects of the preparation procedure are nontrivial. This is due to the indirect effects on the state of the environment induced via the correlations with the system and the act of preparation on the system. We give three concrete examples of preparation procedure to elucidate our claims.


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