scholarly journals Coastal Landfills and Rising Sea Levels: A Challenge for the 21st Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Nicholls ◽  
Richard P. Beaven ◽  
Anne Stringfellow ◽  
Daniel Monfort ◽  
Gonéri Le Cozannet ◽  
...  

Populated coastal areas worldwide have a legacy of numerous solid waste disposal sites. At the same time, mean sea level is rising and likely to accelerate, increasing flooding and/or erosion. There is therefore concern that landfill sites located at and near the coast pose a growing risk to the environment from the potential release of liquid and solid waste materials. This paper aims to assess our present understanding of this issue as well as research and practice needs by synthesizing the available evidence across a set of developed country cases, comprising England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States (Florida). Common insights gained here include: (1) a lack of data and limited appreciation of waste release from coastal landfill as a potential problem; (2) recognition of the scale and diversity of coastal landfill waste within a range of generic settings (or situations); and (3) a lack of robust protocols that allow the impact of different categories of waste release to the coast to be assessed in a consistent and evidence-based manner, most particularly for solid waste. Hence, a need for greater understanding of the following issues is identified: (1) the amount, character and impact of waste that could be released from landfill sites; (2) the acceptability and regulation of waste eroding from coastal landfills; (3) present and future erosion rates at landfill sites suggesting the need for more monitoring and relevant predictive tools; (4) the full range of possible management methods for dealing with waste release from landfills and the science to support them; and (5) relevant long-term funding mechanisms to address this issue. The main focus and experience of current management practice has been protection/retention, or removal of landfills, with limited consideration of other feasible solutions and how they might be facilitated. Approaches to assess and address solid waste release to the marine/coastal environment represent a particular gap. Lastly, as solid waste will persist indefinitely and sea levels will rise for many centuries, the long timescale of this issue needs wider appreciation and should be included in coastal and waste policy.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Habtamu Wondimu

This study aimed to examine the impact of poor solid waste management on student’s health care at Gondar University of “Tewodros” campus. The study used a mixed-method approach. To recruit sample respondents', both probability and non-probability sampling methods have been employed. In the meantime, the study revealed the sources of solid waste, it is understood that the poorly collected and managed solid wastes of the study area due to the lack of necessary materials and facilities of waste collection, lack of laborers engaged in street sweeping and daily removal of solid waste is now becoming the major causes of environmental problems such as surface and groundwater pollution problems. Besides, the student’s health office personnel in the interview approached the general health status of the students on the campus during this year. Accordingly, dysentery, common cold, and typhoid are the most frequently appear disease on the Tewodros campus. Therefore, there should be a “students committee “at the campus level to control illegal dumping and to develop practice and habits of poor waste handling and disposal in the community, and there must be apparent regulation and policy frameworks that prohibit poor waste management.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasios Danos ◽  
Konstantina Boulouta

This article analyses the profound and rapid climate changes that have taken place worldwide in the past two decades and their effects on modern enterprise. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing strategies to adapt to and counterbalance future impacts of climate change sustainably are among the most pressing needs of the world today. Global temperatures are predicted to continue rising, bringing changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Such climatic events can have a major impact on households, businesses, critical infrastructure and vulnerable sections of society, as well as having a major economic impact. Therefore, society must prepare to cope with living in a changing climate. The effects of a changing climate have considerable impacts on modern enterprises. In some parts of the world, these impacts are increasingly becoming evident.


1977 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Harry W. Ayer ◽  
David W. Hogan

Solid waste disposal is a significant problem. It has been estimated that almost a ton of solid waste is collected per year per capita in the United States. Solid waste disposal, especially in rural areas, is frequently done in an unsanitary, potentially dangerous and often unslightly manner. To cope with these solid waste problems, both state legislatures and the Environmental Protection Agency are now in the process of requiring communities which presently utilize unsanitary disposal practices to upgrade their facilities and management practices. A sanitary landfill operation1 is usually the least-cost method of accomplishing these requirements, especially in rural areas.2 Quality facilities and management practices are not costless, however. It is estimated that the U.S. spends more than $4.5 billion each year on solid waste management, and more than 80 percent of this amount is for collection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s156-s156
Author(s):  
Joseph Cuthbertson ◽  
Frank Archer ◽  
Jose-Manuel Rodriguez-llanes ◽  
Andrew Robertson

Introduction:This study profiles climate change as an emerging disaster risk in Oceania. The rationale for undertaking this study was to investigate climate change and disaster risk in Oceania. The role of this analysis is to examine what evidence exists to support decision-making and profile the nature, type, and potential human and economic impact of climate change and disaster risk in Oceania.Aim:To evaluate perceptions of climate change and disaster risk in the Oceania region.Methods:Thirty individual interviews with participants from 9 different countries were conducted. All of the participants were engaged in disaster management in the Oceania region as researchers, practitioners in emergency management, disaster health care and policy managers, or academics. Data collection was conducted between April and November 2017. Thematic analysis was conducted using narrative inquiry to gather first-hand insights on their perceptions of current and emerging threats and propose improvements in risk management practice to capture, monitor, and control disaster risk.Results:Interviewees who viewed climate change as a risk or hazard described a breadth of impacts. Hazards identified included climate variability and climate-related disasters, climate issues in island areas and loss of land mass, trans-nation migration, and increased transportation risk due to rising sea levels. These emerging risks are reflective of both the geographical location of countries in Oceania, where land mass due to rising oceans has been previously reported and climate change-driven migration of island populations.Discussion:Climate change was perceived as a significant contemporary and future risk, and as an influencing factor on other risks in the Oceania region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8559
Author(s):  
Francesca Dal Cin ◽  
Martin Fleischmann ◽  
Ombretta Romice ◽  
João Pedro Costa

The impact of sea-level rise on coastal towns is expected to be a major challenge, with millions of people exposed. The climate-induced risk assessment of coastal areas subject to flooding plays an essential role in planning effective measures for adaptation plans. However, in European legislation, as well as in the regional plans adopted by the member states, there is no clear reference to urban settlement, as this concept is variable and difficult to categorise from the policy perspective. This lack of knowledge makes it complicated to implement efficient adaptation plans. This research examines the presence of the issue in Portugal’s coastal settlements, the European coastal area most vulnerable to rising sea levels, using the case of seashore streets as the most exposed waterfront public urban areas. Using the morphometric classification of the urban fabric, we analyse the relationship between urban typology and legislative macro-areas aimed at providing integrated adaptation plans. The study suggests that there is only a minimal relationship between the proposed classification and the geographical zones currently identified in coastal planning policies. Such incongruence suggests the need for change, as the policy should be able to provide a response plan tailored to the specificities of urban areas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A G S Reddy ◽  
P N Rao ◽  
G Ravi Kumar ◽  
G Raja Babu ◽  
K Maruti Prasad

Abstract The impact of uncontrolled municipal solid waste disposal of 3800 tons per day on surface and groundwater in the downstream of Jawaharnagar dumping site was studied. The un-engineered solid waste dumping yard site spreading over an area of about 300 ha is located on topographic high (hillock), and falls in Madyala stream and Dammaiguda watersheds of Musi sub-basin. The area is underlain by granites of the Archaean age. Both surface and groundwater samples, collected covering hydrological cycles of 2011and 2012, were analyzed for major chemical constituents. During 2012, 15 samples of both seasons were tested for BOD, COD, and TOC. The mean values of some tested chemical constituents of surface water samples (15) were - EC 13066 m S/cm, TH 753, Na+ 813, K+ 530, HCO3− 978, Cl− 1304, and NO3− 262 (all in mg/l) which prove that the tanks and stream near dump yard were pools of leachate. The average values of contaminated groundwater samples among the four sampled sessions (17) indicate EC was above 5000 m S/cm, TH 1624, Cl− 1502, and SO42− 284 (all in mg/l) which were found much above the threshold values. Very few samples were found suitable for drinking purpose and most of the samples fall in Good class of WQI. Very high content of TOC, BOD, and COD in both surface and groundwater samples indicate the presence of organic pollutants sourced from domestic waste dumps. Wide temporal and spatial variability in the concentration of many ion species can be attributed to deviation in rainfall, topography, plume dynamics, and aquifer hydraulics. Low resistivity values (5 to 25 ohm.m) at a distance of 4 km from the dumping site and high infiltration rate (29 cm/hr) at Madyala stream, which were contaminant hotspots, indicate the mass flux was controlled by hydrological features. Scattered and limited distribution of contaminants can be accounted for heterogeneous nature of country rocks, retarded lateral and vertical flow of water which restricts the movement of contaminants to certain preferred pathways. The study supports the hypothesis of solid waste dumps were the epicenter of pollution which generates leachate and dissipate contaminants to the aquatic environment influenced by factors like soils, topography, and aquifer hydraulics and contaminant kinetics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Heather Alberro

Human is at the heart of the story of climate change in the Anthropocene where, according to Dipesh Chakrabarty (2012), human behaviors have influenced the environment and created a distinct geological epoch. Current climate change issues are largely human induced. This implies that the human species is now part of the natural history of the planet.  In November 2016, Stephen Hawking warned that humanity has 1000 years to leave the earth due to climate change, but in his most recent BBC documentary aired on June 15, 2017 called Expedition New Earth, he suggested humans have just 100 years left before doomsday. In spite of such warnings and writings, Donald Trump withdrew America from the Paris Climate Agreement on June 2017, on the same day, satellite images showed that a huge mass of ice in an area of ​​five thousand square kilometres was breaking away from the Antarctic continent under the impact of rising temperature. It seems that Trump’s act is beyond ecological consideration as he believes the agreement could “cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025”. Projections of climate change, however, have shown horrible scenarios involving a central economic metropolis such as New York losing much of its lands because of rising sea levels. The inhabitants of such areas will have to uproot their communities and cultures to move to less vulnerable lands. Thus, it is important to examine how ecoutopian literature is responding to the conditions of the human being in this epoch. In the following interview, Heather Alberro has answered to some questions on climate change, the conditions of human being in the Anthropocene, and the role of literature and culture in relation to environmental issues.


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