scholarly journals Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Soil PAHs and their Relationship with Anthropogenic Activities at a National Scale

Author(s):  
Siyan Zeng ◽  
Jing Ma ◽  
Yanhua Ren ◽  
Gang-Jun Liu ◽  
Qi Zhang ◽  
...  

Soil polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution is a major concern due to its negative impact on soil quality around the world. In China, accurate data on soil PAHs and information on the relationship with anthropogenic activities are limited. In this study, about 30,800 samples from 1833 soil sample sites were reviewed from 306 published reports to build a soil PAHs database. Based on the data obtained, the results demonstrated that 24.11% of surface soils in China are heavily contaminated. Meanwhile, the concentration of soil PAHs varied, in the order of independent mining and industrial areas (IMIA) > urban areas > suburban areas > rural areas, and the spatial distribution in China demonstrated a descending trend from north to south. Moreover, the characteristic ratio and PCA-MLR (principal component analysis-multiple linear regression) analysis demonstrated that coal combustion and vehicular exhaust emissions were the main sources of soil PAH pollution in China. On the other hand, provincial total Σ16PAHs in surface soil were significantly correlated with the per square kilometer GDP (gross domestic product) of industrial land, the per capita GDP, as well as the production and consumption of energy. These results indicate that anthropogenic factors have greatly affected the levels of soil PAHs in China. This study improves our understanding on the status and sources of soil PAH contamination in China, thereby facilitating the implementation of strategies of prevention, control, and remediation of soils.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte von Szombathely ◽  
Benjamin Bechtel ◽  
Bernd Lemke ◽  
Jürgen Oßenbrügge ◽  
Thomas Pohl ◽  
...  

From the current perspectives of urban health and environmental justice research, health is the result of a combination of individual, social and environmental factors. Yet, there are only few attempts to determine their joint influence on health and well-being. Grounded in debates surrounding conceptual models and based on a data set compiled for the city of Hamburg, this paper aims to provide insights into the most important variables influencing urban health. Theoretically, we are primarily referring to the conceptual model of health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth), which systemizes urban influences in four sectors. The systematization of the conceptual model is empirically confirmed by a principal component analysis: the factors derived from the data correspond well with the deductively derived model. Additionally, a multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify the most important variables influencing the participant’s self-rated health (SRH): rating of one’s social network, rating of neighborhood air quality, rating of neighborhood health infrastructure, heat stress (day/outdoors), cold stress (night/indoors). When controlling for age, income and smoking behavior, these variables explain 12% of the variance of SRH. Thus, these results support the concept of UrbWellth empirically. Finally, the study design helped to identify hotspots with negative impact on SRH within the research areas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yousof Azadi ◽  
Masoud Yazdanpanah ◽  
Masoumeh Forouzani ◽  
Hossein Mahmoudi

AbstractClimate change is expected to disproportionately affect farmers by further exacerbating the risks that they face. These risks have a huge negative impact on their livelihood. However, mounting evidence has revealed that farmers can effectively manage this negative impact by adapting their farming practices to climate change. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the farmers' ongoing adaptation measures, and to identify factors that influence their choice of adaptation methods in wheat production in the Kermanshah district in Western Iran. A sample of 350 farmers living in this region was selected through a multi-stage stratified and random sampling method. Principal component analysis revealed that three components play a role in the farmers' decisions on adaptation methods, namely, farm production practices, farm financial management, and government programs and insurance. The relative influence of the factors listed under each of the three components was assessed using a multiple linear regression analysis. Our analysis showed that these factors accounted for 50%, 25%, and 40% of the adaptation responses analyzed, respectively. In sum, our findings yield recommendations for agriculture extension and risk communication strategies that could promote adaptation behavior among Iranian farmers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 125 ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Anica Simčič ◽  
Petra Pečan ◽  
Mojca Nastran ◽  
Milan Kobal

Heat islands (HI) are a common anthropogenic phenomenon and are defined as artificial surfaces (urban areas) that have a higher average temperature than their surroundings (rural areas). The aim of this work was to determine the influence of land use on the spatial distribution and intensity (HIi ) of HI in Slovenia. The MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Corine Land Cover (CLC) databases were used to perform the analysis. Within the identified HI, two HI levels were determined based on temperature difference. The results revealed a statistically significant negative correlation between HIi and both forest co%ver and forest fragmentation (forest edge density and ratio of mean forest patch size to HI size). Artificial surface was positively correlated with HIi . The results contribute to the understanding of the spatial distribution of HI and HIi and provide informati%on for spatial planning and policy-making to reduce the negative impact of HI.


Author(s):  
Lutfiye Özdemir ◽  
Orhan Polat ◽  
Gamze Seyitoğlu ◽  
Sevde Çiçekli

In today's Turkey, rapid technological changes and developments at global level has increased to migration from village to urban areas. Sustainable rural development (SRD) means that future generations can meet their needs in a settlement that is less than a population of 20,000, so that past generations can’t complain about them. For sustainable rural development, it is important to prevent rural migration and to present labour, production, marketing and living opportunities in rural areas. In this context, the study was conducted in order to investigate the causes of migration from the village to the city, to take the necessary precautions and to make suggestions for the SRD. For this purpose, the research has been applied to farmers in selected villages in Central Anatolia, Black Sea, Aegean, Marmara, Mediterranean and Eastern Anatolia Regions in Turkey with face to face discussions and 141 questionnaires have already been collected. It was found that Cronbach Alpha was found to be quite reliable as the result of the analysis with a scale value of 0.785. Reasons for migration as a result of factor analysis can be classified as: 1) Migration due to education, 2) Migrations based on physical infrastructure. Numerous independent variables considered to be effective on these problems were analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis. As a result, it has been determined that many factors, mainly demographic qualities, are effective on migrations based on both education and physical infrastructure.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 116-123
Author(s):  
A. P. Korzh ◽  
T. V. Zahovalko

Recently, the number of published works devoted to the processes of synanthropization of fauna, is growing like an avalanche, which indicates the extreme urgency of this theme. In our view, the process of forming devices to coexist with human and the results of his life reflects the general tandency of the modern nature evolution. Urbanization is characteristic for such a specific group of animals like amphibians, the evidence of which are numerous literature data. Many researchers use this group to assess the bioindicative quality of the environment. For this aim a variety of indicators are used: from the cellular level of life of organization up to the species composition of the group in different territories. At the same time, the interpretation of the results is not always comparable for different areas and often have significantly different interpretations by experts. Urban environment, primarily due to the contamination is extremely aggressive to amphibians. As a consequence, the urban populations of amphibians may be a change in the demographic structure, affecting the reproductive ability of the population, the disappearance of the most sensitive species or individuals, resizing animals, the appearance of abnormalities in the development, etc. At the same time play an important amphibians in the ecosystems of cities, and some species in these conditions even feel relatively comfortable. Therefore, it is interesting to understand the mechanisms of self-sustaining populations of amphibians in urban environments. To assess the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on the development of amphibian populations were used cognitive modeling using the program Vensim PLE. Cognitive map of the model for urban and suburban habitat conditions were the same. The differences concerned the strength of connections between individual factors (migration, fertility, pollution) and their orientation. In general, factors like pollution, parasites, predators had negative impact on the population, reducing its number. The birth rate, food and migration contributed to raising number of individuals. Some of the factors affected on the strength to of each other as well: the majority of the factors affected the structure of the population, had an influence on the fertility. Thanks to it the model reflects the additive effect of complex of factors on the subsequent status of the population. Proposed and analyzed four scenarios differing strength and duration of exposure. In the first scenario, a one-time contamination occurs and not subsequently repeated. The second and third scenario assumes half board contamination, 1 year (2 scenario) and two years (scenario 3). In the fourth scenario, the pollution affected the population of amphibians constantly. In accordance with the results of simulation, much weaker than the natural populations respond to pollution - have them as an intensive population growth and its disappearance at constant pollution is slow. Changes to other parameters of the model showed that this pollution is the decisive factor -only the constant action leads to a lethal outcome for the populations. All other components of the model have a corrective effect on the population dynamics, without changing its underlying trand. In urban areas due to the heavy impact of pollution maintaining the population is only possible thanks to the migration process – the constant replenishment of diminishing micropopulations of natural reserves. This confirms the assumption that the form of existence metapopulations lake frog in the city. In order to maintain the number of amphibians in urban areas at a high level it is necessary to maintain existing migration routes and the creation of new ones. Insular nature of the placement of suitable habitats in urban areas causes the metapopulation structure of the types of urbanists. Therefore, the process of urbanization is much easier for those species whicht are capable of migration in conditions of city. In the initial stages of settling the city micropopulationis formed by selective mortality of the most susceptible individuals to adverse effects. In future, maintaining the categories of individuals is provided mainly due to migration processes metapopulisation form of the species of existence is supported). It should be noted that the changes in the previous levels are always saved in future. In the case of reorganizations of individuals we of morphology can assume the existence of extremely adverse environmental conditions that threaten the extinction of the micropopulations. 


Author(s):  
Jianhong Fan ◽  
You Mo ◽  
Yunnan Cai ◽  
Yabo Zhao ◽  
Dongchen Su

Resilience of rural communities is becoming increasingly important to contemporary society. In this study we used a quantitative method to measure the resilience regulating ability of rural communities close to urban areas—in Licheng Subdistrict, Guangzhou City, China. The main results are as follows: (1) Rural systems close to urban areas display superior adapting and learning abilities and have a stronger overall resilience strength, the spatial distribution of which is characterized by dispersion in whole and aggregation in part; (2) the resilience of most rural economic subsystems can reach moderate or higher levels with apparent spatial agglomeration, whilst the ecological subsystem resilience and social resilience are generally weaker; the spatial distribution of the former shows a greater regional difference while the latter is in a layered layout; (3) some strategies such as rebuilding a stable ecological pattern, making use of urban resources and cultivating rural subjectivity are proposed on this basis, in order to promote the sustainable development of rural areas and realize rural revitalization. This work also gives suggestion for the creation of appropriate and effective resilience standards specifically targeted for rural community-aiming to achieve the delivery of local sustainability goals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 9563-9578 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C.-K. Chou ◽  
C. T. Lee ◽  
M. T. Cheng ◽  
C. S. Yuan ◽  
S. J. Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract. To investigate the physico-chemical properties of aerosols in Taiwan, an observation network was initiated in 2003. In this work, the measurements of the mass concentration and carbonaceous composition of PM10 and PM2.5 are presented. Analysis on the data collected in the first 5-years, from 2003 to 2007, showed that there was a very strong contrast in the aerosol concentration and composition between the rural and the urban/suburban stations. The five-year means of EC at the respective stations ranged from 0.9±0.04 to 4.2±0.1 μgC m−3. In rural areas, EC accounted for 2–3% of PM10 and 3–5% of PM2.5 mass loadings, comparing to 4–6% of PM10 and 4–8% of PM2.5 in the urban areas. It was found that the spatial distribution of EC was consistent with CO and NOx across the network stations, suggesting that the levels of EC over Taiwan were dominated by local sources. The measured OC was split into POC and SOC counterparts following the EC tracer method. Five-year means of POC ranged from 1.8±0.1 to 9.7±0.2 μgC m−3 among the stations. It was estimated that the POM contributed 5–17% of PM10 and 7–18% of PM2.5 in Taiwan. On the other hand, the five-year means of SOC ranged from 1.5±0.1 to 3.8±.3 μgC m−3. The mass fractions of SOM were estimated to be 9–19% in PM10 and 14–22% in PM2.5. The results showed that the SOC did not exhibit significant urban-rural contrast as did the POC and EC. A significant cross-station correlation between SOC and total oxidant was observed, which means the spatial distribution of SOC in Taiwan was dominated by the oxidant mixing ratio. Besides, correlation was also found between SOC and particulate nitrate, implying that the precursors of SOA were mainly from local anthropogenic sources. In addition to the spatial distribution, the carbonaceous aerosols also exhibited distinct seasonality. In northern Taiwan, the concentrations of all the three carbonaceous components (EC, POC, and SOC) reached their respective minima in the fall season. POC and EC increased drastically in winter and peaked in spring, whereas the SOC was characterized by a bimodal pattern with the maximal concentration in winter and a second mode in summertime. In southern Taiwan, minimal levels of POC and EC occurred consistently in summer and the maxima were observed in winter, whereas the SOC peaked in summer and declined in wintertime. The discrepancies in the seasonality of carbonaceous aerosols between northern and southern Taiwan were most likely caused by the seasonal meteorological settings that dominated the dispersion of air pollutants. Moreover, it was inferred that the Asian pollution outbreaks could have shifted the seasonal maxima of air pollutants from winter to spring in the northern Taiwan, and that the increases in biogenic SOA precursors and the enhancement in SOA yield were responsible for the elevated SOC concentrations in summer.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 715-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivy Drafor

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the spatial disparity between rural and urban areas in Ghana using the Ghana Living Standards Survey’s (GLSS) rounds 5 and 6 data to advance the assertion that an endowed rural sector is necessary to promote agricultural development in Ghana. This analysis helps us to know the factors that contribute to the depravity of the rural sectors to inform policy towards development targeting. Design/methodology/approach A multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis were applied to data from the GLSS-5 and GLSS-6 to determine the characteristics of the rural-urban divide in Ghana. Findings The findings reveal that the rural poor also spend 60.3 per cent of their income on food, while the urban dwellers spend 49 per cent, which is an indication of food production capacity. They have low access to information technology facilities, have larger household sizes and lower levels of education. Rural areas depend a lot on firewood for cooking and use solar/dry cell energies and kerosene for lighting which have implications for conserving the environment. Practical implications Developing the rural areas to strengthen agricultural growth and productivity is a necessary condition for eliminating spatial disparities and promoting overall economic development in Ghana. Addressing rural deprivation is important for conserving the environment due to its increased use of fuelwood for cooking. Absence of alternatives to the use of fuelwood weakens the efforts to reduce deforestation. Originality/value The application of PCA to show the factors that contribute to spatial inequality in Ghana using the GLSS-5 and GLSS-6 data is unique. The study provides insights into redefining the framework for national poverty reduction efforts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Oni Hidayati ◽  
Hermanto Siregar ◽  
A. Faroby Falatehan

Conversion of agricultural land in urban areas is most prevalent in wetlands, thus threatening food availability and loss of multifunctional land. In the last five years, the wetland area in Bogor City has dropped dramatically to 321 ha (BPS of Bogor City, 2016). Control of the rate of conversion of wetland in Bogor City is regulated by Local Regulation number 8 year 2011 concerning Bogor City Spatial Plan (RTRW Kota Bogor) 2011-2031. However, its implementation is less effective so that there is a need for economic instruments to support it. The purpose of this study is to describe the wetland conversion in Bogor City and budgetary strategies in order to control it. Spatial analysis with overlay method was used to and resulted in a land conversion pattern which was dominated by housing area of 1 137.33 ha (47.08%) and garden 254.28 ha (10.53%). The conversion pattern was used as the basis of multiple linear regression analysis of factors affecting wetland area in Bogor City during 2000-2015 which results were: production amount (significant at α 1%); building area (significant at α 5 %); realization of Bogor City Agricultural Service budget (not significant) with R2 value = 86.6%. Wetland conversion control was conducted through budget strategies which are analyzed with Analitycal Hierrachy Process (AHP) calculation, resulting as follows: (1) socialization budget; (2) budget for formulating local regulation; (3)budget sharing with the central/provincial government; (4) streamlining the role of the private; (5) budget supervision; (6)budget for (land banking); (7) incentives and disincentives for farmers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Siti Umi Kalsum ◽  
Asih Suzana ◽  
Amira Qotrunada Harahap

PERUMDA Tirta Muaro Unit Teluk Singkawang in the dimension of assurance is still not good. As evidenced by the low scope of service in this unit. Marked by the number of customers in 2020 as many as 2035 people. While the population of Sumay Subdistrict in 2020 as many as 21,398 people (Tebo Regency in Numbers, 2021). This means that the service coverage is 9.5%. This has not met the government's target of drinking water services of 75% for rural areas (Permen PU No. 13, 2013).This type of research includes explorative descriptive research using qualitative statistical research techniques. This research method uses survey method with customer population of PERUMDA Tirta Muaro Unit Teluk Singkawang. Sampling techniques using slovin formula. The analysis technique uses multiple linear regression analysis, with F test and t test using SPSS software. The results of the study that the level of customer satisfaction based on respondents' responses to 5 (five) dimensions of service quality received a score of 3.54 in the category of satisfied.


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