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Rahnama, Behzad. "Reduction of Environmental Impact Effect of Disposing Wind Turbine Blades." Thesis, Högskolan på Gotland, Institutionen för kultur, energi och miljö, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-217000.
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Wind power industry is expected to be one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources inthe world. The growth specially focuses on growing industries and markets, because ofeconomical condition for wind power development besides political decisions.According to growth of wind turbine industries, wind turbine blades are growing fast in both sizeand number. The problem that now arises is how to deal with the blades at the end of their lifecycle. This Master Thesis describes existing methods of disposing wind turbine blades.Moreover, the thesis considers alternative method of disposing blades, based on environmentaland safety consideration.
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Poole, Stephen James. "The environmental impact of light rail transit systems and the potential for impact reduction." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.508014.
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Ler, Leong Tat. "Measurement and reduction of the environmental impact of industrial photochemical machining." Thesis, Cranfield University, 1998. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/4139.
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This thesis concerns research into the environmental aspects of the photochemical machining (PCM) industry, involving measurement, analysis, benchmarking, and reducing adverse environmental impacts. The environmental audit of a PCM company found that the likely significant environmental impacts are the use of ferric chloride etchant, solvents and water. A comparison of the environmental performance of two UK PCM companies showed that there were big contrasts in etchant utilisation and solvent and water consumption, indicating that steps could be taken to reduce these impacts. A study to assess the feasibility of using laser direct imaging (LDI), a cleaner technology in photoresist imaging, found that LDI could meet the technical requirements of the PCM industry. For LDI to be economically feasible, the reliability has to be high and maintenance cost has to be low. Audit surveys of PCM companies world-wide regarding etchant utilisation and solvent consumption indicated that: (1) There is a vast difference between the performance of companies and companies that regenerate etchants were more efficient in their FeCl3 utilisation. The industrial best practice for FeCl3 utilisation is 837%. (2) Chlorination was the most popular regeneration method but most companies would use a more environment-friendly system at a higher overall cost. Regarding waste disposal, most companies sent liquid waste etchant for reclaim or recycle. (3) Half of the PCM companies no longer use solvents, and with the development of liquid aqueous-based resists, it is envisaged that PCM practitioners could eliminate the use of solvents in the near future. Lastly, an investigation into the feasibility of using oxygen gas in regenerating FeCI3 showed that the regenerated etchant could produce good quality etchings. This system is also the second cheapest. Therefore, it is a good option for the PCM companies as the cost of regeneration is not too expensive and it is environment-friendly.
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Mughal, Muhammad Riaz, and Zhe Zhao. "Distribution Situations Concerning Transportation and Environmental Impact; Multiple Case Studies of Medical Manufacturers in China. : Transportation and Environmental Impact reduction." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Ekonomihögskolan, ELNU, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-12430.
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Background: The environmental aspect of transportation has got a lot of attention over the past years. It has its origin in the growing awareness of environmental problems such as the global warming. In Europe the transportation industry is responsible for 21 per cent of the total emission. While studies of the subject show that an environmental friendly distribution and transportation is considered a success factor for many companies, there is a lack of interest from them to invest to obtain it. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find the current distribution situations and the factors that influence the transportation and environmental impacts while maintaining the same customer service level, as well as how these factors will influence distribution situations in some Chinese medical instrument manufacturing companies. Method: To gather data the authors will conduct a qualitative multiple case studies in the form of interviews at couple of medical equipment manufacturing companies to create the deep understanding needed to comprehend a company’s distribution system. Results, conclusion: Initially, the current situation of distribution system in Chinese medical instrument manufacturing companies has been found according to the cases companies’ analysis. Second, the four factors which would influence transportation and the environmental impact while keeping the same customer service level have been identified. They are fill rate, consolidation, standardization and postponement. Furthermore, benefiting how these factors will influence distribution situation through efficiency in transportation has been given as the suggestion and recommendation to some Chinese medical instrument manufacturing companies.
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Kaip, Rory James. "Quantifying the Carbon Reduction Impact of a University LED Lighting Retrofit Program." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1493119360166603.
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Lindholm, Johnsson Anton, and Tomas Almén. "Efficiency in distribution : as a cost saver and environmental impact reducer." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Centre of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-9293.
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<p> </p><p>The environmental aspect of transportation has got a lot of attention over the past years. It has its origin in the growing awareness of environmental problems such as the global warming. Today the environmental aspect of transportation is widely discussed and is being recognized as a very important question to deal with for everyone involved. In Europe the transportation industry is responsible for 21 per cent of the total emission. While studies of the subject show that an environmental friendly supply chain is considered a success factor for many companies, there is a lack of interest from them to invest in order to obtain it. The question this dilemma raises is what a company can do in terms of reducing its impact on the environment without making big investments.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how, from a company perspective, efficient logistics solutions for the distribution of products can reduce transportation costs as well as the environmental impact from a company. To gather data the authors will conduct a qualitative single case study in the form of interviews at a company to create the deep understanding needed to comprehend a company’s distribution system.</p><p>The result of the analysis shows that areas considering fill rate and selection of transportation mode are findings that would increase the efficiency, which would reduce the cost of transportation and the environmental impact. Also benefits from the option to outsource the logistics function regarding the distribution of the product to a TPL have been found.</p><p>The conclusion suggests that for a company to become as efficient as possible, while at the same time reduce their negative impact on the environment they should try to maximize the fill rate, which brings along that as much goods as possible is being distributed with as limited amounts of transportations as possible. Additional important conclusions from the thesis involve the significance of choosing the most suitable mode of transportation, something that will affect a range of different factors where cost and service are found to be the most important.</p><p> </p>
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Xongo, Nosipho. "The impact of mining on infrastructure development and poverty reduction in mining communities." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018576.
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There is a growing concern from government, communities, civil society and mining companies on the sustained development of the impact of mining on communities and the benefits of mineral development. Communities are more vocal in expressing their expectations for benefits and on the other hand mines are concerned about profits and maintaining a social licence to operate. This study critically evaluates the impact mining has on socio-economic development in mining communities. The focus area of the study is the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The ‘impact’ refers to the mine’s contribution to infrastructure development and poverty reduction projects in areas where the mine is operating and sourcing labour from. Forecasts for better performance in the future will be assessed. Issues such as community consultation, identification of projects, development forums, the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and partnerships are addressed. The literature was reviewed from existing national and international research on the topic. The study starts from two assumptions. The first is that minerals are potentially a great resource of wealth for poor countries. The second assumption is that minerals have the potential to benefit the local population through the creation of indirect employment, skills transfer, enhancing the capacity of health and education services, improved infrastructure and small and medium business opportunities. Poverty levels are viewed on a national and international scale. The study reveals problems, with existing approaches, on mine community development. It concludes that the impact of mining on infrastructure development and poverty reduction projects can be huge, but only if a variety of demanding preconditions are met. The study concludes that the reality of mineral led development in mine communities has not lived up to a roaring promise.
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Woods, Thomas. "Process mapping in new product development for environmental impact reduction in small and medium manufacturing enterprises." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2015. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/26468/.
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Environmental impact reduction (EIR) in Product Development processes, can involve numerous elements and activities. In relation to business objectives, the strategic review and integration of environmental impact reduction should be considered a best practice development opportunity and a contribution towards longer term sustainability. It should be recognised that environmental impact reduction requirements are often complex and challenging for businesses to implement, especially for those companies lacking the knowledge and internal resources to address these activities. This has been found to be the case particularly with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) where flexibility towards new approaches can be strategically more problematic, due to the limitations of available capital and resource. After a combination of literature review, industrial collaboration and data collection from within the manufacturing logistics systems of packaging for SME products, an opportunity was identified to develop a contemporary framework to integrate key critical environmental impact reductive activities, within adjoining New Product Development (NPD) activity. Engaging key activities of environmental impact reduction seamlessly into standardised NPD though a visual mapping process, can promote changes in current behaviour towards best practice development opportunities concerning environmental impact reduction. The contribution to new knowledge from this programme of research has been the development of an investigative framework for visually mapping the product development processes which provides manufacturing SMEs with an approach to capturing „visual snapshots‟ of their current engagement within environmental impact reductive activities. This visual mapping process addresses a range of company sizes and organisational behaviours to provide specific feedback and inform best practices for more sustainable NPD.
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Patel, Lopa. "Noise Pollution/Reduction Education for Frontline Staff in the Acute Care Setting." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6942.
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Noise levels in hospital settings have risen beyond the recommended range of 35-40 decibels, resulting in poor patient healing outcomes and other health conditions ranging from sleep deprivation, anxiety, agitation, delirium, depression, and high heart rate and blood pressure. These negative patient health experiences are evidenced by poor scores for the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, which are indicators of patients' perceptions of care. This project explored whether an educational activity for 48 direct care staff, who include registered nurses and nursing assistants, in a cardiac unit on the impact of noise pollution on patient healing would increase staff members' knowledge of interventions to reduce noise pollution. The information processing theory guided this project. Eighty-nine percent of the participants strongly agreed that the educational activity was relevant to their practice as health care providers on the cardiac monitored unit. All participants strongly agreed that they would be able to identify when the unit was noisy and when noise was impacting a patient both physiologically and psychologically. Participants indicated that they could implement the suggested behavioral modifications to promote a healing environment. Participants strongly agreed that the speaker was effective in communicating the importance of noise pollution and its impact on patient healing and ways in which to combat the problem (89%), and they were generally satisfied with the learning activity (91%). Reducing noise pollution might create a healing environment for cardiac patients, thus positively impacting patient satisfaction and well-being.
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Raju, Parvathy Suresh. "How to integrate life cycle thinking in the working process at Volvo Group Real Estate to improve the environmental performances of new dealerships." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-284346.
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Dealerships are the main interface for customer interaction when it comes to a multinational manufacturing company like Volvo Group. A lot of studies in the field of environmental impact is done on different kind of buildings like office buildings, residential buildings, public buildings etc by performing Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Life Cycle Cost analysis (LCC) etc. However, the number of studies done on an industrial building are very less when compared to other types of buildings. Industrial buildings are equally important in the construction industry since they play a good share in environmental impacts caused by buildings. The main objective of the thesis is to analyse the working process at VGRE and suggest ways to incorporate life cycle thinking in their working process to improve the environmental performance of new dealerships. Interviews were conducted with VGRE employees; literature reviews were done and analysis of internal documents from VGRE were studied and analysed as a part of the thesis. The views and opinions of the VGRE employees in the area of environment impact reduction, life cycle assessment and certification scheme/system were obtained and the steps involved in the development of a dealership as well as the different type of contract were also studied from the internal documents provided from VGRE. Cost was one of the main barrier/challenges in all the cases. Lack of interest in getting a dealership certified was also mentioned during the interviews. Energy saving measures like the solar panels were considered as additional cost for a building. Their preference in referring to previous Life Cycle studies of similar buildings rather than doing a Life cycle study on each building was also observed.<br>I syfte att identifiera hur man integrerar livscykeltänkande i arbetsprocessen hos Volvo Group Real Estate (VGRE) för att förbättra miljöprestanda för nya återförsäljare är detta examensarbete i princip en analys av arbetsprocessen hos Volvo som gjordes genom att göra intervjuer med Volvos anställda både i Göteborg, Sverige och Finland. Litteraturöversikter om livscykelanalys (LCA) samt certifieringssystem var också en del av metodiken. Slutligen analyserades och studerades några interna dokument från Volvo. LCA på Volvo, hinder och utmaningar som möter under arbetsprocessen, intern dokumentation, skillnaderna mellan en återförsäljare och andra byggnader, kostnadsfaktorer / affärssaker är de viktigaste slutsatserna som diskuteras i resultatsektionen.
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Sabová, Katarína. "Analysis of the European energy industry with focus on the impact of the CO2 reduction measures." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2012. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-125095.
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The goal of this diploma thesis was to create a comprehensive overview of the recent devel-opment in the fight against the climate change in European Union and complement it with evidence on how the CO2 reduction measures impacted the energy industry. Firstly, the ener-gy industry of the European Union is introduced with its basic characteristics. Information on the climate change and on actions that have been established so far in order to fight the cli-mate change is also provided. Next, the theoretical knowledge from the environmental eco-nomics is presented together with the various concepts on how to address the issues connected with the externalities. EU ETS and renewable energy subsidies (FiTs) are further analyzed and practical insights on how the measures work are also offered. The practical part contributes with analyses of case studies of Germany and Czech Republic, in which the key success factors of the policies and their impact are assessed.
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Xiang, Weizhong. "Performance improvement of multi-deck display cabinets and reduction of their impact on the store environment." Thesis, Brunel University, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.401348.
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Biscans, Sébastien. "Optimization of the Advanced LIGO gravitational-wave detectors duty cycle by reduction of parametric instabilities and environmental impacts." Thesis, Le Mans, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018LEMA1019/document.
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Le projet LIGO a pour but la détection et l'étude d'ondes gravitationnelles via un réseau de détecteurs. LIGO possède deux détecteurs d'architecture et de fonctionnement identiques, situés aux États-Unis. Chaque détecteur est une version améliorée d'un interféromètre de Michelson avec des bras optiques de 4 km de long. Ces interféromètres ont observé une onde gravitationnelle pour la première fois en septembre 2015, suivi par cinq autres détections à ce jour. Ces détections marquent le début d™une nouvelle ère pour l'astrophysique, en liaison étroite avec la physique des trous noirs et des étoiles à neutrons. Depuis, un grand nombre d'activités sont en développement pour perfectionner les interféromètres. Cette thèse a pour objectif d'améliorer le temps de service des détecteurs, en répondant en particulier à deux problématiques majeures : le problème des impacts environnementaux, et notamment celui des tremblements de terre, ainsi que le problème lié à des couplages opto-mécaniques instables dans les cavités optiques, appelés instabilités paramétriques. Les stratégies de contrôle et les outils développés pour résoudre ces problématiques sont présentés. Les résultats prémilinaires montrent une réduction du temps d'arrêt généré par les tremblements de terre d'environ 40%. De plus, le dispositif ‚Acoustic Mode Damper™ développé pendant la thèse devrait complètement résoudre le problème des instabilités paramétriques pour LIGO. En conclusion, il sera démontré en quoi les problématiques résolues ont permis d'améliorer le cycle de service des détecteurs de LIGO de 4,6%, ce qui correspond à une augmentation du nombre d'ondes gravitationnelles détectées par an de 14%<br>The LIGO project is a large-scale physics experiment the goal of which is to detect and study gravitational waves of astrophysical origin. It is composed of two instruments identical in design, located in the United States. The two instruments are specialized versions of a Michelson interferometer with 4km-long arms. They observed a gravitational-wave signal for the first time in September 2015 from the merger of two stellar-mass black holes. This is the first direct detection of a gravitational wave and the first direct observation of a binary black hole merger. Five more detections from binary black hole mergers and neutron stars merger have been reported to date, marking the beginning of a new era in astrophysics. As a result of these detections, many activities are in progress to improve the duty cycle and sensitivity of the detectors. This thesis addresses two major issues limiting the duty cycle of the LIGO detectors: environmental impacts, especially earthquakes, and the issue of unstable opto-mechanical couplings in the cavities, referred to as parametric instabilities. The control strategies and tools developed to tackle these issues are presented. Early results have shown a downtime reduction during earthquakes of ~40% at one of the LIGO sites. Moreover, the electro-mechanical device called ‚Acoustic Mode Damper™ designed and tested during the thesis should completely solve the issue of parametric instabilities for LIGO. In conclusion, we will show that the problems tackled in this thesis improved the overall duty cycle of LIGO by 4.6%, which corresponds to an increase of the gravitational-wave detection rate by 14%
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Lanfelt, Katrine. "Are Renewable Energy Policies Effective? : A panel data study concerning the impact policies have on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through renewable energy production." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Nationalekonomiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-450801.
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Climate change has been a topic of interest both in politics and academics during the last decades and it is only becoming more prominent. The relationship between energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions is of particular interest both in politics and in the world of business. With help from the STIRPAT model this paper examines the elasticity between energy production from renewable sources and carbon dioxide emissions and how it changes when introducing policies for increasing the use of renewable energy. Investigating OECD countries between 2007 and 2015, the paper hopes to add to the existing research of environmental policies on an international level by primarily focusing on the 2009/28/EC policy concerning the European Union and comparing it to some national strategies. Through IV-regressions based on the STIRPAT model this paper examines whether policies regarding renewable energy production increase the effect that renewable energy have on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The results display a positive change in the elasticity between renewable energy and carbon dioxide emissions when introducing the 2009/28/EC policy as an instrumental variable but is unable to identify significant change when using national policies.
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De, Villiers Jonathan Izak. "Reducing the potential for accidents and the associated environmental impacts arising from road tankers transporting petro-chemical substances / J.I. de Villiers." Thesis, North-West University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/293.
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Petroleum products, which are required to keep the 'wheels' of industry and
commerce turning, are distributed from the various refineries to their destinations
throughout the country on a daily basis and the mode and extent of
transportation or conveyance of these products is varied. This distribution activity
predominantly takes place by means of road tanker, pipeline as well as rail
tanker and quantities during transit could vary from a few hundred litres to many
thousands of litres per trip.
Road tanker transportation is considered to be the most vulnerable form of
distribution means and this poses a high risk in terms of the potential for being
involved in an accident.
The risk potential associated with the road transportation of these fuels, from an
environmental point of view, is aggravated due to:
*The conveyance of bulk loads,
*non-roadworthiness of many vehicles,
*inconsistency in vehicle condition checking systems and in the application of
*safety systems,
*poor road conditions,
*driver fatigue,
*hi-jacking threats,
*the level of incompetence or unsuitability of drivers,
*the inconsistency in driver training programs,
*the vulnerability of the tankers being subject to collision and accidents.
The potential exists for road tankers involved in accidents to leak or spill large
quantities of petroleum products which in turn could result in catastrophic
environmental consequences (such as leaking large quantities of fuel into
sewers, plantations, rivers and streams thus causing much ground and water
pollution). Also, during an accident the fuel leaking from a road tanker may ignite
causing it to burn for several hours before it is finally brought under control and
extinguished. This may result in much air pollution as well as damage to the
surrounding ecological systems. Subsequent explosions could further result in
severe loss of life and associated fires which in turn could cause more
environmental degradation and damage.
For the purpose of this dissertation, focus was specifically placed on the
introduction of internal company control measures that a "supplier” company
(such as Natref (Pty) Ltd) could implement to check whether petroleum product
distributors are complying with predetermined criteria aimed at reducing the
potential for accidents involving road tankers. The measuring of how these
controls have an effect in the bigger scheme of things in terms of reducing
accidents and environmental degradation was very difficult to determine because
it was not possible to extract from the distributors how many of their vehicles
were actually involved in incidents during the study period. As a result it was not
possible to determine whether the improved control measures had an effect on
the number of accidents incurred by the vehicles that were effected by the
improved application of the standards.
The study thus focused primarily on the effect that the implementation of an
inspection system could have in progressively reducing the number of defects
found on road tankers wanting to gain access to Natrefs site as well as
measuring whether an improvement in compliance to standards actually took
place. This study was conducted over a period of 22 months and involved the
development and implementation of a new procedure and training course,
implementation of an inspection checklist, improved reporting methods as well as
improved the overall environmental awareness of the employees involved in the
checking and inspection process. It is however assumed that the implementation
and ongoing enforcement of the company standards has assisted in contributing
towards minimising the potential for pollution exposures arising from accidents
and in so doing minimising environmental degradation to a larger or lesser
extent.<br>Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
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Lima, Verena Ferreira Tidei de. "O prolongamento da vida útil do vestuário de moda como alternativa para a redução de seu impacto socioambiental." Universidade de São Paulo, 2013. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/100/100133/tde-17102014-122552/.
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Atualmente, o excesso de produção, consumo e descarte de vestuário de moda - e o ritmo acelerado e contínuo como isso acontece - resulta em um impacto socioambiental de proporções consideráveis. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho buscou discutir possíveis requisitos projetuais para o design de vestuário de moda orientados à redução de seu impacto socioambiental, com ênfase no prolongamento da vida útil do vestuário de moda e consequentemente na alteração da dinâmica do ciclo de vida desses produtos. Para tanto, foi necessário compreender e estudar a relação entre o design e a sustentabilidade, identificar os impactos socioambientais do vestuário de moda, elencar os aspectos projetáveis do vestuário de moda que influenciam o consumidor em relação ao produto, e assimilar a opinião do consumidor a respeito da relação entre o vestuário de moda e a sustentabilidade. A partir de uma revisão de literatura e de uma pesquisa exploratória, foi possível inferir que o prolongamento da vida útil do vestuário de moda, ao alterar a dinâmica do ciclo de vida desses produtos, desacelerar o ritmo de sua produção, seu consumo e seu descarte, configurando-se como uma alternativa para a redução de seu impacto socioambiental.<br>Currently, the excess of production, consumption and disposal of fashion clothing - and the accelerated and continuous rhythm as it happens - results in a social and environmental impact of considerable proportions. This work aimed to discuss possible projectual requirements for the fashion clothing design geared to reducing its social and environmental impact, with emphasis on the lifetime extension of fashion clothing and consequently on change of life cycle dynamics of these products. In order to reach this aim, it was necessary to understand and to study the relation between design and sustainability, to identify the social and environmental impacts of fashion clothing, to list the projectable aspects of fashion clothing that influence the consumer respecting the product, and to assimilate the consumer opinion about fashion clothing and sustainability. From a literature review and an exploratory research, it was possible to infer that the lifetime extension of fashion clothing, in changing the lifecycle dynamics of these products, decelerates the rhythm of its production, its consumption and its disposal, setting up as an alternative for reducing its social and environmental impact.
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Gapper, Justin J. "Bias Reduction in Machine Learning Classifiers for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Coral Reefs using Remote Sensing Images." Chapman University Digital Commons, 2019. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cads_dissertations/2.
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This dissertation is an evaluation of the generalization characteristics of machine learning classifiers as applied to the detection of coral reefs using remote sensing images. Three scientific studies have been conducted as part of this research: 1) Evaluation of Spatial Generalization Characteristics of a Robust Classifier as Applied to Coral Reef Habitats in Remote Islands of the Pacific Ocean 2) Coral Reef Change Detection in Remote Pacific Islands using Support Vector Machine Classifiers 3) A Generalized Machine Learning Classifier for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. The aim of this dissertation is to propose and evaluate a methodology for developing a robust machine learning classifier that can effectively be deployed to accurately detect coral reefs at scale. The hypothesis is that Landsat data can be used to train a classifier to detect coral reefs in remote sensing imagery and that this classifier can be trained to generalize across multiple sites. Another objective is to identify how well different classifiers perform under the generalized conditions and how unique the spectral signature of coral is as environmental conditions vary across observation sites. A methodology for validating the generalization performance of a classifier to unseen locations is proposed and implemented (Controlled Parameter Cross-Validation,). Analysis is performed using satellite imagery from nine different locations with known coral reefs (six Pacific Ocean sites and three Red Sea sites). Ground truth observations for four of the Pacific Ocean sites and two of the Red Sea sites were used to validate the proposed methodology. Within the Pacific Ocean sites, the consolidated classifier (trained on data from all sites) yielded an accuracy of 75.5% (0.778 AUC). Within the Red Sea sites, the consolidated classifier yielded an accuracy of 71.0% (0.7754 AUC). Finally, long-term change detection analysis is conducted for each of the sites evaluated. In total, over 16,700 km2 was analyzed for benthic cover type and cover change detection analysis. Within the Pacific Ocean sites, decreases in coral cover ranged from 25.3% reduction (Kingman Reef) to 42.7% reduction (Kiritimati Island). Within the Red Sea sites, decrease in coral cover ranged from 3.4% (Umluj) to 13.6% (Al Wajh).
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Pham, Huynh Anh. "The dynamics of microbial ferric and sulfate reduction in acidic mine lake sediments and their impact on water quality." University of Western Australia. School of Environmental Systems Engineering, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0004.
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[Truncated abstract] Acidic mine lakes are formed as a result of the oxidation and dissolution of metal sulfide minerals and are primarily characterized by low pH values of 2 4. Many strategies for the bioremediation of acidic mine lakes depend on the alkalinity generation capabilities of microbial ferric and/or sulfate reducing bacteria. However nearly all mine lakes are oligotrophic, with very low concentrations of available organic carbon and nutrients; all required for healthy microbial growth. There is also an unusual class of mine lakes characterized by low concentrations of organic carbon and also very low concentrations of dissolved iron and sulfate. Our ability to promote microbial activity in these systems is especially challenging. This study focuses on one of these systems, Lake Kepwari, a coal mine lake in Western Australia. Numerical modeling of remediation strategies is an efficient way of testing scenarios prior to expensive in-field trials. However such modeling relies on good descriptions of microbial processes, including kinetic parameterizations of ferric and sulfate reduction. There has been little research to date on the study of kinetic parameterizations of the chemical and biological alkalinity generation in acidic mine lakes. The objectives of this thesis were to investigate the viability of microbial ferric and sulfate reduction in an ultraoligotrophic, acidic mine lake, to assess the impact of these microbial processes on water quality and to parameterize the Dual Monod kinetics of neutralization under dual limitation conditions. Molecular analyses including most probable number, DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction, polymerase chain reaction denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis were used to examine the microbial communities in the lake sediments. ... The Monod maximum specific microbial growth rates with respect to dissolved organic carbon and ferric, and as determined in batch experiments, were 0.07 ± 0.01 and 0.048 ± 0.02 day-1, respectively, and their corresponding Monod half saturation constants and were 14.37 and 5.6 mmol L-1. The Monod maximum consumption rates under ferric and OC limitation were also estimated. The Monod maximum specific microbial growth rates with respect to dissolved organic carbon and sulfate, , and were 0.05 ± 0.01, 0.08 ± 0.01 and 0.07 ± 0.02 day-1, respectively, and their corresponding Monod half saturation constants, and were 75.5, 131.8 and 10.2 mmol L-1. The Monod maximum consumption rates under sulfate and OC limitation were also estimated. The results of this study suggest that strategies for the remediation of ultraoligotrophic, acidic mine lakes may rely on microbial ferric and sulfate reduction, however additions of both organic carbon and sulfate/ferric are essential. These results can be immediately applied to mesocosm studies in outdoor enclosures and to the management of acidic mine lakes. Furthermore, this thesis has provided a new, valuable understanding on the Dual Monod kinetic parameterizations of neutralization for an ultraoligotrophic, acidic mine lake environment. These parameterizations are essential for the lake ecological models that will be used to investigate remediation scenarios for acidic mine lakes.
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Pullinger, Martin Iain. "Greening our working lives : the environmental impacts of changing patterns of paid work in the UK and the Netherlands, and implications for working time policy." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6383.
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Paid working patterns are currently regulated by governments around the world for a range of social and economic reasons: to increase labour supply and skills; to provide a strong tax base to support an ageing population; to help people reconcile work and family life over increasingly diversified life courses; and to be in line with the general principle of the activating, employment led welfare state. Environmental considerations rarely feature in the design or evaluation of working time policy. Nevertheless, various authors working on policies for sustainable development argue that reductions in average paid working time could lead to environmental benefits: as people work less, they in turn earn less, and so consume less, resulting in lower environmental impacts from lower levels of production of products. This thesis takes this argument as its starting point, and synthesises these distinct perspectives on working time and its regulation to address two key questions: what level of environmental benefits could arise from such reductions in paid working time?; and what are the implications for the design of working time policy? The research addresses these questions, taking the case of greenhouse gas emissions, and the UK and the Netherlands in the early 2000s as case studies. Using household expenditure survey data and data on product emissions intensities, the relationship between paid working time and emissions is analysed at both the household and national levels. At the household level, statistically and substantively significant correlations are found between higher levels of paid work and higher levels of consumption and so greenhouse gas emissions. The effects on emissions of hypothetical changes in the working patterns of the national populations are then modelled. The research estimates that meeting current national objectives to increase labour market participation rates would increase national greenhouse gas emissions by 0.6-0.7%, a cost that might be considered acceptable if it also achieves its aims of reducing income poverty, benefit dependency, and social exclusion. Meanwhile, widespread reductions in average working hours and increased use of career breaks, with corresponding reductions in income, would reduce national emissions. The scenarios modelled (a 20% reduction in the working hours of full time workers, and increasing use of 3 month career breaks) lead to reductions of 3-4.5% in national emissions, with the corresponding increases in “leisure” time, reductions in income inequality, and reduced gender imbalances in the distribution of paid work potentially also improving wellbeing, social cohesion, and gender equality in work and care. The results indicate that environmental factors warrant consideration in the design and evaluation of working time policy, and that challenging but achievable levels of working time reduction could contribute a small but significant share to meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets. Policy instruments would need to address a range of values, attitudes and norms around employment and consumption, as well as employer and situational factors, if substantial working time reduction were to be achieved. Reconciling diverse environmental, social and economic goals also requires careful policy design, particularly for certain demographic groups such as the low income, who would need financial and other support to turn rights to reduce working time into functional freedoms that they could utilise.
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Gaspar, Ana Teresa Ferreira da Silva 1977. "Modelagem tecnico-economica de sequestro de CO2 considerando injeção em campos maduros." [s.n.], 2007. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/265392.
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Orientador: Saul Barisnik Suslick<br>Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica e Instituto de Geociencias<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T11:55:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
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Previous issue date: 2007<br>Resumo: Esta tese apresenta um estudo da viabilidade técnica e econômica da Recuperação Avançada de Óleo (EOR) em um pequeno projeto localizado em um campo maduro no Brasil. O estudo considera duas motivações importantes e complementares: (1) a recuperação avançada de óleo por meio da injeção de CO2 - o gás desloca o óleo residual deixado no local após a produção primária e injeção secundária de água (waterflooding); (2) o armazenamento deste gás no reservatório de óleo e, conseqüente contribuição para a mitigação de emissões de CO2. Os aspectos físicos deste projeto são descritos e um modelo de simulação dinâmica foi desenvolvido para modelar o comportamento do sistema seqüestro de CO2 - EOR ao longo do tempo. Este modelo leva em conta os requisitos de energia para todo o processo de seqüestro de CO2 e suas respectivas emissões inerentes ao processo. Adicionalmente, uma metodologia é proposta para estimar os principais determinantes financeiros do projeto de seqüestro de CO2 (custos de compra do CO2, compressão, transporte e armazenamento) por meio de EOR. A avaliação do projeto é derivada de um modelo de fluxo de caixa, levando-se em conta o perfil de produção do reservatório, preço, custos de capital (CAPEX), custos operacionais (OPEX), créditos de CO2, depreciação, premissas fiscais etc. Um estudo de análise de sensibilidade é realizado para identificar as variáveis mais críticas. A viabilidade econômica do projeto, como esperado, é muito sensível ao preço do óleo, produção de óleo e CAPEX. Além disso, há a contribuição para a mitigação do gás de efeito estufa (GEE), armazenando uma quantidade significativa de CO2 no reservatório onde pode permanecer por milhares de anos.<br>Abstract: This thesis presents a technical and economic feasibility study for CO2 EOR in a small project located in a mature oilfield in Brazil. The present study considers two important and complementary motivations: (1) EOR - CO2 displaces residual oil left in place after primary production and secondary water flooding; (2) storage of this gas in the oil reservoir and hence, contributing to mitigate CO2 emissions. The physical aspects of this project are described and a dynamic simulation model has been developed in order to model the behavior of the CO2 Sequestration - EOR system and its emissions due to the process over time. This model takes into account the energy requirements for the whole CO2 sequestration process. Additionally, a breakdown cost methodology is proposed in order to estimate the main financial determinants of the integrated EOR with CO2 sequestration (costs of CO2 purchase, compression, transportation and storage). Project evaluation is derived from a cash flow model, regarding reservoir production profile, price and costs, capital expenditures (CAPEX), operating expenditures (OPEX), carbon credits, depreciation time, fiscal assumptions etc. A sensitivity analysis study is carried out in order to identify the most critical variables. Project feasibility, as expected, is found to be very sensitive to oil price, oil production, and CAPEX. Moreover, there is the contribution from the mitigation of the Green House Gas (GHG) by storing a significant amount of CO2 in the reservoir where it can remain for thousands of years.<br>Doutorado<br>Reservatórios e Gestão<br>Doutor em Ciências e Engenharia de Petróleo
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Brandão, Renata Figueiredo. "Incentivo fiscal ambiental: parâmetros e limites para sua instituição à luz da Constituição Federal de 1988." Universidade de São Paulo, 2013. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/2/2133/tde-12022014-150245/.
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A presente tese tem como objeto a formulação de limites jurídicos à instituição de incentivos fiscais ambientais. Partindo da constatação de que a crise ambiental ora em voga requer que sejam adotados diversos instrumentos para conter a poluição e inibir a escassez dos ativos ambientais, geradas pelo atual padrão de produção e consumo, envereda-se pela análise da tutela constitucional da questão ambiental. Examina-se, com destaque, a parte final do comando contido no art. 170, VI, da Lei Maior, cuja norma (inserida no rol dos princípios da ordem econômica) estabelece um tratamento diferenciado de produtos e serviços, bem como dos seus processos de produção, de acordo com o critério de proteção ambiental. Ademais, é conferida ênfase ao conteúdo plasmado no art. 225 da CF/88, segundo o qual a preservação e a defesa do meio ambiente consubstanciam um dever do Poder Público e da Sociedade, sendo o meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado um direito das presentes e futuras gerações. Diante dos robustos comandos que ressaltam o dever de todos de promover, no país, um desenvolvimento sustentável, investigam-se as formas de atuação do Estado na economia e os fundamentos que embasam intervenções de tal ente sobre as condutas dos particulares, com vistas a induzir comportamentos ambientalmente orientados. Nesta trilha e considerando que nos Estados atuais a tributação consubstancia a sua maior fonte de receita, envolvendo, portanto, considerável parcela da riqueza da nação, analisa-se o alcance da tributação extrafiscal no que concerne à concessão de incentivos fiscais para o fomento de atividades que impactem positivamente o meio ambiente. Por ser o Brasil um Estado Democrático e Social de Direito, regido por uma Carta Política que alberga inúmeros interesses, bens e princípios conflitantes, a investigação das fronteiras para a instituição dos estímulos tributários em comento é pautada pela análise ponderada dos mais diversos desígnios constitucionais. Busca-se identificar, à luz do ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, balizas que irão permitir que a lei tributária instituidora do incentivo fiscal ecológico consubstancie instrumento hábil a induzir condutas ambientalmente orientadas, sem restringir desproporcionalmente outros fins, princípios e valores constitucionais, a exemplo da igualdade e da livre concorrência. Neste compasso, pretende-se demonstrar que a criação do instituto em tela, realizada com base nos parâmetros ora sistematizados, constitui significativo instrumento voltado à construção de uma economia baseada nos pilares da sustentabilidade. Assim, espera-se, em última análise, contribuir para que os entes tributantes veiculem, com maior segurança e propriedade, estímulos fiscais de viés ambiental, disseminando-se diplomas legais que efetivamente concretizam a defesa do meio ambiente.<br>The purpose of this thesis is to define legal boundaries in order to establish environmental fiscal incentives. It required an analysis of the matter concerning environment constitutional management, due to the fact that the existing environment crisis demands the implementation of several tools to restraint pollution and inhibit the shortage of environment assets caused by current production and consumption standards. It is pointed out the final item of the command contained in the Art. # 170 of the Federal Constitution, whose norm included within the roll of the Economical Order principles directs towards differentiate handling of products and services, besides their related production processes in line with environment protection criteria. Also, the Art. # 225 of the 1988 Federal Constitution - included under the Title concerning Social Order - emphasizes the fact that both Government and Society are accountable for the preservation and defense of the environment and that an ecologically balanced environment is the right to present and future generations. Considering the stressed commands that refer to the general responsibility to support sustainable development in the country, this thesis assesses the way the State acts in the economy and the basis for intervening in the conduct of private citizens, aiming at promoting environment-oriented behavior. Following this line of thought and taking into account that taxes represent the States major source of income, thus absorbing large part of the country wealth, it is analyzed the extra-fiscal taxation range related to the concession of fiscal incentives to promote activities involving positive impact on the environment. Therefore, since Brazil is a Democratic and Social of Right State, ruled by a political Federal Constitution that comprehends several conflicting interests, goods and principles, the investigation of the boundaries to implement the fiscal incentives, in which this thesis is focused, is based upon thorough analysis of a great variety of constitutional directives. Its target is to identify, under the Brazilian judicial point of view, the foundations to allow that the fiscal law to support the ecological fiscal incentive substantiates an appropriate instrument to encourage environment-oriented actions, without restraining other constitutional objects, principles and values disproportionately, as equality and free competition principles, among others. As a consequence, based on the analyzed parameters, this thesis intends to demonstrate that the establishment of the institute therein proposed represents relevant tool to construct an economy founded on sustainability. Therefore, the expectation is that, at least, this work might contribute to the tax offices to promote more solid and accurate environmental fiscal incentives, and issue legal norms in order to consolidate the environment defense efficiently.
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Celedón, Cruz Liliana Isabel. "A sustainability assessment in the production of heavy-duty trucks : A case study at Scania: investigating the reduction of environmental impacts through design customization and LCA." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-287370.
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The transport sector is currently facing challenges to reduce environmental impacts during the vehicle’s operation due to its reliance on fossil fuels. The introduction of new technologies such as alternative fuels or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are therefore rapidly growing because they can significantly reduce the vehicle’s tailpipe emissions. There is however the concern that these could transfer environmental burdens to other life cycle phases such as production. Therefore, a development towards sustainable transport will require more than just the development of alternative fuels or EVs, but also a more sustainable production. Considering that 80% of the product related environmental impacts are determined during the design phase of a product, the significance of product design is studied. Scania offers the opportunity to customize trucks with a high level of detail through customized design, also called S-order design. Design engineers want to know if their customized solutions have the potential to reduce environmental impacts within the production of a truck. Therefore, the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework is used to know the environmental impacts of a truck designed with S- and A-order design and to compare them in order to determine if there is an environmental performance difference between these two designs. The results show that the production of a truck with a S-order design has on average 3% lower environmental impacts on all impact categories than when it’s produced with an A-order design. This is due to the S-order design’s great level of flexibility to consider small details of the truck’s functionality. Nevertheless, this design flexibility can lead to multiple configurations for one truck, thus meaning that the results will vary from product to product since the customer decides the specifications of the truck. The main conclusion is that the early implementation of adaptations through S-order design in heavy truck development at Scania can potentially reduce resource consumption and environmental impacts, and aid to sustainable production.<br>Transportsektorn står för närvarande inför utmaningar för att minska miljöpåverkan under fordonets drift på grund av dess beroende av fossila bränslen. Introduktionen av ny teknik som alternativa bränslen eller elektriska fordon (BEV) växer därför snabbt eftersom de avsevärt kan minska fordonets utsläpp från avgasröret. Det finns emellertid oro för att dessa skulle kunna överföra miljöbelastningar till andra livscykelfaser som exempelvis produktionen. Därför kommer en utveckling mot hållbara transporter att kräva mer än bara utveckling av alternativa bränslen eller eldrift, men också en mer hållbar produktion. Med tanke på att 80% av de produktrelaterade miljöeffekterna bestäms under en produkts designfas studeras därför produktens design. Scania erbjuder möjligheten att skräddarsy lastbilar med hög detaljnivå genom skräddarsydd design, även kallat S-orderdesign. Designingenjörer vill veta om deras skräddarsydda lösningar har potential att minska miljöpåverkan inom tillverkningen av en lastbil. En livscykelanalys (LCA) används därför för att känna till miljöpåverkan från en lastbil konstruerad med S- och A-orderdesign och för att jämföra dem för att avgöra om det finns en skillnad i miljöprestanda mellan dessa två konstruktioner. Resultaten visar att tillverkningen av en lastbil med S-orderdesign har i genomsnitt 3% lägre miljöpåverkan på alla kategorier av miljöpåverkan än en med A-orderdesign. Detta beror på S- orderdesignens stora flexibilitet för att ta hänsyn till små detaljer gällande lastbilens funktionalitet. Dock kan denna konstruktionsflexibilitet leda till flera konfigurationer för en lastbil, vilket innebär att resultaten kommer att variera från produkt till produkt eftersom kunden bestämmer lastbilens specifikationer. Huvudslutsatsen är att det tidiga genomförandet av anpassningar genom S- orderdesign vid utvecklingen av tunga lastbilar hos Scania potentiellt kan minska resursförbrukningen och miljöpåverkan och stöd till hållbar produktion.
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Giouvanaki, Asimina. "Nature’s Impact on Mental and Physical Wellbeing : A study of the mental and physical health in Greek Immigrants to Sweden." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-36458.
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In the past Man coinhabited harmoniously with nature only to have the balance disturbed with the advent of the Industrial Revolution replacing the green habitat with urban concrete settlements Consequently, the characteristics of the contemporary city pose a set of serious threat to man’s physical and mental health. Crowdedness, lack of apt infrastructure, pollution, noise pollution and rise in temperature are all contributing factors to the Man’s demised health and detachment from previous amicable coexistence with nature. For the past 30 years, extensive research has been conducted studying the correlation between man and nature, and nature’s impact on man’s health. The theory of “Biophilia,” by Edward, O. Wilson, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan’s “Attention Restorative Theory,” and Roger Ulrich’s “Stress Reduction Theory,” have been innovating and contributing towards gaining more understanding of the importance of a green environment in man’s everyday life. As a corollary the above-mentioned theories gave rise to the following quantitative study conducted over a 4-month period, including 81 respondents, in Spring 2020, focusing on whether a natural green environment in Sweden had impacted the mental and physical health in Greek immigrants to Sweden. The findings suggest that comparing the respondents’ life in Greece and respectively in Sweden there was indeed an improvement in the mood and health of the sample groups taking into consideration: how healthy they are, how healthy they feel, how happy they feel in relation to work, time spent in Sweden, marital status and of course the parameters that focus on the part of the natural environment at home and in their neighbourhood in Sweden. There seem to have been a statistically significant improvement in their health compared to when they lived in Greece but there is insufficient evidence to support that some of the parameters examined are responsible for this. Happiness on the other hand seem to possess a statistical important role due to their marital status among others along with the green surrounding environment having an impact on their mental well-being but not their physical health. Therefore, a more sustainable green environment seems to have impacted the overall psychological and physical state of the respondents, but further extensive research is recommended to investigate in depths others factors i.e., psychosomatics, environmental psychology along with nature related theories and studies.
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Waddick, Caitlin Janson. "Healthy residential developments: reducing pollutant exposures for vulnerable populations with multiple chemical sensitivities." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/37270.
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Many serious illnesses are linked to everyday exposures to toxic chemicals. In the U.S., most chemical exposure comes from common consumer products such as pesticides, fragranced products, cleaning supplies, and building materials--products so widely used that people consider them "safe." As the links between everyday toxic exposures and potential health effects become better understood, evidence increasingly shows that reducing exposures can create a healthier society. Although some individuals may choose to build a healthy home and maintain a healthy household, they are still exposed to pollutants at their residences from the actions of others, such as to pesticides that are used by neighbors, businesses, and governments. They need healthy residential developments in environmentally healthy communities.
This research investigates "healthy residential developments," defined as a property that aims to reduce pollutant exposures to the extent required by vulnerable populations, which for this research are individuals with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). Through a case study approach, this research investigates two exemplars of healthy residential developments, and explains how and why they form and continue. It also examines their implementation methods, and implications for planning and policy.
Primary data collection methods included in-person interviews, telephone interviews, and site visits. Research strategies included the analysis of interview data, and categorical aggregation using thematic categories within and across cases. The categories focused on factors of formation and continuation for the two healthy residential developments.
Findings include the challenges of people disabled with MCS to find safe housing; the importance of planning to address these challenges; the role of individuals, funding, and zoning in the formation of healthy residential developments; the role of funding, safe maintenance, and property management in their continuation; and, the need for affordable and safe housing for vulnerable populations.
Future research can address the need to develop methods to create and sustain healthy residential developments, understand and reduce sources of exposure that initiate and trigger chemical sensitivity, and investigate experiences and implementation strategies in other countries.
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Coby, Aaron J. "Microbial iron-(hydr)oxide reduction effects on zinc speciation and interactions with nitrate reduction /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2005. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3163021.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Public Environmental Affairs, 2005.<br>Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-02, Section: B, page: 0765. Adviser: Flynn W. Picardal. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 18, 2006).
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Mebine, P. "Minimum environmental impact discharging." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2006. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12945.
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Many contaminants exhibit decay. Decay mechanisms include consumption by bacteria or radioactive decay (temporal decay uniform across the flow), heat loss or evaporation through the surface (decay decreasing with depth), and break up by turbulence (decay proportional to the product of velocity and depth). This thesis investigates how the decay of pollutants in a river effects the dilution process and the selection of discharge siting to achieve minimum environmental impact. For a non-symmetric river with non-reversing flow, exact solutions are presented that illustrate the effect on the optimal position for a steady discharge of cross-channel variation in the decay (uniform, decreasing or increasing with depth). The optimal position is shifted to deeper or to shallower water accordingly as the temporal decay divided by flow speed decreases or increases with water depth. When advection dominates diffusion, there are special directions (rays) along which information is carried. For steady, unstratified, plane parallel flow, the effects of decay are allowed for in specifying these special directions. Two special cases are considered. Firstly, for a smoothly varying depth, a general result has been derived for the curvature of the rays as effected by spatial non-uniformity in decay, mixing, flow speed and flow direction. Secondly, for discontinuous variations in depth, diffusivity, velocity and decay, approximate concentration formulae are derived. Ray bending indicates that the downstream propagation of pollutant is principally in the low-decay region. Computational results are used to give pictorial illustration of the concentration distributions and of the difference between discharging at non-optimal and optimal sites.
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Lawton, Amy. "Environmental taxation as a form of environmental protection : exploring the carbon reduction commitment." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2018. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/8491/.
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This thesis looks at the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme. This is a green tax on energy consumption that targets large businesses not already covered by the EU ETS or CCAs. The CRC has been reformed on numerous occasions and will now come to an end in 2019. Importantly, the CRC has received relatively little academic attention, especially in legal scholarship. Drawing upon 31 original, semi structured interviews with regulatees, solicitors and the Environment Agency; and a quantitative analysis of emissions under the scheme, this PhD will begin to tell the story of how the CRC has been perceived by those who pay it. This is an account of how different regulatory aspects send deeper messages to regulatees. In particular, this thesis considers: stability; competence of the regulator; nudging; positive incentives; and the efficiency of the CRC. As such, this thesis draws on a wide range of literature in order to analyse the above themes in light of the original data from the empirical study. This thesis concludes that how regulation is packaged and presented to regulatees is critical and can affect how they engage with a regulatory scheme such as the CRC.
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Lochner, Paul. "NM2002 impact assessment : impact assessment report." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17325.
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Bibliography: p. 94-95.<br>The purpose of this report is to: * assess the biophysical and socio-economic impacts of closure of De Beers Namaqualand Mines (DBNM) * provide preliminary suggestions for mitigation measures. DBNM anticipate that they will close in approximately 10 years' time. By the year 2002, all diamond deposits which are currently economically viable to mine on a large-scale would have been exploited. Closure is anticipated to have a significant impact on DBNM employees, their households, and towns where the households of employees live. Furthermore, closure is anticipated to have a significant impact on the Namaqualand economy. Therefore, DBNM commissioned the EEU to undertake an assessment of the impacts resulting from mine closure, to ascertain the effects on their employers and their affected households and communities. Through discussions with DBNM the scope for this assessment was established: * Briefly to describe the current biophysical, social and economic environments in Namaqualand and identify different trends in the region. * To assess in detail the socio-economic impacts resulting from the closure of DBNM. In addition, this report considers the impacts on the biophysical environment resulting from the closure of DBNM, because the socio-economic well-being of employees from rural areas of Namaqualand and Transkei is intrinsically linked to changes in the biophysical environment. Lastly, this report also contains preliminary suggestions for mitigating the impacts of closure.
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Matar, Khalil. "Impact of voltage reduction on energy and demand." Ohio : Ohio University, 1990. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1183652181.
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Magawana, Xolisa Tania. "The impact of social grants on poverty reduction." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020106.
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The South African government implements numerous strategies with the aim of reducing poverty. The social grant system is one of these. Social grants are aimed at reducing poverty as well as income inequality. Considering the growing number of social grant beneficiaries, people often question whether these grants reduce poverty and, if they do, whether they are effective.This treatise investigates the impact of social grants in poverty reduction. In order to investigate this, the researcher used the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng Province, as a study area. This study examines the different views of social grants beneficiaries, and the importance of prioritisation when using this unearned money. It alsoinvestigates the role played by the heads of household and shows how beneficiaries’ locations can influence the use of unearned income. Social grants dispense little money, but the researcher discovered that the responsibility of spending and allocating the money lies with the head of household. The descriptive statists show that social grants have created dependency and that families require exit strategies to stop depending entirely on these grants. Findings from the correlation matrix show both positive and negative correlations. Finally, the study has identified the need for an integrated strategy that will not only provide income, but that will also improve the lives of South Africans.
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Gustafsson, Anders, Carina Larsson, and Henric Sundström. "Åkers Sweden AB - Outbound Logistics : Reduction of Environmental Effects." Thesis, Jönköping University, JTH, Industrial Engineering and Management, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-9303.
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<p><strong>Summary</strong></p><p>Environmental issues have become increasingly more important the last decade. It is of great importance to reduce emissions of green house gases (GHG) and the transport sector contributes to a large part of GHG emissions. The transport sector is the only sector that actually has increased the emissions during the last decade. This is a result of a growing economy and an increased demand of both carriages of passengers as well as freight transports. To reduce GHG emissions there is a need of smart, effective logistics solutions and new technologies. This thesis will contain a review of Åkers Sweden AB’s outbound logistics of rolls. The aim of this thesis is to identify environmental improvements without increasing further costs. A questionnaire for environmental evaluation of transport suppliers will also be developed in this thesis. Initial question formulations of this thesis are:</p><p> </p><p>1. What are the environmental effects of the different modes of freight transports that are used in the case of Åkers Sweden AB? Are there any environmental improvements possible to establish without increasing costs?</p><p>2. How can distributors be evaluated regarding environmental effects?</p><p> </p><p>Emissions and energy use of Åkers Sweden AB’s transports is calculated with the calculation model NTMcalc version 1.9.9. This model is developed by the Network for Transport and Environment (NTM). Examined modes of transport are road, rail and sea transports. Both theory and result in this thesis demonstrate that rail transports should be preferred to road transports from an environmental point of view. A disadvantage of rail transports is longer transport time in most cases. Longer transport time contribute to higher capital cost of goods during transit. Another disadvantage is that rail transports are limited between terminals or that customers have an industrial railway track. That leads to an increased need of reloading and handling costs.</p><p>Potential alternative with less impact on the environment has been developed. This involves less impact than current alternative. The new alternative will decrease freight costs by 37 %. However, an increased capital cost by 84 % has been identified due to additional transportation time that is required for the alternative suggested. Transport costs are poorly connected to the real cost on the society. Governments throughout the world need to encourage transport buyers to choose more environmentally adapted alternatives by using management control measures. Also, a questionnaire for environmental evaluation of transport suppliers has been developed. It contains questions of the environmental organisation of the company, how they work with education of staff and reporting of environmental effects.</p><br><p><strong>Sammanfattning</strong></p><p>Under senare tid har miljöfrågor fått en alltmer framträdande roll i samhällsdebatten. Det är av största vikt att reducera alla utsläpp av växthusgaser och transportsektorn står för en betydande del av dessa. Transportsektorn är den enda samhällssektorn som ökat utsläppen av växthusgaser under senare år. Detta till följd av en växande ekonomi och ett ökat behov av både person- och frakttransporter. För att reducera utsläppen krävs smarta, effektiva lösningar och ny teknologi. Detta examensarbete kommer att innehålla en fördjupning av Åkers Sweden AB:s utgående distribution av valsar. Målet är att försöka hitta en distributionslösning som är mer miljövänlig än nuvarande alternativ, men samtidigt inte dyrare. Även ett förslag till miljöbedömning av transportleverantörer kommer att utvecklas i detta examensarbete. Detta arbete syftar att svara på följande frågeställningar:</p><p> </p><p>1. Vilken miljöpåverkan har de olika typer av frakttransporter som används av Åkers Sweden AB? Kan ett mer miljövänligt alternativ utvecklas utan att kostnaderna ökar?</p><p>2. Hur kan transportleverantörer utvärderas ur ett miljöperspektiv?</p><p> </p><p>Utsläpp och energiförbrukning vid Åkers Sweden AB:s transporter beräknades med hjälp av kalkylverktyget NTMcalc version 1.9.9. Denna modell är utvecklad av Nätverket för Transporter och Miljön (NTM). De transportslag som undersöks är väg- sjö- och järnvägstransporter. Både teori och resultat i denna rapport visar att järnvägstransport bör föredras ur ett miljöperspektiv framför vägtransport. Nackdelen med järnvägstransporter är att de oftast har en längre transporttid under framförallt kortare transporter. En längre transporttid ger högre kapitalbindning i produkter under transport. En annan nackdel är att järnvägstransporter är bundna mellan terminaler eller är beroende av att kunden har industrispår. Därmed krävs omlastning vilket leder till att hanteringskostnader ökar.</p><p>I detta examensarbete har ett mer miljövänligt alternativ har utvecklats. Detta alternativ har en betydligt mindre miljöpåverkan än i nuvarande situation. Fraktkostnaden minskar med 37 % i det nya alternativet. Eftersom transporttiden ökar, stiger kapitalkostnaden för det nya alternativet med 84 %. Transportkostnader speglar sällan den totala kostnaden de har för samhället. Regeringar runt om i världen behöver med hjälp av ekonomiska styrmedel uppmuntra transportköpare att välja ett miljövänligare alternativ. Ett formulär för miljöbedömning av transportleverantörer har även utvecklats. Detta innehåller frågor kring hur företaget arbetar med miljöorganisation, utbildning av personal och rapportering av miljöpåverkan.</p>
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Greiner, Timothy J. "The environmental manager's perspective on toxics use reduction planning." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66766.
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Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1994, and Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1994.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-107).<br>by Timothy J. Greiner.<br>M.C.P.<br>M.S.
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Liu, Leslie A. "The net environmental effects of carbon dioxide reduction policies." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35400.
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SUMME, LORI ANN. "Noise Reduction in Digital Hearing Aids Using Environmental Sounds." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1052327314.
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Jansson, Maria, and Stina Kilebrand. "Significant environmental impact? Howpresent municipalities its assessment if plans can have significant environmental impact?" Thesis, KTH, Fastigheter och byggande, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-124325.
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According to Swedish law municipalities have to assess if detailed development plans may lead to a significant effect on the environment, a screening. In this the- sis we have investigated how municipalities present their assessment in the de- tailed development plan brief. We have examined all plans that came into legal force in 2012 in the county of Stockholm 259 plans in total. Of all the plans, 223 include a screening in the detailed development plan brief. We have studied the municipalities explanations, why they make a screening on detailed development plans, if the municipalities provide a statement whether a significant environmental impact may occur or not, and if the municipalities justi- fied their statement. Furthermore, we have studied whether municipalities state that consultations have taken place and if they refers to environment-related doc- uments in their screening. We also have classified the explanation and the justifi- cations as clear or unclear. Finally, we investigated what impact the acreage of the plan has on the screening. Almost all plans with a screening in the detailed development plan brief make statement. About a quarter of the plans making a statement lacks justifications. For more than half of the plans with statement and justification, the justification is unclear. We have observed that plans prepared in a simplified way have poorer screenings. Furthermore, the result implies that the quality of screenings is higher for plans concerning national interest and/or shore protection and for plans primarily con- cerning green land. We can see that the number of plans that may lead to signifi- cant environmental effects increases with larger plan areas, as does the amount of clear justifications. Out of all plans, only 3.5 percent was considered being able to cause such a significant effect on the environment that an environmental impact assessment was conducted. Finally, we suggest a law enforcement that the screenings must be presented in the detailed development plan brief. Additionally, we think that the legislation con- cerning screenings has to be clearer, simpler and more specific.<br>Vi tycker slutligen att det ska lagstadgas att kommuners bedömning av detaljpla- ners miljöpåverkan ska redovisas i planbeskrivningen. Vidare anser vi att lagtex- ten på området måste förtydligas, bli mer specifik och förenklas. Enligt gällande rätt ska kommuner göra en bedömning av om planer kan medföra betydande miljöpåverkan, en så kallad behovsbedömning. I detta examensarbete har undersökts hur kommuner redovisar sin bedömning i planbeskrivningen. Samtliga detaljplaner som vann laga kraft år 2012 i Stockholms län studerats, to- talt 259 planer. Av samtliga planer har 223 stycken en behovsbedömning i plan- beskrivningen. Vi har studerat om kommunerna förklarar varför de behovsbedömer detaljplaner, om kommunerna gjort ett ställningstagande till om en betydande miljöpåverkan kan uppkomma och om kommunerna motiverat sina ställningstaganden med skäl. Vidare har studerats om kommunerna redovisat att samråd enligt förordningen om miljökonsekvensbeskrivningar ägt rum och om kommunerna hänvisar till miljöre- laterade dokument i bedömningen. Vi har även klassat förklaringen och skälen som tydliga respektive otydliga. Därtill har vi studerat hur planområdenas storlek påverkar behovsbedömningen. Nästan alla planer med en behovsbedömning i planbeskrivningen har ett ställ- ningstagande. Cirka en fjärdedel av planerna med ställningstagande saknar skäl och mer än hälften av planerna med skäl har otydliga skäl. Vi har observerat att planer som upprättas med enkelt planförfarande har behovs- bedömningar av lägre kvalité. Vidare talar resultatet för att kommunerna genom- för behovsbedömningarna bättre när planer berör riksintresse och/eller strand- skydd samt när planer främst avser grönmark. Vi kan se en ökning av antal miljö- bedömningar och andelen tydliga skäl ju större planareorna blir. Av samtliga pla- ner ansågs endast 3,5 procent kunna medföra en betydande miljöpåverkan.
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Joshi, Meera. "Environmental impact assessment in Nepal /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1997. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envj83.pdf.
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Tu, Shih-Liang. "Environmental impact assessment in Taiwan." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78066.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1986.<br>MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH<br>Bibliography: leaves 129-137.<br>by Shih-Liang Tu.<br>M.C.P.
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Bigazzi, Alexander York. "Traffic Congestion Mitigation as an Emissions Reduction Strategy." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/131.
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Policy-makers, transportation researchers, and activists often assume that traffic congestion mitigation results in reduced vehicle emissions without proper justification or quantification of the benefits. If congestion mitigation is going to be tied to air quality goals, a better understanding of the impacts of traffic congestion on motor vehicle emissions is needed. This research addresses that need by investigating under which circumstances the commonly held assumption linking congestion mitigation to emissions reductions is valid. We develop and apply a mathematical framework to study the trade-offs between vehicle efficiency and travel demand that accompany travel speed changes. While the exact relationships among emissions, travel speed, and travel demand vary with location and pollutant, several consistent results arise. The potential for marginal emissions rate reductions through average travel speed adjustments is small for speeds between about 25 and 70 mph. Emissions rate sensitivity to speed increases with the fraction of heavy-duty vehicles and for certain pollutants (gaseous hydrocarbons and particulate matter), and decreases with the fraction of advanced-drivetrain vehicles, such as electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles. But travel volume is also a key consideration for the total emissions impacts of congestion and congestion mitigation. While travel speed increases are generally expected to increase efficiency, they are also expected to increase vehicle travel volume as a result of induced demand. To explore efficiency and volume trade-offs we look at emissions break-even conditions for average speed and travel demand elasticity. Depending on the pollutant and the vehicle fleet, total emissions are only expected to decrease with increasing travel speed for initial conditions of both low demand elasticity and low average speed. Thus, higher levels of congestion do not necessarily increase emissions, nor will congestion mitigation inevitably reduce emissions. This result includes projects that seek to increase vehicle throughput from existing roadway supply through better traffic management and operations. Congestion mitigation through reduced vehicle volumes, on the other hand, presents the opportunity for additive emissions benefits through efficiency improvements and total Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) reductions. Comparing capacity-based congestion mitigation strategies with alternative emissions reduction strategies we show that where emissions reductions are possible through speed increases, the emissions benefits are likely to be more easily and cost-effectively attained by other strategies. A sketch analysis of vehicle-class segregated facilities shows that truck-only lane strategies consistently out-perform general-purpose/mixed-flow lane strategies in terms of emissions reductions. An analysis of several congestion-related performance measures shows that for reflecting emissions impacts, VMT is an essential component of performance. Thus, alternative congestion metrics such as total/excess travel distance and travel time are preferable emissions performance indicators to speed or distance-normalized delay. The Travel Time Index, in particular, poorly reflects emissions changes on congested roadways. This thesis offers several original contributions to the body of knowledge regarding congestion and emissions. First, it describes a parsimonious conceptual framework for assessing the effect of congestion on emissions. Then from that framework, several simple and original equations are presented which can be used for sketch-level planning to estimate emissions impacts from congestion mitigation. Finally, application of the framework provides quantitative support for the decoupling of congestion and emissions mitigations.
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Avis, Jeremy Estrup. "LHDA 1000 impact assessment : impact assessment report." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18877.
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Summary in English.<br>The purpose of this report is to present an impact assessment of two possible access routes to the Mohale Dam in Lesotho, namely the Western Access Road and the Least Cost Alternative Route. It is an academic work to demonstrate an adequate grasp of principles, methods and techniques appropriate to the assessment, termed LHDA 1000. The water resources of Lesotho are being exploited to augment the current supply to the PWV industrial area of the Republic of South Africa, in terms of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. This project is being implemented in phases. Phase lA, currently being constructed, involves the damming of the Malibamatso River at Katse in the Maluti Mountains (Figure1), a transfer tunnel through the mountains, a hydroelectric power station at 'Muela in Lesotho, and a delivery tunnel under the Caledon River to the Ash River (a tributary of the Vaal River which feeds the primary PW impoundment, the Vaal Dam) in the South Africa.
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Langousis, Andreas 1981. "The Areal Reduction Factor (ARF) : a multifractal analysis." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30196.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2005.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-115).<br>The Areal Reduction Factor (ARF) [eta] is a key parameter in the design for hydrologic extremes. For a basin of area A, [eta](A, D, 7) is the ratio between the area-average rainfall intensity over a duration D with return period T and the point rainfall intensity for the same D and T. Besides depending on A, D and possibly T, the ARF is affected by the shape of the basin and by a number of seasonal, climatic and topographic characteristics. Another factor on which ARF depends is the advection velocity, Vad, of the rainfall features. Commonly used formulas and charts for the ARF have been derived by smoothing or curve-fitting empirical ARFs extracted from raingauge network records. Here we derive some properties of the ARF under the assumption that space-time rainfall is exactly or approximately multifractal. We do so for various shapes of the rainfall collecting region and for Vad = 0 and Vad [not equal to] 0. When Vad = 0, a key parameter in the analysis is the ratio Ures = Vres/Ve between the "response velocity" Vres = L/D, where L is the maximum linear dimension of the region, and the "evolution velocity" Ve, = Le/De, where Le and De are the characteristic linear dimension and characteristic duration of organized rainfall features. The effect of Vad [not equal to] 0 depends on the shape of the region. For highly elongated basins, both the direction and magnitude of advection are influential, whereas for regular shaped regions only the magnitude Vad matters. We review ways in which rainfall has been observed to deviate from exact multifractality and models that capture such deviations. We show how the ARF behaves when rainfall is a bounded cascade in space and time.<br>(cont.) We also investigate the effect of estimating areal rainfall from raingauge network measurements. We find that bounded-cascade deviations from multifractality and sparse spatial sampling distort in similar ways the scaling properties of the ARF. Finally we show how one can reproduce various features of empirical ARF charts by using multifractal and bounded cascade models and considering the effects of sparse spatial sampling.<br>by Andreas Langousis.<br>S.M.
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Cox, Chad W. (Chad Wayne) 1970. "Water supply enhancement in Cyprus through evaporation reduction." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80585.
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Schnetzler, Linda A. "Planning the reduction of the impact of airport hazards." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/21622.
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McIntosh, Dennis. "Reducing the environmental impact of aquaculture." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289234.
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Aquaculture has great potential to help supply the nutritional needs of a growing population. To date, however, the benefits that aquaculture can have, have largely been overshadowed by the environmental degradation some segments of the industry have caused. The following body of work describes my efforts to help reduce the environmental impacts of aquaculture. By integrating aquaculture production into traditional agriculture, the impact of farming on already limited water resources and the reliance on chemical fertilizers can be reduced. Recent expansion of the aquaculture industry in Arizona has made it possible to study the integration of olive groves with marine shrimp culture. In chapter 3, I describe the characterization and evaluation of the effluent from an inland, low-salinity shrimp farm as a potential source of irrigation water. I found that 0.41 kg of ammonia-nitrogen, 0.698 kg of nitrite-nitrogen, 8.7 kg of nitrate-nitrogen and 0.93 kg of total phosphorus (TP) were made available as fertilizer each day in the effluent water. Based on the results of this first study, I decided to conduct a farm trial to quantify the effects of these shrimp farm effluents on olive trees. This work is described in chapter 4. Trees in all treatment groups grew an average of 40.1 cm over the four month study period. While growth of trees irrigated with shrimp farm effluent did not improve in respect to the other treatments, our results do indicate that irrigating with low-salinity water had no noticeable negative effects. Chapter 5 describes work conducted in Idaho, as part of a larger study aimed at reducing the effluent loads of phosphorus (P) from high density, flow-through aquaculture facilities. Research steps were taken to establish a relationship between TP and the carbon 12/13 isotope ratio (δ¹³C) and/or the nitrogen 14/15 isotope ratio (δ¹⁵N). Our findings suggest that both δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C are good better proxies for P, after correcting for P retention. A linear regression of %P (corrected) on δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N resulted in R2 values of 0.843 and 0.8622, respectively. This suggests that by tracking δ¹⁵N and/or δ¹³C through a high-density, flow-through aquaculture facility over time I will be able to determine the residence time of P with a high degree of accuracy.
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To, Man-ping Mandy, and 杜曼萍. "Environmental impact assessment in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2001. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31255115.
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To, Man-ping Mandy. "Environmental impact assessment in Hong Kong /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk:8888/cgi-bin/hkuto%5Ftoc%5Fpdf?B23425131.
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Kimchi, Itamar. "Quark masses : an environmental impact statement." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44761.
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Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2008.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-65).<br>We investigate how the requirement that organic chemistry be possible constrains the values of the quark masses. Specifically, we choose a slice through the parameter space of the Standard Model in which quark masses vary so that as many as three quarks play a role in the formation of nuclei, while keeping fixed the average mass of the two lightest baryons (in units of the electron mass) and the strength of the low-energy nuclear interaction. We classify universes on that slice as congenial if they contain stable nuclei with electric charge 1 and 6 (thus making organic chemistry possible in principle). Universes that lack one or both such stable nuclei are classified as uncongenial. We reassess the relationship between baryon masses and quark masses, using information in baryon mass differences in our world and the pion-nucleon sigma term [sigma]IIN. We generalize the Weizsacker semi-empirical mass formula through a degenerate Fermi gas model that handles the kinetic energy of new baryonic species as they begin to participate in the nucleus, and derive an expression for the asymmetry energy equivalent in the SU(3) limit through a minimization procedure on the quadratic Casimir operator. We spell out the conditions for decay by weak nucleon emission. Finally, we study the congeniality of various regions in the quark mass space, primarily by direct comparison to analog nuclei in our universe. Considering only two light quarks u and d, we find a band of congeniality roughly 29 MeV wide in mu - md, with our universe living comfortably away from the edge. We find multiple congeniality regions in the three quark mass space. For an important region around the SU(3) limit, we have not determined conclusive results but we have constructed the machinery to aid in its analysis and formulated the relevant problems. We have succeeded in formulating a well defined question about congeniality, and have made concrete progress toward answering it.<br>by Itamar Kimchi.<br>S.B.
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Baniszewski, Beth (Beth Ellen). "An environmental impact analysis of grinding." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32880.
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Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40).<br>This thesis was intended to investigate the environmental impact of grinding in the United States manufacturing industry. Grinding is an ideal method for producing parts with a fine surface finish and high dimensional accuracy and for shaping hard or brittle workpieces. There are a wide variety of different types of grinding machines, each with different applications and slightly different energy requirements. Workpieces are generally flooded with a stream of coolant while being ground or placed in a spray of coolant mist. Coolant recycling systems are used to filter ground off chips out of coolant and to remove foreign oils and bacteria which pose health hazards. Oil mist collectors both clean mist coolant and prevent the toxic coolant from being inhaled by machinists. In total, 63 *10¹⁵ joules of energy are consumed per year by grinding in manufacturing, 57% of which is directly used in material removal. A total of 1.5*10¹⁰ pounds of scrap chips, spent grinding wheels, and used filters are produced each year as a result of grinding, over 99% of that being scrap chips. About 2.3 million gallons of fluids per year of grinding fluids are incinerated. Grinding creates a significant environmental footprint, creating a need for methods to reduce energy use in grinding and for ways to recycle solid waste that would otherwise be sent to landfills or incinerated.<br>by Beth Baniszewski.<br>S.B.
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Maag, Benoît 1964. "The environmental impact of copper CMP." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80960.
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Smith, Tim. "The environmental impact of Crassula helmsii." Thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2015. http://create.canterbury.ac.uk/14480/.
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The aquatic macrophyte Crassula helmsii is a non-native species and classed as 'invasive' in the UK. This study was carried out in an attempt to provide empirical evidence as to whether the establishment and growth of Crassula helmsii has a measurable impact on the ecology of invaded sites. Dispersal and distribution patterns across England were explored using databases and GIS interpretation. Ecological impact was measured by comparing invaded sites with uninvaded control sites on a range of habitats and waterbody types across Kent and East Sussex. The analysis of spread patterns provided evidence that the plant is likely to have been dispersed due to the horticultural trade, as well as natural vectors into neighbouring habitats. Macrophyte analysis showed that species losses did not occur when C. helmsii was present. Changes to species composition did occur, with rarer plant species being associated with the presence of C. helmsii. Freshwater macroinvertebrates showed no change in either species number or species rarity. The seed banks of invaded and control sites showed no difference, but active management was shown to reduce the total number of seeds in the soil significantly. The water chemistry of invaded and uninvaded sites showed a relationship between the presence of C. helmsii and reduced total organic nitrogen. The results of this study show that the expected species loss associated with non-native species may not be occurring with C. helmsii. Active management may be impacting the ability of native species to recolonise. Further work on other habitats and waterbodies across a wider geographic range are required to explore whether this is a localised effect.
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林景光 and King-kong Lam. "Environmental impact assessment: impact on land-use & infrastructure design." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1997. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31980211.
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