Cleaning Pakistan's air Sanchez-Triana, Ernesto; Enriquez, Santiago; Afzal, Javaid ...
2014., 2014, 6-26-2014, 2014-06-26, 2014-07-30
eBook, Book
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Pakistan's urban air pollution is among the most severe in the world and it engenders significant damages to human health and the economy. Air pollution, inadequate water supply, sanitation, and ...hygiene are the top environmental priority problems in Pakistan. Industrialization and urbanization, in conjunction with motorization, can result in further deterioration of urban air quality. This book examines policy options to strengthen the Pakistan clean air program (PCAP) to better address the cost imposed by outdoor air pollution upon Pakistan's economy and populace. The approach provided in this book recommends that the federal and provincial environmental protection agencies (EPAs) take on a limited number of high return, essential, and feasible interventions drawn largely from the PCAP. The objective of this book is to examine policy options to control outdoor air pollution in Pakistan. The findings of the analysis aim at assisting the Government of Pakistan (GoP) in the design and implementation of reforms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Pakistan's ambient air quality institutions. The overarching theme of this book is that prioritizing interventions is essential to address the cost of outdoor air pollution, given current resource limitations. The book also includes a review of secondary sources, focusing on recent analysis of the effects of different air pollutants on human health, as well as lessons learned from ongoing regional and international efforts to improve ambient air quality. This book has seven chapters. Chapter one gives overview. Chapter two identifies major trends in ambient air pollution, including concentration levels of main pollutants and the identification of principal sources. Chapter three examines the evolution of Pakistan's air quality management (AQM) framework over the period 1993 to 2013. Chapter four examines options to control air pollution from mobile sources, the main contributors of several air pollutants, including noxious fine particulate matter (PM) and its precursors. Chapter five addresses measures to tackle pollution from industrial sources. Chapter six identifies synergies of interventions for air pollution control and climate change mitigation. Chapter seven summarizes the main conclusions of the book.
The issue of microplastic pollution emerged from the marine environment, but the terrestrial environment is estimated to receive annually 4-23 times more plastic wastes. Microplastic pollution in the ...soil environment has thus begun to elicit great concern. This review summarizes the observed effects of microplastic pollution on soil ecosystems as well as sorption and transport behaviors of microplastics in such environments. Microplastic pollution has been detected in various soils including agricultural/farmland, greenhouse, home garden, coastal, industrial, and floodplain soils. Microplastics affect soil physical and chemical properties, microbial and enzyme activities, and plant growth, and also pose adverse ecotoxicological effects to soil fauna. These effects depend on the concentration, size, and shape of microplastics, as well as soil texture. Microplastics are known to sorb organic and inorganic pollutants, possibly affecting the distribution of these substances in soil. Existing evidence demonstrates the negligible effect of microplastics on bioaccumulation of contaminants in soil fauna. The horizontal and vertical transport of microplastics can be facilitated by soil fauna. Pollutants associated with microplastics may disperse further following the transport of microplastics in soil. This review also highlights perspectives for future research on microplastics in soil.
The book starts with the fundamentals of environmental electrochemistry, introducing the basic techniques in selecting and fabricating electrode materials, followed by a theoretical analysis of the ...electrochemical processes, green electrochemical operation, discussion of electrochemical technologies in water treatment, and then examination of the established wastewater treatment technologies such as electrochemical reactors for metal recovery, electrocoagulation, electroflotation and electrooxidation. Emerging technologies such as electrophotooxidation, electro disinfection, and electrochemical technologies in sludge and soil treatment will also be analyzed. This book will be an excellent reference for young researchers starting new research programs and also for industrialists who wish to appreciate the technologies.
Single-use plastics, or SUPs (plastic bags, microbeads, cutlery, straws and polystyrene) are substantial sources of plastic marine pollution, yet preventable via legislative and non-legislative ...interventions. Various international legislative strategies have been reported to address plastic marine pollution from plastic bags and microbeads, but these have since been accompanied by recent increasing public awareness triggered by international agencies and organizations. The Sixth International Marine Debris Conference highlighted increasing intervention strategies to mitigate SUP pollution. This study presents new multi-jurisdictional legislative interventions to reduce SUPs since 2017 and incorporates emergence of new non-legislative interventions to mitigate other types of SUPs at individual and private-sector levels that complement or influence legislative interventions. Further, effectiveness of SUP bag interventions (e.g., bans vs. levies) to help reduce SUP marine pollution are presented and range between 33 and 96% reduction in bag use.
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•Single use plastics (SUPs) contribute to 60-95% of global marine plastic pollution•Legislative (top-down) action to reduce SUPs is gaining momentum worldwide•Non-legislative (bottom-up) actions are also proliferating•Both legislative and non-legislative actions are effective and complimentary•Effectiveness of SUP bag reduction interventions vary depending on policy, ranging from 33–96%
It is the key point to reveal the effect of irrigation water and fertilization conditions on the agriculture non-point pollution in the paddy field. In this study, the estimation model of ...agricultural non-point source pollution loads at field scale was established on the basis of agricultural drainage irrigation model and combined with pollutant concentration predication model. Based on the estimation model of agricultural non-point source pollution in the field and experimental data, the load of agricultural non-point source pollution in different irrigate amount and fertilization schedule in paddy field was calculated. The results showed that the variation of field drainage varies greatly under different irrigation conditions, and there is an “inflection point” between the irrigation water amount and field drainage amount. The non-point pollution load increased with the increase of irrigation water and showed a significant power correlation. Under the different irrigation condition, the increase amplitude of non-point pollution load with the increase of irrigation water was different. When the irrigation water is smaller, the non-point pollution load increase relatively less, and when the irrigation water increased to inflection point, the non-point pollution load will increase considerably. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the fertilization and non-point pollution load. The non-point pollution load had obvious difference in different fertilization schedule even with same fertilization level, in which the fertilizer pollution load increased the most in the period of turning green to tillering. The results provide some basis for the field control and management of agricultural non-point source pollution.
Anthropogenic activities pose challenges on security of water quality. Identifying potential sources of pollution and quantifying their corresponding contributions are essential for water management ...and pollution control. In our study, 2-year (2017–2018) water quality dataset of 15 parameters from eight sampling sites in tributaries and mainstream of the Min River was analyzed with multivariate statistical analysis methods and absolute principal component score-multiple linear regression (APCS-MLR) receptor modeling technique to reveal potential sources of pollution and apportion their contributions. Temporal and spatial cluster analysis (CA) classified 12 months into three periods exactly consistent with dry, wet, and normal seasons, and eight monitoring sites into two regions, lightly polluted (LP) and highly polluted (HP) regions, based on different levels of pollution caused by physicochemical properties and anthropogenic activities. The principal component analysis (PCA) identified five latent factors accounting for 75.84% and 73.46% of the total variance in the LP and HP regions, respectively. The main pollution sources in the two regions included agricultural activities, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater discharge. APCS-MLR results showed that in the LP region, contribution of five potential pollution sources was ranked as agricultural non-point source pollution (22.13%) > seasonal effect and phytoplankton growth (19.86%) > leakage of septic tanks (15.73%) > physicochemical effect (12.86%) > industrial effluents and domestic sewage (11.59%), while in the HP region ranked as point source pollution from domestic and industrial discharges (20.81%) > municipal sewage (16.66%) > agricultural non-point source pollution (15.23%) > phytoplankton growth (14.82%) > natural and seasonal effects (12.67%). Based on the quantitative assessment of main pollution sources, the study can help policymakers to formulate strategies to improve water quality in different regions.
Agricultural non-point source pollution causes global warming and the deterioration of air and water quality. It is difficult to identify and monitor the emission sources of agricultural pollution ...due to the large number of farms in China. Many studies focus on the technological aspect of achieving agricultural sustainability, but its socioeconomic aspect is poorly understood. Here, we report how group size (number of farms in a certain region) affects agricultural pollution governance through conducting a social science experiment. We found that when communication was allowed among group members, a small group size facilitated cooperation. Although deviations from the cooperation equilibrium occurred with time in all groups, the smaller the group size, the slower the cooperation equilibrium became frangible. These findings suggest that reducing number of farms and extending the length of farm property rights can benefit the mitigation of agricultural non-point pollution in China. Social science experiments can be a useful tool to understand the socioeconomic aspect of agricultural sustainability.
