Abstract

Worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO members), whereby members (governmental and non-governmental organizations) have the right to be represented on such committees; approval of ISO procedures requires at least 75% approval by the members voting; standards are prepared by technical committees; appropriate standard to apply depends on activities of the company; → see therefore iso 9000, iso 9000-3, iso 9001, iso 9002, iso 9003, iso 10011–2.

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a systematic process designed to identify and predict the potential impacts of human activity on the biophysical and human environment. It also functions as an environmental management tool to identify measures to avoid, mitigate or compensate for those effects. EIA is intended to be an iterative process to follow-up to projects postimplementation to determine actual environmental outcomes, interpret and communicate information about those outcomes and investigate opportunities for improved project environmental performance. Originating from the United States’ National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, EIA is now amongst the most successful and widely practiced environmental management tools in the world. Key Concepts: EIA is an aid to decision making through which concerns about the potential environmental consequences of proposed projects are assessed before those projects become a reality. Screening in EIA ensures that assessments are done when needed and not done when not needed. Scope is essential to good EIA and the goal is to focus on a select set of environmental components that are deemed important from scientific, public or regulatory perspectives and are likely to be adversely affected by the project. The underlying intent of EIA is to allow project proponents, managers and decision makers to enhance the benefits of proposed development projects and to mitigate potentially adverse impacts to the point of acceptability. EIA must be applied early in the development planning processes if it is to be influential in project design and decision making. Information gained in EIA follow-up studies, after the project is implemented, provides feedback to improve predictions and mitigation and management programmes, and an opportunity to learn for subsequent project proposals. Keywords: environmental impact assessment; baseline studies; impact prediction; mitigation and management of impacts; cumulative environmental effects; follow-up studie

Abstract

Climate change is a major environmental threat of our time. Cities have a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions as most of the traffic, industry, commerce and more than 50% of world population is situated in urban areas. Southern Europe is a region that faces financial turmoil, enhanced migratory fluxes and climate change pressure. The case study of Thessaloniki is presented, one of the only two cities in Greece with established climate change action plans. The effects of feasible traffic policies in year 2020 are assessed and their potential health impact is compared to a business as usual scenario. Two types of measures are investigated: operation of underground rail in the city centre and changes in fleet composition. Potential co-benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions on public health by the year 2020 are computed utilizing state-of-the-art concentration response functions for PM x , NO 2 and C 6 H 6 . Results show significant environmental health and monetary co-benefits when the city metro is coupled with appropriate changes in the traffic composition. Monetary savings due to avoided mortality or leukaemia incidence corresponding to the reduction in PM 10 , PM 2.5, NO 2 and C 6 H 6 exposure will be 56.6, 45, 37.7 and 1.0 million Euros respectively. Promotion of ‘green’ transportation in the city (i.e. the wide use of electric vehicles), will provide monetary savings from the reduction in PM 10 , PM 2.5 , NO 2 and C 6 H 6 exposure up to 60.4, 49.1, 41.2 and 1.08 million Euros. Overall, it was shown that the respective GHG emission reduction policies resulted in clear co-benefits in terms of air quality improvement, public health protection and monetary loss mitigation. Document type: Article

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a recently completed study calculating the exhaust gas emissions of traffic in some parts of Russia and in the Baltic states. "br/"This is the first time that the calculation of traffic emissions in these areas has been based on actual knowledge of specific emissions rather than on norms. There are many problems concerning the availability and reliability of source material. The study dealt with seven compounds: CO, HC, NOx, TPM, SO"sub"2"/sub", Pb and CO"sub"2"/sub". Five traffic modes were studied: road, railway, air, maritime and inland-waterway traffic. Emissions were calculated using mileage, cycles, fuel consumption and specific emissions. The paper presents the total amounts of emissions in metric tonnes. The condition of the Russian transport vehicle stock and transport network is poor, and thus strongly affects the emissions. There has been a considerable decrease in total emissions due to problems in the political and economic situation. A rapid change in the vehicle stock through greatly increased vehicle imports will lower specific emissions. Total emissions will, however, increase, because mileage will increase owing to growth in the national economy and changes in the transport distribution.

Abstract

The acid dissociation constants (pKas) of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) have been the subject of discussion in the literature; for example, values from -0.2 to 3.8 have been suggested for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The dissociated anionic conjugate bases of PFCAs have negligible air-water partition coefficients (KAWs) and do not volatilize from water. The neutral acids, however, have relatively high KAWs and volatilization from water has been demonstrated. The extent of volatilization of PFCAs in the environment will depend on the water pH and their pKa. Knowledge of the pKas of PFCAs is therefore vital for understanding their environmental transport and fate. We investigated the water-to-air transfer of PFCAs in a novel experimental setup. We used ∼1 μg L(-1) of PFCAs in water (above environmental background concentrations but below the concentration at which self-association occurs) at different water pH (pH 0.3 to pH 6.9) and sampled the PFCAs volatilized from water during a 2-day experiment. Our results suggest that the pKas of C4-11 PFCAs are "1.6. For PFOA, we derived a pKa of 0.5 from fitting the experimental measurements with a volatilization model. Perfluoroalkane sulfonic acids were not volatilized, suggesting that their pKas are below the investigated pH range (pKa "0.3).

Abstract

An approach based on game theory is proposed to schedule security patrolling for a pipeline system. The method proposes numbers of patrolling paths according to the risk of security incidents on the pipeline system, in order to allow the patrolling team to covering high-risk segments more than low-risk segments. Patrolling of the pipeline system was modeled mathematically, based on time and distance discretization. The overall approach also examines the presence of security countermeasures on a pipeline system, and their effects on the patrolling schedule. The application of the method is explained by an illustrative case study.

Abstract

systematic assessment, based on an extensive literature review, of the impact of gaps and uncertainties on the results of quantitative risk assessments (QRAs) for CO2 pipelines is presented. Sources of uncertainties that have been assessed are: failure rates, pipeline pressure, temperature, section length, diameter, orifice size, type and direction of release, meteorological conditions, jet diameter, vapour mass fraction in the release and the dose-effect relationship for CO2. A sensitivity analysis with these parameters is performed using release, dispersion and impact models. The results show that the knowledge gaps and uncertainties have a large effect on the accuracy of the assessed risks of CO2 pipelines. In this study it is found that the individual risk contour can vary between 0 and 204m from the pipeline depending on assumptions made. In existing studies this range is found to be between "1m and 7.2km. Mitigating the relevant risks is part of current practice, making them controllable. It is concluded that QRA for CO2 pipelines can be improved by validation of release and dispersion models for high-pressure CO2 releases, definition and adoption of a universal dose-effect relationship and development of a good practice guide for QRAs for CO2 pipelines. © 2009 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract

This paper describes the development and experimental validation of a three-phase flow model for predicting the transient outflow following the failure of pressurised CO2 pipelines and vessels. The choked flow parameters at the rupture plane, spanning the dense-phase and saturated conditions to below the triple point, are modelled by maximisation of the mass flowrate with respect to pressure and solids mass fraction at the triple point. The pertinent solid/vapour/liquid phase equilibrium data are predicted using an extended Peng–Robinson equation of state. The proposed outflow model is successfully validated against experimental data obtained from high-pressure CO2 releases performed as part of the FP7 CO2PipeHaz project (www.co2pipehaz.eu). The formation of solid phase CO2 at the triple point is marked by a stabilisation in pressure as confirmed by both theory and experimental observation. For a fixed diameter hypothetical pipeline at 100 bar and 20 °C, the flow model is used to determine the impact of the pipeline length on the time taken to commence solid CO2 discharge following its rupture.

Abstract

Much of our knowledge of the course of animal and plant evolution is based on shape. Recognition, description, arrangement, rearrangement, organization, reorganization, and interpretation of shape are the prime working tools of the paleontologist, the life blood of the systematist, the raw material of the evolutionist, and the dilemma of the developmental biologist. Keith Thomson's book, Morphogenesis and Evolution, deals with how shape changes both in ontogeny and in phylogeny. Morphogenesis is the study of the development of shape over an individual lifetime; evolution includes changes in shape throughout phylogeny. The development of form has been treated as a separate discipline since the German Naturphilosophie of Oken (1779-1851) and His (183 1-1904) and has been linked to phylogeny since von Baer (1792-1876). For Darwin, morphology was the soul of natural history (Darwin, 1910 p. 358), development and embryology, "one of the most important subjects in the whole round of natural history" (Darwin, 1910 p. 363). Mayr (1982 p. 468) believes that "evolutionary morphology" did not arise until the 1950's, with the distinction between function and role and the exploration of preadaptation, multiple functions, and multiple pathways. An integrated treatment of"morphogenesis and evolution" or, better, of morphogenesis as an evolutionary process therefore addresses, or should address, key questions in development, in evolution, and in the consequences of the one for the other. In developmental biology, and certainly in general treatises on animal development (of which the second edition of Scott Gilbert's [19881 Developmental Biology is the best currently available), morphogenesis is normally treated alongside differentiation (specialization of the parts of the embryo). This is not because morphogenesis and differentiation always proceed handin-hand, for even when they occur contemporaneously in space and time, each may be under separate and independent developmental control (see Maclean and Hall, 1987), but because the two, along with growth, constitute the triad of developmental processes. Morphogenesis normally occurs alongside cellular differentiation in growing tissues or organs. Differentiating cells often change shape as they grow (either by

Abstract

Security of chemical and oil & gas facilities became a pressing issue after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, due to relevant quantities of hazardous substances that may be present in these sites. Oil & gas pipelines, connecting such facilities, might be potential targets for intentional attacks. The majority of methods addressing pipeline security are mostly qualitative or semi-quantitative, based on expert judgment and thus potentially subjective. In the present study, an innovative security vulnerability assessment methodology is developed, based on Discrete-time Bayesian network (DTBN) technique to investigate the vulnerability of a hazardous facility (pipeline in this study) considering the performance of security countermeasures in place. The methodology is applied to an illustrative gas pipeline in order to rank order the pipeline segments based upon their criticality.