Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management最新文献

{"title":"Rhamnolipid: nature-based solution for the removal of microplastics from the aquatic environment.","authors":"Vildan Zülal Sönmez, Ceyhun Akarsu, Nüket Sivri","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae037","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae037","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the past two decades, research into the accumulation of small plastic particles and fibers in organisms and environmental settings has yielded over 7,000 studies, highlighting the widespread presence of microplastics in ecosystems, wildlife, and human bodies. In recent years, these contaminants have posed a significant threat to human, animal, and environmental health, with most efforts concentrated on removing them from aquatic systems. Given this urgency, the purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of rhamnolipid, a biosurfactant, for the removal of microplastics from water. Specifically, this study evaluates the effects of water matrix, initial pH of the solution (7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0, 9.5, and 10.0), concentrations of alum (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mg/L), and concentrations of rhamnolipid (1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, and 100 mg/L). Optimum removal was achieved at alum and rhamnolipid concentrations of 5.0 mg/L and 1.0 mg/L, respectively, with a solution pH of 8.0. In both types of water tested, a removal efficiency of about 74% was determined, indicating the potential of rhamnolipid as a nature-based solution to control microplastic pollution in surface waters.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":" ","pages":"350-359"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142978350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Valuation of regulating ecosystem services in Africa: a review of policy impact reporting.","authors":"Gertrude Akello, Godwin Opinde, Sammy Letema","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae032","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae032","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Regulating ecosystem services (RES) play a very critical role in the sustenance of environmental health and human well-being, yet their valuation remains a complex and dynamic field. The variety of valuation methods, each with its strengths and limitations, as well as the limited methodological guidance for the selection of appropriate methods, poses a challenge in the valuation of RES. This review examined RES valuation studies in Africa, focusing on growth trends, methodological preferences, and policy reporting approaches. Drawing on the existing literature, we also explored the use of decision trees to support the choice of appropriate methods. A synthesis of peer-reviewed literature identified 31 studies, and their analysis revealed the dominant use of single-valuation methods in the assessment of RES and a varied growth rate in the number of valuation studies over the period under review. Furthermore, a notable heterogeneity exists in the methods used to report policy impact across various value assessments. This review contributes valuable insights into the current state of RES valuation research, necessary to advance methodologies, guide future research, and inform policy discussions on the sustainable management of ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":"21 2","pages":"279-290"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of blue and green agricultural water footprint in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.","authors":"Amjad Mizyed, Yunes Mogheir, Mazen Hamada","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae010","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The water system in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating as the agricultural sector consumes more than 50% of the available water. There is an urgent need for effective tools that rationalize agricultural water consumption. The concept of the blue and green water footprint (WF) was applied to determine the actual water consumption of all crops in the Gaza Strip and evaluate the sustainability of the agricultural water footprint. The CROPWAT 8.0 model was used to calculate the crop water requirements (CWR) and estimate evapotranspiration (ET) according to the Hoekstra manual. The results show that the blue water footprint of crops was 82.15 mm3 distributed among 59.4 mm3 of horticulture trees, 3.65 mm3 of field crops, and 19.2 mm3 of vegetables whereas the green water footprint was 33.82 mm3. The main insight is that the water footprint's sustainability reflects a serious indicator of the depletion of blue water in the Gaza Strip and if WF is applied, 40 mm3 of water can be saved annually, which constitutes 33% less than the current usage. It is promising to use the water footprint concept as a distinct tool in supporting the decision-maker to reduce water consumption and enhance water resource sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":"21 2","pages":"326-334"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation process for matching population models to regulatory decisions regarding threatened or endangered species by considering model risk.","authors":"Julann A Spromberg, Scott A Hecht, Cathy A Laetz, Tony Hawkes, David H Baldwin","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae028","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Population models can be an important tool in regulatory decision-making processes regarding natural resources, such as fisheries and rare species. Regulators presented with population models for their use often do not have the specific expertise to gauge the appropriateness of the model to their specific regulatory situation and decline their use in an abundance of caution. In other cases, regulators want to be involved with model development but may lack confidence in the utility of the models and their contribution to model development. The proposed process aims to address these concerns about using population models. The utility of population models depends on the available species data and the alignment of the model structure with regulatory needs. Importantly, the confidence in the available data and the model rigor need to match the types of decisions to be made, the time frame for reassessment, and the level of risk the regulator/agency deems appropriate. Model risk, defined as the possibility that the model is wrong or the output is misapplied, may stem from data limitations, parameter estimation uncertainty, model misspecification, or inappropriate use of a model. Here, we recommend a decision framework for considering the use of population models as a line of evidence in various regulatory contexts. The framework will assist regulators as they either work with modelers to construct new models or as they select from existing models to inform their decisions. Acknowledging and managing model risk increases the confidence of using models in regulatory contexts. As we move forward with utilizing models in regulatory decision-making, use of this process will ensure models fit the regulatory question, reduce model risk, and increase user confidence in applying models.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":"21 2","pages":"384-395"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multidisciplinary perspectives on cumulative impact assessment for vulnerable communities: expert elicitation using a Delphi method.","authors":"Ann Verwiel, William Rish","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae051","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae051","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prompted by a series of executive orders, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is promoting cumulative impact assessment (CIA) to integrate numerous factors that have the potential to impact community health, which include nonchemical stressors such as socioeconomic conditions, pre-existing health conditions, and many others that historically have not been addressed by USEPA's chemical risk assessment paradigm. Understanding the cumulative impact of all stressors on responses to environmental exposures requires multidisciplinary input from social scientists, economists, and others not traditionally involved in chemical risk assessments. To gather input from these disciplines, a group of 13 independent experts with perspectives on CIA as a social scientist, economist, public health expert, or decision analyst participated in a virtual workshop to obtain their perspectives regarding key aspects of CIA. The independent experts, who have decades of experience studying cumulative impacts in vulnerable population groups and environmental justice (EJ), responded anonymously to charge questions specific to their expertise and then were asked to review and comment on other's responses within and outside their discipline. The questions and responses were organized by the authors into general topics (e.g., screening tools and indexes, role of nonchemical stressors in cumulative impacts, uncertainties), and discussions across and within the four disciplines were summarized by the authors. The expert's opinions were used to frame a set of future research objectives to advance the development of CIA and improve its use in the EJ context. Specifically, the experts' recommendations addressed the need for regulatory impact analysis, the appropriate use of screening tool information and indexes, the role and measurement of nonchemical stressors, relevance of a risk modifier approach to CIA, inclusion of uncertainty and causality, metrics to assess effectiveness of interventions, and methods for community communication.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":" ","pages":"301-313"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11844341/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143065335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Children's health impact in a smelter site area in China: modeling approaches for the identification and ranking of the most relevant lead exposure routes.","authors":"Elisa Giubilato, Manola Menegozzo, Peizhong Li, Hongguang Cheng, Antonio Marcomini, Xiaoli Duan, Andrea Critto, Chunye Lin","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) in children still represent a major public health problem worldwide. In China, children's lead (Pb) exposure assessment constitutes a priority issue for research, also due to the scarce availability of human biomonitoring data and limited detailed exposure assessments outside urban areas. This work aims to analyze children's health impact by exploiting exposure modeling approaches to identify the most relevant Pb sources and exposure routes for 0-7-year-old children in a historical Pb-Zn smelter site in Yunnan province (southwestern China), characterized by heavy environmental pollution conditions. For this purpose, two exposure modeling tools, the Integrated Exposure Uptake Bio-Kinetic and MERLIN-Expo, were applied, using measured Pb concentrations in environmental media and food items from a local field campaign as input data. Simulated BLLs, including probabilistic estimates, were obtained and verified against real biomonitoring data from the literature. Model results for the simulated exposure scenario indicate significantly high children's BLLs (>10 µg/dl), which reflect the elevated Pb concentrations measured in environmental matrices and are mostly in agreement with previous biomonitoring data from the region. Moreover, soil and dust ingestion resulted to be the dominant exposure pathway, contributing more than 70% to the overall Pb exposure in children in all investigated scenarios. This work showed how tools for internal exposure modeling can contribute to Pb exposure assessment as complementary tools to demanding and invasive biomonitoring studies and can help identify priority exposure routes for improving risk management.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":"21 2","pages":"442-454"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Life cycle assessment of copper concentrate production and improvement potentials for tailing management.","authors":"Mahla Keykha, Fatemeh Einollahipeer, Hajar Abyar, Malihe Erfani","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae030","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Due to the widespread application and development of copper, there is growing concern about increasing pressure on available resources and significant environmental repercussions. To support improvements in copper mining, this study addressed the life cycle assessment of copper concentrate production from cradle to gate, along with the feasibility of tailings reuse, which has received less attention. To fill a critical gap, the alternative use of tailings in building and landfilling disposal was also conducted. Sodium hydroxide (36.63%-95.22%), copper concentrate (4.73%-99.4%), and carboxymethyl cellulose (0.06%-46.35%) were identified as the main contributors. Marine ecotoxicity was prioritized in terms of environmental burdens (31.28%) followed by human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity potential. It is interesting to note that photovoltaic systems and treated wastewater provided the required energy and water for copper concentrate production, which alleviated the final impacts. For tailings management, it was initially found that landfilling intensified the environmental impacts by 1.67-65.15 times higher than copper production processing. However, the utilization of tailings in cement production and road construction provided environmental benefits and conserved resources. Summing up, this study provided additional insights into environmental indicators of the copper industry and tailings efficiency for future applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":"21 2","pages":"455-465"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Addressing water scarcity to support climate resilience and human health.","authors":"Karl Zimmermann, Azar M Abadi, Kate A Brauman, Josefina Maestu, Gualbert Oude Essink, Corinne Schuster-Wallace, Ryan Smith, Kaveh Madani, Zafar Adeel, Matthew O Gribble","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjaf001","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjaf001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Water scarcity is projected to affect half of the world's population, gradually exacerbated by climate change. This article elaborates from a panel discussion at the 2023 United Nations Water Conference on \"Addressing Water Scarcity to Achieve Climate Resilience and Human Health.\" Understanding and addressing water scarcity goes beyond hydrological water balances to also include societal and economic measures. We consider five categories of health impacts resulting from deteriorating water qualities and quantities: (1) water-related diseases and water for hygiene, (2) malnutrition and water for food, (3) livelihoods, income, development, and water for energy, (4) adverse air quality from drought-induced dust and wildfire smoke, and (5) mental health effects from water scarcity-related factors. A discussion on the barriers and opportunities for resilient water systems begins by reframing water scarcity as a \"pathway to water bankruptcy\" and introducing Water Partnerships to empower local water leaders with the awareness, education, and resources to devise and implement locally appropriate water management strategies. Other barriers include the (1) lack of tools to consider the socioeconomic implications of water scarcity, (2) lack of water information being in actionable formats for decision-makers, (3) lack of clarity in the application of water scarcity modeling to gain policy-relevant findings, and (4) inadequate drought adaptation planning. The article includes recommendations for local governments, national governments, international actors, researchers, nongovernmental organizations, and local constituents in addressing these barriers. The predominant theme in these recommendations is collaborative, multidisciplinary Water Partnerships, knowledge-sharing in accessible formats, and empowering participation by all. This article's central thesis is that addressing water scarcity must focus on people and their ability to lead healthy and productive lives.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":" ","pages":"291-300"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11838862/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142970535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Examination of spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of carbon emission and influencing factors in territorial spatial functional areas: a case study of the mountainous city Chongqing.","authors":"Juntao Chen, Lang Hu, Changhui Sun, Yueyue Fan, Xing Zhou, Yu He, Xinyue Su, Yuanping Wang, Lingchun Hou, Weiwen Ma","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae042","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rapid development of China's economy and the acceleration of the urbanization process have led to a significant increase in carbon emissions, and more effective policies are urgently needed. As the first city in China to be approved for the overall master plan of territorial space, Chongqing is facing new opportunities in urban construction. This research constructed a classification system of the territorial space functional areas in Chongqing (CQ-TSFA) and matched the corresponding carbon emission and carbon sequestration projects. Under this classification system, the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of its carbon emissions have been examined, and the main influencing factors have been investigated based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. This study draws the following conclusions: (1) from 2000 to 2020, the carbon emissions of CQ-TSFA increased from 48.87 million tons to 148.05 million tons; (2) the main expansion areas of urban living sub-areas are the central urban area and the vicinity of the seats of various district and county governments. The main expansion areas of the urban production sub-areas are the edges of the central urban area around the Yangtze River Basin within Chongqing, including many industrial parks; and (3) the contributions to carbon emissions in descending order are economic development effect, carbon emission intensity of CQ-TSFA, and population size effect, and the utilization rate of CQ-TSFA plays a strong inhibitory role. Finally, based on these conclusions, this article puts forward some policy suggestions to address the challenges of carbon emissions to provide references for promoting the sustainable development of Chongqing and the whole country.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":" ","pages":"360-373"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143004840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is it worth implementing the Blue Sky Defense Battle initiative? A cost-benefit analysis of the Chengdu case.","authors":"Suli Li, Dan Wu, Li Liu, Lu Yang, Yining Wang, Shuhui Cao, Yana Jin","doi":"10.1093/inteam/vjae017","DOIUrl":"10.1093/inteam/vjae017","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To mitigate air pollution, China began implementing its Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense Battle in 2018. The rapid decline in the annual average concentration of particulate matter PM2.5 raised the authors' interest in the cost efficiency of the implementation of the action plan. Taking Chengdu as an example, this study assesses the costs and benefits of the implementation of the Action Plan by investigating the direct abatement costs, the change of PM2.5-related disease burdens, and the resulting health benefits. The results show that the abatement costs of air pollution in Chengdu amounted to 8.77 billion yuan from 2018 to 2020, the number of beneficiaries over three years could reach 353,546, and the health benefits amounted to 9.79 billion yuan. The health benefit outweighs the abatement cost. Furthermore, among the abatement measures, the cost of transportation infrastructure development accounted for 92.83% in the total. Considering its co-benefit of industry development and CO2 abatement, the true benefits should far outweigh the costs. The Monte Carlo simulation further confirms the economic efficiency of the Three-Year Action Plan. Although the direct costs of the Action Plan are significant, the marginal health benefits of further alleviating PM2.5 may still be greater than the marginal costs, because the population is large and densely distributed in Chengdu. Actions on improving air quality still have the potential to further unlock health benefits for large cities like Chengdu.</p>","PeriodicalId":13557,"journal":{"name":"Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management","volume":"21 2","pages":"425-441"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}