Environmental impact assessment as an instrument of public policy for controlling economic growth

This paper includes a discussion of the nature of environmental impact assessment. Then the role of environmental assessment as an instrument for controlling economic growth is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the instrument are discussed in detail, including the problem of bias from the incentive structure built into the bureaucracy. An appendix shows some of the problems in the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act which instituted the environmental assessment requirement.     

Environmental impact of poultry production systems on surface water: monitoring the Taquari-Antas basin,southern Brazil

ABSTRACT

The research evaluated the impact of poultry farming on the quality of surface waters in a mountainous area of southern Brazil, in order to collect data and assist in the decision-making for sustainable development. The study monitored 13 spots for two years in the sub-basins with intense poultry activity. The water samples were submitted to physicochemical and microbiological analyses in order to assess the Water Quality Index (WQI). The data were analysed by principal component analysis and Pearson’s correlation. Some zones are able to receive future investments and could serve as a basis for the installation of new agricultural units. Others require greater attention from the environmental control agencies.     

Environmental crisis in Bhilai,an industrial complex of Madhya Pradesh,India

The emergence of Bhilai on the industrial scene of India and its growth and development as an industrial complex are a significant landmark in the history of industrialization of the country. In our paper an attempt is made to identify the emerging environmental problems associated with the infra‐structural facilities of the study area, a backward and neglected poverty stricken part of the country. In the area, air, water and noise pollution arise from the emissions of the iron and steel plants. There is no provision for sewage and water disposal. Industrial waste is another serious problem for the complex, e.g. slags from the steel furnaces. Bhilai also suffers from slums and overcrowding. Bearing these facts in view, some suitable suggestions for the proper environmental planning of the area are made.     

Sources and timing of anthropogenic pollution in the Ensenada de San Simon (inner Ria de Vigo), Galicia, NW Spain: an application of mixture-modelling and nonlinear optimization to recent sedimentation

The Ensenada de San Simon is the inner part of the Ria de Vigo, one of the major mesotidal rias of the Galician coast, NW Spain. The geochemistry of its bottom sediments can be accounted for in terms of both natural and anthropogenic sources. Mixture-modelling enables much of the Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations of the bottom and subaqueous sediments to be explained by sediment input from the river systems and faecal matter from manmade mussel rafts. The compositions and relative contributions of additional, unknown, sources of anomalous heavy-metal concentrations are quantified using constrained nonlinear optimization. The pattern of metal enrichment is attributed to: material carried in solution and suspension in marine water entering the Ensenada from the polluted industrial areas of the adjacent Ria de Vigo; wind-borne urban dusts and/or vehicular emissions from the surrounding network of roads and a motorway road-bridge over the Estrecho de Rande; industrial and agricultural pollution from the R. Redondela; and waste from a former ceramics factory near the mouth of the combined R. Oitaben and R. Verdugo. Using (137)Cs dating, it is suggested that heavy metal build-up in the sediments since the late 1970s followed development of inshore fisheries and introduction of the mussel rafts (ca. 1960) and increasing industrialisation.