Das Projekt "SP 1.4 Evaluation of nutrient and pollutant cycles of livestock production systems and manure management systems in the North China Plain" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Agrartechnik, Fachgebiet Verfahrenstechnik der Tierhaltungssysteme (440b) durchgeführt. The increasing specialization and intensification of the agricultural food production in the North China Plain is leading to restrictions in nutrients and production cycles at farm and regional levels. As a result, livestock production in the North China Plain is entailing serious environmental negative impacts related to manure surpluses and recycling of nutrients, mainly leading to problems associated with water, soil and air pollution. On the other side higher nutrient demands in the local crops is leading to the purchase of chemical or mineral fertilizers when local or on-farm nutrients are not available. Therefore, the efficient use of organic fertilizers not only depends on their availability in the farms, but also on their nutritional composition. Likewise, soil nutrient requirements and plant physiological needs have to be taken into consideration. Indeed, the closer the nutrient cycles and the lower the environmental negative impacts and farm losses are, the greater the chances for a more sustainable resource use in the North China Plain. In the context of the IRTG, aspects of livestock farming in production systems in terms of widely closed nutrients cycles will be integrated. The material flows in different animal husbandry systems will be analysed and the environmental impacts dependent on livestock farming techniques, farms operability and their respective management will be investigated. The applicability and effectiveness of the technical and organizational measures for the reduction of material losses and, the environmental burdens caused by livestock and manure mismanagement in the North China Plain will be reviewed. The benefits and profits for the local cropping systems as result of the application of organic fertilizers originated from livestock farming will be both, ecologically and economically, evaluated as an alternative to replace the use of mineral fertilizers.
Das Projekt "Immobilisation of arsenic in paddy soil by iron(II)-oxidizing bacteria" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Tübingen, Institut für Geowissenschaften, Zentrum für Angewandte Geowissenschaften durchgeführt. Arsenic-contaminated ground- and drinking water is a global environmental problem with about 1-2Prozent of the world's population being affected. The upper drinking water limit for arsenic (10 Micro g/l) recommended by the WHO is often exceeded, even in industrial nations in Europe and the USA. Chronic intake of arsenic causes severe health problems like skin diseases (e.g. blackfoot disease) and cancer. In addition to drinking water, seafood and rice are the main reservoirs for arsenic uptake. Arsenic is oftentimes of geogenic origin and in the environment it is mainly bound to iron(III) minerals. Iron(III)-reducing bacteria are able to dissolve these iron minerals and therefore release the arsenic to the environment. In turn, iron(II)-oxidizing bacteria have the potential to co-precipitate or sorb arsenic during iron(II)- oxidation at neutral pH followed by iron(III) mineral precipitation. This process may reduce arsenic concentrations in the environment drastically, lowering the potential risk for humans dramatically.The main goal of this study therefore is to quantify, identify and isolate anaerobic and aerobic Fe(II)-oxidizing microorganisms in arsenic-containing paddy soil. The co-precipitation and thus removal of arsenic by iron mineral producing bacteria will be determined in batch and microcosm experiments. Finally the influence of rhizosphere redox status on microbial Fe oxidation and arsenic uptake into rice plants will be evaluated in microcosm experiments. The long-term goal of this research is to better understand arsenic-co-precipitation and thus arsenic-immobilization by iron(II)-oxidizing bacteria in rice paddy soil. Potentially these results can lead to an improvement of living conditions in affected countries, e.g. in China or Bangladesh.
Das Projekt "Integrated Tyre and Road Interaction (ITARI)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Müller-BBM Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung durchgeführt. Objective: Future trends indicate that passenger road traffic will increase by 20Prozent from 1998 to 2010. Goods transport by road is predicted to increase by almost 40Prozent during this period. To assure that road transport can be considered as sustainable, it is necessary to reduce the negative consequences of road traffic to an acceptable level. Road traffic with its conventional heat-engine vehicles is one of the main sources of urban pollution from greenhouse gases. It also contributes to the European Union's excessive energy consumption. With increasing efficiency of engines, secondary effects such as rolling resistance, now play a dominant role when aiming for further reduction of fuel consumption. Road traffic noise is a major environmental problem. At the CALM workshop a reduction of 19 dB were suggested as short-term target for the year 2010. A major component of road traffic noise is now tyre/road noise. Therefore to achieve the proposed reduction targets it is necessary to reduce tyre/road noise, which is still in the domain of research rather than existing knowledge. Safety is the crucial demand on road surfaces, so design of new low noise textures or textures with low rolling resistance must not risk the grip potential (especially under wet conditions). Currently more than 40,000 persons are killed on EU roads every year, but the strategic objective is to cut this number by 50Prozent within the next eight years and 75Prozent by 2025. The objective of ITARI is to provide the necessary tools to investigate new road surfaces with lower noise emission and lower fuel consumption and at the same time meeting safety requirements. In addition to this ITARI will demonstrate the implementation of virtually prototyped road surfaces in the production process of road surfaces. ITARI will supply knowledge, methodology and insight to enable the research community to develop sustainable road transport for the future.' Prime Contractor: Chalmers,Tekniska Hogskola AB, Department of Applied Acoustics; Gothenburg; Sverige (Sweden).
Das Projekt "Microbial processes and iron-mineral formation in household sand filters used to remove arsenic from drinking water in Vietnam" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Tübingen, Zentrum für Angewandte Geowissenschaften (ZAG), Arbeitsgruppe Geomikrobiologie durchgeführt. Arsenic-contaminated ground- and drinking water is a global environmental problem with about 1-2Prozent of the worlds population being affected. The upper drinking water limit for arsenic (10 ìg/L) is often exceeded, especially in Asian countries, such as Vietnam. Household sand filters are already used as one very simple and cost-efficient treatment to remove arsenic from water. Oxidation of dissolved iron (Fe(II)) present in the groundwater leads to the formation of sparsely soluble iron(hydr)oxide particles (Fe(III)OOH) in the sand filter, which bind negatively charged arsenic species and reduce arsenic concentrations in the water. Arsenite (As(III); H3AsO3) binds generally less strong to metal oxides than arsenate (As(V); H2AsO4 -/HAsO4 2-), therefore As(V) is removed much more effectively than As(III). This is why As(III) oxidation to As(V) is of special interest for arsenic removal from drinking water. Whether and how the activity of iron- and arsenite-oxidizing bacteria contributes to effective arsenic removal in household sand filters is currently not known. One of the goals of this study therefore is to isolate, identify, and quantify Fe(II)- and As(III)-oxidizing microorganisms from filters and to study their iron and arsenic redox activities. Cultivation-based work will be complemented by molecular, cultivation-independent techniques to characterize and quantify the microbial communities in samples from different filter locations taken at various time points during filter operation (both at field sites and in artificial laboratory filter systems). The isolated iron- and arsenite-oxidizing bacteria will be studied with respect to their abilities to precipitate iron minerals (in the presence or absence of arsenic) and oxidize arsenite. Biogenic and abiogenic iron minerals formed by the isolated strains in the lab, on the sand filter material in Vietnam and in artificial laboratory filter systems will be identified and characterized, also with respect to arsenic sorption. And we will determine how biotic and abiotic processes that contribute to arsenic mobilization from arsenic-loaded iron mineral phases affect filter performance over time. The long-term goal of this research is to better understand the microbial redox transformation processes that drive arsenic/iron mineral interactions in natural and engineered systems, such as household sand filters and to give recommendations for improved filter use and filter material disposal.
Das Projekt "Methodologies for dealing with uncertainties in landscape planning and related modeling; Uncertainty of predicted hydro-biogeochemical fluxes and trace gas emissions on the landscape scale under climate and land use change" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Gießen, Institut für Landschaftsökologie und Ressourcenmanagement, Professur für Landschafts-, Wasser- und Stoffhaushalt durchgeführt. Water, carbon and nitrogen are key elements in all ecosystem turnover processes and they are related to a variety of environmental problems, including eutrophication, greenhouse gas emissions or carbon sequestration. An in-depth knowledge of the interaction of water, carbon and nitrogen on the landscape scale is required to improve land use and management while at the same time mitigating environmental impact. This is even more important under the light of future climate and land use changes.In the frame of the proposal 'Uncertainty of predicted hydro-biogeochemical fluxes and trace gas emissions on the landscape scale under climate and land use change' we advocate the development of fully coupled, process-oriented models that explicitly simulate the dynamic interaction of water, carbon and nitrogen turnover processes on the landscape scale. We will use the Catchment Modelling Framework CMF, a modular toolbox to implement and test hypothesis of hydrologic behaviour and couple this to the biogeochemical LandscapeDNDC model, a process-based dynamic model for the simulation of greenhouse gas emissions from soils and their associated turnover processes.Due to the intrinsic complexity of the models in use, the predictive uncertainty of the coupled models is unknown. This predictive (global) uncertainty is composed of stochastic and structural components. Stochastic uncertainty results from errors in parameter estimation, poorly known initial states of the model, mismatching boundary conditions or inaccuracies in model input and validation data. Structural uncertainty is related to the flawed or simplified description of natural processes in a model.The objective of this proposal is therefore to quantify the global uncertainty of the coupled hydro-biogeochemical models and investigate the uncertainty chain from parameter uncertainty over forcing data uncertainty up the structural model uncertainty be setting up different combinations of CMF and LandscapeDNDC. A comprehensive work program has been developed structured in 4 work packages, that consist of (1) model set up, calibration and uncertainty assessment on site scale followed by (2) an application and uncertainty assessment of the coupled model structures on regional scale, (3) global change scenario analyses and finally (4) evaluating model results in an ensemble fashion.Last but not least, a further motivation of this proposal is to provide project results in a manner that they support planning and decision taking under uncertainty, as this proposal is part of the package proposal on 'Methodologies for dealing with uncertainties in landscape planning and related modelling'.
Das Projekt "Balancing regulating and provisioning ecosystem services: Comprehensive land-use concepts for effective conservation" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Technische Universität München, Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt, Fachgebiet für Waldinventur und nachhaltige Nutzung durchgeführt. A growing trend to produce fuel ethanol from grain and continuing changes in human diets, as observed with increasing standard of living, have led to increasing land-use conflicts. The observable high food prices are - at least in part - a consequence of the above development. They act as signals to increase production, often combined with severe environmental problems. Moreover, as another obviously undesirable consequence, high prices may reduce consumption, particularly among the world's poor. Achieving sustainable land use by means of an optimal allocation of scarce land resources to competing purposes is thus a major global challenge for the 21st century. The results of this work are supposed to be transferred to the dry forest region around the Laipuna Reserve (Ecuador). We will couple several land-use models and modelling approaches, all built on economic drivers (economic risk and return of land-use options), to conceptualise a land-use model and to develop land-use scenarios for the study area at landscape level. The existing land-use approaches will be coupled for this task and expanded by dietary energy and fuel energy outputs and by consequences of land-use scenarios for carbon pools and water protection. The available models, such as 'Ecological-Economic Farm Diversification' (dynamic farm-level perspective), 'Optimized Land-Use Diversification' (comparative-static national level approach) and 'Compartmental land-use approaches' (dynamic farm/landscape-level, so far scenario based), address various scales. It is intended to combine them by means of modelling various farm types which are representative for a specific area. Land-use scenarios include various food price projections and scenarios on vulnerability of production systems. The hypothesis to be tested is: 'Increasing the production of food, biofuel and timber by appropriate landscape concepts for intensification and/or recultivation of abandoned lands reverses the adverse effects of indirect land-use change: Such strategies lead to more efficient land allocation and to decreasing prices, thus mitigating the pressure on forest ecosystems to reduce the costs of conservation strategies and those of providing regulating services.
Das Projekt "Rehabilitation of Degraded Forests in Yunnan (German-Chinese Cooperation for Agrarian Research)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hamburg, Arbeitsbereich für Weltforstwirtschaft und Institut für Weltforstwirtschaft des Friedrich-Löffler-Institut, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Tiergesundheit durchgeführt. Background: An increasing frequency of massive flooding along the lower Yangtse River in China ended in a disastrous catastrophe in summer 1998 leaving several thousand people homeless, more than 3.600 dead and causing enormous economic damage. Inappropriate land-use techniques and large scale timber felling in the water catchment of the upper Yangtse and its feeder streams were stated to be the main causes. Immediate timber cutting bans were imposed and investigations on land use patterns were initiated by the Chinese Government. The Institute for World Forestry of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products was approached by the Yunnan Academy of Forestry in Kunming to exchange experiences and to cooperate scientifically in the design and application of appropriate afforestation and silvicultural management techniques in the water catchment area of the Yangtse. This cooperation was initiated in 1999 and is based on formal agreements in the fields of agrarian research between the German and Chinese Governments. Objectives: The cooperation was in the first step focussing on the identification of factors which caused the enormous floodings. After their identification measures of prevention were determined and put into practice. In this context experiences made in past centuries in the alpine region of central Europe served as an incentive and example for similar environmental problems and solutions under comparable conditions. Relevant key questions of the cooperation project were: - Analysis of forest related factors influencing the recent floodings of the Yangtse, - Analysis and evaluation of silvicultural management experiences from central Europe for know-how transfer, - Evaluation of rehabilitation measures for successful application in Yunnan, - Dissemination of knowledge through vocational training. Results: - Frequent wild grazing of husbandry is a key factor for forest degeneration beyond unsustainable timber harvests, forest fires and insect calamities leading to increased water run-off in the mountainous region of Yunnan; - Browsing of cattle interrupts succession thus avoiding natural regeneration and leaving a logging ban ineffective; - Mountain pasture in the Alps had similar effects in the past in central Europe. The introduction of controlled grazing has led to an ecologically compatible coexistence of pasture and ecology. Close-to-nature forestry can have positive effects in this sensitive environment. - Afforestation with site adopted broadleaves and coniferous tree species was implemented on demonstration level using advanced techniques in Yunnan.
Das Projekt "AIRPOLL: Mathematical Modelling and Advanced Numerical Algorithms for Simulation of Air and Water Pollution - Bilateral German-Vietnamese Initiation Project mathematics in environmental sciences" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Wuppertal, Fachgruppe Mathematik und Informatik, Arbeitsgruppe Angewandte Mathematik: Numerische Analysis durchgeführt. The main goal of the present project is to derive and analyze new numerical schemes for the simulation of the transport and diffusion of pollutants in the atmosphere or in water. This process can be described by an advection diffusion equation in 3D. However, some simple models of environmental problems can be reduced to a one-dimensional form, e.g. saline and alum intrusion in rivers and canals, air pollution generated by a point source and air quality modelling (ozone, acid rain). Numerical methods will be constructed for the multi-dimensional problems by reducing them to a sequence of one-dimensional problems. Moreover, these schemes must preserve important features of the continuous model, such as the positivity of the solution (monotone schemes). These specially designed difference schemes must be accompanied with artificial boundary conditions to limit the computational domain. Finally, these boundary condition are designed on a discrete level directly for the chosen scheme in order to conserve the monotonicity property and to prevent any unphysical reflection at these boundaries (cf. (DaEh)). In a second task (DEGD) we consider the problems of optimal location of industrial enterprises and optimization of emissions from enterprises for ensuring sanitary environment criteria. Moreover, we study the problem of determination of the coefficients of diffusion and the coefficient of transformation of aerosols. This mathematical study is about how to achieve the growth of enterprise in an environmentally friendly manner (i.e. compatible with environmental protection) since overuse of resources can result in a larger release of pollution into the environment. This environmental problem is especially interesting for fast developing countries, like Vietnam but it is certainly affecting all other regions of the globe.
Das Projekt "Rezeption der Umweltproblematik in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Kassel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Fachgebiet Nachhaltige Unternehmensführung durchgeführt. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Umgang der Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit den Themen Ökologie bzw. Umweltschutz. Auf der Grundlage einer Rekonstruktion der Entstehungs- und Entwicklungsgeschichte der ökologieorientierten Betriebswirtschaftslehre soll analysiert werden, mit welchen inhaltlichen und methodischen Schwerpunktsetzungen das Umweltthema Eingang in die Disziplin gefunden und sich weiterentwickelt hat. Ziel ist es, die Bedeutung des neuen Forschungsgegenstandes für und den Einfluss auf das Fach und dessen wissenschaftliches Selbstverständnis herauszuarbeiten. Neben dieser eher wissenschaftstheoretischen Zielsetzung geht es in dem Projekt darum, diejenigen Faktoren zu identifizieren, die die betriebswirtschaftliche Bearbeitung des Ökologiethemas maßgeblich beeinflusst und sich für die noch junge Forschungsrichtung als förderlich bzw. hemmend erwiesen haben. Damit sollen Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer betriebswirtschaftlichen Bearbeitung der Umweltproblematik aufgezeigt und eine Basis geschaffen werden, die die Diskussion, wie das Fach mit dem Ökologieproblem umgehen kann, voranträgt.
Das Projekt "DFG Trilateral collaboration Deutschland-Israel-Palestine: Wastewater from Olive Oil Mills in Israel and Palestine: Interactions with Soil, Organic Contaminants and Mechanisms of Incorporation into Soil" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, Institut für Umweltwissenschaften durchgeführt. Due to the often practised uncontrolled disposal into the environment, olive oil production wastewater (OPWW) is presently a serious environmental problem in Palestine and Israel. The objectives of this interdisciplinary trilateral research project are (i) to understand the mechanisms of influence of the olive oil production wastewater on soil wettability, water storage, interaction with organic agrochemicals and pollutants; (ii) monitor short-term and long-term effects of OPWW land application in model laboratory and field experiments; (iii) identify the components responsible for unwanted changes in soil properties and (iv) analyse the mechanisms of association of OPWW OM with soil, the interplay between climatic conditions, pH, presence of multivalent cations and the resulting effects of land application. Laboratory incubation experiments, field experiments and new experiments to study heat-induced water repellency will be conducted to identify responsible OPWW compounds and mechanisms of interaction. Samples from field experiments and laboratory experiments are investigated using 3D excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy, thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis-mass spectrometry (TGA-DSC-MS), LC-MS and GC-MS analyses. We will combine thermal decomposition profiles from OPWW and OPWW-treated soils in dependence of the incubation status using TGA-DSC-MS, contact angle measurements, sorption isotherms and the newly developed time dependent sessile drop method (TISED). The resulting process understanding will open a perspective for OPWW wastewater reuse in small-scale and family-scale olive oil production busi-nesses in the Mediterranean area and will further help to comprehend the until now not fully un-ravelled effects of wastewater irrigation on soil water repellency.
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