Introduction: In Malaysia, excessive nutrients from livestock waste management systems are currently released to the environment. Particularly, large amounts of manure from intensive pig production areas are being excreted daily and are not being fully utilised. Alternatively, the excess manure can be applied as an organic fertiliser source in neighbouring cropping systems on the small landholdings of the pig farms to improve soil fertility so that its nutrients will be available for crop uptake instead of being discharged into water streams. Thus, there is a need for better tools to analyse the present situation, to evaluate and monitor alternative livestock production systems and manure management scenarios, and to support farmers in the proper management of manure and fertiliser application. Such tools are essential to quantify, and assess nutrient fluxes, manure quality and content, manure storage and application rate to the land as well as its environmental effects. Several computer models of animal waste management systems to assist producers and authorities are now available. However, it is felt that more development is needed to adopt such models to the humid tropics and conditions of Malaysia and other developing countries in the region. Objectives: The aim is to develop a novel model to evaluate nutrient emission scenarios and the impact of livestock waste at the landscape or regional level in humid tropics. The study will link and improve existing models to evaluate emission of N to the atmosphere, and leaching of nutrients to groundwater and surface water. The simulation outputs of the models will be integrated with a GIS spatial analysis to model the distribution of nutrient emission, leaching and appropriate manure application on neighbouring crop lands and as an information and decision support tool for the relevant users.
Nach heutigem Stand des Wissens und der Technik ist die forstliche Rekultivierung von Kiesgruben und Steinbrüchen sehr kosten- und energieaufwendig und dennoch vielfach nicht zufriedenstellend. Die vorliegende, auf mehrere Jahre angelegte Untersuchung befasst sich mit der Vegetationsentwicklung (ungelenkte Sukzession) in für forstliche Pflanzungen vorbereiteten Rekultivierungsflächen, und zwar auf 'rohem und mit Waldoberbodenauflage (mit entsprechendem Diasporenreservoir) behandeltem Rekultivierungssubstrat. Von besonderem Interesse sind hierbei die Gehölze. In zwei Versuchsanlagen (Kiesgrube, Versuchsgelände des Institutes) mit 32 Versuchsparzellen à 2,1 x 2,1 m bzw. 1,5 x 1,5 m werden vier Varianten werden untersucht: Rohboden (Bodengemisch), Auflage von Altwaldoberboden auf Rohboden, beide Varianten jeweils ohne und mit Strohabdeckung. Von April bis Oktober 1999 wurden acht mal Anzahl und Deckung der Arten höherer Pflanzen der Versuchsparzellen aufgenommen sowie der Diasporenregen auf die Versuchsanlage erfaßt. Um die Herkunft der keimenden Pflanzen zu erfassen, wurde neben der Erfassung des Diasporenregens mittels Keimversuchen das Diasporenreservoir der Ausgangssubstrate (Rohboden, Waldoberboden) ermittelt sowie die Flora der unmittelbaren Umgebung erfaßt. Des weiteren werden klimatische Daten einbezogen sowie auf dem Versuchsgelände standörtliche Parameter (Bodenfeuchte in unterschiedlichen Tiefen) gemessen. Es zeigen sich signifikante Unterschiede in der Besiedlungsentwicklung und der Artenzusammensetzung der verschiedenen Varianten. Die Besiedlung erfolgte am raschesten und mit höchsten Deckungsgraden auf Versuchsparzellen mit einer Auflage von Altwaldoberboden. Hier entwickelten sich erst Schlagfluren, im zweiten Jahr breitete sich verstärkt die Brombeere aus. Gehölze treten nur vereinzelt auf. Auf den Rohbodenparzellen siedelten sich erwartungsgemäß Pionier- und Ruderalarten an, die Besiedlung erfolgte gegenüber der Waldbodenvariante jedoch verzögert und nicht so üppig. Die Dynamik auf Parzellen mit Strohauflage wurde im ersten Jahr vor allem von Weizenpflanzen, im zweiten von Ruderalarten bestimmt; Arten der obigen Varianten traten stark verzögert und nur in Einzelexemplaren auf. Für gesicherte erste Prognosen reicht der kurze Untersuchungszeitraum (April bis November 1999) noch nicht aus. Bezüglich der Gehölzentwicklung lassen sich auf einzelnen Rohbodenparzellen Anzeichen für die Entwicklung von Weidengebüschen oder Brombeergestrüppen erkennen. Auf den Parzellen mit Waldbodenauflage wird sich in den nächsten Jahren möglicherweise die Brombeere durchsetzen und andere Pflanzen unterdrücken.
Providing adequate sanitation facilities is a great challenge as urban centers expand rapidly in developing countries. Unfortunately, little is known how ecological alternatives in sanitation could be appropriate for improving community sanitation in both rural and peri-urban areas; and as a result little attention has been given to their development. This study will undertake bench and pilot scale trials to investigate the suitability of vermicomposting for the humification of human waste in flow-through reactors. This way, the basis could be formed for the development of a continuous on-site treatment and recovery technology that is linked with urban agriculture. In the long run, it is expected to develop a method by which the continuous system would be scaled-up in functional capacity to serve the needs of multiple neighboring households.
Waterborne sewage system has proven to be inappropriate to solve sanitation needs in developing countries. Approximately 90 percentt of city sewage in developing countries today is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas (Winblad, 1997). With increasing population density and the resultant groundwater pollution, conventional decentralized disposal systems such as latrines and seepage pits are not viable alternatives either. Many cities are short of water and subject to critical environmental degradation (Niemczynowicz, 1996). Conventional sanitation technologies based on flush toilets, sewers, treatment and discharge cannot solve the problems in urban areas anymore. A sustainable sanitation and wastewater management system is urgently needed in order to address these issues. Ecological sanitation (Ecosan) is proposed as an alternative system to solve the following problems: lack of sanitation and water body contamination by pathogens from human waste. Ecosan does not only provide sanitation facilities for the people, but also seeks to protect public health, prevents water pollution and at the same time returns valuable nutrients to the soil so that it also helps to ensure food security and contributes to the objectives of sustainable development. The objective of this research is to search for a sustainable sanitation and human waste management system that is appropriate to be applied in poor income people living in densely populated urban areas in Indonesia. As Ecological Sanitation has not been applied in Indonesia before, this dissertation also aims to investigate its effectiveness and community acceptance in Indonesia. Two other existing systems are also studied as the comparison, which are the conventional septic tank system and the decentralized wastewater system (Dewats). All of these sanitation systems are assessed based on three sustainability criteria: economical, environmental and social.
Background: Within the framework of MONITRAF, work package 5 deals with road traffic related effects on the alpine space from the sustainability point of view. Public health impacts will be evaluated among other topics. Established methods to quantify public health impact from road traffic exist for large scale assessments on a national base (e.g. trinational impact assessment study for Switzerland, Austria and France). Such assessments are done by transferring the results from large scale cohort studies on the exposure situation of the region of interest. Methodologically more demanding are small-scale impact assessments along the transit axis. The application of such established large scale assessments is methodologically questionable. However, an alternative method has not been recognized as a number of scientific questions have not been solved yet. Objectives: Main goal of the public health project is to coordinate ongoing studies on health effect from transit traffic: Department for Hygiene, Microbiology and Social Medicine, Innsbruck; Dr. Lercher: Brenner Basistunnel; Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Basel, Dr. Hazenkamp & Dr. Rapp: Gotthard Transitverkehr; Published health impact assessment studies of air pollution and noise will be analysed and applicability of the methods in the given context will be evaluated and the data prerequisite will be clarified. Available data which is needed for an impact assessment will be evaluated. Based on data availability and methodological considerations a method to assess public health impact from transit traffic will be proposed. Work steps: - To obtain an overview of ongoing research activities in Innsbruck and Basel (e.g. to organize a joint meeting). - To summarize published results from those ongoing studies and to give an overview of future results which can be expected. - Systematic literature search of traffic related health impact assessment studies and evaluation of their methodologies with respect to applicability within MONITRAF. - Evaluation of exposure concepts or indicator measurements which may serve as base for a health impact assessment study of air pollution (e.g. different kind of pollutant, long term mean levels, short term pollution levels, distance to the road, effect of air pollution intervention studies) - Evaluation of exposure concepts or indicator measurements which may serve as base for a health impact assessment study of noise (mean dB(A), variation, distance to the road, etc.) - Coordination of the module 'noise and air quality' of work package 5 with respect to the assessment of possible useful indicator measurements from a health effect perspective as well as the availability of such data. - To clarify the data availability for suitable health impact assessment study methods. - To propose a suitable method for a health impact study of alpine road traffic and design the study.
The project SWERA will provide solar and wind resource data and geographic information assessment tools to public and private sector executives who are involved in energy market development. It will demonstrate the use of these instruments in investment and policy decision making and build local capacities for their continuous use. The project will enable private investors and public policy makers to assess the technical, economic and environmental potential for large-scale investments in technologies that enable the exploitation of two increasingly important sources of renewable energy. During this pilot project, tools for analysis and use of resource information will be developed, a global archive and review mechanism will be initiated, regional/national solar and wind resource maps generated and national assessment demonstrations performed. The overall goal is to promote the integration of wind and solar alternatives in national and regional energy planning and sector restructuring as well as related policy making. The project will enable informed decision making and enhance the ability of participating governments to attract increased investor interest in renewable energy. Thirteen countries will be directly involved in the pilot stage of the project. Global and regional maps will be available to all developing countries. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) will provide high resolution solar maps of the Direct Normal Irradiation. This is particularly important for concentrating solar power collectors. DLR will work with SUNY and INPE/LABSOLAR to integrate their high-resolution horizontal total radiation model. DLR and TERI will jointly execute the South Asian mapping using INSAT and METEOSAT-5 data. DLR will provide advice to national executing agencies and stakeholders on their activities and assist in the comparison of measurements and different mapping models.
The overall aim of Predict-IV is to develop strategies to improve the assessment of drug safety in the early stage of development and late discovery phase, by an intelligent combination of non animal-based test systems, cell biology, mechanistic toxicology and in-silico modelling, in a rapid and cost effective manner. A better prediction of the safety of an investigational compound in early development will be delivered. Margins-of-safety will be deduced and the data generated by the proposed approach may also identify early biomarkers of human toxicity for pharmaceuticals. The results obtained in Predict-IV will enable pharmaceutical companies to create a tailored testing strategy for early drug safety. The project will integrate new developments to improve and optimize cell culture models for toxicity testing and to characterize the dynamics and kinetics of cellular responses to toxic effects in vitro. The target organs most frequently affected by drug toxicity will be taken into account, namely liver and kidney. Moreover, predictive models for neurotoxicty are scarce and will be developed. For each target organ the most appropriate cell model will be used. The approach will be evaluated using a panel of drugs with well described toxicities and kinetics in animals and partly also in humans.
Aufgrund des Kostendruckes werden Produktentwicklungszyklen immer kürzer, sodass eine Verifikation der geforderten Lebensdauer von über 20 Jahren nur mittels zuverlässiger, beschleunigter Tests gelingen kann. Die Entwicklung von speziell auf die CIS-Dünnschichttechnik zugeschnittener Schnelltests, die aus der Halbleiterindustrie adaptiert werden, ist das zentrale Thema des RECIS-II-Projektes. Es soll die guten Einzelergebnisse für Temperatur- und Lichtbelastungen, die im Vorgängerprojekt erzielt wurden, mit einer erweiterten Statistik untermauern und die Belastungsszenarien erweitern. Projektpartner sind das Institut für angewandte Forschung (Hochschule Ulm), die Manz CIGS Technology GmbH und das Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW).
The proposed regulation concerning the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) requires demonstration of the safe manufacture of chemicals and their safe use throughout the supply chain. There is therefore a strong need to strengthen and advance human and environmental risk assessment knowledge and practices with regard to chemicals, in accord with the precautionary principle. The goal of the project OSIRIS is to develop integrated testing strategies (ITS) fit for REACH that enable to significantly increase the use of non-testing information for regulatory decision making, and thus minimise the need for animal testing. To this end, operational procedures will be developed, tested and disseminated that guide a transparent and scientifically sound evaluation of chemical substances in a risk-driven, context-specific and substance-tailored (RCS) manner. The envisaged decision theory framework includes alternative methods such as chemical and biological read-across, in vitro results, in vivo information on analogues, qualitative and quantitative structure-activity relationships, thresholds of toxicological concern and exposure-based waiving, and takes into account cost-benefit analyses as well as societal risk perception. It is based on the new REACH paradigm to move away from extensive standard testing to a more intelligent, substance-tailored approach. The work will be organised in five interlinked research pillars (chemical domain, biological domain, exposure, integration strategies and tools, case studies), with a particular focus on more complex, long-term and high-cost endpoints. Case studies will demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the new ITS methodologies, and provide guidance in concrete form. To ensure optimal uptake of the results obtained in this project, end-users in industry and regulatory authorities will be closely involved in monitoring and in providing specific technical contributions to this project.
Fragile arid and semi-arid ecosystems are in urgent need of integrated conservation approaches that can contribute significantly to prevent and reduce the widespread on-going land degradation and desertification processes, such as erosion, flooding, overgrazing, drought, and salinization. The DESIRE project will establish promising alternative land use and management conservation strategies based on a close participation of scientists with stakeholder groups in the degradation and desertification hotspots around the world. This integrative participatory approach ensures both the acceptability and feasibility of conservation techniques, and a sound scientific basis for the effectiveness at various scales. DESIRE employs a bottom up approach such as is favoured by the UNCCD: i) degradation and desertification hotspots and stakeholder groups will be identified in all countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and in 6 external nations facing similar environmental problems, ii) desertification indicator sets will be defined in a participatory approach and a harmonized information system will be constructed to organize socio-economic and geoinformation data and tools for active dissemination; iii) new and existing conservation strategies will be defined with the stakeholder communities; iv) these strategies will be implemented in the field, and monitored and modeled to quantify their effectiveness at various scales; v) the results will be extrapolated using both the indicator sets, geoinformation data, and integrated modeling systems combining socio-economic and environmental aspects; vi) finally the results will be translated to a series of practical guidelines for good agricultural practices and environmental management, which will be disseminated to practitioners, agricultural extensionists, governmental authorities, policy makers, NGOs, land users, land owners, and local communities. Prime Contractor: Alterra B.V.; Wageningen; Netherlands.
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