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Under the controversial concern of using virgin fibers in hygiene tissue products, mostly Bleached Eucalyptus Kraft (BEK) and Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK), consumers are responding by purchasing selflabeled sustainable products. As of today, there are no established sustainability reported results to inform consumers about the carbon footprint of hygiene tissue. To fill this gap, this study used Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts across the supply chain (cradle to gate) to produce Premium and Ultra grades of bath tissue, including the production of feedstock, pulp production, and tissue production stages, with focus on Global Warming Potential (GWP). The results showed that one air-dried metric ton (ADmt) of BEK pulp had an associated GWP of 388 kgCO2eq, whereas one ADmt of NBSK pulp presented values ranging between 448 and 596 kgCO2eq, depending on the emissions allocation methodology used. It was estimated that the GWP of one finished metric ton of tissue weighted average could range from 1,392 to 3,075 kgCO2eq depending on mill location, electricity source, and machine technology. These results provide an understanding of the factors affecting the environmental impact of hygiene tissue products, which could guide manufacturers and consumers on decisions that impact their carbon footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper purports to outline the prospects and issues in systemizing ecological defense planning and to assess the progress in the ROK. While the defense sectors in the United States and a number of European states have taken steps toward systemizing ecological measures in recent years, progress in the ROK has been slow. Problems point to not only technical challenges in systemizing ecological measures, but also to the lack of political and bureaucratic facilitation. To examine the problem in question, the paper is divided into four sections. First, the paper will outline the environmental impact of military institutions and their actions. Second, the progress in systemizing ecological measures in the defense sector will be examined. Third, problems in Korea's handling of environmental issues relating to the defense sector will be assessed. Then, in the fourth section, the paper will outline the key steps the ROK must take in systemizing ecological defense planning. The paper concludes that further efforts are needed in conceptualizing and systemizing ecological defense planning to not only shape new norms in the defense sector and their activities, but also to comprehensively address both traditional and non-traditional security concerns in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of substituting biofuels for fossil fuels on carbon dioxide (CO) emissions has been debated for many years. A reason for the lack of resolution is that the method widely used to address the question, lifecycle analysis (LCA), is subjective. Its results irreducibly depend on untestable assumptions, notably those pertaining to system boundaries but also those for representing market effects. The best one can do is empirically constrain estimates of net CO impact using data that characterize important aspects of the overall system. Our 2016 paper, 'Carbon balance effects of U.S. biofuel production and use,' took such an approach, using field data to estimate the direct CO exchanges for a circumscribed vehicle-fuel system over the 2005-2013 period of expanding US biofuel use. De Kleine and colleagues criticize our work because it does not follow LCA conventions, arguing in particular for the primacy of the assumption that biofuels are inherently carbon neutral. This response refutes their critique; it reminds readers why the lifecycle paradigm fails for a dynamic system involving the terrestrial carbon cycle, stresses the need to bound an analysis of key carbon exchanges, and explains why the circular logic of LCA can be so beguiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the firm-level relationship among productivity, decision to export, and environmental performance. The emerging theoretical and empirical literature suggests that trade has an important role in determining firms' heterogeneity: increased openness to trade induces a reallocation effect that increases within-industry efficiency, thereby linking firms' decisions to export and adopt newer (and cleaner) technology. We argue that this framework provides the following empirically-relevant predictions: there is an inverse relationship between firm productivity and pollution emissions per unit output; exporting firms have lower emissions per unit output; and larger firms have a lower emission intensity. To examine these implications empirically, we have assembled a uniquely detailed dataset of the U.S. manufacturing industry for the years 2002, 2005, and 2008 by matching facility-level air emission data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the facility's economic characteristics contained in the National Establishment Time Series database. The strategy is to first estimate a facility-level total factor productivity parameter as a plant-specific fixed effect. We then investigate how this estimated productivity parameter correlates with emission intensity on a pollutant-by-pollutant basis. Our empirical findings support the hypotheses suggested by the conceptual model. For each criteria air pollutant considered, we find a significant negative correlation between estimated facility productivity and emission intensity. Conditional on a facility's estimated productivity and other controls, exporting facilities have significantly lower emissions per value of sales than non-exporting facilities in the same industry. We also find that plant size is negatively and significantly related to emission intensity for all pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power is a rapidly growing technology, with an estimated 35% of national end-use electricity demand to be met from wind by 2050 in the US. With such a projected rapid growth, it is necessary to improve and innovate relevant technological areas with due considerations of possible impacts of wind energy harnessing through wind turbines. This paper presents a systematic review of current literature on the issues of noise and vibration of wind turbines and their impact on human health and wild life. The paper reviews the literature on the issues of noise and vibration in wind turbines, the generation mechanisms, the propagation, the impact on human health and wild life. The current status of technology and future developments to mitigate the health and environmental impacts of wind turbine noise and vibration are also reviewed. The paper includes a review of current standards on measurement of acoustic noise of wind turbines and data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Fuel economy and emissions of heavy-duty trucks greatly vary based on vehicular/environmental conditions. Large-scale infrastructure construction projects require a large amount of material/equipment transportation. Single-parameter generic hauling models may not be the best option for an accurate estimation of hauling contribution in life cycle assessment (LCA) involving construction projects; therefore, more precise data and parameterized models are required to represent this contribution. This paper discusses key environmental/operational variables and their impact on transportation of materials and equipment; a variable-impact transportation (VIT) model accounting for these variables was developed to predict environmental impacts of hauling. Methods: The VIT model in the form of multi-nonlinear regression equations was developed based on simulations using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) to compute all the impact categories in EPA's TRACI 2.1 and energy consumption of transportation. Considering actual driving cycles of hauling trucks recorded during a pavement rehabilitation project, the corresponding environmental impacts were calculated, and sensitivity analyses were performed. In addition, an LCA case study based on historical pavement reconstruction projects in Illinois was conducted to analyze the contribution of transportation and variability of its impacts during the pavements' life cycle. Results and discussion: The importance of vehicle driving cycles was realized from simulation results. The case study results showed that considering driving cycles using the VIT model could increase the contribution of hauling in total life cycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) and total life cycle GWP itself by 2–4 and 3–5%, respectively. In addition to GWP, ranges of other hauling-related impact categories including Smog, Ozone Depletion, Acidification, and Primary Energy Demand from fuel were presented based on the case study. Ozone Depletion ranged from 9 to 45%, and Smog ranged from 11 to 48% of the total relevant life cycle impacts. The GWP contribution of hauling in pavement LCA ranged between 5 and 32%. The results indicate that the contribution of hauling transportation can be significant in pavement LCA. Conclusions: For large-scale roadway infrastructure construction projects that need a massive amount of material transportation, high fidelity models and data should be used especially for comparative LCAs that can be used as part of decision making between alternatives. The VIT model provides a simple analytical platform to include the critical vehicular/operational variables without any dependence on an external software; the model can also be incorporated in those studies where some of the transportation activity data are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a multivariate measure useful for integrated environmental assessments. It is a weighted distance measure applied to metric data but based on nonparametric statistical procedures. The proposed measure allows all environmental indicators to be used directly without any reduction in dimension (e.g. as in principal component analysis) nor losing variance while being able to tolerate possible non-normality of the indicators, as well as non-linear relationships among them. Results of the hypothetical example and the Mid-Atlantic case study show that the proposed measure is suitable and valuable for integrating multiple indicators into a single index, an important task in integrated environmental assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores questions concerning knowledge coproduction as applied to the extractive sector through an ex‐post evaluation of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) process for a proposed copper and gold mine in Panama. Theoretical underpinnings of knowledge are highlighted, and barriers or enablers to knowledge coproduction are explored, including syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic boundaries and trust building. Reflection is based on the authors' participation as EIA practitioners on the project. Knowledge sharing between the EIA project team and stakeholders are placed in the context of knowledge coproduction theory and application. Different types of knowledge—fast and slow, tacit and explicit, and traditional and expert—are integrated into an adapted version of Nonaka's knowledge spiral model, illustrating the progression of knowledge coproduction through various activities and actors in EIA. Findings support the contention that explicitly designing and implementing knowledge coproduction into EIA practice can help improve environmental governance in the extractive sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor educators are adapting practices to respond to the priorities of education for sustainability. New practices are emerging or adopted from elsewhere. In Europe, the American recreational movement of Leave No Trace (LNT) has influenced environmental education programs. LNT has been criticized for encouraging a reduction in environmental impact in wilderness areas while ignoring the more significant impacts of equipment purchase, travel, and modern lifestyles. This paper extends the critiques of LNT, suggesting that it encourages attitudes of a separation from nature. It suggests that the LNT concept is unrealistic and unhelpful in Europe, where most landscapes have experienced the impact of humans for millennia. Inspired by European approaches of human-nature relations, and at a time of need for significant environmental changes, I suggest that educational programs seeking to connect people with nature encourage people to "leave more trace" or, perhaps, to "consider their trace" instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multilateral comparisons of environmental performance over time, energy intensity measures, especially Breal^ energy intensity computed either by index decomposition approach or structural decomposition approach, are the most commonly used measures. Recently, researchers also resort to productiontheoretical approach, which relies on data envelopment analysis techniques, to decompose energy intensity changes over time into their subcomponents.While their intuitiveness and computational ease make these indices attractive, their time series properties create considerable challenges in performing informative and fair comparisons among the energy efficiency levels of units considered. Furthermore, the resultant measure of energy intensity in these studies is still the inverse of a partial factor productivity (PFP) measure, i.e., energy productivity, that does not take into consideration compositional differences between inputs of the units being compared (which are also subject to change over time) and that ignores the type of substitution among inputs and, hence, makes it a measure that disguises rather than illuminates. The theoretical part of this paper shows how one can overcome the shortcomings of the energy intensity measure by constructing a new energy index using directional technology distance functions. The new index constructed in this study not only overcomes the shortcomings of the energy intensity measures but also satisfies the axiomatic properties of index numbers that are laid down by Fisher. An empirical application on U.S state-level agricultural sectors further complements existing studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the life-cycle energy and environmental impacts of emerging technologies is critical to promote sustainable chemical production because such assessment can provide policy makers with useful insights for future investment and technology deployment; it also provides manufacturers and researchers with quantitative understandings of technology potential, possible bottlenecks, and future Research, Development, and Deployment directions. However, this is a challenging task for emerging technologies due to the lack of inventory data. In this paper, a general and flexible modeling framework was developed to generate the inventory data for new technologies in the chemical industry from a life cycle perspective. The modeling framework is applied to an emerging technology in the U.S. ethylene industry, ethane oxidative dehydrogenation, for demonstration. Broadly, the work described in this paper provides a decision-support method that can be further used by researchers, environment/energy analysts, and policy makers to evaluate the net benefits of innovative technologies, guide early-stage technology development and investment decisions, and conduct strategic planning for meeting energy and emissions reduction goals of the U.S. chemical industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forest products sector plays an important role in regional economies in the United States. Although direct economic contribution values are relatively easy to estimate and compare across states, several modeling- and data-related assumptions used in contribution analysis create variations among states that can be difficult to explain. Economic contribution analysts were surveyed to understand variations in methodologies used in conducting economic contribution analysis of the forest products sector. Survey results suggest that although analysts were generally consistent with direct effect sector selection of traditional forest industries (e.g., logging and sawmills) in the IMPLAN sector scheme, several variations were noted in decisions to include or exclude nontraditional forest industries that produce engineered wood products, among others. Likewise, there were subtle differences in opinions on which institutions to include in the social accounting matrix. Some policy-related suggestions were provided for consistent reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development steered by The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) since 2005 ended in 2014. It looked into the integration principles, values and practices of sustainable development in all aspects of education and learning, with the intention of addressing the global social, economic, cultural and environmental issues in the 21st century. It has become an essential issue in architectural education to create awareness among future generations of architects to be more sensitive towards the environmental impact of architecture on human behavior. This encouraged every school of architecture to incorporate sustainability knowledge into its curriculum and promote ‘sustainable architectural education’, leading to the questions of: what type of structural model of integration approach being applied in promoting architectural sustainable education? The objectives of this paper are to investigate the type of structural models that have been applied in architectural curriculum in selected schools of architecture in both countries and evaluate the level of emphasis in incorporating sustainability knowledge in the curriculum. Therefore, this paper reviewed the approach of integration principles, values and practices of sustainable development at 10 conveniently sampled architecture schools in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Data was collected from their respective web sites and their concepts of integration were reviewed and the distribution of credit hours revealed to determine the level of emphasis considered. Findings showed various paths taken by the different institutions in integrating the knowledge of sustainability into their architectural curriculum. This paper concludes with recommendations for further research into gauging the effectiveness of architectural curricula with integrated sustainability knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural impact assessments (CIAs) are rare in environmental practice in the United States. This paper explores the use and integration of CIAs into environmental assessments with respect to cultural resources of communities and American Indian tribes. It notes the shortcomings of consultation under Section 106 of National Historic Preservation Act and public comment under the National Environmental Policy Act and recommends employing CIAs to fill the gaps, decrease time and costs, and possibly limit lawsuits.Environmental Practice 18: 222–226 (2016) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Energy have been always on the forefront of every nation's priority list, more importantly, affordable energy is one of the main objectives for every country. Hence, the fracking process have dominated the last decade because of its contribution to a more affordable energy. In the meantime the fracking process proved to have several negative impacts on the environmental sustainability. Therefore, the net cost of fracking have to be identified and its benefits have to be weighed against its negative sustainability impacts as well. This paper presents an identification of the major cost centers and the impacts needs assessment for the fracking process across the phases of its Life Cycle from the exploration and acquisition to the well completion. The paper is also serving as a step forward to estimate the real value and worth of the fracking process as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulations of future climate change impacts on water resources are subject to multiple and cascading uncertainties associated with different modeling and methodological choices. A key facet of this uncertainty is the coarse spatial resolution of GCM output compared to the finer-resolution information needed by water managers. To address this issue, it is now common practice to apply spatial downscaling techniques, using either higher-resolution regional climate models or statistical approaches applied to GCM output, to develop finer-resolution information. Downscaling, however, can also introduce its own uncertainties into water resources' impact assessments. This study uses watershed simulations in five U.S. basins to quantify the sources of variability in streamflow, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads associated with the underlying GCM compared to the choice of downscaling method (both statistically and dynamically downscaled GCM output). This study also assesses the specific, incremental effects of downscaling by comparing watershed simulations based on downscaled and nondownscaled GCM model output. Results show that the underlying GCM and the downscaling method each contribute to the variability of simulated watershed responses. The relative contribution of GCM and downscaling method to the variability of simulated responses varies by watershed and season of the year. Results illustrate the potential implications of one key methodological choice in conducting climate change impact assessments for water-the selection of downscaled climate change information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal areas are on the front lines of the impacts of climate change. The immediate impacts of temperature, precipitation and sea-level change affect rich but already threatened ecological systems and the most populated, highly developed, and economically vibrant regions of human activity on the planet. The specific vulnerabilities, impacts and adaptation options and activities vary greatly across the coastal areas of the US. The charge given to the coastal chapter team of the third US National Climate Assessment (NCA3, released in May 2014) was to discern the key vulnerabilities and most important cross-cutting concerns across the extensive coastline of the US. This paper is a reflection on what the coastal chapter team accomplished and how it was done (including author selection, staff support, technical inputs, the chapter development process, within- and cross-chapter integration, the review process, the delivery and high-impact release, the timeline of key assessment steps, and evaluation of the chapter development process). It concludes with eight lessons that might inform the activities of future collaborative author teams writing transdisciplinary, integrated assessment reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an intensive survey of literature focused on the different aspects of fracking as related to the environment, economy, energy security and sustainability and establishes an understanding of the economic benefits and negative impacts of fracking on the environmental sustainability. The paper is also suggesting the use of all of those implications in a more comprehensive framework that can identify the real cost and benefit in fracking such as the Life Cycle Costing which can use all these implications along with others that occur across all the phases of the fracking process to come up with the real value and worth of the fracking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors present an overview of the special issue regarding the use of a multi-model framework in the Climate Change Impacts and Risk Analysis (CIRA) project in the U.S.

We discuss data quality and modeling issues inherent in the use of nationwide property data to value environmental amenities. By example of Zillow's Transaction and Assessment Database, a real estate database covering the United States, we identify challenges and propose guidance for (1) identifying arm's-length sales; (2) geolocating parcels and buildings; (3) identifying temporal links between transaction, assessor, and parcel data; (4) identifying property types, such as single-family homes and vacant lands; and (5) dealing with missing or mismeasured data for standard housing attributes. We review [End Page 200] current practice and show that how researchers address these issues can meaningfully influence research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • An integrated approach is developed for environmental sustainability. • Climate variability has significant impacts on local environmental sustainability. • Rio Grande Basin is sustainable under current climate conditions. • Rio Grande Basin will become less sustainable in the late 21st century. Abstract Extreme weather events have been affecting local environmental sustainability. Previous literature in this field evaluates environmental sustainability based mainly on past and current resource consumption and availability, however, knowledge about the status and potential changes of environmental sustainability under future climate extremes is missing. This paper proposes an integrated approach (combining the Ecological Footprint Analysis with econometric regressions) to predict future environmental sustainability under different climate scenarios. Based on the case study of the U.S. Rio Grande Basin, the results show that this region has been sustainable in 1982–2012, although sustainability levels have been declining over time. In addition, projections for the future show that the entire region will most likely move away from sustainability by the end of this century under the high emission scenario (e.g., RCP8.5). These findings are relevant for sustainable resource management and allocation of local environmental resources as well as for decision-making support regarding climate risk adaptation and mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This article examines how theories of Aryanism influenced geographic theories of race and environmental influence. The argument is made that the entanglements between Aryanism and geographic theories of race provide a new site in assessing the history of geographic thought. It begins by illuminating the rise of Aryanism in colonial India. As it moved across time and space, Aryanism became a foundational element in racial science, and informed a number of disciplines, including geography. The majority of the article is devoted to exposing the influence of Aryanism in American geography from the mid nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The paper finds that the influential geographers Arnold Guyot, Nathaniel Shaler, Friedrich Ratzel, Ellen Semple, and Ellsworth Huntington were all indebted to Aryanism in the production of their theories of race and the environment. Highlights • Uncovers the relationship between the discipline of Geography and Orientalism in colonial India. • Emphasizes the intersection of Aryanism and environmentalism in theories of race. • Reevaluates canonical American geographic scholarship. • Identifies the geography of Aryan ideologies across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green stormwater infrastructure (GI) is gaining traction as a viable complement to traditional “gray” infrastructure in cities across the United States. As cities struggle with decisions to replace deteriorating stormwater infrastructure in the face of looming issues such as population growth and climate change, GI may offer a cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable approach. However, decision makers confront challenges when integrating GI within city plans, including uncertainties around GI capacity and maintenance, resistance to collaboration across city governance, increasingly inflexible financing, accounting practices that do not incorporate the multiple values of GI, and difficulties in incorporating ecological infrastructure into stormwater management. This paper presents an ecosystem services framework for assessing the context-specific needs of decision makers, while considering the strengths and limitations of GI use in urban stormwater management. We describe multiple dimensions of the planning system, identify points of intervention, and illustrate two applications of our framework – Durham, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon (USA). In these case studies, we apply our ecosystem services framework to explicitly consider tradeoffs to assist planning professionals who are considering implementation of GI. We conclude by offering a research agenda that explores opportunities for further evaluations of GI design, implementation, and maintenance in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is to explore the differences of the integrated value of shale gas development between the US and China. On the basis of an extensive literature survey and 17 in-depth personal interviewswith domestic experts, a fuzzy-AHP model is exploited herein to evaluate the development of shale gas in the US and China. The fuzzy-AHP model encompasses 21 indicators, which can be further categorized into 4 critical factors: (1) market prospects, (2) environmental impacts, (3) conditions of resource & occurrence, and (4) general conditions of extraction & utilization. Among the 21 indicators, market demand, cost and price, technologies, gas content, water contamination/supply, and policy contribute significantly to the integrated value of the model. According to the integrated value of the shale gas development in the US and China, the comparative analysis suggests that there is a large gap between these two countries. Furthermore, differences in shale gas development between the US and China are identified and reasons for these differences are analyzed. The US-China comparative analysis and the experience from US suggest that government policies will be crucial to determine the future development of shale gas in China and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As domestic affluence increases, nations advocate for conservation policies to protect domestic biodiversity that often curtail natural resource production activities such as fishing. If concomitant consumption patterns remain unchanged, environmentally conscious nations with high consumption rates such as the U.S. may only be distancing themselves from the negative environmental impacts associated with consuming resources and commodities produced elsewhere. This unintended displacement of ecosystem impacts, or leakage, associated with conservation policies has not been studied extensively in marine fisheries. This paper examines this topic, drawing on case studies to illustrate the ways in which unilateral marine conservation actions can shift ecosystem impacts elsewhere, as has been documented in land use interventions. The authors argue that the U.S. should recognize these distant ecological consequences and move toward greater self-sufficiency to protect its seafood security and minimize leakage as well as undertake efforts to reduce ecosystem impacts of foreign fisheries on which it relies. Six solutions are suggested for broadening the marine conservation and seafood consumption discussion to address leakage induced by U.S. policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a new perspective on the energy efficiency literature by bringing evidence of political contextual factors as the predictors of energy efficiency. Specifically, we posit that the Democrat administration is more energy-efficient considering the reduction of environmental impact, in contrast, the Republican administration is more efficient considering only financial expenditures leading to the production of economic growth. In addition, we predict that political administration tenure is negatively correlated with green energy efficiency and that political distancing moderates the relationship between political party administration and energy efficiency. This study sheds light on these matters by performing an efficiency analysis of fifty North American states through a bootstrap DEA non-parametric model, followed by Tobit regressions to evaluate our hypotheses concerning the effect of the contextual factors on the calculated efficiency scores. • We investigate the impact of political factors on energy efficiency in the United States. • We perform a two-stage DEA-Tobit bootstrapped regression analysis. • The Democrats consistently demonstrated higher energy efficiency scores. • The political tenure as a feature had mild or mixed impact on energy efficiency. • We confirmed the positive time-passage effect on energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between tourist arrivals, immigrants, and crimes in the United States (U.S.) from 1984 to 2013. Our findings affirm the social structural perspectives (i.e. Merton's Strain theory and Social Disorganization theory), which contain a popular perception about the immigration and crime that they both go hand in hand. Results of bivariate analysis revealed that immigrants admitted by Europe, Mexico, and North America to U.S. are positively correlated with key crimes. Tourist arrivals positively influence crime rate only in short-run, which affirms the Opportunity Structural perspectives (i.e. Routine Activity and Hot Spot theories). Furthermore, immigrants positively influence tourist arrivals, which supports the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) empirical perspective. Therefore, concerned authorities can focus on environmental design initiative in concerned areas (i.e. immigrants' communities and tourists' cities). Furthermore, future research and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impact of uncertainty in modeling the thermo-physical property of building envelopes and building occupancy on energy analysis has recently received attention. This paper evaluates the impact of the variations of the thermo-physical property of building envelopes and occupancy on building energy analysis. As the data format for accessing and updating building information for energy analysis, gbXML-based BIM is leveraged. We first studied the impact of reflecting the as-is thermo-physical properties of different building envelopes from thermographic sensing on building energy load calculation. Then, the response of energy simulation model with respect to the variations of building occupancy is explored. Finally, the impact of each variation on building energy use intensity is analyzed through the regression analysis. Several experiments were conducted on a building located in six different climatic zones in the U.S. The perceived benefits of continuous updating of energy profiles for model calibration for reliable energy analysis under uncertainty and the related open research challenges are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The use of compostable biopolymers in the United States has grown over the past decade and is predicted to continue to grow over the coming years. Though many studies have been done to assess biopolymer environmental impacts, few have explored how they are actually being used and disposed of by consumers. Only with a thorough understanding of real world use will environmental assessments be able to provide meaningful results that can inform best practices for municipal waste management. This paper identifies and explores where consumers are most likely to come into contact with compostable biopolymers, actual disposal methods, and the motivation behind compostable biopolymer use and disposal. To assess where compostable biopolymers are being used, audits of local grocery stores were conducted, as well as semi-structured interviews with compostable biopolymer users in four different food service categories (cafeterias, catering companies, limited food service establishments, and recreational concessions) were completed. Findings suggest that consumers are most likely coming into contact with compostable biopolymers in a commercial food service setting. The decision to purchase compostable biopolymers was based on a variety of factors, such as their perceived sustainability, but was not directly tied to the ability to compost them. One of the clearest distinctions between those who were able to compost biopolymers and those who sent these products to landfill was the type of sustainability goals each organization set. Measurable waste to landfill goals resulted in biopolymers being sent to compost facilities, in contrast to an amorphous goal to be sustainable, which was connected to biopolymers being sent to landfill. Yet for all food service categories, disposal decisions relied heavily on the regional waste infrastructure that was available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging sustainable development movement in the construction industry requires the recycling of waste materials to reduce the negative environmental impact of construction activities. In many countries, old concrete, a major waste stream generated from the demolition of obsolete buildings/structures, is being recycled. However, for various reasons, progress toward concrete recycling varies from country to country. This paper discusses the current status of concrete recycling in the U.S. construction industry based on results from a two-part questionnaire survey. The first part of the survey collects information on the recycling practices of surveyed concrete companies. The second part adapts questions from a study conducted in Australia and Japan to examine the awareness, benefits, difficulties, and recommended methods related to concrete recycling. The findings showed that although recycling old concrete is common in the U.S., its application is mostly limited to backfill and pavement base; using waste concrete in new concrete production is not widely applied. There are also similarities and differences in the perceptions of concrete recycling between U.S. concrete companies and their counterparts in Australia and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A foodborne Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak in December 2006 included 77 illnesses reported in Iowa and Minnesota. Epidemiologic investigations by health departments in those states and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified shredded iceberg lettuce ( Lactuca sativa L.) as the vehicle of transmission. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Minnesota and California public health agencies traced the lettuce to several growing regions in California based on information from a lettuce processor in Minnesota. Samples from an environmental investigation initiated by the California Food Emergency Response Team (CalFERT) revealed a genetic match between the outbreak strain and environmental samples from a single farm, leading to an in-depth systems-based analysis of the irrigation water system on that farm. This paper presents findings from that systems-based analysis, which assessed conditions on the farm potentially contributing to contamination of the lettuce. The farm had three sources of irrigation water: groundwater from onsite wells, surface water delivered by a water management agency and effluent from wastewater lagoons on nearby dairy farms. Wastewater effluent was blended with the other sources and used only to irrigate animal feed crops. However, water management on the farm, including control of wastewater blending, appeared to create potential for cross-contamination. Pressure gradients and lack of backflow measures in the irrigation system might have created conditions for cross-contamination of water used to irrigate lettuce. The irrigation network on the farm had evolved over time to meet various needs, without an overall analysis of how that evolution potentially created vulnerabilities to contamination of irrigation water. The type of systems analysis described here is one method for helping to ensure that such vulnerabilities are identified and addressed. A preventive, risk-based management approach, such as the Water Safety Plan process for drinking water, may also be useful in managing irrigation water quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a survey of agricultural advisors across the Midwestern U.S., this paper explores two additions to the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF)—trust in information sources and the availability heuristic. Connections between demographic factors, belief in climate change, perceived risk, and advisors' attitudes toward adaptation to climate change are examined. Three-fourths of advisors believe climate change is occurring, but disagree on the human contribution. Trust in information sources predicted agricultural advisors' belief in climate change. Consistent with the availability heuristic, perceiving variability in weather made advisors more likely to believe in anthropogenic climate change. Believing climate change is at least partly human caused increased agreement that agricultural adaptation is important. Perceiving greater risk from potential climate impacts and noticing variable weather also significantly increased adaptation attitudes. Findings suggest that trust and availability heuristic could be added to help explain the processes of social amplification and attenuation of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to industrial air toxics in U.S. cities vary with neighborhood income, and how these disparities vary regionally across the country. Exposure is estimated at the census block-group level using geographic microdata from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We find that racial and ethnic disparities in pollution exposure are strongest among neighborhoods with median incomes below $25,000, while income-based disparities are stronger among neighborhoods with median incomes above that level. We also find considerable differences in the patterns of disparity across the ten EPA regions. In the two regions with the highest median exposure (the Midwest and South Central regions), for example, African-Americans and Hispanics face significantly higher exposures than whites, whereas in the region with the next highest exposure (the Mid-Atlantic), the reverse is true. We show that the latter result is attributable to intercity variations – minorities tend to live in the less polluted cities in the region – rather than to within-city variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear energy has an important role to play in combating climate change, but first the United States must address the safety and security concerns that come along with it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent decade has witnessed an increase in irrigated acreage in the southeast United States due to the shift in cropping patterns, climatic conditions, and water availability. Peanut, a major legume crop cultivated in Georgia, Southeast United States, has been a staple food in the American household. Regardless of its significant contribution to the global production of peanuts (fourth largest), studies related to local or regional scale water consumption in peanut production and its significant environmental impacts are scarce. Therefore, the present research contributes to the water footprint of peanut crops in eight counties of Georgia and its potential ecological impacts. The impact categories relative to water consumption (water depletion—green and blue water scarcity) and pesticide use (water degradation—potential freshwater ecotoxicity) using crop-specific characterization factors are estimated for the period 2007 to 2017 at the mid-point level. These impacts are transformed into damages to the area of protection in terms of ecosystem quality at the end-point level. This is the first county-wise quantification of the water footprint and its impact assessment using ISO 14046 framework in the southeast United States. The results suggest inter-county differences in water consumption of crops with higher blue water requirements than green and grey water. According to the water footprint analysis of the peanut crop conducted in this study, additional irrigation is recommended in eight Georgia counties. The mid-point level impact assessment owing to water consumption and pesticide application reveals that the potential freshwater ecotoxicity impacts at the planting and growing stages are higher for chemicals with high characterization factors regardless of lower pesticide application rates. Multiple regression analysis indicates blue water, yield, precipitation, maximum surface temperature, and growing degree days are the potential factors influencing freshwater ecotoxicity impacts. Accordingly, a possible impact pathway of freshwater ecotoxicity connecting the inventory flows and the ecosystem quality is defined. This analysis is helpful in the comparative environmental impact assessments for other major crops in Georgia and aids in water resource management decisions. The results from the study could be of great relevance to the southeast United States, as well as other regions with similar climatic zones and land use patterns. The assessment of water use impacts relative to resource availability can assist farmers in determining the timing and layout of crop planting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' National Environmental Policy Act is a knowledge production process required by federal government agencies to assist in their evaluation of the environmental (and social) impacts of proposed federal agency actions prior to their implementation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which manages immigrant detention in the United States, is included among these federal agencies. Using Texas as a case study, we explore how the National Environmental Policy Act process, as it relates to immigrant detention, systematically produces ignorance while also producing knowledge. We identify four forms of absence: absence of process in Department of Homeland Security's use of Categorical Exclusions and programmatic Environmental Assessments, absence of actors in the exclusion of people who are detained as an "affected" social group, absence of alternatives in how "meaningful alternatives" are identified in Environmental Assessments, and absence of discourse with the public in the Environmental Assessment process. In addition, we consider how these absences reflect and perpetuate existing social and environmental inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the business feasibility of freeze-dried powdered drink mix from Thai-grown Nam Dok Mai (NDM) mango for exportation to the United States. Since food processing generates large quantities of greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to global warming, the cradle-to-grave environmental impact of the mango powdered mix, specifically global warming potential (GWP), was determined using life cycle assessment. Based on the feasibility analysis, the mango powdered mix is thus positioned as a novelty for health-conscious and environmentally-concerned consumers because the product uses NDM mango fruits of premium quality as the main ingredient and carries a carbon footprint label on the packaging. A 50 g sachet of freeze-dried NDM mango powdered drink mix is priced at USD 7.80. The financial analysis showed that the mango drink mix possesses great business potential with high profitability. The environmental impact assessment identified the freeze drying process as the dominant contributor of GWP (15.40 kgCO 2 eq) due to high electricity consumption. • This paper deals with feasibility analysis of Thai-grown mango powdered drink mix. • Cradle-to-grave global warming potential of the freeze-dried mango mix is assessed. • Freeze drying contributes the most to GWP due to high electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to use environmental impact assessment tools to aggregate scientific information, garner stakeholder input, and weigh alternatives for infrastructure siting and operations decisions.Thus, NEPA plays a sweeping role in federal infrastructure provisioning. Using a comprehensive dataset of Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) prepared under NEPA from 2013 to 2019, we use natural language processing to identify geographic locations and artificial neural networks to classify discussed environmental impacts. We then describe geographic, temporal, and environmental trends in federal infrastructure provisioning. Finally, we use Bayesian hierarchical regression to assess how socio‐economic and demographic covariates shape county‐level EIS counts. Numerous federal agencies are involved in EIS production, but three agencies author the majority of EISs. Total EISs issued annually have declined since the early 2000s. EISs are more frequent in urban coastal counties, but do not show clear distributive trends by income or race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, forest governance practices have utilized a variety of public participation mechanisms to improve decision-making and instill public legitimacy. However, comments, one of the most frequent and accessible avenues for the public to provide input, has received little attention. Further, there has been no analysis of the ways that government actors utilize this form of public participation in their decision-making. I empirically examine responses to public comments across the United States Forest Service to understand how they handle and deal with public feedback on forestry projects. I employed two qualitative approaches that examine comment handling processes and agency justifications for responding to comments. Through this empirical work, I found that agency employees utilize a range of strategies to handle and respond to public concerns. I present data suggestive that most public comments received are outside of agency personnel decision-making capacity and thus, personnel respond to comments in ways that deny their worth and block those concerns from project agenda setting. Understanding how the United States Forest Service thinks about and deals with public input will help forest managers and public commenters better negotiate efficacy in projects and decisions that affect forestland areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unbalanced exploitation of renewable and non-renewable resources by industrial, agricultural, and other economic sectors are depleting these resources across the world. Environmental pollution and degradation are adversely affecting socio-economic conditions. Thus, an urgent and ambitious action is required to rehabilitate nature by striking a balance between environmental quality and human uses of natural resources. To relieve the unsustainable practices, decoupling nature from growing demands for economic exploitation has been proposed. However, a feasible procedure is required to decouple unsustainable economic practices from the environment. This article illustrates the complexity of applying decoupling in the context of discharging hazardous chemicals in transboundary water resources, and more specifically in the Great Lakes, between Canada and the United States. Furthermore, the article argues that "environmental impact assessment" should be reinforced in regulatory measures to apply the decoupling idea practically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To test applicability of an environmental assessment instrument in new settings, the ratings and reliability of the SOS Tool were compared in diverse settings with a similar climate: Milan, Italy; and Bryan/College Station, Texas, USA. This instrument evaluates physical environment support for outdoor usage by residents at senior facilities. Two trained raters assigned ratings (using a 1–7 scale) to the 60 instrument items at each setting (Italy: 94 outdoor spaces, 67 facilities; US: 22 outdoor spaces, 12 facilities). Overall mean ratings were similar across both sites (6% difference), and three of the five domains had comparable mean ratings. Mean inter-rater reliability was good in both settings but higher in Italy (ICC =.97 versus.82). Despite geographic/cultural differences, mean ratings for most items and domains were surprisingly similar between Italy and the US. This finding, and the high inter-rater reliability found in both settings, suggest this instrument may be useful in a wide range of settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment toxicity is usually assessed by conducting laboratory bioassays on thoroughly homogenized, field‐collected, sediment samples. Although it is generally held that these bioassays provide a conservative assessment of the potential for environmental impact, there are few studies comparing the results of laboratory sediment bioassays with actual measures of benthic community health in exposed field populations. To help inform an understanding of the relative efficacy of laboratory‐based bioassays in predicting potential impacts in exposed field populations, a laboratory‐to‐field comparison study was conducted. Laboratory bioassays included standard 10‐d acute toxicity tests measuring survival in 4 species of estuarine/marine amphipods (Eohaustorius estuarius, Ampelisca abdita, Rhepoxinius abronius, and Leptocheirus plumulosus) and 2 longer term, 28‐d sublethal tests with a marine polychaete, Neanthes arenaceodentata (survival and growth), and the amphipod L. plumulosus (survival, growth, and reproduction). A highly contaminated and toxic sediment was mixed with a cleaner sediment of similar grain size to produce a series of diluted contaminated sediment treatments (0, 6, 12, 25, and 50%). Sediment treatments were placed in containers and deployed in the field. At specified intervals (at time of deployment and 9 and 12 mo post deployment), containers were retrieved from the field and analyzed for sediment chemistry, infaunal community composition, and toxicity. Laboratory toxicity endpoints were compared with measures of benthic community health to evaluate the ability of the toxicity tests to accurately predict benthic impacts. The results of these comparisons indicate that the laboratory tests evaluated provide conservative estimates of potential benthic community impacts, with both acute and chronic tests detecting effects at lower treatment levels than were detected in exposed field populations using traditional measures of benthic community health. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:1784–1802. Published 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work, and as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to engage in a public participation process when making decisions that affect the environment. The technical complexity of the NEPA public participation process blocks the public from participating in an agency's decision-making process, and agencies often struggle to take public comments seriously while creating Environmental Impact Statements. Furthermore, National Environmental Policy Act lawsuits filed against agencies usually revolve around complex technical or scientific issues that are divorced from the concerns and values articulated by stories that the public tells about its relationship to the natural world. The result of this disconnect between public comments and agency considerations means that the Environmental Impact Statement process often addresses public comments grounded in technical arguments while failing to engage comments founded on other values. Looking at WildEarth Guardians v. the Bureau of Land Management and the public comments filed with the Bureau of Land Management related to that case, I argue that a law and literature analysis helps explain why agencies struggle tofully engage the public while implementing the National Environmental Policy Act. A core problem with the law's current public participation process is that it privileges environmental narratives of efficient economic and scientific management over all other environmental narratives. However, many values cannot be expressed through those narratives because not all values are economic or scientific. And those values are best communicated using different environmental narratives. This literary framework reveals some significant challenges that will be difficult to overcome in seeking to improve the National Environmental Policy Act public participation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production and burning of fossil fuels is the primary contributor to CO2 emissions for the U.S. We assess the impact of producing coal, crude oil, and natural gas on the environment and economic well-being by analyzing state-level data from 2001 to 2015. Our findings show that coal production has led to more CO2 emissions and no significant benefit to economic well-being. Crude oil production has a non-significant impact on CO2 emissions but is related to a lower poverty rate, a higher median household income, and a higher employment rate. Natural gas withdrawals have a positive impact on median household income. We discuss these findings in the context of current U.S. energy policies and then provide directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed whether and how government--business partnerships (GBPs) offer a unique platform that targets profound environmental impacts via the promotion of radical eco-innovation. It applied transactional cost and complementary logics to explain the rationale of GBP formation for radical eco-innovation, and further assessed the operation of GBPs from governance, learning, and rulemaking aspects. This study applied propensity score matching technique to empirically test these theoretical associations using 225 observations representing 166 U.S. firms' participation in 192 environmental alliances between 1985 and 2013. The study results confirmed GBPs' role in channeling public and private efforts in pursuing transformative environmental change via the adoption of radical eco-innovation goals. Results highlight four critical elements of GBP operation--effective governance, exploration learning, cognitive learning, and rulemaking--that enable participants to embrace these radical environmental solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying and understanding the natural streamflow regime, defined as expected streamflow that would occur in the absence of anthropogenic modification to the hydrologic system, is critically important for the development of management strategies aimed at protecting aquatic ecosystems. Water balance models have been applied frequently to estimate natural flows, but are limited in the number of predictor variables that can be included. Here, a statistical machine learning technique — random forest modeling — was applied to estimate natural flows at a monthly time‐step from 1950 to 2015 for >2.5 million stream reaches in the conterminous United States (U.S.) using 200 potential predictor variables. We describe the development and documentation of this dataset and assess model performance. Model fit statistics (mean Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency = 0.85; observed/expected ratio = 0.94) indicate good correspondence between predicted and observed flows at nearly 2,000 streamgages. As an example application of the dataset, the observed streamflow record at a site prior to and after the construction of an upstream reservoir was compared with estimated natural flows to demonstrate the magnitude of seasonal depletions in streamflow due to the reservoir. This dataset can be applied to quantify natural and anthropogenic processes contributing to streamflow depletion or augmentation, and assess associated ecological effects. Research Impact Statement: Natural streamflow estimates are critical for quantifying natural and anthropogenic processes contributing to streamflow depletion or augmentation, and for assessing associated ecological effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]