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Introduction:Hazardous materials are widely used in modern society, including in industry, business, agriculture, research, healthcare, and other sectors. As sea levels continue to rise around the globe, locations where hazardous materials are produced, stored, transported, or utilized become increasingly vulnerable to flooding, storm surge, and other problems that can result in accidental releases. Such releases can pose threats to health, the environment, and the economic viability of communities.Aim:This paper reports on a new pilot project in Coastal Virginia to increase awareness, enhance safeguards, and strengthen preparedness for the growing threat of hazardous material releases posed by rising sea levels.Methods:Launched under the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR) at Old Dominion University, with support from the ODU Resilience Collaborative, the project includes several components. One part identifies hazardous materials sectors that could be affected by rising seas. Another component consists of case studies of locations that have already been affected. A third component involves stakeholder workshops where participants work collaboratively to enhance safeguards and strengthen preparedness.Results:Designed in 2017 and 2018, the project secured initial funding early in 2018. Since then, the project has worked to identify sectors and activities that could be affected by rising seas and establish links with key stakeholder agencies, sectors, and organizations. The next steps, to be completed in 2019, involve preparation of case studies from facilities already affected by rising sea levels, and the implementation of the first in a series of stakeholder workshops.Discussion:As sea levels rise, more hazardous materials locations become vulnerable. Proactively addressing this threat is an essential part of sea level rise preparedness, adaptation, and resilience. The new pilot project in Coastal Virginia is intended to help address this challenge by increasing awareness and bringing stakeholders together to collaboratively identify practical steps forward.

The early Proterozoic rapakivi suite in the Ketilidian mobile belt of South Greenland is bimodal with an abundance of mafic plutons which mingled and hybridised with the rapakivi granites. Basic rocks lacking signs of hybridisation and with mineralogy and bulk compositions apparently unaffected by proximity to the granites are enriched in large ion lithophile element (LILE) relative to high field strength element (HFSE) and have moderate Nb depletion. These are characteristics common to basic rocks found in back-arc basins. This tectono-magmatic environment supports a model for the late Ketilidian of crustal extension, probably caused by slab roll-back and is in keeping with the low-pressure, high-temperature metamorphic conditions which prevailed when the rapakivi suite was emplaced. Nd and Sr isotopes confirm the juvenile character of the Ketilidian crust and rapakivi granites. Hybrid mafic rocks have low eNd compared to depleted mantle, while apparently unhybridised examples have also undergone some isotopic modification.

Because of the highly complex nature of chemical and nuclear accidents, efforts aimed at prevention, preparedness and response require the melding of many types of knowledge and the close collaboration of a wide range of professions. Nevertheless, the need for such integration and cooperation is not always strongly emphasized in university-level curricula. As a result, developing professionals have few opportunities to learn and practise unified models of environmental accident management. In an effort to foster a more integrative approach, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, has launched the “Environmental Disasters” project. The project crosses disciplinary boundaries with respect to both curriculum and enrollment. In terms of curriculum, the project examines chemical and nuclear accidents from a multi-dimensional perspective, considering not only regulatory, scientific and policy issues, but also the public health, social, and psychological implications. In terms of enrollment, the project brings together students from the full range of fields that are involved with environmental accidents, including engineering, public health, public administration, social work, psychology, nursing, communications, medicine, and environmental studies. Emphasizing the need for a collaborative approach, students work in multi-disciplinary teams as they explore theory, case studies and current research. In addition, the student teams develop detailed plans for addressing the effects of a chemical or nuclear disaster. With environmental accidents representing an on-going threat to health and safety, the approach discussed in this article may provide a useful model for environmental disaster education at the university level.

The rapakivi granites of South Greenland were emplaced into the Ketilidian orogenic belt at about 1.74 Ga during an episode of extensional tectonics. Petrographically, they can be subdivided into a roughly subequal black facies and white facies, distinguished by the colour (turbidity) of the alkali feldspars and by the associated mineralogy which is more hydrous (i.e., amphibole and biotite compared to olivine and pyroxene) in the white facies. The oxygen isotope composition of these rocks is notably homogeneous; from thirteen outcrops sampled over an area extending some 200 km×100 km all alkali feldspars have an average δ 18 O of 10.2±0.4‰. This lack of variation is consistent with the consensus petrogenetic model which invokes a very well mixed two-component protolith; the high abundance of 18 O (mean whole rock δ 18 O =9.4‰) argues that the major contribution (perhaps 90%), although originally mantle-derived, had undergone 18 O enrichment in a low temperature sedimentary cycle. There is no oxygen isotopic distinction between alkali feldspars in the black and white facies, which is argued to be a consequence of the relatively anhydrous nature of the melt. Hydrogen isotope compositions vary widely—by 30‰—but are coherent on a hand specimen scale, as demonstrated by approximately equal δD of biotite and alkali feldspar. It is not clear at which stage the D/H heterogeneity was introduced.

Objectives Understanding and effectively addressing persistent health disparities in minority communities requires a clear picture of members' concerns and priorities. This study was intended to engage residents in urban and rural communities in order to identify environmental health priorities. Specific emphasis was placed on how the communities: defined the term environment; their perceptions of environmental exposures as affecting their health; specific priorities in their communities; and differences in urban versus rural populations. Study design A community-engaged approach was used to develop and implement focus groups and compare environmental health priorities in urban versus rural communities. Methods A total of eight focus groups were conducted: four in rural and four in urban communities. Topics included: defining the term environment; how the environment may affect health; and environmental priorities within their communities, using both open discussion and a predefined list. Data were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively to identify patterns and trends. Results There were important areas of overlap in priorities between urban and rural communities; both emphasized the importance of the social environment and shared a concern over air pollution from industrial sources. In contrast, for urban focus groups, abandoned houses and their social and physical sequelae were a high priority while concerns about adequate sewer and water services and road maintenance were high priorities in rural communities. Conclusions This study was able to identify environmental health priorities in urban versus rural minority communities. In contrast to some previous risk perception research, the results of this study suggest prioritization of tangible, known risks in everyday life instead of rare, disaster-related events, even in communities that have recently experienced devastating damage from tornadoes. The findings can help inform future efforts to study, understand and effectively address environmental issues, and are particularly relevant to developing effective community-based strategies in vulnerable populations.