Robert B. Wenger

A method for assessing environmental risk: A case study of Green Bay, Lake Michigan, USA

The Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that risk reduction strategies become the centerpiece of environmental protection. The goal in developing such strategies is to identify opportunities for greatest reduction of ecological risks. This is a perspective that is significantly more comprehensive than the traditional focus on human health risks arising from environmental degradation. The identification of ecological risks upon which environmental protection efforts should be focused requires an ecological risk assessment methodology that is based on anthropogenic stressors affecting an ecosystem and a set of impaired use criteria. A methodology based on this concept is developed and discussed in this article. The methodology requires that risk values be assigned to each ecosystem stressor-impaired use pair that reflect the degree to which the given stressor contributes to ecosystem risk as measured by the given impaired use criterion. Once these data are available, mathematical analyses based on concepts from fuzzy set theory are performed to obtain a ranking of ecosystem stressors. The methodology has been tested by applying it to a case study involving Green Bay of Lake Michigan. A workshop was held in which 11 persons with extensive knowledge of the Green Bay ecosystem determined risk values through a group-consensus process. The analytical portion of the methodology was then used to rank the ecosystem risks (stressors) from several perspectives, including prevention management and remediation management. The overall conclusion of the workshop participants was that the fuzzy set decision model is a useful and effective methodology for differentiating environmental risk.

Environmental impact assessment in the People's Republic of China

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures have been in existence in the Peoples Republic of China over the last decade. The impetus for Chinas introduction of EIA was provided by the Environmental Protection Law of the Peoples Republic of China, which was adopted by the Fifth National Peoples Congress in 1979. The EIA process, which is administrative and not statutorily mandated, has been applied primarily to construction projects.Four stages are typically involved in an EIA investigation: design of the investigation, evaluation of background environmental quality, prediction of environmental impacts, and an assessment and analysis of the environmental impacts. A variety of approaches is used for predicting and analyzing environmental impacts, ranging from ad hoc methods to fairly sophisticated mathematical models. The results of the EIA investigation are compiled in an environmental impact statement, which is used as the basis for decision making by personnel in environmental protection departments. The EIA process does not include provisions for citizen notification or involvement.Views differ concerning the effectiveness of the EIA program in protecting Chinas natural, social, and cultural environments. Some hold that the EIA program has brought about improvement in environmental protection, while critics contend that the program has had little effect in the prevention of pollution. However, most, if not all, observers seem to feel that the program should be continued and improved. A major avenue for improvement is to place the evaluation of a particular project in a regional context.

A Faculty Merit Pay Allocation Model

Merit review processes within academic departments usually consist of two parts: a performance review and evaluation step and a monetary calculation step. Of the two, the performance review step is clearly the more important in achieving fairness and equity. However, the monetary calculation step also plays a key role in maintaining the integrity of the overall process. In an attempt to address the issue of salary compression, the principle used by most departments in allocating merit pay is to award comparable percentage increases in salary to faculty members with similar merit ratings. A merit pay allocation model based on this principle is presented in this paper. The model, a major generalization of an earlier one presented by Camp, Gibbs, and Masters (1988), enables users to calculate merit pay amounts for individual faculty members in a systematic and efficient manner. It is also sufficiently flexible to allow for the incorporation of policy directives often contained in pay packages.

Relating disposal-based solid waste reduction rates to recycling rates

Abstract Some states measure progress in their waste reduction programs on the basis of recycling rates, while others use disposal-based reduction rates. It is generally recognized that these two measures are conceptually distinct. Nevertheless, when informational surveys of waste reduction activities are compiled, the data are usually combined in a manner that blurs this distinction and complicates the issues involved. In this paper, these two concepts are defined in a precise manner and equations are derived which clearly depict the relationship between recycling rates and disposal-based reduction rates. Information from a national survey and the US Environmental Protection Agency is used to illustrate the concepts which are developed in the paper.

Water Diversion Projects in China

Water is a basic necessity for organisms living on the earth. Most organisms, including humans, consist mainly of water and live on a planet that is dominated by water. Yet, despite this global abundance of water and its renewable characteristics, as much as one-fifth of the world’s population lives under conditions of water scarcity. This scarcity is due primarily to the heterogeneous distribution of freshwater in space and time. The availability of water is an important factor in determining the distribution of human populations, but historical, social, political, and institutional factors may contribute to situations where large groups of people suffer from shortages of fresh water.

Capital costs of resource recovery facilities in the U.S.A.

The capital costs of existing and proposed resource recovery facilities in the U.S.A. are analysed as a function of facility size and type. Empirical relationships are developed to relate capital costs of modular incinerators, heat-recovery incinerators, rotary combustors, and refuse-derived fuel facilities to design capacities. The scale factors are compared to published values. Economies of scale are not present except for small refuse-derived fuel and steam generating facilities handling less than 1000 tonne day-1.

A framework for incorporating stream use in the determination of priority watersheds.

The identification of priority watersheds is an important component in planning activities associated with non-point source pollution abatement. The identification of priority watersheds is a complex issue at best, but it is made even more so in certain cases by the desire of water quality planners to take stream use into account when making decisions. Thus, for example, certain streams may be classified as potential sport fisheries, while others may be designated as suitable for tolerant forage fish. It may be the case that the impact of non-point source pollution upon one stream is less than that upon a second stream when viewed strictly in terms of the physical condition of the streams. Yet, when viewed from the standpoint of habitat suitability for different fish species, the priority judgement could be reversed. A methodological framework is presented which allows planners to take stream use into account in the determination of priority watersheds. The framework provides a formal structure for organizing non-point source data associated with specific watersheds and stream habitat data for various fish species in a manner suitable as inputs to two fuzzy set models. The fuzzy set models incorporate the imprecision and fuzziness characteristic of non-point source water pollution problems. In an illustrative application to the Kewaunee River Basin in Wisconsin, U.S.A., the methodology is used to identify priority watersheds when streams are categorized on the basis of potential fisheries.

Optimal Service for Solid Waste Facilities

An empirical method to determine the optimal size of a service region for a solid waste facility is presented. Population data from a region surrounding Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.A. and published cost data are used to illustrate the use of the method and to provide insight into the optimal values of the radius of the region when the facility is a landfill or an incinerator.

Optimal service regions for solid waste facilities

Abstract An empirical method to determine the optimal size of a service region for a solid waste facility is presented. Population data from a region surrounding Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.A. and published cost data are used to illustrate the use of the method and to provide insight into the optimal values of the radius of the region when the facility is a landfill or an incinerator.

The development of a heat income function for regional solid waste management

A heat income function is developed for the calculation of heat income obtained when heat generated in a solid waste incinerator is sold in the form of hot water to a district heating facility. The heat income function takes into account the variation in the demand for heat over the course of the year and the seasonal variation in the generation of solid waste. The use of the heat income function as a tool in regional solid waste planning is illustrated with an application to the island of Funen in Denmark. A mixed integer programming model is used to find the optimal location of incinerators based on the district heating facility demands at the potential locations.