Identification of industrial sources of airborne heavy metal pollution in urban areas

The research examines the deposition of airborne particles which contain heavy metals and investigates the methods that can be used to identify their sources. The research focuses on lead and cadmium because these two metals are of growing public and scientific concern on environmental health grounds. The research consists of three distinct parts. The first is the development and evaluation of a new deposition measurement instrument - the deposit cannister - designed specifically for large-scale surveys in urban areas. The deposit cannister is specifically designed to be cheap, robust, and versatile and therefore to permit comprehensive high-density urban surveys. The siting policy reduces contamination from locally resuspended surface-dust. The second part of the research has involved detailed surveys of heavy metal deposition in Walsall, West Midlands, using the new high-density measurement method. The main survey, conducted over a six-week period in November - December 1982, provided 30-day samples of deposition at 250 different sites. The results have been used to examine the magnitude and spatial variability of deposition rates in the case-study area, and to evaluate the performance of the measurement method. The third part of the research has been to conduct a 'source-identification' exercise. The methods used have been Receptor Models - Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis - and a predictive source-based deposition model. The results indicate that there are six main source processes contributing to deposition of metals in the Walsall area: coal combustion, vehicle emissions, ironfounding, copper refining and two general industrial/urban processes. |A source-based deposition model has been calibrated using facctorscores for one source factor as the dependent variable, rather than metal deposition rates, thus avoiding problems traditionally encountered in calibrating models in complex multi-source areas. Empirical evidence supports the hypothesised associatlon of this factor with emissions of metals from the ironfoundry industry.

The impact on agriculture of the drawdown of shallow watertables

The promoters of the large groundwater developments implemented in the 1970's paid little attention to the effects of pumping on soil moisture. A field study, conducted in 1979 in the Tern Area of the Shropshire Groundwater Scheme, revealed that significant quantities of the available moisture could be removed from the root zone of vegetation when drawdown of shallow watertables occurred. Arguments to this effect, supported by the field study evidence, were successfully presented at the Shropshire Groundwater Scheme public inquiry. The aim of this study has been to expand the work which was undertaken in connection with the Shropshire Groundwater Scheme, and to develop a method whereby the effects of groundwater pumping on vegetation can be assessed, and hence the impacts minimised. Two concepts, the critical height and the soil sensitivity depth, formulated during the initial work are at the core of the Environmental Impact Assessment method whose development is described. A programme of laboratory experiments on soil columns is described, as is the derivation of relationships for determining critical heights and field capacity moisture profiles. These relationships are subsequently employed in evaluating the effects of groundwater drawdown. In employing the environmental assessment technique, digitised maps of relevant features of the Tern Area are combined to produce composite maps delineating the extent of the areas which are potentially sensitive to groundwater drawdown. A series of crop yield/moisture loss functions are then employed to estimate the impact of simulated pumping events on the agricultural community of the Tern Area. Finally, guidelines, based on experience gained through evaluation of the Tern Area case study, are presented for use in the design of soil moisture monitoring systems and in the siting of boreholes. In addition recommendations are made for development of the EIA technique, and further research needs are identified.

A legal perspective of integrated surface mining, solid waste landfill reclamation and land conservation

In the area of international environmental law this thesis proposes the formulation of one-step planning and permitting regulation for the integrated utilisation of new surface mines as depositories for municipal solid waste. Additionally, the utilisation of abandoned and currently operated surface mines is proposed as solid waste landfills as an integral step in their reclamation. Existing laws, litigation and issues in the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Canada are discussed because of their common legal system, language and heritage. The critical shortage of approved space for disposal of solid waste has caused an urgent and growing problem for both the waste disposal industry and society. Surface mining can serve three important environmental and societal functions inuring to the health and welfare of the public: (1) providing basic minerals for goods and construction; (20 sequentially, to provide critically needed, safe burial sites for society's wastes, and (3) to conserve land by dual purpose use and to restore derelict land to beneficial surface use. Currently, the first two functions are treated environmentally, and in regulation, as two different siting problems, yet they both are earth-disturbing and excavating industries requiring surface restoration. The processes are largely duplicative and should be combined for better efficiency, less earth disturbance, conservation of land, and for fuller and better reclamation of completed surface mines returning the surfaces to greater utility than present mined land reclamation procedures. While both industries are viewed by a developed society and its communities as "bad neighbours", they remain essential and critical for mankind's existence and welfare. The study offers successful examples of the integrated process in each country. The study argues that most non-fuel surface mine openings, if not already safe, can economically, through present containment technology, be made environmentally safe for use as solid waste landfills. Simultaneously, the procedure safeguards and monitors protection of ground and surface waters from landfill contamination.

Negotiating proximity:expert testimony and collective memory in the trials of environmental activists in France and the United Kingdom

This article analyzes the role of expert witness testimony in the trials of social movement actors, discussing the trial of the "Kingsnorth Six" in Britain and the trials of activists currently mobilising against airport construction at Notre Dame des Landes in western France. Though the study of expert testimony has so far overwhelmingly concentrated on fact-finding and admissibility, the cases here reveal the importance of expert testimony not simply in terms of legal argument, but in "moral" or political terms, as it reflects and constitutes movement cognitive praxis. In the so-called climate change defence presented by the Kingsnorth Six, I argue that expert testimony attained a "negotiation of proximity," connecting different types of contributory expertise to link the scales and registers of climate science with those of everyday understanding and meaning. Expert testimony in the trials of activists in France, however, whilst ostensibly able to develop similar bridging narratives, has instead been used to construct resistance to the airport siting as already proximate, material, and embedded. To explain this, I argue that attention to the symbolic, as well as instrumental, functions of expert testimony reveals the crucial role that collective memory plays in the construction of both knowledge and grievance in these cases. Collective memory is both a constraint on and catalyst for mobilisation, defining the boundaries of the sayable. Testimony in trials both reflects and reproduces these elements and is a vital explanatory tool for understanding the narrativisation and communication of movement identities and objectives. © 2013 The Author. Law & Policy © 2013 The University of Denver/Colorado Seminary.

Enabling long journeys in electric vehicles:design and demonstration of an infrastructure location model

This research develops a methodology and model formulation which suggests locations for rapid chargers to help assist infrastructure development and enable greater battery electric vehicle (BEV) usage. The model considers the likely travel patterns of BEVs and their subsequent charging demands across a large road network, where no prior candidate site information is required. Using a GIS-based methodology, polygons are constructed which represent the charging demand zones for particular routes across a real-world road network. The use of polygons allows the maximum number of charging combinations to be considered whilst limiting the input intensity needed for the model. Further polygons are added to represent deviation possibilities, meaning that placement of charge points away from the shortest path is possible, given a penalty function. A validation of the model is carried out by assessing the expected demand at current rapid charging locations and comparing to recorded empirical usage data. Results suggest that the developed model provides a good approximation to real world observations, and that for the provision of charging, location matters. The model is also implemented where no prior candidate site information is required. As such, locations are chosen based on the weighted overlay between several different routes where BEV journeys may be expected. In doing so many locations, or types of locations, could be compared against one another and then analysed in relation to siting practicalities, such as cost, land permission and infrastructure availability. Results show that efficient facility location, given numerous siting possibilities across a large road network can be achieved. Slight improvements to the standard greedy adding technique are made by adding combination weightings which aim to reward important long distance routes that require more than one charge to complete.