Water supply pipes, sewers and wastewater treatment plants are in need of renovation in many places. However, current water policies in Switzerland are inadequate for the durable and strategic planning of such infrastructure. How must tools and planning processes be adapted to the changes in nature and society? Background Infrastructure in the water sector should be as long-lived as possible. However, its planning is very complex: extreme events such as droughts and floods should be taken into account to the same extent as the increasing water demand or the demographic development. Also, the stakeholders are to be included in the decision making processes. The division of waste water disposal and drinking water supply into separate organizational entities is a weak point in the planning process. Instruments are available to identify infrastructural flaws in a municipality and to recommend investment plans. But they do not make long-term planning possible - amongst other things because the necessary tools are not available. Objectives and methods Decision making support will be developed so that the long-term planning of water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure can be improved. The project will strive for a balance between economic costs, ecological aspects and social values. Special attention will be given to the fact that many communities have only limited data concerning their infrastructure and that future developments cannot be predicted with certainty. Subjective preferences of the various policy-makers will be integrated by means of a multi-layered decision analysis. Decision making support will be developed and validated in several municipalities, together with the practically-oriented partners. Significance The tools that will be developed assist the transition from problem-based 'repairs' to foresighted planning of water infrastructure. The stakeholders participating in the case studies will be sensitized for planning issues by being included in a forward-looking, joint planning process. This approach can be adapted to other difficult decision-making situations in which many different stakeholders are involved.
Humanity has influenced and changed the large majority of the earths landscapes, especially those in urban areas. There is no doubt that it is crucial to include human dimensions - perceptions, attitudes, preferences etc. - in terms of landscape inheritance, conservation, development and management or what. Public perception and preference research has a long lasting history in landscape subjects, and has been playing an important role in practical implementation. This study will be conducted in Suzhou, China - a typical Chinese city with numerous ancient cultural heritages and facing endless modernization and urbanization. Literate review will be thoroughly carried out on respect to the processes, states, significances of human dimensions for landscapes. The interpretation of historical materials about landscape changes during decades of the research site will be completed. The targeted objects will be the residents there and visitors. There are still more than 200.000 permanent residents living in the research core, who represent the main force of conserving the ancient heritages lasted thousands years. Therefore, their attitudes towards the landscape changes, ancient landscape elements or symbols are vital, and should be included in routines for landscape design, management and conservation. Moreover, up to millions of visitors from both inside and outside of China come to Suzhou every year, which makes the study concerning their perceptions and preferences even more critical. The well-structured questionnaires, together with semi-open or open interviews will be applied aimed at different targeted groups, and the results will be interpreted and evaluated based on scientific theories and methodologies in both quantitative and qualitative ways. Eventually, how these findings could be used to inform the landscape policy-makers, designer, planner or managers and how to transfer the results into practical status in other cities of China or even in other developing countries facing the same dilemmas would be generated.
Zur Bestimmung der Konzentrationen linearer Alkylbenzolsulfonate (LAS) und Alkylethersulfate (AES) in Kläranlagenabläufen wurden 7-Tagesmischproben (n=33) an Abläufe von 33 konventionellen Kläranlagen in Deutschland genommen. Zudem wurden an vier der untersuchten Kläranlagen die Zuläufe beprobt und ebenfalls auf LAS und AES untersucht, um Rückschlüsse auf die Entfernung dieser Tenside in konventionellen Kläranlagen ziehen zu können. Insgesamt umfasste die Studie die Analyse von vier LAS-Homologen (C10-C13) sowie von jeweils 10 Ethoxymeren zweier Homologe von AES (C12 und C14, jeweils mit 0-9 Ethoxygruppen). Die Probenvorbereitung bestand aus der Entfernung der wässrigen Phase mit Hilfe eines Rotations-Vakuum-Konzentrators und anschließender Resolvatisierung des Trockenrückstandes in einer definierten Menge Reinstwasser und Acetonitril. Die Identifikation und Quantifizierung der Zielanalyten erfolgte mittels Hochleistungsflüssigkeitschromatographie mit Tandem-Massenspektrometrie-Kopplung (HPLC-MS/MS). Die Leistungsfähigkeit der analytischen Methoden wurde in Leitungswasser und Kläranlagenablauf evaluiert. Die Analysemethoden zeigten für beide Matrices eine allgemein gute Richtigkeit sowie Präzision. Basierend auf den geschätzten mittleren Konzentrationen einzelner LAS-Homologe wurde eine mittlere Gesamtkonzentration von 14,4 Mikro g/L in Kläranlagenabläufen ermittelt. Verglichen mit LAS, wurden für AES stets geringere Gesamtkonzentrationen im Ablauf gemessen: Die mittlere AES-Gesamtkonzentration in den Abläufen betrug 0,57 Mikro g/L. Zwischen den Gesamtkonzentrationen von AES und LAS bestand keine Korrelation. In den Zuläufen beprobter Kläranlagen wurden im Mittel 3.200 Mikro g/L LAS detektiert. Damit betrug die mittlere Entfernung für LAS 99,6 %. Die mittlere AES-Konzentration im Kläranlagenzulauf belief sich auf 680 Mikro g/L, was einer mittleren AES-Entfernung von größer als 99.9% entspricht. Retrospektives Screening von 1.564 Tensiden und deren Transformationsprodukte (TPs) erfolgte durch ein zweites Labor unter Anwendung der Ultrahochleistungsflüssigkeitschromatographie mit Flugzeitmassenspektrometer-Kopplung (UHPLC-QTOF-MS). In vielen Fällen wurde die Konzentration von LAS von der Summe der Konzentrationen der Neben- und Transformationsprodukte von LAS überstiegen. Für die LAS-Nebenprodukte Dialkyltetralinsulfonate (DATS) lag die maximale Summenkonzentration bei 19 Mikro g/L, für die Sulfophenylalkylcarbonsäuren (SPACs) bei 17 Mikro g/L und für die Sulfotetralinalkylcarbonsäuren (STACs) bei 5,3 Mikro g/L. Hohe Konzentrationen von bis zu 7,4 Ìg/L wurden für Polyethylenoglycole in den Abwasserproben bestimmt. Die Gesamtkonzentration aller quantifizierten Tenside, TPs und Nebenprodukte in einer einzelnen Probe betrug bis zu 82 Mikro g/L.
The Network of Excellence, ECATS, will be a durable and long lasting means of cooperation and communication within Europe, made up of a number of leading Research Establishments and Universities who have expertise in the field of aeronautics and the environment. ECATS's vision is to contribute to the environmental goals of the Vision 2020 for Aeronautics and the Strategic Research Agenda. The overall goals of ECATS are to create a European Virtual Institute for research of environmental compatible air transport; to develop and maintain durable means for cooperation and communication within Europe and to strengthen Europe's excellence and its role of the influence in the international community. The Joint Research Programme will take into account engine technology, alternative fuels, aviations impact on air quality, operational aspects of aviation, and the development of scenarios. Lasting integration will be achieved by joint management and working structures, joint-decision making processes and will be supported through specific integration activities as a common web-based information and communication system, common education, training and exchange programmes, coordinated use of facilities and equipment, dissemination and joint management of innovation. The excellence and commitment of the ECATS partners, many of whom are already linked through their participation in AERONET, will guarantee an effective and durable integration. Support by community funding will be applied for a period of 5 years. FZK is concentrating on activities in the area of airport air quality.
Objective: The objective of the project is to provide the EU with conceptual tools and applicable ideas to make sustainable development an operational paradigm framing EU policy making in the globalization process. Broadening the utilitarian, state-centred, and market failure approach often mobilised in globalisation analysis, we develop a reflexive framework within which time and irreversibility, institutional path-dependency and multiple actors, with heterogeneous knowledge, beliefs, preferences, technology and power, interfere in the process of policy making. In this procedural approach, the policy making process itself will be scrutinised and integrated as a key determinant of the policy outcome itself. Within this renewed framework, globalization core challenges will be intersected with sustainable development conceptual challenges, which will be tackled specifically before nurturing back EU policy-making in the globalization process. The ultimate test case for collective action according to recent statement by Nick Stern - namely the governance of climate change and the bottom billion interlinked issue - will be used as an application case study throughout the project. The project's main outputs are threefold: firstly, identify methodological tools to fulfil the empirical deficit in the measure of world citizens heterogeneous preferences across a range of sustainable development issues; second, develop conceptual tools to better understand sustainable development implications on EU social contracts and policy making processes; third, propose building blocks for a renewed dialogue on global governance within the EU and outside as if sustainable development really mattered to paraphrase Dani Rodrick.
The goal of this study was to enable a prognosis on the future rainfall conditions of the Nile Equatorial Lakes regions by delivering time-series of monthly rainfall sums for the time-period from 2021 to 2050 that can be used for all kinds of applications. One example might be the dimensioning of hydraulic structures. In these very long lasting investments, future climatic conditions have to be considered during present planning and construction.The principal sources of information on future climate conditions are General Circulation Models (GCMs). These are physically based atmospheric models that resemble a numerical weather prediction system but on a much coarser scale. This forecast cannot be perfect. Especially, it cannot predict single values, e. g. if January 2050 will be rather wet or dry, but only climatic references, i.e. state, if Januaries in general will become wetter or dryer in the future. Even if the predictions of a GCM were perfect, its output could not be used directly for hydrological purposes, due to its coarse resolution. The monthly precipitation values that are provided by the GCM present the spatially averaged precipitation over a grid cell of several thousand square kilometres. This 'block rainfall' can differ significantly from rainfall measured at the ground. Rain gauges are influenced by local effects like micro climatic conditions or orographic effects of mountain ranges that GCMs are not able to resolve.This study combined the information from different data sources. As global trend information, monthly precipitation values from two GCMs (ECHAM5 and HadCM3) were used. Three CO2-emission scenarios (A1b, A2 and B1) were considered in this data. As local ground reference observed monthly rainfall sums from several rain gauges in East Africa as well as from three reanalysis projects (Climate Research Unit, University of Delaware and GPCC) were used.At each rain gauge or observation point in the reanalysis a technique called 'Quantile-Quantile-Transformation' was applied to establish a relationship between the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the GCMs and that of the ground references during the calibration period from 1961-1990. The CDFs were fitted by non-parametric Kernel-Smoothing. To account for potential shifts in the annual cycles of GCMs and ground references, the transformations was done separately for each month.Assuming that the relation between Global Model and local response will be constant in the future, the global predictions of the GCM can be downscaled to local scale, leading to future rainfall scenarios that are coherent with observed past rainfall.Combining the data from three CO2-emission scenarios of two GCM with three reanalysis data sets, an ensemble of 18 different rainfall time-series was created for each observation point. The range of this ensemble helps to estimate the possible uncertainties in the prognosis of future monthly precipitation sums from 2021 to 2050.
Die westafrikanischen Länder stehen, wie viele andere Entwicklungsländer auch, vor großen Herausforderungen auf dem Weg zu einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Ein zentrales Hemmnis stellt die unzureichende und nicht-nachhaltige Versorgung mit Energie dar. In diesem Kontext wird der Beitrag erneuerbarer Energien unterschätzt, welcher nicht nur zur Lösung von Energieengpässen beitragen kann, sondern ebenso zur wirksamen Begegnung der mit dem Klimawandel einhergehenden Konsequenzen. Grundvoraussetzung ihres Einsatzes ist die Schaffung entsprechender Rahmenbedingungen. In diesem Zusammenhang ist ein wissenschaftlicher Süd-Nord-Erfahrungsaustausch von großer Bedeutung. Die im Projekt ins Leben gerufene Kooperation zwischen dem Wuppertal Institut und den senegalesischen Partnern CERER (Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur les Energies Renouvelables), ENDA-tm (Environnement et développement du tiers monde) und ISDL (Institut supérieur de développement local) zielt auf die transdisziplinäre Aufarbeitung der Erkenntnisse aus bestehenden Programmen sowie auf die Weiterentwicklung erfolgreicher Modelle. Darüber hinaus wurden gemeinsame Forschungsfragen und Projektideen zur nachhaltigen Energiesystemen entwickelt, die zu einer regional angelegten wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Entwicklung beitragen können. Die erste Phase des Projektes (November/Dezember 2010) wurde dazu genutzt, einen ersten Austauschprozess zu initiieren und gemeinsame Forschungsfragen herauszuarbeiten. In der zweiten Phase des Projektes wurden die identifizierten Themen weiter inhaltlich ausgearbeitet und mit Expert(inn)en und Akteur(inn)en auf einem Stakeholder-Workshop in Dakar Anfang Februar intensiv diskutiert. Unter Aufarbeitung der Ergebnisse des Workshops konnten die Ideen für gemeinsame Forschungsfelder und -themen geschärft werden. Ein erstes Konzept für eine gemeinsame Methodik zur Bearbeitung der identifizierten gemeinsamen Fragestellungen wurde erarbeitet. Diese Methodik und Herangehensweise wird Grundlage sein für die Erstellung kommender Anträge. Sie kann den jeweiligen Ausschreibungsbedingungen angepasst werden. Das Fundament für eine gemeinsame Forschungsarbeit zwischen dem Wuppertal Institut und seinen senegalesischen Partnerinstitutionen konnte mittels dieses Partnerschaft-Projektes gelegt werden.
In situ studies lasting several years are essential for predicting how plant growth and ecosystem function will change under rising levels of atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in climate. High-latitude and high-elevation ecosystems are predicted to be particularly sensitive to environmental change, but relatively few manipulation experiments have been conducted in these regions. This doctoral thesis describes responses of two co-occurring tree species, Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata, and understorey dwarf shrub heath vegetation to 9 years of CO2 enrichment (+200 ppm; 2001-2009) and 3 years of soil warming (+4 K; 2007-ongoing) at treeline in the Swiss Alps (Stillberg, Davos). We tested if elevated CO2 stimulates tree growth in an environment where there is strong evidence that low temperature limits growth despite an adequate carbon supply. For this investigation, we pooled across soil warming treatments in order to focus on long-term responses to elevated CO2. Larix ring width was stimulated by CO2 enrichment throughout the treatment period, with a significant stimulation in years 3-7, while Pinus ring width showed no CO2 effect. After 9 years of treatment, leaf canopy cover, stem basal area, and total new shoot production were greater in Larix trees growing under elevated CO2, whereas Pinus showed no cumulative growth response. Larix ring width was stimulated more by elevated CO2 in years with relatively high spring temperatures and an early snowmelt date, suggesting that temperatures were less limiting in these years and greater benefit was gained from extra carbon assimilated under elevated CO2. The CO2 effect size was also larger after relatively high temperatures and high solar radiation in the preceding growing season, perhaps reflecting gains due to larger carbon reserves. Contrasting responsiveness of these two species suggests that under future CO2 concentrations, especially in combination with warmer and sunnier conditions, Larix will have a competitive advantage over less responsive species such as Pinus. Dwarf shrubs are a major component of alpine plant communities, and changes in the growth, abundance and distribution of these species are likely to have important ecological consequences. We studied growth responses of three dominant dwarf shrub species, Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium gaultherioides and Empetrum hermaphroditum, to CO2 enrichment and soil warming and how the treatments influenced understorey community composition. V. myrtillus growth was stimulated by elevated CO2, with no decline over time in the annual shoot growth response, and to an even greater extent by soil warming. V. gaultherioides growth showed a slight positive effect of elevated CO2, though only in experimental plots with Pinus, and no response to warming. E. hermaphroditum growth was not influenced by either treatment.