Background: Ghanas transition forests, neighbouring savannahs and timber plantations in the Ashanti region face a constant degradation due to the increased occurrence of fires. In most cases the fires are deliberately set by rural people for hunting purposes. Main target is a cane rat, here called grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus), whose bushmeat is highly esteemed throughout the country. The animal is a wild herbivorous rodent of subhumid areas in Africa south of the Sahara. The grasscutter meat is an important source of animal protein. Existing high-value timber plantations (mainly Teak, Tectona grandis) are affected by fires for hunting purposes. Thus resulting in growth reduction, loss of biomass or even complete destruction of the forest stands. It became obvious that solutions had to be sought for the reduction of the fire risk. Objectives: Since 2004 the Institute for World Forestry of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products, Hamburg, Germany is cooperating with a Ghanaian timber plantation company (DuPaul Wood Treatment Ltd.) the German Foundation for Forest Conservation in Africa (Stiftung Walderhaltung in Afrika) and the Center for International Migration with the purpose to improve the livelihood of the rural population in the surroundings of the forest plantation sites and simultaneously to safeguard and improve the timber plantations. The introduction of grasscutter rearing systems to local farmers accompanied by permanent agricultural and agroforestry practices appeared to be a promising approach for the prevention of fires in the susceptible areas. Additionally a functioning grasscutter breeding system could contribute to the improvement of food security, development of income sources and the alleviation of poverty. The following measures are implemented: - Identification of farmers interested in grasscutter captive breeding, - Implementation of training courses for farmers on grasscutter rearing, - Delivery of breeding animals, - Supervision of rearing conditions by project staff, - Development of a local extension service for monitoring activities, - Evaluation of structures for grasscutter meat marketing. Results: After identification of key persons for animal rearing training courses were successfully passed and animals were delivered subsequently. Further investigations will evaluate the effects of the grasscutter rearing in the project region. This will be assessed through the - Acceptance of grasscutter rearing by farmers, - Success of the animal caging, - Reproduction rate, - Meat quality, - Marketing success of meat, - Reduction of fire in the vicinity of the timber plantations, - Improvement of peoples livelihood.
Background: An increasing frequency of massive flooding along the lower Yangtse River in China ended in a disastrous catastrophe in summer 1998 leaving several thousand people homeless, more than 3.600 dead and causing enormous economic damage. Inappropriate land-use techniques and large scale timber felling in the water catchment of the upper Yangtse and its feeder streams were stated to be the main causes. Immediate timber cutting bans were imposed and investigations on land use patterns were initiated by the Chinese Government. The Institute for World Forestry of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products was approached by the Yunnan Academy of Forestry in Kunming to exchange experiences and to cooperate scientifically in the design and application of appropriate afforestation and silvicultural management techniques in the water catchment area of the Yangtse. This cooperation was initiated in 1999 and is based on formal agreements in the fields of agrarian research between the German and Chinese Governments. Objectives: The cooperation was in the first step focussing on the identification of factors which caused the enormous floodings. After their identification measures of prevention were determined and put into practice. In this context experiences made in past centuries in the alpine region of central Europe served as an incentive and example for similar environmental problems and solutions under comparable conditions. Relevant key questions of the cooperation project were: - Analysis of forest related factors influencing the recent floodings of the Yangtse, - Analysis and evaluation of silvicultural management experiences from central Europe for know-how transfer, - Evaluation of rehabilitation measures for successful application in Yunnan, - Dissemination of knowledge through vocational training. Results: - Frequent wild grazing of husbandry is a key factor for forest degeneration beyond unsustainable timber harvests, forest fires and insect calamities leading to increased water run-off in the mountainous region of Yunnan; - Browsing of cattle interrupts succession thus avoiding natural regeneration and leaving a logging ban ineffective; - Mountain pasture in the Alps had similar effects in the past in central Europe. The introduction of controlled grazing has led to an ecologically compatible coexistence of pasture and ecology. Close-to-nature forestry can have positive effects in this sensitive environment. - Afforestation with site adopted broadleaves and coniferous tree species was implemented on demonstration level using advanced techniques in Yunnan.
Zusammensetzung und Menge der organischen Bodensubstanz (OBS) werden durch die Landnutzungsform beeinflußt. Die OBS läßt sich nach ihrer Abbaubarkeit und nach ihrer Löslichkeit in verschiedene Pools einteilen. So kann die wasserlösliche organische Bodensubstanz (DOM) als Maßzahl für die abbaubare OBS herangezogen werden. Mit Natriumpyrophosphat-Lösung als Extraktionsmittel läßt sich ein weit größerer Anteil der OBS erfassen, da der stabilisierende Bindungsfaktor zwischen OBS und Bodenmineralen entfernt wird. Extrahiert man zuerst mit Wasser und anschließend mit Natriumpyrophosphat-Lösung, erhält man im letzten Schritt den schwer abbaubaren OBS-Anteil. Über die funktionelle Zusammensetzung der organischen Substanz dieser Pools und deren Abhängigkeit von Landnutzungsformen ist relativ wenig bekannt. Ziel der geplanten Untersuchung ist es, den Pool der löslichen abbaubaren und schwer abbaubaren OBS zu quantifizieren und deren funktionelle Zusammensetzung mittels FT-IR Spektroskopie zu erfassen. Die so gewonnenen Daten sollen der Validierung von Soil Organic Matter Turnover modellen (z.B. Roth 23.6) dienen und die im Modell berechneten Pools um einen qualitativen Term ergänzen. In Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Arbeitsgruppen sollen im DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm 1090: ;Böden als Quelle und Senke für CO2 die Pools der löslichen abbaubaren und schwer schwer löslichen, schwer abbaubaren organischen Bodensubstanz (OBS) quantifiziert, die funktionelle Zusammensetzung dieser Pools mittels FT-IR Spektroskopie erfasst und Abbaubarkeit der erhaltenen Extrakte überprüft werden, um Mechanismen, die zur Stabilisierung der OBS führen, aufzuklären.
In ecological sanitation, the wastewater is considered not only as a pollutant, but also as a resource for fertiliser, water and energy and for closing water and nutrients cycles (Otterpohl et. al., 1999; Otterpohl et. al., 2003; Elmitwalli et al. 2005). The ecological sanitation based on separation between grey and black water (and even between faeces and urine), is considered a visible future solution for wastewater collection and treatment. Grey water, which symbolises the wastewater generated in the household excluding toilet wastewater (black water), represents the major volume of the domestic wastewater (60- 75 percent) with low content of nutrients and pathogens (Otterpohl et. al., 1999; Jefferson et al., 1999; Eriksson et al., 2002). Most of grey-water treatment plants include one or two-step septic-tank for pre-treatment (Otterpohl et al., 2003). The grey-water treatment needs both physical and biological processes for removal of particles, dissolved organic-matters and pathogens (Jefferson et al., 1999). Recently, many researchers have studied the grey-water treatment either by application of high-rate aerobic systems, like rotating biological contactor (Nolde, 1999), fluidised bed (Nolde, 1999), aerobic filter (Jefferson et al., 2000), membrane bioreactor (Jefferson et al., 2000), or by application of low-rate systems, like slow sand filter (Jefferson et al., 1999), vertical flow wetlands (Otterpohl et. al., 2003). Although high-rate anaerobic systems, which are low-cost systems, have both physical and biological removal, no research has been done until now on grey water in these systems. The grey water contains a significant amount (41 percent) of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the domestic wastewater (Otterpohl et al., 2003) and this amount can be removed by the highrate anaerobic systems. Although high-rate anaerobic systems have been successfully operated in tropical regions for domestic wastewater treatment, the process up till now is not applied in lowtemperature regions. The COD removal is limited for domestic wastewater treatment in high-rate anaerobic systems at low temperatures and, therefore, a long HRT is needed for providing sufficient hydrolysis of particulate organic (Zeeman and Lettinga, 1999; Elmitwalli et al. 2002). The grey water has a relatively higher temperature (18-38 degree C), as compared to the domestic wastewater (Eriksson et al. 2002), because the grey water originates from hot water sources, like shower (29 degree C), kitchen (27-38 degree C) and laundry (28-32 degree C). Therefore, high-rate anaerobic systems might run efficiently for on-site grey water treatment, even in low-temperature regions. The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor is the most applied system for anaerobic domestic waster treatment. Accordingly, the aim of this research is to study the feasibility of application of UASB reactor for the treatment of grey water at low and controlled (30 degree C) temperatures.
The scope of sewage treatment is changing: Up to date municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) were seen as an end-of-pipe treatment just before discharge, having the aim to avoid eutrophication and hygienic health hazard in surface water. Due to the global demographic trends as well as new legislations (e.g. the Water Framework Directive, WFD) increased focus is put on quantity and quality of effluents: WWTP are more and more seen as interface between sanitation and environment, delivering resources to the environment or human activities (recharge of drinking water reservoirs, recycling of nutrient, efficient energy use). This focus shift has implications on the quality goals set for WWTP products: land requirement, effluent N, P load, effluent pathogen load, energy optimization. New focus: nutrient recycling, micropollutants: ecotoxicology of the effluent energy production. NEPTUNE is focusing on technology solutions allowing to meet present and future standards via upgrading of existing infrastructure (new control strategies with online sensors; effluent upgrading with oxidation, activated carbon or wetland treatment; sludge processing for safe nutrient recycle) as well as via new techniques (fuel cell applications; new oxidative agents; polymer production from sludge). By including pathogen and ecotoxicity aspects into life cycle assessment studies (LCA), the project is helping improve the comparability of various technical options and propose a suitability ranking. The new focus given by the WFD and the emerging interest on organic (eco-)toxic compounds requires characterizing treated effluent and treatment technologies concerning ecotoxicologic aspects and micropollutants. The project is contributing to this discussion by ecotoxicity assessment and micropollutant fate studies.
The main objective of the project is to investigate, assess and enhance the potentiality of promising technological options (i.e., technologies, processes and concepts) for the treatment of industrial wastewater with the specific aim to provide tailor-mad e solutions to end-users for a wide range of wastewaters. Such solutions will be essentially based on the optimised integration of the investigated options and on technological improvements with respect to treatment system components, operation and control. Referring to the investigated options and the envisaged technological solutions, the project's goals are: -Investigating and enhancing the performances of promising wastewater treatment options such as aerobic granulation, integrated advanced oxidation processes (AOP) and membrane-based hybrid processes -Achieving fundamental and technological knowledge advancements necessary for advanced wastewater treatment application in different industrial sectors -Assessing the economic and environmental sustainability of promising wastewater treatment options -Developing integrated tailor-made solutions for end-users in different industrial sectors -Transferring the developed know-how to potential end-users inside and outside the project -Favouring their actual implementation for enhancing the EU Water Industry competitiveness. In order to achieve such goals, coordinated research activities will be carried out on selected options treating different wastewater. The experiences from such activities will be merged to define tailor-made solutions for end-users in different industrial sectors. A major goal will be the definition of treatment needs and framework conditions for a wide range of wastewaters based on the specific features of the options investigate d (i.e., aerobic granulation, AOP combined processes, membrane contactors, membrane chemical reactors). Prime Contractor: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Department of Bari, Water Research Institute, Roma, Italien.
FOOTPRINT aims at developing a suite of three pesticide risk prediction and management tools, for use by three different end-user communities: farmers and extension advisors at the farm scale, water managers at the catchment scale and policy makers/registration authorities at the national/EU scale. The tools will be based on state-of-the-art knowledge of processes, factors and landscape attributes influencing pesticide fate in the environment and will integrate innovative components which will allow users to: i) identify the dominant contamination pathways and sources of pesticide contamination in the landscape; ii) estimate pesticide concentrations in local groundwater resources and surface water abstraction sources; iii) make scientifically-based assessments of how the implementation of mitigation strategies will reduce pesticide contamination of adjacent water resources. The three tools will share the same overall philosophy and underlying science and will therefore provide a coherent and integrated solution to pesticide risk assessment and risk reduction from the scale of the farm to the EU scale. The predictive reliability and usability of the tools will be assessed through a substantial programme of piloting and evaluation tests at the field, farm, catchment and national scales. The tools developed within FOOTPRINT will allow stakeholders to make consistent and robust assessments of the risk of contamination to water bodies at a range of scales relevant to management, mitigation and regulation (farm, catchment and national/EU). They will in particular i) allow pesticide users to assess whether their pesticide practices ensure the protection of local water bodies and, ii) provide site-specific mitigation recommendations. The FOOTPRINT tools are expected to make a direct contribution to the revision of the Directive 91/414/EC, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the future Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides. Prime Contractor: Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières; Paris; France.
Die Forschungsinitiative Biologischer Landbau (FBL) Österreich besteht seit dem Jahr 1991 als informeller Zusammenschluß von im Biologischen Landbau tätigen Wissenschaftlern mit dem Ziel, den Erfahrungsaustausch auch zwischen fachlich auseinanderliegenden Disziplinen innerhalb der Forschung im Biologischen Landbau zu fördern. In den Jahren 1994/95 erfolgte von seiten des BMLF und des BMWFK die Finanzierung eines acht-monatigen Forschungsprojektes zu grundlegenden Fragen der Forschung im Biologischen Landbau ( Erarbeitung integraler Schwerpunktthemenbereiche und Methodikkriterien für die Forschung im Biologischen Landbau in Österreich). Unter Mitwirkung von Wissenschaftlern aus Deutschland und der Schweiz sowie unter Einbeziehung eines erweiterten Expertenkreises fand im Rahmen der FBL eine intensive Diskussion über die zukünftige Ausrichtung der Forschung im Biologischen Landbau statt. Dabei erfolgte ein umfassender Diskurs über aktuelle Forschungsdefizite, interdisziplinär auszurichtende Schwerpunktthemen, über Methodikkriterien sowie über Kriterien zur Beurteilung der Dringlichkeit und Systemgerechtheit von Forschungsthemen im Biologischen Landbau in Österreich. Des weiteren wurden schlußfolgernd aus dieser Arbeit Forderungen der Forscher, die im Biologischen Landbau aktiv sind, an die Institutionen der Forschungsförderung zur Optimierung der wissenschaftlichen Weiterentwicklung dieser Landbaumethode formuliert. Grundlage der Diskussion über die zukünftige Forschung im Biologischen Landbau in Österreich sind die Prinzipien des Biologischen/Ökologischen Landbaus: Das Streben nach weitgehend geschlossenen Stoffkreisläufen im Betrieb, der schonende Umgang mit nicht erneuerbaren Rohstoff- und Energieressourcen, die Stärkung und Nutzung natürlicher Selbstregulationsmechanismen sowie die Erhaltung und Verbesserung der Vielfalt der Arten und des Landschaftsbildes. Diese Leitlinien der Biologischen Landwirtschaft werden im Rahmen der vorliegenden Studie (als Folge der Diskussion in der FBL) präzisiert und zu Strategien, Schwerpunktthemen, Forschungsdefiziten sowie Methodikkriterien für die Forschung im Biologischen Landbau ausgeweitet. Damit soll letztlich eine effektive ökosystemorientierte Weiterentwicklung dieser Landbaumethode sichergestellt werden.
Objective: IPCC climate change scenarios have a global perspective and need to be scaled down to the local level, where decision makers have to balance risks and investment costs. Very high investments might be a waste of money and too little investment could result in unacceptable risk for the local community. PREPARED is industry driven, 12 city utilities are involved in the project and the RDT carried out is based on the impacts of climate change the water supply and sanitation industry has identified as a challenge for the years to come. The result of PREPARED will be an infrastructure for waste water, drinking water and storm water management that will not only be able better cope with new scenarios on climate change but that is also managed in a optimal way. We will have complexes monitoring and sensor systems, better integration and handling of complex data, better exploitation of existing infrastructures through improved real time control, new design concepts and guidelines for more flexible and more robust infrastructures. PREPARED will involve the local community in problem identification and in jointly finding acceptable system solutions, that are supported by all, through active learning processes. Activities and solutions in PREPARED will be based on a risk assessment and risk management approach for the whole urban water cycle, through the development of innovative Water Cycle Safety Plans. Other innovations are sensors and models that will enable faster and better actions on changes and new design rules for more resilient design. We will combine European knowledge with valuable knowledge from Australia and the USA, to make the European Water sector more competitive. This to enable our industrial partners to export the products developed in PREPARED to other regions of the world, thus contributing to the Lisbon Goals but also to the MDGs. To ensure this exploitation the PREPARED consortium consist of more than 50% industrial partners and is demand driven.
Wirksame Maßnahmen zum Gewässerschutz, wie sie von der EG-Wasserrahmenrichtlinie als Bestandteil des nachhaltigen Land- und Wassermanagements gefordert werden, setzen fundierte Kenntnisse zu Stoffretentions- und -umsatzprozessen in Landschaften voraus. Vergleiche von Stoffaus- und -einträgen wie auch mit den Fließgewässern ausgetragene Frachten belegen das hohe Stoffretentionspotenzial pleistozäner Einzugsgebiete und Fließgewässersysteme. Forschungsbedarf besteht zur Quantifizierung und Modellierung der dafür auf Landschaftsebene maßgeblichen Transport- und Transformationsprozesse unter den durch Wechselfeuchte und Wassermangelperioden gekennzeichneten hydrologischen Verhältnissen des pleistozänen Tieflands. Die vorliegenden pfadbezogenen Konzepte mit sehr unterschiedlicher Flächendifferenzierung unterscheiden zwischen Stofftransport auf der Landoberfläche (Oberflächenabfluss, Bodenabtrag) und im Boden/Grundwasserleiter. Problematisch gestalten sich Übertragung und Parametrisierung dieser Prozesse auf der Mesoskala (Einzugsgebiete). Weniger gut beschreibbar sind ebenso die Prozesse des Bodenabtrags, zu deren Quantifizierung auch verbesserte prozessorientierte Modelle benötigt werden, und die komplexen geo- und biogeochemischen Stofftransformationsprozesse in der nicht durchwurzelten ungesättigten und gesättigten Zone. Stofffrachten, die sich bereits auf dem unterirdischen Pfad befinden, erfahren noch vor ihrem Übertritt in die Gewässer eine Reduktion in den oft vermoorten Gewässerrandbereichen. Auch der oberirdische Stofftransfer aus dem Einzugsgebiet in das Gewässer kann in solchen, aquatische und terrestrische Ökosysteme verbindenden Landschaftselementen vermindert werden. Kenntnisse zur Quantifizierung, Bewertung und Steuerung des Stoffumsatz- und -retentionsvermögens kleinerer Fließgewässersysteme der Ober- und Mittelläufe sowie feuchter Senkenareale in Binneneinzugsgebieten werden benötigt, um Handlungsoptionen zum Gewässerschutz ableiten zu können und tatsächlich in Unterliegergewässer und -gebiete gelangende Stofffrachten abzuschätzen. Dabei zu lösende Aufgaben sind die Aufklärung der Stoffretentions- und -freisetzungsprozesse, insbesondere für die gewässergüterelevanten Stoffe N, P, C und O, die Quantifizierung von Retentionspotenzialen für geohydro- und gewässermorphologische Typen, die Ableitung von Leitprozessen und -parametern sowie Bioindikatoren und die Erarbeitung von Algorithmen zur Quantifizierung der Potenziale auf mesoskaliger Ebene. Projektziel: Entwicklung verbesserter skalen- und pfadbezogener Methoden und Modelle zur Quantifizierung der Transport- und Transformationsprozesse wassergelöster Stoffe sowie deren Wechselwirkungen in den Kompartimenten von Einzugsgebieten des pleistozänen Tieflands als Grundlage für die Beschreibung und Bewertung der Stoffretentionspotenziale sowie der Wirkung von Landnutzungsänderungen auf die Stoffbelastung kleiner Stand- und Fließgewässer.
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