The project aims at achieving a better understanding of the processes that drive or limit the response of grassland systems in a world of increasing atmospheric pCO2. We will test the hypothesis that the previously shown increase in below-ground allocation of C under elevated pCO2 provides the necessary energy excess and will stimulate free-living N2 fixers in a low N grassland environment. The project thus aims at assessing the occurrence and importance of free-living N2 fixers under elevated pCO2 and identify the associated microbial communities involved in order to better understand ecosystems response and sustainability of grassland systems. This project had the last opportunity to obtain soil samples from a grassland ecosystem adapted to long-term (10 year) elevated atmospheric pCO2 as the Swiss FACE experiment. The project aims to identify the relevant components of free-living diazotrophs of the microbial community using 15N stable isotope - DNA probing.
Waterborne sewage system has proven to be inappropriate to solve sanitation needs in developing countries. Approximately 90 percentt of city sewage in developing countries today is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas (Winblad, 1997). With increasing population density and the resultant groundwater pollution, conventional decentralized disposal systems such as latrines and seepage pits are not viable alternatives either. Many cities are short of water and subject to critical environmental degradation (Niemczynowicz, 1996). Conventional sanitation technologies based on flush toilets, sewers, treatment and discharge cannot solve the problems in urban areas anymore. A sustainable sanitation and wastewater management system is urgently needed in order to address these issues. Ecological sanitation (Ecosan) is proposed as an alternative system to solve the following problems: lack of sanitation and water body contamination by pathogens from human waste. Ecosan does not only provide sanitation facilities for the people, but also seeks to protect public health, prevents water pollution and at the same time returns valuable nutrients to the soil so that it also helps to ensure food security and contributes to the objectives of sustainable development. The objective of this research is to search for a sustainable sanitation and human waste management system that is appropriate to be applied in poor income people living in densely populated urban areas in Indonesia. As Ecological Sanitation has not been applied in Indonesia before, this dissertation also aims to investigate its effectiveness and community acceptance in Indonesia. Two other existing systems are also studied as the comparison, which are the conventional septic tank system and the decentralized wastewater system (Dewats). All of these sanitation systems are assessed based on three sustainability criteria: economical, environmental and social.
Recent events such as the Pakistan earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the European heat waves of 2003 reveal the vulnerability of societies to extreme events. The goal of this project is to strengthen prevention, mitigation and preparedness strategies in order to reduce the health, social and economic impacts of extreme events on communities. The objectives of the MICRODIS project are to strengthen the scientific and empirical foundation on the relationship between extreme events and their impacts; to develop and integrate knowledge, concepts, methods and databases towards a common global approach and to improve human resources and coping capacity in Asia and Europe through training and knowledge sharing. This integrated project involves 19 partners from Asia and Europe, including research, policy and ground roots institutions. The outputs will include an evidence-base on impacts, field methodologies and tools for data compilation, impact models, and integrated vulnerability assessments. It will also strengthen standardised data collection of extreme events and their impacts at local, regional and global levels. Prime Contractor: Université Catholique de Louvain; Louvain-la-neuve; Belgium.
Aquifers are the main source of water in most semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean basin. As a result of over-exploitation hydrologic deficits of varying acuity prevail in these areas. Seawater intrusion and pollution have been identified as the primary factors for quality degradation. Further deterioration can be expected based on trends in the precipitation regime attributed to climate change. The objective of this project is to identify alternative sources of water and to investigate the feasibility, both environmental and economic of their utilization. Alternative water sources to be artificially recharged comprise: surface water runoff, treated effluent, and imported water. Furthermore, brackish water bodies, present in many aquifers could be utilised after desalination. The project structured into eight work-packages comprehensively addresses all issues related to the problem: expected precipitation rates, recharge and water budgets, identification of potential alternative water sources and technologies for their utilization, development of tools for the management of groundwater resources under artificial recharge conditions, aquifer vulnerability assessment, characterization of the unsaturated zone, and mixing effects. Four test sites have been selected for practical application of the approach. Substantial field testing, integration of technologies and findings to ensure optimal implementations of aquifer recharge alternatives, quantification of socio-economic impacts and development of dissemination platform are planned. Finally a carefully designed project management shall drive and accompany the project execution in order to ascertain consistency and efficiency.
The goal of REMEDE is to develop, test and disseminate resource equivalency methods appropriate for determining the scale of complementary and compensatory remedial measures necessary to adequately offset environmental damage. The project draws from both US experience, in terms of methodological developments and implementation issues encountered, and experience of the EU Member States. It aims to apply and develop these in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Liability Directive and the EIA, and Habitats Directives, in order that one standard guidance can be applied to all damage cases in the EU. The project brings together ecologists, economists and legal experts from the USA and Europe to review experience in the application of resource equivalency methods, draft a guidance document for the EU, test the guidance through application to at least four case studies in different Member States, and disseminate the guidance to relevant stakeholders. Throughout the project stakeholder consultation and peer review are used to ensure the best possible results. Prime Contractor: Economics for the Environment Consultancy Limited; London; United Kingdom.
Assessment of the state of archival, museum and library collections is a task of utmost importance. Depending on the type and size of a collection, surveying may also be one of the most demanding tasks in terms of the necessary resources. It is usually done using simple physical and chemical tests, often destructive, in order to reveal the collection condition, the general conservation needs and in order to plan preservation activities. As testing of a single item should take as little time as possible, the information obtained is usually only rudimentary. By providing a near-infrared-spectroscopic instrument prototype, the end-users will be provided with a powerful survey tool allowing reagent-less multi-component low-cost analysis of items. As the technique itself has recently found the way into industry as an in-line production control tool, and as a number of preliminary experiments have already been performed, the risk of its implementation for the purpose is low. Furthermore, the spectra can be taken non-destructively in a matter of minutes, then analysed using advanced statistical methods and as the result, data important for the preservation officer and policy maker may be provided, such as material composition and chemical state in a user-friendly software interface. The tool will be tested in seven collections, thus demonstrating the relevance of the developed approach. The involvement of an SME, a university lab and two libraries, three archives, and two museums, i.e. seven end-users, ensures an efficient and directed dissemination both of knowledge and of the developed technology. Surveying is indispensable in the sustainable impact assessment especially of protection treatments, and is the basis of all planning in collection management, so the project is highly relevant to Task 3 of the work programme. Prime Contractor: Univerza v Ljubljani; Ljubljana; Slovenia
Under the 2003 EU Greek presidency, cooperation with Balkan countries on environmental issues was identified as a priority of the EU/Balkan Action Plan. Large-scale co-operation is essential for effective action in the vulnerable Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal zones. During the last 50 years both areas suffered major changes; as semi-enclosed basins, both Seas are ultra-sensitive to anthropogenic stress and to climate change. An EU Presidency Conference on Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean/Black Sea (May 2003), revealed major gaps in management structures, scientific strategies and identified a diversity of environmental issues to be resolved through priority-focused RTD cooperation. Yet, while pressure on the resources of the two seas increases and the potential impact of climate change on coastal and deep-sea resources remains unknown, the two seas have never been jointly studied as systems of interacting basins and ecosystems. The proposal outlines collaboration and clustering schemes involving environmental, economic and scientific organisations in Mediterranean, Black Sea and other EU nations, in order to create synergies in networking and exchanges at several levels, addressing for the first time the system of interconnected basins as one, based on the integration of, both horizontally and vertically, natural scientists and economists. These will: 1) Create an international, interdisciplinary platform coordinating the region's scientific potential in order to prepare RTD projects, based on a Science Plan for the region, securing sustainable development; 2) Focus on natural and anthropogenic pressures exerted upon the functioning of the ecosystem; 3) Reinforce RTD capacity by setting up an environment/resource monitoring network in the light of existing observation networks of different scopes. Prime Contractor: Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, Anavyssos, GR.
Over land, observations of rain rates are more or less operational. To obtain information about precipitation at the coastal zones, weather radars are used. However, over the oceans, especially away from the main shipping routes, no direct precipitation measurements are performed. In these regions, satellite data can provide information about precipitation events. Satellites deploying passive and active microwave sensors can operate independently of cloud cover and time of day. Passive microwave sensors give crude estimates of rain rates over large areas but cannot resolve small-scale rain events of short duration as are often observed in the tropics, for example. Active microwave sensors with high resolutions, such as synthetic aperture radars can provide more reliable information. Though the effect of rain on the atmosphere is a very topical area of research, the radar backscattering mechanisms at the water surface during rain events combined with wind are still not well understood. The purpose of this project is to investigate the radar backscattering from the water surface in the presence of rain and wind in order to interpret satellite radar data produced by active microwave sensors. Furthermore, the results should be embedded into models of the radar backscattering from the water surface to allow for estimating rain rates by using satellite data. Research topics: Rain impinging on a water surfaces generates splash products including crowns, cavities, stalks and secondary drops, which do not propagate, and ring waves and subsurface turbulence. We are investigating this phenomena at the wind-wave tank of the University of Hamburg. The tank is fitted with an artificial rain simulator of 2.3 m2 area mounted 4.5 m over the water surface. Rain drops of 2.1 and 2.9 mm in diameter with rain rates up to 100 mm/h have been produced. Wind with speeds 10 m/s and monomolecular slicks act on the water surface. The influence of the rain on the water surface is measured with a resistance type wire gauge, a two dimensional laser slope gauge and an coherent 9.8 GHz (x band) continuous wave scatterometer operating at VV-, HH- and HV-polarization. The influence of rain below the water surface is measured with colored raindrops which are observed with a video camera to investigate the turbulent motion and the depth of the mixed layer. At the North Sea Port of Buesum in Germany, a scatterometer operating at all polarizations and five frequencies will be mounted during summer of this year. The radar backscatter of the sea surface during rain events will be measured in combination with meteorological observations. With help of these measurements, existing radar backscatter models of the water surface will be improved for the presence of rain events. To validate the improved models, ERS-2 SAR-images will be compared with weather radar data.
Im Rahmen dieses Projektes wurde die Situation von Reststoffen aus der Papierindustrie europaweit durch eine umfangreiche Datenaufnahme abgeschätzt. Hierbei zeigte sich, dass in Frankreich und Deutschland die größten Mengen an Papierreststoffen entstehen und die Entsorgungsvarainten am vielfältigsten sind. In den anderen europäischen Ländern fallen wesentlich weniger Reststoffe an, zu meist durch das Fehlen einer Abwasserreinigungsanlage oder durch eine niedrige Altpapiereinsatzquote. Die Reststoffe aus diesen Ländern werden überwiegend auf einer Deponie entsorgt. In einem weiteren Teil des Projektes wurde die stoffliche Verwertung durch Kompostierung von Papierreststoffen auf biochemische und mikrobiologische Parameter hin untersucht. Dabei wurde auch der potenzielle Abbau von chlorierten Phenolen betrachtet. Es zeigte sich, dass die chlorierten Phenole keine große Belastung für Papierreststoffe darstellen. Da im Gegensatz zu den chlorierten Phenolen die Menge an chlorierten organischen Substanzen (AOX) in Papierreststoffen sehr hoch ist, wurde das umweltchemische Verhalten von AOX-Substanzen durch Schüttelversuche in verschiedenen Lösungsmitteln und Lysimeterversuchen getestet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass AOX-Substanzen sich nur in geringem Umfang durch eine Elution mit wässrigen Medien lösen lassen. Da die organischen Schadstoffe (gemessen als AOX) in Papierreststoffen besonders relevant sind, sollte versucht werden, mehr über die chemische Struktur (insbesondere das Molekulargewicht) dieser Substanzen herauszufinden. Dabei wurden die Methoden der Ultrafiltration und der Gelpermeationschromatographie eingesetzt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine hohen Anteil AOX-Substanzen im hochmolekularen Bereich, wobei die Struktur der Verbindungen stark vom anfallenden Reststofftyp abhängt. So konnte nachgeweisen werden, dass der Haupteil an AOX-Substanzen in den Deinkingreststoffen überwiegend aus chlorierten Druckfarben, insbesondere den gelben Pigmenten, besteht. Eine Substitution dieser Farbstoffe aus der Azofarbgruppe würde zu einer deutlichen Reduktion der AOX-Problematik führen.
Im Forschungsvorhaben wurde die Situation der Entsorgung der Papierreststoffe in Rheinland-Pfalz untersucht. Hierbei wurde festgestellt, dass Papierreststoffe auf Grund unterschiedlichster Anfallorte sehr heterogen zusammengesetzt sind. Menge und Beschaffenheit der Papierreststoffe eines Unternehmens sind abhängig von der erzeugten Papiersorte, den Einsatzstoffen (Primär- oder Sekundärrohstoffe) und den Verfahren der Abwasserreinigung. Problematisch für die weitere Behandlung der Reststoffe sind die häufig anzutreffenden Mischungen aus Fraktionen mit unterschiedlichen Schadstoffgehalten. Das heute in der Bundesrepublik noch vorherrschende Entsorgungsverfahren für die Reststoffe, die Ablagerung auf Deponien, wird in absehbarer Zukunft ohne Vorbehandlung nicht mehr zulässig sein. Daher gewinnen die stoffliche und die energetische Verwertung an Bedeutung. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurden Untersuchungen zur stofflichen Verwertung von rheinland-pfälzischen Papierreststoffen durchgeführt, wobei besonders die Vergärung und die Kompostierung betrachtet wurden. Die Versuchsergebnisse lassen den Schluß zu, dass für einige der in Rheinland-Pfalz anfallenden Papierreststoffe, die im Vergleich zu den Grenzwerten der Klärschlamm-Verordnung niedrige Schadstoffgehalte aufweisen, sowohl die Kompostierung als auch die Vergärung mögliche Verwertungsverfahren darstellen. Zur Aufstellung eines Entsorgungskonzeptes für Papierreststoffe in Rheinland-Pfalz fand eine Datenaufnahme durch eine Befragung der Unternehmen und Genehmigungsbehörden statt. Es wurden Herstellungsverfahren, Ausgangsstoffe, Reststoffmengen und -beschaffenheit sowie gegenwärtige und geplante Entsorgungswege erfasst. Die Entsorgung der Papierreststoffe ist zukünftig nur im Rahmen eines schlüssigen Entsorgungskonzeptes möglich. Als wichtiger Baustein für ein solches Konzept wurde ein Güteklassenmodell entwickelt, das von Güteklasse 1 (Reststoff gut geeignet für die landwirtschaftliche Verwertung) bis zur Güteklasse 5 (nicht geeignet für die stoffliche Verwertung) reicht. Grundlegendes Kriterium für die Einstufung der Reststoffe ist der Gehalt an Schadstoffen, gemessen an den Richtwerten der Bundesgütegemeinschaft Kompost e.V. und den Grenzwerten der Klärschlamm-VO.
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