In Fragebogen-Untersuchungen zur Lärmwirkung wurden bisher sehr unterschiedliche Operationalisierungen von Wirkungsvariablen (wie z.B. Belästigung, Störung von Aktivitäten) und außer-akustischen Faktoren (sog. Moderatoren wie z.B. Lärmempfindlichkeit, misfeasance) verwendet. Deshalb hat sich die Arbeitsgruppe community response der International Commission on the Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN, Team No. 6) als langfristiges Ziel die Entwicklung von Fragebogen-Guidelines und die Formulierung eines Muster-Fragebogens für die Lärmwirkungsforschung gesetzt. D.h. es soll ein Vorschlag erarbeitet werden, in welcher Form globale und spezifische Lärmwirkungen in Befragungen erhoben werden sollten. Um dieses Vorhaben zu unterstützen, hat der Arbeitskreis Ökologische Lärmforschung die Erstellung einer systematischen Übersicht über vorhandene Fragebögen aus Lärmwirkungsstudien auf internationaler Ebene in Angriff genommen. Diese Übersicht soll es u.a. ermöglichen, die Struktur von verschiedenen Fragebögen sowie die in ihnen verwendeten Operationalisierungen für Lärmwirkungs- und Moderatorvariablen (hinsichtlich Art der Frageformulierung sowie der Antwortformate) zu vergleichen. Für den/die einzelne/n Lärmforscher/in bietet diese Übersicht die Möglichkeit, sich auf sehr effiziente Art und Weise darüber zu informieren, wie bestimmte Konstrukte in bisherigen Untersuchungen operationalisiert worden sind bzw. welche Alternativen zu den bereits selbst angewandten Operationalisierungen bestehen. Nach einer systematischen Ermittlung von Namen und Adressen einschlägiger Lärmforscher/innen, wurden diese um die Zusendung von Fragebögen sowie ergänzender Materialien aus eigenen Lärmwirkungsstudien gebeten. Die zugesandten Fragebögen werden gegebenenfalls übersetzt und mit der Methode der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertet. Hierbei werden die Fragebögen im Hinblick auf formelle Aspekte (z.B. Jahr der Erhebung, Sprache, Art der Befragungsmethode) wie auch im Hinblick auf strukturelle Aspekte (z.B. Umfang des Fragebogens, abgefragte Variablengruppen, Antwortformate) ausgewertet. Hauptgegenstand der Auswertung ist aber insbesondere die Auswertung der Lärmwirkungsvariablen (z.B. die Abfrage der globalen Lärmbelästigung, Aktivitätenstörungen, Kommunikationsstörungen) sowie der Moderatorvariablen (z.B. Lärmempfindlichkeit, Lärmbewältigungsvermögen, misfeasance). Parallel dazu wurde eine Datenbank entwickelt, in der die Ergebnisse der Analysen dargestellt und verwaltet werden. Diese Datenbank wird ab November 2001 im Internet unter http://www.eco.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/nqd für jede/n interessierte/n Forscher/in zugänglich und nutzbar sein. Langfristig ist darüber hinaus geplant, ein Archiv mit den Original-Fragebögen aufzubauen, in dem einzelne Fragebögen auf Wunsch eingesehen werden können.
Non wood fuels for small-scale furnaces have attracted increasing interest in several European countries. New technological approaches are on the way, but the verification of any such developments is difficult and there is a large uncertainty about testing procedures and equipment. While for wood combustion standardized European measuring regulations are available and broadly applied, the testing of cereal fuel combustion is generally not following a commonly accepted procedure. Consequently the results of such measurements are not fully comparable. This applies particularly for the international level, which is here of particular relevance due to the fact that a combustion technology development for a niche application can only be economically viable if a sufficiently large marketing area can be taken into focus. The overall objective of the proposal is therefore to contribute through research to the development of uniform and comparable European procedures for testing of small-scale boilers up to a power out of 300 kW for solid biomass from agriculture like straw pellets and energy grain. The driving forces and barriers will be worked out; existing legal regulation for the installation (approval by the local authorities) in the participating countries will be collected. The state of the art of the non wood biomass boiler technology will be identified; the need for standardized tests for type approval tests and the measures to establish a European Standard will be shown. Measurement methods with special emphasis on efficiency and emissions will be worked out and the requirements and specifications of test fuels will be proposed. Test runs will be carried out following preliminary test procedures based on existing European standards for wood boilers. Based on the results of these test runs a draft for a Europe-wide uniform test procedure will be proposed. Preparatory work for a European standardization process including a round robin test will be done.
Goals: Identify policy relevant information on exposure to environmental hazards, its determinants and health effects, as well as information for policy evaluation. Update the core set of environmental health indicators including those relevant for children's health allowing monitoring of CEHAPE and E EH strategy. Develop and apply methods allowing the use information from existing national and international data bases, and surveys assuring streamlining of data processing. Test the developed methods by the partner countries collecting information and preparing international assessment reports on selected issues. Develop and test in participating cities methods for health impact assessment of indoor air quality and noise. Develop and test data-exchange software including data-control and analysis. Prepare and test methodology for analysis and reporting of current EH situation and policy-effectiveness assuring effective dissemination of EH information and risk community.; Approaches: Both theoretical and practical issues must be resolved to achieve the project objectives. Experts, selected according to their scientific and technical proficiency, will make initial proposals for the project outputs based on the review of available scientific and practical evidence. After an evaluation by the project participants, the proposed methods will be tested for feasibility by the network of national collaborators according to the uniform protocol. The experiences from the tests will be collected and compared at a Project Meeting, involving both the experts and network members. Based on the expert's opinions and practical experiences from the testing, the final methods will be proposed for implementation on the basis of consensus reached by the project participants. The main risk in this approach is a possibility that the approaches proposed by experts on theoretical grounds will be not feasible. Intensive interaction between experts and practitioners should reduce this risk. ; Results: Comparable information on environment and health in the pan-European Region. Information on environment and health is often scattered across many institutions and gathered in non-standardized format. The ENHIS site (www.enhis.org) hosts comparable data and information on priority environment and health issues, selected on the basis of international policy frameworks on environment and health. Its content includes: - a core set of indicators, selected on the basis of relevance and availability of data, describing environmental exposures, health effects and policy measures for these issues. These indicators are also meant to help monitoring and evaluating progress made towards national and international commitments taken by countries; - a series of indicator-based assessments ('fact sheets'), providing an analysis of core issues across the Region; - country information for the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region; - an overview of policies on core issues, at both natio
The adoption of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC imposes the sewage sludge to be subsequently treated so it is expected by 2005 to increase twofold in comparison whit 1992. However, classical incineration to treat this vast amount of sludge must be no longer accepted from an environmental point of view. In addition, the Sewage Sludge Directive 86/278/EEC regulates the uses and properties of stabilised sludge for being either recycled or disposed. Both directives drive specific actions in two complementary ways. Firstly, a deep knowledge of current sludge treatment, such as mesophilic, thermophilic or autothermophilic processes, must be promoted to solve that problem in the UE ambit, taking in account the particular considerations of each treatment facility. In second place, the development of new processes must be supported to open new alternatives that could valorise that waste.The proposal aims at developing strategies for the disposal and reuse of waste sludge. The scope envisages to develop several processes for reducing both amount and toxicity of sludge, with simultaneous transformation into green energy vectors such as methane or hydrogen. In outline, mesophilic and mainly thermophilic and autothermophilic conditions will be deeply explored as classical alternatives for sludge stabilisation, assuring sanitary conditions of the treated sludge. Also, valuable materials will be obtained from sludge, such as activated carbons, which will be used in conventional adsorption processes and in innovative advanced oxidation processes.The main outcomes expected at the end of the projects are guidelines for technology selection in agreement with the geographic, economic and technical characteristics of the sewage plants, demonstration of the feasibility of new applications for the sewage sludge, manufacturing of activated carbon from sludge sewage as innovative recycling of sludge waste, and a deep understanding of the methods involved. Prime Contractor: Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
The Commission proposal of Groundwater Directive COM(2003)550 developed under Article 17 of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) sets out criteria for the assessment of the chemical status of groundwater, which is based on existing Community quality standards (nitrates, pesticides and biocides) and on the requirement for Member States to identify pollutants and threshold values that are representative of groundwater bodies found as being at risk, in accordance with the analysis of pressures and impacts carried out under the WFD. In the light of the above, the objectives of BRIDGE are: i) to study and gather scientific outputs which could be used to set out criteria for the assessment of the chemical status of groundwater, ii) to derive a plausible general approach, how to structure relevant criteria appropriately with the aim to set representative groundwater threshold values scientifically sound and defined at national river basin district or groundwater body level, iii) to check the applicability and validity by means of case studies at European scale, iv) to undertake additional research studies to complete the available data, v) and to carry out an environmental impact assessment taking into account the economic and social impacts. The project shall be carried out at European level, involving a range of stakeholders and efficiently linking the scientific and policy-making communities. Considering the requirement of the diary of the Groundwater Daughter Directive proposal, which implies that groundwater pollutants and related threshold values should be identified before December 2005 and listed by June 2006, the duration of the project should be 24 months. In that way the proposed research will contribute to provide research elements that will be indispensable for preparing discussions on further steps of the future Groundwater Directive. Prime Contractor: Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres, Service Analyse et Caracterisation Minerale, Paris FR
The investigation of glaciers and ice sheets by means of ice penetrating radar has become one of the most commonly used geophysical techniques in glaciology. Many applications utilise internal reflection horizons, assuming that an individual reflector is isochronous. Although the different mechanisms causing reflections are in principle understood, open questions on their origin still remain. The project presented in this proposal has the goal to identify the constituting processes leading to internal electromagnetic reflections in cold ice at all depth levels, providing a comprehensive picture of reflection origin. Investigation of the nature of electromagnetic reflections will be performed by a combination of ice core records, airborne and surface-based ice penetrating radar surveys, and newly developed numerical forward modeling approaches. Determining the physical properties of an ice core by means of dielectric profiling forms the basis to simulate the propagation of an electromagnetic wave in cold ice with a finite-difference model. Direct comparison of modeled radargrams with measured radar data validates the model results, allowing sensitivity studies with altered ice core data and yielding insights into the significance of the different reflection processes. Physical interpretation of the modeling results will be achieved by analyses of the crystal fabric and pore volume of ice and answer the question which reflection horizons are isochrones.
Das österreichische Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft (Lebensministerium) hatte Adelphi Consult, die Forschungsstelle für Umweltpolitik und D-Coach mit der Evaluation der Umsetzungsaktivitäten der Österreichischen Strategie zur Nachhaltigen Entwicklung beauftragt. Das Lebensministerium betrat damit im internationalen Vergleich Neuland bei der Evaluation einer solch komplexen Strategie. Der Evaluationsprozess hat im Mai 2005 begonnen und endete mit einem ausführlichen Evaluationsbericht im November 2005. Ziel der Evaluation war es, die Wirkungen der Österreichischen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie abzuschätzen, den Umsetzungsprozess hinsichtlich Effizienz, Effektivität, Transparenz und Angemessenheit zu beurteilen und Vorschläge zur Verbesserung der Wirkungen der Strategie und Effektivität der Institutionen zu erarbeiten. Schwerpunkt der Evaluation war der Umsetzungsprozess. Dabei wurde zwischen Umsetzungsmechanismen (Institutionen und Instrumente zur laufenden Umsetzung der Strategie) und Umsetzungsaktivitäten (Maßnahmen und Projekte zur Erreichung der Teilziele) unterschieden. Die Strategie selber und die darin festgelegten Ziele waren dagegen nicht Gegenstand der Evaluation. Evaluiert wurden Umsetzungsmaßnahmen und Mechanismen seit der Beschlussfassung der Strategie im April 2002 bis Mai 2005. Die Evaluation umfasste standardisierte Auswertungen auf der Grundlage von Fragebögen, Interviewzyklen vor Ort und detaillierten Untersuchungen der jeweiligen Mechanismen und Instrumente der Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie. Dazu zählten u.a. die Prozesssteuerung im Lebensministerium, das Komitee für ein Nachhaltiges Österreich, das Forum für ein Nachhaltiges Österreich, Arbeitsgruppen zur Konzeption und Umsetzung von Schlüsselmaßnahmen, Nahtstellen zu dezentralen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien und Lokale Agenda 21 Prozessen, die Maßnahmendatenbank, das Arbeitsprogramm, der Fortschrittsbericht, der Indikatorenbericht, die Überprüfungsmechanismen und die Internetplattform. Der Evaluationsprozess war partizipativ ausgerichtet. Workshops mit Vertretern ausgewählter Umsetzungsmaßnahmen und Vertretern aus den Ländern und lokaler Agenda 21 Prozesse waren elementare Bestandteile der Evaluation. Die externe Evaluation ermöglichte durch einen 'Blick von Außen und die Konsultation mit den maßgeblichen Akteuren der Österreichischen Nachhaltigkeitspolitik ('Innenansichten) Innovationspotentiale für die zukünftige nachhaltige Entwicklung in Österreich fruchtbar zu machen. Der Evaluationsprozess wurde durch eine Steuerungsgruppe im Lebensministerium und einen Projektbeirat begleitet. Dem Projektbeirat gehörten Vertreter unterschiedlicher Akteursgruppen an. Deren Funktion bestand vorwiegend in der Präzisierung der Fragestellungen, als Resonanzgruppe für Ergebnisse aus dem laufenden Evaluationsprozess und zur Anbindung des Evaluationsprozesses in die jeweiligen Akteursnetzwerke.
By the end of 2004 the Commission is required to provide report on the possibility to maintain, or not, cadmium, in the exemption list of Directive 2000/53 on End-of-Life Vehicles. The SUBAT proposal aims to make a comprehensive and complete assessment of commercially available and forthcoming battery technologies in the world, including Ni-Cd, on the basis of: - a technical assessment comparing their performances for full EV and HEV (specific energy and power, proven cycle life and calendar life, life cycle cost analysis, operation at extreme temperature, charge acceptance, maintenance, safety, energetically efficiency of the battery systems, availability of recycling process at industrial stage, operation during applications); SUBAT will also take into account the status of these batteries as to their availability as commercial products; - an environmental assessment in order to be able to give them an environmental score which can designate them as being a sustainable solution or not; A life-cycle-analysis approach will investigate availability of primary materials, environmental impact of extraction and manufacturing of the battery, emissions from the battery during use, release of components in case of accident, recycling of active materials, production of non-recyclable waste and environmental impact of recycling processes; - an economical assessment with both a micro-economical analysis of production, manufacturing cost of the batteries, forecast cost for the consumers and a macro-economical study to take into account the position of battery manufacturers on the global market, assessing European vs. non-European products and influence on the European trade balance. Through this multidisciplinary approach, SUBAT will allow to define an overall view of all aspects of the automotive battery market, in order to provide the Commission with a valuable policy support tool that will assist in tracing the pathways for the future sustainable transport.
Die Metamorphose und die Reproduktion von Insekten werden von Juvenilhormonen (JH) reguliert, ein Gruppe nahverwandter Verbindungen. Defekte in der JH-Synthese oder Behandlungen von Insekten mit JH-ähnlichen Verbindungen bewirken letale Entwicklungsstörungen oder Sterilität. Es wird vermutet, dass bestimmte Effekte von Parasitoiden auf die Entwicklung des Wirtes durch Veränderungen des JH-Titers verursacht werden. Solche Messungen sind aufgrund der geringen Konzentrationen des Wirkstoffes äußerst kostspielig und häufig nicht zuverlässig. In dem Projekt soll eine neue Methode zur Quantifizierung der JH Verbindungen entwickelt sowie der Einfluss zweier Parasitoidenarten auf der JH-Titer der Raupen von Lymantria dispar untersucht werden.
Various layers exist in the summer mesosphere at middle and polar latitudes which owe their existence to water ice particles. These layers are called ‚noctilucent clouds' (NLC), ‚polar meso- sphere clouds' (PMC), and ‚polar mesosphere summer echoes' (PMSE) which reflects different observation geometry or entirely different physical processes involved. These layers are very sen- sitive to temperature (and to a lesser extent to H2O) and are therefore best suited to indicate long term and solar cycle changes. Indeed, variations on decadal time scales of different layer parameters (occurrence frequency, layer brightness etc.) have been reported from ground and satellite based observations. However, the physical and photo-chemical processes involved are not understood and some of the observations contradict expectations. In this proposal we want to study the long term (decadal scale) formation of layers in the polar summer mesopause region, in particular their sensitivity to variations of background conditions caused by solar forcing and anthropogenic increase of greenhouse gases. We investigate and complement the available observations on layers (NLC/PMC/PMSE) and trace gases (ground based microwave and satellite observations of H2O) and perform model calculations with the LIMA GCM model. In the third phase of the SPP we want to study in particular the feed back mechanisms of ice formation on the atmosphere (e. g., through freeze drying) and the coupling mechanisms to above and below.
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