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Diffuse Contamination of the Environment – Quantifying Selected Issues and Ranking Across the Range

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Chemical Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2020) | Viewed by 14039

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Nicholas D. Kim

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Guest Editor

School of Health Science, College of Health, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Interests: applied environmental chemistry; diffuse chemical contamination; human and environmental risk assessment; science advice to regulatory and policy processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite submissions on this special issue of Sustainability devoted to diffuse contamination of the environment. Diffuse contamination—which refers to discharges which cannot be easily traced back to a single source, are often insignificant in themselves, but nonetheless aggregate over larger scales—has become a central feature of the Anthropocene. Effects of diffuse contamination can range from insignificant to world-changing. At the severe end, it is responsible for some of our most pressing environmental problems; from air, water and soil pollution to climate change, and from the increase in antibiotic resistance to the apparently rapid decrease of insect biodiversity. In this special issue we invite papers that either:

review and update our knowledge of a particular diffuse contamination issue; or
present methods by which disparate diffuse contamination issues can be ranked and prioritised for public policy purposes.

Dr. Nicholas D. Kim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Diffuse contamination
Chemical contaminants
Ranking models
Prioritization methods
Science and public policy

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 1088 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development and Deployment of a Framework to Prioritize Environmental Contamination Issues

by Nicholas D. Kim, Matthew D. Taylor, Jonathan Caldwell, Andrew Rumsby, Olivier Champeau and Louis A. Tremblay

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9393; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229393 - 11 Nov 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2221

Abstract

Management and regulatory agencies face a wide range of environmental issues globally. The challenge is to identify and select the issues to assist the allocation of research and policy resources to achieve maximum environmental gain. A framework was developed to prioritize environmental contamination issues in a sustainable management policy context using a nine-factor ranking model to rank the significance of diffuse sources of stressors. It focuses on contamination issues that involve large geographic scales (e.g., all pastoral soils), significant population exposures (e.g., urban air quality), and multiple outputs from same source on receiving environmental compartments comprising air, surface water, groundwater, and sediment. Factor scores are allocated using a scoring scale and weighted following defined rules. Results are ranked enabling the rational comparison of dissimilar and complex issues. Advantages of this model include flexibility, transparency, ability to prioritize new issues as they arise, and ability to identify which issues are comparatively trivial and which present a more serious challenge to sustainability policy goals. This model integrates well as a planning tool and has been used to inform regional policy development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diffuse Contamination of the Environment – Quantifying Selected Issues and Ranking Across the Range)

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15 pages, 1264 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of the Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on a Large River Using Longfin Eel as a Bioindicator

by Olivier Champeau, James M. Ataria, Grant L. Northcott, Gen Kume, Andrew Barrick and Louis A. Tremblay

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8412; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208412 - 13 Oct 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1904

Abstract

The Matāura River is the sixth largest river system in New Zealand and has long been subject to agricultural, industrial, and residential land use activities. The catchment has economic value and is of great cultural importance for local Māori, who have concerns over potential adverse impacts that anthropogenic stressors exert on the health of the river. There is a dearth of information on the impacts of these stressors towards the health of native species such as the longfin eel Anguilla dieffenbachii. This study assessed the environmental status of the Matāura River using biological and chemical methodologies incorporating A. dieffenbachii as a bioindicator species for exposure to multiple anthropogenic stressors. A range of biomarkers were measured in caged and wild-caught eels (when available) to characterize site-specific responses to anthropogenic stressors. While there was no clear indication of cumulative impacts moving from pristine headwaters to the lower reaches of the Matāura River, biomarkers of xenobiotic metabolization were induced in A. dieffenbachia and there was evidence of chemical contamination in sediment and tissue samples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diffuse Contamination of the Environment – Quantifying Selected Issues and Ranking Across the Range)

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10 pages, 1201 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Tyre Weights an Overlooked Diffuse Source of Lead and Antimony to Road Runoff

by Matthew Taylor and Niklas Kruger

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6790; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176790 - 21 Aug 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2052

Abstract

Lead (Pb) remains elevated in road runoff and roadside dust, which has been attributed to legacy lead in surface soils from leaded petrol. However, “lead” tyre weights, an alloy of 95% Pb and 5% Sb, may be a relatively unrecognised diffuse source of Pb and Sb as they are still used in many countries. An unknown number of these weights drop off tyre rims and deposit on the road where they are abraded and dispersed, potentially causing adverse environmental effects. The type, number and weight of tyre weights lost from motor vehicles were characterised for a range of roading infrastructures and motor vehicle intensities in a 38 month long study of a 6.9 km length of road in Hamilton City, New Zealand. Overall, 1070 tyre weights with a combined mass of 18.6 kg were collected. About 96.4% of the collected weights were made of “lead”, which is an alloy of 95% Pb and 5% Sb, indicating tyre weights can be a major source of Pb and Sb in urban areas. The tyre weight distribution on roads used in this study depended mainly on traffic density and the prevalence of “start stop” patterns in traffic flow influenced by roundabouts and intersections. “Lead” tyre weights should be phased out and replaced with environmentally benign materials. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diffuse Contamination of the Environment – Quantifying Selected Issues and Ranking Across the Range)

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Graphical abstract

17 pages, 3646 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Using Si, Al and Fe as Tracers for Source Apportionment of Air Pollutants in Lake Baikal Snowpack

by Mikhail Yu. Semenov, Anton V. Silaev, Yuri M. Semenov and Larisa A. Begunova

Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3392; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083392 - 22 Apr 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4992

Abstract

The aim of this study was to select chemical species characterized by distinctly different proportions in natural and anthropogenic particulate matter that could be used as tracers for air pollutant sources. The end-member mixing approach, based on the observation that the chemical species in snow closely correlated with land use are those that exhibit differences in concentrations across the different types of anthropogenic wastes, was used for source apportionment. The concentrations of Si and Fe normalized to Al were used as tracers in the mixing equations. Mixing diagrams showed that the major pollution sources (in descending order) are oil, coal, and wood combustion. The traces of several minor sources, such as aluminum production plants, pulp and paper mills, steel rust, and natural aluminosilicates, were also detected. It was found that the fingerprint of diesel engines on snow is similar to that of oil combustion; thus, future research of the role of diesel engines in air pollution will be needed. The insufficient precision of source apportionment is probably due to different combinations of pollution sources in different areas. Thus, principles for the delineation of areas affected by different source combinations should be the subject of further studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diffuse Contamination of the Environment – Quantifying Selected Issues and Ranking Across the Range)

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9 pages, 364 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Radionuclide Transfer in the Zirconium Oxychloride Production Process and the Radiation Effect in a Typical Chinese Enterprise

by Shoulong Xu, Qifan Wu, Xiaogang Li, Feng Yuan and Liangying Tu

Sustainability 2019, 11(21), 5906; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11215906 - 24 Oct 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2355

Abstract

The radiation impact on the environment from naturally-occurring radioactive materials in zircon sand is an important issue for zirconium product manufacturing enterprises. In this paper, a typical oxychloride production enterprise has been taken as an example to study the radiation effect and environmental pollution during the whole production process. The transfer and enrichment of radionuclides in zircon sand was studied by analyzing their concentrations in samples, such as products and wastes, which were sampled from every studied workshop, so that the dose rate in the environment and typical facility surfaces of each workshop could be measured. The study results show that the transfer and enrichment of radionuclides occur mainly in workshops of acidification, dissolution, concentration and crystallization. Silicon slag adsorbed some radionuclides, but most of the radionuclides in raw materials are transferred and enriched in waste acid by the concentration and crystallization process. Sludge and wastewater still contain a large quantity of radionuclides after treatment by wastewater treatment plants. This results in a significant increase in U-238 and Th-232 concentrations in river water near the main outlet. The average effective dose of all employees in the studied enterprises was 0.94 mSv, and workers from the wastewater treatment plants had the largest annual effective dose at 11 mSv. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diffuse Contamination of the Environment – Quantifying Selected Issues and Ranking Across the Range)

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