Over the past decade, there has been increasing scientific interest in the occurrence, fate and effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment. To date, the majority of this research has focussed on the aquatic environment whilst the terrestrial environment has remained relatively unexplored. Research carried out in the terrestrial environment has primarily focussed on the fate of pharmaceuticals in soils as well as the uptake of pharmaceuticals into plants. Less information is available on the uptake of pharmaceuticals into other soil dwelling species. The studies presented in the thesis were therefore performed to investigate the uptake of pharmaceuticals into earthworm species (Eisenia fetida and Lumbricus terrestris) and plant species (radish and ryegrass). Experiments were designed to explore the effect of pharmaceutical physico-chemical properties, soil parameters and species traits on the uptake of pharmaceuticals from soils into terrestrial species. Understanding the factors and processes involved in the uptake of these compounds from soils, is vital to adequately assess the risks of pharmaceuticals in the environment. Initial experimental studies evaluated the uptake of four pharmaceuticals, namely carbamazepine, diclofenac, fluoxetine and orlistat into the earthworm, Eisenia fetida. Pore water based bioconcentration factors (BCFs) increased in the order of carbamazepine < diclofenac < fluoxetine and orlistat. As well as experimental research, a desk based investigation was perfomed to assess the applicability of a minimised design approach to estimate bioconcentration factors (BCFs) in terrestrial and aquatic species. A significant regression between BCFminimised and BCFtraditional was found and this approach was therefore adopted to calculate earthworm BCFs in the soil parameters and species traits studies described below. The uptake of the four study pharmaceuticals by E. fetida was therefore further evaluated in different soil types. The uptake and accumulation of pharmaceuticals into E. fetida changed depending on soil type. Orlistat exhibited the highest pore water based bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and displayed the largest differences in uptake between soil types as BCFs ranged between 30.51 – 115.92. For carbamazepine, diclofenac and fluoxetine BCFs ranged between 1.05 – 1.61, 7.02 – 69.57 and 16.78 – 20.42 respectively. Supplementary studies compared the uptake of the study pharmaceuticals in two earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris and E. fetida). All four pharmaceuticals were taken up by both L. terrestris and E. fetida tissue after 21 d exposure to spiked soil. Pore water based bioconcentration factors (BCFs) ranged between 6.69 and 83.79 for L. terrestris and 1.14 and 63.03 for E. fetida. The effect of species type on the uptake of pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, diclofenac, fluoxetine, propranolol, sulfamethazine) and a personal care product (triclosan) was also investigated in plant species (radish, Raphanus sativus and ryegrass, Lolium perenne). Five of the six chemicals were taken up into plant tissue, carbamazepine to the greatest extent in both the radish (52 µg/g) and ryegrass (33 µg/g) whereas sulfamethazine uptake was below the limit of quantitation (LOQ). The results demonstrate the ability of plant species and earthworms to accumulate pharmaceuticals from soils with uptake apparently specific to both species, chemical and soil type. However the influence of these individual parameters does not affect BCFs to a significant amount. The research also highlights that a combination of factors and processes appear to be driving the uptake into soil dwelling species as further analysis was unable to find a single parameter to adequately explain pharmaceutical uptake into terrestrial species. For example, for plant uptake, results could only be partly explained by the hydrophobicity and extent of ionisation of each chemical in the soil. Even though these chemicals are taken up by earthworms and plants, further analysis showed that the risk to predatory birds is minimal based on the current environmental scenarios as thousands of worms would have to be consumed by a bird to receive a single dose. Similarly, the potential risk to humans consuming crops contaminated with pharmaceutical residues is also minimal. However with increasing loadings of pharmaceuticals to soils this may result in potential problems for human health and predatory birds in the future.

Chemical pollution of freshwaters is a globally-significant concern. Micro-point sources of wastewater, including caravan sites and other recreational locations, contribute increasingly to freshwater pollution, particularly as other point and diffuse sources are addressed more effectively. Constructed wetlands (CWs) represent one approach to treatment of wastewater from micro-point sources. This thesis considers how treatment within CWs could be enhanced to meet the challenges inherent to micro-point sources of wastewater. Whilst CWs can deal effectively with a range of pollutants, uncertainties surround the removal of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and, under certain circumstances, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) within these systems. These uncertainties, coupled with variable but often high pollutant loadings from micro-point sources, represent key research challenges. This thesis examines whether amendment of CWs with reactive industrial by-products, coupled with recirculation of wastewater, offers the potential to address these challenges. The sorption properties of a range of industrial by-products, including alum sludge from water treatment works, ochre from minewater treatment and biochar produced from various feedstocks, were assessed through batch and microcosm studies. Ochre and alum- based water treatment residuals demonstrated significant potential to remove phosphate from solution, whilst softwood biochar exhibited substantial ammonium sorption capacity. Mesocosm studies examined the potential to use combined by-products in conjunction with wastewater recirculation to enhance pollutant removal. However, combined reactive media and recirculation were not found to improve treatment levels significantly compared to traditional CW systems. Finally, a field trial was undertaken to assess the extent to which a CW was able to treat a micro-point source of wastewater, alongside the effectiveness of recirculation. Recirculation at the field-scale improved, or maintained, the level of treatment for a range of pollutants. The modifications to CW design and operation evaluated in this thesis offer the potential to enhance the treatment of wastewater from micro-point sources whilst maintaining the low cost and sustainable basis to the CW approach.

In this research the economic behaviour associated with the consumption of arsenic and fluoride contaminated groundwater and the use of arsenic and fluoride removal technologies in affected areas of Bangladesh and Mexico is analysed using a number of tools of economic analysis including analysis of household surveys and stated preference methods. In the first section, a health production function approach is used in order to estimate the economic costs of arsenicosis in rural households of Shahrasti, Bangladesh. Then, experimental data from rural communities in Bangladesh are used to assess the adoption of groundwater arsenic removal technologies in relation to risk and time preferences. The identification of such preferences is important because they determine people's propensity to use arsenic removal technologies and their ability to avoid arsenic related illnesses. Further, time inconsistent preferences can trigger self-control related problems like procrastination in the use of water filters. In the second section, a contingent valuation survey is used to elicit household willingness to pay responses for safe drinking water in Zacatecas, Mexico. The objective is to investigate households' willingness to pay for improved water quality through the installation of a new filtration system to remove fluoride and arsenic from groundwater. It was found that individuals' subjective perceptions of contamination might change their attitude towards the installation of water purification systems, thereby changing the effective price of potable groundwater that they are willing to pay. Different types of contamination (by arsenic and fluoride in this case) had differing effects on values. Value estimates also changed as the socioeconomic profiles of survey respondents changed. Further interdisciplinary research was conducted in order to achieve a better understanding of the problem of environmental contamination with arsenic, fluoride and heavy metals in Mexico.

UK-listed companies have multiple mandatory climate reporting requirements that aim to not only engage them in climate change, but also get them to take action beyond reporting. The thesis looks at the two latest mandatory requirements—‘Mandatory Carbon Reporting’, and ‘Adaptation Reporting Power’—and discusses what they mean for business performance and management of climate change. To understand the rationales, practices, and impacts of climate reporting on organisational cultures and behaviours an extensive desktop review analysed websites and Annual reports of 176 companies listed either on the FTSE 100 or as one of the UK’s critical infrastructure providers. This was supplemented by an intensive phase of 36 interviews with individuals representing 19 companies in one of four case-study sectors (e.g., Energy utility, Extractive, Financial service, Water); and an additional 24 third party conversations with Government officials, Regulators, Consultants, and Independent body organisations. It emerged that 93% of companies sampled regard climate change as meriting at least some engagement, with four levels of reporting identified, and a difference in the number of companies engaged in carbon reporting (93%) and adaptation reporting (28%). Rationales for climate reporting mirror those for wider social and environmental reporting. Companies report because of potential win-win outcomes, they are legitimacy seeking, and/or want to ensure auditability. However, reporting per se does not necessarily lead to corporate action on climate change. Instead there are economic, reputational, and regulatory factors, and sectoral characteristics (e.g., environmental sensitivity, energy intensity) that affect reporting’s impact. This research has implications for the aims, designs and purposes of imposing reporting requirements to help business and society tackle climate change and the challenges presents. It contributes to a growing debate on the social implications of corporate reporting by highlighting the need to better understand what motivates businesses to not only disclose information, but also take action beyond reporting.

Detection of vegetation affected by oil spills in oil polluted environments such as mangrove forest can be challenging using in-situ measurements and laboratory-based analysis techniques. Satellite remote sensing has been shown to be an effective tool to detect and monitor vegetation health and status in polluted areas. The application of broadband multispectral vegetation indices (BMVIs) derived from remotely sensed satellite data to detect and monitor impacts of oil spills on vegetation health has not been fully evaluated through previous research. The study was conducted in the mangrove forest South-West of Port Harcourt City in Niger Delta, Nigeria. This study first investigated the potential for using BMVIs to detect the impact / the effects of oil pollution on vegetation health. A total of 20 BMVIs were evaluated using data acquired at the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared wavelengths. In Chapter 4 a statistical analysis of the indices from 37 oil polluted and non-polluted (control) sites show that 12 BMVIs demonstrated significant differences (p<0.05) between pre- and post-spill observations. For the control sites 11 of the 20 BMVI values did not indicate significant change and remained statistically invariant before and after the spill date (p ≥ 0.05). Oil spills are therefore suggested to cause a biophysical and biochemical alteration of the vegetation, leading to changes in reflectance signature detected by these indices. Five spectral indices (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), adjusted resistant vegetation index (ARVI2), green near infrared (G/NIR) and green shortwave infrared (G/SWIR)) were found to be consistently sensitive to the effects of oil pollution on vegetation and hence could be used for detection of oil pollution in vegetated areas. This study sought to, secondly, investigate factors that have been assumed to be influential on the detection of the impacts on vegetation from oil spills such as oil spill volume, time gap (number of days between oil spill events and image acquisition date) and spatial distance using the five BMVIs (NDVI, SAVI, ARVI2, G/NIR and G/SWIR). Regression analysis, utilised to determine the relative influence of these factors over 56 oil spill sites, revealed a significant relationship between the volume of the oil spill and increased deterioration of vegetation condition (p < 0.05) for four of the indices (NDVI, SAVI, ARVI2 and G/NIR). The length of time between image acquisition and oil spill was observed to exert an influence on the ability to detect the biophysical effects of oil spills on vegetation. The longer the time gap between the date of image acquisition and the oil spill event, the lower the detectability of oil spill impacts on vegetation. The influence of spatial variation on the detection of vegetation impacts was evaluated using a directional flow model applied over a local neighbourhood; the results from which did not show any significant difference between the neighbouring pixels (first pixel-P1, second pixel-P2 and third pixel-P3). The study also attempted to assess and validate the techniques used in chapter 4 in a different study site (study site 2- SS2) with a relative climatic and environmental conditions using new oil spill data in 2014. The findings revealed that statistical results from five indices (NDVI, SAVI, ARVI2 and G/NIR) derived from Landsat 8 in SS2 are found to show similar results to the ones obtained in SS1 using Landsat 5 & 7. In conclusion, it was found that the BMVIs have potential capacity for detection of vegetation affected by oil spills, not only are several factors found to exert a significant influence on the detection of oil spill impact on vegetation pollution using BMVIs, but also this method has the potential for replication in other over an oil-polluted environment.

No description available.

A potential clash of ideologies is identified between the climate change agenda and the conservation of the historic built environment. Whilst the conservation of both the natural environment and our built heritage should ideally be mutually beneficial, the lack of a robust policy framework within the planning system is proving to be highly problematic. The study examines how the historic built environment in Wales can contribute towards the national target of achieving a carbon neutral society within a generation through policy reform within the planning system. A brief history of the building conservation movement is provided, along with a description of how it has evolved. Climate change and its implications for the planning system are also examined. A hypothesis is also included in the study, which suggests that the current planning policy framework is insufficiently equipped to aid the historic built environment in adequately contributing towards the target of achieving a carbon neutral society within a generation. The analytical section draws upon the evidence base of the study, which is in the form of primary data such as surveys and secondary data such as previously published statistics. The findings of the study are identified and analysed in order to reach robust conclusions, which in turn lead onto a series of recommendations on how the planning policy framework for the historic built environment in Wales can be modified to become more effective in making significant reductions in carbon emissions over the next generation. The duration of the study period is from 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2014. All literature, data and other information included in this thesis, and subsequent analysis and conclusions, are considered to be up-to-date at the study’s ‘cut-off’ date of 31st December 2014. The Viva Voce for the study took place on 7th October 2015. Subsequently, changes have been made to the thesis that refer to information released after the original 31th December 2014 cut-off date.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the significant environmental issues, especially, Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions and specifically Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) emissions which are mainly caused by energy use. This thesis consists of three core chapters. Chapters 2 and 4 discuss how to stabilize and forecast CO₂ emissions for Pakistan while chapter 3 discusses the energy efficiency of Asian developing countries. Exogenous Technical Change (TC) and endogenous TC models are considered in the chapter 2 for the stabilization of CO₂ emissions. Specifically, the estimated results show that endogenous TC model (which is estimated by following the Kalman Filter (KF) technique) does a better job in comparison. The results also point out the existence of a trade-off between GDP growth and fuel prices. Inter-fuel substitutions are estimated using the Almost Ideal Demand System (AID). Results suggest that stabilization can be achieved just in short run but it needs too much time for the implementation in the long run plans. In chapter 3, a parametric Stochastic Frontier model Approach (SFA) is used for a panel of 19 countries including Pakistan over the period of 1980 to 2013. The individual and relative energy efficiency over time of all counties is estimated. The focus is to find either energy intensity a good indicator of energy efficiency or not. According to the estimated results, energy intensity is not a good indicator of energy efficiency but the energy efficiency estimated using SFA after controlling for some of the economic factors (fuel prices, population, income, etc.) it is. In chapter 4, the relationship between CO₂ emissions and income, and energy consumption and income are found to support the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Univariate (Grey Prediction Model (GM), Exponential Smoothing (ES), Holt-Winter (H-W)) and multivariate model solving techniques are used to predict CO₂ emissions and their forecasting abilities are compared. A new technique, Out Of Sample Grey Prediction (OOSGP), is introduced after providing a critique of the GP model to get better forecast results. The findings of this study provide a valuable reference with which Pakistan’s government could formulate measures to reduce CO₂ emissions by curbing the unnecessary consumption of energy.

CO2 injection in geologic formations (hydrocarbon reservoirs as well as aquifers) is increasingly considered as a method for increasing oil recovery and, at the same time, storing CO2 in these formations to reduce the CO2 emissions, which are considered to be the main cause responsible for global warming or the greenhouse phenomenon. Among many parameters significantly impacting the flow and distribution of CO2 in the formations is relative permeability (KrCO2). The protocols being used to measure CO2 relative permeability are facing a lot of challenges and problems. In this study, an assessment package tool has been designed and applied in order to verify the protocols and data resulted from CO2 relative permeability experiments published, with recommendations to avoid errors, all that to prospectively help in determining lab measurements which need to be defined, and thus getting reliable CO2 relative permeability data to be used for obtaining accurate prediction of the flow properties to CO2 through (CGS) or (EOR). Moreover, introducing some vital notices whereby the CO2 relative permeability curves could be read and interpreted correctly was an additional work which has been done. Another issue is that the capillary properties like wettability, IFT and viscosity are considered as the main factors controlling the shape of CO2 relative permeability curve and subsequently its value; however, it is found that any set of rock samples, even extracted from the same formation or from different formations with the same rock type and developing the same capillary properties as well, will produce different CO2 relative permeability curves. This phenomenon had been attributed to rock pore structure or quality, no details of the physics has been described in producing variant CO2 relative permeability curves for the set of samples assumed. In this study, we introduced an interpretation of how the rock internal structure or quality leads to producing variant CO2 relative permeability curves, and it was presented as an upgraded concept called ‘pore and throat distributions’. This new concept has been verified using a set of pore-network models with variant pore and throat distributions. Using theoretical modelling, rather than the empirical or experimental one, was inevitable as to avoid the side effects of the interactions1 (among the CO2, brine and rock contents) on CO2 relative permeability, and also to put aside the effect of other capillary properties mentioned. Going back to Darcy’s law, the CO2 relative permeability is a decisive parameter that controls the CO2 injection rate, but what should be mentioned here is that Darcy’s law just introduces the KrCO2 relative permeability as a term which affects CO2 injection rate and never goes beyond this term to parameters or factors controlling the KrCO2 value and investigates their impact on CO2 injection rate. In this study and by using KrCO2 data published and a real aquifer model we found that the normal pore and throat distributions with similar connection (a new concept introduced before) produced the best injection rates comparing with other cases of abnormal distributions. The difference among the relative permeability of CO2 and other gases, like methane (CH4) and Ethane (C2H6), has also been studied using a theoretical model. The results illustrated that there was no difference among the relative permeabilities related to CO2 and other gases (CH4, C2H6). Finally, the wettability distribution concept has been introduced as a factor controlling the magnitude of CO2 endpoint relative permeability for rock samples having the same rock and capillary properties. Some differences between the systems of gas-oil and CO2-Brine, in terms of interfacial tension, have been interpreted depending on the notion of free and adherent layers thickness.

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem service provision around the globe. It is known that nitrogen enrichment affects various chemical and biological processes involved in carbon cycling and storage in soil. This is especially significant as soil carbon storage is an essential form of climate change mitigation. However, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the impact of nitrogen accumulation on terrestrial carbon storage. Determining the impacts of nitrogen addition on soil carbon is crucial to our understanding of how soil can be managed as a carbon sink. Evidence suggests that the chemical form of nitrogen may affect how grasslands respond to nitrogen enrichment. In addition, nitrogen has both direct and indirect (via plant community change) effects on carbon. In order to understand how nitrogen affects carbon storage, these different effects must be disentangled. By using two seven-year field nitrogen addition experiments, a microcosm incubation, and a two-year mesocosm study, this thesis aimed to investigate the effects of nitrogen addition on carbon cycling and storage in acid grasslands. Results show that reduced nitrogen is likely to have the strongest long-term effects on carbon storage, due to decreases in soil pH and potentially adverse effects of ammonium accumulation. Moreover, nitrogen addition was found to have a negative effect on soil respiration, possibly via nitrogen-enhanced carbon and phosphorus limitations, as well as possible effects of nitrogen-induced acidification. Results also suggest that nitrogen addition may have different direct and indirect effects on soil carbon. Indirect effects, driven by plant community change, strongly influenced inputs of fresh carbon to soil. However, direct effects of nitrogen could alter the storage of older, mineral-associated soil carbon. Finally, this thesis highlights the need for more long-term (over ten-year) studies in order to determine the true effects of nitrogen on soil carbon storage.