In Alberta, Canada, amongst its mixture of sand, clay, water and other minerals, the tar sand’s heavy and viscous component bitumen, a thick, sticky form of crude oil is extracted through two methods; open-pit mining for shallower deposits (<75 m), and in situ for deeper deposits (>75 m). This degree project consists of a comparison between these two extraction methods impact on air, nature and water, which all have been evaluated by reviewing and analyzing literature. Studies showed that in situ methods cause a higher impact on air than open-pit mining, through higher emissions of greenhouse gases and sulfur dioxide (SO2), and will surpass the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by the open-pit mines when the shallower, more accessible tar sands dwindle. Open-pit mining causes a higher impact on water due to its large tailing ponds that causes leakage of processing water and fine tailings, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH: s) and these 13 following elements considered priority pollutants (PPE) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), beryllium (Be), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), selenium (Se), silver (Ag), thallium (Tl) and zinc (Zn). However studies remain unclear whether or not in situ methods are worse due to underground tailing ponds. Finally, when it comes to nature, open-pit mining causes a more direct environmental impact through deforestation, drainage of peat and wetland, and blasting of rock. In situ methods however, seem to cause more of a long term environmental impact through fragmentation. Dividing the landscape into smaller units through roads, wells, pipelines and seismic lines, leads to domestic biodiversity and homogenization of flora and fauna as unfavorable conditions is created for the nature’s wildlife. In conclusion, in situ methods causes a bigger impact on air than open-pit mining, while open-pit mining causes a bigger impact on water. Due to lack of time and resources, more research about the direct impact on nature is needed to fully evaluate which of the two extraction methods causes the least environmental impact.

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

On August 10, 1994, the Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire Nevada Test Site (NTS) and seven off -site locations in the State of Nevada. In the EIS, DOE was to consider the following site management alternatives: (A) continue current operations and interagency project activities and programs. (B) discontinue operations, except those related to monitoring, security, and human health and safety, and decommission, (C) expand the use of the NTS to support national defense and nondefense programs, including waste management and storage, transportation, environmental restoration, and research and development; or (D) implement alternate use of withdrawn lands for new programs including unprecedented public access to remote areas for education and recreation. The structure, organization, and content of the EIS document were to be developed in accordance with the law, and included an assessment of long -term consequences of pro-posed alternatives, evaluation of mitigation strategies, and development of a resource management plan. Thus, in 1995 DOE/NV released a Draft Implementation Plan that documented the agency's approach for preparing the EIS, an important aspect of which is the incorporation of public opinion. In the same year, DOE/NV began consultations with the CGTO as required by NEPA, by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (Federal Register 43: 230, 44978 -56007), and the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy, as amended in 2000. The CGTO appointed seven of its representatives (the American Indian Writers Subgroup or AIWS) to research the potential adverse effects of each action alternative on American Indian resources, to propose mitigation alternatives, and to outline future involvement of the member tribes and organizations in NTS programs and activities. The result of this endeavor was unprecedented, in that DOE agreed to include excerpts of text prepared by the AIWS in the main body of the EIS document and to publish the American Indian Assessment: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of Nevada: A Native American Resource Document in its entirety, as Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996).

On August 10, 1994, the Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire Nevada Test Site (NTS) and seven off -site locations in the State of Nevada. In the EIS, DOE was to consider the following site management alternatives: (A) continue current operations and interagency project activities and programs. (B) discontinue operations, except those related to monitoring, security, and human health and safety, and decommission, (C) expand the use of the NTS to support national defense and nondefense programs, including waste management and storage, transportation, environmental restoration, and research and development; or (D) implement alternate use of withdrawn lands for new programs including unprecedented public access to remote areas for education and recreation. The structure, organization, and content of the EIS document were to be developed in accordance with the law, and included an assessment of long -term consequences of pro-posed alternatives, evaluation of mitigation strategies, and development of a resource management plan. Thus, in 1995 DOE/NV released a Draft Implementation Plan that documented the agency's approach for preparing the EIS, an important aspect of which is the incorporation of public opinion. In the same year, DOE/NV began consultations with the CGTO as required by NEPA, by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (Federal Register 43: 230, 44978 -56007), and the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy, as amended in 2000. The CGTO appointed seven of its representatives (the American Indian Writers Subgroup or AIWS) to research the potential adverse effects of each action alternative on American Indian resources, to propose mitigation alternatives, and to outline future involvement of the member tribes and organizations in NTS programs and activities. The result of this endeavor was unprecedented, in that DOE agreed to include excerpts of text prepared by the AIWS in the main body of the EIS document and to publish the American Indian Assessment: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of Nevada: A Native American Resource Document in its entirety, as Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996). In 2002 and 2008, reports were prepared that addressed American Indian responses to issues raised by the federally mandated five and ten year supplement analyses. This process involved looking at the 1996 Environmental Impact Assessment conducted to consider whether the issues Indian people assessed are still being addressed by the EIS and whether new issues have arisen that would require agency action such as a new Environmental Impact Statement assessment. Included in this collection is the original Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996), the 2002 Supplement Analysis and the 2008 Supplement Analysis. These efforts triggered a new Environmental Impact Statement which was completed in early 2013.

On August 10, 1994, the Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire Nevada Test Site (NTS) and seven off -site locations in the State of Nevada. In the EIS, DOE was to consider the following site management alternatives: (A) continue current operations and interagency project activities and programs. (B) discontinue operations, except those related to monitoring, security, and human health and safety, and decommission, (C) expand the use of the NTS to support national defense and nondefense programs, including waste management and storage, transportation, environmental restoration, and research and development; or (D) implement alternate use of withdrawn lands for new programs including unprecedented public access to remote areas for education and recreation. The structure, organization, and content of the EIS document were to be developed in accordance with the law, and included an assessment of long -term consequences of pro-posed alternatives, evaluation of mitigation strategies, and development of a resource management plan. Thus, in 1995 DOE/NV released a Draft Implementation Plan that documented the agency's approach for preparing the EIS, an important aspect of which is the incorporation of public opinion. In the same year, DOE/NV began consultations with the CGTO as required by NEPA, by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (Federal Register 43: 230, 44978 -56007), and the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy, as amended in 2000. The CGTO appointed seven of its representatives (the American Indian Writers Subgroup or AIWS) to research the potential adverse effects of each action alternative on American Indian resources, to propose mitigation alternatives, and to outline future involvement of the member tribes and organizations in NTS programs and activities. The result of this endeavor was unprecedented, in that DOE agreed to include excerpts of text prepared by the AIWS in the main body of the EIS document and to publish the American Indian Assessment: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of Nevada: A Native American Resource Document in its entirety, as Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996). In 2002 and 2008, reports were prepared that addressed American Indian responses to issues raised by the federally mandated five and ten year supplement analyses. This process involved looking at the 1996 Environmental Impact Assessment conducted to consider whether the issues Indian people assessed are still being addressed by the EIS and whether new issues have arisen that would require agency action such as a new Environmental Impact Statement assessment. Included in this collection is the original Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996), the 2002 Supplement Analysis and the 2007 Supplement Analysis. These efforts triggered a new Environmental Impact Statement which was completed in early 2013.

Increasing the amount of food produced while simultaneously reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. A promising approach through which this could be achieved is ‘sustainable intensification’. This thesis contributes to the exploration of sustainable intensification using two complementary modes of investigation. First through the development of a conceptual framework that analyzes agricultural systems through the lens of ecosystem services and the trade-offs associated with using external inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, fossil fuels) as substitutes for them. Then by quantifying the life cycle environmental impacts of a novel aquaculture technology developed as a means for minimizing local ecological impacts. These modes of investigation are linked by using the conceptual framework to analyze trade-offs associated with waste capture in the aquaculture system. This research provides a potentially valuable method for conceptualizing agricultural systems and contributes to the knowledge of the environmental trade-offs associated with aquaculture.

A tidal current turbine is a device functioning in a manner similar to wind turbine for harnessing energy from tidal currents, a group of which is called a farm. The existing approaches used to predict power from tidal current turbine farms oversimplify the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, which significantly affects the results. The major focus of this dissertation is to study the relationship between turbine distribution (the relative position of the turbines) and the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, and its impact on the power from a farm. A new formulation of the discrete vortex method (DVM-UBC) is proposed to describe the behavior of turbines and unsteady flow mathematically, and a numerical model is developed to predict the performance, the unsteady wake and acoustic emission of a stand-alone turbine using DVM-UBC. Good agreement is obtained between the results obtained with DVM-UBC and published numerical and experimental results. Then, another numerical model is developed to predict the performance, wake and acoustic emission of a two-turbine system using DVM-UBC. The results show that the power of a two-turbine system with optimal relative position is about 25% more than two times that of a stand-alone turbine under the same conditions. The torque such a system may fluctuate 50% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. The acoustic emission of such a system may be 35% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. As an extension, a numerical procedure is developed to estimate the efficiency of an N-turbine system by using a linear theory together with the two-turbine system model. By integrating above hydrodynamic models for predicting power and a newly-developed Operation and Maintenance (O&M) model for predicting the cost, a system model is framed to estimate the energy cost using a scenario-based cost-effectiveness analysis. This model can estimate the energy cost more accurately than the previous models because it breaks down turbine’s components and O&M strategies in much greater detail when studying the hydrodynamics and reliability of the turbine. This dissertation provides a design tool for farm planners, and shed light on other disciplines such as environmental sciences and oceanography.

Pagrindinis vykdomos ES sanglaudos politikos tikslas - skirtumų tarp senųjų ir naujųjų narių gyvenimo lygio mažinimas. Sparti ES šalių konvergencija lėmė ne tik naujųjų ES narių spartesnį ekonomikos augimą, bet ir spartų vartojimo didėjimą, kuris kelia didelę grėsmę aplinkos kokybei. Todėl Lietuvos nacionalinėje darnaus vystymosi strategijoje yra suformuluotas bendras strateginis uždavinys, kad augant ekonomikai, poveikis aplinkai turi augti bent perpus lėčiau nei gamyba ir vartojimas. Darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti ES šalių socio-ekonominių ir aplinkosauginių rodiklių konvergencijos procesus, nustatyti Lietuvos socio-ekonominių veiksnių įtaką vartojimui ir įvertinti vartojimo pokyčių poveikį aplinkai bei gyventojų elgsenos palankumą aplinkai lemiančius veiksnius. Darbe kompleksiškai išanalizuoti ES šalių socio-ekonominių bei aplinkosauginių rodiklių konvergencijos procesai. Nustatyta, kad Lietuva pagal visus socio-ekonominius rodiklius artėjo ES senbuvių link, tačiau pagal rūgštinančių medžiagų emisijas net viršijo jų lygį. Spartus išlaidų augimas lėmė esminius vartojimo struktūros pokyčius, kai išlaidos prabangos prekėms augo itin sparčiai ir tai sumažino išaugusio vartojimo poveikį aplinkai. Tiesioginis vartojimo poveikis aplinkai augo žymiai lėčiau (išskyrus transporto taršą) nei vartojimas arba išvis neaugo. Žmonių elgsenos palankumą aplinkai lemia jų bendrųjų vertybių pripažinimas, pagrindinių aplinkos problemų svarbos vertinimas bei pasiryžimas prisiimti atsakomybę už... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The most important objective of the ES cohesion policy is the convergence of lifestyle of new and old EU member states. The fast convergences of the EU countries determine not only the fast economic growth in the new members, but also the fast boost in consumption, which endanger the environment. Therefore in Lithuanian national strategy for sustainable development is stated the goal, that in the case of economy growth, the environmental impact should grow at least twice slower than production and consumption The aim of the research - to analyze the convergence of socio-economic and environmental indicators in the EU, to estimate impact of socio-economic factors’ to consumption and to assess environmental impact of consumption and the determinants of environmentally friendly behaviour. In the work were there complexly analyzed the convergence of the socio-economic and environmental indicators in the EU countries. There was evaluated, that Lithuania was catching-up the old EU member states by all investigated socio-economic indicators, however according to emission of acidifying compounds it even exceeded the level of EU15. The fast increase of disposable income determined the changes in Lithuanian consumption structure, when the consumption expenditure for luxury goods grew very fast and it slowed down the growth in environmental impact of increasing consumption. The environmental impact of consumption (except transport) increased considerably slower than consumption or it... [to full text]

The most important objective of the ES cohesion policy is the convergence of lifestyle of new and old EU member states. The fast convergences of the EU countries determine not only the fast economic growth in the new members, but also the fast boost in consumption, which endanger the environment. Therefore in Lithuanian national strategy for sustainable development is stated the goal, that in the case of economy growth, the environmental impact should grow at least twice slower than production and consumption The aim of the research - to analyze the convergence of socio-economic and environmental indicators in the EU, to estimate impact of socio-economic factors’ to consumption and to assess environmental impact of consumption and the determinants of environmentally friendly behaviour. In the work were there complexly analyzed the convergence of the socio-economic and environmental indicators in the EU countries. There was evaluated, that Lithuania was catching-up the old EU member states by all investigated socio-economic indicators, however according to emission of acidifying compounds it even exceeded the level of EU15. The fast increase of disposable income determined the changes in Lithuanian consumption structure, when the consumption expenditure for luxury goods grew very fast and it slowed down the growth in environmental impact of increasing consumption. The environmental impact of consumption (except transport) increased considerably slower than consumption or it... [to full text] / Pagrindinis vykdomos ES sanglaudos politikos tikslas - skirtumų tarp senųjų ir naujųjų narių gyvenimo lygio mažinimas. Sparti ES šalių konvergencija lėmė ne tik naujųjų ES narių spartesnį ekonomikos augimą, bet ir spartų vartojimo didėjimą, kuris kelia didelę grėsmę aplinkos kokybei. Todėl Lietuvos nacionalinėje darnaus vystymosi strategijoje yra suformuluotas bendras strateginis uždavinys, kad augant ekonomikai, poveikis aplinkai turi augti bent perpus lėčiau nei gamyba ir vartojimas. Darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti ES šalių socio-ekonominių ir aplinkosauginių rodiklių konvergencijos procesus, nustatyti Lietuvos socio-ekonominių veiksnių įtaką vartojimui ir įvertinti vartojimo pokyčių poveikį aplinkai bei gyventojų elgsenos palankumą aplinkai lemiančius veiksnius. Darbe kompleksiškai išanalizuoti ES šalių socio-ekonominių bei aplinkosauginių rodiklių konvergencijos procesai. Nustatyta, kad Lietuva pagal visus socio-ekonominius rodiklius artėjo ES senbuvių link, tačiau pagal rūgštinančių medžiagų emisijas net viršijo jų lygį. Spartus išlaidų augimas lėmė esminius vartojimo struktūros pokyčius, kai išlaidos prabangos prekėms augo itin sparčiai ir tai sumažino išaugusio vartojimo poveikį aplinkai. Tiesioginis vartojimo poveikis aplinkai augo žymiai lėčiau (išskyrus transporto taršą) nei vartojimas arba išvis neaugo. Žmonių elgsenos palankumą aplinkai lemia jų bendrųjų vertybių pripažinimas, pagrindinių aplinkos problemų svarbos vertinimas bei pasiryžimas prisiimti atsakomybę už... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Employees at Statoil Canada participated in an action research, cooperative inquiry-based program that was designed to facilitate the reduction of their office environmental footprint. The program was designed using a combination of techniques that have been shown in previous studies to produce pro-environmental change. Almost 90% of participants that were offered the program opted to take part. During a 4-month period, participants set up individualized programs to reduce their environmental footprint in a manner of their own choosing. Results were collected both formally, through self-report data from a web-based Action Tracker, through 1 on 1 interviews and through a facilitated discussion and informally, through impromptu conversations, emails and observation. The data suggests that the program was effective in reducing environmental footprint, although it remains to be seen if the changes will be long lasting.