Os Parques Urbanos caracterizam-se como a principal área livre para o lazer e recreação da população e da manutenção dos sistemas naturais no ambiente citadino. Para que estes espaços possam cumprir com suas funções, a administração pública deve manejar de forma equitativa os aspectos naturais e de recreação e lazer. O principal objetivo desta pesquisa foi demonstrar a potencial ineficiência da conciliação entre as funções de Uso Público e Conservação em parques urbanos de tipologia ecológica, localizados em fundos de vale. Adotou-se como hipótese que, a equidade não ocorra devido à concepção paisagística, a qual favorece o uso público, ao instalar equipamentos e infraestruturas destinadas à população, em áreas originalmente frágeis, permitindo que a conservação torne-se um aspecto secundário. Para tanto, desenvolveu-se um sistema de monitoramento por meio de indicadores qualificados e mensurados por escores, os quais visaram identificar elementos que possam subsidiar o cumprimento das funções supracitadas; segregou-se os indicadores em duas categorias: i) Uso Público (7 indicadores) e ii) Conservação (7 indicadores); para determinar a existência de conciliação, os indicadores foram sintetizados em dois índices numéricos (Índice de Conservação (IC) e Índice de Uso Público (IUP), escalonados entre 0 e 10) e posteriormente cruzados em uma matriz de interação, a qual permite inferir 5 classes de conciliação: i) Alta Equidade, ii) Boa Equidade, iii) Moderada Equidade, iv) Baixa Equidade, e v) Inexistente. Com o intuito de assegurar a replicabilidade, o sistema foi aplicado em 3 (três) parques na cidade de Curitiba (PR), com diferentes características de formação e concepção paisagística. A primeira unidade de análise, o Parque Municipal Nascentes do Belém, apresentou o melhor IC (9,6) e o menor IUP (2,8), atribuindo a área o cumprimento da função de conservação e o baixo cumprimento da função de uso público, permitindo que não ocorra conciliação, classificando-o como Baixa Equidade; o Parque Municipal Cajuru, obteve um IC de 4,7 pontos e um IUP de 5,1, fator que indica que as funções sejam cumpridas moderadamente e que ocorra conciliação entre elas; o Parque Municipal Passaúna, apresentou o melhor IC e IUP, respectivamente, 8,2 e 7,3 pontos, apresentando condições de conciliação entre as funções. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, a hipótese inicial foi refutada, principalmente frente ao estudo conduzido no Parque Municipal Nascentes do Belém, onde se verificou maior atenção para a manutenção dos aspectos naturais e a insuficiência de elementos para fins de uso público, ocorrendo exatamente o inverso das conjecturas levantadas; os estudos conduzidos nos Parques Cajuru e Passaúna, também corroboram os resultados. O sistema de monitoramento mostrou-se eficiente ao seu propósito, em apontar se o parque cumpre com as funções e se ocorre conciliação, segundo critérios pré-estabelecidos, além de apontar eventuais falhas na gestão e nortear áreas prioritárias ao manejo. / The Urban Parks are characterized as the main free area for leisure and recreation of population and the main form of upkeep of natural systems environmental urban. In order that those spaces can perform with their function the public administration should manage from form equitable the aspects naturals and recreation and lounge. The main objective this research was to evidence the potential inefficiency of conciliation between the functions of Public Use and Conservation in urban parks of ecological typology, located in river corridors. Was adopted as hypothesis that, equity dont happen due to landscape conception, what favor the public, use to install equipment and infrastructure intended to population in originally fragile areas, allowing the conservation become as secondary aspect. For this, developed a system of monitoring through qualified indicators and measured by scores, which aimed at identifying elements who can subsidize performance of the duties cited, segregating the indicators in two categories: i) Public Use (7 indicators) and ii) Conservation (7 indicators); for set the existence of conciliation, the indicators were synthesized in two numerical indices (Conservation Indice (CI) and Public Use Indice (PUI), staggered between 0 and 10) and subsequently crossed in a interaction matrix, which allows interfere 5 grade of conciliation: i) High Equity, ii ) Good Equity, iii)Moderate Equity, iv) Low Equity and v) Nonexistent Equity. With the aim to ensuring the replicability, the system was applied in 3 (three) parks in Curitiba (PR), with different characteristics of formation and landscape conception. The first analysis unit, the Municipal Park Nascentes do Belém show the best CI (9,6) and the PUI lowest (2,8) assigning area of compliance function of conservation and the low assigning of function of public use, allowing not occur reconciliation, classifying as Low Equity; the Municipal Park Cajuru, obtain a CI of 4,7 points and a PUI of 5,1, factor that indicates that functions are fulfilled moderately and that reconciliation occurs between them; the Municipal Park Passúna, submitted the best CI and PUI, respectively, 8,2 and 7,3 points, presenting conditions of equilibrium between the functions. According with the result obtained, the initial hypothesis are refuted, principally because of the study on Municipal Park Nascentes do Belem, which was found large attention for upkeep of natural aspects and the failure of elements for purposes of public use, occurring exactly the opposite of the conjecture raised; Studies conducted in the Park Cajuru and Passaúna, corroborates to the results. The monitoring system was efficient for its purpose, in point out that the park meets with the functions and occurs conciliation, according to previously established criteria, while pointing out possible flaws failures in management and priority areas to guide management.

The San Andreas Fault stretches for over 800 miles through California. Along the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, areas in close proximity to the San Andreas Fault Zone may be subject to site amplification of ground motion caused by seismic activity via wave propagation through the subsurface. These seismic hazards are being addressed via the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Faulting Zone Act and the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). Shear wave velocity of the subsurface has served as a proxy for ground motion amplification and is therefore a useful parameter to help analyze and reduce seismic hazards. Low shear wave velocities of the subsurface have been known to correlate with higher amplitude ground motion. This study focuses on refraction microtremor analysis (ReMi) of the subsurface in Northern San Bernardino; more specifically, areas encompassing California State University San Bernardino, in close proximity to the San Andreas Fault. The technique will resolve shear wave velocity values for the top 30 meters (Vs30) of the subsurface. This depth of investigation has proven to be an effective means in determining subsurface conditions. ReMi profiles were situated 0.25 to 2.0 miles away from the San Andreas Fault, and in some instances, strategically positioned next to housing developments and structures. Phase velocity dispersion curves were generated by processing ReMi seismic data and subsequently inverted to attain average shear wave velocity profiles with depth. The geologic units in the study area consist of very young wash deposits, young alluvial fan deposits and Pelonist schist deposits. These geologic units may be an indicator to how seismic waves behave in subsurface lithology. To highlight differences in Vs30 values across the project area, a microzonation map was constructed.

During the 1980’s millions of households in Bangladesh switched from drinking surface water to private groundwater wells to reduce their exposure to fecal microorganisms. Sadly, this switch to shallow groundwater resulted in the largest example of drinking water poisoning in history, with approximately 100 million people exposed to high concentrations of naturally occurring Arsenic in the groundwater. Spatial distribution of Arsenic in the shallow aquifers tends to be patchy, so the most economical mitigation option has been lateral switching from high Arsenic wells to nearby low Arsenic wells. The recently developed Arsenic flushing conceptual model, which explains the spatial distribution of Arsenic throughout the shallow aquifers in Bangladesh, suggests however, that low Arsenic zones are recharged via coarse-grained, rapid flow pathways and therefore represent a higher risk for waterborne pathogens. The objectives of this dissertation are to evaluate new methods for sampling and detection of waterborne pathogens, while also identifying sources of fecal contamination and transport pathway(s) to private wells emplaced within the shallow aquifers. It was demonstrated that private wells are broadly contaminated with E. coli, with prevalence ranging from 30 to 70%. The fact that E. coli was detected more frequently in private wells than sealed monitoring wells (p<0.05) suggests that well construction and/or daily pumping contribute to fecal contamination of the private wells. Using DNA-based molecular fecal source tracking, contamination was demonstrated to originate from human fecal waste. Unsanitary latrines, which spill effluent onto the open ground, were demonstrated to cause elevated levels of fecal bacteria in ponds, found in every village. These ponds were demonstrated to have an influence on concentrations of fecal bacteria to at least distances of 12m into the adjacent aquifer. In a culture where latrines, private wells and ponds are frequently clustered closely together, these findings suggest that improvements in the management of human fecal waste changes in placement and construction of private wells could substantially reduce exposure of people to fecal pathogens. Fecal contamination was found to be pervasive in low Arsenic, unconfined, shallow aquifers, and therefore gains from well switching to avoid Arsenic need to be balanced with the risk of consuming waterborne pathogens.

This study, conducted on August 12th and 13th, 2008 at Fort Riley, Kansas on a clay loam soil, evaluated the terrain impacts of four commonly used tracked and wheeled military vehicles: the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, M985 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, and M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. Disturbed width and impact severity were assessed along 14 spirals subjected to a maximum of eight consecutive passes for a total of 696 impact points. Data indicate that multiple passes produce increased vegetative impacts, with multipass coefficients ranging from 0.98 to 4.44 (compared to the commonly accepted value of 2.00) depending on vehicle type and turn severity. The widely-used MPC of 2.00 fits the M985 HEMTT and M113 at sharp turns, with an MPC of 1.00 fitting the straight and intermediate turning conditions of these vehicles, as well as all turning conditions for the M998 HMMWV. For the M1A1, a MPC of 2.00 is suitable for straight paths, a MPC of 3.00 is suitable for intermediate turns, while sharp turns can be represented by a MPC of 4.00. The data suggests that MPCs should be adjusted depending on the vehicle type and according to the turning radius of the vehicle, as tracked vehicles were found to have a higher multipass coefficient than wheeled vehicles, with multipass coefficients increasing with vehicle weight and the sharpness of turns.

Beaver Creek, located in North Knox County, Tennessee, is on the Tennessee 303(d) list as an impaired stream that fails to meet its designated uses. Phosphorus (P) is one of the major pollutants of the stream. High P levels within surface water can lead to water quality problems including low dissolved oxygen, overgrowth of algae, and eutrophication. Two sources, pasture grazing areas and major municipal point sources, have been identified as important contributors of P to Beaver Creek. The objective of this study was to analyze the total P and Mehlich III extractable P concentrations of sediments in Beaver Creek and determine if a P signal could be identified in sediments collected along two stream reaches, less than 1500 m long, adjacent to a cattle farm and a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Eight sites were sampled within Beaver Creek, divided between two locations. At each sample location, four sample sites were selected. One site, the “control” was upstream of the P input. One, the “source,” was immediately downstream of the P input. Two additional sites, one within 200 m and the second within 400 m downstream of the source, were selected at each location. Nine sediment samples were collected at each sample site. Sediments were analyzed for total P (SW-3050B) and Mehlich III extractable P. ANOVA was run between the sites at each location and t-tests were completed to look for significant differences and a downstream signal. At the cattle farm, P concentrations of sediments at the downstream 2 site were significantly higher than sediment P concentrations at the three other sites. However, unexpectedly high results from the control sample site, combined with unexpectedly low results from the source sample site made it difficult to assess whether the cattle farm was affecting sediment P in Beaver Creek. At the WWTP, the sediment P near the outfall was significantly higher than sediment P at the control. Sediments at the downstream 1 site had significantly higher P concentrations than sediments at the other three sites, indicating that the WWTP may be affecting sediment P in Beaver Creek. This study supports the hypothesis that increased P concentrations could be attributable to P inputs from a WWTP. However, further study is needed about the effects that pastures have on sediment P concentrations within Beaver Creek.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, maintains ten reservoirs in the Cumberland River Basin in Kentucky and Tennessee, and has been monitoring sediment chemistry in the reservoirs since 1994. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the sediment data collected from the reservoirs from 1994 to 2010 to determine if there are any spatial patterns of the trace elements: arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc. The results indicated that trace element levels were consistent with national baseline concentrations measured by the U.S. Geological Survey. Center Hill reservoir had the greatest number of trace element concentrations (all except cadmium) that were significantly higher when compared to all other reservoirs. The degree of urbanization in the reservoir basins was based on population density from the 2000 Census and the percentage of developed land using the 2006 national land cover dataset. Aquatic toxicity values were used as a measure of sediment quality. The reservoirs with the worst aquatic toxicity rankings were not the most urban, instead they were the reservoirs with the longest retention times. Therefore, it may be concluded that retention time has a larger effect on Cumberland River Basin sediment concentrations than the type of land use or the degree of urbanization. The results also indicate that it may be prudent to include an evaluation of quality based on aquatic toxicity when monitoring sediment quality, and that when reservoirs are the subject of sediment quality assessments, the consideration of the physical properties of the reservoir, especially the retention time, is essential for a comprehensive evaluation. This may also imply that sediment quality in reservoirs may effectively be regulated by water resource management techniques at the reservoirs that affect retention time.

Elevated levels of arsenic and other heavy metals like copper, aluminum, zinc, and selenium in drinking water are found to have deleterious effects on human health. Hence, finding methods for reducing their levels is critical. Iron-coated limestone is used as an adsorption material for the removal of heavy metals from drinking water. Removal of heavy metals by native or uncoated limestone was also observed and used for comparison to and evaluation of the improvement in removal efficiency from the ironcoated material. The removal efficiency with limestone was studied for different concentrations of heavy metals. Kinetic studies were done to determine the decrease in heavy metal concentration as a function of time using limestone. Inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy was used for metal analysis. The effective removal rate of copper and aluminum was found to be four hours and one hour, respectively. This method of removal by using limestone is cost effective, eco-friendly, and hence, of great potential importance for heavy metal removal. Iron-coated limestone is used as an adsorption material for the removal of heavy metals from drinking water. This project will investigate techniques to improve removal efficiency of heavy metals using limestone-based material through adsorption. This research will assist in the development of a granular adsorbent product that will remove metals and that can be manufactured and sold for use at the drinking water source, at point-of-use, or at point-of-entry. Limestone is readily available and its use for metals removal is relatively inexpensive. The technology can be adapted to small, rural water supply systems. Benefits of this research will include a low-cost treatment technology for source reduction that will reduce select metals to below drinking water standards.

The simplicity of the Environmental Kuznets (EKC) curve concept motivated this study of the relationships between environmental, economic and social indicators at the country, city/regional and manufacturing facility scale. The study builds on almost 20 years of research on the EKC, which has shown conflicting results for confirmation of the EKC hypothesis that the environment first degrades, then improves, with increasing economic wealth. Most EKC studies use country-scale income or GDP as the primary economic indicator of interest; this study experiments with city/regional GDP at the local scale and a country-scale "market maturity" indicator commonly used by the corporation studied. The manufacturing facility scale analysis is new territory in the EKC literature. Firm-scale studies in the past have been just that, evaluating firm environmental performance across a specific industry. This effort evaluates manufacturing facility performance within the same firm across a set of 21 countries of interest to the corporation. This study is unique in a few other ways. Including multiple scales in the same study is not common in the EKC literature. Typically, a study would focus on one or a few indicators at one specific scale. The actual environmental and social outcome variables used here are also somewhat unique. Generally speaking, the results reported here will fall into the "mixed" bucket relative to the 20 years of existing EKC literature; however, a possible research platform is established based on the possible nesting of multiple scales within the same research effort.

Over the past two decades, the number of universities that pursue zero-waste strategies has steadily increased. However, more study is required on several interrelated factors, policy barriers, and infrastructural fundamentals, which each influence the efficiency of waste management structures (WM) at universities. In this work, the role of the aforementioned factors in implementing an efficient sustainable WM program at higher education institutions was investigated, using Western Kentucky University (WKU) as a case study. The objectives of this study were to identify and assess what type of WM strategies should be priorities for a university that may lack stringent WM infrastructure. Firstly, through this research, waste minimization-oriented policy instruments implemented at American top-level and WKU benchmark universities were compared. In parallel, the recycling behavior of the WKU community was assessed. According to this research, planning well-defined temporal periods with clear goals and allocated tasks for stakeholders is essential. The time periods should include providing readiness programs and performing a waste characterization study from generation points. As the program matures, writing sustainable WM policies with clarified responsibilities for stakeholders is required. The ability of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), as a data integration tool and Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), to enhance the operational roadmap of WM at universities was also investigated. Specifically, GIS was applied to spatially visualize and assess waste generation streams and resource allocation solutions at WKU. The weights of accumulated garbage in dumpsters, which are exclusively assigned to each building, were analyzed with the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) method. Buildings that were high-volume waste generators included buildings with food facilities, suggesting close review of policies related to food practices is essential for developing WM schemes. Furthermore, location-allocation and service area analyses were used to investigate the number of outdoor waste bins and make data-driven recommendations to enhance WM efficiency on the WKU campus. Overall, by utilizing GIS techniques, zerowaste planners can identify how campus waste stream trends change, predict how the recycling rate can be raised by infrastructural changes, and make decisions about where sustainability-concentrated efforts, such as departmental policies, should be concentrated.

In this thesis, the uptake kinetics of Cd by the liverwort D. hirsuta and the moss A. androgynum were investigated. In preliminary experiments, the toxicity of Cd to the bryophytes was investigated by characterising the effects of Cd on photosynthesis and K loss. Experiments were carried out to explain the existence of variation between different collections observed in uptake kinetics in the liverwort D. hirsuta. Photosynthesis in D. hirsuta was more sensitive to Cd than photosynthesis in A. androgynum. The sensitivity was directly related to intracellular Cd concentrations. D. hirsuta accumulated considerably higher concentration of intracellular Cd than A. androgynum. Cd caused intracellular K loss in D. hirsuta but not in A. androgynum. Extracellular Cd uptake was rapid and independent of metabolism. Intracellular Cd uptake as a function of Cd concentrations followed Michael is-Menten kinetics. Intracellular Cd uptake in D. hirsuta was affected by age of the plant, K pretreatment and the site where plants were collected. The moss A. androgynum displayed Cd uptake acclimation when uptake was measured at low temperatures. The results indicated that uptake kinetics could be affected by seasonal variation. Tolerance of Cd in the moss A. androgynum could be induced by pretreating the plants with low concentrations. The moss possibly excludes Cd from the cytoplasm and thus reduces the concentration of Cd in the cytoplasm to below toxic level. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.