No description available.

No description available.

The literature review identified the current scientific understanding of element and lime interactions with clay minerals and the leaching protocols used to assess contaminant mobility. This understanding formed the basis for the mechanisms postulated for clay-contaminant-lime interactions and the appropriate methods of chemically assessing time-dependent interactions. Two refined clay minerals English China Clay (predominantly kaolinite) and Wyoming Bentonite (predominantly sodium-montmorillonite) were used to assess the time-dependent effects of mineral structural chemistry on clay-contaminant-lime interactions. (Continues...).

Many global problems in society relate to issues of environment and development. This research explores different connotations of environmental management and development. Development models for Third World countries are found to be most effective when they promote the participation of people in the communities they serve. The thesis demonstrates that development is a process through which members of society develop themselves and their institutions to enhance their ability to mobilize and manage resources to produce sustainable and distributed improvements in their life. The thesis shows that environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an environmental management instrument that allows people to participate in the management of large development proposals. My research demonstrates that the integration of public participation for environmental impact assessment makes the ETA process more meaningful and satisfactory for those who are most frequently affected by infrastructures and commercial enhancement. The thesis reviews European legislation which identifies major projects such as nuclear and fossil fuel power stations, coal mines, oil and gas projects, airports, tunnels, barrages, roads and manufacturing plants for compulsory EIA. The thesis identifies then public participation as a necessary requirement for these assessments. My work shows that the existence of NGOs and other community groups may guarantee more realistic representation than those circumstances where such groups are discouraged, prohibited or ill formed because of inadequate local leadership. My investigation indicates that grass-roots participatory movements, in which people are encouraged to take the initiatives to manage the environment, develop their expertise and capacity to survive in particular circumstances are numerous. In order to investigate EIA in a country well on the way to industrialisation I examined the environmental impact assessment of development projects incorporating public participation in Portugal. I found that public participation in EIA in Portugal is weak because of historical political constraints. Participation is integrated with environmental management and development in grass-roots sustainable development initiatives in Africa and Asia. I demonstrated that local/regional resource management and development is often promoted from the grass-roots by NGOs with diverse histories. Some relate to people in different communities who have come together with different degrees of participation according to their individual, family, social, economic, political and environmental concerns. They challenge their situations by making responsible decisions, planning, implementing and monitoring their objectives through processes of consultation, action and reflection. I further demonstrated that community objectives are achieved through involvement in each stage of the development process. If it is believed that human potentials are to be discovered and developed, then meaningful participation can realise this by people's active involvement at all level of society in decision making. I demonstrated that NG0s, historically, have been effective in this task by removing obstacles and educating communities to participate. suggested it is through the promotion of participation that EIA can exert its effectiveness.

No description available.

This thesis examines the organisation and activities of local environmental groups. Environmental groups are defined broadly to include all local voluntary groups which devote a considerable proportion of their time to issues and activities concerning the physical environment. Chapters 1 to 3 provide a background to the study of local environmental groups. They describe the history and present status of the British national environmental movement and the literature on environmental groups (Chapter 1); British environmental legislation (Chapter 2); and the environmental and social background of the two areas chosen for intensive practical research, West Surrey and Newham (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 describes the organisation and activities of local environmental groups in West Surrey, including their numbers, size, aims, the issues which concern them and the tactics they adopt to deal with these issues, their relations with each other and with local authorities, and their achievements. Chapter 5 describes local environmental groups in Newham under similar categories, contrasting them with West Surrey groups. Chapter 6 compares and contrasts the data from the intensive studies in Newham and West Surrey with data available in the literature on local environmental groups elsewhere in Britain. It identifies patterns of similarity and difference, and advances possible explanations for these patterns. Chapter 7 examines the patterns of activity identified in Chapter 6, along with more detailed data from the intensive studies, to assess the extent to which a local environmental movement can be said to exist in Britain. It is concluded that the movement is not cohesive, and has changed little in response to the new ideas on the environment which have developed at national level since the 1960's. The Appendix describes the method of data collection and analysis in West Surrey, which included a questionnaire and computer-based statistical analysis.

No description available.

Smoking flares have always represented the visible symbols of pollution escaping from the world's oil and petrochemical industries. Only in recent years, however, has the increasing size of such complexes begun to cause acute environmental problems. During normal operations, these valuable off-gases ought to be conserved, either by gas liquifaction or by re-injection plants but, in an emergency, flares remain necessities as 'plant safety valves'. Essentially, smokeless flaring is an aerodynamic mixing problem. The large volume air requirement for clean combustion has to be induced into the flame by some kind of high pressure gas or steam entrainment system. A novel method of effecting this mixing, rapidly, is to utilise the 'Coanda Effect'. This is the name given to the tendency of a fluid jet to adhere to an adjacent surface, thereby causing enhanced entrainment, actually up to 25 times the original air inflow into the jet. The object of this research was to study and thus improve the performance of one design of Coanda, external surface, steam flare, developed and marketed by BP under the trade name Stedair. The investigation of this flare system was conducted in two parts; physical modelling of the entrainment at the flare tip, followed on by confirmatory measurements, on a 76 mm pilot scale, propylene doped, methane-steam flare, A slice (two-dimensional) water model of a Stedair flare tip was constructed, to examine the effectiveness of Coanda surface geometry, as an entrainer and mixer. The neutralisation reaction between solutions of HCl and NaOH was used to imitate the combustion reactions between oxygen and hydrocarbons, the neutralisation being made visible by the use of phenolphalcin as an indicator. Adjustment of the concentrations cuid flows simulates fuel stoichiemetry and excess air requirements, producing a 'flare envelope' corresponding to the 'mixed is burnt criterion. The second phase of the investigation consisted of a series of combustion tests on the largest (76 mm) Stedair steam flare that could b6 safely operated within a high ceiling (7.6 m) laboratory. Temperature and CO profiles within the flame were measured on 3 flare heads, with 4 slot widths/head and at 3 steam flows/slot width, the gas flow being kept constant. Smoke Points, Blow-off and Coanda Breakaway Points were also measured at varying gas flows. The Coanda principle is inherently such an excellent entrainment device that combustion on these flare tips is nearly always good, provided that the jet slot width remains uniform. Whilst noise and radiation levels can only be measured on real flares, combustion quality and entrainment rates are best measured on slice water models of such flares. The experimental flare built by the author demonstrated this point very well. The pulsations and oscillations of this turbulent jet, even in the wind-free laboratory environment made obtaining consistent measurements very difficult. A Coanda flare behaves like an enclosed rather than a free jet, thus the similarity criteria developed by Craya and Curtet can be applied and when it is, Jenkins and Coworkers have shown that, water model results do correspond to those measured on real flare trials.

The interconnection of environmental pollution and socioeconomic development is discussed, taking information as the starting point. Information in this field has been developed, and the ensuing problems considered, in the international forum by United Nations Agencies and Conferences, and at a national level by the Brazilian Federal Government. The main problems relating to the pollution of the Brazilian environment are introduced, and Governmental policy - internal and external - is shown on the national plane to be somewhat uncoordinated, and on the international plane to be rather resistant to external pressures. This limits both the development of a national environmental information system, and the participation of Brazil in the international exchange of information and ideas. Environmental information is focused at the international level through UNEP's systems, and the Brazilian situation is presented comprehensively through the data collected in sixty-two environmental agencies. These agencies were surveyed with the twofold objective of: a. analysing the generation of information and the pattern of its use by the Brazilian environmental agencies in their decision-making process, and b. investigating how the variables of region and task influence the pattern of information use by environmental managers. The analysis has been based mainly on the interviews conducted with the managers in charge of environmental pollution control in Brazil, and involved the following steps: a. the identification of managerial functions and tasks in the field of environmental pollution control; b. the identification of information needs related to each task; c. the analysis of regional characteristics related to tasks and information needs; d. the analysis of both regional and task characteristics related to the sources of information used by the managers. Some alternative solutions towards an environmental information policy are proposed, taking into account managerial information needs, information units already existing with greater potential for contributing to this field and the national and regional political background.

Objective. To determine if poor compliance with asthma treatment is independently associated with exacerbations requiring emergency room visits in adult patients seen at Kalafong Hospital, a secondary regional- and teaching hospital affiliated to the University of Pretoria. Methods. A matched case-control study was undertaken - matched on age and gender, between December 2003 and May 2005. Known asthma patients with exacerbations presenting at the hospital's emergency unit were chosen as cases. Controls were stable asthma patients recruited from the outpatient departments. A structured questionnaire was used to interview patients concerning their possible exposure to certain triggers and risk factors. Univariate and multivariate analysis with conditional logistic regression was done to determine any significant exposures. Participants were between 18 ¬65 years of age. Results. Three hundred and fifty-six patients were evaluated. Fifty cases and 100 controls were enrolled. Cases were shown to be more non-compliant than controls (OR = 2.18; 95% CI 1.09 to 4.38, p = 0.03). Missing follow-up doctor appointments for the last six months was statistically significant with an OR of 2.39 (95% CI 1.08 to 5.27) and p = 0.03. Cases had more bacterial respiratory infections than controls (OR = 5.00; 95% CI 1.57 to 15.94, p = 0.01). More controls (50%) were exposed to dust- and environmental pollution than cases (38%) (OR = 0.60; 95% CI 0.29 to 1.23, p = 0.16). There was also an interaction between non-compliance and dust- and environmental pollution. Conclusion. Non-compliance and bacterial respiratory infections were strong predictors of exacerbations in adult asthma patients at Kalafong Hospital. / Dissertation (MPh)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / MPh / Unrestricted