[en] The author describes the importance from the discovery of two North American scientists when finding evidences of a possible invasion of life in the terrestrial surface a lot earlier of known until now is accepted, when found indications of organisms like bacteria or algae in rocks between 800 and 1200 million years

No abstract available

[en] The following study treats a sector of environmental policy which must take the aspects of stabilization, maintenance and development into account. The various points of view which are associated with precautionary environmental planning are covered in detail. Whilst considering the methodological and material possibilities, appropriate attention is paid to the question of climatological air hygiene for town and regional planning. The area in question extends to the surrounding regions of the given town. (orig.)

[en] CALMET/CALPUFF modeling system is frequently used in the study of atmospheric processes and pollution, and several validation tests were performed until now; nevertheless, most of them were based on experiments with a large compilation of surface and aloft meteorological measurements, rarely available. At the same time, the use of a large operational smokestack as tracer/pollutant source is not usual. In this work, first CALMET meteorological diagnostic model is nested to WRF meteorological prognostic model simulations (3x3 km2 horizontal resolution) over a complex terrain and coastal domain at NW Spain, covering 100x100 km2 , with a coal-fired power plant emitting SO2. Simulations were performed during three different periods when SO2 hourly glc peaks were observed. NCEP reanalysis were applied as initial and boundary conditions. Yong Sei University-Pleim-Chang (YSU) PBL scheme was selected in the WRF model to provide the best input to three different CALMET horizontal resolutions, 1x1 km2 , 0.5x0.5 km2 , and 0.2x0.2 km2. The best results, very similar between them, were achieved using the last two resolutions; therefore, the 0.5x0.5 km2 resolution was selected to test different CALMET meteorological inputs, using several combinations of WRF outputs and/or surface and upper-air measurements available in the simulation domain. With respect to meteorological aloft models output, CALMET PBL depth estimations are very similar to PBL depth estimations using upper-air measurements (rawinsondes), and significantly better than WRF PBL depth results. Regarding surface models surface output, the available meteorological sites were divided in two groups, one to provide meteorological input to CALMET (when applied), and another to models validation. Comparing WRF and CALMET outputs against surface measurements (from sites for models validation) the lowest RMSE was achieved using as CALMET input dataset WRF output combined with surface measurements (from sites for CALMET model input). Following, CALPUFF model was applied to simulate the local atmospheric diffusion of SO2 (as an inert tracer) from a large power plant smokestack (with four parallel independent liners), considering two different stack configurations (one single point source as a summa of four liners vs. one point source per liner) and two different CALMET meteorological simulations (using as input dataset only the WRF model output vs. only surface and upper-air meteorological measurements). Comparison of those CALPUFF simulations results against the hourly average ground level concentration (glc) measurements shows that the best model performance was obtained by using only WRF model output as CALMET input; also, better glc results are obtained considering one point source per liner in CALPUFF simulations. (Author)

[en] Results of a conference on the title subject are reported. Recommendations are given based on which policy makers can handle uncertainties in decision making processes. One of the cases in this report concerns energy supply security. Another case is about air quality

[en] There is a keen awareness of the effects of water quality on human health and behaviour in developing countries arising from well documented cases which can be found in the literature. Also in Nigeria there are various concerns about incidents of toxic waste disposal, groundwater pollution through oil spillages, waste disposal practices by agricultural, domestic and industrial activities which affect the domestic water supplies and the environment. The aims of this paper are to highlight the role of water quality in human health; provide a framework for water related health assessment, present results of case studies and recommend appropriate strategies to safeguard human health from contaminated water sources. Major health problems, other than those due to micro-biological contamination of water sources, such as cholera and typhoid, have not been reported or linked to water supplies in Nigeria. Yet there are symptoms of and growing incidences of various diseases, such as psychopathic and neurological disorders which have been linked to contaminated water supplies in developed countries. The major, minor and trace concentrations of elements in water supplies in Nigeria are usually determined in the ppm range whereas most trace elements are hazardous to human health in the ppb or μg/l levels. The reason for this state of affairs is that the instrumentation required for determination of elemental concentrations at the ppb level is not readily available to researchers. Most reports on water quality do not provide any links to the major health problems which have been demonstrated elsewhere as responsible for major pathologic and neurologic disorders, including outright fatalities. Recent studies in Europe and Japan link several diseases, including kidney failure, mood disturbance and other neurologic disorders, heart, liver and kidney damage including death from eating poisonous fish caught in polluted waters, to contamination of water supplies by heavy metals in trace concentrations. Most of the ailments, including mood disturbances and psychological disorders, are reportedly on the increase in most urban and industrialized areas of Nigeria. Perhaps a study should be conducted among the population in order to relate the pattern of water pollution related diseases to health factors in Nigeria

[en] Background: Significant mitigation efforts beyond the Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) coming out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are required to avoid warming of 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. Health co-benefits represent selected near term, positive consequences of climate policies that can offset mitigation costs in the short term before the beneficial impacts of those policies on the magnitude of climate change are evident. The diversity of approaches to modeling mitigation options and their health effects inhibits meta-analyses and syntheses of results useful in policy-making. Methods/Design: We evaluated the range of methods and choices in modeling health co-benefits of climate mitigation to identify opportunities for increased consistency and collaboration that could better inform policy-making. We reviewed studies quantifying the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation related to air quality, transportation, and diet published since the 2009 Lancet Commission ‘Managing the health effects of climate change’ through January 2017. We documented approaches, methods, scenarios, health-related exposures, and health outcomes. Results/Synthesis: Forty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Air quality, transportation, and diet scenarios ranged from specific policy proposals to hypothetical scenarios, and from global recommendations to stakeholder-informed local guidance. Geographic and temporal scope as well as validity of scenarios determined policy relevance. More recent studies tended to use more sophisticated methods to address complexity in the relevant policy system. Discussion: Most studies indicated significant, nearer term, local ancillary health benefits providing impetus for policy uptake and net cost savings. However, studies were more suited to describing the interaction of climate policy and health and the magnitude of potential outcomes than to providing specific accurate estimates of health co-benefits. Modeling the health co-benefits of climate policy provides policy-relevant information when the scenarios are reasonable, relevant, and thorough, and the model adequately addresses complexity. Greater consistency in selected modeling choices across the health co-benefits of climate mitigation research would facilitate evaluation of mitigation options particularly as they apply to the NDCs and promote policy uptake. (topical review)

[en] Air quality refers to the condition of the air within our surroundings. Good air quality relates to the degree which the air is clean, clear and free from pollutants such as smoke, dust and fog among other vaporous impurities in the air. Emission of pollutants by nature and human made developments have drastically increased all over the globe in the present circumstances. Study of the pollutant concentrations, developing models to predict the future air quality has become areas of interest for the research and industry community. The air pollutants data is a temporal sequence type data and hence proper initiatives are to be taken to handle it. The system which is able to predict the concentration of air pollutants with sufficient anticipation can provide public authorities the time required to manage the emergency. Great progress has been made in the prediction of the concentration of air pollutants over the past decades by using conventional techniques. However, it is still challenging to accurately predict the concentration of air pollutants due to the complex influential factors such as meteorological parameters. On the other hand, the air quality is unique for distinct geographical locations. Hence, it is important to study, analyze and predict the air quality parameters for specific geographical area of interest. This paper aims to study and predict the quality of air at city, Visakhapatnam, India through persistent deep learning technique, amplified recurrent neural networks (ARRN) model to predict air quality. The results obtained were evaluated with the state-of-the-art models. It has been observed that the that proposed frame work significantly improves the prediction compared to widely used benchmarks models.

[en] The implementation of urban development plans causes land use change, which can have significant environmental impacts. In light of this, environmental concerns should be considered sufficiently at an early stage of the planning process. However, uncertainties existing in urban development plans hamper the application of strategic environmental assessment, which is applied to evaluate the environmental impacts of policies, plans and programs. This study develops an integrated assessment method based on accounting uncertainty of environmental impacts. And the proposed method consists of four main steps: (1) designing scenarios of economic scale and industrial structure, (2) sampling for possible land use layouts, (3) evaluating each sample's environmental impact, and (4) identifying environmentally sensitive industries. In doing so, uncertainties of environmental impacts can be accounted. Then environmental risk, overall environmental pressure and potential extreme environmental impact of urban development plans can be analyzed, and environmentally sensitive factors can be identified, especially under considerations of uncertainties. It can help decision-makers enhance environmental consideration and take measures in the early stage of decision-making.

[en] The continuously increased urbanization, combined with the degradation of the urban climate, and the recent upsurge of concern for the environments as well as the recent technological developments in the field of new energy technologies, defines the major priorities and considerations for urban buildings. This paper discusses the problems inherent in the growth of urban areas. The topics covered include providing buildings, space, good air quality, energy requirements, energy conservation and the effects of the cities on the surrounding country side