Cumulative Air Quality Impacts from Twenty-Two Major Power Plants

Cumulative assessment is a tool for the project developer to try and take into consideration not only their contribution to cumulative impacts but also other projects and external factors that may place their developments at risk.This study assessed the cumulative impacts of air emissions from 22 major power plants in southeast Bangladesh planned to generate 21,550 MW of electricity.It also includes anticipated growth in small to medium size industries,brickfields,highway traffic,inland water transport,transhippers,jetty,and vessel transports used for transporting fuel resources for these power plants.A 50 km by 50 km airshed is considered for air quality modeling.Cumulative analysis indicates that predicted MGLCs(Maximum Ground Level Concentrations)of NO2 and CO are complying with both Bangladesh NAAQS(National Ambient Air Quality Standards)and WBG(World Bank Group)Guidelines.The daily average MGLC of PM_(2.5)(62.45µg/m^(3))from all sources complies with NAAQS,however,exceeds the WBG Guidelines.Annual PM_(2.5) concentration(15.45µg/m^(3))exceeds NAAQS and WBG Guidelines.The PM10 concentration complies with the NAAQS for both 24-hour and annual averaging times.Annual average concentration(23.12µg/m^(3))exceeds WBG Guidelines.Daily average SO2 concentration(102.49µg/m^(3))complies with the NAAQS however,it exceeds the WBG guideline values.High concentrations of PM_(2.5) and SO2 are due to the contribution of transboundary emissions and secondary pollutants in the atmosphere.This dispersion modeling outcome can be used by the policymakers for the pollution reduction strategy.

Scientific Basis and Technological Path of Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment

The study tries to set up a system to extract strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in exploitation of regional development based on the present situation of environmental assessment in China. First, the article summarizes the emphasis and deficiency of international academic community’s SEA research in the past 10 years. Based on this, the article puts forward the concept and evaluation principles of regional strategic environmental assessment (RSEA). Then the article expounds the necessity of carrying out RSEA. After that, the article discusses in detail the process of RSEA, which includes defining evaluation scope, describing regional background, combing strategic behavior, designing development scenarios, predicting the pressure on environment, assessing environmental impact, screening alternatives and proposing regulation and control schemes.

Cumulative human impacts in the Bering Strait Region

Introduction:Human impacts on Arctic marine ecosystems are increasing in extent and intensity as sea ice shrinks and utilization of marine resources expands.The effects of climate change are being felt across the arctic while stressors such as commercial fishing and shipping continue to grow as the Arctic becomes more accessible.Given these emerging changes,there is need for an assessment of the current cumulative impact of human activities to better anticipate and manage for a changing Arctic.Cumulative human impacts(CHI)assessments have been widely applied around the world in a variety of ecosystem types but have yet to incorporate temporal dynamics of individual stressors.Such dynamics are funda-mental to Arctic ecosystems.Outcomes:Here,we present the first CHI assessment of an Arctic ecosystem to incorporate sea ice as a habitat and assess impact seasonality,using the Bering Strait Region(BSR)as a case study.We find that cumulative impacts differ seasonally,with lower impacts in winter and higher impacts in summer months.Large portions of the BSR have significantly different impacts within each season when compared to a mean annual cumulative impact map.Cumulative impacts also have great spatial variability,with Russian waters between 2.38 and 3.63 times as impacted as US waters.Conclusion:This assessment of seasonal and spatial cumulative impacts provides an under-standing of the current reality in the BSR and can be used to support development and evaluation of future management scenarios that address expected impacts from climate change and increasing interest in the Arctic.