An Analysis of Supply Chain Environment in Great Wall Motor Based on Life-Cycle Assessment

Great Wall Motor(GWM),a leading automotive manufacturer,places a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability and social responsibility.The company focuses on comprehensively evaluating and enhancing its supply chain to align with these objectives.This evaluation spans the entire product life cycle,encompassing design,manufacturing,packaging,distribution,usage,and recycling and disposal processes.Key areas of focus include optimizing raw material selection,improving product recyclability,reducing energy consumption and waste emissions,and minimizing carbon emissions during transportation.Through these endeavors,GWM not only enhances its environmental performance by reducing carbon emissions and resource consumption but also bolsters its brand image and competitiveness in the market.GWM’s dedication to environmental innovation and technological leadership serves as a driving force behind sustainable development and social responsibility within the industry.

Environmental Impact Assessment of Onshore Wind Farms in the Region of Central Greece Using a Modified RIAM Method

Wind energy is one of the most basic forms of renewable energy,which shows an increasing rate of development worldwide and also at the European level.However,this rapid deployment of wind farms makes the need for an impact assessment of this type of projects on the natural and man-made environment imperative.The present paper aims to identify and assess the environmental impacts of wind farm projects in the Region of Central Greece.A modified Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix(RIAM)method is used for this purpose.The methodology includes the identification of the existing onshore wind farm projects in the study area,the appropriate modifications of the RIAM method to respond to the characteristics of the projects and the study area,the qualitative assessment of their potential impacts during construction and operational phases and the computation of the Environmental Performance Grade(EPG)of projects based on the pro-posed modified RIAM method.The results reveal that although there are some slight negative impacts on the natural environment of the study area,the examined wind farms contribute positively both to the atmosphere and to the socio-economic environment of the study.This study extends the potential for using RIAM as a tool in environmental impact assessment studies of renewable energy projects.

Opportunities to Improve the Quality of Environmental Reports and the Effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment: A Case of Electric Power Transmission Systems in Brazil

A good quality Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is key for the effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes and consequently to the acceptability of projects subject to EIA. The international literature has contributed to the understanding of the essential aspects to be verified regarding the quality of EIS, offering a wide spectrum of good practice examples related to the content of the studies. Even so, there is a need for empirical studies that allow the identification of specific aspects related to the context of application of the EIS, which could lead to the identification of opportunities to improve both the quality of the reports and also the effectiveness of EIA. Therefore, the present paper is focused on the quality review of a number of EIS submitted to the Brazilian Federal Environmental Agency (Ibama) to instruct the assessment of electric power transmission systems. Based on the application of the EIS quality review package as proposed by Lee and Colley (1992), the outcomes reveal opportunities for improving the scope of EIA, analysis of alternatives, prediction of magnitude and the assessment of impact significance. Finally, the development and/or adaptation of a similar tool for the systematic review of the quality of EIA reports is recommended.

Environmental Impact Assessment Follow-Up of Seismic Survey Offshore Activities in Brazil

Follow-up of environmental impacts is an integral part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, closely related to the effectiveness of the instrument. EIA follow-up has been receiving a lot of interest from scientists and practitioners, though it is recognized as one of the weakest points of EIA systems globally. Also, EIA follow-up is influenced by the context, mainly in terms of the types of projects or activities and their related impacts on the environment. Therefore, the present paper is focused on the investigation of the follow-up stage applied to the activity of seismic survey coupled with offshore oil & gas exploitation in Brazil. Research was based on a qualitative approach that included document analysis and semi-structured interviews with analysts involved in EIA processes, and sought to generate evidence of effectiveness of the EIA follow-up as conducted by the Federal Environment Agency (Ibama) in order to situate the practice of follow-up in the broader context of international best practice principles. Based on the findings, it was concluded that, due to the peculiarities of offshore seismic survey, it is necessary to promote adaptations in the procedures for monitoring impacts in order to ensure proper alignment with the principles and conceptual foundations that guide EIA practice. Specifically, the timing of the execution of the activity imposes challenges for its integration into the “conventional” cycle that has guided the monitoring of the impacts in the EIA of projects.

Assessing environmental impact:Micro-energy network optimization in a Chinese industrial park

Micro-energy systems contribute significantly to environmental improvement by reducing dependence on power grids through the utilization of multiple renewable energy sources.This study quantified the environmental impact of a micro-energy network system in an industrial park through a life cycle assessment using the operation of the micro-energy network over a year as the functional unit and“cradle-to-gate”as the system boundary.Based on the baseline scenario,a natural gas generator set was added to replace central heating,and the light pipes were expanded to constitute the optimized scenario.The results showed that the key impact categories for both scenarios were global warming,fine particulate matter formation,human carcinogenic toxicity,and human non-carcinogenic toxicity.The overall environmental impact of the optimized scenario was reduced by 68%compared to the baseline scenario.A sensitivity analysis of the key factors showed that electricity from the power grid was the key impact factor in both scenarios,followed by central heating and natural gas.Therefore,to reduce the environmental impact of network systems,it is necessary to further optimize the grid power structure.The research approach can be used to optimize micro-energy networks and evaluate the environmental impact of different energy systems.

Establishing environmental background values of selected trace elements and environmental quality assessment of fi negrained sediments in the Jiaozhou Bay catchment,China

With the development of economy,the impact of human activities on ecological environment is increasing,and environmental protection work is important.Trace elements(Co,Ni,Cu,Pb,Zn,Cd,Cr,and Sc)in surface fi ne-grained sediment samples from the Jiaozhou Bay catchment were selected to evaluate their 2015 environmental background values and the environmental quality.Using statistical analysis,the environmental background values(ranges)of Sc,Co,Ni,Cu,Pb,Zn,Cd,and Cr were calculated,being 13.1(10.8-15.4),12.4(8.6-16.2),32.0(22.9-41.2),29.6(13.5-64.9),24.1(13.0-44.6),77.6(38.5-156.5),0.07(0.02-0.20),and 82.5(66.5-104.0)mg/kg,respectively.The enrichment factor,contamination factor,and pollution load index were used to evaluate the pollution status of the Jiaozhou Bay catchment.The environmental background values of most elements are higher than those of the upper continental crust and lower than those of global shale.At present,the pollution in the eastern Jiaozhou Bay is much higher than that in the western part.The results shall be helpful for future management for trace element pollution monitoring in the Jiaozhou Bay catchment.

Importance of Public Engagement in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and the Benefits of Stakeholder Involvement in Project Design, Environmental Soundness, and Social Acceptability

The paper discusses the importance of public engagement in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and the benefits of stakeholder involvement in project design, environmental soundness, and social acceptability. It highlights the negative repercussions of mining activities in Ghana, including health consequences such as skin conditions, fever, coughs, diarrhea, malaria, and catarrh, as well as HIV/AIDS infection among those engaged in or connected to prostitution in mining towns. The environmental effects of mining in Ghana include noise pollution from heavy trucks, contamination of water bodies with chemicals from mineral refining, pollution of agricultural soils leading to reduced food productivity, and wildlife depletion from deforestation. The activities of small-scale miners, particularly those engaged in illicit mining, have a negative impact on water quality and increase the cost of water treatment for public consumption. Mining operations have detrimental effects on the social, cultural, and natural ecosystems in Ghana, affecting the quality of life of local communities. The study takes into consideration the impact of mining activities on the environment and natural resources in Ghana, as these are vital to the livelihoods of Ghanaian communities. Stakeholders in Tarkwa claim that mining operations have distorted the natural path of the river, leading to excessive pollution and making the water unfit for consumption. Ghana’s economy depends heavily on mining, which also contributes significantly to GDP and generates jobs for a large number of people. But mining also has a lot of negative repercussions, the effects of mining extend beyond the mineralized zone initially explored, highlighting the need to consider the environmental impact at every phase of the mining process.

Life cycle assessment as a prospective tool for sustainable agriculture and food planning at a local level

Owing to the far-reaching environmental consequences of agriculture and food systems,such as their contribution to climate change,there is an urgent need to reduce their impact.International and national governments set sustainability targets and implement corresponding measures.Nevertheless,critics of the globalized system claim that a territorial administrative scale is better suited to address sustainability issues.Yet,at the subnational level,local authorities rarely apply a systemic environmental assessment to enhance their action plans.This paper employs a territorial life cycle assessment methodology to improve local environmental agri-food planning.The objective is to identify significant direct and indirect environmental hotspots,their origins,and formulate effective mitigation strategies.The methodology is applied to the administrative department of Finistere,a strategic agricultural region in North-Western France.Multiple environmental criteria including climate change,fossil resource scarcity,toxicity,and land use are modeled.The findings reveal that the primary environmental hotspots of the studied local food system arise from indirect sources,such as livestock feed or diesel consumption.Livestock reduction and organic farming conversion emerge as the most environmentally efficient strategies,resulting in a 25%decrease in the climate change indicator.However,the overall modeled impact reduction is insufficient following national objectives and remains limited for the land use indicator.These results highlight the innovative application of life cycle assessment led at a local level,offering insights for the further advancement of systematic and prospective local agri-food assessment.Additionally,they provide guidance for local authorities to enhance the sustainability of planning strategies.

Assessment of first-order-moment-based sample reconstruction method for design flood estimation in changing environment

Estimating the design flood under nonstationary conditions is challenging. In this study, a sample reconstruction approach was developed to transform a nonstationary series into a stationary one in a future time window (FTW). In this approach, the first-order moment (EFTW) of an extreme flood series in the FTW was used, and two possible methods of estimating EFTW values in terms of point values and confidence intervals were developed. Three schemes were proposed to analyze the uncertainty of design flood estimation in terms of sample representativeness, uncertainty from EFTW estimation, and both factors, respectively. To investigate the performance of the sample reconstruction approach, synthesis experiments were designed based on the annual peak series of the Little Sugar Creek in the United States. The results showed that the sample reconstruction approach performed well when the high-order moment of the series did not change significantly in the specified FTW. Otherwise, its performance deteriorated. In addition, the uncertainty of design flood estimation caused by sample representativeness was greater than that caused by EFTW estimation.

Environmental assessment and nano-mineralogical characterization of coal,overburden and sediment from Indian coal mining acid drainage

The deterioration of environmental conditions is the major contributory factor to poor health and quality of life that hinders sustainable development in any region.Coal mining is one of the major industries that contribute to the economy of a country but it also impacts the environment.The chemical parameters of the coal,overburden,soil and sediments along with the coal mine drainage(CMD)were investigated in order to understand the overall environmental impact from high sulphur coal mining at northeastern coalfield(India).It was found that the total sulphur content of the coal is noticeably high compared to the overburden(OB)and soil.The volatile matter of the coal is sufficiently high against the high ash content of the soil and overburden.The water samples have a High Electrical Conductivity(EC)and high Total Dissolve Solid(TDS).Lower values of pH,indicate the dissolution of minerals present in the coal as well as other minerals in the mine rejects/overburden.The chemical and nano-mineralogical composition of coal,soil and overburden samples was studied using a High Resolution-Transmission Electron Microscopy(HR-TEM),Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy(EDS),Selected-Area Diffraction(SAED),Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy(FE-SEM)/EDS,X-ray diffraction(XRD),Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy(FTIR),Raman and Ion-Chromatographic analysis,and Mossbauer spectroscopy.From different geochemical analysis it has been found that the mine water sample from Ledo colliery has the lowest pH value of 3.30,Tirap colliery samples have the highest electrical conductivity value of5.40 ms cm^(-1)Both Ledo and Tirap coals have total sulphur contents within the range 3-3.50%.The coal mine water from Tirap colliery(TW-15 B)has high values of Mg^(2+)(450 ppm),and Br^-(227.17 ppm).XRD analysis revealed the presence of minerals including quartz and hematite in the coals.Mineral analysis of coal mine overburden(OB)indicates the presence both of pyrite and marcasite which was also confirmed in XRD and Mossbauer spectral analysis.The presented data of the minerals and ultra/nano-particles present shows their ability to control the mobility of hazardous elements,suggesting possible use in environmental management technology,including restoration of the delicate Indian coal mine areas.

Multi-indicator assessment of water environment in government environmental auditing

This study focused on a multi-indicator assessment methodology for governmental environmental auditing of water protection programs. The environmental status of Wuli Lake in China was assessed using the global indicators （driver-status-response） developed by the Commission on Sustainable Development, and four additional indicators proposed by the author： water quality, pollution load, aquatic ecosystem status, and lake sediment deposition. Various hydrological, chemical, biological and environmental parameters were used to estimate the values of the indicators for assessment of environmental status of the lake based on time series data sets for twenty years. The indicators proposed can be customized to meeting the needs for particular assessment of water protection programs. This method can be used to evaluate the performance of national environmental protection programs and provide technical support for environmental auditors.

Driving risk assessment under the connected vehicle environment:a CNN-LSTM modeling approach

Connected vehicle(CV)is regarded as a typical feature of the future road transportation system.One core benefit of promoting CV is to improve traffic safety,and to achieve that,accurate driving risk assessment under Vehicle-to-Vehicle(V2V)communications is critical.There are two main differences concluded by comparing driving risk assessment under the CV environment with traditional ones:(1)the CV environment provides high-resolution and multi-dimensional data,e.g.,vehicle trajectory data,(2)Rare existing studies can comprehensively address the heterogeneity of the vehicle operating environment,e.g.,the multiple interacting objects and the time-series variability.Hence,this study proposes a driving risk assessment framework under the CV environment.Specifically,first,a set of time-series top views was proposed to describe the CV environment data,expressing the detailed information on the vehicles surrounding the subject vehicle.Then,a hybrid CNN-LSTM model was established with the CNN component extracting the spatial interaction with multiple interacting vehicles and the LSTM component solving the time-series variability of the driving environment.It is proved that this model can reach an AUC of 0.997,outperforming the existing machine learning algorithms.This study contributes to the improvement of driving risk assessment under the CV environment.

A Model for Environmental Impact Assessment of Land Reclamation

Land reclamation is a complex marine environmental engineering and has a huge impact on social, economic, and physical environment. Reclamation environmental impact assessment （REIA） is also a complicated project, including the assessment of social economic background, ocean engineering, coastal geomorphology, sediment transportation, marine hydrodynamics and marine ecosystem and so on. Nowadays, a large number of land reclaimed projects have been carried out or in the process of construction along the coastal zone, thus, it is necessary to build up a fnmlework on REIA to evaluate and quantify the environmental changes, to contribute to reclamation program, to reduce marine environmental disasters, and to sustain development of coastal zone. This article focuses on the research of REIA framework theory and puts forward a REIA model on land reclaimed evaluation, at the same time, applies this assessment system in Shenzhen City, which is a highly developed coastal city with an expectation of land reclamation. By use of the Remote Sensing （RS） and Geographic Information System （GIS） techniques, along with the topographic map and in situ survey in recla- mation area, it concludes that the area of 2680 hectares in total has been reclaimed in Shenzhen city by the end of the year 2000. Thus, reclamation is usually applied to meet the needs for infrastructure, such as harbors, industries and highways in Shenzhen City. However, some serious negative impacts have been created to the coastal environment shown clearly in the following aspects. Firstly, it caused the dramatic changes of tidal flat and channels along the western coast, made this area more unstable, which is threatening the function of the harbor in this area. Secondly, Tidal prism has decreased rapidly. During the 20 years of reclamation, the tidal prism has been reduced by 20% - 30% along the western coast in the Lingdingyang Estuary, and 15.6% in the Shenzhen Bay. As a result, the velocity of the tidal current has also declined, and the direction of the tidal current has changed, which is harmfid to the dilution and diffusion process of the contaminants. Thirdly, it has threatened the eco-environment finally. More than 147 hectares of mangrove area along the coast of Shenzhen Bay, accounting for 48.8% of the total mangrove reserve area in this region, has been reclaimed only during the short period from 1988 to 2000. Thus, the biodiversity is decreasing, and more and more plants and animals are disappearing. Based on the above analyses of the environmental impacts, strategies and suggestions for the future reclamation in this area have been put forward in order to support the sustainable development of the coastal zone.

Integrated environmental assessment: an urban perspective

A broadening of the strategic approach to environmental issues coupled with changes in the mechanisms of environmental governance and management has generated demands for new kinds of environmental knowledge and for new ways of using it. In particular there is now a strong demand for information about the environment to be linked to information about the impacts of human activities so that the unsustainable aspects of economic development can be anticipated and controlled. The scope of environmental assessment has enlarged to provide information that will help a wide range of stakeholders, including business and publics to make decisions, choosing between alternatives on the basis of sound environmental information set in a social and economic context. This paper provides a discussion of these developments and illustrates how integrated environmental assessment of a specific urban environmental problem, the reduction of health impacts of air borne particles, can deliver broad strategic information for participants in the solution.

Practice and Thinking on Current Planning Environmental Impact Assessment of Transmission and Transformation Power Grid in Jiangsu Province

The planning environmental impact assessment （EIA） of transmission and transformation power grid at levels of 500 and 220 kV had been finished completely in the 13 municipalities of Jiangsu Province by the end of 2012, which played important roles in guiding and planning the following transmission and transformation projects in environmental protection. In this paper, through the detail analysis on the objective and significance of the planning EIA of transmission and transformation power grid, legal basis and planning EIA practices, some suggestions and thinking about the planning EIA of transmission and transformation power grid were put forward.

Environmental and economic assessment of structural repair technologies for spent lithium-ion battery cathode materials

The existing recycling and regeneration technologies have problems,such as poor regeneration effect and low added value of products for lithium(Li)-ion battery cathode materials with a low state of health.In this work,a targeted Li replenishment repair technology is proposed to improve the discharge-specific capacity and cycling stability of the repaired LiCoO_(2) cathode materials.Compared with the spent cathode material with>50%Li deficiency,the Li/Co molar ratio of the regenerated LiCoO_(2) cathode is>0.9,which completely removes the Co_(3)O_(4) impurity phase formed by the decomposition of LixCoO_(2) in the failed cathode material after repair.The repaired LiCoO_(2) cathode mater-ials exhibit better cycling stability,lower electrochemical impedance,and faster Li^(+)diffusion than the commercial materials at both 1 and 10 C.Meanwhile,Li_(1.05)CoO_(2) cathodes have higher Li replenishment efficiency and cycling stability.The energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of LiCoO_(2) cathodes produced by this repair method are significantly reduced compared to those using pyrometallurgical and hydro-metallurgical recycling processes.

Life cycle environmental impact assessment of biochar-based bioenergy production and utilization in Northwestern Ontario,Canada

Biochar-based bioenergy production and sub- sequent land application of biochar can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by fixing atmospheric carbon into the soil for a long period of time. A thorough life cycle assessment of biochar-based bioenergy production and biochar land application in Northwestern Ontario is conducted using SimaPro Ver. 8.1. The results of energy consumption and potential environmental impact of biochar-based bioenergy production system are compared with those of conventional coal-based system. Results show that biocbar land application consumes 4847.61 MJ per tonne dry feedstock more energy than conventional system, but reduces the GHG emissions by 68.19 kg CO2e per tonne of dry feed- stock in its life cycle. Biochar land application improves ecosystem quality by 18 %, reduces climate change by 15 %, and resource use by 13 % but may adversely impact on human health by increasing disability adjusted life years by 1.7 % if biomass availability is low to medium. Replacing fossil fuel with woody biomass has a positiveimpact on the environment, as one tonne of dry biomass feedstock when converted to biochar reduces up to 38 kg CO2e with biochar land application despite using more energy. These results will help understand a comprehensive picture of the new interventions in forestry businesses, which are promoting biochar-based bioenergy production.

New Model for Environmental Impact Assessment of Tunneling Projects

Designers of infrastructure are aware that the government, owners and users become more and more concerned about negative environmental impacts of tunnels, so environmental assessment of tunnels are becoming an issue in the process of tunnel design. In this study, to assess tunnels in construction and operation phases, the matrix method, through which the “Impacting Factors” and “Environmental Components” are determined, is also outlined. The affected environment was divided into thirteen components, such as Ecology, Surface water, Air quality, etc. In this paper, matrix method was applied to evaluate the impact of tunneling in three typical tunnels and compare them with standard diagrams of Environmental Components that were derived and introduced. These tunnels were: Urban Utility tunnel in Tehran, Eurasia tunnel in Istanbul and Tsuen Wan drainage tunnel in Hong Kong. Based on the acquired results, the present paper finally concluded that among three cases, Tsuen Wan drainage tunnel affects the environment in construction phase more than others, while Eurasia tunnel effects on air quality are more significant in operation phase.

Cloud Data and Computing Services Allow Regional Environmental Assessment:A Case Study of Macquarie-Castlereagh Basin, Australia

Large amounts of data at various temporal and spatial scales require terabyte(TB) level storage and computation, both of which are not easy for researchers to access. Cloud data and computing services provide another solution to store, process, share and explore environmental data with low costs, stronger computation capacity and easy access. The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits and challenges of using freely available satellite data products from Australian Geoscience DataCube and Google Earth Engine(GEE) online data with time series for integrative environmental analysis of the Macquarie-Castlereagh Basin in the last 15 years as a case study. Results revealed that the cloud platform simplifies the procedure of traditional catalog data processing and analysis. The integrated analysis based on the cloud computing and traditional methods represents a great potential as a low-cost, efficient and user-friendly method for global and regional environmental study. The user can save considerable time and cost on data integration. The research shows that there is an excellent promise in performing regional environmental analysis by using a cloud platform. The incoming challenge of the cloud platform is that not all kinds of data are available on the cloud platform. How data are integrated into a single platform while protecting or recognizing the data property, or how one portal can be used to explore data archived on different platforms represent considerable challenges.

Evaluation of the Environmental Impacts Assessment (EIA) System in Lao PDR

This study explores and seeks to explain the EIA procedures practice gap in Lao PDR. It reviews the literature and studies EIA legislation, administrative procedures, guidelines, and relevant documents by using a model proposed by Leu et al. (1996) and applying criteria proposed by Wood (1995) to evaluate the performance of EIA systems. Key EIA legislation in Lao PDR has many strengths, but also major weaknesses: Inadequate planning procedures, no secondary regulations, few trained and skilled personnel, inadequate public consultation, lack of environmental data, weak follow-up and monitoring, and no enforcement machinery. Additionally, the EIA approval procedure is very bureaucratic and easily derailed by political and economic pressures. In addition, coordination among EIA proponents, consultants, concerned ministries, local authorities, planners, and decision-makers is generally weak. This delays decision-making and hinders implementation of environmental regulations. Thus, procedures and evaluation are not always performed well. EIAs are more a project justification tool than a project planning tool for sustainable development. We conclude with recommendations to strengthen the system, such as improving capacity building, implementing an EIA consultants’ accreditation system, ensuring effective public participation and access to EIA reports, applying systematic EIAs, reviewing criteria, and promoting environmental awareness.