• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental Impacts

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Life cycle analysis of concrete and asphalt used in road pavements

  • lvel, Jocelyn;Watson, Rachel;Abbassi, Bassim;Abu-Hamatteh, Ziad Salem
    • Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.52-61
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    • 2020
  • The article examines the impact differences between producing concrete and asphalt. Both materials are widely used in the construction industry. Construction activities account for a large portion of greenhouse gases. Therefore, it is important to consider the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to reduce environmental impacts. In this study, the material processes were inputted into an LCA program called SimaPro. The database used for the study was Ecoinvent as it is one of the major databases within SimaPro. The materials were compared against impacts per kg of material produced as the functional unit. Each process was created using the materials, energy and transportation required to produce the materials. Waste streams were also included in the process to determine the impacts after the product was done with its useful life. Using the ReCiPe method, an LCA was conducted. Midpoint and endpoint categories were examined for both the productions. The processes had similar results for the human health and ecosystems categories; however asphalt was marginally higher for both. Asphalt had exceeded concrete in the resource impact category by 100 mPt. The results indicate that concrete is the more sustainable building material. Determination of various impacts of the materials is important for material selection.

A Study on the Injury of Nature Environment in Chongnung Valley of Mt. Puk'an -In the Case of Trail and Rest Area- (북한산 정릉계곡의 자연환경훼손에 관한 연구 -등산로와 휴식처를 중심으로-)

  • 최송현;이경재
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.83-99
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    • 1994
  • To compare basic information and to inspect impacts situations between 1987 and 1992, this study was executed in Chongnung valley of Mt. Puk'an. And to provide basic informations through the change of plant species diversity, some methods were applied and analyzed such as the degree of environmental impacts and belt-transect method. The results were summarized as follows; 1. In order to find environmental impacts by visitor, the degree of environmental impacts class that was proposed by Kwon(1991) was implicated. In 4 sites, total area of over impact class 2 is 86,692$m^2$ and area of impacts class 4-6 that is impossible to recover naturally is 36,856$m^2$. Totally, the impacted area was profounded qualitatively and quantitatively against 1987's. 2. In the vegetation change by visitor's impacts, species diversity was rapidly decreased as nearer the campsite and trail. And in the basal area and coverage, lower layer species was sensitively changed. Trampling-resistent species is as following; Robinia pseudoacacia, Lespedeza cyrtobotrya, Staphylea bumalda, Clerdendron trichotomum, Stephanandra incisa, Rubus crataegifolius, Lespedeza maximowiczii, Weigela subsessilis, Rosa multiflora, Zanthoxylum schinifolium, Lindera obtusiloba, Callicarpa japonica, Sorbus alnifolia, Symplocos mongolica and so on. In the results of soil hardness test, that was decreased as far away from campsite and trail. 3. In the 4 sites selected in Chongnung valley of Puk'ansan Natioal Park, management plans was largely divided 4 category, such as trail improvement, facilities setting, ecotone vegetation establishment, and vegetation rehabilitation. And a suggestion was provided to each site.

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Quantification of Ecological Impact as a Basis for Evaluation (독일에서의 환경영향의 정량적 평가)

  • Schweppe-Kraft, Burkhard
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.59-71
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    • 1993
  • Evaluation methods are employed in environmental impact assessment to choose between different project site, to determine the required measures to compensate impact and to decide whether the environmental impacts are more important than the social or economic effects of a project. The main obstacles that restrict use of quantitative evaluation method are a Lack of knowledge about the environmental effects (e.g. if impacts on wildlife or landscape amenities are predicted) and the relative importance of economic and social issues compared with nature conservation stability of ecosystem or landscape beauty. In Germany, the most common method for site planning is the "ecological risk analysis". It is a kind of multi-criteria-decision-method based on quantitative and qualitative description and ordinal ranking. The various kinds of "ecological balancing methods" that are more recently developed (within the last decade) to quantify the required amount for compensatory measures instead often use cardinal figures to express the value of ecosystems, the intensity of impacts, the need for additional measures to compensate for long recuperative periods when restoring ecosystems and so on. There are still only a view attempts to quantify decisions between environmental and socio-economic issues. Multicriteria-analysis as well as cost-benifit-analysis was used. Some new approaches which are still in a preliminary status are based on contingent valuation and on calculations for compensatory payments (instead of compensatory measures).

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Application of Life Cycle Assessment to Enhance the Environmental Performance of Process Systems and Products (공정시스템과 제품의 환경성을 향상시키기 위한 전과정평가의 활용)

  • Lim, Seong-Rin
    • Clean Technology
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.339-348
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    • 2014
  • Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become an important tool used to enhance the environmental performance of process systems and products. LCA is an essential element in design for environment (DfE) because LCA can be utilized to evaluate and analyze environmental impacts incurred in the life cycle and supply chain. This review presents methodologies that can be used to integrate LCA into DfE activities and reduce environmental impacts from process systems and products; and introduces case studies for water supply systems and cellular phones. LCA is first used to quantify environmental impacts and identify the principal contributor to high impacts. In the next step, environmental impacts from principal contributors can be reduced by using mathematical optimization tools as an engineering and technological approach and by utilizing the cooperation of professionals from a diverse range of fields. Because the methodologies and case studies can be applied and extended to other fields, this review paper can contribute to helping prevent environmental pollution and enhance the sustainability of our society.

Impacts to the Micronesian islands by environmental change of globalization and climate change

  • Nagashima, Shunsuke
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.79-94
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    • 2010
  • This article focused on the environmental changes on atolls in Micronesia. First, we considered the problem. Second, we designed research that focused on the impacts of environmental changes especially in relation to globalization and global warming in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The results were in accordance to the hypotheses that globalization had impacted prominently in communities on main islands and impact was lessened with increased distance from the centre. The fact that the islands are remotely situated and thus, in theory, do not have much outside influence, has not alleviated them from having societal concerns. The earth's environmental change is causing an impact on the main islands as well. This has been governed by distinctive characteristics in their geographical, regional, and contents. Moreover, they showed stronger concerns about impacts on the environment than globalization. A set of questionnaires was used as the principal assessment method to quantify the concerns relating to the environmental changes.

Strategic Environmental Assessment for the Master Plan of Tonkin Gulf Coastal Economic Belt Development: Lesson Learnt

  • Le, Trinh
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.18 no.6
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    • pp.419-427
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    • 2009
  • Methodology and application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for policies, plans, and programs are still new approach in Vietnam. With a support from Vietnam-Swedish Project (SEMLA) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), SEA for the Tonkin Gulf Coastal Economic Belt Development Plan was conducted in 2008. Lessons obtained from this SEA may contribute to improving methods and practicing SEAs for regional development. The main lessons summarized in this paper are: (i) close cooperation between the planning and environmental teams from the beginning phase of a master plan; (ii) SEA should focus not only on impacts to the natural environment but also on main issues of socio-economic aspects; (iii) approaches and methods used in SEA should be appropriate to properly predict the impacts at regional-levels and cumulative impacts; (iv) a good SEA study may be achieved when detailed data on the environment and socio-economy of the study area are available and have active engagement of stakeholders, including project affected sectors, ecologists, planners, policy makers, etc. This paper is useful for whom, those work in SEA in regional development.

Environmental Impact Assessment of the Yangyang Pumped Storage Power Plant Construction on the Namdae-Chun River, Korea (남대천 양양 양수발전소의 환경영향과 대책)

  • Chun, Sang-Ki
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.151-160
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    • 1997
  • The Yangyang Pumped Storage Power Plant is being constructed by Korea Electric Power Corporation in Namdae-Chun River, Korea. The Yangyang Pumped Storage Power Plant has 1000MW capacity with upper reservior, lower reservior, hydrauric tunnel and underground power plant facilities. But NGO(Non Governmental Groups) and residents are worried about the power plant construction because of some problems, as follows. (1) Namdae-Chun River is principal salmon returning river in Korea. (2) Namdae-Chun River is main water supply source of the Yangyang country. So, brief explanation of Environmental Impacts Assessment executed by Korea Electric Power Corporation, main environmental impacts and countermeasures will be introduced.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Mobile Phone Charger Containing Recycled Plastics (재생 플라스틱을 적용한 휴대폰 충전기 전과정평가)

  • Heo, Young-chai;Bae, Dae-sik;Oh, Chi-young;Suh, Young-jin;Lee, Kun-mo
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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    • v.39 no.12
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    • pp.698-705
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    • 2017
  • Environmental impact of a mobile phone charger containing recycled plastic was quantified using LCA and the environmental benefits from the use of recycled and virgin plastic were compared. The assessment considers potential environmental impacts across the whole life cycle of the charger including; pre-manufacturing; manufacturing; distribution; product use; and end-of-life stages and quantified six environmental impact categories; Abiotic depletion; Acidification; Eutrophication; Global warming; Ozone layer depletion; and Photochemical oxidants creation. The study showed that the environmental impacts of the use stage accounted for 94.4% and 70% in the resource depletion and global warming impact categories, respectively, and the environmental impacts of the pre - manufacturing stage accounted for more than 98% in the other impact categories. The main cause of the environmental impacts in the use stage was electricity consumed by the charger. The main cause in the pre-manufacturing stage was PBA (Printed Board Assembly) and external case manufacturing. In order to quantify the environmental benefits of recycled PC (Polycarbonate) in the exterior case, the environmental impacts of 1 kg production of recycled PC and virgin PC were evaluated. The environmental impact on the abiotic depletion of the recycled PC is estimated to be 30% compared to the virgin PC, and the impacts on the other impact categories of the recycled PC were less than 5% of the virgin plastic. Sensitivity analysis was performed for 12 items including site data and assumptions made. The sensitivity of each item was less than 10%. The results of this study confirm that designing compact and light PBA, improving charging efficiency, and use of recycled plastic are important design factors to reduce the environmental impact of a charger.

Residents' Perceptions of Recreation Impacts on Ulleung Island (울릉도 지역주민의 휴양영향지각 분석)

  • Song, Hyung-Sop;Kim, Se-Bin;Oh, Do-Kyo
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.32 no.1
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    • pp.9-17
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study were to understand the resident's attitudes toward Ulleung Island and to identify the residents' perception of recreation and the influence of socioeconomic characteristics on their response. In summer of 1999, 222 questioners were obtained from a convenience sample of households within Ulleung Island. The residents perceived both positive and negative environ-recreation and economic impacts, most of the residents supported additional recreation development and disagreed to limit the number of visitors. Their perception of recreation impacts were varied with age, education level, economic dependency on recreation place of residence, and length of residence.

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Analysis of Environmental Impacts using LCA for the Carcass Burial (전과정평가를 활용한 가축매몰지의 환경영향 분석)

  • Kim, Mi Hyung;Kim, Geon Ha
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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    • v.29 no.2
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    • pp.239-246
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    • 2013
  • The foot and mouth disease and AI were highly contagious. The virus can be transmitted in a number of ways, including close-contact animal to animal spread, long-distance aerosol spread and fomites, or inanimate objects, typically fodder and motor vehicles. A lot of burial sites were constructed in a short time for preventing the rapid spread of the virus. The carcass burial sites have a risk potential because the sites were constructed without any appropriate and systematic management. It resulted from lacking of time, equipments and man power. The carcass burial sites more than 4,700 constructed in 2011. Approximately 7 million poultry and 3.5 million livestock including head of cattle and swine were buried in farm land. It is time to be concerned if the secondary pollutions occur from the burial sites. The environmental impacts should be analyzed for managing the burial sites effectively and minimizing damages and risks to the environment and human health. This study was to analyze environmental impacts of the process of carcass burial construction using a life cycle assessment methodology. All input data of raw materials and energy usage were collected and the inventory was constructed. The results showed that 1 ton of carcass burial of the environmental impacts were $0.51yr^{-1}$ for ADP, 0.09 kg of 1,4DCB-eq for FAETP, 31.17 kg of $CO_2-eq$ for GWP, 0.04 kg of $C_2H_4-eq$ for POCP, 0.06 kg of $SO_2-eq$ for AP.