scholarly journals A New Monitoring Effort for Asia: The Asia Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN)

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheu ◽  
Gay ◽  
Schmeltz ◽  
Olson ◽  
Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Mercury Emissions ◽  
Low Concentrations ◽  
Monitoring Effort ◽  
Mercury Monitoring

The Asia Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN) cooperatively measures mercury in precipitation in a network of sites operating in Asia and the Western Pacific region. The network addresses significant data gaps in a region where mercury emission estimates are the highest globally, and available measurement data are limited. The reduction of mercury emissions under the Minamata Convention on Mercury also justifies the need for continent-wide and consistent observations that can help determine the magnitude of the problem and assess the efficacy of reductions over time. The APMMN’s primary objectives are to monitor wet deposition and atmospheric concentrations of mercury and assist partners in developing their own monitoring capabilities. Network planning began in 2012 with wet deposition sampling starting in 2014. Currently, eight network sites measure mercury in precipitation following standardized procedures adapted from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program. The network also has a common regional analytical laboratory (Taiwan), and quality assurance and data flagging procedures, which ensure the network makes scientifically valid and consistent measurements. Results from our ongoing analytical and field quality assurance measurements show minimal contamination in the network and accurate analytical analyses. We are continuing to monitor a potential concentration and precipitation volume bias under certain conditions. The average mercury concentration in precipitation was 11.3 (+9.6) ng L−1 for 139 network samples in 2018. Concentrations for individual sites vary widely. Low averages compare to the low concentrations observed on the U.S. West Coast; while other sites have average concentrations similar to the high values reported from many urban areas in China. Future APMMN goals are to (1) foster new network partnerships, (2) continue to collect, quality assure, and distribute results on the APMMN website, (3) provide training and share best monitoring practices, and (4) establish a gaseous concentration network for estimating dry deposition.

Treatment of tunnel wash water and implications for its disposal

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 2029-2035 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hallberg ◽  
G. Renman ◽  
L. Byman ◽  
G. Svenstam ◽  
M. Norling
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Suspended Solids ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Particulate Material ◽  
Wash Water ◽  
Polluted Water ◽  
Solids Concentration ◽  
Low Concentrations ◽  
Road Tunnels

The use of road tunnels in urban areas creates water pollution problems, since the tunnels must be frequently cleaned for traffic safety reasons. The washing generates extensive volumes of highly polluted water, for example, more than fivefold higher concentrations of suspended solids compared to highway runoff. The pollutants in the wash water have an affinity for particulate material, so sedimentation should be a viable treatment option. In this study, 12 in situ sedimentation trials were carried out on tunnel wash water, with and without addition of chemical flocculent. Initial suspended solids concentration ranged from 804 to 9,690 mg/L. With sedimentation times of less than 24 hours and use of a chemical flocculent, it was possible to reach low concentrations of suspended solids (<15 mg/L), PAH (<0.1 μg/L), As (<1.0 μg/L), Cd (<0.05 μg/L), Hg (<0.02 μg/L), Fe (<200 μg/L), Ni (<8 μg/L), Pb (<0.5 μg/L), Zn (<60 μg/L) and Cr (<8 μg/L). Acute Microtox® toxicity, mainly attributed to detergents used for the tunnel wash, decreased significantly at low suspended solids concentrations after sedimentation using a flocculent. The tunnel wash water did not inhibit nitrification. The treated water should be suitable for discharge into recipient waters or a wastewater treatment plant.

scholarly journals Who guarantees the quality of the quality assurance agencies? The exploration of the establishment and growth of the Asia-Pacific Quality Register (APQR)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianxin Zhang ◽  
Jagannath Patil
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Asia Pacific Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Quality Register

Purpose After the “quantity era,” today higher education has entered into the “quality era” and as “the gate keepers of quality,” quality assurance agencies (QAAs) are playing more and more irreplaceable important roles and their social status are becoming more and more prominent. However, how to guarantee the quality of the QAAs? Who can review the QAAs? The purpose of this paper is based exploration of these questions. Design/methodology/approach Following the founding of the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) for Higher Education, the Asia Pacific Quality Register (APQR) became the second in the international quality assurance (QA) networks to implement QA register, in 2015 with initiative of Asia-Pacific Quality Network. Findings This paper first retrospects the history and process of APQR, and subsequently the implementation of APQR is described in detail from the two aspects of the criteria and the procedure, and at the end, the paper concludes with a summary of the three characteristics of this first formal implement of APQR: APQR is an international register open to all the QAAs; APQR emphasizes characteristics evaluation of diversity; and APQR highlights the combination of quantitative assessment and qualitative assessment. Originality/value Today on the international stage of QA, APQR has emerged as “the watchman of quality” in the Asia-Pacific region as counterpart of EQAR in Europe. How far away does such newly emerging form of guaranteeing the QAAs’ quality go forward, what is its future prospects and other concerning issues, are some of the question that need enthusiastic attention and contribution.

Gaseous mercury in coastal urban areas

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne L. Soerensen ◽  
Henrik Skov ◽  
Matthew S. Johnson ◽  
Marianne Glasius
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Elemental Mercury ◽  
Atmospheric Mercury ◽  
Mercury Deposition ◽  
Mercury Emissions ◽  
Gaseous Elemental Mercury ◽  
Gaseous Mercury ◽  
Range Transport ◽  
Aquatic Food

Environmental context Mercury is a neurotoxin that bioaccumulates in the aquatic food web. Atmospheric emissions from urban areas close to the coast could cause increased local mercury deposition to the ocean. Our study adds important new data to the current limited knowledge on atmospheric mercury emissions and dynamics in coastal urban areas. Abstract Approximately 50% of primary atmospheric mercury emissions are anthropogenic, resulting from e.g. emission hotspots in urban areas. Emissions from urban areas close to the coast are of interest because they could increase deposition loads to nearby coastal waters as well as contribute to long range transport of mercury. We present results from measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) and reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) in 15 coastal cities and their surrounding marine boundary layer (MBL). An increase of 15–90% in GEM concentration in coastal urban areas was observed compared with the remote MBL. Strong RGM enhancements were only found in two cities. In urban areas with statistically significant GEM/CO enhancement ratios, slopes between 0.0020 and 0.0087 ng m–3 ppb–1 were observed, which is consistent with other observations of anthropogenic enhancement. The emission ratios were used to estimate GEM emissions from the areas. A closer examination of data from Sydney (Australia), the coast of Chile, and Valparaiso region (Chile) in the southern hemisphere, is presented.

scholarly journals A data-driven approach for optimal design of integrated air quality monitoring network in a chemical cluster

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 180889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengqiu Zhu ◽  
Bin Chen ◽  
Sihang Qiu ◽  
Rongxiao Wang ◽  
Yiping Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Atmospheric Environment ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring ◽  
Detection Capability ◽  
Data Driven Approach

The chemical industry is of paramount importance to the world economy and this industrial sector represents a substantial income source for developing countries. However, the chemical plants producing inside an industrial district pose a great threat to the surrounding atmospheric environment and human health. Therefore, designing an appropriate and available air quality monitoring network (AQMN) is essential for assessing the effectiveness of deployed pollution-controlling strategies and facilities. As monitoring facilities located at inappropriate sites would affect data validity, a two-stage data-driven approach constituted of a spatio-temporal technique (i.e. Bayesian maximum entropy) and a multi-objective optimization model (i.e. maximum concentration detection capability and maximum dosage detection capability) is proposed in this paper. The approach aims at optimizing the design of an AQMN formed by gas sensor modules. Owing to the lack of long-term measurement data, our developed atmospheric dispersion simulation system was employed to generate simulated data for the above method. Finally, an illustrative case study was implemented to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, and results imply that this work is able to design an appropriate AQMN with acceptable accuracy and efficiency.

scholarly journals Effects of Brownfield Remediation on Total Gaseous Mercury Concentrations in an Urban Landscape

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 387
Author(s):  
Linghui Meng ◽  
Charles T. Driscoll ◽  
Mario Montesdeoca ◽  
Huiting Mao
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Atmospheric Mercury ◽  
Soil Restoration ◽  
Total Gaseous Mercury ◽  
Annual Average ◽  
Mercury Emissions ◽  
Gaseous Mercury ◽  
Parking Lot

In order to obtain a better perspective of the impacts of brownfields on the land–atmosphere exchange of mercury in urban areas, total gaseous mercury (TGM) was measured at two heights (1.8 m and 42.7 m) prior to 2011–2012 and after 2015–2016 for the remediation of a brownfield and installation of a parking lot adjacent to the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Syracuse, NY, USA. Prior to brownfield remediation, the annual average TGM concentrations were 1.6 ± 0.6 and 1.4 ± 0.4 ng · m − 3 at the ground and upper heights, respectively. After brownfield remediation, the annual average TGM concentrations decreased by 32% and 22% at the ground and the upper height, respectively. Mercury soil flux measurements during summer after remediation showed net TGM deposition of 1.7 ng · m − 2 · day − 1 suggesting that the site transitioned from a mercury source to a net mercury sink. Measurements from the Atmospheric Mercury Network (AMNet) indicate that there was no regional decrease in TGM concentrations during the study period. This study demonstrates that evasion from mercury-contaminated soil significantly increased local TGM concentrations, which was subsequently mitigated after soil restoration. Considering the large number of brownfields, they may be an important source of mercury emissions source to local urban ecosystems and warrant future study at additional locations.

scholarly journals Time-lapse gravity and levelling surveys reveal mass loss and ongoing subsidence in the urban subrosion-prone area of Bad Frankenhausen, Germany

Solid Earth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kobe ◽  
Gerald Gabriel ◽  
Adelheid Weise ◽  
Detlef Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Mass Loss ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Quantitative Estimation ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Ground Subsidence ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Precision Time

Abstract. We present results of sophisticated, high-precision time-lapse gravity monitoring that was conducted over 4 years in Bad Frankenhausen (Germany). To our knowledge, this is the first successful attempt to monitor subrosion-induced mass changes in urban areas with repeated gravimetry. The method provides an approach to estimate the mass of dissolved rocks in the subsurface. Subrosion, i.e. leaching and transfer of soluble rocks, occurs worldwide. Mainly in urban areas, any resulting ground subsidence can cause severe damage, especially if catastrophic events, i.e. collapse sinkholes, occur. Monitoring strategies typically make use of established geodetic methods, such as levelling, and therefore focus on the associated deformation processes. In this study, we combine levelling and highly precise time-lapse gravity observations. Our investigation area is the urban area of Bad Frankenhausen in central Germany, which is prone to subrosion, as many subsidence and sinkhole features on the surface reveal. The city and the surrounding areas are underlain by soluble Permian deposits, which are continuously dissolved by meteoric water and groundwater in a strongly fractured environment. Between 2014 and 2018, a total of 17 high-precision time-lapse gravimetry and 18 levelling campaigns were carried out in quarterly intervals within a local monitoring network. This network covers historical sinkhole areas but also areas that are considered to be stable. Our results reveal ongoing subsidence of up to 30.4 mm a−1 locally, with distinct spatiotemporal variations. Furthermore, we observe a significant time-variable gravity decrease on the order of 8 µGal over 4 years at several measurement points. In the processing workflow, after the application of all required corrections and least squares adjustment to our gravity observations, a significant effect of varying soil water content on the adjusted gravity differences was figured out. Therefore, we place special focus on the correlation of these observations and the correction of the adjusted gravity differences for soil water variations using the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) Noah model to separate these effects from subrosion-induced gravity changes. Our investigations demonstrate the feasibility of high-precision time-lapse gravity monitoring in urban areas for sinkhole investigations. Although the observed rates of gravity decrease of 1–2 µGal a−1 are small, we suggest that it is significantly associated with subterranean mass loss due to subrosion processes. We discuss limitations and implications of our approach, as well as give a first quantitative estimation of mass transfer at different depths and for different densities of dissolved rocks.

scholarly journals Atmospheric wet and litterfall mercury deposition in typical rural and urban areas in China

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuewu Fu ◽  
Yang Xu ◽  
Xiaofang Lang ◽  
Jun Zhu ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Atmospheric Mercury ◽  
Urban Site ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Subtropical Zone ◽  
Deposition Fluxes ◽  
Precipitation Depth ◽  
Rural Sites

Abstract. Mercury (Hg) concentrations and deposition fluxes in precipitation and litterfall were measured at multiple sites (six rural sites and an urban site) across a broad geographic area in China. The annual deposition fluxes of Hg in precipitation at rural sites and an urban site were 2.0 to 7.2 µg m−2 yr−1 and 12.6 ± 6.5 µg m−2 yr−1, respectively. Wet deposition fluxes of Hg at rural sites showed a clear regional difference with elevated deposition fluxes in the subtropical zone, followed by the temporal zone and arid/semi-arid zone. Precipitation depth is the primary influencing factor causing the variation of wet deposition. Hg fluxes through litterfall ranged from 22.8 to 62.8 µg m−2 yr−1, higher than the wet deposition by a factor of 3.9 to 8.7 fluxes and representing approximately 75 % of the total Hg deposition at the forest sites in China. This suggests that uptake of atmospheric Hg by foliage is the dominant pathway to remove atmospheric mercury in forest ecosystems in China. Wet deposition fluxes of Hg at rural sites of China were generally lower compared to those in North America and Europe, possibly due to a combination of lower precipitation depth, lower GOM concentrations in the troposphere and the generally lower cloud base heights at most sites that washout a smaller amount of GOM and PBM during precipitation events.

scholarly journals Ammonia Emission and Deposition in Scotland and Its Potential Environmental Impacts

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 795-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. Sutton ◽  
U. Dragosits ◽  
S. Hellsten ◽  
C.J. Place ◽  
A.J. Dore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Deposition ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Atmospheric Dispersion ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Ammonia Emission ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Ground Flora ◽  
The North ◽  
Wide Range

The main source of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) in Scotland is livestock agriculture, which accounts for 85% of emissions. The local magnitude of emissions therefore depends on livestock density, type, and management, with major differences occurring in various parts of Scotland. Local differences in agricultural activities therefore result in a wide range of NH3emissions, ranging from less than 0.2 kg N ha−1year−1in remote areas of the Scottish Highlands to over 100 kg N ha−1year−1in areas with intensive poultry farming. Scotland can be divided loosely into upland and lowland areas, with NH3emission being less than and more than 5 kg N ha−1year−1, respectively.Many semi-natural ecosystems in Scotland are vulnerable to nitrogen deposition, including bogs, moorlands, and the woodland ground flora. Because NH3emissions occur in the rural environment, the local deposition to sensitive ecosystems may be large, making it essential to assess the spatial distribution of NH3emissions and deposition. A spatial model is applied here to map NH3emissions and these estimates are applied in atmospheric dispersion and deposition models to estimate atmospheric concentrations of NH3and NH4+, dry deposition of NH3, and wet deposition of NHx. Although there is a high level of local variability, modelled NH3concentrations show good agreement with the National Ammonia Monitoring Network, while wet deposition is largest at high altitude sites in the south and west of Scotland. Comparison of the modelled NHxdeposition fields with estimated thresholds for environmental effects (“critical loads”) shows that thresholds are exceeded across most of lowland Scotland and the Southern Uplands. Only in the cleanest parts of the north and west is nitrogen deposition not a cause for concern. Given that the most intense effects occur within a few kilometres of sources, it is suggested that local spatial abatement policies would be a useful complement to traditional policies that mitigate environmental effects based on emission reduction technologies.

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