The Sustainable World

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The

Sustainable World

WIT Press publishes leading books in Science and Technology. Visit our website for the current list of titles. www.witpress.com

WITeLibrary Home of the Transactions of the Wessex Institute. Papers contained in The Sustainable World are archived in the WIT eLibrary in volume 142 of WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment (ISSN 1743-3541). The WIT eLibrary provides the international scientific community with immediate and permanent access to individual papers presented at WIT conferences. Visit the WIT eLibrary at www.witpress.com.

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WIT Transactions Transactions Editor Carlos Brebbia Wessex Institute of Technology Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst Southampton SO40 7AA, UK Email: [email protected]

Editorial Board B Abersek University of Maribor, Slovenia Y N Abousleiman University of Oklahoma,

G Belingardi Politecnico di Torino, Italy R Belmans Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,

P L Aguilar University of Extremadura, Spain K S Al Jabri Sultan Qaboos University, Oman E Alarcon Universidad Politecnica de Madrid,

C D Bertram The University of New South

USA

Spain

A Aldama IMTA, Mexico C Alessandri Universita di Ferrara, Italy D Almorza Gomar University of Cadiz, Spain

B Alzahabi Kettering University, USA J A C Ambrosio IDMEC, Portugal A M Amer Cairo University, Egypt S A Anagnostopoulos University of Patras, Greece

M Andretta Montecatini, Italy E Angelino A.R.P.A. Lombardia, Italy H Antes Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany

M A Atherton South Bank University, UK A G Atkins University of Reading, UK D Aubry Ecole Centrale de Paris, France H Azegami Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan

A F M Azevedo University of Porto, Portugal J Baish Bucknell University, USA J M Baldasano Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain J G Bartzis Institute of Nuclear Technology, Greece A Bejan Duke University, USA M P Bekakos Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

Belgium

Wales, Australia

D E Beskos University of Patras, Greece S K Bhattacharyya Indian Institute of Technology, India

E Blums Latvian Academy of Sciences, Latvia J Boarder Cartref Consulting Systems, UK B Bobee Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada

H Boileau ESIGEC, France J J Bommer Imperial College London, UK M Bonnet Ecole Polytechnique, France C A Borrego University of Aveiro, Portugal A R Bretones University of Granada, Spain J A Bryant University of Exeter, UK F-G Buchholz Universitat Gesanthochschule Paderborn, Germany

M B Bush The University of Western Australia, Australia

F Butera Politecnico di Milano, Italy J Byrne University of Portsmouth, UK W Cantwell Liverpool University, UK D J Cartwright Bucknell University, USA P G Carydis National Technical University of Athens, Greece

J J Casares Long Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

M A Celia Princeton University, USA A Chakrabarti Indian Institute of Science, India

A H-D Cheng University of Mississippi, USA

J Chilton University of Lincoln, UK C-L Chiu University of Pittsburgh, USA H Choi Kangnung National University, Korea A Cieslak Technical University of Lodz, Poland

S Clement Transport System Centre, Australia M W Collins Brunel University, UK J J Connor Massachusetts Institute of

J P du Plessis University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

R Duffell University of Hertfordshire, UK A Ebel University of Cologne, Germany E E Edoutos Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

L Dávid Károly Róbert College, Hungary A Davies University of Hertfordshire, UK M Davis Temple University, USA A B de Almeida Instituto Superior Tecnico,

G K Egan Monash University, Australia K M Elawadly Alexandria University, Egypt K-H Elmer Universitat Hannover, Germany D Elms University of Canterbury, New Zealand M E M El-Sayed Kettering University, USA D M Elsom Oxford Brookes University, UK A El-Zafrany Cranfield University, UK F Erdogan Lehigh University, USA F P Escrig University of Seville, Spain D J Evans Nottingham Trent University, UK J W Everett Rowan University, USA M Faghri University of Rhode Island, USA R A Falconer Cardiff University, UK M N Fardis University of Patras, Greece P Fedelinski Silesian Technical University,

E R de Arantes e Oliveira Instituto Superior

H J S Fernando Arizona State University,

Technology, USA

M C Constantinou State University of New York at Buffalo, USA

D E Cormack University of Toronto, Canada M Costantino Royal Bank of Scotland, UK D F Cutler Royal Botanic Gardens, UK W Czyczula Krakow University of Technology, Poland

M da Conceicao Cunha University of Coimbra, Portugal

Portugal

Tecnico, Portugal L De Biase University of Milan, Italy R de Borst Delft University of Technology, Netherlands G De Mey University of Ghent, Belgium A De Montis Universita di Cagliari, Italy A De Naeyer Universiteit Ghent, Belgium W P De Wilde Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium L Debnath University of Texas-Pan American, USA N J Dedios Mimbela Universidad de Cordoba, Spain G Degrande Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium S del Giudice University of Udine, Italy G Deplano Universita di Cagliari, Italy I Doltsinis University of Stuttgart, Germany M Domaszewski Universite de Technologie de Belfort-Montbeliard, France J Dominguez University of Seville, Spain K Dorow Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA W Dover University College London, UK C Dowlen South Bank University, UK

Poland USA

S Finger Carnegie Mellon University, USA J I Frankel University of Tennessee, USA D M Fraser University of Cape Town, South Africa

M J Fritzler University of Calgary, Canada U Gabbert Otto-von-Guericke Universitat Magdeburg, Germany

G Gambolati Universita di Padova, Italy C J Gantes National Technical University of Athens, Greece

L Gaul Universitat Stuttgart, Germany A Genco University of Palermo, Italy N Georgantzis Universitat Jaume I, Spain P Giudici Universita di Pavia, Italy F Gomez Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain

R Gomez Martin University of Granada, Spain

D Goulias University of Maryland, USA K G Goulias Pennsylvania State University, USA

F Grandori Politecnico di Milano, Italy W E Grant Texas A & M University, USA S Grilli University of Rhode Island, USA

R H J Grimshaw Loughborough University, D Gross Technische Hochschule Darmstadt,

M Karlsson Linkoping University, Sweden T Katayama Doshisha University, Japan K L Katsifarakis Aristotle University of

R Grundmann Technische Universitat

J T Katsikadelis National Technical

A Gualtierotti IDHEAP, Switzerland R C Gupta National University of Singapore,

E Kausel Massachusetts Institute of

UK

Germany

Dresden, Germany

Singapore J M Hale University of Newcastle, UK K Hameyer Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium C Hanke Danish Technical University, Denmark K Hayami National Institute of Informatics, Japan Y Hayashi Nagoya University, Japan L Haydock Newage International Limited, UK A H Hendrickx Free University of Brussels, Belgium C Herman John Hopkins University, USA S Heslop University of Bristol, UK I Hideaki Nagoya University, Japan D A Hills University of Oxford, UK W F Huebner Southwest Research Institute, USA J A C Humphrey Bucknell University, USA M Y Hussaini Florida State University, USA W Hutchinson Edith Cowan University, Australia T H Hyde University of Nottingham, UK M Iguchi Science University of Tokyo, Japan D B Ingham University of Leeds, UK L Int Panis VITO Expertisecentrum IMS, Belgium N Ishikawa National Defence Academy, Japan J Jaafar UiTm, Malaysia W Jager Technical University of Dresden, Germany Y Jaluria Rutgers University, USA C M Jefferson University of the West of England, UK P R Johnston Griffith University, Australia D R H Jones University of Cambridge, UK N Jones University of Liverpool, UK D Kaliampakos National Technical University of Athens, Greece N Kamiya Nagoya University, Japan D L Karabalis University of Patras, Greece

Thessaloniki, Greece

University of Athens, Greece Technology, USA

H Kawashima The University of Tokyo, Japan

B A Kazimee Washington State University, USA

S Kim University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA D Kirkland Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners Ltd, UK

E Kita Nagoya University, Japan A S Kobayashi University of Washington, USA

T Kobayashi University of Tokyo, Japan D Koga Saga University, Japan S Kotake University of Tokyo, Japan A N Kounadis National Technical University of Athens, Greece

W B Kratzig Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Germany

T Krauthammer Penn State University, USA C-H Lai University of Greenwich, UK M Langseth Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

B S Larsen Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

F Lattarulo Politecnico di Bari, Italy A Lebedev Moscow State University, Russia L J Leon University of Montreal, Canada D Lewis Mississippi State University, USA S lghobashi University of California Irvine, USA

K-C Lin University of New Brunswick, Canada

A A Liolios Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

S Lomov Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

J W S Longhurst University of the West of England, UK

G Loo The University of Auckland, New Zealand

J Lourenco Universidade do Minho, Portugal J E Luco University of California at San Diego, USA

H Lui State Seismological Bureau Harbin, China

C J Lumsden University of Toronto, Canada L Lundqvist Division of Transport and

Location Analysis, Sweden T Lyons Murdoch University, Australia Y-W Mai University of Sydney, Australia M Majowiecki University of Bologna, Italy D Malerba Università degli Studi di Bari, Italy G Manara University of Pisa, Italy B N Mandal Indian Statistical Institute, India Ü Mander University of Tartu, Estonia H A Mang Technische Universitat Wien, Austria G D Manolis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece W J Mansur COPPE/UFRJ, Brazil N Marchettini University of Siena, Italy J D M Marsh Griffith University, Australia J F Martin-Duque Universidad Complutense, Spain T Matsui Nagoya University, Japan G Mattrisch DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany F M Mazzolani University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy K McManis University of New Orleans, USA A C Mendes Universidade de Beira Interior, Portugal R A Meric Research Institute for Basic Sciences, Turkey J Mikielewicz Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland N Milic-Frayling Microsoft Research Ltd, UK R A W Mines University of Liverpool, UK C A Mitchell University of Sydney, Australia K Miura Kajima Corporation, Japan A Miyamoto Yamaguchi University, Japan T Miyoshi Kobe University, Japan G Molinari University of Genoa, Italy T B Moodie University of Alberta, Canada D B Murray Trinity College Dublin, Ireland G Nakhaeizadeh DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany M B Neace Mercer University, USA D Necsulescu University of Ottawa, Canada F Neumann University of Vienna, Austria S-I Nishida Saga University, Japan

H Nisitani Kyushu Sangyo University, Japan B Notaros University of Massachusetts, USA P O’Donoghue University College Dublin, Ireland

R O O’Neill Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA

M Ohkusu Kyushu University, Japan G Oliveto Universitá di Catania, Italy R Olsen Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., USA E Oñate Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain

K Onishi Ibaraki University, Japan P H Oosthuizen Queens University, Canada E L Ortiz Imperial College London, UK E Outa Waseda University, Japan A S Papageorgiou Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

J Park Seoul National University, Korea G Passerini Universita delle Marche, Italy B C Patten University of Georgia, USA G Pelosi University of Florence, Italy G G Penelis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

W Perrie Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada

R Pietrabissa Politecnico di Milano, Italy H Pina Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal M F Platzer Naval Postgraduate School, USA D Poljak University of Split, Croatia V Popov Wessex Institute of Technology, UK H Power University of Nottingham, UK D Prandle Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK

M Predeleanu University Paris VI, France M R I Purvis University of Portsmouth, UK I S Putra Institute of Technology Bandung, Indonesia

Y A Pykh Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

F Rachidi EMC Group, Switzerland M Rahman Dalhousie University, Canada K R Rajagopal Texas A & M University, USA T Rang Tallinn Technical University, Estonia J Rao Case Western Reserve University, USA A M Reinhorn State University of New York at Buffalo, USA

A D Rey McGill University, Canada

D N Riahi University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign, USA B Ribas Spanish National Centre for Environmental Health, Spain K Richter Graz University of Technology, Austria S Rinaldi Politecnico di Milano, Italy F Robuste Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain J Roddick Flinders University, Australia A C Rodrigues Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal F Rodrigues Poly Institute of Porto, Portugal C W Roeder University of Washington, USA J M Roesset Texas A & M University, USA W Roetzel Universitaet der Bundeswehr Hamburg, Germany V Roje University of Split, Croatia R Rosset Laboratoire d’Aerologie, France J L Rubio Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificacion, Spain T J Rudolphi Iowa State University, USA S Russenchuck Magnet Group, Switzerland H Ryssel Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen, Germany S G Saad American University in Cairo, Egypt M Saiidi University of Nevada-Reno, USA R San Jose Technical University of Madrid, Spain F J Sanchez-Sesma Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Mexico B Sarler Nova Gorica Polytechnic, Slovenia S A Savidis Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany A Savini Universita de Pavia, Italy G Schmid Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany R Schmidt RWTH Aachen, Germany B Scholtes Universitaet of Kassel, Germany W Schreiber University of Alabama, USA A P S Selvadurai McGill University, Canada J J Sendra University of Seville, Spain J J Sharp Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada Q Shen Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA X Shixiong Fudan University, China G C Sih Lehigh University, USA L C Simoes University of Coimbra, Portugal

A C Singhal Arizona State University, USA P Skerget University of Maribor, Slovenia J Sladek Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

V Sladek Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

A C M Sousa University of New Brunswick, Canada

H Sozer Illinois Institute of Technology, USA D B Spalding CHAM, UK P D Spanos Rice University, USA T Speck Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg, Germany

C C Spyrakos National Technical University of Athens, Greece

I V Stangeeva St Petersburg University, Russia

J Stasiek Technical University of Gdansk, Poland

G E Swaters University of Alberta, Canada S Syngellakis University of Southampton, UK J Szmyd University of Mining and Metallurgy, Poland

S T Tadano Hokkaido University, Japan H Takemiya Okayama University, Japan I Takewaki Kyoto University, Japan C-L Tan Carleton University, Canada M Tanaka Shinshu University, Japan E Taniguchi Kyoto University, Japan S Tanimura Aichi University of Technology, Japan

J L Tassoulas University of Texas at Austin, USA

M A P Taylor University of South Australia, Australia

A Terranova Politecnico di Milano, Italy A G Tijhuis Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands

T Tirabassi Institute FISBAT-CNR, Italy S Tkachenko Otto-von-Guericke-University, Germany

N Tosaka Nihon University, Japan T Tran-Cong University of Southern Queensland, Australia

R Tremblay Ecole Polytechnique, Canada I Tsukrov University of New Hampshire, USA R Turra CINECA Interuniversity Computing Centre, Italy

S G Tushinski Moscow State University,

Russia J-L Uso Universitat Jaume I, Spain E Van den Bulck Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium D Van den Poel Ghent University, Belgium R van der Heijden Radboud University, Netherlands R van Duin Delft University of Technology, Netherlands P Vas University of Aberdeen, UK R Verhoeven Ghent University, Belgium A Viguri Universitat Jaume I, Spain Y Villacampa Esteve Universidad de Alicante, Spain F F V Vincent University of Bath, UK S Walker Imperial College, UK G Walters University of Exeter, UK B Weiss University of Vienna, Austria H Westphal University of Magdeburg, Germany

J R Whiteman Brunel University, UK Z-Y Yan Peking University, China S Yanniotis Agricultural University of Athens, Greece

A Yeh University of Hong Kong, China J Yoon Old Dominion University, USA K Yoshizato Hiroshima University, Japan T X Yu Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong

M Zador Technical University of Budapest, Hungary

K Zakrzewski Politechnika Lodzka, Poland M Zamir University of Western Ontario, Canada

R Zarnic University of Ljubljana, Slovenia G Zharkova Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Russia

N Zhong Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan

H G Zimmermann Siemens AG, Germany

The

Sustainable World Editor C.A. Brebbia Wessex Institute of Technology, UK

C.A. Brebbia Wessex Institute of Technology, UK

Published by WIT Press Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst, Southampton, SO40 7AA, UK Tel: 44 (0) 238 029 3223; Fax: 44 (0) 238 029 2853 E-Mail: [email protected] http://www.witpress.com For USA, Canada and Mexico Computational Mechanics Inc 25 Bridge Street, Billerica, MA 01821, USA Tel: 978 667 5841; Fax: 978 667 7582 E-Mail: [email protected] http://www.witpress.com British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-84564-504-5 ISSN: 1746-448X (print) ISSN: 1743-3541 (online) The texts of the papers in this volume were set individually by the authors or under their supervision. Only minor corrections to the text may have been carriedout by the publisher. No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher, the Editors and Authors for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. The Publisher does not necessarily endorse the ideas held, or views expressed by the Editors or Authors of the material contained in its publications. © WIT Press 2011 Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King’s Lynn. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

Preface

This book contains a collection of papers presented at a series of meetings organised by the Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT) dealing with sustainability, the environment and ecological issues. The complexity of the modern world presents new challenges to scientists and engineers that requires finding interdisciplinary solutions. Any problem solving carried out in the isolation of a particular field of expertise may give rise to a series of damaging effects which can create new and unintentional environmental and ecological problems. Specialisation, while required in our culture, needs to be kept under control by the understanding of the whole, which leads to the need of relying on interdisciplinary teams. Nowadays this can be easily achieved thanks to the massive advances in information technology which ensure continuous and immediate contact between all partners. This collaboration needs to be effective and to produce results that will lead to a better world. For this to happen, it is necessary that different groups of scientists and engineers acquire the necessary skills to be able to talk to each other. Furthermore, they need to understand the social and economic aspects of a given problem, in addition to the scientific and engineering issues involved. The Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT) has a long and very successful record in organising interdisciplinary conferences. The papers in this book are a reflection of the proceedings of some of those meetings. WIT started as a centre of excellence for computational mechanics and evolved its interdisciplinary character in response to the demands and industry and society as a whole. Hence the contents of this book focused on problems associated to sustainable cities, urban transport, waste management, eco-architecture and sustainable tourism, are a reflection of WIT’s interests as well as those of the participants.

We are indebted to all authors for their contributions and to the organising committee members of the different meetings for their help in selecting the papers included in this Volume. Carlos A. Brebbia Director Wessex Institute of Technology The New Forest, UK, 2011

Contents Section 1: Sustainable city Ecological urban design through Material and Energy Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment: from an architect’s perspective Z. C. Cai & R. Wennerstern................................................................................. 3 Determining the vitality of urban centres J. E. Drewes & M. van Aswegen........................................................................ 15 Relocating MIU to the cityscape: gentrifying Wynwood’s art district from industrial to institutional Y. A. Perez ......................................................................................................... 27 Sustainable cities: do political factors determine the quality of life? J. M. Prado, I. M. García & B. Cuadrado......................................................... 39 Forecasting low-cost housing demand in an urban area in Malaysia using artificial neural networks: Batu Pahat, Johor N. Y. Zainun, I. A. Rahman & M. Eftekhari....................................................... 51 Networks of public open spaces in the urban fabric E. Aga ................................................................................................................ 59 Linkages between responses to the available amenities and expressed environment-related health needs in international refugee camp, Oru-Ijebu, Nigeria A. O. Afon, M. A. Asani, S. A. Adeyinka, A. Z. Hasan, M. S. Jimah, T. U. Ilogho, T. G. Faborode, G. B. Faniran & K. O. Popoola......................... 69 Public participation in public private partnership projects – the way forward S. T. Ng, J. M. W. Wong & K. K. W. Wong........................................................ 79 BREEAM Communities in Spain A. L. Cabrita & J. R. Alvarez............................................................................. 89

Rural-urban gradient and sustainability in Spain: a municipal-scale approach O. de Cos, P. Reques & M. Marañón .............................................................. 101 Evaluation of the Kadıköy Hasanpasa Gasworks in the context of sustainable urban design S. Yuksel........................................................................................................... 109 The assessment of Kırkgöz Bridge in the context of sustainable, cultural and architectural heritage Z. Akdemir & G. Sener .................................................................................... 117 Two energy storage alternatives for a solar-powered sustainable single floor desert home M. A. Serag-Eldin ............................................................................................ 131 Urban walkers in medium-sized Portuguese cities: a study of Guimarães and Braga K. R. Rahaman, T. Alves & J. M. Lourenço..................................................... 145 Sustainable mobility – analysis of sustainable mobility measures in cities N. L. Sá & J. B. Gouveia.................................................................................. 157 High-speed railway: impact on regional territorial configurations A. de Meer & C. Ribalaygua ........................................................................... 169 Studies on the carrying capacity of water resources for sustainable cities in the Taijiang area Y. C. Lin & T. Y. Lee........................................................................................ 181 Local area greywater symbiosis approach to a more sustainable urban water management S. M. Zadeh, D. R. Lombardi, D. V. L. Hunt & C. D. F. Rogers ..................... 193 Global aerotropolis versus local aqua-community: conflicting landscapes in the extended Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand S. Nasongkhla & S. Sintusingha ...................................................................... 205 Public participation in urban noise prevention Z. Baros & L. Dávid ........................................................................................ 217 Development of a unified treatment system for public use of discharged water from a Korean apartment complex for urban infrastructure regeneration C. Choi, K. Park, W. Park & H. Park.............................................................. 227

Transformative temporary use Z. Kotval, P. Machemer & J. Mullin ............................................................... 233 Challenges in managing infrastructure for urban tourism: a comparative study of three Asian cities J. Jamil & M. S. Puad...................................................................................... 243 Section 2: Eco-architecture A regenerative high-rise tower in Shreveport, Louisiana for community renewal international M. Garrison ..................................................................................................... 257 The eco-unit settlement adapted to the vernacular culture: a case study of dwelling design in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province, China Y. Z. Wang & Y. T. Chen.................................................................................. 265 For a rationalized refurbishment of the 1960s-70s towers: the Core-Skin-Shell concept L. Arantes, P. Rollet, O. Baverel & D. Quenard ............................................. 275 LABCOG: the case of the Interpretative Membrane concept L. Landau, J. W. Garcia & F. P. Miranda....................................................... 287 Study of the traditional tabique constructions in the Alto Tâmega region J. Pinto, H. Varum, A. Cepeda, P. Tavares, J. Lousada, P. Silva & J. Vieira .......................................................................................... 299 Section 3: Waste management The new national environmental management: Waste Act; a shift in waste management approach in South Africa O. Baloyi & K. Masinga .................................................................................. 311 Methods for sustainable management of secondary resources A. Pehlken, M. Rolbiecki, A. Decker & K.-D. Thoben ..................................... 323 Study on coal recovery technology from waste fine Chinese coals by a vegetable oil agglomeration process Q. Wang, N. Kashiwagi, P. Apaer, Q. Chen, Y. Wang & T. Maezono............. 331

Liquefaction processes and characterization of liquefied products from waste woody materials in different acidic catalysts Q. Wang, Q. Chen, P. Apaer, N. Kashiwagi, H. Kurokawa, K. Sugiyama, X. Wang & X. Guo..................................................................... 343 Comparative technology assessment of anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of MSW A. Cesaro, V. Belgiorno & V. Naddeo ............................................................. 355 Electrodeposition of Zn-Mn alloys from recycling battery leach solutions in the presence of amines P. S. D. Brito, S. Patrício, L. F. Rodrigues, D. M. F. Santos & C. A. C. Sequeira ............................................................... 367 Environmental impacts of improper solid waste management in developing countries: a case study of Rawalpindi City N. Ejaz, N. Akhtar, H. Nisar & U. Ali Naeem.................................................. 379 Effect of bacterial additives on the performance of septic tanks for wastewater treatment in the Upper Egypt rural area H. T. El-Zanfaly, A. Mostafa, M. Mostafa & I. Fahim..................................... 389 Monitoring the biomass content in the aerobic digestor of a WWTP: correlation between gravimetric and optical methods M. Salaverría, A. Elías, A. Iturriarte, L. Gurtubay & S. Paunero ................... 401 Utilization of agricultural residues as animal feeds for fattening sheep in Saudi Arabia H. Al Tonobey & H. M. El Shaer ..................................................................... 409 Recycling of exposed photographic X-ray films and recovery of silver using Bromelain K. V. Radha & C. Arun .................................................................................... 421 Malaysian newspapers coverage of waste issues: problems in need of solutions? H. A. Hamid, A. Hussein & S. L. Chu .............................................................. 431 Section 4: Urban transport Study for sustainable traffic strategy in local government perspective: a contribution towards a strategy for mobility V. Guerreiro da Silva & M. P. Amado............................................................. 445

The use of the city in space and time as a new social approach for prioritising transport corridors in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) J. Cerda & C. Marmolejo ................................................................................ 459 Integrated system for decision help in urban mobility management – towards sustainable urban area development: VISUTRANS C. Danoh, A. N’Diaye & J. Marchal ............................................................... 469 Locating intra city bus terminals using fuzzy logic with emphasis on city development and community alliance: case study of Tasuj N. Marsousi & K. Pourebrahim....................................................................... 479 About the characterization of urban public transport networks and their terminals Ş. Raicu, V. Dragu, Ş. Burciu & C. Ştefănică.................................................. 489 Prioritization of national road projects in Saudi Arabia: weighting of multiple criteria R. Abbyad & I. Kaysi ....................................................................................... 501 Evaluation of pricing tools in urban multimodal paths D. Ambrosino & A. Sciomachen ...................................................................... 513 An integrated approach for studying the safety of road networks: logistic regression models between traffic accident occurrence and behavioural, environmental and infrastructure parameters F. Crocco, S. De Marco & D. W. E. Mongelli................................................. 525 System requirements control and risks control: mind the gap A. Cointet & C. Laval ...................................................................................... 537 Rolling-stock change risk management: an innovative approach J. P. Bert & F. Jubert ...................................................................................... 549 Improving safety in Greek road tunnels K. Kirytopoulos, A. Rentizelas, I. Tatsiopoulos & K. Kazaras ........................ 557 Application of a genetic algorithm to reduce the search time for traffic signal control H. Kazama, H. Mochizuki, S. Takahashi & H. Nakamura............................... 569 Study of car emissions in the Athens Restriction Ring from the mid 1980s to 2007 with a prediction scenario for 2011 using air quality indices A. Loster-Mańka, K. Karkalis, G. Arapis & M. Jedziniak ............................... 581

Section 5: Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism at mass tourist destinations: best practice from tourist producers in Europe A. Sörensson .................................................................................................... 593 Perceived impact of tourism on rural and urban communities in Botswana J. Pansiri & R. N. Mmereki ............................................................................. 605 Landscape evaluation on a regional level for sustainable tourism development I. Jurinčič......................................................................................................... 619 An appraisal of incentives for developing green hotel buildings P. Sloan, W. Legrand, C. S. Kaufmann & M. Belz........................................... 629 The hospitality sector: innovations addressing environmental concern E. Szymańska ................................................................................................... 641 Community-based tourism and the development of local small businesses in rural Baja California, Mexico G. Velázquez, J. Valderrama, J. Ruiz, O. Martínez, L. Morales, R. Verján & J. Flores....................................................................................... 653 The experience of stakeholder participation in tourism planning: operationalising ‘best practice’ B. C. Hall......................................................................................................... 665 Rural tourism as a factor of sustainable development: a case study of Sukur World Heritage Site in Adamawa State, Northeastern Nigeria W. Nzeda Tagowa ............................................................................................ 675 Rural eco-museums: tourism development based on sustained development models P. Miryousefi ................................................................................................... 689 “Can the UN WTO and the Colombian government policies promoting ecotourism, contribute to rural territorial development” H. Rojas-Pinilla ............................................................................................... 701 Networking among rural tourism entrepreneurs H. Farrell, G. Bosworth & R. Newbery ........................................................... 713 Alternative tourism: a pathway for sustainability in the Cabo Pulmo National Park, Baja California Sur, Mexico: a SWOT analysis A. Ivanova, R. Ibañez, A. Gamez & M. Angeles............................................... 725

Art and culture as a viable currency in Yoruba traditional architecture P. S. O. Aremu, O. J. Ajiboye & B. Abiodun.................................................... 737 Food tourism initiatives: resistance on the ground S. L. Slocum & S. Everett................................................................................. 745 Retrofitting potential of an existing tourist lodge for improved environmental performance: an investigation S. Bardhan, B. Ghosh, S. Hazra & M. Chatterjee ........................................... 759 The short-break holiday: assessing its understanding in the Northern Territory, Australia R. D. Sharma ................................................................................................... 771 Cycling in the city, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and economic impact on tourism: case study of Puebla, Mexico Y. D. Bussière, I. Espinosa Torres, J.-L. Collomb & E. Ravalet ..................... 779 Author Index .................................................................................................. 791


Section 1 Sustainable city


The Sustainable World

3

Ecological urban design through Material and Energy Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment: from an architect’s perspective Z. C. Cai1,2 & R. Wennerstern2 1

School of Architecture, Southeast University (SEU), China Department of Industrial Ecology, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden

2

Abstract The process of ecological urban design was studied through the perspective of Material/Energy Flow Analysis from an architect’s viewpoint. The study examined how to control and adjust the production, transportation, distribution and consumption of material and energy flows in built environment systems, and how to analyse the relevant ecological design methods. Two environmental methods were used, Material/Energy Flow Analysis as the main method and Life Cycle Assessment as a parallel method, to analyse the ‘integrated efficiency’ of material and energy utilisation in the built environment and its significance for sustainable design. The analysis was applied to two cases: Material Flow Analysis of household wastewater treatment and Energy Flow Analysis of energy for heating and cooling buildings. Keywords: Ecological Design, built environment, Material/Energy Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment.

1 Introduction Urban development is a complex process involving multiple stakeholders, e.g. government, developers, engineers, contractors, residents, etc., and different physical flows, e.g. water, solid waste, energy, foods, etc. The development also covers a long time span including construction, operation and demolition. Nowadays decisions regarding urban development are becoming increasingly complex because decision-makers have to consider social, economic and of course environmental aspects. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100011

4 The Sustainable World The concept of Ecological Design has been defined as “…any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes” [1]. Thus, ecological urban design tries to minimise the impacts of the built environment on natural systems and to maintain harmony between the human environment and nature. This latter objective consists of two parts, i.e. that while maintaining a certain standard of living, urban development should minimise its inputs of natural resources and energy from the exterior and its outputs of pollutants to nature. From the perspective of Material and Energy Flow Analysis (M/EFA), ecological urban design involves adjusting and influencing the production, transportation, distribution and consumption of material and energy flows through forms of land use planning and physical space design in which the natural and built environments are integrated and human impacts on nature are minimised. Conventionally architects have concentrated on functionality and aesthetics in architecture and urbanisation, while neglecting materials and energy consumption behind the physical forms. They have therefore contributed little to the sustainability of the contemporary built environment. In view of the complexity of urban development, decision-making methods are necessary as an analytical tool for architects to choose the most sustainable solutions. The ecological design of a particular urban project reflects holistic thinking on material and energy flows. This approach involves examining the wider environmental impact on both a temporal and spatial scale. In the temporal perspective, the formerly used static environmental impact assessment should be replaced by a life cycle assessment covering raw material extraction, transportation, construction, operation and maintenance, renovation and demolition. In the spatial perspective, the emphasis should be expanded from project level to higher levels, e.g. urban, regional, national and even global. Therefore, ecological urban design through M/EFA should have the global biosphere in mind and trace all relevant flows in order to solve problems on the appropriate local levels. This involves thinking globally and acting locally.

2 Material and Energy Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment There are two environmental analytical tools that can be used for ecological urban design through M/EFA: Material/Energy Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment. The aim of the Material/Energy Flow Analysis is to specify and quantify the pathways of materials/energy into, through and out of specified system boundaries. This system can be on national, regional, community, company or even household scale. In general, material/energy flows in society are determined in a quantified manner. The entire circular flow of materials/energy is considered from the extraction of resources through processing and manufacture, use and recycling of the materials/energy to the point of final disposal. The capacity of the environment to absorb the pollutants and emissions produced is also taken into consideration. There are two main approaches in M/EFA: analysis of the WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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flows of bulk materials (MFA) and analysis of flows of a single substance or a group of substances (SFA). M/EFA can be employed to analyse the environmental impact on a spatial dimension. M/EFA can be used to:     

Determine the major flows and stocks Predict future problems at an early stage Trace the fate of inflows Link specific pollution problems to their origin in society Assess the consequences of management changes on environmental flows and stocks.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for analysing the life cycle of a product, service or project by evaluating its different flows (material and energy) and its environmental impacts throughout its lifespan. It is often described as a ‘cradle-to-grave’ tool, which means analysis of the materials used in making a product or service from extraction of materials and energy through to the return of the materials to the earth. LCA is also important for technology choices or process analysis. A full LCA consists of four main phases (part of the ISO 14000 environmental management standards) [2]:   



Goal and scope: Definition of the system boundaries and description of the method/s applied for assessing potential environmental impacts Life Cycle Inventory (LCI): Collection of data (for inputs and outputs for all unit processes affected) and system modelling Life Cycle Impact Assessment: Evaluation of the potential environmental impacts from the emissions (global warming, acidification etc.), often referred to as Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) because it is based on the LCI results Interpretation: Establishment of conclusions. This phase is the most important one since it indicates whether the ambitions from the Goal and scope phase can be met.

Life Cycle Assessment helps to establish systematic thinking in order to analyse the whole life of an environmental issue, so that and ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and ‘problem shifting’ responses can be prevented. It also helps to trace the environmental burdens to the original sources. LCA is a comprehensively used quantitative method, and can be employed to analyse environmental impact in a temporal dimension. In general, M/EFA and LCA are used in a quantitative way to evaluate all relevant environmental impacts. However, in the present study they were used as qualitative tools that could help architects and urban designers i) understand the broader process of material and energy flows and ii) establish a Life Cycle Perspective to analyse different stages of the life cycle of ecological urban design. Considering architects’ background and the nature of their work, they are unlikely to carry out the scientific and quantitative research themselves, but implement and combine the results produced into physical forms through design. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

6 The Sustainable World Architects and urban designers work as a bridge between research and realistic construction and thus a qualitative approach is more useful and feasible for these professionals.

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Ecological urban design through M/EFA and LCA

3.1 Integrated Efficiency (Ei) When M/EFA and LCA are applied to an urban project, the spatial level chosen is a key factor influencing the results. Different levels have different issues and measurements. The global built environment can be divided into eight levels: global, sub-continental, regional, city, urban district, neighbourhood, building cluster, and single building. Of these, architects and urban designers deal with Table 1:

Physical spatial levels and environmental issues.

Global

Climate change

Sub-continental

Energy and resources Environmental protection Bio-diversity Landscape ecology

Regional City & Urban District

Bio-climatic planning Integration of land use and urban transportation：TOD model

Urban Neighbourhood

External resources and energy supply: Material/Energy Flow Analysis Bio-climatic planning and design Local natural resources Urban density: FAR analysis, effective and mixed land use Waste treatment: Source separation, recycling, reuse Local agricultural development and greenland planning

Building Cluster & Single Building

High comfort, low energy, low emission, reuse Material/Energy Flow Analysis

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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projects from the level of single building to the level of city. Table 1 shows interlinks between different physical boundary levels and related environmental issues. Material and energy flows, as basic issues of ecological design, proceed from the very beginning (nature) through all the relevant levels and back to the very beginning (nature) again. For a certain urban project, energy flows may include electricity, heating, cooling, mechanical, etc., while material flows may include water, fuel, building materials, agricultural products, industrial products, sewage, solid waste, greenhouse gases, etc. In a more general sense, human movements can also be regarded as a material flow, so urban transportation can be analysed by M/EFA. At the urban level, the flows of materials and energy can be divided into four stages: external supply or local production, transportation, distribution, consumption (Figure 1). After these four stages, part of materials and energy can be recycled or reused, while others become environmental burdens that need to be absorbed naturally or treated artificially. Moreover, some flows will be accumulated as different types of pollution. However, each stage has different possibilities to reduce environmental impacts (Figure 1). The chart presented in Figure 1 varies slightly when used to indicate specific flows. One of the main objectives of ecological urban design is to utilise materials and energy with a high efficiency, which means achieving more services with less material and energy consumption. Integrated Efficiency considering all stages of material and energy flows is essential to ecological design. Integrated Efficiency (Ei) consists of: 1) Production Efficiency (Ep): Ep shows the efficiency of producing a certain material or energy. In terms of ecological urban design, it means how the urban project obtains its supply of materials and energy. For instance, electricity can be obtained directly from the national grid or produced by a local facility such as PV panels or local power generator. The goal of ecological design is to maximise the use of renewable materials and energy. Reuse & Recycling

Supply or Production

Renewable & clean

Figure 1:

Transportation

Efficiency, distance reducing

Distribution and working

Demand and Consumption

Efficiency improving

DSM, Waste minimising

Conceptual model of M/EFA in an urban area.


8 The Sustainable World 2) Transportation Efficiency (Et): Et shows the efficiency during the transportation of a certain material and energy flow from production point to target point. Thus it shows how much extra materials and energy are used to support certain flows and how much of the flows is lost during transportation. Improving Et includes reducing transportation distance and decreasing avoidable losses. 3) Working Efficiency (Ew): Ew indicates the efficiency of certain material and energy flows to fulfil a specific service requested by human needs. This stage is very important for ecological design. Type of equipment or working system can have a major effect on working efficiency. 4) Saving Efficiency (Es): Es is connected with life style and standard of living. It means the material and energy saved because of environmental awareness leading to a change in life style, and sometimes because of improved design leading to lower demand. Es shows the high potential of people’s subjective attitude towards environmental protection and the great potential of good design. From a holistic point of view, the Integrated Efficiency (Ei) of a system is the combined effect of these four Efficiencies, which can be expressed conceptually as follows: f (Ei) =Ep×Et×Ew×Es This conceptual equation means the four stages in material and energy flows should be considered holistically, without focusing too much on one stage or another, because the overall efficiency of a system may be low in spite of high efficiency in a certain stage. More problematically, the four Efficiencies often contradict each other, so focusing too much on one stage could even harm the other stages. Therefore, the Integrated Efficiency controls the whole process of material and energy flows within a certain spatial boundary. The concept of Integrated Efficiency is explained in detail in the following section using two examples: Material Flow Analysis (MFA) of household wastewater treatment; and Energy Flow Analysis (EFA) of energy for heating and cooling buildings.

3.2 Case study 3.2.1 Material Flow Analysis of the household wastewater treatment process The Material Flows in household wastewater treatment comprise a four-stage process of wastewater being generated in houses, running through pipes, being treated and finally being recycled or returned to the natural environment (Figure 2). 1) Wastewater generation Wastewater is generated by daily activities such as cooking, flushing toilets, bathing and laundry. Wastewater consumption can be decreased by reducing WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Wastewater Generation

Wastewater Transportation

Emissions reducing

Simple life Efficient equipment

Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater Recycling

High efficiency

High efficiency

Amount maximising

Distance reducing

Local treatment

Water price

Efficient system

Fraction treatment

Water policy

Wastewater separation Figure 2:

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Effective management

Conceptual model of MFA of household wastewater.

unnecessary use and by using water-efficient equipment. Applying MFA with a holistic view, wastewater separation at source is important in ecological design to avoid different kinds of wastewater being mixed and then having to be separated again in the wastewater treatment plant. 2) Wastewater transportation The modern sewage system based on the flushing toilet was invented in Europe in the 19th century. It has played a major role in preventing the spread of diseases and in reducing pollution, but the obvious drawback is that it needs huge amounts of tap water. Furthermore, all kinds of wastewater are mixed and transported to the municipal wastewater treatment plant via the sewer system. Wastewater crosses different physical levels, including building, building cluster, neighbourhood and urban district. With the expansion of urban boundary, it costs more to build all the necessary plants and install sewage infrastructure. Wastewater separation at source and local treatment could reduce all costs substantially. 3) Wastewater treatment The nutrients in the conventional wastewater treatment system are difficult to remove or recycle to farmland and cause eutrophication problems in receiving waters. On the other hand, agricultural land is lacking in these same nutrients and has to rely heavily on chemical fertilisers, the manufacture of which is highly energy-intensive.


10 The Sustainable World 4) Wastewater recycling It is often forgotten that urban wastewater is an important and reliable water resource. After simple treatment, the majority of source-separated wastewater could be reused for industrial purposes, watering vegetation, washing urban streets, etc. Discussion The qualitative MFA of household wastewater and possible ecological design methods during different stages to reduce environmental impacts are shown in Figure 2. Reducing wastewater at source is key to the whole system. Wastewater separation at source is essential to decrease the total cost of wastewater treatment, because the initial cost of building source-separation facilities will be easily repaid by the huge savings made. Most of the wastewater generated from cooking, bathing and laundry could be treated locally to reduce the cost of transportation, although the efficiency of local, small-scale treatment plants is lower than that of urban, large-scale plants. Therefore, holistic thinking should be employed and the Integrated Efficiency should be considered as the deciding factor. 3.2.2 Energy Flow Analysis (EFA) of energy for heating and cooling buildings The Energy Flow of energy for heating and cooling buildings comprises the four-stage process of energy being produced and supplied from the exterior of a certain physical boundary or produced locally, being transported through several spatial levels, being distributed to buildings and working by being transformed into heating and cooling to provide an expected indoor thermal comfort demanded by modern life. 1) Energy production Essentially, all energy on earth derives from the sun. Fossil fuels such as oil and coal originate from the solar energy accumulated millions of years ago. They are non-renewable in terms of the short human lifespan. To minimise the impacts of a building, renewable energy types such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydraulic, etc. should be used to replace fossil fuels as much as possible. 2) Energy transportation Energy transportation indicates how the primary energy obtained from nature is transformed and transported to buildings. Fossil fuels normally cannot be used directly for heating and cooling, but the energy embodied in them is easy to transform into electricity or thermal energy and to transmit through different spatial boundaries. Renewable energy types such as solar energy and geothermal energy are low value exergy that needs special technology in order to be utilised for heating and cooling and are difficult to transport over long distances.



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3) Energy distribution and work Energy supplied to the outside of buildings needs specialist equipment to work as heating and cooling. There are two ways to distribute heating and cooling: convection or radiation via steam or water. The efficiency of ceiling (or floor) cooling and heating by radiation is generally higher than that of radiators operating mainly by convection. Furthermore, it is easy to utilise low value exergy in ceiling (or floor) cooling and heating. 4) Energy demand Total energy demand includes direct energy demand for consumption and indirect energy losses from buildings. Therefore, there are two approaches to decrease energy demand: Direct energy demand can be decreased by good designs, such as exterior sun screens in hot regions to decrease the cooling load, bio-climatic designs to set the orientation and openings of buildings, etc. Another measure is to tolerate a more reasonable indoor temperature, such as a higher temperature in summer and a lower temperature in winter. However, this measurement is related to life style and people’s expectations of comfort. Indirect energy loss can be decreased by improving building envelopes through better thermal insulation, air-tight windows, reducing the area of glass in cold regions, etc. Discussion From raw fossil fuels to the final heating and cooling utilised in buildings, there can be different stages that pass through different spatial levels (Figure 3). For the objective of ecological design to save energy and materials holistically, all stages have to be considered equally. Any approach that focuses on the efficiency in one stage while neglecting others may result in harm to the whole system. For example, some ‘hi-tech’ buildings use a range of complicated and delicate equipment to reduce direct energy consumption and are declared energyefficient. However if the energy and resources consumed by the production of this equipment and its maintenance are taken into account using a life cycle perspective, the ‘hi-tech’ buildings may turn out to be more energy-consuming than their ‘low-tech’ counterparts. An example from this area confirms the importance of Integrated Efficiency. Heating and cooling produced by geothermal heat pumps (GHP) comes from renewable energy. Moreover, GHP are more efficient than conventional boilers. However, the low temperature heating by GHP cannot be transported over a long distance, so it applies to levels lower than the urban neighbourhood level. In contrast, high temperature heating by boilers can be transported over long distances by water or steam but uses large amounts of pipe work and thermal insulation, while there are also losses during the process.


12 The Sustainable World

Energy Production

Energy Transportation

Renewable energy

High efficiency

Fossil fuels

Distance reducing

Solar energy Wind Geothermal Biomass …… Figure 3:

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Local energy production: Heat pump, solar panel…

Energy Working

Energy Demand

High efficiency

Demand minimising

Smart system

Good design: Shading, natural ventilation

Floor heating & cooling Ceiling heating & cooling ……

Good management

Conceptual model of EFA of energy for heating and cooling buildings

Conclusion

Due to the complexity and uncertainty of the built environment, conventional design methods with subjective and empirical analysis cannot effectively deal with environmental issues. Rational analysis becomes an indispensable step for ecological design, since otherwise the environmental objectives cannot be fully achieved through designing. Systems thinking is crucial to ecological urban design. Different spatial levels in the built environment are interconnected and interactive. Different stages of material and energy flows are interwoven with spatial levels into an integral system that should be treated holistically without neglecting any stages or any levels. Material/Energy Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment are two widely used environmental systems analysis methods. They allow the impacts of certain design proposals to be evaluated from both a spatial and temporal perspective. Although it may be difficult for architects and urban designers to use the two methods quantitatively, they can be extremely helpful when used qualitatively to establish systems thinking that renders ecological urban design proposals realistic and effective.

Acknowledgement This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China. Project name: Transition and Redevelopment of Old Urban Industrial Areas in the Post-Industrial Period. Project number: 50878045. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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References [1] Van der Ryn, S & Cowan, S. 1996. Ecological Design. Washington D.C.: Island. 17-32. [2] Nicoline Wrisberg, etc. editor. 2002 Analytical Tools for Environmental Design and Management in a Systems Perspective. Kluwer Academic Publishers. 45-46.




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Determining the vitality of urban centres J. E. Drewes & M. van Aswegen North West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa

Abstract This paper will attempt to provide an encompassing Index of Vitality for urban centres. The Vitality Index’s© goal is to enable measurement of the general economic, social, physical, environmental, institutional and spatial performance of towns within a regional framework, ultimately reflecting the spatial importance of the urban centre. Towns have been measured in terms of numerous indicators, mostly in connection with social and economic conditions, over an extended period of time. The lack of suitable spatial indicators is identified as a significant shortcoming in the measurement of urban centres. This paper proposes the utilisation of a comprehensive index to measure the importance of an urban centre within a specific region. The Vitality Index© is consequently tested in a study area situated in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. This study contributes in a number of ways to the measurement of urban centres, i.e. the shortcomings that are identified for the urban centres can be addressed by goal-specific policy initiatives, comprising a set of objectives and strategies to correct imbalances. The Vitality Index© also provides a basis for guiding national and regional growth policies, in the identification of urban centres with sustainable growth potential and vitality. Keywords: sustainability indicators, measuring urban centres, importance of urban centres, sustainable housing, spatial planning; policy, South Africa.

1 Introduction Various indicators have been designed and are recognised to provide a quantitative evaluation of an urban centre. Included are indicators describing economic growth, accessibility, sustainability, quality of life and environmental quality. In Developing Countries, basic indicators like access to engineering services, employment levels and availability of public transport form the main WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100021

16 The Sustainable World urban evaluation indicators (DBSA [1]). In Developed Countries, on the other hand, indicators used to evaluate and describe cities focus more on standards of living, environmental quality and accessibility (Schneider [2]). In the course of time these indicators have also progressed in terms of focus. In recent times, the focus has shifted towards qualitative issues like quality of living, although the main focus is still on economic growth and production. In the post-modern era, cities are generally analysed and evaluated by means of indicators reflecting sustainability, competitiveness, global impact and environmental quality. These are qualitative indicators. Numerous technical and / or spatial planning indicators have also been compiled to aid in the spatial planning process (i.e. central place index, locality index, and income and labour indexes). These spatial planning indicators have not, however, been included in assessing the spatial importance and vitality of urban centres within a particular region. This disregard of spatial measures is emphasised by this study as a shortcoming in the measurement and assessment of urban centres within regions. Most of the foregoing indicators refer to quantitative measurements. Arguably, several qualitative issues also need to be taken into consideration, e.g. the sense of community and sense of place linked to a certain urban structure. The quantitative indicators do not necessarily reflect the total of the unique social characteristics of a city (Liu [3]). The main problem statement amounts to a lack of integrated and encompassing indicators that reflect on the urban structure as an organic entity, i.e. the inclusion of all the preceding indicators into an encompassing index. The proposed index will then reflect on a city’s vitality. Vitality describes the ability of an organism to stay alive or work effectively. The Vitality Index© will encompass indicators that represent the ability of an urban centre to stay alive, be viable, and function satisfactorily in order to provide for the basic needs of the community and improve the lives of all residents in the long term.

2 Urban indicators: an integrated perspective In the mid 1960s a growing dissatisfaction with the availability of quality social information prompted the “social indicators movement” (Carley [4]). This was due to the growing concern of too much attention being directed to economic performance and indicators. The term social indicators encompassed a wide variety of indicators of socio-economic well-being and quality of life. Social indicators can be divided into a number of broad classifications (Carley [4]), of which the distinction between objective and subjective indicators is probably the most widely used. According to Land [5] social indicators can be further divided into normative welfare indicators, satisfaction indicators, and descriptive social indicators. Normative welfare indicators closely correlate to objective indicators since they refer to direct measures of welfare, i.e. income. Descriptive indicators are an encompassing index of a number of indicators which measure social conditions within an urban centre or urban centres.



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SOCIAL INDICATORS

Objective Normative Welfare Indicators Figure 1:

Subjective Descriptive Social Indicators

Satisfaction Indicators

Types of social indicators (own representation). VITALITY INDICATORS

Normative welfare indicators

Descriptive social indicators Figure 2:

Satisfaction indicators

Spatial indicators

Subgroups of Vitality Indicators.

3 Subgroups of indicators The aforementioned groupings of indicators will form part of the four subgroups in the Vitality Index©. The remaining indicators that do not fall in the scope of one of these subgroups are mainly measures of spatial importance, and will hence be categorised under a fourth subgroup, i.e. spatial indicators (Land [5]). This study will attempt to identify and create a comprehensive index. Only the indicators of highest value and importance will be highlighted and included in the index. A number of indicators were identified to be part of the final Vitality Index©, taking into account the availability of data and relative importance of the indicator. 3.1 Normative welfare indicators Normative welfare indicators are objective indicators which act as direct measures of welfare within a community or region (Land [5]). The first indicator of normative welfare refers to the basic-nonbasic relationship, which describes the relationship between services and products provided for the local community (nonbasic), and services and products exported to the surrounding region (basic) (Alexander [6]). The presence of a large export base (basic sector) may indicate future economic growth and development (Alexander [6]). The larger the export WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

18 The Sustainable World base, the more revenue is collected from outside the urban centre. Money is consequently not only circulated within the community, as with non-basic services, but money is added to the local economy. The second indicator that may be categorised as a normative welfare indicator is the GDP. In the past, public policy-makers generally relied on the GDP as a primary measure of a nation’s well-being (Van der Merwe et al. [7]). Although numerous criticisms were levelled at the GDP, it can still play a role in measuring economic activity within a region or urban centre and data are fairly readily available for the whole of South Africa (RSA [8]). In the third place, the income of a community may be categorised as a normative welfare indicator. The income of a community is representative of its ability to satisfy its basic needs (DBSA [1]). This indicator correlates to the employment level and GDP of a community. 3.2 Satisfaction indicators In this subgroup two indicators are most prominent as representative of life satisfaction. First, a person’s perception of the environment may be said to be indicative of his satisfaction in general. Secondly, the concept of Quality of Life (QOL) attempts to quantify a number of general indicators to reflect a community’s general feeling of well-being and satisfaction. This index comprises numerous variables such as material well-being, health, political stability and security, family life; community life; climate and geography, job security, political freedom and education. These indicators are not so much indicators of growth and development, as they are measures of the impact of growth and development (Venetoulis and Talberth [9]). 3.3 Descriptive social indicators The subgroup of descriptive social indicators takes into account a large number of indicators, including physical, demographic, institutional and labour indicators. Land [5] described this subgroup as an encompassing index of indicators of social conditions and changes therein over a period of time for various sectors of the population. These indicators are all based on objective quantitative data and are, therefore, fairly readily available and easy to interpret. The physical indicators are infrastructure and transport. Infrastructure is measured according to the availability of engineering and basic services. The second group of descriptive social indicators is the demography of a region or town. Demography includes indicators such as population, population growth rate, age and gender distribution, level of education and life expectancy. In the third instance, labour and employment can also be classified as a descriptive social indicator. The final descriptive social indicator that is proposed to be included in this subgroup is that of institutional capacity. This indicator refers to the capacity of local government to provide basic services to the community as well as the capacity to manage the urban centre in question as efficiently as possible. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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3.4 Spatial indicators This study is focussed on the field of regional planning, and the spatial aspects of performance and growth should therefore play a central role in the Vitality Index©. Spatial indicators have not been proposed by any of the authors or researchers on indicators or social indicators. Most of the indicators researched during this study provide for a comparison of urban centres, but not for the classification of centres in terms of regional importance. It is proposed that the following spatial concepts be included as spatial indicators, i.e. (i) the reason for the town’s continued existence; (ii) the position of the town within the urban system; (iii) the hierarchical position of the town in the region; (iv) the presence of development corridors in the region; and (v) existing policy initiatives as proposed by national, provincial and district governments. The first measure of spatial importance to be included is the central place system and town’s relative importance in the region based on the centrality of the town and the services it provides to the surrounding region. Boudeville [10] described a regional growth pole as a number of growing industries situated in an urban area and stimulating further development of economic activity throughout its sphere of influence. The growth-pole concept is thus regarded as an important indicator of future spatial growth and performance in a regional context. The position of an urban centre in the hierarchical distribution of is also indicative of the relative importance of the specific centre in the region. A town’s hierarchy can be linked to its urban field, whereas the size of the urban field of a town will be directly proportional to its hierarchical order. The levels of relations in the urban system will differ in scale and composition at different levels of urban hierarchy (Berry and Horton [11]; Bourne [12]). Another spatial indicator is the existence and relative location of development corridors since development corridors stimulate growth and development in nodes (Richardson [13]). It is proposed that existing policy initiatives also be included as a Spatial Indicator. Urban centres mentioned in spatial policy documents on National, Provincial and District level are regarded as centres of potential growth, and therefore receive additional incentives to encourage growth.

4 Empirical study The proposed study area used to test the Vitality Index© is situated in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The Northern Cape Province is sparsely populated and has very few large urban centres occurring at irregular intervals and has a fairly homogeneous geography. The homogeneous plain (Dicken and Lloyd [14]) is also highlighted by theorists of simplified settlement theories as a way of simplifying the complexity of space economy. Research in South Africa is mostly focused on the metropolitan areas and larger urban centres in the country (SACN [15]). Unlike many other provinces, the Northern Cape has not been the subject of many research studies. This study WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

20 The Sustainable World will therefore attempt to make a contribution to undertake research in an area of the country which has not been researched extensively. The study will concentrate on urban centres within the two District Municipalities, in question, which include the following Local Municipalities and centres: a) Frances Baard DM (Sol Plaatjie LM: Kimberley; Dikgatlong LM: Barkley West, Delportshoop, Windsorton; Magareng LM: Warrenton; Phokwane LM: Jan Kempdorp, Pampierstat, Hartswater), and b) Kgalagadi DM (Moshaweng LM: Heuningvlei, Tsineng, Bothithong; GaSegonyana LM: Kuruman, Mothibistad; Gamagara LM: Deben, Kathu, Dingleton, Olifantshoek) These two district municipalities are adjacent to each other and have specifically been selected since they include a large number of urban centres of different hierarchical levels in the national, regional, and daily urban systems. The study area furthermore fits into the core-periphery model, with certain centres forming part of the core, while other centres and development corridors are included in the transition zone, and the periphery (Friedmann [16]). Due to the extent of the Northern Cape it is sparsely populated, with few national roads (i.e. N8 and N12) passing through. The latter is important due to the importance of a development corridor and the influence it has on the urban centres close by. Since the Northern Cape is such a large province with numerous smaller settlements, the infrastructure is mostly insufficient in smaller towns. This will enable the study to determine the importance of infrastructure as an indicator of vitality. This study will relate all data back to the largest town within each local municipality, as identified according to the size of population. This is as a result

Figure 3:

Study area – Northern Cape Province, South Africa.



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of the Local Municipality’s political importance, and spatial initiatives which are mainly focused on main urban centres in terms of SDF`s (Spatial Development Framework) and IDP`s (Integrated Development Plan). The NSDP [17] proposes to focus upon localities that demonstrate some economic potential and high levels of social need, since greater benefits will be achieved by focussing resources and effort on these localities.

5 Vitality indicators The Vitality Index© comprises each of the aforementioned subcategories, i.e. normative welfare, satisfaction, descriptive social and spatial indicators. The Vitality Index© will be determined for each municipality by adding all the scores for each subcategory, i.e. Vitality Index = (¼) Normative welfare indicator score

(1)

+ (¼) Satisfaction indicator score + (¼) Descriptive social indicator score + (¼) Spatial indicator score The Vitality Index© is consequently determined by making use of the scores obtained in each of the four subcategories. Each subcategory consists of n indicators, each of which is individually scored in terms of the proposed quartile system. The scores for the indicators are added up to constitute a total score out of a possible total of (n*4) – a maximum score of four per indicator can be obtained. A percentage value for the subcategory is calculated. The subcategory could obtain a score (from one to four) based on the quartile system or the percentage values could be used. The Vitality Index© is calculated as the total of the percentage value of each of the subcategories (thus resulting in a total out of four hundred). The Vitality Index© can be presented in three ways, as illustrated in the subsequent table. Firstly, the percentage values for each subcategory could be added up and converted to a percentage, namely the Vitality Percentage. On the basis of this vitality percentage, each of the urban centres can be scored in terms of the proposed quartile system, obtaining a Vitality Score of between one and four. The vitality percentage could also be used to rank the urban centres in the specific region; viz. the centre with the highest percentage will receive the highest ranking (subject to the number of urban centres in the study area) resulting in the Vitality Ranking. To determine a broad classification of urban centres one will make use of the vitality score, whereas a more in-depth study of urban centres will call for the vitality percentage to be utilised. The Vitality Ranking could be used in order to give a brief overview of the vitality position of each urban centre within the broader region. The table below illustrates the final Vitality Index© Score, as proposed by this study, for each municipality. This table suggests that Kimberley (Sol Plaatjie Municipality) is the urban centre with the highest vitality. Kathu (Gamagara Municipality) surprisingly WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Satisfaction indicators

Normative welfare indicators NWI = total indicator score/n

SI = total indicator score/n

Score indicators X1, X2………….Xn


Score

Score

1= 0-24%

1= 0-24%

2= 25-49%

Percentage

2= 25-49% 3= 50-74%

3= 50-74%

4=

4=

75-

VITALITY INDEX

75-

Score

1= 0-24%

1= 0-24%

2= 25-49%

2= 25-49%

3= 50-74% 4=

3= 50-74%

Rank

4=

75-

75-

Score

Score



DSI = total indicator score/n

SPI = total indicator score/n

Descriptive social indicators

Figure 4:

Spatial indicators

Methodology of Vitality Index©.

illustrates the second highest vitality percentage with 66, 39%, which could be ascribed to the mining activities and rapid economic growth within the mining sector. Kathu (Gamagara Municipality) is followed by Kuruman (Ga-Segonyana Municipality), Jan Kempdorp (Phokwane Municipality), and Barkley West (Dikgatlong Municipality), each of which obtained a vitality score of three.



Table 1: Indicator Ga-Segonyana Normative 2 welfare indicator score Satisfaction 3 indicator score Descriptive 3 social indicator score Spatial 4 indicator score Vitality Index %

©

Vitality Index Score

©

Vitality Index rank

©

Gamagara

23

Vitality Index© scores. Moshaweng

Phokwane

Sol Plaatjie Dikgatlong

Magareng

4

3

3

3

3

1

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

2

3

4

3

3

4

2

2

4

2

2

63.89

66.39

48.54

56.60

77.71

53.75

41.60

3

3

2

3

4

3

2

5

6

2

4

7

3

1

These towns thus show the ability to perform their tasks effectively and to provide for the needs of their residents. Bothithong (Moshaweng Municipality) and Warrenton (Magareng Municipality) on the other hand have low levels of vitality with a score of two each and are thus ranked low with regard to spatial importance within the study area as a whole. The table also allows for a more detailed interurban evaluation of the subcategories. It should be noted that the gap between the highest and second highest rank is more than ten percent – Kimberley thus excels as a definite core centre within the study area. It is therefore possible to use the Vitality Index© on two different levels, whether for a broad categorisation or for a detailed ranking, in accordance with the needs of a study.

6 Synthesis and recommendations This study is focused on the spatial importance of urban centres within a larger study area or region. It is important that each of the indicators discussed be related back to what it measures. The indicators are related back to the immeasurable concept, i.e. spatial importance, for which it is a substitute. The purpose of the Vitality Index© was to serve as a comprehensive index measuring the importance of an urban centre within a larger region. It is also possible to apply the Vitality Index© to different study areas throughout the world. The Vitality Index© also allows for additional indicators to be included in the subcategories identified. Indicators could subsequently also be discarded if deemed unnecessary for the specific goal or region in mind. This study identified a limitation with regard to existing indicators and therefore the spatial aspects of urban centres should also be considered when a region is measured. Furthermore, this study confirmed the fact that qualitative WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

24 The Sustainable World indicators were ignored in existing methods of urban centre measurement. As urban centres exist and function within a larger region all urban centres are interrelated, this study proposed the utilisation of a comprehensive index to measure the importance of an urban centre within a specific region. This study contributed in a number of ways to the measurement of urban centres, including the classification of urban indicators into four broad categories, i.e. normative welfare, satisfaction, descriptive social and spatial indicators. Different methods were proposed for calculating the Vitality Index©, including the ranking and scoring of urban centres. This made it possible to determine the ability of an urban centre to function satisfactorily over time and to stay vibrant and viable. It was proposed that shortcomings that were identified for the urban centre be addressed by policy initiatives, comprising a set of objectives and strategies to correct imbalances. The Vitality Index© also provides a basis for informing national and provincial growth policies, in the identification of urban centres with sustainable growth potential and vitality.

References [1] DBSA. Guidelines to regional socio-economic analysis. DBSA: Johannesburg. 54p. 2001. [2] Schneider, M. 1976. The quality of life and social indicators. Public Administration Review, 1: 297-395. 1976. [3] Liu, B. Quality of life: concept, measure and results. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology (34)1: 1-12. 1975. [4] Carley, M. Social measurement and social indicators. George Allen & Unwin: London. 195p. 1981. [5] Land, K.C. Social Indicators. Annual review of Sociology, 9: 1-26. 1983. [6] Alexander, J.W. The basic-nonbasic concept of urban economic functions. Economic geography, 30: 246-261. 1954. [7] Van der Merwe, C., Mohr, P.J., Botha, Z.C. & Inggs, E.J. The practical guide to South African economic indicators. Lexicon Publishers: Johannesburg. 146p. 1988. [8] RSA Regional Market Indicators. [Web:] http://regions.easydata.co.za [Date of use: 23 Oct. 2006]. 2001. [9] Venetoulis, J. & Talberth, J. Ecological footprint of nations – 2005 update. Redefining Progress, 1-16. 2005. [10] Boudeville, J.R. Problems of regional economic planning. University press: Edinburgh. 192p. 1966. [11] Berry, B.J.L & Horton, F.E. Geographic perspectives on urban systems with integrated readings. Prentice-Hall: New Jersey. 564p. 1970. [12] Bourne, L.S. Urban systems: strategies for regulation. Clarendon Press: Oxford. 264p. 1975. [13] Richardson, H.W. Spatial strategies, the settlement pattern and shelter and services policies. (In Rodwin, L. ed. Shelter, settlement and development. Boston: Allen. P.207-235.) 1987.



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[14] Dicken, P. & Lloyd, P.E. Location in space: Theoretical perspectives in economic geography (3rd ed.). HarperCollins: New York. 431p. 1990. [15] South African Cities Network. [Web:] http://sacities.net [Date of use: 10 Nov. 2006]. 2006. [16] Friedmann, J. Regional Development Policy: A case study of Venezuela. M.I.T. Press: Massachusetts. 273p. 1966. [17] South Africa. National Spatial Development Perspective. Government Printer: Pretoria. 43p. 2003.




27

Relocating MIU to the cityscape: gentrifying Wynwood’s art district from industrial to institutional Y. A. Perez Miami International University of Arts & Design, USA

Abstract This study explores the use of gentrification as a catalyst to regenerate a decaying urban environment. The study will propose relocating a university (Miami International University of Art & Design, MIU) the catalyst, to a decaying urban art district (Wynwood). Although gentrification generally carries a negative connotation, the type of gentrification projected in this study promotes the best interest for the community without displacing individuals. After all, gentrification’s main objective is neighborhood improvement. MIU will be transformed into an urban university that will make a significant contribution to the Wynwood Art District and will play a vital role in enhancing the community. The new urban location will mutually benefit MIU, and the community by contributing to the gentrification of the Wynwood Art District, and enhancing the university’s and the community’s image. This study will reveal the benefits of relocating the university, and redirecting its growth from place to placemaking. Based on Edward M. Spicer’s research document “What is an Urban University?” the research will analyze similar urban institutions and develop best practices for implementation to MIU. Among the case studies will be: (1) Columbia University in the USA, (2) Portland State University in the USA, and (3) the University of Pennsylvania in the USA. These case studies differ in educational philosophies but agree in the importance of an urban institution for the community and students. The fusion of MIU and the Wynwood Art District will result as an integrative link of the place, and a symbol of cultural function. The objective is the showcase MIU, but also as an integral art centerpiece that binds together institution and community. Keywords: gentrification, neoliberals, urban university, neighborhood change.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100031


1

Introduction

The British sociologist Ruth Glass first coined the term gentrification in 1964 to describe a process of urban change that was beginning to affect inner London. Since that time, according to Lee et al. [1], gentrification has worked its way into the planning manifestos or urban policy agendas to improve the economic, physical, and social outlooks of disinvested central-city locations around the world [1]. In this study, as we shall see, gentrification is the beneficial consequence of changes to the industrial Wynwood Art District in Miami, Florida USA. In addition, rather than demolishing the District’s available existing structures, these buildings can be readapted and refurbished for neighborhood improvement. Jacobs [2], urbanist, writer, and activist once said, new ideas require old buildings [2]. To achieve this positive gentrification, Wynwood Art District will partner with Miami International University of Art & Design (MIU), a University who will relocate into the District, MIU will become the catalyst for bringing gentrification to Wynwood Art District. For this to occur, the relocation must be beneficial to both entities. This is particularly true for MIU for, as Glover (Glover and Maurrasse [3]), founder and president of PolicyLink, has observed, the university needs to reconnect to the community.

2 Gentrification Gentrification, of course, existed before Ruth Glass coined the term. Glass [4] complained that once this process of gentrification starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working class occupiers are displaced and the social character of the district is changed [4]. The earliest systematic appearance of gentrification was in the 1950s and occurred in post-war advanced capitalist cities like Boston, Washington, D.C, London, and New York. Glass described gentrification as an invasion of the middle class to displace the working class. However, over time gentrification evolved into a more dynamic process, losing much of its negative connotation. Today, gentrification is synonymous with ‘regeneration’, ‘renaissance’, and ‘revitalization’. 2.1 Spontaneous gentrification Urban evolution has encountered obstacles along its way to try to revitalize decaying sectors of cities; one major obstacle is the tendency to generalize the term ‘gentrification’ without understanding its various models. There are, for example, differences between classical and spontaneous models of gentrification. Those differences can lead researchers to wildly different interpretations of the process. Clay [5], one of the earliest analysts of gentrification, argued that all of these general tendencies are worked out differently in particular national, regional and urban settings. At the urban scale, the expansion of gentrification worldwide is tied to the rise of service-based economies and the shifting functions of central cities, as well as the enforced diffusion of neoliberal models of urban governance and redevelopment [5]. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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In 2001, Andres Duany, an architect and urban theorist, in the essay ‘Three Cheers for Gentrification’ discussed two approaches to inducing gentrification: artificially and spontaneously. Duany [6] notes that opposition to gentrification often starts from the assumption that it is artificially induced, and controllable [6]. This is different from the improvement that occurs without municipal involvement, which is known as ‘spontaneous gentrification’. As Duany [6] observes, spontaneous gentrification happens furtively when a first wave of poor but savvy pioneers discovers the urban allure of a hitherto decrepit area. These are usually students, artists, gays, and other self-marginalized social groups [6]. Duany’s ‘savvy pioneers,’ referred to by sociologists as the risk-oblivious, are creative individuals who transform rough and edgy environments to habitable and charming. Utilizing Glass’s definition of classical gentrification, Clay [5] developed in 1979 one of the first models of gentrification; he outlined a schema from stage 1 (pioneer gentrification) to stage 4 (maturing gentrification). In Clay’s stage 1: A small group of risk-oblivious people move in and renovate properties for their own use. Little public attention is given to renovation at this stage, and little displacement occurs because the newcomers often take housing that is vacant or part of the normal market turnover in what is often an extremely soft market. This pioneer group accepts the risk of such a move [5]. Both Clay’s stage model and Duany’s spontaneous gentrification recognize the role of avant-garde artists in the early revitalization process. The riskoblivious, or neoliberals, seemed to value mixed-use and multicultural neighborhoods, bringing in diverse architectural qualities, as shown in table 1. Table 1:

Positives and opportunities of gentrification.

Positives Neighborhood transformed into an Urban University. Resource allocations. Revive commercial activity. Enhance local services.

Economic growth.

Opportunities Improves neighborhoods and university’s image, safety, services, and capacities. Provide high-quality diverse housing choices. Formulate activities with an overall strategy for community integration. Neighborhood revitalization that would require a partnership between community and the supportive urban institution. Increasing property value, and land use improvement. Supports a business district that can provide employment opportunities.


30 The Sustainable World 2.1.1 Art and gentrification Historically, an unwanted consequence of gentrification has been the displacement of the neighborhood’s previous residents. The gentrification approach in this study has been defined as spontaneous, and will regenerate a decaying urban environment by using existing edifices and respecting the nature of the neighborhood. This will be accomplished through the relocation of higher learning institutions dedicated to the arts, in short MIU.

3 Case studies Urban universities are connected to their host communities. Each develops unique characteristics that reflect and respond to the nature and composition of their communities. The relationship between the state systems of higher education and the community, form an urban university. They have considerable differences but also much in common. In his research document, ‘What is an Urban University’, Spicer [7] suggests how urban universities answer some of the community’s basic needs. Based on the clientele it serves, which is the student body, Spicer’s defines urban university with the specific criteria [7]: 1. It enrolls 20% or more of its students on a part-time basis 2. It is located in a city with a population of 250,000 or more 3. It has graduate and professional schools 4. It grants the PhD degree In addition, Spicer [7] cites, the comprehensive urban university, with its flexibility and its resources, is the one vehicle, with local and regional cooperation, which could have a tremendous impact in finding solutions to some of the social and environmental problems that now confronts us [7]. Under the definition used by Spicer and the positive impact of urban universities in neighborhood improvement, this research will analyze similar urban institutions to develop best practices for implementation further in this study to Miami International University of Art & Design. These case studies follow Spicer’s criteria. The case studies include (1) Columbia University, (2) Portland State University, and (3) University of Pennsylvania, all in USA. 3.1 Columbia University Located in Upper Manhattan, in New York City, Columbia University is making a difference through community partnership. Columbia embraces the opportunity to give back to the neighborhood the university calls home, contributing in ways to improve the quality of life in Upper Manhattan. Columbia University [8] is involved with the community, constantly searching for ways to improve the quality of its residents. It offers from one on one tutoring to health screening; by joining with community and partnering with other organizations and agencies, the university continues to expand the programs and services available to its neighbors. Community residents, business



31

owners, organizations, and activists have long led the way in providing a wide array of community services that enrich all of our lives. Columbia seizes the opportunity to work with its neighbors and strengthen university relationships and working partnerships [8]. Columbia is an internationally respected academic establishment; it is also a vital local New York institution committed not only to the economic and social growth of the city, but also to the cultural vitality of the neighborhood. Constantly, Columbia is involved in neighborhood improvement with various projects. Recently Columbia has developed a comprehensive plan together with West Harlem to develop a mixed-use academic center. In May 2009, New York State’s Public Authorities Control Board granted Columbia the final public approval for the plan. This chains an expansion of educational and cultural programs involving Columbia University [8] with the local community: The 17-acre site primarily consists of a four large blocks in the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone that over the time will create “A new kind of urban academic environment that will be woven into the fabric of the surrounding community. The plan includes more than 6.8 million square feet of space for teaching, research, underground parking, and support services. It features new facilities for civic, cultural, recreational, and commercial activity. In addition, its improved, pedestrian-friendly streets and new publicly accessible open spaces will reconnect West Harlem to the new Hudson River waterfront park [8]. As a result, Columbia with its new approach is contributing to the positive gentrification of a decaying old industrial zone. In addition, it is generating new local jobs opportunities for the local residents.

Figure 1:

Existing view from West 130th Street and Twelve Avenue looking East. Source: http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/.



Figure 2:

Proposed view for West 130th Street and Twelve Avenue. Source: http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/.

3.1.1.1 Portland State University In response to neighborhood improvement, universities are reviewing their missions and adopting missions-specific goals. According to Ramaley [9], a biologist and administrator, these types of institutions are characterized by the nature and extent of its responsive to the research and educational needs of complex metropolitan regions [9]. The emerging distinctive institution is the urban university. Located in Oregon, national environment is a concern for Portland State University (PSU), and its academic and administrative setting has engaged resources to the support its distinctive urban mission. In 1990, PSU entered into a period of change generated from economic crisis. PSU became an urban university and the first step was to rethink its mission statement. In Ramaley [9] 1991, the mission statement of PSU reads as: The mission of Portland State University is to enhance the intellectual, social, cultural and economic qualities of urban life by providing access throughout the life span to a quality liberal education for undergraduates and an appropriate array of professional and graduate programs especially relevant to the metropolitan area. The university will actively promote development of a network of educational institutions that will serve the community and support a high quality educational environment and reflect issues important to the metropolitan area [9]. The distinctive characteristics of the change process of PSU were addressed simultaneously. First, the transformation was in the hands of faculty and staff whom along brought in community participation. Second, the mission statement of PSU framed the work with clear and specific institutional goals. Third, the expansion of change, with partnerships of faculty and administrators with other local institutions, attempted neighborhood improvement. Fourth, PSU created a habit of presenting results at national meetings as critical reviews.



33

3.1.1.1 University of Pennsylvania Located in West Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania (Penn) has become partners with the community to improve the neighborhood and the economic growth of the city. It has contributed with the continuing process of revitalization improving three areas of constant interventions: 1. Neighborhood safety, capacity and services improvement. 2. Significant renewal of retail activity, economic development directed toward local residents. 3. Surrounding public school showing improvement. Penn’s economic development effort has generated activity in the center of the campus thriving into the night in a good-illuminated setting. Previously the area was dark and desolate at night, situation that was a good setting for criminal activity. With this economic boost, Penn is also undertaking a special effort to hire local manufacture, and employ a majority of locals of the new businesses. Given that, the hospitality industry is becoming the main focal point of the city’s development, Penn is running an effective job-training program to prepare residents to work in a variety of local hotels. Maurrase [10], an author, speaker, and researcher, observes Penn’s development strategy built upon the history of other joint ventures between large nationwide suppliers and local minorityowned business [10]. Penn has also partnered with Philadelphia’s School District establishing a university-assisted pre-K-to-eight public school. With this approach, Penn is providing better public education models for advancement in teaching and learning, involving the partnering of private and public, and of community and institution to participate with a common goal of neighborhood improvement. After all, one needs the other one to succeed.

Figure 3:

Bird’s eye view of the University of Pennsylvania campus. Source: http://www.aashe.org/files/resources/campus_awards/aerial%20ca mpus.png.



4 The community, the vehicle and the transition In a way to achieve social and economic equity communities and urban universities become partners. This partnering involves the community and the university working jointly to take common action intended to solve problems. Moreover, the approach relies on strengthening the existing community by creating new partnerships to bring change. The results of these efforts include improving quality of life, creating better communal equity, and setting new standards for changing communities. 4.1 The community: Wynwood Art District The recent and rapid cultural developments have launched the Wynwood Art District. The section extends from Miami Avenue five blocks west, between Interstate 395 and NW 36th Street containing more than 60 galleries, studios, workshops, museums, and collections that have emerged from the remnants of a past industrial zone. Wynwood Art District is the link between Miami’s Design District to the north, and Downtown’s Performing Arts Center to the south, allowing neoliberals (artists) and production industry members to flourish and develop. Referred as the ‘art district’ due to its prevalence of artist studios, it is also home to Miami’s Fashion District, an area that stretches along NW 5th Avenue from 23rd to 29th Streets.

Figure 4:

Wynwood Art District renewal area. Source: http://www.miamiartspace.com/images/wynwood_map.jpg.



35

Every second Saturday of each month the Design District and Wynwood Art District holds a community art walk from 7 to 11p.m.; this is the only time when the Wynwood area becomes a safe place to walk in the evenings, drawing a wide range of neoliberals. A little more than a decade ago, the area was more an apparel and warehouse district next to a massive train yard. As the rail shipping business disappeared, the area became blighted. Just a few years ago, walking through Wynwood at night would have been inviting danger at worst, and taking an extremely monotonous stroll, at best. The Wynwood Art District location allows three fundamental premises: 1. The development of the cityscape. 2. The connection between the urban density (population) and the available spaces (warehouses), which makes rehabilitation-readaptation the most notable characteristic for the available spaces. 3. The confluence between art and architecture by means of segregated interventions, occupying some of the available warehouses will enable a new identity, enhancing the neighborhood as a whole to the city. 4.1.1 The vehicle: Miami International University of Art & Design, MIU When in 2005, Miami International University of Art & Design (MIU) opened its doors in OMNI, its full intention was to build a solid tradition of excellence in design-focused education for Miami’s residents. MIU is one of more than 40 Art Institutes located throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, visual arts, fashion, and culinary arts for professionals. Five years later, the university continues to show growth. According to Dean Paul Cox, “MIU has begun to grow and become educationally vibrant and today has evolved into a University offering a broad spectrum of associate, undergraduate and graduate programs in art and design.” When the university opened, the surrounding area at the time was experiencing an influx of high-rise mix-use condos. Decisions were made to locate the university within what used to be an indoor shopping center (OMNI). Currently the university is not the focal point within the OMNI, as it competes with hotels, government agencies, and offices. MIU in its five-year history has undergone remarkable growth; the university has more than 2,000 students in its educational programs and more than 150 professional on its faculty. MIU leases directly from the OMNI, utilizing about 100,000 square feet of space. In redefining MIU’s role, the first important step taken will be the relocation of the university to the Wynwood Art District. With the new location, the university will be helping substantially in the gentrification of Wynwood Art District. In addition, MIU will be intervening directly through employment generation, housing and economic development initiatives, to flourish the decaying neighborhood. 4.1.1.1 The transition: Urban University Events such as developing sense of identity, increasing student activities, and correcting urban decay, solidify the idea of embedding an urban university in gentrified cities.


36 The Sustainable World Klotsche [11], a former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, provides a proper suggestion: Our society is irretrievably urban. Since our cities are here to stay, the time is at hand to take a new look at them. It is urgent that a major effort be made to reshape them. This will require serious reflection, and positive action. In all of these matters the urban university can play a central role. It can, in fact, become the single most important force in the re-creation of our cities [11]. The most urgent problems of a city can be solved with the university participation in a community’s development. Urban revitalization is an enormous mission and it is past the scope of any single institution to resolve. Partnerships can provide a possible approach to solving these problems. As for the university, the participation promotes positive identity, positive impact on student recruitments, faculty and staff, enlarging the potential of ethnic and racial diversity as shown in table 2. For this, Klotsche [11] also states: The urban university is on the threshold of unparalleled expansion; a phenomenon of this century, the growth of the urban university will be far more dramatic than that of other institutions of higher education. For this new kind of institution located in the city is at the very center of the most dynamic and volatile force in America today – the emerging metropolis [11]. These positives are channels to better opportunities for the community that concludes in neighborhood improvement, as shown in figure 5. Table 2:

Benefits of a partnership.

Positives Location within the city. The scale, the diversity, and the density of the cities. Universities are among the top ten private employers in the largest cities in the United States. Create university and community relationships.

University engages in change.

Opportunities Economic growth. The city attracts consumers of education, having a tremendous economic impact on the cities that contains them. City management. Job generations that contribute to a more experienced and educated workforce. Marketing tool for the city. Appreciate the valuable and diverse roles that university’s can play in the immediate area, by contributing to neighborhood improvement. Promotes citizenship. Supports artistic and cultural diversity while strengthening community identity.



Figure 5:

37

Diagram of the process of gentrification. Source: Yadira Perez.

Gentrification is a process that can positively affect a neighborhood. By creating a partnership with the community and an educational institution, a decaying neighborhood can overcome the negative aspects and redefine itself anew. This partnership is the vehicle to achieve neighborhood improvement. In analyzing the case studies, there is a clear correlation between the education institution’s mission statement and the community. Education institutions must be the catalyst to create the change in community. Mission statements must be redeveloped to include the community. This commitment creates the initial concept toward a gentrification that will empower the community and the university.

References [1] Lees, L., Slater, T. & Wyly, E. Gentrification. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: New York, p 5, 34, 2008. [2] Jacobs, J, Mains Arts Commissions (2004) Proceedings from the Blaine House Conference on Main’s Creative Economy, August. www.mainearts.maine.gov/mainescreativeeconomy/conference/preceedings [3] Glover, A. Maurrasse, D. Beyond the Campus. Routledge: New York, pp viii, 2001. [4] Glass, R. Introduction: Aspects of change In Centre for Urban Studies. Mackibbon and Kee: London, 1964. [5] Clay, P, Neighborhood Renewal: Middle-Class Resettlement and Incumbent Upgrading in American Neighborhoods, Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1979. [6] Duany, A, Three Cheers for “Gentrification”, The American Enterprise, April-May, 2001. www.vnweb.hwilsonweb.com [7] Spicer, E.M, “What is an Urban University?” Education Resources Information Center. www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/ content_storage_01/0000019b/80/31/66/87.pdf WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

38 The Sustainable World [8] Columbia University, www.columbia.edu [9] Ramaley, J. A, Large Scale Institutional Change to Implement an Urban University Mission: Portland State University, Journal of Urban Affairs, 1996. [10] Maurrasse, D. Beyond the Campus. Routledge: New York, pp viii, 2001. [11] Klotsche, J.M, The Urban University and the Future of our Cities, New York: Harper and Row, 1966.



39

Sustainable cities: do political factors determine the quality of life? J. M. Prado, I. M. García & B. Cuadrado Departamento de Administración y Economía de la Empresa, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain

Abstract The implementation of urban sustainability practices is affected by political obstacles, in that the policy or the objectives sought either involve the deflection of resources initially allocated to other groups or are contrary to the concerns pursued by interest groups who have the power to veto them by exerting pressure on the party in power. In this sense, the aim of this paper is to evidence the impact that political factors have on cities’ sustainability, and the effect of the latter on cities’ business development. The results obtained showed that political competition has a positive effect on cities’ sustainability, while a leftist ideology has an inverse impact. On the other hand, a significant direct relationship has been observed between urban sustainability and municipal economic activity. Keywords: urban sustainability, city's quality of life level (QOL), economic development, sustainable development, social sustainability, sustainability practices, political factors.

1 Introduction In the 1980s and 1990s, cities contributed to the growth and development of the global economy but, paradoxically, did little to provide a basis for long-term sustainable urban growth (Konvitz [1]). Their behaviours are quite contradictory since cities’ sustainability widely impacts business recruitment and investment (Glaser [2]; Insch and Florek [3]), parameters that could have a positive feedback effect on QOL. Political factors are one of the obstacles to the implementation of urban sustainability practices. In this sense, Hogwood and Gunn [4] argue that the policy or the objectives sought could involve a deflection of resources initially WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100041

40 The Sustainable World allocated to other groups or could be contrary to the concerns of these interest groups (such as party activists, trade unions, etc.) who have the power to veto them by exerting pressure on the party in power. This opposition is more important in cases of weak or fragmented governments, that is, those that lack an absolute majority and therefore cannot impose their decisions with only the votes of their own party. Moreover, certain political ideologies are more favourable to sustainable policies than others (García-Sánchez and Prado-Lorenzo [5]). In this sense, the aim of this paper is dual: on one hand, it is to evidence the impact that political factors have on cities’ sustainability and on the other hand, it is focused on observing the effect of sustainable development on cities’ business development. The methodology is based on linear regression models, controlling, in line with previous papers, for population density. Since cities´ sustainability is rather diffuse concept that is difficult to reach consensus on, some authors, such as Rotmans and Van Asselt [6], include economic as well as socio-cultural and environmental aspects in an effort to delimit the meaning of the term and be able to work with it. In this sense, one of the approaches most employed to determine the degree of sustainability is the city’s quality of life level (QOL). In this study, cities´ QOL has been measured using the score obtained by each Spanish city in the mercoCiudad (Spanish Corporate Reputation Monitor for Cities) analysis carried out in 2008 and 2009 for 78 Spanish municipalities. The results obtained show a strong relationship between political factors and urban sustainability. More concretely, we have found that political competition has a positive effect on cities’ sustainability, improving urban sustainability, while a leftist ideology has an inverse impact that negatively affects the citizens’ quality of life. In relation to the subsequent effect that urban sustainability has on municipal economic development, a significant direct relationship was observed between urban sustainability and all municipal economic activity (industry, commerce and services).

2 Sustainable cities and their economic development Sustainable development has become one of most important issues that society has had to face in recent years (Wang and Lihua [7]). Sustainable development is defined as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, WCED, [8]) and presents a pathway to all that is good and desirable in a society (Zeijl-Rozema et al. [9]). A sustainable city is broadly defined by The Regional Environment Center for Central and Eastern Europe as "one that has put in place action plans and policies that aim to ensure adequate resource availability and (re-) utilisation, social comfort and equity and economic development and prosperity for future generations". The concepts integrated in sustainable development are quite broad and although there is no consensus on these related points, all research studies think that all of them are desirable social goods (Dempsey et al. [10]) and have a triple bottom line perspective: economic, social and environmental. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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One of the approaches most employed to determine the level of municipal sustainability is the measurement of city quality of life, image or reputation as an integrated approach to addressing key social, environmental and economic determinants of health (Glaser [2]; Williams et al. [11]). The residents’ level of satisfaction with a place is considered a ‘soft factor’ during the business investment decision-making process (Biel [12]) because in the competitive arena of business investment attraction (outsiders), local politicians need to demonstrate convincingly that their city’s residents enjoy a higher level of well-being and satisfaction than those of rival locations so that company executives, management and their families will decide to relocate and invest there (Insch and Florek [3]). There are also impacts on the investment by current members of the business community (insiders) (Glaser [2]). Furthermore, quality of life is directly related to other factors that are considered during this process such us local labour markets, infrastructure, transportation, education and training opportunities (Kotler et al. [13]). In this sense, we proposed the first hypothesis of our paper: H1: There is a positive relationship between the sustainability of a city and its economic development. As economic factors that can be affected by a city’s sustainability, we decided to include the following indicators in the analysis: INDUSTRY INDEX, WHOLESALE TRADE INDEX, RETAIL TRADE INDEX, and SERVICES INDEX, which represent the level of municipal development for these activities with respect to the national total.

3 Political factors and sustainability Campbell [14] and Blowers [15] argue that the procedural path to sustainable development is fraught with conflicts as a reflection of the complex decisionmaking environment necessary to pursue and balance the three main goals of environmental protection, social equity, and economic development. Political support given to planning process activities has also been addressed in the literature and it is considered essential for translating initial community interest into specific plan policies which become part of an adopted plan (Berke and French [16]; Berke et al. [17]). The Public Choice theory provides an analysis of the complex political environment in which voters, interest groups and politicians play an important role in government decisions to adopt particular policies, globally (Mueller [18]), and sustainable plans, specifically. Politicians are the main actors in the decisionmaking about the future development of a city. They play the role of agents appointed through an electoral process and always act in order to maximize the number of votes they expect to receive in the next election. To do so, they select a given amount of effort (resources, agent’s time, expertise, financial means) to provide policies to voters, in exchange for votes, and to interest groups, in exchange for resources, insofar as these can be reinvested to affect electoral outcomes (Bavetta and Padovano [19]).


42 The Sustainable World 3.1 Political ideology and stability The dominant party affiliation of a legislative body can affect sustainable urban development because contrary ideologies may defend different styles of cities; it is therefore necessary to analyse whether the political trend of the ruling party can have any impact – either positive or negative – on it. The scarce previous studies which have analysed this issue have found a negative influence of rightwing parties on the implementation of Local Agenda 21 (García-Sánchez and Prado-Lorenzo [5]). Nonetheless, there is not enough previous evidence that can predict which political tendency may be more prone to favouring local sustainability. Thus, we have formulated the following hypothesis: H2: There is a positive relationship between a leftist political ideology of the governing party and the sustainability of a city. To test the hypothesis proposed we use a dummy variable as an independent variable, LEFT IDEOLOGY. This variable takes the value 1 if the governing party is of a leftist ideology and 0, otherwise. This information was obtained from the website of the Spanish Interior Ministry (www.mir.es). At the same time, a greater or lesser level of political stability may lead to the advancement of or a halt in the activities related to sustainability, because the implementation of these measures tends to require having the proper support to choose to assign resources, with effects detectable only in the medium to long term. In this sense, and although García-Sánchez and Prado-Lorenzo [5] observed that the overall degree of development of Local Agenda 21 is not affected by political stability, Prado-Lorenzo and García-Sánchez [20] evidenced that political stability is extremely important for executing the sustainability action plan designed. In accordance with the theoretical arguments, we proposed the following hypothesis: H3: There is a positive relationship between the political stability of the governing party and the sustainability of a city. We developed the variable STABILITY with the purpose of testing this hypothesis. It is measured from the percentage of votes achieved by the governing political party in the latest presidential elections. This information was obtained from the website of the Spanish Interior Ministry (www.mir.es). 3.2 Political competition Party composition alone may not be able to capture the complex political environment of sustainability policy decision-making. As the political competition increases, the checks and balances of political control will prevent overreliance on political decisions (Ni and Bretschneider [21]) and a favourable environment for reforms could be created. On the other hand, Smith and Fridkin [22] argue that interparty competition plays a key role in the decision of politicians to devolve institutional power to citizens so that they have to pay attention to the demands of their constituents. In this sense, public programs are more representative of the desires of the whole population of a state, rather than just those of the ruling elites. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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According to theoretical arguments, the following hypothesis has been formulated: H4: The level of political competition positively influences the sustainability of a city. In order to test this hypothesis we use the variable PARTIES measured by the number of political parties taking part in the latest general elections. This information was obtained from the website of the Spanish Interior Ministry (www.mir.es). 3.3 Voter and interest groups Voters and interest groups, respectively, channel votes and resources to the centre of power that best satisfies their objectives, so they can influence the policy implementation decisions of the political leadership (Bavetta and Padovano [19]), including sustainability policy decisions. Thus, these actors are expected to be particularly interested in participating in public decision-making in order to obtain more benefits. Traditionally, socioeconomic variables are used as surrogates for these actors, given that a higher economic and educational status usually leads to a higher participation and voting rates; in addition, as society increases in population and urbanization, diverse organizations develop to represent their interests (Cheng [23]). We thus have hypothesis H5: H5: Voters and interest groups positively influence the sustainability of a city. Previous papers have generally used the variables representing the municipal population and GDP to identify these groups. With respect to the first variable, it must be pointed out that a control variable of population density has to be entered subsequently, and that there is a high correlation with the population variable, so it cannot be used. As regards GDP, it was not available for the fiscal years analysed. Thus, in order to test hypothesis H5, we use the level of municipal unemployment, variable UNEMPLOYMENT, as a proxy of citizens’ economic level.

4 Methodology 4.1 Population The population selected consists of the 78 Spanish cities with a population over 100,000 for which MERCO carried out a study of their levels of sustainability for the fiscal years 2008 and 2009. The rest of the statistical data needed for the analysis were obtained from the Economic Directory (Anuario Económico) of La Caixa and the Spanish Interior Ministry. 4.2 Variables 4.2.1 Dependent variables As dependent variables, we used the economic development of the municipality and the sustainability of the city. The economic development of the municipality WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

44 The Sustainable World was measured by different indicators devised as a function of the economic activity tax: Industry index (a comparative index of the importance of the city’s industry, including construction, with respect to the whole of Spain), Wholesale trade index (a comparative index of the importance of the city’s wholesale trade, with respect to the whole of Spain), Retail trade index (a comparative index of the importance of the city’s retail trade, including construction, with respect to the whole of Spain ) and Services index ( comparative index of the importance of the city’s restaurant and bar industry, with respect to the whole of Spain ).The city’s sustainability (CSUS), as indicated above, was measured using the score obtained by each of the Spanish cities in the mercoCiudad analysis. 4.2.2 Independent and control variables Table 1 provides a synthesis of the independent variables needed to test the proposed hypotheses, as well as the control variables used to avoid bias in the analysis. In relation to control variables there is a general assumption that cities of differing sizes and types to achieve consistently high levels of collective welfare illuminates both the strength and potential vulnerability of large metropolitan agglomerations, which are more powerful attractors of enterprises, symbols of economic power and modernity, but also extremely expensive machines, engendering enormous social and environmental strains (Camagni [24]). However, several aspects of sustainability, such as the environment, urbanization, social and quality of life are more highly related to population density (Camagni [24]). The consideration of population density and its strong correlation with the factors that form it, population and surface, make it impossible to use the three variables together in the analysis models. 4.3 Research models Based on the variables selected to check the hypotheses proposed, we have defined the following models (1) and (2). In model 1, the economic development Table 1: Variable

Independent and control variables.

Hypothesis

Relation

Definition

CSUS

H1

+

Numerical variable that reflects the sustainability of the municipality.

LEFT IDEOLOGY

H2

+

Dummy variable that takes the value 1 if the governing party has a leftist ideology and 0, otherwise.

STABILITY

H3

+

Numerical variable measured from the percentage of votes achieved by the governing party in the latest elections.

PARTIES

H4

+

Numerical variable measured by the number of political parties taking part in the latest general elections.

-

Numerical variable measured by the percentage of unemployed citizens.

UNEMPLOYMENT DENSITY

Numerical variable measured by the ratio municipality population to the surface area in Km2.



45

will depend on the sustainability of the city and on political factors. In model 2, the level of sustainable urban development will depend on a set of political factors. Economic development = f (Density, Political Factors, Sustainability) (1) Sustainability of the city = f (Density, Political Factors) (2) Model (1) can be estimated empirically from model (3): EDi = β0 + β1DENSITYi + β2LEFT IDEOLOGYi + β3STABILITY + (3) β4PARTIES + β5UNEMPLOYMENT + β6SoC + ε Model (2) can be estimated empirically from model (4): SoCi = β0 + β1DENSITYi + β2LEFT IDEOLOGYi + β3STABILITY + (4) β4PARTIES + β5UNEMPLOYMENT + ε where ED is the dependent variable proposed to identify the economic development of each city, CSUS is the dependent and independent variable proposed to reflect the level of sustainability of the municipality, DENSITY is the control variable proposed to identify the population density of each city, LEFT IDEOLOGY is the independent variable which reflects the ideology of the political parties in the municipal government, STABILITY is the independent variable which identifies the electoral support of the political parties in the municipal government, PARTIES is the independent variable which reflects the political competition in the municipality, UNEMPLOYMENT is the independent proxy variable for pressure from voters and interest groups. Models (3) and (4) have been tested empirically through a linear regression, owing to the numerical nature of the dependent variable. The results of the analysis are given in the following section.

5 Empirical results 5.1 Empirical results: the relationship between sustainability and economic development Table 2 depicts the results relating to the effect that a city’s level of sustainability has on its economic development. Model 1, proposed to test the effect of city sustainability on the economic development index, has an explanatory capacity of 71.30% for a confidence level of 99% (p-value < 0.01). Of the six variables proposed, DENSITY, PARTIES and CSUS have a statistically significant positive effect, for a confidence level of 90% (0.05 < p-value < 0.1) in the first case, and 99%, in the last two cases. The variables STABILITY and LEFT have a positive effect on the municipal industrial index, although it lacks econometric relevance. For its part, UNEMPLOYMENT has a non-significant negative effect. Model 2, designed to test the effect that city sustainability has on the municipal wholesale trade index, has an explanatory capacity of 74.50% for a confidence level of 99% (p-value < 0.01). Again, three of the six variables proposed, DENSITY, PARTIES and CSUS, have a direct and relevant WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

46 The Sustainable World Table 2:

Impact of city sustainability on economic development. Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

Industry Index

Trade Index

Trade Index

Services Index

Beta (Constant)

t

Beta

-6.5400

t

Beta

-7.2651

t

Beta

-8.0892

t -5.9885

DENSITY

0.0810

1.6736*

0.0802

1.7584*

0.0756

1.8434*

0.0147

0.2512

UNEMPLOYMENT

-0.0394

-0.8011

0.0582

1.2555

0.0172

0.4122

0.0844

1.3786

STABILITY

0.0773

1.5361

0.0342

0.7215

0.0653

1.5297

0.0293

0.4957

PARTIES

0.3417

6.1910***

0.3557

6.8333***

0.3731

7.9691***

0.3436

5.0518***

LEFT

0.0796

1.6141

0.0629

1.3537

0.0347

0.8297

0.0176

0.2938

CSUS

0.5907

9.6359***

10.6869***

0.6136

11.7738**

0.6250

13.3325***

0.6556

2

R =

0.713

2

R =

0.745

2

R =

0.794

2

R =

0.794

F=

52.557***

F=

61.739***

F=

81.292***

F=

45.702***

*** p-value < 0.01 ** p-value < 0.05 * p-value < 0.1

econometric impact on the wholesale trade index of each city. The effect of each variable is significant for a confidence level of 90, 95 (0.01 < p-value < 0.05) and 99%, respectively. The remaining variables - UNEMPLOYMENT, STABILITY and LEFT – have a positive effect on the economic index analysed, although it lacks explanatory importance from a statistical point of view. Model 3, proposed to test the impact of city sustainability on the municipal retail trade index, has an explanatory capacity of 79.40% for a confidence level of 99% (p-value < 0.01). Of the six variables proposed, three of them, DENSITY, PARTIES and CSUS, have a statistically significant positive effect for a confidence level of 90% (0.05 < p-value < 0.1), for the first variable and 99%, for the last two. The variables UNEMPLOYMENT, STABILITY and LEFT have a positive impact on the municipal industry index, although they lack econometric relevance. Model 4, proposed to evidence the effect that city sustainability has on the municipal services index, has an explanatory capacity of 79.40% for a confidence level of 99% (p-value < 0.01). In this model, only two of the six variables proposed are statistically significant for a confidence level of 99%: PARTIES and CSUS, both with a positive effect. The rest of the variablesDENSITY, UNEMPLOYMENT, STABILITY and LEFT – have a positive effect on the economic index analysed, although they lack explanatory relevance from a statistical point of view. Given the results obtained for these four models, it can be concluded that municipal economic development is determined mainly by political competition and the city’s level of sustainability. These results confirm our hypothesis H1.



Table 3:

47

Impact of political factors on city sustainability.

Model 5 City Sustainability Beta B (Constant) 5.4487 DENSITY 0.0127 0.1770 UNEMPLOYMENT -0.2046 -2.8862*** STABILITY -0.0491 -0.6594 PARTIES 0.5144 7.3360*** LEFT -0.2083 -2.9323*** 0.365 R2 = F= 14.303*** *** p-value < 0.01 ** p-value < 0.05 * p-value < 0.1

5.2 Empirical results: the relationship between political factors and sustainability Table 3 offers a synthesis of the results for model 5, proposed to observe the effect that political factors have on the level of city sustainability. This model has an explanatory capacity of 36.50%, for a level of confidence of 99%. Three of the five variables proposed, UNEMPLOYMENT, LEFT and PARTIES, have a statistically significant effect for a confidence level of 99%. However, whereas PARTIES positively affects city sustainability, the first two variables do so negatively. The negative impact of the variable LEFT on city sustainability contradicts the relationship expected for these two factors in one of our hypotheses, and therefore hypothesis H2 should be accepted with the opposite sign to the one expected. The direct relationship between the political competition existing in each city, identified through the PARTIES variable, and the level of quality of life that characterized them allows us to accept hypothesis H4. The negative influence of the UNEMPLOYMENT variable, an inverse proxy for the pressure that voters and interest groups can exert on the government, leads us to accept hypothesis H5. The DENSITY and STABILITY variables have a positive and negative effect, respectively, which lack econometric relevance. This absence of significance of political stability leads us to reject hypothesis H3.

6 Discussion of results In relation to our main research hypothesis, we have found that, considered overall, political systems have a significant effect on cities’ sustainable development. More specifically, the existence of a high number of interest groups and political competition foster the evolution of the city. On the contrary, a leftist ideology of the ruling party negatively influences its evolution, whereas political stability – in relation to the percentage of votes obtained in the last general elections – does not have any impact on it. These findings confirm the framework proposed by the Public Choice theory concerning the fact that political decisions about sustainable cities’ strategies WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

48 The Sustainable World involve a trade-off between the real desires of politicians and the requirements of interest groups. This pressure may be even more effective in those cities where there is higher political competition and can involve a greater need for satisfying the interests of individuals who may support that political party in future elections, in order to ensure its re-election over its rivals. The negative role played by ideology in urban sustainable development should be emphasised. This negative impact can be explained in two ways. The first of these is the positive impact that the quality of life of the city has on its economic development. The second may be linked to the fact that right-wing parties need to make a greater effort as regards sustainability than more progressive parties in order to attract a larger number of votes.

7 Conclusions The economic development that took place in the last two decades of the 20th century was stimulated to a large extent by urban growth. However, this development lacked a solid base that would permit sustainability in the long term. The greatest obstacles to the implementation of sustainable practices have most likely been related to political factors. Some authors consider that these obstacles appeared because pursuing sustainability objectives would deflect resources towards groups other than those originally foreseen or could go against the interest of groups with sufficient strength to put pressure on the governing party. Based on the dual objective of this study, to test the impact of political factors on cities’ sustainability and to observe what effect sustainability has on cities’ business development, empirical evidence has been found that in some cases confirms and in other cases refutes the results of previous research. In contrast to the conclusions of Jepson [25], we have verified the existence of a significant positive impact of certain political factors such as competition among political parties and the non-significance of others such as the stability of local government on the economic progress of cities and a lesser effect on their sustainability. The empirical evidence shows the existence of a non-significant positive relationship between a party in power with a progressive ideology and economic development, whereas, in contrast to what was expected, there is a significant negative relationship between a left-wing governing party and sustainable development in cities. This may be because right-wing parties make an extra effort in matters of sustainability in order to attract voters with a progressive tendency. In this line, a significant positive relationship was observed between the degree of a city’s sustainability and the economic activity taking place in it, be it related to industry, trade or services. This allows us to conclude that a city’s economic development can be explained to a certain extent by the degree of competition among parties and the level of that city’s sustainability. It was also found that pressure from interest groups induces parties to promote policies related to sustainability in spite of their initial reticence, with WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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the clear objective of their future re-election. Logically, this pressure is more effective in cities with a large degree of political competition.

References [1] Konvitz, J.W., Cities and the global economy, The OECD Observer, 197, pp. 6-8, 1996. [2] Glaser, M., The business psyche: Exploring relationships between local quality of life and city image. Public Administration Quarterly, 15(3), pp 287-303, 1991. [3] Insch, A., & Florek, M., A great place to live, work and play. Journal of Place Management and Development, 1(2), pp. 138-149, 2008. [4] Hogwood, B.W., & Gunn, L.A., Policy Analysis for the Real World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984. [5] García-Sánchez, I.M., & Prado-Lorenzo, J.M., Determinant factors in the degree of implementation of Local Agenda 21 in the European Union. Sustainable Development, 16, pp. 17-34, 2008. [6] Rotmans, J., & Van Asselt, M., Towards an integrated approach for sustainable city planning. Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 9, pp. 110-124, 2000. [7] Wang, X. & Lihua, R., Examining knowledge management factors in the creation of new city. Journal of Technology Management in China, 1(3), pp. 243-261, 2006. [8] World Commission Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1987. [9] Zeijl-Rozema, A., Cövers, R., Kemp, R., & Martens, P., Governance for sustainable development: A framework. Sustainable Development, 16, pp. 410-421, 2008. [10] Dempsey, N., Bramley, G., Power, S., & Brown, C., The social dimension of sustainable development: Defining urban social sustainability. Sustainable Development, DOI: 10.1002/sd.417. [11] Williams, A., Kitchen, P., Randall, J., & Muhajarine, N., Changes in quality of life perceptions in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: comparing survey results from 2001 and 2004. Social Indicators Research, 85, pp. 5-21, 2008. [12] Biel, A., Converting image into equity in Brand Equity and Advertising: Advertising´s role in building strong brands, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, Nh., 1993. [13] Kotler, P., Haider, d., & Rein., I., Marketing places: attracting investment, industry and tourism to cities, states and nations. The Free Press, New York, 1993. [14] Campbell, S., Green cities, growing cities, just cities? Urban planning and the contradictions of sustainable development. Journal of the American Planning Association, 62, pp. 296-313, 1996. [15] Blowers, A. “The time for change”, in Planning for a sustainable environments, ed. A. Blowers, Earthscan, London, 1993.


50 The Sustainable World [16] Berke, P.R. & French, S.P., The influence of state planning on local plan quality. Journal of Planning Education and Research 13, pp. 237-250, 1994. [17] Berke, P.R., Roegnik, D.J., Kaiser, E.J. & Burby, R., Enhancing plan quality: evaluating the role of state planning mandates for natural hazard mitigation. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 39, pp. 79-96, 1996. [18] Mueller, D.C., Public Choice, University Press, Cambridge, 1979. [19] Bavetta, S. & Padovano, F., A model of the representation of interest in a compound democracy. Constitutional Political Economy, 11(1), pp. 5-25, 2000. [20] Prado-Lorenzo, J.M. & García-Sánchez, I.M., Decisive factors in the creation and execution of municipal action plans in the field of sustainable development in the European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production, 17, pp. 1039-1051, 2009. [21] Ni, A.Y., & Bretschneider, S., The decision to contract out: A study of contracting for e-government services in state governments. Public Administration Review, 67(3), pp. 531-544, 2007. [22] Smith, D.A., & Fridkin, D., Delegating direct democracy: Interparty legislative competition and the adoption of the initiative in the American States. American Political Science Review, 102(3), pp. 333-350, 2008. [23] Cheng, R.H., An empirical analysis of theories on factors influencing state government accounting disclosure. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 11, pp. 1-42, 1992. [24] Camagni, R., Cities and the Quality of life: Problems and Prospects. Review of Economic Conditions in Italy, 1, pp. 61, 2000. [25] Jepson, E.J., The adoption of sustainable development policies and techniques in U.S. cities. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 23(3), pp. 229-241, 2004.



51

Forecasting low-cost housing demand in an urban area in Malaysia using artificial neural networks: Batu Pahat, Johor N. Y. Zainun1, I. A. Rahman1 & M. Eftekhari2 1 2

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK

Abstract Over the past decade, the rate of growth of housing construction in Malaysia has been dramatic. The level of the urbanization process in the various states in Peninsular Malaysia is considered to be important in planning for low-cost housing needs. The aim of this study is to develop a Neural Networks model to forecast low-cost housing demand in Batu Pahat, Johor, one of the states in Peninsular Malaysia. The time series data was analyzed using Principal Component Analysis to determine the significant indicators which will be the input in Neural Networks model. The feed forward network with the most commonly used training algorithm, back propagation networks is used to develop the model. The results show that the best Neural Network model is 2-251 with 0.7 learning rate and 0.4 momentum rate. Neural Networks can forecast low-cost housing demand in Batu Pahat very well with 0% of MAPE value. Keywords: forecasting, low-cost housing, artificial neural networks.

1 Introduction In each five year National Plan, Malaysia’s government has focused on various housing programmes to ensure that all Malaysians, particularly the low income groups, have access to adequate and affordable shelter and related facilities [1]. During the Ninth Plan period, the development of the housing sector continues to focus on the provision of adequate, affordable and quality houses for all Malaysians [2]. The housing is divided into four main categories; low cost, low medium cost, medium cost and high cost housing. In Malaysia low cost WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100051

52 The Sustainable World housing is defined at a ceiling price RM25,000 per unit or less. Low cost housing can be sold to households with a monthly income between RM500 to RM750 while low medium is defined at a ceiling price of RM25,001 to RM60,000 and can be sold to households with monthly incomes between RM750 to RM1,500 [3]. On the other hand, the construction cost alone ranges from a low of RM12,000 per unit to a high of RM43,000, with average cost RM23,000 per unit for terrace house [1]. Therefore, To ensure an adequate supply of low cost houses for the low income group, any mixed-development projects undertaken by private developers, continued to be guided by the 30% low cost housing policy requirement [2]. Construction each category of housing should build fairly especially in such area which located level of people with the different incomes. By develop low cost and low medium cost housing it can reduce housing growth illegally on the government’s land and also prevent the public creating other new squatters. In the year 2003, Selangor, Johor, Perak, Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur and Penang dominated housing existing stock and together contributed 68.9% (2,133,128 units) of total existing housing stock in Malaysia [4]. All these states experience a high migration of people because of many vacancies offered in industry also well maintain economy flow. Residential Property Stock Report in that year reported that housing stock in the fourth quarter was increased by 1.3% to 3,237,599 units over third quarter. Due to the increment of the demand for low cost houses it is very significant and vital; the selection of the best method on forecasting of demand is also becoming an important factor. All this while, the number of unit of low cost houses have been built by practice the requirement imposed by the government which is 30% of the total development. Obviously, by following this requirement, the numbers of low cost houses to be built do not reflect the actual demand of low cost housing. Henceforth, developing a model as an alternative way to forecast the number of units of low cost houses is therefore timely and imperative for a developing nation.

2 Objective The aim of this paper is to develop a model to forecast low-cost housing demand in the district of Batu Pahat, Johor, using Artificial Neural Networks. The actual and forecasted data will be compared and validated using Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE).

3 Methodology The methodologies of this study are including finding out the significant indicator using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) adapted from SPSS and a Neural Network (NN) model development adopted from NeuroShell2. PCA is used to derive new indicators; that is the significant indicators from the nine selected indicators. The indicators are: (1) population growth; (2) birth rate; (3) mortality baby rate; (4) inflation rate; (5) income rate; (6) housing stock; WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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(7) GDP rate; (8) unemployment rate; and (9) poverty rate. The new indicators in terms of Principal Component (PC) will be the inputs in the NN model development. The dependent indicator is the monthly time series data on low cost housing demand starting from January 2000 to December 2002. In NN model development, a series of trial and error process are done to find the suitable number of neurons in the hidden layer, learning rate, momentum rate and screening the result using the best NN model.

4 Significant indicators The determinant correlation matrix for Batu Pahat is |R| = 7.47× 10-17, that is very close to zero. The hypothesis assumes the population matrix is equal to the identify matrix, that is all indicators are uncorrelated when the data are multivariate normal. For Batu Pahat, there are 9 indicators, p = 9 and 36 data, N =36 will be analyzed. The value for test statistic is 1157.313 with the critical point for chi-square p(p-1)/2 = 9(9 – 1)/2 = 36. Degree of freedom, α = 0.001 with the critical point from chi-square table is 67.923. As a result, the hypothesis will be rejected at 0.001 significant level because 1157.313 > 67.923. Therefore, PCA can be performed. PC1 gave the largest eigenvalue with 6.748 consist 74.97% of total variation while PC2 showed 1.332 eigenvalue with 14.8% of total variation. PC3 is 0.904 eigenvalue covered 10.04% of variation. For PC4 to PC9, the eigenvalues is 0.017 with only 0.07% of variation. From the scree plot in Figure 1, eigenvalues for PC4 to PC9 are close to zero. While the eigenvalues for principle component three is less than one. Since the eigenvalues for principle component four to nine is close to zero and PC3 less than one, they can be ignored. Therefore, there is two PC that will be as the input to develop the neural network model. Eigenvalues

Component Number

Figure 1:

Scree plot for Batu Pahat.



Component score coefficient matrix for Batu Pahat.

Indicators

Component

Population growth Birth rate Mortality baby rate Unemployment rate Inflation rate Gross Domestic Product Poverty rate Income rate Housing stock

1 0.683 -0.975 0.567 0.730 0.990 -0.914 0.989 -0.975 0.855

2 0.381 0.025 -0.806 0.553 -8.271x10-2 0.393 3.989x10-2 3.905x10-3 0.261

Table 1 shows the component score coefficient matrix in Batu Pahat for the nine indicators. The number of component is to be equal to the number of eigenvalue of R which is equal to 1 [5]. The most significant indicators are evaluated using component score coefficient matrix nearest to 1. For PC 1, the most significant indicator is inflation rate and for PC 2 the most significant indicator is unemployment rate.

5 Model development The learning and momentum rate is determined by means trial and error. From the previous researchers [6] and [7], the value of learning and momentum rate can be use as shows in Table 2. Table 2: Learning rate Momentum rate

Determination of learning and momentum rate. Phase 1 0.9 0.1

Phase 2 0.7 0.4

Phase 3 0.5 0.5

Phase 4 0.4 0.6

From thirty six data, thirty three data had been set as a training data while three data as a testing data. The evaluation for testing data is using linear correlation coefficient, r. The highest r from the training and testing will be selected. During training and testing, a series of trial and error process by varying the number of neurons in hidden layer. The range of neurons is between 2 to 40 and the network can approximate a target function of complexity if it has an enough numbers of hidden nods. The learning process is continues either the error reach 0.001 or 40,000 cycles is achieve. The successful trained networks would be trained again with different number of epoch. The final set of weights and biases would be obtained when one of the two criteria is met. In this study, two PC as the input layer and 1 output that is the actual housing demand. The graphs below show the network performance of testing for each phase.



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The best linear correlation shows in phase two with r =0.8255 at neuron number twenty five. So the best NN model for Batu Pahat is 2 -25 -1 with learning and momentum rate 0.7 and 0.4 respectively. Linear Correlation,r

Number of neurons

Figure 2:

Network performance of testing with different number of neurons for phase 1.

Linear Correlation,r

Number of neurons

Figure 3:



56 The Sustainable World Linear Correlation,r

Number of neurons

Figure 4:


Linear Correlation,r

Number of neurons

Figure 5:


The forecasted demand for low cost housing demand for Batu Pahat in October, November and December 2002 are 9, 10 and 11. MAPE is calculated to evaluate the forecasting performance. According to Sobri Harun [8], the WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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forecasting result is very good if MAPE value is less than 10% while it is good if MAPE value is less 20%. The MAPE value of 19.7% shows that NN can forecast low cost housing demand in Batu Pahat quite good. Table 3: Time series October 2002 November 2002 December 2002

Actual and forecasted data for 3 month ahead. Actual data 12 15 11 MAPE

Forecasted data 9 10 11

PE (%) 25.0 33.3 0.0 19.7

6 Conclusion The results shows that NN capable to forecast low cost housing demand in Batu Pahat. By developing this model, it is hoped that there will be no more under or over construction of low-cost houses in Malaysia. It is also hoped that it can be helpful to the related agencies such as developer or any other relevant government agencies in making their development planning for low cost housing demand in urban area in Malaysia towards the future as there is no model have been created yet. Furthermore, there are a lot of advantages through the better planning of low cost housing construction, such as savings in expenditure, in time, manpower and also less paper.

References [1] Ministry of Housing and Local Government Malaysia (1999). “Housing in the New Millennium – Malaysian Perspective.” http: www.kpkt.gov.my/jpn/artikel3.htm. [2] Government of Malaysia (2006). The Ninth Malaysia Plan, 2006-2010. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad. [3] Ong, Han Ching and Lenard, D (2002). “Partnership Between Stakeholders in the Provision of an Access to Affordable Housing in Malaysia.” FIG XXII International Congress. USA, Washington D.C. [4] Government of Malaysia (2001). The Eight Malaysia Plan, 2001-2005. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad. [5] Johnson, D.E (1998). “Applied Multivariate Methods for Data Analyst”. United States of America: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. [6] Sobri Harun, Nor Irwan Ahmat Nor, and Amir Hashim Mohd. Kassim (2001). “Rainfall-Runoff Modeling Using Artificial Neural Network”. Malaysian Journal of Civil Engineering, 13 (1). pp. 37-50. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

58 The Sustainable World [7] Khairulzan Yahya and Muhd Zaimi Abd. Majid (2002). “Comparative Study on Forecasting Demand on Low-cost House in Urban Areas Using Artificial Neural Networks and ARIMA Model.” First International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC2002), USA, p. 687-694. [8] Sobri Harun (1999) “Forecasting and Simulation of Net Inflows for Reservoir Operation and Management”, PhD thesis., Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia.



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Networks of public open spaces in the urban fabric E. Aga School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Abstract Today, much emphasis is placed on the ecological dimension of architectural and town planning, focusing on the relationship between humans and the environment. Outdoor public spaces are a prominent element in physical planning structures, firstly because it is within them that the public life of their users may develop – they in fact serve to maintain an equilibrium between the private and public spheres in the cities – and secondly because with suitable planning they can provide environmentally-friendly natural inputs. A central open public area can function as the heart of a city. A whole network of open spaces, suitably interlinked and extending throughout the urban fabric, goes further, imparting vigour to all parts of it. Such open spaces comprise a totality that is something more than the sum of its components. Networks of open spaces in the historic cities of Venice (Italy), Venice Canals (L.A.), Savannah (Georgia), and Folegandros (Greece) are outstanding individual examples tending to confirm the above thesis. It has been verified that the balanced proliferation of open public spaces can create a comprehensible network and constitute an important element in their identity. The purpose of the following article is to document the importance of suitably planned polycentric structures, the crucial element being their relations of mutuality and their linkage with the cities not only of the present but also of the future. Keywords: network, urban fabric, open public spaces, legibility, livability, identity.



1 Introduction Τhe element that determines the sustainability of a city and shapes its orientation towards conservation is not its economic vigour, the degree to which its economy is being developed and extended, but its livability. “…What is sustained is the web of life on which our long-term survival depends, in other words, a sustainable community is designed in such a way, that its ways of life, its technologies and its social institutions honor and support and co-operate with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life” (Capra 2007). The open spaces for expression of the public life of the inhabitants of a residential ensemble are a significant indicator for sustainability. The diffusion of public open spaces through the urban fabric, and the interaction between them, should serve to maintain a balanced relationship between the private and the public. Scale, identity, variety, in functions, greenery, materials, livability: these are vital characteristics of healthy and durable cities. The demand for urban sustainability has become particularly pertinent in recent decades. Disruption of the balance between public and private life to the disadvantage of the former, changes of scale in cities as a result of their rapid expansion within the space of a few years, lack of coherence between the private and public realms, the multicultural character of societies that has resulted from continual population movement, inequalities between residents in their ability to use public space: these are questions to which the answers must be of planetary resonance and to which indeed answers must be given. Interventions that are piecemeal, failing to take into account the dynamics of the city as a whole, are inevitably ineffectual. A crucial subject for architects and town-planners is upgrading of the public sphere in cities and in residential ensembles, the creation of autonomous but also mutually complementary public spaces extending in a balanced manner into the urban fabric and linking up in such a way as, ultimately, to constitute a whole, an accessible network of vital enclaves, free from social exclusion, not merely supporting public life but offering the prerequisites for action, creativity and further development. One promising method for approaching the multifarious problems of today’s cities, inhospitable as they are in so many ways, is to undertake a rethinking of a past that endures into the present, illuminating the future. I shall endeavour in this article to give a reading and an interpretation of the public sphere in four living historical cities, by common consent particularly attractive and vital places, namely Venice (Italy), Savannah (Georgia, U.S.A.), Folegandros (Greece) and Venice Canals (Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.). All of them models of perennial durability, continuity and adaptability to the changing needs and demands of the times. Our goal is to coax out the elements serving to highlight the virtues of endurance and vitality, arrange them in groupings and finally put them forward, not as rules but as a framework for intervention, whether in existing cities or in the new cities to be created.



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2 Natural growth and systematic plan Town planning has been practiced since ancient times 1. Cities that have “planned themselves” and cities that have been planned have coexisted throughout history. In Alexander’s formulation, those cities that have arisen spontaneously over many, many years are “natural cities”, whereas those cities or parts of cities that have been deliberately created by planners are “artificial cities”. In the creation of “natural cities” the absence of rules, the free elaboration of the urban fabric, are the product of spontaneity. By contrast, in the case of “artificial cities”, the logic of planning – a systematized and quite specific way of organizing thought – entails formal representation of a particular kind of functional demand. The four cities to be examined in this article belong to both categories. Venice (Italy), and Folegandros (Greece) are natural cities, Savannah (Georgia) and Venice (California) are “artificial cities”. This in itself suggests that natural cities are at no advantage over planned cities when it comes to sustainability. “Whereas any city can be analyzed and understood as an ecosystem, ‘ecological city’ is a term intended to identify a particular type of city…. The most important aspect of the city form in this respect may in fact be density, as a sprawling city of any type is harder to service efficiently. Pedestrian accessibility, complexity and internal interconnectivity all strongly correlate with density. They are characteristics that could be elaborated out of virtually any typology.” [2]. 2.1 The structure of the urban fabric, historical data 2.1.1 The natural formation Cities that have originated as natural formations are typically organized around a centre, either in a longitudinal arrangement or in clusters. The topography and the organization of open spaces, the cohesive character of the built-up areas, are basic structural elements of the urban fabric. The clarity of its structure, the accessibility of the public areas, are intrinsically vitalizing in their effect on the cities. Examining the two European examples of natural cities, we note the following: Venice (Italy): The morphology of the city of Venice, with its centuries-old uninterrupted history (from the 9th century to the present), its magnificent, universally-known and much-frequented St. Mark’s square and the Grand Canal with its countless palazzi, is in a category of its own, constructed upon the lagoon of the same name, with the result that pedestrians and small craft (vaporetti, gondolas) are the only traffic. The opaque character of the urbanabric is evidenced by the following: densely populated small islands (more than 100), labyrinthine thoroughfares with bridges, canals (over 150), scattered open spaces in the different neighbourhoods (more than 30 campi and campielli) (figs. 1, 2). Folegandros (Greece): Historically the first residential district is Kastro, which preserves its plan unchanged from 1577 (fig.3). It was built at the edge of a 200-metre-high cliff to afford it security in the face of attacks from the sea. It belongs in the category of fortified settlement, with its open public spaces also WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Map of Venice.

Indicative campi.



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serving as thoroughfares for vehicular traffic. The extension of the built-up area of Chora outside Kastro and contiguous to it was constructed at the beginning of the 18th century (1720), in phases and without any systematic plan. The first new structures to appear around Kastro were mostly churches, built not far from it, as the fear of attackers had not yet entirely receded. Non-religious buildings were grouped around the religious buildings, resulting in the creation of large open but enclosed public spaces for gathering together the inhabitants and providing relief from their daily routine. Six open squares, one after the other, six consecutive settings for display of the local heritage in traditional architecture, form the backbone of central Chora. They are the terrain for the social activity of residents and visitors alike (fig. 4).

Kastro

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Chora, Folegandros.

Squares of Chora.


64 The Sustainable World 2.1.2 Systematic plan In systematically planned cities (as indeed in cities that spring up spontaneously) the structural elements of the urban fabric are: the topography of the residential environment, the layout and arrangement of the open architectural shells. Geometric regularity in outlining of the urban fabric simplifies interpretation of the picture from the outset. Specifically, in the two examples from the U.S.A. the following are noted: Savannah (Georgia, U.S.A.): The urban fabric possesses homogeneity and regularity in its layout, in keeping with the Hippodameian system from which it derives (fig. 5). The city was founded by James Edward Oglethorpe on flat land beside the Savannah River from which it takes its name, subsequently undergoing a succession of growth phases, to which the ages of the public squares correspond. Twenty-two public squares were included within the level expanse, three square kilometres in area, of Savannah’s historic centre. In accordance with the town plan these occupied the centres of characteristically recurring units known as “wards” [3]. A mesh of roads marked out along N/S, E/W perpendicular axes traverses the grid of wards, encircling the squares but not passing through them (fig. 6).

Figure 5:

Map of Savannah.

Figure 6:

‘Ward'.

Venice (California, U.S.A.): The city was conceived and established in 1905 by the tobacco magnate Abbot Kinney, influenced by his impressions from travel in Europe. On the model of Venice in Italy he conceived of a seaside resort and pleasure ground criss-crossed by canals 28 kilometres in length. Today, after many decades of decline, Venice is a centre for bohemian personal expression in Southern California. From the original plan of 1905 there is preserved only the small historic residential neighbourhood of Venice Canals, with canals around two kilometers in length. The first houses to be built on the canals were downmarket summer holiday cottages (bungalows) (figs. 7, 8). WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Figure 7:

Venice, aerial photo.

Figure 8:

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Canal in Venice.

2.2 Network of public open spaces, Interconnection – visual communication Τhe predominant element in the planning scheme of the four specimen cities, irrespective of the regularity or non-regularity of their layout, is the equal distribution of a variety of vital public open spaces linked together by access routes for pedestrians and constituting networks. The unbroken chain of access routes to be traversed on foot or by boat unites all the scattered public areas into an ensemble, in effect comprising the public space of these cities. The four cities share the following distinctive characteristics: Venice (Italy): Dispersion and decentralization of over thirty open public spaces (campi) within the densely built-up urban fabric is the sole existing mode of organization of the public realm. Embedded as they are in the midst of the city’s labyrinthine fabric, the campi are not in visual contact with each other. It would nevertheless not be appropriate to call them isole (islands) in the sense of being isolated, because they do communicate with each other, linked via a network of winding passageways exclusively for pedestrians. The complex layout of the flat, densely-built-up island of Venice that rises out of the lagoon is exceptionally opaque, by no means easy for anyone to commit to memory. But penetration into the fabric of the “city of pedestrians” is rewarded by the experience of the numerous campi, enclaves where the rhythms of day-to-day life continue as before, injecting vitality into all the city’s neighbourhoods. An exploratory stroll in them evokes sensations of intense contrast at the transition from narrow dimly lit alleyways to the open spaces of the camp (darkness – light, narrowness – space), agreeable revelations (limitation – freedom) and above all a unique wealth of impressions. Folegandros (Greece): One distinctive feature of Chora, the traditional settlement with its level, accessible, pedestrian-friendly physiognomy, is the proportionately large open public spaces. The straight-line perspectives of the successive public squares contribute to forming an unbroken continuum of easily comprehended and aesthetically memorable public open spaces. Like a succession of landscapes engraved in miniature the squares unfold one after another along a pedestrian axis that is like the backbone of the settlement and from which wheeled vehicles have been excluded. Movement in the environs of the squares takes place before the eyes of the public and the traffic flow is WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

66 The Sustainable World continuous. The sequential encounter with the squares evokes in pedestrians a sense of pleasurable anticipation, giving way to surprise at the squares’ unusual diversity. The impressions created by each square are influenced by those preceding it and in turn influence those succeeding it. Savannah (Georgia, U.S.A.): The basic features in the architectural layout of the city’s historic centre are its regular geometrical formation, the equal distribution of public space throughout the entire expanse of the old city, the abundant greenery, the visual transparency and openness of communication between the 22 public squares, the spatial and temporal orientation and the priority afforded to pedestrians over automobiles. Τhe uniform character of the network of public squares, each of them like a small oasis, is a significant privilege for a city in the warm and humid South of the United States, constituting a challenge and an invitation to linger in them. The pedestrian circulation, the channeling of movement towards low-traffic-density roads, the visual communication between the squares, all these factors generate a pleasing sense of anticipation and a variety of impressions from the different individual aspects of the form and content of each square. Venice canals (California, USA.): Τhe final example has to do with a historic and exclusively residential neighbourhood. Its predominating feature is one of absolute equality and absolute egalitarianism in designation of public and private space. The rectangular layout of the network of linear and open public locations in the canal neighbourhood is an all-pervasive element, making it possible for movement to be entirely on foot or entirely by boat, for visual communication to exist between the enclaves, and for there to be utilization and full highlighting of the built-up areas. The network of canals bordering the property of the residents, extending the private open space, projects, the image of a uniform ensemble of open spaces around flowing water. The enclosed layout, the austere geometry of the canals and the parallel movements of their users, from this direction, from that direction, beside the waters, provide escape-routes that captivate the attention, orient movement, facilitate comprehension, utilization and enjoyment of the public space in a unique historic residential neighbourhbood. Differences in the physiognomy of the squares had to do essentially with geographical features, topography, political, economic and historical context, with their developmental trajectory, architectural physiognomy and identity. Here we propose to underline the elements that are linked to elaboration of the town plan, the squares and their most prominent characteristics.

3 Final comments – the whole and the part Public open spaces: streets, squares, greens – these are the commons of the city. In present-day cities the desideratum is that there should be a network of living open spaces able to reveal the public realm to the roving observer. Lord Rogers says “… to achieve urban integration means thinking of urban open space not as an isolated unit—be it a street, park or square—but as a vital part of urban landscape with its own specific set of functions. Public space should be conceived of as an outdoor room within a neighbourhood, somewhere to relax, WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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and enjoy the urban experience, a venue for a range of different activities, from outdoor eating to street entertainment; from sport and play areas to a venue for civic or political functions; and most importantly of all a place for walking or sitting-out. Public spaces work best when they establish a direct relationship between the space and the people who live and work around it”. [4]. The diffusion and the linking together of places in a “Legato” (linkage, from the musical term meaning connected) movement are among the virtues of the public sphere as manifested in the cities under discussion, which belong in both the “natural” and the “systematically planned” categories. Their networks of public space generate organic wholes, in the framework of which public spaces function as centres – poles of attraction and points of intersection for a variety of paths, constituting a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. The diffusion of living public open space over all the expanse of a city for a start demonstrates a democratic outlook and a disposition to make use of all possible areas as enclaves of public life with the ability also to function as the city’s “lungs”. Τhe “Legato” of the individual building complexes is a prerequisite for the sustainability of the specimen cities. The mode of effecting the linkage differs in all four cases, but there are the common factors not only of decentralization but also of linkage for pedestrian traffic in a continuous band. Open public spaces generate continuities and discontinuities. The degree of proximity to each other of the open architectural shells, the way in which their style of interaction also determines their mode of composition as a unified ensemble. “The natural and anthropogenic elements of impermeable matter shape space, but this space cannot be regarded as conceptually neutral, nor absolutely empty. There are visible forces of attraction and repulsion running through it, with their origins in the size and the shape of structural elements, and all together constituting a kind of field. The space between the two constructs appears denser or sparser depending on the size and shape of the intervening space they define” [5]. In existing urban fabrics, the networking-cum-unification of open spaces can act as an effective medium for reinvigorating them. The visual conception of a coherent image of spaces, monuments or building clusters facilitates spatial and temporary orientation and the highlighting of distinctive elements in the physiognomy of a city. The linking up of the archaeological sites inside the urban fabric of present-day Athens, in view of Greece’s hosting the Olympic Games in 2004, aimed at projecting the elements of the city’s identity in Classical and Hellenistic times. A daily walk in these districts is evidently not only enjoyable and enlightening for visitors but also refreshing for the resident of the city, presenting as it does another picture of Athens. The unfailing vitality of open public spaces over time testifies to the evolutionary course of a past which has a present and a future. A culture of public life is required if the city’s public face is to be recaptured. What is required is a systematic endeavour anchored in an upgrading and a highlighting of the intervening spaces, planning, not the piecemeal and fragmentary, not isolated buildings but the spaces that they create. “The wheel has thirty something spokes but it becomes useful on account of the hole in its centre. Fashion the pitcher with clay: it is its interior that is useful. Houses are not the WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

68 The Sustainable World walls but the empty space inside, which they enclose. Thus, the obvious is necessary and the undeclared is useful.” (Lao Tzu [6]).

References [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning. (As early as 2600 B.C. in India large cities were being constructed with build-up areas criss-crossed by grids of streets running parallel and perpendicular to each other, from north to south and east to west. Similar cities were also being built in Egypt, Babylon, China and Greece with its oldest city , Miletus -5th century B.C.having been planned by Hippodamus). [2] P. Downton, Ecopolis: Architecture and cities for a changing climate, Springer, p 369, 2009. [3] R. Toledano, Savannah, Architectural & Cultural Treasures, Preservation Press, John Wiley& Sons, INC, p 59, 1997. [4] Rogers, R., et al., Urban Task Force, Towards an Urban Renaissance: Final Report of the Urban Task Force Chaired by Lord Rogers of Riverside. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London p 57, 1999. [5] R. Arnheim, The dynamics of architectural form, University Studio Press, Thessaloniki pp 37-39, 2003. [6] Lao Tzu ‘Tao Te Ching’, Τhe book of Reason and of Nature, Smili Editions, Athens, p.35, 1996.



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Linkages between responses to the available amenities and expressed environment-related health needs in international refugee camp, Oru-Ijebu, Nigeria A. O. Afon1, M. A. Asani2, S. A. Adeyinka1, A. Z. Hasan3, M. S. Jimah3, T. U. Ilogho3, T. G. Faborode1, G. B. Faniran1 & K. O. Popoola1 1

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria Ladoke Akintola University of Techn ology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria 3 Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Nigeria 2

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between the refugees’ responses to the available amenities and the expressed health needs that are environment-related. Subjecting the data obtained from the refugees in Oru-Ijebu international refugee camp, Nigeria to analysis, a link between the adequacy level of existing environmental amenities and environment-unfriendly behaviour exhibited by the refugees, producing conditions that favour diseases was established. Similarly, a very high degree of relationship was found between the environment produced by refugees’ responses and the expressed health needs of the refugees as revealed by the records of the diseases treated in the camp’s health centre over a five year period. The study concluded that the need to provide adequate amenities and enforce environmental sanitation rules and regulations cannot be overemphasized. Furthermore, environmental education and enlightenment programs should be introduced in all the different phases of a camp’s development. Keywords: expressed health needs, refugee camp, environment-related health needs, environmental education, responses to available amenities.



1 Introduction The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in December 14, 1950 [1]. It was to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the United Nations itself. It was also expected that UNHCR should assist in refugees’ return or resettlement. Under International Law, refugees are individuals who are: outside their country of nationality or habitual residence; have a well founded fear of persecution of their race, religion, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, and are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution [1]. In the 1950s, many nations in Africa suffered series of civil wars and ethnic strife. This generated a massive number of refugees at that time. It is on record that refugees in Africa increased from 560,000 in 1968 to 6,775,000 in 1992 [2]; although the number dropped to 2,748,400 by the end of 2004 [2]. By the end of 2004, about 5000 or more refugees were found across such African countries as Sudan (930,612), Burundi (485,764) Democratic Republic of Congo (462,203), Somalia (389,272), Liberia (335,467) and Angola (228,838) [3]. Of importance to us in this study is the environmental health effects of the Liberian refugees in Nigeria. In order to receive the refugees from the Liberian civil war, the Federal Government of Nigeria established an agency – the National Commission for Refugees (NCFR) through Decree No. 52 of 1989 [4]. The agency was to work in collaboration with the UNHCR whose headquarters was in Geneva, the Switzerland. The NCFR was to provide a site for the stranded Liberian refugees in Apapa, Lagos- the former national capital city of Nigeria. This development gave birth to a refugee camp in Oru-Ijebu, Ogun State; the only state in Nigeria that shares boundary with Lagos. The camp was formally opened on November 17, 1990. At the inception, the site was named Liberian Refugee Camp. This was because the camp only hosted refugees from Liberia. In 1997, due to internal strife in Sierra Leone, refugees were brought from the country. Thus, the camp was re-named Oru Refugee camp. Since this development, any person granted the status of a refugee by both the Federal Government of Nigeria and UNHCR was sent to the camp for habitation. As at the time of data collection for this study, there were 4917 refugees in the camp [5]. Table 1 below shows the distribution of the refugees according to their countries of origin. The highest proportion of the refugees in the camp (85.4%) were Liberians. The camp site was the former Muslim Teacher Training College, established in 1953 but eventually closed down along with others in 1982. This was when the minimum qualification of teachers in primary school was raised to National Certificate of Education. Therefore, until 1990 when the school site was turned to a refugee camp, it was an abandoned site. The camp inherited from the Muslim Teachers College six blocks of hostels, an administrative block, a block of twelve classrooms, three blocks of residential WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Table 1:

71

Refugees and countries of origin.

Nationality Liberian Sierra Leone Democratic republic of Congo Sudan Rwanda Ivory coast Cameroon Burundi Chad Ghana Total Source: [5].

Number of refugees 4198 640 38 20 10 6 2 1 1 1 4917

% 85.4 13.02 0.77 0.41 0.20 0.12 0.04 0.02 0.02 0.02 100

staff quarters and a mosque. Upon becoming a refugee camp, the administrative block remained as the offices of the camp management staff while the three blocks of staff quarters became their residences. All the classrooms in addition to the six blocks of students’ hostels became the residential accommodation for the refugees. The refugee camp occupied a land area of 4.2 hectares [5]. It is widely acknowledged that an estimated 80% of refugees are women and children [2, 6]. These women often carry the heaviest burden of survival for themselves and their families. It is also noted that children and youth constituted approximately 50% of all refugees world wide [2]. They are usually the deliberate targets of abuse, military recruitment and abduction [2]. It is reported that more than 43 million children living in conflict-affected areas do not have a chance to go to school [2]. Women and adolescent girls in refugee settings are especially vulnerable to exploitation, rape, abuse and other forms of gender-based violence [2]. These are in addition to the general condition of risks for diseases and lack of accessibility to adequate health care, poor level of environmental amenity provisions (like water and sanitation), decent housing and general poor environmental conditions. Meeting the above and other needs in refugee camp becomes problematic for a number of factors. As observed by UNHCR [6] the complexity of problems to be managed vary from the different phases of assistance to refugees and from one physical and locational settings to another. The ‘emergency relief’ phase for example is the most critical period of meeting the needs of the refugees. This is because of the unpredictability of the number of people involved, the direction in which people might flee for safety or what the resulting impact on local settlements and the environment is likely to be [6]. The ‘care and maintenance’ also known as ‘monitoring’ phase according to Bjorgo [7] is when the refugee population in a camp becomes relatively stable. Main activities during this stage should be proactive, taking a long-term approach of managing both the natural and man-made resources on the camp for the benefit of the people. The third phase is the ‘durable solutions’ or rehabilitation [6]. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

72 The Sustainable World Whatever the level of adequacy of environmental amenities provided in a camp would attract responses from the refugees. This is also true of all human settlements. Ezzati et al. [8] noted that behaviour producing hazards could be natural or responses to inadequate environmental amenities or both. For example, whether toilet facility is provided or not, it is inevitable, people must go to toilet. Similarly, whether waste disposal facility is available or not, it is inevitable to generate and dispose waste. Furthermore, waste water must be produced and disposed. For instance, Trevino and Farnandez [9] commented that the presence of raw sewage in the street of Nogales is traced to ‘responses to housing deficit and inadequate availability of sewage disposal system. Sadalla et al. [10] also arrived at similar conclusion in their study of Arizona – Sonora where they noted that residential behaviour including trash burning, the energy utilized in cooking, methods of bathing and construction of toilet facilities. Were all responses to adequacy level of amenities. Refugee camps can be likened to low income urban neighborhoods which suffers poorer basic municipal services. The responses to these inadequacies usually lead to human changes of environment that meet conditions that favour diseases, disturb and release-noxious levels of previously bound chemicals. Through the changes effected on the environment, all humans are exposed to environmental factors through the air breath, the water intake, contact with different substances and preparations [11]. Key health threats that are common where human responses to environmental amenity inadequacies favour diseases may include diarrhea, typhoid fever, cholera, acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, skin rashes among others. One major method of recognizing the health effects of residents’ responses to environmental amenities provided is through the records of diseases treated in the neigbourhood health centres. This is referred to as the expressed health needs.The yearly summary of the cases handled in health centre serving a refugee camp provides a good guide to determining the health needs that are related to environmental factors. This is because the patterns and prevalence of self-reported health problems reflect both underlying diseases and consequently health needs [12]. This observation is true for both the normal residential quarters of citizens and refugees. The purpose of this study is to examine in the first place the level of environmental amenities made available for refugees consumption in a camp located in Ogun State, Nigeria. Second, evaluation is made of refugees’ responses to the level of adequacy of the available amenities. Such responses will have environmental consequences which may develop into environmentrelated health problems. The complexity of environmental consequences and the associated health problems will be known through the analysis of the health records of the diseases treated in the refugees’ health centre. This represents the health needs of the refugees. This study is of significant importance for a number of reasons. In the first place, there is every evidence that man would continue to be displaced either through natural and man-made means. Hence, the need to plan and design refugee camp by professionals like architects, town planners and other social WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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workers will remain with us. Second, the international body (UNHCR) and the local ones will be able to recognize that inadequate provision of environmental amenities in a refugee camp may not be as dangerous as the responses that people will put up to cope with such inadequacies. And that, where responses to the lack of amenities promote environment that supports health risk, the health needs of the refugees will be environment-related. This study will therefore sensitize policy makers to take it as responsibility to provide minimum level of amenities that will promote good health condition of refugees.

2 Methodology The study utilized two sets of data. The first was the data collected from the refugees through questionnaire administration. To administer the questionnaire, the refugee camp was stratified into the existing 12 residential blocks. Twenty percent (one out of every five) of the rooms was systematically selected for survey. Presented in Table 2 are the names of blocks, the number of rooms in each block and the number of rooms sampled. A total of 71 refugees were sampled. Information obtained included socio-economic background, their knowledge of the available amenities and responses to the adequacy level of environmental amenities. Table 2:

Rooms selected for survey in each residential block on camp.

Block name Diplomatic Nairobi JFK IBB King villa Pastoral Block J Cabral Western Australia Nooh Ark Later day saints 60 housing units Total Source: Filed survey, 2006.

Total no of rooms 35 25 25 20 21 21 16 25 20 16 16 120 360

No of rooms sampled 7 5 5 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 3 24 71

The second set of data was collected from the health centre located on the camp. A range of information on the health statistics of all diseases treated were solicited and environment-related ones; that is, those related to sub-optional environment that could have resulted from responses to inadequate amenities were isolated. The information was obtained over a five year period of 2001 to 2005. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


3 Research findings First to be examined in this section is the environmental amenities made available in the camp for refugees. Included in these amenities are housing and the associated facilities like toilets, water supply, solid and waste water management. All tables under this section are from the authors’ survey of 2006. Residential accommodation is one of the major problems in refugee camps all over the world. The refugee camp under investigation is not an exemption. With increased population from time to time, effectively housing the refugees became a serious problem. To supplement existing structures met on ground, the UNHCR in conjunction with the Ijebu North Local Government constructed sixty housing units. Each housing unit is made of two rooms. Investigation confirmed that the refugees contributed manual labour in the construction process. Despite the existing hostels used by students of the defunct Muslim Teachers’ College and the sixty housing units constructed, some refugees were housed in classrooms and tarpaulin cover. The research further revealed that most rooms were over crowded. Refugees residing in classrooms and tents had no access to toilet facilities. Refugees responded to the absence of adequate housing and associated facilities, in many different ways. For example, inadequate housing space has led to overcrowding. It was established that 48.8% of the refugees had occupancy ration of between 4 and 7 people sleeping in a room and the 29.6% of the refugees had over 7 persons per room. Recall that overcrowding can lead to the outbreak and spread of diseases like asthma, cough and catarrh. Accessibility to potable water by the refugees was poor. It was evident that the site had long ago been connected to public water mains. However, this source of water was no more functional. Similarly, there were eight spots where boreholes were sunk. As of August, 2006, only 50% of these were functioning and indeed 78% of the camp dwellers claimed that water from the boreholes was not potable. Over a quarter (26.6%) of the refugees made use of water from streams located within and in close proximity to the camp. Rain harvest accounted for 7.5% of water sources in the camp. Similarly, one of the most popular means of responding to lack of toilet and /or poor conditions of toilet facility is the use of nearby bush. Over a third of the refugees sampled (41.3%) were in the habit of using the bushes around as toilet. This method of using bushes to serve as toilet is very risky. This is because rain water run-off would wash human excreta into rivers and streams that are used for domestic purposes which may include drinking. It was therefore noted that a major source of pollution is through poor human fecal disposal practice. Refugees’ waste disposal practices in the absence of environment-friendly and sustainable means also varied. It is established that refugees used a combination of these methods. Three important methods of waste disposal were identified in the camp. The most important method of waste disposal was dumping on a designated spot. It accounted for 58.1% of the responses. Next in importance was burning. This is an act that was commonly in practice during the dry season. It accounted for 29.7% of the methods. Disposing waste WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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indiscriminately (on any available space) accounted for 12.2% of the methods. The environmental consequences of these methods are many. Open dumping makes it possible for diseases carrying vectors (flies, cockroaches, rodents, birds) to have access to waste. Through these vectors, foods both at home and on farms are contaminated. Burning waste generates noxious gasses that are emitted into the air and inhaled not only by those who practiced this method. Disposing waste indiscriminately has the possibility of causing wounds on residents through sharp objects disposed. This is in addition to the problem associated with dumping of waste on designated open space. Other general problems identified that are related to refugees’ responses to inadequate environmental amenities include those from poor management of waste water from kitchens, bathrooms and toilets. Pits and septic tanks to receive waste water were absent. In essence, such waste water are good breeding points for mosquitoes and also generates unsightly condition and bad odour. From the above analyses, conclusion can be drawn that the level of environmental amenities provided for the refugees were not adequate in OruIjebu camp. The consequences of the inadequacies resulted into refugees’ responses that were not environment-friendly. Before the examination of the relationship between the environmental consequences of refugees’ responses to inadequacies of facilities and the expressed health needs, refugees were instructed to identify the different environmental problems perceived to be present on camp. Summarized in Table 3 are the different environmental problems identified. The most prominent problem was the prevalence of disease vectors. These vectors include rodents, cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies. The problem accounted for 16.5% of all; and 88.7% of the refugees identified it. Others with significant dimensions include poor housing conditions (16.0%), poor sanitation conditions (13.9%), poor water supply (12.9%) and over crowding (9.7%). To establish the relationship between the environmental problems emanating from the consequences of refugees response to inadequate facilities and their expressed health needs, records of diseases treated in the health centre on the camp were obtained over a five year period of 2001 to 2005. Presented in Table 4 are the findings of environment-related ailments treated arranged in the descending order of magnitude. Malaria, an ailment mainly caused and transmitted by the bite received by human from a type of mosquitoes accounted for 71.2% of all diseases treated in the camp’s health centre. Next in magnitude of occurrence was dysentery and diarrhea (11.9%); an ailment that is mainly caused by the intake of untreated water. Other diseases traceable to intake of untreated water include typhoid fever (0.7%) and cholera (0.1%). These three diseases combined represented 12.8% of all the diseases treated. Cough, which accounted for 5.3% can be traced to pollution from burning of waste and can be spread through overcrowding in housing condition. Running nose, representing 2.8% of the ailments treated can be traced to pollution from using firewood as cooking fuel. From this simple analysis, it is evident that relationship exised between the health needs expressed by refugees and the environmental problems identified WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Environmental problems identified by refugees on the camp.

Environmental problems Poor sanitation Poor housing condition Poor water supply Overcrowding Pollution from fire wood used as cooking fuel Prevalence of disease vectors Pollution from burnt solid waste Pollution from human fecal Pollution from bad management of waste water Pollution from open waste dump N Table 4:

% of the 71 refugee sampled 74.6 85.9 69.0 52.1 36.6

% of the problem 13.9 16.0 12.9 9.7 6.8

88.7

16.5

29.6

5.5

47.9

8.9

26.8

5.0

25.4

4.7 381

Records of environment-related diseases treated in the health centre on the camp.

Disease treated Malaria Diarrhea & Dysentery Cough Abdominal Pain Running nose Chicken pox Skin (rashes) Common cold Typhoid fever Sore Throat Cholera Asthma Total %

2001

2002

Year 2003

2004

2005 1906 273

Total per disease 10157 1704

% to grand total 71.2 11.9

2143 352

2213 439

2194 330

1701 310

93 80

152 123

170 114

183 130

160 77

758 524

5.3 3.7

63 38 16 13 13 03 03 2817 19.7%

77 63 41 22 16 09 3155 22.1

91 55 51 20 24 12 16 02 3079 21.6

87 51 48 22 21 04 02 03 2562 18.0

79 40 45 38 19 06 01 08 2652 18.6

397 247 201 115 93 34 19 16 14265

2.8 1.7 1.4 0.9 0.7 0.2 0.1 0.1 100.0



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which are the consequences of the different responses of the refugees to inadequate supply of amenities on the camp.

4 Conclusion This study has significant implications for the refuge camps to be developed in the future and monitoring of existing ones. Although the planning and development of new refugee camps, is usually an emergency activity, it behoves both the UNHCR and the government of the country hosting the camp to be aware of the responsibilities on their shoulders. These include the provision of amenities and services. Indeed, the different professionals taken part in the planning and design of refugee camps are not left out in the fulfillment of these great responsibilities. Services like water and housing, and the associated facilities (toilet, waste water and solid waste management services) should be provided to prevent responses from the refugees that will produce negative environmental consequences. It is suggested that the location of refugee camp should not be completely segregated from an existing urban centre. This is to reduce initial costs of providing amenities that are usually very high. Services could be extended from existing cities to the camp. For example, if the distance between a refugee camp and an existing city is reasonable, solid waste collection service available in the city could be extended to the refugee camp. It is also imperative that the camp management should embark on environmental education and enlightenment campaign to the refugees. Educating refugees on the basic rule of hygiene will go a long way to producing environment-friendly attitude among them. Part of the enlightenment campaign can be on how to avoid the outbreak of communicable diseases especially through water intake, when the sources of water available are in suspect to be dangerous to human healthy living. In another dimension, the camp management may have to make and enforce environmental sanitation laws. This will prevent refugees from embarking on attitudes producing negative environmental consequences. This is important as it may be that not all responses are due to inadequate provision of environmental amenities; but due to ignorance and negligence. As it is difficult if not impossible to prevent the development of refugee camps, it is essential that those involved in the design, planning and management to be ready to improve the environmental quality of the camp. This will prevent the spending of higher portion of the camp’s budget on the curing the refugees of environment-related diseases and by extension the host community.

References [1] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Refugee. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/refugee assessed 17th April, 2009. [2] Encyclopedia Britannica, Refugees. http://www.britanica.com/eb/ article?tocld=9063088 assessed 14th April, 2009.


78 The Sustainable World [3] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Refugee Trends. http:///www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/statistics/opendox assessed 17th April, 2009. [4] Federal Republic of Nigeria, Establishment of the National Commission for Refugees (NCFR). Decree No. 52; Government Press, Lagos, 1989. [5] National Commission for Refugee (NCFR), Handbook on Refugee Camp Oru-Ijebu, Nigeria. Federal Government Press, Lagos, 2002. [6] United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Help us give them shelter: we can’t do it alone. http://www.unhcr.org/protect/ PROTECTION/360366F44.htm assessed 20th April, 2009. [7] Bjorgo, E., Refugee Camp mapping using very high spatial resolution satellite sensor images. Geocarto International, 15(2), pp 8-15, June, 2000. [8] Ezzati, M., Utzinger, J., Caincross, S., Cohen, A. J. and Sugar, B. H., Environmental risks in the developing world: exposure indicators for evaluating intervention programs and policies. Journal of Epidemiology, and Community Health, 59, pp 5-22, 2005. [9] Travino, M., and Fernandez, A., The Maquiladora industry: adverse environmental impact and proposed solutions. Journal of Borderland Studies, 7, pp 53-72, 1992. [10] Sadala, E., Swanson, T. and Velasco, J., Residential behaviour and environmental hazards in Arizona – Zonora Colonia. Project Report Number EH 98 – 2, Department of Environmental Quality Boarder Team, Arizona State University, 1999. [11] Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA), Environmental factor and health: the Danish experience. http://www.mst.dk/ assessed 11th June, 2006. [12] Reigneveld, S. A. and Stronks, K., The validity of self-reported use of health care across socio-economic strata: a comparison of survey and registration data. International Journal of Epidemiology, 30, pp. 1407 – 1414, 2001.



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Public participation in public private partnership projects – the way forward S. T. Ng, J. M. W. Wong & K. K. W. Wong Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Abstract Delivering public facilities and services through the public private partnerships approach has become increasingly popular. Unlike those public schemes where the government is responsible for the planning tasks, the private investors should formulate innovative solutions to satisfy the requirements and expectations of the society. Therefore, meeting the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit becomes a major challenge of the private investors, especially when the scheme could last for years and the impacts to the society, if any, may be very deep-rooted. Until now, little attention has been attributed to uplift the process of public participation in public private partnership projects, and there is a need to examine what should be done to ensure the interests of the community are catered for without compromising on the financial return. In this paper, the current practice of public participation in public private partnership projects is unveiled. Based on the findings of interviews conducted with relevant experts in Hong Kong, recommendations are made to rationalise the public participation process for public private partnerships. The findings of this paper would serve as a basis for the government of different countries to formulate policies to balance the interests of the private investors and the community in public private partnership projects. Keywords: public private partnerships, public engagement, social concerns, construction projects.

1 Introduction Public private partnerships (PPP) offer a promising project delivery alternative by capitalising on the financial, creative, managerial and commercial strengths of the private sector for facilities or services provision that would otherwise be WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100081

80 The Sustainable World ineffective or even impossible under a diminishing public capital expenditure regime [1–3]. Getting the private sector involved in the provision of public facilities and services could not only increase market competition and reduce reliance on the government [4], but it would also help stimulate the economy and create jobs [5]. The consequence is an improvement in productivity, service quality, work efficiency and cost effectiveness. Therefore, PPP has been widely used for the delivery of social facilities and services. PPP would only be justified if such an approach could provide greater valuefor-money to the public sector and is financially viable to the private investors. However, the best value may not necessarily be realised in every PPP project, as divergence in interests exists among the government, private investors and the general public [6, 7]. The public sector is subject to a higher risk in a PPP project [8], as there is a chance of losing public control over the private sector on service quality [9, 10]. Yet, the genuine concern of any PPP projects is the problem of accountability [11–13], including the problem of corruption and possible accusation of the transfer of business benefits [9]. Conflict of interests also arises when the pursuit for social benefits does not concur with the commercial returns and public savings [6, 14]. Pearson [15] believed that a PPP scheme would appeal to the community if it could result in an earlier availability of services, lower cost and better services quality. Other concerns of the general public include the reliability of service, level of charge, job opportunities, service failure, and so on [7, 8, 16, 17]. A successful PPP scheme is one that can satisfy the interests of all the three key parties. Currently, a mechanism known as the public sector comparator (PSC) is adopted by many countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong to establish whether PPP is a more attractive project delivery option than being procured in traditional ways by the government. Nonetheless, the evaluation in PSC is hinged on the financial merits of PPP schemes [11, 13]. This makes the outcomes at times rather ‘artificial’ and ‘biased’ [18]. Whitefield [9] argued that PSC and other pure quantitative evaluation approaches may be opened to manipulation should the costs and benefits of a PPP option be distorted. To increase the chance of success, it is necessary to appreciate the concerns of the society being affected by or interested in the PPP scheme. In this paper, the current practice of how social concerns are incorporated in the PPP process is first examined through a literature review. The concerns of PPP stakeholders are then identified. Finally, recommendations are put forward to improve the PPP process by considering the social aspects during each stage of the PPP process.

2 PPP guidelines Various PPP guidelines in advanced countries have been examined to unveil the current practice of evaluating a PPP project. In the UK, the London Government has issued a guidance note to assist decision-makers on how to assess the valuefor-money of PPP projects [3]. The guidance note emphasises that the option of PPP is only recommended after a robust assessment of all available options in WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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each set of circumstances [19]. It also suggests decision-makers to carry out value-for-money assessment at various stages of the project including at the early investment programme level, project level and procurement level. Evaluation procedures mainly involve market sounding which aims to determine the level of market interest; affordability test to ensure that the project is affordable by the government; qualitative assessment which involves the construction of public sector comparator; and qualitative assessment which addresses the different aspects of the PPP option in terms of viability, desirability and achievability. A detailed guideline on how to construct a public sector comparator has also been issued by the government [20]. The Ireland Government published a guidance note for PPP assessment in April 2000. This guidance note aims to assist decision-makers of the public sector to assess the potential of PPP to deliver improved value-for-money compared with traditional procurement at the ‘option appraisal stage’ [21]. The key elements in the PPP assessment process include: (i) initial output specification which includes definition of the required level of services; (ii) value-for-money assessment which involves identification of qualitative evaluation factors; (iii) preliminary risk assessment which includes the identification, quantification and allocation of risks; (iv) bankability assessment which includes the establishment of financing issues; (v) legal viability assessment which includes assessment of the legal ability of the contracting authority to enter into a PPP contract as well as other legal implications related to existing employees and assets; (vi) PPP option selection which involves the selection of the form and scope of PPP that offers best value-for-money; (vii) final value-for-money assessment which involves the identification of evaluation parameters and preparation of a financial comparator; and (viii) indicative implementation plan which involves planning of the organisational management structure and timetable for the activities in project procurement. In Canada, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs issued a PPP guide in May 1999 to assist local governments to evaluate various forms of service delivery and to establish the PPP arrangements [10]. This guide provides a list of factors that should be considered by decision makers when deciding whether to partner with the private sector. The various factors include: (i) the experience of local government; (ii) opportunity for innovation; (iii) support from users; (iv) existence of regulatory or legislative constraints; (v) quality of service output; and (vi) opportunities to foster economic development. The Industry Canada also published a PPP Canadian guide for practitioners which provides a more detailed discussion on the evaluation criteria that should be considered before pursing the PPP approach [22]. Six major criteria were identified, and they include (i) financial criteria – which refers to cost effectiveness calculation which can be done by CBA or PSC; (ii) technical criteria – which includes considerations about appropriate technical specification and mechanism for monitoring private sector performance; (iii) operational criteria – which includes the identification and articulation of operation and maintenance standards; (iv) acceptability – which is about the acceptance, support and commitment from the political parties, community and existing staff; (v) implementation – which is about the WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

82 The Sustainable World opportunity for competition among perspective private partners, the legislative, regulatory and policy constraints, as well as the existence of in-house strong project team; and (vi) timing – which is about the adequacy of timelines to develop the operating specifications. Industry Canada has also issued a comprehensive guide for the use and construction of PSC [23]. In Australia, according to APCC [24], the feasibility of a potential PPP project is determined from the cost comparison between public sector comparator and PPP bids together with some non-financial considerations which are however not specified. The guidelines issued by the South Australian Government also emphasise on the application of public sector comparator for PPP feasibility evaluation while again no qualitative factors are mentioned [25]. However, the New South Wales Government and Victorian Government specifically include a ‘public interest test’ in the feasibility evaluation to assess PPP projects against public interest criteria before the project is put to market [26]. Those public interest criteria include project effectiveness, accountability and transparency, public access and equity, consumer rights, security, and privacy. In South Africa, a guide known as “Guidelines for undertaking a feasibility study for PPP projects” was issued by the National Treasury in 2001. It suggests that the feasibility study of a PPP project should contain the following sections: (i) needs-assessment; (ii) output specification; (iii) options analysis; (iv) PSC construction; (v) demonstration of affordability; and (vi) preparation of a benchmark for value-for-money [27]. While the above steps mainly involve the financial considerations of PPP, the feasibility guide also reminds decisionmakers the importance of the identification of qualitative factors, which were however not discussed in detail. In the PPP manual issued by the National Treasury in 2004, the authority has revised the recommended stages of PPP feasibility study to include the consideration of project due diligence before the construction of PSC and other economic valuations so as to address other qualitative factors like legal and socio-economic issues at early stage [28]. In Hong Kong, the Efficiency Unit of the HKSAR Government has issued an “Introductory Guide to Public Private Partnerships” in June 2003 discussing the various issues of PPP, including its advantages over conventional approaches, the construction of public sector comparator, selection of right private partner, financial and staffing issues, etc. A guideline published by the Efficiency Unit [29] in 2008 recommends engaging the public as soon as possible with on-going dialogues throughout the preparatory and implementation phases. However, the details in which public engagement should be carried out in each strategic stage of a PPP project are still lacking in this guide. The government departments are, therefore, free to conduct feasibility studies for their potential projects according to the department’s objectives.

3 Perception of stakeholders With a desire to improve the practice of PPP evaluation and to increase the success of PPP projects, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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with significant knowledge and experience in PPP schemes and/or public engagement. Finally, 15 interviews were completed with representatives of the government, private firms, district council and professional institutions. The majority of interviewees believed that it is necessary to improve the public engagement process in a PPP scheme. Nearly all of the interviewees expressed that public engagement shall be conducted at an early stage of a PPP scheme. They believed the government needed to do a better job in communicating with the public and improve on the packaging and presentation of the development plans so that the benefits of the project can be fully conveyed to the public, making it easier to gain social acceptance. There were opposing views amongst the interviewees on the topic of how public opinions should be incorporated into projects. One perspective was that public opinions should only be used for references and it is up to decision makers to decide after taking into account other aspects such as technical, economic, environmental, social and political constraints. The other perspective was that the public should have the ultimate decision since they are the ones who will be directly affected by the project. Yet, interviewees generally agreed that it is difficult to analyse the intangible benefits. It was widely agreed upon that the best way to safeguard stakeholders’ (and in particular public) interest is to have contracts and tendering selection processes structured in such a way that criteria for meeting social objectives are clearly stated. To retain interest from the private sector, incentives should also be incorporated into contracts when social benefits goals are met or exceeded. It was also suggested that a wide range of channels should be offered to the public for communicating their feedback throughout the entire process.

4 The way forward Based on the interview findings, it seems imperative to improve the public engagement process. While the process of PPP has been widely publicised and adopted, it is sensible to follow the steps of PPP as stipulated in the guideline instead. The “Introductory Guide to Public Private Partnerships” prepared by the Efficiency Unit of the HKSAR Government provides a clear definition about each stage of the PPP process, and it would be useful to try to incorporate the public engagement activities in each stage of the PPP process. According to the guideline, a PPP scheme shall be divided into eight stages: (i) mobilisation and development of a business case; (ii) funding; (iii) technical assessment, consultation and land requirements; (iv) expression of interest exercise; (v) policy and funding approvals; (vi) procurement and selection; (vii) service commencement; and (viii) payment and contract management. Table 1 highlights the public engagement activities at each of the eight stages of a PPP project. The concerns of the society should be identified as early as possible, and this can be achieved through various channels, e.g. pre-consultation meetings with major stakeholders and professional institutions, public forums with the entire


84 The Sustainable World Table 1: Stage 1

Possible engagement activities in a PPP project.

PPP Activity Mobilisation and development of business case

2

Funding

3

Technical assessment, consultation and land requirements

4

Expression of interest

5

Policy and funding approval

6

Procurement and selection

7

Service commencement

8

Payment and contract arrangement

Engagement Activity Pre-consult major stakeholders and professional institutions Public consultation on possible options Gather opinions about the social concerns and their potential impacts Seek consensus with the general public on the overall vision Engage the general public in developing the conceptual scheme / plan Collect feedback about the possible accusation of transfer of interest Continue to monitor the perception of the general public Professional groups and watchdogs to monitor the negotiate process General public to monitor the services being provided Collect complaints and feedback from the users

Purpose To predict the public concerns and estimate the technical and financial feasibility To generate innovative ideas To include the identified social impacts in the public sector comparators To agree on the most feasible and beneficial option To work out some preliminary details of the scheme To ensure there is a balance between social and commercial interests To establish appropriate policies to ensure social interests are duly taken care of To ensure the concession items are to the best interest of the society To guarantee the services provided are up to the expectation of the society To impose sanctions and penalties to nonperforming service providers

society, focus group meetings with the affected groups, and interactive discussions with various sectors. These would help the government generating innovative ideas and establishing a checklist of social concerns or even a wish list for the scheme before inviting any private investors to express their interests and submitting a proposal. As PPP scheme would normally take time to plan and negotiate, the concerns of the citizens could have changed over time. It is therefore necessary to continue monitoring the perception of the community at the funding approval and procurement stages. The government should strive to balance the interests of the society and private investor if necessary and consider whether it is still worth pursuing PPP any more. Professional institutions and watchdogs should be invited to monitor the development of the proposals and the negotiation process



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to ensure the interests of the public by and large as identified at the preceding stages are duly considered before the scheme is awarded. There are examples where the facility and service providers failed to fulfil their service pledge. It is, therefore, important to involve the general public at the operation stage. Channels should be provided to the end-users, affected residents and pressure groups to make complaints or provide feedbacks to the government such that appropriate sanctions and penalties can be imposed to those nonperforming service providers.

5 Conclusions While PPP is an effective mechanism to ensure essential social facilities and services are provided under a tight public budget, the success of these projects depends not only on the financial viability of the scheme, but also more importantly on whether the scheme meets the expectations of the society. Unfortunately, the current practice of PPP evaluation focuses excessively on the value-for-money from a financial perspective. To improve the chance of success, the value of a PPP scheme should be built on social value and satisfaction instead. Currently, there is no systematic mechanism governing how social concerns should be captured from the society at different stages of a PPP project. It is imperative to devise a framework to guide the public engagement process so that different levels of the society can take part in a project which is meant to serve their needs. In this paper, a list of public engagement activities has been put forwarded for each of the PPP stages. Further research should be conducted to establish whether those activities are appropriate and adequate. Moreover, the perceptions of the society could be rather subjective, and it is necessary to develop a more transparent method to evaluate the social impacts in future.

Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the Research Grants Council of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for financially supporting this study through the Public Policy Research Scheme (Grant No.: 7010-PPR-4).

References [1] City of Seattle, Effective Public Private Partnership, Performance Perspective, Report #8, City of Seattle: Seattle, 1999. [2] Grimsey, D. & Lewis, M.K., Evaluating the risks of public private partnerships for infrastructure projects, International Journal of Project Management, 20(2), pp. 107-118, 2002. [3] HM Treasury, Value for Money Assessment Guidance, HMSO: London, 2004.


86 The Sustainable World [4] Zhang X., Financial viability analysis and capital structure optimization in privatised public infrastructure projects, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 131(6), pp. 656-668, 2005. [5] Bertig, E. O’Connor, J., Stambor, P., Steers, L. & Wall, I., Public-Private Partnerships in Seattle, League of Women Voters of Seattle: Seattle, 2000. [6] Reijniers, J.J.A.M., Organisation of public-private partnership projects, the timely prevention of pitfalls, International Journal of Project Management, 12(3), pp. 137-142, 1994. [7] Akintoye, A., Hardcastle, C., Beck, M., Chinyio, E. & Asenova, D., Achieving best value in private finance initiative project procurement, Construction Management and Economics, 21(5), pp. 461-470, 2003. [8] Li, B. Akintoyle, A., Edwards, P.J. & Hardcastle, C., Perceptions of positive and negative factors influencing the attractiveness of PPP/PFI procurement for construction projects in the UK, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 12(2), pp. 125-148, 2005. [9] Whitefield. D, Public Services or Corporate Welfare: Rethinking the Nation State in the Global Economy, Pluto Press: London, 2001. [10] MOMA, Public Private Partnership – A Guide for Local Government, Ministry of Municipal Affairs: British Columbia, Canada, 1999. [11] Berg, S.V., Pollitt, M.G. & Tsuji, M., Private Initiatives in Infrastructure: Priorities, Incentives and Performance, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, Northampton, UK, 2002. [12] Freeman, M., Critical Choices: The Debate over Public-Private Partnerships and What is Means for American’s Future, The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships: Washington D.C., 2003. [13] Efficiency Unit, Serving the Community by Using the Private Sector – An Introductory Guide to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), The Government of HKSAR: Hong Kong, 2003. [14] Broadbent, J. & Laughlin, R., Public private partnership: an introduction, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 16(3), pp. 332-341, 2003. [15] Pearson, M., Opportunities and obstacles for wider adoption of PPP models in Hong Kong, Proceedings: Public Private Partnerships – Opportunities and Challenges, Creative Consulting Group Inc. Ltd., Hong Kong, 2005. [16] Flanagan, J.L., Private/public partnership: a balancing act, Public Works, ProQuest Science Journals, 128(10), pp. 49-52, 1997. [17] Sahooly, A., Public-private partnership in the water supply and sanitation sector: the experience of the Republic of Yemen, Water Resources Development, 19(2), pp. 139-152, 2003. [18] Sussex, J., The Economics of the Private Finance Initiative in the NHS, Office for Health Economics: London, 2001. [19] HMSO, Local Government Act, HMSO: London, 1998. [20] Treasury Taskforce, How to Appoint and Work with a Preferred Bidder, Technical Note No. 4, Treasury Taskforce – Private Finance, HMSO: London, 1999.



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[21] DOE, Public Private Partnership Assessment, Public Private Partnership Guidance Note 4, Department of the Environment and Local Government: Ireland, 2000. [22] Industry Canada, Public-Private Partnerships: A Canadian Guide, A Guide for Practitioners of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) which Represents the Best Experiences and Practices of those Currently Engaged in P3 Activity, Industry Canada: Canada, 2001. [23] Industry Canada, The Public Sector Comparator – A Canadian Best Practices Guide, Services Industries Branch, Industry Canada: Canada, 2003. [24] APCC, Discussion Paper: Key Issues in Procurement through PPPs, Australian Procurement and Construction Council: Australia, 2002. [25] South Australian Government, Private Sector Participation in the Provision of Public Services – Guidelines for the Public Sector, Department of Treasury and Finance, South Australian Government: Adelaide, 2002. [26] Webb, R. & Pulle, B., Public Private Partnerships: An Introduction, Research Paper No. 1, 2002-2003, Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Groups, available at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/200203/03RP01.htm, 2002. [27] National Treasury, Feasibility Guidelines, Guidelines for Undertaking a Feasibility Study for PPP Projects, National Treasury PPP Manual, version I, National Treasury: South Africa, 2001. [28] National Treasury, PPP Manual – Module 4: PPP Feasibility Study, National Treasury PPP Practice Note No. 5, PPP Unit, National Treasury: South Africa, 2004. [29] Efficiency Unit, An Introductory Guide to Public Private Partnerships, Efficiency Unit, Hong Kong SAR Government: Hong Kong, 2008.




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BREEAM Communities in Spain A. L. Cabrita & J. R. Alvarez BREEAM España, Instituto Tecnológico de Galicia, Spain

Abstract Environmental assessment methods are widely recognised as one of the most efficient strategies to encourage environmental responsibility in the building sector. This recognition is based on more than 20 years of implementation, during which these methods have been adopted by the industry and stakeholders and have stimulated a demand for sustainable construction. BREEAM is the world’s leading environmental certificate with over 201,000 certified buildings. The methodology on which it is based has benefited from the broad experience of the Building Research Establishment and its many years of research. A new BREEAM scheme has been recently launched to address the impact of development projects within the built environment. BREEAM Communities identifies a holistic set of indicators and performance targets that will eventually determine the robustness of the urban project. The selection of targets and benchmarks and the definition of the assessment framework are key issues that are strongly determined by the geographic and social context. The ITG (Instituto Tecnológico de Galicia) is now responsible for the adaptation and future implementation of BREEAM Communities into the Spanish context. The adaptation process will involve extensive consultation with a broad range of experts and stakeholders that will provide feedback in some 40 areas of expertise, thus generating a comprehensive knowledge base about sustainable urbanization. This paper will point out the main issues that are to be considered during this process and how the assessing criteria will interact with the Spanish legal and environmental framework. Keywords: environmental assessment, labelling, certificate, sustainable communities, BREEAM, ITG.



1

Introduction

Modern society has reached maturity and is now aware that a different dialogue with the environment is needed. The turning point at the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the first measures to mitigate the impact of human activities and to improve health conditions. That was the origin of the modern planning, which intended to control the way the city should grow. However, soon after, environmental concern in town planning fell into abeyance to give ground to other social or economic considerations. Once that wellbeing had been achieved, in the last quarter of the century the view went back again to examining the use of natural resources and the impact of development on Earth. As a result, contemporary society demands more information and objective quantification of the impact of their activities. Environmental impact assessment has become a key environmental mechanism in the last 30 years. The National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA, 1969) in the United States and Directive 85/377, amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC in Europe, required proper assessment when planning decisions were likely to have an impact on the environment [1]. The information about this potential impact is gathered by developers and supplied to decision makers. EIAs are being currently applied in different ways and to different levels depending on the regional context; this diversity makes comparison and extrapolation difficult and consequently, it limits the purposive potential of these tools. The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) has narrowed the gap among developers, professionals and decision makers by setting a transparent framework that enhances synergies of the planning application process with specific sustainable targets. It does not replace any existing legislation and it is not compulsory, but both planning authorities and developers can directly benefit from it; the former by the assistance for decision making and the latter by improving the efficiency of the application process while demonstrating the sustainability of the project. The potential of this approach is verified by more than 200,000 evaluated and 700,000 registered buildings around the globe. It is expected that BREEAM Communities will help to identify and promote good practise at the urban scale in Spain too. In recent years, the Institute of Technology of Galicia, which has a strong connection to professional practise and the building industry, had detected a gap in the environmental appraisal of buildings and development projects in Spain. Current legislation does normally address a very late stage in the design process, which makes innovation very difficult. On the other hand, the town planning system varies for each region and so does environmental legislation. As a result, comparison and extrapolation becomes fruitless as the outcomes are strongly determined by the legal framework. In this context, the need for a tool which truly addresses sustainable design from the very early stage, facilitating clear and objective performance targets became crucial. The solid background of



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BREEAM Communities and its flexibility to adapt to the heterogeneous Spanish context made it a suitable candidate.

2 Sustainable communities When the Brundtland Commission first defined the concept of Sustainable Development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [2] it was suggesting a double compromise; firstly, the idea of meeting the needs of the present implies a concept of satisfaction thus stability of the recently achieved social welfare. On the other hand, it suggests that an account of available resources and depletion rates are needed; in other words, an objective evaluation to ensure that the cyclic process can be sustained over time. More recently, the Communities and Local Government had defined a Sustainable Community as places where “people want to live and work, now and in the future, meeting the diverse needs of existing and future resident” [3]. Securing wellbeing over time is a key aspect, which necessarily leads to a holistic approach where social, economic and environmental issues are to be considered. This global definition could be applicable to any developed region and it is therefore a common ground from which each local community could define a specific response. To be effective, the local response should be: - Aware about the local context; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from social, economic and environmental perspectives - Clear and consistent; to establish priorities, sustainable objectives which are feasible and measurable - Scientific rather than speculative, i.e. well informed about the state of the art in sustainable development research - Constructive; focusing on synergies rather than on obstacles - Compatible with the social and legal context - Far-sighted, to foresee how to monitor the achievement of sustainable targets - Flexible and adaptable; as priorities may evolve with time This sequential approach starts with a global objective, sustained wellbeing, which is tested by the achievement of specific targets. In a good logic, these targets are strongly influenced by the context. The importance of different parameters depends on location, background, nature and character of the site. However, the methods to establish, monitor and assess those indicators, can greatly benefit from certain levels of standardization, so that the robustness of the method can be verified under different realities. These methods should also observe and be observed by national legislation so as to avoid digressions or contradictions. The UK government, for instance, had launched a global agenda for sustainable communities whose main objectives have been included in the different BREEAM categories, whereas in Spain, national urban regulations are


92 The Sustainable World rather sectoral. In the Spanish case, the sustainable character of a development is based on its impact upon nature and landscape conservation, social or economic issues are rather neglected or diverted to other sectoral laws. The elaboration of a sustainable framework by BREEAM Communities will facilitate the work of designers and their communication with decision makers.

3 BREEAM Communities and environmental impact assessment Although BREEAM Communities is not an environmental impact assessment method, these were immediate and close precedents. There are certain similarities as well as notable differences in the objectives and procedural techniques from both. After EIA directive, provision of information about the effect on the environment of certain activities has to be compiled before any final decision is taken. The specific definition of those activities was left for each state member. In UK, planning applications are divided in Schedule 1, for which EIA is compulsory (e.g. chemical plants, thermal and nuclear power stations…) and schedule 2, in which case the relevant planning authority decides whether it is necessary or not according to an screening process [4]. In Spain, the national law [5] listed a series of activities (agricultural, industrial, infrastructures…) for which EIA is statutory; planning is not explicitly mentioned at this level as it is a privilege of regional assemblies to establish the specific conditions for town and country planning on their territory. Normally, council development plans need to undertake an EIA and this evaluation satisfies every inferior development within the municipality that is not included in the national list of activities. It means that a masterplan for a new neighbourhood might not require an EIA. BREEAM Communities does not replace any existing legislation, and therefore it is not a substitute for EIA. However, it is a tool that can assist decision makers by providing objective information and support in a number of areas concerning urban sustainability. It is a third party voluntary assessment certification standard that enables to demonstrate and verify the environmental performance of urban developments. BREEAM implements national, regional and local planning policy requirements to create a common framework, facilitating the application process. Moreover, developers can benefit from an improved image and added value in the marketplace. This will encourage the adoption of standards beyond regulations to achieve a higher level and consequently a higher score in the certificate. The contents of an EIA can vary depending of its nature, for this reason there is a scoping process, to determine the coverage of the environmental impact assessment and the specific issues to be addressed. The scoping is requested from developers to the planning authorities and although is not mandatory it is strongly recommended [4]. Developers can identify the issues to be analyzed by using a systematic method (checklist, flowcharts…) before scoping is undertaken by planning authorities. Some common categories are typically addressed by EIA: WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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- Socio economic impact. The key indicator is usually the increase of population, direct or indirect - Noise impact prediction, during and after the work - Transport, prediction of trip attraction of the site, trip distribution and modes of transport - Air quality and climate impact, predicted emission rates, comparison with air quality standards - Soils, geology and geomorphology. Information of contaminated land and remediation, impact prediction on soil (erosion, pollution...) A sustainable development framework combines statutory planning requirements with specific environmental, social and economic sustainability objectives. Compliant assessment methodologies assist in the elaboration of specific targets to be met on a future development (for instance Regional Sustainability Checklists). BREEAM Communities has defined, structured and weighted the issues and categories which are recurrent in sustainable developments to create a comprehensive assessment framework. It covers the following categories: - Climate and energy - Community - Place shaping - Transport - Resources - Ecology - Business - Buildings. Finally, the EIA intends to illustrate or predict the effects on an activity that, by definition, is likely to have an important impact. As a result, they are often used as defensive tools to demonstrate that the benefits (normally economic) from that activity can justify the expected impact on the environment. It is information compiled by developer for decision makers to judge the balance between the benefits and drawbacks and based on that, they grant permission. For this reason, it is normally oriented to enhance the benefits of the project. On the other hand, the amount and complexity often goes beyond the possibilities of local planning authorities which do not have the level of expertise of specialized consulting bureaus. This can compromise the actual effectiveness or veracity of the assessment. BREEAM is an independent certification for residential, mixed-use and nondomestic developments. Since it is voluntary, developers have to set their sustainability targets from the outset. These targets can be agreed with the local authority and be based on the framework which is given by BREEAM Communities, which makes communication easier. Once these targets are clear, the design team can orientate the projects towards the achievement of those goals. This sequence will allow the integration between sustainability objectives and the design process, therefore making a real effect in the quality and impact of future developments.



4 Methodology of BREEAM Communities in the UK The BREEAM Communities scheme has been specifically designed to assess the environmental impact of developments within the English Regions. It has been tailored to the specific planning policy requirements of England. Therefore, for any other region or state, an adaptation of the schemes will be needed. However, the essence of the essence, structure, process and methodology will remain invariable. 4.1 The process The process to get a BREEAM Communities certification has three main stages. It starts with the registration of a compliant assessment framework; this is a mandatory requirement if a development wants to achieve certification against the BREEAM Communities standard. The compliant assessment framework provides the foundation from which specific sustainability objectives and relevant planning requirements are established. It can be agreed between the development team and the planning authority. BREEAM Communities defines the core criteria which should be used to form the base of the compliant assessment framework that a BREEAM Communities assessor will finally compile and report on. The second stage is an optional Interim Certificate at the Outline Planning Stage. It measures the level of achievement of the targets outlined at the preliminary planning stage against the key sustainability objectives and planning policies. It does not contain a final assessment rating but indicates whether the submitted assessment report has passed or failed. Therefore, it cannot be used to replace the “final” certificate, as there is not enough detail at this stage. It is very effective to consider environmental, social and economic sustainability issues from the outset as this will assist in achieving higher level objectives optimizing resources and cost. At the third stage, the Detailed Planning Stage, a “Final” Certification measures the detailed commitments outlined within the final planning stage application against the key sustainability objectives and planning policy requirements. The final certificate can be achieved by either completing a review of the Outline Planning Stage or by proceeding directly to the detailed planning application assessment [6]. 4.2 Environmental indicators The BREEAM Communities scheme addresses social, economic and environmental sustainability by defining a performance targets and assessment criteria that must be met to confirm the target has been achieved. Credits are awarded based on the masterplan’s performance against those criteria. Table 1 explains the eight categories and the respective environmental issues that are covered:



Table 1:

Summary of BREEAM Communities’ categories [7].

Category Description

Climate and Energy

Resources

Transport

Ecology

Business

Community

Place Shaping

Buildings

Issues Covered

Reducing the proposed project’s contribution to climate change whilst ensuring that developments are appropriately adapted to the impacts of present and future climate change.

    

Flood Management Energy and Water Efficiency Renewable Energy Infrastructure Passive Design Principles

Designing for the efficient use of resources including water, materials and waste in construction, operation and demolition, and minimising the life cycle impacts of materials chosen.

    

Land Use and Remediation Material Selection Waste Management Construction Management Modern Methods of Construction

Addressing how people can get to the facilities and locations that they need; giving people choices other than private cars and encouraging walking and cycling for healthier lifestyles.

    

Walkable Neighbourhoods Cycle Networks Provision of Public Transport Green Travel Plans Construction Transport

Conserving the ecology living on and visiting the site and taking full opportunity for ecological enhancement within and around the development as well as on buildings.

    

Maintaining / Enhancing Habitat Green Corridors Ground Pollution Contaminated Land Landscaping Schemes

Providing opportunities for businesses to locate and serve both the locality and provide jobs for people living in and around the development.

   

Inward Investment Local Employment Knowledge Sharing Sustainable Charters

Designing the development to support a vibrant new community which can integrate with surrounding areas, avoiding creating actual or perceived “gated” communities.

     

Social Impact Assessment Community Engagement Sustainable Lifestyles Facilities Management Mixed of Use Affordable Housing

Provide a framework for the design of a ‘real place’ with an identity that ensures that people can instinctively find their way around. Also ensuring that the new development draws from the local context and heritage.

     

Site Selection Defensible Space Active Frontages Green Space Secured by Design Housing Density

Ensuring that the design of individual buildings contribute to the sustainability of the overall development through high environmental standards.

 BREEAM Buildings  Code for Sustainable Homes  EcoHomes


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96 The Sustainable World 4.3 Rating and certification Certification of the compliant assessment framework against the BREEAM Communities standard is undertaken by an independent and qualified BREEAM assessor. He verifies that the commitments have been followed through by the development team by collecting the evidence. He compiles an assessment report which is submitted to BRE Global for quality assurance and certification. The final score is determined by a sequence of filters and weightings: - Rating benchmarks - Regional weightings - Mandatory or optional credit issues - Credits for innovation 4.3.1 Rating benchmarks The rating benchmarks are spread out in short intervals as an incentive to encourage improvements from development teams. They are expressed as a percentage of the available credits for each region and type: - Unclassified 25% – semi-dry digestion, if the TS content ranges between 10 and 25% [19]. More than 87% of the digestion capacity is provided by single-phase digesters, which can use wet or dry technologies. A slight increase of wet WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

358 The Sustainable World systems was observed as a number of large-scale wet plants were put into operation in Netherland and Spain in 2003 and 2004, while more dry fermentation plants were constructed in 2005. In 2006, De Baere [20] found that dry anaerobic fermentation provides 56% capacity while wet fermentation is used in 44% of the total installed capacity, but according to Schievano et al. [21], the wet processes are currently the most spread. The list of AD processes and suppliers is highly variable as a result of acquisition, merges and technology advances: the main ones are listed in Table 2. Table 2:

Main AD technology suppliers [22].

Supplier

Process

Technology

Arrow Ecology BTA International GmbH Citec Ros Roca International Organic Waste Systems Haase Farmatic Biotech Energy AG Valorga International Kompogas Strabag (formerly Linde) Entec Wehlre-Werk AG Global Renewables Ltd

Arrow Bio

wet

Capacity range [t/y] 90.000 - 180.000

BTA

wet

1.000 - 150.000

Waasa Biostab Dranco MBT Schwarting Uhde Valorga Kompogas Linde KCA/BRV Entec Biopercolat ISKA

wet wet dry wet

3.000 - 230.000 10.000 - 150.000 3.000 - 120.000 50.000 - 200.000

wet

18.000 - 200.000

dry dry

10.000 - 497.600 5.000 - 100.000

wet/dry

6.000 - 150.000

wet dry dry

40.000 - 150.000 100.000 88.000 - 165.000

In the following paragraphs, data about some of these technologies are given and compared. 3.1 Wet digestion Wet system appears attractive because of its similarity to the consolidate technology in use for the anaerobic stabilization of sewage sludge coming from wastewater treatment. The operational simplicity is the main reason why this technology is adopted in the majority of plants with capacity lower than 100.000 t/y [22]. In wet system the organic solid waste is diluted to less than 10% TS, adding water or recirculating part of the digester effluent. Consequently, CSTR (continuously stirred tank reactor) digesters are mostly used in these applications [19, 23]. Wet processes usually work with low organic loading rate (OLR), ranging between 2 and 4 kgVS/m3d. Currently, it is still unclear what is the phenomenon WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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that limits the possibility of applying higher organic loads in wet processes. One possible explanation is the concentration of active biomass in the reactor, which could be not high enough. According to other studies, the reason is the nutrient mass transfer rate or the accumulation of inhibitory substances such as ammonia or short-chain volatile fatty acids. Anyway, possible problems could be easily solved adding water in order to improve dilution. Table 3 summarizes the typical values of the main single-stage wet anaerobic process parameters. Table 3:

Design parameters and process yields of an AD wet system. Parameter Total Solid (TS) content [%] Organic Loading Rate [kgVS/m3d] Hydraulic Retention Time [d] Process yields Biogas production [m3/t waste] Specific biogas production [m3/ kg SV] Biogas production rate [m3/ m3d] Methane content [%] Volatile solid (VS) reduction rate [%]

Value < 10, until 15 2 - 4, until 6 10 - 15, until 30 100-150 0,4-0,5 5-6 50-70 50-60, until 75

Waasa process is implemented in several Finnish plants [23], with operative capacity ranging from 3.000-85.000 t/y. A pulper with three vertical auger mixers is used to shred, homogenize and dilute the wastes in sequential batches. The obtained slurry is then digested in large complete mixed reactors where the solids are kept in suspension by vertical impellers. Gas production ranges between 170 and 320 Nm3CH4/tVS-fed and reduction of the volatile solid (VS) feed varies between 40-75% [24]. Wabio technology was supplied in Berlin plant, which treats source sorted wastes with 18-25% TS then diluted till 10-15% TS. The reactor works in mesophilic conditions, with an OLR ranging between 3 and 7 kgTVS/m3d and a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 15-17 days. The biogas production ranges between 100-150 m3/t, with methane (CH4) content varying between 50 and 70%. Another system quite common in Europe is the Bio-Stab one that was developed from ATU Ingenieurgesellschft für Abfalltechnik und Umweltschutz. This process is a wet digestion technology which makes possible the separation of impurities before the biological treatment by means of mechanical separation without hand-sorting. Due to the very effective separation of the impurities, the digestate has high-quality and is characterized by a low salt and a high organic content. The biogas produced by the digestion is energetically used for the operation of the digestion plant [25]. The BTA process is applicable both in one stage and two stage AD systems. Pilot and industrial scale experiences demonstrate that BTA process can treat waste with different characteristics, with a moisture content varying between


360 The Sustainable World 60% and 90-98%, and a biodegradable matter content ranging between 2% and 50% [26]. In the United Kingdom, one of the established technologies is provided by Monsal company that exclusively uses wet AD processes. For MSW treatment their process requires a pre-sorting stage to separate the organic fraction from the bulk of the non-organic materials. Monsal have delivered over 220 anaerobic digestion systems in the last 14 years, supplying digestion technologies to plants ranging from 2.000 to 88.000 m3 capacity [27]. The company also provides advanced anaerobic digestion systems, which include biological hydrolysis. Bungay [28] discussed three variants of advanced anaerobic digestion using biological hydrolysis and points out its sustainability benefits when compared with more energy intensive thermal hydrolysis processes. 3.2 Dry digestion During the 80's research demonstrated that biogas yield and production rate were higher in systems where the wastes were kept without diluted water, in their original solid state [29]. In dry systems, the fermenting mass within the reactor is characterised by solids content in the range 20-40%TS: therefore, only dry substrates with TS > 50% need to be diluted. The most applied technologies for dry process are Dranco, Valorga and Kompogas, all working in the range 30-40% of TS in the reactor feeding [30]. In Dranco process, the mixing occurs via recirculation of the waste extracted at the bottom, mixed with fresh wastes (one part fresh wastes for six parts digested wastes) and pumped to the top of the reactor. This simple design is suitable for the treatment of waste ranging from 20 to 50% TS [23, 31]. Table 4 reports operational parameters and yields of Salzburg (Austria) and Brecht (Belgium) plants implementing Dranco process. Table 4:

Operational parameters and yield of Salzburg (Austria) and Brecht (Belgium) plants.

Parameter Capacity [t/y] Total Solid content [%TS] Temperature [°C] Organic Loading Rate [kgVS/m3d] Specific Gas Production [m3/kgVS] Gas Production Rate [m3/m3d] Volatile Solid removal [%sv]

Salzburg (Austria) 20.000 31 55 10 0.36 4 29

Brecht (Belgium) 20.049 40 55 14.9 0.25-0.30 9.2 23

Kompogas process works similarly to the Dranco one, but the plug flow takes place horizontally, in cylindrical reactors. The horizontal plug flow is aided by slowly-rotating impellers inside the reactors, which also serve for homogenization, degassing, and resuspension of heavier particles. This system WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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requires careful adjustment of the solid content around 23% TS inside the reactor. At lower values, heavy particles such as sand and glass tend to sink and accumulate inside the reactor while higher TS values cause excessive resistance to the flow [23, 31]. The digestion plant in Braunschweig-Watenbuttel (Germany), implementing Kompogas process, treats 20.000 t/y of source sorted organic waste. Process yield in terms of biogas production is 80-140 m3 with 60% of CH4 per ton of biomass fed while the volatile solid reduction content ranges between 47-52% [32]. The biogas plant in Roppen, Tyrol (Austria) was designed to process 10.000 t/y of catering waste (mostly in the touristic peak time, in winter and summer) and kitchen and garden waste from households with the Kompogas technology. After pretreatment, the waste is fermented in a tube-digester, without the addition of water, at thermophilic temperature (45-60°C). The fermentation end product is separated into a solid and a liquid phase. The former is further stabilized aerobically; the latter is used for moisturising during the aerobic stabilization process of additional organic wastes or optionally used as liquid fertilizer [33]. In Switzerland, Kompogas technology is the most implemented for the anaerobic treatment of organic waste. For some of the oldest plants, operation data are given [34], together with biogas production yields. Table 5 reports the available information and shows that Volketswil plant is overloaded, since the estimated organic loading rate is 17 kg organic material/ m3 d. Table 5:

Kompogas anaerobic digestion plants in Switzerland [34].

Location Bachenbülach Otelfingen Samstagern Volketswil

Volume [m3] 812 (3) 780 (1) 512 (2) 290 (1)

Treated waste [t/y] 13.577 13.814 9.377 7.500

Gas yields [m3/y] 1.565.361 1.639.904 893.944 461.000

Energy [MWh/y] 9.079 9.511 5.185 2.674

Today, Kompogas has developed a new generation of plants with annual treating capacity ranging from 4.000 to 20.000 t/y. Outside Switzerland, also larger plants have been built. The waste is delivered at ground level inside a hall and the reactor is heated by lignified fraction withheld by the sieve while working up the waste: this procedure increases the usable gas share. Besides Kompogas, Swiss industrial digestion plants operate with BRV-Linde and Valorga technologies. BRV-Linde system was implemented in 1994, in Baar anaerobic digestion plant. It is a thermophilic horizontal plug flow digester, with a working volume of 500 m3. Since the horizontal cylinder was protected by a patent of Kompogas, the BRV reactor was built with a rectangular cross section. This shape has the disadvantage that it is not possible to stir the content with a longitudinal axis equipped with lateral arms, so it had to be managed with four transversal axis. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

362 The Sustainable World This system causes a mixing for and backwards in flow direction, hampering the ideal plug flow of the substrate [34]. In Valorga system the horizontal plug flow is circular and mixing occurs via biogas injection at high pressure at the bottom of the reactor every 15 minutes [35]. However, differences among dry systems are more significant in term of sustainable OLR. The Valorga plant at Tilburb (the Netherlands) treats quantities of waste that vary from 400 and 1.100 t/week in two digesters of 3.300 m3 each at 40 °C (Fruteau de Laclos et al. [35]). This corresponds to an OLR of 5 KgVS/m3d that is comparable to the design values of plants relying on wet system. Optimized dry system may sustain higher OLR such as the Dranco plant in Brecht (Belgium) that works with OLR of 15 KgVS/m3d [20]. This value is achieved without any dilution of the wastes and corresponds to a retention time of 14 days during the summer with 65% VS destruction. Typical design OLR values of the Dranco process are however more conservative (about 12 KgVS/m3d) but higher than the wet systems ones. As a consequence, at equal capacity, the reactor volume of a Dranco plant is smaller than that of a wet system [20].

4 Technical and economical comparison High-solid processes appear to be more efficient at higher loaded process (OLR > 6 kgVS/m3d) while low solid processes are more beneficial at OLR lower then 6 kgVS/m3d. Furthermore, wet digestion processes require a relatively high cost for process equipment and the quantity of process water is appreciably greater than for dry digestion processes: while wet systems typically consume 1 m3 of fresh water per ton of treated OFMSW, dry systems require water volumes about ten times lower. As a consequence, the volume of wastewater to be discharged is several times smaller for dry systems. For this reason, when wet systems are implemented, it becomes important to have a wastewater treatment plant nearby. The maximum achievable OLR, however, is highly dependent on reactor configuration. An upper limit on OLR seems to exist at around 15 kgVS/m3, but the achievable OLR can be greatly affected by the overall digestibility of the waste. With reference to the biogas or methane production rate, comparing the performance of industrial scale OFMSW digesters treating different waste streams is difficult, especially since companies tend to protect performance data. Generalizations have been attempted in literature: Figure 1 shows the average biogas yield at a given OLR for a large number of lab, pilot, and full scale studies [36]. Even though the mesophilic digestion of food waste achieved a biogas yield of about 0.8 m3/kgVS, the OLR was only 2 kg VS/m3d. For comparison, wet digestion of source sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste (SSOFMSW) at 55°C resulted in much lower biogas yields of 0.45 and 0.3 m3/kgVS, but at OLR of 6 and 9 kgVS/m3d. Based on this analysis, most of the reactors studied exhibited biogas production rates in the range of 1.5-3.5 m3/m3 d.



Figure 1:

363

Biogas yields in function of organic loading rate [36].

As regards the economical aspect, according to Confalonieri [37], capital costs range between 400 and 800 €/ton/year of installed capacity. Economy of scale strongly affects capital costs and usually the lower values characterize larger plants (> 50.000-70.000 t/y). The economical differences between wet and dry systems are small, both in terms of capital and operating costs. The higher costs for the waste handling devices such as pumps, screws and valves required for dry systems are balanced by a cheaper pretreatment and reactor, the latter being several times smaller than for wet systems. Reliable financial information on the performance of the many competing AD technologies is hard to come by; the report of the California Integrated Waste Management Board [36] concluded that discussions of the cost of anaerobic digestion were severely constrained by the lack of real information. Despite the difficulties, data about capital and operating costs were elaborated in two different studies. Although separated by 10 years, the capital cost curves from these studies are very similar, while operating costs are not: however, differences could be due to differences in the cost items included in the two works.

5 Future perspectives At present, anaerobic digestion is considered a well-known and reliable technology for OFMSW treatment. The most interesting aspect of this process is the production of biogas, which is a clean and environmentally friendly fuel. The scientific research is directed towards defining of optimisation systems, such as the use of treatments prior to the anaerobic process, in order to enhance its yields, especially in terms of biogas production. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

364 The Sustainable World Moreover, the possibility to recover hydrogen from OFMSW anaerobic digestion in order to use it as an energy source, additional to methane. Finally, interesting aspect to be studied, especially in relation to wet systems, is the use of reactor supernatants for the growth of particular microalgae used in specific industrial application.

Acknowledgement The study was partly funded by the University of Salerno (FARB - ex 60%).

References [1] De Gioannis G., Muntoni A., Cappai G., Milia S. Landfill gas generation after mechanical biological treatment of municipal solid waste. Estimation of gas generation rate constants. Waste Management, 29, 1026-1034, 2009. [2] Fricke K., Santen H., Rainer W., Hüttner A., Dichtl N. Operating problems in anaerobic digestion plants resulting from nitrogen in MSW. Waste Management, 27, 30-43, 2007. [3] Poh P.E., Chong M.F. Development of anaerobic digestion methods for palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. Bioresource Technology, 100, 19, 2009. [4] Nguyen P.H.L., Kuruparan, P., Visvanathan, C. Anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste as a treatment prior to landfill. Bioresource Technology 98 (2), 380-387, 2007. [5] Bouallagui H., Touhami Y., BenCheikh R., Hamdi M. Bioreactor performance in anaerobic digestion of fruit and vegetable wastes. Process Biochemistry 40 (3-4), 989-995, 2005. [6] Rao M.S., Singh S.P. Bioenergy conversion studies of organic fraction of MSW: kinetic studies and gas yield-organic loading relationships for process optimization. Bioresource Technology 95 (2), 173–185, 2004. [7] Gallert C., Henning A., Winter J. Scale-up of anaerobic of the biowaste fraction from domestic wastes. Water Research 37 (6), 433-1441, 2003. [8] Charles W., Walker L., Cord-Ruwisch R. Effect of pre-aeration and inoculum on the start-up of batch thermophilic anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste. Bioresource Technology 100 (8), 2329-2335, 2009. [9] Davidsson Å., Gruvberger C., Christensen T.H., Hansen T.L., Jansen J.L.C. Methane yield in the source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Waste Management 27 (3), 406-414, 2007. [10] Lopez Torres M., Espinosa Lloréns M. Effect of alkaline pretreatment on anaerobic digestion of solid wastes. Waste Management 28, 2229-2234, 2008. [11] Dewil R., Appels L., Baeyens J., Degrève J. Peroxidation enhances the biogas production in the anaerobic digestion of biosolids. Journal of Hazardous Materials 146, 577-581, 2007. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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[12] Fox M., Noike T. Wet oxidation pretreatment for the increase in anaerobic biodegradability of newspaper waste. Bioresource Technology 91, 273-281, 2004. [13] Weemaes M., Grootaerd H., Simoens F., Verstraete W. Anaerobic digestion of ozonized biosolids. Water Research 34 (8), 2330-2336, 2000. [14] Valladão A., Freire D., Cammarota M. Enzymatic pre-hydrolysis to the anaerobic treatment of effluents from poultry slaughterhouses. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 60, 219-225, 2007. [15] Bougrier C., Delgenès J.P., Carrère H. Impacts of thermal pre-treatments on the semi-continuous anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge. Biochemical Engineering Journal 34, 20-27, 2007. [16] Carrère H., Sialve B., Bernet N. Improving pig manure conversion into biogas by thermal and thermo-chemical pretreatments. Bioresource Technology 100, 3690–3694, 2009. [17] Naddeo V., Cesaro A., Amodio V., Belgiorno V. Anaerobic co-digestion of municipal solid waste with ultrasound pretreatment. Proc. of the 1st Int. Conf. On Environmental Science and Technology, edsT.D. Lekkas, Global NEST,: Chania, Crete, 3-6 September 2009. [18] Chen L., Li B., Li D., Gan J., Kitamura Y. Ultrasound-assisted hydrolysis and acidogenesis of solid organic wastes in a rotational drum fermentation system. Bioresource Technology 99, 8337-8343, 2008. [19] Hartmann H., Angelidaki I., Ahrin B.K. Co-digestion of the organic fraction of municipal waste with other waste types. Biomethanization of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste-IWA Publishing, 2003. [20] De Baere L. Will anaerobic digestion of solid waste survive in the future? Water, Science and Technology 53 (8), 187-194, 2006. [21] Schievano A., D’Imporzano G., Malagutti L., Fragali E., Ruboni G., Adani F. Evaluating inhibition conditions in high-solids anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste. In press on Bioresource Technology, 2010. [22] Source separated organic materials anaerobic digestion. Feasibility study. Report by Foth Infrastructure and Environment, LCC, 2009. [23] Lissens G., Vandevivere P., De Baere L., Biey E.M., Verstraete W. Solid waste digestors: process performance and practice for municipal solid waste digestion. waste. Water Science and Technology, 44, 91-102, 2001. [24] Themelis N.J. Anaerobic digestion of biodegradable organics in municipal solid wastes. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Science Degree in Earth Resources Engineering, 2002. [25] ROS Roca International www.rosroca.com [26] Bozano Gadolfi P. La valorizzazione della frazione organica dei rifiuti e delle biomasse con la tecnologia di digestione anaerobica BTA. Tecnologie e prospettive della produzione di energia da biomasse, 2006. [27] Monsal www.monsal.com


366 The Sustainable World [28] Bungay S. Operational experience of advanced anaerobic digestion. 14th European bio-solids and organic resources conference and exhibition, 2009. [29] Oleszkiewicz J.A., Poggi-Varaldo. High solids anaerobic digestion of mixed municipal and industrial wastes. Journal of Environmental Engineering 123, 1087-1092, 1997. [30] Bolzonella D., Pavan P., Mace S., Cecchi F. Dry anaerobic digestion of differently sorted organic municipal solid waste: a full scale experience. Water Science and Technology, 53 (8), 23-32, 2006. [31] Vandevivere P., De Baere L.,Verstraete W. Types of anaerobic digester for solid wastes. Biomethanization of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste-IWA Publishing, 2003. [32] Piccinini S. La digestione anaerobica dei rifiuti organici ed altre biomasse: la situazione e le prospettive in Italia. Il Compostaggio di qualità, Arvan s.r.l. - ISBN 88-87801-08-8, 2003. [33] Kirchmayr R., Mayer M., Braun R., Krismer M., Resch Ch. Anaerobic digestion of source sorted OFMSW and other co-substrates: status and experience in Austria. Biogas da frazioni organiche di rifiuti solidi urbani in miscela con altri substrati, 2007. [34] Edelmann W. Anaerobic digestion of source separated OFMSW and other cosubstrates: status and experience in Switzerland. Biogas da frazioni organiche di rifiuti solidi urbani in miscela con altri substrati, 2007. [35] Fruteau De Laclos H., Desbois S., Saint-Joly C. Anaerobic digestion of municipal solid organic waste: Valorga full-scale plant in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Water Science and Technology 36 (6-7), 457-462, 1997. [36] California Integrated Waste Management Board. Current Anaerobic Digestion Technologies Used for Treatment of Municipal Organic Solid Waste. March 2008. [37] Confalonieri A. La digestione anaerobica dei rifiuti urbani in Europa:un’indagine di settore, 2009.



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Electrodeposition of Zn-Mn alloys from recycling battery leach solutions in the presence of amines P. S. D. Brito1, S. Patrício1, L. F. Rodrigues1, D. M. F. Santos2 & C. A. C. Sequeira2 1 2

Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, Portugal Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract The recovery of metal ions by electrodeposition from solutions resulting from the lixiviation of spent Zn-MnO2 batteries was studied. It was attempted to optimise the electrodeposition process, the selectivity of ion-separation, the morphologic characteristics, and the anticorrosive and galvanic properties of metallic deposits. The simultaneous deposition of zinc and manganese on different ferrous substrates under various experimental conditions was tested. This allowed us to access the efficiency of the electrodeposition, the morphology and composition of the metallic deposits, as well as their performance as galvanic coating layers. The effect of amine additives, namely, of methylamine and ethylenediamine, on the properties of the coatings was also studied. It was shown that the amines with buffering or passivating effects improve the simultaneous deposition of Mn. Keywords: Zn-Mn electrodeposition, Zn-MnO2 battery recycling, electrolyte additives.

1 Introduction The growing quantity of spent Zn-MnO2 battery disposals is becoming a serious environmental problem. From an environmental point of view, recycling is the best choice to handle these residues. Recycling of metals present in the cells can be done either through hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processes. The hydrometallurgical process involving electrochemical zinc and manganese WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100341

368 The Sustainable World recovery by electrodeposition [1–4] is currently being studied in our laboratory [5]. Electrodeposition of zinc has been extensively used to produce protective anticorrosive coatings on iron and its alloys, reducing atmospheric corrosion on these metals. Protective effect is due to the formation of a passivation layer over the zinc surface and, on the other hand, to the galvanic sacrificial effect that zinc shows towards iron and its alloys [5]. Deposition of zinc alloys such as Zn-Ni, Zn-Co and Zn-Mn alloys have also found industrial applications for the improvement of anticorrosive properties of galvanic zinc layers on iron and its alloys [6–13]. Laboratory studies show that Zn-Mn alloys present better corrosion behaviour in saline environment than pure zinc layers [14, 15]. The increase in corrosion resistance was attributed to the formation of a passivating layer and of Mn2O3, which avoids oxygen reduction at the metallic surface. The effectiveness of the anticorrosive behaviour increases with the Mn content of the Zn-Mn superficial alloys, although alloys with 10% Mn are already effective [15]. Various factors interact on the morphology of the produced deposits. Temperature, pH and composition of bath solution, deposition current, and nature of substrate, all have an effect on the deposition mechanism, which explains the formation of deposits with different morphologies, textures, and aesthetic and anti-corrosive properties. For instance, if the deposition is performed at high temperature and at high current density, there is a significant increase in the nucleation density and in the film growth kinetics. Among the various factors that affect the mechanism of deposition and the morphology of deposited layers, the bath composition has a crucial influence, particularly the content in additives that limit unwanted secondary reactions caused by the presence of metallic cathodic contaminants [16–18]. A large set of additives has been studied to be used in different conditions and to achieve different goals. Surface active additives, such as polyacrylamines, thiourea, benzylideneacetone and coumarin [19–24] have been used to control the shape and size of deposited crystals to achieve smooth and shiny deposit layers. These additives act by adsorption on substrate surface, interfering with the charge transfer process and with the electrostatic interactions between charged species at the surface. This affects the growth process of metallic crystals through the reduction of nucleation rate and, consequently, the type and size of the formed crystalline structures. Other types of additives have been used to produce pure zinc layers by electrodeposition from sulphuric aqueous solutions that avoid or minimise the effect of co-deposition of metallic contaminants that contribute to the reduction of quality of produced layers and process efficiency itself. These include chemical species that promote the complexation of metallic impurities, therefore increasing the overpotential for their deposition. Glue and Arabic gum [25] have been used in industrial electrodeposition; however other substances have been studied for the same purpose with satisfactory results. Nonylphenol oxyethylene, polyethylene glycol and derivatives, quaternary amines, and EDTA [26–33] may be referred to as examples. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


369

This work presents a study on the effect of additives, namely, methylamine and ethylenediamine, on the simultaneous deposition of zinc and manganese alloy, using leaching solutions from the electrochemical recovery of zinc from spent Zn-MnO2 batteries. It is intended to optimise the electrodeposition process, selectivity of ion-separation, morphologic characteristics, and anticorrosive and galvanic properties of metallic deposits.

2 Experimental 2.1 Electrodeposition tests Laboratory electrodeposition tests were performed at constant current using three electrode cells, for 15, 30, 60, and 180 min. A Fluka current source of 100 mA and digital multimeters were used to control and monitor the electrodeposition process. 1 cm2 discs made of mild steel normally used in construction reinforcement bars were used as substrate. These discs were mounted in an epoxy resin block to keep the surface area constant and to isolate the copper wire electrical connections. Initially, working electrodes were polished mechanically with P1000 grain size sandpaper and washed with distilled water. Subsequently the electrodes were put in a 40 g/L NaOH solution at 60ºC during 2 min, then rinsed with distilled water, dried, and finally etched during 2 min in a 1:1 HCl solution. Prior to immersion in the electrolytic bath, electrodes were rinsed with distilled water and then dried. Following the electrodeposition process, the electrodes were washed with distilled water, dried, and weighted to determine the mass of deposited metal. A 316 L stainless steel mesh with an apparent surface area of 100 cm2 was used as the auxiliary electrode. The working electrode potential was measured against a Ag/AgCl, 1M KCl, reference electrode and monitored throughout the electrodeposition process. Various compositions of electrolytic baths were studied based on results of previous lixiviation tests. Results present in this work refer to tests performed with the plain lixiviation solution, composed of sulphuric acid with 9.3 g/L Zn2+, 9.7 g/L Mn2+, and 30 mg/L Fe3+, at pH = 2.15. Synthetic baths were prepared from pro-analysis sulphates of the respective metals. Tests were performed at 25ºC without any agitation of bath solutions. Influence of various additives on electrodeposition process and properties of obtained deposits were studied. Studied additives include 40 ppm methylamine and 40 ppm ethylenediamine. Current densities of 10, 20, and 30 mA/cm2 were tested. Elemental analysis of deposited layers was performed through Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (EDXRF) with a QuanX TN Spectrace device equipped with a rhodium lamp. The aim of these tests was to reach the quantitative and semi-quantitative characterisation of the deposit layers composition and determine the approximate Mn/Zn mass ratio. The obtained quantity and uniformity of the deposits was evaluated visually and an Elcometer® 456 thickness gauge was used to measure the deposit film thickness. The calculated film thickness is an average of 4 different measurements in different regions of the deposit surface. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

370 The Sustainable World The process efficiency was determined using the following expression, based on electrode mass variation due to electrodeposition:



mexp

mFaraday

 100

(1)

where Δmexp is the mass increase due to electrodeposition and ΔmFaraday is the mass increase calculated on the basis of Faraday’s law. 2.2 Electrochemical tests Obtained deposits were subjected to anodic polarisation in 3% (w/w) NaCl solutions using a three electrodes cell arrangement. A AEW2 Sycopel Scientific Potentiostat/Galvanostat controlled by a PC was used for the polarisation curves. Potential was scanned from the open circuit potential (OCP) till +1 V vs. Ag/AgCl, with a potential scan rate of 5 mV/s. Stability of obtained deposits was tested in long term immersion tests in 3% (w/w) NaCl solutions at 25ºC. During the immersion period linear polarisation resistance was determined periodically using the same cell arrangement already described and the AEW2 Sycopel Workstation®. A polarisation range of ±10 mV and a potential scan rate of 1 mV/s were used.

3 Results and discussion 3.1 Electrodeposition process Table 1 presents results obtained for the electrodeposition from the plain lixiviation solution (sulphuric acid solutions with 9.3 g/L Zn2+, 9.7 g/L Mn2+, and 30 mg/L Fe3+, at pH = 2.15 and T = 25ºC) and the plain solutions with additions of methylamine (40 ppm) and ethylenediamine (40 ppm), at different current densities and deposition times. Figure 1 presents the variation of working electrode potential during electrodeposition testing, at a current density of 20 mA/cm2, for the different lixiviation solutions. Results show that process efficiency tends to decease as the current density increases. This is due to the fact that for higher current densities there is a simultaneous hydrogen discharge, which could be confirmed visually during the experiments. The increase on hydrogen co-discharge at higher current densities causes an increase in the irregularities observed in the films formed at these current levels. In fact, hydrogen bubbles formation and subsequent detachment from the surface do not allow formation of deposits with high uniformity. Variations of the working electrode potential (vs. Ag/AgCl reference electrode) during the electrodeposition process (Figure 1) show that the electrode potential increases during electrodeposition as a consequence of the decrease on the overvoltage associated to the cathodic process, caused by a gradual increase in the deposition area. Indeed, if the electrodeposition area increases, current density diminishes and, consequently, it is expected that the cathodic overpotential decreases. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Table 1: Current density

371

Summary of results of the electrodeposition tests performed.

Time

Efficiency

(min)

(%)

2

(mA/cm )

Deposit thickness (m)

Mn/Zn

Deposit aspect

ratio

plain lixiviation bath

10 20 30

15 30 60 15 30 15

72 50 69 59 62 55

11.0 11.5 30.7 25.6 25.2 44.7

0.61 0.22 0.20 0.17 0.15 0.11

Uniform Uniform Uniform Uniform, but non adherent at edges Uniform, but non adherent at edges Uniform, but non adherent at edges

40 ppm methylamine

10 20 30

15 30 60 15 30 15

87 78 84 80 90 54

18.5 26.2 39.3 35.2 64.0 39.1

4.56 2.99 1.74 0.07 0.17 0.13

Uniform Uniform Uniform, but with some irregularities Uniform, but non adherent at edges Uniform, but non adherent at edges Uniform, but non adherent at edges

40 ppm ethylenediamine

10 20 30

15 30 60 15 30 15

84 80 85 30 75 50

17.7 24.6 43.5 27.2 43.8 25.3

3.30 2.70 0.27 0.20 0.24 0.17

Uniform Uniform Uniform, but with some irregularities Uniform, but non adherent at edges Uniform, but non adherent at edges Uniform, but non adherent at edges

Since the electrode potential varies during electrodeposition it causes a variation on the ratio of the electrodeposited amounts of Zn and Mn. The standard potential of the Mn2+/Mn couple is -1.402 V vs. Ag/AgCl, i.e., more negative than that of the Zn/Zn2+ couple, which is -0.982 V vs. Ag/AgCl. Therefore, electrodeposition at a lower polarisation (less negative potential) favours the formation of alloys with higher zinc content. This is confirmed by the observed Mn/Zn ratio in the deposits, as determined by EDXRF analysis (Table 1). These results show that, as the electrodeposition time increases, the Mn/Zn mass ratio decreases, i.e., the mass of deposited manganese decreases in relation to that of deposited zinc. On the other hand, results are consistent with a mechanism that assumes more tendency for Mn to deposit over Fe substrates than Zn does. That explains the relatively higher deposition of Mn at the initial stages of the process. The analysis of the variation of the Mn/Zn mass ratio with the applied current density shows that, as the current increases, there is a small decrease in the



a)

b) c)

Figure 1:

Variation of the working electrode potential during electrodeposition of Zn-Mn alloys at 20 mA/cm2: a) Plain lixiviation bath; b) 40 ppm methylamine; c) 40 ppm ethylenediamine.

Mn/Zn mass ratio. This limitation on the Mn deposition at higher currents could be related with a certain inhibitor effect caused by hydrogen liberation, as referred by some authors [27]. Another aspect to consider in the analysis of these results is the fact that Zn-Mn alloys formed by electrodeposition show necessarily a gradient of Mn/Zn mass ratio between the substrate and the external surface. This makes the alloys more rich in manganese at the interface with the iron substrate, and more rich in zinc at the external surface. This fact may have a negative influence on the anticorrosive behaviour of the alloys when used as corrosion resistant coating, since in case of a scratching failure, conditions for galvanic corrosion between the layers may be created. Electrodeposits of Zn-Mn alloys produced in baths with additions of amines, methylamine and ethylenediamine, generally display a behaviour similar to that described for electrodeposits obtained from plain sulphuric lixiviating baths. This is true, namely, in terms of the visual aspect, the fact that deposits produced at lower current densities show higher uniformity and homogeneity, the fact that the electrodeposition potential increases during the deposition process, and finally the fact that this potential decreases as the current density increases. However, there is a significant decrease of the electrodeposition potential when amines are present in the bath, as compared to the same parameter in the absence of amines. That means that there is a clear additive effect in the overpotential associated with the metallic reduction process when amines are present. This fact can be explained if it is assumed that amines produce a certain surface inhibition, which excludes part of the surface from the ionic discharge process. Since amines have an adsorption capacity, it is probable that the inhibiting effect results from some passivation of the substrate and the consequent formation of deposits over it. On the other hand, it was also observed that amines increased WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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the current efficiency of the deposition process (see Table 1). Thus, the results are consistent with an adsorption of amines at the electrode surface reducing the hydrogen discharge, so that the cathodic polarisation of hydrogen shifts more negative, therefore catalysing the deposition of zinc and manganese. Another aspect that deserves reference in the analysis of these results is concerned with the fact that the addition of amines seems to promote a significant increase in deposition of Mn relatively to the deposition of Zn. This increase in the deposition of Mn becomes more important as the electrodeposition process goes slower, that is, as current density decreases. This observation is in agreement with the proposed mechanism, since as the electrodeposition overpotential increases (lower electrode potentials), it also increases the tendency for the Mn deposition. This behaviour is probably due to the formation of a more stable complex compound between the amines and Zn2+ than with Mn2+. These results also confirm that amines improve the production of thicker deposit coatings, implying an increase in the efficiency of the electrodeposition process (see Table 1). 3.2 Corrosion behaviour Table 2 presents values of corrosion potentials (Ecorr) and corrosion currents (icorr) of steel samples coated with Zn-Mn deposit layers and steel samples without any coating immersed in a 3% NaCl solution at 25ºC. The corrosion current was determined by the Stern-Geary equation assuming a value of 0.026 V for the parameter B:

a c E B   I app 2.3  icorr  a   c  icorr

(2)

As it can be seen, corrosion potentials of mild steel coated with Zn-Mn alloy by electrodeposition are all of the order of -1 V vs. Ag/AgCl, except that of the steel sample coated with the alloy with the highest Mn content (electrodeposition at 10 mA/cm2 for 15 min) that shows a more negative value closer to the Mn2+/Mn standard potential. The lower the corrosion potential, the higher the galvanic and protection effect of the coating. Figure 2 shows anodic polarisation curves, including the backward scanning, of the steel surfaces, coated with Zn-Mn alloy layers obtained from the plain lixiviation bath and the plain solutions with additions of methylamine (40 ppm) and ethylenediamine (40 ppm), immersed in a 3% NaCl solutions at 25ºC. All curves display a similar behaviour showing a spike with a current intensity that is proportional to the thickness of the deposit layer. The reduction of current following the peak could be explained by the attempt of passivation by the iron substrate. This hypothesis is corroborated by the fact that no peak appears during the backward scanning. These results show that, when compared with deposits produced without any additive, deposits formed in baths with amines display higher polarisation of the anodic dissolution process in test salt solutions, which is positive in terms of their anticorrosive behaviour. On the other hand, it can be seen that the polarisation resistance of the coatings with higher Mn content is also higher. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Corrosion characteristics of samples immersed in 3% NaCl solutions.

Current density 2

(mA/cm )

Plain steel

10

20 30

Figure 2:

Plain lixiviation bath

40 ppm methylamine

40 ppm ethylenediamine

Time (min)

Ecorr

icorr

Ecorr

icorr

Ecorr

icorr

(V vs. Ag/AgCl)

(mA/cm2)

(V vs. Ag/AgCl)

(mA/cm2)

(V vs. Ag/AgCl)

(mA/cm2)

-

-0.54

-

-

-

-

-

15

-1.13

0.68

-1.10

0.35

-1.15

0.45

30

-0.99

0.70

-1.05

0.50

-1.08

0.62

60

-0.98

0.93

-1.98

0.61

-0.93

1.37

15

-1.00

0.58

-0.93

1.63

-0.95

1.81

30

-0.99

1.50

-0.89

3.47

-0.92

1.66

15

-1.01

2.20

-0.91

2.10

-0.91

4.91

Polarisation curves of steel samples coated with Zn-Mn alloy electrodeposited from sulphuric baths, immersed in 3% NaCl solutions, at 25ºC, and at 20 mA/cm2: a) Plain lixiviation bath; b) 40 ppm methylamine; c) 40 ppm ethylenediamine.

Since the electrodeposition with amines increases the Mn content of the coatings, the explanation of the increased of corrosion resistance is associated to the formation of a rich manganese surface alloy. It was reported that a Zn-Mn alloy with a manganese content of approximately 30% shows the highest corrosion resistance [12]. This highest corrosion resistance has been associated with the formation of a monophasic structure of the coating. Boshkov [15] studied the influence of bath composition on the corrosion behaviour of Zn-Mn coatings and reported that alloys with manganese contents around 11% had a higher corrosion resistance due to a formation of monophasic structure. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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Manganese atoms are randomly distributed in this monophasic structure and dissolve first under corrosion attack as Mn2+ ions, causing evolution of hydrogen and, consequently, a slight increase of the pH value. At these conditions, zinc hydroxide chloride monohydrate (ZHC) forms as a compact layer covering almost the whole surface. A clear conclusion is that the presence of Mn in Zn electrodeposits contributes to better anticorrosive and protective performance of mild steels in saline environments. In summary, the produced alloys display higher anodic dissolution overpotentials (see figure 2) and higher polarisation potentials, with a clear positive influence on anticorrosive properties of these coatings. This effect can be explained by the fact that there is a relative increase in the Mn content of the produced alloy in this case, when compared with the coatings produced by electrodeposition without any additive. The amines facilitate manganese incorporation, limit hydrogen evolution reaction, and prevent the dendrite growth that leads to porous deposits. Thus, the additive improves the visual appearance of the coatings and leads to the formation of adherent and compact layers with high percentage of manganese.

4 Conclusion The obtained results allow the following conclusions: - Lixiviation solutions resulting from the hydrometallurgical treatment of spent domestic batteries, mainly, Zn-MnO2-batteries, can increase their value directly as electrodeposition baths of zinc alloys; - Quality of deposits produced from this lixiviation solutions depends strongly on the magnitude of the electrodeposition current: homogeneous and uniform deposit layers with good anticorrosive properties are obtained, preferentially, at low current densities; - Mn/Zn mass ratios in the produced deposit layers suffer an influence of electrodeposition current densities, electrodeposition duration, and of the presence of additives in the electrodeposition baths. Lower electrodeposition currents and shorter electrodeposition durations benefit the deposition of Mn in relation to Zn; - Buffering and passivating additives having adsorption effect, such as methylamine and ethylenediamine, also benefit the deposition of Mn; - Addition of methylamine and ethylenediamine to the electrodeposition baths contributes to the production of deposit coatings with better anticorrosive performances; - Methylamine reveals a better corrosion performance than ethylenediamine; - The increase in Mn contents of the electrodeposited coating layer reveals beneficial anticorrosive effects to mild steel in saline environments.



Acknowledgement The authors thank the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Technology and Science (Project: POCTI/CTA/46315/2002).

References [1] J. Han, M. Cui, M. Yang, L. Pan, “Recycling spent zinc manganese dioxide batteries through synthesizing Zn–Mn ferrite magnetic materials”, Journal of Hazardous Materials, B133, 257–261, 2006 [2] M. Freitas, M. Pietre, “Deposit morphology of the zinc recovery by electrodeposition, from the spent Zn–MnO2 batteries”, Journal of Power Sources, 143, 270–274, 2005 [3] M. Freitas, V. Pegoretti, M. Pietre, “Recycling manganese from spent ZnMnO2 primary batteries”, Journal of Power Sources 164, 2007, 947–952 [4] M. Freitas, M. Pietre, “Electrochemical recycling of the zinc from spent Zn–MnO2 batteries”, Journal of Power Sources 128, 343–349, 2004 [5] P. Brito, L. Rodrigues, T. Nabais, C. Sequeira, D. Santos, “Corrosion behaviour of Zn electrodeposits from spent Zn–MnO2 batteries”, Eurocorr 2007, Freiburg, Germany, 2007 [6] J. Fei, G. Wilcox, “Electrodeposition of zinc–nickel compositionally modulated multilayer coatings and their corrosion behaviours”, Surface & Coatings Technology, 200, 3533– 3539, 2006 [7] I. Rodriguez-Torres, G. Valentin, F. Apicque, “Electrodeposition of zincnickel alloys from ammonia-containing baths”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 29, 1035-1044, 1999 [8] G. Roventi, T. Bellezze, R. Fratesi, “Electrochemical study on the inhibitory effect of the underpotential deposition of zinc on Zn–Co alloy electrodeposition”, Electrochimica Acta, 51, 2691–2697, 2006 [9] P. Chena, C. Hussey, “The electrodeposition of Mn and Zn–Mn alloys from the room-temperature tri-1-butylmethylammonium bis((trifluoromethane) sulfonyl)imide ionic liquid”, Electrochimica Acta, 52, 1857–1864, 2007 [10] Z. Ortiz, P. Díaz-Arista, Y. Meas, R. Ortega-Borges, G. Trejo, “Characterization of the corrosion products of electrodeposited Zn, Zn–Co and Zn–Mn alloys coatings”, Corrosion Science, 51, 2703–2715, 2009 [11] N. Boshkov, K. Petrov, D. Kovacheva, S. Vitkova, S. Nemskab, “Influence of the alloying component on the protective ability of some zinc galvanic coatings”, Electrochimica Acta, 51, 77–84, 2005 [12] S. Shivakumara, Y. Naik, G. Achary, H. Sachin, T. Venkatesha, “Influence of condensation product on electrodeposition of Zn-Mn alloy on steel”, Indian Journal of Chemical Technology, 15, 29–35, 2008 [13] M. Mouanga, L. Ricq, P. Berçot, “Effects of thiourea and urea on zinc– cobalt electrodeposition under continuous current”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 38, 231–238, 2008 [14] D. Sylla, C. Savall, M. Gadouleau, C. Rebere, J. Creus, Ph. Refait, “Electrodeposition of Zn–Mn alloys on steel using an alkaline WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


[15] [16] [17] [18]

[19] [20]

[21]

[22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]

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pyrophosphate-based electrolytic bath”, Surface & Coatings Technology, 200, 2137– 2145, 2005 N. Boshkov, “Galvanic Zn–Mn alloys-electrodeposition, phase composition, corrosion behaviour and protective ability”, Surface and Coatings Technology, 172, 2, 217-226), 2003 J. Silva, V. Lins, “Crystallographic texture and morphology of an electrodeposited zinc layer”, Surface & Coatings Technology, 200, 2892 – 2899, 2006 T. Hilber, P. Letonja, R. Marr, P. Pölt, M. Siebenhofer, “Formation of Submicron Zinc Particles by Electrodeposition“, Particle & Particle Systems Characterization, 19, 342-347, 2002 O. Devos, O. Aaboubi, J. Chopart, E. Merienne, A. Olivier, C. Gabrielli, B. Tribollet, “EIS Investigation of Zinc Electrodeposition in Basic Media at Low Mass Transfer Rates Induced by a Magnetic Field”, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 103, 496-501, 1999 A. Gomes, M. Pereira, “Zn electrodeposition in the presence of surfactants Part I. Voltammetric and structural studies”, Electrochimica Acta, 52, 863– 871, 2006 K. Youssef, C. Koch, P. Fedkiw, “Influence of Additives and Pulse Electrodeposition Parameters on Production of Nanocrystalline Zinc from Zinc Chloride Electrolytes”, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 151, C103, 2004 P. Diaz-Arista, Y. Meas, R. Ortega, G. Trejo, “Electrochemical and AFM study of Zn electrodeposition in the presence of benzylideneacetone in a chloride-based acidic bath“, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 35, 217, 2005 D. MacKinnon, J. Brannen and R. Morrison, “The effect of thiourea on zinc electrowinning from industrial acid sulphate electrolyte”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 18, 252, 1988 M. Mouanga, L. Ricq, G. Douglade, J. Douglade, P. Berçot, “Influence of coumarin on zinc electrodeposition”, Surface & Coatings Technology, 201, 762–767, 2006 M. Mouanga a, L. Ricq, J. Douglade, P. Berçot, “Corrosion behaviour of zinc deposits obtained under pulse current electrodeposition: Effects of coumarin as additive”, Corrosion Science, 51, 690–698, 2009 D. MacKinnon, J. Brannen, P. Fenn, “Characterization of impurity effects in zinc electrowinning from industrial acid sulphate electrolyte”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 17, 1129, 1987 A. Hosny, “Electrowinning of zinc from electrolytes containing anti-acid mist surfactant”, Hydrometallurgy, 32, 261-269, 1993 J. Ballesteros, P. Díaz-Arista, Y. Meas, R. Ortega, G. Trejo, “Zinc electrodeposition in the presence of polyethylene glycol 20000”, Electrochimica Acta, 52, 3686-3696, 2007 B. Tripathy, S. Das, P. Singh, G.T. Hefter, “Zinc electrowinning from acidic sulphate solutions. Part III: Effects of quaternary ammonium bromides”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 29, 1229-1235, 1999 WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

378 The Sustainable World [29] E. Oliveira, I. Carlos, “Voltammetric and morphological characterization of zinc electrodeposition from acid electrolytes containing boric–polyalcohol complexes”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 38, 1203–1210, 2008 [30] Q. Zhang, Y. Hua, T. Dong, D. Zhou, “Effects of temperature and current density on zinc electrodeposition from acidic sulfate electrolyte with [BMIM]HSO4 as additive”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 39, 1207– 1216, 2009 [31] Q. Zhang, Y. Hua, “Effects of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate-[BMIM]HSO4 on zinc electrodeposition from acidic sulfate electrolyte”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 39, 261–267, 2009 [32] C. Müller, M. Sarret, T. Andreu, “Electrodeposition of Zn-Mn Alloys at Low Current Densities”, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 149, C600-C606, 2002 [33] D. Sylla, C. Rebere, M. Gadouleau, C. Savall, J. Creus, P. Refait, “Electrodeposition of Zn–Mn alloys in acidic and alkaline baths. Influence of additives on the morphological and structural properties”, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 35, 1133–1139, 2005



379

Environmental impacts of improper solid waste management in developing countries: a case study of Rawalpindi City N. Ejaz, N. Akhtar, H. Nisar & U. Ali Naeem University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila, Pakistan

Abstract Solid waste damps are seriously spoiling the environmental conditions in developing countries. Negative environmental impacts from improper solid waste dumping can be easily observed everywhere in the developing world. In Pakistan, due to a lack of proper planning and funding, the solid waste management scenario is becoming worse day by day. To highlight the main causes of improper solid waste management in developing countries, Rawalpindi city is selected as a case study. This city is facing miserable solid waste management crises due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and insufficient funding. Improper solid waste dumps are spreading different diseases in the study area. It is investigated during the research that due to rapid growth in population, increments in solid waste generation rate, management deficiencies, lack of legislative implementation and funding, the solid waste management systems of Rawalpindi are not working effectively. The major causes for the inefficient municipal solid waste management systems in Rawalpindi are the unintended invasion of the city, severe weather conditions, lack of social awareness/community involvement, improper resources including improper equipment and lack of funds. An inefficient municipal solid waste management system may create serious negative environmental impacts like infectious diseases, land and water pollution, obstruction of drains and loss of biodiversity. Keywords: solid waste management, Rawalpindi City, environmental impacts, land pollution.



1 Solid waste management scenario in developing countries Solid waste management systems cover all actions that seek to reduce the negative impacts on health, environment and economy. Developing countries are seriously facing the associated problems in collection, transportation and disposal of communal solid waste. In Pakistan, due to unplanned communities and developments in major cities, environmental and sanitary conditions are becoming very complex [1]. Due to a lack of awareness and low income sources, dwellers are forced to live with unhealthy and unhygienic conditions. An improper solid waste management system may contribute to a worsening environmental degradation of the community. Illegal dumping of communal solid waste is responsible for a number of diseases in Pakistan. Per capita, solid waste generation in developing countries is increasing annually due to an urbanization trend. Prototype and density of metropolitan areas, the physical composition of waste, density of waste, temperature and precipitation, scavenger’s activity for recyclable separation, treatment capacity, insufficiency and limited resources are making tasks very tough for the administration authority in developing countries. Due to diverse life styles in communities, development authorities are not able to offer analogous type of solid waste management system for different communities, therefore in Pakistan a lot of abnormal solid waste management systems are working. Collection efficiency of the existing solid waste systems in Pakistan is very low due to a lack of storage bins and improper management system. Open dumping, open burning and un-engineered sanitary landfills are common practice throughout the country. Due to improper solid waste disposal and collection systems dwellers are facing serious negative environmental impacts in developing countries [1]. In Pakistan, according to the Ministry of the Environment, about 54,850 tons of solid waste is being generated on daily basis in urban areas, less than 60 percent of this generated solid waste is being collected properly. According to the same department there is no city in Pakistan having proper waste collection and disposal system for municipal and hazardous wastes.

2 Solid waste management issues in Rawalpindi City Many negative impacts due to improper solid waste management can be seen in Rawalpindi city. Insufficient funding and lack of solid waste management planning can be observed in the following figure 1. It can be observed from figure 1(a) that the collected solid waste is being transported in an open body tractor trolley and in figure 1(b) it is worth mentioning that in some areas of Rawalpindi city, collected solid waste is being dumped on the ground which is totally unhygienic. Masonry bins in the Rawalpindi city are also of great concern for the solid waste management authorities.



(a) Figure 1:

381

(b)

Transportation of collected waste through open body trucks.

2.1 Associated negative environmental impacts due to improper solid waste management in Rawalpindi City During investigation it was concluded that improper solid waste management systems in Rawalpindi City are resulting following negative impacts on the environment:  Dispersed solid waste from the illegal open dumps often blocks the drains and sewers as shown in figure 2. Ultimately these blockages are creating flooding and unhygienic conditions in the city.

Figure 2: 

Blocked drains due to solid waste dumps.

Flies breeding are directly linked with open solid waste dumps. During the filed investigation it was observed that during summer the flies are increasing their population so rapidly due to these waste dumps and they are very effectual vectors that spread disease in the community.


382 The Sustainable World 



   

 

      

Associated to the above problems, blocked drains and wastewater flooding in the city due to blocked drains are greatly supporting the mosquitoes breed and they are spreading the malaria and dengue in the Rawalpindi City. Proportion of food waste in open dumps and waste drains are providing an attractive shelter for rats. It was also reported that these rats are spreading disease, damaging electrical cables and other materials in the study area. The open burning of collected solid waste causing air pollution issues in Rawalpindi city. Uncollected solid wastes from few locations in the city are degrading the urban environment and discouraging efforts to keep streets and open spaces clean. Discarded polythene bags in collected solid waste from Rawalpindi city are generating an aesthetic nuisance and they may also cause the death of grazing animals which eat them [2]. Due to a lack of health and safety facilities to the waste collection crew in Rawalpindi city, they are specifically facing occupational hazards, including strains from lifting, injuries from sharp objects and traffic accidents. Open dumps on the roadside and heavily sized solid waste storage containers are also creating traffic blockage in the study area. The city government is not providing separate waste collection facilities. As a result, a lot of dangerous items (such as broken glass, razor blades, hypodermic needles and other healthcare wastes, aerosol cans and potentially explosive containers and chemicals from industries) may cause risks of injury or poisoning, particularly to scavengers and school going children [3]. Open body trucks are being used for the collection of solid wastes in Rawalpindi city without covers. This practice is totally unhygienic. Heavy solid waste collection vehicles are causing significant damage to the road. Different segregated solid waste materials, such as plastic bottles and medical supplies, are not being properly cleaned or sterilized by local scavengers. During rainy seasons, produced leachate from the open dumped sites is causing serious pollution to water bodies in Rawalpindi city. A high percentage of collected solid waste from Rawalpindi city is being treated or disposed of in unsatisfactory ways, causing a severe aesthetic nuisance in terms of smell and manifestation. Liquids and fumes, escaping from deposits of chemical wastes are creating fatal or other serious effects to the community [4]. Illegal burning of collected solid waste in Rawalpindi city is creating serious negative impacts on outdoor air quality. Furthermore, it is also causing illness and reducing visibility.



383

2.2 Solid waste collection practices in Rawalpindi City In Rawalpindi city, solid waste is being collected through the deployment of sweepers and sanitary crew [5]. These workers are collecting the solid waste from the streets with the help of wheel barrows and hand carts. Solid waste is being temporarily collected in containers/dumpsites from where it is transported by the help of collection vehicles and carried out to final disposal sites. Solid waste collection efficiency is not uniform in remote areas of Rawalpindi city. It was also observed during field visits that collection bins, number of containers and collection vehicles are not sufficient to maintain the city solid waste management system properly. In Pakistan, different solid waste collection systems are in practice [6]. Generated solid waste from the main cities is mostly collected by municipal authorities and representing diverse collection efficiency throughout the country, depending upon various factors [7]. Especially in remote areas of Pakistan, municipal authorities are not providing any facility for the collection and disposal of solid wastes [9, 10]. In these remote areas scavenging by people and animals, natural biodegradation of organic wastes, burning at the initial point of disposal, and local self-help are well known solid waste disposal practices [3, 11, 12]. In Rawalpindi city, the collection rate of generated solid waste ranges from 51% to 69% [5]. The remaining uncollected waste, approximately 30 to 50%, remains on streets and in open spaces. The high percentage of uncollected solid waste is seriously polluting the environment and causes the blockages of drains in the study area.

3 Exiting solid waste management systems for Rawalpindi and their drawbacks The City District Government Rawalpindi, and Rawalpindi Development Authority are providing solid waste collection and disposal facilities through sanitation crews. The management staff of Rawalpindi municipal committee comprises sanitary inspectors and chief sanitary inspectors who supervise the collection and disposal of solid waste and offer guidelines to their junior staff. During the field visit it was also observed that the spaces near the communal storage facilities are completely littered around, as shown in figure 3. From figure 3, it is clearly presenting that most of the people have a habit of throwing the solid waste from a distance to the communal storage bins that present a view of spilled over garbage. Total numbers of collection vehicles for the Rawalpindi City are not sufficient. Collected data from the municipal authorities is presenting that initially, 3 trips/vehicle/day were designed but at present due to traffic jamming and dense population trend in Rawalpindi city,



Figure 3:

Unhygienic conditions around storage facilities.

these vehicles are not capable of achieving the design value. The City District Government has arranged 200 numbers of containers for 57 zones of Rawalpindi city. These municipal authorities are handling up to 50% of these allocated containers in a single day. The City District Government Rawalpindi is also supervising different solid waste management projects like Solid Waste Environmental Enhancement Project (SWEEP) for the betterment of the city [4]. This project is being sponsored by UNDP. The main objective of this project is to involve all the stakeholders to participate in various activities of primary collection of municipal solid waste. This practice may effectively improve the collection and management efficiency of municipal authorities. This project was aiming to enhance the solid waste collection efficiency and improvement of transportation and disposal system. It is also anticipated that the proper implementation of the SWEEP project will enhance community participation at a grassroots level, generating an additional source of income for low-income communities through segregation at source [5]. 3.1 Disposal practices Unfortunately, at present Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation have no appropriate landfill or waste disposal site. Open dumping, open burning and dumping of solid wastes to un-engineered landfill sites is being practiced in Rawalpindi city. Unhygienic open dump site in the vicinity of Rawalpindi city is shown in figure 4. Other types of dangerous wastes like chemical and hospital wastes are also not disposed of properly.



Figure 4:

385

Open dumps of solid waste in the vicinity of Rawalpindi city.

3.2 Serious environmental issues in study area due to open dumping Open dumps of municipal solid waste are creating serious negative impacts on environment in Rawalpindi city [8]. Following negative impacts are being observed in Rawalpindi city due to open dumping of solid waste: 

Dust and Filthy Dirt: Strong wind and storm are spreading dust and filth from the open dumps of solid waste to adjacent areas.



Odor: Nearby areas to the open dump sites is being affected due to odor emitting from these dumps.



Rats and other Vermin: Open dumps of communal solid waste are providing attractive habitat to rats and other vermin.



Toxic Gases: Toxic gases are continuously exposed to the atmosphere.



Leachate: Percolating rainwater through contaminating ground water resources.



Health and Sanitation: Open dumps of solid waste are a serious threat to human health and sanitation.

the

open

dump

3.3 Serious environmental issues in study area due to open burning It was observed during the field visit that solid waste collected at the communal bins is burnt. The local dwellers were complaining that burning of dumped solid waste is a common practice and creating drastic air pollution as shown in figure 5.



Figure 5:

Open burning of dumped solid waste.

4 Conclusions Most of the developing countries are not able to provide proper facilities for collection and disposal of communal solid waste to whole population. In Rawalpindi city, solid waste is being dumped openly along roadsides. Like other cities of Pakistan, in Rawalpindi, diverse solid waste management systems are in practice. Open dumps are responsible for the blockage of drains, breeding of flies and spread of epidemic diseases. Due to lack of proper equipment and funding, the present solid waste management system is insufficient for Rawalpindi city. Remote areas of the city are mostly ignored and the collection efficiency is very low. Hospital and other hazardous waste materials are being treated as ordinary waste. Considering the overall negative impacts associated with open dumping and open burning, these practices must be strongly discharged.

References [1] Engineering Planning and Management Consultant, “Data collection of national study on privatization of solid waste management in eight cities of Pakistan” 1996 [2] George Tchobanoglous, Hilary Theisen, and Samuel A. Vigil, “Integrated Solid Waste Management” McGraw Hill edition. [3] Davis & Cornwell, “Introduction to Environmental Engineering” Second Edition, McGraw Hill [4] Akio, “Domestic Solid Waste Management in Pakistan” Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), Pakistan, 2002. [5] An Introduction to Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation”. Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation, 1997. [6] Hashmi H. N., Malik N. E., and Shah N. S., “Solid Waste Management In Peshawar”, International Conference, ESDev 2007, COMSATS Abbottabad, 26-28 August 2007, Volume-I, page 999-1006



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[7] Hashmi H. N., Malik N. E., and Hussain J., “Environmental Degradation Due To Improper Sanitary Landfills And Open Dumps Of Municipal Solid Waste”, International Conference, ESDev 2007, COMSATS Abbottabad, 26-28 August 2007, Volume-I, page 99-998. [8] Summera Fahmi Khan, Naeem Ejaz, and Mehwish Taseer, “Impacts Of Municipal Solid Waste Open Dumps On Environment”, International Conference, ESDev 2007, COMSATS Abbottabad, 26-28 August 2007, Volume-I, page727-730 [9] Naila Saleem, Malik N. E., and Naushad Z., “Negative Impacts of Discarded Polythene Bags on Environment”, International Conference, ESDev 2007, COMSATS Abbottabad, 26-28 August 2007, Volume-I, page 973-980 [10] Hashmi H. N., Malik N. E., and Naushad Z., “Environmental Benefits of Composting Plants in Pakistan”, International Conference, ESDev 2007, COMSATS Abbottabad, 26-28 August 2007, Volume-I, page 919-92 [11] Hashmi H. N., Malik N. E., and Usman Ali., “Environmental Impacts Of Improper Municipal Solid Waste Management”, International Conference, ESDev 2007, COMSATS Abbottabad, 26-28 August 2007, Volume-I, page 963-972 [12] H. Nisar, N. Ejaz, Z. Naushad, Z. Ali “Impacts of solid waste management in Pakistan: a case study of Rawalpindi city” Waste Management and the Environment IV, 2008, Wessex Institute of Technology Press




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Effect of bacterial additives on the performance of septic tanks for wastewater treatment in the Upper Egypt rural area H. T. El-Zanfaly1, A. Mostafa2, M. Mostafa2 & I. Fahim3 1

National Research Center, Water Pollution Control Department, Egypt National Institute for Housing and Buildings, Egypt 3 Sanitary Waste Company, Egypt 2

Abstract A mixture of five selected, adapted, enzyme active producer bacterial species has been used as an additive to septic tanks in order to test its ability to increase treatment efficiency. Regarding the septic tanks receiving waste with medium load, the maximum removal was achieved at day thirty and showed ranges for removal % reaching 91.3–94.4, 93–95.8, 90–91.7, 75–87, and 99.95–99.99 for COD, BOD5, TSS, oil and grease and total coliforms, respectively. Septic tanks without bacterial additives were able to show removal % ranged as 79.3–88.5, 80–85.5, 75.1–83, 28–41.7 and 98.5–99.85 for the same parameters. Septic tanks that receiving influent with high load of pollutants, the maximum removal was achieved during the period of day 36–42 after addition of bacteria. The removal percentages for COD, BOD5, TSS, oil and grease and total coliform were ranged as 93.8–97.2, 94.5–97.0, 94.0–97.9; 64.0–93.8; 99.81–99.99, respectively. Septic tanks without bacterial additives showed percentages of removal ranged as: 64.7–87.2, 73.4– 89.6, 56.7–86.9, 34.6–45, and 92.8–99.28 for COD, BOD5, TSS, oil and grease and total coliforms, respectively. Keywords: wastewater treatment, Egyptian rural area, septic tanks, bacterial additives.

1 Introduction Septic tanks/soil absorption systems are an option to consider wherever a centralized treatment system is not available. It has been the most popular on-site WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100361

390 The Sustainable World method [1]. The septic tank is an underground, watertight vessel installed to receive wastewater from the home. It is designed to allow the solids to settle out and separate from the liquid, to allow for limited digestion of organic matter, and to store the solids while the clarified liquid is passed on for further biological, physical and chemical reactions through the subsurface wastewater infiltrations system. Collected solids undergo some decay by anaerobic digestion in the tank bottom and depending on the activity of natural microorganisms that exist in the waste with minimal human intervention. Scum and grease float to the surface and the baffles keep it out of the soil absorption system. If an excessive amount of sludge is allowed to collect in the bottom of the septic tank, wastewater will not spend a sufficient time in the tank before flowing into the soil. Depending on the retention time of liquids in the septic tank, further biological treatment is expected from the natural microorganism existed. Clarified septic tank effluent exits the septic tank and enters the soil absorption system where a biological biomat forms, contributing to even distribution of the waste into the soil [2]. The character of wastewater flowing into the soil absorption area is a critical variable for proper functioning of septic system. Soil absorption systems work most effectively when the influent does not contain significant levels of settleable solids, greases and fats. To avoid infiltration soil clogging by grease and scum, outlet baffles are suggested. Also, the use of two-compartment tanks recommended over single-compartment design. Absorption beds and trenches are the most common design options for soil absorption systems [1]. Since digestion of wastes in septic tanks is performed biologically, it is a temperature dependent process and colder temperature as well as the addition of toxic substances (as detergents, bleaching agents, acids, solvents, etc.) which may hinder the effective biological breakdown of wastes in septic tanks [3, 4] and cause septic tank upset. In addition, other cases such as when someone in the home is on chemotherapy for an extended period of time and the unused septic tanks for long period or the high loads of the hard biodegradable materials, may destroy or stress the biological activity in the septic tank. Under all these conditions, it is possible to suggest the addition of biological additives in the form of enzymes or microorganisms to help speed the re-establishment of biological activities. Failure of systems to adequately treat wastewater may be related to inadequate site, inappropriate installation, or neglectful operation. Hydraulic overloading has been identified as a major cause of system failure [5]. Septic systems can act as sources of nitrogen, phosphorus, organic matter, and microbial pathogens, which can have potentially serious environmental and health impacts [6]. Since septic wastewater contains various nitrogen compounds Brown, installation of septic systems in areas that are densely developed can, in combination with other factors, result in the introduction of nitrogen contaminants into groundwater. Groundwater impacts can occur even when soil conditions are favorable because the unsaturated aerobic treatment zone located beneath the drain-field promotes conversion of wastewater-borne nitrogen to nitrates. If nitrate contamination of groundwater is a concern in the rejoin, WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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control methods or denitrifying technologies may be required for safe operation of a septic system. Conventional septic systems are designed to operate indefinitely if properly maintained. However, because most household systems are not well maintained, the functioning life of septic systems is typically 20 years or less [8].

2 Materials and methods 2.1 Septic tanks Septic tanks had been modified by some organizations as on-site, simple and low cost wastewater treatment system in a group of villages in Upper Egypt. The modified septic tank, as shown in Fig. 1, consists of the same main components of the traditional one and represented by: a-entrance chamber b-sedimentation space c-distribution chamber d-outlet chamber There are anaerobic filter contained two layers of gravel. The bottom layer contained gravel (40–60 mm in diameter) of two third of the depth. The top layer contained gravel (20–40 mm in diameter). According to the design criteria, the retention time, is ranged as 1–3 days according to the tank type.

Figure 1: Typical modified septic tank. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

392 The Sustainable World The experimental work was executed on two types of modified septic tanks. The 1st type which receiving waste with medium organic load and serving 10 persons. The sedimentation chamber has the capacity of 2.4 m3 (L= 2m, W = 1 m and D = 1.2 m), with retention time of 3 days. There was only one filter chamber with dimensions as, L 2 = 1 m, W = 1 m and D = 1 m. The 2nd type of septic tanks receiving wastes with high organic load and serving 200 persons (about 40 families). The sedimentation chamber with a capacity of 35.5 m3, and has dimensions as L = 13 m, W= 1.7 m, and D = 1.8 m., with 2.2 days as retention time. There are two filter chambers each with dimensions of L = 1.5 m, W = 1.7 m and D = 1.2 m. The bacterial additives were added to the wastewater inside the distribution chamber and before the gravel filter as a ratio of the quantity of the wastewater found in the sedimentation chamber. 2.2 Bacterial cultures From sewage samples collected from septic tanks, 800 bacterial isolates were isolated, purified by streaking on tryptic soy agar medium and microscopically examined to ensure its purity. All the isolates were assayed for their enzymatic activity using different substrates and focusing on: protease, amylase, lipase, esterase, cellulase, xylanase and urease production. Two hundred and forty isolates were selected according to their high enzyme production activity and only 158 of them that were able to show stability in activity through twenty times of sub-culturing. Adaptation program was carried out on those 158 isolates through testing their ability to produce the mentioned enzymes at different temperature and pH values. Only 78 isolates that was able to show the ability to produce enzymes at wide range of temperature (10–55oC) and pH values (4–10). Stability of the characters was tested by sequential culturing program using media containing sewage and finally only 23 isolates that could pass the screening tests. The Analytical Profile Index (API) identification system was followed and showed that the last 23 isolates could be grouped as belonging to 5 bacillus species. One strain of each species was selected, cultured on tryptic soy agar slants and kept in the refrigerator as stock culture to be used in the present study. Two days before the experiment, the five strains were inoculated in nutrient broth and incubated at 37oC for 24 hr. The cultured strains were centrifuged at 4500 rpm for 10 min and the sediment from every 1 liter culture was collected separately in sterile bottle and kept in the refrigerator. The sediments were transported to the site of the experiment in icebox. Every septic tanks gravel filters were seeded with the culture sediments (the sediment resulted from 1 liter of culture/m3 of tank capacity). 2.3 Sampling Samples from the effluent from the septic tank under study before and after inoculation the mixture bacterial strains were collected in sterile glass bottles and transported in icebox to the laboratory for bacteriological and chemical examinations. The parameters were determined according to the Standard WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater APHA [9], and included: total coliforms MPN/100, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS) and oil and grease.

3 Results and discussion The application of bacteria for sewage treatment in septic tanks should ensure that it was conducted close to the recommendations prescribed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [1, 8, 10] for minimizing the environmental and/or user risk. U.S. EPA standards ensure that the number of microorganisms emitted from the site where microorganisms are used is minimized. It does not specify specific limits for the emitted microorganisms. EPA specified that the introduced genetic material, in case of genetic engineered stains, must be limited in size to reduce the risk of introduction uncharacterized genetic material. In the present study, the used strains were selected from the natural habitat which have high rate of enzymatic activity as well as it can grew at wide range of pH and temperature and not genetically engineered strains. Although direct monitoring data are unavailable, worst case do not suggest high levels of the public exposure resulting from the application of these bacteria in well designed and maintained septic tanks. However, human exposure via dermal and ingestion routes as well as release to the environment may occur if the effluent from the treated septic tanks is discharged on an open area or directly on surface water. In the present study, the used strains were isolated from sewage and exist as common organisms in soil and ubiquitous nature. They are neither nonpathogenic nor toxigenic [11, 12]. For example, when B. licheniformis enter the human digestive system, it is not able to colonize to any large degree. However, if challenged by large numbers of this micro-organism, it may cause limited gastroentertities for only the compromised individuals [12]. Outside the gastrointestinal tract, it would likely be a temporary inhabitant of skin [13]. It is widely known as a contaminant of food, but not thought to be a causal agent for food poisoning [14]. There was no mention of any plant pathogenic activity [13]. The base considered in strains selection was to cover the various conditions at which the degradation of pollutants may occur (aerobically or anaerobically, and wide ranges of pH and temperature). The selected species of bacteria through their enzymatic activity can breakdown the different pollutants that usually occur in sewage such as carbohydrates, proteins, cellulose, urea, oil and grease (Table 1). Three septic tanks located in villages namely Gragoos; Quina Governorate, El-Mahameid; Aswan Governorate, and Bany Sanad; Asuot Governorate were selected on the base that they receive wastewater influent with medium load of organics (COD 560–640 mg O2/1 and BOD 350–400 mg O2/1). A slight improvement in wastewater quality was achieved during the first few days after the addition the mixed culture of bacteria to the gravel filter. From day 6, the gradual increase in the percentages of removal in the examined parameters was observed reaching the maximum values at day 36 for the effluents of the three WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

394 The Sustainable World Table 1: Characteristics of the selected strains used as septic tank additives.

septic tanks. The maximum percentage of removal achieved was ranged as: 91.3–94.4 for COD, 93–95.8 for BOD, 90–91.7 for TSS, 75–87 for oil and grease, and 99.95–99.99 for total coliform. After 42 days a gradual decrease in percentages of removal for all determined parameters was observed, but still higher than the values achieved in the absence of bacterial additives. At the end of the experimental period (60 days) the effluent of the septic tanks had the following character: COD; 77.2–104.8 mg O2/l, BOD; 44.1–58.7mg O2/l; TSS; 52.9–70.6 mg/l, Oil and Grease; 4.1–15 mg /l and total coliform 104–106 MPN/100 ml (Tables 2–4). It is important to mention that septic tanks without bacterial additives showed removal percentages ranged as 79.3–88.5 for COD, 80–85.5 for BOD, 75.1–83 for TSS, oil and grease 28–41.7 for oil and grease, and 98.5–99.85 for total coliform (Tables 2–4). WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


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Table 2: Changes in parameters rested after the addition of bacterial additives to septic tank at El Mahamid Village, Aswan Governorate.

Table 3: Changes in parameters rested after the addition of bacterial additives to septic tank at Benisand Village, Asuit Governorate.

All parameters were determined as mg/l. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

396 The Sustainable World Table 4: Changes in parameters rested after the addition of bacterial additives to septic tank at Garagoos Village, Quina Governorate.

Other three septic tanks were selected in three villages, namely Enibis; Souhag governorate, Bani Sanad; Asuot governorate, and El-Mahameid; Aswan governorate to represent tanks receiving influent with high load of pollutants (COD; 1072–2180 mg O2 /l and BOD; 714–1200 mg O2 /l, TSS 205–1144 mg/l, oil and grease 40–104 mg/l al total coliform 108 –109 MPN/ 100 ml. Again the actual improvement in the effluent quality appeared at the 6th day after bacterial addition to the tanks. Microorganisms used for wastewater treatment are likely to be exposed to a wide variety of environmental stresses. Microorganisms must adapt to these conditions to be able to degrade the pollutants. In some cases genetic engineering may be helpful in augmenting resistance to such stress, thereby facilitating good performance of degradative organism under adverse conditions (Clark [15]). In the present study, the maximum removal efficiency appeared after 42 days and may extend to 48 days. During this period, the removal percentages for COD, BOD, TSS, oil and grease and total coliform were ranged as 93.8–97.2, 94.5–97.0, 94.0–97.9; 64.0–93.8, 99.81–99.99, respectively (Tables 5–7). Septic tanks without bacterial additives showed removal efficiency (as %) ranged as 64.7–87.2, 73.4–89.6, 56.7–86.9, 34.6–45, and 92.8–99.28 for COD, BOD, TSS, oil and grease and total coliform, respectively.



397

Table 5: Changes in parameters rested after the addition of bacterial additives to septic tank at El Mahamid Village, Aswan Governorate.

Table 6: Changes in parameters rested after the addition of bacterial additives to septic tank at Anebas Village, Sohag Governorate.

4 Conclusions Although, the removal efficiency of septic tanks with bacterial additives was higher in case of those receiving the high load of pollutants in the influent than in those receiving medium load, the pollutants residual in the final effluent (after 60 days) of the first case are higher (Tables 2–7). The further decrease in the total coliform density resulted after using bacterial additives may be due to the possibility of antimicrobial agent production. For example, B. licheniformis is capable of producing several antimicrobial agents such as licheniformin [16], bacitracin [17] and others. In addition, metabolite(s) produced by B. licheniformis and B. amyloliquefaciens showed antifungal activity [18–20]. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

398 The Sustainable World Table 7: Changes in parameters rested after the addition of bacterial additives to septic tank at Benisand Village, Asuit Governorate.

From the results, it seemed that septic tanks need to be reinoculated with the selected strains after 30–45 days. Cells inoculated in the gravel filter start to reproduce firm biofilm on gravel surfaces as well as on the tank walls. The decrease in bacterial activities and pollutants removal efficiency may be due to one or more of the following reasons. The first is the presence of toxic materials in the wastewater which can inhibit the survival of the community. The second, is that such chemicals may produced and biochemically incompatible with the effective catabolism of the target compound and may poison the process. The third reason is the interactions between microorganisms such as the lytic activity of amoebicin m-4-A that produced by B. licheniformis against B. megaterium [21]. The forth possibility is that biofilm formed may slough out and lost by the time with the effluent. The use of other material than gravel which have rough surface may be much more helpful. Concerning the use of cultured bacteria as additives to septic tanks in order to provide the system with types of bacteria at density necessary to improve and enhance system function, there are two approaches. The first say that because of the presence of significant numbers and types of bacteria, enzymes, yeasts, and fungi in typical residential and commercial wastewaters, the use of septic system additives containing these or any other ingredients is not recommended [10]. The second approach recommended the use of bacterial additives for septic tanks under normal as well as adverse conditions. The use of selected and adapted natural bacteria as additive have the same advantage as the home field ones and the competition with the native bacteria of the system won’t exist. These bacteria can reduce retained organic molecules to soluble compounds and gases. This digestion can significantly further reduce sludge volume especially in warm climate of the Upper Egypt. Material degraded by bacteria does not contribute in increasing the loading of BOD, TSS.



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Users must be aware that when the application of bacterial additives is not the solution for all symptoms of septic tank failures the cause of failure should be identified and appropriate corrective action taken to prevent recurrences. Finally, in any case, bacterial additives are not an alternative to proper maintenance and do not eliminate the need for routine pumping for a septic tank.

References [1] U.S.EPA., Design manual for onsite wastewater treatment and disposal systems. U.S.EPA 625/1-80-012, U.S.EPA, Washington, DC., 1980. [2] Hoover, M.T., Disy. T. M., Pfeiffer, M.A., Dudley, N., Mayer, R.B., and Buffington, B., North Carolina Subsurface System Operators Training School Manual. Raleigh , N.C.: Soil Science Department, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Department of Environment, Heath and Natural Resources, 1996. [3] Montgomery, T., On-site wastewater treatment systems: A brief description of ecological economic and regulatory factors. The New Alchemy Institute Technical Bulletin No. 6, 1990. [4] Seifer, R. Septic system fact sheets. Alaska Cooperative Extension, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1999. [5] Jarrett. A. R., Fritton, D.D., and Sharpe, W.E., Renovation of failing absorption fields by water conservation and resting. American Asssociation of Agricutural Engineers Paper 85-2630, 1985. [6] Gannon, R.W., Bartenhagen, K.A., and Hargrove, L.L, Septic Systems: Best management practice. North Carolina State University, Water Quality Group, 1999. [7] Brown, R.B., Soils and septic systems. Fact sheet SL-118 University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service, 1998. [8] U.S. EPA., Decentralized systems technology fact sheet, septic tank – soil absorption systems. United State Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 932-F-99-075, Office of Water, Washington, D.C., 1999. [9] American Public Health Association (APHA), Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater APHA, 20th Edit., Washington, D.C., 1998. [10] U.S.EPA, Onsite wastewater treatment systems, special issues Fact sheet 1septic tank additives. U.S Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory. EPA 625/R-00/008, 2005. [11] Banerjee, C., Bustamante, C.I., Wharton, R., Tally, E., and Wade, J.C., Bacillus infections in patients with cancer. Arch. Intern. Med. 148: 17691774, 1988. [12] Edberg, S.C., USEPA human herlth assessment: Balillus licheniformis. Upublished U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washinton, D.C, 1992. [13] Claus, D. and Berkeley, R.C.W., Genus Baillus chon 1872, pp. 1105-1139. In: P.H.A. Sneath, et al. (eds.) Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, vol. 2. Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, MD, 1986.


400 The Sustainable World [14] Norris, J.R., Berkeley, R.C.W., Logan, N.A., and O’Donnell, A. G., The genera Bacillus and sporolactobaillus. In: M.P. Starr et al. (eds.), The prokaryotes: A Handbook on Habitats, Isolation and Identification of Bacteria, Vol. 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 1711-1742, 1981. [15] Clark, G.H., The effect of bacterial additives on septic tank performance. Master’s Thesis, North Carolina state University, Department of Soil Science, Raleigh, NC., 1999. [16] Callow, R.K., and Hart, P.D., Antibiotic material from Bacillus licheniformis (weigmann, emend Gibson) active against species of mycobacteria.. Nature 15 : 334, 1946. [17] Johnson, B.A., Anker, H, and Meleney, F.L. Bacitracin: A new antibiotic produced by a member of the B. subtilis group. Sci. 102 : 376 – 377, 1945. [18] Shigemitsu, H., Hirano, K., Kohno, M., Eshizaki H., and Kunoh, H., Effect of Bacillus licheniformis on Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cucumerinum. Trans. Mycological Society of Japan 24: 477-486, 1983. [19] Scharen, A.L., and Bryan, M.D. A possible biological control agent for net blotch of barely. Phytopathol. 71 : 902-903, 1981. [20] Yoshida, S., Hiradate, S., Tsukamoto, T., Hatakeda, K., and Shirata, A., Antimicrobial activity of culture filtrate of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens RC2 isolated from mulberry leaves. Phytopathology 91: 181 – 187, 2001. [21] Lebbadi, M., Galvez, A., Valdivia, E., Martinez-Buen, M., and Maqueda, M., Biological activity of amoebicin m-4 from B. licheniformis M-4. Antimicrobial Agents Chemother 38, 1820 – 1823, 1994..



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Monitoring the biomass content in the aerobic digestor of a WWTP: correlation between gravimetric and optical methods M. Salaverría1, A. Elías1, A. Iturriarte2, L. Gurtubay1 & S. Paunero2 1

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Spain 2 Operational Department, Acciona Agua Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain

Abstract The aim of this work is to develop reliable and quick methods to quantify the amount of active biomass in the aerobic reactor of a Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The removal of pollutants contained in wastewaters is carried out by several processes involving physical, chemical and biological treatments. The biological treatment renders the elimination of the organic matter and takes place in aerobic reactors. A constant concentration of microorganisms in the reactor system ensures a high degradation performance, since an inappropriate biomass amount would hinder the process efficiency. Although the most used method to control microorganisms’ growth is based on the measurement of the solids content in the mixture, this simple determination has several drawbacks. First, it is a tedious procedure, which requires more than 24 h-performance, delaying the decision-making and proper control of the sludge recirculation rate. The second disadvantage is the lack of a standardized method for result calculation. Finally, high solids content is not directly related to a big amount of active biomass. In this study, absorbance and turbidity have been selected as additional parameters in order to obtain a reliable correlation between those optical parameters and dry weight measures. A quick measurement of absorbance or turbidity, related to the quantity of solids in the sample, makes the decision-making easier in the everyday operation of the plant. Keywords: WWTP, biomass, solids content, absorbance, turbidity, correlation.



1 Introduction Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) are necessary to reduce the contaminants contained in sewage, before water returns to the environment. The biological reactor is the stage in which organic matter degrades, due to the activity of the microorganisms contained in the sludge. Most plants operate in aerobic conditions, recycling part of the sludge to maintain the level of microorganisms in the vessel and removing their excess. The aeration tank volume of the plant selected in this study is 860 m3. There, bacteria and protozoa from the activated sludge are fed by pollutants and consequently pollutants are degraded. The key parameter to control that process is the viable biomass, which is troublesome to measure. There have been several proposals to seek an indicator which provides a good measure of the active biomass, such as gravimetric, optical or electrical methods. One of the most used parameter is the solids content. However, whereas some authors [1] determine Volatile Suspended Solids (VSS), others [2, 3] use Total Suspended Solids (TSS). Methods based on solids content appear to be a good alternative, but they are not immediate and they are not directly associated with viable biomass. Absorbance can also be a good indicator of microbial growth, although there is no agreement about the most appropriate wavelength. Thus, Muñoz et al. [4], selected 650 nm, Jiang et al. [5], used 480 nm. Other optical method which can be applied is turbidity, employed by van Benthem and de Grave [6]. Optical methods have the advantage of their immediacy, but interferences can be significant. Other methods, based on respirometric procedures, may also be suitable for the determination of microbial activity. Oxygen Uptake Rate (OUR) is frequently used [7]. The great advantage of these methods is that they are directly linked to the biological activity of the sludge. However, respirometric rate changes with the age of the sludge, so an exhaustive knowledge of the state of the biocenosis is required. Finally, studies concerning microbiological procedures could give very detailed information about the sludge. But these processes are complex and costly. This study has been carried out to compare different parameters used to control the viable biomass in activated sludge. Since all the methods present advantages and disadvantages, we have used some of them to assess the best one as far as time, simplicity and accuracy are concerned.

2 Materials and methods 2.1 Sampling Activated sludge was sampled from January to May 2010 in the aeration tank of the WWTP in Muskiz (Spain). The samples were taken with a bucket from 6 different points of the tank, and collected in 2-L, polyethylene bottles. They WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


Figure 1:

403

Aeration tank in Muskiz.

were kept refrigerated during transport to the laboratory, and analysis was made immediately, never exceeding 24 h [8]. 2.2 Conductivity, pH and temperature These three factors were considered as control parameters to verify the correct running of the plant. Conductivity, pH and temperature were measured, just after the sampling, with a Thermo Scientific Orion 4-Star Plus portable meter. 2.3 Settleable solids Settleable solids were measured according to the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater [8] and following the volumetric procedure. The procedure involved filling an Imhoff cone with 1 L of mixed sample. The volume of settleable solids in the cone was recorded after 1 h. 2.4 Biomass estimation 2.4.1 Solids content Solids content include suspended or dissolved matter in the mixed liquor. The determination of Total Solids (TS) was carried out by sampling 50 mL of mixed liquor and evaporating in an oven at 105ºC during 24 h. Volatile Solids (VS) were determined by heating the residue at 550ºC in a muffle during 1 h,. The Whatman GF/C filters used for the measurement of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) were washed with three successive 20-mL portions of deionised water, and ignited at 550ºC, for 15 min, before use. For the determination of TSS, a 100-mL sample was filtered and the filter was dried at 105 ºC, during 1 h. Finally, the weigh loss after ignition at 550ºC during 1 h, was the Volatile Suspended Solids (VSS).


404 The Sustainable World Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Volatile Dissolved Solids (VDS) were measured following the same procedure of the TS and VS, but taking a sample from the filtered liquid. 2.4.2 Absorbance Absorbance was measured with a Heλios-α spectrophotometer. Prior to use, the device was equilibrated, and the baseline was adjusted with a glass cell full of deionised water. Next, the cell was filled with original sample. Since the solids content was high, and they settled fast, the sample was carefully homogenized by magnetic stirring before filling the cell. Absorbance was determined at 400, 500 and 600 nm. 2.5 Turbidity Turbidity of the mixed liquor was quantified with a HACH 2100-P turbidimeter. Two calibration standard solutions of 10.0 and 500 NTU were used. After the calibration, each sample was introduced in the cell to measure the turbidity. 2.6 Experimental design 2.6.1 Calibration curve In order to correlate the gravimetric and optical results the original mixed liquor was previously mixed with deionised water at different dilution ratios. Mixtures with a 0:10, 1:9, 2:8, 3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4, 7:3, 8:2, 9:1 and 10:0 (v/v) ratio were prepared. The absorbance and turbidity of each solution was measured and results are shown in figure 2. In order to achieve a high correlation coefficient, the last three points of each curve were not considered. 2,5

1000

2,0

800

1,5

600

1,0

400



0,5



 

0,0 0

Figure 2:

500

Abs. 400 nm Abs. 500 nm Abs. 600 nm Turbidity 1000

Equation y=0.0017x y=0.0014x y=0.0012x y=0.7814x

VSS (mg/L)

2

r 0.9763 0.9731 0.9827 0.9940

1500

Turbidity (NTU)

Absorbance

200

0

2000

Calibration curve between VSS and optical parameters.



405

As shown in figure 2, gravimetrical and optical methods correlated well. Nevertheless, if the sample has a high VSS content, dilution of the sample until VSS values lower than 1500 mg/L is recommended before measuring the absorbance or turbidity. Thus, the experimental results will be within the studied range and within the best fit.

3,0

Absorbance (600 nm)

2,5 2,0

Equation y = 0.0011x  Feb-10 y = 0.0011x  Apr-10  May-10 (1) y =0.0010x  May-10 (2) y = 0.0010x  May-10 (3) y =0.0010x

2

r 0.9675 0.9247 0.9535 0.9663 0.9716

1,5 1,0 0,5 0,0 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

VSS (mg/L) Figure 3:

Calibration curves between VSS and Absorbance at 600 nm.

As shown in figure 3, calibration curves with samples collected at different dates showed similar equations. The absorbance results of samples collected during consecutive months revealed that the ratio between this parameter and the VSS content remained constant.

3 Results The control of the “quality” of the incoming wastewater, in terms of pH, conductivity and solids content, is compulsory. The sewage pH and conductivity values throughout 8 months of operation are represented in Figure 4 (data provided by the operators at the WWTP in Muskiz). The pH values ranged between 7.1 and 7.8. However, in some unexpected moments (November, February and April), certain values were out of this range, probably due to sporadic industrial spilling or sea-water intrusion episodes. During, those episodes, high conductivity values (up to 1500 µS/cm) were also recorded. Conductivity values usually ranged from 500 to 1000 µS/cm during regular operation. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


1500

8,3

1250

8,0

1000

7,7

750

7,4

500

pH

Conductivity (µS/cm)

7,1 Cond. (µS/cm)

250

6,8

pH

0

6,5

Figure 4:

Evolution of incoming sewage pH and conductivity.

During the project, several samples were taken and experimental work was carried out once a week. The results obtained in different sampling points, as well as in different operations times, were very similar. According by, and in order to avoid repetitivity some of the results have been omitted and the average representative value for each month has been shown. The results of the solids content from January to May are shown in Table 1. Table 1:

Solids content average in the mixed liquor. TS (g/L)

VS/TS

VSS (g/L)

Jan-10

2.43

0.62

1.56

VSS/TS

Feb-10

2.42

0.64

1.56

0.64

Mar-10

2.90

0.69

1.85

0.64

0.64

Apr-10

3.99

0.73

2.47

0.62

May-10

3.19

0.71

2.26

0.71

The TS values were constant for the first months. Nevertheless, these values were higher during the last sampling months due to the increase in the sludge recirculation rate in the aerobic step. During this period of time, calibration curves were obtained to correlate the absorbance and turbidity with the solids content. The criterion followed to validate calibration curves was that VSS values obtained by gravimetrical methods differed less than 10% from those calculated from the correlation curve, obtained by optical parameters.

4 Conclusions The following conclusions were obtained: WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


407

 Optical methods, such as turbidity and absorbance, are highly recommended as reliable and fast alternatives to measure the VSS content in wastewater.  The selection of a high wavelength is recommended to minimize the interference generated by the TDS.  When the sample has a high VSS content, dilution until VSS values lower than 1500 mg/L is advisable before measuring the optical parameters.  The absorbance results of samples collected during consecutive months revealed that the ratio between this parameter and the VSS content remained constant. Nevertheless, further research about microbiological parameters is required. Consequently, in order to reach a better knowledge of the viability of the biomass in the aeration tank, we are currently conducting a further study about the microbiological state of the biomass.

Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the University of the Basque Country (Research group GIU08/10UPV) for the financial support for the project. We also thank Consorcio de Aguas de Bizkaia, and especially Alicia Iturriarte (Acciona) for providing samples and historical data from the WWTP of Muskiz.

References [1] Farabegoli, G., Chiavola, A. & Rolle, E., The Biological Aerated Filter (BAF) as alternative treatment for domestic sewage. Optimization of plant performance. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 171, pp. 1126-1132, 2009. [2] Lu, Z., Zhang, M., Hua, L., Wang, R. & Wu, G., Treatment and recirculation technology of paper mill waste water. Appita Journal, 62, pp. 339-342, 2009. [3] Pabón, S.L. & Suárez Gélvez, J.H., Arranque y operación a escala real de un sistema de tratamiento de lodos activos para aguas residuales de matadero. Ingeniería e Investigación, 29, pp. 53-58, 2009. [4] Muñoz, R., Díaz, L.F., Bordel, S. & Villaverde, S., Response of Pseudomonas putida Fl cultures to fluctuating toluene loads and operational failures in suspended growth bioreactors. Biodegradation, 19, pp. 897-908, 2008. [5] Jiang, R., Huang, S., Chow, A.T. & Yang, J., Nitric oxide removal from flue gas with a biotrickling filter using Pseudomonas putida. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 164, pp. 432-441, 2009. [6] van Benthem, R. & de Grave, W., Turbidity sensor for bacterial growth measurements in spaceflight and simulated micro-gravity. Microgravity Science and Technology, 21, pp. 349-356, 2009.


408 The Sustainable World [7] Moussa, M.S., Hooijmans, C.M., Lubberding, H.J., Gijzen, H.J. & van Loosdrecht, M.C.M., Modelling nitrification, heterotrophic growth and predation in activated sludge. Water Research, 39, pp. 5080-5098, 2005. [8] APHA-AWWA-WEF, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (21st edition). Washington, 2005.



409

Utilization of agricultural residues as animal feeds for fattening sheep in Saudi Arabia H. Al Tonobey & H. M. El Shaer Al Khalidiah Farm –Tebrak, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract Due to diversified agricultural activities in Al Khalidiah Farm, SA (2500 hectares), more than 7000 ton/year of different agricultural residues (AGR) are produced annually. The study consisted of two trials; the first one aimed to evaluate the chemical composition and nutritive value of some selected AGR to be used as animal feeds and to evaluate the effect of dehydration treatments on their chemical and microbiological analysis. The second trial was conducted to investigate the impact of feeding combinations of five feed ingredients made from the tested agriculture residues on the performance of fattened sheep lambs. During the first trial, seven types of AGR (one ton each) were collected namely: 1- Landscape mowing grasses (LMG), 2- Mixed ornamental plants residues (MOPR) , 3- Olive trees pruning (OTP), 4- Citrus tree pruning (CTP), 5- Date trees pruning(DTP), 6- Horse stable grasses residues (HSGR) and 7- Green houses by-products (GHBP). These AGR were air-dried, ground and tested for preliminary chemical composition and nutritive value. Five tons from each of new AGR materials were air –dried, ground then heated in a drying drum at 90°C for 15 minutes. Five samples were taken, randomly, from each air- dried material and after being heated to evaluate the impact of heating on the chemical analyses and microbiological parameters of the tested materials. During the second trial, five rations from the tested AGR ingredients were formulated and offered to fifty weaned lambs (2 month- old and averaged 17.0 ± 0.73 Kg body weight) divided randomly in five groups (10 lambs each) in a group feeding system for a 9-week fattening period. The rations were offered ad libitum and consisted of: 1- LMG, 2- MOPR, 3- HSGR, 4- A mixture of olive tree pruning mixed with orange fruits by-products (OTPOF) for the four groups: R1, R2, R3, R4, respectively while the control group (R5) was offered Alfalfa hay. All groups were offered the Concentrate Feed Mixtures (CFM) at 60% of the total ration while roughages were offered at 40%. Animals were weighed at the beginning of the experiment WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/SW100381

410 The Sustainable World and biweekly. Feeding allowances were adjusted biweekly according to body weight changes. Voluntary feed intake, feed conversion and feeding costs were determined. Representative samples of the feed ingredients were tested for chemical, pathogens and microbiological analysis. Results of the first trial indicated that all AGR feed ingredients appeared to be nutritious since they contained enough concentration of nutrients to cover animal nutritional requirements. Crude protein content varied among the feed ingredients and ranged from 6.53% (CTP) to 19.77% (LMG). Heating treatment, generally, did not affect (P>0.05) all nutrients concentration nor microbiological parameters of all tested feed ingredients. Results of the second trial showed that animals fed R2 followed by R1 recorded the highest average daily gain of 283 and 280 g/day, respectively as a reflection of their high feed intakes. Feed costs of rations R1 and R2 were comparable and showed the lowest feed costs per one kilogram gain (SR 1.35 and 1.36, respectively) while the control ration (R5) recorded the highest feed cost (SR 2.23). It is shown that lambs of R3 were more efficient in feed conversion (3.52 gm DM/gm gain) than the other tested rations. It could be concluded that using AGR in feeding animals is economic and has a positive impact on productive performance feeding costs of fattened lambs. Keywords: sheep, fattening, intake, feed efficiency, agricultural residues, environment, heating treatments, chemical composition.

1 Introduction Over the last few years, Saudi Arabia (2,150,000 sq km) has realized the advantages of agricultural residues (AGR) on the economy, industry and environment. With the rapid increase in cultivation of sizable lands in Saudi Arabia (SA) as well as animal feeds and fertilizer costs [1]. There has been a rapid realization that significant environmental and financial benefits can be achieved through proper utilization of AGR. Presently, there are more than 1.6 million tons of AGR produced annually in the Kingdom, approximately 28% of which comes mainly from date palm in addition to other tree crops [2]. Certain private agricultural companies sensed the importance of AGR and have already started new ventures to exploit these materials on sustainable basis. For instances, due to diversified agricultural activities in Al Khalidiah Farm (as one of the pioneer model farms, 2500 ha. in SA), around 7000 ton/year of different AGR are produced annually. On the other hands, the deficiency of animal feeds in SA reaches more transforming AGR into animal feedstuffs would help a great deal in overcoming this deficiency [1]. Most AGR have high contents of fiber and not easily to be digested in addition to low content of crude protein [3, 4]. To improve the quality and utilization of such materials by animals, several physical and mechanical methods should be applied such as: chopping, shredding, grinding, heating [5, 6]. Some mechanical methods or dehydration processes have proved to improve feed digestibility and efficiency for ruminants [3, 7, 8]. The study was conducted to investigate the impact of fattening weaned sheep lambs on five non-conventional feed ingredients made from the available AGR at Al Khalidiah Farm, Saudi Arabia. Feed costs in comparison with the WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)


411

traditional feed ingredients (based on alfalfa and Concentrate feed mixture) was also determined.

2 Materials and methods The study was conducted at Al Khalidiah Farm (120 km west of Riyadh) during summer 2009. It consisted of two trials. The first trial aimed to collect, identify the proper organic materials then to evaluate the chemical and microbiological analysis of the selected materials affected by dehydration processes. The second trial was conducted to evaluate the voluntary feed intake and feed efficiency of the formulated fattened rations based on AGR fed to Nagdi sheep during a 9week fattening period. 2.1 The first trial Around one tone from each of seven agriculture residues types was collected for preliminary chemical analyses and nutritive value to be used later as animal feed ingredients in fattened rations formulation. The main selected AGR ingredients were as follows: 1- Landscape mowing grasses (LMG), 2- Mixed ornamental plants residues (MOPR, the seasonal flowering plants for ornamental), 3- Citrus tree pruning (CTP), 4- Olive trees pruning (OTP), 5- Olive trees pruning - orange fruits (OTPOF), 6- Green houses by- products (GHBP) and 7- Horse-stable grasses residues (HSGR). Each material was air-dried separately, and then chopped and ground (8 mm) and three composite samples were collected from each material and kept for the chemical composition analyses and nutritive value determination. Around five tons from each material were collected again, chopped and ground (8 mm) and air-dried then heated into a drying drum at 900C for 10 minutes. Five samples were taken, randomly, from each air-dried feed materials before and after being heated to evaluate the impact of heating on the chemical analysis and microbiological parameters of tested materials. 2.2 The second trial Five fattening rations were formulated based on the tested AGR to be offered for five equal numbers groups of 2-month old weaned Nagdi sheep lambs (10 animals / group) averaged 17.0 ± 0.73 Kg body weight. The rations (R1, R2, R3 and R4) were formulated from the following agriculture residues feed ingredients: 1. LMG, 2. MOPR, 3. HSGR and 4. OTPOF. The control group (R5) was fed on alfalfa hay. The formulated rations are illustrated in Table 1. All animal groups were offered the Concentrate Feed Mixtures (CFM) as an energy supplementary feeding (Metabolizable energy = 5.54 MJ/Kg DM). The CFM consisted of 30% cotton seed cake, 47% yellow corn, 20% wheat bran, 2% limestone and 1% common salt. The fattening diets were given to animals at 60% concentrates (CFM) to 40% roughage ratio.



Experimental rations formulation.

Feed ingredients Roughages: 1. Landscape mowing grasses (LMG),% 2.Mixed ornamental plants residues (MOPR),% 3. Horse- stable grasses residues (HSGR),% 4. Olive trees pruning - orange fruits (OTPOF),% 5. Alfalfa Hay,% Crude protein (CP) ,% of roughages ME *(MJ/Kg DM) of roughages

R1

R2

R3

R4

R5

40 7.44

20 20 5.48

20 20 6.98

15 5 5 15 5.38

40 6.52

0.840

0.822

0.804

0.809

0.76

Concentrate Feed Mixture (CFM),%

60

60

60

60

60

Total crude protein of ration (CP) ,% *Total ME of ration(MJ/Kg DM)

15.36 4.164

13.40 4.146

14.90 4.128

13.30 4.133

14.44 4.092

*Metabolizable energy All dietary roughages were offered to animals ad libtum during the fattening trial. The amounts of feed offered and refused were recorded to calculate the actual voluntary daily intake for each animal group. Animals were individually weighed at the beginning of the experiment and every other week. Feeding allowances were adjusted biweekly according to body weight changes for lambs during the fattening period. All animals were allowed to drink fresh water free choice. Daily offered feeds, daily feeds refusals, bi-weekly live body weight changes, feed costs and feed efficiency of fattened animals fed the formulated rations were measured and recorded for each animal group. The representative samples of all feed ingredients were tested for proximate chemical analysis [9] and microbiological analysis which included total viable bacterial counts (cfu/g), molds and yeasts counts (cfu/g), total coliform (MPN/100g), faecal coliform (MPN/100g), salmonella detection (cfu/g) and mycotoxins detection [10, 11]. Data were subjected to the statistical analysis system according to SAS [12]. Differences in mean values among groups were compared by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test [13].

3 Results and Discussion 3.1 First trial 3.1.1 Chemical composition and nutritive values of the tested agriculture residues Data on the chemical composition and metabolizable energy (ME) content (MJ/Kg dry matter) of the selected feed ingredients based on AGR namely 1- LMG, 2- MOPR, 3- CTP, 4- OTP, 5- OTPOF ,6- GHBP and 7- HSGR are summarized, on overall averages, in Table 2.



Table 2:

413

Chemical composition (%, on dry matter basis) and metabolizable energy*(MJ/Kg dry matter) of the selected AGR.

Feed materials

DM

OM

CP

CF

EE

ASH

NFE

ME

Landscape mowing grasses (LMG)

93.28

87.60

18.6

24.00

1.59

12.40

43.41

2.10

Mixed ornamental plants residues (MOPR)

94.38

84.39

13.47

23.12

1.28

15.61

46.52

1.91

Citrus trees pruning (CTP)

96.29

86.86

6.53

37.05

1.00

13.14

42.28

1.71

Olive trees pruning (OTP)

90.44

91.10

10.88

21.42

1.67

8.90

57.13

2.07

Olive trees pruning - orange fruits (OTPOF)

92.00

92.55

8.78

27.70

1.60

7.45

54.47

2.01

Green houses by- products GHBP)

95.74

89.00

12.10

34.70

1.25

11.00

40.95

1.90

Horse- stable grasses residues (HSGR)

95.85

89.80

12.00

33.67

1.40

10.20

42.73

1.93

*ME is calculated [14] DM: dry matter; OM: organic matter; CP: crude protein: CF: crude fiber: EE: ether extracts: NFE: nitrogen free extracts: ME: metabolizable energy. CTP could be considered as a poor dietary roughage due to its low level of CP (6.53%) and metabolizable energy (ME) with high crude fiber (37.05%) that might reduce its nutritive value, digestion and utilization [5, 6]. On the other hands, LMG appeared to be very nutritious since it contained the highest CP and ME in comparison with the other AGR. In general, all the tested AGR, except CTP, contained enough nutrients concentrations to cover the nutritional requirements of ruminant and small ruminants animals according to the recommendations of [15]. Such materials could be used successfully as good quality roughages [3, 6]. Therefore, it is suggested to formulate the fattening rations based on LMG, MOPR, HSGR, OTP, and OTPOF in the study. 3.1.2 Effect of dehydration treatment on chemical composition and microbiological parameters of the tested AGR The average values of chemical and microbiological parameters of the suggested five AGR: 1-LMG, 2- MOPR, 3- HSGR, 4- OTP, 5- OTPOF as affected by dehydration treatments are summarized in Table 3. Regardless of the dehydration treatments, most of the nutrients were influenced significantly (P< 0.05) by the AGR types. Dehydration of the AGR using heating treatments showed varied influences on their chemical composition and microbiological parameters. It seems that although some of chemical nutrients were slightly changed by heating treatment, most of nutrients in the tested materials were not affected significantly by the dehydration treatments. For instances, CF and ash contents of the heated OTP and OTPOF were slightly higher compared to those of the air-dried ones whereas OM and nitrogen free extracts (NFE) values were decreased by heating treatment. Similarly, ether extracts (EE) of the air-dried LMG and MOPR decreased (P< 0.05) by heating. Regardless of such little changes of nutrient concentrations, the air-dried AGR may be sufficient enough to cover the animal nutritional requirements [15]. Data on microbiological analysis of the five AGR (Table 3) revealed that all the measured parameters (Total coliform count, Fecal coliform count, Yeast and mold count, Salmonella spp, Staph aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Aflatoxins) were not affected by heating treatment and they were in the normal ranges without any expected harmful effects [10, 11, 16]. Based on the above mentioned WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 142, © 2010 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

414 The Sustainable World facts, it was suggested that the tested air- dried AGR materials should be used for formulating the dietary rations for the fattened lambs in the study. Above all, it would decrease the cost of feeding due to saving the costs of energy for heating treatment. Table 3:

Proximate chemical composition (% on dry matter basis) and microbiological parameters of the five AGR* affected by dehydration treatments.

Parameters

Air- dried AGR

Heated AGR

LMG

MOPR

HSGR

OTP

OTPOF

LMG

MOPR

HSGR

OTP

OTPO F

Dry matter

91.40ab

90.19ab

96.48a

87.51ab

91.83ab

98.92a

97.10a

98.60a

99.44a

97.45a

Crude protein

19.77a

12.72b

12.76b

10.58bc

8.81bc

20.10a

13.64b

12.79b

10.88bc

9.63bc

Crude fiber

22.40b

20.74b

35.65a

17.25c

28.35ab

24.61b

22.66b

34.07a

21.42b

27.50a b

Ether Extract

2.18a

1.71ab

1.00c

1.76ab

1.44bc

1.50b

1.22bc

1.32b

1.67ab

1.72a

Organic matter

86.89ab

83.26ab

89.78a

92.69a

93.55a

86.78ab

80.16b

88.45ab

91.10a

89.50a

Ash

13.11b

16.74a

10.22b

6.45c

13.22b

19.84a

11.55b

NFE

42.54c

48.09ab

40.37c

54.95a

40.57b

42.64b

40.27b

ND

ND

Aflatoxins

ND***

Total count

coliform

Fecal count

coliform

1.2x10

6

3.0x10

1.1x10

5

8.0x10 6

2.6x10

7.31c 63.10a ND 6

5.0x10 6

2.8x10

ND 5

1.0x10 6

2.7x10

ND 4

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