Search results for "monitor"
showing 10 items of 3841 documents
Mediterranean bioconstructions along the Italian coast
2018
Marine bioconstructions are biodiversity-rich, three-dimensional biogenic structures, regulating key ecological functions of benthic ecosystems worldwide. Tropical coral reefs are outstanding for their beauty, diversity and complexity, but analogous types of bioconstructions are also present in temperate seas. The main bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea are represented by coralligenous formations, vermetid reefs, deep-sea cold-water corals, Lithophyllum byssoides trottoirs, coral banks formed by the shallow-water corals Cladocora caespitosa or Astroides calycularis, and sabellariid or serpulid worm reefs. Bioconstructions change the morphological and chemicophysical features of prima…
Cost–benefit analysis of water-reuse projects for environmental purposes: A case study for Spanish wastewater treatment plants
2011
Water reuse is an emerging and promising non-conventional water resource. Feasibility studies are essential tools in the decision making process for the implementation of water-reuse projects. However, the methods used to assess economic feasibility tend to focus on internal costs, while external impacts are relegated to unsubstantiated statements about the advantages of water reuse. Using the concept of shadow prices for undesirable outputs of water reclamation, the current study developed a theoretical methodology to assess internal and external economic impacts. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 13 wastewater treatment plants in the Valencia region of Spain that reuse ef…
The superior effect of nature based solutions in land management for enhancing ecosystem services
2017
The rehabilitation and restoration of land is a key strategy to recover services -goods and resources- ecosystems offer to the humankind. This paper reviews key examples to understand the superior effect of nature based solutions to enhance the sustainabilit y of catchment systems by promoting desirable soil and landscape functions. The use of concepts such as connectivity and the theory of system thinking framework allowed to review coastal and river management as a guide to evaluate other strategies to achieve sustainability. In land management NBSs are not mainstream management. Through a set of case studies: organic farming in Spain; rewilding in Slovenia; land restoration in Iceland, s…
Economic valuation of environmental benefits from wastewater treatment processes: An empirical approach for Spain
2009
Economic research into the design and implementation of policies for the efficient management of water resources has been emphasized by the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The efficient implementation of policies to prevent the degradation and depletion of water resources requires determining their value in social and economic terms and incorporating this information into the decision-making process. A process of wastewater treatment has many associated environmental benefits. However, these benefits are often not calculated because they are not set by the market, due to inadequate property rights, the presence of externalities, and the lack of perfect information…
Quotas regulation is necessary but not sufficient to mitigate the impact of SCUBA diving in a highly visited marine protected area.
2021
Abstract When effectively managed, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can produce wide ecosystem benefits that can foster, directly and indirectly, local economies. Tourism is one of the sectors mainly benefited by the effect of conservation. SCUBA diving represents an important tourism activity, especially in the context of MPAs, where it is one of the few activities often fostered rather than limited, for its capacity to integrate environmental and socio-economic sustainability. However, SCUBA diving can also produce negative impacts on the environment when tourism frequentation exceeds a sustainable threshold, these potentially generating negative effects on the sector itself. In this study, …
An integrated assessment of the Good Environmental Status of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas
2022
Este artículo contiene 11 páginas, 2 figuras, 2 tablas.
The role of power line rights-of-way as an alternative habitat for declined mire butterflies
2011
Habitat loss is one of the greatest threats for biodiversity. In Finland, two thirds of natural mires have been drained for silviculture, which transforms open wetlands into dense forests. However, vegetation management of power line rights-of-way (ROW) maintain the drained mires as open areas. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the power line ROW vegetation management on butterfly abundance, species richness and community structure by comparing the managed power line ROWs to unmanaged drained control sites and to natural mires. The species richness or abundance of mire butterflies did not differ between the power line ROWs and natural mires. In contrast, both species rich…
Assessing farming eco-efficiency: a Data Envelopment Analysis approach.
2010
This paper assesses farming eco-efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques. Eco-efficiency scores at both farm and environmental pressure-specific levels are computed for a sample of Spanish farmers operating in the rain-fed agricultural system of Campos County. The determinants of eco-efficiency are then studied using truncated regression and bootstrapping techniques. We contribute to previous literature in this field of research by including information on slacks in the assessment of the potential environmental pressure reductions in a DEA framework. Our results reveal that farmers are quite eco-inefficient, with very few differences emerging among specific environmental …
Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congeners in LannerFalco biarmicus feldeggiiSchlegel Chicks and Lanner Prey in Sicily, Italy
2008
This paper reports on research conducted to elucidate the risk posed to the Sicilian population of the endangered lanner falcon Falco biarmicus feldeggii Schlegel by organochlorine (OC) pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as part of a wider study on contaminant risk to the lanner. Seventeen lanner nest sites were studied in northern and central Sicily. Sampling (in 2005) and analysis were carried out for selected OC pesticides and PCB congeners in lanner chick blood (15 chicks from 6 nest sites) and in two of the main lanner prey species, magpie Pica pica (36 individuals from 6 lanner nest sites) and rock dove Columba livia (10 individuals from 2 lanner nest sites). No OC and P…
Current anthropogenic pressures on agro-ecological protected coastal wetlands
2015
Coastal wetlands are areas that suffer from great pressure. Much of it is due to the rapid development of the surrounding artificial landscapes, where socio-economic factors lead to alterations in the nearby environment, affecting the quality of natural and agricultural systems. This work analyses interconnections among landscapes under the hypothesis that urban-artificial impacts could be detected on soils and waters of an agro-ecological protected area, L'Albufera de Valencia Natural Park, located in the vicinity of the City of Valencia, Spain. The methodological framework developed addresses two types of anthropogenic pressure: (1) direct, due to artificialisation of soil covers that cau…