Novel metric for managing the protection of humanity and the environment against pollution and its adverse effects

Non-technical dimensions of communal wastewater treatment plant sustainability in peri-urban Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Background: This study focuses on identifying non-technical aspects that influence the sustainability of communal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in a peri-urban area of Indonesia. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted by random sampling using a method of descriptive analysis that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. Economic support for communal WWTPs was measured by the community’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) and Ability to Pay (ATP). Results: The results indicate that social dimension, such as a community’s level of participation are critically important in sustaining communal WWTPs. In addition, institutional dimension influences the degree of satisfaction a community has toward the WWTP management. This support is reinforced by social capital in the form of a philosophy of mutual cooperation, like gotong royong (cooperation by members of a community to achieve a common goal) and swadaya (self-reliance). Conclusions: The findings of this study can be used in Indonesia to make policy recommendations for managing and ensuring sustainability of communal WWTPs on a non-technical dimension. Additionally, gotong royong deserves to be promoted internationally as a fundamental value for fostering participation and contribution.

Pollution index of waterfowl farm assessment and prediction based on temporal convoluted network

Environmental quality is a major factor that directly impacts waterfowl productivity. Accurate prediction of pollution index (PI) is the key to improving environmental management and pollution control. This study applied a new neural network model called temporal convolutional network and a denoising algorithm called wavelet transform (WT) for predicting future 12-, 24-, and 48-hour PI values at a waterfowl farm in Shanwei, China. The temporal convoluted network (TCN) model performance was compared with that of recurrent architectures with the same capacity, long-short time memory neural network (LSTM), and gated recurrent unit (GRU). Denoised environmental data, including ammonia, temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), and total suspended particles (TSP), were used to construct the forecasting model. The simulation results showed that the TCN model in general produced a more precise PI prediction and provided the highest prediction accuracy for all phases (MAE = 0.0842, 0.0859, and 0.1115; RMSE = 0.0154, 0.0167, and 0.0273; R2 = 0.9789, 0.9791, and 0.9635). The PI assessment prediction model based on TCN exhibited the best prediction accuracy and general performance compared with other parallel forecasting models and is a suitable and useful tool for predicting PI in waterfowl farms.

Performance evaluation of urban environmental governance in Anhui Province based on spatial and temporal differentiation analyses

When the process of urbanization has brought economic benefits in the Yangtze River Delta of China, environmental pollution becomes increasingly prominent. In order to achieve integrated sustainable green development and reduce the gap in environmental governance performance between regions, this study analyzed the environmental issues of provincial cities in Anhui Province from 2013 to 2017 in the urban agglomeration of Yangtze River Delta. Governance performance is analyzed and the evaluation index system framework is determined using the "pressure-state-response" model with the panel and spatial data. Based on the global principal component analysis method and spatial autocorrelation analysis, the environmental governance performance of Anhui Province has generally increased steadily from 2013 to 2017. The situation in northern Anhui is still developing in a good state. Southern Anhui is in a trend of rising first and then stabilizing, whereas central Anhui has a downward trend after a rapid rise; in terms of the spatial pattern, the overall situation is central Anhui > northern Anhui > southern Anhui. The urban spatial distribution pattern of the region shows a positive spatial correlation. Particularly, the performance levels of Maanshan City and Huainan City have been at a poor level for a long time, whereas Hefei and Huangshan have strong comprehensive environmental governance capabilities with average efficiency values of 0.55 and 0.47, respectively. Corresponding countermeasures have been proposed to rectify polluting enterprises and optimize structure of industries, increase scientific and technological investment and infrastructure construction, strengthen the radiation driving effects, and establish a pollution monitoring system. Based on all the analyses and resulted findings, we concluded the study with corresponding policy implications/suggestions and recommended countermeasures.