The aim of this paper is to analyse the economic sustainability of fisheries exploitation through taking into account both the spatial and inter-temporal dimension of the Basque purse-seine fisheries targeting tuna. The Rapfish methodology is used for the analysis of Basque purse seiner fisheries operating in the Indian, Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, between 1990 and 2006. In accordance with what has been observed in other Rapfish studies, the analysis shows that the contribution towards sustainability depends on many different attributes (both in the short-run and long-run), such as the average wage, subsidies, profitability and the gross added value. In general, it is stated that the fisheries operating in the Atlantic present the worst economic sustainability, in contract to the ones operating in the Indian Ocean which get the best economic performance. This paper also analyses the possible differences in terms of the economic sustainability of this fleet before and after the implementation and use of Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs). FADs are increasingly used by tuna purse-seine fleets all around the world. This paper demonstrates the influential role of FADs on the economic sustainability of the tuna purse-seine fleet operating in the Indian Ocean, but not for the other fleet operating in the Atlantic. Finally, it is for mention that the Rapfish technique is postulated as a complementary tool for defining justifiable policy recommendations and fishery management options.

In 21st century, electronics have undoubtedly become an integral part of our daily lives. As a result, Electronic Waste (e-waste) or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) has the dubious distinction of becoming the fastest growing waste type in today\'s economy. Every year, 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste gets accumulated around the world, which is estimated to touch 73 million tons by 2015. In UAE, there are no official statistics about e-waste collection, or how the waste is getting disposed of in landfills. This should be a huge cause for concern for not only environmentalists but also local citizens. With a revived consumer electronic durables market in the UAE, valued at USD 0.85 billion (Q1 2010), the situation of e-waste looks grimmer than ever. UAE has around 4.8 million residents and almost double this number is mobile phone subscribers. Increasing per capita income of the UAE residents has alarmingly contributed to the mindless disposal of electronic waste in this great Emirate nation. Even though the re-cycling industry is in its nascent stage in the UAE, it is slowly gaining momentum. However, there is a huge awareness gap between the e-waste recycling industry and the consumers who generate the said waste. Our study focuses on exploring the behavior of such consumers towards e-waste management and addressing the persistent problems faced by the e-waste recycling industry in the UAE. In our research project, we propose a sustainable working model to bridge the knowledge gap between consumers who generate e-waste and the industry that re-cycles the same e-waste.

Given that we must farm land in order to eat, the total environmental burden imposed by farming a crop such as winter wheat in the UK appears to as close to the minimum as is possible when production is at its most efficient. The value of the services other than food production, such as flood water buffering, pollination, carbon storage and so on, that land can provide is relatively large compared with the value in reducing environmental burdens from pesticide use, nutrient pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by farming less intensively. More land will need to be brought into cultivation in order to provide the same amount of food if the intensity of farming is reduced but the loss of ecosystem services outweighs the reduction in. Nevertheless, losses of nutrients, especially nitrogen (N), from agriculture are a serious concern and the current cost of the environmental footprint of agriculture is significant compared with the value of the food it produces. This article examines nutrient burdens and analyses the means by which the total environmental burden might be reduced relative to productivity. These include increasing the efficiency of farming, removing constraints to yield, and establishing multiple uses for land at the same time as farming. It concludes that agronomic measures which improve nutrient capture and which obtain more yield per unit area are valuable means to avoid degradation of environmental quality because both nutrient pollution and land consumption can be avoided. Means that appear to offer a reduction of 5-10% in each are suggested.

The entire hagiography of the \'Singapore Story\' is one that is framed as a siege or bunker mentality of a vulnerable nation susceptible to the myriad of both internal and external security threats to national cohesion. In this context, sustainability has developed as an evolving balancing act by the dominant People\'s Action Party (PAP) which has governed Singapore by virtue of \'clean and strong\' leadership, pragmatic policy formation and authoritative persuasion since self governance in 1959. Under the direction of the PAP, top-down or \'hard resilience\' has taken precedence over bottom-up or \'soft resilience\' which might be seen as the cornerstone of a healthy, organically structured civil society. Within Singapore, this soft or \'human resilience\' has struggled to be recognised within a dominant operational paradigm characterised by a framework of boundaries, limits and prescribed behaviour. Yet, moving towards an increasingly globalised future, it is the latter, more inflexible top-down structures which are now perceived to sit uncomfortably within the complex and hypermobile worlds of capital, commodities and communications which in themselves can foster multiple, domestic inequities. Confronted with these forces and amidst the fading promise of the Singapore \'prosperity consensus\' pact, official notions of national security have more recently embraced the wider \'threatscape\' of challenges to Singapore society in calling for a higher level of community engagement within an increasingly plural and assertive society in which the government \'does not have all the answers\'. This assessment was fostered by the forcefully articulated debate, assisted somewhat by a surge in social media following the relaxation of hitherto strict rules on media coverage, prior to the 2011 General Election. Grievances with the government surfaced as a delicate expression of bottom-up, or soft resilience, as popular support for the PAP dropped to its lowest level since the hotly contested 1963 elections. Certainly not an \'Arab Spring\' revolt against a longstanding leadership, this was a \'Singapore-style\' rebuke, not enough to overwhelm a political party that has been positively transformational but an expression of demographic change, delicate interaction and tentative negotiation of the two aforementioned and not necessarily mutually exclusive, resiliences. While the political response to this rebuke was immediate, as senior members of the government stood down from cabinet positions, this paper questions the limits to yet another potential remaking of the Singapore Story, this time within a local context of heightened expectations and a global context of sustainability amidst economic, political and social instability and unpredictability.

Is intrinsic to the functioning of our society the need for major hospitals, shopping malls, sports facilities, public transport stations, public institutions, schools, waste treatment plants etc.. This equipment must be available for use. But as we measured the consumption needs of this equipment? What is available is equal to what is necessary? There has been a study in sports structures, specifically in football stadiums and it was found that the availability is much higher than need. We have no control of consumption, waste control, user awareness. But there was a high sensitivity for the invoice to pay. In an environment of global change, crisis, it is imperative the best and most profitable use of such equipment enhancing its positive impacts on society. In this perspective the definition of management model for the sustainability of infrastructure is needed. For the different areas of sustainability are then systematized aspects that are considered priority address. Environment should be considered: water, energy, materials, waste, wastewater and environment (especially connecting ecosystems). In terms social: immersion and integration of users, information and communication for users, control and related infrastructure, awareness and training for both users and employees, ensuring safety and well-being and transport and access for users. In economic terms, all costs, maintenance, operation, waste, leaks, discharges and resources. A Model for Sustainability Management should therefore allow the awareness of the sustainability of all stakeholders in the infrastructure, verify the relevant aspects for the specificity of each infrastructure, follow the steps for Sustainability Implemented and consider what steps possible to implement. It should also be considered a dynamic control of performance management model for sustainability, ie, enhance the use of resources, reducing consumption in the use, control inefficiencies (losses and leakages) and integration and interaction of users. The current challenge is not for new construction, but to ensure that the existing infrastructure have guaranteed levels of satisfaction of user needs, the binding of these infrastructure leveraging the best use of these to your life, with sustainability.

The global trend towards sustainability has led to increased interest in alternative power sources to coal and other fossil fuels. One of these sustainable sources is wind energy, which we can harness through wind turbines. However, a significant hindrance preventing the widespread use of wind turbines is the noise they produce. This study reviews recent advances in the area of noise pollution from wind turbines. To date, there have been many different noise control studies. In order to successfully reduce or prevent the noise generated, the sources of noise must be identified. Two major sources of noise are present during operation: mechanical noise and aerodynamic noise. Mechanical noise generally originates from the many different components within the wind turbine, such as the generator, the hydraulic systems and the gearbox. Different mechanical noise prevention strategies such as vibration suppression, vibration isolation and fault detection techniques are presented in this paper. Aerodynamic noise prevention strategies are also discussed. Aerodynamic noise is the dominant source of noise from wind turbines, with a sound power level of 99.2 dB A. Breaking this noise source down, the largest contributor to aerodynamic noise comes from the trailing edge of wind turbine blades. Strategies for reducing aerodynamic noise include adaptive solutions and wind turbine blade modification methods. There are a number of adaptive noise reduction solutions including varying the speed of rotation of the blades and increasing the pitch angle. Although such strategies have been successfully implemented for noise reduction purposes, they can cause significant power loss. Therefore, alternative methods of adaptive solutions are sought. Blade modification methods such as adding serrations have proven to be beneficial in reducing noise without any power loss. The aim of this paper is to critically analyse and compare the different methods currently being implemented and investigated to reduce noise production from wind turbines, with a focus on the noise generated from the trailing edge.

Since the 1990s the sustainability concept, i.e. addressing social, economic, environmental and inter-generational issues, is widely acknowledged as guiding principle of natural resource management and governance. In the water sector this is reflected in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), which aims at integrated, economically, socially and environmentally sustainable use of water resources. Faced with climate change, governance of natural resources is confronted with unprecedented situations and past experience may no longer provide reliable guidance for the future. This has been termed the adaptation deficit of water resource management. The question arises in how far IWRM is able to deal with challenges such as decreasing water availability and uncertainty in water supply. To maintain the long-term sustainability of the water sector, its ability to adapt to unforeseen events needs to increase, i.e. (as part of disaster risk management) adaptation needs to become integral part of the governance of water resources. Governance structures need to be developed which enable stakeholders to cope with the challenges and uncertainties of climate change. Increasing both the sustainability and the adaptive capacity will thus be one of the major future challenges for the water sector and serve as contributions to disaster risk management. This paper addresses the question in how far IWRM besides supporting the sustainable management of water resources is prepared for increasing the adaptive capacity of the water sector. This is achieved by examining the features of IWRM regarding their contribution towards increasing the adaptive capacity of water governance regimes. The paper also identifies additional features which would be required for further increasing the adaptive capacity of water governance and management.

Environmental contamination by heavy metals is one of the main pollution concerns nowadays. Researchers are urged therefore to find new and more efficient methods for the removal of these dangerous pollutants, mainly from water effluents. The challenge of environmental sustainability is thus directly linked to the development of more effective solutions for these recalcitrant menaces. Under this perspective, adsorption can be considered an interesting remediation procedure, but adsorbents are still expensive materials. With the scope of developing new adsorbents, novel tannin-based adsorbents were tested on heavy metals removal. Up to 10 heavy metals (Cd²⁺, Cr³⁺, Pb²⁺, Hg²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, UO₂²⁺ and Mn²⁺) were removed with different adsorbents that involved tannins from Acacia mearnsii de Wild, Schinopsis balansae, Cupressus sempervivens and Pinus pinaster. These tannin extract were gelified with formaldehyde in basic medium. The whole study was conducted under a statistical point of view, so ANOVA tests were carried out in order to evaluate the optimum concentration of formaldehyde, the most reactive tannin extract and the easiest metals for being removed. These considerations drove to the optimum tanningel derived from cypress, concentrated formaldehyde, with a high affinity to UO₂²⁺, Hg²⁺ and Pb²⁺. This study has been conducted under the hypothesis of minimum energy consumption, maximum natural materials involved in the process and maximum efficiency in the removal of these metals. The results are promising since high efficiencies were achieved, thus this new adsorbents are competitive with traditional ones, such as clays, activated carbons or biosorbents.

Amongst the multiple emerging pollutants in the modern world, perhaps surfactants may be considered one of the first importance group. They are ubiquitous contaminants that present a highly refractory nature and an extremely dangerous biopersistance, thus the interest of researchers in presenting new and more efficient methods for their removal from aqueous solutions. One of the most promising materials in the field of water remediation is Moringa oleifera seed extract. It acts as a coagulant and flocculant agent and its performance is high enough to consider it as a competitive treatment agent, compared even with classical metal salts such as alum of ferric chloride. In this work, Moringa oleifera seed extract was confirmed as a feasible coagulant in removing surfactants from aqueous effluents. Amongst them, long-chain anionic detergents such as Polyoxyethylene (3.5) sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) was selected as a model compound for evaluating the coagulation response. The system coagulant-detergent was stable with different temperatures and pH, and the efficiency was very promising. Moringa oleifera was an effective coagulant since it was capable to reach up to 0.245 mg/mg coagulation capacity according to Gu-Zhu model. Design of experiments presented an optimum combination of coagulant dosage and initial surfactant concentration of 234 mg/L and 76 mg/L respectively. Therefore, this study adds a valuable characteristic to the well known Moringa oleifera coagulant and contributes to establish it as a real alternative to the traditional coagulants.

Many chemical suppliers are looking to alternative, eco-friendly raw materials. One of the main sources of renewable feedstocks are plant oils. The use of vegetable oils in organic synthesis is consistent with principle of sustainable development and reduces demand for imported oil. It is important to use the fuels containing biocomponents from renewable sources. Rape is one of the most cultivated oil plant which is a renewable raw material for production of liquid biofuels. The work presents both process of obtaining rapeseed oil and describes stages of transesterification process efforts to receive biodiesel.