Applicability assessment of a plasma melting technology for a fly ash recycling system in the Republic of Korea.

ABSTRACTThe Ministry of Environment of Korea has proposed a ban on landfill disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) from 2026. Thus, it is inferred that the amount of incineration ash will increase drastically. Against this backdrop, this study assessed the applicability of a plasma melting process to fly ash. Fly ash was collected from 14 incineration facilities to analyze its basic properties and perform melting experiments. Furthermore, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis and economic feasibility assessment were conducted. The molten fly ash slag exhibited a pH value of 9.9, and the ignition loss of fly ash was found to range from 14.5 to 25.7 wt.%. None of seven toxic elements (arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cyanide (CN), mercury (Hg), hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), copper, and lead (Pb)) was detected from the molten slag. In addition, 99.3 wt.% of chloride ion (Cl-), 97.9 wt.% of fluoride ion (F-), and 98.1 wt.% of sulphate ion (SO42-) were removed. The contents in the molten slag were found to be 0.19, 7.8, 27.8, 33.1, and 38 mg/kg for Cd, Pb, zinc, nickel, and F, respectively, and none of CN, Hg, and As was detected, thereby meeting the criteria for soil pollution. All of the environmental standards were met, and SEM analysis confirmed stable quality with high density and no surface pore. In the economic feasibility assessment, a profit of approximately 152.4 $/ton was also estimated compared to landfill disposal.

Guidance on assessing the potential impacts of selenium in freshwater ecosystems.

Despite decades of fate and effects studies, environmental selenium (Se) contamination and management remain an issue for many freshwater systems in North America. Several regulatory bodies have promulgated updated targets or management levels for Se; however, additional guidance on best practices for monitoring Se to protect freshwater aquatic life is warranted. In this article, we describe current approaches to assessing the ecological risks of Se in impaired freshwater systems and outline recommended methods for collecting and analyzing biological and abiotic samples and interpreting data. Because reproductive impairment of fish populations is most commonly used to determine the potential impacts of Se, several biological factors that could affect Se toxicity are explored, including diet, trophic positions, reproductive biology, body size and maturity, migratory movements, and use of seasonal habitats. Measuring Se concentrations in mature eggs is the most reliable metric for estimating potential reproductive impairment in fish populations because the range of toxicity thresholds is relatively narrow for all but a few tolerant fish species. In situations where collecting mature eggs is not feasible, we review the use of alternative fish tissue for estimating potential effects. Factors affecting Se uptake from freshwater are also considered with guidance on collecting abiotic (e.g., water and sediment) and biotic components of aquatic food webs (e.g., macroinvertebrates, biofilm). Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;00:1-16. © 2024 SETAC.

Gate-to-grave assessment of plastic from recycling to manufacturing of TENG: a comparison between India and Singapore.

This study assesses the viability of recycled plastic-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for sustainable energy harvesting in India and Singapore, concurrently examining plastic waste management. Using material flow analysis and life cycle assessment, the findings revealed that in Singapore, waste-to-energy incineration has a lower environmental impact than landfilling and mechanical recycling, attributed to natural gas usage. In India, recycling offsets impacts from incineration and landfilling, contributing to a lower net environmental impact. Economic performance of a TENG module from PET recyclates showed a 20% carbon footprint reduction when scaling up from lab to industrial "freeze-drying" processes. Key challenges in TENG manufacturing processes are also assessed for future development. This research highlights the potential of recycled plastic-based TENGs in sustainable energy and waste management.

Social media and social impact assessment: Evolving methods in a shifting context.

Among many by-products of Web 2.0 come the wide range of potential image and text datasets within social media and content sharing platforms that speak of how people live, what they do, and what they care about. These datasets are imperfect and biased in many ways, but those flaws make them complementary to data derived from conventional social science methods and thus potentially useful for triangulation in complex decision-making contexts. Yet the online environment is highly mutable, and so the datasets are less reliable than censuses or other standard data types leveraged in social impact assessment. Over the past decade, we have innovated numerous methods for deploying Instagram datasets in investigating management or development alternatives. This article synthesizes work from three Canadian decision contexts - hydroelectric dam construction or removal; dyke realignment or wetland restoration; and integrating renewable energy into vineyard landscapes - to illustrate some of the methods we have applied to social impact assessment questions using Instagram that may be transferrable to other social media platforms and contexts: thematic (manual coding, machine vision, natural language processing/sentiment analysis, statistical analysis), spatial (hotspot mapping, cultural ecosystem modeling), and visual (word clouds, saliency mapping, collage). We conclude with a set of cautions and next steps for the domain.

Parmi les nombreux sous-produits du Web 2.0 figure un large éventail de données provenant d'images et de textes, de contenus de médias sociaux et de plateformes numériques, qui révèlent comment les gens vivent, ce qu'ils font et les questions qui les préoccupent. Ces ensembles de données sont imparfaits et biaisés à bien des égards, mais nombre de leurs lacunes les rendent complémentaires des informations collectées par les sciences sociales à l'aide de méthodes conventionnelles. D'où leur utilité potentielle pour la triangulation dans des contextes décisionnels complexes. Cet article synthétise le travail de trois études de cas menées au Canada pour illustrer certaines des méthodes que nous avons développées et qui pourraient être utiles à d'autres chercheurs en EIS: thématiques (codage, apprentissage automatique, analyse sémantique, association statistique), spatiales (cartographie des points chauds, modélisation du transfert des bénéfices) et visuelles (cartes de saillance, collage).

Entre los muchos subproductos de la Web 2.0 se encuentra una amplia gama de datos de imágenes y texto, contenidos en redes sociales y plataformas digitales, que hablan de cómo vive, qué hace y por qué cuestiones se preocupa la gente. Estos conjuntos de datos son imperfectos y sesgados en muchos sentidos, pero muchos de sus defectos los hacen complementarios a la información recogida por las ciencias sociales con métodos convencionales. De ahí su potencial utilidad para la triangulación en contextos complejos de toma de decisiones. Este artículo sintetiza el trabajo de tres estudios de caso llevados a cabo en Canadá para ilustrar algunos de los métodos que hemos desarrollado y pueden resultar útiles para otros investigadores en EIS: temáticos (codificación, machine learning, análisis semántico, asociación estadística), espaciales (mapeo de puntos críticos, modelización de transferencia de beneficios) y visuales (mapas de saliencia, collage).

Attenuation of water contamination in the Paraopeba River after the collapse of B1 tailings dam: Natural wash-off and dredging contributions.

Following the B1 dam collapse at Córrego do Feijão Mine, actions were taken to address environmental damage and enhance the quality of water in the Paraopeba River. Natural processes in the river involve gradual reduction of contamination through dispersion and downstream transportation of tailings-a slow, nature-driven process. Dredging, a human intervention, aimed to expedite recovery. Hence, this study aimed to explore dredging's role in reducing contamination in the impacted Paraopeba River zone. Analysis revealed a direct link between dredging and post-collapse turbidity, though recent trends suggest a lessening impact on pre-collapse conditions. Distinct seasonal variations were observed in iron and manganese concentrations, peaking during wet seasons and displaying notable upstream-downstream disparities. An analysis of ratios (downstream/upstream) was conducted to understand and even predict the return to pre-collapse conditions. Wet season averages for iron and manganese decreased by around 90 % over time, with standard deviations reducing by about 48 % and 58 %, respectively. In the dry season, the averages decreased by over 100 %, indicating water quality improvements surpassing pre-collapse levels. Standard deviations also decreased significantly, by approximately 67 % and 79 %, respectively. Employing an exponential decay model revealed that the contribution of dredging in the dry period is negligible, but in the wet period the contribution can be estimated at 28.6 % in the case of iron and 25 % in the case of manganese. While the models performed well based on extensive data, some limitations occur in estimating dredging contribution rates. The model's sensitivity might overlook influential factors, underscoring the importance of considering sediment nature and dredged area extent in understanding water quality dynamics. Despite these potential limitations, this investigation provides crucial insights into the intricate relationship between dredging and water quality in the Paraopeba River. These findings pave the way for future studies aimed at deeper exploration and more accurate assessments of this association.

Quantifying land change dynamics, resilience and feedback: A comparative analysis of the lake Chad basin in Africa and Aral Sea basin in Central Asia.

The intricate interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors drives changes in land and water in response to societal demands and climate change. However, there has been insufficient information on the feedback effects in dryland hotspots altered by land change dynamics. This research compared two transboundary inland lakes, the Lake Chad basin (LCB) in Africa and the Aral Sea basin (ASB) in Central Asia, using remote sensing and geographic information system techniques to analyze and quantify present and future land cover dynamics, resilience, and their feedback effects. The study integrated Cellular Automata, Markov Chain, and Multilayer Perceptron models to predict LULC changes up to 2030. Descriptive statistics, ordinary least squares regression, hotspot Gi-Bin, trend analysis, and advanced geostatistical methods were utilized to identify relationships, patterns, magnitudes, and directions of observed changes in the feedback effects. From 2000 to 2030, the analysis unveils intriguing trends, including an increase in cropland from 48% to 51% and a decrease in shrubland from 18% to 15% in the LCB. The grassland increased from 21% to 22%, and the settlement expanded from 0.10 to 0.60% in the ASB. Water bodies remained stable at 1.60 % in LCB, while in ASB, it declined from 3% to 2%. These changes were significantly influenced by population, elevation, and temperature in both basins, with irrigation also playing a significant role in the ASB and slope in LCB. The study further revealed discernible shifts in normalized difference vegetation index, temperature, and precipitation linked to specific land cover conversions, suggesting alterations in surface properties and vegetation health. This study underscores the complex interplay between land cover dynamics, resilience, climate variability, and feedback mechanisms in LCB and ASB.

Environmental Antecedents of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks, United States, 2017-2019.

Foodborne outbreak investigations often provide data for public health officials to determine how the environment contributed to the outbreak and on how to prevent future outbreaks. State and local health departments are responsible for investigating foodborne illness outbreaks in their jurisdictions and reporting the data to national-level surveillance systems, including information from the environmental assessment. This assessment is designed to describe how the environment contributed to the outbreak and identifies factors that contributed to the outbreak and environmental antecedents to the outbreak. Environmental antecedents, also referred to as root causes, are specific reasons that allow biological or chemical agents to contaminate, survive, or grow in food. From 2017 to 2019, 24 jurisdictions reported 1,430 antecedents from 393 outbreaks to the National Environmental Assessment Reporting System. The most reported antecedents were lack of oversight of employees/enforcement of policies (89.1%), lack of training of employees on specific processes (74.0%), and lack of a food safety culture/attitude towards food safety (57.5%). These findings highlight the critical role that employees play in restaurant food safety and are heavily influenced by restaurant management, who can exercise active managerial control to manage these antecedents. Identifying antecedents during investigations is essential for understanding the outbreak's root cause and implementing sustainable corrective actions to stop the immediate outbreak and future outbreaks.

Life cycle assessment and cost analysis of an innovative automatic system for sorting municipal solid waste: A case study at Milan Malpensa airport.

With the recent advancement in artificial intelligence, there are new opportunities to adopt smart technologies for the sorting of materials at the beginning of the recycling value chain. An automatic bin capable of sorting the waste among paper, plastic, glass & aluminium, and residual waste was installed in public areas of Milan Malpensa airport, a context where the separate collection is challenging. First, the airport waste composition was assessed, together with the efficiency of the manual sorting performed by passengers among the conventional bins: paper, plastic, glass & aluminium, and residual waste. Then, the environmental (via the life cycle assessment - LCA) and the economic performances of the current system were compared to those of a system in which the sorting is performed by the automatic bin. Three scenarios were evaluated: i) all waste from public areas, despite being separately collected, is sent to incineration with energy recovery, due to the inadequate separation quality (S0); ii) recyclable fractions are sent to recycling according to the actual level of impurities in the bags (S0R); iii) fractions are sorted by the automatic bin and sent to recycling (S1). According to the results, the current separate collection shows a 62 % classification accuracy. Focusing on LCA, S0 causes an additional burden of 12.4 mPt (milli points) per tonne of waste. By contrast, S0R shows a benefit (-26.4 mPt/t) and S1 allows for a further 33 % increase of benefits. Moreover, the cost analysis indicates potential savings of 24.3 €/t in S1, when compared to S0.

Techno-economic and environmental analysis of renewable energy integration in irrigation systems: A comparative study of standalone and grid-connected PV/diesel generator systems in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Water is an essential requirement for agricultural productivity. In the agriculture sector, electricity generated by conventional sources contributes to a substantial amount of carbon footprints for pumping water through tube wells. Over the past few decades, a transitional shift towards renewable resources has increased leading to decarbonizing the environment and is considered as a viable solution for electricity production. To assist and provide a road map for this paradigm shift, the proposed study presents a techno-economic and environmental analysis of irrigation systems by carrying comparative analysis of both standalone and grid-connected systems based on four independent sites in a developing country. PV system integrated with grid enabling both energy purchase and sale (PV + G(P+S)), proved to be the most optimal configuration with cost of energy (COE) of $0.056/kWh, $0.059/kWh, $0.061/kWh, and $0.068/kWh while having net present cost (NPC) of $7,908, $20,186, $25,826, and $34,487 for Peshawar, Khyber Agency, Mardan, and Charsadda respectively, over a useful life span of 25 years. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis has been carried out based on uncertain variables such as Grid power purchase (GPP) and average solar radiation (GHI) to check the optimality behavior of the system. Results from environmental analysis revealed that (PV+ G(P+S)) system has a relatively low carbon impact as compared with conventional sources. This configuration also has the ability to prevent excess water extraction by selling any excessive solar PV energy to the grid. This study provides a policy framework insight for the entities for future optimization.

The Performance of Environmental and Health Impact Assessment Implementation: A Case Study in Eastern Thailand.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) performance has remained of interest, and over the past ten years, the evaluation technique has evolved. Thailand implemented an EIA with a health impact assessment (HIA) as an environmental health impact assessment (EHIA), which necessitated investigating and developing these instruments; however, its implementation performance has been questioned. The main goal of this study is to comparatively assess how well EIAs and EHIAs are performed in projects in an area in Thailand. Six projects in various sectors that were implemented in Eastern Thailand were studied. The 162 residents (nine local authorities and 153 villagers) closest to the project completed a survey and evaluated the performance according to three aspects (i.e., substantive, procedural, and transactive), using a rating scale and evaluation checklists. The results were presented as a percentage of the total scores and interpreted according to the five scales. The overall performance reached a satisfactory level, albeit not significantly different between cases; however, it was pointed out that the shortcomings of EHIAs and EIAs, particularly their dependability, lack of public involvement, and the need for more transparency, could be addressed through the establishment of an open access database, which would help to simplify the assessment of all stages of EIAs and EHIAs.

To use or not to use proprietary street view images in (health and place) research? That is the question.

Computer vision-based analysis of street view imagery has transformative impacts on environmental assessments. Interactive web services, particularly Google Street View, play an ever-important role in making imagery data ubiquitous. Despite the technical ease of harnessing millions of Google Street View images, this article questions the current practices in using this proprietary data source from a European viewpoint. Our concern lies with Google's terms of service, which restrict bulk image downloads and the generation of street view image-based indices. To reconcile the challenge of advancing society through groundbreaking research while maintaining data license agreements and legal integrity, we believe it is crucial to 1) include an author's statement on using proprietary street view data and the directives it entails, 2) negotiate academic-specific license to democratize Google Street View data access, and 3) adhere to open data principles and utilize open image sources for future research.

Distribution, occurrence, and leachability of typical heavy metals in coal gasification slag.

Coal gasification slag (CGS) contains variable amounts of heavy metals, which can negatively impact the environment. The mineral composition, element distribution, occurrence, and leaching characteristics of heavy metals in coal gasification coarse slag (CGCS) and coal gasification fine slag (CGFS) are studied to explain the leaching behavior of heavy metals in CGS. The movable components of heavy metals in CGFS (0.06 %-63.03 %) are significantly higher than those in CGCS (0 %-18.72 %). Leaching Environmental Assessment Framework 1313 data shows that heavy metals Zn, Cr, Cd, As, Pb, Ni, and Cu exhibit high leaching rates at low pH conditions, with Zn leaching concentrations as high as 2.11 mg/L at pH 2. Zn, Cr, and As exhibit obvious amphoteric leaching characteristics, and the leaching concentration of As at high pH (1.34 mg/L) even exceeds that at low pH (1.31 mg/L). Except for Cu, all heavy metals in CGS exceed the class III groundwater standard in some cases. Therefore, evaluation is needed before resource utilization of CGS due to potential leaching of some heavy metals.

Influence of industrial waste and mineral admixtures on durability and sustainability of high-performance concrete.

The present research explores the strength, durability, microstructure, embodied energy, and global warming potential investigations made toward cleaner production of high-performance concrete (HPC) using a new composition. For this, various mixes were considered by replacing cement with metakaolin (MK) and silica fumes (SF) while simultaneously altering fine aggregates with industrial waste, copper slag (CS) in 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% at 0.23 w/b ratio. The observations on fresh properties show a decrease in the slump due to pozzolans MK and SF but get compensated by the inclusion of copper slag simultaneously. HPC mixes with 50% replacement of CS revealed the best outcomes in compressive and splitting tensile strengths. Upon testing the concrete mixes against resistance to sulfate exposure, chloride penetration, and water absorption, the durability performance results best for modified mixes having 50% CS substitution levels. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy support a 25% substitution of CS, showing a thickset microstructure with an ample amount of C-S-H gel with negligible cracks and capillary channels resulting in having best-strengthening properties. Overall, decrement in embodied energies and global warming potential has resulted with a reduction in the usage of cement and river sand in modified concrete mixes, ultimately making the production sustainable as well as environment friendly.

Implementation of the CREED approach for environmental assessments.

Environmental exposure data are a key component of chemical and ecological assessments, supporting and guiding environmental management decisions and regulations. Measures taken to protect the environment based on exposure data can have social and economic implications. Flawed information may lead to measures being taken in the wrong place or to important action not being taken. Although the advantages of harmonizing evaluation methods have been demonstrated for hazard information, no comparable approach is established for exposure data evaluation. The goal of Criteria for Reporting and Evaluating Exposure Datasets (CREED) is to improve the transparency and consistency with which exposure data are evaluated regarding usability in environmental assessments. Here, we describe the synthesis of the CREED process, and propose methods and tools to summarize and interpret the outcomes of the data usability evaluation in support of decision-making and communication. The CREED outcome includes a summary that reports any key gaps or shortcomings in the reliability (data quality) and relevance (fitness for purpose) of the data being considered. The approach has been implemented in a workbook template (provided as Supporting Information), for assessors to readily follow the workflow and create a report card for any given dataset. The report card communicates the outcome of the CREED evaluation and summarizes important dataset attributes, providing a concise reference pertaining to the dataset usability for a specified purpose and documenting data limitations that may restrict data use or increase environmental assessment uncertainty. The application of CREED is demonstrated through three case studies, which also were used during beta testing of the methodology. As experience with the CREED approach application develops, further improvements may be identified and incorporated into the framework. Such development is to be encouraged in the interest of better science and decision-making, and to make environmental monitoring and assessment more cost-effective. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:1019-1034. © 2024 SETAC.

Impact of urbanism on source separation systems: A life cycle assessment.

This study aims to assess the effect of different urban configuration regarding the choice of wastewater management of the district with source separation systems. Understanding this link can guide researchers, and also urban actors, in order to choose the best source separation solution to implement in a specific urban configuration. For this purpose, an integrated modelling approach was used to model the district with different types of urban planning, the water resources recovery facility (WRRF) and create a life cycle inventory to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA). Six different urban configurations were tested with three different source separation scenarios and compared with an advanced WRRF with high level of nutrients and organic matter recovery. This study concludes that urine source separation is beneficial compared to advanced WWRF for all the urban configurations. Sewer construction was identified as the main contributor to environmental impact for the low-density configuration (pavilions), limiting the benefits of source separation in this urban settlement. Blackwater separation with a decentralised treatment is only beneficial for high densely populated area. Treatment of blackwater and greywater for reuse, has greater impact than reference scenario, in all urban configurations, due to high energy consumption for greywater treatment. Future research should therefore explore technical solutions for limiting the energy consumption.

Assessing nutrient fate from terrestrial to freshwater systems using a semi-distributed model for the Fuxian Lake Basin, China.

The growing and increasingly intensified agricultural sector exerts major pressures on the environment. Specifically, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) runoff can induce eutrophication in freshwater ecosystems. To formulate environmental strategies for controlling eutrophication, decision-makers commonly consider the importance of pollutant contributors before developing sector-specific environmental policies. These types of science-based decisions benefit from nutrient models that quantify nutrient transport and fate. However, due to a lack of fertilizer application data, distributed models are generally not suitable for most rural regions with extensive agriculture, while lumped models cannot properly characterize the spatial variation of nutrient fate in these regions. To assess the nutrient contributions from different emission sources to freshwater, we developed a localized semi-distributed model to simulate total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) in 52 inflow rivers of Fuxian Lake Basin in China. The results show that diffuse sources contributed 82 % TN and 92 % TP loading to the inflow rivers. The highest eutrophication potentials (i.e., loading per area) is from the built environment, which is more than 10 times that of forests, but the contribution of the built environment to total diffuse loading is only the second-highest as it occupies 8.7 % of the surface area. Farmland is the main contributor, generating 49 % of diffuse TN and 57 % TP, respectively. Our results show that promoting a 10 % increase in nutrient use efficiency would reduce 5 % of N and 30 % of P diffuse loadings to the rivers. Through examining the impact of nutrient use efficiency, we emphasize the potential trade-offs between food productivity and environmental effects. This analysis workflow can be applied to other agricultural regions.

Can Italian wines outperform European benchmarks in environmental impact? An examination through the product environmental footprint method.

Nowadays, there is a pressing demand for precise tools to quantify sustainability and assess the contributions of products and processes to sustainable development. This requirement extends to the wine industry as well. In 2013, the European Commission introduced the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), providing a standardized methodology grounded in life cycle thinking for evaluating the environmental impacts of products across various industries. Despite its potential and the availability of specific guidelines for wine, the application of PEF remains unexplored in the sector. This study contributes to the knowledge by applying PEF to assess environmental impacts of Italian still and sparkling wines production, identifying variations from European benchmarks. Additionally, it aims to pinpoint pivotal hotspots and provide guidance for effective mitigation strategies. Average data from 27 wines certified as sustainable under Italian VIVA program, were collected and used to perform a life cycle assessment in accordance with PEF protocol. Results revealed that Italian still wines exhibited a greater environmental impact than the European reference value, while sparkling wines displayed a slightly more favourable environmental performance compared to the European average. Notably, specific impact categories remained consistent across different wines and countries, with climate change, resource utilization, land use, and particulate matter harmful for human health accounting for nearly 80 % of the overall environmental footprint. Hotspot analysis identified the plantation/destruction of vines, energy usage in the winery, and packaging as significant factors influencing the environmental footprint of Italian wines. Addressing these elements could enhance the environmental competitiveness of the Italian wine sector relative to its European counterparts. However, to validate these findings, further studies are necessary, both within Italy and in other European wine-producing regions. Such research initiatives will improve and strengthen PEF methodology, bolstering its adoption as the primary tool for environmental impact assessment of wine at the community level.

Aqueous-phase product treatment and monetization options of wet waste hydrothermal liquefaction: Comprehensive techno-economic and life-cycle GHG emission assessment unveiling research opportunities.

While wet waste hydrothermal liquefaction technology has a high biofuel yield, a significant amount of the carbon and nitrogen in the feedstock reports to the aqueous-phase product. Pretreatment of this stream before sending to a conventional wastewater plant is essential or at the very least, advisable. In this work, techno-economic and life-cycle assessments were conducted for the state-of-technology baseline and four aqueous-phase product treatment and monetization options based on experimental data. These options can cut minimum fuel selling prices by up to 13 % and life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 39 % compared to the baseline. These findings highlight the substantial influence of aqueous produce treatment strategies on the entire wet waste hydrothermal liquefaction process, demonstrating the potential for optimizing economic viability and environmental impact through further research and development of milder treatment methods and diversified by-product valorization pathways.

Resource utilization of stone waste and loess to prepare grouting materials.

Loess, a terrestrial clastic sediment, is formed essentially by the accumulation of wind-blown dust, while stone waste (SW) is an industrial waste produced during stone machining. Utilising loess and SW to prepare environmentally-friendly supplementary cementitious materials can not only address environmental issues caused by solid waste landfills but also meet the demand of reinforcement of coal-seam floor aquifer for grouting materials. In this paper, the effects of the loess/SW mass ratio and calcination temperature on the transformation of calcined products are investigated and their pozzolanic activities are evaluated. The workability, environmental impact and cost of grouting materials based on cement and calcined products are also assessed. Experimental results reveal that higher temperatures favour the formation of free lime and periclase, which tend to be involved in solid-state reactions. Higher temperature and loess/SW mass ratio strengthens the diffraction peaks of dodecalcium hepta-aluminate (C12A7), dicalcium ferrite (C2F) and dicalcium silicate (C2S). The clay minerals in loess become completely dehydroxylated before 825 °C, generating amorphous SiO2 and Al2O3. Covalent Si-O bonds are interrupted and that disordered silicate networks are generated in the calcined products, which is confirmed by the increased strength of the Si29 resonance region at -60 ppm to -80 ppm. Although co-calcined loess and SW contain the most four-fold aluminium at 950 °C, recrystallisation depresses the pozzolanic activity. Hence, the loess/SW sample designated LS2-825 exhibits the better hydration activity. Additionally, grouting materials composed of cement and LS2-825 exhibit good setting times, fluidity, strength and a low carbon footprint in practical engineering applications, and they also provide the additional benefit of being cost effective.

Marine ecosystem health and biological pollution: Reconsidering the paradigm.

Our study re-evaluates a fundamental paradigm in marine invasion ecology - whether introduced species are considered as contaminants, i.e. just present in the system, or whether they are pollutants per se, i.e. they cause biological harm. This re-evaluation includes the concepts of marine ecosystem health and biological pollution using the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) as an example. Hence, we clarify the distinction between "biological contamination" (pertaining to Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) introductions) and "biological pollution" (associated with Invasive Alien Species - IAS). We emphasize the need for comprehensive indicators that consider their ecological, economic, and societal impacts. The MSFD Descriptor D2 NIS is analysed using the "biocontamination-biopollution" gradient to better reflect the complexities of ecosystem health. We discuss limitations in current monitoring and evaluation criteria, such as the absence of unified NIS/IAS monitoring, challenges in interpreting ecological impacts, and context-dependent assessment results. We emphasize the importance of context-specific management measures, considering the origin of pressures, whether endogenic (caused within a management area such a regional sea) or exogenic (with causes from outside a management area). Ultimately, we underscore the importance of a holistic and adaptable approach to address the diverse challenges posed by biocontamination and biopollution, protecting both marine ecosystems and human well-being in an ever-changing environment.