Q Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics
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In Sierra Leone, at the moment 10 out of the total 14 districts are faced with the problem of large-scale land investments for industrial agriculture (oil palm, sugarcane…). The production is mainly for the local, regional and world market. There are quite many of these investments in the planning stage, while some are extending their operations by taking more land from communities or are already at the production stage. Studies and media reports have claimed a number of negative impacts felt in communities hosting these companies, ranging from loss of land, food insecurity, increase in poverty to loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation as well as social and cultural problems. The goal of this thesis is to examine the impacts of the operations of “Socfin Agriculture Company” on food security of local communities in Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun District of Sierra Leone.
Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used for data collection, analyses, and interpretation of results. The research uses household income and expenditure to compare household food security before and after the start of the company’s operations. It examines consequences of community’s loss of land to support household food production versus casual wage earn from employment created by the company to meet household food security.
The results show a loss of household’s income sources and a significant decrease in households’ income. Households’ food crop production has reduced accompanied by a complete loss of cash crop farming. Households affected by the operations of the company have lost access to land and other natural resources that support food production. Furthermore, the company employs very few people in comparison to the total population of affected communities. Calculation of total wage earn from employment by the company cannot meet the staple food (rice) needs of the households. Also, households claimed a host of unfilled promises made by the company and national government at the onset of the operations of the company.
In conclusion, household food production is the most significant determinant for household food security, with regards to food availability, accessibility, utilization and stability of supply. Therefore, national government should carefully study and develop a framework that addresses food security of households impacted by the operations of the rapidly growing large-scale land investment companies and ensure a fair share of the local community in the economic development of the country and suggesting ways of improving access rights in the context of tenure.
Located in the Urubamba mountain range, the Chicón glacier is the third highest tropical glacier of this area and the source of water for the Chicón watershed. Moreover, from this watershed four communities obtain water for human consumption and agriculture, which is their main economic activity. In the last years glacier retreat is evident in the area and threatens the livelihoods of the people because it affects the availability of fresh water.
The general objective of this research is to analyse the perception of people living in this watershed to climate change, disaster risk, and ecosystem-based solutions. The specific objectives are to identify natural hazards and climate change effects in the community, to recognise potential ecosystem services suitable for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR), and to assess to which climate change effects and disasters the communities are vulnerable based on their own perception. The methodological steps are based on literature review, expert interviews, questionnaires to the community, a workshop and field observations.
The results show that people perceive changes in the climate such as increase in temperature, less precipitation and shifts of the rainy and the dry season. The climate-related disasters that were identified are Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), droughts, frosts and hailstorms. However, GLOFs are not frequent in the area and drought is the hazard that people consider will be more frequent. Additionally, pests were identified as biological hazards. Several ecosystems services can be obtained for EbA and Eco-DRR from forests, especially if native trees such as Qiwiña (Polylepis spp.), Chachacoma (Escallonia resinosa) and Aliso (Alnus jorullensis) are used in ecosystem management. Finally, the hypothesis was partially accepted since people in the study area are to some extent aware of climate change impacts, but only partially understand causes and effects. Further, they recognize most of the ecosystem services that forests provide. Therefore they are starting to implement ecosystem-based solutions in the watershed with the support of external institutions.
Intelligent use of energy is one of the keys to success for an energy revolution. To meet this challenge, smart meters are suitable tools because INTELLIGENT use of energy means not only to use efficiency technology, but also to determine load shifting potentials and use them accordingly. Especially farms with high power consumption are becoming increasingly concerned about reducing energy costs due to rising energy prices and need a systematic analysis of their operational energy flow. To find solutions for farms, the NaRoTec e.V., the TH Köln, and the Machinery Ring Höxter-Warburg have joined forces with partners and launched the project "Intelligent Energy in Agriculture", which is funded by the state of NRW. The aim of the project is to be able to give individual advice recommendations for energy optimization of agricultural holdings. This will be achieved inter alia through an operational energy audit and current measurements in different operating ranges. To achieve this, smart meters were installed in selected energy-intensive dairy and pig farms. As part of the project, the installed smart meter information about the consumption of various plants and their components were analyzed, regularities and adaptability in loading history identified, and the energy efficiency of the equipment and systems used verified (especially pumps, ventilators, feeding systems). Then recommendations were formulated to shift electricity-intensive processes to times with low electricity costs and high intrinsic power production. The resulting findings will be used as the basis for intelligent energy management in the further course of the project. Overall, efficiency streamlining measures in the field of ventilation and lighting systems, flexible dry feeding systems by decoupling power purchase and consumption, as well as energy savings and related CO2 savings were determined.
Intelligent use of energy is one of the keys to success for an energy revolution. To meet this challenge, smart meters are suitable tools because INTELLIGENT use of energy means not only to use efficiency technology, but also to determine load shifting potentials and use them accordingly. Especially farms with high power consumption are becoming increasingly concerned about reducing energy costs due to rising energy prices and need a systematic analysis of their operational energy flow. To find solutions for farms, the NaRoTec e.V., the TH Köln, and the Machinery Ring Höxter-Warburg have joined forces with partners and launched the project "Intelligent Energy in Agriculture", which is funded by the state of NRW in Germany. The aim of the project is to be able to give individual advice recommendations for energy optimization of agricultural holdings. This will be achieved inter alia through an operational energy audit and current measurements in different operating ranges. To achieve this, smart meters were installed in selected energy-intensive dairy and pig farms.
As part of the project, the installed smart meter information of one of the dairy Farms is used to optimize the energy consumption of the farm and increase the degree of self-sufficiency. A good way to achieve this is by taking a closer look at the cooling process of the produced milk since it is one of the most energy consuming processes on a dairy farm. In addition an installation of an ice cooling system instead of a direct cooling system enables the possibility to store self-produced energy in the form of ice and use it later on when it is needed to cool the milk. This flattens the usual energy peaks throughout the day and increases the degree of self-sufficiency. To ensure a sufficient amount of self-produced energy with solar power plants of various sizes were designed. The different sizes of the power plants are defined by the use of the gathered smart meter data is used to cover different electric loads in addition to the ice water cooling system. Afterwards the different simulated models are compared to find the best balance between energy production, investment cost and a high degree of self-sufficiency. First results show that using an ice cooling system in combination with a solar power plant improvement the degree of self-sufficiency by up to 7.8 %.
Die Dokumentation und Untersuchung von Massenbewegungen ist der entscheidende Schritt, um die Gefahr, die von ihnen ausgeht, zu identifizieren und im nächsten Schritt zu minimieren. Vor allem in Bergregionen kann dies im Extremfall Menschenleben retten.
Folglich untersucht diese Arbeit auf Grund bestehender Gefahr die räumliche Verteilung von Massenbewegungen in den drei iranischen Provinzen Alborz, Qazvin und Teheran.
In Anbetracht der immer weiter wachsenden Städte im erdbeben- und somit massenbewegungsgefährdeten Elbursgebirge wird mittels zweier quantitativer Analysen der isolierte Einfluss von straßen- und schienengebundener Verkehrsinfrastruktur auf Massenbewegungen (in den drei Provinzen) untersucht.
Beide Analysen vergleichen ausschließlich die lokale Häufung von Massenbewegungen mit dem vorhandenen Straßen- und Schienennetz: in der ersten Analyse durch das Vergleichen stattgefundener Massenbewegungen innerhalb von Teilgebieten des untersuchten Gebiets, in der zweiten Analyse werden die Häufungen in verschiedenen Abständen zu Straßen erfasst.
Anknüpfend an die zweite Analyse wird eine Bewertung der Häufigkeiten getätigt.
Es ergeben sich folgende wesentliche Erkenntnisse aus dieser Bachelorarbeit:
• Die Aussagekraft der Analysen kann höchstens so groß sein wie die Richtigkeit, Vollständigkeit und Detailliertheit der zur Verfügung gestellten Datenbanken
• Die verhältnismäßig große Fläche des Untersuchungsgebietes stellt eine hohe Fehlerquelle dar (z.B. durch das große Datenvolumen)
• Eine Anfälligkeitsanalyse auf Grund eines isoliert betrachteten Auslösefaktors ist mit vielen Fehlern und Annahmen behaftet (z.B. muss zunächst einmal angenommen werden, dass Massenbewegungen nicht durch andere Faktoren ausgelöst werden)
• Eine erhöhte Anfälligkeit des Untersuchungsgebietes gegenüber Massenbewegungen innerhalb von 50 m Abstand zu Straßen konnte durch die in dieser Arbeit beschriebenen „Straßenpufferanalyse“ nachgewiesen werden.
Die Analysen sind mit dem Programm ArcGIS durchgeführt. Ihre detaillierte Beschreibung ermöglicht es dem Leser, die Analysen weiterzuführen oder mit anderen Parametern zu wiederholen. Weiterführende Analysen beispielsweise in Form einer Risikokarte verhelfen den Menschen, Sachgüter und die Umwelt z.B. durch nachhaltige Bebauungspläne zu schützen.
The utilization of roadside-green-cuttings (grass) for anaerobic digestion increases provides an additional possible source of organic waste for use as a renewable energy source. Grass can be used as a substrate to increase biogas yield. Nevertheless, the anaerobic digestion of this kind of waste can be limited due to the fact that it could be contaminated with heavy metals, in particular from traffic emissions and industrial activity. For this reason the biogas production of grass from a busy road was assessed. Samples of roadside-grass were washed with an organosulphide, which is used for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater.
A comparison of the anaerobic digestion of washed and unwashed roadside grass was performed. Results showed that the anaerobic digestion of the unwashed grass was much more effective than the washed grass. A second experiment was carried out and co-fermentation of manure and farm-grass was prepared for anaerobic digestion. Lead was added in the concentrations 500, 1000 and 2000 mg Pb2+/kg. The results showed that the higher the lead concentration, the lower the inhibition of the biogas yield. The grass could be acting as phytoremediator for high lead concentrations. The grass could contain organic compounds, which can as-similate heavy metals.
Anaerobic Digestion of spent grains: Potential use in small-scale Biogas Digesters in Jos, Nigeria
(2014)
In order to ascertain biogas yield potential and applicability of spent grains (SG)1 in small-scale biogas production, laboratory batch fermentation was performed with various masses of dry and wet SG using sewage sludge (SS)2 and digested maize silage (DMs) 3 as inoculums. Different volumes of biogas and CH4 were measured with higher volumes observed for batch fermentation with DMs in com-parison to those produced by SS. Results from the study reveals minimum biogas yield of 118.10 L/kg
VS and maximum yields of 769.46 L/kg VS, which are indicative of the possible use of SG for domestic biogas production in Jos, Nigeria. The study established the fact that the use of both dry and wet SG results in the yield of a useful amount of biogas having 40 - 60 % CH4 content depending on the inoculum and amount of volatile solids present. Using the parameters of dry matter and volatile solids contents analysed for SG and DMs, it was estimated that a reactor volume of 6.47 m3 would be capable of meeting the daily cooking needs of rural households in Jos, Nigeria.
Der vorliegende Bericht ist ein ökonomischer Vergleich
verschiedener Varianten der Überschussschlamm
(ÜSS)-Verwertung der Sickerwasseranlage
auf der Deponie des Entsorgungszentrums Leppe
mit dem aktuellen Entsorgungsweg. Als Vergleichsparameter
werden die Jahresvollkosten herangezogen.
Der derzeitige Entsorgungsweg über die kommunale
Kläranlage wird hierbei als Basisvariante
betrachtet und mit alternativen Behandlungs- und
Verwertungsmöglichkeiten verglichen. Hierbei werden
verschiedene Varianten mit unterschiedlichen
Ausführungen der Komponenten Lagerung, Entwässerung,
Trocknung, Transport und Verbrennung
gegenübergestellt.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde eine HPLC-Methode mit der dazugehörigen Probenvorbereitung entwickelt, welche es ermöglicht Essigsäure und Acrylsäure in komplexen Matrizes wie Deponiesickerwasser zu bestimmen. Hauptaugenmerk lag dabei auf der Matrixreduzierung, die bei 96 % lag. Die Wiederfindung der Analyten Essigsäure und Acrylsäure liegt bei der beschriebenen Methode bei ca. 100 %.
Biogas, mit geringen Konzentrationen an Methan, entsteht unter anderem bei verschiedenen industriellen Prozessen. Wegen der Umweltschädlichkeit des Methans gilt es dessen Eintrag in die Umwelt zu vermeiden.
Das Ziel des vorgestellten Projektes war die Überprüfung eines umweltfreundlichen Verfahrens zur Reduzierung des Methans durch methanotrophe Bakterien. Die einzelnen Batchversuche liefen über 15 Stunden und zeigten eine starke Reduzierung des Methans von 18 auf 1 Vol.-%.