Dioxin sources and industrial emissions control — a review

Dioxin, the collective term for polychlorinated dibenzo‐p‐dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, are generated during various chemical and high temperature processes. They have been shown to be toxic to humans and animals with 2,3,7,8‐tetrachloro‐dibenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD) exhibiting the greatest toxicity. Dioxin has been shown to exhibit immunotoxicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity in several animals. Epidemiological studies on groups of humans with prolonged or elevated exposure to dioxin have indicated increased cancer rates above threshold levels of exposure. Conversely, other studies have concluded that dioxin is a net anticarcinogen. There has been much study aimed at quantifying the relative contributions of the identified dioxin sources to the environmental load. Although some data suggests that burning of vegetation produces measurable amounts of dioxin it is rather industrial process waste streams which emit the greatest amounts. Processes implicated include organic chemical synthesis, metal processing, paper pulp bleaching and incineration of organic materials. Dioxin emission reduction strategies for high temperature processes have focussed upon the minimisation of the conditions at which dioxin forms in exhaust streams. Additionally, screening of process materials has been practised as have substitution of process chemicals in the pulp and paper bleaching industry.     

The evolution process of Chicago’s industrial land-use policy

Despite the industrial restructuring process that occurred between 1970s and 1980s in the Western World, the city of Chicago adopted an innovative land-use industrial policy for curbing the structural decline of manufacturing. The main aim was to preserve living wages manufacturing jobs for the Chicago residents that could not access the service sectors. Chicago’s industrial land-use policy experience, both in its historical and future perspectives, is an interesting top-down municipal policy that shows how the relationship between land-use planning and manufacturing shapes the city not only in spatial terms but also in social and economical terms.     

Tangshan—China's one time industrial pioneer striving for ecological excellence

Tangshan is one of China's oldest industrial cities, indeed its developmental trajectory well reflects China's modern industrial history. However, what brought the city notoriety was a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1976, which killed 203,555 people, severely injured 137,753 more, and destroyed over 90% of the houses and roads overnight. Forty years later Tangshan has been rebuilt into a city driven by up-to-date planning imperatives and high urban synergy which have resulted in an improved quality of life, attractive ecological environments and the urban leadership's enthusiasm for sustainable development. This paper discusses Tangshan's industrial history, painful lessons from the earthquake, and re-development, including the port of Caofeidian and the new town of Nanhu, as well as challenges and prospects for the future.     

BSPro COM-Server—interoperability between software tools using industrial foundation classes

The continuing development of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard by the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) creates new possibilities for achieving interoperability for design software through the use of a common object model of the building and its open data transfer standard. Several architectural CAD tools are already IFC-compliant. However, in-depth knowledge of the highly complex IFC object model is required to develop IFC-compliant software. It has proven quite difficult to read the huge amount of building data stored in an IFC file, extract the information needed by a particular application, and correctly update the IFC file with new data. To make this work easier for developers not familiar with the IFC, Olof Granlund Oy has developed a new development tool, BSPro COM-Server for IFC Files. Using this tool, a software developer of new or existing tools can achieve IFC compatibility with a quite reasonable amount of work.     

Connecting fragmented enclaves through network? Managing industrial parks in the Jakarta-Bandung Urban Corridor

This article seeks to explore the urban political and governance dynamics surrounding the planning and management of road infrastructure network between seven private industrial enclaves in Cikarang, the largest FDI-driven industrial parks agglomeration in the Jakarta-Bandung Urban Corridor (JBUC). We highlight the emergence of a new mode of governance that stresses the importance of network building among the industrial park developers and between the private and public sectors in addressing spatial fragmentation and infrastructure disconnectedness. Inter-actor networking strategies such as seeking of mutual interests and communication, cooperation and partnership have been initiated to reconcile the state-market divides and resolve the global-local political contestation. However, its success story in revitalizing the declining competitiveness of the industrial enclaves remains to be seen. This private-driven institutional arrangement finds difficulties in encouraging quick actions and building long-term commitment among its members mainly due to unbalanced power relation, fierce internal competition, and distrust among its members.     

Sectoral linkages and industrial efficiency: a dilemma or a requisition in identifying development priorities?

This paper attempts to provide an empirical evaluation of the potential relationship between sectoral linkages (backward and forward) and technical efficiency using the 1995 input–output tables for 14 EU countries. Sectoral technical efficiency is obtained by the econometric estimation of a “multilateral” stochastic input distance function, while sectoral backward and forward linkage coefficients were computed using the noncomplete hypothetical extraction method suggested by Dietzenbacher and Van der Linden (J Reg Sci 37:235–257, 1997). The empirical results suggest that the relationship between industrial technical efficiency and sectoral interdependence is ambiguous. Although the majority of the countries, in the sample exhibit a negative relationship, for some countries, the opposite is revealed. This implies that policy makers should not be blindly based on sectoral interdependence in forming development plans, and they should take into consideration the efficiency of resource utilization of individual sectors. The combination of the information provided by both indices will assist in devising effective policy plans in stimulating internal economic growth.     

The effects of industrial diversification on regional unemployment in Taiwan: is the portfolio theory applicable?

Unemployment issues, particularly recently, have been the subject of heated rhetoric in Taiwan due to the currently high unemployment rate in this small open economy. This paper investigates regional unemployment in 23 counties or cities from 1982 to 2004. Izraeli and Murphy (Ann Reg Sci 37:1–14, 2003) suggested that the Herfindahl index of industrial structure is positively correlated with the unemployment rate. In this regard, the portfolio theory argues that industrial diversification can only reduce volatility in the regional labor market. In other words, there is a relatively higher regional unemployment rate during periods of economic prosperity and relatively lower unemployment rate during periods of economic slowdown. This view is fully confirmed from the fixed effects model using panel data and the implication is that a comprehensive industrial policy to lower both the unemployment rate and risk in regional labor markets is critical in Taiwan today.     

The impact of economic policy on industrial specialization and regional concentration of China’s high-tech industries

This paper uses a dynamic panel approach to investigate the impact of economic policy on industrial specialization and regional concentration of China’s high-tech industries for the period 1996–2005. It is found that the degrees of specialization and concentration show increasing trends throughout the sample period, while high-tech industry sector has increasingly concentrated in costal regions. It is also found that the implementation of high-technology-oriented export policy and subsidy for science and high-technology activities encourage specialization and concentration, whereas local governments’ protection for local high-tech enterprises results in convergence in regional industrial structure and obstructs regional concentration of high-tech industries. The estimation result is robust not only to the use of various estimation techniques, but also to the control for other factors proposed by theories such as transport costs and knowledge resources. Our findings support the idea that economic policies might play an important role in determining the geographic distribution of high-tech industries in China.     

Transnational mobilities: Western European architects and planners in the Soviet industrial cities, 1928–1933

During the first Five-Year Plan, the Soviet state relied on the expert knowledge of groups of German and other foreign workers (architects, planners, skilled labourers) to design and build the standardized housing projects for industrial cities. This paper outlines the complicated transfer of Western planning ideas and designs into actual built spaces, focusing on the gap between initial plans and the makeshift and provisional types of housing that were constructed in the Soviet industrial city of the early 1930s, amidst escalating attacks on functionalist architecture and constantly fluctuating attitudes toward foreign specialists.     

Business cycle,industrial composition,or regional advantage? A decomposition analysis of new firm formation in the United States

This paper presents a shift-share decomposition analysis of new firm formation at the three-digit NAICS level in the United States from 1998 to 2003, attributing overall new firm creation, in construction, manufacturing, and service sectors respectively, to three distinct sources, i.e., business cycle, industrial composition, and regional advantage. This research is critical not only because, from a methodological perspective, this is one of the first applications of the shift-share analysis in firm formation and entrepreneurship studies. This research is also significant because it empirically identifies the portion of new start-ups that results exclusively from regional factors, enables researchers and policy makers to uncover the nuanced relations between firm births and regional characteristics, job creation, and economic development, and therefore facilitates effective public policies to promote new businesses and achieve economic success.     

Response of stress indicators and growth parameters of Tibouchina pulchra Cogn. exposed to air and soil pollution near the industrial complex of Cubatão, Brazil

The present study was performed in the vicinity of the industrial complex of Cubat?o, S?o Paulo, Brazil, in order to evaluate the response of 'manaca da serra' Tibouchina pulchra Cogn. (Melastomataceae), a common species of secondary Atlantic Rain Forest vegetation, to the impact of complex air pollution. Emphasis was given to changes of biochemical parameters such as ascorbic acid concentration, peroxidase activity, contents of water-soluble thiols, pH of leaf extract and buffering capacity. These plant factors are often used as early indicators of air pollution stress. Field experiments included sampling of leaves from mature trees in areas with different air pollution load (passive monitoring), exposure of saplings cultivated in uniform soil at these areas (active monitoring) and a study on the combined effects of contaminated soil and air pollution. In general, metabolic response of saplings was more accentuated than that of mature trees. Leaf extract pH and buffering capacity showed no or only small alterations in plants exposed to industrial emissions. In contrast, air pollution resulted in a distinct decrease in ascorbic acid contents and an increase in peroxidase activity and thiol concentrations in leaves. Cultivation of saplings in soil types from contaminated regions frequently caused the same modifications or enhanced the effects produced by air pollution. Growth analysis of exposed saplings demonstrated that a change of the relationship between above-ground and below-ground plant parts was the most obvious effect of air pollution and soil contamination. The experiments showed that even T. pulchra, a species considered resistant to air pollution, suffers metabolic disturbances by the present ambient air and soil quality. Although biochemical and physiological alterations were not related to a certain air pollution type, they could be used to estimate the overall pollution load and to map zones with different air quality.     

Multistage treatment system for raw leachate from sanitary landfill combining biological nitrification–denitrification/solar photo-Fenton/biological processes,at a scale close to industrial – Biodegradability enhancement and evolution profile of trace pollutants

A multistage treatment system, at a scale close to the industrial, was designed for the treatment of a mature raw landfill leachate, including: a) an activated sludge biological oxidation (ASBO), under aerobic and anoxic conditions; b) a solar photo-Fenton process, enhancing the bio-treated leachate biodegradability, with and without sludge removal after acidification; and c) a final polishing step, with further ASBO.