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The City of New York was suddenly and deliberately attacked on September 11, 2001, killing thousands of people and leaving unbelievable destruction. Thirty-eight buildings and structures were destroyed or damaged, including seven buildings in the World Trade Center site completely leveled. Almost five years later, two very large contaminated buildings, Deutsche Bank at 130 Liberty Street and Fiterman Hall of Borough of Manhattan Community College, have yet to be cleaned up and demolished. Some 30 million square feet of commercial space was lost. Transportation was disrupted, including the loss of the World Trade Center PATH station, the 1/9 subway line and portions of Route 9A and Church Street. Cars were not allowed south of Canal Street for a week. For Americans this was a terrorist attack and a crime. It was a time for mourning losses and responding to disaster. There was the shock that something like this could happen. And there was more. The destruction of the WTC also posed competing environmental, economic and social threats.

In this paper, we discuss methods to integrate ecological resources, ecosystem services, risk, and the transition to long-term stewardship on Department of Energy lands. Three types of information are required about ecological resources before decisions can be made about remediation, site transitions, and long-term stewardship: (1) the ecological resources and ecosystem functions (such as productivity) present on site and their spatial pattern, (2) the ecosystem services these resources provide to people, and (3) the risks from the interactions between people and these ecosystems. Once the ecological resources and ecosystem services are evaluated, then decisions about future land use, preservation, conservation, or protection of ecological resources within a designated land use can be implemented. Long-term stewardship requires both ecosystem protection in terms of biological resources and ecosystem function as well as biomonitoring to ensure minimal radiological or chemical risk and to inform future management. In some cases, protection of ecological resources may be preferable to cleanup that is physically disruptive, provided land use designation is consistent with ecological protection. In such instances, less site cleanup can prove preferable to more.

Although there have been extensive studies on the hydrological and erosional impacts of logging, relatively little is known about the impacts of conversion into agricultural plantation (namely rubber and oil palm). Furthermore, studies on morphological impacts, sediment-bound chemistry and forensic attribution of deposited sediment to their respective sources are scarcer. This chapter introduces the potential for using the multi-proxy sediment fingerprinting technique in this context. Featuring pilot projects in two major flood-prone river systems in Malaysia, the studies explore application of geochemistry-based sediment source ascription. The geochemical signatures of sediment mixtures on floodplains were compared to sediments from upstream source tributaries. The tributaries were hypothesised to have different geochemical signatures in response to dominant land management. The first case study took place in the Segama River system (4,023 km²) of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo where a mixture of primary forest, logged-forests and oil palm plantations were predominant. The second case study was in the Kelantan River Basin (13,100 km²) with two major tributaries (Galas River and Lebir River) where logged-forests and rubber and oil palm plantations are dominant land-uses. Both case studies demonstrated the applicability of this method in ascribing floodplain deposited sediment to their respective upstream sources. Preliminary results showed that trace elements associated with fertilisers (e.g. copper and vanadium) contribute to agricultural catchment signatures. Alkaline and alkaline-earth elements were linked to recently established oil palm plantations due to soil turnover. Mixing model outputs showed that contributions from smaller, more severely disturbed catchment are higher than those from larger but milder disturbed catchments. This method capitalises on flood events to counter its adverse impacts by identifying high-priority sediment source areas for efficient and effective management.

Purpose – This chapter examines the literature on the dangers of methylmercury exposure and the 2004 Food and Drug Administration/Environmental Protection Agency (FDA/EPA) Advisory on fish consumption. It analyzes the extent to which particular groups of people living in the United States are vulnerable to toxic food consumption and the extent to which the advisories put them at risk.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a review of the literature related to methylmercury. In addition, they used archival information from government documents. They also analyzed the fish advisories and educational information posted on websites of each state's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

Findings – Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin that can seriously affect fetal brain growth and development. Although the federal government promotes canned tuna as an inexpensive, beneficial protein source, recent reports indicate that a large proportion of America's favorite fish contains unsafe levels of methylmercury. Populations at risk for overconsumption include minorities and low-income groups, particularly recipients of federal subsidies such as WIC.

Practical implications – The FDA uses a “nuanced” message to offer consumers information about both the risks and benefits of eating fish. However, the advisory is not widely distributed and information on mercury levels in fish is not available at the point of sale. Minority populations are less likely to be aware of fish advisories and to change consumption habits. Thus, the target population remains largely uninformed and possibly misled about the risks and benefits of eating canned tuna.

Social implications – Based on new data, the federal government should recognize mercury as a hazard, update its consumption guidelines, and better monitor the mercury content in canned tuna. Outreach and educational programs should target minority and at-risk groups. The authors recommend an alternative precautionary approach in dealing with the health threats posed by methylmercury in tuna fish.

The impact of climate change towards water surface resources is crucial, particularly in developing and non-developing countries. Groundwater as a main water resource is thus an essential. However, contamination due to hydrocarbon spills affects the groundwater as a water resource, especially as a main source of drinking water. This chapter investigates the light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) penetrations in double-porosity soil with different moisture contents and with or without vibration impact. It also explains the LNAPL penetration phenomena by employing image analysis. The physical laboratory experiments were implemented using an acrylic cylinder, a mirror, toluene and a Nikon D90 DSLR digital camera. Prepared soil was poured in an acrylic cylinder and compressed with compressor until it became 10 cm in height. LNAPL was then poured instantaneously onto the acrylic cylinder that was filled with soil sample. The LNAPL penetration patterns were recorded and monitored using a Nikon D90 DSLR digital camera. The processing technique was conducted at predetermined time intervals using Surfer software and Matlab routine to plot the LNAPL pattern. The results showed that a higher penetration rate of LNAPL occurred with higher moisture content and without vibration impact. The penetration time for LNAPL to reach the bottom of the soil sample was found to be longer for the soil that had low moisture content and with vibration impact.

In this chapter, the title theme of “Disaster by Design” is explored and justified. Even from early times, the Aral Region was subject to alterations of natural conditions due to human intervention, often deliberate and designed. After the final conquest by Russia, the region became a fixed colony as part of the Soviet Union, ripe for exploitation characteristic of the Soviet approach to nature broadly and to stigmatized areas specifically. The Aral region was selected for irrigated cotton and other cultivation even though the consequences for desiccation of the sea, desertification, and salinization were understood. The decision was so calculated that even a cost–benefit analysis was offered to show that the Aral fishery was worth but a fraction of the cotton potential. The destruction of the region was made possible by a Soviet system of central planning and peripheral control. The brief glimmer of hope for the region evidenced during glasnost was the only moment where the Aral's fate was not sealed. The outcome is a model of ecological disaster by design, an environmental injustice, and an indication of the abusive nature of authoritarian power.

History has taught us that every aspect of the world around us is changing. Right from its formation, the earth has been evolving climatically, edaphically, and biotically to its present state. The forcing for all these changes in the past was natural, and human activities had least influence till the industrial revolution. Since the beginning of the 18th century, human activities associated with the industrial revolution have changed the composition of the atmosphere and thereby having a greater influence on the earth's climate. The use of fossil fuels like coal and oil coupled with deforestation has increased the concentration of heat-trapping “greenhouse gases,” which prevent the heat from the earth escaping to space. Because of this, the very greenhouse gases, which helped sustain life on the earth under normal circumstances, have become detrimental due to its higher concentration. Several models have predicted that the rising concentrations of greenhouse gases produce an increase in the average surface temperature of the earth over time. Rising temperatures may, in turn, produce changes in precipitation patterns, storm severity, and sea level, commonly referred to as “climate change.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate change broadly as “any change in climate over time whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.” The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines climate change as “a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods.”

Since independence, Malaysia has generally registered continuous economic growth and this development has brought about numerous benefits including improved social amenities and a trend toward greater urbanization of the population. Economic development in Malaysia has contributed to environmental degradation and uncontrolled physical development, especially in the urban areas. Protection of the environment has become a necessity rather than a luxury in order to maintain public health and well-being as well as to sustain the economic growth. As in most developing countries, there are many challenges facing the country, especially so in urban areas, where the human, physicochemical and biological environments are interlinked (Pereira & Komoo, 2004). One major challenge is the increasing occurrence of geological and flood-related disasters, causing property damage and high cost of maintenance as well as loss of lives, in extreme cases. In part, this is a manifestation of poor planning, and many of the problems related to hazards in urban areas are often exacerbated by human activities.