Environmental Technologies

Since 1990s Turkey has made significant environmental progress with reforms in institutional and legislative frameworks. The Ministry of Environment (now the Ministry of Environment and Forestry) was created and various environmental legislations were adopted. As a part of national development plan, the National Environmental Action Plan was developed. Soil protection and pollution issues were included in this plan and the need for the registration of environmental pollution was emphasized. Several regulations for the control and prevention of soil pollution were enforced, however there are problems related to their implementation. Despite the enforcement of both Hazardous Waste Control Regulation and Solid Waste Control Regulation, there is still a need for improvements in the waste management system. For the monitoring of waste generation activities and pollution potentials of industries, a complete and correct filling of annual waste declaration form is very important. In addition, the information of the facility activity form required by the Environmental Auditing Regulation will support the development of a waste inventory and the identification of the needs for necessary waste treatment and disposal facilities. The data provided from the implementation of both regulations will also facilitate the identification and registration of contaminated sites. The Soil Pollution Control Regulation is relatively new and requires a major revision for its practicality on issues like identification, investigation, monitoring and clean-up of contaminated sites. The lists for limiting values of inorganic and organic contaminants need to be extended and indicative values, soil remediation intervention values and target values for all contaminants to be included. Programmes providing a systematic approach for the identification, monitoring and remediation of contaminated sites are needed to be developed. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is aware on these deficiencies of regulation and current practices of contaminated sites, carries out a project on "the Development of a Management System for Point Source Contaminated Sites," together with the Environmental Engineering Department of Middle East Technical University. The purpose of this project is to determine the necessary points of the Soil Pollution Control Regulation to be amended and publish a conceptually and technically revised Soil Pollution Control Regulation, to adopt specific soil quality standards based on land use, to develop a contaminated sites identification and registration system, a contaminated site evaluation system and a computer software for the contaminated sites information system. It also aims to develop technical guidelines for the investigation, risk evaluation, clean-up and monitoring of contaminated sites. With the accomplishment of the project a contaminated site management system will have been developed, which is of upper most need. Especially in heavily industrialized regions of Turkey problems with respect to contaminated sites has increased. Main sources of pollution are industrial facilities, disposal of municipal and industrial wastes, mining and energy production activities. Currently, an inventory for contaminated sites does not exist. However, soil pollution incidents, which became public, are mainly illegal dumps and temporary industrial waste disposal sites Although there is a rising trend in pearl mullet fishery towards sustainable fishery practices, it must be clarified that "sustainable fishery management" has not yet been achieved. Considering the fact that tens of species have been lost within our inland waters in the last 50 years, the achievement of this current level of protection for the pearl mullet? the only species that can survive in the extreme ecosystem of Lake Van- definitely cannot be underestimated. On the other hand, neither is it possible to paint a rosy picture, or to claim that every problem has been solved. Presently, 3 of the 15 fishing villages still insist on fishing during the spawning period. A new project has been launched in these villages, with the support of UNDP-GEF/SGP. This study aims to determine the reason for this difference in attitude by researching the social, cultural, and traditional structure of villages that have abandoned spawning season fishery practices and those that have not, while at the same time trying to change the traditional style of consumption, which encourages fishing in the reproductive period. Also within the context of this project is the assessment of alternative income resources for all the fishing villages, with a special emphasis on those villages that have abandoned spawning period fishing practices. Possible alternative income resources pinpointed during previous studies, such as winter fishing, canned fish and salted fish production workshops, and eco-tourism, are being studied for their adaptability to the local population's socio-cultural and traditional structure. Other alternative income resources generated by the local townspeople will also be appraised. The first priority for full transition to sustainable fishery management is the acceptance of an NGO-centered local fishery management scheme by the fisheries management authorities. Significant steps have been taken to this effect, demonstrated by the fact that the dates for the fishing ban have been determined as a result of regional meetings, and the efforts that are being made to reach decisions with the highest possible participation in the last few years. However, the same sensitivity has not been observed in the application of the legislature. Presently, the security forces still play a major role in monitoring fishing activities at Lake Van. Yet legally, the security forces are only expected to assist the local branches of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, which are actually responsible of monitoring the lake. As a result, inspections are at times slackened, depending on how the administrators of the security forces interpret their range of responsibility. Institutionalized sustainability can only be attained if the responsible organizations are provided with the personnel and equipment they need, and are enforced to fully take on their monitoring responsibilities. This goal is only achievable through the establishment of a single "local administrative unit" that will be the sole decision-maker with regards to all fisheries management decisions for major inland waters such as Lake Van Air quality monitoring is used to determine the air pollution levels in urban environments and concentration measurements can be compared with the national and international guideline values. This review presents an attempt to assess air quality in Belgrade urban area and identify the possible pollution sources. An integrated monitoring approach has been applied related to the urban Belgrade locations with the aim to estimate the level of specific pollutants: particulate matter, trace metals and ozone. The measurements included the PM10 and PM2.5 mass and trace metals concentrations, total atmospheric deposition fluxes, as well as, biomonitoring of deposition and accumulation of trace elements. The obtained results gave us the first impression of concentration level, characterization and sources of inhalable particulates with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 m in Belgrade ambient air. The PM10 and PM2.5 values had high average values, compared to EU standard and results for other European cities. The highest mean metal concentration in PM2.5 was for Zn followed by Al and Fe. The mean Ni concentration of in the PM2.5 fraction was above the target value for PM10 issued by EU. Mean concentrations of Pb, Cd, V, and Mn did not exceed the current WHO air quality guideline values. Strong seasonal modulation existed and lower summer average decreased the annual average concentrations. The explanation for the seasonal pattern could be possibly attributed to the higher traffic density and combustion of fossil fuels for heating during winter, as well as, to the prevailed meteorological conditions e.g. temperature inversion layers, low temperature and stagnation of air masses. During the exceptional high pollution days, both in the summer and winter, high production of secondary aerosols occurred, as can be seen from increase of PM2.5 in respect to PM10. This was a result of high relevance for health aspects, as the fine particles were those of highest negative impact on health and had the longest residence time in the atmosphere. Episodes of high mass PM concentrations were observed in Belgrade throughout the year, although, they were more prominent during winter period. Air back trajectories analysis showed that the prevalence of stagnant or week flow regimes (calm conditions) favors the suspension and accumulation of particles produced locally, resulting at the elevation of suspended particles levels. The appearance of stronger W, SE and NE flows was responsible for the particles transported from the thermoelectric plants, refineries, chemical and steel industry