Urban Environmental Systems

Question 1

How does the city act as a system

Answer 1

It has to maintain a flow of energy as well as provide the necessary material resources and then have a way to get rid of the waste. So matter and energy comes in his transformed then goes out.

Question 2

Is urbanization increasing in North America? Why or why not

Answer 2

Yes. More people are concentrated in fewer large cities. This is most intense and developing nations. Populations are becoming more concentrated around urban centers and satellite towns too.

Question 3

What are some environmental impacts of urban growth

Answer 3

A – atmospheric impacts, not as big a concern in Saskatoon, Compared to larger cities. B – micro climatic changes. Things like storage and retention of heat from buildings, how much structures reduce the windspeed, how much heat is produced by humans, run off because of hard surfaces, pollution.

Question 4

What is the urban heat island effect

Answer 4

The mean temperature and most Canadian cities is 1 to 3°C higher in urban areas than in the surrounding rural areas. This means the city uses more energy for cooling than it does for heating. Usually the higher the urban population the greater the difference between urban temperature and rural temperature. Usually the steepest temperature change is in a circle around the boundary of the urban center with the gradual increase in temperature towards the core, Where it peaks.

Question 5

What else does temperature affect

Answer 5

Air-quality. Air quality impacts are the combined emissions of carbon monoxide VOC’s nitrous and sulfur oxides, particulate matter.

Question 6

What is volatile organic compounds (VOC’s)

Answer 6

Organic chemicals that are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. Hydrocarbon compounds have low boiling points and evaporate easily. The primary source is vehicle emissions but also chemical manufacturing and chemical solvents. These are worse in rural areas because the higher temperatures mean that they evaporate even faster this means that the city has a higher uptake. They already evaporate at room temperature.

Question 7

Tell me about Sofer dioxide and nitrogen dioxide with regard to air quality impacts.

Answer 7

SO2 is emitted from smelters, electricity generators, iron steel mills and petroleum refineries, also residential and commercial. NO2 Mostly comes from combustion of fossil fuels. Again the higher temperature causes more concentration in urban areas.

Question 8

What is urban particulate matter.

Answer 8

Very small liquid and solid particles that are suspended in the air. Tees are things that you can present. There are anthropogenic sources like dust from mining, windblown soil, sulfates and nitrates from powerplants, road construction test. There are also natural sources like wildfires, windblown dust, sea salt spray. Ie pm 10 = little bit bigger particles and pm 2= little smaller.

Question 9

What’s the difference between directly emitted and indirectly admitted particulate matter. Give an example of each.

Answer 9

Indirect is formed when gases produced by fossil fuel combustion react with sunlight and water vapor. An example is photochemical smog. It’s a product of chemical reaction between sunlight, nitrogen oxides, VOC’s. This is ground level ozone and that’s a bad thing. This doesn’t require any smoke or smog.
Direct Lee emitted particulate matter is directly emitted from vehicles, industries, powerplants, construction sites, tilled fields, unpaved roads, Burningwood. An example of this is London’s killer frog. Temperature inversion caused all of the coal smoke emissions ( from ppls wood burning stoves) to mix with the fog and be trapped in lower atmosphere. PH was really low and a lot of people died.

Question 10

So explain again why reaction rate is so temperature sensitive

Answer 10

The reaction rate between BOCs and nitrous oxides is higher at higher temperatures so the urban heat island effect increases photochemical smog or Ground-level ozone. So the ground-level ozone is expanding geographically just like how the heat island is.

Question 11

Explain some of the land and resource impacts in Saskatoon because of the urbanization here

Answer 11

The population has increased 1.6% in the core between 1996 and 2001. But 14.6% in municipalities around the court. This is called leapfrog development. most of the growth is in satellite regions. The population court declined in Regina but increased by 10% in the municipalities around it. Worman had a growth rate of 48% in the past five years.

Question 12

What is the donut effect

Answer 12

When the population in the core of the city is growing more slowly than in the areas around it

Question 13

What is the urban shadow effect

Answer 13

The urban impacts that extend over large areas and caused declines in agriculture in adjacent to urban areas. This is partially because our cities are so automobile dependent. This is too bad because 25% of Canada’s best agricultural land is located within 50 km of a city.

Question 14

Regarding urban environmental impacts tell me about water quality and contamination in urban environments

Answer 14

Contaminated Stormwater runoff is a leading source of water quality problems Nervin settings. Let historically has been used as an indicator for toxic pollutants and urban Stormwater. It’s directly correlated with the volume of traffic on the streets. Urbanization can change The local hydrological cycle

Question 15

Tell me about waste generation in Urban environments. Also, tell me about e-waste.

Answer 15

We make a lot of wasted in Canada, especially compared to other countries. There was an increase of about 7% since the year 2000. We’re now at about 12.5 million tons. But We increased what we recycled by 12%. About 10 million times goes to landfills or is incinerated. Just less than half of Allwaste comes from household garbage. Each person makes almost 900 kg per year. You Acis stuff like electronics, old computers and TVs.’s becoming a big problem because it’s growing portion of the percent waste per capita. It was supposed to get rid of paper consumption. Bad because it has a lot of lead, mercury, chromium etc.

Question 16

In Canada we dispose of waste by either using a landfill or incineration. Tell me about sanitary landfills and give me an example of one in Canada.

Answer 16

Different than the dump. The sanitary landfill is basically a hole in the ground (pr can be above) separated from the environment in which wastes are put. The goal is to avoid any water related connection between the wastes and the surrounding environment, especially groundwater. So it’s hydraulically separate. There are methane gas outlets that release gases the landfill decomposes. Technology is pretty failsafe. But, they generate a strong sense of NIMBYism. This makes urban waste problem turn into a rural waste problem. Rural residents produce more waste per capita Because of lifestyle. An example is the landfill in Toronto. It reached near capacity. The proposal was to ship the garbage 600 KM north to Kirkland Ontario. There was strong opposition. Canada doesn’t let the US send us it’s garbage, But in the end Toronto sent the garbage to Michigan.

Question 17

Speaking about waste disposal in Canada, tell me about incineration

Answer 17

This is usually popular for places with a high population. It’s burning solid waste at high temperatures, like 1000°C. The heat produced is used to generate steam and electricity. You still have to dispose of the endways, the ash, but you reduce the volume by about 90%. In Canada likely won’t do this as much as in Europe and Japan because we have a lot of space for Sanitary landfills. More controversial Then landfills because you can see and smell them. Ethical debate because they are a source of VOC’s Which increases the urban heat island problem. To solve this problem they make higher smokestacks so the pollutant is spread over a larger area.

Question 18

Tell me about export of waste, and give me the classical example

Answer 18

Toronto is so clean because they shipped their garbage to Detroit. China’s number one export to the US this computer equipment and US is number one export to China is wastepaper and scrap metal. The classical example is the ship that left from Philadelphia with hazardous incinerator ash. They traveled two years, to 11 countries and four continents. They started unloading it as ‘fertilizer’ on to a beach in Haiti. They were turned away. On their way back it mysteriously disappeared in the Indian Ocean.

Question 19

Tell me about waste reduction programs. Is there too much emphasis on recycling?

Answer 19

We try to reduce waste by composting, de manufacturing (dissemble and recycle obsolete products), Reduce how much waste we make, and recycle.
Recycling done by Canadians increased between 1995 and 2000 540 or cyclical materials both nationally and provincially. There’s a strong correlation between higher education and her cycling. Also usually homes with higher income have more access to recycling programs.

Question 20

Tell me about green spaces in urban environments

Answer 20

Few urban green spaces have any ecological biodiversity your wildlife value. Usually they’re just aesthetically and socially pleasing but they’re very significant ecologically. Unless, there linear parks which connect between green space and are usually along rivers this allows for some species. Or natural marshes, but neither are very aesthetically pleasing though they do provide an ecological good.