PROMETHEE: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications

Multi-criteria decision analysis in environmental sciences: Ten years of applications and trends

Risk assessment and risk management: Review of recent advances on their foundation

Background: Only recently has the environment been clearly implicated in the risk of antibiotic resistance to clinical outcome, but to date there have been few documented approaches to formally assess these risks.

Objective: We examined possible approaches and sought to identify research needs to enable human health risk assessments (HHRA) that focus on the role of the environment in the failure of antibiotic treatment caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Methods: The authors participated in a workshop held 4–8 March 2012 in Quebec, Canada, to define the scope and objectives of an environmental assessment of antibiotic-resistance risks to human health. We focused on key elements of environmental-resistance-development “hot spots,” exposure assessment (unrelated to food), and dose response to characterize risks that may improve antibiotic-resistance management options.

Discussion: Various novel aspects to traditional risk assessments were identified to enable an assessment of environmental antibiotic resistance. These include a) accounting for an added selective pressure on the environmental resistome that, over time, allows for development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB); b) identifying and describing rates of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the relevant environmental “hot spot” compartments; and c) modifying traditional dose–response approaches to address doses of ARB for various health outcomes and pathways.

Conclusions: We propose that environmental aspects of antibiotic-resistance development be included in the processes of any HHRA addressing ARB. Because of limited available data, a multicriteria decision analysis approach would be a useful way to undertake an HHRA of environmental antibiotic resistance that informs risk managers.

Citation: Ashbolt NJ, Amezquita A, Backhaus T, Borriello P, Brandt KK, Collignon P, Coors A, Finley R, Gaze WH, Heberer T, Lawrence JR, Larsson DG, McEwen SA, Ryan JJ, Schonfeld J, Silley P, Snape JR, Van den Eede C, Topp E. 2013. Human health risk assessment (HHRA) for environmental development and transfer of antibiotic resistance. Environ Health Perspect 121:993–1001; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1206316

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Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) for environmental development and transfer of antibiotic resistance.

Recent natural and man-made catastrophes, such as the Fukushima nuclear power plant, flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Haiti earthquake, and the mortgage derivatives crisis, have renewed interest in the concept of resilience, especially as it relates to complex systems vulnerable to multiple or cascading failures. Although the meaning of resilience is contested in different contexts, in general resilience is understood to mean the capacity to adapt to changing conditions without catastrophic loss of form or function. In the context of engineering systems, this has sometimes been interpreted as the probability that system conditions might exceed an irrevocable tipping point. However, we argue that this approach improperly conflates resilience and risk perspectives by expressing resilience exclusively in risk terms. In contrast, we describe resilience as an emergent property of what an engineering system does, rather than a static property the system has. Therefore, resilience cannot be measured at the systems scale solely from examination of component parts. Instead, resilience is better understood as the outcome of a recursive process that includes: sensing, anticipation, learning, and adaptation. In this approach, resilience analysis can be understood as differentiable from, but complementary to, risk analysis, with important implications for the adaptive management of complex, coupled engineering systems. Management of the 2011 flooding in the Mississippi River Basin is discussed as an example of the successes and challenges of resilience-based management of complex natural systems that have been extensively altered by engineered structures.

Integrating Risk and Resilience Approaches to Catastrophe Management in Engineering Systems

https://crrc.unh.edu/sites/crrc.unh.edu/files/ei_1485.pdf

From comparative risk assessment to multi-criteria decision analysis and adaptive management: recent developments and applications.

Remote sensing can provide important and updated information for agricultural water accounting (AWA). In this study, data from the open-access portal (WaPOR) of the Food and Agricultural Organization was used in AWA to assess levels of agricultural water consumption and to provide possible solutions for water deficiency in the North Jordan Valley (NJV). Consolidated procedures have been applied to complement and validate the WaPOR products. These included the use of climatic and ground data, the multispectral remote-sensing data of Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 to derive land use/cover maps, GIS layers, and calibrated evapotranspiration (ET) estimates using the surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL). The data of water inflows and outflows were analyzed using the water accounting plus (WA+) system. Results showed that the WaPOR data of actual ET and interception (AETI) were highly correlated with SEBAL-ET, with WaPOR data overestimating ET for irrigated areas. Precipitation data from WaPOR, on the other hand, were underestimating inflow from rainfall, although significant correlations were observed between these data and rainfall records. As a result, the quality of WaPOR data affected the outputs from agricultural water accounting. The main impact on water accounting outputs was the underestimation of percolated water that could be utilized as a possible solution to water deficiency in the NJV. In addition, the water accounting performance indicators were relatively affected, although they reflected the nature of the study area where water deficiency predominated as a result of inter-basin transfer. The study compared outputs from water accounting in terms of the possible solutions to water deficiency in the NJV and concluded that considerable amounts of recoverable water could be developed when compared with the option of developing surface water from the side wadis. Also, it emphasized the important role of remote-sensing sources for providing information for AWA needed for improved water management and governance.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/8/1198/pdf?version=1649411604

Remote Sensing-Based Agricultural Water Accounting for the North Jordan Valley

Summary Contourites contribute to the shaping and building of continental margins, and have an economic importance for the offshore-energy sector by acting both as reservoir and seal rock. Here we study the different contourites of the northern North Sea, North Sea Fan and mid-Norwegian margin formed in the Neogene and Quaternary, which are unconventional targets in the region. Based on extensive 3D reflection seismic data combined with borehole data, we suggest that fine-grained drifts form regionally large and thick accumulations, while relatively coarse-grained sediment deposits develop locally. Sourced from the East Shetland Platform and the northern North Sea, the contour currents transported the available sediments northwards, where the regional physiography enhanced the ocean currents and hosted contouritic deposition. The Pliocene to early-Quaternary contourites are characterized by continuously laminated sediments, and most likely contain gas-charged sands in selected locations. Trapped by megaslide escarpments, the late-Quaternary contourites have a transparent facies, most likely representing fine-grained muds. The contourites to the north of the North Sea Fan are further sealed by a bottom-simulating reflection, indicating the presence of a gas-hydrate barrier. Contourites are thus a promising unconventional play model in the region, but caution is required when interpreting the sedimentologic characteristics of these deposits. 

C. Batchelor

Papers

From comparative risk assessment to multi-criteria decision analysis and adaptive management: recent developments and applications.

Remote Sensing-Based Agricultural Water Accounting for the North Jordan Valley

Contourites of the Northern North Sea, North Sea Fan, and Mid-Norwegian Margin