Talks and Workshops

Organized societies have unavoidably left a legacy of environmental pollution through the search for, and use of energy resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas; large-scale agriculture and domestic activities. Currently, natural resource consumption by modern industrial economies is estimated at the high rate of 45-85 metric tons per person per year. Generally, as estimated by the World Resources Institute (WRI), it takes about 300 kg of natural resources currently, to generate U.S. $100 of income in technologically advanced countries. Processing and use of materials have defined human technological civilization for centuries. The comparative economic advantages of some nations rest partly on their mastery of the knowledge base for extraction and processing of materials into globally marketable products. This factor has been partly responsible for the current distribution of wealth among nations. Both positive and negative impacts are associated with the recovery and use of geomaterials. The challenge is to develop techniques for doing this in an environmentally sustainable way.

Any meaningful attempt at sustainable development must address environmental quality, materials management (perhaps within the industrial ecology approach) and economic development. The development, operation and maintenance of facilities and services for energy, transportation, manufacturing, municipal works, communications and agriculture have significant impacts on the quality of the earth’s environmental systems such as wetlands, lakes, air, soil and groundwater systems that support life. Considering that the global population is expected to exceed 10 billion in less than 20 years from now, accelerating damage of environmental systems cannot be afforded. Deforestation; droughts; pollution of urban land, water and air; solid waste management problems; exposure to uncontrolled radiation; and water scarcity are critical issues that need the continued focus of researchers and policy makers in various countries.

Environmental risk characterization and mitigation are increasingly becoming the central themes of national environmental and human health protection schemes. Several factors that are determinants of the environmental well-being of any country frequently lie outside the geographical and jurisdictional confines of the country. Pollutants and associated risk drivers may have their origins in one country but some of their effects could precipitate in/on other countries. In an interconnected world, bush burning in Africa, South America, and southeast regions as well as others; dumping of wastes in the oceans threaten marine resources and coastal systems without regard to artificial national frontiers; pollution of Arctic regions due to resource exploitation and related installations extend the brown boundary of pollution northward across Europe and Asia; and transfers of polluted products, toxic chemicals, and non-native viruses across national frontiers impose environmental and human health management problems on countries that have inadequate control systems. The plenary lecture will address the following issues:
-Emerging patterns of global environmental pollution
-Air, water and land pollution issues associated with civil and industrial infrastructure development operation and maintenance
-Regionalization of environmental problems, trans-boundary issues and international standards
-Metrics for measurement of environmental quality within sustainable development
-National political systems and their impacts on the environment
-Delayed response of environmental systems subjected to human perturbation
-Approaches to earth system monitoring at spatial scales ranging from micro-processes