Year: 1993
Type: book
Abstract: The concept of a 'critical load' is coming to dominate \nEuropean legislation on air pollution. A critical load \ncan be defined as 'the maximum deposition of a \ngiven compound which will not cause long-term \nharmful effects on ecosystem structure and function, \naccording to present knowledge'. It is intended, in \nother words, to be a threshold deposition which \necosystems can tolerate without damage. One aim of \nthe pollution control policies of many countries is now \nto reduce the deposition of acidifying pollutants \nbelow their critical loads. To enable this to be \npossible, the scientific community has to be able to \ndefine well-supported critical loads for any European \necosystem. As an attempt to codify a vast amount of \necological knowledge and use it as a rational means \nof pollution control, the critical loads approach is an \nambitious undertaking. \nMaps of critical loads for various receptors have now \nbeen published for the whole of Europe by several \nbodies on a variety of scales. In the UK, the \nDepartment of the Environment has published maps \nof critical loads on scales down to 1 km. The concept \nis being used by the UK government as a guide for its \npolicies on pollution control, and by European \ngovernments under the auspices of the United Nations \nEconomic Commission for Europe as a basis for \nnegotiations for a new protocol on limiting long-range \ntrans-boundary sulphur pollution. The concept, \nclearly, is of great political importance. \nThe development of the concept and production of \nthe maps have taken place with remarkable speed, \ngenerally within working parties whose composition \nhas been determined by the governments of the \ncountries concerned. There has been little \nopportunity for the ecological community as a whole \nto participate in these discussions, or for those who \nhave been involved to present the results of their \ndeliberations to their scientific peers. To remedy this \nsituation somewhat, we organised a Conference open \nto all interested parties, and invited contributions from \nboth scientists and those whose job it is to develop \nand implement environmental policies. The \nConference was held at Grange-over-Sands on 12-14 \nFebruary 1992, under the auspices of the British \nEcological Society Industrial Ecology Group and the \nNatural Environment Research Council (NERC). The \nNational Power/PowerGen Joint Environmental \nProgramme provided some sponsorship. \nThe Conference generated some new ideas on \ncritical loads, showed that there was a variety of \nviews on the validity of the concept as it stood, and \nsparked off some controversies. This volume \ndocuments the proceedings of the Conference, both \nwritten papers provided by the speakers and reports \nof workshop discussions on specific questions. We \nhope it will be of use in further development of the \ncritical load concept, and of interest to anyone who \nwishes to understand the progress made so far.
Authors: Marcus Hornung, R. A. Skeffington
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1515718204