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Open burning of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a poorly-characterized and frequently-underestimated source of air pollution in developing countries
. This paper estimates the quantity of MSW that was burned in five erstwhile municipalities of the Kathmandu valley, Nepal. A household survey, a transect walk survey, an experiment to measure the fraction of waste that is combustible, a survey on fraction of population burning waste outside their houses, and a survey of the fraction of MSW burned at dump sites were performed in this study, whereas burning/oxidation efficiency, municipal populations, MSW generation rates, and emission factors were derived from the literature. The total mass of MSW burned during 2016 is estimated to be 7400 tons (i.e., 20 tons/day), which was of 3% of the total MSW generated in the valley municipalities that year. This exceeds Government estimates by a factor of three. Multiplying the burned MSW mass by emission factors, the air pollutant emissions are estimated as PM2.5 55 tons (OC 42 tons and EC 1.4 tons), PM10 60 tons, BC 25 tons, CO2 11,900 tons, CH4 30 tons, SO2 5.0 tons, NOx 19.2 tons, CO 630 tons, NMVOC 112 tons, and NH3 5.7 tons per year. Open burning of MSW can trigger health impacts such as acute and chronic respiratory disease, heart diseases, and allergic hypersensitivity, in addition to impacts on local climate. Improved waste-segregation practices at the source and waste-collection systems throughout the valley are needed to mitigate this pollution source and its effects
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Salerno, F.; Viviano, G.; Thakuri, S.; Flury, B.; Maskey, R. K.; Khanal, S. N.; Bhuju, D.; Carrer, M.; Bhochhibhoya, S.; Melis, M. T.; Giannino, F.; Staiano, A.; Carteni, F.; Mazzoleni, S.; Cogo, A.; Sapkota, A.; Shrestha, S.; Pandey, R. K.; Manfredi, E. C.
This paper presents the results of management-oriented research on energy, forest, and human health issues in a remote mountain area, the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ), Nepal
. The research was based on a broader, integrated participatory framework ultimately intended for use in adaptive management. The present study focused on the application of a participatory modeling framework to address problems related to energy demand and consumption, forest condition, and indoor air pollution, which were defined by the stakeholders as important issues to be addressed. The models were developed using a generalizing design that allows for user-friendly adaptation to other contexts (free download at Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.. Moreover, we simulated management scenarios in collaboration with all modeling actors with the aim of building consensus on the understanding of the system as well as supporting decision-makers' capacity not only to respond to changes, but also to anticipate them. Importantly, the system dynamics assessment found that the SNPBZ forests are affected by an increasing demand for fuelwood (occurring due to tourism growth), as one of the main sources of energy. Selected forests show an average reduction of 38 in forest biomass from 1992 to 2008. This shows that the business-as-usual scenario is unlikely to result in the preservation of the current forest status; in fact, such preservation would require 75 of fuelwood to be replaced with alternative energy sources. At the same time, a 75 reduction of fuelwood use (and an 80 reduction of dung use) would reduce indoor carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations to the standard limits for CO exposure set by the World Health Organization
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