Artisanal small-gold mining using mercury amalgamation has increased in developing countries even now. Miners sell their gold to shops that are usually located in town, where the mercury gold amalgam is burned to evaporate the mercury without treatment equipment. People living and working near these gold shops are exposed to intermittent and extreme concentrations of mercury vapor. The study presents a human health risk assessment with mercury vapor inhalation and Me-Hg-contaminated fish and rice ingestion, as well as Hg determination environmental media in Bengkuku, Sumatra, Indonesia. Gasous elemental mercury (GEM) concentrations ranged from 4.10 ng/m³ (ambient air) to 2 million ng/m³ (inside gold shops) in atmosphere. Total mercury (T-Hg) concentrations ranged from 5.30 ng/L to 2,490 ng/L, and from 0.34 mg/kg to 25.6 mg/kg in river water and in sediments and soils, respectively. In addition, T-Hg concentration in brown rice was 0.044 mg/kg. We used these concentrations to calculate hazard quotients (HQs) by means of a probabilistic risk assessment method. The results indicated that the gold shop workers and gold refining workers may concern the inhalation risk of mercury vapor. Human health risk is also concerned originated from contaminated food intake in each group. Result from the scenario analysis, if they can avoid the fish consumption which harvested from mercury contaminated area, then possibility to reduce the risk concern. However, it is difficult to reduce the risk concern, if the origin of rice is changed from contaminated area to non-contaminated one.

Manganese is discharged from a variety of industries into the environment. When Mn spread to agricultural fields, the Mn concentration in crops possibly increases. Mn concentration in crops is affected by various environmental factors even though the crops are the same species. It is useful to know these factors for environmental assessment of Mn spread from industries. In this study, a statistical analysis was made to select the environmental factors by using a dataset for brown rice and soil samples collected at 63 paddy fields, including soil properties and element concentrations in the crops. Exchangeable Ca and total Li, N, Zn, and La concentrations in soil were selected when soil properties were used as independent variables for the multiple regression analysis. On the other hand, total Rb concentration in soil and total P and Cu concentrations in brown rice were selected when soil properties and element concentrations in the crop were used as independent variables for the analysis. Then, the same analysis was applied for three other crops. As a result, Mn concentrations in radish and wheat were found to be explained well by the environmental factors selected for brown rice.

This study looked at nine developed countries including Japan to examine their approaches to ensure comprehensiveness in climate adaptation plans, as well as their degree of specificity. It analyzed the characteristics of the adaptation plans and classified their patterns of evolution. Four major patterns were identified: comprehensive and conceptual strategies are formulated first, followed by comprehensive and specific adaptation plans; comprehensive and specific plans are fully formulated at the start; a comprehensive framework or strategy is formulated, and then an adaptation plan is formulated for each agency (sector) or the most important sector(s) in the country; or only a general framework or strategy is formulated, and then each region is left to formulate its own plans or measures. Possible factors driving the differences between countries could be the existence of robust and extensive regional guidelines (e.g., the European Union’s adaptation strategy package), differences in geographical characteristics, and the existence of legislation or presidential orders, etc.

Some local governments have begun to formulate local climate change adaptation strategies since the Government has issued the national climate change adaptation strategy and the Paris Agreement has reached settlement in 2015. As climate change impacts differ according to regions, downscaled climate model and impact assessments have been getting developed in each region. However, the scientific evidence tends to mismatch in formulate local climate change adaptation strategies in various aspects. Accordingly, it is important that trans-disciplinary approach to integrate the top-down expert knowledge that scientists could provide and the bottom-up local knowledge that the stakeholders and citizens would have. We introduce the role-play simulation as one of the approaches in this paper. We derive implications from a case in New England Region by literature survey and interview. The observed results demonstrate as follows; i) the results obtained from the role-play simulation that the participants are limited to a small number of stakeholders are consistent with those of the poll by random sampling from the general publics, ii) it provides an opportunity not to formulate just an administrative plan but to frame reducing long term risks and working out specific solutions for realizing sustainable community.