Stantec Inc. is an international professional services company in the design and consulting industry. Founded in 1954, as D. R. Stanley Associates in Edmonton, Alberta. Stantec provides professional consulting services in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics for infrastructure and facilities projects. The Company provides services on projects around the world through over 22,000 employees operating out of more than 410 locations in North America and across offices in 6 continents internationally.
Rainfall-triggered debris flows represent one of the greatest growing threats to co-located populations, infrastructure, and communities on or adjacent to steep slopes worldwide. Landslide-triggering rainfall thresholds are formulated to provide practical warnings of debris flow hazards. Statistical models, intensity-duration (I-D) curves or some adaptation thereof, account for about 70
Feasting and gift giving in the ethnography, history, and archaeology of Native peoples in Southeast Asia and its islands in the Western Pacific are often given primacy in accounts of academic fieldwork. Some ethnohistorical accounts on the precontact and Spanish colonial Chamorro people indigenous to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands of Micronesia also mention similar behavior during the early Spanish-contact period and ensuing 300 years of colonial rule, which ended in 1898. Archaeological fieldwork and analyses of the pre-Latte and Latte periods in the archipelago, however, pay scant attention to the recognition of evidence of such events in the material record. Measures for evaluating aspects of feasting and gift giving at two prehistoric sites from Saipan in the Mariana archipelago that date between 500 B.C.E. and 1668 C.E. are presented.
Although extensive studies have been performed to characterize Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment, PFAS in PM2.5 remains underexplored. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of PFAS in indoor and outdoor PM2.5 and dust samples to evaluate their quantities and distribution. Twenty-nine ionic PFAS species were quantified in samples collected from ten different environments such as daycare center, vehicle, airport, and fire training facility. PFAS were found to be ubiquitous, and present in both PM2.5 (3.34-22.2 pg/m3) and dust (1.27-9840 ng/g). Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) dominated the PFAS profile in both indoor and outdoor PM2.5, accounting for 94.1 ± 11.1% of total PFAS, which was significantly higher than that in dust (61.5 ± 32.7%) (p < 0.01). In contrast, the proportion of perfluoroalkane sulfonic acids (PFSAs) in dust (21.7 ± 18.1%) was significantly higher than that in PM2.5 (4.54 ± 10.5%) (p < 0.01). This suggests that PFCAs are more likely than PFSAs to attach to PM2.5, and are capable of long-range atmospheric transport (LRT). Among the 11 PFCAs species, perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) and perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), two short chain PFAS, were of the highest concentrations, particularly in samples collected during the wildfire events. This highlights the significance of short chain PFAS in LRT. For indoor PFAS, a strong relationship (r = 0.611-0.853, p < 0.01) was observed between long-chain PFCAs concentrations in PM2.5 and in dust. These findings provide new insights into the potential processes of indoor PFCAs emissions and distribution and suggest possible exposure pathways of airborne PFAS in urban environments.
Humans have an inherent connection to nature, and exposure to natural elements has been shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and support cognitive performance, forming the basis of biophilic design in the built environment. However, existing biophilic design guidance remains largely conceptual and offers limited evidence-based direction on how design properties should be applied. This scoping review addresses this gap by systematically mapping and synthesizing empirical evidence on indoor biophilic design interventions and their properties. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, 136 studies published between 2000 and 2025 were reviewed across seven intervention types, including green walls, indoor plants, window views, natural light, natural materials, water features, and nature-inspired visual references. Cross-category analyses identified design properties most consistently associated with restorative outcomes and human cognitive and physiological responses. The findings highlight the importance of moderate greenery levels, high-visibility placement, multi-sensory integration, and the enhanced restorative effects of combining multiple interventions. Contextual factors such as exposure duration and user characteristics were found to influence effectiveness. Based on these findings, the study introduces the Biophilic Intensity Matrix (BIMx), a matrix-based decision-support framework that supports early-stage design by helping designers select biophilic intervention types and compare their relative scale and intensity ranges according to exposure duration.
Hybrid membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABRs) integrate a range of redox conditions with increased biomass residence times in biofilms to create conditions that are expected to enhance the removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs). However, the removal of OMPs with MABRs remains unexplored. This study monitored the behavior of 20 OMPs over multiple seasons, both before and after the upgrade of a full-scale conventional activated sludge (CAS) facility to a hybrid MABR. More than half of the target compounds (13 out of 20) were present at lower concentrations in the effluent after MABR addition when compared to pre-upgrade operation. Plantwide removal efficiencies of highly removable compounds (> 75%) (acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen, triclosan, triclocarban, and norfluoxetine) and the recalcitrant carbamazepine were not impacted by the addition of the MABR process. However, the removal of three endocrine disruptors (bisphenol A, estrone, and estradiol) improved from a moderate removal (25 to 75%) to a high removal. Further, removal of an additional seven pharmaceuticals (gemfibrozil, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, diclofenac, atorvastatin, and its ortho-hydroxy metabolites) improved from poor (< 25%) to high or moderate removal with the hybrid MABR/CAS configuration. After the MABR upgrade, it was found that six OMPs exhibited higher removal rates under warm weather conditions (19.3 +/- 1.6 degrees C) compared to cold weather conditions (13 +/- 1.2 degrees C). Mass balance analysis on the MABR alone revealed a broad range of compound-specific responses, such as complete biotransformation (acetaminophen), partial removal (naproxen), and potential transformation from conjugates (sulfamethoxazole, carbamazepine). Overall, the three-year monitoring of the full-scale facility before and after the upgrade revealed that upgrading the CAS to a hybrid MABR configuration can enhance the removal of some OMPs that are poorly removed by the CAS process alone.
