Energy Policy in Australia: A comparison of environmental considerations in New South Wales and Victoria

World-wide, people and governments are gradually becoming more aware of the potential environmental, economic and health effects of climate change and the need for governments to take action to mitigate such impacts. This was emphasised by the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. There has been much discussion on the greenhouse policy response of the commonwealth government of Australia, especially its stance taken at Kyoto in December 1997. Despite the recent nationalisation of Australia's state energy markets, due to Australia's federal political structure, much of the policy responsibility for energy and environmental issues rests with the states. Given these circumstances it is surprising that there has been relatively little academic focus on the energy policies of the states. This paper attempts to partially fill the policy analysis 'gap' by investigating the present environmental aspects of the energy policies of NSW and Victoria, implemented since the signing of the UNFCCC in 1992. NSW and Victoria are Australia's most populous states and are responsible for the bulk of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions with two very distinct policies.     

广东省风能资源分布的数值模拟

以风能资源数值模拟评估系统（WERAS）为基础,对其中的MM5模式模拟方案进行改进（即利用格点分析张弛逼近的方法完成3 h间隔的地面观测资料的四维同化处理,以减小原WERAS系统的模拟误差）,对广东省2009-06-01―2010-05-31的逐时风能资源进行高时空分辨率的数值模拟评估。模拟结果表明：广东省风能资源较丰富的地方主要分布在沿海地区和粤北、粤西海拔较高的山区,70 m高度上年平均风速达到6.0 m/s以上,年平均风功率密度达到300 W/m2以上;冬半年的风能资源优于夏半年;风能主要由出现频率相对较低的大风速过程产生。模拟结果所揭示的广东省风能资源时空分布特征与本地的气候特征和地形地表特征相符合,70 m高度风速模拟误差在10%左右,风功率密度模拟误差在30%左右。     

MORALITY,SPACE, AND THE POWER OF WIND‐ENERGY LANDSCAPES

ABSTRACT. Most of us have not known—or cared—where our electricity comes from. Our attitude is changing, however, as we turn toward wind energy, now the fastest‐growing renewable energy resource in the world. Because we cannot extract and transport the raw energy of the wind, reaping its many environmental benefits requires that we cope with the landscape presence of its development wherever it occurs. Sometimes this interferes with the value of open space, and sometimes it may be close to subdivisions. It is the immobility and very visibility of wind power that makes its presence unavoidable. In that regard it cannot be hidden underground, stored in tanks, or moved by trains. It is an energy resource that reminds us that our electricity comes from somewhere. The more we wish to tap the power of the wind, the less we will be able to avoid the responsibilities that our demand for energy brings. This necessary bargain, first evident near Palm Springs, California, is now being experienced wherever wind power is being developed.     

中国风蚀景观面积变化与 地表风场强度的关系

利用遥感调查的1995－2000年中国土地利用成果进行中国风蚀景观变化过程的分类，对不同风蚀景观发展过程进行了地理分区。探讨风蚀景观变化的方向和速度，特别是土地发生风蚀沙漠化的趋势。在中国近400个气象站点1999年每日4次观测数据的基础上，进行风向频率、风场强度及风能参数的计算，分析风速频率Weibull分布的形状参数k和幅度参数c。利用GIS方法生成覆盖中国的1km网格，对风场强度等数据进行空间化处理，生成中国地表风速空间分布数据。在此基础上，分析1999年风速变化状况并探讨风场的变化过程。利用RWEQ风蚀预报模型中的计算方法生成了的风场强度指数。结合风场强度数据，进行风蚀区内风蚀景观变化类型分布数据的对比，指出强风场的存在促使中国西北广大干旱区的草地和耕地遭到破坏，并探讨了风能对土壤风力侵蚀和风蚀景观的驱动过程。同时，在分析风能与风蚀景观空间分布关系的基础上探讨了降低土壤风蚀的措施。最后指出了建立风速和风向驱动下的不同景观的土壤颗粒侵蚀和堆积量模型的重要性。     

A Regionally Based Energy End‐Use Strategy: Case Studies from Centre County,Pennsylvania*

The production and use of fossil fuels and nonrenewable electricity creates many forms of environmental degradation. To reduce degradation, this research suggests an energy strategy based on energy end‐use analysis and regional geography. Energy end‐use analysis and regional geography are used to match renewable energy resources with site‐specific, end‐use needs. Fieldwork conducted within Centre County, Pennsylvania, demonstrates that small‐scale solar, wind, and micro‐hydropower resources could displace a proportion of household electricity use. Such an approach meets energy end‐use needs, while conserving fossil fuels and reducing environmental degradation.     

Wind tunnel investigation of the influence of surface moisture content on the entrainment and erosion of beach sand by wind using sands from tropical humid coastal southern China

Wind erosion has major impacts on dune growth, desertification, and architecture on sea coasts. The deflation threshold shear velocity is a crucial parameter in predicting erosion, and surface moisture greatly affects this threshold and thus sand stability. Wind tunnel studies have shown that reduced moisture contents decrease entrainment thresholds and increase wind erosion, but field and wind tunnel test data is lacking for tropical humid coastal areas. In this study, we investigated the influence of surface moisture contents (at 1 mm depth) on sand entrainment and erosion using tropical humid coastal sands from southern China. Shear velocities were deduced from velocity profiles above the sand. The threshold shear velocity increased linearly with increasing ln100M (M, gravimetric moisture content). The increase was steepest below a moisture content of 0.0124 (i.e., at M_1.5, the moisture content in the sand at a matric potential of − 1.5 MPa). We compared several popular models that predict threshold shear velocity of moisture sediment, and found substantial differences between their predicted results. At a surface moisture content of 0.0124, the predicted increase in the wet threshold shear velocity compared with the dry threshold shear velocity ranged from 34% to 195%. The empirical model of Chepil and Selah simulated the data well for M < 0.0062 (i.e., 0.5M_1.5), whereas Belly's empirical model simulated the data best for M > 0.0062. Wind erosion modulus increased with increasing effective wind velocity following a power function with a positive exponent at all moisture contents, but decreased with increasing surface moisture content following a power function with a negative exponent. When wind speed and moisture content varied simultaneously, wind erosion modulus was proportional to the 0.73 power of effective wind velocity, but inversely proportional to the 1.48 power of M. The increase in resistance to erosion at low moisture contents probably results from cohesive forces in the water films surrounding the sand particles. At a moisture content near M_1.5, wind erosion ceases nearly for all wind velocities that we tested.     

山岳型酒店能源强度与碳排放特征研究

以黄山西海饭店为山岳型景区案例酒店，采用能源消费账户法与碳足迹法对样本数据进行深入分析，系统地研究了案例酒店近5 a来的能耗与碳排放情况。结果表明，水电是案例酒店的主要能耗，其中，用电能耗在酒店总能耗中占比最高，平均为98%左右；用水占比最小，只有总能耗的1%左右。案例酒店能源消耗总量每年约500 t标准煤，年均碳排放量约为3 695.5 tCO₂，呈现逐年增加趋势。2014?2018年，水电能源消耗最大的部门不是客房部和餐饮部等酒店主营部门，而是园林绿化、公用等酒店辅助部门，用水量达到用水总量的39%~58%，用电量达到用电总量的59.41%~66.68%。酒店年平均能源强度约为0.06 t标准煤/万元，每晚游客人均能耗约0.001 t标准煤。案例酒店碳排放量为217.17~257.84 kgCO₂/m²，年均碳排放量为236.79 kgCO₂/m²。案例酒店年碳排放量与能耗强度呈正相关，且随着酒店能耗强度的上升，碳排放总量也随之增加。     

青海西部黄瓜梁地区风能资源的观测与评估

 塔的观测资料,计算了风速、平均风功率密度等参数,利用风能评估方法分析了风能参数、风向频率的变化规律及其特征。结果表明,观测年度10～100 m年平均风速和年平均风功率密度分别在4.0～5.2 m·s-1、83.5～200.2 W·m-2之间,且随高度的升高而增大。测风塔各高度3～25 m·s-1风速的时数在4 560～5 316 h之间,最多风向为偏西北风、次多风向为偏东北风。风能密度主要集中在W—NNW和NNE—NE扇区,累积频率分别达60%和29%。观测年50 m高度风速距平百分率偏小（-5.15%）,长年代校正的年平均风功率密度值为192.3 W·m-2,达到了1级（＜200 W·m-2）并网型风力发电的风电场等级标准,指示这个区域的风能资源比较丰富。     

Valorization of Agricultural By-Products Within the “Energyscapes”: Renewable Energy as Driving Force in Modeling Rural Landscape

Due to several growing environmental constraints, renewable energy sources currently play an increasingly crucial role that, owing to their high temporal and spatial variability, needs a careful planning approach. It is important therefore to develop a framework that examines the distribution of different energy sources in a spatio-temporal context. From an energy point of view, a regional territory, such as an internal southern Italian region (the Basilicata Region), can be considered as a paradigmatic case study, because it is characterized by significant sources of renewable energy (e.g., biomass, wind, solar, hydro) connected to its morphological and environmental structure, as well as to its agricultural and food productions. The present paper in based on an analysis of the spatial supply and relationships between renewable energy potentials and rural land, through the use of a Geographic Information System that has been implemented with the aim to analyze the energy system, as well as to optimize the valorization of biomass resources that may be still unutilized within the bioenergy production chain. This study has been carried out even to bridge the gap between energy systems modeling and landscape planning. Within this context, an “Energyscape” may be considered as the effect resulting on the rural landscape from a combination of the supply, demand and infrastructure for energy. This framework could be therefore a starting point for an interdisciplinary analysis able to figure out optimal solutions in decision-making processes, which duly respect the protection and restoring of endangered ecosystems, supporting the decision about an optimal spatial localization of energy plants as well.

     

风电场对环境的影响研究进展

风能作为清洁和环境友好的可再生能源,可以减少对化石燃料的依赖,因而近年来发展迅速。但风电设施在安装和运行过程中,评价其对环境产生的影响却尚未得到足够的重视。本文综述了风电场施工和运行过程对气候变化及陆地生态系统的可能影响,同时探讨了风电设施所产生的噪声污染及辐射效应,认为未来风电研究的重要方向为：①评价风电场对气候的影响,还需要建立或改进更精细的气候模型;②探讨风电场对动物的影响,需要识别到底哪些环境因子对动物活动起到了决定性的作用,这些因子在不同风电场中是否具有普遍性;③分析风电场对植被的影响,需要综合利用遥感监测及生态学调查方法,才能准确识别不同陆地生态系统植被对风电场的响应机制;④研究风电场对生态系统碳、氮循环的影响,要加强地表实测数据的获取,尤其是连续多年的数据获取,形成长期的观测序列,进行时空尺度的分析;⑤风电场在全球不同区域,对各环境要素的影响并不完全一致,通过对典型区域的研究来反映风电场对环境影响的共性问题,是目前较为可行的方法;⑥在确保风能作为新能源发展重点的同时,还需保护整个陆地生态系统的生产力和生物多样性,在此基础上才能准确评价、处理风电场与可持续发展的关系;⑦在风电场建设前的环评阶段,需要补充完善现有环评导则和标准,充分考虑风能、太阳能等新兴能源对环境长期而复杂的影响;⑧中国作为世界风能利用的第一大国,需要适时建立长期定位观测试验站,以期开展风电场对环境影响的定量化、全过程、时空尺度的细致研究。本文可为人类科学合理的利用风能、处理风电场建设与可持续发展的关系是提供一些思路。     

敦煌和酒泉夏季晴天和阴天边界层气象要素特征分析

利用国家重点基础研究发展规划项目《中国西北干旱区陆-气相互作用观测试验》2000年加强观测期(2000年5月29日～6月9日)敦煌探空观测资料和国家自然科学基金重点项目《绿洲系统能量与水分循环过程观测与数值研究》2004年加强观测期(2004年6月1日～7月16日)酒泉探空观测资料,分析了敦煌和酒泉地区夏季典型晴天和阴天天气下有关气象要素如风、温、湿的时空分布和变化特征,得到了以下结论:夏季,敦煌和酒泉地区大气边界层的东西分量风速(切变)晴天比阴天大;南北分量风速(切变)阴天比晴天大;东西分量风速(切变)比南北分量风速(切变)大。敦煌地区夏季晴天和阴天的风速比酒泉地区的大,但风速切变酒泉地区的要比敦煌地区的大。两地白天(晚上)的对流(稳定)边界层特征在晴天和阴天均很明显;阴天稳定边界层厚度和对流边界层的高度较晴天时的都低。比湿夜间比白天的大,阴天比晴天的大;在敦煌地区和酒泉地区都出现了逆湿现象;强逆湿主要出现在夜间,白天虽然也出现逆湿,但强度普遍较弱。     

Local Agenda 21 and Barriers to Sustainability at the Local Government Level in Victoria,Australia

At the 1992 Rio 'Earth Summit', Australia joined other nations in committing to processes leading to the formulation of 'Local Agenda 21s' (LA21s) by 1996. Subsequently, in the latter year, Whittaker carried out a national survey of local government authorities to evaluate what progress had been made. Whittaker's conclusion was that progress in Australia had been slow, but ten 'leading-edge' Victorian councils were identified through a self-reporting process. In this paper we discuss the concept of LA21, analyse in closer detail the 'progress' that has been made in the ten Victorian councils, and discuss some of the broader forces that, we argue, have made LA21 formulation increasingly difficult, particularly in the state of Victoria in the recent past.     

Surface energy balance of Keqicar Glacier,Tianshan Mountains,China, during ablation period

The meteorological data of ablation season in 2005 were recorded by two automatic weather stations on Keqicar Glacier, in the southwest Tianshan Mountains of China. One is operated on the glacier near the equilibrium line with an altitude of 4,265 m (Site A) and another is operated on the glacier ablation area with an altitude of 3,700 m (Site B). These data were used to analyze the meteorological conditions and the surface energy balance (SEB) of Keqicar Glacier. Net radiation was directly measured, and turbulent heat fluxes were calculated using the bulk aerodynamic approach, including stability correction. The ablation value of 0.68 m w.e. derived from four ablation stakes is in close correspondence to the modeled value of 0.71 m w.e. During the observation period, net radiation accounts for 81.4% of the total energy with its value of 63.3 W/m². The rest energy source is provided by the sensible heat flux with a value of 14.4 W/m². Energy is consumed mainly by melting and evaporation, accounting for 69.5% and 29.7% of the total energy with their values of 54.0 and 23.0 W/m², respectively. Radiative energy dominates energy exchanges at the glacier-atmosphere interface, governed by the variation in net shortwave radiation. Net short-wave radiation varies significantly due to the effects of cloudiness and the high albedo caused by solid precipitation. Wind speed influences the turbulent heat fluxes distinctively and sensible heat flux and latent heat flux are much larger in July with high wind speed.     

The CWSI variations of a cotton crop in a semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil

A field experiment was conducted with a cotton crop during the growing season of August 1993 to January 1994, in a semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil. The objective of this research is to evaluate the diurnal and seasonal variations of Crop Water Stress Index—CWSI, based on the canopy energy balance. Canopy temperature, air temperature, net radiation, wind speed and psychrometric measurements were made regularly at 10 and 14 h, and several diurnal cycles were also obtained. It was concluded that the irrigation should be initiated when the CWSI approaches 0.3. After a second stress event the crop took 3 days to resume transpiring at normal rate. The CWSI of NSP at 14 h presented more negative values than those obtained at 10 h. The response of CWSI with respect to T_c, r_c/r_a and R_n is evident and probably the most important source of error in CWSI determination.     

The Role of Social Networks and Trusted Peers in Promoting Biodiverse Carbon Plantings

Social capital has the potential to influence the success of biodiverse carbon plantings in the face of uncertainty amongst rural landholders about the need or efficacy of efforts to address climate change through tree planting. We conducted 17 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with landholders in Victoria, Australia who voluntarily participate in biodiverse carbon plantings on their land, focusing in particular on the role of social capital for understanding how ‘early adopters' can advocate for programs locally. The interviews revealed the importance of social networks and the profound impact of trusted peers on the diffusion of carbon planting schemes. These social capital dimensions are especially important for shaping ongoing participation and the ways in which participants become active agents in trusted relationships that influence the participation of others. Our results suggest that the positive impact of social networks can counteract doubts about the validity of climate adaptation responses such as carbon planting, and enable landholders to connect the program with their existing stewardship motivations. The ability for early adopters of the program to demonstrate the physical materialisation of their plantings to others was vital to this process. We propose that targeting champions and trusted peers in local communities could accelerate the proliferation of biodiverse carbon planting schemes.     

腾格里沙漠西部和西南部风能环境与风沙地貌

腾格里沙漠西部和西南部的沙漠边缘地区位于石羊河流域的下游地区,该地区生态环境脆弱,成为近年来备受关注的区域之一。利用自动气象站2009年年度风况资料和Google Earth影像,对该地区的风能环境与风沙地貌进行讨论,为评价区域风沙活动强度,风沙地貌形态特征提供依据。研究表明,腾格里沙漠西部和西南部的风况、风能环境呈自北向南逐渐变化的趋势,年平均风速西部最大,中部次之,南部最小;起沙风风向在北部以西北风和东北风为主,中部以西北风和东南风为主,而南部以西北风为主,东南风很少。研究区的北部为高风能环境,中部和南部为低风能环境。研究区的沙丘类型主要为格状沙丘,在沙漠边缘的部分地区为新月形沙丘链,南部为植被线形沙垄,其主要是由地形作用形成的,沙垄之间为新月形沙丘链。风能环境、沙源和植被共同影响沙丘的形态参数,研究区中部的风能比南部大,沙源比南部多,植被比南部少,因此,格状沙丘主梁之间的间距要比南部新月形沙垄的间距大。格状沙丘的走向近似相同,均在205°~225°之间。研究区南部有范围较大的植被线形沙垄,其间距在0.8～2.0 km之间,平均间距为1.37 km;走向为近似南北（164°～176°之间）。     

Wind as an Ecological Agent at Treelines in North America,the Alps,and the European Subarctic

The altitudinal treeline ecotone is a windy environment where wind velocities and directions are controlled by local mountain topography and also by the distribution pattern and structures of tree stands. Wind may override the role of heat deficiency in determining treeline position, spatial pattern, ecological conditions, and tree growth. Regular strong permanent winds restrict tree height and usually cause asymmetric and suppressed growth forms that are common in the treeline ecotone. Apart from direct physiological and mechanical effects on trees and ground vegetation, wind also disperses seeds, relocates snow, and locally erodes soils in the treeline ecotone. Wind effects must be considered an important factor that may delay or even preclude establishment of seedling trees on wind-swept terrain. Discussions of a potential climatically driven upward shift of the treeline at the landscape and smaller scales should give greater attention to the varying wind effects because warming cannot compensate for these other factors. The relative importance of microsite facilitation providing shelter from the wind will increase in parallel with the upslope migration of the tree limit into a much windier environment.     

Griffith Taylor and the SE Australian highlands: issues of data sources and testability in interpretations of long‐term drainage history and landscape evolution

Much of the current research on long‐term landscape evolution and drainage history in SE Australia is built in one way or another on the early work of Griffith Taylor. The controversy prompted by several attempts to incorporate Taylor's work in recent plate tectonics interpretations of the long‐term evolution of SE Australia highlights differences of opinion as to the appropriate methodologies for such investigations. These questions, including the issues of data sources in reconstructions of long‐term landscape history, testability of such reconstructions, and the relationship between the landscape history so reconstructed and larger‐scale, regional landscape histories, appear not to have been addressed in recent literature on geomorphological methodology. This literature notes the demise of critical rationalism and appears to espouse a strongly relativist viewpoint, which relies on the shared understanding among the discipline's practitioners as to what are appropriate data sources and tests for hypotheses of long‐term landscape evolution. This offers little hope for resolution of the current disputes about the evolution of the drainage systems of SE Australia, but puts the onus squarely on us, the practitioners, to develop shared understandings of the appropriate data sources and tests for our hypotheses and grand schemes of the type so favoured by Griffith Taylor.     

“A Mirror and a Lamp”: The Role of Power in the Rural Landscape Trajectory of the Ovens Region of Australia

Power relationships structure discourse and its influence on policy and rural land use planning, but little research has examined how this might be observed in the dynamics of rural landscape transition. In a qualitative case study of the Ovens catchment, Victoria, Australia, discursive power is observed through sites of tension between informant interpretations of past, present, and future landscapes and contemporary local decision making. Three main tensions and an observation emerged that suggest discourse and power can be observed through the transfer and support of social memory narratives. We conclude that the identification of tensions between stakeholder perceptions of the past, present, and future of their landscape; awareness of the influence of those interpretations on current decision making; and attention to social memory narratives can provide invaluable insights for those seeking to understand local relationships of power.     

毛乌素沙地植被覆盖率与风蚀输沙率定量关系

基于毛乌素沙地不同植被覆盖条件下的风蚀输沙率实地观测数据，借鉴国外最新的建模思想，采用Matlab5.3软件对数据进行非线性回归，建立毛乌素沙地植被覆盖率与风蚀输沙率之间的定量关系模型，比较系统地考察了植被覆盖对沙粒起动风速和风蚀输沙率的影响，确定了不同风速下的有效植被覆盖率。结果表明，在毛乌素沙地要有效减少和防治风蚀，植被覆盖率必须达到40－50％的水平，而要保证在最高风速下风蚀输沙得到有效控制，植被覆盖率必须达到60－70％的水平。