A field study of the coupled effects of aquifer stratification,fluid density,and groundwater fluctuations on dispersivity assessments

A number of experimental studies have tackled the issue of solute transport parameter assessments either in the laboratory or in the field. But yet, the behavior of a plume in the field under density driven forces, is not well known due to possible development of instabilities. Some field tracer tests on the fate of plumes denser than native groundwater such as those encountered under waste disposal facilities, have pointed out the processes of sinking and splitting at the early stage of migration. The process of dispersion was widely investigated, but the range of dispersivity values obtained from either experimental tests, or numerical and theoretical calculations is still very large, even for the same type of aquifers. These discrepancies were considered to be essentially caused by soil heterogeneities and scale effects. In the meantime, studies on the influence of sinking and fingering have remained more scarce. The objective of the work is to analyze how transport parameters such as dispersivities can be affected by unstable conditions, which lead to plume sinking and fingering. A series of tracer tests were carried out to study under natural conditions, the transport of a dense chloride solution injected in a shallow two-layered aquifer. Two types of experiments were performed: in the first type, source injection was such that the plume could travel downward from one layer to the other of higher pore velocity, and in the second one, the migration took place only in the faster layer. The results suggest some new insights in the processes occurring at the early stages of a dense plume migration moving in a stratified aquifer under groundwater fluctuations, which can be summarized through the following points: (i) Above a stability criterion threshold, a fingering process and a multi modal plume transport take place, but local dispersivities can be cautiously derived, using breakthrough curves matching. (ii) When water table is subject to some cycling or rising, the plume can be significantly distorted in the transverse direction, leading to unusual values of the ratio between longitudinal and transverse dispersivities. (iii) Under stable conditions, for example in the case of straightforward injection in the faster aquifer layer, longitudinal dispersivity is greater than the transverse component as usually encountered, and the obtained transport parameters are closed to macro dispersivity values, which reach their asymptotic limit at very short distances. (iv) The classical scale effect about the varying dispersivity at short distances could be a process mainly due to the distance required for a plume stabilization.     

Landscape governance: The “politics of scale” and the “natural” conditions of places

Governance has become an iridescent concept in recent years. The term is widely used in almost all social-science disciplines as well as in the political process. The intention of this paper is not so much to clarify these sometimes vague meanings but to highlight some characteristics of environmental governance connected with the restructuring of the spatial dimensions of politics. It starts from the assumption that the quest for multi-level decision making is particularly pressing for environmental governance. However, multi-level governance raises concern about the constitution of various spatial levels and their relationships with each other, as discussed under the term of “politics of scale”. Moreover, it is argued that for environmental governance the spatial reference is strongly connected with another challenge, which concerns the question of how to deal with the biophysical conditions of particular places. The term landscape governance is introduced to tackle this question without referring to an ontologically given space. Thus, landscape governance deals with the interconnections between socially constructed spaces (the politics of scale) and “natural” conditions of places. For this task, the concept of societal relationships with nature is introduced and applied to the term “landscape” as a bridging concept between social and natural sciences. The paper illustrates the approach of landscape governance with examples of problem-oriented interdisciplinary research at the UFZ-Centre for Environmental research in Leipzig, Germany.     

我国早期的地震科学研究概述

我国早期的现代地震学研究，曾孕育于现代地质学中。用现代科学观点，最早调查研究现场大地震的年代，可追溯到1913年云南峨山7级地震考察。地震台站监测工作，是从1923年地质调查所派李善邦先生前去日本东京学习测震，并于1930年在北京西山郊区建造鹫峰地震观测台开始。最早的地震目录是1913年由上海黄司铎编的“法文中国地震表”。1921年翁文灏先生发表的“甘肃地震考”，首次将史料中的地震情形描述与罗西一福来氏烈度表加以对照，来确定地震烈度，从而提供了更详细、确切的“甘肃地震表”。1922年翁文灏在布鲁塞尔国际地质大会上宣读的“中国地质构造对于产生地震的影响”论文，曾引起与会者极大兴趣与关注，是最早论述我国地震地质和地震区域划分的文献。     

基于尺度因素的地下水随机分析

针对小尺度的各态历经假设的失效,研究了小尺度上多孔介质特性参数统计特征。利用基于K-L(Karhunen-Loeve)展开和混沌展开的谱模型,分析了尺度大小对地下水流动的影响。结果表明,尺度大小导致了特征值系列和特征函数系列的变化,尺度的变化对水头、含水量、流速影响程度不同;水头和流速方差与尺度相关,尺度越大,水头和流速方差越大;研究尺度的变化对水头、含水量、流速均值产生的影响较小。     

Numerical study on scale effect of form factor

The scale effect of form factor is investigated via a numerical approach in this paper, where the turbulent ship flow is computed by solving the steady and incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes and continuity equations. A wall function approach is employed to bridge the near-wall and outer turbulent flow region. The numerical scheme based on a finite-volume formulation is applied to discretize the coupled governing equation. For the sake of numerical stability, accuracy and economy, an identical grid is employed to compute ship flow at different Reynolds number, where the grid is optimized for the medium Reynolds number of the investigated range. Four surface ships and two sub-bodies with notably different geometrical characteristics are chosen as the investigated cases, where double-model flow without appendages is computed. The calculated total resistance coefficient shows a decreasing tendency against Reynolds number among all studied hulls. Similar to the calculated total resistance coefficient, the calculated friction resistance coefficient decreases with the Reynolds number and varies relatively little for a given Reynolds number among different hulls. The viscous pressure resistance coefficient is less insensitive to the Reynolds number but apparently depends on hull form. Compared with the form factor calculation based on empirical friction lines, the flat-plate friction prediction based on CFD approach clearly gives smaller Re-dependent form factor, which should more realistically reflect the scale effect of form factor. The form factor exhibits a near linear and increasing dependence on Reynolds number. The numerical results show that the dependence of r_P on Reynolds number mainly governs the scale effect of form factor.     

Natural disasters as the end of the insurance industry? Scalar competitive strategies, Alternative Risk Transfers, and the economic crisis

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has piqued interest in the insurance industry, and this scrutiny has led to assumptions that the industry has become unstable and unprofitable with the increased incidence of disasters in highly-insured regions of the world. This paper challenges that assumption by arguing that the insurance industry has responded by spreading risk through scaled and networked recovery schemes. We found that because of competitive strategies of risk-spreading and displacement arrangements, the industry has actually profited as a whole. Regional insurance companies have always relied on the higher financial scales of the reinsurance industry in Munich, Zurich, and London. But with claims reaching into the billions of dollars, the reinsurance industry itself has raised premiums, spread risk farther afield, and jumped scale by spreading risk to futures markets called Alternative Risk Transfers (ARTs). However, the recession beginning in 2008 has called into question the viability of using futures markets as insurance. It is shown through a media analysis of four major business publications (The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal) how the industry responded to the costs of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 hurricane seasons. Because geography is rather new to this literature, this paper also offers a broad review of the insurance industry.     

Putting the seafood in sustainable food systems

Increasing attention by consumers to the social and environmental dimensions of the food they eat has generated many different responses, including certification programs, watch lists and local/slow food movements. This article examines the more recent entry of seafood into these consumer social movements. Although a concern with the family farm—as well as tendency to equate national security with food security—has long connected terrestrial food production with other cultural concerns, fisheries have tended to be regarded more as natural resources. Considering seafood as part of the “food system” would enhance the management of fisheries, while the long engagement in fisheries with co- and adaptive management and the politics of knowledge would enrich the debate in the agri-foods literature. The article also offers suggestions on how fisheries management could better govern for sustainable food systems, and provides further ideas about food, sustainability and governance.     

运用SI-Harris算子提取遥感图像点特征

推导了SI-Harris算子(尺度不变Harris算子)的理论公式,并将其应用于遥感图像的点特征提取。重点对Harris算子与SI-Harris算子在不同空间分辨率遥感图像上的点特征提取进行实验比较,利用"重复率"指标对实验结果进行定量评价。实验表明:SI-Harris算子"重复率"较Harris算子有明显提升,可用于不同空间分辨率遥感图像的点特征提取,进而可服务于不同空间分辨率遥感图像的匹配。     

Scaling wave impact pressures on vertical walls

It is widely recognized that the use of Froude similarity for scaling up wave impact pressures recorded during physical model tests may lead to over-estimation of impact maxima. Based on reviewing historical work dating back to the 30s and further developments in the 60s and 80s, a general method is presented that is suitable for scaling up impact pressures and rise times measured during small scale physical model tests. The method accounts for the effect of air leakage and is applicable to most wave impact loads. The model is applied to scale wave impact pressures on vertical walls and similar structures, and consistent correction factors for the Froude scaling law are derived.     

Cleantech clusters: Transformational assemblages for a just,green economy or just business as usual?

The rhetorical zeal for green enterprise as a global fix for the tripartite challenges of economic recession, environmental degradation and social inequality is increasingly visible in state and non-state pronouncements around the globe under the banner of ‘The Green Economy’. In particular, many policy-facing statements call for transitions leading to a transformation in development practices. Yet there is little detail either in policy or research regarding the types of transitions needed and how they are to be initiated, nor agreement about what a transformed economy might look like. Despite this, there are emergent activities within the cleantech arena which are being heralded as actually existing examples of green economy activities. One means through which these activities are seeking to exert influence over development trajectories is by clustering both at the subnational and transnational level. While diverse in formation, many of these clusters are hybridised, involving actors from public, private and civil society sectors. Critiquing the efficacy of mainstream industrial cluster theory to analyse hybridised cleantech clustering, this paper presents a unique synthesis of current thought on multiscalar environmental governance and socio-spatial formations to explore the practices and potentialities of these hybridised cleantech clusters. Surveying the landscape of cleantech clustering and meta-clustering, before focusing in depth on one case study, the contribution of clustering to transitioning towards a transformed green economy is considered. Despite strong forces, both within and beyond cleantech clusters, for maintaining neoliberalised approaches to cleantech activity, it is concluded that for as long as cleantech clusters remain open and inclusive of actors proposing alternative pathways they do represent potential, albeit provisional, assemblages for transformation.