Correlation between magnetic susceptibility and heavy metals in urban topsoil: a case study from the city of Xuzhou, China

Anthropogenic influence, mainly due to urban and industrial activities and traffic exhaust, may affect urban topsoil via atmospheric contamination and solid waste. Magnetic susceptibility measurements were conducted on 21 urban topsoil samples from the city of Xuzhou, China. High intensities of magnetic susceptibility were detected in the majority of the samples. SEM analysis shows that magnetic minerals are in the form of spherules and mainly due to anthropogenic inputs. The heavy metals Pb, Cu, Zn, Se, Sc, Mo, Fe, and Bi show strong correlations with magnetic susceptibility, and Ag, Ba, Cd, Ni, Cr, Sb, and Sn, on the other hand, show a weak correlation with magnetic susceptibility. Whereas, of these metals studied, only Hg has no significant correlation with the susceptibility. The Tomlinson pollution load index (PLI) also shows significant correlation with the susceptibility (χ). The present study shows that magnetic susceptibility is a fast, inexpensive, and non-destructive method for the detection and mapping of contaminated soils.     

基于可持续发展的广东省城市供水价格改革探讨

针对目前城市供水价格计算与计量方式不合理和突出的水资源供需矛盾,提出了按全成本水价模式测算广东省城市供水价格,并采用阶梯水价、两部制水价和季节水价计量方式逐步达到全成本水价的措施与实施步骤,确保水资源的持续利用支撑广东省经济社会的可持续发展.     

Simulation of urban expansion via integrating artificial neural network with Markov chain – cellular automata

Accurate simulations and predictions of urban expansion are critical to manage urbanization and explicitly address the spatiotemporal trends and distributions of urban expansion. Cellular Automata integrated Markov Chain (CA-MC) is one of the most frequently used models for this purpose. However, the urban suitability index (USI) map produced from the conventional CA-MC is either affected by human bias or cannot accurately reflect the possible nonlinear relations between driving factors and urban expansion. To overcome these limitations, a machine learning model (Artificial Neural Network, ANN) was integrated with CA-MC instead of the commonly used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Logistic Regression (LR) CA-MC models. The ANN was optimized to create the USI map and then integrated with CA-MC to spatially allocate urban expansion cells. The validated results of kappa and fuzzy kappa simulation indicate that ANN-CA-MC outperformed other variously coupled CA-MC modelling approaches. Based on the ANN-CA-MC model, the urban area in South Auckland is predicted to expand to 1340.55 ha in 2026 at the expense of non-urban areas, mostly grassland and open-bare land. Most of the future expansion will take place within the planned new urban growth zone.     

Urban re-generations: afterword to special issue on the politics of urban greening in Australian cities

ABSTRACT

‘Urban re-generations' is written as an afterword to the special issue of Australian Geographer on ‘The Politics of Urban Greening in Australian Cities'. The collection prompts a deep questioning of reparative and regenerative work associated with greening, green spaces and green infrastructures. The climate-driven 2019-2020 bushfire crisis and COVID-19 have amplified the visibility of the more-than-human connectivity of our cities and the deep underlying structures of social and environmental inequity underpinning a variety of urban green spaces and agendas. Inspired by the articles in this special issue, the afterword explores how we might call back the grammars and practices of regeneration from their service to the neo-liberal, settler-colonial city and instead nurture reparative de-colonial practices that aid in the collaborative work of re-composing, becoming into better relation with, and working in modes of situated historical and cultural difference, with green and just cities.     

Synergetic efficiency of Lidar and WorldView-2 for 3D urban cartography in Northeast Mexico

Three-dimensional urban cartography is needed for city changes’ assessment. The variety of studies using 3D calculations of urban elements grows each year. Building and vegetation volumes are necessary to assess and understand spatio-temporal urban changeable environments. However, there are technical questions as to which method can improve 3D urban cartographic accuracy. The innovative part of this current study is the creation of a six-band hybrid obtained from LIDAR and WorldView2 synergy. Two different enhancement algorithms demonstrated the most important spectral features for the urban development and vegetation classes. Results indicated an improvement in accuracy by up to 21.3%, according to the Kappa coefficient. Both infra-red band and intensity band were the most significant, according to the principal components analysis. The synergy delimited classes and polygons, as well as the direct display of information regarding heights of elements and improving the extraction of roads, buildings and vegetation classes.     

Rights in places: An analytical extension of the right to the city

Following recent scholarship on place and place-making, we identify key challenges for contemporary empirical research using the “Right to the City” as an analytic. We seek to distinguish between the aspirational “right” articulated as a political and conceptual call to arms on one hand, and the “actually existing rights” that are carved out through both formal and informal mechanisms (including political protest) in the everyday city on the other. Actually existing rights are defined not through fiat or via momentary revolutionary acts, but through the durability of relationships between multiple actors, including residents, citizens, states, and corporate agents. We re-articulate urban rights as actually contingent and agonistic properties of the relationships that citizens have with places. This paper uses the historic conflict over community gardens in New York as an illustration of how thinking of rights regimes as multiple, overlapping, and placed helps better illuminate potential political interventions. Thinking of rights and places as plural, overlapping, and contingent is analytically productive because it highlights (rather than overwriting) conflicts between competing articulations of rights and privileges in cities.     

江苏盐城地区一次持续雾-霾天气过程的综合分析

2013年12月上旬江苏盐城地区出现了一次历史罕见的持续重度雾-霾天气,利用盐城市常规气象观测资料、NCEP再分析资料(1°×1°)及环境监测中心站的污染物浓度资料等,对此次过程的环流背景、气象要素、大气层结特征以及动力条件、污染情况等进行了综合性分析。结果发现:12月上旬中高层冷空气势力弱,以纬向环流为主;低层弱的水平风场为雾-霾的发生发展提供了有利的环流背景;稳定的层结特征,近地面高强度的贴地逆温和持续较低的混合层高度是此次雾-霾天气长时间维持的重要因素;边界层内弱正散度及负涡度是此次雾-霾天气得以维持发展的动力因子;通过后向轨迹分型和火点监测资料分析发现:污染物的长距离输送在此次重污染天气的形成过程中起到了一定作用。最后,文中建立了能见度和PM_(2.5)浓度、相对湿度的非线性回归方程,对能见度的预报效果较好,为实际业务应用中雾-霾的预报提供了有利的依据。     

南京市灰霾天气的长时间变化特征及其气候原因探讨

以南京市1954—2012年的逐日气象数据分析南京市灰霾天的长时间变化规律并从气候角度探讨其变化原因。南京市的霾日数近60 a来呈现明显上升趋势,从20世纪50年代的40 d/a已增加至21世纪的230 d/a左右,气象行业标准界定的霾日与人工观测的霾日长期变化趋势一致,前者在南京市具有较好的适用性。南京市雾霾混合日呈现出先增加后下降的趋势,其对应的相对湿度在不断降低,这可能是雾霾日向霾日转换,雾霾日数降低而霾日数增多的关键因素。南京地区能见度不断降低,近30 a里约下降8.4 km,霾日数与能见度相关系数高达-0.91,随着能见度的降低,灰霾天数几乎线性增加。南京地区的年平均相对湿度在1985年以后大幅降低,已从约80%下降至68%左右,湿度与霾日的相关系数为-0.72,随着湿度的降低,霾日呈上升趋势。南京年平均温度1985年后明显上升,升高了1.8℃,其中冬季上升幅度最大,夏季上升幅度最小;年均温度与霾日数呈现出明显正相关,和相对湿度呈现明显负相关,温度的升高将造成相对湿度的降低,进而造成霾日增多。南京的年平均风速1978年后不断降低,到20世纪末约降低1.5 m/s,风速与霾日呈现出显著的负相关,随着平均风速的降低,霾日数不断增多。在全球变暖的大气候背景下,南京市霾的长时间变化受到各种气候因子的影响,能见度、相对湿度、温度和风速都是重要的影响因素。     

中国东部城市群发展对南海夏季风爆发影响的模拟研究

本文利用NCAR开发的CAM5.1(Community Atmosphere Model Version 5.1)模式,针对我国东部大规模城市下垫面发展对南海夏季风爆发的影响进行了数值模拟研究。结果表明我国东部大规模城市群发展可能使得南海夏季风提前1候爆发;机理分析表明:在南海夏季风爆发之前,中国东部城市群发展引起的陆面增温,使得南海及其附近地区南北温差提前逆转、中国东部区域海平面气压降低,导致中南半岛到南海地区西南气流加强,中南半岛到南海地区降水增加,而凝结潜热垂直变化强迫出的异常环流,促进了南亚高压的加强及提前北跳,相伴随的高层抽吸作用有助于季风对流的建立和西太平洋副高的减弱东撤,从而形成了有利于南海夏季风爆发的高低层环流条件,导致南海夏季风提前爆发。另外,观测结果表明1993年之后南海夏季风爆发的日期相对上一个年代明显提前约2候,城市化快速发展阶段与南海夏季风爆发的年代际变化存在时间段的吻合,表明城市下垫面发展可能是南海夏季风提前爆发的原因之一。     

Regional assessment of pan-Pacific urban environments over 25 years using annual gap free Landsat data

Urbanization and the associated change in land cover has been intensifying across the globe in recent decades. Regional studies on the rate and amount of urban expansion are critical for understanding how patterns of change differ within and among cities with varying structure and development characteristics. Yet spatially consistent and timely information on urban development is difficult to access particularly across international jurisdictions. Remote sensing based technologies offer a unique perspective on urban land cover with the data offering significant potential to urban studies due to its consistent and ubiquitous nature. In this research we applied a pixel-based image composite technique to generate annual gap-free surface reflectance Landsat composites from 1984 to 2012 for 25 urban environments across 12 countries in the Pacific Rim. Using time series composites, spectral indices were calculated and compared using a hexagonal grid ring model to assess changes in vegetative and urban patterns. Trajectories were then clustered to further investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics and relationships among the 25 cities. Performance of the clustering analyses varied depended on the temporal and spatial metrics however overall clustering results indicated relatively strong spatio-temporal similarities among a number of key cities. Three pairs of cities—Melbourne and Sydney; Tianjin and Manila; and Singapore City and Kuala Lumpur were found to be highly similar in their urban and vegetation dynamics temporally and spatially. In contrast Vancouver and Las Vegas had no similar analogous. This work demonstrates the value of utilising annual Landsat time series composites for assessing urban vegetation and urban dynamics at regional scales and potential use in sustainable urban planning, resources allocation, and policy making.