Use of microtremor measurement for assessing site effects in Northern Belgium – interpretation of the observed intensity during the MS = 5.0 June 11 1938 earthquake

To provide quantitative information on site effects in the northern part of Belgium, forty-seven H/V microtremor measurements were performed with 5 second seismometers over an area of about 15.000 km². Most of the results show a northward regular increase of the fundamental period in agreement with the augmentation of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic soft sedimentsthickness from a few meters 40 km south of Brussels to 900 m at the Netherlands-Belgium border. The measured resonance frequency values wereconsistent with theoretical computations performed at different sites onthe basis of existing information and shallow seismic experiments. At oneparticular site (Uccle) where borehole data were available, microtremor measurements using an array of four seismological stations with differentapertures allowed to obtain the low frequency part of the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve, extending the range covered by the analysis of surfacewaves artificially generated. The Vs profile derived from the surface waveinversion corroborates the 1 Hz natural frequency of the site. Comparison of these results with the macroseismic information concerning the M_S = 5.0 1938 earthquake which occurred 50 km west of Brussels,confirmed the hypothesis that the geological structure of the Brabant massifis likely to control damage distribution during such an earthquake. Comparisonbetween the intensity map of the 1938 earthquake and the resonance period ofsediments obtained by our microtremor study shows a clear relation betweenthe two parameters. During the 1938 earthquake, site effects played a prominent role due to the dimension of the source whose corner frequency wasabout 1 Hz.     

柴达木盆地近40a气候变化及其对农业影响的研究

利用柴达木盆地6个代表站逐日平均气温、逐月降水资料以及逐日最低气温资料。对盆地40a来的气候变化特征进行分析。同时分析了气候变化对农业生产的影响。为充分利用变化了的农业气候资源。减少不利因素带来的影响提出了对策和建议。     

利用屏幕截取技术制作人降作业炮点环境示意图

介绍利用屏幕截取技术制作人降作业炮点四周环境坐标示意图的方法。     

南京-镇江地区多目标地球化学调查初步成果

报道了南京—镇江地区开展的多目标地球化学调查工作以来所取得的初步成果,讨论了如何确定土壤中元素的背景值、如何检查评价地球化学异常、如何针对农业地质的需要开展深入研究等问题,并提出了开展调查工作的具体建议。     

A furrow runs through it: An example of sustainable traditional irrigation in Western Cape Province,South Africa

Water and water related matters are important issues in water scarce countries like the Republic of South Africa. This is especially true for the agricultural sector that relies heavily on the availability of water for irrigation to ensure a secure food supply. In South Africa, present day irrigation projects rely on government subsidies and are usually large undertakings beyond the reach of individuals or small communities. The sustainability of such large irrigation projects is still a matter of debate. A 100 years ago a different set of rules applied. Irrigation could only be achieved by hand-dug furrows that supplied water in relatively small quantities to small farming communities. This paper investigated such a small community, the Leeukloof farming community in the Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. For the past 93 years this community has maintained a furrow that supplies water not only to farms bordering the Perdeberg River, which supplies the furrow with water, but also to farms not bordering the river. The authors try to reconstruct the changes in agricultural practices brought about by the furrow, methods of water extraction during each phase, as well as the development and role of the furrow system. The perception by the community of the necessity of this method of water extraction from the river system is also investigated. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中国国家公园与世界遗产地保护——挑战与战略

About 70% of its land area as mountains and plateaus,China is the largest mountain countryin the world.Thanks to its vast territory (9.6 million km2),outstanding relief and varied climates,China boasts extremely plenty of ecosystems and landscapes.From south to north,it traverses almostall the temporal zones from tropical rainforest in the southernmost to frigid-temperate needle-leavedforest in the northernmost; from east to west,it sees a gradual transition fro humid forest landscape toextremely arid desert landscape; vertical change of landscapes is most striking owing to the existenceof many high mountains (above 6000-7000 m,e.g.,the Himalayas,the Kunlun,the Tianshan,theHengduan,etc.) and plateaus,especially the immense Tibetan Plateau (averagely 4500 m above sealevel).All of this give rise to the richness and diversity of ecosystems and landscape in China.Some ofthe ecosystems are endemic to China,e.g.,alpine desert and alpine steppe in the Tibetan Plateau.As aresult,China bears a great responsibility in the protection of global ecosystems and landscape.     

The causes and environmental effects of land use conversion during agricultural restructuring in Northeast China

During the last decade of the 20th century, extensive conversion in agricultural land use took place in Northeast China. The goal of this study is to ascertain its spatial distribution and regional differentiation, determine its causes, and analyze its environmental impact. Especially we attempt to elucidate how institutional constraints have facilitated the change at a time of agrarian restructuring when newly emerging free market was hybridized with the former planned economy. Information on six categories of land use was mapped from interpretation of Landsat TM images recorded in 1990, 1995 and 2000. Most of land use changes took place during the first half of the decade, coinciding with abrupt and chaotic changes in government directives. Farmland was changed mainly to woodland, water body and built-up areas while woodland and grassland were converted chiefly to farmland. Spatially, the change from farmland to woodland was restricted to the west of the study area. The change from grassland to farmland took place in the grazing and farming interlocked west. These chaotic and occasionally conflicting changes were largely caused by lack of stability and consistency in agricultural land use policies promulgated. They have exerted adverse impacts on the local environment, including land degradation, increased flooding, and modified climate regime.     

Green''''s functions for uniformly distributed loads acting on an inclined line in a poroelastic layered site

Based on one type of practical Biot's equation and the dynamic-stiffness matrices of a poroelastic soil layer and half-space, Green's functions were derived for uniformly distributed loads acting on an inclined line in a poroelastic layered site. This analysis overcomes significant problems in wave scattering due to local soil conditions and dynamic soil-structure interaction. The Green's functions can be reduced to the case of an elastic layered site developed by Wolf in 1985. Parametric studies are then carried out through two example problems.     

Influences of wastewater discharges on the water quality of Mamasın dam watershed in Aksaray, Central Anatolian part of Turkey

Sustaining the human ecological benefits of surface water requires carefully planned strategies for reducing the cumulative risks posed by diverse human activities. Municipal governments in Aksaray City play a key role in developing solutions to surface water management and protection problems. The responsibility to provide drinking water and sewage works, regulate the use of private land, and protect public health provides the mandate and authority to take action. A large part of Aksaray City uses Mamasın dam water as its primary source for drinking water. Several point sources of contamination may result from direct wastewater discharges from Melendiz and Karasu rivers, which recharge the Mamasın dam watershed. Relevant studies were carried out for monitoring the eutrophication process, which usually occurs in the static water mass of the Mamasın dam lake. This process may be caused by the continual increase in nutrients and decrease of O₂ levels, causing anaerobic conditions. Stimulated algae growth in these water bodies consequently reduces water quality. Hydrochemical parameters were evaluated to estimate the types of pollution sources, the level of pollution, and its environmental impacts on the Mamasın dam drinking water reservoir.