Re-Imagining the Chicago River

Abstract

The Chicago River, though only a few miles long, has long been a focal point for human activities, as it forms the shortage land bridge between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system. Through history, because of developments and events in the region and elsewhere, its role and use have chamged. Today, high-status residential development and recreational facilities are appearing along its banks.     

Recent Publications

Abstract

A call for combining the strengths of geographic education with environmental education to produce an ‘education for sustainability’ addresses local problems for sustainable development. A place-based approach encourages civic responsibility among students. Using service-learning to extend education beyond the classroom in this case study connected students with local clients in a watershed-based initiative. Theoretical underpinnings of service-learning for geographic education are discussed, and the case study is viewed from instructor, student, and client perspectives to identify successful outcomes and provide suggestions for those who might adopt service-learning for the first time.     

河南省境内淮河南北气候变化的小麦适应度比较

适应度是气候变化下适应性研究的关键环节,本文提出气候变化适应度的概念及其定量评价方法,并对淮河南北的小麦适应度进行比较分析。结果表明,目前河南省境内的南北气候分界线并非淮河干流区,而是由原位置北移约300 km处的最大支流地带,冬小麦的适应度空间变化大致围绕该分界线呈经向分布。淮河分界线以南地域适应度为62.57%,高于以北地域的56.81%,研究结果表明,欲达到河南农业可持续发展,距离完全适应仍有较大空间需要人为调控,且北部相比较南部其调控压力更大。在年际变化上,随着20世纪80年代气候的突变,各地小麦温度适应度骤增,水分适应度骤减,之后随着气候的日趋稳定,各气候要素的适应度不断上升,但在21世纪初上升速度下降,甚至有降低趋势,表明气候变暖的环境对小麦的负面影响日渐突出。     

长江三角洲高新区可持续发展研究

长江三角洲是我国经济最发达、智力资源最密集的地区之一,高新区已经成为当地高新技术产业发展的主导力量。1990年以来,长江三角洲高新区凭借其良好的区位条件和政策的支持,软硬环境进一步优化,迅速集聚起各类要素资源,增长极作用明显,但也存在自主创新机制不完善,研究开发能力较弱,产品技术含量较低,国际竞争力不强等问题。本文从经济实力、经营绩效、科技创新能力、对外开放能力以及生态效率等5个方面选取29项指标,运用主成分分析法,对长江三角洲8个国家级高新区可持续发展能力进行评价。结果显示,上海张江高新区可持续发展能力最强,南京高新区和无锡高新区次之,杭州高新区和苏州高新区居中,宁波高新区和常州高新区较弱,泰州高新区最弱。并基于此提出了促进长江三角洲高新区可持续发展的对策措施。     

鄂陵湖湖滨地区夏季近地层微气象特征与碳通量变化分析

利用2010年夏季鄂陵湖湖滨地区试验观测资料,从中选取资料较好的5个连续晴天,分析了该地区高寒草甸夏季局地气候、辐射与能量平衡特征以及碳通量的日变化。结果表明：①夏季晴天湖滨地区近地层气象要素受到湖陆风的较大影响,风向昼夜交替变化,垂直风速和摩擦速度明显大于玛曲草原,全天盛行上升气流,昼夜温差较小;②湖滨地区日均太阳总辐射与净辐射高于玛曲草原和金塔绿洲,地表能量不平衡现象较显著,湍流输送以潜热为主,夜间近地层存在明显的逆温和逆湿现象;③夏季湖滨草甸碳吸收的日最大值出现在上午11时前后,碳吸收显著大于碳排放,其水分利用效率与海北草甸生态系统接近,总体偏低。     

帕隆藏布流域然乌-培龙段冰湖溃决危险性评估

西藏帕隆藏布流域内发育了我国境内最大的海洋性冰川群,冰湖星罗棋布,是遭受冰湖溃决危害的典型区域。以帕隆藏布流域然乌-培龙段的冰湖为研究对象,在分析其环境背景的原则上,通过遥感解译,分析研究区冰湖的分布现状;在基于指标容易获取的基础上,从冰川特征、冰湖特征和下游沟道特征3个类别选取了8个冰湖溃决危险性评估指标,并利用模糊物元可拓性理论对研究区的冰湖溃决危险性进行综合评估。通过评估,研究区130个冰湖中,高度危险的有18个,占总数的13.85%;中度危险的有36个,占总数的27.69%;低度危险的有76个,占总数的58.46%;高度危险的冰湖主要集中分布在然乌-松宗区段内。     

澜沧江流域农业灌溉需水的时空变化(英文)

Based on the data of eight meteorological stations from the 1950s to 2007, current cropping patterns, field water moisture management, we use the Mann-Kendall and the Re-scaled Range Analysis methods to research the changes of humidity and crop irrigation water requirements in the Lancang River Basin. The results show that the annual and dry season average temperatures significantly increased, and the dry season rainfall increased while wet season rainfall decreased. Evaportranspiration (ET0) increased during both dry and wet seasons at all stations except Dali, Jianchuan and Gengma, and the aridity-humidity index decreased at most of the stations. The turning points of weather factors, ET0, the arid-ity-humidity index, paddy irrigation requirements and total agricultural water requirements occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s. The spatial changing tendency of paddy irrigation quota increased with the increase of altitude and latitude, and the correlation coefficients are 0.513 and 0.610, respectively. The maximum value is observed in Weixi, while the minimum in Mengla.     

基于方志资料重建1644-1949年长江三角洲地区台风频次序列(英文)

The proxy records on typhoons in the Yangtze River Delta from 1644 to 1949AD were extracted from historical chorographies in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China Period.In reference to the basic principles for identifying historical typhoons,time series on the Yangtze River Delta over a period of 306 years were developed.The conclusions are as follows.(1) There were a total of 241 typhoons from 1644 to 1949AD.Using the historical chorographies from 1884 to 1949AD,the number of typhoons was 65,equal to 87.8% recorded by meteorological observation.The number of years with differences in typhoon activities reconstructed using two ways no more than once is 55,reaching 83.3% in the period from 1884 to 1949AD.This result means the series of historical typhoons reconstructed using historical chorographies can represent the change of typhoon activities over years.(2) The average number of typhoon activities is 0.79 times per year from 1644 to 1949AD,and they show an increasing trend.These 306 years can be divided into three periods by the average number of typhoon activities:it is low from 1644 to 1784AD,and more typhoon activities are found from 1785 to 1904AD.It is worth noting that the number of typhoon activities reaches the summit in the last period,which is 1.2 times per year from 1905 to 1949AD.(3) Before the 20th century,the number of typhoon activities in warm periods is less than the number of cold periods.However,the number of typhoon activities increased dramatically in the early 20th century.Comparing the typhoon activities with El Ni o events,the data show that the number of typhoon activities did not increase when El Ni o occurred.     

近半个世纪来气候变暖背景下黄河流域潜在蒸散量的变化(英文)

According to the meteorological observation data of 72 stations from 1960 to 2010 in the Huanghe (Yellow) River Watershed, China, the long-term variations of potential evapotranspiration, calculated in the modified Penman-Monteith model of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, were presented, as well as the meteorological causes for the decrease of potential evapotranspiration were discussed. Since 1960, temperature has risen significantly and potential evapotranspiration a decreasing trend, which indicated the existence of "Evaporation paradox" in the Huanghe River Watershed. This phenomenon was not consistent spatially or temporally with the increase of temperature, potential evapotranspiration decreased in spring, summer and winter, mainly over most parts of Shanxi and Henan, and some parts of Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi. During the recent half century, the trends of temperature and potential evapotranspiration were negatively correlated at most of the stations, while precipitation and potential evapotranspiration exhibited a contrary trend. Calculated in multiple regressions, the contribution to potential evapotranspiration change of related meteorological factors was discussed, including mean pressure, maximum and minimum temperature, sunshine hours, relative humidity and average wind speed. The decrease of wind speed in the Huanghe River Watershed may be the dominating factor causing potential evapotranspiration decreasing.     

近50年来淮河流域极端降水的时空变化及统计特征(英文)

Based on the daily precipitation data of 27 meteorological stations from 1960 to 2009 in the Huaihe River Basin, spatio-temporal trend and statistical distribution of extreme precipitation events in this area are analyzed. Annual maximum series (AM) and peak over threshold series (POT) are selected to simulate the probability distribution of extreme precipitation. The results show that positive trend of annual maximum precipitation is detected at most of used stations, only a small number of stations are found to depict a negative trend during the past five decades, and none of the positive or negative trend is significant. The maximum precipitation event almost occurred in the flooding period during the 1960s and 1970s. By the L-moments method, the parameters of three extreme distributions, i.e., Generalized extreme value distribution (GEV), Generalized Pareto distribution (GP) and Gamma distribution are estimated. From the results of goodness of fit test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, AM series can be better fitted by GEV model and POT series can be better fitted by GP model. By the comparison of the precipitation amounts under different return levels, it can be found that the values obtained from POT series are a little larger than the values from AM series, and they can better simulate the observed values in the Huaihe River Basin.