New Developments in Water Efficiency

1Water LossInitiativesUnaccounted-for water(or unbilled water)has beenreceiving newscrutiny at both the state and nationallevels.For years,water conservationeffortsin Europehave emphasized reduction in water loss to a muchgreater extent thaninthe United S…     

Seismic Hazard Analysis — Quo vadis?

The paper is dedicated to the review of methods of seismic hazard analysis currently in use, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. The review is performed from the perspective of a user of the results of seismic hazard analysis for different applications such as the design of critical and general (non-critical) civil infrastructures, technical and financial risk analysis. A set of criteria is developed for and applied to an objective assessment of the capabilities of different analysis methods. It is demonstrated that traditional probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) methods have significant deficiencies, thus limiting their practical applications. These deficiencies have their roots in the use of inadequate probabilistic models and insufficient understanding of modern concepts of risk analysis, as have been revealed in some recent large scale studies. These deficiencies result in the lack of ability of a correct treatment of dependencies between physical parameters and finally, in an incorrect treatment of uncertainties. As a consequence, results of PSHA studies have been found to be unrealistic in comparison with empirical information from the real world. The attempt to compensate these problems by a systematic use of expert elicitation has, so far, not resulted in any improvement of the situation. It is also shown that scenario-earthquakes developed by disaggregation from the results of a traditional PSHA may not be conservative with respect to energy conservation and should not be used for the design of critical infrastructures without validation. Because the assessment of technical as well as of financial risks associated with potential damages of earthquakes need a risk analysis, current method is based on a probabilistic approach with its unsolved deficiencies.

Traditional deterministic or scenario-based seismic hazard analysis methods provide a reliable and in general robust design basis for applications such as the design of critical infrastructures, especially with systematic sensitivity analyses based on validated phenomenological models. Deterministic seismic hazard analysis incorporates uncertainties in the safety factors. These factors are derived from experience as well as from expert judgment. Deterministic methods associated with high safety factors may lead to too conservative results, especially if applied for generally short-lived civil structures. Scenarios used in deterministic seismic hazard analysis have a clear physical basis. They are related to seismic sources discovered by geological, geomorphologic, geodetic and seismological investigations or derived from historical references. Scenario-based methods can be expanded for risk analysis applications with an extended data analysis providing the frequency of seismic events. Such an extension provides a better informed risk model that is suitable for risk-informed decision making.     

地质单位财务管理咨询刍议

地质单位对自身无力解决的重要财务管理问题应该寻求外部咨询机构的有效帮助，针对地质单位财务管理中存在的主要问题提出需要咨询课题，而咨询机构通过对地质单位的财务状况进行调查分析后，提出科学、合理有效的财务管理改善方案和指导实施方案。     

London and Frankfurt in Europe's evolving financial centre network

The launch of the Euro and the location of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt initially was seen as a threat to London's pre-eminent position in European financial geographies. This paper explains why in fact this was not the case. To do this, the paper is divided in two. Firstly, it reviews the literatures that help to explain financial geographies. It is argued that we need to move away from investigating attribute properties such as financial turnover and instead examine the role of networks and interdependencies in producing financial geographies. Secondly, it identifies London's dominance and Frankfurt's growth as a complementary centre through quantitative analysis and then explains how European networks and interdependencies produce this, based on insights from interviews with investment bankers and insurance institution workers in the two cities.     

A comparison of the reactions to government taxation measures of twentieth century mining companies and nineteenth century pastoralists

This paper compares pastoralists in South Australia in the nineteenth century with Australian mining companies in the twentieth century as they resist the efforts of government to extract a greater proportion of the wealth created in the exploitation of natural resources. In effect, in both cases the struggle relates to the allocation of economic rent between private and corporate capital on the one hand, and the owners of the resources, the people of Australia, on the other. It is difficult not to be impressed by the similarities in the ideologies, objectives and strategies of these two groups of resource exploiters, separated though they are by over one hundred years.     

ANALYSIS OF LOCATION CONDITIONS OF FINANCIAL CENTRES IN CHINA

First of all, the necessity of establishing financial centres is expounded. The establishment of financial centres has a lot of benefits to the world economic development, China's economy and the occupied cities. The location conditions of financial centres may be summarized as follows: the location of trade centre, the factors of geographical position, the circumstances of finance, etc.. We consider that the first batch of financial centres in China should be established in the eastern cities of China. So 9 eastern cities in China are chosen as the spare financial centres. According to the location conditions of financial centres, 12 indices are chosen and the method of synthetic weighted average is used to find the best locations of financial centres. The conclusions are that the grade A financial centres should be in Shanghai and the grade B should be in Tianjin and Guangzhou.     

Study on financial loss and its adjustment in earthquake insurance

Introduction Earthquake often brings large catastrophe to the mankind, especially in recent years when a large number of destructive earthquakes occur in the whole globe, which have caused tremendous casualties and losses to the people. Obviously, it is not very reasonable to make up financial losses and carry out post-seismic reconstruction by the government only for such kind of huge earth- quake losses. Therefore, as an effective measure to raise fund and make up financial losses, earth- qu…     

Addressing Scottish rural fuel poverty through a regional industrial symbiosis strategy for the Scottish forest industries sector

Tackling fuel poverty is central to the delivery of the Scottish Executive’s commitment to social justice. Many Scottish rural households are not linked into the mains gas network and rely on expensive alternatives, despite being surrounded by plentiful supplies of low-cost renewable wood biomass. A regional study was undertaken to establish the potential market for pelletised wood fuel, available as a low-value by-product from the rapidly expanding Scottish forest industry sector. The wider implications of the research findings are analysed by extending the principles of industrial symbiosis from a site-specific to a regional scale. Promoting an indigenous pellet-based wood fuel market for rural Scotland would fulfil important Scottish Executive economic, social and environmental sustainability objectives. Adding off-site social symbiotic elements increases the potential for on-site technical symbiosis in nascent Scottish forest industry clusters. At present, market failure is preventing the realisation of these benefits, and the paper concludes by identifying ways in which market intermediation, through wood fuel energy service companies, might overcome the current barriers to exploiting such symbiosis.     

宁南县城后山泥石流综合治理工程财务管理

宁南县城后山泥石流综合治理工程总预算为159.00万元,实际拨款129.01万元。为用好这笔资金,严格了财务管理制度,采取了专项资金专人管理措施,加强对用工、材料、资金和施工等的管理,使工程不但超计划数量完成,而且未追加投资,做到了费省效宏,较好地发挥了投资效益。     

后金融危机时期我国大型勘察设计企业的发展战略研究

2007年爆发的金融危机,给我国勘察设计企业带来了深刻的影响和变革。在后金融危机时代到来之际,大型勘察设计企业作为行业的龙头力量,应该吸取经验和教训,在发展方向上进行深入研究,积极进行战略调整,通过资源整合、优化产业结构等多种方式实施企业的发展转型,增强企业的综合竞争实力和生存能力,使企业能够抵御各种经济风险,实现基业长青、可持续发展的根本目的。