Human interactions with ground-water

Ground-Water could be considered as an immense reservoir, from which only a certain amount of water can be withdrawn without affecting the quantity and quality of water. This amount is determined by the characteristics of the environment in which ground-water occurs and by the interactions of ground-water with precipitation, surface water, and people. It should be recognized that quantity and quality of ground-water are intimately related and should be considered accordingly. Quantity refers to usable water and water is usable for any specific purpose only so long as its quality has not deteriorated beyond acceptable limits. Thus an overall quantitative and qualitative management of ground water is inevitable, and its should also involve the uses of ground-water reservoirs for purposes other than water supply. The main objective of ground-water management is to ensure that ground-water resources will be available in appropriate time and in appropriate quantity and quality to meet the most important demands of our society. Traditional, and obvious uses of ground-water are the extraction of water for water supplies (domestic, municipal, agricultural, and industrial) and the natural discharge feeding lakes and maintaining base flow of streams. Not so obvious are the uses of ground-water reservoirs, the very framework within which ground-water occurs and moves, and in which other fluids or materials can be stored. In the last two decades, ground-water reservoirs have been intensively considered for many other purposes than water supplies. Diversified and very often conflicting uses need to be evaluated and dealt with in the most efficient way in order to determine the importance of each possible use, and to assign priorities of these uses. With rising competition for the use of ground-water reservoirs, we will also need to increase the potential for effective planning of ground-water development and protection. Man's development and use of ground-water necessarily modifies the natural conditions and the total natural system must be successfully blended with the unnatural stresses placed upon it. This can be accomplished by introducing new methods (such as ground-water zoning) in and by developing alternative strategies for ground-water management and protection.     

矿山采出水的处理与利用

广西田东煤矿矿区使用梳理式DDSL过滤技术,对在矿山建设了给水处理工程,既实现了偏僻山区生活给水的集成化、高效化,也实现了就地利用矿山矿井水,减少了水处理基建工程费用,保护了地表环境。达到了节能减排、提高经济效益和水资源合理利用的目的。     

Interpreting sustainable yield of an aquifer using a fuzzy framework

Reliable estimates for how much water can be safely withdrawn from aquifers without harming the environment is crucial for identifying new water supply sources and fostering sustainable growth. Methodologies to estimate groundwater availability that are rooted in science and yet accomplishable with minimal data are particularly useful for effectual aquifer management. Also, as groundwater management is increasingly becoming a participatory process, these methodologies must be transparent and easily understood by a wide range of audiences. In addition, proposed approaches must also reconcile imprecision and uncertainties arising from lack of data, differences in stakeholders’ perceptions and limitations associated with incomplete aquifer characterization. In this study, the fundamental concept of water balance is coupled with fuzzy regression to develop a scheme for assessing regional-scale groundwater availability. Using the mass-balance approach, anthropogenic water demands (municipal, industrial and agricultural) and ecological demands (baseflows to rivers) can be incorporated into the availability estimation process. The use of fuzzy regression enables the specification of decision makers’ preferences to the adopted procedure and renders the parameter estimation to be more robust in the presence of extreme values. The methodology is illustrated by using it to estimate groundwater availability in the Gulf coast aquifer, underlying Refugio County, TX, USA.     

Institutional instruments for water pollution control

This paper focuses on the articulation of policies in the interface between economic production and water quality. One problem is the introduction, at this production-ecologic interface, of unwanted water-borne residuals by firms and municipalities. The policy objective is to absorb the social cost of environmental degradation into the production function within the two constraints of efficiency in the allocation of resources and the protection of property rights. The efficient allocation of environmental resources (in such a way as to maximize human welfare) has long been recognized as a basic objective in resource management. Equally important is the consideration of environmental rights and responsibilities in a society where property power and the institution of property is a dominant characteristic. Since the manner in which the property owner acts may affect the environment of his neighbours, it is important that policy instruments inform the holder of the property rights of the ill-effects of his actions upon others and induce him to take action to remedy the situation. The question of water quality management options requires urgent consideration for two reasons. Firstly, the cost of water pollution control is already considerable and is likely to increase even more sharply as the growing number of urban centres put greater pressure on the water resource for waste dilution and assimilation and other competing uses such as municipal demands, heat dissipation, recreation and wildlife protection. Secondly, the institutional mechanisms for dealing with this problem seem to be inadequate and ineffective. It is true that subsidies and grants have encouraged the building of more municipal waste treatment plants while regulation and court action have reduced some of the worst abuses. Subsidies and grants may be inefficient policy choices because they encourage hardware solutions even when other less expensive solutions are possible. In addition, they fail to inform the polluters of the ill-effects of their action; and the general public has to shoulder the burden in the form of increased taxation. Regulation and court action are cumbersome, sporadic and time-consuming. Effluent standards could be made flexible as a policy instrument if they afforded the polluter the opportunity to choose either to install in-plant controls or to pay the “fine” or to combine both these choices in any way that minimized his costs. This would combine the policy instrument of the effluent standard with the policy instrument of an effluent (or user) charge. The charges could be set either to reflect marginal pollution damages or the marginal cost of maintaining a given ambient standard. In other words the inferred marginal damage of pollution is equal to the marginal cost of treatment up to some desired level thus ensuring that the desired amount of waste load be reduced at least cost. Pricing and transferable effluent permits serve the same purpose.     

河西走廊内陆河流域农户地下水使用的影响因素分析

在农业与生态系统用水相矛盾的干旱内陆区,地下水过度开采导致生态环境急剧恶化。以往对地下水的管理,以政府直接控制地下水使用为主,但效果并不十分理想,或管理成本较大。因此,寻求间接调控地下水使用的措施成为更好的选择。以河西走廊的石羊河、黑河和疏勒河流域为例,以农户问卷调查数据为依据,探究影响农户使用地下水的关键因素,以寻求通过制定更有针对性的政策来影响农户节约并高效利用地下水,最终达到农户自下而上自发节水的效果。分析结果发现：农户对地下水的使用在不同阶段有不同的特征,但均强烈地依赖于地表水供给,地表水供给每增加1个轮次,单位公顷耕地地表水用量会增加237.3 m³,相应会减少795.2 m³的地下水,整体上平均减少504.1 m³的总用水量,地下水占灌溉总用水的比例也会下降3.7%。此外,地下水的使用还与家庭经营规模、经营模式、地下水供给条件及经营者偏好等因素密切相关。因此,政府应根据流域内地表水与地下水的综合条件和特点,结合农业生产特征和农户偏好,因地制宜制定政府主导的管理政策与农户自我调节能力有效结合的开发治理制度和方案,切实实现区域水资源节约与高效利用双重目标。     

基于生态工程的海岸带全球变化适应性防护策略

在全球变化导致的海平面上升和灾害性气候等压力下,我国海岸带风暴潮、海岸侵蚀、地面沉降等灾害发生频率和强度正在增加,对海岸防护体系的需求日益提高。传统海岸防护工程维护成本高,更新困难,而且可能造成地面沉降、水质恶化、生态退化、渔业资源衰退等后果。基于生态工程的海岸防护提供了抵御海岸带灾害的新理念。修复和重建沙滩、红树林、沼泽湿地、珊瑚礁等海岸带生态系统,可以起到消浪、蓄积泥沙、抬升地面的作用,有效应对全球变化引发的灾害风险,形成更可持续的海岸防护体系。通过分析不同海岸防护技术的优势和限制,认为以生态工程为核心理念构建和管理我国海岸防护体系,才能起到保障社会经济发展和维持生态健康的最佳效果。     

山水林田湖草系统治理之水土保持要义

山水林田湖草是一个生命共同体,山水林田湖草的系统治理观是水土流失治理与生态修复的重要指导思想。水土流失的发生、发展和变化是一个复杂的系统,有其自身规律,水土保持是一门多学科交叉学科,有其科学性与不可替代性,防治水土流失应坚持系统思维,整体施策,系统和综合是水土保持学科建立和事业发展的生命力所在。水土流失在中国广泛分布并长期存在,而且治理程度及年治理进度较低,极不适应生态文明时代人民对美好生活的需求。要充分发挥大自然的自我修复能力,辅助于重点治理,以小促大,大面积、快速恢复植被,降低水土流失强度。将水资源保护、水环境整治、面源污染防治、农村污水及垃圾处理、村容村貌人居环境整治等融为一体,以系统治理观大力推进生态清洁小流域建设。采取系统、全面的措施,重视山地经果林开发土地的水土流失治理与生态保护。对工业化、城镇化、农业现代化过程中的人为扰动破坏区,全过程、全方位落实水土保持措施,促进经济社会的高质量发展。     

Wastewater reclamation and reuse

Municipal wastewater reclamation and reuse has been practiced for hundreds of years as a beneficial use of a previously wasted product. But it is now becoming recognized as an effective water conservation tool and pollution-control method. This paper describes the status, need, and potential of water reuse in the United States. Current policies are emphasized with several examples of successful water recycling on a worldwide basis given. The discussion is limited to the treatment and reuse of municipal sewage effluents for agricultural, industrial, recreational and domestic purposes. This is to be distinguishedfrom in-plant water recycling where multiple uses of the same water are evident.     

城市缓流水体污染成因分析及维护对策

在讨论城市缓流水体的运移特征、水化学过程及污染源的基础上,提出了建立科学的城市水务管理体制,城市水利工程与生态工程建设相结合,充分发挥水系工程在城市水体环境保护中的作用,以及完善暴雨污水综合治理方法等保护城市缓流水体的对策.     

Characterization of environmental impact on resources, using strategic assessment of environmental impact and management of natural spaces of “Las Batuecas-Sierra de Francia” and “Quilamas” (Salamanca, Spain)

A new procedure is proposed for joint strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment using simultaneous characterizations in the protected natural area studied to analyse the importance and extent of the impact of human activities within this area on the various natural resources. GIS techniques were used to define territorial models, including environmental information criteria in thematic layers to facilitate environmental diagnosis in the early planning stages in the areas of concern or of higher quality for conservation at different working levels (municipal, district, provincial or national). Traditional conventional environmental impact assessment methods were improved, using spatial analysis to compare scenarios based on the spatial and temporal variability of the impacts identified and their evaluation. This method was applied to the natural space of Las Batuecas-S. de Francia and Quilamas, where in an initial stage the different anthropogenic activities (landfills, etc.) with the potential to cause direct (sewage waters, etc.) or indirect (leachate, etc.) impacts were identified, using checklists and double-entry matrices to analyse actions likely to cause impacts, developing the cartography and identifying environmental impacts potentially damaging to the natural environment. Next, thematic and interpretive mappings were drawn up (surface water quality, aquifer vulnerability to pollution and vulnerability to municipal solid waste) to assess the effects upon resources (water, soil, air, etc.). Finally, by overlapping the impact identification and vulnerability mappings (municipal solid waste, pollution of aquifers and surface water quality) the impact characterization mapping was obtained, showing the absorption capacity of the different sectors to help the responsible bodies set out preventive and/or corrective measures. The essence of this paper is, in methodological terms, its use of two methods simultaneously (strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment) in a protected natural area, allowing it to be extrapolated to any area where territorial management and planning studies need to be carried out.     

基于MapGIS的地质遗迹管理信息系统的设计与实现

地质遗迹管理信息系统利用地理信息系统技术、数据库技术,整合地质遗迹(地质公园)数据库和基础地理、地质、生态环境、旅游资源、管理规划等空间数据库,全面掌握地质遗迹保护、地质公园建设等方面的现状和规划情况,便于管理地质遗迹(地质公园)保护和建设的信息,为制定国家、区域或省市自然保护区规划和其他专项规划提供数据支持。地质遗迹管理信息系统应遵循点源信息系统的设计原则,以主题式关系数据库系统和空间数据库系统为基础,以空间信息和属性信息管理为核心,实现数据库与GIS的有效集成;并用C/S与B/S相结合的方式,使系统在局域网和广域网都能安全运行,满足用户的需求。     

Easing conservation? Conservation easements, public accountability and neoliberalism

This paper examines the use of conservation easements, with a focus on California. Conservation easements are now the dominant tool used for private land conservation in the United States. Easements are in many ways a paradigmatic neoliberal environmental policy tool. They privatize and re-scale a great deal of land conservation decision-making authority; they are market-based; they provide financial incentives for participation rather than punishment for non-compliance; and they commodify new property rights. However, these neoliberalisms are incorporated in uneven, and sometimes contradictory, ways that emphasize the gulf between neoliberal ideologies and “actually existing neoliberalisms.” Most critically, as a result of extensive public funding and management, conservation easements are not nearly as private (and thus not as neatly neoliberal) as they sometimes seem. Conservation easements are often heralded as a “win–win” land conservation strategy. I argue that the extent to which conservation easements may be construed as win–win solutions depends a great deal on who is included in the calculation of winners and losers. I contend that using and governing easements as if they are private elides complex questions about larger public costs and benefits. This obscures the large number of people and institutions (both state and private) that will likely need to be involved in governing conservation easements in the long term.     

矿井废弃巷道蓄排水系统设计与分析

为了建立废弃巷道蓄排水系统,通过实行“避峰就谷”的排水措施减少矿井排水费用。基于水力学公式和质量守恒定律,推导了倾斜管道形状蓄水区域的蓄排水公式,并从安全和经济两方面设计了排水设施。提出了井下蓄排水系统的有效库容和无效库容的概念,计算了重力自由出流时,不同涌水条件下的蓄排水特征值。分析了从满库至空库过程中水头、排水量和蓄水排放变化情况。结果表明,从满库排水至空库过程中,水头线性减小至最低水头。在前1/3时段内,近一半的库容量已经被排放;前2/3时段内排水量线性减少,库容总量的80%已经被排放;后1/3时段内,排水量快速减少至涌水量,仅排放了整个库容总量的20%。      

A municipal solid wastes planning model for a metropolitan area

In this paper it will be shown how the problem of solid wastes collection and disposal can be formulated as a dynamic mixed-integer linear programming model. The developed model can be used for the determination of sites for landfills, transfer stations, recycling centers and the periodical routing of collection vehicles in order to reduce the cost of municipal solid wastes transport and disposal. The model has been tested by applying it to a hypothetical municipal solid waste system. The possibility of using the developed model for managing and planning the municipal solid wastes system of the Dammam metropolitan area, Saudi Arabia will be discussed.The model is general in structure and can be used to address other problems such as the problem of hazardous wastes management, petroleum products distribution and food processing industries.     

Opportunities to enhance management of karstic aquifers

Methods exist to obtain “new sources of water.” Examples include: (1) capturing and enhancing stormwater recharge and retention within diffuse-flow portions of karst and other aquifers; (2) recycling and reuse of waste water; (3) reducing evapotranspiration and rejected recharge; and (4) ameliorating atmospheric acid deposition through use of alkaline groundwater. These little used management methods have immense potential to sustain future water demands. Full utilization of “new” and traditional water resources requires an understanding of the hydrogeologic framework of karstic aquifers. Reliable conceptual, numerical flow and transport models are needed to help evaluate, select, and design viable water management options. Three such simulation examples are provided together with a discussion of Penn State’s Wastewater reuse project where recharge approaches 3.785 × 10⁹l/year     

Characterization of an island aquifer from tidal response

Growing demand for potable water for various needs has lead to indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater resources, particularly, in the terrain where surface water resources are negligible. One such area is an island where groundwater is the only source of fresh water. Groundwater is the prime source of fresh water on most of the atolls in the world. Groundwater on these islands is in the form of thin fragile floating lens and is often vulnerable to overexploitation, draught, tidal waves, tsunami and cyclone resulting in seawater ingress. Sustainable development of this meager source of fresh groundwater for a longer time becomes a more difficult task on small atolls with a large population depending on this vital resource. To develop a sustainable management scheme and identify the vulnerable part of aquifer, characterization of the aquifer system on islands is imperative. Groundwater on an atoll is extremely vulnerable to seawater mixing through natural as well as human activities. One such natural process is the tides of the ocean. The response of sea tide to the water table on the island offers valuable data as well as cost-effective means to characterize an aquifer system. Such characterization is vital for the management of groundwater resources on an atoll. The obtained results have compared well with the parameters obtained through a conventional pumping test. Therefore, the use of tidal response to the water table, which can easily be recorded, provides a rapid and cost-effective means to characterization of the aquifer system on the island.     

Implementing Vetiver grass-based riverbank protection programmes in rural West Bengal,India

The largely impoverished rural communities of India are unable to bear the costs involved in creating and maintaining substantial structural measures for riverbank protection. The monsoonal nature of the country’s streams and an agrarian economy based on intensive cultivation further heighten the risk posed by annual peak flows and shifting stream courses. Mitigating this requires urgent, sustainable and cost-effective means of conserving valuable farmlands and stabilising channel boundaries. Towards this, riverbank erosion mitigation using Vetiver grass has been a recent development in the country and has been experimented with in a few areas. In this article, we examine how such riparian buffers are created through riverbank modification, planted and nurtured and the effectiveness of the grass in mitigating erosion, taking a small case study from rural West Bengal as an example. We especially focus on the government policies and frameworks and local stakeholder involvements that facilitate such an undertaking, with particular emphasis on the organisational workflow and the ground-level perception of such endeavours, as these are crucial to the success and effectiveness of such schemes. The marked successes achieved through the use of the Vetiver grass in abating erosion and the hindrances encountered in implementing such mitigation projects are outlined, along with the importance of such community-based approaches to river management and monitoring. This case study can be a microcosm for similar such endeavours, particularly in the rural global south.

     

北京矿山环境遥感监测与综合评价系统的设计

根据北京市矿产资源开发的实际情况,提出了北京市矿山环境遥感监测与综合评价系统研发的设想。该系统通过将遥感地质调查、矿山环境监测与矿产资源管理进行有效整合,将同一种数据和成果应用到管理的不同方面,充分发挥和提高遥感数据的成果效益和经济效益,服务于多个方面,降低管理成本,并形成整装成果,为矿产资源监督管理提出新的模式,对于政府行使职能、获取适时客观的基础数据、提高监督管理效益和管理质量、及时打击违法开采、维护正常的矿产资源管理秩序和矿区环境的综合整治都具有重要的意义。     

Water-management failure under complex hydrogeological conditions in the Kolubara District, Serbia

The design of the Rovni Lake reservoir in the Kolubara District, western Serbia, is the basis for the regional water-supply system there. The design was promoted as an example of integrative and sustainable water management, with regard to the planned provision for long-term municipal water supply in the Kolubara region, as well as for the regulation of the downstream river flow. Hydrogeological analyses, however, have indicated three key issues that contest this sustainable water-management model: (1) the capability of the available groundwater sources to fully meet the drinking water demands in the region, (2) a pronounced risk of water loss from the reservoir, and (3) a pronounced risk of karst aquifer contamination. The Rovni project ignores the hydrogeological properties of a karst aquifer and thereby needlessly threatens the groundwater resource. Hence, modifications to the project are recommended in order to mitigate or eliminate the most significant construction and ecological risk factors and to improve sustainable exploitation and integrative water-resource management.     

Challenges in urban water management in the United States

The growing intensity of use of water in the urban environment of the United States is posing significant challenges for its supply, utilization, and protection. The development of traditional water sources is becoming more difficult, and water suppliers are turning to conservation and reuse as alternatives. Price disincentives and better water use management are being utilized to attempt to deal with limited capacity for distribution of water in periods of high demand. Urban runoff presents significant localized flooding problems. Management of floods and floodplains is given focus under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, which has as its goal the deterrence of development in flood-prone areas. Water quality goals, being developed and pursued under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, are becoming more encompassing as the breadth of pollutants identified in the urban environment expands. Wastewater control strategies developed under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 are expanding their emphasis upon nonpoint source pollution, as opposed to traditional emphasis upon point source pollution. Integrated management of the water resource will become increasingly necessary to adequately address water problems in the urban environment. State and local responsibilities for urban water management and control will likely increase.