Hydrologic processes that govern stormwater infrastructure behaviour

Using water budget data from published literature, we demonstrate how hydrologic processes govern the function of various stormwater infrastructure technologies. Hydrologic observations are displayed on a Water Budget Triangle, a ternary plot tool developed to visualize simplified water budgets, enabling side‐by‐side comparison of green and grey approaches to stormwater management. The tool indicates ranges of hydrologic function for green roofs, constructed wetlands, cisterns, bioretention, and other stormwater control management structures. Water budgets are plotted for several example systems to provide insight on structural and environmental design factors, and seasonal variation in hydrologic processes of stormwater management systems. Previously published water budgets and models are used to suggest appropriate operational standards for several green and grey stormwater control structures and compare between conventional and low‐impact development approaches. We compare models, characterize and quantify water budgets and expected ranges for green and grey infrastructure systems, and demonstrate how the Water Budget Triangle tool may help users to develop a data‐driven approach for understanding design and retrofit of green stormwater infrastructure.     

鄱阳湖流域可持续发展综合模型框架

本文以鄱阳湖流域为例,所描述的流域可持续发展框架是一个基于流域系统理论和实践的生态系统模型.包括了三个主要的部分:(1)环境政策与规划;(2)地球空间信息系统;(3)社区发展与区域网络.框架将多个学科,如:流域生态学,环境规划,可持续发展与资源管理汇集一起,形成了一套综合的流域制图、模拟和监测的流域管理方法.     

地震灾害对环境与生态的影响——不容忽视的可持续发展问题

地震及其链生灾害除造成人员伤亡和经济损失等直接影响外,还可造成水污染、土壤污染、大气污染等环境问题,也可造成土壤侵蚀、耕地退化、动物栖息地丧失、生物多样性退化等生态灾难。本文总结了近年来部分造成环境与生态影响的地震案例,讨论了相关学者对相应影响机制和机理的研究及减少影响的可能措施和面临的问题。随着我国经济社会的快速发展,科学开展地震及其链生灾害对环境与生态影响的研究、采取有效的震前设防和震后断链措施是切实防范重大风险、保持经济社会和环境可持续发展的重要考量。     

SPARC (Stratospheric Processes and Their Role in Climate) and Health

There has been increasing recognition of the link between human activity and natural and man-made systems. Policies and programs designed to achieve sustainable development and human health, as one of the main components for sustainability, require understanding of global environmental issues and their regional and local implications. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Soil water balance scenario studies using predicted soil hydraulic parameters

Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have become a topic drawing increasing interest within the field of soil and environmental research because they can provide important soil physical data at relatively low cost. Few studies, however, explore which contributions PTFs can make to land‐use planning, in terms of examining the expected outcome of certain changes in soil and water management practices. This paper describes three scenario studies that show some aspects of how PTFs may help improve decision making about land management practices. We use an exploratory research approach using simulation modelling to explore the potential effect of alternative solutions in land management. We: (i) evaluate benefits and risks when irrigating a field, and the impact of soil heterogeneity; (ii) examine which changes can be expected (in terms of soil water balance and supply) if organic matter content is changed as a result of an alternative management system; (iii) evaluate the risk of leaching to deeper horizons in some soils of Hungary. Using this research approach, quantitative answers are provided to ‘what if?’ type questions, allowing the distinction of trends and potential problems, which may contribute to the development of sustainable management systems. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

鄱阳湖地区实施可持续发展存在的主要问题和对策

鄱阳湖区具有相对丰富的自然资源,是江西十分重要的农产品淡水产品主产区, 对江西经济的发展起着举足轻重的作用.就这块风水宝地其经济发展总是相对滞后,部分农村社区群体甚至还生活在贫困线以下.究其原因,主要是频繁的自然灾害、资源的不合理利用导致资源减少和环境问题的日渐突出、农村生产力低下等.鄱阳湖区要实施可持续发展战略,必须解决自然灾害问题,建立鄱阳湖区自然灾害预警系统,同时大力发展替代产业,加快职业技术教育,广开致富门路,保护生态环境,加快产业升级,逐步把鄱阳湖区建设成资源高效利用的产品深加工基地和精品出口基地.     

Development of environmental monitoring satellite systems in China

With the increase in global environmental problems, the necessity and urgency of remote sensing technology being applied to environmental monitoring has been widely recognized around the world. China has launched the environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting small satellite constellation HJ-1A/B and the FY3 atmosphere and environmental satellite, but they still cannot fully satisfy requirements for environmental monitoring. This paper summarizes the current status of satellite environmental monitoring in China and the existing problems of inadequate load design and low data utilization efficiency, and discusses the demand for environmental monitoring satellites. Based on the development of foreign satellite systems for environmental monitoring, the future development and key tasks of the environmental monitoring satellite system in China is discussed, as are some related initiatives.     

新能源发电对电磁观测环境的影响特征—以天津徐庄子台的电磁观测为例

利用天津市徐庄子地震台的电磁观测数据,针对台站周边观测区域内近年来出现的风电和光伏发电设施,通过野外试验测量,从多个角度深入剖析了不同观测环境中电磁观测数据在时间和空间上的变化形态,分别总结了风力发电、光伏发电的建设和运行状态对电磁观测环境干扰的影响特征.结果显示:风力发电机组对电磁观测环境的影响明显小于光伏发电设备,...     

环境规制对无锡市制造业结构优化与绩效的影响

环境规制已成为促进区域发展方式转变和经济可持续发展的重要驱动力.本文以无锡市太湖水危机事件为例,首先对水危机前后的环境规制政策和手段进行对比分析,其次结合现有理论研究,总结了环境规制对制造业产业结构优化和绩效影响的理论框架,最后在对环境规制强度进行定量评估和对影响产业绩效各要素分析的基础上对理论框架进行验证.环境规制强度的评价结果表明,水危机事件后,环境规制强度显著增加,政府、技术、市场及社会工具的环境规制强度均值在2007-2009年期间比2001-2006年期间分别增加了2.2、1.0、2.6、0.7倍,政府在加强行政管理的同时开始积极探索市场化治理的工具,但以政府规制为主的治理模式仍然没有改变.回归结果进一步表明环境规制通过影响企业准入和提高技术效率,实现产业结构的优化和生产效率的提高,抵消了环境规制对生产成本增加而产生的消极作用,但是创新仍没有成为产业绩效增加的最主要动力.本研究对探讨经济和环境可持续发展模式以及环境规制手段的合理运用具有重要的理论借鉴意义.     

Development of drinking water resources in coastal areas of estonia

For a sustainable development of Estonia's coastal region it is necessary to achieve a balanced proportion between purified surface water and deep groundwater for public drinking water supplies. Special attention should be directed to problems of sea water encroachment into coastal aquifer systems. Only close co-operation between surface water specialists, hydrogeologists, and socio-economists will be able to solve this sophisticated task.     

太湖流域漕桥河小流域水环境容量估算及污染物削减分配

太湖流域漕桥河区域水环境质量日益恶化,成为影响该区域可持续发展的主要问题之一,为此基于漕桥河小流域和水质污染分段的特征,计算了研究区域的水环境容量和污染物削减量,提出河流污染分段控制和流域管理的水环境容量控制模式,建立河流氮磷污染控制的可操作性措施,从而确定重点工程和措施实施的年度计划,形成污染源年度削减方案,可为小流域污染控制管理提供科学依据.     

Modeling urban metabolism of Beijing city,China: with a coupled system dynamics: emergy model

Chinese cities are plagued by the rise in resource and energy input and output over the last decade. At the same time, the scale and pace of economic development sweeping across Chinese cities have revived the debate about urban metabolisms, which could be simply seen as the ratio of output to resource and energy input in urban systems. In this study, an emergy (meaning the equivalent solar energy) accounting, sustainable indices of urban metabolisms, and an urban metabolic system dynamics model, are developed in support of the research task on Chinese cities ‘metabolisms and their related policies. The dynamic simulation model used in the paper is capable of synthesizing component-level knowledge into system behavior simulation at an integrated level, which is directly useful for simulating and evaluating a variety of decision actions and their dynamic consequences. For the study case, interactions among a number of Beijing’s urban emergy components within a time frame of 20 years (from 2010 to 2030) are examined dynamically. Six alternative policy scenarios are implemented into the system simulation. Our results indicate that Beijing’s current model of urban metabolism—tertiary industry oriented development mode—would deliver prosperity to the city. However, the analysis also shows that this mode of urban metabolism would weaken urban self-support capacity due primarily to the large share of imported and exported emergy in the urban metabolic system. The keys of improving the efficiency of urban metabolism include the priority on the renewable resource and energy, increase in environmental investment and encouragement on innovative technologies of resource and energy utilization, et al.     

Analysis on the coupling law between economic development and the environment in Ürümqi city

The inter-coupling relationship between urban economic development and the ecological environment refers to the total of interactive, inter-influenced and other non-linear relations between economic and environmental systems in the course of economic development. Taking Ürümqi, an oasis city in arid region, as an example, we collected the data of environmental quality & pollutants discharge and information on economic development in the 20 years, analyzed the correlation between the two, conducted a fitted regression with quadratic and cubic equations, and acquired 14 mathematic models that could describe the relationship between the environment and economic development. The results show that there exists a coordinated and interactive relationship between the environment and economic development. On the basis of these quantity analyses, conceptional frame model is built to explain the fundamental basis of this environmental coupling in Ürümqi city. Both a quantitative analysis of the coupling law and a good command of the internal law between them are useful for making comprehensive decisions about the environment and economic development and harmonizing the urban sustainable development.     

Energy Performance Improvement of a Solar Still System Using Date and Olive Kernels: Experimental Study

Currently, solar distillation systems are used to contribute to solving the fresh water supply deficiency problem in some desert and rural areas. The present outdoor experimental work aims to improve the energy performance of a solar still installed in a semi-arid region. Experiments are performed using three solar distillers (a reference system, a distiller with date kernels, and one with olive kernels). The integration effect of two kernel types date and olive with different concentrations in the range of 300–600 g kernels per 5 L on the hourly and cumulus water production, and thermal and exergy efficiencies are analyzed. The results show that, for the same kernel mass concentration, the system with olive kernel is more effective than that with date kernels; moreover, compared to the reference system, cumulus water production of these systems at a mass concentration of 500 g kernels per 5 L is higher by ≈226% and 176%, respectively. At a concentration of 500 g kernels per 5 L, the average daily thermal efficiency of the solar still with olive kernels and that with date kernels is 38.01% and 30.7%, respectively, and their daily average exergy efficiency is 8.4% and 3.1%, respectively.     

Ospar 98/3: an environmental turning point or a flawed decision?

While the problems of over-fishing and eutrophication continue largely unchecked, the Ospar Commission, which exists to improve the quality of European seas, requires governments, the public and the oil companies to find 20 billion Pounds to remove millions of tons of steel to demonstrate its commitment to the mantra that 'the seas are not dustbins'. The decision, taken in 1998, was made despite a paucity of evidence to identify the environmental impact redundant rigs create, despite the absence of scientific support to demonstrate that removal is the best practicable environmental option and in the knowledge that the decision had more to do with a green anti-oil agenda than with improving marine quality. It may be shown in the fullness of time not to be in the best interests of the environment. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the manner in which the decision was made is lacking in important respects.     

Eco-districts in France: What tools to ensure goals achievement?

Globally, to build cities and communities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is one of the most important sustainable development goals. Eco-districts in cities emerged as an answer to current global environmental concerns and have been developed in France since the 1990s. The objective of this work is to gather operational feedback from sustainable neighborhood projects owners to better understand the key barriers of such projects and how to overcome them. A case study of the eco-district Les Tanneries, Lingolsheim showed that the carbon footprint of each inhabitant annually amounted to 4 tons CO_2 equivalent, more than half of the French average. Rooms for improvements were clearly identified regarding transports and food carbon footprint. Indicators for energy consumption, social diversity and density reached the level of the eco-districts average. A governance review pointed out some superior practices such as the formalization of a specification requirements handbook, a competition between project management teams, and the use of neighborhood sustainability assessment tools to measure and track changes in performance. The validated tools and obtained results can be useful in building sustainable cities and even China's ecological civilization.     

Environmental Impact Assessment of High Pressure Water Scrubbing Biogas Upgrading Technology

The aim of this work was to assess the burdens of a process in terms of environmental and health impacts, resource depletion issues, and energy demand based on the ability of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to link the environmental impacts with the mass and energy flows. The analysis was done in terms of process and environmental performances of high pressure water scrubbing (HPWS) system applied for biogas upgrading. The application of process simulation based on the Aspen Plus® software has been considered as supportive for the calculation of mass and energy balances. Data processed using GaBi 4: Software showed that global warming, acidification, and human toxicity potentials were the main impact categories associated with the HPWS process. These indicators are largely related to the exhaust gas from the desorption column and the indirect emissions generated during energy consumption. The life cycle inventory study resulted in the development of a database with a vast inventory of data regarding HPWS technology. A basis for assessing potential improvements in the environmental performance of the system is provided. Future studies in this area will address the economical evaluation of the HPWS technology, so as to maximize economic efficiency and minimize environmental impacts.     

Modeling urban land use conversion of Daqing City,China: a comparative analysis of “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches

During the past decades, Daqing City, China has experienced unprecedented urban expansion due to the rapid development of petroleum industry. With rapid urbanization and lack of strategic planning, Daqing is facing many socio-economic and environmental problems, and it is essential to examine the process of urbanization, and to develop policy recommendations for sustainable development. To address this problem, this paper examined the urbanization process of Daqing City through developing two multi-level models: an integrated system dynamic (SD) and CLUE-S model (SD-CLUES), and an integrated SD and stochastic cellular automata model (SD-CA). Analysis of results suggests that these two models generate significantly different results. With the SD-CLUES model, new urban developments are clustered in the downtown area or along major transportation networks, indicating exogenous driving forces playing an important role in shaping urban spatial dynamics. With the SD-CA model, on the contrary, the resultant new urban cells are spread over the entire study area, and associated with existing urban areas. Further, visual comparisons and validations indicate that the SD-CA model is a better alternative in explaining the urbanization mechanism of Daqing City. In addition, analysis of results suggests that the stochastic factor in the CA model has significant impact on the modeling accuracy.     

The humber observatory: Concepts,instrumentation and software systems

The role of geomorphological research into sediment flux within modern dynamical systems and the consequent role of geomorphological research in the development of practical environmental management tools are seldom reconciled. Sediment fluxes can be estimated using instruments and numerical models, but problems arise when these results are to be interpreted to inform the environmental management debate. This paper presents one set of solutions in which we describe the work of the Humber Observatory and detail the concepts, instrumentation and software systems which have been developed to address such issues. The design and deployment of a new, automated meteorological station, new multiple sensor, radio-linked outstations and the collection of associated tidal and bathymetric data are described, together with discussion of the operational problems and data archiving and output issues. We also describe the numerical models based upon the dynamical equations which have been used to estimate water and sediment fluxes through the Humber Estuary, and we describe the design criteria for new semi-empirical models. Results from the various systems and models are presented as the basis for a regional research capability and in terms of operational delivery for environmental management.     

稻虾轮作模式面源污染排放特征及其能值评估

为探明稻虾轮作模式面源污染排放特征并合理评价该模式的环境可持续性,通过对江汉平原稻虾轮作模式小龙虾养殖排放尾水中总氮(TN)、总磷(TP)、COD和氨氮(NH₃-N)浓度进行监测,对稻虾轮作模式稻田养殖小龙虾的排污系数进行了估算,并采用等标污染负荷法进行了主要污染物解析。运用能值分析方法对稻虾轮作模式进行了包含面源污染的能值评估,对比单季稻模式,对其可持续发展能力进行了定量评价。结果表明：江汉平原稻虾轮作模式小龙虾养殖排放尾水中TN、TP、COD和NH₃-N的浓度范围分别为0.53～5.36、0.12～0.70、6.60～78.39和0.34～1.75 mg/L,TN、TP和COD平均排放浓度高于《地表水环境质量标准》(GB 3838-2002)Ⅲ类水质标准。等标污染负荷法分析结果表明TN的等标负荷比最高,是稻虾轮作模式面源污染控制的关键污染物。稻虾轮作模式小龙虾养殖排放尾水中TN、TP、COD和NH₃-N的排污系数分别为2.994、0.458、35.132和1.405 kg/t,表明稻虾轮作模式面源污染排放系数较低,对...