Waterlogging induced loss and damage assessment of urban households in the monsoon period: a case study of Dhaka,Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Every monsoon period, the households in Dhaka face extensive waterlogging in their localities. This recrudescing event leads to tangible and intangible losses in the lives of...     

Food expenditure and economic development

In this article Earnst Engel's statements about the relationship between food expenditure are investigated for 80 countries. Food expenditure as a percentage of all expenditure is shown to have a distinctive geographical distribution, and is related to Gross National Product per capita, although not in a simple linear manner. Historical data for the percentage are discussed and a decline over time and with increasing income is observed. However for some periods of income growth there is no decline and some possible reasons for this are discussed.     

Nexus between vulnerability and adaptive capacity of drought-prone rural households in northern Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Bangladesh is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. The appraisal of household vulnerability and capacity to adapt under climate change is therefore crucial...     

Gender-based differences in flood vulnerability among men and women in the char farming households of Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Gender and vulnerability are important issues to examine in the context of flooding caused by climate change. Men and women around the world adapt differently to climate change...     

Correction to: Nexus between vulnerability and adaptive capacity of drought-prone rural households in northern Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - The article was published with a spelling error in one of the co-author names. The correct spelling is reflected in this correction, and the original work has been updated to...     

Stress of urban energy consumption on air environment

With rapid urbanization and heavy industrialization as well as the rapid increase of cars in China, the effect of energy consumption on urban air environment is increasingly becoming serious, and has become a hot topic for both scholars and decision-makers. This paper explores the effect mechanism and regulation of urban energy consumption on the air environment, and summarizes the framework of the stress effect relationship and the evolutionary process. In accordance with the effect relationship of the internal factors between the two, analytic approaches studying the stress effect of urban energy consumption on air environment are proposed, including the analysis of air environment effects caused by urban energy consumption structure change, and the analysis of air environment effects caused by urban energy economic efficiency change, as well as a decomposition analysis of air pollutant emission caused by urban energy consumption. Applying the above-mentioned approaches into a case study on Beijing City, this paper analyzes the effect relationship among urban energy consumption structure improvement, energy economic efficiency increase and air quality change since the period when Beijing City officially proposed to bid for the 2008 Olympic Games in 1998. In addition, it further analyzes the effect and contribution of urban industrial activity level, industrial economic structure, industrial energy intensity, and industrial energy structure as well as emission coefficients on the change in industrial SO₂ emission, which can provide valuable information to the government for making comprehensive environmental policies, with the use of the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. It is shown that under the precondition that the industrial economy maintain a continuous and rapid increase, improvements in energy intensity and a decline in emission coefficients are the main means for reducing Beijing’s industrial SO₂ emissions.     

甘肃省水资源足迹与消费模式分析

阐述了水资源足迹的概念和计算方法,以甘肃省为例,运用产品虚拟水研究方法核算并分析了1989-2003年的水资源足迹及其变化。结果表明,1989年以来甘肃省全社会的水资源足迹总量基本稳定在220亿～240亿m3/a,总体上呈现微量的下降趋势,人口增加和消费水平提高并没有增加对水资源系统在数量上的压力。从消费模式分析看,随消费结构多样化的增加,人均虚拟水消费量呈现不断下降的趋势,因而,增加消费结构的多样性有利于减少对水资源系统的压力。讨论分析了水资源足迹核算的意义,指出了进一步研究需要注意的问题。     

Study on urban rainstorm pattern of short-duration double-peak

Natural Hazards - At present, researches on urban short-duration rainstorm patterns mainly focus on single-peak rainstorm patterns, and rarely involve double-peak rainstorm patterns, or convert...     

How the very poor survive -the impact of hyper-inflationary crisis on low-income urban households in Buenos Aires/Argentina

This paper is based on an anthropological research with a longitudinal type of design on the Domestic Consumer Strategies of 30 extremely poor families with undernourished children, living in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. They are analysed on the basis of food intake, as this is one aspect of survival strategies that can be measured.Domestic Consumer Strategies analyse phenomena such as government policy regarding food programmes, wages and prices at the macrosocial level, and microsocial phenomena like the selective distribution of food in the home by sex and age.     

Vicissitudes experienced by the oldest urban center in Bangladesh in relation to the migration of the Brahmaputra River

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. There are 57 trans-frontier rivers in the country, the widest being the Brahmaputra River. The river's channels have frequently changed course, but the relationship between such river migrations and human settlement patterns has remained unstudied. In this paper, optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating techniques were applied to sedimentary and organic materials in the oldest urban center (Wari-Bateshwar) in Bangladesh. The results showed that the landscape around the urban center was dominated by floodplain and peatland facies between 7.9–7.6 and 4.7–1.6 ka, respectively. Humans occupied this area at ~3.2 ka, and manufactured delicate semi-precious gemstone beads between ~2.4 and 1.8 ka. The urban center might be the same as an important city of the Gangaridai described in historical records. Due to fluvial migration at ~1.8 ka, the area surrounding the urban center was covered by fluvial sand. Humans might have been forced to abandon the urban center, leading to the bead processing technology in Bangladesh being lost forever.     

Food security and dietary diversity of tea workers of two tea gardens in greater Sylhet district of Bangladesh

The study analyzed the food security and dietary diversity of tea workers in Lakkatura Tea Garden and Ootterbhag Tea garden in greater Sylhet district of Bangladesh. A total of 200 respondents (100 from each tea estate) were interviewed to evaluate the food security and dietary diversity. The study found that average daily per capita calorie intake by tea workers was 2095.96 kcal. In addition, around 85.30% of the total calorie intake was received from the rice consumption. Average per capita daily intake of rice was estimated at 538.51 gm which is higher than the national average. It was also observed that 71.7 and 65.0% households were food secure in Lakkatura and Ootterbhag Tea garden, respectively. In Lakkatura Tea Garden, 61.67% tea workers have medium dietary diversity and in Ootterbhag Tea Estate 49.47% tea workers have low dietary diversity. Using the logit model analysis, this study provides food consumption patterns of tea workers and determine the factors responsible for food security. Household size, farm income and daily calorie intake were found having significant influence on households’ food security. For improving socioeconomic conditions of tea workers, educational institution should be set up to improve their educational status and government should give loans for them at a low interest rate and create alternative job opportunity in off season.

     

Individual exposure to particulate matter in urban and rural Chinese households: estimation of exposure concentrations in indoor and outdoor environments

Natural Hazards - According to the World Health Report, an estimated 540,000 people in China died prematurely due to indoor air pollution in 2009. The major source of indoor air pollution is the...     

Disasters in Bangladesh

This paper deals with various types of natural disasters which occur very frequently in Bangladesh. Disaster can occur at any time, in any place, in any dimension, and may owe as much to the circumstances as to the scale of the event. With the exception of the man-made disaster of war, famine, fire, pollution, accident and civil strife, the worst disasters follow natural events.Bangladesh is widely known as a land of natural disasters and is highly vulnerable to flood, cyclone and river erosion. By the effects of these disasters the country is now permanently in distress. These disasters have become a regular phenomenon and cause suffering to millions of people of the country since many decades. Besides, it also focuses on policy options concerning disaster management.     

设计暴雨雨型对城市内涝影响数值模拟

为分析设计暴雨雨型对城市内涝的影响,应用耦合了水文和水动力过程的数值模型,以陕西省西咸新区为研究区域,对不同重现期及峰值比例设计暴雨条件下的内涝过程进行模拟,并对内涝积水总量、不同积水深度内涝面积等量值进行对比分析。结果表明:设计暴雨重现期短于20年时,峰值比例较小的设计暴雨内涝积水总量较大,而重现期长于20年时,规律相反;除2年一遇设计暴雨外,峰值比例较大的设计暴雨致涝总面积较大,但其中影响严重的Ⅳ级致涝面积较小;设计暴雨峰值比例越小,重现期越长,积水总量峰值时刻相对于暴雨峰值时刻的迟滞时间越长。揭示了暴雨雨型与内涝积水程度的量化规律,对更合理地开展城市雨洪管理工作具有指导意义。     

Mercury exposure through fish consumption in the urban area of Alta Floresta in the Amazon Basin

This work addresses the mercury exposure scenarios through fish consumption in the urban area of Alta Floresta, by comparing the different patterns of mercury exposure from fish ingestion for different population groups. This study was based on field surveys that could provide background information, such as the characteristics of Hg sources, characteristics of local and regional environment, Hg concentrations in different media, and the characterization of the local urban population. The urban area of Alta Floresta is one of the most important gold-trading centers in Amazonia, where approximately 1 ton of gold has been commercialized monthly. The general adult urban population is exposed to low-level mercury concentration via fish consumption with an average daily intake of 0.2 μg/kg (b.w.) and an estimated hazard quotient of 0.7. However, the fishermen families present an average daily intake of 2.2 μg/kg (b.w.) and a hazard quotient of 8.6. The children of fishermen families between 5 and 14 years old are the main risk group for Hg exposure via fish ingestion. Based on the uncertainty analysis, the Hg fish concentrations and the fish ingestion rate were found to be the main parameters affecting the variability of the model outputs.     

城市公园污水生态化处理方法和模式研究

分析城市公园污水特点,从有利于保护生态环境、地下水资源和节约成本的角度,分析了适合我国城市公园污水生态化处理的方法以及处理模式,最后对我国今后城市公园污水处理系统建设提出建议.     

城市下垫面空间格局对社区尺度内涝过程的影响模拟

为研究城市下垫面空间格局对社区尺度内涝过程的影响, 构建社区尺度下的8种不同城市下垫面空间格局, 并建立相应的城市内涝数值模型, 模拟6种不同重现期(2 a, 5 a, 10 a, 20 a, 50 a, 100 a)设计降雨条件下内涝过程; 基于不同下垫面和降雨情景下的内涝数值模拟结果, 分别从内涝淹没特征值、时空变化过程、水动力特性等方面开展分析。结果表明: ①城市下垫面空间格局对社区尺度内涝淹没特征值、淹没时空变化过程和内涝积水流速分布均有一定影响; ②设计降雨重现期为2 a、5 a、50 a和100 a时, 不同城市下垫面空间格局间的积水总量峰值、积水面积峰值、区域最大积水深差别显著, 重现期为10 a和20 a时, 无明显差别; ③内涝积水较大流速分布主要集中在道路交汇处, 在本研究构建的情景中, 最大流速的差值占比为31.9%;④在8种不同城市下垫面空间格局中, 环形放射型格局在应对内涝方面更具弹性。本研究可为城市下垫面空间管控和城市内涝形成机理研究提供科学参考。