The myth of community and sustainable grassland management in China

Within national and international domestic academic circles, there are increasing calls for enhanced involvement of communities in formulating and implementing grassland management arrangements. In contrast to the current national policy of contracting grasslands to households, many scholars call for support for collective grassland use arrangements. Several reasons are given for increased recognition and support for community-based management of grasslands, including lower costs of exclusion and dispute resolution, economies of scale in herding and marketing, mitigation of environmental risk, and ensuring equitable access to grassland resources. One conclusion from this literature is that devolving authority for designing and implementing grassland management systems to communities would lead to more sustainable grassland use, a position that I term as the ‘myth of community.’ This paper presents the results of a study of grazing systems in two communities in Hongyuan County, Sichuan Province. Each community uses its grasslands collectively. However, the study found evidence of severe overgrazing, especially in winter pastures, suggesting that community-based management of grasslands is not necessarily sustainable. The paper discusses three potential policy innovations required to support sustainable grazing systems in China’s grassland areas: overcoming constraints in labor and land markets, and payments for environmental services that reward sustainable stocking levels.     

Human capital requirements in Singapore's international financial centre

International financial centres (IFCs) are regarded as important nodes in governing global flows of money and capital. With increased globalization and rapid technological changes, the rivalry among IFCs has further intensified competition for financial labour—as a concentrated pool of highly skilled finance workers in an open and flexible labour market is crucial to sustaining the competitive dynamics of these urban financial hotspots. This study investigates the importance of different skills and tasks in financial work. Based on surveys and interviews conducted among Singapore's IFC workers, the findings show that cognitive, interpersonal communication and managerial-leadership skills and tasks are more important in financial work, whereas programming, mathematics and systems-based skills are perceived to be less important. Additionally, a network visualization of finance occupational skills obtained from Singapore's national skills database reinforces the importance of cognitive and relational skills in that sector. Higher-order cognitive and relational skills are expected to become even more critical as the financial sector undergoes rapid digital transformation, reinforcing the importance of IFCs as agglomerations of skilled finance talent.     

自然恢复和人工促进恢复对侵蚀退化生态系统碳贮量的影响比较

本研究以严重侵蚀退化马尾松林为研究对象,采取自然恢复和人工促进恢复2种措施对退化地进行修复,监测恢复前后生态系统碳贮量变化。结果表明:自然恢复和人工促进恢复后生态系统总碳贮量分别是恢复前的2.78和4.87倍,其中,植被层碳贮量分别是恢复前的14.30和30.87倍,土壤层碳贮量分别是恢复前的1.85和2.78倍。生态系统内土壤碳的恢复速率落后于植被。2种不同恢复措施相比,人工促进恢复的生态系统碳吸存速率显著快于自然恢复(P0.01),人工促进恢复后生态系统碳吸存速率是自然恢复的2.17倍,其中植被和土壤的吸存速率也分别是自然恢复的2.26倍和2.09倍。而且人工促进恢复后的退化系统,碳库在乔木层各器官的分配方式更符合健康生态系统的分配方式,系统功能和结构更加稳定,有利于系统后期恢复。因此,从退化生态系统恢复的紧迫性和长期性考虑,采取积极的人工促进恢复措施能维持退化系统快速、持续恢复。     

不同雨强对杉木和米槠林地表径流和可溶性有机碳的影响

采用径流小区法,对中亚热带地区的杉木人工林和米槠次生林在不同雨强下径流量和可溶性有机碳（DOC）流失浓度进行比较研究。结果表明：在小雨、中雨、大雨和暴雨4场降雨过程中,米槠次生林和杉木人工林的地表径流量和DOC流失浓度变化趋势一致,即降雨强度增加,地表径流量也随之增加。DOC浓度均呈现了随着雨强的增加而逐渐降低的趋势。说明降雨强度对径流量和DOC浓度均产生了较为明显的影响;米槠次生林和杉木人工林的地表径流量之间差异不显著,米槠次生林和杉木人工林的DOC流失浓度除大雨外均达到显著性水平差异（P〈0.05）,说明植被类型对地表径流量影响较小,对DOC浓度具有较明显的影响。     

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中国及邻区印支运动特征及其意义

通过概要论述印支运动在中国及邻区的表现特征,探讨了印支运动的主要成矿作用,指出印支运动首次使长期以来游离于全球主要大陆外的扬子、中朝、塔里木等小陆块拼合在一起,为新生代大型聚煤盆地的形成奠定了基础,也为燕山期和喜马拉雅山期二次大规模的对流地幔输入大陆事件奠定了重要基础,使之成为中国及邻区大陆上最重要的成矿时期。     

Zero-valent iron/persulfate(Fe0/PS) oxidation acetaminophen in water

Zero-valent iron (Fe⁰), as an alternative iron source, was evaluated to activate persulfate (PS) to degrade acetaminophen (APAP), a representative pharmaceutically active compound in water. Effects of key factors in the so-called Fe⁰/PS process, including Fe⁰ dosage, initial pH, temperatures and chelating agents, were studied. Under all the conditions tested, the APAP degradation followed a pseudo-first-order kinetics pattern. The degradation efficiency of APAP was highest when the Fe⁰ to PS molar ratio increased to 1:1, and the degradation rate constant and removal were 23.19 × 10^?3 min^?1 and 93.19 %, respectively. Comparing with Fe²⁺, Fe⁰ served as an alternative iron source that can gradually release Fe²⁺ into water, thereby consistently activating PS to produce sulfate radicals. The Fe⁰/PS system was effective in a broader pH range from 3 to 8.5. Heat could facilitate production of sulfate radicals and enhance the APAP degradation in the Fe⁰/PS system. High reaction temperature also improved the Fe²⁺/PS oxidation of APAP. Finally, sodium citrate (a chelating agent) at an appropriate concentration could improve the APAP degradation rate in the Fe²⁺/PS and Fe⁰/PS system. The optimal molar ratio of Fe⁰ to citrate depended on solution pH. Our results demonstrated that Fe⁰ was an alternative iron source to activate PS to degrade APAP in water.     

Coupling typhoon rainfall forecasting with overland-flow modeling for early warning of inundation

Taiwan suffers from an average of three or four typhoons annually, and the inundation caused by the heavy precipitation that is associated with typhoons frequently occurs in lowlands and floodplains. Potential inundation maps have been widely used as references to set up non-structural strategies for mitigating flood hazards. However, spatiotemporal rainfall distributions must be addressed to improve the accuracy of inundation forecasting for emergency response operations. This study presents a system for 24-h-ahead early warning of inundation, by coupling the forecasting of typhoon rainfall with the modeling of overland flow. A typhoon rainfall climatology model (TRCM) is introduced to forecast dynamically the spatiotemporal rainfall distribution based on typhoon tracks. The systematic scheme for early warning of inundation based on the spatiotemporal downscaling of rainfall and 2D overland-flow modeling yields not only the extent of inundation, but also the time to maximum inundation depth. The scheme is superior to traditional early warning method referring to the maximum extent and depth of inundation determined from conditional uniform rainfall. Analytical results show that coupling TRCM with an overland-flow model yields satisfactory inundation hydrographs for warning of the extent and peak time of inundation. This study also shows that the accuracy of forecasting spatiotemporal rainfall patterns determines the performance of inundation forecasting, which is critical to emergency response operations.     

Risk assessment of earth dam overtopping and its application research

The problem of dam safety is one of the most important research topics of water conservancy projects, and many researchers pay much attention to study the risk of earth dam overtopping. This paper synthesizes in the definition of risk the probabilities of dam failure and the corresponding losses, including the probability estimation, losses evaluation and criteria exploring risk approaches. Then, a comprehensive risk assessment system of dam flood overtopping is established, which is widely applicable. Gate failure, randomness of flood, initial water level and time-varying effects are incorporated in the failure probability model. Many complex factors are simplified in losses estimation. In addition, thresholds of various types of losses are proposed and are adapted to the national conditions. The methodology is applied to the Lianghekou hydropower station in China to illustrate the assessment process of flood overtopping risk and to evaluate its safe loophole with a view to the failure of spillway gates. Monte Carlo simulation and JC method programs are adopted to solve the model based on MATLAB tools and DELPHI. The results show that the losses pose significant impact on the risk assessment and should be considered in the assessment of risk. Probability calculation and loss estimation could be well combined with standards, providing a basis for risk management and decision-making.     

Effects of meteorological and hydrogeological factors on gross recharge percentage at unconfined sandy aquifers with an equatorial climate

A thorough understanding of rainfall recharge processes and their controlling factors is essential for management of groundwater systems. This study investigates the effects of various meteorological and hydrogeological factors on the gross recharge percentages, the rainfall–recharge relationships and the recharge threshold values for unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate. Among the meteorological factors investigated, rainfall intensity was found to have the most significant impact on the gross recharge rate. The effects of potential evaporation rate, relative humidity and air temperature on the gross recharge percentage were significant when the vadose zone thickness is larger than 2·5 m. The recharge threshold values were found to depend strongly on the vadose zone thickness. The rainfall–recharge relationships could generally be well defined by a normal–log relationship. The rainfall–recharge relationships derived here are applicable to yield estimates of gross recharge percentages for unconfined sandy aquifers under an equatorial climate, using rainfall intensity and vadose zone thickness as input variables. In this study, a theory was developed and validated to provide physical explanations for the observations, based on the residence time of the percolated rainwater within the vadose zone. Among the soil hydraulic parameters tested, porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity were found to have the most pronounced effects on the gross recharge percentage. Utilizing the sensitivity results and the theory derived, an approach was developed for extending the application of the derived rainfall–recharge relationships to other sand textures. The approach was found to be capable of producing rough and fast estimations of gross recharge percentage for other sand textures. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.