Spatio‐temporal patterns of major ions in urban stormwater under cold climate

Multiple natural and anthropogenic factors affect urban water chemistry. However, little is known about the abundance or temporal variation of major ions in urban runoff. This study explores the spatio‐temporal variation of major dissolved ions (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl, NO₃, and SO₄) and total dissolved solids (TDS) in cold climate urban stormwater. Three watersheds with varying degrees of urban land use intensity and imperviousness (from 36% to 66%) in Helsinki, Finland, were continuously monitored for 5 years using an automated sampling procedure to obtain stormwater discharge and ion concentrations and, thus, loadings. High‐resolution datasets, including long‐term continuous discharge, both measured and simulated (using Storm Water Management Model), and automatic water quality sampling enabled the accurate calculation of loads of ions and TDS. Water quality was related to explanatory watershed characteristics (e.g., watershed physiography and sampling time) using hierarchical clustering, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, and hierarchical partitioning methods. Urban land use contributed to increased ion concentrations and loads year‐round. This study highlights how stormwater ion concentrations are elevated across seasons, indicating chronic pollution phenomena. The greatest loads occurred during summer (except for Na and Cl), while the highest variation in loads was observed in autumn. Significant clusters among ions were found in the hierarchical cluster analysis, suggesting similar temporal patterns and sources for the ions in each cluster. The importance of land use was evident, though in the most urbanized watershed, concentrations were not linked to any of the investigated watershed characteristics. Based on our results, only Na and Cl are manageable by alternative winter road antiskid practices, whereas other ions resulted from diffuse pollution sources, being therefore more difficult to control. Finally, this study contributes to an increased understanding of the temporal and spatial patterns of ions in stormwater and highlights the need for consistent time series data for ion monitoring under cold climatic conditions in order to enable reliable estimates of their loads to adjacent water bodies. Finally, year‐round stormwater treatment is highly recommended.     

Developing survey metrics for analysing cross-border proximity

Cross-border innovation cooperation (CBIC) has been heralded as one of the corner stones of innovation-driven growth opportunities for firms located in cross-border regions (CBRs). The success of this cooperation is affected by varying types of proximities identified in the literature as geographical, institutional, cultural, cognitive, technological, organizational and social. Although the topic has been widely discussed, the validation of the concept of proximity vis-à-vis CBIC has been persistently hindered by a lack of readily available empirical metrics. Therefore, this research note attempts to operationalize the varying types of proximity – in relation to CBIC – in the form of a questionnaire tested through pilot studies of two CBRs, at the Finnish–Swedish and Danish–German border, and for two contrasting service industries, namely knowledge-intensive business services and tourism. The findings indicate that the developed survey metrics are effective in depicting the phenomenon of proximity. The foundational work undertaken in this research note provides a platform, and catalyst, for more extensive investigations of the topic.     

Radiometric stability assessment of an airborne photogrammetric sensor in a test field

Radiometric stability is a desired property of digital photogrammetric large-format sensors. This article presents a methodology for determining the radiometric stability of airborne imaging sensors in operational conditions in a test field and the results of stability evaluation of a large-format photogrammetric frame sensor DMC, from Intergraph. The imagery was collected in two days using nine different exposure settings, and images collected with variable exposure time and aperture were compared. The results showed promising stability in many cases, up to a level of 2% of the radiance, but less favorable results also appeared. Possible reasons for the unfavorable results could be the limitations of the experimental set-up or the instability of the sensor. DMC showed high radiometric performance potential, but high sensitivity to the exposure settings. Based on the results, recommendations for the future test field calibration and validation procedures were given. One limitation of the analysis was the insufficient information about the sensor stability potential; proposals were given to sensor manufacturers concerning the necessary information.     

"拓展亚洲国际河流跨境水与生态安全合作"国际学术研讨会在大理召开

The International Workshop on "Expanding Transboundary Cooperation for Water and Environment Security in Asia's International Rivers" was held on December 10-14, 2005, Dali, Yunnan, China. It was organized by Tsinghua University, the World Bank Institute (WBI), the United Nations University (UNU) and Asian International Rivers Center (AIRC). A total of over 60 scholars from the USA, Canada, Australia, Finland, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, India, Sri Lanka, Iran and China participated in this workshop. The topics include seeking reasonable utilization and sustainable conflict resolutions related to transboundary water resources, and transboundary eco-security maintenance; expanding cooperation between Asia and the rest of the world on international river issues, identifying potential opportunities; and possibility of a common research agenda for addressing environment changes in Mekong River Basin.     

Parameterization of ammonia and water content of atmospheric droplets with fixed number of sulfuric acid molecules

We present a parameterization for numbers of water and ammonia molecules in an equilibrium droplet with fixed number of sulfuric acid molecules at known relative humidity, ammonia mixing ratio and temperature. The radius of the droplet is also parameterized. The parameterizations are based on macroscopic model of solution droplets and up-to-date thermodynamics. The binary parameterizations are valid for temperatures 190–330 K and relative humidities 1–99%. The ternary parameterization can be used at temperatures 240–300 K, relative humidities 5–95%, and ammonia mixing ratios 10^− 4–100 ppt. In both cases the parameterizations are valid for droplets containing up to 10¹¹ sulfuric acid molecules. The droplet composition is always between the limits of pure ammonium bisulfate and pure ammonium sulfate.     

Simulation of green roof test bed runoff

Low Impact Development (LID) aims to mitigate the hydrological impacts of urbanization by replication of processes in natural catchments. Green roofs covered with vegetation and pervious substrate are one alternative among a wide range of LID tools. Water retention of green roofs depends on many factors (e.g. local climate), and measurements remain crucial in evaluating their performance. The simulation of green roof retention by a hydrological model is one option to evaluate their potential benefits before implementation. In this paper, we evaluated the ability of the recently introduced LID green roof module of the stormwater management model to replicate runoff from monitored green roof test beds under Nordic climate conditions. A parameter sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify calibration parameters. The model showed an overall acceptable performance, and the results indicated the importance of accurately estimating potential evapotranspiration rates for inter‐event periods, which is essential in representing the retention capacity regeneration. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Carnian 40Ar/39Ar age for the Paasselkä impact structure (SE Finland)—An update

A recrystallized band of pale feldspathic impact melt in a gneissic impact breccia from the approximately 10 km Paasselkä impact structure in southeast Finland was dated via ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar step‐heating. The newly obtained plateau age of 228.7 ± 1.8 (2.2) Ma (2σ) (MSWD = 0.32; p = 0.93) is equal to the previously published pseudoplateau age of 228.7 ± 3.0 (3.4) (2σ) for the impact event. According to the current international chronostratigraphic chart and using the most recent published suggestions for the K decay constants, a Carnian (Late Triassic) age for the Paasselkä impact structure of 231.0 ± 1.8 (2.2) Ma (2σ) is calculated and considered the most precise and accurate age for this impact structure. The new plateau age for Paasselkä confirms the previous dating result but is, based on its internal statistics, much more compelling.     

Demonstration of a virtual active hyperspectral LiDAR in automated point cloud classification

In this paper, a measurement system for the acquisition of a virtual hyperspectral LiDAR dataset is presented. As commercial hyperspectral LiDARs are not yet available, the system provides a novel type of data for the testing and developing of future hyperspectral LiDAR algorithms. The measurement system consists of two parts: first, backscattered reflectance spectra are collected using a spectrometer and a cutting-edge technology, white-light supercontinuum laser source; second, a commercial monochromatic LiDAR system is used for ranging. A virtual hyperspectral LiDAR dataset is produced by data fusion. Such a dataset was collected on a Norway spruce (Picea abies) sample. The performance of classification was tested using an experimental hyperspectral algorithm based on a novel combination of the Spectral Correlation Mapper and a region growing algorithm. The classifier was able to automatically distinguish between needles, branches and background, in other words, perform a difficult task using only traditional TLS data.