北祁连地区中寒武世岩相古地理研究

现今地处造山带的北祁连地区在中寒武世时期拉张的构造背景下海域进一步拓宽。通过对北祁连地区中寒武统地层野外调查及室内分析研究,在"构造控盆、盆控相"的思路控制下,以沉积岩性、结构-构造、古生物组合等为基础,在优势相原则的指导下,共划分出浅海陆棚相、半深海相、深海盆地相3种沉积相类型。结合前人的研究资料,编制北祁连地区中寒武世的沉积构造格架及沉积盆地类型图,分析其空间配置关系。在此基础上,采用造山带岩相古地理编图方法,恢复与重建研究区的古地理面貌,编制相应的古地理图。     

The international legal framework for the management of the global oceans social-ecological system

This paper evaluates the international agreements in place for the protection of the environment and the regulation of human activities taking place in world's oceans and seas. 500 multilateral agreements were reviewed against a framework of reference, grounded on the theoretical approaches of Adaptive Management and Transition Management. According to this framework, oceans complex systems management should: (1) consider the global oceans as a Social-Ecological System (SES); (2) aim to achieve or maintain their ecological resilience; and (3) implement iterative, learning-based management strategies, supported by science-based advice to policy and management. The results show that the present international legal framework for the global oceans does not require countries to adopt an adaptive, complex systems approach for global oceans ecological resilience. Instead, this study supports the perspective of a double fragmentation among international agreements. First, global agreements focus on issue-based objectives for determined human activities, ecological components or anthropogenic pressures. Second, regional agreements have a wider scope, but also a varying level of inclusion of ecological resilience considerations. There is the need to foster the inclusion of such an approach into existing and future international agreements and their implementation, including through soft-law, project-based initiatives at global and regional scales.     

Hispanic Immigrants' Vulnerabilities to Flood and Hurricane Hazards in Two United States Metropolitan Areas

Research reveals that disasters are disproportionately debilitating for marginalized social groups. Numerous studies have examined racial/ethnic dimensions of disaster vulnerability, but few have focused on Hispanic immigrants. More research on Hispanic immigrants is needed, since they constitute a major component of the Hispanic population—the largest and fastest‐growing minority group in the U.S.—and because they experience distinctive cultural and immigration status disadvantages. We examine the flood/hurricane vulnerabilities of Hispanic immigrants in comparison to U.S.–born Hispanics and non‐Hispanic whites. Using mixed methods to analyze data from 429 surveys and 31 interviews with residents living in flood zones, we examine differences in self‐protective action, risk perception, and hazard knowledge between the three groups in Houston and Miami. Hispanic immigrants exhibited lower levels of self‐protection and hazard knowledge, and higher perceptions of risk, which reflects their heightened vulnerability. Risk‐reduction programs should target the particular vulnerabilities of Hispanic immigrants, and future studies should examine their vulnerabilities in other contexts.     

Rainfall flood hazard at nuclear power plants in India

Flood hazard evaluation is an important input for Nuclear Power Plants external events safety studies. In the present study, flood hazard at various nuclear sites in India due to rainfall has been evaluated. Hazard estimation is a statistical procedure by which rainfall intensity versus occurrence frequency is estimated from historical records of rainfall data and extrapolated with asymptotic extreme value distribution. Rainfall data needed for flood hazard assessment are daily annual maximum rainfall (24?h data). The observed data points have been fitted using Gumbel, power law and exponential distribution, and return period has been estimated. To study the stationarity of rainfall data, a moving window estimate of the parameters has been performed. The rainfall pattern is stationary in both coastal and inland regions over the period of observation. The coastal regions show intense rainfall and higher variability than inland regions. Based on the plant layout, catchment area and drainage capacity, the prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) site is unlikely to be flooded.     

高寒区抽水融冰渠道水温沿程衰减规律——以红山嘴水电站为例

抽水融冰技术是解决高寒区引水式电站冬季运行冰害问题的有效措施之一。为研究抽水融冰对电站引水渠道冬季引水的水温控制规律,以红山嘴水电站为例,基于RNG κ-ε模型数值模拟研究结果,从热流量比角度探讨了渠道水温沿程衰减规律,并采用2013年2月和2014年1月原型观测结果进行了验证。结果表明:渠道水温沿程衰减过程可分为骤降段、过渡段和缓降段3部分,各段范围受外界条件控制;衰减曲线呈幂函数分布,相关系数达到98%;对比气温对渠温沿程衰减的影响表明,随着大气温度的降低,渠道水温沿程衰减速度明显加快;-10 ℃为水温衰减过程变化转折点,当气温高于-10 ℃时,可以近似认为渠温衰减规律一致,渠温沿程变化主要受到热流量比值影响;低于-10 ℃时,气温对渠道水温沿程变化影响显著。     

Revisiting the death of geography in the era of Big Data: the friction of distance in cyberspace and real space

Many scholars have argued that the importance of geographic proximity in human interactions has been diminished by the use of the Internet, while others disagree with this argument. Studies have noted the distance decay effect in both cyberspace and real space, showing that interactions occur with an inverse relationship between the number of interactions and the distance between the locations of the interactors. However, these studies rarely provide strong evidence to show the influence of distance on interactions in cyberspace, nor do they quantify the differences in the amount of friction of distance between cyberspace and real space. To fill this gap, this study used massive amounts of social media data (Twitter) to compare the influence of distance decay on human interactions between cyberspace and real space in a quantitative manner. To estimate the distance decay effect in both cyberspace and real space, the distance decay function of interactions in each space was modeled. Estimating the distance decay in cyberspace in this study can help predict the degree of information flow across space through social media. Measuring how far ideas can be diffused through social media is useful for users of location-based services, policy advocates, public health officials, and political campaigners.     

Measured and perceived visual complexity: a comparative study among three online map providers

We present a study on human perception of map complexity, with the objective of better understanding design decisions that may lead to undesirable levels of complexity in web maps. We compare three complexity metrics to human ratings of complexity obtained through a user survey. Specifically, we use two algorithmic approaches published by others, which measure feature congestion (FC) and subband entropy (SE), as well as our own approach of counting object types rather than individual objects. We compare these metrics with each other as well as with human complexity ratings for three maps of the same area from map providers Google Maps, Bing Maps, and OpenStreetMap. Each map design is assessed at three different scales (levels of detail). We find that (1) the FC and SE metrics appear to be adequate predictors of what humans consider complex; (2) object-type counts are slightly less successful at predicting human-rated complexity, implying that clutter is more important in perceived complexity than diversity of symbology; and (3) generalization choices do impact human complexity ratings. These findings contribute to our understanding of what makes a map complex, with implications for designing maps that are easy to use.     

落石冲击混凝土板与缓冲层组合结构的动力响应

钢筋混凝土（RC）板与一定厚度的土颗粒缓冲层组合结构被广泛用于山区高位单体及群发性崩塌落石的防治,为研究此类防护结构在落石作用下的冲击力衰减规律及RC板的破坏模式,开展了室外系列落石冲击试验。结果表明,增大缓冲层厚度能够有效减小最大冲击力,峰值加速度随缓冲层厚度减小而增大,尤其在缓冲层厚度为0.1 m及0.2 m时,最大值急剧增大,峰值加速度与缓冲层厚度的变化满足指数函数关系;根据量纲分析原理得到缓冲层最大冲击深度与动能的平方成正比、与最大入射冲击力成反比的计算公式,且与实测值较吻合;入射冲击力在缓冲层内的衰减率随缓冲层厚度的增加以指数函数递增,在0.6 m缓冲层厚度下可使峰值冲击力衰减70%左右;随累积冲击能级的增大,RC板经历了弯曲起裂及扩展、次级弯曲裂纹和剪裂纹产生及跨中弯曲裂纹贯通的过程,试验结束时RC板整体表现出典型的弯曲破坏特征。     

柴达木盆地大柴旦地区地下水水化学特征及演化规律

地下水在干旱/半干旱地区的生态环境保护中起着主导作用。柴达木盆地北缘的大柴旦湖地处西北干旱区,其生态环境较为脆弱,了解该地区的地下水水化学演化特征,对这一生态敏感地区的地下水可持续利用至关重要。本研究通过采集该地区28 个具有代表性的水样,运用数理统计、Piper图、Gibbs图、离子比值、饱和指数和反向水文地球化学模拟等方法,分析了研究区地下水水化学类型分布特征,探讨了地下水水化学演化过程中的水岩作用。结果表明:(1)由山前冲洪积扇到大柴旦湖,地下水水化学类型由HCO₃·Cl·SO₄-Na·Ca型向SO₄·Cl-Ca·Na、Cl-Na型演化转变,总溶解固体物含量由小于1 g/L增至380 g/L以上。(2)Gibbs图、主要离子比值分析及饱和指数表明,研究区地下水水化学特征主要受水岩作用和蒸发结晶作用控制,沿地下水流路径上,主要发生了岩盐、石膏的溶解,方解石的沉淀,白云石和长石的溶解或沉淀。氯碱指数、[(Na⁺+K⁺)-Cl^-]与[(Ca²⁺+Mg²⁺)-( {\mathrm{HCO}}_3^{-}+ {\mathrm{SO}}_4^{2-})]关系表明,阳离子交换作用也影响着该地区地下水水化学组分的形成。(3)通过反向水文地球化学模拟,定量验证了地下水径流过程的主要水-岩作用。     

Perceived fairness and public acceptability of carbon pricing: a review of the literature

While carbon pricing is widely seen as a crucial element of climate policy and has been implemented in many countries, it also has met with strong resistance. We provide a comprehensive overview of public perceptions of the fairness of carbon pricing and how these affect policy acceptability. To this end, we review evidence from empirical studies on how individuals judge personal, distributional and procedural aspects of carbon taxes and cap-and-trade. In addition, we examine preferences for particular redistributive and other uses of revenues generated by carbon pricing and their role in instrument acceptability. Our results indicate a high concern over distributional effects, particularly in relation to policy impacts on poor people, in turn reducing policy acceptability. In addition, people show little trust in the capacities of governments to put the revenues of carbon pricing to good use. Somewhat surprisingly, most studies do not indicate clear public preferences for using revenues to ensure fairer policy outcomes, notably by reducing its regressive effects. Instead, many people prefer using revenues for ‘environmental projects’ of various kinds. We end by providing recommendations for improving public acceptability of carbon pricing. One suggestion to increase policy acceptability is combining the redistribution of revenue to vulnerable groups with the funding for environmental projects, such as on renewable energy.

Key policy insights

• If people perceive carbon pricing instruments as fair, this increases policy acceptability and support.

• People’s satisfaction with information provided by the government about the policy instrument increases acceptability.

• While people express high concern over uneven distribution of the policy burden, they often prefer using carbon pricing revenues for environmental projects instead of compensation for inequitable outcomes.

• Recent studies find that people’s preferences shift to using revenues for making policy fairer if they better understand the functioning of carbon pricing, notably that relatively high prices of CO₂-intensive goods and services reduce their consumption.

• Combining the redistribution of revenue to support both vulnerable groups and environmental projects, such as on renewable energy, seems to most increase policy acceptability.