云南大关寿山水电站地质灾害危险性评估

在工程建设中,地质灾害的发生往往与工程周边复杂的地质环境条件密切相关,山地区域由于地质地形条件复杂,使得工程地质灾害发生的可能性和危险性大大增加.以云南大关寿山水电站为例,介绍了地质灾害评估工作的基本过程和特点,对一般水电站的地质灾害危险性评估工作具有一定的参考价值.     

顶管施工中的风险分析

随着我国经济的发展和人们环保意识的增强，顶管施工作为一种非开挖施工方法得到广泛的应用，在城市建设中应用的领域也越来越宽。由于地下工程的不确定性，特别是在拥挤的城市，顶管施工常面临极大的风险。本文通过分析顶管施工项目风险因素及后果，给出了降低顶管施工风险的措施。     

县域滑坡灾害风险管理信息系统研发与应用: 以陕西省宁强县为例

滑坡风险管理是国际上广泛应用于滑坡灾害防灾减灾的有效途径之一。以县域滑坡灾害风险管理信息系统(County Landslides Risk Management Information System,CLRMIS)研发及应用为研究目标,在简述国内外相关研究现状的基础上,分析了我国县域滑坡灾害风险管理的基本特征与需求,设计了县域滑坡灾害风险管理信息系统的总体架构与功能模块,详细论述了县域滑坡灾害风险管理的技术流程、评价方法及评价标准,基于地理信息系统技术,完成了CLRMIS软件的开发。选择陕西省宁强县为应用研究区,基于CLRMIS平台,在对宁强县地质环境与地质灾害数据管理的基础上,采用信息量方法和要素权重叠加方法分别进行了区域(县域)滑坡灾害危险性和易损性研究,采用专家打分方法进行了单体滑坡灾害危险性和危害性研究,在此基础上应用风险矩阵分析方法进行了区域(县域)及单体滑坡灾害广义风险评价方法研究和基于降雨量的动态风险评价与预报预警。应用结果表明,CLRMIS能够在滑坡信息管理、风险分析与评价、预报预警等方面提供较为有效的支持,具有一定的实用价值。     

Knowing wildfire risk: Scientific interactions with risk mitigation policy and practice in Victoria,Australia

Over the past decade, major landscape wildfires (or ‘bushfires’ in Australia) in fire-prone countries have illustrated the seriousness of this global environmental problem. This natural hazard presents a complex mesh of dynamic factors for those seeking to reduce or manage its costs, as ignitions, hazard behaviour, and the reactions of different human and ecological communities during and after hazard events are all extremely uncertain. But while those at risk of wildfire have been subject to significant research, the social dimensions of its management, including the role of science, have received little attention. This paper reports on a case study of the Barwon-Otway area of Victoria in Australia, a high wildfire risk area that has recently been a pilot site for a new risk mitigation strategy utilising the wildfire simulation model PHOENIX RapidFire. Against simple equations between ‘more science’ and ‘less uncertainty,’ this paper presents results from interviews and a workshop with practitioners to investigate how scientific research interacts with and informs both wildfire policy and practice. We suggest that attending to cultural and social specificities of the application of any technical innovation—such as next generation modelling—raises questions for future research about the roles of narrative, performance, and other knowledges in the sedimentation of science.     

Late Holocene climates of the Near East deduced from Dead Sea level variations and modern regional winter rainfall

The Dead Sea is a terminal lake of one of the largest hydrological systems in the Levant and may thus be viewed as a large rain gauge for the region. Variations of its level are indicative of the climate variations in the region. Here, we present the decadal- to centennial-resolution Holocene lake-level curve of the Dead Sea. Then we determine the regional hydroclimatology that affected level variations. To achieve this goal we compare modern natural lake-level variations and instrumental rainfall records and quantify the hydrology relative to lake-level rise, fall, or stability. To quantify that relationship under natural conditions, rainfall data pre-dating the artificial Dead Sea level drop since the 1960s are used. In this respect, Jerusalem station offers the longest uninterrupted pre-1960s rainfall record and Jerusalem rains serve as an adequate proxy for the Dead Sea headwaters rainfall. Principal component analysis indicates that temporal variations of annual precipitation in all stations in Israel north of the current 200 mm yr⁻¹ average isohyet during 1940–1990 are largely synchronous and in phase (70% of the total variance explained by PC1). This station also represents well northern Jordan and the area all the way to Beirut, Lebanon, especially during extreme drought and wet spells. We (a) determine the modern, and propose the past regional hydrology and Eastern Mediterranean (EM) climatology that affected the severity and length of droughts/wet spells associated with multiyear episodes of Dead Sea level falls/rises and (b) determine that EM cyclone tracks were different in average number and latitude in wet and dry years in Jerusalem. The mean composite sea level pressure and 500-mb height anomalies indicate that the potential causes for wet and dry episodes span the entire EM and are rooted in the larger-scale northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation. We also identified remarkably close association (within radiocarbon resolution) between climatic changes in the Levant, reflected by level changes, and culture shifts in this region.     

Evaluation of aluminum speciation in surface waters in China and its environmental risk assessment

As the ongoing global research on acid precipitation is developing in depth, more and more attention has been paid to the ecological effects of aluminum (Al) due to its toxicity to plants and animals, which is caused by acid precipitation. As a very serious problem of terrestrial and aquatic environmental acidification occurs in China, especially in southwestern China, a systematic investigation of Al speciation in these regions is very important. In this paper, the Al speciation results of surface waters in China are reported and its ecological impacts is evaluated. More than 100 water samples were collected from about twenty provinces of China. Driscoll's Al speciation scheme combined with the modified MINQEL computer model is used for speciation of Al. This study shows that the ecological impacts of acidification are quite different between China and Western countries, because of different geographical environments and geological settings. In Western countries, acidification is mainly caused by NO₂^-. Due to low concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, the buffer capacities of soil and water are weak. Therefore, natural waters can be acidified to pH<5 very easily, resulting in a considerable mobilization of Al and worsening of the ecological environment. In China, acid precipitation is mainly in the form of sulfuric acid. In northwestern China, concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ are high in soil and surface waters. This leads to much higher capacity and a high resistance ability to acidification. The pH values of waters in this region are high (around 7) and no serious Al toxicity is found at present. However, in northeastern and southeastern China, the soil is rich in Al (unsaturated aluminosilicates in northeastern China, saturated aluminosilicates in north and central China, aluminum-rich soil in southeastern and southwestern China). The concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ in soil and waters are lower than those of northwestern China. Therefore the buffer capacity is limited. Numerous surface waters have already been acidified and pH values declined to 5. The impacts of Al toxicity on ecological systems in these regions are very serious, especially in Jiangxi, Hubei Provinces and Chongqing Municipality.     

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers.     

Methodology for preliminary assessment of Natech risk in urban areas

Concern for natural hazard-triggered technological disasters (Natech disasters) in densely populated and industrialized areas is growing. Residents living in urban areas subject to high natural hazard risk are often unaware of the potential for secondary disasters such as hazardous materials releases from neighboring industrial facilities, chemical storage warehouses or other establishments housing hazardous materials. Lessons from previous disasters, such as the Natech disaster during the Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey in 1999 call for the need to manage low frequency/high consequence events, particularly in today’s densely populated areas. However, there is little guidance available on how local governments and communities can assess Natech risk. To add to the problem, local governments often do not have the human or economic resources or expertise to carry out detailed risk assessments. In this article, we propose a methodology for preliminary assessment of Natech risk in urban areas. The proposed methodology is intended for use by local government officials in consultation with the public. The methodology considers possible interactions between the various systems in the urban environment: the physical infrastructure (e.g., industrial plants, lifeline systems, critical facilities), the community (e.g., population exposed), the natural environment (e.g., delicate ecosystems, river basins), and the risk and emergency management systems (e.g., structural and nonstructural measures). Factors related to vulnerability and hazard are analyzed and qualitative measures are recommended. Data from hazardous materials releases during the Kocaeli, Turkey earthquake of August 17, 1999 are used as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the methodology. Limitations of the proposed methodology are discussed as well as future research needs.

遵义市2009/2010年秋冬春连旱事实及形成原因初析

2009年秋季到2010年初春,遵义市出现了特大干旱,对农业、林业、人畜饮水、水利电力等方面造成严重的危害和巨大的损失。详细分析干旱期间的气象要素,从秋季9月到初春3月的总降水量不足常年同期平均值的一半,并与历史上的秋冬干旱年份进行了比较,发现本次干旱期间遵义市大部分地方降水量等多项气象要素突破历史最少记录,因此认为2...