Relating root causes to local risk conditions: A comparative study of the institutional pathways to small-scale disasters in three urban flood contexts

The continued rise of global disaster losses pushes our attention yet further to the causal factors that drive risks, beyond the frame of standardised risk assessment models. A key gap in our understanding of the causality of disasters remains establishing how spatially and temporally distant factors – ‘root causes’ – drive local risk conditions. This is particularly the case for small-scale but high-impact disasters. It includes understanding the role that institutions play in influencing such pathways of risk production. This paper addresses this question using a holistic approach to risk analysis that links past drivers to contemporary conditions. We apply this in three case studies of coastal flood management in urban areas of differential size and integration within the European Union - Rethymno (Crete), Genoa (Italy) and St Maarten (Dutch Caribbean). The paper reveals the importance of local institutions in mediating the impacts of higher-level economic and political changes on local risks. It provides new empirical evidence of the relationship between austerity, institutional reform and local disaster risk reduction. The analysis supports a stronger causal epistemology of resilience to disasters but also leads to re-consideration of the institutional entry points for risk reduction, and the importance of considering context and trade-offs.     

桂林甑皮岩遗址岩溶地下水水害成因及防治对策

桂林甑皮岩遗址自1973年试掘以来,出土了古人类骨架、火塘、墓葬、石器、蚌器、陶器、动植物化石等大量的较为珍贵的实物资料,成为我国南方的一个重要的新石器人类遗址.2001年被列入国家级重点文物保护单位.然遗址在1994年汛期遭受洪水浸泡,致使多个探方隔梁崩塌,探方文化土层先后出现不同程度的崩塌或下沉现象.为了暂时性抢救...     

2000—2007年中国东部地区城市土地集约利用分析

本文以中国东部地区10省市87个城市为研究对象,利用层次分析法构建城市土地集约利用评价的指标体系,分析2000-2007年城市土地集约利用变化的规律,并建立城市土地集约利用指标值与影响因子之间的多元回归模型,寻找影响城市土地集约利用变化的差异。研究结果表明：①从人口承载、经济投入与经济产出的角度构建了评价指标体系,经济产出成为城市土地集约利用的主要影响因素。②北京市城市土地集约利用指标值均值的变化最大,其他东部9省市各城市土地集约利用指标值均值的变化趋势类似,变化相对平缓。广东城市土地集约利用指标均值的标准差最大,海南城市土地集约利用指标值的标准差起伏最大。③多数城市土地集约利用指标值均分布在0．1000～0．2000之间。④构建了城市土地集约利用指标值与各影响因子之间的多元回归模型,72个城市通过了规定条件的检验。     

建设国际大都市目标下的中国特大城市资源效率、变化趋势及其成因(英文)

The metropolitan resources comprehensive efficiencies (also called comprehensive technical efficiency, short for CTE, thereafter), change trends and causes are investigated using DEA and Malmquist index models, respectively, in China during the period 1990–2006. Firstly, the DEA model results show that the metropolitan CTE was just fair to middling with the characteristics of almost declining from the Eastern Coastal to Western China, and only few metropolises were DEA efficient. Secondly, the results also show that the PTE was correlated with the urban population sizes of metropolises negatively, and the SE correlated positively with the urban population sizes of metropolises in 1990, 2000 and 2006, that is, with urban population sizes getting larger the corresponding PTE was decreasing accordingly, and the SE was increasing consequently and the increasing rate was smaller with the scale increase. Thirdly, the influencing factors of metropolitan efficiency were SE and PTE in 1990 and 2000, respectively. But the PTE became the predominant influencing factor with the rapid expansions of built-up areas and population scales of metropolises in 2006. Fourthly, the Malmquist index results show that the CTE change trends were increasing weakly, the technological change trends were declining, and the TFP change trends were declining obviously during 1990–2006, in which they were all increasing during the sub-period 1990–2000, and all decreasing during the sub-period 2000–2006. Fifthly, the Malmquist index results also demonstrate that the CTE change trend was increasing weakly in the Eastern Coastal China, declining in Central China, and declining evidently in Western China. And with the urban population size increasing the increasing trends of SE became weaker and weaker. And the main causes for the CTE being not too high and its change trends and TFP change trends being increasing weakly lie mainly in the technological degeneracy and PTE change trends declining significantly during 2000–2006. Finally, the analyses show that the China’s metropolitan population boom and the rapid spread of built-up area had really caused their resources efficiency losses.     

Suspended sediment load in the turbidity maximum zone at the Yangtze River Estuary:The trends and causes简

Based on the analysis of suspended sediment elements at estuaries, influence of human activities and estuarine regulation projects on the turbidity maximum zone was studied according to the measurement data between 1959 and 2011. It was found that human activi- ties had little effect on the seaward water while the sharp decrease of sediment volume and concentration in runoff led to the sharp decrease of turbidity maximum zone in the estuary. The concentration at outside sea and Hangzhou Bay did not change, and that along the Subei coast also decreased a little, which had no influence on the turbidity maximum zone. Com- pared with the concentration between 1959 and 1999, the peak of concentration moved up- stream in the estuary, and the concentration in 2000-2009 decreased by about 24.73% with a narrower variation range along the river to the sea. The suspended sediment concentration in North Passage was low in upstream and downstream because of the decrease of seaward sediment and coarsening of bed material, while it was relatively high in the middle due to the influence of sediment cross the north jetty.     

白云机场低能见度气候的统计特征

利用白云机场最近１０年逐时能见度资料,对低能见度的气候特征进行了统计,并对造成低能见度障碍的天气现象和影响系统作了普查分析。结果表明：白云机场低能见度有明显的季节变化和日变化;低能见度平均出现次数与持续时间明显成反比;造成低能见度障碍的天气现象仅有雾和雨;弱高压脊是冬半年造成恶劣能见度的主要系统,锋后极少出现恶劣能见度。     

2009年深秋北京大雪过程的成因分析

北京地区的初雪平均在11月28日前后。2009年10月31日夜间至11月1日白天北京出现雨转雨夹雪,再转大雪的天气过程。作为初雪,这是北京22年来罕见的。分析表明,这次过程降水前12和6 h华北中东部的黄河下游以北地区对流层中低层受一致的西北气流控制,前期水汽输送和积累不明显。北京地区在10月这样一个相对干燥的季节和前期水汽不充沛的环流形势下产生大雪局地暴雪,实不多见。文章利用中国气象局MICAPS常规气象资料和北京地区风廓线雷达、微波辐射仪、地面自动站等多种本地加密探测资料,对这次大雪过程进行了动力计算和成因分析。结果显示,由对流层上层贝加尔湖强冷空气向南爆发所引发的动力作用是北京这次初冬大雪形成的主要原因。大雪发生前500 hPa正涡度平流区、对流层中上层水平辐散中心、对流层中下层水平辐合中心呈垂直结构控制北京,为北京地区提供了有利的上升运动动力环境。山前和平原地区近地面东南风,边界层偏东风及边界层以上的对流层底层偏西风的风廓线分布在北京西部地形作用下产生动力抬升和局地对流,增强了北京西南部的降雪。这次北京大雪的水汽条件源于近地面偏南风和东南风的短时间局地增湿,以及这种增湿在高空强冷气团作用下产生的对流层中低层的局地水汽辐合。     

浅谈学校电教室防雷

对电子教室教学存在雷击安全隐患进行了分析,并提出了综合的防护措施,为今后学校电教室雷电防护的安装、维护提供参考。     

ANALYSIS OF CAUSATION OF ASYMMETRIC PRECIPITATION ASSOCIATED WITH SEVERE TYPHOON DAMREY

Severe typhoon Damrey moved across Hainan Island from 00:00 UTC 25 September to 00:00 UTC 27 September in 2005 and gave rise to a significant rain process during its 48-h passage. The precipitation intensity on the southern part of the island is stronger than that on the northern, showing obvious asymmetric distribution. Using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data, the associated mesoscale characteristics of the precipitation were analyzed and the formation of asymmetric rainfall distribution was investigated in the context of a subsynoptic scale disturbance, vertical wind shear and orographic factors. The results are shown as follows. (1) The subsynoptic scale system provided favorable dynamic conditions to the genesis of mesoscale rain clusters and rainbands. (2) The southern Hainan Island was located to the left of the leeward direction of downshear all the time, being favorable to the development of convection and leading to the asymmetric rainfall distribution. (3) Mountain terrain in the southern Hainan Island stimulated the genesis, combination and development of convective cells, promoting the formation of mesoscale precipitation systems and ultimately resulting in rainfall increase in the southern island.     

Climatic change: Causal correlations over the last 240 Ma

The climate of the Earth has been oscillating between mega warm periods and mega cold periods for 3,000 Ma. Each mega cold period included alternating major warm and cold events. The present mega cold period commenced about 44 Ma in the polar regions as the seas cooled following the loss of the circum-equatorial ocean. Before then, a mega warm period lasted for more than 200 Ma. The frequency of the major cold events within the present mega cold period is increasing, with each continent being under the influence of a different set of climatic controls. There are many causes of these shifts in climate, ranging from fluctuating meridional ocean currents, rearrangement of tectonic plates, and changes in ocean gateways. These are enhanced by a combination of Milankovitch cycles and many other medium to small oscillations and cyclic controls that cause the daily, monthly, and seasonal fluctuations in weather. Examples are given of how these can cause a change from cold to warm events, or vice versa, at present-day or mega scales, aided by eustatic changes in sea levels and changes in the distribution of air masses, sea ice, and snow.