From the Seam to the Stove: greenhouse gas assessment and the coal seam gas industry in Australia

In Australia, Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is a relatively new source of natural gas commonly advocated as a lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions alternative to coal. This study investigates how GHG emissions have been, and potentially could be, assessed within the Australian CSG industry. The research involved a document analysis of several Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) and consultant reports prepared as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for major CSG projects in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (Qld). There were found to be inconsistencies in the conduct of greenhouse assessment by the CSG industry, including how complete and transparent assessments were, as well as how effectively they addressed project emission intensity and cumulative impacts. There were also found to be large inconsistencies between assessments carried out for Qld projects and those for NSW projects, likely because of differences in how assessment requirements are applied by planning bodies. This study also highlights how alternative assessment approaches, such as Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), have potential to enable a broader and more consistent understanding of emission sources that cross a range of geographical and project boundaries.     

Estimating Petroleum Resources Using Geo-Anchored Method--A Sensitivity Study

The Geo-anchored method, based on a moment-type estimator, has been developed for estimating parent population properties from a successive sample of discoveries. By substituting the expectation of the waiting time z _(n+1) of the (n + 1) ^th discovery to occurrence for an unknown parameter in the anchored method, the Geo-anchored method allows estimation of inclusion probabilities directly from observed data, thus eliminating the need for a priori selection of a value of N, R, or some other feature of the parent population. Because direct estimation of N and R requires an ordered sample, the Geo-anchored method is more sensitive to the data-generating process than the anchored method. This paper presents a sensitivity study on the Geo-anchored method. The test is based on simulated discovery sequences with different assumptions regarding discovery efficiency, exploration maturity, and the shape of the parent field size distribution. As a reference for comparison, estimates from the Horvitz–Thompson estimator also are presented.     

Ecological Footprint Evaluation of Three Types of Wood Flooring in China based on Their Production Data from 2000 to 2018

To encourage the environmental responsibility of consumers and manufacturers for forest management, it is necessary to evaluate the environmental influences of forest products. Ecological footprint (EF) is an internationally recognized indicator for estimating the natural capital consumption and environmental influences of various forest products. In this study, we developed an accounting model for the EF evaluation of wood flooring, which is a tertiary forest product, by the method of transformation. Next, we used that model to evaluate the EF of three types of wood flooring in China according to their production data from 2000 to 2018. We collected the necessary data by visiting typical enterprises in China and referring to the relevant literature. According to our results, the average EFs of solid wood flooring, engineered solid wood flooring and laminate flooring between 2000 to 2018 were 3.13×10 ⁶, 1.05×10 ⁷ and 5.07×10 ⁶gha, respectively. The total EFs of solid wood flooring, engineered solid wood flooring and laminate flooring from 2000 to 2018 were 5.95×10 ⁷, 1.99×10 ⁸and 9.64×10 ⁷gha, respectively. The coefficients of variation (CV) of the EFs for these three types of wood flooring were 0.45, 0.87 and 0.76, respectively. The average and total EFs of the engineered solid wood flooring were the largest among the three types of wood flooring. The per capita EF and unit EF for the engineered solid wood flooring were also the highest among the three types of wood flooring. The EFs showed an upward trend with irregular fluctuations from 2000 to 2018 for all three types of wood flooring. It is necessary to reduce the EF of the engineered solid wood flooring and use more environmentally friendly products, such as solid wood flooring, for environmental protection.     

基于微博数据和情感分析法的台风“米克拉”灾情过程探测

以2020年第6号台风“米克拉”为例,采集了5916条新浪微博作为数据源,综合应用隐含狄利克雷分布(Latent Dirichlet Allocation,LDA)主题模型、文本情感分析方法和空间分析技术,挖掘、分析台风的灾情时空过程。基于LDA主题模型建立了主题-词矩阵并进行隐含主题聚类,这些微博文本被分为灾损类信息、预警类信息、防御类信息和无关信息;从主题信息和文本情感值两个角度入手,对此次台风事件网络舆情的演化过程进行分析。结果表明:“米克拉”登陆前有大量积极情感的微博,主要包含渴望降雨、降温等信息,此类微博大量分布在漳州、厦门、福州等地区;在台风入境后消极情感的微博大量增多,主要描述道路、树木等受大风和大雨影响的灾损类信息,此类信息的空间位置主要分布在漳州和厦门,能较好地反映台风灾害影响的时空分布。通过对微博主题类别和情感极性进行时空分析,实现台风灾害事件发展趋势的监测,为防灾减灾提供参考依据。     

评估滨海湿地应对海平面上升的脆弱性的研究范式

滨海湿地是海陆交界的生态过渡带,也是对气候变化极为敏感的、脆弱的生态系统,海平面上升对全球滨海湿地构成了严重威胁.为了精确预测未来海平面加速上升背景下滨海湿地的变化趋势,有必要深入开展滨海湿地应对海平面上升的脆弱性评估研究.概述了评估滨海湿地应对海平面上升的脆弱性的研究范式,评估过程包括4个步骤:确定滨海湿地的高程资本...     

Evaluation of approaches to calculate debris-flow parameters for hazard assessment

Many different runout prediction methods can be applied to estimate the mobility of future debris flows during hazard assessment. The present article reviews the empirical, analytical, simple flow routing and numerical techniques. All these techniques were applied to back-calculate a debris flow, which occurred in 1982 at La Guingueta catchment, in the Eastern Pyrenees. A sensitivity analysis of input parameters was carried out, while special attention was paid to the influence of rheological parameters. We used the Voellmy fluid rheology for our analytical and numerical modelling, since this flow resistance law coincided best with field observations. The simulation results indicated that the “basal” friction coefficients rather affect the runout distance, while the “turbulence” terms mainly influence flow velocity. A comparison of the velocity computed on the fan showed that the analytical model calculated values similar to the numerical ones. The values of our rheological parameters calibrated at La Guingueta agree with data back-calculated for other debris flows. Empirical relationships represent another method to estimate total runout distance. The results confirmed that they contain an important uncertainty and they are strictly valid only for the conditions, which were the basis for their development. With regards to the simple flow routing algorithm, this methods could satisfactorily simulate the total area affected by the 1982 debris flow, but it was not able to directly calculate total runout distance and velocity. Finally, a suggestion on how different runout prediction methods can be applied to generate debris-flow hazard maps is presented. Taking into account the definition of hazard and intensity, the best choice would be to divide the resulting hazard maps into two types: “final hazard maps” and “preliminary hazard maps”. Only the use of numerical models provided final hazard maps, because they could incorporate different event magnitudes and they supplied output-values for intensity calculation. In contrast, empirical relationships and flow routing algorithms, or a combination of both, could be applied to create preliminary hazard maps. The present study only focussed on runout prediction methods. Other necessary tasks to complete the hazard assessment can be looked up in the “Guidelines for landslide susceptibility, hazard and risk zoning” included in this Special Issue.     

西藏自治区洛扎县冰湖溃决危险度评价

西藏自治区湖泊星罗棋布,在高山极高山地区分布大量冰湖,受各种因素的影响,有时会产生冰湖溃决并形成灾害。本文根据最新TM遥感影像对西藏自治区洛扎县283个冰湖进行了初步评价。依据冰湖类型、规模、后方现代冰川与冰湖的距离及冰湖离居民地、公路等设施的距离等,将冰湖溃决分为高危险度、中危险度及低危险度。并针对高危险度的冰湖提出防护对策。     

前后向平滑算法在动态精密单点定位中的应用

针对PPP初始收敛段定位精度低而造成的定位结果无法利用的问题,文章提出将前后向平滑算法应用于动态PPP解算中,以获取整个观测时段的高精度定位结果;针对PPP成果缺乏质量检核手段的问题,文章提出构造前后向位置不符值作为质量检核指标。模拟动态算例和船载动态算例表明:平滑后的动态PPP克服了前向、后向滤波初始收敛段定位精度差的问题,整体位置误差RMS在10cm内,提高了数据利用率;收敛段的前后向位置不符值RMS也在10cm内,该指标可用来对PPP成果进行质量检核。     

Distribution and ecological risk assessment of some heavy metals in coastal surface sediments along the Red Sea,Egypt

The ecological risk assessment for Al,Zn,Cu,Ni,V,Pb,Cd,and Hg in surface sediment collected from the Egyptian Red Sea coast was evaluated using the Geo-accumulation Index(I_(geo)).Sediment Enrichment Factor(SEF) and Potential Ecological Risk Index(PERI) methods.The predominant heavy metal,aluminum,showed high concentrations along both of Aqaba Gulf(4378.8 ± 2554.1 μg/g) and southern part of the Red Sea(2972.8 + 1527.5 μg/g).while it recorded the lowest concentration in Suez Gulf(829.7 ± 398.2 μg/g).The determined heavy metal concentrations had the order of Al Zn -Ni V Pb Cu Cd Hg.The statistical analyses showed some correlations among the heavy metals contents.Several international sediment quality guidelines were used to estimate the quality of the collected sediments.Interestingly,the recorded average heavy metals concentrations were lower than those of the permissible contents for sediment quality guidelines.The Geo-accumulation index calculations(I_(geo)) proved that the investigated region could be classified as an unpolluted area.Sediment Enrichment Factor(K_(SEF)) study showed high values in Suez Gulf region.The single pollution index analysis of heavy metals in the sediments(C~i_f) indicated that Al,Zn,V,and Pb were of natural origin,while Ni,Cd and Hg were seriously affected by human activities.Interestingly,amongst,all the determined heavy metals,Cd and Hg gave moderate ecological risk indicators.     

In search of meaningful assessment in the university curriculum: the case for culturally relevant pedagogy

ABSTRACT

The poor performance of Pacific students at university is a concern for every level of society. Conventional models of teaching, learning and assessment have overlooked the cultural background of students, yet the effects of this oversight have been disastrous, alienating and disempowering. Studies of and developments in education in the Pacific and elsewhere offer opportunities to rethink the methods of teaching, learning and assessment of Pacific students in ways that are congruent with their home culture. Informed by the principle of so’a lau pule (the Samoan concept of consensus through consultation and conversation) and ethnographic research methods, this study describes an attempt to rethink ways of teaching, learning and assessing student performance in a third-year course on Resource Conservation and Management in the School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment at the University of the South Pacific. Introduced in 2007, the Student Innovative Contribution to Knowledge (SICK) allows students to participate in key decisions concerning teaching, learning and assessment. SICK is grounded in the principles of inclusiveness and participation. It takes account of the skills and abilities of Pacific students and is aligned with the philosophical basis of Pacific cultures. One hundred and fifty-eight students took part in this study over a 5-year period. Analysis was based on students’ written reviews of the semester’s work, in-depth conversation with individual students and the end-of-the-course evaluation. The findings show that, while students embrace the need for non-conventional forms of teaching, learning and assessment, the most frequently cited responses for non-participation are poor time management and varying perceptions of what is considered an innovative assessment. This study shows that understanding the cultural background of students is critical to creating culturally inclusive learning environments.