Proposal of a National Mitigation Strategy Against Earthquakes in Turkey

While laboratory and analytical studies can provide valuable information about earthquake hazard mitigation, the most effective educator is the impact of a full-scale earthquake on a full-scale city. The recent earthquakes in Turkey showed that the governmental as well as individual attitudes towards earthquakes did not represent proportionate responses to the risk levels concerned. Turkey had weaknesses in preparing, planning, mitigating and responding to disasters in spite of the known seismic vulnerability of the country. Many steps have been taken after 1999 earthquakes in Turkey, however, the preparations largely concentrate on the response and recovery phases and a fundamental step to reform the current disaster management system and steps to rehabilitate the vulnerable building stock has not been undertaken until today. This would involve changing the present laws and regulations and de-centralising the disaster management system. The aim of this paper is to propose a national mitigation strategy for Turkey for a time-frame of 10 years. The model proposed is a very comprehensive model for earthquake risk reduction in Turkey and within this context, the legislative and technical aspects of mitigation will be discussed in detail. Strategies for mitigating and retrofitting the existing building stock will also be proposed.     

Finding work in 2001: urban–rural contrasts across England in employment rates and local job availability

Early results from the 2001 census of England allow a preliminary analysis of joblessness. People in the prime working ages (25–49) are more likely to be in work than those in their 50s, but the differences are quite subtle: in particular, men without qualifications are not much more likely to be in work when they are younger, despite the suggestions that too many men cease working in their 50s. The evidence supports the view that there is a national shortfall of demand for labour, that the low-skilled are the least able to compete for scarce jobs, and older people are the most likely to be unqualified. Moreover there is a strong spatial clustering of areas where job availability has declined or grown least, undermining the government's claim that there were often available jobs near to concentrations of people without work.     

Problems of the solution: intervention into small-scale irrigation for drought proofing in the Mekele Plateau of northern Ethiopia

The Mekele Plateau, located in the semi-arid northern highland region of Ethiopia, is a drought-prone, highly degraded area. It has long been neglected by policymakers and thus recurring famine, widespread poverty, armed conflicts and mass outmigration have contributed to the near collapse of the farming systems and the livelihoods of the population. Traditional stream diversion irrigation has been practised in this area for several centuries. The systems of water management in particular may be considered inappropriate owing to the need for thriftiness in water use imposed by the local environment. The systems of headworks and canals are crude and wasteful on water. Recent interventions to improve the small-scale irrigation systems of the area have not been successful. Most interventions have preferred to introduce rainwater harvesting systems using micro-dams rather than trying to upgrade the traditional diversion schemes. Evaluation of irrigation structures in the field, interviews with key informants in government, analysis of documents and discussions with irrigators indicate that both the Ministry of Agriculture and SAERT-Commission's rainwater harvesting programmes have generally failed. The case of the most recent intervention by SAERT has failed because of myopic project planning, inadequate engineering studies, unsound designs, too short a time for implementation, and lack of full farmer involvement at different levels of project planning and implementation.     

Influence of groundwater level change on vegetation coverage and their spatial variation in arid regions

Sampling and testing are conducted on groundwater depth and vegetation coverage in the 670 km2 of the Sangong River Basin and semi-variance function analysis is made afterwards on the data obtained by the application of geo-statistics. Results showed that the variance curve of the groundwater depth and vegetation coverage displays an exponential model. Analysis of sampling data in 2003 indicates that the groundwater depth and vegetation coverage change similarly in space in this area. The Sangong River Basin is composed of upper oasis, middle ecotone and lower sand dune. In oasis and ecotone, influenced by irrigation of the adjoining oasis, groundwater level has been raised and soil water content also increased compared with sand dune nearby, vegetation developed well. But in the lower reaches of the Sangong River Basin, because of descending of groundwater level, soil water content decreased and vegetation degenerated. From oasis to abandoned land and desert grassland, vegetation coverage and groundwater level changed greatly with significant difference respectively in spatial variation. Distinct but similar spatial variability exists among the groundwater depth and vegetation coverage in the study area, namely, the vegetation coverage decreasing (increasing) as the groundwater depth increases (decreases). This illustrates the great dependence of vegetation coverage on groundwater depth in arid regions and further implies that among the great number of factors affecting vegetation coverage in arid regions, groundwater depth turns out to be the most determinant one.     

Studies on wind environment around high buildings in urban areas

High buildings or architectural complex in urban areas remarkably distort the urban surface wind fields. As the air flow approaches,local strong wind may appear around the buildings. The strong wind makes the pedestrians on sidewalks, entrances and terrace very uncomfortable and causes the pedestrian level wind environment problem. In this studies, hot-wire wind measurement, wind scouring in wind tunnel and numerical computation were carried out to evaluate the wind environment of tall buildings in the prevailing flow conditions in Beijing areas. The results obtained by three techniques were compared and mutually verified. The conclusions drawn from three approaches agree with each other. Also the advantages and limitations of each method were analyzed. It is suggested that the combination of different techniques may produce better assessment of wind environment around high buildings.     

The diurnal and seasonal characteristics of urban heat island variation in Beijing city and surrounding areas and impact factors based on remote sensing satellite data

Based on the land surface temperature (LST), the land cover classification map,vegetation coverage, and surface evapotranspiration derived from EOS-MODIS satellite data, and by the use of GIS spatial analytic technique and multivariate statistical analysis method, the urban heat island (UHI) spatial distribution of the diurnal and seasonal variabilities and its driving forces are studied in Beijing city and surrounding areas in 2001. The relationships among UHI distribution and landcover categories, topographic factor, vegetation greenness, and surface evapotranspiration are analyzed. The results indicate that: (i) The significant UHI occur in Beijing city areas in the four seasons due to high heat capacity and multi-reflection of compression building, as well as with special topographic features of its three sides surrounded by mountains,especially in the summer. The UHI spatial distribution is corresponding with the urban geometry structure profile. The LST difference is approximately 4-6℃ between Beijing city and suburb areas, comparatively is 8- 10℃ between Beijing city area and outer suburb area in northwestern regions. (ii) The UHI distribution and intensity in daytime are different from nighttime in Beijing city area, the nighttime UHI is obvious. However, in the daytime, the significant UHI mainly appears in the summer, the autumn takes second place, and the UHI in the winter and the spring seem not obvious. The surface evapotranspiration in suburb areas is larger than that in urban areas in the summer, and high latent heat exchange is evident, which leads to LST difference between city area and suburb area. (iii) The reflection of surface landcover categories is sensitive to the UHI, the correlation between vegetation greenness and UHI shows obviously negative.The scatterplot shows that there is the negative correlation between NDVI and LST (R2 = 0.6481).The results demonstrate that the vegetation greenness is an important factor for reducing the UHI,and large-scale construction of greenbelts can considerably reduce the UHI effect.     

贵州喀斯特山区墓地利用管理与耕地保护

通过对贵州亮岩峰丛山地的墓地进行随机抽样调查和统计分析,显示出墓地在一定坡度上的特定地段有集中趋势;在对墓地选址与土层厚度进行显著性检验后表明:喀斯特地区土层厚度著性影响墓地分布。以至于绝大多数墓地集中分布在日照较好、排水畅通、土层较厚的阳坡山麓地带,以占用土层较厚的优质耕地为主。在现实的墓地利用管理实践中,实施统一规划、集中管理,建立有偿使用制度、严格用地指标,加强墓地绿化,实行墓地园林化建设等措施,以期综合性多元化开发利用墓地,有效保护耕地资源。     

青藏高原腹地植物碳同位素组成对环境条件的响应

现代植物碳同位素组成是特定环境影响的结果,通过对植物碳同位素组成的研究可以揭示植物生长期环境信息。针对青藏高原腹地高寒草甸~高寒草原过渡区植被碳同位素组成进行研究;该区高山嵩草样δ13C值在-25.63‰~-27.95‰间,平均值-26.63‰;高寒草原区混合样δ13C值于-26.29‰~-27.73‰间,平均值-27.04‰。高山嵩草样δ13C值总体呈现由南东往北西方向正偏趋势,研究区北部高寒草原区混合植物样也呈现出由南向北富重碳同位素趋势。这些变化规律被认为是主要受降水环境影响的结果,而区域内降水条件的展布规律则是受高原夏季风运移方式的控制。对植物δ13C值与地理位置的回归分析表明,该区植被碳同位素组成与地理位置相关,高山嵩草样(r=0.44603,n=29,p<0.05)和混合样(r=0.8112,n=5,p<0.1)均表现出对区域降水环境条件的良好响应。据此,以该区植物δ13C值为背景,进行合理推算,拟定了研究区内干旱区和湿润区界限的位置。     

2004年春季东海赤潮高发区COD分布及其与赤潮关系的初步研究

2004年4～5月初在东海赤潮高发区暴发的特大规模原甲藻赤潮前期和暴发初期对该海域进行的现场调查,并对该海域COD的分布特征进行了探讨。结果表明,赤潮暴发前COD为0．295-1.836mg／L,主要受陆源输入影响。根据其在局部海区底层出现的异常升高结合其他参数分析可对特定海区潜在赤潮暴发的可能性进行评估。赤潮暴发时COD为0．36～3．14mg／L,表层和中层与叶绿素存在显著正相关关系,表明其主要受生物影响。富营养化指数表明赤潮暴发前近一半海域已经处于富营养化状态,但COD对富营养化的贡献不如营养盐重要。     

四川盆周山地暖季单站暴雨事件的精细特征

利用四川省2010—2019年2 165个气象站逐小时降水资料,分区统计了四川盆周山地暖季(5—9月)单站暴雨事件的精细特征。结果表明:(1)四川省单站暴雨事件频数在川西山地与川西南山地呈密集的带状分布。川西与川西南山地通常在降水开始不久就达到雨量最大值,而川东北山地的峰值时间集中在暴雨事件中段。(2)盆周山地的暴雨系统整体呈自南向北由前半夜向后半夜传播的特征。川西南山地和川东北山地的暴雨系统分别呈现较弱的自南向北和自西向东传播,而川西山地的暴雨系统则存在明显的自西向东的传播特征。(3)长历时暴雨事件的峰值出现时间略落后于短历时暴雨事件。暴雨持续时间在空间上存在显著的经向差异,大值区主要位于川西山地和川东北山地一带,暴雨雨量、频次和峰值基本不随持续时间变化,但川西南山地的暴雨峰值则随持续时间的加长而推迟。(4)在四川省大部区域,单站暴雨事件的降水量、频次和强度均表现出随海拔高度升高而减小的特征。在成都平原西南部、东部以及川东北山地,夜间暴雨事件持续时间越长,降水量和频次在较高海拔越易出现最大值。