欧盟碳减排目标的经济可能性评估

经济发展与能源消耗有着密切的关系,文章通过选取1994年至2009年欧盟27国的人口、经济和能源数据,利用碳排放动力学模型对欧盟关于2050年前削减温室气体排放80-95%的承诺进行预测,并对欧盟目标下的减排情景进行了分析。结果表明：（1）以当前的技术进步速率下,沿最优平稳经济增长路线,到2050年欧盟的碳排放量将为775.608MtC,达不到预定的减排要求;（2）在最优经济增长速度得出总能源消费量的基础上,采用调整能源结构与碳捕捉技术,预期可以达到设定减排80%的任务。其每一期的煤炭占比、石油占比、天然气占比应分别有4%、2.26%、1.23%转移至非碳能源占比,非碳能源的上升速率应达到2.21%/年;（3）若以历史的能源结构转移趋势预测未来的能源结构占比,即使考虑能源利用效率和碳捕捉技术的预期目标,欧盟仍然达不到在2050年的减排目标;（4）考虑欧盟提出的四种减排路径上下限组合,可预计出到2050年欧盟的减排范围在80.51%-87.16%;（5）若欧盟重振工业（特别是制造业）,即使考虑欧盟制定的减排路径,仍存在着达不到减排预期的可能。     

中国能源消费增长特征及影响因素分析

以煤炭消费为主、总量增长迅速、结构演进缓慢、使用效率低下使得中国目前能源消费调控问题面临诸多困难。本文使用多元回归模型和通径分析法确定了中国能源消费增长的主要因子及各因子的作用机理,结果发现：影响中国能源消费的主要因素按照影响程度依次为经济增长、城市化水平、对外贸易、人口总量、能源消费结构及能源利用效率,其中经济增长、人口规模扩大是直接推动中国能源消费增长的原因,而城市化水平和对外贸易规模则通过间接作用推动能源消费增长,能源消费结构的改善和能源利用效率的提高表面上看起来会引发能源消费增加,但是其间接影响都是负的,从而使得这两个因素整体上表现为减缓了能源消费增长。     

水源保护区农业发展模式研究——以昆明市松华坝水源二、三级保护区为例

昆明市政府对松华坝水源保护区实施了"全面禁牧、禁渔业、禁花限菜、限制规模化养殖"等环境保护政策,加强了对城市水源地的保护力度,然而政策的实施将对水源地经济的发展有一定的限制作用,因此在政策限制的情况下进行水源地农业发展模式的研究,将充分考虑水源保护区政策、资源、市场、技术、农户意愿五大因素,采用实地调查、对比分析法、投入产出比等方法,提出了核桃林未成林间种洋芋模式,成林后林下种植金银花的连续发展模式和"以有机野生菌为精品,无公害金针菇种植为主"市场差异化发展的模式。     

Using live vegetation volume to analyze the effects of plot Pinus massoniana Lamb on water and soil conservation under natural rainfall events

The 3-D spatial distributions of vegetation are of great significance for water and soil conservation but are rarely concerned in literatures. The live vegetation volume （LVV） was used to relate to water/soil loss under 144 natural erosive rainfall events from 2007 to 2010 in a typical water-eroded area of southern China. Quadratic polynomial regression models were established for five pure tree （Pinus massoniana Lamb） plots between LVV and water （rtmoff）/soil conservation effects （RE/SE）. RE/SE corresponds to the ratios of runoff depth/soil loss of the pure tree plots to that of the control plot under each rainfall event. Increasing LVV exhibits descending （DS）, descending-ascending （DA）, ascending-descending （AD）, and ascending （AS） trends in the LVV-RE and LVV-SE curves. The effects of soil conservation on the plots were generally more noticeable than the effects of water conservation, and most of the RE and SE values reflected the positive effects of water and soil conservation. The effects were mainly positive under heavy rains （e.g., rainfall erosivity, R = 140 MJ mm ha-l h, maximum 30 min intensity, I30 = 16 mm h-l）, whereas the effects were mainly negative under light rains （e.g., R = 45 MJ mm ha-1 h, I30 = 8 mm h-l）. The trees＇ water/soil conservation effects notably transformed when rainfall erosivity and intensity were lower than the positive or negative effects to a certain threshold. About 50% rainfall events led to obvious transform effects when LVVs were near 0.5 or 0.6. These results are able to aid in the decision making on the forest reconstruction in water-eroded areas.     

Seismic response of steel structures with seesaw systems using viscoelastic dampers

Vibration control systems are being used increasingly worldwide to provide enhanced seismic protection for new and retrofitted buildings. This paper presents a new vibration control system on the basis of a seesaw mechanism with viscoelastic dampers. The proposed vibration control system comprises three parts: brace, seesaw member, and viscoelastic dampers. In this system, only tensile force appears in bracing members. Consequently, the brace buckling problem is negligible, which enables the use of steel rods for bracing members. By introducing pre‐tension in rods, long steel rods are applicable as bracing between the seesaw members and the moment frame connections over some stories. Seesaw mechanisms can magnify the damper deformation according to the damper system configuration. In this paper, first, the magnification factor, that is, the ratio of the damper deformation to the story drift, is delivered, which includes the rod deformation. Results of a case study demonstrate that the magnification factor of the proposed system is greater than unity for some cases. Seismic response analysis is conducted for steel moment frames with the proposed vibration control system. Energy dissipation characteristics are examined using the time‐history response results of energy. The maximum story drift angle distributions and time‐history response results of displacement show that the proposed system can reduce the seismic response of the frames effectively. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical and experimental investigations on seismic performance of exterior beam–column subassemblages of existing RC‐framed building

Seismic performance of exterior beam–column subassemblages of reinforced concrete structure designed and detailed on the basis of the provisions of Eurocode and Indian Standards at different stages of their evolution is evaluated. Performance of the subassemblages designed and detailed according to the three different stages of codal evolution (gravity load design, ‘Nonductile’, and ‘Ductile’) is evaluated through analytical formulations and experimental investigations. In the ‘NonDuctile’ specimens, it has been observed that the shear distortion and degradation in stiffness and strength are significantly high. Performance of the ‘Ductile’ specimens based on Eurocode and Indian Standards is almost similar in terms of strength and stiffness degradation. Nevertheless, the specimen designed on the basis of Indian Standard shows higher energy dissipation at a given drift ratio. In the analytical study, shear and flexural failure of members of subassemblage and shear failure of the joint are considered as possible modes of failure of the beam–column subassemblage. For evaluating the shear strength of the joint region, a soften strut‐and‐tie model is used. Analytically obtained strengths based on the failure criteria of different components of the specimens have been first validated with experimental results and then used to determine the strength of the specimens. The investigation could indicate even the mode of failure at local level. It is utmost important to mention here that even the ductile specimens dissipate most of the energy through the development of damage in the joint region, which is neither desirable nor safe for the stability of whole structure. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of climate and land-use change on green-water variations in the Middle Yellow River,China

Abstract

Water resources management should cover both blue water and green water. For green-water management at the river drainage basin scale, the green-water coefficient (C _gw) is adopted, defined as the ratio of annual green water to annual precipitation. Based on data from the Middle Yellow River basin, China, for the period 1950 to 2007, we studied the temporal variation in C _gw in response to some influencing factors. A decreasing trend in C _gw was found. The influence of changes in land management on C _gw, reflected by an increase in the area (A _sw) of soil and water conservation measures, is emphasized. Using multiple regression analysis, the contributions of A _sw and the 5-year moving averages of annual precipitation and air temperature were estimated as 51, 37 and 12%, respectively. The results may provide useful information for better management of water resources, including green and blue water flows in the Yellow River basin.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor D. Gerten

Citation Xu, J.-X., 2013. Effects of climate and land-use change on green-water variations in the Middle Yellow River, China. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (1), 1–12.     

Migration of volatile organic contaminations (VOCs) through a deforming clay liner

A fully coupled thermal–hydraulic–mechanical–chemical (THMC) model was proposed to describe the migration of volatile organic contaminations (VOCs) in unsaturated landfill liners. The vertical soil stress, capillary pressure, air pressure, temperature increase, and solute concentration were selected as the primary variables. Finite deformations were described using Lagrangian coordinates. Non-isothermal moisture transport was found to be dependent on both the temperature gradient and the concentration of the VOCs. The VOCs were assumed to exist and be transported in three phases in the soil: solid, liquid, and gas. An illustrative example of an unsaturated landfill with a compacted clay liner was presented. For the case considered, the transport of gas phase VOCs was found to dominate the migration progress. Moreover, the temperature gradient can accelerate the breakthrough of VOCs in an unsaturated liner, while the mechanical consolidation slowed down the motion of the VOCs.     

A vortex-tube model of eddies in the inertial range

Abstract

A vortex-tube geometry of the cascade of energy to small-scale eddies, in the inertial range of fully-developed turbulence, is proposed. The model is a special case of the beta model of Frisch, Sulem and Nelkin (1978). We require that the cascade conserve the principal invariants of inviscid, incompressible flow, namely volume, topological knottedness, circulation, and, at discrete times marking the termination of steps in the cascade, energy. The process terminates in a finite time, as in any beta model, leaving behind a self-similar network of “inactive” tubes. We associate a self-similar scaling dimension D with the structure, equal to the Hausdorff dimension of the set of “active” tubes at the termination of the cascade. Because circulation Λ plays a key role in the analysis of the cascade, we refer to these vortex-tube geometries as “gamma models”. The viewpoint throughout is entirely deterministic.

We describe two examples of gamma models. In the ring geometry, an eddy is a vortex ring, and the cascade produces “rings upon rings”, so we allow cutting and fusing of tubes while conserving total helicity. In the preferred helical model, no cutting is needed, and the cascade produces an infinite progression of braided “coils upon coils”. We suggest that latter geometry as a candidate for the topology of a singularity of the inviscid limit of a Navier-Stokes flow, when modeled by discrete vortex tubes.

A crucial ingredient of a gamma model, not explicitly present in a beta model, is the possibility of “splitting” a vortex tube into sub-tubes carrying smaller circulation. We suggest a dynamical basis for this process, as an instability of tubes whose cores violate the Rayleigh criterion.

The parameters describing a gamma model are not uniquely determined by our study, but there is a “simplest” helical gamma model, involving minimal splitting and distortion of tubes. The dimension D of the structure is 13/5, with a scale factor Λ = 2^?5/4. This value of D agrees with that suggested by Hentschel and Procaccia (1982), by analogy with established results for certain branched polymers.     

On the growth of disturbances to forced and dissipated barotropic flows

Abstract

We consider the growth of disturbances to large-scale zonally-asymmetric steady states in a truncated spectral model for forced and dissipated barotropic flow. A variant of the energy method is developed to optimize the instantaneous disturbance energy growth rate. The method involves solving a matrix eigenvalue problem amenable to standard numerical techniques. Two applications are discussed. (1) The global stability of a family of steady states is assessed in terms of the Ekman damping coefficient r. It is shown that monotonic global stability (i.e., every disturbances energy monotonically decays to zero) prevails when r≥r_c . (2) Initially fastest-growing disturbances are constructed in the r<r_c regime. Particular attention is paid to a subregion of the r<r_c regime where initially-growing disturbances exist despite stability with respect to normal modes. Nonlinear time-dependent simulations are performed in order to appraise the time evolution of various disturbances.