Shrinking New Orleans: Post-Katrina Population Adjustments

The flooding caused by hurricane Katrina in 2005 acted as a catalyst for an abrupt change of the demographic landscape of the New Orleans metropolitan area. New Orleans city proper has been a shrinking city for the last half century, but its population loss was balanced by expanding suburbs until 2005. Based on a comparison of the newly released 2010 census data with the 2000 data, this paper discusses the major population adjustments that have resulted from the disaster. Hurricane Katrina has caused the entire metropolitan area to shrink much faster than previous declines. Five years after the storm, New Orleans displays some limited signs of resilience, although the storm seems to have accelerated its population decline. Furthermore, a close examination of the available data shows us that Katrina has provoked a major change in the city's ethnic landscape.     

Suitability of a lumped rainfall–runoff model for flashy tropical watersheds in New Caledonia

ABSTRACT

The GR4H lumped hourly rainfall–runoff model was assessed for its integration in a ridge-to-reef modelling framework. Particular attention was paid to rainfall representation, robustness of parameter estimates and ability to reproduce the main runoff features. The study was conducted in four tropical mountainous watersheds in New Caledonia, which are exposed to intense rainfall events, large annual climatic variations triggered by El Niño oscillation, and wildfires. The inverse distance and elevation weighting algorithm outperformed other classical rainfall interpolation methods under data-limited conditions. The time span of data needed for robust calibration was site specific and varied from 6–7 years to 10 years, which may be linked to El Niño events and to wildfires. With sufficient data, simulation quality was equivalent during the calibration and validation periods. The GR4H model was generally able to simulate both flash floods and large annual variations. The model was more reliable when simulating wet years and watersheds not subject to land-cover changes.     

Model estimates of runoff in the closed,semiarid Estancia basin,central New Mexico,USA

Abstract

The 5000 km² topographically closed Estancia basin in central New Mexico has been the focus of several palaeoclimatic studies based on changes in the level of late Pleistocene Lake Estancia. A large, unknown volume of surface runoff and groundwater from adjacent mountains contributed to the hydrological balance during highstands and lowstands. The US Department of Agriculture hydrological model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and the US Geological Survey groundwater flow model MODFLOW, with the LAK2 package, were used in this study to estimate runoff and water balance under present climate. A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) interface was used for SWAT, digitized data were applied for soils and vegetation, and limited streamflow data were used to obtain an approximate calibration for the model. Simulated streamflow is generally within 30% of observed values, and simulated runoff for the entire basin is about 8% of the annual inflow volume needed to support lowstands of the former Lake Estancia. Results from the combined models suggest application to other palaeoclimate investigations in semiarid lake basins.     

基于雨洪综合管理的上海临港新城降雨径流水文模拟

针对当前城市严峻的雨洪生态环境问题,在多目标雨洪控制利用的视角下,确定了径流削减、洪涝控制、水质保障、雨水资源化利用的雨洪综合管理体系.基于GIS平台,结合上海市临港新城总体规划愿景,建设研究区雨洪综合管理GIS数据库.在两级集水区层面,对研究区未来的地表径流产流、洪水与内涝淹没、径流污染负荷进行了空间模拟,进而判别出研究区的径流削减重点控制区域、洪水与内涝高危区域、水质保障重点控制区域,并通过雨水资源化利用需求分析,确定了研究区雨水回收利用重点区域的雨水存储设施建设规模.结果表明:1)LEED标准降雨事件下,开发后相比开发前,研究区径流产流总量增加了637 776.87 m3 (23.44％);两级集水区中,径流削减重点控制区域分别占研究区总面积的43.10％、55.05％.2)研究区分别有10.61％、26.98％的用地存在较高的洪水和暴雨内涝风险.3)WQv标准降雨事件下,研究区NHa-N、TP、TSS 3种污染物的总负荷量分别达2.27 t、1.03 t、797.33 t;两级集水区中,水质保障重点控制区域分别占研究区总面积的39.24％、18.52％.本研究可为后续的城市雨洪综合管理提供依据,对城市水资源的可持续发展具有重要意义.     

Interpreting nested storm event suspended sediment-discharge hysteresis relationships at large catchment scales

Reducing soil erosion and sediment delivery into rivers is a major aim for land management in New Zealand. Therefore, it is important to identify areas of sediment generation and their relationship to in-stream suspended sediment concentrations and water quality attributes. It is possible to infer and assess sediment sources and dynamics using storm event suspended sediment concentration-discharge hysteresis shape and loop direction. Research in small catchments has achieved some success; however, research in larger (>10³ km²) catchments has shown the inherent difficulty of interpreting hysteresis patterns at larger scales. In this paper, we use a nested, long-term suspended sediment monitoring program across a large catchment (3,903 km²: Manawatū in New Zealand) to address these challenges. We evaluate the hysteresis patterns of five major tributaries (subcatchment areas 329–1,298 km²) of the Manawatū River together with the hysteresis patterns at the gauged catchment outlet. Hysteresis patterns of the Manawatū subcatchments can be characterized as predominantly clockwise, that is, high hysteresis index (HI) value. Larger storms (discharge >2 × 10⁷ m³) increase the likelihood of clockwise hysteresis directions, whereas smaller storms (discharge <2 × 10⁷ m³) are more likely to be anticlockwise. The link between suspended sediment concentration-discharge hysteresis and subcatchment sediment sources becomes increasingly attenuated within the larger subcatchments. High antecedent discharge negatively correlates to HI values, suggesting conditions immediately before the storm have an influence on whether the catchment is “primed” or “exhausted” with available sediment. The different storm categories indicate that within this catchment, whereas hysteresis patterns vary due to the spatial origin of discharge and sediment to some extent, storm magnitude has a stronger impact on hysteresis dynamics than spatial origin.     

Disrupting path dependency: Making room for Indigenous knowledge in river management

Scholars frequently identify how path dependency serves to constrain the process of climate adaptation and is a key feature of maladaptation. Most studies, however, centre on theoretical, rather than empirical-based discussions of what path dependency is, how it occurs, and what factors assist in breaking path dependency. This paper provides a case study for the creation, maintenance, and attempts to break path dependency within the management of rivers in the Rangitāiki Plains of Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1890s until 2017. We deploy a historical institutionalist theorising on path dependency and institutional arrangements, while also incorporating ideas from indigenous and postcolonial scholarship, which extends current understandings of the factors that contribute towards path dependency at a local level. Through archival research, we demonstrate how successive generations of government policies and actions directed with a specific goal and underpinned by the hegemonic social values created a profoundly path dependent system of managing rivers and flood events. Increased flood vulnerability is one of the direct consequences of the plethora of freshwater engineering interventions which were (and are still) undertaken on the Rangitāiki Plains over the last century. The foundation of this path dependency, we argue, resides with the processes of indigenous dispossession and the marginalisation of Māori values from environmental governance and policy. Efforts to break path dependency, therefore, involve the formal recognition of Māori governance, values, and knowledge within policies, and the translation of Māori values into tangible actions that seek to destabilise Western command-and control approaches to flood risk management.     

近30年天津滨海新区湿地景观格局遥感监测分析

在GIS和FRAGSTATS软件支持下,结合景观格局数量分析方法,利用1979-2008年间共6期TM遥感影像与非遥感数据,对天津滨海新区近30年的湿地景观空间格局进行了动态分析。结果表明,滨海新区湿地(以人工湿地为主),1979-2004年滨海新区湿地总面积变化不大,但各类型间转换较大,主要是自然湿地转变为人工湿地,沼泽湿地几近消失。2006-2008年,由于城市建设大量滨海滩涂湿地被围填占用,到2009年5月自然海岸线的90%以上被占用。景观破碎度增加,湿地斑块数量从137个增加到704个,同时造成平均斑块面积下降。驱动力分析表明,降雨量减少的同时,年平均气温上升是主要的自然驱动因素。和自然因素相比,人类干扰为主要人文驱动因素,表现在水产养殖为主的农业经济活动、城市建设用地占用和围海造地等方面。目前,滨海新区几乎没有自然湿地生态系统,破碎化和人工化是该区域湿地的主要特征。     

淄博市淄川区新农村建设工作初探

淄博市国土资源局淄川分局以保护耕地、科学规划、合理用地为指导思想,促进城乡土地规划与土地利用总体规划相衔接,加强农田水利综合治理,加大巡查执法检查力度,针对新农村建设中遇到的困难和问题,提出积极争取中央和省级政策支持,用足用活各项现行政策,加大对旧村土地整理的探索实践,抓好农村建设用地管理,积极探索土地征收制度改革,加强动态巡查。     

水合法测定活性MgO含量的试验条件研究

水合法是菱镁行业标准中规定的活性MgO含量测定方法,但标准水合法耗时较长,难以指导实际生产。采用正交试验方法全面系统地进行了水合法的试验条件研究,通过研究认识到影响活性MgO含量测定的因素及规律性,确定了测定活性MgO含量新的水合法操作条件。结果表明,新水合法与标准水合法的测试误差不超过±3%,满足标准试验方法的精度要求,为修订菱镁行业标准提供了重要依据。