Imagining difference: the experiences of 'transnational' Indian IT professionals in Germany

In this paper we explore the motivations to migrate and the migration experiences of 22 Indian IT professionals in Germany. When studying skilled migration, Germany is an interesting case as it struggled with waves of extreme right activities whilst trying to attract IT professionals from outside the European Union at the same time. In this context, we are interested in the conflicts that the migrants may experience as a result of their desire or obligation to move, their specific cultural baggage and the way in which they encounter the different sides of German society.     

德国联邦地学研究中心与全德天然气水合物研究

简要介绍了德国联邦地学研究中心及全德天然气水合物调查研究现状与成果,特别是对“太阳号”在“水合物海脊”和SO177-1航次在中国南海等的科学调查及研究成果进行了介绍。     

德国能源转型进程及对中国的启示

总结发达国家能源转型过程中的经验和教训,对中国推动能源转型和实现“双碳”目标具有重要意义。文中回顾了中国和德国电力结构的演变进程,阐述了中国和德国能源转型的机制,并以2022年3月19日为例,分析了德国电力系统灵活性调节的经验。研究表明,健全的法律体系为德国能源转型提供了重要保障,“煤炭委员会”和相关财政支持有效解决了煤电转型过程中的问题,电力市场化是发展可再生主体新型电力系统的重要前提,风力和光伏发电精准预测与管理是可再生能源消纳的关键,煤电和互联互通的欧洲电网是当前德国电力供给的重要保障,过于激进的退煤去核战略是造成2022年德国能源危机的重要原因。最后,从法律保障、市场改革和可再生能源预测与管理等方面提出了中国能源转型的政策建议。     

中德海洋空间规划法律体系建设及启示

文章针对中国海洋空间规划涉及的法律、行政法规和地方法规,以及德国海洋空间规划相关领域法律法规进行梳理。在核心法律、立法体系层次、涉及海域、与陆地空间规划的联系4个方面对两国海洋空间规划法律体系进行异同分析,探讨我国未来可行的海洋空间规划法制建设方向。提出推动海洋空间规划专项立法,规范地方立法建设,重视专属经济区与大陆架空间规划,有机结合陆海空间规划等建议。同时展望了我国和世界海洋空间规划法律体系的建设趋势。     

Numerical studies on saltwater intrusion in a coastal aquifer in northwestern Germany

Saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers depends on the distribution of hydraulic properties, on the climate, and on human interference such as land reclamation. In order to analyze the key processes that control saltwater intrusion, a hypothetical steady-state salt distribution in a representative cross-section perpendicular to the coastline was calculated using a two-dimensional density-dependent solute transport model. The effects of changes in groundwater recharge, lowering of drainage levels, and a rising sea level on the shape and position of the freshwater/saltwater interface were modeled in separate simulations. The results show that the exchange of groundwater and surface water in the marsh areas is one of the key processes influencing saltwater intrusion. A rising sea level causes rapid progression of saltwater intrusion, whereas the drainage network compensates changes in groundwater recharge. The time scale of changes resulting from altered boundary conditions is on the order of decades and centuries, suggesting that the present-day salt distribution does not reflect a steady-state of equilibrium.     

Standardization of vulnerability maps

Groundwater vulnerability assessment schemes are used for the estimation of potential groundwater contamination at different scales and on different administrative levels. However, the term vulnerability is not standardized and the available methods are not able to give a unique assessment of vulnerability creating thus uncertainty in the interpretation and in further application concerning decision creation processes. To judge the information of vulnerability maps certainly and to value the general trends of vulnerability assessment of different methods, four different vulnerability methods of the parametric system group have been applied on a karst area in southwestern Germany to perform a comparative assessment and correlation of these vulnerability assessment methods, namely DRASTIC, PI, EPIK, and GLA. It is shown that by means of simple statistical considerations the first highly different vulnerability maps could be made more coherent after reclassification. The reclassified vulnerability assessments show a more consistent vulnerability distribution pattern and provide the possibility of area-wide validation of the maps as the chosen vulnerability classification is theoretically connected to the mean transit time of percolation water and is largely independent of the applied vulnerability assessment method.     

Defining the subject of speech - Constructions of authorship in post-unification German media discourse

This paper analyses how the authority of west German media workers to produce ‘truthful’ representations about unification and eastern Germany after 1989 was discursively constructed. Rather than simply assuming the superiority of western knowledge, I show that the right of western media producers to speak for and about east Germany had to be constructed and defended discursively on a number of registers. Western journalists, in particular, had to demonstrate their credibility towards west and east German audiences, evidence their ability to report objectively and authoritatively, and prove themselves superior in the production of knowledge. Their truth claims had to be negotiated in the midst of a range of competing discourses. The complicated constitution of audiences meant that western journalists had to cast themselves in various different roles to justify their position as ‘knowing subjects’: as explorers, surveyors, observers, commentators, mediators and/or educators. The paper explores, how the divergence between these different positions was reconciled through a number of discursive strategies. I highlight the ambivalences and internal contradictions produced within journalistic discourses as well as through the existence of differentiated audiences.     

Site-specific response spectra from the combination of microzonation with probabilistic seismic hazard assessment—An example for the Cologne (Germany) area

Seismic noise was measured at some 20 sites in the Cologne area (Germany) aligned nearly perpendicular to a graben structure. The H/V spectral noise ratio for each site was used to derive realistic S-wave velocity profiles down to the bedrock by means of a genetic algorithm inversion. Numerical simulations were performed for different combinations of source and propagation path parameters: focal depth, epicentral distance, attenuation and fault mechanism. Synthetic seismograms were produced and converted to Fourier and response spectra. Finally, the site-specific values from response spectral ratios, with their uncertainties, were used to modify attenuation functions entering the logic-tree algorithm of the probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA). The site-specific response spectra show the significance of taking into account the local S-wave velocity structure in PSHA.