Polychaete/amphipod ratio as an indicator of environmental impact related to offshore oil and gas production along the Norwegian continental shelf

Benthic faunal data is regularly collected worldwide to assess the ecological quality of marine environments. Recently, there has been renewed interest in developing biological indices able to identify environmental status and potential anthropogenic impacts. In this paper we evaluate the performance of a general polychaete/amphipod ratio along the Norwegian continental shelf as an environmental indicator for offshore oil and gas impacts. Two main trends are apparent: first, a contamination gradient is discernible from where production takes place compared to stations 10,000 m away. Second, the quality of the marine environment has improved over time. These results are consistent with monitoring reports employing a combination of uni- and multi-variate statistics. Thus, we consider this ratio as a relatively simple, useful and potentially cost-effective complement to other more demanding assessment techniques. Because of its strong theoretical basis, it may also be useful for detecting ecological change as a result of other activities.     

环境规制对无锡市区污染密集型制造业区位选择的影响

随着生态环境的恶化,发达地区制造业区位选择表现出强烈的环境容量制约性和政府规制主导性.本文在对1998-2008年无锡市区污染密集型制造业格局演变分析的基础上,构筑了引入环境规制影响因子的企业区位演变理论分析框架,并运用GIS空间自回归模型,对以上理论框架进行验证.结果表明,1998-2003年影响企业区位选择的主要要素为交通可达性、土地价格、开发区规划等,而环境规制相关要素对其影响不显著;而2003-2008年,表征环境规制影响强度的水质目标、清水通道等因子对制造业区位选择的影响显著,这表明环境规制开始成为影响污染密集型制造业区位的重要因子.本研究对于正确制定城市产业结构调整政策和合理引导经济环境协调发展具有重要的理论借鉴意义.     

Environmental impact of geothermal fluids on surface water, groundwater and streambed sediments in the Akarcay Basin, Turkey

In this study, the impact of geothermal water on ground and surface waters has been investigated in Akarcay Basin, Turkey. The release of thermal return water from district heating in the city of Afyon and from thermal baths has a considerable environmental impact on the main stream. Historical analyses of stream water quality data show that the present pollution is associated primarily with thermal return water of district heating system. Currently, about 6% of stream water comprises of thermal water. The pollution seems to degrade the water quality in Lake Eber. Streambed sediments were found to be in equilibrium with polluted water and may lead to additional pollution in lake water. Thermal groundwater intrusion to fresh water production wells was detected mainly at sites close to geothermal fields. Solutions to remove thermal water from surface environment are suggested.     

Probing the (in)compatibilities of social theory and policy relevance in Piers Blaikie’s political ecology

One of Piers Blaikie’s most important contributions to the development of political ecology is his critique of land and resource conservation policy in the global South. In this paper I trace the development of Blaikie’s ideas about the policy relevance of political ecology, focusing particularly on the challenges posed by the introduction of poststructural social theory into the field. I begin by revisiting Blaikie’s earlier critiques of environment and development policy. This will provide the departure point to explore how his thinking on the relationship of theory and policy and of academic and development practices has evolved in subsequent writings. I have invented two personas, “early Blaikie” and “late Blaikie”, to facilitate this task. Second, I want to probe some of the challenges that late Blaikie presents for doing political ecology research, to some extent by pitting early Blaikie against late Blaikie and letting them hash it out. Third, I turn to my own and others’ research and consultation experiences as a way to examine the possibilities for reconciling theoretically driven critiques with policy relevant research.     

富宁微细浸染型金矿及远景

富宁金矿地处著名的滇黔桂“金三角”成矿带上,金矿资源远景与地层、构造、岩浆岩建造有显著内在联系,地球物理、化学性质有着突出表现特征,金矿床在规模、数量和资源量上都有极大潜力。     

濮阳市主要地下水环境问题及防治对策研究

随着濮阳这座新兴城市的迅猛发展,出现了一些列环境地质问题,通过对水资源衰竭、地下水污染、地面沉降、特殊岩土体、采油污染等主要环境地质问题的论述,分析其成因及演化趋势,并提出相应的防治对策,将对其他位于黄河下游冲积平原的城市具有积极的借鉴意义。     

Do river deltas in east India retreat? A case of the Krishna Delta

The construction of multiple dams and barrages in many Indian River basins over the last few decades significantly reduced river flow to the sea and affected the sediment regime. More reservoir construction is planned through the proposed National River Linking Project (NRLP), which will transfer massive amounts of water from the North to the South of India. The impacts of these developments on fertile and ecologically sensitive deltaic environments are poorly understood and quantified at present. In this paper an attempt is made to identify, locate and quantify coastal erosion and deposition processes in one of the major river basins in India—the Krishna—using a time series of Landsat images for 1977, 1990 and 2001 with a spatial resolution ranging from 57.0 m to 28.5 m. The dynamics of these processes are analyzed together with the time series of river flow, sediment discharge and sediment storage in the basin. Comparisons are made with similar processes identified and quantified earlier in the delta of a neighboring similarly large river basin—the Godavari. The results suggest that coastal erosion in the Krishna Delta progressed over the last 25 years at the average rate of 77.6 ha yr^− 1, dominating the entire delta coastline and exceeding the deposition rate threefold. The retreat of the Krishna Delta may be explained primarily by the reduced river inflow to the delta (which is three times less at present than 50 years ago) and the associated reduction of sediment load. Both are invariably related to upstream reservoir storage development.     

基于动恣规划的整体影像匹配

影像匹配是数字摄影测量工作的基础。考虑到多条核线上的匹配点，本文提出了一种基于动态规划的整体影像匹配方法，构造了一种新的立体匹配模型，并将该模型转化成为简单的一维动态规划模型，采用对角线的方法划分阶段，用视差较和相关系数来构造阶段的代价函数，从而得到了基于动态规划的整体最优匹配结果。     

A new global alignment approach for underwater optical mapping

Lately, underwater vehicles have become important tools for exploration, monitoring and creation of maps of the seabed. Within mapping applications, the maps obtained from optical data are becoming essential in different study areas such as biological, geological and archaeological surveys, or in detection of benthic temporal changes. However, the underwater medium is very challenging for optical sensors and does not allow the area of interest to be imaged in a single image. Therefore, image mosaicing methods are necessary. Although recent advances in detection of correspondences between images have resulted in highly effective image registration methods, global alignment methods are still needed to obtain a globally coherent mosaic. In this paper, we propose a new global alignment method which works on the mosaic frame and does not require non-linear optimisation. Additionally, a simple image rectifying method is presented to reduce the down-scaling effect which might occur when minimising errors defined in the mosaic frame. Moreover, this rectifying method can also be seen as an alternative and straightforward way of incorporating different sensor information if available. The proposed framework has been tested with underwater image sequences. The resulting method is faster than its counterparts while providing the same level of registration quality.     

Environmental transformation of the Bilbao estuary,N. Spain: microfaunal and geochemical proxies in the recent sedimentary record

The distribution and abundance of benthic foraminifera and a range of elements have been analysed in six long cores (up to 10 m long) from the Bilbao estuary, N. Spain, to document environmental transformation of this estuarine ecosystem and to determine sediment contamination levels. Three different environmental zones could be distinguished in the recent sedimentary record based on its microfaunal and geochemical contents. Initially, a pre-industrial zone containing very abundant and diverse foraminiferal assemblages together with baseline metal levels. Secondly, an older industrial zone exhibiting co-existence of abundant and diverse foraminiferal assemblages with high concentrations of metals. Finally, a younger industrial zone with extreme concentrations of metals and barren of indigenous foraminifera. This environmental transformation has been caused by the discharge of untreated domestic and industrial effluents during the last 150 years. The occurrence of foraminifera in the two industrial zones and along the estuary is not related to defined levels of metals, and this seems to confirm oxygen limitation as the key factor to explain complete estuarine defaunation during deposition of the younger industrial zone (period 1950-2000). Effectiveness of current regeneration schemes could be assessed using microfaunal and geochemical proxies as environmental quality indicators.