考虑岩体开挖卸荷边坡岩体质量评价

正确评价开挖后岩体质量并对其进行分类,对研究岩石边坡开挖卸荷后的稳定性有十分重要的意义。以某水电站坝肩高边坡开挖工程为背景,运用卸荷岩体力学的理论与方法,对坝肩边坡开挖岩体进行三维有限元分析。根据边坡岩体开挖后应力应变场的动态变化情况,确定岩体开挖卸荷后质量损伤劣化程度,并根据岩体开挖卸荷后的力学参数,采用RMR法对开挖后的边坡岩体质量进行评价。结果表明,边坡岩体RMR值随开挖后卸荷量的增大基本呈线性递减趋势,进而考虑开挖卸荷影响因素,修正了RMR法中的评价参数,为以后用该法评价开挖后的岩体质量提供参考。     

水泥土搅拌桩桩身质量的电阻率分析

通过对某高速公路软基处理试验段水泥土搅拌桩芯样强度与电阻率指标的分析发现,水泥土搅拌桩的桩身质量与其施工工艺密切相关;在特定的施工工艺条件下,水泥掺入比与搅拌均匀性是影响桩身质量的2个重要因素;在相同深度处,桩身水泥土芯样的竖向电阻率高于其水平向电阻率;桩身水泥土芯样的电阻率与其无侧限抗压强度之间存在着很好的线性相关关系;水泥体芯样水平向电阻率的标准差在一定程度上反映了水泥掺入量和搅拌均匀性。综上所述,利用水泥土的电阻率及其相关指标对大规模施工条件下水泥土搅拌桩的桩身质量进行定量分析是一种经济、无损、简便和科学的方法。     

云南开远南洞地下河水质演变特征

在云南开远南洞地下河出口,连续19年采取旱、雨季水样进行水质变化监测,结果表明: ( 1)整体上地下水水质旱季好于雨季,历年旱季水质类型以良好为主,雨季则以较差为主; ( 2)水质变化阶段性明显: 1987— 1993年,离子浓度普遍较低,旱、雨季波动不大,水质多属Ⅰ 、Ⅱ 类,有机污染以NH+4 、NO-3 等为主; 1994—2000年,旱、雨季离子浓度均普遍升高且变化加剧, N H+4 、As、Cd、Cr、Mn出现历年最大值,金属离子污染日趋加剧,水质以Ⅱ 、Ⅲ 类为主; 2001— 2005年,旱、雨季离子浓度有升有降,以升为主, Pb、Zn、Cl- 、SO2-4 出现历年最大值,水质以Ⅱ 、Ⅲ 类为主。南洞地下河水质19年来发生了较大的变化,污染日趋严重。分析认为该地下河水质逐步变差与上游补给区盆地内经济发展状况密切相关。为此,提出了采用自动监测等方法加强地下河动态变化监测研究以及实行分区、分级管理等水质保护的具体对策建议。      

小尺度地形因子对农地土壤质量的影响研究

地形差异是土地利用结构和空间分布格局分异的重要影响因子,也是土地质量的重要参评因素.选择泰山东麓多种地貌类型过渡区,利用数字高程模型(DEM)提取研究区坡度、高程等地形因子信息,通过GIS空间分析划分研究区农地土壤质量等级,利用SPSS统计分析高程、坡度等地形因子对土壤质量的影响.结果表明:土壤质量等级随地形变化呈规律性演替,坡度和高程与土壤质量呈极显著相关关系,且坡度对土壤质量的影响大于高程;随着坡度的上升,土壤质量分值呈抛物线趋势,而随着高程的上升,土壤质量呈降低趋势,且各高程段内不同坡度等级土壤质量分值也呈抛物线走势;土壤质量的最高分值位于坡度2°～5°、高程0～150 m的地形部位.     

属性识别模型在艾比湖水质评价中的应用

根据新疆博尔塔拉蒙古自治州环境监测站对艾比湖5个代表性的监测断面最近5年的水质实测资料,结合熵权法和国家地表水环境质量标准系统地建立了属性识别模型,运用属性计算和属性得分详细评价了艾比湖的水质.模型评价结果表明:艾比湖的水质污染主要为氨氮、磷、砷的污染.就空间而言,湖心2水质较好,没有出现V类水质,其次为喇叭口,博乐河口与精河河口水质较差;就时间而言,2003年各监测断面水质均属I类,之后逐渐恶化,到2008年半数以上的监测断面属于V类水质,且与改进密切值法的评价结果比较,结果较吻合.采用属性识别模型评价湖泊水质,概念清晰,计算简单,评价结果客观、合理,可以反映出艾比湖水质的现状,是湖泊水质评价中简便实用的评价方法之一.     

Recent water quality trends and a comparison to sediment-core records for two riverine lakes of the Upper Mississippi River basin: Lake St. Croix and Lake Pepin

Long-term water quality monitoring data from two riverine lakes in the Upper Mississippi River basin, Lakes St. Croix and Pepin, were analyzed to compare the long-term average water quality conditions and land use distributions, water quality trends and loads at lake inlets and outlets, trends from long-term versus short-term monitoring records, and the ability of paleolimnological cores to accurately infer lake water quality conditions. During the 1976–2004 period, the long-term average concentrations of nutrients, suspended solids, and chlorophyll-a were consistently lower at the Lake St. Croix inlet versus the Lake Pepin inlet, which drains a greater proportion of urban and agricultural runoff. Despite these differences, nutrient trends were similar at the inlets to both lakes; reductions in total phosphorus and ammonium concentrations were attributed to improvements in point source technologies, whereas increasing nitrate concentrations were attributed to both point source changes and nonpoint source increases. Despite improvements in several water quality variables, nitrate concentrations are increasing in both lakes, sediment trends indicate persistent nonpoint source inputs to Lake Pepin, and current total phosphorus concentrations remain well above pre-1950s levels in both lakes. Since urban development and agriculture are increasing in the Lake St. Croix and Lake Pepin Watersheds, continued point source regulation and additional nonpoint source control efforts will be needed to further improve water quality in these lakes. The 1976–2004 trends for most water quality variables were similar at inlet versus outlet sites on Lake St. Croix. Trends at Lake Pepin inlet versus outlet sites were less similar, but data availability limited the comparison to the 1993–2003 period. While the truncated data record highlighted short-term trends in both lakes, the full data record was most useful for exploring general patterns in water quality. Length of monitoring record affected our ability to detect trends at the inlets to both lakes, and altered the magnitude of detected trends. During the two decades of the 1980s and 1990s, paleolimnological estimates of retained phosphorus loads were similar to those estimated from recent water quality monitoring. These similarities support the use of paleolimnological approaches to infer past water quality conditions in Lakes St. Croix and Pepin. This is one of eight papers dedicated to the “Recent Environmental History of the Upper Mississippi River” published in this special issue of the Journal of Paleolimnology. D. R. Engstrom served as guest editor of the special issue.     

A length-biased version of the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution with application in water quality

In this article, we develop a new model based on the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution that results to be both useful and practical for environmental sciences. The density, distribution and hazard functions, moments and properties of this new model are presented. A graphical analysis of the density is also provided. Furthermore, we estimate parameters, propose asymptotic inference and discuss influence diagnostics by using likelihood methods for the new distribution. An illustrative example with real data related to water quality indicates the adequacy on the new distribution.     

International co-operation on Rhine water quality 1945-2008: An example to follow?

The management of the Rhine is often seen as an exemplary case of international river basin management. In the Rhine basin, countries that went to war with each other twice in the last century have managed to reach agreements on many issues and water quality has improved considerably. The improvement in water quality is often attributed to the activities of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine and in particular to its Rhine Action Plan. In order to test this assertion, this paper describes and analyzes the development of international co-operation on the water quality of the Rhine since 1945. It concludes that water quality improvement cannot be attributed to any single factor. Instead, a whole array of interrelated factors are at play, including the European Union, other international fora such as the North Sea Ministerial Conferences, domestic legislation, the activities of environmental NGOs and waterworks, growing environmental awareness, and the changing structure of the industry in the basin. Because of the importance of contextual factors, the Rhine experiences cannot simply be applied to basins with a different context. In many cases, international river basin management may be promoted most effectively by promoting co-operation at the river basin level. In many other cases, however, it may be more effective to identify and then work on the contextual factors that (1) have the biggest leverage effect in the specific case and (2) can be influenced most effectively.     

Weather-induced temporal variations in nitrate concentrations in shallow groundwater

For the evaluation of policy action programs to improve groundwater quality, research institutes and governments intensively monitor nitrate concentrations in shallow or near surface groundwater. However, trend detection is often hampered by the large seasonal and multi-annual temporal variability in nitrate concentrations, especially in shallow groundwater within 0–5 m below the surface in relatively humid regions. This variability is mainly caused by variations in precipitation excess (precipitation minus evapotranspiration) that results in strong variability in groundwater recharge. The objective of this study was to understand and quantify this weather-induced variability in shallow groundwater nitrate concentrations.We present an example of measured weather related variations in shallow groundwater nitrate concentrations from De Marke, an intensively monitored experimental farm in The Netherlands. For the quantification of the weather-induced variability, concentration-indices were calculated using a 1D model for water and solute transport. The results indicate that nitrate concentrations in the upper meter of groundwater at De Marke vary between 55% and 153% of the average concentration due to meteorological variability. The concentration-index quantification method was successfully used to distinguish weather related variability from human-induced trends in the nitrate concentration monitoring data from De Marke. Our model simulations also shows that sampling from fixed monitoring wells produces less short term variability than measuring from open boreholes. In addition, using larger screen depths and longer screens filters out short term temporal variability at the cost of a more delayed detection of trends in groundwater quality.     

Deriving hillslope sediment budgets in wildfire-affected forests using fallout radionuclide tracers

Information on post-fire sediment and nutrient redistribution is required to underpin post-fire catchment management decisions. Fallout radionuclide budgets (²¹⁰Pb_xs, ¹³⁷Cs and ⁷Be) were derived to quantify soil redistribution and sediment yield in forested terrain following a moderately severe wildfire in a small (89 ha) water supply catchment in SE Australia. Application of these techniques in burnt terrain requires careful consideration of the partitioning of radionuclides between organic and mineral soil components. Beryllium-7 and ²¹⁰Pb_xs were shown to be closely associated with ash, litter and soil organic matter whereas ¹³⁷Cs was more closely associated with subsurface coarse mineral soil. Comparison of the three tracer budgets indicated that the dominant sediment source areas were ridgetops and steep valley sideslopes, from which burnt surface material was conveyed to the stream network via pre-existing gullies. Erosion was predominantly driven by sheetwash, enhanced by soil water repellency, and modified by bioturbation which both supplies subsurface sediment and provides sinks for erosive overland flow. Footslope and riparian zones were not important sediment source areas. The estimated event-based (wildfire and subsequent rainfall) sediment yield is 58 ± 25 t km^− 2, based on fallout ⁷Be measurements. The upper estimate of total particulate phosphorus yield (0.70 kg ha^− 1) is more than 10 times that at equivalent unburnt sites. This illustrates that, soon after fire, burnt eucalypt forest can produce nutrient loads similar to those of agricultural catchments. The tracer budgets indicate that wildfire is an important control on sediment and phosphorus inputs to the stream network over the decadal timeframe and the pulsed nature of this release is an important concern for water quality management.