King Canute muses in the South Seas: Why aren’t Pacific Islands transitioning to low carbon sea transport futures?

Transition to low carbon sea transport is a logical response to the extreme dependency of the Pacific Islands region on imported fossil fuel, its significant vulnerability to the effects of climate change and the critical shipping needs of Pacific Island countries (PICs). Building on previous work in low carbon sea transport in the Pacific, this paper further considers the barriers to achieving such transition by assessing, through a ‘post-Paris Agreement’ lens, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by PICs and contrasting these to the near total lack of investment and planning for low carbon transition in the transport sector with the parallel occurrence in the electricity sector where ~USD 2 billion of donor investment is deployed or queued despite electricity using only ~20% of fossil fuel across the region. Consistent with recent international studies, inadequate and inappropriate financing and policy have been identified as dominant transition barriers for low carbon sea transport development in PICs. This paper further examines the regional level barriers to policy development, and finds them inhibited by the silo nature of the major regional actors. The implications that the Paris Agreement has for climate financing to support the essential research and capacity development needed to underpin a successful low carbon sea transport transition strategy at any useful scale and speed are also considered in this paper.     

Analysis of bycatch in the South African midwater trawl fishery for horse mackerel Trachurus capensis based on observer data

The South African midwater trawl fishery targets adult horse mackerel Trachurus capensis. The bulk of the catch is taken by a single freezer-trawler, the biggest fishing vessel operating in South African waters. As fishing takes place off the south coast in ecologically sensitive areas, there are concerns about the potential impacts of this fishing operation on non-target species. Fishing behaviour and bycatch of this fishery from 2004 to 2014 were investigated by analysing observer records with regard to catch composition, volume and temporal and spatial patterns. The midwater trawl fishery was estimated to have caught 25 415 tonnes annually, with a bycatch of 6.9% of the total catch, by weight. There are species overlaps with various fisheries, namely the demersal trawl, small-pelagic, line, shark longline and squid fisheries, yet the total bycatch estimates from this fishery are generally small relative to catches taken in the target fisheries. Bycatch species with the highest average annual catches were chub mackerel Scomber japonicus, redeye roundherring Etrumeus whiteheadi, ribbonfish Lepidopus caudatus and hake Merluccius spp. Large-fauna bycatch species included sunfish Mola mola as well as a number of CITES II- and IUCN-listed species, such as Cape fur seal Arctocephalus pusillus, dusky shark Carcharhinus obscurus, smooth hammerhead shark Sphyrna zygaena and thresher sharks Alopias spp. The 97.9% observer coverage is high and the 6.9% bycatch rate low compared to other South African fisheries; however, due to the large size of the individual hauls (average of 46.3 t), the average sampling rate of 1.56% is low. Our analyses suggest that bycatch in the South African midwater trawl fishery has been lower than in other South African fisheries and similar fisheries elsewhere, but due to the combination of high catch volumes and low sampling rates, estimation errors for rare species are high and there is a substantial risk of incidental unmonitored bycatch of rare large fauna and aggregations of small fauna. This could be mitigated by spatio-temporal management of this fishery, to avoid fishing in high-risk areas, and the introduction of an electronic monitoring programme.     

基于SPOT遥感影像的九段沙潮沟信息提取及分维研究

以长江口九段沙为研究区, 应用灰度形态学提取了九段沙湿地的潮沟信息, 并对提取出的潮沟信息分区域采用网格法进行了分维研究, 得出了九段沙不同区域潮沟的分维值, 并对分维值进行了比较与分析。比较发现, 九段沙不同区域的分维值, 上沙最大, 下沙次之, 中沙最小。而在不同区域的不同岸段中, 处于上沙北部沿岸的潮沟分维值大于上沙其它地区; 处于中沙、下沙西北-东南沿岸的潮沟分维值分别大于中沙、下沙的其它地区。这主要与它们所处地理位置水动力条件不同有关。另外也计算了九段沙南岸与北岸的分维值, 发现南岸的分维值要大于北岸, 这与其发育时间、水动力条件和长江口深水航道工程等有一定联系。     

Hydrologic and sedimentologic aspects of mining aggregate from the shipsk bank (Baltic sea)

Abstract

Investigations aimed at obtaining knowledge about the environmental effects of mining aggregate from the sea bottom were carried out on the Stupsk Bank. Special attention was given to the magnitude and reach of changes of hydrologic conditions, in that to changes in concentration of matter suspended in sea water, and to dynamics of the sea bottom—change of bottom relief, resulting from both natural causes and from mining of the aggregate.     

Origin and Distribution Factors of Sour Gases in Natural Gas Reservoirs in the Amu Darya Right Bank Block,Turkmenistan

Through the analysis of original carbon isotopes in the blocks on the right bank of the Amu Darya River, Turkmenistan, it can be firstly concluded that the carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the sour gas reservoirs belongs to the inorganic-origin gas. The origin of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) in the Amu Darya Right Bank Block is thermochemical sulfate reduction from the detailed analysis of hydrocarbon source rocks data, reservoir characteristics, vitrinite reflectance of organic matter, and sour gas content. Then, the factors affecting the distribution of sour gases in the Amu Darya Right Bank Block were investigated by the analysis of conventional sour gas distribution factors including geological structure, fracture and fault, caprock integrity, sedimentary facies, reservoir types, lithofacies, the source of sulfur and so on. The following basic findings were achieved: ① The basement rift in the study area is conductive to the distribution of CO₂. The caprock integrity contributes to the concentration of CO₂. The gas reservoirs in the biological dike reefs, patch reefs and overthrust zones usually have medium CO₂ content. ② The geological structure and fracture caused the complexity of the distribution of H₂S. The gypsum-salt rock in upper Jurassic-Tithonian is an important sulphur source, and the main hydrocarbon source rocks are also the major sulfur source of H₂S gas reservoirs. Furthermore, the giant gypsum layers in the middle-upper Jurassic Callovian-Oxfordian and the upper Jurassic-Tithonian are conductive to preservation of H₂S, and the small openings and holes in the reservoir is also correlative to the distribution of H₂S. ③ The H₂S in the study area is mostly distributed in the formations with the geothermal temperature of higher than 100 ℃. The open platform deep-water sedimentary facies are harmful to the formation of H₂S. The patch reef and overthrust zones belong to the belts of low H₂S content, however, the biological dike reef zones belong to the belts of medium-high H₂S content. However, the origin and distribution factors of sour gases in natural gas reservoirs were obtained. At the same time, it was pointed out that more necessary and accurately quantitative research is still needed to determine the origin and distribution of acid gases in the Amu Darya Right Bank Block, Turkmenistan.     

珠江三角洲世界工厂的非正规职业中介及其作用——以广东省东莞市塘厦镇为例

国内外现有研究认为,农民工的求职渠道非常单一,主要依赖社会关系网络。本文选取典型的珠江三角洲世界工厂所在地——广东省东莞市塘厦镇为案例,对非正规职业中介机构进行了深入调查研究。发现非正规中介机构在农民工的求职过程中发挥着重要作用,帮助农民工实现灵活、即时的就业,其存在是在我国转型期市场改革不断深入的背景下,企业/工厂的用工需求、农民工的求职需要、中介机构的逐利目的和地方政府的宽容态度共同作用的结果。非正规职业中介机构是市场动力作用下的新型农民工非正规求职渠道,是原有的社会关系网络求职渠道的延伸。研究表明,在现阶段中国城市化过程中,非正规的动力在解决农民工求职乃至城市化过程中具有重要的作用。     

MAINTAINING AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY AT CULTURAL WORLD HERITAGE SITES

To be considered for listing as a World Heritage site, properties must meet the conditions of “integrity” and/or “authenticity” and be of “outstanding universal value.” Identifying and maintaining authenticity and integrity at cultural heritage sites are challenging goals, however. The concepts are difficult to define and are open to different interpretations in different cultural settings. Additionally, the diversity of sites and wide variety of influences on them require individualized approaches to preservation in many cases. Nonetheless, authenticity and integrity are useful guiding concepts in striving for a systematic approach to preservation in diverse contexts. In this article we discuss preservation approaches that are appropriate at a range of sites, paying particular attention to the tensions that arise when balancing the need to maintain authenticity and integrity with the needs of the people who live in or visit these sites.     

上海世博效应与湖北长江旅游城市群互动发展创新思考

2010年上海世博会即将开幕,从世博会角度下探讨城市群发展也成为研究的热点问题之一。本文在分析上海世博会的价值理念和四大效应的基础上,立足于湖北长江旅游城市群的发展,提出其互动发展的创新思考,对未来湖北长江旅游城市群发展具有借鉴意义。     

Influence of shallowness,bank inclination and bank roughness on the variability of flow patterns and boundary shear stress due to secondary currents in straight open-channels

Boundary shear stress and flow variability due to its interaction with main flow and secondary currents were investigated under conditions that extend previous research on trapezoidal channels. Secondary currents that scale with the flow depth were found over the entire width in all experiments. These findings contradict the widespread perception that secondary currents die out at a distance of 2.5 times the flow depth from the bank, a perception which is largely based on experiments with smooth boundaries. The reported results indicate that a stable pattern of secondary currents over the entire channel width can only be sustained over a fixed horizontal bed if the bed's roughness is sufficient to provide the required transverse oscillations in the turbulent shear stresses. Contrary to laboratory flumes, alluvial river bed always provide sufficient roughness. The required external forcing of this hydrodynamic instability mechanism is provided by the turbulence-generated near-bank secondary currents. The pattern of near-bank secondary currents depends on the inclination and the roughness of the bank. In all configurations, secondary currents result in a reduction of the bed shear stress in the vicinity of the bank and a heterogeneous bank shear stress that reaches a maximum close to the toe of the bank. Moreover, these currents cause transverse variability of 10–15% for the streamwise velocities and 0.2u_*²–0.3u_*?² for the bed shear stress. These variations are insufficient to provide the flow variability required in river restoration projects, but nevertheless must be accounted for in the design of stable channels.     

Dispersion in the Yucatan coastal zone: Implications for red tide events

The mechanisms governing dispersion processes in the northern Yucatan coast are investigated using a barotropic numerical model of coastal circulation, which includes wind-generated and large scale currents (i.e. Yucatan Current). This work provides the foundations for studying the dispersion of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the area. Modelling experiments include effects of climatic wind (from long term monthly mean NCEP reanalysis), short term wind events (from in situ point measurements), and Yucatan Current (YC) characteristics. Its magnitude was approximated from published reports, and its trajectory from geostrophic current fields derived from altimeter data. These provided a range of real and climatic conditions to study the routes in which phytoplankton blooms may travel. The 2-D model results show that a synthetic and conservative bloom seeded in the Cabo Catoche (CC) region (where it usually grows), moves along the coast to the west up to San Felipe (SF), where it can either move offshore, or carry on travelling westwards. The transport to the west up to SF is greatly influenced by the trajectory, intensity and proximity of the YC jet to the peninsula, which enhances the westward circulation in the Yucatan Shelf. Numerical experiments show that patch dispersion is consistently to the west even under the influence of northerly winds. When the YC flows westward towards the Campeche Bank, momentum transfer caused by the YC jet dominates the dispersion processes over wind stress. On the other hand, when it flows closer to Cuba, the local processes (i.e. wind and bathymetry) become dominant. Coastal orientation and the Coriolis force may be responsible for driving the patch offshore at SF if external forcing decreases.