Partnering between a geography department and a community initiative to provide a wind resource assessment for the Blueskin Bay region,Otago, New Zealand

This paper explores the partnership between a community group and a geography department to assess the wind energy potential of the Blueskin Bay region in southern New Zealand. The partnership has provided opportunities for research and is of strategic importance. Year‐long wind observations and numerical modelling have revealed that the hills surrounding Blueskin Bay show potential for wind energy generation. Despite challenges for both parties, the university–community partnership has allowed a successful research platform to be established.     

The study of the undiscovered mineral resources of the Tongass National Forest and adjacent lands,Southeastern Alaska

The quantitative probabilistic assessment of the undiscovered mineral resources of the 17.1-million-acre Tongass National Forest (the largest in the United States) and its adjacent lands is a nonaggregated, mineral-resource-tract-oriented assessment designed for land-planning purposes. As such, it includes the renewed use of gross-in-place values (GIPV's) in dollars of the estimated amounts of metal contained in the undiscovered resources as a measure for land-use planning.Southeastern Alaska is geologically complex and contains a wide variety of known mineral deposits, some of which have produced important amounts of metals during the past 100 years. Regional geological, economic geological, geochemical, geophysical, and mineral exploration history information for the region was integrated to define 124 tracts likely to contain undiscovered mineral resources. Some tracts were judged to contain more than one type of mineral deposit. Each type of deposit may contain one or more metallic elements of economic interest. For tracts where information was sufficient, the minimum number of as-yet-undiscovered deposits of each type was estimated at probability levels of 0.95, 0.90, 0.50, 0.10, and 0.05.The undiscovered mineral resources of the individual tracts were estimated using the U.S. Geological Survey's MARK3 mineral-resource endowment simulator; those estimates were used to calculate GIPV's for the individual tracts. Those GIPV's were aggregated to estimate the value of the undiscovered mineral resources of southeastern Alaska. The aggregated GIPV of the estimates is $40.9 billion.Analysis of this study indicates that (1) there is only a crude positive correlation between the size of individual tracts and their mean GIPV's: and (2) the number of mineral-deposit types in a tract does not dominate the GIPV's of the tracts, but the inferred presence of synorogenic-synvolcanic nickel-copper, porphyry copper skarn-related, iron skarn, and porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits does. The influence of this study on the U.S. Forest Service planning process is yet to be determined.     

THE RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE LONG-DISTANCE OILPIPELINE ENGINEERING

LTkemskS0tu.ce0fL0ng-mstance0nflpeAncEwiceringSincel992,thenskassessmentoflongdistanceoilpipeline(LDOP)inN0rthwestChinahasbeenputtoagendasystematically.TheLD0PconstruCtionfromLiuyUantowntoLu0yangcltymakeuPthemajorpipelineengineeringwhichstrotchesover2,ll5kmandservesasoneofthemaJorcrudeoilpipelinesinnorthWestinlandroponofChina(Figurel).Theriskeventinducedbynaturaldisasterscanbedividedintofourwaysfl.EaffoquakcIhhistory,LD0PenrouteroponsexPenontaleafthquakes.Theearthquakemagntude,scal…     

An integrated data-directed numerical method for estimating the undiscovered mineral endowment in a region

An integrated data-directed numerical method has been developed to estimate the undiscovered mineral endowment within a given area. The method has been used to estimate the undiscovered uranium endowment in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, U.S.A. The favorability of uranium concentration was evaluated in each of 2,068 cells defined within the Basin. Favorability was based on the correlated similarity of the geologic characteristics of each cell to the geologic characteristics of five area-related deposit models. Estimates of the undiscovered endowment for each cell were categorized according to deposit type, depth, and cutoff grade. The method can be applied to any mineral or energy commodity provided that the data collected reflect discovered endowment.     

重特大自然灾害综合评估

基于作者近年对多次重特大自然灾害综合评估的实践,就重特大自然灾害的影响范围、破坏程度、直接经济损失的综合评估予以阐述。重特大自然灾害快速评估结果是制定应急救援、转移安置方案和恢复重建规划的科学依据。综合现场调查、遥感监测、模型评估和地方上报数据于一体,是提高重特大自然灾害评估结果准确度和精度的关键。制定科学合理的重特大自然灾害评估指标体系,仍然需要在大量综合评估的实践中完善。     

不同源降水数据在天山南坡阿克苏河流域适用性分析

降水是水热循环以及气候变化研究的重要环节,降水资料的准确与否直接影响流域尺度的水文过程研究。本文基于2000-2015年天山南坡阿克苏河流域气象站点观测降水数据,对比分析了Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission（TRMM）降水数据集和Global Land Data Assimilation System（GLDAS）两种具有代表性的降水格网数据集在阿克苏河流域的适用性。结果表明：TRMM3B43数据在阿克苏河流域的整体表现优于GLDAS-2数据。两种数据的精度在月尺度上表现最优,相关系数分别为0.938和0.901,通过了0.01的显著性检验;在季节尺度,TRMM3B43数据各季节与站点插值的拟合度要优于GLDAS-2数据,但二者均呈现出高估冷季降水而低估暖季降水的趋势;在年尺度上,两种数据表现较差。在空间分布上,两种数据类型均能够反映出阿克苏河流域降水自西北向东南递减的空间分布趋势。并且两种数据在平原区的表现均优于山区,低估高海拔地区降水而高估低海拔地区的降水。     

Assessment of Urban Air Pollution and Spatial Spillover Effects in China: Cases of 113 Key Environmental Protection Cities

With rapid urbanization and energy consumption, environmental pollution and degradation have become increasingly serious problems in China. At the beginning of 2013, China implemented new ambient air quality standards (GB 3095-2012) in which the concentration of six pollutants including PM_2.5, ozone, carbon monoxide, PM₁₀, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide were monitored. This study gathered annual air pollutant concentration data for the six pollutants in 113 key environmental protection cites throughout China in 2014 and 2015 to explain spatial patterns of urban air pollution. Based on the Kernel density estimation method, spatial hotspots of air pollution were illustrated through which spatial cluster of each pollutants could be plotted. By employing an entropy evaluation system, urban air quality was assessed in terms of the six atmospheric pollutants. We conclude that, in general, CO and SO₂ were two important pollutants in most Chinese cities, but this varied greatly among cities. The assessment results indicate that cities with the worst air quality were mainly located in northern and central provinces, dominantly in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area. Regression modeling showed that a combination of meteorological factors and human-related determinants, to say specifically, industrialization and urbanization factors, greatly influenced urban air quality variation in China. Results from spatial lag regression modeling confirmed that air pollution existed obvious spatial spillover effects among key cities. The spatial interdependence effects of urban air quality means that Chinese municipal governments should strengthen regional cooperation and deepen bilateral collaboration in terms of air regulation and pollution prevention.     

Regional differentiation of ecological conservation and its zonal suitability at the county level in China

China’s investments, financial incentives and deductions in terms of ecological conservation are based at the county level. Therefore, the monitoring and assessment of the effects of ecological conservation at the county level is important to provide a scientific basis for the assessment of the ecological and environmental quality at the county scale. This paper quantitatively estimated the dynamics of high-quality ecosystems and vegetation coverage over the past 15 years, and their relationships with the number of ecological conservation programs at the county level were analyzed. Then, the effects of ecological conservation measures on ecological changes at the county level and their regional suitability were assessed and discussed. The results showed that counties with a percentage of high-quality ecosystems greater than 50% were primarily distributed in northeastern China, southern subtropical China and the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and those with a percentage lower than 20% were mostly distributed in northwestern China, the southwestern karst region and the North China Plain. In recent decades, ecological conservation has focused on ecologically fragile regions; more than five ecological conservation programs have been implemented in most counties of the Three River Source Region in Qinghai Province, southeastern Tibet, western Sichuan, the Qilian Mountains, southern Xinjiang and other western regions, while only one or zero have been implemented in the eastern coastal area of China. Over the past 15 years, the proportional area of high-quality ecosystems has increased in approximately 53% of counties. The vegetation coverage of counties in the Loess Plateau, Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji), Sichuan-Guizhou-Chongqing, and Guangdong-Guangxi provincial-level areas has increased significantly. However, it decreased in northern Xinjiang, central Tibet, central and eastern Inner Mongolia, the Yangtze River Delta and other regions. The relationships between the numbers of ecological conservation programs and the indicators of ecosystem restoration response, such as high-quality ecosystem and vegetation coverage, do not show positive correlations. These results suggest that ecological conservation programs should be planned and implemented according to the distribution patterns of high-quality ecosystems and that restoration measures such as afforestation should follow natural principles and regional differentiation under the background of climate change.     

生态脆弱区资源型城市生态环境影响评价与调控

采用主分量分析评估模型法,对西部生态脆弱区的资源型城市鄂尔多斯市在2003-2011年时间序列内的城市生态环境影响进行了评价与分析。结果表明：鄂尔多斯城市生态系统整体处于不稳定的发展状态,其中生态质量子系统的发展水平一直处于稳步上升、逐步改善的趋势;环境质量子系统的发展水平呈现出先下降、再上升、再下降的整体下降趋势;环境治理子系统的发展水平总体处于稳步上升、中间略有波动的趋势;综合来看,鄂尔多斯城市生态环境影响的总发展水平处于整体上升、中间略有波动的状态。     

Trona resources in southwest Wyoming

Bedded trona (Na₂CO₃·NaHCO₃·2H₂O) in the lacustrine Green River Formation of Eocene age in the Green River Basin, southwest Wyoming, constitutes the largest known resource of natural sodium carbonate in the world. In this study, 116 gigatons (Gt) of trona ore are estimated to be present in 22 beds, ranging from 1.2 to 11 meters (m) in thickness. Of this total, 69 Gt of trona ore are estimated to be in beds containing less than 2 percent halite and 47 Gt in beds containing 2 or more percent halite. These 22 beds underlie areas of about 130 to more than 2,000 km² at depths ranging from about 200 m to more than 900 m below the surface. The total resource of trona ore in the basin for which drilling information is available is estimated to be about 135 Gt.Underveloped trona beds in the deeper southern part of the basin may be best developed by solution mining. Additional unevaluated sodium carbonate resources are present in disseminated shortite (Na₂CO₃·2CaCO₃) in strata interbedded with the trona and in shallow sodium carbonate brines in the northeast part of the basin. Estimates of the shortite and brine resources were not made.