An essay on the interactions between climate and society

There has been increasing concern about the lack of involvement by social scientists and humanists in a global change program, although many social scientists are already directly involved in various aspects of research on environmental change, and their research interests are clearly central to a global change research agenda. Based on a historical review, the role of social science disciplines as well as social science institutes in an emerging multidecadal global change program is discussed. Both “plan of action” and “plan of inaction” are suggested to avoid potential pitfalls due to the rush development of a social science program into the existing global climate change problem.     

南京市首级高程控制网的建立及跨江水准的研究

本文首先介绍了南京市首级高程控制网的概况,接着重点讨论了跨江水准测量方法的选择,并全面分析了测距三角高程法影响精度的三个因素,结合南京市首级高程控制网全面介绍了数据处理的有关问题。     

热液成矿作用的地质地球化学动力学——以胶东牟平-乳山金矿带为例

通过对胶东牟平—乳山热液脉状金,铅锌矿床成矿动力学控制规律的研究,说明了建立热液成矿反应体系的方法,并得出以下认识:（1）区域断裂构造活动,通过影响成矿反应体系的热力学性质和条件,控制元素的富集和分散。（2）热液成矿过程中容矿断裂活动可划分为两种作用方式:脆性破裂和韧—脆性张开,构成热液成矿的两种构造动力学环境。（3）热液成矿反应体系是一种开放的动态的热力学体系。断裂的脆性破裂阶段,使体系处于强烈的过饱和状态,矿质在远离平衡状态下快速结晶,加剧物质分异;在脆—韧性张开阶段,矿质在接近平衡态体系中缓慢晶出。（4）热液演化晚期,金在残余溶液中富集;当断裂再次发生构造脉动震颤时,早期形成的块状黄铁矿矿石碎裂,富金溶液充填其中,形成含裂隙金和晶隙金的富矿石。成矿体系热力学演化与构造动力学条件有利的匹配控制着富矿石的形成。     

地下连续墙治理地下水污染

介绍一种治理已被严重污染的地下水的方法。即修建一道底部深入到不透水岩层的地下墙,把污染物封闭在由底部不透水岩层和周围地下防渗墙组成的“地下盆”中,降低周围地下水中有害物质的浓度,然后再治理封闭圈内的污染物,以达到彻底根治地下水污染的目的。     

近50 a渭河流域洪水成因分析及防治对策

 通过对近50 a渭河流域洪水的年际变化、月际变化和潼关高程变化的综合分析得出，造成该流域洪水灾害的原因有降水量年内分配不均和年际变化大，滩面淤积加重，支流河口淤塞以及河势、流态的恶化等。针对这些原因，根据渭河流域洪水灾害的特点，提出了相应的防治措施，即降低下游高程，减少河道的淤积，增大河道泄洪能力；利用水库进行调水调沙，引进客水冲刷渭河下游；防洪工程要除险加固，提高防洪标准与抗洪能力；恢复林草植被，遏止水土流失，从源头上控制泥沙入河等。     

Fuzzy expert system for economic zonation of an ornamental slate deposit

Investigation of deposits for traditional extraction activities (metals and coal) has generally been based on determining grade, or content, of the required material. In order to apply the grade concept to an ornamental rock such as slate, it is first necessary to define the variables that determine both the geotechnical recovery rate for the rock mass — which conditions the size of the extracted blocks – and the aesthetic features of the slate — which define the quality of the slabs as potential roofing material.

For this research, geotechnical and aesthetic data for a slate deposit were collected from 16 continuous core borehole samples. A fuzzy expert system was then developed using this data, defining the rock mass recovery rate and slab quality in accordance with the criteria of a slate expert, producing as a final output a zonation of the deposit in terms of top quality slate, medium quality slate or waste.

A mathematical model based on fuzzy logic was chosen due to the fact that the boundaries between different quality groups in a deposit are not clearly distinguished. Moreover, quality also depends on a company's infrastructures for transformation of the blocks, and also on its commercial strategies.     

River bank erosion control by soil nailing

A study has been done for analysing soil nailed cuts with circular type wedge failure by friction circle method. Various parameters such as nail length, nail diameter, nail inclination, wall inclination and angle of internal friction of soil have been considered to determine the factor of safety of nailed open cuts. The study shows that for cohesionless soil nailed cut, factor of safety increase with increase of parameters like angle of internal friction of soil, length of nail (L) versus height of cut (H) ratio, cohesion of soil and nail inclination (upto 15°) with horizontal. The study revealed that nails grouted with cement perform better than driven nails. A case study further confirms the analytical findings. Received 7 October     

Racism and Intolerance in Eastern Australia: a geographic perspective

Racism has become a fact of life in Australia over the past decade or so, yet there are relatively few studies of its nature or extent, and still fewer on its geography. Using a social constructivist approach, this study draws on a survey of 5056 respondents to investigate attitudes to racism and cultural diversity in New South Wales and Queensland, and of perceptions of out-groups as instances of ‘strangers in our midst’. On racism, results show the presence of a continuum of attitudes ranging from generally tolerant to generally intolerant, a presence which cuts across compositional (social or aspatial) characteristics to emphasise the existence of a distinctive geography, an everywhere different nature to racist and non-racist attitudes which transcends urban–rural and traditional social layers. On the other hand, perceptions of out-groups are not uniformly correlated with presence or absence of cultural diversity. In many cases, the ability to make judgements about significant ‘others’ or out-groups has been shown to relate more to abstract notions of self and national identity, reproduced in public by mainstream news media and political leaders. In particular, it may reflect an Anglo (or Anglo-Celtic) view on nationalism, which is a hallmark of the ‘new racism’: an assimilationist or ethnocultural view of Australian society which is different from the ‘civic nation’ ideal envisaged by multiculturalism. That the geography of attitudes and perceptions people have towards and about different cultural groups is so ‘everywhere different’ has important implications for attempts to address and redress issues of intolerance in Australia.     

Withered Geography

This commentary is a response to an article by Jay R. Harman in the November 2003 issue of The Professional Geographer. I argue that Harman's claim that scholarly disciplines offer social “returns” in a competitive “market” obscures the fundamentally political nature of how social resources are allocated and how social needs are defined. Harman would have us subordinate scholarly research to agendas set elsewhere, by politicians and other powerful interests, but I argue that such a vision would turn geographers into mere technicians. A healthier role for the discipline is for geographers to seek ways of asserting intellectual leadership and of shaping social agendas along more humane and socially just lines.