Characterising the distribution of near-shore submarine groundwater discharge along a coastline using 222Rn and electrical conductivity

The spatial and temporal distribution of near-shore fresh submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) was characterised from the coastal aquifers of the Willunga Basin, South Australia, an extensive aquifer system that supports an important viticultural region. Measurements of electrical conductivity (EC) and ²²²Rn (radon) activity were collected at 19 sites along the coastline during the Southern Hemisphere spring (2011) and summer (2013). At each site, samples were collected from the surf zone as well asporewater from beach sediment in the intertidal zone. Surf-zone radon activity ranged from <5 to 70mBq L^–1, and intertidal porewater radon ranged over two orders of magnitude (220–36 940 mBq L^–1) along the Willunga Basin coastline during both surveys. Overall, surf-zone and porewater EC was lower in the spring 2011 survey than in the summer 2013 survey. Porewater EC was similar to that of coastal water at most sites along the coastline, except at three sites where porewater EC was found to be lower than coastal water during both surveys, and three sites where evaporated seawater was observed in the summer survey. Based on the patterns in radon and EC along the coastline, two sites of localised fresh SGD were identified, in addition to a groundwater spring that is known to discharge to the coast. The results indicate that near-shore fresh SGD occurs as localised seeps rather than diffuse seepage along the entire coastline. The apparent absence of groundwater discharge at most locations is also consistent with current evidence suggesting that extensive groundwater pumping within the basin has resulted in seawater intrusion across much of the coastline. These observations also suggest that previous studies are likely to have over-estimated SGD rates from the Willunga Basin because they assumed that SGD occurred along the entire coastline.     

‘Committing to Place’ at the Local Scale: the potential of youth education programs for promoting community participation in regional natural resource management

Emerging approaches to environmental governance require a greater level of community participation than did previous approaches in which these responsibilities largely rested with government agencies. There is consequently a need for increased engagement with NRM among a broad community sector. This paper examines initiatives by two prominent government agencies, the Murray–Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) and the National Museum of Australia (NMA), to engage school children from regional communities using education programs that focus on place and environmental health. We focus on the MDBC's International Riverhealth Conference held in Mildura in 2003 and the associated Murray–Darling Basin TalkBack Classroom sponsored by the NMA and the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO). We explore how key themes of local scale, place-based identities, youth voice and critical engagement are developed in these programs and consider how they relate to the environmental agency of children. We then reflect on the potential for the kinds of environmental agency promoted through these programs to help build the capacity of local communities to progress larger goals of environmental restoration and sustainability in the Murray–Darling Basin. The evaluation research reported here forms part of the Committing to Place research project, an Australian Research Council Linkage grant involving the University of Tasmania, the National Museum of Australia and the Murray–Darling Basin Commission.     

京津冀城市用地形态的双分形特征及其演化

区域城乡一体化的标志之一是城镇体系结构的一体化,这个过程可以从标度的角度进行描述和评价。分形是标度分析的重要方法,地理空间无尺度分布特征的典型参数是分维。论文以京津冀城镇体系为例,利用遥感图像的解译数据和人口普查数据开展分形分析、位序-规模分布分析和异速标度分析,用以解释1995—2013年间京津冀城镇体系演化的过程。结果表明,京津冀城镇体系及其演化的特征有：①京津冀空间结构和位序-规模分布都表现为自仿射双分形结构;②京津冀区域的城市人口-城区面积异速标度退化为假线性关系;③随着城镇体系的演化,自仿射的双分形结构逐步向自相似分形结构演化。由此得出结论：其一,京津冀城镇体系存在结构性的不协调因素。其空间结构和等级结构具有二元化特征,但演化方向却呈现内在结构一体化的显著趋势。其二,大城市用地不够集约。城市边缘区的无序扩张导致土地利用铺张浪费。地方政府和规划专家可以有意识地利用城镇体系演化的这种特征和趋势制定管理措施和优化规划方案。     

中国东北松嫩平原地下水水化学特征与演变规律

在全球气候变化和高强度人类活动的影响下,松嫩平原地下水环境日益恶化,已成为制约生态环境建设和经济社会发展的重要因素。选取具有典型代表意义的洮儿河流域作为研究区,对地下水进行系统取样分析,综合运用描述性统计、相关性分析、离子比例系数和Piper三角图示法,全面系统地研究地下水水化学的时空变异特征与演变规律,揭示了风化溶滤、蒸发浓缩、阳离子交换和人为混合是控制地下水质演变的主要水文化学过程,从而为流域乃至松嫩平原盐渍土区水资源可持续开发利用和管理提供科学依据。     

Scaling wave impact pressures on vertical walls

It is widely recognized that the use of Froude similarity for scaling up wave impact pressures recorded during physical model tests may lead to over-estimation of impact maxima. Based on reviewing historical work dating back to the 30s and further developments in the 60s and 80s, a general method is presented that is suitable for scaling up impact pressures and rise times measured during small scale physical model tests. The method accounts for the effect of air leakage and is applicable to most wave impact loads. The model is applied to scale wave impact pressures on vertical walls and similar structures, and consistent correction factors for the Froude scaling law are derived.     

受载原煤中瓦斯的扩散规律

为研究受载原煤中瓦斯的扩散规律,以原煤煤样为实验对象,利用自主研发的含瓦斯煤热流固耦合实验系统,在恒温的三轴加载条件下,进行了加载-吸附-解吸-再加载直至煤样破坏过程中的瓦斯解吸实验。研究结果表明,受载原煤的解吸量随时间变化规律符合颗粒煤瓦斯解吸的数学模型;在恒温恒围压下,随轴压的增大,受载原煤瓦斯的解吸量呈下降趋势;当轴压大于峰值强度后,瓦斯解吸量随轴压迅速增大;受载原煤煤样压密、线弹性阶段瓦斯解吸-运移速度随应力增大而线性减小;当煤样处于屈服阶段和峰值破坏阶段瓦斯解吸-运移速度随应力增大呈指数式增长。研究成果对瓦斯抽采,瓦斯突出机理研究有一定的理论价值。     

Coordinative similitude law considering fluid‐structure interaction for underwater shaking table tests

Generally, when a model is made of the same material as the prototype in shaking table tests, the equivalent material density of the scaled model is greater than that of the prototype because mass is added to the model to satisfy similitude criteria. When the water environment is modeled in underwater shaking table tests, however, it is difficult to change the density of water. The differences in the density similitude ratios of specimen materials and water can affect the similitude ratios of the hydrodynamic and wave forces with those of other forces. To solve this problem, a coordinative similitude law is proposed for underwater shaking table tests by adjusting the width of the upstream face of the model or the wave height in the model test to match the similitude ratios of hydrodynamic and wave forces with those of other forces. The designs of the similitude relations were investigated for earthquake excitation, wave excitation, and combined earthquake and wave excitation conditions. Series of numerical simulations and underwater shaking table tests were performed to validate the proposed coordinative similitude law through a comparison of coordinative model and conventional model designed based on the coordinative similitude law and traditional artificial mass simulation, respectively. The results show that the relative error was less than 10% for the coordinative model, whereas it reached 80% for the conventional model. The coordinative similitude law can better reproduce the dynamic responses of the prototype, and thus, this similitude law can be used in underwater shaking table tests.     

PECULIARITIES OF LONG TERM VARIATION OF SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE IN TROPICAL WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN

It is necessary to study the tropical western Pacific SST in association with variations of other parts of the globe. Two basic compositions are revealed of long-term variation in SST over three major tropical oceans since the 1950's (linear warming and El Nino-La Nina oscillations) and typical patterns with which they are displayed over the oceans are compared. On the basis of it, difference in long-term variation of SST over western, central and eastern tropical Pacific is analyzed in details. It is pointed out that the El Nino-La Nina oscillations are relatively weak in the long-term variation of SST in the tropical western Pacific and linear warming trend there is replaced by interdecadal oscillations. Further understanding of the peculiarity over the region helps improve short-term climatic predictions in China.     

An efficient and robust approach to predict ship self-propulsion coefficients

Achieving a reliable and accurate numerical prediction of the self-propulsion performance of a ship is still an open problem that poses some relevant issues. Several CFD methods, ranging from boundary element methods (BEM) to higher-fidelity viscous Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) based solvers, can be used to accurately analyze the separate problems, i.e. the open water propeller and the hull calm water resistance. However, when the fully-coupled self-propulsion problem is considered, i.e. the hull advancing at uniform speed propelled by its own propulsion system, several complexities rise up. Typical flow simplifications adopted to speed-up the simulations of the single analysis (hull and propeller separately) lose their validity requiring a more complex solver to tackle the fully-coupled problem. The complexity rises up further when considering a maneuver condition. This aspect increases the computational burden and, consequently, the required time which becomes prohibitive in a preliminary ship design stage.The majority of the simplified methods proposed in literature to include propeller effects, without directly solve the propeller flow, in a high-fidelity viscous solver are not able to provide all the commonly required self-propulsion coefficients. In this work, a new method to enrich the results from a body force based approach is proposed and investigated, with the aim to reduce as much as possible the computational burden without losing any useful result. This procedure is tested for validation on the KCS hull form in self-propulsion and maneuver conditions.