Reducing hazard vulnerability through local government engagement and action

The concept of a natural hazard is a human construct. It is the interaction with human communities and settlements that defines a natural phenomenon as a natural hazard. Thus the end point of hazard mitigation and hazard vulnerability assessment must involve an attempt to reduce, or mitigate, the impact of the natural hazard on human communities. The responsibility to mitigate hazard impact falls primarily upon governments and closely connected non-government and private institutional agencies. In particular, it is most often local government that takes the responsibility for safeguarding its own communities, infrastructure and people. Hazard vulnerability of specific local communities is best assessed by the local government or council, which then faces the responsibility to translate that assessment into community education and infrastructural safeguards for hazard mitigation. This paper illustrates the process of local government engagement in hazard mitigation in Australia, through the Natural Disaster Risk Management Studies, as a first step towards natural disaster reduction.     

Field vibration mitigation by honeycomb WIB for pile foundations of a high-speed train viaduct

Environmental vibrations from recent high-speed trains are becoming a special concern in the civil and environmental engineering field since they can give detrimental effects to residents, sensitive equipments and high-tech production facilities in the vicinity of train tacks. Herein, aiming at the vibration mitigation for a specific high-tech industrial area, the low-frequency vibrations from a train viaduct are targeted over an anticipated range. A theoretically designed innovative countermeasure, called honeycomb wave impeding barrier (WIB) for a wave impeding barrier, is introduced and its effects are investigated by computer simulation. The present WIB is based on the wave dispersion phenomenon that can modulate the incoming wavelengths into the shorter wavelengths, creating an apparent wave cut-off characteristic in the wave field across WIB installation area. The shorter wavelengths are further impeded due to the impedance ratio of the WIB walls and in-fill materials and absorbed by the in-fills more. The three-dimensional FEM simulation demonstrates a dramatic reduction effect that is difficult to achieve by conventional measures.     

Proposal of a National Mitigation Strategy Against Earthquakes in Turkey

While laboratory and analytical studies can provide valuable information about earthquake hazard mitigation, the most effective educator is the impact of a full-scale earthquake on a full-scale city. The recent earthquakes in Turkey showed that the governmental as well as individual attitudes towards earthquakes did not represent proportionate responses to the risk levels concerned. Turkey had weaknesses in preparing, planning, mitigating and responding to disasters in spite of the known seismic vulnerability of the country. Many steps have been taken after 1999 earthquakes in Turkey, however, the preparations largely concentrate on the response and recovery phases and a fundamental step to reform the current disaster management system and steps to rehabilitate the vulnerable building stock has not been undertaken until today. This would involve changing the present laws and regulations and de-centralising the disaster management system. The aim of this paper is to propose a national mitigation strategy for Turkey for a time-frame of 10 years. The model proposed is a very comprehensive model for earthquake risk reduction in Turkey and within this context, the legislative and technical aspects of mitigation will be discussed in detail. Strategies for mitigating and retrofitting the existing building stock will also be proposed.     

CO2地质埋存渗漏风险及补救对策

目前,将CO2埋存于地下深部地质构造（如油气藏、煤层、地下含水层及岩溶盐腔）的减排方案能有效地减缓温室效应而备受关注。无论什么储集体,我们都希望CO2在地下埋存的时间越长越好。然而,对于一项具体工程的实施,必然存在一些客观和主观因素造成CO2渗漏,比如废弃井的不完善或不合理处理、地层断裂系统和水动力系统以及地震所造成的渗漏等等。存在渗漏就可能会对周围人和生态环境造成危害。因此,进行CO2地质埋存的风险评估是相当有必要的,是我们能长期有效安全地进行该项减排方案必不可少的基础和保证。本文即想从建立一套完整的风险评估、管理和监测体系的角度并以加拿大Weyburn油田为例,深入分析CO2地质埋存中可能存在的渗漏风险和途径,建立CO2渗漏风险评估机制,并针对具体的渗漏可能性提出相应的补救对策,为全球范围内,尤其对我国刚刚开展CO2地质埋存研究工作提供一些有益的思路。     

两种不同减排情景下21世纪气候变化的数值模拟

利用国家气候中心最新发展的气候系统模式BCC-CSM1.0模拟了相对于B1排放情景,两种不同减排情景(De90和De07,表示按照B1情景排放到2012年,之后线性递减,至2050年时CO_2排放水平分别达到1990和2007年排放水平一半的情景)对全球和中国区域气候变化的影响.结果表明:两种减排情景下模式模拟的全球平均地表气温在21世纪40年代以后明显低于Bl情景,比减排情景浓度低于B1的时间延迟了20年左右;尽管De90减排情景在2050年所达到的稳定排放水平低于De07情景,但De90情景下的全球增温在2070年以后才一致低于De07情景,这种滞后町能与耦合系统(主要足海洋)的惯性有关;至21世纪末,De90和De07情景下的全球增温幅度分别比B1情景降低了0.4和0.2℃;从全球分布来看,B1情景下21世纪后30年的增温幅度在北半球高纬度和极地地区最大,减排情景能够显著减少这些地区的增温幅度,减排程度越大,则减少越多;在中国区域,B1情景下21世纪末平均增温比全球平均高约1.2℃,减排情景De90和De07分别比B1情景降低了0.4和0.3℃,中国北方地区增温幅度高于南方及沿海地区,减排情景能够显著减小中国西部地区的增温幅度;B1情景下21世纪后30年伞球增温在冬季最高,De90和De07情景分别能够降低各个季节全球升温幅度的17%和10%左右.     

不同类型冷却屋顶方案对城市群热环境的缓解效果

利用耦合单层城市冠层模型的中尺度数值模式WRF/UCM,选取8组不同反照率和绿化比例的屋顶冷却方案进行敏感性试验,模拟研究不同冷却屋顶方案对长三角城市群2013年夏季城市热环境的影响,并分析其影响机制.结果表明:不同冷却屋顶方案对城市群热环境的缓解效果与屋顶参数之间呈很强的线性关系.高温热浪天气下,H R 4(反照率为...     

快速城市化进程中的太湖水环境保护:困境与出路

太湖流域经济发达、城市化水平高,伴随着城市化过程的各种环境问题十分突出。城市化过程对太湖水环境质量的负面影响主要表现在生活污水排放量增加、人畜粪便对水污染的程度加剧、化学肥料施用量增加、非点源污染负荷增加以及自然景观对污染物的去除能力降低等方面,由此导致的营养盐入湖量增加将严重制约太湖水质的改善。充分认识并努力减轻这些负面影响是改善太湖水环境质量的前提,在分析问题的基础上提出了一些针对性的应对策略。     

全球湿地的状况、未来情景与可持续管理对策

简要介绍了千年生态系统评估（MA）项目针对湿地与水编写的《生态系统与人类福祉：湿地与水综合报告》的核心内容。报告表明：①据估算,2000年全球的湿地面积大约为1.28×10⁹hm²,但是这一数据显著偏低,尤其是对新热带区的湿地以及有些特殊类型湿地的估算因数据源问题可能远低于实际面积;②根据MA构建的4种情景的分析结果,未来50年（2000—2050年）内,在对生态系统实行被动式管理的全球协同和实力秩序2种情景中,预计全球的湿地面积将会减少,而在对生态系统实行主动式管理的技术家园和适应组合2种情景中,预计全球的湿地面积将保持相对稳定;③湿地的丧失和退化会对人类福祉和减轻贫困产生极为不利的影响,尤其是对低收入国家湿地附近居民的影响更为严重。为了实现湿地的可持续管理,必须从经济、制度和管理以及相关驱动力方面采取积极对策,减轻湿地生态系统承受的各种压力,保育各项生态特征,增强其自恢复能力,减缓和扭转湿地的丧失和退化趋势。     

Felt responsibility and climate engagement: Distinguishing adaptation from mitigation

Policy makers and citizens must choose from among a growing variety of strategic options as they try to cope optimally with climate change. As a means of more accurately predicting different types of climate change engagement, we empirically distinguish individuals’ felt responsibility for mitigation (FRm) from felt responsibility for adaptation (FRa), and assess support for different climate action strategies (mitigation and adaptation). We surveyed two U.S. samples two months apart, and the replication study confirmed Study 1′s findings of differing predictive powers for FRm vs. FRa. Each type of felt responsibility, controlling for the other, served as a mediator between belief in global warming (as well as belief in anthropogenic cause of climate change) and its corresponding climate action strategy (mitigation vs. adaptation). FRa predicted adaptation measures but not mitigation measures, while FRm predicted mitigation measures more strongly than it predicted adaptation but did predict both action strategies. We also found important individual differences: people’s disposition toward behaving proactively correlated positively with all types of climate engagement, and political orientation (liberal/conservative ideology) interacted with climate action strategy (mitigation vs. adaptation) in predicting all engagement variables. Comparing levels of support across the political spectrum, the mitigation measures were highly polarizing, while the adaptation measures were less divisive.     

Confronting the nitrogen challenge: Options for governance and target setting

The release of excessive anthropogenic nitrogen contributes to global climate change, biodiversity loss, and the degradation of ecosystem services. Despite being an urgent global problem, the excess nitrogen is not governed globally. This paper considers possible governance options for dealing with excessive nitrogen through target setting, which is an approach commonly adopted to address global environmental problems. The articulation of the nitrogen problem and the numerous international institutions dealing with it, provide evidence of a nitrogen regime characterised by limited coordination and targets covering sources and impacts only partially. This calls for improving the nitrogen governance in the direction of more integrated approaches at the global scale. In this vein, the paper investigates two opposite governance options – here labelled as ‘holistic’ and ‘origin-based’ – and evaluates them for their capability to define solutions and targets for human-induced nitrogen. From the analysis, it emerges that origin-based solutions can be preferable to holistic solutions as they can be more specific and potentially have greater immediate results. Independent from which governance arrangement is chosen, what matters most is the speed at which an arrangement can deploy solutions to combat (fast-growing) nitrogen pollution.