Quick-look assessments to identify optimal CO2 EOR storage sites

A newly developed, multistage quick-look methodology allows for the efficient screening of an unmanageably large number of reservoirs to generate a workable set of sites that closely match the requirements for optimal CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (EOR) storage. The objective of the study is to quickly identify miscible CO₂ EOR candidates in areas that contain thousands of reservoirs and to estimate additional oil recovery and sequestration capacities of selected top options through dimensionless modeling and reservoir characterization. Quick-look assessments indicate that the CO₂ EOR resource potential along the US Gulf Coast is 4.7 billion barrels, and CO₂ sequestration capacity is 2.6 billion metric tons. In the first stage, oil reservoirs are screened and ranked in terms of technical and practical feasibility for miscible CO₂ EOR. The second stage provides quick estimates of CO₂ EOR potential and sequestration capacities. In the third stage, a dimensionless group model is applied to a selected set of sites to improve the estimates of oil recovery and storage potential using appropriate inputs for rock and fluid properties, disregarding reservoir architecture and sweep design. The fourth stage validates and refines the results by simulating flow in a model that describes the internal architecture and fluid distribution in the reservoir. The stated approach both saves time and allows more resources to be applied to the best candidate sites.     

Management of the commons for biodiversity: lessons from the North Pacific

The North Pacific has the world's largest groundfish fisheries, with a value in excess of $1 billion annually. The North Pacific also is home to the largest population of Steller sea lions (SSL), an ancient species that is now endangered. Decline of the western stock of SSL in the 1970–1990s coincided with the US nationalization and exponential growth in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands groundfish fishery.The article treats five aspects of the competition between the fishery and protection of the endangered species. First, we analyze competition of interests in the use, management, and preservation of the North Pacific commons, including offshore and near-shore fisheries, environmental organizations, governments (federal, state, and local), and the scientific community. Second, the article compares and contrasts provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Magnuson–Stevens Act (as amended in 1996 by the Sustainable Fisheries Act).Third, we examine the regulatory environment with a focus on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and its relationship to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. We illustrate how NMFS establishes fishery management plans and the methods, such as crafting biological opinions and environmental-impact-statements, it uses to resolve conflicts. Fourth, we investigate how the dual pressures on the agency—to increase fisheries production for the benefit of the industry and to preserve endangered marine species—have affected its culture (behavioral norms and operational codes). Then, the article explains agency changes in terms of crises, competition among affected interests, and development of new scientific knowledge.The article concludes by drawing lessons from the SSL controversy in the North Pacific which may pertain to national and global biodiversity conflicts. These concern the role of law in biodiversity protection, the role of science, and agency capacity for change.     

The political-economy of Blair’s “New Regional Policy”

The “region” and “regional change” have been elusive ideas within political and economic geography, and in essence require a greater understanding of their dynamic characteristics. Trailing in the backwaters of the devolution to the Celtic nations of Britain, the contemporary era of New Labour’s political-economic ideology, manifest through “third-way” governance in England places the region and its functional capacity into the heart of geographical inquiry. Drawing upon a new regionalist epistemology, this paper seeks to recover a sense of (regional) political economy through a critical investigation of the development and formulation of Blair’s “New Regional Policy” (NRP). I address how New Labour has attempted to marry economic regionalisation on the one hand, and democratic regionalism on the other. This paper specifically questions the wisdom of such a marriage of politically distinct ideologies through a critical investigation of the underlying contradictions of their strategy from both a theoretical and empirical standpoint. Demonstrated both in the North East “no” vote in 2004, and in the post-mortem undertaken by the ODPM Select Committee in 2005, the paper illustrates how a loss of political drive gradually undermined the capacity of devolution to deliver in England. Finally, I argue that through the lens of the NRP we can speculate on some of the wider issues and implications for the study of regional governance.     

Regions and sustainable development: regional planning matters

This paper looks at how the term 'sustainable development' has been used in the process of regional plan making over the past decade. It emphasizes the differing geographies of these debates within England, in terms of how sustainable development has been used to justify different types of approach in different parts of the country. Both drawing on and challenging recent work on state theory, the paper argues the need to see regional planning as a part of a multi-scalar governance system, whose importance should not be underestimated.     

Long-term hydrological,biogeochemical, and climatological data from Walker Branch Watershed,East Tennessee,USA

In 1967, the original Walker Branch Watershed (WBW) project was established to study elemental cycling and mass balances in a relatively unimpacted watershed. Over the next 50+ years, findings from additional experimental studies and long-term observations on WBW advanced understanding of catchment hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology and established WBW as a seminal site for catchment science. The 97.5-ha WBW is located in East Tennessee, USA, on the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation. Vegetation on the watershed is characteristic of an eastern deciduous, second-growth forest. The watershed is divided into two subcatchments: the West Fork (38.4 ha) and the East Fork (59.1 ha). Headwater streams draining these subcatchments are fed by multiple springs, and thus flow is perennial. Stream water is high in base cations due to weathering of dolomite bedrock and nutrient concentrations are low. Long-term observations of climate, hydrology, and biogeochemistry include daily (1969–2014) and 15-min (1994–2014) stream discharge and annual runoff (1969–2014); hourly, daily, and annual rainfall (1969–2012); daily climate and soil temperature (1993–2010); and weekly stream water chemistry (1989–2013). These long-term datasets are publicly available on the WBW website (https://walkerbranch.ornl.gov/long-term-data/ ). While collection of these data has ceased, related long-term measurements continue through the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), where WBW is the core terrestrial and aquatic site in the Appalachian and Cumberland Plateau region (NEON's Domain 7) of the United States. These long-term datasets have been and will continue to be important in evaluating the influence of climatic and environmental drivers on catchment processes.     

“城市区域”主义下的中国区域治理模式重构——珠三角城际铁路的实证

中国的区域治理模式长期以来呈现出阶段性演化的特征。特别是近些年,传统省-市分层设权的权力组织关系被动态的、反复连续性的博弈所取代。本研究借助政治经济学与人文地理学关于“国家空间再中心化”及组织社会学者的“行政发包制”理论,立足区域基础设施项目,即“珠三角城际铁路网”展开实证,系统分析其规划、建设及运营过程。并聚焦其中的事权与财权动态演变过程,解析省政府的角色定位和省市关系的演变等两大关键问题,揭示中国城市区域治理重构的内在逻辑。研究发现：一方面,省政府的角色定位由“分包商”和“协调者”逐渐转变为协调与发展并重的新角色定位;同时,省市关系由结构化的“行政发包”转化为多轮协商的动态博弈连续体。     

国土空间规划中城镇空间和城镇开发边界的划定

在2016年国务院印发的《省级空间规划试点方案》所提出的“开展基础评价”和“绘制规划底图”两项主要任务中,城镇适宜性的评价与城镇空间、城镇开发边界的划定属于核心内容,同时也是一项具有较强探索性的工作。以国家对国土空间规划的基本设想为依据,对城镇空间和城镇开发边界的概念和内涵、空间关系、相关规则进行深入探讨,确定了城镇适宜性评价与城镇空间、城镇开发边界划定的主要思路和技术路线。结合福建省空间规划的案例,分析了城镇适宜性评价与城镇空间、城镇开发边界划定的过程、方法和结果。不同于以往各部门开展的空间性规划,城镇空间和城镇开发边界的划定建立在资源环境承载能力和国土空间开发适宜性的基础评价之上,这使得城镇开发建设活动的空间布局在资源环境本底方面得到合理保障,城镇空间和城镇开发边界的划定也有了较为科学、客观的依据。此外,把基础底图的研制与城镇发展潜能、城镇开发指向的评估,以及开发建设的规模管控、空间管控、开发强度管控系统地整合起来,使得规划底图的随意性得到了较好的控制。实践表明,本文的思路和技术方法是合理可行的,这一尝试可为空间规划理论和方法体系的完善提供参考。     

Establishment and closure of the directed Florida whiting (Menticirrhus americanus) fishery and implications for North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) conservation and management

Today, ocean and coastal marine resource management is extremely complex. Marine resource managers are charged with conserving and managing many diverse species. Southern kingfish (Menticirrhus americanus), commonly known as whiting, are found from southern New England to Florida. During the fall through winter, western North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are primarily found in the coastal nearshore waters off South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, overlapping the whiting's range and habitat.     

美国海上油气田租赁开发和环评体系研究

美国海洋油气环评贯穿于外大陆架油气区域租赁销售和开发的各个阶段。文章从美国外大陆架租赁范围界定入手,介绍油气区域租赁开发所经历的5年规划、区域销售、勘探和开发生产各阶段所涉及的环评文件类型。着重分析美国海洋油气开发环评体系、工作程序和文件内容,最后提出对我国海洋油气开发环评的启示,即:海洋油气规划环评在先;公众参与的早期介入;全过程政府环评;环评审查不等于排污许可。     

Impact assessments and policy responses to sea-level rise in three US states: An exploration of human-dimension uncertainties

Uncertainties in the human dimensions of global change deeply affect the assessment and responses to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise (SLR). This paper explores the uncertainties in the assessment process and in state-level policy and management responses of three US states to SLR. The findings reveal important political, economic, managerial, and social factors that enable or constrain SLR responses; question disasters as policy windows; and uncover new policy opportunities in the history of state coastal policies. Results suggest that a more realistic, and maybe more useful picture of climate change impacts will emerge if assessments take more seriously the locally embedded realities and constraints that affect individual decision-makers’ and communal responses to climate change.