Study of the flood control scheduling scheme for the Three Gorges Reservoir in a catastrophic flood

The Three Gorges Project is the world's largest water conservancy project. According to the design standards for the 1,000‐year flood, flood diversion areas in the Jingjiang reach of the Yangtze River must be utilized to ensure the safety of the Jingjiang area and the city of Wuhan. However, once these areas are used, the economic and life loss in these areas may be very great. Therefore, it is vital to reduce this loss by developing a scheme that reduces the use of the flood diversion areas through flood regulation by the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), under the premise of ensuring the safety of the Three Gorges Dam. For a 1,000‐year flood on the basis of a highly destructive flood in 1954, this paper evaluates scheduling schemes in which flood diversion areas are or are not used. The schemes are simulated based on 2.5‐m resolution reservoir topography and an optimized model of dynamic capacity flood regulation. The simulation results show the following. (a) In accord with the normal flood‐control regulation discharge, the maximum water level above the dam should be not more than 175 m, which ensures the safety of the dam and reservoir area. However, it is necessary to utilize the flood diversion areas within the Jingjiang area, and flood discharge can reach 2.81 billion m³. (b) In the case of relying on the TGR to impound floodwaters independently rather than using the flood diversion areas, the maximum water level above the dam reaches 177.35 m, which is less than the flood check level of 180.4 m to ensure the safety of the Three Gorges Dam. The average increase of the TGR water level in the Chongqing area is not more than 0.11 m, which indicates no significant effect on the upstream reservoir area. Comparing the various scheduling schemes, when the flood diversion areas are not used, it is believed that the TGR can execute safe flood control for a 1,000‐year flood, thereby greatly reducing flood damage.     

Correlations between heavy metals and organic carbon extracted by dry oxidation procedure in urban roadside soils

The organic fraction in soils has a significant influence on heavy metal transport. In this study, the organic carbon content was measured by dry oxidation procedure from 21 Xuzhou urban roadside soils to assess the relationships between the concentrations of heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Zn, and Cr) and the amount of organic carbon. The anthropogenic heavy metals (e.g. Pb, Cu, Zn) were strongly correlated with organic carbon (denoted by C_org−c) extracted by dry oxidation while natural heavy metal (e.g. Cr) showed no correlation to the C_org−c. The anthropogenic heavy metals were also strongly correlated with the amount of the total carbon. These results show that the anthropogenic heavy metals are mainly enriched in the organic matter in the Xuzhou urban roadside soils.     

Water and power networks and urban fragmentation in Los Angeles: Rethinking assumed mechanisms

Los Angeles is often described as the epitome of urban fragmentation, a notion which in this context is frequently connected to, or even conflated with urban sprawl. At the same time, the city features integrated water and power networks which have been under public ownership for over 70 years. We thus have an apparent paradox in the context of the debate on ‘splintering urbanism’, between socio-spatial fragmentation and the integration of networks. In discussing the idea that deregulation of infrastructural networks exacerbates urban fragmentation, the authors use the case of Los Angeles in order to highlight the central role of private interests in management decisions concerning infrastructure networks. The authors carry out their analysis in an historical perspective, revealing that network integration and universal access can often serve private interests more than the public good. Urban fragmentation in Los Angeles, they conclude, is the result of a complex process of instrumentalisation of network development and management.     

Water and sanitation in the Buenos Aires metropolitan region: Fragmented markets, splintering effects?

This paper discusses the provision of water and sanitation services and the related urban impacts in Buenos Aires circa 2005. The first part of the paper focuses on the metropolitan region (BAMR) which is larger than the area served by the Aguas Argentinas S.A. (AASA) concession (i.e. the capital and its conurbano). It highlights a form of institutional fragmentation that is reflected in the diverse management practices of the numerous service providers and results in differentiated levels of and access to services. The paper discusses the technical, economic and regulatory factors that have historically resulted in this institutional fragmentation. The second part of the article focuses on AASA’s water concession agreement. It demonstrates that, although the agreement had an in-built splintering logic, its implementation led to a more “integrated approach” based on the “reality on the ground”. On the whole, the conclusion regarding the application of the splintering urbanism concept to Buenos Aires is a mixed one and depends on the scale of observation. Although at regional level (BAMR), a form of “institutional fragmentation” would appear to be obvious, it is the result of a long and complex historical process and, while recent neo-liberal reforms in service provisions have “cemented” this fragmentation, they did not actually cause it. If we take the AASA service area in isolation, the trend in the decade following the contracting out of the service has been one of improved service provision and access—although this was not achieved through increased integration of the supply system. Finally, in the case of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region, the splintering urbanism thesis defended by Marvin and Graham needs to be nuanced in several significant ways.     

Water and power in Santiago de Chile: Socio-spatial segregation through network integration

The analysis of the history of the management and distribution of electricity, water and sanitation networks in Santiago de Chile throws light on a problem which is central to thinking on the relationship between urban services management and territorial splintering: what is the impact of urban policy, in particular housing policy and urban planning, on access to services and on the potential levels of social segregation and institutional splintering of metropolises?The Chilean example is eminently anchored in its political and institutional history. We shall see, for example, that the authoritarian urban policy of the military government, associated with early liberal reform, enabled the improvement of access to networks in every municipality of the Greater Santiago area. However, this success, leading to the integration by urban services of a large territory, does not signify that networks remained neutral as regards the process of spatial segregation. Inversely, we can defend the theory that the presence of an integrated service was a necessary condition and a reinforcing factor of the process of urban spread and residential segregation. This paradoxical argument is a result of the ambivalent liberal network and urban policies of the military government. Urban expansion was largely sustained by the development of integrated infrastructures and universal services. The processes of liberalising land and urban services were mutually sustaining and provided the necessary conditions for the birth of an extremely intense movement of urban sprawl and segregation between 1985 and 2000.     

Exurbia from the bottom-up: Confronting empirical challenges to characterizing a complex system

We describe empirical results from a multi-disciplinary project that support modeling complex processes of land-use and land-cover change in exurban parts of Southeastern Michigan. Based on two different conceptual models, one describing the evolution of urban form as a consequence of residential preferences and the other describing land-cover changes in an exurban township as a consequence of residential preferences, local policies, and a diversity of development types, we describe a variety of empirical data collected to support the mechanisms that we encoded in computational agent-based models. We used multiple methods, including social surveys, remote sensing, and statistical analysis of spatial data, to collect data that could be used to validate the structure of our models, calibrate their specific parameters, and evaluate their output. The data were used to investigate this system in the context of several themes from complexity science, including have (a) macro-level patterns; (b) autonomous decision making entities (i.e., agents); (c) heterogeneity among those entities; (d) social and spatial interactions that operate across multiple scales and (e) nonlinear feedback mechanisms. The results point to the importance of collecting data on agents and their interactions when producing agent-based models, the general validity of our conceptual models, and some changes that we needed to make to these models following data analysis. The calibrated models have been and are being used to evaluate landscape dynamics and the effects of various policy interventions on urban land-cover patterns.     

Urban consolidation and house prices: a case study of Melbourne 1990–2004

This paper explores the links between a strategic policy, urban consolidation, and house prices by examining the changes in the mix of housing and in house price for the period 1991–2004. We contend that urban consolidation could be seen as a source of additional supply, (which might be expected to be felt in lower prices and so contribute to a local policy objective) but also as a stimulus to demand (by developers who could bid up the price of lots where it was understood more housing could be built). Analyses were carried out at the metropolitan and sub-regional scales using correlation tests. The research finds very weak statistical connections, and concludes that this policy has not been associated with price changes.     

中国开辟区不利开采地形类型及其分布

利用1998年"大洋一号"调查船近海底作业所获的深拖海底电视和照相系统资料,对中国开辟区不利开采地形类型及其分布特征进行了研究,并对海底地形的坡度进行了计算,结果表明:(1)中国开辟区东、西两区海底的东向坡和西向坡是均衡分布的。东、西两区海底地形坡度的分布特征明显不同,东区海底地形坡度以0～15°为主,而西区坡度大于3°的地形则很少。坡度大于5°的地形主要分布于坡脚处,特别是坡度超过15°的地形总是出现在水深变化的转折点处。(2)研究区不利开采地形可分为坡度为5～15°和大于15°两种类型,东区地形坡度大于5°的不利开采地形比西区多14%,东区坡度大于15°的地形为3.6%,比西区(仅为1.4%)多,东、西两区都有少量坡度近90°的地形出现,并且这种地形在东区所占比率比西区大,说明东区断崖、陡坎和断裂沟槽比西区多,地形也更为复杂多变。     

浙江渔场的渔业资源动态与监测

本文根据历史资料和１９９３年资源动态监资料，阐明了浙江渔场及邻近海域渔业资源的变化状况，重点叙述了鲐、Ｃｈａｎ鱼、虾类、头足类的资源开发利用动态，讨论了渔业资源动态监测工作，提出今后搞好资源监测工作的建议。     

中国多金属结核开辟区东、西两小区小型底栖动物的空间分布

利用 1 998年“大洋一号”调查船 DY95 - 8航次在中国多金属结核开辟区东、西两小区用多管取样器采集的沉积物样品 ,对小型底栖动物的组成、分布及其与环境因子的关系进行了研究。结果表明 :(1 )东、西两小区共有 1 6个类群的小型底栖动物 ,其中线虫类占居显著优势 ,在东、西两小区各占总栖息密度的 71 %和 6 4 %,其次为猛水蚤类和蜱螨类。 (2 )东、西两小区小型底栖动物类群平均栖息密度分别为 3 2 .47ind/1 0 cm2 和 1 8.0 5 ind/1 0 cm2 ,东小区高于西小区。小区各站位间的栖息密度平面分布差异显著。 (3 )东、西两小区小型底栖动物类群栖息密度的垂直分布趋势明显 ,由表层向底层 ,栖息密度逐渐降低。 (4)东、西两小区小型底栖动物空间分布与底质沉积物、结核覆盖率和底层流等环境因子密切相关 ,底质较硬、结核覆盖率较高以及底层流较强都不利于小型底栖动物的栖息。