Adapting forest health assessments to changing perspectives on threats—a case example from Sweden

A revised Swedish forest health assessment system is presented. The assessment system is composed of several interacting components which target information needs for strategic and operational decision making and accommodate a continuously expanding knowledge base. The main motivation for separating information for strategic and operational decision making is that major damage outbreaks are often scattered throughout the landscape. Generally, large-scale inventories (such as national forest inventories) cannot provide adequate information for mitigation measures. In addition to broad monitoring programs that provide time-series information on known damaging agents and their effects, there is also a need for local and regional inventories adapted to specific damage events. While information for decision making is the major focus of the health assessment system, the system also contributes to expanding the knowledge base of forest conditions. For example, the integrated monitoring programs provide a better understanding of ecological processes linked to forest health. The new health assessment system should be able to respond to the need for quick and reliable information and thus will be an important part of the future monitoring of Swedish forests.     

Developing transboundary river basin monitoring programmes using the DPSIR indicator framework

Policymakers are often dissatisfied by the lack of what they consider useful information to support water management. Analysis of this 'water information gap' shows that this is caused by a lack of proper communication between information users and information producers. To improve this communication the process of specification of information needs has been structured. Earlier experiences showed that this not only entailed developing a structure to manage the process, but also developing a structure to guide the breakdown of policy objectives into information needs. Such a structure to organise the problem supports policy makers and monitoring specialists in their communication. This paper describes three pilot projects where the DPSIR indicator framework was used to organise the problem. It is concluded that the DPSIR framework is useful for improving the communication between information users and information producers and is helpful in breaking down policy objectives into information needs in a structured way. The structured approach in this way assists in narrowing the water information gap. Use of the DPSIR framework however leads to a bias towards water management problems and does not provide for all the relevant information needs.     

土壤环境样品库建设及样品信息数据库管理

土壤样品携载丰富的环境特征信息,对于掌握不同历史阶段土壤环境状况及变化趋势有着不可替代的作用。环境保护部国家土壤环境样品库于2010年建成,是中国环境保护重要基础设施,具有储存专业化、管理集中化、信息系统化、质控标准化等特点,创新性地集合了土壤样品保存和应用的现代技术,已成为中国最大的土壤环境资源和信息平台。通过开展国家土壤样品库建设和样品信息数据库管理研究,集成国家土壤样品库建设技术和土壤样品数据库信息管理成果,为各地建立省级土壤样品库提供借鉴,对于规范和指导全国土壤环境样品库建设和样品保存、数据库信息管理和应用等具有重要意义。     

Assessing the value of information for water quality management: a watershed perspective from China

To tackle China’s pervasive water pollution, tremendous efforts are needed to achieve more and better information. However, resources for information collection (e.g., water quality monitoring, field experiments, etc.) are very limited for large watersheds with significant nonpoint source pollution. Thus, it is crucial to identify the priority of information acquisition. Based on the theory of value of information (VOI), a stochastic optimization approach was developed in this study to evaluate the importance of information. The approach was applied to several key polluted water bodies in China (e.g., Lake Taihu, Lake Chaohu, and Lake Dianchi). The major findings include: (1) because of the severe pollution and large uncertainty, the VOI for the targeted water bodies is substantial; (2) when the uncertainty is significant, a stricter regulation would result in a higher VOI, and therefore provide more incentives for data collection; (3) due to the interaction among different information sources, collecting multiple types of information simultaneously could be more valuable than collecting one after another; and (4) the importance of a specific type of information could vary significantly across watersheds. The proposed approach can be readily extended to more complex models and more sophisticated watershed cases. It could effectively support watershed management in China, as well as in other countries.     

Integrated groundwater resource management in Indus Basin using satellite gravimetry and physical modeling tools

Reliable and frequent information on groundwater behavior and dynamics is very important for effective groundwater resource management at appropriate spatial scales. This information is rarely available in developing countries and thus poses a challenge for groundwater managers. The in situ data and groundwater modeling tools are limited in their ability to cover large domains. Remote sensing technology can now be used to continuously collect information on hydrological cycle in a cost-effective way. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a remote sensing integrated physical modeling approach for groundwater management in Indus Basin. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Satellite (GRACE)-based gravity anomalies from 2003 to 2010 were processed to generate monthly groundwater storage changes using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model. The groundwater storage is the key parameter of interest for groundwater resource management. The spatial and temporal patterns in groundwater storage (GWS) are useful for devising the appropriate groundwater management strategies. GRACE-estimated GWS information with large-scale coverage is valuable for basin-scale monitoring and decision making. This frequently available information is found useful for the identification of groundwater recharge areas, groundwater storage depletion, and pinpointing of the areas where groundwater sustainability is at risk. The GWS anomalies were found to favorably agree with groundwater model simulations from Visual MODFLOW and in situ data. Mostly, a moderate to severe GWS depletion is observed causing a vulnerable situation to the sustainability of this groundwater resource. For the sustainable groundwater management, the region needs to implement groundwater policies and adopt water conservation techniques.     

Combining mapped and statistical data in forest ecological inventory and monitoring – supplementing an existing system

A forest ecological inventory and monitoring system combining information derived from maps and samples is proposed based on ecosystem regions (Bailey, 1994). The system extends the design of the USDA Forest Service Region 6 Inventory and Monitoring System (R6IMS) in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The key uses of the information are briefly discussed and expected results are illustrated with examples. The system is flexible, allowing regions based on ecological considerations to be modified. Sampling intensities that are affordable are likely to be insufficient to provide meaningful estimates for key parameters relating to rare and endangered species, watersheds, and other ecological units. Methods are proposed for collecting additional information in follow-up surveys and combining it with relevant information obtained in R6IMS. Near-continuous information on weather and possible pollution variables recorded by instruments at sampling sites is needed to develop meaningful models to understand what is happening in the ecoregions. R6IMS and the proposed additions constitute a dynamic system which will be modified further as data are analyzed.     

Factors influencing acquisition of ecological and exposure information about hazards and risks from contaminated sites

Considerable research indicates that a wide range of socio-economic factors influence attitudes and perceptions about environmental hazards and risks, and that social trust in those who manage a hazard is strongly correlated to judgements about risks and benefits. We suggest that there are three steps that lead to environmental risk perceptions: acquisition of information, interpretation and synthesis of different pieces of information, and understanding of that information in light of previous knowledge, perceptions, or attitudes. In this study we presented 211 college students in the sciences and non-sciences with ecological and exposure information using text, tables and maps to examine the factors that affect information acquisition and interpretation concerning ecological issues at a fictitious hazardous waste site. Students were allowed about an hour to read the materials and answer questions. The percent of students answering each question correctly varied from 4 to 82%, indicating that some questions were extremely difficult to answer. We attributed these differences to variations in the number of places information was presented (in text, tables, maps, or a combination) and the complexity of the information (how many pieces of information were required to answer the question correctly). The correlation between the number of students answering each question correctly and these combined measures (frequency, complexity) was −0.72. Thus, although there were differences in accuracy concerning ecological information as presented in this study, the major differences were accounted for by how the information was presented, and how much information was required. This suggests that risk communicators should carefully determine which ecological information is critical for the target audience, and ensure that it is presented several times (in different forms). That a lower percentage of people correctly answered questions that required synthesizing several pieces of information suggests that this complexity should be reduced where possible, or that the pieces of information should be tied clearly to the conclusion. Self-declaration of effort and perceptions of safety of the site did not markedly influence the relationship between accuracy, difficulty of finding information, and complexity of information. Other possible confounding variables (i.e., science vs non-science major) only accounted for about 27% of the variation in student’s overall score on ecological questions; age, ethnicity, and gender did not enter as significant variables. We cannot manage environmental hazards with appropriate stakeholder input unless we understand how to present environmental information to achieve a full understanding. Protection of human health and the environment requires that people understand ecological and exposure information, particularly on buffer lands.     

Information theoretic perspective on coastal water-quality monitoring and management near an offshore industrial park

A semi-continuous water-quality monitoring system was installed in Yunlin Offshore Industrial Park (YOIP), the largest industrial park in Taiwan, in 2007 to provide real-time water-quality information such as pH, water depth, dissolved oxygen, temperature, turbidity, conductivity, and chlorophyll. To interpret the large quantities of high-frequency data generated by this system, information theory was applied for data analysis and extraction of useful information for further coastal water-quality management. Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics that involves the quantification of information. Shannon entropy is a key measure of information that was calculated in this study to reveal the inherent uncertainty of water-quality information. The applicability of Shannon entropy for signaling possible coastal pollution events in the YOIP was explored and results showed that it provides new insight into the inherent uncertainty or randomness of the original data. Specially, when Shannon entropy was high, multiple instable readings were observed for turbidity and salinity. This indicates that Shannon entropy may be a useful new tool for exploratory data analysis. It can be used as a supplementary indicator along with the original environmental data to signify some episodes of water-quality degradation.     

《突发性污染事故中常见危险品档案库》研制

研制建立了《突发性污染事故中常见危险品档案库》,从 1档案库的内容—— 1 3 0 0余种化学危险品六个方面的信息和环境保护相关信息 ,2档案库的计算机实现技术两大方面进行了研究和开发 ,并制成了《突发性污染事故中常见危险品档案库》光盘。该档案库是对化学危险品引起的突发性污染事故进行快速处理的技术信息支持库 ,是为环境管理、环境监测、环境监察、环境卫生、化学危险品管理等行业的管理和技术人员提供的实用工具软件     

城市环境信息综合查询分析系统开发与应用实践

主要介绍了城市环境信息综合查询分析系统的建设目标、体系结构、数据组织、系统模块的功能、关键技术等.应用实践表明,开放的体系结构、通用的GIS平台,一体编码的数据库管理技术,规范标准的信息维护与评价体系等可为开发其它城市的环境信息系统提供借鉴.     

Can we integrate climatic modelling and assessment?

The climatic change “debate” seems to be expanding faster than the available information base. National and international response strategies (mitigation and adaptation) are being discussed in board rooms, governments and the media. Phrases like “the uncertainty in the scenarios” appear to carry meaning but the information seems to be, at best, incomplete and, at worst, totally debased by multiple definitions and usages. “Scenarios” are predictions of possible futures. The “(un)certainty” that characterizes them encompasses prejudices, perspectives, incompleteness of information as well as the differences in completeness, accuracy and sensitivity of different forecasting tools. (Un)certainty is the source of experimentation and learning but excessive (un)certainty is noise and so the search for a signal requires its reduction. This reduction process can both promote planning and co-ordination but also quash unconventional, but ultimately valuable, ideas. Balancing this tension across the modern, multifaceted climatic “divisions” of technology, training, information access, understanding, terminology, economic development, societal flexibility and social and political perceptions is difficult. The current dysfunctioning of the international climatic information “industry” demands improved communication among these diverse communities. This paper discusses some of the difficulties as perceived by a physical scientist turned “gatekeeper” and proposes a twofold strategy for improving the situation: a climatic change information exchange and an explicit recognition of the need for cyclic social co-operation among the participating groups.     

惠济河水质管理信息系统的研制

把管理信息系统应用于水质管理,采用一维稳态多河段水质模型,建立了惠济河水质管理信息系统.该系统由水质监测数据的管理、水质的模拟预测和水质评价三部分组成,实现了数据的输入、存储、修改、删除和查询以及生成报表和数据图形的打印等功能,为水污染防治、水资源可持续开发利用和社会经济持续发展提供信息技术支持.     

环境信息化标准的发展

介绍了环境信息化的发展历程,勾画出结构清晰、层次分明的环境信息化标准体系框架,详细描述了环境信息分类的结构,以及重大项目中涉及的环境信息化标准工作概况。提出了下一步环境信息化工作的目标和方式。     

Mapping forest composition from the Canadian National Forest Inventory and land cover classification maps

Canada's National Forest Inventory (CanFI) provides coarse-grained, aggregated information on a large number of forest attributes. Though reasonably well suited for summary reporting on national forest resources, the coarse spatial nature of this data limits its usefulness in modeling applications that require information on forest composition at finer spatial resolutions. An alternative source of information is the land cover classification produced by the Canadian Forest Service as part of its Earth Observation for Sustainable Development of Forests (EOSD) initiative. This product, which is derived from Landsat satellite imagery, provides relatively high resolution coverage, but only very general information on forest composition (such as conifer, mixedwood, and deciduous). Here we link the CanFI and EOSD products using a spatial randomization technique to distribute the forest composition information in CanFI to the forest cover classes in EOSD. The resultant geospatial coverages provide randomized predictions of forest composition, which incorporate the fine-scale spatial detail of the EOSD product and agree in general terms with the species composition summaries from the original CanFI estimates. We describe the approach and provide illustrative results for selected major commercial tree species in Canada.     

城市区域水污染物排放核查方法与案例研究

城市水污染物排放信息是城市水环境保护决策和管理的依据,但城市水污染控制的外部性使城市水污染物排放信息产生失真风险,需要对城市区域水污染物排放信息核查。通过高质量数据对低质量数据的核查,用基于监测的水污染物入河量数据核查基于环境统计申报与排污系数的水污染物入河量数据,完善了城市区域水污染物排放核查方法。案例分析结果显示,环境统计COD入河排放量明显偏小。建议水污染物排放统计以入河量为核心,建立入河排污口监测体系,编制核查技术规范,实施区域污染物排放核查。     

发挥电子信箱系统(E-mail)在环境信息传输中的作用

本文对目前环境信息的传播现状作了回顾，指出了实现办公自动化，利用电子信箱进行环境信息传输的必要性和紧迫性，进而对电子信箱的强大功能及在环境保护的有关领域的信息传输方面所能起到的较大作用进行了阐述，最后对电子信箱传输系统的建立即如何实现电子信箱的信息传输以及软、硬件的配置等作了介绍。     

Environmental science as a social process

The felt need for better environmental information for planners and voters is based on maladaptive beliefs about the nature of knowledge and social order. Because there is not a meta-model which links the individual environmental sciences into a coherent whole, understanding complex environmental problems is necessarily a process of discourse between scientists from separate sciences—a process of gaining trust, building new patterns of thinking, and reaching toward new consensuses. By acknowledging the nature of the process, we can improve upon it and relieve the felt need for better environmental information.     

Blockwise AICc for Model Selection in Generalized Linear Models

The corrected Akaike information criterion (AICc) is a widely used tool in analyzing environmental and ecological data, and it outperforms the Akaike information criterion (AIC), especially in small-size samples. To take advantage of this property, we propose a modified version of the AICc in a generalized linear model framework, referred to as the blockwise AICc (bAICc). Compared with some other information criteria, extensive simulation results show that the bAICc performs well. We also analyzed two environmental datasets, one for snail survival and the other for fish infection, to illustrate the usefulness of this new model selection criterion.     

Role of Geographic Information System (GIS) in Watershed Simulation By Winvast Model

The uncertainty of modeling input will increase the simulation error, and this situation always happens in a model without user-friendly interface. WinVAST model, developed by the University of Virginia in 2003, treats an entire multi-catchment by a tree-view structure. Its extra computer programs can connect geographic information system (GIS). Model users can prepare all the necessary information in ArcGIS. Extracting information from GIS interface can not only decrease the inconvenience of data input, but also lower the uncertainty due to data preparation. The Daiyuku Creek and Qupoliao Creek in the Fei-tsui reservoir watershed in Northern Taiwan provided the setting for the case study reported herein. The required information, including slope, stream length, subbasin area, soil type and land-use condition, for WinVAST model should be prepared in a Microsoft Access database, which is the project file of WinVAST with extension mdb. In ArcGIS interface, when the soil layer, land-use layer, and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) map are prepared, all the watershed information can be created as well. This study compared the simulation results from automatically generated input and manual input. The results show that the relative simulation error resulting from the rough process of data input can be around 30% in runoff simulation, and even reach 70% in non-point source pollution (NPSP) simulation. It could conclude that GIS technology is significant for predicting watershed responses by WinVAST model, because it can efficiently reduce the uncertainty induced by input errors.     

Sequential optimal monitoring network design and iterative spatial estimation of pollutant concentration for identification of unknown groundwater pollution source locations

One of the difficulties in accurate characterization of unknown groundwater pollution sources is the uncertainty regarding the number and the location of such sources. Only when the number of source locations is estimated with some degree of certainty that the characterization of the sources in terms of location, magnitude, and activity duration can be meaningful. A fairly good knowledge of source locations can substantially decrease the degree of nonuniqueness in the set of possible aquifer responses to subjected geochemical stresses. A methodology is developed to use a sequence of dedicated monitoring network design and implementation and to screen and identify the possible source locations. The proposed methodology utilizes a combination of spatial interpolation of concentration measurements and simulated annealing as optimization algorithm for optimal design of the monitoring network. These monitoring networks are to be designed and implemented sequentially. The sequential design is based on iterative pollutant concentration measurement information from the sequentially designed monitoring networks. The optimal monitoring network design utilizes concentration gradient information from the monitoring network at previous iteration to define the objective function. The capability of the feedback information based iterative methodology is shown to be effective in estimating the source locations when no such information is initially available. This unknown pollution source locations identification methodology should be very useful as a screening model for subsequent accurate estimation of the unknown pollution sources in terms of location, magnitude, and activity duration.