建筑施工噪声污染投诉案件成因及防治对策

近年来，随着人们环境意识和对生活质量需求的提高，大中城市噪声问题投诉比例逐渐增高，其中主要投诉的是建筑施工噪声和噪声扰民问题。本文根据建筑施工特点，结合笔者从事执法工作的实践，对其投诉案件的成因及防治进行了比较系统的分析和讨论。     

Particulate matter and metals partitioning in highway rainfall-runoff

This study investigated the particulate matter (PM) and metals in highway dry deposition and rainfall-runoff as a function of hydrologic transport and settling on an event basis. Events were differentiated as mass-limited (ML) and flow-limited (FL). Results indicate that unique and separate suspended sediment concentration (SSC) relationships with turbidity occurred for ML and FL events. Sixty minutes of quiescent settling produced a single SSC-turbidity relationship for all events. ML events transport higher proportions of settleable and sediment PM while FL events transported relatively higher suspended PM. For batch clarification with one hour of settling, ML events had generally higher treatment efficiencies compared to FL events for the same settling conditions. Highway dry deposition PM was hetero-disperse and coarse (d _{50 m} = 304 μm). Results indicate that the acidic rainfall is not a significant contributor to metals in runoff but is capable of leaching metals from dry deposition PM into runoff. Partitioning in retained runoff resulted in a particulate-bound predominance for most metals except Ca and Mg. While the finer fraction of dry deposition PM (< 75 μm) generates the highest metal concentrations, the highest metal mass is associated with the coarser fraction (> 75 μm).     

Fuzzy risk modeling of process operations in the oil and gas refineries

Operating several assets has resulted in more complexity and so occurrence of some major accidents in the refining industries. The process operations risk factors including failure frequency and the consequence components like employees' safety and environment impacts, operation downtime, direct and indirect cost of operations and maintenance, and mean time to repair should be considered in the analysis of these major accidents in any refinery. Considering all of these factors, the risk based maintenance (RBM) as a proper risk assessment methodology minimizes the risk resulting from asset failures. But, one of the main engineering problems in risk modeling of the complex industries like refineries is uncertainty due to the lack of information. This paper proposes a model for the risk of the process operations in the oil and gas refineries. The fuzzy logic system (FLS) was proposed for risk modeling. The merit of using fuzzy model is to overcome the uncertainty of the RBM components. This approach also can be accounted as a benchmark for future failures. A unified risk number would be obtained to show how the criticality of units is. The case study of a gas plant in an oil refinery is performed to illustrate the application of the proposed model and a comparison between the results of both traditional RBM and fuzzy method is made.For the case study, 26 asset failures were identified. The fuzzy risk results show that 3 failures have semi-critical level and other 23 failures are non-critical. In both traditional and fuzzy RBM methods, some condenser failures had the highest risk number and some pumps were prioritized to have the lowest risk level. The unit with unified risk number less than 40 is in the non-critical conditions. Proposed methodology is also applicable to other industries dealing with process operations risks.     

地下洞室群现场作业风险分析与向量模型

为了厘清地下洞室群施工现场作业风险因素间的关联效应,利用AMOS软件构建施工风险影响因素结构方程模型,对已建模型进行验证性因子分析,利用计算得出的M.I值对已构建的模型进行修正。根据所得模型计算出的路径系数和方差,对地下洞室群施工风险因素关联效应进行分析。结果表明:规章制度建设及执行、围岩稳定性、进场设备优良率、工人技术等级、工人逆反心理以及消极作业分别为各风险层次中影响最大的风险因素,且各风险层次间的关联效应表现出耦合关系;现场作业风险因素可分为现场主体因素、现场客体因素和现场控制因素3大类,它们之间成向量关系,以此为基础建立向量模型,可清晰直观地展示3大因素之间的主次关系。     

Evolving policies to regulate pollution from animal feeding operations

Due to concentrations of animals at large facilities, animal feeding operations (AFOs) have emerged as a major potential source of water pollution. The federal government regulates concentrated animal feeding operations under its point-source pollution permitting regulations. A major determinant of whether an operation must apply for a permit is the number of animals at an individual lot or facility. This paper examines federal mandatory controls and voluntary guidelines that seek to reduce contaminant pollution from AFOs. Land treatment practices are delineated due to their importance in reducing the injurious by-products of agricultural production. An evaluation of proposed revisions to federal regulations on confined animal feeding operations suggests they diverge from their goal of controlling water pollution. Federal regulations focus on the size of operation and amount of manure governed by the permitting process to the exclusion of other criteria related to the impairment of water quality. Given the uncertainties about the amount of pollution from AFOs, lack of enforcement of existing regulations, localization of problems, and possible alternatives for addressing the pollution, more demanding federal regulations may not form an appropriate response.     

A MULTI-BASIN PLANNING STRATEGY1

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a procedure for finding an optimal staging plan for implementing a multi-basin water resource system-a system that must meet, with tolerable shortages, pre-specified but highly variable demands for water that increase over time-a system such as the proposed Texas Water System. The paper stresses that, in the past, planners have paid little attention to quantifying explicitly the impact that uncertainty has on the decision process, and in that context, presents a means for explicitly evaluating the impact that uncertainty has on finding and evaluating the performance of the optimal and several alternate staging plans. The procedure presented evaluates the impact that uncertainty, in both the hydrologic and the economic variables, has on the decisions that need to be made. The decisions requiring resolution are (1) which of an over-specified set of facilities should be constructed, (2) how large each of the facilities should be at various points in time, and (3) how should the system be operated so as to minimize the capital plus operational costs over the planning period.     

Evaluating the Impacts of Environmental Flow Alternatives on Reservoir and Recreational Operations Using System Dynamics Modeling

Providing environmental flows is increasingly a management obligation in many water resource systems. Evaluating the impacts of environmental flow alternatives on other water uses in a basin can be a challenge, especially when collaborating with stakeholders. We demonstrate the use of system dynamics (SD) modeling to assess the impacts of four environmental flow alternatives in the Rio Chama, New Mexico. The model was developed to examine impacts of each alternative on reservoir storage and releases, hydropower production and revenue, and whitewater boating access. We simulated each alternative within a stochastic framework in order to explicitly incorporate hydrologic uncertainty into the analyses. The environmental flow alternatives were developed at a collaborative workshop of geomorphology, hydrology, and ecology experts. Results from the model indicate that the proposed flow recommendations on the Rio Chama will generally decrease annual reservoir storage, increase median flows, and have minimal impacts on hydropower production and whitewater rafting on the system. The Rio Chama case study is a promising example of how SD modeling can be used in the early stages of environmental flow studies and why it is compatible with collaborative modeling.     

A comparison of fixed-site and non-fixed-site approaches for species protection

The efficacy of simultaneously advancing two distinct conceptual designs (referred to here as fixed-site and non-fixed-site) for species conservation and protection is addressed. In the literature, numerous models can be found that typically stem from a particular design, but rarely are comparisons made between approaches. This paper presents a more integrated optimization framework that models landowner behavior and species viabilities at a landscape scale. Regional demand for resource extraction is used as the economic driver, a variant of simulated annealing is used to solve the model under different species protection approaches, and a detailed species population simulator is utilized to measure biological responses. When directly comparing the outcomes of different species protection strategies from a case study in Oregon (USA), it was found that neither approach was universally superior in terms of financial value or degree of protection for two late seral forest dependent species.     

A Nationwide Analysis of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Reservoir Performance in Meeting Operational Targets

The United States (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers operates reservoirs across the U.S. with 89% of reservoirs constructed prior to 1980. Many reservoirs have experienced changes in environmental conditions (e.g., climate and sediment yield) and societal conditions (e.g., water/energy demand and ecological flows) since construction. These changes may challenge the potential for reservoirs to meet their operational targets (OTs) (management goals). Historic daily reservoir data and OTs were collected for 233 reservoirs. Analyses were developed to identify when and where reservoirs may be systematically departing from OTs in terms of the frequency and magnitude of departure. Fifty‐six percent of reservoirs consistently met operating targets, 30% were borderline, and 13% experienced frequent and large magnitude departures. Fifty‐two percent of reservoirs with large departures were due to shortages and were located in the South Pacific and Southwestern divisions. This work provides a framework to identify reservoir performance in relation to management goals, a necessary step for moving toward adaptive management under changing conditions. All individual reservoir analyses are provided via an interactive data visualization tool: https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/reservoir-data .     

Transformative experiences for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disaster volunteers

The massive destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 provided an opportunity for many volunteers to be involved with disaster relief work. Exposure to devastation and personal trauma can have long‐lasting and sometimes detrimental effects on people providing help. This qualitative study explored the experience of volunteer relief workers who provided disaster relief services after the hurricanes. Three major themes emerged: emotional reactions that included feelings of shock, fatigue, anger and grief as well as sleep disturbances; frustration with leadership; and life‐changing personal transformation. Stress reactions were noted but appeared to be mitigated by feelings of compassion for the victims and personal satisfaction in being able to provide assistance. Suggestions are provided for further research.