Study of urban population attitudes towards various wastewater reuse options: Israel as a case study

This paper summarizes the findings of a survey (256 participants) conducted to determine the attitude of the Israeli urban public towards various urban water reuse options. Israel is known for its long and successful agricultural water reuse scheme, but to date no large-scale urban reuse projects have been implemented. The survey included 21 reuse options, which were clustered into three reuse categories, namely: low, medium, and high contact levels. Results show that a high proportion of the participants supported medium contact reuse options such as sidewalk landscaping (95%), domestic WC flushing (85%) and firefighting (96%). Higher contact reuse options such as domestic laundry (38%), preserved food (13%), and potable aquifer recharge (11%) found much lesser support. Less than expected support was found for low contact reuse options with 86% for field crop irrigation, 62% for aquifer recharge for agricultural irrigation, and as low as 49% for orchard irrigation. This low support is surprising, since all three options have been practiced on a large scale for over three decades in Israel without any adverse effects to the public. No correlation was found between any biographical characteristic examined (education, gender, income, marital status, having young children, and age) and support for medium contact options. For the medium contact options, the results suggest that perceived financial gain (individual and/or communal) and positive public opinion enhances support, while perceived health effects negatively affects the degree of support. Technology, trust in authorities and awareness of water and environmental issues were found to not have a significant effect on support for medium contact reuse options. Analyzing the four possible reasons for support given by participants who identified themselves as supporters of wastewater reuse revealed that the most important reason for support was "water saving", followed by "minimization of importing water from abroad". These were followed by "infrastructure cost saving" together with "environmental improvement".     

公交柴油车道路排放特征的实测研究初探

利用GPS和SEMTECH-D车载排放测试仪测量了上海市公交车行驶工况和公交柴油车在市区道路上的排放状况.该研究共获得193400组公交车行驶工况数据,累计测量里程820 km,排放数据75420个.测量结果显示,上海市公交车平均车行速度14 km·h-1,最高车速为60 km·h-1;市区公交车平均车行速度14 km·h-1,最高车速小于60 km·h-1,市区公交车的怠速时间比在25%以上.被测公交柴油车的CO、THC和NOx平均里程排放因子为(3.41±0.86)、(1.95±0.47)和(4.56±0.99) g·km-1,与陈长虹等人2005年提供的卡车3和卡车5的排放状况相近.测量结果还显示,被测车辆进出站时单位里程排放量是正常行驶条件下的10倍.此外,在交通高峰期或拥堵期,车行速度降低至0～5 km·h-1时,被测公交柴油车的CO、THC和NOx平均里程排放因子升高至17.49、6.68和15.85 g·km-1,是平均车速时候的5.13倍、3.4倍和3.48倍,车辆排放污染将明显加剧.测量结果说明,加强城市交通管理,减少车辆拥堵,不仅可以提高公交车运行效率,而且也是降低公交车污染的有效措施.     

Perceived changes in well-being and happiness with gardening in urban organic allotments in Portugal

Urban allotment gardens (AG) in Portugal have increased in recent years, as in many other European countries and worldwide. The contribution of these gardens to the happiness and well-being of urban populations has been recognized, but evaluations of their benefits are still very scarce. The objective of this study was to evaluate this contribution, based on the urban organic AG of the Devesa Park in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The sample included 65 gardeners who completed the self-administered questionnaires of Bem-Estar Pessoal (personal well-being scale), Felicidade Subjetiva (subjective happiness scale) and sociodemographic characteristics. Respondents were mainly adults under 65 years, married and academically well qualified and about half of them had a professional activity, with nearly one third being retired. They considered themselves happy with their life (Personal Well-being Index = 74.5%) and revealed an optimistic and positive attitude towards life, regardless of economic or social difficulties. The increased frequency of visits for gardening was positively related to a greater perception of subjective happiness. The gardeners who visited the AG more frequently considered themselves happier from a self-perspective and in comparison with peers. It can be suggested that urban organic AG represent a means for enhancing citizen well-being, contributing positively to their feelings of happiness and life satisfaction, changing behaviours and developing personal capacities. Beyond economic measures, urban AG can be recommended to capture the well-being of societies.     

上海城区交通干道黑碳污染调查

采用设置在上海市中心城区交通主干道旁空气质量自动监测站2018年1—12月的观测数据,分析黑碳气溶胶(BC)污染特征及其与PM_(2.5)、SO_2、NO_x、CO、O_3、苯、甲苯、乙苯、二甲苯和气象参数的相关性。结果表明,观测期间内,BC小时均值为(3 038±22) ng/m~3,ρ(BC)在ρ(PM_(2. 5))中占比为(11. 48±0. 12)%。日内ρ(BC)变化呈双峰型,各月份之间ρ(BC)变化不大。ρ(BC)与风速呈负相关,与PM_(2. 5)、NO_x、CO、苯、甲苯、乙苯和二甲苯呈正相关。     

Scenario-based assessment and multi-objective optimization of urban development plan with carrying capacity of water system

• Impact of urban development on water system is assessed with carrying capacity. • Impacts on both water resource quantity and environmental quality are involved. • Multi-objective optimization revealing system trade-off facilitate the regulation. • Efficiency, scale and structure of urban development are regulated in two stages. • A roadmap approaching more sustainable development is provided for the case city. Environmental impact assessments and subsequent regulation measures of urban development plans are critical to human progress toward sustainability, since these plans set the scale and structure targets of future socioeconomic development. A three-step methodology for assessing and optimizing an urban development plan focusing on its impacts on the water system was developed. The methodology first predicted the pressure on the water system caused by implementation of the plan under distinct scenarios, then compared the pressure with the carrying capacity threshold to verify the system status; finally, a multi-objective optimization method was used to propose regulation solutions. The methodology enabled evaluation of the water system carrying state, taking socioeconomic development uncertainties into account, and multiple sets of improvement measures under different decisionmaker preferences were generated. The methodology was applied in the case of Zhoushan city in South-east China. The assessment results showed that overloading problems occurred in 11 out of the 13 zones in Zhoushan, with the potential pressure varying from 1.1 to 18.3 times the carrying capacity. As a basic regulation measure, an environmental efficiency upgrade could relieve the overloading in 4 zones and reduce 9%‒63% of the pressure. The optimization of industrial development showed that the pressure could be controlled under the carrying capacity threshold if the planned scale was reduced by 24% and the industrial structure was transformed. Various regulation schemes including a more suitable scale and structure with necessary efficiency standards are provided for decisionmakers that can help the case city approach a more sustainable development pattern.     

关于城市河流水污染防治技术应用和研究

随着我国经济的不断发展,各种工厂也大量的成立,而这也使得很多废弃物及废水被过度排放到湖泊与河流之中,进而导致其出现了严重的污染问题。污染不仅对人们的生活质量产生了影响,同时也对生态的平衡发展产生了很大的阻碍,业已经成为社会各界高度关注和重视的问题。基于此,本文围绕城市河流水污染的现状进行了分析,对于污染产生的原因也进行了阐述,针对城市河流水污染防治技术的应用也进行了探讨和研究,以期可以有效解决我国出现的河流水污染问题,进而为人们及社会营造一个全新、绿色的河流环境。     

Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

Feral pigeons are descendants of wild rock pigeons that have adapted to the urban habitat. They have partially conserved the foraging behaviour of their wild ancestors (flights to agricultural areas) but have also developed new habits. Previous studies on the foraging strategies of feral pigeons have given various results, e.g. maximum distances reached by the pigeons (measured in a straight line from the resting places) differed between 0.3–0.5 km and 18–25 km. This study focuses on the spatio-temporal activity of feral pigeons in the urban habitat. We equipped 80 free-living feral pigeons from Basel, Switzerland with GPS receivers. We found three different foraging strategies for pigeons in Basel: (1) in the streets, squares and parks near the home loft, (2) in agricultural areas surrounding the city, (3) on docks and railway lines in harbours. The maximum distance reached by a pigeon was 5.29 km. More than 32% of the pigeons remained within 0.3 km of the home lofts and only 7.5% flew distances of more than 2 km. Females covered significantly longer distances than males, preferring to fly to more abundant and predictable food sources. Temporal activity patterns showed to be influenced by sex, breeding state and season. In contrast to wild rock pigeons and to feral pigeons in other cities, pigeons in Basel showed a clear bimodal activity pattern for breeding birds only. The differences between our results and those of other studies seem to be partly method-dependent, as the GPS-technique allows to record the pigeons’ localisations continuously in contrast to other methods. Other differences might be due to different kinds of food supply in the various cities. Our study shows that feral pigeons have individual foraging strategies and are flexible enough to adapt to different urban environments.Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

城市生态系统的预测与综合评价的思想体系

本方针对国内外城市生态系统的研究,提出了一套预测一评价一对策的思想体系,并对其预测、评价方法作了初步理论探讨.     

城市街区大气流动与汽车尾气扩散的三维数值模拟

道路交通已成为现代城市的主要污染源，利用数学模型预测汽车排放污染物对大气环境的影响成为主要手段。针对一个典型城市街区的大气流动和汽车排放物扩散问题进行三维数值模拟分析，揭示了污染物在不同高度建筑物。不同宽度街道和十字道路所组成的街区峡谷内外的大气流动和污染物迁移扩散特征，同时反映了街道走向的影响。研究表明：由于受街道布局和大气边界层的影响，污染物主要集中在街区峡谷内（特别是近地面附近)难以扩散，易造成局部高浓度污染；由于流场的非均匀性和三维特征，污染物浓度呈现非均匀扩散特性。     

城市水资源系统综合评价指标体系初探

基于中国城市缺水的历史和现状，运用系统研究的方法，对影响城市水资源系统的自然禀赋、供水能力、用水效率和排放处理等子系统因素进行了综合分析，建立了包括目标层、准则层、指标层和方案层４个层次的城市水资源系统综合指标体系，并对评价程序和方法进行了理论分析，最后就目标层和准则层的可能评价结果建立了多维城市水资源综合评语集，对城市缺水类型进行分析，并可据此提出相应对策。