Statistical hypothesis testing formulations for U.S. environmental regulatory standards for ozone

Environmental regulatory standards are intended to protect human health and environmental welfare. Current standards are based on scientific and policy considerations but appear to lack rigorous statistical foundations and may have unintended regulatory consequences. We examine current and proposed U.S. environmental regulatory standards for ozone from the standpoint of their formulation and performance within a statistical hypothesis testing framework. We illustrate that the standards can be regarded as representing constraints on a percentile of the ozone distribution, where the percentile involved depends on the defined length of ozone season and the constraint is stricter in regions with greater variability. A hypothesis testing framework allows consideration of error rates (probability of false declaration of violation and compliance) and we show that the existing statistics on which the standards are based can be improved upon in terms of bias and variance. Our analyses also raise issues relating to network design and the possibilities of defining a regionally based standard that acknowledges and accounts for spatial and temporal variability in the ozone distribution.     

Statistical evaluation of the attainment of interim cleanup standards at hazardous waste sites

Cleanup standards at hazardous waste sites include (i) numeric standards (often risk-based), (ii) background standards in which the remediated site is compared with data from a supposedly clean region, and (iii) interim standards in which the remediated site is compared with preremediation data from the same site. The latter are especially appropriate for verifying progress when an innovative, but unproven, technology is used for remediation. Standards of type (i) require one-sample statistical tests, while those of type (ii) and type (iii) call for two-sample tests. This paper considers two-sample tests with an emphasis upon the type (iii) scenario. Both parametric (likelihood ratio) and nonparametric (linear rank) protocols are examined. The methods are illustrated with preremediation data from a site on the National Priorities List. The results indicate that nonparametric procedures can be quite competitive (in terms of power) with distributional modelling provided a near optimal rank test is selected. Suggestions are given for identifying such rank tests. The results also confirm the importance of sound baseline sampling; no amount of post-remediation sampling can overcome baseline deficiencies.This paper has been prepared with partial support from the United States Environmental Protection Agency under a Cooperative Agreement Number CR-815273. The contents have not been subject to Agency review and therefore do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.     

环境监测站实施国家室认可的可行性探讨

介绍了国家实验室认可机构的建立，资质以及国家实验室认可准则的依据等概况。阐述了各级环境监测站在环境监测中实施ISO标准的必要性，实施国家实验室认可的可行性，以及相应的操作流程，简略评述了实施国家实验室认可对环境监测站的作用。     

大气环境影响评价中理解和执行国家标准的几个问题

就大气环境影响评价中理解和执行ＧＢ／Ｔ１３２０１－９１、ＧＢ３０９５－８２的几个问题提出了看法和建议。     

Cross-boundary issues for national parks: What works “on the ground”

In recent years, cross-boundary management has become an essential part of park management. In this article we compare the perspectives of managers of several US national parks to the advice on this issue presented in the published literature. Data were obtained from interviews of the superintendents, assistant superintendents and resources managers of five major western national parks and from a survey of participants in a NPS workshop attended by park superintendents, scientists, and resource managers; law enforcement personnel; and interpreters. Three themes related to boundary management were consistently stressed by park managers: (10 a lack of sufficient funds and personnel within the parks; (2) the need for reliable information on both political and natural processes; and, (3) the importance of personal interactions between park staff and individuals from the surrounding area. Basic data collection, the documentation of trends, cooperative groups and personal contacts, educational programs, and land acquisition were the most useful strategies. A lack of funds and information, ineffective communication, enforcement problems, and a lack of motivation for parties to reach a negotiated agreement were the most serious obstacles. A wide range of valuable institutional knowledge concerning boundary management exists within the National Park Service; however, there appears to be a gap between published strategies and the approaches that work “on the ground”.     

MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS OF WATER-USE DATA USING A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM1

ASSTRACT: As part of its mission, the U.S. Geological Survey conducts water-resources research. Site-specific and aggregate water-use data are used in the Survey's National Water-Use Information Program and in various hydrologic investigations. Both types of activities have specific requirements in terms of water-use data access, analysis, and display. In Kansas, the Survey obtains water-use information from several sources. Trpically, this information is in a format that is not readily usable by the Survey. Geographic information system (GIS) technology is being used to restructure the available water-use data into a format that allows users to readily access and summarize site-specific water-use data by source (i.e., surface or ground water), type of use, and user-defined area.     

A case study of resources management planning with multiple objectives and projects

Each National Park Service unit in the United States produces a resources management plan (RMP) every four years or less. The plans commit budgets and personnel to specific projects for four years, but they are prepared with little quantitative and analytical rigor and without formal decision-making tools. We have previously described a multiple objective planning process for inventory and monitoring programs (Schmoldt and others 1994). To test the applicability of that process for the more general needs of resources management planning, we conducted an exercise on the Olympic National Park (NP) in Washington State, USA. Eight projects were selected as typical of those considered in RMPs and five members of the Olympic NP staff used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritize the eight projects with respect to their implicit management objectives. By altering management priorities for the park, three scenarios were generated. All three contained some similarities in rankings for the eight projects, as well as some differences. Mathematical allocations of money and people differed among these scenarios and differed substantially from what the actual 1990 Olympic NP RMP contains. Combining subjective priority measures with budget dollars and personnel time into an objective function creates a subjective economic metric for comparing different RMP’s. By applying this planning procedure, actual expenditures of budget and personnel in Olympic NP can agree more closely with the staff’s management objectives for the park.     

华北几次大震前弱震分布参数R(t)的异常变化

本文详细研究了1974年以来华北地区9次Ms≥5.0级大震前,小震时空分布参数R(t)的变化特征.结果表明:华北地区9次Ms≥5.0级大震前小震时空分布参数R(t)值均出现了先上升,然后下降直至主震发生的异常图象。根据R(t)值异常可能对未来发生的大震作出一定程度的预报.文中对R(t)值异常变化的机制进行了初步讨论.     

A long-term survey on anthropogenic impacts to the water quality of coral reefs, southern Taiwan

Before 2001, the ecological protection area in the Kenting National Park (KTNP), southern Taiwan, was poorly described. In this study, a set of four-year data (2001-2004) of seawater qualities at 19 sampling sites around the Nanwan Bay in the KTNP was used to explore anthropogenic impacts to ecological environment, especially coral reefs. The parameters of water quality were analyzed immediately after collection. The results showed that higher values of nutrients and suspended solids were attributed to the higher run-off around Nanwan Bay. The fluxes of nutrients and suspended solids were consistently correlated to rainfall. Hence, equations were developed to calculate nutrient fluxes and suspended solids by using only rainfall data. Our results show that suspended solids and ammonia were the dominant factors leading to the drop in coral coverage. In summary, the water quality in the intertidal zone of Nanwan Bay has been degraded and required greater attention.