Progress and challenges in consolidating the management of Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories

Effective management refers to the ability of a protected area or indigenous territory to meet its objectives, particularly as they relate to the protection of biodiversity and forest cover. Effective management is achieved through a process of consolidation, which among other things requires legally protecting sites, integrating sites into land‐use planning, developing and implementing management and resource‐use plans, and securing long‐term funding to pay for recurrent costs. Effectively managing all protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon may be needed to avoid a deforestation tipping point beyond which regional climatic feedbacks and global climate change interact to catalyze irreversible drying and savannization of large areas. At present, protected areas and indigenous territories cover 45.5% (3.55 million km²) of the Amazon, most of the 60–70% forest cover required to maintain hydrologic and climatic function. Three independent evaluations of a long‐term large‐scale philanthropic initiative in the Amazon yielded insights into the challenges and advances toward achieving effective management of protected areas and indigenous territories. Over the life of the initiative, management of sites has improved considerably, particularly with respect to management planning and capacity building, but few sites are effectively managed and many lack sufficient long‐term financing, adequate governance, support of nongovernmental organizations, and the means to withstand economic pressures. The time and money required to complete consolidation is still poorly understood, but it is clear that philanthropic funding is critical so long as essential funding needs are not met by governments and other sources, which could be on the order of decades. Despite challenges, it is encouraging that legal protection has expanded greatly and management of sites is improving steadily. Management of protected areas in other developing countries could be informed by improvements that have occurred in Amazonian countries.     

Toward harmonizing prospective effectiveness assessment for road safety: Comparing tools in standard test case simulations

Abstract

Objective: With the overall goal to harmonize prospective effectiveness assessment of active safety systems, the specific objective of this study is to identify and evaluate sources of variation in virtual precrash simulations and to suggest topics for harmonization resulting in increased comparability and thus trustworthiness of virtual simulation-based prospective effectiveness assessment.

Methods: A round-robin assessment of the effectiveness of advanced driver assistance systems was performed using an array of state-of-the-art virtual simulation tools on a set of standard test cases. The results were analyzed to examine reasons for deviations in order to identify and assess aspects that need to be harmonized and standardized. Deviations between results calculated by independent engineering teams using their own tools should be minimized if the research question is precisely formulated regarding input data, models, and postprocessing steps.

Results: Two groups of sources of variations were identified; one group (mostly related to the implementation of the system under test) can be eliminated by using a more accurately formulated research question, whereas the other group highlights further harmonization needs because it addresses specific differences in simulation tool setups. Time-to-collision calculations, vehicle dynamics, especially braking behavior, and hit-point position specification were found to be the main sources of variation.

Conclusions: The study identified variations that can arise from the use of different simulation setups in assessment of the effectiveness of active safety systems. The research presented is a first of its kind and provides significant input to the overall goal of harmonization by identifying specific items for standardization. Future activities aim at further specification of methods for prospective assessments of the effectiveness of active safety, which will enhance comparability and trustworthiness in this kind of studies and thus contribute to increased traffic safety.     

Spatial cost efficiency in waste paper handling: the case of corrugated board in Sweden

This paper analyzes the spatial cost efficiency of the Swedish legislation regarding waste disposal handling. We focus on the case of corrugated board and recognize that the different counties in Sweden possess different economic prerequisites in terms of waste paper recovery and utilization potential. We employ data for six corrugated board mills and 20 counties and a non-linear programming model to identify the least cost strategy for reaching the politically specified recycling target of a 65% recovery rate for corrugated board. That is, the total costs of recovering a minimum of 65% in each county are calculated and compared with the case when the country as a whole recovers 65% of all old corrugated board is collected but there exist no uniform target for each county. The conclusion is that from an efficiency point of view the recovery efforts should be concentrated to the highly populated and urbanized counties, and not be uniformly divided throughout the country. In the base case, the results suggest that the cost efficient county-specific recovery rates should range from 51 to 72%.     

Assessing protected area effectiveness using surrounding (buffer) areas environmentally similar to the target area

Many studies are based on the assumption that an area and its surrounding (buffer) area present similar environmental conditions and can be compared. For example, in order to assess the effectiveness of a protected area, the land use/cover changes are compared inside the park with its surroundings. However, the heterogeneity in spatial variables can bias this assessment: we have shown that most of the protected areas in Mexico present significant environmental differences between their interior and their surroundings. Therefore, a comparison that aims at assessing the effectiveness of conservation strategies, must be cautioned. In this paper, a simple method which allows the generation of a buffer area that presents similar conditions with respect to a set of environmental variables is presented. The method was used in order to assess the effectiveness of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, a protected area located in the south-eastern part of Mexico. The annual rate of deforestation inside the protected area, the standard buffer area (based upon distance from the protected area only) and the similar buffer area (taking into account distance along with some environmental variables) were 0.3, 1.3 and 0.6%, respectively. These results showed that the protected area was effective in preventing land clearing, but that the comparison with the standard buffer area gave an over-optimistic vision of its effectiveness.     

基于模糊理论的鱼雷武器系统作战效能分析

准确评估鱼雷武器系统作战效能是最大限度发挥潜艇作战系统效能的必要前提.运用层次分析法和模糊数学理论对鱼雷武器系统效能进行了定性分析和定量计算,对如何公正、客观、合理地评估鱼雷武器系统作战效能做出了有益的探索.     

不同曝气位点对微氧强化硫酸盐还原-反硝化脱硫效果及群落结构的影响

微氧强化硫酸盐还原-反硝化脱硫(SR-DSR)工艺因具有同步处理废水中COD、NO~-_3、SO■生成S~0且运行成本低、流程短的优势而受到关注.但因不同曝气方式而在反应器中形成的不同微氧区的位置对反应器运行效能、S~0转化率和群落结构的影响尚不明确.因此,本文以5 mL·min~(-1)·L~(-1)曝气速率、10.4 mmol·L~(-1)硫酸钠、31 mmol·L~(-1)乳酸钠和8 mmol·L~(-1)硝酸钾连续运行膨胀颗粒污泥床(EGSB)反应器,对比研究了回流槽中(底部)曝气(微氧区位于反应器下部)和反应区上部曝气(微氧区分别位于反应器上部和下部但DO更低)运行稳定后,反应器的运行效能、S~0转化率和功能微生物的演替规律.结果表明,上部曝气时乳酸盐去除率为100%,出水中乙酸盐浓度为9.1 mmol·L~(-1),丙酸盐浓度为3.7 mmol·L~(-1),NO~-_3去除率为100%,出水中NO~-_2浓度为0.35 mmol·L~(-1),SO■去除率为84%,出水中S~(2-)浓度为2.6 mmol·L~(-1),S~0转化率为59%.与底部曝气相比,上部曝气时出水中乙酸盐和丙酸盐浓度分别升高2.2和1.9 mmol·L~(-1),NO~-_2浓度下降0.15 mmol·L~(-1),S~(2-)浓度降低0.5 mmol·L~(-1),SO■去除率和S~0转化率分别下降6%和1%.上部曝气时,反应器下部和上部均存在相对减弱的微氧环境,使得反应器中硫酸盐还原菌(SRB)Desulfomicrobium和Desulfobulbus的总丰度分别增加9%和5%,硫氧化反硝化菌(soNRB)Halothiobacillaceae和Sulfurovum的丰度均减小3.1%,异养反硝化菌(hNRB)Comamonas的丰度升高0.2%,互营菌Synergistaceae的丰度减少37%.其中,反应器下部的SRB和soNRB总丰度分别升高28%和3%,为SO■还原和S~0转化提供了充分条件,而反应器上部的微氧环境又减弱了SO■还原过程,从而降低了反应器出水中的S~(2-).因此,在碳源充足的条件下,可以采取反应器上部曝气的方式创造微氧环境,既可以保证较高的S~0转化率,又可以减少出水中S~(2-)和NO~-_2的浓度.     

湿式氧化技术处理炼油厂碱渣废水

考察了湿式氧化法处理运行过程 ,以及相关参数的控制方案。在实现装置出水、废气达标排放的前提下 ,稳定控制装置运行是可以实现的。如后续有酸化除酚工艺和SBR工艺进行再处理 ,则应选用温度 (14 5± 5 )℃ ,压力控制在 0 6～ 0 .7MPa的湿式氧化法     

海水电磁屏蔽体

目的将海水作为一种电磁屏蔽材料,研究其电磁屏蔽效能以及影响因素。方法基于海水和玻璃的电磁特性参数,并利用电场和磁场切向分量连续边界条件,推导由双层玻璃封装海水所构成的复合电磁屏蔽体结构的屏蔽效能计算公式。结果具有一定厚度和盐度的海水墙体可以展示出良好的电磁屏蔽效能。通过增加海水层的厚度,提高海水的盐度以及温度,均可以有效增强海水电磁屏蔽体的屏蔽效能。改变封装海水的玻璃层厚度,对海水电磁屏蔽体的屏蔽效能影响较小。结论海水可以作为一种有效的电磁屏蔽材料,并具有光波透明、电磁屏蔽效能易重构、可循环导热等独特的优势。在军事和民用领域,海水电磁屏蔽体将具有重要的理论和应用价值。