SELECTING TREND TESTS FOR WATER QUALITY SERIES WITH SERIAL CORRELATION AND MISSING VALUES1

ABSTRACT: The use of nonparametric tests for monotonic trend has flourished in recent years to support routine water quality data analyses. The validity of an assumption of independent, identically distributed error terms is an important concern in selecting the appropriate nonparametric test, as is the presence of missing values. Decision rules are needed for choosing between alternative tests and for deciding whether and how to pre-process data before trend testing. Several data pre-processing procedures in conjunction with the Mann-Kendall tau and the Seasonal Kendall test (with and without serial correlation correction) are evaluated using synthetic time series with generated serial correlation and missing data. A composite test (pre-testing for serial correlation followed by one of two trend tests) is evaluated and was found to perform satisfactorily.     

Analysis of the Trend and Seasonal Cycle of Carbon Monoxide Concentrations in an Urban Area (4 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Air quality is an field of major concern in large cities. This problem has led administrations to introduce plans and regulations to reduce pollutant emissions. The analysis of variations in the concentration of pollutants is useful when evaluating the effectiveness of these plans. However, such an analysis cannot be undertaken using standard statistical techniques, due to the fact that concentrations of atmospheric pollutants often exhibit a lack of normality and are autocorrelated. On the other hand, if long-term trends of any pollutant’s emissions are to be detected, meteorological effects must be removed from the time series analysed, due to their strong masking effects. Materials and Methods The application of statistical methods to analyse temporal variations is illustrated using monthly carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations observed at an urban site. The sampling site is located at a street intersection in central Valencia (Spain) with a high traffic density. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain. It is a typical Mediterranean city in terms of its urban structure and climatology. The sampling site started operation in January 1994 and monitored CO ground level concentrations until February 2002. Its geographic coordinates are W0°22′52″ N39°28′05″ and its altitude is 11 m. Two nonparametric trend tests are applied. One of these is robust against serial correlation with regards to the false rejection rate, when observations have a strong persistence or when the sample size per month is small. A nonparametric analysis of the homogeneity of trends between seasons is also discussed. A multiple linear regression model is used with the transformed data, including the effect of meteorological variables. The method of generalized least squares is applied to estimate the model parameters to take into account the serial dependence of the residuals of this model. This study also assesses temporal changes using the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter. The KZ filter has been shown to be an effective way to remove the influence of meteorological conditions on O₃ and PM to examine underlying trends. Results The nonparametric tests indicate a decreasing, significant trend in the sampled site. The application of the linear model yields a significant decrease every twelve months of 15.8% for the average monthly CO concentration. The 95% confidence interval for the trend ranges from 13.9% to 17.7%. The seasonal cycle also provides significant results. There are no differences in trends throughout the months. The percentage of CO variance explained by the linear model is 90.3%. The KZ filter separates out long, short-term and seasonal variations in the CO series. The estimated, significant, long-term trend every year results in 10.3% with this method. The 95% confidence interval ranges from 8.8% to 11.9%. This approach explains 89.9% of the CO temporal variations. Discussion The differences between the linear model and KZ filter trend estimations are due to the fact that the KZ filter performs the analysis on the smoothed data rather than the original data. In the KZ filter trend estimation, the effect of meteorological conditions has been removed. The CO short-term componentis attributable to weather and short-term fluctuations in emissions. There is a significant seasonal cycle. This component is a result of changes in the traffic, the yearly meteorological cycle and the interactions between these two factors. There are peaks during the autumn and winter months, which have more traffic density in the sampled site. There is a minimum during the month of August, reflecting the very low level of vehicle emissions which is a direct consequence of the holiday period. Conclusions The significant, decreasing trend implies to a certain extent that the urban environment in the area is improving. This trend results from changes in overall emissions, pollutant transport, climate, policy and economics. It is also due to the effect of introducing reformulated gasoline. The additives enable vehicles to burn fuel with a higher air/fuel ratio, thereby lowering the emission of CO. The KZ filter has been the most effective method to separate the CO series components and to obtain an estimate of the long-term trend due to changes in emissions, removing the effect of meteorological conditions. Recommendations and Perspectives Air quality managers and policy-makers must understand the link between climate and pollutants to select optimal pollutant reduction strategies and avoid exceeding emission directives. This paper analyses eight years of ambient CO data at a site with a high traffic density, and provides results that are useful for decision-making. The assessment of long-term changes in air pollutants to evaluate reduction strategies has to be done while taking into account meteorological variability     

Evaluation of the temporal variations of air quality in Taipei City, Taiwan, from 1994 to 2003

Data collected from the five air-quality monitoring stations established by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration in Taipei City from 1994 to 2003 are analyzed to assess the temporal variations of air quality. Principal component analysis (PCA) is adopted to convert the original measuring pollutants into fewer independent components through linear combinations while still retaining the majority of the variance of the original data set. Two principal components (PCs) are retained together explaining 82.73% of the total variance. PC1, which represents primary pollutants such as CO, NO(x), and SO(2), shows an obvious decrease over the last 10 years. PC2, which represents secondary pollutants such as ozone, displays a yearly increase over the time period when a reduction of primary pollutants is obvious. In order to track down the control measures put forth by the authorities, 47 days of high PM(10) concentrations caused by transboundary transport have been eliminated in analyzing the long-term trend of PM(10) in Taipei City. The temporal variations over the past 10 years show that the moderate peak in O(3) demonstrates a significant upward trend even when the local primary pollutants have been well under control. Monthly variations of PC scores demonstrate that primary pollution is significant from January to April, while ozone increases from April to August. The results of the yearly variations of PC scores show that PM(10) has gradually shifted from a strong correlation with PC1 during the early years to become more related to PC2 in recent years. This implies that after a reduction of primary pollutants, the proportion of secondary aerosols in PM(10) may increase. Thus, reducing the precursor concentrations of secondary aerosols will be an effective way to lower PM(10) concentrations.     

深圳市秋季大气臭氧立体分布特征

利用大气O₃探测激光雷达在深圳市东部生态区和西部城区同步开展垂直观测,探究了2018年深圳市O₃立体分布在秋季光化学污染活跃期至冬季非活跃期的演变过程.结果表明：光化学反应活跃的10月,东部地面O₃浓度相对于西部地面高出约128%;地面向上至450m,O₃浓度在东部生态区发生快速降低,而在西部城区由于存在“滴定效应”,O₃浓度随高度升高而升高;450m~2km,东、西部O₃浓度均随高度升高而降低,西部城区O₃浓度水平超过东部生态区约30%;2km以上高空,东、西部O₃浓度趋同（70μg/m³）,并保持稳定,为具深圳市秋季O₃污染过程提供了较高的大气背景浓度.高污染期间,深圳市大气边界层内O₃浓度变化较为一致,西部高空的O₃区域传输作用更加显著.秋季至冬季光化学反应逐渐减弱,深圳市O₃浓度的水平和垂直空间差异逐渐减小,冬季的深圳市O₃污染基本受大气背景控制.     

Performance of different macrophytes in the decontamination of and electricity generation from swine wastewater via an integrated constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell process

Plants constitute a major element of constructed wetlands(CWs).In this study,a coupled system comprising an integrated vertical flow CW(IVCW) and a microbial fuel cell(MFC) for swine wastewater tre atment was developed to research the effects of macrophytes commonly employed in CWs,Canna indica,Acorus calamus,and Ipomoea aquatica,on decontamination and electricity production in the system.Because of the different root types and amounts of oxygen released by the roots,the rates of chemical oxygen demand(COD) and ammonium nitrogen(NH_4~+-N) removal from the swine wastewater differed as well.In the unplanted,Canna indica,Acorus calamus,and Ipomoea aquatica systems,the COD removal rates were 80.20%,88.07%,84.70%,and 82.20%,respectively,and the NH_4~+-N removal rates were 49.96%,75.02%,70.25%,and 68.47%,respectively.The decontamination capability of the Canna indica system was better than those of the other systems.The average output voltages were 520±42,715±20,660±27,and 752±26 mV for the unplanted,Canna indica,Acorus calamus,and Ipomoea aquatica systems,respectively,and the maximum power densities were 0.2230,0.4136,0.3614,and0.4964 W/m~3,respectively.Ipomoea aquatica had the largest effect on bioelectricity generation promotion.In addition,electrochemically active bacteria,Geobacter and Desulfuromonas,were detected in the anodic biofilm by high-throughput sequencing analysis,and Comamonas(Proteobacteria),which is widely found in MFCs,was also detected in the anodic biofilm.These results confirmed the important role of plants in IVCW-MFCs.     

华北地区沙尘天气垂直气溶胶直接辐射强迫

利用CALIOP数据和SBDART（Santa Barbara DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer）辐射传输模式研究了2013~2016年华北地区8d沙尘天气气溶胶及其直接辐射强迫垂直分布特征,分析了气溶胶垂直分布和光学特性对直接辐射强迫的影响.结果表明,气溶胶集中分布在地表及以上3km范围,其中纯净沙尘型和污染沙尘型气溶胶位于上层,污染大陆型气溶胶和烟雾位于下层.大气层顶、地表和大气层的日均气溶胶直接辐射强迫分别是-38.41~-88.44,-74.03~-225.86,9.06~137.42W/m².0~8km高度范围气溶胶直接辐射强迫是负值,且随着高度的增加绝对值逐渐减小.气溶胶垂直分布对大气层顶、地表和大气层的直接辐射强迫影响较小,但对直接辐射强迫垂直分布影响较大,由气溶胶廓线差异造成的同一高度层气溶胶直接辐射强迫最大差值能达到31.18W/m².气溶胶光学厚度和单次散射反照率对直接辐射强迫影响明显.消光能力相同时,吸收性气溶胶对短波太阳光的衰减作用大于散射性气溶胶,后向散射比例大的气溶胶大于后向散射比例小的气溶胶.     

气体中毒窒息事故的环境应急监测

以株洲市攸县某矿业公司"5·7"重大中毒窒息事故的环境应急监测为例，详细阐述了该事故开展应急监测的全过程。针对锁定污染因子、查找污染源、判断污染团的扩散趋势以及监控敏感点的安全等监测目的设计监测方案。通过监测数据分析确定事故特征因子为CO，其周边环境空气中浓度随着与抽风口距离的增加而快速下降，监测到附近居民区环境空气质量未受事故影响。     

从银川市硫酸盐化速率五年来的变化趋势分析环境空气中二氧化硫的污染状况

硫酸盐化速率反映大气中二氧化硫及硫的化合物的污染状况,文章通过对银川市1999～2003年硫酸盐化速率的346个监测数据的统计分析,研究了煤烟型城市环境空气中二氧化硫的变化规律及污染状况。     

Water Quality Evaluation and Trend Analysis in Selected Watersheds of the Atlantic Region of Canada

Water quality indices (WQIs) have been developed to assess the suitability of water for a variety of uses. These indices reflect the status of water quality in lakes, streams, rivers, and reservoirs. The concept of WQIs is based on a comparison of the concentration of contaminants with the respective environmental standards. The number, frequency, and magnitude by which the environmental standards for specific variables are not met in a given time period are reflected in WQIs. Further, the water quality trend analysis predicts the behavior of the water quality parameters and overall water quality in the time domain. In this paper, the concept of WQI was applied to three selected watersheds of Atlantic region: the Mersey River, the Point Wolfe River, and the Dunk River sites. To have robust study, two different water quality indices are used: Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI), and British Columbia Water Quality Index (BWQI). The complete study was conducted in two steps. The first step was to organize and process the data into a format compatible with WQI analysis. After processing the input data, the WQI was calculated. The second step outlined in the paper discusses detailed trend analysis using linear and quadratic models for all the three sites. As per the 25 years trend analysis, overall water quality for agriculture use observed an improving trend at all the three sites studied. Water quality for raw water used for drinking (prior to treatment) and aquatic uses has shown improving trend at Point Wolfe River. It is further observed that pH, SO₄, and NO₃ concentrations are improving at Dunk River, Mersey River, and Point Wolfe River sites. To ascertain the reliability and significance of the trend analysis, a detailed error analysis and parametric significance tests were also conducted It was observed that for most of the sites and water uses quadratic trend models were a better fit than the linear models.     

Status and Trends of Dissolved Oxygen in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, U.S.A.

The purpose of this studywas to determine status and long-term trends of dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, U.S.A. A 20-year record of randomized stations was used to determine the trend of surface water DO, salinity, and temperature over space and time. A 13-year record of two fixed stations was used to determine the temporal nutrient trends. A 10-year record of fixed stations in the southeastern region of Corpus Christi Bay was used to determine the status of disturbance caused by low DO in bottom waters. From 1982 to 2002, there was a significant decrease in surface water DO at a rate of 0.06 mg L⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and a significant increase in surface water temperature at a rate of 0.07°C yr⁻¹. The southeastern region of Corpus Christi Bay had the lowest average DO, and during July and August, DO are steadily declining at a rate of 0.09 mg L⁻¹ yr⁻¹. It is not likely that eutrophication is causing hypoxia, because freshwater inflow rates have significantly decreased since 1941 and nutrient levels have not changed from 1987 to 2000. Even though long-term trends indicate that average surface DO is decreasing, disturbance by hypoxia appears to be stable, but this may be due to just eight years of data. In fact, if the current trend continues, surface water DO will not meet exceptional aquatic life standards (≤5 mgL⁻¹) in 2032.