Traditional water bodies and ecosystem services: Empirical evidence from West Bengal,India

Traditional water harvesting systems are multi-functional in nature and provide a variety of ecosystem services that contribute to the overall wellbeing of local people. This study aims to identify and analyze the factors influencing the variations in the level of awareness across households residing around three selected traditional water bodies in the Indian state of West Bengal. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression models have been used to identify and analyze the determinants of household perception on ecosystem services from tank water bodies. Results show that while a majority of households have strong perceptions on the provisioning and cultural ecosystem services of the tanks, the household perceptions on regulating and supporting services of the tank is found to be relatively weak. Households belonging to lower caste and poor are likely to be more dependent on ecosystem services from tanks than upper caste and rich households, and hence they have better perceptions of provisioning ecosystem services. Households’ awareness about provisioning ecosystem services is negatively related to their level of education and wealth. It is observed that household awareness about regulating and supporting ecosystem services is positively associated with the level of education of the households, ownership of tube well and private tanks. While it is essential to consider household perception on all the ecosystem services for sustainable use and management of traditional water harvesting systems, incorporating the local norms, customs and preferences in policy design are critical for achieving effective conservation outcomes.     

轿厢意外移动保护的一种实现方式

主要介绍了电梯的意外轿厢移动保护功能。轿厢意外移动对乘客安全存在巨大隐患，为实现意外移动保护，利用门区及辅助轿门触点构成检测单元；AGSR及BCR检测继电器组合控制UCMR继电器，形成控制单元；UCMR继电器分别控制安全回路及抱闸回路，形成执行单元。     

Growth in urban extent and allometric analysis of West African cities

Urban area expansion is happening at much faster rates in Asian and African cities than elsewhere in the world. This study uses multi-temporal Landsat images to map the urban extent of six small to large cities in West Africa at four different time steps from the early 1970s–2010. The selected cities are Kumasi of Ghana, Daloa of Cote d’Ivoire, Abuja and Kano in Nigeria, Kindia of Guinea, and Ouagadougou of Burkina Faso. All cities revealed significant urban growth in both urban area and population; however, it was apparent that there was a lot of variability in urban area development. Exponential urban growth rates in the cities were measured as ranging between 0.026 and 0.077, with allometric scaling factors matching those of other countries.     

液压爬模在泰州大桥南塔施工中的安全控制

液压爬模具备自动爬升、操作简便、作业人员少、施工效率高、外观质量好等优点,其施工工艺和技术也比较成熟,在不少大中型工程建设项目中得到广泛应用。液压爬模的操作平台和爬升系统为一整体,液压驱动装置能实现整体均匀爬升,其安全性能有了明显提高。但液压爬模结构复杂且体积庞大,其安装、调位和脱模以及模板的收分等操作和使用环节的安全风险很大,容易出现模板坍塌、高处坠落、物体打击等事故,是施工中安全控制的重点。泰州大桥南塔工程引进了液压自动爬模系统来进行塔身浇注施工,施工中的安全控制措施取得了良好的效果。本研究将以泰州大桥南塔工程为背景,对液压爬模在塔柱施工过程中的危害因素进行分析并提出相应的控制措施,可供类似工程借鉴。     

生态资本运营理论在西部地区的应用

在介绍生态资本运营的基本理论基础上,结合我国西部地区特点分析了该地区进行生态资本运营的可行性与重要意义,并对该地区生态资本运营进行了经验实证,提出了相关的保障机制.创新之处在于,把生态资本运营理论与西部地区的具体实践结合起来提出相关措施,对西部地区生态资本运营具有一定的借鉴意义.     

双层板桁钢梁应力分析

以跨度最大的双层斜拉桥闵浦大桥为背景,研究了双层板桁钢梁桥面板的受力特性,阐述了精细壳单元与梁单元结合的整体有限元模型,并分析了上、下桥面间腹杆的受力特性与桥面板的应力分布特性;采用桥面纵横梁间带U肋精细桥面模型,分析了桥面板和U肋在车辆荷载作用下的应力分布.研究表明,上、下层桥面横桥向应力小于纵桥向应力,并且横桥向应...     

北京入境旅游流西向扩散与省域经济联系研究——以西部三大典型区为例

北京是我国经济、政治和文化中心,也是我国最重要的入境口岸之一。入京旅游流西向的扩散转移对省域之间旅游经济联系强度具有极大的直接促进作用,转移态是反映旅游流流向和流量的重要指标。在对我国西部三大典型旅游区界定的基础上,利用转移态指数模型和旅游经济联系强度模型对入京旅游流向西转移态及其与西部三大典型旅游区的经济联系强度进行了相关性分析,得出入京旅游流西向转移态对西部典型区经济的影响程度为:成渝泛西安云贵,在此基础上分析了原因,并对西部三大典型旅游区如何更好地吸引北京入境旅游"二手客源",以促进旅游业更快发展提出了相应对策与建议。     

Determinants for cassava production expansion in the semi-arid zone of West Africa

The study focuses on evaluating factors that farmers consider relevant in adopting cassava production in five semi-arid zone of West African countries. The study is based on primary data randomly collected as part of collaborative study of cassava in semiarid zones of Africa (COSCASSA) village level survey from five West African countries namely: Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso. This study models effects of farm, farmer and technology specific factors on the decision of semi arid farmers to adopt cassava into their farming system. By way of threshold decision models—Probit and Logit models, the estimation of each country and the pooled data adoption models reveal different adoption models for the countries considered. For each country, different variables appeared as major adoption shifters. Comparatively, the adoption models for Nigeria and whole region appear to have the highest significance variables, being seven in number. This is followed by Chad (6), Ghana (4), and Burkina Faso and Niger with three each. For the variables considered, distance to nearby urban market appears a major adoption shifter in all the country, except for Niger. This is closely followed by contact with extension, variety, pest/disease resistance and livestock feeds, which appear significant in four of the countries. Membership of cooperative societies appears as the least adoption predictor, which is only significant in Chad republic. The study therefore recognizes the importance of varietial characteristics and farmers’ characteristics in acceptance of cassava as a major root tuber crop in the semi arid region of West Africa. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Degradation of rizazole in water–sediment systems

This study investigated the degradation of rizazole in water-sediment systems (West Lake system, WL; Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal system, BG) with two different types of sediments under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The half-lives of rizazole in the WL water phase (14.59–15.13 d) were similar to those in the BG water phase (15.90–16.46 d). Within 3–7 d, the rizazole concentration in the sediments reached the maximum values, i.e., equilibrium. Rizazole dissipation was faster in the WL sediment phase with higher organic matter content (T_1/2 = 18.99–19.09 d) compared with the BG sediment phase (T_1/2 = 31.08–33.32 d). Rizazole degradation was slightly faster in the West Lake water-sediment system (WL system) (T_1/2 = 17.11–18.05 d) than in the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal water—sediment system (BG system) (T_1/2 = 20.51–25.02 d). The aerobic degradation of rizazole was similar to its anaerobic degradation in the water-sediment system. The findings are useful to understand the behavior of pesticide in environment.     

Protected Area as an Indicator of Ecological Sustainability? A Century of Development in Europe’s Boreal Forest

Protected area (PA) is an indicator linked to policies on ecological sustainability. We analyzed area, size, and categories of PAs in the European boreal forest biome in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia from 1900 to 2010. The PA increased from 1.5 × 10³ ha in 1909 to 2.3 × 10⁷ ha in 2010. While the total PA in the boreal biome was 10.8 %, the figures ranged from 17.2 % in the northern, 7.9 % of the middle, and 8.7 % of the southern boreal sub-regions. The median size of PAs varied from 10 to 124 ha among countries. The categories of less strictly PAs increased over time. The proportion of area occupied by PAs is an important response indicator for conservation efforts. However, the use of PA as an indicator of ecological sustainability needs to consider ecosystem representation, functional connectivity and management categories.