INTEGRATING A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM,A SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION SYSTEM,AND A PRECIPITATION MODEL1

ABSTRACT: Investigating natural, potential, and human-induced impacts on hydrologic systems commonly requires complex modeling with overlapping data requirements, plus massive amounts of one- to four-dimensional data at multiple scales and formats. Given the complexity of most hydrologic studies, the requisite software infrastructure must incorporate many components including simulation modeling and spatial analysis with a flexible, intuitive display. Integrating geographic information systems (GIS) and scientific visualization systems (SVS) provides such an infrastructure. This paper describes an integrated system consisting of an orographic precipitation model, a GIS, and an SVS. The results of this study provide a basis for improving the understanding of hydro-climatic processes in mountainous regions. An additional benefit of the integrated system, the value of which is often underestimated, is the improved ability to communicate model results, leading to a broader understanding of the model assumptions, sensitivities, and conclusions at a management level.     

BENTHIC INVERTEBRATES IN A NORTH-FLOWING STREAM AND A SOUTH-FLOWING STREAM,BROOKS RANGE,ALASKA1

ABSTRACT: Benthic invertebrate faunas were compared to two fifth-order streams, the Atigun River flowing northward and the Dietrich River flowing southward. Sixty-eight taxa were collected, forty-nine from each stream. Aquatic insects comprised 88% of the taxa and 97% of the individuals from the Dietrich River and 73% of the taxa and 97% of the individuals from the Atigun River. Diptera, especially Chironomidae, were most abundant. Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera, Oligochaeta, Acarina, and Collembola were significant. In both streams the headwaters were dominated by the subfamily Diamesinae which was replaced by Orthocladiinae downstream. Diversity seemed to increase with stream order. Cluster analysis showed a high degree of resemblance between the benthic faunas of the rivers. Faunal resemblance decreased with increasing distance between stations, both within and between the streams. Although some taxa may occur in only one stream, the evidence for faunal resemblance is stronger than for faunal differences. Other studies have shown that differences in total radiation associated with valley aspect affect local climate, hydrology, and distribution of terrestrial plants and animals. However, the benthic faunas of Atigun and Dietrich Rivers were remarkably similar. Factors which operate independently of aspect, possibly freezing solid in winter, may control the occurrence of species in these streams.     

On vegetarianism,morality, and science: A counter reply

I recently took issue with Kathryn George's contention that vegetarianism cannot be a moral obligation for most human beings, even assuming that Tom Regan's stringent thesis about the equal inherent value of humans and many sentient nonhumans is correct. I argued that both Regan and George are incorrect in claiming that his view would permit moral agents to kill and eat innocent, non-threatening rights holders. An unequal rights view, by contrast, would permit such actions if a moral agent's health or life is at stake. I then argued that current nutritional research does not support Professor George's claim that some wealthy adult males (and many fewer wealthy women) are the only persons whose health does not require the consumption of nonhuman animals and their products. In her 1992 response to my critique, George did not address my moral argumentation. She concentrated her entire paper on a wholesale rejection of my discussion of nutrition. Although she now takes a somewhat more moderate position on who can safely contemplate strict vegetarianism, she still believes that most people are not in a position to follow such a diet. In my counter-reply, I argue that her rejection is based upon numerous distortions, omissions, and false charges of fallacy. She even devotes a substantial section of her paper to criticizing me for saying the opposite of what I actually wrote. As I did in my earlier paper, I cite current research, including George's own preferred source on the topic of vegetarianism, to support my view. I conclude that Professor George has still not shown that for most human beings it is dangerous to follow a diet that omits nonhuman animals and their products. Moral agents who take the rights of humansand nonhumans seriously will find vegetarianism well worth considering.     

Food Safety, Quality, and Ethics – A Post-normal Perspective

I argue that the issues of foodquality, in the most general sense includingpurity, safety, and ethics, can no longer beresolved through ``normal' science andregulation. The reliance on reductionistscience as the basis for policy andimplementation has shown itself to beinadequate. I use several borderline examplesbetween drugs and foods, particularly coffeeand sucrose, to show that ``quality' is now acomplex attribute. For in those cases thesubstance is either a pure drug, or a bad foodwith drug-like properties; both are marketed asif they were foods. An example of theinadequacy of old ways of thinking is obesity,whose causes are as yet outside the purview ofmedicine, while its effects constitute anepidemic disease. The new drug/food syndromeneeds a new sort of science, what we call``post-normal.' This is inquiry at the contestedinterfaces of science and policy; typically itdeals with issues where facts are uncertain,values in dispute, stakes high, and decisionsurgent. With the perspective of post-normalscience, we can better understand some keyissues. We see that ``safety' is different from``risk,' being pragmatic, moral, and recursive.Also, we understand that an appropriatefoundation for regulation and ethics is not somuch ``objectivity' as ``awareness.' In an agewhen ``consumers' are becoming concerned``citizens,' the relevant science must becomepost-normal.     

A method for assessing environmental risk: A case study of Green Bay,Lake Michigan,USA

The Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that risk reduction strategies become the centerpiece of environmental protection. The goal in developing such strategies is to identify opportunities for greatest reduction of ecological risks. This is a perspective that is significantly more comprehensive than the traditional focus on human health risks arising from environmental degradation. The identification of ecological risks upon which environmental protection efforts should be focused requires an ecological risk assessment methodology that is based on anthropogenic stressors affecting an ecosystem and a set of impaired use criteria. A methodology based on this concept is developed and discussed in this article. The methodology requires that risk values be assigned to each ecosystem stressor-impaired use pair that reflect the degree to which the given stressor contributes to ecosystem risk as measured by the given impaired use criterion. Once these data are available, mathematical analyses based on concepts from fuzzy set theory are performed to obtain a ranking of ecosystem stressors. The methodology has been tested by applying it to a case study involving Green Bay of Lake Michigan. A workshop was held in which 11 persons with extensive knowledge of the Green Bay ecosystem determined risk values through a group-consensus process. The analytical portion of the methodology was then used to rank the ecosystem risks (stressors) from several perspectives, including prevention management and remediation management. The overall conclusion of the workshop participants was that the fuzzy set decision model is a useful and effective methodology for differentiating environmental risk.     

美哉，九曲溪

武夷山的朋友告诉我,来到武夷山,不坐竹排,等于白来。禁不住朋友这般撺掇,尽管上午游天游峰,晒布岩,已有几分倦怠,吃了午饭,不觉又来了十分精神。坐竹排之主要目的,当然是游历九曲溪。著名的文学家郁达夫诗云：“武夷三十六雄峰,九曲清溪境不重。山水若从奇处看,西湖终是小家荣。”二十八个字,     

PROJECT 2000, A PLANNING IMPERATIVE1

Time is running out on this country's planners. Generally speaking, the art of planning has retrogressed since the time of Christ. If we are to survive, this will have to be drastically changed by the year 2000. To achieve this, we need to begin to change our thinking, today. We badly need wider social planning, giving us more alternatives-more thought on where we are going. Reasonableness requires blending of planning and construction-but a sharp line of independence is essential. We must think about all the consequences of a particular act. Through intensive professional development and achievement of professional expertise, many outstanding technicians often move into vital decision making positions within their respective agencies. As planners, they see a part of the action but miss the big picture. Problem solutions become restricted to agency or individual authorities and are not always the best alternative. Thus, the planning field is overflowing with solutions to our every problem but many solutions offer spot control, and while the black spot is removed from the garment the white spot remaining from the solution offers little consolation to the wearer.     

慢，是一种风景

村子东头的三毛二十多岁的时候,都没出过远门,没见过火车。有一次带着三五个馒头,步行十八里去任桥火车站看火车。回来的时候依然是步行。庄子里的人都调侃他：“三毛,火车趴着都跑那么快,要是站起来跑岂不是更快!”三毛为了“开眼界”、“见世面”,不惧授人以笑柄,很率性地释放了自己挣脱封闭和落后的勇气。当年,这条喘息白色蒸汽,长啸可闻百里的庞然大物,的确是一部分远离铁路的“粉丝”奢望一睹的神秘风物。     

POTENTIAL,ACTUAL, AND EQUILIBRIUM EVAPOTRANSPIRATION IN A WHEAT FIELD 1

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the relationship between both potential (E*) and nonpotential evapotranspiration and equilibrium evapotranspiration (EQ) in an irrigated wheat field in southcentral Alberta, Canada. The control exercised by surface wetness and root reservoir moisture content in determining the value of the Priestley-Taylor constant a is explored. Also investigated is the relationship between a and the vapor flux fraction ET/(R-G) where ET is the actual evapotranspiration, R the net radiation, and G the soil heat flux. It is shown that evapotranspiration occurred at the potential rate (E*) when the available soil moisture (ASM) within the root zone was ≥3 percent. a varied from 0.84 for a dry soil to 1.49 for a saturated soil. The mean a for E* was 1.24. Surface wetness sustained evapotranspiration at the potential rate when such wetting exceeded 2mm d^?1 following a period of prolonged drawdown of soil moisture, α and ET/(R-G) were positively correlated and this correlation strengthened with increasing soil moisture for constant values of the energy partitioning factor s+γ/s where s is the slope of the saturation humidity-temperature curve and γ is the psychrometric constant. ET=EQ when ETI(R-G) lay within the range of 0.59 to 0.82 corresponding to Bowen ratio (β) values of 0.22 and 0.69, respectively.     

A Sediment Budget for an Urbanizing Watershed, 1951‐1996, Montgomery County, Maryland,U.S.A.1

Abstract: Despite widespread interest, few sediment budgets are available to document patterns of erosion and sedimentation in developing watersheds. We assess the sediment budget for the Good Hope Tributary, a small watershed (4.05 km²) in Montgomery County, Maryland, from 1951‐1996. Lacking monitoring data spanning the period of interest, we rely on a variety of indirect and stratigraphic methods. Using regression equations relating sediment yield to construction, we estimated an upland sediment production of 5,700 m³ between 1951 and 1996. Regression equations indicate that channel cross‐sectional area is correlated with the extent of development; these relationships, when combined with historical land use data, suggest that upland sediment yield was augmented by 6,400 m³ produced by enlargement of first‐order and second‐order stream channels. We used dendrochronology to estimate that 4,000 m³ of sediment was stored on the floodplain from 1951‐1996. The sediment yield from the watershed, obtained by summing upstream contributions, totals 8,100 m³ of sediment, or 135 tons/km²/year. These results indicate that upland erosion, channel enlargement, and floodplain storage are all significant components of the sediment budget of our study area, and all three are approximately equal in magnitude. Erosion of “legacy” floodplain sediments originally deposited during poor agricultural practices of the 19th and early 20th Centuries has likely contributed between 0 and 20% of the total sediment yield, indicating that these remobilized deposits are not a dominant component of the sediment yield of our study area.     

仙居之旅,一草一木总关情

荆门城北有一乡镇,位于湖北荆门市最北端,与钟祥、宜城、南漳等县（市）毗邻,距今已有1500余年的历史。老街的关帝庙、蔡氏节孝坊古色古香,千年古树遮天蔽日,相传为仙家起居之所,故名仙居。     

FLOODING PROBLEMS IN A SMALL URBAN WATERSHED-DOAN BROOK,CLEVELAND, OHIO1

ABSTRACT: Analysis of a small urban watershed's flooding was undertaken to determine causes and solutions to this serious environmental hazard affecting University Circle, the cultural heart of Greater Cleveland. Doan Brook is a small, highly disturbed urban stream draining 11.3 square miles. Much of the stream coridor and associated park land is owned by the public. The upper watershed lies in the communities of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights who lease park land from Cleveland. Two 50-year floods seriously affected the Circle area in August 1975 generating over $1 million in damages. These events resulted from excessive rainfall triggering rapid earth movement of valley walls in the upper watershed, decreased basin lag time from the infilling of several small upland lakes, a seriously undersized stream channel and storm culvert (at University Circle), and complex institutional arrangements between the three communities in the watershed. Suggestions are presented for a methodology to resolve the technical aspects of the flooding problem.     

WELMM, A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO ENERGY RESOURCES

In assessing energy resources it is interesting to consider their systems aspects and interrelationships with other natural and/or human resources. This is the purpose of the WELMM approach (Water, Energy, Land, Materials, Manpower) which analyzes resources requirements through the use of various Data Bases. Present applications focus on the comparison of various energy options and assessment of various long term strategies. The method can also be used for Integrated Resources Management.     

THE FRESHWATER STREAM,A COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM1

A stream is set apart from all other aquatic ecosystems in that the water is continually entering and leaving the stream and is in almost constant motion. Thus, there is essentially a unidirectional flow, a constant mixing of the watery medium, a continuous erosion of the substrate with concomitant changes in the characteristics of the stream bed, and little or no opportunity for the accumulation and retention of the dissolved nutrients. The physical and chemical characteristics of the stream are largely reflections of the physical and chemical makeup of the watershed. Because of the constant replacement of the water as it flows away, new nutrients must be brought into the stream continually in order to support the biotic communities. The kinds and amounts of nutrients that enter the stream determine, to a large extent, the numbers and kinds of organisms in the different communities. The organisms that comprise those communities may be categorized as representative species indigenous to springs, riffles, and pools. Most plants in streams are sessile whereas most of the animals are vagile, at least during some phase of their life cycle. All sessile organisms must depend on the current bringing their foodstuffs to them, but the vagile forms may seek out their foods in different parts of the stream and may even move from one community to another. Each community is adapted to its particular environment. Spring communities, because of the constancy of the physical and chemical environment, may reach what is essentially a “climax” situation and remain stable over long periods of time. Communities that occupy riffle and pool habitats may change from season to season and from year to year depending on changes in temperature, volume of flow, and the character of the substrate. Between each of these kinds of communities there are transitional areas that may be occupied by wider varieties of organisms than any of the three principal kinds of communities. In any event, the continuity of these communities in time and space is determined by the speed of the current which in turn depends upon the volume of flow. On this basis it becomes evident that the characteristics of the biotic communities are different at the source of a stream than at any other location. Similarly, riffle communities are different than those living in pools. The most difficult evaluation to be made in studying a stream ecosystem is that of the interlocking relationships among the many kinds of organisms. The plants, whatever kind they may be, fix carbon and other elements into organic compounds that can be utilized as food by the animals. The multitude of organisms that make up the bottom fauna of any stream are largely supported by the food formed directly by the plants. Such animals as small crustaceans, insect larvae, worms, turbellarians, mollusks, and the like serve as food for the carnivorous species. To determine the role of each organism in maintaining such a complex structure is a tremendous challenge. Many tools and methods are at the disposal of the biologist who dares to undertake such a project. Still, the greatest of all these is the dedication to spending long hours of tedious and, frequently, very hard work.     

Food,feed, and fuelwood resources of Nepal: A GIS evaluation

A GIS-based land evaluation model was developed to determine the food, feed, and fuelwood sufficiency of all districts in Nepal. Resource surpluses or deficits were calculated for each district for 1981, the year for which the national land resource data were available. Of the three resources, feed supplies were found to be the most critical. Feed deficits occurred in 57% of all districts in 1981, while food and fuelwood deficits occurred in less than 10% of all districts. Different scenarios were carried out for the year 2000 to estimate the magnitude of future resource deficits, assuming resource use and yields in Nepal remain constant in the face of growing population and livestock numbers. Linking resource data with spreadsheet and GIS systems provides a new way to understand and evaluate resources at the district and national levels. To more fully capture the usefulness of this approach, information on rates of change in productivity and land use is needed.     

Copper, Cobalt, Nickel and Manganese Availability from Land-based Endowments A Perspective

Estimates of land-based demonstrated resources of cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel would indicate adequate supply for many years to come based on current levels of annual consumption. However, when these resource estimates are disaggregated, much of this resource is found to occur in a limited number of producing mines. Almost all of the cobalt in these resources coexists with either nickel or copper, and as such, will be available only to the degree extraction of these two metals from existing mines is economical. Finally, current projections of excess capacity in existing mines for all four metals, coupled with additional inferred resources at these mines and yet to be exploited resources in known economical deposits, would lead one to conclude that, from this perspective, the mining of sea bed nodules is not likely to occur until well into the next century.     

EFFECTWENESS OF INTEGRATED STORMWATER MANAGEMENT IN A PORTLAND,OREGON, WATERSHED1

ABSTRACT: The City of Portland's stormwater management program, winner of EPA's Environmental Excellence Award for 1996, is committed to partnership-based, cost-effective, “green” approaches to healthy neighborhoods and water quality. The stormwater program encourages innovative, non-structural pollution reduction techniques like native landscaping, stormwater pollution reduction bioswales and ponds, and public involvement and education. Effectiveness of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) has been difficult to determine on a citywide basis. Recognizing this problem, the City of Portland launched the Parkrose Pilot Project in 1994 to test the effectiveness of a wide range of BMPs in a small watershed in north Portland, the Parkrose catchment, and monitor the results prior to citywide implementation. This catchment was selected because of its small size (144 acres), its representative mix of land uses, and an extensive record of water quality monitoring data. This paper examines the City's strategy in selecting the Parkrose study area as a pilot watershed, the BMPs chosen for use in the watershed, and the results of the program to date. Final success of the Parkrose project will be gauged by the attainment of measurable pollution reduction within the catchment while providing opportunities for meaningful participation by the local community in achieving water quality. Involvement by private citizens in the community is crucial to the success of the project and to ensure compliance with the federal mandate to reduce pollutants to the maximum extent practicable.