Assessing Sediment Yield for Selected Watersheds in the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin Under Future Agricultural Scenarios

In the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin (GLB), corn acreage has been expanding since 2005 in response to high demand for corn as an ethanol feedstock. This study integrated remote sensing-derived products and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) within a geographic information system (GIS) modeling environment to assess the impacts of cropland change on sediment yield within four selected watersheds in the GLB. The SWAT models were calibrated during a 6 year period (2000–2005), and predicted stream flows were validated. The R ² values were 0.76, 0.80, 0.72, and 0.81 for the St. Joseph River, the St. Mary River, the Peshtigo River, and the Cattaraugus Creek watersheds, respectively. The corresponding E (Nash and Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient) values ranged from 0.24 to 0.79. The average annual sediment yields (tons/ha/year) ranged from 0.12 to 4.44 for the baseline (2000 to 2008) condition. Sediment yields were predicted to increase for possible future cropland change scenarios. The first scenario was to convert all “other” agricultural row crop types (i.e., sorghum) to corn fields and switch the current/baseline crop rotation into continuous corn. The average annual sediment yields increased 7–42 % for different watersheds. The second scenario was to further expand the corn planting to hay/pasture fields. The average annual sediment yields increased 33–127 % compared with baseline conditions.     

Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis

The vegetable wastes and flower stems were co-digested to evaluate the anaerobic hydrolysis performance of difficultly biodegradable organic wastes by introducing readily biodegradable organic wastes. The experiments were carried out in batches. When the vegetable wastes were mixed with the flower stems at the dry weight ratio of 1 to 13, the overall hydrolysis rate increased by 8%, 12%, and 2% according to the carbon, nitrogen, and total solid （TS） conversion rate, respectively. While the dry weight ratio was designed as 1 to 3, there was a respective rise of 5%, 15%, and 4% in the conversion rate of carbon, nitrogen, and TS. The enhancement of anaerobic hydrolysis from the mixed vegetable wastes and flower stems can be attributed to the formation of volatile fatty acids （VFA） and nutrient supplement like nitrogen content. The maximum VFA concentration can achieve 1.7 g/L owing to the rapid acidification of vegetable wastes, loosing the structure of lignocellulose materials. The statistic bivariate analysis revealed that the hydrolysis performance was significantly related to the physical and biochemical compositions of the feeding substrate. Especially, the soluble carbon concentration in the liquid was significantly positively correlated to the concentration of nitrogen and hemicellulose, and negatively correlated to the concentration of carbon and lignocellulose in the feeding substrate, suggesting that the regulation and control of feedstock can have an important influence on the anaerobic hydrolysis of organic wastes.     

泥石流灾害的事故树分析方法研究

为了解决泥石流灾害预防工作中的问题,本文通过系统安全工程的事故树分析方法,找到影响泥石流灾害产生的主要因素,构建泥石流灾害事故树图,从最小割集、最小径集、结构重要度三方面全面分析阐述了各基本事件对泥石流发生的影响程度以及它们之间的逻辑关系,找到预防关键因素并结合实际情况,提出预防泥石流灾害的一些建议。该结论为泥石流灾害的预防和治理提供了一定的参考和依据。     

Industrial layout reconstruction,the role of local government and variation of pollution distribution in China

ABSTRACT

In recent years, high-polluting industries have been gradually shifted from the eastern developed regions to the central and western underdeveloped regions in China. Certain environmental regulations have been in place accordingly in various regions, but the pollution in the central and western regions has risen sharply. Based on the data of interprovincial panel in China from 2006 to 2015, this paper calculates high-pollution industry dynamic agglomeration index, environmental pollution agglomeration index and relative environmental regulation intensity index, and uses Generalized Method of Moments to carry out the regression analyses of the whole samples, regional heterogeneity and temporal heterogeneity. The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between relative environmental regulation and environmental pollution concentration in China. The concentration degrees of industrial wastewater pollution and industrial waste gas pollution are deepened, which are mainly caused by the transfer of highly polluting industries. However, the concentration of industrial solid waste pollution caused by the transfer is not obvious. Furthermore, the deepening of industrialization intensifies the concentration of regional environmental pollution. Environmental Kuznets Curve does exist in China, but it is not significant. The increase of labor cost and quality will reduce the concentration of environmental pollution.     

Estimating the volatilization of ammonia from synthetic nitrogenous fertilizers used in China

Although it has long been recognized that significant amounts of nitrogen, typically in the form of ammonia (NH(3)) applied as fertilizer, are lost to the atmosphere, accurate estimates are lacking for many locations. In this study, a detailed, bottom-up method for estimating NH(3) emissions from synthetic fertilizers in China was used. The total amount emitted in 2005 in China was estimated to be 3.55 Tg NH(3)-N, with an uncertainty of ± 50%. This estimate was considerably lower than previously published values. Emissions from urea and ammonium bicarbonate accounted for 64.3% and 26.5%, respectively, of the 2005 total. The NH(3) emission inventory incorporated 2448 county-level data points, categorized on a monthly basis, and was developed with more accurate activity levels and emission factors than had been used in previous assessments. There was considerable variability in the emissions within a province. The NH(3) emissions generally peaked in the spring and summer, accounting for 30.1% and 48.8%, respectively, of total emissions in 2005. The peaks correlated with crop planting and fertilization schedules. The NH(3) regional distribution pattern showed strong correspondence with planting techniques and local arable land areas. The regions with the highest atmospheric losses are located in eastern China, especially the North China Plain and the Taihu region.     

2010年渤海海冰灾害特征分析

2010年中国遭遇到近30年来最严重的海冰冰情,因灾直接经济损失高达63.18亿元,占全年海洋灾害总经济损失的47.6%——海冰成为中国2010年海洋灾害中的主要灾种之一。基于区域灾害系统论,运用气象数据、MODIS图像和社会经济统计等资料,对2010年渤海海冰灾害的特征进行了初步分析。结果显示,以莱州湾结冰范围扩大为代表的渤海海冰分布变化是致灾因子区域危险性增大的主要特征,环渤海地区海水养殖面积和产量的增加是承灾体暴露性增大的主要特征,而总体灾情严重则是二者的综合结果。     

Centrifugal study of zone of influence during air-sparging

Air sparging (AS) is one of the groundwater remediation techniques for remediating volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in saturated soil. However, in spite of the success of air sparging as a remediation technique for the cleanup of contaminated soils, to date, the fundamental mechanisms or the physics of air flow through porous media is not well understood. In this study, centrifugal modeling tests were performed to investigate air flow rates and the evolution of the zone of influence during the air sparging under various g-levels. The test results show that with the increase in sparging pressure the mass flow rate of the air sparging volume increases. The air mass flow rate increases linearly with the effective sparging pressure ratio, which is the difference between sparging pressure and hydrostatic pressure normalized with respect to the effective overburden pressure at the sparging point. Also the slope of mass flow rate with effective sparging pressure ratio increases with higher g-levels. This variation of the slope of mass flow rate of air sparging volume versus effective sparging pressure ratio, M, is linear with g-level confirming that the air flow through soil for a given effective sparging pressure ratio only depends on the g-level. The test results also show that with increasing sparging pressure, the zone of influence (ZOI), which consists of the width at the tip of the cone or lateral intrusion and the cone angle, will lead to an increase in both lateral intrusion and the cone angle. With a further increase in air injection pressure, the cone angle reaches a constant value while the lateral intrusion becomes the main contributor to the enlargement of the ZOI. However, beyond a certain value of effective sparging pressure ratio, there is no further enlargement of the ZOI.     

Co-pyrolysis of oil sludge with hydrogen-rich plastics in a vertical stirring reactor: Kinetic analysis,emissions, and products

● Collaborative treatment of plastics and OS was established to improve oil quality. ● PE addition successfully improved OS pyrolysis process by deploying H/C_eff ratio. ● Higher H/C_eff ratio promoted cracking to obtain more gas and light oil fractions. ● The degradation of PE and OS was promoted each other under their temperature range. Pyrolysis is an effective method to treat oily sludge (OS) due to its balance between oil recovery and nonhazardous disposal. However, tank bottom OS contains a high content of heavy fractions, which creates obstacles for pyrolysis due to the high activation energy. The incomplete cracking of macromolecules and secondary polymerization decreases the oil quality and causes coking during the operation process. This study introduced polyethylene (PE) into OS to deploy the H/C_eff ratio of feedstocks for pyrolysis. A strong interaction between OS and PE during copyrolysis could be observed from the TG/DTG curves. PE tightly participated in OS degradation, while OS also promoted PE degradation at high temperature. Apparent pits were generated in solid residues from copyrolysis, which was attributed to the uniform and violent gas release. In addition to HCN, other nitrogenous and sulphurous pollutants were inhibited. Accordingly, more gas products were attained after PE addition with more value-added compositions of alkanes and alkenes. Although the oil yield decreased after PE addition, the oil products from copyrolysis possessed higher heating values and higher contents of light fractions with short chains as well as paraffins. Consequently, copyrolysis of OS and PE significantly improved the pyrolysis process and resulted in high oil quality.     

Research progress of heavy metals in desert—visual analysis based on CiteSpace

In this paper, Web of Science (a database) is used to retrieve related literature in the field of heavy metal pollution in desert. CiteSpace is used to make a quantitative and qualitative evaluation on the literature in the field on the basis of a brief analysis on the research status, research focus, and evolution process in the field. Through CiteSpace visual analysis, a comparative analysis is given on related literature in terms of annual number of published papers, author groups, and their countries and regions, journals, publishing institutions, highly cited papers, research focuses, and burst terms, so as to explore the research status and future development trend of the field on a global scale. The results are shown as follows: (1) The literature in the field was originally published in 2000; the number of published papers increased steadily. The literature was mostly published on high-quality journals, the USA topped in terms of the number of published papers, and the research results achieved by developed countries had a greater influence. Chinese Acad Sci topped with the highest centrality and most published papers, which have made outstanding contributions to the field and occupy a leading position in the field. However, the fact is that there lacks communication and cooperation among research institutions. The most influential journal is Science of the Total Environment. (2) The hot research words in the field are as follows: heavy metal, soil, pollution, lead, desert, cadmium, and microelement. (3) In the field, burst terms have transformed from atmospheric deposition, biomonitoring, and phytoremediation to trace element, stream sediment, street dust, and water quality, and finally transformed to river and sediment. New words keep emerging in the research, and more and more attention is paid to the issue of heavy metal pollution in river sediment, which will be a future research hotspot in the field.