Integrating Landscape Analysis and Planning: A Multi-Scale Approach for Oriented Management of Tourist Recreation

Tourism and landscape are interdependent concepts. Nature- and culture-based tourism are now quite well developed activities and can constitute an excellent way of exploiting the natural resources of certain areas, and should therefore be considered as key objectives in landscape planning and management in a growing number of countries. All of this calls for careful evaluation of the effects of tourism on the territory. This article focuses on an integrated spatial method for landscape analysis aimed at quantifying the relationship between preferences of visitors and landscape features. The spatial expression of the model relating types of leisure and recreational preferences to the potential capacity of the landscape to meet them involves a set of maps showing degrees of potential visitor satisfaction. The method constitutes a useful tool for the design of tourism planning and management strategies, with landscape conservation as a reference.     

Assessment of Reclaimed Municipal Wastewater Application on Rice Cultivation

Field research was carried out to assess the effects of the application of reclaimed municipal wastewater on rice cultivation in Thessaloniki, Greece during a 2-year period (1999–2000). Effects on production cost, soil composition, and health risk were examined. A randomized complete block design was used for the paddy field with three treatments and four replicates. The treatments were (1) river irrigation water with N–P fertilization, (2) reclaimed wastewater irrigation with surface N fertilization, and (3) reclaimed wastewater irrigation without fertilization. The results showed that the total production cost decreased 8.8% and 11.9% by applying the second and third treatments, respectively, compared to the first treatment, without significant differences in the agronomic and rice quality traits. Soil composition showed discrepancies between the 2 years and the three treatments, whereas the pathogens of the reclaimed wastewater and rice tissues posed a low human risk when taking the needed precautions.     

利用中巴地球资源卫星数据反演武汉市湖泊营养状态指数

以武汉市主要湖泊为例,研究了利用中巴地球资源卫星（CBERS2）数据反演水体营养状态指数（TLI）。研究旨在评估利用中巴地球资源卫星数据来估算内陆水体富营养化程度的可能性。首先利用地面水质监测数据计算武汉市某些湖泊监测点的“真实的”营养状态指数（包括综合营养状态指数和修正的Carlson营养状态指数）,同时,在事先经过辐射校正和几何校正的CBERS2图像上,以9×9像元为采样窗口,提取各个对应地点的灰度值均值（从波段1至波段4）;然后,采用多元逐步回归分析,以各波段灰度值均值为自变量,建立营养状态指数经验遥感反演模型;最后,利用模型对整个湖泊水体的营养化状态指数进行反演,并绘制了其空间分布图。 结果显示,营养状态指数的自然对数值与CBERS2图像各波段灰度值之间存在较好相关关系,回归系数平方值(R²)为0.51。利用反演模型反演得到的湖区水质分布与实际情况基本相符。由于CBERS2图像数据可以从我国许多数据分发中心免费获取,这为低成本的水质遥感监测提供了一条途径。     

Aging and compressibility of municipal solid wastes

The expansion of a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill requires the ability to predict settlement behavior of the existing landfill. The practice of using a single compressibility value when performing a settlement analysis may lead to inaccurate predictions. This paper gives consideration to changes in the mechanical compressibility of MSW as a function of the fill age of MSW as well as the embedding depth of MSW. Borehole samples representative of various fill ages were obtained from five boreholes drilled to the bottom of the Qizhishan landfill in Suzhou, China. Thirty-one borehole samples were used to perform confined compression tests. Waste composition and volume-mass properties (i.e., unit weight, void ratio, and water content) were measured on all the samples. The test results showed that the compressible components of the MSW (i.e., organics, plastics, paper, wood and textiles) decreased with an increase in the fill age. The in situ void ratio of the MSW was shown to decrease with depth into the landfill. The compression index, Cc, was observed to decrease from 1.0 to 0.3 with depth into the landfill. Settlement analyses were performed on the existing landfill, demonstrating that the variation of MSW compressibility with fill age or depth should be taken into account in the settlement prediction.     

NaCl和KCl对厌氧污泥抑制的动力学研究

在厌氧颗粒污泥和厌氧絮状污泥系统中,进行盐质量浓度(NaCl或KCl质量浓度,下同)对厌氧污泥抑制动力学的研究,得到不同拟合的COD降解动力学方程及参数.实验结果表明:当盐质量浓度为10～30 g/L时,KCl对厌氧污泥的COD比降解速率的抑制程度大于NaCl;当盐质量浓度由0 g/L增至10 g/L时,半速率常数逐渐增加;当盐质量浓度由10 g/L增至30 g/L时,半速率常数逐渐减小;在厌氧污泥系统中,NaCl抑制作用下的盐抑制常数高于KCl,且颗粒污泥的盐抑制常数高于絮状污泥.     

我国危险化学品事故统计分析及对策研究

基于2005—2008年我国发生的1565起危险化学品事故,从事故发生时间、发生地点、发生环节等方面分析事故的致因、特点以及规律,可以发现:近3年来我国危险化学品事故呈逐渐下降趋势;石化产业大省是危险化学品事故高发省份;每年3—8月是危险化学品事故高发时期;每天上午10点和下午3点是危险化学品事故高发时间;生产、运输、储存是危险化学品产业链六大环节中的事故高发环节。根据统计结果分析,指出我国危险化学品安全管理存在的问题,并提出预防和减少危险化学品事故的对策。     

Effects of environmental illiteracy and environmental awareness among middle school students on environmental behavior

This study proposes and employs a structural model to examine the effects of environmental literacy, environmental awareness, environmental attitudes, and environmental behavior among middle school students in Eski?ehir on their purchase of environmentally friendly products. In the proposed structural model, environmental illiteracy and environmental awareness were the exogenous latent variables, while pro-environmental attitude, pro-environmental behavior, and the purchase of environmentally friendly products were the endogenous latent variables. The latent variable of environmental illiteracy did not have a statistically significant effect on environmental attitudes and purchase of environmentally friendly products, whereas environmental awareness had a positive effect on pro-environmental attitudes and the purchase of environmentally friendly products. These findings indicate that students with environmental awareness also develop positive attitudes toward the environment, and the presence of a positive attitude toward the environment leads them to display pro-environmental behaviors and adopt a positive attitude toward environmentally friendly products.     

Investigating soils retention ratios and modelling geochemical factors affecting heavy metals retention in soils in a tropical urban watershed

This study aimed at investigating the retention of Pb and Cd in soils and the geochemical factors influencing the adsorption of these pollutants. Soil samples were air-dried and ground to pass through a 2-mm sieve, and different soil extracts were prepared for chemical analysis (organic matter, cation exchange capacity and pH). Total Pb and Cd were extracted with diacid using digestion method and determined by atomic adsorption spectrophotometer (AAS) after filtration. Results revealed that the heavy metals retention ratio (RR) of the Rhodic ferralsol, Xanthic ferralsol and Mollic gleysol (2) were very high for Cd (>80 %) and was relatively low (generally < 60 %) for Pb. In contrast, RRs for the Plinthic gleysol and the Mollic gleysol (1) were relatively low (<60 %), regardless of the heavy metal concerned. Multiple regression equations indicated for Pb and Cd concentrations different linear relationships over simple linear regression, when pH, organic matter, clay percentage and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were used as independent variables. Results indicate that organic matter exerts major influences on the retention of Pb and Cd in soils, while CEC, clay content and pH have a minor influence in this process in the Ntem watershed. From these observations, the application of soil organic matter could be a solution in protecting shallow aquifers from heavy metal pollution and thus insuring that they are not a hazard to public health.     

2014, The “year without a summer” in Italy: news media coverage and implications for the climate change debate

In 2014, there was virtually no summer in northern and central-southern Italy. Storm after storm battered the peninsula, triggering floods and landslides from Veneto to Puglia. We studied the coverage of “the year without a summer” in Italy by analyzing the content of 171 news articles from two influential online newspapers. Our software-based analysis enabled us to observe that the two newspapers hardly ever mentioned climate change in their coverage of the weather anomaly that affected Italy in the summer of 2014. This type of coverage is in line with climate science, according to which there is no evidence of a climate change-related influence on summer precipitation patterns in Southern Europe—whereas such influence has been documented for northern Europe. We compared our results with a recent paper, which documented that the same online dailies chose to represent the particularly hot summer of 2012 in Italy as a direct consequence of climate change. We corroborated this comparison also on the basis of a preliminary analysis we performed on the media coverage of the exceptionally hot and arid summer of 2015 in Italy.     

The impacts of the waterfront development in Iskandar Malaysia

The increasing number of waterfront projects shows that the concept of waterfront development has contributed to the advancement of the Malaysian construction industry. This study seeks to assess the impacts of the implementation of waterfront development in Iskandar Malaysia eliciting the perceived relative importance of these impacts. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted to collate the potential impacts of the waterfront development. A total of 363 sets of questionnaires were distributed to the contractors and developers registered under G7 category of the Construction Industry Development Board in Malaysia. Results show that the most significant influence of the waterfront development is related to economic benefits, while environmental impacts are not considered as a priority for this category of stakeholders. In addition, this study also indicates that the implementation of the waterfront projects has generated numerous job opportunities within the developed region. Moreover, exchanging knowledge in the planning and managing of the waterfront development is imperative to the development of the waterfront projects. Nevertheless, the shortcomings of these developments, such as the negative environmental impact on natural beaches and the coastline (i.e. pollution) as well as human-related issues (i.e. excessive human settlement), should not be taken lightly. This research confirms that the reclamation of land for waterfront development is closely correlated with the destruction of these natural structures.