Post-fire vegetation regrowth detection in the Deiva Marina region (Liguria-Italy) using Landsat TM and ETM+ data

Obtaining quantitative information about the recovery of fire-affected ecosystems is of utmost importance from the management and decision-making point of view. Nowadays the concern about natural environment protection and recovery is much greater than in the past. However, the resources and tools available for its management are still not sufficient. Thus, attention and precision is needed when decisions must be taken. Quantitative estimates on how the vegetation is recovering after a fire can be of help for evaluating the necessity of human intervention on the fire-affected ecosystem, and their importance will grow as the problem of forest fires, climate change and desertification increases.This article performs a comparison of methods to extract quantitative estimates of vegetation cover regrowth with Landsat TM and ETM+ data in an area that burned during the summer of 1998 in the Liguria region (Italy). In order to eliminate possible sources of error, a thorough pre-processing was carried out, including a careful geometric correction (reaching RMSE lower than 0.3 pixels), a topographic correction by means of a constrained Minnaert model and a combination of absolute and relative atmospheric correction methods. Pseudo Invariant Features (PIF) were identified by implementing an automated selection method based in temporal Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which has been called multi-Temporal n-Dimensional Principal Component Analysis (mT-nD-PCA).Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) was compared against quantitative vegetation indices which are based on well known traditional vegetation indices like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI). Accuracy assessment was performed by regressing vegetation cover results obtained with each method against field data gathered during the fieldwork campaign carried out in the study area. Results obtained showed how vegetation cover fractions extracted from the NDVI based quantitative index were the most accurate, being superior to the rest of the techniques applied, including SMA.     

The influence of initial conditions on the propagation of smouldering fires in dust accumulations

A mathematical model is presented which allows one to treat the combined phenomena of heat, mass and species transfer by diffusion as they occur within smouldering fires in accumulations of dust or other solid bulk materials. The model was applied to predict self-ignition temperatures of five different dusts, where it could be shown that computed and experimental self-ignition temperatures coincide within an error margin of ±5%.

For smouldering fires, if initiated by either self-ignition or an ignition source, it could be shown that the temperature and the velocity at which the reaction front propagates both depend on the volume of the dust accumulation. In addition, the propagation velocity increases when the initial temperature of the dust accumulation is increased and decreases when the initial moisture content of the dust accumulation is increased.

Comparisons of the numerical model with experiments show that the smouldering propagation is mirrored qualitatively, while the accuracy of the computations strongly depends on the accuracy of the input parameters, namely on the apparent activation energy.     

IEC61508标准指导城市轨道交通设备安全功能指标实施

IEC61508标准提出电气／电子／叮编程电子（E／E／PE）安全相关系统的功能安全,成为了电气／电子／可编程电子（E／E／PE）安全相关系统的功能安全的基本和核心标准。城市轨道交通设备越来越多地采用了电气／电子／可编程电子系统（E／E／PES）,确保这些设备功能安全指标的落实是工程建设,以及运营安全的一个重要组成环节。     

南通长江口北支咸潮上溯对水环境的影响

针对长江口北支近20多年来咸潮超常上溯的状况,通过现场调查监测及与文献资料对比,分析了咸潮上溯对水源地供水水质、河口区河道水质和地下水水质的影响。结果表明,长江口北支咸潮上溯对北支水环境影响主要在于入侵时水体中电导率和氯化物浓度急剧升高,一定程度上影响了北支沿线水源地的供水功能。咸潮对现有水质评价体系下的水质类别影响尚不明显,但高氯离子对化学需氧量的测定有明显的干扰。由于受堤围和水闸控制,咸潮期间入江闸门普遍关闭,导致间接水环境影响,主要集中在入海主河道。部分区域咸潮上溯严重时氯化物浓度升高,水质已不能满足农田灌溉需求。北支沿线启东市24%的地下水采样点氯化物浓度已属轻度入侵水,采样区域已属于海水轻度入侵范围。     

Towards a Tipping Point in Responding to Change: Rising Costs,Fewer Options for Arctic and Global Societies

Climate change incurs costs, but government adaptation budgets are limited. Beyond a certain point, individuals must bear the costs or adapt to new circumstances, creating political-economic tipping points that we explore in three examples. First, many Alaska Native villages are threatened by erosion, but relocation is expensive. To date, critically threatened villages have not yet been relocated, suggesting that we may already have reached a political-economic tipping point. Second, forest fires shape landscape and ecological characteristics in interior Alaska. Climate-driven changes in fire regime require increased fire-fighting resources to maintain current patterns of vegetation and land use, but these resources appear to be less and less available, indicating an approaching tipping point. Third, rapid sea level rise, for example from accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet, will create a choice between protection and abandonment for coastal regions throughout the world, a potential global tipping point comparable to those now faced by Arctic communities. The examples illustrate the basic idea that if costs of response increase more quickly than available resources, then society has fewer and fewer options as time passes.     

重特大火灾对南京市火灾发生影响规律的时间序列研究

本文采用时间序列法分析中国江苏省南京市每月火灾发生次数受该时间段内江苏省特大火灾以及南京市重特大火灾的影响规律。在对原始数据依次进行了异常点剔除、季节调整后,运用时间序列干涉模型对调整后的数据序列进行滞后分析,分析结果表明通常重特大火灾的影响可持续三个月。     

多层建筑火灾烟气运动和回燃的数值模拟研究

为了解多层建筑火灾的蔓延发展和烟气运动,应用大涡模拟(LES)方法对多层建筑火灾发生过程进行数值模拟分析,模拟不同工况下走廊和各楼层中火灾烟气运动和温度的变化情况.尤其针对内部含有竖井的多层建筑,考虑到烟囱效应对火灾发展和烟气蔓延的影响,分别设置自然排烟和机械排烟的实验工况,分析电梯间通风口在自然排烟和机械排烟状况下火灾的发展和烟气运动.通过分析温度和能见度数据,发现合理安排机械排烟能够争取更多人员逃生时间.对于多层建筑火灾中发生的回燃现象进行了原因分析.     

机电产品可靠性研究与探讨

机电产品越来越广泛地应用于社会各个领域,随着自动化、小型化程度的提高,很多机电产品结构越来越复杂,并且其使用条件也越来越严酷,由此产生的产品可靠性问题必然越来越多,可靠性技术也越来越受到重视。本文针对机电产品,从可靠性管理、可靠性设计和分析、可靠性试验和评定三个方面,对可靠性研究工作进行初步探讨。     

Applicability of grid-net detection system for landfill leachate and diesel fuel release in the subsurface

The grid-net system estimating the electrical conductivity changes was evaluated as a potential detection system for the leakage of diesel fuel and landfill leachate. Aspects of electrical conductivity changes were varied upon the type of contaminant. The electrical conductivity in the homogeneous mixtures of soil and landfill leachate linearly increased with the ionic concentration of pore fluid, which became more significant at higher volumetric water contents. However, the electrical conductivity in soil/diesel fuel mixture decreased with diesel fuel content and it was more significant at lower water contents. The electrode spacing should be determined by considering the type of contaminant to enhance the electrode sensitivity especially when two-electrode sensors are to be used. The electrode sensitivity for landfill leachate was constantly maintained regardless of the electrode spacings while that for the diesel fuel significantly increased at smaller electrode spacings. This is possibly due to the fact that the insulating barrier effect of the diesel fuel in non-aqueous phase was less predominant at large electrode spacing because electrical current can form the round-about paths over the volume with relatively small diesel fuel content. The model test results showed that the grid-net detection system can be used to monitor the leakage from waste landfill and underground storage tank sites. However, for a successful application of the detection system in the field, data under various field conditions should be accumulated.     

Transfer of Sr into fish in Finnish lakes

The long-term behavior of ⁹⁰Sr was investigated from 1987 to 1997 in fifteen lakes in southern and central Finland following the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Both water and fish samples (perch, pike, vendace) were analyzed. ⁹⁰Sr stays long in the freshwater ecosystem; the observed half-lives during the study period were generally around 10 years in water and even longer in fish. One lake exhibited very different behavior for ⁹⁰Sr, with elevated levels in fish and water and very short observed half-life in fish, less than 2 years. Concentration factors of ⁹⁰Sr in fish (Bqkg⁻¹ f.w. in fish/Bqkg⁻¹ in water) among the studied lakes significantly correlated with both the Ca concentration and electrical conductivity of the water. More ⁹⁰Sr was transferred into fish in lakes with a low electrical conductivity and a low Ca concentration. Among other water parameters evaluated were pH, color, total nitrogen, and phosphorus.