Managing Urban Trees and Their Soil Envelopes in a Contiguously Developed City Environment

Urban Hong Kong is covered by high building, road, and population densities. Its urban morphology is inherently not conducive to extensive or high-grade greening. Recent renewal of old areas has squeezed out some limited interstitial plantable space, although in new development areas modest spaces have been earmarked for greenery. The study aims at evaluating the major constraints to urban trees and their companion urban soil envelopes and at providing specific recommendations to improve tree management in the city. The analysis covers the above-ground confinements that dampen tree performance, the less tangible but rather difficult institutional restrictions that impose a somewhat unnecessary lid on tree planting, the multiplicity of players and stakeholders involved in urban-tree management that militates against coordination and cooperation, the widespread occupation of underground space by utility lines often to the exclusion of trees, and the extremely poor quality of urban soils that are often used without amelioration to support tree growth. The management recommendations furnish practical suggestions and hints to improve the short- and long-term welfare of trees in terms of quality, quantity, and spatial distribution. The conclusion enumerates some concrete measures for consideration by decision-makers to upgrade the city's greenery to close the gap between science and policy.     

Urban Environmental Management in Botswana: Toward a Theoretical Explanation ofPublic Policy Failure

For the last three and half decades, Botswana has been widely acclaimed to be one of sub-Saharan Africa's longest and most stable liberal democracies, coupled with and sustained by a growing economy. One of the major contradictions, however, within this development scenario, has been the neglect of environmental problems in the country in general, and urban environmental issues in particular. Part of the problem fueling the misconception of environmental issues in Botswana is the state's domination of the country's environmental agenda. This is linked to the power disjunction in decision-making and policy processes between state and nonstate actors over the most appropriate course of action to tackle the problems. Without adopting appropriate analytical frameworks, it is possible that the problem of urban environmental mismanagement in Botswana will persist. This article examines some of the major urban environmental issues in Botswana from neighborhood, citywide, and urban–rural interface perspectives. Further, the elite theory of public policy is used to explain constraints on policy change in the urban environmental management arena in Botswana.     

Urban geochemistry: research strategies to assist risk assessment and remediation of brownfield sites in urban areas

Urban geochemical maps of Wolverhampton and Nottingham, based on multielement analysis of surface soils, have shown distribution patterns of “total” metals concentrations relating to past and present industrial and domestic land use and transport systems. Several methods have been used to estimate the solubility and potential bioavailability of metals, their mineral forms and potential risks to urban population groups. These include sequential chemical extraction, soil pore water extraction and analysis, mineralogical analysis by scanning electron microscopy, source apportionment by lead isotope analysis and the development of models to predict metal uptake by homegrown vegetables to provide an estimate of risk from metal consumption and exposure. The results from these research strategies have been integrated with a geographical information system (GIS) to provide data for future land-use planning.     

Urban geochemical mapping studies: how and why we do them

Geochemical mapping is a technique rooted in mineral exploration but has now found worldwide application in studies of the urban environment. Such studies, involving multidisciplinary teams including geochemists, have to present their results in a way that nongeochemists can comprehend. A legislatively driven demand for urban geochemical data in connection with the need to identify contaminated land and subsequent health risk assessments has given rise to a greater worldwide interest in the urban geochemical environment. Herein, the aims and objectives of some urban studies are reviewed and commonly used terms such as baseline and background are defined. Geochemists need to better consider what is meant by the term urban. Whilst the unique make up of every city precludes a single recommended approach to a geochemical mapping strategy, more should be done to standardise the sampling and analytical methods. How (from a strategic and presentational point of view) and why we do geochemical mapping studies is discussed.

Some characteristics of the distribution of heavy metals in urban topsoil of Xuzhou,China

An assessment is presented of distribution characteristics of heavy metals in the urban topsoil from the city of Xuzhou. The concentrations of Ag, Al, As, Au, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, Hg, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Pd, Pt, Sb, Sc, Se, Sn, V and Zn have been determined from 21 soil samples. Examination of lognormal distribution plots indicates that the diagrams of Al, Be, Fe, Ga, Li, and V are almost linear suggesting that these metals are almost unaffected by anthropogenic activities while the plots for As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Pd, Pt, Se, Zn and others are not linear probably due to anthropogenic activities from which these metals are delivered to the soils. Al is used for mineralogical normalization of these data. An evaluation of background values for topsoil is also carried out by means of lognormal distribution plots. The results show our background values obtained from the lognormal distribution plots are comparable to those values of uncontaminated soils of Xuzhou obtained by previous work except for Cd and Hg. At present, no explanation for the exceptions Cd and Hg can be given.     

垃圾站垃圾定量出料系统研究与设计

通过对垃圾站内垃圾出料现状的分析及不同出料方式的比较,确定了垃圾出料口出料系统的设计方案,提出了一种全新的出料方式,解决了垃圾站内垃圾定量出料问题。     

基于生态系统服务权衡的生态安全多情景决策

聚焦于成渝城市群生态安全格局识别的主题,耦合多源数据,运用相应的模型与算法对区域粮食生产、碳固存、产水、土壤保持、生境质量5类生态系统服务进行估算,在此基础上借助空间统计与分析厘清生态系统服务功能间的权衡/协同关系,并构建不同风险情景,明确未来区域发展的生态安全格局.结果显示,2000~2015年,成渝城市群粮食生产、固碳和产水量这3类服务功能均呈下降趋势,土壤保持、生境质量服务呈上升趋势,且各类服务的空间分异性突出;固碳、产水、土壤保持与生境质量两两之间均表现为协同关系,粮食生产与这4类服务间表现为权衡关系,但这种冲突性在区域发展过程中逐渐呈减弱趋势;在空间分布上,成渝城市群生态系统服务间的权衡/协同关系表现出了一定的集聚特征;不同决策风险下生态系统服务间的权衡值也不同,随着决策风险系数的增加权衡值呈现先上升后下降的趋势;最终确定风险系数α=1.6为最适宜情景,此时权衡值最高、区域生态系统风险适中.将决策者的态度纳入生态安全格局识别过程中,使结果更全面,为城市群生态安全格局评价和管理提供科学支撑.     

Evaluation of bacterial pathogen diversity, abundance and health risks in urban recreational water by amplicon next-generation sequencing and quantitative PCR

The microbial quality of urban recreational water is of great concern to public health.The monitoring of indicator organisms and several pathogens alone is not sufficient to accurately and comprehensively identify microbial risks.To assess the levels of bacterial pathogens and health risks in urban recreational water,we analyzed pathogen diversity and quantified four pathogens in 46 water samples collected from waterbodies in Beijing Olympic Forest Park in one year.The pathogen diversity revealed by 16 S r RNA gene targeted next-generation sequencing(NGS) showed that 16 of 40 genera and 13 of 76 reference species were present.The most abundant species were Acinetobacter johnsonii,Mycobacterium avium and Aeromonas spp.Quantitative polymerase chain reaction(q PCR) of Escherichia coli(uid A),Aeromonas(aer A),M.avium(16S r RNA),Pseudomonas aeruginosa(oaa) and Salmonella(inv A) showed that the aer A genes were the most abundant,occurring in all samples with concentrations of 10~(4–6) genome copies/100 m L,followed by oaa,inv A and M.avium.In total,34.8% of the samples harbored all genes,indicating the prevalence of these pathogens in this recreational waterbody.Based on the q PCR results,a quantitative microbial risk assessment(QMRA) showed that the annual infection risks of Salmonella,M.avium and P.aeruginosa in five activities were mostly greater than the U.S.EPA risk limit for recreational contacts,and children playing with water may be exposed to the greatest infection risk.Our findings provide a comprehensive understanding of bacterial pathogen diversity and pathogen abundance in urban recreational water by applying both NGS and q PCR.     

人工替代栖息地对长江口湿地的补充作用研究

利用恢复生态学和景观生态学原理构建人工替代栖息地是恢复和重建生物栖息地环境的重要手段之一,是用于滨海河口区修复或重建滩涂湿地等栖息地的一种替代方法。人工替代栖息地构建出了接近自然原貌的人工系统,创造一种湿地植被和湿地动物可以协调共存的生境,不仅可以为鸟类资源和渔业资源提供良好的栖息环境,其中多样化组合的植被群落在滨水景观、水质净化等方面也起到了重要的作用,对长江口自然湿地的恢复和自然保护区的动态管理具有不可忽视的补充作用。在迁徙鸟类重要中转驿站,珍稀或者经济鱼类的洄游通道,特殊价值的重要湿地景观格局以及水资源战略储备区域中布局人工替代栖息地,可以发挥其对长江口湿地的补充作用,使高度开放而又极为敏感的长江河口地区循着生态健康道路发展。     

贵阳城市环境功能定位研究

环境功能定位是城市环境总体规划的重要组成内容和出发点,同时也是城市维持环境功能、环境形态和环境安全的基础。文章以第二批城市环境总体规划试点城市之一的贵阳市为案例,结合城市环境功能定位的经验方法,从大系统和长周期角度出发,分析了长江流域和长江经济带对贵阳市的环境功能需求,梳理了贵阳市环境问题演变和与工业化、城镇化发展历程之间的相互关系,对比分析了贵阳市在西南地区主要城市中的环境比较优势,最终得出贵阳市的4大环境功能定位。最后分析了贵阳市发挥4大环境功能存在的问题和挑战,并且提出了相应的对策建议。