Effects of habitat and landscape fragmentation on humans and biodiversity in densely populated landscapes

Landscape fragmentation has often been seen as an only ecological problem. However, fragmentation also has a societal perspective, namely, in how humans perceive landscape fragmentation and in how landscape fragmentation potentially influences human well-being. These latter aspects have rarely been addressed so far. The inter-relationship of ecological and human dimensions of landscape fragmentation becomes especially evident when looking at the landscape where most people in industrial countries live, namely in suburban and urban areas. In these areas, landscape planners and environmental managers are confronted with the problem that landscapes should fullfil various functions, often with conflicting goals, e.g. nature reserves to enhance species richness vs. recreational areas for city-dwellers. We reviewed the ecological and sociological literature relevant for fragmentation in suburban and urban landscapes. In an interdisciplinary approach, we evaluated whether there are similarities and dissimilarities between the ecological and the human aspects of landscape fragmentation. We found important similarities. An example is that for both, humans and biodiversity, the loss of semi-natural areas has more drastic effects than the fragmentation of these areas per se. However, there are also relevant differences. We concluded that in densely populated landscapes a shift from responsive planning to an intentional design of environments is therefore needed.     

Isolating the impact of sediment toxicity in urban streams

Several factors can contribute to the ecological degradation of stream catchments following urbanization, but it is often difficult to separate their relative importance. We isolated the impact of polluted sediment on the condition of an urban stream in Melbourne, Australia, using two complementary approaches. Using a rapid bioassessment approach, indices of stream condition were calculated based on macroinvertebrate field surveys. Urban stream reaches supported impoverished macroinvertebrate communities, and contained potentially toxic concentrations of heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Using a field microcosm approach, a bioassay was carried out to assess sediment pollution effects on native macroinvertebrates. Sediment from urban sites substantially altered the microcosm macroinvertebrate community, most likely due to elevated heavy metal and hydrocarbon concentrations. Macroinvertebrate surveys combined with a bioassay approach based on field microcosms can help isolate the effect of stream pollutants in degraded ecosystems.     

Evaluation of the QUIC-URB fast response urban wind model for a cubical building array and wide building street canyon

This paper describes the QUIC-URB fast response urban wind modeling tool and evaluates it against wind tunnel data for a 7 × 11 cubical building array and wide building street canyon. QUIC-URB is based on the Röckle diagnostic wind modeling strategy that rapidly produces spatially resolved wind fields in urban areas and can be used to drive urban dispersion models. Röckle-type models do not solve transport equations for momentum or energy; rather, they rely heavily on empirical parameterizations and mass conservation. In the model-experiment comparisons, we test two empirical building flow parameterizations within the QUIC-URB model: our implementation of the standard Röckle (SR) algorithms and a set of modified Röckle (MR) algorithms. The MR model attempts to build on the strengths of the SR model and introduces additional physically based, but simple parameterizations that significantly improve the results in most regions of the flow for both test cases. The MR model produces vortices in front of buildings, on rooftops and within street canyons that have velocities that compare much more favorably to the experimental results. We expect that these improvements in the wind field will result in improved dispersion calculations in built environments.     

重庆市城市用地与城市发展的互动关系

对城市用地与城市发展之间的互动关系作了实证分析和理论探讨。抓住用地规模和用地结构两条主线 ,分析重庆市城市发展与城市用地之间的互动关系 :城市经济发展和投资规模膨胀拉动了城市用地规模的增大 ,城市产业结构的调整则促进了城市用地结构和空间布局结构的逐步优化 ;城市用地总量的适当增加和用地结构的优化支持了城市的发展和人居环境的改善。在此基础上 ,认为城市用地与城市发展之间应保持良性互动关系 ,其判断标准是城市用地综合效益的逐步提高     

Managing climate change risks in New York City’s water system: assessment and adaptation planning

Managing risk by adapting long-lived infrastructure to the effects of climate change must become a regular part of planning for water supply, sewer, wastewater treatment, and other urban infrastructure during this century. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), the agency responsible for managing New York City’s (NYC) water supply, sewer, and wastewater treatment systems, has developed a climate risk management framework through its Climate Change Task Force, a government-university collaborative effort. Its purpose is to ensure that NYCDEP’s strategic and capital planning take into account the potential risks of climate change—sea-level rise, higher temperature, increases in extreme events, changes in drought and flood frequency and intensity, and changing precipitation patterns—on NYC’s water systems. This approach will enable NYCDEP and other agencies to incorporate adaptations to the risks of climate change into their management, investment, and policy decisions over the long term as a regular part of their planning activities. The framework includes a 9-step Adaptation Assessment procedure. Potential climate change adaptations are divided into management, infrastructure, and policy categories, and are assessed by their relevance in terms of climate change time-frame (immediate, medium, and long term), the capital cycle, costs, and other risks. The approach focuses on the water supply, sewer, and wastewater treatment systems of NYC, but has wide application for other urban areas, especially those in coastal locations.     

Planning for optimisation of outdoor recreational potential in Benin city through a deferred demand approach

This paper attempts to provide an empirical basis for planning the optimisation of public outdoor recreational potential in Benin City, Nigeria. The study is seen as a partial analysis in that it considers only the deferred component of demand, and only with public recreational facilities. It identifies a mismatch between demand for and provision of facilities, due to an inadequate planning system.     

基于生态系统服务价值的京津冀城市群湿地主导服务功能研究

湿地是地球三大生态系统之一,在气候调节、水资源供给、净化环境等方面具有重要的价值和作用。基于1990-2015年6期土地生态遥感解译数据和社会经济数据,通过修正生态系统服务价值当量因子和计算湿地价值的内外部贡献率,利用GIS定量研究了京津冀城市群及各个城市25年间不同湿地类型、不同功能生态系统服务价值的变化,并基于此进行功能定位。结果表明：（1）京津冀城市群湿地的生态系统服务价值呈现先上升后波动下降的趋势,2015年湿地价值较1990年上升了29.3亿元,主要是由于河渠、水库坑塘价值的增加,以及水文调节、水资源供给价值的增加;（2）京津冀城市群的13个城市中,天津市生态系统服务价值最高,且东部沿海区域湿地价值有增加趋势,南部内陆城市不仅湿地面积少且价值逐年下降;（3）水文调节、水资源供给和净化环境是京津冀城市群大部分城市湿地的主导功能,而河渠、水库坑塘、滩地则是提供服务功能的主要湿地类型。生态系统服务价值的减少与增加都与人类活动密切相关,因此了解湿地价值的变化趋势及变化原因,明确湿地的功能定位,不仅可以增强人们对湿地生态的保护意识,同时也为未来京津冀地区湿地的修复、恢复及可持续利用提供科学依据。     

Implications of denitrification in the ecological status of an urban river using enzymatic activities in sediments as an indicator

A better understanding of the effects of a number of environmental factors on denitrification is vital for analyzing its role as nitrogen sink and providing deeper knowledge about the ecological status of a nitrate-rich ecosystem. Since few studies have addressed the occurrence and implications of denitrification in river sediments, and complexity of interactions among all these environmental factors makes comprehension of the process difficult, the potential of sediments from the Deba River to attenuate nitrate excess through denitrification was investigated. For this purpose, we adapted an in vitro method to measure activities of two enzymes contributing to the entire multiple-step nitrate reduction: Nitrate Reductase and Nitrite Reductase. The environmental features that influence both or single enzymatic activities were identified as oxygen availability, regulated directly by the moisture content or indirectly through the aerobic respiration, organic matter and nitrate content of sediments, and electrical conductivity and exchangeable sodium percentage of water. Additionally, our results showed that Nitrate Reductase catalyzes the principal limiting step of denitrification in sediments. Therefore, taking this enzymatic activity as an indicator, the southern part of the Deba River catchment presented low potential to denitrify but nitrate-limited sediments, whereas the middle and northern parts were characterized by high denitrification potential but nitrate-rich sediments. In general, this study on denitrifying enzymatic activities in sediments evaluates the suitability of the management of the effluents from wastewater treatment plants and municipal sewages to ensure a good ecological status of the Deba River.     

基于城镇污水处理厂运行情况的城镇生活污水污染核算方法——以滇池流域城镇生活污水污染核算为实例

根据城镇污水处理厂运行情况和城市供排水平衡分析提出一种简化的城镇居民生活污染源产排污总量核算的思路与方法,并以滇池流域为例核算了2010年滇池流域城镇居民生活主要污染物产生与排放总量。     

城市震害时空序列的展开过程分析

本文系统地介绍城市地震灾害的主体，震害的特征及按时间、空间序列的发展过程。城市震害是多种灾害同时发生、相互影响，并且多种灾害在时空序列上都有发生、发展和延续的过程。通过对以往几次城市地震灾害的现象的研究、展示其在时空序列的分布规律，力求找到各种灾害与抗震救灾活动的对应关系