Delivering on the Promise of Agroforestry

Agroforestry – the traditional practice of growing trees on farms for the benefit of the farm family and for the environment – was brought from the realm of indigenous knowledge into the forefront of agricultural research less than two decades ago. It was promoted widely as a sustainability-enhancing practice that combines the best attributes of forestry and agriculture. Based on principles of natural resource management and process-oriented research, agroforestry is now recognized as an applied science, that is instrumental in assuring food security, reducing poverty and enhancing ecosystem resilience at the scale of thousands of smallholder farmers in the tropics.Trees on farms provide both products and services: they yield food, fuelwood, fodder, timber and medicines, which farm families can use at home or take to market to bring in much-needed cash; they replenish organic matter and nutrient levels in soils and they help control erosion and conserve water. The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, and its partners, are working to integrate the functions of trees with policy and institutional improvements that aim at facilitating wide-scale adoption by farmers.Two examples described in this paper are replenishing soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa using short-term improved tree and shrub fallows and the results of agroforestry research to support significant land tenure policy in southeast Asia.Although just one option in sustainable land-use, science-based agroforestry has the potential to produce economically, socially and environmentally sound results for the billions of people who depend on this ancient practice and modern science.     

江苏省洪涝灾害评估系统设计

为了迅速、合理地预测和评估洪涝灾害造成的经济损失,为防汛决策提供科学依据,从江苏省洪涝灾害防治的实际需求出发,进行了江苏省洪涝灾情评估系统的总体设计,并阐明了系统的特点,结构和功能。     

自然灾害综合区划的基本类别及定量方法

依据区域灾害系统论原理,提出了以灾害强度、灾害势、抗灾力和灾度４个状态参量描述的区域自然灾害系统状态,建议以之为基础,将自然灾害综合区划分为灾害强度区划、灾害势区划、抗灾力区划和灾度我划４个基本类别、并结合自然灾害综合区划定量方法的讨论,以实例说明了上述基本类别类别划分的可行性。     

对华北GPS监测区近期地壳应变连续分布的估计

直接利用华北ＧＰＳ监测网各个测点的位移观测值,借助高斯型位移协方差函数通过最小二乘配置建立连续分布的位移函数,并根据应变与位移的偏导关系,对华北ＧＰＳ监测区１９９２～１９９５年、１９９５～１９９６年最大剪应变及面膨胀连续分布进行估算,得到其应变场动态图像。     

Planning for cooler cities: a plan quality evaluation for Urban Heat Island consideration

ABSTRACT

City strategic plans and enabling policies provide a framework for and inform future development across multiple scales. An exemplar city strategic plan will be one based on evidence, enabled by complementary policy outcomes, and built on the knowledge of the existing landscape. This study evaluated the plan quality of eighteen metropolitan strategic plans for city members in the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. A protocol was developed containing thirty-two indicators to assess plans capacity to act as a strategic planning tool to develop, analyse and implement strategies for the Urban Heat Island (UHI) and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The evaluation indicated that strategies addressing the UHI are rarely included in metropolitan plans. Strategic plans showed a lack of evidence-base to inform the potential actions. Urban warming is often linked to extreme weather events anticipated under climate change, not the UHI as a systemic and increasing phenomenon. We recommend that the pathway to addressing UHI mitigation and adaptation may lie in its nexus to aspects of climate change that concurrently can serve to support liveable and resilient cities.     

Short-term wind speed forecasting based on random forest model combining ensemble empirical mode decomposition and improved harmony search algorithm

ABSTRACT

Wind speed forecasting plays an important role in power grid dispatching management. This article proposes a short-term wind speed forecasting method based on random forest model combining ensemble empirical modal decomposition and improved harmony search algorithm. First, the initial wind speed data set is decomposed into several ensemble empirical mode functions by EEMD, then feature extraction of each sub-modal IMF is performed using fast Fourier transform to solve the cycle of each sub-modal IMF. Next, combining the high-performance parameter optimization ability of the improved harmony search algorithm, two optimal parameters of random forest model, number of decision trees, and number of split features are determined. Finally, the random forest model is used to forecast the processing results of each submodal IMF. The proposed model is applied to the simulation analysis of historical wind data of Chaoyang District, Liaoning Province from April 27, 2015 to May 22, 2015. To illustrate the suitability and superiority of the EEMD-RF-IHS model, three types of models are used for comparison: single models including ANN, SVM, RF; EMD combination models including EMD-ANN, EMD-SVM, EMD-RF; EEMD combination models including EEMD-ANN, EEMD-SVM, EEMD-RF. The analysis results of evaluation indicators show that the proposed model can effectively forecast short-term wind data with high stability and precision, providing a reference for forecasting application in other industry fields.     

山东海岸沙生植被的特点和生态评价

山东海岸分布着特殊意义的海岸沙生植被,其特点为群落类型单纯,组成种类结构简单,具有显著的镶嵌性。植物有很强的抗旱、耐瘠、耐热、耐盐能力,群落自然演替缓慢。本文对该岸区沙生植被的恢复、发展和防止生态平衡失调等问题进行了生态评价,并从植物生态学角度提出海岸开发设想。     

小城镇灾害易损性分析与评估

随着我国城镇化进程的加快 ,小城镇的防灾减灾问题逐步引起社会的关注 ,而小城镇易损度分析和评价是灾害危险性评价的重要组成部分 ,也是小城镇决策部门制定防灾减灾规划的重要依据 ;笔者在综合分析了小城镇的自然易损性、经济易损性及社会易损性的基础上 ,选取相应的灾害指标和社会经济指标 ,应用多级模糊综合评判方法 ,对小城镇的易损程度作出了评估 ,从而为小城镇制定相应防灾、减灾对策提供科学依据。     

复采残采煤层小煤矿开采技术研究

平顶山市新华区为全国重点产煤县 (区 ) ,区内煤矿以乡镇小煤矿为主 ;小煤矿井田多位于平顶山煤业集团大型矿井浅部报废水平内 ,主要开采残留煤柱和采后剩余底部煤层。笔者根据新华区小煤矿生产的特点 ,总结、规范了复采残采煤层小煤矿井田开拓、采煤方法 ,重点研究了房柱式采煤法采准巷道布置和采煤工艺 ,特别是保持煤房稳定、提高采煤工作面安全生产的特殊支护问题 ;同时结合小煤矿生产中存在的主要问题 ,依据煤炭行业的法律、法规 ,提出了小煤矿采煤方法改进的技术措施。上述研究成果 ,对规范我国小煤矿的采煤方法、提高小煤矿的安全生产能力、推动小煤矿由数量型向质量效益型转化、发展地方经济都具有重要的现实意义。     

Assessing Anchor Damage on Coral Reefs: A Case Study in Selection of Environmental Indicators

Because environmental conservation can remove scarce natural resources from competing uses, it is important to gain support for conservation programs by demonstrating that management actions have been effective in achieving their goals. One way to do this is to show that selected significant environmental variables (indicators) vary between managed and unmanaged areas or change over time following implementation of a management regime. However, identifying indicators that reflect environmental conditions relevant to management practices has proven difficult. This paper focuses on developing a framework for choosing indicators in a coral reef habitat. The framework consisted of three phases: (1) information gathering to identify candidate variables; (2) field-testing candidate variables at sites that differ in intensity of human activity, thus identifying potential indicators; and (3) evaluating potential indicators against a set of feasibility criteria to identify the most useful indicators. To identify indicators suitable to measure the success of a management strategy to reduce anchor damage to a coral reef, 24 candidate variables were identified and evaluated at sites with different intensities of anchoring. In this study, measures that reflected injuries to coral colonies were generally more efficient than traditional measures of coral cover in describing the effects of anchoring. The number of overturned colonies was identified as the single most useful indicator of coral reef condition associated with anchoring intensities. The indicator selection framework developed here has the advantages of being transparent, cost efficient, and readily transferable to other types of human activities and management strategies.