Europe’s energy deficit: a population dilemma

Europe’s growing energy deficit and destabilising climate may lead the EU and its constituent member states to change its attitude to population size and growth.     

Making Capacity Building Meaningful: A Framework for Strategic Action

This paper aims to give practical meaning to ‘capacity building’ through (a) identifying a suite of practical measures, such as mentoring or best practice guidelines, that have been shown to or are considered to build human, social, institutional, and economic capital; (b) placing these measures within a broader systems framework; and (c) exploring stakeholder feedback on specific measures to inform framework implementation. The 29 measures described provide actors, whether government or nongovernment, with a suite of practical investment choices for building capacity. These measures are then clustered into eight groups according to their primary purpose and placed within a systems framework. The framework provides a tool for actors with responsibilities for or an interest in capacity building to inform more holistic and strategic targeting of effort and investment. Stakeholder feedback gathered through surveys and workshops is subsequently reported to further inform implementation of specific measures within the framework’s eight groupings. The framework presented may be built upon through the identification and inclusion of further capacity building measures. The research is conducted within the context of decentralized governance arrangements for natural resource management (NRM), with specific focus on Australia’s recently formalized 56 NRM regions and their community-based governing boards as an informative arena of learning. Application of the framework is explored in the Australian setting through the identification and comparison of measures supported and most preferred by four major stakeholder groups, namely board members, regional NRM organization staff, policy/research interests, and Indigenous interests. The research also examines stakeholder perceptions of capacity issues, and whether these issues are likely to be addressed through implementing their preferred measures.

Threatened and Endangered Species: At What Cost? The Corps of Engineers Looks at Expenditures and Priorities

Current political conditions, primarily budgetary uncertainty, and the related reluctance to make funding commitments for future generations, have raised questions about the costs of conservation and environmental protection that have not previously been asked. As Federal investments are scrutinized and budgets become ever more constrained, the costs associated with environmental requirements could begin to be of greater importance and to influence decisions on Federal projects. In response to concerns about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) spending under the Endangered Species Act (P.L. 93-205) (ESA), a limited investigation was performed to determine the accuracy of reported Corps expenditures. The investigation showed that, for particular groups of species, actual conservation costs for threatened and endangered species may be twice the amounts previously reported in the annual ESA expenditure reporting to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In light of this finding, the Corps has sought a means to provide more accurate and consistent reporting of expenditures for addressing threatened and endangered species. A Species Costs Template (template) has been developed to identify the types and magnitude of costs related to the ESA and to counteract the impediments (legal, institutional, and practical) to underreporting costs. The template will be used by the Corps for reporting ESA costs beginning with Fiscal Year 2005 (FY05) (reported in January 2006). Five broad categories of expenditures (effects determination costs, ESA protection and conservation costs, equipment costs, opportunity costs, and other species costs) are identified by the template.     

淮河下游地区森林资源及其经营管理对策

本文论述了淮河下游地区常绿针叶林、落叶阔叶林,落叶常绿阔叶混交林,竹林等森林资源类型的特征,分析了该地区森林资源在经营管理中存在的问题,提出了应采取的森林资源经营管理对策。     

外绝缘用液体硅橡胶的自然老化因素研究

近年来,液体硅橡胶(Liquid Silicone Rubber,LSR)已经在外绝缘领域得到了较为广泛的应用,但是目前对其耐老化性能的研究还不够深入。尤其是在中国南方地区使用时,高温、高湿环境更容易导致液体硅橡胶的老化。在许多地区都观察到了电流、电压互感器的液体硅橡胶绝缘外套的龟裂、老化现象,对设备的安全运行产生了影响。本文设计并实施了在光照、高温、高湿、电晕等老化因素作用下的液体硅橡胶人工老化试验,并对老化试验后的样品进行了硬度、力学性能、憎水性、光泽度以及SEM、FTIR等微观性能试验和分析。认为在光照作用下,高温、高湿环境对液体硅橡胶具有加速老化作用,表现为硬度上升、憎水性下降、光泽度下降,并且在表面出现细微裂纹。     

Respective contributions of point and non-point sources of E. coli and enterococci in a large urbanized watershed (the Seine river, France)

Because the large rivers of the Seine watershed have a low microbiological water quality, the main sources of fecal contamination were investigated in the present study. The inputs of the point (wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluents) and non-point sources (surface runoff and soil leaching) of fecal bacteria were quantified for Escherichia coli and intestinal enteroccoci used as bacterial indicators. In order to assess the contamination through non-point sources, fecal indicators abundance was estimated in samples collected in small streams located in rural areas upstream from all point sources; these small rivers were characterized by the land use of their watershed. Bacterial indicator numbers were also measured in effluents of WWTPs, some using classical treatment (settling followed by activated sludge process) and some using an additional disinfection stage (UV irradiation). These data were used to estimate the respective importance of each type of source at the scale of the whole Seine river watershed taking into account the land use and the population density. It shows the predominant importance of the point sources of fecal indicator bacteria at the scale of the whole watershed. In a scenario in which activated sludge treatment would be complemented with UV in all WWTPs located in this watershed, the non-point sources of fecal indicator bacteria would be dominant.     

产品的振动冲击响应设计

在抗振缓冲设计中,人们通常按标准、合同中的要求进行设计,本文认为要按产品受振动与冲击后的响应进行设计,及如何按振动与冲击后的响应进行设计。     

Water quality requirements for sustaining aquifer storage and recovery operations in a low permeability fractured rock aquifer

A changing climate and increasing urbanisation has driven interest in the use of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) schemes as an environmental management tool to supplement conventional water resources. This study focuses on ASR with stormwater in a low permeability fractured rock aquifer and the selection of water treatment methods to prevent well clogging. In this study two different injection and recovery phases were trialed. In the first phase ~1380 m(3) of potable water was injected and recovered over four cycles. In the second phase ~3300 m(3) of treated stormwater was injected and ~2410 m(3) were subsequently recovered over three cycles. Due to the success of the potable water injection cycles, its water quality was used to set pre-treatment targets for harvested urban stormwater of ≤ 0.6 NTU turbidity, ≤ 1.7 mg/L dissolved organic carbon and ≤ 0.2 mg/L biodegradable dissolved organic carbon. A range of potential ASR pre-treatment options were subsequently evaluated resulting in the adoption of an ultrafiltration/granular activated carbon system to remove suspended solids and nutrients which cause physical and biological clogging. ASR cycle testing with potable water and treated stormwater demonstrated that urban stormwater containing variable turbidity (mean 5.5 NTU) and organic carbon (mean 8.3 mg/L) concentrations before treatment could be injected into a low transmissivity fractured rock aquifer and recovered for irrigation supplies. A small decline in permeability of the formation in the vicinity of the injection well was apparent even with high quality water that met turbidity and DOC but could not consistently achieve the BDOC criteria.