Rethinking receiver operating characteristic analysis applications in ecological niche modeling

The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) has become a dominant tool in evaluating the accuracy of models predicting distributions of species. ROC has the advantage of being threshold-independent, and as such does not require decisions regarding thresholds of what constitutes a prediction of presence versus a prediction of absence. However, we show that, comparing two ROCs, using the AUC systematically undervalues models that do not provide predictions across the entire spectrum of proportional areas in the study area. Current ROC approaches in ecological niche modeling applications are also inappropriate because the two error components are weighted equally. We recommend a modification of ROC that remedies these problems, using partial-area ROC approaches to provide a firmer foundation for evaluation of predictions from ecological niche models. A worked example demonstrates that models that are evaluated favorably by traditional ROC AUCs are not necessarily the best when niche modeling considerations are incorporated into the design of the test.     

毕节喀斯特石漠化治理生态农业模式构建

喀斯特石漠化已成为岩溶山区生态建设和社会经济可持续发展的重大障碍，受到各级政府、专家学者的高度重视和广泛关注。以贵州省毕节市老街村喀斯特石漠化土地利用为例，采用实地调查的方法获取研究数据，分析了研究区石漠化土地利用存在问题。在此基础上，遵循石漠化治理与产业化相结合原则、市场导向原则、替代产业培育原则、适地适种原则等喀斯特石漠化治理的一般原则；优化土地利用格局，设计由坡地保土耕作、桑草养殖、桑药种植、乡土廊道树篱、封山育林多种技术措施配套集成的综合治理方案，并通过与农村能源建设结合，构建桑草药粮种植＋蚕猪养殖＋沼气的生态农业发展模式，探索喀斯特石漠化区生态修复的有效途径。     

高科技污染问题及驱动力模型研究

高科技产生的污染包括产品生产、消费过程中及废弃时产生的污染。这些特点又加重了高科技的污染程度。高科技污染的各种特点，包括扩散快、产品回收难、污染类型多及隐蔽性强等。以江苏省高科技企业为例，研究企业隶属、资产组成以及经营能力和科技水平等企业性质指标与企业有毒有害原辅料消耗量的相关性，并做出高科技企业污染的驱动模型。根据所得研究结果，分析总结影响高科技企业有毒有害原辅料消耗量的主要因素，认为企业的性质间接作用于企业，最终形成了高科技污染。并据此提出治理高科技污染的建议，即完善污染治理法律体系、探索废旧产品回收途径、发展清洁生产技术、探索针对高科技企业的环境管理模式。     

基于模糊信息概率区间数的突发地质灾害降水因子评价研究

根据2010、2012两年云南省的820个地质灾害监测记录,基于模糊信息概率区间数的大小来开展降水量因子的评价研究。结果表明:突发地质灾害发生前10 d的单日降水量与灾害的关系很小,基本不能用于预警模型的建立和风险评价分析;累积降水量与突发地质灾害关系明显,特别是5~10 d的累积降水量预测概括率已达60%以上,可以用于突发地质灾害预警模型的建立和实际的监测预警;加衰减系数的有效累积降水量因子对突发地质灾害预测效果并无提升,与普通累积降水量因子相比并无优势。     

皖江区域城市能级与生态环境协调度的测度和发展趋势研究

随着城市能级的不断提高,城市生态环境问题也日益突出,二者间协调发展成为城市发展一致的追求。以皖江区域10个城市作为研究地域单元,构建了城市能级与生态环境的指标体系,并建立了城市能级与生态环境的协调度模型。在此基础上,对皖江区域2002~2011年的城市能级与生态环境协调度进行了测度,研究发现过去10a皖江区域城市能级与生态环境的协调度处于较低水平。根据测定的协调度数据,建立了协调度自回归预测模型,并运用该模型探究了未来10a皖江区域城市能级与生态环境协调度的发展趋势,结果表明皖江区域城市能级与生态环境的协调度发展水平经过拮抗期和基本协调期后不断提高,将于2019年前后趋近高质协调发展阶段,即城市能级与生态环境两个系统有序互动发展的态势。     

Environmental policy and macroeconomic dynamics in a new Keynesian model

This paper studies the dynamic behavior of an economy under different environmental policy regimes in a New Keynesian model with nominal and real uncertainty. We find the following results: (i) an emissions cap policy is likely to dampen macroeconomic fluctuations; (ii) staggered price adjustment alters significantly the performance of the environmental policy regime put in place; (iii) the optimal environmental policy response to shocks is strongly influenced by the degree to which prices adjust and by the monetary policy reaction.     

SMART-SREC: A stochastic model of the New Jersey solar renewable energy certificate market

Markets for solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) are gaining in prominence in many states, stimulating growth of the US solar industry. However, SREC market prices have been extremely volatile, causing high risk to participants and potentially less investment in solar power generation. Such concerns necessitate the development of realistic, flexible and tractable models of SREC prices that capture the behavior of participants given the rules that govern the market. We propose an original stochastic model called SMART-SREC to fill this role, building on established ideas from the carbon pricing literature, and including a feedback mechanism for generation response to prices. We calibrate the model to the New Jersey market and backtest it, analyzing parameter sensitivity and demonstrating its ability to reproduce historical dynamics. Finally, we run simulations to investigate the role and impact of regulatory parameters, thus providing insight into the crucial role played by market design.     

Cybersecurity and dynamic operation in practice: Equipment impacts and safety guarantees

Though dynamic operation of chemical processes has been extensively explored theoretically in contexts such as economic model predictive control or even considering the potential for cyberattacks on control systems creating non-standard operating policies, important practical questions remain regarding dynamic operation. In this work, we look at two of these with particular relevance to process safety: (1) evaluating dynamic operating policies with respect to process equipment fidelity and (2) evaluating procedures for determining the parameters of an advanced control law that can promote both dynamic operation as well as safety if appropriately designed. Regarding the first topic, we utilize computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis simulations to analyze how cyberattacks on control systems could impact a metric for stress in equipment (maximum Von Mises stress) over time. Subsequently, we develop reduced-order models showing how both a process variable and maximum Von Mises stress vary over time in response to temperature variations at the boundary of the equipment, to use in evaluating how advanced control frameworks might impact and consider the stress. We close by investigating options for obtaining parameters of an economic model predictive control design that would need to meet a variety of theoretical requirements for safety guarantees to hold. This provides insights on practical safety aspects of control theory, and also indicates relationships between control and design from a safety perspective that highlight further relationships between design and control under dynamic operation to deepen perspectives from the computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis discussions.     

Conceptual Models as Hypotheses in Monitoring Urban Landscapes

Many problems and challenges of ecosystem management currently are driven by the rapid pace and spatial extent of landscape change. Parks and reserves within areas of high human population density are especially challenged to meet the recreational needs of local populations and to preserve valued environmental resources. The complex problem of managing multiple objectives and multiple resources requires an enormous quantity of information, and conceptual models have been proposed as tools for organizing and interpreting this information. Academics generally prefer a bottom-up approach to model construction that emphasizes ecologic theory and process, whereas managers often use a top-down approach that takes advantage of existing information to address more pragmatic objectives. The authors propose a formal process for developing, applying, and testing conceptual models to be used in landscape monitoring that reconciles these seemingly opposing perspectives. The four-step process embraces the role of hypothesis testing in the development of models and evaluation of their utility. An example application of the process to a network of national parks in and around Washington, DC illustrates the ability of the approach to systematically identify monitoring data that would both advance ecologic theory and inform management decisions.     

长江中下游流域旱涝急转时空演变特征分析

基于长江中下游流域75个雨量站1960~2012年的日降水资料,通过定义长、短周期旱涝急转指数,全面地分析了长江中下游流域旱涝急转的趋势变化和时空分布特征。研究结果表明:(1)长周期旱涝急转表现为以涝转旱事件为主,且存在由旱涝急转事件向全旱或全涝事件过渡的趋势,短周期的旱涝急转发生频率较高的也是涝转旱事件;(2)长江中下游北岸多发生旱转涝事件,南岸则多发生涝转旱事件;(3)1998年和2011年6~7月短周期高强度旱转涝事件发生在长江北岸,涝转旱事件发生在南岸地区;5~6月与7~8月旱涝急转事件强度分布则呈相反状态;(4)总体来说,长、短周期涝转旱频次呈现不断减小的趋势,旱转涝有轻微增加的趋势。7~8月则较为特殊,湘江流域涝转旱有增加的趋势,洞庭湖地区涝转旱显著增加,此研究结果可以为长江中下游流域防洪抗旱工作提供一定的依据。