Comparison of Microscopic and Macroscopic Modeling Approaches for Subsurface Contaminant Transport

The practice of contaminant transport and remediation has shown significant progress in recent years. However, despite the significant progress made, remediation efforts are often delayed by extremely long breakthrough curve tails that render efforts to bring the level of contaminants below the regulatory standards inefficient. One hypothesis is that these long tails are due to the reservoir-like slow diffusive processes in soil micropore zones. This study compares the effects of micropores at macroscopic and microscopic levels and establishes a link between these approaches for validation and calibration purposes. The link between macroscopic and microscopic levels is established through comparisons and testing of the two models while incorporating appropriate scale and boundary effects. Despite the differences in conceptual approaches and simulation time, the two approaches rendered meaningful results. The link helps forecast the effects of micropore zone transport processes in the subsurface efficiently and thus allows development of numerical tools that could contribute towards more efficient remediation design.     

Development of a risk-based index for source water protection planning, which supports the reduction of pathogens from agricultural activity entering water resources

Source water protection planning (SWPP) is an approach to prevent contamination of ground and surface water in watersheds where these resources may be abstracted for drinking or used for recreation. For SWPP the hazards within a watershed that could contribute to water contamination are identified together with the pathways that link them to the water resource. In rural areas, farms are significant potential sources of pathogens. A risk-based index can be used to support the assessment of the potential for contamination following guidelines on safety and operational efficacy of processes and practices developed as beneficial approaches to agricultural land management. Evaluation of the health risk for a target population requires knowledge of the strength of the hazard with respect to the pathogen load (massxconcentration). Manure handling and on-site wastewater treatment systems form the most important hazards, and both can comprise confined and unconfined source elements. There is also a need to understand the modification of pathogen numbers (attenuation) together with characteristics of the established pathways (surface or subsurface), which allow the movement of the contaminant species from a source to a receptor (water source). Many practices for manure management have not been fully evaluated for their impact on pathogen survival and transport in the environment. A key component is the identification of potential pathways of contaminant transport. This requires the development of a suitable digital elevation model of the watershed for surface movement and information on local groundwater aquifer systems for subsurface flows. Both require detailed soils and geological information. The pathways to surface and groundwater resources can then be identified. Details of land management, farm management practices (including animal and manure management) and agronomic practices have to be obtained, possibly from questionnaires completed by each producer within the watershed. To confirm that potential pathways are active requires some microbial source tracking. One possibility is to identify the molecular types of Escherichia coli present in each hazard on a farm. An essential part of any such index is the identification of mitigation strategies and practices that can reduce the magnitude of the hazard or block open pathways.     

Identification of key parameters controlling dissolved oxygen migration and attenuation in fractured crystalline rocks

In the crystalline rocks of the Canadian Shield, geochemical conditions are currently reducing at depths of 500-1000 m. However, during future glacial periods, altered hydrologic conditions could potentially result in enhanced recharge of glacial melt water containing a relatively high concentration of dissolved oxygen (O2). It is therefore of interest to investigate the physical and geochemical processes, including naturally-occurring redox reactions, that may control O2 ingress. In this study, the reactive transport code MIN3P is used in combination with 2k factorial analyses to identify the most important parameters controlling oxygen migration and attenuation in fractured crystalline rocks. Scenarios considered are based on simplified conceptual models that include a single vertical fracture, or a fracture zone, contained within a rock matrix that extends from the ground surface to a depth of 500 m. Consistent with field observations, Fe(II)-bearing minerals are present in the fractures (i.e. chlorite) and the rock matrix (biotite and small quantities of pyrite). For the parameter ranges investigated, results indicate that for the single fracture case, the most influential factors controlling dissolved O2 ingress are flow velocity in the fracture, fracture aperture, and the biotite reaction rate in the rock matrix. The most important parameters for the fracture zone simulations are flow velocity in the individual fractures, pO2 in the recharge water, biotite reaction rate, and to a lesser degree the abundance and reactivity of chlorite in the fracture zone, and the fracture zone width. These parameters should therefore receive increased consideration during site characterization, and in the formulation of site-specific models intended to predict O2 behavior in crystalline rocks.     

pH值、硫酸根和温度对钢管管垢中铬释放的影响

以市政供水管网钢管管垢为研究对象,将垢层由外向内分为表层、硬壳层和疏松多孔层.利用SEM、BET、XRD、XPS和分形态提取等技术对预吸附Cr(Ⅵ)前后的各层管垢进行表征和分析,并探究了pH值、SO₄^2-浓度和温度对各层管垢中Cr释放的影响.结果显示,钢管各层管垢的主要成分均为α-FeOOH,吸附性能排序为表层>疏松多孔层>硬壳层,管垢中铁元素大多以三价和二价形式存在,具有一定还原性.Cr(Ⅵ)通过物理和化学吸附富集于管垢,主要以铁锰氧化物结合态存在,表层管垢富集量最大.酸性环境、SO₄^2-浓度和温度的升高均会促进Cr的释放.强酸性条件下表层Cr释放浓度为中性条件下的2.76倍;SO₄^2-浓度增加使各层管垢的Cr释放量增加0.1～0.4倍;温度升高20℃,表层管垢的Cr释放量增加26.74%.     

环境污染物计算毒理学分析及环境行为模拟研究进展

根据国内外研究报道,系统地总结了计算毒理学和化合物环境行为模拟在环境科学领域的研究进展,包括二者的概念、理论、研究方法以及在环境研究中的应用;分析了计算毒理学和化合物环境行为模拟在发展中所面临的挑战,并提出对策;展望了计算毒理学和化合物环境行为模拟在环境研究中的发展前景。     

基于MapX的污染源普查GIS软件开发实例

污染源普查数据面广量大,且含有准确的地理信息,但国家统一开发的普查数据应用软件中没有集成GIS分析功能。东台市环保局在对污染源普查数据的应用中,以Delphi为编程工具,调用污染源普查数据库,基于MapX实现了一款简易的污染源普查GIS应用软件,介绍了MapX特点及其应用、数据接口方法及系统的实现等。     

Deliberative democracy meets democratised science: a deliberative systems approach to global environmental governance

The main achievements of the debates on deliberative democracy and democratised science are investigated in order to analyse the reasons, meanings and prospects for a democratisation of global environmental policy. A deliberative systems approach, which emphasises the need to explore how processes in societal spheres interact to shape the deliberative qualities of the system as a whole, is adopted. Although science plays a key role in this, its potential to enhance deliberative capacity has hardly been addressed in deliberative theories. The democratisation of science has potential to contribute to the democratisation of global environmental policy, in that it also shapes the potential of deliberative arrangements in the policy sphere. Deliberative arrangements within the policy sphere may stimulate the democratisation of science to different degrees.     

新形势下环境质量综合分析思路探讨

随着中国共产党第十九次全国代表大会的顺利召开,环保"大部制"改革、环境监测垂直管理制度改革以及国家"大气十条""水十条""土十条"的全面实施均对生态环境保护、环境监测乃至环境质量综合分析工作提出了新要求。新形势下,环境质量综合分析应与时俱进、开拓创新,进一步优化工作机制,加强系统分析,增强综合分析报告的科学性、规范性、时效性、精准性、客观性等,强化技术与能力支撑,更好发挥环境监测对环境管理和决策的引领作用。     

Perceived mastery climate,felt trust,and knowledge sharing

Interpersonal trust is associated with a range of adaptive outcomes, including knowledge sharing. However, to date, our knowledge of antecedents and consequences of employees feeling trusted by supervisors in organizations remains limited. On the basis of a multisource, multiwave field study among 956 employees from 5 Norwegian organizations, we examined the predictive roles of perceived mastery climate and employee felt trust for employees' knowledge sharing. Drawing on the achievement goal theory, we develop and test a model to demonstrate that when employees perceive a mastery climate, they are more likely to feel trusted by their supervisors at both the individual and group levels. Moreover, the relationship between employees' perceptions of a mastery climate and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing is mediated by perceptions of being trusted by the supervisor. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

Evaluation of geometrically personalized THUMS pedestrian model response against sedan–pedestrian PMHS impact test data

Objective: Evaluating the biofidelity of pedestrian finite element models (PFEM) using postmortem human subjects (PMHS) is a challenge because differences in anthropometry between PMHS and PFEM could limit a model's capability to accurately capture cadaveric responses. Geometrical personalization via morphing can modify the PFEM geometry to match the specific PMHS anthropometry, which could alleviate this issue. In this study, the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) PFEM (Ver 4.01) was compared to the cadaveric response in vehicle–pedestrian impacts using geometrically personalized models.

Methods: The AM50 THUMS PFEM was used as the baseline model, and 2 morphed PFEM were created to the anthropometric specifications of 2 obese PMHS used in a previous pedestrian impact study with a mid-size sedan. The same measurements as those obtained during the PMHS tests were calculated from the simulations (kinematics, accelerations, strains), and biofidelity metrics based on signals correlation (correlation and analysis, CORA) were established to compare the response of the models to the experiments. Injury outcomes were predicted deterministically (through strain-based threshold) and probabilistically (with injury risk functions) and compared with the injuries reported in the necropsy.

Results: The baseline model could not accurately capture all aspects of the PMHS kinematics, strain, and injury risks, whereas the morphed models reproduced biofidelic response in terms of trajectory (CORA score = 0.927 ± 0.092), velocities (0.975 ± 0.027), accelerations (0.862 ± 0.072), and strains (0.707 ± 0.143). The personalized THUMS models also generally predicted injuries consistent with those identified during posttest autopsy.

Conclusions: The study highlights the need to control for pedestrian anthropometry when validating pedestrian human body models against PMHS data. The information provided in the current study could be useful for improving model biofidelity for vehicle–pedestrian impact scenarios.