Subcritical water oxidation of propham by H2O2 using response surface methodology (RSM)

This study was conducted to investigate the degradation of propham, which is a compound that pollutes water and seriously threatens human health, by subcritical water oxidation and using H₂O₂ as an oxidising agent. The maximum total organic carbon removal rate of propham was obtained as 73.65% at 40 min of treatment time and 60 mM of H₂O₂ concentration and 373 K of temperature. In addition, response surface method based on the Box-Behnken design was applied to design the degradation experiments of propham for determination of the combined effects of process variables, namely temperature, concentration of oxidising agent and treatment time. The proposed quadratic model of propham degradation, which was examined with the analysis of variance, was used for navigating the design space. The R² and adjusted R² values of the model were determined as 0.9921 and 0.9819 respectively. It was shown that propham was effectively degraded, thus could be removed from the water by using an environmentally friendly method.     

Benefits of integrating complementarity into priority threat management

Conservation decision tools based on cost‐effectiveness analysis are used to assess threat management strategies for improving species persistence. These approaches rank alternative strategies by their benefit to cost ratio but may fail to identify the optimal sets of strategies to implement under limited budgets because they do not account for redundancies. We devised a multiobjective optimization approach in which the complementarity principle is applied to identify the sets of threat management strategies that protect the most species for any budget. We used our approach to prioritize threat management strategies for 53 species of conservation concern in the Pilbara, Australia. We followed a structured elicitation approach to collect information on the benefits and costs of implementing 17 different conservation strategies during a 3‐day workshop with 49 stakeholders and experts in the biodiversity, conservation, and management of the Pilbara. We compared the performance of our complementarity priority threat management approach with a current cost‐effectiveness ranking approach. A complementary set of 3 strategies: domestic herbivore management, fire management and research, and sanctuaries provided all species with >50% chance of persistence for $4.7 million/year over 20 years. Achieving the same result cost almost twice as much ($9.71 million/year) when strategies were selected by their cost‐effectiveness ranks alone. Our results show that complementarity of management benefits has the potential to double the impact of priority threat management approaches.     

Optimization of facility location and reallocation in an industrial plant through a multi-annual framework accounting for economic and safety issues

The industrial layout traditionally has been addressed accounting for the facilities distribution and installation since the first day of operation of the plant; this is, without considering future expansions that involve additional facilities in the future operation years. This way, this paper proposes a mathematical programming formulation for the optimal facility sitting and reallocation in an industry accounting for future expansions and involving simultaneously economic and safety objectives. The proposed formulation is based on a multi-annual framework and this corresponds to a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming problem. The proposed optimization approach was applied to a case study for the facility sitting (office buildings and control rooms) in an ethylene oxide plant. The economic objective function involves the minimization of the total annual cost accounting for the value of the money through the time and the safety objective function involves the minimization for the accumulated risk over the operation time. Results show the applicability of the proposed approach.     

基于情景构建的应急预案体系优化策略及方法

为了进一步优化我国现有应急预案体系,从应急管理实践中分析梳理出4方面问题,包括:“在指导理念上依然没有充分体现应急准备的理念”“应急预案体系在微观、中观和宏观层面依然存在结构性问题”“应急预案的内容存在‘概念性’内容较多的情况,导致操作性和针对性不强”“预案动态管理滞后,持续改进机制尚未形成”;针对现存问题,提出基于情景构建的优化策略和方法,认为“情景构建”不但可以指导编制者分析应急需求、明确应急目标、规划应急程序,有效支撑应急预案的编制,而且可以派生出“基于情景链条的预案衔接策略”“基于任务协同的预案衔接策略”“基于资源约束的预案衔接策略”,进而从微观层面上推进预案体系的优化。研究结果可以作为各级政府和企业应急预案体系构建的参考和借鉴。     

Incorporating the Effects of Socioeconomic Uncertainty into Priority Setting for Conservation Investment

Abstract:  Uncertainty in the implementation and outcomes of conservation actions that is not accounted for leaves conservation plans vulnerable to potential changes in future conditions. We used a decision-theoretic approach to investigate the effects of two types of investment uncertainty on the optimal allocation of global conservation resources for land acquisition in the Mediterranean Basin. We considered uncertainty about (1) whether investment will continue and (2) whether the acquired biodiversity assets are secure, which we termed transaction uncertainty and performance uncertainty, respectively. We also developed and tested the robustness of different rules of thumb for guiding the allocation of conservation resources when these sources of uncertainty exist. In the presence of uncertainty in future investment ability (transaction uncertainty), the optimal strategy was opportunistic, meaning the investment priority should be to act where uncertainty is highest while investment remains possible. When there was a probability that investments would fail (performance uncertainty), the optimal solution became a complex trade-off between the immediate biodiversity benefits of acting in a region and the perceived longevity of the investment. In general, regions were prioritized for investment when they had the greatest performance certainty, even if an alternative region was highly threatened or had higher biodiversity value. The improved performance of rules of thumb when accounting for uncertainty highlights the importance of explicitly incorporating sources of investment uncertainty and evaluating potential conservation investments in the context of their likely long-term success.     

Metropolitan Open-Space Protection with Uncertain Site Availability

Abstract:  Urban planners acquire open space to protect natural areas and provide public access to recreation opportunities. Because of limited budgets and dynamic land markets, acquisitions take place sequentially depending on available funds and sites. To address these planning features, we formulated a two-period site selection model with two objectives: maximize the expected number of species represented in protected sites and maximize the expected number of people with access to protected sites. These objectives were both maximized subject to an upper bound on area protected over two periods. The trade-off between species representation and public access was generated by the weighting method of multiobjective programming. Uncertainty was represented with a set of probabilistic scenarios of site availability in a linear-integer formulation. We used data for 27 rare species in 31 candidate sites in western Lake County, near the city of Chicago, to illustrate the model. Each trade-off curve had a concave shape in which species representation dropped at an increasing rate as public accessibility increased, with the trade-off being smaller at higher levels of the area budget. Several sites were included in optimal solutions regardless of objective function weights, and these core sites had high species richness and public access per unit area. The area protected in period one depended on current site availability and on the probabilities of sites being undeveloped and available in the second period. Although the numerical results are specific for our study, the methodology is general and applicable elsewhere.     

我国中小城市大气污染总量控制研究

本文提出了一套适合于我国中小城市大气污染总量控制研究的技术路线和模型。通过环境容量规划和污染综合治理规划的有机结合，从而达到以优化的方式协调经济发展与环境保护的矛盾。对镇江市的应用结果表明，本文提出的技术路线和模型是合理可行的。所给出的总量控制方案既能符合经济发展的需要，又能经济有效地控制并改善区域的大气环境质量。     

中国电子废物循环利用空间优化

基于2014年和2015年环保部发布的省级回收数据,分析了现有传统回收体系下,各省的电子废物回收率变化,发现省级尺度电子废物的回收率呈现较大波动,这与电子废物的跨省流动有密切关系.为此,本文基于现有回收渠道的省际流动网络格局,采用网络分析中的层次聚类方法,揭示全国电子废物流动的区域化特征.结果显示根据区域化特征重新划分市场区,可以使主要市场区的整体回收率波动明显降低,从而为制定合理的回收目标提供参考.针对这一研究结果,提出基于市场区域化特征,建立全国一体化的回收利用市场和差异化的区域性回收目标,有助于充分利用市场机制优化中国电子废物循环利用的空间格局.最后,讨论了生产者主导和处理企业主导两种治理机制对空间优化的潜在影响.     

危险废物焚烧烟气净化中脱酸工艺条件的优化控制

优化脱酸工艺参数,合理使用脱酸剂是净化烟气、严防二次污染的关键步骤。通过对危险废物焚烧烟气净化中脱酸工艺条件进行筛选和优化,探索适宜的脱酸工艺条件。     

一株高效十四烷降解菌的筛选及降解条件优化

采集某炼油厂废水处理车间的回流污泥,以十四烷作为唯一碳源筛选分离到一株高效十四烷降解菌。经形态学观察和生理生化特征研究,鉴定为布兰汉氏球菌(Branhamella sp.)。对其降解十四烷的条件进行了优化,实验结果表明,最适降解条件为接种量0.5%,温度35℃,初始pH=7,碳氮摩尔比为0.4:1,在最佳条件下,当十四烷的初始浓度约为50mg/L时,在12h内降解率高达98%以上。