城市绿地系统服务价值定量评价的研究进展

文章从生态服务价值的角度出发,综合评述了目前国内外城市绿地系统服务价值研究动态,包括固碳释氧、降温增湿、防灾减灾等生态、社会效益的货币化度量,以及国外利用"3S"技术构建城市绿地系统服务价值评价模型等方面。指出当前城市绿地系统服务价值评价的两个新方向是:城市绿地与房地产价格之间的相关性,以及城市绿地防灾减灾功能的探讨与研究。     

应用HSE观察促进管理改进

介绍了中国石化HSE观察的应用背景与目的,重点探讨了对HSE观察问题的处理与分析,及其对管理的促进。     

大气环境质量现状评价模型存在的问题及改进——以沈阳大气指数模型为例

文章分析了几类大气环境质量现状评价模型各自存在的问题,针对这些问题,选择了较典型的沈阳大气指数模型,首先对原模型中参数进行修正,使其成为与当前执行的环境空气质量标准相对应的综合指数模型,其次,基于概率统计思想对模型进行改进,得到不同保证率下的大气环境质量现状评价模型,最后,运用SPSS软件进行实证分析,改进后模型得到的评价结果更能准确反映区域实际大气环境质量现状。     

Enzyme extraction by ultrasound from sludge flocs

Enzymes play essential roles in the biological processes of sludge treatment. In this article, the ultrasound method to extract enzymes from sludge flocs was presented. Results showed that using ultrasound method at 20 kHz could extract more types of enzymes than that ultrasound at 40 kHz and ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) methods. The optimum parameters of ultrasound extraction at 20 kHz were duration of 10 min and power of 480 W. Under the condition, ultrasound could break the cells and extract both the extracellular and intercellular enzymes. Ultrasound power was apparently more susceptive to enzyme extraction than duration, suggesting that the control of power during ultrasound extraction was more important than that of duration. The Pearson correlation analysis between enzyme activities and cation contents revealed that the different types of enzymes had distinct cation binding characteristics.     

Investigating the effectiveness of safety countermeasures at highway-rail at-grade crossings using a competing risk model

Introduction: Highway-rail at-grade crossings (HRGCs) are critical locations where a railway and a roadway intersect with one another. Crashes at those locations often result in fatalities and economic and social damages due to the impacts on both road and rail users. The main purpose of countermeasures at HRGCs is to permit safe and efficient rail and highway operations. Method: Countermeasures at highway-rail grade crossings (HRGCs) considered in this study include all traffic control devices and other warning and barrier devices at or on approaches to crossings. In general, active devices are commonly accepted as more effective countermeasures than passive devices. However, many of the previous effectiveness studies are either at the project level or were conducted without considering the before-improvement condition. This study focuses on the network-level marginal effectiveness of countermeasures on crash rate and severity levels during the 29-year study period from 1990 to 2018 by fully considering before-improvement control levels. A competing risk model (CRM) is able to accommodate the competing nature of crash severities as multiple outcomes from the same event of interest, which is crash occurrence in this study. Subsequently, CRM is used in this study as an integrated one-step estimation approach that investigates both crash frequency and severity likelihood over time. Results: The study findings indicate that adding audible devices to crossings already equipped with gates will result in a considerable annual decline in crash occurrence likelihood (0.25%). The same device installed at crossings already controlled by gates and flashing lights results in less reduction in crash occurrence likelihood of 0.14%. Moreover, adding a stop sign to the active crossing controls of gates, standard flashing lights, and audible devices will lead to a decrease in the probability of crash occurrence and severe crashes (injury and fatal). However, adding stop signs to crossings equipped only with crossbucks will increase the crash occurrence.     

Investigative consequence analysis: A case study research of beirut explosion accident

Around 15:00 GMT on August 4th, an explosion occurred in the warehouse facility storing Ammonium Nitrate (AN) at Beirut port, Lebanon. The explosion resulted in more than 178 fatalities and injured more than 6500 people, and also left an estimated 300,000 people homeless and registered as an equivalent to a 3.3 magnitude earth quake. The accident was considered to be the largest of its kind and the most severe anthropological disaster of the decade, the financial loss the nation was subjected to post the explosion was estimated to be around $ 15 billion as informed by the governor. The storage conditions of ammonium nitrate at Beirut port is not definitively known to anyone, and there is no documentation provided so far from the authorities regarding the same. This work focuses on the investigation & consequence analysis of the explosion using TNT equivalent approach. The overpressure and the impulse obtained from TNT calculations are used in probit models to assess the damages caused on human beings and structures. The results obtained in this investigative approach are then utilized to provide an analytical inference relative to the damage proxy map reported by the advance rapid imaging analysis team from NASA. Also, this work examines the existing standards, fire safety measures and legal regulations for ammonium nitrate facilities in the region. AN explosion during storage like other fire and explosion accidents are definitely preventable owing to the technological advancements and developments to prevent or extinguish controllable fires. The significance of this work relates to the methods for calculation of consequences of explosion that are happening due to the storage of highly hazardous explosive materials in excessive quantities and insists the necessity of incorporating adequate safety measures while storing such reactive and hazardous materials.     

Maximizing Returns from Payments for Water‐Based Ecosystem Services: Incorporating Externality Effects of Land Management

Given the expansion of payments for water‐based ecosystem services (PWES) worldwide, two relevant issues are as follows: (1) determination of efficient allocations of payments among land managers, and (2) how this might change when paying one manager to implement a best management practice (BMP) to enhance an ecosystem service impacts the cost‐effectiveness of BMPs considered by other land managers not currently involved in PWES. Such externalities may be negative if diminishing returns dominate, or positive if mechanisms such as “social diffusion” dominate. We analyze how a planner should optimally allocate payments, depending on whether the expected externalities are negligible, negative, or positive. We employ (1) an optimal control model to gain insights on the problem’s dynamics, and (2) stochastic dynamic programming to determine optimal funding strategies using a specific application. The study contributes to the literature by identifying dynamically optimal PWES payment patterns, and illustrates how they should change when one accounts for externalities induced by the program. Because such impacts have not been addressed previously in a rigorous way, this treatment provides useful value added for PWES design and implementation.     

Efficient Delineation of Nested Depression Hierarchy in Digital Elevation Models for Hydrological Analysis Using Level‐Set Method

In terrain analysis and hydrological modeling, surface depressions (or sinks) in a digital elevation model (DEM) are commonly treated as artifacts and thus filled and removed to create a depressionless DEM. Various algorithms have been developed to identify and fill depressions in DEMs during the past decades. However, few studies have attempted to delineate and quantify the nested hierarchy of actual depressions, which can provide crucial information for characterizing surface hydrologic connectivity and simulating the fill‐merge‐spill hydrological process. In this paper, we present an innovative and efficient algorithm for delineating and quantifying nested depressions in DEMs using the level‐set method based on graph theory. The proposed level‐set method emulates water level decreasing from the spill point along the depression boundary to the lowest point at the bottom of a depression. By tracing the dynamic topological changes (i.e., depression splitting/merging) within a compound depression, the level‐set method can construct topological graphs and derive geometric properties of the nested depressions. The experimental results of two fine‐resolution Light Detection and Ranging‐derived DEMs show that the raster‐based level‐set algorithm is much more efficient (~150 times faster) than the vector‐based contour tree method. The proposed level‐set algorithm has great potential for being applied to large‐scale ecohydrological analysis and watershed modeling.     

Importance of awareness in improving performance of emergency medical services (EMS) systems in enhancing traffic safety: A lesson from India

Objective: India has been slow in implementing a central emergency medical services (EMS) system across the country. “108 services” is one of the most popular services that is functional under the public–private partnership model. Limited available literature shows that despite access to services, many traffic crash victims are transported using private vehicles. The objective of this study is to understand the effectiveness of 108 services from a traffic safety perspective.

Method: A questionnaire survey is conducted to understand the awareness of EMS and their function. Using traffic-related fatalities as the dependent variable, a fixed effect panel data model is developed to analyze the effectiveness of the 108 services in improving the traffic safety.

Results: The results from the survey show that, in general, people are not aware of the 108 services. A majority of the population prefers taking victims to the hospital using their personal vehicles or any other vehicles available compared to calling an ambulance. Results from panel data analysis show that despite having an efficient system, these services failed to make significant improvement in the safety of road users in the states in which their services were subscribed.

Discussion: The lack of awareness of an important safety service is alarming. This could be a major reason for lower utilization of 108 services for transporting victims of traffic crashes. This article shows the importance of having efficient awareness campaigns to improve the efficiency of any similar programs that are aimed to enhance the safety of a region.     

Allometric scaling and accidents at work

Allometry is the knowledge concerning relations between the features of some beings, like animals, or cities. For example, the daily energy rate is proportional to a mass of mammals rise of 3/4. This way of thinking has spread quickly from biology to many areas of research concerned with sociotechnical systems. It was revealed that the number of innovations, patents or heavy crimes rises as social interaction increases in a bigger city, while other urban indexes such as suicides decrease with social interaction. Enterprise is also a sociotechnical system, where social interaction and accidents at work take place. Therefore, do these interactions increase the number of accidents at work or, on the contrary, are they reduction-driving components? This article tries to catch such links and assess the allometric exponent between the number of accidents at work and the number of employees in an enterprise.