The Relative Importance of Landscape Amenity and Health Impacts in the Wind Farm Debate in Australia

In recent years, Australia has experienced public debate around the growth in wind farms as part of government and community strategies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Many of the arguments put forward by opponents and supporters are similar to those that have been evident in North America and Western Europe, including possible environmental impacts on wildlife, noise levels and, perhaps most prominently adverse changes in ‘landscape amenity’. A concern of increasing prominence is that of adverse human health impacts from proximity to operating turbines. Using analysis of submissions to public inquiries and a small number of detailed interviews, we consider the increased focus in Australia on the health impacts of wind farms. We note that health impacts, as elsewhere in the world, are often part of a suite of objections to wind farm developments but conclude that for some people near such developments, these are the main concern and not a cover or proxy for other concerns, such as changes in landscape amenity and aesthetics.     

Suitable error evaluation criteria selection in the wind energy assessment via the K-means clustering algorithm

In this paper, wind energy potential of four locations in Xinjiang region is assessed. The Weibull distribution as well as the Logistic and the Lognormal distributions are applied to describe the distributions of the wind speed at different heights. In determining the parameters in the Weibull distribution, four intelligent parameter optimization approaches including the differential evolutionary, the particle swarm optimization, and two other approaches derived from these two algorithms and combined advantages of these two approaches are employed. Then the optimal distribution is chosen through the Chi-square error (CSE), the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test error (KSE), and the root mean square error (RMSE) criteria. However, it is found that the variation range of some criteria is quite large, thus these criteria are analyzed and evaluated both from the anomalous values and by the K-means clustering method. Anomaly observation results have shown that the CSE is the first one should be considered to be eliminated from the consequent optimal distribution function selection. This idea is further confirmed by the K-means clustering algorithm, by which the CSE is clustered into a different group with KSE and RMSE. Therefore, only the reserved two error evaluation criteria are utilized to evaluate the wind power potential.     

Temporal Trends in the Spatial Distribution of Impervious Cover Relative to Stream Location

Use of impervious cover is transitioning from an indicator of surface water condition to one that also guides and informs watershed planning and management, including Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq.) reporting. Whether it is for understanding surface water condition or planning and management, impervious cover is most commonly expressed as summary measurement (e.g., percentage watershed in impervious cover). We use the National Land Cover Database to estimate impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters for three time periods (2001, 2006, 2011). We also compare impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters to watershed summary estimates of impervious cover for classifying the spatial pattern of impervious cover. Between 2001 and 2011, surface water shorelines (streams and water bodies) in the vicinity of impervious cover increased nearly 10,000 km. Across all time periods, approximately 27% of the watersheds in the continental United States had proximally distributed impervious cover, i.e., the percentage of impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters was higher than its watershed summary expression. We discuss how impervious cover spatial pattern can be used to inform watershed planning and management, including reporting under the Clean Water Act.     

Recent Changes in Stream Flashiness and Flooding,and Effects of Flood Management in North Carolina and Virginia

The southeastern United States has undergone anthropogenic changes in landscape structure, with the potential to increase (e.g., urbanization) and decrease (e.g., reservoir construction) stream flashiness and flooding. Assessment of the outcome of such change can provide insight into the efficacy of current strategies and policies to manage water resources. We (1) examined trends in precipitation, floods, and stream flashiness and (2) assessed the relative influence of land cover and flow‐regulating features (e.g., best management practices and artificial water bodies) on stream flashiness from 1991 to 2013. We found mean annual precipitation decreased, which coincided with decreasing trends in floods. In contrast, stream flashiness, overall, showed an increasing trend during the period of study. However, upon closer examination, 20 watersheds showed stable stream flashiness, whereas 5 increased and 6 decreased in flashiness. Urban watersheds were among those that increased or decreased in flashiness. Watersheds that increased in stream flashiness gained more urban cover, lost more forested cover and had fewer best management practices installed than urban watersheds that decreased in stream flashiness. We found best management practices are more effective than artificial water bodies in regulating flashy floods. Flashiness index is a valuable and straightforward metric to characterize changes in streamflow and help to assess the efficacy of management interventions.     

Characterizing Drought in Irrigated Agricultural Systems: The Surface Water Delivery Index (SWDI)

Quantifying surface water shortages in arid and semiarid agricultural regions is challenging because limited water supplies are distributed over long distances based on complex water management systems constrained by legal, economic, and social frameworks that evolve with time. In such regions, the water supply is often derived in a climate dramatically different from where the water is diverted to meet agricultural demand. The existing drought indices which rely on local climate do not portray the complexities of the economic and legal constraints on water delivery. Nor do these indices quantify the shortages that occur in drought. Therefore, this research proposes a methodological approach to define surface water shortages in irrigated agricultural systems using a newly developed index termed the Surface Water Delivery Index (SWDI). The SWDI can be used to uniformly quantify surface water deficits/shortages at the end of the irrigation season. Results from the SWDI clearly illustrate how water shortages in droughts identified by the existing indices (e.g., SPI and PDSI) vary strongly both within and between basins. Some surface water entities are much more prone to water shortages than other entities based both on their source of water supply and water right portfolios.     

Energy,food, and land — The ecological traps of humankind

Humans’ superiority over all other organisms on earth rests on five main foundations: command of fire requiring fuel; controlled production of food and other biotic substances; utilization of metals and other non-living materials for construction and appliances; technically determined, urban-oriented living standard; economically and culturally regulated societal organization. The young discipline of ecology has revealed that the progress of civilization and technology attained, and being further pursued by humankind, and generally taken for granted and permanent, is leading into ecological traps. This metaphor circumscribes ecological situations where finite resources are being exhausted or rendered non-utilizable without a realistic prospect of restitution. Energy, food and land are the principal, closely interrelated traps; but the absolutely decisive resource in question is land whose increasing scarcity is totally underrated. Land is needed for fulfilling growing food demands, for producing renewable energy in the post-fossil and post-nuclear era, for maintaining other ecosystem services, for urban-industrial uses, transport, material extraction, refuse deposition, but also for leisure, recreation, and nature conservation. All these needs compete for land, food and non-food biomass production moreover for good soils that are scarcer than ever. We are preoccupied with fighting climate change and loss of biodiversity; but these are minor problems we could adapt to, albeit painfully, and their solution will fail if we are caught in the interrelated traps of energy, food, and land scarcity. Land and soils, finite and irreproducible resources, are the key issues we have to devote our work to, based on careful ecological information, planning and design for proper uses and purposes. The article concludes with a short reflection on economy and competition as general driving forces, and on the role and reputation of today’s ecology. Updated version of the keynote lecture presented at the EcoSummit 2007 in Beijing, China, May 24. The article is gratefully dedicated to the memory of my late colleague and friend Frank B. Golley.     

A study of climate change and anthropogenic impacts in West Africa

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: During the last decades ecological conditions in West Africa have dramatically changed. Very evident is the climate change, which has resulted in a southward shift of the climate zones, e.g. a spread of the desert (Sahara) into the Sahelian zone. After the drought period of the early 1970s and 1980s, livestock density increased resulting in an intensification of grazing pressure. This anthropogenous phenomenon leads to similar landscape changes as those caused by the climate. Only very few investigations exist on vegetation dynamics, climate changes and land use changes for the Sudanian zone. The paper presents data on changes of precipitation, of land use, of the geographical range of species, and of the composition of the flora, which have to be regarded as proofs of the sahelisation of large areas of the Sudanian zone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Area of investigation: Burkina Faso. Precipitation data analysis: precipitation data from 67 stations; time series analysis and geo-statistical spatial interpolation. Analysis of land use change: Landsat satellite MSS and ETM+ data, acquired for two different dates between 1972 and 2001 analyzed by the software ERDAS/IMAGINE version 8.6 and ArcView 3.2 with the Spatial Analyst extension. Intensive ground truthing (160 training areas). Inventory of the flora: based on the data of the Herbarium Senckenbergianum (FR) in Frankfurt, Germany, and of the herbarium of the university of Ouagadougou (OUA), Burkina Faso, as well as on various investigations on the vegetation of Burkina Faso carried out in the years 1990 to 2005 by the team of the senior author. Life form analysis of the flora: based on the inventory of permanent plots. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Precipitation: Remarkable latitudinal shift of isohyets towards the South translates to a general reduction of average rainfall in great parts of the country. The last decade (1990-1999) shows some improvement, however, the more humid conditions of the 1950's and 1960's are not yet established again. Landcover change: In the study region the extent of arable fields and young fallows increased during the last 30 years from 580 km(2) in 1972 to 2870 km(2) in 2001. This means an average land cover conversion rate of 0.9% per year for the 6 departments considered. Change of the distribution of Sahelian and Sudanian species: Several species, mentioned in older literature as strictly Sahelian, today also occur in the Sudanian zone. Parallel to the spread of former strictly Sahelian species into the Sudanian zone, some former Sahelo-Sudanian species have withdrawn from the Sahel. Changes of the life form spectra of the flora: Considering their life form spectra, the flora of heavily grazed and of protected areas in the Sudanian zone show great differences. On areas intensively grazed the percentage of therophytes is evidently higher than on protected areas. Just the opposite is true for the phanerophytes. Their percentage is higher on the protected area than on the grazed zones. At the first glance, it is obvious to link the changes in flora and vegetation with the climate changes that have occurred during the last five decades (decrease of annual precipitation). However, not only climatic conditions have changed, but also population has increased, the percentage of land intensively used for agriculture and pasturing has increased and the time for soil regeneration today is much shorter than it was some decades ago. Thus, the landscape of the Sudanian zone has become a more Sahelian character. A comparison of the flora of an intensively used area of the Sudanian zone with that of a protected area shows a remarkable change in the life form spectra. The spectrum of the intensively used area is almost identical with that of the typical Sahelian flora. This comparison shows that the anthropogenic influence plays a greater role in the sahelisation of the Sudanian zone than the climate change. CONCLUSION: Climate change and anthropogenic influence both, lead to a sahelisation of landscape and flora. Thus in many parts of the Sudanian zone of West Africa sahelisation phenomena will remain and even increase independently from the reestablishment of the more humid climate conditions of the 1950ies. RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: In order to maintain some parts of the characteristic Sudanian landscape with its characteristic flora and vegetation, the number and size of protected areas should be augmented. For all protected areas it has to be ensured, that protection is reality, i.e. respected an understood by local people, not only fiction. As long as the enlargement of intensively used areas continues the sahelisation of flora, vegetation and landscape will continue too.     

关于危险化学品重大危险源分级的研究

在重大危险源死亡半径分级法的基础上,引入经济密度和人员密度,并给出不同情况下相应的计算方法。然后以＂最大危险原则＂和＂概率求和原则＂为财产损失和人员伤亡计算的原则,以《重大危险源分级标准（征求意见稿）》中的分级标准为标准,对危险化学品重大危险源进行分级,这样进行危险源分级时,可将周边环境中可能波及到的财产损失和人员伤亡考虑进去,使得危险化学品重大危险源分级考虑的因素更加全面,分级的结果和实际情况更加吻合。本文的研究结果对危险化学品重大危险源分级具有一定的参考价值。     

航空维修差错模式及差错成因的灰色关联分析

提出一种基于HFACS-ME框架和灰色关联分析法的航空维修差错模式和差错成因之间关系的分析方法。利用该方法分别从"模式—成因"和"成因—模式"2个方向,以"技能差错"和"身体状态差"为例,对差错模式和差错成因之间的关系进行分析,得到影响"技能差错"的主要差错成因依次为空间狭窄、培训不足、工具损坏、身体状态差、精神状态差、空间阻碍,以及"身体状态差"主要影响的差错模式为记忆差错、决策差错、技能差错。结果表明,灰色关联分析法对航空维修差错模式和差错成因之间关系的分析是有效的、可行的。     

我国化学品分类和标签与GHS的差距分析

为明确我国现阶段实施GHS存在的问题,促使我国化学品分类和标签满足GHS要求。研究了我国化学品分类标准、标签标准与GHS存在的差距。发现了《危险化学品名录》没有分类标准,并且未涵盖GHS爆炸物中的不稳定爆炸物和1.2项、1.5项、1.6项爆炸物,易燃气溶胶,以及除急性毒性以外的健康危害和环境危害的化学品,剧毒化学品、有毒物质存在不同监管部门分类标准不统一,现行多套危险化学品标签标准问题。提出了在《危险化学品名录》中明确规定危险性分类标准;统一剧毒化学品、有毒品分类标准;在相关的危险化学品法规中明确规定危险化学品标签应符合的标准。