Development of a database of landfills and dump sites in Asian countries

This article briefly summarizes the limited landfill/dump information available for developing Asian countries, and introduces a database that aims to close the information gap through collecting and sharing data. Developing nations usually try to adapt the systems and technologies of developed countries. However, this approach may not be appropriate because of differences in socioeconomic, cultural, and political backgrounds. Many waste management projects fail after operations are transferred to local authorities owing to a lack of funds to cover the high operational expenses. Some successful projects have been adapted to local conditions, although the information on these successes is not often available for others. Nevertheless, only a few developing countries even have a national inventory of their dumps/landfills, and decision-makers have little awareness of the dumps and their impacts. The database introduced here will gather landfill/dump information from each country and organize it in a comparable format, and it will then be published on the Internet.     

煤层底板采动导水破坏深度计算的神经网络方法

在综合分析影响煤层底板采动导水破坏深度因素的基础上 ,应用人工神经网络方法 ,建立了底板破坏深度的计算模型。该模型利用现场观测资料作为学习训练样本和测试样本 ,对模型的测算结果、理论计算值和实测值进行了对比分析。结果表明 :用神经网络方法计算底板破坏深度考虑的因素更加全面 ,结果更接近于实际。笔者研究的计算模型和测算方法 ,为承压水上安全采煤决策提供了科学依据。     

Evaluation of leachate composition by multivariate data analysis (MVDA)

Landfills generate emissions in the form of gas and leachate. The emissions are often measured within monitoring programmes. It is likely that the requirements of such monitoring programmes can be extended in the future, particularly in light of the increased interest in specific organic substances. Multivariate data analyses (MVDA) have been used to evaluate the possibility of predicting the content of specific organic substances from more common analyses. The results indicate that this is possible for a specific leachate. MVDA can also be used to reduce the number of analyses performed within existing monitoring programmes while retaining information about all the variables formerly included in the programmes.     

Epilithic Diatoms in an Alpine Lake (Traunsee,Austria) Affected by Soda and Salt Mining Industries

Traunsee, a 191 m deep Alpine lake in Austria, is affected by industrial tailings from the soda and salt mining industries since 1883. In 1998 littoral water chloride concentrations ranged between 40 and 85 mg L^-1 and the highest conductivity was 560 S cm^-1, which is almost double as high as the values reported from the two nearby reference lakes. Chloride concentrations increased towards the location of the industrial salt and soda emission into the lake. Analogously to the chloride gradient, the epilithic littoral diatom flora changes towards the waste inlet. Shifts in the species percentages towards the emission source, a high percentage of taxa with large conductivity tolerances, the presence of a small Achnanthes minutissima Kützing morphotype, and occurrences of taxa focused at habitats of higher electrolyte content, indicate subtle impacts on the epilithic diatom flora. An analysis of the seasonal succession of the epilithic diatoms at the waste inlet compared to a lake intern reference site, reveals that only during the late summer period in 1998 the diatom assemblage at the waste inlet became significantly different, indicating seasonally restricted effects of the industrial emissions.     

Evaluation of groundwater and soil pollution in a landfill area using electrical resistivity imaging survey

Landfills are sources of groundwater and soil pollution due to the production of leachate and its migration through refuse. This study was conducted in order to determine the extent of groundwater and soil pollution within and around the landfill of Seri Petaling located in the State of Selangor, Malaysia. The condition of nearby surface water was also determined. An electrical resistivity imaging survey was used to investigate the leachate production within the landfill. Groundwater geochemistry was carried out and chemical analysis of water samples was conducted upstream and downstream of the landfill. Surface water was also analyzed in order to determine its quality. Soil chemical analysis was performed on soil samples taken from different locations within and around the landfill in the vadose zone (unsaturated zone) and below the water table (in the soil saturated zone). The resistivity image along line L–L₁ indicated the presence of large zones of decomposed waste bodies saturated with highly conducting leachate. Analysis of trace elements indicated their presence in very low concentrations and did not reflect any sign of heavy metal pollution of ground and surface water or of soil. Major ions represented by Na, K, and Cl were found in anomalous concentrations in the groundwater of the downstream bore hole, where they are 99.1%, 99.2%, and 99.4%, respectively, higher compared to the upstream bore hole. Electrical conductivity (EC) was also found in anomalous concentration downstream. Ca and Mg ions represent the water hardness (which is comparatively high downstream). There is a general trend of pollution towards the downstream area. Sulfates (SO₄) and nitrates (NO₃) are found in the area in low concentrations, even below the WHO standards for drinking water, but are significantly higher in the surface water compared to the groundwater. Phosphate (PO₄) and nitrite (NO₂), although present in low levels, are significantly higher at the downstream. There is no significant difference in the amount of fluoride (F) in the different locations. In the soil vadose zone, heavy metals were found to be in their typical normal ranges and within the background concentrations. Soil exchangeable bases were significantly higher in the soil saturated zone compared to the vadose zone, and no significant difference was obtained in the levels of inorganic pollutants. With the exception of Cd, the concentration ranges of all trace elements (Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb, and Ni) of Seri Petaling landfill soils were below the upper limits of baseline concentrations published from different sources.     

21世纪中国西部矿产资源开发的战略思考

作为全国资源的富集区,西部矿业开发要在21世纪地区经济发展中作出应有的贡献,不仅需要一个长期的开发过程,而且更需要一个明智而有效的发展战略,从西部地区资源、环境、区位条件及长期实践出发,认真把握未来市场变化、积极推动精品为先发展,努力调整地区产品结构和合理组织空间生产应成为21世纪西部矿产资源开发战略的四项基本内容,上述战略的实施不仅有束于资源的保障、中央政府的认呆和资金与技术的支持,而且有赖于整个社会环保意识的加强。     

Information Management System for Site Remediation Efforts

/ Environmental regulatory agencies are responsible for protecting human health and the environment in their constituencies. Their responsibilities include the identification, evaluation, and cleanup of contaminated sites. Leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) constitute a major source of subsurface and groundwater contamination. A significant portion of a regulatory body's efforts may be directed toward the management of UST-contaminated sites. In order to manage remedial sites effectively, vast quantities of information must be maintained, including analytical dataon chemical contaminants, remedial design features, and performance details. Currently, most regulatory agencies maintain such information manually. This makes it difficult to manage the data effectively. Some agencies have introduced automated record-keeping systems. However, the ad hoc approach in these endeavors makes it difficult to efficiently analyze, disseminate, and utilize the data. This paper identifies the information requirements for UST-contaminated site management at the Waste Cleanup Section of the Department of Environmental Resources Management in Dade County, Florida. It presents a viable design for an information management system to meet these requirements. The proposed solution is based on a back-end relational database management system with relevant tools for sophisticated data analysis and data mining. The database is designed with all tables in the third normal form to ensure data integrity, flexible access, and efficient query processing. In addition to all standard reports required by the agency, the system provides answers to ad hoc queries that are typically difficult to answer under the existing system. The database also serves as a repository of information for a decision support system to aid engineering design and risk analysis. The system may be integrated with a geographic information system for effective presentation and dissemination of spatial data.     

Locational Probability for a Dammed, Urbanizing Stream: Salt River, Arizona, USA

/ Data from historical aerial photographs analyzed with a GIS show that river channel change on the Salt River in the Phoenix metropolitan area of central Arizona has been driven by large-scale regional flood events and local human activities. Mapping of functional surfaces such as low-flow channels, high-flow channels, islands, bars attached to channel banks, and engineered surfaces shows that during the period from 1935 to 1997, the relative areal coverage of these surfaces has changed. Flood events have caused general changes in sinuosity of the low-flow channel, but islands have remained remarkably consistent in location and size, while channel-side bars have waxed and waned. The most important determinant of local channel form and process is sand and gravel mining, which in some reaches occupies more than 70% of the active channel area. The general location of mining is closely related to the location of the moving urban fringe, which serves as a market for sand and gravel during construction. Quantitative spatial analysis of imagery supplemented by field mapping shows that for each location within the general channel area, it is possible to specify a probability of encountering a low-flow channel or other fluvial features. Maps showing the distribution of these probabilities of occurrence reveal the most probable location and configuration of the channel as it occurred in the past. Some reaches have the low-flow channel located persistently within a limited area as a result of bedrock or sinuosity controls, but other reaches dominated by flow separation or shallow gradient have almost no persistence in channel location from one flood to another.     

发电设备可靠性研究现状与发展

通过对国内外发电设备可靠性研究的分析,提出了我国发电设备可靠性研究大体经历了可靠性指标统计分析、传统可靠性模型分析以及电力市场下可靠性分析3个阶段。在比较各阶段研究特点的基础上,指出了建立发电设备可靠性成本与可靠性效益之间的平衡,设定反映二者关系的新的可靠性指标是电力市场下发电设备可靠性研究的新特点。笔者认为,所提出了数据挖掘技术,是发电设备可靠性管理实现实时化、智能化与预测化的一种有效方法。     

湘中地区恩口煤矿老采区复采的水害防治研究

湘中地区碳酸盐岩广泛分布,其中岩溶的发育受岩性、地貌、水文、构造运动等诸多因素的控制,主要分布在地下水排泄区,给煤炭资源的开发带来了严重水患。针对恩口煤矿水害问题,笔者在翔实的野外调查基础上,通过分析矿区水文地质条件、矿井水文地质特征;总结以往矿山防治水经验和教训;探讨今后老采区复采的防治水害方向和重点;认为壶天河的山口冲段、小碧河的西坪段、涟水河的杨家冲段等为重点防区,对河床铺底强度不可靠的部位应该重新加强铺底。