Distribution of Platinum group elements in road dust in Beijing metropolitan area, China

Dust samples collected from the Beijing metropolitan area (China) were evaluated to determine the distribution and the concentration of platinum group elements (PGEs). The dust particles that were smaller than 100 mesh size fraction (150 μm) were analyzed after aqua regia digestion. Concentrations[RL2] of Pt, Rh, and Pd were found to be between 3.96 and 356.3 ng/g, 2.76 and 97.11 ng/g, and 0.1 and 124.9 ng/g, respectively, in the urban areas of Beijing, whereas for the background samples collected from the suburbs of Beijing, the concentration of Pt, Pd, and Rh were very low and ranged from 0.1 to 0.9 ng/g, 0.5 to 1.4 ng/g, and 0.8 to 2.2 ng/g, respectively. The[RL3] distributions of PGEs in road dust were an accurate reflection of the levels of pollution and were found to match with the local traffic conditions. A strong positive correlation was established among all the elements found in road dust. This suggests that emissions of abraded fragments from vehicle exhausts may be the source of the high concentration of Pt, Rh, and Pd in road dust along the main roads of Beijing.     

国外乡村公路交通安全水平

收集和整理了美国、加拿大、英国、澳大利亚等国关于乡村公路交通安全的管理和研究成果;归纳国外乡村公路的定义;分析乡村公路在交通事故数量、伤亡人数、死伤率等方面的基本情况。笔者通过对国外乡村公路交通安全水平研究,有如下3个结论:第一,目前还没有一个被普遍接受的乡村公路的定义;第二,乡村公路的交通事故后果比城市道路严重得多;第三,乡村公路交通安全水平提高的速度比城市道路慢;吸取国外乡村公路交通安全管理经验,为我国农村公路交通安全水平的改善提供有益的借鉴。     

Shrinking Tropical Forests, Human Agents of Change, and Conservation Policy

Abstract:  Human agents of landscape transformation in the tropics affect forests differently as the forests decline in size. Five agents of change—road builders, corporate concession holders, community forest managers, park advocates, and urban consumers—have different effects on large forests in remote tropical regions than they do on remnant forests in settled agricultural regions. Because forests vary so much in size across tropical regions, these differences in the effects of agents on forests have important implications for regional conservation efforts. To make these implications explicit, I compared the effects of the five agents in regions with large forests with their effects in regions with small forests. The comparisons indicated that, as forests declined in size, new roads no longer destroyed forests, corporate loggers left the forests, community forest managers became more effective, parks became less feasible as a means of conservation, and urban consumers initiated tree planting. My results suggest that awareness about the changing effects of humans on landscapes with shrinking forests can serve as a useful tool in formulating regionally appropriate policies for conserving tropical forests.     

城市典型高架复合道路交通噪声污染模拟及防治对策

与一般城市道路相比,城市高架复合道路通行能力大、行车速度高、车辆行驶状态复杂,交通噪声污染极为突出。选取深圳市典型的高架复合道路——春风高架和爱国高架进行实地监测,同时运用SoundPLAN软件模拟其噪声污染现状与安装声屏障后的降噪效果。根据监测模拟结果,从合理进行道路规划、装设声屏障和铺设低噪声路面等方面提出高架复合道路噪声污染控制的对策建议。     

美国国家公园路百年发展历程及借鉴

国家公园路是美国国家公园的重要组成部分,道路与国家公园融为一体,是国家公园的特色和品牌形象。国家公园路不仅是国家公园的重要交通方式,其本身就是旅游吸引物和旅游目的地。对于游客来说,在国家公园路上行驶就是游览国家公园。国家公园路的发展体现了道路工程与美学、哲学、游憩、生态等多学科的融合,促进了道路从单一交通功能向游憩、景观、文化和保护等复合功能转变,突出地展示了绚丽的景观和充满想象的工程线形,也展示了在保护无价的自然和文化资源的同时如何提供多元化的游憩机会,以实现环境保护与游客公众之间的平衡。本文从相关概念、发展背景、建设理念、发展举措、管理体制、资金资助、建设实践等方面,对百余年来美国国家公园路的发展历程进行了深入解析,对发展经验启示进行总结,以期从本质上去把握国家公园路发展规律,并由此提出了中国国家公园路发展之借鉴。这些研究对于蓬勃发展的中国国家公园、国家公园路,以及旅游风景道及旅游公路来说,都具有十分重要的理论价值与实践意义。     

The costs of avoiding environmental impacts from shale‐gas surface infrastructure

Growing energy demand has increased the need to manage conflicts between energy production and the environment. As an example, shale‐gas extraction requires substantial surface infrastructure, which fragments habitats, erodes soils, degrades freshwater systems, and displaces rare species. Strategic planning of shale‐gas infrastructure can reduce trade‐offs between economic and environmental objectives, but the specific nature of these trade‐offs is not known. We estimated the cost of avoiding impacts from land‐use change on forests, wetlands, rare species, and streams from shale‐energy development within leaseholds. We created software for optimally siting shale‐gas surface infrastructure to minimize its environmental impacts at reasonable construction cost. We visually assessed sites before infrastructure optimization to test whether such inspection could be used to predict whether impacts could be avoided at the site. On average, up to 38% of aggregate environmental impacts of infrastructure could be avoided for 20% greater development costs by spatially optimizing infrastructure. However, we found trade‐offs between environmental impacts and costs among sites. In visual inspections, we often distinguished between sites that could be developed to avoid impacts at relatively low cost (29%) and those that could not (20%). Reductions in a metric of aggregate environmental impact could be largely attributed to potential displacement of rare species, sedimentation, and forest fragmentation. Planners and regulators can estimate and use heterogeneous trade‐offs among development sites to create industry‐wide improvements in environmental performance and do so at reasonable costs by, for example, leveraging low‐cost avoidance of impacts at some sites to offset others. This could require substantial effort, but the results and software we provide can facilitate the process.     

Perceived values of benefits from Mississippi's forestry Best Management Practices

Numerous studies in the United States have shown that, in addition to accomplishing their primary objective of preventing or reducing non-point source (NPS) pollution, silvicultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) provide additional direct and indirect benefits. These benefits are valuable to a host of forestry-related groups because they improve forest habitat, improve the public's perception of the timber industry, and increase the overall value of the timber asset. In an effort to gauge the perceived value that forestry-related groups place on BMPs, Mississippi non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners (n=63), forestry consultants (n=30), and timber industry professionals (n=8) were surveyed using a combination of in-person, telephone interviews, and mail surveys in spring 2001. Each group was asked to rank 35 potential benefits from 1 to 5 (1 being least beneficial; 5 being most beneficial) according to their perceived value of the benefit. Results showed little variation in the overall mean response for all benefits among groups. In general, all groups assigned a ranking of average, more beneficial, or most beneficial to 31 of 35 (88%) potential benefits. Results indicated that, although these groups may have differing perceptions of the value of some benefits, all have a largely positive perception of the potential benefits from BMPs.     

城市路边沉积物中Pb、Cu污染调查与评价

对连云港市商业区路边沉积物中Pb和Cu的含量及污染程度进行了调查。结果表明,连云港市商业区路边沉积物中Pb的算术平均值为97．24mg／kg。是我国A层土壤算术平均值的3．7倍,沉积物中Cu的算术平均值为49．99mg／kg。是我国A层土壤算术平均值的2．24倍;沉积物中Cu含量分布变异性比Pb含量高。地累积指数的评价结果表明,沉积物中Pb比Cu污染严重。     

新冠肺炎疫情期间河北省国省道机动车交通量及大气污染物排放量变化分析

本研究分别利用2019年、2020年第一季度河北省国省道交通调查站监测数据,计算了两年国省道机动车逐日交通量及大气污染物排放量,分析了新冠肺炎疫情期间国省道机动车大气污染物排放的变化情况.与2019年相比,2020年第一季度河北省国省道交通量同比下降38.1%,单位公里CO、VOCs、NO_x、PM_2.5、PM₁₀排放强度分别同比下降31.3%、32.7%、19.1%、20.2%、20.0%.从不同公路类型来看,2020年第一季度,普通公路交通量持续下降,国家高速和省级高速交通量在3月出现回升,分别同比增长5.6%、37.2%,且货车增速高于客车.2020年春运期间,客车、货车总交通量分别为去年同期的44.2%、51.0%,国省道CO、VOCs、NO_x、PM_2.5、PM₁₀的排放强度分别是去年同期的51.4%、50.6%、52.6%、52.3%、52.3%.从2月14日开始,客车、货车交通量开始逐步回升,到3月底,国省道总交通量恢复到了去年同期的46.6%,其中,客车是去年同期的34.5%,货车是70.3%.     

Effectiveness of BMPS in Reducing Sediment From Unpaved Roads in the Stillwater Creek,Oklahoma Watershed1

Turton, Donald J., Michael D. Smolen, and Elaine Stebler, 2009. Effectiveness of BMPs in Reducing Sediment From Unpaved Roads in the Stillwater Creek, Oklahoma Watershed. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 45(6):1343‐1351. Abstract: Erosion from rural unpaved roads is thought to be an important source of sediment in sediment‐impaired streams in Oklahoma and other locations. However, no direct measurements of sediment yields from rural unpaved roads were previously available for Oklahoma. Four rural unpaved road segments in the Stillwater Creek Watershed were instrumented in a paired watershed design to measure sediment yields to streams before and after the installation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). One segment of each pair remained under current management to serve as a control. The second segment received BMPs after a 1‐year calibration period. One BMP consisted of widening the ditches, re‐shaping ditches and cutslopes, putting a proper crown on the road surface, and vegetating disturbed areas with grass. The other BMP consisted of creating a proper crown on the road bed, applying a geo‐synthetic fabric to the road bed and surfacing with 127 mm of crusher run gravel containing 12‐15% fines to serve as a binder. Road segment sediment yields for individual storms varied, depending on factors such as rainfall amount and intensity. During the pre‐BMP year, storm sediment yields ranged from 0 to 4.3 Mg on one pair of segments and from 0 to 2.8 Mg on the other. The storm sediment yields and annual yields were in the same order of magnitude as sediment yields from unpaved rural or forest roads reported in other studies. Sediment yields were significantly reduced on both segments by the installation of BMPs, approximately 80% on one segment pair and 20% on the other. The average sediment yield (across the four segments) for the pre‐BMP year was 138 Mg/ha or 120 Mg/km of road. By extrapolating these average yields across the 479 km of unpaved roads in the Stillwater Creek Watershed and comparing it to estimated sediment yields for other land uses obtained from other sources, we conclude that unpaved roads may contribute up to 35% of the total sediment load to Stillwater Creek.