Developing a Standardized Water Quality Index for Evaluating Surface Water Quality1

Abstract: There is a significant need for a science‐based approach to interpret water‐monitoring data and to facilitate the rapid transfer of information to water resource managers and the general public. The water quality Index (WQI) is defined as a single numeric score that describes the surface water quality condition at a particular time and location. The objective of this paper is to describe the WQI concept and the approach for developing an ecoregion‐specific standardized WQI that meets the needs described above. The premise of the proposed WQI is based on categorizing scientifically documented aquatic life responses to changes in instream water chemistry. The method uses an aggregated procedure that matches the entire range of standardized probable biological responses to standardized narrative water quality evaluation categories and standardized rank score categories. The calculation of WQI and decision‐making process are performed within an Excel spreadsheet software program. The article includes examples of the proposed WQI applications that could enhance effective water resource management and facilitate timely communication of water quality conditions to water resource managers and the general public.     

COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE ENGINEERING DESIGNS1

ABSTRACT: Procedures are presented for comparing and evaluating alternative engineering designs for a particular water resources project. By using certain aspects of fuzzy set theory, it is possible to introduce both quantitative and qualitative considerations into the decisionmaking process. In addition, the viewpoints of the various interest groups involved with the water resources development can be realistically incorporated by the evaluation techniques for the alternative designs. Methods are given for eliminating undesirable alternatives and thereby obtaining a reduced set of possible feasible solutions to the problem. Because of the flexibility of the evaluation methods, the viable alternatives should not only satisfy economical, technical. environmental and other types of constraints, but these possible solutions should be politically feasible as well. A method is formulated for checking the sensitivity of the feasible results with respect to the factors that are considered in the analysis.     

Newspaper response to flood and erosion hazards on the North Lake Erie shore

The study is primarily concerned with newspaper responses to flooding and erosion associated with Great Lakes high water in 1952–1953 and 1972–1974. Underlying the research is a general interest in informing the public more widely on choices available in resource and environmental decision making.     

Blast wave clearing behavior for positive and negative phases

The purpose of the research was to improve prediction of response of buildings to blast waves by including the negative phase and considering clearing of both positive and negative phases. Commonly used structural design practices, which trace their origins to military design manuals, often ignore the negative phase as well as positive phase clearing. For high explosive threats, this approach is conservative in most circumstances. However, negative phase clearing had not previously been studied for blast waves, and the implications for structural response had not been evaluated. This paper presents results of modeling negative phase blast clearing behavior for a typical blast wave and discusses the differences from positive phase clearing. The implications of including positive and negative phase clearing in building blast damage analysis are also investigated through single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) analyses.Blast waves from explosion sources like a vapor cloud explosion (VCE), pressure vessel burst or high explosive exhibit both positive and negative phases, and the relative magnitude of the positive and negative phases varies among explosion sources and the specific circumstances of each source. A fully reflected blast wave is produced if an incident blast wave were to strike an infinitely tall and wide wall in a normal orientation. Both the positive and negative phases of the blast wave are enhanced by the reflection process. However, when an incident blast wave strikes a wall of finite size in a normal orientation, rarefaction waves are created at the edges of the wall, and the rarefactions sweep down from the roof and inward from sides. The rarefaction waves result in a clearing effect for both the positive and negative phases.Clearing relieves some of the applied blast load on the reflected wall for the positive phase. However, this is not always the case for the negative phase. As shown by the results presented in this paper, clearing may either relieve or enhance the applied negative phase blast load, depending on the duration of the blast wave and the wall dimensions.The impact of negative phase clearing on structural response for generic building components was also investigated. Nonlinear SDOF methods were used to characterize response in terms of peak positive and negative displacements. It was found that the influence of the negative phase is significant and the peak structural response can occur during negative (outward) displacement.     

武汉市城市化过程中的空气质量响应研究

以武汉市2000-2013年的城市化水平和空气质量状况数据为基础,运用主成分分析法和目标比率模型构建综合评价体系,并用多元回归模型进行检验,探究城市化过程中的空气环境质量响应特征.结果表明:1)2000年以来,武汉城市化进入稳增长的快速抬升阶段,空气污染综合指数总体变化平稳,2013年有变坏的趋势;2)不同类型的污染物对城市化水平具有不同的响应规律和影响程度,SO2为倒“U”型,表明随着城市发展,SO2浓度得到控制并呈下降趋势;NO2为“U”型,近9年来NO2浓度不减反增,对空气环境污染严重;而PM10及空气质量综合水平表现为倒“N”型特征,表明现阶段空间环境呈现污染加重的趋势;3)城市化快速扩张过程中的基础设施建设、建筑扬尘,汽车尾气排放、工业烟尘等是影响武汉空间环境质量的主要因素,需有针对性地加强城市空气环境管理.     

火灾中液化气储罐热响应CFD模拟的UDF程序设计

为了降低火灾环境下储罐内部介质热响应及储罐失效试验研究的成本和风险,更好地为储罐事故的预测预防提供模拟依据,利用Fluent 12.0软件对密闭容器内部介质的传热传质过程进行模拟,给出了内部介质在受热和冷却条件下相变的控制方程;通过考虑内部介质气化热随温度的变化及饱和温度与区域单元压力之间的关系,编写了内部介质在受热和冷却条件下质量和能量源项的用户自定义函数(UDF);通过对部分参数进行简化,分别给出了喷射火和池火条件下丙烷储罐热响应模拟的结果,并与试验结果进行了对比.结果表明:储罐热响应各主要参数(内部介质温度、壁面温度,储罐内部压力)的误差在喷射火条件下低于15％,在池火条件下低于12.4％.这表明模拟所需源项UDF正确,可以用于现实储罐热响应的模拟.     

微波诱导热解法制备落叶吸附剂及其工艺优化

采用微波诱导热解法制备低成本落叶吸附剂,以实现落叶的资源化利用.以碘吸附值为响应值,采用响应面分析法研究了微波诱导热解法制备落叶吸附剂的工艺条件.结果表明,热解时间与微波功率之间存在交互作用,当热解功率增加时,可适当缩短热解时间.落叶吸附剂的最佳制备工艺条件为:热解时间4.04 min,微波功率488.72W,氯化锌质量分数27％.落叶吸附剂以微孔吸附为主,BJH孔径分布较窄,孔容最高峰对应的孔径在1.9 nm左右,Langmuir比表面积为769.61 m2/g.     

Research on transesterification parameters for producing plant sterols with supercritical methanol

The supercritical fluid method, regarded as a type of individual production process in the course of preparing plant sterols, has become a promising technology, which possesses advantages of high conversion rate without any pretreatment and need of a catalyst. This study examined the reaction process of the deodorizer distillate (DOD), which mainly included the direct transesterification of DOD to convert into free sterols. The effects of the ratio of methanol to DOD, reaction temperature and time on transesterification were studied. Furthermore, the interactions between different factors were also assessed using the response surface methodology. The optimal conditions obtained were as follows: reaction temperature 553 K, reaction time 80 min, and CH₃OH: DOD = 25:1 (mass ratio). Under these conditions, 36.42% sterol concentration was obtained, which is significantly higher in comparison with the initial sterols’ concentration in raw material (22.45%).     

典型喀斯特小流域水文水化学过程对旱季暴雨的响应

通过定位监测和样品跟踪采集,在旱季对喀斯特小流域连续20天无前期降雨的一场暴雨(累计降雨量64mm)水文水化学过程进行了动态监测,并分析了相关的影响因素。结果表明,小降雨事件(8.5mm)未能引起溪流水位、电导率及温度的明显变化,而当累计降雨量达到35.5mm后溪流水开始响应。此后,溪流水文水化学参数对降雨快速响应,除硝态氮外,电导率(EC)、δ18 O、Ca2+迅速降至最低值,雨水稀释作用对其水化学变化起主要作用。通过对溪流新旧水比例进行划分发现,降雨前期和后期,溪流以旧水补给为主,而在水位快速上涨阶段,新水比例达到34%左右。两次降雨过程中,在溪流水水位升高的情况下,水体中硝态氮浓度仍然表现出高于雨前浓度的趋势。该研究为该区旱季小流域水资源利用和污染物防治方面提供了一定理论依据。     

河口盐沼植物分布对有效光合辐射的响应

对东滩植被带光量子通量密度的调查研究表明:互花米草带与海三棱藨草带光量子通量密度没有显著性差异,其值分别为1 570和1 556μmol/(m2·s)。光照对两物种的生长、繁殖等植物行为的影响只取决于其对光照的利用能力和效率;在互花米草和海三棱藨草混生带,到达互花米草和海三棱藨草的光量子通量密度之间存在显著差异(P0.05),互花米草对海三棱藨草的遮荫效应达63%,表明互花米草对海三棱藨草具有强的遮荫作用。光照不足严重影响海三棱藨草的生长,在混生带,海三棱藨草生长速率降低,种群密度和生物量减少,植株高度增加。因此,互花米草对海三棱藨草的遮荫作用,抑制了海三棱藨草在中潮滩的更新过程,因而也是造成海三棱藨草生境丧失的重要原因之一。