Assessing national sustainable development strategies: Strengthening the links to operational policy

At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, it was agreed that all countries should develop a national sustainable develop‐ment strategy (NSDS) as a key component of implementing the goals of Agenda 21. Progress has been limited. Few countries have established a formal strategy, and many of the strategies that exist have been only partially implemented. This article proposes an approach that addresses the need to improve existing strategic planning mechanisms. The approach is based on a periodic assessment of existing systems, to evaluate the extent to which they incorporate NSDS principles, and identify areas to be strengthened. The article describes an assessment methodology, presents examples of its use, and discusses ways in which current approaches to NSDS may be complemented by continual review and improvement of existing planning processes.     

Environmental planning,ecosystem science,and ecosystem approaches for integrating environment and development

Currently popular concepts such as sustainable development and sustainability seek the integration of environment and development planning. However, there is little evidence that this integration is occurring in either mainstream development planning or environmental planning. This is a function of the history, philosophies, and evolved roles of both. A brief review of the experience and results of mainstream planning, environmental planning, and ecosystem science suggests there is much in past scientific and professional practice that is relevant to the goal of integrated planning for environment and development, but still such commonly recommended reforms as systems and multidisciplinary approaches, institutional integration, and participatory, goal-oriented processes are rarely achieved. “Ecosystem approaches,” as developed and applied in ecology, human ecology, environmental planning, anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines, may provide a more transdisciplinary route to successful integration of environment and development. Experience with ecosystem approaches is reviewed, their advantages and disadvantages are discussed, and they are compared to traditional urban and regional planning, environmental planning, and ecosystem science approaches. Ultimately a synthesis of desirable characteristics for a framework to integrate environment and development planning is presented as a guide for future work and a criterion for evaluating existing programs.     

超补偿理论及其在虫害控制中的意义

本文较为系统地阐述了作物对虫害损伤的超补偿理论,表明超补偿广泛存在于各种作物中,并对超补偿所需条件、基本原因以及与害虫控制的关系作进一步讨论。     

“白色农业”与“三色农业”兴起及中国农业产业化方向

本文从白色农业与三色农业概念入手,阐述了白色农业的创新意义,提出了我国农业产业化的战略构想。     

The impact of global warming on winter tourism and skiing: a regionalised model for Austrian snow conditions

Possible climate change will modify snow-cover depth and change the characteristics of winter tourism and skiing districts. Our model describes seasonal snow-cover depth related to altitude in six Alpine climate regions as the best fit of all snow stations. Data cover 30 winter seasons (November to April values) from 1965 to 1995. We modified the data according to a scenario of temperature and precipitation change (2 °C warming, no precipitation change) and achieve a new simulated snow-cover depth. The indicators MARP (mean altitude of resident population) and MASPSL (mean altitude of starting point of ski lifts) serve as references for “critical altitudes” of Austrian districts. A warming implies a reduction of snow in all districts, but the loss is overproportional in lower altitudes. The direction of economic impacts is clear – income losses and adaptation costs – but magnitude and time frames remain uncertain. Received: 24 February 1999 · Accepted: 15 May 1999     

从我国“98”南北洪水看山西防洪问题

从我国“９８”洪灾的惨重经济损失中认为,除了气候因素外,生态环境遭到人为破坏是致灾的主要原因。以此为鉴,结合山西实际,分析了山西防洪中存在的问题及根治洪患的举措     

’98重庆市的自然灾害与减灾对策

１９９８ 年夏季, 长江流域发生了特大自然灾害。地处长江上游之尾的重庆市,其灾情以山洪和滑坡、崩塌、泥石流等坡地灾害并发为主, 具有与长江中下游地区不同的特殊性。作者分析了重庆市灾情的严重性, 从自然环境和人类活动两方面分析了灾害成因的特殊性,在此基础上提出了坡地灾害的防治对策     

Integrated energy management strategy of powertrain and cooling system for PHEV

ABSTRACT

Energy management strategy (EMS) is crucial in improving the fuel economy of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Existing studies on EMS mostly manage powertrain and cooling system separately which cannot get the minimum total energy consumption. This paper aims to propose a novel EMS for a new type of dual-motor planetary-coupled PHEV, which considers cooling power demand and effect of temperature on fuel economy. Temperature-modified engine model, lithium-ion battery model, two motors, and cooling system models are established. Firstly, the separated EMS (S-EMS) is designed which manages powertrain and cooling system separately. Sequentially, after the analysis of thermal characteristics of the powertrain and cooling system, the thermal-based EMS (T-EMS) is then proposed to manage two systems coordinately. In T-EMS, cooling power demand and the charging/discharging energy of motors are calculated as equivalent fuel consumption and integrated into the object function. Besides, a fuzzy controller is also established to deicide the fuel-electricity equivalent factor with consideration of the effect of temperature and state of charge on powertrain efficiency. Finally, the hardware-in-loop experiment is carried out to validate the real-time effect of EMS under the New European Driving Cycle. The result shows that cooling power demand and temperature can significantly affect the fuel economy of the vehicle. T-EMS shows better performance in fuel economy than S-EMS. The equivalent fuel consumption of the cooling system of T-EMS decreases by 27% compared with that of S-EMS. The total equivalent fuel consumption over the entire trip of PHEV using T-EMS is reduced by 9.7%.     

Rough Set Rule Induction for Suitability Assessment

The data that characterize an environmental system are a fundamental part of an environmental decision-support system. However, obtaining complete and consistent data sets for regional studies can be difficult. Data sets are often available only for small study areas within the region, whereas the data themselves contain uncertainty because of system complexity, differences in methodology, or data collection errors. This paper presents rough-set rule induction as one way to deal with data uncertainty while creating predictive if–then rules that generalize data values to the entire region. The approach is illustrated by determining the crop suitability of 14 crops for the agricultural soils of the Willamette River Basin, Oregon, USA. To implement this method, environmental and crop yield data were spatially related to individual soil units, forming the examples needed for the rule induction process. Next, four learning algorithms were defined by using different subsets of environmental attributes. ROSETTA, a software system for rough set analysis, was then used to generate rules using each algorithm. Cross-validation analysis showed that all crops had at least one algorithm with an accuracy rate greater than 68%. After selecting a preferred algorithm, the induced classifier was used to predict the crop suitability of each crop for the unclassified soils. The results suggest that rough set rule induction is a useful method for data generalization and suitability analysis.     

A Proactive Approach Can Make Site Remediation Less Expensive

Without any incentive to clean up a contaminated site, remediation is often delayed until the site owner is compelled to act by regulatory agencies. In such a context, the selected technology is typically the one that will reach the remediation goals as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this criterion is often met by overly expensive technologies, resulting in high and sometimes unaffordable total remediation costs, leading to a remediation with a negative net benefit. This study examines the effects of time constraint and benefit value on the optimal remediation strategy for a diesel-contaminated site. This strategy is developed using the technico-economic model METEORS, which takes into account the technology’s effectiveness, the uncertainty of the level of contamination, and the possibility of reducing this uncertainty through either an additional characterization (before selecting and applying a technology) or the monitoring of the remediation technology (during its use). Results of simulations with both economic and temporal constraints support a proactive approach to site remediation.