A stochastic model for estimating sustainable limits to wildlife mortality in a changing world

Human-caused mortality of wildlife is a pervasive threat to biodiversity. Assessing the population-level impact of fisheries bycatch and other human-caused mortality of wildlife has typically relied upon deterministic methods. However, population declines are often accelerated by stochastic factors that are not accounted for in such conventional methods. Building on the widely applied potential biological removal (PBR) equation, we devised a new population modeling approach for estimating sustainable limits to human-caused mortality and applied it in a case study of bottlenose dolphins affected by capture in an Australian demersal otter trawl fishery. Our approach, termed sustainable anthropogenic mortality in stochastic environments (SAMSE), incorporates environmental and demographic stochasticity, including the dependency of offspring on their mothers. The SAMSE limit is the maximum number of individuals that can be removed without causing negative stochastic population growth. We calculated a PBR of 16.2 dolphins per year based on the best abundance estimate available. In contrast, the SAMSE model indicated that only 2.3–8.0 dolphins could be removed annually without causing a population decline in a stochastic environment. These results suggest that reported bycatch rates are unsustainable in the long term, unless reproductive rates are consistently higher than average. The difference between the deterministic PBR calculation and the SAMSE limits showed that deterministic approaches may underestimate the true impact of human-caused mortality of wildlife. This highlights the importance of integrating stochasticity when evaluating the impact of bycatch or other human-caused mortality on wildlife, such as hunting, lethal control measures, and wind turbine collisions. Although population viability analysis (PVA) has been used to evaluate the impact of human-caused mortality, SAMSE represents a novel PVA framework that incorporates stochasticity for estimating acceptable levels of human-caused mortality. It offers a broadly applicable, stochastic addition to the demographic toolbox to evaluate the impact of human-caused mortality on wildlife.     

复杂建筑空间人员应急疏散的无人机引导模型研究*

为提升紧急情况下复杂建筑空间中应急疏散引导的疏散效率,采用仿真模拟方法,提出1套可适用于复杂建筑空间人员应急疏散的无人机引导模型,该模型通过改进传统算法和构建新方法,实现无人机空间遍历移动规则寻优、无人机引导路径寻优以及基于“障碍物空间场域”建筑空间区域划分。研究结果表明:相较于没有无人机引导,采用单无人机和多无人机协同引导疏散,可大幅缩短整体疏散时间,有效减少疏散路径当量长度,提高疏散效率并保证路径安全,为无人机在应急救援和疏散的应用提供新思路。     

Sensitivity Analyses of Spatial Population Viability Analysis Models for Species at Risk and Habitat Conservation Planning

Abstract:  Population viability analysis (PVA) is an effective framework for modeling species- and habitat-recovery efforts, but uncertainty in parameter estimates and model structure can lead to unreliable predictions. Integrating complex and often uncertain information into spatial PVA models requires that comprehensive sensitivity analyses be applied to explore the influence of spatial and nonspatial parameters on model predictions. We reviewed 87 analyses of spatial demographic PVA models of plants and animals to identify common approaches to sensitivity analysis in recent publications. In contrast to best practices recommended in the broader modeling community, sensitivity analyses of spatial PVAs were typically ad hoc, inconsistent, and difficult to compare. Most studies applied local approaches to sensitivity analyses, but few varied multiple parameters simultaneously. A lack of standards for sensitivity analysis and reporting in spatial PVAs has the potential to compromise the ability to learn collectively from PVA results, accurately interpret results in cases where model relationships include nonlinearities and interactions, prioritize monitoring and management actions, and ensure conservation-planning decisions are robust to uncertainties in spatial and nonspatial parameters. Our review underscores the need to develop tools for global sensitivity analysis and apply these to spatial PVA.     

A TREE‐RING RECONSTRUCTION OF STREAMFLOW FOR THE COLORADO FRONT RANGE1

ABSTRACT: Water resource planning is based primarily on 20th century instrumental records of climate and streamflow. These records are limited in length to approximately 100 years, in the best cases, and can reflect only a portion of the range of natural variability. The instrumental record neither can be used to gage the unusualness of 20th Century extreme low flow events, nor does it allow the detection of low‐frequency variability that may underlie short‐term variations in flow. In this study, tree rings are used to reconstruct mean annual streamflow for Middle Boulder Creek in the Colorado Front Range, a semi‐arid region of rapid growth and development. The reconstruction is based on a stepwise regression equation that accounts for 70 percent of the variance in the instrumental record, and extends from 1703–1987. The reconstruction suggests that the instrumental record of streamflow for Middle Boulder Creek is not representative of flow in past centuries and that several low flow events in the 19th century were more persistent than any in the 20th century. The 1840s to early 1850s period of low flow is a particularly notable event and may have coincided with a period of low flow in the Upper Colorado River Basin.     

A SPATIAL LINEAR PROGRAM FOR OPTIMALLY SCHEDULING FOREST MANAGEMENT TO MEET STORMFLOW OBJECTWES1

ABSTRACT: A spatial linear program that strategically arranges and schedules forest treatments so as to meet peak stormflow objectives is formulated and demonstrated. The approach uses simulated spatial routing of stormflows nested as short‐term time schedules within longer‐term forest planning time periods. A simple case example is used to demonstrate the formulation and explore its spatial sensitivity.     

ACCURACY AND PRECISION OF NRCS MODELS FOR SMALL WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: In the last 30 years, the National Resource Conservation Service's TR‐55 and TR‐20 models have seen a dramatic increase in use for stormwater management purposes. This paper reviews some of the data that were originally used to develop these models and tests how well the models estimate annual series peak runoff rates for the same watersheds using longer historical data record lengths. The paper also explores differences between TR‐55 and TR‐20 peak runoff rate estimates and time of concentration methods. It was found that of the 37 watersheds tested, 25 were either over‐ or under‐predicting the actual historical watershed runoff rates by more than 30 percent. The results of this study indicate that these NRCS models should not be used to model small wooded watersheds less than 20 acres. This would be especially true if the watershed consisted of an area without a clearly defined outlet channel. This study also supports the need for regulators to allow educated hydrologists to alter pre‐packaged model parameters or results more easily than is currently permitted.     

矿产资源规划体系研究

本文就矿产资源规划体系进行了概括,认为树立开放的、动态的、持续发展的矿产资源安全观是矿产资源规划的前提。     

流域开发规划环境影响评价的战略意义——以岷江上游紫坪铺水库工程与都江堰保护问题为例

文章在分析岷江上游水电开发规划与流域环境问题的基础上提出对都江堰美学、经济、文化价值的再认识和对其进行保护的基本要求,讨论了紫坪铺水库工程与都江堰保护的战略抉择问题,并论述了流域开发规划环境影响评价的重要意义。     

佛山,市新区排水制度的论证

排水制度的选择是城市总体规划阶段要求确定的重要任务之一。而排水制度的选择应从一个城市的具体情况出发,经过经济技术比较方能得出结论。本文着重介绍了在佛山市总体规划修编时,通过对本市地形、地貌、地质、水文、气象、水体情况、人文景观、社会发展要求,以及城市财政能力等情况综合分析研究,确定新区排水制度的论证过程。