A better future for the uplands — a planning critique

The Countryside Commission's report A Better Future for the Uplands puts forward a new strategy for public intervention in the uplands of England and Wales. The aim of the report is to integrate rural policies and to promote higher environmental priorities in rural areas. This paper considers the degree to which the report is successful in planning to achieve these ends. The paper is specifically concerned with the planning methodology on which the report is based. The paper argues for an approach to rural planning which permits the consideration of more radical solutions to rural problems, along with the application of a more systematic planning methodology, in order to assist in the choice of an appropriate direction for planned change.     

生态工业园区建设目标与措施初探

要创建和谐生态工业园区应做到：坚持“环保优先”,强化环保基础设施建设;以“发展高科技、实现产业化”为根本目标;调整产业结构,改变经济增长方式,实现可持续发展;加大力度促进企业发展;大力加强环保宣传。     

探讨环境监测在环境保护中的作用与发展

通过科学的布设监测网点和完成特定的环境监测任务,获得有关影响环境品质的物质的含量和其动态变化情况的数据,能够使政府职能部门制定和落实环境保护政策和法规时目标更明确、对与环境保护有关的产业政策的调整方向更加科学,并且能够通过自动化和智能化的环境监测系统持续监控重点监测对象,以预防生态与环境安全事件的发生和制定科学的应急环境安全事件处理技术程序。针对影响自然和生态环境的因素的多样化和其作用机理的复杂化,环境监测技术、监测方法、监测目标以及监测对象都在不断的发展变化,以期获得对环境品质更加精确和全面的监测数据和信息,对环境安全状况做出更加具有前瞻性和科学性的综合评价。     

Prioritizing species conservation programs based on IUCN Green Status and estimates of cost-sharing potential

Over 1 million species around the world are at risk of extinction, and conservation organizations have to decide where to invest their limited resources. Cost-effectiveness can be increased by leveraging funding opportunities and increasing collaborative partnerships to achieve shared conservation goals. We devised a structured decision-making framework to prioritize species’ conservation programs based on a cost–benefit analysis that takes collaborative opportunities into account in an examination of national and global conservation return on investment. Conservation benefit is determined by modifying the novel International Union for the Conservation of Nature Green Status for Species to provide an efficient, high-level measure that is comparable among species, even with limited information and time constraints. We applied this prioritization approach to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, Canada, a nonprofit organization seeking to increase the number of species it assists with conservation translocations. We sought to identify and prioritize additional species’ programs for which conservation translocation expertise and actions could make the most impact. Estimating the likelihood of cost-sharing potential enabled total program cost to be distinguished from costs specific to the organization. Comparing a benefit-to-cost ratio on different geographic scales allowed decision makers to weigh alternative options for investing in new species’ programs in a transparent and effective manner. Our innovative analysis aligns with general conservation planning frameworks and can be adapted for any organization.     

A weight-adjusted Peto’s test when cause of death is not assigned

A new statistical testing approach using a weighted logrank statistic is developed for rodent tumorigenicity assays that have a single terminal sacrifice but not cause-of-death data. Instead of using cause-of-death assignment by pathologists, the number of fatal tumors is estimated by a constrained nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation method. For data lacking cause-of-death information, the Peto test is modified with estimated numbers of fatal tumors and a Fleming–Harrington-type weight, which is based on an estimated tumor survival function. A bootstrap resampling method is used to estimate the weight function. The proposed testing method with the weight adjustment appears to improve the performance in various situations of single-sacrifice animal experiments. A Monte Carlo simulation study for the proposed test is conducted to assess size and power of the test. This testing approach is illustrated using a real data set.     

Juggling Land Retirement Objectives on an Agricultural Landscape: Coordination, Conflict, or Compromise?

Strategic land retirement in agricultural settings has been used as one way to achieve a combination of social objectives, which include ameliorating water quality problems and enhancing existing systems of wildlife habitat. This study uses a simulation model operating on a virtual landscape, along with the compromise programming method, to illustrate the implications of alternative weighting schemes for the long-term performance of the landscape toward various objectives. The analysis suggests that particular spatial patterns may be related to how various objectives are weighted. The analysis also illustrates the inevitable trade-offs among objectives, although it may be tempting to present retirement strategies as “win-win.”     

Short-Term Hydroscheduling with Discrepant Objectives Using Multi-Step Progressive Optimality Algorithm1

Cheng, Chuntian, Jianjian Shen, Xinyu Wu, and Kwok-wing Chau, 2012. Short-Term Hydroscheduling with Discrepant Objectives Using Multi-step Progressive Optimality Algorithm. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(3): 464-479. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00628.x Abstract: With increase in the number and total capacity of hydropower plants in power systems, optimality algorithms with a single objective are not suitable for optimizing the operation of complex hydropower systems to meet complex demands. Hydropower plants should prioritize discrepant objectives, such as peak regulation and maximizing generation during solving of optimal operation problems of hydropower systems. In this article, we present a multi-step progressive optimality algorithm (MSPOA) for the short-term hydroscheduling (STHS) problem to improve the quality of optimal solutions and enhance the convergence speed of progressive optimality algorithm (POA). In MSPOA, the original problem is first decomposed into a sequence of problems with the longer time steps. Next, the problem with the longest time step is solved, and the optimal solution is used as the initial solution for the problem with the second longest time step. This process proceeds until the original problem with the shortest time step is solved. The proposed discrepant-objective method and solution technique are tested for two types of hydroelectric systems. The results show that MSPOA can give better solutions and cost less time than POA due to enlarging feasible range of decision variables and reducing the number of computational stages. Discrepant objectives among hydropower plants can express the operation characteristics of complex hydropower systems more accurately than unique objective or multiple objectives.     

凌海市土地资源保护规划研究

在收集和调查凌海市土地利用现状的基础上,分析土地退化的原因,提出凌海市土地资源保护规划的总体目标、主要任务及保护措施等,以期为凌海生态市建设创造有利条件。     

一种新型复合除砷材料的制备及其性能

将锆的水合氧化物固载于大孔螯合树脂D401上制备出一种新型除砷材料,并研究了不同实验条件下复合吸附剂D401-Zr对水溶液中As(V)的吸附性能。研究结果表明,在pH<5.2时D401-Zr对As(V)都具有较强的吸附性能;其吸附等温线与Langmuir吸附模型具有较高的吻合度;吸附动力学研究表明,D401-Zr对砷的吸附均遵循二级动力学方程;竞争吸附实验表明,与SO24-、Cl-共存时,D401-Zr对砷的去除率大于90%,而与PO34-、F-竞争离子共存时,其去除率明显下降。     

重庆市"十一五"污染物总量控制研究

选取了二氧化硫、化学需氧量和氨氮作为重庆市“十一五”期间主要的污染物总量控制指标,介绍了这几种污染物总量控制目标的测算方法,根据重庆市的有关规划以及环境保护的需要,测算出了“十一五”期间水污染物、大气污染物的总量控制目标,对“十一五”期间总量控制的实施提出了建议。