石油化工企业事故应急救援预案现状及改进建议

石油化工行业是一个高危行业 ,具有易燃易爆、高温高压、有毒有害的特点 ,发生事故的概率高 ,且后果严重。制定事故应急救援预案是风险控制措施的一个重要组成部分 ,可以有效地防止事故的扩大 ,减轻事故造成的财产和生命损失。笔者主要探讨应急救援管理层面上的问题 ;阐述了我国政府和有关部门在应急救援管理方面的有关规定 ,石化行业的应急救援体系 ;指出了目前事故应急救援预案存在的不完善、不规范 ,应急装备不完备和缺乏社会救援联动机制等问题 ;建议企业和政府联合制定应急预案 :形成企业、地方政府和国家三方事故应急救援联动机制 ,实现统一指挥 ,资源共享 ,协调作战 ,发挥整体应急救援能力。     

Development of a database of landfills and dump sites in Asian countries

This article briefly summarizes the limited landfill/dump information available for developing Asian countries, and introduces a database that aims to close the information gap through collecting and sharing data. Developing nations usually try to adapt the systems and technologies of developed countries. However, this approach may not be appropriate because of differences in socioeconomic, cultural, and political backgrounds. Many waste management projects fail after operations are transferred to local authorities owing to a lack of funds to cover the high operational expenses. Some successful projects have been adapted to local conditions, although the information on these successes is not often available for others. Nevertheless, only a few developing countries even have a national inventory of their dumps/landfills, and decision-makers have little awareness of the dumps and their impacts. The database introduced here will gather landfill/dump information from each country and organize it in a comparable format, and it will then be published on the Internet.     

Assessment of contamination by heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments of Montevideo Harbour (Uruguay)

As part of the first environmental assessment within Montevideo Harbour, in summer and winter of 1998, sediments samples were collected at eight locations to determine the spatial distribution of anthropogenic pollutants. Muddy sediments with high organic matter content dominate the study area. Heavy metal levels indicated that sediments were highly polluted with Zn (overall mean: 312+/-102 microg g(-1) dry sediment), Pb (85+/-31), Cu (89+/-25), Cr (162+/-62), and Hg (0.63+/-0.3) and moderately with Ni (30+/-2) and Ag (1.2+/-0.4). Depending on location and season, aliphatic hydrocarbons reached from 21 to 120 microg g(-1), while the unresolved complex mixture represented up to 76% of the total aliphatic fraction. Total PAH concentrations ranged from 1.56 to 90.44 microg g(-1); except at one location, petroleum derivatives were identified as main local source. The results pointed out that almost all the harbour area presented some substances that can cause adverse biological effects, especially in the inner region where all metals are above PEL levels. Principal components analysis confirmed that the inner harbour region is most severely affected by the pollutants and it was possible to differentiate three regions according to their environmental quality.     

Environmental implications of changes in the levels of lakes in the Ethiopian Rift since 1970

The Ethiopian rift is characterized by a chain of lakes of various sizes and hydrological and hydrogeological settings. The rift lakes and feeder rivers are used for irrigation, soda extraction, commercial fish farming, and recreation, and they support a wide variety of endemic birds and wild animals. The levels of some of these lakes have changed dramatically over the last three decades. Lakes that are relatively uninfluenced by human activities (Langano and Abaya) remain stable except for the usual inter-annual variations, strongly influenced by rainfall. Some lakes have shrunk due to excessive abstraction of water; others have expanded due to increases in surface runoff and groundwater flux from percolated irrigation water. Lakes Abiyata and Beseka, both heavily impacted by human activities, show contrasting lake level trends: the level of Abiayata has dropped by about 5 m over three decades because of the extraction of water for soda and an upstream diversion for irrigation. Beseka has expanded from an area of 2.5 to 40 km² over the last three decades because of increased groundwater inputs from percolated irrigation water. Lake Awassa has risen slightly due to land use changes resulting in increased runoff in its catchment. This paper addresses these lake level changes and their environmental repercussions, based on evidence from hydrometeorological records, hydrogeological field mapping supported by aerial photography and satellite imagery interpretations, water balance estimation, and hydrological modeling. A converging evidence approach is used to reconstruct the temporal and spatial variations of lake levels. The results reveal that the major changes in the rift valley are mainly related to anthropogenic factors. These changes appear to have grave environmental consequences for the fragile rift ecosystem. These consequences demand the very urgent implementation of integrated basin wide water management practice.     

Using Goals in Environmental Management: The Swedish System of Environmental Objectives

In Sweden, environmental policy is essentially carried out through a system of environmental objectives adopted by Parliament in the late 1990s. This system contains principles, objectives, interim targets, strategies, and follow-up mechanisms, which together provide a solid ground for increased efficiency and improved prioritization in environmental policies. Despite the ambitious approach of the Swedish Parliament, the system of environmental objectives suffers from certain shortcomings. Some of the objectives are imprecise and difficult to evaluate, and there are no rules or principles that may be used to solve goal conflicts and to prioritize between different objectives. As a consequence, the environmental objectives tend to differ in their degrees of operationalizability, and the priority-setting between different objectives is often unclear.*Rskr. denotes a written communication (from the Swedish Parliament to the Swedish Government) of a Parliamentary decision. Note: This version was published online in June 2005 with the cover date of August 2004.     

Quality and Quantity of Suspended Particles in Rivers: Continent-Scale Patterns in the United States

Suspended solids or sediments can be pollutants in rivers, but they are also an important component of lotic food webs. Suspended sediment data for rivers were obtained from a United States–wide water quality database for 622 stations. Data for particulate nitrogen, suspended carbon, discharge, watershed area, land use, and population were also used. Stations were classified by United States Environmental Protection Agency ecoregions to assess relationships between terrestrial habitats and the quality and quantity of total suspended solids (TSS). Results indicate that nephelometric determinations of mean turbidity can be used to estimate mean suspended sediment values to within an order of magnitude (r² = 0.89). Water quality is often considered impaired above 80 mg TSS L^–1, and 35% of the stations examined during this study had mean values exceeding this level. Forested systems had substantially lower TSS and somewhat higher carbon-to-nitrogen ratios of suspended materials. The correlation between TSS and discharge was moderately well described by an exponential relationship, with the power of the exponent indicating potential acute sediment events in rivers. Mean sediment values and power of the exponent varied significantly with ecoregion, but TSS values were also influenced by land use practices and geomorphological characteristics. Results confirm that, based on current water quality standards, excessive suspended solids impair numerous rivers in the United States.     

Use of Physical Sciences in Support of Environmental Management

Offshore drilling for oil and gas has been conducted since the early 1900s. Oil and gas under the seabed continue to be an important part of the energy resources of the United States. The need to balance the value of these resources against the potential for environmental damage is an important concern. This article explains why and how the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of the Interior uses research in physical sciences to help fulfill its environmental goals, and it provides background information on the role of physical sciences in decision-making for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil, gas, and other minerals development. Established in the 1970s, the MMS Environmental Studies Program is a highly focused marine research program designed to provide the environmental information necessary for OCS energy and nonenergy minerals planning and development activities. The physical sciences research supported by MMS includes physical oceanography, oil-spill risk analyses, atmospheric sciences, and sand and gravel studies. Instead of giving a comprehensive review on physical sciences research in MMS, this article presents sample MMS studies and illustrates how these studies are utilized to support decision-making in environmental management.Published online Note: This version was published online in June 2005 with the cover date of August 2004.     

Monitoring Forest Carbon Sequestration with Remote Sensing and Carbon Cycle Modeling

Sources and sinks of carbon associated with forests depend strongly on the management regime and spatial patterns in potential productivity. Satellite remote sensing can provide spatially explicit information on land cover, stand-age class, and harvesting. Carbon-cycle process models coupled to regional climate databases can provide information on potential rates of production and related rates of decomposition. The integration of remote sensing and modeling thus produces spatially explicit information on carbon storage and flux. This integrated approach was employed to compare carbon flux for the period 1992–1997 over two 165-km² areas in western Oregon. The Coast Range study area was predominately private land managed for timber production, whereas the West Cascades study area was predominantly public land that was less productive but experienced little harvesting in the 1990s. In the Coast Range area, 17% of the land base was harvested between 1991 and 2000. Much of the area was in relatively young, productive-age classes that simulations indicate are a carbon sink. Mean annual harvest removals from the Coast Range were greater than mean annual net ecosystem production. On the West Cascades study area, a relatively small proportion (< 1%) of the land was harvested and the area as a whole was accumulating carbon. The spatially and temporally explicit nature of this approach permits identification of mechanisms underlying land base carbon flux. Published online     

Impacts after four years of experimental trampling on alpine/sub-alpine environments in western Tasmania

Experimental trials were undertaken over four years to assess the impact of recreational trampling in undisturbed alpine and sub-alpine vegetation communities in the Western Arthur Range, western Tasmania. Data on 'pad' formation due to human trampling were collected using vegetation cover assessments, biomass estimates and detailed cross-sectional surface profiles. In sub-alpine buttongrass and alpine herbfield, prolonged and sustained damage may occur after 100 passes by walkers. The environmental threshold of the flat alpine herbfield site was breached after 200 passes. Plant morphology was one determinant of resistance and resilience, with upright woody shrubs and tall tussock graminoids most vulnerable to sustained trampling damage. Cushions are susceptible to trampling impacts at 500 passes. Loss of vegetation cover peaks 6-12 months after trampling. Our results show that pads formed with as few as 30-100 passes per annum and tracks form at between 100 and 500 passes per annum. Two years after the cessation of trampling, there is some small recovery in vegetation cover after 30 and 100 passes per annum applied for three years, but no evidence of recovery at the 500 pass treatments. The low trampling threshold and slow recovery rates in western Tasmania suggest that concentrating walkers on a minimal number of sites may be the best management option for these untracked alpine and sub-alpine environments.     

Predicting mass rapid transit noise levels on an elevated station

This study developed a noise prediction model for elevated mass rapid transit (MRT) platforms. Relevant physical and operational parameters (e.g. cruise speed, acceleration and deceleration rates for trains, building fa?ade setbacks and so on) were collected from the Bangkok mass transit system (BTS), the first elevated MRT system operated in Bangkok, Thailand. The equivalent continuous sound pressure levels (L(Aeq)) were collected from both sides of the MRT stations at the center of each platform. The relevant parameters were collected on both platforms and ground level, on both sides of MRT stations. These parameters were statistically tested to determine their correlation with MRT noise. The final model was built from highly correlated parameters using multiple regression analysis with a stepwise regression technique. Statistical evaluation showed a high degree of goodness-of-fit test for the model to the observed data. Therefore, it can be efficiently used for the projection of MRT noise in the affected areas.