Estimation of the Thermal Sensitivity of a Dwelling to Variations in Architectural and Behavioural Parameters

The provision of energy for households is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the domestic sector. There is significant scope for energy savings and thus emission reduction in this sector. This paper constructs a bridge between thermal analysis and environmental assessment in the occupancy stage of the dwelling life cycle, approaching both methods as being on a common system Environment–Dwelling–Inhabitant. The importance of the local level in the thermal analysis and assessment of either a dwelling or an inhabitant's behaviour is demonstrated. It is shown that the researcher can choose between natural experiment, computer experiment and mathematical modelling to analyze the system. Such a choice is discussed for two particular methods of thermal analysis. Thermal Nomograms are the result of mathematical modelling, and the Energy Score Sheet is the result of a computer experiment in energy rating. Despite being developed for the purpose of thermal analysis, these methods can also be utilized for environmental assessment at the local level. The discussion centres on Australian conditions where the majority of the population resides in a relatively benign climate wherein behavioural alterations have significant potential for energy savings and environmental impact. The purpose of the paper is to emphasise benefits apart from energy minimisation to promote the use of energy efficient housing strategies.     

潜水含水层水位观测孔水位伪变化的观测与分析

结合CIRP试验场包气带的介质结构及渗透性特征，在S9孔进行了短期的孔中水位、孔口气压和温度测量，测量结果表明，观测孔水位波动与大气压变化有关，水位波动具有伪变化。水位伪变化对于试验场潜水位的监测有一定影响，因此，应对带有伪变化的水位观测结果进行必要的修正，以反映潜水位的真实动态。     

基于网格空间数据的晋陕蒙接壤区生态环境综合评价

晋陕蒙接壤区是典型的生态过渡带、生态脆弱带。文章在调查研究的基础上 ,选取了 1 3个评价指标 ,应用层次分析法确定其权重 ,并将各个因子分级标准化和定量赋值 ,再用加权求和法得到每个评价单元的环境质量综合评价指数。根据环境综合评价指数将环境质量分为较好 (≥ 8)、一般 (≥ 6～ <8)、较差 (≥ 4～ <6)、恶劣 (<4) 4级。结果表明 :晋陕蒙接壤区的环境质量大多处于较差等级 ,较好、一般、较差、恶劣等级的面积比例分别为 2 .2 % ,2 8% ,5 7.4%和1 2 .4%     

夜间建筑施工噪声扰民监测方法探讨

以一家夜间施工工地为例 ,通过对现有夜间建筑施工噪声测量方法及国家和深圳经济特区有关噪声污染定义的分析 ,阐述了夜间施工工地噪声扰民监测方法     

萃取-催化氧化光度法测定生物体中H2O2含量研究

提出萃取-催化氧化光度法测定生物体中H2O2含量的新方法.用稀土催化H2O2产生羟基自由基以氧化二苯基碳酰二肼,生成红色二苯基碳酰腙,其最大吸收波长为563.0nm;当二苯基碳酰二肼浓度一定时,△A563与H2O2含量呈量效关系.在0～30μmol/L H2O2 含量范围内,该法能简单、快速、精确地测定生物样品中H2O2实际含量.     

灰色模型在确定关键污染因子中的应用

将灰色模型引入水环境质量评价中 ,通过对某个时间段内污染物原始监测数据的灰色处理 ,从动态演变中找出关键因子 ,客观地判定各污染因子所起的作用 ,并对各因子在下一个时间段的发展趋势作出判断 ,增加了评价的准确性。经过实例运用分析表明 ,该方法物理意义明确 ,简便易用     

标准BOD5测定法的"空气净化--稀释水曝气"装置研究

"稀释与接种法"是BOD5的标准测定方法,制备溶解氧接近饱和且不含能干扰生化耗氧过程的物质的稀释水,是该法重要的工作之一.由真空泵带动的"空气净化--稀释水曝气"装置,流程合理、装配容易、调控灵活,可连贯进行空气净化与稀释水曝气,而制取符合质量要求的稀释水.     

Mega-Development Trends in the Amazon: Implications for Global Change

This paper describes four global-change phenomena that are having major impacts on Amazonian forests. The first is accelerating deforestation and logging. Despite recent government initiatives to slow forest loss, deforestation rates in Brazilian Amazonia have increased from 1.1 million ha yr^–1 in the early 1990s, to nearly 1.5 million ha yr^–1 from 1992–1994, and to more than 1.9 million ha yr^–1 from 1995–1998. Deforestation is also occurring rapidly in some other parts of the Amazon Basin, such as in Bolivia and Ecuador, while industrialized logging is increasing dramatically in the Guianas and central Amazonia.The second phenomenon is that patterns of forest loss and fragmentation are rapidly changing. In recent decades, large-scale deforestation has mainly occurred in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon — in the Brazilian states of Pará, Maranho, Rondônia, Acre, and Mato Grosso, and in northern Bolivia. While rates of forest loss remain very high in these areas, the development of major new highways is providing direct conduits into the heart of the Amazon. If future trends follow past patterns, land-hungry settlers and loggers may largely bisect the forests of the Amazon Basin.The third phenomenon is that climatic variability is interacting with human land uses, creating additional impacts on forest ecosystems. The 1997/98 El Niño drought, for example, led to a major increase in forest burning, with wildfires raging out of control in the northern Amazonian state of Roraima and other locations. Logging operations, which create labyrinths of roads and tracks in forsts, are increasing fuel loads, desiccation and ignition sources in forest interiors. Forest fragmentation also increases fire susceptibility by creating dry, fire-prone forest edges.Finally, recent evidence suggests that intact Amazonian forests are a globally significant carbon sink, quite possibly caused by higher forest growth rates in response to increasing atmospheric CO₂ fertilization. Evidence for a carbon sink comes from long-term forest mensuration plots, from whole-forest studies of carbon flux and from investigations of atmospheric CO₂ and oxygen isotopes. Unfortunately, intact Amazonian forests are rapidly diminishing. Hence, not only is the destruction of these forests a major source of greenhouse gases, but it is reducing their intrinsic capacity to help buffer the rapid anthropogenic rise in CO₂.     

The Impact of Landsat Satellite Monitoring on Conservation Biology

Landsat 7s recent malfunctioning will result in significant gaps in long-term satellite monitoring of Earth, affecting not only the research of the Earth science community but also conservation users of these data. To determine whether or how important Landsat monitoring is for conservation and natural resource management, we reviewed the Landsat programs history with special emphasis on the development of user groups. We also conducted a bibliographic search to determine the extent to which conservation research has been based on Landsat data. Conservation biologists were not an early user group of Landsat data because a) biologists lacked technical capacity – computers and software – to analyze these data; b) Landsats 1980s commercialization rendered images too costly for biologists budgets; and c) the broad-scale disciplines of conservation biology and landscape ecology did not develop until the mid-to-late 1980s. All these conditions had changed by the 1990s and Landsat imagery became an important tool for conservation biology. Satellite monitoring and Landsat continuity are mandated by the Land Remote Sensing Act of 1992. This legislation leaves open commercial options. However, past experiments with commercial operations were neither viable nor economical, and severely reduced the quality of monitoring, archiving and data access for academia and the public. Future satellite monitoring programs are essential for conservation and natural resource management, must provide continuity with Landsat, and should be government operated.