ACCELERATION OF DESSICATION AND POPULATION TRAUMA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA1

ABSTRACT: Drought has been a hazard in parts of Africa throughout historic times, and in all likelihood prior to that time as well. In recent years the hazard of drought has been increasing in frequency and areal extent. A drought that occured from 1968 to 1974 in Sub-Saharan Africa directly affected millions of people, and directly or indirectly cost the lives of tens of thousands of people. The mechanism involved in the widespread problem is the manner of adjustment of the human population to climatic cycles of short duration, in the face of rapidly growing human and animal numbers. A rapid collapse of the grasslands and an expansion of the Sahara Desert southward into more humid areas has resulted from the increasing pressure on the land from largely subsistance farming and herding. Present social, economic, and political conditions indicate that the process is going to continue to accelerate, affecting ever-increasing numbers of people in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.     

IMPACT OF DROUGHT ON QUALITY IN A NEW JERSEY WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT. New Jersey, together with other states in the northeast, was stricken with drought during 1961-66. The effect of this drought was most severe in the northern part of the State. The water quality of the Passaic River, which drains the urban, industrialized northeast, perhaps deteriorated the most among the major drainage systems. This river system is used as a raw-water source by 10 water suppliers. The impact of the drought upon the water supply of the Passaic Valley Water Commission, the most downstream of the basin's suppliers, which supplies an average of about 90 million gallons a day to more than 650,000 persons, is evaluated herein. The drought's impact on the raw-water quality is appraised by the comparison of before-and-after qualities of dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biochemical-oxygen demand, turbidity, and hardness. For example, at the worst point during the drought, monthly average dissolved-solids content in the raw water were about 210 percent, hardness, about 167 percent, and biochemical-oxygen demand about 270 percent higher than antecedent values. In general, the study concludes that the drought produced a deterioration in both raw and finished water quality, and is estimated to have increased chemical-treatment costs during the drought by about $650,000.     

USE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF MUNICIPAL WATER RESTRICTIONS DURING DROUGHT IN COLORADO1

ABSTRACT: Drought conditions in the summer of 2002 prompted several cities along Colorado's Front Range to enact restrictions on outdoor water use, focusing primarily on limiting the frequency of lawn watering. The different approaches utilized by eight water providers were tracked to determine the level of water savings achieved, measured as a comparison of 2002 usage to 2000 to 2001 average usage, and also based on a statistical estimate of 2002 “expected use” that accounts for the impact of drought conditions on demand. Mandatory restrictions were shown to be an effective tool for drought coping. During periods of mandatory restrictions, savings measured in expected use per capita ranged from 18 to 56 percent, compared to just 4 to 12 percent savings during periods of voluntary restrictions. As anticipated, providers with the most stringent restrictions achieved the greatest savings.     

玉米育苗移栽防御低温冷害和春旱试验研究

为防御玉米低温冷害和春旱,在吉林省东部开展了玉米育苗移栽田间试验。结果表明,玉米育苗移栽是一项简便有效的防灾、减灾实用技术。利用该项技术可增加220～250℃·d积温,因此可采用较当地大田播种生育期长10～15天、所需积温多230℃·d的偏晚熟品种,以避开播种出苗期干旱;产量和产值分别提高40%和35%左右,并可提早成熟,防霜害,提高玉米品质。     

湖南省历史旱灾时空分布规律

本文综合考虑气候条件、下垫面条件、史料记载的均一性等因素，将湖南省划分为１０个研究区；根据１４５０～１９４９年湖南省气候史料记载１），采用区内平均等级，描绘了全省１０个区旱灾的时间序列，并据此探讨了全省近５００ａ来旱灾的时空分布规律。     

HYDROLOGIC SCENARIOS FOR SEVERE SUSTAINED DROUGHT IN THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES1

ABSTRACT: This paper considers the risk of drought and develops drought scenarios for use in the study of severe sustained drought in the Southwestern United States. The focus is on the Colorado River Basin and regions to which Colorado River water is exported, especially southern California, which depends on water from the Colorado River. Drought scenarios are developed using estimates of unimpaired historic streamflow as well as reconstructions of streamflow based on tree ring widths. Drought scenarios in the Colorado River Basin are defined on the basis of annual flow at Lees Ferry. The risk, in terms of return period, of the drought scenarios developed, is assessed using stochastic models.     

GROUND WATER QUALITY PREDICTION USING CLIMATIC INDICES1

ABSTRACT: Drought affects the quality of ground water in certain aquifers used by municipalities in Kansas. Water quality changes occur as a function of the amount of water available for recharge and hence to dilute more mineralized ground waters. Several measures of meteorological drought, including the Palmer Index and Eagleman Aridity Index, were correlated with water quality data to determine the degree of association. Several locations showed sharp delinces in water quality as the drought progressed. These relationships can be used to predict possible variations in present and future well-water supplies in locations subject to drought induced water quality deterioration.     

A national ozone biomonitoring program--results from field surveys of ozone sensitive plants in northeastern forests (1994-2000)

Ozone biomonitoring is a detection and monitoring techniquethat involves documenting ozone-induced visible injury toknown ozone-sensitive species under conditions of ambientexposure. The USDA Forest Service administers a long-term,nationwide ozone biomonitoring program to address public andscientific concerns about ozone impacts on forest health. Asystematic grid is used as the basis for biomonitoring sitelocations. At each site, trained field crews evaluate amaximum of thirty plants of up to six species and record the amount and severity of leaf-injury on individualplants. Injury from ozone was found more often on biomonitoring sites in the eastern Unites States than in theinterior or west-coast areas. Further results from thenortheast reveal that in any year, there is a higherpercentage of ozone-injured plants with more severe symptomsin areas with relatively high ozone concentrations than inareas with relatively low ozone. In very dry years (e.g.,1999) the percentage of injured plants and injury severityestimates are both sharply reduced even though ambient ozoneexposures are high. These findings demonstrate thatbiomonitoring data provide meaningful evidence of when highozone concentrations during the growing season have biologicalsignificance. Any assessment of ozone stress in the forestenvironment must include both biomonitoring (i.e., plantresponse) and air quality data to be complete.     

安徽省旱灾成因分析及对策

本文从自然环境、水工程现状、水环境等方面,分析了安徽省旱灾的成因,并提出了抗旱减灾的措施.     

冬小麦灌溉减损经济效益的初步探讨

灌溉是获取作物高产的主要措施之一,灌溉减损经济效益与农民收入和生产经济效益密切相关.提出了从灌溉次数和灌溉量参数入手,根据灌溉投入和灌溉减损量来分析灌溉减损效益、减灾效益和生产经济效益;以华北冬麦区单点试验和调查结果为例,讨论了该方法在冬小麦减灾评估应用中的普适性和可行性.