沸石改性天然粘土防渗层性能研究

用不同比例的沸石对天然粘土进行改性,对改性粘土防渗层的渗透性、去除主要污染物的有效性和控制渗滤液渗透的可行性进行研究。实验结果表明改性粘土防渗层的渗透系数随沸石比例的增加而增大,如果沸石的配比适当,其渗透系数可达到低于1×10-7cm/s的现行标准,而且提高了防渗层的污染物去除能力。因此,沸石改性粘土作为垃圾填埋场防渗材料是可行的。     

中国自然灾害综合研究的进展

为了了解我国的灾情总况,研究多国自然灾害的总体特点和规律,提出了我国宏观减灾对策,为此,研究组做了量研究工作,本文从九个方面概述了中国自然灾害综合研究的进展状况。     

制度创新：中国自然保护区可持续经营的根本

文章在对自然保护区可持续经营概念进行阐述的基础上,分析了影响中国自然保护区经营的若干体制与制约问题,最后提出了实现自然保护区可持续经营的制度创新的建议。     

Analytical Solutions to Trade‐Offs between Size of Protected Areas and Land‐Use Intensity

Abstract: Land‐use change is affecting Earth's capacity to support both wild species and a growing human population. The question is how best to manage landscapes for both species conservation and economic output. If large areas are protected to conserve species richness, then the unprotected areas must be used more intensively. Likewise, low‐intensity use leaves less area protected but may allow wild species to persist in areas that are used for market purposes. This dilemma is present in policy debates on agriculture, housing, and forestry. Our goal was to develop a theoretical model to evaluate which land‐use strategy maximizes economic output while maintaining species richness. Our theoretical model extends previous analytical models by allowing land‐use intensity on unprotected land to influence species richness in protected areas. We devised general models in which species richness (with modified species‐area curves) and economic output (a Cobb–Douglas production function) are a function of land‐use intensity and the proportion of land protected. Economic output increased as land‐use intensity and extent increased, and species richness responded to increased intensity either negatively or following the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. We solved the model analytically to identify the combination of land‐use intensity and protected area that provided the maximum amount of economic output, given a target level of species richness. The land‐use strategy that maximized economic output while maintaining species richness depended jointly on the response of species richness to land‐use intensity and protection and the effect of land use outside protected areas on species richness within protected areas. Regardless of the land‐use strategy, species richness tended to respond to changing land‐use intensity and extent in a highly nonlinear fashion.     

Do natural resources and economic components exhibit differential quantile environmental effects?

In view of the resource curse assumption, the environmental aspects of resource utilization are arguably posing more dangers to human existence. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the region that holds more than 60% and 50% of the world's oil and gas reserves respectively, the need to examine the contribution of natural resources to environmental quality among other factors cannot be overemphasized. By leveraging on the novelty of observing the differential impact of natural resources and other economic components such as income and primary energy utilizations across the quantiles of carbon emission, this study implements the quantile regression approach alongside other relevant techniques to analyze data between 1990 and 2018 for selected countries in the MENA region including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The result posits that natural resource utilization generally hampers the environment across the quantiles. However, this negative effect decreases until the 50th quantile before starting to rise again toward the upper quantiles. Additionally, primary energy utilization and globalization respectively worsen and improve environmental quantile, especially toward the upper quantiles while income affirms the inverted U-shaped hypothesis across the entire quantiles. Moreover, there is a statistically significant one-way directional causality from natural resources, economic expansion, primary energy use, and globalization to carbon emission levels. Hence, the study offers environmentally friendly resource utilization policies to the MENA economies and other resource-rich states by extension.     

Factors Affecting Take-up of and Drop-out from Home Composting Schemes

This paper reports survey results from Scotland and north-west England into home composting attitudes and behaviours. The results concentrate on: the take-up of home composting through promotional campaigns; and the reasons for drop-out. Motivations for take-up were balanced between environmental and gardening reasons, although capital cost was an important issue for some. Drop-outs occurred mainly through participants moving house or because of lack of success in producing compost. Few of those experiencing problems sought help. Those that did favoured official or professional sources. Neighbourhood social pressures to compost were relatively weak. The results are discussed in terms of the sustainability of home composting behaviour and the manage ment interventions that might be required in sustaining that behaviour.     

Deep bed filtration of anaerobic cattle manure effluents with natural zeolite

Abstract

This study was carried out in a pilot plant for the treatment of anaerobic cattle manure waste. The pilot plant consisted of a semicontinous anaerobic reactor, a settling tank, a filtration process and an ionic exchange column. The study was focused on the filtration process, with natural zeolite as filtering material. In the filtration process different media sizes of natural zeolites packed in columns were tested. The ranges of media size were 0.4 ‐ 1.0, 1.0 ‐ 3.0 and 3.0 ‐ 5.0 mm. Filtration systems operated by gravity flow from 2 to 10 m³m^‐2h^‐1. The process control was done by assays of solids, turbidity, total and soluble COD, ammonium and orthophosphate. The results showed a better behaviour in the filters packed with a media size range between 1.0 and 3.0 mm, operating at 7 m³m^‐2h^‐1, principally when effluent gross particles were previously retained in an Heterogeneous Media Filter, operating at 4 m³m^‐2h^‐1. The head losses diagrams in the filter runs were obtained, at each operational conditions. The hydraulic behaviour of traditional silica sand and natural zeolite beds were compared at the same operational conditions.     

The aerobic soil degradation of spinosad ‐ a novel natural insect control agent

Abstract

Spinosad is a natural product with biological activity against a range of insects including lepidoptera. It is comprised of two major components namely spinosyns A and D. The degradation of spinosad in soil under aerobic conditions was investigated using two U.S. soils (a silt loam and a sandy loam) which were treated with either ¹⁴C‐spinosyn A or ‐spinosyn D at a 2X use rate of 0.4mg/kg soil for spinosyn A and 0.1mg/kg for spinosyn D. Further samples of soil were pre‐sterilised prior to treatment in order to establish whether spinosyns A and D degrade abiotically. Flasks of treated soil were incubated in the dark at 25°C for up to one year after treatment.

HPLC and LC‐MS of soil extracts confirmed that the major degradation product of spinosyn A was spinosyn B, resulting from demethylation on the forosamine sugar. Other dégradâtes were hydroxylation products of spinosyns A and B, with hydroxylation probably taking place on the aglycone portion of the molecule. Half lives were similar for both spinosyns and were in the range 9–17 days, with longer half lives in the pre‐sterilised soils (128–240 days) suggesting that degradation was largely microbial.     

Risk evaluation of natural disasters based on connection function

There are many uncertain factors,such as stochastic,fuzzy and gray information in the risk analysis on natural hazard.The set pair analysis(SPA)deals effectively with the various uncertain factors contributing to evaluation of the risk level of natural disasters.The evaluation indicators and standards of natural disasters risk are analyzed by identity-discrepancycontrary(IDC).The result,the connection numbers,still has uncertainty information.Thus,yielding the risk evaluation model of natural disasters based on connection function,which construct a set pair relation between the indicators of connection numbers and comprehensive evaluation standards,and describe uncertainty of the connection numbers by using connection function.The study showed that the proposed model takes into account only the uncertainty of risk evaluation indicator identification on natural disasters,also the uncertainty of result connection numbers.This approach gives full consideration to the uncertainty of systematic evaluation process along with the actual meaning of comprehensive evaluation functions.Therefore,this means it is able to reduce the uncertainty of final evaluation results and improve the accuracy and reasonability of evaluation results.This model is capable of reflecting actual situation of the risk evaluation on natural disaster affected by various uncertain factors and has a promotional value in the natural disaster risk assessment.     

An “Asymmetric Threat” That Should Have Been Anticipated: Political Discourse on 2007 Wildfires in Greece

This paper examines the pre-election interpretative repertoires employed by the two main political parties in Greece regarding the 2007 summer wildfires, which have been recorded as the worst natural disaster in contemporary Greek history. This involved a discourse analysis of press releases, interviews, and press conference statements. While the New Democracy governing party initially followed a “business-as-usual” scenario, comparing the situation with past wildfires under the administration of PASOK (the biggest opposition party), the increasing number of deaths over time rendered any such comparison invalid. In order to regain momentum, the government launched the interpretative repertoire of “asymmetric threat”, which proved instrumental in helping the government to get re-elected. This political discourse lacked any consideration of broad socioeconomic changes in rural areas in Greece which might have contributed substantially to the severity of the disaster. Implications for wildfire policy are discussed.