Identification of a reactive degradation zone at a landfill leachate plume fringe using high resolution sampling and incubation techniques

Vertical small-scale variation in phenoxy acid herbicide degradation across a landfill leachate plume fringe was studied using laboratory degradation experiments. Sediment cores (subdivided into 5 cm segments) were collected in the aquifer and the sediment and porewater were used for microcosm experiments (50 experiments) and for determination of solid organic carbon, solid-water partitioning coefficients, specific phenoxy acid degraders and porewater chemistry. Results from a multi-level sampler installed next to the cores provided information on the plume position and oxygen concentration in the groundwater. Oxygen concentration was controlled individually in each microcosm to mimic the conditions at their corresponding depths. A highly increased degradation potential existed at the narrow plume fringe (37.7 to 38.6 masl), governed by the presence of phenoxy acids and oxygen. This resulted in the proliferation of a microbial population of specific phenoxy acid degraders, which further enhanced the degradation potential for phenoxy acids at the fringe. The results illustrate the importance of fringe degradation processes in contaminant plumes. Furthermore, they highlight the relevance of using high-resolution sampling techniques as well as controlled microcosm experiments in the assessment of the natural attenuation capacity of contaminant plumes in groundwater.     

骆马湖泥-水界面磷铁硫原位同步变化特征

利用薄膜梯度扩散（DGT）原位采样装置获取了骆马湖全湖8个典型湖区泥-水界面（SWI）活性磷（P）、铁（Fe）、硫（S）垂向分布信息，据此定量估算三者交换通量.结果表明，骆马湖沉积物剖面P、Fe、S浓度范围分别为0~2.05，0~11.10和0.01~0.63mg/L，并在微小尺度呈高度空间异质性.在水平方向上活性P、Fe主要表现为西北湖区高于东南湖区，而活性S则未表现出明显的分布规律；就垂直剖面而言，活性P、Fe、S自界面向下呈升高趋势，并在60mm深度内出现峰值，且活性P和Fe剖面呈明显的同步变化特征；活性P、Fe在多数点位具有显著的正相关性（r>0.65，P<0.01），且各采样点沉积物中的总铁与总磷比值[w（∑Fe）/w（∑P）]均高于15，这表明Fe的地球化学循环过程对于骆马湖内源磷释放起重要控制作用；8个采样点样品中活性P、Fe、S交换通量分别为0.066~0.698，1.671~5.592和0.007~0.071mg/（m²·d），表明P、Fe、S由沉积物向水体释放.西北湖区表现出较高的P通量和活性P浓度，这可能会增加南水北调过程中水质污染的风险，应予以重视.以上结果支持了P、Fe耦合释放机制，明确了骆马湖SWI的活性P、Fe、S迁移特征.     

The Death of Humanitarianism?: An Anatomy of the Attack

Over recent years, the humanitarian community has been under increasing scrutiny and attracted harsh criticism. This mounting critique of humanitarianism has shifted from being concerned primarily with the poor functioning of the humanitarian system to one targeted on basic humanitarian values. This paper is concerned to understand the factors driving the attack on humanitarian values. It identifies four apparently disparate groups who are interested in attacking these values: the anti-imperialists, the realpolitikers, the developmentalists and the neo-peaceniks. It concludes that unless humanitarian actors are aware of these diverse threats to their values and operations, they risk being co-opted or marginalised.     

Reducing multiple-use conflicts on public lands through experimental stewardship

Implementation of a consensus-based management and planning process on three pilot areas has reduced conflicts among interest groups. There are insufficient data to demonstrate biological improvement in range condition on the pilot areas at this time. Economic analysis indicates that recreation values exceed all other resource values in all three pilot areas.     

Protected areas and deforestation: new results from high‐resolution panel data

This paper investigates the effectiveness of protected areas in slowing tropical forest clearing in 64 countries in Asia/Pacific, Africa and Latin America during the period of 2001–2012 by comparing deforestation rates inside and within 10 km outside of the boundaries of protected areas. Annual time series of these deforestation rates were constructed from recently published high‐resolution data on forest clearing from Hansen et al. (2013). For 4,028 parks, panel estimation based on a variety of park characteristics was conducted to test if deforestation was lower in protected areas because of their protected status, or if other factors explained the difference. From a sample of 726 parks established since 2002, a test was also conducted to investigate the effect of park establishment on protection. Findings suggest park size, national park status and management by indigenous people all are significantly associated with effective protection across regions. For the Asia/Pacific region, the test offers compelling evidence that park establishment has a near‐immediate and powerful effect.     

A Special Vegetation Index for the Weed Detection in Sensor Based Precision Agriculture

Many technologies in precision agriculture (PA) require image analysis and image- processing with weed and background differentiations. The detection of weeds on mulched cropland is one important image-processing task for sensor based precision herbicide applications. The article introduces a special vegetation index, the Difference Index with Red Threshold (DIRT), for the weed detection on mulched croplands. Experimental investigations in weed detection on mulched areas point out that the DIRT performs better than the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The result of the evaluation with four different decision criteria indicate, that the new DIRT gives the highest reliability in weed/background differentiation on mulched areas. While using the same spectral bands (infrared and red) as the NDVI, the new DIRT is more suitable for weed detection than the other vegetation indices and requires only a small amount of additional calculation power. The new vegetation index DIRT was tested on mulched areas during automatic ratings with a special weed camera system. The test results compare the new DIRT and three other decision criteria: the difference between infrared and red intensity (Diff), the soil-adjusted quotient between infrared and red intensity (Quotient) and the NDVI. The decision criteria were compared with the definition of a worse case decision quality parameter Q, suitable for mulched croplands. Although this new index DIRT needs further testing, the index seems to be a good decision criterion for the weed detection on mulched areas and should also be useful for other image processing applications in precision agriculture. The weed detection hardware and the PC program for the weed image processing were developed with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).     

Precision Measurements from Very-Large Scale Aerial Digital Imagery

Managers need measurements and resource managers need the length/width of a variety of items including that of animals, logs, streams, plant canopies, man-made objects, riparian habitat, vegetation patches and other things important in resource monitoring and land inspection. These types of measurements can now be easily and accurately obtained from very large scale aerial (VLSA) imagery having spatial resolutions as fine as 1 millimeter per pixel by using the three new software programs described here. VLSA images have small fields of view and are used for intermittent sampling across extensive landscapes. Pixel-coverage among images is influenced by small changes in airplane altitude above ground level (AGL) and orientation relative to the ground, as well as by changes in topography. These factors affect the object-to-camera distance used for image-resolution calculations. ‘ImageMeasurement’ offers a user-friendly interface for accounting for pixel-coverage variation among images by utilizing a database. ‘LaserLOG’ records and displays airplane altitude AGL measured from a high frequency laser rangefinder, and displays the vertical velocity. ‘Merge’ sorts through large amounts of data generated by LaserLOG and matches precise airplane altitudes with camera trigger times for input to the ImageMeasurement database. We discuss application of these tools, including error estimates. We found measurements from aerial images (collection resolution: 5–26 mm/pixel as projected on the ground) using ImageMeasurement, LaserLOG, and Merge, were accurate to centimeters with an error less than 10%. We recommend these software packages as a means for expanding the utility of aerial image data.     

Sustainable Water Resources Management in a Conflict Resolution Framework1

Abstract: A decision support system for sustainable water resources management in a water conflict resolution framework is developed to identify and evaluate a range of acceptable alternatives for the Geum River Basin in Korea and to facilitate strategies that will result in sustainable water resource management. Working with stakeholders in a “shared vision modeling” framework, sustainable management strategies are created to illustrate system tradeoffs as well as long‐term system planning. A multi‐criterion decision‐making (MCDM) approach using subjective scales is utilized to evaluate the complex water resource allocation and management tradeoffs between stakeholders and system objectives. The procedures used in this study include the development of a “shared vision model,” a simulated decision‐making support system (as a tool for sustainable water management strategies associated with water conflicts, management options, and planning criteria), and the application of MCDM techniques for evaluating alternatives provided by the model. The research results demonstrate the utility of the sustainable water resource management model in aid of MCDM techniques in facilitating flexibility during initial stages of alternative identification and evaluation in a basin suffering from severe water conflicts.     

基于实测光谱的叶绿素a估测模型

为了有效地监测太湖湖区的富营养化程度,建立一种最佳的估测模型。对太湖水体进行了连续监测,获得了从2004年10月20～29日的实测光谱数据和水质数据。通过实测光谱反射率和叶绿素a浓度的相关分析,得到了叶绿素a反演的最佳波段,并通过比值法、反射峰位置法、峰谷距离法、峰高法和一阶微分法建立了基于实测光谱的叶绿素a浓度的估测模型。通过14个检验点,分别对5种模型进行了对比分析,结果发现,通过比值法建立的估测模型总体误差最小,估测精度最高,其695 nm附近反射峰与677 nm反射谷的比值与叶绿素a浓度之间具有良好的相关性,可决系数R²可达0.7433,可以作为整个湖区叶绿素a浓度的最佳估测模型。最后,应用该模型对该季节湖区的营养化程度做出了总体评价。     

内蒙古沙尘气溶胶浓度及其输送特性——朱日和春季情形的个例研究

利用WPS宽范围粒径谱仪对朱日和春季0.01～10μm的沙尘气溶胶观测资料,以及20m梯度塔气象要素资料,对沙尘天气日和非沙尘天气日的气溶胶浓度、谱分布以及输送特性进行了个例研究.结果表明:沙尘气溶胶浓度有明显的日变化特征,不同粒径段粒子的变化特征有所不同;沙尘气溶胶浓度在沙尘天气和非沙尘天气存在较大差别,粒径越大,这种差别越明显;气象要素对沙尘气溶胶浓度的分布有较大的影响,风速、气温、相对湿度与不同粒径段粒子的相关性不同;沙尘暴过程对不同粒径段粒子的输送特性不同,不同粒径段对应的输送距离和输送量有较大差别.