Optimising herbicide dose: a straightforward approach to reduce the risk of side effects of herbicides

Public concern of possible effects of pesticides on human health and the environment has lead to an increased pressure on farmers to optimise their use of pesticides. Reducing pesticide doses below the recommended doses whenever possible is a straightforward approach to reduce the risk of adverse side effects. To adopt this approach decision-making has to be improved. The parameters to consider optimising herbicide doses are: weed flora and growth stage, crop competitiveness, climatic conditions, application technique, formulation/adjuvant and combination with other pesticides. In Denmark this information is provided to farmers through the decision support system ‹Plant Protection Online’. Based on input on weed species and densities, climatic conditions, soil type, crop cultivar and expected yield ‹Plant Protection Online’ will provide farmers with optimum herbicide solution usually with doses lower than standard recommended doses.     

Combining GIS with fuzzy multicriteria decision-making for landfill siting in a fast-growing urban region

Landfill siting is a difficult, complex, tedious, and protracted process requiring evaluation of many different criteria. This paper presents a fuzzy multicriteria decision analysis alongside with a geospatial analysis for the selection of landfill sites. It employs a two-stage analysis synergistically to form a spatial decision support system (SDSS) for waste management in a fast-growing urban region, south Texas. The first-stage analysis makes use of the thematic maps in Geographical information system (GIS) in conjunction with environmental, biophysical, ecological, and socioeconomic variables leading to support the second-stage analysis using the fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (FMCDM) as a tool. It differs from the conventional methods of integrating GIS with MCDM for landfill selection because the approach follows two sequential steps rather than a full-integrated scheme. The case study was made for the city of Harlingen in south Texas, which is rapidly evolving into a large urban area due to its vantage position near the US-Mexico borderlands. The purpose of GIS was to perform an initial screening process to eliminate unsuitable land followed by utilization of FMCDM method to identify the most suitable site using the information provided by the regional experts with reference to five chosen criteria. Research findings show that the proposed SDSS may aid in recognizing the pros and cons of potential areas for the localization of landfill sites in any study region. Based on initial GIS screening and final FMCDM assessment, "site 1" was selected as the most suitable site for the new landfill in the suburban area of the City of Harlingen. Sensitivity analysis was performed using Monte Carlo simulation where the decision weights associated with all criteria were varied to investigate their relative impacts on the rank ordering of the potential sites in the second stage. Despite variations of the decision weights within a range of 20%, it shows that "site 1" remains its comparative advantage in the final site selection process.     

Supporting multi-stakeholder environmental decisions

This paper examines how multiple criteria analysis (MCA) can be used to support multi-stakeholder environmental management decisions. It presents a study through which 48 stakeholders from environmental, primary production and community interest groups used MCA to prioritise 30 environmental management problems in the Mackay-Whitsunday region of Queensland, Australia. The MCA model, with procedures for aggregating multi-stakeholder output, was used to inform a final decision on the priority of the region's environmental management problems. The result was used in the region's environmental management plan as required under Australia's Natural Heritage Trust programme. The study shows how relatively simple MCA methods can help stakeholders make group decisions, even when they hold strongly conflicting preferences.     

河南省技术创新环境与中部其它5省的对比分析

随着区域经济的发展,创新是时代的最显著特征,因此强化对区域创新环境的研究显得非常重要。只有建立良好的区域创新环境,才能形成更大规模的经济增长效应。对比了中部6省,分析了河南省的技术创新环境在中部6省中的地位以及其优势和劣势,指出了影响技术创新环境的主要问题,提出了培育良好的技术创新环境的基本途径。     

危险废物管理区域决策支持系统的研究与开发

在系统分析危险废物管理系统和环境信息系统发展现状与趋势的基础上,讨论了中国危险废物管理区域决策支持系统的设计原则并进行了系统分析与设计。研究采用将系统分化为子系统的设计方法,可以更方便的增加信息,增加功能,保证系统的可持续发展性。该区域决策支持系统的设计方法和结构框架对其他环境信息系统开发与设计具有借鉴意义。     

基于GIS的城市抗震防灾规划信息管理系统

探讨GIS在城市抗震防灾规划中的应用模式和关键技术,设计了城市抗震防灾规划信息管理系统的基本框架,并结合郑州新区抗震防灾规划工作,介绍了城市抗震防灾规划综合数据库、震害预测分析模型以及GIS辅助决策系统的研究与实现,为规划编制和实施提供重要的数据支撑和决策依据。     

Revision of deposition and weathering parameters for the ingestion dose module (ECOSYS) of the ARGOS and RODOS decision support systems

The ECOSYS model is the ingestion dose model integrated in the ARGOS and RODOS decision support systems for nuclear emergency management. The parameters used in this model have however not been updated in recent years, where the level of knowledge on various environmental processes has increased considerably. A Nordic work group has carried out a series of evaluations of the general validity of current ECOSYS default parameters. This paper specifically discusses the parameter revisions required with respect to the modelling of deposition and natural weathering of contaminants on agricultural crops, to enable the trustworthy prognostic modelling that is essential to ensure justification and optimisation of countermeasure strategies. New modelling approaches are outlined, since it was found that current ECOSYS approaches for deposition and natural weathering could lead to large prognostic errors.     

Requisite Simplicities to Help Negotiate Complex Problems

Decision makers responsible for natural resource management often complain that science delivers fragmented information that is not useful at the scale of implementation. We offer a way of negotiating complex problems by putting forward a requisite simplicity. A requisite simplicity attempts to discard some detail, while retaining conceptual clarity and scientific rigor, and helps us move to a new position where we can benefit from new knowledge. We illustrate the above using three case studies: elephant densities and vegetation change in a national park, the use of rules of thumb to support decision making in agriculture, and the management of salt in irrigation. We identify potential requisite simplicities that can allow us to generate new understanding, lead to action and provide opportunities for structured learning.     

Process conditions of preparing methanol from cornstalk gas

The low-heat-value cornstalk gas produced in the down-flow fixed bed gasifier was tentatively used for methanol synthesis. The cornstalk gas was purified and the technical procedures such as deoxygenation, desulfurization, catalytic cracking of tar, purification and hydrogenation were studied. The catalytic experiments of methanol synthesis with cornstalk syngas were carried out in a tubular-flow integral and isothermal reactor. The effect of reaction temperature, pressure, catalysttypes, catalyst particle size, syngas flow at entering end and composition of syngas was investigated. The optimum process conditions and yield of methanol from cornstalk syngas were obtained. The experimental results indicated that the proper catalyst of the synthetic reaction was C301 and the optimum catalyst size (φ) was 0.833 mm×0.351 mm. The optimum operating temperature and pressure were found to be 235℃ and 5 Mpa, respectively. The suitable syngas flow 0.9-1.10 mol/h at entering end was selected and the best composition of syngas were CO 10.49%, CO2 8.8%, N2 37.32%, CnHm 0.95% and H2 40.49%. The best methanol yield is 0.418 g/g cornstalk. The study provided the technical support for the industrial test of methanol production from biomass (cornstalk)gas.     

Approach of technical decision-making by element flow analysis and Monte-Carlo simulation of municipal solid waste stream

This paper deals with the procedure and methodology which can be used to select the optimal treatment and disposal technology of municipal solid waste （MSW）, and to provide practical and effective technical support to policy-making, on the basis of study on solid waste management status and development trend in China and abroad. Focusing on various treatment and disposal technologies and processes of MSW, this study established a Monte-Carlo mathematical model of cost minimization for MSW handling subjected to environmental constraints. A new method of element stream （such as C, H, O, N, S） analysis in combination with economic stream analysis of MSW was developed. By following the streams of different treatment processes consisting of various techniques from generation, separation, transfer, transport, treatment, recycling and disposal of the wastes, the element constitution as well as its economic distribution in terms of possibility functions was identified. Every technique step was evaluated economically. The Mont-Carlo method was then conducted for model calibration. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to identify the most sensitive factors. Model calibration indicated that landfill with power generation of landfill gas was economically the optimal technology at the present stage under the condition of more than 58% of C, H, O, N, S going to landfill. Whether or not to generate electricity was the most sensitive factor. If landfilling cost increases, MSW separation treatment was recommended by screening first followed with incinerating partially and composting partially with residue landfilling. The possibility of incineration model selection as the optimal technology was affected by the city scale. For big cities and metropolitans with large MSW generation, possibility for constructing large-scale incineration facilities increases, whereas, for middle and small cities, the effectiveness of incinerating waste decreases.