Understanding the role and influence of social norms: lessons for NRM

Much has been written about social norms in disciplines such as law and economics but they are less studied in the field of Natural Resource Management (NRM). Although norms are acknowledged to be an influence on decision–making, they are difficult to identify and measure in the field and their role is often implicit or not well understood or articulated. This paper addresses an important knowledge gap by combining social norms theory with the specifics of a particular case study. We examined the influence of social norms on landholder behaviour in a small rural community undergoing demographic change in Australia. Findings from interviews with landholders and government agency personnel indicate that established norms within the farming community are influencing incoming landholders; and that new norms and practices have also emerged as a result of government investment through the local Landcare group. We suggest that a better understanding of social norms in different contexts will give rise to strategies that make NRM interventions more effective.     

Towards automatic and robust adjustment of human behavioral parameters in a pedestrian stream model to measured data

People die or get injured at mass events when the crowd gets out of control. Urbanization and the increasing popularity of mass events, from soccer games to religious celebrations, enforce this trend. Thus, there is a strong need to better control crowd behavior. Here, simulation of pedestrian streams can be very helpful: Simulations allow a user to run through a number of scenarios in a critical situation and thereby to investigate adequate measures to improve security. In order to make realistic, reliable predictions, a model must be able to reproduce the data known from experiments quantitatively. Therefore, automatic and fast calibration methods are needed that can easily adapt model parameters to different scenarios. Also, the model must be robust. Small changes or measurement errors in the crucial input parameters must not lead to disproportionally large changes in the simulation outcome and thus potentially useless results. In this paper we present two methods to automatically calibrate pedestrian simulations to the socio-cultural parameters captured through measured fundamental diagrams. We then introduce a concept of robustness to compare the two methods. In particular, we propose a quantitative estimation of parameter quality and a method of parameter selection based on a criterion for robustness. We discuss the results of our test scenarios and, based on our experience, propose further steps.     

投加硅藻土对MBR处理校园生活污水影响的研究

实验研究了投加硅藻土对膜生物反应器处理校园生活废水效果的影响。两组膜生物反应器的对比实验结果表明:投加硅藻土有利于MBR工艺中活性污泥的培养和出水的稳定。投加硅藻土使MBR的出水COD质量浓度稳定在25 mg/L以下,BOD5质量浓度小于5 mg/L,NH3-N质量浓度0.4 mg/L左右,TP质量浓度小于0.5 mg/L,SS未检出,出水水质更加稳定。     

走廊弯腰疏散行为试验研究

为研究走廊里人群弯腰疏散行为,组织45名学生进行6组不同初始密度疏散试验,通过录像分析得出不同密度时弯腰疏散基本图,将结果与行走及爬行疏散比较。试验结果表明:弯腰和行走疏散的速度分别是1.4 m/s和1.7 m/s,而爬行疏散速度为0.73 m/s;在密度小于0.5人/m2时,3种疏散方式的流动速度相当;在密度大于0.5人/m2时,3种移动方式速度有明显差异;得出弯腰疏散的速度频率分布图,速度均值为:女生1.02±0.16 m/s,男生1.09±0.2 m/s;在低速度区,女生占很大比重,男生在高速度区的频率较高。     

受污水体水生植物修复技术的应用及其发展

基于水生植物修复技术的基本特征,本文着重对其应用中的区域性、安全性、影响因素等问题及目前新型植物修复技术进行了分析探讨。     

生物滴滤器净化苯废气研究

采用不锈钢丝网作为生物滴滤器的载体材料,用经以苯为唯一碳源驯化而得的微生物菌种,进行苯废气的净化实验。结果表明:在实验的负荷范围内,生物滴滤器的消除能力随负荷的增加而增加,但净化效率总体上随负荷的升高而下降。在相同的进气苯浓度下,随着停留时间的增加,消除能力和净化效率迅速提高,停留时间为33.9 s时,净化效率达98%。在30~40 mg/L.h的负荷水平下的净化效率随循环液流量的变化而变化,实验中最佳的液体流量为0.8L/h。进口浓度对生物滴滤器的净化效率和所需的填料层高度有较大的影响。     

AN ANALYSIS OF REGION‐OF‐INFLUENCE METHODS FOR FLOOD REGIONALIZATION IN THE GULF‐ATLANTIC ROLLING PLAINS1

ABSTRACT: Region‐of‐influence (RoI) approaches for estimating stream flow characteristics at ungaged sites were applied and evaluated in a case study of the 50‐year peak discharge in the Gulf‐Atlantic Rolling Plains of the southeastern United States. Linear regression against basin characteristics was performed for each ungaged site considered based on data from a region of influence containing the n closest gages in predictor variable (PRoI) or geographic (GRoI) space. Augmentation of this count based cutoff by a distance based cutoff also was considered. Prediction errors were evaluated for an independent (split‐sampled) dataset. For the dataset and metrics considered here: (1) for either PRoI or GRoI, optimal results were found when the simpler count based cutoff, rather than the distance augmented cutoff, was used; (2) GRoI produced lower error than PRoI when applied indiscriminately over the entire study region; (3) PRoI performance improved considerably when Rol was restricted to predefined geographic subregions.     

Dynamic Modeling of Ground‐Water Quality Using Bayesian Techniques1

Abstract: Water industry experts have been arguing that the traditional techniques are not an accurate means of measuring water contamination. This is mainly because these techniques emphasize neither the stochastic nature of the water contamination process nor the precision and the accuracy of the tested methods used by environmental laboratories. In this work, we describe the development and application of prototype Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) that model ground‐water quality to determine the impact of chemical contaminants on ground‐water quality in the Salalah area, which is allocated to the south of Oman. We also present a new technique for data pre‐processing because it is needed for the treatment of ground‐water datasets that are used as the data source to learn the probabilities for dynamic decision models. Among more than 20 wells in area, only four wells were selected to be analyzed and the results show that we achieved an acceptable level of efficiency.     

溴阻燃剂对环境安全性的影响

溴阻燃剂(Brominated fire retardants,BFRs)的生产和使用对人类自身健康及其居住环境的影响问题,特别是“二恶英”(Dioxins)的问题,已引起全球范围广泛的重视。欧盟“限制电子电器产品中有害物质”的指令(RoHS)明确规定限制某些溴阻燃剂的使用。笔者就溴阻燃剂近十年来在空气、下水道淤泥和沉积物等非生命环境体系以及动物和人等生命体系的分布情况进行了综合分析,结果发现溴阻燃剂在非生命和生命环境体系中均有增加的趋势。对溴阻燃剂在生物体内的富集和放大作用研究发现,部分溴阻燃剂会在生物体内富集并表现出一定的放大作用。笔者对我国阻燃剂的发展方向提出了见解和建议。     

Sediment Flux to the Sea as Influenced by Changing Human Activities and Precipitation: Example of the Yellow River,China

Since the 1970s, the sediment flux of the Yellow River to the sea has shown a marked tendency to decrease, which is unfavorable for wetland protection and oil extraction in the Yellow River delta. Thus, an effort has been made to elucidate the relation between the sediment flux to the sea and the drainage basin factors including climate and human activities. The results show that the sediment flux to the sea responds to the changed precipitation in different ways for different runoff and sediment source areas in the drainage basin. If other factors are assumed to be constant, when the annual precipitation in the area between Longmen and Sanmenxia decreases by 10 mm, the sediment flux to the sea will decrease by 27.5 million t/yr; when the precipitation in the area between Hekouzhen and Longmen decreases by 10 mm, the sediment flux to the sea will decrease by 14.3 million t/yr; when the precipitation in the area above Lanzhou decreases by 10 mm, the sediment flux to the sea will decrease by 17.4 million t/yr. A multiple regression equation has been established between the sediment flux to the sea and the influencing factors, such as the area of land terracing and tree and grass planting, the area of the land created by the sediment trapped by check dams, the annual precipitation, and the annual quantity of water diversion by man. The equation may be used to estimate the change in the sediment flux to the sea when the influencing variables are further changed, to provide useful knowledge for the environmental planning of the Yellow River drainage basin and its delta.