Effectiveness of Panama as an intercontinental land bridge for large mammals

Habitat fragmentation is a primary driver of wildlife loss, and establishment of biological corridors is a common strategy to mitigate this problem. A flagship example is the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC), which aims to connect protected forest areas between Mexico and Panama to allow dispersal and gene flow of forest organisms. Because forests across Central America have continued to degrade, the functioning of the MBC has been questioned, but reliable estimates of species occurrence were unavailable. Large mammals are suitable indicators of forest functioning, so we assessed their conservation status across the Isthmus of Panama, the narrowest section of the MBC. We used large-scale camera-trap surveys and hierarchical multispecies occupancy models in a Bayesian framework to estimate the occupancy of 9 medium to large mammals and developed an occupancy-weighted connectivity metric to evaluate species-specific functional connectivity. White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), jaguar (Panthera onca), giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and tapir (Tapirus bairdii) had low expected occupancy along the MBC in Panama. Puma (Puma concolor), red brocket deer (Mazama temama), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), and collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), which are more adaptable, had higher occupancy, even in areas with low forest cover near infrastructure. However, the majority of species were subject to ≥1 gap that was larger than their known dispersal distances, suggesting poor connectivity along the MBC in Panama. Based on our results, forests in Darien, Donoso–Santa Fe, and La Amistad International Park are critical for survival of large terrestrial mammals in Panama and 2 areas need restoration.     

Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along Reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong

There is an obvious departure from the regional equilibrium of developments between the upper and lower reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong, which resulted in ＂the effects of contra-geography-grads development＂. It is mainly because the upriver mountainous areas have been deeply stuck in industrialization delay and marginalization plights, so that nearly 40 million local people have conceived a dream to get rid of ＂the vicious circle of poverty＂ by speeding up industrial development. But the problem is that such industrialization efforts on a large scale in mountainous areas are encountering the bottleneck of environmental capacity that strictly limits industrial emissions along the upper reaches of any water system. As a solution, an institutional arrangement called ＂the Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along the Pearl River＂ is put forward supposed to give corresponding compensation to the rights of industrial development yielded by some areas with lower environmental capacity through the distribution and trading of IDQs.     

Seismic fragility analysis of a coupled tank-piping system based on artificial ground motions and surrogate modeling

The catastrophic consequences of recent NaTech events triggered by earthquakes highlighted the inadequacy of standard approaches to seismic risk assessment of chemical process plants. To date, the risk assessment of such facilities mainly relies on historical data and focuses on uncoupled process components. As a consequence, the dynamic interaction between process equipment is neglected. In response to this gap, researchers started a progressive integration of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) risk assessment framework. However, a few limitations still prevent a systematic implementation of this framework to chemical process plants. The most significant are: (i) the computational cost of system-level simulations accounting for coupling between process equipment; (ii) the experimental cost for component-level model validation; (iii) a reduced number of hazard-consistent site-specific ground motion records for time history analyses.In response to these challenges, this paper proposes a recently developed uncertainty quantification-based framework to perform seismic fragility assessments of chemical process plants. The framework employs three key elements: (i) a stochastic ground-motion model to supplement scarcity of real records; (ii) surrogate modeling to reduce the computational cost of system-level simulations; (iii) a component-level model validation based on cost-effective hybrid simulation tests. In order to demonstrate the potential of the framework, two fragility functions are computed for a pipe elbow of a coupled tank-piping system.     

基于农户行为的土地利用人工社会模型的构造与应用

为探讨人工社会在土地利用变化研究领域中的应用,研究创建了一个模拟土地利用变化过程的人工社会模型(LUC-ASM)。该模型以农户和农民为两类主体(agents),模拟分析不同社会经济条件和政策影响下,两类主体对自己承包土地利用方式的微观决策所可能产生的宏观效应及其时空变化特征。以鄱阳湖区一个现实村落为主要研究对象,以农户从事各类生产活动的行为特征为准则,利用LUC-ASM模型模拟未来30年内该村落土地利用变化过程。结果表明,未来这一地区土地利用的变化与人口增长结构调整方式、国家土地利用与环保政策、社会经济发展态势等因素密切相关;在城市化的影响下,该地区的农业劳动力将会出现短缺,农村土地有可能被撂荒,需要及早采用政策措施予以避免。总体而言,LUC-ASM模型能够形象地反映土地利用变化过程的微观驱动机理及各种社会经济与环境因素影响的宏观效应,有助于深化我们对人与自然环境相互作用的认识。     

Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along Reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong

Abstract

There is an obvious departure from the regional equilibrium of developments between the upper and lower reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong, which resulted in “the effects of contra-geography-grads development”. It is mainly because the upriver mountainous areas have been deeply stuck in industrialization delay and marginalization plights, so that nearly 40 million local people have conceived a dream to get rid of “the vicious circle of poverty” by speeding up industrial development. But the problem is that such industrialization efforts on a large scale in mountainous areas are encountering the bottleneck of environmental capacity that strictly limits industrial emissions along the upper reaches of any water system. As a solution, an institutional arrangement called “the Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emis-sions along the Pearl River” is put forward supposed to give corresponding compensation to the rights of industrial development yielded by some areas with lower environmental capacity through the distribution and trading of IDQs.     

Radioecology, radiobiology, and radiological protection: frameworks and fractures

A framework for the protection of the general public has been in existence for a very long time, although steps have recently been made by the ICRP to ensure that it is more fully comprehensive with regard to all actual and potential exposure situations. Protection of the environment, however, has only recently begun to be addressed in a structured manner, and is still an evolving subject. Nevertheless, it needs to be centred around some form of parallel framework to that which has evolved for the protection of human beings, although clearly on a different scale. It also needs to be embedded within the basic science of radiobiology, and form a central part of radioecology.     

重金属污染沉积物质量评价研究—以太湖为例

以太湖的表层沉积物为研究对象,运用相平衡分配法(EqP)探讨了沉积物中4种重金属(Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd)的沉积物质量基准(CSQC)值;根据美国国家环境保护局(US EPA)基于水生生物对重金属的最终慢性毒理水平的淡水水质基准,制定了太湖4种重金属(Cu, Pb, Zn,和Cd)的沉积物质量基准值分别为145.2,308.72,293.01,0.46mg/kg.以此CSQC为参比值,参考潜在生态危害指数法对各元素赋予不同的权重值,运用综合污染指数法对太湖沉积物重金属的环境质量进行评价,结果显示,2010年8~9月太湖沉积物质量基本为良.这一结果与沉积物重金属总量分析结果一致.     

我国典型土壤对病毒等温静态吸附的数值模拟

通过室内等温静态批量平衡吸附实验,采用3种常见的等温线（Freundlich方程、Langmuir方程和Temkin方程）对2种病毒（MS2和X174）在2种处理（非灭菌和灭菌）条件下的6种土壤（红壤土、红粘土、乌栅土、黄泥土、沙质潮土和壤质潮土）中的吸附行为进行了回归拟合.实验结果和模拟结果均表明,土壤性质、病毒性质、土壤中的土著微生物对病毒在土壤中吸附行为均具有重要的影响.红粘土对MS2和X174的平均吸附比例几乎能达到100％,而2种潮土（沙质潮土和壤质潮土）相对较弱;总体来看土壤对X174的吸附能力高于MS2,但灭菌后的土壤对MS2的吸附能力却高于X174.在数值模拟中,Freundlich方程和Langmuir方程均具有理想的相关性.Freundlich方程能够表现出病毒浓度对其在土壤中吸附行为的影响;尽管Langmuir方程能够应用于土壤对病毒吸附能力的比较,但本研究中不能应用Langmuir方程来计算土壤对病毒的最大吸附量.     

建筑火灾区域模拟竖孔流动的计算

本文根据建筑火灾双层区域模拟思想，给出其常微分控制方程组，并分析了其压力求解方法，然后，运用伯努力利方程推导了相邻房间通过矩形竖孔（门或窗）的质量流率计算公式，还讨论了竖孔流动中性面产生条件。在此基础上，结合一两房间、两孔建筑中烟气运动实例，运用Ｃ．Ｗ．Ｇｅａｒ刚性稳定算法对火灾发展及烟气流动过程进行了数值模拟；给出各竖孔中性面位置、数量和各主环境之间通过竖孔的质量流率；还给出各房间气体平均温升、     

生产部门提高能源效率的宏观能耗回弹分析

提高能源效率已成为我国节能减排政策的重点,但是由于经济系统内在的调整机制作用,在宏观层面所能实现的节能效果可能不及微观技术层面能源效率提高的程度,甚至还会诱发更多的能源消耗,该现象被称为“宏观能耗回弹”效应.本文通过构建一个中国环境资源CGE模型,测算生产部门提高能源效率的宏观能耗回弹效应.结果显示,能源效率提高5％后,短期回弹效应为52.38％,节能效果仅达到技术层面预期的一半左右;长期回弹效应达178.61％,在高耗能部门竞争力提高、耗能产品出口扩张和经济增长的推动下,节能效果不但被完全抵消,总能耗还进一步增加.因此,生产部门提高能源效率在短期内确实能够降低我国能源消耗,但是由于回弹效应的存在,长期来看,在技术层面“产量相同投入更少”的努力反映到宏观经济层面则转变成“生产更多投入更多”,并且加剧了我国经济高耗能的偏好,提高能源效率所引发的产出增长和结构调整对能耗增加的刺激作用可能最终会抵消或者超过提高能源效率的节能效果.