Impact of Residential Soil Disturbance on Infiltration Rate and Stormwater Runoff1

Woltemade, Christopher J., 2010. Impact of Residential Soil Disturbance on Infiltration Rate and Stormwater Runoff. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 700-711. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00442.x Abstract: Soil disturbances such as excavation and compaction in residential developments affect lawn infiltration rates and stormwater runoff. These effects were investigated via measuring saturated infiltration rates at 108 residential sites and 18 agricultural sites near Shippensburg, south-central Pennsylvania, using a double-ring infiltrometer. Residential sites included four neighborhoods distributed across three soil series classified as hydrologic soil group (HSG) B. Additional parcel data included date of house construction, percentage impervious area, lawn condition, and woody vegetation condition. Measured infiltration rates ranged from 0 to >40 cm/hour. Analysis of variance indicated significantly different mean infiltration rates (p < 0.001) for lots constructed pre-2000 (9.0 cm/hour) and those constructed post-2000 (2.8 cm/hour). Test results were used to determine a “field-tested” HSG for each site, representing disturbed soil conditions. Stormwater runoff was estimated from residential lots for a range of 24-hour design storms using the TR-55 model and several alternative methods of determining curve numbers, including five different representations of soil conditions. Curve numbers and stormwater runoff were substantially higher when based on field-tested HSGs for lots constructed post-2000 compared with lots built pre-2000 and when based on the HSG for undisturbed soils, documenting the magnitude of possible error in stormwater runoff models that neglect soil disturbance.     

Local Land‐Use Planning to Conserve Biodiversity: Planners’ Perspectives on What Works

Abstract: Because habitat loss due to urbanization is a primary threat to biodiversity, and land‐use decisions in urbanizing areas are mainly made at the local level, land‐use planning by municipal planning departments has a potentially important—but largely unrealized—role in conserving biodiversity. To understand planners’ perspectives on the factors that facilitate and impede biodiversity conservation in local planning, we interviewed directors of 17 municipal planning departments in the greater Seattle (Washington, U.S.A.) area and compared responses of planners from similar‐sized jurisdictions that were “high” and “low performing” with respect to incorporation of biodiversity conservation in local planning. Planners from low‐performing jurisdictions regarded mandates from higher governmental levels as the primary drivers of biodiversity conservation, whereas those from high‐performing jurisdictions regarded community values as the main drivers, although they also indicated that mandates were important. Biodiversity conservation was associated with presence of local conservation flagship elements (e.g., salmonids) and human‐centered benefits of biodiversity conservation (e.g., quality of life). Planners from high‐ and low‐performing jurisdictions favored different planning mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, perhaps reflecting differences in funding and staffing. High performers reported more collaborations with other entities on biodiversity issues. Planners’ comments indicated that the term biodiversity may be problematic in the context of local planning. The action most planners recommended to increase biodiversity conservation in local planning was public education. These results suggest that to advance biodiversity conservation in local land‐use planning, conservation biologists should investigate and educate the public about local conservation flagships and human benefits of local biodiversity, work to raise ecological literacy and explain biodiversity more effectively to the public, and promote collaboration on biodiversity conservation among jurisdictions and inclusion of biodiversity specialists in planning departments.     

Tube-Immunoassay for Rapid Detection of Carbaryl Residues in Agricultural Products

An antibody-based rapid, quantitative, and qualitative tube enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (tube-ELISA) was developed and used to determine carbaryl (1-naphthyl methylcarbamate) residues in agricultural products (apple, Chinese cabbage, rice, and barley). The tube-ELISA is a competitive immunoassay in which the antibody is coated in the polystyrene tube, with a dynamic range between 0.7 and 46.3 μg kg^?1. Carbaryl was extracted from each agricultural sample by hand-shaking with methanol and examined for application to on-site analysis. After the liquid extraction, the sample extracts diluted with buffer were analyzed by rapid tube-ELISA directly. The overall test time was around 15–30 min, including sample preparation and assay performance. The results obtained from tube-ELISA correlated well with high-performance liquid chromatography (R ² > 0.9). The study shows that tube-ELISA is useful as a quality control tool and can be used to quantitatively detect carbaryl as well.     

日本工业化、城市化进程中的"农地非农化"

在人多地少的国家里,如何正确处理“农地非农化”与保障农业发展和粮食安全的相互关系,是顺利推进工业化、城市化必须合理解决的难题之一。日本战后工业化、城市化与“农地非农化”的历程和经验教训表明：“农地非农化”与“农民非农化”和“市民化”应该基本同步,“农地非农化”必须与耕地保护相结合,实现农地的合理流转,促进农业的规模化经营,“农地非农化”主要应该通过市场机制的作用实现,政府进行必要的合理的规划和调控等。     

Study on Economic growth,Urbanization and Sustainable Utilization of Cultivated Land in China

Abstract

By means of the dynamic regression model, this paper analyzes the relationships among economic growth, urbanization and changes of cultivated land in China, finds that the ratio of cultivated land occupied by economic growth is decreasing with social and economic growth. And, based on that, some policy suggestions on how to promote the sustainable use of cultivated land in China are put forward.     

Research on Jiuquan-Jiayuguan-Yumen Region's Dynamic Changing of Urbanization Based on Self-Organizing Model

Abstract

Based on the self-organizing modeling principle in the dissipative structure theory, the paper regards the migration coupling between the regions as the influence factor to create the model of regional urbanization simulation and prediction, which is more practical to simulate the space-time and dynamic evolvement characteristics of regional urbanization level. According to the historical data about the population and urbanization of Jiuquan, Jiayuguan and Yumen cities, the past 50 years' dynamic evolvement trend is simulated and the following 50 years' dynamic evolvement trend is predicted with the urbanization dynamic evolvement model based on the self-organizing model. The analysis of effective factors such as economic increase, resources exploitation, ecosystem construction, traffic location, national policies, population migration are given, then the reasons of the dynamic evolvement differences of the three cities' urbanization are drawn. The study suggests that the self-organizing model is fit for the simulation of Jiuquan-Jiayuguan-Yumen regional urbanization level in the past 50 years, and the departure between the stimulant and the actual data is under 5%, so it can be used to predict the urbanization future of the three cities. The predicted results show that the regional population will reach 1.074 million and the regional urbanization level will be 72.56%.     

Income Growth,Urbanization, Changing Life Style and Energy Requirements in China

Abstract

This paper aims to estimate the effects of changing life style and consumption demands driven by income growth and urbanization on increase of energy requirements in China, and estimate the impacts of improvement in household consumption on mitigating energy requirements towards 2020, based on input-output analysis and scenarios simulation approach. The result shows that energy requirement per capita has increased by 159% for urban residents and 147% for rural residents from 1995 to 2004. Growth in household consumption driven by income growth and urbanization may induce a successive increase in energy requirements in future. Per capita energy requirements of urban residents will increase by 240% during 2002–2015 and 330% during 2002–2020. Urbanization might lead to 0.75 billion ton of increment of energy requirements in 2020. About 45%–48% of total energy requirements in China might be a consequence of residents’ life styles and the economic activities to support consumption demands in 2020. Under low-carbon life style scenario, per capita energy requirements of urban residents may decline to 97% in 2015 and 92% in 2020 in contrast with baseline scenario. That implies that China needs to pay a great attention to developing green low-carbon life style in order to realize mitigation target towards 2020.     

江苏省城市土地集约利用与城市化关系的计量分析

在界定城市土地集约利用与城市化内涵的基础上,构建了城市土地集约利用与城市化的评价指标体系,采用改进的熵值法和功效函数法测度了江苏省1985～2008年城市土地集约利用水平与城市化水平,并运用协整检验、向量误差修正模型、脉冲响应函数和方差分解等计量经济分析方法探讨城市土地集约利用与城市化的动态关系和相互作用。研究表明：（1）1985年以来,江苏省城市土地集约利用水平、城市化水平总体上逐步提高;（2）城市化与城市土地集约利用均为一阶单整序列;（3）城市土地集约利用与城市化之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,短期内城市化水平的提高不利于城市土地集约利用,但长期内其有利于城市土地集约利用,且长期的响应作用程度更显著、更稳定;（4）城市土地集约利用对来自城市化的冲击响应强烈,城市化的冲击对城市土地集约利用的解释水平达到了5844%,而城市化对来自城市土地集约利用的冲击响应较弱,城市土地集约利用的冲击对城市化的解释水平较低。因此,应采取长期而非短期的策略,有序推进城市化进程,加强土地利用监督管理,提高土地资源集约利用水平,不断提升土地资源对经济社会发展的保障能力     

Ecological risk assessment from the perspective of soil heavy metal accumulations in Xiamen city,China

Contamination of soils by heavy metals is of rising concern in many cities in China undergoing rapid urbanization. Here, we evaluate the severity of soil contamination by four heavy metals (arsenic, chromium, copper, and lead) at 146 urban and suburban sites within the city of Xiamen, Fujian, China. A multivariate regression model was proposed and developed to simulate heavy metals accumulation in urban and suburban soils, to identify the concentration and spatial distribution of heavy metals in soils, and to assess ecological risks by 2020. Results showed that, overall, Xiamen soils should be subject to low ecological risks due to heavy metals contamination by 2020, the ecological risks for urban soils were greater than suburban soils, nearly half of Xiamen soils are at moderate ecological risks, and many suburban soils experience low ecological risks. The methods demonstrate the potential to predict future ecological risks from heavy metals contamination which could inform pollution prevention and control measures.     

Impacts of urbanization: diversity and the symbiotic relationships of rural,urban, and spaces in-between

This Impacts article proposes strategies for mitigating negative impacts of urbanization in rural locations in the United States. Issues addressed include impacts of population growth and development, loss of agricultural lands, and impacts of climate change on agriculture and rural communities. Conclusions are supported by stakeholder survey data, geographic information systems-based data, and desktop reviews of research journal publications. We propose a sustainable, diversified approach that supports mitigation of issues, including increasing demand on food production and decline of rural communities. A key issue that we address is where we will find suitable landscapes to reduce enough food for 9.6 billion people living in 2050.

Urban and rural development planners are grappling with solutions to escalating impacts global populations, stresses on food production, and effects of climate change. Solutions are identified, including strengthening rural and urban contexts by establishing connected and interdependent links that support diversification of rural and urban contexts as viable solutions to these issues.

Diversified rural-to-urban sustainable agriculture production is a promising approach to addressing climate change impacts. Organic agriculture principles exhibit strong diversity and are accredited by United States Department of Agriculture as the only federally certified sustainable agriculture practice in the United States. Sustainable agriculture practices are evolving into profitable diversified alternative food sources. We offer substantiated alternative solutions for remediating impacts of urbanization on rural agriculture and communities. Collectively, these solutions can strengthen symbiotic relationships between sustainable agriculture and rural communities, addressing our growing population issues and preserving our dwindling farmlands and rural communities.